Natalie Hatton charged as quest for answers on mother’s shooting death falls foul of law

Natalie Hatton’s search for answers about her mum’s death, from a single gunshot 45 years ago, has led to the bizarre scenario of her being the one in police sights.

Natalie Hatton’s efforts to find out what happened to her mother 45 years ago has landed her in trouble with the law. Photo Paul Beutel.

Natalie Hatton was 10 years old and doing her family tree for school when her world turned upside down.

With three sets of grandparents nothing fit, and when she demanded to know why, her father reluctantly broke the news.

The woman she thought was her mum was in fact her stepmother. Her birth mother, she was told, had died by suicide when she was just a baby.

Decades later her quest for answers about her mother Julie’s death from a single gunshot wound to the middle of her forehead on a grazing property has led to the bizarre scenario of her being the one in police sights.

Paul Hatton and his wife Julie Hatton with their daughter Natalie as a baby, shortly before Julie’s death.

She has been charged with serious offences over her Facebook campaign challenging the story she grew up with, but is refusing to back down, declaring: “I just want the truth of what happened.”

It’s seen her caught in a vicious cycle.

The estranged daughter of a Queensland beef baron is trying to raise awareness and gather information about the death of her mother 45 years ago.

Reopening old family wounds, she has sensationally questioned if it was foul play, culminating in the opening last year of a new coronial investigation.

But her Facebook posts while the investigation continues are aggravating family members including her father, Paul Hatton, and stepmother, Ingrid.

Queensland police have sided against her, charging Ms Hatton with stalking – a crime carrying a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.

Paul and Ingrid Hatton's century-old homestead at Darreen Station in the north Burnett region of central Queensland

Broad bail conditions nominated by police also ban her from naming online any potential witnesses to her mum’s death, or discussing statements those witnesses have given to police.

While the public might typically associate stalking with terrifying acts of harassment, in this case the charges were over Ms Hatton’s Facebook comments as she sought to draw attention to her mother’s 1978 death at the age of 22.

Ms Hatton has been told by police a long rifle was used.

The death was almost immediately declared non-suspicious and there was no inquest.

Police now say that the deeply divisive matter of how Ms Hatton’s mum died should be left to the coroner and not play out on social media.

Ms Hatton disagrees and has persisted in posting online, in what she says is an ongoing attempt to draw out evidence, leading to more charges against her.

She says she’s determined to ask these difficult questions because she’s concerned that there have been long-buried secrets over the fate of her mother.

Natalie Hatton as a child in the garden of Darreen Station with her father Paul Hatton.

Natalie Hatton as a young girl with her maternal grandmother Lillias Clifford.

Tragically short life

Julie Gay Hatton was born and raised on the Gold Coast, the only daughter of bookmaker Kevin Clifford and his wife Lillias.

In 1976, age 19, she married Paul Hatton, then aged 24, at St Peter’s Anglican Church at Southport. A newspaper reported that 135 guests attended the reception at the Gold Coast Trotting Club.

Mr Hatton was the younger son of Ted and Peggy Hatton from Darreen Station, 340km northwest of Brisbane, and the newlyweds set up home there.

Old coronial files obtained by Natalie Hatton state that her mother died in the gardens of the station on October 1, 1978.

A post-mortem examination report from the day after the death records that she suffered a “gunshot wound to the head”, with entry in the “middle of forehead”.

Two weeks later, police advised the coroner that there were no suspicious circumstances, the documents state.

The justice department’s under secretary certified on October 31 that an inquest wasn’t necessary. It was all over in a month.

Natalie Hatton's mum Julie Hatton

Ms Hatton’s father remarried in 1981 and with new wife Ingrid had two sons, Adam and Brett.

The family went on to build an empire of at least 40,000 hectares across 10 properties on which they run about 25,000 head of cattle.

Natalie Hatton believed Ingrid was her mother, until the discovery at the age of 10 that her birth mum had died when she was just 10 weeks old. “My perfect little world blew up,” she said. “I didn’t take it very well, just couldn’t understand. “My first question was, ‘so my brothers are not my real brothers, and my mum’s not my real mum?’”

She grew up helping her father with the family cattle business that had always remained lean, she said.

“We couldn’t get people to help muster our cattle because we didn’t want to pay the prices of what they could get at the mines at the time,” she said. “So primarily it was my father and I doing all this mustering everywhere.

“I had a lot of respect for my father as far as working. We were always moving. We’d buy a cattle property and then the dozers would be in to improve the land.”

Natalie Hatton found out when she was 10 that the woman she thought was her mother was her stepmother. Photo Paul Beutel.

At 17, while on the Gold Coast for Schoolies celebrations, she went to see her maternal grandmother, and tried on her mum’s ice blue wedding dress. During the visit, her grandmother expressed suspicions about the death. “I was really shocked because no-one else had ever said anything to me about that,” she said.

