A senior Queensland Police officer has been jailed for three years for child sex offences committed against four young girls while he was working as judo coach.
Former detective-sergeant Michael Hall, 58, who was involved in some of the state’s most high-profile murder investigations, was on Wednesday found guilty by a Supreme Court jury of eight counts of indecent treatment of a child.
Hall abused his four victims at the Brisbane martial arts school where he was head coach between 2016 and 2019, and was charged in 2020 and suspended from the Queensland Police Service, 9News reported.
One of Hall’s victims said in an impact statement they joined the judo school to learn how to protect themselves from paedophiles.
Emotional parents of one of the victims said outside court they were glad the six-year-long fight for justice had ended with the girls being listened to.
“We’re just really glad that our, that all of the girls’ voices have been heard,” one parent said.
“That’s the most important part, it’s the victims, victims need to be heard,” said another through tears.
At the time of his heinous crimes Hall was the head of the Criminal Investigation Branch at Ferny Grove Police Station in Brisbane’s northwest.
Header image: Michael Hall in 2013 (9News).
