2026.8.3 Boy, 13, dead after stolen car crashes near Newcastle
A 13-year-old boy has died and three teenagers arrested after a stolen car crashed near Newcastle on Monday morning.
The boy was travelling in a Toyota Kluger that is believed to have been stolen between Sunday night and Monday morning from the Swansea area, south of Newcastle.
2026.8.3 Alan Jones in court on first day of indecent assault and sexual touching trial
In short:
Alan Jones is on trial for indecent assault and sexual touching allegations relating to six male complainants.
The 85-year-old radio veteran denies any wrongdoing.
What’s next?
The high-profile trial is expected to feature more than 70 witnesses and run for several weeks.
A court has heard veteran broadcaster Alan Jones allegedly kissed a year 12 student who he had invited to his property at Fitzroy Falls in the Southern Highlands.
Mr Jones on Monday arrived at court for the first day of his indecent assault and sexual touching trial.
After a series of pre-trial hearings where some charges were either dropped or reduced, Mr Jones now faces 22 charges relating to six male complainants, 20 counts of assault with act of indecency, and two counts of sexual touching.
The incidents are alleged to have happened between 2003 and 2020, at Mr Jones’s apartment inside “The Toaster” on Macquarie Street, at a public event, or at his now-former property at Fitzroy Falls.
The 85-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies any wrongdoing.
Barrister Georgina Wright SC opened the prosecution case by describing in detail the alleged offending against Complainant J.
Ms Wright told the court he met Mr Jones as a teenager, while he was a promising young athlete.
2026.8.2 Shop worker attacked while attempting to stop robbery
A shop worker remains in a critical condition after he was allegedly attacked by teenagers in Melbourne’s west.
Shop owners said the 60-year-old man from Hong Hung grocer attempted to stop four teenagers who allegedly stole from a clothes shop in Sunshine on Saturday.
In short:
A video of two former Sydney nurses allegedly being menacing towards Israeli patients will now be allowed as evidence.
An appeal was successful in overturning a decision by the District Court of NSW to exclude the video.
What’s next?
The two former Bankstown nurses are due to stand trial at the end of August.
Video evidence previously ruled inadmissible will be allowed in the trial of two former Sydney nurses accused of making menacing comments about Israelis, following a Court of Appeal judgement.
Two former Bankstown Hospital nurses, Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, have pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace and harass, following a conversation with an Israeli influencer on the cam chat app Chatruletka in February last year.
Ms Abu Lebdeh has pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of threatening violence to a group, after allegedly making threats to Israeli patients during the chat.
2026.7.31 Woman accused of wearing Hezbollah flag shown CCTV
A young woman fighting accusations that she displayed a terrorist organisation’s symbol at a protest has watched CCTV footage of herself draped in a flag.
Sarah Mouhanna was charged with displaying the banned Hezbollah flag at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney’s city centre on September 29, 2024.
The 20-year-old has pleaded not guilty to public display of a prohibited terrorist symbol, and is the first person to contest the national laws introduced in 2023.
The case continued at Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday where she watched as prosecutors played video footage of her at the protest.
It showed her in a large crowd wearing a flag draped across her back.
Organisers with ‘Palestine Action Group’ written on the back of orange vests appeared to approach Mouhanna in the footage.
She then appeared with the flag folded at her side and speaking to police Chief Inspector Nicole Roach.
The officer told the court it was a Hezbollah flag and that prior to the footage being recorded she saw Mouhanna holding it in the air.
“The marshalls have already spoken to me and told me to put it away… I didn’t know you couldn’t have it,” Chief Inspector Roach said Mouhanna told her.
She added the two of them came to an agreement that Mouhanna would get a plastic bag to place it in.
Mouhanna’s barrister Thomas Woods said that several others were seen displaying Hezbollah’s official ensign – a yellow banner featuring an arm raising an assault rifle.
He asked Detective Sergeant Benjamin Meizer, who was in charge of reviewing the CCTV footage why she was the only person charged that day.
Police had warned others displaying Hezbollah symbols to stop doing so and they seemed to have complied, Detective Seargent Meizer responded.
2026.7.31 Trial for mum, daughter over alleged Islamic State time
Two accused ISIS brides have been committed to stand trial as their cases are fast-tracked to the Supreme Court.
Kawsar Ahmad, 54, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court via video link on Friday as they entered their “not guilty” pleas.
The two women were charged with slavery offences in May after returning to Australia with other family members of former Islamic State fighters.
It’s alleged Kawsar migrated overseas to join IS with her husband Mohammed, Zeinab and their other children about January 2015.
It’s alleged while in Syria in 2017, Mohammed bought a teenage girl as a slave for $US10,000.
The girl was repeatedly raped and beaten by Mohammed, including an incident where she was hit and dragged down two flights of stairs by the hair, the court was told.
It’s alleged Kawsar agreed to the purchase and then treated the girl badly, often threatening her with beatings or the prospect of being sold.
Prosecutors do not accuse Zeinab of assaulting the girl but the teen has claimed she was “treated very badly” by the younger woman.
The two women each made a bid for bail in June but only Kawsar was successful, with a magistrate finding she posed a very low risk to the community.
Zeinab was refused bail because there was no compelling evidence she had renounced the terrorist group.
Kawsar watched Friday’s court hearing on a video link from home while Zeinab appeared remotely from the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre.
The two women only spoke during the brief hearing to confirm their pleas of “not guilty”.
Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan said the Victorian Supreme Court had accepted their cases under the so-called “fast-track” procedure.
Judge Hannan formally committed the Ahmads to stand trial in the higher court, with a directions hearing set down for August.
Kawsar’s bail was extended to her Supreme Court date, with conditions including a prohibition from attending any mosques to continue.
Zeinab was remanded in custody after not making any further bail applications.
2026.7.31 Shakira Adams to have jail sentence reduced over killing of Matthew McLuckie in drug-fuelled crash
In short:
The ACT Court of Appeal will re-sentence Shakira Adams after prosecutors found her offending was not in the worst category of culpable driving.
Adams was originally jailed for 14 years after driving a stolen car at up to 186km/h before killing 20-year-old Matthew McLuckie in a head-on crash.
What’s next?
The court will hand down Adams’s reduced sentence at a later date.
The speeding drug-driver who received the maximum penalty for killing Matthew McLuckie in a head-on crash in Canberra’s south four years ago will have her sentence reduced.
Warning: This story contains a confronting image of a car crash.
Shakira Adams, 24, was sentenced to 14 years’ jail, with a nine-year non-parole period after pleading guilty to culpable driving causing the death of the 20-year-old in May 2022.
The ACT Court of Appeal is set to re-sentence Adams after the Director of Public Prosecutions conceded the offending did not fall within the “worst category” of culpable driving.
While both parties agreed Adams should be re-sentenced, they disagreed over how much weight should be given to her disadvantaged background, traumatic brain injury, guilty plea and new evidence about her conditions in custody.
Driver was unlicensed, affected by drugs
Adams was 19 when she drove a stolen car almost 20 kilometres across Canberra before crashing head-on into Mr McLuckie’s vehicle on Hindmarsh Drive as he drove home from work in 2022.
The ACT Supreme Court found she was unlicensed, affected by methamphetamine and travelling at up to 186 kilometres per hour and on the wrong side of the road immediately before the crash.
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum sentenced Adams to the rare maximum penalty for culpable driving causing death, describing the offending as “one of the utmost seriousness”.
She found Adams’s driving had placed other road users at risk “almost every second” during the journey.
While Adams suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in the crash she caused, the court heard she continued using methamphetamine afterwards, which the chief justice said made her a “significant danger to society” and “more dangerous” than she had been at the time of the crash.
“I cannot be confident that Ms Adams would not attempt to drive if she were at liberty in the community. That is a risk that cannot be taken, and will not be taken through me,” she said.
Sentence ‘excessive’: defence lawyer
Adams’s barrister, Kristin Edwards SC, argued the original 14-year sentence was “manifestly excessive” and said greater weight should be given to Adams’s disadvantaged upbringing, youth, traumatic brain injury and prospects of rehabilitation.
She relied on new evidence, including an ACT Corrective Services report that found Adams’s placement in the Alexander Maconochie Centre’s management unit breached her human rights and risked exacerbating her brain injury.
She told the court her client remained housed in segregation in the management unit because she could not safely be accommodated in the general prison population, leaving her in a “punitive environment”, “lonely and isolated” from other prisoners.
Ms Edwards said the unit was not designed for female inmates or long-term accommodation and was usually used as a form of punishment or protection.
She argued Adams’s traumatic brain injury and complex medical needs, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychiatric care, could not be adequately managed there.
The court heard Adams had experienced panic attacks and engaged in self-harm because “she hoped she’d die”.
Ms Edwards argued the risks identified at Adams’s original sentencing had “now crystallised”.
She said hopes Adams could be transferred to a more suitable interstate facility had not materialised, and a transfer also did not guarantee she would receive better care.
Ms Edwards also challenged Chief Justice McCallum’s finding that Adams remained a danger to the community, describing it as “particularly puzzling” and urged the sentencing judges to consider her adverse childhood.
“She’s a 19-year-old who was from a disadvantaged background. She’s at a very early stage to be considered someone who is beyond hope, who is beyond redemption,” she said.
Reduced sentence to be handed down
Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions Elizabeth Ruddle SC accepted Adams’s disadvantaged background and cognitive impairment reduced her moral culpability and agreed the case did not fall within the worst category of culpable driving.
However, she argued those factors did not diminish the objective seriousness of the offending.
In the nine minutes before the crash, Adams was seen travelling at extreme speeds, ran a red light, drove on the wrong side of the road and overtook other vehicles.
“Due to the appellant’s extreme recklessness, a young law-abiding citizen is dead,” she said.
“The driving conducted in this case was at the extreme end of culpable driving.
“Given the nature of the driving, it’s surprising it took nine minutes for a fatal collision to occur.”
The prosecution did not dispute the ACT Corrective Services report that found Adams’s placement in the Alexander Maconochie Centre’s management unit breached her human rights, but argued it was a “technical breach” that arose from her placement.
Ms Ruddle said authorities continued to pursue a transfer to New South Wales, where specialist treatment remained available, and argued Adams’s rehabilitation prospects remained uncertain because of her cognitive impairment and history of dangerous driving.
Justices David Mossop, Darryl Rangiah and Andrew Muller reserved their decision, with a new sentence to be handed down at a later date.x1200
Here are the ways Violet once believed the world worked.
Aged 19, she believed the renowned street artist Anthony Lister would take her on as an apprentice.
Aged 23, she believed him when he allegedly agreed to seek help for his drug use in return for her silence — justice enough, she thought, for an encounter she described as rape.
Later, Violet, whose last name has been withheld for her family’s privacy, believed making an informal report about that night in December, 2016, might help her access mental health support.
And when police encouraged her to join other women and formalise a statement against the man sometimes described as Australia’s Banksy, she believed the process would be fast, straightforward and fair.
Mr Lister has always strenuously denied any wrongdoing and was acquitted of all charges against him in 2025.
Violet, now 30, has accepted the findings of the court.
But her participation in the case against Mr Lister has drastically changed her understanding of how police and court systems work, leading her to take the extraordinary step of revealing herself as one of the artist’s five accusers in the hope that sharing her experience can help others on the same path.
“There are so many things that I could have done differently had I been offered more knowledge and more information about what I was agreeing to do,” Violet said.
‘Felt like a bit of a chess piece’
Violet contacted the Sexual Assault Reporting Option (SARO) in 2019 to disclose the 2016 encounter in the hope the NSW Police-linked service could connect her with mental health support.
At the time, she said she was struggling to understand what had happened, had intense feelings of shame, and was engaging in “silly behaviours” to cope.
2026.7.29 New twist in 22-year cold case mystery over ‘Echo Point Man’
Police have released a fresh appeal for information in identifying a man who was found dead in a tourist hotspot west of Sydney more than 20 years ago.
New DNA evidence has been released in the case of the ‘Echo point man’, who was found in dense bushland near Echo Point in Katoomba, a popular tourist spot in the Blue Mountains, on June 4, 2004.
2026.7.29 Katanning hostel rapist Dennis McKenna set to be released from jail under strict conditions
In short:
One of WA’s worst serial paedophiles, Dennis McKenna, is expected to be released from prison under strict supervision later this year.
The 81-year-old, who abused dozens of boys at a regional hostel, is nearing the end of his 15-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
What’s next?
Both the prosecution and defence agree McKenna is a high-risk offender, with a final decision on his future to be made at a later hearing.
One of Western Australia’s worst serial paedophiles appears set to be released from prison under strict supervision, as prosecutors argue he is a high-risk serious offender.
Dennis John McKenna abused dozens of boys in the 1970s and 80s while in charge of St Andrew’s Hostel, a student boarding accommodation facility in the town of Katanning, about 290 kilometres south-east of Perth.
McKenna’s brazen and repetitive offending was revealed over the course of four separate court cases between 1991 and 2015.
He was denied parole in 2024, and prosecutors have since sought to have the serial paedophile declared a High Risk Serious Offender (HRSO), which could have kept the octogenarian behind bars for the rest of his life.
In court today, the prosecution argued McKenna should be declared an HRSO, but could be released from prison under strict conditions.
That could happen as soon as November, as McKenna completes his 15-and-a-half-year sentence.
Reoffending risk ‘low’ despite ‘distorted views’
McKenna, 81, watched on via video link from Acacia Prison dressed in a green jumper with short, thinning grey hair. He spoke only to confirm his name.
Prosecutor Brett Tooker told the court McKenna posed “an unacceptable risk that he will commit a serious offence … against a male child.”
2026.7.26 Call for action after two machete attacks in one night on Melbourne corner
2026.7.24 Jumping castle maker queries inquest involvement
Addison, Jye, Zane, Jalailah, Peter and Chace were tragically killed in a jumping castle mishap. (PR IMAGE PHOTO)
The maker of a jumping castle at the centre of the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy has questioned why it has been involved in lengthy investigations.
Students Chace Harrison, Jalailah Jayne-Maree Jones, Zane Mellor, Addison Stewart, Jye Sheehan and Peter Dodt died after the incident in Tasmania’s northwest on December 16, 2021.
The children, aged between 11 and 12, were enjoying end-of-year celebrations on the oval of Hillcrest Primary School when a wind gust lifted the castle and several inflatable balls in the air.
A judicial inquiry into the convictions of the so called “Croatian Six” over an alleged terrorist plot in Sydney has found three of the men may be innocent, 45 years after they were jailed.
The “Croatian Six” were accused of a conspiracy to bomb several Sydney buildings in 1979, including a Balkan travel agency and a Newtown theatre, and accused of targeting the local Yugoslavian community during Croatia’s struggle for independence.
After one of the country’s longest running trials, Maksimilian Bebic, Mile Nekic, Vjekoslav Brajkovic, Anton Zvirotic, Ilija Kokotovic and Joseph Kokotovic were jailed in 1981 for 15 years.
A NSW judicial probe into the convictions was launched in 2022, decades after media investigations aired suggestions that evidence against the men was planted or fabricated.
A 584-page report handed down on Monday has found the initial investigation into the men was riddled with “procedural irregularities and police misconduct”, and the convictions of three men was a “longstanding injustice”.
“The inquiry concluded there is reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Joseph Kokotovic, Ilija Kokotovic and Mile Nekic,” Acting Justice Robert Allan Hulme stated in the report.
“But there is no reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Maksimilian Bebic, Vjekoslav Brajkovic and Anton Zvirotic.”
The matter will be referred to the Criminal Court of Appeal for consideration of whether the three convictions in doubt should be quashed.
ABC’s Four Corners raises concerns
All six of the Croatian men have maintained their innocence and claim they were set up by the Yugoslavian secret police.
A 1991 Four Corners episode interviewed several of the accused men after they had been freed from jail, and aired allegations that some of the bomb making materials had been planted by NSW Police.
The 1979 raid on the men’s homes was led by the late and now-disgraced NSW Police detective Roger Rogerson, who later told Four Corners that police had a practice of planting guns, explosives or drugs on “people who were overstepping the mark”, “causing problems” or “getting out of line”.
Allegations of fabrication were also canvassed in the trial.
The judicial review also raised concerns about the veracity of the main Crown witness, Yugoslav “patriot” Vico Virkez, who had pretended to be Croatian to befriend some of the six.
In February 1979 he contacted police in Lithgow, in the Central Tablelands, with a tip-off about the supposed planned terrorist attacks, naming Bebic, Brajkovic and Zvirotic, but not the Kokotovic brothers or Mr Nekic.
The report found police and prosecutors knew at the time of the trial that Mr Virkez was connected to the Yugoslav consulate, but withheld that information.
The three men recommended for exoneration were living together in Burwood in Sydney’s inner west, and while they had attended Croatian independence protests they denied knowing the other three men and any involvement in the bomb plot.
A fight for justice
The Croation Six were all released on parole before their 15-year sentence was up, with most serving seven or eight years behind bars.
In 1982 the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed appeals against conviction and refused applications for leave to appeal against the sentence.
Then in 1986 the High Court also refused leave to appeal.
Forty years after their arrest, in 2021, three of the men made an application for judicial appeal to the Supreme Court of NSW, which led to these recommendations.
The report noted that Ilija Kokotovic and Joseph Kokotovic played no part in seeking the present Inquiry, nor responded to invitations to take part in the hearings, and that Mile Nekic was now deceased.
She was arrested after allegedly trying to influence a key witness in her son’s upcoming trial.
The mother of accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon has used the cover of darkness to walk free from a Sydney jail after two months behind bars.
Dressed in a white hoodie, Coleen Lamarre was collected by her husband from Sydney’s Dillwynia Correctional Centre shortly before 7pm on Tuesday.
The 63-year-old has been charged with doing an act with the intent of perverting the course of justice over allegations she persuaded a witness in her son’s trial to give a false statement.
She has not yet entered pleas to the charge.
Coleen was released by a judge in the NSW Supreme Court on strict conditions on Tuesday amid tears and gasps in the courtroom.
“Thank you,” one supporter said quietly.
Lamarre has spent more than two months behind bars on remand after she was arrested in April.
She is relieved to have been granted bail, her lawyer John Walford told reporters outside the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Her son is set to stand trial in the same court in September.
Beau Lamarre-Condon is alleged to have fatally fired his service pistol at TV presenter Jesse Baird and his flight attendant partner Luke Davies at their Sydney home in 2024.
Prosecutors allege the former police officer bundled their bodies into surfboard bags and dumped them at a rural property in Bungonia near Goulburn.
The men’s bodies were found eight days later after an extensive search.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, who briefly dated Baird, has pleaded not guilty to their murders.
He joined the force in 2019 and was the first serving NSW police officer charged with murder in decades.
The then-senior constable was charged and eventually sacked by NSW Police after handing himself in.
He faces two counts of domestic violence-related murder and aggravated break and enter and his case will return to court later in July.
The criminal proceedings have become among the most high-profile in NSW in recent years, with suggestions hundreds of witnesses could be called to testify at trial.
An accused graffiti vandal who allegedly demanded a sandwich to end an eight-hour stand-off atop the Bolte Bridge will remain behind bars.
Jack Gibson-Burrell, 22, allegedly climbed a giant concrete pillar to spray-paint a giant Pam the Bird tag early on Tuesday morning.
Police say he refused to follow their directions to come down. While he was on the bridge, he allegedly posted regular updates to an Instagram account with the biography “#notcomingdown”. The account now has 23,000 followers.
In the hours that followed, Gibson-Burrell claimed he would not emerge until taxes were lowered (without specifying which taxes), and then added a peanut butter and jam sandwich to his list of demands.
In an update posted shortly after 9am, wearing a yellow flower-like symbol on his balaclava, Gibson-Burrell declared he was still “patiently” waiting for the sandwich, holding his phone with one hand and flashing a peace sign with the other.
A final video, posted about 10.30am, showed him doing a dance with his hands on his knees.
In earlier videos, he appeared to be atop the bridge’s eastern concrete stack, looking down on several emergency vehicles and the road. Another video showed the man gleefully swinging his feet up and down while sitting on the pillar, soundtracked by Lesley Gore’s Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows.
He also wrote that he “might have a quick nap” and “wouldn’t mind a blankey, it’s kind of cold”.
Late on Tuesday, police confirmed Gibson-Burrell had been interviewed and charged with 13 offences including contravening bail conditions, committing an indictable offence while on bail, burglary, criminal damage, conduct endangering life and conduct endangering serious injury.
He has also been charged with graffiti-related offences, and appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday evening.
Dressed in a police-issued white jumpsuit and sitting with his arms crossed, Gibson-Burrell was silent as his lawyer told the court he would not be applying for bail.
When asked if he needed any custodial management considerations, Gibson-Burrell’s lawyer suggested he “might be a little bit hungry”.
“I’m sure they will sort that,” the magistrate said.
Gibson-Burrell was remanded in custody to appear in court on these charges again in September.
The 22-year-old is already on bail after pleading not guilty to more than 200 charges that he caused $700,000 in damage by vandalising property across Melbourne.
Gibson-Burrell’s bail conditions had included living with his grandmother in Geelong, complying with a nightly curfew and not possessing abseiling or graffiti-related items. His friend, Finlay Dale, posted a $30,000 surety for his release, which he is now in danger of forfeiting after Gibson-Burrell’s alleged Bolte Bridge antics.
No date for his trial has been set.
One inbound lane of the Bolte Bridge was closed during Tuesday’s morning peak-hour commute as authorities tried to convince Gibson-Burrell to come down.
Acting Inspector Darren Wallis alleged the intruder broke into the base of the tower and climbed up a system of internal ladders.
“It was a particularly precarious situation, quite dangerous to the accused person, as well as to police, and it was difficult for us to negotiate that safe conclusion, but we got there,” he said.
Wallis also said police were unable to communicate with Gibson-Burrell the entire time he was on the pillar, and at times were worried that motorists were stopping on the Bolte Bridge to see what was happening above.
“There will be increased patrols and more police around the area, absolutely,” he said. “It’s a really dangerous environment for anyone to operate in, so we would really be encouraging people not to even think about that, so not just for the offender, but for the police as well.”
Wallis said the incident had needed a considerable police response and would ultimately cost taxpayers to remove the graffiti.
