James Patrick Roughan, who murdered Brisbane teen Morgan Jay Shepherd, blocked from applying for parole

The depraved killer who murdered a Brisbane teen and used the severed head as a bowling ball had made a shock request from behind bars. Today, it was refused.

The house at Sandgate where Morgan Jay Shepherd was murdered by Christopher Clark Jones and James Patrick Roughan.

A depraved killer who decapitated a 17-year-old boy and mutilated his body, stabbing him 133 times, bowling the severed head at another man, and putting his hand inside the victim’s neck “like a puppet”, has been blocked from applying for parole.

James Patrick Roughan was found guilty of the murder of homeless teenager Morgan Jay Shepherd whose body was discovered in a shallow grave at Dayboro on April 1, 2005, days after he was last seen alive on March 29 that year.

Roughan was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 2008 and would ordinarily now be eligible to apply for parole after having served 15 years in prison.

But under tough new laws designed to keep the worst of the worst behind bars, the Parole Board of Queensland announced on Monday it had chosen to extend Roughan’s non-parole period, preventing him from applying for parole until at least April 2027.

Morgan Jay Shepherd was brutally murdered in 2005.

Parole Board president Michael Byrne KC said the decision to declare Roughan a restricted prisoner meant his application for parole submitted in 2020 and deferred under the act was also refused.

Mr Byrne said he made the declaration because of “the nature, seriousness and circumstances of the offence for which the prisoner was sentenced to life imprisonment”.

The board also took into account “the risk the prisoner may pose to the public if the prisoner is granted parole”, “the likely effect that the prisoner’s release on parole may have on an eligible person or a victim”

Roughan’s co-offender Christopher Clark Jones was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder and was deported back to the United Kingdom in 2020 after he had served 15 years in prison.

Christopher Clark Jones is deported back to the UK.

The harrowing details of the crime were detailed in a 2009 Queensland Court of Appeal judgment which dismissed an appeal bid by both men.

A pathologist called at the trial gave evidence the victim died of head and neck injuries but said it was impossible to tell whether the decapitation occurred before or after his death.

“The head of the deceased showed signs of axe or tomahawk wounds to the eye sockets, behind the left ear, and the right upper neck,” the appeal judgment said.

“The jaw was fractured and showed signs of cutting wounds caused by a saw or a knife.

“The head had been severed in the upper neck area at the level of the jaw bone.”

Mr Shepherd’s body was mutilated by his killers with the pathologist detailing 51 wounds to the left leg, 68 to the right leg, 10 stab wounds to the buttocks, three to the upper back and one to the abdomen.

“According to the pathologist, all of the leg wounds were, mercifully, post mortem,” the appeal judges wrote.

Crime scene photos from the 2005 murder.

When police raided Roughan’s property, they discovered a tomahawk, a knife and two saws with the victim’s DNA on them, as well as one of his missing teeth.

During the trial, one witness gave evidence Jones told him that he had been in an argument with the victim and he “stomped him a bit, then stabbed him … for a bit, then gave (Roughan) a knife and (Roughan) stabbed him for a bit”.

The witness said he was told that Roughan removed the victim’s head with a saw and Jones “pulled it off”.

“(The witness) testified that Jones said that (Roughan) put his hand up the neck of the severed head of the deceased as if it were a puppet and that the appellant had put the deceased’s head on a stake in the back yard.

“(The witness) said that (Roughan) denied these assertions.”

The 2005 crime scene.

The crime scene.

The witness also said Jones had told him that when the killers were burying the body at Dayboro, Roughan “rolled” the victim’s severed head down a hill at him.

Another witness said he overheard a conversation in which Jones asked Roughan “Why did we do that?” and when there was no response, said “You’re the one who cut his head off with a saw.”

That witness also gave evidence that Jones said Roughan had “rolled the deceased’s head at him”.

Roughan is the seventh Queensland inmate to be declared a restricted prisoner under legislation introduced in 2021.

The laws allow the board to make a declaration that a restricted prisoner – a person convicted of murdering a child or murdering multiple people – can be barred from applying for parole for up to 10 years beyond their eligibility date and multiple declarations can be made against the same person.

The changes to the Corrective Services legislation was prompted by community backlash to a parole bid by sadistic killer Barrie Watts who was convicted of the rape and murder of 12-year-old schoolgirl Sian Kingi.