Cattle rustling: Two of three men accused of stealing 306 cattle from Louisa Downs station plead not guilty

Three men accused of stealing hundreds of livestock worth more than $250,000 from an Aboriginal station in the Kimberley region in October 2022 have fronted court, with two of the accused pleading not guilty. Kevin Junior Cox, 39, from Fitzroy Crossing and William Revans Cook, 42, and Nathaniel Dion Shaw, 41, from the Northern Territory appeared before Fitzroy Crossing Magistrates Court on July 9 charged with one count of stealing. Mr Cook and Mr Cox entered pleas of not guilty, and Mr Shaw is yet to enter a plea. Between October 12 and October 24 2022, it is claimed 306 cattle were stolen from Louisa Downs Pastoral Aboriginal Corporation, a large cattle station midway between Fitzroy Crossing and Halls Creek, and trucked to a property in the Northern Territory. Police claim the men organised an illegal muster of the station by setting up camp and using earth-moving machinery to create a road near the neighbouring Mount Pierre Pastoral Aboriginal Corporation Station. From there it is claimed a portable set of cattle yards was erected at the location to facilitate mustering without permission. Police say one of the charged men organised the muster by using two helicopters and a ground crew, which used bull-catching buggies. The 306 cattle mustered from Mount Pierre Station were then trucked to a set of cattle yards and were tagged as coming from Louisa Downs. Following a request from officers attached to the WA Police rural crime team, which was formed to tackle theft and other crimes in the State’s $9 billion farming industry, NT Police executed an extra-territorial search warrant at a property on the Adelaide River on January 18. Rural crime team officers were able to identify that some of the cattle at the property had been sold and exported. Police said the average price for the cattle sold at the time was $827.09 per head, and placed the total value of the cattle stolen at $253,089.54. It has been further alleged part of the proceeds of the sales were deposited into several accounts of the accused people over several months. The 41-year-old is due to reappear in Fitzroy Crossing Magistrates Court on August 6, while the 42-year-old and the 39-year-old men will reappear on October 1.