CLAIMS HAGUE CHANGED HIS ALIBI
SEASONED detective Ron Iddles has confirmed a variety of suspects and theories were examined by police in their investigation into Geelong’s 1995 Market Square murder.
The retired cop spent the whole day being quizzed about the investigation in the Melbourne Supreme Court yesterday, where he is testifying at the trial of accused murderer Karl Michael Hague.
The jury heard Mr Iddles charged Mr Hague with the murder on October 29, 1996 — about a year and a half after Balcombe was stabbed to death.
The matter was scheduled to go to trial after a committal hearing the following year, but the trial did not happen. The jury has not been told why.
What they do know is that Mr Hague was charged again last year after a $1 million reward was offered for information.
Mr Iddles said his only involvement with the case by that time was as an interviewee on the Channel 7 program Million Dollar Cold Case.
During the former detective’s time on the stand yesterday the jury heard three formal interviews he conducted with Mr Hague in the days and months after the murder.
They also heard: KARL Hague changed his alibi in 1997 when his case was set for trial, giving up the claim that he was with his girlfriend in Drumcondra at the time of the killing to instead allege he was with his friend David Lewin; SECURITY cameras in Market Square and the adjoining Little Malop St mall were “faulty” and not working on the day of the murder; A MAN came forward to police in 2001 claiming he killed Balcombe but was quickly dismissed as an attentionseeker.
The first interview happened on May 8, just three days after the murder.
In it Mr Hague first said he couldn’t recall telling people he wanted revenge after Ricky Balcombe’s gang attacked him in a car on Malop St two weeks before the killing.
But later, after being told about statements police had from his friends, he admitted he was “pissed off” about the attack, and might have asked where some of the assailants lived.
He also told Mr Iddles he got to his girlfriend’s house at 3pm on the day of the killing. But later — when told she wasn’t home at that time — conceded he must have got there later.
The other two interviews happened on May 16, 1995, and March 28, 1996, both times coinciding with the suspect participating in an identification parade. The jury heard on each occasion none of the four witnesses pointed out Mr Hague as the killer.
Mr Iddles said it was common for homicide detectives to take reports that someone had, falsely, confessed to a murder.
“It’s not unusual in these type of investigations for people to go around big-noting themselves,” he said.
“(I’ve investigated) 300 homicides, I would say there’s 200 where people have gone around and said similar things.”
He recalled the man who came forward in 2001 to claim he was Ricky Balcombe’s killer gave an account “totally inconsistent with the injuries”.
“He was somebody who wanted to be noted,” the retired detective said.
He also told the jury police had checked the CCTV cameras in the shopping precinct.
“It was faulty,” Mr Iddles said. “I can tell you there was nothing on it.”