Corey Croft and Renee Carter: Couple stabbed in Upper Coomera home in January 2015

Two people were found stabbed to death in a northern Gold Coast home in an incident which made headlines around the country before a court was told what really happened.

The deaths of two people in an Upper Coomera home sent shockwaves across the Gold Coast in late January 2015.

Police were called to the Skylark St house just after 5.20pm on January 21 that year after the bodies were discovered by a visiting family member.

The two victims had been stabbed to death.

Bulletin photographer Glenn Hampson was among the first on the scene and captured an award-winning image of a detective speaking to a young boy who had been found inside the house with the bodies.

Police in front of an Upper Coomera house where two bodies were found. Picture Glenn Hampson

The young boy sat on the driveway in a blue forensics suit being comforted by the detective as officers taped off the house and began their investigation.

Neighbour Tony Smales said at the time the deaths had shocked the small community.

“They had the entire place lit up for Christmas with giant Santas and reindeer, so it just blows you away to see something like this happen,” he said.

“Out of all the houses on the street they were the most family orientated house on the street.”

However there was a significant twist in the tale which only became apparent in the aftermath of the incident, which occurred 10 years ago next week

Bulletin photographer Glenn Hampson’s award-winning photograph at the scene.

Soldier Christopher Robert Carter was arrested in the early hours of January 22 near his then-Upper Coomera home and was charged with the murders of the two people found dead – Corey Croft and Renee Carter, his ex-wife.

It was revealed the same week that Croft was a convicted child sex offender who had served time in both Queensland and South Australian jails.

Croft, previously known as Corey Krawtschenko, was arrested in 1995 after it was discovered he had videotaped himself having sex with a five-year-old family friend.

Corey Croft was a convicted child sex offender.

He was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 18 months.

More than a decade later he fronted Southport District Court charged with possessing child exploitation material.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment, suspended after four months.

Mr Carter was tried in 2017 in the Brisbane Supreme Court with the murders after spending nearly three years on remand.

Renee Carter

He admitted while giving evidence that he had stabbed the couple 15 times after disputes over his children and Croft’s relationship with a 10-year-old girl.

He was acquitted for both killings and found not guilty of the alternate verdict of manslaughter by a jury of six men and six women.

The jury accepted that he had acted in self-defence after being provoked by his ex-wife after years of bad blood between the two.

“The court was also told, years earlier Mr Carter was made aware Croft had forced a 10-year-old girl to shower with him on several occasions and that he was a convicted pedophile who had raped a child in South Australia,” the Bulletin reported at the time.

Former soldier Christopher Carter leaving the Brisbane Supreme Court after being acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Renee Carter and her boyfriend, Corey Croft in 2017 (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

“The fact Mr Carter had killed the pair was ‘not in dispute’ throughout the trial but the issue in question was whether the Crown could show he had the intention to murder them.

“Ms Carter was found with more than 10 stab wounds to her body, including a fatal blow to her neck, which severed her spinal cord.

“Croft had five stab wounds to the neck and head, the court heard.”

Defence barrister David Brustman QC successfully argued in court that the killings were “not murder per se but “a culmination of many years” and an event “which was “utterly unforeseeable”.