Jason Roberts says police knew he didn’t shoot officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller

Finally free after 22 years in prison, Jason Roberts claims police always knew he wasn’t involved in the shooting of two officers, but prosecuted him anyway.

Jason Roberts claims police always knew he was not involved in the killing of Gary Silk and Rodney Miller.

Freed prisoner Jason Roberts claims police always knew he was not involved in the killing of two police officers before he spent more than two decades in a jail cell.

The one-time life prisoner walked free last year after he was acquitted of the 1998 murders of Sgt Gary Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller after a retrial.

Now, Roberts speaks publicly for the first time on new podcast The Devil’s Apprentice after spending 22-years in prison.

The 42-year-old reveals to the Herald Sun podcast raw details about being recruited into crime by “psychopath” Bandali Debs, with whom he committed 10-armed robberies.

He also lays bare the circumstances he says led to his wrongful murder conviction.

Roberts holds the unenviable Australian record of having served the longest stint in prison after being wrongfully convicted.

“The saying goes, the truth will set you free. But leave out the part it will take f---in’ 22 years,” Roberts tells the podcast.

The Devil’s Apprentice exposes how one hidden police document, buried for 19-years until unearthed by the Herald Sun in 2017, turned the case.

Jason Roberts after being found guilty in 2002.

Roberts walks from court after being freed in 2022. Picture: David Caird

During hours of interviews for the podcast, Roberts says there was always evidence pointing to his innocence.

And he boldly asserts a police officer told his family after his arrest in 2000 that “Ben (Bandali Debs) was the man”.

“It’s not as if you (police) thought I did something and sured up the case,” he says.

“You knew I did nothing.”

Roberts’ dramatic acquittal in July last year shocked the police force, prompting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton to hold a press conference to express his disappointment at the verdict.

The jury’s not guilty verdict came after listening to evidence for more than three months.

It included evidence from Debs, Roberts’ former murder co-accused, who turned Crown witness.

During his testimony, Debs confessed to shooting Sen Constable Miller on Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin.

But he said Roberts was with him, implying he had killed Sgt Silk.

Debs, a self-confessed liar, remains convicted of the murders and was subsequently convicted of killing two women after police matched his DNA to the victims.

Police at the scene of the murders of Gary Silk and Rodney Miller in Moorabbin.

The serial killer also confessed to shooting at two other police officers in 1994, four years prior to the Silk-Miller shootings.

Roberts recounts in the podcast his surprise at learning that his former girlfriend, Nicole Debs, had co-operated with a police review into his conviction in 2013 after years apart.

Nicole, who is Bandali Debs’ daughter, corroborated Roberts’ alibi to a police operation dubbed Rainmaker, which was the catalyst to his renewed bid for freedom.

She also told Operation Rainmaker, led by veteran homicide detective Ron Iddles, her father had committed the murders alone.

It was a key factor in Iddles penning a report casting doubt on Roberts’ conviction.

Iddles tells The Devil’s Apprentice, he knew there would be “blowback” and that signing the report was akin to signing his own “death warrant”.

It would result in Iddles being ostracised by many within the police “brotherhood” and spark an investigation into him for handing the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions, which had instigated the Roberts review.

Listen to the first two episodes

Bandali Debs in custody.

Jason Roberts and Nicole Debs, daughter of Bandali.

But no-one predicted corruption had tainted Roberts’ conviction.

A police statement, central to Roberts’ conviction, had been replaced by a fabricated copy to strengthen the two offender theory leading to Roberts’ murder convictions in 2002.

Unravelling the corruption ultimately sparked the retrial.

Victoria Police has never publicly addressed this issue despite Victoria’s anti-corruption body, IBAC, making adverse findings against senior members who investigated the Silk-Miller killings.

The podcast also delves into the activities of the Lorimer task force after Roberts was granted a retrial.

As part of that reinvestigation, in 2021, police negotiated a deal with Debs, a life prisoner jailed inside Goulburn Prison, in return for his testimony.

Investigators also bugged Nicole Debs’ phone.

She was subsequently alleged to be involved in a non-related minor fraud and charged.

Roberts’ was found not guilty of the Silk-Miller murders in July last year following a four month trial, two decades after his original trial.