Officer says he waited nearly 18 months to give Silk-Miller murders statement

A police officer has hit out at senior homicide squad members who asked her to leave crucial evidence about the Silk Miller police murders out of her police statement, an anti-corruption hearing has been told.

A police officer has hit out at senior homicide squad members who asked her to leave crucial evidence about the Silk Miller police murders out of her police statement.

Sergeant Helen Poke told an Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption (IBAC) hearing this afternoon she “cracked it” after being asked to change her statement about the 1998 murders of Gary Silk and Rodney Miller in Moorabbin.

She said detective Grant Kelly requested she and her partner, officer Graeme Thwaites, make changes to statements on the morning of the murders.

“(Kelly) said we shouldn’t be putting in the descriptions … and all this irrelevant stuff,” Ms Poke told the hearing.

“I cracked it and I told him what he could do with his statement,” she said.

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Sergeant Gary Silk was one of two policemen gunned down in 1998.

His colleague Senior Constable Rodney Miller was also killed.

In her notebook, which was presented as evidence at the anti-corruption hearing this afternoon, Ms Poke wrote: ‘He (Miller) said, “I’m f***ed, help me”, and “two, one on foot” as well as references Mr Miller made to a dark Hyundai.

In emotional scenes, Ms Poke apologised to the family of Sen-Constable Miller as she recalled his final moments after being gunned down.

“I’m sorry Carmel and family, he (Miller) said he wasn’t well, so he must’ve known (he was dying),” she said.

She said the senior detective had “no right” to tell her to leave out Mr Miller’s “dying declaration”.

A tearful Ms Poke recalled helping the wounded senior constable into an ambulance and instructing another officer to go with him.

“I said ‘go in there, stay with him, go everywhere he goes in the hospital and write down everything he says’,” Ms Poke said.

Ms Poke and Mr Thwaites stopped a few hours after the shooting to make notes in their running sheet and diary, she told the inquiry.

Jason Roberts was convicted over the murders alongside Bandali Debs. Picture: Richard Cisar-wright

“It was an evolving scene, so it was the first time I had a chance (to write).”

The policewoman said even at the time she knew the importance of making a record “cause I heard what Rod said”.

Another of the first officers at the scene admitted waiting almost 18 months for Lorimer taskforce investigators to take his official statement.

But evidence presented at the hearing today suggested Sergeant Francis Adams had made a statement within a week of the deaths.

A spreadsheet noted Sgt Adams’ statement was required and obtained as of August 24, 1998.

Sergeant Silk and Senior Constable Miller were gunned down in Moorabbin on August 16.

Additionally, a diary entry from homicide detective Rosemary Eden references taking a statement from the then-senior constable just days later.

Sgt Adams told the hearing he cannot remember making or signing an official statement, but has some recollection of giving information to someone at the scene on the morning of the shootings.

“I don’t feel like I offered enough, hence why I was looking forward to making my statement (at a later date),” he said.

A diary entry from Lorimer investigator George Buchhorn shows the detective visited him at the police academy in 2000.

Former top homicide detective Ron Iddles has also given evidence at the IBAC hearings. Picture: David Caird

“I think he came to request my statement,” Sgt Adams said.

He said he was among several other officers present at the scene who were not requested to make statements until early 2000.

He told the anti-corruption hearing he did not want to appear like “a pest” to homicide detectives by inquiring why his statement was yet to be taken.

“I was eager, but I was just sort of waiting for the call-up.”

“I was caught thinking, ‘I don’t want to push the buttons of the busy taskforce’,” he said.

Assisting counsel Catherine Boston asked Sgt Adams if he thought it was unusual for the delay, given it related to the murder of two policemen.

“I was falling in line with what I thought the homicide squad and other detectives wanted me to do,” he said.

Sgt Adams was one of the first responders to arrive at the murder scene after hearing a call come over the police radio.

After finding a deceased Gary Silk, he ran a short distance to find a wounded Miller.

“I remember him saying he couldn’t breathe. He was definitely talking … it wasn’t very loud,” he said.

There is no mention of a “dying declaration” from Mr Miller in Sgt Adam’s statement.

“At the end I just wasn’t certain, so I didn’t put it in,” he told the inquiry.

Sgt Adams said he was certain of what other officers had said to him about Mr Miller’s last words, but did not include them in his statement because he classed them as “hearsay”.

He denies anyone told him to leave out the description of the offenders or Mr Miller’s dying words.

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