Train shootings Coroner’s Inquest: Key questions remain unanswered

By MICHAEL SLOVANOS

MEDIA reports would have us believe that the Train family, shot dead in an exchange of gun fire at 251 Wains Road, Wieambilla, Queensland, on December 12th, 2022, were collectively suffering from a “delusional disorder”.

Various media were reporting on the findings of State Coroner Terry Ryan, in the inquest into the deaths of Constable Matthew Arnold, Constable Rachel McCrow, local resident Alan Dare and his neighbours Gareth Train, Nathaniel Train and Stacey Train.

But the fact of the matter is that the Trains, Nathaniel Train in particular, while working as principal of Walgett Community School, NSW, apparently became aware of systematic abuse of Aboriginal children in the school system allegedly involving NSW Police and the NSW Department of Education. He also relayed concerns about exam cheating in the school to NSW Upper House MP Mark Latham.

Latham has not spoken out about this and the reasons for his silence remain unknown. This aspect of the story is not mentioned in the Coroner’s Report.

The identity of Nathaniel’s wife was protected by the Coroner and is referred to as “Ms Brown”. In the few weeks before the shooting, Nathaniel left her behind in Dubbo after recovering from a heart attack he had at the Walgett school. He drove back to Weimbilla, and “illegally” crossed the border while Covid restrictions were in place, leaving registered firearms in a flooded vehicle at the border.

While the Trains’ personal relationships might be defined as strange – the oldest brother Nathaniel’s marriage to Stacey lasted about five years, after which she formed a relationship with the younger brother Gareth – Stacey and Nathaniel maintained a respectable life in the teaching profession.

“In their professional lives, Nathaniel and Stacey were both schoolteachers and school principals, who worked mainly in regional and rural locations throughout Queensland and New South Wales. Neither Nathaniel nor Stacey had any criminal history,” the Coroner’s report noted.

The Coroner also noted the Trains’ “anti vaccination/conspiracy beliefs”: “It seems that Nathaniel had regular telephone contact with Gareth in the period after his cardiac arrest. Gareth held strong anti-vaccination views and believed that COVID was a government conspiracy.

“He told (his son) Aidan that he believed it was a conspiracy for a new world order to reduce the population, and it seems he was having similar conversations with Nathaniel.

“Nathaniel did not return to work after his cardiac arrest. He refused to receive COVID vaccinations which were mandatory for teachers. He resigned from his employment effective from 28 March 2022.

“Nathaniel’s contact with Gareth apparently increased as time went on after his cardiac arrest. Ms Brown reported that Gareth called Nathaniel constantly, and sent him videos and articles on the apocalypse, Satan, conspiracy theories and bible passages,” the report noted.

The Coroner also quoted from a letter Stacey sent in February 2022 to her daughter Madelyn, which included reference to being under surveillance by ASIO:

“Gary and I are both well. There has been a lot happening, though. I was forced to resign from my job because I refused the vaccine mandate. We have also been subject to surveillance and intimidation by ASIO and Raytheon because we are on the list of “anomalous citizens”.

“As examples, bad people have attempted to abduct us, we have been sent threatening messages, we have been sprayed with chemicals from small planes that fly straight over the top of the roof and they even sent a Learjet to fly low multiple times over the house. Gareth has lodged complaints with CASA about the planes. One of the main reasons we are being targeted is because Gareth has been warning people online about bad people working for ASIO who are leading anti-vaxx protestors astray.”

As previously reported by Cairns News, senior Queensland police claimed they “knew little” about the Train family until the shooting, but Crikey reporter Cam Wilson found a series of videos they posted on a now deleted YouTube channel called “Mrs Yugi Girawil”.

Wilson reported that two videos posted the week before the shooting “menacingly insult four named police officers and speak of previous welfare checks about the (Wieambilla) property”. The channel had fewer than 100 views.

According to then Queensland Police Assistant Commissioner Tracy Linford, addressing a media conference after the shooting, police had “very little history” of the Train family and Nathaniel Train’s only record was a driving offence.

Linford, who is not mentioned in the Coroner’s Report, was a member of the Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee (ANZCTC), a joint police operation established in 2012. That neither she nor the high-level police committee is mentioned by the Coroner is rather curious.

The coroner’s report goes into great detail about a series of defensive barriers of steel and hardwood logs, apparently constructed by the Trains around the property in expectation of some sort of attack.

These preparations were also referenced in the videos posted on the now-deleted account discovered by Wilson. A comment on one of the videos posted earlier in the week before the shooting stated:

“After dealing with covert agents and tactics for sometime now, Daniel (a pseudonym chosen by Gareth for himself) believes that should they choose to cross the rubicon with public state actors – our Father is giving us a clear sign. Monsters and their heads are soon parted.“

Wilson reported that a video posted at 1.41pm on Monday titled ‘Prepare for battle and be strangers on earth’ combined apocalyptic graphics with a female voice reading from 2 Esdras, a book from the Apocrypha that appears in some Bible versions.

