Crime and Punishment - Print Topic

Longer sentances is something I would support. To be perfectly honest, I think the laws here put a person in a situation where they feel powerless and I'm used to the laws of the US where in most states a person is justified in shooting someone if they are a threat to their life or the life of another person and where anyone can make a citezens arrest if they have direct or immediate knowledge of a felony such as coming upon a person breaking into their car.
I don't like guns but don't see that Australia has the problems that other countries do that would warrants such strict gun control. America needs gun control. I think it's plain stupid that I can't carry a tiny pocket knife to cut things with and I actually looked up the statistics on the matter which also showed that it's stupid that I can't carry it. I think it's a sad state of affairs that my wife can't carry pepper spray. And the silliest thing I've ever heard is situations where people come upon someone breaking into their car, house, or vandalising them and can't do anything to make that person stop other than calling the police without breaking the law because they have no right to defend their property.
I guess that got off of the topic of jail sentances. I really don't know if jails should be more or less miserable or luxurious and what benefits a person's rehabilitation but it should be a place that people do not want to end up back in while hopefully not stripping them of dignity to the point of being doomed to screw up again and that's a tough ask. I have an ithcing feeling that people who work in prisons could probably come up with something more effective but we wouldn't be too interested in listening for long enough. It would be interesting to see how Australia compares to other countries when it comes to length of sentance, prison conditions, and the number of people returning back to jail. At the very least I can say that sentances here seem incredibly mild. On the other side of the coin, some other places in the world seem incredibly harsh for example California with the 3 strikes law because people can get 3 strikes in one go... say for example being in a car with someone and getting pulled over and finding out that they
1. Had a stolen car which makes you a party to it.
2. You are in possesion of an ounce of weed.
3. An ounce of weed also gets you "Intent to Distribute"
4. You just crossed over from Las Vegas which is Drug Trafficking
5. Your friend had an illegal firearm under the seat that you didn't know about but it was under your seat and he won't claim responsibility so it was legaly yours.

Obviously you aren't involved in good things to begin with but everyone should have a second chance. That's clearly harsh.

You make some good points.
America now has a permanent problem with guns. Everybody owns one. ??)
To try and disarm them now would play into the hands of those numerous 'survivalists' and they are a mean bunch . .(much meaner than you). :D :P

While I am not in agreement with the death penalty . . running successful prisons is no easy job. And lets face it. . many hardened criminals do exist and they refuse to change, no matter how much effort is put into rehabilitation.

Quoted from cactus

It is reported that Jesus said "turn the other cheek." �In these biographies, Jesus was referring to his dislike of the old philosophy of "an eye for an eye". �There is no loose interpretation or underlying philosophy here, it is very direct - An eye for an eye is no a good policy and he didn�t like it.

Well, there you go! The Readers Digest condensed version of Christian theology.

And to think all of those brilliant theologians spent nearly two thousand years trying to work it out... when it was as simple as grabbing one simple phrase and basing all of a religion's philosophy on that!

Jesus also said "Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (That's Matthew 5:17 in one of those "biographies" you were refering to). Hmmm. Maybe Jesus was confused when he said that... hadn't run it past his speech writer or something. �:B

As Polaris has pointed out, there is a bit more to Jesus' words than just a literal interpretation taken out of context. The text from Matthew 22 was not about taxes... it was about authority.

Back to the topic however. As I stated in the thread earlier, the frustration in Australia is more on the inequity of imprisonment in relation to the crime done. And it's not a matter of revenge for the victims... but on devaluing the things in society that have been violated by lack of consequence.

It�s amazing how pseudo Christians will comb the bible for even the slightest reference that will contradict the narratives they disagree with. Despite overwhelming quotes to the contrary they will hold onto even the slightest obscure reference taken out of context to justify their pseudo Christian beliefs.

The philosophy of Jesus is overwhelmingly anti-violence with most of the themes pursuing an ideology of love, forgiveness and tolerance. There is a very deliberate effort in the New Testament to distinguish the philosophy of Jesus to that of the Zealots, the ones who did believe in violence and that the ends justified the means. Yet, the yesbuts still call themselves Christian while following the philosophy of the Zealots.

The people of Jesus� time, those that knew him and those that knew of him, had no doubt about his philosophy of non-violence and willingly died in the Coliseums without resistance ...the ultimate belief in non-violence. The so called theologians you refer to are merely spin doctors who never knew Jesus and were paid by the Rich and Powerful to justify their indulgences that were contrary to the philosophy of Jesus. The Powerful needed some justification for their violent acts to remain in power while the wealthy needed the same justification to retain their immense wealth despite the poverty around them.

The role of the theologian was to contradict and undermine the teachings of Jesus.

I don�t know why Zealots insist on calling themselves Christians. Just admit to yourselves that you are not really Christians and get on with your lives.

Quoted Text

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Quoted Text

"Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

I'm going to guess that the two quotes can be interpreted differantly, that how he said it can be interpreted differantly, what exactly he meant can be argued over by language experts and the surrounding text doesn't offer much help as it's sort of a stand alone statement. On the subject of this part of Matthew though, how many of us have honestly plucked out our own eye or cut off his own hand? I think the people listening to Jesus at the time also couldn't understand prcisely where he was coming from, as with many things, until later on after he was gone. How would we have looked back on his statements after he was dead had we been there to hear him preach intitially would be the most fair way to approach this section of the Bible. I think Jesus knew that his crowd was confused, if not just not taking him seriously at all.

The question put forth about wheather people should pay taxes was, as I understand it, wasn't anything to do with authority and from the understanding that God provides and possesions being just "things" that are not eternal, it's easy to see why he was saying "Give unto Ceasar what's Ceasar and unto God what is God's." Paying taxes to Ceaser didn't have much to do with saying God's law is mindlessly following authority but can easily be looked at as saying "Don't steal" and "What does God REALLY want with your money? If turning the cheek means paying more than what's fair, as you perceive it, then what is still the right thing to do? Is it to ask me what is fair when it comes to money?" Much the same thing when he said that if the military asks that you carry their equipment for a mile, carry it for two (presumably law that they could make you do it back then) he wasn't promoting military action but promoting that a person be kind EVEN to their captor, and didn't we see evidence of this after Jesus was gone?

I've seen other interpretations of went on here as well. One of them was a quite intricite explanation of what was happening at the current time and claimed that it wasn't really about anything at all other than someone trying to pose a question that they thought would trap Jesus and make him hypocritical if he answered either way yes or no and that he didn't give a yes or no answer but instead the quote we are familiar with. It made some sense too, but I can't remember well enough right now. I'm satisfied with my current understanding though.

I've forgotten now what this relates to in the topic and I don't feel like having a look because I'm being lazy and I'm tired... oh I remember now. I think Jesus preached submission to laws but not at the level of conflicting with God. I get the message that a person should submit to the law and that this can in fact mean getting arrested. I have often wondered why he had someone gather swords prior to his arrest when he knew he would be submitting. Was it simply to teach a lesson to his apostle that decided to fend off the police?

And it�s amazing how pseudo Christians remember a distant story from days when they were dragged to Sunday School and thus think they are experts in theology.

Oh� but then that would be making an assumption about another poster�s character, experience or beliefs and then going about labelling them, whether or not it is true! Now that wouldn�t be smart, would it?

� good thing none of that�s happened in this thread� eh! �:-/

I�d dare say some of those �spin doctors� such as Luther, Calvin and Augustine would probably agree. Hey, they might even entertain thoughts that might be contrary to their own every now and then! But lo, that�s probably how they got seduced by the �Rich and Powerful�.

I mean, we all know that to be completely right, you have to shout down those that don�t agree with you. History is full of it� and it appears to be repeating itself.

Again, dragging this back on topic� cactus, you still haven�t answered my question:

How is imprisonment not punishment?

(And if the answer could come without any assumption or deriding of anyone�s character, that would be a bonus!)

Quoted from MeanDean

I'm satisfied with my current understanding though.

And even though I differ in my understanding on some of the points you made, I still believe your point is valid and has contributed to the general input of the thread.

I think the underlying tension is in regard to the acceptance of different perspectives which seem to appear negative on a board that is all about promoting discussion... thus differing ideas.

I see how this works now Bazil. �

When you express your different opinion you are being passive yet when cactus has a different opinion he is being aggressive.

Gotcha! (thumbsup)

Oh no Red, I admit I can be aggressive in debate as anyone... never said that I wasn't. Nothing wrong with aggressiv debate... can be quite healthy.

Making assumptions and then labeling others... that's never been beneficial to a discussion forum.

Quoted Text

Quoted from Basil_oz labeling cactus

Well, there you go! The Readers Digest condensed version of Christian theology.

Quoted from Basil_oz rebuking cactus

Making assumptions and then labeling others... that's never been beneficial to a discussion forum.

You really are the comedian basil, and your self castigation is hilarious. �But don't stop on my account ...I enjoy the comic relief.

Quoted from Basil_oz

How is imprisonment not punishment?

I would have thought the answer to your question was obvious, but apparently not. �

So, here is a riddle: �When is a knife not an assault weapon? �

If you can answer this question, then you have the answer to your question. �If you don�t know the answer to the riddle then I�ll explain it to you later.

Quoted from cactus

You really are the comedian basil, and your self castigation is hilarious. �But don't stop on my account ...I enjoy the comic relief.

Glad you're enjoying yourself cactus. And I'm flattered... a comedian! Well that's a step up from pseudo Christian and zealot I guess.

Quoted from cactus

I would have thought the answer to your question was obvious, but apparently not. �

So, here is a riddle:

Ahh yes. Let's not actually answer a question directly related to the thread's theme... let's just dodge it by tossing in another. While we're at it, why not throw in "how long is a piece of string" and "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck"!

But that's alright. You're uncomfortable supporting your position.

... I understand.

Come on now children, play ball nicely or I will confiscate it..........
This is a FRIENDLY forum..........remember.......

LOL I didn't know how to try to get it back on track so didn't try. That was funny though.

::) :) ;)
Hehehe, it was funny Dean BUT Lawnbowler is right in reminding us that it is a friendly forum and we must not behave like unruly teenagers. :)

But it would be rather dull if everyone was sickly polite. Nothing like a good passionate debate.

The problem with using prison as a punishment tool is that it really only punishes the community because it becomes a financial burden to keep these people there and while there they become even more involved in the criminal world thus defeating the purpose of rehabilitation - Many minor offenders have gone to prison and come out harden criminals.

Prison should only be used where it has been determined, by due process, that the offender is very unlikely to be rehabilitated by other means, or where the offender is a threat to the safety to the community. In this case it is restraint and not punishment. Putting someone in jail for no purpose other than to please ones desire for revenge, is punishment.

There are many other valid and productive counter-crime programs such as community service, compensation, restitution and education ...FREE education.

This in the News today.... pretty stiff punishment, saves on gaol/jail costs.

Australian to be hanged soon
October 21, 2005 - 3:57PM

Nguyen Tuong Van ... to be hanged.

A Melbourne sales executive is facing execution in Singapore after the failure of Australian pleas for clemency, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

The Australian government had appealed for clemency for Melbourne man Nguyen Tuong Van, who has been on death row in Changi prison since March last year.

Nguyen was sentenced to death last year after being found guilty by a Singapore court of smuggling almost 400 grams of heroin from Cambodia via Singapore.

He was caught in transit at Singapore's Changi airport in December 2002 while on his way from Cambodia to Melbourne.

Nguyen was found to have 396 grams of heroin strapped to his back and also in his hand luggage.

Mr Downer said today Australia had failed to stop Singapore enforcing the death penalty on Nguyen, who said he had the drugs because he was trying to raise money to clear debts incurred by his twin brother.

"We are very sad that this has happened," Mr Downer said.

"We have done our best, we have done everything we can to save his life."

Nguyen, 25, was expected to be executed in the near future, Mr Downer said.

"(He) will be hanged as a result of this decision," Mr Downer said.

"There is no further appeal, this is the end of the processes of appeal.

"The execution is expected to be carried out fairly quickly which is the custom in Singapore."

Mr Downer said there was no question Singapore had followed due process.

"Singapore does have a mandatory death sentence for trafficking in heroin and they are applying it," he said.

"I'm afraid it doesn't come as a great surprise to us, I have been pessimistic about this case for a long time."

Mr Downer said Australia had pleaded for clemency via Prime Minister John Howard, Governor General Michael Jeffery and himself.

Nguyen is set to become the fourth Australian sentenced to death by Asian countries on drug charges, following the hanging of Brian Chambers and Kevin Barlow in Malaysia in 1986.

In a lesser-known case, Queenslander Michael McAuliffe died by hanging in Malaysia in June 1993 after serving eight years in jail.

In Singapore, the death sentence is mandatory for drug smuggling and more than 400 people have been executed there in the past 10 years.

Australia's Council for Civil Liberties says Singapore executes more people per capita than any other country in the world.

Two other Australians are currently facing the death penalty after being convicted of heroin-related charges - both in Vietnam.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd called on the Singaporean cabinet to reconsider its position.

"Singapore law provides for mercy to be sought and we strongly believe that mercy should be applied in the case of this young Australian," he said in a statement.

"We appeal to the individual members of the Singaporean cabinet to find it in their hearts to save this man's life.

"While drug trafficking is a very serious crime and we respect Singapore's right to protect its citizens from such crimes, we do not believe that putting a young man to death in these circumstances serves any purpose."

Mr Rudd expressed his sympathy to Nguyen's family.

"This is a truly tragic case and our hearts go out to this young Australian and his poor mother in Melbourne," he said.

"We will do everything in our power to ask the Singaporean government to reconsider this decision."

Nguyen's mother fled Vietnam alone in a boat in 1980 and had her twin sons in a transit camp in Malaysia before being accepted into Australia four months later.

Nguyen's Melbourne-based lawyer, Lex Lasry, said he was "appalled" by the news.

Nguyen's Australian legal team, Mr Lasry and lawyers Julian McMahon and Joseph Theseira, issued a statement deploring the imminent execution.

"The news that the Singapore government intends to hang our client, Van Nguyen, is devastating for him, his family and friends and for anyone who values humane treatment of their fellow human beings," they said.

"Death by hanging is hideous. Further, it is grossly out of proportion to the crime committed.

"The mandatory nature of the execution represents a gross unfairness to our client and all others who have never been given the chance to say to a judge why such a final penalty should not be applied to them."

They said the decision was especially unfair considering their client's admissions and assistance to authorities.

"Our client has always admitted his guilt and given constructive help to authorities including the Australian Federal Police.

"The decision appears to pay no heed to the provisions of the Singapore Constitution that make specific reference and provide for clemency to those who assist the authorities with information which can be used to prosecute others.

"The only people who will take comfort from this result will be those who exploited Van for their own purposes to profit from drug trafficking and who now know that with the death of our client their criminal conspiracy will go unpunished.

"We call on the Singapore government to reverse this decision.

"We make this call in the name of fairness and justice.

"The rule of law in Singapore and the effectiveness of the constitution will be diminished by the execution of Van Nguyen.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/its-justice-for-some/2005/10/22/1129775994871.html

It's justice for some
By Catharine Munro and Amilia Rosa
October 23, 2005
The Sun-Herald

A partygoer arrested in Bali in the same police raid as Michelle Leslie is free from detention even though he was caught with four times as much ecstasy as the Australian model.

As Leslie waits for her hearings to start this Friday, an Indonesian businessman is believed to be back in his home town near Jakarta, having already had his sentence handed down one week ago.

Court records show Leslie has not been given special treatment in Indonesia's notoriously corrupt justice system but instead is the last one caught in the raid to stand trial, supporting a statement by her lawyer Ross Hill that they have not attempted "to buy anything".

Meanwhile, the case of one of the five caught in the raid finished more than one week ago on October 12 and he has already been released from Bali's Kerobokan jail.

Chandra Hidayat was found with eight ecstasy tablets at the isolated Garuda Wisnu Kencana dance party on August 19, court documents show.

He was charged with possession and appears to have successfully pleaded the mitigating circumstance of being a user.

For more Information go to the above web address.

This in the news today:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/witness-plan-may-pull-drug-courier-off-death-row/2005/10/24/1130006061672.html

The Australian facing death by hanging in Singapore would be an important witness against a Sydney drugs syndicate now under investigation, his lawyer said yesterday, as the Federal Government said it would make a final bid to save his life.

However, there are fears he will be put to death before arrests are made, because a clemency request was rejected on Friday.

In December 2002 Nguyen Tuong Van, now 25, was caught carrying almost 400 grams of heroin during a transit stop at Singapore's international airport after a flight from Cambodia.

At Changi prison in Singapore a year ago Nguyen gave detailed information to Australian Federal Police officers, including the name of the Sydney drugs syndicate member who recruited him.

"The next step would be for him to act as a witness, and he is available to do that," Nguyen's lawyer, Lex Lasry, QC, said in Canberra yesterday. "He will give first-hand evidence about the circumstances in which he made the trip." He added: "We would have hoped Singapore would see the protection they get out of him giving evidence in an Australian trial were such a case to be held."

Quoted from redeyes

It's a very strong urge to resist cactus.

That's what separates us from the monkeys ...the ability to reason, and there is no reason for revenge punishment. The terrorists are doing it in Iraq right now, and almost all will stand up and say it is wrong but when we want to extract revenge we conveniently rework the moral standard to make it acceptable. Apart from being wrong it is hypocritical.

Revenge is an ancient behavioral characteristic I though was superseded by civility - apparently not given most of the responses.

I have mentioned this group of low life rapists before on here but can't find the post that corresponds with this. So here it is.

Gang rapist claims right to assault
By Natasha Wallace
December 10, 2005

THE eldest of four Pakistani gang rapist brothers has admitted lying at trial and apologised to his victims but said he thought he had a right to rape the "promiscuous" teenage girls.

MSK, 27, told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday that this was because the girls did not wear headscarves, were drinking alcohol and were unaccompanied when they went to his Ashfield home. MSK also blamed his intoxication, "cultural beliefs" and an undiagnosed mental disorder.

He and his brothers MAK, 25, MRK, 21, and MMK, 19 - who cannot be named for legal reasons - are serving between 10 and 22 years for raping two girls in 2002. All except MRK are yet to be sentenced for several other rapes.

Yesterday evidence was being heard on a sentence for MSK for the rapes of two more girls, TW, then 14, and CH, then 13. He admitted that some of the evidence he had given at an earlier trial was fabricated, particularly that he had had consensual sex with TW and that she had coaxed him.

"It was a pretty big untruth when you said that it was consensual sex, wasn't it?" asked the Crown prosecutor, Ken McKay.

"Yes," he replied.

You chose to lie about that, correct? - Yes.

During a long apology to TW, who was in court, he stopped mid-sentence to reprimand her.

"I wish to say this to [TW], that at the time when I commit these offences I come from such a background which led me to - don't shake your head, I'm telling you something - I say now that I hurt you and I'm extremely, extremely apologetic to you and I'm, I wish to say one thing more.

"I'm serving 22 years I'm just requesting to you that you one day may come that you realise that the person who assaulted me is in prison and I should forgive him. I'm asking for your forgiveness." He said it was only now, since he had gained a "better understanding of Australian culture", that he knew the rapes were wrong.

He arrived in Sydney for the ninth and final time four days before committing several rapes over six months. He had planned to study medicine.

He agreed he knew the girls did not want to have sex. "[TW] said no but I go ahead with it because I believe that at the time I commit these offences, I believe that she was promiscuous " he said. "She don't know us, I don't know her, like she was not related to us and she was not wearing any purdah like she was not covered her face, she was not wearing any headscarf and she started drinking with us and she was singing.

"First off, I was actually, I was not taking my medication so I was under the influence of voices and secondly I believe at the time when I commit these offences that she had no right to say no."

Mr McKay said the voices excuse was a last-ditch strategy to avoid justice. "You wanted to hurt and terrorise these girls and you did that. You used acts of sexual intercourse on them."

The matter was adjourned until next Friday.

What a huge crock of you know what!
this guy is justifying rape. I hope life in prison for him is hell.

The lack of logic there is just breathtaking!. �??)

If that guy felt that the girls were promiscuous. . and beneath his standards. . why the **** �would he risk causing them to become pregnant with his child?? . . �::)

I have seen men who I look at and think . .sex? - no way!!. . they are too cheesy or just plain �obnoxious . . there is no way I would want to 'be with' somebody who turned me off that much . . it goes agains nature and common sense . . �the way he is reasoning is just too ridiculous and if the court goes along with him . .all women are at serious risk in future.

Wearing the Purda is no guarantee of feminine purity either. . in Pakistan . .there are so many 'homes' for unwed mothers. . they are viewed as cheap girls to be put out of sight. . but it took some 'upstanding men' to get them in that condition.!!

He's a rapist. Of course he is a lying scumbag making up any pitiful excuse he can for his abhorent behaviour. You expected something else?

If it wasn't the promiscuity of his victims he was blaming it would be some other inane bull****. He could blame his bad parents or the fact he was teased as a child or whatever else he could come up with and it would still be bull****.

On the bright side he is probably on the receiving end of the same kind of crime now that he is in prsion. I'm sure the people raping him have an excuse too. Hope he finds their excuse acceptable.

Quoted from BSquared

I'm sure the people raping him have an excuse too. �Hope he finds their excuse acceptable.

it's probably much the same as his, so he'll understand I'm sure.

Blame could be as simple as. . he did not like Brussell Sprouts!!. . *my kids would agree with him. :P

We must remember here that Rape is not a crime of sexual satisfaction, it is a crime of Power and Hate.
Quote: Mr McKay said the voices excuse was a last-ditch strategy to avoid justice. "You wanted to hurt and terrorise these girls and you did that. You used acts of sexual intercourse on them."
You call Rape sexual INTERCOURSE, OMG. It IS sexual abuse, sexual battery, sexual assault definitely NOT what I would call 'Sexual Intercourse'. Good Grief. In countries where these slime bags originate from women are the one's ostracised, spat on, vilified and blamed for being a loose woman. Gee... last I knew it takes two people to make a baby or to just plain have sex. These are countries that treat their women worse than a stray dog on the street and who can even kill women without more than a the reason of 'they brought shame upon our family'.
The men charged with rape in this case are 4 brothers whose Father actually condones what they did. Where's Amanda Vanstone when she is truly needed? This would be a good case for deportation methinks.

This is where I would like to see JUSTICE served best.
On Father's Day this year a story emerged about a man who was driving his 3 young sons back to their Mother after an access visit. SOMEHOW his car left the road, went through a fence and drove into a dam, on a property. The dam was 50 meters from where the car left the road. The Father escaped. The three boys didn't. The Father didn't even try to save the boys whose bodies were found in 7 metres of water in the submerged car. The water was freezing. The Father suffer Hypothermia.

Authorities at the time said "They [the children] were out of their seat belts. We don't know for sure, but our belief is that one of the children has released them all from their seat belts," Inspector Talbot said.

"The younger one, Bailey, the two-year-old, was in a proper child restraint ... that had been undone, so we believe that the children have undone their seat belts but have been unable to get out of the car."

As soon as I heard this story red flags went up everywhere. A mean spirited Father taking everything away from his estranged wife of 12 months, that she could ever live for. Cold bloodedly killing 3 beautiful boys for purely selfish reasons. Maybe he was going to commit suicide as well but bailed at the last moment. All of those thoughts and more went through my head at the time.

Today's news.....
Memorial for drowned boys
From: AAP
By Jane Bunce
December 15, 2005

A VICTORIAN primary school will open a memorial garden for two students and their younger brother who drowned in a nearby dam, despite the boys' father being charged with their murders yesterday.
Jai, 10, Tyler, four, and Bailey Farquharson, two, drowned when their father's car ran off Princes Highway and into a dam 3km from Winchelsea, south west of Melbourne, as they returned home from a Fathers' Day outing on September 4.

Their father, Robert Farquharson, 36, of Winchelsea, survived.

He was yesterday charged with murdering his sons.

Winchelsea Primary School principal Judi Fallon said early today the school was rethinking plans to open the student-designed and constructed memorial garden on Monday in light of Mr Farquharson's charges.

But teachers today voted to continue with the plan.

"We've decided we need to acknowledge all the kids' work and the fact is, it's for the (three) children," Ms Fallon said.

"We are going to ignore all that negative and concentrate on the positive."

Ms Fallon said the students today had been coping well and been encouraged not to dwell on Mr Farquharson's arrest.

"The children have all been fantastic," she said.

"We've had counsellors here to make sure, if people are feeling miserable, they can have a bit of a chat – and then move on.

"We are definitely focusing on the positive."

Jai was a grade-five student at the school, which has about 190 students, and his brother Tyler was in grade one.

Ms Fallon said the garden, at the front of the school, included three "children's" rose bushes and a commemorative plaque.

"It's been very good for the students, definitely, it has given them something to focus on as they are working through their grief," she said.

Mr Farquharson has been remanded in custody until April 7 but his lawyer, Bernie Cummins, says he will seek bail.

My Christmas Wish is that this poor excuse for a human being gets what he deserves when it comes to his punishment.

The latest on this poor excuse for a human being....

Alleged child killer given bail
From: AAP

December 30, 2005

A MAN accused of murdering his three sons by driving a car with them inside into a Victorian dam has been granted bail.
Robert Farquharson, 36, of Winchelsea, south west of Melbourne, was charged on December 14 with the murder of his three boys - Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two.

He has since been held in protective custody awaiting an April 7 committal hearing in the Geelong Magistrates court.

Mr Farquharson's lawyer, Bernie Cummins, has said his client will defend the charges.

Today, Victorian Supreme Court judge Justice Kevin Bell granted Farquharson bail on the condition of a $200,000 surety that will be provided by his father.

Mr Farquharson must also report three times a week to police, was not to make contact with witnesses and must reside at his sister's house at Mt Moriac, south west of Melbourne.

Mr Farquharson was driving the boys to their mother's home after a Fathers Day lunch access visit in September, when the car allegedly veered off the Princes Highway and plunged into a dam.

He escaped the sinking car, but his boys remained trapped and died in the vehicle.

Justice Kevin Bell told the court he would not have granted bail unless there were exceptional circumstances.

"The present case has a variety of circumstances which make it exceptional," Justice Bell said.

He said he had read several affidavits from family and friends of Mr Farquharson which showed he had support.

"Firstly, there is a remarkable degree of support (for Mr Farquharson) from the family and community.

"Next, the applicant (Mr Farquharson) has no prior convictions.

"Thirdly, the applicant appears to be of good character ... there is nothing to suggest to me otherwise.

"Fourthly, the applicant has been cooperative with police.

"Fifthly, the applicant has a job to which he can go and this will have a settling influence on him."

Justice Bell said he believed there was no risk Farquharson would "abscond, reoffend or interfere with witnesses".

Justice Bell said he did not make his decision to grant bail to Farquharson on whether or not the prosecution case against him was weak.

"It is not necessary to make judgment that the Crown case was weak or strong," he said.

"It is entirely for a jury to decide whether Mr Farquharson did or did not murder his children."

Justice Bell also took into account that Farquharson had been in protective custody while in prison.

"I take into account the applicant has been in 23-hour lock-down for his protection.

"It is undesirable that the applicant be in 23-hour lock-down."

Well, gee, child murderers don't get preferential treatment in prison, they get what they deserve. I truly hope he does the world a favour and saves the tax payers some money. How many times do we hear about cars running off the road, through a fence, rough terrain going up the side of a dam and into it. Why would you not try your heart out to save those little angels especially if it was an 'accident'?
I do not for one split second believe his explaination/excuse as to what happened.

Woman charged with fatally scalding son

January 3, 2006 - 7:50AM

A three-year-old boy died after his mother held him in a tub of scalding water as punishment on Christmas Day and then didn't seek medical attention for his burns for a week, authorities said today.

The mother had lost custody of the boy for previous abuse.
How the hell was he in her care then?

Broward County sheriff's deputies in Deerfield Beach, Flordia found Jaquez Mason with burns over 50 per cent of his body after getting an emergency call yesterday morning.

The boy was pronounced dead a half hour later.

It was unclear why he was punished, spokesman Jim Leljedal said.
Unclear why he was PUNISHED... that's not punishment, that is torture!

His mother, Valerie Kennedy, 30, was charged with child abuse murder and jailed without bond. His grandmother, Annie Williams, 51, was accused of not getting him professional medical treatment.

She was charged with manslaughter and was being held on $US10,000 ($A13,676) bond.

Deputies said Jaquez had been in the court-ordered custody of Williams due to previous child abuse by his mother. Despite that, Williams allowed the boy to spend Christmas with his mother, officials said. Kennedy took the boy to her home in Coral Springs.

That evening, Kennedy told Williams that Jaquez got burned, officials said. Williams then took her grandson back to her Deerfield Beach home and applied powder and ointment to his severe burns.

Both women gave statements to homicide detectives, admitting their involvement in the crimes, officials said.
Words fail me

Homeless bashings: teens nabbed

January 17, 2006 - 10:41AM

A surveillance video that captured images of a homeless man being savagely beaten helped police track down the two South Florida teenage suspects, officials said.

More than 100 tips were generated from the video and photographs of the beating last Thursday, and investigators and made contact with the families of the suspects within a day, investigators said.

Family members and their lawyers negotiated yesterday's surrender of Brian Hooks, 18, and Thomas Daugherty, 17, who had fled the state.

Both will be charged with the murder of Norris Gaynor and aggravated battery for the videotaped beating of Jacques Pierre, police Captain Michael Gregory said.

The teens are also suspects in the beating of a third man, Raymond Perez, 49, whose case remains under investigation, Gregory said.

The attack on Pierre, 58, took place on the Fort Lauderdale campus of Florida Atlantic University, where he had been sleeping on a bench, shortly after 1am on Thursday.

Video and still pictures showing two males chasing and beating him with what appeared to be baseball bats were broadcast and published nationally.

"The video was critical in getting the word out," Gregory said.

Gaynor, 45, was killed a few blocks away from where Pierre was attacked.

Gaynor died from severe head injuries, authorities said.

Daugherty and Hooks invoked the right to remain silent when taken into custody.

They were being held at separate facilities pending official charges from a grand jury, Gregory said.

Gregory said police were investigating whether the teens were involved in other beatings and if they had accomplices.

"We do know there have been other assaults of homeless in Fort Lauderdale," Gregory said.

There were 105 attacks on homeless in 2004, including 25 deaths, according to the Washington, DC-based National Coalition for the Homeless.

The majority of attackers were young men between the ages of 16 and 25.

They are so braveNOT

&*&*&*&*s! Hope they get life! >:(

Brothers found guilty on rape charges
Thursday Jan 19 12:12 AEDT

Two brothers accused of the multiple rape of a young woman at knifepoint have been found guilty in Brisbane of six counts of sexual assault.

Fijian-born Afsheen Kashef Hussein, 26, and Azhar Zuhayr Hussein, 21, each pleaded not guilty in the District Court to eight charges of rape and one of indecent treatment of the 22-year-old woman at Mt Coot-tha in Brisbane.

After almost two days of deliberation, the jury of 10 men and two women found each of the brothers guilty of six counts of rape but not guilty of three charges: two rape counts and the indecent treatment charge.

Prosecutor April Freeman however, submitted that a sentence in the order of 12 years for each of the men was appropriate and Judge Warren Howell adjourned sentencing to a later date.

Judge Howell informed the jury once their verdict had been delivered, that the two brothers have also been charged over a second rape at Mt Coot-tha, this time of a sex worker, in February last year.

They have also pleaded not guilty to the charges but the brothers' co-accused - Brisbane men Zaak Imtiaz Ali, 21, and Zain Iftiaz Ali, 23 - have pleaded guilty. The matter will be heard on May 29.

The Hussein brothers' trial heard that on September 17, 2004, the men picked the woman up from Fortitude Valley and drove her to Mt Coot-tha, where they took turns to repeatedly rape her at knifepoint for about an hour.

She eventually escaped and ran to the nearby security hut of a television station.

The victim broke down a number of times during her evidence, despite a screen being placed between her and the accused men.

At one point one of the rapists started laughing and Judge Howell responded by saying: "If the accused on the left doesn't behave ... I'll take appropriate action".

Judge Howell told the court the victim is also seeking sexual assault compensation from the two men of $75,000 each.

The civil claim will be heard on March 10.

Lock em up and throw away the key, I say!
These low life's have no regard for women and act like they were entitled to do what they did.

Quoted from SuziH

Lock em up and throw away the key, I say!
These low life's have no regard for women and act like they were entitled to do what they did.

That will cost to much, remove some body parts then put a bullet in their chests

Couldn't think of where better to put this...
Jailed baby killer pregnant
From: AAP
By Tim Clarke
January 23, 2006

WESTERN Australia's government has ordered an inquiry into how two women, one jailed for killing her four-month-old daughter, became pregnant while in prison.
Jean Garvey, 25, was jailed for five years in 2004 for the manslaughter of Jessicarose, who died after suffering a catalogue of physical injuries at the hands of her mother, culminating in fatal brain damage.

But while a minimum security prisoner in Broome in the state's north, authorities discovered Ms Garvey had become pregnant – one of two women at the mixed prison due to give birth this year.

WA Justice Minister John D'Orazio today said he had asked prison authorities to investigate how and where these two inmates were able to have sex.

"If you know Broome prison, it is an awkward prison, it is an awful prison ... with awful facilities, and I have said repeatedly it needs to be upgraded very quickly," Mr D'Orazio told Southern Cross Radio.

"I have asked for an internal investigation, to ask what happened and how it could have happened."

Following the death of Garvey's daughter in 2003, she told police she thought Jessicarose had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

But a pathologist's examination revealed an extensive catalogue of injuries, at various stages of healing.

They included a broken arm, where the bone had snapped in two, collar bone injuries, broken ribs, fractures to a hip, knees and ankles, numerous bruises and serious swelling and haemorrhaging in the brain.

The WA Supreme Court was told the state's Department of Community Development had received three separate reports of abuse of the child, while a GP who saw the baby told Garvey she was doing a good job as a parent.

Garvey was transferred to Broome, a minimum security prison, last August, and was working in the prison kitchens and doing voluntary work outside the jail.

"She could have got pregnant while working (in) the kitchens, she could have got pregnant while she was inside the prison, she could have got pregnant while she was doing voluntary work," Mr D'Orazio said.

Having breached prison regulations, Mr D'Orazio said Garvey now had been transferred to Roebourne medium security prison, which had mother and baby facilities.

The Department of Community Development would be involved in deciding the baby's future.

"(We will) put in arrangements to make sure that the care of the child is paramount," Mr D'Orazio said.

OMG... well we know HOW she got pregnant anyway!

I'd never hurt her, says husband

By Edmund Tadros
January 25, 2006 - 1:31PM

The chapel of 80 seats was never going to be big enough to hold all of the people who came to say goodbye to murdered Sydney mother Jody Galante.

"I don't know why we are here today," said Mrs Galante's mother Julie-Anne Hand, during her speech at the funeral. "I cannot comprehend such an evil end to such a beautiful life

"Zayla is so much like you I have to remind myself that she's not you - she's your clone," Mrs Hand said of Mrs Galante's three-year-old daughter.

"We will find who did this to you. I will not rest and sleep or forget until this is done."

Mrs Galante's family all wore purple ribbons in honour of their lost family member. Purple was Mrs Galante's favourite colour, said her brother Colin Pomerey.

Mrs Galante's husband Mark, who repeatedly broke down during the service, paid tribute to his high-school sweetheart in a statement that was read by a relative.

"I will always love you for what you are and what you've done for me," he wrote in his tribute.

"My love for you is something that no one can explain. You will always be in our hearts."

As the casket was placed into the hearse, Mrs Hand broke down, saying: "It's just not fair, it's just not fair."

Husband denies involvement

"I loved her with all my heart and soul and I would never do anything to her."

Mrs Galante's husband has repeated his denial he was involved with his wife's murder.

Mr Galante also said he would not speak at her funeral because he feared "falling apart".

A quietly spoken Mr Galante told smh.com.au that he did not murder his wife, who was 26 and three months pregnant.

Speaking at his Stanhope Gardens home on Monday Mr Galante, who had to stop speaking several times to compose himself, said he was "upset" by a police investigation that has involved repeated interviews, a search of his house and the impounding of his car and other items.

Police have said their inquiry continues.

Last seen at markets

Mr Galante was the last known person to have seen his wife alive. He said he and Zayla dropped Mrs Galante in the park opposite Parklea Markets about 10am on January 7. A week later, her body was found in the Blue Mountains with gunshot wounds.

"We [Zayla and I] dropped Jody at [the park] at the end of the estate and she walked across the road to the [Parklea] markets and [I stayed] at the park with Zayla," Mr Galante explained, in a kitchen surrounded by pictures and reminders of his wife and his daughter, who is staying with Mrs Galante's family.

"We were there for a while. We went to the shops up at Stanhope [Village], got some lunch.

"Then we went over to [another park] and fed the ducks.

'Then we went to Aldi [supermarket] and done our shopping and then were back here from about 2 o'clock onwards.

"About two or one she said she'd call.

Jody Galante's decomposing body was found 10 days after she disappeared, along a bush fire trail in the lower Blue Mountains one kilometer east of the Bilpin Fruit Bowl. She had gunshot wounds and was three months pregnant at the time.

I have studied criminology and the one's closest to the victim are all considered to be under suspicion until eliminated. This is an up close and personal crime and I believe her husband is guilty. Why else would a young pregnant mother with no means of transport at the time be murdered?

Kitten brutally bashed, tortured
By Bruce McDougall
January 26, 2006

IN another act of extreme animal cruelty, a kitten has been brutally bashed, tortured and thrown into a rubbish bin to die.
The 12-week-old grey and white kitten is suffering a suspected broken pelvis, broken ribs, internal injuries, missing front teeth and head trauma.

RSPCA inspectors will interview a 45-year-old man over the incident believed to have occurred at a house at Blackett in Sydney's Western Suburbs.

The latest attack comes three months after a Government crackdown under which callous individuals convicted of serious animal cruelty face prison sentences of up to five years.

Chief inspector David O'Shannessy said yesterday the kitten was allegedly bashed against a cement step and tossed in a bin after she had apparently fouled a lounge room floor.

It is believed she then crawled out of the bin and was smashed against the cement step again, before being thrown in a bucket of water.

The kitten - who is unable to walk - was rescued by a Good Samaritan who contacted the RSPCA.

Named "Katie" by RSPCA Yagoona staff after the vet who cared for her, Dr Kate Mills, the kitten is undergoing X-rays and medical treatment.

Dr Mills said her little namesake had been in a lot of pain but was responding well.

"She's a friendly little kitten and we're doing all we can to control her pain," she said.

RSPCA Animal Ambulance Officer Stuart Davenport, supported by Mount Druitt police, went to the Blackett address on Tuesday night to rescue the kitten.

"It's very hard to remain professional when I see a kitten in so much pain," Mr Davenport said.

"The most amazing thing was that despite a smashed hip Katie rolled over and started playing when I patted her.

