Qld’s convicted sex pests named and shamed as laws set to tighten
A rise in sex offences to almost 9500 cases in Queensland has overstretched police with some of the state’s well-known sex offenders now living in the community. We have mapped their cases. WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT
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Queensland has a dark history when it comes to sex offenders, with numerous high-profile cases devastating communities and leaving victims scarred for life.
But a 2 per cent increase in sexual offences across the state in 2022 has astounded sections of the police force and boosted a renewed push to tighten child protection laws.
State parliament is scheduled to discuss amending the Child Protection Act in March with proposed changes designed to give police greater control over vetting mobile phones.
Under the proposed legislation, police will not have to apply to a magistrate for a device inspection order or a search warrant if there are concerns of an increased risk of reoffending.
The changes are designed to also crack down on the use of “vault” and “black hole” computer applications, which hide sensitive information downloaded from the internet or cloud storage on to a digital device.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE SEX PEST MAP
The increase in sexual offences came despite the state having a dedicated unit that focuses on investigating and preventing sexual offences against children.
Between January and December 2022, there were 4000 offenders who committed 9408 sexual offences, compared to 9215 offences for the same period the year before.
Timing of recording regional data, accounts for some minor discrepancies in total figures.
South Brisbane Police District recorded 960 sexual offences in 2022, the highest of all 15 policing areas with 783 cases in North Brisbane District.
The Gold Coast had the second highest number of sexual offences, recording 851 cases over the year, followed by Moreton Region which had 843; North Brisbane with 783 cases; Logan with 779; Ipswich with 608 cases and 771 on the Darling Downs.
No area was exempt from the heinous crimes with 558 recorded in the Capricorn District; 810 in Far North Queensland; 371 in Mackay; 626 at the Sunshine Coast and 609 in Townsville.
Already the 2023 statistics for recorded sexual offences have rocketed with 870 cases reported in January and a further 934 in February, compared to 717 and 725 in January and February last year.
In the next five years, the police data forecasts the number of people committing sexual offences will leap from 4000 to more than 6000.
The rises have swamped police and clogged up detention facilities, prompting criticism from former child police protection officer Dan Purdie, now the LNP Member for Ninderry.
“It’s become an honesty system, where police rely on registered child sex offenders to report online any change in their circumstances,” Mr Purdie said.
Some of Queensland’s sex offenders live in the community.
A notorious case is that of Robert John Fardon, who was released from jail in 2019 after serving 14 years for a string of sexual offences against children.
Fardon was deemed a high-risk offender and placed under strict supervision, but since then, he has been charged with breaching his conditions on numerous occasions.
Fardon, who spent 30 years behind bars, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court in March 2022 after being arrested.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with reporting conditions and one count of unlicensed driving after allegedly failing to comply with a court order that he stay away from children’s playgrounds.
The incident sparked widespread outrage and calls for tougher penalties for sex offenders who break their supervision orders, which is expected to be part of next week’s parliamentary debate.
DENNIS FERGUSON
The case of Dennis Ferguson is well-known in Queensland, with the convicted paedophile becoming the subject of intense media scrutiny when he was released from jail in 2009. Ferguson, who died in 2012, had served time for a series of sexual offences against children and was deemed a high-risk offender.
His release sparked protests and outrage from members of the community, with groups of vigilantes patrolling his neighbourhood in an attempt to drive him out.
He eventually moved to another location, but his release and subsequent actions ignited a debate about the appropriate treatment and punishment of sex offenders.
BRETT PETER COWAN
Brett Peter Cowan was convicted in 2014 of the murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe.
Cowan had a long history of sexual offences, dating back to his teenage years, and had spent time in jail for the abduction and rape of a young boy in Darwin.
Despite his prior convictions, Cowan was able to move freely around the country and was living in Queensland when he kidnapped and killed the teen in 2003.
It was not until more than a decade later that he was finally brought to justice, thanks to the tireless efforts of Daniel’s parents and the Queensland Police Service. He remains in jail.
GLADSTONE: DOUGLAS BRIAN JACKWAY
Convicted paedophile Douglas Brian Jackway allegedly flouted a written order to cut contact with his girlfriend before allegedly sneaking her into the Wacol precinct where he lives and allegedly taking a selfie in another offender’s bedroom.
An intimate photo that allegedly shows Jackway with his arms wrapped around a woman will form part of a case alleging he breached his Dangerous Prisoner (Sexual Offenders) Act (DPSOA) supervision order.
