source : the age
To do his job as a homicide detective Sol Solomon knew he had to remain cool and clinical – a task at its most challenging when he was called to Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, in the early hours of August 16, 1998.
Two police on stakeout duty, Gary Silk and Rod Miller, had been shot. Silk died immediately while Miller succumbed to his wounds in hospital.
When he arrived the crime scene had not been touched and Silk’s body was still near his unmarked police car. “To see him lying there, dead on the nature strip, with his revolver still in its holster. I really did have to sort of shake myself and steel myself and try to keep it together.”
After a 12-month investigation, the armed robbery team believed to have been pulled up by Silk and Miller in Cochranes Road near the Silky Emperor restaurant was alleged to be Bandali Debs and the younger Jason Roberts.
Both were convicted of the murders but decades later it was discovered a police statement over the claim that the dying Rod Miller told police at the scene that there were two offenders and one was on foot had been altered without telling the defence.
Roberts won a retrial and this time he admitted he was Debs’ armed robbery partner but was not with him that night, which meant the two police were killed by a lone offender using two guns. Roberts was acquitted and received more than $4 million in compensation.
Before the re-trial Roberts formally applied to the court to ask what sentence he would receive if he pleaded guilty to Silk’s but not Miller’s murder. When he was told 40 years he exercised his right for a jury trial.
The Crown alleged Roberts fired the first shot, killing Silk, Miller returned fire and Debs then killed him.
In the retrial Debs gave a different version, testifying that he fired the first shots, ambushing Miller, and that Roberts then murdered Silk.
Instead of accepting Debs’ version (which made him a cold-blooded killer, rather than responding in a gunfight), the Crown called him a liar, damaging his credibility in front of the jury.
Debs is serving life for four murders (Silk, Miller, Kristy Harty in Melbourne and Donna Hicks in Sydney) in a NSW prison. Solomon and a colleague secretly went to see him last year, hoping he would confess to unsolved murders in exchange for a move to a Victorian prison where he could see his family.
“We went up cold, not giving him any notice, and we thought he wouldn’t see us, but he said yes, and we chatted for about 90 minutes. He said we might not believe him, but he hadn’t done any more.
“He was filthy that Roberts was acquitted. He said, ‘We were both doing these armed robberies together. I wouldn’t have gone and attempted to do a robbery all by myself, it was not something I would do. And if I was just going down there to stake out the Silky Emperor, I wouldn’t be taking guns with me. His job was to tie them [the victims] up. I wouldn’t have tried to rob a busy restaurant without him.’”
Ultimately, the jury did not believe Debs, and Roberts was acquitted.
The good guy
Sol is universally known as a good guy (except for one crooked cop who still holds a grudge) and there is no doubt his easy manner has led many crooks to confess to him.
Successfully nominated for the Australian Police Medal, testimonies included the following.
Prosecutor Michele Williams SC: “He has always been approachable, astute, dedicated, honest and completely committed to the task at hand. His compassion for victims has enabled them to have more faith in the system.”
Detective inspector Gavan Ryan: “His demeanour is a great investigative tool, together with a determined passionate but unobtrusive attitude that he uses to quietly persuade witnesses/suspects to tell the truth.”
Sol says, “I have worked with some outstanding detectives in homicide and taskforces over the years.”
One of his highlights was hearing a killer confess, not to him in a Melbourne interview room but interstate in an elaborate undercover sting.
It was the murder of Annette Steward, 29, who was found in March 1992 strangled with the cord from her iron in her Geelong West home.
“It was a particularly brutal murder, and it was investigated very thoroughly by the first homicide crew in 1992 and no suspects were identified. The case went cold for many years, until a million-dollar award was offered for information.”
It sparked a call. It was not evidence but third-hand information nominating a man who had been to the house – Darren Chalmers.
Solomon says the name was in the file. Steward’s television was fuzzy, and she asked a friend to come around and try to fix the aerial.
Sure enough the friend, a second man and Chalmers went to the house. Chalmers said he chatted to her and left – a fact corroborated by the other two men. What they didn’t know was that he returned that night and killed her.
“The lead investigator noticed that there were some hairs collected by the original crime scene people so they went off to forensics for DNA examination, and the results came in that Darren Chalmers hair couldn’t be excluded as the hair that was found on Annette’s body.”
Chalmers’ criminal record led him to Perth and Solomon’s crew rang homicide detectives in WA to see if they knew anything about the suspect.
“They told us that they’re looking at him on suspicion over the 2019 disappearance of Dianne Barrett who lived in his street.
“She had just vanished, and he was the last person to have had any contact with her. We decided to join forces.”
Police ran a four-month undercover operation leading Chalmers to confess he had killed Barrett. Solomon was listening along with the lead Perth investigator. “He was crying. They were tears of joy and relief.”
Solomon feared that with the confession the case of Steward could be lost but the Perth police continued the sting. The next day he confessed to the Geelong murder.
“There is nothing like the exhilaration of hearing a crook confess like that.”
Chalmers pleaded guilty to both murders and is serving life with a minimum of 36 years.
A gruesome find
There are astute detectives and then there are card-carrying idiots.
Take the case where a woman made a gruesome discovery in the women’s lavatory at Flinders Street Station – a penis.
Sol Solomon said a senior officer said this was not proof of death. “Unfortunately, the penis didn’t cut it with management, so the case was left with the City West CIB.
“They did a terrific job and identified the offender as David Philip. I became involved to interview the offender, with the City West detective.
“He was insane. I’ll never forget that when we were interviewing Philip, he described how he sliced off parts of the thigh and cooked it on a wok. It was something straight out of Hannibal Lecter and Silence of the Lambs.”
Neighbourhood watch
A neighbour looking out of his Glen Waverley home exposed an international crime ring that would cost a young man his life.
The neighbour saw the victim bundled into a car with one of the few clues, a Marlboro baseball cap found at the scene. Police established it was one of a promotional batch handed out at US airports for buying duty-free cigarettes.
Police traced two brothers who bought four cartons at 12.46am on April 20, 1996, in the North America Shop at the Tom Bradley International Terminal in the Los Angeles airport, providing their ticket details to be given the duty-free discount.
The ticket showed they were flying to Sydney via Hong Kong and then Melbourne.
On the orders of an Asian crime boss based in London, they were to abduct Le Anh Tuan, 21, who was to be used as ransom over an alleged debt accrued by his family.
Solomon says police set up a trap at Southern Cross Station where the ransom was supposed to be paid. “One of the offenders spotted police, and they were arrested on the spot.
“The victim’s mother had been contacted from London by the principal offender. He said ‘You’ve betrayed us. Told you not to do that. That’s it. You won’t be hearing from us any more.’”
Solomon says one of the men arrested tried to swallow a note with international numbers that helped find suspects in the US, London, Australia and Hong Kong.
The victim’s mother ran a successful clothing importation business. The syndicate wanted her to hide drugs in the shipments and when she refused, she was expected to pay $400,000 in compensation, which is why her son was kidnapped.
The victim’s body was recovered in a Noble Park stormwater drain.
The crime boss, Truong Hong Phuc, was extradited to Melbourne and sentenced to a minimum of 23 years, eight months. He was the lucky one. Sol recalls, “We found one of the brothers from Los Angeles in prison in Vietnam for drug trafficking. Before we could extradite him, he was executed. Another offender was executed in China.”
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