The most violent offenders in Queensland in 2022 and their brutal acts
Cop killers, a woman who hit a toddler in the back of the head, a man who slit his unsuspecting victim’s throat and a dad who torched his family to death – these are some of Queensland’s most violent offenders in 2022. WARNING: Graphic content.
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The state’s District and Supreme courts are routinely dealing with shockingly violent crimes.
The list from this year’s sickening offenders who fronted court includes a nasty cold-blooded murderer who slit a man’s throat as he walked home from the pub with his son, a woman who grabbed a toddler by the jaw and hit him in the back of the head with such force that he fell down the stairs and died, and a man who shot his mate on a boat and threw his body overboard.
From January to November, police reported 45 homicide (murder) offences across the state with 49 attempted murders reported, one case of manslaughter and 18 cases of driving causing death.
There were a whopping 46,644 assault offences registered in 2022 to November with 1057 of those listed as grievous assault, 19,824 listed as serious assaults, 5773 as serious (other) assaults and 19,990 as common assaults.
There were 8524 sexual assaults across the state; 1183 armed robberies; 428 kidnappings and 5634 life-endangering acts registered between January and November.
Here is a list of some of Queensland’s most violent offenders from 2022.
We have included the recent trio of cop killers; the Train family of Stacey, Nathaniel and Gareth, even though they did not make it through the court system.
DECEMBER
STACEY TRAIN, GARETH TRAIN AND NATHANIEL TRAIN
This trio never made it to court, but the shootout they were involved in shocked the country in December with the brutal details still making headlines.
Stacey Train, her husband Gareth Train and her ex-husband Nathaniel Train all died in the horrific shootout after they ambushed four police officers at a remote Queensland property in December 2022.
Police reports claimed the trio rained down bullets on the four officers who were carrying out a missing person’s inquiry after Stacey reported Nathaniel Train had gone missing.
Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, were killed “execution-style” at the property in Wieambilla, about three hours west of Brisbane.
Police said Stacey, alongside Gareth and Nathaniel Train, shot constables Arnold and McCrow before standing over them and executing them from point-blank range.
Neighbour Alan Dare, 58, who rushed to the officers’ aid, was also shot dead and Constable Randall Kirk was shot in the leg but was able to flee.
Police said Stacey ran from the rural property in Wieambilla, three hours west of Brisbane, carrying a firearm before she was shot dead.
Constable Keely Brough darted into the bush to take cover, only for the Trains to light fires and pump rounds into the tree in an attempt to smoke her out. She eventually escaped.
Police were investigating whether the Trains were preparing to ambush officers and were inquiring into whether the trio created “kill zones” by placing large obstacles like tree trunks and scrap metal to funnel the officers into the line of fire.
Infra-red motion sensors that weren’t connected to the mains electricity were also found. The trio were heavily armed and one was wearing a ghillie suit, police reported.
Stacey Train was previously principal at Herberton, Mitchell and Proston State Schools before she took up a position as head of curriculum at Tara Shire State College in 2019.
Nathaniel was principal at Innisfail East and Yorkeys Knob State Schools in Far North Queensland while Gareth Train resigned from the Education Department in May 2016.
DECEMBER
NICOLAS GERRAD ABELA
North Queensland man Nicolas Gerrad Abela will be sentenced in the Townsville District Court over a vicious assault on a woman at Ingham after he pleaded guilty to a range of violent offences including assault occasioning bodily harm in a public place while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance and obstructing a police officer.
Townsville Magistrate Ross Mack committed Abela, in custody, to the Townsville District Court on December 10, 2022.
Reading through the facts, Mr Mack told the court Abela screamed abuse at the woman and threatened to “bash her” before he swung her into a concrete wall, grabbed her head and forcefully smashed it into the wall five times during the assault in Ingham in July.
Police prosecutor Georgie Kiloh said Abela grabbed the woman by her hair and dragged her across a footpath, slammed her head into the concrete wall where she was left lying motionless on the ground.
The court heard he then took a run-up and kicked the victim in the head three times before a bystander intervened and overpowered Abela, before he ran away.
Mr Mack said the crime was deemed too serious for a lower court and referred him to be sentenced in the higher court, where the head sentence of imprisonment is higher than the maximum of three years in a Magistrates Court.
Mr Mack convicted Abela on the obstruct police charge but did not include punishment.