In February, 2023, dozens of text messages allegedly sent between the pair, including exchanges discussing their clandestine meeting, were obtained by Queensland Corrective Services.
Jackway was released from custody onto a 16-year supervision order in December 2020 which allowed him to live at the Wacol precinct, a collection of houses near the Wacol Correctional Centre where those on DPSOA orders reside subject to strict conditions.
But the violent paedophile is now back in prison over the allegations he contravened the order by sneaking his girlfriend into the precinct on January 29 2023, reportedly taking advantage of security “blind spots” to avoid detection.
Jackway’s case is due to come before the Brisbane Supreme Court again on March 10.
Jackway spent 25 years behind bars for the serious sexual assault of two children, a boy and a girl in the 1990s. He was sentenced to eight years’ jail in 1995 for abducting a boy, dragging him from his bike, driving him to an area of mangroves and raping him in Gladstone.
In 2003, he was released from jail and sent back in 2005 for raping a girl aged between nine and 10 in 1991.
The Supreme Court ruled in December 2020 that Jackway was ready to be released due to the help of rehabilitation programs and treatment.
He was released from Brisbane Correctional Centre and moved to the Wacol precinct where sex offenders are housed.
A decision handed down by the Supreme Court said he was being released from prison on a strict 15-year supervision order that could be relaxed over time.
CAIRNS: NATHAN JOHN PENHALIGON
Registered sex offender Nathan John Penhaligon was sentenced to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in September 2022 after pleading guilty to 10 charges including sexual assault, burglary, an indecent act, fraud, stealing and receiving tainted property.
He had pleaded guilty to offences including indecent acts, one count of sexual assault, fraud, and other charges in February 2022 when he appeared before Cairns District Court but then tried to change his plea.
Penhaligon returned to court in September 2022 after the case was adjourned and District Court Judge Bradley Farr sentenced him to five-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, with a parole eligibility date on October 9, 2022.
Judge Farr took into account 656 days Penhaligon had spent in pre-sentence custody and attempts at rehabilitation.
The court heard Penhaligon had shown porn and his penis to an 18-year-old woman who gave him a lift in her car.
The court heard while he was sitting in the front passenger seat he showed the woman pornographic photos on his phone and offered to perform sex acts on her and then exposed his penis. The woman fled, and Penhaligon left his name and number written on a piece of paper in her car.
The court was also told he had engaged in public masturbation and broken into an apartment and sexually assaulted a sleeping woman.
When police located him later that night he was so drug-affected they couldn’t interview him, the court heard.
CAIRNS FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND: MARCUS ALLYN KEITH MARTIN
A North Queensland rapist who kidnapped a British backpacker faced fresh charges in October 2022 for attacking two prison guards while serving 10 years behind bars.
Cairns man Marcus Allyn Keith Martin admitted to the rape and kidnapping of a British backpacker before holding her captive on a road trip in 2017 through the Queensland bush.
The bruised and battered Liverpool woman was rescued by police on an outback highway near Mitchell, about 600km west of Brisbane, after Martin drove off from a petrol station without paying for fuel.
He was sentenced to 10 years in jail in May, 2019 for rape and 26 other charges.
As a declared serious violent offender, he was required to serve 80 per cent of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
Martin appeared via video link from custody in the Townsville Correctional Centre in October to be sentenced for the serious assault of a corrective services officer causing bodily harm.
Police prosecutor Mark Fenlon said there was a fresh charge of serious assault of a corrective services officer which would come before the magistrates court at a later date.
The matter was adjourned and Martin will return to court at a later date.
CAIRNS: HENRY JOHN MAREKO
A mistaken belief that a woman wanted to have sex with him resulted in a promising young AFL representative player being convicted of two counts of rape.
Henry John Mareko, 26, pleaded guilty in Cairns District Court in August 2022 over the incident that occurred in Cairns on December 12, 2020.
Crown prosecutor Tegan Grasso said Mareko grabbed the 42-year-old woman in her bedroom and pushed her onto her back and she texted a friend “help me” but her friend did not respond.
He left the room but returned, pinned her down with his knees on her thighs and told her to “shut the ***k up”, Ms Grasso said.
Ms Grasso told the court it was a late plea of guilty and a trial date had been set.
