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Conabere was shot dead by Thomas Ivanovic, 29 was member of the Carl Williams crew.

The shooting took place outside Ivanovic's Cornwall Street, West Brunswick home and was recorded on a camera mounted on the house.

Ivanovic was later found guilty of murder.

Justice Phillip Cummins said Mr Conabere remonstrated with Ivanovic about a driving incident.

A videotape from a home security system showed Thomas Ivanovic, 28, walk confidently and without fear towards Conabere.

Ivanovic was pushed to the ground, then shot Mr Conabere twice with an illegal, pistol he was carrying, the judge said.

The court heard that Mr Conabere and a friend had followed Mr Ivanovic, who was driving a silver Mercedes, to his house after a road incident in Coburg.

The inquest into Alphonse Gangitano murder begun. Coroner Iain West was expected to hear from several of Gangitano former henchmen, including Jason Moran. He was paroled the previous September and left Australia amid fears for his life. Other associates expected to contribute to the court proceedings included Graham Kinniburgh. There was speculation that evidence at the inquest would include a police tape allegedly featuring Moran's lawyer, disgraced solicitor Andrew Fraser.

Peter Allen, convicted heroin baron and brother of Dennis Allen, was in court to face 19 charges including armed robbery and burglaries.

On January 16, Allen, his girlfriend Amber Barry, 19, and others allegedly robbed a man at knifepoint after driving him to a North Caulfield street. They stole his wallet and runners, the court heard.

The Herald reported how a Melbourne man who was given up for adoption at birth, discovered his long-lost father was a crime figure shot dead by Alphonse Gangitano.

The Herald Sun reported that disgraced lawyer Andrew Fraser has a $30,000 contract on his head.

A high-level taskforce is investigating allegations a senior police officer knew of the infamous 1996 drug squad break-in -- up to six weeks before it happened.

After the West Coast Eagles-Carlton Wizard Cup game, Eagles players Ben Cousins and Michael Gardiner were seen with some of West Australian criminal identity John Kizon's Victorian associates in a five-star Melbourne hotel.

The royal commission on the building industry was told Dominic "Mick" Gatto, a former boxer and prominent gaming industry businessman, with connections to Melbourne's underworld, was being investigated.

Secret police tapes disappear from HQ stronghold

A routine security audit discovered the disappearance of the phone-tap records relating to the case of Andrew Fraser.

Secret police telephone intercept records appeared to have disappeared from a locked strongroom in the Victoria Police drug squad headquarters.

Gatto appears at building industry hearing

The Age reported that the Royal Commission into the building industry was investigating events surrounding the payment of about $200,000 by a big contractor to a company that solved awkward industrial relations problems.

The fee was allegedly paid by construction giant Baulderstone Hornibrook to a subcontractor working at the company's National Gallery of Victoria re-development site in 2000.

The subcontractor, known as P.W. and E.J. Contracting Pty Ltd, subsequently enlisted the services of Dominic "Mick" Gatto and David Hedgcock as so- called "industrial trouble-shooters".

Gatto, an associate of slain underworld figure, Alphonse Gangitano, was subpoenaed to appear before the royal commission over his role as a special "industrial relations" consultant on Melbourne building sites.

The Herald Sun reported notorious drug dealer, Dennis William Smith, who once ran an overseas sanctuary for Australian criminals, was jailed for a maximum of three years.

Smith, known behind his back as "Fatty", "Fat Cat" or "the Fat One" because of his obesity, was jailed for the 11th time.

This time he went down for trafficking amphetamines from a hotel he was running with long-time criminal associate Kerry Ashford.

The court heard Smith was at the top of an amphetamine dealing network operating from the Hollyford Hotel in Elizabeth St.

A story in the Herald Sun revealed secret police telephone intercept records have disappeared from a locked strongroom in the Victoria Police drug squad headquarters.

Sources told the Herald Sun the documents could be used to identify people implicated in drug dealing.

The missing documents were from the squad's Operation Regent investigation, which resulted in the jailing of disgraced lawyer Andrew Fraser.

The missing documents include call summaries and an index of calls monitored by police involving Fraser's co-accused, Werner Roberts.

