How Jason Roberts became the protege of killer Bandali Debs
A SMALL act of chivalry led Jason Roberts to a partnership with an evil killer that would ultimately cost the teenager his freedom.
Law & Order
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- Police killer bombshell: Jason Roberts ‘was not there’, Ron Iddles says
- Roberts’ ex-girlfriend: I’ll testify in court to clear Jason
- Roberts’ jail plea to Bandali Debs: ‘Tell the truth’ on shooting
THE psychopath in the clown mask began waving around guns with reckless abandon before pointing the barrel straight at the head of his young protege.
“Once you’re in, you’re in,’’ he growled.
Jason Roberts, confronted with a small arsenal as he sat in the garage of his prospective father-in-law, Bandali Debs, had made the mistake of asking the ruthless criminal to stop pointing his gun at him.
It could have cost him his life.
For Roberts, this crude initiation to the underworld would lead to a life term in a maximum-security jail for the shooting murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller, who were gunned down in Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin, in 1998.
Roberts would later tell police that he first met Debs, or Ben as he was known, when he was just six years old.
The youngster had been training in karate at a Dandenong Dojo with Debs’ children, including Roberts’ future girlfriend, Nicole.
BANDALI DEBS PAYS PRICE FOR MURDERS OF POLICE OFFICERS AND SEX WORKERS
A then-unemployed Debs would pick them up in a brown Tarago van he had driven around for years.
It was years later, a few months after Roberts began dating Nicole, that a conversation began which would lead to a criminal partnership.
A couple of guys had given Nicole a hard time and Roberts, in his own words, had “stood up for her’’.
He said Debs told him in a phone call that he would have “put something in the bloke’s mouth’’ which would have ‘’come out the other side’’, implying he would have shot him in the head.
The pair met at a worksite in Narre Warren where Debs asked whether he wanted any “work’’.
It turned out not to be of the labouring kind.
“Originally, the way Ben was talking, there was real good money to be made. A few jobs a year, good money, and no one gets hurt,’’ Roberts told the 2013 Rainmaker review of the Silk-Miller convictions.
“I knew that (what) he was talking about was illegal, but he never mentioned armed robberies,” he said.
“We had a few drinks, and at that time I was 16 years old and I got sold on the idea.’’
What transpired later at the Debs home would leave him under no illusions about the criminal venture for which he was being groomed.
“Ben told me to grab a briefcase and follow him.
“We (went) out to the garage and as I walked into the garage he had a tarp covering one half of the floor.
“Ben sat the briefcase on an upturned bucket, and opened it,’’ he states.
“The briefcase was facing away from me and (he) told me to turn around.
“Then when I turned back around, he had a clown mask on and a gun in each hand.
“Ben was jumping around carrying on making noises and all this s---.
“At first I said to him, ‘I thought you said no one gets hurt?’
“He said: ‘They don’t. This is just in case. It makes them piss their pants’.’’
Debs’ antics, Roberts said, were making him anxious.
“Ben was waving the guns in my direction, so I told him not to point them at me because it makes me nervous.
“Ben could see I was not keen. He then took the clown mask off and came over to me and pointed the gun at me, and said, ‘If I wanted to point a gun at you I would do this.’
“He pointed the gun close to me.
“This is when Ben said to me, ‘Once you’re in, you’re in’.’’
ROBERTS’ PLEA TO BANDALI DEBS FROM JAIL: TAP HERE TO READ THE LETTER*
*Letter edited for legal reasons
He said Debs then appealed to his desire to buy a house to move into with Nicole.
“Ben then said, ‘you love each other, because you sleep at each other’s house’ — so this was with a .357 at your face — and he said, ‘so let’s do it’.’’
Roberts said Debs, having made his point, then unveiled the rest of the “toys’’.
In the briefcase were another mask, leather gloves, bullets, cutting shears, tape, an orange Stanley knife and a leather pouch with knives in it.
There was also a pair of handcuffs in the vicinity.
But Debs, Roberts said, was saving the best until last.
He went over to the tarpaulin and pulled it back to reveal “just guns galore and ammunition’’.
Debs kept his collection neat, the guns lined up in rows.
Roberts said: “Ben showed me his two favourites. They were both chrome, ivory handles engraved. They were matching .44s ...’’
Before long, Debs would lay out his plan, and the score was juicy: loots of $20,000 to $30,000.
“Ben then showed me what everything was for. The duct tape was to tie people up; masks to wear so you could not be seen; and the shears were to cut people’s fingers off if the nice rings did not come off,’’ Roberts said.
Debs was also well aware of the danger posed to criminals by DNA profiling.
The duct tape was to be cut with the Stanley knife to avoid using teeth and potentially leaving saliva at the scene.
The pouch with the knives, Debs explained, was for “different jobs’’.
The duo would go on to rob businesses, commonly restaurants, late at night when the registers were full and most of the customers had left.
What Roberts did not know was he was a replacement for Jason Ghiller, the nephew of Debs’ wife.
Debs and Ghiller had committed similar armed stick-ups in the early 1990s, known as the Pigout robberies. Debs and Ghiller remain suspects in a shooting in which Sergeant Allan Beckwith and Constable Jason Bryant came under fire in an industrial area of Hallam in early 1994.
They had been patrolling the area when they spotted a stolen car. The officers were just metres away from the car when they were fired upon.
Those in the suspect Nissan fled. The shooting case remains unsolved.
POLICE KILLER BOMBSHELL: SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
ROBERTS’ EX-GIRLFRIEND: I’LL TESTIFY IN COURT TO CLEAR JASON
VETERAN COP’S SHOCK VERDICT: JASON ROBERTS ‘WAS NOT THERE’
ROBERTS’ JAIL PLEA TO DEBS: ‘TELL THE TRUTH’ ON SHOOTING
WEDNESDAY: READ PART TWO