Jason Roberts walks free after being found not guilty of Silk-Miller killings
Jason Roberts has walked from court after he was sensationally cleared of the 1998 murders of Sgt Gary Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller.
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Jason Roberts has walked free after spending the past 22 years in prison, with a jury clearing him of the shooting murders of Sgt Gary Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller.
After a marathon retrial of Roberts over the murders, a Supreme Court jury returned not guilty verdicts on both murder counts on Monday.
In the gallery above the court, it was tense as the jury filed in to deliver their verdict at 10am on Monday.
When the madam foreperson was asked their finding on charge 11, the murder of Gary Silk, she said: “Not guilty.”
The only response in the gallery was a stunned silence, followed by murmurs.
It was almost a formality the jury would find Roberts not guilty on Rodney Miller’s murder, which they did.
Justice Stephen Kaye told the jury that in all his legal career he had not witnessed such an outstanding jury.
There was shock for the Lorimer detectives who investigated the case more than two decades ago.
The task force head, Paul Sheridan, was visibly disappointed.
Few words were spoken as Carmel Arthur, Sen Constable Miller’s widow, was supported by her husband, Peter Silk.
She remained silent as she walked from the Supreme Court and is expected to release a statement through the police association later on Monday.
Vic Pol sitting on secret internal probe into misconduct over Silk-Miller investigation
Victoria Police has been secretly running an internal probe into misconduct relating to the Lorimer taskforce investigation of the Silk-Miller murders.
The internal inquiry was launched in May last year and has produced a 15-page draft report with hundreds of pages of supporting material.
It is understood that an independent review panel has been overseeing the investigation, which could lead to disciplinary hearings. But the plan was not to finalise any report until after Jason Roberts’s retrial had ended.
The review was prompted by the findings of Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, the IBAC, which scrutinised the taskforce’s “wrong” statement-making practices during the Silk-Miller murder investigation. The Herald Sun revealed these in 2017.
In an extraordinary Supreme Court hearing on May 9 this year, seven weeks into the retrial of Roberts, Victoria Police was summoned to the court to explain why it had failed to disclose to the prosecution and defence the draft report.
By then 13 relevant witnesses had already given evidence at the retrial.
Ironically, the internal police investigation was dubbed “failure to disclose at the first trial’’.
Roberts’ original trial in 2002, at which he was found guilty of the 1998 murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller, was corrupted by police adding, backdating, shredding and replacing statements relating to the “dying declaration” of officer Miller minutes after he was shot on August 16.
This “improper” practice led to Roberts’s convictions being quashed and his acquittal after a 3½-month retrial.
Roberts walked free from the Supreme Court on Monday.
But seven weeks into his second trial, presiding judge Stephen Kaye was incensed after Victoria Police repeated history by admitting it was withholding documents about its internal probe.
“The first trial was found to involve a substantial miscarriage of justice because Victoria Police had failed in the most fundamental obligation to reveal to the prosecution and defence key issues relating to a very significant area of evidence in the case – and they have done it again,” Justice Kaye said. “Yes, I find it quite extraordinary.”
Barrister Andrew Sim, appearing for Chief Commissioner Shane Patton, told the court the prosecution and defence could not have immediate access to the report as the force was making “public interest immunity” claims.
Justice Kaye wanted Mr Patton reminded about what was at stake.
“Does the Chief Commissioner understand the significance of the trial that is being heard?” he inquired.
“It involves the death of two decent, proper policemen 24 years ago.”
He later added: “I find it breathtaking that Victoria Police should have been engaged in such an extraordinary failure in the system of justice, having already failed the system of justice in this case.”
Mr Sim could only respond: “There’s little I can say in response to that criticism.’’
Adding to Justice Kaye’s anger was the fact Victoria Police had not bothered to turn up to the hearing.
“My anger is a result of the fact there’s already been one substantial miscarriage of justice,” Justice Kaye said.
“The case involves an appalling tragedy, one which has had to be revisited, because of the misconduct of the police at the last trial, and that this is going on again.’’
Justice Kaye also noted that no one from Victoria Police had the “intestinal fortitude” to come to court and explain themselves.
He then told Mr Sim his “ire” was not directed at him. “It is very much directed to those who you represent, who, although being invited to court today, have not seen fit to come,” Justice Kaye said.
Mr Sim said it was not an intended “insult”.
