Church official amends commission evidence

A SENIOR church official has revised his evidence to the Royal Commission on Child Sex Abuse following a flurry of late night emails with a law firm representing the Catholic Church.

Michael Salmon, director of the Catholic Church's NSW/ACT Professional Standards Office, said on Friday he wanted to submit a supplementary statement to assist the commission.

He was contacted on Thursday evening by law firm Gilbert + Tobin and asked to clarify statements he made about a mediation session with an abuse victim who had concerns the Marist Brothers knew of and did nothing about abuse at a Cairns college.

A string of emails between the law firm and Mr Salmon, which culminated in him agreeing to a revised statement at about 9pm (AEDT) on Thursday night, were examined by the commission on Friday.

During a public hearing into Towards Healing, the internal church process for dealing with abuse complaints, it became an issue whether a Marist brother lied at a mediation session for a man referred to as DK about what he knew about a brother who has since been jailed.

Mr Salmon facilitated the 2010 session with DK, who was sexually molested when he was a student at the St Augustine's Marist College in Cairns in 1976.

Evidence from Mr Salmon on Wednesday and Thursday suggested that the conversation DK had with former college principal Brother Gerald Burns and another clergy member covered what they knew of inappropriate behaviour by Ross Murrin in relation to DK and other boys.

Murrin was jailed in 2008 for offences against children at Sydney schools. He had been moved to Rome by the order in 2002 but voluntarily came back in 2007 to face charges.

In his evidence on Thursday, Br Burns told the commission DK never asked him about offences against other boys but only about his own situation.

Br Burns also said a file note from Mr Salmon written after the mediation session which suggested otherwise was inaccurate.

Commission chairman Justice Peter McClellan asked Mr Salmon if lawyers told him during the Thursday night exchanges whether there was an issue as to whether Br Burns had told DK the truth.

Mr Salmon said he had not been told that.

He said that he wracked his brains for further recollections of whether the discussion had been about just DK, or other students and could only remember the discussion was all about DK.

Justice McClellan reminded Mr Salmon that he had asked him twice during his original evidence about the context of the conversation between DK and the brothers.

"I put it to you it was beyond DK and you said 'Yes, Yes'," he said.

He said DK was also concerned that the brothers had not helped Murrin, who he saw as a sensitive person, and this was the context of his "beyond DK" responses.

Mr Salmon said he was aware DK had broader concerns about whether the brothers had knowledge of the abuse at the school but left it to him to raise it at the mediation meeting because DK had come to the session with detailed notes and was "not a shrinking violet".

DK had left the mediation happy and on good terms with the brothers, he said.

Mr Salmon told senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness he had taken the advice of the lawyers when they rejected his suggestions for amendments as not relevant to the statement because it did not alter what he was trying to say.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

$243,000 for a broken leg

Rachel Gardner's damages fell well short of what she sought. Source: DailyTelegraph

Rachel Gardner outside the District Court after she was awarded $243,591 in damages from NSW Police. Picture: AAP Source: AAP

A SYDNEY woman has been awarded nearly $250,000 after a judge found a police officer used excessive force in kicking her legs out from under her, fracturing her knee, during a clash over a train ticket.

The District Court judge on Friday also ruled that Sergeant Craig Sands had no intention of charging Rachel Gardner for the offences he claimed he arrested her for.

Instead, he dropped her at another train station, where she made her own way home and called an ambulance.

The state of NSW, as Sgt Sands' employer, has been ordered to pay Ms Gardner, a 36-year-old Sydney arts student, $243,591 damages for her ordeal.

She had sought up to $750,000 for the injuries, humiliation, anxiety and loss of social status.

Ms Gardner was on a train to Cronulla on March 13, 2011, when a transit officer found her and two friends, Samantha Golsby and Hamish Rawcliffe, without tickets.

The friends had earlier in the day been at an equal rights march and a party in Miranda.

According to the judgment, police were called to the station to meet the transit officers at Cronulla.

Things went awry when Mr Rawcliffe objected to not being allowed to accompany girlfriend Ms Golsby to the toilet instead of a transit officer.

A scuffle broke out and Ms Gardner intervened.

She claimed that when Sgt Sands arrived, he told her to "go sit over there" but then said "stuff this", and kicked her legs out from under her.

