Moments of Daniel Morcombe's young life were celebrated in this touching tribute, chosen by family to be shown at his funeral service.
Daniel Morcombe was abducted and murdered in December 2003. Source: News Limited
BRETT Peter Cowan, 44, is guilty of the murder of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe.
He is still awaiting sentencing after Justice Roslyn Atkinson adjourned the court following submissions from the prosecution and defence and hearing victim impact statements from the Morcombe family.
Outside court, Bruce and Denise Morcombe thanked everyone who involved in the case.
Denise Morcombe said: "It's a good result."
Bruce Morcombe said outside court that compelling evidence led to Mr Cowan being found guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
"We have to thank certainly all the covert police officers, the SES searchers, the scientific experts who all contributed to making sure that a sex offender, a murderous sex offender was caught and exposed for his actions,'' he said.
Denise Morcombe stood beside her husband before an overwhelming media pack.
"On behalf of our entire family, we would like to thank everybody for assisting us in the search for Daniel and for never forgetting Daniel, all the media, all the SES, all the police, all the public, the whole community,'' she said.
"Thanks very much to everyone.
"Daniel's legacy will continue with the Daniel Morcombe foundation, keeping kids safe. Thank you guys and it's a good result.''
Earlier, the jury of six men and six women retired at 12.13pm on Wednesday and returned at 1.12pm Thursday with its verdict, finding the accused guilty on all three counts: murder, indecent treatment and misconduct with a corpse on December 7, 2003.
The panel deliberated for a total of seven and a half hours.
DARK PAST: WHAT THE JURY WASN'T TOLD ABOUT BRETT COWAN
Earlier, Crown Prosecutor Michael Byrne QC said Cowan would face a penalty of life in prison for murder with parole eligibility after 15 years.
He said Justice Atkinson had discretion to set parole beyond 15 years and this was an appropriate matter in which to do so.
"I can say in my sentencing remarks things about his capacity to lie and to appear to be one thing when he's entirely another and about the kind of certainty that would have to be attended on any appearance for rehabilitation given his history and the way in which he has behaved,'' Justice Atkinson said.
Mr Byrne said a sentence of life imprisonment with parole eligibility set at 15 years was a mandatory minimum sentence and did not stop the court from imposing a higher sentence.
He said while it was tempting to suggest what Brett Cowan did was "every parent's worst nightmare'' but it was much more than that.
He said Cowan's prior offending only underlined his ``dangerousness, both in the past and one must assume the future''.
"He has shown no real remorse whatsoever, he has denied responsibility for these offences for years,'' he said.
Mr Byrne said it took years of perseverance by Queensland police who engaged in a sophisticated and detailed undercover operation.
"It is doubtful he would have ever been caught had they not done so,'' he said.
He said Cowan provided detailed, graphic details of how the offences were committed.
He said the ``matter of fact manner'' he confessed in was ``chilling and gives considerable insight into his true character, lack of remorse and poor or negligible prospects of rehabilitation''.
Mr Byrne said Cowan continued after this brutal offence ``as though nothing had happened''.
He accused Cowan of employing a ``cynical defence'', adding it was a case of ``one sexual offender targeting another''.
"He has no real remorse, is an ongoing danger to the community and has remarkable poor prospects of rehabilitation,'' Mr Byrne said.
Brett Peter Cowan was found guilty of murdering Daniel Morcombe. Source: Supplied
WHAT THE MORCOMBES TOLD KILLER BRETT COWAN
Daniel's father Bruce Morcombe read a victim impact statement to the court.
"Ten years ago you made a choice that ripped our family apart,'' he said.
He said he had been left with the unbearable images of what might have happened to his son.
"Why was he really dumped without clothes? Why was his belt loose and not still looped through his pants? It makes me nauseous for your total lack of respect for a child's life.''
"He was a great kid and would not hurt a fly, you have robbed him of 70 years of life,'' he told Cowan.
He said the family could not sleep that first night Daniel went missing, feeling helpless.
"Nothing about my life today resembles how we enjoy our lives today … we are no longer the same people,'' he said.
Mr Morcombe said the family had to sell its business, moved from their home and could not return to their regular employment.
"You picked on the wrong family, our collective determination to find Daniel and expose a child killer was always going to win,'' he said.
"I often wonder about the other victims that you have left in your wake,'' he said.
