Notorious hitman Rodney Collins was a secret informer blamed
A NOTORIOUS hitman was the secret informer blamed by police for leading them into the fatal confrontation that provoked the Walsh St murders of two constables which shocked Australia almost 30 years ago.
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A NOTORIOUS hitman was the secret informer blamed by police for leading them into the fatal confrontation that provoked the Walsh St murders of two constables which shocked Australia almost 30 years ago.
Documents obtained by the Herald Sun reveal that the feared underworld figure Rodney Collins, who died in jail this May, was visited in prison by police the day before armed robber Graeme Jensen was shot dead by officers in 1988.
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Jensen’s death sparked the infamous retaliatory “two for one” ambush murders of police officers Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre in Walsh St, South Yarra, early the next morning, October 12.
Years after Jensen was killed in the arrest gone wrong, police told a coroner that a secret informer had identified him as the shooter who had killed security guard Dominik Hefti in a bungled armed robbery in Brunswick — information that led to the fatal intercept.
They never named that informer.
But a summary of the Jensen case, compiled by those who investigated the shooting, has now been obtained by the Herald Sun.
It details how detectives visited Collins in Pentridge Prison the day before Jensen was shot, entering the jail under a “shroud of secrecy’’.
Armed robbery squad detectives Peter Butts and Glenn Saunders signed in as “professional visitors’’ to see inmate “Smith’’, according to the 112-page summary.
Det-Sgt Butts met Collins for 10 minutes on October 10.
A paper with the names of known criminals Jensen, his friend Victor Peirce (later acquitted of the Walsh St murders), Lindsay Rountree and Santo Mercuri was shown to Collins.
“Within an hour of seeing Collins, Sgt Butts applied for approval to seek a firearms search warrant against Jensen and the house at Narre Warren,” the case statement says.
Police sources have also told the Herald Sun Collins was the secret informer.
Collins, who police sources have claimed was a long-term informer, might have been trying to cover up for his friend Mercuri, who was ultimately found guilty of Hefti’s murder.
A transcript of a covertly recorded 1995 conversation between internal investigators and Collins, obtained by the Herald Sun, shows him admitting he saw Det-Sgt Butts the day before Jensen was shot, but denying that he implicated Jensen in Hefti’s murder.
Collins said: “He (Butts) was alone … I said what do you want? He said your name has been given to us as you may be able to help in this Dominic Hefti thing …
“He had four names on a piece of paper. One name was Victor Peirce, there was ah, Graeme Jensen, Lindsay Rountree and Santo Mercuri … we have been friends for f---in’ years and I thought he was trying to put me and Sam (Mercuri) together … How do I know that? I’m in f---in’ jail … As I’ve said, I’m not an informer, sorry I can’t help you, f---in’ see you later.”
He also denied a signature on an interview form was his.
The day after this jail visit, armed robbery squad officers went to Narre Warren.
After trailing Jensen in unmarked cars to a lawnmower shop, they tried to intercept him.
Jensen was shot by then-detective Robert Hill, who is now an Acting Deputy Commissioner.
Early the next morning constables Tynan, 22, and Eyre, 20, were shot dead in what detectives maintain was revenge for Jensen’s killing.
Eight policemen were charged over the shooting of Jensen, but charges against seven were dropped; Mr Hill was acquitted.
Jensen was ultimately found not to have been involved in Hefti’s murder.
The Jensen case is currently the subject of legal argument over whether the findings of a previous inquest should be overturned and a new inquest held.
Collins, a prime suspect in the 2004 murder of police informer Terrence Hodson and his wife Christine, was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum non-parole term of 32 years in 2009 for the 1987 murder of Ramon Abbey and his wife Dorothy.
Police believe he carried out up to 10 executions.
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