- A wounded victim has refused to help police track down the gunman who left him in agony after a western suburbs shooting.
Police were called to McIntosh Road in Altona North at 6:30am yesterday when alarmed locals woke to the sound of shots.
The residents had found the victim, aged 39, in nearby Bryan Avenue with a gunshot injury to his upper thigh.
He was in the Royal Melbourne Hospital last night.
It is unclear whether the shooting is connected to violence that has resulted in dozens of non-fatal shootings in the western and northern suburbs in the past decade.
Those shootings led to the establishment of the Santiago Taskforce. Acting Senior Sergeant Fiona Waters, of Footscray police, said a vehicle was seen leaving the scene after the shooting.
There have been several other shootings in recent years in the area where yesterday’s victim was shot.
Mohammed Haddara was killed in nearby Fifth Avenue in 2009.
Within weeks, a vehicle parked at the Millers Road McDonald’s restaurant was peppered with fire from a machinegun.
In 2010, Sabet “Sam” Haddara was blasted in the face as he sat in his car on Chambers Road – Mark Buttler

- Two men allegedly involved in a $70,000 gold scam have been arrested after walking into a police trap, when they unwittingly tried to fleece a woman for the second time.
Police believe the two Chinese men, Hai-ping Xie, 35, and Yanwen Yang, 47, are part of an international syndicate targeting businesses in Melbourne’s Chinese community.
Whitehorse CIU Acting Detective Sergeant Graeme Savage alleged the scam involved offering various items claimed to be made of gold to victims at a heavily discounted price. Sergeant Savage said the alleged scammers told potential victims they had found the “gold” on a building site and were willing to offload it cheaply because they needed to return to China.
“Once the money has been paid, the victims realise the gold is fake,” he said
Police allege this took place in May last year, when the female owner of a Melbourne medical practice was tricked into handing over $70,000. But on July 31st this year, police claim, Xie and Yang booked an appointment at a different medical practice, not realising it was being run by the same victim. “[The owner] recognised their voice…The offenders weren’t aware they were trying to fleece the same people again. They made an appointment and police were there waiting for them,” Sergeant Savage said.
Xie and Yang, who were believed to be living in Box Hill, have been remanded to appear before the Ringwood Magistrates Court on September 4th.
Both have been charged with attempting to obtain property by deception, while Xie was also charged with obtaining property by deception – Kristian Silva

Monday August 19 2013

- The nation’s top crime fighter says laws that prevent police sharing telephone intercept information with sporting bodies should be relaxed to expose corruption.
“While ultimately a matter for government…there is potential and opportunity to relax those sharing arrangements but within an appropriate governance framework,” Australian Crime Commission chief executive John Lawler said.
Mr Lawler’s comments were echoed by Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Graham Ashton, who told Fairfax Media in an exclusive interview that it was frustrating that police were not able “to share all the information we feel that we need to share with the sporting regulators”.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has ruled out changing the laws despite two of his cabinet colleagues’ dire warnings in February about organised crime corrupting sport in the wake of a commission report on the use of potentially banned drugs by AFL and NRL clubs.
Sporting bodies, including the AFL and Racing Victoria, have expressed frustration at not having access to police information.
Stewards in Victoria and NSW cannot easily obtain police information implicating a small number of jockeys and other racing figures in corruption while anti-doping inquiries in football in both states cannot obtain crime commission information about corruption.
Mr Lawler said the commission’s executive director, Paul Jevtovic, said Australian horse racing and sports were attracting increasing interest from Asia’s gambling hot spots, including those recently linked by European police to widespread fixing of soccer matches.
Fairfax Media on Sunday reported that one of Australia’s biggest punters, flamboyant Sydney identity Stephen Fletcher, is the subject of a NSW Police Integrity Commission inquiry over his association with a small number of NSW police.
Central to the inquiry are accounts with British-owned gaming giant Betfair, which controversially allows bets on horses to lose, linked to Mr Fletcher and a small number of NSW detectives.
Mr Fletcher has denied improper betting or receiving inside information from jockeys or their associates.
Betfair last year told Australian racing investigators that due to its privacy policy it could not provide Mr Fletcher’s complete betting records as part of a probe into a 2011 race – Richard Baker & Nick McKenzie