"I have sat watching you in the same court for close to 40 days. throughout that time you have been completely devoid of any remorse than what you did to Daniel.
"Sitting in the same room as you revolts me. How you sit there day after day almost frozen in the one position is chilling,'' he said.
``Predators like you cannot be rehabilitated.''
He called him a ``perverted, cold-blooded child-killing'' paedophile.
The public gallery applauded as he returned to his seat.
Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne read out a victim impact statement from Denise Morcombe.
``For years I haven't slept more than three hours at a time, I have lived and breathed each day to find the answers,'' she said.
``I see my son lying by himself in that dark eerie bushland being devoured by wild animals … you Mr Cowan, have no respect for human life.''
He said Daniel wanted to be a vet and was scared of the dark.
She said Cowan's actions had destroyed her family.
``We all know one person is not there and we will never recover from that,'' she said.
``Mr Cowan I saw you smiling with your son … and wife … you had a smirk like nothing had happened, a happy family snap, meanwhile my family was living in hell searching for a son who was dead.''
He said Ms Morcombe hoped Cowan had ``a lonely life''.
``Your mistake was you picked on Daniel to release your animalistic perverted needs,'' he said.
``That was your mistake you evil, evil unhuman thing.''
Denise and Bruce Morcombe with sons Bradley and Dean arrive at Brisbane Supreme Court to hear the verdict in the Daniel Morcombe murder trial Source: News Corp Australia
Daniel's older brother Dean Morcombe read a victim statement to the court.
``Daniel is my brother and you have robbed him of a life he would love to have lived,'' he said.
``When Daniel didn't come home on the seventh all those years ago, right from the start we knew this was out of character.''
Dean said December 19, 2003 would have been Daniel's 14th birthday.
He said Christmas a week later was ``nothing short of painful''.
``Seeing the anger and pain impacting my parents, putting immeasurable pressure on their marriage and not knowing if he was alive … or dead and we should move on,'' he said.
He said it was unbearable to walk to the place where Daniel's body was left.
``Your complete lack of remorse for killing him is worse,'' he said.
``I'm glad you have been exposed for the murdering sexual predator you are, Rest In Peace Daniel.''
Mr Byrne said Brett Peter Cowan, aka Shaddo N-unyah Hunter, was born on 18 September, 1969 and was aged 34 at the time he murdered Daniel Morcombe.
He said he had been in custody since his arrest on August 13, 2011, a total of 944 days.
He said Cowan had previous history in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Justice Roslyn Atkinson said it was reassuring the jury convicted Cowan on the evidence and not on any prejudice against him ``that anyone would feel knowing his criminal history''.
``That really shows the criminal justice system working at its finest,'' she said.
Mr Byrne said Cowan was first convicted in Queensland of break and enter and unlawful use of a motor vehicle as a 17-year-old in April, 1987.
He was unremarkably dealt with given it was a first offence, given two years probation, fined and ordered to pay restitution.
He said Cowan committed stealing under false pretences offences a month later.
He said in September 1987 he was dealt with for property offences that breached his probation order.
SPECIAL 16-PAGE LIFTOUT IN FRIDAY'S PRINT EDITION OF THE COURIER-MAIL
He said March of 1989 was the first occasion when Cowan was jailed.
He said Cowan was convicted in the Brisbane District Court of indecent dealing with a boy that ``holds some eerie similarities to the current matter''.
He said the child was aged seven when he was indecently dealt with in December, 1987.
Daniel Morcombe was abducted and murdered by Brett Cowan in 2003. Source: Supplied
``He was coerced into a toilet by the prisoner who was performing some form of labouring work in a park, public access type area,'' he said.
``The child testified and this was after trial, to the effect he was grabbed by the hand and given no option but to go in the toilet.''
Mr Byrne said the child was indecently dealt with in the toilet block by Cowan, who was 18 at the time.
``An eerie premonition of what would occur later,'' he said.
He said Cowan was convicted of unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm, an aggravated act of gross indecency and deprivation of liberty in the Darwin Supreme Court on March 18, 1994.
He said Cowan pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years jail with a non-parole period of three-years and six months.
He said Cowan was apprehended on the 27th of September, 1993, the day of or day after the offence took place.
Mr Byrne said the child was six-years-old and living in a caravan park in Darwin near the prisoner.
