Jury to decide Jason Roberts’ fate in Silk-Miller murder retrial

The jury deciding whether accused man Jason Roberts killed two police officers have been tasked with determining the answers to these questions.

A jury will now decide Jason Roberts’ fate in the Silk-Miller murder retrial

The jury deciding whether accused man Jason Roberts killed two police officers in 1998 will need to consider the “jigsaw puzzle” of evidence in reaching a verdict, a Crown prosecutor has submitted.

Prosecutor Ben Ihle QC also said the jury considering the 23-year-old murder retrial had to satisfy themselves of three primary questions; were there two offenders in the car Sgt Gary Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller pulled over on Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin on August 16, 1998, was the accused man Jason Roberts one of them and was he criminally involved in their murders?

Mr Ihle, in his closing submissions to the Supreme Court jury, said those three questions were answered by six key strands of evidence.

But he said no single piece of evidence could satisfy jury members of a guilty verdict.

The combination of evidence, however, working together was powerful, Mr Ihle said.

Sergeant Gary Silk.

Senior Constable Rodney Miller.

He said the 10-armed robberies Mr Roberts committed with Bandali Debs in the months preceding the police murders combined with the forensic evidence, witness accounts, officer Miller’s dying declaration, listening device material and Bandali Debs testimony at this retrial were “powerful’’.

Mr Ihle said those six “bodies” of evidence held up the prosecution case.

“Looking at one piece will not give you the overall picture,” he said.

“One piece. You may well have significant doubt.

“We come to you with these six bodies of evidence and we say to you they work together.

“It’s similar, if you like, to a jigsaw puzzle.

“Looking at one piece will not give you the overall picture.

“The picture only comes together when interaction between the pieces comes together.

“Might there be pieces of the puzzle missing at the end of the day? Sure, it was 22-years ago.

“The overall evidence is more powerful than the sum of its parts.”

The jury has sat through three months of evidence and listened to almost 90 witnesses and viewed 200 exhibits.

Mr Ihle pointed out the language used by Debs and Mr Roberts during conversations bugged by police in late 1999 and into 2000. .

“Importantly, the language they used when talking about the shootings on Cochranes Rd, always plural,” he said.

“Never in the context of the shootings was a singular pronoun used.’’

He also told the jury they should accept Debs’ evidence that he was with Roberts on the night of the murders.

Former Victoria Police Detective Ron Iddles gave evidence in the trial. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The Supreme Court also heard the evidence of former top homicide cop Ron Iddles who testified about the review he conducted of the conviction of Jason Roberts over the 1998 Silk-Miller murders.

The now retired detective said on July, 2013, he had, along with other police, taken Mr Roberts to Toorongo Falls in Gippsland to search the area for items Mr Roberts said had been buried after the fatal shootings.

“He indicated a spot under a tree where the guns had been buried and indicated a creek area where Bandali Debs had thrown the other articles,’’ he said.

Mr Iddles said Mr Roberts had told him he had been made to dig a hole to bury guns in a white bucket with oil.

The guns, however, had later been moved by Debs to Sydney, the court heard.

The court heard police did find white bucket labelled “Masterfoods’’, a dark drum, a roll of duct tape and a sock.

Mr Roberts has pleaded guilty to committing 10 armed robberies with Debs, but not guilty to the murders of Sgt Silk and Sen Constable Miller.

The trial continues.