Tag Archives: oceania

Parents campaign for new law after losing their child

Amrita Lanka's parents should be celebrating her ninth birthday today.

Instead, they're campaigning for a new law in her honour after she died of a treatable heart condition at Melbourne's Monash Children's Hospital.

A damning review found staff made a series of errors in treating Amrita Lanka, and failed to properly communicate with her family.

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Amrita arrived at the hospital's emergency department on April 30 suffering stomach pain.

Less than 24 hours later she died of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle triggered by a viral infection.

A review found doctors had misinterpreted her heart test results and wrongly assumed her abnormal blood results were "falsely elevated", and failed to properly monitor her vital signs.

There was also a delay in transferring Amrita to the Royal Children's Hospital, where life support was available.

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"There have been so many mistakes, none of it should have happened," her father Chandra Sekhar Lanka said.

Monash Health has promised to implement all 11 recommendations within six months, including improving communication between staff and families from diverse backgrounds.

Premier Daniel Andrews has also said the government would also look into changes that could be made.

"It's my expectation that Monash Health will implement any and all findings, and SaferCare Victoria will have more to say to the government about whether there are broader things we can do," he said.

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"I'll need advice from clinical experts about whether there's any further changes we can make."

Amrita's parents have hired a legal team from Slater and Gordon to investigate a medical negligence claim against the hospital.

A key part of that would be securing financial compensation for the family.

For now they want to help other families, with a proposed new law called Amrita's Rule.

It would simplify the process for worried relatives to escalate their loved one's care.

Brittany Higgins reveals new details about book

Brittany Higgins has revealed new details about a book she is writing to document her alleged rape and experience afterwards.

The former Liberal Party staffer also vehemently denied pretending to have organised doctor's appointments in the week after her alleged rape to "bolster" her story.

Higgins is being cross-examined as the first witness in the criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann, who has been accused of raping her in Parliament House.

READ MORE: Brittany Higgins challenged over dress she wore on night of alleged assault

Brittany Higgins has admitted to deleting texts and photos from her phone.

Higgins said journalist Peter FitzSimons, husband of Lisa Wilkinson, approached her at an event and told her she should write a book about her experience and that he could act as her agent.

"I felt like I needed to document my experience … It was a strange, full circle moment when that came to fruition," she said on Friday.

Higgins confirmed the deal she eventually secured was worth more than $320,000.

She admitted having an outline and chapters planned some months before she reopened her complaint with police.

Higgins earlier told the court she made doctor's appointments with every intention of going but due to her depressive state she was not physically able to attend.

Defence lawyer Steven Whybrow put to Higgins she did not go to the doctor because she had not had sex with anyone.

READ MORE: Texts reveal Brittany Higgins' thoughts in days after alleged assault

https://twitter.com/LaurenTomasi/status/1578198361932324865

"That's not true," she told the ACT Supreme Court on Friday.

Whybrow suggested Higgins had told her former partner Ben Dillaway and chief of staff Fiona Brown about the appointments to "bolster" her rape allegation.

"Nothing you are saying right now is true … and it's deeply insulting," Higgins said.

She told Whybrow she didn't know if he had experienced trauma before but that it was a difficult thing to confront head on.

"I don't know what you want from me," she said.

READ MORE: New details of killer revealed after Thai childcare centre massacre

Parliament House Canberra

Whybrow also put to Higgins she did not tell Brown about the alleged assault in a meeting the following week.

He suggested the meeting was rather about the security breach, which was reported to Brown as a result of Higgins and Lehrmann accessing a ministerial office late at night.

"I obviously disagree with that completely," Higgins said.

She confirmed she deleted some messages and photos from her phone before handing it over to police.

The jury heard it was not her intent to keep information from the officers investigating her alleged rape.

Asked by Whybrow if she remembered deleting the messages, Higgins said "potentially".

She told the court she cleared her phone of photographs showing her holding alcohol or with politicians.

"I wanted to scrub all the horrible parts of my life out of my day-to-day existence," she said.

