Category Archives: Crime – Australia

Queensland police spark anger with ‘open mind’ comment on murder of Hannah Clarke and children

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Domestic violence campaigners appalled force wants to consider suggestions Rowan Baxter was ‘driven too far’ when he set fire to his family in their car in Brisbane

Queensland police have revealed that a man who killed his wife and three children by dousing them with petrol and setting them alight had a history of domestic violence and was known to them.

But in comments that have shocked domestic violence campaigners, the force says they are keeping an “open mind” about suggestions the 42-year-old Rowan Baxter had been “driven too far” and are appealing to people who knew the couple to come forward to understand his motives.

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Abuse victim Manny Waks wins $800,000 in damages from paedophile David Cyprys

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Waks, now an advocate for Jewish abuse victims, was one of a number of children Cyprys abused at Melbourne’s Chabad Yeshivah centre

A child abuse victim who blew the whistle on abuse within the Orthodox Chabad sect of Judaism in Australia has been awarded $804,170 in damages in a civil case brought against his perpetrator and serial abuser, David Cyprys, in Melbourne.

Manny Waks was about 13 years old when he was first abused by Cyprys at the Elwood synagogue, and he was also abused at the Chabad Yeshivah centre in Melbourne.

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William Tyrrell’s family accuse police of ‘personal agendas’ after closing address in Gary Jubelin trial

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NSW detective is defending charges of illegally making recordings during investigation into disappearance of three-year-old William

William Tyrrell’s foster family has blasted the “personal agendas” of police behind the prosecution of former detective Gary Jubelin, saying the investigation into the boy’s disappearance has been “cavalier” following his removal.

Jubelin is defending four charges of illegally recording elderly neighbour Paul Savage during an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of the three-year-old from the NSW mid-north coast.

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Australian paedophiles pay as little as $15 for online abuse of children in Philippines

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Australian federal police say livestreaming of children performing sexual acts marks ‘alarming shift’


Australian paedophiles are paying as little as A$15 for children to perform sexual acts online while being filmed in the Philippines, according to the head of the Australian federal police team in Manila.

Senior officer Andrew Perkins told Guardian Australia there was an “alarming shift” from previously more common types of “sex tourism” to “convenient and low-risk” online abuse of children which can be customised to the specific requirements of customers.

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Woman’s death being treated as suspicious after body found in Sydney apartment

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NSW police are investigating the possibility the husband of the woman, who was found in Pymble, has fled to China with two children

The body of a woman has been found in a freezer in a unit on Sydney’s upper north shore.

Police officers discovered the body of the woman, believed to be in her 30s, after forcing their way into a unit in Pymble on Wednesday morning.

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A 12-year-old girl, online sexual exploitation and lax financial rules

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The Westpac scandal has brought the role of financial institutions in enabling child sexual abuse into sharp relief

On 25 October plainclothes police barged through the red door of a family home in a dense neighbourhood in Rizal, a province two hours away from Manila.

There they arrested a mother who was allegedly sexually exploiting her own 12-year-old daughter. The 45-year-old woman was clutching her phone. Police took it and then handcuffed her.

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George Pell high court appeal: cardinal granted final challenge against child sexual abuse conviction

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Full bench of seven judges will decide on Cardinal Pell’s appeal, likely to be heard in 2020

Cardinal George Pell will have a final chance to overturn his conviction on historical child sexual abuse offences after the high court in Canberra agreed to hear appeal arguments in a special full court sitting.

A date for the appeal hearing is yet to be set but it is likely to be early in 2020, by the full bench of seven judges. Led by the high-profile silk Bret Walker SC, Pell’s legal team will argue that the majority of judges in Victoria’s court of appeal erred by finding in August that jurors were not unreasonable to believe the testimony of Pell’s victim.

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Brisbane man who lured girl from toy section of Kmart to be sentenced

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Sterling Mervyn Free molested seven-year-old in bushland before dropping her back at North Lakes shopping centre

A 27-year-old father of two daughters faced a sentencing hearing on Tuesday for sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl after stalking her in the toy section of Kmart at a shopping centre in Brisbane last year.

Sterling Mervyn Free lured the girl from the Westfield North Lakes shopping centre, molested her in bushland and dropped her back to the centre more than an hour later.

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Helena Broadbent on triple zero call before being flung from ute, court told

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Pregnant Melbourne woman told emergency services her partner, William Wilson, had a hammer, police say

A triple zero operator heard an argument, screaming and then silence during a call from a pregnant woman killed when flung from a ute allegedly driven by her partner, according to police.

Helena Broadbent, 32, suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” when she fell backwards out of the Mitsubishi Triton in suburban Melbourne on Saturday and died in hospital after delivering a baby girl by caesarean.

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Alleged drug gang thwarted by giant seal in $1bn Australian drug bust

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Meth, cocaine and ecstasy found stashed under seaweed off Western Australia after yacht used by alleged smugglers ran aground

Three more men have been charged over a massive A$1bn drug haul found on a tiny island off Western Australia after a yacht ran aground and was abandoned, sparking a search for its occupants.