“It’s not a matter of insult, it’s a matter of inference, Mr Sim,” Justice Kaye said.
He then suggested yet another investigation was merited “till the police learn their lesson”.
The court was adjourned for further discussion three days later, during which it is understood some documents were handed over to the prosecution and defence.
During an emotional press conference on Monday, Chief Commissioner Patton did not hide his “disappointment” at the jury’s verdict hours earlier.
Mr Patton also praised the work of the Lorimer taskforce that investigated the Silk-Miller murders.
“I take my hat off to the Lorimer taskforce,” he said. Asked whether he had any praise for the work of former homicide detective Ron Iddles – who while still a serving officer in 2013 conducted a thorough review of Roberts’s conviction and cast doubt on it – Chief Commissioner Patton said: “No, I won’t say anything in regards to that.”
Police shocked by verdict
Outside court, Police Association boss Wayne Gatt said he was shocked by Monday’s verdict, adding it would bring “enormous” grief and sadness to the families of the fallen officers and the broader policing community.
“It’s certainly one we didn’t expect today,” he said.
“Whilst we are deeply impacted by this decision … we can’t imagine for a second what (the families are) going through.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
He said the deaths of Sgt Silk and Sen Constable Miller while on duty 24 years ago were the “worst thing you could ever imagine”.
“To have a day like today some 24 years later is probably just only second to that,” Mr Gatt said.
He thanked the investigators for their tireless efforts to prosecute the case and said despite the outcome they “should stand with their heads held high”.
“They have done their absolute best and done the policing community more broadly proud,” he said.
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton issued a statement acknowledging the verdict and said the officers’ deaths had an enormous impact on the police force.
“Our thoughts are with the Silk and Miller families today and we know this will be a difficult time for them,” he said.
“We will continue to support both families as well as the many police who continue to be impacted by the tragic loss of Gary Silk and Rod Miller.
“This matter has been subject to a significant investigation over the years and we recognise the tireless work of those investigators, including Lorimer Taskforce.”
Roberts walks free from court
Roberts, 41, has always maintained his innocence, despite being convicted at the original trial in 2002, and will walk free from court.
He has spent almost all his time in custody as a maximum security prisoner.
Roberts chose to give evidence at his trial and took the stand last month.
The jury accepted his testimony that he had not been present at the Silk-Miller shooting scene in Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin, with his father figure and armed robbery partner, Bandali Debs, shortly after midnight on August 16.
Roberts was 17 years old at the time of the murders.
When he was asked by defence barrister David Hallowes, SC, if he went out that night with Debs, Roberts simply answered: “No, I did not.”
Asked if he shot Sgt Silk, 34, Roberts said: “I certainly did not.”
Asked if he shot Sen Constable Miller, 35, Roberts said: “I certainly did not.”
Roberts would testify Debs, the serial killer father of his girlfriend, Nicole, went to the Silky Emperor Chinese Restaurant alone and was intercepted by the officers who were staking out the venue.
Prosecutor Ben Ilhe, QC, had argued a body of circumstantial evidence, which he likened to the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, showed Roberts’ guilt.
But it was not enough to convince the jury.
The prosecution case had been that Roberts started the shootout with the police officers by firing his .38 calibre handgun from point blank range at Sgt Silk, hitting him in the chest.
And that by shooting Sgt Silk, he was part of a joint criminal enterprise with Debs to “shoot their way out of trouble”.
A part of the puzzle, which was not circumstantial, was the evidence of Debs, a four-time convicted killer and self-confessed liar, who admitted during the trial he had shot officer Miller.
The 68-year-old countered Roberts’ claims of innocence, testifying that he was with him on the morning of the police shootings.
He told the Supreme Court he had wanted give evidence to “sort the matter out”.
But the court also heard Debs had tried to strike a deal with Victoria Police in return for his co-operation.
Debs made demands to be moved to Victorian jail, immunity from further prosecution and a parole date.
Under cross-examination about his evidence, Debs said he was not making it up.
“No, I’m not creating anything,” Debs told the court.
“My recollection of what happened on the night I have told you as honest as I can what me and Jason Roberts done.”
Debs, who gave his evidence via video link from Goulburn prison in NSW, said he drove with Roberts in a Hyundai coupe owned by his daughter, Nicole, to the Silky Emperor Chinese Restaurant on Warrigal Rd, Moorabbin, to “sus it out”.
