Wolston jail’s most notorious prisoners locked up in 2025
It’s the Queensland jail packed with our most feared crims. From acts of savagery to meticulously planned murders and calculated abductions, these are the twisted men who run Wolston’s yard.
Behind the razor wire and concrete walls of Wolston jail reside some of Australia’s most notorious killers, whose evil acts span over 50 years.
The high-security facility, based in Wacol, has become the final destination for some of the state’s most dangerous offenders.
From crimes of passion to cold-blooded killings, their heinous crimes continue to leave a permanent mark on countless lives across the state.
Most of the men on this list will serve the next decades behind bars, but a select few are preparing to make their case for release by the end of the year.
See the faces of Wolston jail’s most notorious killers, along with their victims whose lives were cut short:
Gerard Robert Baden-Clay
Baden-Clay became infamous across the country after he killed his wife Allison in April 2012.
Allison’s body was found by a canoeist under the Kholo Creek Bridge, Anstead, ten days after her husband reported her missing from their Brookfield home.
Baden-Clay, who had been having an affair, made enquiries shortly after Allison’s death about claiming her $800,000 life insurance policy.
The former real estate agent was found guilty of the murder in 2014 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Baden-Clay successfully appealed and had the charge downgraded to manslaughter in 2015; however, the High Court of Australia reinstated the original murder conviction the following year.
Allison’s estate was ultimately split between the couple’s three children – with Baden-Clay not receiving a single cent.
Baden-Clay is still serving his life sentence at Wolston. With a non-parole period of 15 years, he will be eligible for parole in 2027.
Cameron Joseph Bani
Bani was just 26 when he was convicted of murdering his girlfriend’s son.
Susan Davis had been nearly 20 years his senior, and her son Deon had taken issue with the couple’s relationship.
The jury heard during Bani’s 2014 trial how Bani had killed Deon, 22, with his fists and a metal pot during an argument at their Browns Plain home in 2012.
Ms Davis, 43 at the time of the trial, testified that her son has asked Bani just moments prior to the fight: “How would you like it if I went out with your mum?’’
Bani was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non parole period of 15 years.
After his conviction, Ms Davis told the Courier Mail how her relationship with Bani had been plagued by domestic violence.
“People say it’s my fault. If I had left, my son would still be alive,” she said.
“I’m not the lucky one who got out of it. My son is gone.”
Brenden Jacob Bennetts
Bennetts murdered Gatton schoolgirl Jayde Kendall after picking her up from school in August 2015.
Two weeks after the 16-year-old was reported missing, her body was found dumped in a field – still wearing her Lockyer District High School uniform.
The cause of her death was still a mystery at the time of her trial, as her body had been found significantly decomposed.
However, the jury heard evidence Bennetts had a history of strangling women during rough sex.
Bennetts was convicted of Jayde’s murder at trial in 2017, when he was 21.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 years.
Kyam Keith Broadby
The Mareeba show worker fatally punched, kicked and stomped on a workmate’s head after the man made a drunken hammer threat towards his girlfriend.
Nathaniel Wailu had been drinking in excess at a party on July 10, 2019, when he started swinging a hammer around.
Broadby had punched him and chased after him when he fled, yelling “keep away from my f – king woman”.
He then unleashed the “short but ferocious assault” that sent Mr Wailu into cardiac arrest, Justice Peter Flanagan stated in a recent appeal decision.
Broadby was found not guilty of murder and acquitted of that charge following a nine day trial at Cairns Supreme Court in November 2022.
But the jury still found him guilty of manslaughter – resulting in a nine-year jail sentence with a serious violent offence declaration.
Broadby recently attempted to appeal the declaration, claiming it was manifestly excessive as it required him to serve at least 80 per cent of his sentence in actual custody.
Justice Flanagan refused leave to appeal, however, and the declaration still stands today.
Brett Peter Cowan
Cowan’s horrific murder of 13-year-old schoolboy Daniel Morcombe sent shockwaves through the nation at the time of his 2014 trial.
The investigation into Daniel’s December 7, 2003, disappearance sparked the largest criminal investigation in the history of Queensland, an inquest into his death revealed.
