Lawyer Peter Boyce retires: man who helped find Daniel Morcombe’s killer

The lawyer who helped put away one of Queensland’s most vile killers has revealed how the case changed his life forever and why police should have got Daniel Morcombe’s killer years earlier. SPECIAL REPORT

In 2011 Peter Boyce’s name became synonymous with one of Queensland’s most notorious criminal investigations when he helped crack open the tragic murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe.

But this extraordinary moment, and the stunning legal career Mr Boyce carved around it, may never have happened but for one simple choice when he left school 51 years ago.

“I didn’t bloody know what I was going to do, frankly,” the principal of Sunshine Coast firm Butler McDermott said.

One clear dilemma: one of his brothers was already working on the family farm “so I thought I’d better go and get a job”.

He decided to “give it a bash doing law”, and in 1972 he joined King and Company as an article clerk.

High profile Sunshine Coast lawyer Peter Boyce is retiring after an extraordinary 51-year career in which he helped crack two of Queensland's biggest unsolved cases, the 2003 disappearance of Daniel Morcombe, and the 2014 death of Kirra McLoughlin.

It was “the best decision I’ve ever made”, he said, launching a stunning five decades-long legal career which is now less than a week from ending, with the legal eagle calling it a day on April 26.

However, the start of his career was a little less noteworthy.

“There was no doubt for the first few years I was pretty green,” he said.

“I didn’t know Brisbane at all.

Sunshine Coast lawyer Peter Boyce, is days out from retiring after an extraordinary 51-year legal career. His final day on the job is April 26, 2023.

“When I went to do deliveries or file documents the first couple of weeks I had to get the secretarial staff … to draw me a mud map of where I had to go.”

During his six years with the firm, the company tackled its share of significant cases, including acting for the Fraser Island Defenders Organisation in its efforts to protect the heritage island, and for a blind factory worker who wanted to bring his guide dog onto the floor during work hours.

Mr Boyce began doing agency work for Butler McDermott, and in 1977, when the partner he was dealing with wanted to sell, he packed up and moved north.

Lawyer Peter Boyce represented the mother of Kirra McLoughlin (pictured) at the inquest into the Wolvi woman’s 2014 death, where Ms McLoughlin was determined by a coroner to have been killed by her de facto partner Paul McDonald. Mr McDonald’s matter is still before the courts. Picture Facebook

He has been a fixture there ever since.

His impact in the ensuing years has been undeniable.

Along with his work in hunting down Daniel Morcombe’s killer, Brett Peter Cowan, he was part of the inquest into the unsolved horrific 2014 death of 27-year-old Wolvi woman Kirra McLaughlin, which led to murder charges against her de facto partner, Paul McDonald.

Mr McDonald’s matter remains before the courts.

Mr Boyce said “the relief (for his client, Kirra’s mother Amy Russell) when the coroner made those damning findings against Paul McDonald” was uplifting.

Peter Boyce’s role in the 2010-11 coronial inquest into the 2003 disappearance and murder of Daniel Morcombe is credited with being a key factor in the eventual capture of the teenager’s killer, Brett Peter Cowan.

However, it was the tragic disappearance and murder of Daniel Morcombe at Woombye on the Sunshine Coast that changed Mr Boyce’s life, and challenged his views on parts of the legal system.

The Sunshine Coast teenager was abducted from an unofficial bus stop at Kiel Mountain Rd, about 2km north of the popular Big Pineapple tourist attraction, on Sunday, December 7, 2003.

His regular 1.35pm bus had broken down, and its replacement did not stop to pick him up because it was behind schedule.

Daniel was never seen again.

His disappearance became one of the most extensively investigated crimes in the state, with six figure rewards eventually being offered as part of the search.

In 2009, Daniel’s parents, Bruce and Denise Morcombe, called for a coronial inquest to be held into their son’s disappearance.

The inquest was held between October 2010 and April 2011, and in August 2011 police charged Cowan with the teenager’s murder.

Peter Boyce said he had admiration for the strength of Daniel Morcombe’s parents, Denise and Bruce, after they heard some of the “most disgraceful, degrading, worst, worst possible evidence” in their pursuit of answers over Daniel’s murder. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

Following a 2014 trial, Cowan was found guilty of murder, indecent treatment and misconduct with a corpse and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 20-year non-parole period.

