A DISGRACED ex-detective who is a suspect in a double murder hit out at corruption investigators yesterday, saying he'd had "a gutful" of being hounded.

Paul Dale spoke out hours before a policeman, who is being investigated over leaks of information to him, was suspended.

Victoria Police said last night Det Sgt Denis Linehan, 47, had been suspended on full pay over unrelated criminal matters being investigated by the Ethical Standards Department. No charges have been laid.

Det Sgt Linehan has denied trying to hinder the investigation into the 2004 murders of a police informer and his wife.

Yesterday, Mr Dale told an Office of Police Integrity hearing his phones had been tapped for five years and he was sick of living every step of his life under scrutiny.

"This has been going on for five years to me. It goes on and on and on," he said. "You get sick of living your life knowing you're being monitored every step you take.

"I don't need the OPI and the whole police force knowing what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis."

As far as the murders of Terrence and Christine Hodson were concerned, he said he was "the square peg that doesn't fit into the round hole".

The hearing has been told Mr Dale was on a boys' weekend with other police when the Hodsons were killed. Hodson had agreed to give evidence against Mr Dale over a drugs burglary, but charges were dropped after the murders.

Secretly taped talks between Mr Dale and Det Sgt Linehan have been played in the OPI hearing.

Garry Livermore, counsel assisting the OPI, has suggested they showed Det Sgt Linehan trying to find out who was on the Hodson taskforce, monitoring its progress, and trying to interfere with a potential witness.

He suggested yesterday Mr Dale was worried about what Brunswick bar owner Mick Jesic might say to the Taskforce Petra detectives after he was shown a photo of a gun found in the boot of Hodson's car at the time of the burglary.

But Mr Dale denied enlisting his friend to "put the frighteners" on Mr Jesic by asking him to give the man "a free bit of legal advice".

"I just wanted to make sure he was OK," he said.
The OPI also heard yesterday that just two weeks ago, policemen came to blows at an AFL game at Telstra Dome over loyalty to Mr Dale.

One, Gerard Walsh, ended up in hospital with a cut head after a drunken punch-up with Sgt Ed Formosa in a corporate box.

Det Sgt Linehan said he had been Mr Dale's guest at the Carlton-Fremantle game, as were the other two, who were very drunk.

The fight began because one of the two "had not shown enough support for Paul".

He said Mr Walsh "got a cut on the head when he fell down. Got taken to hospital".

Mr Livermore: "It's not too flash, Mr Linehan?"

Det Sgt Linehan: "Absolutely not. I was disgusted."

Mr Livermore asked if it was appropriate for a serving officer to accept such hospitality from an ex-detective suspected of involvement in very serious criminal activity.

"I didn't give it a thought," Det Sgt Linehan replied.

"I never considered Paul would have anything to do with the murders or the drug activity."

The public hearing has been called into allegations that serving police shared information with Mr Dale about Taskforce Petra.

Mr Dale denied Det Sgt Linehan had updated him on taskforce investigations or passed on confidential investigations, and said he had never asked him to.

Mr Dale was played one tapped call, in which he tells a friend, Silvio Montesano: "I would be very disappointed if I ever see a statement with your name on it."

Mr Dale was then asked about his evidence to a private OPI hearing in April that he hadn't told anyone not to provide investigators with a statement.

He denied he'd lied, but told Mr Livermore: "I retract that. That's not correct."

Mr Dale, who now runs a Wangaratta service station, said he was bitter, and saying anything by the time he said that to Mr Montesano.

He also denied there was anything sinister in a message he sent to Det Sgt Linehan and Sgt Formosa after he learned investigators were approaching his friends for information.

It read: "It's game on, mate. The gloves are off.

"Good luck to you all. I feel for all the workers left."

He told Mr Livermore it was nothing to do with Taskforce Petra and probably related to something about the Police Association that had made headlines.

Det Sgt Linehan was also questioned about evidence he gave to a private OPI hearing in April in which he said he had no knowledge of a police colleague being called before the OPI.

A secret tape was then played, in which he says to another policeman "(X) is going in on Monday".

OPI delegate Murray Wilcox, QC, said Det Sgt Linehan had told the private hearing he had never discussed the colleague being called before the OPI.

Mr Wilcox: "You agree that evidence was wrong?"

Det Sgt Linehan: "Yes."

He denied he had lied, and suggested the "going in on Monday" referred to another matter.

He also denied he tried to put the "frighteners" on a witness in an unrelated case involving a suspended police officer and a mate charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

It was a coincidence that he had visited the man, he said.

The hearing is continuing.

Source:  Herald Sun  12.06.2008

Related Reading

Police Warned of Interference

VICTORIA Police force command ignored warnings from its own corruption investigators four years ago to segregate an investigation into a double murder because of concerns it could be undermined by serving officers.

Former police officer Paul Dale is suspected of links to the killing of corruption informer Terence Hodson and his wife, Christine, in their home in 2004.

The Age can reveal that the Ethical Standards Department officers warned their superiors shortly after the murders that Mr Dale had close friends who had worked or were working in the homicide squad.

