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Killer who gunned down ‘career criminal’ refuses to stand for judge at sentencing

A killer who gunned down a career criminal in an ambush has refused to stand for a judge as he was sentenced to 32 years' jail time.

Jason Milhuisen, 39, remained seated and stared down Supreme Court Justice Jane Dixon today as she sentenced him for the murder of Daniel O'Shea.

A jury in December found Milhuisen guilty of killing O'Shea, 41, at a South Yarra reserve in Melbourne's inner southeast.

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Daniel O'Shea was killed at a South Yarra reserve in Melbourne's inner southeast.

Witnesses heard gun shots ring out of Fawkner Park about 7.30pm on April 26, 2019, as O'Shea was shot four times, three to his body and one to his head.

Milhuisen claimed he was not the shooter but the jury decided he was the one to fire the bullets, Justice Dixon said.

"This was a grave offence demonstrating a callous disregard for the precious value of human life," she said in sentencing.

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State Emergency Service volunteers performed a line search in Fawkner Park for the guns in 2019.

Justice Dixon noted O'Shea had convictions for drug trafficking and was described by prosecutors as a "career criminal".

She accepted Milhuisen did not have any personal grievances towards O'Shea and the 39-year-old instead acted as a "gun-for-hire" at the behest of another person or group.

"I accept it had all the hallmarks of a planned hit," Justice Dixon said.

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Evidence markers were placed by the SES during the search for the guns.

The judge found the attack was brazen as it took place in a public place, although no community members were close at the time of the shooting.

It was also aggravating that Milhuisen discarded two guns in Fawkner Park as he fled the scene, Justice Dixon said.

The firearms were found the day after the murder about 50m from O'Shea's body, including by a child doing an Easter egg hunt.

Justice Dixon accepted Milhuisen had experienced difficult conditions in custody and his continued isolation from his family would make his time in prison more difficult.

But she found he had no remorse for his crimes and his moral culpability was high as she sentenced him to 32 years behind bars.

He will be eligible for parole after 21 years, having already served just over four years of his 25-year non-parole period.

Milhuisen refused to stand as the sentence was handed down and again when the judge left the bench, as is customary in the courtroom.

His barrister Peter Morrissey SC told reporters his client maintained his innocence and was planning to appeal his conviction.

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US basketballer could face death penalty after arrest in Indonesia

An American basketball player for the Indonesian league was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to the country, police said on Thursday.

The South East Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.

Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.

READ MORE: 'Prove I didn't steal it': Confusion over Aussie supermarket's receipt request

Jarred Dwayne Shaw.

The arrest followed a tip from the airport's customs that reported Shaw had received a suspicious airway package from Thailand, Sipayung said. Cannabis has been decriminalised in Thailand since November 2024. Under Indonesia's anti-drug laws, Shaw faces up to life sentence or death penalty if found guilty, Sipayung said.

A video circulating on social media purportedly showed Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he's being pushed away by police and shouting "Help … help!" when he was about to be arrested.

Shaw has played for several clubs in the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022, and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk last year. He told police during interrogation that he wanted to share the cannabis candy with fellow basketball players, according to Sipayung.

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Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.

He said the candy contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of illegal cannabinoid inside a package.

"We are still running the investigation to uncover the international drugs network behind this case and to stop its distribution," Sipayung said.

Shaw did not make any statement when he was presented by the authorities at a news conference on Wednesday wearing a detainee orange T-shirt and a mask with his hands tied.

Tangerang Hawks' manager, Tikky Suwantikno, told reporters on Thursday that they regretted what had been done by Shaw and the club had immediately fired him as he has breached the contract.

The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from playing for life, said its chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.

Jarred Shaw played basketball for Utah State.

"We don't tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world," Djiwandono said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' data showed. Indonesia's last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

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All ten people who buried time capsule in 1985 found, Telstra says

After a nationwide hunt, all ten students who buried a time capsule in 1985 have been found.

The group of schoolchildren won a competition to help Telstra, then known as Telecom, celebrate its 10th anniversary by burying items in a time capsule in Adelaide, South Australia.

In April, Telstra released a callout to help find the now-grown-up participants 40 years later.

READ MORE: Police officers injured in wild pursuit through Perth's western suburbs

Telstra time capsule photo

Today, the company said it had located all ten people.

