The life of a cold-blooded killer

THERE'S no denying Steven Turner had an appalling life. But in the words of one of his victims’ mother – there’s never an excuse good enough for murder.

THERE’S no denying Steven Turner had an appalling life before he ended up behind bars.

But in the words of one of his victims’ mother – there’s never an excuse good enough for murder.

Particularly the level of torture and planning that went into killing Rockhampton’s Nicole Lieske and Edmund William Payne.

“Nicole had a tough life and so did I but do you see me going around murdering people,” Nicole’s mother Colleen Whiffen said.

Turner, 35, was last week sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 23 years.

A tortured upbringing

It was described as the catalyst that sent Steven Turner on a downward spiral into drugs, alcohol and serious crime.

When working for Rockhampton City Council’s Rocky Recycles in 2004 Turner received a needle stick injury.

As a result he was infected with hepatitis C. He started using amphetamines, ecstasy, marijuana – anything he could get his hands on.

He began hallucinating, saw “shadow people” and thought others were following him.

Turner’s defence barrister Frank Martin said Turner was paranoid and believed Nicole and Edmund had tried to kill him first.

Turner was born in Brisbane and lived between New Zealand and Sydney as a child before eventually moving to Rockhampton.

His parents separated when he was four.

“When he was seven things changed… food was taken from him, his mother threw knives at him, he was locked in a room and had to urinate on the floor. That’s when he learnt to pick locks to escape,” Mr Martin said.

Turner attended Glenmore State High School for Year 10 but was a special needs student that found reading, writing and making friends difficult.

“When at home he was made to sit on his hands. He was whipped naked in public by his stepfather,” Mr Martin said.

“When he was 14 his stepfather nearly killed him during a flogging.”

Eventually he was taken from his parents and began a life in foster care.

While in foster care he had to resuscitate another child who almost drowned and witnessed a girl die, who had a seizure in a bath.

Turner’s criminal offending started in 1992.

He has been in custody since May 26, 2005 – a total of 1884 days.

Killing Nicole

Only Turner will ever really know how Nicole Lieske, 32, died as her body was found in such a decomposed state.

She was killed on February 5, 2005 in Rockhampton by possibly strangulation, poisoning or breaking of the neck.

There had been evidence during court proceedings that Nicole and Turner were having consensual bondage sex before her death.

Turner also told prison inmates he glued her eyes shut, lit her bellybutton on fire using lighter fluid, jabbed her buttocks with a knife to test if she was dead and sexually assaulted her with a coke bottle.

Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne said his motivation for killing her could have been one of two things – because she tried to give him a “hotshot” or because Turner used or was offered to use a syringe previously used by Nicole and he thought she had AIDS.

He said the killing involved a “degree of unusual and grotesque interference” as well as allegations of making Nicole his sex slave.

“Only her (Nicole’s) skeletal remains were found. She was left near The Caves, possibly on an ants nest. He tied her up, folded her in half and left her for the animals to interfere with,” Mr Byrne said.

Killing Edmund

Turner murdered Edmund Payne, 31, on May 27, 2005 in Card Street, North Rockhampton.

He went to Edmund’s home with a loaded .22 calibre semi-automatic hand gun, shot him in the chest and fled the scene.

His motive for killing Edmund was that he thought there was a hit out on him so he would get in first.

Mr Byrne said the murder was pre-planned and he showed no remorse to this day.

“It seems to be pre-empted strike on the basis of a belief formulated through a drug haze that Payne was going to have him knocked,” Mr Byrne said.

What’s next?

Mr Byrne has described an extreme fear of Turner re-offending when released from prison.

“There’s a real risk and let’s face it he’ll be let out at some point,” he said.

“He is a long-term user of drugs and it’s simply the case that there is an overwhelming risk with his addictive personality. That is the real danger because … we already have a few examples of what he is capable of and the community needs protection at that time.”

Mr Martin said Turner had been nothing but a “model prisoner” since being in jail.

He says since being in jail his drugs test have come up clean.

Turner has an ambition to write a book and do a course on inland fish farming.

But for mothers Colleen Whiffen and Desley Shrimp nothing will ever allow them to move on and take away the pain of losing a child in such a monstrous way.

Yesterday Turner was sentenced to another 18 months to be served concurrently with his life sentence for interfering with Nicole’s corpse.

Murder timeline

December 28, 2004: Steven Roy Turner meets Nicole Lieske for the first time.

February 5, 2005: Turner murders Nicole in Rockhampton and dumps her body.

May 22, 2005: Edmund William Payne killed by a gunshot wound in his Card Street, Rockhampton home.

May 26, 2005: Turner is charged with murdering Edmund after a 20-hour police siege at a Knight Street home in North Rockhampton.

May 29, 2005: Nicole’s body is found in Mt Etna National Park, The Caves. It took more than a month to identify the body using DNA testing.

September 26, 2005: Police charge Turner with Nicole’s murder.

March 21, 2006: Turner committed to stand trial over Nicole’s murder.

April 28, 2006: Turner committed to stand trial over Edmund’s murder.

September 21, 2009: Turner is found guilty of killing Nicole.

April 22, 2010: Turner is found guilty of killing Edmund.

July 16, 2010: Turner sentenced to life in prison, with a 23 year non-parole period.

Originally published as The life of a cold-blooded killer