Top cop issues dire warning after shock Dezi Freeman update revealed people were HELPING the accused police killer hide from authorities: ‘It’s abhorrent’

A former detective has warned anyone helping Dezi Freeman faces lengthy jail time as the search for the alleged double cop killer enters the eighth day. 

Freeman, 56, has been on the run since allegedly shooting dead Detective Neal Thompson, 59, and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart, 35, at his rural property in Porepunkah in the Victorian High Country last Tuesday.

Victoria Police revealed on Monday that they believed people knew of Freeman’s whereabouts and were deliberately not coming forward. 

Speaking on Sunrise on Tuesday, former Victoria Police detective Charlie Bezzina said the revelation Freeman is likely being helped is ‘absolutely abhorrent’.

‘If that’s the case they place themselves in a very volatile situation because these special operations guys don’t muck around and I’ve seen them in action,’ he said.

‘If you are helping this fugitive, the long-term effect is it’s perverting the course of justice, which carries 25 years. 

‘You’re then looking at aiding and abetting an offender, [which carries a sentence of] ten years, then looking at other offences that carry a lot of years. 

‘If you are harbouring this fugitive, it’s time to go and speak to the police.’ 

Mr Bezzina’s warning comes after Superintendent Brett Kahan urged anyone with information about Freeman’s whereabouts to come forward.

He said it was evident that ‘people know’ where the fugitive is, but were deliberately not coming forward.

‘People know the whereabouts of the person who’s [allegedly] killed two cops,’ Supt. Kahan said in a press conference on Monday.

‘People have chosen, for whatever reason, not to come forward, and I’m taking this time to appeal to you to come forward in that respect.’

Supt. Kahan said that last time he fronted media, he was appealing for Freeman to turn himself in.

‘I’m going to change tack a little bit,’ he said.  

‘I extend that to anyone who is harbouring Dezi Freeman.’

On Monday, a flurry of loud explosions echoed through Porepunkah as police continued to hunt the alleged cop killer. 

Shortly after 3.30pm, several police vehicles raced to two separate addresses – which are a short distance from each other on the outskirts of town – where Daily Mail heard six loud bangs followed by two more a minute later.

A police chopper circled tightly above the scene, at one point dipping extremely low to the ground, just a few metres above the treeline.

Marked police cars blocked the entrance to Cavedons Lane, just off the Alpine Highway entering Porepunkah from the north-west.

Around the same time, unmarked police vehicles also were also seen entering a property on Mt Buffalo Road – less than a kilometre from the Rayner Track bush compound where Freeman is accused of murdering two police officers and injuring a third.

A resident on Mount Buffalo Road confirmed exclusively to Daily Mail that he too had heard the explosions and described them as possibly sounding like gunshots.

His wife, Amalia Freeman, 42, released a statement via lawyers on Sunday urging her partner to turn himself in.

She also shared her condolence for the families of the two slain cops, Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart.

‘We echo the requests of the Victoria Police for the swift and safe conclusion of this tragedy,’ Ms Freeman said.

‘I lend my full support to Victoria Police in their search for my husband and will co-operate with Victoria Police in any way that I can.

‘Please Dezi, if you see or hear this, call 000 and arrange a surrender plan with the police.’

More to come.