Sir Ken Jones tells Lawyer X royal commission Carl Williams’ murder was ‘planned’
Retired Victoria Police deputy commissioner Sir Ken Jones has given an explosive statement to the Lawyer X royal commission saying he believes Carl Williams’ jailhouse murder involved prison staff.
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The UK top cop who investigated Carl Williams’ jailhouse murder says he believes it was pre-planned and involved corrupt prison staff.
Sir Ken Jones, the former deputy commissioner who quit the force after clashing with his boss, Simon Overland, says in his explosive statement to the Lawyer X royal commission there are many unanswered questions about the monitoring and murder of Williams.
Sir Ken has described the murder of the gangland boss inside Barwon Prison on April 19, 2010, as “unimaginable’’.
“I will always believe that Carl Williams’ murder was a pre-planned killing and that those responsible have not been held to account,’’ he states.
“That the plan involved corrupted and or compromised staff then serving within Corrections and criminal elements on the outside with much to lose if Williams was ever to give evidence in any criminal trial or Royal Commission.
“I recall that there were a number of hypotheses we were considering, as well as the obvious link between Carl Williams’ murder and the prosecution of Paul Dale. But all of them shared a common thread: that the murder was planned and involved corrupt actors inside and outside the prison.’’
At the time of his murder, Williams had been co-operating with Victoria Police over the murders of two other police informers, Terence and Christine Hodson, who were executed in their East Kew home in May, 2004.
Williams was also being encouraged by Victoria Police to implicate a gangland figure and mate over the 2000 murder of Richard Mladenich at the time.
“On the face of it the Williams murder was unimaginable in that the most important state witness in the history of Victoria could be murdered within the most secure unit, which itself was located within our most secure prison,’’ Sir Ken states.
“But his death was devastating for many other reasons. He had begun to co-operate fully with several of our investigations and was providing valuable intelligence and leads.
‘’For example, his assistance with the investigation into the 2004 Hodson murders had led to charges being laid and imminent court proceedings. He had also raised his suspicions that Nicola Gobbo was not all she seemed to be, that she was betraying clients. His potential impact on justice denied was conveniently dashed the moment his life was ended.’’
When Sir Ken took charge of the investigation into Williams’ murder, a search of Acacia Unit One revealed a series of bugs inside the walls and ceiling of the unit Williams shared with his killer, Matthew Johnson and ‘’Little’’ Tommy Ivanovic.
Sir Ken states these listening devices were “illegally’’ installed, but the Ombudsman did not highlight the significance of the breach.
“The bugs were wired to an area controlled by the staff. The bugging operation was illegal and we have no way of knowing what information flowed into or out from that unit. Many prominent and dangerous criminals had been housed in that unit over the years. To my surprise no one within the Corrections department seemed to be that concerned over the obvious implications,’’ he states.
“We took the view that the system was not live when it was found but had no way of knowing when, and by who, it had been installed and monitored.’’
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“It was of an amateur construction, using easily available electronic parts.
“The subsequent Ombudsman’s report into Carl Williams murder chose to define this discovery as low significance and that its impact was contained within the prison. This is the least likely explanation in my view. I asked for a full discrete cross reference check of the prisoners, prison staff, lawyers and others who had been in and out of
the unit and the related trials and outcomes for the years whilst the illegal equipment was operating. I believe that this work was not done. In my opinion the clear potential for this equipment to have facilitated very serious crime inside and outside the facility should have been fully explored.
READ SIR KEN JONES’ FULL STATEMENT