Magistrate Brett Sonnet says it’s ‘a surprise’ that charges against Nicole Debs were dropped

A magistrate has been left surprised by the prosecution’s about-face in the case against Nicole Debs who was stopped from taking the stand as alibi witness in Jason Roberts’ double murder retrial.

Prosecutors have made the extraordinary move to drop dishonesty charges against Nicole Debs that stopped the ex-girlfriend of Jason Roberts, who was acquitted of the murder of two policeman, from taking the stand as alibi witness in his double murder retrial.

The nurse was charged before she was due to testify that Roberts was with her the night her father, serial killer Bandali Debs, murdered police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller outside the Silky Emperor restaurant in 1998.

Ms Debs, who now goes by a different surname, was never called as a witness in the 2022 retrial, where Roberts was acquitted of the murders he’d spent more than two decades behind bars for.

For three years, Ms Debs has been pursued over an alleged $1800 fraud where her phone was tapped, her home raided and her nursing registration suspended amid claims she faked a medical certificate to get paid by her employer while doing volunteer work.

Nicole Debs was due to testify that Jason Roberts was with her the night her father, serial killer Bandali Debs, murdered police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller.

But in a sudden about-face, barrister Matthew Fisher, for the prosecution, announced in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday that all charges against Ms Debs and her three co-accused were being withdrawn.

“It’s come as a surprise,” Magistrate Brett Sonnet replied.

The move came after police officers were grilled in the witness box for two days in a court hearing last week about their probe into Ms Debs, which saw dishonesty charges flow from a potentially questionable phone tap.

One officer from the Lorimer Taskforce – set up to investigate the police murders – spent five days reviewing CCTV to capture Ms Debs walking without a moon boot.

All charges against Nicole Debs and her three co-accused were withdrawn on Monday.

Police had argued that they needed a phone intercept because Ms Debs could take part in conversations to impede Roberts’ conviction.

Officers were only able to tap her phone by claiming she could have committed the crime of assisting an offender in murder, because an alternate charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice didn’t meet the threshold to get a warrant.

Magistrate Brett Sonnet last week questioned if it was “open to the court to find there was impropriety” on the part of police in seeking the warrant on the higher offence.

“I can find no authority to support a prosecution of an offender in circumstances that were being set out in the affidavit,” Mr Sonnet said.

The decision to drop all charges means His Honour will no longer hand down a judgment or make any findings about the police officers’ conduct.

The case will return to court at a later date for a battle over costs, where it’s expected Ms Debs’ lawyers will fight for all her legal fees to be paid by police.

Roberts was acquitted in his 2022 retrial and released after serving 22 years in jail.

Bandali Debs is serving four life sentences.