Woman suspended from road policing command and charged with one count of stalking and four counts of computer hacking
A Queensland police employee has been suspended and faces criminal charges for allegedly selling the personal information of a domestic violence victim to a former partner, who was later accused of stalking.
The police employee, a 46-year-old woman from the Queensland road policing command, will face court on Friday.
Continue reading...Tasmanian Liberal MP labels comments ‘wholly inappropriate’ after PM says he was ‘taken aback’ by opposition leader’s speech
Peter Dutton has drawn widespread criticism, including from one of his own MPs, for comparing the 1996 mass murder of 35 people at Port Arthur to a pro-Palestine protest at the Sydney Opera House.
The Tasmanian Liberal backbencher Bridget Archer labelled Dutton’s comments “incredibly disrespectful” and “wholly inappropriate”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: since Karen Webb became commissioner the force has dumped and paid out three employees in senior media and public affairs roles
Almost $700,000 in taxpayer funds has been paid out between three dumped New South Wales police media executives over the past two years, and commissioner Karen Webb sacked a fourth controversial pick mid-appointment last month.
The $687,000 was shared between three public servants who worked as media and public affairs advisers to the commissioner since her appointment in February 2022.
Continue reading...Boy who took his own life allegedly told to pay $500 to stop personal photos being shared with family and friends
Two men in Nigeria have been charged over an alleged sextortion case that led to a teenage Australian boy taking his own life.
The boy had been engaging online with an unknown person who threatened to share personal photos of him with his family and friends if he did not pay $500, NSW police said in a statement on Monday.
Continue reading...Todd McKenzie’s death prompts calls from deputy coroner for summit into police responses to mental health incidents
A New South Wales police operation that resulted in a man being shot dead by the force while suffering psychosis was significantly “flawed”, an inquest has found.
Todd McKenzie, 40, was suffering from a psychosis when he shot three times by police in his Taree home in 2019 following a nine-hour siege after police responded to reports he was on the street yelling and holding a knife.
Continue reading...Victoria police say four men were charged with nearly 100 fraud and deception offences
Members of a Melbourne organised crime syndicate have been charged over alleged complex frauds totalling almost $4m, including sending phones to Russia.
Financial crime detectives from Victoria police arrested four men on Wednesday and charged them with almost 100 fraud and deception offences after an 18-month investigation.
Continue reading...Police announce manslaughter charge after initially believing man, 21, had died as a result of crash at Booie, near Kingaroy
A man’s death on a Queensland property was initially treated as a car crash fatality by police – who have now charged another man with manslaughter after the discovery of a gunshot wound during the postmortem process.
Investigators initially believed a 21-year-old Nanango man died in the 21 March crash after hitting a fence pole on a private property on Kingaroy Barkers Creek Road at Booie, near Kingaroy.
But after allegedly discovering a gunshot wound on his upper body, police have charged a 38-year-old Kingaroy man with one count of manslaughter and insecure storage of weapons.
Continue reading...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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Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Decision announced on eve of Easter long weekend following weeks of controversy over Jackson’s former work as a journalist
The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, has backflipped on her decision to appoint former Network Seven producer Steve Jackson as her media adviser.
Questions about the appointment were raised last week when images of Jackson, who produced Seven’s Spotlight interview with Bruce Lehrmann, began circulating in the media industry in Sydney. Seven paid more than $100,000 in rent for the former Liberal staffer in return for the exclusive interview.
Continue reading...Some Labor MPs are eyeing the LNP’s tough policy on detention in bid to sway anxious voters in October election
Looking down the barrel of the camera, LNP leader David Crisafulli addresses Queenslanders directly in the party’s latest TV ad.
Appearing concerned and candid in his home town of Townsville, Crisafulli delivers a simple message: Elect me, and I’ll keep you safe.
Continue reading...Legal Observers NSW says ‘several officers’ at Port Botany protest – where 19 people were arrested – wore thin blue line patch on uniform
At least one New South Wales police officer wore a “thin blue line” badge – which has been co-opted by far right and extremist groups – when working at a pro-Palestine protest at Port Botany, according to Legal Observers NSW.
Guardian Australia has seen a photograph of one officer wearing the badge on Sunday night and observers who attended the protest said “several” other officers also wore the patch showing a black-and-white Australian flag with a blue line running across it.
Continue reading...Karen Webb says checks still under way in the appointment of Channel Seven journalist Steve Jackson to the role of police media adviser
The New South Wales police commissioner, Karen Webb, has revealed the appointment of a new police media adviser is under review after she received new information about the candidate.
A spokesperson for NSW police told Guardian Australia the review of the appointment of the Channel Seven and News Corp journalist Steve Jackson to the $320,000-a-year role “remains ongoing”.
Continue reading...Police allege the accused dumped an injured man on a street in Melonba and left him to die
A man will face court accused of murder following a pre-arranged fight after which he allegedly dumped his opponent in a western Sydney street and left him to die.
Emergency services were called to Georgina Crescent in Melonba about 8.45pm on Friday after reports a man had been found and was likely deceased.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...The man has pleaded not guilty to ‘exit trafficking’ after taking his wife to Sudan in 2014
While on a trip back to Sudan, a mother left her children with her husband to go and cook for them. But when she returned from her parents’ place, her husband and two young kids had vanished, a Melbourne court has heard.
Her husband faced the first day of a trial by jury in Melbourne’s county court on Thursday, accused of deceiving his wife into leaving Australia after withdrawing sponsorship for her visa.
Continue reading...Force responds to scathing NSW law enforcement conduct commission report, dismissing four of 19 recommendations
New South Wales police have rejected calls from the state’s police watchdog for updated training and protocols for officers on the use of force, especially when handcuffing children, after a scathing report handed down last year.
In its Operation Mantus report, the NSW law enforcement conduct commission (Lecc) said the way police were trained should be changed and ongoing education provided to officers.
Continue reading...Police continue to investigate suspected hit and run in Fletcher Street, Tamarama that killed 28-year-old Arnold Bloch Leibler lawyer Mitch East
A Sydney firm has paid tribute to promising young lawyer Mitch East after his death in a suspected hit-and-run incident in the city’s east.
Emergency services were called to Fletcher Street in Tamarama shortly after 4am on Sunday, when they found an injured 28-year-old man.
Continue reading...Sunshine Coast man charged with offences including rape, stalking and making child exploitation material
Police allege a Sunshine Coast man groomed two girls aged between 12 and 14 online before sexually abusing them.
Dion Adam Lingard, 31, will face Maroochydore magistrates court again on 18 March on 116 charges including rape, indecent treatment and stalking.
Continue reading...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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