Man found responsible for Shandee Blackburn killing fined for assaulting work colleague

John Peros, found by a coroner to be responsible for Shandee Blackburn’s 2013 death, assaulted a colleague at a mine site.

Shandee Blackburn with John Peros, the main suspect in her murder. Picture: Supplied

The man found by a coroner to be responsible for the stabbing death of his former girlfriend Shandee Blackburn has escaped jail after he was found guilty of assaulting a colleague at a Pilbara mine site.

John Peros on Friday was handed a $2000 fine after he was found guilty of common assault. The former amateur boxer was granted a spent conviction after his lawyer, Craig Eberhardt KC, successfully argued that a criminal record would prevent him from resuming his career in the mining industry.

Peros’s attack on contract fitter Alexander Gell took place in June 2020, just two months before a Queensland coroner handed down his findings from an inquest into the 2013 murder of his former girlfriend Ms Blackburn in Mackay.

A jury acquitted Peros of the 23-year-old woman’s murder following a 12-day trial in 2017, but the subsequent inquest into Ms Blackburn’s death found that she died from injuries sustained “during an incident involving violence with Mr John Peros, who used a bladed instrument”.

Coroner David O’Connell described the attack as “a very deliberate and targeted assault”. Peros has denied any involvement in Ms Blackburn’s death.

The circumstances around the death of Ms Blackburn, who was stabbed more than 20 times as she walked home from work in 2013, were explored in The Australian’s podcast Shandee’s Story.

The podcast’s revelations helped uncover a series of failures inside Queensland’s state-run DNA labs, triggering an independent inquiry.

Mr Eberhardt, the same lawyer who successfully defended him when he was on trial for murder five years ago, argued that his client should not be imprisoned over the assault given his client’s lack of a criminal record.

He said his client suffered from severe ADHD, general anxiety, social phobia and episodic depression. At the time of the assault, Peros had been working 12-hour days at a remote Pilbara mine site for 11 weeks.

Mr Eberhardt said the murder trial, coronial inquest, and The Australian’s podcast had left him socially anxious and isolated.

He had lost hist $160,000 per year job as fly-in fly-out diesel fitter a result of the incident, and had subsequently had to take a job in a box factory earning $30 per hour.

He also used his address to the court to attack what he said were the “unfair criticisms” directed at his client in the podcast.

John Peros. Photo Lee Constable / Daily Mercury

“Those in the court today should note that the jury that found Mr Peros not guilty sat through all the evidence that was led by the Crown, and everyone who was in the room during the trial knows that was the right verdict on the evidence both available then and available now,” he said.

During the assault trial, the court heard how Peros repeatedly punched Mr Gell in the head while the pair were working at BHP’s Mining Area C iron ore operation, leaving Mr Gell with significant facial injuries.

Police prosecutors had sought a term of imprisonment, noting that Mr Gell was a “vulnerable victim” who was trying to shield himself as Peros continued to punch him.

The assault took place a day after Peros and Mr Gell had a disagreement as they watched a video of police being attacked in a Black Lives Matter protest.

During the trial, Mr Gell told the court he had said he thought the attacks on police were harsh and wrong, with Peros replying that “all police officers should be stabbed and shot”.

Mr Gell said he told Mr Peros he had friends and family in the service and asked him, “How would you like it if they were your friends and family in that situation”. He said Peros replied: “Don’t threaten my family.” Mr Gell said he called Peros a moron and left.

The next day, as they worked on a broken excavator, Peros kept looking at Mr Gell who then asked him what his problem was. It was then that Peros attacked.

Peros’s supervisor at the time, Troy Verden, described how he heard a man screaming in distress.

Alex was yelling ‘Help me he’s going to kill me’,” Mr Verden told the court.

“John was punching Alex … I saw four or five punches.”