"We appreciate all the interest in this story. We are looking forward to reuniting with Amanda, Corrie, David, Kirsty, Jessica, Michael, Rachel, Vicki, Michelle and another Michelle, and opening the time capsule together on 1 July," Telstra's Regional General Manager for South Australia, Michael Patterson said.

More details about the time capsules' opening will be shared soon.

All the participants were aged 10 at the time they put items in the capsule and are now hopefully approaching their milestone 50th birthdays.

‘Prove I didn’t steal it’: Confusion over Aussie supermarket’s receipt request

One Aussie shopper has brought the nation's receipt laws under the microscope after they were asked to produce a receipt for a product they had bought elsewhere.

Posing the question to the AusLegal page on Reddit, the frustrated customer in said they walked into a Victorian Coles with a trolley full of groceries from Aldi.

"I had a trolley full of items I had bought at Aldi, and popped into Coles for a few bits," the poster said.

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Generic Coles Supermarket shoppers, cash, shopping, retail, spending, inflation, Easter rush. Thursday 28th March 2024 AFR photo Louie Douvis

"The lady at the self-checkout pointed at the 30-pack of Coke cans and demanded to see a receipt to prove I didn't steal it.

"I said I didn't have one, I never keep receipts unless it's for an expensive purchase that I may need to refund/exchange.

"She continued insisting that I had to keep my receipts from other stores so that I could prove I hadn't stolen."

9News.com.au asked criminal defence attorney and author of Talk Your Way Out of Trouble, Jahan Kalantar, the question.

Turns out supermarkets have little to no power to demand a receipt from a customer.

"The law does not give private retailers like Coles and Woolworths any legal authority to compel you to produce proof of purchase for goods that you bought somewhere else," Kalantar said.

"If the store thinks that you've stolen, they can request to inspect your bags, but security guards really don't have much power; all they can do is get the police involved.

"If they keep people there against their will, if the Coles worker keeps you there, there's a possibility that it might be a false imprisonment claim."

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Kalantar said most people would just comply and show their receipt to get out of the situation.

There is a bit of a grey area if you paid cash or don't have a receipt, if they suspect you've stolen an item.

"I had one where the guy didn't have his receipt, but he just opened his bank account and said here is the transaction, I couldn't have taken it," Kalantar said.

"But fundamentally, you are entitled to your privacy, just because you walk into a store and they have some assumption doesn't mean anything.

"It's very different if they've seen you on camera pocketing something, but there is no fundamental legal authority that a security guard can compel you to provide a receipt from a different store."

9News.com.au has contacted Coles for comment.

Trump says he and Putin need to ‘get together’ to end Ukraine war

US President Donald Trump insisted on Thursday that he's not disappointed with Russian President Vladimir Putin for not showing up for peace talks in Istanbul with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"I didn't think it was possible for Putin to go if I'm not there," Trump told reporters at a meeting with business executives in Doha, Qatar, on the third day of his visit to the Middle East.

Trump said a meeting between him and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.

READ MORE: Rock legend slams Trump in scathing on-stage comments

Donald Trump

"I don't believe anything's going to happen whether you like it or not, until (Putin) and I get together," he said on Air Force One while traveling from Doha to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

"But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying."

Peskov said Putin has no plans to meet with Trump in the coming days.

Russia and Ukraine are set to hold their first direct peace talks in three years, both countries said on Thursday, but hopes for a breakthrough remained dim after Putin spurned an offer by Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face in Turkey.

Zelenskyy said he is sending a team headed by his defence minister from the Turkish capital Ankara to Istanbul to meet a Russian delegation, even though Moscow's side doesn't include "anyone who actually makes decisions".

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Few had expected Putin to show up in Turkey, and his absence punctured any hope of significant progress in efforts to end the three-year-old war that was given a push in recent months by the Trump administration and Western European leaders.

It also raised the prospect of intensified international sanctions on Russia that have been threatened by the West.

The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, met with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Antalya, Turkey to discuss US "efforts to halt the senseless bloodshed in Ukraine", the State Department said.

Rubio also "emphasised that European leadership is critical for getting Russia and Ukraine to negotiate in good faith for a swift and durable peace settlement," it said.