Evidence from a doctor, detailed in the judgement, showed Ms Gardner suffered a fractured knee.

Sgt Sands said he executed an approved procedure, known as a "leg sweep", but it didn't involve kicking.

Ms Gardner claimed police then told a state transit officer to sit on her as she lay face down on the ground.

CCTV footage showed during an earlier court hearing depicted Ms Gardner limping along the platform after she and her friends accepted transport to Sutherland station.

But Judge Sharron Norton stated in her judgment, Sgt Sands was reluctant to admit any limp.

"He was not the only police officer who felt unable to make this relatively simple concession," she wrote.

Ms Norton stated the police evidence had "problematic aspects", including a lack of a proper record about the train station incident.

She found Sgt Sands did not intend on charging Ms Gardner with any of the offences, including hinder police, that he claimed he arrested her for.

The arrest was unlawful and there was no justification in Sgt Sands' leg sweep, Ms Norton found.

The officer also used excessive force.

A doctor gave evidence that Ms Gardner was likely to develop post-traumatic osteoarthritis from her knee fracture.

In a statement to the court, Ms Gardner said she felt humiliated and distrustful of authority.

Ms Norton ordered Ms Gardner be paid $243,591 in damages plus interest, for future medical costs, economic loss and assault damages.

Outside court, Ms Gardner's solicitor Penelope Purcell said her client was pleased with the result.

"She feels vindicated by the judgment," she said.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tasered man sent for mental assessment

Kevin Spratt, who was tasered by police in a Perth jail, has been charged with assaulting police. Source: AAP

THE Perth man who made global headlines after being repeatedly tasered by two policemen has been remanded for a week-long mental assessment, after being charged with assaulting and obstructing officers.

Lawyers for Kevin Spratt said a week in which former senior constables Aaron Grant Strahan and Troy Gregory Tomlin had been convicted of assaulting him five years ago had "taken a considerable toll".

On Thursday night, Spratt was arrested in Brookdale on suspicion of having committed several assaults, along with an aggravated assault in Cloverdale.

Spratt, 44, will face four charges of assaulting a public officer, two charges of obstructing police, one count of assault occasioning bodily harm, two charges of stealing, and one count of aggravated burglary.

Officers who responded to the incident on Thursday night reportedly drew their tasers, while a police dog was also in attendance.

A brief appearance in Perth Magistrate's Court saw Spratt sent to the Frankland Centre - Perth's maximum-security psychiatric hospital - until another appearance next Friday.

The court was told Spratt was not well enough to be read the list of charges.

Lawyer Mal Cook said outside court his client was "obviously not well".

His arrest came the day after Magistrate Richard Bromfield had found Spratt had been unlawfully assaulted in the East Perth watch house on August 31, 2008 after he refused a strip search.

Strahan, 45, and Tomlin, 34, were on Wednesday given suspended jail terms and fined after being convicted in Perth Magistrates Court of unlawfully assaulting Spratt.

CCTV footage showed Mr Spratt crying out as the constables tasered him nine times in just over a minute.

While defence lawyer Karen Vernon had asked the magistrate to impose a good behaviour bond or a fine, Magistrate Bromfield said imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence.

Tomlin and Strahan were given eight-month prison sentences, suspended for six months.

Tomlin also received a $3800 fine while Strahan must pay a fine of $3250.

A spokeswoman for WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said one or both of the officers were considering appealing their convictions, while the police union criticised the verdict, saying they had been "wrongly convicted".

"Officers should not be backed into a corner like this. They should be able to use all reasonable force options required in the circumstances and should not be scared to use their taser when needed," president George Tilbury said.

Spratt said this week he was seeking compensation for the incident.

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Melb wheel to turn again after shutdown

MELBOURNE'S troubled observation wheel is expected to turn again on Saturday after it shut down just weeks after reopening.

A software problem caused the Melbourne Star to close on Friday.

Technicians are now conducting final tests on the wheel and it is expected to reopen by 10am (AEDT) on Saturday, but it could even be open as early as Friday night.

Chris Kelly from the Melbourne Star Management Group said the wheel would be open for the Australia Day long weekend.

"Since opening on December 23 last year, Melbourne Star has welcomed in excess of 40,000 guests and we apologise sincerely for any inconveniences caused to our guests today," Mr Kelly said in a statement.