Abela, 22, was only just released from jail for offences of violence against women – including abusing one at knifepoint – when he assaulted the woman on July 30, 2022.
In a previous assault, Abela verbally abused a woman when he pushed her into a wall and held a knife to her throat and stomach.
On another occasion, multiple witnesses spotted Abela striking a woman while driving on the motorway – ending with the woman trying to get out of the moving car.
He was previously jailed for abusing women.
DECEMBER
JORDAN TROY SAVAGE
Bli Bli carpenter Jordan Troy Savage will spend Christmas behind bars after pleading guilty in December to stomping on a man’s head during a violent drunken brawl in Noosa in 2021.
Savage, 24, fronted Maroochydore District Court in December where he pleaded guilty to two assault-related charges relating to the attack and another incident a few weeks prior.
The court heard one of the victims suffered a fractured nose and concussion as well as lacerations after Savage stomped on his head three times, knocking him unconscious with the first blow.
Savage also assaulted two men during drunken brawls with his friends on separate nights out in Noosa in 2021.
Maroochydore District Court Judge Glen Cash said they were “serious examples of unnecessary violence in a public place, committed by a drunk young man”.
Judge Cash handed down a head sentence of 15 months in prison, suspended after Savage serves four months.
NOVEMBER
LISA ROSE HALCROW
Lisa Rose Halcrow, 42, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to the brutal manslaughter of toddler Connor Horan.
The Supreme Court in Toowoomba heard Halcrow had been babysitting the two-year-old boy in Warwick during August 2018 when she grabbed him by the jaw and hit him in the back of the head with such force that he fell down the stairs.
Justice David Boddice said Halcrow’s offending was a serious example of manslaughter and sentenced her to 10 years in prison, declaring her a serious violent offender, meaning she will have to serve at least eight years before being eligible for parole.
Halcrow, 42, was initially charged with murder and grievous bodily harm in 2020 over the incident. The grievous bodily harm charge was severed from the manslaughter charge and was remitted to the Toowoomba District Court with Halcrow remanded in custody prior to sentencing on November 18.
The court was told doctors and nurses at Warwick Hospital worked on the little boy for more than an hour to resuscitate him even though he was dead when he arrived at the hospital.
Police who investigated found Halcrow’s clothes with Connor’s blood on them, as well as a cloth used to wipe blood from the toddler’s ears.
Forensic examinations found Connor suffered blunt force trauma to his head as well as haemorrhaging to his bowel and pancreas.
The court also heard Halcrow had alcohol, methylamphetamine and cannabis before she became enraged with the child.
Halcrow became friends with Connor’s grandmother Deborah Ballard after working with her at an aged care facility and had started to babysit the toddler.
Prosecutor Philip McCarthy said Halcrow had prior convictions for assault, which showed she was impulsive and prepared to engage in violent behaviour.
NOVEMBER
HARLEY DAVID WEGENER
Convicted murderer Harvey David Wegener, 34, used a “scalpel-sharp” blade to slash his victim Benjamin Alexander Suttie first to the face and then to the neck, severing his carotid artery in front of a group of witnesses including a woman and children, ultimately killing him.
In a powerful hearing in the Brisbane Supreme Court in November 2022, Justice Melanie Hindman labelled Wegener a “despicable criminal” and sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of Woodridge man Ben Suttie, 37, whom he stabbed in the neck in an unprovoked attack in August 2018.
During sentencing, it was revealed Wegener, also from Woodridge in Logan, south of Brisbane, had an appalling history of knife crime and had been given every opportunity to reform before he went on to commit murder.
During the trial, the jury heard about 11pm on August 18, 2018, two groups – one including Wegener and another including Mr Suttie and his son – were walking through Prince Park at Woodridge when they crossed paths.
Mr Suttie commented “Hey, how’s it going” in a friendly tone and a man believed to be Wegener aggressively responded “You getting cheeky c***”.
Mr Suttie tried to de-escalate the exchange and told him, “No nothing like that mate, just trying to say hello”.
The court heard that Mr Suttie’s final moments of consciousness would have been terrifying for him and the bloody horrific scene would haunt his son forever.
Warning: the link to this story includes a photo of an Indigenous man who has died.
NOVEMBER
KYAM KEITH BROADBY
Tasmanian man Kyam Keith Broadby was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment by the Supreme Court in Cairns in November after he repeatedly struck and kicked a man who died in hospital five days later.
