This has been written after interviewing numerous people who have been close with Shane Cuthbert throughout various chapters of his life. There is obviously a lot more to this story, but this is what has been confirmed so far.
SHANE CUTHBERT’S CHILDHOOD
Shane Cuthbert started showing signs of psychopathic behaviour during childhood, where he learned to be extremely manipulative to the adults around him whilst being cruel to his peers his own age, especially those more vulnerable than him in some way.
When he was at Quakers Hill Primary School he brought a knife to school as there was a girl he says, he wanted to rape, despite not really understanding what that even meant at the time. He ended up stabbing the girl in the neck and described it as being like in a movie, watching himself rather than experiencing it.
Shane’s teacher at the time, Scott Staveley—who later became a school principal—described the incident as “the most horrific weapons incident” he’d ever witnessed in his career.
Following the stabbing, Shane was admitted to Redbank House, a psychiatric facility for children. There he met Jay Morgan, an autistic boy who later recalled Shane as a relentless bully and textbook psychopath, even at that age.
Teachers struggled to manage Shane. The only strategy that seemed to keep him from causing chaos was to treat him as “special,” granting him privileges in a desperate attempt to placate his destructive behaviour.
Around this time, Shane appeared on A Current Affair, where he was dubbed “Australia’s most out-of-control child.” The national exposure gave him a powerful rush, and he later said it sparked his lifelong obsession with fame.
Shane would later explain his attitude toward authority figures this way: he was going to be the centre of their attention, no matter what. They could either indulge his delusions of grandeur and make him feel important—or suffer the consequences. Whether he made someone’s life easier or harder depended entirely on how willing they were to feed his ego.
When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Shane would casually reply, “Martin Bryant.” Most assumed he was joking to get a reaction. He wasn’t. He saw nothing wrong with the idea of emulating a mass murderer.
Early on, Shane discovered a powerful manipulation tactic: reframing himself as the victim in situations where he was, in fact, the perpetrator. He also learned how to isolate people by turning others against them.
His first target was his own mother. Despite her best efforts—including homeschooling him when he was too dangerous to be around other students—Shane claimed she had neglected him. He even suggested she orchestrated his appearance on A Current Affair for her own gain. Over time, his victim stories evolved depending on how much sympathy they generated. But his favourite tactic never changed: divide people, and exploit the fallout.
Shane dropped out of school in Year 10 and began working at KFC Kings Park in NSW. The store, poorly managed at the time, gave Shane an opening to manipulate the lax leadership. But when a more assertive female manager took over—someone he couldn’t control—he responded by trying to turn the other staff against her. When that failed, he trashed the store, ripped out the drive-through speaker, and never returned.
He briefly tried door-to-door sales before settling into cash-in-hand work for his father. Shane told others that his father owned the largest commercial cleaning company in Western Sydney. They later learned the truth was he was a sole trader who worked part time as a cleaner.
SHANE CUTHBERTS EARLY ADULT LIFE
By 18, Shane Cuthbert was on Centrelink—and he would remain on government welfare for the rest of his adult life.
During this period, he developed a disturbing fascination with Adolf Hitler and tattooed a swastika on the side of his scalp. He attempted to join the army, admitted he was drawn to the idea of legally being allowed to shoot people. He was expelled from training after several weeks. He blamed the dismissal on hand tattoos—despite having them when he started.
Shane’s relationships during adolescence were marked by emotional cruelty, especially towards females. He was highly promiscuous and took pleasure in tormenting those he viewed as “on his level.” His pattern was to love-bomb girls, sleep with them, then quickly become cold and degrading.
In one particularly disturbing incident, a young woman he had manipulated called him from a hospital in a state of hysteria. Her three-year-old daughter had just died. She was seeking emotional support. Shane, surrounded by his mates, showed visible disgust at the call. He casually dismissed her with, “Oh okay yeah well look I’m with my mates right now so I might have to talk later, bye,” then hung up—laughing afterward at how “stupid” she was for expecting sympathy.
Soon after, Shane entered a more serious relationship with Rene Willemse, a university student from an affluent family. He was fixated on gaining the approval of people with higher social standing. He introduced Rene to drugs, and during one severe drug-induced panic attack, his only concern was whether he might get in trouble—not her safety.
Rene’s conservative family soon saw through Shane’s behaviour. When they expressed concern, he retaliated by trying to isolate her—turning her against her parents, her brother, her friends, and anyone who might pull her away from him.
SHANE CUTHBERT WEARING A CLOWN COSTUME TO COURT
In 2012, at age 22, Shane Cuthbert was arrested and charged after randomly kicking the side mirror off a passing taxi on Windsor Road, near the Mean Fiddler pub where he’d been drinking with mates.
Rather than face the charge quietly, Shane saw it as a chance to make himself the centre of attention. He arrived at Parramatta Local Court for his mention hearing dressed in a full clown costume.
Outside the courthouse, he noticed a TV news crew filming. Curious, he asked what story they were covering. They told him they were there for a serious case involving parents charged with the genital mutilation of a young girl.
Seeing an opportunity to hijack the spotlight, Shane told the reporters he was dressed as a clown to protest against child abuse—crafting the lie on the spot to make his appearance seem relevant to the news team’s existing story.
It worked. The media took the bait.
The news crew dropped their original focus and instead ran a full segment about Shane. To reinforce the deception, he repeated the lie in court, claiming to the magistrate that his clown outfit was part of a protest—knowing full well that the journalists were watching from the back of the courtroom.
The stunt made international headlines.
What no one realised at the time was that Shane had no interest in child protection. The real reason he wore the clown suit was simply because he wanted attention. The story about protesting abuse was a last-minute fabrication—a calculated ploy to manipulate the media and make himself look like a crusader when, in reality, it was all about the performance. It was his first experience manipulating the media, and he loved seeing how easy it was to get them to buy whatever story he made up. He also loved being able to make it so that if someone Googled “Shane Cuthbert” they would find him in the news.
SHANE CUTHBERT’S PRETEND BUSINESSES
The media attention from Shane Cuthbert’s clown stunt deeply distressed his mother, who had been trying to protect her youngest son (Jack) from Shane’s increasingly destructive behaviour. In response, she relocated the family two hours drive north to Newcastle. Shane, who had been living with her in Marayong, moved in with a friend named Stuart Adams —an entrepreneur who had successfully built several businesses using online marketing and SEO.
Fascinated by the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, Shane began imitating Stuart’s methods. He learned how to build websites and started creating elaborate sites for businesses that didn’t actually exist.
One of Stuart’s early ventures was a lawn mowing service called The Garden Guys. He had plans to expand it into a service-based franchise similar to the Jim’s Group. Shane latched onto this idea and ran with it. He designed logos, built mock websites, and even spent some of his Centrelink payments registering business names like The Plumbing Guys, The Electrical Guys, and The Rubbish Removal Guys plus many more. Despite these businesses being fictional, Shane told everyone he was running a multi-brand enterprise—with the business names and websites as “proof.”
Eventually, Stuart helped Shane move into a low-cost commercial rental at Silverdale. Shane had enrolled in a landscaping course at TAFE but began advertising himself online as a qualified landscaper. In reality, he was unlicensed, uninsured, and completely inexperienced. Still, he was persuasive in person—enough to convince customers to pay him upfront before he figured out how to do the job.
Almost every client cancelled after realising he was making a mess of their property. But Shane refused to offer refunds. He even recruited others to do the labour, convincing them he owned a large, reputable business. These workers believed him—especially when they saw his professional-looking websites. He strung them along with excuses about delayed payments, making them work longer in hopes of being paid once the customer settled the bill—unaware that the clients had already paid in advance.
