Joshua Ronald Leafe speaks over ‘miscarriage of justice’ which put him in jail

A Queensland farmhand, who suffered a “miscarriage of justice”, was first labelled a child predator, thrown in with the general prison population and only cleared after the same solicitor who helped bring down Daniel Morcombe’s killer stepped in.

The first day a Queensland farmhand walked into a Queensland jail, an inmate was being stretchered out with a pencil through his cheek.

Joshua Leafe had never been in trouble with the law and was working at a remote property at Amamoor, near Gympie in October 2017 when his life was turned upside down on the back of allegations of a sexual crime.

Six years later, having been found to have received an unfair trial and wrongly spending six months surviving the “bloodbath” at the Maryborough jail, the now 27-year-old is trying to put the pieces of his life back together.

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It started when he was charged with using an electronic communication device to procure a child under 16 years.

The “child” in question was in fact an undercover police officer who had been exchanging messages on Facebook with an account registered in Mr Leafe’s name.

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Joshua Leafe is picking up the pieces of his life after being jailed a charge of using a communication device to procure a child under the age of 16, a conviction which was subsequently overturned on appeal before the charge was finally dropped ahead of the retrial.

At first Mr Leafe, who maintains his innocence and is backed by the same Sunshine Coast solicitor who helped bring down Daniel Morcombe’s killer, “treated it like a bit of a joke”.

He believed he would be able to prove a laptop had been previously reported stolen from his house and there was no reception at the site where he was working when the messages were exchanged.

That all changed when the charge went to trial and in November 2020 and a jury found him guilty.

He was handed an 18-month jail term, to be suspended after he had served one third.

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His time in jail was a harrowing experience easily summed up as “scary shit”.

“Walking in there day one, there was a guy coming out on a stretcher with a pencil through his cheek,” Mr Leafe said.

“You might not get in a fight yourself, but even just seeing the fights, it’s incredible.

“I saw one guy who got punched and it just split the skin on his forehead.”

Placed in the mainstream prison population, and owing to the nature of his conviction, he was told “I’d have to make up a story on why I’m there”.

Joshua Leafe was jailed for six months in the Maryborough Correctional Centre, before his conviction was overturned on appeal and then the charges dropped ahead of the retrial. Photo: Robyne Cuerel / Fraser Coast Chronicle

For three months he was largely left alone, he said, until his cellmate was released and began poking holes in his story.

“It became a real problem for me,” Mr Leafe said.

He was soon moved to the protection wing known as the “boneyard” – so named “because that’s where all the dogs go”.

“Over there, you’ve got paedophiles or those that snitch on other people, or if you owe people debt you can apply to go over there,” Mr Leafe said.

Only after he had lost his freedom for six months was the conviction overturned on appeal in November 2021.

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In a published Supreme Court of Queensland ruling, Justice David Boddice found there had been a miscarriage of justice and Mr Leafe had been denied “a fair chance of acquittal”.

This miscarriage centred on a September 23, 2022 diary entry from Mr Leafe’s employer at the time, a retired legal practitioner, which had not been referred to during the trial by the defence and the prosecution.

This diary included records of what days Mr Leafe was working at the farm, which his employer also testified had no mobile phone or internet reception.

On the same day as the diary entry, the account under Mr Leafe’s name exchanged 37 messages with the undercover officer between 11.47am and 5.58pm.

Twenty of those were sent before 2.35pm.

The published appeal ruling by Supreme Court Justice David Boddice say the case against Joshua Leafe was “entirely circumstantial”, and the omission of a key piece of evidence – a September 2017 diary entry which said Mr Leafe was working at an Amamoor farm about 30km southwest of Gympie – denied the 27-year-old “a fair chance of acquittal”.

Mr Boddice said in his ruling published ruling said the case was “entirely circumstantial” and there was “no direct evidence” Mr Leafe had sent the messages.

Instead, the crown contended Mr Leafe had the opportunity to return to his home next door, which had reception, to send the messages.

Mr Leafe rejected this, saying returning to the property he was living at was a 32-minute round trip across washed out, bumpy dirt roads.

Justice Boddice raised his own concerns about the impact the diary entry would have had at trial, overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial.

Five months later the prosecution dropped the charge altogether.

While no conviction or looming court date now hangs over his head, the scars and suspicion still remain.

“After coming out (of jail) I honestly felt so depressed all the time, I lost so many friends from going in there,” Mr Leafe said.

“Charges like that … it never goes down well.”

Thirty-seven messages were exchanged between the Facebook account registered to Joshua Leafe and undercover officer between 11.47am and 5.58pm on September 23, 2017, the same day a diary entry of Mr Leafe’s employer said he was working at a remote Amamoor property. The employer gave evidence during the trial there was no mobile or internet reception at the property.

Mr Leafe, who relied on Legal Aid, was left frustrated by his experience through the system.

He said he hit a brick wall trying to get his claims thoroughly investigated, especially around the reception issues and the early 2017 theft of items from the property he was living at, including a laptop.

“We said several times now ‘all the stuff’s been stolen’ … I was over at (his employer’s property at the time) specifically one of the days … when a lot of the messages were sent,” Mr Leafe said.

“They still would not investigate it.

“They just would not listen.”

During the lead-up to the trial, Mr Leafe claimed he felt “harassed” to plead guilty.

Mr Leafe’s name was added to the sex offender register upon his conviction and has since been expunged.

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The appeal was handled by Nambour solicitor Peter Boyce, whose tenacity during the Daniel Morcombe case helped secure the conviction of the Sunshine Coast teenager’s killer.

He had helped establish the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and pushed for a coronial inquest.

Mr Boyce, who was contacted by Mr Leafe’s support network two days after he was jailed, said the experience shone a spotlight on a serious flaw in the regional court systems.

Lawyer Peter Boyce represented Joshua Leafe at his successful appeal, and said the system had “completely failed” the 27-year-old who was initially jailed before the charges were finally dropped.

“Defendants who have no real experience in the criminal system are like lambs to the slaughter,” Mr Boyce said.

“It’s a horrendous nightmare (Mr Leafe) has had to endure,” Mr Boyce said.

“Here’s a young fellow where the system has completely failed him.

“We can’t fix the trauma he’s had to go through.”

Mr Leafe was grateful for his employers, who supported him throughout the ordeal and refused to give the case up.

“At first I kind of … I never took it seriously,” he said.

“Because of all the stolen stuff I thought … ‘surely they’re going to actually listen … and then just drop it’.

“It never happened.”