By Erin Pearson
The man formerly dubbed Australia’s most wanted will be extradited to Victoria in coming days following his arrest in far north Queensland after more than a decade on the run from Victorian police.
Graham Gene Potter, 64, who police say has avoided capture since 2010, fled Victoria on the eve of a Melbourne Magistrates Court hearing at which he was to face charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
Police arrest Graham Potter at a home in far north Queensland on February 21, 2022.Credit:Police Media
Mr Potter faced a Queensland magistrate at Atherton on Tuesday morning, via video link from the Mareeba police station, where officers were granted an extradition order to bring the 64-year-old back to Melbourne in the custody of Victorian detectives.
During the brief hearing, Magistrate Thomas Braes ordered Mr Potter next appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday. No application for bail was made.
Mr Potter’s 12 years as a fugitive ended abruptly on Monday morning when he was arrested, with the help of the Queensland Police’s dog squad, at a home in Ravenshoe, about 120 kilometres south of Cairns.
Barefoot and in shorts, video footage of his capture shows the 64-year-old balancing atop wire animal cages in a dilapidated room filled with cardboard fruit boxes before he is handcuffed and led away.
At one point a kitten can be seen ducking out of view as he is marched through the home to a waiting police car.
“Stay there do not move,” one officer can be heard yelling.
“Yeah, yeah,” Mr Potter replies.
Mr Potter remained at the Mareeba police station on Monday evening in the custody of Queensland Police, 85 kilometres from the arrest scene.
Speaking outside the station on Tuesday, Detective Inspector Kevin Goan said investigations would now turn to whom, if anyone, might have been harbouring the fugitive.
He said a woman connected to Mr Potter would be questioned as he revealed police had previously visited the Ravenshoe property where the fugitive was arrested.
“We believe that he has been in the area for the last 12 years at least. His last credible sighting was in Tully in 2010, and he avoided capture at that time,” Inspector Goan said.
“Detectives from the Tablelands have been resolute in their work with Victorian detectives to investigate any information that has been received over those years. Yesterday those investigations culminated in his arrest.
“We’ve had information over a number of years that he may have been frequenting that residence.”
A neighbour who claimed to have spotted Mr Potter “running around naked in his backyard”, said the property was a “rat nest” that was bound to be discovered by authorities.
“Every night you’d see that many cats and rats running out of that place,” he said.
However, he conceded in a small rural town like Ravenshoe it was easy to hide.
Laith Pignatt, who had unwittingly served the fugitive at the bottle shop of the Club Hotel when authorities first tracked him down to far north Queensland, said he was surprised Mr Potter was still in the area.
“I thought he would have disappeared a long time ago. I was interviewed eight years ago now by detectives because I was serving him,” Mr Pignatt said.
Mr Potter had been the subject of repeated public appeals for information including a $100,000 reward for information that led to his capture.
Police previously revealed Mr Potter was known to use aliases and disguises to move around Australia unnoticed, including the use of wigs and fat suits.
Graham Potter in Launceston in 2008.Credit:
At the time of his 2010 disappearance, Mr Potter was accused of being hired to kill a man at the wedding of Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto’s son in 2008.
Mr Potter was also facing federal charges over a $440 million ecstasy and cocaine haul from August 2008.
Inspector Goan said owing to Mr Potter’s previous success in avoiding capture, the dog squad’s German shepherds were called in to prevent his escape on Monday.
At the scene of his capture, the officer said the wanted man gave police a false name, calling himself Josh Lawson before biometric testing confirmed his true identity.
Inspector Goan said investigators believed Mr Potter had kept a low profile in the area, assimilating into the local community over some time, attributing his arrest to the tireless work of both Queensland and Victorian police and the assistance of the public.
“When approached by police he gave a pseudonym of Josh Lawson, that’s the only details he would provide. Josh Lawson was in fact Graham Gene Potter.”
When asked how locals had reacted to news of the arrest, Inspector Goan said there was no doubt there was concern that someone of his “profile” had been residing in the north Queensland community.
“What we tend to see is that north Queenslanders have a particular tolerance to what they’re prepared to accept in their own home environment and I guess we can accredit his capture to some people who had the suspicion he was living there. They’ve passed that onto police, and police have responded,” he said.
There have been no acts of violence since his arrest, and police said Mr Potter had been personable and happy to speak to detectives about a number of issues.
Victorian detectives are expected to arrive in Queensland late on Tuesday.
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2022-02-22 06:55:13Z
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