An expat, who was expelled from Australia over organised crime links, has helped a man convicted of murdering two police officers overturn his wrongful conviction. David McCulloch, 73, played a key role in assisting Jason Roberts, 41, in a fight to clear his name over the shooting of sergeant Gary Silk and senior constable Rodney Miller in 1998.
Roberts, who had always maintained his innocence, was sentenced to life for the double murder and turned to McCulloch for help after the pair met behind bars. Glaswegian McCulloch, a former social worker, was serving a sentence for drug dealing when he set himself up as a jailhouse lawyer.
Now Roberts, who was 17 at the time of the murders, is celebrating freedom after 22 years after appeal judges found him not guilty. It emerged that McCulloch, now back in the UK, had a pivotal part in Roberts’ case.
He said: “I helped get the ball rolling with Jason. I knew from what he told me he was telling the truth.
“I’m proud of the role I played but I’m not responsible for Jason getting justice. His determination and his barristers have won the day in court.”
Victoria Police officers Silk and Miller had been staking out an armed robbery target in Moorabbin when they were ambushed and killed. Career criminal Bandali Debs, the father of Roberts’ girlfriend, was involved in the killings and also jailed.
Roberts told McCulloch inside Barwon he wasn’t the killer - but had helped Debs hide evidence linking him to the crime. McCulloch then helped Roberts word a statement for his lawyers and police and convinced him to spend 10 years in solitary confinement while he fought the case.
He said: “Jason trusted me with vital details of what had actually happened on the night of the murders. I helped him clear up the lies and prepare him for how tough things were going to be.
"The only way he stood a chance was to come clean over everything. We knew he would have to be careful and that also meant beings separated from the rest of the prison population.”
He added: “It didn’t take long to be convinced Jason was no cop killer. It’s been a long, hard journey for him but it’s been worth it.”
A jury in 2002 convicted both Roberts and Debs but Victoria’s Court of Appeal quashed that conviction this month after finding there had been a “gross and fundamental corruption of the trial process”.
The court heard nearly four months of evidence before the jury cleared Roberts. It is now believed that Debs acted alone. However Roberts is still a convicted man and is to be sentenced after he pleaded guilty to committing 10 armed robberies with Debs.
McCulloch left Maryhill in the 1970s to play pro football Down Under. He helped hundreds of inmates with legal issues and taught them to read and write after being jailed for 12 years and six months for a second drug offence.
However a former police officer who led the probe into McCulloch has also given a statement raising concerns about the conviction.
The ex-detective has claimed a registered informer who was facing cocaine charges provided intel. He said he was “firmly of the view” the man gave inaccurate information which led to McCulloch’s arrest.
Partick fan McCulloch has admitted he has historic business links to organised crime gang members in Melbourne. He was deported from Australia two years after being released in 2017.
His appeal against the ruling is still to be considered.
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