'Justice will prevail - again': 20 years on, slain officers remembered
The brother of a police officer who was murdered in the line of duty has told a 20-year memorial service that ‘‘justice will prevail – again’’ as one of the killers seeks to appeal his life sentence.
The mood was solemn as Peter Silk told rows of police officers, standing tall, hands clasped behind their backs, about the moment a ‘‘dying father’’ identified his two murderers.
Senior Constable Rod Miller and Sergeant Gary Silk were shot and killed in Moorabbin on August 16, 1998.
In 2002 a jury found the officers were ambushed and murdered by two men responsible for a series of armed robberies who were the target of the stakeout operation – Jason Roberts and Bandali Debs.
Roberts has recently made a bid to overturn his conviction for the murder after it was reported to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission that a statement attributed to Senior Constable Glenn Pullen, who heard Senior Constable Miller's dying words, appeared to have been altered to include a reference to there being two gunmen.
On Thursday Mr SIlk told the service that ‘‘[Senior Constable Miller] said to the first respondents there were two persons.’.
Senior Constable Miller’s widow Carmel Arthur wiped away tears as Mr Silk praised the ‘‘exceptional’’ work of investigators to obtain ‘‘factually based evidence’’.
Wreaths of pink roses, white carnations and purple bellflowers were laid in front of a memorial to the two officers at St Kilda Police Station on Thursday morning.
Amazing Grace was played on the bagpipes as an Australian flag was raised from half-mast in front of Sergeant Silk’s mother Val and Senior Constable Miller’s son Jimmy, who was just seven weeks old when his father died.
Mr Miller told the crowd, which also included Police Minister Lisa Neville and Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, that he loved to hear stories about the father he ‘‘desperately wished he’d had the chance to meet’’.
‘‘He was a loyal mate … and relished his new role as my dad, even though he only got seven weeks of it,’’ Mr Miller said.
The rows of police gave a salute to mark the end of the formal part of the memorial.
They rubbed their heads, sore from their tight hats and relaxed to later tell yarns, over Sergeant Silk’s favourite drink of Ouzo, about the two young coppers they either missed or wish they had known. And no doubt to proclaim that justice will prevail. Again.