When both customers and labourers realised they’d been conned, there was little recourse. No contracts, no paper trail—just verbal agreements and cash transactions, all while Shane remained on Centrelink.
One of Shane’s favourite tactics was to escalate situations when a client’s partner challenged him. He would then try to charm the other partner, hoping to divide them. Even if he couldn’t scam more money, he found satisfaction in creating tension between couples. Manipulating people against each other gave him a rush he often valued more than money.
He also began operating as The Rubbish Removal Guys, borrowing Stuart’s trailer and charging clients to remove waste—only to dump it illegally in the bush.
After about a year, Shane gave up on trying to run a legitimate business and focused entirely on crafting fake brands online. He created a website and Instagram page to make it look like he had his own clothing business called State of Glory. He ordered hats and shirts with his logo, then asked his friend Tyler Busch to photograph him and others wearing the gear, and set up an online store.
Nobody ever bought a single item.
Still, the curated images fooled thousands of Instagram followers into believing Shane was a successful fashion entrepreneur. They never saw the reality behind the scenes.
Shane didn’t want to be an entrepreneur—he just wanted to appear to be one. He realised that with enough smoke and mirrors, people wouldn’t question the illusion. So he doubled down on crafting that image, particularly on Instagram. His full-time occupation became pretending.
During this period, he also developed a fascination with politics. He had no real understanding of Australian political systems but was obsessed with Adolf Hitler, consuming every book and documentary he could find. He gravitated toward the far-right Australia First Party and even met with Dr Jim Saleam, trying to persuade him to endorse Shane as a candidate. Shane pitched himself as a successful businessman with a franchise empire and fashion label.
But even in that circle, few were convinced.
SHANE CUTHBERT MEETS BERENGER ROSE
After Rene finished university and began an internship, she became increasingly frustrated with Shane’s lack of progress. Online, he portrayed himself as a successful entrepreneur. But Rene knew the truth: he was living in a cheap industrial unit, collecting Centrelink, and spending his days maintaining a carefully constructed online fantasy.
His landlord had grown tired of the excuses and served him with an eviction notice.
Sensing that Rene was about to leave him, Shane flipped the narrative. He told himself that his “State of Glory” clothing line and Instagram presence made him too good for her. He broke up with her—only to panic the next day and beg her to come back. She refused and asked him to stop contacting her.
Rather than pay his overdue rent, Shane used his next Centrelink payment to buy more State of Glory merchandise so he could keep up appearances on Instagram. His posts eventually caught the attention of model Berenger Rose, who believed she was speaking to a wealthy entrepreneur.
Shane carefully managed her perception. She never met his friends or saw where he actually lived. Instead, he stayed at her place on the Central Coast, eventually telling her that a failed business deal had left him homeless. Out of pity, she allowed him to move in—with her and her young child.
When Berenger tried to end the relationship, she asked Shane to move out before she returned from work. But when she arrived home, she found the house decorated with flowers. Shane proposed—with her own ring. Overwhelmed by the gesture and emotional pressure, she accepted. Later, she would describe it as the worst decision of her life.
Soon after, Shane relocated them to a remote property past Wisemans Ferry where she paid for everything. She even organised a handyman job for him but he quit, relying entirely on her income and his centrelink.
There, he began isolating Berenger from her friends and family. He grew jealous of the attention she gave to her child and even their pets.
Berenger’s child later described the abuse in detail. Shane frequently kicked their cat across the room. He once ran over her puppy’s head with his car, killing it on purpose. He would cut the power at night and chase them through the darkness with weapons, terrifying them into submission whenever he didn’t get his way.
Shane refused to let Berenger go to work without him. When he did accompany her, he behaved inappropriately in her workplace to sabotage her. He demanded that she run everything past him—down to the content of her regular advice column Ask Berenger in ROMP magazine.
He was obsessed with her public image. She later told A Current Affair: “He wanted that model, that someone with followers, that has that status and credibility to essentially leach off.”
Meanwhile, Shane worked hard to isolate her from everyone—and convince others that she was the one doing the isolating. On one occasion, a group of Shane’s friends—believing she was controlling him—drove out to the remote property to “rescue” him. Seeing their car approaching, Shane grabbed Berenger and made her flee into the bush. They ran to a neighbour’s home, where Shane told her the people in the car had come to kill them.
He later claimed that Berenger had ordered him to turn the friends away, reinforcing the false image that he was being held against his will.
By this stage, Shane’s behaviour had escalated into full-scale domestic violence. He began slapping Berenger, slamming her head into furniture, and even attacking her with a cheese grater. In one incident, she tried to flee to a neighbour’s house. Shane chased her down in his car.
Police were called. Shane Cuthbert was arrested with several kitchen knives in his possession. As he was led to the paddy wagon, he ran his finger across his throat while staring at Berenger—a silent reminder of his earlier threats to kill her if she ever gave evidence.
Shane Cuthbert was remanded and placed in protective custody at Silverwater MRRC.
While in custody, he continued to manipulate Berenger. He wrote coded letters, disguised to appear as if they were meant for someone else, begging her to retract her statement. He threatened suicide, suggesting that recanting her testimony could help secure his release.
At his hearing at Penrith Local Court, Berenger took the stand and claimed she couldn’t remember what had happened. The prosecutor read her original statement to police, but when Shane—representing himself—cross-examined her in court, she continued to claim memory loss.
As a result, the magistrate dismissed the more serious charges relating to harm against her but convicted Shane Cuthbert of lesser offences.
SHANE CUTHBERT & BERENGER ROSE MOVE TO NORTH QUEENSLAND
After Shane’s release from custody, he was bailed to his mothers address in Stockton, however he resumed living with Berenger and her child in a house down the street. Shane’s abuse escalated. According to reports, he was violently and psychologically abusive toward the child, eventually leading to her removal into state care. Berenger reports also that it was here where he first raped her.
Soon after, Shane arranged for them to move to North Queensland and live at the Ocean View Motel. He convinced the owner, a man named Col, to let them stay rent-free in exchange for Shane acting as the motel’s caretaker.
Once there, Shane did no actual work. Instead, he manipulated Col into feeling sorry for him, maintaining the arrangement through emotional pressure rather than contribution.
During this period, Shane regularly phoned his friend Stuart while Berenger was asleep. On these calls, he claimed he was being held hostage by Berenger, who he said was threatening to go to police unless he followed her every demand. Believing Shane’s account, Stuart advised him to start recording her behaviour to protect himself in case he needed to prove his innocence.
Shane used that advice to begin psychologically baiting her—gaslighting, provoking, and tormenting Berenger until she was in emotional distress. Once she reached breaking point, he would start recording. In the recordings, Shane deliberately changed his tone—sounding calm and reasonable while framing her as unstable.
In one recording, Berenger is heard pleading with Shane to let her leave the house or she would call the police. In another, she cries, “I want my little girl,” to which Shane coldly responds that her child had been removed by DoCS because she had put the child in a domestic violence situation.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE BRUISES VIDEO
Shane’s violence escalated to horrifying levels which included more sexual assault. During one attempt by Berenger to leave, he grabbed a metal pole and beat her with it repeatedly—aiming to break her legs. Instead, the metal pole snapped so he picked up a wooden one and continues until he became exhausted. When he failed to break her legs, he locked her inside the house so no one could see the massive bruises, particularly on the backs of her legs.
Shortly afterward, Shane called his friend Stuart and said, “I picked up a metal pole and tried to break that bitch’s legs, but no matter how many times I kept belting her, they just wouldn’t break.”
A few nights later, the two were watching an episode of ABC’s Q&A discussing women killed in domestic violence incidents. Berenger encouraged Shane to pay attention—to see how widespread the issue was and understand that the public stood against it.
Instead, it enraged him.