Cowan had abducted Daniel from a bus stop after an express replacement bus drove past the boy, as another bus had been expected to follow shortly after.
Cowan offered to drive Daniel to the Sunshine Plaza, where the boy had been headed, but instead drove him to an isolated property in the Glasshouse Mountains.
There, Cowan attempted to sexually assault Daniel – before choking him and disposing of his body in the bushland to cover his tracks.
As she sentenced him to life imprisonment for the murder, Justice Roslyn Atkinson warned future decision makers that Cowan had not looked like a “monster” or a “pedophile” on the day he abducted Daniel.
Instead, he had looked like an “ordinary person”.
“Whenever anyone is considering the prospect of granting you parole many years in the future they should mark my words that you are a convincing liar … and prepared to lie to advance your own interests,” she told Cowan.
Daniel’s parents have since started the Daniel Morcombe Foundation with a mission to keep Australia’s children safe.
Now one of the state’s most hated prisoners, Cowan had a “hot shower” of boiling water thrown on him by another inmate in 2016. Then in 2018, what was labelled as one of the worst riots in Wolston’s history was started as a diversion to attack him.
Bradley Scott Edwards
Edwards was sentenced to nine years in jail in 2023 for the manslaughter of 26-year-old sketch artist Ioli Hadjilyra.
He had attacked Ms Hadjilyra at Kalinga Park, Nundah, on September 3, 2019 after she had asked him if he had any drugs.
Edwards had told her he did and led her to the park, where council workers later found her bruised body “partially clad lying in a garden bed”.
“You had left her in that state and walked away leaving her alone as if she was worthless,” Justice Sue Brown said at Edwards’ sentence.
“She was not. She was somebody’s daughter, sister and she was loved.”
Edwards’ four years and two months in pre-sentence custody were declared time-served.
Adam John Charles Evans
Evans is currently serving consecutive ten and eight year sentences at Wolston for manslaughter and four counts of rape.
He had violently beaten a disabled pensioner to death at a Yeronga unit in 2018, before dumping his body head first in a wheelie bin.
Kym Mitchell, 61, was heard pleading “stop help me” and “I’m dying,” Justice Glenn Martin told Brisbane’s Supreme Court at Evans’ sentence last year.
Mr Mitchell’s body was found severely decomposed five days later, with fractures to his skull, vertebrae, sternum, and ribs.
The court heard Evans and another man had raped a woman just days later while affected by drugs and alcohol.
Evans will be eligible for parole after 15 years in custody.
Lloyd Clark Fletcher
Fletcher was sentenced to an indefinite prison term in 1998 after he raped and murdered 15-year-old Janet Phillips.
Fletcher, who had a history of sexual violence against women, had killed Janet after she left a party at Wynnum in 1987.
He had been released from prison only four months prior, over the rape and attempted murder of another young woman in Innisfail.
It took police ten years to link Fletcher to Janet’s murder, and in that time he attacked two more young women.
Fletcher made a bid for freedom in 2022 after he was diagnosed with cancer.
However, Justice David Boddice said Fletcher was still a “serious danger” to the community and ordered for his indefinite sentence to continue.
Aaron Thomas William Gardner
Gardner pleaded guilty to murder in 2009 after he stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death at Gatton.
He had stabbed 20-year-old Lauren Taylor 12 times in her own bedroom in July, 2006.
Gardner had called in sick from his job at the Gatton University of Queensland campus that day and drove to Toowoomba.
There, he purchased a hunting knife and searched the internet for stabbing techniques – before heading to Ms Taylor’s home and waiting for her to return.
At his sentence, the court heard Gardner had also visited prostitutes in Toowoomba and told them of his plans.
Gardner was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non parole period of 15 years.
Ian Phillip Hannaford
Hannaford was found guilty in 2015 of the murder of his ex-lover, Warwick grandmother Gail Lynch.
Ms Lynch, 55, broke off their short relationship in 2012, but Hannaford continued to phone her, park near her house, and look in her windows.
On July 3, 2012, Ms Lynch went to the shops, paid her rent and returned home to delete Hannaford’s contact details.
She was never seen again – with her body never found.