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Bruce Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting Higgins.

Higgins described her phone as her "life" and said she didn't want to see photos of former minister Linda Reynolds, for whom she worked when the alleged assault happened.

"I didn't want to see her face… Sorry, she's not a bad person. But it is what it is," she said.

Higgins sent a number of audio files to her boyfriend David Sharaz before giving her phone to police when she reopened her complaint in 2021, because she worried they would be lost.

She denied withholding the audio from the police and said she provided the recordings on a USB along with her phone.

Higgins was terrified senior Liberal ministers would find out about her reopening the complaint.

She became emotional as the recalled then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton knowing about her wish to reopen the case before she had given evidence to police.

"I know how information flows in the ministerial wing. I know that it's not siloed," she told the court.

"I was seeking legal advice to know my rights because I was terrified."

The trial continues on Monday.

Man clinging to life after shark attack in WA

A man's arm has almost been severed in a shark attack off Western Australia's coast.

The man – believed to be in his 30s – was spearfishing offshore from Port Headland when he was attacked just after catching a fish this morning, according to the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.

He was brought to shore by boat and treated by paramedics before being rushed to Hedland Health Campus as a priority 1 patient.

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The Royal Flying Doctor Service said he has suffered serious injuries and that his left arm was almost severed at the shoulder.

The helicopter service will fly him to Royal Perth Hospital today.

READ MORE: Man alive when put in body bag, doctor claims

9News understands the man was bitten up to three times.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development are investigating.

It is not known what type of shark was involved.

READ MORE: New details of killer in Thailand childcare centre massacre

Police union boss slams reporting of domestic violence inquiry

The Queensland Police Union boss has slammed the reporting of the inquiry into domestic violence, saying it has unfairly given officers across the state a bad name.

Union president Ian Leavers was the last witness to give evidence at the commission of inquiry into the police handling of domestic violence cases.

It comes as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said "97-98 per cent" of police are "doing a great job".

READ MORE: Queensland top cop sexually harassed at work

He was grilled on his perception of the state of policing in Queensland and made it clear the reporting of what's been unveiled in the hearings so far has had a negative impact on the image of police.

This week the inquiry was told of multiple substantiated accounts of sexism, misogyny, sexual harassment and racism in recent years, with most instances resulting in officers only facing managerial guidance.

Leavers admitted he initially slammed the taskforce, headed by former justice Margaret McMurdo, which was set up to look at how police dealt with domestic violence issues.

It was the catalyst for this inquiry, but he admitted to calling it a "woke and out of touch" report at the time.

READ MORE: Allegations of 'deeply disturbing' behaviour aired at police inquiry

He said he has now "reset his views on that".

He also said he thought it was "woke" of police to introduce quotas to aim to recruit a 50:50 split of men and women officers instead of by merit.

Leavers also told the inquiry he considered this to be like a Fitzgerald inquiry and said he feared the police service would lose experienced police officers as a result.

The Fitzgerald inquiry started in 1987 and looked into police corruption involving illegal gambling and prostitution.

This inquiry's commissioner, Judge Deborah Richards, is expected to provide her report to the state government in the next six weeks.

Today, in response to some of the confronting allegations unearthed at the inquiry, Palaszczuk said there are clearly some "deep-seated cultural issues".

"I honestly do believe that the majority of police are doing the right thing in this state," she said.

Opening this door led police to an alleged $21m bust

Five people have been arrested and $21 million worth of methylamphetamine has been seized after an alleged drug operation was busted.

The first of the arrests took place on Tuesday when the search of a property in Colebee, west of Sydney, uncovered over six kilograms of ice in "a large-scale clandestine laboratory containing equipment and chemicals consistent with the manufacture and supply of prohibited drugs", NSW Police said.

A 33-year-old was taken into custody there and a 32-year-old a short time later in Auburn.