The RSPCA cared for eight-week-old kitten Shelley after she was abused at a Sydney train station on Saturday January 15, 2005.

Shelley, traumatised and suffering a broken leg and internal injuries after being left on the railway track to die, was found by CityRail staff who sought veterinary aid and called police. The tortoise shell stray since has made a full recovery.

The RSPCA also took in 12-week-old William after he was burnt in a petrol attack on January 24 last year.

In October Premier Morris Iemma announced a new offence of aggravated animal cruelty under the NSW Crimes Act and set up a police/animal welfare task force.

Acts such as the torture of defenceless kittens like Katie and Shelley will become an indictable offence covered by the Crimes Act. Offenders will be charged when any animal experiences "prolonged suffering, serious injury or death".

At the time Premier Iemma said: "Those who attack animals used by police for law enforcement purposes also will be charged with this offence.

"Nobody can forget the sickening images of violent and unprovoked attacks on defenceless animals earlier this year."

The laws followed a series of horrifying attacks including the torture, immolation and bludgeoning of cats in three separate incidents.

Police dog Titan was killed while on active duty in December last year - one of a number of serious attacks on animals used by police.

I personally think they should of put the kitten out of her misery. Is it truly worth saving something that is so injured and possibly mentally scarred for life? They should lock the guy who did this up, not just fine him.

Teens commit multiple robberies
From: AAP
January 28, 2006

THREE teenagers have threatened and robbed almost a dozen people in central Sydney during a spate of attacks that started on Australia Day.
They allegedly stole from 11 people in the vicinity of Broadway and City Road between 11pm (AEDT) on January 26 and 1am (AEDT) yesterday.

Police arrested and charged two teenaged boys yesterday morning in Knox Lane, Broadway.

A 16-year-old was charged with two counts of robbery in company and was refused bail when he faced Bidura Children's Court yesterday.

A 15-year-old was given conditional bail to reappear in Bidura Children's Court on February 14.

Police believe there are several victims who have not yet contacted investigators.

What kind of punishment do you think these guys will get?

What I think they WILL get is very different than what they SHOULD get!. . >:(

Girl, 15, dies after rape, bashing
By Rebecca Hewett
January 31, 2006

A 15-YEAR-old girl has died after she was brutally bashed and raped outside an Alice Springs school.
Police said the girl was dragged from Grevillea Drive to a sandy mound near Centralian Senior Secondary College's entrance where she was raped by at least one man early on Saturday.

Police were still searching for her attackers last night.

A woman staff member found the bloodied teenager unconscious at 10.30am (ACDT). The girl was taken to Alice Springs Hospital then flown to Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital. She died from head injuries at 5.40pm on Sunday.

"Forensic examination indicates that there was more than one person at the scene," Detective Superintendent Murray Taylor said.

There was no murder weapon at the crime scene.

Police were yesterday interviewing the girl's family to determine her final movements on Friday. They said they were confident of catching the rapists.

"I won't call a sexual assault opportunistic, but I would call this an isolated incident," Supt Taylor said.

The last confirmed sighting of the girl was in Todd Mall at 8.30pm on Friday.

She also attended hospital several hours before the attack, but Supt Taylor said that was unrelated to her death. Police doorknocked the area and witnesses said they thought they had seen a girl matching the victim's description early on Saturday.

Supt Taylor appealed to anyone who might have seen two men in the area to contact police on 131 444.

The girl was 155cm, of slim build, and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and black track pants.

So... this is a case of rape and murder?!

Sexual assault rates more than double: report
February 1, 2006 - 1:03PM

Recorded rates of assault and sexual assault in NSW have more than doubled in the past 15 years but the number of murders has dropped, a new report on long-term crime trends has found.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research found the recorded rate of sexual assault had risen 132 per cent from 1990 to 2004.
Assault had risen by 105 per cent in the same period.

The recorded rate of "other" sexual offences also was higher, up 85 per cent.

However, the long-term trends in the report on property and violent crimes showed recorded rates of murder, robbery with a firearm, burglary and car theft were at their lowest levels in 15 years.

Bureau director Don Weatherburn said the results relating to assault and sexual assault should be treated with some degree of caution.

"There is no evidence that victims of these offences have become more willing to report them to police," Dr Weatherburn said in a statement.

"But new laws requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse and rising public concern about child sexual assault and domestic violence may have made other witnesses more willing to report them."

Teen rioter jailed but goes free
February 9, 2006 - 4:13PM

A teenager who used a beer bottle to attack a man during the Cronulla race riot last December will walk free today after sentencing in a Sydney court, says his lawyer.

Geoffrey John Atkinson, 18, from Elderslie in Sydney's south, pleaded guilty to rioting after he hit Safi Merhi with a beer bottle as he cowered from a mob during the December 11 riot.

Sutherland Local Court magistrate William Brydon sentenced Atkinson to nine months in prison with a non-parole period which expires today, subject to him meeting parole conditions.

He is the first person to be charged and sentenced with rioting under new laws created by the NSW government following the beach riot.

In sentencing, Mr Brydon said he had taken into account Atkinson's youth, previous good behaviour and the fact he was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

"Parents, sisters and brothers are at a loss to explain his involvement," Mr Brydon told the court.

"They can only put it down to the moment of the occasion and perhaps the alcohol that may have caused him to participate."

However the magistrate said Atkinson's "youth ... did not excuse that and an appropriate sentence should be one of a custodial sentence".

Atkinson was caught on camera bashing Mr Merhi with a longneck beer bottle as other kicked and punched the victim.

He was arrested on January 11 and has been in jail for 29 days.

Outside court, Atkinson's lawyer Anthony Macrie said the sentence was appropriate and that the teenager was looking forward to putting the incident behind him.

``The family is very pleased with the result and my client is looking forward to putting this matter behind him and moving on,'' Mr Macrie told reporters.

Mr Macrie said Atkinson, who will walk free this afternoon, had learnt a lot from the experience.

``You spend the best part of all day other than one hour in a cell that's three metres by three metres wide - it's not very nice,'' he said.

Please, please, please, please, please TELL me how anyone could harm a child let alone a helpless 3 month old BABY???? >:(

Father charged after baby assaulted

February 10, 2006 - 8:23AM

A three-month-old baby boy is in a serious but stable condition in a Sydney hospital after being assaulted.

The baby's 25-year-old father has been charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm, police said today.

Police allege the baby was assaulted at a house in Granville, in Sydney's west, yesterday morning.

The man is due to appear in Parramatta Local Court today.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/father-charged-after-baby-assaulted/2006/02/10/1139465820996.html

Quoted from SuziH

Please, please, please, please, please TELL me how anyone could harm a child let alone a helpless 3 month old BABY???? >:(

Father charged after baby assaulted

February 10, 2006 - 8:23AM

A three-month-old baby boy is in a serious but stable condition in a Sydney hospital after being assaulted.

The baby's 25-year-old father has been charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm, police said today.

Police allege the baby was assaulted at a house in Granville, in Sydney's west, yesterday morning.

The man is due to appear in Parramatta Local Court today.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/father-charged-after-baby-assaulted/2006/02/10/1139465820996.html

Anyone want to take a bet that the mother/father are in a de-facto relationship??. . courts report that those situations are the most prevalent in child abuse cases . . news reports will mention it if it is true. :'(

I don't know what should happen to the two vile little tarts who killed the cabbie;

Quoted Text

The girls have been charged with murder, aggravated robbery, stealing a motor vehicle, two counts of attempted robbery armed with an offensive weapon and one count of robbery with an offensive weapon.

Well they probably won't get what they deserve because of their age,but I would be happy if they got life.

Quoted from aquamonkey

I don't know what should happen to the two vile little tarts who killed the cabbie;

I have an idea, but I think it'd be illegal. :X

Girls, 14, charged with armed robbery
February 11, 2006 - 10:28AM

Two teenage girls have been charged with trying to rob rail commuters by threatening them with a knife and a hammer.

Police were called to St Marys Railway Station, in Sydney's west, about 9pm (AEDT) yesterday after commuters reported the attempted robberies. No one was injured.

Two girls were arrested at the station and police said they found the weapons under a nearby vending machine.

The teenagers have been charged with being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence and a number of common assaults.

Both will appear in Lidcombe Children's Court later today.

The same court yesterday heard how two other 14-year-old girls boasted about murdering a disabled Sydney cabbie and threatened to kill rail transit officers.

The cousins have been charged with murder, aggravated robbery, stealing a motor vehicle, two counts of attempted robbery armed with an offensive weapon and one count of robbery with an offensive weapon.

The court heard they had already attempted to rob two people in Yennora in Sydney's west, and robbed a third person of $50 in the hours following the death of cab driver Youbert Hormozi.

They were remanded in custody to reappear in Lidcombe Children's Court on March 30.

Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/girls-14-charged-with-armed-robbery/2006/02/11/1139542430204.html

About what I said last week in relation to teen girls and crime . . .

"the Prosecution rests". ;D :( :(

21 murders in 37 days: homicide police overwhelmed

By John Kidman, Eamonn Duff and Erin O'Dwyer
February 12, 2006

NSW Police has launched 21 murder investigations in 37 days, marking the state's bloodiest new year since monthly homicide records began in 1995.

The spate of killings claimed the lives of 14 men, six women and an 18-month-old boy between January 1 and February 6 and left a dozen people facing the prospect of lengthy jail terms.

It has also sparked a fresh crisis within the already-depleted ranks of the force's elite Crime Command, The Sun-Herald has learnt.

Homicide squad investigators are unable to cope, forcing the recruitment of officers normally assigned exclusively to unsolved cases.

The move effectively breaks a 2004 promise that the so-called cold-case unit would be solely devoted to reviewing historical crimes, not sidetracked into helping with new ones.

At the time, Police Commissioner Ken Moroney made a personal commitment to grieving families that his officers would always keep working on unsolved crimes.

While the NSW Police Association believes about 3000 extra officers are needed statewide on any given day, as many as one in four top detectives are unavailable to investigate major sexual assaults, major robberies, drug deals and fraud cases.

The estimate, which takes into account 600 Crime Command positions, is based on the regular absence of up to 150 officers, senior force sources said.

Many of the missing officers belong to a growing list of those on maternity, stress or long-term sick leave.

However, at least 50 of the vacancies are due to the secondment of staff to high-profile, but not necessarily "major crime", investigations, such as Strike Force Enoggera, which is inquiring into the Cronulla riots.

Some investigators believe political pressure is undermining policing priorities. "We've been taken off major criminal matters to basically do assaults and malicious-damage inquiries," said one officer.

He said the resources being diverted to the Enoggera strike force were "overkill".

"There are armed hold-ups, rapes, homicides and extortions going on and we're being forced to cut back on the vital work of dealing with them."

In one case, the investigation into the fatal stabbing of 34-year-old South Coast father-of-two Aaron Boyle has stalled, with overworked detectives struggling to make an arrest.

His mother, Rena, said: "We know the person who did it. But still the police are nowhere to be seen."

Mrs Boyle said she made an appointment with a detective last weekend, but he failed to keep it.

For more:

Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/21-murders-in-37-days/2006/02/11/1139542446919.html

The worst new year on record
February 12, 2006

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/the-worst-new-year-on-record/2006/02/11/1139542446922.html

Fourth attack raises alarm
By Marnie O'Neill and Linda Silmalis
February 12, 2006

THE NSW Government will consider tighter security for taxi drivers following a fourth violent attack in two weeks.
In the latest incident, a boy aged as young as 13 is believed responsible for an assault that nearly blinded driver Ming Yu, 44, early yesterday.

Mr Yu suffered deep cuts to his lefteye after the teenager punched him in the face, breaking his glasses.

It is the fourth attack since January 31, when disabled cabbie Youbert Hormozi died after allegedly being beaten by two 14-year-old girls at Canley Vale.

Premier Morris Iemma said yesterday the recent violence against cab drivers was a "serious concern".

Mr Iemma said Transport Minister John Watkins was working with the Taxi Industry Council and drivers to improve security.

Mr Yu said it was time to quit before he lost his life.

"My head, my face, my uniform - everything was covered in blood," Mr Yu told The Sunday Telegraph.

"One minute (the boy) was talking to me very quietly. The next thing, his fist came through my (half-open) window and smashed me in the face."

Mr Yu, a Taxis Combined driver of nearly 10 years, is married with an 18-year-old son. It was the third time he had been attacked on the job.

Inspector John O'Reilly, of Maroubra police, said the assault was a cowardly attack.

Anyone with information can contact Maroubra police on 9349 9299 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Source:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18118719-1242,00.html

Abortion revenge: killer gets 20 years

February 17, 2006 - 12:17PM

A man who murdered his former lover after she told him she had aborted their child has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Aneta Pochopien's body was found slumped in her car at her Melbourne home by her husband Peter after she had finished a night shift at a nearby car component factory on April 14, 2004.

A Victorian Supreme Court jury found Pisey Prasoeur, of Chadstone, guilty of murdering the 32-year-old mother.

The court heard Mrs Pochopien had a five-month affair with fellow factory worker Prasoeur and told him via text message on his birthday in September 2003 that she had aborted their child.

The court heard Prasoeur laid in wait for Mrs Pochopien after she finished a night shift at the factory and shot her in the head and chest with a sawn-off rifle before she got out of her car in her driveway.

Justice Kevin Bell said Mrs Pochopien's murder had horrific consequences for her family and Prasoeur showed no remorse for the crime.

He sentenced the 24-year-old to a 20-year jail term with a minimum sentence of 15 years.

Justice Bell said Prasoeur was devastated by the news of the abortion and after Mrs Pochopien ended the affair he had killed her out of revenge.

"Anger, hurt or disappointment over the termination of a relationship, or a person's conduct in a relationship, does not justify violence of any sort, let alone murder," he said.

"The fact that Mrs Pochopien aborted her pregnancy to you without your knowledge or consent did not justify her murder."

Justice Bell said the murder had devastating consequences for Mrs Pochopien's husband and their 12-year-old son Martin.

He said the woman's husband and son were asleep in bed at the time of the murder.

Mr Pochopien was woken by the shots that killed his wife and Martin observed at least some of the horrific scene, the court heard.

Justice Bell said Mr Pochopien lost his business, had not worked since his wife's death and the family had returned to their birthplace of Poland because it was too painful to stay in Australia.

He said Prasoeur was suffering severe depression over the abortion of his child and the breakup of his relationship with Mrs Pochopien when he committed the offence.

The judge said he took into account the man's youth and his lack of prior convictions.

Outside court, Prasoeur's lawyer Bernie Balmer said his client still maintained his innocence and they would consider an appeal.

"[We will] digest what his honour has said and we will review the conduct of the trial and have a look at appeal options," he said.

Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/abortion-revenge-killer-gets-20-years/2006/02/17/1140064234128.html

I personally think this woman was very remiss in telling the young man she had terminated the pregnancy and killed his baby in the process. She lost her life because she underestimated this man.

and this...
Man jailed for 18 years over acid murder
Friday Feb 17 16:57 AEDT

A man has been jailed for 18 years for arranging the contract killing of a Sydney accountant, who took three weeks to die after being forced to drink hydrochloric acid.

The 36-year-old man, who can only be known as AB, arranged for two hitmen to disfigure Dominic Li.

Li's brother-in-law Phillip Ma owed drug dealer Yonky Tan several hundred thousand dollars.

The court had been told that Tan initially contracted AB to splash acid on Li's face to scare Ma out of hiding, but AB refused, instead recruiting two other hitmen.

On December 13, 2002 the hitmen went to Li's Concord home and poured hydrochloric acid over his face and down his throat, blinding him and causing severe facial and internal burns.

He was put in an induced coma and died on January 2, 2003.

Sentencing AB to 18 years' jail, with a minimum term of 13-and-a-half years, Justice Michael Grove said AB had supplied a pistol, arranged the getaway car, sourced the acid and acted as a "paymaster" when the crime was done.

He said AB had been out on parole for only several weeks in 2002 when he was approached by Tan to carry out the attack on Li, and agreed to contract the two hitmen.

The pair, dressed as couriers, went to Li's Concord home and poured acid over his face and down his throat.

The acid was "steaming and bubbling as it lifted paint on the porch floor, as well as causing ghastly injuries to Mr Li," Justice Grove said.

Mr Li's pain was so great he had to be put in an induced coma and died three weeks later.

AB pleaded guilty to being an accessary before the fact of murder, admitting he had arranged the killing and distributed the $10,000 payment for the hit.

The father of five argued his sentence should be comparable with that of getaway car driver Dax Satorre, who was last year sentenced to a maximum 16 years' jail.

AB said his ability to understand the seriousness of what he had done was "befuddled" by an addiction to the drug ice.

But Justice Grove found AB's knowledge "extended to intention to engage in horrific conduct" and that he had agreed to participate to get onside with Tan, playing a "pivotal role".

"I do not accept ... that you acted without an eye to advantage," Justice Grove said.

"(You were) motivated by a desire to ingratiate yourself with a person who was a significant supplier of drugs to you.

"This was no impulse crime but a premeditated and planned infliction of a particularly gruesome form of grievous bodily harm."

He said his culpability was greater than Satorre's, but took into account his early guilty plea and both past and future assistance to police.

Tan and the two hitmen are yet to stand trial over the murder.

AB will be eligible for parole in July 2018.

Source:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=87397

Quoted from SuziH

AB will be eligible for parole in [b]July 2018.

Source:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=87397

. . ??) That is only 12 years away!!. . ??)

Whats the bet this guy won't even get life in prison? Probably just a 20 year sentence, of which he just has to do 10, and probably never allowed to drive again. But really, what punishment could they possibly give him that is equal to killing 5 kids, who had just begun to live their lives? I guess there is also the possibility this man will feel so terribly about his actions, that he takes his own life...

Words cannot describe how I feel for those poor families who lost their beautiful children...the devastation...my heart would be just broken into so many pieces. I hope this man realises what he has done but chances are he won't. His mother said sorry to the families but really to me that would mean nothing...

I just read some more of Suzi's article...one family has lost a son AND a daughter...how awful

Six children dead and I saw on the news 2 nights ago, or maybe it was yesterday morning that the driver of the car had his 4 year old son on his lap while driving. Words fail me. (now that's a first!)

This story is a totally tragedy and has been wondering what happened? So i can only begin to imagine what the familes involved are going through. I do also feel sorry for the suspects children, they are going to go through hell and back and their lives will never be the same again.

It really won't matter what happens to the driver, becasue no punishment will make the families feel any better and won't bring the kids back. You can only hope that the driver will feel remorse for the rest of his life.

I wonder what the families expect to happen to him? I know that even if he gets life, the families will hate him forever and never forgive him. Perhaps the shame of it might be enough? He and his family will no doubt have to move to some far away remote area to escape this shame.

I really don't know what the answer is, but given that he was probably drunk, with the charges of neg driving casuing death, I'm guessing he might get 5-10 years, but I can guarantee you, that the families will say it's not enough, because we got a life sentence. Mark my words. Those kids were deprived of their lives, so maybe he should be deprived of his (ie locked up for life) I don't know. The Police will have to make a determination from their investigation to say what caused the accident.

The driver of the car was not charged with DUI he was however driving with his four year old son on his lap and was not driving responsibly and I assume that is why he was charged with negligent driving. I agree that these families will never recover from such a horrendous thing and most likely will never forgive the driver of the car. Nor would I, I think. This was senseless accident that didn't have to happen. (no accidents have to happen technically but this one was totally preventable). The driver made an error in judgement that has changed the rest of his life and countless others.

More news on other things:

Final jailing over bodies in barrels
By Alexandra Economou
February 25, 2006

MARK Ray Haydon, the last of four men convicted over the Snowtown bodies-in-the-barrels case, has been jailed for 25 years by the South Australian Supreme Court, ending a seven-year, $20.3 million legal case.
Justice John Sulan described Haydon as a "passive observer" who helped Australia's worst serial killers, John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis, avoid prosecution by police.

Haydon was convicted of seven counts of assisting the offenders, after a jury failed to reach a verdict on charges he murdered Troy William Youde and his own wife, Elizabeth Haydon.

The charges related to the murders of Michael Gardiner, Barry Wayne Lane, Gavin Porter, Frederick Robert Brooks, Gary O'Dwyer, Youde and Haydon.

After an 11-month trial, Bunting and Wagner were sentenced to life, without non-parole periods, for 11 and 10 murders respectively.

Their co-accused, James Spyridon Vlassakis, pleaded guilty to four murders and will be eligible for parole in 2028.

In sentencing yesterday, Justice Sulan said it was clear that Bunting exhibited great control over Haydon when they became friends after meeting at a welding course in 1989.

"I have no doubt you were drawn into the friendship with Bunting and then, discovering he was a murderer, felt trapped in the circumstances," he said.

Justice Sulan said the most serious of Haydon's conduct related to the murder of Youde.

He said Haydon was there when Bunting and Wagner began a "violent assault" on Youde, but then left the room.

Justice Sulan said Haydon helped the three men by storing bodies in barrels in his shed and being a co-lessee on the Snowtown bank vault where barrels were found in 1999.

"By the time your wife disappeared (in 1998) you knew Bunting was a serial killer," he said. "You feared Bunting would kill you if he found out you had said something to the police.

"You buried your head in the sand (and) you did not seek help from others or did not go to the police.

"The court must make it clear that conduct of this kind, which I hope will never occur again in South Australia, will be treated in the most severe manner."

He fixed a non-parole period of 18 years and with time already served, Haydon will be eligible to apply for parole in 2017.

Outside court, prosecutors and defence lawyers refused to comment.

O'Dwyer's foster mother Maureen Fox said the sentence was not long enough.

There are still a number of criminal injury compensation matters against Bunting and Wagner before the District Court.

While some of the claims have been finalised, proceedings are still being brought before the court, with the most recent papers lodged last month.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18264880-1246,00.html

Killer jailed for 40 years
By Lisa Davies
February 25, 2006

A KILLER who gunned down his mate two days before he was due to testify against him in court smirked as he was sentenced to 40 years jail yesterday.
But it was met with a mixture of sorrow and relief for relatives of Damien Meredith, who had hoped his killer, Daniel James Davies, would be jailed for life.

Davies, now 25, was found guilty by a jury of murdering Mr Meredith on September 28, 2002.

The trial heard that Mr Meredith had been due to testify against Davies for shooting him in the foot in 2001.

But two days before Mr Meredith was to take the stand against his friend of two years, Davies lured him to a remote bushland site outside Swansea, near Newcastle.

Davies shot him in the head at point-blank range but when Mr Meredith survived and tried to run away, his assassin fired several more bullets into his head.

Co-offender Peter John Carruthers then ran over him with a car. He pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for 25 years.

The court heard that a year after burying the father of one in a shallow grave, Davies returned and exhumed the body, used a machete to cut it into pieces, placed it in bags and dumped it at a waste centre.

Acting Justice David Patten yesterday said the motive for the crime was "so disproportionate" to any threat by Mr Meredith that he deemed it had a "very high degree of criminality".

He said the killing was "carefully planned and brutally executed by a man with a violent history who has shown no sign of remorse".

Davies, whose 19-year-old partner and 3-year-old daughter regularly visit him in jail, was spared a life sentence due to his age and history of psychiatric problems.

Wearing T-shirts displaying Mr Meredith's photograph and the slogan "Justice for Damo", the victim's family sobbed during sentencing.

Outside, they expressed disappointment at not hearing "life".

"It's not justice - it should have been life," the victim's sister, Lisa Forbes-Harper, said.

"The hideous crime that they committed - what have they got to do to get life?"

Mr Meredith's mother, Josephine Brace, described Davies as "an absolute monster". "It should have been life - my son got life," she said.

Davies will have to serve at least 30 years.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18260000-1242,00.html

Bouncer jailed for killer kick
By Amanda Watt
February 25, 2006

A YOUNG Brisbane IT specialist who worked as a part-time nightclub bouncer for extra cash has been jailed for seven years for killing a drunk patron with a single kick.
Frank Hutchings, 29, was found guilty of manslaughter by a Supreme Court jury in December over the incident at Morningside's Colmslie Hotel in June 2003.

During the trial, the court was told that victim David John Coddington, 27, was apparently upset about being ejected from the hotel shortly before closing time for being too drunk. As he walked past Hutchings and other security staff he complained about his removal.

Coddington was overhead to say to Hutchings: "I f--- your mother."

It was alleged that when Coddington repeated the insult Hutchings kicked him with a fast, sharp blow to the head.

Coddington, who had a blood alcohol reading of 0.29 per cent, died a short time later of a brain haemorrhage.

Hutchings has maintained he only hit Coddington on the shoulder in a bid to subdue him, and the kick did not have enough force to do any damage.

He claimed in his evidence that Coddington did not flinch or move after he was struck, and seconds later turned to walk away but his feet twisted and he fell down.

But Justice Cate Holmes told Hutchings yesterday Coddington was a very drunk young man and she did not accept he represented a "perceived threat".

"What you did was a stupid and brutal act on impulse and it changed your life forever and those who loved Mr Coddington," Justice Holmes said.

She did, however, accept that the incident was out of character for Hutchings, who had lived a "reputable, blameless life" and had been the subject of numerous glowing references to the court. But she said: "All of that has now come crashing down."

She sentenced him to seven years' jail with a recommendation he be considered for parole after three years.

Prosecutor Peter Feeney had argued Hutchings should be jailed for seven to nine years, while defence counsel Michael Byrne, QC, told the court five to six years was an appropriate range.

Mr Byrne said his client had not been in trouble with the law either before the incident or in the three years since, and had actually helped the authorities on more than one occasion by giving evidence about other nightclub incidents.

"Society as a whole does not need protection from Mr Hutchings," Mr Byrne said.

Outside court, members of Coddington's family, who have attended every day of the trial, said they would "rather not comment" on the sentence.

"It's time to get on with life," one remarked.

Hutchings' legal team have lodged an appeal against his conviction.

A spokesman for the family, Hutchings' long-time friend Nathan Scholz, said the incident had been devastating for both families.

"It's difficult to say anything at the moment because an appeal has been lodged," Mr Scholz said.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18264879-1248,00.html

Olympic cyclist jailed for stalking wife
Tuesday Feb 28 12:13 AEDT

Olympic cyclist Gary Neiwand will spend four months in jail after breaching an intervention order requiring him to keep away from his ex-wife.

In September last year, Neiwand, 39, was given a suspended four-month jail term, but just weeks later breached a court order by driving past his wife's house.

In the Melbourne Magistrates Court, Magistrate Felicity Broughton ordered the dual Olympic silver medallist to serve out the four-month sentence.

Neiwand's lawyer said he would appeal against the decision and apply for bail.

Source:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=88990

I saw this guy featured on a current affairs show, 60 minutes I think it was, a year or two ago. His wife was saying how he beat her and she thought he was going to kill her. Even after she 'escaped' she was still in fear of her life. This guy is a control freak and a bully. I hope he gets his just desserts in prison.

I have previously posted on this but here's the latest.
Husband on murder charge
By Edmund Tadros and Les Kennedy
March 2, 2006

SIX weeks ago, Mark Galante stood beside a mannequin that was dressed in the clothes of his missing wife, Jody, in a public appeal to find her.

Last night Galante, 27, was charged with the shooting murder of his 26-year-old pregnant wife whom he reported missing from Parklea Markets on the night of January 7.

Mrs Galante's mother, Julie-Anne Hand, told the Herald after the arrest: "If you want to know our instant reactions, it's relief, anger. We're a bit numb."

Police pulled over Galante in Salford Crescent, Stanhope Gardens, in Sydney's north-west, as he was driving to his home a few blocks away.

Galante was taken to Blacktown police station where he was questioned before being charged with the murder of his wife, who died from gunshot wounds to the head. The weapon has not been found.

Galante had told police the last time he saw his wife was when he dropped her off at the park across the road from Parklea Markets the morning she went missing.

Galante was refused police bail last night and will face Blacktown Local Court today.

Galante has repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife's murder. Asked in January if he had anything to do with the murder of his wife, he said: "I loved her with all my heart and soul and I would never do anything to her."

On Tuesday he told the Herald that his sleep was "not the greatest" because he could not stop thinking about his wife.

Sleep has long been a problem for Galante. "A couple of nights I've slept alright," he told the Herald in January. "A few nights there I've just slept a couple of hours and then I just lay awake, just thinking for hours and I just can't sleep. I just can't sleep."

Before the arrest, tensions between Mrs Galante's family and Galante had been kept private.

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/husband-on-murder-charge/2006/03/01/1141191732157.html

Husband murder charge
From: AAP

March 02, 2006

A SYDNEY man accused of murdering his pregnant wife Jody Galante has been refused bail in a Sydney court.
Mark Galante, 27, faced Blacktown Local Court today accused of murdering his 26-year-old wife in January this year.

Mrs Galante's body was found in Blue Mountains bushland, west of Sydney, on January 14. She died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

Mr Galante initially told police he last saw the mother of one alive one week earlier, when he dropped her off at Parklea Markets on the morning of January 7.

He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the disappearance and murder of his wife, who was three months pregnant.

He was arrested yesterday in a car near the couple's Stanhope Gardens home.

Mr Galante, dressed in a grey shirt with a white stripe, did not apply for bail today and it was formally refused by Magistrate Christopher Longley.

He will next face Penrith Local Court on May 12 via audio visual link.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18322099-38876,00.html

Family slams sex teacher sentence
From: AAP
March 02, 2006

THE family of a teacher-sex victim has slammed the teacher's suspended sentence, saying a male offender would not have been treated so leniently.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called for a report into the suspended sentence given to a teacher who had sex with her 15-year-old student. The decision not to jail music teacher Bridget Mary Nolan, 25, has sparked widespread outrage.

Nolan had admitted having sex three times with the boy, who was a student at the country SA school where she worked, last year.

She had faced a maximum seven years' imprisonment for each of the three convictions for unlawful sexual intercourse, but the South Australian District Court suspended a two year jail term after Nolan entered a $1000, three-year good behaviour bond.

The family of Nolan's victim today criticised the decision not to jail her.

"Similar cases involving teachers and students where there have been a male perpetrator and a female victim have resulted in a jail term," the family said in a statement.

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They also questioned the extent of Nolan's depression: "Our understanding of depression has led us to believe it usually causes a loss of libido."

Judge Gordon Barrett said Nolan's sacking as a teacher, and the considerable media publicity given to her case, had already served as considerable punishment.

"I am entitled to take into account the extent of shame you have already suffered," he said.

"You have lost your posting and will, in all likelihood, lose your career.

"While that is inevitable, it is, in your case a significant penalty."

Judge Barrett also noted Nolan, who was depressed after a break-up with her boyfriend at the time, was genuinely remorseful for her crime.

Last year, country South Australian teacher Kym Slater was jailed after he admitted having sex with two female students.

In Melbourne, physical education teacher Karen Ellis was initially given a suspended sentence for having sex with a student, but was later jailed after an appeal.

Ellis served six months' jail before she was released last November.

SA Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras said he would view a prosecutor's report before deciding whether to appeal.

Premier Mike Rann also said he would seek a report on the case.

"This was an incredible breach of trust," Mr Rann said.

"This teacher will never teach again and should never teach again."

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18323713-2,00.html

17yrs for killing wife before child
From: AAP
March 08, 2006

A MELBOURNE man who stabbed his wife to death in front of their eight-year-old daughter has been jailed for 17 years.
Paul Margach, 39, murdered his wife Tina by stabbing her 20 times with a steak knife in the couple's suburban Ascot Vale home on October 15, 2004.

During his trial, the defence argued Margach was guilty of manslaughter, but not murder, because he did not intend to kill his wife and was provoked by the mistaken belief she had been unfaithful.

But a Victorian Supreme Court jury last month convicted him of murder.

Justice Betty King today sentenced Margach to 17 years' jail with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years and six months.

Melbourne Justice King described Margach's frenzied attack on his wife as a spontaneous and unplanned explosion of anger, rather than a crime of revenge.

Margach's actions had destroyed not only his own life but the lives of the people he loved, she said.

"By your anger and your actions, which probably only lasted a matter of some few minutes, you destroyed many lives that night, your wife, her family, your children, your family and your own," the judge said.

Justice King commended Margach's daughter Erin, who was eight when she witnessed her mother being fatally stabbed, on her courage in dealing with emergency services on the night.

"It was tragic that your eight-year-old daughter was caught up in dealing with the triple-0 operator and attempting to save her mother's life.

"There can be no doubt that it will be a trauma that she will remember.

"I want to commend Erin for her courage in dealing with the matters as she did on the night of the murder."

Tina's father, Joe Cultrera, said the sentence did not fit the crime.

"A life for a life," he said.

"He ruined my daughter's life and everybody else around him, that's what he wanted to do."

Tina's brother Steven advised other men who were not coping in a marriage to leave.

"Be a man and walk away. Don't be a wimp and bash your wife and kill her and nearly get away with it," he said.

Source:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18388758-2,00.html

Not a long enough sentence in my mind. That poor little girl seeing her mother stabbed to death! How will that affect the rest of her life? What a selfish Bas***d. He deserves life (and I mean life) in gaol.

Call to lock up girl in rape case
By Natasha Wallace
March 9, 2006

A 16-YEAR-OLD girl is facing a jail term after helping her boyfriend kidnap a woman and lock her in a linen cupboard where he raped her repeatedly for six days.

Yesterday, after the prosecution argued the court should consider a full-time custodial sentence because of the "absolutely horrendous" crime, a children's magistrate said he had never come across anything like it.

The pair, who knew the 20-year-old woman through mutual friends on the northern beaches, lured her with promises of a birthday gift to a Concord unit owned by the girl's grandfather in June last year, the court had been told. The woman was allegedly bound and gagged at knifepoint and forced to hand over her debit card, PIN and money.

The girl, from Hurstville, has pleaded guilty to three charges of kidnapping and armed robbery. Her co-accused has yet to face trial.

The girl's legal aid lawyer told Bidura Children's Court she had been in a relationship with the 19-year-old co-accused for six months. She believed he was 23 and had been treated violently at the time the woman was held captive. The girl was pregnant at the time and later had to have a termination, her lawyer, Maria Lynch, said. She weighed just 38 kilograms when arrested. "She was extremely traumatised and was in fact just powerless to make any changes," Ms Lynch said.

She said the girl was intelligent, but immature and naive, and had been a good student at a selective school before she was expelled.

She had been estranged from her family and away from anyone who could have given her a "reality check", she said.

Ms Lynch said the girl had committed the crime to "place herself in a better light in relation to [her boyfriend]".

"She's more likely to be a tax lawyer in 10 or 15 years than a psychopath or repeat criminal offender," she said.

But the police prosecutor, Justin Watson, urged Magistrate Paul Mulroney to consider a full-time custodial sentence given the "extremely serious charges".

The magistrate adjourned the case until Tuesday to consider the sentence.

"My limited research doesn't turn up any matters anywhere near approximating this concerning young people, but I think, given the quite serious nature of the offence and the course you're asking me to take, I certainly need an opportunity to reflect on it," he said.

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/call-to-lock-up-girl-in-rape-case/2006/03/08/1141701574218.html

Quoted Text

17yrs for killing wife before child
From: AAP
March 08, 2006

During his trial, the defence argued Margach was guilty of manslaughter, but not murder, because he did not intend to kill his wife

Stabbing her 20 times, I wonder what the intent there was? To teach her a lesson?

Quoted Text

and was provoked by the mistaken belief she had been unfaithful.

This should not have been taken into account by the judge. I don't care if his wife told him she had slept with his best friend, he doesn't have any right to murder her.

The ability to control our temper is what separates us from the animals. This man is obviously not a civilised human being and should not have been allowed to use the 'provocation' excuse.

Plus he claiming that she had provoked him by saying "she slept with another man on a vacation" is hearsay, it's his word against his. How can it be proved that she actually said this? My wife knows a friend of the murdered woman and she says she wasn't the type of person to say anything like that to her husband, and was being abused by him for some time.

I agree, 17 years is not long enough for this pr*ck!

Youth bailed on armed hold-up charges
Wednesday Mar 15 19:48 AEDT

A youth accused of brandishing a pistol while holding up two women, one of whom was walking her baby in a pram, has been bailed by a Brisbane court.

Daniel Joseph Butler, 17, from suburban Arana Hills appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with two counts of attempted robbery while armed and one count of common assault.

Butler was granted bail, despite prosecution objections, and is due to reappear in court on April 5 for mention.

The court was told that on March 8, Butler approached a woman near the Grovely railway station, in Brisbane's north, and demanded her bag.

The court heard he produced a silver gun and the woman placed her bag on the ground.

Police allege he did not take the bag but told the woman, as he rode off on his bike, that if she told anyone he would shoot her.

The court also was told that around 30 minutes later and still in the Grovely area, Butler tried to rob a woman walking her newborn in a pram.

It was alleged he again produced a gun as the woman pleaded with him not to hurt her baby.

The court heard Butler told police he had no recollection of any such incidents.

Source
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=65192

I watched the news last night with this young man being aggressive toward the cameras, smoking like a chimney. His lawyer had alluded to the fact that the young man was starving and needed money to eat... which in turn led him to demand money off these women. Later we learned that the young offender said he had been drinking heavily leading up to the incidents. Okay... he smokes heavily, drinks heavily, BUT he can't afford to EAT. Tell me what is wrong with this picture!

Violent end for charity worker whose lights charmed a town

By Les Kennedy
March 17, 2006

FOR almost two decades Michael Healy was renowned in Orange for his extravagant Christmas lights that blanketed his former home, and for his charity work.

On Tuesday Mr Healy was found bashed to death inside his new home of less than a year in Wisteria Place, bought with money inherited from his late mother's estate.

So horrific was the attack upon the 57-year-old retired council road worker and bachelor that Orange police will not reveal the extent of his wounds or the type of weapon.

Homicide Squad detectives from Sydney have joined local detectives in the investigation, which Orange police's crime manager, Detective Inspector Terry O'Neill, said would include an examination of Mr Healy's finances.

Mr O'Neill would not comment on whether police believed Mr Healy had been the victim of a burglary after discovering an intruder in his home, or targeted for robbery by someone who believed he was wealthy because of his recent inheritance.

"All I can say is that he was the victim of an extremely violent attack and we are awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination to determine when it occurred, " Mr O'Neill said.

He said Mr Healy, who suffered from a speech impediment and was mildly retarded, was regarded as a harmless man who did good works for charity and had never bothered anyone.

His former home in Hamer Street, where he had lived with his mother, was a drawcard every Christmas for 17 years. Hundreds of parents and their children flocked there to see his Christmas lights display, estimated to comprise almost 90,000 lights and home-made decorations.

Each year he would pass on donations from onlookers to the Child Flight helicopter service. One year his display raised $10,000 for the service.

Last year was the first time that Mr Healy did not display his Christmas lights because he had moved house.

Mr O'Neill said police were called to the home at 5.45pm on Tuesday after neighbours expressed concern that Mr Healy had not been seen for several days.

