Man charged with domestic violence offences including stalking and contravention of an AVO
A man has been charged with domestic violence offences after police found a woman’s body inside a western Sydney apartment, after earlier failing to locate the source of a domestic dispute.
Police received an anonymous phone call about an alleged domestic dispute at a Liverpool apartment block about 11.45pm on Friday.
Continue reading...Justice experts say there needs to be a more rigorous process for when Tasers and guns can be deployed to change the way officers manage incidents
Calls are growing for a parliamentary inquiry into use of force by New South Wales police, with justice experts saying too much focus is being placed on the actions of individual police officers rather than the “festering” systemic problem.
“This isn’t a case of a few bad apples, it’s a case of a festering tree,” said Samantha Lee, a lawyer at Redfern Legal Centre.
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Continue reading...AFP acting assistant commissioner tells inquiry she was concerned police and defence counsel interactions were feeding ‘conspiratorial ideas of collusion’
A senior ACT police officer has told an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann for rape that she held serious concerns that there were perceptions her officers were colluding with lawyers for Lehrmann’s defence.
AFP acting assistant commissioner, Joanne Cameron, was a commander in charge of ACT policing investigations when Lehrmann faced trial last year over allegations he raped his former colleague Brittany Higgins in parliament house in 2019.
Continue reading...Commissioner says dismissal was a disproportionate response but it was appropriate that imaging technician be denied back pay and issued final warning
A New South Wales police employee who was sacked for telling striking rail workers “get back to work you bludgers” and pushing a barricade towards them has had his job reinstated.
The employee, John Fleming, said he was frustrated when he walked past rail workers who were “sitting outside at a cafe drinking coffee and … having a laugh and enjoying themselves because of the inconvenience they were causing me and other rail commuters” in February last year.
Continue reading...Former attorney general received confidential information while in office and has said he will not act for Clive Palmer, senators hear. Follow the day’s news live
Cricket builds friendship between Australia and India, says Albanese
Narendra Modi described the Australia-India relationship last night as the three Cs – commonwealth, cricket and curry, the three Ds – diaspora, democracy and dosti (Bollywood film series and friendship) and the 3Es – economy, energy and education.
There is always a discussion about cricket when Australians and Indians gather and I did get the experience of being day one of the fourth test for a brief time with Prime Minister Modi. It was quite an experience in the world’s biggest stadium there in March and Australians and Indians are very passionate about their cricket but it is part of the way that we build our friendship between our two nations.
Continue reading...Dr Kay Patterson questions whether mental health team would be more appropriate while David Shoebridge says police tools are ‘wrong resource’
The age discrimination commissioner has said the deployment of police officers to respond to incidents in aged care homes should be reviewed after the Tasering of 95-year-old Claire Nowland.
Nowland, who weighs 43kg and lives with dementia, was Tasered by police after she was found armed with a steak knife in her home at an aged care facility in Cooma. She is in end-of-life care at Cooma district hospital after the incident caused her to fall and sustain life-threatening head injuries.
Continue reading...Calls for reform grow with daughter of patient saying families should be notified when police are deployed to aged care homes
A family who say they were not told when police were deployed to help control their 79-year-old mother in a Sydney dementia unit are calling for a change to make it mandatory for family to be notified about the use of law enforcement.
On 4 June 2020, paramedics attempted to subdue an agitated Norma Robertson, who had only been in the care of the dementia unit at HammondCare in a Sydney suburb for about four weeks.
Continue reading...AFP’s Scott Moller says he charged Lehrmann on advice of DPP despite investigators not thinking Brittany Higgins’s allegations reached threshold for prosecution
The police officer who investigated an allegation Bruce Lehrmann raped a colleague in Parliament House has told an inquiry he did not believe there was sufficient evidence to take Lehrmann to trial, but charged him on the advice of the director of public prosecutions.
The AFP’s Det Supt Scott Moller oversaw the ACT police’s investigation into Brittany Higgins’s allegation Lehrmann raped her in the Parliament House office of the then Coalition minister Linda Reynolds in 2019.
Continue reading...Exclusive: footage from body-worn camera shows police restraining confused dementia patient Rachel Grahame in 2020
Six police officers used two sets of handcuffs on a distressed and frail 81-year-old woman with dementia after she took a lanyard from a staff member at her Sydney nursing home.
Body-worn camera footage shows Rachel Grahame, who has advanced dementia and weighs just 45kg, howling in distress as a team of police surround and handcuff her late at night at St Basil’s aged care home in Randwick on 31 October 2020.
