LIONEL Patea held scissors to the throat of Tara Brown and for two days would not let her be alone with their young daughter until lawyers finalised a custody agreement.
In the aftermath of their fight at Auckland airport, the Gold Coast Bulletin can reveal a legal battle raged in the final eight days of Tara’s life as she and Patea organised visiting rights for their young daughter, Aria.
CHAPTER 2: FROM $250K BIKIE KING TO DEPTHS OF SUICIDE
CHAPTER 3: TARA BROWN’S DESPERATE ESCAPE PLAN
CHAPTER 4: TARA WAS ‘EVERYTHING TO ME’: PATEA
CHAPTER 5: THE LITTLE GIRL WITHOUT HER MUMMY
For the first time, information from horrified witnesses to police can be reported, recording Tara’s terrifying drive as Patea chased her after dropping off Aria at a Nerang kindy, their cars reaching speeds of 100km/h past a school before crashing.
In a shocking final twist, a male resident thinking he was helping Tara who was trapped inside her upturned Mazda hatchback, worked alongside Patea removing the windscreen.
As Patea lunged at Tara, repeatedly smashing her face with a metal fire hydrant cover, the man could not pull the ex-bikie away.
Sixteen times he hit her. When Patea later gave himself up to police, he denied having any memory of the shocking assault.
SCISSORS TO THE THROAT
On return to Australia after an argument at Auckland airport, Patea finds Tara at their Coast home, with Aria in her car.
Police say Patea forced Tara into their bedroom, pinned her to the bed and “held a pair of scissors to her throat and threatened her”.
For two days Tara is not allowed to see Aria. Patea forces her to pack her things in her car. On September 3, 2015, Tara finally tells the whole story to Jason Hall, her boss and lawyer.
Mr Hall takes Tara to the Southport police station to report the incident. She leaves and later applies herself for a temporary protection order.
They return to Mr Hall’s office at Southport Central Towers and discuss their options. Aria is dropped off from kindy. A residential domestic violence refuge is contacted.
TARA ON THE RUN
Tara leaves the office with Aria and drives her Mazda 2 north. Her mother Natalie Hinton and her partner Jonny Gardner cannot reach her.
In Brisbane they book into a motel. “I’m going to a refuge,” Tara tells her mother.
“Where are you?,” her mum asks. “I can’t tell you that,” Tara replies. They realise she is “on the run”.
The next night in a shelter, Tara discovers the woman in the common area is using drugs. The bed linen is dirty. Concerned about Aria’s safety, Tara returns to the Coast.
For two days the lawyers negotiate a custody agreement.
On September 7, at the start of the working week, Tara and Mr Hall finalise the documents for Aria’s custody and access arrangements. The material is sent to Patea’s lawyers.
The interim order gives Patea visiting rights but he must be on good behaviour.
PATEA’S HIGHWAY TO HELL
At 8am on September 8, Patea calls Aria’s Nerang childcare centre to confirm his daughter is booked for the day.
About 8.25am Tara drops Aria off and talks to the centre manager for several minutes about the custody arrangements.
At 8.40am Tara calls triple 0 while driving. She is hysterical. The operator can just make out that Tara is in Molendinar and about to crash.
Stunned witnesses watch as Patea’s black four-wheel-drive vehicle races behind Tara’s Mazda hatchback along Southport-Nerang Road.
At the intersection of Harper St and Ashmore Rd, Patea steers his car in front of the Mazda. He strikes Tara’s car with his fists and a knife.
Witnesses see that he clearly wants Tara to get out. The driver’s window is shut. She steers her car north along Ashmore Rd.
Patea is back on the chase. They race past a school at speeds of more than 100km/h. She is forced to stop at the next intersection — Ashmore Rd and Macquarie Ave.
Patea again gets out and bashes her car. She drives off, turning right into Macquarie Ave. He finally catches her, ramming her Mazda causing Tara to lose control as her car crashes down a three metre high embankment into the yard of a house.
“LIONEL STOP. PLEASE HELP ME.”
Tara’s mobile phone remains connected to the Triple 0 call. Emergency workers hear a loud crash.
“Lionel stop,” Tara screams. “Please help me.”
Tara’s car is on its side in the rear yard of the house. Patea is out of his car, parked about 20 metres down the street.
He picks up a metal fire hydrant cover from the footpath. It weighs almost eight kilograms.
Two women and a man in the Molendinar street rush to Tara’s car after hearing the screams. Many residents had been outside on the school day checking to see if their garbage bins were emptied.
