- Disgraced BBC legend Jimmy Savile is now a suspect in 199 sex crimes, including 31 allegations of  rape, police say, adding that the scale of his offending is unprecedented in Britain.

Ten weeks after Scotland Yard began investigating claims that Savile was a paedophile, the London force confirmed that 589 people had come forward with information, of which 450 related to Savile, mainly alleging sex abuse.

Some 80% of the victims were children or young people, police said, while 82% who claimed they had been abused were female.

The investigation into Savile, one of the BBC’s top television and radio presenters who died last year aged 84, was prompted by claims from five women on a TV documentary on October 4th.

It has since spawned 12 other inquiries or related reviews both into Savile himself – by the BBC and other authorities – and into unrelated sexual offences, such as abuse at a Welsh children’s care home and child abuse by late MP Cyril Smith.

Ten people have been arrested so far, including convicted paedophile and former glam rocker Gary Glitter and comedian Freddie Starr. Radio presenter Dave Lee Travis and public relations guru Max Clifford have also been held, but not for child sex offences. All those arrested have protested their innocence.

Commander Peter Spindler, head of specialist crime investigations at Scotland Yard, paid tribute to the victims who had spoken out.

Police added that the Savile scandal had led to a significant increase in reports of historic child abuse. In London, there were 55 reports of non-recent rape and serious sexual offences in the month before the Savile investigation launched, compared with 299 in the following month. Scotland Yard’s rape unit also saw a 10% increase in reported cases in October and November compared with last year – AFP

- A fortune in cash and assets is missing from the estate of Mario Condello, a victim of one of Melbourne’s unsolved gangland murders.

The gangland figure, who did not divulge his assets in his will, is only known to have left behind a $2 million Brighton house, which was sold by his wife.

But Condello’s brother Enzo says no one, including his brother’s widow, Vanda, knows where the money from the sale of four city apartments, a unit for a mistress in Nice, and money stashed in a Swiss bank account has gone.

A family feud has been simmering between Mario Condello’s former wife Vanda and Enzo over the estate as well as over a payout over his murder.

Condello was not only hiding his money in offshore safe havens before his death, but was owed millions.

But Enzo claims he has been told the unexplained wealth of his slain brother has vanished from myriad companies he owned under the alias Michael Oliver.

Mr Condello also has told the Herald Sun the Carlton Crew money man was addicted to prescription diet drug Duromine – which contains amphetamines – in the years before he was gunned down in the driveway of his Brighton home in February 2006.

His death, considered a gangland hit, came the night before he was to go on trial on several charges including conspiracy to commit murder.

Mr Condello says his brother had amassed wealth of more than $5 million, built from protection rackets, money-laundering and loan-sharking.

Among the assets he says he has a claim on are Melbourne Cemetery crypts, money owed to his mother’s estate, and money promised to him.

He claims properties owned by his parents, who are now deceased, were sold by Mario, who failed to pay out his siblings.

Mr Condello was not a beneficiary in his brothers’ will, which did not divulge any of his assets.

Though he said the in-family fighting was ugly, it was inevitable.

Adding to his brother’s paranoia in the year leading up to his being charged with conspiracy to commit murder in 2004, he became addicted to a prescription drug that Mr Condello said affected his judgement.

There are several theories about the slaying of Mario Condello in the driveway of his Brighton home in February 2006.

Police thwarted an earlier plot to kill Condello in June 2004, when Sean Sonnet was arrested carrying loaded guns outside the Brighton Cemetery, near Condello’s home.

The hitman had been sent by Carl Williams.

It is not known who was behind the later, successful hit.

Condello was due to face court the following day on several charges including incitement to commit murder – allegedly putting $150,000 contracts on Carl Williams and his father George.

A court heard in August this year there were a number of potential motives for the killing of Mr Condello and there was no doubt that it was not a random killing.

A senior detective told the hearing there was a powerful rumour abroad at the time that Mr Condello had come to some sort of arrangement to assist the authorities in return for charges against him being dropped”. The rumour, however, was baseless, the hearing was told.

There is no doubting that Condello had serious Calabrian mafia connections in Australia and abroad.

Mr Condello said at the peak of the gangland war, Mario had been in talks with hitman Benji Veniamin to import and distribute drugs, and also thwarted plans to assassinate a high-ranking Victoria Police officer.

He also claimed his brother wanted a Melbourne solicitor run over for providing information to his enemies.

In 2004, Justice Bernard Teague, in a bail hearing, described the crime figure’s income sources as opaque.

The court heard Condello, who carried a firearm, had accrued substantial assets including debts owed to him of more than $3 million.

Justice Teague also commented that it was not clear when the unit in Nice on the Riviera was acquired by the applicant, but it seems that well over €100,000 has been spent on renovating it.

Condello’s former wife Vanda did not return calls from the Herald Sun – Anthony Dowsley

- Jailed Judy Moran will keep proceeds from the sale of her million-dollar home despite a senior prosecutor describing it as like the base camp at Mount Everest during the plot to murder Desmond Moran.

High Court justices Virginia Bell and Kenneth Hayne yesterday rejected an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions to overturn an earlier court ruling allowing Moran to keep the money.

Moran, 67, is serving a maximum 26 years’ jail after a jury found her guilty of orchestrating the murder of brother-in-law Des “Tuppence” Moran and driving the hitman, Geoffrey Armour, to and from the shooting scene.

Her house was sold at auction for $1.07 million and she received more than $356,000 from the sale.

That amount has been held on trust by the Department of Justice’s asset confiscation office pending yesterday’s High Court ruling.

Moran used her home as security to obtain a $400,000 bank loan with which she bought several cars – one of which was given to Armour as payment for the murder.

The getaway Ford Falcon used during the murder was parked in the garage of the house after the shooting. That car was confiscated under legislation.

Detectives found clothing, disguises and the gun used to kill Des Moran in a concealed safe at Judy Moran’s house.

Supreme Court judge Justice Lex Lasry first refused the to order the forfeiture of Moran’s share of the house, saying the home was not tainted property.

A tainted property is a property that was used or intended to be used in, or in connection with, the commission of the offence.