Shane began hitting her again—this time targeting the bruises with calculated force. Berenger cried and begged him to stop, visibly trembling in fear. Rather than relent, Shane picked up his phone and began filming.
As a model, Berenger was often complimented on her long, attractive legs. To humiliate her further, Shane fixated on them in the video, sneering: “Look at her. Berenger Rose, the cover model.” At one point, he turned the camera toward the television, where a domestic violence expert was speaking—almost as if to mock them: Look what I do, and no one stops me.
He sent the footage to Stuart.
“Were those bruises from the pole?” Stuart asked.
Shane confirmed they were. He added chillingly, “Yeah she’s got some bad ones on her back. I said words to the effect of: you better hope that if anything like that happens again, I kill you. Because if I go to jail for six months for a slap in breach of AVO, I will hunt you down and kill your whole family. I will spend every day and night thinking about it and planning it. I guess I’ve been a bit traumatising to her mentally also.”
Stuart was stunned and urged Shane to seek counselling. But Shane dismissed the concerns, claiming he had done nothing wrong and was merely reacting to Berenger’s supposed abuse.
After the incident—and the explicit threats—Berenger became too terrified to seek help. She feared that if she reached out to authorities, Shane would follow through on his promise.
DETONATING AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE AT THE MOTEL
The owner of the Ocean View Motel (Col) had hired an elderly couple, Ian and Judy, to help manage the property. On several occasions, they intervened when they heard Berenger screaming for help. In retaliation, Shane waited until after dark, then detonated a homemade hydrochloric acid bomb under Ian’s car while the couple was inside watching TV. Police were called, and Shane Cuthbert was arrested.
THE NEXT 9 MONTHS OF COERCIVE CONTROL
After the incident, Shane and Berenger were kicked out of the Bowen motel. Berenger managed to find accommodation near Mackay but the abuse didn’t stop—in fact, it escalated. Shane’s control became even more coercive, and the violence turned sexual with him raping her twice.
In one incident, neighbours overheard a commotion and saw Shane chasing Berenger with a knife while dressed in army camouflage. Their male housemate come out and started filming, which caused Shane to dial back his aggression. As he walked away, he muttered:
“I’m going to have a walk. Have a nice sleep tonight. Wondering what minute I’m going to come back. Enjoy it. ’Cause you never know. Do ya.”
The neighbours called police.
Realising officers were on their way, Shane staged a suicide attempt—tying a noose to a tree and pretending he was going to hang himself. But the branch snapped, and he fell, breaking his leg. The move appeared to be another calculated attempt to manipulate sympathy, a pattern seen whenever his abuse was close to being exposed.
After he was taken into custody, Berenger gained access to Shane’s phone and found damning messages he had sent to his friend Stuart, along with the disturbing video of her injuries. She shared the evidence with a friend, who forwarded it to A Current Affair. Within days, Berenger had been interviewed and the story aired nationally—sparking widespread outrage.
SHANE CUTHBERT’S 6 MONTH PRISON STINT
The segment made Shane especially unpopular behind bars. Fearing for his safety, he claimed he’d been sexually assaulted by other inmates in order to be placed in solitary confinement. Later, when guards tried to return him to the general population, he used the intercom to threaten:
“If you try to move me, I’ll stab an officer.”
Even though they didn’t believe him, he added:
“You’ve got a duty of care to your officers. You can’t take that risk.”
It worked. Shane remained in isolation for the most part. For the remainder of his time, he would provide intel about other inmates to gain favours with and protection from corrective officers.
Ultimately, Shane pleaded guilty to a range of offences:
- Trespassing (6 months concurrent)
- Breach of Bail (6 months concurrent)
- Breach of Domestic Violence Orders (x2) (6 months concurrent for each breach)
- Wilful Damage (x2) (6 months concurrent for each)
- Common Assault (6 months concurrent)
- Obstruct Police (6 months concurrent)
- Resist Police (60 days concurrent)
- Driving Under the Influence (60 days concurrent)
- Unlawful Possession of Explosives (60 days)
Because all the sentences ran concurrent (to be served at the same time) he only did 6 months all up.
SHANE CUTHBERTS POST PRISON NARATIVE
Upon release, he was placed in government housing in Townsville. But public criticism followed him—especially from those who had seen the A Current Affair segment detailing his violence and rape of Berenger Rose.
In response, Shane began pushing a new narrative: that he had been the victim. He claimed he had been bashed, tortured, and raped in prison, and that repressed memories of childhood abuse were now suddenly resurfacing. These stories had never been mentioned prior to the public backlash against his abuse of Berenger.
Despite everything, within weeks, Shane manipulated Berenger into taking him back. The cycle of abuse resumed, and it wasn’t long before he was arrested again. He spent several more months in custody, this time at Lotus Glen Correctional Centre near Cairns.
When he was released, he had nowhere to go and spent the first night sleeping in a park. He was then placed in a men’s homeless shelter.
Not long after, his friend Stuart travelled to Cairns to visit and booked them into Peppers Resort for the night. Inspired by online influencers like Tai Lopez, Shane became obsessed with the idea of pretending to be a successful life coach. He saw it as an easy scam.
He recorded videos at the resort—in the pool, in the car on the way to the beach and then again at the beach — presenting himself as a self-made entrepreneur ready to sell people the secrets of wealth.
He even decided to publish a book. Lacking original ideas, he plagiarized material from Think and Grow Rich and lifted entire sections from Wikipedia and other websites. Berenger, still under his influence, edited the book for him.
The same day he uploaded a video promoting the book, he assaulted Berenger again. He was arrested and returned to custody for several more months.
While he was in prison, Berenger finally broke away from Shane for good. She moved on to a new partner and cut ties. That was until he got out a few months later.
SHANE CUTHBERT BECOMES THE MAJOR SUPPLIER OF ICE TO CAIRNS
While in custody, Shane met a violent inmate named Benjamin Mumford—known as “Benny the Torturer.” Benny had drug connections in Brisbane who supplied ICE (methamphetamine) and buyers in Cairns willing to pay a premium. He recruited Shane to act as a courier, taking a cut of the profits.
Once released, Shane flew to Brisbane, obtained an ounce of ICE “on tick” (credit), hid it in his underwear, and flew back to Cairns to sell it. He repeated the process several times, increasing the quantity with each run, flying back and forth between Cairns (with his undies stuffed full of cash) down to Brisbane (where he’d buy more ‘gear’) then back up to Cairns again (with his undies stuffed full of drugs. Eventually he managed to manipulate both Benny’s contacts into cutting Benny out of the deal, which Benny was unable to do anything about seeing as he was still in prison.
Shane has a aversion to doing things for himself and where possible, likes to get other people to do things for him (that way if he get’s caught, he’s got someone else to blame). On one occasion he got a friend to book the airline ticket, however the friend thought it would be funny to book in the name “Kermit Frog” – Shane’s favourite muppet.
Whilst at Cairns airport, staff discovered the boarding pass and asked him to wait whilst they called security. Shane did a runner and legged it all the way home. Realising he was on CCTV footage an wanting to resume his back and forth plane trips without arousing suspicion, he stashed the $40k cash at home and then returned to turn himself in. He was charged and copped a $500 fine which was a small price to pay to avoid having the huge amount of cash down his shorts found and confiscated.
After he was fined by the court, he called Cairns Post, not being able to resist the opportunity to get the media to publish him giving his favourite Kermit quote: “It’s not easy being green.”
Around that time, the quantities he was trafficking became too large to fit down his pants. Plus, he had just been charged by the Australian Federal Police over the boarding pass incident and wanted to take the heat off himself. As a result, he recruited Stuart’s brother in law Tyler Busch as well as his friend Ben to take it in terms of driving the cash and drugs between Brisbane to Cairns.
Within a few short months, Shane became the major ICE supplier in Cairns.