Wednesday August 21 2013

- Serial rapist Adrian Bayley was not listed on the Sex Offenders Registry despite convictions for attacks of eight women and children – a failure police say could have prevented Jill Meagher’s murder.
An investigation by the Herald Sun can reveal police sources have also raised concerns Bayley’s DNA was not stored on the Victorian or national DNA crime database despite a sample being taken in 2001.
Bayley, was arrested in 2001 over a year-long series of brutal rapes of sex workers.
In an astonishing gap in our legal system, Bayley, in 2002, was sentenced under S.6D of the Sentencing Act – meaning he is regarded as a serious sexual offender – but Victoria’s justice system failed to keep tabs on him.
It comes as the parole killer crisis escalates yesterday with the release of the Callinan report, that recommends a 23-point overhaul of the parole system.
Meanwhile, Department of Justice lawyers continued their fight to keep secret details of how the parole system failed Victorians leading up to Ms Meagher’s death.
A senior police officer who helped bring Bayley to justice was also unaware he was back on the streets and had not seen the released face-fit image of the wanted attacker following the July rape.
“I feel sick in the stomach,” the officer said.
“When I heard his name on the radio I was shattered.
“Had they (the Adult Parole Board) notified me I would have notified all the victims and it would have been fresh in my mind and theirs.
“I feel terrible. I didn’t know he was out. Had I known I would have definitely notified the detectives at St Kilda.”
Victoria police yesterday would not comment on questions raised because of pending court matters involving Bayley.
Bayley’s prior convictions include sex assaults spanning decades including offences against three girls aged under 18 in 1990 and the rape of five sex workers in 2000-01.
Victoria Police could have made a retrospective application to place Bayley, a father of four, on the Victorian Sex Offenders Register when it was made law in 2004 while he served a minimum eight year prison sentence.
Under the Act it is discretionary for sex offenders whose victims are adults to be listed on the register.
It is mandatory to register convicted paedophiles.
Bayley was not considered a suspect by police following complaints by two women in mid-2012 of being sexually assaulted in the St Kilda area despite police issuing a face-fit image with characteristics similar to Bayley.
A Dutch backpacker, who was raped on July 15th last year, told the media of being driven into a laneway and attacked.
Ms Meagher was raped and killed in a Brunswick laneway two months later on September 22nd.
Police sources have told the Herald Sun multiple failings in the system allowed Bayley to remain on the streets and needed to be fixed, including the registering of all serious sex offenders.
The 41-year-old has been charged with further counts of rape from 2012 and another from 2000, which he is contesting.
The Office of Public Prosecutions has considered Bayley’s previous offending in relation to the new charges.
But in further mishandling of Bayley’s case, the Adult Parole Board failed to inform his victims from 2000-2001 he was being released at his earliest parole date in 2009.
A nation-wide investigation into unsolved sex crimes has used Bayley’s DNA to cross-match with samples taken and stored.
Following a major internal review, police have even investigated an information report linking Bayley with the Claremont killings, having lived in Perth, but he was eliminated as a suspect.
In 2000-2001, detectives attempted to get statements from 16 alleged victims who were sex workers in St Kilda.
At least five sex workers who identified Bayley as their attacker refused to go to court to testify against him the following year (2002) because they did not trust police.
Several detectives on rostered shifts had investigated separate complaints from sex workers but it took months to link the attacks and identify Bayley as a predator – Anthony Dowsley

Wednesday August 21 2013

- Police dismantled an alleged drug laboratory and arrested two men yesterday.
Police raided a business in Moore Road, Airport a West, and found “a significant amount of chemicals”.
“Detectives are conducting ongoing inquiries as to what the chemicals were being used for,” Victoria Police spokeswoman Leonie Johnson said.
However, Andrew Hutton, 38, of Skye, has been charged with 15 offences including possessing a precursor chemical, possessing a substance for trafficking a drug of dependence, reckless conduct endangering life and reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
A second man, Heiko Krueger, 61, from Lalor, was also arrested and has been charged with possessing a precursor chemical.
Frankston Crime Investigation Unit detectives, with the assistance of the Clandestine Laboratory Squad, carried out the raid.
Metropolitan Fire Brigade members were notified “as a precaution” due to some of the barrels being damaged, police said.
“Investigators also seized a significant amount of chemicals from a Swift Way, Dandenong South, premises on the 7th of August,” Ms Johnson said.
Both men were released on bail to reappear in court in December – Jon Kaila

