Category Archives: Australian police and policing

NSW urged to stop strip-searches of young people after court ruling spotlights police conduct

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Supreme court rules police suspicion that a person is in possession of a prohibited drug ‘is not sufficient to conduct a strip-search’

Advocates are calling on the New South Wales government to scrap strip-searches of young people altogether, saying a landmark court ruling found “systemic” issues with the way police have been using their powers.

Justice Dina Yehia handed down her findings in the NSW supreme court on Tuesday in a class action brought by Slater and Gordon Lawyers and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW.

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Dezi Freeman search has hit the one-month mark. How long might police continue the manhunt?

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Hunt for suspected Porepunkah shooter ‘cannot go on for infinitum’, one retired detective says. ‘It has to have a line in the sand somewhere’

As the search for fugitive Dezi Freeman hits the one-month mark, questions are growing about when police may draw “a line in the sand” and call it quits.

The suspected Porepunkah police killer, also known as Desmond Filby, has been on the run since 26 August, when he allegedly shot and killed two officers who were part of a group executing a search warrant at his residence in Victoria’s north-east.

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Police officer charged with assault after Hannah Thomas injured at pro-Palestine protest in Sydney

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Senior constable charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm due to appear in court in mid-November

A New South Wales police officer has been charged with assaulting Hannah Thomas, who sustained a serious eye injury after she was arrested at a protest in June.

Thomas was arrested and charged alongside four others at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney on 27 June that was attended by about 60 people at SEC Plating.

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Revenue from seatbelt fines spikes 1,400% in NSW as AI cameras peer into 140m cars

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Exclusive: Isabel was fined three times in one week in Sydney. ‘I was like, there’s been some kind of malfunction,’ she said

Isabel didn’t even realise she had broken the law until three fines turned up in her mailbox.

The fines – collectively worth more than $1,200 and nine demerit points – were all for seatbelt offences within the same week in Sydney while she helped a friend move house.

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Two police officers involved in Melbourne man’s fatal 2024 arrest named as they face court

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Luke Briggs, 35, died in a hospital’s intensive care unit eight days after his arrest in Hoppers Crossing in July 2024

Two police officers have faced court accused of unlawfully killing a man who died in hospital after his arrest inside a car park.

Cons Alexander Papanastassis, 29, and Sgt James Fitzgerald, 49, appeared in the Melbourne magistrates court on Friday morning for a brief hearing.

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Brisbane teen faces court on terrorism charges after violent extremist material and chemicals allegedly seized

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Max Belter, 18, had a document linked to ‘proscribed terrorist organisations’ on his electronic devices, police allege

A teenager charged with terrorism offences has wept in court after violent extremist material and chemicals for explosives were allegedly found during a police raid.

Max Belter, 18, appeared in a green prison jumper in Brisbane magistrates court on Thursday after a joint terrorism taskforce searched his property at The Gap in Brisbane’s north.

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Suspected Porepunkah gunman Dezi Freeman had no convictions for violence or firearm offences, court record shows

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The 56-year-old made a series of threats against police and had a long history of minor offences, culminating in the loss of his driver’s licence in 2022

The suspected Porepunkah gunman had a criminal record stretching more than 30 years, but had not been convicted of any serious offences, court extracts show.

Dezi Freeman, 56, made a series of threats against police, and had his firearms licence cancelled, in the years before allegedly killing two police officers at a remote property in north-eastern Victoria on Tuesday. Victoria police is now investigating whether its risk assessment before the incident was adequate.

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Former NSW police officer who lost her arm after a car accident awarded $2.3m by the court

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County court judge found physical and psychological injuries from the accident caused ‘complete destruction of her capacity for any form of meaningful remunerative work’

A former police officer has been awarded $2.3m after a car accident during a cannabis clearing operation that led to the amputation of her arm and the “complete destruction” of her earning capacity.

In a district court decision handed down in Sydney on Friday, acting judge Leonard Levy SC found the state of New South Wales had breached its duty of care to the former officer Jillian Oliver, and that its negligence had resulted in the accident, her injuries, and her “catastrophic” physical and psychological situation.

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Jai Kalani Wright: video of Indigenous teen’s fatal collision with police car prompts family walkout of Sydney court

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Benedict Bryant has pleaded not guilty to a charge of dangerous driving occasioning death

Harrowing footage has been aired in court of the moment an Indigenous teenager riding a trail bike crashed into a police vehicle, as a battle erupts over the relevance of an earlier collision.

Sgt Benedict Bryant, 47, was behind the wheel when Jai Kalani Wright rode the motorbike into his unmarked police vehicle in inner-city Sydney on 19 February 2022.

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Dead infant found in Perth stormwater drain

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Police said multiple resources were deployed to Alexander Heights after they received reports about 1pm

The body of a dead infant has been found in a stormwater drain in Perth, Western Australia police have confirmed.