READ MORE: Brittany Higgins denies pretending to book doctor's appointments

READ MORE: Brittany Higgins denies pretending to book doctor's appointments

A search of the Auburn home resulted in the discovery of a black Honda Accord allegedly "fitted with a sophisticated hide, as well as a number of precursor chemicals, electronic devices, prohibited drugs, and cash", police said.

A Toyota Hilux on the Hume Highway just before 5pm yesterday allegedly had 15 kilograms of ice inside, along with $7000 cash.

A 36-year-old man and 33-year-old woman were arrested and taken to Campbelltown Police Station. 

Another man – aged 39 – was arrested at a Guildford West home a short time later.

The final arrest came today, when a 36-year-old was arrested in a car stop in Seven Hills this morning.

Police said the arrests are linked and that the total estimated street value of the multipe drug hauls is worth $21 million. 

The woman has since been release but the others have been charged on a string of drug related charges.

Police said the investigation is continuing. 

'Thou shalt not kill' left in letterbox in woodchipper murder case

The message "thou shalt not kill" was left in a shaken Sharon Graham's letterbox during a woodchipper death investigation, a court has heard.

Graham, 61, and partner Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to murder after Bruce Saunders died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.

The Crown alleges Graham asked Roser and another lover Peter Koenig to kill her ex-partner Mr Saunders, 54, and make it look like an accident in a bid to claim his $750,000 life insurance.

READ MORE: Man 'incriminated' by woodchipper evidence

Sharon Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bruce Saunders in Brisbane.

Footage has been shown to a Brisbane Supreme Court jury of Saunders' legs protruding from the chipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.

Graham complained to Roser that she "can't cope" in a February 2018 conversation recorded by police listening devices planted throughout her Nambour residence.

"I don't want to be in this house any more. I can't stay here," she said in audio played to the jury on Thursday.

"You have no idea what has happened this week. I can't talk to you on the phone … scary s—.

"I've got people putting paperwork in my letterbox like the Ten Commandments."

"The Ten Commandments?" Roser asks.

"Yeah, thou shalt not kill … I'll show it to you," Graham said.

"What the f—," Roser replies.

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Roser is accused of killing Saunders by hitting his head with an iron bar before Koenig helped him feed the body into the woodchipper.

The couple also discuss inconsistencies in Roser's police statements at the Nambour residence where Saunders also used to live.

"You have actually incriminated yourself to be put on charges which is totally not right," Graham said.

"So what's happening now you need to tell a lawyer 'I f—ed up with my statements … because the day of it happening I have a total block'.

"'Something has blocked my head. It's a wonder I was able to give a statement'."

Roser says there are inconsistencies about where he was when he claimed he first saw Saunders in the chipper after answering the police's "dickhead questions".

Graham then reminds Roser that police could not find footprints where he claimed he stood in his bid to "save" Saunders from the chipper.

"That definitely caught you," she said.

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Peter Koenig (left), Greg Roser (centre) and Sharon Graham (right).

Roser replies: "I f—– up there."

Graham adds: "In shock you would say a lot of things that were not right."

Roser blamed the police for his statement inconsistencies.

"Because you know what they do they interrupt you all the time … and it f—s you up," he said.

"I had in my mind something and then he (police) started talking … that's what they kept doing to me."

The couple also discussed blaming Roser's medication after researching side effects.

Roser tells Graham that one causes "dizziness and light-headedness".

READ MORE: Student who murdered girlfriend in drug-induced psychosis jailed

Sharon Graham, 61, and Bruce Saunders, 54, whose body was found in a woodchipper in Brisbane in 2017.

"You can't judge things … you can't judge distances, it throws you out," he said.

Graham tells Roser to approach his doctor and say the medication's serious side effects had led to confusing police statements.

She then discovers they are reading the medication's withdrawal symptoms.

Roser then says: "Here we go, this one … I know I have got that – disorientation."

"What's disorientation mean?" Graham asks.

"It means you can't make decisions," he replies.

Graham then tells Roser: "The doctor has to put all of this in writing for you."

Graham has successfully applied for a separate trial.

Roser's trial before Justice Martin Burns continues on Monday.