Morcombe details trickle out
THE intimate details of how covert police officers created the illusion of a powerful organised crime gang to secure a “complete confession” from Daniel Morcombe’s accused murderer will be unravelled over the next six weeks.
But details began trickling out as the Crown opened its case in Brisbane Supreme Court yesterday, revealing for the first time the careful planning police undertook to catch Brett Peter Cowan.
Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne said a team of covert officers carefully constructed 24 scenarios to convince Mr Cowan that his new friends were deeply entrenched in criminal activity.
Some scenarios enabled him to observe apparent criminal activity, while others allowed him to get involved.
Every scenario reinforced how important “loyalty, respect and honesty” were to the gang.
“The overall object was that he believed he had to demonstrate his trustworthiness for the gang, particularly in light of a big job that was coming up,” Mr Byrne said.
Cowan knew if he could prove his mettle, then he could be part of a “big job” that could net him $100,000.
Mr Byrne told the jury the confession came during a meeting with the “big boss” at a hotel in Perth.
“You will see (Mr Cowan) say – ‘yeah okay no yeah I did it’,” he said.
“I never got to molest him… he panicked, I panicked, I grabbed him around the throat and just before I knew it he was dead.”
Mr Byrne said Mr Cowan took his new-found friends to the Glasshouse Mountains to show them where he dumped the body.
Defence barrister Angus Edwards said the confession was fake, that Mr Cowan had a $100,000 windfall at stake.
Mr Edwards said people made fake confessions in high-profile crimes often, pointed to another person of interest in the case and suggested there were other ways Mr Cowan could have known where Daniel’s remains were.
He asked the jury to pay attention to evidence relating to Douglas Jackway – who had been released from jail a month prior to Daniel’s disappearance after serving eight years for snatching a young boy to rape him.
Mr Edwards said Jackway had a blue car, which witnesses would say they saw near Daniel.