WEAPONS FOUND IN COLD CASE INVESTIGATION
A MAN accused of being an accessory in a Gold Coast cold-case murder has been granted bail on unrelated weapons offences.
John Andrew Hitchen, 66, yesterday faced the Southport Magistrates Court on charges police described as “major firearms offences” linked to weapons found on a property nearby Stanthorpe.
The charges included possession of illegal firearms and failure to secure ammunition properly. Police searched the property west of the Gold Coast as part of follow-up investigations in relation to the Robina murder of Philip Carlyle in April 1997.
Hitchen, a Reedy Creek mechanic, has been charged with accessory after the fact to the murder of the Gold Coast father who died more than 20 years ago.
Defence lawyer for Hitchen, Dan Rogers, told the court the most recent offences have no “connection whatsoever to the principle offence of accessory after the fact ...”
Mr Rogers said the property where the guns were allegedly found was a hunting property where a “large number” of shareholders have an interest. “It is used for leisure and recreational shooting.”
The court heard Hitchen handed himself into the Burleigh Heads police station early yesterday after police raided the property in August.
Officers discovered 11 handguns, two AR15 rifles with full automatic components, three rifle barrels and more than 10,000 bullets at the rural locale.
The weapons were hidden in barrels, buckets and tubing that were then buried underground, police say.
Mr Rogers said he accepted his client was “technically in a show cause position” having being charged with possession of weapons while on bail, but said his weapons licence had been suspended as a condition of his bail for the accessory charge. The court heard the guns discovered had been at the property for some time and there is no allegation Hitchen had purchased weapons since being on bail.
The matter will return to court on November 1 and he has not been required to enter a plea.