Mother of murdered girl Kelly Anne Jones wants Queensland Parole Board to reject killer John William Bennett’s application

Caroline Jones lived through the worst pain a parent can feel after her daughter was murdered during Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers. Now her killer has started his bid for parole, despite never telling police where he dumped her body.

Caroline Jones said her world came crashing down after her daughter Kelly was abducted and killed by John William Bennett during the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers in 1989./ Picture: Liam Kidston

For the past 34 years, John William Bennett has been languishing in a jail cell for the cold-blooded murder of three-year-old Kelly Anne Jones during Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers.

At the same time, Kelly’s mother Caroline Jones has been trapped in her own hell, unable to get the closure she so desperately needs.

This is because Bennett has never told the police where he dumped Kelly’s body.

On Friday, Bennett will make an application to the Queensland Parole Board, asking it to waive its “no body, no parole” clause.

Ms Jones has made an impassioned plea to the board to reject that application.

“All I have now is memories of her, a few pictures and a plaque at the Worrall Cemetery Park,” the Ipswich woman said

“A body has never been found to put her to peace.”

Kelly Jones as was abducted and murdered about a week before her fourth birthday.

In the months leading up to the 1989 murder, Bennett was friends with Caroline’s sister Suzanna Jones and was known to visit her Hampton home, north of Toowoomba.

Kelly was visiting her aunt and cousin during the Carnival of Flowers when Bennett took her from that house.

She was last seen at 8.30am on September 24, 1989, standing in the back seat of Bennett’s car near a Hampton shop.

Court reports of his sentencing state that Bennett was located the following Wednesday, lying on top of a knife.

He confessed to Toowoomba detectives that he killed Kelly.

“I’ve done something terrible to her,” he was reported to have said.

“I killed her. I killed her. She wouldn’t let up. She annoyed me so I killed her.”

Kelly Jones’s body has never been found.

Bennett later took police and about 160 volunteers to the area where he thought he left Kelly’s body, but could not recall the exact spot. Her remains have never been found.

Bennett would later face Toowoomba Supreme Court where he pleaded guilty to murdering the three-year-old.

During sentencing, prosecutors submitted a map drawn by Bennett which indicated that the body had been dumped in the Yarraman tip.

The court heard a witness claimed later to have seen Bennett’s car 11km north of Yarraman on the Monday after she was abducted.

The Yarraman dump was excavated in an attempt to find the body, but the court heard rubbish was burnt off every Monday and Kelly’s body would have been destroyed.

Justice Paul de Jersey sentenced Bennett to life imprisonment with hard labour and described the murder as senseless and brutal.

Kelly’s mum Caroline Jones is called on the Queensland Parole Board to reject her killer’s application for release.

“After you killed her you imposed on her the ultimate indignity of dumping her dead body in a bag at a rubbish tip,” he said.

“You denied her for no reason the very right which you ironically continue to enjoy. You caused her parents untold misery and I pity you for your callous disregard of human life.”

Prior to the sentence, Ms Jones said she met with Bennett and what he said still brings her to tears.

“All he told me was that she was crying so he put his hand over her mouth but I do not believe him,” she said.

“If she had lived, she would have been 38 this year.”

Bennett’s parole hearing has been set down for Friday in Brisbane Magistrates Court, where the board will determine whether he has given satisfactory co-operation. If it is decided that Bennett has co-operated with the “no body, no parole” process, the parole board can still decide to apply a restricted prisoner declaration.

When asked about the Bennett application, Police Minister Mark Ryan described the crime as heinous.

“(It is) a significant lifelong tragedy which still impacts that family and I think the hearts of all Queenslanders break for that family,” he said.

“What a disgraceful, disgusting human being that person is.

“The Parole Noord will look at all the matters in accordance with the law.

We have very robust laws around ‘no body, no parole’ so I’m sure the Parole Board will consider all the evidence and make a decision in accordance with this heinous crime.

I’m hopeful like all Queenslanders would be that the Parole Board gets the decision right.

“All the evidence needs to be considered by the Parole Board, they consider that independently, but I’m sure they’ll be very thorough in their consideration.”

Originally published as Mother of murdered girl Kelly Anne Jones wants Queensland Parole Board to reject killer John William Bennett’s application