Corruption inside and outside Barwon Prison underpinned Carl Williams’ murder, says cop
The savage murder of Carl Williams in Barwon Prison still has many unanswered questions, with an ex-deputy commissioner saying corruption inside and outside the prison underpinned the killing.
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A syndicate was suspected of ordering the 2010 prison murder of Carl Williams and only part-paying for the hit.
A police taskforce which investigated Williams’ death in the high-security Acacia Unit of Barwon Prison probed whether money was paid to associates of Williams’ killer, Matthew Johnson.
But no one other than Johnson, a notorious prison figure, was convicted of the murder, 10 years ago today.
The Sunday Herald Sun has been told a bank account linked to a company involved in the construction industry was among those probed without success after Williams’ death on April 19, 2010.
Leads continued to be investigated by detectives more than five years after Williams was bludgeoned with the stem of an exercise bike.
Former deputy commissioner Sir Ken Jones was in no doubt there was a plan to murder Williams, with compromised prison staff involved.
He said in his submission to the Lawyer X royal commission: “I will always believe that Carl Williams’ murder was a pre-planned killing and that those responsible have not been held to account.”
Sir Ken said there were a number of hypotheses considered, “but all of them shared a common thread; that the murder was planned and involved corrupt actors inside and outside the prison.”
Even now, a decade on, some police officers believe others could still be held responsible for the murder.
There is a school of thought that a breakthrough in the Richard Mladenich murder at St Kilda in June 2000 has the capacity to yield answers.
Accused mafia boss Rocco Arico, the suspected triggerman in the Mladenich murder, would have had reason to be happy to see Williams go if he feared he was talking to police.
As recently as several months ago, Arico was questioned by Purana taskforce detectives investigating the Mladenich killing.
Another to have come under scrutiny over both the Mladenich and Williams murders was a gangland figure who was standing a few metres away in the secure unit when Johnson struck in 2010.
Arico was the first to learn of the fatal attack on Williams, in a phone call with the man just minutes afterwards.
Williams’ former wife Roberta said she was not sure who was behind the hit, but she also believes many conspired inside and outside prison to murder him.
“There could be many reasons, I don’t know,’’ she said.
She has renewed her calls for a coronial inquest into her ex-husband’s death.
She says an inquest was bypassed ‘’because they know too many things will come out’’.
Police have offered a $1 million reward to solve the Mladenich murder in the hope it would also shed new light on Williams’ death.
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