Talking points

• The Supreme Court murder trial heard from Darren Sherren, a police officer who was nearby when  Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller were shot dead in Moorabbin in 1998.
• The witness recalled seeing his colleagues with an intercepted vehicle and only noticed one person in that car.
• Jason Roberts, 41, is on trial, facing two counts of murder.

One of the police officers first on the scene after two of his colleagues were fatally shot has recalled he was unable to see if a second person was inside a suspect car in the moments before he heard three bursts of gunshots fired in a Melbourne street.

Darren Sherren was a senior constable when he and then-colleague Frank Bendeich heard gunshots in Cochranes Road, Moorabbin, after midnight on August 16, 1998, having moments earlier driven past police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller, who were standing near a car they had pulled over.

Sergeant Gary Silk (left) and Senior Constable Rodney Miller.

The four officers were in two unmarked cars on a stake-out outside the Silky Emperor Chinese restaurant as police investigated a series of armed robberies on restaurants and other small businesses in Melbourne’s eastern and southern suburbs over the preceding five months.

A Supreme Court trial has heard Sergeant Silk and Senior Constable Miller followed a car that left the Silky Emperor car park and pulled it over moments later. Mr Sherren told the court on Monday the interception seemed calm and routine when he and Mr Bendeich drove past the two stationary cars.

They pulled their car into a side street about 100 metres away to keep watch.

“Everything seemed to be fine at that point in time, and then all hell broke loose,” Mr Sherren said.

“I heard four gunshots … it was four shots in quick succession.”

Jason Roberts (right) outside the Supreme Court.Credit:Jason South

Mr Sherren said after a second burst of shots, he reported the gunfire on police radio and he and Mr Bendeich went to the back of their car to retrieve bullet-proof vests from the boot. The second burst made a “bang, pop, bang, pop” sound, which suggested different calibre guns.

“I remember Frank yelling, ‘They’re shooting at them’,” he said.

As he and Mr Bendeich grappled with pulling the vests from a shelf, Mr Sherren heard a third volley of shots. He said there were about four shots in each of the three bursts, but he didn’t see who fired them.

After the gunfire, he saw the suspect car drive along Cochranes Road past the side street.

“I thought it was the same vehicle coming around to get us,” he said.

“The speed that it was travelling at … I thought we’d been seen earlier as we went past, and I believed they were coming around to have a go at us.”

But the car drove away and Mr Bendeich and Mr Sherren drove to their colleagues’ car, where they found Sergeant Silk dead and Senior Constable Miller missing. They called for an ambulance, and Senior Constable Miller was later found critically injured. He died in hospital.

Prosecutors allege Jason Roberts and Bandali Debs were inside the car pulled over by Sergeant Silk and Senior Constable Miller, and that they shot and killed the officers.

Mr Roberts, 41, has pleaded not guilty to two counts to murder. He argues he was not in Moorabbin at the time.

Justice Stephen Kaye has told the jury Debs and Mr Roberts were convicted of the murders in 2002, but the Court of Appeal granted Mr Roberts a retrial.

Mr Sherren said on Monday that when he and Mr Bendeich drove past the stationary cars, at walking pace, he saw Sergeant Silk standing speaking to the driver, who was standing near the open driver’s door. Senior Constable Miller was standing behind the intercepted car.

Mr Sherren said he saw the driver had dark hair, was unshaven, about 170 centimetres tall and wore a flannel shirt. But, asked if he was in a position to tell if anyone else was in the car, he said: “No.”

He couldn’t recall if the intercepted car had its interior light on, and the street lighting was “average”.

Later, under cross-examination by defence barrister Michael McGrath, Mr Sherren said he had focused on looking at the two officers and the driver of the suspect car, but not inside the intercepted car.

“I was looking at the two members and the person they were talking to. My gaze was concentrating on the body language of the two members and the person they were talking to,” he said.

The trial heard that in 2001, Mr Sherren told a court hearing he would have been instructed to look to see how many people were inside the car, and that the way the other officers stood suggested they had only seen one person.

On Monday, he was asked if he believed there was only one person in the car. He replied: “I only saw one person.”

The trial continues.

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