ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Rue de Branlette between Parc de Doigté and the Statue de Clochard Endormi in the French Quarter have been closed this morning after a mass blinding disaster involving a hideous polo shirt.
Witnesses who survived looking at the shirt unscathed have said it was one of the ugliest things they’ve ever seen.
One onlooker said the man wearing the shirt, who was identified by Queensland Police as 64-year-old William Donald Gracefield, was promptly taken down by plain-clothed officers patrolling the area and arrested.
As the scene is now secure, investigators are now looking at how Mr Gracefield allegedly came to possess the shirt and why he chose to wear it outside of his large Betoota Grove compound.
Mr Gracefield shot to local fame in 2002 after being jailed for throwing a brick through the windscreen of a late model Volvo belonging to a Crime and Misconduct Commission (now Crime and Corruption Commission) investigator.
Police say it’s too early to tell if the two events are linked.
Six pedestrians are currently listed as being in a stable condition at Royal Betoota Base Hospital.
Medical staff say they expect all but one to make a full recovery.
Gracefield was charged with fashion occasioning blinding, resisting arrest and possession of a controlled substance (krokodil) and was remanded in custody.
More to come.