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/violent-end-for-charity-worker/2006/03/16/1142098602847.html

This story could also have been put in the 'Shame Shame Shame' thread.

like you said in the 'shame, shame, shame' thread Suzi, articles like this one above makes you wonder where our humanity has gone..just shocking..

25 years for double rape
From: AAP
March 17, 2006

A MAN who raped a mother and daughter during a violent Sydney home invasion has been sentenced to a minimum 25 years jail.
Shane Martin, 26, of Revesby, was one of a group of men who broke into a family's home at Glenorie, in Sydney's northwest, on January 21, 2004.

A man, his wife, their 16-year-old daughter, 13-year-old son and another man were sleeping in the home at the time.

Getting in through an unlocked door, the men dragged the adults out of bed and demanded to know where cannabis plants and money were kept.

As other offenders moved cannabis plants from the cellar, Martin sexually assaulted the mother and girl, badly injuring the teenager.

The father jumped through a bathroom window to distract Martin and his co-offender but the pair gave chase, striking at him with a machete and slicing through the bone in his left arm.

Martin had pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, deprivation of liberty and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Judge Roy Ellis, in the NSW District Court at Parramatta, today jailed Martin for 30 years with a non-parole period of 25 years.

Judge Ellis told Martin during sentencing that he was giving him a long term for a gratuitous cruelty.

"The offences have had a cataclysmic impact (on the family)," he said.

"The impact goes significantly beyond the physical injuries they received on that evening.

"They go to development of anxieties, difficulty in sleeping, trusting in relationships, especially within the family and between the three victims."

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18499814-421,00.html

Four found guilty of teen's murder
Saturday Mar 18 08:19 AEDT

Four men have been found guilty of the kidnap, torture and murder of the 16-year old British girl Mary-Ann Leneghan and the attempted murder of her friend who was shot in the head but "miraculously" survived.

During an eight-week trial, the jury heard how Leneghan and her 18-year old friend had been abducted, tortured for hours with boiling sugared water and forced to smoke heroin and crack cocaine.

The prosecution said the attack on the two friends was in revenge for a drug-related attack on one of the men found guilty.

One of the defendants, Michael Johnson 19, had already admitted on February 9 to murdering Leneghan and the attempted murder of her friend, who cannot be named because she was a rape victim.

Adrian Thomas, 20 Llewellyn Adams, 24, and brothers Jamile, 22 and Joshua Morally, 23, were found guilty of murdering Leneghan and attempting to murder her friend.

All but Adams were found guilty of raping Leneghan's friend. All were cleared of raping Leneghan.

The jury has yet to reach a verdict on murder and rape charges against a sixth man, Indrit Krasniqi, 18.

Both young women were repeatedly told they were going to die during the attack and, in gripping testimony, Leneghan's friend told a packed court room of Leneghan's last moments in a public park in Reading.

"Mary Ann was crying. I didn't cry because we were told throughout the whole ordeal we were going to die, so by that point I probably already accepted it and I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of crying," the 18-year-old said.

She and Leneghan were forced to wear pillow cases over their heads and the young woman told a hushed court how Leneghan writhed in agony as she was repeatedly stabbed in the body before her throat was cut.

When police found Leneghan's body on May 7, 2005, in Prospect Park, she had suffered 40 stab wounds. Her friend was shot in the forehead and was left for dead.

Graphic details about Leneghan's injuries had made one juror so unwell the judge was temporarily forced to adjourn the trial.

"They had different roles but we say they were acting together as a joint enterprise to torture and kill these two women," Prosecutor Richard Latham had told Reading Crown Court.

The prosecutor said Leneghan and her friend had been attacked because Thomas believed the pair had set him up to be robbed of drugs and money. Thomas was stabbed during the robbery, and vowed revenge against the two young women.

The court heard how Leneghan and her friend had been dragged from a car, bundled into the boot of another car and driven to a guest house where they suffered three hours of torture, repeated rapes and were forced to smoke crack cocaine.

Throughout the ordeal the pair were taunted, burnt with cigarettes and had boiling water mixed with sugar thrown at them. They were then driven to a park where Leneghan was killed and her friend shot.

Source:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=91960

On last night's news I saw a report on a young man who was charged with the murder of a 10 month old baby girl. She was the daughter of his girlfriend but not his child. He was so insecure and immature and jealous he killed the baby so he could have the mother all to himself. What the hell!!! What a self centred, narcissistic, self absorbed (I know they mean all the same thing but I am trying to make a point here) moron/wanker/jerk poor excuse for a human being waste of space on the face of the Earth! I don't think he has been sentenced yet but really hope he enjoys his time in gaol.

Quoted from SuziH

On last night's news I saw a report on a young man who was charged with the murder of a 10 month old baby girl. She was the daughter of his girlfriend but not his child. He was so insecure and immature and jealous he killed the baby so he could have the mother all to himself. What the hell!!! What a self centred, narcissistic, self absorbed (I know they mean all the same thing but I am trying to make a point here) moron/wanker/jerk poor excuse for a human being waste of space on the face of the Earth! I don't think he has been sentenced yet but really hope he enjoys his time in gaol.

If you know any single mums who are thinking of taking their kids into 'de-facto' relationships. . just show them this story.
It as absolutely typical of 99% of violence against children under 5.
Adelaide currently has several people awaiting trial for the murder of young children in these dangerous relationships. :(

Lions that take over a pride driving out the King from his pride will kill cubs and yound lions so that they can start their own bloodline. Zebra males will do the same, killing a colt then mating with the colts mother. Human beings are supposed to respond in an intelligent way to these situations and not act in a base animal instinct kind of way. How can anyone be jealous of a baby for goodness sake. Instead of 'embracing' that child and treating it as if it were a precious thing and of their own flesh and blood they see it as a threat, the enemy so to speak. How immature is that. Great 'life partner' material... I think not. Are some people, women in particular, so naive they cannot see the threat to their offspring? Even after I married my second husband and my daughter was 6 and a half at the time, I watched over her like a mother tiger would. If grownups, especially parents, don't look out for a child's well being, who the hell will?

The story of the woman who died on a cruise ship under suspicious circumstances has been in the news in this past week. These guys (the accused rapists) are predators of the worst kind and by the sounds of it spend a lot of their time on cruise ships taking advantage of unsuspecting women.

Mum 'raped, killed' on nightmare holiday
By Lisa Davies
March 10, 2006

IT was to have been the holiday of a lifetime but just hours into a Pacific cruise, Dianne Brimble died naked, drugged and alone on the floor of a stranger's cabin.
The devoted mother-of-three had been administered a lethal amount of date-rape drug GBH as she partied with eight men, an inquest heard yesterday.

The men allegedly plotted to throw her body overboard but could not as too many people were around.

"The evidence will show Mrs Brimble was killed," counsel assisting the coroner Ron Hoenig said.

She had been "preyed upon" in an "absolutely disgraceful and reprehensible" way, leaving the 42-year-old with an impaired ability to see what was about to happen, Mr Hoenig said.

Photos taken in the cabin where she died show the level of the drug in her system was so high it caused her to froth at the mouth.

The Brisbane woman saved for two years to take her 12-year-old daughter Tahlia on P&O's ship Pacific Sky in September 2002 and, joined by friends, they were to visit Noumea and Vanuatu.

On the first night, Mrs Brimble had a few rum and cokes with her friends before heading to the ship's disco, where she began her favourite pastime - dancing.

She was last seen by staff leaving the club with the men including Mark Wilhelm, Dragan Losic, Letterio Silvestri and Petar Pantic.

The court was told police found explicit photos of at least one of the men engaging in sexual acts with her shortly before her death.

According to police witness statements, one of the men who was staying in the room told another passenger that "some s**t went down last night" and a woman had died in their cabin.

He said the men had tried to carry Mrs Brimble back to her cabin but "there was too much traffic around".

According to the witness statement read at Glebe Coroner's Court, the man said they were going to throw her body overboard but faced the same problem.

The court also heard the men showed the photos to girls from a nearby cabin and even took them to see the dead victim.

Mrs Brimble had an aversion to all drugs, her on/off partner of 15 years and Tahlia's father David Mitchell told the court. "And she would never entertain ... perverse, deviate or experimental sex," he said

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18407790-2,00.html

A cheery send-off: hours later she was dead
By Geesche Jacobsen
March 11 2006

A FRIEND travelling with Dianne Brimble had warned her about two men she had seen hours after boarding their cruise ship visually "undressing" every woman they saw.

The friend, Nancy Chard, identified the men as being number three and number eight in a photograph of eight men travelling on the Pacific Sky to Port Vila in September 2002.

The inquest into Mrs Brimble's death was told that the men, whose photos were tendered in Glebe Coroner's court yesterday, were part of a group seen partying with Mrs Brimble hours before she died.

The mother of three had gone on the 10-day Pacific cruise in September 2002 with her sister, daughter, niece and friends. She was found dead hours after boarding the ship in Sydney.

The inquest has been told the 42-year-old Queensland woman had been given the date-rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, known on the street as GBH, or fantasy, before being sexually assaulted.

The court was told she was prudish and not the kind of person to have sex with men she had just met.

The eight men were staying in cabins opposite the Chard family's and a few doors from Mrs Brimble's cabin on Dolphin deck.

Mrs Chard told the court she had seen two of the men on deck at the "sail-away party" and found them "really odd".

"I said 'be very careful. I don't like the look of them'," she said yesterday. "They were watching every female going past and undressing each of them."

Mrs Brimble partied with Mrs Chard's 29-year-old son, Gamu, after others in their group had gone to bed. Gamu Chard had returned to the family's cabin about 3am, his mother said.

Mrs Chard had warned them to "stick together" and "make sure their drinks were guarded", the court heard.

Later that night, Mrs Chard said, she could hear banging noises, a thud, and screaming and shouting in the corridor around the cabin opposite. She said the voices sounded violent, vulgar and aggressive. She was later told some of the men in the group had tried to get into the cabin of some teenage girls that same night, asking to see their genitalia and offering them "fun and excitement" in their room.

But questioned about her statement to police, Mrs Chard yesterday could not remember telling them she had stepped outside her room between 5 am and 6 am, seen the door of the cabin opposite - in which Mrs Brimble died - open, and noticed some of the men running out of the room.

Mrs Brimble's sister, Alma Wood, told the court she had not been worried when her sister had not returned to her cabin in the morning. She said she thought Mrs Brimble had drunk too much and fallen asleep on a deckchair.

She thought she had heard someone trying to open her cabin door with a key during the night but could not remember other noises or noticing anything or anyone that concerned her.

She became concerned after an emergency alarm was sounded on the ship and the corridor near her cabin was closed off, she said.

By 8.30 am Mrs Brimble was found partially dressed in cabin D182, shared by four of the men with whom she had been seen dancing until 4.20 am.

The eight were named in court as Mark Wilhelm, Matthew Slade, Dragan Losic, Petar Pantic, Ryan Kuchel, Letterio Silvestri, Luigi Vitale and Sakaleros Kambouris.

The inquest has been told that Mr Wilhelm later told police he and Mr Silvestri had had consensual sex with Mrs Brimble after leaving the disco.

The deputy state coroner, Jacqueline Milledge, has said that depending on the evidence she might terminate the inquest and recommend charges against "a known person or persons".

She encouraged witnesses who have not yet spoken to police to come forward and said the issue of the drug GBH was a matter of public interest.

The inquest continues.
http://smh.com.au/handheld/articles/2006/03/10/1141701698613.html

Predators
March 11, 2006

Dianne Brimble, 42, was allegedly plied with a lethal dose of a date-rape drug, then sexually assaulted and left to die on a cabin floor.

Eight Adelaide men were shown in the photograph tendered yesterday at Glebe Coroners Court, snapped as they set off on a 10-day voyage aboard the P&O liner, Pacific Sky.

Those "persons of interest" included Mark Robin Wilhelm, Matthew Graham Slade, Dragan Losic, Petar Vladimir Pantic, Ryan Kym Kuchel, Letterio Silvestri, Luigi Vitale and Sakelaros 'Charlie' Kambouris.

The group had barely boarded the luxury ship on September 23, 2002, when their alleged predatory behaviour caused alarm among passengers.

The court heard they later befriended the vivacious but "prudish" Mrs Brimble at the ship's Starlight Disco, where she danced and chatted into the night before leaving in their company.

The men allegedly videotaped the Brisbane woman engaged in sex acts shortly before her death.

Post morterm examination results revealed toxic levels of the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, also known as GHB, fantasy or liquid ecstasy.

Mrs Brimble's travelling companion Nancy Chard yesterday told the inquest she "didn't like the look of" the men on the day she boarded the ship and warned her friend of the threat of drink-spiking.

"They were kind of like kickboxers," Mrs Chard said, adding she noticed them"undressing (women) by looking".

"I did warn Gamu and Di to stick together when they go out . . . make sure that their drinks were guarded because I just, I just didn't like the look of (the men)," she said. Later that night, Mrs Chard said she heard "screaming" and a loud "thud" coming from the men's cabins, but was too scared to investigate.

After Mrs Brimble's death, Mrs Chard said she saw the men communicating with walkie-talkies. "It was almost like it was just a play thing. They have got no remorse," she said.

Her friends described a "happy-go-lucky" but conservative mother-of-three who was opposed to drugs and casual sex.

Other female passengers said the same men had burst into their cabins and made suggestions of lewd conduct.

[url]http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,18420376-5001022,00.
html[/url]

Unwanted advances on ship were forceful, says woman
By Geesche Jacobsen
March 23, 2006

A WOMAN on board the ship Pacific Sky has told of unwanted sexual advances by two of the eight men named as persons of interest in the death of Dianne Brimble, who was found naked on the floor in a nearby cabin.

Tanya Power told the inquest in Sydney yesterday that the two Adelaide men tried to kiss and hug her while they were lying uninvited on her bed.

Ms Power told the Glebe Coroner's Court one of the men, Dragan Losic, tried to kiss her, while the other, Mark Wilhelm, wanted her to hug him.

Ms Power is the second woman to tell the inquest of unwanted sexual advances by one of the eight men. She is one of four women visited in the early hours of September 24, 2002 by four of them.

The court has heard that Mrs Brimble, a Queensland mother of three, died of alcohol and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) toxicity after being sexually assaulted.

In other developments yesterday, the court was told Mr Losic and another of the eight men, Petar Pantic, wanted $3800 compensation each for having to cancel a planned trip to be available to give evidence at the inquest.

The court also heard an interview Mr Losic gave to the Adelaide newspaper The Advertiser might have prejudiced his legal position and contained a lie which could be taken as an awareness of guilt.

The Deputy State Coroner, Jacqueline Milledge, yesterday agreed to release two photos which had been recovered from a memory stick allegedly owned by one of the men.

They were apparently taken in the women's cabin and show Ms Power with Mr Wilhelm and Mr Losic.

Ms Milledge did not say why she released the photos, but has said before that media coverage of the inquest was in the public interest and would help make the public aware of the dangers of GHB. She has also called on anyone, including the eight men, who have information which might help determine how Mrs Brimble died to come forward.

When being shown the photos, Ms Power said Mr Wilhelm held her wrist as she tried to stop him hugging her.

But, she said, she eventually hugged him "because he was very forceful" and she hoped he would then leave her alone.

It was early morning and she had only just been woken after sleeping for only an hour or so, she said.

"I think maybe when I woke up [to find the naked Wilhelm on her bed] I thought it is a bit funny. But it was not really funny … just the way he grabbed me and tried to put his arm around me," she said.

She told the inquest she was stopped from getting off the bed, but later moved to an empty top bunk in the cabin to escape the men who had been invited into the cabin by sisters Lisa and Kellie Davis.

But Mr Losic then lay on that bed with Ms Power uninvited, put his arm around her and tried to kiss her on the mouth, she said.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Ron Hoenig, asked: "Was Dragan endeavouring to make sexual advances to you at that time?"

"Probably, yeah," she replied.

She later thought of leaving the cabin.

"I thought: 'Why am I still sitting here? Why are they doing this, I never asked them to'."

The inquest continues.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/unwanted-advances-on-ship-were-forceful/2006/03/22/1142703446040.html

The woman who died sounds like she was very na�ve and did not heed her friend's warning about the men or watching the drinks she was comsuming in case of spiking. These men acted in a pack mentality and she didn't stand a chance. I have been told that the drug that was used should only be taken proportionally to your weight. If you are given too much then you end up like the victim in this saga. Obviously the guys don't care whether the woman they are having sex with is comatose. Which goes to show you exactly what kind of 'men' they really are.

Gang rape sentences 'a mockery'
March 24, 2006 - 4:06PM

A sentence reduction for two convicted rapists has devalued the victim and made a mockery of the justice system, victims support groups say.

The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal today cut the sentences of Dudley Mark Aslett and Steven James Aslett, who tied up the parents of a 16-year-old girl before raping the teenager at knifepoint.

They were among four men who had broken into the family's unit at Newington, in Sydney's west, in July 2003.

Dudley Aslett had his maximum sentence cut from 40 years to 30 years, while his nephew Steven Aslett had his reduced from 24 years to 20.

Ken Marslew, from victims support group Enough is Enough, said the lack of appropriate sentencing was "a blight on society".

The decisions made a "mockery of the justice system" and devalued the teenage victim, he said.

"What if you had been the person that had been violated to this extent, and felt you had some sense of justice? You'd feel it had been turned around on you," Mr Marslew said.

NSW Rape Crisis Centre manager Karen Willis said the sentence reduction would be a let-down for the victim of the assault, and the appeals system needed to be "fixed".

"She's gone through a very long and protracted court case, got the conviction, and at least she would have walked home that day thinking: 'they've done what they've done to me, and I can't change that, but for the next 30 to 40 years they can't do that to anybody else'," Ms Willis said.

"What she has found out today is after all of the effort ... it's now been reduced.

"We have legislation with the possibility in NSW of giving quite long sentences to people who the courts decide are an incredible danger to our community.

"It seems that all they have to do is rock off to the appeals court and get it halved, and that needs to be fixed."

In sentencing the men in 2004, Justice Michael Finnane said the victim had the worst injuries he had seen in his 35-year legal career - requiring surgery to her genitalia after the attack.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gang-rape-sentences-a-mockery/2006/03/24/1143083959356.html

Further to the story of the predators on the cruise ship and the death of the woman from an overdose of a date rape drug....

Everyone let her down
March 25, 2006
Page 1 of 5

It took the compassion of the coroner to restore some sort of dignity to Dianne Brimble, write Neil McMahon and Geesche Jacobsen.

SHE never had a hope, either in her last hours of life or in the days after her death - not when she was surrounded by human failure running this wide and deep. There were those who might have saved Dianne Brimble; there were moments when she might have saved herself. But she died, in awful indignity, and then the neglect continued still.

For s full report
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/everyone-let-her-down/2006/03/24/1143083999546.html

Our rights are violated by giving evidence, say pair from Pacific Sky death cabin
By Geesche Jacobsen
March 25, 2006

TWO men who allegedly had sex with Dianne Brimble on the Pacific Sky cruise ship before she was found dead in their cabin are trying to challenge the legality of the inquest into her death.

Lawyers for Mark Robin Wilhelm and Letterio Silvestri say they plan to challenge in the High Court a law that allows the coroner to force the men to give self-incriminating evidence with protection of a certificate of immunity. The certificate prevents their own evidence, or evidence obtained as a result of it, being used against them in any future trial.

The lawyers said the provision, which also applies in other Australian courts, was a breach of their clients' rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

But counsel assisting the coroner, Ron Hoenig, said the application had "little merit" and was designed to delay the inquest.

Mrs Brimble died in September 2002 from alcohol and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) toxicity after being sexually abused, the court has heard.

The two men are part of a group of eight Adelaide friends who have been named as persons of interest in the inquest.

As a pathologist outlined injuries to her body, her partner appealed for help outside the court.

David Mitchell asked a person who had contacted Crime Stoppers with information of "substantial significance" to ring police again on 9320 7499. Mr Hoenig told the court police would guarantee anonymity and protection for the caller.

The court heard that Mrs Brimble, who was 165 centimetres tall, was found with a black top and blue jeans, and a black and white scrunchy. In her pocket the pathologist found $8.05, a key and two train tickets.

He told the court male DNA was found under Mrs Brimble's fingernails. She had four cuts near her left eye, possibly related to her broken glasses, the inquest heard.

Detective Senior Constable Victor Rulewski told the court a digital memory stick containing photos of Mrs Brimble belonged to Sakaleros "Charlie" Kambouris, one of the eight men. Mr Rulewski said Mr Kambouris had told him he worked with "wayward children" for South Australia's juvenile justice authorities.

With the photos of Mrs Brimble, the memory stick contained photos of him with some children, possibly his own.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/our-rights-are-violated-say-pair-from-death-cabin/2006/03/24/1143083999465.html

All I can say is :o . These guys are such poor excuses of men they should curl up in a dark corner somewhere and die.

I think this punishment is fitting.

Man executed for killing crying toddler
Thursday, March 23, 2006 Posted: 1603 GMT (0003 HKT)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A man who beat his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter to death because she was crying was executed Wednesday night.

"I am sorry that the child had to lose her life, but I should not have to be here," Robert Salazar Jr., said in a final statement.

"Tell my family I love them all and I will see them in heaven."

Salazar, 27, was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., seven minutes after the lethal dose began to flow.

Adriana Gomez was killed in 1997. Salazar, of Lubbock, told police he pushed the girl with the back of his hand, causing her to fall down in a bathtub and hit her head.

A pathologist, however, testified that Salazar, in a violent rage, inflicted injuries on Adriana that were worse than those suffered by victims of auto accidents.

"I've never shed tears over a victim the way I did over that little girl," said Rusty Ladd, who helped prosecute the case for the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday rejected requests to commute Salazar's sentence to life or halt the execution.

A state court and a federal appeals court turned down requests by Salazar's attorney to stop the execution based on claims the inmate was mentally retarded. There were no appeals to the Supreme Court.

Salazar was the sixth prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the second of four scheduled to die this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/23/texas.execution.ap/index.html

A week ago in the news was a story about a darling elderly english lady who was killed in her retirement unit in a Brisbane Bayside suburb. It outraged anyone who saw or read the news on this vicious meaningless act of violence. News today...

Youth charged with retiree's murder
Monday Mar 27 10:01 AEDT

A teenager has been charged with murder following the death of an elderly woman in a Brisbane retirement village.

The 16-year-old youth, of Victoria Point in Brisbane's bayside, was arrested and charged with murder and burglary on Sunday, police said.

The woman, 89, was found dead in her Salford Waters Retirement Village bed in Salford Street, Victoria Point, on March 20, with a pillow covering her face.

Autopsy results confirmed she had died 48 hours earlier.

The teenager is due to appear in the Cleveland Children's Court on Monday.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=93049

Concern at rise in date-rape drug cases
Monday Mar 27 10:01 AEDT

NSW hospitals are reporting a sharp increase in the number of overdoses involving date-rape drugs but the state government is yet to toughen laws for offenders despite calls for action from its own advisory body.

One metropolitan hospital has recorded a 53 per cent increase in drink spiking related cases last month compared to a year ago, The Daily Telegraph reports.

From July 2002 to July 2003, up to 4000 people had their drinks spiked, with about a third of those involving sexual assault, the newspaper said.

The figures come as two men last week were found guilty of spiking the drinks of nine people, including tourists, before robbing or raping them.

Doctors and police say they have seen an increase in drinking spiking with the prescription drugs as well as illicit drugs such as gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) - the drug that allegedly killed cruise ship passenger Dianne Brimble, whose death is the subject of an ongoing coronial inquest.

But state cabinet is yet to act despite a government working party recommending that laws involving drink spiking be given a massive overhaul, the newspaper said.

The newspaper also said it recently obtained a report by the NSW Drink Spiking Action Group that calls on the government to adopt new procedures for police and hospital workers and improve training for hospital staff.

A spokesman for NSW Attorney-General Bob Debus said the matter had been delayed as more work needed to be done to develop a national approach.

"In a matter of weeks we will be looking to bring to NSW cabinet a proposal to deal with this type of abhorrent conduct," he told the newspaper.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=91271

Cruise death: homicide takes over
March 29, 2006 - 1:10PM

The NSW homicide squad will now lead the investigation into the death of Brisbane mother Dianne Brimble, whose naked body was found aboard a cruise ship the day after she boarded it in 2002.

Detective Inspector Wayne Hayes will head a team of three homicide detectives and two water police officers after 12 days of shocking evidence at a coronial inquiry into Mrs Brimble's death.

"It's an ongoing investigation which is now being led by the homicide squad with the Marine Area Command," a State Crime Command spokeswoman said.

Until now, NSW water police had been running the investigation.

The 42-year-old mother-of-three was found dead on the floor of a cabin of the Pacific Sky less than 24 hours after she boarded the cruise liner on September 23, 2002.

She allegedly died of an overdose of the date rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or fantasy, while on a holiday with family and friends.

Eight Adelaide men are considered "of interest" to investigating police - Mark Wilhelm, Matthew Slade, Dragan Losic, Petar Pantic, Ryan Kuchel, Letterio Silvestri, Luigi Vitale and Sakelaros Kambouris.

Mrs Brimble's body was found in a cabin belonging to four of the men and all eight have been subpoenaed to give evidence at the inquest into her death.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cruise-death-homicide-takes-over/2006/03/29/1143441195210.html

Boxer's killing set to ignite gangland war
By John Kidman, Matthew Benns and Eamonn Duff
April 2, 2006
Page 1 of 2

ONE of two men gunned down in what police fear may be the start of a new Sydney gangland war was under investigation by elite crime squad detectives.

Bassam Chami, 26, and associates were the targets of an inquiry being conducted by the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad.

The revelation came yesterday, as the other man to die in the hail of bullets at Blaxcell Street in Granville on Wednesday night, 27-year-old Ibrahim Assaad, was buried in the Islamic section of Rookwood Cemetery.

As several hundred mourners paid their respects, strike force detectives swooped on Rosehill Racecourse following the discovery of a black BMW matching the description of one seen speeding away from the double shooting.

Guineas Day was severely disrupted after an off-duty officer found the suspect car, just metres from the track's perimeter fence.

The luxury vehicle had been incinerated and dumped on Grand Avenue, sparking a roadblock that remained in place for several hours, holding up thousands of racegoers trying to gain entry.

A police officer assisted with the road closure while forensic experts examining the wreck said: "An off-duty officer came across the vehicle earlier this morning and we've been here since."

Police have identified two men they believe are behind the killings.

However, senior officers have decided not to disclose their findings until completing further inquiries.

State Crime Command Assistant Commissioner Graeme Morgan said on Friday that intelligence gathered in the wake of the shootings revealed links between a spate of recent shootings in the city's south-west.

Chami, who was to have been married today, was released from jail in 2003 after serving 5 years for the manslaughter of a man stabbed outside a hotel in Auburn in 1998.

Police have also described him as a criminal enforcer involved in the drug trade. But news that he was being actively pursued by top-ranking investigators came to light only yesterday.

"He was a target, part of a whole group being looked at," said one senior source. "They're basically into stick-ups, extortions, a whole range of stuff, whatever they can make money out of."

Australian Lebanese Friendship Association spokesman Keysar Trad said: "We hope this isn't the start of another terrible drawn-out war, but the elders within the community certainly fear it could become that.

"Right now, the majority of the older people are angry about the senseless loss of life. They also fear the younger people may not show restraint with their own anger."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/death-of-a-hard-man/2006/04/01/1143441377161.html for more

Sniffer dogs for cruise liners
From: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
April 02, 2006

CRUISE-SHIP passengers will be checked by drug sniffer dogs as part of a security shake-up in the wake of Dianne Brimble's shocking death.
The upgrade by P&O Cruises Australia will also include the installation of closed-circuit surveillance cameras throughout ships in the fleet.

In its first public statement since Mrs Brimble's ordeal was revealed at a coronial inquest, P&O Cruises Australia has vowed to do everything possible to protect passengers on its ships.

A spokeswoman said the company was fully co-operating with the Brimble investigation and inquest and could not comment specifically on the case - but was determined there would be no repeat of the tragedy.

"We cannot begin to imagine what Mrs Brimble and her family went through, and we are determined to do everything in our power to ensure that this never again happens on board one of our ships," she said.

Security procedures had been boosted after Mrs Brimble's death, including increasing the number of guards on liners.

Advertisement:

"We have identified further improvements that we are in the process of introducing, both on board and ashore," the spokeswoman said.

At present, people travelling by cruise ship, like airline passengers, are subject to random checks by Customs sniffer dogs.

Under the new rules, no one will be allowed to board a liner without being checked by a drug dog.

Anyone found in possession of drugs will be forbidden to board and handed over to police.

From June, P&O Australia's fleet will be equipped with surveillance cameras to monitor areas around the ships.

An inquest last month heard that during a cruise in September, 2002, Mrs Brimble, a 42-year-old mother of three from Brisbane, had been drugged, subjected to degrading sex acts and photographed before being left to die naked on the floor of a cabin shared by four men.

About 160,000 Australians take a cruise each year - an increase of 40 per cent in the past four years.

P&O says there has been no drop-off in bookings or rise in complaints about cruises.

The P&O spokeswoman told The Sunday Mail: "Since the incident in September, 2002, we have implemented a number of improvements to our security procedures. These include dedicated qualified shoreside and seagoing security officers and a significant increase in the number of trained and licensed security personnel on each of our ships."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18680699-421,00.html

Doing time: Cronulla rioter's 350 hours of penance

By Malcolm Brown
April 8, 2006

A MAN who joined a mob chasing a man in the Cronulla riots last year and took part in bashing him has been sentenced to 350 hours' community service.

Daniel Paul Kelly, 20, of Engadine, was identified from television footage and press photos from the rioting on December 11. He was arrested on December 31, put before court and refused bail.

Seen punching the victim, Safi Merhi, in the head and body, he was the second person charged over the attack.

In Sutherland Local Court on January 27 he admitted punching Mr Merhi but pleaded not guilty to taking part in the riot. On February 14, represented by a barrister, John Chicken, he said he feared for his safety in jail. He was granted bail.

Yesterday Kelly, who was convicted on the charge of taking part in a riot, appeared before the magistrate Ian Barnett for sentencing.

Mr Barnett said Kelly, a man of prior good character, had been "easily led" by his peer group. He was an apprentice plumber, had been attending a TAFE course, worked when he was able to, and had a very supportive family.

Taking into account the pre-sentence report, Mr Barnett said Kelly had had learning difficulties and an attention deficit disorder and had suffered through that at school. He was unable to express himself clearly or put thoughts into deeds. He was seeing a clinical psychologist.

Kelly's present troubles were compounded by a habit of indulging in binge drinking at weekends, a problem Kelly would have to confront.

"Alcohol consumption played a part in the offence," Mr Barnett said. "It is conceded that he was offered eight to 10 long necks handed to him by other people."

Mr Barnett took into account that since Kelly was arrested he had spent some of his time in custody, but he felt that the offence called for a greater penalty than the time already served. Kelly had been assessed as appropriate for a community service order.

The prosecutor withdrew an alternative charge of taking part in an affray. Kelly left court with family members, and declined to speak to media.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/doing-time-cronulla-rioters-350-hours-of-penance/2006/04/07/1143916722789.html

The moment Tegan stood up for herself and became a hero

By Miranda Devine
April 9, 2006
Page 1 of 2

FEW QUESTION the law that suppresses rape victims' identities. It has been seen as protecting their privacy and, by implication, concealing their shame.

But in one impulsive, heroic moment last week, 18-year-old Tegan Wagner threw away that legal protection and revealed to the world her face and her name.

"We're not ashamed of what happened to us," she said.

Four years ago, Wagner, then 14, was raped by brothers MSK, 27, and MAK, 26, in their Ashfield home. The two men and their younger brothers MMK, 19, and MRK, 21, are already in jail for gang-raping two other girls at knifepoint.

None of the Pakistan-born brothers, who have identical first names, can be identified because two were minors at the time. Police have evidence that other victims of the brothers have not come forward.

Standing in the NSW Supreme Court last week after MSK and MAK were sentenced, Wagner yelled: "F--- you, go to hell, mate."

"I'd like to say, 'Have fun in prison, boys, I won," she told reporters, as she waived her right to anonymity.

"We're not telling people so they know we've been raped," she told Channel Nine's A Current Affair on Thursday night.

"We're telling people so other victims know they have support . . . to just show that you need to be confident if you're a rape victim, especially from these boys. You need to come forward. We all need to be strong and stick together and convict these people."

Sitting alongside Wagner was Cassie Hamim, who was 13 in 2002 when she was lured home by the brothers and raped. It was just a month after Wagner's ordeal.

Inspired by Wagner last week, Hamim, too, waived her right to anonymity. "Tegan's grown stronger," she said. "I'm proud of her. I realise I need to be strong and move on."

Hamim also said that her Muslim father was "disgusted" by the fact the rapists used their religion in court as an excuse.

MSK, a married Australian citizen and one of seven brothers who migrated to Australia in 1997, blamed cultural misunderstanding for his actions, claiming his upbringing in a small Muslim village in Pakistan taught him he had the right to rape promiscuous girls. Wagner qualified as promiscuous, he told an earlier hearing, because she did not wear a headscarf and had come to his house unchaperoned.

But Justice Peter Hidden dismissed this excuse.

"He must have had sufficient exposure to the Australian way of life to be aware the place occupied by women in the traditional culture of his area of origin is far removed from our social norms."

For more go to:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/04/08/1143916764292.html

Skaf again found guilty of gang rape
April 18, 2006 - 3:15PM

Sydney man Bilal Skaf has been found guilty for a second time of gang raping a teenage girl.

The 12-person jury at Skaf's NSW Supreme Court retrial took just two days to find him guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in company.

The charges arose from an attack on a 16-year-old girl in August 2000, in Greenacre's Gosling Park.

His co-accused, who can only be referred to as AA, was found guilty of being an accessary before the fact of the attack.

The pair had previously been convicted of taking part in the rape of the girl, which involved up to 14 men.

But the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in 2004 quashed the convictions of Skaf and AA and ordered retrials after it was revealed two jurors at the original trial had conducted investigations at the park where the alleged rape occurred.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Jane Matthews today thanked the jury for their role in the "unusual" case.

Submissions on the pair's sentences will be heard on April 26.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gang-rapist-found-guilty/2006/04/18/1145126105417.html

Father of rapists charged
By Rachel Browne
April 23, 2006

THE father of Pakistani brothers serving long jail sentences for gang rape has been charged with perjury.

Gladesville police arrested the 67-year-old man at his home in Mount Druitt in Sydney's west at 12.25pm yesterday.

He was taken to Mount Druitt police station, where he was charged with perjury with intent to procure acquittal.

The man, a Sydney GP, gave alibi evidence for his sons at a Supreme Court hearing in which they were accused of raping two young women.

The perjury allegations relate to evidence given by the doctor at the trials of his sons - identified only as MSK and MAK - in November last year.

Those gang rapes were separate offences from two other assaults for which the brothers had their already lengthy jail terms extended by Justice Peter Hidden on April 5.

MSK and MAK, their two younger brothers MRK and MMK and their friend RS are suspected of having raped more than a dozen girls at their home in Ashfield in inner western Sydney in 2002.

They are believed to have befriended the girls, inviting them back to their home for a party, where the girls would be plied with alcohol before being raped.

Some of the girls are thought to have been held at knifepoint with some of the rapes being video-recorded.

The man was granted conditional bail to appear in Mount Druitt Local Court on May 9

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/father-of-rapists-charged/2006/04/22/1145344321830.html

Clinic bomb victim's restitution: $57.69
Emily Lyons: 'It's a tank and a little more of gas'

Tuesday, April 25, 2006; Posted: 2:04 p.m. EDT (18:04 GMT)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) -- For the pain of losing an eye and going through 21 operations since she was maimed by a blast at an abortion clinic, Emily Lyons has gotten all she ever expects to receive from the bomber, Eric Rudolph: $57.69.

Lyons was among the first victims to receive a share of the $2.3 million in restitution that Rudolph was ordered to pay after pleading guilty last year in a string of crimes that included the Birmingham clinic attack and the Atlanta Olympics bombing.

While Lyons laughs at the amount she received -- "Right now it's a tank and a little more of gas," she said Monday -- others view the paltry payments as a disgrace.

"The best thing would have been not to do anything," said Diane Derzis, owner of the clinic that was bombed in 1998 in an attack that also killed a police officer. "To almost lose your life, to lose an eye, to go through all those surgeries and get that little amount -- it's unbelievable."

Lyons got her check in January. Derzis received $38.42 around the same time. John Hawthorne, whose wife, Alice, was killed in the Olympics bombing in 1996, is still waiting for his.

Hawthorne said he is not concerned about the money. Instead, he said, "We just want to make sure that if there are any royalties to be made from books or movies or anything that that money doesn't go to him or his family."

Rudolph is indigent
Rudolph is serving four life terms for the Birmingham and Atlanta attacks and two other bombings in Atlanta in 1997. In all, about 110 people were considered victims in the Atlanta cases.

In closing the file on the case, judges ordered Rudolph to pay $2,311,703 to everyone identified as a victim. The order was largely symbolic since Rudolph was previously declared indigent, but there were a few sources of money.

Court officials seized $1,700 in cash that was found in Rudolph's rented trailer in Murphy, North Carolina, and they also raised $2,639 in an auction of items Rudolph left in a rented storage space.

After deducting $1,000 for court costs, the remainder was to be split among the victims. It is unclear how many people have gotten checks or how much has been paid out because those records are not open to the public.

Aside from the restitution, an Alabama judge in 2003 awarded Lyons and her husband $115 million in a lawsuit against Rudolph. Nothing was ever paid.

Lyons' husband, Jeff Lyons, said the small restitution checks were ironic, considering court-appointed attorneys were paid $4 million to defend Rudolph. But Jeff Lyons said he is not complaining.

"I wanted Emily to be alive and I wanted Rudolph to be gone, and I got that," he said

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/25/rudolph.victim.ap/index.html

^^^That is shameful. That poor woman.^^^

Aussie jailed in Cambodia on sex charges
Tuesday Apr 25 16:12 AEST

A Cambodian court has sentenced an Australian English teacher to 10 years in jail for sexual abuse of boys aged between 11 and 14, a court official said.

Damien Walker, 26, from Brisbane, was arrested in December last year for taking numerous pictures of the naked boys in sexual poses, court official Ly Sovann said.

Six boys who live in a Phnom Penh slum testified against Walker.

The judge ordered Walker to pay $US500 ($A670) to each of the six boys.

It was not known immediately whether he would appeal.

"The justice announced yesterday proved that it is more efficient in Phnom Penh courts," Beatrice Magnier, Director of Action Pour Les Enfants, told Reuters.

