‘Worst of the worst’: Nine Qld killers facing extra jail time
They’re the worst of the worst - child murderers or sick psychopaths who have killed multiple people. And soon they could be locked up indefinitely. Here’s why.
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They’re the worst of the worst. Child murderers or sick psychopaths who have killed multiple people.
And soon they could be locked up indefinitely under proposed parole laws aimed at keeping the state’s worst killers behind bars.
Well-known and hated murderers like Brett Peter Cowan, Rick Thorburn, Barrie Watts, Max Sica, Scott Maygar and Derek Sam.
Under the proposed laws, the president of the Parole Board Queensland will have the power to make a declaration against the “worst of the worst” murderers, stopping them applying for parole for up to 10 years after their eligibility date.
The president could make a 10-year declaration without a murderer applying for parole and make additional declarations at later dates.
Even if a declaration is not made by the Parole Board president, a new presumption against parole will also come into effect for Queensland’s worst killers.
One of the first prisoners who could face such an order is Childers backpacker murderer Robert Paul Long.
Long was jailed for 20 years after the horrific fire which killed 15 backpackers in June 2000.
He was charged with arson and two counts of murder of twins Kelly and Stacey Slarke but not over the 13 other deaths.
He applied for parole last year and it was refused in February, meaning he has to wait a year before his next application.
Pedophile Brett Peter Cowan abducted Daniel Morcombe on the Sunshine Coast in 2003 and killed him.
He was caught in an elaborate police sting in which he believed he was part of a criminal gang. He was convicted in 2014.
During his time in jail, Cowan changed his prison identification card to his legal name Shaddo N-unyah Hunter. He has had a string of run-ins with other crims including notorious sexual predator Douglas Jackway. Another prisoner gave him a “hot shower” of boiling water in 2016.
Rick Thorburn murdered 12-year-old Tiahleigh Palmer in 2015 while she was a foster child in the care of him and his wife.
Hours earlier, he had discovered his 18-year-old son Trent had molested her and that Tiahleigh, a naive schoolgirl, was worried she could be pregnant.
Thorburn murdered Tiahleigh to cover up for his son, believing Trent could go to prison if his crime was discovered. Police turned their attention to Thorburn after he was accused of sexually abusing two little girls in his wife’s home daycare.
He would eventually plead guilty to murder, as well as abusing the girls.
The recent parole application lodged by Barrie Watts – 35 years after he abducted, raped, tortured and murdered 12-year-old Sunshine Coast schoolgirl Sian Kingi – prompted a public outcry so large it caused the State Government to propose a change in the law.
Watts and his de facto wife Valmae Beck lured the schoolgirl from her bike as she rode home, asking her to help search for their lost poodle.
Sian’s body was found a week later, 15km away in a national park.
Watts and Beck had earlier attempted to abduct nurses from the Ipswich Hospital. He was also charged and acquitted of the murder of student teacher Helen Feeney.
Max Sica is serving one of Queensland’s longest sentences, with a non-parole period of 35 years, over the triple murder of his former girlfriend Neelma Singh, 24, her sister Sidhi, 12, and brother Kunal, 18, at their Bridgeman Downs home in Brisbane’s north in 2003.
He claimed he had nothing to do with their murders and found their bodies.
Brenden Bennetts murdered 16-year-old schoolgirl Jayde Kendall in 2015 and dumped her body on a farm near Gatton. Then aged 18, Bennetts had picked Jayde up from school.She was found 13 days after she was reported missing by her father.
Scott Geoffrey Maygar is serving a life sentence with a non parole period of 30 years for killing three people.
He, along with two teens, killed Michael Thompson, 30, David Lyons, 17 and Tyson Wilson, 17 in 2005 in one of Queensland’s most shockingly violent crimes.
A young mother – the girlfriend of one of the victims – was repeatedly raped by Maygar throughout the brutal slayings.
Scott Maitland, 35, and Cindy Masonwells, 33, were executed in 2012 by panel beater Brandon Peter MacGowan because he owed them $14,000 and couldn’t pay it back.
MacGowan hatched the “evil” plot because he’d accepted the cash to refurbish their limited edition Sandman panel van and hadn’t done the work.
Instead of paying them back, he shot Mr Maitland and stabbed Ms Masonwells before dumping their bodies in bushland near Cairns.
Derek Sam was convicted of murdering 16-year-old babysitter Jessica Gaudie in 1999 but is also a suspect in the disappearances of British backpacker Celena Bridge and mother-of-two Sabrina Ann Glassop.
All three disappeared from the Sunshine Coast in 1998 and 1999 and their bodies have never been found.
High-profile solicitor Bill Potts has raised concerns with the proposed laws and said the setting of non-parole periods should be left to the courts.
Queensland Council for Civil Liberties vice president Terry O’Gorman said the proposed process would be behind closed doors and would lack transparency and accountability.
“If the test for rolling decades of parole denial is to be that the person still represents an unacceptable risk to the community, that should be decided by a Supreme Court Judge sitting in open court not by a public official sitting in private” Mr O’Gorman said.
It’s understood the State Government intends to introduce the new laws in the coming months.
Originally published as ‘Worst of the worst’: Nine Qld killers facing extra jail time
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