Murder accused said to have confessed to friend he killed schoolboy - Sydney Morning Herald
Peter Savage ... stabbed 300 metres from home in 1995. Photo: Dean Sewell
HE WAS, the jury heard, the key to a murder case that had remained open for more than a decade - a man whose statement paved the way for an undercover police operation that finally brought an alleged killer to trial.
This week Ninos Binno gave evidence in the trial over the murder of Peter Savage for the first time.
Mr Binno told a Supreme Court jury his childhood friend had confessed to the murder of the 16-year-old schoolboy in August 1995. Peter was stabbed to death on Mills Street, Lidcombe, as he walked home from rugby training, less than 300 metres from his home.
Mr Binno's childhood friend, now 33, is on trial for the murder. He cannot be named because he was under 18 at the time.
Mr Binno told the court that his friend first spoke about the murder in late 1995 when the pair were walking together in the inner west suburb of Dulwich Hill.
''He was nervous and jumpy and I said, 'what's wrong?' '' Mr Binno told the court. ''And he said 'oh shit … you know about that kid … I killed Peter Savage''.
The accused allegedly brought up the incident repeatedly over the following years, telling his friend that ''like a ghost'' he was reminded of Peter Savage every time he walked past the spot where the attack occurred.
Some years later, when the accused separated from his partner and was unable to see their child, he allegedly said he thought he was being punished.
''He said he thought God was punishing him because he'd taken away someone's boy … God was trying to take his son from him,'' Mr Binno said.
During the opening week of the trial, the jury has heard how Mr Binno's decision to give a formal statement to police was a significant breakthrough for the investigation into Peter's death after more than a decade.
In his statement, the court heard, Mr Binno not only spoke about his childhood friend, but about another man, Abraham Rodriguez. It is alleged that Rodriguez and the accused were jointly responsible for the murder of the former Trinity Grammar student, but that Rodriguez fled to El Salvador soon after the attack and has never returned.
After Mr Binno came forward, an undercover police officer met with the accused, pretending to be a friend of Abraham Rodriguez.
The officer asked whether it would be safe for his friend to return to Australia. The accused was said to be suspicious but allegedly said: ''Abraham and I had a meeting afterwards and after that everyone went their own way … so no [it's not safe].''
Armed with this evidence, the police went to other former friends of the accused - his former girlfriend, Julie Tran, and his former high school friend, Nguyen Long Le. Both have given evidence this week, telling the court that, at various times, the accused confessed to having had a role in Peter's murder.
''He said, 'if he [Peter] wasn't such a dickhead we wouldn't have stabbed him,' '' Mr Le told the jury.
Around the same time another piece of the puzzle in the police case also fell into place - a deodorant can found at the scene.
During the initial investigation in 1995, the can was given little significance, with police assuming it had simply fallen out of Peter's bag. But police and the prosecution now say Peter attempted to ward off his two assailants by spraying them with deodorant. The court has heard that this incensed the accused and Rodriguez, who then decided to ''jump him''.
While the police case has now come together, the defence says it contains serious holes.
The barrister for the accused, Craig Smith, questioned Mr Le's veracity as a witness given that, by agreeing to give evidence, he has avoided jail on drugs charges and obtaining money by deception.
He has also questioned the capacity of witnesses to remember what was said to them more than a decade later.
He asked the jury: ''Do each of you remember where you were 16 years ago?
''Do each of you remember what was said to you?''
The trial continues.
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