THE May meeting at The Combined Probus Club of Whittlesea was addressed by Peter Brilliant – a former Victoria Police detective who now works as a private consultant in industry-based crime prevention such as drug-affected workers.

He joined Victoria Police in 1976 at 20 years of age and progressed through various squads and locations until around 1987 when he was selected to become a member of the Major Crime Squad.

The Victoria Police Major Crime Squad (MCS) was an active unit tasked with tackling serious and complex crimes across Victoria, primarily focusing on homicides, organised crime and drug operations, using specialised tactics – both overt and covert.

The Assistant Commissioner of Crime was the determinant that an event was a major crime. Such cases revolved around the top 10 criminals in the state who may be involved in crimes that would normally be in the domain of local criminal investigation branches or even specialised squads.

Crimes that would be given to MCS to investigate were all adult escapers either from police cells or actual jails, high value aggravated burglaries or shootings involving police. Kidnappings or extortions were generally given straight over to MCS.

Mr Brilliant displayed the squad’s logo the bottom line of which was the Latin words nusquam abscondere. Basic translation is nowhere to hide. This was a message to the criminal fraternity but the message was also reflected in the office. Like any group of Australian workers nicknames were allocated. The one in keeping was a member called torch who “would not go out”.

The logo graphically depicts what Mr Brilliant called the MCS tools of trade. The shotgun, a sledgehammer and handcuffs.

In the sub-set of kidnapping Mr Brilliant reflected on Mr Cruel, an unidentified Australian serial child rapist who attacked three girls in the northern and eastern suburbs of Melbourne in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is also the prime suspect in the 1991 abduction and murder of a fourth girl, Karmein Chan.

Mr Brilliant described Mr Cruel as highly intelligent. He meticulously planned each attack, conducted surveillance on the victims and their families, ensured he left no forensic traces, protected his identity by covering his face at all times and left red herrings to divert family and/or police attention. Mr Brilliant believes he knows Mr Cruel’s identity but is missing the final evidence.

Several anecdotes about criminal and police behaviours kept the audience enthralled. One easy capture was the result of inept criminals. They had broken into a building and removed a safe. In attempts to open it, the safe was rolled onto its side. When MCS arrived at the scene they noticed blood on the floor from under the safe. The blood was from a finger that had been severed in moving the safe.

Unlucky was the man with the missing digit because his fingerprint remained at the scene of the crime.

Mr Brilliant was giving character references for many of our infamous criminals when the time ran out and his exciting presentation came to an end. He did explain a particular trait of Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read and claimed that the Kane brothers were very dangerous clients.

With that information members applauded him while he was given a small token of appreciation.