Police expect to make further arrests in relation to the aggravated robbery.
Tag Archives: oceania
Chef worked for 22 days in a row before fatal head-on crash
The driver’s car crossed the centre line, head-on into a logging truck.
Police officer Andrew Jaunay granted new trial in teen slapping case
A former South Australian police officer found guilty of assaulting a teenager almost 10 years ago has had his conviction overturned on appeal.
A Supreme Court judge has ordered Andrew Allen Jaunay be tried again on the charge after finding issues with a magistrate's ruling in the case.
Jaunay was found guilty of slapping a then 17-year-old across the face during a confrontation in Whyalla in 2013, when he was a serving officer in the SA police force.
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He was given a three-month suspended sentence and placed on a one-year good behaviour bond.
At his trial, the prosecution relied heavily on an audio recording of the incident in which a magistrate accepted Jaunay told the teenager that if he wanted to tell his mother that he had "belted you one" he could "go right ahead" because any such allegations would be denied.
READ MORE: Chris Dawson to face trial over allegations
The magistrate also relied on photographs of facial injuries the boy suffered at the time.
But in a judgment on Friday, Justice Laura Stein found the magistrate had erred in rejecting the possibility that some other words were spoken on a part of the recording that was difficult to hear.
"On my review of the evidence, I do not consider the issues raised in relation to the audio recording are such as to be a complete obstacle to a conviction," the judge said.
READ MORE: Teacher avoids jail for sex with schoolboy
But she said inferences that could be drawn from the audio should be considered in the context of all the evidence, including an assessment of the victim as a witness.
The magistrate had found the teenager to be a poor witness, offering inconsistent statements and routinely feigning confusion.
In such circumstances, Justice Stein said it was appropriate to allow Jaunay's appeal and return the case to the magistrates court for a new trial.
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Lake Rotoiti and Lake Okaro issued health warnings for algal bloom
Health warnings for cyanobacteria also remain in place at Lake Maraetai and Lake Rotoehu.
Why the outcome in NSW will have a big impact at a national level
ANALYSIS: "You know how you win a campaign?", US President Lyndon Baines Johnson once posed.
"By not losing it."
LBJ won his first primary by 77 votes and an appeal to overturn that decision lost by just one.
Johnson went on to become the most effective Senate leader last century and president at the most consequential time for the US and the world since World War II.
He did it all by not losing.
It's a mentality that's been adopted by both major parties in the long and drawn-out lead-up to the New South Wales election.
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Labor leader Chris Minns has adopted the so-called small target mentality of the successful Labor federal campaign and Premier Dominic Perrottet has talked of long-term planning after a long time of Coalition government.
Policies have been prominent, but the politics risk-averse.
With prices, rents and tolls all soaring and the Liberal Party brand on the nose, it is easy to picture the Coalition government going the way of their South Australian counterparts.
'If the Coalition manages to cling to power then a blueprint is born for their federal colleagues to follow'
But approaching polling day, neither party is confident of ending the weekend with a majority.
And we are about to learn a lot about both major parties.
In the next eight days, voters in the seat of Aston and the state of NSW will cast ballots.
A loss in both elections will be crushing for an already vulnerable Liberal Party.
READ MORE: Perrottet, Minns make final dash to win last-minute votes ahead of NSW election
Peter Dutton's leadership, despite the prime minister's assertions, is not under threat.
But the hesitancy of Perrottet to be seen anywhere near his federal leader is evidence that the Liberal brand remains deeply unpopular and without an obvious fix.
As one Labor strategist put it this week: "Dom's (Perrottet) done a remarkable job of distancing himself from himself and the party."
By not losing it.
If the Coalition manages to cling to power then a blueprint is born for their federal colleagues to follow.
READ MORE: How to follow all the election coverage on 9News
Gladys Berejiklian and Perrottet have governed as moderate, pragmatic problem-solvers.
The current premier was much happier working with Victorian Labor treasurer Tim Pallas on tax reform and infrastructure than working with Scott Morrison on anything.
