Counter-terrorism not alerted to man’s ankle bracelet removal due to bail monitoring ‘deficiencies’

A counter-terrorism officer did not receive an alert when a radicalised man removed his ankle bracelet and then went on to murder an elderly couple, an inquest has heard.

An inquest into the December 2020 murders of Zoe and Maurice Antill and their killer, 22-year-old Raghe Mohamed Abdi in December 2020 is taking place in the Brisbane Magistrates Court this week. Raghe was shot dead by police on a highway hours after the double slaying. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

A counter-terrorism case officer for a man who murdered an elderly Brisbane couple was not notified the killer had removed his ankle bracelet hours beforehand, despite making repeated attempts to ensure he’d be called, an inquest has heard.

Former private school student Raghe Mohamed Abdi, 22, was being monitored by the Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team when he killed husband and wife Zoe, 86, and Maurice Antill, 87, at their home at Parkinson in Brisbane’s south on December 17, 2020.

A general notification was sent to the police service that Abdi’s ankle bracelet had been tampered with at the time, and two general-duties officers visited his home and a nearby park but did not locate him, the inquest heard.

Hours later Abdi was shot dead by police when he advanced on them holding a knife repeatedly screaming “Allahu Akbar” as they tried to stop him walking down the side of a Brisbane motorway.

Police Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Danni McCann told an inquest into the three deaths he had gone to great lengths to ensure he would be contacted should there be an alert sent from Abdi’s GPS monitor bracelet indicating a possible bail violation.

Police Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Danni McCann leaves the Magistrates Court in Brisbane on Wednesday. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

Abdi had been granted bail in September 2020 on fraud and various minor commonwealth offences relating to an investigation into whether he was preparing to be involved in a foreign incursion.

As part of his bail conditions Abdi had to wear an ankle bracelet that could monitor his movements through a global positioning system.

Detective McCann, who was Abdi’s QJCTT’s case manager at the time, said the team was aware of deficiencies in the bail monitoring program as it related to counter-terrorism investigators because of a separate case.

“We couldn’t get real time data into where that person was,” he said.

“What happened in a previous case was that a person who was on bail with a bracelet, there was a zone violation that activated so we made contact with the provider at the time and said ... where is this person, (they said) we can’t tell you where this person is .....because you’re the investigator.”

Maurice Antill was 87 and his wife Zoe, 86, when they were both murdered by Raghe Mohamed Abdi, 22, at their Parkinson home in Brisbane on December 17, 2020. Picture: Glen Somerville

Det McCann said when Abdi was given bail he contacted the bail management team and the bracelet monitoring company to ensure he would be contacted if Abdi’s bracelet sent out an alert.

“There were deficiencies in the system … and I tried to implement to overcome that in an effort to at least be contacted,” he said.

The officer said he provided his work email, work mobile phone number and personal mobile number.

Det McCann told the inquest, which is being held in Brisbane Coroners Court, that he gave his personal number so he could be contacted at any time.

On December 16, 2020, Abdi had a fight with his stepmother and left the house before going into bushland and removing his ankle monitoring device,

The Antills were found stabbed to death in their back yard the following morning.

Hours later, Abdi was shot dead by police on the Logan Motorway.

Former private school student Raghe Mohamed Abdi was 22 and being monitored by the Queensland Joint Counter Terrorism Team when he murdered husband and wife Zoe and Maurice Antill on December 17, 2020. Hours later Abdi was shot by police.

Det McCann, who was on a day off, said he did not receive a call on his personal phone about the ankle bracelet being tampered with.

He said the first he heard of what had happened was via a telephone call from a police officer saying they believed the man shot on the motorway was Abdi.

While a bracelet tamper alert had been sent to his work email Det McCann did not have access to his work emails because he was on a day off, he said.

“As an investigator, one of the very key lessons is the time between an event and time of notification is critical and the longer that time is extrapolated ... makes it more and more difficult to prevent something,” he said.

A representative from the company that monitors ankle bracelets for Queensland Police told the inquest Det McCann’s personal mobile number was not added to the system as a result of ‘human error, oversight’.

Det McCann agreed that, around the time of Abdi being granted bail, there was no direct intelligence that he planned an attack but he remained concerned about Abdi’s radicalisation.

“We hadn’t seen demonstrated information that Raghe’s idealisation in relation to what he believed had changed,” he said.

Originally published as Counter-terrorism not alerted to man’s ankle bracelet removal due to bail monitoring ‘deficiencies’