Category Archives: Crime – Australia

Five Eyes must ramp up fight against rising organised crime, AFP commissioner warns

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Pandemic has contributed to ‘destabilisation of world order’ leading to weaponisation of technology, Reece Kershaw says

The Australian federal police commissioner has urged his Five Eyes counterparts to ramp up the fight against organised crime, declaring the pandemic has fuelled “the destabilisation of the world order”.

Reece Kershaw issued a rallying call for closer coordination on law enforcement as he addressed colleagues from the US, Canada, the UK and New Zealand, who have been visiting Australia for talks since Monday.

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Queensland to hold inquiry into DNA testing at forensics lab amid accusations it failed victims

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Minister acknowledges family of Shandee Blackburn, who was fatally stabbed in 2013 in a case that sparked calls for reform

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has announced a commission of inquiry into DNA testing at the state’s Forensic and Scientific Services laboratory after accusations it has been failing victims of crime.

The inquiry will be conducted by Walter Sofronoff, the president of the court of appeal, and comes in addition to a previously announced review into the state-run forensics laboratory.

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Hey Dad! actor and child sex offender Robert Hughes to be deported to the UK

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The 73-year-old, who was sentenced in 2014 to a maximum of 10 years and nine months in prison, has been granted parole and will be deported to UK upon release

Disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sex offender Robert Hughes has been granted parole and will be deported to the United Kingdom after his release from jail this month.

Hughes, who starred as Martin Kelly in the TV comedy from 1987 to 1994, was sentenced in 2014 to a maximum of 10 years and nine months in prison, which is due to expire in January 2025.

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Sydney woman found guilty of murdering her mother and staging a home invasion

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Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez strangled and stabbed her mother, but continues to deny any involvement

A woman found guilty of murder has wiped away tears as she continued to deny strangling and stabbing her mother to death two decades ago.

“I don’t understand, I didn’t do it,” Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez said to her legal counsel in the New South Wales supreme court on Wednesday.

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Lynette Dawson seen with bruises on throat before she disappeared, Chris Dawson murder trial hears

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A colleague at childcare centre where Lynette Dawson worked tells court she saw bruises in January 1982

Chris Dawson’s wife Lynette was seen with bruises around her throat three days before she disappeared in 1982, a Sydney court has been told.

Annette Leary gave evidence in Dawson’s murder trial on Monday saying she had seen Lynette Dawson with the bruises at the Sydney children’s centre where they both worked.

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Former Victorian orphanage carer, 81, jailed for sexually abusing five boys

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William Parker Skelland abused children at Burwood boys’ home in 1973 and 1974

A former carer at a Victorian boys’ orphanage in the 1970s will spend at least four years in prison for sexually abusing five of the young children.

William Parker Skelland, 81, was living in the UK in 2019 when he was arrested for his crimes and extradited back to Australia to answer for them.

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Marist Brothers appointed known child abuser as principal of Melbourne school in 1980, court told

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In lawsuit brought by victims, Catholic order disputes extent of its knowledge of Gregory Vincent Coffey prior to his appointment

A Catholic order made the “unthinkable” decision to appoint a known child abuser as the principal of one of its Melbourne schools, allowing him to molest boys in his office unchecked on a “regular basis”, a court has heard.

The Marist Brothers are being sued over the abuse of a series of boys at the Immaculate Heart College in Preston in the 1980s by Gregory Vincent Coffey, the school’s first lay principal and a former Catholic brother.

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Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed shot and brother killed in Sydney double shooting

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Tarek Zahed in critical condition after he and his brother Omar were gunned down in the foyer of a gym in Auburn

Comanchero bikie boss Tarek Zahed is in a critical condition and his brother Omar has died after they were riddled with bullets in the foyer of a gym in Sydney’s west.

Emergency services were called to the Body Fit Gym on Parramatta Road, Auburn, after reports of a shooting at about 8pm on Tuesday.

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Former WA treasurer Troy Buswell given suspended sentence for ‘cowardly’ attacks on ex-wife

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Charges related to incidents in 2015 and 2016 in which Buswell assaulted Melissa Hankinson multiple times

Former West Australian treasurer Troy Buswell has been handed a suspended prison sentence for repeatedly attacking his ex-wife.

Buswell, 56, pleaded guilty in Perth magistrates court to two counts of aggravated assault and one count of aggravated assault causing bodily harm.

