Serial killer Bandali Debs’ daughter Nicole’s shock legal move against police

The daughter of serial killer Bandali Debs has taken drastic legal action against police, claiming she was maliciously prosecuted over an alleged $1664 fraud.

The daughter of serial killer Bandali Debs is suing the police.

EXCLUSIVE

The daughter of serial killer Bandali Debs is suing the police.

Nicole Debs is claiming she was maliciously prosecuted over an alleged $1664 fraud because she was set to be an alibi witness for her former boyfriend – Jason Roberts – who was acquitted of the Silk-Miller police murders after a retrial in 2022.

Ms Debs, 45, who now goes under another name, was arrested and later charged with the dishonest offence in the lead up to Roberts’ retrial following a raid on her home by up to six police officers in 2021 as a result of a series of phone calls which were potentially illegally tapped.

The case against her, and three of her co-accused, was suddenly withdrawn in July this year following police officers being grilled over the force’s tactics.

Bandali Debs's daughter Nicole at Dandenong Court.

“At the end of the day it will all come out in court,” Ms Debs said of her civil suit.

“I’ve got a career to think about which has been ruined.

“All I wanted to do is get on with my life and it’s never happened. Still to this day I cannot get on with my life.

“Whatever consequences they (police) face, they face.’’

The police sting on Ms Debs was not aimed at any suspicion of fraud, but something far more serious.

Senior Constable Rodney Miller. Picture: Supplied

Sergeant Gary Silk. Picture: Supplied

It was the re-formed Lorimer taskforce – which originally investigated the 1998 murders of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller – who were listening to Ms Debs’ activities between March and June, 2021.

Police had argued in a court that they needed a phone intercept because Ms Debs could take part in conversations to impede Roberts’ conviction.

The police interest in Ms Debs related to an alibi statement she had made to a secret police taskforce in 2013.

In the statement, Ms Debs claimed Roberts was in bed with her at the time of the Silk-Miller murders, a claim she did not make in a statement she made in 1998.

She also declared in the latter statement that her father left the house in her car alone on the night the officers’ were killed.

Jason Roberts and Bandali Debs’ daughter Nicole.

The controversial signed statement was made more than a decade after both Roberts and Bandali Debs were convicted of the murders in 2002.

But this new evidence was considered pivotal in Roberts’ legal battle to get the case back into court.

Although Ms Debs agreed to give alibi evidence for Roberts, she suddenly withdrew as a witness during the 2022 retrial.

It was intimated at the time Ms Debs withdrew due to the pressure applied on her by police.

It did not impact Roberts’ case, with a jury acquitting him of the police murders.

Bandali Debs arriving at the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne in December 2002.

Bandali Debs, who was a prosecution witness at the retrial, remains in Goulburn Prison convicted of four murders.

Following the retrial, police persisted in prosecuting Ms Debs, her partner, John La Rocca, sister, Joanne Mizzo and a doctor, Irene Lepustin.

All four are now plaintiffs, claiming damages, interest and costs against the force.

In her writ, Ms Debs claims she suffered injury as a result of police interactions with her and that she was falsely imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted.

The writ also alleges Victoria Police engaged in intimidation tactics and misfeasance in public office by misusing their powers.

Roberts launched his multimillion-dollar civil action against Victoria Police a year ago over his wrongful conviction.

If it fails to settle, a trial is set to go ahead next year.

Originally published as Serial killer Bandali Debs’ daughter Nicole’s shock legal move against police