The 51-year-old mother was jailed in 2003 for at least 25 years for killing her four babies
An inquiry into Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four babies has reinforced her guilt, a former New South Wales district court chief judge has found.
Reginald Blanch QC, who presided over the inquiry, has concluded he does not have “any reasonable doubt as to the guilt of Kathleen Megan Folbigg”, in a report made public on Monday night.
Continue reading...Canadian police are calling the death of NSW senior police officer’s son and his US girlfriend a double homicide
The New South Wales police have sent two homicide detectives to Canada to assist in the investigation into the death of Lucas Fowler, the son of a senior NSW police officer.
They confirmed on Saturday that Fowler and his American girlfriend, Chynna Noelle Deese, were shot dead on Monday on the Alaska highway, 20km south of Liard Hot Springs, British Columbia.
Continue reading...Counsel assisting coroner says public deserves to know ‘under what circumstances are police entitled to strip search patrons’
The New South Wales coroner will push for the state’s police force to release its strip search protocols as part of an inquest into drug-related deaths at music festivals.
Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court on Thursday that the inquest had yet to receive “police protocols” on when strip searches could be carried out in the state, but that she intended to pursue the matter .
Continue reading...One-year-old Josiah Ntiamoah died after being hit by a car at the front of a Green Valley home
A one-year-old boy who died after he was struck by a car in a driveway in Sydney’s west is believed to be the son of Olympic athlete Isaac Ntiamoah.
The toddler was hit by the car at the front of a Green Valley home about 3pm on Friday, New South Wales police said in a statement. His mother took him to Liverpool hospital but he died a short time later.
Continue reading...Labor says deputy premier John Barilaro’s plan is outrageous while the Greens label it ‘criminal’
New South Wales Labor has demanded Gladys Berejiklian rule out Liberal party support for a Nationals bill that would open up the Murray Valley national park to logging.
The premier refused to comment on Thursday after the deputy premier, John Barilaro, vowed to de-gazette the park in the state’s Riverina region or reduce its size.
Continue reading...Drug educator Paul Dillon says it’s ‘ludicrous’ to think pill testing will stop drug deaths, but Australia does need to try something
One in 20 year 10 students have tried ecstasy, an Australian drug educator has told an inquest into NSW music festival deaths.
“It just baffles me,” Paul Dillon said in Sydney on Tuesday. “Certainly amongst young people, MDMA is the drug of the moment.”
Continue reading...Crystal-lee Wightley dies at her family’s home three days after getting sick
A Melbourne family say they are heartbroken after a 13-year-old girl died from the flu late last week, as the national death toll nears 300.
Crystal-lee Wightley had the flu for three days before she died at her family’s home.
Continue reading...Backdown comes after university intervened to have its governing body sign off on Ramsay Centre degree despite it never being considered by its academic senate
The peak union for university academics and staff has been forced to drop legal action against the University of Wollongong over its approval of the controversial Ramsay Centre-funded western civilisation course.
The National Tertiary Education Union announced on Friday that it had withdrawn its action in the New South Wales supreme court over what it had described as the “unlawful” approval of the degree by the university late last year.
Continue reading...McKay says she can beat Gladys Berejiklian and education will be a ‘critical issue’ under her leadership
Newly elected New South Wales Labor leader Jodi McKay says she is “more than a match” for the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and she is not going to be pretend the two women are anything alike.
McKay’s election on Saturday was a landmark moment in NSW politics, making it the first time the premier and opposition leader have both been women.
Continue reading...Engineers say changes are years overdue and obvious before Opal or Mascot Towers evacuations
Australia’s engineers say the recommendations from Opal Tower have still not been acted on, as the Mascot Towers apartment buildings in Sydney continued to sink further into the ground this week.
An emergency report into the cracked Opal Tower was completed in February by prominent university deans of architecture after the brand-new building was dramatically evacuated in December.