It’s understood that the cost of removing the graffiti could run into the tens of thousands of dollars, with the timeframe for removal as yet unknown, but likely to involve another lane closure.
Transurban owns and operates the CityLink road that includes the bridge, and previously cleaned similar graffiti off the “cheese stick” sculpture further north on the same highway in 2024.
The mercury dropped to 4 degrees on Tuesday morning as fog smothered the top of the bridge’s 140-metre-high concrete pillars.
NSW Police have defended the conduct of an officer who was filmed appearing to repeatedly punch a man he had pinned to the ground on a Sydney train platform.
The six-second clip was taken at Cabramatta train station on Tuesday evening and appears to have been filmed using a phone by an onlooker on board a train on the opposite platform.
In the footage, the police officer appears to pin the 21-year-old face-down on the ground with one knee and throw five punches of increasing intensity at the man’s upper body.
After the final strike, the man lifts his arms out from underneath him and raises them above his head.
The footage has been shared on a local community Facebook page, sparking hundreds of responses over the use of force.
NSW Police have released a statement defending the officer’s actions as an “approved manoeuvre” to apprehend the man, who had been reported to police as being armed with a knife and who had repeatedly refused to show his hands.
Police said the clip was “an isolated moment” of a larger police response, which began at 5.10pm when officers were first alerted to an assault at the nearby Canley Vale train station.
Police were told a man allegedly armed with a knife was acting aggressively towards female commuters on the platform.
When a 46-year-old man tried to intervene, police say he was allegedly assaulted by the man.
The suspect then boarded a train to Cabramatta Train Station, where he got out and allegedly again threatened commuters.
When police arrived and spotted by the man, he tried to run and a short chase ensued before he was caught and pinned to the ground on the platform.
“During the arrest, police directed the man to show his hands multiple times, following the reports from members of the public that he was in possession of a knife,” the NSW Police statement read.
“When the man allegedly failed to comply with that direction, the officer used an approved manoeuvre to affect the arrest.”
The 21-year-old was searched and a knife was not found.
Police are scouring the rail corridor for a weapon.
The department further alleges that following his arrest, the man continued to be aggressive with police officers, assaulted an officer while being taken to a police car, and then spat at an officer at Cabramatta Police Station, then at Liverpool Hospital
Body-worn vision captured by the arresting officers was also reviewed by the NSW police commander.
2026.7.7 Barbie pop-up in Sydney forced to glue down props after string of thefts
2026.7.7 Shocking allegations emerge after Wyong mother charged with murdering son
The four-year-old boy was found dead on Saturday.
Shocking new allegations have emerged after a mother allegedly murdered her four-year-old son.
The 32-year-old woman entered Wyong Police Station, on the NSW Central Coast, and made statements that concerned officers about 4.40pm on Saturday.
Her son’s badly injured body was found at a nearby home shortly after by officers conducting a welfare check.
Police believe he had been “deceased for some time” before his body was found.
The woman, who can not be named for legal reasons, allegedly cut off and cooked parts of the boy’s arm before turning herself in.
Police are now investigating whether cannibalism was involved.
A court granted investigators the power to carry out a DNA test on the mother’s mouth and collect a sample of blood and a nail clipping.
She was charged with murder and had bail formally refused during an appearance before the Bail Division Court on Sunday.
Scrutiny over child protection
The Department of Community and Justice on Monday revealed that child protection workers had visited the family three times during the boy’s short life.
NSW Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington refused to comment on claims the 32-year-old had drug-induced psychosis.
“There are many complexities involved in this case and I do not want to prejudice the criminal investigation that’s underway,” she said.
Washington denies her department is losing control despite thousands of cases slipping through the cracks, with shadow minister Natasha Maclaren-Jones claiming close to 150,000 young people who had reports presented not seen by a caseworker.
The independent review will investigate how department workers acted and why, given the history, the child was living with the mother and whether more could have been done.
“I intend to publicly release the review subject to any legal constraints,” Washington said.
2026.7.4 Tracing Simon Carman and alleged murder of Thai teenager Tunchanok Donhomla
Accused murderer Simon Peter Carman spent much of the past decade isolating himself from many of his friends and family in Australia, according to those who knew him.
WARNING: This story contains details of an alleged murder, which readers may find distressing.
The ABC understands Mr Carman had little contact with his parents and siblings, and preferred to spend his time in Thailand, where he’s been living since late last year.
It’s in his room in the city of Pattaya — a city known internationally for its red light district — that Thai police allege a gruesome murder occurred.
The ABC understands Mr Carman remains in detention in Pattaya Prison, and is waiting for local police to complete their investigation before he appears in court.
Country background
The 45-year-old Australian was born in Victoria but raised in Western Australia.
People who knew Mr Carman have told the ABC he grew up in the small southern regional town of Jerramungup, and moved to Albany on the south coast with his family as a teenager.
He drove trucks for a while but suffered a workplace injury that led him to take pain medication, which he came to blame for his weight gain.
His family did not want to talk, but the ABC understands it was around this time that Mr Carman isolated himself from his family, and from many of his friends in WA.
“When people cut themselves off from people, well, it’s not a normal thing to do,” one family friend said.
WA Premier Roger Cook said Mr Carman had “various interactions” with police while he lived in WA, including having his firearms confiscated.
Court records show his gun licence was suspended in 2023, and he tried and failed to get it back.
It is understood Mr Carman frequented Thailand before the COVID pandemic, but returned to Australia during the outbreak.
He was last seen living in Australia in a unit of a commercial complex in an industrial area of the southern Perth suburb of Rockingham.
His social media history in the year before he travelled back to Thailand was filled with both complimentary and disparaging comments on pictures of women, in some instances asking where they lived.
Life in Thailand
Mr Carman travelled to Pattaya again late last year, where he is understood to have remained since.
Last week, on June 26, police received reports that 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla was missing, after last being seen getting picked up on the Beach Road vice strip by a foreigner.
Officers traced the teenager’s movements to Mr Carman’s room. But neither was there.
Mr Carman was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport as he tried to board a flight back to Australia, with scratch marks on his neck and arms noted by arresting officers.
But Ms Tunchanok was still missing. CCTV would prove critical, capturing Mr Carman leaving his room the previous night with a heavy suitcase, then returning without it about half an hour later.
Police found what they allege to be the same suitcase dumped near a train track, about a 10-minute drive away from Mr Carman’s building.
Inside was the 17-year-old’s body, curled up and stuffed alongside her clothes and other belongings, police said.
Ms Tunchanok’s family said her face was bruised and swollen, and she had broken teeth.
A partial confession
Surrounded by Thai police, Mr Carman was quizzed about what happened.
Initially he denied any wrongdoing, claiming Ms Tunchanok “disappeared from the room while I was asleep”.
But as the evidence mounted against him, police said Mr Carman confessed to killing the teenager.
Nonetheless, the 45-year-old has denied the charges of murder, concealing a body, moving or destroying a body, and taking a minor for sexual purposes.
Police said Mr Carman claimed the teenager threatened him after a dispute over money.
In a recorded message to Ms Tunchanok’s family, Mr Carman said the girl’s death was “out of my control”.
“I know you’ll be very sad, upset, same same me,” Mr Carman said, mimicking a common phrase used by Thai people speaking English.
“I hope you’re OK, I know you’re not, but I hope. And please tell other girls to be, just to be careful.”
The family is pushing for the death penalty if Mr Carman is found guilty.
Night of the alleged murder
Affectionately known as “Cake”, Tunchanok Donhomla had travelled from her home town of Kalasin to Pattaya the week before she was allegedly murdered, according to her family.
Witnesses say she encountered Mr Carman on a beachside street around 2am, after he had earlier been rejected by a woman at a bar, where he appeared drunk.
At 3:34am, CCTV captured him holding the teenager’s hand while entering his condominium building.
Police said he admitted to squeezing her neck until she lost consciousness.
About three hours after they entered his room together, Mr Carman was caught on camera walking out alone, wearing different clothes and carrying a small plastic bag.
Police allege Mr Carman had kept Ms Tunchanok’s body in his bathroom and went about his “normal life”, washing his clothes, and talking to neighbours.
After night fell, CCTV footage showed Mr Carman dragging a suitcase out of his room, which police allege contained the teenager’s body.
Police allege Mr Carman had packed the suitcase with all of the teenager’s belongings to clear his room of any evidence.
Officers were alerted the next day, and photos obtained by the ABC show one of the 17-year-old’s friends confronting Mr Carman in his room about the teenager’s whereabouts.
Mr Carman left for the airport later that day, where police eventually arrested him.
News of the 45-year-old’s arrest for murder has shaken those who knew him but who had not heard from him in years.
“I’ve got three girls. The oldest one is 17. I felt a bit sick in the stomach, to tell you the truth,” one family friend said.
“I just feel sorry for the family, and for everyone involved. It was a horrible thing to have happened.”
2026.7.4 Teacher Naomi Tekea Craig will be sentenced after admitting to child sexual abuse offences against 13yo boy
Teacher Naomi Tekea Craig will be sentenced after admitting to sexually abusing a young boy then giving birth to his baby.
A Western Australian music teacher who sexually abused a young teenager then gave birth to his baby will learn her fate later this year.
Naomi Tekea Craig, 34, admitted to sexually abusing a child over a 16-month period between 2024 and 2025 when she pleaded guilty to all charges in the Mandurah Magistrates Court in February.
Police believe Craig gave birth to the victim’s baby in January when he was aged just 13-years-old.
However, Channel 7 has reported that some charges against her will now be dropped.
“There are a couple of charges being discontinued. It’s just finetuning the events that happened during the period of offending,” lawyer Michael Tudori said on Friday.
Craig was employed as a teacher at the Frederick Irwin Anglican School at Meadow Springs near Mandurah, about 50km south of Perth.
Her teaching licence was suspended after she was charged.
Police Commissioner Colonel Blanch confirmed a DNA test had been conducted and police believed the woman gave birth to a baby in January that was fathered by the child she is accused of sexually assaulting.
Ms Craig will be sentenced in the Perth District Court on November 17.
A paediatrician accused of sexually abusing 10 children was snared in a sting operation led by a “vigilante paedophile hunter”.
Chia Liang Saw appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday to face 53 charges, including sexually penetrating a child.
During a part-heard bail application, adjourned so a home detention report could be completed, the court was told the 41-year-old doctor would be charged with a further five offences in the coming days.
The court was told Saw was facing 20 charges of intent to procure a person under 16 years to engage in sexual activity based on alleged communications with a woman variously described in court as a “vigilante” and “paedophile hunter”.
The woman, who is not a police officer, used a social media app and presented herself as a child and engaged in conversations, with the court previously told it was the Sugar Daddy website.
The woman then passed the information to investigators.
Saw was charged in late May with persistent sexual conduct with a child under 16 and possessing child exploitation material.
He was slugged with another 31 charges in mid-June, including seven counts each of indecent dealing with a child under 13 years and producing child exploitation material.
A further 20 new charges were brought on Tuesday related to the communications with the third party.
Saw’s alleged victims included patients, eight of them girls aged 12 to 15, a 10-year-old girl allegedly abused at his family home, and a 13-year-old girl allegedly exploited online.
The doctor, whose medical registration has been suspended, allegedly sexually abused and recorded child patients he was treating for ADHD.
The court was also told further details about a series of “concerning” emails Saw allegedly sent to three children.
In one, Saw allegedly offered to buy the child a ukulele. In another, Saw allegedly said he spotted the child outside their school before wishing them a good weekend.
Saw also allegedly created an email account for a child patient so he could communicate with the child.
“A paediatrician contacting a child patient directly is startling in the broader context of these charges,” Magistrate Matthew Walton said.
“If convicted, Mr Saw would receive an immediate term of imprisonment of substantial length.”
Some of the emails were sent to one of the children while the child was in class and the child was responding, the court was told.
During discussions over the conduct, Saw’s lawyer Alex Smith conceded it had crossed the line professionally and that the alleged offences were “ugly and distasteful”.
He also said Saw had communicated with one patient turned complainant because she was “extremely troubled” and the paediatrician was attempting to establish rapport.
Smith previously said Saw denied the persistent sexual conduct allegations and the recordings were made by the doctor to protect himself against allegations.
Saw was not required to enter a plea and was remanded in custody to reappear in the same court on July 10, when his bail application will continue.
2026.6.30 Steven Lin’s violent streak before death exposed as bodycam reveals bizarre hiding place after brutal attack
Police bodycam footage has revealed disgraced celebrity dentist Dr Steven Lin buried himself in dirt to evade capture after an alleged attack on a Wollongong father.
2026.6.20 $50k worth of jewellery stolen in smash-and-grab caught on camera
Tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery has been stolen in a smash-and-grab raid on an Adelaide shop.
The suspects were caught on film breaking their way into the store, but police are still working to hunt them down.
They begin to raid shelves and cabinets, filling backpacks with gold and silver in a three-minute smash-and-grab. 9News
Footage shows the criminals smashing into a Broadview jeweller in the city’s north, with alarm bells announcing their arrival.
They begin to raid shelves and cabinets, filling backpacks with gold and silver in a three-minute smash-and-grab.
AJ Jewellery Owner Pankaj Soni said up to $50,000 worth of jewellery is gone.
“I rushed to the shop here and to see in the scenario (the) very worst,” he told 9News.
2026.6.20 Woman allegedly sexually assaulted at World Cup viewing site, multiple arrested over flares
A woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in Melbourne while thousands packed into fan sites in Melbourne to watch the Australia’s World Cup clash with the USA, and several more have been arrested for setting off flares in Sydney and the Victorian capital.
A teen aged just 16 years old was named as a person in the alleged sexual assault, which occurred about 5am on Saturday.
The 16-year-old boy from Manningham, in the city’s north-east, was identified as a person of interest.
He was arrested by police and is expected to be charged on summons.
Two people are also expected to be charged as 14 flares were launched and a firework was set off at Federation Square before kick-off.
Authorities say that more than 16,000 fans packed into AAMI Park and Federation Square in to watch the game with a “highly visible” police presence.
2026.6.20 ‘Whatever spirit he had is gone’: Child’s decline in broken system
Exclusive: Jacob* has been in the child safety system since before he was born.
Next month he turns 18 and he’ll mark the milestone by being transferred from youth detention to an adult prison.
Queensland government is grappling with how to reform a system it has acknowledged is in crisis. iStockphoto
Jacob appeared in the Children’s Court of Queensland via videolink from Townsville last Friday to be sentenced for 55 offences that occurred while he was between the ages of 11 and 12, primarily assaults on residential care workers, security guards, and a nurse.
Sitting in the witness box with his head lowered, just shy of becoming an adult but physically already so, with facial hair and wearing a blue singlet, Jacob listened to a summary of how he had lashed out at the people tasked with caring for him as a child.
The assaults included dozens of instances of spitting and one instance where he threw a cup of urine.
In another instance, he threatened to stab someone with a screwdriver.
2026.6.19 Timothy Loosemore found guilty of manslaughter over death of Maree Vermont in Goldie, Victoria
A UK man has been found guilty of manslaughter over the death of his farmstay host in central Victoria after she rejected his romantic interest.
Timothy Loosemore, 62, faced a 14-day trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria over the death of Maree Vermont, 60, whose remains were found after a house fire in Goldie, near Kilmore, in August 2023.
The jury delivered its verdict today, finding Loosemore not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
Ms Vermont’s cause of death was unable to be determined by a pathologist due to the severity of damage from the fire, the court heard.
Loosemore had been an on-and-off farmstay guest at Ms Vermont’s home, 90 minutes north of Melbourne.
He initially stayed as an Airbnb guest in March 2023 after arriving in Australia in September.
Loosemore will return to court for a plea hearing in September.
Accused ‘snapped’ after rejection
Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson, KC, said in his closing address last week that Loosemore “snapped” when his desire for an ongoing intimate relationship was repeatedly rejected by Ms Vermont after they had a “brief sexual dalliance” early on.
Mr Gibson said Loosemore fatally attacked Ms Vermont on the evening of August 5, sustaining scratches to his face and neck as she fought back, and ended up with her blood on his clothes before setting the house on fire to conceal the crime.
Mr Gibson asked the jury to consider why Ms Vermont did not leave the house to escape the fire through one of five unlocked doors.
“Why couldn’t she? Because she was dead,” Mr Gibson said.
“He committed the crime of murder and needed to conceal the cause of death.”
Mr Gibson also pointed to a “lack of sooting” in Ms Vermont’s airways, suggesting she was not breathing when the fire started.
The trial heard Ms Vermont sent her son a text message in the days before her death asking him to keep an eye on Loosemore while he was staying with them.
“I made it clear that I don’t want an intimate relationship with him. He is taking it badly,” Ms Vermont said in the message.
Mr Gibson told the court three plastic fuel containers were missing from the property, according to Ms Vermont’s son, and while no accelerant was detected, it could have evaporated in the fire, according to the evidence of an arson chemist.
Mr Gibson said there were three kitchen knives found on the floor of the living room, but no forensic material could be recovered due to the fire.
Defence rejects ‘simple narrative’
Defence barrister Christopher Farrington told the court Loosemore denied assaulting or killing Ms Vermont, or setting the house on fire.
In his closing address, he said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Loosemore was guilty of murder.
“In this trial there are repeated fundamental uncertainties that the prosecution cannot overcome,” he said.
Mr Farrington said the evidence from Ms Vermont’s friends and family suggested an “uncertain” relationship that may have meant more to one than the other.
“That’s a long way from this simple narrative of rejection, upon which the prosecution relies,” he said.
He said the pair had travelled to hot springs together for Loosemore’s birthday about a week before the fire.
Mr Farrington said the evidence of the arson chemist was also “far from definitive”.
“The origin of the fire narrowed only to the lounge, no precise point of ignition, no ignition source, no confirmed accelerant, negative testing for flammable liquid,” Mr Farrington told the court.
He told the court the missing fuel containers could have been moved around by responding firefighters as part of standard practice.
Mr Farrington also said Loosemore could have been scratched on his face by barbed wire or a rosebush on his way to raise the alarm at a neighbour’s house, and a doctor’s evidence was that some of the injuries may have been burns.
“You’ve got a drunk man with a blood alcohol reading of 0.18, stumbling through the darkness with what I suggest is mud on his knees,” he told the court.
He told the court Loosemore’s explanation to witnesses and emergency responders that he had left the house to get more firewood and returned to find it ablaze was “largely consistent”.
And his actions after the fire were those of a person “who genuinely does not know what has taken place”.
“Mr Loosemore goes to [a neighbour’s house] and raises the alarm. Not after cleaning himself. Not after changing clothes. Not after concealing the very evidence that the Crown says points to his guilt,” Mr Farrington said.
When I receive an email that begins, “I am a practising lawyer”, it usually means the writer possesses an unshakeable belief that on graduation they were bestowed with both a legal qualification and the gift of omniscience.
What will follow will be a lecture on how I have got something wrong about the justice system even though the critic’s dealing with the criminal law is restricted to one unit at university, and the closest they have come to a trial is to pass the Supreme Court on the way to the Titles Office.
The best trial lawyers are remarkable – able to prove or disprove a case on minute details lost to most.
The committed defence lawyer is dedicated to the system. They believe everybody deserves a defence. One once told me that even though he was defending a despicable man charged with a despicable murder, he did his best, adding: “I was not unhappy when I lost, and I was not unhappy when after his release he was run over by a truck.”
One lawyer who understands the system better than most is Bernie “The Attorney” Balmer, who has known more rogues than Damon Runyon.
He lectures at the police detective training school, telling young investigators that a defence lawyer’s job is to pick a hole in any loose threads in a brief of evidence, or as he puts it more colourfully, “I don’t win cases; you f— them up.”
Getting a law degree proves you are clever, but that doesn’t make you wise, or even honest.
There are some who should never have been allowed to practise because their past showed they couldn’t be trusted, and there are others who for multiple reasons became sucked into the lifestyle of those they defend.
From our partners
Some lawyers have laundered money for their clients, been paid with drug money and concealed evidence.
There is not a job without rogues. I have known journalists who have fabricated stories, accepted kickbacks, bought shares with inside information, traded confidential information with crooks, sold drugs, protected corrupt cops because they leaked stories and been implicated in murders. And even worse – left the pub just before their shout.
Most dishonesty is particularly stupid. There was a section editor who destroyed his career by stealing freebies delivered to other reporters.
He forgot there were security cameras in the office that captured him crawling under a desk to steal a twin pack of middle-of-the-road wine.
Here are a few examples of lawyers who went bad big time.x1200
2026.6.19 Kawsar Ahmad ‘denounces Islamic State’, lawyer tells bail hearing
Police fear a so-called ISIS bride who recently returned to Australia will spread extremist ideology if she is freed on bail, but her lawyer says that will not be the case.
Kawsar Ahmad, 54, is facing charges of enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading.
She was among a group of women who arrived back in Australia in May, having travelled to Syria a decade earlier and lived under the former Islamic State regime.
The women are often referred to by the media as ISIS brides.
Earlier this week, Ms Ahmad’s daughter, Zeinab, was denied bail by Victoria’s Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan.
On Friday, Ms Ahmad came before the same magistrate to apply for bail, with her legal team saying she should be allowed to live with relatives while her case moves through the courts.
The hearing was cut short when prosecutors told the court a new risk assessment of Ms Ahmad had been conducted by authorities, but the document was not yet ready to be provided to the magistrate.
“If I don’t have the information, what am I to conclude?” Magistrate Hannan said.
Magistrate Hannan said the court was entitled to have full knowledge when it needed to make an “especially difficult” bail decision.
Prosecutor Andrew Sprague said his legal team did not even have a copy of the risk assessment document, and that other law enforcement agencies may seek to make redactions on public interest immunity grounds before it was released to the court.
Earlier, Ms Ahmad, wearing a brown hijab, was brought into the court dock and warmly greeted by members of her family who sat in the public gallery.
Defence barrister Peter Morrissey SC said Ms Ahmad no longer supported Islamic State.
In a colourful turn of phrase, he said Ms Ahmad held the view that “ISIS sucks”.
“She does expressly denounce Islamic State as a disgraceful organisation,” he said.
However, Australian Federal Police officer Marc Clendenning said he believed Ms Ahmad was not being genuine.
