Officer on scene at Silk-Miller murders says his evidence was 'ripped to shreds'
One of the policeman first on the scene at the Silk-Miller murders claims his statement was "ripped to shreds" by an investigator.
The second day of the IBAC hearings was told that uniform officer Graham Thwaites had noted on the night there were ‘two male offenders, one on foot, possibly a second, possibly Hyundai, Mazda’.
Mr Thwaites claimed detective Grant Kelly told him not to include the number of, nor the description of the offenders in his statement.
Counsel assisting the commission, Jack Rush QC, said Mr Thwaites was "upset" by the instructions detective Kelly gave him about his statement.
"It was ripped to shreds by Kelly," Thwaites allegedly told IBAC.
Detective Kelly worked in former investigator Charlie Bezzina’s homicide crew. Mr Bezzina, called to give evidence yesterday, said he had no knowledge a member of his crew had asked the officer to leave out information he agreed was vital.
"It’s unacceptable to my level and the fact that that he does that is something unbeknown to me," Mr Bezzina told Mr Rush.
Bandali Debs and Jason Roberts were convicted in 2002 of the murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller in Moorabbin in 1998.
IBAC is not questioning the convictions of the men, but the practices of the police who investigated the killings after accusations a first-on-scene officer had his statement doctored.
But outside of the public hearings, Roberts is pushing for a re-trial, and claims he is innocent. He will likely use what emerges from IBAC in his plea for mercy to argue he did not receive a fair trial.
The emergence of a supposed doctored statement of another police officer on scene, Glenn Pullin, was the catalyst for the IBAC probe.
Mr Bezzina was the signatory of two statements Mr Pullin gave.
The statements bore the same date and time, but only the second statement went into the brief of evidence against Roberts and Debs.
It should be normal practice for all statements to go in to the brief and acknowledge the existence of any previous statements to enable transparency and disclose to defence inconsistencies, the commission was told.
The existence of Mr Pullin’s first statement was not disclosed to defence lawyers for Debs and Roberts, IBAC heard.
Mr Pullin’s second statement included more of Senior Constable Miller’s dying declaration that there were two, rather than one offender.
Mr Bezzina told the commission on Tuesday that he signed the second statement some time after the first without realising it had been changed.
He said it was common practice for him to sign a back-dated statement that needed reformatting.
"On what basis did you think it’s ok to sign a statement that is false?" Commissioner Robert Redlich QC asked.
Mr Bezzina said he would have been given a legitimate reason to re-sign it, but he couldn’t remember who asked him to do it nor why.
In his opening address on Monday, Mr Rush said instructions were given to witnesses to remove or exclude descriptions of the offender or offenders that Senior Constable Miller gave before he died.
He also said if witness statements were deficient - incomplete or inconsistent - an additional statement was taken to replace the first and the original is destroyed.
He claimed there was a broader practice of not recording a witness’ description of an offender in the witness statement.
Mr Rush said the disclosure to defence of all material was fundamental to a fair trial.
"The use of such practices by police not only impacts on the integrity of the police investigation but has the very real potential in trial circumstances to amount to a perversion of the course of justice," he said.
Senior Constable Miller’s widow, Carmel Arthur, has been present throughout the proceedings.