Roberta Williams has revealed how a hitman who was sent to kill her and her gang leader husband Carl backed off at the last second after hearing her rocking her baby to sleep.
Notorious underworld figure Carl Williams was bashed to death in a Melbourne prison in 2010 while serving a 35-year sentence for three murders.
His wife Roberta told 60 Minutes on Sunday a hitman hired by the Moran criminal family to kill her and his husband couldn’t go through with it – and he ended up becoming the little girl’s babysitter.
Roberta Williams has revealed how a hitman who was sent to kill her and her gang member husband Carl backed off at the last second after hearing her rocking her baby to sleep
Left: Druglord Carl Williams plays with his daughter Dhakota. Right: Dhakota with her mother Roberta
In the tell-all interview Dhakota (pictured as a child) speaks about life as the daughter of one of Australia’s most infamous underworld figures, and about why he was killed
Carl and Roberta’s daughter Dhakota was a newborn when thug Andrew Benji Veniamin was sent to their house in Melbourne.
‘Dhakota was probably a few months old and him and an associate were hiding in the roof of our house,’ Roberta said.
‘She woke up for her feed, and I fed her and I was comforting her and rocking her to sleep. Andrew told me later that he heard me comforting my daughter and he just couldn’t bring himself to do that.’
She said her newborn baby daughter had saved her life.
Venjamin eventually became Carl Williams’s best friend and trusted ally, and Dhakota grew up calling him ‘Uncle Andrew’.
He babysat little Dhakota and would take her to religious education classes.
As the only child of Australia’s most feared gangster, Dhakota Williams had a childhood like no other. She is now 17 and ready to talk about her upbringing
Carl Williams was a drug trafficker at the centre of Melbourne’s ‘underbelly’ gangland war which shook the city in the late 90s and early 2000s
In an interview with 60 Minutes, Dhakota describes the highs and lows of her early years, including the moment her father was murdered when she was just nine years old
‘Me and Mum discuss it all the time,’ Dhakota says in the interview of her father’s killing
Now aged 17, Dhakota is ready to reveal what it was like to grow up in the home of Carl Williams, a drug trafficker at the centre of Melbourne’s ‘underbelly’ gangland war which shook the city in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Williams was bashed to death with an exercise bike seat in Melbourne’s Barwon Prison for being a police informant in 2010.
His convicted killer Matthew Johnson has claimed he killed Carl before Carl killed him – but Dhakota strongly disagrees.
‘Me and Mum discuss it all the time,’ Dhakota says of her father’s killing.
‘I always say to her it’s just so odd what happened. It just doesn’t make sense to me.’
On the pain of losing her father, she adds: ‘I don’t think I believed it at the start.’
Her father’s convicted killer Matthew Johnson has claimed he killed Carl before Carl killed him – but Dhakota (pictured with 60 Minutes reporter Liam Bartlett) strongly disagrees
Williams was bashed to death with an exercise bike seat in Melbourne ‘s Barwon Prison for being a police informant in 2010. Pictured: The moment he was killed
Carl Williams’ gold coffin is carried during his funeral. His daughter Dhakota was his only child
Williams was serving multiple life sentences for ordering a string of murders when he was bashed to death.
His daughter was pictured clutching a teddy bear at his funeral, but is now on the cusp of adulthood and ready to open up about losing her dad so young.
In the tell-all interview Dhakota speaks about life as the daughter of one of Australia’s most infamous underworld figures, and about why he was killed.
She admits to ‘wanting revenge’, and on previous occasions has said she has fond memories of her father, who she said was a loving dad.
‘If you spoke to him and got to know him, you’d think he’s not that sort of person, like, and you can tell he did it for his family ’cause he was all for us, all for us family,’ she told Sunday Night in 2016.
‘It was just normal for me, that’s all I really knew.’
Dhakota Williams (pictured), 17, is speaking out for the first time about Carl Williams’ brutal murder in Melbourne’s Barwon Prison in 2010
!['To this day I still haven't really spoken about it [her father's murder],' Dhakota (pictured) begins while speaking to 60 Minutes](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/07/02/06/4DD5E93C00000578-5908169-image-m-118_1530510861784.jpg)
‘To this day I still haven’t really spoken about it [her father’s murder],’ Dhakota (pictured) begins while speaking to 60 Minutes
Dhakota has said she wants to become a lawyer, but also appears to have inherited her father’s rebellious streak.