"But what is worrying us is the situation in the provinces where more paedophiles turn to go," she said.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=97196

Skaf in 'solitary confinement'
From: AAP
By Vera Devai
April 26, 2006

GANG rapist Bilal Skaf has spent much of the past five years in solitary confinement, while his co-accused has been treated for cancer, his sentencing judge has been told.
Skaf and his associate, who can only be referred to for legal reasons as AA, were for the second time found guilty last week of the August 2000 attack on a 16-year-old girl in Sydney.

The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal in 2004 quashed their convictions over the attack, at Greenacre's Gosling Park, and ordered a retrial after it was revealed that, during the trial, two jurors conducted their own investigations at the scene of the rape.

Today, during sentencing submissions in the NSW Supreme Court, Skaf's defence barrister Peter Zahra, SC, urged Acting Justice Jane Mathews to consider his client's custodial history, saying Skaf had been confined to a single cell since the age of 19.

It was revealed that AA, now 22, had Hodgkinson's disease – a cancer of the lymph gland – for which he had been receiving treatment in jail.

"(Skaf) has been virtually in solitary confinement for five years," Mr Zahra told the court today.

Advertisement:

"By and large, the reason he is on protective custody is (his) fear for his safety."

AA's barrister, Matthew Johnston, handed to the court an affidavit signed by his client that included "a series of reports from (a treating doctor) about his Hodgkinson's disease".

"He has had medical treatments that have been quite significant since he has been in custody," Mr Johnston told the court.

"He also has ongoing depression."

Skaf, now 24, was convicted in 2002 on two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in company while AA was found guilty of being an accessary before the fact.

Crown prosecutor Priscilla Adey today said the maximum penalties should be imposed on the pair due to the seriousness of the crime, which she described as "brutal" and "cowardly".

"The Crown submits that it would be hard to define the offence as anything other than the most serious sexual offence," she said.

Acting Justice Mathews indicated she expected to sentence the pair on May 8.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18934972-28097,00.html

Unrepentant killer curses child victim
Boy, 10, killed in gun battle outside an elementary school

Friday, April 28, 2006 Posted: 1825 GMT (0225 HKT)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man convicted of killing a 10-year-old during a gun battle outside an elementary school cursed the dead boy in court Friday, and his co-defendant vowed to haunt the boy's family.

Kareem Johnson, 22, and Kennell Spady, 21, were sentenced to life in prison, plus 47 years, for their roles in the shootout that killed Faheem Thomas-Childs.

The boy had raced to school that day ahead of his siblings and was caught in the crossfire of a gun battle among rival drug dealers, authorities said. A school crossing guard was struck in the foot, as well.

"I think what they said pretty much epitomizes the type of people they are," Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson said after the hearing Friday.

Both defendants plan to appeal.

There were dozens of people at the school when the boy was shot in February 2004, but prosecutors struggled to find anyone willing to cooperate at trial.

At least eight witnesses went silent on the stand. Other potential witnesses refused to testify after a string of violent cases in the city in which witnesses had been threatened or harmed.

One witness was told by her father in open court to keep quiet. The father, Devonso Lawson, was charged this week with witness intimidation and perjury for telling the teenager: "Say what I told you to say: 'I don't remember."' (Full story)

The defense argued self-defense at the men's nonjury trial in March, saying the defendants fired to protect themselves when the gun-battle broke out with rival drug dealers near T.M. Peirce Elementary School.

The judge, however, said the facts defied the self-defense argument and showed an intent to kill: More than 90 shots flew across the schoolyard from guns that included an assault weapon and a carbine rifle.

One of Faheem's relatives read a statement in court Friday from Faheem's mother.

"I would like the self-centered, soul-less, ignorant, moronic drug dealers to remember that day," Patricia Arnold wrote.

Defense lawyer Dan Rendine, who represents Johnson, said his client never had a chance to beat the streets.

"It was obvious that there was no chance in the world this kid had to grow up normally and succeed in society," Rendine said. "He is stuck in that environment of guns, drugs and violence."

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/28/boy.slain.ap/index.html

:o :o ??) ??)

Stolen car had toddler in back
May 21, 2006 - 9:32AM

A man driving a stolen car with a toddler in the backseat has been charged following a police pursuit in Sydney's west.

Police spotted the stolen 1989 Mazda 626 sedan about 9pm (AEST) last night in Westhall Way at Claymore.

When the car failed to stop, police then pursued it through several suburbs.

Road spikes were used to bring the vehicle to a stop on Mamre Road at St Marys after a minor collision with the rear of a police car.

A 24-year-old Mulgoa man was arrested at the scene and was later charged with stealing a motor vehicle, driving in a manner dangerous and driving while disqualified.

He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Bail Court today.

A 22-year-old Claymore woman was also arrested at the scene but was not charged in relation to the incident.

A two-year-old boy, located in the back of the car, was not injured.

AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/stolen-car-had-toddler-in-back/2006/05/21/1148150111750.html

:o :o :o ??)

Dad who bashed baby to death is 'placid'
Tuesday May 23 09:06 AEST

A Melbourne man who punched and shook his newborn son to death was a placid, family man driven to his violent outbursts by a psychiatric disorder, a court was told on Monday.

Douglas Paul D'Aloisio, 31, of Lilydale in Melbourne's outer-east, killed six-week-old Jackson Bailey D'Aloisio in February last year, after bashing him up to three times a week from when he was less than one month old.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Victorian Supreme Court and maintains the support of his wife and childhood sweetheart, Sandra.

The couple have a surviving three-year-old son.

During a pre-sentence hearing on Monday, Justice Geoffrey Eames read out D'Aloisio's police statement, in which he recalls bashing baby Jackson twice on the day he died after he spat his dummy out.

"I could hear him whinging," D'Aloisio told police.

"He was carrying on and I did shake him, I punched him in the chest.

"I clouted him in the ear hole, quite hard a couple of times."

After bashing baby Jackson, D'Aloisio returned to the patio and continued drinking beer with a friend.

"The evidence is he went out ... and had a conversation with his friend that he gave no indication he was upset or stressed in any way," Justice Eames said.

Justice Eames questioned whether D'Aloisio's actions were a result of a "short fuse" rather than a psychiatric disorder.

Psychologist Michael Kyrios said D'Aloisio had "extreme" obsessive compulsive disorder, a personality disorder, social anxiety disorder and major depression.

"The way Mr D'Aloisio's mind works in any given situation, the focus is always on the need to be able to control the situation and his fear of abandonment should he ... not make the grade," Professor Kyrios said.

"He knew right from wrong. I question whether he could control his actions."

D'Aloisio's brother-in-law, James Mosca, said he had an ongoing competition with D'Aloisio about whose front lawn was greener but in the weeks leading up to baby Jackson's death, D'Aloisio said he could not be bothered any more.

He also said D'Aloisio, who was known as the "Light King" in their street, did not put up lights the Christmas before baby Jackson's death.

"He (D'Aloisio) was a family man, he liked to spend time with his wife and his children," Mr Mosca said.

Neighbour Melinda Corbett said D'Aloisio was a "placid" and "fun-loving" man.

Defence counsel Duncan Allen SC said D'Aloisio's serious mental illnesses lessened the need for general deterrence.

He said D'Aloisio's remorse and good prospects for rehabilitation were also relevant sentencing factors.

The maximum penalty for manslaughter in Victoria is 20 years jail.

"To live the rest of his life with the knowledge that he killed his own son having assaulted him over a period of weeks ... is punishment in itself," Mr Allen said.

The hearing continues on Tuesday.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=102837

Not punishment enough I say. Give this coward the full 20 years! Make it in the general gaol population as well.

This is totally nuts! The guys found guily over the ENRON scandal get over 150 years in prison, yet in Australia, we have these child molesters and rapists, the lowest of the low, walking free after just a few years in jail. Whats going on?!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=103488

... A jury deliberated six days before finding former Enron chief executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling guilty.

Skilling, 52, was found guilty of 19 of 28 counts of fraud and conspiracy and faces a maximum penalty of 185 years in jail.

Enron founder Lay, 64, was found guilty of all six fraud and conspiracy charges he faced and federal bank fraud charges in a separate trial. He faces a maximum of 165 years in jail.

Makes no sense although they ruined many lives.
Last night the Brisbane news had the case of two hoons dragging their cars and crashing them. In the back of one of the cars were two sleeping mates. They were killed. One driver took off on foot after the accident. The sentences were lenient, way too lenient. One guy got 5 years suspended after 15 months and the other guy got 5 years suspended after 20 months. (I think). Both drivers had been in trouble with the law for driving offences before. Either one or both of them didn't have Driver's Licences at the time of the drag racing deaths. One of the drivers since the accident had been caught driving while suspended. The families of the two dead young men are up in arms and are hoping the Attorney General will appeal the sentences. If sentences handed out to these idiots are so lenient then what in heaven's name are we to do? As the Dad of one of the dead boys said...'If the maximum for this type of crime is 10 years then what do they have to do to get the maximum'? How very very true.

Man, reading that makes me really angry! Is it Australia's fault that these boys got such a leinient sentence? Would they have received a harsher sentence had they been living in America?

Man sentenced over 'monstrous' murders
Friday Jun 2 10:50 AEST

A 51-year-old Perth man will spend at least 25 years in jail for the "monstrous" executions of his former de facto wife and her teenage daughter.

Guy Russell Gidgup was sentenced on Thursday to life in a strict security prison for shooting Tracee Dufall, 39, and her 16-year-old daughter, Chanel, on January 19, at Mandurah, 75km south of Perth.

Gidgup was sentenced in the West Australian Supreme Court after pleading guilty to breaking into Ms Dufall's home before bashing and then shooting her at close range.

He also pleaded guilty to slaying Chanel Dufall with gunshots as she ran from the house screaming for help alongside her half sister, Gidgup's eight-year-old daughter with Ms Dufall, Shakira Gidgup.

The eight-year-old managed to escape to a neighbour's house while her older sister died on the front lawn.

Justice John McKechnie said on Thursday Gidgup must spend life in prison for the ruthless slayings, for which he has offered no explanation.

"A ... possible cause ... is that you were consumed with jealousy and hatred and anger," Justice McKechnie said.

The judge said he was satisfied Gidgup went to the house with murder on his mind and carried out the execution of two people.

"The killing of Chanel as her life began to blossom is simply monstrous," he said.

"Their last moments were full of terror and no doubt you have irremediably scarred your own daughter who was forced to watch as you went about what you did that day, and to make matters worse, these events occurred in the safety of their own home."

He told Gidgup he regarded him as a continuing danger to anyone he thought might have wronged him in significant way.

The judge sentenced Gidgup to life in strict security prison, with a minimum 25 years to be served before parole can be considered.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=85591

He should be locked up until he is carried out of prison dead and in a box.

Man charged over death of four-year-old
Friday Jun 2 09:15 AEST

A 28-year-old man has been charged over an accident in which a four-year-old boy died when a car ploughed through a fence as he played in a friend's front yard.

Lucas Smith was thrown several metres when the sedan hit him after it veered off a bend along Norwell Road at Norwell south of Brisbane on the afternoon of April 9.

Lucas died at the scene after the car skidded and flipped onto the front lawn.

The driver was taken to Logan Hospital with minor foot injuries but was not immediately charged until the results of blood tests were known.

A 28-year-old man from Norwell was issued with a notice to appear in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on July 11.

Police said the man will face one charge of driving a vehicle causing death while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance, driving with excess blood-alcohol concentration and driving while suspended.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=104693

Teacher faces 200 sex assault charges
Monday Jun 5 11:18 AEST

A female high school teacher is facing more than 200 charges of sexual assault against a female student in Queensland.

The 25-year-old woman, who cannot be named, briefly appeared in Queensland's Beenleigh Magistrates Court charged with 137 fresh offences, including unlawful and indecent dealing with a child under 16, while in her care.

The woman first faced court in March, initially charged with 92 counts of unlawful and indecent dealing with a child under 16 while in her care.

Police allege the woman, who taught at a school south of Brisbane, first assaulted the girl when she was 14 and continued to do so until she was 16.

The woman was not required to enter a plea and Magistrate Jennifer Batts reinstated her bail conditions.

They require she reside at a fixed address and have no contact whatsoever with the alleged victim or her family.

The woman will appear again in court at Beenleigh, south of Brisbane, on August 4.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=105026

This started over 9 years ago and right from the getgo Burrell was the prime suspect. Kerry Whelan's family were shattered by her disappearance and apparent kidnapping and have never beenable to finally say 'goodbye' to their Wife and Mother because her body has never been found. It is thought she was hidden in one of many mine shafts on Burrell's property. Hopefully Justice has now been done.

Burrell guilty of murder
June 6, 2006 - 2:51PM

A jury has found Bruce Burrell guilty of kidnapping and murdering Sydney mother Kerry Whelan.

Mrs Whelan was 39 when she disappeared on May 6, 1997. Her body has never been found.

The day after she went missing, her husband Bernie Whelan received a ransom note demanding a $US1 million for her safe return.

The NSW Supreme Court was told Burrell kidnapped the mother-of-three out of financial desperation.

But it was alleged that, because Mrs Whelan knew Burrell, he killed her to prevent her from identifying him.

Burrell, 53, pleaded not guilty to both charges when his trial began in March.

The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for nine days before finding him guilty a short time ago.

Burrell did not react as the jury foreman handed down the guilty verdict.

His barrister, David Dalton, asked Justice Graham Barr to poll the jury members.

When the judge asked for further explanation, Mr Dalton said: "We'd like to check that every juror agrees with the verdict."

Justice Barr asked the foreman whether the verdict was the verdict of all the jurors.

"It is," the foreman replied.

Burrell did not apply for bail and it was formally refused by Justice Barr, who remanded him in custody for a sentencing hearing on June 23.

He shook hands with his barrister and was escorted by sheriff's officers into the cells below the court.

AAP and Staff Reporters
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/burrell-guilty-of-murder/2006/06/06/1149359727837.html

Oklahoma legalises execution of repeat child molesters
June 11, 2006

The governor of the US state of Oklahoma has signed a bill allowing for the execution of repeat child molesters, a move that some critics argue is unconstitutional.

The US Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that the death penalty can only be applied in murder cases, but the author of the Oklahoma bill said it is time to challenge that ruling.

"Predators with multiple convictions for child molestation have proven they will continue to prey on Oklahoma's children until they are stopped," state senator Jay Gumm said in a statement.

"The crime of child molestation ripples throughout the life of a child, robbing them of their innocence and sense of safety," the Democrat lawmaker added.

"We need to send the message as a state, that if you repeatedly prey on our children we will find you, prosecute you, convict you and execute you."

The Oklahoma law makes people convicted of rape and other sex crimes more than once against children younger than 14 years of age eligible for execution.

Oklahoma is the fifth state to allow the death penalty for sex crimes against children.

The bill's signing by Democrat governor Brad Henry yesterday came a day after his Republican counterpart in South Carolina endorsed similar legislation in honour of a girl murdered last year by a registered sex offender.

South Carolina governor Mark Sanford said in a statement that the law, called Jessie's Law for the victim, would "be an incredibly powerful deterrent to offenders that have already been released.

"Jessie's Law is about sending a very clear message that there are some lines you do not cross," Sanford said.

The other states with similar legislation are Louisiana, Florida and Montana. Louisiana has one inmate on death row for the crime, but the case has not yet made its way through the appellate process.

In 1977, the US Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty could not be imposed on someone convicted for the rape of an adult woman.

Some critics warned that making child molesting a capital offence could further endanger children.

"There's an incentive not to leave the victim alive," warned Colin Garrett, the Death Penalty Resource Counsel for the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers.

Another concern is that the severity of the punishment will prevent some victims -- or their families -- from reporting the abuse because most children are molested by family members, he added.

There are 38 US states which currently allow for the death penalty and 1,026 people have been executed since it was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre.

More than 120 people in the United States have been released from death row since 1973 because evidence surfaced of their innocence.

The number of death penalties imposed has declined dramatically in recent years, to 125 in 2004 from 276 in 1999, according to the Death Penalty Information Centre. There were 3,370 people on death row in the United States on April 1.

AFP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/oklahoma-legalises-execution-of-repeat-child-molesters/2006/06/10/1149815364208.html

This is really Cyber Crime.
Cyber team nabs alleged child predator
Saturday Jun 10 13:05 AEST

A Perth man has been arrested for allegedly using the internet to try to lure children to meet him for sexual activity.

The 26-year-old, from north suburban Glendalough, overnight became the fourth man to be charged by the West Australian police cyber predator team since it was given powers in April to pose as children in computer chat sessions.

Detective Inspector Kellie Properjohn said the man had allegedly engaged in explicit sex chat with three officers, despite being told they were children under the age of 16 years.

"We will allege he engaged in sexually explicit conversation with these children where he has instructed them on how to masturbate," Det Insp Properjohn said.

"It was proposed to our officers that he would meet them ... that they skip school.

"Luckily this was our online cyber predator team ... it could have easily been an innocent child out there."

Det Insp Properjohn urged parents to explain the potential dangers of the internet to their children.

Cyber predators groomed children for sex, she said.

"It is all about sending them sexually explicit footage or photos in order to normalise the behaviour," she said.

"I believe it is occurring every day, on an hourly basis, this is a global issue now, we are not just protecting our children from predators within the state."

She said officers were alarmed by the extent of the problem and urged families to keep computers in common rooms where parents can see them.

The Glendalough man will face the Perth Magistrate's Court next Tuesday charged with two counts of trying to use the internet to procure a child he believed was under 13 years to engage in sexual activity.

He was further charged with trying to use the internet to procure a child he believed was under 16 years to engage in sexual activity.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=97509

Woman remanded over fatal stabbing
Sunday Jun 11 11:14 AEST

A 20-year-old woman charged over the fatal stabbing of a man outside a Sydney hotel has been refused bail.

A 33-year-old man, named by the Sunday Telegraph as Stoyche Petresky, was stabbed after an armed robbery at the White Horse Hotel in suburban St Peters on Friday night.

Ilaisaane Inukihaangana appeared in Parramatta local court on Sunday, charged with being an accessary before and after the fact to armed robbery and with being an accessary after the fact to murder.

Inukihaangana's legal aid lawyer told the court her client had no criminal record and came from a good family.

The lawyer said despite Inukihaangana providing a "not entirely factual" version of events to police when interviewed, she "certainly did not lie".

Court registrar Barbara Mitchell refused bail, noting the serious nature of the offence and the possible interference with an outstanding offender.

Inukihaangana will face Sydney Central Local Court on June 13.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=105963

Thought this was a very good story on domestic violence ..

Quoted Text

A mother's tale of murder reduces police to tears
Adele Horin
The Age, June 14, 2006
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/06/13/1149964534790.html

SENIOR police were reduced to tears and stunned silence by the time Ingrid Poulson had delivered her last slide.

"Your statistics," she said, "equals my family. And I want you to meet them."

And there was her smiling family on the big screen in the darkened room at the Australian Police College in Manly, Sydney: her father, Peter Poulson 72; her daughter Marilyn Kongsom, 4, and her son Sebastian Kongsom, 20 months.

They were all murdered on September 15, 2003, when her estranged husband, Phithak Kongsom, knifed them and then killed himself.

The night before, she told the officers, her husband had tied her up and raped her.

It was a shattering end to Ms Poulson's address yesterday to the Australasian Police Conference on Family and Domestic Violence.

The NSW and Victorian police forces are hosting the three-day conference to develop a consistent national approach to family violence.

Ms Poulson said her father was her mentor and inspiration. Her daughter "loved to describe her days in giggling detail"; and her boy was, "well, � I would cry with my love for him while he slept".

She told the 27 officers, including five assistant police commissioners, from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong that only consistent, rigid application of the law against perpetrators would make domestic violence as unacceptable as drink-driving had become.

"It wasn't accidents that reduced drink-driving, it was the law �," she said.

Ms Poulson said that in the murders' aftermath the media "wanted photos of a distraught and shattered woman � . tears, hysteria, accusation".

But she would not oblige. She would not condemn Apprehended Violence Orders when urged to do so. They had failed her but worked for most women.

She would not act like a "victim of domestic violence", a term she despised for its suggestion of passivity and complicity.

She saw herself as a fighter.

She had fought to keep her marriage together, and then fought to part.

She had fought to keep her children safe, and even fought for her husband's well-being.

Now she is fighting for change.

"I stand amongst the souls of the dead," she said, "and ask you for help in protecting those that are yet to die."

She said an attitude prevailed in the police force that domestic violence was an annoyance that got in the way of "real" work.

It was, in the words of a police officer, "a bunch of crap paperwork".

She was astonished to learn how little training police received and dismayed at police unwillingness to examine the failures of the system.

Victoria's Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, has made domestic violence a greater priority for police working in Victoria.

Last year she brought in a code of practice that requires officers to report cases of domestic violence, rather than merely act as arbitrators.

The change in police practice has led to an increase in the number of reported cases of family violence, with an 8.5 per cent rise in the statistics of crimes against people in Victoria in 2004-2005.

Ms Poulson said she was not bitter. But she was growing impatient for change.

With SASHA SHTARGOT

I remember the day that happened. Her darling Father and beautiful little children being murdered like that and her ex killing himself before being brought to justice. I hope he is rotting in hell being stabbed over and over. I cried the day it happened and I have no doubt that it brought tears to the audience at the conference's eye's. She knew the man well enough to bring him to the attention of the police and to realise he was a danger. Sometimes people in power think they have their finger on the pulse of things and because they are educated/trained in a certain field they think they know best but having been threatened with violence and actually having a rifle pointed at my back once, all domestic situations with two different men, I can tell you there is no better 'expert' than the one going through that terror on an almost daily basis.

Further to the P&O death cruise that saw Dianne Brimble dead...

She was a dog and she ruined my holiday, inquest told
Geesche Jacobsen
June 16, 2006

LETTERIO SILVESTRI thought Dianne Brimble had "f---ed up his holiday" by dying in his cabin.

He was a man of pride who did not talk to "anything that's over 60 kilos".

Those remarks were part of an interview he gave police on board the Pacific Sky cruise ship two days after the Queensland mother of three died in the cabin he shared with three friends.

In the interview, which will be played to the Glebe Coroner's Court today, Mr Silvestri said that Mrs Brimble initiated sex with him while he was asleep, having taken three sleeping tablets.

"She started playing with me … Apparently she helped herself to me … Well, I've been told that she … started giving me oral sex," he told police.

"If it was, I was groggy and I was just, like, I don't know if you've ever woken up from a sleeping pill, but … it's pretty groggy and lethargic and you just can't be bothered. All you want to do is go back to sleep."

The court, which is holding the inquest into Mrs Brimble's death, has heard she died from a toxic level of alcohol and gammahydroxybutyrate, which is also known as a date rape drug for its disinhibiting effects.

Mr Silvestri is one of eight men from Adelaide who were travelling on the same cruise as Mrs Brimble in September 2002. The inquest has heard them described as persons of interest.

Some of them have given interviews to police.

This is the first time their words have been heard.

For more insight into these slime balls go to:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/she-was-a-dog-and-she-ruined-my-holiday-inquest-told/2006/06/15/1149964675925.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

You really have to read it to believe it!

Forgot to include a photo of the lovely Letterio Silvestri.
Here is a picture of a fine upstanding member of the community.

Sydney man subpoenaed

June 18, 2006

ONLY one of the eight persons of interest subpoenaed to give evidence over Dianne Brimble's death lives in Sydney.

Commercial real-estate agent Ryan Kuchel was last week keeping a low profile and claimed he had not spoken to his holiday companion, Letterio Silvestri, since Silvestri gave his shocking account of Mrs Brimble's death to the inquiry.

"I can't comment unfortunately, I can't give anything away at this point," Kuchel told The Sun-Herald.

The inquiry has heard that Kuchel was seen emerging from the cabin in which Mrs Brimble died with a digital camera that contained obscene and degrading photographs of the 42-year-old mother of three. Kuchel was one of four men consuming the illicit drug GHB - the drug found to have killed Mrs Brimble along with alcohol - the inquest has been told. The other seven men live in Adelaide.

Below is a picture of the Eight men in Question.Fatal voyage ... about to board the Pacific Sky, Silvestri is second from left, front row; Kuchel is far left, front row.
Photo: Sahlan Hayes

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sydney-man-subpoenaed/2006/06/17/1149964786810.html

'He was a small man and he couldn't look me in the eye'
Catharine Munro
June 18, 2006
HE preferred Viagra to a beer and "slinking" around the bar to leaping about on the dance floor.

Letterio Silvestri, the man with whom Dianne Brimble spent her final hours, was a "pretty creepy" character.

While he harassed several female passengers on P&O's Pacific Sky cruise ship, there was one who wouldn't be bullied - the longstanding P&O night manager Kathleen Ann Taylor, a registered nurse.

Presiding over the inquest into Mrs Brimble's death last week, deputy coroner Jacqueline Milledge described Ms Taylor's physical appearance, as like herself, a "woman of substance".

Ms Taylor, who had worked for P&O for 10 years, also had a "nose for trouble" and she had been alerted to Silvestri's behaviour on the first night of the fatal cruise in September 2002.

She noted him in the Legends Bar, where he claimed Mrs Brimble, 42, had been pursuing him. He was a small man and couldn't look her in the eye, she recalled.

"It was a foregone conclusion that there was going to be a problem with him," Ms Taylor said. "He didn't like authority very much . . . He didn't seem to be exuberant, he was actually pretty creepy."

Last week, the court heard Silvestri explain the night in his own words in a taped interview with NSW police who had boarded the cruise ship in Noumea two days later.

When he encountered Mrs Brimble, he classed her as a "dog", he said. Even after her death, Silvestri was still deriding her to the police officers, angry that she had ruined his holiday.

Mrs Brimble's family, including her sisters and eldest son Sebastian, now 24, were among those listening. Sebastian's father, Mark, later declared the experience a "very dark day for the family".

Silvestri has since refused to talk to police but while aboard the ship, sitting in the captain's lounge on the Pacific Sky, he revealed a little of himself.

At the time of the cruise he had no job and no qualifications but he'd had jobs at Target and had worked as a panel beater for his brother.

"I'm jack of all trades, master of none," he told the officers. "I don't drink beer. I'm into [anti-anxiety drug] Diazepams and Viagras."

In the Legends Bar, he was drinking Southern Comfort and Coke in a tall glass and biting his whole lower lip, his signature nervous tick.

No one thought he was drunk but he revealed that he went back to his cabin and took three sleeping tablets, aids he often used because he was a light sleeper and a "little emotional".

One of the officers who interviewed him, Senior Constable Victor Bernard Rulewski, told the court he thought he was a drug user but not a drinker. "He may have been a consistent user of drugs in the past, like a heavy user."

For more go to:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/passenger-was-creepy/2006/06/17/1149964787089.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

These pigs are pure "scum" and they should all be named and shamed...their pictures should be plastered everywhere so that women everywhere know what they are like so we can protect our sisters, daughters, mothers from these freaks of nature. The saddest thing I read about this case was that the poor lady's 12 year old daughter was also on this cruise. That woman's name is now mud and the way they treated her in death with the savage name calling only proves how evil at least one of these mongrels is. His only concern was that his holiday was "ruined". What about the daughter of the victim and the friends who sailed with her??? Their whole lives are ruined. I would happily go to prison if given the chance to run this pig down and then we'll see who the "dog" is. This whole case has made me as angry as hell. >:(

Totally agree Saphyre, 110%. A description of the guy who had the hide to call that beautiful lady a 'dog' by a female witness on the cruise was 'He was a small man and couldn't look her in the eye, ' I would have to say he was a 'small man' in EVERY way especially his mind. The guy popped Viagra (among other things) ??? What's with that? Is he that lacking as a human being... do I hear a resounding YES!?

This story today on the Sunshine Coast only about 30-40 minutes from where I live.
Teenager finds family shot dead
June 20, 2006 - 2:04PM
A teenage boy has discovered his mother, father and grandmother shot dead in a murder-suicide in Queensland's Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Police said the 17-year-old boy discovered his 42-year-old father and 40-year-old mother each with a single gunshot wound to the head in their 4WD on their property on the Maleny-Kenilworth Road at Witta, north of Maleny, about 7.30am (AEST) today.

Inspector Mark Henderson of the Sunshine Coast police said the boy later discovered his grandmother aged about 60 in the second home on their property.

She had also suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Inspector Henderson said at this stage police were treating the deaths as a murder-suicide.

"At this stage we think the husband has shot the wife and has shot the mother-in-law and then turned the gun on himself," he told reporters.

He said the 17-year-old boy and his 14-year-old sister were in the house at the time of the shooting.

Inspector Henderson said a note written by the father had been found at the scene.

He said that the son had told police he had spoken to his parents the night before and there was no indication his parents had been arguing.

"The 17-year-old son talked about mum and dad sitting by the fire having a chat before he went to bed and had woken up this morning and found them dead in the car", Inspector Henderson said.

He said no shots were heard by the children.

Inspector Henderson said a 22 calibre sawn-off rifle was found in the 4WD where the bodies of the man and woman were found.

"One would suggest that with the windows closed the sound mightn't have got out," he said.

Inspector Henderson said the man and the woman were believed to be estranged.

He said the man lived in one house with the two children while his wife lived in another smaller property with her mother.

The family, originally from NSW, was believed to have moved to the area about three years ago.

Inspector Henderson said the children were currently being spoken to by Juvenile Aid Bureau Detectives and were receiving counselling.

AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/teenager-finds-murdersuicide-family-dead/2006/06/20/1150701535730.html

That is so very very sad. How selfish is that? Why not just do yourself in... not leave the children as orphans. That is just too horrible to contemplate.
I had an Ex boyfriend who blew his head off with a shotgun. The SES had to be called in to clean up the mess because believe me there is not much left when you use a shotgun especially to kill yourself with.

Murdered child's mother takes truth to the grave

Claire Noland in Los Angeles
June 26, 2006

PATSY RAMSEY, who with her husband became a suspect in the sensational murder in 1996 of their beauty queen daughter JonBenet, has died.

Mrs Ramsey, 49, who had been battling a recurrence of ovarian cancer, died on Saturday at her father's home in Roswell, Georgia, with her husband John at her side, her lawyer, Lin Wood, said.

JonBenet, a six-year-old beauty pageant contestant, was found strangled and bludgeoned in the basement of the family's home in Boulder, Colorado, on December 26, 1996.

The murder is still unsolved and no arrests were ever made in a case that captivated the United States. "Anyone who knows this family hoped that they would solve the murder case while she was still alive," Mr Wood told a local newspaper on Saturday.

However, the Ramseys remained under what Boulder police called "an umbrella of suspicion" and at the centre of a media storm of speculation. They vigorously defended themselves against accusations that they were involved in their daughter's death and steadfastly maintained that an intruder committed the crime.

Patsy Ramsey called emergency services just before 6am on Boxing Day to report a kidnapping after she said she found, on a staircase, a three-page ransom note seeking $US118,000 for JonBenet's safe return.

Several hours later John Ramsey reported finding the child's body wrapped in a blanket in a windowless wine cellar in the basement. With no clear signs of forced entry, suspicion settled on John and Patsy Ramsey, who quickly hired a battery of lawyers and publicists.

The Ramseys did not consent to formal police interviews until four months after the crime because they said they did not trust the Boulder police to be impartial.

Police and prosecutors alike were criticised for their handling of the investigation, which has not been closed, although a 13-month grand jury investigation ended in 1999 without any indictments.

After the murder the Ramseys left Boulder. They wrote about the intense scrutiny they endured in The Death of Innocence, published in 2000. A freelance journalist who had contended Patsy killed JonBenet sued the Ramseys for calling him a murder suspect in the book. In 2003 a judge dismissed the suit, saying evidence submitted in the civil case led her to conclude an intruder was responsible for the murder.

Los Angeles Times

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mystery-of-murdered-child-dies-with-mum/2006/06/25/1151174072885.html

This is a case of Crime but no-one has been punished.

This on one of my news sites this morning. :( :'(

Girl, 8, found murdered in shopping centre
June 27, 2006 - 8:14AM

Police are expected to release security camera footage today of a man following the discovery of an eight-year-old girl's body in a shopping centre toilet in suburban Perth.

The gruesome discovery was made by the girl's 14-year-old brother in a disabled toilet at Livingston Marketplace, Canning Vale, in Perth's south-east, about 4.10pm (WST) yesterday.

Police spokesman Sergeant Graham Clifford said the major crime squad was treating the death as murder.

Further details of the incident, including images from the shopping centre's security cameras, were expected to be released this afternoon, a Western Australia police spokesman said this morning.

Sgt Clifford said the toilet was in a well-used area of the shopping centre, near the entrance to a Big W store.

He had no information on injuries the victim suffered or the cause of death.

He said the girl went missing after going to the female toilets at the same time as as her brother and uncle went to the male toilets.

The brother and uncle began searching the shopping centre and carpark after she failed to come out of the female toilets.

"The disabled toilet was engaged when they first searched," Sgt Clifford said.

He said the brother saw a man leave the disabled toilet when he returned from the carpark and chased the man through the centre, but lost him after he left the main entrance.

"He (the brother) discovered his sister deceased when he returned to the disabled toilet," Sgt Clifford said.

Police were seeking a 27-year-old man with blond hair, chubby to muscular build, 187cm tall with a fair to pale complexion, he said.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/girl-8-found-murdered-in-shopping-centre/2006/06/27/1151174162580.html

I hope whoever is caught and charged with this little one's murder in a public toilet in a busy shopping centre, get's life without parole.

ADENDUM:
Police charge man over girl's murder
Tuesday Jun 27 12:00 AEST

Police have charged a man with murdering and sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl whose naked body was found in a toilet at a Perth shopping centre.

The girl's body was discovered by her 14-year-old brother in a disabled toilet at Canning Vale's Livingston Marketplace, in the city's south-east, about 4.10pm (WST) on Monday.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Wibberley on Tuesday said a 21-year-old man was being charged over her death.

"We are pleased to announce that we are, at the moment, preferring charges of wilful murder, depravation of liberty and sexual penetration against a 21-year-old male person from the Canning Vale area," Det Snr Sgt Wibberley said.

The girl's body was discovered by her 14-year-old brother in a disabled toilet at Canning Vale's Livingston Marketplace, in the city's south-east, about 4.10pm (WST) on Monday.

Detective Senior Sergeant John Wibberley said the boy found his sister after he and an uncle went into the toilets when she failed to return.

"He unfortunately came across his deceased sister and saw the person run off from that vicinity," Sgt Wibberley told ABC radio.

The boy chased the man but lost him at the shopping centre's main entrance. "He pursued just for a very short distance and went back to care for his sister."

He would not discuss the cause of death, but said the family was devastated.

"They are completely distraught," he said.

"It is a terrible thing to happen, a terrible thing.

"It is always every parent's fear when their children go missing in shopping centres."

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=108835

Oh just ten min's with him... please just ten min's thats all it will take.

Heres the photo of the victim, Sofia Rodrigez-Urrutia-Shu... :(

what a terrible crime..and her father was in Hong Kong when it happened..imagine hearing that news over the phone

that predator is a disgrace to the human race >:(

Girl's sex-assault murder: man charged
David Braithwaite
June 27, 2006 - 5:08PM

An eight-year-old girl allegedly murdered in a Perth shopping centre may have been attacked as her uncle and brother knocked on the door of the disabled toilet where she died, police believe.

A 21-year-old man was today charged over the death of Sofia Rodrigez-Urrutia-Shu, who police believe was snatched at random before allegedly being sexually assaulted and killed at the Livingstone Market shopping centre in suburban Canning Vale.

AND FURTHER

"Please keep Sofia and our family in your thoughts and prayers."

Police who went to a house in Canning Vale today later charged a man with wilful murder, deprivation of liberty and sexual penetration.

"We went to a house in Canning Vale this morning, and as a result of what was seized at the house, and the lead-up interview at the house, he was taken into custody," Detective Senior Sergeant John Wibberley told reporters.

Sgt Wibberley said the man lived with his parents and worked as a shop assistant in the area.

He would not say whether the man worked at the shopping centre.

He said he believed the alleged attack was "totally random".

"We will allege it was a spur of the moment attack at this stage," Sgt Wibberley said.

"It's a horrific offence against an innocent young child who ... has just made the fatal mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.

Sgt Wibberley said it was not clear whether Sofia had wandered into the disabled toilet or had been snatched from the female toilets.

A post-mortem examination is expected to confirm the cause of death tomorrow.

Sgt Wibberley said the girl's father had flown back from a business trip in Hong Kong to be with his family.

"The family is absolutely distraught as you can imagine," he said.

"It is probably the worst nightmare for any family with a young child."

In their statement, Sofia's family said they had received "immense support" from the police, the parish and from the school community.

"We understand the interest of the media and the public following this awful criminal act but ask that you respect our privacy and allow us to deal with our grief," the family said.

Dozens of police officers were at the shopping centre today, examining the scene and surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses and shopping centre employees.

Brooke McCaffree, 22, who works as a shop assistant at a gift shop next door to the toilets, said she was "absolutely disgusted".

"I just don't understand how this could happen, we live in a nice suburb," she said.

"The fact that I was there serving customers as this was happening in the next room, is just diabolical."

The accused man was expected to appear in Perth Magistrate's Court later today.
AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/girls-sexassault-murder-man-charged/2006/06/27/1151174162580.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

When the trial begins, it will be revealed that this predator has a fixation with pornography . . . >:(

If only people today would realise how dangerous it is and just play football or cricket instead. . then our women and children would be so much safer.

Perth accused not Bulger killer: police
Wednesday Jun 28 17:50 AEST

Police in Perth have been forced to deny that a man accused of murdering an eight-year-old schoolgirl is one of the killers of British boy James Bulger.

Dante Wyndham Arthurs, 21, of Canning Vale, was remanded in custody after appearing in Perth Magistrates Court charged with wilful murder, sexual penetration of a child and deprivation of liberty.

He was charged following the discovery on Monday of the body of Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu on the floor of a disabled toilet at Livingstone Market shopping centre in Canning Vale.

Since his arrest rumours have circulated, including that Arthurs was one of two 10-year-old boys convicted of abducting three-year-old James Bulger from a Liverpool shopping centre in 1993 and killing him near a canal.

EDIT by Suzi
The above statement is incorrect. James Bulger was killed and left on a railway track, not a canal.

West Australian police have been forced to issue a statement saying they were aware of the rumours but had failed to substantiate them.

"The rumours are speculative and without ground," WA Police Deputy Commissioner Chris Dawson said in a statement.

Mr Dawson said the overriding public interest was for the case against Arthurs to proceed unhindered, and he appealed to the media not to publish information which may prejudice a fair trial.

There was a public outcry in Britain in 2001 when the two killers of James Bulger, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were released from prison and given new identities.

Details of their new names and locations have not been released, but the new rumours are believed to be based on speculation that one of the pair began a new life in Australia.

Meanwhile, Perth has rallied around the shattered family of Sofia.