Fraser was sentenced to seven years' jail and Roberts 13 years on December 3 for importing 5.5kg of cocaine.

The life of a police informer instrumental in the jailing of drug-dealing lawyer Andrew Fraser may be in danger after the disappearance of secret records from the police drug squad.

Sources said details about the informant would have been kept with documents which the Herald Sun yesterday revealed had gone missing from a locked strongroom in the squad's St Kilda Rd office.

If the documents were stolen, the sources said, it was possible the informant's name or registered identity could also have been accessed.

It is believed Operation Regent, which led to Fraser's arrest, was sparked by information from an informant. Police gave him permission to tap the telephone of the head of a Melbourne crime family.

The identity of the informant was kept secret.

Police spokesman Kevin Loomes said no informant's name or registered identity was listed in the missing documents, which included phone call summaries.

The Age reported that West Australian criminal, John Kizon, said that he had a relationship with two star West Coast players, but that it was "purely social" and not business related.

Police observed Kizon and players Ben Cousins and Michael Gardiner, socialising together in Melbourne during Grand Final week the previous year.

Cousins and Gardiner were in Melbourne to attend the Brownlow, which was held at the Crown complex.

The two were seen drinking with Kizon at Fidel's Cigar Bar later that night.

Cousins and Gardiner had also been seen with associates of Kizon's at a five-star Melbourne hotel in February.

The national secretary of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, arrested after drug squad police raided the Geelong chapter of the club, was granted bail. Robert Kim Sloan, 33, of Kilgour Street, Geelong South, was one of four people arrested during the raids.

Detective Sergeant Stephen McIntyre, of the drug squad, told Melbourne Magistrates Court that 100 grams of pseudo-ephedrine, found in Sloan's freezer, and about 90 grams of ecstasy tablets were seized during the raid on his home. A small quantity of cannabis was also found.

Sloan appeared in court in May 2001 and pleaded not guilty of trafficking and possessing pseudoephedrine and methylamphetamine. He pleaded guilty to other minor drug charges. Sloan claimed that he had been set up on the possession and trafficking charges and that evidence had been planted while he was in the custody of detective Stephen Paton.

Sloan was convicted and jailed for a maximum of four-and -a-half years. Sloan appealed to the states highest court in late August 2001, after Paton and another drug squad detective, Malcolm Rosenes were arrested in late July. Sloan was freed from jail, the evidence of Paton and other arresting drug squad officers seriously queried by the Court of Appeal.

Keith Faure avoided going back to jail for driving offences after a court heard he was violently killed off in the Eric Bana smash hit, "Chopper".

Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read and Faure once headed rival gangs while at Pentridge Prison during the 1980s.

But Faure's character, Keithy George, enjoyed only 10 minutes of fame before he was stabbed to death by Read in the critically acclaimed movie.

Defence lawyer Bernie Balmer told Melbourne Magistrates' Court yesterday his client was "upset" by the film's treatment of his life.

Chopper was quoted a couple of days later in the Herald Sun saying that he had disowned the film and that the movie was as much a shock to him as it had been for Faure.

A Bandidos motorcycle gang member jailed for drug trafficking plans to sue police.

Robert Kim Sloan spent five months of his four-year, four-month jail sentence in prison before the Court of Appeal set aside the verdict and sentence and ordered a retrial.

After an application by last December by Sloan's solicitor Michael Coghlan, the DPP announced a nolle prosequi - the permanent discontinuation of the charges - in that matter.

The court heard the drug squad detective who Mr Sloan accused of helping set him up was charged with drug trafficking.

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions indicated in the County Court in Geelong it would not be pursuing Mr Sloan's case.

As Mr Sloan, 45, was being told he was a free man, former Sen-Det Stephen Paton faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court, where he waived his right to a preliminary hearing and reserved his plea on charges involving at least $1 million worth of illicit drugs he is alleged to have bought from chemical companies.

In doing so, Mr Paton opted not to test immediately the allegations and will appear again on August 7.

