Phillip Graeme Abell and Donna Lee McAvoy show no remorse after being found guilty of murder Gold Co
PHILLIP Graeme Abells icy-blue stare is fixed defiantly on the man behind the camera.
Just moments earlier, those same eyes stared down the sites of a shortened Bentley pump-action shotgun and fired at a police officer.
Blood trickles down his left arm where a police dog latched onto him in bushland near the Pacific Pines Tavern.
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He didn’t make a sound as the dog bit into the flesh of his armpit and crouched silently in the lantana until a police torch picked him out in the darkness.
"You’ve got the wrong guy," he told them.
"I’ve had a couple of drinks and come into the bush."
Abell was marched from the scrub by two police officers who tracked him in the dark for 350m and five long minutes.
Their radios were switched down low as the dog tracked his scent, a heady mix of adrenaline, sweat and alcohol.
Back on the road, Abell’s hands were wrapped in paper to preserve evidence and cuffed behind his back.
The weapon he brandished during the stick-up was dumped into the bush near where he ran off the road.
A few more metres on he dropped a bum-bag full of shotgun cartridges, tore off a brown jacket, a black life vest, gloves and tracksuit pants.
The image of gunman Abell, 41, was yesterday released by the Supreme Court in Brisbane after he and Donna Lee McAvoy, 39, were found guilty of the shooting murder of Coomera detective Sen-Constable Damian Leeding outside the tavern that night.
McAvoy, overweight and wrapped in layers of clothing, trailed Abell as they ran from the tavern moments after the shooting.
The spoils of their 16-minute siege on a quiet Sunday night - $16,000 in coins and notes weighing more than 70kg – was abandoned in the car park.
McAvoy was wrestled onto Pitcairn Rd by two police officers and Abell took his chance to flee.
They said she looked exhausted and complained of struggling for breath with her breasts bandaged down and her torso strapped in a child’s-size life jacket.
CCTV images from the robbery showed Abell pointing the gun at frightened patrons and staff.as they cowered on the ground and behind the bar McAvoy zip-tied the hostage’s hands behind their backs and filled a black sports bag with cash from a safe. Abell threatened he would “shoot to get out’’ if the police turned up.
As the bandits fled with cash and stolen car keys, Sen-Constable Leeding foiled any chance they had at a clean exit by jum-ping a 1.2m high fence, running through a children’s playground and firing three rounds before his Glock pistol jammed.
Abell returned fire with a single blast from the shortened shotgun, striking the detective in the head and face.
The trial exhibits released by Justice James Douglas yesterday included the frantic radio call by detective Sen-Constable Nicole Jackson to police communications.
“Charlie 500 urgent,’’ she said. The communications operator calls her back but gets no response. She tries two more times before warning other police the job was now a ``code 1’. “Shots fired, shots fired. Urgent. Officer down’’ she said.
The exhibits also included 000 calls to police from frightened pub patrons who saw the holdup unfolding but managed to escape.
Another has the chilling conversation between McAvoy and an undercover officer in the cells of Southport’s police watch house.
“I’m looking at a long time,’’ McAvoy told her undercover cellmate, as if it were a badge of honour. ``Pac Pines. Armed robbery.’’
A dazed sounding McAvoy told her cellmate her accomplice opened fire at Sen-Constable Leeding, claiming he was “cornered’’.
“You don’t know what you’re going to do in a situation like that,’’ sheMcAvoy said. “He’s f . . . shot his way out.’’
McAvoy continued: “F… oath mate. Just as we were walking out the f . . . door, didn’t know there were f . . . coppers there and they’re supposed to f . . . announce themselves.’’
Another man told police how he was followed by what police believe was a car without its headlights on. Detectives believe it was getaway driver, Benjamin Ernest Power, 39, and McAvoy’s partner of three yea.
“I just walked into the pub at Pac Pines and it’s being held up.
“There’s guys with guns, everything,’’ he said.
“There’s a car following me with its lights turned off…’’
Earlier, Phillip Graeme Abell refused to stand for a judge and flipped him the bird as a jury yesterday found he and Donna Lee McAvoy guilty of the murder of Gold Coast policeman Damian Leeding.
Detective Senior Constable Leeding, 35, left behind his wife Sonya and two young children, Grace and Hudson, when he was shot in the face at close range as he responded to a Gold Coast tavern robbery in May 2011.
Outside court yesterday, his father-in-law Garry O’Brien could finally utter the words he had been waiting to say: “We’ve got the bastards”.
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It was a reference to a comment from his son-in-law, who before his death told Mr O’Brien “we’re going to get the bastards” as they watched news footage together of escalating armed robberies on the Gold Coast.
“I think I can strongly say on behalf of the family, we can finally say to Damo, Rest In Peace,” Mr O’Brien said.
Sen-Constable Leeding’s mother Julie Waters said her son would be remembered by those who loved him as “a true hero”.
“Damian was doing his job and his life was taken without regard for him or his family,” she said.
It took a jury in the Supreme Court of Brisbane less than three hours to return its verdict, finding Abell and McAvoy guilty of the detective’s shooting murder.
The decision came after a two-week trial and was met with cheers, applause and tears from the packed public gallery in court 11.
A grim-faced and heavily tattooed Abell, 41, and co-offender McAvoy, 39, who sobbed with her face buried in her hands, will be sentenced by Justice James Douglas on Friday with getaway driver Benjamin Ernest Power, 39.
Power pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier this month.
Power, McAvoy’s lover, did not face trial when his plea of guilty to manslaughter was accepted by the Crown earlier this month.
McAvoy and Abell disguised themselves with padding and wore T-shirts over their heads when they raided the Pacific Pines Tavern, tying up terrified hostages and holding a gun to their heads.
They stole $16,048 in coins and notes as Power waited outside the tavern as a lookout, using a two-way radio to alert those inside to the arrival of police.
Sen-Constable Leeding and partner, detective Sen-Constable Nicole Jackson, were the first on the scene and ran to foil their escape.
Grainy CCTV footage showed Abell and McAvoy lugging 70kg worth of stolen coins out a sliding door and down a ramp seconds before the shotgun was fired.
Out of view, the weapon’s muzzle flash lit up the night and felled the detective where he stood.
Sen-Constable Leeding suffered more than 50 injuries to his head and face when the shotgun pellets struck him. He managed to fire three times but missed when his Glock pistol jammed on the fourth. He suffered catastrophic brain injuries and died in the Gold Coast Hospital when his life support was switched off on June 1.
McAvoy and Abell abandoned their sports bag laden with cash and fled into bushland, where they were caught soon after.
Assistant Commissioner Paul Wilson said Sen-Constable Leeding had bravely made a “supreme sacrifice”.
“It’s a reality check as to what police officers do every day in the community,” he said.
``They go to work to protect the public, as the brave Damian Leeding did on that particular night…’’
Police Union president Ian Leavers said the murder was ``outright and callous’’ and denounced Abell’s conduct in court for its ``complete contempt’’.
``As the jury found out, we have a person who callously murdered a young man in the prime of his life and nothing has changed since the 29th of May, 2011,’’ he said.
He said the verdict was right but it would never bring Sen-Constable Leeding back or let him see his children grow up.
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