Teacher fronts court after porn sting
12:00a.m. 7 September 2007 | By Amy Remeikis

A Maroochydore teacher was among 13 men caught in one of the states biggest investigations into child pornography.

The 29-year-old was charged with both possessing and making child pornography and faced Maroochydore Magistrates Court in June.

He was one of the men targeted during Operation Stingray which began in May and involved investigators from across the entire south-east working in conjunction with the state crime operations command Taskforce Argos.

Police acted on tips received from similar investigations in the United States and Europe, as well as from information gathered during their own investigations.

Investigations into a 50-year-old Caloundra man and a 62-year-old Golden Beach pensioner are still being carried out.

More than 800,000 sickening images and movies featuring child exploitation were seized during the operation as well as 12 computers, two laptops, 85 CDs, 27 floppy discs, 25 hard drives, 23 memory sticks and a modem.

Drugs were also found in one of the raided homes.

A 68-year-old church minister from the Gold Coast Hinterland was among those charged.

He faced the Southport Magistrates Court in July on possessing, accessing and making child exploitation material.

One month later and an unemployed pre-school teacher from Cleveland was facing court for using a phone line to access child porn.

Other men charged worked as builders, supervisors, engineers and salesmen, including one man who held a Blue Card.

The youngest was 19-years-old and the eldest 68-years-old.

One of the detectives in charge of the operation, Acting Superintendent Peter Crawford said investigations into the making, distribution, viewing and possession of child exploitation material would continue to be a priority.

He refused to accept that that owning or distributing child porn was a victimless crime.

“People who use the internet to collect and distribute these images extend the degradation of children and add a profit motive to their exploitation,” he said.

“Task Force Argos, in partnership with other law enforcement agencies, will continue to place strong emphasis on detecting and prosecuting offenders who prey on the vulnerability of children by accessing the internet to satisfy their own sick obsessions.”

http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2007/sep/07/teacher-fronts-court-after-porn-sting/

http://www.smh.com.au/news/wor.....7/1188783496410.html

THE mother of Madeleine McCann, the British four-year-old who vanished in Portugal, will be formally declared a suspect in her daughter's disappearance - a twist driven by stunning claims that the girl's blood was found in a car hired by her parents after her disappearance in May.

Mrs McCann was confronted with the claims during a gruelling 11-hour interrogation that ended early yesterday. She was also told she would be formally declared a suspect in the case, a family spokeswoman, Justine McGuiness, said.

"They believe they have evidence to show that in some way she's involved in the death of her daughter, which of course is completely ludicrous. They have suggested that blood has been found in a hire car that they hired 25 days after Madeleine was taken," she told the BBC.

Sky News in Britain quoted sources as saying Mrs McCann could be charged with the accidental death of her daughter. Mrs McCann's lawyer had warned her charges could be imminent, the network said, quoting a family friend.

Another family spokesman, David Hughes, said police had 22 questions that they wanted to ask Mrs McCann, which required her to be made a formal suspect. Under Portuguese law, the legal move grants certain protections to suspects - including the right to remain silent - but allows police more latitude in questioning.

In London yesterday, The Sun reported that the police had asked Mrs McCann whether she had given Madeleine sedatives on the night she vanished. A recent report in a Portuguese weekly claimed detectives believed the McCanns accidentally killed Madeleine with an overdose of sedatives.

Mrs McCann looked drained and exhausted as she left a police station early yesterday.

"She is shocked and surprised in several ways ... obviously she is concerned that such a line of investigation can become a distraction from further attempts to find Madeleine," a source said.

Mrs McCann faced a barrage of journalists and onlookers when she arrived for a second day of questioning yesterday, 10 hours after the end of the previous interview. Mr McCann was due to be interviewed for a third time yesterday.

The decision by Portuguese police to interview the couple for a second time appeared to stem directly from the result of forensic tests sent from laboratories in Britain on Wednesday.

Both parents have denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. Police have previously insisted the couple were not suspects, and may have changed their status for technical reasons, in order to be able to ask new questions, rather than because they suspect their guilt.
THE mother of Madeleine McCann, the British four-year-old who vanished in Portugal, will be formally declared a suspect in her daughter's disappearance - a twist driven by stunning claims that the girl's blood was found in a car hired by her parents after her disappearance in May.

Mrs McCann was confronted with the claims during a gruelling 11-hour interrogation that ended early yesterday. She was also told she would be formally declared a suspect in the case, a family spokeswoman, Justine McGuiness, said.

"They believe they have evidence to show that in some way she's involved in the death of her daughter, which of course is completely ludicrous. They have suggested that blood has been found in a hire car that they hired 25 days after Madeleine was taken," she told the BBC.