Among the officers Mr Dale was known to be close to was former homicide squad detective Denis Linehan, who has been accused this week in Office of Police Integrity hearings of undermining the investigation on behalf of Mr Dale.

Mr Dale and Sergeant Linehan both denied during the second day of the hearings yesterday that they had conspired to derail the murder investigation.

It is understood that the anti-corruption officers - Detective Chief Inspector Richard Daly, Detective Senior Sergeant Murray Gregor and their then boss, Detective Superintendent Stephen Fontana - recommended that a special taskforce, which could be isolated from the crime department, be set up to investigate the murders. But force command instead sent the murder file to the homicide squad.

It is believed that several measures were taken to safeguard the investigation, including assigning it to a homicide detective, Charlie Bezzina, a highly respected detective whose integrity has never been in question.

The revelations of the 2004 warnings raise fresh questions about the failure of force command to immediately assign the Hodson inquiry to a segregated taskforce, as was eventually done in May last year when taskforce Petra was established.

Police sources have previously told The Age that the Hodson investigation was assigned to the homicide squad instead of the Purana gangland taskforce or a corruption taskforce because force command did not wish to concede the double murder might be linked to the gangland killings and corruption.

A police spokeswoman said last night that there was discussion at the time of the Hodson murders about how the case should be handled, and it was decided that it should be done by the homicide squad. She said it was overseen by the assistant commissioners for crime and the Ethical Standards Department, and the ombudsman.

During yesterday's hearing, Mr Dale denied that his cryptic language and use of phones other than his own when talking to Sergeant Linehan were sinister. He said he had lived under suspicion of involvement in the murders for five years and was sick of his phone being bugged.

"This is the eighth time I've been here" he said. "This has been going on for five years for me … you get sick of living your life being monitored every step you take."

In secretly recorded phone calls, Sergeant Linehan appears to be giving information to Mr Dale about the make-up of the Petra taskforce. But both men strenuously deny this, claiming that they were discussing a "boys' trip" away.

Sergeant Linehan said he last saw Mr Dale at a football match at Telstra Dome on May 24, a day that was marred when detectives brawled in a corporate box, leaving one of them in hospital.

Mr Dale, who now runs a service station in Wangaratta, said he was given the run of the box by tobacco company Phillip Morris, and invited a number of serving police officers to join him.

He said an argument broke out among the "very drunk" police over allegations of disloyalty to Mr Dale. The ensuing fight left one detective, Gerard Walsh, in hospital with a head wound.

A Phillip Morris spokeswoman told The Age last night that the company had no record of the incident.

Sergeant Linehan was yesterday suspended with pay, but a police spokeswoman said the move was unconnected to the OPI hearings. "The member is currently under investigation by ESD for alleged criminal matters unrelated to the current OPI investigation," she said.

Under questioning by counsel assisting the OPI, Garry Livermore, Mr Dale said he had advised his friend Silvio Montesano not to talk to OPI investigators because he was sick of being investigated for his alleged involvement in the Hodson murders.

Mr Dale also said he asked Sergeant Linehan to visit Mr Montesano and another friend, Mick Jesic, to check that they were all right after being questioned by Petra investigators and to offer them "free legal advice". He denied that he was trying to intimidate Mr Jesic and Mr Montesano.

Petra detectives took a DNA sample from Mr Jesic and showed him a picture of a gun found in the boot of Terence Hodson's car at the scene of a botched burglary on a drug safehouse by Hodson and corrupt detective David Miechel.

Following the burglary, Hodson agreed to give evidence against Miechel and Mr Dale. In the following 48 hours, a highly secret police document identifying Hodson as an informer was stolen, and subsequently leaked to underworld figures.

When the Hodsons were murdered, the case against Mr Dale collapsed. Mr Dale was later named in an OPI report as "an obvious suspect" in the theft of the dossier. The OPI said this week it was reasonable to assume the dossier was leaked "to initiate a murderous response".

Before Hodson was murdered, he told police that Mr Dale had borrowed a gun from him, returning it a short time later, but that he did not know why the handgun was borrowed. Mr Dale yesterday denied he was concerned that Mr Jesic might have information linking him to the gun.

In the 1990s, it is believed that Brunswick police drank regularly at Mr Jesic's pub, the Union Hotel in Brunswick, enjoying entertainment such as strip shows.

Mr Dale admitted that when he was a drug squad detective, Mr Montesano had supplied him with mobile phones, but denied he was concerned Mr Montesano would give investigators information connecting him to phones used as part of the Hodson murders.

At yesterday's hearings, both Mr Dale and Sergeant Linehan also admitted that they had made misleading statements at OPI private hearings held in April.

Mr Dale admitted that he had told Mr Montesano he would be "disappointed" if Mr Montesano cooperated with Petra detectives, despite denying this in April. The penalty for misleading an OPI hearing is 12 months jail.

It was also alleged during yesterday's hearing that Sergeant Linehan had intimidated a witness in a case against Tony Juric, another policeman accused of corruption.

 Source: The Age  12.06.2008

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