Category Archives: Crime – Australia

Terence Kelly jailed for 13 years for abduction of Cleo Smith in Western Australia

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Judge acknowledges turbulent upbringing of man who pleaded guilty to abducting four-year-old from family tent in 2021

Terence Darrell Kelly, 37, the man who abducted four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family’s tent at a remote Western Australian campsite, has been sentenced to 13 years and six months in jail.

Kelly pleaded guilty in January 2022 to the single charge of abducting Cleo, and will have to spend at least 11 years and six months in prison before he is eligible for parole.

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University lecturer ‘deeply sorry’ for killing wife after argument, Melbourne court hears

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Adam Brown has pleaded guilty to murdering Chen Cheng at their home in April 2022

A university lecturer is “deeply sorry” for stabbing his wife to death after an argument about kindergarten plans escalated into the couple arming themselves with knives, a Melbourne court has heard.

Adam Brown, 40, a former Deakin University digital media lecturer who also taught gender studies and women’s history, last year pleaded guilty to the murder of his wife of five years, Chen Cheng.

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Australian Catholic order accused of waiting for paedophile to die and using death to shield it from abuse claims

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Marist Brothers approach in seeking to halt a survivor’s case over a clergy member’s death would be ‘absolutely perverse’, court hears

A Catholic order allegedly sat on its hands for almost two years waiting for a notorious paedophile clergy member to die and is now using his death to claim it could no longer receive a fair trial against one of his victims, an approach described in court as “absolutely perverse”.

The Marist Brothers order is currently seeking to permanently halt a survivor’s case alleging abuse by the late Brother Francis “Romuald” Cable, arguing his death renders it unable to fairly defend itself because it can no longer call him as a witness.

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Victoria police chief warns officers they’re not above the law after rise in disciplinary incidents

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Shane Patton reveals 17 officers were dismissed in 2022, and says it is the ‘type of offending’ that is concerning

Victoria’s police chief commissioner, Shane Patton, has publicly warned his force it is not above the law after a jump in disciplinary hearings last year, with officers accused of family violence, sexual harassment and unjustified use of police information.

Patton on Thursday revealed 17 police officers had been dismissed in 2022, while a further 31 resigned while their cases were being heard, when he says they saw the “writing on the wall”.

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Queensland human rights commissioner says police must watch for vigilante activity

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Police have repeatedly warned against vigilantism but there are growing concerns that recent heightened debate might increase risk

The Queensland human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, says police must closely monitor vigilante activity, amid concern about the role of anti-crime Facebook groups where residents have threatened children or called for violent responses to youth crime.

Debate about youth crime in Queensland last week prompted the state government to override its Human Rights Act to introduce new laws, which will result in children being charged with criminal offences for breaching bail conditions. Experts say there is no evidence to support such a move.

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Powerpoint and politics: inside Queensland Labor’s shock decision to lock up children for breaching bail

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Government claims a bipartisan approach to respond to community concerns, but experts warn of increased pressure on the buckling youth detention system

At a community crime forum in Toowoomba last week, the Queensland police minister, Mark Ryan, announced the government’s new youth bail plan – an “intensive supervision” program involving police doing home checks and patrols.

It didn’t go down well. Ryan was hounded by attendees and mocked for factual comments that most people on bail do not reoffend.

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MP tells Folbigg inquiry son may have died from undiagnosed neurogenetic disorder

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Monique Ryan, a paediatric neurologist before entering parliament, says Patrick Folbigg’s death could be linked to epileptic seizures

Kooyong MP Monique Ryan has told an inquiry into Kathleen Folbigg’s convictions for killing her four children that one of her sons may have died from an undiagnosed neurogenetic disorder.

Ryan, a paediatric neurologist before entering parliament in 2022, said Patrick Folbigg’s February 1991 death at 36 weeks could be linked to epileptic seizures.

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Kathleen Folbigg hoped for ‘genetic miracle’ after murder convictions, prison letters show

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In letters tendered at inquiry, Folbigg also wrote she got a ‘raw deal’ after being convicted of murdering three children

Kathleen Folbigg complained of getting a “raw deal” in letters from prison, which have been tendered at an inquiry into her convictions.

The 55-year-old was convicted in 2003 of murdering three of her children and the manslaughter of a fourth.

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No questions asked: money laundering thrives in Australia because of professionals willing to facilitate it

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Lawyers, accountants and real estate agents face can little scrutiny and there is as yet no action from government to increase regulation

Raids earlier this month by the Australian federal police provided a rare window into the shady world of international money laundering. Australia is far from a model global citizen when it comes to cracking down on money laundering – and property has become a favoured vehicle for organised crime to hide and transfer dirty money.

The AFP arrested nine people, including the alleged head of the money-laundering organisation, Stephen Xin, at his Vaucluse home. They have now been charged with multiple money-laundering and proceeds-of-crime offences, allegedly carried out in support of the organisation’s extensive activities.

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Queensland cracks down on hate crimes in wake of recent Nazi propaganda

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Labor will introduce a bill to move serious vilification from the anti-discrimination act into the criminal code

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The Queensland government will make changes to the criminal code and increase jail terms for vilification as it cracks down on hate crimes after a series of “horrific” antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents.

The attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, announced on Monday that a bill would be introduced into Queensland parliament in March to amend existing offences.