It was revealed that police believe three people were involved in the execution of Dino Dibra, the man who with a few mates shot up the front of the Dome Nightclub and who, with a pal from Twins Pizza in Lygon Street, Carlton, kidnapped a man in broad daylight before demanding money from him.

Dino Dibra died in a hail of bullets outside a house in Krambruk St, Sunshine, on October 14, 2000.

Tony Mokbel, accused of being a drug syndicate "Mr Big", was refused bail again.

Peter Allen, brother of Victor Peirce and one of Melbourne's biggest heroin dealers during the 80's and 90's, was released from custody after successfully applying for bail on one charge of armed robbery.

It was alleged Allen robbed a man of money at knifepoint in Caulfield in January this year. Allen's lawyer, Scott Johns, said bail was warranted as there would be a long delay in the trial being listed and there was a prospect of an acquittal.

Victor Peirce was shot dead the following evening.

One of the four men acquitted of the 1988 Walsh St police murders and a member of the Pettingill crime family, Victor Peirce, was shot dead in Bay Street, Port Melbourne in an execution style, drive-by shooting.

Peirce, 42, was sitting in his dark red sedan opposite the Coles supermarket, near the intersection with Liardet Street, when a car pulled up beside his at about 9.20pm.

The car, a mid-80's Commodore, eerily similar to the one used to lure police to Walsh St, contained two men, a driver and a shooter.

A special police taskforce has re-opened up to 12 drug squad cases after allegations that evidence has been fabricated and that some convictions could be unlawful.

Cases being checked include long-running prosecutions against suspects accused of trafficking large quantities of amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy and hashish.

The re-investigation includes some investigations where suspects have been found guilty in jury trials.

The re-examinations follow the arrest of a serving detective, Malcolm Rosenes, and a former drug squad detective, Stephen Paton, for drug trafficking.

All cases involving the two men are now being re-examined by the Ethical Standards Dept. task force to check if evidence they gathered was legitimate and can be corroborated.

Paton and Rosenes had also been involved with the case of disgraced criminal lawyer, Andrew Fraser.

The conviction of Robert Sloan, a Bandido's motorcycle club member and former national secretary, has already been set-aside because of doubts on evidence presented at his county court trial.

A burnt-out stolen car, believed to have been involved in the shooting of underworld Victor Peirce, is being tested for clues to the killing.

The car, a blue Holden Commodore was found in Taylors Road, St Albans in the morning.

Homicide squad detectives attended the scene and the car was taken to the Victorian Forensic Science Centre for tests.

The Herald Sun reported that Victor Peirce, murdered two days previous, was involved in a long-running feud with Melbourne crime family, the Morans, and was suspected by them of being involved in the murder of Mark Moran in June 2000.

His killing may have been an act of revenge by supporters of the Morans.

Morans family members and associates of Victor Peirce were allegedly involved in a 1988 Brunswick armed robbery, the ramifications of which apparently sparked the 1988 Walsh St police shootings.

Rumour has it that accused "drug baron", Tony Mokbel and brother Milad had engaged Victor Peirce to murder a man who was informing against their group. Peirce set fire to his car at the Port Melbourne Docks in 2001 but the hunted man escaped injury.

The man cannot be named so we chose John.

John is currently in police custody on drugs charges but is expected to make a bail application shortly.

It is believed Peirce pocketed a sizeable deposit from the group although his attempt at knocking the informer was unsuccessful, hence the May 1 murder. After shooting Peirce a balaclava-clad gunman frisked him, possibly chasing the missing loot.

The Morans have already been connected with Peirce's murder.

Senior drug squad detective Malcolm Rosenes, a detective sergeant now suspended from his duties, was ordered to stand trial over alleged ecstasy deals worth $1 million.

It is alleged a drug squad informer sparked the investigation.

In the Melbourne Magistrates court, Rosenes waived his right to a preliminary hearing of the drug trafficking charges and reserved his plea on all counts.

Rosenes, 48, is charged with five offences, including trafficking commercial quantities of ecstasy and amphetamines.

Rosenes was arrested last July after anti-corruption police used one of the drug squad's own informers to allegedly expose the detective.

