Cops could be jailed over misconduct in Silk-Miller investigation
The families of slain policeman Gary Silk and Rodney Miller say they are “absolutely devastated” after Jason Roberts’ murder conviction was sensationally overturned, with a retrial ordered.
Police & Courts
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Police could face criminal charges and Jason Roberts may walk free within days after a landmark ruling quashed his convictions over the murders of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller.
The families of the slain officers said they were “absolutely devastated” after the Court of Appeal set aside his life sentence on Tuesday and ordered a retrial. That is expected next year and could run for several months.
Roberts, who has battled for eight years for a new hearing, will now seek bail within days.
Several police officers could face jail after the court found their misconduct — including doctoring a key statement, nondisclosure of evidence and perjury — led to an unfair trial.
“This is a case in which impropriety and unfairness permeated and affected the trial to an extent that it ceased to be a fair trial according to law,” said the Court of Appeal judges.
The ruling was triggered by a Herald Sun investigation in 2017 which uncovered a doctored statement. That discovery led to a damning corruption probe, which found police had manipulated key evidence, in particular falsifying a statement made by police officer Glenn Pullin.
He was among a group of first responders to find the dying Senior Constable Miller but his original statement did not mention any gunmen and was never shown to the jury.
Instead, a new statement was created 10 months later, which was backdated to the morning of the murders and contained evidence that corroborated other officers’ accounts that Sen-Constable Miller had declared there were multiple gunmen.
The August 1998 ambush of Sergeant Silk and Senior Constable Miller while they were on a stake-out in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, is among the most shocking murder cases in the state’s history.
Serial killer Bandali Debs was convicted after bugged conversations caught him admitting to the murders.
Roberts — who is now 40, but who was 17 at the time — has always denied involvement in the shootings and claims to have an alibi at the time of the murders.
His solicitor, Simon Moodie, says Roberts “looks forward to a fair trial”.
Meanwhile the Silk and Miller families said on Tuesday that they were “absolutely devastated” by the ruling.
“It is not the decision we were hoping to hear, 22 long years after Gary and Rod were murdered,” the families said in a statement.
Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said the force would continue to support the families.
“They won’t rest until their loved ones can … the Police Association will stand with them,” Mr Gatt said.
Veteran homicide detective Ron Iddles, who was appointed to review Roberts’ conviction in 2012, said he felt for the families.
The now retired officer said: “The judges have made their unanimous finding. It’s now for the judicial process to take place, and in the fullness of time I will speak — but now is not that time.”
Roberts failed in a bid to quash his conviction in 2005, but was granted a second chance at appeal in March this year after there was found to be fresh and compelling evidence.
The court on Tuesday said Pullin’s “undisclosed misconduct so corrupted the fairness of the (Roberts) trial as to poison it to its root”.
“This was not an incidental error or some moderate departure from the prescribed trial processes,” the judges found.
Roberts, who appeared via video link and dressed in a suit for Tuesday’s hearing, will apply for bail within days while he awaits a retrial.
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