Category Archives: Australian police and policing

Queensland police’s problem with domestic violence

Posted on by

Police comments last week that they were keeping an ‘open mind’ on the murder of Hannah Clarke and her three young children by her former partner were widely condemned. In this episode of Full Story, reporter Ben Smee looks at the track record of Queensland police on domestic violence, and we hear from one woman about her own shocking story

You can read Ben Smee’s reporting on Dani’s case here, and his piece about how Hannah Clarke’s murder exposes a ‘failure in our system’.

You can also read his reporting on Queensland woman Julie, who was forced to go into hiding after a senior constable, Neil Punchard, accessed her address from a police database and sent it to her violent former husband.

Continue reading...

Queensland police detective stood aside over comments about murder of Hannah Clarke and children

Posted on by

Commissioner says Det Insp Mark Thompson ‘gutted’ at phrasing he used about Camp Hill car fire deaths in Brisbane

A senior Queensland detective who said police were keeping an “open mind” as to whether the deaths of Hannah Clarke and her children were a case of a “husband being driven too far” has been stood aside from the investigation.

The Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, apologised on Friday for comments made by Det Insp Mark Thompson as he appealed for information into the deaths the previous day, saying the detective was “gutted” at his choice of words.

Continue reading...

Queensland police spark anger with ‘open mind’ comment on murder of Hannah Clarke and children

Posted on by

Domestic violence campaigners appalled force wants to consider suggestions Rowan Baxter was ‘driven too far’ when he set fire to his family in their car in Brisbane

Queensland police have revealed that a man who killed his wife and three children by dousing them with petrol and setting them alight had a history of domestic violence and was known to them.

But in comments that have shocked domestic violence campaigners, the force says they are keeping an “open mind” about suggestions the 42-year-old Rowan Baxter had been “driven too far” and are appealing to people who knew the couple to come forward to understand his motives.

Continue reading...

Chinese student lost in Gold Coast bushland for five days used milk bottle to collect water

Posted on by

Yang Chen says watching survival and adventure TV shows helped her stay alive, as she knew to keep hydrated and warm

A Chinese student who survived in flooded and dense Gold Coast bushland for five days used an empty milk bottle to collect water and get by.

Yang Chen went missing last Wednesday while walking with a friend in the Tallebudgera Valley and spent the next five nights sheltering in caves until she was found by water police near Gorge Falls on Monday morning.

Continue reading...

William Tyrrell’s family accuse police of ‘personal agendas’ after closing address in Gary Jubelin trial

Posted on by

NSW detective is defending charges of illegally making recordings during investigation into disappearance of three-year-old William

William Tyrrell’s foster family has blasted the “personal agendas” of police behind the prosecution of former detective Gary Jubelin, saying the investigation into the boy’s disappearance has been “cavalier” following his removal.

Jubelin is defending four charges of illegally recording elderly neighbour Paul Savage during an investigation into the 2014 disappearance of the three-year-old from the NSW mid-north coast.

Continue reading...

Lawyer X: Victoria’s top policeman claims he only learned extent of informing in 2011

Posted on by

Graham Ashton tells royal commission he knew gangland lawyer Nicola Gobbo was a police informer before he joined the force

Victoria’s top policeman knew gangland lawyer Nicola Gobbo was a police informer before he joined the force, but said he did not know the extent of her duplicity until years later.

Chief commissioner Graham Ashton was giving evidence on Monday at the royal commission into Victoria police’s use of informants.

Continue reading...

NSW police officers deny telling 15-year-old boy to ‘show his gooch’ during strip-search

Posted on by

Two officers named as part of the search have refuted the teenager’s account at an inquiry in Sydney

A police officer involved in searching a boy at an underage music festival in Sydney says he has “no memory” of the teenager being asked to “show me your gooch”, and that it “didn’t happen”.

The 15-year-old claims he “froze” when he was asked to drop his pants during a strip-search at Sydney Olympic Park in February.

Continue reading...

NSW police told 15-year-old to ‘lift your balls up’ in strip-search with no adult present

Posted on by

Inquiry told of invasive searches on teens at Lost City music festival in Sydney, where only five of 30 cases had support person present

A 15-year-old boy was told to “hold your dick and lift your balls up and show me your gooch” and a police officer “ran his hands around” the buttocks of a 17-year-old during two of 25 potentially illegal strip-searches conducted at an underage music festival in Sydney, an inquiry has heard.

On Monday the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC) began public hearings into the strip-search of “several young people” at the Lost City Music festival, an under-18s event held in Sydney in February.

Continue reading...

NSW police shoot man dead after he allegedly threatened officers with an axe

Posted on by

Police forced their way into Erina home after seeing flames coming from side of the house

New South Wales police officers have shot dead a man they say was wielding an axe and threatening them during a house fire north of Sydney.

The officers had forced their way through the front door of a home at The Entrance Road in Erina about 10.20pm after noticing flames coming from the side of the house.

Continue reading...

Police officers abused Afghan women in Sydney traffic stop, watchdog finds

Posted on by

Video footage shows 24-year-old woman and her stepmother being pulled over and belittled by two officers

Two New South Wales police officers have been found to have engaged in serious misconduct after they racially abused and belittled two Afghan women at a traffic stop in western Sydney.