Broadby pleaded not guilty to the murder of show worker Nathaniel Wailu, who died after he was seriously assaulted on July 10, 2019, at the Mareeba Show.
A Supreme Court jury found Broadby guilty of manslaughter after a two-week trial.
Mr Wailu, who worked with Broadby setting up rides at the show for Tasman Pickett Amusements, was found unconscious in the showgrounds and died at the Townsville Hospital from severe head injuries five days later.
The court heard Mr Wailu had been drinking and started swinging a hammer and being abusive. Show workers confronted him and the police were called before Mr Wailu ran off.
Broadby and another man chased him and when they found him, repeatedly struck and kicked Mr Wailu. The court heard the injuries caused Mr Wailu to go into cardiac arrest and, while paramedics managed to revive him, his life support was turned off five days later.
Police bodycam vision was shown to the court of Mr Wailu, lying injured outside a caravan at the showgrounds. Justice Susan Brown sentenced Broadby to nine years’ imprisonment and declared the incident a Serious Violent Offence.
The declaration of a serious violent offence means Broadby must serve 80 per cent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
OCTOBER
RICHARD STEVEN SAUNDERS
Meth addict Richard Steven Saunders was jailed in October 2022 for using a gun in a carjacking and a violent attack on a woman.
The serious violent offender pleaded guilty on October 24 in Rockhampton District Court to two counts of armed robbery, three of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, one assault occasioning bodily harm and one common assault.
The offences took place in July and August 2021. Crown prosecutor Tiffany Lawrence said Saunders was convicted in 2007 for two grievous bodily harm charges and declared a serious violent offender.
Ms Lawrence said Saunders met the woman victim through associates and she picked him up and drove him from Dingo to Rockhampton to visit family.
The court heard they were sleeping in her Ford Laser on July 30 with Saunders in the front with the seat reclined and the victim in the back when Saunders jumped over the seats into the back and repeatedly punched the woman in the face, causing injuries to her lips, nose, eyebrow and teeth.
The defendant then drove the pair towards Dingo, leaving about 6.30am, and stopped at the Dingo roadhouse.
While she was reversing the car out of the car park, the defendant suddenly, and without the complainant’s permission, changed the gear from reverse into drive and the victim’s car collided with another vehicle.
She drove just outside the roadhouse and then pulled over, where she demanded Saunders get out. He hit her in the face, pushed her out of the car, moved across to the driver’s seat and drove off.
Four days later, Saunders and two others stole two cars after holding a gun at one man and a knife at another man. Saunders and his co-offenders made the two men lie on the ground while terrorising them with the weapons before stealing the cars and later crashing one.
Judge Jeff Clarke sentenced Saunders to 18 months’ prison for the assault on the woman, and 4.5 years for the armed robbery, to be served cumulatively.
He declared 443 days presentence custody as time served and set parole eligibility after he served 20 months – on April 8, 2023.
OCTOBER
ADAM CURTIS BROWN
Adam Curtis Brown slit an elderly woman’s throat in a violent home altercation while he was purchasing a printer.
The 43-year-old Brown told Brisbane Supreme Court in October that he was affected by “paint fumes” at the time of the attack.
Brown was at a loss to explain his actions three-and-a-half-years ago, when he left a man and his 82-year-old mother with serious injuries on the Fraser Coast.
He was initially charged with attempted murder but earlier this year he pleaded guilty to two counts of malicious act with intent and one count each of wounding and assault occasioning actual bodily harm while armed.
A court was told the injured man thought he was going to die after suffering a critical stab wound.
The court heard Brown was intoxicated by “pills and alcohol” when he viciously maimed the pair with a utility knife at their home in Wondunna, north of Brisbane, on April 27, 2018.
The Port Macquarie man had driven more than 800km to the Hervey Bay suburb, travelling through Yamba to purchase a printer which victims were selling.
Once at the home, Brown met with the woman’s son but became “agitated”.
He then used the knife to stab the man in the neck, crown prosecutor Chris Cook said.
As he attempted to flee, Brown turned on the man’s elderly mother, slashing at her hand as he was tackled to the ground.
The court heard that Brown then hurled a star picket at the male victim as he ran outside which bruised his stomach.
