Vic: Roberta Williams in touch daily with killer Carl

AAP General News (Australia)
04-21-2008
Vic: Roberta Williams in touch daily with killer Carl

By Jamie Duncan

MELBOURNE, April 21 AAP - Despite the trials and the divorce - and a new man in her
life she describes as "a very good boy" - Roberta Williams still professes love for her
gangland killer ex-husband Carl.

Ms Williams, a convicted drug trafficker, is also looking for work and hopes to mentor
homeless kids one day.

She said she was in daily contact with her former husband, who was last year sentenced
to a minimum of 35 years' jail for his role in four underworld murders and conspiracy
to commit a fifth.

The couple, who met in 1998, divorced in March last year.

Despite this, she supported Williams, who in Victoria's Supreme Court last week successfully
applied for leave to appeal his sentence.

"We speak on a daily basis and we try to keep the relationship going as best we can
- on a friendship basis, that is," she told the Nine Network tonight.

"Of course I love him. I'll always love him, more as a friend now than anything else.

The couple's seven-year-old daughter, Dhakota, helps keep their bond intact, Ms Williams said.

"I just have a place in my heart for him that I can't let go. We have our daughter
together and we had lots of good years together. It's difficult to cut ties with someone
when life was like that."

Ms Williams, who has a conviction for drug trafficking, said she was on Centrelink
benefits and was looking for work.

"People don't want to employ me. I have no idea why because I have done nothing wrong," she said.

"I committed an offence once before. I paid my debt to society."

Ms Williams said she hoped to work in a welfare role, perhaps assisting homeless children.

"My path in life, I think, is to help others. I was a street kid myself. I'd like to
help other kids that are in my situation - homeless and otherwise," she said.

"I'd like to be (a good role model for children). I'd like to give them an outlook
on what my life was like, what can happen in your life when you live the life that I have
lived, and if I can help one child out of 10, that's a great thing for me."

Her new man is squeaky clean, Ms Williams said.

"Yeah, I've got a new partner. I have been with him for a while now," she said.

"I certainly know what he does for a living. He's not a criminal or a gangster or anything
like that. Her's a really good boy."

AAP jrd/goc/jlw/

KEYWORD: WILLIAMS ROBERTA

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