Category Archives: Crime – Australia

AFP signals journalists could face charges for publishing secrets

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Acting AFP commissioner denies the government directed the investigations, which have led to raids on the ABC and News Corp this week

The Australian federal police have all but confirmed that ABC and News Corp journalists could be charged for publishing protected information after two dramatic days of raids which prompted outrage and drew international attention to Australia’s draconian secrecy laws.

The acting AFP commissioner, Neil Gaughan, held a press conference on Thursday to contain political fallout, denying suggestions the police had waited until after the federal election to execute warrants and claiming no contact had been made with the executive since they informed home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s office when the investigations started.

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George Pell appeal: prosecutor struggles to answer judges’ questions

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Christopher Boyce accidentally says victim’s name, which is suppressed, during Thursday’s hearing

Prosecutor Christopher Boyce struggled through questions from three judges presiding over the appeal of Cardinal George Pell, finding it difficult to answer their inquiries about the victim’s evidence and the case.

Pell, 77, is appealing his conviction on four charges of an indecent act on a child under the age of 16, and one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16. On Wednesday his legal team, led by Bret Walker SC, argued it was improbable that Pell assaulted two 13-year-old boys after presiding as archbishop of Sunday solemn mass at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996, and then a few weeks later assaulted one of the boys again.

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Quietly and confidently, George Pell’s barrister tried to unravel the prosecution’s case | David Marr

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The appeal court judges listened intently as Bret Walker SC ransacked the English language to try to prove his point

Rule number two on these occasions is not to trust the look in their eyes. Judges are masters of disguise. Baleful can be applause. Smiles can be the kiss of death.

But the verdict at the end of the first day of George Pell’s appeal has to be that the bench is listening to the case being argued on his behalf by Bret Walker SC with a little more than respect.

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Family and friends mourn as first victim of Darwin mass shooting named

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PhD student and taxi driver Hassan Baydoun was shot while taking a meal break in apparently random attack

Details of the victims of a mass shooting in Darwin have been revealed as Northern Territory police say they expect to soon lay charges against the alleged gunman.

One of the victims, a PhD student and taxi driver Hassan Baydoun, had never met the accused gunman, his cousin says.

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Darwin shooting: Northern Territory police order parole review after rampage

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Police say alleged gunman, who was on parole and wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, may have been looking for someone

The Northern Territory chief minister has announced a review of every person currently subject to electronic monitoring after a man wearing one of the bracelets allegedly killed four people in an hour-long rampage through Darwin on Tuesday.

The NT police chief, Reece Kershaw, said on Wednesday police believed the alleged gunman, a 45-year-old, was searching for someone who was interstate. Police said at least some of the victims may not have known the gunman.

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George Pell’s lawyer says timing of offence is ‘critical matter’ in appeal

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Cardinal George Pell has appeared in a Melbourne court to appeal his conviction on charges related to child sexual abuse

Cardinal George Pell’s lawyer Bret Walker SC has told three judges presiding over his client’s appeal that the timing of Pell’s offending was a “critical matter” in deciding whether his conviction should be overturned.

Walker is appealing Pell’s conviction on three grounds, the key one being that the jury came to an unreasonable verdict based on the evidence before them during the trial.

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Witnesses describe panic and carnage in Darwin during hour-long shooting rampage

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First reports of a man firing shots came at motel just outside the city centre about 5.50pm

Witnesses of a shooting in Darwin that left four people dead and a woman injured have described scenes of panic after the gunman went on an hour-long rampage.

Northern Territory police arrested the suspected shooter, described as a Caucasian man aged 45, wearing high-vis workwear, on Tuesday night. He remained in hospital under police guard on Wednesday.

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Homeless man charged with murder of Courtney Herron

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Twenty-seven-year-old to face court accused of ‘particularly horrendous attack’

A homeless man has been charged over the death of Courtney Herron, who was brutally murdered in a Melbourne park two days ago.

Victoria police said the man, 27, of no fixed address, had been arrested on Sunday and charged overnight with one count of murder, and would appear in Melbourne magistrates court on Monday.

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Woman found dead in Parkville, Melbourne in ‘horrendous crime’

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The body, yet to be identified, was discovered in the area between the Melbourne Zoo and Royal Children’s hospital

A woman’s body has been found in Melbourne between the Melbourne Zoo and the Royal Children’s hospital, in what police have described as a “horrendous crime”.

They have cordoned off a large section of the Royal park in Parkville, encompassing North Park Tennis Club and the Flemington Road Cricket Oval, as well as Elliott Avenue.

