8th September 2012
Dear Peter
I am writing to you with regard to several points that are
troubling me at this time. As you may be
aware I have recently been active in several media interviews including
channel nine news and abc 612 radio with
Steve Austin. The other thing that you
may not be aware of is that I have also spoken to residents within the street
about the incident again. I note that
all the residents I have spoken to have not been re-contacted by the police and
also advise that they were never interviewed or asked to clarify anything, they
purely gave statements and nothing more.
I would like to address a point regarding Crystal’s dog that
was at the premises on the day of the shooting.
Witnesses have said that the dog was not heard barking and yet that dog
barked constantly all day everyday at anything and everything. To my knowledge this dog was a chronic
watchdog, a large French mastiff, that had to be closed in by extended wire on
top of the fence so it couldn’t jump the fence and attack passers by. Witnesses have also stated that they did not
see the dog or hear it until it was taken away from the property on a stretcher
by 4 people later in the afternoon placing it into what appeared to be a dog
pound van. I have also been told that
the dog was bleeding, I believe all of these questions are relevant to the case
and answers need to be given as to what happened to the dog. Jason had stated on many occasions to all of
us in his family that the dog never stopped barking and never let him in the house without
barking its head off and Crystal has also verified this. I have also heard the first 5 – 6 minutes of
when the shooting officer turned on his recording device after he shot my son and
I do not believe at anytime I heard a dog barking. Our question remains as to how Jason got past
the dog without it barking or how these officers ran around the yard without
the dog barking. I have contacted the
Bracken Ridge animal shelter to try and get answers to these questions and I
was referred to a supervisor who could not answer any of my questions and in
fact became quite defensive, I have since put these questions in writing via
email to the Bracken Ridge animal shelter.
In your email dated Monday 3rd September you
stated that you don’t expect the full brief of evidence to be available until mid
November, the time frame continues to bother me especially since we were told
on the day that we met with you and the Coroner and his team that the ethical
standards officers had been put on this case alone and were not working on any
other cases as this case was there priority.
I am yet to understand what the hold up is with the release of evidence
considering that Ethical Standards and the Homicide squad advised me that they
had concluded their investigation some time ago, which I believe was
approximately 6 weeks after the shooting occurred.
I also wish to ask why Mr Ian Leavers once again appeared on
ABC 612 radio on Thursday 30/8/12 and channel nine news on the same date and
stated that there is evidence which is unknown to the public that clearly
vindicates the police, my question is are we aware of all the evidence or is
evidence still being withheld from us?
As if we are aware of all the evidence then I have no idea what Mr
Leavers is speaking about, the only thing I could possibly think of that he was
speaking about was the Facebook photos which I gave to the Ethical Standards
officers and have now after Mr Leavers allegations released to the media. I fail to see how the Facebook photos are
relevant especially when DNA was not found on the barrel which these photos
clearly displayed this replica pistol in Jason’s mouth, not withstanding that 4
other people had also touched this gun in these photo’s plus the shooting
officer who alledgedly threw this replica on the day. The alledged weapon found by Jason’s body on
the day of the shooting only contained DNA on the handle and once again no
prints at all.
Mr Leavers has also stated that the Protheroe family has
regularly made misleading and prejudicial statements about this matter, I
believe that Mr Leavers needs to be very careful about statements he is making
against my family when my family has done nothing of the sort. I am the family spokesperson and Mr Leavers
needs to direct any comments to me not my family. Mr
Leavers has also stated that I am out of my league and that parents with
children as criminals like to believe that butter wouldn’t melt in their
mouth. I am neither hysterical nor
blindsided by my deceased son’s petty criminal activity or his history with
drugs and I certainly have never claimed any differently. All I have ever said is that my son never
deserved to die this way and I still believe that with all my heart. So once again I express my concerns that the
shooting officer and his partner on the day need to be stood down from active
duty until the Coroner makes a ruling on this investigation and Mr Ian Leavers
needs to be investigated for misconduct as a member of the Qld Police Force as
per the letter from the Criminal Misconduct Commission that I have received. Mr Leavers stated that I am saying there is a
Police cover up and I have never stated this I have purely questioned the
statements he made on the day of the shooting and I continue to question those
statements today and now the further statements he has made. I am writing a further letter to the Criminal
Misconduct Commission to request that Mr Ian Leavers be fully investigated for
tainting of evidence and personal attack on my family.
I would also like to raise the point as to why the
detectives who came to my house to investigate the stolen car out front of our
house on the day requested if Jason returned home to call 000. I wonder why I was told to call 000 when it
is consistently said that 000 should be used for life threatening emergency
calls only. As previously stated we all
felt a sense of urgency from the detective to find Jason. I replied with the fact that 000 takes a long
response time and he replied with well call me and I will be here within 10
minutes no matter where I am.
I would also once again like to know what happened to
Jason’s shirt and hooded jumper that Ethical Standards advised us he was
wearing. We have repeatedly asked where
these items are and we have received no response at all. I also note that these items were not noted
under his clothing on the autopsy report so who has them.
I also would like to ask why we still have not received a
hard copy of Jason’s autopsy report as yet when we were advised one would be
mailed to us on the day that we received the copy via email.
Yours Faithfully
Stephen Protheroe
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