Brisbane Supreme Court justice Peter Davis ultimately handed down a head sentence of nine years’ jail, with a serious violent offender declaration.
His time spent in presentence custody since April 2018 was declared as time served.
SEPTEMBER
JAYDEN JOSEPH SADOWSKI
Gladstone’s Jayden Joseph Sadowski, 20, who stabbed a man multiple times and slashed his car tyres before his own finger was cut off, told a court the attack happened after he received a Snapchat of his ex-girlfriend being spanked.
Sadowski was ordered to serve seven years in jail following a melee which Gladstone District Court heard could have killed the victim if it weren’t for medical intervention.
Sadowski was sentenced in late September to one count of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm, one count of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed in company, one count of enter dwelling with intent at night, and two counts of wilful damage.
Crown Prosecutor Michael Andronicus told the court Sadowski went to a party after receiving the Snapchat and aggressively approached the property owner before stabbing him in the shoulder with a knife.
The court heard the man fought back and punched Sadowski before he was stabbed by an alleged accomplice which resulted in him falling face down on the grass.
He then felt two knives enter his back. After temporarily losing consciousness, the man stood up before he was thrown against a car by Sadowski and his accomplice and then repeatedly punched, kicked, and stomped on by the pair.
Sadowski then swung the knife towards the man, narrowly missing his face, which prompted the alleged accomplice to say “stop, you’re going to kill him”.
The victim was taken to Gladstone Hospital where he was treated for two 4cm deep stab wounds in his back, a 1cm wound to the shoulder, a 3cm wound to the armpit, a 6cm wound to the forearm and wounds to his face and body.
Judge Michael Byrne said he exercised his discretion and did not make a serious violent offender declaration.
He sentenced Sadowski to seven years on the one count of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm, and lesser sentences to the other charges served concurrently.
Parole eligibility was set at the halfway mark of the seven-year sentence.
JULY
STANLEY BLIGH
Teen Stanley Bligh grabbed an elderly woman’s handbag, and brutally dragged her to the ground forcing her face into the footpath, Beenleigh District Court was told in July.
Bligh, 24, of Silkstone, pleaded guilty to receiving tainted property, fraud, and one count of robbery with personal violence.
Crown prosecutor Ayesha Black told the court Bligh attacked the elderly woman after attending a house at Sunnybank with a 15-year-old co-offender in the early hours of December 13, 2017.
The child offender is alleged to have entered a house and stolen a wallet, car keys, passport, bank cards, driver’s licence, and jacket, as well as a GPS device.
The court heard the 15-year-old exited the home and handed Bligh the car keys, who then drove the pair away from the house in the victim’s car.
Later that day, the 65-year-old woman was walking on a footpath to Sunnybank Community Hall with a Gucci handbag when the pair stopped in the stolen car about 1m in front of her.
The court heard Bligh exited the car and grabbed the handbag from the woman, dragging her to the ground, causing her bruising to her left cheek, eyebrow and nose, and scratches to her left ear and the inside of her left wrist as her head collided with the grass and her face with the footpath.
Judge Craig Chowdhury took into account Bligh’s “impaired” level of functioning, his timely pleas of guilty, his criminal history, and the seriousness of his offending when deciding an appropriate penalty.
He sentenced Bligh to 820 days’ imprisonment, declaring the 820 days he had already spent in custody time served under the sentence.
JUNE
TYRESE LEONARD GEORGE WALLACE
Far North Queensland man Tyrese Leonard George Wallace brutally attacked and raped a 66-year-old woman who was out walking in a Townsville park.
Wallace pleaded guilty in a Townsville court in March to two counts of rape, attempted rape, grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning bodily harm, and was sentenced to 13.5 years behind bars in Cairns District Court in June.
Judge Dean Morzone referred to Wallace’s offences as “cruel, sadistic and callous”.
A Townsville court heard a 66-year-old woman was walking in a park in Cranbrook when she was attacked and dragged into the bushes and raped in September 2020.
The court heard the brutal, random attack left the victim naked with severe injuries including a broken jaw and a fractured eye socket.
Wallace had also been charged with attacking a 51-year-old sex worker at a Rosslea home only hours before the rape.
Judge Morzone convicted Wallace on all counts and sentenced him to 12 years’ jail for the counts of grievous bodily harm, rape, and attempted rape.
