Category Archives: New South Wales

Judge suggests NSW police had ‘absolutely no evidence’ to justify main strip-search in class action

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Justice Dina Yehia says manner force conducted its defence ‘is a matter, I’ll be quite honest with you, of grave concern to me’

A Sydney judge says the way the New South Wales police force defended a claim it unlawfully strip-searched a woman at a music festival – including a last-minute admission – was “of grave concern to me”.

Justice Dina Yehia made the comment in the NSW supreme court during closing arguments in a class action against the police.

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Nurse who treated Joel Cauchi for schizophrenia threw up when told about Bondi Junction stabbings, inquest hears

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Health worker describes 40-year-old as ‘compliant’ and ‘diligent’ patient but recalls 2020 phone call and a possible ‘warning sign’ of mental health relapse

A nurse at the Queensland medical practice where Joel Cauchi was treated for schizophrenia remembers him as a “compliant” and “diligent” patient, telling an inquest she vomited when she learned he had fatally stabbed six people at a Sydney shopping centre.

Cauchi, 40, killed Ashlee Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April last year before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.

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Five arrests after more than a tonne of cocaine allegedly found on motorboat off NSW coast

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The 1,110 blocks of cocaine on board are worth more than half a billion dollars on the street, police said

More than a tonne of cocaine has been seized off the east coast of Australia and five men arrested after police raided a suspicious motorboat.

Detectives said they were tipped off about the purchase of a 13-metre-long boat with a large sum of cash in Sydney’s Sutherland shire on 28 April.

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NSW forestry agency should be shut down for repeatedly breaking law, critics argue

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Forestry Corporation says suggestion that it can be compared to a criminal bikie gang is ‘ridiculous’

A former magistrate and one of Australia’s most experienced scientists have launched an extraordinary attack on the New South Wales government’s logging agency, describing it as effectively a “criminal organisation” that should be shut down after a string of court convictions.

Prof David Heilpern, a NSW magistrate between 1998 and 2020 and now the dean of law at Southern Cross University, said the state’s Forestry Corporation should be “disbanded” as it was was no longer fit for purpose.

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NSW woman faces court after being charged with murder of two grandsons

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The 66-year-old appeared at Parramatta court on Saturday after being charged with murdering her grandsons aged six and seven

Two young boys might have been murdered hours before officers were called to their semi-rural home and found their bodies in separate bedrooms, police allege.

Details of the boys’ deaths, which have shocked the small community of Coonabarabran in north-west NSW, were revealed as their grandmother and accused killer appeared in court for the first time.

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Man arrested after body found in Sydney home, police say

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Investigators believe the deceased man, 65, who was found at a Homebush West property, and the arrested man, 31, were known to each other

A man has been charged with murder after the body of an older man was found in a suburban granny flat.

Investigators are still trying to work out the relationship between the pair.

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Man charged with manslaughter of four-week-old baby brought to hospital with multiple broken bones

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Man, who police say is a family member, granted bail after being charged nearly two years since boy’s death

A family member charged with manslaughter nearly two years after the “abhorrent” death of a four-week-old baby has been granted bail.

Police arrested a 26-year-old man on Friday morning over the July 2023 death of the boy in Wagga Wagga.

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Archibald prize 2025: Julie Fragar wins for portrait of artist Justene Williams

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Decision announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where all finalists will be exhibited to the public from Saturday

Julie Fragar has won the 2025 Archibald prize for her portrait of her fellow artist Justene Williams.

Announced as the winner of the $100,000 prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday, the winning work was selected unanimously by the judges from 904 entries and 57 finalists.Fragar is just the 13th woman to win the prize in its 104-year history.

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Security guard in charge of mall’s CCTV was ‘not getting better’ at her job in lead-up to attack, Bondi stabbing inquest hears

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At the moment Joel Cauchi started his killing spree, the CCTV control room monitoring 700 cameras was unstaffed, coroner was told

Concerns had been raised about the competency of the security guard whose job it was to monitor CCTV footage the day Joel Cauchi murdered six people inside a Bondi shopping centre, an inquest has heard.

The court heard that after the woman had received additional training in the weeks leading up to the attack, there was a note about her performance stating she was “not getting better”.

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Karen Webb to resign after three years as NSW police commissioner

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State’s top cop – who was first woman to hold position in NSW history – expected to step down on 30 September

New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb will resign after three years in the role.

The NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley, told NSW parliament on Wednesday that Webb had recently indicated she would retire by the end of the year and will leave the job on 30 September.

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Coonabarabran grandmother in mental health facility after ‘confronting’ deaths of two young boys

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Grandsons aged six and seven found dead at NSW property in case police are treating as double murder

A woman whose two grandsons died in a regional town in New South Wales is in a mental health facility after what police are treating as a “confronting” alleged double murder.

The boys, aged six and seven, were found dead by police after officers forced entry to a property at Coonabarabran, in the state’s north-west, during a welfare check about 2pm on Monday.

