August 18, 2006
Les Kennedy
THE execution murder of a Sydney drug dealer in the grounds of
the Rozelle Psychiatric Hospital might have been solved three years
ago had investigators not been given a false lead by a corrupt
police officer.
The shooting murder of Andrew John Heavens, during a meeting
with two men at Lilyfield, became the focus 18 months ago of an
investigation by the Police Integrity Commission into corruption at
Burwood Police.
Commission hearings were told the now self-confessed corrupt
former detective, Chris Laycock, confessed with indemnity to having
been paid $10,000 by a man suspected of having murdered Mr
Heavens.
The body of the 31-year-old Leichhardt builder was found on May
2, 2003. He had been shot three times.
The commission heard that another drug dealer who knew him had
been feeling the heat from homicide investigators, and that the
bribe was to get police off the drug dealer's back by providing
investigators with a false lead to another suspect.
Mr Laycock has confessed at commission hearings to corrupt acts
including enlisting criminals to pose as police to shake down
alleged criminals for bribes, or to pose as police during faked
raids on suspected pedophiles. He has not been charged in relation
to the murder of Mr Heavens.
But in Parramatta Local Court yesterday, a NSW prisoner, Ryan
Barry Burnes, 26, of Nowra, who was not named during the hearings
as the person who paid Laycock the alleged bribe, was charged with
Mr Heavens's murder. Burnes is serving time for a breach of parole
for an unrelated offence. He entered no plea and was led away.
A representative for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Andrew
Macdonald, requested a long adjournment to allow police time to
provide the defence with transcripts from listening devices.
Burnes, who was represented by Legal Aid, will appear in Central
Local Court on November 21.
The head of Strike Force Cascades said late yesterday police
were seeking a second man over the killing and believed there were
other people who had information or evidence.
