Jason Roberts

A Supreme Court jury has found Jason Roberts not guilty of the 1998 murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller.

The murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rod Miller in 1998 had an enormous impact on Victoria Police as an organisation, and were devastating for the families, friends and colleagues of both men. Roberts was convicted of the murders in 2002 but in 2020 the Court of Appeal quashed the verdict and granted a retrial. A Supreme Court jury has found Jason Roberts not guilty of the 1998 murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller.

Roberts will be released from custody after being found not guilty of the shooting murders of police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller in Melbourne's ...

He said in his evidence last month that he helped Debs cover up the shootings and lied to police about his involvement. Bandali Debs was found guilty of the murders in 2002 and his role has never been in doubt. In 2003, Debs was jailed for life with no chance of parole. Miller was shot once with a .357 and fired four shots himself, and staggered to the Silky Emperor, where he was found critically injured by other officers. That ruling followed a probe by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, over allegations some officers who were with the dying Miller had their witness statements revised and backdated. It was “ludicrous”, the prosecutor suggested, that Debs alone could have shot two experienced officers by himself. Silk was shot three times with two guns – a .38 revolver and a .357 – and died at the scene, without pulling his gun from its holster. The officers were on a stakeout outside the Silky Emperor Chinese restaurant as police investigated hold-ups on small businesses through Melbourne’s suburbs. Roberts walked out of the court building on Monday around 11.40am. He did not say anything to reporters, nor did his lawyers. Some members of the jury were visibly distressed as the judge commended their efforts, noting it had been a difficult case for them. “Losing not one but two of our members at work some 24 years ago is the worst thing you could ever imagine. It’s the latest chapter in one of Victoria’s longest-running legal sagas following the infamy over what happened on that cold, dark Moorabbin road.

A man accused of the infamous shooting deaths of two police officers in Melbourne's south-east in 1998 has ...

"We will continue to support both families as well as the many police who continue to be impacted by the tragic loss of Gary Silk and Rod Miller. Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton released a statement shortly after the jury's decision, saying "Victoria Police acknowledges the decision of the court". Roberts was granted bail before the court after the verdict was read.

Alleged cop killer Jason Roberts has walked free from custody 22 years after being wrongly convicted of the murder of two police officers.

The younger one, one got - wants to chase,' police allege Roberts told Debs in one recording. He said he shut the boot, drove off and left.' So, he didn't want to open it, so he said he made out that he couldn't open it with the boot, and went back and got the keys. 'He told me that he was pulled over, got out of the car, he was speaking to the officers. Police lined the streets for more than a kilometre to farewell them 'When we drove in just to quickly look. 'And then he said he heard a bang from behind him. Floral tributes are seen at a memorial for two Victorian police officers killed in the line of duty 22 years ago. 'When I was called to give evidence at the committal I asked George Buchhorn about my first statement. 'He said he had stuff in the boot. And shot him twice.' 'Some of the other squads, you know, maybe not.

Roberts was imprisoned for nearly two decades over the deaths of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller.

Ihle told jurors if they were to find Roberts guilty they must be satisfied there were two offenders, that Roberts was one of them and that he was criminally involved in the murders. “Our thoughts are with the Silk and Miller families today and we know this will be a difficult time for them,” he said. He said he got up during the night and saw Debs with a gun, listening to a police scanner. He confessed that when police came for him for the murders of two of their own, he lied to protect himself. Justice Stephen Kaye said the trial was one of the hardest he had seen a jury consider, given the length and density of evidence. He then committed perjury, lying about its existence in what the judges labelled a “gross and fundamental corruption of the trial process”.

Victoria's top cop has delivered an emotional response to the release of Jason Roberts, who had his conviction for the murder of two police officers ...

We will continue to wrap our arms around our own colleagues.” We’ll continue to wrap our arms around Carmel, Ian, all of those families. “The murders of Sgt Gary Silk and Sen. Con. Rod Miller in 1998 had an enormous impact on Victoria Police as an organisation, and were devastating for the family, friends and colleagues of both men,” Commissioner Patton said. “We mourn them still. We do every day. They didn't come home,” he said.

Monday's acquittal on charges of murdering two police officers has brought an end to 22 years of imprisonment for Jason Roberts, but there are further court ...

"It would be a significant action in terms of damages. "There is a bit of a pattern here and a bit of systemic misconduct in regards to the manipulation of evidence and which bits of evidence go to defence counsel and which are held back," Mr King said. In his own testimony, Mr Roberts denied he was present for the murders and said he was at his girlfriend's house. Debs, 68 — whose daughter Mr Roberts was dating at the time — told the court that Roberts was in the car with him on the night of the murders and that both were armed. The pair had conducted a series of armed robberies together in the lead-up to the murders. The events led to a two-year long manhunt, with Victoria Police offering their highest-ever reward of $500,000 for information on the murder and, in July 2000, Bandali Debs and Jason Roberts were arrested for the killings.