{"id":877504,"date":"2026-06-19T05:07:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877504\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T05:07:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:07:27","slug":"afl-matriarch-helped-dezi-freemans-wife-get-to-australia-stored-familys-guns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/877504\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL matriarch helped Dezi Freeman’s wife get to Australia, stored family’s guns"},"content":{"rendered":"

The matriarch of a prominent AFL family whose properties have been twice raided by police has detailed the long friendship she shared with police killer Dezi Freeman, which included organising travel for his wife to come to Australia and later storing his family’s guns.<\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with the ABC, Kay Reid, the mother of premiership players Ben and Sam Reid, said she and her husband Bruce’s deep ties with Freeman’s family dated back two decades, but denied ever helping or harbouring Freeman while he was on the run.<\/p>\n

Ms Reid said she facilitated Freeman’s wife, Mali, coming to Australia through her travel agency.<\/p>\n

“We were friends as the whole community were \u2026 within Porepunkah and Bright and the greater north-east,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dezi Freeman was on the verge of having his stash of child abuse material uncovered when he opened fire on police. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

In a sign of their friendship, Ms Reid said they had previously stored the Freemans’ registered guns at their property in a safe within a locked shed, and kept the family’s storage container on their land.<\/p>\n

“As you do to help people out when they are stuck,” Ms Reid said.<\/p>\n

Ms Reid confirmed in both an interview with the ABC and podcast that guns belonging to Dezi Freeman were stored on her property.<\/p>\n

However, she subsequently claimed on Friday the gun safe belonged to his wife Mali.<\/p>\n

Dezi Freeman killed two police officers in Porepunkah in the state’s north-east in August last year. He evaded police for seven months before he was shot dead by officers in a stand-off in March on a property near the NSW border.<\/p>\n

There has been intense focus on Ms Reid and her husband Bruce’s links to the Freemans after it emerged their Buckland home was searched this week<\/a> by Victoria Police officers from Taskforce Summit, who are investigating Freeman’s movements.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police speak to Bruce Reid while searching the couple’s Buckland home on Tuesday. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Ms Reid spoke about the incident on a podcast she co-hosts, on which she regularly shares scepticism about vaccines and COVID-19, which she refers to as the “plandemic”.<\/p>\n

It was not the first time the couple was raided \u2014 just hours after Freeman fled into the bush, their holiday rental house and cabins, also in Buckland, were searched.<\/p>\n

Ms Reid told the ABC the couple was fishing in the Gulf of Carpentaria when the shooting occurred, and later received a call from police in the early hours of the following morning.<\/p>\n

\"Broken<\/p>\n

Kay Reid says her holiday cabins were damaged when police raided her Buckland property. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

She claimed police caused $26,000 in damage during their search, including by shattering a glass door and burning the carpet with stun grenades, for which she said the couple was compensated.<\/p>\n

Ms Reid said her husband informed police they had stored the Freemans’ guns on their property.<\/p>\n

“Bruce rang them and told them they better go and check,” she said.<\/p>\n

In a podcast published in February, Ms Reid expressed surprise to her co-host that police raided their holiday rental before the property where they stored the guns on behalf of the Freemans.<\/p>\n

The co-host said: “Now, someone’s brought your [police] attention to the fact that there are guns that were owned by Dezi in a locked box on your property.”<\/p>\n

Ms Reid responded: “That were there, yep.”<\/p>\n

In the interview with the ABC, Ms Reid rejected any suggestion that the couple had ever aided Freeman.<\/p>\n

“We had nothing to do with it \u2026 as if we’re going to do that, as if we would’ve assisted, spare me,” Ms Reid said.<\/p>\n

“[The] shooting of a police officer or anyone of that matter is the wrong thing to do \u2026 however, why? What led him to do it, isn’t that the question we should ask to stop violence?”<\/p>\n

In August 2025, 10 police officers went to the bus that Freeman and his family used as a home to execute a search warrant for electronic devices.<\/p>\n

Do you know more?<\/strong><\/p>\n