2nd man accused of killing
‘Prime suspect’ to appear at Mason inquest
A SECOND man has been accused of killing Annette Mason, just a day before a “prime suspect” is expected to appear at an inquest into the teenager’s death.
Yesterday, a witness told the inquest a man she knew admitted murdering the Toowoomba girl, who died in 1989.
That man is not the socalled prime suspect Allan David McQueen, but was an associate of his and is now dead, the inquest heard yesterday.
The witness, whose identity is suppressed, said McQueen’s associate admitted sodomising the teenager.
She said the man confessed to killing Mason, too.
“He said he was going to kill me, like he killed her.”
But the witness told Brisbane Coroners Court the man implicated McQueen as well.
“Allan wouldn’t stop hitting her,” the man allegedly told the witness.
The witness said she encountered those two men and two others in an agitated mood at a property around the time Annette was killed.
She said the four men turned up late one night and one said: “We’ve been in a fight. We had to wash our clothes.”
The witness admitted not going to authorities for many years because the man threatened to kill her if she did.
“I was told to shut my mouth.”
Emboldened after the man’s death, she eventually went to police.
“All the time, it was just on my mind.”
There was also argument yesterday about whether McQueen would come to the long-awaited inquest.
“He’s a prime suspect, so what? There’s plenty of other prime suspects,” his barrister, Damian Walsh, said.
On Monday, Kellie-Lee and Kylie Leggart said McQueen told several people that he killed Annette.
State Coroner Terry Ryan said it was “in the public interest” that McQueen attend the inquest. “I’m going to ask he appear in person.”
That did not mean McQueen, so-called former “general” of the notorious prison Angry Gang, would answer questions that might incriminate him.
A lawyer acting for the Mason family welcomed the decision to have McQueen brought to court.
“The Mason family want this man to have to sit before them and face-off in the courtroom, even if he takes privilege and doesn’t answer any questions,” Leanne McDonald of Shine Lawyers said.