Wallace also received a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment on the charge of assault occasioning bodily harm, to be served consecutively. The 140 days Wallace had spent in custody were included in the time served.
JUNE
GARY HELY
Cruel killer Gary Hely forced his way into the home of his estranged ex-partner Doreen Langham bringing 5L of petrol with him before he torched her unit, burning her to death.
Ms Langham’s body was found alongside the body of Hely, her abusive former partner, after the Browns Plains home was set alight in the early hours of February 22, 2021.
In June, 2022, deputy state coroner Jane Bentley found Hely had struggled with Ms Langham, causing an injury to her spleen, before dousing her and the two-storey brick unit in petrol and igniting the fire in the lounge room.
Neighbours reported hearing a woman screaming a man’s name moments before the building exploded in flames. Others said they heard the sounds of arguing and glass breaking before a loud explosion.
Ms Bentley found Hely intended to kill Ms Langham and himself and Ms Langham never consented to him entering the unit.
In outlining the cause of deaths, she said Hely hid at the rear of the unit when police attended after Ms Langham’s first phone call before entering the backyard around midnight.
Body-worn camera footage shows Gary Hely signing his DVO and swearing Doreen Langham had nothing to fear and that he had never been violent.
MAY
TAMMY MURIEL PRICE
Mum-of-five Tammy Muriel Price who used two standover men to demand money from an innocent pensioner, avoided a possible life sentence after the thugs wounded the victim with a bow and arrow.
Price, 46, from Woodridge, south of Brisbane, pleaded guilty at Beenleigh District Court in May 2022, to burglary and demanding property with menaces with intent to steal and entering a dwelling with intent.
Additional charges of unlawfully wounding another and unlawful assault occasioning bodily harm while in company were dismissed.
The court heard Price entered a 69-year-old man’s residence in Slacks Creek on February 25, 2018, while accompanied by a family member and demanded $240 she falsely believed the pensioner owed her son.
The court was told a then 42-year-old Price “ordered” the men, described as “burly” and at least six-foot tall, around in the man’s residence for an hour.
The men pushed the pensioner off his bed but left when he grabbed a knife.
Price was initially charged with unlawful wounding, as the men returned to the victim’s residence where they injured him with a bow and arrow.
But that charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, was dismissed when the prosecution confirmed Price was not present during the subsequent wounding.
The court heard Price was serving a separate prison sentence for other offences with a full-time release date of January 18, 2023.
Judge Jennifer Rosengren sentenced Price to 18 months’ prison, with immediate parole granted cumulatively on her current prison sentence ending in January.
Ms Rosengren took the 322 days the defendant had served in presentence custody into account, but did not declare it as time served.
Upon her release next year, Price will have an 18-month prison sentence hanging over her head. A conviction was recorded.
MAY
RICKY FRANCIS NEESON
Ricky Francis Neeson was so enraged after his estranged wife asked him for a divorce, he let himself into her home, took a knife from the kitchen, went into her bedroom and cut her throat.
Neeson, 59, pleaded guilty in Maryborough Supreme Court in May 2022 to one count of attempted murder.
It was revealed that the day before the attack, on August 5, 2020, Neeson had become abusive towards his wife, calling her a “s**t” after she asked for a divorce before police were called and he left.
The court heard about 6am on August 6, 2021, Neeson went to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and went into his wife’s bedroom, where she was asleep but woke as he approached the bed with the intent of killing her, the court was told.
He lunged towards her, the court heard, and slashed her across the throat with such force the blade continued into the bed and left a mark.
His critically injured wife, who had been left with a 10-12cm cut across her throat, held a doona to the wound to stem the bleeding and sought help from others inside the home.
Emergency services were called and she was rushed to Hervey Bay Hospital where she underwent surgery and was intubated.
Judge David Jackson said the offence was a deliberate action of control, by trying to take away the woman’s life.
Neeson was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with 635 days in presentence custody declared as time served.
MAY
MATTHEW BRADLEY JAMES TENCH
Cold-blooded killer Matthew Bradley Tench told police he killed “some random b***h by stabbing the living s**t out of her”.
In May 2022, Tench pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Maryborough to stabbing sex worker Linda Lovett 26 times at a Maryborough hotel in 2018.
The court heard Tench had told police he killed Lovett because he “felt like killing people” and shocked hotel staff and guests recalled her harrowing screams.