Police said multiple resources were deployed to the suburb of Alexander Heights after they received reports about 1pm on Monday.

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Man arrested over Sydney airport scuffle back in custody after alleged assault at Central train station

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Nicholas Teplin, 41, allegedly struck three men on Thursday afternoon, a day after airport arrest during which a police gun accidentally fired

A Victorian man involved in an airport scuffle in which a police gun was accidentally fired is back in custody for allegedly assaulting several people the next day.

Nicholas Teplin, 41, faced a court on Friday on allegations he hit three men in the head at Sydney’s Central railway station and then shoved a police officer while in custody.

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‘Nazis don’t belong in this country’: Victorian premier scathing over masked march by ‘goons’ in Melbourne CBD

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Man allegedly assaulted after confronting group of about 100 people on march to Flagstaff Gardens early on Saturday

The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, has condemned “goons” who took part in a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Melbourne in the early hours of Saturday morning.

About 100 people dressed in black with face coverings marched through the Melbourne CBD, including down Bourke Street, police said in a statement.

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Decision delayed for pro-Palestine protest on Sydney Harbour Bridge as police warn of possible crowd crush

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Group’s lawyers say demonstration ‘cannot be stopped’ as Christian-led group protesting antisemitism plans rally for same day

Pro-Palestine protesters will have to wait until Saturday to find out if they can legally march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge this weekend, but organisers are vowing to go ahead regardless of the court decision.

However, the court heard the protest organisers are willing to postpone the march if police agree to work with them.

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Victorian coroner calls out family violence failures after husband ambushes wife with hatchet

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‘It is critical that specialist family violence services make contact and offer support to people who use violence in a timely manner,’ coroner says

Family violence services are regularly failing to contact offenders who have been referred to them for support, a Victorian coroner investigating the death of a woman who was murdered by her estranged husband has found.

The coroner, John Cain, also found that more research should be done into “fixated threat” family violence murderers, given risk assessment tools used by police were largely inadequate in predicting homicides.

In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 988 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

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NSW police actions should be examined in Tammy Shipley’s death in custody, lawyer argues

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Court asked to consider whether the coroner has jurisdiction to examine Shipley’s arrest

The actions of New South Wales police during the arrest of an Indigenous woman who later died in custody should be examined, given officers did not identify her “acute mental illness”, a court has heard.

Tammy Shipley died in prison while being held on remand at Silverwater women’s correctional centre in December 2022.

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Two-year-old girl sexually assaulted at Victorian childcare centre, mother claims

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Exclusive: Worker named by ‘deeply traumatised’ child still has job and has not been charged because no one witnessed the alleged incidents and there was no CCTV

A mother has claimed that her two-year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a worker at a Victorian childcare centre but because there was no witness or CCTV of the alleged incidents, the educator is still working there and has not been charged.

Angela* told Guardian Australia that her daughter, Emily*, had disclosed the alleged sexual offences in mid-December, when she was nearly three. She said that on multiple occasions Emily had named the educator and said the offences had taken place while her nappy was being changed.

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Man shot dead by police in Townsville

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Police allege the man was armed with a machete and knife on The Strand in Townsville’s North Ward on Saturday morning

The Queensland police service says officers have shot and killed a man in Townsville after they allege he moved towards them with a machete and a knife.

Police were called to reports of a man armed with multiple weapons on The Strand and intersecting McKinley Street in Townsville’s North Ward just before 10am on Saturday, the QPS said.

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Three teenagers killed in Queensland crash while attempting to overtake truck

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Two men and a woman, all aged 19, died at the scene in Mackay after a late night crash involving multiple vehicles

Three teenagers have died in Queensland after their car crashed into a dual-cab ute while attempting to overtake a truck.

Two 19-year-old men and a 19-year-old woman died at the scene in Mackay, more than 800km north of Brisbane, after a crash involving multiple vehicles late on Friday night.

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‘Breakthrough’ hailed in Melbourne synagogue arson investigation as man charged over ‘crime car’

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Victoria police charge 20-year-old with stealing ‘a communal crime car’ used in Adass Israel attack and blocking access to apps on his phone

The investigation into an arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue has reached a “critical point”, Victoria’s acting premier says, after a man was charged with stealing “a communal crime car” used in the attack and blocking police from accessing apps on his phone.

The attack on the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel synagogue in December is still being investigated as a politically motivated attack by the Victorian joint counter-terrorism team, which includes representatives from the federal police and the domestic spy agency, Asio.

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Sydney police fatally shot machete-wielding man during wife’s alleged brawl in Westfield car park

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Women in ‘melee’ in Mount Druitt were not known to each other and it was ‘sheer fluke’ they met, police say

A man shot dead by police while wielding a large machete was approaching a group of women involved in a shopping centre car park brawl that included his wife, police have alleged.

The 29-year-old died at the Mount Druitt Westfield in Sydney’s west on Saturday afternoon with the officers involved in the incident hailed for their actions.

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