Hannaford was seen with his “new girlfriend” just days later and told Ms Lynch’s family he didn’t know where she was.
He evaded police for two weeks before being found “living rough” in a toilet block at Picnic Point, Toowoomba.
At trial, the jury heard Ms Lynch’s DNA was found in drops of blood in his car, his unit, and on an axe he had purchased the day after she had disappeared.
Hannaford was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 20 years.
He attempted to appeal the jury’s verdict in 2017, but the appeal was dismissed.
Brian Earl Johnston
The former US marine repeatedly stabbed his estranged wife Kelly Wilkinson at her Arundel home on April 20, 2021.
He then doused her in petrol and set her on fire.
Johnston pleaded guilty in March 2024 to Ms Wilkinson’s planned and premeditated murder.
Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard the couple had been separated at the time, and that Ms Wilkinson had accused Johnston of raping her.
Justice Peter Applegarth said Johnston “obviously wanted to silence her from being a witness in the impending (rape) proceedings”.
“I infer that you wanted to kill her because you lost control of her and had lost her as some kind of possession that you knew you would never regain,” he said.
Johnston received a life sentence with a non parole period of 20 years.
His co-accused Bradley Bell was found not guilty of murder at trial later that same year and was acquitted entirely.
Bell, who had driven Johnston to his wife’s home shortly prior to her death, had testified that he hadn’t known Johnston’s intent at the time.
Since her sister’s death, Danielle Carroll founded The Kelly Wilkinson Foundation to support families affected by domestic violence homicide.
Robert Paul Long
Fifteen backpackers died in a fire set by Long at Childers’ Palace Backpackers Hostel in June 2000.
Long made a bizarre confession to the arson after a violent confrontation with police five days later, in which he stabbed an officer in the jaw.
Three shots were fired towards Long, who then wrote on a $10 note: “I’m dying anyway. I started that fire”.
Long was convicted following a trial in 2002 of the arson and murder of two victims, Kelly and Stacey Slarke.
He was sentenced to life in jail with a non parole period of 20 years.
Long made an unsuccessful bid for parole in 2020, then applied again this year.
The Parole Board is currently considering whether to make a restricted prisoner declaration, which could bar Long from applying for release for up to 10 years.
James Morton Mason
Mason killed his partner Alexis Parkes in a Chermside house fire on February 5, 2020.
The jury was told at his trial in 2022 that he deliberately set fire to Ms Parkes’ car while it was parked directly under her timber home.
Mason had removed his belongings in advance, and left the scene as the flames engulfed the home.
Despite the frantic efforts of Ms Parkes’ neighbours to rescue her, she died in hospital in the following days.
Mason pleaded guilty to the arson but denied intending to kill Ms Parkes.
In a police interview, he claimed she had been “loopy” and went “psycho” after taking medication in the hours prior to the fire.
The jury found Mason guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to life behind bars.
Scott Geoffrey Maygar
Maygar received two life sentences in 2007 for the heinous murders of David James Lyons, 17, and Michael Ross Thompson, 30.
Aged just 20 at the time, Maygar additionally received 15 years for the manslaughter of Tyson James Wilson, 17, and 10 years for four counts of rape.
Maygar’s crimes all occurred at a Hume Street unit in Toowoomba on May 30, 2005.
In company with teenager John Brian Woodman, Maygar had struck Mr Wilson with a pool ball inside a sock as he slept in the garage.
They then bashed Mr Lyons over the head and repeatedly raped his girlfriend after separating her from her toddler child.
Finally, the duo attempted to break Thompson’s neck and bashed him to death with metal poles.
Woodman’s crimes were found to be so heinous that he became the first juvenile offender in Queensland to be publicly named by court order.
Alex Reuben McEwan
McEwan was found guilty at trial in 2018 of murdering Korean student Eunji Ban.
Ms Ban’s body was found horrifically beaten at Wickham Park in Brisbane’s CBD on the morning of November 24, 2013.
She had been walking to a cleaning job around 4am when she crossed paths with McEwan, who the court heard had been intoxicated.
The jury was told McEwan, 19 at the time, had gone out “looking for someone to kill” at the direction of a demon, who he claimed had haunted him since he was a young boy.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to murder on the basis that he was schizophrenic and had diminished responsibility.