Sky News in Britain quoted sources as saying Mrs McCann could be charged with the accidental death of her daughter. Mrs McCann's lawyer had warned her charges could be imminent, the network said, quoting a family friend.

Another family spokesman, David Hughes, said police had 22 questions that they wanted to ask Mrs McCann, which required her to be made a formal suspect. Under Portuguese law, the legal move grants certain protections to suspects - including the right to remain silent - but allows police more latitude in questioning.

In London yesterday, The Sun reported that the police had asked Mrs McCann whether she had given Madeleine sedatives on the night she vanished. A recent report in a Portuguese weekly claimed detectives believed the McCanns accidentally killed Madeleine with an overdose of sedatives.

Mrs McCann looked drained and exhausted as she left a police station early yesterday.

"She is shocked and surprised in several ways ... obviously she is concerned that such a line of investigation can become a distraction from further attempts to find Madeleine," a source said.

Mrs McCann faced a barrage of journalists and onlookers when she arrived for a second day of questioning yesterday, 10 hours after the end of the previous interview. Mr McCann was due to be interviewed for a third time yesterday.

The decision by Portuguese police to interview the couple for a second time appeared to stem directly from the result of forensic tests sent from laboratories in Britain on Wednesday.

Both parents have denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. Police have previously insisted the couple were not suspects, and may have changed their status for technical reasons, in order to be able to ask new questions, rather than because they suspect their guilt.

Mrs McCann, a GP from Leicestershire, had emerged about 1am yesterday from the Portimao police station after her 11-hour interview. Accompanied by her lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, she looked exhausted and made no comment, but Mr de Abreu told reporters she had been interviewed as a witness.

In a statement released before her interview, Mrs McCann said she believed her daughter was still alive.

"I miss Madeleine so much," she said. "Gerry and I want to appeal again to the person or people who took her ... to do the right thing. It is not too late - please let her go or call the police.

"We came to Portugal an ordinary family of five. We just want to know what happened on 3 May and want to be able to go home one family, reunited."

Mrs McCann's brother-in-law, John McCann, said the family wanted "to see exactly what the Portuguese police are saying. We cannot believe the line that they are going down - we just find it unbelievable".

The McCanns have campaigned for months to keep Madeleine's disappearance in the public eye. They have travelled extensively in Europe, even having a meeting in Rome with the Pope.

Celebrities rallied to their cause, with the soccer star David Beckham, the Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling and the Virgin boss Richard Branson lending their names and enormous sums of money to the campaign.

It began under a relentless media spotlight and the McCanns won widespread public sympathy. However, as the months passed questions were raised over why they had left their daughter alone and there were signs the focus of the investigation was shifting.

Last month a senior policeman said Madeleine might be dead - contradicting the family's belief, often repeated, that she would be found alive.

Mrs McCann will become the second formal suspect. The first was Robert Murat, a British man living near Praia da Luz. He has not been arrested or charged.

The McCanns have recently considered returning home. Mr McCann, a cardiologist, said he would return to work while his wife looked after their two-year-old twins, Amelie and Sean.

I wondered when that would happen.  ^^

Ooh, now both of them are suspects...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/08/2027476.htm

It's the Azaria Chamberlain case all over again.

Quoted from Sillygostly

It's the Azaria Chamberlain case all over again.

without the dingo

I don't believe it.
If what the police are saying is true....then the parents would have left the country soon as they could. Instead they said they would stay until their daughter was found. That isn't the profile of guilty people.

Quoted from Candy

I don't believe it.
If what the police are saying is true....then the parents would have left the country soon as they could. Instead they said they would stay until their daughter was found. That isn't the profile of guilty people.

I dunno so much.  There was a incident here in Aust. where the daughter of a murdered woman made huge pleas to "find my mother's killer", put herself in the spotlight and so on.  Turned out she was the murderer!

Maddie father protests innocence

The father of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann says he and his wife are innocent and "fighting for our lives" after they were named as suspects by police.

Gerry McCann told London's News of the World tabloid that he and wife Kate's lawyers had told them police had enough evidence to "move forward against us", and spoke of their eagerness to return with their young twins to Britain.

Madeleine McCann, who would now be aged four, disappeared from the family's holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 as her parents ate an evening meal with friends nearby.

The couple have now both been named as formal suspects by Portuguese police.

"We're entirely innocent. But now we're fighting for our lives," Gerry McCann, a cardiologist, told the newspaper.

"We thought we were in our worst nightmare but now it just keeps getting worse and worse.

"It's such a vulnerable position. It's appalling. We've never had to say it until now ... but we did not kill our daughter. I never thought it would come to this.

