Sadistic killer who decapitated teen victim is deported to Britain
The killer on his way to Britain: Sadistic murderer who decapitated teen with an axe and used his head as a bowling ball is deported from Australia despite not having lived here since he was a child
- Christopher Clark Jones, 36, was sentenced to life in prison for murder in 2005
- Found guilty of murdering 17-year-old homeless teenager Morgan Jay Shepherd
- Jones and his co-accused James Patrick Roughan stabbed Morgan 133 times
- They cut off his head and used it as a bowling ball and a puppet, witnesses said
- After serving 15 years in prison Jones was released on Monday and sent to UK
Published: 02:58 EDT, 18 June 2020 | Updated: 03:14 EDT, 18 June 2020
A sadistic killer who stabbed his teenage victim 133 times before cutting off his head and using it as a bowling ball is expected to arrive back in Britain today after Australia deported him.
Christopher Clark Jones, 36, was jailed for life after murdering 17-year-old homeless teenager Morgan Jay Shepherd at Sandgate, north of Brisbane, in 2005.
But Jones only served 15 years of that sentence and was released on parole earlier this month, before being kicked out of Australia and sent back to the UK on Monday.
Jones – who is expected to land at an airport in London today – was born in Tyneside and moved to Australia as a child. He lived in Sandgate with his parents and infant daughter at the time of the killing.
However, he never took up Australian citizenship and has now had his visa cancelled because he is ‘considered to not be of good character’.
Christopher Clark Jones was put on to a private jet on Monday by the Australian Border Force
Morgan Jay Shepherd (pictured) was murdered by Jones and James Patrick Roughan in 2005
Jones is taken onto a plane by Australian Border Office officials on Monday to be deported
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cancelled Jones’ visa on character grounds before he was eligible for parole, The Courier Mail reported.
Mr Dutton said it was one of the most ‘abhorrent crimes’ in Queensland’s history and that there was no place in Australia for foreigners who murder locals.
British convicts deported from Australia after visas cancelled
Christopher Clark Jones was booted from Australia and sent back to the UK on Monday.
He never took up Australian citizenship and has now had his visa cancelled because he is ‘considered to not be of good character’.
All Brits need a visa before they visit Australia, and after four years in the country you can apply to become a citizen.
Jones return is one of a string of cases where Australia has sent back British criminals.
In 2005, 66-year-old Robert Excell returned after spending 37 years in jail in Australia for a string of child sex convictions.
Then in March 2008 prolific paedophile Raymond Horne, 61, was deported from Australia, where he had lived for more than 50 years.
In 2018 Arthur Greer was deported to the UK after he was granted parole from an Australian prison after serving 25 years for the murder of 14-year-old Sharon Lee Mason in Western Australia in 1992.
He moved to Australia in the 1960s and was deported It was suspected that Greer, who was originally from Belfast, killed the girl and then dismembered her body in the bathroom at the rear of the shop.
Her body parts were put into plastic bags and buried under the garden shed.
Prosecutors argued during his trial that Greer had buried the teenager’s body by pulling up the floor of a shed in his back yard and digging a deep grave. Convicted, despite his plea of innocence, he was jailed for life in 1994.
His visa permitting him to stay in Australia was revoked while he served his prison sentence.
Jones was put on to a private jet on Monday by the Australian Border Force as security contractors took him to London.
Video shows the killer removing a black cap and holding it toward the camera as he was escorted to the private jet, apparently trying to hide his identity.
ABF acting Commander for Enforcement Command Dean Church described the crimes he committed in 2005 as ‘particularly abhorrent’.
‘Non-citizens who commit crimes have no right to remain in Australia and will be removed from the country as soon as possible,’ he said.
The judge who presided over the trial said the teenager’s murder was the worst case she had ever heard.
Jones had been drinking at a house rented by his co-accused James Patrick Roughan on March 29, 2005, when they got into a drunken argument with the teenager.
Morgan was living at a Brisbane youth hostel at the time and was drinking with the two older men the night he was killed.
The 17-year-old was stabbed repeatedly and was decapitated with an axe before the pair used the head as a bowling ball and a puppet.
Witnesses said the men bragged about the murder and put the victim’s head on a pawpaw tree stump.
Another friend was tricked into helping dispose of the body under the guise of selling furniture.
He only realised it was a dead body after he got out of the car and saw two legs hanging from the boot.
The 17-year-old’s headless body was found in a shallow grave in bushland at Dayboro in April 2005.
He had been wrapped in carpet, while his head was placed in a plastic shopping bag.
After burying the body the men threw their shovels off a bridge on the way home.
An anonymous tip-off days led police to the body. They also found a woodsaw, carpet and bloodstained clothes at the home where Mr Shepherd was murdered.
While neither man admitted to killing Morgan, a witness testified that Jones bragged about his crime.
‘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,’ the witness told the Supreme Court in 2007.
Morgan Jay Shepherd, 17, was stabbed repeatedly and had his head cut off with an axe before the pair used the head as a bowling ball and a puppet
Australian Border Force take Jones onto a plane on Monday so he can be deported
Australian Border Force officials wear masks as they take Jones onto a plane on Monday
‘Then James cut the head and Chris pulled it off. James was nodding … (he) had a little smirk on his face. Chris was making a joke of the situation.’
In 2007 a court was told the men had discussed chopping up the teenager’s body and selling it over a Woolworths supermarket meat counter.
Jones threatened his mates and said they ‘would be next’ if they did not help him bury Morgan, the court heard.
Roughan told a friend he and Jones were discussing what to do with the body when Jones said: ‘We’re gonna chop this fella up and sell him off as Woolworths meat’.
Jones takes off a cap and tips it toward the camera as he walks towards the jet on Monday
An anonymous tip-off lead police days after the murder led police to the body. They also found a woodsaw, carpet and bloodstained clothes and the home where Mr Shepherd was murdered
Jones was put onto a private jet on Monday by officials from the Australian Border Force
The pair also discussed cutting up the body and feeding it to sharks, but decided it was too big.
Both men were jailed for life and three other men were sentenced for helping to dispose of the corpse.
Jones unsuccessfully turned to the High Court to appeal against his conviction in 2008.
