Category Archives: Crime – Australia

Australian couple sentenced to decades in prison for child sex abuse after using victims as ‘playthings’

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One man sentenced to 37 years behind bars and other to 26 years for ‘prolonged and egregious’ abuse

Two men who committed hundreds of acts of child sexual abuse – including against family members and children at a childcare centre – have been sentenced to decades in prison for their crimes.

The men, aged 25 and 30, used their many victims as “playthings” before their arrests in June 2020, a judge declared on Tuesday during their sentencing in Sydney.

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Two charged with murder after allegedly torturing Brisbane man at Queensland property

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Woman and man, aged 21 and 23, facing charges including murder and deprivation of liberty after alleged victim died in hospital

A Queensland man who was allegedly held captive, tortured and beaten at a remote property north of Brisbane has died in hospital, police say.

A woman and man, aged 21 and 23, had initially been charged with attempted murder and a series of other offences after police were called to the property at Mount Mee on Wednesday evening.

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Queensland’s $1.28bn community safety plan includes transporting detained children for schooling

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Exclusive: The raft of new laws includes expanding a trial of metal detectors to now include shopping centres and other high-risk locations

Queensland will introduce laws to bus children between police watch houses and youth detention centres as part of a $1.28bn community safety plan announced this week.

Guardian Australia understands the measure, set to be announced on Wednesday, will see children transported between facilities to ensure they receive exercise and access to rehabilitation services, schooling and support programs.

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Violence against women rallies: thousands attend protests as Mark Dreyfus rules out royal commission

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More rallies to be held across the country on Sunday with attorney general claiming state and federal governments need to cooperate on plan of action

Thousands of people have rallied in Sydney calling for an end to violence against women amid growing anger at the number of those being killed in violent attacks across the country.

No More: National rallies against gender based violence were held in Sydney, Hobart and Adelaide on Saturday, with more due to be held across the country on Sunday, calling for greater action, including calls for a royal commission, to address the epidemic of women killed in violent attacks.

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Man charged with domestic murder of Forbes woman Molly Ticehurst was on bail for other offences

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Queenslander Daniel Billings was on bail for earlier charges including stalking and cruelty before arrest for alleged murder, NSW court hears

A man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend in regional New South Wales while on bail for rape and stalking charges against her will remain behind bars.

Daniel Billings has been charged with the domestic violence murder of Molly Ticehurst, 28, whose body was found in a Forbes homes in the early hours of Monday.

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Man and woman found guilty of murder of Sydney teenager Jason Galleghan after AirPods dispute

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Galleghan, 16, died of his injuries two days after he was brutally bashed in August 2021

Nearly three years ago, Jason Galleghan met his friends at a western Sydney train station.

A few hours later, the teenager was left for dead after a brutal bashing, lying alone in his boxer shorts.

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Teenage boy charged with murder after multiple stabbings near Sydney school

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New South Wales police say a 16-year-old has been charged over death of 18-year-old and will appear in court on Saturday

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder after two stabbings, one of which resulted in the death of another teenager, near a school in western Sydney on Friday.

Emergency services responded to reports that two teenagers had been stabbed near a school on Power Street in Doonside at about 3.40pm on Friday.

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How do Australian police taskforces get strange names like Tromperie?

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In NSW, you can blame a computer which generates names at random, while in the Northern Territory ‘generic categories’ deliver operations named after rivers and battleships

New South Wales police last week arrested 15 people as part of Strikeforce Wessex – an investigation into alleged organised criminal networks operating “dial-a-dealer” schemes.

But what does Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in Great Britain, have to do with drug dealing and mobile phones across Sydney?

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Tasmanian man jailed after AI-generated child abuse material found on computer

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Man, 48, to spend at least 10 months behind bars after AFP’s first seizure of such AI content in state’s history

A Tasmanian man has been jailed for at least 10 months after police found hundreds of files depicting child abuse – including content generated using artificial intelligence – on his computer.

The 48-year-old Gravelly Beach man was jailed for two years, with a non-parole period of 10 months, in the supreme court in Tasmania on Tuesday.

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Frank Zumbo used power to lure young women into ‘world of his own design’, court told

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Former aide to Craig Kelly found guilty of sex crimes against four victims aged between 19 and 24 at time of offending

An aide to the former federal MP Craig Kelly used his position to lure powerless young women who he would go on to sexually touch and assault over a period of years, a court has been told.

Frank Zumbo pressured the women, who were looking to further their careers, into “kisses and cuddles”, touching them inappropriately and exposing himself to one victim.

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Baby killer Keli Lane refused release from NSW jail in ‘no body, no parole’ law test

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Keli Lane, convicted of murdering newborn daughter in 1996, refused parole because she has not helped police find Tegan’s body

A woman convicted of killing her baby daughter in one of Australia’s most notorious criminal cases has been denied parole after more than 13 years behind bars.