In July after a DPP appeal, the Court of Appeal reaffirmed Justice Lasry’s decision. In refusing the DPP’s last-ditch appeal, the High Court ordered the DPP to pay court costs – Paul Anderson

- An apparent suicide note left by a nurse at the centre of the royal hoax phone call was critical of staff at the hospital in which she worked, while a second dealt with the actions of the two Australian radio presenters involved, according to a report.

Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found dead in staff quarters near King Edward VII’s Hospital, in central London, just days after taking a prank phone call from 2Day FM radio presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian.

A coronial hearing was told in London on Thursday morning that investigators had found three apparent suicide notes, handwritten by Ms Saldanha, a mother of two.

One was addressed to her employers and contains criticism of staff there, “The Guardian” reported.

Another note dealt with the hoax call made by the radio presenters, who posed as the Queen and Prince Charles in the prank call, while a final letter detailed Ms Saldanha’s requests for her funeral, the report said.

Two of the notes were found in the apartment in which Ms Saldanha died, and one with her belongings, and police have given Ms Saldanha’s family typed copies of the letters, “The Guardian” said. Scotland Yard is investigating several emails, which the inquest heard, were relevant to the nurse’s death.

Detective Chief Inspector James Harman told Coroner Fiona Wilcox that police were investigating whether telephone calls made to and from Ms Saldanha’s phone in the days before her death could throw any light on the matter.

Details of those emails and phone calls were not released at the brief hearing in London.

A spokeswoman for King Edward VII’s Hospital told “The Guardian” that no one in senior management knew the contents of the letters. The hospital management were very clear that there were no disciplinary issues in this matter, she said.

The hospital has offered bereavement counselling for the family in Bristol, which they have decided to accept.

In India nurses have held candlelight vigils in several cities to pay tribute to Ms Saldanha, who was found dead in her apartment three days after the prank call.

She took the initial call and put it through to a colleague on the ward where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for morning sickness, who then gave out information about her condition.

The London inquest has been adjourned to March 26th next year – Megan Levy

- It would have been the perfect murder if the little man sitting on the offender’s shoulder would just shut up.

The victim went missing months earlier, his body disappeared long ago and the crime scene was cleaned just like they do in CSI. With every passing day the trail became colder and soon police would have to move the file from the active pile to the pending one.

There were only two men who knew the truth, the killer and his apprentice, but while the senior partner was relaxed after a two-month Mediterranean holiday, the younger was wrestling with his conscience. And the conscience was winning.

On April 5th, 2010, he confided to his mother that while he was not the hands-on killer, he was the next worst thing. She told him only he could decide what to do but he must be prepared to live with the consequences.

Aged just 19, he finally decided a possible jail term and a new start would be better spending the rest of his life hiding the awful truth. So around 1:00 am the next day the apprentice welder walked into the Craigieburn Police Station and announced he wanted to talk to a homicide detective about Peter Rule, a man who had disappeared five months earlier.

Like all murder investigators, Senior Detective Paul Rowe knows interrupted sleep is part of the deal and was soon driving to the Broadmeadows station where the witness had been transported.

Rule, 56, was reported missing on November 17th, 2009, by his Meadow Heights neighbour. He was separated from his wife but always made a bedtime call to his 11-year-old son. But since that date he remained silent, his mobile phone was inactive and his credit cards unused.

Within two weeks the case was handed to Homicide Crew Four – the suspicious disappearance and cold case unit.

Rowe quickly knew this fresh witness nursing a lukewarm coffee and a Subway sandwich was the real deal – because he wasn’t trying to make one. After all, this wasn’t an arrested crook trying to give up an accomplice for a shorter jail term – he had walked off the street to admit his guilt without inducements.

For 40 minutes without a break he outlined what had happened and named the killer.

Leonard Borg, then 25, was a man whose limited talent didn’t thwart his big ambitions. A boilermaker and steel fabricator by trade, he planned to become a major player in the drug trade.

Having spent years working in industrial estates, he saw a lucrative opportunity in turning a disused prefabricated factory into a giant hydroponic cannabis centre. There would be little through traffic, large power bills would not be considered unusual and there would be no nosy neighbours concerned about late-night visitors.

In early 2009 his trial run of just 20 plants in a rented Craigieburn house ended badly.

After hearing whispers that police were closing in, he ripped out the plants and, determined to leave no forensic clues, painted the inside of the house a week before the inevitable raid.

Borg found a cap at the property he believed was Rule’s and concluded he was the one who had tipped off police (in fact the information came from a call to Crime Stoppers by an identified female).

Borg knew Rule and they shared an interest in vintage motorbikes. When Borg fell out with his father, he moved in with his mate.

However, such an act of kindness was forgotten. Borg had already rented a Thomastown factory for $25,000 that he was turning into an indoor cannabis field and was concerned Rule could dob him in again.

His mate would have to go.

For a first-time killer Borg was methodical, cunning and cold. First he needed a gun and drove to northern New South Wales where he bought a semi automatic .22 rifle from a farmer.

A week later, on Sunday, November 15th, he invited Rule out on the pretence of finding a vintage motorcycle, shouted him a kebab then took him to a friend’s Campbellfield factory, using a key hidden under a rock to gain access.

Once inside, Borg started a truck in the factory to conceal the noise, picked up the gun he had hidden behind a wheel and shot Rule 10 times in the head and body.

He later complained he could find only nine spent cartridges.

Next he rang the apprentice who was playing pool in Epping to instruct him to buy bleach and cleaning products at a supermarket before driving to the factory. The two men used 25 litres of bleach to scrub one toilet cubicle, leaving the second one in its existing state – a serious mistake as it turned out. Much later, police would see it as an obvious attempt to conceal a crime scene.

Borg used a forklift to place the body in the boot of his blue Volvo and drove to his Thomastown factory. The killer was determined to leave no forensic clues and almost succeeded. But in the murder business a miss is as good as a mile and he would eventually be undone by the tiniest of oversights.

At a local service station he bought nearly 20 bags of redgum and pine firewood and 15 litres of petrol, before stopping to eat.

He went to Bunnings and bought an electric chainsaw, hatchet, cironella oil, a black tub and hydrochloric acid.

There is no need to go into minute detail except to say all products were used in the cover-up.

At one point he placed the ashes on the floor of the factory and used a hammer to smash any remaining pieces of bone fragments before placing them in the tub filled with acid. What remained was scooped into garbage bags.

