Police knew rescuing Monique Edmondson after her abduction was ‘a high risk, life or death situation’
WHEN police took a frantic triple-0 call from inside a Darwin women’s shelter saying someone was being abducted, gunfire was ringing out in the background. Superintendent Shaun Gill knew then it was a high risk, life or death situation
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WHEN police took a frantic triple-0 call from inside a Darwin women’s shelter saying someone was being abducted, gunfire was ringing out in the background.
Superintendent Shaun Gill knew then it was a high risk, life or death situation
Supt Gill was the officer in charge when Monique Edmondson, who had fled from her boyfriend to a local women’s shelter, was abducted on August 22, 2012.
Police acted quickly, cordoning off the area and investigating the scene.
Supt Gill launched Operation Sandstorm using the emergency operation centre.
The job got big, and fast, with about 100 officers from general duties, who were the eyes and ears on the ground, Major Crime and the intelligence unit helping out.
The TRG were tasked to get Monique back.
They grabbed the girl, the two males, threw her over the back fence and then they left with her.
Initially investigators didn’t know anything, only that two men had abducted a woman.
“We knew they had fired shots,” Supt Gill said.
“They grabbed the girl, the two males, threw her over the back fence and then they left with her.
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“What we didn’t know was the names of the males, the name of the female, whether she was still alive, where they were headed, where they were staying and any vehicles involved.
“Basically we didn’t know anything.”
Supt Gill said, from a tactical point of view, the hardest conditions to deal with are hostage situations as someone has been taken against their will and the other person usually has a weapon.
TRG members ran up the stairs, which is quite brave because they don’t know if they are going into a shootout
He said there was a concerted effort to get the media involved in the hope information that would help them find out who had been abducted and who had abducted the woman would be fed back to them.
Supt Gill said it didn’t take investigators long to figure out that a person by the name of Monique Edmondson was most probably the person taken hostage.
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They also discovered that one of the people tthey were likely looking for was a man by the name of Joshua Stephen Walsh.
“As soon as they said Joshua Walsh this was a huge breakthrough for us as we had past dealings with Joshua Walsh and we knew exactly who he was from a TRG point of view,” he said.
Just two months earlier on June 7, 2012 Walsh was involved in a road rage incident on the Gold Coast where he is alleged to have fired a shot from a firearm at the front passenger side of a car that had cut in front of him.
After that he fled the area and ended up in Darwin.
The TRG were informed on June 16 by Queensland detectives that Walsh was in Darwin as his mother and sister were living there in a place in Leanyer.
“We were tasked with the arrest back then and surrounded the place with the BearCat (the TRG’s armoured rescue vehicle), police negotiators were involved.
What we didn’t know was the names of the males, the name of the female, whether she was still alive, where they were headed, where they were staying and any vehicles involved. Basically we didn’t know anything
“He gave himself up quite peacefully.”
He was extradited to Queensland, when on July 11 he appeared at court in Brisbane and was given bail to return to the NT to live with family.
“He had strict conditions to live with his mother and his girlfriend. His girlfriend was named Monique Edmondson,” Supt Gill said.
Supt Gill said when he returned to Darwin Walsh became more and more violent towards Ms Edmondson.
Matters reached breaking point when he assaulted her by choking her.
She then headed to a women’s shelter seeking safety.
While there Joan Francis Bowen admitted herself into the women’s shelter and informed Walsh and his accomplice, Patrick Briston, that Ms Edmondson was at the shelter.
She was then snatched from the shelter in a blaze of gunfire.
Supt Gill said all up the operation took police 40 hours.
On August 24 there were two places identified where the trio might be holed up. One was in Moulden and one was at a unit in Belle Plc, Millner.
The TRG visited the house at Moulden and while there received information from detectives that Walsh was at the Millner unit.
“The plan of attack was a cordon and call operation which is what we did with Walsh and he gave up peacefully,” he said
Supt Gill said as the BearCat was driving up to the unit, a negotiator was talking over the loudhailer when Gerald Louise “Louie” Monck, who was known as Briston’s uncle, and Ms Edmondson came running from the house straight after the sound of a gunshot.
“TRG members ran up the stairs, which is quite brave because they don’t know if they are going into a shootout,” he said.
Walsh is found dead in the bathroom. He had shot himself.
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Supt Gill said the death counted as a death in custody so a report was filed to the Coroner and was the subject of a criminal investigation.
Supt Gill said there were 12 binders full of documents, including a 50-page statement he had written, justifying the actions of the TRG, which were submitted to the Coroner.
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