Continue reading...Exclusive: production at Australia’s only nuclear medicine facility halted after ‘safety incident’
Production has ceased and an urgent investigation has been launched after two employees at a newly-opened Australian nuclear medicine facility at Lucas Heights were exposed to an unsafe dose of radiation late last week.
Just two weeks after it was granted a license to enter into full domestic production, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Antso) has confirmed production at its new $168m nuclear medicine facility has been halted after “a safety incident” on Friday morning.
Continue reading...Apartment owners have voted for $1m levy to fund initial works on the building, which developed cracks in its support structure
A Go Fund Me page has been established to help apartment owners at Sydney’s Mascot Towers in their efforts to have the building repaired, after it developed cracks a week ago.
The 10-year-old building in Sydney’s south had to be evacuated on 14 June when cracks developed in the primary support structure and facade masonry.
Continue reading...Clover Moore says ‘successive federal governments have shamefully presided over a climate disaster’
City of Sydney councillors are set to vote on declaring the climate crisis a national emergency that “poses a serious risk to the people of Sydney”.
If passed, the council will join hundreds of local governments worldwide that have made similar declarations.
Continue reading...Barton Deakin voices support for reforms designed to bolster transparency and integrity
One of Australia’s biggest lobbyist firms has said it “strongly supports” the introduction of an independent commissioner to investigate and oversee the sector.
The New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently probing the weaknesses in the regime governing NSW lobbyists, and its chief commissioner, Peter Hall, has warned reforms are now “overdue”.
Continue reading...Draft report says Warragamba dam changes would affect Aboriginal historical sites
A leaked draft report has predicted world heritage areas of the Blue Mountains would be “permanently” changed by a controversial New South Wales government plan to raise a dam wall.
The state government is proposing to raise the walls of the Warragamba Dam by 14 metres to mitigate the impact of floods – a move that environmental activists say would flood Unesco-protected bushland, and endanger 50 historic Indigenous sites.
Continue reading...World Heritage centre says proposal would result in inundation of large part of world heritage-listed Blue Mountains wilderness area
Advisers to the United Nations have expressed concerns about a plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall because of its likely impact on the Blue Mountains.
The World Heritage Centre, which advises the UN committee in charge of world heritage properties, published its position on the project on Friday.
Continue reading...Legal settlement reached after Acciona alleged it was misled over the complexity of the project and demanded $1.1bn
The consortium building Sydney’s eastern suburbs light rail project will receive up to $576m extra from the New South Wales government under a settlement deal which takes the total cost to $2.7bn.
The light rail linking the CBD to Randwick and Kingsford was originally meant to cost taxpayers $1.6bn.
Continue reading...Attorney general won’t appeal court’s decision to omit suspect’s confession to killing Grimmer, which was made when he was 17
The New South Wales attorney general will not intervene to force the prosecution of a man charged with the murder of toddler Cheryl Grimmer 49 years ago.
Mark Speakman said on Friday that he would not use his power to instruct the department of public prosecutions to appeal the supreme court’s decision to omit a crucial piece of evidence in the cold case.
Continue reading...Scott Morrison says Labor and the Greens present far bigger threat to the economy and jobs than the United Australia party
Bill Shorten has criticised the Liberal party deal to exchange preferences with Clive Palmer’s United Australia party.
Speaking in Hobart on Saturday where he announced that a future Labor government would invest $120m into Tasmanian tourism projects, the opposition leader did not deny that Labor officials had held discussions with Palmer over the course of the campaign, but said they would not risk preference swaps with the potential kingmaker in Queensland.
Continue reading...Complaint failed to get Anthony Peter Sampieri off the streets before he allegedly raped a child at a dance studio
A police officer has been charged with neglect of duty after a complaint about a sex offender failed to get him off the streets before he allegedly raped a child at a Sydney dance studio.
Anthony Peter Sampieri, 55, allegedly raped, choked and filmed a seven-year-old girl he held captive in a Kogarah dance studio bathroom in November.
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