LISTED: Queensland’s domestic violence killers and their evil crimes
The evil acts of these domestic violence killers still ricochet through countless lives today, as domestic violence continues to be a scourge across the state. Read about their shocking crimes and the lives they tore apart. WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
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As domestic violence continues to be a scourge on Queensland communities, we’re examining the most serious domestic violence cases of the past decade.
The Courier Mail revealed shocking data in January this year showing a significant increase in alleged domestic violence deaths in 2023.
In the 2022-23 financial year, 24 people were allegedly murdered by their partner or family member – compared to 16 the previous year.
A third of the alleged killers had a domestic violence order against them or had contact with police in the 12 months before the deaths.
Despite increasing promises from Queensland Police and government officials to crackdown on the issue, domestic violence continues to run rampant in 2024.
The number of recorded domestic violence breaches in March 2024 was a record high of 5,928 across the state.
The individuals on this list include those convicted of a domestic violence-related murder or manslaughter in the past decade, along with the killers who never made it to their day in court.
Read about 15 DV killers and the lived they claimed.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT WHICH MAY DISTURB SOME READERS
Brian Earl Johnston
Kelly Wilkinson was doused in petrol and set on fire in the backyard of her Arundel home on April 20, 2021.
Nearly three years after, her ex-husband Brian Earl Johnston was sentenced to life imprisonment for the “unforgivable” crime.
He pleaded guilty to Ms Wilkinson’s murder – just weeks before he was scheduled to take the charge to trial.
The Brisbane Supreme Court heard there were signs Johnston had formed a premeditated plan to kill his ex-wife.
He had turned up at her home with a 20L can of petrol, dressed in black and with a black mask on his head, Justice Applegarth revealed.
The court heard Ms Wilkinson had been so fearful of her ex that she texted her family’s group chat “I’m considering moving back to Ohio” – as a warning something was wrong.
In sentencing, Justice Applegarth noted Johnston’s actions had been in breach of a protection order.
“Kelly Wilkinson was not yours to control,” he said.
“You ignored her dignity and her autonomy … You brutally killed her in a sustained attack with knives and burnt her to death.”
Johnston must now serve 20 years before he can apply for parole.
He is currently incarcerated at Wolston Correctional Centre.
Earlier this year, Queensland Police confirmed an officer was subjected to disciplinary action for breaching policy in Ms Wilkinson's case.
It was revealed Ms Wilkinson had begged police for help several times in the weeks before her death.
James Morton Mason
James Morton Mason was sentenced to life in jail after he was found guilty of murdering his partner.
The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Mason deliberately set fire to Alexis Parkes’ car on February 5, 2020.
The car was parked under her timber Chermside home, which was quickly engulfed in flames.
Ms Parkes died days later in hospital after suffering several organ failures from the blaze.
Mason pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to arson.
A jury found him guilty after a day of deliberation.
Mason will have to wait 20 years before he can apply for parole.
He is currently in custody at Wolston Correctional Centre.
Lionel Patea
Lionel Patea brutally murdered his estranged partner Tara Brown in September, 2015.
The Former Bandidos bikie tracked the Gold Coast mum to a day care centre where she dropped off their daughter.
He then followed after her in what became a high-speed car chase and forced her off the road.
Patea then beat her with a fire hydrant across the face and head, causing “unsurvivable” fractures to her face, head, and exposed brain.
He later turned himself in, with multiple self-inflicted stab wounds.
Justice Debra Mullins told Patea he would now have to live every day knowing he had deprived Ms Brown of her life, and their daughter of her mother.
Patea was sentenced to life in jail in 2017 after pleading guilty to Ms Brown’s murder.
The following year, he received a second life sentence after confessing to the murder of Greg Dufty.
The father-of-two had been beaten to death just two months before Ms Brown’s murder.
“You will forever be marked by what you have done,” Justice Martin Burns told Patea.
Patea is currently in custody at Maryborough Correctional Centre.
Shaun Robert Sturgess
Shaun Robert Sturgess bludgeoned his ex-wife Jacqueline Sturgess to death with a 1.8kg sledgehammer in April 2020.
The Brisbane Supreme Court heard at Sturgess’s trial earlier this year how Mrs Sturgess had come to their Narangba home on the day in question to collect some of her property.
Sturgess had struck her in the back of the skull with the hammer, before going out to a friend’s house to drink.
A jury found Sturgess guilty of murder, after the Crown rejected his plea of guilty to manslaughter.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and must spend at least 20 years behind bars before he can apply for parole.
Sturgess is now in custody at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.
Mrs Sturgess’ 80-year-old father, Robert Fitzsimmons, told The Courier Mail that the level of domestic violence gripping the country was “despicable”.
“Women don’t need this. There’s other ways to overcome these problems, not with domestic violence,” he said.
