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John Silvester

John Silvester

John Silvester is a columnist.

John Kapetanovski is loaded into the police helicopter.

The ambush that forever changed how Victoria is policed

A routine factory stakeout shattered the illusion that a uniform was bulletproof. Today, first-responding police are expected to be heroes against heavily armed shooters.

  • John Silvester

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PORT Inspector Kane Robinson has been in the job for 25 years now. Kane was 13 years old when his father John Robinson was murdered in 1986.

‘I just kept it to myself. I didn’t want to be known as the son of a murder victim’: From crime victim to crime investigator

Inspector Kane Robinson commands the elite unit handling Melbourne’s ugliest street clashes. His secret weapon? Empathy learned from tragedy.

  • John Silvester
Robert Wootton, son of the legendary illegal gambling figure Charlie Wootton.

Abseiling police and a Vegas roulette wheel: The colourful world of Melbourne’s illegal casino king

Robert Wootton worked for his dad, Charlie, the legendary “honest crook” who ran illegal gambling dens. John Silvester’s father Fred, the “feared gaming copper”, once hid in the ceiling of one of those casinos. The two sons caught up.

  • John Silvester
Disgraced former barrister Norman O’Bryan.

Greed and hubris: The inside story of a legal scandal

He was Melbourne legal royalty – a successful barrister and the son and grandson of Supreme Court judges. Norman O’Bryan knew the law. His fall from grace was extraordinary.

  • John Silvester
Love Machine nightclub firebombed.

‘We will hurt you in ways your brain can’t comprehend’: Venues hit with $10k extortion demand

Underworld sources claim a suspect has found religion and speculate he is targeting “sinful” venues including bars, brothels and strip clubs.

  • John Silvester, Chris Vedelago and Erin Pearson
Great Bookie Robber Ian Revell Carroll at his brother Greg’s Wedding.

‘He was funny, charismatic and a mastermind behind the Great Bookie Robbery. He was also my brother’

Ian Carroll was a career criminal who used his brother, Greg, as an alibi just 20 minutes after he robbed Melbourne’s biggest bookies.

  • John Silvester
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Associate Professor Marietta Martinovic (Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University), who is the head of the Beyond the Stones Walls Advisory Collective (BSWAC).

The second chance specialists offering prisoners a way out

After serving a sentence for fraud, a former inmate is providing female prisoners with support inside and hope on the outside.

  • John Silvester
Sergeant Brad Dettman was presented the Medal for Courage.

‘You’re gunna get it’: How police stared down a double-murderer and prevented further carnage

A man who shot his neighbours in a dispute over a garden hose then focused on police sergeant Brad Dettman.

  • John Silvester

Bar wars, carjackings, home invasions: Why I grieve for my city

Melbourne is my town. I have lived here all my life and will die here. There has not been one street I would not walk – until now.

  • John Silvester
Fire damage at Soho Restaurant and Bar at Southbank earlier this month.

$500 to firebomb: How crime gangs are outsourcing Melbourne’s Bar Wars

Offshore, interstate or sitting on a couch a crime boss is crime-tasking – using an encrypted app to set up a job “that is paying well”.

  • John Silvester