Accused cop killer's fresh bail bid

Accused police killer Jason Roberts is appealing a decision to refuse him bail as he awaits retrial for the 1998 double murder.

Roberts' 2002 conviction for the Melbourne murders of Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller was overturned last year because of police corruption.

The accused killer went on to seek bail. But Supreme Court Justice David Beach refused and said he had no basis to conclude the case against Roberts was anything but powerful.

Roberts' barrister, Peter Matthews, told the Court of Appeal on Friday the judge was wrong to place the weight he did on the strength of the prosecution case.

Now aged 40, Roberts had suffered extreme hardship over more than 20 years in custody without a proper trial, Mr Matthews said, also pointing to delays ahead of the retrial.

Roberts admitted being involved in a series of robberies with Bandali Debs, who was also convicted of the officers' murders during a stake-out.

But Roberts maintained he was at home with his girlfriend, Debs' daughter Nicole, that night.

The original case against him had been poisoned to its root because of long-undisclosed misconduct by another officer, appeal judges found when they quashed the conviction in November.

They, and Justice Beach, both concluded Roberts' conviction in a retrial was not inevitable.

He has been in custody since August 2000. Prosecutors want him to remain locked up.

The court has reserved its decision about whether to grant Roberts bail.