Adam Paul Davidson (pictured in a court sketch from his appearance on Monday) already had a lengthy criminal history when he pleaded guilty pouring boiling water on the killer of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe
The man responsible for pouring boiling water over the killer of Daniel Morcombe had been jailed for fraud and holding up a bottle shop with his finger.
Adam Paul Davidson was a regular at the Toowoomba and Brisbane Magistrates Courts. In just three years, the 31-year-old was called up 20 times.
Earlier, Davidson was convicted and jailed for racking up a $4000 motel bill over two months after being told he would need to wait three months for emergency public housing, The Chronicle reported in 2010.
The then 23-year-old had only recently been released from prison, and used a Visa credit card to check in to seven different motels, each time checking out without paying.
It wasn’t until the end of November, when he was pulled over and arrested for driving while disqualified, that he was caught for his crime.
At that point, it was his ninth driving offence in four years.
Brett Peter Cowan (pictured) was playing cards when Davidson poured a bucket of boiling water on him, hoping he would ‘feel the pain like someone like Daniel Morcombe has felt’
Both men had been sentenced to time behind bars at the Wolston Correctional Centre last year (pictured)
Davidson was jailed for only seven months after pleading guilty to seven counts of fraud and one of disqualified driving, with Magistrate Kay Ryan choosing to suspend half of his sentence so he could be present at the birth of his child.
The father of four made headlines again just two years later, when he was brought up on charges of continuing to check in and out of hotels without spending a cent.
Davidson used a maxed out credit card number and late check-ins to avoid any pre-checks on his account – but The Courier Mail reported he booked the room under his own name.
One month after staying at the Quality Hotel Platinum International Hotel and racking up a bill of more than $700, Davidson robbed a bottle shop, to pay back a debt he owed to the Bandidos motorcycle gang.
The bikies had lent him money to start up a tattoo parlour, and his defence barrister told Brisbane Magistrate’s court at the time he had been asked to commit ‘a more serious offence’ to repay the money.
Instead, Davidson stuck his finger in his pocket, told the attendant he had a gun, and walked out with $600.
Feeling bad, he called local police the next day, and said he would turn himself in.
Davidson told the court he had been watching Brett Peter Cowan (pictured) for a month to find the best way to harm him
Cowan is serving a life sentence for abducting and killing Daniel Morcombe (above) in 2003. He was permanently disfigured in the attack
Then 26, the father-of-four missed the meeting because he chose to spend time with his children first, and was arrested three days later, The Chronicle reported.
At this point, Davidson had quite a lengthy criminal history.
The man was reported to have been convicted of 11 counts of disqualified driving, five counts of drink driving, and numerous offences relating to fraud and dishonesty.
Davidson can now add a conviction of torture to his ever-growing list of convictions.
On August 5, 2016, he chose to pour boiling water over the head of Brett Peter Cowan, who was serving a life sentence for murdering 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe on the Sunshine Coast in December 2003.
Adam Paul Davidson, now 31, pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court on Monday to torturing the man at the Wolston Correctional Centre last year.
The court heard Davidson, 31, plotted and watched Cowan’s movements for a month to find the best way to harm him.
Prosecutor Mark Whitbread said Davidson poured a bucket of boiling water over Cowan’s head while the then 46-year-old was playing cards with other inmates at the Wolston Correctional Centre in Queensland.
He then struck Cowan in the head with the bucket three to four times as the man screamed ‘why why why’.
Cowan received superficial burns to 15 per cent of his body, including on his head, chest and leg and was treated in hospital to prevent infection.
The child-killer was left left permanently disfigured.
The court heard Davidson got the idea to scald Cowan after he saw another prisoner bearing horrific scars and wearing a burn suit from a similar attack.
‘He would love that scarring to be on Cowan,’ Prosecutor Mark Whitbread said.
Davidson told investigators he attacked Cowan ‘for a little bit of retribution’ and he wanted him ‘to feel the pain like someone like Daniel Morcombe has felt’.
‘I did it. Only me no one else was involved. He had it coming, he’s a f***king grub,’ Davidson said.
In sentencing Davidson on Monday, Judge Ian Dearden said every person was entitled to be treated respectfully, no matter how appalling the crimes they had committed.
Brett Cowan (pictured) was found guilty of murder, indecent treatment of a child and interfering with a corpse
‘We are all precious human beings, it doesn’t matter who we are,’ Judge Dearden said.
‘You have no entitlement to act as a vigilante.’
Judge Dearden sentenced Davidson to three years’ jail on Monday, but with time already served he will be released on parole in late November.
Daniel Morcombe’s remains were found in August 2011 after an elaborate police operation prompted Cowan to confess and lead undercover officers to where he dumped Daniel’s body.
Cowan was found guilty of murder, indecent treatment of a child and interfering with a corpse.
The Morcombe family declined to be present for his sentencing, in which Supreme Court Judge Roslyn Atkinson spoke at length about Cowan’s crimes.
She described his crime as ‘entirely abhorrent.’
‘You didn’t look like a monster, you didn’t look like a paedophile, you looked like an ordinary person,’ she said.
‘You knew if he ran away, you’d be caught. So you killed him. You killed him because you didn’t want to get caught.
‘Everything you did to that boy is horrific and disgraceful. I’ve seen no evidence in the months you’ve been in this court that you ever felt any remorse for what you did.
‘You have tragically and pointlessly snuffed out a young life.’
Daniel Morcombe went missing on December 7, 2003. His body was not found until August 2011