‘They literally got away with murder’: Mum calls for investigation into soldier son’s death

“Your son’s been murdered,” the anonymous caller on the other end of the phone told her. Authorities refuse to investigate.

The mother of an Australian soldier found to have died from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound was told her son had been murdered just a day after his death.

News.com.au is reinvestigating the high-profile death of Australia’s first casualty in Iraq nearly 20 years ago after new and disturbing claims have come to light.

Private Jacob “Jake” Kovco, 25, died from a gunshot wound in 2006, shot in the head by his own pistol at his Baghdad barracks in the Australian embassy.

A military board of inquiry and subsequent inquest questioned whether someone else could have pulled the trigger. Both ultimately concluded the dad-of-two died from “skylarking” with his gun and accidentally shot himself.

The military’s handling of Kovco’s death was plagued by mistakes including the Australian Defence Force sending home the wrong body to his grieving family. Then a report into how this mistake had happened was left behind at a Qantas club and ended up in the hands of a journalist.

News.com.au reported earlier this week that a soldier who served in Iraq has since allegedly made three “confessions” to three separate people claiming he killed Kovco.

Kovco’s mother and stepfather, Judy and Martin, 71 and 73, are calling on authorities to launch an investigation, after officials repeatedly declined to do so.

Now the couple have revealed they received a chilling phone call from an anonymous soldier 24 hours after Jake Kovco’s death.

Private Jacob Kovco died in 2006 in his bedroom in Iraq.

Another soldier has allegedly confessed to killing Jacob Kovco.

Judy Kovco’s worst fears had been realised the night before, when the military knocked on her door around 3am to tell her Jake was dead, on April 21, 2006.

But it was the next night that has really stuck in her memory – and which she hasn’t told anyone about until now.

She says the phone rang very late and she picked up as she hadn’t been able to get a wink of sleep.

“It was a man on the phone and he was crying and he said ‘your son’s been murdered’ and he kept saying it,” Judy recalled to news.com.au.

“He said ‘it’s awful, your son’s been murdered, he’s been murdered, the bastards have killed him’.

“This person was bawling his eyes out, it was genuine, he was heaving.”

At the time, the public did not know Kovco’s identity, nor that there was anything strange about his death.

The media had only been told an Australian soldier had died in Baghdad from a single gunshot wound to the head, that it was not a combat death and that no one else was injured.

Then-defence minister Brendan Nelson said at the press conference the military thought the soldier had died while maintaining his weapon.

A media blackout had been placed on Kovco’s name for 24 hours at the request of his widow, Shelley Kovco.

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Martin and Judy Kovco, parents of Jake Kovco, in 2006. Picture: Sam Mooy

Judy and Martin Kovco said they were dissatisfied of the military’s handling of the case — especially as the narrative of Kovco’s cause of death kept changing.

First the army told them Kovco had been killed while on duty.

Then they were informed Kovco was cleaning his gun when it went off.

They also told her he was playing a game of Russian roulette.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson initially announced Kovco shot himself accidentally while cleaning his weapon, then said the pistol had spontaneously discharged through some unknown malfunction.

Then it was that Kovco must have knocked the weapon while “fiddling about” with other equipment.

“The story kept changing that in the first 24 hours there were so many different stories,” Martin told news.com.au. “it just kept going, (I thought) what the hell’s going on here? What the hell? What’s actually happened? Cleaning the guns, something else, and different stories that come up with it.”

The military board of inquiry ruled Kovco died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, most likely done by accident while skylarking with his pistol.

Unhappy with the board of inquiry’s outcome, the Kovcos called for a coronial inquest into their son’s death, which came to the same conclusion.

Judy is demanding her son’s case be reinvestigated in the wake of the new allegations. “I want his (Jake Kovco’s) children to know that daddy didn’t have an accident and I want my son’s name cleared,” she said.

“I know he wouldn’t have left his children like this. This would not have happened. He would not have pulled that trigger.

“They (Defence) got away with murder. They literally got away with murder.”

Repeated requests for officials to investigate the new allegations about her son’s death have been refused.

“In their eyes, Jake’s dead, and that’s all that matters,” she said. “In my eyes, that’s my son. That’s my flesh and blood. You’ve failed his name, and I want him cleared.”

Private Jake Kovco during his sniper course.

Tim Weir, a decorated ex-lance corporal, says another soldier told him some years ago that he had killed Kovco.

Mr Weir, who would later be awarded a soldier’s medallion for his service in Afghanistan, made a statement to the Joint Military Police in 2022 about the alleged “odd” conversation.

“Oh, I killed Kovco,” the soldier allegedly told him out of the blue.

The alleged confessor said he shot Kovco then jumped out of a window, according to Mr Weir.

The accused soldier made two separate “confessions” to two other soldiers, Mr Weir said in his statement. One man gave a statement to police but news.com.au has not obtained it and so can’t corroborate those claims.

Both men did not want to be involved when news.com.au contacted them and did not confirm or deny that such a conversation occurred.

Mr Weir left the army in 2017 and several years later decided to come forward with the bombshell allegations.

Mr Weir told news.com.au there’s a lot of “talking sh*t” in the military but “we never joke about killing Australian soldiers or killing our own. Because that, to us, is the worst situation,” he explained.

“The worst outcome of our job is we lose a mate and that’s embedded into us as the worst-case scenario.

