Peros sues Queensland government for $20m after acquittal for Blackburn murder

John Peros, the man acquitted of murdering Shandee Blackburn, has reportedly lodged a $20m claim against the Queensland government.

John Peros, acquitted of murdering Shandee Blackburn (right), has reportedly lodged a $20m claim against the Queensland government, ­alleging malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment. Picture: Supplied

The man acquitted of murdering Shandee Blackburn has reportedly lodged a $20m claim against the Queensland government, ­alleging malicious prosecution and wrongful imprisonment.

John Peros spent more than three years in prison until 2017, when he was acquitted of the murder of Blackburn, his former girlfriend, who was stabbed to death as she walked home from work in Mackay in February 2013.

Following an inquest in 2020, coroner David O’Connell found Peros was responsible, concluding: “In my mind, this is the only rational conclusion that can be drawn from the whole of the circumstances and the evidence presented.”

Despite this, Queensland’s double jeopardy laws mean Peros cannot be charged again with Blackburn’s murder unless fresh and compelling evidence emerges.

Peros, who now lives in Western Australia, has filed proceedings for a civil suit in the Queensland Supreme Court against the state government and the arresting officer, Detective Sergeant Lisa Elkins, The Courier-Mail reported.

The killing gained national attention thanks to The Australian’s Shandee’s Story podcast, which ultimately led to the coroner reopening the inquest in 2022 and a royal commission-style inquiry led by Walter ­Sofronoff KC into the state’s ­forensics DNA lab.

The inquiry’s final report said the lab’s failures were as “big as it gets” and sparked a review of cases going back four years.

The civil claim by Peros states: “As a consequence of the malicious prosecution of the plaintiff by (Sergeant Elkins), the plaintiff was wrongly imprisoned between 4 September 2014 and 8 April 2017.”

It was reported the $20m claim includes $1m compensation for legal costs, plus loss of income during the time he spent in jail, calculated at $100,000 a year.

Shandee Blackburn's former boyfriend John Peros in a police video from mid-February 2014. Police had a court order to obtain Peros's DNA and fingerprints and a video of him. Picture: Supplied

Peros has also reportedly ­alleged police failed to investigate properly another man, William Daniel, the nephew of Detective Senior Sergeant Samantha Bliss, who participated in the criminal investigation.

Mr Daniel has repeatedly ­denied any involvement in the death.

“The prosecution of the plaintiff was actuated by malice and an improper purpose in that; the first defendant (Sergeant Elkins) knew that the evidence against the plaintiff was inadequate in order to establish the charge of murder and armed robbery, yet continued with the prosecution on the basis that the plaintiff was the only person she could establish opportunity and motive beyond any person who might have committed the murder,” the claim reportedly reads.

“The reason for not pursuing Daniel as a witness was that he was related to a fellow officer, Bliss, and the first defendant (Sergeant Elkins) did not disclose her relationship with Bliss to senior investigating officers or otherwise disqualify herself from the investigation given that Daniel was a relative of Bliss.”

The claim also reportedly ­alleges Sergeant Elkins was ­motivated to prosecute Peros “in order to maintain public confidence and to advance her own position”. No defences have yet been filed in response to the claim, the report said.