Sofia's school, the Mater Christi Catholic Primary School in Yangebup, held prayer services for the little girl.

A school spokeswoman said a shrine had been set up for Sofia in the school grounds and counsellors were helping the girl's friends and classmates.

Parish priest Bryan Rosling said Sofia was a well behaved and well liked girl, from a respected and admired family, which had been shattered by her senseless death.

"She was just a gorgeous little girl, and she will always be that now," Fr Rosling told reporters.

"(She was) very sweet, very quiet, affectionate and much loved by everyone."

Fr Rosling said he had received many messages of support and offers of help for the family from the local community, and the family was very appreciative.

"I have assured them of our prayers, our support, anything the school can offer them, we are offering them," he said.

"They are very close and they are in torment.

"They are a wonderful Christian family with tremendous ideals."

Fr Rosling said Sofia's murder was likely to change the fabric of the school.

"I don't know if any good will come out of it, but I hope there will be," he said.

"I hope it is a reminder to everyone that we need to appreciate each other as treasures, as precious, and only on loan.

"There are no answers to a thing like this, so it is a test of faith for all of us."

Fr Rosling said no arrangements had yet been made for Sofia's funeral.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=109200

Further to the P&O Death Cruise

'Arrogant' man demanded Brimble be removed

June 28, 2006 - 5:12PM

One of the men of interest in the cruise ship death of Dianne Brimble demanded she be removed from his cabin while medical staff were trying to revive her, an inquest has been told.

Passenger Services Director Melvyn Armitage today told the Glebe Coroner's Court that a man, whom he later identified as Letterio Silvestri, was twice stopped from entering the cabin where medical staff were attending to Mrs Brimble.

Mr Armitage labelled Mr Silvestri "arrogant", saying he demanded staff remove Mrs Brimble from his room.

"He was quite arrogant," he told the inquest into Mrs Brimble's death.
"He was saying get the b**** out of the room, that's my room."

"It's an impression I'll never forget, he was just so arrogant."

Mr Silvestri has been named as one of eight men of interest to police investigating Mrs Brimble's death. The others are Mark Wilhelm, Matthew Slade, Dragan Losic, Petar Pantic, Ryan Kuchel, Luigi Vitale and Sakelaros Kambouris.

Mrs Brimble's naked body was found on the floor of the cabin Mr Silvestri shared with Mr Wilhelm, Mr Kuchel and Mr Slade aboard the Pacific Sky.

She died of an overdose of the date rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or fantasy, less than 24 hours after boarding the P&O cruise liner on September 23, 2002.

Mr Armitage today said he had sought permission from staff captain Ivan Jerman for the four men to clear their belongings from their cabin where Mrs Brimble was found.

He sought the permission after the chief of security told him no-one was allowed inside.

"I was just trying to alleviate the tension going on down there," Mr Armitage told the inquest.

"I just wanted to take them (the men) away from the area and put them in a different area.

"I'm just trying to appease passengers."

While accompanying two of the men as they packed their belongings, Mr Armitage said one of the men searched under the mattress for "sleeping tablets".

"He lifted the mattress up looking for sleeping tablets," Mr Armitage said.
"Once he did that I told him to put the mattress down."

Mr Armitage said the same man also removed two capsule-shaped "white tablets" from the dresser.

Asked by counsel assisting the coroner Ron Hoenig if he later had an argument with Mr Jerman about allowing the men into the room, Mr Armitage replied: "I don't remember".

"There's a lady dead on the boat, you've got a lunatic wanting her body out of his cabin and you don't remember?" Mr Hoenig said.

Mr Armitage then conceded he may have had a discussion with Mr Jerman about the matter.

"I may have done," Mr Armitage said.

"After we had some doubt to the way she passed (away) then we started talking about it."

For more on these slime bags of men whose cabin Mrs.Dianne Brimble was found in go to:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/arrogant-man-demanded-brimble-be-removed/2006/06/28/1151174243673.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

If nothing else ALL eight men (?) deserve to be locked up for being moronic wan***s and J**ks. Get them off our streets and cruise ships.

Brimble 'fully consented' to taking drug
Friday Jun 30 19:05 AEST

Brisbane mother Dianne Brimble "fully consented" to taking the date-rape drug that caused her death aboard a Pacific holiday cruise, a Sydney inquest has been told.

Letterio Silvestri is one of eight men of interest to police investigating the 42-year-old's death from the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, dubbed fantasy.

On Friday, he became the first of the group to take the stand at Glebe Coroners' Court, telling the inquest Mrs Brimble was told of the drug's effect before willingly taking it.

Mr Silvestri, 38, said his cabin-mate, Ryan Kuchel, told him he had overheard their friend Mark Wilhelm offer Mrs Brimble fantasy when they returned to the cabin they all shared early on September 24, 2002 - day two of the cruise.

"Ryan was obviously awake at the time. Mark produced some fantasy ... Mrs Brimble asked 'what is it', Mark replied 'it's fantasy'," Mr Silvestri said.

"Mrs Brimble asked 'what does it do', Mark then asked her 'have you ever been horny', Mrs Brimble said 'yes', Mark then told her 'this will make you 10 times hornier, it's like ecstasy'."

Mr Silvestri said Mr Kuchel told him Mrs Brimble then took the drug.

"Mark Wilhelm explained it to her what the effects were and she made it quite clear that she wanted some," he said.

"There was never any mention of her not wanting to have it."

Mr Silvestri told the inquest that while he was present during this exchange, he had been fast asleep, having taken a combination of valium and sleeping tablets.

In a later conversation, Mr Silvestri said Mr Wilhelm admitted having "consensual sex" with Mrs Brimble, and then claimed Mr Silvestri himself had "received oral sex from her".

Mr Silvestri said he had no memory of that: "I only remember the next morning when Mark waked me up (sic)."

He said Mr Wilhelm had woken him because he was concerned Mrs Brimble had passed out, and he wanted help putting her in the shower in the hope it would revive her.

Mr Silvestri was granted an immunity certificate by Deputy State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge, meaning he could not incriminate himself through his evidence.

During almost two-and-a-half hours on the stand, he said he met Mrs Brimble at the ship's disco but was not interested in her.

"I remember thinking I hope she doesn't come over here," he said.

In his taped police interview, previously played to the inquest, Mr Silvestri said Mrs Brimble "stank", was "black" and an "ugly dog".

When asked about those comments by counsel assisting the coroner, Ron Hoenig, Mr Silvestri replied: "Those were some harsh words at the time."

"I just didn't want to know anything about her."

As the day's hearing drew to a close, he described Mrs Brimble's death as tragic.

When asked by Ms Milledge if he understood what Mrs Brimble's family was going through, he replied: "Yes I do, yes, it's tragic."

Mr Silvestri will continue his evidence when the inquest resumes on July 24.

His seven travelling companions, including Mr Wilhelm, Mr Slade, Mr Kuchel, Dragan Losic, Petar Pantic, Luigi Vitale and Sakelaros Kambouris, have also been subpoenaed to appear at the inquest.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=109819

I personally don't believe a word that spews forth from these slime balls mouths. She can't argue because she has died. Like you'd take the word of a guy who takes Viagra like smarties and uses speed to exist and perform!

NZ suitcase murder accused arrested in Sydney
Jano Gibson
June 30, 2006 - 1:08PM

The accused murderer of a teenage student whose body was stuffed in a suitcase and found floating in Auckland's harbour has appeared in a Sydney court today.

Xiangxin Cui, a 21-year-old Chinese national and former New Zealand university student, is accused of kidnapping and murdering Wan Biao, a 19-year-old English language student.

Mr Biao's body was stuffed in a suitcase which was discovered floating in Waitemata Harbour in Auckland on Good Friday.

The discovery came not long after a ransom demand of about $650,000 was allegedly made to Mr Biao's parents in China.

Mr Cui was arrested by AFP officers in Surry Hills last night following a 10 week investigation involving Australian and New Zealand authorities.

He faced Central Local Court this afternoon where his extradition was sought based on warrants issued in New Zealand for kidnapping and murder.

Bail was not applied for and was formally refused by Magistrate Allan Moore.

Mr Cui will appear before Central Local Court via a video link on July 5.

Three alleged co-offenders, charged with kidnapping and murder or accessory to the fact, faced Auckland District Court on Wednesday.

They were remanded to appear at a depositions hearing at the court on September 4.

with AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/body-in-suitcase-accused-arrested/2006/06/30/1151174375963.html

Convictions in doubt as top prosecutor faces porn charge

Tim D ick, Ben Cubby and Justin Norrie
July 8, 2006

HUNDREDS of criminal convictions are under a cloud after the Director of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, QC, ordered an unprecedented review of every matter involving a senior crown prosecutor charged with possessing child pornography.

Cases covered by the review include some of the most high-profile cases of recent years, such as those of the gang rapist Bilal Skaf, the wife killer Andrew Kalajzich, and the man who shot at Prince Charles with a starter pistol, David Kang.

Patrick John Piers Power, SC, who prosecuted these and hundreds of other cases, was stood down on full pay on Tuesday before being charged by Surry Hills police late on Thursday night. Possession of child pornography carries a maximum sentence of five years' jail.

An explicit illegal video was allegedly found on his personal computer by a technician from Mr Cowdery's office, who was asked to repair the hard drive.

The technician noticed the video on Tuesday and reported it to his boss. Mr Cowdery's deputy then had a discussion with Power, who left without returning to his office.

Power, 54, is suspended at least until he faces court on July 27. He was also suspended from his role as the chairman of the Youth Justice Advisory Committee, which advises the NSW Government on policy on young offenders. Mr Cowdery said his office was reviewing "hundreds" of matters its records show involved Power, who became a prosecutor in 1987.

He would have conducted matters involving children, Mr Cowdery said, but the number of such cases was unknown, as was any effect on the convictions' validity. "We are going back through that database to identify the matters in which Dr Power has appeared and to get some assessment of the nature of the matters in each case," he said.

"When we have that information, we'll have to review it and make an assessment as to whether any further investigation is appropriate."

Asked if there could be grounds for convictions to be appealed, he said: "Certainly, there's an argument that that would be the case. I think we have to go one step at a time on that."

Patrick Keyzer, an associate professor of law at the University of Technology, Sydney, said ordinarily the principle of res judicata, which means the court decision is final, would operate, unless that decision had been obtained by fraud. The allegations had not been proven, Professor Keyzar said, and anyone appealing would have to show that proven allegations against Power had had a "material impact" on a court decision.

For more go to:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/top-prosecutor-faces-porn-charge/2006/07/07/1152240493796.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Russia knows how the mete out punishment. Remember the Beslan School siege and massacre by (apparently) Chechen Rebels? This news today....

'Beast of Beslan' killed, Russia says
July 11, 2006 - 6:22AM

Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who claimed responsibility for Russia's worst terrorist attacks, including the bloody 2004 Beslan school siege, was killed today, Russia's top intelligence official said.

Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting that Basayev and many other rebels had been killed in the operation overnight in Ingushetia -- a republic bordering Chechnya that has been plagued by sporadic spillover violence from the separatist region.

Patrushev gave no details of the operation in his remarks, but an Ingush regional interior ministry official said Basayev had been killed while accompanying a truck filled with 100 kg of dynamite that blew up in the Ingush village of Ekazhevo.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said Basayev was among four militants killed in the blast, which authorities earlier said had occurred mistakenly during a special police operation against alleged rebels preparing to commit a terrorist attack later today.

The Interfax news agency cited Ingush Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev as offering the same version of events and saying Basayev had been in a car accompanying the truck. He said Basayev's body had been identified "through some of the fragments, including his head," Interfax reported.

Interfax later quoted the Federal Security Service headquarters as saying 12 rebels had been killed in addition to Basayev.

Putin called Basayev's killing "deserved retribution" for terror attacks such as Beslan and others.

The September 2004 attack on the Beslan school, in which 331 victims were killed, shocked Russia and divided the rebel movement because civilians, including women and children, were taken hostage.

Patrushev said the operation to eliminate Basayev was "thanks to the (Russian) intelligence position abroad," but he did not elaborate.

The rebels' London-based envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, could not immediately be reached, and Kavkaz-Centre, a rebel-connected website considered a voice for Basayev, did not confirm or deny Patrushev's claim.

"The Chechen command is not yet making any commentaries or declarations," the website said in a statement under a portrait of Basayev wearing a beret.

Basayev, 41, has been reported killed on many occasions, but this was the first time the killing had been announced at such a high level.

Alu Alkhanov, president of the Kremlin-backed government in Chechnya, said the killing is likely to undermine the Chechen rebel movement irreparably.

"I consider that today can be considered the date of the logical end of the fight against illegal armed formations," Interfax quoted Alkhanov as saying.

Basayev was the boldest and most notorious of the Chechen warlords. But another rebel leader, Doku Umarov, pledged last month that rebels would step up their attacks against Russian forces.

A major Chechen rebel Web site confirmed the death Basayev and called him "a martyr".

The Kavkaz-Centre site, citing a member of the rebel parliament, said Basayev had died in an accidental explosion of a truck.

The confirmation followed Russian officials' announcement that Basayev had been killed in a special operation, when a truck in his convoy blew up.

Abu Umar, representing the rebel parliament's military committee, said, however, "There was no special operation."

"Shamil and other brothers of ours became martyrs by the will of Allah." He said that three other rebels had been killed in the blast, the site said.

AP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/beast-of-beslan-killed-russia-says/2006/07/11/1152383705269.html

Boy gets 26 years for murdering playmate
Evan Savoie was 12 when he stabbed disabled 13-year-old

Monday, July 10, 2006 Posted: 2135 GMT (0535 HKT)

EPHRATA, Washington (AP) -- A boy convicted as an adult of stabbing a playmate to death when he was 12 years old was sentenced Monday to the maximum 26 years in prison.

A jury convicted Evan Savoie, now 15, of first-degree murder for the 2003 stabbing death of 13-year-old Craig Sorger, who was developmentally disabled.

Savoie's attorneys have said they will appeal the verdict.

Savoie has repeatedly proclaimed he is innocent. He said Craig fell from a tree while they were playing and that he left him injured -- without a pulse -- on a trail but didn't kill him.

The prosecution said the victim had been beaten and had 34 stab wounds.

Prosecutors alleged Savoie had planned the killing. They told jurors he had blood on his clothes, access to knives, and lied to investigators, at one point deliberately leading searchers away from Sorger's body but later admitting that.

Savoie showed no reaction as the sentence was read, but he smiled when he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

"Somebody is going to have to figure out how a 12-year-old can be so violent so young," Grant County Superior Court Judge Ken Jorgensen said as he imposed the maximum sentence.

The Sorger family had pushed for the maximum sentence.

"In your worst nightmare, you never believe this could happen to you," the victim's mother, Lisa Sorger, wrote in a letter read to the court.

The key to the prosecution's case was the testimony of Jake Eakin, another playmate who pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder by complicity. He is serving 14 years in prison.

Eakin led investigators to the murder weapon and identified Savoie as the killer. On the witness stand, he described the brief attack in wrenching detail, saying Sorger repeatedly cried out: "Why are you doing this to me?"

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/10/boy.sentenced.ap/index.html

Adopted son 'murdered parents for money'
Thursday Jul 13 12:05 AEST

A court order suppressing details of a Sydney double murder has been lifted, revealing an adopted son killed his wealthy parents for the inheritance.

The bodies of William Weightman, 52, and his wife Pamela, 50, were found in their car, 20 metres down an embankment at Heathcote in Sydney's south, on January 9, 2000.

Their adopted son David Weightman and an accomplice had killed the couple and put their bodies in the car to make their deaths look like an accident, NSW Supreme Court documents released on Thursday say.

Mr and Mrs Weightman were drugged, then suffocated with a pillow in their Glen Alpine home, in Sydney's south-west, on January 8. They operated a childminding service.

NSW Police investigated the deaths as a car accident until Mrs Weightman's sister raised concerns about the couple's death that were then backed up by forensic information.

There was no inquest, but police formed a task force in June 2001 to reinvestigate the case.

Weightman, now 27, denied murdering his parents until he was confronted about his role in the deaths by his mother's sister, Margaret Unwin, in February 2004.

He confessed to police the next day, saying he had promised his accomplice $17,000 for helping him kill his parents, the court documents says.

"The offender frankly acknowledged that his motive was to inherit a large sum of money," the documents say.

"He denied that he (or his accomplice) bore any animosity towards his parents.

"Indeed, he said that he had had a loving relationship with them and that he had been well provided for."

Weightman, the couple's only child, had been adopted shortly after birth.

He pleaded guilty to the murders and was convicted and sentenced by Justice Peter Hidden in the NSW Supreme Court on December 23 last year.

He will be eligible for parole in 2026, after serving 19 years' jail for the murders.

Details of the case were suppressed while an alleged co-accused was tracked by police.

A 38-year-old man was arrested at Coogee, in Sydney's east, on Friday, June 16, and charged with murdering Mr and Mrs Weightman.

He was remanded in custody to appear in Liverpool Local Court on August 30.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=113909

19 years for a double murder. Take a leaf out of the USA's punishment book, Australia. Life... until they die. Murder is as serious as it gets.

This evening on the local news there was a report regarding the uproar surrounding the revelations that Prisoners at the Woodford Correctional Centre here on the Sunshine Coast were receiving 'rewards' for good behaviour. The rewards? :-/ Paddle Pops! ??) Don't people in the community understand that you get more with a kind word (or in this case an ice cream) than a harsh one. I know there is a saying that says something similar, and quite correct it is too. For goodness sakes. How horrid, pointless and boring would life be without little treats, however small. These prisoners are still human beings even if they have commited crimes that were inhuman.
The point of a Correctional Centre is to rehabilitate the incarcerated for re-entering the community at large. Not degrade and dehumanise them to the point that once released they reoffend immediately. :)

15-year-old charged with murder
From: AAP
July 17, 2006

A TEENAGER has been charged with the murder of a six-year-old girl in Adelaide.
Police said the 15-year-old youth was arrested this morning, but refused to provide any further details.

The youth has not been named and it is not known if the accused is a boy or a girl.

Six-year-old Mintra Zwar-Potts was found at her suburban Parkside house on June 8 and rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital.

It is not known if she was dead on arrival.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19814650-421,00.html

What the hell is this man on?

MP's 'love' for Balding's killers
By Janet Fife-Yeomans
July 18, 2006

NEW South Wales Labor MP Peter Breen has penned a sickening tribute to the killers of Janine Balding in which he talks about his realisation one night "under the stars" that he loved two of them.
The controversial MP, who switched to Labor after being wooed by Premier Morris Iemma to help shore up its Upper House numbers, describes the vicious killers in a new book as having rosy cheeks, pleasant smiles or being hapless.
He declares the oldest of the three killers - "Shorty" Jamieson - to be innocent of the murder. Mr Breen calls "blue-eyed" Jamieson by his nickname Jamo. He bought him a television for his cell.
"Jamieson is gazing out the high-barred window behind me, his eyes reflecting blue sky," Breen describes one jail meeting in his bizarre paperback, researched mainly in parliamentary time.
"I love Shorty Jamieson and I'm not afraid to say so."
The Iemma Government, already under fire for going soft on prisoners, will be further embarrassed by their star recruit lobbying for the release of three of the state's most notorious killers.
Jamieson, Matthew Elliott and a third man, B, were all jailed for life with their files marked "never to be released" for the 1988 abduction, rape and drowning of Ms Balding, 20.
Mr Breen, who swapped from independent to Labor after his arch enemy Bob Carr quit as premier, yesterday said Mr Iemma was "much more sensible" in reviewing criminal convictions.
He said Mr Carr had been "irrational" over the three killers.
The Carr Government passed laws cementing all "never to be released" prisoners in jail and closed down the controversial Innocence Panel after Mr Breen put up Jamieson's case for review.
Mr Breen also professes his love for the youngest of the killers, B, in his book, which he has self-published but which three mainstream publishers are said to be interested in.
"I love B and the statement causes me to blink at the stars," he writes in Life as a Sentence, which he claims is the "true story of the Janine Balding murder". Mr Breen, who considered entering the priesthood, believes B, 14 at the time of the murder, is totally rehabilitated after being baptised in the swimming pool at Minda Detention Centre.
He ignores a prison psychiatrist who describes B as a charming psychopath.
Of Elliott, Mr Breen refers to reports he is a "very impressive young man".
And he labels "hapless" a fourth man, W, convicted of raping Ms Balding and who has been convicted of two other abduction and rapes since his release from jail.
The book has outraged Ms Balding's family, the police and victims' groups.
"He had the hide to send me a copy of the book and I told him that I was highly annoyed and that I found it offensive that he would use Janine's name to sell his book," Bev Balding said.
"Poor Janine. I wish he would leave us alone."
Homicide Victims Support Group executive director Martha Jabour said: "Mr Breen is discounting the system we have in this country of policing and the judiciary and that is inconsistent with him being an MP.
"How can anyone say that they love a murderer when they are not a blood relative and have only met them a few times. It is bizarre."
One of the investigating officers, Detective Inspector Russell Oxford, wrote to the Government answering all Mr Breen's claims and reinforcing the evidence against Jamieson.
In his book Mr Breen also declares Gary Murphy, one of the five men who killed Anita Cobby, innocent and says that he wished another notorious murderer, Kevin Crump, good luck in his appeal to get out of jail.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19820690-2,00.html

The guy is a nut case!

Killer love remarks: MP resigns
July 18, 2006 - 1:32PM

A NSW upper house state MP who said he loved two of the killers of Janine Balding has resigned from the Labor Party, Premier Morris Iemma says.

Peter Breen, who quit the tiny Reform the Legal System Party in May to sit as a Labor MP, made the comments in a new book.

Stephen Wayne "Shorty" Jamieson, Matthew Elliott and a man who can only be identified as B are serving life sentences for the 1988 rape and drowning murder of Ms Balding, 20, in Sydney.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/killer-love-remarks-mp-steps-down/2006/07/18/1153166362975.html

So he damn well should have resigned. Fool!

Picture:
Persuaded to quit ... Peter Breen and, inset Stephen Wayne "Shorty" Jamieson and victim Janine Balding

Skaf 'could be killed' in prison
From: AAP
By Amy Fallon
July 21, 2006

CONVICTED gang rapist Bilal Skaf has no friends in jail and is at risk of being killed by other prisoners, a Sydney court has been told.

Skaf and an associate, who can be referred to only as AA, were convicted in the NSW Supreme Court in April over the August 2000 pack rape of a 16-year-old girl in Greenacre's Gosling Park, in Sydney's west.

During the pair's sentencing submissions today, Skaf's lawyer, Peter Zahra SC asked acting Justice Jane Mathews to take into account that his client, already serving a 28-year sentence for other offences, was approaching nearly six years in custody.

He said Skaf, who has been convicted twice of the Gosling Park attack, had "no friends" in prison and faced "onerous" and "very dangerous" conditions.

"There are prisoners that want to kill him - and they are not from any particular ethnic group," Mr Zahra said.

AA's lawyer Matthew Johnston said his 22-year-old client should have the opportunity to participate in educational programs inside jail, which would "certainly go to his prospects of rehabilitation".

Acting Justice Mathews said she would sentence the pair within the next two weeks, but did not fix a date.

Skaf, now 24, was convicted in 2002 on two counts of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent in company, while AA was found guilty of being an accessary before the fact.

They were among up to 14 men allegedly involved in the attack.

Skaf made NSW legal history when he was sentenced to a record 55 years in jail for leading a string of vicious gang rapes - including the Gosling Park attack - in 2000.

But the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal in 2004 quashed Skaf and AA's convictions over the Gosling Park attack and ordered a retrial after it was revealed that, during the trial, two jurors conducted their own investigations at the scene of the rape.

Skaf remained behind bars while awaiting retrial, with his sentence for other sex offences having been reduced to a maximum 28 years on appeal.

AA's overturned conviction and a subsequent appeal resulted in his jail term for the same series of attacks being reduced from 32 to 19 years.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19862858-421,00.html

Prison is a great leveller! The torture/rape/killers of Anita Cobby and Janine Balding plus these guys deserve to be in the broader community of the prison system and not under protective custody. Let's the crims take care of their own!

When I read this yesterday I was flabbergasted. BUT before anyone else gets flabbergasted I recommend you read the last two sentences carefully. It should put a smile on your dial!

Bashed pedophile gets $175,000 payout
July 21, 2006 - 2:05PM

The NSW government has been ordered to pay more than $175,000 to a convicted pedophile who was bashed unconscious in his Sydney cell.

Peter Andrew Bujdoso's skull was fractured in September 1991 when a group of men attacked him with metal bars in his cell at Sydney's Silverwater jail.

Mr Bujdoso was seeking up to $750,000 over the attack in the NSW District Court.

Judge Raymond McLoughlin today accepted the state government had failed to protect Mr Bujdoso and awarded him $175,100 for damages and economic loss.

While accepting Mr Bujdoso suffered a degree of brain damage and a knee injury as a result of the attack, Judge McLoughlin described the plaintiff as a "shrewd" character who exaggerated his injuries.

"On many occasions he attempted to give answers that he thought would assist his case," Judge McLoughlin told the court.

NSW Justice Minister Tony Kelly later said the Department of Corrective Services would consider appealing the decision.

"Today's decision is particularly disappointing given the NSW government's lengthy fight against compensation in recent years," Mr Kelly said in a statement.

"The government will now consider its appeal options of the decision handed down today."

Mr Kelly said that on the upside, the amount fell short of the $750,000 Bujdoso had originally sought, and that his victims now have a right to seek a share of the compensation payout.

"Last year the Iemma government introduced into law an important opportunity for all victims when offenders receive a compensation payout," Mr Kelly said.

"It is only fair people have a chance to claim their share."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bashed-pedophile-gets-175000-payout/2006/07/21/1153166565412.html

Quoted from News_item

"Last year the Iemma government introduced into law an important opportunity for all victims when offenders receive a compensation payout," Mr Kelly said.

"It is only fair people have a chance to claim their share."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bashed-pedophile-gets-175000-payout/2006/07/21/1153166565412.html

That sounds perfectly fair to me. . :D ;D :D

Fury at sex teacher penalty
By Shelley Hodgson and Kate Rose
July 26, 2006

ANGER has erupted over a four-month jail sentence for a female teacher who performed sex acts with a male student, 15.
Victims' support groups labelled Natalina D'Addario's penalty far too light.
And the boy's father said she should have got at least two years' jail, and an appeal should be lodged.
D'Addario, 37, committed her first crime just days after teacher Karen Ellis was jailed for six months over sex with a male student, also 15.
High school teacher D'Addario initially denied wrongdoing, then blamed her victim, telling police he had coerced her.
"She described herself as being fearful of violence towards her," prosecutor Jeremy Rapke, QC, told the County Court.
A bespectacled D'Addario cried as Judge Roland Williams jailed her for 18 months - and then suspended all but four months of the term.
People Against Lenient Sentencing president Steve Medcraft said last night the sentence sent the wrong message.
"I thought the days of giving them (sexual offenders) suspended sentences and taking these sexual offences lightly were over. But they are obviously still alive and kicking," he said.
Crime Victims Support Association president Noel McNamara said if a male had molested a 15-year-old girl he would have received a much harsher sentence. In his sentencing, Judge Williams said D'Addario's gender and that of her victim made no difference to her culpability.
D'Addario, of Kensington, pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child under 16 and two counts of sexual penetration of a 16-year-old under her care, supervision or authority over last year's offences.
The Italian and English teacher, who has lost her job at the northwestern suburbs school, performed oral sex on the boy three times in her car.
Mr Rapke told the court there was "an element of pursuit" to the crimes.
He said after students began calling D'Addario sexy, she asked the boy for his mobile number. She told him, "The feeling is mutual."
That day, she texted: "Hey sweetie, just wanted to let you know you have gorgeous eyes. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. xoxo. Natalie."
She sent him 24 mostly romantic or racy text messages.
She also gave him a birthday card and chocolates in class.
The boy later told police: "I told my mates what happened and they were shocked it had happened, and thought I was a bit of a legend."
The boy revealed the truth after D'Addario went to the vice-principal about his request for $20. Students had begun confronting and bribing her.
D'Addario told police she was attracted to the boy and wanted to make him feel wanted.
Judge Williams told D'Addario: "You owed a duty to protect his welfare and his wellbeing, and you owed his parents a duty to look after their child when he was at school under your care."
He said she was sexually immature, and vulnerable and naive. Character witnesses had said she was good and moral, and remorseful.
D'Addario was not coerced, but the boy was willing and appeared not to have suffered serious emotional damage.
But the boy's father said last night his son was not coping well. "He's psychologically not very good," the father said.
"He's very upset."
He said the Director of Public Prosecutions should appeal.
"It is too light," he said. "It should be no less than two years. I'm really upset."
Mr Medcraft said female sex offenders were treated with greater leniency than men.
"I don't think it sends a clear message to anyone in a position of trust that the system is going to punish you severely if you breach that trust," he said.
Hetty Johnston, founder of child protection group Bravehearts, said the penalty was barely a slap on the wrist.
"These young men who are offended against by older women have just as much to cope with as young women offended against by older men," she said.
"Teachers should be dealt with even more harshly."
Mr McNamara said the sentence showed the need for mandatory minimum terms.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19916562-28100,00.html

I have been watching this story develop since the weekend. I must admit I thought someone in the extended family had killed Destiny. Not for a moment did I believe this little girl at age 5, was still alive. I know it is from the US but it is very relevant to any five year old in western society. Destiny was by all accounts a happy, healthy and smart child who lived in the same house as her Mother (who is almost full term with child) Father, and 9 other families. Destiny had a dog and a cat she loved madly and she slept in a corner of the basement (which I found odd). Destiny loved animals so much she had voiced often her desire to be a Veterinary Surgeon. I cannot copy and paste any quoted text from CNN so to read what happened to this sweet little girl go here:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/25/destiny.killed.ap/index.html

Police Find Missing Girl's Body, Make Arrest
5-Year-Old Destiny Norton Found Dead in Neighbor's Basement
By PAUL FOY
July 24, 2006 — Neighbors and friends gathered outside the home of 5-year-old Destiny Norton and asked how the girl's body could have gone undiscovered when it was so near.

Police Chief Chris Burbank said the body of the child missing since July 16 was found at 8:30 p.m. Monday in the basement of Craig R. Gregerson, 20, whose property abutted the back yard of the Nortons.

"All I know is the cops searched the whole freaking area and didn't find nothing until today," said Zach Willner, one of the 10 young people, including the Nortons, who lived together. "The person who got her had better freaking pay for it."

Jeannie Norton, a friend of the family for 10 years, said police had said they searched the buildings four times.

"They did not do their jobs," she said.

About midnight, Burbank showed up and told the angry crowd, "Until this moment, there was no crime scene. No specific evidence. Police had nothing. This is not the proper way to honor Destiny. All we can do is keep this from happening again," the Deseret Morning News reported.

Burbank earlier had announced the discovery of the body and told a news conference that Gregerson had been booked for investigation of homicide. He did not answer questions, and no information was released as to the cause of death or how long the girl had been dead.

Police did release a mug shot of Gregerson that was taken when he was arrested in 2004 for investigation of domestic assault. It was not immediately known how the case was resolved and there were no other records of Gregerson having been arrested.

However, The Salt Lake Tribune said that court documents showed that Gregerson had sought a protective order against a woman with the same last name in February and the following month, a judge terminated the order.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2232580&page=1
you will find more at the above address.

This could easily go under the banner "No sympathy for drug smugglers" but I thought that since it is regarding someone smuggling drugs into Australia.

11kg heroin bust: woman faces life term
July 26, 2006 - 11:39AM

A 25-year-old Malaysian woman faces life in prison after allegedly being caught trying to smuggle 11kg of heroin into Australia.

Customs officers said they found the haul in 15 packages concealed in the bottom of a passenger's luggage at Sydney International Airport today.

A 25-year-old woman who arrived on a flight from Malaysia aroused suspicion among quarantine officers. They tipped off Customs staff who allege they found the drugs in her bags.

The woman will face Sydney's Central Local Court tomorrow charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug. She has been refused bail.

The maximum penalty for drug trafficking in Australia is life imprisonment and or a fine of $825,000.

Malaysia has a mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/11kg-heroin-bust-woman-faces-life-term/2006/07/26/1153816224548.html

31 years jail for Bilal Skaf
July 28, 2006 - 11:49AM

31-year sentence ... Bilal Skaf

Notorious gang rapist Bilal Skaf has been jailed for a maximum 31 years over the August 2000 attack on a teenage girl in Sydney's west.

Skaf's brother, Mohammed Skaf, who can now be named, has been sentenced to a maximum 15 years over the same pack rape of a 16-year-old girl at Greenacre's Gosling Park.

Skaf will not be eligible for parole until February 11, 2033, while his brother must remain in jail until at least July 1, 2019.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/31-years-jail-for-bilal-skaf/2006/07/28/1153816358559.html

NOT LONG ENOUGH!

31 years is a long time, you could really have quite a few serious accidents in that time frame.........

Are 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999998% of middle easterners named Mohammed?

Quoted from aquamonkey

Are 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999998% of middle easterners named Mohammed?

Probably...isn't Mohammed the most common name in the world..??

This is a fuller report on the same subject which will warm the cockles of your heart... not.
Yes, Muhammed and John! heheh

Gang rapists re-sentenced
Natasha Wallace
July 28, 2006 - 3:24PM

The notorious gang rapists the Skaf brothers were today re-sentenced for a brutal attack on a 16-year-old girl in 2000 after their conviction was originally quashed due to an experiment by wayward jurors.

Bilal Skaf made legal history when he was originally sentenced to 55 years for several gang rapes in western Sydney, but this was later reduced on appeal.

Today, Bilal and Mohammed Skaf were sentenced to at least another 10 years and seven and a half years respectively for the August 12 attack on the school girl in Gosling Park in Greenacre.

Bilal Skaf raped the girl while a group of up to 14 men stood around laughing and speaking in Arabic while they held her down.

"This one's a feisty one," he said at the time.

Afterwards, another man also raped her.

"It's my turn now," he said.

The same man then held a gun to her head and kicked her in the stomach before she escaped and ran off.

A passerby helped her to his home.

After a retrial earlier this year, Bilal Skaf was found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault without consent in company and his brother was found guilty of being an accessory before the fact.

In 2004, the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed their convictions after it was revealed that two jurors had gone to the scene of the crime during the original trial and conducted their own experiment.

There was public outrage after the victim said she was unable to again testify and the government introduced legislation to allow her previous evidence to be used in her absence.

It also made such conduct by jurors an offence.

The 55-year sentence for Bilal Skaf was reduced on appeal to 28 years.

With today's sentence he will now serve a minimum of 32 years non-parole and a maximum of 38.

His brother, 23, was originally sentenced to 32 years maximum, reduced to 19 on appeal, and will now serve a minimum of 18 and a half with a maximum of 26.

The victim's mother spoke to journalists outside the court, expressing her relief that the matter was finally over but wary that they are likely to appeal the latest sentence.

She said her daughter has still not been able to speak to her at all about the rapes.

"I've spoken to my daughter today. She's very very happy. She cried, she laughed," she said.

"She's not here today so obviously it has affected her to the point where she can't have anything to do with this anymore," she said.

Acting Justice Jane Mathews described the attack as "humiliating" and "degrading" but not in the worst category.

She said Bilal Skaf was the ringleader and his sentence must reflect community outrage for the "cruel, callous and degrading" way he treated the girl.

She said Mohammed Skaf, whom the girl knew, had betrayed her trust by inviting her for a drive to the city knowing full well that she would be gang raped.

In a bizarre statement, the men's former prison mate, Zeky "Zak" Mullah, who was acquitted of terror offences, said outside court the pair should be "honoured and respected for the crimes".

"We want to kill them, we want to torture them, we want to hit them for a six and sentence them to 55 years or more," Mullah said.

"Well my conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, as Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf's friend ... that if the American soldiers are honoured and respected for the raping and killing of innocent Iraqi girls simply because they're soldiers, then Bilal Skaf and Mohammed Skaf should be more honoured and respected for the crimes they did.

"Because after all if they did commit these offences at least those two have not killed any of the victims as the American soldiers have."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gang-rapists-resentenced/2006/07/28/1153816358559.html

What the hell is the mind set of some of these poor excuses for human beings?

Arrest in 'standover murder'
Les Kennedy
July 28, 2006 - 9:49AM

Police have made an arrest following the murder of a man allegedly targeted by a standover gang that forces lone Housing Department tenants from their homes, so they can turn them into drug houses.

Redfern police investigating the bashing murder said this was one line of inquiry after detectives learnt of a recent terror campaign from fearful residents.

The body of Hassan Yousseff, 56, lay in his inner city Waterloo unit for as long as five days before it was discovered by police about 8am on Wednesday.

Police arrested a man this morning in nearby Regent St, Redfern, in relation to the murder. He is being questioned by Redfern police.

Yousseff lived alone in a second-floor apartment of the three-storey block in George Street.

His body was discovered when police gained entry to the unit after a friend became concerned about the man's welfare when he had not been seen for several days.

Forensic officers were still at the unit yesterday as detectives quizzed residents in the block and neighbourhood. Teams of police searched gardens in surrounding streets for a weapon.

They would not reveal the outcome of a day-long autopsy, but the Herald has learnt that the man was bludgeoned to death. A number of residents, who asked not to be identified, said the area near block and nearby McEvoy Street had recently become overrun with drug addicts and dealers. They said muggings and violence had increased.

A keycard lock on the front door of the block where the man lived had been broken in the past month, leaving residents vulnerable, one resident said.

Police have appealed for anyone living in the vicinity of George and McEvoy streets who might have heard or seen anything suspicious near the man's unit as early as last Sunday night to contact Redfern Police on 8303 5199 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

If you have information about this story, contact reporter David Braithwaite at dbraithwaiteweb@smh.com.au.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/arrest-in-standover-murder/2006/07/27/1153816321033.html

This guy is a serial predator. WHY would anyone date this moron after his well publicised arrest for stalking and physical abuse of his ex-wife?

I'll refresh some memories first with what he did in the past then post an update of Gary Neiwand's latest 'problems'.

Neiwand bailed on stalking charges
By Jesse Hogan
May 23, 2005 - 2:21PM

Former Olympic cyclist Gary Neiwand has successfully appealed for bail on stalking charges against his estranged wife.

Mr Neiwand, 38, was remanded in custody yesterday after repeated breaches of an intervention order obtained by Catherine Neiwand, but was released on $10,000 bail after today's hearing at Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Constable Lachlan Watson told the court that Mr Neiwand allegedly hid in the backyard of Ms Neiwand's house in the early hours of March 19, despite not being allowed within 200 metres of the property, and urinated in a glass of champagne she was drinking.

He then allegedly threatened to "rip her arms off'' if she continued smoking inside the house.

On the previous day, he allegedly yelled abuse at her while picking up their children at Albert Primary School, accusing her of sleeping with one of her male friends.