Brock Wall
Brock Wall was handed two life sentences in 2018 for murdering his ex-partner Fabiana Palhares and their unborn baby.
The bodybuilder broke into Ms Palhares’s Varsity Lakes home in 2015 and used a tomahawk to bludgeon her to death.
Wall had also repeatedly stomped on her stomach, killing her unborn child.
In the days leading up to Ms Palhares’s death, Wall had boasted to a co-worker that he would kill her, a Brisbane court heard.
“I am going to f***ing kill her, I might punch her in the guts first,” he had said.
Wall pleaded guilty to the murder just days before the matter was scheduled to go to trial.
Ms Palhares’s brother Raphael told The Courier Mail after Wall’s sentence that Wall’s actions were “inconceivable”.
“The amount of suffering she had to go through … and he had no regrets of doing it …,” Mr Palhares said.
“Not even animals go as far as that to hurt another animal.”
Wall is currently in custody at Wolston Correctional Centre.
Emily Jane Tracey
James Switez-Glowacz was murdered by his former wife Emily Jane Tracey and her ex-partner Paul Mathew Moore.
Mr Switez-Glowacz’s body was found at his Wynnum West home in February 2018 after Moore stabbed him eight times in the back and head.
Justice Flanagan found both Moore and Tracey guilty of the murder, on the basis that Tracey had “encouraged, enabled and aided” Moore to murder Mr Switez-Glowacz.
The court heard she had told Moore than Mr Switez-Glowacz had been violent with her.
Moore had texted Tracey the day before the murder that he was prepared to take Mr Switez-Glowacz out.
She subsequently drove him to the scene of the crime so that he could carry out the deed.
Switez-Glowacz‘s sister Courtney Goodlet told the court her elder brother’s murder had caused her mental torture.
“He didn’t deserve that. He was killed and left there like he was nothing. He was something to me,” she said.
“My family have to live with the effects of this disgusting, selfish, evil act for the rest of our life.”
Moore and Tracey were both sentenced to life imprisonment.
Rowan Baxter
“Master manipulator” Rowan Baxter murdered his wife Hannah Clarke, along with her children, in February 2020.
A Coronial inquest found that Baxter doused his family in fuel and set them on fire, before killing himself.
The inquest heard Baxter had methodically planned the harrowing attack.
He had gone to Bunnings the day before to buy a fuel can and zip ties, and he had also written a “death note” to Hannah on his phone.
It included: “I’m finishing your game. I don’t want to play any more”.
Hannah had left Baxter just months prior to her death and had moved with her children to her parents’ house in Camp Hill.
The inquest said Baxter had realised he couldn’t control her anymore, and painted himself out to be the victim.
Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley said Baxter manipulated doctors, psychologists and support services to assist him with Family Court matters.
“Baxter understood the extent of the atrocities he had committed,” she said.
“He did not want to live with the public denunciation and punishment he would receive so, when he was sure his plan had been carried out, he killed himself in a final act of cowardice.”
In the inquest findings, Coroner Bentley recommended upgrades in domestic violence training for some police.
“There was a failure by all agencies to recognise (Hannah’s) extreme risk of lethality,” she said.
Hannah’s parents Sue and Lloyd have since started charity Small Steps 4 Hannah, to halt the cycle of domestic violence.
Stephen Lock
Stephen Lock shot his ex-wife Karina Lock dead at a Gold Coast McDonald’s on September 10, 2015.
A witness recounted Ms Lock running to the restaurant saying: “He’s going to kill me.”
Mr Lock had then brandished a gun and aimed it at the witness’s head saying: “Do you want to die?”
He followed Ms Lock inside the restaurant and shot her, before killing himself.
Coroner Bentley said Mr Lock had experienced significant mental health issues, which were exacerbated by drug use.
His diary was found after his death, containing plans to harm Ms Lock and her children.
Ms Bentley said Ms Lock had been subjected to physical and verbal abuse throughout their marriage and had attempted to leave several times before their separation in 2013.
She noted a protection order had been in place at the time of their deaths.
“There were examples where support services, health systems and the Queensland Police Service provided a high level of assistance and support to Ms Lock,” Ms Bentley said.
“However, the support provided by services was insufficient to protect her from Mr Lock, as was the Domestic Violence Protection Order which was in force.”
David Bradford
David Bradford brutally killed his wife Teresa, just weeks after being released on bail for domestic violence against her.
Bradford broke into her Pimpama home in January 2017 and bludgeoned her with a hatchet while she was sleeping.
He then used an axe to continue beating her before slitting her throat.
Coroner Bentley said Bradford sexually interfered with Ms Bradford’s body, and then killed himself.
Their children found the bodies in the morning.
Neighbours found a notebook in a nearby drain, in which Bradford had fantasised about killing his wife.
“I sat in a cell regretting not what I did but why I stopped,” he had written.
“Should have planted a tomahawk in her spine and had some good ol play time.”
