Category: Sexual Assault

Tonight, Cardinal George Pell starts his sentence behind bars. Australia’s highest ranking Catholic Church official has been sentenced to 6 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 3 years and 8 months. Pell was found guilty in December last year of five counts of sexually abusing two choirboys while he was Catholic archbishop of ...

Statistics released by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) suggest that all major categories of crime except one are in decline in New South Wales, and have been falling for the past forty years. The Director of BOCSAR, Don Weatherburn, says overall crime rates have fallen spectacularly since the year 2000, but has ...

By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Cardinal George Pell faces a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of sexually assaulting two choirboys. The highest ranking Australian Catholic cleric was found guilty after a five-week trial in Melbourne late last year, but the verdict was suppressed until now, for legal reasons. Those reasons related to the ...

Radio shock-jocks, tabloid newspapers and even populist politicians will often claim that members of the judiciary are too soft-on crime, and on sex offenders in particular. They claim the sentences handed-down do not sufficiently reflect the criminality of the conduct, going so far as to call the state’s sentencing practices a ‘joke’. Putting aside the ...

The Australian Rugby League Commission, which controls and administrator the game, has announced a trial of new rules for junior players in a bid to stem the tide of kids leaving the sport. The shake-up is being described as the “most radical” in the sport’s 110-year history, as the embattled code tries to rebuild its ...

Just weeks after NRL star Jarryd Hayne was charged with aggravated sexual assault over an incident on Grand Final night, another NSW State of Origin player has found himself accused of the very same offence. 27-year old St George Dragons player Jack de Belin has been accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year old woman in ...

Things have gone from bad to worse for former Parramatta Eels Rugby League star Jarryd Hayne. It has been reported that the two time Dally M medallist and former San Francisco 49ers player – against whom civil proceedings for sexual battery were commenced in California last year – voluntarily attended Ryde police station this afternoon, ...

It has been reported that a 46-year old man was stabbed in the abdomen and neck during an altercation which ensued when he allegedly confronted a 54-year old man who was attempting to sexually assault a 7-year old girl in a toilet block underneath a dance studio on Railway Road in Kogarah just before 8pm last ...

In the Melbourne County Court last week, Glenn Antony Hartland pleaded guilty to raping three women and indecently assaulting a fourth. His pleas of guilty were followed by an application for bail, which was granted by the court on strict conditions. This means Mr Hartland will be in the community until his sentencing hearing in ...

A Sydney police officer has been arrested and charged with a range of child sex offences, including attempted sexual intercourse with a child under 10, two counts of sexual intercourse with a child aged between the ages of 10 and 14, aggravated indecent assault and grooming a child under the age of 14 for sex. ...