Murder victim Shandee Blackburn was `at risk’ from controlling ex-boyfriend

Shandee Blackburn’s troubled relationship raised a multitude of red flags, a domestic violence expert says.

Shandee Blackburn with John Peros. The troubled relationship raised red flags, an expert says.

Shandee Blackburn’s troubled ­relationship with amateur boxer John Peros raised a multitude of red flags before she was savagely stabbed to death, a domestic violence expert says.

Kath Kerr, a social worker who has spent around 15 years in the domestic and family violence field, says the immense jealousy Blackburn reported experiencing from Mr Peros was a major risk indicator.

Blackburn also spoke to friends and family about being in fear of Mr Peros as the relationship broke down the year before her murder as she walked home from work in Mackay in 2013.

A new episode of Shandee’s Story hears from a concerned domestic violence expert.

“I would be very concerned for any woman presenting with the experiences Shandee was clearly having,” Ms Kerr tells a new episode of the Shandee’s Story investigative podcast series.

“She was expressing her genuine fear that he would harm her or even that he would kill her.”

Mr Peros was acquitted of the murder by a jury in 2017, before a coroner ruled in 2020 that he did in fact kill Blackburn, 23. Ms Kerr is an expert in identifying domestic violence, working with both victims and abusers. She has also researched emerging forms of domestic violence, looking at the impact of non-physical forms of power and control.

Queensland laws updated shortly before the murder define domestic violence as behaviour that is physically, emotionally or economically abusive.

Threatening, coercive or dominating behaviour that causes a person to fear for their safety or wellbeing can also be an offence.

Mr Peros’s abusive text mess­ages to Blackburn have been ­detailed previously in the podcast series but were effectively censored at the trial.

Jurors heard a version of the relationship that minimised Mr Peros’s outbursts and aggression and painted Blackburn in the worst light.

His feelings were evident a day after the murder when he ­described her to police as a “very, very manipulative piece of shit”.

Domestic violence expert Kath Kerr says `trust issues’ are commonly used to justify control and violence. Picture -Supplied

Ms Kerr said the text ­exchanges between the pair ­revealed “sexual jealousy was a huge part of that relationship”.

Mr Peros, who spoke repeatedly about his deep-seated “trust issues”, wanted to know about Blackburn’s past relationships and who she was having contact with and then used that to justify control, she said.

Coercive control was “emerging as a huge indicator of intimate partner homicide”, she said. “There is a correlation between sexual coercion and sexual jealousy, and sexual violence. And then intimate partner homicide,” Ms Kerr said.

“Having trust issues is a key part of so many of the stories that domestic violence practitioners hear when women are explaining what is behind their partner or their ex-partner’s use of control or violence in the relationship.”

Asked what her response would have been if Blackburn had come to her and described the relationship, Ms Kerr said: “I would be worried and I would want to be talking with her further around where that fear was coming from.

“And really unpacking what is it about what John has said or implied or done in the past that has caused her to have that real conviction he could kill her. She clearly believed it was possible and that would have been coming from somewhere.”

Coroner David O’Connell did not find fresh or compelling evidence to charge Mr Peros again. He denies involvement.

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