Shandee’s Story podcast caused no ‘serious harm’ to John Peros’ reputation, court hears

A coroner had already concluded that former amateur boxer John Peros had viciously stabbed his ex-girlfriend Shandee Blackburn to death, prior to the release of a true crime episode; court hears.

John Peros is suing Nationwide News, Shandee’s sister Shannah Blackburn, ­and investigative journalist Hedley Thomas. Picture: Daryl Wright

Former amateur boxer John Peros suffered no serious harm to his reputation from a true crime podcast episode because a coroner had already found he viciously stabbed his former girlfriend, Shandee Blackburn, to death, a court has heard.

Blackburn, aged 23, was left to die after she was ambushed on her walk home from work in Mackay in 2013, suffering 23 stab and slash wounds to her face, neck, chest and arm in a frenzied attack.

At a 2020 inquest, coroner David O’Connell concluded Mr Peros killed Blackburn but found no “fresh and compelling evidence” required to charge him with murder under the state’s then-double jeopardy laws.

Previously, Mr Peros was found not guilty of her murder by a jury at his 2017 trial and has always strenuously asserted his innocence.

He is now suing Nationwide News as publishers of The Aus­tralian, Shandee’s sister Shannah Blackburn, ­and investigative journalist Hedley Thomas over comments made in the Shandee’s Story podcast.

Mr Peros claimed episode 13 of the podcast, in which Shannah Blackburn spoke of her firm belief that the coroner got it right, caused serious harm to his reputation by implying he murdered Shandee.

At a hearing before judge Peter Applegarth on Monday, lawyers for the defendants argued that Mr Peros suffered the same harm as when the coroner’s findings were released. “The coroner did make a finding, the finding was well known, it was notorious,” barrister Dauid Sibtain told the court.

Mr Peros with Shandee Blackburn.

“We don’t know what the harm is said to be occasioned by episode 13 because there’s just simply an evidentiary vacuum as to the ­additional harm that’s been caused beyond the coroner making a finding.”

Mr Peros’s barrister, David Helvadjian, argued that prior to episode 13, listeners knew Mr Peros had been acquitted at trial but that a coroner had found him responsible for Blackburn’s death.

Because of episode 13, which was downloaded by 380,000 ­people in Australia, Mr Helvad­jian said listeners “reached a concluded view that the plaintiff was a murderer”.

“In light of that, it may be appropriately asked how it could ever be denied that serious harm has been caused or is likely to be caused?” he said. “Episode 13 is the end of the plot line, that’s where everything was … all brought together, and any question that anyone other than the plaintiff was the murderer is removed.”

He argued that even if people believed Mr Peros was a violent killer before episode 13 was published, it still caused serious harm by “reinforcing” that view.

The Supreme Court hearing is to determine whether the podcast episode caused Mr Peros serious harm, which he is required to prove when suing for defamation.

Without serious harm to his reputation from the episode, Mr Peros does not have a case and the matter will not go to trial.

Justice Applegarth questioned why Mr Peros had not called a ­single witness to say they heard the episode and thought less of him. “It’s odd that among his family, friends, workmates, no one says ‘I was down the surf club, I was down at Woolworths, and I bumped into someone, and someone said, gee, did you hear what they said about John in that podcast last week?’,” he said.

Mr Helvadjian argued that was not fatal to the case because ­people do not need to know Mr Peros for his reputation to have been seriously harmed.

Posts to the social media forum Reddit, made after episode 13 was published, were read out in court on Monday including one that said “Just listened to this, her ex absolutely did it” and “It’s crazy he was acquitted”.

Mr Helvadjian also sought to exclude evidence about Mr Peros’s 2022 common assault conviction, arguing it was a “different sector” of his reputation.

Mr Peros was fined $2000 and granted a spent conviction order after he was found guilty of assaulting a colleague at a mine site in Western Australia.

While assault was an “entirely different degree to a stabbing murder”, Justice Applegarth said it went to Mr Peros’s reputation and should be admissible.

Thomas’s work on the Shandee’s Story podcast ­exposed catastrophic problems at the Queens­land government-run DNA lab and lead to a major commission of inquiry in 2022.

The hearing is expected to continue until Wednesday.