Elizabeth Anne Turner to be sentenced over helping son Markis Scott Turner flee Australia
There will not be a new trial for the mother of a wanted fugitive she is accused of helping to flee the country to escape cocaine smuggling charges. DETAILS
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There will not be a new trial for the mother of a wanted fugitive she is accused of helping to flee the country to escape cocaine smuggling charges levelled in Mackay.
Elizabeth Anne Turner will have her matters finalised in the Brisbane District Court next month after her case was listed for sentence.
She is charged with attempting to pervert the court of justice and three counts of perjury
Mining businessman-turned-fugitive Markis Scott Turner is accused of being a major player in a multimillion-dollar cocaine syndicate.
He was arrested in May 2011 and the case has not been finalised – he is currently in custody in the Philippines fighting an extradition order back to Australia.
It is alleged he fled the country with his mother’s help in 2015 and property and cash totalling more than $520,000 – which was provided to secure his bail – was forfeited to the court following his disappearance.
It is alleged Mrs Turner, now in her mid 60s, helped Mr Turner abscond from Australia on-board yacht the Shangri-La, purchased in Cairns and later re-registered in Poland under the name Diogenes.
It is alleged she bought the yacht for her son and falsely told police she believed he had taken his own life, to help him remain in hiding.
It was also alleged that in an affidavit she said: “I am of the view that (Markis Turner) has committed suicide”.
The Crown alleged that Turner made a false statement, knowing her son was alive and repeated the statement in oral evidence in court.
She claimed at the time she made the statement she believed it to be true.
She is also charged with lying about whether or not she had access to a mobile phone during a three-week trip she took with her husband around the same time her son went missing.
Mr Turner’s case was listed in Mackay Supreme Court in September 2015 – at the time he was on weekly reporting conditions.
He signed his bail on August 14, 2015 and then disappeared until his arrest on September 15, 2017 in the Philippines.
In November 2020 Mrs Turner was found guilty of all four charges and jailed for four years with parole after serving two years.
However the Court of Appeal found there was a miscarriage of justice because of evidence excluded from her trial.
The matter had been listed for a new trial has since been delisted and will now be finalised in December.
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