Brett Forte inquest told gunman Ricky Maddison believed police officers had it in for him

In a ‘highly unusual move’, an application has been made during the inquest into the shooting of police officer Brett Forte for his wife Susie Forte to give a statement.

In a sensational development this afternoon, barrister Troy Schmidt and solicitor Calvin Gnech asked that Susie Forte leave the inquest into the shooting death of her husband while they made an application to the court.

Ms Forte was not listed to give evidence at the inquest.

The application was made on the grounds that she has given statements to police.

State Coroner Terry Ryan has ruled that Ms Forte give further evidence via an additional statement.

The inquest has been adjourned until Thursday to allow time for Ms Forte to provide a statement.

Her barrister David Funch opposed the move and said he was given no notice.

He said Ms Forte was not a witness.

“I have no idea what this application is,” Mr Funch told the court.

“He is asking my client be excused from these proceedings in circumstances where she is not a witness, it’s an open court, she has got every right to be here.

“It’s a highly unusual and unorthodox request that he has made.”

Ms Forte was allowed to stay while the second application was made asking that the coroner order the disclosure of evidence, that Ms Forte may have.

Susan Forte (Susie Forte) arrives at Toowoomba Courthouse for day one of the inquest into the shooting death of her husband, policeman Brett Forte.

In their argument Mr Schmidt and Mr Gnech submitted that new information appears to have been raised via cross examination by Ms Forte’s counsel that their clients were not aware of before.

They submitted that a further statement should be taken or a further interview of Ms Forte where she is required to give additional information.

Mr Gnech said it was not unusual or irregular to take a further statement or conduct a further interview from someone if new information arises during an inquest.

“Mrs Forte is a serving police officer. She shouldn’t be treated any different to any other serving police officer,” he said.

Mr Funch said it was a ridiculous proposition that the police officers giving evidence should be given an opportunity to hear what he planned to cross examine them about.

He said at least 90 per cent of information had already been disclosed to all parties beforehand

“They don’t get to have advance notice of what the cross examination is going to be,” he said.

EARLIER

Earlier today, a friend and neighbour of the paranoid gunman who shot police officer Brett Forte has told an inquest he spoke of “husband and wife” police officers he believed had it in for him.

It comes as the inquest into the deaths of Sen Const Forte and Maddison was told gunman Ricky Maddison had made threats to ambush and shoot police as far back as 2007.

Barrister David Funch told the court Maddison had made the threat towards a police officer, Senior Sergeant Scott Stahlhut, in 2007.

He said the threat had involved plans to “ambush Stahlhut and other officers and shoot them in a driveway”.

Adam Byatt told the inquest into the deaths of Sen Const Forte and Maddison he’d had no idea his friend would ambush police on a dirt track and fire an SKS assault rifle at them.

The court also heard the officer was targeted in a violent home invasion the same year by men who were associates of Maddison.

Maddison, who was shot by SERT officers following a 20-hour siege, would often spend time with Adam Byatt, who lived nearby, the inquest heard.

The pair got to know each other through working in security and would sometimes go shooting or drink together.

Mr Byatt told the inquest into the deaths of Sen Const Forte and Maddison he’d had no idea his friend would ambush police on a dirt track and fire an SKS assault rifle at them.

He said he also had no idea Maddison was on the run from police in the weeks leading up to the May 29, 2017 shooting, and only bought him a mobile phone in his own name because Maddison was “broke”.

“He was a proud man and he was broke,” Mr Byatt, who denied any links to the bikie gang Life and Death, said.

Mr Byatt said he gave the phone to Maddison with $100 credit after setting it up in his own name.

“I didn’t buy it to cover up anything,” he said.

“I just did it.

“My understanding was all the charges (against Maddison) had been dropped.”

He said Maddison had sometimes drunkenly complained about being targeted by police and had mentioned a “husband and wife team” he now believed were Brett and Susie Forte.

He said Maddison had sometimes said things like, if police were “following” him, “maybe I should follow them”.

Mr Byatt said he was not aware police were investigating reports of automatic gunfire near his house and did not realise until later that a man walking down the road near his property carrying an iPad was a police officer.

Ricky Maddison, who was shot by SERT officers following a 20-hour siege.

He denied telling the man: “You wanna be careful around here in case some hillbillies shoot you.”

“I did warn him that on the other side of the hill as you walked up on the right hand side there is a private property ... (and) they are not too friendly,” he told the inquest.

“I certainly didn’t threaten anybody with being shot.

“I never threatened the man.

“I certainly warned him of what the property boundaries were.”

Mr Byatt agreed he had taken a photograph of the man and sent it to Maddison to warn him “there is a strange fellow walking around”.

