Man who coroner found stabbed Shandee Blackburn suing victim’s sister for ‘murderer’ claim

The man who a coroner found ­savagely stabbed Shandee Blackburn to death is suing her sister, Shannah, for calling him a murderer.

Shandee Blackburn with John Peros, who was the main suspect in her murder. He was found not guilty in court but later named by a coroner as her stabber. Picture: Supplied for the Shandee's Story podcast.

The man who a coroner found ­savagely stabbed Shandee Blackburn to death is suing her sister for calling him a murderer.

John Peros has launched civil proceedings against Shannah Blackburn for her comments on the Shandee’s Story podcast, as well as The Australian’s publishers Nationwide News, and the podcast’s sponsor Harvey Norman.

Mr Peros ambushed his former girlfriend Shandee on a street in the central Queensland sugar and mining town of Mackay, ­coroner David O’Connell found in 2020. Shandee suffered 23 stab and slash wounds to her face, neck, chest and arm in the ­frenzied attack.

Previously, in 2017, the champion amateur boxer was found not guilty of 23-year-old Shandee’s murder by a Supreme Court jury, and he has always emphatically denied killing her. Shannah told the investigative podcast series in December last year that she believed the coroner got it right.

Mr Peros has been living in Western Australia and his legal firm, Rostron Carlyle Rojas ­Lawyers, filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court in Perth in August.

Vicki Blackburn (left) and Shannah Blackburn. Picture: Jack Simmons/Queensland Government

Shannah, living on Queensland, was a fortnight ago personally served with legal papers advising her she was being sued.

Her mother, Vicki Blackburn, said the legal action had “devastated” her only surviving daughter.

“It’s come out of nowhere and is totally unreasonable and just quite cruel. It’s horrible,” she told podcast series Shandee’s Legacy.

The coroner’s findings that Mr Peros killed Shandee had been openly published, she said.

“It seems he’s just ignored that finding completely and just reverted back to a not guilty finding in the trial,” she said.

“There’s no reasonable logic to that. It’s public knowledge. It’s been announced in public.

“We’ve always been very, very careful and mindful of what we say. And we’ve had to restrict what we say and keep so much to ourselves,” she said. “That alone has been quite ­difficult, and when we finally get the coroner’s findings, we would assume that that’s public, that’s common knowledge, we can ­finally talk about who took ­Shandee’s life.”

Shannah said she was “blown away” that Mr Peros was allowed to sue her after being found by a coroner to have killed Shandee, her adored younger sister.

“I’m not really sure if disbelief covers how I felt at the time. But that’s obviously one word that comes to mind,” she said.

“It feels like such a wrongdoing that my sister was murdered and now this man, who has been publicly named as the person who Shandee died at the hands of, that I now have to suffer through a ­possible trial and possibly suffer ­financially and emotionally.

“It’s absolutely distressing. The findings have been released, so there’s absolutely no way that we thought anything like this could be possible.”

The legal notice from Mr Peros’s lawyers had not caused her to change her mind about her sister’s murder, and she intended to fight the action, she said.

Mr Peros usually did not feature in her “day to day thoughts”, she said. “Our lives are about remembering Shandee and trying to get justice for her,” she said.

“The emotional damage and the toll that will take on my life physically, emotionally, it’s another fight that we just don’t need.”

It was “a relief” that The Australian had committed to ensuring she was protected legally.

Hedley Thomas, The Australian’s national chief correspondent and the creator of the Shandee’s Story podcast, is also named in the legal papers. Thomas said The Australian was “backing Shandee up 100 per cent”.

Mr O’Connell said after considering all of the evidence, he had no doubt it was Mr Peros’s ute captured on CCTV near the murder scene just minutes before Shandee was stabbed to death.

He also had no doubt Mr Peros was the driver.

CCTV footage then pointed to the driver of that vehicle, Mr Peros, being the person who concealed himself in foliage outside a Guides Hut while Shandee passed by, Mr O’Connell said.

Mr Peros was the person who then ran towards Shandee as she was entering Boddington St, “and is the person who attacked Miss Blackburn, and caused the injuries which resulted in her death”, he said.

“Mr Peros then ran back, across Juliet Street, re-entered and started his vehicle, and then drove to the end of Sydney Street, where he turned left into Evans Street, in the direction of his home,” he said.

However, Mr O’Connell did not find the fresh and compelling evidence required to charge Mr Peros again under double jeopardy laws.