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Hundreds of little corellas killed in suspected poisoning attack in regional Victorian city

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Horsham local Glenn Coffey says he witnessed large numbers of sick birds falling out of trees and drowning in Wimmera river

Victoria’s conservation regulator has launched an investigation into the suspected fatal poisoning of 300 little corellas in Horsham, in the state’s north-west.

The incident, which began on Tuesday last week, has killed hundreds of protected birds in a popular park near the Wimmera river, just south of the city centre.

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Bondi Junction killer missed out on mental health care because police lacked resources and were ‘overwhelmed’

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Queensland mental health specialist reveals she couldn’t find someone to cover her role while giving evidence at Sydney inquest this week

A Queensland police officer has told a coronial inquest that a lack of resources explains why her colleague overlooked an email requesting mental health support for Joel Cauchi a year before he stabbed six people to death in Sydney’s Bondi Junction.

The inquest on Monday heard from her colleague, Sen Const Peter McDiarmid, who was acting as the police force’s only mental health officer for a district serving 220,000 residents when he received an email from another officer asking him to follow up with the Cauchi family. But the court heard he did not make contact.

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Woman in custody after deaths of two children in regional NSW

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Police attending a home in Coonabarabran found a 66-year-old woman and two children – aged six and seven – who were both dead

A woman has been placed in custody over the death of two young children in regional New South Wales.

Just after 2pm on Monday, police attended a home in Coonabarabran in the state’s north-west following the reports about concerns for the children’s welfare.

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Riot police called to crowd chaos outside NSW selective school exams

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State education department secretary apologises after thousands of students and parents caught in ‘unacceptable’ situation

The New South Wales education department has apologised after riot police were called to manage out-of-control crowds at the state’s selective school exams.

Police were called to Canterbury Park Racecourse, south-west of Sydney’s CBD, at about midday on Friday following reports of traffic and crowd control issues. About 1,300 students had finished exams at the Canterbury site and were trying to leave with their parents, as another 1,300 students plus their parents attempted to enter the facility.

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Video shows moment Bondi Junction stabber ran at police officer in Sydney shopping centre holding knife

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CCTV footage released by court shows Amy Scott walking up an escalator, then starting to run when she sees Joel Cauchi

The New South Wales coroner’s court has released footage showing the moment the Bondi Junction stabber launched himself towards a lone police officer at speed holding a 30cm knife.

The video, made public on Thursday afternoon, is a compilation of CCTV footage and a 3D reconstruction of the route NSW Police inspector Amy Scott took when she entered Westfield Bondi Junction on 13 April 2024 in pursuit of Joel Cauchi, who had just stabbed 16 people.

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Journalist Nick McKenzie admits to ‘deceptive methods’ if in the public interest during Ben Roberts-Smith bid for appeal

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McKenzie was also questioned over his communications with Roberts-Smith’s ex-wife, Emma Roberts, and her friend Danielle Scott

Investigative journalist Nick McKenzie has agreed in Ben Roberts-Smith’s bid to reopen his appeal for his defamation case that he has used “deceptive methods and subterfuge” to obtain information “on occasion if it is in the public interest”.

McKenzie was cross-examined on Thursday afternoon by Roberts-Smith’s lawyer, Arthur Moses SC. It’s part of a two-day hearing in which the war veteran is arguing the appeal should be reopened in light of new evidence that he claims shows there was a “miscarriage of justice” in the defamation proceedings caused by McKenzie’s alleged “misconduct”.

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One Nation candidate poised to help Coalition in handshake deal has railed against climate science and Covid ‘little Hitlers’

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Exclusive: Stuart Bonds could hand the Nationals the seat of Hunter thanks to a preference deal and ‘last minute’ change to how-to-vote cards

A One Nation candidate who could hand the Nationals the seat of Hunter, thanks to a handshake preference deal, has called public health officials “little Hitlers” and promoted a conspiracy theory alleging the government has used the climate crisis to control every aspect of people’s lives.

Stuart Bonds told a livestreamed forum with rightwing activists last week that the federal government should not do anything to address climate change. He also claimed “a crime” was committed against Australians during the Covid pandemic, alleging they were used “as an experiment to sell pharmaceutical projects”.

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Paramedic denied access to Bondi Junction ‘hot zone’ tells stabbing inquest policies ‘need to change’

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Critical care paramedic Christopher Wilkinson arrived at Westfield 30 minutes after Joel Cauchi attacked 16 people, killing six

A New South Wales ambulance officer who attempted to save the lives of Bondi Junction stabbing victims on 13 April 2024 says he was “frustrated” after not being able to access injured and potentially dying patients.

Six people were stabbed to death by schizophrenic man Joel Cauchi at the Westfield shopping centre.

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Sole CCTV operator using bathroom when Bondi Junction attack began, Sydney court hears

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Coronial inquest into 2024 incident also told killer had ‘preoccupation with death and murder’ before fatally stabbing six people

The man who fatally stabbed six people in a Sydney shopping centre last April had a “preoccupation with death and murder” and made online searches for serial killers and the Columbine school shooters in the days before his attack, a court has heard.

It also heard that at the moment the attack began, the sole CCTV security room operator had been using the bathroom and re-entered the CCTV room less than two minutes later, towards the end of the man’s stabbing rampage.

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