Damian Leeding’s killer, Phillip Graham Abell, was implicated in murder of young inmate

SLAIN Gold Coast police officer Damian Leeding might still be alive had police been able to nail his killer for a vicious prison murder.

SLAIN Gold Coast police officer Damian Leeding might still be alive had police been able to nail his killer for a vicious prison murder.

The Sunday Mail can reveal Phillip Graham Abell, the violent career criminal found guilty this week of shooting dead Senior-Constable Leeding in a botched tavern hold-up, was also implicated in the brutal murder of a young inmate who was stabbed more than 30 times in his cell at Wacol jail.

But Abell walked free after an inmate witness refused to give evidence against him and other prisoners charged over the 1994 murder.

READ MORE: Lies, greed and f***ed up life of cop kill

And in twist in the Gold Coast web of gun crime, another man facing gun-related charges was also named in the coroner’s investigation into the prison death.

Abell, 41, flipped the judge the bird on Monday after he and co-accused Donna McAvoy, 39, were found guilty of murdering Sen-Const Leeding during a holdup at the Pacific Pines Tavern in 2011.

They were to have been sentenced last Friday but their sentencing was adjourned for two weeks at the request of defence lawyers after prosecutors sought a hefty sentence.

Damian Leeding

But Abell might already have been serving a life sentence had he been convicted over the murder of David Edward Smith, 21, at Sir David Longland Correctional Centre in September 1994.

A coroner’s report obtained by The Sunday Mail states Smith was “violently murdered” by other prisoners and was found dead in his cell tied by his neck to his bunk with a coaxial cable, and with 31 stab wounds to his body.

The 2006 report, by former State Coroner Michael Barnes, said Smith had begged prison officers not to move him to a unit where he feared he would be stabbed and killed and that he broke into a “death sweat”.

“His objections were overruled and he was literally dragged to the unit in which he was murdered the next day,’’ Mr Barnes found.

The inquest heard one inmate told police Abell and three other prisoners “were all involved in the murder in some way” and that Abell had been planning to “get him”.

In April 1996, Abell and the three other prisoners were charged with Smith’s murder or with being an accessory.

But the indictments were withdrawn after the key inmate witness refused to take an oath and told the Supreme Court he would not give evidence.

One of the prisoners, Andrew Thomas Kranz, later confessed to the murder and was jailed for life.

According to the Coroner’s report, Kranz told police another inmate — who he refused to name — asked him to help kill Smith with a sharpened butter knife.

The other man facing gun-related charges on the Gold Coast was as inmate at Wacol prison at the same time as Abell. He was mentioned in the report as breaking Smith’s jail cell intercom before he was killed.

Mr Barnes found Smith died as a result of multiple stab wounds inflicted by Kranz “who was assisted in the murder by other prisoners”.

The Coroner also made seven recommendations, including an “urgent review” of protective custody.