However the jury’s guilty verdict reflected a finding that he was in control and intended to kill Ms Ban.
McEwan was sentenced to the mandatory life imprisonment.
Clive Anthony Nicholson
Nicholson bludgeoned his wife Julie Rose Cowen-Nicholson to death with a hammer at their Southport home in 2003.
He later wrote suicide letter to their daughter saying “Mummy died as a result of an accident in a fight with Daddy … and Daddy died as a result of a broken heart.”
Nicholson was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2006 after a jury found him guilty of the murder.
Ms Cowen-Nicholson’s body was never found, with Nicholson initially claiming to have dumped her body off the Southport Spit.
In 2019, he changed his tune and told police he had actually buried her in Cedar Grove, near Beaudesert.
However, an extensive search failed to locate Ms Cowen-Nicholson’s body, and Nicholson remains locked up under the state’s “no body, no parole” laws today.
Benjamin James Nunns
Nunns was convicted by a Toowoomba jury last year of the murder of 38-year-old Charles Compton.
Compton, 38, was shot in the neck in April 2020 while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car outside Nunn’s Warwick home.
His wife Karen was sitting next to him in the passenger seat at the time.
The couple had been heading out to get fast food, but Nunns believed they were trying to lure him away to kill him.
Mr and Mrs Compton had spent about five hours smoking ice with Nunns in his shed from 11pm of April 4 into the early hours of morning.
Brisbane’s Supreme Court at Nunn’s sentence that he had been experiencing delusions as a result of his schizophrenia, combined with his use of methamphetamine.
Nunns was sentenced to life in jail. He has since filed for appeal, which remains unresolved at this time.
Vincent O’Dempsey
The notorious triple murder killed Barbara McCulkin, 34, and her young daughters Vicki, 13, and Leanne, 11, in 1974.
O’Dempsey and co-offender Garry Dubois had lured family into leaving their Highgate Hill home before binding them and driving them into the bush near Warwick.
O’Dempsey had then strangled Mrs McCulkin while Dubois raped the girls a short distance away.
Dubois was found guilty in 2016 of the girls’ rape and murder, along with the manslaughter of Mrs McCulkin.
It was suggested by the prosecution at the men’s trials that Mrs McCulkin’s death may have been motivated by a desire to silence her in relation to the Whiskey Au Go Go firebombing in 1973, which claimed the lives of 15 people.
Dubois took his own life while incarcerated at Maryborough Correctional Centre in 2021, a week before the inquest into the nightclub’s firebombing was set to commence.
O’Dempsey, who was convicted of three counts of murder in 2017, continues to serve his life sentence at Wolston.
Anthony James O’Keefe
O’Keefe stabbed 81-year-old Beth Kippin in a drug-fuelled rampage in 2016 – just hours after he was released from Townsville Correctional Centre on parole.
He had injected meth at the Wulguru home of Brittny Speechly-Faulks on July 26, 2016, after an argument with his partner Jade Spark.
Under the influence of the drug, O’Keefe slit Ms Speechly-Faulks’ throat and stabbed her multiple times.
Ms Speechly-Faulks, who was seriously injured but survived, testified in court that O’Keefe had told her “1, 2, 3, 4, you’re dead bitch,” after stabbing her.
O’Keefe then stripped naked and crossed the road, covered in blood, to the home of Ms Kippin – who he fatally stabbed in the chest.
A neighbour called police after finding O’Keefe “stark naked” on his front porch, saying he was “going to kill people”.
O’Keefe was found guilty of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
He was sentenced to life for the murder and 16 years for each of the attempted murders.
Paul Stephen Osborne
Osborne is currently serving two life sentences for the rape and murder of two girls at Warana Beach on the Sunshine Coast.
Leanne Oliver, 10, and Patricia Leedie, 9, were both sexually assaulted and clubbed with a tree branch on October 29, 1995.
Osborne had come across the girls while they were out doorknocking, looking to do odd jobs in exchange for pocket money.
He told police the girls had recognised him from a barbecue and wanted to show him their cubby house.
At the time, he blamed a cocktail of drugs and alcohol for his actions.
