{"id":925211,"date":"2026-10-12T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925211\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T08:38:11","slug":"boyfriend-of-murdered-backpacker-simone-strobel-sues-nsw-police-over-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/925211\/","title":{"rendered":"Boyfriend of murdered backpacker Simone Strobel sues NSW Police over arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The boyfriend of a German backpacker murdered in northern New South Wales 20 years ago is suing the NSW Police Force.<\/p>\n

Tobias Moran, formerly known as Tobias Suckfuell, has alleged police maliciously targeted him rather than searching for the truth about how the woman died.<\/p>\n

He was charged in 2022 over the death of 25-year-old Simone Strobel, whose naked body was found near the Lismore caravan park they were staying at in February 2005.<\/p>\n

Mr Moran spent 10 days in custody and 10 months adhering to bail conditions before the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew the charges.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tobias Moran has always denied killing Simone Strobel. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

The court ordered the state of NSW to pay Mr Moran’s legal costs of $190,000.<\/p>\n

Mr Moran has now filed civil proceedings in the NSW District Court against the NSW Police for malicious prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, Mr Moran challenged the police motive for the arrest.<\/p>\n

“This is an important step towards clearing my name and holding the relevant NSW police officers to account for what I believe was a prosecution driven by improper motives rather than a pursuit of the truth,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Simone Strobel was killed in Lismore in February 2005. \u00a0 (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

Death in Lismore<\/p>\n

Simone Strobel disappeared from the Lismore Tourist Caravan Park near the city’s CBD on Friday, February 11, 2005.<\/p>\n

She had been staying their her then-boyfriend, Tobias Moran, his sister, Katrin Suckfuell, and their friend, Jens Martin.<\/p>\n

They reported her missing when she failed to return from a walk after a disagreement.<\/p>\n

Six days later, Ms Strobel’s body was discovered under palm fronds at a bocce court, less than 100 metres from their campsite.<\/p>\n

In late 2025, State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan overturned the findings of a previous inques<\/a>t.<\/p>\n

She found that while Mr Moran could not be completely ruled out as a suspect, it was unlikely he could have killed Ms Strobel without help.<\/p>\n

“It is unlikely that Mr [Jens] Martin and Ms [Katrin] Suckfuell were involved in Simone’s death; and secondly, it is unlikely that Mr Moran could have acted alone in killing Simone and disposing of her body,” Ms O’Sullivan said in handing down her findings.<\/p>\n

“I do not, however, accept that the evidence goes so far as to support a finding by me that it is very unlikely Mr Moran was involved in Simone’s death”.<\/p>\n

\"image<\/p>\n

CCTV shows the last moment Simone Strobel was seen alive outside the Gollan Hotel in Lismore. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

Mr Moran spoke to the ABC about the unsolved murder earlier this year for the Unravel: Lies in Lismore podcast.<\/p>\n

He told ABC journalist Richard Baker he was innocent and that police developed “tunnel vision” about him at the expense of finding Ms Strobel’s killer.<\/p>\n

“Crucial evidence has not been considered,” Mr Moran said in the podcast.<\/p>\n

“They’ve been on the wrong track for 20 f***ing years \u2026 I think the Australian public has a right to know that this is a full Muppet show.”<\/p>\n

Listen to the podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the 7-part Unravel series on the case of German backpacker Simone Strobel.<\/p>\n

Stewart O’Connell is representing Mr Moran in the civil action.<\/p>\n

He said in a statement that Mr Moran had “consistently maintained his innocence of this horrific crime”.<\/p>\n

“There has never been any convincing evidence of his involvement,” Mr O’Connell said.<\/p>\n

“He has had to endure both the shock and pain of Simone’s death and the devastation and distress of being blamed, arrested and detained for it.<\/p>\n

“These proceedings will examine the investigation and prosecution of Mr Moran and, if found to be improperly motivated, will ensure that Mr Moran receives some justice.”<\/p>\n

Mr O’Connell said compensation was being sought for Mr Moran, but had not put a figure on the amount being sought.<\/p>\n

Mr Moran said he hoped the court action would bring renewed focus on the investigation into Ms Strobel’s death.<\/p>\n

“She was a very special person who deserved better, and her family deserves better,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Everyone impacted by Simone’s death and the aftermath deserves some answers and closure.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, NSW Police said it was aware of the court action, but declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The civil case has been listed in the NSW District Court for January 27, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The boyfriend of a German backpacker murdered in northern New South Wales 20 years ago is suing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,352498,1108,40792,44,1158,492981,492979,492980,492978],"class_list":["post-925211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-civil-action","tag-court","tag-lismore","tag-news","tag-police","tag-police-sued","tag-simone-strobel","tag-tobias-moran","tag-unsolved-murder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}