Lawyers argue Jason Roberts wasn’t there on night of Silk-Miller murders
Lawyers for alleged cop killer Jason Roberts say accusations against him are “flawed” and there is a simple reason he should be acquitted.
Police & Courts
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Accused cop killer Jason Roberts has a simple defence: he was not there when two officers were gunned down during a roadside ambush almost 24 years ago.
Lawyers for Mr Roberts, 41, told the Supreme Court on Thursday it may be a simple defence, but it does not make it any less powerful.
Mr Roberts is facing a second trial over the killings of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Moorabbin in August 1998.
After having his 2002 murder conviction quashed, Mr Roberts has again pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.
Prosecutors allege Mr Roberts and his then-girlfriend’s father, Bandali Debs, gunned down Sgt Silk, 34, and Snr Constable Miller, 35, after the officers intercepted a blue Hyundai Excel on Cochranes Rd in the early hours of August 16.
Debs’ murder convictions are not in question.
The slain officers had been on a police stake-out as part of a covert operation, dubbed Hamada, investigating a series of armed robberies in Melbourne’s south and east.
The plain-clothed police had been keeping watch of the Silky Emperor Chinese restaurant on Warrigal Rd when they spotted the Hyundai enter the underground carpark and followed it shortly after midnight.
The court heard in the five months prior to the deadly police shootings, 10 venues including fast food chains, retail stores and Asian restaurants had been targeted by two gun-wielding bandits.
Mr Roberts, aged 17 at the time of the murders, has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of armed robbery committed alongside Debs.
But barrister David Hallowes SC, said on Thursday, Mr Roberts’ involvement in the armed robberies did not prove he was with Debs on the night of the police killings.
Mr Hallowes said the prosecution’s case linking the armed robberies to the murders was “guess work” and “speculation”.
“The prosecution case against Jason Roberts on those two charges of murder is flawed,” Mr Hallowes said.
“The reason it’s flawed is because Jason Roberts is innocent of those two charges,” he said.
Mr Hallowes asked the jury to consider if Debs was instead carrying out reconnaissance on the restaurant.
“If so, might he carry out that reconnaissance on his own?”
Prosecutor Ben Ihle QC told the jury Debs would be called as a prosecution witness and is expected to testify Mr Roberts was with him on the night of the fatal shootings.
Mr Hallowes, however, said if Debs gave such evidence “he is lying”.
“We say that Bandali Debs is wholly unreliable, wholly untruthful if that’s what he wants to say,” Mr Hallowes said.
“The prosecution calling Bandali Debs to give evidence against Jason Roberts … is an act of desperation,” he said.
Mr Hallowes flagged two eye witness police officers working with Sgt Silk and Snr Constable Miller will give evidence they only saw one offender as they drove by the scene moments before the shooting.
“They don’t see any other person, that’s because … there was no one else there,” he said.
The trial before Justice Stephen Kaye continues.
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