He said there were risks she could spread terrorist ideology to family members and others visiting the proposed bail house.
“Police hold serious concerns the accused will endanger the safety and welfare of other persons if released,” he said.
The court heard Ms Ahmad was married to a former Islamic State fighter, and police allege she previously held a role as a religious teacher.
Alleged ‘anti-Western’ Facebook posts
Ms Ahmad was the matriarch of an Australian family who travelled to Syria.
Her husband, Mohammed Ahmad, was an IS fighter and repeatedly sexually assaulted a Yazidi teenager who was kept as a slave after she was bought for $US10,000.
The complainant alleged Ms Ahmad approved of the slave arrangement and often threatened her.
According to police, Ms Ahmad told her, “I want you to be taught how to use weapons, according to the Daesh beliefs, we should be the same, whatever they do, we have to do the same”.
Senior Constable Clendenning said the complainant and another witness, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, opposed Ms Ahmad being released into the community.
He said both women were overseas.
Police also referenced Facebook posts and messages Ms Ahmad allegedly made while in Syria.
The posts declared support for terrorist groups and demonstrated an “anti-Western position”, police alleged.
After Ms Ahmad’s son was killed, she called him a martyr and said she was comforted that Allah gave her “precious time” with him.
In another post, she also allegedly wrote, “Death awaits us all … but we are longing for it and feel it’s very close”.
Mr Morrissey, for the defence, said the case could be hit with delays because prosecutors and the defence could request further information from various agencies and overseas governments — a process that could take years.
The case was adjourned until Monday.
2026.6.18 Charges dropped for woman accused of children’s murder
A woman accused of killing her two adult children years apart has had a remaining murder charge dropped.
Maree Mavis Crabtree, 59, was found not guilty of murdering her 26‑year‑old son Jonathan with an overdose of prescription painkillers served in a fruit smoothie on July 19, 2017.
The charge against Crabtree for allegedly murdering her 18-year-old daughter Erin in 2012 was today dropped during a review of the case in Brisbane Supreme Court.
At his trial in the same court prosecutors had alleged Crabtree killed Jonathan by concealing drugs in his fruit smoothie.
Crabtree had pleaded not guilty to murdering him at the family’s Maudsland home north of the Gold Coast and to making a fraudulent $125,000 insurance claim on his superannuation.
She also denied attempting to murder Jonathan in January 2017.
A jury in June found her not guilty of all charges relating to Jonathan after deliberating for nearly two-and-a-half days.
The proceedings on charges relating to her daughter Erin had been put on hold for the murder trial over Jonathan’s death.
Crabtree was not present for the Supreme Court review today when the murder charge was dropped.
She had been granted bail and released from custody in February 2024 after a judge questioned the strength of the prosecution’s case due to the first attempt to convict her over Jonathan’s death ending in a mistrial.
Crabtree had spent six years on remand at that point.
2026.6.18 Snowtown killer’s parole release back in limbo
A new review must be held to decide whether Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis is released on parole, a court has ordered.
A decision to block his parole was set aside by South Australia’s Court of Appeal today and the Parole Board’s decision to free him was reinstated.
But Parole Administrative Review Commissioner Michael David KC has been ordered to review the case again and Vlassakis remains in custody.
Last August, the Parole Board agreed to release Vlassakis, who pleaded guilty to four of the 11 murders between 1992 and 1999, but Attorney-General Kyam Maher requested a review of the decision.
David subsequently found the board underestimated the effect of the gravity of Vlassakis’s criminal behaviour and releasing him would be a risk to the community.
The Parole Board sought a judicial review of David’s decision, and today the Court of Appeal found he had fallen into jurisdictional error by departing from the board decision.
2026.6.16 Police believe Dezi Freeman travelled to NSW, more arrests made
Police investigating how Dezi Freeman eluded capture after shooting dead two officers have swooped on properties in Victoria and NSW and arrested two people.
Officers investigating Freeman believe he travelled between the two states and had several people helping him in the seven months he was a fugitive.
2026.6.16 Police who drove past dead or dying woman cleared of misconduct
Two NSW Police officers who drove past a woman who lay dead or dying after a Triple Zero call reporting a bashing have been cleared of misconduct by the police watchdog.
Lindy Lucena, 64, was beaten to death by her partner Robert Karl Huber, 69, behind the Salvation Army building in Ballina, in the NSW Northern Rivers on January 3, 2023.
2026.6.16 Abuse survivors’ legal fight after serial childcare paedophile unmasked 30 years on
For years, Laura-Jane and Hailey were abused by one of Australia’s worst paedophiles: David Neil Tuck.
He ran an overnight daycare facility in Batemans Bay, four hours south of Sydney, in the 1990s, and there are dozens of survivors.
One child spoke up before he was even licensed.
So why did the Eurobodalla Shore Council give him the stamp of approval to care for kids?
“He’s definitely a monster, a calculated monster,” Hailey told A Current Affair.
“Had they deregistered him on the first complaint, 30-odd children would have been protected.”
Survivors of Tuck’s abuse have suffered in silence for far too long.
2026.6.16 Man given life sentence for killing former beauty queen
Eight years after US citizen Priscilla Brooten disappeared from her Brisbane home, her boyfriend has been found guilty of her murder.
Mark Sheridan Waden pleaded not guilty to the murder of his girlfriend, Brooten, at the beginning of his Supreme Court trial.
The jury reached their verdict on Tuesday morning. As it was heard in court, Waden said: “It wasn’t me.”
Brooten, who participated in beauty pageants in the US, had been in Australia since 2005, and met Waden in 2016 while he was teaching Zumba classes.
Waden always maintained his innocence, with his barrister James Godbolt saying the case was based on conjecture, and there had been nothing linking his client to Brooten’s death.
The prosecution’s case – a circumstantial one – centred on allegations that Brooten was killed by Waden following an argument.
Justice Peter Callaghan said Brooten was a vibrant woman, fully engaged in life.
“Circumstances of her death cannot and apparently will not ever be known,” he said.
From our partners
“The fact her body has not been found will be a source of trauma for her daughter and those who cared for her, for as long as that remains the case.
“It follows from the verdict of the jury that they must have found that you engaged in an elaborate campaign of misdirection and deception,” he added, as Waden shook his head.
Brooten’s daughter, Caitlin Williams, told this masthead after the verdict that she was glad Waden had been found guilty.
“Even though we won today and this is a great success, until we know [where] he hid her body we cannot fully rest and I hope she haunts his dreams forever until he confesses,” she said.
Brooten’s belongings given to new girlfriend
Brooten went missing in July 2018 after she discovered messages between Waden and Desiree Hatzipapas, a 21-year-old colleague at the real estate agency where he worked.
Crown Prosecutor Andrew Walklate told the jury that Waden and Hatzipapas had by then started a relatively intense relationship.
After Brooten went missing, he gave Hatzipapas his former girlfriend’s belongings.
Waden claimed Brooten had caused a disturbance at his home, and when Hatzipapas tried to end the relationship, Waden said he had completely closed his former girlfriend off.
The prosecution said the day after Brooten went missing, Waden made inquiries about digging a trench on his property, telling contractors the council was “on his back”.
He then posted online that he needed the work done urgently with the right digging equipment.
The jury were shown a series of photos of Waden’s car pulling a trailer with a wheelie bin on the back. Walklate said Waden had also messaged about washing the bin.
The prosecution case relied on messages Waden made about dumping more than 800 kilograms of soil at a Brisbane tip, and purchasing items from Bunnings, including two tarpaulins and rope.
Hatzipapas did not know Brooten was a missing person until January 2019, when police seized the phone in her possession – which once belonged to Brooten.
Waden self-harmed and drove himself to hospital after the phone was seized by police, the court heard.
Excavator hired after police visit home
After her disappearance, Waden told multiple people that immigration officials had been looking for Brooten, that she was in Australia illegally, and had taken money from him, the court heard.
Police began investigating Brooten’s disappearance after she was reported missing by her former boyfriend, Steve Thompson, in late 2018.
Officers then visited Waden’s home in May 2019. They did not speak to Waden, but the day after they visited, he hired a self-drive excavator.
The prosecution relied on messages between Waden and Hatzipapas, where he talked about his entertaining area flooding, and said he needed to purchase a drainage pipe from Bunnings. He later bought tarpaulins and rope.
Police seized multiple items from the Bracken Ridge home, including a notebook in which Brooten had written down her thoughts.
Many entries did not specify who they were referring to, including one that read: “Remember when you beat the shit out of me.”
Other sections of the notebook included: “He claims he fears for his life, that I will stab him while he is sleeping. He chooses to sleep next to me. I have never threatened to kill, stab or physically hurt him. Why would I kill or stab him?
“According to him, I have threatened to ruin his life by exposing his weed growing and selling operation and publishing my injuries he gave me after almost killing me on Facebook.
“Mark is trying to put all this on me. Yes, it may appear he is taking responsibility and apologising but his facts regarding my mental health are incorrect. It is an attempt to save himself, to give himself an out or to try and make me appear crazier than I am.”
In the final days of the trial, the jury viewed footage of Waden’s police interview, when he was shown photos of authorities excavating his front yard and told detectives “I didn’t do it”.
Waden was sentenced to life imprisonment.
2026.6.16 The surprising $300 device suburbia is buying to stop car thieves
Chris Sallmann’s home is a monument to his 74 years of life.
The retired contracts estimator designed the sleek Ashburton unit with a sweeping open-plan lounge and kitchen to host his family and has the walls adorned with Australian landscape paintings.
Five Australians appear on Interpol’s global wanted list of more than 3000 alleged fugitives.
When Greek authorities swooped on alleged stabbing suspect James Dalamangas this week, it ended an astonishing 27 years of evading arrest.
The now 55-year-old Aussie had been wanted ever since Sydney man George Giannopoulous was fatally stabbed in a Belmore nightclub in 1999.
Earlier this week, Mr Dalamangas was arrested in a property in Aigialeia in central Greece, bringing to a conclusion almost 30 years undetected.
But just which other Aussies remain at large overseas? And just how do some steer clear of authorities for so long?
Xanthe Weston, an associate professor of criminology at Central Queensland University, said Mr Dalamangas’ low key lifestyle would have helped him go undetected for so long.
“We’re talking 27 years, so he obviously had to have obtained a new identity and kept himself incredibly low key,” she said.
“It is all about not drawing attention to yourself, finding somewhere to live and mixing with the locals in a way that doesn’t make you stand out.”
There are currently more than 3000 names on Interpol’s red alert list – however just five of these are either Australian, or have links Down Under.
Dr Weston said this low proportion of Australian’s on the list was unsurprising, given how sparsely populated the country is – adding it was more likely to be a place people may choose to hide in.
“It is probably fairly easy to vanish in Australia, if you find an outback village to settle in,” she added.
“It is probably getting slightly more difficult for people to stay hidden away these days, with advances of technology and social media.
“It is hard to hide forever, but obviously it can be done.”
The five wanted people on the list include terror suspects, accused swindlers and a clothing designer-turned-suspected drugs smuggler.
2026.5.27 Man found guilty of murder decades after being spurned by love interest in love triangle murder
A man has been found guilty of murder after he bludgeoned a romantic rival over the head and threw his body in a river after being spurned by his love interest.
Gofal Baziad was convicted of the 2004 murder of Jason Palmer in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday after a jury took five days to be satisfied he killed the ex-husband of his love interest.
Palmer told his ex-wife Renny to choose between him and Baziad, and she chose her former husband, the court heard.
He was later bludgeoned over the head with a patterned glass object before being stabbed multiple times in the torso, side and back in his Sydney apartment in February 2004.
Baziad, now 54, flew overseas months later and continued to be in contact with Palmer.
He was arrested in 2024 but denied carrying out the murder.
Jason and Renny Palmer were married in 1996 before separating in 2002 after he had an affair, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, told the jury during the trial.
In late 2002, she began an intimate relationship with Baziad.
Despite this history, the two men became friends.
In December 2003, the trio met to discuss the situation and Renny was asked to choose between the two men.
When she opted for former husband, Baziad indicated he accepted the decision, the court heard.
But months later, Jason was seen for the last time walking out of his partner’s home in Sydney’s south-west with Baziad.
His body was found just over three weeks later concealed in a sleeping bag and weighed down with rocks in the Nepean River, in the city’s west.
In the days after her ex-husband disappeared, Palmer said she made numerous attempts to find him, even calling his drug dealer.
She also tried speaking to one of her husband’s friends, called his parents in England and filed a missing person’s report with police.
She broke down in tears in the witness box while describing her efforts to locate her ex-husband.
Renny said Baziad had been late collecting her for work the day after the murder.
Baziad’s barrister argued there was not enough evidence to convict her client because there were no eyewitnesses and the case was circumstantial.
“You won’t be able to be positively satisfied of the ultimate question: has the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Baziad was the person responsible?” Madeleine Avenell SC told the jury.
But the jurors took just over a week to conclude Baziad was ultimately responsible for Mr Palmer’s violent death.
Justice Phillip Boulten thanked the jury for their service on Wednesday before convicting Baziad.
He will return to court for sentencing on July 17. x1200
2026.5.27 Inquiry into antisemitism in Australia condemns online hatred and bigotry targeting witnesses
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The head of an inquiry into antisemitism in Australia on Tuesday said Jewish witnesses who appeared before it are facing online harassment and bigotry and issued a condemnation.
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was created in response to two gunmen allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group slaying 15 people at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration in December. Royal commissions are Australia’s highest form of public inquiry.
The commission’s head, former High Court judge Virginia Bell, said Jewish witnesses who testified about their experiences of antisemitism since public hearings began on May 4 have been subjected to online “harassment and intimidation.”
“We have received reports from a number of witnesses concerning a dramatic increase in online hate messages after they have given evidence,” Bell said.
“Quite what this undiluted level of hatred and bigotry directed towards members of the Jewish community is thought to benefit by those who post these remarks is lost on me,” she added.
The commission was recording the “offensive social media posts,” Bell said, and in one case the harassment has been referred to police.
“The commission has, as one of its principal objects, understanding and assessing the lived experience of antisemitism by members of the Jewish community and it is being informed by conduct of this character,” she said.
The first two weeks of hearings scrutinized the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in Australia’s institutions and society.
During the first week of hearings, a 68-year-old man was charged with wearing a shirt emblazoned with a “prohibited Nazi symbol” outside the commission in Sydney, a police statement.
The design appeared to incorporate a Star of David superimposed over a swastika with the slogan: “Antisemitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!”
The commission said in a statement at the time it was “appalled” that an “antisemitic shirt” had been worn in its vicinity. The commission assured witnesses that safety protocols were in place around the building.
“The royal commission is determined to investigate antisemitism in Australia without fear or intimidation,” the statement said.
2026.5.27 Double killer jailed for longer after ‘inadequate’ 14-year sentence
A man who killed two Asian migrant sex workers will spend more time behind bars after prosecutors successfully appealed his sentence.
Chinese student Xiaozheng Lin, 25, was originally jailed for 14 years for the manslaughter of Yuqi Luo, 31, and Hyun Sook Jeon, 51.
But the Victorian Court of Appeal today re-sentenced him to 18 years behind bars after finding the original term was “manifestly inadequate”.
Luo and Jeon were both sex workers who operated out of their apartments in Melbourne.
Lin had sex with Luo at her La Trobe Street apartment in the early hours of December 27, 2022, before asking for more services.
When she told him it would cost another $100, Lin became enraged and pushed Luo onto the bed, before strangling her until she was gasping for air.
He left her for dead, stealing $7000 in cash along with other personal belongings, including her mobile phone, tablet and handbags.
Lin told his friend he had sex with Luo, robbed and assaulted her after she had bitten his hand, and claimed she was alive when he left.
Later on December 27, between 10.15pm and 10.45pm, Lin visited Jeon at her Docklands apartment, where they had sex before he inflicted another deadly assault.
Lin left at about 12.37am, stealing her bank cards, laptop, phone, car and building keys, and then catching an Uber home.
It is unclear how Jeon died because her body was too decomposed to determine a cause of death at the time of autopsy.
Lin was facing a murder trial but cut a deal with prosecutors, instead pleading guilty to two counts of manslaughter in October 2024.
He was sentenced the following month to a maximum of 14 years behind bars with a non-parole period of nine years.
Prosecutors appealed the sentence in June 2025, arguing it was manifestly inadequate given the seriousness of the offending and Lin’s high moral culpability.
And appeal justices Lesley Taylor, Peter Kidd and Jane Dixon agreed, today finding the offending called for a stern punishment.
“The objective gravity and moral culpability in respect of each offence was high, and the stark feature of this case was the loss of life by, not just one, but two defenceless women,” the written reasons stated.
“In our view, each of the individual sentences was outside the range reasonably open to the sentencing judge in all the circumstances.”
The justices also found the non-parole period was manifestly too low, given Lin was not found to have good prospects of rehabilitation. They increased it to 14 years.
2026.5.27 Bendigo teaching student charged with offences relating to online child abuse material
A Bendigo teaching student, who was also a school council president and childcare centre cook, has been charged with offences relating to online child abuse material.
Bendigo South East College and Kennington Primary School wrote to parents and carers this week to alert them to the charges against Daniel Grey, after he had separate involvement with the schools.
The Australian Federal Police confirmed a 26-year-old Bendigo man was arrested on May 19 “as part of an ongoing investigation”.
“The man was charged with online child abuse material-related offences and faced the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, 26 May,” a statement said.
“There is no risk to public safety. Further updates will be provided at an appropriate time.”
2026.5.26 Inquiry to probe Dezi Freeman’s long evasion and demise
Dezi Freeman’s months on the run and the final moments before his death will form the basis of a much-anticipated inquest.
Freeman led police on one of the nation’s largest manhunts after he killed two police officers serving a warrant at his home in rural Victoria in August 2025.
Questions still remain about the deaths of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, and how Freeman was able to evade police for months after fleeing his Porepunkah property, 310km northwest of Melbourne.
2026.5.26 Failed Australia Day bombing accused faces court
A man accused of throwing a homemade bomb into an Invasion Day rally crowd has faced court for the first time since being charged.
Liam Alexander Hall, 32, is accused of engaging in a terrorist act over the incident in Perth on January 26.
Thousands of people were evacuated from Forrest Place in Perth’s city centre after police found an object containing volatile chemicals, nails and metal ball bearings.
Police allege Hall threw the explosive device from a walkway above the crowd of Indigenous people, families and supporters.
The device did not detonate despite a fuse allegedly being lit.
Hall’s case has previously been heard in Perth Magistrates Court, but he was too unwell to appear on those occasions.
On Tuesday, he was present in a courtroom at a psychiatric hospital, where the three charges against him were read via a video-link.
Hall, dressed in a white shirt and black pants with unkempt hair, wasn’t required to enter a plea and said very little.
He slowly raised his hand to acknowledge his identity and softly said “yes madam” when magistrate Heidi Watson asked if he was Liam Hall.
Hall also said he understood when Ms Watson read the three charges he is facing to him for the first time.
In addition to the terrorism charge – the first in Western Australia’s history – Hall is charged with intent to harm after he allegedly “threw an improvised grenade into a protester crowd”.
Hall is also accused of making and possessing explosives.
Police will allege the incident was a nationalist and racially motivated attack targeting First Nations people at the protest.
Hall was self-radicalised and acted alone, police previously said.
He had allegedly accessed bomb-making instructions and “pro-white male” material online, and was accessing and participating in the ideology.
Hall was remanded in custody, and his case was adjourned to September 16 for committal mention in Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court.
The court previously heard Hall was in a vulnerable mental health condition and was living alone when the alleged Australia Day attack happened.
If he is found guilty of the terrorism offence, he faces life behind bars.
A new $1 million reward is being offered over the case of two women found bludgeoned to death 26 years ago.
Police found 32-year-old Susan Kay and Joanne Teterin, 37, dead at a home in a suburb of Newcastle NSW on Wednesday 17 May 2000.
They were last seen alive a week before before they were found in the house in Doran Street in Carrington.
James Vlassakis was the youngest of four perpetrators convicted for his role in the notorious “bodies-in-the-barrels” serial killings, which rocked Australia at the turn of the century.
In May 1999, police made the chilling discovery of human remains hidden in barrels secreted in an old bank vault in Snowtown, in South Australia’s Mid North.
While Vlassakis’s name has always been in the public domain, his image had remained hidden for 25 years due to a suppression on his identity.
On Tuesday, however, South Australia’s highest court lifted a long-running suppression order banning the publication of his image or description of his appearance.
So why has his face been kept secret for so long and why can we identify him now?
Who is James Vlassakis?
James Spyridon Vlassakis was born in December 1979 and was just 18 in mid-1998, when he took part in the murder of his half-brother Troy Youde — a crime he committed at the behest of his stepfather and Snowtown ringleader John Bunting.
It was one of 12 deaths between 1992 and 1999, of which Bunting was convicted of 11 and the other main offender — Robert Wagner — was convicted of 10.
A fourth man, Mark Ray Haydon, was involved as an accomplice and convicted of seven counts of assisting an offender, for storing bodies at his home north of Adelaide and for helping to move them.
Vlassakis pleaded guilty to four of the murders.
He was still 18 when he took part in the murders of Fred Brooks in September 1998 and Gary O’Dwyer later that year.
He was also convicted of the May 1999 murder of the last of the victims, David Johnson.
The remains of each of those victims were found at Snowtown.
Vlassakis was sentenced to life in prison in 2002, with a non-parole period of 26 years.
The sentence was backdated to when he was taken into custody in June 1999.
Because he helped to convict his three co-offenders by giving evidence against them, his image was suppressed for his protection.
2026.5.17 Police reopen cold case into armed robbery at Chadstone Shopping Centre
The case of an unsolved armed robbery that left three men wounded by gunshots at a Melbourne shopping centre more than three decades ago has been reopened by police, with a fresh appeal to the public for help.
Two Armaguard security officers and a bystander were injured on a Monday morning at Chadstone Shopping Centre in May 1994, when a man armed with a handgun allegedly shot at them and made off with bags of cash.
The officers had been collecting the weekend’s takings from the cinema at the complex during the robbery.
Victoria Police said “new intelligence” had prompted the reopening of the cold case, with crime scene exhibits that had been placed in long-term storage brought back to light and subject to fresh forensic testing.