Wednesday August 21 2013

- A woman who dressed as a guard and tried to steal money from two banks has wept in court as her son, who was involved in similar crimes, was remanded in custody to await sentence.
Tina Bernadine Lomacchio, 50, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and attempting to obtain property by deception, for her role in the attempted theft at two Westpac branches.
During both bank visits, she was wearing a full Armaguard uniform, sunglasses and a black wig. Her male co-offender was also wearing a uniform, imitation gun and sunglasses.
They failed to trick staff into handing over cash.
Prosecutor Damian Ellwood told the County Court those failed attempts followed a successful trick raid carried out on April 12th last year during which her son, bank employee Rocco Lomacchio, had ushered associate Rocky Bornino into the Westpac branch in Niddrie.
Bornino and another man were dressed as cash guards and wearing imitation pistols, the court was told. They got away with $440,000.
Mr Ellwood told Chief Judge Michael Rozenes that Rocco later teamed up with Bornino on November 9th and, wearing Chubb uniforms and carrying imitation pistols, they tried to rob seven Bendigo Bank branches across the southeastern suburbs.
They were successful only nonce, netting $31,900, Mr Ellwood said.
Rocco, now 24, has pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and obtaining property by deception, and seven counts of attempting to obtain property by deception.
When detectives raided his mother’s home they found $22,000 cash, Armaguard uniforms and an empty box for an imitation pistol.
She told police she bought the uniforms in an underground carpark at Crown casino – where she was a patron – for costumes to be worn at a New Year’s Eve dress-up party.
Rocco’s defence barrister, Josh Taaffe, said his client had no prior criminal convictions but had made a “startling unfortunate debut” as an offender.
Scott Johns, for Tina Lomacchio, said his client had great difficulty in explaining why she got involved.
Rocky Bornino, 47, was jailed in June to 39 months’ jail with a minimum of 15 months.
Chief Judge Rozenes extended Tina Lomacchio’s bail. She wept when Judge Rozenes remanded Rocco in custody.
Mother and son will be sentenced on Friday – Paul Anderson

Thursday August 22 2013

- Two Icelandic nationals have been arrested and charged with the importation through Melbourne Airport of a suspected three kilograms of cocaine.
The consul-general of Iceland was in court on Wednesday when the men appeared in custody. An Icelandic teacher acted as an impromptu interpreter in the Melbourne Magistrates Court after their arrest on Tuesday by the Australian Federal Police.
The solicitor for one of the men, Ruth Parker, said the only two known Icelandic interpreters in Melbourne were unavailable. She said the female teacher had volunteered to interpret.
Commonwealth prosecutor Ben Kerlin told magistrate Gerard Lethbridge the cocaine had not yet been weighed due to the “way it was concealed” but was estimated to be about three kilograms.
Both men have been charged with importing a commercial quantity of cocaine. Neither made an application for bail and both were remanded to appear again in November – Steve Butcher

Thursday August 22 2013

- A man armed with an assault rifle entered a primary school in the US state of Georgia, held employees hostage and exchanged fire with police, before giving himself up.
Dramatic overhead television footage captured pupils racing out of the building.
Just a week into the new school year, more than 800 students in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade were evacuated by teachers and police on Tuesday from the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy in Decatur, a few kilometres east of Atlanta.
DeKalb County police chief Cedric Alexander said the suspect, identified later as 20-year-old Michael Brandon Hill, fired at least half a dozen shots from inside the administration area and officers returned fire when he was alone and they had a clear shot.
Mr Alexander said Mr Hill surrendered shortly after and he had other weapons, but police had no motive for the incident.
Although the school has a system where people must be buzzed in by staff, the gunman may have slipped inside behind someone authorised to be there, Mr Alexander said.
Mr Hill never got past the front office, where he held one or two employees captive, the chief said. He has been charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, terroristic threats and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
School clerk Antoinette Tuff, in an interview on ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer, said she worked to convince the gunman to put down his weapons.
“He told me he was sorry for what he was doing. He was willing to die,” she said.
She told him her life story, about how her marriage fell apart 33 years and the “roller-coaster” of opening her own business.
“I told him, ‘OK, we all have situations in our lives’,” she said. “If I could recover, he could, too.”
Then Ms Tuff said she asked the suspect to put his weapons down and empty his pockets and backpack on the floor.
“I told the police he was giving himself up. I just talked him through it.”
Officials cut a hole in a fence to make sure students running from the building could get even further away to a nearby street, DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Michael Thurmond said.
SWAT teams went from classroom to classroom to make sure people were out.
They sat waiting in a field for about three hours until school buses came to take them to their parents and relatives at a nearby Wal-Mart department store – AP

Friday August 23 2013

- Two men wearing striped tops were seen around the home of Pakenham mother Kylie Blackwood the day she was murdered.
Police had definitely discounted the first man, homicide squad Detective Inspector John Potter said on Thursday.
The second, unidentified, man was seen in Mccaffery Rise about the time Mrs Blackwood returned home, Inspector Potter said. He was then seen “in the vicinity of Mccaffery Rise” later that day.
The second man is described as Caucasian in appearance and 175 centimetres tall. He was wearing a striped top and dark trousers, sunglasses and a dark cap – Rania Spooner

Friday August 23 2013

- A mother of three murdered in her own home may have been killed by someone she knew.
Homicide detectives investigating the death of Kylie Blackwood say they are exploring whether the killer was connected to her.

