Coercive powers: CCC secretly grills 150 witnesses in cold cases
The state’s crime and corruption watchdog has used secret coercive hearings to yield new clues in some of Queensland’s most enduring cold case mysteries.
Police & Courts
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Nearly 150 people were pulled into secret coercive hearings by the Crime and Corruption Commission and grilled about unsolved murders and other serious crimes – including one killing believed to have occurred in the 1960s.
The cold case murders of Gold Coast mother Tina Greer and Brisbane man Julian Neuendorf, as well as the disappearance of a two-year-old girl in Chinchilla, were among the investigations where coercive hearings were used.
The CCC’s new annual report details cases in which the organisation’s special coercive powers were used.
In cases of crimes involving “risk to or actual loss of life” – such as homicide – the CCC held 61 days of hearings and examined 49 witnesses during 2020-21.
Ms Greer has been missing since 2012 and is believed to have been murdered by her boyfriend, Finks bikie Les Sharman. Mr Sharman died in 2018.
“The hearing obtained evidence from a previously unco-operative witness and identified a new line of inquiry with respect to the alleged disposal of the woman’s body,” the report said.
The CCC also held 15 days of hearings examining 16 witnesses for crimes against children and vulnerable victims.
Kaydence Mills, 2, is believed to have disappeared in 2016 but was only reported missing by family in 2019.
In 2020, the CCC grilled a witness for details that hadn’t been given to police.
“This new information related to conversations the witness had with (Kaydence’s mother and her fiance) about the disappearance of the child,” the report said.
The mother and fiance were charged with murder.
Police recovered Kaydence’s remains from Chinchilla Weir.
The CCC report said hearings relating to the disappearance of Peter John Enright in the late ’60s – when he was believed to have been aged three or four – strengthened that police case. Peter’s mother Maureen has been charged with his murder, but her lawyers argue she has no case to answer.
“The hearing obtained evidence from a witness who had previously refused to provide a statement to police,” the report said.
The CCC also grilled 78 witnesses across 79 hearings days relating to “illicit markets and their facilitators”.
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