Armed Crime Squad Detective Inspector Adam Tilley said investigators were liaising with police in other states and territories.
“Given the severity and the callous nature of this offending, we believe it to be unlikely this was either the first or the last time the offender committed an armed robbery such as this one,” he said.
“It’s also unlikely that there isn’t someone out there who knows of someone who offended in this way — suddenly coming into that amount of cash isn’t easy to explain.
“We believe there will be someone out there who has information on this incident and who was involved.”
Inspector Tilley said the amount of cash taken was “substantial”.
“For someone to return home with a large quantity of cash would be hard to explain,” he said.
2026.5.17 Hate inquiry hears how rising anti-Semitism has scarred lives
A celebrated musician lost his band and mates, while a prominent singer had shows cancelled as a result of anti-Semitic campaigns hitting Jewish artists’ careers.
2026.5.16 Rottnest Island: Man killed in savage shark attack at Horseshoe Reef
A man has been killed by a four-metre shark at the popular Rottnest Island holiday spot of Horseshoe Reef.
A group of friends tried valiantly to save their mate after he was savaged by a four-metre shark off Rottnest Island yesterday.
The 38-year-old was spearfishing with four friends about 1km offshore at Horseshoe Reef — north-west of the island — when the predator, reported to be a great white, attacked.
He was only 20m from one of the two boats they’d taken out there when he was fatally bitten on his legs.
Frantic attempts were made to save the Perth northern suburbs’ man after his pals got him into a boat and called 000.
His mates performed CPR on the boat and then during the agonising 10-15 minute journey to Geordie Bay, where St John Ambulance paramedics were waiting along with an RAC rescue helicopter.
“The injuries are quite horrific, and with respect to the family, we won’t go any further today,” Sergeant Michael Wear, Officer in Charge of Rottnest Island Police Station, said.
“Obviously, a very confronting scene. Certainly quite horrific scenes for all involved, and all the emergency services that were there did a fantastic job.”
“A police chopper air dropped an officer down to assist,” Sgt Wear said.
“Air wing rode over the top and they actually dropped an officer off from the chopper on shore to give us a hand.
“It was an all agencies’ effort to get everyone involved in the best way we could possibly do for the victim.”
7NEWS vision showed a huddle of paramedics trying to revive the victim on a wooden jetty at Geordie Bay.
A police officer on the boat could be seen comforting a man in a diving suit.
The victim’s friends have all returned to the mainland and his next of kin has been notified, Sgt Wear said.
He understood the group of men were experienced fishermen.
A report will now be prepared for the Coroner.
Police said the type of shark is unknown at this stage but the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development put out a media release saying it was a “reported 4.0m white shark”.
Police said they didn’t know if it had been lurking near Horseshoe Reef prior to the attack.
Emergency services were called just before 10am.
DPIRD said it was alerted to the shark attack at 10.03am.
“A DPIRD patrol vessel will be on the water monitoring the area,” a DPIRD spokesperson said after the attack.
Horseshoe Reef is north of Marjorie Bay, at the west of the island. It is a popular spot for diving and fishing, mostly known for the Mira Flores shipwreck.
2026.5.16 Disgusting look inside faeces-caked pet house of horrors where 30 cats, pair of dogs forced to live in complete squalor
Disgusting images have captured an inside look of a couple’s faeces-ridden house of horrors where 30 cats were forced to live in complete squalor. WARNING: CONFRONTING
2026.5.14 Labor defends youth crime policy as 109 charges against teen dropped
The state government has vowed to “do everything” to strengthen punishments for teenagers who commit serious offences after a 14-year-old girl had more than 100 charges against her dropped because she was found to have been legally too young to understand her conduct was wrong.
The girl was facing 109 charges over an alleged crime spree in which she was accused of targeting the Jewish community, including nearly running down a Jewish family in a stolen car and intentionally hitting a cyclist using a car door.
On Wednesday, police withdrew charges against the girl, who was aged 13 at the time of her alleged offending. A Victoria Police spokesperson noted the prosecution was unable to rebut the legal presumption that children aged 13 and younger are incapable of committing a criminal offence.
In Victoria, children aged under 12 cannot be arrested, charged or held in detention, and children aged 12 or 13 can only be held criminally responsible if prosecutors can prove they knew their actions were wrong.
“This is a high legal threshold that requires the prosecution to prove the child knew their conduct was seriously morally wrong,” the spokesperson said, adding that Victoria Police understood these incidents caused concern for the Jewish community.
News Corp reported that police told a court hearing the girl had Googled “how long is the sentence for running someone over” three minutes after allegedly striking the cyclist, and had also searched “Where do Jews live”.
Premier Jacinta Allan said on Thursday that the girl’s alleged behaviour “is far from in line with community expectations”, but added she was not aware of the specifics of the case.
“It’s why we’ve toughened the bail laws,” Allan said. “It’s why we’ve introduced adult time for violent crime.”
2026.5.12 Charges against men charged following death of Melbourne teenager Isla Bell dropped at court
Two men charged after the body of a missing teenager was found at a tip have been dropped, after prosecutors said there were “no reasonable prospects” of a conviction.
A man accused of killing a Melbourne teenager before her body was hidden in a fridge has had his charges dropped ahead of a trial.
Marat Ganiev, 55, was initially charged with murder in November 2024 after police discovered the body of missing teenager Isla Bell, 19, in a rubbish truck at a waste depot in Dandenong.
It had been previously alleged Mr Ganiev killed Ms Bell in his apartment before enlisting his friend Eyal Yaffe, 59, to help remove a fridge containing her remains.
The teenager had vanished about six weeks earlier after leaving her Brunswick home, with the disappearance prompting a public outcry for information.
Mr Ganiev had pleaded not guilty and the charge was later downgraded to manslaughter with a trial scheduled to begin later this month.
But, on Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams announced in the Victorian Supreme Court that the charge would be withdrawn and prosecutors intended to lay a new charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The trial was vacated and a new summary of the allegations will be served on his lawyers within two weeks, the court was told.
A separate charge of attempt to pervert the course of justice against Mr Yaffe was also withdrawn and he left the court a free man.
Ms Bell was reported missing by her family on October 10, with police previously alleging she was killed in Mr Ganiev’s St Kilda apartment on October 7.
During a committal hearing, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told forensic pathologists were unable to say how Ms Bell died or whether her injuries occurred after her death.
In a statement, an Office of Public Prosecutions spokeswoman said Mr Ganiev’s manslaughter charge had been withdrawn “as there are no reasonable prospects of conviction due to insufficient evidence to support the charge”.
Mr Yaffe did not comment as he left court.
Outside of court, Ms Bell’s mother Justin Spokes shared her disappointment and spoke about the “crushing reality of life without Isla”.
“I raised Isla to be full of compassion and care and integrity and strength,” she said.
“My expectations in our legal system were low, but obviously not low enough.”
Ms Bell’s grandfather, David Spokes, said it was a “difficult day” and the family would have more to say at a later date.
The RSPCA is pushing for an immediate jail term for a couple who abused and tortured an 11-week-old puppy to death.
WARNING: Readers are advised that this story contains details of animal cruelty,which some people may find distressing.
Nathan James Dekkers and Isabel Maree Busher, both 26, had previously pleaded guilty to more than a dozen animal cruelty charges, including beating and tormenting a puppy, and misleading RSPCA investigators.
The pair were due to be sentenced in the Busselton Magistrates Court on Tuesday, but the case was adjourned for five months after Busher’s defence lawyer pushed for a psychiatric report, which was expected to take 20 weeks.
There was a strong police presence outside the courthouse, with a group of 10 protesters yelling at Dekker and Busher as they arrived and departed court.
Trauma history
RSPCA prosecutors Ruby Harris and Ian Wheldon strongly opposed the defence’s request, describing it as “clutching at straws”.
The animal cruelty charges relate to the abuse of an 11-week-old bull terrier puppy, named Douglas, over several weeks in December 2024.
The couple also pleaded guilty to providing false information to an RSPCA Inspector during a search of their home.
Defence lawyer Michelle Huber told the court the results of a neuropsychological report indicated a further psychiatric assessment was required for Busher.
While mindful of the delay, Ms Huber said the psychological report had noted Busher’s history of complex trauma and anxiety.
She said there were concerns about Busher’s functional literacy.
‘Clutching at straws’
Prosecutors told the court the charges and offenses were so serious that an immediate jail term was required.
RSPCA lawyer Ian Wheldon said he could not see the utility of a psychiatric report.
“It’s simply not true there is functional illiteracy … it’s clutching at straws,” he said.
“There has been ample time to prepare.”
Magistrate Stephen Butcher noted the neuropsychological report had offered few mitigating factors for Busher, but he was prepared to order the psychiatric assessment it recommended.
He adjourned the case until October 9, with the couple’s bail extended until that date.
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A childcare worker has been granted bail after being charged with allegedly assaulting two further children at a centre in Sydney’s south-west.
Police initially arrested 24-year-old Jayendra Shahi on April 25 and charged him with two counts of common assault after receiving reports he had allegedly assaulted two boys, aged three and four, at the centre in Panania.
Police said they were told the worker allegedly slapped the boys in the face.
After being granted bail for those charges, he was arrested a second time on Monday afternoon after further investigations uncovered a second incident in which police allege he assaulted two girls aged three and four.
He appeared in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday, where his lawyer, James Moore, applied for bail under similar conditions to his previous charges.
That was opposed by the police prosecutor, but ultimately granted by Judge George Breton.
He said the charges were serious, but it was unlikely he would harm children again.
“The matters … indicate quite a brutal assault on two young children at a childcare centre where they should be protected,” Judge Breton told the court.
Mr Shahi was ordered to report weekly to Bankstown Police Station, attend psychological and mental health programs, and not enter the childcare facility.
‘You feel you’ve failed’
Outside the court, a mother of one of the alleged victims spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I think, as any parent … your instinct is that you want to protect your child, and then to have somebody else describe an interaction between your child and another adult as a brutal assault it’s completely heartbreaking,” she said.
“It is distressing. You feel you’ve failed.”
She said she was called into the centre to review CCTV vision of an incident involving her child, another child and Mr Shahi.
She and her partner reported the issue to police, not the centre itself.
“After going through months of looking at news reports of daycare centres that are being shut down for alleged incidents, and then it hits you like a shockwave that this is your child who’s become this statistic,” she said.
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2026.5.5 Award-winning children’s author Craig Silvey pleads guilty to possessing child exploitation material
Award‑winning author Craig Silvey has pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child exploitation material, while a charge that he produced such material has been dropped.
Silvey, 43, was first charged in January after detectives from Western Australian Police’s Child Abuse Squad raided his Fremantle home, allegedly catching him communicating online with child exploitation offenders and seizing his electronic devices.
The father of three was later hit with extra charges, including allegations he produced child exploitation material between February and June 2022, and possessed further material on January 12 this year.
Those two additional charges have now been discontinued, and Silvey has admitted the remaining counts of possessing and distributing child exploitation material linked to offences in January.
Silvey faced the Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday when he entered guilty pleas.
The popular author is best known for his 2009 coming‑of‑age novel Jasper Jones, which is considered a modern Australian classic and has been adapted into a feature film and several stage productions.
He has also been widely recognised for other books, including Rhubarb, Honeybee, which won the Australian Indie Book Award in 2021, and the children’s novel Runt, which was also made into a film.
Publishers Allen & Unwin and Fremantle Press, which released Rhubarb, stopped promoting his books after the original charges were laid and most of his titles were removed from reading lists across the country.
Silvey’s bail was continued, and he is next due to appear in the District Court on July 3 for sentencing.
2026.5.5 Melbourne nightclub and brothel the newest targets in so-called bar wars
Two more Melbourne venues have been targeted in a separate firebombing and drive-by shooting on Tuesday morning, as the number of targeted incidents at popular venues across the city continues to rise.
Emergency services were called to the scene of a suspected firebombing attack at La Di Da nightclub – on the corner of King Street and Little Bourke Street in Melbourne’s CBD – about 3.30am on Tuesday.
A security guard who has worked at the venue for six years told ABC radio on Tuesday that management had received a tip from police “two or three weeks ago” warning that La Di Da could be a potential target.
“The security boss got word that this was the next place to be attacked … We were waiting for it,” he said.
The guard added that the venue hadn’t received one of the threatening text messages that were sent to multiple venue owners last week.
A police spokesperson said that they could not provide a comment while investigations were ongoing. Police have previously indicated they were aware that perpetrators had compiled a list of venues to target.
Also on Tuesday morning, there was a separate drive-by shooting at Bodyline brothel in Yarraville about 5.20.
Multiple gunshots were fired from a vehicle driving along Thomas Street and aimed towards the business. No one was injured, and the incident is being investigated. Bodyline management was contacted for comment.
“Dedicated” NSW school teacher and loving mum Marion Barter boarded a flight from Australia to Britain and vanished without a trace in 1997.
Her daughter Sally Leydon, haunted by her mother’s disappearance, has been searching for the truth for nearly 30 years.
The baffling cold case has now reached a crucial new milestone after police announced they had doubled a reward for information to $1 million.
This is because, as Leydon explained, “someone knows something”.
“This is kind of like my last bite at the cherry to see if we can actually find somebody who knows something,” Leydon told Nine.com.au.
“I’m 100 per cent confident that people know… they just need to speak up.”
Mother-of-two Barter, then aged 51, was last seen at a bus depot on Scarborough Street, near Railway Street, at Southport in Queensland.
It is believed she took a bus to the airport, before leaving for a trip to the United Kingdom on June 22, 1997.
Barter travelled abroad under the name Florabella Natalia Marion Remakel, which she had changed by deed poll a month before leaving the country.
Police believe Barter then re-entered Australia under her new name on August 2.
Her incoming passenger card stated she was married and lived in Luxembourg.
Barter has not been seen or heard from since then.
She was reported missing by family in October, and around the same time an unknown person appears to have accessed a bank account belonging to Barter in Byron Bay.
An exhaustive investigation pursued leads both in Australia and overseas, but detectives are yet to find out what happened to Barter.
In 2024, the NSW State Coroner found that Barter died on or after October 15, 1997.
The cause or nature of her death was unable to be confirmed.
“You lose your keys, you lose your mobile phone, and your whole world falls apart. But imagine losing your mum, and what that feels like,” Leydon added.
“It’s a tragic thing to have to experience.
“And the ambiguity of living in this space can eat you up.”
Police today announced an increased reward of $1 million leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for Barter’s disappearance or death.
A $250,000 and $500,000 reward for information has already been offered regarding the cold case.
Leydon said it is a great show of faith that detectives believe that Barter’s disappearance can be solved.
Leydon does not believe that Barter wanted to leave her children behind.
She is concerned her mother became involved in a situation “she did not fully control”.
“My mum was a loving mother, a dedicated teacher and a woman who valued her relationships,” Leydon told reporters during a police press conference today.
“She did not simply walk away from her life and she did not abandon her family.
“She was an award-winning school teacher, a devoted mum to me and my brother Owen, a friend to many…
“She would have been an incredible grandmother, I know my children would have adored her… I miss her.”
Leydon launched her own podcast, Missing Matters, where she followed her mum’s footsteps to the UK and Europe in a pursuit for answers.
“She deserves to be found,” she added.
“For so long, her identity has been as a missing person.”
Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said the increased reward offered some hope for Leydon and her family.
“No family should have to live with the uncertainty of not knowing what happened to a loved one,” Catley said.
“That’s why we are again asking anyone who may know something, no matter how small the detail, to speak up.”
Police have not given up on finding the truth and are pursuing “every possible avenue”, Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi added.
Doueihi said the reward had been doubled partly because investigators did not have “enough evidence at this stage that would result in a successful prosecution.”
“We’re hoping that today’s release will bring to light new information to the investigation team, which may allow us to progress the investigation,” Doueihi said.
2026.5.4 More than a dozen people charged after crowd ransacks petrol station and supermarket
Thirteen people have been charged after a crowd stormed a petrol station and supermarket during a riot which broke out over the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby.
Last Thursday, the body of a child believed to be that of the five-year-old girl was found after a five-day search.
The man suspected of her murder, 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis, was found later that night, when he was arrested and taken to Alice Springs Hospital.
Following his arrest, violence broke out outside the hospital late in the evening as a grieving crowd demanded the man be handed over to be dealt with by the community.
As the crowd dispersed, dozens of people poured into the Shell Express and Piggly’s Supermarket at The Gap.
CCTV vision shows people ransacking the aisles of the petrol station and taking items from the shelves.
Police said about $105,000 worth of property was stolen and $80,000 of damage caused.
CCTV footage released by police shows people ransacking the aisles of the petrol station and taking items from the shelves.
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said the behaviour was “not people processing grief in relation to the death of Baby Kumanjayi”.
Police have since charged four women and three men with aggravated burglary and theft.
Two of the women, aged 26 and 24, were charged with two counts of each offence.
Another 36-year-old woman was charged with one count each of aggravated burglary, theft and breach of suspended sentence.
A 26-year-old man was charged with one count each of aggravated burglary, theft and breach of suspended sentence.
A 32-year-old man was charged with two counts each of aggravated burglary and theft and one count of breach of suspended sentence.
A 29-year-old man was charged with two counts of aggravated burglary and theft and one count each of damage of property, attempt arson and armed with an offensive weapon at night.
A 36-year-old man was charged with one count each of unlawfully cause serious harm, aggravated assault and breach of DVO.
A 49-year-old man was charged with one count of breach of bail and one count of breach of suspended sentence.
Repairman Kim Shegog told 9News the lost stock came at a cost for the business.
“We had a skip (bin), we filled the skip up with all the food,” he said.
“All of the food that had use-by dates had to be disposed because it’s going to be two to three weeks to get the place back up and running again.”
Northern Territory Police acting superintendent Michael Ordelman denounced the alleged behaviour.
“The businesses involved have suffered extensive monetary loss,” Ordelman said.
Jefferson Lewis was yesterday charged with the murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby.
He is expected to appear in court tomorrow.
A Sydney man accused of murdering his parents and brother has been refused bail, with his case adjourned to allow time for a psychiatric assessment.
Jacky Amazing Feng, 32, faced court for the first time on Monday, following the alleged murder of three family members and the alleged attempted murder of another brother on Sunday morning.
Mr Feng appeared on-screen in Campbelltown Local Court via video link, where Judge Peter Thompson adjourned the case to July 15, and ordered a psychiatric assessment while the accused remains behind bars.
Lawyer Javid Faiz, who is representing Mr Feng, told reporters outside court it was a “tragic incident”.
Mr Faiz said he had not made a bail application for Mr Feng, but would do so “once all the brief materials have been provided”.
Bail was formally refused.
A ‘very bloody scene’
About 1:30am on Sunday, police and ambulance paramedics were called to a home on Juliet Close, Rosemeadow, in Sydney’s south-west, following reports of an assault.
When emergency services arrived, the bodies of a 65-year-old mother and her 25-year-old son were found.
Police said a 64-year-old father was suffering from “serious blunt force injuries”. He was taken to Liverpool Hospital where he later died.
A second son, aged 30, also sustained serious injuries, but managed to dial Triple Zero (000).
Police allege that about an hour later, Mr Feng, the eldest son of the family, arrived at the home in a silver car, and was arrested at the crime scene.
He was charged on Sunday evening with three counts of murder (DV) and one of attempted murder (DV).
On Sunday, Superintendent Grant Healey said emergency services were confronted with a “very bloody” and “grisly” scene.
He said that police suspected that more than one weapon was used, including a bladed edge and potentially a hammer.
DV ‘can no longer be a silent crime’
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley offered condolences to the family and friends of the Feng family.
“This is a terribly stressing case,” Ms Catley said.
“I also want to extend that to the first responders. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for those first responders.”
Ms Catley said communities had a responsibility to call out domestic and family violence, with an increase in DV-related deaths across the state.
“It can no longer be a silent crime … Let somebody know if you think something is not right, because we are seeing too many domestic and family violence deaths.”
Family friend ‘shell-shocked’
Jonathan Dalangin, a friend of Mr Feng, attended the local court with concerns for the family.
“I was a bit shell-shocked when I first heard it … didn’t really believe it,” the 32-year-old said outside court.
Mr Dalangin said he went to high school with Mr Feng, and the pair had completed a plumbing apprenticeship together.
“He was an A-class student, a top student in Ambarvale High School.”
He said he received a text from a friend on Sunday morning which said: “Jacky Feng might be in trouble.”
He described the Feng family as a “quiet” but “good family”.
Mr Feng remains behind bars and will undergo a mental health assessment before he is next due before the courts in July.
2026.5.4 Australian Jews tell antisemitism inquiry of surge in hate before Bondi Hanukkah massacre
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A wide-ranging Australian inquiry examining antisemitism in the country after a massacre at a Hanukkah celebration heard Monday from Australian Jews who said escalating hatred has left them fearful and vulnerable.
Fifteen people were killed when two gunmen opened fire at the celebration on Bondi Beach in December. Father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram are accused of carrying out the massacre with guns they owned legally, in a country with tight controls on firearms. The attack, which followed a wave of separate antisemitic crimes in Australia, was inspired by the Islamic State group, authorities said.
The mass shooting prompted a Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the highest form of inquiry in Australia, that began public hearings in Sydney on Monday. The two-week sitting is due to scrutinize the nature and prevalence of antisemitism in Australia’s institutions and society.
Further hearings this year will examine other topics before the commission publishes its final report in December.
“The sharp spike in antisemitism that we’ve witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other Western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” said Commissioner Virginia Bell. “It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility toward Jewish Australians simply because they’re Jews.”
Bondi attack followed a surge in hate crimes
All witnesses called to give evidence Monday were Jewish Australians who recounted their experiences of hatred, some speaking under pseudonyms out of fear for their safety. The daughter of one of those killed in the Bondi attacks said that a year earlier she was verbally abused while carrying her baby in a Sydney shopping mall by a man who spotted her Star of David necklace.
“I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe,” said Sheina Gutnick. “There were many people around me but no one intervened.”
Her father Reuven Morrison, 62, hurled a brick at one of the gunmen who attacked the gathering at the popular Sydney beach in December, before Morrison was shot and killed. Gutnick said she was cautious of attending events with her family in public places or traveling to certain parts of Sydney.