The 120-metre high Melbourne Star initially closed in January 2009 when a three-day heatwave caused the brace and supports to buckle and crack only a month after it opened.

Mr Kelly insisted in December the wheel was not a rebuild of the troubled former wheel, but a completely new wheel.

Just days after it reopened, one of the big wheel's 21 cabins was taken out of service while Victoria's workplace safety authority investigated a safety complaint.

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I never meant to hurt anyone: mall gunman

THE gunman who sent Brisbane's central pedestrian mall into lockdown last year says he never meant to hurt anyone.

Lee Matthew Hillier, 35, told the Brisbane District Court he had no reason to cause fear to innocent bystanders when he took an unloaded semi-automatic pistol to the Queen Street mall on March 8, 2013.

Wearing a suit, the prisoner told his sentencing hearing on Thursday he had relapsed back into drug addiction following his last stint in prison and "things just spiralled out of control".

"I wasn't in there to harm anybody," he said from the dock during an at-times rambling statement.

"To stand there with an empty handgun and to have 30 police stand there with revolvers facing you is very, very confronting."

Hillier, who has remained in custody since the incident, said that leading up to the standoff his best friend "blew his own head off" in a siege but he wasn't going to "sit there and make excuses".

"I'd just like you to take into account that I am standing here and take responsibility for my own actions," he told Justice Terry Martin.

Workers and shoppers fled Queen Street when the heavily tattooed Hillier produced a gun, sending the mall and surrounding businesses into lockdown.

The 90-minute stand-off ended when police shot the shirtless gunman with a combination of non-lethal and live rounds.

Witness statements read to the court said during the stand-off Hillier had appeared agitated, had often pointed the gun at himself and seemed to be frothing at the mouth.

"Get away or I will kill myself," he yelled at one stage according to a witness statement read out by defence barrister Simon Hamlyn-Harris.

Mr Hamlyn-Harris said his client had been at "rock bottom" that day and submitted a psychiatric report that detailed Hillier's disadvantaged background and psychological factors.

Prosecutor Belinda Merrin outlined a lengthy criminal history that included several convictions for weapon and drug possession and a string of traffic offences.

Less than two months before the siege he had blown some of his own fingers off with a homemade shotgun.

The prosecutor said Hillier's propensity for carrying weapons in public meant he was a serious danger to community safety.

Hillier pleaded guilty to a dozen serious charges including assaulting police while armed, going armed to cause fear, and dangerous conduct with a weapon.

Some charges related to the earlier incident when he blew his fingers off.

He also pleaded guilty to a string of traffic offences and breaching bail conditions.

Justice Martin is due to pass sentence on Friday morning.

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Union says 2000 Vic hospital beds missing

The Victorian nurses' union says more than 2000 hospital beds have disappeared since 2011. Source: AAP

MORE than 2000 Victorian public hospital beds have disappeared since 2011, according to the nurses' union, but the government rejects the claim.

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) says a bed count across the system shows more than 100 extra beds disappeared and more than 1100 beds have been closed since its last audit in 2011.

A further 800 beds promised before the election by the Victorian government have not been provided, bringing the total shortfall to 2017 beds, the union says.

But Health Minister David Davis rubbished the figures, saying bed numbers are increasing.

"Bed numbers are growing in Victoria, the government has delivered on its promises there," he told Fairfax Radio.

"But more and beyond that, we're building enormous new capacity across the system."

However, Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews called for Mr Davis to resign as health minister, saying hospitals have gone backwards on every measure under the coalition.

"Denis Napthine and David Davis' cutbacks mean there are less beds in our hospital system today than there were three years ago," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"If they're wrong, Mr Davis, then provide the list of where all your extra beds are located.

"This government talks the talk but they haven't provided the resources that they promised.

"What that means is Victorians are dying, patients are suffering."

Premier Denis Napthine says the most recent figures show there has been an increase in beds under the coalition.

"Right across the system we are investing billions, upon billions of dollars," he told reporters.

"Drive past hospitals around the state and you will see new capital works going on to expand the system."

Dr Napthine says the government inherited a system from Labor that was significantly under-invested.

The premier added Mr Davis was doing an outstanding job and would remain as health minister.

