Category Archives: Australian police and policing

‘False phone calls’ diverted police from Gaza war protest at Parliament House, AFP chief alleges

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Australian federal police commissioner says force is investigating whether ‘diversionary tactics’ were used while activists allegedly trespassed on roof

The Australian federal police are investigating whether “diversionary tactics” were used to distract police as four people allegedly trespassed onto Parliament House’s roof to protest the war in Gaza.

On Thursday, the AFP’s commissioner, Reece Kershaw, told a Senate estimates hearing the protest was “premeditated” and he considered the diversionary tactics, which allegedly distracted police to other incidents inside and away from Parliament House, a “criminal act”.

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Teen accused of driving stolen Jeep in fatal Melbourne crash faces court as three males remain on the run

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Boy, 17, charged over driving an allegedly stolen car in a fatal crash that killed a 28-year-old man in Burwood

A teen accused of driving a stolen Jeep that killed another driver was checked on by police hours after the crash and found in bed with a doona pulled up to his chin, police allege.

Police are relying on a pair of white shoes, a phone call and an accusation by a young female co-accused to prove the 17-year-old was behind the wheel during the deadly crash.

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Victoria police make 2,700 arrests in five-month domestic violence blitz in south-east Melbourne

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Police say 7,500 charges laid, including against a man, 42, who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted a teenager in front of two younger children

A man who allegedly stabbed a woman and assaulted a teenager in front of two children was among 2,700 arrests by Victoria police during a five-month blitz targeting family violence offenders in Melbourne’s south-east.

Victoria police on Thursday said 7,500 charges had been laid as a result of the blitz, between January and June of this year.

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Synthetic opioid detected in bodies of four people found dead in Melbourne home

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Police confirm drug’s presence after deaths of boy, 17, and three adults in Broadmeadows last week

A synthetic opioid has been found in the bodies of four people found dead in a Melbourne home last week, police say.

The bodies of the 17-year-old boy, two men aged 32 and 37, and a 42-year-old woman were discovered at the property in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s north, in the early hours of 25 June.

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Three women killed, more injured in bus crash in Whitsunday region

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Bus was carrying 33 people when it came off Bruce Highway north of Gumlu on Sunday morning after crashing into four-wheel drive towing a caravan

Three women have died after the coach they were travelling in collided with a caravan in the Whitsunday region on Queensland’s northern coast.

The bus was carrying 33 people when it came off the Bruce Highway, 8km north of Gumlu, on Sunday morning after crashing into the caravan, which was being towed by a four-wheel drive vehicle.

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Indonesian boys jailed by Australia claim no translation provided in court

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Minors who were locked up in adult prisons for people smuggling say they could not understand proceedings and thought they were going home

Vulnerable Indonesian children say they were either given no interpreter or an interpreter who spoke the wrong language during deeply flawed people smuggling prosecutions, leaving them unable to understand court proceedings before their imprisonment by Australia in maximum security adult jails.

The Australian government last year agreed to pay $27.5m in compensation to more than 200 Indonesians who were wrongfully prosecuted and detained as adult people smugglers while they were children.

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Fatima Payman admits she ‘upset a few colleagues’ by crossing the floor – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Housing minister Julie Collins is speaking to the ABC RN about Labor’s build-to-rent bill which was knocked back in the Senate yesterday, with the Greens and the Coalition combining to delay it:

What we want to do is get this done. We’ve already been consulting, we announced it in the previous budget. Any delays will actually stop the pipeline of construction and the certainty for the sector.

What we want to do is get more affordable homes and more homes of every type on the ground as quickly as we can.

We’re saying they have to have a minimum of 10% to be eligible for the tax concessions that we’re talking about for each development.

That’s what our consultations and our discussions with the sector have done and, as I said, this is not the only thing we’re doing for affordable homes … My point here is that they continually delay and block housing up every time by coming together and having this unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate, because they’re more interested in votes than they are about people.

We’re not open to negotiation and we want to get this done.

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Teenager charged with planning terrorist attack after allegedly entering NSW MP’s office with ‘intention to kill’

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Labor MP for Newcastle Tim Crakanthorp said he and his staff were safe and unharmed after the ‘very serious incident’

A New South Wales teenager has been charged with planning a terrorist attack after he allegedly entered Labor MP Tim Crakanthorp’s office carrying items including “knives and tactical equipment” with the “intention to kill”.

Jordan Patten, a 19-year-old from Raymond Terrace, was arrested in Newcastle after midday on Wednesday and was charged with one count of preparing or planning a terrorist act.

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Bus driver charged over Brisbane crash that killed 18-year-old Tia Cameron abused outside court

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Insults hurled at Lindsay Selby, who has not yet entered a plea, while leaving Brisbane court after being charged over a fatal CBD bus crash

A bus driver charged after a Brisbane CBD crash in which 18-year-old Tia Cameron died has been abused while leaving court.

