Logan QLD worst crimes against children and teens revealed | List
Children are dependent on adults for love, care, and a good start in life. Here are nine of Logan’s worst crimes against children in the last 25 years and how justice was served in their memory.
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They are among the most vulnerable members of society: children who are dependent on adults for love, care, and a good start in life.
Sadly, however, not all children get this – and some, as this list shows, never even get the slightest chance to make their mark on the world.
Stretching back some 25 years, these are the nine of the most heinous crimes ever committed in Logan against children.
Three children from one family shot in sextuple murder suicide: 1996
On the morning of January 25, 1996, seven people, including himself, died at the hands of Hillcrest man Peter May, 32.
Children Lisa, 11; Andrew, 9; and Natalie, 7, were shot first, at an address at Ellen Grove.
The bodies were covered with a blanket and Peter vomited on his dashboard, his only betrayal of nerves.
After this, Peter drove his rented Fairlane to Hillcrest, where his estranged wife, Helen, was with her parents Jim and Rita Potter, waiting for the kids to be dropped off – Helen and Peter’s marriage had crumbled 10 weeks prior.
The Courier Mail described the 12-year marriage as “brutal and near-penal”.
Rita was shot first – the Winchester 30–30 barrel shoved in her mouth and two bullets delivered.
Jim was knocked to the ground next and shot in the head.
Helen tried to escape, but was dragged back inside and shot in the head.
Peter then turned the gun on himself.
The month prior to the massacre, Peter had attended a meeting of the Men’s Right Agency, where he was told in no uncertain terms he would be unlikely to see much of his kids following the divorce.
The MRA denied their advice precipitated the massacre in any way.
Teen’s body stuffed in barrel: 2018
The body of Sandgate teenager Larissa Beilby, 16, was discovered stuffed inside a barrel on a black utility at Stapylton on June 27, 2018.
Police were detailed to an address at Grassdale St, Buccan, to try and locate Ms Beilby, at which point her boyfriend, Shailer Park man Zlatko Sikorsky, 34, fled the property in a black utility.
The vehicle was discovered 20km away at Stapylton a short time later, with Ms Beilby’s body stuffed into a barrel on the tray.
Sikorsky was arrested and charged on July 1 with dozens of offences, including Ms Beilby’s murder, following a siege of more than 24 hours at a Juan St, Alexandra Headland unit complex.
During Sikorsky’s court case, a forensic pathologist who had conducted autopsies on 7000 bodies during her career has told the court she had never seen injuries like those on Ms Beilby.
Dr Dianne Little told the court Ms Beilby, who had been fed methamphetamine, had suffered “multiple different impacts” from blunt force trauma to her head, neck and limbs, which had “coalesced” into one continuous bruise.
Sikorsky had been committed to stand trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court on charges of murder, torture, deprivation of liberty and interfering with a corpse of Ms Beilby, but on November 10 last year he was bashed at Wolston Correctional Centre, and died 10 days later.
Baby abandoned at boat ramp, never seen again: 2007
One day in May 2007, Woodridge meth-addict Shane Arthur Simpson, 39, “fried off (his) head” on ice, wandered down to Logan River Parklands at Eagleby and left his 22-month-old baby Baden Bond on a park bench beside the boat ramp.
Little Baden was never seen again.
Police began investigating the baby’s disappearance in early-2017 and arrested Simpson and Baden’s mother Dina Bond on suspicion of murder on March 16.
At their trial, the court heard Simpson told police he left Baden on the bench and “didn’t even look back”, after becoming “tired of caring” for the boy, who Simpson and Bond called “devil child”, “evil” and “a little dog f*****”.
On March 7, 2019, Simpson pleaded guilty to Baden’s manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years’ jail.
The baby’s mother, Dina Bond, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact after helping the man cover up his actions by lying to friends, family and authorities about what happened to the tiny baby.
She was sentenced to a head sentence of three years’ jail and was made immediately eligible for parole after serving almost two years on remand.
Taxi driver stabs three of his children to death: 2003
On September 3, 2003, following an argument with his wife, Piula, Samoan-born taxidriver Fa’afua Lameko, 31, armed himself with a knife and stabbed pregnant wife Piula in the neck and as well as an 11-month-old baby.
The pair fled their Woodridge residence, leaving behind three other children with their crazed father.
Lameko stabbed them all to death: Loretta, 2; Fa’anuu, 5; and Janelle, just four months old.
He then turned the knife on himself.
Lameko survived, unlike the three young children.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 25 years, in December 2004 after recovering from his injuries.
Pregnant teen’s blood spattered inside car, body never found: 2015
Pregnant Waterford West teenager Tiffany Taylor, 16, was last seen leaving a motel on Loganlea Rd about 10am on Sunday, July 12, 2015.
She was never seen again.
Ms Taylor was at the motel to meet Annerley pensioner Rodney Wayne Williams, 65, for a paid sexual liaison via the Oasis website.
Brisbane Supreme Court heard evidence Ms Taylor could have been killed at the Larapinta industrial park before her body was dumped in the Esk-Ferndale region, where multiple searches have failed to recover her body.