Tench, who had secretly brought a knife with him, arrived and showered before the two engaged in sexual activities.
After sex, he viciously attacked Ms Lovett and stabbed her multiple times to her head, neck and upper body as she tried to escape.
The court heard there was so much blood that Tench slipped and fell during the grisly and unprovoked attack.
Judge David Jackson said it was a “physically savage and mentally vicious” attack on Ms Lovett. Tench was sentenced to life imprisonment with the 1277 days already spent in custody included in time served.
MAY
ALEX ROBERT SMART
Another case heard in May 2022, was that of Gympie’s Alex Robert Smart, 29, who pleaded not guilty to murdering Tylor Bell after a dust-up in a supermarket car park spilt onto the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane on Father’s Day in 2019.
A Supreme Court jury deliberated for two days before returning a guilty verdict.
His lawyers argued he had acted in self-defence when he stabbed the 31-year-old in the chest and leg with a flick-knife at an intersection on the Bruce Highway.
During a sentencing hearing, the Supreme Court heard the attack was sparked by an earlier altercation between Smart and Mr Bell’s father, Gregory Bell, at Gympie’s Central Shopping Centre.
The court was told the pair had a brief “violent episode” before they drove off.
Both vehicles came to a stop at the intersection of the Bruce Highway and Monkland St, where Smart exited his car and stormed over to Tylor’s ute. Tylor Bell was stabbed twice, with one of the wounds penetrating his heart.
He died a week later in Brisbane.
In sentencing Smart to life, Justice Peter Applegarth said Smart would need to spend 20 years behind bars before being eligible for parole.
MAY
JAKE SCOTT ASHMAN
Jake Scott Ashman stabbed his neighbour to death telling a court he had acted in self defence after Darren Ints walked in on him on the toilet in the bathroom they shared.
Ashman was found guilty of murder despite inventing an intricate tale about a bogus third party. The Supreme Court in Rockhampton heard Mr Ints’s heart continued beating for some time after four of 34 stab wounds pierced his heart.
Ashman, 25, pleaded not guilty to killing Mr Ints at the Granville unit complex where they had both lived during the four-day trial in Rockhampton.
Justice Peter Davis handed down his decision on May 27, in the Brisbane Supreme Court after
Ashman pleaded not guilty in the judge-only trial, but was ultimately found guilty.
Ashman pleaded guilty to three counts of enter a dwelling and commit an indictable offence, two of attempted fraud – dishonest application of a bank card, and one count of wilful damage.
Justice Davis sentenced him to life in prison and declared 1195 days presentence custody as time served. Queensland Health specialist forensic pathologist Dr Christopher Day said when he examined the body he found knife wounds on the face, lips, chin, oesophagus, Adam’s apple along with a cluster of five stab wounds in the heart region, one of which would have required severe force as it cut through a rib bone.
The court also heard there was a trail of blood from the front door, on tiles in the doorway, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, on a towel, on an armchair, on the floor, walls and doorways and inside Ashman’s unit.
MAY
GAVIN PHILIP PARNELL
Whitsunday father-of-seven Gavin Philip Parnell was sentenced to life in prison in May after a jury found him guilty of holding a gun to the head of Jay Brogden and then pulling the trigger during a violent clash on a boat in waters off Shute Harbour in 2007.
Parnell pleaded not guilty to murdering the 21-year-old Brogden, who went missing in late April 2007, and hasn’t been seen since.
The jury of eight women and four men found Parnell guilty of murder and he was jailed for life with the 960 days in pre-sentence custody declared as time already served.
Mackay Supreme Court heard Mr Brogden and Parnell had been close friends and would often go fishing together and on the day went out in a boat with a third man.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane told the court conversations with police included claims that there “was blood everywhere and the body went over the boat”.
Mr Crane also told the court that Parnell had allegedly said the gun had also been thrown overboard.
Daniel Hall, who gave evidence, recalled a morning when he had to clean what he believed was “congealed blood” from a boat and said when Parnell and the other man returned to shore, the other man was “covered from head to toe in blood”.
APRIL
ROWAN BAXTER
Rowan Baxter was so intent on exacting his murderous revenge on his estranged wife Hannah Clarke that little could have been done to save her and their children from the cowardly killer, the Brisbane Coroner’s Court was told during a two-week inquest in April 2022.