Judge Dean Morzone imposed a sentence of three years on the first count and five years and nine months on the second count, with 609 days spent in custody as time served and a parole date of November 22, 2022.
He said the situation reflected Mareko’s “lack of maturity and realism” and that he was at a low risk of reoffending.
MT ISA: NEVILLE JOSEPH CREEN
Neville Joseph Creen, a historical sexual abuser once within the Catholic Church, pleaded guilty in October 2022 to sexually abusing his 23rd victim – a five-year-old girl he met in 1969. The latest victim was allegedly preyed upon four years before Creen’s earliest known reign of abuse on 22 children in Mount Isa in the early 1970s and 80s.
The new admission cracks open a period of abuse which has been buried for more than five decades, and the possibility that the monster who destroyed the lives of so many North Queensland schoolchildren has more skeletons in his closet.
Creen, now 81, was a scripture co-ordinator to six state schools in Mount Isa when he abused 22 children from 1973 to 1981.
He was a well-known and once well-respected man of the Catholic Church – a pillar in his community.
From lingering hugs and unwanted touching, to blatant sexual abuse in shower blocks or on school camps, Creen’s offending had no bounds.
He got away with it for years as the rest of the community turned a blind eye to a man who was meant to be the mouthpiece of God.
The victims, aged between five and 13 when their abuse began, endured eight years of horror at the hands of Creen before he moved to Townsville in 1981.
But years earlier, it’s now been revealed Creen ruined the life of another.
He started abusing a little girl while living and working in Charters Towers in 1969 – four years before the Mount Isa abuse began.
Creen recently pleaded guilty to four new charges relating to the victim, including indecent treatment of a girl under 16 and maintaining unlawful relationship with a child.
In his first trial in 2003, Creen was found guilty of abusing 18 children between 1973 and 1981. He would spend 14 months of a three-and-a-half-year sentence in prison.
In his second trial, Creen was found guilty of abusing a further two girls during the same time period, with no more time to be served.
In November 2020, Creen pleaded guilty to offences against two girls and did not go back behind bars.
His current matter is still progressing through the courts.
WARWICK: BRENDAN ASHLEY THOMAS
Warwick man Brendan Ashley Thomas, 25, pleaded guilty to almost 50 child sex crimes, including having unprotected sex with a teenage girl after claiming he was allergic to condoms.
He pleaded guilty to 48 child sex offences in Warwick District Court in September 2021.
Thomas sent about 150 text messages asking his first victim for nude photos or to video chat with him naked.
The court heard the text messages also discussed “rooting” and “finger banging”, which Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso contended was Thomas’ way of pushing his victim into doing these acts with him in public places.
The then-25-year-old also asked one of his teenage victims to urinate on him.
His vile offending was eventually brought to light when he sent nudes to an undercover cop posing as a 13-year-old girl online.
Thomas pleaded guilty to 48 child sex crimes including indecent treatment of a child under 16, carnal knowledge of a child under 16, distributing child exploitation material, and grooming.
He was sentenced to five years’ jail with eligibility for release under a suspended sentence after 12 months. He was also be subject to a three-year probation order upon his release.
CAIRNS: MICHAEL ALEXANDER GALLOWAY
Sex pest paramedic Michael Alexander Galloway was banned from the profession for at least two years after asking his teen babysitter to give him oral sex, stating he had “blue balls”.
Galloway was jailed in October 2020 after pleading guilty to two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16 and one count each of permitting premises to be used for the commission of a crime (possess cannabis) and attempted indecent treatment of a child under 16.
Cairns Supreme Court sentenced him to 12 months jail suspended after three months.
The Health Ombudsman also referred Galloway to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal for disciplinary action.
The court heard that on the night of the offending Galloway, then a Queensland Ambulance Service paramedic, and his then partner had gone out while two teenage babysitters looked after the woman’s children.
He was aware the babysitters were smoking cannabis, leading to the permit premises charge.
Galloway and his partner returned in the early hours and at one point he entered the bedroom where the babysitters were sleeping and asked one how the children had been.
“He was, at the time, naked and standing there masturbating,” Tribunal member, retired District Court Judge John Robertson, said in a decision.
The tribunal heard the fact that Galloway’s conduct occurred outside his job as a paramedic did not stop it from making a finding of professional misconduct, which it did.
Judge Robertson said Galloway‘s conduct was “entirely inconsistent” with the ethical standards expected of a paramedic.