A Detective-Sergaent and senior vice president of the Victoria Police Association, Glenn Saunders of Moorabbin CIU was suspended with pay.

Saunder's suspension was revealed in the Herald Sun on May 31.

One of the men suggested by the media to be a suspect in Victor Peirce's May 1 murder, Jason Moran, placed a death notice in the Herald Sun. It read simply, "Victor - Rest Peacefully - Jason Moran".

Drug trafficking charges against Lewis Moran, the father of underworld figure Jason Moran were dropped.

Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has called in the federal police to investigate a claim of perjury against Victorian police officers on a murder taskforce that investigated former detective sergeant Denis Tanner over the murder of his sister-in-law Jennifer and the death of St Kilda trans-sexual Adele Bailey.

The unprecedented federal review will examine the taskforce, codenamed Kale.

The de facto wife of accused police killer Victor Peirce plans to seek crimes compensation worth up to $50,000 over Peirce's execution-style murder.

The Herald Sun revealed that Wendy Peirce is believed to be considering applying for compensation at the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal over the death of Peirce in a drive-by shooting at Port Melbourne this month.

On June 26, 2002, the Herald Sun reported that an investigation had been launched after jailed drug dealer, John Higgs, held an underworld meeting while on accompanied day release from the Fulham prison in Gippsland.

State corrections commissioner Dennis Roach had asked Australasian Correctional Management, the prison's operator, to explain how Higgs managed to meet former fellow inmate and underworld associate, Jason Moran, while on a 12-hour community access leave on May 23.

Notorious criminal Peter Gibb - who once blasted his way out of jail - was suffering depression when he stole a jet ski, a court heard.

Seven men charged over Victoria's biggest importation of hashish were ordered to stand trial.

Almost three tonnes of cannabis resin with a street value of between $132 and $147 million was hidden in false floors of two shipping containers, Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told.

Magistrate Raffaele Barberio ordered all seven men to stand trial on being knowingly concerned in the importation of a commercial quantity of hashish.

Tony Crmac, Paul Pratico, David Ciampoli, Jessie Franco and Robert Cetrangolo all pleaded guilty.

The seven are on bail and are due to appear in the County Court in September.

An Age story by Padraic Murphy revealed that an investigation had been launched after one of Victoria's most notorious drug dealers, John William Higgs, held an underworld meeting while on accompanied day release from the Fulham prison in Gippsland.

State corrections commissioner Dennis Roach has asked Australasian Correctional Management, the prison's operator, to explain how Higgs managed to meet former fellow inmate and underworld associate, Jason Moran, while on a 12-hour community access leave on May 23, this year.

Corruption claims against the former Victoria Police drug squad may lead to the release of alleged $2 billion crime gang boss, Tony Mokbel.

Defence barristers are expected to use the charging of two former drug squad detectives -- and corruption allegations against three others -- as grounds for their clients to be bailed or have charges against them dropped.

They will argue the cases against their clients are tainted because the accused drug squad detectives were involved in compiling evidence against them.

Former Victoria Police drug squad detectives Malcolm Rosenes and Stephen Paton have both been charged with drug trafficking in commercial quantities.

They were controlling the police informer who secretly taped Mokbel during alleged drug deals.

Ex Detective Bassett charged

Former drug squad detective-sergeant Russell Bassett faced criminal charges over claims he sought a bribe from a Melbourne brothel.

Bassett was accused of trying to solicit about $40,000 in return for help to get the Gotham City brothel an operating licence.

Bassett faced a charge of inciting a bribe and of attempting to obtain property by deception.

Bassett was the victim of a drug-related kidnapping in 2001.

More than $3.5 million in pseudoephedrine, which he was delivering to a chemical company, was stolen at gunpoint.

Delay in Mokbel case

A hearing of charges against alleged Melbourne drug king-pin Tony Mokbel was adjourned over corruption claims against drug squad detectives Malcolm Rosenes and Stephen Paton.

Chief Crown prosecutor Bill Morgan-Payler, QC, applied for an adjournment of the preliminary hearing charges against Mokbel who is accused of heading a $2billion dollar drug syndicate.

