A FORMER Fairholme College girl's infamous connections with Melbourne's gangland killings will be revisited for a final time on prime-time television tonight.

Zarah Garde-Wilson, once girlfriend of slain convicted killer Lewis Caine, shot into national headlines again when the highly successful Australian drama Underbelly first hit television screens three months ago.

The 1994 and 1995 Toowoomba student is now a successful Melbourne lawyer whose list of clients includes a who's who of names, including crime boss and convicted killer Carl Williams and alleged drug lord Tony Mokbel from the Aussie drama.

But it's the story of the now 28-year-old's ill-fated love affair with Caine, played by Aussie actor Marcus Graham, and Wolf Creek's Kestie Morassi, that is given most attention in the hugely popular television series.

The pair met when Garde-Wilson, then a 23-year-old solicitor, was assigned to defend 37-year-old Caine on a drink-driving charge in 2002.

On May 8, 2004, Caine would become the 25th victim of the so-called gangland killings on which Underbelly is based. His body was found dumped, with a single gunshot wound to the head, in a quiet Brunswick street.

The Chronicle spoke briefly to Garde-Wilson last week and asked her about her return to the spotlight over the crime series, to which she politely declined to comment.

"I'm sorry; I don't speak to journalists," she said after returning a missed phone call to The Chronicle.

She acknowledged, however, her time in Toowoomba and her studies at Fairholme College.

"I did live there for a short time, yes," Garde-Wilson said.

In one of her most-noted exploits, Garde-Wilson was likened to the Bible's Eve after she answered the door to Victorian police in anti-gangster taskforce Purana with a Queensland scrub python, pet Chivas, draped around her neck some years ago. School acquaintances quoted in the book The Gangland War state there was no outward sign of the attention that would come when she was a "competitive" but well-behaved and studious Fairholme College girl.

"She was never the one caught smoking, sneaking out of bounds or even wearing her uniform too short," the book states.

The A-grade hockey player competed alongside future state representative Renae Van Schagen, who is recorded in the book as saying Garde-Wilson was "an independent person who got on with everyone but I wouldn't say she had a best friend."

Garde-Wilson started her own law firm called Garde-Wilson and Caine in honour of her slain boyfriend.

Garde-Wilson's future relationships and friendships with persons linked to the gangland killings would ultimately lead to her being refused a renewal of her practising certificate under the Legal Services Board. In March this year, the 27-year-old's battle to be reinstated was given a partial victory with the Court of Appeal granting her leave to seek a judicial review. Victorian police are in the process of trying to extradite Mokbel from Greece.

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