Daniel Morcombe's killer sentenced to life in prison

Updated

Brett Peter Cowan has been sentenced to life in jail with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years for the murder of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe.

Cowan was on Thursday found guilty of murder, indecent treatment of a child and interfering with a corpse.

The Morcombe family declined to be present for the sentencing on Friday.

Sentencing Cowan in Brisbane's Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Roslyn Atkinson described his crime as "entirely abhorrent".

"You didn't look like a monster, you didn't look like a paedophile, you looked like an ordinary person," she said.

"You knew if he ran away, you'd be caught. So you killed him. You killed him because you didn't want to get caught.

"Everything you did to that boy is horrific and disgraceful. I've seen no evidence in the months you've been in this court that you ever felt any remorse for what you did.

"You have tragically and pointlessly snuffed out a young life."

Justice Atkinson made it clear she did not believe Cowan should be granted parole when he is eligible, describing him as a "convincing liar".

Cowan was also sentenced to three-and-a-half years for indecent treatment and two years for interfering with a corpse, to be served concurrently.

Cowan abducted Daniel while the 13-year-old waited for a bus at Woombye on the Sunshine Coast in 2003.

Cowan confessed to the crime in a secret recording made by undercover police posing as criminal gang members.

After seven-and-a-half hours of deliberation, the jury accepted the Crown's case that Cowan drove Daniel to secluded bushland in Beerwah before choking him to death and disposing of his remains at an old sandmining site.

Prosecutors sought a longer non-parole period than the minimum 15 years, arguing Cowan had shown no remorse, was an ongoing threat to the community, and had poor prospects of rehabilitation.

Former Supreme Court judge Jim Thomas says Cowan could spend decades behind bars before he is eligible for parole.

"In murder that's one of the very few offences where there is a mandatory sentence, which means life imprisonment," he said.

"But the discretion arises in what life imprisonment means. The usual recognised median I suppose is about 15 years, but often it's well over 20."

Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has issued a statement saying he is reviewing the sentence and seeking advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Queensland Police this morning defended the amount of time it took to catch Cowan.

Former police officer Kenneth King says Cowan was flagged as a very serious suspect years before police mounted the elaborate undercover operation that snared him.

But Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon says the case was very complex.

"We were dealing with things like false admissions by other persons of interest, in fact I must admit I personally don't know how many people admitted to killing Daniel Morcombe," he told a media conference this morning.

Cowan was emotionless when the verdicts were read out to a packed court room on Thursday, simply replying "no" when asked if he had any response.

In contrast, the Morcombe family, including Daniel's twin brother Bradley, burst into tears.

In his victim impact statement to the court, Daniel's father Bruce said he remained haunted by thoughts of how long his son was held captive and what was done to him.

"Ten years ago you made a choice that ripped our family apart. You have robbed [Daniel] of 70 years of life," he told Cowan.

"I often wonder about the other victims you have left in your wake.

"Sitting in the same room as you revolts me."

Daniel's mother Denise said in a statement read out by prosecutor Michael Byrne: "I made a vow to Daniel I would find out where he is and that justice is done.

"This day doesn't bring closure, but the streets are safer."

The criminal history of a serial sex predator

The true extent of Cowan's criminal history can now be revealed.

The second youngest of four brothers, Cowan had a relatively normal upbringing, despite being bullied at school.

At a 2011 coronial inquest into Daniel's disappearance, Cowan admitted he had been abusing children since he was a child of nine or 10 himself.

By the time he was 18, he had preyed on up to 30 children.

Many of them were targeted at a local swimming pool in fleeting encounters in order to avoid detection.

His first conviction for child sexual offences was for an attack on a seven-year-old boy in Queensland in 1987.

While performing community service at a playground, Cowan took the boy into the public toilets and molested him.

After two years on the run, he was arrested and sentenced in 1989 to two years in jail for indecent dealing.

Four years later, while living at a caravan park in Darwin, Cowan attacked again.

A six-year-old boy was looking for his sister, but when he approached Cowan, Cowan took him into bushland and molested him so violently the victim suffered a punctured lung from choking.

Cowan left the boy to die in an old car, before the child staggered into a service station naked, dazed and bleeding.

Cowan initially denied any involvement, at one stage telling detectives: "I hope you catch the bastard."

He confessed only after police told him they had found DNA evidence.

In September 1993, Cowan pleaded guilty to gross indecency, grievous bodily harm and deprivation of liberty, and was sentenced to seven years in jail.

After he was released on parole four years later, Cowan moved to the Sunshine Coast to live with relatives.

Keith Drew, who was Cowan's parole officer, has apologised to the Morcombe family for transferring him to Queensland.

Mr Drew requested that Cowan be transferred to a prison in Queensland because the Territory corrections system did not have a sexual offenders treatment program.

"If we had a sexual offenders treatment program in the Territory at the time ... he might have stayed here and maybe it wouldn't have happened," he said.

In Queensland Cowan became involved in the Christian Outreach Church, through which he met his former wife.

The pair married in 1999, and by December 2003 they were living in Beerwah with their baby son, but Cowan had cut ties with the church and the marriage was strained.

On December 7, 2003, Cowan spotted Daniel Morcombe on the side of the Nambour Connection Road waiting for a bus.

Cowan once looked into the eyes of Daniel's parents and said: "I had nothing to do with Daniel's disappearance, nothing at all."

He told the lie while giving evidence at a coronial inquest into the teenager's disappearance in March 2011.

The guilty verdicts bring to an end the biggest police investigation in Queensland's history and Australia's biggest missing persons case.

Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, brisbane-4000, woombye-4559, qld, australia, maroochydore-4558

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