On Thursday the Law Enforcement and Conduct Commission released a series of investigations into police conduct in the state, including video footage of a 24-year-old woman and her stepmother being pulled over by police in April.

Continue reading...

PM’s department evades question on Brian Houston’s White House invite – politics live

Posted on by

ALP requests documents about Barr investigation into the Mueller report. Plus, new AFP commissioner faces Senate estimates, and media companies unite against secrecy laws. All the day’s events, live

Scott Morrison adds to the answer to Warren Snowdon’s question:

On 13 September of this year, I can confirm that the tender was awarded to Australian company Oricon an engineering company that, will lead the Kakadu road strategy and they’ll work in a consortium with PwC, and PwC Indigenous consulting, beginning the work immediately.

The roads of strategy will be developed in.conjunction with the tourism master plan, access to key sites and planned upgrades. I thought the member would be interested in that additional information.

The folders are stacked.

We are done as soon as Greg Hunt finishes this dixer.

Continue reading...

Shackling dying man Eric Whittaker to bed was ‘horrific’, coroner hears

Posted on by

The NSW coroner hears that Aboriginal prisoner Eric Whittaker was unconscious and would not have been able to move

The NSW coroner has heard it was “horrific” that Aboriginal man Eric Whittaker, who died in hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage in prison custody, had been shackled to the bed in the last days of his life despite being unconscious and unresponsive.

An emergency medicine researcher from the University of New South Wales, Anna Holdgate, went on to tell the court “we would only use restraint as a last resort” and “for the briefest time possible”.

Continue reading...

Tanya Day’s arresting officer tells inquest he didn’t think she needed medical attention

Posted on by

Constable dismisses suggestion that according to police checklist he should have taken her to hospital

The police officer who arrested Tanya Day at Castlemaine train station said he did not think she needed medical attention despite police guidelines stating that intoxicated people who cannot provide intelligible answers should be sent to hospital.

Senior Constable Stephen Thomas told an inquest into the 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman’s death in custody that he also did not tell her she had been placed under arrest, saying it was “the most low-key arrest I have ever done”.

Continue reading...

Australia entering ‘second convict age’ as imprisonment rates soar

Posted on by

Incarceration rates have risen 130% since 1985, according to new research by Labor MP and economist Andrew Leigh

Indigenous Australians are now more likely to be in prison than African-Americans, according to new research by Labor parliamentarian and economist Andrew Leigh warning that Australia has entered “a second convict age”.

Leigh’s new working paper finds that in 2018, around 43,000 Australians were in prison, a rate of 221 for every 100,000 adults – which he says is a significant jump since incarceration rates began climbing in 1985.

Continue reading...

Sydney restaurateur accused of faking murder attempt and starting fire that killed own dog

Posted on by

Court hears Angelo Ziotas, who has been refused bail, claimed he was stabbed twice and awoke to find property ablaze

A jail term appears “nigh on inevitable” for a restaurant owner accused of stabbing himself in the back, lighting a fire that killed his dog and leading police on a wild goose chase, a Sydney magistrate says.

Police began investigating the alleged attempted murder of Angelo Ziotas after the 37-year-old was rescued from his burning Essenza Italian restaurant in Surry Hills about 11am on 4 July. His 18-month-old kelpie, Lexie, suffocated in the blaze.

Continue reading...

Faruk Orman released after gangland murder conviction quashed over Lawyer X scandal

Posted on by

Court of appeal orders former getaway driver be immediately released due to miscarriage of justice caused by his lawyer Nicola Gobbo

Melbourne gangland getaway driver Faruk Orman will be immediately released from jail because of a “substantial miscarriage of justice” caused by his double-agent lawyer Nicola Gobbo, also known as Lawyer X.

Victoria’s court of appeal ordered Orman be released without delay after a hearing in Melbourne on Friday found he should be acquitted due to Gobbo’s actions while she was representing him.

Continue reading...

Festival deaths inquest: police pushed to release protocols after ‘unconscionable’ strip searches

Posted on by

Counsel assisting coroner says public deserves to know ‘under what circumstances are police entitled to strip search patrons’

The New South Wales coroner will push for the state’s police force to release its strip search protocols as part of an inquest into drug-related deaths at music festivals.

Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the court on Thursday that the inquest had yet to receive “police protocols” on when strip searches could be carried out in the state, but that she intended to pursue the matter .

Continue reading...

‘Drug of the moment’: 5% of year 10 students have tried MDMA, expert says

Posted on by

Drug educator Paul Dillon says it’s ‘ludicrous’ to think pill testing will stop drug deaths, but Australia does need to try something

One in 20 year 10 students have tried ecstasy, an Australian drug educator has told an inquest into NSW music festival deaths.

“It just baffles me,” Paul Dillon said in Sydney on Tuesday. “Certainly amongst young people, MDMA is the drug of the moment.”

Continue reading...

Death in custody: police failed to see Indigenous man no longer needed restraining, coroner says

Posted on by

Shaun Coolwell died in hospital after being handcuffed and injected with the sedative midazolam

Queensland police and paramedics dealing with an Indigenous man during a violent, drug-induced episode failed to recognise the sudden deterioration of his health, a coroner has said.

Shaun Charles Coolwell died in hospital after being sedated and restrained in his sister’s Logan home, south of Brisbane, in October 2015.

Continue reading...