I didn't kill Carl Williams, says former cop Paul Dale

FORMER detective Paul Dale says he did not organise the killing of crime king Carl Williams.

Mr Dale told the Herald Sun he was surprised he had not been questioned over the killing of Williams in Victoria's Barwon Prison last April. And he was aware of suggestions he was involved.

"It's like every other allegation," he said. "I find it laughable and staunchly deny it. It's a load of crap."

In his first interview since the withdrawal of a charge he murdered police informer Terence Hodson, Mr Dale told the Herald Sun:

- WITNESSES had been offered lucrative and improper inducements to give evidence against him in the Hodson case.

- HE had written to Victorian Police Minister Peter Ryan seeking an independent inquiry into the Petra Taskforce's pursuit of him over the Hodson murder.

- POLICE had perjured themselves while investigating him.

- HE was suing the state over his detention on remand in the super-secure Acacia section of Barwon Prison.

- EVIDENCE he gave in coercive hearings was used against him despite a promise this could not happen.

- CHIEF Commissioner Simon Overland had "staked his career" on nailing him.

Victoria Police yesterday declined to comment.

Mr Dale said from the moment the Petra Taskforce was established, there was only one objective: to nail him for the killings of Hodson and Hodson's wife, Christine, at their home on May 16, 2004.

Hodson had agreed to give evidence that Mr Dale was involved in a bungled $1.3 million burglary in 2003.

Mr Dale said a key witness in the Hodson murder prosecution was offered financial and sentencing inducements that would have utterly tainted the evidence.

He said that witness had already been discredited by a court and previously told investigators he knew nothing about the deaths, before changing his mind after offers were made.

"It wasn't a search for the truth," he said. "They've had me under siege for a long time.

"A lot of people would say an innocent man would have nothing to fear.

"I wish that was true. How do you not fear something when you see criminals offered massive incentives (to incriminate you)."

Mr Dale said he had no problem with being investigated over the Hodson killings. But the police pursuit of him had excluded other possible suspects, some serious criminals with motives to want Hodson dead.

Mr Dale said some of the OPI hearings about him were designed to publicly identify and pressure his friends and associates.

"They scared off every other member who was a friend of mine," he said.

During one of those hearings, evidence was led that Dale had told a former colleague to offer some "free legal advice" to hotelier friend Mick Jesic, who had been approached by the Petra Taskforce.

Detectives had asked Mr Jesic whether he recognised a gun found in Hodson's car.

Mr Dale said the legal advice comment was nothing more sinister than a poor choice of words. He wanted the former colleague to "go and see that he's OK".

He denied that in the hours after the drug house burglary he had stolen and then distributed a secret police file outlining how Hodson was informing on underworld figures.

heraldsun.com.au

Police corruption and crime at the top is rife.

Victoria Police is regarded as one of Australia's most corrupt.

Corruption varies from police handing out false speeding fines, to police dealing with drug gangs in allowing them to operate through financial reimbursements.