Osborne applied for parole in 2020, but the application was refused and he was declared ineligible for parole until May 22, 2032.
Gavin Phillip Parnell
Parnell was convicted and jailed over Jay Brogden’s murder fifteen years after the 21-year-old went missing.
He shot Mr Brogden in the head and tipped his body over the side of a boat off Shute Harbour in April 2007.
Mr Brogden’s body was never found.
Parnell pleaded not guilty to the murder at trial and claimed another man in the boat that day had held a gun to his back.
He said the man was a drug “kingpin” and had “snapped” over a drug dispute during a fishing trip to White Rock.
The jury found Parnell guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mr Brogden’s drug dealer, Braddon Charles Peter Butler, pleaded guilty to his manslaughter in 2023 on the basis that he and Parnell had agreed to assault Mr Brogden over a debt.
He was sentenced to eight years behind bars after he claimed he had no knowledge Parnell had brought a gun.
Christopher Puglia
Puglia brutally bludgeoned his own parents to death with a sledgehammer during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
Franco and Loris Puglia’s family had shown up at their Joyner home on May 17, 2020 to celebrate Loris’s birthday – only to find a disturbing crime scene, Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard at Puglia’s sentence last March.
Justice Peter Applegarth told the court a quick glance at a crime scene photo had been “enough to make me sick and I had to go for a walk”.
Living arrangements between Puglia and his parents had become tense after he lost his job, moved back in – and then refused to help around the house or seek new employment, the court heard.
Puglia, 31 at the time, fled the scene and drove south to Newcastle on May 16, 2020, after unleashing the “brutal and unrelenting” attack on his parents.
He had originally been due to face trial over the deaths last March, but pleaded guilty a month prior to two counts of murder.
Puglia’s brother James stared him down at his sentence, telling him he had lost the right to call Franco and Loris his parents.
“The people that you brutally took away from me were my parents,” he said.
“A mother that was there whenever I needed her, compassionate, caring, and a loving mother. A father that was supportive, guiding and hard working.”
Puglia was sentenced to life imprisonment, with parole eligibility in May 2050 after he serves 30 years in prison.
Ashley Roberts
Roberts stabbed 45-year-old Kevin Brack in a drug deal gone wrong at a Fortitude Valley strip club in 2009.
Mr Brack was punched, kicked, and stabbed after he argued with Roberts about drugs and money.
Roberts had smuggled Mr Brack’s body away in a wheelie bin – and the body was never found.
Mr Brack’s family pleaded with Roberts at the time of his sentence in 2011 to reveal the location of the body for their “final closure”.
“Yes my brother was a drug addict but he never hurt anyone but himself,” sister Terese Brack said.
Roberts was sentenced to life in prison, and remains in custody at Wolston today.
Massimo ‘Max’ Sica
The triple murderer strangled his girlfriend Neelma Singh, 18, to death in a fit of jealous rage on Easter Sunday 2003.
Sica then turned on Neelma’s siblings Kunal, 18, and Sidhi, 12. To ensure their silence, he struck them both with a garden fork at their family’s Bridgeman Downs home.
He then piled all three of his victims in a spa bath, where Kunal – who had been knocked unconscious – drowned beside his siblings bodies.
Mother Shirley Singh told the court at Sica’s sentence that she still lit a candle at the spa bath every night so that her children didn’t have to sleep in the dark.
Sica was sentenced to life with a non parole period of 35 years in 2012 – the toughest non-parole period ever issued in the state.
He was convicted of all three murders, but still maintains his innocence to this day.
Sica launched a fresh appeal earlier this year, which will be centred on the forensic evidence led at his trial.
Allyn John Slater
Slater was sentenced to life imprisonment after he abducted and murdered eight-year-old Trinity Bates from her bedroom in 2010.
Trinity’s body was found in a stormwater drain just 50m from her family’s Bundaberg home.
He was originally scheduled to become eligible for parole after 15 years in February 2025 – but that date was pushed back to August 22 after he committed further offences in prison.
Brisbane’s District Court heard in May how he had written a “depraved” novel while in jail, in which he fantasised about inflicting violent sexual abuse against children.