This week Mr Morgan-Payler told the Melbourne Magistrates' Court that other police investigations were under way that might affect Mokbel's case.

Mr Phillip Goldberg agreed to adjourn the preliminary hearing for Mr Mokbel and four co-defendants from July 15 until November 25.

Antonio Romeo died when he was shot once in the left shoulder and the bullet passed through his chest.

Russell Bassett, a former detective-sergeant, was ordered to stand trial on charges of trying to obtain $15,000 dishonestly to help a brothel owner vary his business licence.

The Melbourne Magistrates Court heard Marijan "Mark" Banda, 40, of Fitzroy North, an associate of alleged millionaire drug lord, Tony Mokbel, has agreed to identify him as the key player in a cocaine importation.

Federal police allege that Mr Mokbel, and four other men, arranged the delivery of 2.9 kilograms of cocaine from Mexico in November, 2000, hidden in a shipment of candles and statues.

Michael Goldman 55, said he shot to miss a wounded acquaintance on a suburban nature strip despite orders from a psychotic criminal to "finish him".

Goldman said he was "under the gun" and terrified of Nik Radev, who ordered him to kill Kudryavstev.

Goldman lured Kudryavstev, to his Hampton flat.

He shot Mr Kudryavstev in the stomach at the flat.

He said Radev told him earlier the same day: "Give him one in the head and I take care of the body."

Mr Kudryavstev was a police informer, was wearing a concealed tape recorder when shot in the abdomen and in the head.

He secretly recorded his terrifying brush with death.

Goldman shot Mr Kudryavstev in the abdomen as he greeted him at the front door.

Mr Kudryavstev said he moved his head when Goldman fired at him on a nature strip near Highett Road.

On May 27, 2004 Goldman was jailed for 14 years.

The man who was shot in the stomach by Moran is one of those expected to get bail because of the ESD corruption investigation.

A judge was told embarrassed prosecuting authorities were seeking delays and supporting bail bids in high-profile cases following the corruption investigation into the former police drug squad.

Con Heliotis, QC, for alleged drug-trafficker Tony Mokbel, told Justice Murray Kellam that the investigation had caused great disruption in the criminal justice system.

Mr Heliotis said in the Supreme Court that Mr Mokbel could be in custody for more than two-and-a-half years before his trial.

Even if Mokbel wins the bail application - which continues - he would not be freed.

That is because the application related to charges he faces under Victorian state laws. He is also being held on a Federal charge for which he will remain in custody.

More detectives were expected to be charged to "take the heat" off police anti-corruption investigators, a barrister told the Supreme Court as the police taskforce investigating corruption in the drug squad admitted it was unlikely to finish its work before alleged boss, Tony Mokbel faces court.

Con Heliotis, QC, representing Mokbel during a bail application, told Justice Murray Kellam he believed a number of detectives were to be charged in the "not too distant future".

Seven alleged major players in Melbourne's drug scene had their criminal trials put off indefinitely.

With the fallout from corruption allegations against former drug squad detectives widening, a prosecutor conceded he could not say when the seven would face trial.

The five men and two women are accused of trafficking commercial quantities of drugs.

Their cases were listed to be heard in the County Court this year (2002) but the uncertainty over the results of a police ethical standards division investigation into the former drug squad has delayed the cases.

Carl Anthony Williams, of Hillside, was due to appear in court on September 9 to face charges stemming from a 1999 raid at a home in Broadmeadows. 

Judge Duggan granted bail to Carl Williams and ordered him and the six others to return to court on February 5 next year for a mention hearing.

As Carl Williams was being released, the Magistrates' Court was hearing accusations that two members of the former drug squad pocketed $10,000 from an alleged drug trafficker during a raid in April 2001.

Sen-Det David Bartlett and Sen-Det Victor Anastasiadis both denied the allegation, but admitted they were being investigated by ESD.

Nadim Ahmad, 63, who was charged with offences involving ecstasy, cocaine and LSD, has accused the drug squad of stealing the money.

Mr Ahmad, of Besant St, Moorabbin, was expected to apply for bail the following day (July 18).

Dozens of other cases remained in legal limbo as the ESD investigation continued.