He said he and Maddison had also investigated strange lights and cars driving around the Wallers Rd area but discovered marijuana planted in among the lantana and thought it was related to that.

Senior Constable Brett Forte who was killed on duty on Monday May 29, 2017.

Senior Constable Andre Thaler told the court he had helped police try to locate Maddison once and had spoken once to Maddison’s dad when police were trying to find him, between March and April 2017.

On May 18, just days before Sen Const Forte was killed, Sen Const Thaler was on a day off and had wanted to go to a national park.

Buildings at the property where Ricky Maddison was shot by police after he and killed Queensland police officer Brett Forte - photo Supplied Channel 10

He ended up driving up Wallers Rd to go to national parkland and said he got out of his vehicle because of the difficult terrain.

He walked 300m from his car and could hear a car idling and heard a chain being removed from a gate and turned around to see a man watching him.

“We sort of looked at each other,” Sen Const Thaler said.

“He was intently watching me.”

Police on Wallers Road leading to the property of gunman Ricky Maddison who murdered policeman Senior Constable Brett Forte. Pic Darren England

The car then pulled up next to him and he said the man was immediately confrontational

“Words to the effect of: ‘what are you doing?’” Sen Const Thaler said.

“I just looked at him and said: ‘What do you mean?’.”

Sen Const Thaler said the man responded: “Do you see this land on the left here? Make sure you don’t go on it.”

He said the man referred to the land again and he asked why the man was following him.

Sen Const Thaler changed his demeanour and said: “That’s my land, make sure you don’t go on it.”

The police car in which Queensland police officer Brett Forte was shot and killed by gunman Rick Maddison - photo Supplied Channel 10

As the police officer was walking back to his car he said the man warned him to be careful and said there were “hillbillies on these hills mate”.

“I wouldn’t want to see anything happen to you, they’ve got guns, similar to that,” he said of the conversation.

Sen Const Thaler said he was so suspicious he wrote down the man’s number plate and made an intelligence report on his day off.

He said he also saw a gate with a significant chain and padlock on it, with a sign above saying “smile, you are on camera”, warning trespassers would be prosecuted.

The next day an intelligence officer who had read his report sent him a photo of Adam Byatt and asked if it was him.

“She sent me a photo and I said 100 per cent that’s him,” he said.

Sen Const Thaler said it was “coincidence” that he went for a bush walk in the very place Maddison was living at a time when police were searching for him.

Barrister David Funch put it to the police officer that he was on the road “gathering intelligence”.

“No,” Sen Const Thaler said.

The officer said he was only made aware of reports of automatic gunfire in the area a couple of days later.

Flowers left outside Toowoomba Police Station in honour of Brett Forte. June 2017

Sen Const Thaler denied he had got together with two other officers from the Tactical Crime Squad to “workshop” what happened with the shooting prior to being interviewed by the Ethical Standards Command.

Mr Funch, barrister for Susie Forte, said Sen Const Thaler had spent “several hours” in a room with his colleagues sharing “notes”.

“I wouldn’t phrase it like that,” he said.

“Sat down in a room like it was some kind of conspiracy? No, that’s totally false.”

He agreed he had spoken about Sen Const Forte’s death with colleagues on multiple occasions prior to giving at statement to ESC.

Sen Const Thaler was not interviewed until more than two weeks after the shooting.

Sen Const Thaler said he had been involved in a search of a national park - some distance from Wallers Rd - for Maddison on May 25.

He said police suspected Maddison was camping in the bush.

He said they took a rifle with them during the search but had not connected the search for Maddison with reports of automatic gunfire in the vicinity of Wallers Rd.

“You took a rifle because you thought he was dangerous and you thought you needed a rifle,” Mr Funch said.

“Yes,” the officer replied.

“Where we were looking for Maddison was quite some distance from where (people heard) that automatic gunfire.”

“I wasn’t thinking about automatic gunfire. I was thinking about Ricky Maddison.”

Officers in the Tactical Action Team (TAT), a division of the tactical crime squad, had been told about reports of automatic gunfire in the area, the inquest heard.

A few days before Sen Const Forte was killed he was asked by his wife Susie Forte what was the latest information relating to the search for Maddison.

He replied in a text: “Who knows, I’m in the B team, we get told zip.”

When asked by Mr Funch what that meant, when taking into account there was a separate group of officers in the TAT, Sen Const Thaler said he had no idea.

“We don’t have an A team and a B team,” Sen Const Thaler said when asked if the TAT was the A team.

“We have different people working in different roles.

“I don’t know how to articulate what he would have been referring to. It suggests to me that anyone who is working in that area is ... I don’t know. They were looking for Ricky Maddison at some stage, we were all looking for him.”