Just months ago she breached security at the high roller room at Melbourne’s Crown Casino before taking a photo posted with the caption ‘made it’.
The interview comes as the gangland heiress and her mother Roberta are locked in a battle with the tax office for the home left to her by Carl’s father George Williams.
When George died of a heart attack in 2016 he left Dhakota his house in Essendon, north-west Melbourne, but the ATO is claiming $740,000 in unpaid taxes.
The interview comes as the gangland heiress and her mother Roberta are locked in a battle with the tax office for the home left to her by Carl’s father George Williams (pictured, right, with Carl)
In March, a court ordered the house sold to pay the debt, but the mother and daughter have appealed.
They claim Victoria Police promised to wipe the debt in exchange for Carl giving testimony on Melbourne’s ‘underbelly’ gangland war, which claimed 36 lives.
Carl was murdered in jail before he could take the stand, however, and the police cancelled their offer.
When his killer Matthew Charles Johnson, 38, was convicted, the judge found the murder was done in retaliation for Carl speaking to the police.
WHO WAS CARL WILLIAMS?
Pictured: Williams leaving a Melbourne courthouse in 2003 after being granted bail
Carl Williams has been described as Australia’s most notorious gangster due to his central role in Melbourne’s ‘underbelly’ gangland war which shook the city in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Williams was serving a life sentence in Melbourne’s notorious Barwon Prison for four murders and conspiracy to commit another when he was bashed to death by fellow inmate Matthew Charles Johnson with a exercise bike part on April 4 2010, making him the last victim of the underworld war.
KEY EVENTS
October 13 1970: Born Carl Anthony Williams in Melbourne, Victoria.
1990: Convicted of handling stolen goods, possession of stolen property and failing to answer bail. Fined $400.
1993: Convicted of criminal damage and throwing a missile. Sentenced to 150 hours of community service work.
1994: Convicted of attempting to traffic in a drug of dependence. Sentenced to 12 months’ jail, six months suspended for two years.
October 13 1999: Williams is shot in the stomach by Jason Moran over an $80,000 debt to the Moran crime family, and stumbles bleeding to his parents home in Essendon.
November 25 1999: Williams is arrested with his father George and another associate and charged with drug trafficking after $20million worth of amphetamine tablets were seized.
June 15 2000: Mark Moran, Jason Moran’s half-brother is shot dead outside his north-west Melbourne home. Williams was charged with murder over the shooting but charged were dropped when he pleaded guilty to three other killings.
November 10 2010: William’s home in Hillside and his Mercedes Benz are damaged by shotgun blasts. Williams later testified he believed the Morans were responsible.
June 21 2003: Jason Moran and Pasquale Barbaro are gunned down while sitting in a van with after watching Moran’s children play football.
August 18 2003: The badly-burnt body of Mark Mallia, a close associate of murdered mod enforcer and drug dealer Nik Radev, is found in a melted wheelie-bin.
October 25 2003: Drug dealer Michael Marshall is gunned down in front of his son in South Yarra.
March 31 2004: Moran family patriarch Lewis Moran, father of Jason Moran, is shot dead execution-style in the Brunswick Club in Melbourne.
June 9 2004: Police arrest two gunmen near the home of notorious gangster Mario Condello.
February 6 2006: Mario Condello is shot dead in his driveway.
July 19 2006: Williams pleads not guilty to the murder of Michael Marshall but is sentenced to 27 years – 21 without parole – over the killing. The outcome of the trial was not revealed until 2007.
May 7 2007: Williams pleads guilty to three counts of murder over the deaths of Jason Moran, Mark Mallia and Lewis Moran, and and one count of conspiracy to murder Mario Condello. He is sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment and given two 25-year jail sentences, all to be served concurrently with a minimum term of 35 years before eligible for parole.
April 4 2010: Williams is bashed to death in Barwon Prison by inmate Matthew Charles Johnson, 38, who used an exercise bike part in the murder.
December 8 2011: Johnson is sentenced to 32 years jail without parole for the murder of Williams. Victorian Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry found Johnson killed Williams because he was providing assistance to Victoria Police.