A Coalition victory on Saturday night would mean a repudiation of the teal brand that caused so much damage last May.
It would also mean deep soul-searching for NSW Labor.
Not since World War I has Labor spent so long out of power in Macquarie Street.
Barry O'Farrell, Mike Baird and Berejiklian all won elections without knowing electoral defeat.
The result on Saturday will clearly be consequential across the state, but also across the country.
Labor eyes potential wall-to-wall governments in the future and the Coalition a circuit-breaker to stop their slide.
Neither leader has lost this election.
Now it's up to the voters.
READ MORE: Where you can vote and snag a democracy sausage on NSW election day
Alleged cyber hackers charged after $2 million bust across three states
Four suspected members of a "sophisticated" cybercrime group have been charged after allegedly laundering almost $2 million from Australian and international victims.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege the group – believed to be responsible for more than 15 complex cybercrime attacks between January 2020 and March 2023 – set up over 80 bank accounts with stolen identities to launder money out of Australia.
The AFP launched a full-scale investigation in October 2021 after an Indonesian business lost $100,000 through a business email compromise (BEC) hack.
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From there, police identified two Brisbane women, a Melbourne man and an Adelaide man who they allege were linked to the attack.
The group also allegedly had connections to crime syndicates in South Africa.
Yesterday, detectives conducted five raids across the three states, arresting two Queensland women and a Victorian and South Australian man.
Fake passports, international driver licences, luxury handbags and digital devices were seized across each of the raids and will be taken for forensic examination.
Each alleged member of the crime group was charged with a string of varied offences and collectively, the four are facing over 60 years in prison.
They each will face court in the coming weeks.
Police say the group was also responsible for a wide-ranging list of alleged scams, including Facebook Marketplace hacks and dodgy superfund investments.
The group's victims lost between $2500 to $500,000, in some cases.
READ MORE: US lawmakers say 'TikTok is a weapon by China to spy on you'
Roughly $1.1 million was allegedly laundered to bank accounts in South Africa, there, associates sourced legitimate identity documents and altered the photographs and birth dates so Australian syndicate members could use them.
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The top 20 richest people in Australia
The cost-of-living crisis has been hitting just about every Australian in the past year.
But don't feel too bad for these 20 Australians, who have just been identified as the richest in the country.
Riots, fires and devil horns as one million protesters storm France
Protestors have taken to the streets of France in anger after President Emmanuel Macron forced a bill through parliament, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Chris Dawson to face trial over alleged relationship with student
Former Sydney school teacher Chris Dawson will face a trial over allegations he had a sexual relationship with one of his teenage students in the 1980s.
Dawson, 74, has been charged with one count of carnal knowledge by teacher of a girl between the ages of 10 and 17.
The former Newtown Jets rugby league player was a sports teacher at a public high school in the Northern Beaches, where he allegedly began a relationship with a student.
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The student was 16 at the time the two allegedly began having sexual intercourse while Dawson was aged in his thirties.
The former teacher has denied the charge.
Downing Centre District Court was told on Friday that Dawson's defence is expected to file a judge-alone trial application in the coming weeks and the accused will face a readiness hearing on April 27.
The trial is set down to start on May 29.
Zebra runs through city streets for hours after escaping from zoo
A zebra was on the loose for hours in Seoul after it escaped from a South Korean zoo.
Videos and images of the zebra wandering through the streets of Seoul flooded social media after it escaped from the Seoul Children's Grand Park Zoo on Thursday.
Police and zoo staff worked together to get the male zebra, named Sero, back to its enclosure.
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Video shows authorities using a tranquiliser dart to safely sedate the zebra, which was roaming through an alleyway.
They then placed a net under the zebra and lifted it onto the back of a truck to take it away.
The zebra was on the loose for three hours and was also caught on camera trotting through traffic on a busy city road.
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Local fire authorities say Sero managed to escape after the fencing around his pen broke.
The zoo has not confirmed the claim and is investigating how the zebra escaped.
The Seoul Children's Grand Park Zoo told the Associated Press that the zebra has been assessed by vets and is in a stable condition.
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