News Service from House Harris

VIC: Man charged over Hodson murders

MELBOURNE, March 20 AAP - Five years after the execution-style murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine, police believe they now know who pulled the trigger.

Rodney Charles Collins, 63, was charged on Friday with two counts of murder and appeared briefly in the Melbourne Magistrates Court for a filing hearing over the 2004 double killing.

Mr Hodson, 56, and his wife Christine, 55, were shot at their Kew home during the height of Melbourne's gangland war.

The couple's bodies were discovered by their son in the lounge room of their home on May 16, 2004.

Collins was charged with their murders on Friday by members of the Petra taskforce set up to investigate the Hodsons' deaths.

The charges come after former Victorian drug squad detective Paul Dale was arrested last month at his Wangaratta service station and charged with Mr Hodson's murder.

A bail application for Dale held in the Victorian Supreme Court last week was told Dale arranged a $150,000 hit on Hodson, who was due to give evidence against him.

The court heard the couple allegedly was murdered after Hodson agreed to give evidence against Dale over the attempted theft of $1.3 million worth of ecstasy pills.

On Friday, the man charged with carrying out the Hodson murders yelled angrily from the court dock.

The court was told Collins wanted to make a statement but Magistrate Duncan Reynolds said it would not be prudent.

Collins, dressed in a grey suit and light blue tie, yelled: "I don't see that I should not have the right to make a statement to the court".

"Thanks very much, have a good day," he said, as he was led from the dock.

An earlier application to the court by detectives to interview Collins was withdrawn on Friday because he had indicated to police he would give a "no comment" interview.

Mr Reynolds remanded Collins in custody for a committal mention on June 19.