Murder accused jailed after dodging police

A MAN charged with the murder of Gold Coast teenager Jack Beasley (right) has been jailed for breaching bail.

The man, who is unable to be named due to a court order, was arrested last month hiding in a Logan backyard after dodging authorities for weeks.

The 20-year-old had previously been charged with a string of breaching bail offences after being questioned by border checkpoint cops coming off a train from Sydney prior to its Covid-19 lockdown on June 1.

Victoria was in lockdown at the time and he’s not accused of breaching Covid-19 directions. The man failed to report to authorities from May 15 – the day after he was released from a short jail term for bail breaches.

He appeared in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of bail and contravene a direction. The prosecution dropped 16 charges of breach of bail.

He was sentenced to three months’ jail and will be eligible for parole on November 24.

The man is one of five people charged with the murder of Jack Beasley in Surfers Paradise in December 2019.

His Supreme Court bail on the murder charge was revoked in July.

The Bulletin has reported on his repeated breaches since he was initially released on Supreme Court bail in March 2020.

In November 2020, he was brought before the court and fined after breaching bail on six occasions. The man came to the attention of police after trying to sneak into Queensland from NSW, a Covid-19 hotspot at the time.

In May 2021, he was given a 21-day jail term for breaching curfew.

It triggered a suspended sentence for another breach of bail but he was back in the community on parole on May 14.

In February, he was given 12 months’ probation for failing to report to police after officers found him riding an electric scooter without a helmet in Brisbane’s CBD.

In March this year, the man and his co-accused in the alleged murder had their charges committed to the Supreme Court.