The meeting comes as confusion has mounted over the status of the peace plan even as direct talks between Ukraine and Russia are supposed to be held this week in Turkey.

While it's not clear when they might meet, the Russian state news agency Tass reported the talks will go ahead on Friday, citing an unidentified source.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was due in Istanbul in Friday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Zelenskyy, who heads Friday to Albania for a gathering of European officials, said he had decided to send the delegation to Istanbul to demonstrate to US President Donald Trump that Ukraine wants to end the fighting.

The Ukraine-Russia talks weren't the only peace talks the US President was asked about in Abu Dhabi.

Trump sidestepped a reporter's question on whether Israel has been an obstacle to peace talks in Gaza.

Instead, Trump said "we're working very hard on Gaza," which he described as "a territory of death and destruction for many years."

He repeated his proposal to "make it a freedom zone," and "let the United States get involved"

"I'd be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone, let some good things happen," Trump said.

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Rock legend slams Trump in scathing on-stage comments

Rock megastar Bruce Springsteen has made a series of critical remarks about US President Donald Trump and the policies of his administration, calling the American leader "unfit" for office.

"The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock n' roll in dangerous times," Springsteen said at the beginning of a concert in Manchester, northern England, on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

"In my home, the America I love — the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years — is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration," he said.

READ MORE: Trump to miss Ukraine-Russia peace talks, says White House

Bruce Springsteen

"Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American spirit to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism," added Springsteen.

The rock star spoke out several times during the show, later posting clips of his comments to his Instagram account.

"The last check on power, after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people — you and me. It's in the union of people around a common set of values. Now that's all that stands between democracy and authoritarianism. So at the end of the day, all we've really got is each other," he continued.

He later criticised some of the US administration's most recent policies.

"In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now," he said.

Bruce Springsteen

"In my country, they are taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers, they're rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society," he said.

"They're abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They're defunding American universities that won't bow down to their ideological demands. They're removing residents off American streets, and without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now," added Springsteen.

The singer also criticised US lawmakers for failing to protect the American people from what he called "an unfit president and a rogue government," and having "no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American".

"The America that I've sung to you about for 50 years is real and, regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people, so will survive this moment," said Springsteen.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJpsklaIiOB/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp

The Manchester show was the first on the European leg of Springsteen and the E Street Band's Land of Hope and Dreams tour, which will also take in dates in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic.

Springsteen previously criticised Trump and urged Americans to vote for Kamala Harris at a campaign rally for the Democratic candidate last year.

His criticism of Trump comes after Hollywood star Robert De Niro took aim at the US president at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday.

"In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted," said De Niro.

Robert De Niro

"That affects all of us here, because the arts are democratic, art is inclusive and brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity, and that's why art is a threat," added De Niro, who is an outspoken critic of the US president.

"That's why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists," he added.

De Niro ended his speech with a call for people to stand up to Trump "without violence, but with great passion and determination."

"It's time for everyone who cares about liberty to organise, to protest and when there are elections, of course, to vote. Vote," the actor added.

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Fraud police raid home of gangland widow Roberta Williams

The Melbourne home of Roberta Williams, the widow of notorious slain underworld figure Carl Williams, has been raided by police.

Dozens of officers descended on Williams' home in Melbourne's north early this morning, as part of a joint investigation by the Fraud Fusion Taskforce, which involves the Australian Federal Police, Services Australia, and the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

Forensic police spent several hours combing through Williams' cars and house, seizing unknown items.

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No charges have been laid in relation to the raid and investigations are ongoing.

Williams shot to infamy in Melbourne's underworld after marrying gangland boss Carl Williams and having a daughter with him before he was bludgeoned to death in prison in 2010.

In 2022 she avoided jail over blackmailing and assaulting a reality TV producer.

Services Australia and the AFP say there's no ongoing threat to the community.

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Why are there so many banknotes, when hardly any of us are using cash?

The amount of banknotes circulating in Australia is at a near-record level not seen since the height of the pandemic.

The latest figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) balance sheet, released last week, show there is a staggering $103.7 billion in notes in circulation.

As pro-cash advocacy group Cash Welcome points out, there has almost never been more cash physically circulating in Australia.

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The amount of physical cash circulating in Australia is at a near-record high.

