Chilling details of private school teacher’s alleged kidnapping, death heard in court

Jurors have been shown a chilling photo of a Brisbane private school teacher tied to a chair just hours before he was run down by a semi-trailer as his “bizarre” alleged kidnapping and death plays out in court.

Jurors have been shown a chilling photo of a Brisbane private school teacher tied to a chair at a remote northern NSW farmhouse just hours before he was run down by a semi-trailer as his “absolutely bizarre” alleged kidnapping and death plays out in court.

Anthony Stott, 43, was fatally struck by a semi-trailer on the Pacific Motorway after allegedly being held captive and bashed with a golf club during an “angry and aggressive” interrogation at a farmhouse he’d wandered into following a high-speed, late night drive from Brisbane in February 2020, Lismore District Court heard.

The photo jurors were shown.

One of the farmhouse residents, Lauren Grainger, has pleaded not guilty to the aggravated kidnapping of Mr Stott while in company and causing him actual bodily harm.

The court heard that her two co-accused, Mark Frost and Craig Button, had pleaded guilty to offences and been given reduced sentences for giving evidence in Grainger’s trial.

In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Josh Hanna told jurors that Mr Stott – a respected French teacher at St Peter’s Lutheran College in Brisbane – was captured on camera speeding down the M1 in the rainy early hours of February 10, 2020 with no lights on the vehicle.

The court heard his silver BMW was clocked by two speed cameras driving at up to 134km/h down the M1 on the Gold Coast.

Mr Stott lost control of the car at Cudgera Creek, south of Tweed Heads, and veered off the motorway.

He left his phone and belongings in the car and walked towards the farmhouse where Grainger and Frost were living and their friend Button was visiting.

Mr Hanna said the three of them had been drinking and went to bed about 3.30am when Stott arrived and walked up the stairs into the house.

Brisbane teacher Anthony Stott was hit and killed by a semi-trailer on the M1 in northern NSW. Photo Facebook

Grainger allegedly called out to Frost who put the teacher in an arm lock and took him out to the shed, the court heard.

Button had then tied Mr Stott to a green plastic chair with rope wrapped around his body including his neck, Mr Hanna told the court.

The prosecutor said Grainger, Frost and Button spent several hours “interrogating” Mr Stott about why he was on the property and who had sent him.

Mr Hanna said the trio became “angry and aggressive”, with Grainger using a golf club to strike the chair and possibly Mr Stott.

The chair was broken and Mr Scott’s elbow was injured during the interrogation, the court heard.

Mr Hanna said Grainger had taken photos of Mr Stott tied to the chair and sent them to some of her friends, asking if they knew him.

One of the friends, Sharnie Windley, arrived at the farmhouse to see Stott still tied to the chair and bleeding, the court was told.

The northern NSW property where Mr Stott was allegedly detained. Picture: Scott Powick

The jury heard Mr Stott had then “begged” Ms Windley to call his sister, but there was no answer.

Mr Hanna said Button then told Frost and Grainger they needed to get Mr Stott off the property, so the two men allegedly loaded him onto a ute while he was still tied to the chair.

But the court heard it was getting light and Frost and Button were worried someone might see them, so they returned to the property.

There, it’s alleged they released Mr Stott and told him to leave and not come back.

Minutes later, Mr Stott was hit by a semi-trailer on the M1.

Grainger, Frost and Button heard the impact and “assumed correctly” that he had been killed, Mr Hanna told the court.

He said Grainger initially told police that she’d been woken by a “loud bang” and that people sometimes used the property as a shortcut to the highway.

But the court heard she had then phoned a friend to whom she’d sent a photo of a bound Stott, telling her to delete the image and get rid of the plastic chair he was tied to.

Mr Hanna said when police returned to the property later in the day, Grainger had admitted an intruder had been restrained at the property “to get information from him”.

But Grainger had allegedly told detectives more lies, including that Mr Stott had a knife, “to hide the seriousness of what happened”, the court heard.

Mr Hanna said Button would give evidence that he saw Grainger striking the chair with the golf club, and a bleeding Mr Stott crying “ow” in pain.

He said Grainger’s friends would also give evidence of being sent photos of Stott tied to the chair, which one friend threw in a nearby creek before it was retrieved by police divers.

Mr Stott’s family would also testify, the court was told.

Defence barrister David Funch, instructed by Howden Saggers Lawyers, told the court that the case was “absolutely bizarre” and raised self-defence as a possible defence.

“The circumstances of this incident are truly very strange,” he told jurors.

Mr Funch said most of the circumstances were “not in dispute” between the Crown and the defence, including that Mr Stott’s behaviour in the lead-up to the incident was “very erratic and very strange”.

“It’s not in dispute that this fellow came into the defendant’s home at 3am; a fellow that she’d never met before,” he said.

“It’s not in dispute he was acting in an utterly bizarre, strange manner.”

Mr Stott’s sister Daniella told the court that she rang back one of the missed calls she received on the morning her brother died.

She said a woman who answered accused her of dropping Mr Stott at the farmhouse to rob it.

The court heard Ms Stott’s partner Darren McHugh, who took over the call, told the woman they were worried Mr Stott might have been having “an episode”.

She allegedly replied: “Yes - you should have seen the look in his eye.”