Gypsy Joker gets last laugh when murder case fails

By GREG ANSLEY Australia correspondent

CANBERRA - A two-year investigation into the car-bomb killing of one of Western Australia's most senior former detectives has collapsed with the acquittal of a prominent bikie.

Graeme "Slim" Slater, of the outlaw Gypsy Joker motorcycle gang, had been charged with killing former CIB head Don Hancock and a bookie friend, Lou Lewis, in September 2001.

The murder, for which Gypsy Joker-turned-informer Sid "Snot" Reid was sent to jail for 15 years, was in revenge for the killing of another gang member near Hancock's pub in the mining town of Kalgoorlie, on the fringes of the vast Nullarbor Plain.

The gang believed Billy Grierson was shot by an infuriated Hancock after a riotous drinking spree in the historic Ora Banda Hotel in October 2000.

Reid claimed Slater had become obsessed with Grierson's death and Hancock's supposed role, and had planned and carried out the execution of the former detective.

But the prosecution's case failed because of Reid's dubious evidence and because Slater had a rock-solid alibi: a well-respected grandmother, returning from cleaning the local church, had seen the bikie at his mother's house in Northam, more than an hour's drive from Perth, at the time he was supposed to have blown up Hancock and his unfortunate racing friend.

The case had significance beyond the attempt to send Slater, 36, to jail.

It raised questions about the police investigation into Grierson's murder, and about the deals done to secure Reid's evidence - including a reduced sentence, protective custody at a secret location, conjugal visits by his girlfriend, a TV and a PlayStation.

Slater's acquittal also follows the failure of the case against another Perth bikie, Club Dero member Andrew Edhouse, charged with the murder of a rival gang member during a brutal turf war two years ago.

West Australian police have joined increasing nationwide efforts to crack down on bike gangs, alleged to be heavily involved in organised crime and to control a large slice of the trade in illicit drugs, especially amphetamines.

Last year the State Government, spurred by the killing of Hancock and Lewis, introduced new laws to end a suspect's right to silence where organised crime was involved, and to allow police to enter premises without a warrant.

Slater's prosecution, launched after an intensive investigation code-named Operation Zircon, was to have been a feather in the police's cap.

But the jury was not convinced.