Deputy State Coroner Jane Bentley found nothing could have stopped Baxter from “ultimately executing his murderous plans” before he brutally killed Clarke and their three children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, on February 19, 2020, in Brisbane.
Witnesses revealed Ms Clarke was screaming: “I can’t believe he’s done this, I’ve got a DVO” in the moments after Baxter set her and their three children alight in a Brisbane street.
Durumbil St resident Michael Zemek told the court he saw Ms Clarke drive up and pull over near his driveway before getting out screaming, “call the police, call the police, he’s trying to kill me, he’s poured petrol on me.”
Mr Zemek said Baxter was in the front seat and had Hannah in a bear hug and as he approached the car exploded.
He said Ms Clarke was “head to toe in flames” and he then used a hose to wash her down. Mr Zemek said it wasn’t until later that he realised the three children had perished in the car.
Other witnesses told how Baxter had tried to stop people putting out the fire before stabbing himself in the stomach.
Chilling footage of Baxter perusing the aisles of a Brisbane Bunnings store looking for the tools he would need to murder his wife and children was played in court.
The inquest also heard a recording of a phone call Baxter made to a men’s helpline the afternoon of February 18, the day before he killed his family.
In the recording, an upbeat Baxter, joking and laughing with the operator, says he is calling looking for access to a men’s behavioural change program, saying he is only doing it to help himself in court. “It’s not my idea but apparently I have to do it,” Baxter says.
JANUARY
GEOFFREY CHARLES ROGERS
Businessman Geoffrey Charles Rogers was sentenced in Maroochydore District Court in January for “violent” sex crimes against a girl who was under 16 at the time.
Rogers, who was 59 at the time, had previously pleaded guilty in Gympie District Court to 12 charges in total. Crown prosecutor Catherine Birkett said in 1998, when Rogers was 36, he sexually assaulted the victim who was 15 at the time.
He touched her breasts, digitally raped her and called her a “sl-t”. A few days later, he took the victim on a tour of his farm before raping her, slapping her across the face and biting her breasts.
In a third incident, Rogers took the girl to an “isolated location” where he raped and sodomised her until she vomited.
Rogers, who owns AustralianSeafood.com and Wizard Drilling, was married for 39 years and had four children.
Judge Glen Cash described the offending as “violent” and “very serious to say the least”.
He sentenced Rogers to nine years’ prison with parole eligibility after four-and-a-half years for two counts of rape, two counts of common assault and three counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16.
JANUARY
BELINDA LEE BASKERVILLE
Belinda Lee Baskerville, a mother of seven, was sentenced to more than five years prison for viciously stabbing two teens during an early morning fracas in Surfers Paradise.
Baskerville, 38, was sentenced in Southport District Court in January to five-and-a-half years’ jail and will be eligible for parole on August 8, 2023 – less than 20 months in prison.
The former Gold Coast University Hospital nurse pleaded guilty to wounding and grievous bodily harm after a violent melee about 2.40am on September 4, 2020, that left one 17-year-old boy with a collapsed lung.
The court was told the two 17-year-old victims were visiting the coast and became involved in a series of altercations with another group, which included Baskerville.
After a verbal altercation, a fight broke out and members of both groups rushed over to join the melee. Baskerville stabbed one teen to the right side.
She stabbed at the other teen three times, hitting him twice to the upper back. He was rushed to hospital and found to have suffered a collapsed lung. Judge Deborah Holliday said the violence was “completely unacceptable” and she “should have known better”.
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A young man was left with catastrophic brain injuries after his older neighbour repeatedly swung a metal pole into his head with such force he immediately collapsed and began convulsing. Warning: Distressing content
Why most Queenslanders don’t want ‘cheap’ Games
Many Queenslanders have resoundingly rejected Premier Steven Miles’ no frills option for an Olympic Games stadium, instead backing the more ambitious proposals which could also lure major artists like Taylor Swift to Queensland. SPECIAL REPORT
Free lunches don’t mean much when people are dying on Qld roads
While Labor is spruiking free bolognese pasta, burgers and chow mein for our schoolchildren, people are dying on roads built more than 30 years ago which are painfully inadequate to deal with the traffic volumes of 2024, writes Mark Furler
Bundaberg sale and auction results, week ending October 20
There were 25 properties sold in Bundaberg last week, with 70 new listings in the region. See the latest auction and sales results.