Ex-homicide detective Ron Iddles seized a knife from Easey St accused murderer Perry Kouroumblis in days after killings
Former homicide detective Ron Iddles has revealed he seized a knife from accused double murderer Perry Kouroumblis during a random traffic stop in the days after the horrific Easey St killings, a court has heard.
High-profile ex-homicide detective Ron Iddles has revealed he seized a knife from accused Easey St double murderer Perry Kouroumblis during a random traffic stop days after the horrific killings.
Mr Kouroumblis, now 66 years old, has been charged with stabbing 27-year-old Suzanne Armstrong and 28-year-old Susan Bartlett to death inside their sharehouse on Easey St in Collingwood in January 1977.
Mr Kouroumblis has also been accused of raping Ms Armstrong.
He has indicated he intended to plead not guilty to all charges.
A committal hearing before Magistrate Brett Sonnet continued in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday to determine whether prosecutors have gathered enough evidence for Mr Kouroumblis to stand trial for the murders in the Supreme Court.
During the fourth day of the hearing, former homicide detective Ron Iddles told the court he pulled over a teenage Mr Kouroumblis during a “routine” or “random” vehicle check about four to five days after the women were believed to have been killed.
Under cross examination by Mr Kouroumblis’ defence barrister Dermot Dann KC, Mr Iddles, who was a constable in the Collingwood area at the time, told the court the teen’s behaviour, speed and driving in his 1968 Holden HK did not seem out of character before he was pulled over.
Mr Dann asked Mr Iddles whether he took a statement from Mr Kouroumblis or whether he noted down his physical description, including any possible injuries to the teen’s body.
Mr Iddles said Mr Kouroumblis provided his name, date of birth and address, but the former officer did not take a statement from the teen, who he knew already from working in the area, and did make specific notes about his appearance.
Mr Iddles said he inspected the interior of Mr Kouroumblis’ car before moving to the boot, where he found a knife.
Mr Iddles told the court that Mr Kouroumblis told him he had found the knife on the railway tracks at the Victoria Park train station.
When Mr Dann asked whether he was aware of the Easey St murders at that point, Mr Iddles agreed they were fresh in his mind because he was a police officer and the murders had just taken place.
Mr Iddles told the court exactly how he transported the knife back to Collingwood police station was “a bit hazy”, but he likely handed it over to a detective.
The court heard Mr Iddles started working on the Easey St murder investigation in 1998 as part of a cold case unit with two other detectives from the Homicide Squad, which involved collecting DNA samples from time to time.
When Mr Dann put it to Mr Iddles that a pathologist had at one point ruled out that knife as the weapon used to kill Ms Armstrong and Ms Bartlett, Mr Iddles said the first he had heard of it was when another former homicide detective, Peter Hiscock, shared that with him at some point.
When Mr Dann referred former forensic pathologist David Ranson to previous findings he had made when asked by police to analyse the weapon, Dr Ranson agreed he had found the knife could neither be ruled in or out as the murder weapon.
After Mr Kouroumblis’ defence team raised questions about potential contamination on Monday, the defence on Tuesday probed other officers about how evidence and DNA samples were collected, stored and transported over the decades since the murders.
When asked by Mr Dann how other suspects such as former journalist John Grant or Ross Hammond, an associate of Ms Bartlett’s, could have been eliminated, former homicide detective Stuart Bateson told the court he believed a seminal sample left on Ms Armstrong’s body could only have been left by the killer.
“The seminal fluid was critical,” he told prosecutor Zubin Menon.
Mr Bateson said DNA samples from Mr Grant and Mr Hammond did not match the sample left at the scene.
“Those suspects did not leave that seminal fluid at the crime scene in such a prominent place,” Mr Bateson told the court.
But Mr Bateson said he did not know where the results of the DNA test relating to Grant were, and confirmed his DNA sample was disposed of in 1998.
The court heard Bateson in 1998 wrote in his police diary that he didn’t believe the knife found at Victoria Park station was the murder weapon after also speaking to Hiscock in 1998.
Central to defence lawyer Daniel Sala’s questioning of officers who were tasked with retrieving evidence from storage for forensic analysis were Victoria Police’s evidence cataloguing processes, which the court heard had been overhauled several times in the years since the murders.
Experienced Victoria Police Support Services Centre Sergeant Rodney Jones told the court evidence related to Easey St has been transferred to six different locations over the years, including between long-term storage, forensic labs and the Homicide Squad office.
Sergeant Jones told the court the “continuity” of preserving crime scene evidence would have been a high priority for officers.
Detective Acting Sergeant Stephen Kelly said: “Every property manager is aware of potential cross contamination” and said there was training to prevent it from occurring.
The court previously heard the prosecution’s case relies heavily on DNA evidence that they alleged links Mr Kouroumblis to the scene.
The hearing continues.
Originally published as Ex-homicide detective Ron Iddles seized a knife from Easey St accused murderer Perry Kouroumblis in days after killings
