Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Lindy Chamberlain’s plight, depicted by Meryl Streep in the 1988 film, divided
the nation.
Some sympathised with her loss and subsequent treatment through the courts;
others regarded her as cold and refused to accept that a dingo would snatch
a baby.
An initial inquest in 1981 found that a dingo took the baby, but a second
inquest in 1982 found that Lindy Chamberlain should be tried for murder and
that her husband Michael should be charged as an accessory. A third inquest
in 1995 returned an open verdict.
The new inquest is due to begin on February 24.
Michael Chamberlain said he and Lindy, from whom he has since been divorced,
hoped to establish forever that Azaria was taken by a dingo.
“I am incredibly gratified,” he told ABC Radio. “It’s been 31
years now and I just hope this time it will be the ultimate verdict which
we’ve been looking for, for this length of time.”
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A Northbridge trader has urged revellers to show respect to each other after two incidents in the entertainment precinct left one man with part of his ear bitten off and another with suspected head and spinal injuries.
Police were told a 21-year-old man had part of his ear bitten off inside Villa Nightclub on Stirling Street about 2.15am yesterday as officers were breaking up an unrelated fight between two groups outside the venue.
St John Ambulance officers took the victim to Royal Perth Hospital and yesterday he had surgery to reattach a big part of his ear that was found at the scene.
“You have to wonder where they are on the IQ totem pole in terms of getting involved in that sort of event and taking it to that degree,” Insp. Neil Blair said. “It’s bad enough them fighting, let alone latching on to someone’s ear and biting it off.”
About 4.30am, a 29-year-old man suffered suspected head and spinal injuries when he fell or was pushed down stairs at the front of Lackers Grill on Lake Street.
Lackers Grill owner Cheyenne Nguyen said the incidents should not be exaggerated, adding Northbridge was safe and such matters were isolated.
She said all cities had problems but believed Perth’s issues were blown out of proportion because of its isolation.
“Northbridge is great, compared to any other city,” Ms Nguyen said.
“People have no idea because Perth is such an isolated city, so you lose the view of the rest of the world.
“It’s a shame because it’s not true. This is just a few people who are making a bad reputation for a lot of people.”
Ms Nguyen said the injured man was a regular customer who may have had too much to drink.
“It was the first time I had seen (the victim) like this, he’s a lovely man,” she said.
“I think he was celebrating, he went a little bit overboard and someone didn’t take it well. This man is the son of somebody, whoever pushed him is the son of somebody, he came from somewhere.”
Supt Scott Higgins said assault figures from the Perth sub-district had fallen in recent years but there was still a perception Northbridge was a violent precinct.
He urged people to be considerate of others before loading with alcohol and becoming involved in antisocial behaviour while visiting popular entertainment precincts.
Police Minister Rob Johnson said the State Government was concerned society was becoming more violent.
“The Police Commissioner and I will be making an announcement during the week that will tackle crime in general, not just violent crime but including violence that has been taking place at the moment,” he said.
“Once we’ve made our announcement in the week, it will be safer.”
HOMICIDE detectives have charged a man over the murder of his parents in Melbourne’s east.
The bodies of Michael and Kim Smith were found in their Yalita Rd, Vermont South, home on Friday. Their son Brett Anthony Smith, 32, was yesterday charged with two counts of murder.
Mr Smith will appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court today.
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Politics: Asylum boat numbers are on the rise. Picture: Toby Zerna
Source: The Daily Telegraph
RECENT attention has centred on the increasing number of vessel arrivals following Labor’s switch to onshore processing but concerns are now being raised about the size of the asylum seeker boats coming to Australia.
The 250 people on the boat that capsized off Indonesia at the weekend would have been the biggest to arrive in Australia since Labor took power in 2007 had it made it to its planned destination, Christmas Island.
It would have dwarfed the previous largest in June 2009 when 193 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers were intercepted on a boat.
However, the boat load at the weekend was still well short of the vessel carrying 421 asylum seekers involved in the SIEV-X sinking in 2001. It claimed 353 lives.
While both parties offered condolences instead of politics yesterday, opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison did note more people were being loaded on to vessels.
“The large number of people reported to have been on this vessel is especially concerning and confirms the trend we have seen this year of the people smugglers putting more and more people on to every boat,” he said.
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Several months ago boats held 50 or 70 asylum seekers. Passenger numbers are now rising above 100 per boat.
On December 16, a boat with 167 passengers was intercepted off Christmas Island while two boats carrying 110 and 103 arrived earlier in the month.
The government had forecast arrivals of 600 a month under onshore processing but December is now shaping as the biggest since August 2001, when 1645 asylum seekers arrived.
Total arrivals sit at just less than 900 three weeks into the month, after November’s 892 arrivals.
AAP
The head of the RSPCA is listed to appear in a Sydney court on Monday over alleged aggravated cruelty to a horse.
The NSW minister responsible for the RSPCA, Katrina Hodgkinson, has said the charges against its president, Dr Peter Wright, have been brought by a private individual.
Ms Hodginson says they allege Dr Wright committed acts of cruelty and aggravated cruelty on a horse while performing veterinary dental work at Goulburn in July.
On Sunday, Dr Wright did not appear at a NSW government media announcement that it was contributing $7.5 million towards refurbishing the RSPCA’s Yagoona animal shelter, in western Sydney.
Media were informed he was absent because of a family illness before NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell fielded questions about his court appearance.
Asked whether Dr Wright would be standing down from his position, RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman responded: “That’s a matter for the courts”.
His case is listed for mention in Downing Centre Local Court on Monday.
