A key witness in the notorious Adelaide Oval abduction has broken his silence ahead of the 50-year anniversary of the crime.

In his first-ever interview, Tony Kilmartin says he was selling lollies and ice cream with his brother at an Australian rules game, when he saw victims Joanne Ratcliffe, 11, and Kirste Gordon, 4, being taken in 1973.

Kilmartin, who was only 13 years old at the time, had previously served the girls and recognised them when the commotion began under a grandstand at the end of the final quarter.

READ MORE: Sara was found dead at home hours after her dad left the country

"When the siren had gone, people were buying and grabbing stuff and at that moment is when the screams started," he said.

The now 63-year-old said he saw a man picking up Kirste, as Joanne tried to fight him off.

"(I saw) one go under the arm … and the other one just pulling on him, screaming the words 'no' and 'let her go'," he said.

Kilmartin didn't intervene because he thought the man was the girls' father.

"I just watched them go towards the gate … and that was the last I'd seen," Kilmartin said.

READ MORE: Wild scenes at one of hottest places on Earth

Kilmartin would learn that Joanne and Kirste hadn't been seen by their family since leaving their seats to go to the bathroom.

Archival vision from the time shows him giving a description to police, however, the identity of the abductor remains one of Australia's biggest mysteries.

Since that day, Kilmartin has been shown photos of a multitude of suspects and he says the deceased Stanley Hart most resembles the man he saw.

READ MORE: Proposed payroll hike for GPs a 'tax on sick people'

Hart was a known paedophile and a devoted supporter of the North Adelaide Football Club, which was one of the two teams that played at Adelaide Oval on the day of the abduction.

Friday marks 50 years since the girls disappeared, but police haven't given up hope of solving the case and continue to investigate.

Until his emotional interview with 9News, Kilmartin had not returned to Adelaide Oval since the crime.

"(I) didn't even come back here as a young bloke, for concerts even. I couldn't come back here," he said.

"Being here might bring some sort of closure I think.

"(But the pain) will never go away, even after all these years."

A candlelight vigil will mark the anniversary at Adelaide Oval.

A young woman who attacked a police officer, leaving her concussed, has been sentenced to six months behind bars.

But Monica Goch was allowed to leave the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on bail while she waits to appeal.

Celebrating her 20th birthday, Goch drank 20 shots before she assaulted Senior Sergeant Victoria Fields.

READ MORE: 'Painful screaming' heard before man killed in Melbourne park

Fields suffered a concussion and shoulder injury. She was set upon by Goch and a friend following an out-of-control party in January 2021

"It has played a big toll on myself and my family and my colleagues," Fields told 9News.

"We just try to go out and do the best that we can and serve our community."

Officers were trying to stop the group driving home after responding to a noise complaint at the Airbnb in Glen Iris.

Goch's defence argued her traumatic upbringing and PTSD meant she saw police as a threat.

After pleading guilty to the assault, which carries a mandatory prison term, she was sentenced to six months behind bars.

READ MORE: 'I thought it was a dream': Car stolen as campers slept in trailer in Victoria

Police Association Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt believes it re-enforces protection for emergency workers.

"I think it sends a strong message that you just can't take 20 shots, bash a cop and expect nothing to happen," he said.

Goch was released on bail later the same day, with the magistrate ruling she would serve at least half her sentence while waiting to appeal.

She will be back in court in November.

The state government has remained tight-lipped on when concerns were first raised regarding the rising costs of the cancelled Commonwealth Games.

Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan dodged dozens of questions at a press conference today on the specifics of the timeline.

It comes days after Premier Daniel Andrews revealed taxpayers would pay $380 million in costs for the cancelled games.

READ MORE: 'I thought it was a dream': Car stolen as campers slept in trailer in Victoria

The cost to taxpayers came after the government reached a settlement with the official bodies involved after deciding to withdraw from hosting the games.

Allan today insisted the government became aware they would need to scrap the games, the day before the official announcement.