He was sentenced to two years imprisonment for offences of making and possessing child exploitation material.
Trinity’s parents Damien Bates and Amanda Clarke have since called for their daughter’s killer to be restricted form applying for parole.
“The last 15 years have been like a living hell that we can’t escape,” Mrs Clarke said.
“Just the thought of this happening is terrifying, the impact for our family would be unimaginable.”
Michael Bradley Small
Small is currently serving a 14-year-jail sentence over the degrading death of Brisbane DJ Andy Stephens.
Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard Small had kicked or stomped on Mr Stephens’s head at his Taringa unit in August 2020.
Small had also brandished a pink dildo and attempted to urinate on Mr Stephens, whose mouth was gagged with tape.
The court heard Mr Stephens’s exact cause of death was unknown, but had likely been a cardiac event stemming from a combination of a heart problem, methamphetamine addiction, and the attack.
Small was acquitted of murder at trial last August, but the jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Stephens’s mother Annette Rolands told the court at Small’s sentence that his actions had displayed a “total disregard for human life”.
“This is a truly heinous crime in every sense of the word – violent, aggressive, frightening, cruel, demeaning. No one should lose their life in such a cold blooded manner,” she said.
“ … Andy loved and was loved and contributed to society in a worthwhile manner. He was a good human being.”
Jason Struhs, Zachary Struhs, and Lachlan Schoenfisch
Jason and his wife Kerrie Stuhs were found guilty in January of the manslaughter of their eight-year-old daughter Elizabeth.
The couple had been members of the cult-like religious group the Saints, who deprived Elizabeth – a type 1 diabetic – of insulin medication under the belief that god would save her.
Jason had initially been an atheist and ensured Elizabeth received her medicine, but converted shortly prior to Elizabeth’s death in January 2022.
Twelve other members of the Toowoomba-based group were also found guilty of manslaughter, including Elizabeth’s older brother Zachary.
Jason Struhs and group leader Brendan Stevens, 63, were originally charged with murder over Elizabeth’s death. They were acquitted at trial and found guilty instead of manslaughter.
Jason and Kerrie Struhs were both sentenced to 14 years jail, Brendan Stevens to 13 years jail, and the remaining members of the Saints to between six and nine years jail.
Three men – Jason Struhs, Zachary Struhs, and Lachlan Schoenfisch – are now serving those sentences at Wolston.
Robert James Wagner
Wagner was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for the murder of his wealthy uncle Gerhard Wagner two decades prior.
Wagner had been motivated by greed when he invited his uncle to his Ashgrove home on January 7, 1999, Brisbane’s Supreme Court heard at his sentence.
He had bludgeoned him to death with a hammer, before dismembering his body with an axe and dumping the remains in the Glass House Mountains.
The court heard Wagner had owed his uncle $84,000 and was struggling financially.
He was arrested in 2014 after a reinvigoration of the cold-case investigation.
Gerhard Wagner’s younger brother Peter said the family was relieved but heartbroken following Wagner’s sentence.
“He lost his life not because he was a bad man but the opposite: he was a good man who was caring, he was generous, and he was trusting,” he said.
Wagner attempted to appeal his conviction earlier this year, but the appeal was dismissed.
Barrie John Watts
Watts infamously raped and murdered 12-year-old schoolgirl Sian Kingi on the Sunshine Coast in 1987.
Sian was riding her bike home from school when Watts’s wife Valmae Beck asked for the girl’s help looking for a lost dog.
The Lowood couple then bound Sian and drove her to Tinbeerwah forest, where she was raped and stabbed multiple times.
Watts and Beck fled the state after Sian’s mutilated body was found dumped in the bushland.
They were both sentenced to life imprisonment after police coaxed a confession from Beck.
A recorded conversation between the couple after their arrest captured Watts’ disturbing admission: “I’d like to do it again”.
Beck died in Townsville Hospital under prison guard in 2008.
Watts has made multiple applications for parole in the decades since his conviction – most recently in 2024.
After Watts’s most recent application was denied, Parole Board Queensland president Michael Byrne declared that Watts would not be eligible to apply for parole again until February 2034.
Originally published as Wolston jail’s most notorious prisoners locked up in 2025
