Convicted cop killer Jason Roberts keen to testify in court
CONVICTED police double murderer Jason Roberts is keen to give evidence in person to a judicial review of the credibility of new alibi evidence in his case, the Supreme Court has heard.
Law & Order
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A MAN serving a life sentence for a double police murder is keen to give evidence, in person, to a judicial review of the credibility of new alibi evidence in his case, the Supreme Court heard on Tuesday.
Barrister Peter Matthews, acting for Jason Roberts, said: “Mr Roberts would welcome the chance to give evidence. He’s been waiting for that for years, it would be fair to say.”
Roberts, along with Bandali Debs, was found guilty of the shooting murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Moorabbin on August 16, 1998.
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He and his then girlfriend, Debs’s daughter Nicole, now say they were in bed together at the time of the shooting.
Last month, Attorney-General Martin Pakula accepted a retired judge’s recommendation to refer to the Supreme Court the question of whether that alibi evidence is credible.
After the court makes its findings, the case will return to the Attorney General for a decision on whether he will refer Roberts’s petition for mercy to Victoria’s Court of Appeal for consideration.
But chief Crown prosecutor Brendan Kissane, QC, told the court on Tuesday no one was currently available to take the case on, and there was unlikely to be anyone until November.
Justice Robert Osborn said the case involved a substantial volume of material, and some complexity.
“On the face of it, the first touchstone of credibility will be to assess the statements against the circumstantial case as a whole,” he said. And Roberts and Nicole Debs would have to be cross-examined.
“The matter’s been referred to us, and we need to proceed with reasonable expedition,” the judge said.
Roberts has applied for legal aid, but his case doesn’t fall under Victoria Legal Aid’s funding guidelines.
Justice Osborn urged VLA to reconsider its decision.
Roberts appeared via videolink on Tuesday, but hopes to attend future hearings in person.
An Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission investigation of a doctored police document that was part of the case against Roberts is also continuing.
Roberts’s case is due back in court in November.