Australia’s most wanted man has been captured by police in Far North Queensland after spending more than a decade on the run.
Graham Gene Potter was arrested on Monday at Ravenshoe, 120km south east of Cairns, on outstanding charges for conspiracy to murder as well as federal drug charges.
The fugitive has been wanted by authorities for 12 years after allegedly failing to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court in February 2010 on charges of conspiracy to murder.
‘Acting on information received, Tablelands Detectives, uniformed police and the Cairns Dog Squad attended an Ascham Street residence at approximately 8:45am where the 64-year-old was located and taken into custody,’ Victoria Police said.
Graham Gene Potter (pictured in 2009) is Australia’s most wanted man. He is wanted for two counts of conspiring to murder. Potter served 15 years in jail for murdering Kim Barry in 1981
‘Detectives from Victoria Police will now travel to Queensland to see Potter’s extradition.’
At the time of Potter’s arrest in 2010, he was connected with Victorian and New South Wales organised crime figures.
He was one of three charged over the alleged planned murders of two men, including an associate of underworld figure Mick Gatto, related to disputes within a drug syndicate.
Potter was also wanted on federal drug charges for a record 4.4-tonne ecstasy haul, which involved 15 million tablets being smuggled in tinned tomatoes in 2008.
There had been several suspected sightings of Potter across the country since his disappearance, including in Tully, just south of Cairns, in 2011.
That same year a $100,000 reward was issued for information leading to his arrest.
He is expected to appear before Mareeba Magistrates Court on Tuesday February 22.
Dramatic footage of the arrest released by Queensland Police shows Potter being surrounded by officers inside a rubbish-filled shed.
He can be seen climbing down from a dilapidated bunk-bed onto metal cages as officers storm the room.
‘Stay there. Do not move,’ an officer yells.
‘This is the police. Do not move. Put your hands where I can see them.’
Potter, looking dishevelled in a grey t-shirt and shorts and overgrown beard, abides by their demands and is handcuffed before being marched outside and placed inside a police vehicle.
The fugitive could be seen clambering down from a dilapidated bunk bed as officers stormed the shed in Far North Queensland
Potter was wanted on outstanding charges for conspiracy to murder as well as federal drug charges
Discarded boxes and stacks of newspapers were strewn around the room where Potter was found, next to animal cages, littered with dirty food bowls.
A white kitten could be seen roaming around the run-down outhouse as officers took the fugitive outside.
Police have carried out a significant number of searches and public appeals over the past 12 years in an effort to find him.
Over the past 12 years, there have been reported sightings of the now 64-year-old in several Australian states including rural New South Wales.
Unconfirmed sightings were made of Potter in Griffith in the state’s Riverina district in July 2016, one in a shop and another in a gym.
Earlier unconfirmed sightings at Tocumwal in the southern Riverina and Cobram on the Victorian side of the Murray River led to a larges scale search in 2013.
The average-looking Potter has been described as a master of disguise, frequently dyeing his hair and wearing layers of clothes to make himself heavier while on the run.
Also calling himself Josh Lawson and Peter Anderson, the bespectacled Potter has been known to wear a gold sleeper in both ears and a gold chain around his neck.
Pictured: Kim Barry, 19, who was murdered by Potter in 1981
Potter pictured in a police mug shot taken in 1976
The convicted murderer, who has an extensive criminal history, was dubbed Australia’s ‘number one fugitive’ by Victoria Police acting assistant crime commissioner Paul De Santo in 2017.
Potter was jailed for life in 1981 for the murder of teenager Kim Barry, 19, in Wollongong, after he beat her and cut off her head.
Then a 23-year-old coal miner, Potter knew Kim from dance classes they both took and ran into her at the Crown Gardens disco in Keira Street, Wollongong, during his buck’s night on February 6, 1981.
The pair went back to Potter’s Corrimal flat where he bashed her to death before returning to the disco. Police believe Kim may have rejected Potter’s sexual advances.
The next morning Potter used a hacksaw to cut off Kim’s head and fingers.
Her body was found near a mountain lookout at Jambaroo and her head and fingers were located inside a garbage bag about 1km away three weeks later.
He was released in 1996 after serving just 15 years.