He told the court that after briefly parking outside the venue, he and Roberts drove into the restaurant’s underground car park because he was “busting for a piss”.
Officers Silk and Miller, who were staking out the venue, were in an unmarked police car inside the car park as part of major “static surveillance” operation.
They had been assigned to watch the Silky Emperor, which the armed robbery squad running the operation, codenamed Hamada, had earmarked as a potential target of two unidentified bandits who had committed 10 armed robberies over the preceding five months.
After spotting the Hyundai drive into the car park, officers Silk and Miller followed it out onto Warrigal Rd, intercepting the blue coupe in nearby semi-industrial Cochranes Rd.
Moments later, both policemen were ambushed.
Two other police members, Francis Bendeich and Darren Sherren, who were also staking out the Silky Emperor, observed the scene before the shooting erupted.
Both former officers testified that they saw the driver of the “strange” Hyundai talking to Sgt Silk while Sen Constable Miller was positioned at the rear of the car.
“I only saw one person,” Mr Sherren said.
Mr Sherren said “everything was calm” as he and officer Bendeich drove by the intercept scene at “walking pace” before taking up a position in Capella Crescent, a nearby side street.
“Everything seemed to be fine at that point of time and then all hell broke loose,” Mr Sherren said.
From their vantage point, they could only see silhouettes before gunfire burst out.
Three handguns were fired during the shootout.
The two policemen watched the Hyundai drive west along Cochranes Rd, initially in the belief they had been spotted.
When they arrived at the crime scene, they found Sgt Silk dead on the nature strip.
Sgt Silk’s firearm was still in its “pancake” holster.
A post-mortem would find he had been shot with two different handguns – twice with a .357 Magnum and once with a .38 calibre Webley & Scott.
Sen Constable Miller, who would be found by arriving police at the scene lying wounded outside the Silky Emperor where he had staggered after being shot, had fired four shots at their attackers.
He would die later in hospital.
His last words to colleagues, known as his “dying declaration” to colleagues surrounding him after the ambush would be highly contested during the trial, including a staccato: “Two … one … on foot.”
The Lorimer task force, which investigated the Silk-Miller killings, charged Roberts a day shy of the two-year anniversary of their colleagues’ murders
Roberts had been arrested weeks earlier with Debs, who was charged on July 25, 2000 and remanded, but he was initially released.
The pair was convicted of the Silk-Miller murders in 2002, but Roberts had his convictions quashed by the Court of Appeal on November 10, 2020, which ordered a retrial.
Roberts’ convictions were overturned after a Herald Sun investigation unearthed a fabricated police statement which had formed part of the evidence in the original trial.
At the start of the trial, Roberts pleaded guilty to committing 10 armed robberies in the five months prior to the Silk-Miller murders.
He also admitted his role in being an accessory after the shootings in helping Debs cover at the crime.
Bandali Debs gave crucial evidence in Silk-Miller trial but everyone called him a liar
Serial killer Bandali Michael Debs knows the answer to the most crucial question in the trial of Jason Roberts.
Was the teenager with him or not when two police officers were shot in the minutes past midnight on a bitterly cold morning in Moorabbin?
Debs was the prosecution’s most important, and riskiest, witness — called to tell the jury just that.
But his evidence may well have been crucial in the jury’s verdict to set Roberts free.
Debs, who was born Edmund Plancis, knows what happened at the shooting scene because he was there and he shot Sgt Gary Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller with his “big gun”, a .357 Magnum revolver.
But he would not admit to the callous murder of Sgt Silk, who was found with two different calibre bullets in his body – meaning he was shot with two different guns.
The big question the jury had to consider in the retrial of Roberts over the Silk-Miller murders was whether or not Debs was alone when the officers were ambushed on Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin about 12.15am on August 16, 1998.
If they were satisfied he wasn’t alone, then they needed to answer two more questions.
Was he with Roberts, his teenage armed-robbery partner? And lastly, did he participate in the Silk-Miller shooting murders?
The 68-year-old Debs had no hesitation in sinking Roberts.
The problem with Debs, though, is that he is a habitual liar.
Wearing a green bomber jacket, his glasses perched down his nose below his swept back thinning grey hair, it took about a minute for him to testify via video link from Goulburn prison he with Roberts when he took off from his home in Narre Warren in his daughter’s new hatchback bound for the Silky Emperor Chinese restaurant.
