Category Archives: Crime – Australia

Sydney swim coach Paul Frost jailed for at least 24 years after grooming and sexually abusing 11 students

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A judge found the 48-year-old deliberately created a culture that facilitated his offending at a swimming school between 1996 and 2009

A swim coach who groomed and sexually abused 11 young students over more than a decade will have to spend 24 years in jail before he is eligible for parole.

Paul Douglas Frost was sentenced on Thursday after being found guilty of 43 offences over the abuse of children at a swimming school in Sydney’s southwest between 1996 and 2009.

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In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

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Nearly one in three children on Queensland’s serious repeat offender list under protection order

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Government urged to do more to support young people in residential care to ‘break the cycle of offending’

Nearly one in three children on Queensland’s serious repeat offender index is under a child protection order, new figures show.

As of 30 June, 133 of 452 serious repeat offenders had child protection orders, which are made when the children’s court decides a young person needs to be protected from harm.

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Western Bulldogs to pay $5.9m to child sexual abuse victim over paedophile access

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AFL club Western Bulldogs negligent in giving paedophile fundraiser special access to victim in the 1980s, supreme court finds

An Australian rules football club will pay out almost $6m to a child sexual abuse victim after it was found negligent in giving a paedophile special access to the boy.

A supreme court civil jury on Thursday delivered its verdict against the Western Bulldogs over the abuse of Adam Kneale at the hands of a club fundraiser, following a four-week trial.

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Dozens of ‘kill cars’ seized in police crackdown on Sydney’s gang wars

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NSW police say the 27 seized cars worth $2m were destined to be used in organised crime network homicides or firearm violence

Dozens of “kill cars” allegedly stolen to carry out violent crimes across Sydney have been seized in the latest crackdown on the city’s gang wars.

From Porsches to Ford Rangers, a total of 27 cars worth more than $2m are now in police custody.

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WA community in lockdown and suspect in custody after man allegedly shot west of Perth

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Residents of Wooroloo told they could return to normal activity following earlier lockdown but urged to ‘remain vigilant’

A Western Australian community has spent several hours in lockdown and a man has been taken into custody after an alleged shooting on the outer fringes of Perth.

On Saturday morning, WA Police said officers responded to a “firearm incident” in the township of Wooroloo, about 45km from Perth.

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Huge Lego collection and boxes of gemstones seized by Victoria police in alleged meth lab raid

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A 36 year-old man was charged with trafficking, proceeds of crime and firearms offences after raid at Botanic Ridge house in Melbourne

A mountain of Lego found in a suburban drug raid is so large police are going to need a truck to seize it.

The 1,130 boxes worth more than $200,000 were discovered on Tuesday alongside a meth lab and boxes of gemstones at a Botanic Ridge house on Melbourne’s suburban fringe.

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Murder charge over woman’s death in luxury hotel room at Crown Towers in Perth

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Homicide squad detectives have charged a 42-year-old man with murder after a woman in her 30s was found dead

A man has been charged with murder over the death of a woman whose body was found in a luxury hotel room in Perth’s casino precinct.

Emergency services were called to Crown Towers east of the Perth CBD about 11am on Monday, where the woman in her 30s was found dead.

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Lilie James remembered as ‘vibrant’ and ‘adored by all’ as elite Sydney school reassures parents

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Heartbroken family issue statement and thank community for support after 21-year-old killed at St Andrew’s Cathedral school

Friends, family and colleagues are remembering the Sydney water polo coach and university student Lilie James for her “bright, bubbly personality”, as students prepare to return next week to the elite private school where she was killed.

James, 21, was found dead with serious head injuries in a bathroom attached to the St Andrew’s Cathedral school gymnasium at about midnight on Wednesday.

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Woman found guilty over woodchipper murder of ex-partner in Queensland

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Brisbane supreme court finds Sharon Graham, 63, was architect of plot to kill Bruce Saunders for insurance money

A woman accused of being the architect of a murder plan that involved a man being fed into a woodchipper has been found guilty.

Sharon Graham, 63, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bruce James Saunders at a property near Gympie on 12 November 2017.

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Julia Gillard’s former partner Tim Mathieson convicted after sexually assaulting sleeping friend

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Court hears the woman fell asleep and awoke to find Mathieson sucking on her breast in March 2022

Julia Gillard’s former partner Tim Mathieson has been convicted and fined $7,000 for the sexual assault of a friend that left her feeling so unsafe she moved interstate.

The 67-year-old formally pleaded guilty in the Melbourne magistrates court on Thursday.

