Efforts to bolster the arrangement preventing any sale of Crown land earmarked for return to Nelson Māori have failed in the Supreme Court.That’s because the court believes there’s enough protection in place to make sure this…

By RNZ A series of fake online posts that appear to be from a convicted rapist, who was given a controversial sentence, have been taken down.The Corrections Department is investigating the latest, an online video which appears…

As a 17-year-old boy Jason Roberts came under the sinister influence of hardened crook Bandali Debs.

There was a cult-like personality around Debs who seemed to have some way of exercising adverse influence over young adolescents in his family circle, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kaye said on Monday.

Roberts, who was dating Debs' daughter Nicole, wasn't the first teen boy Debs had recruited to assist in a series of armed robberies.

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But he was the last.

While staking out a series of potential targets for the pair of robbers, Sergeant Gary Silk and Senior Constable Rodney Miller were murdered in Moorabbin in 1998.

Debs was jailed for life. Roberts was jailed for a minimum of 35 years until his conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in a retrial.

During that trial, Roberts pleaded guilty to 10 armed robberies committed with Debs in the lead-up to the murders.

He was sentenced on Monday to six years and six months behind bars. With almost 22 years – 8001 days – of time served for the murders he was acquitted of, Roberts will not return to prison.

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"I would accept if you had not come under Debs' sinister influence you would not have become involved in this offending," Justice Kaye said.

But on the other hand, Roberts had quite frankly conceded he was a willing participant in the crimes, Justice Kaye said.

Still, Roberts was very much under the toxic influence of Bandali Debs, he said.

Debs seemed to have a methodology of recruiting young teenagers to assist him to commit serious and violent armed robberies.

The crimes involved Roberts and Debs pointing loaded weapons at customers and staff in restaurants, forcing them to lie face down and to have their hands and feet bound.

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Jewellery and other personal possessions were taken, as well as restaurants' hard-earned takings.

Victims' lives had been significantly and profoundly adversely affected, Justice Kaye said.

He found Roberts was remorseful for his actions and had been deeply affected by the more than two decades he spent in prison.

Roberts is suffering anxiety and major depression. He leaves his home only when absolutely necessary and only with a close relative.

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He has limited capacity for employment or any other activity, Justice Kaye said.

Time in prison, including in protection for his own safety, had a substantial detrimental effect on his psychological wellbeing, the court heard.

But his prospects for rehabilitation are good.

Roberts, who had been on bail pending sentencing, is now free.

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Australian women have won a huge $300 million settlement from pharma giant Johnson & Johnson, after a monumental legal battle over pelvic mesh implants finally ended.

The settlement is the reportedly the largest in a product liability class action in Australian history. It is subject to approval by the Federal Court.

Women suffered life-altering health complications from the implants which eroded into surrounding organs, causing chronic pain, painful sexual intercourse and incontinence.

READ MORE: Queensland mum's painful fight for justice in mesh class action

"We welcome this settlement which brings the litigation to an end," Rebecca Jancauskas, from Shine Lawyers who led the class action, said.

"If the Federal Court approves the settlement our focus will shift to the important task of distributing the settlement to group members," she said.

The first class action was filed in the Federal Court in 2012, and the trial ran for seven months between July 2017 and February 2018.

A judge ruled in the applicants' favour in November 2019.

Johnson & Johnson Medical and Ethicon immediately tried, unsuccessfully, to appeal.

In November last year the High Court also dismissed Johnson & Johnson's application for special leave to appeal.

A second class action was filed in April last year on behalf of women who received their implants on or after 4 July 2017, and were not eligible to join the first class action.

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Horrific stories of the impacts of mesh implants began making headlines in 2017.

By the end of that year, different mesh products were being recalled from the market.

In the US, women banded together to take companies like Johnson & Johnson, American Medical Systems and Boston Scientific to court in class actions.

In Australia, a 2018 Senate inquiry concluded surgery with mesh, which it estimated had been performed on about 150,000 women in Australia, should be a "last resort".

A massive class action was brought by Shine Lawyers on behalf of 1350 women in the Federal Court against Johnson & Johnson and two subsidiaries, including Ethicon.

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Women implanted with one or more of the below devices in Australia up to 30 June 2020 who suffered one or more complications may be eligible for compensation.

• Gynecare Prolift Pelvic Floor Repair Systems (Anterior, Posterior and Total)
• Gynecare Prosima Pelvic Floor Repair Systems (Anterior, Posterior and Combined)
• Gynecare Prolift+M Pelvic Floor Repair Systems (Anterior, Posterior and Total)
• Gynecare TVT
• Gynecare TVT Abbrevo
• Gynecare TVT Secur
• Gynecare TVT Exact
• Gynecare TVT Obturator
• Gynecare Gynemesh PS Nonabsorbable Polypropylene Mesh

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The Queen was a pro at mingling with world leaders, dignitaries and everyday people.

But no matter her deep knowledge of world affairs, and as good as her small talk routine was, the monarch still needed a Plan B if interactions began to go south.

According to The Telegraph, there were tell-tale signs that showed when the Queen wanted to leave a conversation or bring an event to a close.

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If the Queen wanted to end a dinner in five minutes' time, all she had to do was put whatever designer handbag she was carrying on the table.

And if the Queen shifted her bag from one hand to the other, it signalled the monarch was ready to end a current conversation and move on.

"It would be very worrying if you were talking to the queen and saw the handbag move from one hand to the other," royal historian Hugo Vickers told People magazine.

If the Queen started to twist her wedding ring, it meant immediate action was required, and one of her royal minders should swoop in and move her along straight away.

Staff would always execute the interruption with grace, Vickers said, by politely saying the Queen was needed for something or directing the person's attention elsewhere.

"Luckily, they'd let you down easy," he said.

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"It would be done very nicely.

"Someone would come along and say, 'Sir, the Archbishop of Canterbury would very much like to meet you'."

The Queen also had tools at her disposal if guests at Buckingham Palace outstayed their welcome.

As was shown in popular Netflix series The Crown, the Queen could press a buzzer to get staff to come in and escort the person she is speaking to out.

World leaders travelling to England for Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral have been asked to avoid using private jets and cars, in a list of strict protocols set up by British authorities.

Official documents revealed the world leaders will be bussed out to Westminster Abbey for the funeral, Politico has reported.

Numbers will also be strictly limited to only the head of state, or their designated representative, and their significant other.

READ MORE: What we know about plans for the Queen's funeral

It's all part of what is shaping up to be the UK's biggest police operation in history and the first funeral of a ruling monarch in Britain since that of King George VI in February, 1952.

Even arriving in the UK could be a process bereft of the traditional privacy accorded to world leaders, with British authorities advising governments around the globe to use commercial jets.

Heathrow Airport in London will be off-limits to private flights, while the amount of air traffic coming in has also seen a ban imposed on helicopter transport while in the country.

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US President Joe Biden, who officially accepted his invitation to the funeral this morning, is unlikely to cede the security and privacy offered by the traditional presidential transport of Air Force One.

However, in that case, he will have to land at an airfield away from Heathrow and travel from there.

The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is set to take place on September 19. 

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The Queen's coffin has begun its journey from Balmoral, travelling through Scotland to Edinburgh.

The Queen's oak coffin is about to start a momentous final journey, where it will be driven by hearse to Edinburgh.