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Tara shooting incident brings back Wieambilla memories for traumatised residents

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Four teenagers in custody after reports of shots fired in centre of Queensland town

Residents of Tara, in Queensland’s western downs, say a shooting incident on Wednesday afternoon has stoked trauma after last month’s murder of two police officers and a neighbour in nearby Wieambilla.

Four teenagers have been taken into custody after reports of shots being fired in the area at 3.30pm. Police declared an exclusion zone covering several blocks in the centre of town at 5.30pm.

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Police seize neo-Nazi paraphernalia in series of raids across south-east Queensland

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Exclusive: Three men charged with damage offences, with the state government yet to outlaw the display of hate symbols

Queensland counter-terrorism police have charged three men in relation to the displaying of neo-Nazi material, after conducting raids on three separate addresses across south-east Queensland.

Police told Guardian Australia that officers had discovered a number of offensive banners, stickers and flyers after executing search warrants on residential addresses in the Brisbane suburb of Toowong, and Gold Coast suburbs of Pimpama and Oxenford.

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Man sentenced to six years’ jail over hours-long torture of woman in Brisbane hotel room

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Trent Wayne Lawson, 38, pleaded guilty to common assault, wilful damage, stealing and torture for 2021 attack and can apply for parole

A Queensland man has been sentenced for the “reprehensible” assault and torture of a woman for at least two hours while he held her captive in a hotel room.

Trent Wayne Lawson, 38, faced Brisbane district court on Tuesday for sentencing after pleading guilty to common assault, wilful damage, stealing and torture.

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Experts question decision to not deem Queensland shooting ‘domestic terror’

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Police say there’s ‘nothing really to indicate’ that the Wieambilla shooting could be classified as terrorism

Experts have questioned why Queensland police have resisted classifying the murder of two police officers in Wieambilla as terrorism, amid evidence that the shooters had been inspired by fundamentalist Christianity and conspiracy theories.

Queensland deputy police commissioner Tracy Linford on Thursday said the murder of constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold on a remote property was not deemed an act of domestic terror because there was no evidence of a connection to any “particular group”.

“We are certainly not classing it as a domestic terror event. At this point there’s nothing really to indicate that,” Linford said.

“What we can see is sentiment displayed by the three individuals – the three Train family members – that appears anti-government, anti-police, conspiracy theorist-type things.

“But we can’t see them connected to any particular group that they might have been working with or inspired them to do anything. We haven’t located anything like that at this point in time.”

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Australian gun databases plagued by inconsistencies, Hoddle Street massacre detective says

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Graham Kent, who investigated the 1987 shooting, says national register stalled because of ‘competitions between jurisdictions’

A former police officer who investigated Melbourne’s Hoddle Street massacre has joined the push for a genuine national firearms register amid concerns about an existing database that experts says is hindered by inconsistencies between jurisdictions.

The deadly shooting of two young police officers and a neighbour on a remote Queensland property last week has sparked renewed calls for an overhaul of Australia’s firearms databases and the creation of a centralised register.

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US religious conspiracist linked to Queensland police killers Gareth and Stacey Train

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Australian couple behind Wieambilla attack were in regular contact with man with a similar fundamentalist theology

In the hours after Gareth Train and his wife, Stacey, murdered two police officers and wounded a third during a chilling, premeditated attack on their remote Queensland property this week, they posted a haunting video to YouTube.

“They came to kill us, and we killed them,” Gareth says, his face partly obscured in darkness.

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Wieambilla shooting: Stacey Train had limited contact with family after entering ‘controlling’ relationship with brother-in-law

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Family member remembers quiet girl whose life went ‘downhill’ after marrying

Every year, Stacey Train’s mother would call the mobile of her estranged daughter and leave a message on her birthday.

But, according to another family member, if her son-in-law, Gareth, picked up she would quickly hang up.

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‘Remarkable’ blowout in NSW local court hearing times as victims of crime wait average of nine months

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Time from arrest to case being finalised in 2021/22 grew by 41% thanks to Covid pandemic interruptions

There has been a “remarkable” blowout in the time it takes for cases to be finalised in New South Wales local courts, with data showing the Covid-19 pandemic significantly hampered court operations.

Victims of crime now face an average wait time of nine months before having their case finalised, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) data released on Thursday shows.

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God and guns: the strict religious upbringing of the Wieambilla shooters

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Self-described ‘free evangelical’ Ronald Train, who created his own church based on literal reading of scripture, says sons ‘lost their way’ before Queensland shooting

People who knew Ronald Train during his days living in Toowoomba joked that “no church would accept him, so he had to make his own”.

Train believed – and would later write in a book – that Freemasons “give their allegiance to Lucifer” and were “a cancer”. The constitution of his Christian Independent Fellowship (started after his physical church in Toowoomba closed and he moved interstate) says appointing women to leadership positions “will never be entertained”.

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Police in Australia examine conspiracy theories behind shooting deaths of two officers and four others

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Conspiracy theories and any prior planning will be central to an investigation in Wieambilla, Queensland

In a remote patch of Australian scrub, Gareth Train was building his “ark”.

“The name given to me is Gareth,” he wrote, introducing himself to an online forum for conspiracy theorists and survivalists in January 2021.

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