Daniel Morcombe inquest: Cops said they knew it Brett Cowan was behind Daniel’s disappearance

THE first police officers to knock on Brett Cowan’s door said they were convinced he was the “prime suspect” in Daniel Morcombe’s disappearance, but a senior officer they approached allegedly told one to “f*** off”.

THE first police officers to knock on Brett Cowan’s door said they were immediately convinced he was the “prime suspect” in Daniel Morcombe’s disappearance, but the report they wrote disappeared and a senior officer they approached allegedly told one to “f*** off”.

Kenneth King and Dennis Martyn yesterday gave evidence before State Coroner Terry Martin about what they believe to be mistakes in the early police investigation.

They were among four officers to appear at the resumption of the inquest into the Sunshine Coast schoolboy’s abduction and murder.

TOP COP: ‘Outrageous’ claim is perjury

Daniel was 13 when he disappeared from a bus stop on December 7, 2003.

His disappearance sparked what would become the biggest investigation in Queensland history.

Brett Peter Cowan came to police attention two weeks after Daniel disappeared but it was not until 2012 that he confessed to covert officers to luring the schoolboy from the side of the road.

Mr Martin took the extraordinary step of asking a senior police officer to leave the room while Mr King and Mr Martyn gave evidence after the officers requested it.

Former Police Officer Kenneth King. Picture: Mark Calleja

Former Police Officer Dennis Martyn. Picture: Mark Calleja

Assistant commissioner Mike Condon, who also gave evidence at the hearing yesterday, was accused of being an intimidating presence for the former policemen. “I’ve been advised by both this witness and the next witness that they have concerns in relation to assistant commissioner Michael Condon,” counsel assisting the coroner Peter Johns said. “It seems … certainly with the next witness Mr Martyn … he has indicated he would be unable to give evidence on medical grounds.”

The officers both gave evidence that they visited Cowan as part of a process of verifying the movements of known pedophiles in the area.

Brett Peter Cowan who was found guilty of the abduction and murder of Daniel Morcombe

But they noted his criminal history included incidents of violent child abduction and rape, for which Cowan had been jailed, and he readily admitted to having driven past the spot where Daniel would have been waiting for a bus.

His alibi had a gap of about 45 minutes and he drove a white 4WD, a vehicle that matched the description of one seen in the area by two witnesses.

Mr King told the inquest Cowan was the “standout person” and the only one who could be put at the scene.

“I got the impression from him … he seemed like someone who was a little bit too cooperative.”

The officers secretly photographed the tread on the tyres of Cowan’s car and wrote a report that they presented to the Major Incident Room recommending, among other things, that Cowan should be put under surveillance.

“I would have put a surveillance team on him immediately … the moment they could possibly be on him,” Mr King said. “I would have flown to the absolute limits of the law. I don’t accept that, given the large number of experienced detectives in the MIR, that a first-rate plan, well-resourced, couldn’t have been executed very quickly to do more with Cowan.”

The two officers gave a briefing to detectives but would not discover until years later that the report they had written had gone missing. So too had notebooks and audio recordings of their talks with Cowan. While Cowan was interviewed by police on several occasions, he was not the focus of any investigation between 2006 and 2010.

Not long after visiting the man who would later confess to Daniel’s murder, Mr Martyn bumped into Mr Condon, who was the then head of the Homicide Squad. “I think you’ll find he’s your man,” he said, referring to Cowan.

“F*** off,” Mr Condon allegedly replied. “You wouldn’t know anything.”

Mr Condon later denied swearing at the officer and said Mr Martyn’s claims were “outrageous”.

“If that was said, it was perjury under oath,” he said.

Another former officer, David Wilkinson, argued that a warrant to seize Cowan’s car and search his properties in those early days would have been difficult to get, given the lack of direct evidence.

The inquest resumes today.