Joanna Menagh is the senior court reporter for ABC News Perth. She has reported on Western Australia's most high profile cases on television, radio and online for more than a decade.
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| UpdatedA Hong Kong man caught with 315 kilograms of methylamphetamine in Perth was recruited in a billiards hall and sent "over the trenches first" by a "sophisticated" drug ring most likely run out of China, a court hears.
Topics: drug-offences, drugs-and-substance-abuse, courts-and-trials, police, perth-6000, wa, canning-vale-6155, south-hedland-6722
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| UpdatedA 49-year-old man is sentenced to four-and-a-half years' jail for a sex attack on a young girl in public toilets at a suburban Perth oval 11 years ago.
Topics: child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, perth-6000, wa
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A jury is discharged after a Hong Kong national admits his role in a drug operation that led to WA's largest methylamphetamine seizure.
Topics: courts-and-trials, drug-offences, perth-6000, south-hedland-6722
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The man accused of murdering missing WA teenager Hayley Dodd 18 years ago wants to be tried by judge alone, instead of a jury.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, wa, perth-6000, badgingarra-6521
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A former West Australian police officer avoids being sent to jail over a "bizarre" and unexplained rampage in which he smashed up a taxi and assaulted six people.
Topics: police, assault, crime, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, northbridge-6003
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Former Fremantle Docker Shane Yarran pleads not guilty to a charge of assaulting a family member.
Topics: australian-football-league, sport, assault, law-crime-and-justice, fremantle-6160, perth-6000, wa
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| UpdatedA Hong Kong man was smuggled into Western Australia on a boat from China to look after hundreds of kilograms of methylamphetamine and more than $1 million in cash, Perth District Court hears.
Topics: drugs-and-substance-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, drug-offences, perth-6000, wa, hong-kong
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| UpdatedA man accused of running down a teenager whose death sparked a riot by members of the Aboriginal community in Kalgoorlie will oppose a bid to hold the trial in Perth rather than his hometown.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, kalgoorlie-6430, wa
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| UpdatedA Perth judge is urged to jail an Army reservist and former police officer over what is described as a bizarre drunken rampage that included smashing up a taxi and assaulting strangers who tried to help him.
Topics: police, assault, crime, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, wa, northbridge-6003
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| UpdatedA West Australian man officially declared a dangerous sex offender wins the right to have a judge-only trial on charges of detaining and raping a 13-year-old girl in Geraldton more than 20 years ago.
Topics: sexual-offences, child-abuse, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, geraldton-6530, wa
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| UpdatedA Perth doctor is deregistered for having sexual contact with a female patient and then persistently lying about it, with his conduct condemned as "clearly calculated" by the State Administrative Tribunal president.
Topics: doctors-and-medical-professionals, courts-and-trials, perth-6000, woodvale-6026
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| UpdatedPaedeophile Ryan Trevor Clegg, who boasted on the internet about abusing a young Perth girl offered to him by her father, is sentenced to 12 years and nine months behind bars.
Topics: child-abuse, courts-and-trials, sexual-offences, perth-6000, wa
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| UpdatedA mentally ill man pleads guilty to sparking a 12-hour siege in Bunbury, during which a hostage was threatened with a spear gun, chained around the neck and falsely told he was going to be blown up.
Topics: courts-and-trials, police-sieges, armed-robbery, bunbury-6230, perth-6000
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A New South Wales man is sentenced to more than 16 years' jail in WA for driving more than 10 kilograms of drugs, including MDMA, ice and cocaine, across Australia, hidden inside dismantled car transmissions.
Topics: drug-offences, perth-6000, nyngan-2825, broken-hill-2880
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| UpdatedThe man charged over the infamous Claremont serial killings makes his second court appearance in Perth, with the case adjourned for eight weeks.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, wa, perth-6000, claremont-6010
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A 53-year-old man pleads guilty in the Perth District Court to luring away two young children who were at a North Perth care facility and sexually assaulting them.
Topics: child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, perth-6000, wa
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A WA father is found guilty of inflicting serious head injuries on his seven-and-a-half-month-old son, after conceding he probably smacked him "a bit too hard" when the child was crying and would not take a bottle.
Topics: assault, law-crime-and-justice, child-abuse, merredin-6415, wa, kellerberrin-6410
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| UpdatedAFL player Michael Johnson makes a brief appearance in the Perth Magistrates Court accused of assaulting a man in a kebab shop, who was reportedly filming while the player was in the store with his pants pulled down.
Topics: australian-football-league, sport, assault, leederville-6007, wa
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A judge tells a woman from WA's Wheatbelt who failed to act after her husband admitted he was abusing their child she was "selfish and self-centred".
Topics: sexual-offences, child-abuse, courts-and-trials, perth-6000
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A West Australian father who allegedly assaulted his his child, leaving him with serious head injuries, told police he probably smacked the child "a bit too hard", a court hears.
Topics: assault, child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, courts-and-trials, wa
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| UpdatedA drug-using Perth couple is jailed for killing their infant daughter who suffered what a judge described as "shocking and horrific" injuries while being cared for in a home covered in filth and cockroaches.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, st-james-6102, perth-6000
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A Perth man who murdered his friend and dismembered him with a chainsaw is sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 22 years.
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| UpdatedThe disappearance of three young women, and the discovery of two of their bodies in the late 1990s, paralysed Perth with fear and sparked Australia's longest-running and most expensive police investigation.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, police, crime, community-and-society, missing-person, claremont-6010, kewdale-6105, perth-6000
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A Hong Kong national pleads guilty to charges arising from the largest-ever seizure of methamphetamine in Western Australia, worth an estimated $320 million.
Topics: drugs-and-substance-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, drug-offences, wa
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| UpdatedA Perth man who attacked two homeless men for a "thrill" as they lay sleeping in doorways, killing one of them, is sentenced to life imprisonment with a 26-year minimum.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, courts-and-trials, homelessness, subiaco-6008, perth-6000