‘He didn’t deserve to stay’: Australia deports notorious British murderer of teenager
Killing ‘one of the most vicious murders Queensland has ever seen’, home affairs minister says
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A British man jailed for the brutal murder and decapitation of a homeless teenager in Australia has been deported back to the UK after serving 15 years of a life sentence.
Christopher Clark Jones, 36, was convicted in 2007 of killing 17-year-old Morgan Shepherd, in what Australia’s home affairs minister described as “one of the most vicious murders Queensland has ever seen”.
In a trial that shocked the nation, a court heard that the teenager was attacked during a drunken argument at a Brisbane home by Jones and a mutual friend, James Roughan.
He was stabbed 133 times, before his head was cut off. His body was found in a shallow grave in bushland days later in April 2005, with his severed head left on a nearby tree stump.
Witnesses told Brisbane’s Supreme Court that they heard the two men casually brag about the murder at a gathering.
“Chris and this fellow got into a wrestle and Chris said he stomped on him a bit and then grabbed a knife from the kitchen, stabbed him in the back, stabbed him a few times and then gave the knife to James and James stabbed him a few times,” one witness told the court.
“James cut the head and Chris pulled it off. James was nodding … [and] had a little smirk on his face. Chris was making a joke of the situation.”
Jones claimed to police that Roughan – a nephew of infamous New South Wales abattoir worker Katherine Knight who murdered her partner – had threatened to kill him if he told anyone.
Jones was released on parole earlier this month and was removed from Australia this week on a private jet chartered by the Australian Border Force (ABF), along with seven other males deported back to Britain.
Had he remained in Australia, he would have been on parole for life, which would have involved regular surveillance from police. Now he will only be placed on an offenders register in the UK, according to Australian media reports.
With Jones having never applied for Australian citizenship after moving there as a child, his visa was cancelled before his parole by home affairs minister Peter Dutton, on character grounds.
Mr Dutton told Australia’s Channel Nine the killing was “one of the most vicious murders Queensland has ever seen”, adding: “As a UK citizen, he didn’t deserve to stay in our country.”
“This particularly abhorrent case is one that shocked the Queensland community when it occurred,” Dean Church, ABF acting commander for enforcement command, said in a statement.
“Non-citizens who commit crimes have no right to remain in Australia, and will be removed from the country as soon as possible.
“The Australian government is responsible for protecting the community from the risk of harm arising from foreign nationals who choose to engage in criminal activity, and as such Mr Jones’ visa was cancelled under [section] 501 of the Migration Act.”
However, Queensland Homicide Victims’ Support Group CEO, Brett Thompson, said his deportation is of little comfort for the victim’s family.
“The fact that the minimum non-parole period for people convicted of murder changed from 15 years to 20 years in 2012 speaks volumes of how at that time sentencing didn’t meet community expectations,” Mr Thompson told the Australian Associated Press.
“In the minds of many, it still doesn’t in 2020.”
Additional reporting by PA