Friday 5 August 2022 08:46 AM Gangland widow Roberta Williams faces life on welfare despite flaunting lavish ... trends now
Gangland widow Roberta Williams will spend the rest of her life on taxpayer funded welfare despite flaunting her lavish life on social media.
Williams is best known for being the jilted wife of Melbourne gangland killer Carl Williams, who had dumped her by the time he was bludgeoned to death in April 2010 by prison enforcer Matthew Johnson.
Carl had been serving 35 years for ordering the murders of three people and conspiracy to murder a fourth.
Roberta Williams (pictured outside Victoria County Court) is best known for being the jilted wife of Melbourne gangland killer Carl Williams
Roberta Williams continues to cry poor despite looking anything but in recent images posted to social media
A 2007 file photo of convicted murderer Carl Williams as he sat in the dock at the Melbourne County Court. It would be the last public photo ever taken of him before his 2010 murder
On Friday, a County Court of Victoria lifted a gag order forbidding the media publishing details of her latest charges.
In July, Williams was back among familiar territory caged within the prison dock of Melbourne's County Court.
The court heard she was broke, battered and confined to welfare payments for the rest of her life because of who she is and her unfortunate lot in life.
It was a familiar tale from the convicted drug dealer, who still manages to appear in social media posts looking a million dollars.
In 2004, while still married to Carl, Williams spent time behind bars for her role in a $450,000 drug trafficking operation.
She had pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking a commercial quantity of ecstasy and was sentenced to 18-months in jail.
Roberta Williams (pictured here with an associate), sported bandages on both hands and appeared leaner and slightly younger than she did during her 2019 arrest
Sporting bandages on both hands and appearing leaner and slightly younger than she did during her 2019 arrest, Williams again played the part of tragic victim of circumstance.
While her arrest that year made national headlines, her admissions of guilt and subsequent sentence had been kept a secret by the court to allow her co-accused to get a fair trial.
That all ended when he finally conceded his role in the doomed plot.
Williams pleaded guilty in May to charges of blackmail and recklessly causing injury to her one-time tv producer Ryan Naumenko.
Naumenko had made the mistake of contacting Williams with an idea to film a reality television series about her life.
What that show may have looked like is anyone's guess, but if Williams is to be believed - and County Court Judge Fiona Todd took the bait hook, line and sinker - it might have featured a destitute housewife caring for her autistic child.
By the time his deal was cancelled with extreme prejudice, Naumenko had been bashed by Williams' mates - John James Harrison, Jake Sexton, Hassam Al Zwainy and Daniel De Silva - robbed and threatened with death at gunpoint.
Ryan Naumenko, then 36, went public with the allegations against Williams in 2019. He showed off his injuries to a television reporter
Ryan Naumenko was beaten, bashed and threatened with a gun after getting into a doomed business agreement with Roberta William
Roberta Williams (centre) departs the Melbourne Magistrates' Court after being granted bail in on August 7, 2019 over the attack on Naumenko
Naumenko, who was 36 at the time and still living with his mum, had been lured to a warehouse in Collingwood - just outside of Melbourne's CBD - where he was ambushed.
While Williams was initially accused of choking Naumenko with an electrical cord during the attack, she pleaded guilty to the assault charge on the basis she took no part in any physical attack on him after securing a deal with the Office of Public Prosecutions director Kerri Judd, QC.
The court heard Williams told her mate to 'kill the c*nt' during the horrifying assault that lasted three hours.
Williams told Naumenko he was fortunate they didn't kill his mother and children, who had been present at the very same warehouse before the attack.
The court heard Williams turned on Naumenko amid fears he was scamming her after he made promises to hand over up to $50,000 raised from a GoFundMe page to finance the 'Mob Wives' styled reality show.
Blackmail in Victoria carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years, while the assault charge tops out at five.
Williams will walk this month on a community corrections order likely without having to do a single day of community work.
Even her co-accused, who faced the same charges, but had no prior offences to his name, was forced to carry out 150 hours of community work.
Williams claims she is too sick and too busy with motherly duties to perform such work.
Her fate will be officially decided on August 26, but the presiding judge has already told her she won't be jailed.
While Williams survived Melbourne's infamous gangland war that claimed the lives of 36 underworld figures, the now 52-year old claims she still fears she and her family could be whacked at any moment.
Roberta Williams vomits into a paper bag while waiting to be assessed by a police doctor after her 2019 arrest
Roberta Williams after being arrested over a bungled blackmail attempt on a tv producer
Williams' longtime barrister, Emma Turnbull, told the court her client was unable to get a job because of who she is.
'She's Roberta Williams,' she said. 'She's entirely unemployable.'
Ms Turnbull said employers shunned Williams because of her public profile as a gangland widow.
Besides, even if Williams was inclined to get a day job, she was unable to because of the special needs of her youngest child Guiseppe - born to another villain in Robert Carpenter.
Carpenter is a convicted killer, who once stomped a 14-year-old boy to death under a house in Melbourne.
The court heard 'Seppe', now aged 11, needs constant care from his deadbeat mum.
During her preliminary hearing in the magistrates' court, Williams had been shown vomiting into a paper bag before launching
