‘Justice denied,’ Hodson daughters claim while killer remains unknown

An inquest in the execution of a Melbourne couple in their own home failed to name a killer. Now the family complains that they have been denied justice.

Terence Hodson, 56, was a police informant. His daughter Mandy discovered his body along with his 55-year-old wife Christine’s on May 17, 2004. Hodson, as well as his wife, was shot twice in the back of the head.

The family earlier claimed that Victoria Police had not done enough to protect Hodson and his wife. State Coroner Ian Gray, however, exonerated the police department on the basis of an open finding into the deaths. He found that the Hodsons had declined multiple offers of the highest level of witness protection.

Nikki Komiazyk, another daughter of Hodson, was in tears on Friday when she criticised the finding of a coronial inquest. According to her, the findings indirectly indicated that her parents were responsible for their own murders. She said that there was no justice for their parents.

According to Gray, there was not enough evidence to believe that hitman Rodney Collins killed the couple after former detective Paul Dale had made a request to underworld figure Carl Williams to arrange a contract for murdering the couple. "There is evidence suggesting that there were other people who may have had a reason or motive to have Mr Hodson killed," the AAP quoted Gray.

Mandy has maintained her claim that Dale was responsible for her parents’ death after a drug burglary gone wrong. She told ABC's 7.30 program that not only her family but a lot of other people knew that it was Dale who should be blamed for the couple’s death. Mandy supported her father’s claim that Dale, along with his police partner David Miechel, had been involved in a burglary of a drug den in Melbourne's Oakleigh.

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