Williams 'fed cops a line on killings' Ms Williams confirmed that Mr Dale had had a relationship with her former husband but it did not extend to murder. THE ex-wife of Carl Williams has admitted that the slain gangland killer had made up a story that former detective Paul Dale paid him $150,000 to organise the 2004 murder of a police informer. Roberta Williams told The Weekend Australian that Williams had decided to go along with Victoria Police investigators who were determined to convict Mr Dale for the murders of Terrence Hodson and his wife Christine. She said Mr Dale was a fall guy for Williams, who was facing 35 years in jail for murder, so he could have a shot at life outside of prison. In return for making statements against Mr Dale, Williams was offered inducements including a sentence reduction, the payment of his daughter's private school fees to Year 12 and a promise that police would meet a tax bill of $750,000 owed by his father George. George Williams also agreed to corroborate his son's version. "Carl could never do the jail time and he believed that giving statements against Dale was his way out," Ms Williams said. I have often felt sorry for Dale. He was set up for something that he didn't do. I'd like to meet him and apologise for what Carl done to him and his family. He didn't deserve it. Mr Dale said it helped a lot that Ms Williams had admitted that her former husband had lied to police "because there's a lot of people out there that will have already made their decision." Murder charges against Mr Dale were withdrawn after Williams' slaying in Victoria's Barwon Prison in April 2010. The former cop, who now runs a drilling business in regional Victoria, said Williams' murderer Matthew Johnson had also confessed that the gang boss "had told him he had fed police a line." Williams told investigators from the Petra Taskforce that he had contracted hitman Rodney Collins to kill Hodson on behalf of Mr Dale. Hodson had told police that the then drug squad officer was part of a plot to steal cash and drugs from a house in Oakleigh, Melbourne, with him and another police colleague, David Miechel, in September 2003. Williams claimed Collins never met Mr Dale. Mr Dale has revealed in a new book, Disgraced?, that Williams' statements had been contradicted by his own hitman's claims. Collins claimed that six to eight weeks before the murders, Mr Dale had approached him in a city bar, told him that he needed Terrence Hodson killed and asked if he was prepared to do it. Collins said he rejected Mr Dale's approach, claiming there was no money offered for the hit, only an understanding that Mr Dale would return the favour. Mr Dale says that he never met Collins and the uncorroborated story was complete fiction. Mr Dale says he does not know who killed the Hodsons but suggested that jailed drug kingpin Tony Mokbel should be a suspect as he had an interest in the Oakleigh drug house that the police informer and Miechel had robbed. "The Petra Taskforce under (former chief commissioners) Simon Overland and Christine Nixon, they lost their way and walked into Barwon Prison with an open cheque book," Mr Dale says. Overland had put himself and VicPol in such a position through all the media crap that he had fed them about me he had to either put up or shut up. The only way he could put up was to buy statements off criminals. Mr Dale told The Weekend Australian Victoria Police had set out to destroy him through leaking of damaging claims to the media, especially to The Age newspaper. In March, a jury acquitted Mr Dale of lying to the Australian Crime Commission over his relationship with Williams.