Borg and the apprentice drove down the Great Ocean Road and found a remote beach past Anglesea where they waded into the sea to dump the sluice from the tub. The ashes from the garbage bags were dumped near some foreshore bushes.

But as the acid had burnt holes in their clothes they drove to Lorne to buy a change at Louttit Bay Menswear, choosing two T-shirts and two pairs of red LBAY shorts.

So determined was Borg to leave no clues, he and the apprentice painted the whole floor of the rented Thomastown factory with blue paint. If he had worked as hard at his legitimate job, he wouldn’t have turned himself into just another failed gangster.

Four days after the murder Borg headed to Malta for what he thought was a well-earned rest, leaving the apprentice to maintain the cannabis crop. The sidekick, however, over-watered the plants and they all died.

When the younger man finally confessed, Senior Detective Rowe and the rest of Crew Four knew he was telling the truth. But in the murder investigation business a miss is as good as a mile.

The killer had already been nominated as a suspect when one of the victim’s friends said Rule told him he was going to meet Potato Head (Lennie Borg’s apt nickname) on the night he disappeared.

Later, police would find Borg tried to get a factory owner to fake him a time card for the night of the murder as a back-up alibi.

Their job was to try to corroborate every part of the story. At the Campbellfield factory police found a speck of blood on the toilet door frame and a nearby wooden pallet. So far so good.

The apprentice took them to the beach where they found two tiny bone fragments in the ash pile, remarkably undisturbed from five months of ocean winds and rain. Then they went to the nearby menswear shop to recover a receipt for the change of clothes.

Later they would find a matching pair at Borg’s home – and Louttit Bay Menswear was the only Australian distributor for the line. Bingo! They would also find the gun, a cartridge box with 10 bullets missing, the smashed black tub used to take the remains to Anglesea, and the paint tins used to repaint the floor in the Thomastown factory.

Just 18 days after the apprentice decided to come clean, police grabbed Borg and took him to the Homicide Squad office for an interview. Mr Potato Head lived up to his reputation  - as an interviewee he was an absolute spud. When asked if he had ever been to Lorne he answered, “I can’t recall.”

When confronted with overwhelming evidence of his cold-blooded acts he showed no remorse and simply stared, looking like a carp caught in a net.

On the way to the custody centre, when it finally dawned on him there was no one on the outside to look after his two guard dogs, he burst into tears.

Last month Justice Lex Lasry sentenced Borg to 23 years with a minimum of 19 – three years to the days after he headed to Malta on a long holiday convinced he had committed the perfect murder. At the 11-week trial the apprentice gave flawless evidence (he had earlier received a suspended sentence) – John Silvester

- A former Victorian police officer has admitted leaking details about a counter-terrorism operation to the media.

Simon Justin Artz, 42, pleaded guilty to unauthorised disclosure of information under the Police Regulation Act, in the Victorian County Court on Friday.

Artz was charged with leaking details about the raids on August 4th, 2009, to journalist Cameron Stewart of “The Australian” in a meeting on July 30th.

Artz was a Detective Senior Constable with the Victoria Police Security Intelligence Group. He will be sentenced on January 24th.

The maximum penalty for the offence is five years’ imprisonment – The Age

- The decor at the Heavy Duty Bar  just of Bali’s tourist strip is pure bikie-gang chic. In the upstairs pool room, artwork of the skeleton-on-a-flaming-motorcycle school dominates one wall, and another poster reads: “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” Ned Kelly and Southern Cross images suggest an Aussie connection.

It’s 10:30 pm and downstairs, a few of the hot girls promised in the bar’s advertising are lounging around dressed in micro-shorts and tight T-shirts. They are bored. The poles in the corner stand ready for a performance but are idle for lack of an audience. One lone customer sips his beer.

“To be honest, this is about as ‘kicked-off’ as it gets these days,” says Mark Berry, the muscle-bound manager.

The HD Bar on Patih Jelantik might be too far from Kuta’s main nightclub strip to do much business, but Australian police believe it signals something else – hard evidence that Australian bikies are moving in on Australia’s favourite holiday island.

The bar’s part owner, whose name card reads Adam “Vigilante” Abbott, is an outlaw motorcycle gang member from Perth. He’s a patched member of Australia’s biggest “1 per cent” gang the Rebels, which is the target of a new police crackdown called Taskforce Attero. Outlaw gang members sometimes refer to themselves as “one percenters.”

Abbot bought the bar from another West Australian bikie, Howard “Howie” Wignall, a 26-year veteran member of WA’s most notorious gang, the Coffin Cheaters. Both men have a penchant for guns and have served time in jail.

But theirs are not the only bike gang insignia to be seen around Bali. They are part of what police believe is a broader push by a number of outlaw gangs. The Bandidos have set up formal chapters in Bali, Bandung and Jakarta.

Earlier this year, the Australian president, Jason Addison, attended a rowdy ceremony to patch over dozens of new Indonesian members, inducted them formally into the gang. The Finks and Rock Machine are also believed to be showing interest in Bali.

Neither federal nor state police would be interviewed for this story and it is understood they have no hard evidence yet of wrongdoing. But they believe the gangs are coming to the Indonesian party island for more than the surf.

As they come under increasingly heavy police scrutiny in Australia, gangs are believed to be exploring criminal opportunities in Indonesia including money laundering, the drug trade and smuggling of various kinds.

Bali itself is a big market for drugs, particularly among the thousands of foreign tourists who land each week. Indonesia’s lax laws governing the precursor chemicals used in drug manufacture mean substances such ephedrine are widely available on the street. The mainland of Indonesia has a growing drug market both as consumer and producer.

The Australian Crime Commission reported earlier this year that, in 2010, 133 million methamphetamine tablets were seized in south-east Asia, a fourfold increase since 2008. The use of crystal meth is also on the rise and a number of very large busts, mainly of synthetic drugs, have been reported in the local press in recent months.

Earlier this year, the Australian Federal Police called a group of their Indonesian law-enforcement counterparts together in a hotel in Bali, and held an “Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Forum” to warn them about the potential threat to peace and public order turning up on their doorstep. But whether they do not recognise the threat, or whether they fear the impact on Bali’s tourist industry if they talk about motorcycle gang activity, the Bali police are so far not prepared to say much.