Mr Neiwand also allegedly threatened this friend, Andrew Knight, when he broke into Ms Neiwand's house on March 22 and stole her mobile phone.

Mr Neiwand appeared in court wearing jeans and a blue and white rugby top. His parents, with whom he lives at their Essendon home, and his brother also attended.

Defence lawyer Martin Grinberg said the alleged breaches of the intervention order were confined to a four-week period, with no other breaches since the order was made in 2002.

Magistrate Robert Tuppen described the charges against Mr Neiwand as "very serious'', but said the granting of partial custody rights last Monday for Mr Neiwand to see the couple's two children should reduce the chance of further breaches.

Mr Tuppen granted Mr Neiwand bail at $5000, with another $5000 surety to be provided by another member of his family, before returning to court on June 2.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Cycling-champion-Neiwand-charged-with-stalking/2005/05/23/1116700621399.html?from=moreStories

Neiwand pleads guilty to harassing ex-wife
September 12, 2005 - 4:20PM

Former Olympic cyclist Gary Neiwand has received a suspended jail sentence for harassing his ex-wife, amid claims he told her he had urinated in her glass of champagne.

Supported by his parents, two brothers and a friend, Neiwand, 39, from the Melbourne suburb of Essendon West, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court to two charges of breaching an intervention order and one charge of criminal damage.

But he told reporters outside the court today: "I'm happy, a happy man. I have got her out of my life.

"I'm ashamed about nothing I do."

Police prosecutor, Leading Senior Constable Dominique Courtney, said between January and May this year Neiwand harassed and intimidated his ex-wife Catherine, who is the mother of their school-aged son and daughter.

On March 18, Neiwand shouted "Go and sleep with Andrew" to his ex-wife at Elwood Primary School in front of children and parents.

"The victim was embarrassed and intimidated and ran from the school," Snr Const Courtney said.

She said the next day, Neiwand spied on his ex-wife at their former marital home as she hung out washing in the backyard, then he secretly urinated in her glass of champagne, which she later drank.

Neiwand telephoned his wife the following day and said: "I pissed in it and watched you drink it."

Defence counsel Martin Grinberg said his client denied urinating in his wife's drink, despite what he told her at the time.

He said his client acknowledged his wrong-doing and made "an absolute apology" to his ex-wife and children.

Mr Grinberg said Neiwand fell into a dark period of his life when his ex-wife began a relationship with another man.

"We have a man at the end of a career, at the end of a relationship.

"He finds himself having been at the absolute pinnacle of his chosen profession to back living with mum and dad and the reality that brings with it."

Mr Grinberg said Neiwand, who represented Australia at Olympic and Commonwealth Games, was determined to get his life back on track and be a good father.

He asked Magistrate Duncan Reynolds to impose a community-based order rather than a jail term.

Mr Reynolds said he took into account the circumstances in Neiwand's life that may have contributed to the offences and that he had already spent two days in jail after his arrest on May 22.

"The nature of the offending ... is appalling and the complainant no doubt was put through a very gruelling ordeal," he said.

He sentenced Neiwand to a four-month jail term, wholly suspended for 18 months.

Neiwand rose to prominence in 1986 with a gold medal in the 1000m sprint at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games.

He subsequently won four Olympic medals, including silver medals at the 1992 Barcelona and Sydney 2000 Games, his fourth Olympics.

Neiwand also was world champion in the 1000m sprint in 1993 and 1996.

AAP

Cyclist Neiwand accused of stalking
Wednesday Aug 2 12:34 AEST

Former champion cyclist Gary Neiwand, accused of stalking a woman, has made a brief appearance in a Melbourne court.

Neiwand, an Olympic silver medallist, is facing four charges of stalking and one of theft.

The charges stem from a relationship Neiwand formed with a woman earlier this year, the Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told on Friday.
On Wednesday in the court, Neiwand did not apply for bail.
He was remanded in custody by magistrate Peter Reardon for a contest mention in the same court on August 28.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=119123

This guy is a menace. :o >:(

Hey Gizmo.... wasn't he one of those guys Gavin de Becker writes about in "The Gift of Fear"?

Rape girl 'ignored' by police
August 05, 2006 12:00am

A YOUNG girl was raped in the Aboriginal township of Woorabinda in central Queensland shortly after police allegedly ignored frantic pleas for help.

At 1am last Monday a senior officer at Rockhampton police communications centre received a call from a woman reporting a man was breaking into her home.
The call was allegedly dismissed by the officer because the Aboriginal community was two hours' drive away.

Minutes later the then frantic woman phoned back, but her pleas were allegedly ignored.

Police then received a call shortly after 2am from the woman who said a man had broken into her home and had raped her niece.

Police would not reveal the child's age or physical condition, saying "an alleged failure by police to respond appropriately to Triple-0 calls" had been referred to the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

Police Minister Judy Spence said: "It appears at that stage the police decision-making was not good enough.

"It does appear in this case the police did not provide a high-level of service expected of them."

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20022741-5007200,00.html#

That is a horrible story . .  :(  :(

It shows what can result when crime is 'winked at'  by those in that aboriginal community . .and now the police too.

Police show up to help when they recieve a call . . and get sent away by the 'elders' who say they will look after everything. . .*white man has no place here*. .  ::)  . . petrol sniffing and alcohol abuse are the choice of lifestyle to so many that it is not surprising (but horribley sad) that the children pay the highest price.

Same kind of sad story here too . . even after a warning. . he did this  :(

Driver charged with killing niece

CONNELLSVILLE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A man who ran over his 2-year-old niece while she was playing in her driveway was charged with homicide by vehicle, speeding and other counts, police said.

Greg Gibbs, 28, pulled into the driveway at a speed greater than necessary Wednesday evening and ran into Megan Shipley, police said.

Authorities said family members repeatedly had told Gibbs to slow down.

Gibbs, who has been living with Megan's family, was arraigned Thursday on homicide by vehicle, careless driving, reckless driving and speeding charges.

He was being held in the Fayette County jail. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/04/uncle.speed.ap/index.html

Great bloke to have around. Obviously didn't listen hard enough and now his baby niece is dead because of his stupidity. Wonder if this will have an affect on him?

Quoted Text

Gag order lifted on gang rape

Five males allegedly involved in the pack rape of a 19-year-old woman are all apprentice painters - and the police know who they are, a Sydney court heard today.

Bankstown Local Court was also told today that the alleged instigator of the attack in a women's toilet block at Darling Harbour on June 8 was Adam Jade Pinner, 25, of Leumeah, whose de facto wife is expecting their third child.

But defence counsel for Pinner, solicitor Ken Buckman, said his client believed the victim was a prostitute who had solicited him and four other males.

The court was told Pinner was on a bond for violence and had changed his surname from Duncan.

He was alleged to have told police yesterday that the woman agreed to have sex with the group for $15 after she had exposed her breasts to them.

An at times angry magistrate Paul Falzon said he found it incredible that even a prostitute - whom police said the victim was not - would agree to engage in sex with five men for $15.

In denying a bail application on the grounds of public safety and the risk that Pinner might reoffend, Mr Falzon said that, when confronted by a group of males who were threatening to rape a woman, there was a belief among many that it was better to submit.

Police alleged that the woman went with the group to the toilet block because she feared she would be hurt.

Pinner, whom police said was referred to as Duncan by his victim, is alleged to have made a derogatory remark about the woman's breasts as she was walking through Darling Harbour at 6.30pm on June 8.

Quoting sections of the police statement from the bench, Mr Falzon said Pinner said: "Are you doing some shopping or are you doing a shift as a prostitute, because you're too beautiful not to be a prostitute.

"You have got a beautiful mouth and I know where to put something in your mouth.

"If I f--- you I hope I don't come soon 'cause I can go for hours".

At one point Mr Falzon became angry with the police for trying to have details suppressed on the basis that they would affect investigations into three others who had not been arrested.

At this Mr Falzon expressed incredulity, saying that the alleged offenders were all apprentice painters and police knew who they were.

Mr Falzon said at one point Pinner that was alleged to have told a younger male to go and get condoms while one of the group stood guard at the toilet block entrance and at one stage warded off a woman who wanted to use the toilets.

He said the woman's ordeal lasted more than an hour and that Pinner was alleged to have taken back $15 he claims to have given the woman, whose bag and purse were also stolen.

Pinner, a thin-faced tall man, appeared before the court red-eyed and wearing a black business suit and a white shirt.

His mother, two brothers and de facto wife whispered words of comfort to him from the public gallery during the hearing and at one point his mother said: "She should have just walked away."

Mr Falzon revealed on reading the police facts that, before she was led to the toilet block, the victim had agreed to expose her breasts because she was scared and surrounded by the group, who all groped her breasts and put their hands down her pants.

Pinner was remanded in custody to appear Central Local Court on August 23.

Bidura Children's Court today ordered a DNA test on a 16-year-old accused of being involved in the rape.

The Villawood teenager, accused of aggravated sexual assault, sat quietly as the magistrate ordered he present a saliva test by August 14 at 4pm.

The boy, accompanied by his father and uncle, listened as the case was adjourned to August 18.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gag-order-lifted-on-gang-rape/2006/08/09/1154802960559.html

Lock em up, chuck the keys and they'll know what it's like to be raped pretty damn soon. The 16 year old (any 16 year old) should be charged as an adult in a case of this type.

In good news it sounds like their's a judge that isn't in f#cking lala land!

This story is disgusting and shameful. The fact that there are so many of these stories daily there are 2 different Threads where these kinds of stories are fitting. If we began a new thread for every news story the boards would be a massive mess.
Hence the threads names:

Crime and Punishment: http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/b-newsissues/m-1127568775/s-165/

Weird, wonderful, awful-News Headlines and Stories:
http://www.ebroadcast.com.au/eblah/b-newsissues/m-1132094984/s-240/

I am merging this thread with the Crime and Punishment thread now.
Cheers Suzi :)

Quoted from Aussies_Online

He said the woman's ordeal lasted more than an hour and that Pinner was alleged to have taken back $15 he claims to have given the woman, whose bag and purse were also stolen.

Pinner, a thin-faced tall man, appeared before the court red-eyed and wearing a black business suit and a white shirt.

His mother, two brothers and de facto wife whispered words of comfort to him from the public gallery during the hearing and at one point his mother said: "She should have just walked away."

Mr Falzon revealed on reading the police facts that, before she was led to the toilet block, the victim had agreed to expose her breasts because she was scared and surrounded by the group, who all groped her breasts and put their hands down her pants.

Okay so lets see if I understand Mr. Pinner's claims here. That the girl in question took $3.75 ($15/4) to have sex with the group. Yeah right! I was born at night but it wasn't last night. He also alleges that she exposed her breasts, while that doesn't make her a candidate for the Sisters of St. Joseph no still means no. It's typical of crimes of this nature, throw enough dirt at the victim and hope some of it sticks. Although I'm sure the lads up at 'The Bay' will take an interest as all they have to do is surround Mr. Pinner and convince him to lift his shirt while on remand. And he can't sue the State for duty of care because he lifted his shirt.

This report is further to a previously posted Story
Drowned boys' dad not distressed: court
Tuesday Aug 15 12:17 AEST

A Melbourne man accused of murdering his three sons by driving them into a dam showed no signs of distress within an hour of the boys drowning, a policeman has told a court hearing.

Robert Farquharson, 37, of Winchelsea, south-west of Melbourne, is charged with murdering Jai, 10, Tyler, seven, and Bailey, two, on Fathers Day last year.

Farquharson claims he had a coughing fit and blacked out while driving, and woke up when the car was in the dam.

In a committal hearing in Geelong Magistrates' Court, Senior Constable Ted Harman said he spoke to Farquharson after arriving at the scene and concluded he was displaying no emotional distress.

"He didn't appear to be in shock when I first saw him," Snr Const Harman said.

Paramedics testified earlier that Farquharson's heartbeat was high, about 120 beats per minute, and that he was wet, cold and hypothermic shortly after the incident.

Another witness has described how Farquharson sobbed in her arms when she arrived at the scene.

In his written statement to the court, Snr Const Harman said: "I found the whole circumstances of the incident very bizarre".

He denied colluding with another officer who allegedly used that exact sentence in his own statement.

The committal hearing continues before magistrate Jon Klestadt.

�AAP 2006
[url]
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=79377[/url]

Teenager pulled from phone box and sexually assaulted
August 16, 2006 - 1:32PM

An Adelaide woman has been abducted from a phonebox and sexually assaulted by four men.

The 18-year-old was forced from a phonebox at Findon in Adelaide's west in the early hours of last Friday, a police spokesman said today.

The teenager was dragged into a Commodore sedan and driven to a nearby street, where she was sexually assaulted by the men, the spokesman said.

The woman was later treated for minor injuries.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sex-assault-teen-pulled-from-phone-box/2006/08/16/1155407862028.html

Minor Injuries!!! :o ??) I cannot imagine her injuries would be minor especially the emotional injuries! >:( She was sexually assaulted by FOUR MEN! Good grief.

Man who hired hitman jailed for 10 years
Thursday Aug 24 13:13 AEST

A Sydney father who paid a hitman to kill his son's teenage rape victim has been jailed for at least 10 years.

Chaouki Bou-Antoun was jailed for 14 years with a minimum of 10 for paying a hitman — actually an undercover police officer — a deposit of $3,000 to kill his son's 16-year-old rape victim.

The man's son, Khater Bou-Antoun, was jailed in May for at least 14 years for the 2003 rape of "Rebecca" and for attempting to arrange her killing.

The men planned to pay the hitman $23,000 to have the girl raped then "popped" in the stomach, eye and forehead, the NSW District Court was told.

Chaouki Bou-Antoun, 51, was prepared to fund "the cruel and callous murder" of the girl, Judge Robert Sorby said.

The Lebanese-born father-of-five said he was sorry for his role in the plan and had said he never intended to pay the hitman the additional $20,000, Judge Sorby said.

He will be eligible for parole in December 2013.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=124680

Not long enough!! :(

Haunted house dare gets cheerleader shot
Suspect says he was just trying to scare off trespassers

Thursday, August 24, 2006; Posted: 6:50 p.m. EDT (22:50 GMT)

WORTHINGTON, Ohio (AP) -- Someone shot at a carload of teenage girls, critically wounding one of them, after some of them had stepped near a house that had been rumored by fellow students to be haunted, police said.

A man who lives in the house, Allen S. Davis, was arrested Wednesday in the shooting of 17-year-old Rachel Barezinsky the night before. He told reporters Wednesday from jail that he was trying to drive off trespassers and didn't intend to hurt the girls.

Barezinsky remained in critical condition Thursday at Ohio State University Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.

Barezinsky's aunt, Tina Wedebrook, told reporters Wednesday that the girl had surgery to relieve swelling in her brain and had been able to squeeze visitors' hands, but was having trouble moving the left side of her body.

Davis' home, across from a cemetery and overgrown with trees and weeds, had a reputation among local teens for being haunted. Students at Thomas Worthington High School in suburban Columbus had been daring each other to knock on the door or go in the yard, police Lt. Doug Francis said.

Barezinsky and two of her friends got out of their car parked near the home about 10 p.m. and took a few steps onto the property, Francis said. They jumped back in when a girl still in the car sounded the horn, and they heard what they thought were firecrackers as they drove away, he said.

The girls drove around the block, and Barezinsky was struck in the head and shoulder while sitting in the car as they passed the house again, Francis said. The other girls were not injured

Hundreds gathered on the high school football field Wednesday night for a vigil for Barezinsky, a cheerleader at the school of about 1,700 students.

Police said Davis, a self-employed nonfiction writer who lives with his 64-year-old mother, told investigators he was aiming for the car's tires.

Davis, 40, appeared before a judge Thursday on five counts of felonious assault. His bond was set at $500,000.

Davis told reporters Wednesday he had prepared the rifle after numerous instances of trespassing.

"It's really something how homeowners defend themselves and the way the laws are written. We're the ones brought up on charges while the perpetrators get little or nothing," Davis said.

Francis said Davis told investigators he had never called police about any problems with trespassers.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/24/haunted.shooting.ap/index.html

Anyone with a hairdo like this should have turned the gun on himself: ??)

The guy looks like he is the ghost. Oh my, how scary is he! Verrrrry Strange!

Neiwand pleads guilty to stalking
Monday Aug 28 13:51 AEST

Former champion cyclist Gary Neiwand has pleaded guilty to five stalking charges.

The Olympic silver medallist started making numerous hang-up phone calls to a woman he had briefly dated last year after he wrongly suspected she was seeing other men, the Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard on Monday.

When she changed her phone numbers, he started sending sexually explicit text messages about the woman to her employer, the court heard.

Neiwand's lawyer Martin Grinberg described his client's actions as "absurd" and said that he was ashamed of his behaviour.

He said Neiwand, 39, received terrific family support after he confessed to them he had considered suicide and needed help.

The court was told Neiwand also sent abusive text messages to two other women and a man whose phone numbers he had found on a mobile phone he had stolen.

Neiwand, who appeared in the court and sat quietly during the hearing, pleaded guilty to five counts of stalking, one of breaching an intervention order and one of using a carriage service in an harassing manner.

Chief Magistrate Ian Gray adjourned the hearing for sentencing on Monday afternoon.

�AAP 2006

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=88990

This man IS a pest, has been a PEST for many years and should have sought professional help well before now. He has anger issues as well as separation issues. He needs to be monitored. Throw him in jail/gaol and put him on suicide watch. Get him counselling for his mental problems and see if that settles him down.

Last Update: Tuesday, August 29, 2006. 11:44am AEST

Olympic cyclist Gary Neiwand was today sentenced to 18 months in jail by the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Neiwand jailed for 18 months

Olympic silver medallist Gary Neiwand was today sentenced to 18 months jail for stalking a former lover.

Neiwand pleaded guilty to stalking, theft and breaching an intervention order at the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Most of the offences happened in May after his relationship with the woman ended.

The court heard Neiwand had been suffering from depression and falsely believed she was seeing other men at the time.

It also heard that Neiwand broke an intervention order and sent abusive text messages to the woman's friends via a stolen mobile phone.

Neiwand was sentenced to a maximum of 18 months in jail.

The Magistrate said Neiwand had been convicted of stalking before and his repeated behaviour was extremely serious.

http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/200608/s1726851.htm

He must serve a minimum of 9 months. Not long enough IMHO

Further to the reports on the Cruise death of Dianne Brimble.

Suicide fear for Brimble case witness
Tuesday September 12, 2006

Adelaide man Mark Wilhelm gave Dianne Brimble the date-rape drug fantasy and became disturbed and upset after her death, an inquest has been told.

Ryan Kuchel, a cabinmate of Mr Wilhelm on board the P&O cruise ship Pacific Sky where Mrs Brimble died, said he fell out with Mr Wilhelm after he told him to tell the truth about the incident.

Giving evidence yesterday at the Sydney coronial inquest into Mrs Brimble's death, Mr Kuchel said: "[Mark] knew he offered a drug to the person who passed away and that he brought it on board."

"I thought he was only interested in protecting himself, he didn't care what happened to the rest of us."

Mrs Brimble, a mother of three, died from a toxic mix of alcohol and fantasy in the men's cabin on September 24, 2002.

Mr Kuchel also told the inquest he feared Mr Wilhelm would become suicidal when the case became public.

"I knew what sort of extreme personality he had," Mr Kuchel told Glebe Coroner's Court.

"I thought he could do anything."

When pressed by Deputy State Coroner Jacqueline Milledge to elaborate, he said: "Commit suicide.

Mr Kuchel is the second member of the group of eight Adelaide men who are of interest to the inquest to give evidence so far, with Petar Pantic due in the witness box today.

The court also heard a recording of Mr Kuchel's interview with police on board the Pacific Sky in which he said he was woken up in the cabin at around 5am by the sound of Mr Wilhelm and Mrs Brimble having sex.

"I was in a reasonably deep sleep when I was woken up and I noticed Mark was having sexual intercourse," Mr Kuchel told police.

"I was a little bit pi***d off with him ... I said 'Why did you bring her back here, you've got a girlfriend, what are you doing?'"

Mr Kuchel, 29, said he quickly left the cabin and had a cigarette on deck.

No more than 20 minutes later, he saw Mr Wilhelm running through the corridors wearing nothing but a lifejacket.

They joined three of the other six men of interest in the case Dragan Losic, Petar Pantic and Charlie Kambouris when invited to another cabin occupied by a group of women where they made fun of Mr Wilhelm for having sex with Mrs Brimble, calling him a "dirty pig".

By the time Mr Kuchel returned to his own cabin at around 10am, doctors were in attendance and told him not to enter.

Mr Kuchel, 29, said he saw a body on the floor but did not recognise it as Mrs Brimble.

Mr Kuchel told police he had met Mrs Brimble when she "tried to drag me onto the dance floor" at around 3.30am in the ship's disco, but he said he was too tired and went to bed.

He said he had not seen her with any of the other men of interest before then and did not recognise her when he saw her having sex with Mr Wilhelm.

In earlier evidence, security officer Daniel Wells said several days after Mrs Brimble's death, he saw Mr Losic place what could have been an ecstasy tablet on the tongue of Mr Pantic.

Although he reported the incident to a police officer on board the ship, no further action was taken.

The inquest continues today.

�AAP 2006

Who was the victim in all this? Narcissistic moronic lowlifes. They are all crying 'Poor poor pitiful me'. I hope those of them who HAD girlfriends no longer do.

'He hurted me in the shower': toddler
Megan Levy
October 20, 2006 - 2:39PM

They are the innocent words of a three-year-old girl who was beaten and burnt for wetting her pants.

"(He) hurted me in the shower on my back," the little girl told police, describing how her mother's partner put her under a scalding shower as punishment.

The toddler had been whipped with a kettle cord by her mother and burnt in the shower by her mother's de facto husband because she was not toilet trained, Wollongong District Court heard yesterday.

The pair waited until the little girl's eyes swelled from her burns before they called an ambulance.

Yesterday, the girl's 21-year-old mother and her de facto husband, 27, were jailed for a maximum of two years for assaulting the girl, who is now in foster care outside the Illawarra.

Neither can be named to protect the identity of the child.

The girl's mother sobbed and shook as she was sentenced yesterday, and asked that she be placed in protective custody in prison.

Judge Paul Conlon said the couple's delay in seeking medical help for the girl's horrific burns "shows criminality of a very high order".

"One does not need to be a medical practitioner to understand and appreciate the excruciating pain this child must have been going through," he said.

The court heard the girl was rushed to Wollongong Hospital in June last year with swollen eyes, burns to her shoulder, back, legs and substantial bruising.

Dirty crepe bandages covered her wounds, and doctors administered an intravenous morphine drip to remove the bandages and ease her pain.

A doctor reported the girl's injuries to the Department of Community Services (DOCS).

The mother initially blamed the injuries on her daughter's cousins, saying they "played rough". However, she later confessed to whipping her daughter with a kettle cord when she wet her pants.

The day after she was whipped, the girl wet her pants again, prompting the de facto husband to put her in the shower.

Testing of the shower's maximum water temperature revealed it could reach 70.1 degrees celsius.

The mother pleaded guilty to one charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and one charge of failing to provide parental care to the girl.

The court heard the woman gave birth to a son in April this year who was suffering cannabis and amphetamine withdrawal. He is in DOCS custody.

The man pleaded guilty to maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm on the girl and failing to provide care to the girl.

Judge Conlon said both had entered early guilty pleas and had no previous record of child abuse, however, there was no other appropriate sentence than imprisonment.

Both were sentenced to two years in jail, with a non-parole period of one year to expire on October 18 next year..

Illawarra Mercury

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/he-hurted-me-in-the-shower-toddler/2006/10/20/1160851115980.html

NOT long enough IMHO! They should both be neutered and locked up for a minimum of 10 years. :( :o ??)

Two years is a pathetic sentence. >:(

Quoted Text

'He hurted me in the shower'

The poor kid. :( :(

The mother 'hurted' that child the minute she took her into a 'de-facto' relationship with that guy. :(
It is the most dangerous situation to put small children into . . but people persist in doing it. ::)

I know the subject of defacto's abusing their partner's natural children causes you great concern Gizmo, and knew you would reply. I completely agree. These young women have made bad choices in their lives and continue to do so. The fact that this poor excuse for a mother participated in the abuse is just horrifying. So many young women leave their child/children in the 'care' of their usually young boyfriend/partner/defacto without 'knowing' what that person can be capable of! Most of the time, being young and immature the guy is jealous of the child because of several reasons. Two being that the child 'competes' with him for the mother's attention and he is jealous of the fact that someone else fathered this child and it is biologically not his! Look what happened to little Jayden Leskie down at Moe in Victoria. This kind of thing (abuse) happens every day to some children who are caught up in their mother's dysfunctional relationship/s. :( :'(

The court system needs to do some explaining!.

If  we steal $$$ we are sentenced to years in prison . (and rightly so)

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20694438-1702,00.html?from=public_rss

But if we 'Home Invade' a strangers house and keep the owners hostage for 7 hours and finally beat their heads to a pulp with a hammer . . just 27months!!

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20691686-2682,00.html

Since when did money crimes become more 'penalised' than attempted murder ??   ??)  :(  :(

Where is Boomslanger when you need him ? . ? . ?

It does NOT make sense. That's the judicial system we have and it is written and enforced by fools.

Rapist brothers bashed in jail
February 9, 2007 - 7:27PM

Two brothers serving time in a NSW jail for a series of gang rapes have been bashed by eight other inmates, leaving one of them in a critical condition.

At 12.30pm (AEDT) yesterday a gang of eight prisoners at Goulburn jail attacked two of their fellow inmates in the prison yard, NSW Corrective Services said.

One of the bashed men, aged 26, sustained critical head injuries and was taken to Canberra Hospital where he remains in a stable condition, police said.

The other, a 28-year-old, was taken to Goulburn Base Hospital with arm injuries but has since been returned to the jail.

Authorities would not directly confirm the identities of the men but the Nine Network reported them to be the elder pair of four Pakistan-born brothers convicted in 2002 for a number of gang rapes, including that of Tegan Warner, who was 14 at the time.

The brothers, who were only able to be identified in court by their initials, are serving between 10 and 28 years in prison.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rapist-brothers-bashed-in-jail/2007/02/09/1170524293487.html

Now I'm curious as to what the "bashers" were serving time for.

Quoted from Sillygostly

Now I'm curious as to what the "bashers" were serving time for.

Crochet plaigarism! . . they strayed from the knitting circle and commited 'handywork apostacy' . . :P :P :P . .give 'em life!!. :D

Heheheh... off with their heads!
Well sillygostly, it is a well known fact that rapists, beaters and killers of women and children have punishment dished out to them by 'other' inmates who may be in gaol for... robbery, burglary, drug dealing and various other offences. Normally these lowest of the low (rapists and child molesters etc) are kept in 'protective' custody in another wing of the gaol especially kept for paedophiles, rapists and the like. These rapists/prisoners were attacked in the open prison yard.

Quoted Text

Authorities would not directly confirm the identities of the men but the Nine Network reported them to be the elder pair of four Pakistan-born brothers convicted in 2002 for a number of gang rapes, including that of Tegan Warner, who was 14 at the time.

I remember these ******* saying they should not be sentenced because in pakistan would they did would have been acceptable. So I guess we can cross reference with the "multiculturalism" thread.

Hopefully they're now taking a piece of barbed wire up the **** in order to fully understand what they did

Quoted from above_post

. . . . . . they should not be sentenced because in pakistan what they did would have been acceptable . . . . . .

It boggles my mind to think that anyone would want to have sex with somebody they deemed as below their pious standards . . so if these Muslim boys were proud of their acts . . and their families think it is OK to violate those 'less fortunate' . . then it speaks loudly for their 'system of belief'. . . *not in a good way* ::) . . for myself - - I am not planning a rendezvous with the local hobbo. ;D

How would rape NOT be a crime in Pakistan? :o

Quoted from Sillygostly

How would rape NOT be a crime in Pakistan? :o

There is no such crime as Rape in Pakistan.!!
It is sanctioned as a punishment that the courts can administer in the name of justice.   ::)

There is however 'Adultery' for which act . . the woman must die!
If she refuses to commit suicide, she will be paraded naked through her town to be jeered at by the local men. . with the purpose of causing her to kill herself to 'hide' the crime. (if she is dead. . the crime did not happen)  ;)

Owning up to being raped is the same as admitting to adultery . .they see no difference .  ::)

I post the links but could not bring myself to copy-paste the stories . . my 'mouse' was too disgusted.  :(

Pakistan_Rape_Laws-1

Pakistan_Rape_Laws_2

We should note these cultural issues when permitting such refugees into our country . . how will these customs ever fit into the community we know?

Again there is a lot of lumping all into one generalisation.

Yes there are Muslim nations that covertly sanction rape like Pakistan and Iran. There are many other Muslim nations that treat it as an extremely serious crime, even harsher than we here do, where in some cases the men of the family of the victim take revenge on the rapist, often killing them, and the state turns a blind eye.

Then there is India, not even Muslim but Hindu, where archaic rape laws mostly find favour with the accused and punish the victim. I could post links to many horrific cases, like the one where underage girls were raped by police, in show trials the police were given very lenient sentences just to placate the families and then soon after released on appeal because the sexual intercourse was consensual and the girls encouraged it.

Then there are rape cases in Western societies, especially by certain groups within America, and there have been cases here, where the rapists basically get token punishments and many get let off. What about whole radical Christian societies in the US, where the taking and raping of underage girls by the elders is actually sanctioned?

Muslim societies that condone rape should be condemned in the highest order, but so should other societies and judiciaries that either down play, covertly condone it whilst overtly stating they deplore it and anywhere the victim is blamed. Also those Christian communities in America that condone the taking of underage girls for their elders should be shut down immediately in a show how seriously the West takes the crime of rape.

Quoted from boomslanger

Again there is a lot of lumping all into one generalisation. . . . . .

Cool down . . we are not generalising . . the response is to the gaol bashing the other day of Pakistani boys who used a 'we do this in OUR country' defence to assaults committed here. (go back and read the flow)
We don't need to go through EVERY countries penal code . . or we end up 'off topic' . . .of course it is a heinous crime everywhere . . but in this thread we are just commenting on the other days gaol event and who was involved.

Quoted Text

Again there is a lot of lumping all into one generalisation.

I didn't see any of that. I saw a lot of specifics, regarding Pakistan and rape laws, including some links. Did I miss something?

Quoted from SuziH

Rapist brothers bashed in jail

They should have done the world a favour and made sure they never got back up from the bashing.

Quoted from Sillygostly

Now I'm curious as to what the "bashers" were serving time for.

Me too.

What Suzi describes is a bazarre 'honour among thieves' mentality that exists in prisons where rapists (especially child rapists) are seen as the low of low and are considered dispicable and targetted by other inmates.

Quoted from blahNii

There is no such crime as Rape in Pakistan.!!
...
We should note these cultural issues when permitting such refugees into our country . . how will these customs ever fit into the community we know?

Exactly. However to not paint the entire Pakistani community with the same brush the majority of them here are good people that understand our laws and customs.

These customs will NEVER fit into our community. It is paramount that refugees are educated on our customs the minute they arrive here. An intelligent Government would make sure this is happening. It is not hard.

In a perfect world we could bring anyone from anywhere here and would not have to worry that they will break our laws. But, as we know the world can be a cruel and dark place, especially where some of these people are coming from so it is important that we educate them on what's acceptable in our culture, highlighting the difference between what may be acceptable in their culture that is not here, in this case rape.

If we had these programs in place I don't think the issues we're having with some Muslims and now Sudanese would be as bad.

It's a typical example of looking at the world through 'blue eyes'. Or lack of cultural understanding. It would make sense that the people who are bringing in the migrants (DIMMI) were well versed in the culture of the people they're bringing in and could set these much needed programs up.

We are undoubtedly doing the right thing by allowing people to seek a better life here, we need to undestand the kind of world they're coming from (think child soldiers in Africa) and be able to help them ease into life over here. It is unfortunate but the way things are, a certain percentage is always going to fail, but that could and should be a lot lower than it is at the moment.

Here's a 'blue eyes experiment'. How would you react to the following headline on the front page of a newspaper you read:

"African man charged with rape of teenage girl"

Versus

"Penrith man charged with rape of teenage girl"

Unfortunately due to media sensationalism the 1st headline is the one they will always use when reporting a rape by an African man, or any "non-white" person for that matter. Did you think:

1. "We should stop letting Africans into our country."

2. "Put him in jail and throw away the key."

or

3. "Does this man understand that rape is a crime in this country?"

Quoted from x452

Here's a 'blue eyes experiment'. How would you react to the following headline on the front page of a newspaper you read:

"African man charged with rape of teenage girl"

Versus

"Penrith man charged with rape of teenage girl"

Unfortunately due to media sensationalism the 1st headline is the one they will always use when reporting a rape by an African man, or any "non-white" person for that matter. Did you think:

1. "We should stop letting Africans into our country."

2. "Put him in jail and throw away the key."

or

3. "Does this man understand that rape is a crime in this country?"

Just to clarify, not understanding the local culture doesn't excuse what the man did in the above example nor does it absolve him from punishment, however, it should be part of our thought processes (well at least DIMMI's) and by not providing these cultural education programs the Government is not doing enough to protect refugees or it's citizens.

Quoted from x452

What Suzi describes is a bazarre 'honour among thieves' mentality that exists in prisons where rapists (especially child rapists) are seen as the low of low and are considered dispicable and targetted by other inmates.

I've heard this as well regarding prisons from an old friend who in for fraud. Its horrible but rapists deserve what they get. Pedophiles, depends on their crimes, Im not sure just looking at pictures warrants bashing/death.

I do agree with your point that the wider Australian community needs to accept that refugees need to be integrated and learn immediately what is acceptable in our society and what is not.

Quote from Devious
"Its horrible but rapists deserve what they get. Pedophiles, depends on their crimes, Im not sure just looking at pictures warrants bashing/death."

Believe me.... Paedophiles and sexual perverts do not just look at pictures either online or otherwise. If they haven't already acted on their impulses then they definitely will in time.

Quoted from x452

Just to clarify, not understanding the local culture doesn't excuse what the man did in the above example nor does it absolve him from punishment, however, it should be part of our thought processes (well at least DIMMI's) and by not providing these cultural education programs the Government is not doing enough to protect refugees or it's citizens.

Should be part of our thought process! Absolute rubbish.

Why do people in these pages feel the need to rationalise crimes based on ones ethnicity. The law is the law no matter where you come from and to say otherwise is an insult to the victims.

If a Pakistani is involved in a rape so what if his ethnicity is named. Maybe it will help their community come together and better educate themselves and make them aware that maybe there is a problem that needs addressing.

Quoted from The_Pragmatic_One

Why do people in these pages feel the need to rationalise crimes based on ones ethnicity.

I don't think anyone's rationalising a crime based on ethnicity here. Without a doubt anyone who commits a crime should be tried and punished accordingly.

Quoted from The_Pragmatic_One

The law is the law no matter where you come from and to say otherwise is an insult to the victims.

Well that there is the problem, it isn't. Rape isn't a crime in some Muslim countries. This is why education is important.

Quoted from The_Pragmatic_One

If a Pakistani is involved in a rape so what if his ethnicity is named. Maybe it will help their community come together and better educate themselves and make them aware that maybe there is a problem that needs addressing.

But you never hear "Irish man rapes women" or "Christian man rapes woman". So is it fair to single out ethnicity in the media which creates stereotypes?

That's right! >:(

But lucky for me I don't embody the traits of a stereotypical muslim Turk/Leb Australian. :P

Quoted from Sillygostly

That's right! >:(

But lucky for me I don't embody the traits of a stereotypical muslim Turk/Leb Australian. :P

That is good . . :P . . . ( that must be because you are Chinese ) :D :D

Quoted from x452

Well that there is the problem, it isn't. Rape isn't a crime in some Muslim countries. This is why education is important.

I disagree it is their responsibility not ours. Does anyone else find it concerning that muslim beleif advocates rape. No wonder we are having trouble getting through to them because that logic belongs in a museum. Surely there must be something in the Koran that says it is wrong to violently gang rape someone.

I havent seen to many reports of Irish males gang raping women because they are muslim because that level of hate isnt there.

If there is though and on a regular basis I will be the first on this website backing up youre claims.

Quoted from The_Pragmatic_One

I disagree, it is their responsibility not ours. . . .

That would be true if they were in their own country . .but they are here . . . and they have brought their cultural 'ideals' with them. Righly or wrongly it has become an issue we all must deal with now.

There is something very wrong with a law code that has no provision for rape to be seen as a crime . . just an admission by a woman that a sex act occurred with somebody other than her husband brings a 'crime' of Adultery against her . . no wonder rape is non-existant!! . . how could anyone face that confusing lack of justice. ?

When was the last time we saw any headlines about a man being 'stoned to death' for adultery in these countries?? ;D

Have you been ripped off by legitimate businesses? Do you find the Law and Politicians are less than sympathetic?

Supermarkets are doing it every day. A large can of coffee often costs more that the equivalent in smaller tins � One has a legitimate belief that bulk items would cost less, per portion, and the supermarkets know this and use this belief to entrap customers into buying the larger more expensive items.

On another item I saw the "special" tag declaring a reduced price but when I looked under the �special� tag I saw that the original price was less than the �special� price... ripped off!

This topic is not really "news". I have, however, moved it to the "Crime and Punishment" thread.

Why have you moved my post? There was no reference to crime and punishment. My concern was about the unethical behaviour of supermarkets and other legitimate businesses - Unethical, not illegal.

And, while it may not be �news� it dose concern �general issues�

Quoted from tramp

Why have you moved my post? ...

Because that's part of our role here. :)

As for the rest, if supermarkets are really advertising falsely, then it is a crime, so fits nicely here.

tramp, I don't see the need to begin a new thread stating the concerns of people being ripped off by Supermarkets. I would probably have moved this thread to Blahblah Cafe. When creating a new thread make it's scope wide for example: 'Large corporations ripping off the little guy' OR 'Large chainstores and supermarkets ripping us off'. Don't be so narrow as to only include supermarkets in the subject line as this limits the posting. :)

I'm sorry you didn't read my post SusiH. The title was "Ripped-off", very general, and I did include "other legitimate businesses" in the context.

But I�ll say no more - you have the hammer and I have the head :(

This story will no doubt make everyone who reads it angry but if I know blahnii as well as I think I do she will be angrier than anyone else, and rightly so. This story only reinforces the knowledge that some step parents, especially young men, treat their partner's children like the enemy and torture them horrifically, sometimes even killing them. The Mother's are usually complicit in their own child's ill-treatment or they say they didn't have a clue what was happening, which only shows what dreadful unattached mother's they are. The following story shows just how inadequate some sentences are.

Man pours caustic soda down stepdaughter's throat
March 30, 2007 - 6:03AM

A Queensland man will be sentenced today after being found guilty of pouring caustic soda down the throat and over the groin of his four-year-old stepdaughter.