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Continue reading...Karen Webb says it is not ‘necessary that I actually view it’ as Nowland remains in Cooma hospital
New South Wales’ top cop says she will not watch confronting video of a 95-year-old grandmother being Tasered in a nursing home, as the elderly woman’s condition deteriorates in hospital.
Clare Nowland, 95, was using a walking frame when she was hit with a Taser at an aged care facility in Cooma in the early hours of Wednesday, after she allegedly failed to drop a steak knife.
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Continue reading...ACT government spokesperson says director of public prosecutions is on leave at his request
The Australian Capital Territory’s director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, is on leave as an inquiry into the handling of a case against the former Liberal staff member Bruce Lehrmann continues.
The ACT government executive has appointed Anthony Williamson, who was the deputy DPP, to act in the role of the territory’s top prosecutor until 13 June.
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This article was amended on 18 May, 2023. A previous version incorrectly stated Shane Drumgold was stood down. He is taking a period of voluntary leave.
Continue reading...Police use pepper spray on crowds outside Parliament House, where a group of masked men performed the Nazi salute
Neo-Nazi and anti-fascist groups have clashed in Melbourne, with police making several arrests and deploying capsicum spray in a bid to quell the violence.
A group led by the self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell was expected to meet at state parliament at midday on Saturday for an anti-immigration protest, which an anti-fascist group planned to disrupt by rallying 30 minutes earlier, according to multiple posts on social media.
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Continue reading...Prosecutor Shane Drumgold claims the juror who brought in outside research papers on sexual assault was not in favour of guilty verdict
The juror who brought outside material into Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial was also the juror holding out on a conviction, an inquiry has heard.
The ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold SC, said he believed the juror who brought in outside research papers on sexual assault, which resulted in the trial being abandoned, had also been holding out on convicting Lehrmann.
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Continue reading...After big-spending Aukus and defence announcements, Labor switches focus to diplomacy
The military and police will expand links with Pacific Island countries as part of a nearly $2bn budget package aimed at boosting Australia’s influence across the region.
After two months of rolling out big-spending defence announcements – including the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines – the Albanese government used Tuesday night’s budget to signal renewed interest in diplomacy and regional engagement.
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Continue reading...Shane Drumgold says the disclosure to Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer was ‘deeply concerning’ and he worried about the impact on Higgins
Notes from meetings between Brittany Higgins and a counsellor were given to Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyer by police in a move that a prosecutor feared was an attempt to “derail” the case, an inquiry has heard.
The ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold SC, is the first witness at an independent inquiry investigating the prosecution of Lehrmann, who was accused of sexually assaulting Higgins.
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Continue reading...Torin O’Brien led a far-right group that was deregistered as an incorporated association in 2015
The ringleader of a Rockhampton mob that surrounded the home of an Indigenous teenager on Sunday was previously the national leader of a far-right “patriots” group, which regularly published anti-Islam content online.
Torin O’Brien, a former One Nation candidate, posted the names and photographs of the two Aboriginal young people, believed to be teenagers, on Facebook last week and called for locals to attend their address on Sunday.
Continue reading...Shane Patton acknowledges at Yoorrook commission the police uniform is a symbol of fear for some First Nations people
Victoria’s chief police commissioner has unreservedly apologised for past and present actions of the force that inflicted trauma on First Nations people.
Shane Patton appeared before the state’s Indigenous truth-telling inquiry on Monday morning.
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Continue reading...Fatal car crash shows a different approach is needed to keep the community safe, leading children and human rights advocates say
Queensland can only prevent youth crime by setting tangible goals to improve children’s lives from their earliest days, the state’s leading children and human rights advocates have warned.
Speaking after a three-car crash in Maryborough on Sunday that led to the deaths of three women, Queensland’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, said the tragedy showed a different approach was needed to keep the community safe.
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Continue reading...Queensland police tells coroner it found officers acted appropriately in 2020 incident that left Mohamad Ikraam Bahram dead
A man shot dead by police in Brisbane’s CBD in 2020 had not taken his schizophrenia medication when he stabbed a tourist before charging at an officer with a knife, an inquest has heard.
Coroner Terry Ryan, who is examining the death of 24-year-old Mohamad Ikraam Bahram, on Wednesday heard that his family were alarmed by their son’s abrupt departure from their home on 23 February 2020, which they believed was “out of character”.
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Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
Continue reading...Experts say incarceration only increases risk of offending after Queensland police union president’s comments
Annastacia Palaszczuk and criminologists have rebuffed a call by Queensland’s police union president for serious youth offenders to be treated as adults, after three women were killed in a crash in Maryborough.
A 13-year-old boy is facing three charges of dangerous driving causing death after allegedly stealing a Mercedes from a Maryborough home at 10.45pm on Sunday.
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