“We haven’t really noticed any criminal activities,” Kuta police chief I Gede Putu Dedy Ujiana told Fairfax recently. “Based on information from the internet, usually these groups will try to show there existence by showing their logo, but there has been none so far in Bali.”

This is not strictly true. The Bandidos, for one, have made no secret of their presence. In 2010, they held the first Bali Bike Week, attended by hundreds of gang members, many of them wearing patches. A video posted on YouTube shows a huge, three-day outdoor party featuring bands, DJs, dancing girls and drinking by hundreds of leather-clad men.

The head of the organising committee for the event, Hari Wiguna, says on the video that 600 came from Europe, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and other parts of Indonesia to an event that included fund-raising for local orphanages, cleaning up the beaches and planting trees in Bali’s main nighclub strip, Jalan Legian.

The following year, “Bandido Crispin 1 per center,” the president of the gang’s chapter in Phuket, Thailand, wrote an account of the second Bike Week celebrations, welcoming “our European Presidente and Australian Presidente together with our Asia’s Vice Presidence” to Bali for a “Patch Over Party….for our Indonesian Brothers who were moving up from probationary to be proud full members in our Red and Gold Nation.”

Neither Adam Abbott nor Howard Wignall responded to requests for comments on this story, but Mark Berry at the HD Bar said it was unfair to say that either was part of a broader push by gangs. “Howie is the only Coffin Cheater in Bali and Adam is the only Rebel,” he said.

However, the Facebook page for Rebels MC Bali suggests otherwise. It depicts eight Indonesians and a western man, who may be Abbott, posing in their “1 per cent” leathers with Rebels patches.

Abbott and Wignall are not just any expatriates – each has a significant criminal history and a deep interest in firearms. Their adopted country has strict gun laws but theses are undermined by weak enforcement and porous borders. A recent report by the UN’s gun control body said the level of firearm and ammunition smuggling in Indonesia was high.

Abbott’s Facebook page shows him carrying a South-African army R5 assault rifle. A picture of a semi-automatic rifle is tattooed to the side of his shaven head.

At 35, Abbott had changed his name at least twice, but, as Adam Schamotta, he was described by a court in 2002 as having a passion for expensive firearms.

The court convicted and sentenced him to a two-year-and-nine-month jail term on charges of obtaining money from banks by fraud and stealing as a servant. He subsequently lost his permission to hold gun licences for 10 years – a suspension reduced on appeal to five years.

Eight years later, in 2010, Abbott, who goes by the online moniker “gingrowler”, was described on eBay feedback as a valued customer bu a US-based manufacturer of gun holsters, including those used to conceal handguns. He was also a valued customer of an online hydroponics store, one of Australia’s largest online suppliers on indoor gardening.

Wignall owns guns and collects birds. But in 2006, he was banned by the WA State Administrative Tribunal from holding licences for his numerous guns because his membership of the Coffin Cheaters, with its history of firearms violence, meant that he was not a fit and proper person. He moved to Bali about two years ago, where he has settled, marrying a Balinese woman. Wignall has a long criminal history in Australia, with 55 convictions, including for drug possession and supply. In 1992, he was jailed for 13 months for offering a $15,000 bribe to a police officer to drop an investigation of a drug offence.

During evidence to a tribunal in 2006, Wignall said the Coffin Cheaters were “like my family”. Some people in the gang were thugs who sold and supplied drugs, he conceded, but said of them: “There are a hell of a lot of people in my club now that I don’t agree with what they do.”

In 2009, Wignall was named in the Federal Court by Tim Johnston, the disgraced chief of bankrupt business of Firepower, as a stand-over man.

Johnston claimed that Wignall and Sydney building industry identity Tom Domican (three times acquitted of murder) had intimidated him until he gave $11 million to one particular creditor, property developer Warren Anderson.

The Coffin Cheaters are known to have strong relationships with Perth businessman and industrial mediator John Kizon, who also has businesses in Indonesia, including with members of some of the country’s politically connected oligarchs.

Wignall’s links to Bali’s nightlife go beyond the HD Bar. He is often seen at one of the most popular mainstream nightclubs in Kuta Legian, the Sky Garden.

At night, this multiple-storey pub and nightclub conglomerate heaves with patrons and the skimpily dressed hostesses ready to entertain them. The club recently held its 2nd Annual VIP Schoolies Party.

Sky Garden general manager Sean McAloney denied in an email that there was any link, formal or informal, between the Coffin Cheaters or Rebels and his club.

Rumours that Wignall had an ownership interest were untrue, he said – Wignall had simply been a loyal patron since he arrived in Bali.

Wignall’s daughter, Jade, however – who is pictured on her Facebook page aiming a pistol – is employed at the Sky Garden as the PR host and promotions supervisor.

Around the time Wignall arrived in Bali, the Sky Garden changed security contractors. A controversial move in Bali’s gang-dominated security sector.

A number of sources have confirmed that the Sky Garden sacked its previous security provider, Laskar Bali (Literally, Bali Army), a large and sometimes violent local group that dominates the nightclub security business in Bali. They replaced it with a group led by Jakarta gangster (or preman, literally “free man” Hercules Rozario Marcal, who is originally from East Timor.

About that time, in early 2011, a large fight erupted outside the club, with some antagonists carrying weapons. McAloney said the fight involved only about eight people. Asked if it was linked to the change ins security contract, he said: “I am not sure if this had anything to do with our security, as there have been many theories.”

Asked about Hercules and Laskar Bali, McAloney did not answer directly, writing instead: “We hire security based on their CV and skill sets. Our security come from all over Indonesia (Bali, Central Java, Timor, etc) and ALL have been trained/certified by the police.

New security provider Hercules is closely connected to ex-general Prabowo Subianto, the favourite to win Indonesia’s 2014 presidential election. A Jakarta source said Hercules had become friendly with Howie Wignall and WA identity John Kizon through a mutual interest in promoting boxing matches.

If Australian bikies are coming to Bali to establish a criminal business, they are entering a well-established gang scene. Observers believe they will need to either fight or make alliances.

