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Brett Forte inquest live updates: Hearing continues after confronting first day

Updated April 13, 2021 — 4:51pm,first published 10:37am

4.51pm on Apr 13, 2021

Legal arguments resolved, but inquest loses a day

The coronial inquest will not sit on Wednesday, despite having witnesses due to give evidence, because the widow of Senior Constable Brett Forte will spend the day writing a new statement in response to legal action launched mid-inquest by lawyers representing police officers.

State Coroner Terry Ryan allowed Forte’s widow, Susan, to remain in the courtroom after an application to temporarily exclude her was launched by police lawyers.

Brett Forte with his wife, fellow cop Susan.

The police lawyers then made a second application to the Coroner’s Court, requesting that Mrs Forte write a new statement for the inquest and disclose any further concerns or pieces of information she plans to put before Mr Ryan during the inquest’s remaining six days.

Lawyers representing police officers who have testified so far were provoked by the questions put to those officers during cross-examination by Mrs Forte’s lawyer, David Funch.

They described some of Mr Funch’s questions as “ambushing witnesses” because the information or conversations he asked the officers about had not been disclosed in the brief of evidence the lawyers received prior to the inquest, which is designed to help them and their clients prepare.

Mr Ryan agreed, saying it would be “helpful for Mrs Forte to disclose any other matters she wishes to put before me” and “any further evidence she may be in possession of”.

The witnesses due to give evidence tomorrow and the two witnesses who were due to give evidence this afternoon but did not get their chance will now be called to testify on Thursday.

All remaining witnesses will be pushed back.

And with that, the coronial inquest is closed for the day. It will return on Thursday morning.

4.06pm on Apr 13, 2021

Inquest stalls under arguments surrounding officer’s widow

The coronial inquest adjourns again and it’s not known whether there will be any further witnesses called today, despite two more listed to give evidence.

State Coroner Terry Ryan has allowed Senior Constable Brett Forte’s widow, Susan, to stay in the courtroom after an application from police lawyers trying to temporarily exclude her.

However, as soon as he announces his decision, police lawyers launch a second application regarding Mrs Forte and the court adjourns again for further legal deliberations.

The exact details of the second application to the court and the reasons for it are unclear. Brisbane Times is seeking further clarification from the legal counsels involved.

3.40pm on Apr 13, 2021

Susan Forte allowed to stay in courtroom

For more than an hour, legal deliberations are held over the request for Senior Constable Brett Forte’s widow to leave the courtroom while certain applications are made.

Susan Forte, the widow of Senior Constable Brett Forte, outside Toowoomba Court House.Toby Crockford

The application for Susan Forte to be excluded temporarily was made by Troy Schmidt - acting for the SERT police officers who shot Ricky Maddison dead during the siege at his property - and Calvin Gnech - representing numerous police officers set to give evidence.

Mr Gnech says their request was solely for Mrs Forte to be excluded while they make certain applications to the court and after that she can come back in.

“A family member is not treated any differently to any other witness ... She is a witness in these proceedings [but] she has not been called yet,” he says.

David Funch, representing Mrs Forte, says the application is “completely inappropriate”.

“It is not in the interests of Susan Forte to be excluded from her dead husband’s inquest, it is in no way the public interest for the widow of a police officer to be excluded from the coronial, and it is not in the interests of justice,” he says.

State Coroner Terry Ryan refuses the application and allows Mrs Forte to remain in the room.

2.09pm on Apr 13, 2021

Brett Forte’s widow asked to leave courtroom

Senior Constable Brett Forte’s widow, Susan, has been asked to leave the courtroom by another lawyer so an application can be made.

There was no notice provided of the request for Mrs Forte to leave the courtroom and there has been no information given regarding what the application is that is going to be made to the court.

Susan Forte leaving the Toowoomba Courthouse this afternoon.Toby Crockford

Mrs Forte’s lawyer, David Funch, asked for an adjournment to view the request being made for his client to leave the courtroom.

“I was not given any notice, quite deliberately it would seem … I would like an opportunity to consider the merits of the application … this is professionally discourteous,” he says.

The court has adjourned.

12.36pm on Apr 13, 2021

‘I’m in the B-Team, we get told zip’: Forte’s text message to wife

A text message Senior Constable Brett Forte sent to his wife, fellow police officer Susan, when she asked how the manhunt for Ricky Maddison was going has been revealed.

“Who knows, I’m in the B-Team, we get told zip,” Senior Constable Forte wrote to his wife.

David Funch, representing the widow, says the text message was sent a few days before Maddison gunned down Senior Constable Forte during the police pursuit.

Mr Funch asks witness Senior Constable Andre Thaler, who worked at Toowoomba police station with Senior Constable Forte at the time, what he meant in the text message.

12.20pm on Apr 13, 2021

Officers had rifle on search because they feared Maddison was dangerous

A police officer who had a confrontation with Ricky Maddison’s friend and hiked past Maddison’s hideout says he knew “there was some sort of criminal activity going on” after reading previous reports from residents of automatic gunfire in the area.

