THE FAKE PRINCE

In one of the greatest frauds committed against Queensland taxpayers, a fake Tahitian prince, swindled more than $16 million from the government. Joel Morehu-Barlow was a manager at Queensland Health when he embezzled the millions between 2007 and 2011.

A popular socialite who falsely claimed royal pedigree, Morehu-Barlow frittered away $6.16 million on a New Farm unit, $600,000 in cash withdrawals, $1.13 million on travel and accommodation, $636,740 on Louis Vuitton products and more. He was sentenced to 14 years’ jail
in 2013.

DAMIAN LEEDING

Detective Senior Constable Damian Leeding, 35, was shot point blank in the face with a pump-action shotgun as he stormed Pacific Pines Tavern on the Gold Coast in 2011 to foil an armed hold up. Valiant attempts were made by his partner Sergeant Nicole Jackson to save the husband and father of two young children but he did not survive. The slain officer was awarded a posthumous bravery medal. The shooter, Phillip Graeme Abell, and co-accused Donna McAvoy, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

FOSTER’S MOD CONS

Australia’s greatest conman Peter Foster kept a presence in the headlines this decade.

The Queensland-born fraudster was pinched in 2011 for a $6 million weight-loss scam but fled after a guilty verdict in 2013. During his year on the run he ran a gambling scam from Byron Bay before it all came crashing down.

ALLISON BADEN-CLAY

On the surface, Allison and Gerard Baden-Clay had it all. Three gorgeous girls, a sprawling home in Brisbane’s Brookfield. He was the well-connected real estate agent and local chamber of commerce boss. She was the former global HR manager and accomplished ballerina.

But in reality Allison was the long-suffering wife to a cowardly domineering and calculating cut-out of a husband.

On April 19, 2012, she disappeared from the family home. Ten days later her body was found on the banks of Kholo Creek. In 2014 a jury founder her philandering husband guilty of murder. Baden-Clay was sentenced to life in jail.

SICA SENTENCED

Max Sica didn’t only kill one daughter of Shirley and Vijay Singh, he slaughtered the ranks of their family.

It was Easter Sunday 2003 when Sica visited his girlfriend Neelma Singh, 24 at the Brisbane home of her parents, who were in Fiji. In a fit of jealous rage he strangled her to death then killed her siblings Kunal, 18, and Sidhi, 12.

It would be nearly a decade before the killer was brought to justice. On July 6, 2012, Sica was handed the toughest
non-parole term in Queensland history with a minimum 35 years behind bars.

BIKIE BRAWL

On September 27, 2013, a mob of Bandidos bikies stormed a Gold Coast dining strip like shock troops. They were hunting down a rival and found him in a Broadbeach restaurant. Besieged diners looked on as all hell broke loose. Outnumbered police tried to contain the chaos and the horrifying images of the brawl spread around the country, prompting some of the world’s harshest anti-bikie laws.

EUNJI BAN

Alex McEwan was a deranged sadist who tried to blame a mental illness for acting on his fantasies and killing Eunji Ban. in Brisbane’s CBD on November 24, 2013.

But after five years, a Brisbane Supreme Court jury finally called his actions on
the night he bashed the innocent Korean student to death what they were – cold-blooded murder.

After a three-week trial last year McEwan, 25, was sentenced to life for the Wickham Park murder.

JUSTICE FOR DANIEL

For 3750 days they sought justice for their little boy. That day came on March 13, 2014, when Brett Cowan was jailed for life for the murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe in 2003.

It was a murder that not only agonised Daniel’s brave campaigning parents Denise and Bruce but all of Queensland.

COLLOMBET KILLING

French student Sophie Collombet was walking
home from uni when she was raped and murdered on March 27, 2014.

The 21-year-old’s naked body was found the next morning in a South Brisbane park.

Her killer Benjamin James Milward was jailed for life for the heinous crime in 2016.

GRISLY DEATH

It’s hard to imagine a more disturbing murder-suicide than the grisly killing of Mayang Prasetyo by Marcus Volke, 28, in Teneriffe in October 2014. After murdering his Indonesian wife Volke dismembered her body and cooked some of her in a stock pot. The putrid smells emanating from the unit eventually led to police being called. Before they could catch the killer Volke got into a skip bin and killed himself.

CAIRNS MASSACRE

Just a week out from Christmas in 2014 the nation was rocked when eight children were slaughtered in their Cairns home.

The children – four girls and four boys aged from two to 14 – were killed by Mersane Warria.

Warria, also known as Raina Thaiday, was mother to seven of the children and one was her niece.

She was charged with eight murders but the charges were dropped after a court found she was of “unsound mind”.

FOSTER DAD JAILED

Ten months after Tiahleigh Palmer moved into the Logan home of Rick Thorburn she was dead. On October 29, 2015, Thorburn murdered his 12-year-old foster daughter to cover up the sexual abuse of Tiahleigh by his son Trent, 18.

He swore the family to secrecy and was a pallbearer at the child’s funeral. A Crime and Corruption Commission investigation brought Thorburn undone and he was sentenced to life last year.

MASON JET LEE

The horror that was Mason Jet Lee’s short life came to an end in 2016. On June 6, the 22-month-old was punched in the stomach by his stepfather William O’Sullivan.

For five days he writhed in pain, crying and vomiting before eventually dying. Nobody, not even his mother Anne Maree Lee, sought help for the little boy. This month O’Sullivan’s nine-year jail term for manslaughter was extended to 12 years on appeal. Anne Maree Lee was sentenced to nine years earlier this year.

BACKPACKERS KILLED

The Burdekin’s Home Hill is where overseas backpackers pick up some work before continuing on their travels. But in August 2016 two British travellers never finished their journey.

Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was the first to be killed by hostel roommate Smail Ayad.

The French national took Mia from her bed and stabbed her to death and then critically injured Tom Jackson who came to her aid.

Ayad was deemed of “unsound mind” by the courts last year due to schizophrenia and avoided a murder trial.

BRETT FORTE

Senior Constable Brett Forte, a father of three, was killed by crazed gunman Rick Maddison who opened fire after ambushing him and other officers in May 2017, just outside of Toowoomba. Maddison was later shot dead by police. The slain officer was posthumously awarded a bravery award.

McCULKIN MURDERS

Two years ago one of the darkest chapters in Queensland’s history was given new life. On June 1 2017, Vincent O’Dempsey and Garry Dubois were sentenced to life for the murders and manslaughter of Barbara McCulkin and her two daughters, Vicki and Leanne. The McCulkins disappeared 42 years ago from their Highgate Hill home and their bodies have never been found. The gangsters targeted Barbara because she knew something about the Whiskey Au Go Go fire, which killed 15 people in 1973. A day after the men’s sentencing a new inquest was ordered into the nightclub’s firebombing.

PISASALE IMPRISONED

In July, former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale was jailed for a year for extorting a Sydney taxi driver for amounts up to $10,000. The cabbie was the ex-boyfriend of a Chinese escort that Pisasale had just started seeing.

To describe it as a fall from grace was an understatement for the once popular mayor known as “Mr Ipswich”.

Two months later, Pisasale’s successor who fell foul of the law. Former Ipswich mayor Andrew Antoniolli, who was charged while in office, received a suspended prison sentence for misappropriation and fraudulently using more than $10,000 of council’s money to buy charity items.