Chris Tinkler reported in the Sunday Herald-Sun that the father of murdered mum Jane Thurgood-Dove says revolutionary technology that provides a window into a criminal's mind will solve her killing.

The Niddrie mother was shot execution-style in her driveway in 1997 as her three young children looked on.

Now her shattered father, John Magill, believes "brain fingerprinting" -- developed by a Harvard University scientist and the CIA and used in the War on Terror -- will trap the killer.

The Herald Sun reported that a controversial anti-drink-driving advertisement featuring Mark "Chopper" Read has been voted by Australia's advertising industry as the best television commercial of the year.

The widow of slain underworld figure Victor Peirce threatened vengeance on her husband's killer at a police-organised press conference.

Wendy Peirce has warned his killers faced the same fate if they were not caught by police.

Victor Peirce, 42, was one of four men acquitted of the 1988 murders of policemen Steven Tynan and Damian Eyre in South Yarra. 

He was released from jail in June, 1998, after serving a six-year sentence for drug trafficking.

Peirce was shot dead in Bay Street, Port Melbourne, on May 1.

Chopper in new crime flick

Chopper Read appears cameo alongside ex-footballer Mark Jackson and former kick-boxing champ, Stan "The Man" Longinidis in a new Melbourne crime film called Trojan Warrior.

The new film is made by a funny and nice bloke by the name of Sal Silverstein.

The early reviews aren't great.

More on Chopper

An evil woman masterminded the kidnapping of a wealthy Melbourne businessman in a bizarre attempt to extort a $3 million ransom.

Toni Vodopic, 37, who manipulated family members into carrying out her scheme, also led a secret double life.

A 15-member Supreme Court jury sat for the first day of what is expected to be a marathon trial of the accused murderers of police officers Gary Silk and Rod Miller in August 1998.

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Celeb's to be questioned over ecstasy

Celebrities on Melbourne's A-list are likely to be quizzed about a record $10.6 million ecstasy seizure.

A man arrested over Victoria's biggest haul of the party drug considers himself a mover and shaker around town.

His luxury black Saab is regularly parked outside gala events and he has rubbed shoulders with socialites and celebrities at a number of opening nights in recent weeks.

Australian Federal Police agents are expected to question people who attended the red carpet functions to try to establish any associations with the suspect.

They are keen to establish who was going to buy the 216,000 tablets seized this week.

The 54kg ecstasy haul was hidden in a consignment of pool filters shipped to Melbourne from the Netherlands.

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Former detective on more charges

Russell Bassett, a former detective recently charged over claims he sought a bribe from a Melbourne brothel, has been arrested and charge for other unrelated offences.

On this occasion, Bassett, who had by then left the Victoria Police, was working as a security driver. Whilst transporting a load of drugs, Bassett was ambushed. He was hog-tied and frog-marched into the bush. The drugs he was carrying were stolen.

It has been alleged that Bassett was implicated.

More on Russell Bassett

Claims of payback kidnappings, kneecappings and bolt-cutter torture were aired in court in the latest hearing involving a former drug squad detective.

Former detective Russell Bassett appeared in Melbourne Magistrates' Court charged following his arrest three days before with incitement to kidnap and the unlawful disclosure of police information.

Police alleged in court Mr Bassett was involved in a plan to kidnap the father of one of the recipients of the chemicals stolen in the ambush incident a year before.

Det-Sgt David Gillard told the court Mr Bassett told an undercover officer he was owed $250,000 by two men he believed to be the final recipients of the pseudoephedrine.

Det-Sgt Gillard said Mr Bassett tried to contract the undercover officer to kidnap the father of one of the men.

Mr Bassett allegedly said he would demand a $1 million ransom because people needed to be punished.

He allegedly said if the cash was not received in 18 hours he would use a pair of bolt cutters, and "someone would be getting a finger in the mail".

Condello present at bashing?

Police were told Mario Condello was present in 2002 when a solicitor was invited to a Lygon Street restaurant by an underworld figure.

The solicitor was taken down to the basement and pistol-whipped in front of Condello.

