High profile Fraser Coast, Gympie and Bundaberg criminals revealed
They were once some of Wide Bay’s most high profile identities but that all came crashing down when they were busted for crime. How they have been dealt with by the courts can now be revealed. GRAPHIC CONTENT
Police & Courts
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From a wildlife park boss who cruelly killed a kangaroo joey to a crooner with a dark secret, the courts of the Wide Bay have seen their share of familiar faces.
These influencers both from social media and in the community are just some of the Wide Bay’s well-known to have their day in court.
A warning some of the articles linked contain graphic images.
David William Stygall – Location: Bundaberg
He was a well-known crooner around the Rum City, entertaining locals with his smooth singing but a familiar face had a hidden dark side that was uncovered when police searched his home.
David William Stygall pleaded guilty in Bundaberg District Court to one count of possessing child exploitation material.
During the search of his home police found 106 photos and 175 videos depicting children aged between 3 and 14.
Some of the videos including men having sexual intercourse with children.
Stygall was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment which was wholly suspended for a period of three years.
Holly May Nielson – Location: Fraser Coast
She was the face of a Hervey Bay jumping castle business but behind the scenes Holly May Neilson was helping people get high in a whole different way.
The 25-year-old daughter of two key figures in one of the biggest meth empires in the Wide Bay’s recent criminal history, had her day in Hervey Bay District Court where she pleaded guilty to five counts of supplying and one count of producing dangerous drugs.
The court heard the owner of Holly’s Jumping Castles was selling meth on the side after becoming caught up in her parents’ drug trafficking business.
Neilson was sentenced to 18 months in jail but was allowed immediate release on parole.
Ray Revill – Location: Fraser Coast
The former manager of the Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary faced court in 2019 after he killed an 11-month-old kangaroo joey out of frustration.
Revill pleaded guilty in the Maryborough Magistrates Court to one count of animal cruelty.
In the kitchen of the Fraser Coast Wildlife Sanctuary, Ray Revill could be seen attempting to bottle-feed a kangaroo joey in his care.
Just moments later, he is captured on security footage picking the joey up and thrashing it on the ground before its tiny body goes limp.
Revill was removed from his top role at the sanctuary immediately after the explosive allegations arose.
The court heard attacking the joey was a “spur of the moment” decision fuelled by Revill‘s anger and mental health issues.
Revill was ordered to serve 12 months probation, perform 150 hours of community and pay court fees of about $1500.
Revill was also prohibited from purchasing or owning an animal, aside from his dog, for 12 months.
Levi Bennett – Location: Gympie
Former Pomona butcher Levi Bennett was jailed after he pleaded guilty to five offences committed between July 2020 and February 2021, including threats of violence, assault, and dangerous driving.
On two separate occasions, Bennett subjected two drivers to dangerous road rage, including a 74-year-old man, and on a separate occasion spat in the face of a man in Mary St, Gympie.
Bennett was disqualified from driving for 12 months, ordered to pay $651.91 restitution for the damaged windshield, and sentenced to nine months jail.
He would only serve three months behind bars, before being eligible for parole on September 14, 2021.
Dean Grant O’Donnell – Location: Fraser Coast
A drug trafficker whose beauty queen fiancee suffered serious injuries when police raided his Queensland home was jailed for 10 years when he faced court.
Dean Grant O’Donnell pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court in 2019 to more than 10 offences including drug trafficking and the possession of drugs and weapons.
Police investigating the drug trade in Hervey Bay and Maryborough began monitoring O’Donnell, who was trafficking in “wholesale amounts” of the drug ice, between 2014 and 2016.
Detectives spent months monitoring O’Donnell’s “sophisticated” drug operation, installing cameras and recording devices in his Susan River home and at his nearby stash points in bushland where he hid drugs, guns and cash in esky’s.
The court heard O’Donnell used the spoils of his trafficking to buy luxury items including shoes from Versace and Louis Vuitton, cars and motorbikes.
O’Donnell, who had been in custody since 2016, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and was required to serve 80 per cent of his sentence.
Jamie Jeffrey Brown – Location: Fraser Coast
Jamie Jeffrey Brown enlisted his brother-in-law and another man to do his dirty work, orchestrating an arson attack that would leave his neighbouring business devastated and land him behind bars.
Brown pleaded guilty to arson and attempted fraud in 2017 at the Hervey Bay District Court.
At war with Auto Barn over his failure to meet the franchise standards, he renamed the business A1 Auto and took out a new business loan.
His mother put her house up as security.
She would later lose it to the bank but not before Brown had run up hundreds of thousands in franchise fees, unpaid staff superannuation and tax.
Brown could have admitted defeat but as Hervey Bay District Court heard in 2017, he “hatched a plan to burn the business” as a ”quick fix”.
In the weeks before the fire Brown asked his insurance company to increase his business cover.
He then bought four, 20 litre drums of brake fluid.
On the day of the blaze he was seen taking off the grill on his back window, leaving the window open and going home where the court heard he believed he would be safe and could use his then fiance as an alibi witness.
The sentence brought to a close the darkest chapter in the lives of Dale and Nikki Paxton who still grieve over the senseless destruction of their business.
According to Ms Paxton, Brown had walked into her store in the weeks before the fire and casually asked if her stock was insured.
The morning after the fire he is said to have told the SportFirst staff there was nothing more he could do and suggested they all go to an Esplanade pub where he was seen later that day.
Things only got worse for the Paxtons who had to close their shop for a month only to find out the insurance company would pay no more than a pittance of the $1 million damage bill which left them more than $600,000 out of pocket.
Brown was sentenced to six years in jail and had to serve at least Two-and-a-half years of his sentence before being eligible for parole.
Gordon Lloyd Adams – Location: Gympie
A former senior citizen of the year was jailed for the rape and repeated sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl.
Gordon Lloyd Adams was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court to six and half years jail for rape and indecent treatment of a child under 12.
Over a two-year period in the 1980s Adams took a young girl to a number of isolated locations where he sexually abused her and on one occasion forced himself onto her.
In 2013 Adams was awarded the Gympie Senior Citizen of the Year award.
Adams was eligible to apply for parole in March 2020 after spending the next 22 months in prison.
Two months he had spent since pleading guilty was declared time already served.
Benjamin Andrew Geiger – Location: Fraser Coast
A drummer, who supplied meth to a woman, avoided having to spend actual time in jail.
Benjamin Andrew Geiger was sentenced in Hervey Bay District Court for one count of supplying a dangerous drug.
The musician, who up until June had played in a local pub band, sold half a gram of meth, the court was told, with his offending being uncovered as part of a wider police operation.
Geiger was already on two six-month suspended sentences for previous offences, both of which were activated by Judge Reid.
He was given immediate release on parole and sentenced to three years’ probation.
Mary Jean Korkou – Location: Fraser Coast
A social media influencer faced court in 2019 after a one punch attack on a woman required her to undergo reconstructive surgery.
Mary Jean Korkou pleaded guilty to one count of grievous bodily harm.
On the night of the attack, Korkou walked past her victim, Reegan Keevil, at a Hervey Bay pub.
The court heard Korkou’s then boyfriend, Murphy Fitzgerald, was stopped by Ms Keevil who had previously been in a relationship with him.
Ms Keevil and Korkou spoke briefly.
Seconds later, Korkou punched Ms Keevil so hard, she lost her footing.
Korkou was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in jail which was wholly-suspended for two years.
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