They confirmed yesterday that her husband, Peter Blackwood, did not believe anything had been stolen from the family home in Mccaffery Rise, Pakenham.
Police are also considering whether the killing was a burglary gone wrong.
The body of Ms Blackwood, 42, was discovered by her twin 11-year-old daughters when they came home from school at 3:40pm on August 1st.
A tradesman working nearby told police he saw a man in a striped, hooded top looking into the Blackwood home shortly before noon.
It is believed the man returned 10 to 15 minutes later, when Ms Blackwood had come home from a shopping trip and left the garage door open.
The tradesman has told police he saw the suspect “hurriedly” walking away about 20 minutes later.
Police said it had spent valuable time identifying a man in a striped jumper who was the wrong man.
Yesterday they released a FACE image from the description from the tradesman.

“We believe Kylie had not long come home from shopping,” Detective Inspector John Potter said.
“She returned home, has driven the car in, and the roller door was still up.
“A different man appears to be in the vicinity of her home around that time. We believe he’s certainly a suspect,” Detective Inspector Potter said.
“We are exploring the possibility that she either knew her attacker had been, for some unknown reason, following her.
“They (the family) are not holding up well.
“They are distraught. They are undergoing quite a bit of counselling and support.
“We’ve now got to find this man,” Detective Inspector Potter said – Jon Kaila

Friday August 23 2013

- A boat buy-back scheme and bounties paid in Indonesia are part of a planned crackdown on people smuggling, under a Coalition government.
Australian taxpayers would buy leaking fishing boats from poor fishermen where intelligence identified they planned to sell them to people smugglers.
Under a Village Watch Program, impoverished Indonesians would also be eligible to be paid “bounties” if they handed over crucial information under the Coalition’s regional deterrence policy.
Millions would be set aside for the boat buy-back scheme and money available for bounty payments in “exceptional circumstances” where information led to an arrest or major disruption to the people smuggling trade, Coalition Immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said.
Boats would be bought and destroyed.
Bounty payments would be “relevant to Indonesian conditions”, Mr Morrison said.
He said he wanted to gain the cooperation of the International Organisation for Migration and the Village program would mirror a scheme set up after the Bali bombings to identify extremism.
Plans to prevent asylum seekers ever setting foot on Australian soil and increasing deterrence work in the region will also be unveiled by the Coalition today.
Any asylum seekers intercepted at sea would be taken to a third country to be flown to Nauru or Manus Island, preventing them making a refugee claim in Australia.
“Our regional deterrence package is targeted to stop the boats leaving Indonesia and better still stop their passengers getting into Indonesia in the first place,” Mr Morrison said.
The Coalition also plans to deploy more Australian Federal Police resources to Indonesia and Sri Lanka and to work more closely with authorities in transit country Malaysia.
Indonesia would receive more help to conduct search and rescue missions under a Coalition government.
Mr Morrison said it would be given vessels, which Australia would maintain. A Coalition government would also appoint an “envoy” to liaise with countries in the region.
The measures come after the Coalition announced last month it would appoint a three-star military commander to coordinate he efforts of more than 10 government departments.
Meanwhile, the government yesterday released a video of asylum seekers who have been sent to PNG resettlement urging others not to pay a people smuggler to travel to Australia because they would end up on Manus Island – Gemma Jones

Friday August 23 2013

- Banned jockey Danny Nikolic stood with his forehead to a police officer’s and dared him to punch him after being interviewed over allegations he bashed a mate and fellow jockey, a court has heard.
Daniel Mario Nikolic, 38, aggressively pointed at Detective Senior Constable Julio Salerno and accused him of “having a go” at him, before facing off with him, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told.
“Go on, have a go. What are you going to do? Hit me?” he allegedly taunted.
The interviewing officer, Sergeant David Eadie, told the court of Nikolic’s demeanour on April 6th, 2011, as he was questioned over allegations he attacked jockey Mark Pegus in January that year and his girlfriend, Rikki-Lee Hull, in March.
Nikolic allegedly punched Pegus, his long-time friend, in the head around six times at Caulfield racecourse following a heated argument the day before.
Pegus yesterday told the court Nikolic accused him of bad-mouthing his brother, John Jr.
He said Nikolic “flew at him”, throwing punches and pushing him against a wall, before he managed to escape.
Photos of injuries allegedly sustained by Pegus in the assault, including a black eye and cut lip, were tendered to the court.
Pegus said he tried to contact the champion jockey, but Nikolic told him to keep away, saying “that I was no good, that he’d ‘given me life’ and never wanted to speak to me again”.
He said he took his “life” sentence to mean Nikolic hated him and wanted no more to do with him.
Pegus said he initially did not want to proceed with charges because Nikolic was serving a Racing Victoria suspension, but changed his mind after Nikolic allegedly assaulted Ms Hull at the Barkly Hotel in St Kilda.
“Danny Nikolic had quite a lot of issues going on at the time and I, being a friend, wanted to deal with it the best possible way,” he said.
The contested hearing regarding the alleged assaults at Caulfield racecourse and St Kilda police station will continue today before magistrate Angela Bolger.
The assault matter regarding Ms Hull will be heard on another date.
Nikolic faces charges of recklessly causing injury, intentionally causing injury and unlawful assault over the alleged incident involving Pegus and unlawful assault in relation to the police officer. Two charges were withdrawn by the prosecution yesterday – Emily Portelli

