A 52 year old man has been jailed for two and a half years after he was charged by WA Police in relation to an assault on Security Officers at Royal Perth Hospital in July 2015. Continue reading Perth Man Imprisoned for 30 Months For Assaulting Hospital Security Officers
There’s a push for drugged-up-criminals to face additional penalties if caught offending while under the influence.
Former Victoria Police chief commissioner Kel Glare said the legal system shouldn’t allow drugs to be viewed as an excuse.
“In my view, they ought to have something added to their sentence,” he said on 3AW Mornings’ Ideas Factory.
Continue reading Former Victoria Police Chief Wants Drugged-up Criminals To Face Harsher Penalties
Dubbo, NSW. A methamphetamine-affected Grant Elton King smashed the police vehicle glass panel between him and police officers he was arrested by and made threats of violence against them as they drove to the station – but that wasn’t the end of his offences.
The next day when King, 36, was refused bail and despite being handcuffed with his arms behind him he stepped up on to the hand rail of the dock at the courthouse at Parkes and refused to get down.
Restraining him took four officers who resorted to using capsicum spray because King was aggressive and not compliant. The court was evacuated.
In Dubbo Local Court this month magistrate Philip Stewart sentenced King to a 21-month term of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 months for intimidating police.
Read more at Parkes Champion Post.
Editor: another example of why we need armed Police officers in courts, in every state and territory, and at all times.
A Canberra woman convicted of possessing a stun gun disguised as a smart phone has had her jail sentence overturned on appeal.
The ACT Supreme Court this week ordered the three month suspended sentence imposed on Bertha Elizabeth Chatfield, 45, by Magistrate Robert Cook be set aside.
Chatfield was instead ordered to sign an 18-month good behaviour order.
The decision, by Chief Justice Helen Murrell, said a police raid on Chatfield’s home located the stun gun, which looked like a smart phone, in a drawer of her bedroom.
The magistrate determined the offence had been medium range of objective seriousness.
Read more in SMH.
Source: www.smh.com.au
Prisoners on life sentences in relation to murder who refuse to reveal the location of bodies will be denied parole under new reforms passed by the South Australian Government.
Those who do achieve parole will be subjected to parole conditions for the rest of their lives, with the Parole Board “compelled” to consider electronic monitoring, including via GPS.
SA Correctional Services Minister Tony Piccolo said the changes provided a fairer process and better supported victims’ families, especially those in murder cases where a body had not been found.
Read more in ABC News.
Source: www.abc.net.au
An early-intervention program designed to keep first time offenders out of courts and prisons has been launched by the State Government.
Police Minister Liza Harvey said the Turning Point trial would happen in the South East Metro and Broome policing districts.
Under the trial, low level, first time criminal offenders will enter a four-month agreement aimed at addressing the root cause of their offending, leading to having the charges dropped on successful completion.
Read more on News.com.au.
Source: www.news.com.au
Photo: Police Minister Liza Harvey and WAPOL Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan. Source: News Corp Australia.
The alcohol industry can be expected to push back against any attempt by Victoria to restrict or limit sales as part of policies that condemn alcohol-fuelled violence, say experts.
Victoria has the most liquor licences per capita of any state, and the number of “big box” liquor stores has risen from five in 1998 to more than 70, says Cate Car, the government’s executive director of liquor and gaming policy.
Drug and alcohol experts told a royal commission into family violence on Friday that a 10 per cent alcohol price rise in parts of Canada had reduced reports of violence by 10 per cent.
Victoria Police is considering US policies including drug and alcohol monitoring ankle bracelets or daily breath testing for alleged violent offenders in combination with drug and alcohol abstinence bail conditions.
Read more in Herald Sun.
Source: www.heraldsun.com.au
A man caught in a year-long police investigation into a tri-state heroin trafficking network has been sentenced to more than 11 years in jail.
Mark Raymond Jacobs was handed an 11.5-year sentence on charges including drug trafficking, extortion and misconduct in public office earlier this month, the Crime and Corruption Commission announced on Monday.
In a statement, the CCC said Jacobs was a “high-level” target of Operation Lightning, which in 2012 busted a Romanian drug ring believed to have trafficked 30 kilograms of heroin (worth about $30 million) into Queensland over 10 years.
The drug ring was shifting heroin from New South Wales into Queensland and Victoria.
Read more in The Age.
Source: www.theage.com.au
A South Australian mother who seriously injured a boy when she ran a red light has been acquitted of a dangerous-driving charge by a judge who took into account expert evidence that the methylamphetamine in her system may have had a “positive effect” on her abilities behind the wheel.
The court had heard the boy suffered a broken leg, a collapsed lung, abdominal injuries, skull fractures and cuts to his face after Lenarczyk, 39, of Highbury, smashed into him as he made his way through a pedestrian crossing along The Grove Way, Salisbury Heights.
District Court Judge Barry Beazley on Thursday found her guilty of the lesser charge of driving without due care, because it was not proved the “mid level” recording of the drug in her system caused any adverse effect to her driving.
Read more in Adelaide Now.
Source: www.adelaidenow.com.au
Prosecutors who were unable to track down witnesses to a serious alleged drunken assault in Civic should have used social media sites like Facebook, a judge has said. The failure to take all reasonable steps to track down the three witnesses means their statements about the alleged assault, which left a young Canberran with a skull fracture and brain injury, have been tossed out of court.
Read the full story in the Canberra Times.
Source: www.canberratimes.com.au