“Ever do armed robberies on your own?” prosecution barrister Ben Ihle QC asked Debs.
“You can’t do armed robberies on your own. You need a back-up in case something goes wrong.
“You need someone to tie people up. You can’t just go on your own.”
Mr Ihle QC then asked Debs: “At the time that car was pulled over do you know who was in it?
He answered: ``Um, myself and Jason Roberts.’’
Problems would, however, emerge in his story.
Debs explained that hours earlier he had loaded a pair of .357 Magnum handguns for himself and Roberts – dubbed “big guns” – before he claimed they discussed which restaurant they would do surveillance on that night.
Debs alleged they chose between the Bear House, a bistro in Cranbourne, and the Silky Emperor, a Chinese restaurant on Warrigal Rd, Moorabbin.
The older criminal got their equipment ready in the garage – taking out his attache case full of guns he had hidden in the wall cavity.
Debs testified he loaded the Magnum revolvers and prepared the clothes, duct tape, knives, a police radio scanner and masks for the job.
He even bragged he used “funny” masks, like a “Mr T” mask during his criminal career.
“We were ready for action, ready to go,” Debs said.
“The handguns were on our belts ready to go.”
Asked why he loaded the guns, he answered: “Just in case we could do a job.”
“You’re not going to with an empty gun. What for?,” he told the court.
“I’ve never heard of that in my life. I didn’t have any expectation (to use it). I didn’t know what was going to happen on the night.”
Debs maintained in his evidence they were heading to the Silky Emperor – a venue he knew the layout because he had done a tiling job there years earlier – just to “suss” it out.
“Let’s go,” he alleged Roberts told him before they headed along a back route through Endeavour Hills to the target restaurant.
What no-one knew, other than Victoria Police, was that more than 50 cops were staking out restaurants and other potential targets on this night, August 15, and into the morning of August 16.
The police members, in plain clothes, were sitting in undercover cars across Melbourne’s east and southeast as part of Operation Hamada.
They were waiting for the “Hamada” armed robbers to strike, again.
Both Debs and Roberts now concede they were the “Hamada” bandits who over the course of five months – from March to July, 1998 – committed 10 armed robberies, including stick ups at five Asian restaurants.
At the previous, and last, armed robbery the pair would commit at the Green Papaya restaurant in Surrey Hills on July 19, Debs had given the terrorised victims a final message for the cops: “Tell them Lucifer was here.”
On this “surveillance” mission, close to the Silky Emperor’s closing time about midnight, Debs told the court nature called.
“Look, I was busting for a piss. So I said to Jason, I’m going to drive down the ramp and have a piss,” Debs said.
Whether Debs relieved himself or not, what is a fact is that the blue Hyundai he was driving was followed out of the car park by officers Silk and Miller in their unmarked Commodore.
“And when I went up the ramp another car put on the headlights and came after the Hyundai,” Debs said.
“Alls I seen is their lights.”
As the career criminal turned into Warrigal Rd and veered left again into Cochranes Rd, Debs alleged Roberts “scrinched down” in the passenger seat as Silk and Miller activated their portable flashing blue light.
“He sunk in the seat. He just sunk in it,’’ Debs said of Roberts.
It is not known whether Sgt Silk or Sen Constable Miller could see inside the Hyundai as they pursued it from the Silky Emperor and into Cochranes Rd.
But despite Hamada operational instructions to do so, neither officer Silk or Miller radioed base station to alert them that they were pursuing a car and how many occupants were inside.
The version of events Debs said happened next would conflict with both the prosecution and the defence scenarios about how the fatal shootings of the policemen unfolded.
“The next thing that happened is that the big cop (Miller), he shone a torch into the car and said `Who’s the passenger?,” Debs said.
“I said, that’s Jase. We’re going to a club.”
Sgt Silk, he said, took down his details from his licence as a second undercover police car drove slowly by.
Its occupants were Sen Constables Darren Sherren and Francis Bendeich, who were paying attention to what was going on, just in case the Hamada armed robbers had fallen into their trap.
Officers Sherren and Bendeich have testified at two trials they only saw one suspect – the driver – who was with Sgt Silk while Sen Constable Miller took up a position at the rear of the Hyundai.
After parking in a side street where they could observe, officers Bendeich and Sherren saw Sgt Silk cut through the beams of the Hyundai’s headlights.
