Brett Peter Cowan to serial killer Leonard John Fraser: The criminals Michael Bosscher has represented
He is one of Queensland’s most high profile criminal lawyers who has represented serial killers, rapists and drug kingpins. Now, Michael Bosscher must fight to clear his own name.
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One of Queensland’s most high profile criminal lawyers who has represented serial killers, rapists and drug kingpins is now fighting to clear his own home.
Solicitor Michael Bosscher, whose firm has represented Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Peter Cowan and serial killer Leonard John Fraser, was this week charged with being involved in a $4.5m money laundering syndicate.
Police allege Bosscher and Gold Coast businessman Richard Franks used sham bank accounts to launder millions of dollars that were proceeds of crime.
Bosscher, 53, studied law in 1989 and became a solicitor in 1993.
Well-known for his roles in two major law firms over the last three decades, he has most recently opened a number of businesses in Brisbane including an inner-city cafe, pizza shop and bakeries.
Mr Bosscher was previously a partner with Ryan and Bosscher Lawyers in Brisbane.
The firm represented the Dr Mohamed Haneef, who gained worldwide attention after he was arrested in relation to a failed London bomb plot.
He was held in custody for 12 days and was charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation before the charges were dropped.
The law firm also represented Queensland’s first convicted serial killer Leonard John Fraser.
Fraser was convicted of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Rockhampton schoolgirl Keyra Steinhardt in 1990.
He was also convicted of the murders of Sylvia Benedetti, 19, and Beverley Leggo, 36, and the manslaughter of Julie Turner, 39.
Fraser was charged with the murder of Natasha Ryan but during his Queensland Supreme Court trial in Brisbane in April, 2003, Ryan was found hiding in a cupboard in her boyfriend Scott Black’s North Rockhampton home.
Mr Bosscher filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and was discharged in 2015, according to documents.
Under Bosscher Lawyers, the firm represented Brett Peter Cowan who was charged with killing schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, the state’s highest-profile child murder.
Daniel was 13 when he was lured from an unofficial bus stop on the Sunshine Coast by Cowan after the bus failed to arrive.
Cowan abducted Daniel and drove him to a macadamia farm in the Glasshouse Mountains. Eight years later, in 2011, Cowan took police to the farm and showed them where he had left Daniel’s body after falling for a protracted and complex undercover sting.
Mr Bosscher represented Andrew Burke, who raped and murdered pregnant Logan woman Joan Ryther in 2013 as she walked to her shift at a nearby McDonald’s store.
Burke was 17 at the time of the murder and was given a life sentence, to serve at least 20 years behind bars.
During the case, Mr Bosscher raised concerns about DNA testing procedures – now the subject of a Commission of Inquiry.
He also represented targets of the AFP’s “sting of the century” – the AN0M international drug trafficking bust.
Before he studied law, Mr Bosscher travelled overseas and was a competitive downhill skier.
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