Two men, who have been denied bail, claim three boys were trespassing in Mareeba when they allegedly assaulted and handcuffed them
A pair of alleged vigilantes have been charged with assaulting and handcuffing three boys they believed to be trespassing in an industrial area in Mareeba, near Cairns.
A 36-year-old man and a 27-year-old man, both from Biboohra, have been denied police bail over the incident, involving three boys aged 12 to 14 on 23 December.
Continue reading...Exclusive: ‘We can’t just put it all on the police’s shoulders’ says NSW premier as Aboriginal people make up 59% of juvenile detention population
The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has defended the way police interact with young Aboriginal people and said the force is not to blame for disproportionate Indigenous incarceration rates.
Speaking in Bourke, in far western NSW, Minns also said he was reluctant to meet the demands of the Country Mayors Association, police union and some Nationals MPs to hold an inquiry into regional crime.
Continue reading...Electronic monitoring and rules on who he can associate with will be imposed by Victorian supreme court
Convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika is set to be released from prison within hours and placed on an extended supervision order that will force him to comply with 30 conditions, including electronic monitoring.
The Victorian supreme court heard on Tuesday that Benbrika would be released later on Tuesday – after spending nearly 20 years behind bars – after the order was finalised.
Continue reading...The 2020 blunder, whereby more than 400 Australian public servants received the photo, revealed in annual report of former corruption watchdog
A criminal syndicate was tipped off to a covert operation after federal law enforcement staff shared photos of an intercepted shipping container with more than 400 public servants across multiple agencies.
The blunder compromised the investigation, prompted a multi-agency corruption investigation and led to written warnings to the heads of the Department of Home Affairs, the federal police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
Continue reading...Seyyed Farshchi, 50, worked refugee ‘relentlessly’ for little pay and threatened to have him sent back to his home country
A Melbourne chiropractor who subjected a vulnerable refugee to forced labour for his own financial gain has urged a judge not to send him to prison.
A county court jury in October found Seyyed Farshchi, 50, guilty of causing a person to remain in forced labour and conducting a business involving forced labour.
Continue reading...Toddler later found almost 300km away in Tenterfield after police issued an amber alert
Two people, a woman and a man, have been charged with the alleged abduction of a toddler on the far north coast of New South Wales.
An amber alert was issued late on Friday after a 61-year-old woman was allegedly injured outside an office in Coffs Harbour, and the two-year-old boy taken away by the man.
Continue reading...Former Victorian premier gives first interview after resignation, saying ‘the haters hate and the rest vote Labor’. Follow the day’s news live
James Ashby to stand for One Nation in Queensland seat
James Ashby, the chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, will stand for the party in the seat of Keppel at next year’s Queensland state election, AAP reports.
The Nationals are dead in Queensland’s parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats.
Continue reading...Judicial inquiry reviewing convictions of group jailed in 1981 over alleged terror plot to blow up Sydney targets
The testimony of a key witness and actions of a corrupt New South Wales police officer will be probed during an inquiry into the 1981 terror plot convictions of a group known as the ‘Croatian Six’.
The judicial inquiry, which began on Monday, will examine the possibility that Crown witness Vico Virkez may have been working for Yugoslavian intelligence services.
Continue reading...Judge jails ex-Australian army soldier for at least 15 months, urges him to leave ‘survivalists to their silly games’
A survivalist caught hiding a serious arsenal of weapons including machine guns should leave the zombie killers to their “silly games” a judge has urged, sentencing him to prison time.
Aleziah Tolkein Spiers was caught illegally storing 16 dangerous weapons, including under the floors of a shearing shed on his former father-in-law’s property in central Victoria where he had run survivalist workshops.
Continue reading...UNSW study finds nearly one in six men over the age of 18 had sexual feelings towards under-18s
Francene Reo’s stepdad told her it was therapy. In 1976, the Newcastle supreme court found it was child sexual abuse.
At that time, charging someone for incest was so unusual “they didn’t even know how to word the charges”, she said. Reo’s stepdad spent five years behind bars for his years of severe offending, which took place for 10 years when she was aged six to 16. She didn’t speak about it for decades.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Palaszczuk government expected to begin process of establishing peak body amid pressure to crack down on youth crime
Queensland is looking to establish a youth justice peak body as the issue threatens to become a major sore point for the Palaszczuk government ahead of next year’s election.
Guardian Australia understands the state government will launch a competitive tender process and seek expressions of interest from multiple organisations across the sector.
Continue reading...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.
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)
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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