Category Archives: Australian police and policing

Erin Patterson charged with murder over suspected mushroom poisoning deaths in Victoria, Australia

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Patterson, who has denied any wrongdoing, was arrested on Thursday over the family lunch in the rural Australian town of Leongatha

Erin Patterson, the woman at the centre of the mushroom lunch that left three people dead and a fourth fighting for his life, has been charged with murder.

Patterson was on Thursday charged with murdering Gail and Don Patterson, both 70, and her sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66, at lunch in her home in the rural Australian town of Leongatha on 29 July.

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Victorian government scrambling to prepare for long-planned end of public drunkenness laws

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Sobering-up facility not completed, emergency workers unclear about their role in new scheme – and it begins on Melbourne Cup Day

It’s been almost six years since Tanya Day hopped on a train to Melbourne but never made it to the city.

The 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman was arrested for being drunk in public on 5 December 2017 after she fell asleep. She was placed in a police cell to sober up, suffered a head injury and later died.

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Murder charge over woman’s death in luxury hotel room at Crown Towers in Perth

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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.

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Family of Sydney man shot dead during psychotic episode demand police retract claim he was ‘known’ to them

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Call by family of Steve Pampalian comes as Greens accuse police of curating the narrative around other people fatally Tasered or shot

The family of Steve Pampalian who was shot dead by New South Wales police in Sydney while suffering a psychotic episode is calling on the force to retract its suggestion he was “known to police” or provide evidence to support the claim.

The demand comes as the NSW Greens accused police of curating the narrative around other people fatally Tasered or shot in recent months, including Clare Nowland and Krista Kach.

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Cleo Smith detective leaked information to journalist he was in a relationship with, watchdog finds

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WA Corruption and Crime Commission report finds Cameron Blaine shared sensitive case details with 22-year-old woman

One of the detectives who rescued kidnapped girl Cleo Smith leaked sensitive information about the case to a young journalist he was in a relationship with, a corruption watchdog has found.

Former Det Snr Sgt Cameron Blaine was among the officers who found the four-year-old at abductor Terence Kelly’s home in northern Western Australia on 3 November 2021.

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Renewed push for NSW to raise age of criminal responsibility to 14

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Exclusive: With children as young as 10 ‘regularly’ before the courts, NSW must consider raising the age of criminal responsibility, says broad group of child advocates

More than a dozen organisations have formed a coalition to push the New South Wales government to raise the age of criminal responsibility to at least 14, arguing the status quo is harming young people and entrenching social issues.

The group includes key agencies including First Nations organisations, legal and human rights groups, peak bodies and unions, each with different perspectives on why the change is overdue and how it can be done.

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NSW police must speak with mental health experts rather than shoot our loved ones, stepfather says

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Exclusive: New figures show on average 10 people in mental health distress die each year during interactions with state police

The stepfather of a man shot and killed by New South Wales police while suffering from psychosis says the current system is “as useless as udders on a bull” as the Guardian reveals officers aren’t allowed to talk with mental health workers during high-risk callouts – even on the phone.

Neil Wilkins, whose stepson Todd McKenzie was shot at his Taree home in 2019, has written to the state’s mental health minister, Rose Jackson, urging Labor to scrap the ban on mental health workers assisting police when weapons are involved.

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NSW police watchdog routinely denied access to internal officer interviews, report finds

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Law Enforcement Conduct Commission says it has been refused access during ‘every critical incident investigation to date’

The New South Wales police watchdog is routinely refused access to interview rooms when officers are being questioned after critical incidents, in a practice the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) has described as “consistent and state-wide”.

Despite the LECC Act providing power for investigators to be present as observers when officers are interviewed by superiors over such incidents, the oversight body said the power “appears to be … illusory” in its annual report handed down on Monday afternoon.

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Sydney pro-Palestine rally to go ahead on Saturday despite premier’s concern over ‘bad faith actors’

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Chris Minns says he believes protesters do not want ‘hate speech within their march’ but final decision on event is up to NSW police

Saturday’s planned pro-Palestine march through the streets of Sydney will go ahead unless police launch an 11th-hour legal challenge amid rising concern about unrest.

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, said a final decision on the event would be up to the police while warning the government had been briefed by senior officers who had expressed concern about the event due to “changed circumstances”.

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NSW police strip-searches of Indigenous people rose 35% in past 12 months and included 11 children, data reveals

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Freedom of information figures also show 25 girls were strip-searched in the past financial year compared to just seven in 2021-22

The number of Indigenous people strip-searched by New South Wales police jumped 35% over the past 12 months with 11 of those searched aged under 18, including a 12-year-old.

NSW police data released under the state’s Gipa laws revealed 340 First Nations Australians were strip-searched in the 2022-23 financial year, up from 253 the year before.