“There are just so many actors involved in Bali,” says Dr Jacqueline Baker, a University of Wollongong political anthropologist specialising in police in south-east Asia. “You see the Russian mafia in Bali these days. It’s just such a big market. And it’s a really difficult market to take on.

The competition for nightclub security contracts is intense and can be a gateway to the lucrative business of dealing drugs. There is no suggestion that the Sky Garden knows of or condones drug dealing inside or outside its premises.

As for law enforcement in Bali, the Indonesian police may view Australian bikie gangs as little more than Harley Davidson enthusiasts – a passion they have in common.

The country’s Deputy Police Chief, Commissioner General Nanan Soekarna, is, controversially, the chairman of the Indonesian Harley Davidson Club, and Baker says that because Harley’s cost a large multiple of an officer’s annual salary they have become a highly prized symbol of status.

Australian authorities, meanwhile, are concerned about what might happen in Bali, where 2500 Australians come to holiday each week.

“Soon enough the Coffin Cheaters and Bandidos will clash on Kuta Legian over access to market and territory,” a source said. “The local police are completely unprepared. They have no idea where this could go on, and they don’t want to admit they have a potential problem. “ - Michael Bachelard

- The family of a man missing for four years have expressed fears he is dead, but pleaded for information to finally have closure.

Douglas Kally, 48, was reported missing from the Bellarine area in October 2008, but the last confirmed sighting of him was by co-workers in July or August 2008.

Mr Kally told colleagues at a marine centre he was going to travel to the New South Wales coast town of Kiama – but a police investigation has concluded the father of five never reached the area.

Detectives say they are treating the disappearance as suspicious.

Mr Kally’s brother, Alex, and sister, Elizabeth, yesterday appealed for information, but admitted the outlook looked grim.

Mr Kally’s father reported him missing after making his own inquiries about the whereabouts of his son, the eldest of nine children.

Homicide Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Snare said the appeal was being made now as investigators had identified a couple of issues, which they would not elaborate on for operational reasons.

Asked if police had any suspects, he said: “Not as such, no.” – Jon Kaila

- A racing figure has been identified as a key player in a major drug bust that was almost ruined by suspected police corruption, and involved bikies and a notorious crime gang.

Blanket suppression orders mean the man cannot be identified, even though he was named this week on the Supreme Court website as being involved in the multi-million-dollar ecstasy ring.

“Detective Senior Constable Lapham asserted that the investigation had established that (Mohammed) Oueida was supplying chemicals for illicit drug manufacture to (the horse racing identity),” the Court of Appeal heard. “He further said that Oueida and (the identity) were involved in the joint manufacture of these illicit drugs, which included ecstasy tablets.”

The figure – who once lauded as a champion – was banned in the mid-1990s over horse doping claims.

He was one of a number of people picked up by Taskforce Rossa, a joint AFP, VicPol and Australian Crime Commission probe into a major drug syndicate.

The ring allegedly sourced precursor chemicals imported by a licensed pharmacist, with the ecstasy pills then made in rural Victoria.

Police located and seized a commercial pill press with an M-shaped marking stamp and a large quantity of tablets and powders.

Oueida is a known associate of a notorious crime family, and was once charged over a vicious home invasion in which shots were fired.

Taskforce Rossa was compromised after sensitive files on its operation were leaked.

Officials were also concerned that a tip-off from a rogue officer meant Oueida was able to find a hidden surveillance camera.

Oueida has been linked to outlaw bikie gangs – Padraic Murphy

- Not a day goes by when Alex Dordevic doesn’t think about his missing brother. Douglas Kally, 48, from Bellarine, east of Geelong, has not been seen for four years.

Police say they are baffled by his disappearance. His bank account has not been accessed and police say there have been no confirmed sightings. He was reported missing by his father in October 2008.

Mr Dordevic said his brother had gone to ground in the past, but never for more than a month. The family thought Mr Kally had plans to  move to the New South Wales fishing town of Kiama, which was his favourite holiday spot.

Mr Dordevic says his family wants closure. He has concerns for his 76-year-old father, who is struggling without answers about his son, the eldest of nine siblings.

Mr Kally, a father of five and a keen fisherman, also goes by the name of Dragon Dordevic. He worked at the Moolap marine centre near Geelong before he went missing.

Detectives are treating his disappearance as suspicious and want to hear from anyone with information about Mr Kally’s movements around Indented Head, near Portarlington, in July and August 2008 – Kristian Silva

- Social media sites are stoking fears of an increase in random sex attacks but are also providing a high-tech tool for police investigating sexual assaults.

A string of high-profile attacks, including the murder of Jill Meagher and a string of sexual assaults by one man in the eastern suburbs, has generated fear among Melbourne women, with many saying they are frightened to go out alone at night.

But police believe any apparent rise in random attacks may be linked to better reporting rather than an increase in actual attacks.

A spate of assaults and attempted abductions across Melbourne last month reignited fears that random sex attacks were on the rise.

In the space of a few days, a 10-year-old girl managed to escape an abduction attempt in Pakenham, a 16-year-old schoolgirl fought off an attacker in Gardenvale, women were assaulted in Parkville, Hoopers Crossing, Essendon and Hampton and the eastern suburbs sex attacker struck for the ninth time, in Hawthorn. An assault in Box Hill South this week has also been linked to the attacker.

But Detective Superintendent Rod Jouning said it was important to note that only 17% of sexual assaults were carried out by unknown attackers, with a further 9% in which a relationship, or lack of, was not specified. He also said the phenomenal rise of social media has affected perceptions of sex attacks.

In the wake of Jill Meaher’s diappearance, Facebook pages calling for public help to find her were inundated with reports of sexual assaults. A number of women reported being assaulted recently in the Brunswick area from which Ms Meagher disappeared – Dan Oakes

- A self-professed handyman charged with murdering renowned sex industry identity, Johanna “Jazzy O” Martin, was the last person to talk to her on the phone before she died, a court has been told.

A committal hearing for Steve Constantinou also heard yesterday the lead investigator had never formed the view that Ms Martin died an accidental death.

Senior Detective Tina Dodemaide told Melbourne Magistrates Court she believed Ms Martin died due to prolonged and excessive force being applied to her neck from behind.

Ms Martin’s body was found wrapped in a blood-stained sheet next to a Port Melbourne car park on October 11th, 2011.