Saturday August 24 2013

- For a pacifist, former deputy prime minister Jim Cairns was pretty handy with a shooter.
Long before he led more than 100,000 people in the 1970 anti-Vietnam War moratorium demonstration, he was involved in a free and frank discussion with a gunman in the Exhibition Gardens.
In one way they shared the view that wealth should be distributed more equitably – they just differed on methodology. Jim believed in taxing the wealthy while he gunman advocated armed robberies.
It was around lunchtime on November 5th, 1936, as police chased suspected murderer and bandit William Cody but Bill chose the wrong copper to try to beat in a foot race as Cairns was a local decathlon and long jump champion.
Australia was just recovering from the Great Depression (which made the GFC look like a bad hair day) and was awash with violence and corruption. Many police were on the take, gangs ran the backstreets of Fitzroy and Collingwood and the city warehouse district was home to baccarat rather than baristas.
Most coppers were poorly trained, poorly paid and often unmotivated. There was a huge trade in illegal drugs (cocaine was popular), sly grog (pubs were supposed to close at 6pm), SP bookmaking and prostitution. Guns, many from World War I, were readily available though locally sourced ammunition was notoriously unreliable.
Gentleman Jim Cairns had been in the police force for only two years and was working in the surveillance squad, known as The Dogs. He would complete a Melbourne University economics degree part-time (handy as he would rise to be Australia’s treasurer) and became the first Victorian policeman with a tertiary qualification.
But this day he was following suspects for an armed robbery where a guard was shot dead in the middle of Melbourne. Cairns jumped on a Nicholson Street tram (his colleague, lacking the necessary athletic prowess, missed his moment) and approached Cody, but the Collingwood tough was not about to come quietly.
More than 50 years later the long-retired politician recalled the incident in an interview with Robin Hughes for the Australian Biography Project.
“Cody hopped in through the door of the tram with a .32 calibre revolver, pushed it into my chest and pulled the trigger. It didn’t go off. So I pushed him aside and he took off, raced down through the tram and across into the Exhibition Gardens.
“I had a .25 calibre Browning automatic in my shirt pocket, and as I chased Cody, he’s turning around, by this time got his gun to go. I counted five shots that he fired in my direction – five. And when we got that far, I fired two in the air above him and he called out, ‘I’ve had enough.’ So I caught up to him and pulled the gun from him. By this time another detective had arrived, Alf Guider, and another police car was coming in from the other side, and so Alf Guider said, ‘shoot the bastard,’ and I said, ‘No, he hasn’t got a gun.’,”
There is some confusion how many shots were fired (around 10) and so we turn to the journal of record, The Age, whose enthusiastic crime reporter of the day hunted down an eyewitness.
“Mr C. Bevin, of Cardigan Street, Carlton, who was strolling through the gardens, said he was nearly hit by one of the bullets. ‘I threw myself to the ground,’ he remarked. ‘I thought that bandits, whom we have heard something about lately, were close to me, and I didn’t mind admitting, that I was considerably frightened. When I saw the man behind the tree and the other men advancing on him I then guessed that the converging men were detectives. The man behind the tree did not appear to offer any resistance.’”
This draws us to conclude that either Mr C. Bevin of cardigan Street was a visiting thespian from Stratford-upon-Avon or the quotation is bogus.
We also note the report recorded that “the hail of bullets drove card players and park denizens from their seats”. Pass the Abbots Lager.
Cody was arrested along with brothers Geoffrey and Rupert Davies and charged with a truckload of offences, including the murder of security guard Ted Scriven, gunned down in an armed robbery 10 months earlier.
Enter historian Robin Grow, who is painstakingly reconstructing the events that cover the tragic murder, four trials and a Watergate-like cover-up that would cost the chief commissioner his job.
“Melbourne before the war was very much like Chicago. I don’t think people understand the level of violence at the time,” Grow says.
It was the Underbelly of its day – involving sex, lies and violence – and that’s only the coppers. But more of that later.
It began in a most innocuous setting, the old a Stamps Office on the corner of Lonsdale and Queen Streets at the end of the January heatwave.
The takings of about $3500 (nearly the price of a new home) were to be transported by cab to the Bank of Australasia. Police had provided the escort but when they raised their rates the tight-fisted Law Department refused to pay and expected their clerical staff to ride shotgun.
On this Friday the proposed escort was having trouble balancing the books and at the last minute employee Ted Scriven, a 63-year-old ex-soldier nearing retirement, was asked to fill in. In his haste he left his .25 Webley & Scott pistol in his drawer.
Scriven and the 18-year-old messenger were jumped at the cab outside the Stamp Office and the former soldier was shot in the head from point-blank range. The two gunmen escaped in a large black sedan driven by a third man.
The taxi driver picked up a gun from the ground, yelled, “Stop that car,” and tried to fire, but nothing happened. In a mad chase the gunmen crashed into a fruit shop before dumping the car near the (now) Southern Cross Station.
Eventually the case was put in the hands of the head of the CIB, the legendary Detective Superintendent John O’Donnell Brophy.
What police methods lacked in science in those days was more than made up by what they could make up. Shady informers, questionable confessions, and dodgy eyewitnesses were often accepted and the case against the three was sketchy at best.
Grow’s research shows the three were crooks (all bought motorbikes shortly after the stick-up) but were they the armed robbers in question?
Geoffrey Davies was acquitted at the first trial while the jury failed to reach a verdict on the remaining two. In the retrial Cody and Rupert Davies were found guilty and sentenced to death, only to have their convictions overturned by the High Court. A third and fourth trial ended with hung juries, which meant the defendants weren’t.
Cody was convicted of other matters but he always remembered that Cairns refused to “shoot the bastard” back in the Exhibition Gardens. “When he came out of jail, after doing seven years for shooting [at] me, he arrived with a bunch of flowers for [my wife] Gwen.”
During the trials one witness was shot, another committed perjury and there were allegations of jury tampering. The trials also exposed police methods as shambolic at best.
Nearly four months after the murder Brophy was shot while sitting in a chauffeur-driven car in Royal Park. Surprisingly there was no manhunt for the offenders and the first official version was that he “was accidentally shot in the right arm whilst handling his revolver”.
There was no mention of the fact he was also shot in the cheek and chest (the potential fatal shot deflected off his braces buckle). If it was accidentally self-inflicted he was indeed suffering from near-terminal butter fingers.
When the press failed to swallow the line then chief commissioner Tom Blamey said Brophy was shot as he was about to meet an informer as part of armed robbery investigations (including the Stamps Office). No mention was made that there were two women in the car.
Soon there were rumours the policeman was shot by a jealous husband and there was even a suggestion the chief commissioner was in back seat (although his view of the crime was obscured by a lady’s petticoat).
Blamey hated the press and had used Cairns to follow reporters to try to find their sources.
Now it was payback time and finally the government appointed a royal commission, which found Blamey “gave replies that were not in accordance with the truth”.
He was forced to resign, although he rebuilt his reputation in World War II when he became Australia’s highest-ranking military leader.
His nocturnal appetite was said to be prodigious (he made Snoop Dogg look like Donnybrook Osmond) and it was never explained how years earlier his police badge had turned up in a brothel.
On a 1944 trip on the USS Lurline to San Francisco with prime minister John Curtin he insisted on taking on board several cases of spirits for the journey.
Being a generous soul, he chose to entertain lonely Australian war brides in his cabin, much to the annoyance of the PM, a reformed alcoholic.
Blamey’s replacement was Alexander Duncan, a former head of Scotland Yard’s famed Flying Squad. He professionalised police methods, teaching detectives that physical evidence was better than tainted testimony.
In 1943 he set up the homicide squad, which will hold its gala 70th anniversary dinner in a few weeks (commemorative ties available for $20).
Pass the port – John Silvester