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Man killed and woman seriously injured in dog attack in Tasmanian home

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Council officers who attended the scene were shaken by what they encountered after a man, 66, was pronounced dead at an Allens Rivulet property on Sunday

A police investigation is under way after a pet dog killed its owner and left another in a serious condition at a rural property in southern Tasmania.

Neighbours raised the alarm after hearing cries for help at 10.40pm on Sunday.

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Queensland Police Union willing to challenge officer misconduct rulings after ‘unmitigated debacle’

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Prospect of appeals causes disquiet among police, with one harassment victim fearing some union members ‘will now be supporting our abusers’

The Queensland police service is facing further potential challenges to bungled internal discipline cases, despite the state government changing the law to validate the “unlawful” process used to sanction hundreds of officers.

The QPS was this year forced to rescind punishments, including several sackings and demotions, for about 300 officers, after a court ruled the process used for internal discipline was invalid.

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Queensland police lodge complaint to hospital over treatment of alleged teenage rape victim

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Exclusive: Central Queensland child protection investigation unit complained after family reported alleged assault in August

Queensland police lodged an official complaint to a hospital in August about the treatment of an alleged teen rape victim who said she left the facility feeling “humiliated” without undergoing a full examination.

The Central Queensland child protection investigation unit complained to the hospital after learning of the girl’s alleged assault from her family.

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Police arrest three men outside Sydney Jewish Museum over alleged Nazi salute

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Police were called to the museum in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst shortly before midday after alleged antisemitic display

The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has expressed “extreme concern” after three men were arrested after allegations they performed a Nazi salute outside Sydney’s Jewish Museum on Friday morning.

Police were called to the Darlinghurst museum shortly before noon, where they proceeded to arrest the men.

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‘If they don’t comply, they die’: family of fatal NSW police shootings call for independent inquiry

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Exclusive: Premier says an inquiry into use of force against vulnerable people isn’t necessary, despite four fatalities in as many months

The families of vulnerable people fatally shot by New South Wales police have united to call for an independent inquiry into the way officers use force when responding to mental health emergencies.

Their call has been backed by a former coroner and leading lawyers after four fatal police interactions in as many months.

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NSW drug law overhaul would allow users to work off their fine by seeking help

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The scheme could see thousands of recreational ice, cocaine and MDMA users avoid criminal penalties

People who are caught with small quantities of illicit drugs for personal use could be issued with fines that they can work off by seeking help as part of a drug law overhaul being introduced into the New South Wales parliament this week.

The two-strike scheme could see thousands of recreational ice, cocaine and MDMA users avoid criminal penalties.

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Woman in spit hood told Queensland prison guards four times she couldn’t breathe before dying, inquest hears

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Selesa Tafaifa, 45, died in November 2021 after being restrained by staff at Townsville Women’s Correctional Centre

Selesa Tafaifa told Queensland prison guards four times that she couldn’t breathe and pleaded for her asthma medication six times before dying in custody, a coronial inquest has heard.

Tafaifa, a 45-year-old Samoan woman, died in November 2021 after being restrained by staff at the Townsville Women’s Correctional Centre and placed in a spit hood.

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WA police condemned for ‘shocking’ demand for ABC to hand over footage of climate protesters

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Civil society groups call on broadcaster not to comply with order they say is an ‘alarming overreach’ and ‘undermines press freedom’

Civil society groups have accused Western Australia police of undermining press freedom by demanding the ABC hand over Four Corners footage of climate protesters, and urged the broadcaster to protect its journalists’ sources.

In response to the police demand the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, has said the broadcaster would never reveal its sources, but he did not rule out handing over the vision.

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Man dies after suspected whale collision capsizes boat in Sydney

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NSW water police respond after reports of the incident off Cape Banks at La Perouse

One man has died and another is in a stable condition in hospital after a boat capsized after it was reportedly struck by a whale in Sydney.

NSW water police responded to reports that two people were in the water off Cape Banks at La Perouse at about 6am on Saturday morning, after their unoccupied boat was found circling in the waters.

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Penny Wong refuses to release documents related to Qatar Airways decision – as it happened

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The foreign minister claims public interest immunity over Dfat advice. This blog is now closed

Rishworth won’t confirm adoption of any disability royal commission recommendations, ahead of report release

Families and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth has refused to confirm if the government will be adopting any of the recommendations made in the disability royal commission report ahead of its public release today.

I’m not going to comment on any specific recommendations.

Obviously, we need to also make sure people with disability have choice and control.

You never change a country for the better through fear, you change it through hope and optimism and compassion and justice.

That’s what this referendum is about.

This is a body that won’t provide funds, that won’t run programs, that will just give advice to the government, and that experience of past bodies, and issues that have arisen has been factored in by Indigenous Australians when they’ve made this request.

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