The Health Ombudsman suspended Galloway’s registration in January 2020 and he resigned from the QAS several months later.
Judge Robertson cancelled his registration and disqualified him from reapplying for two years.
CAIRNS: ALAN GEORGE VICO
Alan George Vico was found guilty of rape after a jury in the Cairns District Court deliberated for eight hours in September 2022.
Crown prosecutor Claudia Georgouras argued a 20-year-old student was so grossly intoxicated she did not have the cognitive capacity to consent to sex with the former Ports North executive – and the Cairns District Court jury agreed.
The court heard Vico picked up the woman as she walked along a road, took her to a Cairns motel and raped her in September 2018.
Vico, 56, told Judge Michael Rackemann, the woman was coherent, not overly intoxicated, and readily agreed to sex.
But the jury found him guilty.
It was the second time Vico, who lost his $230,000 a year job, has been found guilty.
The Clifton Beach man pleaded not guilty to rape in a judge-only trial in June 2020, with Judge Julie Dick reserving her decision for more than two months before finding him guilty in late August 2020.
In April 2021, Vico’s appeal against his conviction and five-and-a-half-year sentence was successful.
He was sentenced to five years behind bars in September 2022.
TOWNSVILLE: TYRESE LEONARD GEORGE WALLACE
Far North Queensland man Tyrese Leonard George Wallace, who pleaded guilty in a Townsville court in March 2022, to two counts of rape, attempted rape, grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning bodily harm, was sentenced to 13.5 years behind bars in Cairns District Court in June 2022.
Wallace, who was 21 at the time, appeared before Judge Dean Morzone, who referred to his offences as, “cruel, sadistic and callous”.
In March 2022, a Townsville court heard a 66-year-old woman was walking in a park in Cranbrook when she was attacked and dragged into the bushes and raped in September 2020.
The court heard the brutal, random attack left the victim naked with severe injuries including a broken jaw and a fractured eye socket.
Wallace had been charged with attacking a 51-year-old sex worker at a Rosslea home only hours before the rape.
Judge Morzone said it was his responsibility to protect the community and convicted Wallace on all counts and sentenced to 12 years’ jail for the counts of grievous bodily harm, rape, and attempted rape.
Wallace also received a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment on the charge of assault occasioning bodily harm, to be served consecutively.
The 140 days Wallace had spent in custody were included in the time served.
BUNDABERG: GEOFFREY CHARLES ROGERS
Geoffrey Charles Rogers, who owns two successful companies, was sentenced in Maroochydore in January 2022 for “violent” sex crimes against a girl who was under 16 at the time.
Rogers, who was 59 at the time, had previously pleaded guilty in Gympie District Court to 12 charges in total.
He was sentenced in Maroochydore District Court to two counts of rape, two counts of common assault and three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16.
Crown prosecutor Catherine Birkett said in 1998, when Rogers was 36, he sexually assaulted the victim who was 15 at the time.
He touched her breasts, digitally raped her and called her a “sl-t”.
A few days later, he took the victim on a tour of his farm before raping her, slapping her across the face and biting her breasts.
In a third incident, Rogers took the girl to an “isolated location” where he raped and sodomised her until she vomited.
Rogers, who owns AustralianSeafood.com and Wizard Drilling, was married for 39 years and had four children.
Judge Glen Cash described the offending as “violent” and “very serious to say the least”.
He sentenced Rogers to nine years’ prison with parole eligibility after four-and-a-half years.
HERVEY BAY: RICHARD GIARDINA
A heinous killer, already in prison for murdering and burning his wife, learned his fate in September 2022, after DNA revealed him as a smirking rapist who attacked a woman in her bed in the 1980s.
Richard Giardina is serving a life sentence for murdering his estranged wife, Lisa Maree Keem, in 2008.
Giardina was convicted in Queensland in 2011, three years after he broke into Ms Keem’s Hervey Bay home and strangled her.
The killer drove his wife’s body to a state forest near Kempsey, in northern NSW, doused her in petrol and burned her remains. Giardina was apprehended after trying to flee to Sicily.
DNA samples were taken from Giardina, after his arrest in 2008, and passed on to NSW Police.
One year later, forensic pathologists told NSW Police that the DNA had been linked to a 1988 rape in Sydney.
Giardina was finally charged in 2020 and pleaded not guilty before a jury in June this year.