Senior Detective Dodemaide said she believed the death was not accidental because of the way the body was dumped, the fact jewellery was removed and that no one had come forward to discuss the death.

Senior Detective Mark Ribbink said in his tendered statement that mobile phone records revealed Mr Constantinou was the last person to have mobile phone contact with Ms Martin.

Mr Constantinou, 49, of Port Melbourne, is accused of murdering Ms Martin and stealing $33,000 of jewellery.

He formally pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been committed to stand trial next year – Paul Anderson

- The Hells Angels stand accused of using standover tactics in the heavy haulage towing industry to force other operators to flee from crash scenes.

Truck drivers and industry figures have allegedly been intimidated by the gang’s East County Sergeant-at-Arms Peter “Skitzo” Hewat, who owns a towing company and uses club members wearing colours to attend incidents.

The Herald Sun understands friction has developed between Hewat and a leading industry figure, with the prominent bikie figure also collecting payment, arriving at the homes of truck drivers wearing his colours.

Victoria Police will hold a press conference today about the influence of outlaw motorcycle gangs in the towing industry.

The Herald Sun was told there is no allocation system for the heavy haulage industry, as exists with towing of smaller vehicles. This generated a climate in which intimidation could flourish, a source said. “He’s monstering everybody,” the source said. “It’s what we had back in the ’70s.”

In other developments in the outlaw motorcycle gang investigations, a police officer and twin brothers, who are members of the Comanchero gang, have been charged with offences after an exhaustive operation.

The officer, Constable Dean Gibbs, was charged with drug trafficking and possession. A joint Ethical Standards Command and Echo Taskforce operation uncovered the alleged corruption.

Constable Gibbs, 26, faced an out-of-sessions hearing on Sunday and was bailed to appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 25th.

The officer was suspended from the force without pay.

The patched bikie members also arrested and charged belonged to the Comanchero’s Hallam chapter, where senior figure Mick Murray is competing with other gangs for supremacy.

Neither brother, aged 34, is a club office-bearer.

The first man, from Cranbourne East, was charged with drug and gun offences.

His brother, from Pakenham, has been charged with drug offences and proceeds of crime charges. Both men were bailed by police and will appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 28th.

The Ethical Standards Command has also charged a 26-year-old Rowville man with drug offences.

He was bailed by police to appear at Ringwood Magistrates Court on March 1st.

A 25-year-old Rowville woman was interviewed in relation to drug offences and released pending further investigations – Anthony Dowsley and Mark Buttler

- Customs have been rocked by allegations that it has been infiltrated by crime gangs and as many as 30 officers are involved in drug smuggling and receiving bribes.

The Federal Government, Customs and Australian Federal Police were last night refusing to comment on claims that have thrown into question the integrity of the nation’s border protection forces.

It may also give new life to claims by Schapelle Corby, convicted of attempting to smuggle 4.1 kg of marijuana into Bali, that the drugs were planted by airport workers.

Sources told the Herald Sun Lebanese crime gangs were believed to have infiltrated Customs at Sydney Airport and there were concerns about systemic corruption and cultural problems at Customs.

Channel 10 reported 30 Customs officers were allegedly involved in drug smuggling and were turning a blind eye and receiving kickbacks.

It is believed they have been illegally importing cocaine and pseudoephedrine.

There was no comment last night from Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare or from Customs.

It is understood the government recently launched integrity checks in a bid to fight the corruption.

Sources also suggested that people who associated with known criminals have been involved either working directly for Customs or as middle men between Customs staff and crime figures.

Customs has been trying to boost its image through TV shows highlighting its border protection work.

The new claims came as a Customs and Border Protection officer from Sydney International Airport yesterday faced Sydney’s Central Local Court charged with importing a commercial quantity of pseudoephedrine , and receiving a bribe aimed at encouraging him to circumvent  Customs protocol.

He has also been charged with abusing his office to gain a financial advantage, after allegedly receiving a bribe in August.

Paul John Katralis, 25, from Menai, was arrested two days after the man accused of paying him the bribe was arrested as he got off an international flight – Phillip Hudson

- A fear of injury, and working with bosses who are  neither listening nor trusted, is stressing police and pushing them to breaking point, a new report says.

The Workplace Research Centre at Sydney University called for a national review of police safety after it found fewer than half of the officers surveyed over five years trust their bosses and more than a third are burnt out.

The investigation of 693 officers from the Victoria, NSW, and Northern Territory forces, and the Australian Federal Police, found police around the country had one of the highest levels of perceived threat to health and safety at work.

The pressure on all officers, and especially senior police, to work harder and longer also increased between 2007 and 2011.

Police Federation of Australia chief executive Mark Burgess said almost a third of police felt burnt out, which was in itself a concern.

The police survey was part of a wider 8000-person investigation of the workforce, which found a national increase in the percentage of people who said they were expected to work harder and longer for the same pay.

The report’s author, Sally Wright, said there were strong links between police burnout and a perception that bosses were not listening to the rank-and-file.

One of the first officers on the scene of the 2007 Kerang rail disaster, Leading Senior Constable Joe Walsh, revealed he was due to leave the force in two months after being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder – Ben Pike

- Chief Commissioner Ken Lays says he is proud of the way his force has come through one of its most turbulent periods.

Nearing the end of his first full year at the tiller, Mr Lay said members had responded well to troubled times.

When he took over as caretaker chief commissioner in June last year, Victoria Police had been severely damaged by divisions at the top. Chief commissioner Simon Overland and his deputy, Sir Ken Jones, had resigned and various inquiries were looking into dramas embroiling the force.

Mr Lay said among the most pleasing aspects of 2012 had been his members’ tackling of family violence.

He said the had responded well to his desire to address the problem but conceded there was plenty of work ahead.

Mr Lay said there appeared to be increasing recognition of the scourge among all Victorians. “I’m very thankful that the broader community seems to have understood the issues,” he said.

Among his other major concerns is the damage to the community being done by amphetamine and methamphetamine use among the young.

Mr Lay said it was clear an increasing acceptance of those drugs was helping drive up crime rates. he said he suspected a greater number of young people were using methamphetamine instead of alcohol and this was contributing to violence.