“The passage speaks about impending war, sinners being punished and Judgment Day. ‘For of a city there shall be 10 left, and two of the field, which shall hide themselves in the thick groves, and in the clefts of the rocks,’ the voice says.”

This situation was referenced in the Coroner’s Report: “It does not appear that Stacey or Nathaniel shared in Gareth’s conspiracy theories initially. Stacey, it seems, was gradually exposed to Gareth’s material by text messages and emails from him….

“As Gareth’s conspiracy thinking and paranoia developed, so did the religious themes in his communications. From early 2021, Gareth’s online communications became more religious in content and focus.

“The conversations between Gareth and Donald Day Jnr (a US-based YouTuber) involved conspiracy theories, as well as religious and end-of-days themes. For example, on 3 May 2021, Donald Day spoke about the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other US agencies engaging in genocide through vaccination, describing those involved as “demons in the flesh of men”.

Gareth responded that he and Donald Day would stand “side by side at the final battle”.

The Coroner said Gareth began communicating with Day from July 2021, “although he had been watching his videos for about a year by that time”. Day’s account was called “Geronimo Bones”.

“The two of them posted videos and commented on each other’s videos and, on occasions, sent video messages directly to the other person. Gareth’s account was initially called “Texas BBQ” and later “Daniel YugiGirawil”. In their communications with Day, Gareth and Stacey referred to themselves as Daniel and Jane. The Trains also identified as indigenous.

Day was subsequently charged by the FBI with illegally possessing firearms as a convicted felon and threatening police. However, when his case came up in Arizona last month, he entered a plea deal which meant the threatening police charge was dropped and illegally possessing firearms was admitted.

This outcome of this US case was apparently of great concern to Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and the families of the Weiambilla victims.

In a statement, Judy McCrow, the mother of deceased Tara police officer Rachel McCrow, said she was “disappointed” with the plea deal. “He chose to continue correspondence with the Wieambilla murderers and continued to support and encourage them,” she wrote.

The Coroner, after considering four emails provided by Ms Brown to the NSW Police Force on December 12th, 2022, said he was “unable to find that those emails can be said to have provided the NSW Police Force with information that would have indicated a risk that the Trains would act in the way they did on that day”.

“The emails from Gareth can properly be characterised as being aggressive and paranoid in tone. They conveyed a dislike of police and an aversion to Nathaniel being reported to police as a missing person.

“However, I do not consider the content of the emails can be said to contain information sufficient to have put the NSW Police Force on notice that the Trains would act in the way they did on 12 December
2022.

“I accept that, had the emails been provided to the QPS, the response to the request for assistance from New South Wales might have been different. With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better if the content of those emails was made known to Queensland police before their attendance at 251 Wains Road.

“However, I accept that it is only with knowledge of the events which did in fact occur on 12 December 2022 that one can read into any of those emails a risk that the Trains would act in the way they did. In advance of what actually occurred, the emails were not sufficient to indicate such a risk.”

At the inquiry’s conclusion Ruth O’Gorman, counsel assisting the coroner and daughter of former Queensland Police Union president Bluey O’Gorman,, made several recommendations for Mr Ryan to consider ahead of his official findings being delivered and one included that the Queensland government implement mandatory mental health assessments for weapons licence applicants.

Does this now mean that people applying for or renewing gun licences will have to undergo questioning on their religious and political beliefs?

While it is an easy option to blame the shooting on “religious delusions” harboured by the Trains and a mysterious overseas player, the bigger picture of pedophilia-based corruption at government and police levels is not something that should be ignored.

As previously reported by Cairns News, 28 high-level pedophiles were identified from the Wood Royal Commission and these pedophiles are being protected by the Australian parliament. The Commission identified 284 police officers for investigation.

By 2001 just nine officers pleaded guilty to corruption. The seven officers who went to jail included the former Gosford drug squad chief Wayne Eade and a former chief of detectives Graham “Chook” Fowler who was named by a pedophile victim in a Facebook post several years ago.

Former senator Bill Heffernan called on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse to investigate his list but was told this was “not within its terms of reference”. A spokeswoman for the commission declined to comment when contacted by the Sydney Morning Herald.

We also highlighted a 2021 video by independent Australian journalist John Adams, titled “Senator Heffernan and the 28 Men Accused of Evil”. Adams said elite-level pedophilia was an issue that must be addressed.

“Because if you don’t address it and allow these allegations to sit, there’s just a stench around Parliament and in terms of the legal profession, and whether these allegations are true or not people would just start to lose confidence in the way our country is run and that’s not healthy in our democracy.”

Adams went on to note that most of those 28 named were “historical figures” including a former Prime Minister and most were now dead. He also referenced Senator Heffernan’s second series of allegations involving a list from “the legal fraternity” who attended Costellos, a boy brothel/club in King’s Cross, Sydney.

The State Coroner’s full report can be read at this link: https://www.coronerscourt.qld.gov.au/findings-upcoming-inquests/search-findings