Australian Jews told the hearing Monday that the Bondi attacks followed a surge in antisemitic incidents since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023. In the following year, more than 2,000 episodes were reported to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which tracks such figures, compared to a previous record of just under 500 the year before.
Jewish Australians recount assaults and abuse
Such escalation has also been reported in Britain and elsewhere. But Australia’s small Jewish population was particularly shocked because its members had not registered such a volume of serious threats before, witnesses said Monday.
“Now everyone is scared all the time,” said Toby Raphael, vice president of Sydney’s Newtown Synagogue, which was daubed with swastikas during a wave of antisemitic crimes in the city in 2025.
Raphael said he had once told congregants there was no need for security at the synagogue, but the ramp-up in hate-fueled attacks had changed that. He added that he was part of a parent security group at his son’s Jewish school, which is also protected by professional guards carrying guns.
“Why do kids have to go to school like that?” Raphael said. “This is the world that the Jews of Australia live in now and it needs to change.”
Antisemitism in Australia was growing in profile before the Bondi shooting because of a spate of attacks on Jewish schools, businesses and places of worship. Australia’s government in August said Iran had orchestrated at least two of the crimes and cut diplomatic ties with Tehran.
Some of those giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday cited these episodes when they said they were considering leaving Australia or already planned to move abroad.
Others spoke of being verbally or physically attacked or having crowds of pro-Palestinian protesters arrive at their synagogues. Alex Ryvchin, a Jewish group leader whose house was targeted by arson in 2025, said he believed Australia was “on a path to catastrophe,” after the crime at his home and he warned reporters that someone would die.
“This was January, and by December there was a horrific massacre which has transformed us permanently,” he told Monday’s hearing.
The hearings follow a report urging gun reform
The massacre roiled Australia, where serious gun crime has been rare since controls were tightened after a mass shooting in Tasmania 30 years ago. Australia’s federal and state governments are now considering further reforms.
An interim report from the Royal Commission released in April, which examined the capacity of Australian law enforcement and the security services to respond to antisemitic crimes, recommended that Australia’s leaders prioritize enacting nationally consistent gun laws and a weapons buyback.
Sajid Akram was shot dead by police at the crime scene. He was a licensed shooter who legally owned the guns used.
His son was wounded but survived. Naveed Akram has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder. He has entered no pleas.
2026.5.1 Man accused of ramming Brisbane Synagogue gate appears in court
A man accused of ramming a synagogue’s gate in an alleged anti-Semitic attack and later referencing the Bondi shootings will undergo a psychiatric assessment for his bail application.
Matthew Alexander Donald De Campo was arrested shortly after he allegedly partially knocked down the front gate of Brisbane Synagogue with a Toyota HiLux at 7.16pm on February 20.
The 32-year-old Sunnybank man was charged with wilful damage, serious vilification or hate crime and has pleaded not guilty.
De Campo applied for bail in Queensland Supreme Court on Friday.
Justice Soraya Ryan heard police had referred to De Campo having drug-fuelled delusions and fixations on various religions, not just the Jewish faith.
The crown prosecutor opposed bail and said De Campo had past convictions involving knives and replica handguns.
“In this particular climate of offences being committed against Jewish people, and he himself references Bondi, the risk of re-offending and the risk to safety of others cannot be ameliorated,” the prosecutor said.
Defence barrister Gregory McGuire said a conviction for property damage as an aggravated hate crime required it be “wholly or partly motivated by hatred or serious intent on the basis of religion”.
The hate crime allegation came from parts of a police interview where De Campo was clearly significantly affected by drugs, McGuire previously said.
Police in a previous encounter with De Campo in a cemetery described him as having “just fried himself” on unknown drugs and being “out of his mind”.
De Campo was not present in court, but he was supported by his parents in the public gallery.
Ryan was shown CCTV of the incident where De Campo allegedly reversed a black ute with silver tray at speed into the gate before quickly driving off.
A member of the congregation was standing behind the gate at the time but no one was injured during the incident.
De Campo sought to reside at a drug rehab and mental health clinic if he was granted bail.
Ryan said she could not grant bail for De Campo “in the absence of a psychiatric opinion that keeping him clean will reduce the risk” from drug-induced psychosis.
McGuire sought for the bail application to be adjourned so De Campo could see the prison psychiatric service.
The bail application could return to court next week and De Campo is due to face trial in December in Brisbane Magistrates Court.
When asked outside court if his client held anti-Semitic views, McGuire said “absolutely not”.
De Campo’s parents did not comment outside court.
2026.5.1 The disappearance and death of a five-year-old girl has sparked violent uproar in the heart of Australia.
Images out of Alice Springs show fires, tear gas and rubber bullets being used on crowds outside the town’s hospital where the accused abductor was being treated late on Thursday night.
The tragic death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, and its violent aftermath, have now captured the attention of the country.
What happened in Alice Springs overnight?
An angry crowd of protesters converged on Alice Springs Hospital late on Thursday after news spread that police had captured Jefferson Lewis and taken him to the facility.
Officers received numerous calls about 9.30pm that Lewis was at one of the town camps in Alice Springs and was being violently assaulted, Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole said.
Protesters gathered outside the hospital where Jefferson Lewis was being treated after his arrest
Lewis became the subject of one of the Northern Territory’s biggest ever manhunts after it was alleged that he had taken a little girl from an Alice Springs town camp on Saturday night.
The body of Kumanjayi Little Baby had been found just before midday (NT time) on Thursday beside the Todd River. Police announced that Lewis was arrested at an Alice Springs home about 9.30pm.
Locals soon gathered at the hospital where he was taken and a riot erupted.
How did the riot begin?
Dole said on Friday morning that Lewis was arrested after police received calls that he’d given himself up to locals at a town camp, rather than police, and was being attacked.
“The police were set upon by the crowds at that time, as were the ambulance officers that were attending,” Dole told Sky News. “We evacuated Mr Lewis to the Alice Springs Hospital for treatment.”
A crowd soon gathered outside the hospital, about 10pm, shouting “they got him” and demanding police hand Lewis over to be dealt with by the community.
Dole estimated up to 400 people were present. He said they tried to “get at” Lewis in what he agreed was an unacceptable form of vigilante payback.
“The law must apply equally to everybody,” he said, “and as Northern Territory police, we take an oath to serve and protect, and we don’t get to choose who we protect, and that’s what we were doing last night.”
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2026.4.30 NT Police find body believed to be missing 5yo Alice Springs girl, after five-day search
In short: Northern Territory police officers have found the body of a young Aboriginal girl they believe to be a five-year-old who has been missing for five days.
Police say the girl’s body was found just before midday today, about 5 kilometres south of a crime scene in Alice Springs.
What’s next?
Police are continuing to search for 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis, a recently released prisoner who they allege abducted and killed the girl.
2026.4.28 Gasps as ex-Christian charity worker avoids jail over abuse book
The author behind an offensive novel depicting toddler role-play has been emotionally rattled after being convicted but spared jail for penning child abuse material.
Lauren Ashley Mastrosa, a 34-year-old former marketing executive for a Christian charity, wrote Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods and published it through an online pre-release in March last year.
The book – which was read by 21 advance readers – is about an 18-year-old woman named Lucy who role-plays as a toddler with Arthur, an older man who is her father’s best friend.
Mastrosa appeared for sentence at Blacktown Local Court in western Sydney after being found guilty of three child abuse material offences relating to the novel.
Judge Bree Chisholm convicted the 34-year-old and imposed an 18-month community corrections order.
“I cannot justify a non-conviction ever being appropriate given the extent that the defendant wrote about sexual activity with such a young child,” she said.
While Mastrosa had seemed shocked at her arrest and co-operated fully with police, she had spent months writing highly sexualised content involving a young girl that spanned chapters of the book, Judge Chisholm found.
“General deterrence looms large and the sexual exploitation of children even from such an unsuspecting defendant cannot be minimised.”
Mastrosa gasped, closed her eyes and covered her mouth as the sentence was handed down and she was placed on the Child Protection Register for eight years.
She wore black and sat in the public gallery accompanied by her husband Adam during the hearing.
Earlier, high-profile criminal barrister Margaret Cunneen SC argued her client had simply made a mistake.
“She was planning to write an erotic book, she wasn’t planning to write child abuse material,” Cuneen told the court.
There was no ongoing risk to the community as the books, which were about fictional characters, had been destroyed, the barrister argued.
“She’s not a paedophile, she’s someone who wrote a book which offended against the law.”
Mastrosa wrote the book as an escape after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer and having multiple miscarriages, the court heard.
She lost her job as a marketing executive for Christian charity BaptistCare, had been exposed to online death threats and vitriol, and would never write anything like the book again, Cuneen said.
Mastrosa was willing to undergo ongoing psychological treatment after being diagnosed with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder since her arrest, the barrister added.
Crown prosecutor Milijana Masanovic pushed for a conviction.
“The book speaks for itself. The matter’s an objectively serious one,” she submitted.
The novel normalised child abuse material and fuelled the market of child exploitation, Masanovic said.
She acknowledged character references shown to the court that described Mastrosa as a kind, charitable woman.
“Sometimes good people can do bad things,” she said.
In February, Judge Chisholm found the book sexually objectified children.
“The reader is left with a description that creates the visual image in one’s mind of an adult male engaging in sexual activity with a young child,” she ruled at the time.
Mastrosa was found guilty of producing, possessing and distributing child abuse material.
She did not answer questions when departing court with her husband and her solicitor Michaela Mate stepping between her and reporters.
She can appeal the ruling.
The maximum penalty for producing, possessing or distributing child abuse material is 10 years’ imprisonment.
2026.4.22 Fresh Ivan Milat link explored in murder highway mystery after two hitchhiking friends disappeared 54 years ago
A new documentary has drawn a fresh link between notorious serial killer Ivan Milat and the unsolved 1972 murder of Melbourne teenager Robin Hoinville-Bartram and the disappearance of her friend Anita Cunningham.
Hoinville-Bartram and Cunningham, both 18, were hitchhiking from Melbourne to Queensland when they vanished.
In November 1972, railway workers found Hoinville-Bartram’s body under a bridge on the Flinders Highway, about 250 kilometres west of Townsville. She had been shot twice in the head at close range and was naked from the waist down. Cunningham has never been found.
Milat, who died in 2019 protesting his innocence, was convicted of murdering seven backpackers in Belangalo State Forest, in the NSW Southern highlands.
But many, including detectives who brought him to justice, believe he could have killed scores more.
NSW Legalise Cannabis MP Jeremy Buckingham, who has been using parliamentary mechanisms to probe the true extent of Milat’s crimes, told Outback Murder Highway – a four-part series investigating unsolved murders and disappearances along the Flinders Highway – that he believes Hoinville-Bartram and Cunningham could be among the serial killer’s earliest victims.
“What we need to do is look at Ivan Milat’s life, look at the opportunity he had to commit a crime,” Buckingham said.
“Where was he? What was he doing? Were there crimes in those areas at that time that fit his modus operandi? And the answer is yes.”
Taskforce Air was established shortly after the first bodies were discovered in Belangalo Forest in 1993.
With Milat yet to enter the police’s sights and with few suspects, the task force examined similar unsolved murders nationwide that could have been committed by the same killer.
The previously unpublished list, obtained in parliament by Buckingham, contained 58 names, including Hoinville-Bartram and Cunningham.
Milat was in his late twenties at the time Hoinville-Bartram and Cunningham disappeared.
Jeremy Buckingham MP said the circumstances of the women’s disappearance, including their age, the fact they were hitchhiking when they disappeared, and the sexual assault and execution of Hoinville-Bartram, bore striking similarities to the crimes for which Milat was convicted.
Former Queensland detective Brendan Rook pointed out that among Milat’s seven known victims were three couples.
“We see a pattern of behaviour where he abducts more couples than he does individuals,” Rook said.
“You don’t have too many serial killers abducting couples.”
Milat’s preference for couples was evident decades before the backpacker murders. In 1971, a year before Hoinville-Bartram and Cunningham disappeared, Milat picked up two 18-year-old hitchhikers, assaulted one at knifepoint and threatened to kill the other.
The pair escaped, and Milat was later charged but acquitted.
Buckingham says very little is known about Milat’s whereabouts between 1971 and 1974, but he was aware of evidence Milat fled to Queensland after the failed prosecution.
An eyewitness account aired in the documentary adds to the suspicion.
In 2003, witness Merle Whyte told Crimestoppers she met the two women in July 1972 at the Pentland Hotel, 15 kilometres from where Hoinville-Bartram’s body was later found.
Whyte recalled seeing the pair socialising with a man they called “Cowboy”, before accepting a lift with the man to Charters Towers.
Decades later, Whyte recognised Milat on television as the same man.
Whyte’s family claims police dismissed her account. But Buckingham said Milat had a lifelong strange fascination with cowboy attire.
“Who, as an adult, dresses up as a cowboy? Ivan Milat did. He did it his whole life,” he said.
Although Milat lived in NSW and his known victims were murdered in the Belangalo Forest, Buckingham said the killer was highly mobile, working at various times on a road gang and as a truck driver in Queensland, and could therefore be responsible for murders across the country.
If proven, Milat’s connection to the Flinders Highway will underscore its deadly reputation.
Since the 1970s, eleven people, including Hoinville-Batram and Cunningham, have been murdered or vanished along the remote 900km stretch of road.
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2026.4.7 How a five-year investigation led to Ben Roberts-Smith’s arrest at Sydney Airport
2026.4.7 Bruce Lehrmann: Trial date set for rape allegations at Queensland nightclub
A trial date can now be revealed for ex-federal ministerial staffer Bruce Lehrmann who has been charged with raping a woman he met at a regional nightclub.
Former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s trial date to face rape charges can now be revealed after an application for a blanket non-publication order over the case was withdrawn.
Lehrmann, 30, is set to stand trial from November 2, just over five years after the alleged offences took place at a house in regional Queensland.
Lawyers for Nine Entertainment, News Corp and the ABC were informed last week that Lehrmann was no longer attempting to ban all media coverage of his court case before the trial.
District Court Judge Deborah Richards on Tuesday confirmed the temporary non-publication order over the entire case had been allowed to expire.
On March 18 defence solicitor Zali Burrows had sought blanket suppression over the case, saying further news reports would generate “adverse publicity” and serve as a “vehicle for commentating on social media”.
“We seek (the order) to preserve for Mr Lehrmann to have a fair trial,” Ms Burrows said.
Judge Richards imposed the temporary non-publication order next day with the media organisations due to challenge a permanent order at a hearing on April 9.
When Ms Burrows was asked by Judge Richards if Lehrmann would seek a jury trial or a trial before a judge alone.
“It may be (before a jury). Mr Lehrmann is still deciding,” Ms Burrows said.
Lehrmann is accused of raping a woman twice during the morning of October 10, 2021 after a night out in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.
He was charged in January 2023 and committed in July 2024 to stand trial following hearings in Toowoomba Magistrates Court into the reliability of the alleged victim’s evidence.
Lehrmann and the woman met during the previous night at a Toowoomba strip club.
She told police she and Lehrmann discussed their political beliefs before catching a taxi to his friend’s house, having consensual sex and consuming cocaine about 4am.
The woman said she was woken about 10am by Lehrmann sexually assaulting her.
Lehrmann, who is on bail, has yet to formally enter a plea but previously indicated he would contest the charges.
Lehrmann previously worked in Canberra’s Parliament House for then Liberal senator and minister Linda Reynolds.
He sued Network Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over an interview with former colleague Brittany Higgins, who claimed Lehrmann raped her in the ministerial office in 2019.
A criminal trial in the ACT on the charge of raping Ms Higgins was aborted in 2023 due to juror misconduct.
Lehrmann lost the defamation case after a Federal Court judge found in 2024, to the civil standard of proof, that he raped Ms Higgins.
Lehrmann has taken his case to the High Court in his third bid to win the defamation case.
If Lehrmann is denied further appeal, he could be forced into bankruptcy due to court orders he pay a $2 million legal bill to Ten.
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2026.4.3 Teens accessed ‘extremist material’, ballistic vest seized: police
Two teenagers are behind bars on remand after a ballistic-style vest and extremist literature was seized at a remote rural town.
Two teenagers have been charged and a ballistic-style vest and extremist literature seized following a terror probe in a small rural rown.
NSW Police raided a home in Moree, about 120km south of the Queensland border, late in March following reports in December that a teenager had allegedly accessed extremist material online.
A 15-year-old boy was charged after a mobile phone, a ballistic-style vest, and several notebooks were seized.
The items were subsequently analysed by police and the matter was referred to the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which carried out further raids at two homes in Moree on Thursday.
Police allegedly located and seized a number of handwritten notes and pieces of literature alleged to contain extremist references during the operation.
The same 15-year-old was arrested at 10am and taken to Moree police station.
He has since been charged with using a carriage service to transmit violent extremist material and knowingly collecting or making a document connected with terrorism.
A 16-year-old boy was also arrested later that morning.
He has been charged with using a carriage service to possess violent extremist material.
Both teens were refused bail to appear before Parramatta children’s court on Friday.
‘I had always thought Canberra was safe, with not much violence, until I experienced this myself.’
A Chinese woman has been left bloodied and hospitalised after she was allegedly racially abused before being assaulted in Australia’s capital.
The 27-year-old, who asked to be identified only as KK Zhang, was walking with a friend when she was allegedly repeatedly punched in the head on Macdermott Place in Canberra’s Belconnen about 5.45pm on Thursday.
Police said the alleged offender — a woman not known to the pair — produced a knife and made threats before fleeing the scene in a dark grey Ford Falcon sedan.
Zhang was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being left “covered in blood”, but told 7NEWS.com.au the ordeal had left her “terrified” and deeply shaken.
“I had always thought Canberra was safe, with not much violence, until I experienced this myself,” the bookkeeper said.
She claimed the confrontation began after a teenage girl and a young boy — believed to be the woman’s children — directed racist abuse at her, including using a slur mocking Chinese speech.
Zhang said she confronted the children and began recording the interaction before the woman allegedly approached from behind and grabbed her phone, sparking a physical altercation.
“She was punching me, and I think her nails scratched me — I ended up with a 5mm cut on my face and bruising on my arms,” Zhang said, struggling to fight back tears.
“My left ear was bleeding, including the piercing, and my nose was bleeding too.”
She said when she tried to stop the woman from leaving before police arrived, the woman allegedly armed herself with a large knife — estimated to be about 30 to 40cm long — taken from a car and pointed it at her while making threats.
Fearing the situation would escalate further, Zhang’s friend pulled her back.
“But even as they got into the car, they were still smirking at us and making rude gestures, including giving us the middle finger,” Zhang said.
Zhang said the incident had left her fearful and shaken, and she is now reconsidering her sense of safety in Canberra.
“I’ve been in Australia since 2022, and I had never experienced anything like this before,” she said.
“Now both my friend and I are scared to go out and wary of strangers.”
Police told 7NEWS.com.au investigations are underway.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or has information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the Crime Stoppers website, quoting reference number 8345990.
2026.4.1 Murder charge against partner of Mullumbimby’s Ashleigh Grice is dropped
A man accused of murdering his girlfriend at Mullumbimby in September last year has had the charge against him dropped.
The Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions withdrew a charge of murder against 30-year-old Jai Oden-Jenkins in Lismore Local Court this morning.
Outside the court, public defender Jason Watts confirmed a post-mortem examination found Mr Oden-Jenkins’ 23-year-old girlfriend, Ashleigh Grice, died from a drug overdose.
The report stated the cause of death was “a mixed drug effect”, with methylamphetamine and Bromazolam detected in her system.
When the matter was mentioned in March, the court heard the post-mortem report finalised in December led to prosecutors not opposing bail for Mr Oden-Jenkins.
At that time, prosecutors were still seeking instructions on how to proceed with the matter.
There was an outpouring of grief in the small town of Mullumbimby in the days after Ms Grice’s body was found inside the Mullumbimby property she shared with Mr Oden-Jenkins.
Around 400 community members gathered at dusk in a local park to hold a candlelight vigil for the young woman who was described as “a beautiful soul”.
Byron Shire mayor Sarah Ndiaye said the community was still feeling the loss of Ms Grice.
“My heart goes out to Ashleigh’s family and friends; it’s such a tragic loss of a young life, whatever the circumstances,” she said.
“It’s a good reminder for all to take great care of themselves and each other.”
Mr Oden-Jenkins has been on bail and living in Victoria, and did not appear in court today.
The murder charge and bail conditions are withdrawn and dismissed.
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2026.4.1 Dezi Freeman joins a long history of Australian fugitives captured or killed
Dezi Freeman shocked Australians by surviving seven months on the run in the tough terrain of country Victoria.
It is not yet known how he survived, or if anyone helped him.
But Freeman is far from the first Australian to turn outlaw after committing a crime.
He is the latest in a long line of fugitives who have used the vastness of the continent to try to dodge responsibility for their actions.
Almost all are men. Some are supported by sympathisers. Others hide in plain sight after assuming a new identity. And some die as Freeman did, in a blaze of gunfire that delivers resolution to the community, but little consolation to the grieving families left behind.
On the run
It is not known how many fugitives are currently on the run in Australia.
The Australian Federal Police, which runs a specialised fugitive-catching squad, will not say how many cases it has on the books.
The majority are people who slip out of town or interstate with outstanding arrest warrants for relatively minor crimes.
But a small number of violent offenders continue to haunt the landscape.
2026.3.30 AS IT HAPPENED: Dezi Freeman shot dead after seven months on the run; Accused cop killer hiding in remote rural container, refused to surrender
Freeman was hiding out in something that resembled a shipping container and a caravan in Thologolong.
Police arrived at the scene about 5.30am but Freeman refused to come out, prompting a three-hour stand-off.
Eventually, police used the arm from a Bearcat armoured vehicle to ram the side of the container.
Freeman came outside wrapped in a blanket and armed with a gun.
Bush said police had appealed to him to peacefully surrender, but he did not do so.
Freeman was then shot dead.
The state coroner will attend the scene and the investigation will be overseen by the Professional Standards Command, as per standard process for a police shooting.
Police will now turn their attention to anyone who may have been helping Freeman.
