Shandee’s roomie told police about ‘threatening’ calls by former boyfriend

The former roommate of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn was not called to testify at her former boyfriend’s murder trial despite telling police he overheard abusive rows.

Steve Phillips, the former roommate of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn. Picture: Supplied

The former roommate of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn was “100 per cent” willing to take the witness stand at her former boyfriend’s murder trial but was not called despite telling police he overheard abusive rows between the former lovers.

Steve Phillips believes voice recorded messages sent to Blackburn by her former boyfriend John Peros would be strong evidence of an abusive relationship if police were able to recover them from Blackburn’s iPhone.

Mr Phillips said he overheard the messages when he lived with Blackburn on the Gold Coast, adding the walls of their flat were “paper thin” and Blackburn played the messages out loud on her iPhone speaker.

“It was quite threatening, full volume, swearing,” Mr Phillips said. “I’ve never experienced that in my life or seen that before.”

The voice messages, sent on the messaging app HeyTell, were unable to be recovered by police when they downloaded the contents of Blackburn’s iPhone in 2013.

Mr Phillips’ evidence was not heard by the jurors who acquitted Mr Peros of murder at a 2017 Supreme Court trial.

Mr Peros denies involvement.

“I had no idea. At the time I gave them my statement thinking they had everything,” Mr Phillips said.

“I don’t know what they’ve done with it or why it didn’t go to court,” he said. “I remember being interviewed by police here in Auckland and I said, ‘If you can get those messages, you will get a conviction’.”

Mr Phillips said Blackburn described Mr Peros as an “aggressive guy” who was jealous and controlling. Blackburn appeared scared one night when she sat down on the couch inside their Gold Coast flat, he said.

“She said, ‘John has always told me if he ever wanted to get rid of me, he could. He would just have to make one phone call’,” Mr Phillips said.

“It sounded pretty threatening to me, and I believed the threat based on what I heard,” he said. “You could see she’s scared, she anxious. No one should really be that scared and receive those kinds of messages.”

Mr Phillips will appear on Shandee’s Story: The Search for Justice, a Sky News Australia documentary premiering at 8pm (AEST) on Tuesday that is re-examining the murder cold case.

The Australian’s Hedley Thomas will host the documentary.