The 33-year-old man, who can't be named, faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The Mackay District Court heard the child had five fractured ribs and a broken arm, and had caustic soda burns to her throat and groin area between July and late September 2005.

The four-year-old was presented to the Mackay Base Hospital on September 26, 2005, when her parents told doctors they thought the groin burns were nappy rash or eczema.

However, specialists at the Royal Childrens Hospital diagnosed the chemical burns via video link-up and the child was rushed to Brisbane.

She's had skin grafts to her groin area and will need more operations.

Her throat has became so badly closed it has to be stretched open with medicals rods under general anaesthetic every two to three weeks.

But the four-year-old didn't receive any treatment for her broken ribs and her healed fractures were only noticed later when her whole body was X-rayed in Brisbane.

Specialist Dr Geoffrey Withers told the court that patients he's seen with those type of burns usually need narcotics or morphine to handle the pain.

Dr Roy Kimble says the girl would have vomited, gagged and suffered great pain when caustic soda was poured down her throat.

In a pre-recorded video, the little girl testified that her stepfather gave her black stuff and that he also poured some on her.

Last November, the child's 27-year-old mother pleaded guilty to one charge of child cruelty by failing to provide necessary medical care.

She was sentenced to five years in jail to be released on parole on July 13 2008.

This is the second time the man's faced trial over the incidents after a Mackay District Court jury was unable to reach verdicts last November.

He's already serving a six year sentence for failing to provide necessary medical treatment for the little girl.

AAP

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/stepdad-in-caustic-soda-abuse-horror/2007/03/30/1174761697240.html

"Judge blahNii" recommends as punishment for the above crime . . put those two in their car . . lift it and them into a scrap metal crushing machine and turn it on to full power . . ASAP!! ??) (evil)

Mother given 5 years for manslaughter
Jennifer Cooke
April 6, 2007

A METHADONE-addicted mother who stopped for a cigarette while performing CPR on her dying baby while a friend relayed instructions during a triple-0 call has been sentenced to more than five years' jail for manslaughter.

The seven-month-old baby boy, who was born methadone-dependant, died from an overdose of methadone on January 16, 2004.

Methadone, methamphetamine (speed), amphetamine, pseudoeffedrine and several benzodiazepines, which depress the central nervous system, were found in his urine after toxicology tests.

Some of the drugs, like amphetamine and pseudoephedrine, were probably related to the breakdown of the methamphetamine.

A jury convicted the mother of manslaughter last November after she had denied murdering her son, who had been lethargic, feverish and noticeably ill before his death on a hot summer day during which she had been trying to buy drugs.

The child's father, from whom the mother lived apart but had frequent contact, was an amphetamine abuser.

Both parents were described as unreliable witnesses by Justice Roderick Howie, who found "overwhelming" the Crown case that the baby was given a small amount of methadone to help him settle and sleep, and to allow her to get sleep she had been denied in the days leading up to his death.

Since the mother was the only person with the opportunity and motive, it was "highly likely" the methamphetamine was not administered intentionally, "but was the residue in a container or on a spoon used to administer the methadone to the child" and probably the day before his death, the judge found.

Probably not appreciating how gravely ill her son was, she had rebuffed three different pleas from people, including the child's father, to take the baby to hospital in the five hours before he was pronounced dead at Nepean Hospital.

"There is no doubt that the offender has suffered grievously over the death of her son," Justice Howie found.

He reduced her possible jail term, which carries a maximum of 25 years, for reasons including that she had served her remand period since May 2005 and may serve her whole sentence under protection.

In addition, her culpability was reduced by the unusual circumstance that her child's death resulted from an act intended to comfort the child and relieve her of some of her stress.

She will be eligible for parole in May next year.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/mother-given-5-years-for-manslaughter/2007/04/05/1175366414222.html

Since when is drug abuse an excuse for causing the death of a child? She should of received the maximum in my opinion not only because she failed to give her baby proper care BUT because she is a drug addict and deserves to be locked up. What chance did that poor little one have? My ex-mother-in-law could only keep one thing down when she was having my ex-husband and that was coffee. He was born 53 years ago with a caffiene addiction (from what she has told me about his demeanor when born and for a long time afterwards) he was like a 'bag of sticks', did not like to be held or cuddled, was restless with other side affects of caffiene withdrawal. Imagine what a strong drug addiction in a baby would be like! Why was a drug addict allowed to keep her baby while still taking drugs?

adendum: before anyone says she was on the methadone program being treated for drug addiction. A chemist friend of mine once said Methadone is just another form of illegal drugs (an opioids) and people on the program get the same payoff from using it as they would Morphine & Heroin.

hey accidently stumbled into the law library documents page this site has some really great arguments for and against punishment types and also discuss's things such as police use of psychology, hiv in prisions and a range of other related topics just thought anyone interested in this thread may enough some of the stuff on this site

http://www.uplink.com.au/lawlibrary/documents

should probably start a new thread with this thought but it does loosly tie in with the subject.
do not want to inflame an argument or up set anyone but the story suzi posted poses an interesting question

should all people be allowed to have children????
i dont mean docs removing them i mean a form of chemical castaration until they prove themselves fit to raise another life

a well known of argument in criminal defence is that they had a bad childhood were abused by they're parents or similar so it seems the answer
is simple if these people are also going to make such bad parents dont let them be

i propose a licensing of sorts where couples wishing to reproduce submit to psychological and physical tests before being issued a licence to have a child
this would ensure that people uncapable of having a child and raising it responsibly caring for it in the way a child should be cared for ,would not have the oppurtunity to accidenly kill there child or harm it in any way they simply would not have one

obviously this is a blatant violation of human rights and would never be allowed in this day and age but honestly wouldnt alot of children be much better off than they are today.
some people should never have children......

Quoted from felicity009

should all people be allowed to have children???? . . . . . . some people should never have children......

Nobody can ever stop people from having babies . . the cost and enforcement procedures would be too hard to be workable.

Who would decide who does/not have babies too?? . .one 'judge'? his case load would be too big. Many judges would not do any better as they would bring their own personal views to the job and the results would be inconsistant . .have a look at how poorly the Child and Family Services (an already existing body doing social work) is . .they are woeful at preventing tragedy . .they remove babes from innocent families and leave 'at risk' kids with drug and alcohol dependent 'crime families'. :(

What happens when a decision is made to prevent parents having a baby based on cultural lines ? . . or vindictive use of such power by a 'judge' who does not like blacks, Jews or any other percieved group of dissent? Look at China as an example of your suggestion . . not many of us are migrating there for a better life. :D

Great idea in theory and at first glance, felicity but as blahnii points out, virtually unworkable and personal bias would enter into decisions, without doubt.
Quote from blahnii ".have a look at how poorly the Child and Family Services (an already existing body doing social work) is . .they are woeful at preventing tragedy . .they remove babes from innocent families and leave 'at risk' kids with drug and alcohol dependent 'crime families'. "

Exactly! If they can't get it 'right' now, as it stands, they could never get it 'right' with anything more complex.

I know it's the US BUT it seems woefully inadequate!
Jealous butcher hacked wife to death
April 10, 2007 - 5:59AM

A butcher from the Dominican Republic who hacked his wife to death with a boning knife on a New York City street because he thought she had cheated on him has been sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.

"This incident was horrific," said Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus as he sentenced Sergio Parra, 28, for the murder of Jahaira Parra, 27. "Surely this was a culmination of anger at your wife because of your feelings of betrayal."

"You killed the mother of your daughter in such a brutal way that it is inexcusable," the judge said.

Parra was convicted last month of second-degree murder in the September 16, 2004, death of his wife in their Washington Heights neighbourhood.

The judge said the jury rejected the defence offered by Parra's lawyer, David Blackstone, who admitted that his client killed his wife of three years, but did it while suffering extreme emotional disturbance because she had left him.

Obus said he was sentencing Parra, who came from the Dominican Republic in 1996, to two years less than the maximum 25 years to life because he had no prior arrest record and apparently had "psychological issues". The defendant will be eligible for parole after 23 years in prison.

"I'm very sorry for the death of my wife," Parra told Obus just before sentencing.

Parra was arrested shortly after he had gone to the barbershop where his estranged wife worked as a cleaner and asked to speak with her, police said. Once outside, they said, he stabbed her more than 20 times, striking her in the chest and eyes while bystanders watched.

A civilian auxiliary police officer happened by and grabbed Parra and held him with the help of several passers-by until more police came.

Witnesses told police that Parra apparently suspected his wife was having an affair after she disappeared for several days. They said he had been working at a butcher shop for about six months when the slaying occurred.

Jahaira Parra, a Dominican native, was pronounced dead less than an hour later at a hospital. She came to the United States in 1999 and married the defendant in 2001, Blackstone said. He said they have a daughter in the Dominican Republic.

If the jury had found Parra acted under extreme emotional disturbance, the charge would have dropped to first-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years.

AP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jealous-butcher-hacked-wife-to-death/2007/04/10/1175971047092.html

Alleged killer admits to shaking baby
Friday Apr 13 07:00 AEST

A Melbourne father accused of killing his infant son had shaken the newborn "a little harder than normal" a week before he died, a court was told.

Baby Izaiah Klamo was induced at 39 weeks at Werribee Mercy Hospital on June 29, 2005.

Twenty-eight-days later he was dead.

On Thursday, Izaiah's father, Tomas Klamo, 23, of Melton, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Klamo told police he was watching television and Izaiah had been crying for about 10 minutes when he shook him up to three times, a week before his death.

"I can't remember exactly, but I remember it was in the lounge and I just shook him a little harder than normal," Klamo said in a statement to police.

"Nothing too full on."

Prosecutor Ray Elston, SC, told the court that when police asked Klamo if he was irritated with his son, he replied: "Just for a split second and then once I had done it I thought 'what the f**k did I do?'

"I thought he's too pure and I shouldn't have done it."

On July 27, 2005, Klamo's wife Shayla called triple-0, after Klamo came into the room holding Izaiah, who was apparently choking, Mr Elston said.

Milk started running out of the infant's nose and Klamo began CPR.

The ambulance took Izaiah to a Sunshine hospital, where he died less than an hour later.

Pathologists found the cause of death was bleeding between the brain and the lining of the skull.

Izaiah's maternal grandmother, Michelle Sowter, agreed with defence barrister, Stratton Langslow, that Klamo thought his baby boy was "the best thing that ever happened to him".

She said Klamo often bathed and fed his son.

"I actually bragged to the ladies at work how good (Klamo) was," Ms Sowter told the jury.

Maternal health nurse Linda Padayachee said she noticed a bruise on the baby's left cheek and that he had lost 65 grams in a fortnight.

She said she was concerned the baby was on occasions waiting up to eight hours until he was breast fed.

Mr Langslow told the jury the baby did not have injuries, such as broken bones, which were consistent with "shaken baby syndrome".

He said there was controversy among doctors about whether it was possible to cause bleeding to the brain by shaking a baby.

Mr Langslow said medical experts who give evidence may be able to explain whether other factors contributed to Izaiah's death, such as his induced birth, ecoli in the pancreas and blood and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).

He said grieving families often blame themselves for the unexplained death of a baby.

"It is common for family members to blame themselves in circumstances which they really have no responsibility for the tragedy," Mr Langslow told the jury.

The trial before Justice David Harper continues on Friday.

�AAP 2007

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=260704

The father's claim that he shook him 'a little bit harder than normal' is outrageous. No shaking is normal. The baby was not even a month old. What the hell is the health nurse thinking when she said there was a bruise on the baby's cheek (he was under a month old and could hardly have done it himself) and that he waited sometimes 8 hours between feeds and had lost 65grams in 14 days. ??) :X ::) He was being abused right from the start. My kids were demand fed and would go between 3 to 4 hours between feeds at that age. Why was the baby not fed more often? What lame excuse do the parents have for that? Also, bathing and feeding a baby does not 'father of the year' make! My son was induced at full term for medical reasons and as far as I know a baby whose birth is induced is no more at risk than any other baby PLUS SIDS does not, as far as I know, cause bleeding between the brain and the skull. I am changing my signature back to a favourite of mine. :(

DNA quashes 1982 rape conviction
Jerry Miller, centre, flanked by his legal team.
April 24, 2007 - 7:12AM

A man convicted of rape in 1982 has become the 200th person in the US to be exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence, the man's lawyers said.

"I want to get on with my life ... have a life," said Jerry Miller, 48, after an appearance in Cook County Circuit Court where a judge tossed out his conviction at the request of prosecutors.

The New York-based Innocence Project, which has pursued such cases, said Miller's case marked the 200th DNA exoneration since 1989.

Miller, it said, served 24 years in jail.

The 200 people exonerated by DNA evidence served a total of 2,475 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit, it said.

"They are just the tip of the iceberg. Nobody truly knows how many innocent people are in prison.

"Only a small fraction of cases involve evidence that could be tested for DNA, and even among those cases, evidence is often lost or destroyed before it can be tested," the group said.

Reuters
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/dna-quashes-1982-rape-conviction/2007/04/24/1177180604627.html

Quoted from SuziH

DNA quashes 1982 rape conviction
Jerry Miller, centre, flanked by his legal team.
April 24, 2007 - 7:12AM

A man convicted of rape in 1982 has become the 200th person in the US to be exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence, the man's lawyers said.

Makes you wonder just how many people have been executed for murder under the death penalty that were innocent which DNA could have proven?

Yes, X452, exactly why the death penalty is flawed.

Family blame police as daughter's killer jailed for 15 years
Justin Norrie, Tokyo
April 25, 2007

THE family of Carita Ridgway, the Australian student drugged, raped and killed in Tokyo by Japan's worst serial rapist, said last night that police bore responsibility for his subsequent attacks on dozens of young women.

They said Joji Obara, the former playboy property tycoon given a 15-year "life sentence" yesterday for nine counts of rape and one of killing Ms Ridgway, deserved the death penalty.

Investigators believe the real tally of his rape victims is more than 400. Most of his chilling attacks are captured on film in his vast private video collection.

Obara, 54, was sensationally cleared of raping and killing British woman Lucie Blackman, 21, in 2000. She was the second woman suspected of dying at his hands, but investigators could not find video evidence of her rape.

Ms Blackman's mother said in London yesterday that the verdict left her "absolutely heartbroken".

Obara, described by the prosecution as "a cunning beast" who had shown "not a trace of humanity", could be out of jail in five years.

At the start of the summing up at Tokyo District Court, he appeared nervous. But he sat impassively as the judge read his verdict, bringing to an end a case that has transfixed Japan for six years.

Police ignored repeated requests by the Ridgway family to investigate Obara, who had spent a weekend with their 21-year-old daughter at his holiday house south of Tokyo before she died in mysterious circumstances in 1992.

He had drugged her with chloroform, filmed himself raping her, then dumped her at a hospital, where she died slowly from chloroform poisoning.

Obara has already served almost five years of his sentence. His lawyer, Yasuo Shionoya, said he would appeal the verdict.

Speaking after the sentence was handed down, Ms Ridgway's mother, Annette Foster, said in a statement that the family was "relieved that Obara has finally been called to account for his terrible crimes".

But she added that "Carita's family feel a deep sense of anger, betrayal and disappointment in relation to the 1992 police investigation. We would particularly like to know why, when we went to the police, our concerns and suspicions were ignored and laughed at."

Had Tokyo Metropolitan Police listened to their pleas to investigate Ms Ridgway's death, her sister Samantha Termini said, they could have stopped a decade-long crime spree. It was not until 2000, when Ms Blackman vanished and was found months later dismembered in a shallow grave, that police detained Obara.

Last year the Ridgway family repeatedly refused a payout offer of 50 million yen (about $A500,000) from Obara's legal team, fearing it would affect the outcome of the trial.

They said yesterday that they would not touch a trust fund that Obara had created for them containing the same amount.

"If we decided ever to take it, it might still jeopardise his sentence," Ms Foster said.

The family said they were pleased that the decision by Ms Blackman's father to accept a similar offer had not affected the verdict in Ms Ridgway's case.

Throughout the long-running case, the prosecution revealed how Obara typically lured his victims to one of his seaside apartments, offered them a glass of "rare" wine laced with drugs, then lugged their limp bodies on to a bed where he would assault them with various objects, often for more than 12 hours. Both Ms Blackman and Ms Ridgway had been working as bar hostesses in Tokyo.

The young women who work in these lucrative jobs are required to entertain Japanese businessmen with light conversation, drinks, cigarettes and karaoke songs.

They are not prostitutes, although some choose to sleep with clients.

Obara, who once wrote in his diary, "I can't do women who are conscious", was finally caught when Ms Blackman's family travelled to Tokyo to look for her.

Japan's newspapers gave saturation coverage to Obara's trial, in part because of scrutiny from the outside world.

Obara told the hospital where Ms Ridgway died that she had food poisoning from shellfish.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/04/24/1177180651435.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Quoted from x452

Makes you wonder just how many people have been executed for murder under the death penalty that were innocent which DNA could have proven?

I have a different slant on this. I wonder how many people have gotten away with murder because DNA testing was not available.
Isn't it a good thing we have modern investigative techniques so it is now possible to punish those who are truly guilty. A jury is the real achilles heal of the judicial system. The fact that O.J Simpson is currently playing golf is really quite depressing.

Quoted from The_Pragmatic_One

A jury is the real achilles heal of the judicial system. .

A jury is a neccessary part of our judicial system. However, surely a jury comprising of people who have an understanding of Australian law would be much more effective?

Don't put all your faith in the modern forensic and investigative system either. When CSI first came out I wrongly thought that in America most serious crimes are solved and the perps caught, nothing could be further from the truth.

I posted all the figures on another board but you can find them easily enough but from memory only about 20-30% of serious crime is solved, with some jurisdictions getting at times as high as 40%. So even with the best forensics in the world more serious crime goes unsolved than is solved.

Then there is the ease at which the system can be so easily usurped by the authorities. If they want someone found guilty for whatever reason (political, personal, revenge etc.) it is all to easy. George Bush was the governor who signed more death sentences than any other (in fact around as many deaths as Saddam was accused of signing for in his court case). Some of those Bush sentenced to death had very little evidence against them and one famous case the only evidence was from a known liar with not one bit of forensics or witness accounts putting the accused at the crime scene. Despite that and large legal protestations Bush authorised the death penalty anyway.

There have also been an alarming number of cases where DNA evidence turned out to be contaminated, mixed up at the lab or wrongly processed, so even DNA is not infallible. In fact there have been known cases even in Australia where a perpetrator has deliberately contaminated a crime scene with someone else's DNA.

Also you cannot use the OJ case to make a point because it is a foible of just one US State's justice system and could never have happened in Australia, the UK etc. and in fact in many other US states either.

jurys can only work on the information they are given
in the skaf rape case 2 jurors visited the scene of the crime and the convisted defendant was granted an appeal .
why were the jury not taken to view the toilet block in question to get an idea on the perameters of where the crime was committed

in the body in the barrels murder case the jury was taken to the bank were 1 of the murder occured and the bodies and weapons were found the defence tried to stop this but it was allowed, juries need to be given all available information i also think juries should be able to recommend punishments instead of that decision being left totally to the prosecutor and judge who may have political or other constraints placed apon them.

recently i spent a day at the blacktown local court and was shocked at some of the sentences i heard being handed down it is clear that magistrates have very differing opinions on some issues and choose what they believe regardless of common sense intervening

a male defendant was caught at a mcdonalds with his 2 small children he was pulled over for rbt and returned a mid bac (blood alcohol content)
this man excuse was that he had drunk 1 can of bourbon and did not believe himself to be over the limit he had 2 prior offences and was sentenced to community service and a good behaviour bond. 1 can of bourbon??????????????????????????????????

the next case was a high range defendant had been woken from sleep and drove brother to work he had no previous convictions within the last 5 years and despite this was sentenced to 6mths jail?????

the first man had his children in the car surely it should be considered more serious than that of the second man and any one with common sense should realise 1 can of bourbon consumed over an hour earlier would not give the reading this man had returned yet this lie was not caught by the magistrate

i would suggest anyone with time to spare get down to alocal or district court house and sit in on a few matters it is interesting and really opens your eyes to the operations of the justice system.

Man jailed for fatally sitting on baby
By Lisa Allan
April 27, 2007 04:51pm
A MAN who killed his crying seven-week-old daughter by sitting on her as her mother slept in another room has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

The 25-year-old sat on the baby because he did not want her mother to wake up, hear her crying and think he was a bad father, the New South Wales Supreme Court in Newcastle was told today.

The man had a history of violence toward the little girl and admitted to sitting on her once previously and hitting her twice in the head after becoming frustrated by her crying.

Justice Robert Hulme sentenced the man, who cannot be named, to a non-parole period of four years and six months and a maximum term of seven-and-a-half years for the "bizarre" manslaughter.

He said for some offenders, "their feelings of guilt or remorse operate more strongly than punishment is likely to do".

The court today heard the baby died shortly after her father laid her on the lounge and sat on her in the early hours of July 13, 2005.

"The crying stopped, the evidence suggesting that the child stopped breathing at that time," Justice Hulme said.

The man immediately awoke the baby's mother, dialled triple-0 and commenced CPR, but she died after being taken to hospital.

A post-mortem examination showed she had bruises of various ages on her face, fractures to a number of ribs and internal haemorrhages to her head.

The injuries were "consistent with an overall pattern of child abuse", Justice Hulme said.

The baby's father admitted to police he had sat on her "for a significant period".

Justice Hulme said the man had a "history of becoming increasingly frustrated at (the baby's) crying".

He said the man told a psychiatrist he did not know how to stop his daughter's crying and did not want to wake her mother, who was asleep in another room.

"I didn't want to hurt her, I didn't want to kill her, I just wanted her to stop crying," the man said.

"I didn't want to wake (the baby's mother) up, because I didn't want her to think that I was a bad father."

In sentencing today, Justice Hulme took into account two previous assaults on the baby in which the man had hit her in the head area with an open hand.

Justice Hulme said the man's earlier violence towards his daughter should have acted as a warning to him.

"These incidents must have made the prisoner aware that his conduct or some inability to control himself created a risk for a young and helpless baby," he said.

But Justice Hulme said he had to take into account the man's remorse, his guilty plea, the unlikelihood of re-offending and an intellectual disability he had suffered since birth.

With time already served, the man will be eligible for release in January 2010.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21631103-5003402,00.html
Way to go.... didn't want his wife to think he was a bad father so he smothered the baby! ??) :X Where is the logic or justice???

i heard about this today didnt he get 4 years or somthing like that???

Father jailed two years for baby's death
May 02, 2007 10:45am
Article from: AAP

A MELBOURNE man who shook his baby to death in what the judge called an aberration in a "proud and happy father" was jailed today for a minimum of two years.

Baby Izaiah Klamo was 28 days old when he died in a Melbourne hospital on July 27, 2005.

It was found that he died of bleeding between the brain and the lining of the skull.

The baby's father Tomas Klamo, of suburban Melton, who pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, told police that a week before the child's death he shook Izaiah vigorously after he had started crying.

In the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice David Harper today sentenced the 23-year-old to five years jail with a minimum term of two years.

Justice Harper said Klamo was a proud and happy father and the shaking instance was an aberration.

However, he said the shaking resulted in the death of his son and it was the court's duty to make it plain that an infant's death in those circumstances should result in a jail sentence.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21658246-5003402,00.html

That sentence is supposed to show the father that he will be punished for the crime? ??) ::) That is barely a slap on the wrist! IMHO 10 years non-parole period should be enforced for cases like this. (and that is being lenient).

>:(

This is OUTRAGEOUS! >:(

I'm with SuziH, these negligent sons of b****es deserve 10 years MINIMUM. How dare they murder their own children! What kind of person sits on a baby? ??) >:(

judges falling asleep viewed unfavourably

sleepiness among judges and other members of the judiciary
is not uncommon and is viewed unfavourably by the media and society, says an australian study

dr ronald r grunstein of sydney conducted an in depth review of media and internet reports on judicial sleepiness in australia and found 15 recent cases
reported in recent years

"regulatory processes and health screening to ensure fitness for duty of the judiciary legal counsel and even juries,may be required to ensure that confidence is maintained "grunstein said in a statement

BABY KILLERS SENTENCE SHOCK

A judge who said babies should be "shaken gently or not at all" while jailing a father who killed his infant son hasshocked childrensgroups and child health experts.
Tomas Klamo was found guilty of manslaughter after shaking four week old son who later died of brain injuries he was sentenced to five years with a minimum of 2
The judge said the incident was an abberation from a loving caring father and that a long parole period would let Klami rejoin his family while his new daughter was young

Justice harper then ignited heated debate by commenting on infant care "Babies barely a month old should be shaken gently or not at all ,any other kind of shaking... is clearly dangerous"

read the full story at
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun

INFANT IMPALED BY CLOTHES HORSE
herald sun may3/2007

a woman will face court charged with recklessly causing serious injury
her grandson was playing in the lounge room when he was hit on the head by a clothes horse
a leg of the clothes horse became embedded in thechilds skull, he is in a serious condition after surgery in the royal childrens hospital

this poor woman will probably get a severe sentence when this could easily happen to any one it was a horrific accident not intentional and i really feel for this poor woamn and the childs parents how shocking for them.

felicity, if you read post 232 you will see I had posted the exact same story as you did in post 235. I don't know about other people in here but I read all other posts thoroughly so I don't post exactly the same thing as others have and because I am interested in other people's posts. Cheers Suzi :)

Quoted from felicity009

BABY KILLERS SENTENCE SHOCK

A judge who said babies should be "shaken gently or not at all" while jailing a father who killed his infant son hasshocked childrensgroups and child health experts.
Tomas Klamo was found guilty of manslaughter after shaking four week old son who later died of brain injuries he was sentenced to five years with a minimum of 2
The judge said the incident was an abberation from a loving caring father and that a long parole period would let Klami rejoin his family while his new daughter was young

Justice harper then ignited heated debate by commenting on infant care "Babies barely a month old should be shaken gently or not at all ,any other kind of shaking... is clearly dangerous"

read the full story at
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun

suzi- i did see your post and then found a story written regarding it only published today
sorry was going to modify post when i realised i hadnt made my point so here it is.

this judge made some bad comments regarding this case and has been slammed by children authorities for saying light baby shaking was acceptable ,that is what the story i found was highlighting not the actual incident or sentence imposed.

if some judges are napping and others are advocating mild child shaking whats next ?

Quoted from felicity009

this judge made some bad comments regarding this case and has been slammed by children authorities for saying light baby shaking was acceptable ,that is what the story i found was highlighting not the actual incident or sentence imposed.

Sounds like a typical judge to me

Post 221 in this thread also concerns 'shaking a baby' where the father says
"I can't remember exactly, but I remember it was in the lounge and I just shook him a little harder than normal," Klamo said in a statement to police.
"Nothing too full on." :o :o :(
NO shaking of an infant or child or anyone for that matter is acceptable! What the hell are people thinking? ??)
The Judge needs a kick up the backside and a reality check.

Motorcyclists 'caught 100km/h over limit'

May 07, 2007 06:24am

NSW police said two motorcyclists caught speeding more than 100km/h over the limit at the weekend have been charged with multiple offences.

They allege a 28-year-old man was clocked about 7am (AEST) yesterday travelling at 200km/h in an 80km/h zone near the intersection of Gore Hill Freeway and the Pacific Highway on Sydney's lower north shore.

He was breathalised, returning a blood alcohol level of 0.105 - twice the legal limit - and will appear in North Sydney Local Court on May 29.

In another incident around 10.25pm yesterday, police spotted two people on a motorcycle travelling about 180km/h in a 80km/h zone on Wyong Road, Berkeley Vale, on the NSW Central Coast.

The motorcycle accelerated away from police following in a marked patrol car.

The pursuit ended when the motorcyclist lost control on a grass shoulder. Both he and his passenger were thrown from the bike but escaped injury.

Police said the 24-year-old male rider driver had already been disqualified from driving until 2015.

He was charged with numerous offences, including using an unregistered and uninsured machine, riding while disqualified and resisting an officer in the execution of his duty.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,21684329-5003402,00.html

Punishment... banned from holding any licence for LIFE! As we see though that does not stop these idiots from driving/riding when they are banned!
??)

NBL star found guilty of sex charge
Tuesday May 8 16:04 AEST

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=264489

I cannot even bring myself to copy and paste entire report ??)

Teenagers get life for schoolgirl murder
Wednesday May 9 17:48 AEST

Two teenagers have been sentenced to life in prison for the "merciless" murder of a 15-year-old girl they strangled and buried under a West Australian house.

The pair were sentenced in the Perth Children's Court after previously pleading guilty to murdering Eliza Jane Davis in the West Australian coal mining town of Collie on June 18, 2006.

Their sentencing hearing last month was told the three teenagers had stayed in the same house after a party on the Saturday night - Eliza in one bedroom while her then 16-year-old killers slept together in a second room.

Idly chatting on the Sunday morning, the two murderers discovered neither of them would feel bad about killing someone and decided to kill Eliza.

They dressed in old clothes, strangled Eliza with speaker wire and buried her body under the house.

They then reported Eliza missing and pretended to help with a search for her before turning themselves into police after deciding their grave was so shallow discovery was inevitable.

The girls told police they knew it was wrong to kill but it "felt right", and they did not feel bad about Eliza's death.

Prosecutor Simon Stone told the court their utter lack of remorse was the startling feature of the case.

"(They) planned the murder with calmness, consideration, emotional detachment and the desire to have the experience of killing someone," he said.

The girls' lawyers said experts were baffled by why they decided to kill.

Children's Court President Denis Reynolds described the murder as "gruesome and merciless in the extreme".

He sentenced the pair to life in prison, with a minimum of 15 years to be served before they are eligible for parole.

�AAP 2007

Now that's almost fitting punishment! Make it 25 years without parole and it would be even better! :X

I'd like to see names given no matter what age someone is. Enough of this children court sh1t, murder is not a crime that should be heard about in a childrens court. When they get out it's going to be with a clean slate because the records will be sealed

Hicks to earn 10c a day in prison
Tuesday May 15 05:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

Despite David Hicks's next home being South Australia's toughest prison, the convicted terror supporter is expected to find post-Guantanamo Bay life much easier.

Upon his arrival at Yatala Labour Prison, which could be as soon as this weekend, The Australian reports that Hicks will be given three canvas blankets and paid 10c per day.

If Hicks maintains good behaviour, he could soon be earning $20 a week and be given a personal television and walkman for his cell.

It will be a sharp contrast from Hicks's time at Guanatanamo Bay, where he was reportedly held under fluorescent lights for 23 hours a day without fresh air.

Yatala prison's G Division, where Hicks is expected to spend nine months, has a three-tier system where prisoners can earn cash and material incentives if they behave.

Hicks will enter the prison on the lowest rank — meaning he will only be allowed non-contact visits and all personal property will be banned.

Through good behaviour Hicks will move up a level, and be given five normal blankets, contact visits, toiletries, a personal Walkman and pay of $12 a week.

The Australian reports that prisoners who reach the top rank are rewarded with a personal television, six CDs, pay of up to $20 a week and the chance to work as either a cleaner, in maintenance, mending or laundry.

Hicks's new cellmates will include Snowtown serial killers John Bunting and Robert Wagner and convicted sex offender and former magistrate Peter Liddy. Suzi Edit: Prisonmates more like, I doubt he will be cellmates with these men

The money the prisoners earn can be used to order canteen snacks, stamps, cigarettes and even a radio or television.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=267132

Compared to Gitmo his new digs will be like a 4 star resort!

Outrage over gay paedophile couple in prison
Tuesday May 15 05:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

Despite growing public outcry, two homosexual lovers who kidnapped a schoolboy and used him as a sex slave are being allowed to live together in the same Western Australia prison unit.

The paedophile couple were convicted last month of sexually abusing and planning to murder a 14-year-old boy who they held captive in their home for 20 days in 2005.

As they await sentencing on May 24, the men are being allowed to spend hours together each day at Hakea Remand Centre, The Australian reports.

An emotional plea from the boy's family yesterday to separate the two convicts was unsuccessful, with Corrective Services Minister Margaret Quirk refusing to change the accommodation arrangements.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman Rob Johnson slammed the decision to allow the paedophiles to stay together.

"These men are evil and have perpetrated every parent's worst nightmare," Johnson said.

"How can you possibly justify keeping them together? They planned and carried out their disgusting crimes together. It is unbelievable."

Although Robbie Sebastian Wheeler, 43, and Victor Lesley Urquhart, 46, are being housed in different cells, they are able to comfort each other during the day in a communal lounge.

Quirk said they were both at Hakea for psychiatric tests ahead of their sentencing trial.

Johnson said that one of the two convicts could easily be moved to Casuarina for tests, just minutes down the road.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=267138

The whole of WA is outraged at the above report. I honestly dont see how the people get in power that can authorise such blatent stupidy as this.

(clown) (clown) (clown)

Man shot after girl finds mother stabbed to death
Les Kennedy
May 25, 2007

A MAN wielding a kitchen knife was shot by police in Punchbowl late yesterday, after the man's six-year-old daughter ran from an apartment screaming that her mother had been stabbed to death.

Police shot the man in the throat and chest outside the couple's block of flats in Matthews Street, and later found the bloodstained body of his 24-year-old wife inside.

The man, in his late 20s, was in a serious but stable condition in Liverpool Hospital last night after undergoing surgery for the gunshot wounds.

The couple's daughter was found unhurt outside the block. She was in the care of the Department of Community Services last night.

Neighbours rang triple-0 about 4pm when the girl ran screaming from the second-storey unit. Officers from Bankstown police station rushed to the scene.

According to witnesses, the man was in the garden of the block, covered with blood and waving the knife, when police arrived.

"My neighbour was running around the yard with a kitchen knife threatening to kill himself," said a man named Wallid, who was walking home when the shooting happened.

"Then he came out onto the footpath and was waving the knife around. There were around six police."

The man was heard to shout something in a panicked voice. A crowd of spectators gathered behind the police.

Police, with their guns drawn, called on the man to drop the knife but, witnesses said, he lunged at one of the officers from about two metres away.

"They were a couple of metres from him," Wallid said. "They told him to drop it [the knife]. Then he moved towards one policeman. He was acting really aggressive … and he shot him three times."

Another witness said she thought she heard four gunshots, and later saw two officers carrying the man away from the building.

A local hairdresser, who said her name was Sheryne, said she saw two police officers carrying the man from the pavement.

"He was covered in blood and looked like he had been shot in the throat," she said.

The couple had been living in the unit block for about two years. Neighbours said they argued constantly.

The police commander on the scene, Detective Inspector Jeff Loy, said officers attending the incident would receive counselling.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/girl-finds-mother-stabbed-to-death/2007/05/24/1179601579539.html

Mother beat toddler to death
May 23, 2007 12:00

AN Adelaide woman has been jailed for life after a jury today found her guilty of beating her 21-month-old baby girl to death.
A South Australian Supreme Court jury took nearly 12 hours to find Tracey Lee Smith, 24, guilty of murdering daughter Ti-Aysha at their Swan Reach home, southeast of Adelaide, in November 2005.

An autopsy found Ti-Aysha died from severe internal bleeding after she was struck 81 times.

At trial, the jury heard Smith had a pattern of physical and verbal abuse towards her daughter stemming from frustration that the toddler regularly became tongue-tied.

She commonly referred to her daughter as a "retard", the trial heard.

The jury rejected Smith's testimony that her former de facto, Adam Troy Barty, 31, was responsible for the girl's fatal injuries.

Murder charges against Barty were dropped last year after he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of criminal neglect and agreed to testify against Smith.

He was sentenced to a jail term of two years in December.

Barty told the court Smith had punched her daughter in the head, chest and stomach the day the child died.

A non-parole period for Smith, who pleaded guilty to criminal neglect before the trial, will be handed down at a later date.

A murder conviction shall result in a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21782204-5001021,00.html

and LIFE should mean LIFE, never to be released....ever, ever, ever!

Quoted from SuziH

Man shot after girl finds mother stabbed to death

Holly sh1t a NSW cop actually squeezed off a round! They're going to be doing paper work until it's pension time :P

Aussies 'eating fermented camel' in UAE cell
Tuesday May 29 05:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

Two Australians who allegedly disrupted an international flight are surviving on fermented camel meat in a United Arab Emirates prison cell with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees.

Jupiter Mines director Jeremy Snaith, 37, and another Australian who has not yet been identified are in the Al Wathba Prison outside Abu Dhabi, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The men were arrested along with Jupiter Mines director David Evans, who is in Abu Dhabi after being granted bail, after a flight from Sydney on April 27.

They were charged with intoxication, indecent exposure and sexual harassment on the international flight.

After denying all charges, they were released three days later. But Snaith and the other man were reportedly re-arrested on May 10 after blood tests returned positive for drugs

According to News Ltd papers, the men are facing up to 15 years in prison and lashings.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=269738

Shows how NOT to be a moron on a Air Emirates flight! ??) :X

Judge gives 'pathetic' sentence to paedophile
Tuesday Jun 26 06:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

A man who raped a 10-year-old girl twice will be free in just weeks after a British judge ruled the victim was "dressed provocatively".

Judge Julian Hall is under fire in the UK over the "pathetic sentence" he imposed on the paedophile, who was facing life imprisonment, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The same judge was criticised earlier this year for setting another child sex offender free, and asking that he give his victim money to "buy a nice new bicycle."

In the latest case, Judge Hall said he faced a moral dilemma because the "young woman" had been wearing a frilly bra and thong.

Oxford Crown Court heard that window cleaner Keith Fenn, 24, and accomplice Darren Wright, 34, attacked the victim in a park in South Oxfordshire.

The girl, who has been in local authority care since the age of four, was on her own when she met the pair in the street.

"It is quite clear she is a very disturbed child and a very needy child and she is a sexually precocious child. She liked to dress provocatively," the judge said.

"Did she look like she was 10? Certainly not. She looked 16."

Fenn was given concurrent two-year and 18-month sentences, meaning he will be free in just weeks after spending eight months in jail on remand.

Wright, who had also spent eight months awaiting sentence, is already free.

Dr Michele Elliott of Kidscape called the decision "utterly derisory".

"For the judge to say that the way she was dressed in any way excuses a 24-year-old man having sex with her is disgraceful and ridiculous."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=275100

This judge needs to be thrown off the bench, literally! I remember when Anita Cobby was murdered in 1986 there was some talk of her being dressed provocatively and this made her a target. Get real. People should be able to dress however they want as long as they aren't baring private parts of themselves. The fashion these days with hipster pants (women) and mid-riff tops (women) is far more 'provocative'. It does not mean they are inviting rape or should be assaulted!

The following two articles show the inequality in sentences handed down. Although it is in the USA , Australia has similar sentencing laws.

Father jailed after girls found starving
Saturday Jun 30 07:25 AEST

AP - The father of two young girls found starving in their home last year has been sentenced in Kansas to more than five years in prison.