“I am sure some assisted him in getting away from Porepunkah to where he is located,” Bush said, adding that anyone “complicit” in Freeman’s hiding would face charges.
“That’s a very important part of what comes next.”
2026.3.30 What is the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement?
The sovereign citizen movement has once again been thrust into the mainstream spotlight after fugitive cop-killer Dezi Freeman was shot dead by armed police in Victoria’s north-east.
Sovereign citizen Freeman murdered two police officers and seriously wounded another in August 2025, and had previously tried to prosecute then-premier Daniel Andrews for treason, been arrested while protesting outside court, and described police as “terrorist thugs”.
The overall movement is an uncentralised belief system but is generally characterised by an anti-authority idea that they are not under the jurisdiction of the government and the law does not apply to them.
It’s why, for many years, it was typically associated with videos of someone getting pulled over for a traffic stop and refusing to provide their details to police, claiming law enforcement has no authority over them – only to be arrested shortly after.
Long before he murdered Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim De Waart-Hottart in Porepunkah, Freeman himself had a run-in with police when he was pulled over for driving at 76km/h in a 60 zone.
“I don’t give a s—. Leave me alone, you terrorist. Get the hell away from me and go,” he said when asked to produce his licence, according to court documents.
He also attempted to arrest a magistrate and several police officers while appearing in Wangaratta Magistrates Court, telling them “you must stand down. You’re now in my custody and under arrest. You are not free to leave”.
As Freeman’s attack shows, though, sovereign citizen beliefs can be far more dangerous than they might seem from videos of their court antics and nonsense arguments while refusing to deal with roadside police officers.
Extremists have carried out violent crimes both in Australia and overseas, and the movement has received a significant influx of followers following the COVID-19 pandemic as people retaliated against lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccination requirements.
So what exactly is a sovereign citizen? Here’s what you need to know.
What do sovereign citizens believe?
Sovereign citizens – or “SovCits” – is a term for people who hold extreme anti-government views, essentially believing laws and regulations don’t apply to them.
The idea is that, in the same way a country is a sovereign nation unconstrained by other nations’ laws, a person is themselves a sovereign unconstrained by the laws of a government.
“It’s a spectrum,” David Heilpern, dean of law at Southern Cross University, told Today Extra.
“On the one hand, there are those who want to challenge the law by raising old doctrine common law doctrines and concepts of sovereignty. That’s probably a positive thing.
“At the other end, there are those who simply refuse to comply with laws that apply to you and I. They see themselves as separate and different. They say they don’t consent to the jurisdiction.
“And by their own declaration, they’re not bound by laws.”
The exact reasoning behind this varies within the movement – no surprise given its uncentralised nature – but the idea of false governments is a common one for sovereign citizens around the globe.
One prevalent thought is Redemption Theory, which asserts the US (which is where the movement began) went bankrupt in 1933 when it abandoned the gold standard. It claims the government then began using its citizens as collateral in agreements with other nations.
Redemption Theorists go on to claim each person, therefore, has a monetary value – up to millions of dollars – stored in a secret US Treasury Department account listed under someone else’s name.
Some followers will also avoid entering into “contracts” with the government.
It’s why many of them are pulled over for driving without a licence or vehicle registration – or for just failing to produce such documents or provide their name and address when pulled over – and why you’ll hear phrases like “I do not consent” during exchanges between sovereign citizens and police officers.
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2026.3.26 Islamic State speech ‘likely inspired’ alleged Bondi shooting, terror experts say
An Islamic State (IS) speech that called on religious celebrations to be turned “into bloody massacres” could have inspired the Bondi terror attack, terrorism experts say.
The 2024 speech released by IS’ main spokesperson called on sympathisers to intentionally target Jewish and Christian people, urging supporters to “kill them by the worst of means”.
In a paper published in the West Point Combating Terrorism Centre, two Australian scholars believe the speech titled “And Kill Them Wherever You Find Them” was a call to arms for renewed attacks by IS supporters on Israeli and Western targets, and claim the Bondi attack carried similar themes to the ones outlined in the speech.
“The speech included an explicit call to arms,” the report from Andrew Zammit and Levi J. West said, adding it was reminiscent of a similar speech in 2014 that preceded a spate of Islamic terrorist attacks across Europe.
“[It] sought to inspire sympathisers to undertake terrorist attacks in their home countries and provided sanction for a range of tactics, suggesting that perpetrators, ‘detonate explosives … [and] shoot them with bullets.’”
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, are accused of shooting and killing 15 people at Bondi Beach on December 14 last year, targeting a Hanukkah celebration.
They also allegedly threw IEDs towards the celebration before the shooting started, but the devices failed to detonate.
Sajid was shot and killed by police, while Naveed was wounded and remains before the courts.
The authors say other aspects of the attack matched the callout in the IS speech, which called on followers to “pick easy targets”.
“It explicitly stated that its targeting advice sought to ensure that any resulting attacks matched the movement’s strategic and ideological logic,” they said.
“[Followers were] being told to ‘target synagogues and churches over military targets… [and to] carry out daring and courageous operations targeting Jewish and Christian gatherings and neighbourhoods everywhere, especially in Crusader European countries,’” the report said, quoting some phrases from the speech.
The authors believe the Bondi Massacre is a consequence of IS’ plans for resurgence in the aftermath of the war in Gaza, saying the group wanted to “remobilise its transnational support.”
“[It] took care to not let the Israel-Palestine conflict overshadow the movement’s global revolutionary goals and wider range of enemies,” they said, saying the group wanted to renew attacks in the West, with a greater emphasis on attacking Jewish targets.
The Akram’s allegiance to IS is alleged by police in its statements of facts relying upon a video they filmed in October last year, where they stand in front of an IS flag and claim responsibility for an upcoming “Bondi attack”, evidence from the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team said.
The pair also travelled to the Philippines in November just before the attacks, which is alleged to have been done in their preparations for the attack.
An article in one of the organisation’s publications also acknowledged the attack, saying the Akram’s allegedly “answered the call and carried out the recommendations to target holidays and gatherings.”
“They armed themselves with the Prophetic methodology and set off without looking back, plunging unarmoured into the Hanukkah celebration and turning it into a scene of mourning,” the article said.
A teacher is likely to be jailed for having sex with a 17-year-old student at a school while she was meant to be teaching, a court has been told.
Monique Nguyen wore a face mask and kept her head bowed as she hurried in and out of Parramatta District Court today.
The 30-year-old pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse with a person between 17 and 18 years old under care and using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material.
She was supposed to be teaching the student when she had sex with him at a NSW school, crown prosecutor Sarah Beaumont told the court.
She pushed for Nguyen to be taken into custody, emphasising that students and parents are entitled to expect that trusted educators won’t abuse their position.
“The offender exploited a special relationship,” Ms Beaumont said.
A sentence of imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence for the offences and the breach of trust they involved, she told the court.
But Nguyen’s lawyer argued the 30-year-old needs to be on bail to attend appointments for her mental health, which would be adversely impacted by a stint behind bars.
She has engaged in meaningful mental health treatment programs and made significant progress since being charged with the offences, the court was told.
Judge Anthony Colefax noted that progress would be halted if the teacher was taken into custody while awaiting sentencing.
He declined to grant the detention application, finding it was likely but not realistically inevitable that she would receive a full time jail term.
Nguyen also admitted to nine counts of sexually touching a person between 17 and 18 years old under special care, which will be taken into consideration when she is sentenced at a later date.
When the detention application was denied, the teacher – who wiped away tears throughout the proceedings – cried and embraced her family.
CCTV has captured the moment a large group of men ran for cover as one of them was shot outside a cafe in Melbourne’s south-west overnight.
Police say the shooting, outside a cafe on Borrack Square in Altona North about 11.30pm yesterday, could be connected to an illegal tobacco trade.
A large group of people were sitting outside the Cafe Squared eatery when a white Toyota Hilux drove up and shots were fired into the crowd.
CCTV shows the moments the shots were fired and the men run into the building for cover.
A 49-year-old man, who was shot twice in the arm, and was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Those involved fled the scene in a stolen silver Hilux with cloned plates, which was stolen from a Newport home in February.
Hours later, about 2.50am, the offenders torched the car and left it burning at the intersection of McArthurs and Chambers roads, about 800 metres from where the shooting took place.
The victim is known to police, but authorities are unsure whether he was the intended target.
“It may well be just a random shooting of that crowd of people to send a message,” Detective Inspector Graham Banks said.
“The conflict we see at the moment is seeing random acts of violence that are directed at people who they perceive are opposing people.
“At this stage we’re not ruling anything in or out as far as what the motive would be, as far as the people who were there or the location itself.”
Witnesses told 9News they have no connections to the illicit tobacco trade.
A crime scene was established and the investigation was ongoing, Victoria Police said.
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2026.3.16 Australian author Craig Silvey faces further child exploitation charges
Popular Australian author Craig Silvey has been charged with two further child exploitation offences, including allegedly producing child exploitation material.
Mr Silvey, 43, was charged in January with distributing and possessing child exploitation material.
The award-winning author has now been charged with another count of possession, as well as a new charge of producing child exploitation material.
On Monday morning, he appeared in Fremantle Magistrates Court and his bail conditions were continued.
2026.3.13 Woman’s trauma after student filmed her in toilet
The victim of a biomedical student busted for secretly filming women in public toilets is now fearful of her safety and can no longer use public restrooms.
The woman is among an unknown number of victims, who university student Bao Phuc Cao recorded without permission in intimate settings in public facilities.
The 23-year-old was found with more than 100 videos on his phone but authorities are unsure if they’re all of the same or different victims, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told today.
The woman had gone into the public toilets at Chipmunks Playland and Cafe Docklands on February 20, 2025, and saw there was one other person in an adjoining cubicle.
As she used the toilet, she noticed an iPhone being held close to the wall near the cubicle and that it was recording.
The woman became scared and panicked at the sight of the recording, leaving the toilets to call security who found Cao in the toilet cubicle.
Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz read the woman’s victim impact statement and described how Cao’s offending had a profound impact on the complainant.
“She remains anxious, unsurprisingly she is hypervigilant,” the magistrate said.
The woman’s sense of safety has been and continues to be affected, impacting her ability to use the restroom in the office and in public, she added.
“These concerns are the long-term effects of your offending,” Mykytowycz said.
On Friday, Cao was sentenced to a 12-month adjourned undertaking without conviction where he must be of good behaviour and comply with his previous community corrections order.
The offender had been sentenced twice before receiving a community corrections order — in July 2025 on the same matter and May 2025 relating to an incident in October 2024.
Under the principle of totality, the magistrate said his charge today should have been bundled with his previous sentencing as it would have been unlikely to have impacted his prior sentence.
Mykytowycz took into account his guilty plea, youth and that he has no family in Australia, but described the offending as very serious and the complainant was entitled to feel safe.
“Your offending was not of a physical nature but of the most intimate kind in a public toilet,” she said.
“Court has to send a message to the community that they denounce this offending and (reinforce) the protection of women who are entitled and must feel safe in public utilities.”
The court was told Cao’s phone used in the offending will be returned to him after authorities figure out how to delete all its contents.
He left the court a free man and was bundled away from the chasing media pack by the son of a man who was jailed in a separate case heard before Cao’s sentencing.
2026.3.12 Queensland coroner to probe whether death of eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs was preventable
A coroner will probe the interactions the Struhs family had with multiple Queensland government agencies, before their extremist religious views caused the “unusual” death of their eight-year-old diabetic daughter which garnered “widespread public outrage and condemnation”.
Elizabeth Struhs died at her Toowoomba home in January 2022, in the days after her insulin was withdrawn.
She succumbed to a painful death, surrounded by 14 adults, including her parents and older brother, who made up their home-based church.
At the time of her death, the members of the fringe Christian group were vehemently opposed to using medications or visiting doctors and believed that God would heal her.
Jason and Kerrie Struhs, their son Zachary, and the 11 others were found guilty of her manslaughter at trial last year and are serving various sentences in prison.
Now that the criminal proceedings are finalised, Elizabeth’s death will be examined at a coronial inquiry which has been set down for October.
On Wednesday, counsel assisting the coroner Simon Hamlyn-Harris told a preliminary conference in Brisbane the cause, and circumstances of Elizabeth’s death “have already been fully explored”.
“It’s not, in this inquest, intended to rehear the evidence that was given in the criminal trial or to reconsider the factual findings made by his honour,” he said.
Multiple agencies under scrutiny
Mr Hamlyn-Harris told the coroners court the inquest would look at decisions or actions made by varying government departments or organisations involved with the family.
“In particular Child Safety and the department of health but also to a lesser extent Queensland police, the department of education and the department of corrective services,” he said.
The court heard Child Safety had a brief involvement with the Struhs family in 2013, and were made aware of the mother’s religious views, but at the time it was not taken any further.
In 2019, the court heard, Child Safety became involved in a significant way when Elizabeth almost died.
The court heard, after Mr Struhs took his critically ill child to hospital, against Mrs Struhs’ wishes, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
After his child recovered, Mr Struhs agreed to ensure she would continue to receive her insulin injections at home, despite Mrs Struhs’ continued objection.
Mr Hamlyn-Harris told the court the decision by Child Safety to allow her to return to her family’s care at that point “was in the face of strongly expressed opposition” by medical staff.
“The advice … was given both verbally but also in emails,” he said.
One email written by a staff member and read to the court said “Elizabeth cannot safely be cared for in a home where her mother resides due to the strong beliefs that she is expressing.”
Mr Hamlyn-Harris told the court despite child safety being aware Mrs Struhs had made it clear she still opposed any medical treatment, Child Safety “did not agree with that assessment”.
“That presumably was because they were confident Jason Struhs could be relied upon to maintain her treatment as he had said he would,” he said.
“It would appear that Child Safety had underestimated the risk to [Elizabeth].”
Coroner Ainslie Kirkegaard told the court Elizabeth’s death had attracted “enormous public curiosity and concern”.
“The unusual circumstances in which Elizabeth died, while in the care of a family who clearly loved her, have drawn widespread public outrage and condemnation,” she said.
“But at the heart of this intense public scrutiny is a little girl who, had she received medically recommended treatment, would have become a teenager turning 13 earlier this year.”
Coroner Kirkegaard acknowledged the lengthy period of time it had taken to reach a hearing, pointing to the criminal proceedings, and “the then understood” timing of reporting timeframes for the Child Safety Commission of Inquiry.
“Given public comment by the child safety minister back in May 2025, suggesting that Child Safety’s involvement with Elizabeth and her family would be examined in that forum,” she said.
“We now know that is not the case.”
Ms Kirkegaard told the court the inquest would try to determine whether there may have been an opportunity to have better protected Elizabeth “from the risk that manifested so tragically”.
“I’m particularly interested for the inquest to explore what has and what can still be learned in the multi-agency involvement with Elizabeth’s family,” she said.
“And the challenges of agencies who are working with parents or carers whose extreme views place children at risk of harm.”
The inquest will run for two weeks.
2026.3.10 Police hunt three young women after puppy stolen from outside shopping plaza
Police are searching for three women after a puppy belonging to a young family was stolen from outside a Melbourne shopping plaza.
Frank Wong tied his family’s 10-month-old cavoodle Dora to a pole outside Vogue Shopping Plaza at 670 Chapel Street in South Yarra about 3.25pm yesterday.
While Wong was doing the grocery shopping inside, three women allegedly untied Dora and walked away with the puppy in tow.
“Dora was not allowed inside the shopping centre, so I tied her up outside the mall for only about 15 minutes or so,” Wong said.
“It was utterly awful. We thought we lived in a safe and friendly neighbourhood so to see such an act is very awful.”
Sergeant Ryan Gilmore said the theft appeared opportunistic.
“The females were walking the street, they have taken notice of the dog, entered the centre and returned to steal Dora,” Gilmore said.
The trio were last seen walking with Dora north along Chapel Street towards Richmond.
Wong said he was desperate to reunite Dora with his four-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
“She misses Dora very much, they are like sisters,” he said.
“[Dora] means so much to her.”
Police have released images of the women, who are described as Caucasian, aged in their 20s to 30s, with long brown hair.
The first woman was wearing a grey crop top and black pants.
The second was wearing a dark tracksuit and a Nike T-shirt.
The third woman was wearing dark jeans and a dark-coloured hoodie.
Dora was wearing a pink collar, pink leash and is microchipped.
Anyone with information should contact Crimestoppers.
Wong said all the family wants is to be reunited with their “very sociable, very friendly” puppy.
“We are happy to provide a reward, all we want is to have Dora back home with our family,” he said.
“If you want to take her to a vet or a shelter, just hand her over, that would be fine with us as well. Nothing matters more to us than being reunited with Dora.”
2026.3.6 WA woman who poked holes in housemate’s condoms found not guilty of intent to cause harm
A Bunbury woman who poked holes in her housemate’s condoms in a “fit of rage” has walked free after a court found her not guilty of acting with intent to cause harm.
Twenty-four year old Skye Palazzese Edwards faced a trial in Bunbury District Court this week, where she chose not to give evidence.
The jury was shown a recorded police interview from 2024 in which Ms Edwards admitted to tampering with her co-tenant and long-term friend’s condoms in July 2022.
She told police she felt jealous of her friend’s relationship and said the new partner had driven a wedge into their friendship.
“He would stay at our house basically all week every week,” Ms Edwards said.
“At first he was really nice, always making sure we were OK with him being there … but then it was kind of like he was trying to manipulate and turn people against each other in the house.”
Police told tampered condoms came from different stash
The court heard Ms Edwards telling police that she was home alone on the evening of 13 July 2022 and that she admitted to pricking condoms with a sewing needle.
“We really want to know what happened to the condoms you put a needle through,” police told Ms Edwards in the recorded interview.
Ms Edwards sat in silence for over a minute before saying: “I was sure I threw out the ones I did do it to.”
She told police she pricked holes in several condoms in a “fit of rage” but denied they were ever used, saying that she had thrown them out afterwards, along with photos and cards representing her friendship.
The defence claimed the accused did not cause the victim to be pregnant.
Defence lawyer Derek Hunter said while Ms Edwards admitted she put holes in condoms from the bathroom medicine cabinet, she did not put holes in the housemate’s bedroom stash, where the condom presented to police was found.
He said that hole could have been something else.
“Was it a cat’s claw or a pin prick?” he proposed to the jury in his closing statement.
Friend fell pregnant but miscarried
Her friend reported the tampering to police after falling pregnant and presenting to hospital with a miscarriage.
The court heard she experienced debilitating abdominal pain.
The housemate then saw a text exchange between Ms Edwards and a former partner in which the accused admitted to pricking the condoms with a sewing needle.
“I poked holes in half their condoms,” the text read.
“Gotta put those pregnancy tests to use somehow.”
Ms Edwards’s housemate then returned home to find at least one of her condoms with a hole through the package.
The court heard the targeted couple used condoms alongside other forms of contraception.
“One thing we all talked about before we all moved in was avoiding pregnancy because we didn’t have room for a baby or were financially ready for one,” Ms Edwards told police in her interview.
Prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt her actions had resulted in harm to her friend.
2026.2.26 Two men charged over alleged kidnapping, murder of Sydney grandfather
NSW Police have charged two men over the alleged kidnapping and murder of Chris Baghsarian, after remains found on Tuesday were positively identified as the Sydney grandfather.
Baghsarian, 85, who disappeared from his North Ryde home shortly before 5am on Friday, February 13, was the victim of a mistaken-identity abduction, police say.
Daniel Stevens, 24, and Gerard Andrews, 29, were taken into custody yesterday morning and charged last night over the alleged murder and kidnapping. Police will allege in court that the men “participated in a joint criminal enterprise with other persons” that led to Baghsarian’s death.
The accused pair were previously known to police for “insignificant matters”, Detective Acting Superintendent Andrew Marks said.
Police believe more people may have been involved in Baghsarian’s alleged abduction and murder.
Marks said investigators suspect there were “more than three” offenders linked to the alleged crime.
“I want to comment on the hard work of the detectives, the analysts, the forensic police, and all those who worked on this case around the clock to get the results we got today,” Marks said.
“I want to assure you that our work is not done and we will continue to identify those who are also involved in this horrible, horrible matter.
“We know that there’s others involved.”
Human remains were found in grassland near a golf course in the semi-rural Sydney suburb of Pitt Town on Tuesday morning.
The remains were identified as Baghsarian following forensic testing.
Police suspect Baghsarian died at an address in Dural, which was identified as the alleged kidnappers’ “stronghold”.
Marks said the grandfather was deceased at the time he was taken to the location in Pitt Town, about 9pm on February 14.
His cause of death was yet to be formally established and an autopsy is under way.
About 6.30am yesterday, police executed two search warrants in Kenthurst and Castle Hill.
Andrews was arrested at the Kenthurst address, and Stevens at the Castle Hill address.
Marks said both men were living at their parents’ homes.
They were both taken to Riverstone police station, where they were charged with murder and take/detain in company with intent to ransom, occasioning actual bodily harm.
They were refused bail to appear in Blacktown Local Court today.
Police also conducted a search at a third home in NSW’s Lake Macquarie and two electronic devices were seized for forensic testing.
One of the arrested men travelled to this address following Baghsarian’s alleged kidnapping, Marks said.
He confirmed police have spoken with a person who resides at the property but said they are not a suspect.
“I believe those two that were arrested today, they were probably waiting for us to come,” Marks said, adding that the parents were “shocked” by the arrests.
Marks said police believed the men were involved in a “joint criminal enterprise” but could not comment on whether overseas actors had organised the incident.
He also confirmed the intended kidnapping target would have held for ransom for $50 million.
“They are organised criminals, they hide behind encrypted devices,” Marks added.
“I have a number of names for them, but I probably couldn’t say it here today.”
Marks said the incident is “up there” among the worst cases he has ever seen.
Arrest vision shows police swooping on the home in Kenthurst, before using a battering ram to enter the property and arrest the older man.
Officers then arrived at another home in Castle Hill, about 10 kilometres from Kenthurst, and took the second man into custody.
Footage also shows the two men being led into Riverstone Police Station.
“We welcome the news of the recent arrests in relation to the kidnapping of our father and grandfather,” Baghsarian’s family said in a statement distributed by police.
“As we continue attempting to come to terms with this incident, we ask that media respect our privacy.”
The family said they would not be conducting interviews.