Ms Hatton later had her own questions, and eventually wrote to Queensland’s then-attorney­general Shannon Fentiman seeking an inquest.

“I’ve found out more about my mother the last two years from outsiders than I’ve ever known about my mother,” she said.

“All I sort of grew up (with) was that it’s very selfish for a person to commit suicide. So I actually did not like my mother there for a long, long time. I thought … how could a mum really leave a little baby behind? Why not pick me up and take me somewhere else, take me back to the Gold Coast?”

Ms Fentiman wrote back to her last April, advising that she would use her powers to order a coronial investigation.

Police have declined to hand Ms Hatton the full original investigation file, but she believes it contains just four statements including two from officers.

She says one officer told her that her mother died from a shot from a Winchester rifle.

“I said, ‘for God’s sake … tell me what sort of gun it was’. And he said, ‘yes, it is a long rifle’. He said ‘LR’ is written down, so that means long rifle.”

Unexpected police visit

On Sunday, October 1, last year, 45 years to the day since her mother’s death, Ms Hatton was alone and not fully dressed when two policemen surprised her at home at Mount Lawless, near Gayndah.

She thought they must have been visiting the picturesque property, on a bend of the Burnett River, to discuss the case.

Ms Hatton once used the property as a wedding and party venue and to grow organic flowers, but has put that on hold as she delves into her mother’s death.

“I thought, ‘Oh, how nice’, because it’s her anniversary,” she said of her fleeting first reaction upon seeing the officers.

“And then they started talking to me about ‘oh, you know, we’ve got a search warrant and we’ve got two complaints put in’.”

The detectives from Maryborough’s Criminal Investigation Branch asked to see her computer and seized her phone, she said.

“It was a little bit intimidating because they were sort of, like, right in my face. I was just mortified. I just said, ‘Oh, look, I just wanna quickly go to the bathroom just to put some underwear on.

“They were like, ‘oh, no, no, we’ve got to follow you … just in case you run away’. And I was like ‘hooley dooley’. So yeah, it was a bit serious.”

The officers drove her to ­Gayndah police station where she was charged with two counts of stalking. One of the alleged ­stalking victims was a relative and Queensland Police Service ­employee who said she was distressed by social media posts about Ms Hatton’s aunt, court documents state.

The woman sent Ms Hatton a message asking her to remove the posts, but they remained online and were followed by others that mentioned her employment with police.

Natalie Hatton with flowers grown at her home at Mount Lawless.

“The victim’s daily habits have been affected, she has changed her routine and feels anxious when she is in Gayndah as she does not want to see the defendant, lest she be accosted or harassed,” the documents state. “The victim further states she is also affected by seeing (the aunt) being targeted by the defendant’s behaviour.”

The second alleged stalking victim is a family friend in his 70s recorded as being at the scene soon after Julie Hatton was found dead. “As part of (her) Facebook campaign to raise awareness of her cause, the defendant has nominated the victim as being somehow involved in the death of her mother,” police allege.

Ms Hatton said she believed only that the person might know more. The man has said he gave police a full account.

The charges are still before the courts, accompanied by the broad bail conditions.

“You must not make any posts to social media naming in any way, or implying the identity of any person who is a witness, a potential witness or is involved in the death of Julie Gay Hatton,” the orders state. “This includes mentioning versions or statements supplied to police by any person.”

Arrested and charged

On February 13, police arrested Ms Hatton again and charged her with four counts of breaching her bail on the stalking charges. One of the bail breaches was for posting a video of herself on Facebook discussing her mother’s post-­mortem results, court documents state. She spent two nights in a cell at Maryborough’s police watch-house before being released.

Police bail documents reveal officers wanted to keep her in custody. “A review of the defendant’s social media posts which have been provided to police indicate that she seems highly fixated on the investigation surrounding the death of her biological mother in 1978,” the documents state.

“The defendant is aware the coroner has directed police to make certain inquiries, but feels that is not sufficient. The defendant seems unable to let the coronial process take its course, making numerous posts to Facebook which mention various things in relation to her mother’s death and investigations surrounding it.

“As such, the defendant seems unable to cease her social media posts, which are in clear contradiction of the bail conditions placed upon her. Given the defendant’s unwillingness to abide by conditions placed upon her by the courts, it seems the only option left to stop her offending is to remand her in custody.”

A note to prosecutors at the end of one police document reveals she was charged with the stalking offences despite both alleged victims not wanting her to suffer any penalty in court.

“The arresting officer has spoken with both victims in relation to possible outcomes and resolutions to this matter,” the document states. “They both state they do not wish to see the defendant punished or otherwise sentenced by the courts, they both simply wish for the mentioned behaviours to stop. As such, an order is sought at the resolution of this matter, prohibiting the defendant from making any social media content naming or mentioning the victims or their family.”

Ms Hatton said she was grateful for the “nine or 10” people she was aware voluntarily gave statements for the coroner about her mother’s death.