Alex Wood was arrested in July with his wife, Jennifer Wood, after a social worker found the girls, ages six and seven, starving and dehydrated in the basement of their south Wichita home.

Wood had pleaded guilty to two counts of felony child abuse. His wife, Jennifer Wood, had pleaded guilty to those counts, as well as one count of aggravated battery.

However, the sentence Alex Wood received is about 18 months longer than the one handed down to his wife on June 8, The Wichita Eagle reported.

The home was well-stocked with food, and Jennifer Wood's children, a four-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, were found to be healthy and well-fed, authorities said.

The father traveled frequently for business, and his two daughters told police they ate only when he was at home.

The judge faulted the man for not protecting his daughters and seeing "that they are dying before your eyes".

�AAP 2007

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=276113

Man jailed for injecting sons with drugs
Saturday Jun 30 07:08 AEST

AP - A Missouri man who injected his sons with heroin and cocaine so they would understand how he felt when he used drugs has been sentenced to 10 years' jail.

Stephen Pickle, 39, was sentenced for injecting the boys - ages 12 and 16 at the time - with the drugs. His younger son contracted hepatitis C as a result of the injections in 2005.

Pickle's lawyer, Joel Schwartz, told The Associated Press that Pickle was "incredibly remorseful" about what he had done.

Prosecutor Teresa Bomkamp said Pickle destroyed the boys' childhood. She said Pickle also injected his daughter with drugs that year, but was not charged because the girl was 18, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Pickle and his wife are divorced. While she has physical custody, they shared joint custody of the boys.

�AAP 2007

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=276111

I cannot see how starving, abusing, neglecting children to the point of starvation is less of a crime than injecting them with drugs. I believe the father of the starving girls should of got 10 years gaol and the wicked stepmother 15 years gaol! The father who injected his children with drugs... 20 years gaol! I'd be a tough judge, hey!?

adendum:

Band-Aid Bandit jailed for 149 years
Saturday Jun 30 07:33 AEST

AP - The serial bank robber known as the Band-Aid Bandit for his habit of wearing bandages to mask his distinctive facial mole was sentenced to more than 149 years in prison in Florida.

"It's a life sentence and it should be," US District Judge Steven Merryday said in giving Rafael Angel Rondon the maximum sentence of 149 and a half years for his role in six bank robberies.

Authorities said Rondon, 47, was responsible for heists at 39 banks from Sarasota to Gainesville from 2000 to 2006, netting nearly $US1 million ($A1.18 million).

He and his brother-in-law were prosecuted in April for six of the robberies. A jury convicted them of six counts of armed bank robbery, six counts of illegal use of a firearm and one count of conspiracy.

The judge ordered both men to pay $US676,000 ($A799,574) in restitution. His brother-in-law was sentenced to more than 126 years in prison.

�AAP 2007

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=276114

What the??? ??)

Queensland:

Dial M for manslaughter
By Leanne Edmistone
July 03, 2007 12:00am

THE State Government is under pressure to review the controversial murder defence of provocation after juries failed to reach a murder conviction in five high-profile cases this year.
A statewide letter-writing campaign is being led by grieving Gold Coast mother Jennifer Tierney and the Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group, who fear provocation is being used as an excuse for attackers who "snap and kill" to be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter or acquitted.

Last weekend's acquittal of Damian Karl Sebo, 30, of murdering Ms Tierney's 16-year-old daughter Taryn Jessica Hunt almost two years ago was the fifth such case this year. Sebo, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for 10 years, argued during his five-day trial that he was provoked during an argument with Hunt, his former girlfriend, about her unfaithfulness and "exploded".

Ms Tierney – who is considering an appeal against Sebo's sentence – said it was time the provocation defence was reviewed.

"Everything I know and have heard about provocation seems to be an excuse," she said.

"There should never be any law that says that in a split-second someone can say something, and another person snap and then kill.

"Ninety-nine per cent of people have been in a fight and used harsh words, and they don't kill someone."

A spokesman for Attorney-General Kerry Shine, who was examining the circumstances of the Sebo case, said there were no plans to include provocation in a previously announced review of the accident defence to unlawful killing.

In the past six months, Brisbane Supreme Court juries have grappled with several cases involving complicated laws governing defences to unlawful killing.

The acquittal of two young men of murder and manslaughter for their involvements in separate street fights, which resulted in the death of two men, sparked huge public debate, a victims' group safety campaign and an Attorney-General's review of cases involving the accident defence.

Another man will be retried for the murder of his wife after a Brisbane Supreme Court jury failed to reach a verdict after 16 hours of deliberations in which it had to decide whether the killing was provoked or a revenge attack.

Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group CEO Jonty Bush said jurors could not be criticised but the public needed to question whether some defences to murder were "lame excuses aimed at defending the actions of weak-minded individuals".

"From the feedback received in our office over the past few days, this outcome seems completely contradictory to the views of the average lay-person on the street," Ms Bush said.

"It sets a dangerous precedent when adultery becomes a defence for murder. Homicide cases are particularly difficult as only two people know what really transpired, and one person is unrepresented."

Queensland Public Defender Brian Devereaux SC yesterday sought to quell growing public unease, arguing provocation had been part of the national criminal code for more than a century. He said juries were representatives of society and made their decisions based on a full brief of evidence and an explanation of the law the rest of the public did not get to hear.

CASE 1
February 2007: Paul Joseph Haydon was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by a jury despite
admitting to stabbing his estranged defacto Amanda Falconer and driving interstate with her
body strapped in the passenger seat of his car. He claimed he stabbed her accidentally after she came at him with a knife.

CASE 2
March 2007: Jonathon James Little was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter despite admitting to punching and then kicking victim David Stevens in a Fortitude Valley Mall. His lawyer argued death was an unintended outcome that could not have been forseen.

CASE 3
May 2007: Ryan William Moody killed Nigel Lee at an inner-city taxi rank with a punch but a jury couldn't reach a verdict on murder at his first trial in 2006. The Crown only proceeded with manslaughter at the second trial. His lawyers relied on the defences of accident and self-defence and he was acquitted.

CASE 4
June 2007: Damian Karl Sebo was acquitted of murder by a jury despite admitting to clubbing
his 16-year-old former girlfriend Taryn Hunt to death with a steering wheel lock. He claimed he
was provoked by her taunts and was jailed for 10 years for the lesser charge of manslaughter,
to which he had pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial.

CASE 5
May 2007: A jury failed to reach a verdict in the murder case against a man, 38, who cut his wife's
throat. The jury was asked to focus on whether the killing was provoked in the heat of passion, which would be manslaughter, or was for revenge and retribution, which would be murder. The jury was dismissed. The man is expected to be retried at a later date.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22008407-952,00.html

What the hell is going on? Provoked??? Manslaughter??? If the person is dead they can hardly defend themselves & say they did or did not provoke their killer. So, who do we believe? Not the killer that's for sure because no-one has the right to take another's life unless they are defending themselves against certain harm. I don't believe for one minute that the girl in case 4 told her murderous boyfriend she had been unfaithful, provoking him into a murderous rage. He was thirty for goodness sake and she but a young woman of 16. A pretty decent sign that he has/had control issues and needed a young impressionable girl to control. I don't think 'our Dara' would be interested in dating someone 14 years older than herself! :o

So Queensland needs a new tourist slogan.

Beautiful one day,

Banged on the head and dead the next. :P

Quoted from SuziH

What the hell is going on? Provoked??? Manslaughter??? If the person is dead they can hardly defend themselves & say they did or did not provoke their killer. So, who do we believe? Not the killer that's for sure because no-one has the right to take another's life unless they are defending themselves against certain harm. I don't believe for one minute that the girl in case 4 told her murderous boyfriend she had been unfaithful, provoking him into a murderous rage. He was thirty for goodness sake and she but a young woman of 16. A pretty decent sign that he has/had control issues and needed a young impressionable girl to control. I don't think 'our Dara' would be interested in dating someone 14 years older than herself! :o

The law is absolutely #$%*. Not much of a deterrent is it!

Provocation is just a pissweak excuse in these circumstances, but it's the dumb juries that are failing to convict!

I'm not sure what circumstances it could be used to defend murder.

what can be used that would be better than our court system?
the crims have it made in the shade and they won't want anything changed and as the system is scewed in their favour, we all better get used to killers walking free and we lock ourselves behind bars in our own houses (based on my front and back door we already are)

Quoted from D_b8_R

what can be used that would be better than our court system?
the crims have it made in the shade and they won't want anything changed and as the system is scewed in their favour, we all better get used to killers walking free and we lock ourselves behind bars in our own houses (based on my front and back door we already are)

Our justice system in principle is I think a good model. It's the people administering it that get it wrong. I guess our justice system (much like everything else) is as fallible as the people running it.

Often it's all too open to the Judge's own opinion, which is based on their character which is formed by the environment and experiences during their childhood and adulthood. Like we're seeing with John Howard's 1950's mentality which affects his judgment on everything, we have "tired old" judges (and they're not always old) who think a youg girl dressed provocatively is inviting sexual assault.

It all boils down to lack of accountability. People who hold alot of power seem to be void of accountability or are able to usurp it easily. The Law Council should be a lot tougher on Judges who hand down inadequate verdicts, or who have opinions that are not in line with mainstream society. In the case of sexual assault, these Judges should be forced to attend sexual assault seminars to open their eyes and hopefully modernise their ignroant old-fashioned values. Perhaps a two or three strikes and your out system might could be used as well.

As for jurors, there's not much we can do about them so the law needs to be adjusted so killers can't use the provocation defence in certain circumstances.

Girl, 3, has lip and ear bitten off
July 6, 2007 - 7:05AM

A US man bit off the lip and ear of his girlfriend's three-year-old daughter in attacks that left her so mutilated doctors could not fully repair the damage, police say.

Bryan James, 34, put up a brief struggle after police in New Bedford, Massachusetts, stopped his vehicle to arrest him and the child's mother, Jessica Silveira, 26, police said.

The couple is scheduled to face New Bedford District Court on Friday.

State and local police officers were tipped off that the couple was planning to drive to New Bedford after their names and photos were posted on the Massachusetts State Police most wanted list, police Captain Richard Spirlet said.

The girl suffered bites to the face in which she lost the upper part of her lip. Her ear was so mutilated that surgery could not return it to its natural state.

The child also suffered other human bites on her body, Spirlet said.

"It was malicious, mayhem," Spirlet said.

James is charged with assault and battery upon a child causing substantial bodily injuries.

Silveira is charged with permitting substantial injuries to a child under 14 and intimidation of a witness.

New Bedford police began investigating in mid-May after the girl was taken to Children's Hospital in Boston.

Officials at the hospital called it one of the most horrific cases of child abuse they had ever seen.

Police think the biting attacks began in January, and continued until April.

The girl and her older brother, have been taken into state custody.

AP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/girl-3-has-lip-and-ear-bitten-off/2007/07/06/1183351408412.html

Picture from same story.

I have received some very interesting information regarding the case of Damian Sebo and Taryn Hunt, in post 255 case number 4.
In a nutshell, the girl who was killed was living with Damian under her mother's roof. Her mother was very liberal in her upbringing of Taryn. This young woman had had two terminations by the age of 17. Damian may be 30 but in maturity is much much younger. He dated younger women because women his own age thought he was too immature for them. Taryn pretended she was 3 years older than she really was, to Damian and previous boy friends. Damian was moving out of the household where Taryn lived with her Mother and her mother asked him to wait until someone else was found to share the cost of renting. Her mother turned Taryn's life support off after 2 days. We must remember there are two sides to every story. Should Taryn's mother of been charged with aiding and abetting? Child neglect? Contributing to the delinquency of a minor? She is the one making the most noise about the injustice of Damian's sentence not being long enough. This is one of those tragedies that happen everyday. Taryn's life was on a collision course and she was never going to make 'old bones', IMHO.

Quoted Text

He dated younger women because women his own age thought he was too immature for them.

Must remember that one next time I'm at the boutique :P

Abandoned baby's mum 'could face charges'
Tuesday Jul 10 05:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff

A mother could face criminal charges after she abandoned her 11-month-old baby boy in a Wollongong motel yesterday.

The woman checked into the Cabbage Tree Motel in Fairy Meadow with her baby at 5pm on Sunday. The baby was found alone in the room by a cleaner at 10am on Monday.

People from neighbouring rooms said they had heard the baby's cries throughout Sunday night, but were shocked to learn the child had allegedly been alone in the room.

"You could hear it crying all night," a guest, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Telegraph.

"She (the mother) must have left during the night. My neighbour heard the cries all night as well."

The mother, believed to be in her mid-30s, was traced by police yesterday afternoon and is under investigation.

"She has been located and is assisting police with their inquiries," police said.

A spokesman confirmed the baby was healthy and in temporary foster care. It is believed the woman returned home after leaving the child.

Police said they could not yet reveal where the woman lived, or why she had abandoned the child.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=277613

:'( :'(

Quoted from SuziH

Queensland:

Dial M for manslaughter
By Leanne Edmistone
July 03, 2007 12:00am

THE State Government is under pressure to review the controversial murder defence of provocation after juries failed to reach a murder conviction in five high-profile cases this year.
A statewide letter-writing campaign is being led by grieving Gold Coast mother Jennifer Tierney and the Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group, who fear provocation is being used as an excuse for attackers who "snap and kill" to be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter or acquitted.

Last weekend's acquittal of Damian Karl Sebo, 30, of murdering Ms Tierney's 16-year-old daughter Taryn Jessica Hunt almost two years ago was the fifth such case this year. Sebo, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for 10 years, argued during his five-day trial that he was provoked during an argument with Hunt, his former girlfriend, about her unfaithfulness and "exploded".

Ms Tierney – who is considering an appeal against Sebo's sentence – said it was time the provocation defence was reviewed.

"Everything I know and have heard about provocation seems to be an excuse," she said.

"There should never be any law that says that in a split-second someone can say something, and another person snap and then kill.

"Ninety-nine per cent of people have been in a fight and used harsh words, and they don't kill someone."

A spokesman for Attorney-General Kerry Shine, who was examining the circumstances of the Sebo case, said there were no plans to include provocation in a previously announced review of the accident defence to unlawful killing.

In the past six months, Brisbane Supreme Court juries have grappled with several cases involving complicated laws governing defences to unlawful killing.

The acquittal of two young men of murder and manslaughter for their involvements in separate street fights, which resulted in the death of two men, sparked huge public debate, a victims' group safety campaign and an Attorney-General's review of cases involving the accident defence.

Another man will be retried for the murder of his wife after a Brisbane Supreme Court jury failed to reach a verdict after 16 hours of deliberations in which it had to decide whether the killing was provoked or a revenge attack.

Queensland Homicide Victims' Support Group CEO Jonty Bush said jurors could not be criticised but the public needed to question whether some defences to murder were "lame excuses aimed at defending the actions of weak-minded individuals".

"From the feedback received in our office over the past few days, this outcome seems completely contradictory to the views of the average lay-person on the street," Ms Bush said.

"It sets a dangerous precedent when adultery becomes a defence for murder. Homicide cases are particularly difficult as only two people know what really transpired, and one person is unrepresented."

Queensland Public Defender Brian Devereaux SC yesterday sought to quell growing public unease, arguing provocation had been part of the national criminal code for more than a century. He said juries were representatives of society and made their decisions based on a full brief of evidence and an explanation of the law the rest of the public did not get to hear.

CASE 1
February 2007: Paul Joseph Haydon was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by a jury despite
admitting to stabbing his estranged defacto Amanda Falconer and driving interstate with her
body strapped in the passenger seat of his car. He claimed he stabbed her accidentally after she came at him with a knife.

CASE 2
March 2007: Jonathon James Little was acquitted of both murder and manslaughter despite admitting to punching and then kicking victim David Stevens in a Fortitude Valley Mall. His lawyer argued death was an unintended outcome that could not have been forseen.

CASE 3
May 2007: Ryan William Moody killed Nigel Lee at an inner-city taxi rank with a punch but a jury couldn't reach a verdict on murder at his first trial in 2006. The Crown only proceeded with manslaughter at the second trial. His lawyers relied on the defences of accident and self-defence and he was acquitted.

CASE 4
June 2007: Damian Karl Sebo was acquitted of murder by a jury despite admitting to clubbing
his 16-year-old former girlfriend Taryn Hunt to death with a steering wheel lock. He claimed he
was provoked by her taunts and was jailed for 10 years for the lesser charge of manslaughter,
to which he had pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial.

CASE 5
May 2007: A jury failed to reach a verdict in the murder case against a man, 38, who cut his wife's
throat. The jury was asked to focus on whether the killing was provoked in the heat of passion, which would be manslaughter, or was for revenge and retribution, which would be murder. The jury was dismissed. The man is expected to be retried at a later date.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22008407-952,00.html

What the hell is going on? Provoked??? Manslaughter??? If the person is dead they can hardly defend themselves & say they did or did not provoke their killer. So, who do we believe? Not the killer that's for sure because no-one has the right to take another's life unless they are defending themselves against certain harm. I don't believe for one minute that the girl in case 4 told her murderous boyfriend she had been unfaithful, provoking him into a murderous rage. He was thirty for goodness sake and she but a young woman of 16. A pretty decent sign that he has/had control issues and needed a young impressionable girl to control. I don't think 'our Dara' would be interested in dating someone 14 years older than herself! :o

Quoted Text

Public save cops from attacker
PASSERS-BY swooped in to help two female police officers being attacked by a man who shrugged off the effects of capsicum spray - and almost stole a gun

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22287164-5001021,00.html

Firstly my faith in the sissy police is fully justified when two fully armed and trained officers can't stop one drug addict. And sorry ladies but this shows that maybe some jobs need to be done by a man

Quoted from SuziH

CASE 4
June 2007: Damian Karl Sebo was acquitted of murder by a jury despite admitting to clubbing
his 16-year-old former girlfriend Taryn Hunt to death with a steering wheel lock. He claimed he
was provoked by her taunts and was jailed for 10 years for the lesser charge of manslaughter,
to which he had pleaded guilty on the first day of the trial.

He was thirty for goodness sake and she but a young woman of 16. A pretty decent sign that he has/had control issues and needed a young impressionable girl to control. I don't think 'our Dara' would be interested in dating someone 14 years older than herself! :o

No way! ;)

Quoted from aquamonkey

Firstly my faith in the sissy police is fully justified when two fully armed and trained officers can't stop one drug addict. And sorry ladies but this shows that maybe some jobs need to be done by a man

You show yourself ignorant. I have seen 5 burly police men fight like street brawlers to contain one ecstacy driven addict. He nearly beat all 5 men.
How about your attitude be aimed at the drug idiots who cause the trouble instead of bagging brave (and needed) policewomen.

^ ^ Of coarse the supply of drugs could be cracked down on. Remind me which government agency would be involved in that? Police by any chance

Also a glock 22 would probably have more effect against someone who's high as a kite than capsicum spray

Quoted from aquamonkey

Also a glock 22 would probably have more effect against someone who's high as a kite than capsicum spray

:B :B Looks like you have "Gravel Rash" again!! ??) :B

Capsicum spray made it into todays news because it killled a drug addict

Man dies from police capsicum spray August 23, 2007 - 9:30AM

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Man-dies-from-police-capsicum-spray/2007/08/23/1187462392818.html

fantastic it either has no effect or a fatal effect....what a brilliant tool, maybe marines should be armed with it to stop terrorists

Quoted Text

Firstly my faith in the sissy police is fully justified when two fully armed and trained officers can't stop one drug addict. And sorry ladies but this shows that maybe some jobs need to be done by a man

Cobblers! Someone in a drug-induced state can have the strength of many. If this was the case, even 2 men could have had a hard time controlling the cretin.

Again why did they not think about the weapon they carry on their hip?

Man escapes jail for sex attacks

A Jehovah's Witness has escaped a jail term after admitting a series of sexual assaults on children and adults in Clevedon.

Michael Porter, of Okehampton Close, north London, admitted 24 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency on 13 victims aged 18 months and older.

Among the individuals were others involved in the faith.

Judge Tom Crowther at Bristol Crown Court sentenced Porter to three years of community rehabilitation.

The judge opted not to jail Porter after hearing he had undergone therapy and was a changed man.

He was banned from working with anyone under the age of 18 and put on the Sex Offenders Register.

But Porter's sister, Tina Hughes, said: "I am absolutely disgusted. He should not have walked free.

Many of the families involved have been completely traumatised

Det Con Lisa Finch

"He has lost nothing. We have to tell the victims we have got no closure. He is an evil person. He is not human."

Det Con Lisa Finch, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: "Many of the families involved have been completely traumatised. It has turned their lives upside down."

Avon and Somerset Police are thought to be considering appealing against the sentence.

Norman Brennan, founder of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "If we're to reassure parents and send out a strong deterrent message to paedophiles, then those convicted should face prison sentences that both punish and deter others."

The court was told that Porter, 38, carried out the assaults between 1986 and 2000.

Babysitting youngsters

He was a respected member of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Portishead and Clevedon.

Parents trusted him to look after their children, and he regularly babysat for youngsters, took them away on holidays and invited them for sleepovers at his home.

He finally admitted what he had done after one of his victims threatened to go the police.

Porter declined to comment as he left court with his wife.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/6960166.stm

Quoted Text

Again why did they not think about the weapon they carry on their hip?

Hopefully, because that's the last resort.

Balding killer seeking to marry: report
Wednesday August 29, 2007

One of the killers of Sydney woman Janine Balding will ask the High Court to reduce his life sentence because he wants to marry.

A building society clerk, Ms Balding was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1988.

The man, who can only be identified as B because he was 14 at the time of the murder, is engaged to a woman who has been visiting him at Minda Detention Centre for the past seven years, News Ltd reports.

He met the woman, Kim Ly, who is in her 30s, during a bible group visit to the prison.

She has been visiting him at least twice a week ever since.

B has been granted special leave to take his case to the High Court because a staple was missing from his court file.

Lawyers will argue the failure to staple the crown indictment to the court file as required by law means his unsuccessful 1992 appeal was never "finalised".

In his appeal, B will detail how he has been baptised in jail and has callouses from kneeling to pray every day for Ms Balding's family.

Psychiatric reports filed with the court state he has become ruled by rigid religious beliefs and cries each day for Ms Balding, News Ltd said.

Reports also detail his love for Ms Ly.

"While they obviously share common religious beliefs, there is presumably something else there, given the length of the relationship and the commitment both have to it," one report said.

B told a psychiatrist he wanted to apologise to the Balding family, but her mother Bev is not interested.

"God may have forgiven B but my family never will," she said.

Ms Balding was engaged at the time of her death.

�AAP 2007

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=114897

Sorry mate AKA B, but you took part in one of Australia's most heinous crimes and although it was poor judgement on your part..... them's the breaks. I believe the killers of Anita Cobby and Janine Balding should remain incarcerated for the rest of their lives... until they die.

In 1988.. what happened?

Just Google the words 'Janine Balding', Dara and you will read what happened to Janine.

Here's one website that turns up when you google .
http://www.thecrimeweb.com/murder_of_janine_balding.htm

even our eBlah/ebroadcast turns up in the search ;)

Grrrrr!

Drug runner a dead man laughing

THIS is one of the world's most notorious - and remarkable - heroin traffickers: Melbourne man David McMillan. He should be dead. Or at least wasting away in a Thai jail awaiting death by hanging.

Drug smuggler David McMillan in London
Instead, on this September morning when The Weekend Australian tracked him down to London's Fulham Road, he was buying the papers on the way to his job, packing health food.

The Caulfield Grammar-educated drug dealer, who for decades helped run a multi-million-dollar trans-national crime empire, is a wanted man in Thailand. Having skipped parole in Melbourne, he cannot return to Australia without facing jail.

McMillan cheated death through a miraculous escape from the infamous Thai jail known as the Bangkok Hilton. He rehearsed for the breakout from Klong Prem prison in 1996 by years earlier plotting to escape from Pentridge Prison's DDivision in a helicopter.

When he was released after a decade in jail in Australia, he skipped the country on a false passport. He has never returned and has no fear that Thai or Australian authorities will come looking for him.

"Simple, really: the British Government will not extradite to a country where the death penalty is still practised, and breach of parole is not an offence for which I can be extradited to Australia," McMillan says from his London bed-sit. "Besides, I have a British passport."

Despite still being on the run, McMillan, now 51, has written a book, Escape, about the 30 years he spent moving heroin from the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia and the Golden Crescent of Pakistan and Afghanistan to Australia and Europe, and his amazing breakout in Bangkok.

"He was charming, a dashing buccaneer, very different from your average crim," Australian QC Philip Dunn says of the young McMillan.

At the peak of his career in the 1980s, McMillan says he was a multi-millionaire: "I maintained a large flat in Mayfair, homes and offices in Melbourne, and apartments in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Brussels."

But as he came to the attention of the Australian Federal Police, the US Drug Enforcement Agency and British Customs, he was forced constantly to switch cabs and enter and exit department stores to confuse followers and carry a variety of mobile phones and passports at all times.

McMillan was busted for his first kilo of cannabis at Heathrow in 1979 and served six months in Reading jail.

"I was one of those who thought all drugs should be made legal," he says.

"I started dealing among friends, but, of course, with the profits being so good it went much bigger. I am not going to pretend what I am not. It is inevitable that as a result I will be labelled a Merchant of Death or something like that.

"I make no justification for my actions. It was just a life."

McMillan first came to notoriety in Australia in 1983 when, at 26, he was sentenced to 17 years' jail for spearheading a million-dollar heroin ring.

His then lover, Clelia Teresa Vigano, the daughter of a wealthy Melbourne family, and another woman, Marie Escolar Castilo, died in a fire at Fairlea prison asthey faced trial over the syndicate.

In his three years in the Bangkok Hilton, McMillan had abetter time than most drug couriers.

While the foreign prisoners in Building2 battled vermin, worms, TB and AIDS, and had a diet of soup with an occasional fish head, McMillan had his own sanitary toilet and servants, including a chef, whose ingredients came from the local supermarket.

"I had access to television and radio and my own office, and instead of 70 to a cell, we just had five. This all cost about 10,000 Thai baht a week," he says.

Once he realised the death penalty loomed, McMillan had hacksaws delivered, hidden in posters.

The guard searching his gift box was distracted by pornography, which was, of course, confiscated.

According to McMillan's account of his escape in August 1996, he sawed through two bars and crawled out along a plank. He descended two storeys to the ground using webbing belts.

By 2.55am, he had reached a prison factory where he kept "an office". He picked up gaffer tape, eight sturdy picture frames, some civilian clothes and water.

In the prison's paper box factory, he constructed two ladders from bamboo poles, tape and the frames.

After scaling three inner walls and negotiating "Mars Bar Creek", a 2 1/2m-wide open sewage trench, he climbed the outer wall.

"I reached the top and opened my eyes to a view I had imagined for so long it was already a living memory," he says.

After reaching the bottom of the outside wall, he followed the earth path around the prison with a raised umbrella over his head.

"I held to that day's maxim: 'Escaping prisoners do not carry umbrellas'," he says.

It was just after 6am. By 10am, McMillan -- armed with a new passport from the city's Chinatown, with details already logged into the Thai Immigration Police computer -- was boarding a flight for Singapore.

"Eventually I heard the sound that was a kiss to every smuggler: the fwump of sealing aircraft doors," he says.

Having escaped the death penalty, or the minimum of 100 years in prison, McMillan might have thought it time to quit the drugs trade. He didn't.

He lived in Pakistan with a member of the local nobility, but was arrested in Lahore and brought to Karachi Central Prison on another charge of heroin trafficking.

By another stroke of luck, or as McMillan would have it, "fair justice", he was acquitted of the drugs charge and by the late 90s was back in Britain.

Did he stop? No. He was last arrested in 2003 at Heathrow airport for trafficking in 500g of heroin. He got four years and is now on parole.

It's technically illegal to keep or publish prison diaries in Britain, but for this tale he was encouraged by guards.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22382044-601,00.html

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And after all this time he's STILL on the run?

This man was really lucky to get off.

Jury frees death charge man
September 22, 2007 12:00am

A SHOPPING centre security guard walked free from court last night after being found not guilty of the manslaughter of an elderly shopper.

Mark Steven Smith, 52, of Morphett Vale, was also found not guilty of the false imprisonment of Dean Eustice, 77, at Westfield Marion Shopping Centre in October, 2003.

A jury in the Supreme Court deliberated for about seven hours before reaching its verdicts. Mr Smith did not comment as he left the court.

Mr Eustice's family were upset by the verdict.

Outside court his son-in-law, Wayne Marshall, said the family were "very disappointed" with the verdicts.

Mr Eustice's wife Dawn said her "sad day" was October 11 four years ago.

She said she hoped to be able to "start again" now that the case was over.

The trial heard it was alleged Mr Smith recklessly caused the death of Mr Eustice during a scuffle over a child's pink purse.

The court was told Mr Eustice and his wife, Dawn, had found the purse outside the shopping centre and Mr Eustice went inside to report it missing but refused to hand it over.

The prosecution alleged the decision led to a physical altercation with Mr Smith and that during the scuffle Mr Eustice had a heart attack and died.

The court heard Mr Smith restrained Mr Eustice because he "didn't know if" the man was "a pedophile or a priest".

Mr Smith did not give evidence at the two-week trial.

Mr Eustice's death was the subject of an inquest in 2004, at which Mr Smith also did not give evidence.

In his inquest findings, then State Coroner Wayne Chivell questioned the level of training given to security officers.

He said their training should be reviewed because their "powers of arrest and detention" were a "legal minefield".

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22459760-5006301,00.html

Murdered man's son distressed at latest death
Jordan Baker Chief Police Reporter
November 28, 2007

FOURTEEN years ago, Stanley Francis Maguire shot and killed John Vickers's father. Now Mr Vickers, a father himself, cannot believe it has happened to someone else.

Maguire, 59, has been on the run for three days after allegedly shooting dead his neighbour, Stephen Holmes, after the father of four told him to be quiet.

Families in Lassiter Avenue, Woonona, didn't know much about Maguire. But they knew he had spent time in jail for killing a man, and were worried.

The man he had killed was John Thomas Vickers, who, like Mr Holmes, was a miner.

Yesterday, Mr Vickers's distressed son, John - now 31 - told the Herald it should not have been allowed to happen twice.

Mr Holmes's four daughters will suffer the pain he has lived with for 14 years. "They're going to feel worse knowing that the justice system let this bloke out after eight years and he did it again," said Mr Vickers, a father of two.

"I feel terrible for them. It's a kick in the guts even for me and my family. I've got on with my life and have a beautiful family but I miss my father every day."

In March 26, 1993, Maguire ran over Mr Vickers with an F100 truck in the car park at Doyalson RSL, on the Central Coast, and then shot him while he was on the ground.

Maguire was charged with murder, but in 1994 a jury convicted him of manslaughter after debate over whether the gun fired accidentally. He was released from prison in 2002, and his parole ended two years later.

Mr Vickers - who sat in court every day - said the two men did not know each other, but had an argument at the bar when Maguire became belligerent.

Maguire threatened his father, then left, Mr Vickers said. But he waited outside with a gun.

On Saturday night, Mr Holmes was shot after arguing with Maguire. Neighbours said Maguire used to abuse them and play loud music when drunk.

They lived in fear of him, one woman said. After the murder, a girl was heard sobbing: "We warned you this would happen."

Mr Vickers has rebuilt his life. His racehorse, Private Steer, won the Doncaster in 2004, prompting him to propose to his partner in front of 30,385 racegoers.

But the shooting in Woonona, near Wollongong, brought the memories flooding back.

"[Losing your father] is devastating, no matter what the scenario is," he said. "For [the Holmes family ] to know now that he killed someone before � [Mr Holmes] sounds like a deadset family man. He died in similar circumstances [to my father]."

He said the pain his father's murder caused him was beyond comprehension. "Words can't describe it. It hurts. It's anger, it's sadness, it's frustration."

A team of 10 detectives is searching for Maguire. His Nissan Pulsar car was found near Mount White, north of Sydney, on Sunday. However, police yesterday said they had widened their search area.

They are appealing to the public to report any sightings, although they warned people not to approach him.

Maguire is 176 centimetres tall, of medium build, with short grey hair and blue eyes. He is believed to have tattoos on both forearms.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/i-lost-my-dad-too-to-this-gunman/2007/11/27/1196036893214.html

Pic from
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/noise-row-shooting-photo-released/2007/11/26/1196036793758.html?s_cid=rss_news

Tougher alcohol laws for parents
Patrick Lion
November 28, 2007 11:00pm

PARENTS supplying excessive amounts of alcohol to children will face tough penalties from mid next year under new laws aimed at curbing violence among youths.

Premier Anna Bligh yesterday flagged the crackdown only weeks after shocked police caught underage teens with slabs of alcohol bought by parents at Schoolies celebrations on the Gold Coast and North Stradbroke Island.

The overhaul of the Liquor Act was sparked by a report by the Youth Violence Taskforce, a group formed last year after Brisbane teen Matt Stanley was kicked to death outside a party.

It comes only months after the Government blocked a Private Member's Bill from the Opposition proposing similar changes that Labor deemed too simplistic to pass.

Adults are currently only stopped from supplying liquor at the point of sale but the new laws will go further to ban supplying alcohol to children at parties even in the privacy of a home.

Ms Bligh yesterday admitted her laws would be difficult to enforce but insisted they were necessary to decrease the disturbing trend of violence among youths.

"We are not about penalising parents who let their 16 or 17-year-olds have a mouthful of champagne at grandma's 90th birthday," Ms Bligh said.

"This is about getting tough on those people who give 16 and 17-year-olds three or four slabs of beer to take to Stradbroke Island or the Gold Coast."

The penalties are yet to be approved by Cabinet but the Opposition Bill had proposed $3000 fines.

Coalition police spokesman Rob Messenger described the laws as a "belated backflip" after better protection could have been achieved in time for the recent Schoolies festival.

"Labor's proposed laws are vague at best," he said.

The report also recommended a stronger focus on education, prompting the Government to launch a "one punch can kill" advertising campaign next month.

The taskforce had considered recommending increasing the legal drinking age from 18 to 21, but resisted.

Matt Stanley's father, Paul, a member of the taskforce, said adults must consider the consequences of excessive drinking among children before they supplied them with alcohol.

"Go down to the Mt Cotton cemetery and stand on my son's grave," Mr Stanley said. "It's absolutely ridiculous the amount of alcohol that you see parents are supplying to their young kids."

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22839686-3102,00.html

I know I have already posted on this thread today but the World/Australia is just getting more crime ridden.
The punishment so often does not fit the crime, IMO.

Carers 'refused to call 000' for dying girl
Thursday Nov 29 15:00 AEDT
By ninemsn staff

Foster carers had refused to call an ambulance for a 12-year-old girl who was too ill to move, urinating in her clothes, bleeding from the gums, suffering from hallucinations, and lying covered in ants outside her Darwin home, a court heard today.

Toni Melville, 43, and Denise Reynolds, 42, were charged with manslaughter after the girl died in the emergency room at Royal Darwin Hospital on July 12.

Greshima Noakes, who described the accused women as her "aunties", told Darwin Magistrates Court today that she had asked Melville on two occasions to call an ambulance for the child.
"She said, 'No, do you want to argue with Denise'," Ms Noakes said.

Ms Noakes said the child was suffering from a bad leg when she last saw her.

"She was pale and she was weak and she wasn't moving," Ms Noakes told the court.

"She was sitting on the couch and she couldn't move and she had peed herself on the couch.

"She couldn't get up and go to the toilet or anything."

An autopsy revealed the girl had died from an acute blood infection caused by an injury to her leg.

Darwin Magistrates Court heard yesterday that on the day of the girl's death one of her carers said if she "wanted to soil herself" she "might as well go outside and act like the animal".

Director of Public Prosecutions Richard Coates said the girl was left outside in the dirt, with bleeding gums and "ants on her nose, eyes and mouth", telling her siblings she could see fairies in the trees.

The three bedroom Woodroffe home where the girl lived was also home to nine of the two accused's children, another adult and five more foster children.

Two Family and Children's Services officers who visited the home told the court the girl was "unsteady'' on her feet, but they considered she did not need medical treatment.

The girl was seen limping three weeks before her death, and "needed help to go to the toilet" during the "last week of her life", Mr Coates said.

An NT police officer who lives nearby described the girl as "bubbly", but said she was "real crook" just before her death and "was in pain".

The hearing is continuing before Chief Magistrate Jenny Blokland today.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=329779

However long they lock these two monsters up for will not been even close to long enough.

Four escape jail over dildo rape prank
Thursday Nov 29 15:07 AEDT

A group of four who raped a drunken male friend with a dildo while he slept and videotaped the attack have escaped a jail term.

The South Australian District Court heard on Thursday Brendan Phillip Hollands, Sian Catherine Whistler, David Kingsley McMahon and a 17-year-old girl had been drinking heavily on December 10, 2005, at Hollands' Aberfoyle Park house, in Adelaide's south.

During the night, the male victim, who had also been drinking, fell asleep when members of the group first placed three pegs on his penis then inserted a sex toy in his anus.

The antics were recorded on a mobile phone.

The court heard that when he woke the next day he found the pegs and had suffered pain and discomfort but the group did not tell him about the dildo.

Hollands, who had been the victim's friend since primary school, later downloaded the one and a half minute video to his computer and showed two other people the footage.

McMahon, 23, Hollands, 22, Whistler, 20 and the girl, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty in July to rape.

In sentencing, Judge Peter Herriman told the court each of them had frequently drank heavy amounts of alcohol and participated in sexual antics and taped exhibitionism.

Defence lawyers had argued the rape was "a young person's drunken escapade that got out of hand" but Judge Herriman said the "prank" had caused embarrassment, pain and humiliation.

The victim would also need corrective surgery for his injuries.

The judge said McMahon's actions were particularly aggravated as he was a probationary police officer who had since been suspended and was likely to be dismissed.

Judge Herriman was scathing of the group's initial behaviour.

"Not one of you had the courage, maturity, remorse or sense of guilt to approach the victim and tell him what happened or to apologise," he told the court.

Judge Herriman said each of the group had now expressed regret and he accepted defence pleas for suspended sentences.

Hollands and McMahon received suspended jail terms of three years with a non-parole period of two years while Whistler was sentenced to two years jail with a non-parole period of one year and four months.

The girl was given a 13 month suspended term with an eight month non-parole period.

All four were ordered to enter three year good behaviour bonds of $1,000 each.

�AAP 2007

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=329827

ANTICS??? I call it a crime. This is rape. If it happened to a woman I am sure they would all be sent to gaol for decent amounts of time. This is not punishment for these morons. Drunk or not, a crime was committed and the young male victim was badly injured. I am happy to hear the probationary officer who took part is suspended and will likely lose his job in the police force. No less than he deserves.

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