Queensland’s biggest court cases of 2022
An NRL star behaving badly, the Hannah Clarke inquest, a drink driving mayor and a Deen brothers’ bashing – these are Queensland’s biggest court cases of 2022.
Police & Courts
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Some of the highest profile cases in recent memory played out in Queensland’s courts in 2022.
From the Hannah Clarke inquest to an NRL star behaving badly and Toyah Cordingley’s accused killer, there was an abundance of allegations and revelations.
Here are some of Queensland’s biggest court cases and legal proceedings of 2022.
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HANNAH CLARKE INQUEST
Arguably the most high profile case in Queensland in 2022, the state hung onto every word of the Hannah Clarke inquest which set out to find if police could have done more to protect the mum of three before she was brutally murdered by her ex partner.
Hannah and her three young children were leaving her parents home on February 19, 2020 when an evil Rowan Baxter jumped into the front seat and told her to drive.
He then doused his entire family with fuel and set them alight, killing them and himself. Baxter was not declared mentally ill, but instead a “master manipulator” who had a long history of domestic violence incidents involving Hannah, and had previously kidnapped one of his daughters, taking her interstate for four days.
Before committing the heinous murders, he wrote Hannah a death note and bought a jerry can and zip ties from Bunnings.
Hannah had left Baxter in 2019, and when he realised he could no longer control her, started to rally friends against her.
While it was deemed unlikely that Hannah’s friends or family could have done more to help and protect her, Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley found police officers had missed crucial opportunities to hold Baxter accountable for his violent and controlling behaviour in the months leading up to the murders.
She declared that police had not been adequately trained to respond to domestic violence, but had appropriately dealt with complaints made by Hannah in the weeks leading up to her death.
The Department of Child Safety also came under fire for failing to complete a risk assessment of potential harm to the three children and that “all agencies” had failed to identify the risks to Hannah and her children, partly because Baxter had not been physically violent with them.
The tragic deaths sparked a government-led Women’s Justice and Safety Taskforce which reviewed the role of coercive control in domestic violence and lack of support available to women.
The taskforce made 19 recommendations and, with Coroner Bently making three of her own. They included government funded mandatory police DV training and the implementation of specialist DV officers posted to the suburbs with the highest number of DV incidents.
KAREN WILLIAMS
Just before a “single lapse of judgment in 18 years of public service” Redlands Mayor Karen Williams had reportedly held a video conference with families whose loved ones had been killed at the hands of drunk drivers.
Sixty minutes later Williams crashed her council owned Lexus into a tree with a blood-alcohol concentration more than three times the legal limit.
The June 23 collision at night in Cleveland saw her charged with drink driving. Magistrate Deborah Vasta sentenced Williams to 80 hours of community service and disqualified her from driving for six months for driving with a blood alcohol reading of 0.177. A conviction was not recorded. Williams, who admitted to drinking four glasses of wine after handing down the budget, publicly apologised and spoke of a “lapse in judgment” outside court. Williams will have to fit an interlock device to her vehicle for five years after her six-month licence suspension at a cost of more than $12,000.
Despite calls for her resignation Williams remains mayor.
ALEXIS PARKES
Alexis Parkes took James Morton Mason off the streets into her home. In return Mason incinerated her alive after setting fire to the Chermside property.
Mason is now serving life for the horrific act of domestic violence that took the life of the beloved grandmother.
The couple had been in a relationship for about 10 months when on the night of February 4 2020 they argued and Mason retired to underneath the Queenslander with evil on his mind.
In the early hours of the following morning he purposely moved his belongings from the property and returned to set fire to her car that was parked directly under the timbre home.
Neighbours sprung into action in a desperate attempt to alert Mr Parkes to the fire that had quickly engulfed her home as Mason simply walked off.
In those harrowing moments a neighbour tried in vain to kick down a door while Ms Parkes screamed for her life.
Firefighters braved the inferno and carried an unresponsive Ms Parkes from the home. She died several days later.
Last month following a trial where he had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to arson Mason was sentenced to life in jail after being found guilty by a jury.
ANTHONY MILFORD
The consequences of NRL gun Anthony Milford’s bad off field behaviour finally came to a close on April 11.
On that day he walked out of court with a good behaviour bond but no conviction after throwing a wheelie bin into a car windscreen following a verbal stoush with his partner in a Brisbane nightclub.
Initially charged with three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm these were dropped when the former $1 million Bronco pleaded guilty to public nuisance and wilful damage.
