Former Bentley Park College students open up about Nathaniel Train after Darling Downs police murders

As police start to unravel Nathaniel Train’s journey from top teacher to cold-blooded murderer, his students, including former Bentley Park man Luke Huggins, are attempting to reconcile the man they knew with the monster he became.

AS police begin to unravel Nathaniel Train’s journey from top teacher to cold-blooded murderer, his former students are attempting to reconcile the man they knew with the monster he became.

Former Far North educator and Yorkeys Knob State principal Nathaniel Train, alongside his brother Gareth and Gareth’s wife Stacey, were killed in a firefight with specialist police on Monday night at a property on Wieambilla on the Darling Downs, just hours after opening fire on four unsuspecting officers.

Constables Matthew Arnold and Constable Rachel McCrow, were killed in an ambush-style attack, while Constable Keely Brough and a wounded Counstable Randall Kirk were able to eventually escape.

The trio later killed neighbour Alan Dare when he came to investigate the commotion.

For Luke Huggins, a former student at Bentley Park College who was there during Mr Train’s tenure as deputy principal in the mid-2000s, news of the educator’s involvement was an utter shock.

“I’ll tell you what, its given me goosebumps just talking about it,” Mr Huggins said.

“About eight days ago I'd said to my wife that I would love to catch up with my old principal and have a beer.

Theories, fires and killers: Qld’s cold-blooded ambush explained

Luke Huggins with his daughter Olivia. Luke was a student at Bentley Park College while Nathaniel Train was deputy principal. Picture: Supplied

“And this week I had my niece ring me with the news. Not in a million years would I think that he would ever do something like that, at all.”

However, other students have had a different experience with the former teacher and principal, with questions arising regarding his relationship with indigenous students.

Chantel Kari, another of his former students at Bentley Park, said she and many other indigenous students had unpleasant memories of the interactions they had with Mr Train over the years.

“He made my life hell. A lot of the indigenous students at Bentley Park College had issues with him,” the now 29-year-old said, adding he would have been in his early 30s at the time.

“The indigenous community that had interactions with him obviously weren’t so good, but nobody thought that he was capable of something like this.”

“I was constantly suspended from school for no reason other than he said so, kind of thing.”

Ms Kari said eventually her grandmother stepped in and made a complaint to the Queensland Department of Education.

She said “it was a lot” to deal with and all the paperwork that had to go through the Department took “months”.

Nathaniel Train during his time at Innisfail.

“They ended up stepping him down and moving him and the deputy principal from the school because of the constant trouble indigenous students and families were having with him,” Ms Kari claimed.

Speaking of his time at the school, Mr Huggins explained the role Mr Train played in his childhood.

“I had trouble going to school and that sort of thing,” he said.

“My old man was in prison, he was just trying to get me to school.

“ (Mr Train) actually used to live across the road from me so he took me under his wing, sometimes he would give me lifts to school every morning.”

Mr Huggins said Mr Train would regularly bring him an iced coffee every morning to entice him to school.

“So that happened for about 8 months until my mates cottoned on,” he said.

“He sort of had a bit of a soft spot for me.”

The only thing Mr Huggins was able to pinpoint as any source of animosity surrounding the gunman was his relationship with other teachers.

The 251 Wains Rd property in Wieambilla where two police officers were gunned down by Gareth and Nathaniel Train on Monday afternoon.

“All I could think of, was about the complaints he had made about the NAPLAN tests and the week before he left the school he said to me ‘none of the teachers here like me, I’m all for the kids’,” said Mr Huggins.

Mr Huggins said he’d been speaking with his mates from school about the news.

“A few of my mates that I have spoken to over the last few days are all blown away by what has happened.”

“It was pretty unreal to hear it, especially the way it went down.

“I’ll be honest I actually shed a bit of a tear with my missus over it, he was a massive part of my childhood.

“I feel for them all, especially the police who were involved.”

Originally published as Former Bentley Park College students open up about Nathaniel Train after Darling Downs police murders