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Aussie corruption and murder: Paul Dale
#1
I spent the last hour or more drafting a long preamble to the following, but upon reflection don't think it's necessary and I can probably convey the relevant info here in just a few sentences, along with the title of this thread. Courtesy of a local author and his ex-Victorian police officer friend, I heard the background of the ongoing story of Paul Dale - subject of the article below - several years ago when various events (though never really all of them) were just hitting the headlines, via an indepth discussion of more than an hour. Certain events were widely known amongst the police, but distorted or never reported within the mainstream media. Amusingly, as of today most of the story is now being reported in the local media, but with a key detail left out.

Read the story and follow the link for pictures - relevant here as you can see the faces of two innocent victims who the mainstream media (Fairfax and The Age) has utterly failed - then scroll down for the annotated version of the same story.

[URL="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/paul-dale-i-was-framed-by-career-criminals-20130823-2sg4g.html"]
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/paul-d...2sg4g.html[/URL]


Paul Dale: 'I was framed by career criminals'


A former drug squad detective once accused of the murder of a police informer has said he was framed by career criminals who fed lies to gullible detectives.

Paul Dale spent seven months in isolation at Barwon Prison after being charged with ordering the execution-style killing of Terence Hodson. He and his wife Christine were killed at their Kew home in May 2004.

In one of the most infamous elements of Melbourne's gangland wars, drug trafficker and murderer Carl Williams told police Mr Dale had the Hodsons killed because Terence Hodson had implicated Dale in the burglary of a drug house in Oakleigh in 2003.

Williams himself was later murdered in Barwon Prison by an inmate called Matthew Johnson, leading to the dropping of charges against Mr Dale and his release from prison.


Suspicion that Mr Dale might be implicated in Williams' murder were shot down when the police taskforce investigating the killing concluded that while Dale was an "unwitting beneficiary" of Williams' death, he did not plan, authorise or know of the attack.

Mr Dale has long refused to speak publicly about his journey through the justice system citing misreporting by the media but in his new book, Disgraced?, he says his troubles began when Terence Hodson was caught with drug squad detective David Miechel burgling the Oakleigh house.

While Miechel later jailed for 15 years steadfastly maintained that he was not robbing the house and had done nothing wrong, Hodson, an enthusiastic and prolific police informer, began talking immediately.

Dale and Miechel had managed Hodson as a source, and according to Dale, when Hodson was interviewed by members of the ethical standards department, they immediately began pressuring him to give Mr Dale up as a co-conspirator in the burglary.

Mr Dale was then arrested for conspiracy to commit burglary and theft, and conspiracy to traffic a commercial quantity of drugs. He was subsequently sacked by then Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon.

"Arresting me in my own kitchen on an uncorroborated statement from a criminal arrested at the site of the robbery was really bad investigative work," Mr Dale writes.

"Even from a legal point of view, you can't convict a co-accused just on the word of someone charged with the same crime, but that was all they had."

Mr Dale was eventually granted bail, but six months later the Hodsons were killed. The former detective was arrested over the murder of Terence Hodson but released without charge. The drug charges were also dropped.

Mr Dale writes that at the time the Hodsons were killed, there was a secret police file naming Terence as an informer that was circulating in the underworld, and that it was "hinted in the media" that he was the source. However, he says police later admitted that he had been ruled out as the source.

In addition, he writes, Carl Williams believed Terence Hodson was involved in a plot to kill him. Furthermore, infamous drug trafficker Tony Mokbel was angry with Hodson because he had a financial interest in the drug house burgled by Miechel and Hodson.

"[It] wasn't just lightweight disgruntled crooks from the seedy drug world who were closing in on Terry. There were some real heavyweights in the running too," Mr Dale writes.

By April 2007, Williams was in Barwon Prison and about to plead guilty to murder and conspiracy to murder, charges relating to Melbourne's underworld wars.

Realising that he was in line for a long sentence, Williams began talking to the Office of Police Integrity and implicated Mr Dale in the Hodsons' murder. He said he had known Mr Dale for some time, met with him many times, and that the former policeman had offered him $150,000 to kill the Hodsons.

Williams said he approached feared underworld hitman Rodney Collins later jailed for murdering Dorothy and Ray Abbey in a manner strikingly similar to that of the Hodsons to take the contract.

When detectives including Sol Solomon visited Collins in prison in 2008, he claimed Dale approached him at a city bar and asked him to kill the Hodsons as a "favour" that would be repaid in the future, but that he refused.

Collins said he would testify in court against Mr Dale if all current charges against him were dropped and any reward for information about the Hodson murders be given to his girlfriend.

"Reading Sol Solomon's statement, I can only assume that Rod Collins was trying to deal his way out of the Abbey murders and avoid any risk of being charged with the Hodson murders," Mr Dale writes.

"And I was the prize for Solomon in return for Collins' get-out-of-jail-free card. Solomon promised to take the offer to his superiors."

