FULL LIST: Convicted southwest criminals incarcerated at Queensland prisons
Our region’s most notorious convicted felons have caused nothing but heartbreak for their victims and communities they impact. These are the southwest criminals and the jails they now call home.
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Queensland's jails are bursting at the seams, with criminals now spending their time in one of the many correctional facilities throughout Queensland.
Almost 11,000 inmates are spread out across Queensland jail as the state grapples with unprecedented overcrowding, and as a result “some jails are becoming so full that most of their cells are filled with two prisoners”.
The cost of prisoners is also so high that taxpayers are spending $2.7m a day, or almost $1bn a year, to keep them locked up, according to the net operating costs of $251.09 per prisoner per day in 2022-23.
From low security “open” prison at Palen Creek to the max security Wolston, these are 10 southwest criminals currently locked up.
IAN PHILLIP HANNAFORD
The murderer of beloved Warwick grandmother Gail Lynch, Hannaford will be behind bars until at least 2035 for the disturbing crime.
Ms Lynch’s murder became a widespread mystery after she disappeared from her home in 2012.
It was revealed during Hannaford’s trial that Ms Lynch broke off a short relationship with the man prior to her disappearance, whom she had met on an internet dating site.
Ms Lynch’s body has not been found to this day.
During Hannaford’s Supreme Court murder trial, the jury was told DNA belonging to Ms Lynch was found on an axe Hannaford bought the day after she disappeared.
Hannaford was sentenced in 2015, and will serve a minimum of 20 years after being found guilty by jury to the murder.
In 2017, Hannaford attempted to appeal his life sentence, which ultimately failed.
Hannaford is currently being housed in Wolston Correctional Centre at Wacol.
PETER JOHN VAN DE WETERING
Disturbing backpacker rapist Peter John Van de Wetering will likely not see the outside of Wolston jail for a long time.
The man drugged and raped a 19-year-old German backpacker in a shearers’ quarters near Stanthorpe in 2013 in a horrific premeditated attack involving disguises and drugs.
“This offending involves an entirely ruthless pursuit of a young and innocent woman for your sexual gratification,” Judge Terry Gardiner said during sentencing in 2016.
Van de Wetering was jailed for nine years in 2016, including time already served, after he pleaded guilty to several violent offences, including kidnapping, rape and administering a stupefying drug.
In 2023, a Supreme Court Judge ordered Van de Wetering be “detained in custody for an indefinite term for control, care or treatment” under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003.
The rapist will be kept at the high security Wolston Correctional Centre indefinitely.
VINCENT O’DEMPSEY
Murderer Vincent O’Dempsey and a co-offender were sentenced in 2017 for the 1974 murders of Barbara McCulkin, and her two daughters, Vicki and Leanne.
It is believed Barbara and her girls were kidnapped by O’Dempsey and a co-offender, driven to remote bushland where they were sexually assaulted and murdered, and buried somewhere nearby.
To this day, their bodies have never been found.
O’Dempsey was found guilty of three counts of murder and sentenced to life in jail in 2017. He is currently housed in Wolston Correctional Centre.
KEVIN PATRICK HANLEY
A Millmerran murder who killed a man in 2016 will remain behind bars to serve his sentence as his appeal hopes were quashed in late 2020.
The grandfather was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 after a jury found him guilty of shooting and killing a man at close range at a residence outside Millmerran.
Aged in his 70s, Hanley’s crime was dubbed a “senseless act” by Justice Martin Burns during sentencing.
Bizarrely, the trial revealed the murder occurred only hours after an earlier altercation between the two men at the Millmerran Bowls Club.
Hanley told the court at his trial he heard the deceased say “I’m gonna f--ing kill the lot of you” after the altercation that had to be broken up earlier that day.
Hanley was sentenced to life in prison and is locked up at Woodford.
WILLIAM WALTER JOHN JORDAN
A Toowoomba rapist and woman basher deemed a “dangerous abuser of women” was jailed for the horrific attack on a woman in the region.
Jordan will spend the next five years behind bars at Woodford Correctional Centre, northwest of Brisbane, before his possible return to the community.
The court was told during his sentencing in August that Jordan held the woman captive for a day and unleashed a litany of violent, abusive, and degrading acts upon her.
Over several hours the court was told Jordan beat, raped several times, and degraded the woman.
“You are a serious recidivist dangerous abuser of women – public protection looms large,” Judge Alexander Horneman-Wren SC said.