Lindsay Francis Selby, 70, was also targeted by some of Cameron’s supporters outside Brisbane magistrates court on Wednesday in heated scenes.

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Reports of young men with weapons at Westfield shopping centre in Adelaide sparks lockdown

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South Australia police investigate after reports of two groups of young males fighting in food court area of the Westfield Marion centre

A fight between two groups of teenagers in a food court has sent a major Adelaide shopping centre into lockdown.

South Australia police received reports just before 3pm on Sunday of two groups fighting in the food court area of the Westfield Marion shopping centre in Oaklands Park.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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Man charged over alleged Queensland shooting murder lost gun licence three years ago, police say

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South Mackay man, 31, charged with murder and attempted murder over Robb Place shootings as police investigate how he allegedly gained access to firearm

A Queensland woman was leaving for a sporting activity when a neighbour allegedly shot her dead in her car in front of two girls.

Ryan Geoffrey Cole, 31, has been charged with murdering the woman and shooting another person who came to her aid in Mackay, north Queensland.

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An affair, a hunting trip and two people dead at a high country camp: how the Greg Lynn case unfolded – a timeline

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The former Jetstar pilot pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay in the Wonnangatta Valley in 2020. Here’s everything you need to know in the lead-up to the verdict

Former pilot Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has faced a four-week trial after pleading not guilty to murdering campers Russell Hill, 74 and Carol Clay, 73 in Victoria’s high country in 2020.

As the jury considers a verdict, here’s everything to know about how the missing person investigation and trial unfolded:

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Police offer $1m reward to solve murder of Maria James inside Melbourne bookshop

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Catholic priest Anthony Bongiorno and Peter Keogh, both dead, previously named as persons of interest

Almost 44 years after Maria James’s brutal murder in her Melbourne bookshop, her two sons hope a $1m reward will finally unmask her killer.

James, whose second-hand bookshop on High Street at Thornbury in Melbourne’s north also functioned as her home, was killed there on 17 June 1980 in what her son Mark described as a “ritualistic”, violent and frenzied attack. She was found dead after being stabbed 68 times.

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Two NSW police officers charged with assaulting 92-year-old man in Sydney

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Elderly man taken to hospital with a fractured and significant bruising after alleged assault in Picton, police say

Two New South Wales police officers have been charged with assaulting a 92-year-old man who was later admitted to hospital with a fractured elbow and significant bruising to his head and arms.

The alleged assault occurred at a home in Picton, in Sydney’s south-west, in January after police were called to a domestic violence incident by the elderly man’s wife, who had made two calls to triple 0 and “likely” had dementia.

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Judge in Greg Lynn murder trial says jury can’t find him guilty of manslaughter as an alternate verdict

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Justice Michael Croucher summarises case to jurors after ex-Jetstar pilot pleaded not guilty to murdering campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay

The jury in the trial of a former Jetstar pilot accused of murdering two elderly campers in the Victorian high country will not be able to consider an alternative charge of manslaughter, the state’s supreme court has heard.

Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

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‘He was selfish’: Greg Lynn covered up deaths because he believed he would be blamed, murder trial told

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Victorian supreme court hears closing arguments in trial of ex-Jetstar pilot who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay

A former Jetstar pilot accused of murdering two elderly campers in the Victorian high country covered up the deaths because he believed he would be blamed after he incorrectly stored his guns, his defence barrister has told the state’s supreme court.

Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

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‘He knew he had murdered them’: Greg Lynn covered up campers’ deaths to conceal his crimes, court hears

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Closing arguments begin in trial of former pilot, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill and Carol Clay

The only reasonable explanation for a former Jetstar pilot to cover up the deaths of two elderly campers in the Victorian high country was because “he knew he had murdered them”, the state’s supreme court has heard.

Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

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Man accused of seeking $300,000 from woman he allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted in Sydney

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Man, 29, extradited from Victoria on Thursday after police alleged he threatened to release photos of assault

A man alleged to have drugged and kidnapped a woman before photographing himself sexually assaulting her and attempting to extort a $300,000 payment for the images has been extradited from Victoria to New South Wales.

Yanyu Mu, 29, was arrested at Oakleigh East in Melbourne’s south-east on Thursday, before being extradited to Sydney.

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‘Very sorry for your suffering’: Greg Lynn apologises at murder trial for actions after campers’ deaths

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Former Jetstar pilot describes struggle that led to deaths of Russell Hill and Carol Clay, after pleading not guilty to murder


A former Jetstar pilot accused of killing two elderly campers in the Victorian high country has apologised to their families for the “suffering that I caused” and testified that he did not murder them.

Gregory Stuart Lynn, 57, has taken the stand in the Victorian supreme court on Thursday, after pleading not guilty to murdering Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, at a remote camping site in the Wonnangatta Valley in March 2020.

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