Police launched a raid on Burton Island off the port town of Geraldton last week, finding Frenchman Antoine Dicenta, 51, and British man Graham Palmer, 34, allegedly with 1.087 tonne of methylamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy in dozens of bags that they had attempted to hide under seaweed.

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Michael Guider, who killed schoolgirl Samantha Knight, walks free from prison

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New South Wales government fails in bid to keep the notorious paedophile behind bars

The notorious paedophile Michael Guider, who killed schoolgirl Samantha Knight decades ago, has walked free from a Sydney prison.

Guider was released from Long Bay jail on Thursday after the supreme court rejected a New South Wales government bid to keep him behind bars for another year.

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Eurydice Dixon’s father says he hopes killer ‘gets better’ after receiving life sentence

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Judge sentences Jaymes Todd to a non-parole period of 35 years for crimes described as crimes as ‘sadistic’ and ‘categorically evil’

Eurydice Dixon’s father said he hoped the man who raped and killed his daughter “gets better,” shortly after the killer was sentenced to to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 35 years.

Jaymes Todd stalked Dixon, 22, for more than an hour before attacking her as she walked through Princes Park following a comedy gig ‪on 12 June‬ last year.

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British ski instructor jailed for rape and assault in Australia

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Matthew James Williams sentenced for ‘horrifying’ attack on pair in Jindabyne

A British ski instructor has been jailed for 10 years for raping a woman and physically assaulting her male friend in Australia.

Matthew James Williams, 29, attacked the pair on a street in Jindabyne, south of Canberra and near the border between New South Wales and Victoria, in July 2018. He had followed the woman and her 25-year-old companion after they left a pub to walk home.

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Michaela Dunn identified as victim who died in Sydney stabbing attack

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The family of the 24-year-old woman, whose body was found in a Clarence Street unit after Tuesday’s rampage, asked for privacy

The woman murdered in a vicious knife attack in Sydney has been named as Michaela Dunn.

The 24-year-old was allegedly killed at an apartment on Clarence Street in city’s CBD on Tuesday by Mert Ney, a 20-year-old who police say had a history of mental health issues.

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Sydney stabbing: one woman killed and one injured in ‘terrifying carnage’ in CBD

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Police say 21-year-old suspect from western Sydney was carrying information on extremist ideologies when arrested

A man who allegedly stabbed a woman to death in Sydney’s central business district before attacking others on a busy city street with a butcher’s knife was arrested carrying information about terrorist attacks and extremist ideologies on a USB drive.

But police say the man did not have any known links to terror groups, and that he acted alone. The attacks are not being treated as a terrorist attack, the New South Wales police commissioner, Mick Fuller, said on Tuesday night.

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Canada murders: teenage suspects died by apparent suicide, police say

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Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky were wanted over the killing of three people and the subject of a weeks-long manhunt across Canada

Canadian police say they believe two fugitives suspected of killing an American woman and her Australian boyfriend as well as another man died in what appears to be suicides.

The Manitoba Medical Examiner completed the autopsies and confirmed on Monday that the bodies found last week were indeed 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer Schmegelsky. Both were found in dense bush in northern Manitoba.

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Roberta Williams allegedly threatened to kill TV producer making show about her life

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Melbourne gangland widow freed on bail after being charged with kidnapping and death threat

Gangland widow Roberta Williams has been given bail by a Melbourne court after allegedly kidnapping and threatening to kill a television producer making a show about her life.

The 50-year-old widow of convicted killer Carl Williams, who was killed in prison in 2010, is one of four people charged with assaulting and threatening to kill producer Ryan Naumenko at Collingwood on 9 July.

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British jetski fugitive who fled across Torres Strait sentenced

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Convicted drugs supplier David James Jackson left Queensland armed with crossbow

A British fugitive who made it across the Torres Strait on a jetski trying to flee a drugs supply charge in Australia has been sentenced for the audacious escape attempt.

Armed with a crossbow and supplies for the 90-mile journey, David James Jackson, 57, took off from the tip of Queensland and made it to Papua New Guinean waters.

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Jihadist who planned attack on police and carved slogan into cellmate’s head jailed for 34 years

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Bourhan Hraichie planned attack on Bankstown police station and threatened to kill NSW prisons boss

A New South Wales man who carved a terrorist slogan into a cellmate’s forehead and planned an Islamic State-inspired police shooting will spent at least 29 years in jail.

Bourhan Hraichie, 22, pleaded guilty in the NSW supreme court to four offences over his long-running plan to organise a terrorist attack on Bankstown police station, and causing grievous bodily harm to Michael O’Keefe with intent to murder.

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Victorian government orders investigation into Crown casino crime allegations

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Claims including links to Triads to be ‘re-examined’ and rules covering junket operators reviewed

Victoria’s minister for gambling, Marlene Kairouz, says she has ordered the state’s casino regulator to conduct a snap investigation into a flood of allegations made against Crown Resorts and its Melbourne operation that include claims of links to organised crime and that its high rollers got waved through immigration without proper checks.

Kairouz said her department would also review the regulation of junket operators who bring high rollers from China, some of whom have been linked by Nine to Triad gangs.

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