Roberta Williams offers new theories on Carl’s killing

Roberta Williams has made a series of claims about the brutal prison bashing that claimed the life of her gangland kingpin husband.

Roberta Williams says money changed hands in the murder of her gangland kingpin husband, Carl.

The underworld widow remains convinced the brutal bashing of Carl Williams in 2010, inside Barwon Prison, was planned outside the jail’s walls.

And she holds deep concerns about how prison guards missed the attack which was captured on CCTV as it unfolded in the jail’s high-security Acacia unit.

Roberta, however, told the Herald Sun she does not know who paid for the killing of 39-year-old Williams.

Roberta and Carl Williams: Picture: Supplied

Asked if her former husband’s killing was a paid hit she answered: “Yes, because they wanted him dead.”

“They had to be paid for the job to be done.”

Roberta said she had “no idea” of who would have financed the murder and refuses to mention the name of her husband’s killer, Matthew Johnson.

“It’s definitely a place (jail) where people should be protected,” Roberta said.

It took 25 minutes for the guards to realise Williams had been attacked, and only when a female officer was called to the unit by Johnson.

Williams, who had been dragged to his cell, was found lifeless on the floor.

Multiple inquiries into the murder have found no proof that Johnson was paid to kill Williams and a Corrections Victoria report found the Acacia monitoring station was unattended at the time of the attack.

Williams went into cardiac arrest as ultra-violent inmate and prison enforcer Johnson hit him multiple times with the stem of an exercise bike across the head.

Matthew Johnson beat Carl Williams to death in a high-security prision.

Johnson, who would have known he was facing a life sentence by committing the heinous act, claimed self-defence at his trial.

Victoria Police set up the Driver taskforce to investigate the murder.

One of its key inquiries was to establish whether Johnson had acted on anyone else’s behalf.

Driver detectives, however, could not link a money trail to the murder.

Roberta, who spoke to the Herald Sun after releasing a TikTok video on her theories about her husband’s killing, also remains enraged by the other man in the cell, “Little” Tommy Ivanovic.

Williams had been close to Ivanovic during the early gangland years and made him godfather of his daughter, Dhakota.

“I’d run him over if I saw him,” Roberta said.

“He was a metre away when it happened.

“Isn’t it human nature that if someone is being hurt you run to their aid?”

Roberta Williams in her TikTok video.

Ivanovic was also closely aligned with underworld figure Rocco Arico, who remains a suspect in Williams’ murder.

Roberta also said she was looking forward to Arico, who was subsequently jailed over drug offending, being deported at the end of his sentence.

“The happiest day for me will be when I see that c … shipped off to another country,” she said.

A call between Ivanovic and Arico occurred shortly after Williams was attacked.

Roberta has reignited calls for a coronial inquest to be held into her former husband’s murder.

All deaths in custody are subject to an inquest but in Williams’ case it was exempted because of the multiple investigations that were being undertaken at the time.

“Do you not understand the torment we go through?” she said.

“I had to look at his injuries. I had to identify him at the coroners.

“I hope that scumbag goes to hell … and Tommy, that he’s living in misery …”

“I need to put this fire out so I can smile before I die.”

Roberta said she believed both her former husband’s death and the double murder of Terrence and Christine Hodson, which Carl Williams confessed to organising, warranted coronial inquests.

She said former Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Ken Jones and lawyer turned informer Nicola Gobbo could help an inquiry.

Originally published as Roberta Williams offers new theories on Carl’s killing