Year in review 2018: Gold Coast’s top 10 crimes that gripped the city in 2018
From cold case murder to the inquest into the Dreamworld disaster, the Gold Coast was gripped by intrigue and crime as the drama was laid bare in court. Here are the top 10 cases for 2018.
Crime and Court
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From cold case murder to the inquest into the Dreamworld disaster, the Gold Coast was gripped by intrigue and crime as the drama was laid bare in court. Here are the top 10 cases for 2018.
1. Teacher’s Pet
A COLD case podcast by The Australian about a young mother who went missing in 1982 led to a critical moment in the case, with the arrest of former rugby league player and teacher Chris Dawson at Biggera Waters this month.
Dawson is accused of murdering his wife Lyn in Sydney. The case became the focus of the record breaking podcast, The Teacher’s Pet, which has been downloaded 31 million times around the world.
Dawson moved to the Gold Coast in 1985, teaching at Keebra Park and Coombabah high schools.
After his arrest, Dawson appeared in Southport Magistrates Court for extradition to NSW to face charges. Dawson, 70, was charged in Sydney and has since been released on bail.
He returned to Queensland and his Sunshine Coast home just in time for Christmas.
2. Baby drowned
SCHOOLIES celebrations were in full swing when a passer-by made a grim discovery of a nine-month-old baby girl dead on the popular Surfers Paradise beach.
Police are alleging the tiny child, the daughter of two homeless parents, was dumped in the Tweed River, with currents carrying her body north to Surfers Paradise.
The girl’s father was charged over the death and weeks later the girl’s mother also faced court.
Police allege the man tossed the baby into the Tweed River two days before the body was discovered because he thought she was the “devil”.
Court documents revealed the 23-year-old mother thought her partner had “slewn the devil” by allegedly tossing the girl in the water.
The pair are expected to appear in Tweed Heads Local Court in the new year.
3. Greg Dufty’s killers sentenced
FIVE men were sentenced early this year over the death of Gold Coast father Greg Dufty, including notorious former Bandidos bikie Lionel Patea.
Patea pleaded guilty to murder while younger brother Nelson Patea and co-accused Aaron John Crawford, Liam Bliss and Clinton Stockman all pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
It was revealed Dufty was beaten over a $17,000 cannabis debt owed to Crawford.
The group took him to an isolated area on the Gold Coast outskirts and bashed him.
Crawford and Stockman set fire to the body in northern NSW.
Nelson Patea could be out as early as next month after the parole board found he had no knowledge of where Dufty’s body was.
Patea’s older brother Lionel Patea pleaded guilty to murder and will not be released until 2048. Lionel Patea was also convicted and is serving time for the murder of his former partner, Tara Brown.
4. Rick Flori acquitted
SIX years after he was accused of leaking CCTV footage of police beating a prisoner at Surfers Paradise, former sergeant Rick Flori was acquitted.
After a two-week trial, a jury took about a day to return a not-guilty verdict in February this year.
Footage released in 2012 showed Senior Constable Benjamin Lamb kneeing and punching Noa Begic as he struggled with officers.
The jury determined Mr Flori had no malicious intent towards the Queensland Police Service when he released the footage.
After his acquittal, Mr Flori urged young officers to make “good choices”.
5. Tomahawk murder
“I AM sorry.”
These words were uttered by former labourer Brock Wall moments after he pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court in July, more than three years after he brutally murdered his former partner Fabiana Palhares, who was pregnant.
He ambushed her in her Varsity Lakes home, attacking her with a tomahawk and repeatedly kicking her stomach. Somehow she managed to call Triple 0.
It was revealed in court Wall had been served with a new domestic violence order just hours before he drove from Surfers Paradise to Varsity Lakes to attack Ms Palhares.
Ms Palhares and Queensland Police were also unaware of Wall’s violent past, with domestic violence convictions in NSW.
He was sentenced to life in prison.
6. Dreamworld inquest
EIGHT seconds. That was how long it took the conveyor belt on the Thunder River Rapids Ride to stop after an emergency button was pressed the day of the Dreamworld disaster in October 2016.
The time delay was just one of a plethora of horrifying details of the disaster — which killed four people — revealed at an inquest into the tragedy.
For six weeks and two days over four separate sittings, the families of the four victims and a score of lawyers trudged into the Southport Courthouse to hear what went wrong that day.
The inquest heard operators were not aware that two stop buttons had different halt times; that they used a scum line to judge water levels; that no risk assessments had been done on the ride; an operator was told not to worry about one emergency stop button; the ride was the most difficult to operate at the park; and there was pressure to keep the ride open.
Coroner James MacDougall is expected to hand down findings next year.
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7. Ken Lacey behind bars
FORMER milk baron Ken Lacey spent a large chunk of 2018 behind bars after pleading guilty in May to suppling more than $18,000 in cocaine.
Lacey was sentenced to two and a half years prison and released on parole in August.
Lacey, 60, supplied 13 bags of 3.5g of cocaine, also known as eight balls, in August 2015 to the one person.
The street value was estimated between $12,000 and $18,000.
In a letter to the court, Lacey said: “If I had my time over again I would throw them out with the rubbish.”
Lacey was back in court in August and pleaded guilty to putting the wrong address on a passport application.
8. Coast’s choking shame
THE Gold Coast became known for a shameful crime this year, with large numbers of choking cases hitting the Southport courts.
Two visiting District Court judges commented on the volume of choking cases they presided over during their two-week stints in September and November.
“It seems to be prevalent, particularly on the Gold Coast,” Judge Richard Jones said in November.
In September, Judge Paul Smith said it was “a real concern” after he noted he presided over “a lot” of domestic violence cases in just one week on the Gold Coast.
Their comments came after a Gold Coast Bulletin special investigation in March found men were serving less than eight months prison for choking attacks on their partners.
The investigation found six men walked after serving no more than eight months in prison.
9. Extraordinary words after rape
IN an extraordinary moment of bravery, a Gold Coast woman faced down her rapist in May and told him exactly how the ordeal had affected her.
Nathan Teece, son of well-known surfing identity Terry “Tappa” Teece, was found guilty of raping a woman as she slept in a bed after a house party.
He was sentenced to seven years jail for the rape at Burleigh in February 2016.
“Every piece of my being wishes so desperately that I could have pulled or pushed my arm out, or somehow kicked you. At least once, one ounce of retaliation, but I couldn’t,” the woman said.
“I wish I could have left a mark on your body. Yet no amount of scratches or kicks could have come close to the unseen marks you’ve left on mine.
“I actually struggled to say that, my body? Really it’s mine? But I don’t want it anymore.”
10. We need a Supreme Court
LEGAL eagles across the Coast joined forces in July this year with the Gold Coast City Council to push for a Supreme Court to be set up on the Gold Coast.
The push was partially successful, with the first circuit sitting of the court on the Coast in August.
The circuit sitting was deemed a success, with a number of sentences including a manslaughter, two of a Main Beach drug trafficking syndicate and a trial for the attempted murder of former Big Brother contestant Sam Wallace.
Despite the packed schedule, the State Government still said no for a permanent home.
Gold Coast lawyers are not giving up and hope to use data on case loads to get the higher court to the Glitter Strip.
Vicious public assault ‘could not be stopped’
A man who "couldn't be stopped" when he grabbed his partner by the hair and dragged her 100m through a Gold Coast shopping centre car park has now faced court over two dozen charges.
‘I’m not going to promise you anything’
A mother facing a string of drug offences was perhaps too honest with a magistrate yesterday after she initially couldn’t guarantee being on her best behaviour.