Friend tells Shandee Blackburn murder suspect John Peros: ‘You’ve lost it’

Boxer John Peros accused his closest friends of working with police after the murder of his former girlfriend Shandee Blackburn.

Mick and Maria Coles told police they were stunned when Shandee Blackburn murder suspect John Peros cut them off.

Champion amateur boxer John Peros accused his closest friends of working with police after his former girlfriend Shandee Blackburn’s brutal murder in 2013.

An increasingly paranoid Mr Peros wouldn’t answer the door when his coach and close friend from the Pioneer Valley Boxing Club, Mick Coles, tried to visit.

Phone calls, messages and emails to Mr Peros from Mr Coles and his wife Maria went unanswered, stunning the couple after a long friendship.

Shandee Blackburn with former boyfriend John Peros. He denies any involvement in her murder.

Homicide unit detective Aaron Walker became aware of the falling out and phoned Mr Coles in February 2014, shortly after the first anniversary of Shandee’s murder in Mackay on Queensland’s central coast.

“We have heard that you guys have had a blow-up,” Detective Walker said, recording the call.

Mr Coles confirmed it, speculating that Mr Peros must have learned that he spoke to detectives three days after the murder.

The four-page police statement he gave in those initial days of the investigation did not contain anything disparaging about Mr Peros, merely outlining how they knew each other and facts about his friend’s movements.

“He’s taken it the wrong way. It’s got me in a lot of drama. I don’t want to have to answer any more questions,” Mr Coles said.

When the detective said he didn’t want to ruin any friendships, Mr Coles replied: “That’s too late, Aaron.”

Mr Peros was his daughter’s godfather and for a time before the murder had visited the Coles’ family home every week for dinner.

Mr Coles was also Mr Peros’s boxing coach for three or four years and said it was “difficult to sort of accept that he would think I would turn on him”.

Since giving police the initial statement, Mr Coles had spoken with Mr Peros only once – at a fight night at the local basketball courts. Mr Peros told Mr Coles he was recording him.

“Mate, he has changed so much in the last six, nine months. He is suspicious of absolutely everybody,” Mr Coles told Detective Walker. “He accused me and my wife of working for the cops. He accused a lot of his mates that I know of working for the cops.”

Mr Coles told him: “Johnny, you are off your head mate.”

Episode 6 of Shandee’s Story is titled: Losing It.

The detective said it made him wonder why he was like that. Mr Coles replied: “Us too, mate.”

The call forms part of a new episode of investigative podcast series Shandee’s Story, re-examining the unsolved murder.

A jury acquitted Mr Peros of her murder in less than two hours. A coroner last year found that he did indeed kill Shandee but did not find fresh and compelling evidence required to charge him again. He denies any involvement.

Mr Coles elaborated on the friendship’s breakdown when ­Detective Walker and Detective Sergeant Lisa Elkins visited shortly after the call with a digital ­recorder running.

Mr Coles said he had told Mr Peros that the detectives were just doing a job. “I said, ‘Johnny, you’ve f..king lost it mate’.”

Maria Coles told police she ran into Mr Peros at Mackay’s Bridges restaurant in December 2013, 10 months after the murder. He told her she and her husband were at the top of his avoidance list.

“That’s when I just gave it to him. I said, ‘I’m very disappointed – we treated you as family and took you in as family and you treat us like crap. We haven’t done anything wrong’,” Ms Coles said.

Shandee’s Story is an investigation by national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas. Episode 6, Losing It, is available to The Australian’s subscribers.