Footballer free on parole in Tasmania after 2006 Queensland pub brawl murder

A Queensland footballer who murdered a young man in a pub brawl has been released from prison in Tasmania. What the Parole Board decided.

The Royal Hotel Beenleigh. Picture: Liam Kidston.

A Queensland footballer who murdered a young man in a pub brawl nearly two decades ago has been released from prison in Tasmania.

Geoffrey Wayne Freeman was 23 and playing for the Beenleigh Buffaloes AFL club when he fatally kicked a man in the head who had fallen to the ground outside the Royal Hotel in March 2006.

Daniel James Wade, 23, died in hospital the following day.

Freeman had grown up in Launceston, but was living in the small Queensland town of Logan and was out with his football club members at the time of the murder.

Following a 10-day trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court, the father of three was sentenced to life in prison, and was incarcerated in Queensland during 2009.

However, he was transferred to Risdon Prison in 2012 upon his request on welfare grounds, to be closer to his family in Tasmania.

He became eligible for parole on April 29 after serving a non-parole period of 15 years.

The Parole Board of Tasmania noted he was housed in minimum security at the time of his parole hearing and was expecting another child with a woman he’d met and become involved with while in jail.

The board said he planned to marry and live with this woman, who was employed and had no history of offending or substance use issues.

It noted he’d previously run his own landscaping business, employed other people, and had been working in prison at the wood shop.

While working with a life coach in hail over the past seven years, the board said Freeman had learnt about himself “and his triggers”.

At the parole hearing, Freeman said he would take back his offending if he could, with the board noting he presented as remorseful.

“He said he wasn’t thinking straight, it was a spur of the moment thing,” the board said.

Freeman has been paroled for the term of his natural life, and must be subject to electronic monitoring and not contact “named associates”.

Follow @ambervwilson