[AAP - Daniel Fogarty] Former drug squad detective Paul Dale has denied asking underworld boss Carl Williams to kill anyone for him, during examinations by Australia’s crime-fighting body.
Dale, 42, admitted knowing Williams but said his association with him was work related and that when he first met Williams he wasn’t “this massive bloody killer”.
A transcript of the Australian Crime Commission’s (ACC) interview with Williams was released to the media on Friday.
The release comes a day after Dale was committed to stand trial in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for lying or misleading the ACC in inquiries about Williams.
Statements tendered to the committal hearing allege Dale would provide Williams with tip-offs about the whereabouts of other criminals and drug matters.
One statement from a man known as Witness B said that despite people dying around them during the gangland war Williams was not worried because he had a “copper sweet”, who would always let him know if there was surveillance of them or their phones.
Witness B said he knew this policeman was Dale.
But in November 2008, Dale told investigators he only met Williams for legitimate reasons.
“I’ve never asked Carl Williams to kill anyone or arranged anyone to be killed, so clearly that’s where this is leading,” he told the investigators.
Dale gave similar evidence at an earlier inquiry in March 2007.
“Look, I met Carl Williams a few times in my endeavours to be a top-notch detective,” he told the ACC.
But Witness B’s statement paints a different picture of the relationship between Dale and Williams.
“Blokes were dropping like flies and [task force] Purana were all over us,” Witness B alleged in his statement.
“Carl said not to worry, that he had a copper sweet and I knew that he meant Dale would always let him know if he was red hot and he would also let Carl know if the target was red hot too.”
“Carl trusted him 100 per cent. Whatever he said, Carl would believe it without a doubt.”
Dale has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges of giving false evidence or misleading the ACC and one charge of disclosing to a person that he had been summonsed to appear before the ACC.
His case is due in the Victorian County Court in February for a directions hearing.
Williams was murdered in a high-security unit at Barwon Prison in April 2010. … full article here.