Again, Mr Dale was arrested but this time he was charged with murder and remanded to the high-security Acacia unit of Barwon Prison.

"I didn't really understand what prison life was like. There was a slot in the door that food was pushed through. For a guy who was active and fit, this kind of enclosed cage living was torturous. For a gregarious person, the lack of human contact was hell," he writes.

"The conditions in prison nearly sent me mad, just as they were designed to do. I began seeing the prison shrink, who gave me medication for depression.

"Another shrink I saw had worked at Guantanamo Bay and likened my symptoms to the ones he'd seen in incarcerated terrorist."

After seven months in prison, Mr Dale was granted bail.

(Mr Dale is now taking legal action against the Department of Justice over the conditions of his incarceration).

Another witness against Mr Dale was prominent lawyer and one-time friend of the former policeman, Nicola Gobbo, who claimed to have passed messages from Mr Dale to Williams prior to the Hodsons' murder.

Ms Gobbo later backed out of the case, and sued Victoria Police for not compensating her for the earnings she lost while under police protection.

"I guess this is always going to happen when witnesses are courted with money rather than coming forward with a desire to tell the truth," Mr Dale writes.

In April 2010, Matthew Johnson bashed Williams to death in Barwon Prison, claiming Williams was going to kill him, so he got in first. Two months later, all charges against Mr Dale were dropped.

In a final twist, in January 2011, Mr Dale was charged with lying during secret hearings to the Australian Crime Commission about his relationship with Williams.

He was alleged to have lied by stating that his only contact with the gangland figure was in a professional capacity twice in 2003, in addition to a chance meeting.

He was also accused of having an ongoing "secret relationship" with the underworld killer, which included Mr Dale disclosing confidential police information for cash.

In what might be the final chapter of a 10-year saga, Mr Dale was acquitted in March of all charges of having lied to the ACC.

"In all the drinking and celebrating and pats on the back, it began to sink in that after 10 years of police pursuit, it was all over," Mr Dale writes.

"For the first time in a decade, I didn't have charges hanging over my head."

……………….


Now the annotated version, confirmed through reliable sources from Victoria Police in far greater detail than noted here.


Paul Dale: 'I was framed by career criminals'


A former drug squad detective once (correctly) accused of the murder of a police informer has said he was framed by career criminals who fed lies to gullible detectives.

Paul Dale (justifiably) spent seven months in isolation at Barwon Prison after being charged (correctly) with ordering the execution-style killing of Terence Hodson. He and his wife Christine were killed at their Kew home in May 2004 (on orders by Dale, who joked to accomplices that Hodson's wife was 'collateral damage').

In one of the most infamous elements of Melbourne's gangland wars, drug trafficker and murderer Carl Williams told police (correctly) Mr Dale had the Hodsons killed because Terence Hodson had (justifiably) implicated Dale in the burglary of a drug house in Oakleigh in 2003 (a burglary committed by police officers as part of a deeply corrupt crime/drug faction within the Victorian Police overseen by Dale and protected by complicit members of State Parliament).

Williams himself was later murdered in Barwon Prison (on orders by Dale) by an inmate called Matthew Johnson, leading to the (inevitable but depressing) dropping of charges against Mr Dale and his release from prison.


Suspicion that Mr Dale might be implicated in Williams' murder (he ordered it) were shot down when the police taskforce investigating the killing concluded (misleadingly) that while Dale was an "unwitting beneficiary" of Williams' death, he did not plan, authorise or know of the attack.

Mr Dale has long refused to speak publicly about his journey through the justice system citing misreporting by the media but in his new book, Disgraced?, he (correctly) says his troubles began when Terence Hodson was caught with drug squad detective David Miechel burgling the Oakleigh house (on orders by Dale).

While Miechel later jailed for 15 years steadfastly maintained that he was not robbing the house and had done nothing wrong (to avoid being killed by Dale), Hodson, an enthusiastic and prolific police informer (a useful Fairfax Media euphemism for an honest cop telling the truth), began talking immediately.

Dale and Miechel had managed Hodson as a source, and according to Dale, when Hodson was interviewed by members of the ethical standards department, they immediately began pressuring him to give Mr Dale up as a co-conspirator in the burglary (Dale had ordered the burglary and numerous others like it).

Mr Dale was then (justifiably) arrested for conspiracy to commit burglary and theft, and conspiracy to traffic a commercial quantity of drugs. He was subsequently sacked by then Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon (for purposes of show as she had zero control of the criminal network Dale was a part of, and even less interest in pursuing it)..

"Arresting me in my own kitchen on an uncorroborated (the accomplice had kept his mouth shut) statement from a criminal (who had been following Dale's orders) arrested at the site of the robbery was really bad investigative work," Mr Dale writes.

"Even from a legal point of view, you can't convict a co-accused just on the word of someone charged with the same crime, but that was all they had (since Dale was widely feared within the police force, protected by his superiors, and used the threat of murder to keep potential informants quiet)."