Saturday August 24 2013

- Police have raided a Hells Angels bikie clubhouse ahead of a huge party planned at the venue.
The Alphington clubhouse was raided on Friday afternoon by Echo Taskforce detectives concerned that the outlaw bikie gang had not obtained a liquor licence for a party to be held on Saturday night.
Hells Angels members gave police access to the clubhouse, and a small amount of liquor was found inside.
Several members remained at the scene while police searched the clubhouse, with others arriving in Hells Angels T-shirts and hooded jumpers about 3pm.
The party is expected to draw about 300 people and has been advertised online as featuring topless barmaids.
Echo Taskforce Detective Inspector Ian Campbell said police would be out in force again at the party to ensure the gang did not breach liquor licensing regulations.
“They are not above the law,” he said.
“If you are advertising a party and don’t bother to get a liquor licence or liaise with local police, we’re going to come down for a look.”
More than 20 police, including public order response team members, joined in the raid.
Police also searched the neighbouring house, which was formerly occupied by Hells Angels founding member Christopher “Ball Bearing” Coelho.
Mr Coelho announced earlier this year that he was handing in his colours after more than 40 years in the club. His house was empty.
The Hells Angels have been locked in a war with the Bandidos in Victoria that has seen several clubhouses bombed or shot.
The feud started when Bandidos sergeant-at-arms Toby Mitchell was ambushed and shot twice outside the Diablos clubhouse in Melton during March – Niño Bucci