“Your prospects of rehabilitation must be considered to be guarded at best, poor at worst.”
Judge Horneman-Wren sentenced Jordan to an eight-year and six-month jail term, with parole eligibility after 60 per cent of the sentence has been served.
He can apply for release on December 3, 2027.
TANE DESATGE
“Inhumane” stepfather Desatge was found guilty in Toowoomba Supreme Court in a judge-only trial to murder and torture, after pleading guilty to two counts of interfering with a corpse.
Desatge, stepdad to two-year-old Kaydence Mills, murdered the child in 2017, and disposed of the body at Chinchilla.
The body of Kaydence was found at a Chinchilla Weir in 2019, after the man led undercover investigators to the burial site.
Desatge will spend more than two decades in custody.
During the trial, the Crown said Kaydence was likely treated poorly because of “bad blood” between Desatge and the toddler’s biological father.
During sentencing, Justice Cooper said Desatge showered no remorse and his bitterness towards Kaydence was evident even after death, noting the phone tap where he said, “they dying the c--t had a fit,” while investigators dug up his backyard looking for the girl.
The man has spent more than 1000 days in custody since their arrest in March 2020.
Desatge was sentenced to 22 years in jail on September 19, 2024, and is currently incarcerated at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre at Wacol.
He will be eligible to apply for parole in March, 2042.
BENJAMIN JAMES NUNNS
An ice fuelled shooting is the reason one Warwick man will remain behind bars for life.
Benjamin James Nunns, 34, fatally shot a 38-year-old man, Charlie Compton, who was simply going to get some food, Brisbane Supreme Court heard.
Nunns, was hosting the man to smoke ice at his home, and in a deluded state, thought the man was “trying to lure him away from his home to kill him.”
The trial heard Nunns invited the man and his wife to his Glen Rd home in Warwick around 11pm on April 4, 2020. All three spent about five hours in Nunns’ shed smoking ice.
At around 4.30am, the couple left to get fast food, following an altercation with Nunns.
Using a bolt action rifle, Nunns shot the man once through the neck, resulting in his death.
“The killing of Mr Compton was a senseless act, it has had severe and lasting impacts on Mrs Compton. She was in the passenger seat beside him when you fired the fatal shot,” Justice Martin Burns said during sentencing.
Nunns was found guilty of the 2022 murder and is currently housed at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, serving a life sentence.
SCOTT GEOFFREY MAYGAR
Double murderer and rapist Scott Maygar will remain behind bars at a high security Queensland jail for at least another decade.
Now aged in his 40s, the man has been locked up for the 2005 double murder of two teenagers at Toowoomba and is serving a life sentence.
Maygar was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to two counts of murder, one count of manslaughter and four counts of rape for killing the two teenagers.
In 2008, during his first year behind bars, he received a six-year sentence for using a shiv to cut another prisoner’s throat.
Life in jail has caused more legal woes for Maygar, following a horror 2019 assault on a prison worker.
It is understood the prison worker was attempting to prevent Maygar from committing suicide, with Maygar kicking the officer forcefully.
Maygar is currently imprisoned at Wolston Correctional Centre, and will not be eligible for parole until December 1, 2035.
BRENDEN BENNETTS
A Darling Downs murderer who looked up on YouTube the “best way to dispose of a body” has been locked up since his sentence in 2017.
Bennetts, then 18, murdered his teenage girlfriend after picking her up in his distinctive red car on August 14, 2015.
Following the murder, Bennetts stole money from her bank account and destroyed evidence linking him to the 16-year-old before her body was discovered in an isolated field weeks later.
Bennetts was found guilty of murder in September, 2017.
Bennetts is imprisoned in Wolston Correctional Centre serving a life sentence and will be eligible for parole in 2035.
AARON THOMAS GARDNER
A Lockyer Valley man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death is still serving a life sentence after more than a decade behind bars.
Aaron Gardner, now aged in his mid 40s, was 31 when sentenced for the 2006 murder of the woman at Gatton.
Gardner had waited at the home of his former partner, and upon the arrival of the woman, Gardner stabbed the woman 12 times.
The pair had only been in a relationship for about two months before the woman broke up with Gardner for being “obsessive”.
During his trial it was revealed that the former University of Queensland Gatton employee had a history of violence towards his girlfriends, threatening a former girlfriend with a sawn-off shotgun and knife to her throat.
Gardner is currently imprisoned in Wolston Correctional Centre at Wacol.
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