Keli Lane, 48, was convicted in 2010 after a jury found her guilty of murdering her newborn daughter Tegan in September 1996.

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NSW to double penalties for worst environmental crimes in wake of asbestos crisis

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Planned overhaul of Environment Protection Authority’s powers to be biggest since it began in 1991, government says

Penalties for the most serious environmental crimes would double and the New South Wales environmental watchdog would have powers to recall potentially contaminated products from consumers under major changes to environmental protection laws proposed by the Minns government.

The environment minister, Penny Sharpe, said the government was proposing the largest set of amendments to the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA’s) powers since the regulator was established in 1991.

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Person in custody after man fatally assaulted in Gold Coast car park

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Emergency services called to the shopping centre car park in Hope Island found a man with life-threatening injuries

A 25-year-old man has been taken into custody in relation to a fatal assault in a Gold Coast shopping centre car park.

Emergency services were called to the car park along Santa Barbara Road in the suburb of Hope Island on Monday afternoon after reports a man had been seriously assaulted.

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‘No joy’ but inquiry brings ‘healing’ for victim-survivors of alleged child sexual abuse in Victorian schools

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Board of inquiry’s report identified 109 alleged victims of four paedophile teachers at 24 schools dating back to the 1960s

Glen Fearnett says he doesn’t have the words to express how he feels about an inquiry’s report into the alleged historic child sexual abuse that occurred at his primary school five decades ago.

“There’s no joy. There’s no happiness. There’s no celebration,” he tells Guardian Australia.

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Jesse Baird and Luke Davies: police allege Beau Lamarre made ‘partial admissions’ of involvement in deaths

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NSW deputy commissioner further alleges accused police officer purchased angle grinder, padlock and weights from hardware store

New South Wales police will allege one of their own constables made “partial admissions” about an alleged double murder to an acquaintance before he turned himself in to police last week.

The deputy commissioner Dave Hudson said Sen Const Beau Lamarre – who was charged on Friday over the deaths of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies – wasn’t cooperating with investigators searching for the men’s bodies south-west of Sydney.

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Police investigate possession of police handgun allegedly used in murder of Sydney couple

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NSW police commissioner Karen Webb expresses ‘heartfelt condolences’ to the families and friends of alleged murder victims Jesse Baird and Luke Davies

New South Wales police are investigating whether murder-accused senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon was lawfully in possession of the police-issue handgun which they believe was fired at a Paddington unit where two men were allegedly killed.

Police continued the search on Sunday for the remains of Jesse Baird, a former Channel Ten presenter, and his partner, Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies.

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Security guard dies and charge laid after alleged punch to head outside Sydney pub

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Police said the guard was allegedly punched by a patron who had been asked to leave the venue

A security guard has died after he was allegedly punched in the head during an altercation at a hotel in Sydney’s south, and a man charged with assault occasioning death.

Emergency services were called to a licensed premises on East Parade in Sutherland about 2am on Sunday.

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Taekwondo master arrested after married couple and young son found dead in Sydney

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Bodies of woman, 41, and boy, 7, discovered in Lion’s Taekwondo Martial Arts Academy in North Parramatta after 39-year-old man found dead in Baulkham Hills home

A taekwondo instructor has been arrested over the “cataclysmic” deaths of a married couple and their seven-year-old son in Sydney.

New South Wales police said the 49-year-old man, a taekwondo master at a martial arts school in North Parramatta, went to Westmead hospital with stab or slash wounds to his chest, arms and stomach on Monday just before midnight.

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Celeste Manno murderer Luay Sako faked psychosis symptoms, Victorian supreme court hears

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Man who stalked 23-year-old Melbourne woman pretended he was experiencing psychosis when he killed her, psychiatrist tells court

A man who stabbed a young woman to death repeatedly faked symptoms of psychosis while being assessed for a mental impairment defence, a court has heard.

Luay Sako, 39, told three psychiatrists there was a being called “Isha” who encouraged him to kill 23-year-old Celeste Manno in the early hours of 16 November 2020.

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Snowtown ‘bodies-in-the-barrels’ accomplice Mark Ray Haydon due for release in May

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SA government seeks legal advice on whether new laws criminalising concealing or interfering with human remains could keep inmate in jail

A man imprisoned for his involvement the Snowtown murders, one of Australia’s most notorious crimes, could be free within months.

Mark Ray Haydon was convicted for his role in the so-called “bodies in the barrels” murders in Snowtown, South Australia, in the 1990s. Eight of the 11 people killed were found in barrels in a disused bank vault in the town, which is 150km north of Adelaide. A 12th death was linked to the killers.

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