23rd March 2013
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice
Jarrod Bleijie
Level 18
State Law Building
50 Ann Street
Brisbane Qld 4000
Dear Mr Bleijie
I wrote to you on 1st December 2013 and again on
14th December 2013 (I have attached copies of these letters) and I
am yet to receive any form of response from you with regard to either letter. Since writing those letters we have received
a response from the Ethical Standards Command with regard to the complaint of
perjury that I made against Inspector Mark Reid the lead investigator in the
case relating to the death of my son Jason Protheroe. I have attached a copy of the letter that I
sent the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the replies I have received from
Queensland Police Service Ethical Standards branch and Crime and Misconduct
Commission for your investigation.
At no point did I lodge an official complaint against Snr
Detective Sergeant Anthony Buxton, nor did I suggest that he did not pass on
information to Inspector Mark Reid. In
fact I felt quite comfortable with the reassurance from Detective Anthony
Buxton that he did in fact pass on all my questions and feedback to the boss
aka lead Investigator Inspector Mark Reid.
The initial letter received from the Crime and Misconduct Commission
stated that I would be contacted via Qld Police Investigating this matter and
yet neither myself, my son Stuart or my son Stephen were contacted by anyone
regarding this investigation, so how exactly did any investigation occur
without even talking to the key players who were present for the conversation
that I referred to in my letter. The
post hearing letters that I have received are a continual indictment of how I
believe the case was run from day one. I
believe they are still continuing with their deliberate and damning lies. I
believe they have continually perverted and polluted the case from the outset from
Ian Leavers the Qld Police union President, Senior Constable Thomas Hess if not
the murderer of my son, undisputedly the killer of my son, Troy Weston the
partner of Thomas Hess, Inspector Mark Reid the lead investigator of the case
and Constable Belinda Baker. The
Minister for Police Jack Dempsey stated on national television that my sons
case would be open and transparent, yet Coroner Michael Barnes gagged the
evidence of this case 5 days after the inquest concluded with the support of
the Qld Government, Qld Police force, Ethical Standards, CMC and Police union
to suppress the truth so that they could legally sweep my son’s death under a
rug and protect their own police member aka gang member. Open and Transparent in what way
exactly? In my mind this was no more
than an attempt at the perversion of justice, if I’m wrong please explain, I
eagerly await your reply as would any intelligent person reading this letter.
We have asked you several times to look at Jason’s case as a
whole, look at all the inconsistencies and look at the evidence as a
whole. I continue to ask the question
why should a Police Officer not face a jury of 12 independent people like any
other lay person, especially when there is inconsistencies in the evidence
including from the shooting officer’s own partner on the day. As a family we will continue our fight for
justice for Jason until the day that Thomas Hess faces a jury and we are given
a verdict from independent people, after the evidence is tried and tested,
after all the inconsistencies are probed and answers given as to why versions
have changed over and over again by the Police.
Only then can we truly accept the fate of our son.
On the afternoon of Jason’s killing Ian Leavers in his
capacity of Qld Police Union President stated words to the effect that the
reputation of these two detectives involved were beyond reproach. Are you aware that in the short period Detective
Thomas Hess, the killer if not murderer of my son has been with Qld Police
Force approximately 5 years. In this
short time Detective Thomas Hess has 3 complaints of allegations against his
name including 5th March 2007 Police Officer may be supplying local
drug suppliers with information identifying details relating to planned police
raids in Karanda, Mareeba and Cairns district. 23rd May 2011 officer
drew firearm although not discharged and 28th June 2011 forced
confessions/threats to induce admissions/confessions/obtain incriminating
evidence.
Are you also aware in the evidence that Thomas Hess started
his own recording from the lanyard around his neck after the shooting
occurred? During this recording an officer
came up to Hess and clearly asks did he have a gun? Thomas Hess replied yeh
mate yeh. Then he removed his
lanyard/recording device and placed it down, you then hear him go off and
whisper to this officer before he returns for approx. 1min 40seconds. It is not clear exactly what is being said
between Hess and this other officer however parts that can be made out clearly
demonstrate that he is giving a version of what happened. At the inquest he was asked if the officer he
was talking to could have been Officer Weston and he replied with “quite
possibly it could have been him”. Once
again all of this contradicts the statements given by Hess and Weston that they
had not spoken at all.
Are you also aware that at the inquest Thomas Hess’ own
barrister made a statement that Thomas Hess should be given a commendation for
killing our son? Given the facts and the
evidence of this case I ask what sort of justice system we have here in
Queensland. Although I have only
mentioned a couple of inconsistencies here, there are countless others, in fact
I’m sure I could write a whole book about this case and the inconsistencies.
I ask you how three people directly witnessed the killing of
my son and two out of the three including an independent eye witness Krystal
Sinn and a Police officer Snr Detective Troy Weston firstly number one did not
see a weapon in my son’s hands as he was being shot dead by Detective Thomas
Hess although they both said they witnessed the shooting. Secondly nor did they see Detective Thomas Hess
remove the alleged weapon from Jason’s hands as he lay motionless on the
ground. Even though Snr Detective Weston
was supposedly right there covering Jason as Hess removed the alleged weapon
from Jason’s hands and threw it backwards onto the grass. I believe Snr Detective Weston stated that he
first saw the alleged gun in the grass after coming back into the rear of the
yard after calling the ambulance. I
believe that in any other killing this alone would be cause for this case to be
tried and tested by an independent jury of 12 people.
In summary, I believe because Qld Police Detective Thomas
Hess shot and killed my son and he is the only person to state uncategorically
that he saw the alleged weapon although the two eye witnesses did not see this
alleged weapon at any time during the killing, I believe the only reason a jury
trial was not held is because he is a Qld Police Officer. No Police Officer is above the law. From day one I have fought a hostile Qld
Police Union, a hostile Qld Police Ethical Standards Unit, a hostile Qld Police
Force, a hostile Crime and Misconduct Commission, a hostile Coroner, a hostile
Government and a hostile Attorney General and yet these post killing
correspondence clearly show what you’ve done throughout the whole case, you’ve
ignored all of the evidence, you sit back and you’ve now decided to say
absolutely nothing to me accept distort what I’ve been saying and then turn it
around and tell us that everything is above board. Well it’s not “above board”, I don’t accept
it. We’ve asked you to look at our case,
what have you done? We’re tired of this
Police gang mentality, it’s got to stop.
Justice is there for everybody.
If the Qld Police are prepared to take the applause when solving high
profile murder cases then they also better get prepared for the criticism when
totally ignoring facts to protect their own members. Whilst I would never compare police
investigations or cases anyone who has lost a son through murder of any form
knows the days faced through investigation and unanswered questions. But when your son is killed by a member of
the Qld Police Force it makes the struggle so much harder. I only hope I can maintain the courage and
dignity to get my resolve. So Mr Bleijie the first lawman of the state I ask
you what have you done and are you going to investigate our son’s case or are
you going to continue to ignore our correspondence in the hope that we might
just disappear one day?
Yours Faithfully
Stephen Protheroe