At one point, Tyler stole a full kilo of ICE and replaced it with kitty litter. The theft temporarily crippled Cairns’ local supply as the town ran near dry. Shane, furious but needing Tyler, warned him not to do it again and continued using him for smaller deliveries. But the thefts resumed. On another trip, Tyler swapped half the shipment with sugar. Tyler later insisted that he felt he was in too deep and wanted an excuse to get out of the game. Shane demanded that Stuart reveal Tyler’s whereabouts, presumably to arrange retribution. Stuart refused.
Ben, who had no criminal history, eventually wanted out too. He anonymously reported Shane’s ‘business partners’ to Crime Stoppers.
Shane found out.
In retaliation, he attempted to have Ben killed. He called Ben’s Melbourne housemate and threatened to murder the man’s infant son unless he disclosed Ben’s location. The threats were taken seriously. Ben vanished and wasn’t seen or heard from for several years—widely believed to have been murdered by Shane’s associates.
During this period, Shane also tried to lure Berenger back by introducing her to ICE. She quickly became addicted and Shane tried to use his drug supply to convince her to leave her new partner to be with him. When that didn’t work, he threatened to slit his own throat one day whilst on a Facetime call with her. She refused to get back with him so he cut his throat, not enough to do any real damage, but enough to make a mess and end up taken to hospital as a safety precaution.
SHANE CUTHBERT BECOMES A POLICE INFORMANT
By 2019, Shane had made new connections that offered him a steady, high-quality supply of methamphetamine. These same contacts also provided access to unregistered firearms—both handguns and long arms.
At one point, police raided Shane after a handgun was found in a vehicle registered in his name. According to Shane, this was when he voluntarily offered to become a registered police informant. He claimed he preferred dealing with detectives from specialist units who carried more authority than standard police. But more than that, it was a calculated move.
By aligning himself with the Major Organised Crime Squad and feeding them intel about others—especially members of an outlaw motorcycle gang—Shane said it had shielded himself from investigation whilst helping him dominate the market by putting his competitors out of business and into prison. So long as he kept providing information, he assumed he could continue his own criminal activity with little interference.
Around this time, he began a relationship with Georgia Rosandich. Using his nearly unlimited drug supply, Shane kept her dependent on him by regularly supplying her with cocaine which she was addicted to. An addiction he maintained to have control over her and make her dependent on him and his supply of drugs. She worked full time making good money so eventually he lured her into moving in with him and he became his new meal ticket, paying for everything just like Berenger had done previously.
SHANE TRIES AND FAILS TO BE A LIFE COACH
Shane continued producing his “look at me now” videos, marketing himself as a self-made life coach. He became fixated on the success of his former friend Stuart, who had built a legitimate career as a coach and therapist, publishing several eBooks and producing a full video coaching course over two years. The problem was, Shane was struggling to come up with his own content.
Lacking original ideas of his own, Shane resorted to plagiarism. He copied Stuart’s eBooks in their entirety—changing only the cover design and replacing “By Stuart Adams” with “By Shane Cuthbert.” The content inside remained unchanged.
A few people, fooled by his online image, reached out and offered to pay for his coaching. Shane attempted a few sessions but quickly discovered he couldn’t stand conversations that weren’t centered around himself. He soon gave up taking clients but kept up the illusion of being a mental health guru. Instead of helping others, he planned to sell a pre-recorded video course—allowing him to make money and remain the center of attention without giving any real attention to others.
To build this course, he began copying Stuart’s videos. Shane would watch a few seconds at a time, memorize the phrasing, then record himself repeating the same ideas, rephrased just enough to sound different. In the end, he produced hours of video content that was effectively a diluted, word-for-word imitation of Stuart’s original work.
Here are a small handful of video lessons where Shane has simply replicated Stuarts work with no originality of his own.
Stuart’s Video Lessons from 2016
Shane’s Video Lessons from 2020
When asked about this later, Stuart said he allowed it because he felt sorry for Shane—believing it might give him something productive to focus on and keep him out of jail.
Meanwhile, Shane used his drug profits to buy expensive artwork, not out of appreciation, but to serve as a financial smokescreen. If ever raided, he could claim to be an art dealer. Cash and illicit funds were hidden in plain sight, framed on the walls.
He filmed his entire bootleg coaching course in a rented factory space in Manunda. The space was decked out with high-end artwork, props, and even a swastika flag—all paid for with drug money.
SHANE CUTHBERT STARTS TWO FAKE CHARITIES
While crafting this new persona of credibility, Shane also registered two fake charities with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC): Domestic Violence Anonymous and Shane Cuthbert’s Change the World Foundation. He filed false paperwork with both the ACNC and the ATO to gain Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status. On the official documents, he falsely listed his partner Georgia and mentally disabled friend Jay Morgan as directors, and Stuart Adams as the secretary—none of whom were actually involved.
In a 2023 recorded conversation with Stuart, Shane can be heard admitting that Georgia and Jay had no knowledge of the charities. He said the real purpose was simply to be able to claim he “ran a charity,” just as he once used registered business names like The Rubbish Removal Guys to fake legitimacy. As he explained, once someone sees a name officially registered, they stop asking questions. His entire con relied on this illusion of formality and legitimacy.
He lists ‘Child Advocacy’ as the Programs Classification for ‘Shane Cuthbert’s Change The World Foundation‘ with the program beneficiaries being listed as “Youth, aged 6-15.” The estimated number of volunteers is listed as ‘1’ only (him).
Despite this, Shane Cuthbert is not legally allowed to work with children as he failed to meet the criteria to obtain a Blue Card (working with children check). The fact that Berenger’s child was removed from their care after reporting his abuse is the likely reason, and or in combination with his extensive history of domestic abuse.
BERENGER ROSE DIVORCES SHANE CUTHBERT & TAKES OUT ADVO
In July, Berenger Rose officially divorced Shane. Furious, Shane launched an online smear campaign, posting derogatory content about her across his social media accounts to rally his followers against her. The harassment triggered an application for a new Apprehended Domestic Violence Order (ADVO), prohibiting Shane from posting images, videos, or negative commentary about Berenger.
In an attempt to stall the proceedings, Shane submitted a nearly 400-page affidavit—filled with rants and red herrings—but failed to attend the court hearing. The ADVO was granted and made final in his absence.
Despite the order, Shane continued to post negative content about Berenger on his website and social platforms, seemingly without consequence.
SHANE CUTHBERT NOMINATES HIMSELF FOR BUSINESS AWARDS
Shane began embedding himself in various community groups and nominating himself for committee positions. Many accepted him, believing his claims that he was a philanthropist who ran two charities. He soon began applying for a wide array of awards—business accolades, leadership recognition, even Young Australian of the Year. He used false credentials, including Stuart’s identity, and supported his applications with photoshopped documents and fabricated bios. Astonishingly, many institutions failed to verify his claims and just took his word for it.
SHANE CUTHBERT JOINS THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY (ALP)
As part of his strategy to appear more accomplished online, Shane sought to build an ever-expanding list of fake achievements. With a desire for power and influence, he turned his focus to politics. Having failed to impress the far-right groups—who were generally more skeptical—he shifted toward left-leaning organisations, finding them easier to manipulate by exploiting their empathy and progressive ideals.
By 2021, Shane had successfully infiltrated the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He was accepted as a volunteer during preparations for the 2022 federal election and even befriended the ALP candidate for Leichhardt, Elida Faith. He gained photo ops with her and other influential ALP members, using these to bolster his perceived credibility.
Behind the scenes, Shane’s manipulative behavior continued. He began trying to drive wedges between Elida Faith, Senator Nita Green, and other volunteers. His desire for control didn’t go unnoticed. Eventually, someone within the party searched his name online and discovered the 2016 A Current Affair exposé. Once Senator Nita Green became aware of his background, she ordered Shane’s removal from the party and instructed the team to sever ties.