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No cheap deals by church, inquiry told

THE Catholic Church has paid compensation to abuse victims even when they would have had difficulty proving legal liability in court, a lawyer has told an inquiry.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining how the church's Towards Healing process worked for abuse complainants, has heard that payments of up to $900,000 were made by the Archdiocese of Sydney.

Patrick Monahan, a solicitor who has represented Catholic Church Insurances Ltd (CCI) at Towards Healing settlements, told the inquiry on Thursday that the company took more than just financial liability into account when agreeing to payments.

"It is not a matter of doing the cheapest deal they can," Mr Monahan said.

He said justice and compassion were considerations and assessment was complex, dependent on the facts of each case.

Redress or compensation is part of Towards Healing, which was established in 1997 in response to growing numbers of child sex abuse allegations against church personnel.

The commission has heard evidence from four people who went through the process.

DK, one of the four people who gave evidence at the commission, was awarded $88,000, which included money for ongoing counselling.

Mr Monahan said common factors in the question of legal liability were whether those in authority had any earlier knowledge of inappropriate behaviour by the individual or whether there was something which they could have, but did not do, to prevent or minimise the harm.

"If there are neither of the two I would identify it as a case where the victim would have difficulty in establishing a legal liability," he said.

He said CCI took into account broader pastoral issues, and he would never advise Catholic Church clients that they had no liability but he would say that the victim would have difficulty proving it.

Mr Monahan said he had dealt with other commercial insurers of other non-Catholic organisations and on similar facts they would simply deny indemnity and make no offer at all.

In his statement to the commission presented when the hearing opened in December, DK said that Mr Monahan's role at Towards Healing was never explained to him and that the solicitor had yelled at him for taking too long.

Mr Monahan said it was not the style he brought to those meetings and apologised if his tone had been sharp.

A recurring issue at Thursday's hearing was what senior staff at St Augustine's College in Cairns knew of Brother Ross Murrin's behaviour at the college, including toward DK.

Murrin is now in jail for offences against children at Sydney schools.

DK has told the commission the then principal at the school, Brother Gerald Burns and former dorm master Brother Andrew Moraghan who attended the mediation session in 2010, denied they knew Murrin had molested him.

DK said he wanted them at mediation to find out why they had not acted to protect other boys from Murrin.

Br Burns, who is now retired, was adamant DK never raised the issue of complaints by other boys during mediation.

Br Moraghan said he only learned that Murrin was molesting children when he was arrested in Sydney in 2008.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Problems pile up for security contractor

THE list of embarrassments besetting security contractor Serco is growing on a daily basis, including prisoners and asylum seekers breaking out of custody under their officers' watch.

It emerged on Thursday that a shackled prisoner was left unguarded at Royal Perth Hospital after one guard went to the toilet and another left the room because he didn't want to be alone with the inmate.

That came hours after a young Vietnamese asylum seeker escaped from the same hospital and was recaptured after a city-wide manhunt that lasted about two hours.

And on Monday, four male Vietnamese asylum seekers escaped from the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre at Northam, east of Perth, but were quickly recaptured.

It was the fourth break out from the facility since mid-August.

Two of the 14 detainees that have broken out during this period are still on the run.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has made his displeasure at Serco clear and on Wednesday revealed he had asked for a reassessment of Yongah Hill detainees so that those at high risk of escaping were placed at a different facility.

A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison said the latest incident involving the young Vietnamese man would "be added to those issues already being reviewed by the government as a result of previous instances of escape".

Earlier this month, rapist Cameron John Graham and fellow inmate Kelden Edward Fraser managed to abscond from Serco's custody by kicking out the door of a prison van at Geraldton airport as they were being transferred to Perth.

They were found 72 hours later at a bush camp near Mullewa.

And on Friday, burglar Bradley John McIntosh-Narrier escaped from Joondalup Health Campus while under Serco's watch.

Guards had removed his handcuffs when he asked to use the toilet, where he ripped a towel rail from the wall to threaten them with before smashing up the room and climbing out through the ceiling.

The Community and Public Sector Union says the WA government needs to reassess its contracts with Serco, which it says does not have enough staff to properly undertake them.

"We are seeing the company saying yes to a raft of different government contracts, getting the money but then failing to deliver," branch secretary Toni Walkington said.

"They are taking on these services that were handled competently by public servants and are then being stretched to the limit and don't have enough staff to get the job done because they are trying to do them as cheap as possible."