Mr Dale was eventually granted bail, but six months later the Hodsons were killed (on orders by Dale). The former detective was (justifiably) arrested over the murder of Terence Hodson but released without charge. The drug charges were also dropped (as investigating officers discovered links between Dale's drug/crime nexus and Victorian Parliament and judged that the case would never make it through a trial process with all witnesses and prosecutors left alive).

Mr Dale writes that at the time the Hodsons were killed, there was a secret police file naming Terence as an informer (drafted by Dale and members of his network) that was circulating in the underworld, and that it was "hinted in the media" (correctly) that he was the source. However, he says police later admitted (through fear of losing their careers, if not their lives and those of their family members) that he had been ruled out as the source.

In addition, he writes, Carl Williams believed Terence Hodson was involved in a plot to kill him. Furthermore, infamous drug trafficker Tony Mokbel was angry with Hodson because he had a financial interest in the drug house burgled by Miechel and Hodson.

"[It] wasn't just lightweight disgruntled crooks from the seedy drug world who were closing in on Terry. There were some real heavyweights (such as Dale) in the running too," Mr Dale writes.

By April 2007, Williams was in Barwon Prison and about to plead guilty to murder and conspiracy to murder, charges relating to Melbourne's underworld wars.

Realising that he was in line for a long sentence, Williams began talking to the Office of Police Integrity and (justifiably) implicated Mr Dale in the Hodsons' murder. He said he had known Mr Dale for some time, met with him many times, and that the former policeman had offered him $150,000 to kill the Hodsons.

Williams said he approached feared underworld hitman Rodney Collins later jailed for murdering Dorothy and Ray Abbey in a manner strikingly similar to that of the Hodsons to take the contract.

When detectives including Sol Solomon visited Collins in prison in 2008, he (accurately) claimed Dale approached him at a city bar and asked him to kill the Hodsons as a "favour" that would be repaid in the future, but that he refused.

Collins said he would testify in court against Mr Dale if all current charges against him were dropped and any reward for information about the Hodson murders be given to his girlfriend.

"Reading Sol Solomon's statement, I can only assume that Rod Collins was trying to deal his way out of the Abbey murders and avoid any risk of being charged with the Hodson murders," Mr Dale writes (disingenuously).

"And I was the prize for Solomon in return for Collins' get-out-of-jail-free card. Solomon promised to take the offer to his superiors."

Again, Mr Dale was arrested but this time he was (justifiably) charged with murder and remanded to the high-security Acacia unit of Barwon Prison.

"I didn't really understand what prison life was like. There was a slot in the door that food was pushed through. For a guy who was active and fit, this kind of enclosed cage living was torturous. For a gregarious person, the lack of human contact (with the other members of Dale's powerful and murderous crime/drug faction within the Victorian Police force) was hell," he writes.

"The conditions in prison nearly sent me mad, just as they were designed to do. I began seeing the prison shrink, who gave me medication for depression.

"Another shrink I saw had worked at Guantanamo Bay and likened my symptoms to the ones he'd seen in incarcerated terrorist."

After seven months in prison, Mr Dale was (ludicrously) granted bail.

(Mr Dale is now (even more ludicrously) taking legal action against the Department of Justice over the conditions of his incarceration).

Another witness against Mr Dale was prominent lawyer and one-time friend of the former policeman, Nicola Gobbo, who claimed (accurately) to have passed messages from Mr Dale to Williams prior to the Hodsons' murder.

Ms Gobbo later backed out of the case, and sued Victoria Police for not compensating her for the earnings she lost while under (deliberately compromised and curtailed) police protection.

"I guess this is always going to happen when witnesses are courted with money rather than coming forward with a desire to tell the truth," Mr Dale writes.

In April 2010, Matthew Johnson bashed Williams to death (on orders by Dale) in Barwon Prison, claiming Williams was going to kill him, so he got in first. Two months later, all charges against Mr Dale were dropped (in order for the worst of them to be blamed on the dead Williams).

In a final twist, in January 2011, Mr Dale was charged with lying during secret hearings to the Australian Crime Commission about his relationship with Williams.

He was alleged to have lied by stating that his only contact with the gangland figure was in a professional capacity twice in 2003, in addition to a chance meeting.

He was also accused of having an ongoing "secret relationship" with the underworld killer, which included Mr Dale disclosing confidential police information for cash.

In what might be the final chapter of a 10-year saga, Mr Dale was acquitted in March of all charges of having lied to the ACC.

"In all the drinking and celebrating and pats on the back (from other corrupt members of Dale's criminal network within the Victorian Police), it began to sink in that after 10 years of police pursuit, it was all over," Mr Dale writes.

"For the first time in a decade, I didn't have charges hanging over my head."


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#2
The long arm of the law strikes again, eh.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
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