"At budget time we said very clearly, there was $2.6 billion dollars set aside," she told reporters today.

"What happened after the budget period was those tender processes, (we were) provided with actual information. (We previously were) going from estimates which had been previously based on, (we were) getting actual figures provided.

"There is a huge amount of work that was going on and many different moving parts around an event of this type."

READ MORE: Disappearance of Brisbane tradie 'suspicious', investigation launched

The games were slated to be held from March 17-29 in 2026, across Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, Gippsland and Shepparton.

Work had started formally in September last year, with pre-tender processes commencing in March this year.

The games were officially cancelled July 18, in a sudden press conference.

The state opposition is now demanding the government release updated sums for every major project underway.

"Victorians will have every reason to ask what's the case for other major projects," Opposition Leader John Pesutto said.

"This is an important matter to get to the bottom of.

"If the government knew many months ago that the games couldn't be funded, the damage could have at least been mitigated."

The man claims his neighbour complained about him after he rebuffed her advances.

Fire and Emergency NZ got a call to the blaze just after 7pm, sending five fire trucks.

sd

After leaving the Supreme Court with a drug offender released on parole, lawyer Campbell MacCallum drove his client to get cocaine before doing a line together.

At the time the now 48-year-old Gold Coast solicitor was under surveillance by Queensland's corruption watchdog.

MacCallum, a lawyer for more than 20 years, was later charged with money laundering and fraud as well as drug offences but pleaded guilty only to five cocaine possession charges in a Brisbane court on Monday after the other charges were discontinued.

READ MORE: Sara was found dead at home hours after her dad left the country

The first offence occurred in January 2020 when detectives recorded MacCallum getting drugs from a man at Varsity Lakes.

About two months later MacCallum's partner admitted she "secreted drugs" on her body during a police welfare check.

She had wrapped herself in a towel so officers let her go to the bathroom where she flushed substances – that she said belonged to MacCallum – down the toilet, prosecutor Brendan White said.

After a client was sentenced to jail for cocaine possession but immediately released on parole in the Brisbane Supreme Court on May 18, 2020, MacCallum drove the man to the Gold Coast.

Detectives recorded them discussing cocaine and the client arranging collection of 3.5g of the drug.

The pair discussed the texture, amount and purity of the cocaine the client got while MacCallum waited in the car.

"We'll enjoy the trip to Labrador – nose is ready," the client said, before supplying MacCallum a line of cocaine that was consumed in the vehicle.

READ MORE: Wild scenes at one of hottest places on Earth

https://twitter.com/AnnaRawlings_/status/1693436991185314185

MacCallum was charged after police found cocaine at his Broadbeach property on July 6, 2020.

The lawyer had obtained significant professional help for untreated PTSD and ADHD since his arrest and rehabilitated from what was described as regular weekend cocaine use, White said.

He was also remorseful, apologetic and deeply ashamed of his conduct and its impact on his family, defence barrister Patrick McCafferty KC told the court.

Having a line of cocaine with a client demonstrated an appalling lack of judgment.

"But it must be seen in the context of a person who had an addiction issue."

Brisbane Chief Magistrate Janelle Brassington found it highly unlikely MacCallum, who risked everything he built over the years including his reputation, would offend again.

She found his mental impairment led to the use of cocaine to mask or manage increasing symptoms of PTSD and ADHD.

READ MORE: Proposed payroll hike for GPs a 'tax on sick people'

Regarding the use of cocaine after leaving court, Brassington said MacCallum would be under no illusions about his client's parole conditions.

"It is conduct that can seriously impact the community's confidence in the system of justice and conduct likely to undermine the public's trust."

At the time MacCallum was a law firm principal, conducting his practice and making decisions of serious import to himself, clients, staff and the community.

Brassington sentenced MacCallum to three months behind bars, fully suspended for 12 months for the one possession charge, for which a conviction will be recorded.

She fined him $2500 for the remaining four charges.

The man argued the videos were shared in a closed group.

