Police have interviewed serial killer Peter Dupas about the stabbing murder of an elderly woman after a former lawyer implicated him in the crime.
Kathleen Downes, 95, was killed in her bed at a Melbourne nursing home in December 1997.
Police say former lawyer and convicted drug trafficker Andrew Fraser has made a statement implicating Dupas after a conversation he had with the killer about murders when they were in prison together in 2005.
Mr Fraser alleges that during a conversation Dupas referred to "the old sheila down the road", Detective Sergeant Michael Daly told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
He said that was believed to be a reference to Ms Downes.
Dupas also telephoned the nursing home twice in November 1997, Det Sgt Daly said.
There was also an attempted break-in at the nursing home in November 1997.
Ms Downes' killer cut through a flyscreen window to enter her room in the Brunswick nursing home before stabbing her a number of times, Det Sgt Daly said.
Magistrate Dominic Lennon granted police a five-hour interview with Dupas at Barwon Prison on Tuesday.
Dupas did not oppose taking part in the interview.
Dupas is serving life without parole after he was convicted of killing Mersina Halvagis in Fawkner Cemetery in 1997 and of the mutilation murders of Nicole Patterson in April 1999 and Margaret Maher in October 1997.
Mr Fraser gave crucial testimony that Dupas made incriminating statements to him over Ms Halvagis's stabbing death, while the pair were jailmates at Port Phillip Prison.
It was reported earlier this month that Mr Fraser will receive part of a $1 million police reward for helping solve the Halvagis murder.