In continuing his testimony, Senior Constable Andre Thaler says after his concerning discoveries and confrontation with Adam Byatt on May 18, he read the reports about automatic gunfire from the vicinity of Wallers Road in the previous weeks.

“To me, from that point on, it was pretty obvious there was some sort of criminal activity going on at that place,” he says.

On May 25, 2017, Senior Constable Thaler was driving around Lockyer Valley State Forest National Park with a police colleague, searching for Maddison.

They were carrying a rifle and Senior Constable Thaler says he told his partner about the recent reports of automatic gunfire in the area.

David Funch, representing Senior Constable Brett Forte’s widow Susan, probes Senior Constable Thaler’s story.

“Did you take the rifle because you knew he [Maddison] was dangerous and you knew he needed a rifle?” Mr Funch asks.

“Yes,” Senior Constable Thaler replies.

“You had connected the reports of automatic gunfire and the search for Maddison?” Mr Funch asks.

“No ... We were probably a week away [from making that connection],” Senior Constable Thaler says.

11.40am on Apr 13, 2021

‘If I go missing, FYI’: Off-duty cop’s encounter at gunman’s hideout

An off-duty police officer who went hiking near Ricky Maddison’s hideout wrote an intelligence report in the police system after noticing suspicious things about the property.

Senior Constable Andre Thaler went for a bushwalk in national park, which he accessed through Wallers Road, on May 18, fewer than two weeks before Senior Constable Brett Forte’s death.

Ricky Maddison was wanted for questioning when he killed Senior Constable Brett Forte.Seven News

Wallers Road was where Maddison’s hideout was, but police did not know that, and the property was owned by the family of Maddison’s friend Adam Byatt, who testified earlier today.

Senior Constable Thaler recounts to the inquest the conversation he had with Mr Byatt on Wallers Road as he walked to access the national park. It is not known why Mr Byatt was there that day.

“I heard this vehicle coming up the track and I saw the guy [who had been watching me before]. He pulled up next to me ... from the off he was pretty confrontational,” Senior Constable Thaler says.

“He asked me what I was doing and I said I was out walking. Then he said: ‘See this land here [indicating Maddison’s hideout], make sure you don’t go on it.’

“I let him go a bit. Then I asked him what his issue was and why he was following me. He said something along the lines of: ‘You might want to be careful getting through here, there’s hillbillies up in these hills ... I wouldn’t want to see anything happen to you.’

“As I walked past the property [that Mr Byatt indicated he/his family owned], there was a sign on the gate that read: ‘Smile, you’re on camera, trespassers will be prosecuted’.”

Senior Constable Thaler says he created a report in the police system that night and wanted to leave it for his police colleagues to find.

“I thought: ‘If I go missing, FYI’.”

10.41am on Apr 13, 2021

‘No, I’m not a criminal’: Gunman’s shooting friend testifies

A friend of gunman Ricky Maddison tells the inquest he never saw him with automatic guns when they went shooting together about 100 times.

Adam Byatt says he knew Maddison “had a short list of criminal history and he served very little jail time for it”.

Mr Byatt was charged with drug trafficking 20 years ago, which he described as “a stupid teenage decision”, but denied he was “a criminal” when asked by one lawyer.

Regarding his time on the shooting range with Maddison, Mr Byatt says Maddison “never used any automatic weapons in front of me”.

Mr Byatt says he never heard automatic gunfire when he was at or near Maddison’s property.

He admits he bought Maddison a mobile phone and registered it in his own name, but denies he was trying to cover up criminal activity or deceive police.

“He [Maddison] was a proud man and he was broke, so I provided him with a phone [in my name],” he tells the inquest.

10.38am on Apr 13, 2021

Inquest sees video of Brett Forte’s final moments, hears gunman’s rants

It was a confronting first day of the coronial inquest.

Raw footage from the dashcam in Senior Constable Brett Forte’s police vehicle the day he chased wanted man Ricky Maddison and was ambushed on a dirt road was shown in the courtroom.

Thousands of mourners farewelled slain police officer Senior Constable Brett Forte at his funeral in Toowoomba.

It included the moment Maddison unleashed a hail of gunfire on Senior Constable Forte’s police vehicle and the moment Senior Constable Forte, despite being mortally wounded, reversed his car away from danger, before it rolled.

An audio recording of the phone call Maddison made to the Toowoomba police station that day was also played in full.

It included Maddison’s rants and misconduct allegations against police and Legal Aid lawyers, as well as one of his final statements: “Go f--- yourself you c---sucker, come and get me.”

10.37am on Apr 13, 2021

Day two under way, with five witnesses to come

The coronial inquest continues into the deaths of Queensland police officer Senior Constable Brett Forte and his killer, Ricky Maddison, on May 29 and May 30, 2017.

A summary of yesterday’s evidence can be found here, and the full details of yesterday’s testimonies were reported in our day one blog.

Five witnesses are due to testify on Tuesday.

These include civilian Adam Byatt, Gatton police officer-in-charge Sergeant Shane Fitzpatrick, Darling Downs Tactical Crime Squad Senior Constable Andre Thaler, as well as two other Gatton officers — Senior Sergeant Rowland Browne and Senior Constable Brad Smart.