Jason Roberts retrial bid expected to be with Attorney-General within weeks
JASON Roberts’ petition for a retrial, which could lead to his conviction being overturned, is set to be put in front of Attorney-General Martin Pakula within weeks.
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CONVICTED cop killer Jason Roberts’ renewed bid to get a retrial is to be put in front of Attorney-General Martin Pakula within weeks.
Roberts’ petition for mercy, which could lead to his conviction being overturned, will hit Mr Pakula’s desk before Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog completes its probe into falsified statements used to convict him and Bandali Debs over the murders of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller on August 16, 1998.
DOUBT RAISED ON SENIOR CONSTABLE RODNEY MILLER’S DYING WORDS
JASON ROBERTS ‘WAS NOT THERE’, RON IDDLES CONCLUDES
The Independent Broad-based anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) launched an investigation into statements and sworn evidence taken by police and given under oath at the Silk-Miller trial, following the emergence of a doctored statement uncovered by the Herald Sun.
No trace of the buried police statement, made just hours after the murders on August 16, exists in police files.
The statement, which makes no mention of multiple offenders, was replaced with another statement, also dated August 16, 1998, which indicates more than one gunman was at the scene.
IBAC, which does not publicly comment on current investigations, will not give a time frame on its probe, or whether or not it has conducted interviews or hearings.
CONVICTED KILLER JASON ROBERTS TAKING ATTORNEY-GENERAL TO COURT
POLICE OFFICER CLAIMS HER STATEMENTS OVER SILK-MILLER MURDERS WAS FALSIFIED, SHREDDED
But issues with the case will revolve around proving when the document came into existence. It is believed the police statement, made by Sen Constable Glenn Pullin, was deleted from Victoria Police’s database after a second statement — which contained crucial additional information about the dying words of Sen Constable Miller — was made.
It was changed about the time Debs and Roberts were charged by the Lorimer taskforce. Other statements were also changed about the time of the arrests years later.
Mr Pakula is likely to make a decision on Roberts’ fate before the state election.
He denied Roberts’ initial petition for mercy on March 24 last year after months of deliberations but invited Roberts’ lawyers to resubmit a reworked petition of mercy following the emergence of the falsified police statement.
The Department of Justice and barrister David Grace, QC, had recommended the case return to the Supreme Court, but Mr Pakula rejected Roberts’ plea in March last year.