Around this time, Shane also enrolled in a law degree at Central Queensland University (CQU). The previous members of the Student ‘Law Society’ had all graduated. Shane saw it as an opportunity to join and, as the sole member, appoint himself to the role of president.
Much like how he used to pose as a qualified landscaper while still a TAFE student, he now started telling people he was a lawyer. To support the ruse, he created fake letterheads and signed documents using post-nominal titles he hadn’t earned.
His next move was to erase all online traces of his criminal past. He began contacting websites that had published articles about the ACA segment, initially claiming they put his life in danger. When that didn’t work, he threatened legal action, bluffing that he would sue for defamation. Although these threats had no legal weight, most sites complied rather than risk an expensive legal fight—despite knowing they would likely win.
Ultimately, Shane succeeded in getting all the Australian websites to remove their articles. He used this as “proof” that the stories were defamatory. What he didn’t say was that several UK-based websites refused to comply, and those articles remain publicly accessible to this day.
SHANE CUTHBERT SUES THE ALP
Shane launched a civil suit against the Australian Labor Party (ALP), forcing them to spend thousands on legal fees to defend themselves in the Supreme Court. He even convinced Frank Russo from Channel 7 News in Cairns to cover the story. When approached for comment, federal candidate Elida Faith declined, likely too embarrassed to admit the party had failed to vet him properly. Her silence gave Shane free rein to control the narrative.
To the cameras, Shane claimed his membership had been revoked over “defamatory” material that had since been removed—implying its removal was proof the claims were false. When asked why a Nazi flag appeared in the background of some of his YouTube videos, he feigned ignorance, saying, “It doesn’t represent me as a person.”
This became a familiar pattern: once Shane successfully manipulated someone in a position of influence, they often chose silence over the humiliation of admitting they’d been conned. That silence allowed him to continue shaping public perception on his terms.
The lawsuit dragged on into 2023. Shane lost, appealed, and lost again. Representing himself throughout, it cost him nothing. Although the court ordered him to pay the ALP’s legal costs, Shane had no assets or income on paper beyond his Centrelink payments. The money he made trafficking guns and drugs was untraceable, with his assets—like the Range Rover he received from an outlaw motorcycle club—registered in his partner Georgia’s name.
As a result, the ALP has never recovered a cent, and Shane still boasts about that fact whenever threatening others with legal action.
SHANE CUTHBERT CONVICTED OF PUBLIC NUISANCE
Later that year, Shane was arrested for public nuisance after attempting to stop traffic while intoxicated.
While in the holding cells, he told police he was “untouchable” due to his status as a registered informant and demanded they contact the Major Organised Crime Squad in Brisbane. They did—but Shane quickly learned that informant status didn’t exempt him from being charged when caught drunk and disorderly.
He later made complaints about the police who arrested him and who managed him in custody, thinking that he could use that to help his defense in court. It did not.
He pleaded not guilty and represented himself in court. During the hearing, he tried to bolster his credibility by referencing his “charity work” and various award nominations. The magistrate saw through the act, calling his defence “very self-serving.”
Although Shane lost the case, he still claimed a small victory: the Cairns Post ran a story that echoed his self-proclaimed titles—author, entrepreneur, philanthropist—but made no mention of the infamous bruises video aired on A Current Affair just five years earlier. By that point, Shane had succeeded in pressuring or manipulating enough websites to have the damaging content buried from the first page of Google search results for his name.
SHANE CUTHBERT MANIPULATES ROB PYNE
While targeting the Labor Party, Shane expanded his network in the Cairns political scene, forging ties with councillor and former state MP Rob Pyne who bought Shane’s con about being a local business owner (the only business he actuallly ran was trafficking guns and drugs into Cairns). He had manipulated Rob so thoroughly that he would not only get Rob to write him character references, but would even write his own character references using Rob’s letterhead.
Rob introduced Shane to other influential players in the local political scene, including former magistrate Pat O’Shane. Fueled by a growing obsession with political influence, Shane became convinced he could get himself elected—at least at the local level.
During this time, Rob Pyne was facing a defamation lawsuit in the Supreme Court. Shane persuaded him that he didn’t need to engage a qualified lawyer and could represent himself with Shane acting as a McKenzie Friend—an unofficial courtroom support person. Throughout the trial, Shane offered advice that Rob believed to be helpful, but which ultimately undermined his case.
Many suspect Shane’s guidance was deliberately misleading, part of a pattern of sabotage and manipulation seen throughout his history. The case dragged on before Rob ultimately lost and was ordered to pay the plaintiff’s legal costs—amounting to half a million dollars. Whether Rob ever realised that Shane had been intentionally sabotaging his defense remains unclear.
SHANE CUTHBERT GETS ARRESTED FOR PUBLIC NUISANCE (AGAIN)
Around May 2022, Shane Cuthbert and his little brother, now old enough to drink, had been at Gilligans night club drinking. Shane was removed from the premises by two male security guards whilst Jack filmed the whole thing. As he was being led out, Shane tried to laugh saying “I’m a lawyer” to which they replied “Well you should know the rules then.” Once security staff walked away, Jack started taunting the female security staff and Shane called out:
“You can’t ban be because I own the brewery. You can’t ban me because I’m on the CBD fucken untouchable list.
When the security staff ignored them, Shane wandered off looking for trouble somewhere else. He found a group involved in a bit of a scuffle so he got involved. Security staff and police tried pushing him away and telling him to keep out of it, but Shane persisted in trying to be the center of their attention. Eventually Shane got his way and was arrested and later convicted of Obstruct Police.
He was not happy that one of the Cairns city security guards assisted police in arresting him and held a grudge against them ever since, threatening to sue them and trying to tell Council that paying them is a waste of money.
SHANE CUTHBERT PREPARES TO RUN FOR COUNCIL ELECTION
By this stage Shane had managed to get rid of almost all evidence online of his domestic violence history, and had instead managed to convince people within influential positions of the Cairns community that he was actually some kind of successful businessman turned philanthropist turned political advocate turned lawyer.
He managed to sweet talk his way into being considered as a candidate for a new political party who had found out about his A Current Affair past from the few remaining websites based in the UK. It became apparent that if he were to run politically, he would inevitably bring negative media attention focusing on his past. So they hatched a plan to try to control the narrative and be on the front foot, by voluntarily providing the media with very filtered evidence of his criminal ‘past’ to create the narrative that he was ‘reformed’ and a ‘former criminal.’ He decided to try to spin the narrative of his undeniable past to make out like it would actually act as a benefit to help him understand young offenders, as this was the most believable way to explain his intentions to get into politics.
So the plan was to try to create this narrative whereby he was a ‘former criminal’ who was now an advocate for societies most vulnerable. Whilst he couldn’t necessarily control the entire narrative he sold to the media, from that point onwards he was at least successful into getting them to always refer to him as a ‘former criminal’ with absolutely no idea that he was actually more of a criminal than he’d ever been as the major supplier of ICE to Far North Queensland, completely free from investigation by being on the police payroll.
By the end of the year, Shane had started making TikToks about his jail experience and had done interviews on various podcasts, trying to rewrite the narrative to make out like he was falsely accused of everything and that his wife had made false allegations, that he was in fact the victim of her, the media, correctives, his traumatic childhood etc.
SHANE TRIES TO START A BREWERY BUSINESS
Using the proceeds of his criminal activity, Shane moved into a commercial property in Bungalow and poured thousands of dollars of drug money into plans to launch a brewery called The Porthole. During its development, he frequently hosted all-night parties with his mates, creating chaos for nearby residents. Neighbours lodged formal objections to the proposed brewery, citing the loud gatherings, drunken antics, street burnouts, and even beer bottles being hurled at homes—especially the house directly across from the property on Hartley Street, where Shane was living illegally.
