Day we got Daniel’s killer

Key moment sticks out in retiring cop’s long career To actually find his shoes and find his remains, which corroborated what Cowan was saying, to me was the greatest times in my career

THE Gold Coast’s most senior cop says Brett Peter Cowan’s confession to the murder of Daniel Morcombe sent “shivers” up his spine.

Former homicide boss Brian Wilkins – who is retiring after four decades – was on a listening device in a Perth unit in August 2011 tuning in to Cowan at a casino nearby.

“When I heard him through the listening devices confess that he had murdered Daniel, I must say that actually sent shivers up my spine,” says the now assistant commissioner.

“It was crazy (when he confessed). To me it was just a great sense of relief. We’ve got him … to actually find his shoes and find his remains, which corroborated what Cowan was saying, to me was the greatest times in my career.”

Speaking to the Bulletin ahead of his retirement this month after 44 years, Mr Wilkins says domestic violence and youth crime will continue to be big issues in the community.

He says domestic violence makes up 40 per cent of police time on the Gold Coast, and 60 per cent in Logan, which he also oversees.

On average, the response time to domestic violence is four hours, he says, adding across the state officers respond to 300 incidents a day.

“It’s an extremely difficult area to work in. The response that we provide, overall to me, is magnificent. Sometimes we don’t get it right, which is extremely unfortunate.”

He expects more victims to come forward, and implores people to not be a bystander to domestic violence.

Mr Wilkins also believes the “wanding” metal detecting trial operating in Gold Coast safe-night precincts to reduce knife crime should be expanded. The trial came off the back of a spate of stabbing deaths, including that of 17year-old Jack Beasley.

“It’s an exceptional power to give to police, but as we can see, the way we manage that, and the way it has been accepted by the community, is phenomenal.

“Knife crime has gone down dramatically in Surfers Paradise. Out of the thousands of people ‘wanded’ there hasn’t been one complaint.

“Obviously, it will be a government decision … but I would like to see it expanded in areas across the light rail networks, for example, (and) other SNP (safe-night precincts). It’s proven its worth.”

Mr Wilkins was sworn in to the police service on March 23, 1979. His first deployment was as a beat cop in Fortitude Valley, where six years earlier the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub was burned to the ground killing 15 people. It was by chance that he became a police officer. He instead had aspirations to become an accountant.

Mr Wilkins, an inaugural student through Keebra Park State High School, says one mate went to the Southport Police Station after school to get an application form to become a cop.

“I said ‘Bring me one … I might throw one in’. So I did.”

He was accepted, so he passed up university to get a job and was in the academy the following year.

For much of his career he spent time as a detective, working in the drug squad, which he later ran. He says he saw the significant shift in the use of heroin to the scourge of ice.

He later headed the homicide squad for five years, during which the murders of Daniel Morcombe and Allison Baden-clay were investigated.

In 2018, he returned to the Gold Coast to oversee the region where he grew up.

For now, Mr Wilkins says he is going to spend some time on his property and join his wife, who also spent 40 years at the QPS, in retirement.