Prosecutors told the jury that, days before Christmas 1988, a stranger had broken into a 20-year-old woman’s darkened bedroom while she slept in her ground floor apartment.
The jury found Giardina guilty of breaking and entering and sexual intercourse without consent in July 2022.
In September, NSW District Court Judge Phillip Mahony sentenced Giardina to four years in prison, backdated to September 2021.
Giardina will become eligible for parole over the murder of his wife in mid-2023.
He became eligible for parole for rape in March 2024.
IPSWICH: JAMES PETER WALKER
James Peter Walker pleaded guilty to one count each of rape, assault occasioning bodily harm and deprivation of liberty when he appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court via video link in June 2022.
The court heard that in January 2019, Walker and a woman were using meth in Walker’s home, which the court heard was a bus, when Walker misplaced his phone.
The woman said she did not know where it was and invited him to search her.
Walker took off her shirt, pulled at her bra until it broke and removed her skirt and underwear.
He then slapped the woman on her back and she fell onto the couch.
The court heard Walker raped her, but without penetration, while she told him to stop.
The court also heard Walker had been convicted of assault occasioning bodily harm, wilful damage, dangerous operation of a vehicle and a number of drug offences but had not used drugs since being released on bail in May, 2019.
Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren sentenced Walker to 12 months’ prison for the assault occasioning bodily harm, two years for the sexual assault and six months for the deprivation of liberty charge.
The sentences were concurrent and suspended after four months, for three years.
IPSWICH: SAKARIA TAUFO
Uber driver Sakaria Taufao lured a teenager into his car before raping her and keeping her driver’s licence “as a trophy”.
A Brisbane District Court jury found Sakaria Taufao, 50, deliberately turned off his ride-share app before raping the 18-year-old in the back seat of his BMW sedan off a dirt road in Ipswich in 2015.
Judge Michael Burnett sentenced Taufao to seven years’ jail with no parole date for the “cold and calculated” attack.
IPSWICH: TIM PETER CHAPMAN
Tim Peter Chapman was convicted and sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year jail term after pleading guilty to raping a woman he picked up on the way to a train station.
He was sentenced in Ipswich District Court in April 2021 to a jail term suspended for three years after serving 50 days, which he had already served between April 9 and May 28 2019.
The father of six, who was 39 at the time, offered a woman a lift at night when he began committing a sexual act on the woman despite her verbal and physical protest.
GATTON: LEVI JAMES WILSHIRE
Gatton man Levi James Wilshire, 29, raped a 12-year-old girl three times as she bravely fought to push him off her.
The first group of offending involved orally and vaginally raping the girl, telling her, “You have a sexy body”, the court was told.
He pleaded guilty at the Ipswich District Court to three counts of rape and one count of indecent treatment of a child.
Judge Orazio Rinaudo sentenced Wilshire in October 2021 to eight years’ jail, with parole-eligibility set at June 18, 2023.
GOLD COAST: YASPATHU PETER NAMOK
Molendinar teenager Yaspathu Peter Namok raped a sleeping woman because he thought she wanted sex, a court was told in July 2022.
The 19-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of rape and one count of sexual assault in the Southport District Court.
In March 2021, Namok removed the woman’s pyjamas and underwear and raped her while she was sleeping on a sofa bed in a lounge room, the court was told. He was 18.
She suffered bruising and abrasions from the assault and rape.
The woman confronted Namok after being awakened from a deep sleep. He responded by saying “I thought you wanted to have sex”, the court was told.
“What part of me sleeping gave you the impression I wanted sex?” she replied.
The court was told Namok was “extremely intoxicated” that night, had no recollection of the rape, was remorseful and had limited his drinking to the occasional beer after work.
Judge Rowan Jackson noted Namok had no criminal history at the time of the offence.
He sentenced Namok to five-and-a-half years’ jail with a parole eligibility date of March 18, 2024.
YERONGA, BRISBANE: ROBERT LOUIS GIBSON
Robert Louis Gibson was sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court in May, 2022 to eight years’ jail for violently raping a woman.
He was also sentenced to three years’ jail for being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter, which was ordered to be served cumulatively, and a concurrent two-year sentence for robbery charges.
The court heard Gibson confessed in November 2021 to being an accessory to the manslaughter of 61-year-old Kym Mitchell, whose body was found stuffed in a wheelie bin at a Yeronga unit complex in 2018.
The court also heard Gibson pleaded guilty to four counts of rape and another count of robbery in company.
