Chapter 15

Who knew?

In statements given to detectives after the Hodsons were murdered, a number of people admitted knowing something was going to happen to Terry. What is most interesting is when they knew.

For the official police story to work, it has to work in both directions. They’d later claim that a week before the murders, I asked Carl Williams to organise a hitman. But drug-house babysitter Abbey Haynes made a statement saying that she knew Terry Hodson was marked for death two weeks beforehand; the information came from Azzam ‘Adam’ Ahmed.1 Here is what Abbey had to say:

About two weeks or so before the murder of the Hodsons, I was over at Adam’s house one night. On that night, we were talking and the subject of the burglary came up and we were talking about Hodson and Dale and Miechel, as we did. Adam then told me that something was going to happen to Terrence Hodson. Adam never mentioned Christine’s name at all. I can’t recall the exact words he used but I was left in no doubt that there was an intention to kill Terrence Hodson. Adam never mentioned any names to me about who was involved in the plan. I formed the opinion that Adam had been told of specific information about a plan to kill Terrence Hodson. I do not believe that Adam just made an off-the-cuff comment that Hodson might be killed. I didn’t question Adam any further about what he knew. I didn’t really want to know…

A day or two before the murders, I was talking on the phone to Adam… on that occasion, he told me to be out on the Saturday night. He told me to make sure that I was seen by people. I didn’t ask Adam why he told me to be out. I suspected that he was telling me to be out and be seen because there was an intention to kill Terrence Hodson on that night.

 

That Saturday night, Abbey Haynes did as Ahmed told her and went clubbing in Albert Park. In the small hours of Sunday morning – about fifteen hours before the bodies were discovered – Abbey got a call from Azzam Ahmed. In her statement, she says Ahmed told her that the thing they had spoken about was done.

She took it to mean that Terry Hodson was dead.

 

Superintendent Dick Daly also suggested that he knew something was in the wind on Tuesday, 11 May – the Tuesday before the murders. In his statement, he said that he went to the Investigation Support Division of ESD ‘where I listened to telephone calls involving persons named Carl Williams, Adam Shand and David McCulloch with reference to a document in which Terry Hodson was named’.

While he admits discussing this turn of events with the head of the Purana Taskforce, Daly doesn’t mention any particular concerns.2

 

As well as Abbey Haynes and Azzam Ahmed discussing the murders two weeks before they happened, and some police members thinking something was in the wind, Terry Hodson himself had predicted his own end.

In her statement, one of the Hodsons’ daughters told police that her mum and dad had been talking for a while about how they’d probably be killed.

‘Dad has always said that he was a dead man walking because of the statements he’d made. Dad sat us all down at Christmas time and said that he’d done things during his life that he wasn’t proud of. He said, “I’ve made my bed and now I’ve got to lie in it.” Dad was certain he was going to be killed; it was just a matter of where and when. Both Mum and Dad accepted that they couldn’t change what was probably to come.

‘Dad had said if it wasn’t the crims, it would be the police that would get him and Mum. I only assume that Dad believed police might kill him because he’d made statements against Miechel. I’ve got no idea why Mum had accepted that she was going to be killed. We as a family were never ones to be morbid. We knew that he was probably going to get knocked. He was offered witness protection but he would not take it, which is something I couldn’t understand. He chose to stay at home with Mum.’3

It is interesting that Terry Hodson had said if it wasn’t the crooks, it would be the police. Even he felt he had more chance of being offed by his fellow criminals, who, by then, everyone knew he’d double-crossed.

 

After Andrew Hodson leapt forward at the crime scene and declared, ‘Fuckin’ Dale’s done it!’, he steadfastly refused to admit to investigators that his father had any other enemies but me and Dave Miechel. But while they looked in my direction, they also looked very closely at the Hodson offspring – because of the rumours that Terry Hodson had informed on all of his own children – and at Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.

In early June, Ethical Standards Department detective Peter De Santo had a conversation with Andrew. Two days later, warrants were granted to tap a number of Andrew’s phones. A warrant was also obtained for a surveillance device to be placed on his car.

Detectives also visited Carl Williams in prison to talk to him about the telephone intercepts that had him discussing Terry Hodson with a journalist not long before Terry was murdered.

Homicide detectives Charlie Bezzina and Cameron Davey interviewed Tony Mokbel, who was a picture of helpfulness. No, he didn’t know Terry Hodson. Yes, he knew Andrew Hodson – they were in jail together. Yes, he’d met up with Andrew a few times since they were released. No, he had no hard feelings against Terry. No, he didn’t fund Andrew Hodson’s bail application. Yes, he was a guarantor for Andrew’s bail application. No, Andrew Hodson didn’t work for the Mokbel family. Yes, he knew Azzam Ahmed and the Ahmed family very well. No, he had no involvement in the drug press operation at the Dublin Street house. No, he didn’t know who killed the Hodsons, and if he did, he wouldn’t tell the police anyway.