Tara is trapped upside down in the car, her legs through the steering wheel. A female resident sees she has no injuries to her face.
A male resident assumes Patea is removing the windscreen to help Tara get free and gives him a hand.
But Patea strikes Tara on her face with the fire hydrant cover. The male resident tries to pull him away but Patea pushes him and continues to bash Tara.
Sixteen times he hits her — the thumping sounds can be heard by the Triple 0 operator.
The female resident yells at Patea. “What the (expletive) are you doing?,” she screams. He turns and looks at her. “She’s got my kid,” he replies.
Patea leaves the metal cover on Tara’s face and walks away. Residents see she is gasping for air, going in and out of consciousness.
They comfort her as they wait for an ambulance. A woman in the street is screaming. Smoke rises from the car wreckage.
A pram is in the back of the Mazda along with toys. Other residents begin a frantic search thinking there is a missing child.
One of the witnesses, Lisa Kennedy, jumps on Patea’s back to stop him from bashing Tara, but she is tossed off.
The horror of the moment remains with her.
“Even though I tried my best to stop you, I felt hopeless and helpless at the scene. For the first six months, every time I closed my eyes, I saw Tara ... My eyes would well up with tears because of the guilt I carry — that I will forever carry — that I failed her in not recognising and understanding that her fear was of you,” she said later.
PATEA MAKES HIS ESCAPE
The radiator from Patea’s jeep is smashed. Water pours out of it. The bullbar is in a garden.
Patea climbs the embankment. A man and his wife are sitting in the front of their four wheel drive. Patea jumps into the back seat and asks to be taken to a police station.
The male driver tells him to get out. Meanwhile, a council driver who has parked his utility helps to direct traffic. He has left the keys inside. Patea sees the opportunity and drives off in his ute.
Residents watch fire crews put up a tarp, pump air into Tara’s lungs. “She was not in a good way, her face was caved in and covered with blood,” a resident says.
Tara is rushed to the resuscitation unit at the Gold Coast University Hospital. Experienced staff assess her and are shocked by her injuries.
At 9.25am Patea arrives in the ute at the Coomera police station. He has sustained multiple self-inflicted stab wounds.
He admits to doing “something bad” as he lapses in and out of consciousness. His lung has collapsed.
Police find a bloody knife in the cab of the ute.
POLICE REACH OUT TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Jason Hall’s mobile telephone rings twice. He does not normally interrupt a boardroom meeting but phones back Jonny Gardner, the partner of Tara’s mother Natalie Hinton.
He is in shock. The police have called the family and told them “something bad has happened”.
They know Tara was in an accident, suspect she has injuries which she can recover from.
In a small room at the hospital they wait and wait for Tara to be brought back from surgery.
A surgeon finally arrives. They are told her injuries are so bad “she is not going to make it”.
What they see they cannot comprehend and are unable to articulate to others.
Patea arrives at the hospital under police guard for treatment.
Doctors examine him and discover multiple superficial stab injuries, less than half a centimetre to his neck and chest.
He has sustained three large stab wounds to his left lower chest, the largest about 3cm long.
This is causing problems with his breathing. They note that the wounds are self-inflicted.
Patea admits to police that he ran Tara off the road. But he denies having any memory of assaulting her.
TARA’S FIGHT TO LIVE
Medical staff expect Tara will die within a few hours. She holds on, long enough for relatives and friends to arrive.
Her mother knows her fight to stay alive is for Aria.
At a bedside hearing Patea is charged with attempted murder, unlawful use of a motor vehicle and attempted unlawful use of a motor vehicle.
About 9pm on September 9, Tara dies at the hospital. She has sustained six fractures to her face and skull.
The worst was a depressed fracture to the left side of her skull which displaced the skin and bone, causing a deep cut direct to her brain. Staff note the injuries were not caused by the accident.
PATEA FINALLY IN THE DOCK
On November 11, Tara’s family members walk inside the Southport Magistrate’s Court. They know Patea is inside, in the dock, wearing prison browns.
This is the first time all parties are present together. No celebration here, no anger just an overriding feeling of numbness.
Asked if he had anything to say or any plea to enter before standing trial, Patea tells the magistrate: “No, your honour.”
Later in the midmorning sun, outside the front of the courthouse, red roses start to appear.
Everyone takes a step back, as young children place the bright flowers, bow their heads. After so much ugly noise, finally there is silence and respect for Tara.
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