Crown prosecutor Elizabeth Kelso said Mr Mitchell, 61, died after Gibson’s co-accused assaulted him on November 26, 2018.
Brisbane Supreme Court was told Gibson, who was 41 at the time, helped clean the unit and dispose of Mr Mitchell’s body after the killing took place.
In the days following, Gibson hid at a neighbouring unit complex.
During this time Gibson targeted a woman who was drinking at a Runcorn pub.
The court was told Gibson repeatedly raped the woman in a park.
Gibson’s time spent in custody since 2018 was declared as time served.
He will be eligible for parole in September 2025.
BRISBANE: KEGAN LANCE AULD
Kegan Lance Auld, 20, pleaded guilty to one charge of rape after initially telling police he thought his sleeping friend was consenting to the encounter.
The Brisbane nursing student snuck into his friend’s bedroom and raped her as she slept, the Brisbane District Court heard in August 2022.
Auld was a guest at the woman’s home in December 2020 when he went into her room in the early hours of the morning and digitally penetrated her as she slept.
When interviewed by police about the incident days later, the then-18-year-old Auld claimed he believed his sleeping friend was consenting to the encounter.
Judge Katherine McGinnes said a psychiatrist report showed Auld’s remorse and shame were “genuine” and that he had a low risk of recidivism.
Auld was sentenced to two-and-a-half-years’ imprisonment suspended immediately for an operational period of 2.5 years and walked free from court after narrowly avoiding jail time.
BRISBANE: STEPHEN FREDERICK KOSTER
A former Queensland schoolteacher repeatedly sexually assaulted a young boy up until his teen years, at times offering money when he performed the vile acts, a court was told in August 2022.
Stephen Frederick Koster’s shameful acts were revealed after the 70-year-old ex-teacher pleaded guilty to a raft of offences committed against the young boy.
He was charged with maintaining a sexual relationship with a child, sexual assault and multiple counts of indecent treatment of children.
Brisbane District Court was told Koster had already been convicted in 2003 and 2012 for similar historic offences before the assaults on the young boy.
The victim was aged between eight and 16 during the offending period.
Judge Paul Smith said Koster repeatedly performed oral sex on the boy, at times offering him money.
On one occasion, Koster asked the boy if he had ever seen a man ejaculate, the court was told.
“He was curious, (and) you ejaculated in front of him,” Judge Smith said.
“It is serious offending.
“(The victim) was young, it was continuous, there was a breach of trust and an element of grooming, as it was protracted.”
The court was told none of the acts involved penetration or violence.
Koster was diagnosed with pedophilic disorder and had “recurrent and intense” fantasies towards children aged under 13 from an early age.
“This sexual orientation resulted in depression and heavy drinking,” Judge Smith said.
Koster had also not reoffended in 30 years.
He received a head sentence of four and a half years’ jail, to be suspended after serving 15 months behind bars.
PETRIE: TRAVIS ALEXANDER MANWARRING
Travis Alexander Manwarring, 32, raped and viciously assaulted a Polish nanny while she was out for an evening walk in Petrie in 2016, leaving her battered and bruised.
The young woman, who had never travelled outside her village in Poland before coming to Australia, was raped and beaten by Manwarring so badly she required facial surgery.
The woman returned to Poland after the attack and died in a car crash in February 2017, three months after the rape.
Manwarring was found guilty of rape after a trial and he pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm.
He was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years’ jail after Brisbane District Court Judge Nicole Kefford described the attack as “an appalling act of personal violence, a violation of an innocent woman in a public place, subjecting her to humiliating and degrading conduct”.
He will have to serve 80 per cent of the sentence behind bars.
SOUTH BURNETT: JOSHUA MARK SKVARILDO
Convicted rapist Joshua Mark Skvaridlo was jailed for breaching his suspended sentence for a third time when he faced Kingaroy Magistrates Court in June 2022.
Skvaridlo, convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl and sexually groping a 12-year-old, fronted court yet again for failing to comply with court orders.
Skvaridlo had faced Kingaroy District Court in 2014 on charges of indecent treatment of a child, where he was sentenced to a 12-month jail suspended sentence and 18 months’ probation for sexually groping a 12-year-old.
In 2018, Skvaridlo was sentenced to five years’ jail, which was suspended after he served 20 months, for raping a 17-year-old girl.
