Dale paid me to kill Hodson: Williams

 

Disgraced police officer Paul Dale paid underworld killer Carl Williams $150,000 to organise the murder of a man who was to testify against him, a court has heard. The trial into Williams' murder heard Dale also allegedly offered to kill Williams' gangland rival Jason Moran for $400,000 and regularly accepted cash in return for information on police operations. Despite admitting he had no argument with Dale's alleged victim, Terrence Hodson, Williams told police he organised an old mate to do the job. Advertisement: Story continues below "The Hodson job meant nothing to me personally, so I thought I'd ask if (name suppressed) was available," Williams told police. "It just really didn't matter to me whether it got done or not." The allegation is contained in a written statement Williams gave police two months before he was killed in Barwon Prison last year by the accused, Matthew Johnson. The statement was read to the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday and suppressed until Thursday. Dale and another former drug squad detective were facing court with Hodson over a bungled burglary. Hodson was killed before he was due to give evidence against the pair and Dale was not convicted. Evidence emerging from the murder trial of Matthew Charles Johnson, who is accused of killing Williams in Barwon Prison in April last year, has revealed the relationship between Dale, who was charged over the Hodson murder, Williams and other criminals. The evidence is contained in three statements Williams made to police as part of his deal to give evidence in the murder investigation into Dale and the hitman who killed Hodson and his wife Christine. It also reveals Ms Hodson was not part of the contract allegedly struck between Dale, Williams and the hitman. Williams said he asked the hitman "what about the sheila?" when he learned of Christine Hodson's death, only to be told he need not worry. Having organised the hit on Hodson, Williams said he arranged with Dale to have the $150,000 dropped into a wheelie bin at his mother's Essendon home. The court heard Dale told Williams he could give him information on police operations and other matters in return for money and the pair met regularly over the next couple of years. "On most occasions when I met with Dale I gave him an envelope with money in it," Williams said in a statement. Most of the payments were between $2000 and $5000, although Williams said he twice handed over $10,000. In one of his statements, Williams told police Dale had offered to kill gangland rival Jason Moran. "Dale said he could kill Jason for $400,000," he said. "I told them they were dreaming." Williams was convicted of Moran's murder, along with those of his father Lewis Moran and drug dealers Michael Marshall and Mark Mallia. Williams made the first of his three statements to police in connection with Dale and the Hodson murders in April 2007, when he was about to be sentenced for the three murders. In his initial statement he said Dale had told him he wanted Hodson killed and Williams offered help if it was needed. Williams said the negotiation went no further and that he didn't know who had killed the Hodsons. Almost three years later, while he was in jail, he made two further, and more frank, statements. "I didn't want to tell everything," he told police. "My attitude has changed." Dale questioned Williams' credibility and motivation for making his statements. "I'd like to ask people to probably look at the details of the person making the allegations firstly and then secondly look at the motivation behind what he's done," he told the Ten Network on Thursday. "Mind you, the things he said were said years later, after he's had plenty of time to think about ways of bettering his position. But look that's all going to be tested down the track." The murder case against Dale and the hitman fell apart when Williams was killed. Dale is now operating a service station in Wangaratta. Johnson's trial before Justice Lex Lasry is continuing.