Bradford had been charged in November 2016 with assault occasioning bodily harm, strangulation, and deprivation of liberty.
He was released on bail on January 12, and killed Ms Bradford on January 31.
Magistrate Colin Strofield, who had granted Bradford’s bail, later said the “mistake” had had a “significant and continuing impact” on him.
“What I had done at the time was how the law was to be interpreted and applied,” he said.
“The law then got changed in amendments to the Bail Act.”
Anaru Ormond
Mum-of-four Siva Auvae was killed by her partner Anaru Ormond days before her 32nd birthday.
Ormand repeatedly stabbed Ms Auvae at their Kallangur home last December, before setting fire to the house.
Ormand died from injuries inflicted in the blaze.
The couple had been in a long-term relationship and had recently moved to Kallangur from New South Wales.
Investigators told media at the time that police had not received any calls for service to the address prior to the fire, and that there were no current domestic violence orders in place.
Ms Auvae’s family remembered how she had “enriched all (their) lives” and poured “love, care and protection” into her children.
Gary Hely
Gary Hely killed his ex-partner Doreen Langham in a Browns Plains townhouse fire in February 2021.
Both Hely and Ms Langham died in the fire, hours after Ms Langham dialled triple-0.
At an inquest into their deaths, Hely’s brother-in-law David Guthrie said the family felt ‘shame and embarrassment’ for his ‘horrific and indefensible’ acts.
“Gary was not a monster but he did a monstrous thing,” he told the court.
Former Assistant Commissioner Clem O’Reagan prepared a report for the inquest and said officers who interviewed Ms Langham two weeks before the tragedy were simply “ticking boxes” so they could get to the next job.
He said they made a “major mistake” not checking Hely’s criminal history when Ms Langham told them Hely had faced court for stalking and setting fire to his ex-partner’s home.
“If two officers had listened on the day, that changes the whole game,” he told the hearing.
Sarah Mudge
Sarah Mudge killed her ex-partner in an arson attack the day after a court awarded him custody of their kids.
Mudge doused Stanley Obi and his new partner in petrol while they slept at their Logan home in March 2022, before lighting a fire.
Mr Obi managed to get one of his children – who was sleeping in the bed with him – to safety before the fire claimed his life.
His partner and children all survived, but Mudge died in the blaze.
Months earlier, Mudge had posted to an online mother’s group that she would kill Mr Obi if he ever took her children from her.
She and Mr Obi had both taken domestic violence orders out against each other around the same time.
Traven Lee Fisher
Traven Lee Fisher was sentenced to 14 years jail last year after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of his pregnant partner.
Kardell Lomas was just weeks away from giving birth when she was killed on December 8, 2019, according to her family.
Fisher pleaded guilty to killing the unborn child, in addition to manslaughter, after pleading not guilty to murder.
The Brisbane Supreme Court heard police discovered Ms Lomas’ “decomposing” body in the boot of an abandoned car behind a Raceview home after an anonymous tip.
Ms Lomas’ brother Adair Lomas said no matter the sentence, nothing would bring back his sister or his nephew.
He encouraged victims of domestic violence or anyone who knew someone affected by domestic violence to speak up.
“It’s not love if you’re being verbally, physically, mentally, or sexually abused in your relationship,” he said.
“ … I encourage you to build the courage and strength up to get out of it while you still have a chance, because my sister had a chance but left it too late and it cost her her life, her unborn son’s life, left two sons motherless, and caused a lot of grief and pain for our family.”
Fisher is currently incarcerated at Maryborough Correctional Centre.
Arona Peniamina
Arona Peniamina stabbed his wife Sandra around 29 times – including 15 times in the head – at their Kippa-Ring home in 2016.
He then used a concrete garden bollard to bash in her skull on their driveway.
A Brisbane jury found Arona Peniamina not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter, at a trial in 2021.
The verdict was on the basis Peniamina had been provoked.
The court heard the couple had been arguing on the day of Ms Peniamina’s murder over claims of her being unfaithful.
Peniamina punched her, and she armed herself with a kitchen knife – which he then used to kill her.
Peniamina was sentenced to 16 years in jail, which he is currently serving out at Brisbane Correctional Centre.
Jean Louise Herholdt
Jean Louise Herholdt was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail in 2022 for killing her violent husband.
Sean Murray’s final moments were captured on CCTV, and played before the Brisbane Supreme Court at Ms Herholdt’s sentencing.
The court heard the couple were arguing after Mr Murray caught Ms Herholdt withdrawing cash to flee from him with.
He assaulted her in their Murrumba Downs home, and she stabbed him in the back.
CCTV from their back patio captured Mr Murray pleading for her to “stop” and later saying she had stabbed him.
Herholdt could be heard demanding money and saying: “I hope you f--king die, dog.”
She was made immediately eligible for parole, after spending 813 days in pre-sentence custody.
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