The Brisbane Magistrates Court heard that the charges had cost the 27-year-old a deal with South Sydney resulting in a lost payday of several hundred thousand dollars.
Milford was represented by Brisbane lawyer Dave Garratt, who sadly took his life just before Christmas, and super coach Wayne Bennett tendered a character reference to the court.
The court threw out a media application to copy CCTV footage of Milford and bystanders, who had intervened after his verbal argument with his partner, pushing and shoving each other in Fortitude Valley.
Milford was placed on a two-year $1000 good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded and ordered to pay $2370 to the car’s owner. He has since signed with the Dolphins.
BENJAMIN JANSEN
The wheels of justice turn slow and for Rex Kable Keen and his family it was served ice cold. But more than four decades after he was bludgeoned to death with his own camera in a Brisbane hotel room his killer was finally sentenced.
Mr Keen, a Bowen Hotel manager, had been in Brisbane for medical appointments when his lifeless body was found by cleaners in a Lennons Plaza Hotel room in August 1976.
The ‘ Black Friday murder’ as it was known long vexed homicide detectives with a mystery drinking partner of Mr Keen hours before his death unable to be identified.
But the cold case breakthrough came when crucial DNA evidence from an earlier crime linked Benjamin Jansen to the death and he was arrested in 2019.
Mr Keen’s family would finally learnt what happened to the loved one with “everyday Australian values”.
The pair had met at a bar and had a few drinks before going back to the Lennons Hotel bar.
The pair retreated to Mr Keen’s room and had dinner.
Jansen claimed he then attacked Mr Keen in response to an “unwanted homosexual advance”. Initially charged with murder this was downgraded to manslaughter which Jansen, 72, pleaded guilty to.
He was sentenced to nine years prison in October and granted immediate parole eligibility with the 1205 days spent in custody since his arrest taken into account.
BLISS N ESO INQUEST
The music industry was rocked when a Coroner delivered the news that the shooting death of beloved stuntman Johann Ofner on the set of a Bliss n Eso music video set was completely avoidable.
The Gold Coast father was killed in 2017 when he was shot in the chest with a double barrel shotgun with live rounds rather than blanks while filming a music video for the song Friend Like You at a popular Brisbane bar.
When handing down his findings, Coroner Donald MacKenzie said the training and safety for the film production was inadequate. A safety officer had not been appointed on the set, firearms safety briefings were not undertaken, and there was a failure to test fire the weapon to establish safe distances for the actors.
The film’s armourer Warren Ritchie, who provided eight guns to the set, was also taking prescribed opioid medication at the time of filming. Although he was found responsible for contributing to the death, Mr Rithcie succumbed to his own terminal illness just months after the fatal shooting, and would never be held accountable.
“Nevertheless, had Mr Richie survived, he would have faced the prospect of a manslaughter charge, an unlawful possession of a handgun (charge), the unlawful supply of a handgun (charge), and a breach of work health and safety duty causing death charge under now repealed legislation,” Coroner Mackenzie said.
Mr Ofner’s death prompted production stakeholders to band together to create national guidelines for screen safety which are yet to be ratified.
MANPREET SINGH BRAR
The family of a man mowed down and killed while he was walking his dog with his wife in Brisbane were devastated after hearing the reckless driver who killed him would spend less than two years in jail.
Manpreet Singh Brar was speeding at about 85km/h when he ran a red light on Anzac Avenue, ploughed into another car and slammed into the Seibel’s who were crossing the road with their dog on an early November morning in 2020.
The couple were crossing on a green walk signal but only took a few steps onto the road before Barr wiped them out. Ian Seibel died in hospital five days later while his wife Paula suffered serious injuries and underwent lifesaving surgery. Brar, who moved to Australia from India in 2009 and is not an Australian citizen, had a serious traffic history of five prior speeding convictions, an unlicensed driving offence and nine SPER suspensions.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and grievous bodily harm and an offence of driving without a licence and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, suspended after 20 months. He is also never allowed to drive again. After hearing the news his father’s killer would soon be free, Aaron Seibel said he could not put his disappointment into words. “Thirty years off a man’s life is worth 20 months,” he said. Brar is set to be deported to India after he had served time in prison.
JEFFREY BROOKS INQUEST
When young scientist Jeffrey Brooks died 26 years ago, his death was ruled an accident however, his family have always believed foul play was involved.
His case was again thrust into the spotlight this year when a second inquest was launched into the circumstances of his death. Mr Brooks was killed in 1996 after a firearm he was reaching for accidentally discharged.
