VIC:Williams was only trying to help

AAP General News (Australia)
12-10-2010
VIC:Williams was only trying to help

By Mike Hedge

GEELONG, Dec 10 AAP - A caring family man or a greedy, manipulative coward.

High-rolling drug lord or snivelling dobber.

Or a plain dill.

New sides to the sometimes chaotic, sometimes exotic and mostly pathetic life of Carl
Williams have emerged this week in a Geelong courtroom.

As did previously unseen glimpses of the unwritten code of the criminal world.

Williams, who took a bullet to the stomach in 1999 and in a decade-long fit of revenge,
proceeded to kill off his enemies, ended up with his head caved in and his brains splattered
around a prison cell.

As has often been the trend in Melbourne's underworld, the man accused of killing him
was someone he regarded as a friend.

Matthew Charles Johnson, the man accused of murdering Williams, was on remand in Barwon
Prison when he met Williams who was beginning a 35-year sentence that lasted less than
four.

Along with an old mate of Williams', Tommy Ivanovic, they shared a unit in the high-security
Acacia wing of Barwon Prison.

For the first year or so everything went as well as it could in prison.

Williams and Johnson became firm friends. Williams' father even made monthly contributions
to Johnson's prison "bank" account.

The trouble was, things started going too well for Carl.

Before he was sentenced in 2007 for murdering four underworld figures, Williams had
been helping police who, in return, had promised to help him.

Williams made a series of statements to police in relation to a corruption investigation,
and at one stage he was taken from prison for seven days to provide more assistance.

During his week on the outside, Williams was allowed to spend a day in private with
his girlfriend.

In order to keep their man sweet, the police also arranged, among other things, for
the payment of a $750,000 tax debt owed by his father; they gave Williams immunity from
further prosecution; paid his daughter's school fees; and were to give assistance in his
appeal against the 35-year sentence.

But the senior police officer handling the man described by a judge as Australia's
worst serial killer told the court Williams always wanted more.

Many believe that contributed largely to his death.

The manager of Barwon Prison Nick Silesky gave evidence at Johnson's committal hearing
this week that the prison population knew of Williams' role in the corruption investigation.

Inadvertently, Williams himself made sure of it.

Police gave evidence at the committal hearing that he requested copies of statements
he made to them.

Aware of the dangers of the statements being on paper, he requested they be on a CD
that he could view on his computer.

Within no time at all, the same statements had been lifted from the computer. Some
were allegedly found in Johnson's cell.

For Johnson, his friend's co-operation with the police is said to have threatened his
standing in the prison.

He, Williams and Ivanovic had celebrity status at Barwon, where guards still call them
by their first names.

Johnson was even openly referred to in court by some of his jailers as "Matty".

Johnson, who had been on remand for two years at the time of Williams' death, is also
believed to be known by another name among his mates on the inside.

Evidence before this week's hearing suggests he is "The General", a high-ranking member
of the jail gang POW - Prisoners Of War.

The breaking point is believed to have come when police again took Williams away for
a day to give them a hand.

Soon afterwards, Johnson, his credibility endangered by his friendship with a collaborator,
is alleged to have snapped and Williams, the "dog", was dead.

And that night the inmates of Barwon are said to have mourned his passing with a loud
and vigorous chorus of barking and howling.

AAP mh/jl/nb

KEYWORD: JOHNSON AAP NEWS ANALYSIS

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