He said the child was dressed in a pair of underpants one night when he was approached by the defendant in the van park.
``The defendant asked the child if he wanted to go for a walk to get a piece of an old car that was abandoned in some bushland,'' Mr Byrne said.
He said Cowan took the child to a bush track, even placing him on his shoulders.
``He placed the child on an upturned vehicle wreck, he then pulled the child's underpants down leaving him naked…,'' he said.
Mr Byrne told the court Cowan masturbated himself in front of the child and dealt with him indecently.
He said Cowan carried the boy another 300m away to another two abandoned cars in the bush.
``It seems likely the child suffered injuries at the time when he abandoned the child … by dumping him inside the motor vehicles,'' Mr Byrne said.
He said the child was found an hour later, staggering to a nearby service station ``naked, dazed and distressed''.
He said Cowan was convicted of possession of a dangerous drug in 1992 and sentenced to jail, along with other property offences.
He said Cowan was sentenced to jail for house breaking and stealing in 1997.
Mr Byrne said Cowan was dealt with for stealing as a servant while living in Moranbah.
Cowan, who changed his name to Shaddo N-unyah Hunter, remained motionless in the prisoner's dock of court 11 in the Brisbane Supreme Court when the verdict was announced.
He pleaded not guilty before Justice Roslyn Atkinson at the opening of the trial on February 10.
Bruce and Denise Morcombe and their sons Bradley and Dean held one another's hands in the packed public gallery as the jury filed in and uttered the words: "guilty''.
Daniel Morcombe in the T shirt he was wearing when he went missing in December 2003. His remains were found eight years later. Source: Supplied
DANIEL'S STORY IN PICTURES
Moments earlier, jurors lined up across one side of the court as they were asked by the judge's associate: ``Do you find the defendant Brett Peter Cowan, also known as Shaddo N-unyah Hunter, guilty or not guilty of murder?''
It was standing room only in the court for the verdict, despite it being broadcast live to another courtroom.
Justice Atkinson thanked the jury.
"Can I thank you very much for the service you have performed in this trial, you have performed a great service not only for the purposes of this trial but really to the people of Queensland,'' she said.
"You brought to an end to this terrible case, you considered all the evidence, you have considered your verdict very carefully.''
In the wake of the verdict, the Daniel Morcombe Foundation said compelling evidence had proven beyond reasonable doubt Cowan's guilt.
"Thanks largely to the covert police involved and SES searchers plus scientific experts, a child killer has been exposed.
"On behalf of our entire family we thank everyone who has contributed to finding the answers and especially for never forgetting Daniel.
Crown Prosecutor Michael Byrne QC arrives at court for the trial of Brett Cowan. Source: News Limited
Defence counsel Angus Edwards at court. Source: News Corp Australia
Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon said he was "very happy" with the verdict following what had been a "lengthy, complex and very protracted" investigation.
Speaking to the media outside court, he praised the "many, many people" who phoned in pieces of information that eventually formed the "jigsaw".
He said police who worked on the case were a credit to the community.
"I'd also like I acknowledge all law enforcement agencies across Australia and also international agencies that have assisted during the course of the investigation," he said.
"I'd also like to thank the brave and courageous people of the SES. They did a fantastic job in assisting us right from day one and most recently in the examination of what was a very difficult crime scene that was infested with snakes, rats and rodent animals."
He thanked the community and some 15,000 people who contacted crime stoppers.
He also praised the Morcombe family.
"Finally I'd like to thank the Morcombe family for their patience, their belief and ongoing belief in the investigators and our thoughts are with them right at this moment," he said.
"I'm sure they will be happy with the events of today, although their journey is not over."
The decision is the culmination of a five-week trial, where 116 witnesses gave evidence and more than 200 exhibits were tendered, but comes more than a decade after the teenager went missing as he waited for a bus beneath the Kiel Mountain Rd overpass at Woombye.
Daniel's long unsolved disappearance struck fear into the hearts of Queensland parents and captured the public imagine as no other missing persons case before it had, culminating in the largest ever police investigation of its kind in the state.
But the trial was the first time those outside a sophisticated undercover police operation heard of the lengths Queensland police went to in order to catch Daniel's killer.