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‘Tinder rapist’ Glenn Hartland sentenced to at least 11 years in jail

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Hartland, 44, admitted raping three women and indecently assaulting a fourth woman

Glenn Hartland seduced women online, romanced them with grand gestures and, when they ended the relationship, he raped them.

The man known as Melbourne’s “Tinder rapist” was on Friday sentenced to 14 years and nine months in jail for attacks on four women he met on the popular dating app.

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Two guns found in South Yarra park after eight recent shooting deaths in Melbourne

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Emergency crews search park where man’s body discovered on Friday

A search continues in the Melbourne park where the eighth man to be shot dead in as many weeks in the city was found.

State Emergency Service volunteers and police returned to Fawkner Park at South Yarra on Sunday following the murder of a 41-year-old Carnegie man, whose body was discovered by two members of the public on Friday night.

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Melbourne Chinatown death: mourners hold vigil for Natalina Angok

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Group gathers on steps of Victorian parliament to ‘bear witness’ to Angkok’s life

Mourners held a silent vigil on Friday night for Natalina Angok, the young African-Australian woman found dead in Melbourne’s Chinatown on Wednesday.

A small group gathered on the steps of the Victorian parliament on Spring Street for about an hour on Friday evening, vowing to “gather to bear witness to Natalina Angok’s life”.

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Sydney police officer charged with neglect of duty over sex offender complaint

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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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Alleged bank robber in custody over 1998 murder of Sydney man Robert McPherson

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Nicholas Bentley, 41, remanded in custody after appearing in central local court

An alleged bank robber is behind bars after presenting himself to police in relation to the murder of an anti-drug “champion” at an inner-Sydney heroin hotspot in the 1990s.

Robert McPherson and an associate were walking back from a bottle shop along a Redfern alley in January 1998 when they were attacked by a group of men armed with baseball bats, a chain, a stick and a knife, New South Wales detectives said.

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Gold Coast fitter and turner jailed for making submachine guns

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Nicholas Petrovski used his skills to manufacture weapons that in the wrong hands could have caused havoc, court told

A fitter and turner who pleaded guilty to making submachine guns that presented a “catastrophic degree of dangerousness” to the public will spend the next eight months behind bars.

Nicholas Petrovski, 36, pleaded guilty in the Southport District Court on Wednesday to possessing four submachine guns, three silencers and manufacturing weapons.

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Coalition’s proposed anti-corruption body flawed and weak, police veteran warns

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Chris Douglas calls for federal integrity commission to be handed wide-ranging powers

A long-serving former senior federal police officer has warned that the Coalition’s proposed integrity commission is flawed, weak and would “not be capable of responding to current corruption threats”.

Chris Douglas, a 31-year veteran of the Australian federal police, has called for the integrity commission to be handed wide-ranging powers, including the ability to recruit informants, use undercover operatives, make arrests and deploy wire taps.

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Lawyer X informed for police for 19 months after she was official source, inquiry told

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Police continued to receive information from Nicola Gobbo until 27 August 2010, royal commission told

Police were still using Nicola Gobbo, the woman known as “Lawyer X”, as an informant for 19 months after she was deregistered as a confidential source, a royal commission has heard.

Gobbo, 46, was a registered police source in 1995, in 1999, and from September 2005 to January 2009, informing on a number of her own high-profile gangland clients, including Tony Mokbel.

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Briton arrested after fleeing Australia on a jetski, armed with crossbow

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Authorities catch up with 57-year-old, wanted on drugs charges, after he travelled 150km across the Torres Strait

A wanted British man has attempted to flee Australia on a jetski, travelling almost 150km (93 miles) across the Torres Strait while armed with a crossbow.

The 57-year-old man is subject to an outstanding warrant for drug-related charges in Western Australia.

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William Tyrrell inquest: foster mother immediately thought ‘somebody has taken him’

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Two cars seen the morning William disappeared were gone by the time family realised he was missing, coroner told

William Tyrrell’s foster mother has told a coroner she immediately thought “someone has taken him” when the New South Wales town of Kendall fell quiet and the three-year-old boy vanished without a trace.

“I couldn’t hear a thing. It was silent, there was no wind, there were no birds,” the woman said in Sydney on Tuesday at an inquest into William’s disappearance and suspected death in September 2014.

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Backpacker charged after woman finds hidden camera in Bondi hostel bathroom

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Hong Kong man, 36, allegedly hid camera inside a deodorant stick which his French roommate spotted after she finished showering

A tourist from Hong Kong is behind bars after allegedly hiding a camera inside a deodorant stick in the bathroom of a hostel at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach.

The man’s roommate – a woman on holiday from France – had just finished showering when she spotted the camera and a toiletry bag on the sink of their shared ensuite on Monday night.

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