Mr Boyce, who first became involved shortly after the Daniel Morcombe Foundation was created in 2005, has been credited for breaking Cowan’s alibi open.

After hearing Bruce and Denise Morcombe were going to represent themselves, he joined the inquest as their lawyer.

During the inquest, he asked for 10 persons of interest to be called for examination, including Cowan.

The police had not called for any.

HOW COWAN SHOULD HAVE BEEN PICKED UP EARLIER

More than a decade on, Mr Boyce said police “should have picked up Cowan within two to three months at most”.

“They had him, and had spoken with him within a couple of weeks of the event,” he said.

The first police officers to knock on Brett Cowan’s door said they were convinced he was the “prime suspect” in Daniel Morcombe’s disappearance, but the report they wrote disappeared and a senior officer they approached allegedly told one to “f*** off”.

Kenneth King and Dennis Martyn gave evidence before State Coroner Terry Martin about what they believe to be mistakes in the early police investigation.

They were among four officers to appear at the resumption of the inquest into the Sunshine Coast schoolboy’s abduction and murder.

They noted his criminal history included incidents of violent child abduction and rape, for which Cowan had been jailed, and he readily admitted to having driven past the spot where Daniel would have been waiting for a bus.

His alibi had a gap of about 45 minutes and he drove a white 4WD, a vehicle that matched the description of one seen in the area by two witnesses.

Another former officer, David Wilkinson, argued that a warrant to seize Cowan’s car and search his properties in those early days would have been difficult to get, given the lack of direct evidence.

COWAN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN JAIL

The legacy of the inquest stretched well beyond its resolution in the courts and into Mr Boyce’s own beliefs.

Mr Boyce said, before the inquest, as a lawyer he held the belief a person who was sentenced to 10 years and served that time “they are entitled to be released”.

He now believed there were exceptions to the rule.

“That applies to most people … but there are some of those persons … that I think should never see the light of day,” Mr Boyce said.

Convicted child rapist Douglas Jackway, who was another person of interest in Daniel’s murder, was a prime example.

“When you have a look at his history and what he did … it’s so gross you think ‘My God, how could a right thinking human being think that was reasonable?’,” Mr Boyce said.

“Some of the witnesses we cross examined at the inquest … you’d think they look OK.

“It’s only when you’re privy to the information about them, or they get cross examined about their conduct, and you think ‘my God’.”

ONE FAMILY’S INCREDIBLE STRENGTH

The ordeal left him with nothing but admiration for the strength of the Morcombe family.

“They heard some of the most disgraceful, degrading, worst, worst possible evidence anyone could be confronted with,” Mr Boyce said.

“What we’ve learned is the Morcombe family … have become such great advocates for child safety and child welfare, that as tragic as it is we’ve gained as a society a much better understanding of how you need to feel safe and be safe.

“And if you don’t feel safe, do something about it.”

Asked if there was any chance of the tragedy repeating all these years later, Mr Boyce said sadly “it may well”.

“Unfortunately, there are sexual predators out there, and those sexual predators we don’t sometimes know who they are,” he said.

So what now for the 68-year-old, whose efforts resulted in his being awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2013?

Voluntary work was always possible, but with six children with his wife of 36 years, Melissa, and two grandchildren (and another due in May) stepping away will mean “lots of time for me catch up on some of the things I’ve missed out on or sacrificed by working such long hours”.

“One of the things I am worried about is whether I’ll miss law so much I’ll want to get involved again,” he said.

“I think I’ve been really lucky, frankly.

“One thing I do know is I love law, I love going to court, and I love the fight.

“That’ll be hard to just walk away from but I also love my family.”

* Update: On Tuesday April 25, Butler McDermott announced Mr Boyce would stay on with the firm as a consultant.

“While I plan on spending a lot of my time with my family I am staying on as a consultant as the law is in my blood. It is not something that I think I could ever truly walk away from,” Mr Boyce said in the firm’s media release.

“However, the firm is in really good hands with Al (Upton) and Brent (King) as directors and they are supported by a capable team of people which has made the transition much easier for me.

“Having said that, I don’t know that I could ever walk away entirely and will be here if they need me.”

Originally published as Lawyer Peter Boyce retires: man who helped find Daniel Morcombe’s killer