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Paddy Moriarty inquest hears NT police recordings of man allegedly saying he ‘killerated the bastard’

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Moriarty, 70, and his dog went missing from Northern Territory town Larrimah, 430km south of Darwin, in 2017 with police suspecting foul play

Secret police recordings in which a man claims to have killed Paddy Moriarty with a hammer have been heard at an inquest into the Northern Territory man’s disappearance.

Moriarty, 70, and his dog went missing from the town of Larrimah, 430km south of Darwin, on 16 December 2017, with police suspecting foul play.

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‘Grab and drag’ proposal will bridge gap between assault and sexual offences in Victoria, experts say

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Law reform body says there should be consequences for offenders who make victims fear they will be sexually assaulted

Offenders who grab and drag their victim in a way that makes them fear they will be sexually assaulted could be jailed for up to 10 years under a proposal outlined by Victoria’s peak law reform body.

The Andrews government asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) to review “grab and drag” offences after a 2018 assault in which Jackson Williams grabbed a 39-year-old woman and dragged her into an alleyway.

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Disability carer sentenced to six years’ jail over death of Ann Marie Smith due to criminal neglect

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Rosa Maria Maione pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the 2020 death of Adelaide woman who had cerebral palsy

The carer who admitted the manslaughter of Adelaide woman Ann Marie Smith, who had cerebral palsy, has been jailed for at least five years and three months for her criminal neglect.

Sentencing Rosa Maria Maione in the Supreme Court, Justice Anne Bampton said the 70-year-old was grossly negligent, with her care for Smith falling well short of the standard expected.

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Man charged with murder after three die in Sydney boarding house fire

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A 45-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder after the fire in the inner west suburb of Newtown on Tuesday

A man has been charged with three counts of murder following a fire in a boarding house in Newtown in New South Wales on Tuesday.

The 45-year-old man, who police say was a former resident of the boarding house, was also charged with one count of destroying or damaging property by fire or explosive.

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Zachary Rolfe found not guilty of murder over Kumanjayi Walker fatal shooting

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Rolfe, 30, was also cleared of two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death

Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe has been found not guilty of murder in relation to the shooting death of Kumanjayi Walker.

Rolfe, 30, was also cleared of two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death.

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Former soldier who held woman at gunpoint to retrieve cat in Melbourne jailed for six years

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Judge finds Tony Witmann had PTSD and was ‘genuinely remorseful’ but victim fears she will never recover

A former soldier who tied up a woman at gunpoint while trying to get his cat back from Melbourne’s Lost Dogs Home has been jailed for six years.

Tony Wittman was armed with an assault weapon and dressed in full-military style clothing when he went to the Home in January 2021, causing victim Bailey Scarlett to initially believe he was a legitimate police officer due to his appearance.

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NSW woman who faked grazier partner’s suicide in attempt to inherit property convicted of murder

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Natasha Beth Darcy, 46, will be jailed until at least 2047 for sedating and gassing Mathew Dunbar in 2017

A New South Wales woman who faked her grazier partner’s suicide, sedating and gassing him to inherit his property, will be jailed until at least 2047.

Natasha Beth Darcy, 46, was on Monday sentenced to a maximum of 40 years in prison for the crime which Justice Julia Lonergan called “stupid, clumsy and ugly”.

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Queensland man charged with murder after allegedly sawing off another man’s leg

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Police allege the 36-year-old used a circular saw to cut off a 66-year-old man’s leg at an Innisfail park

A man has been charged with murder after another man died when his leg was allegedly cut off by a circular saw in a far north Queensland park.

Police allege the men – aged 36 and 66 – drove together to Innisfail’s Fitzgerald park before 4am on Saturday and sat under a tree.

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‘Turn the planes around’: Māori leader says New Zealand should block Australian deportations

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Chair of National Māori Authority says country should adopt John Howard’s playbook or risk sparking local gangland wars between deported criminals

A prominent Māori leader has called for a dramatic response to what he labels Australia’s attempts to turn New Zealand into a “dumping ground” for criminals, suggesting Jacinda Ardern’s government should “turn the planes around”.

The executive chairman of the National Māori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, also raised concerns about a potential increase in gun violence in Auckland, saying the city “could see gangland wars similar to those that occurred in both Sydney and Melbourne in the early 2000s if we are not careful”.

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Child abuse survivor awarded $5m after suing perpetrator

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Disgraced art collector John Wayne Millwood was jailed in 2016 and released on parole in 2019

A man sexually abused as a child by disgraced Tasmanian art collector John Wayne Millwood has been awarded more than $5m in damages.

He was abused by Millwood under the guise of medical examinations in the 1980s when he was aged between 10 and 15.

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