Death of Leanne Holland

Leanne Sarah Holland (1 October 1978 – 23 September 1991) was a 12-year-old girl from Goodna, Queensland, Australia. She lived with her divorced father, and her sister and her sister's live-in boyfriend, Graham Stuart Stafford, a British-born sheet-metal worker, had also moved into the household in June 1991.

On 23 September 1991, the first day of school holidays, Holland left the house at around 9:30 am to walk to a nearby hairdresser, having been alone in the house with Stafford. She was not reported missing until 5:45 pm the following day, after her family assumed she had stayed overnight with friends. Her disappearance raised concern locally given other unsolved disappearances of young people in the area, including Sharron Phillips in May 1986 and Julie-Anne Gallon in August 1990.

Three days after she was last seen, at 1:42 pm, Holland's partially clothed and shoeless body was discovered by two police officers on trail bikes searching bushland on Redbank Plains Road. She had suffered at least ten blows to the head from a blunt instrument, along with burn marks to her lower body that may have been caused by a lighter or cigarette. Her injuries were severe enough that identification required fingerprint analysis, and there were no obvious signs of sexual assault.

On 28 September 1991, based on circumstantial and forensic evidence collected from the family home, Stafford's vehicle, and the crime scene, Stafford was arrested and charged with Holland's murder. Prosecuted by David Bullock, he was convicted on 25 March 1992 of killing Holland with a hammer and sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment. His appeal to the Queensland Court of Appeal was dismissed in August 1992, and the High Court refused special leave to appeal in March 1993.

Stafford continued to seek a pardon. In 1997, a referred appeal was dismissed by a majority of the Court of Appeal, though Justice Tony Fitzgerald dissented, finding the jury had convicted Stafford based on a mistaken version of events and that a new trial was warranted. A pro bono legal team led by academic Paul Wilson, along with investigator Graeme Crowley, examined the case, uncovering a possible sighting of Holland alive after the time Stafford said he last saw her, other unsolved local murders, and potential alternative suspects who had not been interviewed by police. The DNA expert who testified at trial later stated she believed the blood evidence was inadequate to support conviction.

Stafford was released on parole in June 2006 after more than 14 years in custody. Following a further referred appeal, the Queensland Court of Appeal overturned his conviction on 24 December 2009 and recommended a retrial, with the court split on reasoning. On 26 March 2010, the Director of Public Prosecutions determined that a retrial would not be in the public interest. A subsequent police review of the case, completed in November 2012, has not been made public, and Stafford's efforts to access it have continued to be contested by police as of September 2019.