Teen killer publicly named

A TEENAGER who committed a gruesome triple murder has become the first juvenile offender to be publicly named by court order in Queensland.

A TEENAGER who committed a gruesome triple murder has become the first juvenile offender to be publicly named by court order in Queensland.

John Brian Woodman, of Rockhampton, was 16 when he and co-offender Scott Geoffrey Maygar, then 18, killed Michael Thompson, 30, David Lyons, 17, and Ty Wilson, 17, in May 2005.

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment last month by the Supreme Court in Toowoomba, the city west of Brisbane where the murders were committed.

Woodman will be eligible for parole after 15 years, while Maygar will need to serve at least 20 years before applying for parole.

A third offender, also aged 16 at the time, was sentenced to 10 years' jail for taking part in Mr Thompson's murder, after Maygar and Woodman threatened to kill him if he didn't "prove himself".

Juveniles cannot legally be named in Queensland but Woodman's sentencing judge, Justice James Douglas, last month issued an order to release his name publicly because of the seriousness of his crimes.

His name was released today at the end of a 28-day appeal period.

During their sentencing, it was revealed Maygar and Woodman bashed the three victims to death with weapons, including metal bars, and repeatedly raped a young mother.

The crimes were committed at a flat in Toowoomba.

No clear motive was ever established for the murders.

Woodman is serving his sentence at Townsville's Cleveland Youth Detention Centre, where he will celebrate his 18th birthday this Friday.

Maygar, now 20, is an inmate at Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.

Yesterday, Queensland's Attorney-General Kerry Shine lodged an appeal against Maygar's sentence in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, following calls from the victims' families for him to remain in prison longer.