A West Australian MP on trial for child sexual abuse admitted the crimes in an email to his wife before he was charged, a court has been told.

James Dorrin Hayward has pleaded not guilty to four offences relating to the alleged abuse of an eight-year-old girl.

Prosecutor Sean Stocks on Monday said the 53-year-old made the girl indecently touch him on three occasions at two homes while putting her to bed.

READ MORE: Sara was found dead at home hours after her dad left the country

"He told police in an interview that he had fallen asleep on her bed," Stocks told the District Court in Perth during his opening.

"He also told police he would get under the covers with (the girl) while he was reading to her."

Hayward is also accused of showing the child how to search for pornography on the internet before her family discovered the alleged offences and reported them to police.

The jury was told Hayward was close to his alleged victim and occasionally privately messaged with her.

He also allegedly told the girl to keep their interactions secret amid warnings from his wife not to get too close to the child for fear an allegation could be made against him.

Hayward resigned from the WA Nationals after the charges were laid in 2021 but continued to sit in the state's upper house as an independent MP.

Stocks said that after he learned about the allegations against him, Hayward wrote a letter to his wife in which he said he would be accused of child abuse and would take his own life.

"He penned the first draft of what was ostensibly a suicide note," Stocks said.

READ MORE: Wild scenes at one of hottest places on Earth

Hayward allegedly sent the letter via email a week later, with an additional line.

"He added the phrase 'which I have done' with a sad face emoji," Stocks said.

Hayward's lawyer Tom Percy KC said Hayward's email was "foolish in the extreme" and a "misguided gesture" written during a stressful time in his life, and not an admission of guilt.

He said it was an irrational decision that contained no reference to the substance of the allegations and instead addressed his wife's former warnings.

"He was at the time under an enormous amount of financial and business pressure," he said.

"He was in a complete state of shock on hearing of these sexual allegations, not because they were true but quite the opposite."

Percy said Hayward's former business had also recently failed and he owed about $440,000, and he was aware of the publicity the abuse allegations would attract.

"Coupled with the ongoing financial disaster surrounding him, he felt he just didn't have the strength to deal with those consequences," he said.

READ MORE: Proposed payroll hike for GPs a 'tax on sick people'

He said Hayward believed suicide, which he did not attempt to do, would protect his and the victim's families.

Percy also told the jury the child's family learned about the alleged abuse after she was found accessing pornography on the internet and "she knew in all probability she would lose the use of her iPad".

"She needed a scapegoat and she needed one quickly and under pressure, we say, she nominated James," he said.

"It is almost certain she had no idea of the enormity of the allegations she was making."

He also said there was no medical or other physical evidence that shows his client is guilty of the crimes.

But there was "serious doubt over the child's honesty".

A 35-minute video of the police interview with the child shows the child sitting under a table while she is questioned.

The trial continues.

National Domestic Violence Service: 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). If you are in immediate danger call triple zero (000).

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 22 4636.

Local residents heard "painful screaming" shortly before an injured man died after a "physical altercation" in an inner Melbourne park.

The incident occurred in Fitzroy Gardens, on the south-eastern border of Melbourne's CBD, just before 7am.

Paramedics treated a 52-year-old Ringwood man at the scene but he was unable to be saved.

READ MORE: 'I thought it was a dream': Car stolen as campers slept in trailer in Victoria

He is yet to be formally identified.

A 36-year-old man was arrested at the scene and was taken to hospital, where he remains under police guard.

Local resident Christina said she heard commotion at the park before the injured man was found.

"I heard screaming in the early hours of the morning when it was still dark," she told 9News.

"But it wasn't for long, it was momentarily."

READ MORE: Victorian government tight-lipped on Commonwealth Games timeline

Homicide detectives spent the day searching the scene, with multiple bags of evidence collected.

Dive teams also examined a fountain, fishing out objects for evidence.

Police have said they are not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident, but want to speak to anyone in the area who may have witnessed it.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au