A Geelong Advertiser face-to-face interview with Karl Hague on March 27 this year, saw the man now charged with Ricky Balcombe’s murder vehemently protest his innocence
Geelong Advertiser: “It was no secret people were scared of you at the time of Ricky’s murder. You had a tough-guy reputation. Why were you known as the bloke who could look after himself?”
Karl Hague: “I don’t know where this reputation comes from. I’m actually s- scared of knives. I’d rather put a gun to someone’s head than a knife. I’d walk round and get in scraps but I wasn’t a thug. I never knew anything about the Blue or the Red Bandanas (one of the gangs police claim Ricky was involved in). I never hung out with any of them, gangs weren’t my thing. Cars, radio-controlled planes and motorbikes were. I’d never shy away from a fight, when push comes to shove you defend yourself, but I’ve never been one to go out and look for a fight.”
GA: Why do you think police investigated you as the No. 1 suspect?
KH: “They just built the case right from the word go. I f- up a lot — but I certainly never killed anyone. Corey Munn ended up hanging himself because he couldn’t handle the pressure being put on him. The police don’t want to pursue that line because they don’t want to be proven wrong.”
GA: Why did you come back to Geelong after prison?
KH: “Why would I run? I won’t run from nothing and I won’t hide from nothing. A guilty person would run, a guilty person wouldn’t sit here and be interviewed. The guy who did it is hiding. Why do you think the killer has never been prosecuted? I believe people know who did it but don’t say anything to the cops. That was the attitude back then. The law does work in weird and funny ways, in this case the way it has gone so far has worked against me, but everything does come out in the end. I don’t know a name.
GA: If you’ve been innocent all along, why haven’t you sued the Government over your lengthy arrest?
KH: When I walked out of Pentridge in 1997 after 14 months I was told I could be eligible for compensation, but I said I was tired of it all and just wanted to be left alone. I don’t want money from something I didn’t do, from the loss and death of an innocent boy.”
GA: What would you say to the cold case detectives re-examining the case?
KH: “I hope she does her job right. Go back to the start. There were 13 or 14 witnesses who haven’t been interviewed, those doing their grocery shopping at the time. They released two photofits that were tendered to the court, the first had mousy brown hair and blue eyes. The second wavy shoulder length hair. Both looked nothing like me.”