Jason Roberts labelled ‘convincing liar’ by prosecutors in Silk-Miller murder retrial

Prosecutors say there is a clear reason why the jury should reject Jason Roberts’ claims about the Silk-Miller murders; he’s a “convincing liar”, they claim.

Jason Roberts has been labelled ‘convincing liar’ by prosecutors in the Silk-Miller murder retrial. Picture: Jason Edwards

Accused cop killer Jason Roberts is an “accomplished and convincing liar” whose evidence cannot be trusted according to prosecutors as they urge a jury to convict him for the 1998 police murders.

On the penultimate day of his closing address to the Supreme Court, prosecutor Ben Ihle QC said the “glaring problem” Mr Roberts was facing in his claims he was not at the scene of the fatal roadside ambush almost 24 years ago was this: “he has no credibility”.

“He has told so many lies, to so many people in so many situations, that when he comes before you and says he’s telling the truth, you should be having serious, serious doubts,” Mr Ihle said on Thursday.

Mr Ihle asked the jury to accept that Mr Roberts is someone who “tries to talk his way out of trouble”.

“He lies his way out trouble, he’s done it in the past and I suggest he’s done it again in this court,” he said.

Sergeant Gary Silk.

Senior Constable Rodney Miller.

Mr Roberts, who is facing retrial for the murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior-Constable Rodney Miller on Cochranes Rd, Moorabbin in the minutes past midnight on August 16, took to the witness box last week to testify he “certainly did not” kill the officers.

Mr Roberts has pleaded guilty to committing 10-armed robberies with his former girlfriend’s father, Bandali “Ben” Debs, between March and July, 1998.

But he testified that he refused to go with Debs on the night of the murders after the older criminal tried to entice him to commit an armed robbery at the Silky Emperor Chinese Restaurant.

Mr Roberts told the court he had lied to police during the homicide investigation because in order for him to tell the truth “I’d have to say what Ben had done”.

But Mr Ihle on Thursday told the jury the real reason the accused man lied was to conceal his own involvement in the crime.

Mr Ihle asked the jury to consider the covertly recorded conversations between Mr Roberts and convicted serial killer Debs, in which he said the men discussed the shooting and the subsequent police response and investigation.

In a conversation with Debs after the release of a media article about a possible eye witness to the murders, Mr Roberts was caught on a telephone tap saying: “They’ve got it backwards, they know nothing”.

Mr Ihle said these “unguarded” conversations between the men “betray his false denials about being out with Debs on that night”.

The prosecution is expected to close their case on Friday before defence barrister David Hallowes SC begins his final address to the jury.

Originally published as Jason Roberts labelled ‘convincing liar’ by prosecutors in Silk-Miller murder retrial