JAN 2023 – SHANE CUTHBERT RAIDED BY LIQUOR & GAMING
In early 2023, Shane was raided by the Department of Liquor and Gaming. Around the same time, he claims detectives from the Major Organised Crime Squad severed ties with him as an informant—likely due to the investigation into his brewery venture. Authorities suspected he was using the brewery to launder drug money, which had indeed been his intention, though the business hadn’t officially begun operations.
What Liquor and Gaming may not have grasped was that Shane was fundamentally incapable of running a real business. The work and discipline required didn’t suit his craving for instant attention. Despite investing heavily to make The Porthole look legitimate, it ultimately served only as a backdrop for loud parties where Shane could play the part of club owner without doing the work. He continued funding this façade with drug profits—the only business he’d ever truly managed: trafficking meth from Brisbane to Cairns via hired drivers.
Conveniently, all assets were registered under his partner Georgia’s name. So when the charges came, they were laid against her, not him.
APRIL 2023 – SHANE CUTHBERT BANNED FROM QLD STATE PARLIAMENT
Around April, Shane received notice from Curtis Pitt, Speaker of the Queensland Parliament, that he was banned from attending due to his behaviour. It’s likely this was prompted by a police leak revealing Shane’s role as a registered informant with the Major Organised Crime Squad—effectively confirming his involvement in serious criminal activity.
Because informants are legally protected from having their identities disclosed, the government couldn’t openly admit that this was the reason for the ban. Shane exploited this silence to craft a false narrative. He portrayed himself as a political dissident being silenced, rallying supporters—including former MP Rob Pyne—into protesting his exclusion. By controlling the narrative, Shane positioned himself as the victim of political discrimination rather than a suspected organised crime figure.
MAY 2023 – THE RECORDED CONVERSATIONS
In late April and early May, a series of phone conversations between Shane and Stuart were recorded.
In the first, Shane casually admitted that he had listed Stuart as secretary of his two charities, and named Georgia and Jay Morgan as directors—without their knowledge or consent. He went on to confess that he had forged documents to apply for DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient) status with the ATO, including fabricating meeting minutes. Shane openly admitted the entire setup was fake. The website for his domestic violence charity existed purely to create the illusion that services were being offered. In reality, nothing was being done. Like his other “businesses,” the charities were simply elaborate props designed to fool people—only this time, not just social media followers, but even politicians.
JUNE 2023 – A CURRENT AFAIR EXPOSES SHANE CUTHBERT AGAIN
The recordings were shared with a select group, including journalists and politicians. One recipient was Katarina Stefanovic, a producer at A Current Affair, who assigned the story to reporter Hannah Sinclair.
Sinclair began by interviewing Jay Morgan, who was shocked to discover he had been listed as a director of Shane’s charities. He denied any knowledge or involvement. Next, she spoke with Berenger Rose, who shared letters Shane had sent her from prison—letters containing suicide threats and emotional manipulation, including suggestions that she recant her police statement to secure his release.
Finally, Sinclair confronted Shane at “The Porthole,” the commercial property where he was living illegally. When she informed him that Jay knew nothing about the charities, Shane replied, “That’s odd.” Asked if the charities were fake, he insisted, “No, they’re very real, very registered, and we do a lot of great work.” When questioned about allegations of plagiarism, Shane deflected: “No, [Stuart] had an ICE addiction and needed money for ICE, so I paid him for his help.”
Sinclair then pointed out that several certificates displayed in Shane’s videos appeared photoshopped. Shane, who frequently filmed himself in front of these documents, claimed, “I do not have them on my website. I don’t show them to anyone. They’re for my own personal enjoyment.” When asked how someone with his criminal record could seek political office, he responded, “What criminal history? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sinclair replied, “I’ve seen your charge sheet.” Shane hesitated, then muttered, “Okay, it’s mostly misdemeanours.” Realising he was losing control of the narrative, he blurted: “I’ve got friends that are bikies. I’ve got friends that are politicians. I’ve got a lot of friends, in a lot of places.”
Sinclair also interviewed Stuart, who provided examples of Shane’s plagiarised content and copies of the recordings. However, A Current Affair opted not to air the audio, likely due to concerns over the legal implications of broadcasting material recorded without consent.
The following month, Central Queensland University (CQU) looked into Shane a bit deeper, realising that he had been making all sorts of absurd claims on his website about his roles with the university and other institutions. They discovered that he had failed the working with children check (WWCC) and wrote to him to inform him they were removing him from being the president (and sole member) of the student law society.
Following the segment’s broadcast in 2023, Shane reverted to a familiar tactic: portraying himself as the victim. He began posting content aimed at discrediting his critics—particularly Jay Morgan, whom he mocked online. Jay had since legally changed his name to “Donald Jay Trump” and performed satirical Trump impersonations on social media. Shane exploited Jay’s eccentric behaviour to undermine his credibility, suggesting that any claims Jay made about the charities should be dismissed due to his mental state.
SHANE TRIES TO BOUNCE BACK BY MANIPULATING THE MEDIA
In the year following the A Current Affair exposé, Shane doubled down on his efforts to control the public narrative—particularly as he prepared to run for Division 4 in the Cairns Council election. He began leveraging the credibility of figures he had successfully manipulated—such as Rob Pyne, Pat O’Shane, and Perri Conti—while taking advantage of local journalists who accepted his version of events without scrutiny.
One of his first media allies was Izabella Guzman Gonzalez of Cairns Local News. In August, she published a glowing article describing Shane as a “former youth offender turned law student” and included a photo of him with Rob and Pat. The piece framed the trio as a political alliance of independents, seemingly unaware that forming an informal “team” of independents breaches Electoral Commission rules. In doing so, Shane not only managed to persuade Rob and Pat to endorse an unlawful tactic but also convinced Izabella to promote it without question.
The following month, journalist Isaac McCarthy of The Cairns Post took a different approach—he did his homework. A basic Google search brought up Shane’s June 2023 A Current Affair appearance and the infamous bruises video. McCarthy reached out to Shane, asking for comment. Shane claimed he had recorded his ex-wife to protect himself during a period of “mental health issues” and insisted the bruises shown in the footage were caused by a furniture accident—not abuse.
Link: Cuthbert Runs for Council Despite Domestic Violence History
“I’ve been trying to clear my name,” Shane said. “I was not convicted [for assault] in a court.”
The article included photos of Berenger Rose’s bruised legs. Shane, furious with the exposure, sent McCarthy a photo of himself holding a handgun—coincidentally, the same firearm he had once trafficked.
On October 18, McCarthy published a follow-up revealing that the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) had warned the so-called “Dream Team” that they must either run as a registered political party or as individuals—not both.
Link: ECQ Warns Shane Cuthbert and Team
Shane, meanwhile, was spinning tales behind the scenes. He claimed that Pat O’Shane believed she was a “national treasure” and thus never bothered vetting people. Rob Pyne, he said, could be manipulated into anything with enough social pressure. Shane’s strategy was simple: exploit relevance-starved figures for legitimacy, then feed that image to the press.
As McCarthy continued to push back, Shane grew increasingly frustrated. On November 1, he publicly questioned why bikie gangs weren’t listed among Cairns’ most influential groups, adding, “which surprises me because we run this town.” Later that day, perhaps after a few drinks, he posted, “I’m almost invincible. I seem to be able to get away with everything.”