"But when the paranoia sinks in, you're under severe pressure and things are going down a certain line, then it does look bad.

"In a system that you don't know and you don't really trust, it's incredibly frightening."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/09/2027763.htm

Well apparently the mother had post natal depression and the hotel offered free child minding services so I am very sus now.

Quoted Text

"We've never had to say it until now ... but we did not kill our daughter."

Nobody was accusing them of KILLING Madeline.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if the mother had something to do with it.

Coast teen who plunged to death 'a daredevil'
7:21a.m. 9 September 2007

A Sunshine Coast teenager who plunged to his death from the 24th floor of a Gold Coast highrise had been clowning around, hanging from the balcony by one hand, his friends said.

Family and friends said Tyson Leader, 18, of Buderim, was like a cat with nine lives who had always entertained others with his crazy stunts.

But the young carpenter's s luck ran out on Friday night when he fell from the Aegean Apartments in Laycock Street, Surfers Paradise.

Tyson, a former Mountain Creek High student, had been at several Gold Coast nightclubs to celebrate a friend's 18th birthday before the group returned to their unit.

His best mate Jimmy Atkins, 18, from Coolum, told the Sunday Mail that Tyson 'just went over the rail'.

"Tyson was like a cat. He had lives. He's cheated death plenty of times.

"He doesn't think about what he does. I saw him – I was standing on the balcony and if I was a foot closer, I could have grabbed his arm."

Jimmy said he had watched Tyson swing himself over the railing, holding on with two hands in a crouching position, then just one hand before he slipped and fell.

Tyson's mother Jan said her son was a daredevil with nine lives who had lived life to the fullest.

He had escaped a serious car accident in September last year and as a youngster had to be revived after almost drowning following a jump at a waterfall.

"His life was just starting for him. He had just got a car. He'd just got a great job and he had a gorgeous girlfriend. Everything was starting to go right."

Police said they hoped the tragedy would act as a warning to schoolies.

"Balcony rails are there for a purpose, to keep people safe. He's climbed over the rails a couple of times. At the time he fell he was hanging on by one hand," a senior officer said.

http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2007/sep/09/teen-who-plunged-death-daredevil/

Mother mourns ‘daredevil’ son
12:00a.m. 10 September 2007 | By Amy Remeikis

Jan Leader always knew her son Tyson had the heart of a daredevil.

“I was at his pre-school speaking to one of his teachers and she was looking past me and her eyes were looking up,” she said.

“And there at the very top of the tree was Tyson. He was three-years-old.

“I knew if I yelled, he might fall, so I said ‘Tyson, you get back down here now’ and he did, but he had a great big smile on his face.

“And that was just him. He just had no fear.”It wouldn’t be the last time Jan’s heart would almost stop after seeing or hearing about her youngest son’s daredevil deeds, but he would answer her concerns with a cheeky grin, an “awww mummm” and a promise to be more careful.

She saw that cheeky smile for the last time on Friday when she dropped Tyson at a friend’s house ahead of his trip to the Gold Coast for the 18th birthday celebrations of one of his best mates.

“I said to him ‘have you packed your toothbrush?’ and he just looked at me and said ‘mum, I’m not going to school camp. I’m 18-years-old,’ so I bit my tongue. “So I just said to him ‘be safe’ and he said ‘yes mum’.”

But as any of the former Mountain Creek High student’s friends would tell you, Tyson would do anything to make others laugh.


http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2007/sep/10/mother-mourns-daredevil-son/

I read another report the day after this happened where readers were encouraged to comment. The comments were interesting from a total freak accident to suicide. As it turns out, absolute stupidity is the cause of this young man's death, his own stupidity. His friends who saw it happen will have a fine memory to conjure up when they think of him.

Maddie McCann's blood found in parents' car boot - report
Article from: AAP
September 11, 2007 07:50am

BREAKING NEWS: DNA from blood found in the boot of a car hired by the parents of Madeleine McCann has reportedly matched that of the missing four-year-old.

A report on Sky News UK said Portuguese police had found a full DNA match in the car's boot, which indicated Madeleine had been inside it.

The car was hired by Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, who last week were named as suspects by Portuguese police five weeks after she disappeared from a hotel in southern Portugal on May 3.

Sky News UK cited unidentified sources and authorities would not confirm the information.

Both Kate and Gerry McCann, who returned to England on Sunday, have denied playing any role in their daughter's disappearance.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22398505-952,00.html

The plot thickens.

And I find it hard (if not impossible) to feel sorry for the daredevil who lost his life. Sure, it's unfortunate that he died, but if you're going to live such a carefree lifestyle, you're eventually bound to face the consequences.

OMG so they did it? Comfirmed?