Police remained at the properties where the two men were arrested throughout the morning.
A car was towed from the Castle Hill address, while police removed bags of evidence from the Kenthurst property.
Officers at the latter also gained access to the roof cavity, and conducted line searches through the backyard and the dense bushland at the property’s rear.
‘No stone unturned’
Speaking on 2GB, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon backed the investigators to the hilt.
“They have left no stone unturned. They have been going been working with the community,” Lanyon said.
“They have been reviewing both electronic evidence and CCTV. So we’re very confident, obviously.”
Officers continued to comb the crime scene where Baghsarian’s suspected remains were found.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the discovery of Baghsarian’s remains was “an incredibly tragic development”.
Police said a car forensically linked to the 85-year-old was seen a day after his kidnapping near where his suspected remains were found.
“While formal identification is still underway, this is an incredibly tragic development, and our thoughts are with the friends and family of Mr Baghsarian at this heartbreaking time,” Minns said.
“This kind of brutality has no place in our community. Police will not stop until they capture those responsible and bring them before the courts. The full weight of the law must come down on these people.”
The human remains were discovered near a golf club in Pitt Town in the city’s north-west during the search for the 85-year-old.
A grey Toyota Corolla forensically linked to an abandoned stronghold in Dural was spotted in Pitt Town about 9pm on February 14, police said.
During a raid, officers seized evidence, including disturbing images of the missing grandfather with his alleged kidnappers.
Videos of Baghsarian have also been sent to police.
The car, which had cloned plates but is believed to have been stolen from Victoria, was found burnt out on Good Street in Westmead on February 16.
It had cloned plates of DVT007, and the Victorian registration 1UZ2BU.
Marks said information regarding the investigation led police to the golf course.
Baghsarian’s family were “deeply upset” by the discovery and asked for privacy.
Police will now focus efforts on identifying the offenders.
“The efforts that have gone in, and the response that has come from the public, we’re all outraged that this has happened to an innocent man,” Marks said.
“I am proud of the police and the efforts. Police have been working 24 hours a day since Friday the 13th.”
The search for Baghsarian
9News understands the remains were wrapped up in what appeared to be a carpet or towel.
Police searched dense bushland near Glenorie, about 15 minutes further east, earlier in the week.
Shortly before 9am on Tuesday, a number of police vehicles left that search base to travel to a patch of overgrown grassland near Pitt Town Bottoms Road.
Once they arrived at the location, a blue tent – signifying the location of the remains – was raised in minutes.
The overgrown piece of land is located in semi-rural surroundings, with businesses including turf farms nearby.
Police on the scene included tactical, general duties, and forensics officers as well as investigators.
Police have said the person they believe to have been the intended target of the kidnapping is safe and in no immediate danger.
The investigation continues, and anybody who has spotted any suspicious activity around Dural, or who has information or footage showing the car in question, is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.
2026.2.25 Irma Palasics’s husband recounts her brutal murder in violent home invasion
The jury in the cold case murder trial of Irma Palasics has watched harrowing hospital footage of her husband Gregor recounting her death in 1999, shortly after he suffered injuries in the same attack.
Melbourne men Joseph Vekony and Steve Fabriczy are standing trial, charged with murder and other crimes related to the burglary.
A jury has found a man guilty of manslaughter for a second time over his unprovoked attack of a 73-year-old man at a service station.
Troy Maskell, 47, faced a retrial in Melbourne’s Supreme Court after successfully appealing his conviction last year.
He was accused of John Burke’s manslaughter at a Strathmerton service station, northern Victoria, in 2021.
Burke, 73, lived alone at the back of the town’s post office and would often pop into the service station to chat with the attendant.
Maskell was intoxicated on August 8, 2021, when he walked into the store around midnight with his partner and daughter, whom Burke greeted as he chatted to staff.
Maskell’s partner called Burke a pedophile, before Maskell picked up a one-litre bottle of sports drink and threw it into Burke’s head.
The jury was told the unprovoked attack continued, as Maskell walked over to Burke and kicked him as he lay on a tiled floor.
Burke died in hospital 11 weeks later from a brain injury.
Jurors took less than a day deliberating and returned with their “guilty” verdict for manslaughter this afternoon.
Justice James Elliott thanked jurors for their “very diligent” service as he sent them home.
“Please take Mr Maskell away,” he told custody officers.
Maskell will return to the Supreme Court tomorrow for a pre-sentence hearing.
He was jailed for eight years in 2023, with a non-parole period of five, after being found guilty of manslaughter in his first trial over Burke’s death.
However, Maskell successfully appealed this convictions with three Victorian Court of Appeal judges ordering he face a fresh trial in July 2025.
His conviction was set after the judges found there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice.
2026.2.25 Teenager first in SA to be prosecuted for allegedly creating deepfake images
A court order suppressing the identity of the first South Australian man to be charged with creating sexually explicit deepfake images has been lifted.
Netherby resident William Hamish Yeates, 19, appeared in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with eight counts of creating or altering sexual material without consent — a federal offence introduced in 2024 to combat deepfake pornography.
The maximum penalty for each count is seven years behind bars.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions confirmed the case was the first prosecution of its type in SA.
The former Mercedes College student is also facing 12 counts of using a carriage service in a harassing or offensive way, a charge that carries a maximum prison term of five years.
Mr Yeates’s defence lawyer, Tim McGrath, told the court that negotiations with prosecution were underway.
“An offer has been put to the [Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions] that acknowledges the conduct alleged in every offence before the court today,” he said.
Court documents allege Mr Yeates, who was 18 at the time, had “transmitted material” on the social media platform X and that he was “responsible for creating the material” between February 8 and February 13 last year.
It is also alleged that Mr Yeates used two different X accounts on 12 occasions between September 2024 and February 2025 in a way that “reasonable persons would regard as being, in all the circumstances, menacing harassing or offensive … in relation to [the alleged victim]”.
Mr Yeates did not comment as he left court.
The matter will return to court in April.
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2026.2.22 ‘Now or never’: Police offer $1M reward to solve 1981 cold case sex assault and murder
A rare $1 million reward is being offered to help solve the 1981 cold case sex assault and murder of a 25-year-old Melbourne woman.
Haroula Kipouridou’s body was discovered in a jammed lift about 2.30am on July 3, 1981, about 30 minutes after work friends dropped her to her mother’s home in Richmond’s commission flats.
Detective acting Sergeant Leigh Prados said the young singer had been bashed, strangled and left on the floor semi-naked.
“She had been violently attacked – whoever did this did it with a high level of brutality,” Prados said today.
The cold case detective is determined to solve the 45-year-old cold case for Kipouridou’s siblings, who are desperate for answers.
“The people who are left behind, who loved Haroula, that’s why we do it,” Prados said.
It’s one of several cases police are confident they’ll be able to solve.
“We have families out there who have lost loved ones who expect and want to know their investigations is still being looked at,” Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said.
Several suspects have been interviewed and police are not ruling out links to other similar crimes of the era.
But time is of the essence.
“It’s an appeal to a person’s conscience that after 45 years as people get older and we approach our own inevitable end, there may be witnesses who need to reflect on things they know, they saw, they heard or they were told, and to please come forward,” Prados said.
“It really is a case of now or never.”
The 25-year-old was engaged and working as a singer at a Greek tavern on Gertrude Street in Fitzroy at the time of her murder.
While the business no longer exists, investigators are hoping members of the public can cast their minds back to 1981, urging anyone who interacted with her on the night of her death to come forward.
“We will never, ever, stop trying to find you,” Prados said.
“We will keep looking for you, try to hold you responsible for what you did.”
2026.2.16 Accused Bondi terrorist Naveed Akram appears in court for the first time
Accused Bondi terrorist Naveed Akram has broken his silence in brief remarks to court.
The 24-year-old appeared via video link from prison to face Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on this morning on 59 charges, including murder and terrorism offences.
He is accused of carrying out Australia’s deadliest terror attack on December 14, when 15 people were killed and 40 injured during beachside Hannukah celebrations at Bondi Beach.
His father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police during the shooting.
The younger man spoke after a magistrate today continued suppression orders protecting victims and survivors of the attack, who have not chosen to identify themselves publicly.
“Did you just hear what I just said?” Deputy Chief Magistrate Sharon Freund asked the accused man.
“Yeah,” Akram replied.
Legal Aid solicitor Ben Archibold later asked for time to speak with his client.
“Mr Akram, your solicitor is going to give you a call after,” the magistrate said.
“Yep,” the accused terrorist replied.
Akram was dressed in a green prison-issued jumper, with his hands in his lap as he listened to the otherwise uneventful case mention.
His hair was freshly shaven, while he continued to sport the full-faced short beard he had during the December 14 mass shooting.
He and his father are accused of carrying out Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996 by targeting the Jewish festival of lights at Bondi Beach.
After parking near a footbridge on Campbell Parade, the men allegedly tossed three pipe bombs filled with steel ball bearings and a “tennis ball bomb” into the Hannukah celebration at Archer Park before opening fire.
But none of the pipe bombs detonated, despite preliminary police analysis finding they were viable.
A box-like bomb was found in the boot of the car while two hand-painted ISIS flags were also in the vehicle.
Police allege 55 people were shot during the attack, including 15 fatally, such as 10-year-old Matilda, Holocaust survivors and a retired police officer.
A court suppression order allows victim-survivors to choose if and when they go public with their story and join other survivors such as Arsen Ostrovsky and hero tobacconist Ahmed Al Ahmed, who briefly disarmed Akram’s father.
Akram is next due in court on April 9.
The family of a waitress repeatedly stabbed in front of shocked leagues club patrons has paid tribute to the good Samaritans who “saved her life”.
Kitchen hand Cameron William Leslie Clark, 33, has been charged with attempted murder after being accused of attacking his 20-year-old female colleague.
Up to eight people overpowered Clark after he allegedly repeatedly slashed Zoe Samson-Wood at Brisbane’s Easts Leagues Club on Thursday hours after being stood down for stalking her.
Zoe’s sister said the 20-year-old would require reconstructive surgery after putting up a “hell of a fight”.
Ruby Samson-Wood claimed her sibling had been stabbed 15 times and paid special tribute to 61-year-old leagues club chef – identified in court documents seen by AAP as Craig Geddes – who was stabbed when he came to Zoe’s aid.
“My heart goes out to you all, especially the man who saved her life and was stabbed in the abdomen as a result,” Ruby wrote on social media.
“Thank you to anyone who helped, even if it gave Zoe an extra millisecond to get away, you saved her life.”
Clark was allegedly told at 2pm on February 12 he had been excluded from the club after giving “unwanted and unsolicited attention” to Zoe.
About three hours later, he is accused of arriving at the club with a large carving knife and attacking Zoe as dozens of people were dining.
He allegedly confronted her in a hallway before Geddes came to her aid, giving her time to escape.
However, Clark pursued Zoe and attacked her again in the busy dining area, inflicting hand wounds and 10-centimetre cuts to her head and wrist, Detective Superintendent Andrew Massingham told reporters.
Clark was due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday after his February 13 appearance was adjourned due to him being in hospital.
But he was again unable to appear as he prepared for hand surgery, the court was told.
Clark was also charged with stalking along with acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm, unlawful wounding and going armed to cause fear.
He was remanded in custody to appear in court on Friday.
2026.2.13 ‘Far too severe to justify’: Central Islamic body calls for public apology for Town Hall protest
Calls for a public apology for the way police handled a protest against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Sydney are growing from Labor MPs, the crossbench and Australia’s Islamic community.
But NSW Premier Chris Minns continued to defend police from accusations of excessive violence against protesters at Town Hall on Monday night, refusing to support an independent investigation.
The NSW Police Force on Thursday admitted a senior police officer had allowed a group of Muslim protesters to continue praying at Town Hall square on Monday evening.
Video of police dragging the men away in the middle of prayer sparked widespread outrage after thousands turned out for the Palestine Action Group protest in the Sydney CBD.
“The senior officer was attempting to relay that message to other officers who were carrying out a move on direction during what was a noisy, dynamic and fast moving situation,” a police spokesman said, in a statement sent to 9News.com.au.
“However some worshippers were moved on before the message from the senior officer was able to be relayed.”
NSW barrister and former police officer Mahmud Hawila told The Sydney Morning Herald, which first reported the police statement, that he had reached an agreement with acting superintendent David El-Badawi, the most senior officer at the square, that prayer could be finished before he helped them disperse quickly.
“El-Badawi is a hero. He did the right thing. It is a shame other cops failed to display the same professionalism,” Hawila said.
“The whole prayer only runs for less than five minutes.”
Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the move-on direction was not targeting any religion and he’d “apologised for any offence taken for interfering with that religious process”.
But Australia’s central Islamic body on Thursday wrote to Lanyon demanding a full public apology for the way worshippers and other protesters were treated.
“We have called for the establishment of an independent inquiry into this incident and for officers to be held accountable and subject to disciplinary action for using disproportionate and unnecessary force against our community,” the Australian National Imams Council (Bilal Rauf) said in a statement.
“Many of the injuries sustained by protesters are far too severe to ignore and far too severe to justify as necessary action.
“We note that this abuse extended beyond the Muslim community, and was inflicted upon Australians from many different backgrounds who rallied together to express their concern over President Herzog’s visit, and the unfolding genocide in Gaza.”
ANIC senior adviser Bilal Rauf said it was “difficult to see what circumstances or context would have justified that level of intervention” from police.
“When one looks at the video it is very clear they are to the side and praying. Police come along part way through and while worshippers have their back turned, suddenly they are being picked up, thrown along and dragged,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.
The Greens have led calls in parliament for an apology and a full independent investigation of police actions but the four Labor MPs who attended the protest – Anthony D’Adam, Dr Sarah Kaine, Stephen Lawrence and Cameron Murphy – have also called for some form of inquiry.
Minns said he wished his MPs had not attended the protest and accused the Greens of “throwing fuel on the fire in a combustible situation” with “inflammatory language”.
“I do not support an independent investigation,” he said in Parliament on Thursday.
“I make it clear that I am not going to condemn the police for doing what we asked them to do: to keep the public safe.
“I am not going to throw the police under a bus.”
D’Adam explicitly called on the premier, police minister and police commissioner to apologise.
“I was shocked by the footage of members of the Muslim community being hauled away in the middle of prayer,” he said in parliament on Wednesday.
“We can say that, on the whole, the government’s position is that the protest was illegitimate and that the protesters got what they deserved. That seems to be the position being advanced by the police and the government.
“One can maintain that position and still recognise that what occurred was wrong. That particular instance was wrong. It was a mistake.”
Protesters have argued police powers stopping them from marching through the city – enabled by laws rushed through the parliament late last year – made matters worse.
Police and Minns have consistently said they acted appropriately and stressed that protesters were offered the chance to march at Hyde Park but could not in the CBD, due partly to Herzog’s visit.
“What must be understood in these circumstances – and I am determined to make this case over and over again – is that we had thousands of mourners in the city on that day. We had thousands of protesters in the city on that day,” Minns said on Thursday.
“We had a visiting head of state in New South Wales that the NSW Police Force was responsible for protecting. I am very grateful that protesters did not breach police lines. If they had breached police lines then the circumstances in our community would have been far worse.”
The Christian author behind a taboo “daddy dom” novel could face prison time after the book was found to contain child abuse material.
Lauren Ashley Mastrosa, 34, wrote Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods.
The book is about an 18-year-old woman named Lucy who roleplays as a toddler with an older man.
Mastrosa was charged after the book sparked outrage, and today she was found guilty of three child abuse material charges at a Sydney court.
“The defendant has written a book that sexually objectifies children,” magistrate Bree Chisholm said.
“The reader is left with a description that creates the visual image in one’s mind of an adult male engaging in sexual activity with a young child.”
The 210-page book’s cover is coloured in pink pastel with the title spelled out in children’s alphabet blocks.
The magistrate found Mastrosa, who is from Sydney’s western suburbs, possessed, disseminated and produced child abuse material when writing and marketing her literary work.
Mastrosa issued a pre-release of the novel to 21 advance readers in March before a complaint about its content was made to police.
She was arrested after a search of her home, where officers found 16 hard copies of the offending novel.
The 34-year-old will be sentenced at a later date.
The final shift for sex worker Revelle Balmain was meant to have settled her debts and given her extra cash to splurge while following her dreams overseas.
Instead, she disappeared from the face of the earth.
The 22-year-old had grand plans on becoming a dancer in Japan when she vanished on November 5, 1994.
An inquest into one of Sydney’s most notorious cold cases resumed today where Balmain’s former boss Jane King has given evidence.
King and her now ex-husband Zoran Stanojevic ran the escort agency, Select Companions, at the time of the model’s disappearance.
Balmain was last seen by a client when he dropped her off at a hotel in Kingsford, in Sydney’s east, about 7pm.
She missed her next booking and has not been heard from since.
King said she called the escort’s flatmate the day after she missed the appointment.
“I was worried about her,” she told Lidcombe Coroners Court.
The former madam rejected suggestions by counsel assisting Matthew Johnston SC her primary reason for chasing up the escort was because she owed the business money.
The outstanding funds would have been taken out of what Balmain earned that night, King said.
“It wasn’t a huge amount of money and I didn’t have any reason not to believe her,” she told the inquest.
A missed pager message sent to Balmain the morning after she disappeared read “pls call Zoran to arrange settlement of your account”.
King told the inquest she didn’t remember if she sent the text.
She couldn’t remember what was discussed during a one-minute phone call to Stanojevic about 8pm on the Saturday night that Balmain disappeared.
“I could have been asking him to get me some takeaway or something,” King said.
She denied making any calls from the landline in her two-bedroom apartment to her husband, despite records showing five calls made that night and during the early hours of the following morning.
The former madam said the landline calls would have been diverted to the escort agency’s receptionist, known for legal reasons as Danielle.
King said she had been pregnant at the time and would have been in bed watching TV.
Her husband had returned home the following day with complaints about drama at work after Balmain missed her booking and his vehicle had a flat tyre, King told the inquest.
He told her not to call police as that would alert the model’s family, who did not know she was working as an escort.
“She’ll turn up, don’t worry, she always does,” he allegedly said.
When there had still be no word from the model on Monday, King contacted police.
A previous inquest in 1999 found Balmain had died at the hands of a person or persons unknown and the matter was referred to the Unsolved Homicide Unit.
A fresh investigation between 2007 and 2009 followed by a formal review in 2020 failed to produce any compelling evidence in the case.
Authorities offered a $1 million reward for information in 2021.
The inquest continues.
A 16-year-old girl opened fire on a primary school on January 29, 1979, injuring eight children and killing two adults.
Brenda Spencer’s home in San Diego was directly across the road from Grover Cleveland Elementary School.
As students lined up outside the school at the start of the day waiting for the principal to open the gate, she opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.
With 36 shots fired from her home, she killed the school principal and a custodian who were rushing to pull students to safety.
Eight children were shot, as well as a police officer wounded in the neck. All survived.
Spencer then barricaded herself in her home.
As police negotiators waited outside, she answered a phone call.
A reporter from local paper the Evening Tribune had been cold-calling random telephone numbers in the neighbourhood to speak to potential witnesses.
When the reporter realised who he had on the phone, he asked her why she had done what she had done.
“I don’t like Mondays,” she replied.
“This livens up the day.”
For six hours, police were in a standoff with Spencer.
She eventually surrendered after being promised a Burger King meal.
Though still a minor, she was tried as an adult on murder charges.
While awaiting trial, one of her cellmates later began a relationship with Spencer’s father upon her release. They later married and divorced.
The day after her 18th birthday, Spencer was sentenced to life behind bars.
Spencer was denied parole for the seventh time last year.
“The shock of this brazen crime rippled through the community in San Diego at the time and it continues to hold a place of infamy in the history of mass shootings in our nation,” district attorney Summer Stephan said.
“While new laws are in place that can potentially speed up releases for individuals who were convicted as minors, as well as inmates who are over 50 years old, our position is that the totality of the horrific circumstances of this crime and this case do not warrant release and we are gratified that the parole board agreed with our position.”
She will be eligible for parole again in 2028.
Six months after the shooting, Irish pop band The Boomtown Rats released the song I Don’t Like Mondays, inspired by the shooting.
It was a massive hit in Ireland and the UK, but radio stations in San Diego refused to play the song.
“She wrote to me saying she was glad she’d done it because I’d made her famous,” lead singer Bob Geldof later said in an interview.
“Which is not a good thing to live with.”
2026.1.16 Amy Bowden’s mother calls for SA to introduce penalties for not calling emergency services
A mother is calling for urgent law reform in South Australia after her daughter died from a drug overdose that her boyfriend had tried to reverse by administering her methamphetamine.
Amy Bowden, 26, died in the early hours of February 8, 2024, from “mixed drug toxicity” at her Redwood Park home, in Adelaide’s north-east.
Her boyfriend, Ethan Lenny George Ross, now 29, of Redwood Park, has since pleaded guilty to one count of administering a drug to Ms Bowden on February 7.
Ross is not charged with causing Ms Bowden’s death.
The court previously heard Ms Bowden was unconscious for about 24 hours before Ross called an ambulance.
Outside court on Friday, Ms Bowden’s mother Michelle Sposito said she was calling on the South Australian government to introduce a law to hold people criminally responsible for not calling emergency services in a medical emergency.
“As it stands, the justice system is failing its victims,” she said.
“In other states and territories, we have specific laws that ensure perpetrators are held to greater account — including negligent manslaughter and fail to rescue.”
Ms Sposito also said she was calling on the government to “strengthen bail and home detention provisions”.
South Australia’s District Court heard in a pre-sentence hearing on Friday that Ross had written an apology letter to Ms Bowden’s family, but that they refused to read it.
“The maximum Ethan Ross can face for this charge is 10 years, yet all of us who stand here today have been handed a life sentence,” Ms Sposito said.
“Amy’s legacy will live on in all who truly loved her, not those who purported love but then showed none.
“Amy mattered to a lot of people, and it is the world’s loss that she is no longer with us. We will never stop fighting for justice for our beautiful daughter Amy.”
Judge Rauf Soulio said a toxicology report provided to the court showed that Ms Bowden had “an array of drugs” in her system, “including heroin, methadone and other drugs, and methylamphetamine”.
