AFP federal agent Justin Trembath became the case officer for Mr Turner’s original arrest in Australia.

“I haven’t previously investigated a job like this but I know there have been instances in Australia where there have been family members and close associates helping persons that were on bail leave the jurisdiction,” he said.

“I’ve been based in Brisbane since 2002, so I’ve worked on a lot of organised crime investigations ... I’ve never had a defendant flee overseas whilst on bail awaiting his trial.”

From a Philippine jail, where he has access to the internet, Mr Turner spoke to the Brisbane Times via WhatsApp as he fought extradition back to Australia.

“I believe it was to satisfy their bruised egos and show some sort of result,” he said.

“Mum was also the money earner after my escape and arresting her four years after my escape and her alleged involvement in that serves their purpose. Cut off his funding and support.

“Most of the evidence against Mum was my actions, not hers.

“The AFP and [the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions] muddled the water and blurred the two together and the jury bought it.”

Elizabeth Turner was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice and giving false testimony in Mackay District Court on November 12, 2020.

Prosecutors alleged she helped her son buy and insure the Shangri-La, before falsely stating it had been destroyed. It was also alleged she withdrew cash and travelled with her son’s wife and children to Poland to remove them from the jurisdiction.

In April 2016, Mrs Turner gave a sworn testimony in the Supreme Court in Brisbane that her son died by suicide.

Still very much alive, Mr Turner told Brisbane Times he was worried about his mother in prison, because of her serious health issues, and that he was shattered by the guilty verdict.

“Everything that the AFP and CDPP accused her of at trial was countered with evidence and witnesses to prove otherwise,” he said.

“She simply shouldn’t have been convicted.”

Elizabeth Turner grew up in Mount Garnet and met her husband, Darryl Turner, who was in the army in north Queensland, at a country festival when she was 18.

With their two children, they left Mount Garnet to follow Darryl’s construction work across Queensland before settling in Moranbah.

During her trial, Mrs Turner said it “broke [her] heart” when she was charged.

“Well, I was really struggling and the only thing that kept me going was my granddaughter ... I had to keep my marbles, as they say,” she said.

“And that was all that really kept me going.”

Daughter-in-law Magdalena Turner, who lives in Poland with her two children, said thinking of Mrs Turner reduced her to tears.

“My seven-year-old daughter, Lili, prays every night asking Lord to look after her Nana, so she is safe, and she comes to stay with us forever,” she said.

“I know that someone in Mackay got two years for manslaughter. She was sentenced for four years for love.”

But Federal Agent Trembath said the case against Mrs Turner took several years to build.

“Initially the investigation started with trying to locate Markis and it was during that investigation that myself and other federal agents identified Elizabeth Turner’s involvement in his absconding from Australia,” he said.

Federal Agent Trembath said federal agents made hundreds of inquiries into Mr Turner’s disappearance and that helped identify the name of the yacht he used to escape.

“That assisted us with tracking him down but also the ownership and purchase of the yacht played a key part of the evidence that convicted Elizabeth,” he said.

“We honed in on where he might have been once we found the yacht.”

When asked how he felt about the guilty verdict, Federal Agent Trembath shrugged off the question.

“We’re just doing our job,” he said.

“We didn’t start out with any preconceived ideas about who may have assisted him. We just follow where the evidence goes.

“To a certain extent, I understand it was his mother but I think sometimes you have to think about the potential consequences.

“The decisions that Elizabeth then made impacted herself but also her entire family.”

An appeal against Mrs Turner’s guilty verdict has been filed.