In a statement on Thursday, Serco said the officer who left the prisoner unsupervised in hospital while his colleague went to the toilet has been suspended and might be sacked.

The company is investigating the incident, which came to light after complaints from hospital staff last weekend.

"At least two officers are assigned to each hospital sit, which allows for each of them to take comfort and refreshment breaks while the other remains with the prisoner," it said.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police deny talk of Claremont arrest

DETECTIVES in Perth have taken the unusual step of denying rumours that they are close to an arrest in the notorious unsolved Claremont serial killings.

Police are still hunting for the killer of Jane Rimmer, 23, Ciara Glennon, 27, abducted from the well-to-do western suburb of Claremont and murdered in 1996 and 1997. Sarah Spiers, 18, disappeared from the suburb in 1996.

The former two women were found dead, but no trace has been found of Ms Spiers.

On Wednesday, a statement from police said rumours that a significant announcement was pending in relation to the investigation were not correct.

Detective Superintendent Anthony Lee of the Major Crime Division said there was no substance to the rumours suggesting an arrest was imminent or that a significant announcement regarding the investigation was to be made.

"This type of rumour does not serve to assist the investigation and causes unnecessary distress to the families," Det Supt Lee said.

"We know the investigation generates significant interest and for this reason WA Police are clarifying the situation with the public."

Task Force Macro, set up to probe the killings, is Australia's longest-running and most expensive murder investigation.

Ms Spiers went missing from outside a Claremont nightclub in January 1996. She is presumed dead.

Ms Rimmer's body was found in bushland south of Perth in August 1996.

Ms Glennon was found murdered on April 3, 1997 - 19 days after she was last seen in Claremont.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

HSU recorded escort payments as 'meetings'

Former MP Craig Thomson's union labelled payments to escorts as meetings, a court has heard. Source: AAP

FORMER MP Craig Thomson's union-issued credit card made payments to escorts which were labelled meetings, entertainment and teleconferencing in the union's accounting records, a court has been told.

Thomson, 49, has been charged with dozens of dishonesty offences over the alleged misuse of his credit cards while general secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU) and a federal MP.

Victoria Police forensic accountant Gerard Curtin, who compiled a report based on bank statements and HSU records, said $5993 had been paid to six escort agencies from Thomson's Commonwealth Bank MasterCard.

He said the payments were classified as "Meetings National Office", entertainment or teleconferencing in the HSU's accounting files.

Of the $164,556 spent on the card, some $35,634 was not reconciled in the HSU's books, Mr Curtin said.

Under cross-examination from Thomson's barrister Greg James, Mr Curtin said the union's classification for expenses was slipshod.

"I would not put them down as reliable," Mr Curtin told the court.

Thomson has pleaded not guilty to 145 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception over the alleged misuse of $28,449 between 2002 and 2008.

The hearing continues on Thursday before Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg.

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Adelaide to Darwin railway 10 years old

NORTHERN Territorians on Thursday will mark the 10-year anniversary of the opening of the Adelaide to Darwin railway.

A rail line linking Australia's southern states with the tropical north was first suggested in 1858, but it took until 2004 for the first freight train to roll into Darwin from the South Australian capital.

Critics originally called $1.2 billion railway a white elephant, but supporters said it was a nation-building project.

Ten years later, two passenger services and about 30 mining and general freight trains trundle up the 1420-kilometre line each week.

Genesee & Wyoming Australia, which owns and operates the railway, will hold a ceremony on Thursday to mark the anniversary.

NT Chief Minister Adam Giles and former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer are expected to attend.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Armstrong's downfall to open film festival

A documentary about the downfall of cyclist Lance Armstrong will open Adelaide's festival DocWeek. Source: AAP

ADELAIDE'S second documentary festival lives up to its expansive title - Splendour, Fear, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll, Wonder, Death and all the other things you love.

And the opening night screening about cyclist Lance Armstrong's downfall easily fits into a few of those categories.

DocWeek is part of The Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and its director Joost den Hartog says The Armstrong Lie is an incredible and gripping film by Alex Gibney.

"He started to make a film about Lance Armstrong's comeback, The Long Road Back," he told AAP on Wednesday after the launch of the 2014 DocWeek program.

But when the doping scandal unravelled, Gibney confronted Armstrong saying: "You have been lying to my face and I think you owe me an explanation".