A bullet hole inside Cafe Paesano in North Adelaide. Picture: David Cronin
Source: The Advertiser
Polce gather evidence outside Cafe Paesano in North Adelaide. Picture: David Cronin
Source: The Advertiser
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WITNESSES of a shooting at North Adelaide have described the incident as a gunfight and say a second weapon was drawn and fired, wounding one man in a leg.
People who were inside Cafe Paesano, where the shooting took place, say a man wearing a black hoodie entered the restaurant and fired shots at a table where three men were seated about 9.45pm.
As diners dived for cover, a person in the restaurant reportedly fired a shot at the gunman, wounding him in the leg before he fled.
A large area of the suburb has been sealed off as STAR Group officers search the area for the gunman.
Police say early reports that a man was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital for treatment for a leg wound were incorrect, but they have confirmed that blood was found at the scene .
Photographs show clear signs of damage caused by the gunshots inside the restaurant, including a bullet hole in a glass dessert bar .
Witnesses have used Facebook to say there were at least five shots and that some people in The Archer Hotel across the street had dismissed the noise as fireworks at Carols by Candlelight in Elder Park or the Big bash cricket at Adelaide Oval.
A police spokesman said cordons were being set up around the area and he warned people to stay away because an armed man remained on the loose.
A police forward command post was set up outside the shooting scene.
It is the third shooting in Adelaide in recent days.
Early on Saturday, three masked men fired a dozen shots into a Burton house.
At midnight on Thursday, Vincenzo Focarelli, the president of outlaw motorcycle club the Comancheros, survived a third attempt on his life.
He was shot in the leg by a gunman during an ambush at Munno Para West.
On Saturday, Detective Inspector Paul Yeomans played down concerns of a bikie gang war being played out in Adelaide’s suburbs.
“It’s obviously a concern to the police that (we are having) incidents involving firearms and shots being fired into a house,” he said.
“It is a concern that people who live in our community have that reckless disregard for the safety of the public.”
Michael and Lindy Chamberlain in 1981. Picture: Photo File
Source: Herald Sun
Lindy Chamberlain pictured in Perth in August this year attending a justice conference. Photo: Marie Nirme
Source: News Limited
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Michael Chamberlain.
Source: AAP
Lindy Chamberlain holding her daughter Azaria on Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the Northern Territory in August 1980. Picture: File
Source: Supplied
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MICHAEL Chamberlain has welcomed a new coronial inquest into the death of his daughter Azaria at Uluru in 1980.
Dr Chamberlain’s legal team asked the Northern Territory Coroner to again look into whether dingoes could kill children.
They presented the case of a boy, 9, who was mauled to death on Fraser Island in 2001 as evidence to reopen an inquiry.
This will be the fourth coronial inquest into what happened the night Azaria disappeared in August 1980 – the third inquest had an open finding.
Three decades on, is there a need to re-examine the infamous case? Tell us below
Dr Chamberlain said he hoped he would finally get answers from the latest inquiry, which begins on February 24.
“I’m really just pleasantly surprised about this,” he told ABC Radio.
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“It’s been 31 years now and I just hope, well I’m sure this time it will be the ultimate verdict which we’ve been looking for.”
The case made headlines around the world after Lindy Chamberlain claimed a dingo had taken her nine-week-old baby.
Ms Chamberlain, who later remarried and is now Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, was convicted of Azaria’s murder in 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Dr Chamberlain was convicted as an accessory and given a suspended sentence.
Both those convictions were later quashed by a 1987 royal commission that exonerated both parents.
Northern Territory barrister John Lawrence, SC, said the new inquest would have evidence to consider not known at the time Azaria disappeared in 1980.
“What we have now is several instances, tragically, of dingoes attacking people and in one instance killing a child,” he said.
“The defence (in the murder trial) called various experts to say that damage to the same clothing could have been caused by canine teeth.
“There was no evidence then of dingoes having attacked other people. Now there is.” Northern Territory Coroner Elizabeth Morris will lead the inquest.
Ms Chamberlain-Creighton is living in Western Australia. The couple stayed together during Ms Chamberlain-Creighton’s imprisonment, but separated in 1990.
Superintendent Peter De Santo speaks at a press conference regarding the car crash that followed a high speed car chase in Cobram. Picture: Jake Nowakowski
Source: Herald Sun
A TEENAGER who died when his car slammed into a tree in Victoria’s northeast was the second fatality arising from a police pursuit in a fortnight.
Police attempted to pull over the 19-year-old NSW man for a random check on Racecourse Rd at Cobram about 9.55pm but he sped off, reaching speeds of 120km/hr in an 80km zone.
Divisional Commander Peter De Santo said the officers pursued the car but terminated the pursuit “in a matter of seconds” when the officers deemed the risk was too great and pulled over.
“Unfortunately about 1.7km from the termination point of the pursuit, the vehicle which was attempted to be intercepted was found crashed into a tree and the 19-year-old was deceased at the scene,” he said.
The fatality comes just two weeks after a young driver fleeing from police in Wodonga rolled his car and killed his teenage female passenger.
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“It is a concern as to why young people don’t want to pull over,” Commander De Santo said.
“Police can intercept them at any time they are behind the wheel and now we’ve got two examples of where they’ve taken off, high speeds have been involved and tragic circumstances have resulted.
“This is a timely reminder that these two people we’re talking about would have been sitting around the Christmas table this week and now they’re not going to be.”
The investigation into the crash will be conducted by the Major Collision Investigation Unit and overseen by the Ethical Standards Department.
Police are also investigating the seventh motorcyclist death on Victoria’s roads this month.
The man, believed to be in his 30s, was found by a passing motorist around 8.50am today on Maffra-Briagalong Rd, approximately 3 kilometres north of Maffra.
The rider appeared to have lost control, struck a tree and died at the scene.
Police will prepare reports for the coroner on both deaths.
cravenj@heraldsun.com.au