Twelve-year-old Leanne Holland was the youngest of three siblings living with her divorced father in a modest home on Alice Street, Goodna, a suburb west of Brisbane, Australia. Her sister’s boyfriend, Graham Stuart Stafford, a twenty-eight-year-old British-born sheet-metal worker, had been living with them since June 1991. On September 23rd, 1991, the first day of school holidays, Leanne was last seen alive around nine thirty a.m. She reportedly left the house to walk to a nearby hairdresser, but she never arrived.
Three days later, on September 26th, two police officers on trail bikes discovered Leanne’s partially clothed and shoeless body in bushland along Redbank Plains Road, not far from her home. The scene was horrific: Leanne had suffered at least ten blows to the head with a blunt instrument, likely a hammer, and her lower body bore burn marks, possibly from a lighter or cigarette. The severity of her injuries required identification through fingerprints, as her face was unrecognizable. There were no clear signs of sexual assault, but the brutality of the attack stunned the community.
Suspicion quickly fell on Graham Stafford, the last person known to have seen Leanne alive. Police alleged that Stafford and Leanne were alone together in the house that morning, where he reportedly helped her dye her hair. Based on circumstantial and forensic evidence, including small amounts of blood found in the house and Stafford’s car, a strand of hair similar to Leanne’s, and a maggot in the car matching those on her body, Stafford was arrested on September 28th, 1991. Tire tracks near the crime scene were also linked to his Holden Gemini.
In March 1992, after a trial prosecuted by David Bullock, Stafford was convicted of Leanne’s murder and sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. The prosecution argued that Stafford killed Leanne in the bathroom and dumped her body. However, the evidence was largely circumstantial, and Stafford maintained his innocence, claiming Leanne never returned from her errand.
Stafford’s conviction faced scrutiny almost immediately. His 1992 appeal to the Queensland Court of Appeal was dismissed, as was a 1993 request to the High Court. However, questions persisted. A possible sighting of Leanne alive the day after Stafford claimed to have last seen her raised doubts about the timeline. Additionally, two potential suspects were never interviewed by police, including Sean Peter McPhedran, an eighteen-year-old schizophrenic resident of a nearby caravan park, who was later convicted of murdering another twelve-year-old girl, Julie-Ann Lowe, in October 1991.
The DNA expert from the trial, Angela van Daal, later stated that the blood evidence was insufficient for a conviction. Furthermore, Stafford’s legal team argued that the small amounts of blood found were inconsistent with the violent nature of the crime, and no significant blood was found in the car’s trunk, where Leanne’s body would have been transported.
In 2005, former police officer turned private investigator Graeme Crowley, along with co-author Paul Wilson, published Who Killed Leanne?, a book questioning the conviction. The case gained further attention through an ABC Australian Story feature in 2007. After serving over fourteen years, Stafford was released on parole in June 2006, facing a deportation hearing due to his British citizenship. In April 2008, he petitioned for a pardon, and in December 2009, the Queensland Court of Appeal quashed his conviction in a 2-1 decision, ordering a retrial. However, in 2014, Queensland’s Director of Public Prosecutions announced that no retrial would occur, citing time served and public interest.
The case took another turn with a 2010–2012 Queensland Police Service (QPS) review, known as Operation Ice Tradesman, which included advanced forensic testing at the Goodna house. The review reportedly confirmed Stafford’s probable involvement, but the 300-page report was never made public. In 2017, Channel 7’s Murder Uncovered obtained parts of the report, which were shown to Stafford and his lawyers, but he was denied full access.
Alternative theories have emerged. A 2017 police announcement named Raymond Peter Mulvihill, a deceased taxi driver, as a suspect in the 1985 disappearance of Sharron Phillips and suggested he may have been linked to Leanne’s murder and that of Julie-Ann Gallon in 1990. Mulvihill’s son, Ian, claimed his father confessed to multiple murders on his deathbed. However, police dismissed Mulvihill as a serial killer, and no charges were filed.
Disturbingly, allegations of police misconduct surfaced. The 2009 Crime and Misconduct Commission report, Dangerous Liaisons, detailed improper conduct by Detective Sergeant Graham Richards, the arresting officer in Stafford’s case. Richards was linked to a convicted criminal who was present at the crime scene and later claimed his father confessed to Leanne’s murder. These claims were never fully investigated.
Leanne’s murder remains unsolved, with no one held accountable since Stafford’s conviction was overturned. A park in Goodna commemorates her life, but the lack of a coronial inquest has frustrated advocates like Graeme Crowley and radio personality Greg Cary, who have pushed for transparency. In 2024, Queensland Police expressed support for a coronial inquiry, raising hopes for new answers.
Crime Immemorial 