Police believe he had grabbed a shotgun barrel first and shot himself in the chest. But Jeffrey’s parents say their 24-year-old son was murdered amid an ongoing dispute with his fellow employees at a struggling Beenleigh Crayfish farm because Jeffrey believed they were stealing crayfish and selling them “under the table”.
Throughout the inquest questions were raised as to how Mr Brooks, who was raised on a farm in a hunting family accidentally shot himself with a shotgun that wasn’t his own, as well as reasons for odd blood splatter patterns and a lack of gunshot residue left on him after being shot at close range.
A few years after his death police destroyed the gun, and investigators could never perform accurate ballistics testing to help identify how Brooks died, including how far away he was from the barrel when the shot was fired.
A crime podcast by the Courier-Mail’s Kate Kyriacou explored Jeffrey’s death as a murder. Evidence in the Dead Wrong podcast was then reviewed by Detective Sergeant David Moore who did not identify any inconsistencies with the murder theory. “There was a lot of information within those statements within the podcast that increased the element of motive in this incident,” he said. Coroner Donald Mackenzie is expected to deliver his decision in 2023.
DEEN BROTHERS TRIAL
Hailing from one of Brisbane’s most prominent families, Mohammed Umar Deen, 41, and twin brothers Imran Aziz Deen, 30 and Zain Fazal Deen, 30, were jailed in June over a premeditated and violent gang bashing of their cousin to “teach him a lesson”.
The four men are from the well-known Deen family, who were involved in the legal but divisive demolition of sites including Cloudland and the Bellevue Hotel.
The trio of brothers had been accused of a drawn-out assault of their cousin who said the trio used bats to repeatedly hit him during an attack in January 2020.
They were found guilty after a week-long trial in the Brisbane District Court. Crown Prosecutor James Bishop said it would have been a “terrifying experience” for the victim and described it as a “premeditated and gratuitous instance of violence”.
Umar Deen was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with parole release on February 6, 2023 after he has served eight months behind bars, while Imran Deen was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with parole release in four months on October 6.
Zain Deen was jailed for two years with parole release on November 6 after he has served five months in prison.
MAYTHEM KAMIL RADHI
Maythem Kamil Radhi was found guilty in October of facilitating a failed people smuggling plot that led to hundreds of asylum seekers drowning at sea more than two decades ago.
In October 2001, 353 people including 146 children drowned when their boat SIEV X (suspected illegal entry vessel) capsized and sank in rough seas during the journey from Indonesia to Christmas Island.
After a decade-long battle to bring the Iraqi-born Radhi, now a New Zealand citizen, to justice he was finally extradited to Australia in 2019 and charged with organising bringing groups of non-citizens into Australia.
After pleading not guilty at his trial Radhi was found by a jury to have been instrumental in helping organise the fatal journey.
The 46 was handed a seven year jail sentence with immediate parole eligibility taking into account 1104 days already served in custody.
Co-accused Khaleed Shnayf Daoud and ringleader Abu Quassey were previously jailed in Australia and Egypt respectively.
KATE LEADBETTER AND MATTHEW FIELD
The lives of a pregnant Kate Leadbetter and her partner Matthew Field were tragically cut short when a teenager in a stolen car lost control and slammed into them in Alexandra Hills on Australia Day last year.
The soon to be parents were walking their dogs in Alexandra Hills on Australia Day last year when the unimaginable horror unfolded.
The drunk and high 17-year-old had run a red light and hit a truck causing his four-wheel-drive to roll and strike the couple, who died instantly.
The teenager, who can never be identified for legal reasons, had stolen a Toyota Landcruiser about 5pm and went on a rampage of dangerous driving, ending “about 20 minutes later in the heart-rending death of an innocent young couple”, his sentence hearing in June heard.
Data showed the 4WD was doing 102km/h in a 70km/h zone just five seconds before the crash and 79km/h when the impact occurred. The killer fled without offering any assistance and attempted to steal another car.
His blood alcohol level was between 0.151 and 0.192 per cent at the time of the crash.
After pleading guilty to 12 charges including two counts of manslaughter, dangerous operation of a vehicle while adversely affected and unlawful use of a motor vehicle the teenager was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but will be released after he has served six years behind bars.
Motorcyclist fighting for life after serious Logan crash
A man in his 30s is in a critical condition after a car and motorcycle collided in Slacks Creek on Tuesday afternoon.
Crabber ‘accidentally’ picked up 1.5kg bag of marijuana
A crab fisherman told police he had not seen the drugs before after they found the gargantuan amount in a car he had been driving.