“The concentrations of the methylamphetamine would carry little risk of death through direct poisoning if they were the only drugs present,” he said, citing the report.
Prosecutor Amy Davis previously told the court Ross had sent several text messages to associates in the hours Ms Bowden was unconscious, which detailed different reasons as to why he administered the methamphetamine.
She said that one of the messages relating to the sourcing of the methamphetamine on February 7 said: “I’ll make sure this b**** is so grateful.”
Barrister James Marcus, for Ross, told the court that his client had prospects for rehabilitation and cited his personal circumstances, including that he had been exposed to drug use from a young age.
In a statement, a state government spokesperson said it “extends its deepest sympathies to Amy Bowden’s loved ones for their loss”.
“As the matter is currently before the Courts, we are not in a position to comment specifically on this case,” the spokesperson said.
“The Government will continue to closely monitor this matter.”
Ross will return to court later this month to be sentenced.
2026.1.16 Speculation about famous murder mystery after remains dug up in Victorian backyard
A homicide squad investigation is under way after tradies unsuspectingly dug up human remains in a backyard on Victoria’s Phillip Island yesterday.
There has been public speculation that the discovery of the human remains may be linked to the Victorian coastal town’s most famous murder mystery, however, police have not yet confirmed or ruled out a link.
The skull and bones were found yesterday in a shallow grave in Greg’s backyard.
The discovery sent the rumour mill in Phillip Island into overdrive, with many believing that the finding could be linked to the mum, who vanished in 1986.
“The phone was blowing up, our socials were blowing up,” homeowner Greg told 9News.
It’s been 40 years since local mother Vivienne Cameron vanished, with doubts surrounding the police theory of what happened to her.
The police theory, supported by coronial inquests, was that Cameron killed her husband’s mistress, Beth Barnard, then took her own life.
But her body has never been found.
Crime author Vikki Petraitis, who has written a book about Cameron’s disappearance, told 9News: “It’s essentially a closed case, but the only problem is nobody on the island believes this is what happened.”
“So when remains are found, it’s only natural that people think, well, if she didn’t jump off the bridge, she has to be somewhere,” Petraitis said.
The property was built on a vacant block sometime in the 1980s and was a holiday home for years, with plenty of visitors.
The mystery will be solved by forensic testing, expected to take months.
Police originally told the owners they’d be digging for several days, but were done in a matter of hours, saying they retrieved everything they needed.
“It would be nice if someone got closure, it really would,” Greg said.
2026.1.15 Homeowner’s ‘shock’ after tradies unearth human bones in Victorian backyard
A homeowner has told of his disbelief after tradies unearthed human bones while doing plumbing work at a holiday home on Victoria’s Phillip Island.
Plumbers were installing a septic tank in the backyard of the Hazelwood Court home in Silverleaves when they unearthed a skull and vertabrae around 8.30am.
Homeowner Greg and his wife bought the property on the small island three years ago.
“It’s our holiday home, and we love it. It’s a beautiful area, love it dearly,” he told 9News.
“It was pretty obvious what they’d found because, you know, we went into the backyard and saw what was going on.”
9News has been told the remains belong to an adult and may have been there for some time.
“To discover that someone’s lost their life here, in such a beautiful beach area, is really upsetting,” local resident Olympia said.
Forensic officers spent the day sifting through backyard soil on their hands and knees, while detectives from the homicide and missing persons squad went door-to-door searching for clues.
The state’s top detectives are now looking at whether the discovery could be linked to a high-profile cold case.
“You go through quite a range of emotions, from disbelief through to shock,” Greg said.
“I’m hopeful that it’s somebody’s very sad story, which will now come to closure.”
The area where the remains were found is not within a known Indigenous burial site.
The remains will undergo forensic testing, which could take weeks or even months.
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2026.1.13 Million-dollar reward over Melbourne girl’s disappearance 50 years ago
A $1 million reward has been announced for information about the disappearance of Melbourne girl Eloise Worledge 50 years ago today.
Eloise, then aged eight, was reported missing by her parents on the morning of Tuesday, January 13, 1976.
She was last seen in her bed at about 11.40pm at the family’s Scott Street home in Beaumaris, the previous night.
Her parents found the flyscreen on her window cut and rolled open, and nothing else seemingly taken from her room.
The eldest of three children, Eloise was described as a quiet, intelligent child who would not have left home voluntarily.
Her disappearance has always been treated as suspicious and over the past five decades, police have conducted an exhaustive investigation to try and determine the circumstances of her disappearance and who is responsible.
At the time of her disappearance, police conducted one of the then-largest search operations in Victoria.
More than 250 police were deployed over 18 days, conducting a systematic ground search of Beaumaris and nearby suburbs, including parks, reserves, vacant properties, and the foreshore.
Police also canvassed more than 6000 properties in the area.
No trace of Eloise was found.
Over the years, detectives have spoken with thousands of people, including undertaking multiple interviews of family, friends, neighbours and school contacts.
A taskforce was initially set up in 1976 to investigate Eloise’s disappearance and the investigation has remained active since that time.
There have been multiple reviews, including by the Homicide squad in the early 2000s, and the Missing Persons Squad in 2023.
An inquest in 2003 returned an open finding, with the coroner stating it was not possible on the evidence gathered to determine who was responsible for Eloise’s disappearance.
Since she vanished, there have been no confirmed sightings of Eloise and police believe she was murdered.
A reward of $10,000 was posted at the time of Eloise’s disappearance, which is now being increased to $1 million.
The reward is currently unique in Victoria as it also includes payment for information that leads to the location of Eloise’s remains, rather than solely identifying who was responsible for her presumed death.
The Director of Public Prosecutions may also grant indemnity to anybody who provides information about the perpetrator.
Anyone with information about the disappearance of Eloise Worledge is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or online.
2026.1.13 Police offer $1m reward for information into disappearance of Eloise Worledge, 8, in 50-year-old cold case mystery
A $1m reward is being offered to help solve the mysterious disappearance of an eight-year-old girl who went missing from her bed half a century ago.
Police have offered a massive $1m reward for information related to the mysterious cold case disappearance of an eight-year-old Melbourne girl who vanished from her bed 50 years ago.
Eloise Worledge was the eldest of three children and was last seen in her bedroom at her family’s home on Scott St, Beaumaris, in Melbourne’s southeast, about 11.40pm on January 12, 1976.
When her family woke the following morning, she was missing.
Her parents found the flyscreen on her bedroom window had been cut and opened, with nothing else disturbed, and immediately reported her disappearance to police.
Detective Inspector Dave Dunstan, from Victoria Police’s Missing Persons Squad, said on Tuesday the disappearance had been treated as suspicious from the outset.
“An eight-year-old child can’t disappear and look after themselves in the community and leave no trace,” Inspector Dunstan said.
It sparked one of Victoria’s largest search operations involving more than 250 officers who canvassed over 6000 properties, nearby suburbs, parks, reserves, vacant properties and the foreshore around Beaumaris over 18 days.
No trace of Eloise was ever found.
Detectives have spoken with thousands of people interviewing family, friends, neighbours and school contacts multiple times and followed up information over the past 50 years, but no evidence has ever explained their girl’s disappearance or those responsible.
An ongoing task force, coronial inquest and cold case review have led authorities to believe Eloise is dead and murdered.
Speaking at a press conference, Inspector Dunstan said the $1m reward was unique in Victoria, as it could be paid for information leading to the recovery of Eloise’s remains, not just the identification and conviction of those responsible.
“This is the only reward of its kind in Victoria,” he said.
“Usually rewards are offered for the identification and conviction of the offender. We’re also offering this reward for information that leads to the recovery of Eloise’s remains.”
He said a $10,000 reward was offered shortly after Eloise disappeared, but police hoped the increased amount – announced on the 50th anniversary of her disappearance – would encourage someone to come forward.
“Fifty years is a long time, but it’s not too long for someone to come forward,” he said.
“People will know what’s happened. Allegiances change, partners change, and we’re hoping this announcement will allow people to tell us what they know.”
Inspector Dunstan said Eloise would have been 58 years old today.
“She’s missed out on growing up, and her family has missed her every single one of those days,” he said.
He also addressed longstanding speculation surrounding the case, making it clear police had never found evidence implicating Eloise’s parents.
The case was reinvestigated by the Homicide Squad in the early 2000s, with a renewed public appeal, forensic testing of available material and interviews with a number of persons of interest.
A 2003 coronial inquest was unable to determine who was responsible and returned an open finding.
In 2023, the Missing Persons Squad conducted another review, partly linked to a separate investigation into alleged historical sexual offending at Beaumaris Primary School, which Eloise attended.
Police were unable to establish any link between the two matters.
Asked whether there were currently any suspects, Inspector Dunstan said there was “no credible information or evidence to suggest any particular person” was responsible, but stressed police remained open to any new information from the community.
“This has been an extensive investigation spanning five decades,” he said.
“No stone has been left unturned … but if you do know something, please do the right thing and come forward.”
He said rewards had successfully led to breakthroughs in other cases and urged anyone with credible information to contact Crime Stoppers.
The $1m reward will be paid at the discretion of the Chief Commissioner and can be claimed even if the information provider is not seeking a conviction, with legal considerations to be assessed by the Director of Public Prosecutions if required.
In a statement, Eloise’s surviving family said their lives had been changed forever by their beloved sister’s disappearance.
They asked for privacy as they deal with the anguish of the 50th anniversary of their sister’s disappearance.
“My memories of waking up to find her missing are still very vivid and raw and the passage of time has not eased the pain of this loss,” her family said.
“Ella was and remains deeply loved, she was more than a missing person or a case file – she was a daughter, a sister, a friend, someone who mattered greatly to all who knew her.
“The ongoing public interest and constant suspicion surrounding my family – found to be unsubstantiated more than once – caused a lifetime of immense grief and pain.
“Despite this, somehow, we managed to find our own peace, however the anniversary brings up a multitude of emotions and causes a great deal of distress yet again.”
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2026.1.8 Rajwinder Singh, convicted of murdering Toyah Cordingley, files appeal
The man convicted of killing Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley has lodged an appeal against his conviction and sentence.
In December, a Supreme Court jury convicted former Innisfail nurse Rajwinder Singh of murdering the 24-year-old at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns.
During a four-week trial, the court heard Singh, 41, stabbed Ms Cordingley repeatedly and cut her throat at the secluded beach, where she had gone to walk her dog on October 21, 2018.
The court heard Singh abruptly left Cairns the next day.
He also left behind his job at Innisfail Hospital and flew to his native India where he spent more than four years in hiding.
Singh was arrested in late 2022, three weeks after a record $1 million reward was posted for information leading to his arrest.
In early 2023, he agreed to be extradited to Australia to face trial.
His first trial earlier last year ended in a hung jury.
Singh denied murdering Ms Cordingley, claiming instead to have witnessed masked killers on the beach before fleeing the country in fear they would kill him too.
Behind bars in high security
Singh was sentenced to a mandatory term of life behind bars last month.
He has since been placed at Wolston Correctional Centre, a high-security prison on the outskirts of Brisbane where male protection prisoners are held.
Justice Lincoln Crowley ordered Singh not be eligible for parole for 25 years, after he was asked by prosecutors for a longer term than the mandatory 20-year minimum.
With time already served, the earliest Singh can apply for release on parole is March 2048, when he will be aged 63.
In sentencing, Justice Crowley branded Singh a “gutless coward”.
“You left without even saying a proper goodbye to your wife, your parents, your children, demonstrating that your only concern was to save your own skin, regardless of the consequences for your family,” he said.
“Your conduct offers some insight into the selfish and heartless individual you truly are.”
Singh had a month to file his appeal.
Four intruders stormed in with a gun, bat and hammer, and poisoned the dog.
A grandmother was held at gunpoint when four armed intruders stormed her home demanding drugs in what police believe was a terrifying case of mistaken identity.
CCTV footage showed the men — armed with a sawn-off shotgun, a baseball bat, and a hammer —jumping the front fence at Tambourine, in the Gold Coast hinterland, in the dark on November 22.
“Smashed that window right in front of me and just within two seconds they were through that window and had the gun to my head,” the 61-year-old, who asked not to be identified, told 7NEWS on Sunday.
Her dog, Batman, tried to protect her, biting one of the intruders on the leg, but the attack did not stop the men.
“They were swearing at me and calling me, ‘where’s the f*** drugs’ — they clearly came for drugs and had the wrong house,” the victim said.
The intruders ransacked the home for about 40 minutes, before eventually realising the woman did not have the drugs they were seeking.
The grandmother said she still lives in fear in her own home.
“Not good at all. Can’t stay home by myself at night,” she said.
“I am scared in my own home, they took that safe space away from me — something like that changes a person.”
Before fleeing, the men poisoned her dog with food they left behind.
“He’s OK but he was spewing up everything the next day and I found chicken out on the ground with stuff all over it,” she said.
The intruders are believed to have left in a silver Chrysler, taking cash and alcohol with them.
The victim said she has received few updates from police in the six weeks since the incident.
“I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else,” she said, urging the public to come forward to help the investigation.
Anyone with information should contact police or crime stoppers.
2026.1.2 A strangled man and failed pregnancy plot: The tragic tale of the last woman hanged in Australia
Warning: This story contains graphic details.
In the still air of a Melbourne courtroom, Jean Lee collapsed into the arms of the man who had betrayed her – her lover, her “Bobby”, and now, her accomplice – a hothead petty criminal called Robert Clayton.
It was March 1950, and Lee, Clayton and his army buddy, Norman Andrews, were on trial over the murder of William “Pop” Kent, an elderly bookie the group had met briefly during a drinking bender four months earlier.
Kent had been found dead inside his room, so badly battered his nose was completely flattened and two of his teeth had come loose. His thumbs had been tied with a piece of boot lace, and a sheet tied around his neck. He had been strangled with such force his Adam’s apple had been crushed on both sides.
The 73-year-old, who had a habit of flaunting wads of cash at the pub, had last been seen drinking with Lee, Clayton and Andrews at the University Hotel in Carlton, and later sipping wine and smoking cigarettes with the trio at his Dorrit Street home in the evening of November 7, 1949.
A jury panel of 12 men took less than three hours to reach a verdict. Lee, Clayton and Andrews, who were short on cash after blowing their money partying and at the horse races, were found guilty of murdering Kent during what police claimed was a botched robbery. They would be sentenced to death.
Struggling to stand, an inconsolable Lee issued one final plea for mercy from the dock: “I didn’t do it, I didn’t do it.”
The courtroom then erupted into shambolic scenes.
“May your next feed choke you, you swine,” Clayton yelled before spitting at the jurors and being removed.
On February 19, 1951, Lee, a young mother from Dubbo, became the first woman in 56 years to be hanged in Victoria, and the last in Australia’s history.
Records about her case and execution at Pentridge Prison were made public by the Public Record Office of Victoria for the first time this week, after remaining sealed for 75 years.
The murder of William Kent
Jean Lee was the last woman executed in Australia. She was sent to the gallows at Pentridge Prison in 1951 over the brutal murder of SP bookmaker William ‘Pop’ Kent. This map retraces Lee’s steps and those of her accomplices
The documents, which span more than 500 pages and have been examined by this masthead, include photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, wills, and court records relating to the case.
They expose instances where the evidence was potentially compromised and legal discussions behind closed doors about whether a police statement should have been admitted.
The records also highlight lingering doubts about Lee’s role in the murder, and controversial interrogation techniques by detectives at the time, who questioned the trio without giving them a caution and shared Clayton’s statement with Lee and Andrews to elicit a confession.
‘And they call women the weaker sex’
Inside an interrogation room at the old police headquarters on Russell Street on November 8, 1949, Lee remained staunch she would not answer questions.
Police had been trying to get a confession for hours after arresting the trio as they were returning to their hotel on Spencer Street that morning.
Lee and Clayton, who had extensive criminal records spanning more than 32 offences between them, had come to Melbourne from Sydney a few weeks earlier. They met Andrews, Clayton’s buddy, at the Werribee races and became inseparable.
“I am not saying anything,” Lee told detectives over and over again.
Then, a break came in the interview room next door.
“Are you fair dinkum when you say that the chap is dead?” Clayton asked detectives. “If what you say is right, I will tell you all I know. I am not going to take the rap for what others do.”
Clayton said the group had headed to Carlton so that a cash-strapped Andrews could pawn his suit, and ended up drinking at the University Hotel in the afternoon.
There, Lee struck up a conversation with Kent. After the pub closed, the bookmaker invited them to his place.
Later that evening, Lee told Clayton that Kent had money stashed in his fob pocket, but that his belly “was too tight”. If she could not get it “the sweet way”, they would “do him over”.
Clayton told police: “When I left the room, Norman and Jean were still with Pop. I am completely innocent of any attack made on this old man.”
The officers marched into Lee’s interrogation room and showed her Clayton’s statement. Lee, who had been adamant her lover would not talk, asked the detectives to bring him over.
“So you made a four-page statement did you?” she asked Clayton.
Clayton replied he had, and broke down in tears.
“And they call women the weaker sex,” Lee snapped.
After Clayton was removed, Lee turned to the detectives and confessed.
“I love Bobby and I still love him, but if he wants it that way he can have it,” she said.
Lee said she had lost her temper and hit Kent in the head with a bottle and a piece of wood before tying his arms with a piece of sheet. “I knew he was dead when we left him.”
Asked by police what she meant by “we”, she hesitated.
“There was only me,” she said.
Her confession would be a miscalculation.
When Lee was found guilty, no woman had been hanged in Victoria for more than half a century.
Lee’s case file shows an anti-capital punishment movement was brewing. Advocates wrote to authorities asking for the trio to be spared the death penalty, which one described as “murder by rope”. One man even expressed plans to raise donations to fund the trio’s appeal.
After the execution, people wrote to newspapers condemning the decision, and called for capital punishment to be abolished. “This latest execution was a very sordid thing for a civilised country belonging to the dark ages,” one letter read.
Reporting by The Argus newspaper at the time suggests the decision by the state cabinet to stand by the execution had “sensational political implications”, with Labor and some Liberals opposed to Lee’s hanging.
By taking the blame for Kent’s murder, Lee perhaps erroneously assumed that she would be spared the death penalty and save Clayton and Andrews in the process.
Forensic evidence presented during the trial showed Kent’s killer would have needed to use considerable force to strangle him, which police admitted that Lee – with “her little hands” – was unlikely to have. The judge even told the jury that Lee’s confession was obviously concocted and that nobody “in his senses would believe that”.
Lee tried to walk back on her confession, telling the jury that she was “hysterical” after reading Clayton’s statement and admitted to the killing to get some “peace and quiet”. Clayton also told the court his statement was concocted, and he did not think it would throw Lee and Andrews under the bus because they were all innocent.
In the witness box, Lee, Clayton and Andrews claimed Kent had been in good health when they left his home at 7pm. Blood stains on their clothes and wounds to their hands had alternative explanations, they claimed.
Attempts by the defence to get the statement and Lee’s confession’s thrown out on the basis they had been improperly obtained failed, despite the trial judge conceding evidence had been obtained in an “undesirable way”.
The trial was also marred by other issues that would be unacceptable in today’s justice system, including the fact that the evidence of two key witnesses in the case – a man and a woman living with Kent at the time of the murder that placed the trio in the home – was potentially contaminated by allowing them to talk to one another and change their version of events.
Lee, Clayton and Andrews appealed against their conviction and were granted a retrial. After the win, Lee and Clayton hugged and kissed in the dock.
However, the Crown later appealed against the ruling and got the death penalty reinstated. Subsequent attempts by the trio to appeal against the High Court decision in the Privy Council in England failed.
The final Hail Mary
One minute after 8am on a drizzly February morning in 1951, Lee was hanged from the first floor of a corridor at Pentridge prison.
An ingenious scheme by Clayton to bribe prison guards to allow him to spend half an hour with his lover so they could claim Lee was pregnant and save her from the gallows failed.
Police cordoned off the roads leading to the side entrance to the prison, while about 30 officers remained stationed inside its walls, ready to jump at any sign of a disturbance. A handful of people gathered outside.
Seven journalists were invited to witness the executions by Victorian authorities who believed the publicity would deter potential murderers. “A criminal will respect the rope where he yawns at a gaol term,” the since-defunct newspaper Truth wrote at the time of the execution.
A seemingly unconscious Lee, who had been given a sedative the night before to help her sleep, had to be carried from her cell to the gallows by the executioner and his assistant, who had their faces obscured by large steel-rimmed goggles and felt hats.
Lee’s limp body was sat on a chair placed atop the trapdoor. Her head and shoulders were covered by a white hood. Her hands and ankles were bound.
Then, the door opened and Lee plunged to her death behind a brown curtain.
Bells tolled to mark the execution, but the sound was drowned out by the roar of planes passing overhead.
Clayton and Andrews were hanged together two hours later. They exchanged one final farewell above the trap door. “Goodbye Charlie,” Clayton said. “Goodbye Robert,” Andrews replied.
That afternoon, they were buried in sodden graves that had been dug by fellow prisoners.
As a 1950 assessment of the trio put it: “It is doubtful they would cold-bloodedly plan a murder and go through to it, but in this case, they saw a heaven-sent opportunity to replenish their empty pockets by robbing a sucker.”
2026.1.1 Double stabbing in popular dining strip in Carlton leaves two men in hospital
Police are investigating a double stabbing in Carlton on New Year’s Eve that left two people in hospital with serious injuries.
Police were called to the popular dining strip in Lygon Street about 11:45pm. Ambulance Victoria and Fire Rescue Victoria also attended.
Officers found two men, aged 20 and 18, with serious stab wounds, and they were taken to hospital.
Police said a group of up to seven males armed with knives and machetes attacked the men outside a restaurant before fleeing in vehicles.
Melbourne Crime Investigation unit detectives are investigating whether it was a targeted attack.
Tim Tulley, Victoria Police’s Acting Assistant Commissioner for the north-west metropolitan region, said the incident was concerning.
He said the two men in hospital were in a critical condition, but their injuries were not life-threatening.
“If you carry any edged weapon without any exemption whatsoever … you’re either going to jail, you’re going to hospital or you’re going to the cemetery,” he said.
The Victorian government introduced a ban on selling and owning machetes, unless carrying a valid exemption, last year.
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