Cop-kill case corrupt claim

Probe into ‘serious police misconduct’

JASON Roberts has spent 15 years in jail for killing two police officers but now Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog is investigating “serious police misconduct” in his case.

High-profile former detectives Ron Iddles and Charlie Bezzina went to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission on Monday with what they claim are the original and doctored versions of a police statement. The allegedly tampered statement was used in evidence to help convict Roberts of killing police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller in 1998.

The original statement was changed to allege there was more than one shooter, information that helped convict Roberts and accomplice Bandali Debs.

“IBAC confirms it is investigating allegations of serious police misconduct in relation to the investigation of the mur- ders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in 1998, on the basis of new information which has been received,” an IBAC statement said yesterday.

News Corp yesterday printed the original statement, taken at 4.25am on August 16, 1998, and the allegedly doctored version, which included extra evidence but kept the original time stamp.

The doctored statement added a police officer asking Senior Constable Miller “were they in a car or on foot?”, with the dying officer replying “they were on foot”.

“This police officer was ap- proached and asked to insert something in his statement that he said he never heard,” Mr Iddles, a former homicide detective and police union boss, told 3AW yesterday.

Mr Bezzina, who signed the original statement, said it appeared he was conned into also signing the reformatted second statement at a later point without checking for additions.

Attorney-General Martin Pakula rejected Roberts’ plea for mercy earlier in 2017, but he’s prepared to revisit it.

“If there is new material, then it’s open to Jason Roberts’ lawyers to make a fresh application and it will be given due consideration,” Mr Pakula told reporters.

Roberts is serving a life sentence, but has always maintained his innocence. Mr Iddles was asked to review the case against Roberts in 2013 and said he believed, on the balance of probabilities, that Roberts was not at the scene of the killings.

“This police officer was approached and asked to insert something in his statement that he said he never heard.” RON I DDLES