He added:
“I was very vulnerable as a child. Now, I’ve worked very hard to be the opposite—powerful. Friends who will break your legs or put bullets in your house. Getting a law degree to sue people…”
Shane’s campaign rivalry with candidate Jeremy Neal escalated. He created multiple pages on his website targeting Neal, manipulating search results so that anyone googling Neal would land on content hosted by Shane himself.
On November 14, Cairns Post journalist Brielle Burns contacted Shane to ask why a Nazi flag appeared in the background of his self-help videos. Shane falsely claimed the videos were filmed in someone else’s shop and edited by someone else, despite the fact that it was shot and edited by him in his own rented factory he was living in at Manunda.
Link: Cairns Council Hopeful’s Disturbing Flag Display
That night, Shane messaged Brielle with a thinly veiled threat:
“Looking forward to your riveting story. If you defame me or even just write something that pisses me off, my friends will be visiting you—my friends in Brisbane, the ones I told A Current Affair I have.”
Later, he emailed Jeremy Neal directly:
You’re forgetting fair use. The media does it to me all the time, takes my pictures, my videos.
Do I need to turn my attention to you?
You know, I offered you an opportunity to play nice, fair and safely but you did not take me up on that offer. You blocked me instead.
I’ve got plenty on my plate, mostly State wide and mostly those in positions of power I can not get to or influence, but you are small and you reside in Cairns. You are easily accessible.
I’ve got friends you don’t want to play with here in Cairns.
I hope you don’t cause any unnecessary trouble Jeremy, please play nice. Be honest and hang tight. The media and the government are doing their best to support your candidacy as it is. No need to get yourself involved and make it personal between us
While Brielle’s story went to print the next day, The Cairns Post held off on reporting the threats until just before the election. When McCarthy eventually asked Shane to explain the remarks, Shane said:
“I guess it was a warning to make sure what you’re writing is factual and not defamatory.”
Realising The Cairns Post would not be easily manipulated, Shane turned to Cairns Local News once again, where he had better luck. In March, Nick Dalton published an article quoting Shane word for word without fact-checking a single claim. Shane painted himself as a reformed criminal and active youth advocate.
Around the same time, Shane secured coverage from Channel 6 News. Presenter Leo Puglisi echoed Shane’s own descriptions of himself and used media and images provided by Shane—including those shot inside his brewery office, decorated with the same fraudulent certificates previously exposed by A Current Affair.
Shane also made appearances on several podcasts and small-time influencer channels. These interviews, though minor in scope, helped saturate search results for his name with carefully curated, flattering content—further pushing the ACA exposés deeper down in Google search rankings.
MARCH 2024 – A CURRENT AFFAIR EXPOSES SHANE YET AGAIN
The night before the council election, A Current Affair aired another damning segment on Shane Cuthbert. This time, the focus was on threatening messages he had sent to his neighbour across the street and the menacing email he had written to fellow candidate Jeremy Neal.
Although the ACA team had declined to publish the full audio recordings they’d received the year prior, they had listened closely. They knew Shane had been harassing his neighbour and understood that his campaign was funded by drug money—while he remained on Centrelink. During the interview, Hannah Sinclair pressed him:
“Shane, who’s funding your campaign?”
“I am, I am,” he replied.
“Do you work?”
“Umm… no, I don’t.”
When asked if he had threatened his neighbour, Shane denied it:
“Ah, no. Actually, I don’t have any neighbours.”
He explained that the Hartley Street address was zoned commercial, not residential.
Shane lost the election—badly. He finished dead last. Jeremy Neal secured the most first-preference votes but didn’t hit the 50% majority required for an outright win. As preferences were redistributed, Shane’s votes flowed to Trevor Tim, giving him just enough to edge past Neal and claim victory. Tim was aligned with Team Eden, led by newly elected Mayor Amy Eden.
This twist left Shane convinced that he now held political capital. In his mind, the mayor owed him a favour, and he believed he now had influence over two sitting members of the Cairns Council. Drunk on this imagined power, he set his sights even higher—announcing plans to run for the seat of Cairns in the upcoming Queensland state election.
PERRI CONTI AND THE CAIRNS YOUTH HUB
With youth crime dominating headlines in Cairns, Shane saw an opportunity to reinvent himself as a supposed “advocate” for at-risk youth.
Meanwhile, local businesswoman Perri Conti had been working for nearly two years to establish a 24-hour youth hub under her “Changing Young Lives Initiative.” She had purchased a property in Manunda with the intention of creating a safe space for vulnerable teens—many of whom were caught up in the growing ICE epidemic. Several nights a week, she patrolled the streets of Cairns to engage directly with these young people, many of whom were sleeping rough or engaging in petty theft—often stealing socks to use for chroming.
Shane spotted Perri in the media and, through a mutual acquaintance (Humphry Hollins), managed to get introduced. He quickly charmed his way into tagging along with her on several outreach nights. While Perri focused on engaging with the youth, Shane remained glued to his phone, mostly disengaged. His only real involvement came when he brought along a videographer to capture footage of himself interacting with the kids, crafting the illusion that he was central to their outreach efforts. Once the cameras were off, he promptly left for the pub—leaving Perri to do the actual work.
SHANE CUTHBERT ADDRESSES CAIRNS COUNCIL
In July, Shane convinced Perri to co-present a deputation to Cairns Council. He drafted their speech word-for-word, but Perri had to keep revising it due to Shane’s exaggerated, self-serving claims. Despite her concerns, she ultimately delivered a version that painted them as equal contributors, believing it would help the project appear more credible. Shane, meanwhile, had secretly arranged for a videographer to record the entire session. In the footage he later posted online, he referred to Perri as his “good friend,” while she appeared visibly uncomfortable next to him.
The deputation was meant to be brief, with Shane playing a supporting role. But his video cut most of Perri’s remarks—particularly the ones she had scripted—and focused solely on himself. He dominated the presentation with self-promotional rhetoric, leaving no time for questions. Shane tends to come off as confident and persuasive when unchallenged, but the mask often slips when faced with scrutiny.
Cairns Local News journalist Nick Dalton attended the deputation and approached Perri afterward for a comment and photo. When Shane found out, he demanded to be interviewed too. In the article, Perri offered thoughtful, research-based suggestions for change, while Shane’s quotes—filled with vague, amateurish ideas—revealed how little he understood the issue. Nevertheless, he was described as a “law graduate,” a title he repeatedly used to inflate his public image.
The article was published on August 2. Shane, furious that Perri had received more credible coverage, immediately contacted the paper demanding it correct the record to attribute her quotes to him.
Realizing he couldn’t manipulate the Cairns Post or Nick Dalton, Shane returned to Cairns Local News journalist Izabella Guzman Gonzalez, who had previously published his claims without verification. He lured Perri to the Manunda property under false pretenses, where Izabella was waiting with a camera. Unaware of his intentions, Perri reluctantly agreed to pose for a photo.
Izabella’s article, clearly written from Shane’s script, described him as a “lawyer” and concluded with a correction stating that Perri’s quotes from the previous week should have been attributed to Shane
“In last week’s paper, some quotes attributed to Ms Conti on ways to fix the Cairns CBD should have been attributed to Mr Cuthbert.”
Source
At some point, Perri discovered that Shane didn’t even have a Blue Card (working with children check) and wasn’t able to obtain one due to the nature of some of his past abuse. Perri, concerned about the credibility of her youth hub project and the potential fallout of distancing herself from Shane publicly, chose to stay silent. Her silence, like the silence of many others before her, allowed Shane to control the narrative once again.
Shane had gotten exactly what he wanted—footage of himself speaking to Council and news articles repeating his narrative. He didn’t need Perri any more so discarded her and the project.
A month later, Izabella published another article focused solely on Shane’s council campaign, echoing his self-promotional claims:
By this stage, Shane had also tricked several online influencers into believing the youth hub was his idea. They shared videos of him with street kids and coverage of his Council appearance, unaware he had done little more than pose for footage. No one questioned how Shane, with a criminal record that would prevent him from obtaining a Blue Card, could be “working with children.”