The beating was a means of persuading the solicitor to advise a client, who was thinking of telling police about a protection racket, to think again.

Charges against Milad Mokbel, the man accused of a $2 billion drug conspiracy have been dropped.

And the case against the man's brother, accused drug baron Tony Mokbel, was put off indefinitely because of a drug squad corruption probe.

The dramatic development follows admissions by the Victorian and Commonwealth Directors of Public Prosecutions that their cases against Tony Mokbel could not go ahead at the moment.

The admissions pave the way for millionaire businessman Mr Mokbel to make another bid for release on bail.

Dying policeman Rodney Miller knew his partner Gary Silk was dead shortly after they were shot while on duty in Moorabbin, the jury heard.

Former Senior Constable Glenn Pullin said he heard Senior Constable Miller say: "Silky's dead, Silky's dead" as he lay wounded on the footpath near Warrigal Road.

Mr Pullin said Senior Constable Miller was in pain and afraid when he saw him.

He said he picked up Senior Constable Miller's revolver, which was on the ground near his feet, and checked to see if it had fired any shots.

Click here for trial diary

The Herald Sun reported that "crime matriarch", Kath Pettingill, has been nominated for a community award for volunteer work.

Kath was given the International Year of the Volunteer Award by locals thankful for her enthusiastic support of the community in her home of Venus Bay.

Ms Pettingill helps run a bingo group whose profits fund street decorations and is an avid supporter of the local community centre.

Kath spoke on 3AW and after speaking about the award, expressed he happiness with the homicide squad for the way in which they had investigated the murder of her son, Victor in May this year. She sounded hopeful that an arrest was possibly imminent.

Accused billion dollar drug baron, Tony Mokbel, has been freed on bail after spending over a year in custody on trafficking charges despite claims that he planned to kill one of his co-accused.

Justice Murray Callum found that ongoing investigations into allegedly corrupt members of the former drug squad, Mokbel may not come to trial within three years of his arrest and that the community would not tolerate indefinite incarceration.

Council for the DPP, Sean O'Sullivan argued Mokbel was a risk of failing to appear in court and interfering with witnesses.

Mr O'Sullivan said the extraordinary case carries an extraordinary risk because Mr Mokbel has threatened to silence his co-accused who's pleaded guilty to importation and will give evidence against him.

The court heard Mr Mokbel told the informer he would pay $12,000 to have him killed.

His freedom was based on $1000,000 surety. Mokbel, who bowed as he thanked the judge, will reside in Brunswick and report to police twice daily.

The car belonging to the daughter of a man accused in the Silk-Miller shootings was initially excluded from the investigation due to a scientist's error of judgment, the Supreme Court heard.

Forensic scientist Peter Ross, a team leader at the Victoria Forensic Science Centre, said fellow scientist Edward Kennedy-Ripon had examined a small amount of glass from the Hyundai Excel of Nicole Debs, the daughter of Bandali Debs and girlfriend of Mr Debs' co-accused, Jason Roberts.

After the first examination, Mr Kennedy-Ripon concluded it was unlikely the glass from Ms Debs' vehicle had the same origin as glass found at Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, the shooting scene.

But Mr Ross said a later and more extensive examination by Mr Kennedy-Ripon indicated they were from the same source.

More from the trial diary

A former bikie who survived being shot by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read more than a decade ago may have met an untimely end on the New South Wales north coast.

Sid Collins, who was shot in the chest by Read because he "thought too much", vanished in suspicious circumstances during a trip from his Gold Coast home to NSW to recover an underworld debt late last month.

Mr Collins, a member of the Black Uhlans outlaw motorcycle gang, was reported missing on September 1 by his son.

Police searched his home and interviewed neighbours.

Mr Collins' XR8 ute was found the next day more than 100 kilometres away near Tabulam, a small town west of Casino on the NSW north coast.

Silk-Miller trial witness says Debs robbed her in 1998.

Tracey Lee Chadwick picked Bandali Michael Debs from a police video as one of two men who robbed an automotive parts store.

The two robbers -- a stocky middle-aged man wearing dark glasses and a shorter, "skinny" younger man wearing a black balaclava and gloves -- held up the store on March 9, 1998.