They assumed he was going to take down the registration.
Debs, however, testified Sgt Silk took Roberts from the passenger seat and guided him towards the Superfinish factory as Sen Constable Miller told him to open the rear hatch.
He said he complied by getting the keys.
“As I was walking, Miller’s got a torch in one hand and a gun in the other hand,’’ Debs told the court.
“I’m looking at him and can see the torch and the thing (gun) … I walk to the boot and I say I’ll open the boot for you.
“As I’ve opened the boot I’ve pulled my gun out and fired it twice and shot Miller.
“I fired straight through my cardigan. I didn’t even look at Miller. I just fired two shots.
“He was right behind me.”
Debs said he then heard shots from where he alleged Sgt Silk had isolated Roberts.
“Once I’ve fired there was shots where Silk and Roberts were and that’s what happened,” he said.
The father of five said he was “fuming” after the injured Miller returned fire, and, according to Debs, narrowly missed him as the bullet shattered the rear hatch window.
The court heard a gunbattle between Debs and officer Miller ended with the latter retreating, fatally wounded by a bullet that had pierced the left side of his chest and ran diagonally through his body, exiting his right hip area.
Debs’ version of the shooting — apart from testifying Roberts was with him on Cochranes Rd and shot Sgt Silk — did not cut it with prosecutor Ihle.
In the prosecution scenario, Roberts had initiated the shootout by firing a .38 bullet into Sgt Silk’s chest from no more than a couple of metres.
It sparked Senior Constable Miller, he said, to draw his .38 police issue revolver, firing shots at Roberts as Debs lunged for his Magnum and fired at Miller from the driver’s seat of the Hyundai, blasting shots through the car’s rear window
Miller, Ihle argued, changed direction firing towards Debs and hitting the Hyundai’s rear pillar before the police officer came under more fire.
In the extraordinary attack on his own witness, the prosecutor then accused Debs of minimising his involvement in the murders, putting to him that he shot Sgt Silk as he lay prone on the ground, which he described as a “callous” act.
“Do you agree that shooting someone in that state is a particularly low or callous act?” Mr Ihle asked Debs, who replied: “I agree with that.”
“I suggest you did that as he lay there on the grass,” Mr Ihle asserted.
“No I did not,” he answered.
“I suggest you are painting a picture which removes you from the callous acts on the night.”
Roberts’ barrister David Hallowes, QC, said the shootout could have unfolded another way. In this version Debs, acting alone, fires his .38 at Sgt Silk hitting him in the chest as he took the car’s registration details before a misfire.
Miller then returns fire and a shootout with Debs takes place as the career criminal fired his big gun, a .357 Magnum, out through the back window of the Hyundai, shattering the glass. Miller eventually retreats from the shootout, injured.
Debs was accused of then returning to where Sgt Silk lay and firing on him twice with the .357.
From officer Bendeich and Sherren’s vantage point across the road, more than 100m away, the jury heard they radioed in “shots fired, shots fired, Cochranes Road” over an encrypted digital channel before scrambling for their ballistic vests in the boot.
Officers Bendeich and Sherren watched the Hyundai Excel drive by west along Cochranes Rd and out of sight, leaving behind a trail of glass which would ultimately be matched to it.
They then drove towards the crime scene where they found Sgt Silk dead outside 156 Cochranes Rd, unaware of where Sen Constable Miller had gone.
Sen Constable Miller, by then, was staggering back to the Silky Emperor restaurant where he would wait for reinforcements to arrive.
Sgt Silk was shot three times, once to the chest with a .38 Webley & Scott, old English revolver, which probably did not kill him.
It was the .357 Magnum shots to his head and hip which were fatal, fired from the same gun used to shoot his police partner, a new father, who was 170m away and calling for help.
His cries would be heard by Sen Constable Colin Clarke, who had arrived at the shooting scene within minutes along with dozens of police.
Officers Clarke would run to his aid with new officer Bradley Gardner.
They were joined by others, including officers Glenn Pullin, Lou Gerardi, Helen Poke, Graeme Thwaite.
Up to a dozen officers comforted Sen Constable Miller as he struggled to breathe.
A few would hear him, in a staccato voice, utter what would become known as his “dying declaration”.
Officer Miller’s words would become the most scrutinised of this case.
“Two … one on foot.”
