Freedom Mona Maunsell Anderson launches appeal after murder of Nicholas Braid

A young woman who fatalled stabbed a man outside a Surfers Paradise resort and fled the scene has launched a shock appeal five years after the “senseless” incident.

Freedom Mona Maunsell Anderson arrives at the Southport Watchouse in 2020. Picture: Gold Coast Bulletin

A woman who murdered a law graduate in a “senseless” act of violence on the Gold Coast has launched an appeal arguing the jury should never have been played a covert recording with an undercover cop.

Freedom Mona Maunsell Anderson, 23, fatally stabbed Nicholas Braid outside a Surfers Paradise resort in April 2020.

The 23-year-old killer was found guilty of murder by a jury following a trial in Brisbane’s Supreme Court in 2023.

Anderson, who was sentenced to the mandatory life imprisonment, had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter on the first day of trial.

The trial heard Anderson stabbed the 35-year-old Mr Braid in a bizarre encounter outside a Gold Coast hotel on April 21, 2020.

The New Zealand national made no attempts to help her victim and fled the scene.

Mr Braid’s aorta was punctured in the knife attack and he was pronounced dead 30 minutes later at hospital.

Surfers Paradise resident Nicholas Braid. Picture Facebook

Anderson told an undercover police officer, who had been placed in the watch-house with her, that she thought Mr Braid had lied to her about his name in a meeting prior to the stabbing.

The recording of the conversation with the undercover cop was played to the jury.

But in Queensland’s highest court on Wednesday barrister Damain Walsh, instructed by Jack Volkers of Guest Lawyers, said the recording should never have been admitted as evidence.

Mr Walsh told the Queensland Court of Appeal that the Crown used the recording to support its claims about Anderson’s intent when she stabbed Mr Braid.

“The tape is so unreliable it should never have been received into evidence,” he said.

“It is so highly prejudicial.”

Mr Walsh said the full recording went for about three hours but only 34 minutes was played to the jury. There were also parts of the tape that were incomprehensible, he said.

“No one can say with any certainty as to what was said … and whether any qualifications was given by her,” he argued before Court of Appeal president Justice Debra Mullins and Justices John Bond and Peter Flanagan.

“It has amounted to a miscarriage of justice and the appellant ought be ordered a new trial.”

But senior Crown prosecutor Mark Green opposed overturning Anderon’s conviction for murder saying it was a strong crown case and her trial counsel had relied on the recording to the defendant’s own advantage in parts.

“There were aspects certainly of the statements made by her to the (undercover officer) that the crown relied on. But equally, there were (defence) arguments against the inferences that the crown asked to be drawn when considering the conversation,” he said.

The court reserved its decision.

Originally published as Freedom Mona Maunsell Anderson launches appeal after murder of Nicholas Braid