Woman found guilty in Anthony Stott kidnapping case

A woman accused of kidnapping Brisbane private school teacher Anthony Stott hours before he died when he was hit by a truck on the M1 has been found guilty.

A woman accused of kidnapping Brisbane private school teacher Anthony Stott hours before his bizarre death has been found guilty.

Lauren Grainger, 41, of Kin Kin, dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief after the verdict was handed down in Lismore District Court on Wednesday morning.

The guilty verdict followed about 90 minutes of jury deliberation and a seven-day trial.

Grainger will have to wait until December to learn her sentence.

She had pleaded not guilty to the aggravated kidnapping of Stott in the early hours of February 10, 2020.

The St Peters Lutheran College French teacher was killed by a semi-trailer on the M1 after being held captive at a Cudgera Creek farm in northern NSW.

It followed a mysterious mid-air meltdown on a flight from Sydney to Brisbane the previous day - during which he masturbated and yelled obscenities - as well as a late-night, high-speed drive from Brisbane which ended with him skidding off the M1 in his BMW and abandoning it.

Brisbane teacher Anthony Stott, who was hit and killed by a semi-trailer on the M1 in what has been described as a ‘bizarre’ case. Picture: Facebook

Stott then wandered onto the remote farm where he was tied to a plastic chair and allegedly hit with the golf club as his drunken captors demanded to know “why the f..k he was there”, Lismore District Court has been told.

Grainger’s co-accused, ex-partner Mark Frost and his friend Craig Button, pleaded guilty earlier this year and received reduced sentences for testifying against Grainger.

During the trial, Grainger denied hitting Stott with the golf club but admitted to taking photos of him tied to the chair and texting them to friends to try to find out if they knew him.

One friend, Sharnee Windley, gave evidence that she saw “demons” and “ghosts” around Stott in the photo and it was “really scary”.

The trial heard that Stott was interrogated for several hours before being loaded onto a farm ute while still tied to the chair, driven several kilometres and then returned to the farm to be released.

He then wandered back to the highway where he was fatally struck by the truck.

Lauren Grainger outside court on Wednesday.

Toxicology tests on Stott came back negative for drugs and alcohol but the court heard he may have been psychotic.

Before retiring just after 10am, the jury asked Judge Jeffrey McLennan SC whether there was any evidence of fingerprints on the knife that Grainger claims Stott was armed with when he came to her back door.

The judge said there was not.

In his closing address on Tuesday, defence barrister David Funch told the jury that Stott’s death was “absolutely tragic” but Grainger did not kill him.

The jury also heard that Stott might still be alive if he had been held captive at a northern NSW farm for longer and that more people could have been killed because he was driving “like a complete goose” before his alleged kidnapping and subsequent death.

Mr Funch said while it might sound callous, it was “lucky that half a dozen other people weren’t killed on that road” during Stott’s late-night drive on the M1.

“Because for the two-and-a-half hours or so that he was on it, he was driving like a complete lunatic,” he said.

Tweed-Byron police on scene at the Cudgera Creek property following the death of Anthony Stott. Picture: Scott Powick

Mr Funch told jurors they needed to consider if Ms Grainger acted in self-defence in a “very scary situation’ when Stott arrived at the farm in the dark with “wild eyes” - dishevelled, barefoot, armed with a knife and looking “like a junkie”,

Stott had told Grainger, Frost and Button that he had robbed the house before and had been sent by his sister to rob again, Mr Funch said.

“It’s 3am and some chap walks into your house with a knife - who wrote the book on how you’re supposed to behave in a home invasion?” he asked the jury.

“Ironically, someone who’s the subject of a home invasion is now on trial accused of being a criminal kidnapper. Just because someone might be an idiot or not thinking clearly or panicked or whatever, it doesn’t mean they’re a kidnapper.

“Nothing about this case is normal. It’s completely bizarre and the situation with which they were confronted is quite extraordinary.

“Could they have handled it better? Yeah, absolutely.”

Mr Funch said Stott was “clearly mentally unwell” and had he been kept tied up for longer, “he probably might still be alive, which adds to the tragedy of it”.

A photo of a mobile phone screen showing Anthony Stott tied to a chair.

He said Grainger had “absolutely lied” to police but that was only because she was “terrified” of being implicated in Stott’s death.

“It doesn’t mean you’re a kidnapper,” he said.

Earlier, in his closing address, Crown prosecutor Josh Hanna said the response by Grainger, Frost and Button was “completely over the top and unreasonable”.

He said the trio were “no doubt surprised” to see Stott at their back door in the middle of the night “but they reacted with complete suspicion”.

“They didn’t give him an opportunity to explain who he was or what he was doing there - they went completely overboard in their response,” Mr Hanna told the jury.

“In the completely wrong suspicion that he was there for sinister purposes, they restrained him, tied him up and conducted a drunken, violent interrogation over the next several hours.”

Mr Hanna said Grainger, Frost and Button said it seemed likely Stott was suffering an “acute mental health episode” or may have been “tired, shaken and distressed” after running off the road.

“There is no way she and the other two men should have treated Mr Stott the way they did,” he said, adding all had admitted they should have called police or an ambulance.

Mark Frost at Lismore District Court earlier this year. He pleaded guilty and received a reduced sentence for testifying against Grainger. Picture: Brendan Beirne/MEDIA MODE

Mr Hanna said Grainger’s claim that Stott had a knife was “simply an invention by her”.

“There was no knife, it’s just something she made up,” he said.

In his summing up, Judge Jeffrey McLennan SC told jurors that they had to determine if Grainger’s actions were “unreasonable or excessive”.

Judge McLennan said evidence that Grainger was drunk and “very messy” had to be taken into account when determining her perception of the circumstances and whether she believed her conduct was necessary.

Lauren Grainger.

But he said they could not take her intoxication into account when determining if her response was reasonable.

After the verdict was handed down, Judge McLennan said a custodial sentence was ‘not inevitable’.

He said Grainger was a person of good character and granted her bail.

Speaking outside court, Grainger’s lawyer, Dave Garratt of Howden Saggers Lawyers, said she was “very disappointed about today’s result”

“However she thanks the jury and accepts the jury’s ultimate decision,” he said.

“This is a case that there’s obviously no winners in. She’s obviously remorseful - she has been from day dot - about what happened to Mr Stott.

“She appreciates it’s been hard for the family and it’s been hard for everyone in this case.”

Her sentencing hearing was adjourned until December 6.

Originally published as Woman found guilty in Anthony Stott kidnapping case