He again got access to Armstrong, who becomes a "very active participant in the film".

"It's quite an incredible documentary where the actual story changes while the film is being made," says Den Hartog.

The other opening night screening is the Australian premiere of The Last Impresario by Gracie Otto, about Michael White, described as "the most famous person you've never heard of".

The talent spotter, film producer, theatrical impresario and friend of the rich and famous helped transform Britain's cultural scene in the 1970s.

"Now in his 80s, this party boy hasn't slowed down and isn't planning to do so," says Den Hartog.

DocWeek features more than 40 films, including the Asia-Pacific New Documentary Program with films from China, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Malaysia and India.

Another highlight is From The Bottom of the Lake, Claire Young's portrait of film director Jane Campion.

"We follow Jane and her co-writer Gerard Lee as they create the critically acclaimed series Top of the Lake from note book to Golden Globe."

Den Hartog is particularly excited at being able to feature the "most important documentary filmmaker of the moment, Alex Gibney, with the most talented one, Marshall Curry".

Gibney's Armstrong film is one of nine of his to be screened, including Silence in the House of God: Mea Maxima Culpa about child abuse and the Vatican, and Park Avenue: Money, Power and The American Dream.

The Curry offerings include If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, looking at the lines between activism and terrorism.

There's also a series of documentaries on motor city Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy last July, halved in size and has been dubbed the graveyard of the American dream.

"The city is dead, long live the city," says den Hartog.

"Kick out the Jams celebrates the resilience of mankind, the grass roots community building and the creative entrepreneurialism and arts resurgence that happened as a natural response to the breakdown of the dominant economic forces.

"Against a soundtrack of the MC5, Kick Out the Jams, takes you on a journey through a broken down cityscape filled with sheer beauty."

* Adelaide's DocWeek runs from March 4 to 9, 2014.

15.02 | 0 komentar | Read More

Detention centres are 'dysfunctional'

THREE asylum seekers escaped a Western Australia detention centre in 45 seconds last week, exposing major security flaws at the facility, a leaked report has revealed.

The January 12 breakout was the third escape from the Yongah Hill Detention Centre in five months and an embarrassment for Serco, which manages Australia's detention centres and WA's prisoner transport system.

Documents reveal security weaknesses including asylum-seeker access to the internet for maps, to book plane tickets and organise getaway cars through social media.

Detainees had also become more confident as a result of the number of recent escapes and the lack of penalties, while the voltage on the 3.2-metre electric fence at Yongah Hill was not strong enough to shock escapees and was easy to climb.

A Serco insider described the entire system as "dysfunctional" and said he was speaking out against "incompetence".

"There is no training given and everything is about money," he told The Sunday Times newspaper.

"Every time we have these incidents the main effort isn't improving, but more so passing the buck and looking for someone to blame."

Two of the Vietnamese detainees from the January 12 breakout have been caught, but the third remains on the run.

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said recommendations made by Serco following any escape incident were considered and implemented if appropriate.

"There are service standards in place with regard to performance against the department's contract with its detention service provider, Serco, and compliance with these standards is regularly reviewed," she told AAP.

"Security is a key performance indicator under the contract and there is provision for abatement for such breaches."

The incident happened a week after a rapist and alleged armed robber kicked their way out of a prison van at Geraldton Airport, prompting a 36-hour manhunt.

A third prisoner escaped from Serco's custody while being treated at Joondalup Health Campus on Friday afternoon and was caught on Sunday.

The prisoner ripped a metal rail off a wall and threatened staff, so guards shut him in a bathroom and it is believed he then climbed through the ceiling to escape.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Vic's Halls Gap 'dodged fire bullet'

HALLS Gap dodged a bullet when a wind change spared the holiday village from fire, Victoria's fire chief says.

Tourists and residents of the village and surrounding towns were evacuated as fire burned in the northern area of the Grampians National Park on Friday, although some locals chose to stay to defend their homes.

Authorities are beginning the clean-up after the bushfire destroyed 10 homes and burnt more than 51,800 hectares.

Incident controller Andrew Morrow said some sections of the fire are not yet under control but emergency services have been focusing on returning residents to their homes and opening major roads where safe to do so.

"There is still a lot of work to do in back burning and blacking out to ensure the fire is safe, but we also need to move in to the recovery stage so that the wider Grampians area can get back to operating as usual."

Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said Halls Gap was back in business and had an earlier-than-expected wind change to thank.

"Halls Gap dodged a bullet," Mr Lapsley told Fairfax Radio on Sunday, referring to the change.

The main fire front came within 4km of Halls Gap, although a number of spot fires were closer.

Halls Gap is the first time an evacuation order has been used since the evacuation policy came in after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.

A small number of homeowners elected to stay, with fire trucks also in the town.

"If you have a pecuniary interest and you make that decision and you're well briefed - which they were - that's your right," Mr Lapsley said.

"But on the same token if it becomes a very unsafe situation or if it becomes where people are behaving in a way that is endangering themselves, police still could take some really serious actions and remove them, but that's not where we wanted to be nor were we at."

Premier Denis Napthine says authorities will examine how the evacuation went in the Grampians but that compulsory evacuation is unlikely.

Mr Lapsley also believes it's not necessary to remove the right of property owners to stay to fight a fire.

"I would suggest you would not need to change the law of the land in that regard."

A number of fires have also been burning in the southern Grampians but they are now all contained or controlled.

Overnight the Black Range bushfire jumped containment lines and began moving towards Stawell but the threat has since eased.

The Grampians National Park will remain closed until noon on Monday.

15.03 | 0 komentar | Read More

Body found in search for missing Vic man

A BODY has been found in an abandoned Victorian mine shaft by police investigating the suspicious disappearance of a man eight months ago.

Detectives investigating the suspicious April 2013 disappearance of 48-year-old Deer Park man Ricky Lee Ganly made the discovery on Sunday.

Police divers found the body in a submerged car, inside a water-filed 20-metre-deep mine site near Avoca in central Victoria.

The body, which is yet to be identified, was found about 2.30pm (AEDT).

Police say Mr Ganly was last seen by his girlfriend at his Doherty Street home about on April 28 last year.

He has not accessed his bank accounts or been seen since.

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Fires near NSW homes, but ease in Vic, SA

HOMES in southern NSW are at risk as a bushfire intensifies but Victoria and South Australia look to have avoided large-scale disasters.

Deteriorating conditions have helped fan a fire threatening the isolated rural NSW properties.

An emergency warning has been issued for the Humula, Carabost and Little Billabong areas after a southwesterly wind change on Sunday afternoon put homes "under immediate threat" from the out-of-control Minimbah fire, which is "burning quickly and erratically", the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) says.

It has blazed through more than 8000 hectares.

"Firefighters are actively undertaking property protection," the RFS said on its website.

"There are reports of property losses, however, due to dangerous fire conditions, firefighters are unable to enter a number of fire-affected areas."

In Victoria, a favourable wind change spared the tourist town of Halls Gap from widespread destruction when it stopped an advancing bushfire four kilometres shy of the town's boundaries.

Ten homes were destroyed by the blaze and more than 51,800 hectares burnt, and Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said that number would increase.

Across Victoria 35 fires are still listed as burning, with 130,000 hectares burnt.

Easing conditions have helped firefighters in South Australia battling the Bangor fire in the southern Flinders Ranges.

The blaze has destroyed six homes and burnt more than 19,000 hectares of grassland, and is the only fire in the state that remains on a watch and act alert.

The SA Country Fire Service (CFS) says while the fire has not grown significantly on Sunday, it is still not controlled.

Residents in the area are urged not to return as the fire is still burning in steep terrain with conditions changing continually.

A blaze in Eden Valley that burnt through more than 24,000 hectares has been downgraded to advice level.

Meanwhile, more than 60 RFS firefighters, with heavy machinery and water-bombing aircraft, are trying to control another NSW fire at Redbank, near Bathurst.

The bushfire, which has scorched more than 300 hectares, is burning through a pine plantation and "is proving difficult to contain", the RFS said.

An emergency warning was issued at 4.30pm (AEDT) for the fire burning out of control in the Copperhannia National Park area, near Bathurst.

The 100-hectare fire is heading east towards Trunkey Creek.

Frantic work to build containment lines for another bushfire at Minjary, between Canberra and Wagga Wagga, is also underway.

The scrub fire has burnt 2675 hectares and is being controlled.

About 900 firefighters have been deployed across NSW to battle 50 fires sparked on Saturday by lightning strikes.

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