He never had a chance to elaborate on what he meant, dying in hospital from his injuries.
Debs is serving a life sentence with no parole over the police murders and the killings of two sex workers.
Although it was not known at the time he killed the officers, Debs had murdered before.
He killed 34-year-old Donna Hicks whose body was found outside a quarry in NSW in 1995 and 18-year-old Kristy Harty in 1997. Debs had picked both the women up from the side of the road before shooting them in the head after sex.
Prosecutors asked for probe into Jason Roberts’ claims on Silk-Miller murders
The Victoria Police reinvestigation into Jason Roberts’ pleas of innocence over the Silk-Miller murder convictions was prompted by the state’s then top prosecutor.
The spark to the review was a request by Roberts’ then lawyer, Marita Altman, who sought to have the case reviewed after initial lobbying of the police force failed in 2008.
A meeting was later held in 2012 at the Office of Public Prosecutions between then-DPP John Champion SC and senior prosecutors Gavin Silbert QC and Richard Lewis.
Roberts had been found guilty a decade earlier of the 1998 murders of Sgt Gary Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller, as was his father-figure and armed robbery partner, Bandali Debs.
Roberts had exhausted his appeals when he informed Ms Altman he wanted to tell police his story.
The decision was made at the meeting by Mr Champion to call in veteran homicide detective Ron Iddles.
The then serving police officer attended a meeting with Mr Champion, Mr Silbert and Mr Lewis in late 2012.
The Office of Prosecutions in 2017 publicly denied involvement in sparking the Roberts review.
But diary notes and sources have confirmed to the Herald Sun the meetings were held and were ongoing throughout 2013.
After being told about the Roberts case, Sen Sgt Iddles briefed his direct superior, head of the homicide squad, Detective Inspector John Potter.
The push for a Roberts’ review then landed on the desk of crime department head, Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana soon after.
Victoria Police ultimately approved Operation Rainmaker – a highly guarded secret review of Roberts’ conviction and information about Debs, a serial killer.
Rainmaker was given intelligence resources and at least eight detectives, requiring a shifting of staff within the homicide squad.
Upon completion, Operation Rainmaker’s nine page report – and four folders of information – was handed to the Director of Public Prosecutions on December 4, 2013.
It caused rifts within the force between Sen Sgt Iddles and his managers, who had wanted to read it before it was given to the DPP.
Others told Sen Sgt Iddles to take the report directly to the DPP.
The secret report ultimately found Roberts’ claims might have merit.
“The account now given by Roberts is after thirteen years in prison,” Sen Sgt Iddles wrote.
“Some will take the view he has had a lot of time to think about it and come up with a concocted story in an attempt to be released from prison by some legal mechanism.
“The other view is he might actually be telling the truth, and if that is the case then it is a matter for the judicial system to set the record straight.”
Iddles also concluded: “I am unable to find any material or evidence which would show Roberts’ new account is contradicted in any way by evidence presented at the original Supreme Court trial.”
Operation Rainmaker had been a year-long investigation with two key objectives: to test Roberts’ claims of innocence and to delve into a series of cold case killings allegedly committed by Debs.
The work of Rainmaker was put into the force’s Interpose case management system, which the force’s command had access, including Chief Commissioner Ken Lay.
As part of the probe, an interview was conducted with Lorimer taskforce head Superintendent Paul Sheridan, who had probed the Silk-Miller murders.
Life inmate Roberts, Debs and his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Debs, were also interviewed.
Ms Altman was with Roberts for the interview.
Later in 2013, Ms Debs was approached by Sen Sgt Iddles as part of the Operation Rainmaker probe.
In a nine-page statement she said Roberts was with her on the night of the murders and her father had gone out alone.
Ms Debs’ statement would raise alarm.
Ms Debs, who was by then a mother, stated the following;
“I have not seen Jason Roberts for over six years, and I now have a new life,” she stated.
“I do not want to see Jason Roberts and I can assure you I would not lie for him.
“What I want to do is set the record right, and confirm with you Jason Roberts was home with me on the night of 15 August, 1998.”
She signed her statement on November 12, 2013.
The Rainmaker report formed part of Roberts’ petition of mercy to Victoria’s Attorney-General.
Ultimately the case went back to court. And on Monday, Roberts was acquitted of the murders of Sgt Silk and Sen Constable Miller after serving almost 22 years in prison.
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