Tina Greer’s daughter tells inquest of mother’s fear she would be killed by notorious bikie
The daughter of a woman suspected murdered by her notorious bikie boyfriend has told an inquest of the violent relationship and her mother’s fear she would be killed.
Police & Courts
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The daughter of a woman who disappeared after visiting the home of a notorious bikie, who was suspected of murdering her, has told an inquest of the couple’s violent relationship and her mother’s belief she would be killed.
Tina Louise Greer, 32, disappeared in January 2012 after leaving her Beechmont home in the Gold Coast hinterland to visit her volatile ex-boyfriend, notorious Finks bikie Les “Grumpy” Sharman at his Spicer’s Gap property.
Days later her car was found at Governor’s Chair lookout at the end of Spicer’s Gap Road and her body has never been found.
Sharman was immediately declared a person of interest but refused to be interviewed by police and died in a road accident in 2018.
Ms Greer’s daughter Lili was the first witness called on Wednesday at an inquest in Brisbane Coroners Court examining her mother’s disappearance and suspected death.
Asked if she’s ever heard or seen Sharman violent towards her mother Lili, who was 13 when her mother disappeared, said there was a phone call “where she says goodbye and is like whispering like she believes she’s going to die.”
Lili said her mother told her at least five times she couldn’t leave Sharman because “Les would kill her”.
“I do recall him saying you’ll never be able to get a job and things like that like I’ll essentially ruin your life,” she said.
She also recalled physical violence against her mother including an incident where Lili intervened prompting Sharman to grab her arm and say words to the affect of “f*** off, I’ll smash your face”.
Ms Greer also told her daughter that Sharman had broken her nose and hit her over the head with a bar stool causing blood to go all over the floor that Ms Greer had to clean up.
Lili later found a referral for CT scan which she believed was for the bar stool assault.
“They’re all quite severe injuries that she had suffered from him but that seemed like the most significant – blunt force trauma to the head,” she said.
During one period where Ms Greer had managed to leave Sharman they believed he was stalking and prowling outside their Beechmont home.
“There’s no reason for anyone to stalk us except for him,” she said.
Police told them not to worry as it was probably bush turkeys, she said.
Lili said she heard nothing from police about her mother’s disappearance for about 7.5 years until May 2019 when she was contacted by the homicide squad who established regular contact.
The inquest before Coroner Kerrie O’Callaghan is also examining the adequacy of the police investigation into Ms Greer’s disappearance and its response to domestic violence allegations perpetrated against her by Sharman.
It will also consider what improvements have been made by police investigating allegations of domestic violence and the disappearance of women who are suspected or known victims of domestic violence and the adequacy of the response by Salvation Army Gold Coast Recovery Services, Fairhaven to disclosures of domestic violence by Ms Greer who struggled with substance abuse during her life.
A previous coronial report conceded it was likely that Sharman murdered Ms Greer.
Ms Greer told friend Edward Ngawhika that was running away from Sharman and if he didn’t hear from her “ probably be six feet under”, the inquest heard.
Mr Ngawhika said he took the comment with a grain of salt because
“I don’t usually come across people who murder other people”, not because Ms Greer exaggerated things.
“I found Tina to be straight up, honest and straight forward” he said.
Mr Ngawhika recalled Ms Greer saying Sharman was a “man of violence” and he detained her at his Spicers Gap property.
“(She said) she was pretty much a prisoner on the property and she couldn’t get out of there,” he told the inquest.
Ms Greer was a “very strong willed woman” but Mr Ngawhika believed she was afraid of Sharman.
A man who removed a mattress and rubbish from Sharman’s property the day after Ms Greer was last seen alive said he didn’t suspect her remains were in the garbage bags because they weren’t industrial grade.
Kim Fransden, a long time friend of Sharman, was asked about his trip to the dump that day where he also took a mattress from the Spicers Gap property.
“Did you ever have any reason to suspect that Tina, or remains Tina, was in that rubbish,” counsel assisting Stephanie Williams asked.
“No because it was a normal household garbage bag, they’re that thin, anything of weight would have gone straight through it,” he said.
He said he believed the mattress was used for Sharman’s dog which had recently died.
Mr Fransden said he didn’t see Sharman much after Ms Greer’s disappearance.
“From the incident I never saw him. He did the bolt down to South Australia I believe and stayed on the Coast and never contacted me,” he said.
He said Sharman had told him Ms Greer had run off to the Gold Coast which had happened before.
He told the inquest he had once seen Ms Greer with a black eye and heard she often stayed in the car when Sharman visited him because she had injuries from him.
“Did you ever talk to Les about the fact that he might be doing these things to Tina,” Ms Williams asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’d be like me asking you does your husband ever bitch-slap you, you know what I mean it’s not my business to ask that sort of thing.”
Ms Williams asked if he queried Sharman when Ms Greer never reappeared.
“I didn’t ask. The word murder hadn’t come into the conversation,” he said.
Barrister Anna Cappellano, on behalf of Lili Greer, asked if Sharman was a man you “didn’t ask questions of”.
“He’s very secretive on his movements, what he does. He just doesn’t like people to know what he’s doing,” he said.
“Did you ever think that a little bit suspicious at that time that you were throwing out the mattress so soon after Tina disappeared,” Ms Cappellano said.
“No as I said I thought it was the dog’s mattress.”
Ms Greer’s brother Peter said he was recently told his sister had overdosed on the party drug fantasy and had been buried at a property at Bonogin in the Gold Coast hinterland.
“But the police searched that property and everything,” he said.
The inquest continues Thursday.
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