Click here for more from Silk-Miller trial diary

A tiger's claw, a Vietnamese sailor's ring and a President's mask took centre stage in the trial of the two accused police murderers.

Restaurant manager Han Trinh told the jury that one of two gun-toting bandits ripped away a tiger's claw hung around his neck, during a robbery of the Jumbo Chinese restaurant in Blackburn in 1998.

He told the Supreme Court the robbers also took an ornate ring he had long cherished.

Prosecutor Jeremy Rapke QC, told the court police had found the ring and the gold chain buried in the back yard of the NSW home of the mother of Bendali Deb's, one of the accused.

But Mr Trinh said he thought his ring only had artwork on it, not the words "school 1987" engraved on the ring police found.

Click here for more from Silk-Miller trial diary

A forensic expert is expected to back confessed murderer Greg Brazel's account of how he killed shopkeeper Milderd Hanmer.

Police officer stalked.

A former policeman who suffered stress after being stalked by a female colleague for dishonesty offences, his lawyer said.

Former drug squad detective Russell Bassett, 42, admitted dishonestly attempting to obtain $15,000. from a brothel owner to get the licence approved.

His lawyer, Geoff Chettle, told the Victorian County Court Bassett was offering a genuine service but lied to snag a client in January 2001.

Bassett, who resigned in 1999, and retired police inspector David Reid had planned to set up a business to help people with brothel applications.

Bassett's judgement was severely impaired after a series of traumatic events Mr Chettle said.

Being stalked by a female colleague at the National Crime Authority in 1998 left Bassett and his wife suffering stress and depression, he said.

Bassett, who pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain $15,000 by deception and using a false document, will be sentenced by Judge Irene Lawson next month.

PK dead

The body of western suburbs drug-dealer, Paul Kallipolitis was found in his West Sunshine home.

The man's body was found by relatives inside his home in Nicholson Parade.

Detectives were called to the address at about 10.00a.m.

Police now believe it was part of a tit-for-tat series of killings, which related to the slayings of Dino Dibra outside his Sunshine house on October 15, 2000, and notorious gangster Mark Moran four months before.

One of the men accused of gunning down two police officers told investigators he was organising a limousine for his 18th birthday at the time of the killings, a jury heard.

Jason Joseph Roberts, now 22, and Bandali Michael Debs, 49, are standing trial accused of murdering Sgt Gary Silk, 35, and Sen-Constable Rodney Miller, 34, in Moorabbin on August 16, 1998.

But in a taped interview played in the Supreme Court, Mr Roberts said that on the weekend of the shootings he was at the Debs home organising his 18th birthday bash for the next weekend.

Mr Roberts told police he and his girlfriend, Nicole Debs -- his co-accused's eldest daughter -- were "just sorting out for the party".

More from the Silk Miller Trial

Peter Gibb "glad to be back in jail."

Herald Sun reporter Elissa Hunt has revealed that notorious criminal, Peter Gibb who hated jail so much he blasted his way out is now happy to be back behind bars.

Peter Robert Gibb, 48, escaped from the Melbourne Remand Centre in 1993 with the help of prison officer-lover Heather Parker and another prisoner in one of the state's most infamous jailbreaks.

But yesterday a court heard that Gibb, who has spent the past eight months in prison awaiting sentence, felt safe and comfortable in jail.

Detective Dave 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, including one of Melbourne's accused gangland murderers, Mick Gatto, alleged WA crime boss John Kizon and notorious former NSW detective Roger Rogerson.

Waters was asked to explain to the royal commission on police corruption about his wide group of friends.

Star Eagles players allegedly ordered cocaine

The age reported that the West Coast Eagles AFL club refused to comment on allegations raised in the West Australian police royal commission that two star players were heard on a police tap ordering cocaine.

Eagles players were said to be mixing with notorious WA figure John Kizon earlier in the year.

Crash pilot was facing drugs trial

A pilot who died on in an ultralight aircraft crash cooked amphetamines for one of Victoria's most notorious drug dealers.

He also made corruption allegations against former Victoria Police drug squad detectives, which are still being inve