Bandali Debs bragged about killing woman

THE full enormity of murderer Bandali Debs's bloody crimes can today be revealed for the first time.

Bandali Debs

THE full enormity of evil cop killer Bandali Debs's bloody crimes can today be revealed for the first time.

A Supreme Court jury in NSW yesterday found Debs guilty of killing prostitute Donna Hicks - 16 years after he shot her in the head.

That Debs, 58, was a twisted prostitute killer years before he murdered Victorian police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller was discovered only through DNA taken from Debs after his 2000 arrest over the double police shooting.

Jurors in Debs's NSW trial for the murder of Ms Hicks were not told he had previously been convicted in Victoria of the murders of Sgt Silk, 35, and Sen-Constable Miller, 34, and of teenage prostitute Kristy Harty.

The Herald Sun yesterday succeeded in an application to the court to have suppression orders lifted immediately after the guilty verdict, allowing details of Debs's role in all four murders to be revealed.

It also obtained exclusive access to a chilling transcript of a bugged conversation, in which Debs is heard bragging about how easy it is to shoot a woman in the head.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies said Debs's latest conviction in NSW further reinforced what a vile individual he was.

"Debs is the personification of evil, a wicked individual who will do anything, including murder, to get whatever he wants," Sen-Sgt Davies said.

"He has forfeited his right to mix in society because he has preyed on that society for so long.

"There will be no tears shed for this creature if he never sees the light of day again."

Debs's first known victim was Ms Hicks, a 34-year-old mother of three, in 1995.

But police suspect that the perverted killer may have been responsible for sex attacks on other women, in which no DNA was left behind to identify him as a suspect.

Debs is serving three life sentences, with no minimum term, for the 1997 murder of Ms Harty at Upper Beaconsfield, and the 1998 killings of Sgt Silk and Sen-Constable Miller in Moorabbin.

He is expected to be sentenced for the murder of Ms Hicks in February.

Sen-Constable Miller's widow, Carmel Arthur, said yesterday's conviction brought an ending to a very traumatic chapter in the lives of the relatives of all of Debs's victims.

"I am sure the family in NSW are happy they are now able to close that chapter of their lives," she said.

When detectives started investigating the Silk-Miller murders, they never expected to solve the earlier killings and rapes of Ms Hicks and Ms Harty.

And were it not for DNA, they might never have done so.

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