Coroner unable to find killers of police informer Terence Hodson and wife Christine
THE shocking executions of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine remain a mystery with a coroner unable to say who was responsible.
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THE shocking executions of police informer Terry Hodson and his wife Christine remain a mystery with a coroner unable to say who was responsible for their deaths.
The 55-page finding is a blow to corruption investigators and the Chief Commissioner, who urged state coroner Ian Gray to declare that former detective Paul Dale, hitman Rod Collins and drug lord Carl Williams were behind the murders.
But Judge Gray said there was insufficient evidence that the couple were killed to protect Dale.
“Having considered all the evidence, I am unable to conclude that Mr Dale, Mr Williams or Mr Collins were responsible for the deaths,” Judge Gray.
The finding leaves the family without closure after more than 11 years of police investigations.
Daughter Nikki Komiazyk was emotional as she left court, slamming the finding and warning others not to become police informers.
Her father was a police informer who had made statements against then detectives Paul Dale and David Miechel, was shot alongside his wife as they knelt in the back room of their house.
Lawyers for the Hodson children put to the inquest hearing last year that Victoria Police had failed to protect their parents, setting up inadequate security.
``I just want to know the truth,’’ Mrs Komiazyk-Hodson said.
``This will go down as the greatest cover-up in Victoria Police’s history.
``We’re in the too hard basket.’’
Mrs Komiazyk-Hodson has made numerous requests for meetings with police chief commissioners and parliamentarians, but she says none have agreed to meet her.
After the burglary case was abandoned against Mr Dale in 2004, he was charged in 2009 with one count of murdering Terence Hodson.
A special police taskforce alleged he organised for Carl Williams to contract a hitman to kill Hodson.
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The alleged gunman, hitman Rodney Collins, was charged with both Terence and Christine’s murders.
The murder charges against Mr Dale and Collins were dropped after the jailhouse killing of Carl Williams, in 2010.
Police believe Mr Dale had the motivation and access to the underworld to have Hodson killed after he made statements against him and Miechel in relation to a burglary of an Oakleigh East drug house.
Both Hodson and Miechel were caught near the scene of the burglary, but Mr Dale was not at or near the crime scene.
Miechel is serving a minimum 12 year prison sentence over the 2003 burglary crime, which involved the theft of $1.3 million of drugs and money.
He has never implicated his sergeant, Mr Dale, in the crime.