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Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Melbourne shooting: man killed outside shopping centre in Craigieburn in targeted attack

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Man dies outside shopping centre in Melbourne’s north and another taken to hospital with serious injuries

A man has been shot dead outside a shopping centre in Melbourne’s north in what police believe was a targeted attack.

Emergency workers arrived at Craigieburn Central shopping centre on Windrock Avenue just before 3pm on Saturday after reports of several shots fired.

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Court finds boy, 14, is too young to be held criminally responsible for death of Melbourne teen Declan Cutler

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Supreme court says there’s reasonable possibility the child, then aged 13, didn’t know his conduct was ‘seriously wrong’

A Victorian judge has ruled a boy, who was aged 13 when Melbourne teenager Declan Cutler was killed, is too young to be held criminally responsible for his murder.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced a judge-alone trial in July after he was identified as one of eight boys who attacked and killed 16-year-old Declan as he left a birthday party last year.

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Police charge man with attempted murder of two women over ANU campus stabbing

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Police allege the man initially attacked a male student with a frying pan then stabbed two female students

The man alleged to have stabbed two young women during an attack at the Australian National University appeared in court on Monday charged with attempted murder.

Alex Ophel, 24, appeared briefly before the ACT Magistrates Court, wearing a grey tracksuit and white thongs, one day after he allegedly stabbed two 20-year-old women on the ANU campus, leaving one with critical injuries.

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Keilor shooting: man killed at Melbourne cafe in organised crime attack

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Victoria police believe a shooting in the city’s north-west that left a man dead and another injured was targeted

Police in Melbourne have launched an investigation after a fatal shooting in the suburb of Keilor in the city’s north-west.

The man killed is yet to be formally identified.Officers say the shooting appears to have been targeted.

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Teenager charged over attack on boy walking home from school in south-east Melbourne

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A Frankston boy, 14, was charged with offences including armed robbery and intentionally causing serious injury

A teenager has been charged over a violent attack in Melbourne on a boy walking home from school that left him with life-threatening injuries.

The 14-year-old was confronted by a group as he left Glen Eira College in Glen Huntly on Monday afternoon.

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Inquiry into sexual abuse at a Melbourne school to probe allegations at 18 others

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Kathleen Foley, SC, says inquiry will examine other schools where former Beaumaris teachers had worked

An inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at a Melbourne primary school in the 1960s and 1970s will investigate allegations at 18 other state schools where the same teachers also worked.

The Andrews government in June announced a board of inquiry into historical abuse allegations at Beaumaris primary school, in Melbourne’s south-east.

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AFP calls on public to donate childhood photos in bid to combat child abuse with AI

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Project with Monash University will use images to train system to recognise pictures of children on dark web

The Australian federal police want the public to donate their childhood photos to an artificial intelligence project aimed at helping save children from abuse.

The project, run by AFP and Monash University, will help detect child abuse material on the dark web, or on devices that have been seized during criminal investigations.

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Keeping kids in watch houses: why the Queensland government could change the law to suit itself

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Possible ‘robodebt’ scenario left Labor to either move the children or suspend the Human Rights Act – and it chose the latter

Queensland Labor MPs found out on Monday that they were expected to vote to suspend the state’s Human Rights Act, for a second time, to allow for the indefinite detention of children in adult police watch houses.

No one else seemed to have any warning. On Wednesday afternoon – on a particularly dreary day in state parliament – the police minister, Mark Ryan, tacked the law change on to an unrelated child safety bill, allowing it to pass through parliament the following day with no committee scrutiny.

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Reforms needed after ‘horrendous’ Catholic church approach in paedophile priest cases, lawyers say

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Lawyers say strategy a ‘matter of continuing concern’ after church succeeds in permanently blocking claim by two Indigenous men

Lawyers for two Indigenous abuse survivors have called for reforms to address the “horrendous” Catholic church strategy of seeking to permanently block cases where alleged paedophile priests have died.

On Wednesday, the church was successful in permanently blocking a claim made by two Indigenous survivors relating to alleged abuse committed by David Joseph Perrett, an Armidale assistant priest and convicted child abuser, whose crimes the church has known about since 1995.

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Brisbane woman whose body was found hidden in a wall identified by police

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Homicide detectives say skeletal remains partially buried at Alderley apartment block belonged to Tanya Lee Glover

The remains of a woman whose body was hidden in the wall of a Brisbane apartment block for about 13 years have been identified by police, who are investigating why anyone would target “a vulnerable single female in this way”.

Homicide detectives announced the breakthrough in the “jigsaw puzzle” investigation eight months after cleaners discovered her skeletal remains, tightly wrapped and partially buried in a locked area behind the wall in the building at Alderley.

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