Peter Boyce blasts investigation after Joshua Leafe not guilty of carnal knowledge

One of Queensland’s most high profile lawyers has slammed the investigations into a young farmhand acquitted of a sex crime, and wrongfully jailed over another matter.

High profile Sunshine Coast lawyer Peter Boyce (left) has blasted the investigations into 27-year-old Joshua Ronald Leafe (right), who was found not guilty of a carnal knowledge charge only months after a separate charge of trying to procure a child under 16 was dropped following a win in the court of appeal.

One of Queensland’s most high profile lawyers has blasted police investigations into an alleged sexual crime as “grossly inadequate” after his 27-year-old client was acquitted by a jury in 15 minutes.

Amamoor farmhand Joshua Ronald Leafe was found not guilty of one count of carnal knowledge of a girl aged 12-16 years by a jury following a four-day trial in the Brisbane District Court at the start of April 2023.

The acquittal came six months after a charge of trying to procure a child under 16 (an undercover officer) using a communication device was also dropped – but only after Mr Leafe had spent six months behind bars for what the appeals court called a “miscarriage of justice”.

Mr Leafe was initially been convicted of the offence in November 2020, and sentenced to six months in Maryborough Correctional Facility.

The conviction was overturned by the Queensland Supreme Court on appeal with, in a published ruling, Justice David Boddice found the omission of a diary entry in the trial denied Mr Leafe a “fair chance of acquittal”.

Lawyer Peter Boyce was heavily critical of the police investigation into his client, who was acquitted of two separate allegations of sexual offences. He said Joshua Leafe had been the victim of a “travesty of justice” twice. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

However, Mr Boyce said it was that initial wrongful conviction that lay the seeds for what was to come.

He said following the publication of a photo of Mr Leafe being led away from Gympie District Court in custody, police received a second complaint.

Mr Boyce said although the complaint was made in late November 2020, Mr Leafe was not formally charged until November 2021.

This was but one part of an investigation Mr Boyce called “grossly inadequate”.

Mr Boyce was critical of the the year-long gap between the complaint and the charge being laid, and also the scramble for witness statements right up until the trial date 17 months later.

Joshua Leafe said he had lost friends over the allegations of which he was acquitted, saying “when you throw mud at people it bloody sticks”.

“We got letters from the DPP saying we need to get statements from A, B and C … finally we get the statements and you see the date of some of them is in the month of March 2023,” Mr Boyce said.

“You think, what were they doing?

“When we finally got the statements you see these huge gaps in the evidence.”

Police and the Department of Public Prosecutions declined to respond to questions about Mr Boyce’s criticism, with police saying, “It would be inappropriate … to comment on a court matter that is still subject to the 28 day appeal period”.

On Thursday, April 20, Mr Leafe said the end of his legal matters, which had been a constant factor in his life for five years, had “not fully hit me yet”.

“To be honest, I was sobbing when they said not guilty,” he said.

No longer having to abide by bail restrictions “opens the whole world up”, he said, but the damage had been done, and it was not insignificant, with friends lost as a result of what happened.

“This crap has been going on since I was 22,” Mr Leafe said,

“You never see that money back, you never get your reputation back.

“When you throw mud at people it bloody sticks.”

Joshua Ronald Leafe was found not guilty of a carnal knowledge charge following a four day trial in the Brisbane District Court, with his lawyer Peter Boyce saying the jury returned its verdict in 15 minutes.

Mr Boyce was not reserved in his own view of what had unfolded.

“This is a young guy … who’s done six months of his life in a prison, thinking he was going to get killed at one stage … and lived in fear, and for what?” he said.

“Because someone didn’t do their job properly first up.

“Talk about a travesty of justice; (Leafe’s) been the victim of it twice.”

He said the first matter had left him “gobsmacked” given the “undeniable” evidence “he’d been working on the neighbour’s property, being paid for the day’s work”.

“That went to the keeper.

“Then in this one not only do we find they sit on the complaint, they then don’t properly investigate it.

“Near enough is not good enough.

“I’ve done lots of cases but his … the two of them take the cake.”

Originally published as Peter Boyce blasts investigation after Joshua Leafe not guilty of carnal knowledge