A Melbourne man captured in a dramatic siege after a fatal shooting has sensationally claimed his court hearing was “cooked” and asked another prisoner to pass on a message.
Christopher Hillman appeared for a virtual hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday, where he was charged with murder over the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old Frankston man on September 18 last year.
The 43-year-old was arrested after a tense stand-off at a property in Cranbourne six days after the victim was allegedly murdered.
During the administrative hearing, Mr Hillman spoke to another prisoner on the link before magistrate Guillaume Bailin came onto the bench.
“Oi tell Pretz Chris Hillman says hi,” he said via videolink from the Metropolitan Remand Centre.
He told the other man he’d likely be in the remand unit before he labelled the hearing “cooked”.
“F*** how cooked is this man,” Mr Hillman said.
The hearing came after prosecutors successfully applied to force a woman to give evidence in relation to the alleged crime.
The operation to arrest Mr Hillman was described as “dynamic and high-risk” by Detective Superintendent Paul O’Halloran at the time.
“It involved the deployment of police from Crime Command, Southern Metro Region and specialist police resources to successfully resolve,” he said.
“This is a great result that police were able to apprehend him safely, and it’s very pleasing that no other people were hurt.”
At his first appearance before the court, Mr Hillman was remanded at a bedside hearing from hospital under police guard.
The case has been adjourned until March.
