Gold Coast private investigator Mick Featherstone claims John Chardon is not guilty of manslaughter

Detective turned private investigator Mick Featherstone has sensationally claimed wife-killer John Chardon’s murder trial should have ended differently and another person could be responsible.

QUEENSLAND police detective turned private eye Mick Featherstone has sensationally claimed wife-killer John Chardon should not have been convicted of Novy’s manslaughter because there were multiple other suspects that could have murdered the Gold Coast mum.

The bombshell claims come after Mr Featherstone spoke exclusively to The Gold Coast Bulletin days after being cleared of charges relating to an alleged plot to kidnap a NAB banker by luring him to a remote Indonesian island.

He had been charged alongside Clive Palmer’s media adviser Andrew Crook and former Sydney Swan turned Schoolies founder Tony Smith with attempting to pervert the course of justice and attempted fraud.

Mick Featherstone photographed on the Gold Coast earlier this week. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

All three denied the allegations for almost six years before the charges were discontinued in a Brisbane court last week.

Mr Featherstone, who was years earlier hired by Chardon to assist his defence case, said the police murder investigation into the lubricant tycoon who invented Inox was deficient.

He said investigators focused on Chardon being Novy’s killer because he was the most obvious target.

Novy Chardon and John Chardon on their wedding day. Picture: Supplied.

“It’s been one of the most bizarre cares I’ve ever worked on in 40 years and a lot of people say: ‘Is he right for it? Did he kill her?’,” Mr Featherstone said.

“You’d think with my experience I’d be able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and the answer is that I can’t say that he killed her at all.

“There is no body, there is no crime scene, there are no witnesses and John (Chardon) had an alibi.”

John Chardon arrives home after an overseas trip following his wife’s disappearance. Picture: David Clark.

Novy disappeared in 2013. Chardon was convicted of manslaughter in September 2019.

The lubricant tycoon has now lodged an appeal against his 15-year sentence and conviction for Novy’s death, which Mr Featherstone said came after the Gold Coast businessman received what he believes was an “unfair trial”.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions and I just worry about the system where they can convict him when there are so many unanswered things,” Mr Featherstone said.

Novy Chardon went missing in February 2013 from her Gold Coast home. Picture: supplied.

He said he believes Chardon was “judged” and there were a number of people out there who could have murdered Novy.

“I don’t think that it was investigated to the extent that it should have been,” Mr Featherstone said of the case.

“I just think that they were very tunnel-visioned and because they didn’t have anything on the others they tended to just focus on him.

“I think there are half a dozen other suspects out there that shaped up better than him.”

Mr Featherstone said his own investigations in the case presented some “strange things” in Indonesia that could suggest Novy is alive, including her purchase of a house overseas before her death that was kept secret from Chardon.

Artist’s sketch of John Chardon giving evidence on the stand in the Brisbane Supreme Court last August. Picture: Richard Gosling.

“Is she still alive? I tend to think she’s not but there are some strange things in Indonesia that tend to say she is alive,” Mr Featherstone said.

He also said there were eye witnesses in Indonesia that had positively identified Novy since her disappearance.
“ … the conduct and behaviour of her family up there was very unusual,” Mr Featherstone said.

“They told me a number of times to stop looking for her. If my daughter went missing I’d want the police to never stop looking for her.”

Mick Featherstone says John Chardon’s case was not throughly investigated by police who focused on the millionaire being Novy’s killer too early on, without looking at other suspects. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

READ MORE TOMORROW

Read The Gold Coast Bulletin tomorrow for Mick Featherstone’s full interview about his colourful life, the real story behind why he was cleared of wrongdoing in relation to the alleged kidnapping plot and his claims that this is just the beginning of he and Mr Smith’s fight against what they believe is a cover-up by the NAB.