"The all-time record for the total value of Australian notes circulating is $103.99 billion set in December 2022," the group's founder, Jason Bryce, said.

Bryce points towards the rise in the amount of banknotes in circulation as proof that Australia is far from heading towards a cashless society.

Yet, the fact remains that fewer and fewer of us are using physical cash in our everyday lives.

So, what exactly are Australians doing with all these banknotes?

The answer is more likely to be shoving them under our mattresses than using them at the supermarket checkout.

An analysis of the post-pandemic demand for banknotes by the RBA last year found the amount of cash actually being used for ordinary transactions had fallen by around four per cent since the end of the pandemic to around 13 per cent. 

Just a small proportion, between 9 and 26 per cent, of all banknotes are now used for what they were originally intended – legitimate everyday purchases.

A further 5–9 per cent of banknotes in circulation have likely been lost, the analysis found, while another 7–11 per cent are used in the so-called 'shadow economy' for nefarious or criminal transactions.

The vast majority of our banknotes, however, about 55-80 per cent, are being hoarded, the RBA estimates.

"The dichotomy of strong banknote demand alongside falling transactional use suggests banknotes are being hoarded, likely for store-of-wealth or precautionary savings purposes," the RBA said in its analysis.

The chart, provided by Cash Welcome, shows the amount of cash in circulation from 2022 to 2025.

One strong clue pointing towards hoarding is the demand for high-denomination banknotes, the RBA noted.

While growth in low-denomination banknotes, $5, $10 and $20 notes typically used for everyday transactions, has only increased by an average 1 per cent annually since 2007, the number of $50 and $100 notes in circulation has shot up by around 5 per cent a year during the same time period.

The situation indicated "much of the increase in banknote demand over this period was for hoarding purposes", the RBA said.

However, far from becoming a nation of hoarders, it's likely to be a minority of Australians who are skewing the figures and hanging on to all of that cash.

A 2022 RBA consumer payments survey found 60 per cent of respondents did not hold any cash outside of their wallet. 

"Instead, large amounts of cash are likely hoarded among a relatively small number of individuals," the RBA said.

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Associate Professor Andrew Grant, from the University of Sydney Business School, said that although people holding onto cash were sometimes painted as paranoid or doomsday preppers, there were legitimate and rational reasons behind the trend.

High-profile cases of cyber attacks had led to a lack of trust in banks and other institutions, while previous outages in electronic payments systems showed the danger of relying on our cards and phones, he said.

"I think people certainly do feel like even our electronic systems aren't infallible," Grant said.

"We have seen instances where the Optus network has gone down, for instance, and then people can't buy anything because all of the shops are using the same telecommunications tool.

"So perhaps there is something in it to say, well, what if there is a global cyber attack? What if there is some sort of event that brings systems down?

"How long can I survive? If I have cash, I'd expect people to still be able to accept that.

"It's also the general logic about why people might hold a bit of gold."

Having come through a pandemic, Australians were also only too aware of how easily social and economic structures could disintegrate when desperation kicked in, Grant said. 

"We've seen people get into fights at the supermarket over toilet paper. We're not that far away from becoming uncivilised, I suppose."

Grant agreed with the RBA's assessment that society was essentially being split into two definitive groups – those who held cash and those who didn't.

"There's basically a polarisation, almost, where people are either very pro-cash or pretty anti-cash," Grant said.

"A lot of Gen Z and younger people generally don't like to even carry a wallet. They want to transact with their phone and carrying a wallet makes you old, and it's a sign that you're not with it."

However, it was clear there was still a utilitarian role of cash for a lot of people, particularly those in the older demographics who were often more vulnerable, he said.

Have your say on the big issues

Will it be Anthony Albanese or Peter Dutton to lead this country?

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Ally Langdon and Peter Overton will be leading the coverage from the studio, with expert analysis from Charles Croucher, Andrew Probyn and Liz Daniels.

Joining our 9News panel will be political heavyweights Chris Bowen, Bridget McKenzie, Katy Gallagher and Christopher Pyne.

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Online, follow all the key battles and moments in our live blog on 9news.com.au, and sign up to our app for latest, localised election results.

And we want you to have your say on the night, too.

Between now and tomorrow night we are asking you a series of questions at 9news.com.au, with the expert panel then discussing your answers.

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