Chemical smell in suspect’s flat raises concealment theory

A strong chemical smell in the home of murder suspect John Peros has raised a theory he was concealing or destroying evidence.

John Peros's former home in Mackay, where a visitor smelled paint or bleach the day after Shandee Blackburn’s murder.

A strong chemical smell in the home of amateur boxer John Peros the day after the murder of his former girlfriend Shandee Blackburn has raised a theory he was concealing or destroying evidence.

Sharleen Caruana has told the Shandee’s Story podcast her sister, Rebecca Davies, noticed the “really odd” smell when she visited Mr Peros’s Mackay flat in February 2013.

“She said she walked into the flat and she smelt a weird smell. She said she didn’t know if it was bleach or if it was paint,” Ms ­Caruana said.

John Peros after his arrest. He was acquitted of the murder by a jury, before a coroner found he killed Shandee. He denies involvement.

Blackburn, 23, had been stabbed to death walking home from work – and suspicions were already engulfing Mr Peros.

“They went upstairs up into the flat. Rebecca was very nervous. She had told me that she thought that John had done this,” Ms Caruana said.

“She was being quite quiet, went to go to the toilet. He said, ‘No, no, no, no, no, use my toilet’ in his bathroom. She thought it was really strange.

“She washed her face, felt really sick because she was trying to show a front, not to be too scared.”

Detectives had visited the flat hours earlier, persuading Mr Peros to accompany them to the local station to provide a statement.

A chemical smell would have raised suspicions.

Former homicide squad detective Scott Furlong, one of the officers who attended, recalls seeing a ladder and believes a downstairs bathroom was being renovated, but he did not notice an unusual smell. “Not a bleach smell and definitely nothing overpowering that I can recall,” Mr Furlong said.

It raises the possibility that after Mr Peros finished speaking to police and returned from the station, he used paint or bleach to either conceal or ­destroy evidence.

Alternatively, Blackburn’s mother Vicki has questioned whether Mr Peros could have painted over a newly-created concealment space, and whether hidden items could still be there.

Mr Peros had a propensity for hiding things, with police later discovering he was using an elaborate security system involving magnets and secret compartments for hiding personal items in the flat.

Vicki says the revelations increase her concerns that the flat has never been forensically tested.

A new episode of Shandee’s Story raises questions about the chemical smell in Mr Peros’s flat.

Ms Caruana said her sister confided to her shortly after the visit that the smell seemed more like bleach than paint.

However a month later in her police statement Ms Davies ­offered a slightly different version of events. “While at Johnny’s flat I asked to use the bathroom. Johnny asked me which one I wanted to use,” Ms Davies told police.

“I didn’t know there were two. I made a decision and used the upstairs one. Johnny seemed like he didn’t know which one I should use.

“When we were leaving I could smell that there had been fresh paint somewhere in the flat. I also saw that there was a ladder at the front. I asked him about painting and he said that he was just keeping busy because he wasn’t working.”

Ms Davies’ concerns about the smell didn’t go away over the ensuing years, according to her sister and a friend who has requested her name be withheld.

The friend has been suspicious because of the fearful way Ms ­Davies told her about the smell and the bathroom around two or three years ago.

A jury acquitted Mr Peros of the murder in less than two hours in 2017, but a coroner ruled in 2020 that he did in fact kill Blackburn. He denies involvement.

Anyone with information about the murder of Shandee Blackburn can contact Hedley Thomas confidentially at [e-mail]