Carla Hales was killed with an axe in her home in the Perth suburb of Munster on 28 December last year. The 30-year-old woman was hacked to death by Jesse de Beaux, an unknown assailant, who’d was released from a nearby hospital a day earlier after being a voluntary mental health patient. Ms Hales death brought ...
Category: Murder / Manslaughter
The Trials and Tribulations of the District Court’s Newest Judges
Seven experienced barristers, including five Senior Counsel, will become the newest judges of the NSW District Court, in February 2019. The appointments are part of the state government’s $148 million funding package which is designed to ease the pressure on the District Court, to help clear the court’s backlog in cases and reduce the length ...
Accused Murderer Granted Bail
Former high school teacher Lynette Dawson disappeared in 1982, just two weeks before her daughter was due to commence kindergarten. The mother-of-two was last seen at the Bayview home shared with her husband, Chris Dawson. Mrs Dawson’s body has never been found. Mr Dawson has consistently and vehemently denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance. ...
Government Limits Power of Courts to Impose Alternatives to Imprisonment
Section 5(1) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (‘the Act’) makes clear that a court “must not sentence an offender to imprisonment unless it is satisfied, having considered all possible alternatives, that no penalty other than imprisonment is appropriate.” This is the statutory embodiment of the common law principle that prison is the last resort when it comes ...
US Cop who Shot Dead Aussie Woman Could Face Upgraded Charges
Prosecutors in Minneapolis are seeking to upgrade the primary charge against a policeman who killed 40-year old Australian woman Justine Damond Ruszczyk. Officer Mohamed Noor was initially was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, after he shot dead former Sydney woman Damond Ruszczyk in an alley behind her Minneapolis home just before midnight on ...
The Far-Right’s Assault on LGBTIQ Communities
In another development in the current global shift to the far-right, the world’s fourth largest democracy Brazil elected extremely divisive presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro to office on October 28. And as seems to be part and parcel of the right-wing agenda, Bolsonaro’s campaign rhetoric was riddled with anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric, along with attacks on women, African ...
Angry Anderson’s Son Bashed to Death
It has been reported that Liam Anderson, the 26-year old son of Rose Tattoo lead singer Gary “Angry” Anderson, was bashed to death during a violent altercation at the corner of Pavilion Street and Bridge Road, Queenscliff, in Sydney’s Northern Beaches early this morning. Police are yet to confirm the identity of the deceased, but ...
Sydney Criminal Lawyer Charged with Accessory to Murder
It has been reported that 38-year old Sydney criminal defence lawyer Ali Abbas was formally arrested at Surry Hills Police Station at around 6am today, and charged with being an accessory after the fact of the murder of 15-year old Braydon Dillon on Good Friday last year. It has further been reported that police papers ...
Sydney Offices and Home of Criminal Lawyer Raided by Police
It has been reported that homicide detectives executed a search warrant at around 2pm today on the Castlereagh Street, Sydney offices of criminal defence lawyer Ali Abbas in relation to last year’s shooting death of 15-year old Brayden Dillon. Investigators from Strike Force Wongala seized a number of boxes of materials from the fourth floor ...
Diplomatic Immunity is Being Abused Worldwide
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul, Turkey has triggered debate about the potential for misuse of diplomatic immunity by governments and rogue diplomats. The Khashoggi case Mr Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian national and Washington Post journalist known for being critical of ...