Saturday August 24 2013

- Australian authorities have helped seize 750 kilograms of cocaine destined for the Australian market that was hidden in a luxury yacht in Vanuatu.
The seizure was part of a joint operation with South Pacific countries and the United States drugs agency.
The seizure – with an estimated street value of $370 million – is one of the largest drug seizures involving Australian authorities.
Vanuatu police raided the yacht, the Raj, docked in the Vanuatu capital Port Vila, earlier this week.
Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ramzi Jabbour said the international drug syndicate’s concealment was very sophisticated.
No arrests have been made but investigations are continuing – The Age

Saturday August 24 2013

- The boyfriend of a woman whose death involved a mysterious apartment rubbish chute plunge spent at least 15 minutes on the couple’s computer after discovering her missing and blood in their study, a court has heard.
Phoebe Handsjuk, 24, was found by a concierge in the rubbish storage room of the Balencea apartment complex, where she lived in a 12th-floor apartment with Antony Hampel, on December 2nd, 2010, after 6:30pm.
Although police concluded the death was likely a suicide, an inquest was launched this year following a campaign by Ms Handsjuk’s family, including her retired detective grandfather Lorne Campbell.
Mr Hampel, the son of retired Supreme Court justice George Hampel, on Friday told the coroner of how Ms Handsjuk had struggled with depression and binge drinking throughout their 18-month relationship.
“She struggled every day to do the most simple things,” he said. The night before her death Ms Handsjuk was in “recovery mode” from an alcohol and drug binge earlier in the week, Mr Hampel said.
She was still in bed on Wednesday when he returned home, he said. He cooked her favourite meal for dinner and she went back to sleep.
The following morning Mr Hampel didn’t wake her when he left for work and, according to his evidence, this was the last time he saw her alive.
When he returned home shortly after 6pm on Thursday he noticed a broken glass he believed contained vodka and blood on the couple’s keyboard, he told the inquest.
He said he was also concerned when he discovered a small shrine in the bedroom, including a photograph of himself, a photograph of Ms Handsjuk’s cat and black candles.
“I was becoming very concerned at that point,” he told the inquest.
Counsel assisting the coroner asked Mr Hampel why activity logs showed he was using the couple’s computer at 6:19pm, 6:34pm and “then later again” after returning home to the strange scene shortly after 6pm.
“Why did you continue to use the computer if you were so worried about Phoebe?” counsel assisting said.
Mr Hampel said he had been looking for a website or a note that could explain where Ms Handsjuk was.
“When I came home and saw the small amount of blood on the keyboard my first thought was to look there,” he said.
However, phone and computer records show Mr Hampel did not access Word or email, rather he opened GarageBand, a music program, and iPhoto.
“I just remember looking at programs that were open,” he told the court, adding that Ms Handsjuk often used them.
“My sole intention was to try to see what sort of activity she’d had, if any, on the computer.”
After receiving a call from a work colleague at 7pm, Mr Hampel, a producer, then accessed the program iMovie at 7:10pm.
The apartment computer was accessed again at 7:39pm and 7:40pm.
Mr Hampel said he also fed the couple’s dog, smoked a cigarette, had a beer and ordered some takeaway.
About 8:03pm Mr Hampel buzzed somebody up to his apartment, whom he recalls was probably the takeaway delivery man.
Minutes later police told him Ms Handsjuk was dead.
A police officer responsible for staying with Mr Hampel from 9:05pm noted that he appeared to be crying, but there were no tears, there was no mucus and his eyes were not bloodshot, the inquest heard.
Mr Hampel had also “laughed nervously” after suggesting to the officer that he could type up his own statement because he was a “fast typer”.
The inquest was adjourned until Wednesday – Rania Spooner

Saturday August 24 2013

- Brisbane’s Courier-Mail has pleaded guilty to a breach of the Family Law Act in its coverage of a custody battle over four Italian sisters.
The Australian Federal Police launched an investigation after the paper last year published the names and photographs of the sisters at the centre of the dispute. The photos were published on May 15th and 16th last year, prompting a complaint from the Chief Justice of the Family Court.
The matter was mentioned in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday. Barrister Jeff Hunter, for the newspaper, told the court the publisher intended to plead guilty to four counts of contravening the Family Law Act – Marissa Calligeros