Police found “dripping blood” that matched Ms Taylor’s in Williams’ car, as well as evidence that Williams had attempted to clean the vehicle.
The court also heard Ms Taylor’s blood was located behind the headrest of the seat she was sitting on.
Williams claimed that after their interaction he dropped Ms Taylor off at a truck stop in the Dinmore and Bundamba area.
He was found guilty by a jury on May 20 last year and sentenced to life imprisonment with parole eligibility after serving 30 years.
Father and baby plunge into river, only dad re-emerges: 2012
On June 23, 2012, formerly loving Eagleby father David Fisher, 38, plunged into the Logan River at Beenleigh with his six-month old son Elijah in his arms.
Only Fisher Sr re-emerged from the murky depths.
The pair had walked about 1km from the family’s Eagleby home, with Elijah being pushed in a pram, before Fisher scooped the baby up and jumped into the swirling water from a pedestrian bridge.
When he returned home, he told Elijah’s mother, Lauren, “Elijah’s drowned. Elijah’s gone”.
Water police found Elijah’s body the following morning on a scrubby bank of the Logan River, roughly 1.5km downstream of the bridge he and his father fell from.
Fisher pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court on November 2, 2015.
Justice Anne Lyons said Fisher suffered from a psychotic disorder and took drugs (mescaline and cannabis) before he plunged into the river.
“Your son was vulnerable and at his age of six months he was completely reliant on you,” she told Fisher during sentencing.
“It is clear that you intentionally released your child in the water when you knew his death was inevitable.”
He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years’ jail with a parole eligibility as at December 22.
Foster child murdered to cover up sick secret: 2015
It seemed as though Chambers Flat family, the Thorburns, had it all.
Husband-and-wife Rick and Julene Thorburn owned two businesses, Miss Julene’s Family Day Care and an American-themed food truck called Nothing Healthy Here, while children Trent and Josh were both normal-seeming kids with a passion for dance.
Tiahleigh Palmer, 12, went to live with the Thorburns in January, 2015, and was enrolled at Marsden State High School.
Older brother Trent took an unnatural interest in her and on or about September 26, he had sex with her and impregnated her.
When Rick found out, Tiahleigh’s fate was sealed despite her innocence.
When elder brother Joshua arrived home on October 29 he was called into a family meeting where Rick ominously said he had “taken care of it” and warned his wife Julene not to go into Tiahleigh’s bedroom.
He told police he dropped Tiahleigh to school about 8.10am the morning after, but that was not true – he had smothered her the night before and dumped her body.
Six days later, three fishermen found Tiahleigh’s badly decomposed body floating in the Gold Coast’s Pimpama River, 30km south of where she was last seen.
The Thorburns weren’t charged until late 2016.
Trent was jailed in September 2017 for a maximum of four years after he pleaded guilty to four charges including incest.
He was released on parole in January after serving 16 months.
Joshua and Julene spent three and six months behind bars for their parts in the subsequent cover-up.
Rick was sentenced to life behind bars, with a minimum of 20 years in jail.
Newborn bashed, carved up and buried by butcher dad: 1998
Chahleen Amy Blackwell was killed just moments after her birth at Raymond Akhtar Ali’s family home at Logan Valley, on September 8, 1998.
The infant was bashed, stomped on and sliced in half by her father, a trained butcher who slaughtered goats for the Muslim market.
Her sexual organs were also removed and her body buried in a neighbouring property before it was eventually dug up by dogs.
While Ali denied any connection with the birth or death, DNA testing showed he was the baby’s father.
The child’s mother and the Ali family’s live-in babysitter, Amanda Blackwell, was also convicted of manslaughter in 2000, the same year Ali was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Blackwell served nine months of a four-year sentence.
Ali remains behind bars and was controversially awarded $3000 compensation in 2013 after he was fed vegetarian meals in jail for four months instead of halal meat.
Teen doused in petrol, set alight by boyfriend: 2015
On the evening of May 28, 2015, a 17-year-old Logan woman was left permanently disfigured when her Marsden boyfriend Brae Taylor Lewis, 19, doused her in petrol and set her alight at his Avalon Ct address.
She was left with scarring to her arms, chest, abdomen, back and thighs after Lewis threw a beer bottle full of petrol at her, then flicked a lighter causing flames to engulf her body.
She spent two days in an induced coma and one month in hospital after the vicious assault
Lewis was jailed in 2018 for 11 years after being found guilty of a malicious act intended to cause grievous bodily harm but he won a retrial after his lawyers argued he did not intend to set fire to his victim.
The court heard Lewis left his girlfriend in the shower after she was severely burned and did not wait for police or emergency services to arrive.
He was not arrested until about 24 hours later.
In a victim impact statement read to the court the girl said she was “heartbroken” the person she loved did such a “horrible thing”.
“I felt and still feel self-conscious about my scars and appearance,” she said.
“I avoid looking at old photos of myself … I prefer not to look in mirrors.
“I go to counselling every fortnight to help with the healing of my physical and mental state.”
At the later retrial, Lewis was sentenced to nine and a half years’ jail and will be considered for parole after serving half of the term behind bars.
After time already served he will be eligible for parole in August this year.
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