Award-winning podcast Trace returns with Series Two: The Informer

Sydney NSW, Australia—ABC’s Trace podcast returns today to probe the story of Nicola Gobbo – one of Australia’s most controversial and high profile barristers.

The full story behind what made Nicola Gobbo, the barrister and gangland lawyer, turn police informer has never been told… and the implications are real and enormous. It‘s a story we might think we all know, but this is not a typical crime story.

Trace: The Informer investigates a complex world of covert policing and underworld operations that spans decades.

Host Rachael Brown and co-reporter Josie Taylor examine what makes a lawyer representing some of Australia’s most dangerous criminals risk her career, and even her life, to feed information to the police.

Trace: The Informer launches as the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, which was sparked by Nicola Gobbo, nears its conclusion.

Nicola Gobbo remains in hiding but Brown and Taylor have secured the only media interview with her since the exposure of her secret identity as Lawyer X.

Bringing never-before broadcast information and recordings to light, they investigate how Gobbo was permitted, and even encouraged, to turn informer. And they ask whether the very organisation entrusted to uphold the law – the police force – has in fact undermined it.

Trace’s extraordinary Walkley Award-winning first season in 2017 investigated the 40 year old cold case of Melbourne mother Maria James, and it sparked an influx of public tip-offs and fresh leads. It ultimately prompted a fresh coronial inquest.

Trace won the Innovation award at the 2017 Walkley Awards recognising excellence in journalism, Melbourne Press Club’s 2017 Quill awards for Podcasting and for Innovation in Journalism, and the 2018 Australian Podcast Awards in the Documentary category.

Hear new episodes of Trace: The Informer weekly on the ABC listen app, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your favourite podcasts.