Figures indicated Operation Northbank, which aimed to curb an alarming number of street bashings by youth in the city, had been a success, he said.

Mr Lay said Northbank, in which city streets were flooded by police assigned to stop the gangs, was a model used to combat other serious law enforcement problems.

Mr Lay said he hoped a meeting in February with fuel industry figures would help thrash out an answer to the issue of petrol drive-offs.

Drive-offs and the theft of number plates to be used on vehicles for stealing petrol accounted for an enormous amount of crime in Victoria and chewed up thousands of police hours, he said.

Mr Lay said he had written to Australia’s other police chief commissioners to devise a national approach.

Mr Lay, the state’s former top traffic cop, said he had no immediate plans to push for more speed cameras.

He said he believed while there was greater acceptance within the community of the cameras, he believed this need to increase further.

Mr Lay said he could not see any short-term move to a .02 blood alcohol limit or the introduction of double demerit points for road offences committed during holiday peak periods – Mark Buttler

- The US Justice Department has decided not to charge David Petraeus’s mistress, Paula Broadwell, with cyber stalking as part of its investigation into an email scandal that led to the resignation of the CIA director and respected army general.

A spokesman for Ms Broadwell said she and her family were pleased with this decision and pleased that this is resolved.

Her lawyer has not been notified that she is the subject of any other Justice Department investigation.

General Petraeus resigned as CIA director last month after acknowledging the affair, which was exposed after Ms Broadwell emailed Tampa socialite Jill Kelley, allegedly warning Ms Kelley to stay away from General Petraeus and General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan.

Ms Kelley reported the emails to the FBI, triggering an investigation that led the FBI to her own emails to the married General Allen, who was now being investigated by the Pentagon.

Ms Broadwell is still being investigated for allegedly mishandling classified information. FBI investigators found a substantial amount of material marked classified at her home.

The documents were part of her research from her trips to interview General Petraeus and his commanders across Afghanistan for her best-selling book on him, “All In”.

General Petraeus and Ms Broadwell say their relationship began after he retired from the military and started at the CIA – AP

- An entrenched network of allegedly corrupt customs officers at Sydney Airport has been importing drugs with organised crime figures for several years in one of Australia’s most serious corruption scandals.

At least 15 officials in Sydney Airport’s border security posts are suspected of involvement in serious misconduct or corruption, ranging from criminal association and leaking information to drug trafficking, drug manufacturing, money laundering and bribery. The number may be as high as 20.

A six-month Fairfax Media investigation – conducted in association with the ABC’s “7.30″ program – can reveal that the cell has been exploiting major gaps in airport and customs security to smuggle millions of dollars of narcotics and drug money past border controls and on to Australian streets.

Corrupt airport baggage handlers are also allegedly involved. The allegedly corrupt cell has been operating since at least 2009 from the international passenger terminal and freight section and is suspected to have imported psuedoephedrine, cocaine, steroids and possibly weapons.

Property, court and business records, social media sites and multiple well-placed sources link members of the cell to Sydney-based crime figures, including underworld figure Alex “Little Al” Taouil, drug traffickers Joseph Harb and Diego Refojos and members of the Comanchero outlaw bikie gang and Middle Eastern crime groups.

The scandal is regarded as extremely serious because of the scale of the alleged corruption and the failure of the Customs Service – which was led until August by career public servant Michael Carmody – to act on multiple warnings that the organisation was badly exposed to corruption.

The customs agency has employed officers with known criminal associations and allowed relatively junior officers to wield significant influence over other staff by having the power to manage rosters.

Leaked customs documents dating back to 2007 detail multiple internal warnings that customs lacked the power, resources and ability to detect corruption and that its anti-corruption framework was outdated and requires revision.

In response to a series of questions sent to customs on Monday, acting customs CEO Mike Pezzullo stressed that the agency had already made major improvements to its corruption-busting system.

But Mr Pezzullo conceded more needs to be done and revealed he would take all necessary action, including the launching of an agency-wide review of workplace culture, management and leadership….to ensure the integrity of our workplace.

He also said that while customs internal oversight systems had helped to identify corruption risks at Sydney Airport in 2011, clearly more can be done.

Fairfax and the ABC have traced drugs seized last March by NSW Police in an apartment in the Sydney suburb of Woolooware to one of several drug consignments allegedly smuggled past border controls by customs officials at Sydney Airport.

Diego Refojos, 24, recently pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to serious drug offences connected to the Woolooware raid. It is believed Refojos was linked to several earlier drug importations that have never been recovered by authorities.

It is understood that two allegedly corrupt customs officials were at the Woolooware apartment before the raid, but left before the Drug Squad arrived.

A small number of customs officers are also suspected to have helped manufacture into drugs the precursor chemicals they allegedly smuggled into the country.

One of the alleged key players in the cell is airport customs officer Paul Adrian Lamella, who has suspected links to Taouil, Refojos and Harb. Lamella was arrested by federal police on Monday and charged with offences involving drug importation and corruption.

Lamella retained his job at customs despite NSW Police alleging in 2008 that they discovered him in a car with two other men and five small bags stamped with Playboy bunny logos and filled with cocaine.

Also, Lamella’s customs position and security clearance were not affected when Lamella later admitted using a small amount of cocaine.

Property records also show that in 2010 Harb transferred his share in a Sydney apartment to Lamella.

Harb was arrested in August by federal police and charged with smuggling drugs through Sydney Airport.

For several months Fairfax and the ABC have delayed releasing details of the investigation at the request of an anti-corruption taskforce, code-named Marca, run by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and the Australian Federal Police.

ACLEI and the AFP have refused to provide any detailed comments about Marca because it is an ongoing inquiry, although ACLEI confirmed it was investigating corrupt conduct in border environments.

Court records reveal that Taskforce Marca arrested Lamella in Sydney earlier this week and charged him with drug trafficking and bribery.

In August, another customs officer, Paul Katralis, was arrested and charged by the taskforce with drug trafficking and bribery.

But several other allegedly corrupt customs agents at Sydney Airport, including officers with strong links to drug traffickers, are still working with the agency. Broader ethical and integrity failings in customs are not being investigated by Marca.

