 David
John Waters
Detective Sergeant Waters was a colourful policeman known throughout the
force as "Docket".
Waters recalled the
significance of his nick-name to a royal commission.
"I was charged by
the homicide squad in 1982 as a 22-year-old policeman, I
was involved with a girlfriend and another policeman; we
were off duty and we were attacked by 15 people in Lygon
Street, Carlton, and, as a result, a fellow was stabbed.
I was charged by the
homicide squad and subsequently I spent two nights in Pentridge
Prison on remand, and I was acquitted before a jury
at the County Court in Melbourne."
"In Melbourne,
people who've got records are called dockets, because
before they had computers they used to have pieces of
paper called docket sheets."
He was able to
continue on his long and incident-packed career.
He joined the police
force on January 31, 1978, went to Collingwood in 1980,
Hawthorn CIB in 1984, Malvern CIB in 1988, then worked
in the now defunct major crime squad, Fitzroy station
and finally the hot-bed of St Kilda.
On May 6, 1998, the Melbourne Magistrates' Court
heard a drug squad detective took his policewoman girlfriend to meetings with an
alleged drug boss.
Constable Maree Davies told the court Sen-Det. Kevin Hicks
took her to meetings at the East Doncaster mansion of alleged drug boss Peter
Pilarinos on his motorcycle.
In a statement tendered to court, Constable Davies said she and Sen-Det. Hicks
regularly met Mr Pilarinos and other members of the drug squad at a Bourke St
bar.
Constable Davies said she knew another police officer named David Waters who
"seemed to have a similar relationship with Mr Pilarinos to Kevin".
Sen-Det. Hicks and Mr Pilarinos were both facing charges over the manufacture of
amphetamines from chemicals stolen from a police drug facility at Attwood.
Sen-Det. Hicks was facing 30 charges.
Peter Pilarinos was facing 36 charges.
Two colleagues of Waters', Sgt
Gary
Silk and Sen Constable Rodney Miller, were shot dead in Moorabbin on August 15, 1998.
The Lorimer Taskforce was
established to investigate the murders.
Silk, a friend of Water's from the
St Kilda CIB, and Miller had been staking out a Chinese restaurant as they
investigated a string of armed robberies on restaurant patrons in the
south-eastern and eastern suburbs.
Suspicion fell on underworld figure Nik
Radev.
One hour before the
shootings, Radev and an associate, Loui
El-Sheikh, were sitting in
a McDonald's in East Bentleigh, waiting to complete a drug deal when Sgt Silk entered
the restaurant.
The pair were camped at a window table waiting for a third player, Azzam
Ahmed,
to arrive with their merchandise.
Radev knew straight away that Silk
was a cop, despite the unmarked car, the plain clothes.
Silk had noted the presence of the
notorious Radev
but let the coincidence slide.
When
Ahmed finally arrived,
Radev pumped him on being surveilled but Radev glanced through the window and
noticed that the cops were focussed on some Asian
place across the intersection.
The crims felt off the hook, for
now.
Money and product changed hands and
the men left the scene near midnight.
Of the dozen weapons Nik Radev owned, his pet
gun, said informants, was a Bulldog .38 which ballistics considered as being
within the spectrum of Silk and Miller's murder weapon.
Radev
was arrested on December 12, 1998.
He was grabbed by the Special
Operations Group outside the Palace in St Kilda, along with fellow speed
merchant Phillip Sweeney.
A search of Radev's home in East
Brighton uncovered two pistols, one with a silencer, yet neither was the
Bulldog.
One week into the new year,
Radev's name crossed the desk again, this time through a gig attached to St
Kilda CIB.
The middle man was Dave Waters.
Waters was under investigation by the
Ethical Standards Division at the time over his links and interests within St
Kilda's bars and brothels.
He had been accused by insiders of relying on compassionate leave since the
police murders to forestall any questioning by the Ethical lads.
Before taking crook, though, Waters
produced, on January 6, a drug offender called Ilias Bafas.
The man knew Radev and El-Sheikh
intimately from underground networks.
Bafas said he was holding guns for
Radev, until Radev was nabbed and Bafas got jumpy.
He said Nik and El-Sheikh had done
the two cops in Moorabbin for sure.
He rattled off correct calibres to
detectives.
His timelines and locations added up
too, pointing the finger squarely at Radev and El-Sheikh for the double murder.
Most of the taskforce were
growing keen on the pair, but others maintained their cynicism.
Maybe Bafas was being spoon-fed the
relevant facts by an unknown party, they argued.
Maybe Bafas was a puppet, and this
so-called breakthrough was a ploy to avert attention from the puppeteer's own
illegal activities.
Detective
Sergeant Waters was later charged, along with Nicholas
Ibrahim, a one time suspect in the Silk-Miller murders, and three other St Kilda
officers over alleged drug trafficking.
Investigations into Bafas did not
lead to the solid information police were seeking in their murder investigation.
Months on,
Waters produced a gun out of the blue.
The gun was
examined by ballistics and later dismissed as the possible murder weapon.
Nick
Ibrahim and his brother George became persons of
interest to Lorimer investigators after a man named Andrew Jordanou popped up.
Jordanou was a mechanic and is
described in One Down, One Missing as a short aggro customer of 26 who
was known to police.
On July 29, 1998, a couple of weeks
before the police shootings, Jordanou had strolled into the Moorabbin CIB with
news of robbery and extortion.
A few days before, five unknown men had allegedly entered his workshop in Cheltenham and threatened him with
violence.
The supposed leader of the group was
named "Nick" and he'd done most of the talking.
"If you don't pay up $90,000 by
the end of the week," he'd told Jordanou, "then I'll grab your fiancé
and fuck her in front of you. After that, I'll blow her away in front of you,
too."
"Ninety grand?" said Det
Sen Cons Mick Coughlan, who recorded the statement.
"They reckon I owe some guy
$110,000," said Jordanou.
"I didn't know what they were
talking about. First I thought they were joking."
But the men, said Jordanou, were
serious.
Slapping and punching him, they
forced him to write down the phone numbers of his parents and fiancée, plus his
own address and phone number.
In fear of his life he filled out a
job card authorising "Nick" to drive Jordanou's Honda Prelude around
town.
He surrendered the keys.
He gave the men $10,000 worth of
personal jewellery including an 18-carat gold necklace depicting a soccer
player.
Four days after the visit, an anonymous
caller rang the workshop and reminded Jordanou he was running out of time.
Jordanou was frightened for his life
and contacted police who opened a file.
The extortionists phone call was
traced to Oakwood Street, St Albans.
The house belonged to Nina Failia,
de facto of George Ibrahim, sister-in-law of
Nick Ibrahim, both men convicted thieves,
heroin users and pushers.
Nick Ibrahim
was later seen dealing speed with Jordanou which led to doubts in
the minds of police over the truthfulness of Jordanou's claims.
On August 3, 1998, when uniformed
cops called on the St Albans address, the found George Ibrahim (who lied about his name and later scarpered through the backyard)
and Jordanou's Honda Prelude (which police commandeered).
A later visit by CIB uncovered an
indoor marijuana crop.
They also learnt that Paul Sawan, a
Roweville shopkeeper, was Jordanou's likely creditor.
Police believed that Sawan had been
dealing drugs from his store.
Sawan was once a member of the
Lebanese Tigers, a gang that specialised in gatecrashing partes in the early 80s
and lapsing into knife fights when the hospitality ran out.
Sawan drove a dark Land Rover that
matched Jordanou's description from the standover visit in July.
So where's the link to the Lorimer
investigation?
Turn the clock forward to the
weekend of the murders and the arrival of two hit men from Sydney.
Clearly Jordanou's tactic of taking
his complaint to police was not popular with the underworld and some of the
'debt-collectors' may have believed he needed fixing.
A hit man was called on. Two in
fact.
Remember that George Ibrahim
had a hit man reputation for is alleged gunplay in Adelaide after
Lorimer suspect Bora Altintas was gunned down,
though no charges were laid.
Instead other warrants were issued
by South Australian Police on Ibrahim's
arrest for numerous drug offences.
Already breaking parole in Adelaide,
the fugitive owed Her Majesty two years' jail even before his sundry charges
could be processed.
As soon as his name had rejoined the
Lorimer database, thanks to the Jordanou affair, Ibrahim
was a cornered man.
The flare-up with Jordanou had only
gone to blow his cover.
Another reason why the Ibrahim
boy opted for some out-of-town talent to do the deed on Jordanou; why one
alleged hit man hire two alleged hit men to remove a nuisance too close to home.
Peter Ayoub and Stavros 'Steve'
Rodarellis were drafted for the job.
Both had long histories and a talent
for violence.
Already that month, Ayoub, 28, had
been linked to the attempted murder of truck driver, Darren Hicks, in Liverpool,
Sydney.
Hicks, a known drug trafficker,
later fled to Adelaide where he refused to press charges against his assailant.
According to the grapevine, Ayoub's
other chore was rebirthing stolen cars and chauffeuring heroin by the kilo
around the Punchbowl area.
By contrast Rodarellis had no
priors.
There were rumours that the pair
flew to Melbourne on the night Silk and Miller were murdered.
Nicholas
Ibrahim was getting engaged.
In fact a guest at the Aurora
Reception Centre took a video of the party.
The tape would suggest that the two
Sydneysiders, both armed on the night, went missing shortly after dessert.
Other reports would emerge from the
party.
Namely that wads of cash were
exchanged between the hosts and their interstate visitors; that Rodarellis grew
abusive during the speeches and the men were asked to leave around 11pm.
Suspicions strengthened.
A party guest recalled the pair's
hurried exit from Melbourne. Margaret, an air hostess, recalled a loudmouth
gentleman answering Ayoub's description with a golden soccer player around his
neck. Another report told how Nick Ibrahim
and his fiancée confiscated all photos and negatives from the reception.
On April 14, 1999, Lorimer Det
Sgt Darren Humphries contacted the NSW Homicide Squad and requested a mugshot of
Ayoub.
Humphries stood by the fax machine
as the face came through.
He couldn't contain his excitement
as he watched the suspect's hair, then forehead, then caterpillar eyebrows. The
narrow face. The ponytail. The Punchbowl druggie matched the suspect described
by Senior Constable Bendeich and fellow
officer Darren Sherren.
Humphries was convinced Ayoub was their man.
Detectives examined the bank accounts of both
Ayoub and Rodarellis.
Despite the cash spotted at the engagement party,
no sudden influx marked for the August period.
A month later, search warrants were issued for
the two men's Sydney homes.
Roderellis watched detectives pull a .22 calibre
rifle from his parents' roof, plus guns, silencers, beanies, gloves and blood
stained jeans from his Torana's boot. (DNA testing later linked the stains to
Darren Hicks and Ayoub.) The suspect was conveyed to Flemington police station.
"I flew to Melbourne with Peter Ayoub,"
said Roderellis in his recorded statement.
The document went on to say that he drank too
much, leaving the party early with Ayoub.
Afterwards the pair checked out the Crown Casino.
"I've never heard of Moorabbin in my life," he said. As for the guns and
silencers, he'd found that stuff someplace but couldn't remember exactly where.
As for Ayoud, the search of his house uncovered a
speed lab, two kilos of amphetamines, jewellery, a .308 calibre firearm plus
ammunition - but no Ayoub.
A week later, the suspect walked into a police
station with his solicitor. A prepared statement touched on key points:
Rodarellis got paralytic at the party - that's
why the two left early. Just after midnight. In a taxi.
They were driven back to their hotel.
Ayoub put Rodarellis in a bath tub, and the he
joined the Ibrahims to play the pokies down
at Crown.
He returned to his hotel about 4 a.m.
The only parts of Melbourne that he knew were
Carlton, Brunswick and the city. He's never been to Moorabbin and he'd never
killed no cops.
His hunch was that Nicholas Ibrahim
was trying to set him up for the murders.
The last known men to see Silk and Miller alive - Senior Constables Bendeich
and Sherren - were later flown to Sydney.
One by one the witnesses walked along an ID
parade which had Ayoub at Position 3.
"I cannot say one hundred per cent,"
said Bendeich.
"The person that I recognise most would be
Number 3."
Sherren went the other way.
"I can say that Number 5 and Number 9 bear
the closest similarity to my recollection."
Ayoub left the station a free man although he
later received a four-year sentence on charges arising from the raid on his
home.
The investigation had hit another brick wall.
Waters was charged
with drug trafficking over an alleged mock raid on May 10,
1999.
Waters,
and three other policemen, including two detective
sergeants, all based at St Kilda, were accused of trafficking
$100,000 worth of cannabis.
Charged with Waters were serving officers Det-Sgt Glenn
Saunders, Sen-Det Peter John Alexander and Sen-Det Stephen Russell Campbell.
They were all suspended from active
duty.
A fifth man, Nicholas
Ibrahim, was also charged over the alleged drug deal.
Ibrahim
was later convicted of the murder of standover man Sam
Zayat.
Det Sen-Sgt George Tapai, from the
ethical standards division, said Det-Sgt
Saunders had "an association" with Mr Ibrahim, who had arranged to buy
13.6kg of cannabis from another person.
Mr Ibrahim
had agreed to buy the
drugs for $100,000, the court heard.
He allegedly arranged to meet an unnamed person at the St Kilda Marina for the deal.
Det Sen-Sgt Tapai said Mr Ibrahim
then told Det-Sgt Saunders about the plan.
Det-Sgt Saunders and the three other
officers allegedly intercepted the car carrying the drugs and seized cannabis in
rubbish bags.
It was alleged the detectives then
gave the drugs to Mr Ibrahim.
No arrests were made and the
officers charged no one, the court heard.
Det Sen-Sgt Tapai said evidence
against the officers included witnesses and telephone intercepts.
Magistrate Barbara Cotterell granted
the officers bail, saying they were not a risk of fleeing.
Ms Cotterell also granted Mr Ibrahim
bail.
Each faced charges of theft, drug
possession, trafficking a drug, conspiring to traffick and conspiring to steal.
Mr Ibrahim
faced an extra charge of
trafficking cannabis.
The Age reported that Daniel May, a witness, told the Melbourne
Magistrates Court that he had arranged to deliver the cannabis - which another
man had brought from South Australia - to an associate at the St Kilda Marina.
Mr May said that during the drug deal, two cars
pulled up unexpectedly and some plain-clothes police got out.
He said one grabbed him, handcuffed him and threw
him face down to the ground.
He said that in the split second before he fell,
he saw one of the men getting plastic bags full of marijuana from the back of
his truck before throwing them to another.
The police then let him go.
Another man, Mario Katsoulas, 41, of Malvern,
was
charged with conspiring to traffic cannabis.
Mr May told the court: "Out of the corner of
my eye I saw someone climb onto the back of the truck... I heard the toolbox
open and someone pulled out the two garbage bags."
Mr May said that when the police finally lifted
him off the ground, they told him they knew he was just a delivery boy and that
he would not have to take "the rap".
He said that before letting him go, they told him
to "pull your head in, don't let us see you with this shit again".
Detective Inspector Robert Hodgkins, who was
Sergeant Saunders' supervisor, told the court that Saunders
gave him an information report in May 1999, saying he had intercepted Mr May at
the St Kilda Marina looking for a gun in his truck, but could not find any
firearms inside.
The alleged officers all denied the charges.
They maintained that while they'd been
present at the marina, they were there to search for guns and had never
encountered any drugs.
During the hearing, the
case against the officers had a major setback.
A key witness in the case, who pleaded guilty to his role in the
alleged conspiracy to traffic marijuana, refused to testify, saying he feared
for the safety of his wife and family.
The jury acquitted the three serving detectives,
and former detective Waters.
As the four accused left court this morning, David Waters, spoke
to the waiting press, saying, " I am relieved that this matter is finally over for myself and my
family, what we have had to endure, what we've been put through. I am grateful
for the judicial system that we are in at the moment. The jury has found us
not guilty. I can't thank them enough and thank the people that have assisted
us.
Later that day, ABC
Radio's PM program revealed
details about an investigation into a threat allegedly made against a number
of jurors case.
PM reported that police
were investigating a complaint
made by three jurors that they were approached outside court by a man who made
a threatening comment.
Nick McKenzie reported that the members claimed that, mid-trial, they were approached outside court during
their lunch break.
It's believed the jurors had stated that a man who'd been present in court
on at least two occasions walked up to them and made a threatening remark.
The jury members told court officials about the approach, who then relayed the
details to police and the Office of Public Prosecutions.
It was believed the man who made the approach
was employed in the building
industry, and had since been interviewed by police and denied that he made
a threat or was linked to any of the four accused.
It was one of a number of threats against people linked to the case which
had
come to the attention of the court.
The prosecution also raised concerns that another witness
had been intimidated by a man in court.
That man is Mick Crehen (phonetic), a Victorian criminal, and a person the
court heard is also close associate of one of the defendants, former police
officer David Waters.
Waters had been on
paid sick leave for two years from April 2000 until
April 2002 and was eventually allowed to leave with a
police disability pension with the rank of detective
sergeant.
The circumstances of his
departure were scrutinised in a series of documents
lodged in the Victorian County Court in a pending
defamation case launched by Waters.
 As a man who made a
career investigating crime, Waters defends his
reputation for honesty zealously, and is aggrieved by a
book by former colleague Senior Detective Joe D'Alo
(left).
Waters claims that
D'Alo's 2003 book on the murders of Gary
Silk and Rod Miller, One Down, One Missing,
portrayed him as a corrupt policeman who dealt drugs,
associated with a drug trafficker, took sick leave to
avoid being questioned by anti-corruption investigators
and had a bad reputation for years.
D'Alo was a member of the
taskforce that investigated the Silk-Miller
murders.
Waters says in an
affidavit: "I have never in my life stolen or
trafficked drugs or conspired to do so and have no doubt
that I will be acquitted of the charges against
me..."
Known for his
handlebar moustache, Waters let his hair grow long after
leaving the police force and began to associate with
people of interest to many different law enforcement
authorities - hence his appearance before the WA royal
commission in October 2002.
At a police function in
2003 he approached a few serving officers at the bar for
a chat about old times.
Some were relaxed but
others suddenly recalled pressing business they had to
attend to, cutting the conversations short.
In underworld terms,
Docket was known to be "tropical" - meaning
hot and under investigation.
 On October 23, 2002,
Waters was called before a royal commission
investigating police corruption in Western Australia to
reveal his association with some of the nation's most
controversial figures.
They included one of Melbourne's
accused gangland murderers, Mick
Gatto, alleged WA crime boss John
Kizon and notorious former NSW detective Roger
Rogerson (right).
Waters was asked to
explain to the royal commission on police corruption
about his wide group of friends.
At no stage did the
commission suggest or allege he had broken the law, but
they were intrigued by his colourful associates.
In Perth, he was quizzed
about a meeting he had with the alleged crime boss and
WA identity John Kizon in a
Perth hotel back in September 2001.
He responded that he went
to Perth for the funeral of CIB chief Don Hancock, who
was killed in a car bombing, and was asked to contact Kizon
by Mick Gatto.
Among Kizon's
claims to fame is being one of the last people to speak
to alleged Melbourne crime boss Alphonse
Gangitano on the phone before Gangitano
was murdered in his Templestowe home in January 1998.
Kizon
was observed by surveillance officers in the company of
two West Coast Eagles players in Melbourne during the
2001 grand final week.
Waters would later chat
on the phone with an AFL source about the players and
allegations of drug use.
Waters said Gatto
told him as he left for the Hancock funeral: "If
you're over there, a bloke will take you out and buy you
a drink." The man was Kizon.
What Waters didn't know
was the WA commission had a secret camera in the Perth
hotel where the two men met.
While admitting he knew Gatto,
Waters told the WA commission they were neither friends
nor business associates.
The curious Commission
lawyer, experienced prosecutor Stephen Hall, quizzed
Waters on many things, including his relationship with Kizon
and several serving and former Perth police suspected of
being corrupt.
At one point the tape of
a phone conversation was played to Waters.
He was alleged to have
said to former Perth detective sergeant Dave
"Nugget" Nugent, "Life's about to
blossom... you're on the ground floor. Read the papers
shortly, all right?"
Waters then says, "I
had the inquest today and, ah, this week finished
up."
The phone call was made
in January 2002 at the time of the inquest into Gangitano's
death
The call was made shortly
after the two men accused of being present when Gangitano
was killed - Jason Moran
and Graham Kinniburgh
- were excused from giving evidence on the grounds of
self-incrimination.
Both men were later
murdered.
Waters told the
commission he had some difficulty putting the
conversation in context because he took the call while
sitting in Melbourne's Men's Gallery.
Waters was known in
policing for his wicked sense of humour and Mr Hall was
keen to ask if Waters sometimes referred to himself as
the Roger Rogerson of
Melbourne.
Waters replied: "Oh,
I don't think so."
However, he did admit to
having left messages for people leaving the name Roger
Rogerson - " I think it's quite humorous"
- but at first told the persistent Mr Hall he had never
dealt with Rogerson.
But after the commission
was able to refresh his memory by playing a telephone
intercept from January 28, 2002, between Rogerson
and Waters, the former Victorian policeman took a new
stance.
He'd spoken to him by
telephone, yes - but they had never met.
Roger
Rogerson told The Age that he could recall only one
phone conversation with Waters.
"I have never met
the man and now I'm supposed to be linked to him,"
he said.
"If I spoke to him,
what's the big deal, were we supposed to be planning a
murder? I thought this was a free country. Thank God I'm
blond and fair-skinned or they'd lock me up as an Arab
terrorist."
In WA, Waters was asked a
series of questions over allegations that former Perth
detective Gavin Farrell wanted him to use his contacts
with Queensland police to find out about a female
undercover detective used in a sting operation against
suspected corrupt WA police.
There was no evidence
that Waters did make inquiries to find the identity of
the undercover officer.
The commission was an
inquiry into whether there had been any corrupt or
criminal conduct by any WA police officer.
Waters was a witness, and
not a suspect in the investigation.
On
September 14, 2007, Age reporter Nick
McKenzie wrote that a senior Victorian detective was under
investigation over his alleged ties to
a contract killing carried out by a
notorious underworld hitman at the
height of the gangland
war.
The
hitman has told a secret police
taskforce that Detective Sergeant
Peter Lalor gave him the address of
his target, male prostitute Shane
Chartres-Abbott, an investigation by The
Age had found.
Chartres-Abbott
was shot dead outside his Reservoir
home in June 2003.
It is believed his
killing was ordered by crime figures
to avenge the rape of one of his
clients.
The
hitman has also alleged that Detective
Sergeant Lalor, in an attempt to
confuse homicide officers, arrested
him for unrelated crimes on the
afternoon of the murder.
The
Age confirmed that Detective
Sergeant Lalor arrested the hitman for
driving offences at Prahran police
station eight hours after the killing.
The
taskforce, codenamed Briar, was also
investigating Dave
Waters, who the hitman claims was
aware of the murder plan. The hitman
claims that he, Waters and Lalor met
at a Carlton hotel a few weeks before
Chartres-Abbott was killed.
The
secret taskforce investigating
Detective Sergeant Lalor and Mr Waters
is one of two taskforces now probing
connections between serving and former
police and underworld killings.
The
other, Taskforce Petra, is
investigating the murder of police
informer Terence Hodson and his wife
in Kew in 2004.
Detective
Sergeant Lalor is a prominent police
union delegate who has campaigned
against the state's powerful police
watchdog, the Office of Police
Integrity (OPI), which was created by
the Government in late 2004. Taskforce
Briar is a joint police-OPI operation.
Detective
Sergeant Lalor has publicly railed
against corruption reform. Late last
year, he urged all union delegates to
support the Police Association's call
to shut down the Office of Police
Integrity, labelling it "the
office of public idiocy".
Detective
Sergeant Lalor and Waters
were both stationed at the St Kilda
police station in the 1990s.
The
Chartres-Abbott murder made
sensational headlines at the time. The
male prostitute was on trial for
viciously raping a female client, who
claimed he had told her he was a
200-year-old vampire.
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