Saturday August 24 2014

- The Arab Spring uprisings have created a new segment of violent extremists that will threaten the US and its citizens abroad for years to come, FBI director Robert Mueller said.
Mr Mueller, who will complete his 12 years as head of the law enforcement agency on September 4th, said Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Algeria, Syria and most recently, Egypt, have become the focus of US counter-terrorism efforts.
“Every one of these countries now has cadres of individuals who you would put in the category of violent extremists that will present threats down the road,” Mr Mueller said. “Not only threats to us in the US, but also threats to Americans overseas.”
Mr Mueller’s comments came two weeks after the US closed embassies and diplomatic compounds in almost two dozen countries because of terrorist threats and as the government continues to grapple with the diplomatic responses to unrest across the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
The US State Department on August 3rd issued a worldwide travel alert warning of potential terror attacks by al-Qaeda or its affiliates. For Mr Mueller, a shifted landscape abroad has been the catalyst for the transformation at the FBI since he became director just days before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington.
James Comey, the former No. 2 official at the Justice Depanunder president George W. Bush, was confirmed 93-1 by the US Senate last month to succeed Mr Mueller. Mr Comey will begin work at the FBI next week to ensure a smooth transition – Phil Mattingly

Friday July 25 2014

- A coronial inquest has been told that a former Victoria Police Drug Squad officer had told a now murdered police informer, that should he ever betray him, he would shoot him.
Andrew Hodson told the inquest, which is investigating the deaths of his parents, Terence and Christine Hodson, who were murdered in their Kew home in 2004, that his father had told him that the former detective Paul Dale had once threatened him.
“He showed him a firearm and told him he would be shot if he ever betrayed them [Mr Dale and David Miechel, also a former Drug Squad detective],” Andrew Hodson said in a statement that was read to the Coroner in court on Thursday.
Hitman Rodney Collins and Dale were charged with murdering Terence Hodson in 2009. Hodson had agreed to give evidence against allegedly corrupt police officers. Collins was also charged with the murder of Christine Hodson.
But when Carl Williams was bashed to death in Barwon prison in 2010, the case against the men was dropped.
Both Dale and Collins, who is currently serving time in prison for an unrelated double homicide, both deny any involvement in the Hodson murders.
This week both men were excused from giving evidence at the inquest.
After Terence Hodson had agreed to give evidence against Dale and Miechel, who were charged with a 2003 burglary of drug house in Oakleigh, Andrew Hodson told the inquest his father had been told by police to exercise caution against possible retribution.
Andrew Hodson told the inquest his father was more concerned about Dale, as Dale’s case was more reliant on Terence Hodson’s evidence.
However, according to Andrew Hodson, his father had refused police protection. The inquest was told that Terence Hodson considered Collins to be “good bloke” and sold him cannabis.
The inquest earlier heard that Williams was “dangling a carrot” to police by offering information on the Hodson murders.
The inquest was told by Witness A that he had told Williams to pass on information about the murders to police in order to receive favourable considerations from the investigators and to discredit a prosecution witness.
The inquest is continuing.

Saturday August 24 2013

- Federal police are investigating if any Australians were connected to the second largest shipment of cocaine bound for our shores and seized in Vanuatu this week.
It was revealed yesterday the Australian Federal Police, along with Customs and the US Drug Enforcement Administration, found 750kg of cocaine on a yacht known as the Raj docked at Port Vila in Vanuatu.
The drugs, with a street value of about $370 million, originated from South America.
The AFP said yesterday they were likely at the hands of serial drug traffickers.
It was the second biggest haul captured that was bound for Australia, topped only by a 938kg haul of cocaine off the Western Australian coast in 2001.
The haul was the largest under Project Cringle, set up in 2010 to target the region’s drug trade.
Arrests are likely to be made over the latest shipment, possibly within the next month, police said.
The cocaine was found hidden under a concrete slab in the lower engine compartments of the yacht and around the keel area of the hull.
The drugs were “particularly well hidden”, according to authorities, and police had to use a chisel to get them out. No one was on board when the seizure was made.
Vanuatu Police assisted with the capture.
AFP assistant commissioner Ramzi Jabbour said yesterday the same drug syndicate was involved in another alleged importation attempt in 2011.
He said the latest seizure had prevented an estimated 750,000 individual drug deals from hitting Australian streets.
“Whilst there have been no arrests at this stage of the investigation…it is an ongoing matter,” he said.
“We are working actively with out regional counterparts, both in the Pacific and more broadly in the international arena.”
Assistant commissioner Jabbour said drug smugglers would continue to find it harder to import to Australia as the AFP worked in closer collaboration with its regional partners to crack down on the trade – Lanai Scarr