“Well, which I thought at that time, but now the worst-case scenario is killing one of our own.”

Tim Weir (pictured in foreground) is coming forward with these claims after attempting to have this investigated by the military police, government and civilian police. (The other man in this picture is in no way related to any part of this story)

Tim Weir, a decorated soldier, claims another soldier allegedly confessed to him to killing Kovco some years ago.

Frank Holles, a former officer in the army legal corps and now a criminal defence lawyer, represented Judy Kovco in the board of inquiry held into her son in 2006.

He told news.com.au the alleged confession “explained a lot of things for which there was previously no real explanation”.

“It didn’t surprise me when the further information came out,” he said.

Evidence tendered to the board of inquiry at the time suggested that Kovco’s pistol was hanging from his bedpost.

Mr Holles suggested this meant it could have been possible for someone to storm into the room, grab it and shoot it.

Kovco’s pistol should have been unloaded as per standard procedure but it clearly wasn’t. Whether Kovco or a third party, someone might have pulled the trigger not realising the act would prove to be fatal.

The military board of inquiry heard that on the fateful day Kovco died, music was playing loudly in his room, which he shared with his two roommates, Lance Corporal Rob Shore and Private Ray Johnson.

Neither of them is the soldier who allegedly confessed to killing Kovco, nor are they accused of any wrongdoing.

The inquiry also heard that the three men were playing music from Johnson’s iPod, jokingly singing along to the hit song “Dreams” by Irish group The Cranberries.

Both Shore and Johnson were in the room at the time of Kovco’s death but told the military board of inquiry they had been looking away and did not see the moment he pulled the trigger of his 9mm Browning pistol.

Both have been contacted for comment.

News.com.au has also contacted the accused soldier for comment.

Counsel Representing Private Kovco's parents Lieutenant Colonel Frank Holles takes part in a weapons handling drill on the 9mm pistol by Australian Defence Force small arms experts.

The path of the bullet also raised questions about whether Kovco had been the one to pull the trigger on himself.

Private Johnson suggested in the course of the inquiry that Kovco might have been playing with his gun and miming shooting himself because of the music.

“He may have pulled the pistol and put it to his head, almost to say, ‘This (the music) is so gay I’d rather be dead’,” Pte Johnson told the board of inquiry in 2006.

“I have no evidence to support this theory and I didn’t see Private Kovco do it, but it is the only way I can explain how Pte Kovco shot himself.”

But according to Mr Holles, the lawyer who represented Kovco’s mother in the board of inquiry, the angle of the bullet didn’t make sense for that theory.

“Every other single suicide I’ve seen in my career – and I’ve done hundreds of them – has been either a pistol round into the side of the head, the temple, or up through the mouth into the brain that way,” Mr Holles said, speaking to news.com.au years later.

But he said in this case, the entry wound was near Kovco’s ear but the bullet exited from the top of his head. 

Mr Holles said it was possible that a soldier stormed into the room, saw the gun hanging on the bedpost and not realising it was still loaded, grabbed it and fired it into Kovco’s head.

“He picked up the pistol expecting it to be unloaded, stuck it in Jake’s head and pulled the trigger not expecting it to go bang.”

Pte Johnson also later testified that loose gunplay was common among the soldiers serving at the Australian embassy in Iraq.

“I’ve seen people pointing their pistols at others and pulling the trigger. I’ve always seen this as inappropriate and told people not to do it,” he told the inquiry.

 

Judy Kovco leaving the Coroners Court in Glebe after the final day of the inquest into the death of Private Jake Kovco.

Judy Kovco says she has never recovered from his death.

“The first year I didn’t sleep a lot,” Judy said. “I just sat there, I just stared, and I just stared, and I just stared.”

Martin Kovco, the stepfather of Jake Kovco, recalled of his wife: “I used to go to bed, but she’d be sitting there three o’clock in the morning. She’s still on the computer.”

She would play mindless computer games to get through the day and pass the time. “I was trying to keep myself sane,” she explained. “Just to block the thoughts, just to keep occupied. Otherwise, if you do nothing and you keep thinking about it, it consumes you.

“Apparently from what I’ve heard from people, I seemed quite normal on the outside. But I wasn’t inside, I was breaking.”

But Kovco’s family received a disappointing letter from Defence Minister Richard Marles, via their local member of parliament, at the end of 2023 when they asked for these new claims to be investigated.

“The Special Investigations team within the AFP assessed the letter and decided that no further action was to be taken based on information provided and previous investigations,” Mr Marles wrote.

“As Mr Weir has provided no new information, this correspondence does not warrant the Joint Military Police Unit and the AFP reinvestigating the matter.

“I also directed Defence to provide me with background on Private Kovco’s death. I have since learnt that this was subject to an Australian Defence Board of Inquiry (2006) and a NSW Coronial Inquest (2008). Both found Private Kovco died as the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“I trust this information is sufficient to assure that steps have been taken to address the claims made by Mr Weir.”

A spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles, reiterated this statement and referred news.com.au to the AFP.

The AFP declined to comment, while NSW Police only made references to the 2006 board of inquiry.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defence said they had already conducted an in depth inquiry into Jacob Kovco’s death through the military board of inquiry.

– With Peter Devlin and Emma Kirk

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Originally published as ‘They literally got away with murder’: Mum calls for investigation into soldier son’s death