Nicola Gobbo's research into the relationship between police and informers was academic at first. Then it became real life.
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After months of fighting against appearing at the royal commission into her informing, the former gangland lawyer began her evidence from a secret location.
With her appearance hidden, Ms Gobbo put herself at the heart of the Melbourne gangland war as she spoke of affairs with police officers, weekly dinners with the Mokbel family, her close relationship with Carl Williams and death threats from Andrew Veniamin.
She also revealed a fascination with the relationship between police and informers and her initial research into it for a masters degree.
"Looking back on where we are now, it's laughable in a horrendous way," she said.
The prolific informer was signed up three times by Victoria Police. The first time in 1995 was to inform on a former boyfriend and the second time in 1999 to snitch on a fellow lawyer she accused of money laundering.
"I wasn't aware that I was registered by them until it came out in the media," she claimed of the 1995 registration.
The inquiry's biggest focus is on her third stint, from 2005 to 2009, when she informed on her underworld clients - crooks including drug kingpin Tony Mokbel and killer Carl Williams.
She said the officers who handled her then became too relaxed, treating it like a joke and that she knew it would end in a royal commission.
Ms Gobbo revealed on Tuesday she first met Mokbel while working as a solicitor but became his barrister in 2002 after claiming other lawyers "cost him a fortune and basically ripped him blind".
She woud have weekly dinners with his family at a Japanese restaurant, which she claimed was to avoid being "driven insane" by calls from multiple family members with the same questions.
When not in jail, Mokbel joined the dinners and later the two of them would dine by themselves.
Ms Gobbo said she began friendly relationships with a number of Mokbel's associates after that. He introduced her to Williams in Port Phillip Prison in 2002.
They later became close and in 2003 she attended his daughter Dhakota's glitzy christening.
"A whole table of lawyers went. I was the only one stupid enough to make a speech though," Ms Gobbo said.
She posed for pictures at the event with Williams and underworld hitman Veniamin.
"That wasn't a friendly relationship," she said. Veniamin later threatened to kill her.
Ms Gobbo was also quizzed about her associations with police.
She said she is now embarrassed by her "naivete and stupidity" in trusting corrupt former drug squad detective Wayne Strawhorn, who she said sought information from her in a "fairly manipulative, predatory fashion".
He introduced her to Jeff Pope - later an assistant commissioner - who signed her up as an informer in 1999.
"Part of me was petrified of (Strawhorn) because of the power I, at least, perceived that he had and the control he had over the drug squad," she said.
The other part of her respected him because when he offered her clients the "deal of a lifetime", he delivered.
Ms Gobbo also seemed eager to discuss her relationship with Mr Pope.
He gave evidence last year denying ever having a sexual relationship with Ms Gobbo.
She said Mr Pope lied. "At some point in time I had an intimate relationship with him," she said.
The inquiry also heard Ms Gobbo tried to become an informer for the Australian Federal Police in 1998.
She admitted to a "drunken interlude" and intimate relationships on Friday nights with a federal officer.
She was passing information to him.
The relationship ended after the AFP decided they were not interested in Ms Gobbo's information.
She is scheduled to give evidence for no more than four hours a day, continuing on Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