He remains on a suspended sentence for the 2018 matter.
In addition to his sexual crimes, he was in March 2021 placed on 12 months’ probation after he was found drink driving and driving while court disqualified.
The 36-year-old faced Murgon Magistrates Court in April, and pleaded guilty to four counts of failing to comply with reporting obligations.
He failed to report three instances of contact with children between April 2021 and January 2022, and also failed to inform police of stays at his girlfriend’s address. He was sentenced to three months’ jail and immediately released on parole.
Skvaridlo pleaded guilty to breaching probation and was fined $500.
He was also re-sentenced on the original driving charges and fined $1400.
GYMPIE: ALBERT CHARLES MARC CRONIN
A 42-year-old Monkland man was jailed until 2025 for raping and sexually abusing three young girls over a prolonged period.
Albert Charles Marc Cronin pleaded guilty in November 2021 to 11 charges stemming from the abuse, including three counts of rape.
Gympie District Court heard Cronin molested the girls over a two-year period.
Judge Glen Cash said that while the intellectual impairment meant Cronin was “not fully aware of the harm (he was) causing … we will not tolerate people who prey on young girls”.
He sentenced Cronin to nine years’ jail, and ordered that he not be eligible for parole until May 8, 2025, when Cronin had served three-and-a-half years of his sentence.
FRASER COAST: CHARLES WILLIAM DAVIDSON
The Fraser Coast masseur was found guilty of raping, sexually assaulting and indecently treating massage clients over a 12-year period was jailed for four years in 2021.
Davidson was found guilty of seven counts of rape, 30 sexual assault offences and three counts of indecently treating a child, 15, between 2003 and 2015.
Two of the victims were young people, one girl who was digitally raped and indecently treated by Davidson.
He was sentenced to four years’ jail for the seven rape offences and concurrent sentences of three years’ jail for the sexual assaults and 18 months for the indecent treatment of a child offences.
The four-year jail term was added onto the five and a half year sentence he has been serving since 2018 for similar offences.
GYMPIE: JOHN WILLIAM SPENCER
A jury took only one hour in May 2021 to reach a guilty verdict in the trial of a Gympie man charged with multiple child sex offences, including rape.
John William Spencer will spend a minimum of two years behind bars after being convicted of two counts of rape and five counts of indecent treatment of a child under the age of 16 and in his care at the time.
The then 61-year-old was sentenced to four years in prison but will be eligible for parole halfway through his sentence.
Following the guilty verdict, Spencer still maintained his innocence, simply stating “I’m not guilty.”
When the verdict was announced to the courtroom, one of Spencer’s supporters walked outside and screamed.
Before his sentence was read out, the same group of people approached him in the dock, took him by the hands and whispered words of encouragement to him before being asked to sit in the gallery.
Crown Prosecutor Stephanie Gallagher said in relation to Spencer’s crimes, he was opportunistic at times, and other times his actions were premeditated.
She also said both of his young victims are in counselling as a result of the assaults, and Spencer’s actions demonstrated a violation of trust.
“He showed no remorse for his offending,” she said.
IPSWICH: MARLEY KEENAN LAVELL FISHER
Ipswich offender Marley Keenan Lavell Fisher who broke into a home and sexually and physically assaulted a sleeping woman was not deemed a dangerous sex offender and was given a parole date despite continuing to offend while in jail.
Fisher was brought before the Brisbane Supreme Court on June 17, 2021, because the Attorney-General applied for her to be deemed a dangerous sex offender before she was released back into the community.
During the application hearing, the court heard Fisher was involved in 35 varied incidents while serving out a two-year jail term for attacking a Riverview mum on August 23, 2013.
Judge Declan Kelly said Fisher broke into the woman’s home to steal but when she saw the woman asleep in bed she decided to sexually assault her.
The court heard the woman’s 18-year-old daughter went to her aid after waking to sounds of distress and Fisher fled through a window.
Judge Kelly dismissed the Attorney-General’s application for Fisher to be deemed a dangerous sex offender upon her release and said psychiatrists’ reports found Fisher posed no risk to children and had a below-average risk of committing a serious sexual offence.
However, Judge Kelly said there was a probability that upon her release into the community, Fisher was “very likely” to commit a sexual offence involving indecent behaviours such as impulsive exposure, masturbation in public or indecently touching.
After spending more than eight years behind bars, Fisher was eligible for release on June 23, 2022.
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