Donated socks were handed out to youth without realizing they were being used for chroming. Shane knew, but said nothing. And with Perri too embarrassed to expose the truth, he maintained full control of the narrative—both online and in the press.
As the state election approached, Shane was interviewed by Channel 6 News, appearing in front of high-end artwork—paid for with drug money—to project the image of a legitimate entrepreneur. He claimed his exclusion from state parliament was politically motivated. Legally, authorities couldn’t acknowledge that Shane had once worked as an informant for the Major Organised Crime Squad. Even though police were well aware of his ties to organised crime, nobody was allowed to publicly challenge his claim to be a “former criminal.” The media, unaware or unwilling to dig deeper, took him at his word.
SHANE CUTHBERT RUNS FOR SEAT OF CAIRNS IN QLD STATE ELECTION
A few weeks before the October state election, the covert recordings of Shane began circulating online. Links were posted in the comments of rival candidates’ Facebook pages. Shane quickly pressured most of them into removing the links—except for Yolonde Entsch, the LNP candidate. A few days later, she took them down too.
That night, Shane was caught on tape boasting:
“The LNP candidate didn’t want to remove the stuff from her page. I had to successfully blackmail her—I’ve got photos of the wanna-be premier (David Crisafulli), shaking hands with bikies. I might release them before the election.”
He then went into damage control, managing to get the recordings scrubbed from nearly every platform: Blogspot, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Instagram—even Google Drive. But one TikTok account began reposting clips from the A Current Affair segments and snippets of the recordings. The videos went viral, racking up over 2.5 million views in the lead-up to election day.
Some of the viral clips included Shane bragging about being a registered police informant, manipulating officers with false intel, and making “half a mil, maybe more” by trafficking guns and meth into Cairns for an outlaw motorcycle gang.
As the heat intensified, Shane spent most of the final campaign week holed up at Cairns Police Station. He later claimed that police offered him witness protection—but he refused, allegedly because he didn’t want to give up his social media presence.
THE MEDIA WON’T MENTION THE RECORDINGS
In the days leading up to the election, nearly every major media outlet in the country received copies of the recordings. None of them published a story—except Cairns Post journalist Peter Carruthers, who took the time to listen to the full set. Stunned by their contents, he contacted police for comment. They declined. Carruthers prepared a damning article for release on election morning, but the Cairns Post’s legal team pulled it at the last minute, deeming it too risky.
Shane had effectively manipulated them. According to what Shane had told a friend, he was able to make the Cairns Post believe that referencing the recordings might encourage the public to listen—and if people did, they’d hear him openly admit to being a police informant. If that information reached the bikies he was informing on, he argued, it could put his life in danger. He implied that any resulting harm could expose journalists and their publishers to liability.
As a result, Shane Cuthbert was able to run in the Queensland state election portraying himself as a reformed advocate for victims of crime. He claimed to have spent months volunteering to help at-risk youth and even promised to donate his entire parliamentary salary to charity—omitting the fact that the “charity” he planned to donate to was his own fraudulent organisation.
THE ELECTION OUTCOMES
Fortunately, by this point Shane was too afraid to appear in public. He didn’t attend polling booths, nor did he have any volunteers to distribute his “how to vote” cards. As a result, he received very few votes, and with no one to direct preference flows, even the roughly 3% of ballots cast in his favour had no impact on the outcome.
That hasn’t stopped him from claiming otherwise. He’s since told friends that his preferences helped re-elect ALP incumbent Michael Healy—boasting that he now has allies in two out of three levels of government who “owe him.”
SHANE’S REACTION TO THE RECORDINGS BEING LEAKED ONLINE
During this Shane began regularly contacting Stuart’s friend and brother in law who had been Shane’s drug mules back in 2018 and 2019. Shane tried convincing them that Stuart was out to get everyone and that they all needed to band together to protect themselves from Stuart by getting their stories straight and refusing to comment to police or the media about Shane’s history trafficking guns and drugs.
During this time, he revealed to one of Stuart’s friends that he had managed to smooth things over with the bikie club who had heard the recordings of him bragging about snitching on. According to Shane he had managed to organise some new business for them to keep them happy.
A series of these phone calls were recorded and screen shots taken of Shanes messages which included talking about his plans to try to explain away the recordings if anyone asked as being AI. He also revealed his plans to publish a book in the new year aimed at discrediting Berenger to portray himself as the victim.
After the election, the TikTok posts exposing him stopped for a few months.
SHANE CUTHBERT’S PROPOSED BOOK AND BREACHES OF ADVO
In early 2025, Shane focused on rebuilding his online following to promote a book he claimed to be writing, titled Australia’s Most Evil Husband. As screenshots of his posts and replies circulated, a number of his followers began to believe his narrative—that he was the victim of a vast conspiracy involving his ex-wife Berenger, the media, the police, and former friends, all supposedly conspiring against him because they feared his political potential.
To support this version of events, Shane began posting doctored images of his criminal record, claiming he had never been charged with assault or any domestic violence offences. However, dozens of screenshots showing Shane making adverse remarks about Berenger were sent to police. Upon learning he had been reported, he quickly deleted the incriminating posts.
When confronted online by people who mentioned the leaked recordings, Shane claimed the person who released them had since been arrested and was facing life imprisonment. He warned others that sharing the recordings would get them arrested too.
In March, Shane sent a letter to Cairns Magistrates Court complaining that a magistrate had ordered him to leave the courtroom after a domestic violence victim said she felt intimidated by his presence. Shane insisted the decision was discriminatory, framing it as further evidence that he was being persecuted because of his reputation as “Australia’s Most Evil Husband.”
Then in April, new videos began circulating on TikTok and Facebook, including unseen footage from 2017 to 2021 showing Shane behaving erratically, along with clips of the suppressed recordings. One viral video directly compared what Shane told A Current Affair in 2023 about his domestic violence charity with what he had admitted to Stuart just weeks earlier in a recorded call—material the media had refused to air due to Shane’s informant status.
Around this time, Perri Conti came forward to reveal the truth about Shane’s actual involvement—or lack thereof—with the youth hub project. Her admission opened the floodgates, and more people began stepping forward to share their own experiences with Shane.
Below are some of the messages that Shane Cuthbert sent to Perri Conti once he realised that she had finally broken her silence about him:
SHANE CUTHBERT INTIMIDATES TIKTOK CREATORS
On Sunday, 25 May, several TikTok influencers posted videos critical of Shane. In response, he privately messaged user @realityho with a series of threatening DMs. “How’s your partner gonna feel when you tell him I’ve got your address, car make and model, rego, and the kids’ school?” he wrote. “I was thinking about it today… He’s gonna be like, who are you? And I’m gonna be like, oh, hasn’t she told you?” He followed this with: “Did Stuart tell you I was a registered police informant and associated with two of Australia’s largest bikie gangs?”
After several TikTok content creators vowed to come out with videos exposing Shane on a larger scale, Shane responded by going beserk in their comments. When it became apparent that he was not able to adequately intimidate them, he came out with this video on the 29th of May where he warns content creators that if they continue creating content about him, they risk getting their doors kicked in by police and or organised crime figures from the underworld and may end up having to be a witness in a large scale police investigation. However he says he’s not at liberty to divulge the details of the investigation
He then went on to make these comments on the same TikTok, which included suggesting that it would be her who may get arrested should he report him, as he claims that he’s “close with police.”
This is his major concern as Shane has announced his intention to run in the 2028 elections.
A new wave of recordings—documenting conversations between Shane and others from October 2024 to March 2025—is set to be released after he publishes his book.
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