Cowan was lured into a powerful crime gang through initiation and gradual involvement in a series of fake crime scenarios that were as wide and varied as gun-running, pimping, debt collecting and dealing in illegal crayfish.
Undercover police from Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria assumed identities in the crime organisation and paid Cowan for his work over four-months, promising him the spoils from an upcoming ``big job'' that would earn him $100,000 for his part.
But Cowan's ``dream'' was almost derailed when a so-called corrupt police officer called Craig told the gang about a fresh subpoena that was to be issued for the accused to testify a second time at the continued inquest into Daniel's disappearance.
Cowan was cross-examined over two days at the first (and only) inquest, before getting on a plane to Perth and meeting an undercover police officer from Queensland called Joe Emery on April 1, 2011.
LANGUAGE WARNING: See the interview in which police allege Cowan confessed to the murder of Daniel Morcombe.
Joe Emery became Cowan's first contact with the crime gang in Perth, introducing him to the man who would become his closest confidante, Paul ``Fitzy'' Fitzsimmons.
Revelations of Cowan's involvement in the Daniel Morcombe investigation was a problem for the gang and he was hauled before the Big Boss, Arnold, to see if it could be ``fixed''.
The secretly-recorded video footage from the Swan River Room in Perth's Hyatt Hotel captures the moment Cowan tells Arnold: ``Yeah, okay, you know, yeah, I did it.''
Days later he returns to Brisbane with undercover police posing as henchmen for Arnold and leads them to the place where he confessed to dumping Daniel's body, an isolated macadamia farm and a sandmining site off Kings Rd at the Glass House Mountains.
Cowan was arrested by Queensland detectives after being sprung at the bush site along with undercover officers on August 13, 2011.
Queensland police and SES volunteers began searching bushland for Daniel's remains in the area where Cowan told undercover officers he left the body.
On the fourth day, August 17, 2011, a right Globe-brand shoe was found.
It was followed by the discovery of a second shoe on August 20. Then slowly, over the next few weeks, some 17 bone fragments and clothing identified as belonging to Daniel was unearthed from the mud of the sandmining site and the waters of Coochin Creek.
Crown prosecutor Michael Byrne QC told the jury Cowan the confessional evidence was designed to elicit a ``truthful and honest'' confession.
``Our submission to you is these confessions are a very powerful aspect of the evidence in this trial,'' he told the jury in his closing address.
``They are so powerful that they overcome any lingering questions you may have about the descriptions of the male at the overpass near 2.15pm and what I've submitted is the red herring of the blue car…''
Mr Byrne said Cowan killed Daniel when the boy tried to escape his clutches as he began to pull down his pants in the demountable building at the macadamia farm.
He said Cowan applied a chokehold to Daniel's neck before he ``immediately and callously'' disposed of the body.
``In that context we suggest he panicked and he deliberately killed him as an act of self-preservation,'' he said.
Mr Byrne told the jury it was the Crown's case that Cowan killed Daniel Morcombe in circumstances where he either intended to kill him, or at least did so while carrying out the unlawful purpose of indecently treating him: ``That is, he murdered him.''
Barrister Angus Edwards, for Cowan and instructed by Bosscher Lawyers, argued the confession was ``demonstrably false''.
He said the accused was offered powerful inducements to make a false confession and stood to lose everything if he was booted from the crime gang.
``They were about to cut him loose and all he had to do to make millions of dollars was tell a lie, a convincing lie,'' he said.
Mr Edwards argued Cowan told undercover police ``what they wanted to hear''.
``Just like the police pretended to be crooks, he pretended to be a person who killed Daniel Morcombe,'' he said.
He argued Cowan used information that had been circulated by the media since Daniel's disappearance to construct his story, as well as information allegedly passed on to him through a man called Les McLean as to where the bones and clothes were.
Mr Edwards asked the jury to draw a ``rational, logical inference'' that convicted child sex offender Douglas Brian Jackway had passed on the information to Mr McLean.
Both Mr McLean and Jackway denied any involvement in such a sequence of events when they testified at the trial, however.
In her summing up, Justice Atkinson told the jury the prosecution had to discharge its burden of proving the guilt of the defendant by proving it beyond reasonable doubt.
She asked the jury to dismiss all feelings of sympathy or prejudice.
``As I have emphasised to you, you must approach your duty dispassionately, deciding the facts upon the whole of the evidence,'' she said.
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