The revelations will put intense pressure on the federal government to explain why suspected corrupt officers are still working and why there are still gaping holes in airport border security, despite multiple warnings from police and official inquiries, including the 2005 Wheeler report on security problems at the airport.

While up to 20 customs officers are suspected to have engaged in a range of serious misbehaviour, it is understood a core group of up to 10 officers are believed to be responsible for drug trafficking.

A range of well-placed sources, including figures at the airport, told Fairfax that the allegedly corrupt officers’ activities included:

- Allowing drug-filled backpacks and luggage to pass freely through customs control.

- Allowing drug money to be smuggled through the airport and out of Australia to fund the resupply of drugs to be smuggled back through the airport.

- Manipulating staff rosters and using CCTV black spots to allow corrupt activity, including drug trafficking, to go undetected.

A high-level internal customs memo in November 2007 warned that customs’ internal affairs unit had insufficient case management resources and capability, and that despite calls for anti-corruption reforms no action has been taken at this time.

In 2007, 2008 and 2009, internal memos called for better anti-corruption intelligence gathering, drug and alcohol testing and the mandatory reporting of fraud, corruption, serious misconduct and administrative breaches.

Customs only began introducing many of these reforms this year, and some will not be in place until next year, although in 2011 the agency fell under the jurisdiction of ACLEI.

Mr Carmody resigned quietly from customs in August after the arrest of Paul Katralis.

The customs anti-corruption reform process has been expedited by Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare, who is believed to have been briefed on Taskforce Marca’s work earlier this year and to have raised concerns at customs’ failure to have adequate anti-corruption measures in place.

Even the simplest of the changes called for in late 2007 – the renaming of the internal affairs unit – took more than two years to implement – Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker

- Meet the new targets of Australia’s corruption fighters. They are young, often in their 20s,  mostly fresh faced and fit, but for whom a night out means a few ecstasy pills or some cocaine.

Through friends, family, the gym or the clubbing scene, they know bikies and organised criminals who, like them, are often relatively young and muscled up.

On Facebook, where they freely document their night life, these corruption targets look much like their underworld friends. They pose with their shirts off, muscles flexed and tattoos on display, or with their arms around similarly buff , inked-up mates or skimpily dressed female companions.

Some of these targets even proudly state on their Facebook page who they work for: the Australian Customs and Border Control Service.

The scandal exposed today has lifted the lid on the dismal vetting, oversight and culture that has allowed alleged drug trafficking and serious corruption to become entrenched among small cells of customs officers.

It is too early to say how many successful drug importations have been aided by customs officials or exactly how staff with criminal records and associations could be working for a law enforcement agency.

The criminal inquiry being undertaken by the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and federal police is gathering evidence to prosecute drug traffickers, including customs officials.

But a criminal probe is not a broad and independent inquiry and may not be able to answer many of the serious questions that flow from this scandal.

And what of the public servants, including senior customs managers, who have not committed a criminal offence but have nevertheless failed in their oversight duties?

Leaked internal documents dating back to 2007 reveal that for several years customs has ignored high-level warnings that its anti-corruption system was woeful. Its failure to act promptly on these warnings has contributed directly to the scandal.

The good news for customs is that it has an acting CEO, Mike Pezzullo, who is viewed as far more aggressive, dynamic and reform-driven than its former boss, career public servant Michael Carmody.

Carmody resigned in August, within days of the first allegedly corrupt customs officer being quietly arrested and months after Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare spoke publicly about the need for change within customs. If the government believes Pezzullo can drive that change, he should be appointed CEO immediately. Now more than ever, customs needs a permanent boss.

As for a broad inquiry, the government could appoint a former judge or senior policing official to lead a taskforce into the scandal and to advise on the handling of disciplinary cases and wide-ranging reform.

ACLEI, which has royal commission powers including the ability to hold public hearings, could perform a similar role.

Such an inquiry may need to conduct some of its activities behind closed doors so as not to prejudice  the cases of charged customs officers. But is should report publicly, and speedily.

Until all serious questions are answered, how can the public have have confidence that the agency ostensibly at the forefront of the battle against drug trafficking is not hosting its own smugglers – Nick McKenzie & Richard Baker

- Failure by customs officers using X-ray equipment to detect drugs hidden in shipping containers at Sydney’s port was treated as a training deficiency and not referred to the agency’s specialist investigation unit, a report has found.

The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity investigated the failure by customs officials as well as allegations that senior managers, including the agency’s former chief executive, Michael Carmody, sought to cover it up.

Fairfax Media has obtained a September report by a law enforcement integrity commissioner, Phillip Moss, which clears Mr Carmody and other senior customs managers of wrongdoing. But he identified shortcomings in the agency’s anti-corruption procedures.

Mr Moss, whose investigation was triggered by an anonymous complainant, found that customs officers using X-ray equipment had failed to detect drugs in 11 shipping containers between March and August last year.

The failure was discovered after police gave customs managers information that caused them to review copies of the X-rays.

Mr Moss said the matter was initially treated by customs as a training deficiency. Although some senior customs officers raised the possibility of corruption, the agency’s Integrity and Professional Standards Branch was not consulted on how the matter should be dealt with.

Mr Moss said Mr Carmody had been on leave when much of this occurred and only became aware of the failure after it had already been treated as a training problem.

He found Mr Carmody notified the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity of the failure to detect the drugs and raised the matter with his agency’s specialist investigation branch.

Mr Moss had no evidence to suggest corrupt conduct led to the failure to notice the drugs.

In response to questions from Fairfax Media, acting customs chief executive Michael Pezzullo said the agency’s policies had been tightened to ensure all failures to identify drugs and other contraband are reported to the Integrity and Professional Standards Branch.

He praised his predecessor, Mr Carmody, for driving integrity reforms in customs.

Mr Moss also found no evidence to support the suggestion customs staff who tried to raise corruption issues had been disadvantaged in their employment.

But he received statements from a number of affected witnesses (who) expressed frustration  with a culture that, in their respective views, had insufficient appreciation of corruption risk.

Appearing before a joint parliamentary committee this month, Mr Moss referred to the real and present threat to Australian law enforcement that organised crime poses, particularly at Australia’s borders.

The ACLEI, which oversees integrity in the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission, was given responsibility for customs in January last year.

Mr Carmody could be not contacted for comment – Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie