Washing machine repairman wrongly targeted as a suspect in the William Tyrrell investigation is awarded almost $1.5MILLION in damages

Crooked cops again

A washing machine repairman who was wrongly named as a high-profile suspect in the investigation into William Tyrrell's disappearance will receive almost $1.5million in compensation.

Bill Spedding sued the NSW Police alleging detectives maliciously pursued him while investigating the disappearance of the three-year-old from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall, on the NSW north coast, on September 12, 2014.

His case before the NSW Supreme Court sought compensation for reputational harm and psychological treatment. Mr Spedding also sought exemplary damages to punish police for purportedly using the courts for an improper purpose.

The tradesman was an early high-profile suspect in the disappearance, with police searching Mr Spedding's Bonny Hills home and draining his septic tank in January 2015. But they found no evidence linking him to William. 

Bill Spedding was awarded almost $1.5 million in damages after suing the NSW Police Force for malicious prosecution. Above, outside court on Thursday with his wife Margaret

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Bill Spedding was awarded almost $1.5 million in damages after suing the NSW Police Force for malicious prosecution. Above, outside court on Thursday with his wife Margaret

A coronial inquest later found Mr Spedding had an alibi on the day of William's disappearance. He was attending a school assembly for a child in his care that day, and had a receipt from a nearby coffee shop. 

During the police investigation into Mr Spedding, the tradesman was charged in April 2015 over the historical child abuse claims, spending 56 days in custody and then being released on strict bail conditions.

The charges were later dropped by prosecutors. 

Mr Spedding alleged that the charges were levelled against him in a bid to intimidate and place pressure on him. 

Mr Spedding's lawyers claimed a police investigation prior to those charges being laid was 'done in extreme haste' in three or four weeks. 

'The investigation was not in any way professional, careful or proper,' said Mr Spedding's lawyer Adrian Canceri during closing submissions in August.

Mr Spedding has claimed the anxiety and depression he suffers were caused by the prosecution and the public attention it brought.

Clear evidence emerged that the complainants had been coached by another person to make allegations and another person's evidence undermined the case, Justice Harrison heard.

Barrister Adrian Williams, for the State of NSW, had argued that misunderstandings occurred but it didn't follow that police were acting maliciously.

William Tyrrell has never been found

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11488251/William-Bill-Spedding-awarded-1-5million-damages-malicious-prosecution.html

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Police officer who shot and killed Gabriel Messo may have committed homicide, coroner says

Stupid armchair criticism of a split-second decision

A junior police officer who gunned down a man as he savagely stabbed his own mother in broad daylight may have committed homicide, according to Victoria's coroner, who has referred the case to state prosecutors.

Gabriel Messo died after being shot three times by a Victoria Police officer who confronted him as he brutally attacked his mother in a public park in Melbourne's north-west about two years ago.

The assault was so ferocious that his mother, Lilla Messo, lost an eye and developed an acquired brain injury. She ultimately survived the attack.

Mr Messo's death was being investigated by the Victorian State Coroner John Cain, who today found that the first two shots fired by Constable Emmanuel Andrew was an acceptable use of force.

"The level of force used was not disproportionate to Constable Andrew's objective to prevent the assault from continuing and to protect Lilla from really serious injury," Judge Cain said.

But Judge Cain said he was "gravely concerned" about the third shot which was fired just five seconds after Gabriel Messo, who was by that point unarmed, had stopped attacking his mother and was moving away from police as he clutched his torso.

"I have formed a belief to the requisite standard that an indictable offence may have been committed by Constable Andrew in connection with Gabriel's death," Judge Cain said.

"The indictable offences I have formed a belief to the requisite standard include but are not limited to … of homicide, causing serious injury intentionally, conduct endangering life or assault."

He has referred the case to Victoria's director of public prosecutions, who will ultimately decide whether to criminally charge Constable Andrew.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said he was confident prosecutors would assess whether to lay charges as quickly as possible.

"We will await the findings in due course," the chief commissioner said.

"I know this will be an incredibly difficult time for the member involved and Victoria Police will continue to support him during this process."

Police union backs officers involved in Messo shooting

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt strongly condemned the coroner's findings and said the two police officers attending the Gladstone Park assault had made the right decision.

"We've got a decision to make as a community in Victoria. I can tell you now, police forces around the world are being roundly criticised for attending scenes and doing nothing," Mr Gatt said.

"These officers did something. They went and saved the life of a Victorian, a vulnerable Victorian who had been assaulted there for 17 minutes."

Mr Gatt said the situation needed to be quickly resolved by prosecutors for the benefit of police officers who had been "tormented" by the years-long wait.

He said that he had spoken to both officers and they were shocked by the coroner's findings.

"Does that make us angry? Yes it does," he said.

"Because police officers are asked to do this each and every day, and they shouldn't have to do it under the shadow of this sort of persecution."

Mr Gatt warned the findings could have lasting implications for policing in the state.

"Most people in the community would understand the terrible message this sends to police officers across Victoria," Mr Gatt said.

"Police officers who will get out of their cars and question 'should I rush in and do something or should I sit back, save I be criticised in the cool light of day, years and years later?'"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-01/gabriel-messo-coronial-inquest-victoria-police-homicide-finding/101720720

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Police officer who shot and killed Gabriel Messo may have committed homicide, coroner says

Stupid armchair criticism of a split-second decision

A junior police officer who gunned down a man as he savagely stabbed his own mother in broad daylight may have committed homicide, according to Victoria's coroner, who has referred the case to state prosecutors.

Gabriel Messo died after being shot three times by a Victoria Police officer who confronted him as he brutally attacked his mother in a public park in Melbourne's north-west about two years ago.

The assault was so ferocious that his mother, Lilla Messo, lost an eye and developed an acquired brain injury. She ultimately survived the attack.

Mr Messo's death was being investigated by the Victorian State Coroner John Cain, who today found that the first two shots fired by Constable Emmanuel Andrew was an acceptable use of force.

"The level of force used was not disproportionate to Constable Andrew's objective to prevent the assault from continuing and to protect Lilla from really serious injury," Judge Cain said.

But Judge Cain said he was "gravely concerned" about the third shot which was fired just five seconds after Gabriel Messo, who was by that point unarmed, had stopped attacking his mother and was moving away from police as he clutched his torso.

"I have formed a belief to the requisite standard that an indictable offence may have been committed by Constable Andrew in connection with Gabriel's death," Judge Cain said.

"The indictable offences I have formed a belief to the requisite standard include but are not limited to … of homicide, causing serious injury intentionally, conduct endangering life or assault."

He has referred the case to Victoria's director of public prosecutions, who will ultimately decide whether to criminally charge Constable Andrew.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said he was confident prosecutors would assess whether to lay charges as quickly as possible.

"We will await the findings in due course," the chief commissioner said.

"I know this will be an incredibly difficult time for the member involved and Victoria Police will continue to support him during this process."

Police union backs officers involved in Messo shooting

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt strongly condemned the coroner's findings and said the two police officers attending the Gladstone Park assault had made the right decision.

"We've got a decision to make as a community in Victoria. I can tell you now, police forces around the world are being roundly criticised for attending scenes and doing nothing," Mr Gatt said.

"These officers did something. They went and saved the life of a Victorian, a vulnerable Victorian who had been assaulted there for 17 minutes."

Mr Gatt said the situation needed to be quickly resolved by prosecutors for the benefit of police officers who had been "tormented" by the years-long wait.

He said that he had spoken to both officers and they were shocked by the coroner's findings.

"Does that make us angry? Yes it does," he said.

"Because police officers are asked to do this each and every day, and they shouldn't have to do it under the shadow of this sort of persecution."

Mr Gatt warned the findings could have lasting implications for policing in the state.

"Most people in the community would understand the terrible message this sends to police officers across Victoria," Mr Gatt said.

"Police officers who will get out of their cars and question 'should I rush in and do something or should I sit back, save I be criticised in the cool light of day, years and years later?'"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-01/gabriel-messo-coronial-inquest-victoria-police-homicide-finding/101720720

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Washing machine repairman wrongly targeted as a suspect in the William Tyrrell investigation is awarded almost $1.5MILLION in damages

Crooked cops again

A washing machine repairman who was wrongly named as a high-profile suspect in the investigation into William Tyrrell's disappearance will receive almost $1.5million in compensation.

Bill Spedding sued the NSW Police alleging detectives maliciously pursued him while investigating the disappearance of the three-year-old from his foster grandmother's home in Kendall, on the NSW north coast, on September 12, 2014.

His case before the NSW Supreme Court sought compensation for reputational harm and psychological treatment. Mr Spedding also sought exemplary damages to punish police for purportedly using the courts for an improper purpose.

The tradesman was an early high-profile suspect in the disappearance, with police searching Mr Spedding's Bonny Hills home and draining his septic tank in January 2015. But they found no evidence linking him to William. 

A coronial inquest later found Mr Spedding had an alibi on the day of William's disappearance. He was attending a school assembly for a child in his care that day, and had a receipt from a nearby coffee shop. 

During the police investigation into Mr Spedding, the tradesman was charged in April 2015 over the historical child abuse claims, spending 56 days in custody and then being released on strict bail conditions.

The charges were later dropped by prosecutors. 

Mr Spedding alleged that the charges were levelled against him in a bid to intimidate and place pressure on him. 

Mr Spedding's lawyers claimed a police investigation prior to those charges being laid was 'done in extreme haste' in three or four weeks. 

'The investigation was not in any way professional, careful or proper,' said Mr Spedding's lawyer Adrian Canceri during closing submissions in August.

Mr Spedding has claimed the anxiety and depression he suffers were caused by the prosecution and the public attention it brought.

Clear evidence emerged that the complainants had been coached by another person to make allegations and another person's evidence undermined the case, Justice Harrison heard.

Barrister Adrian Williams, for the State of NSW, had argued that misunderstandings occurred but it didn't follow that police were acting maliciously.

William Tyrrell has never been found

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11488251/William-Bill-Spedding-awarded-1-5million-damages-malicious-prosecution.html

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Insane video from the height of the Covid pandemic reveals the absurdity of Australia's overzealous lockdown laws - as a man is thrown to the ground by cops for sitting on a park bench without a mask

In an authoritarian State even sitting on a park bench can be a crime.  More Pol Pot than Soviet, sadly

A newly released video of police body camera footage has exposed the extremes Australia's lockdown laws during the Covid pandemic.  

Two police officers on July 24, last year, approached Edwin Paz, 31, and another unnamed man sitting on a bench in Victoria Park, Camperdown, in Sydney's inner-west.

There had been a Rally 4 Freedom protest in Sydney earlier that day when the virus was spreading rapidly and the Harbour City was under strict stay-at-home orders and mask mandates.

What started out as a general enquiry ended with Paz on the ground shouting out 'I can't breathe', while surrounded by police officers. 

On Tuesday at the Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, Paz was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order (CCO) for assaulting an officer and a 12-month CCO for resisting an officer.

He was also fined $2,000 for not wearing a face mask and not complying with a Covid direction.

The footage played in court begins with one of the officers telling Paz their conversation was being 'audio and video recorded' and that he was allowed to do so in a public place. 

Paz refused to cooperate with the police, telling them 'I can't hear ya'.

The officer informs Paz to 'get up and leave or I'm going to place you under arrest.' 

'Are you trying to intimidate me?' Paz asks. 'I do not consent to talk with you, I haven't entered into a contract with ya, so stop speaking with me.' 

Paz then asked the officer what crime had been committed.

The officer replied that 'If you're not within your local LGA (local government area) or you're not exercising, you are not in a public place with a reasonable excuse.'

It later turned out that Paz, who is from Smithfield in Sydney's west, was out of his LGA.

The officer told him he was placing him under arrest and that Paz was also committing an offence by not wearing a face mask. 

Paz said that he didn't have to wear a mask, but would not produce an exemption, which was another reason for getting arrested. 

He then said 'I'm free to do whatever I want, I'm a free man.'

The other officer then spoke and told Paz to stand up so he could be handcuffed, while the first office said they did not want to use force. But they did use force as Paz continued to refuse to cooperate. 

As the police picked him up he can be heard saying 'Don't you dare f****** touch me' and threw a punch at one of the officers.

The scuffle continued for another two minutes as more police officers arrived to help their colleagues. 

After handcuffs were finally put on him, one of the officers said 'We've got control here,' while Paz can be heard saying 'I can't breathe.'

He was then told that he was also under arrest for assaulting police. 

Paz is heard calling the officers 'f****** criminal c***s' after he was handcuffed.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11456817/Police-video-Man-arrested-Sydney-Covid-pandemic-sitting-park-bench-without-mask.html

How former NSW Police Officer Ben Smith was betrayed by the force he once trusted

All due to police fear of feminists

It began with a troubled, young girl infatuated with a slightly older, rising teenage football star, who was popular, good looking and not short of female attention.

The sports star, Benjamin (Ben) Gregory Smith, viewed the girl as a sort of little sister figure. Nothing more.

He had no idea of her secret obsession with him until nearly 20 years later, when it manifested in claims he had sexually assaulted her.

Smith, now 43, had been a NSW police officer for almost 10 years and had joined the Australian Crime and Intelligence Commission (ACIC) as a covert intelligence officer when the by then, grown woman, walked into his former workplace, and made her claims.

The fallout blew apart his life and career as a law enforcement officer and up until then, his steadfast belief in the justice system.

“I no longer trust the police, even though I was one of them,” said Smith.

“The complaint made was complete and utter rubbish. I thought naturally they (the police) would put the jigsaw puzzle together and I honestly believed that the matter would be withdrawn,” Smith said.

But it wasn’t. From that awful moment it took more than three years and two trials, which cost the better part of his family home to finance, for Smith to finally be acquitted of all 14 charges.

The first trial in ended with a hung jury. The second in came in with a unanimous jury verdict of not guilty. While being found innocent brought Smith great relief, the father of three says it did not bring him closure.

That, he says, would only come if action were taken against the detectives involved in the failed prosecution.

“Until people like this are held accountable and made an example of, things like my case will continue to poison and clog our justice system,” he said.

The torturous road to being found innocent laid bare what Smith and his criminal lawyer Danny Eid argue were conflicts of interest and misleading evidence.

The two trials revealed, Smith and Eid argue, the investigating detectives had not disclosed exculpatory evidence that negated the woman’s allegations, had not undertaken a proper investigation and had lied about evidence from material witnesses.

“I still to this day believe that they jumped the gun way too early and or were forced to lock me up by a senior police officer,” Smith said.

Mr Eid is adamant if police had done their job properly in the first place, Smith would never have been charged.

But Smith’s ordeal is not over. His attempts to raise complaints with the police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC), about the conduct of the detectives have become nothing more than a Catch 22 situation.

His complaint in March 2021 was referred back to the same police command he was complaining about - to investigate themselves. The police declined to investigate a number of complaints and found the others were not substantiated.

The failure of police complaint processes has been the subject of widespread criticism recently.

Samantha Lee, the head of Redfern Legal Centre’s police accountability practice has said the complaints system is failing to provide just outcomes and is perpetuating “an insidious culture of impunity among police.”

Gregor Husper, the principal lawyer for the Inner Melbourne Community Legal Police Accountability Project said the lessons for police investigating colleagues are universal.

“The Police Accountability Project has long advocated about the failings of police investigating themselves, and the resultant lack of accountability and risks of police impunity,” said Mr Husper.

“Misconduct needs to be independently investigated by a body like a Police Ombudsman, otherwise rogue behaviour by police will never be addressed.”

THE COMPLAINT

It is hard to imagine that police could get it so wrong, but right from the get go there were glaring problems with the allegations of sexual assault against Smith.

Senior law enforcement officials openly comment there is a current culture of prosecuting all sex assault allegations and letting the accused beat it - for fear of being criticised publicly for not doing enough.

Barrister Greg Barns SC, the National Justice Spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, agrees and said the case is an illustration of a trend which has gone from one extreme to the other.

“The police have gone from too readily disbelieving female complainants, to the other extreme where cases are often put up with inadequate forensic investigation, and that is not helpful to anyone, said Mr Barnes.

It is a culture and attitude that might explain what happened to Smith. But in his case NSW police took this to a new level.

The detectives charged Smith in December 2016 without conducting prudent cursory investigative background checks of the woan’s allegations, according to Mr Eid.

The detectives did not interview Smith before he was charged. They also failed to take a statement from the only “eye witness” nominated by the complainant before charging Smith.

If they had, the police would have discovered the eyewitness instead of corroborating her allegations - actually negated the woman’s claims, Mr Eid believes.

The detective on the case also failed to interview a second witness who could have given important information about the woman at the time she alleged she was sexually assaulted.

If the police had bothered to check the dates the woman said he assaulted her, they would have found Smith was not even the same postcode at the time.

At least seven of the 14 offences she accused him of were at a time he was suffering from a broken leg and Medicare records proved he was hundreds of miles away.

At this point, Smith said they should have been critically assessing the complaint.

“Our job as police is not to run cases with no evidence, Smith said.

“It was sickening to think that the police and the local area command that I worked at could attempt to create a narrative, rather than a search for the truth and the facts, to try and have me convicted of something I did not do.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/behindthescenes/how-former-nsw-police-officer-ben-smith-was-betrayed-by-the-force-he-once-trusted/news-story/9951436fb94e0c6ec0ce01f5b30e4c92

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Dwayne Johnstone murder trial jury told officer acted lawfully when he shot shackled Indigenous man

A jury has been told a NSW Corrections officer was acting lawfully when he shot and killed a shackled Indigenous man outside the Lismore Base Hospital. 

The accused man, who is referred to as Officer A for legal reasons, is standing trial for the murder of 43-year-old Dwayne Johnstone on the evening of March 15, 2019.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The court has heard Mr Johnstone was handcuffed and had restraints on his ankles at the time. 

The jury heard the officer fired three shots as Mr Johnstone tried to flee, and twice shouted out "stop or I'll shoot". 

The third shot hit Mr Johnstone in the back and he died in hospital a short time later.

Defence barrister Philip Strickland SC told the court on Monday the regulations surrounding when a Corrections officer could discharge a firearm were clear.

"A correctional officer may discharge a firearm if the officer believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary to do so in order to prevent the escape of an inmate," he said.

"You may agree with this law or you may disagree with it, you may think it gives officers too much power, but I urge you if you do think that then disregard it. "It doesn't matter if you like the law or you don't like the law."

The defence barrister told the court the drama played out over the course of 11 or 12 seconds. ''He had to make, in a few seconds, a decision of momentous consequence," Mr Strickland said.

The court was told Mr Johnstone was "desperate to escape" and a nurse at the Lismore Base Hospital thought he was overheard offering someone "10 grand if you help me get away".

The court was told the nurse did not alert authorities because they were unsure if they had heard correctly.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay has argued Mr Johnstone posed no risk to any person and Officer A had no lawful excuse to shoot him. "What you have here is an unarmed offender, in restraints, not posing an immediate threat to anyone," he said.

Mr McKay told the jury corrections officers were trained to make split-second decisions, to always seek a peaceful outcome and to use a firearm as a last resort. "A firearm is the most lethal weapon in the Corrective Services armoury because it has the potential to kill," Mr McKay said.

"You would have no reasonable doubt that the accused intended to inflict really serious bodily harm on the deceased."

The trial continues next week.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-04/dwayne-johnstone-murder-trial-jury-police-lawful-shot-man/101618570

Domestic violence inquiry has exposed toxic culture in Queensland police force

 

For all the tea in China, I wouldn’t be a cop. Dealing with the dregs of society, going to work each day with the possibility of being killed, working shifts that affect sleep patterns … the list of drawbacks is endless.

But there’s a darker, more sinister side to being a police officer in Queensland – especially if you’re a woman.

The revelations emerging from a police inquiry into the service’s responses to domestic violence have exposed a deeper malaise.

This is a cohort of people who have lost their way. They’ve lost their identity. They are a police service lacking leadership, where the modern realisations of a safe workplace are colliding with the seedy traditions of yesteryear.

Reading the evidence is like watching an episode of Mad Men, where the misogynistic ways of men in the 1960s are laid bare. Women are merely seen as sex objects.

The Queensland police service is facing a cultural tsunami and the so-called Old Guard are being decapitated, one by one.

The question that the good folk of Queensland need to be asking today is – if certain male police officers treat their female counterparts in this oafish and belligerent way, what hope does the citizen in the street have against such poor behaviour?

If a cop has no regard for his colleagues, how does he handle law-abiding citizens?

When Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll took over the top job three years ago, she knew there would be difficult days.

Yet this inquiry is a long-running horror movie. The Commission of Inquiry has unearthed our worst fears. It has revealed a police service that has not kept pace with the morals and ethics required of a 21st century organisation.

The toxic culture and lack of manners among some of the mostly male officers is embarrassing, and deeply divisive.

It does nothing to instil confidence and it hurts those who treat the job seriously, and who behave responsibly. It seems for every good cop, there’s a bad cop.

Ms Carroll is dealing with a culture among the men towards female officers that has flourished and been entrenched for decades.

The cover-ups and lack of transparency and accountability are a damning indictment on a police service that has lost touch with reality.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/peter-gleeson/peter-gleeson-domestic-violence-inquiry-has-exposed-toxic-culture-in-queensland-police-force/news-story/5d54c548bcab6a1b96176e1190d791cf

Fascist Victoria

Fascism was Leftist from its inception

In late August 2020, pregnant mum, Zoe Buhler, was charged and handcuffed in her own home by Victoria Police, accused of inciting a protest in breach of public health orders.

Her great ‘crime’ was to put a message on Facebook promoting a ‘peaceful protest’ – with social distancing measures and masks – to ‘end lock downs’ and ‘stand for human rights’. 

The Assistant Police Commissioner, Luke Cornelius, alleged Ms Buhler had ‘engaged in serious criminal behaviour’. He referred to those objecting to lockdowns as ‘batshit crazy’.

How serious was this charge, given it has been dropped weeks away from a state election? Surely a serious charge should be pursued fully through the courts?

‘Clearing the political decks’ is how some cynics might view it.

Many Australians, and others across the world, are familiar with the vision of Zoe Buhler being handcuffed by police in her kitchen. It is the unfortunate stuff of Covid legend.

On Tuesday, police withdrew the charge. It took police two years to do the right thing. Many questioned the validity of such so-called crimes that turned ordinary citizens into criminals for things like … walking outside.

During this time, Victorians experienced things they never thought they would in a free country, one in which democracy and respect are fundamental tenets of our peaceful way of life.

Other than Black Lives Matter gatherings, Victorians observed their right to protest being annulled with pepper bullets and tear gas. Citizens were filmed running from police officers who used batons and a bravado in clips that went viral worldwide.

Had these crowds been assembling in the streets to riot, to burn buildings, to loot, to murder, to wreck, or to create mayhem, then Victorians would have understood such aggression by the police. 

But these crowds had gathered for freedom.

They gathered for the right to go to work, the right not to be forced to take vaccines, and the right for their children to go to school or playgrounds.

They rallied for democracy, for the return of the Parliament to make decisions, and against the absolute authority of emergency power contained in the Premier.

It was under Labor’s watch that the police chased protesters, hurried on grandmothers from park benches, handcuffed a pregnant mother, held elderly men on the ground, and kept Melbournians locked down for 23 hours a day unable to travel – or even walk – further than 5 kilometres from their homes.

The Premier offended many Victorians during this time, locking them out of their state. They were stopped from being with their dying parents or attending their funerals. One of his most offensive statements was, ‘We had no choice.’

Let me be very clear: the police had a choice about whether to charge Zoe Buhler. 

It is why Labor must apologise to Ms Buhler for their contempt of individual rights and why their government must explain to the Victorian people why police were instructed to act so aggressively.

An explanation as to why it took two years for the charge to be withdrawn would also be welcome.

The Police Minister should now consider sacking the Police Commissioner and his Assistant, Luke Cornelius, the same officer who sympathised with Black Lives Matter protesters and their right to gather.

It seems apparent that, like much of the Victorian bureaucracy, Victoria Police has been politicised and the law has been used to hush citizens who disagree with the government.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/09/apologies-are-not-enough/

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Police drop anti-lockdown incitement charge against Ballarat woman Zoe Buhler

A Ballarat woman who was charged with inciting others to breach a state lockdown has had her case thrown out of court.

Zoe Buhler was arrested in her Ballarat home in September 2020 while pregnant.

The mother-of-three livestreamed her arrest, showing police handcuffing her in a video that later went viral and sparked concerns from the Australian Human Rights Commission.

The arrest came after she created a protest event on social media, citing concerns about the impacts of lockdowns during the pandemic.

In the Ballarat Magistrates Court this morning, police prosecution applied to have the charge struck out, which was approved by Magistrate Mark Stratmann.

In a statement, Victoria Police said they withdrew the single charge following an assessment of the case, determining it was "not in the public interest to continue with the prosecution".

Ms Buhler, now 30 years old, said she was relieved but had "no regrets" outside the court this morning. "I think it's disgusting our rights and freedoms were taken away. I've pretty much felt that way the whole time," Ms Buhler said.

"I'll be considering my options going forward, especially with regards to being handcuffed while pregnant."

Ms Buhler said she believed she had been experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the legal costs of contesting the incitement charges had been a burden.

Costs will be agreed upon between the parties at a later date.

"There was money raised to help with the costs of lawyers," she added. "I don't even know how much [it was]. A ridiculous amount."

In March 2020, the Victorian Chief Health Officer and Commonwealth Health Minister were granted special powers to issue lockdowns, if necessary, to minimise the rate of transmission of COVID-19.

They have not enacted a lockdown in Victoria since October 2021.

"In the end justice will be served where it is needed. It's important to stand up for what is right," Ms Buhler said.

"I guess my message for Dan Andrews would be, I hope one day you'll have your day in court."

Since the start of the pandemic, 5,264 people in Victoria have lost their lives due to complications relating to COVID-19.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-30/anti-lockdown-protest-charges-thrown-out-ballarat-woman/101385396

Crime coverup on behalf of a well-connected Leftist?

Many moons have passed since Kristina Keneally’s son, an officer with the NSW Police Force, was confirmed to be under investigation for allegedly falsifying evidence against a civilian who wound up being sent to prison.

In a case that could defy the limits of what is definitionally corrupt, Senior Constable Daniel Keneally accused the young man, Luke Moore, of threatening to kill a detective during a telephone conversation held in February last year, a call which Moore fortunately recorded.

His house was raided the next day and he was chaperoned to Nowra Correctional Facility where he spent the next three weeks imprisoned with bail refused until the recording was uncovered and the charges withdrawn.

A letter of apology arrived a few months later on behalf of the state of NSW. It said: “The State accepts that SC Keneally was in error when he said that you wanted another police officer ‘dead’.” Moreover, the State equally regretted that Moore’s declarations of innocence were not examined “more expeditiously”, the letter stated.

Yes, what a great pity. Moore has already rejected several offers of compensation and is continuing to sue the NSWPF for upwards of $800,000.

Meanwhile, the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission confirmed in December that it would investigate Keneally’s conduct but the matter has hitherto disappeared into a bottomless black hole without a syllable of further information.

But Margin Call can reveal that the LECC, which disgracefully refused to touch the matter in the first instance, has dispatched a brief of evidence to prosecutors seeking to know if criminal charges should be laid against Keneally.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions declined to comment, but we’re reliably informed that a leading official has completed an assessment of the LECC’s case, with their report currently undergoing review at the upper managerial levels of the agency.

A final decision is likely to be made by ODPP Director Sally Dowling SC.

The LECC confirmed in response to questions it had “taken a number of steps to progress the investigation with the matter remaining under consideration”, a response nearly as mystifying as what its officials actually do during their working hours.

This is the same agency that formally refused to investigate Moore’s complaint in the months after he was released from jail because, in their own words, “it is not a matter justifying investigation”.

Come again? If allegedly loading up a civilian on a false charge that leads to their imprisonment does not reach the threshold for LECC’s examination then we can only wonder what levels of depravity are required to pique their interest.

Does someone still need to be beaten with a bag of oranges, or a phone book, to get LECC’s attention these days?

As for Keneally, he remains employed by the NSWPF although a spokeswoman declined to formally confirm his status. The DPP has been given six months to provide their response, a time frame due to expire in the coming weeks.

It also appears that its deliberations skirted the mayhem of the federal election, where former senator Keneally stood for the Sydney seat of Fowler.

Then again, who can really say whether this matter would – had it come to light – have damaged her prospects, given they were so bad to begin with.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/margin-call/justice-slow-for-kristina-keneallys-son-anthony-albanese-on-top/news-story/4755ce3f3d5e5d60490324a8492e1477

Innocent NT cop shut out of his job

Killing an Aborigine is unforgiveable, regardless of the circumstances.  Putting him back on normal duty would lead to an uproar from all the usual suspects.  For cowardly PR reasons he had to be hidden away.  How that affects him personally the police leadership does not care about.  Violent Aborigines must be condoned, not their own officers doing their duty

Northern Territory policeman Zachary Rolfe – who has ­ returned to work months after being found not guilty of murdering Kumanjayi Walker – ­remains banned from entering any police premises or performing normal duties.

Despite Constable Rolfe being reinstated as a serving member of the Territory’s police force, its executive has revoked the 30-year-old’s access to any police ­facilities and refused to ­return his police identification to him since his return to work on July 18.

The Weekend Australian understands Constable Rolfe has been relegated to desk duties at a nondescript government ­office building in Darwin as a ­result of formal complaints from other officers involved in his prosecution.

It is understood that one of the complaints is from Sergeant Julie Frost, who was the officer in charge at Yuendumu, 300km northwest of Alice Springs, on the night of the shooting and who had, that day, requested an ­Immediate Response Team (IRT) to arrest Walker.

Sergeant Frost has allegedly claimed she would be “triggered” if she saw Constable Rolfe at work.

During the trial, Sergeant Frost gave conflicting evidence to Constable Rolfe’s and that of his IRT colleagues.

The IRT members said their instructions were to arrest Walker as soon as possible upon ­arrival at Yuendumu, while Sergeant Frost testified that she had directed the team to arrest Walker at 5am the next day.

Constable Rolfe’s barrister, David Edwardson QC, also accused Sergeant Frost of concealing a five-page chronology of events she wrote in the days after Walker’s death.

Constable Rolfe refused to comment on Friday, but his ­father, Richard, has accused the NT police brass of trying to force his son to commit suicide by making his return to work difficult and his position within the organisation untenable.

“I believe (police commissioner) Jamie Chalker has done everything possible to push Zach to commit suicide by deliberately isolating him from his peers,” he said.

“He’s been locked away in a government building working without any contact with other frontline officers, while restricted to working on a computer.”

He said his son had gone on stress leave and would not return to work until the coronial inquest into Walker’s death starts on September 5.

Constable Rolfe is on the inquest’s draft witness list but has not yet been subpoenaed to give evidence.

NT police declined to comment other than to say that “the safety and wellbeing of all employees is an ongoing priority”.

“We do not discuss individual cases to maintain their privacy,” a spokesman said.

Northern Territory Police ­Association president Paul McCue also declined an interview. “Matters relating to the internal deployment of Constable Rolfe are confidential and we continue to assist him in his return to work after a long absence,” he said.

Constable Rolfe was immediately suspended from duty in ­November 2019 after he fatally shot Walker during an arrest at Yuendumu.

He had been one of four IRT members deployed from Alice Springs to Yuendumu to execute an arrest warrant for Walker on four charges, including assaulting police with an axe and breaching his suspended sentence.

During the arrest, Constable Rolfe shot Walker three times after the teenager stabbed him with a pair of stainless-steel surgical scissors and attempted to stab his police partner Adam Eberl. Days later, he was charged with the 19-year-old’s murder.

In June last year, alternative charges of manslaughter and ­violent act causing death were added to his indictment.

In March, a jury found Constable Rolfe not guilty on all three charges after a five-week trial in Darwin.

Hours after his acquittal, NT police directed Constable Rolfe to take leave while they dealt with dozens of alleged serious breaches of discipline that ­included excessive-use-of-force ­allegations, speaking to the media and the contents of private text messages found on his phone.

The 55-year-old female officer in charge of Constable Rolfe’s disciplinary matters has since been charged with assault and is due to appear in the Darwin Local Court on September 20. Constable Rolfe was cleared to return to work last month and all dis­ciplinary matters have been ­resolved.

The West Australian also understands that he was forced, last Friday, to participate in a directed interview about the shooting.

A recent NTPA ballot of more than 1000 NT police found that 79.7 per cent of ­respondents did not have confidence in Commissioner Chalker; officers also expressed dissatisfaction with other issues including ­resourcing, staffing and morale.

On Friday night, former policeman and Territory politician Mark Turner called for a royal commission into policing in the Territory. The Labor MP, who trains with Constable Rolfe at a mental health boxing club for emergency first responders, said the survey results painted a “damning picture”.

“We must protect our protectors,” he said. “They’re hurting; we appear to have the highest attrition rate in the nation, a demoralised and deeply hurt police force, and they’ve been let down by those that they trust to protect them. Whilst commentary will swirl on the future of the Police Commissioner; I cannot see how his position is tenable.”

Commissioner Chalker responded to the survey by saying he had been “aware of the confidence sentiment for some time”.

“The job we do is incredibly demanding and the health and wellbeing of our members is our priority,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/innocent-nt-kill-cop-zachary-rolfe-shut-out-of-his-job/news-story/7eea18cc8a0ba3e1a0542df4d6afe037

Protester stands his ground against 'corrupt' cops

Nick Patterson has vowed to take his 'fight against police corruption' all the way.

The former gym owner was jailed for 29 days after confronting photo of him appearing to punch a police officer made headlines across the nation.

While the mainstream media aired the perfectly-timed image to portray Patterson in a negative light, police bodycam footage later corroborated Patterson's version of events.

He was released on harsh bail conditions and charged by police. 

Victoria Police later even threatened me with jail if Rebel News didn't remove the bodycam footage from our website.

Now with a 10-day trial set to begin on November 14, Patterson said he is more committed than ever to seeking justice. 

"I've held a very strong position against the government's mandates from the very beginning through the whole Covid scenario and I've been targeted for that reason," he said.

"I really believe that I've been put in this position for a reason because I won't back down and I'll go all the way with this and I want to change the system."

Patterson said that he is confident that, with the public behind him, he has an extremely strong case and wants his case to set a precedent.

"I can prove their systemic failure. I can prove that the police have been writing false statements to put people in jail, they did that to me, I can prove that they've used bail as a way to silence political dissenters," he said.

"I can prove it, there's no way that they can deny this.

"They're still trying to charge me which ... it's ridiculous to pursue those charges because there's no evidence of them."

You can follow Nick's case in detail at FightCorruptPolice.com, a website he's set up to detail and provide updates on his legal fight.

https://www.rebelnews.com/protester_stands_his_ground_against_corrupt_cops

Sergeant Bruno's big speech mistake

A Victorian policeman is under investigation for posting online that there are only two genders.

And so he should be!

Everyone knows there are actually three genders: Males (pronouns he/him), Females (pronouns she/her), and Narcissists (pronouns me!/me!/me!).

The Age newspaper reported this week that 62-year-old Sergeant Bruno Staffieri was interviewed by officers from Professional Standards Command over an online comment he made to an officer working in the Gender Equality and Inclusion Command.

Staffieri reportedly wrote: ‘So you are doing tertiary education studying genders. I’ll make it easy for you to pass … there are 2.’

Someone call triple-zero!

You have to hand it to Victoria Police; they know what constitutes inappropriate behaviour. 

* Shoot peaceful protesters with rubber bullets? No consequences.

* Pepper spray law-abiding citizens? No consequences.

* Harass old ladies sitting in a park during Covid lockdown? No consequences.

* Slam people into the pavement for not wearing a mask? No consequences.

But if you dare to state a biological fact, everyone – from the Deputy Commissioner down – wets their pants.

Sergeant Staffieri should demand to know how many genders there are so that he can be more accurate in future.

Google doesn’t know, so we’ll wait for the answer.

Oh, and if you’re the victim of an actual offence, you’ll have to wait too. Police are busy attending to thought crimes.

Staffieri, who has been an officer for more than 35 years and is close to retirement, could lose his job because of the online comments.

This is not the first time Staffieri has upset police command with views that, until five minutes ago, were entirely unremarkable.

Staffieri was also investigated over his public criticism of the government’s decision to cancel Australia Day and Anzac Day celebrations last year, but allow the Gay Pride March in St Kilda to proceed.

‘So the next time Australians are sent out to fight a war, maybe we can send out the 8,000 that marched today … and try to stop the enemy by waving feathers and brightly coloured boas at them,’ Staffieri reportedly posted on May 17, 2021.

‘Triple-zero. What’s your emergency?’

‘Sergent Staffieri objected to the Mardi Gras.’

‘Does anyone need help?’

‘Yes. We are all very hurty.’

‘Does Sergeant Staffieri have a weapon?’

‘It’s his words. His words! Words are violence.’

‘Stay in a safe space and practice socially distancing until a squad car full of thought police arrives.’

In June last year, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson posted on Yammer, the force’s internal communication platform, that…

‘Victoria Police is proud to have been recognised as a silver employer at the 2021 Australian LGBTQ+ inclusion awards.’

Staffieri reportedly responded by posting:

‘Yes, I agree. Great achievement. But if the public knew how much time, effort, and taxpayer dollars went into this, they would also be demanding why we didn’t get a gold.’

That’s pretty funny. 

Paterson didn’t think so. According to The Age, he defended the campaign and denied it had received significant public funding.

Staffieri responded: ‘Sir, I totally value and respect your opinion and your rank, I simply ask that you value and respect mine.’

Paterson fired a broadside back at Staffieri… ‘I don’t respect or value your views as they are offensive and there is no place for those views in Victoria Police… Either limit your comments on Yammer to comments that are respectful of everyone or consider your employment options.’

So in Daniel Andrews’ Victoria, it’s an honest police officer who tells the truth who is threatened with the sack for being in possession of what police hierarchy call ‘those views’

Maybe, if Sergeant Staffieri flies the Chinese flag outside his station, all will be forgiven.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/05/sergeant-brunos-big-mistake/

NT Police in turmoil over suspended cop who criticised commissioners over Rolfe case

Politically correct police leadership hits back at criticisms of itself.  They breached their own guidelines by  hounding officer Rolfe.  They were prepared to throw a good officer to the wolves in order to placate Aborigines.  The officer would not even have been charged if the deceased had been white

The Northern Territory Police Force is in turmoil after a veteran ­officer was “brutally” suspended for publicly criticising how his commissioners had treated constable ­Zachary Rolfe over the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.

Sergeant Mark Casey, who has served in the NT Police for 25 years, said he was “devastated” and “terrified” after being suspended without pay on Saturday for alleged “serious breaches of discipline” related to his “personal behaviour and public views”.

The suspension notice, signed by Assistant Commissioner ­Michael White, asserts that Sergeant Casey committed three breaches: improper conduct, personal use of social media and breach of the force’s code of conduct.

The 45-year-old from the digital forensic unit was suspended just hours after an opinion piece he wrote was published by local online news outlet NT Independent.

The article detailed “concerns” he held about the actions and ­“integrity” of NT Police executive members including Commissioner Jamie Chalker.

“This concern relates to the ­authoritarian management as a whole and specifically in relation to the charging of Constable Zach Rolfe,” he wrote.

“It is time for someone to stand-up and allow the discourse to happen, rather than sitting in fear, waiting for someone else to take action.”

Sergeant Casey said he had ­initially written the article “purely as a vent”, to privately process his growing frustration about how the Rolfe matter was handled, before deciding to have it published.

Sky News Darwin Bureau Chief Matt Cunningham says the ICAC is considering an “independent inquiry” into the… arrest of Constable Zachary Rolfe, after he was found not guilty for the murder of Kumanjayi Walker in 2019. “I think Michael Richards, the new ICAC commissioner…he’s made it clear that More

“I’d been speaking to quite a lot of police and they were all saying that something needs to be done but they were all too scared and fearful of the repercussions,” he said.

Sergeant Casey said he had ­expected to face disciplinary ­action for publishing his opinion piece. “I expected the intimidation and the bullying in response, but I underestimated how brutal it was going to be,” he said.

“I did initially feel relief (after publication) but being suspended without pay has been devastating.”

Suspending him without pay has incensed colleagues, who say the NT Police disciplinary system is unfair because other members – including senior officers – have been suspended on full pay while being investigated over more serious matters including alleged murder, rape and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Sergeant Casey, who has spent most of his policing career investigating fatal crashes, has never worked with or met Constable Rolfe, who in March was acquitted of all charges related to Walker’s death.

“He was by all accounts a competent, enthusiastic police officer and a good person,” Sergeant Casey wrote. “He has risked his life to save not one but two strangers from raging flood waters and risked his life to apprehend a violent criminal. If a police officer does the wrong thing, typically their colleagues will not support them, but in this case, everyone is supporting Zach.”

An internal police broadcast, sent to police members on Saturday night stated that the alleged breaches related to Sergeant Casey’s “personal behaviour and public views that do not align with the oath taken” when he joined the force more than two decades ago.

Sergeant Casey has seven days to respond to the suspension ­notice and is “very worried” about losing his job. “It’s not something that I wanted to do but I felt it needed to be done,” he said.

“The culture is that everyone is too scared to speak up and do the right thing. I think that’s a culture that needs to change.”

The matter is now being investigated internally by the ­professional standards command and has been referred to the NT ICAC and NT Ombudsman.

The NT Police Association said it “will provide ongoing support”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/nt-police-in-turmoil-over-suspended-cop-who-criticised-commissioners-over-rolfe-case/news-story/0df0919b892e40a00c783de08bdf30c0

NSW police officers convicted of domestic violence have kept their jobs, despite force's claims of 'zero tolerance'

This should be totally unacceptable

At least six senior NSW police officers who recently committed serious domestic violence offences have kept their jobs, shocking victim advocates and raising questions about the force's commitment to addressing the scourge of abuse within police ranks and in the broader community. 

Documents obtained by ABC News under Freedom of Information reveal 27 NSW police officers were charged with domestic violence in 2019 and 2020. Of those, five male officers were convicted of their charges in court, three of whom are still serving — including a senior constable convicted of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of common assault and breaching his AVO. Three other officers who were found guilty of their assault charges without conviction are also still serving.

A further 15 NSW police officers — 11 men and four women — were last year charged with domestic violence offences including destroying property, assault, stalking/intimidation, choking and using a carriage service to make threats to kill, documents show. The 2021 data is similar to that obtained in previous years, with 16 officers charged with domestic violence in 2020 and 11 in 2019.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb, who was formally sworn in to her role in February, said she had "zero tolerance" for domestic violence but that attempts to sack officers who break the law were subject to appeal, and not always successful.

"Obviously I haven't had to adjudicate on any of these matters — I've been Commissioner for the last 60-odd days," Commissioner Webb told ABC News. "I've got a very strong position on domestic violence generally ... [but] I can't speak for [decisions made by] my predecessors."

When asked whether the public could trust the NSW Police Force to respond well to domestic violence in the community if officers found guilty of such abuse were permitted to continue serving, Commissioner Webb said it was a "reasonable question".

She said she was "sure" the six officers still serving after being found guilty or convicted of domestic violence would have faced disciplinary action and didn't think they'd still be on the frontline, but her office did not provide details by the ABC's deadline.

Still, it's relatively uncommon for police officers in Australia to be charged with domestic violence, let alone be found guilty in court. For context, in the year ending June 2021, 89 per cent of domestic violence defendants in NSW had a guilty outcome. Of the 27 officers charged with domestic violence in 2019 and 2020, however, just a third were found guilty with or without conviction, in line with trends in other states.

Figures undermine confidence in police, advocates say

Advocates say the figures are further evidence the NSW Police Force, like other Australian law enforcement agencies, has been failing to hold abusive officers to account, and contradict claims by senior police that the organisation has "zero tolerance" for criminal behaviour. As an ABC News investigation first revealed in 2020, police forces are too often failing to take action against domestic violence perpetrators in their ranks, deterring victims from reporting abuse and fuelling cultures of impunity.

It comes following a scathing assessment of how NSW police are responding to domestic violence across the board, with the auditor-general's performance audit last week finding numerous flaws and failures in the force's domestic violence operations, including with its handling of investigations into serving officers.

"It's difficult to believe that police officers found guilty of criminal offences are still allowed to serve in the police force," potentially responding to domestic violence incidents in the community, said Kerrie Thompson, chief executive of the Victims of Crime Assistance League (VOCAL). 

"It undermines the good work that the majority of police are doing in responding to domestic violence. The community expects police officers to display a high standard of integrity and uphold the law," Ms Thompson said. "These findings raise questions about how and why officers are allowed to keep their job when they are convicted of criminal offences."

Senior constables in particular are "at the forefront" of domestic violence policing, she added — they frequently respond to domestic violence calls and take victim-survivor reports: "If they are perpetrators of the same abuse, I'm deeply concerned about their ability to provide adequate support to victim-survivors of family and domestic violence."

Sacking police officers in NSW

The NSW Police Commissioner can remove a police officer from the force under section 181D of the Police Act if they lose confidence in their suitability to continue as an officer. Officers who engage in misconduct may also face internal disciplinary action including a reduction in rank or pay or transferral to other duties.

Those found guilty of criminal behaviour are automatically referred for consideration for a Commissioner's loss of confidence, Commissioner Webb said, with each case assessed on its own merits: "But ... I don't have blanket approval for automatic removal and I have to take everything into consideration in making my decisions."

In other words, committing domestic violence is not necessarily considered serious enough misconduct to warrant sacking a police officer.

That's not to say it hasn't featured in matters before the Industrial Relations Commission. In one case heard in 2020, a former police officer appealed the Police Commissioner's decision to sack him for 11 findings of misconduct — including that he threatened and assaulted his partner — claiming his removal would be harsh. The Commissioner (then Mick Fuller) disagreed, arguing the NSW Police Force "has no tolerance for domestic violence behaviour", which he described as "criminal conduct and inimical to our sworn oath of office".

When one of the "key missions" of the force is to "drive out the scourge of domestic violence", the Police Commissioner said, "I can no longer have confidence in you to contribute toward the achievement of such a goal, in view of your misconduct". The industrial relations commissioner John Murphy concluded the officer's removal was neither harsh, unreasonable or unjust and dismissed his application for review.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-14/nsw-police-officers-convicted-domestic-violence-kept-jobs/100982038

Another false rape allegation

Bettina Arndt

Imagine a sexual encounter involving a woman shagging a man, sitting on top of him, bouncing cheerfully. How could she be a rape victim?

That was a key question at the heart of a case settled two years ago involving a Sydney man who achieved a substantial payout as settlement of a $1 million malicious prosecution case against NSW police and prosecutors. The case exposed the disgraceful behaviour of police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in ignoring clear video evidence revealing his former wife’s rape and assault allegations to be falsehoods, the authorities’ role in encouraging her to concoct new allegations, and their lies told in court to try to keep him in prison. 

The settlement came at the end of a five-year ordeal for the man – I’ll call him ‘Peter’ – after his former wife, a medical specialist, told police he had raped her a few weeks after the couple had split up in 2015. The marriage fell apart when Peter discovered she was having an affair, but the couple then had a brief reconciliation which culminated in consensual sex on the day in question. 

Two months later Peter was arrested and charged with sexual assault and violence when he returned from a work trip to Europe. He spent a month in prison and over $350,000 in legal costs before the allegations were thrown out after a 10-day jury trial. The judge described the wife’s evidence as ‘demonstrably false’ and said that the prosecutors had failed to take into account ‘clear and consistent, objective evidence’ backing up Peter’s claim that he was being wrongly accused. 

Peter had installed video cameras that recorded the whole encounter, giving a lie to the wife’s allegation that he had jumped her immediately following her arrival at the former marital home. The cameras showed them fully dressed for almost an hour prior to the consensual sex which featured the woman in flagrante delicto, sitting riding him on the couch. 

And… wait for it…. During their lively encounter, the video evidence showed she actually stopped to ask if he was okay! 

The doctor has suffered no adverse consequences for her malicious lies. Peter’s efforts to have her charged with perjury have received persistent knock-backs from police, the DPP, and other relevant complaints bodies. 

That’s our justice system. Women accusing men of rape or violence have absolute license to perjure themselves in our courts and concoct elaborate mistruths which, even if proved false, will very rarely bear any adverse consequences. 

The official policy of our police and prosecutors is that women can lie with impunity. This week I canvased police officers across the country who all reported they are told never to take action against a woman caught out making false violence or rape allegations, lest punishment of false accusers deters genuine victims from coming forward. 

That’s the mantra making a mockery of our rule of law. Undermining our justice system. Encouraging women to play fast and loose with the truth.

Look what happened in our family court system, where false allegations have long been rampant. The Howard Government made a noble effort to impose penalties aimed at reining them in, only to have their reforms rolled back by Labor’s mean girls as soon as they gained power. 

In 2006, Howard’s path-breaking new family law legislation included advice to courts to make cost orders against persons who knowingly made false allegations in family law proceedings – a measure stated to address concerns about widespread false allegations in The Family Court. 

A year later, the Howard government was gone and suddenly all the talk was about risks to children from violent dads. A Chisholm Review into violence and family law dutifully concluded that the cost orders provision might deter vulnerable parents from disclosing family violence and by 2011 Julia Gillard’s team had changed the legislation to ensure there were no longer any consequences for perjury.

That’s been the case ever since. At hearings for the recent parliamentary inquiry into the family law system, a Deputy Secretary from the Attorney General’s Department showed that between 2014 and 2019 not a single family law-related perjury matter was investigated by Commonwealth prosecutors.

I wrote last year about research showing family court judges determined that only 12 per cent of the child sexual abuse allegations involved in contested cases were found to be true. Accusations of abuse that were deliberately misleading were found to be twice as common as true allegations, according to the study by Webb, Moloney, Smyth, and Murphy, which reviewed family court cases from 2012 to 2019.

Think about all those wrongly accused fathers, deliberately alienated from their children by such horrendous lies, children forced to suffer through embarrassing, damaging interviews from experts attempting to weed out the truth. Not one of these mothers faced legal consequences for what she did. 

The same unwritten rule applies in magistrates’ courts dealing with the weekly flood of false domestic violence allegations and the criminal courts handling sexual assault. Everyone knows that police and prosecutors will accept the most preposterous allegations and even if they ultimately get thrown out in court, the instigator gets off scot-free. 

In Peter’s case, his ex-wife is still out there, despite her allegations having cost taxpayers a fortune – well over $200,000 for the trial alone, plus Peter’s settlement, let alone the years of police and prosecutors’ time. 

The good doctor continues to practice medicine, even though court proceedings revealed she was addicted to Tramadol and had frequently written prescriptions for herself in her husband’s name. Peter reported her to the Health Care Complaints Commission, which decided not to investigate because it was ‘a private matter’. Go figure… can you imagine they’d ever take that decision if a wife provided similar evidence about her doctor husband? 

The argument about perjury charges deterring proper victims is spurious nonsense. Perjury charges would never be applied in cases where the allegations simply failed to be proved in court. Actual victims, or women who mistakenly believe they are victims have nothing to fear.

It’s a high bar proving someone has intentionally lied or falsified evidence, a big job to find them guilty beyond reasonable doubt of such malicious behaviour. But in cases like this, where police and prosecutors are forced to pay out for ignoring irrefutable evidence that the allegations were false, that bar would likely be reached. Surely proper justice demands Peter’s former wife pay some price for what she did. 

The constant silencing of public discussion about the proliferation of false allegations prevents examination of the benefits of introducing measures to deter perjury in our courts, including massively reducing demands on our justice system and increasing the resources available to real victims.

Trust in our law depends on an assumption of fair treatment. We need to know that police and prosecutors aren’t there just to act for one side, but to ensure consequences for wrongdoing – wrongdoing that includes maliciously using false allegations to weaponize the legal system against the object of their grievance. 

What a blight on our society that so many are discovering that trust in our legal system is misplaced. Our faith in this vital institution is surely being undermined by widespread knowledge that there’s no requirement for women to tell the truth in our courts. 

The final twist of the screw is the fact that the low rates of prosecution for false allegations are then used by feminists to claim we should believe all victims – because women so rarely lie. Further proof of the evil genius of the feminist enterprise.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/04/evil-genius-at-work/

Claims a baby was STRIP SEARCHED by police with an officer 'spreading the infant's legs'

The cop was clearly searching for contraband, a common problem in prisons.  And if no harm comes to the baby I see no big problem with it.  But the law needs to be changed, not breached

The family of an eight-month old baby is suing the state of NSW claiming he was unlawfully strip searched by a female police officer.

The boy's mother was on her way to visit his father in jail on September 2, 2018, when the officer allegedly took the baby out of his nappy, spread the his leg's and inspected his body. 

The incident outside Mid North Coast Correctional Centre near Kempsey is the second such allegation to go to court in NSW with the family of a 16-month-old boy settling out of court in a previous case. 

There is no suggestion either child's family were attempting to smuggle contraband and it is not clear if the same officer was involved in both incidents. 

When arriving for the visit about 8.30am, both the baby and mother were first examined by sniffer dogs before being directed on to a bus where the boy was allegedly further searched. 

'The police officer inspected the (baby's) naked body, ­including (his) genitals and buttocks area,' court documents seen by The Daily Telegraph state. 

The lawyers for the baby under direction of his mother are suing for unlawful detention and battery. 

'NSW laws clearly state that a child under 10 cannot be strip searched,' their lawyer Todd Scott said. 

The law in NSW also states a member of the same sex must perform any strip search. 

He added the alleged incident was a 'flagrant' violation of the rights of the baby who was unable to assert any objection. 

The family is also seeking damages in Port Macquarie District Court. 

The state on behalf of NSW Police is yet to submit a defence in the case. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10655749/Babys-family-sues-police-claiming-illegally-strip-searched-NSW.html

NT police officer Zachary Rolfe found not guilty of murder over fatal shooting of aggressive Aborigine

Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe has been cleared of all charges over the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker during an attempted arrest in the remote community of Yuendumu. 

The jury found Constable Rolfe not guilty of murder as well as the two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death. 

Constable Rolfe, 30, showed no emotion as the verdict was announced in the NT Supreme Court. Afterwards, he smiled and hugged his defence lawyer.

The jury returned following just under seven hours of deliberations. 

Mr Walker was shot three times during a struggle with officers in a home in the community 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in November 2019. 

The first shot, which came after Mr Walker stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of scissors, was not the subject of any charges. 

Constable Rolfe's legal team argued he was acting in defence of himself and his partner and in line with his training and duties. 

Constable Rolfe addressed a media scrum outside the court shortly after the verdict was announced. "Obviously I think that was the right decision to make," he said.

"But a lot of people are hurting today — Kumanjayi's family and his community ... and I'm going to leave this space for them."

Constable Rolfe's defence lawyer David Edwardson QC told the waiting media "there are no winners in this case." "A young man died and that's tragic," he said.

"At the same time, Zachary Rolfe, in my view was wrongly charged in the first place. "It was an appalling investigation and very much regretted."

The jury heard almost five weeks of evidence and testimony from more than 40 witnesses before retiring to deliberate at lunchtime on Thursday. 

Constable Rolfe had pleaded not guilty to all charges laid over the shooting, which happened just after 7:20pm on Saturday, November 9, 2019. 

Police body-worn camera footage played throughout the trial captured the struggle that started less than a minute after Constable Rolfe and his policing partner, Constable Adam Eberl, entered a home in Yuendumu and identified Kumanjayi Walker.  

The 19-year-old was wanted by police because of an incident that took place three days prior, when he had confronted two local officers with an axe as they tried to arrest him for breaching a suspended sentence. 

Prosecutors agreed the first shot was legally justifiable because it came after Constable Rolfe was stabbed in the shoulder with a pair of scissors and while Mr Walker was on his feet and struggling with Constable Eberl. 

But they argued that Mr Walker had been effectively restrained on the ground by Constable Eberl when Constable Rolfe fired his second shot 2.6 seconds after the first and a third shot 0.5 seconds after the second. 

The prosecution case was that Constable Rolfe did not have an honest belief that the second and third shots were necessary and therefore was not acting reasonably and in good faith in the performance of his duties.  

Constable Rolfe said Mr Walker was not restrained and that he feared for his fellow officer's life when the second and third shots were fired. 

He said police training held that officers should fire as many rounds as necessary to "incapacitate" a threat involving an edged weapon. 

He rejected the prosecution's suggestion that he lied in his evidence about having seen Mr Walker stabbing Constable Eberl in order to justify his actions. 

Mr Walker died around an hour after the shooting, in the Yuendumu police station, where he was given first aid because health clinic staff had been evacuated earlier that day. 

Constable Rolfe, who was bailed after he was charged and suspended on full pay, faced the NT's mandatory minimum non-parole period of 20 years if found guilty of murder. 

Mr Walker's death and the charge against Constable Rolfe made global headlines and sparked protests against Aboriginal deaths in custody around Australia. 

Constable Rolfe was the first NT police officer to face trial over an Aboriginal death in custody since the 1991 royal commission. 

In his closing address, Constable Rolfe's defence lawyer said the murder charge, which was laid four days after the shooting, came before a proper investigation was carried out.  He described the pursuit of the case by the NT Police executive as a disgrace. 

Senior NT police officers, including an assistant commissioner, gave evidence as prosecution witnesses during the trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-11/zachary-rolfe-not-guilty-murder-kumanjayi-walker-police/100895368

Australian police use sonic ‘torture weapons’ on vaccine protesters

It's long been admitted that the police do have and use LRADs and that they can be misused.  So the time appears to have come when the police are misusing them.  The shocking part is that the mainstream media seem to be largely ignoring  it

SINISTER stories have emerged from the trucker convoy camp in Canberra. Nasty new devices seem now to be deployed against peaceful citizens. This is Australia in the 2020s.   

Canberra is the insiders’ insider paradise.  Woke on steroids does not begin to describe the place. A workers’ promised land. With fewer than half a million residents, it is run by a glorified local council. As the Australian Capital Territory’s Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, says in as many words, vaccinated to within an inch of its life. As I have noted elsewhere: 

‘Australia’s two separate worlds were vividly on display on Saturday, 12 February. In Canberra, tens of thousands of protesters marched upon the national Parliament in the biggest display of controlled public anger at government since Vietnam. The numbers and the raw emotion involved make the pro-Gough rallies of 1975 look puny in comparison. People from all over the country rose up and marched on the capital. Across town, meanwhile, youngsters as young as five were being dressed up as superheroes as they were led off to be vaccinated against a minor illness that will not even touch most of them.’  

Then came horrifying reports of the way the police had managed the crowd, the ‘weaponry’ they had deployed, of unexplained injuries at the convoy camp. Was something literally ‘cooking’ the protesters? 

Your News reported: ‘Australian police have been deploying directed energy weapons (DEWs) against the peaceful Freedom Convoy protesters around the capital, according to reports. 

‘Disturbing videos and photos circulating social media show Canberra protesters, including women and children, who appear to have been badly burned by directed microwave energy weapons, with blisters on their faces, arms, and torsos. 

‘These particular DEWs reportedly used concentrated microwave radiation to inflict painful burns on the skin from far distances. ‘

The mainstream media has accepted that the Canberra cops were using sonic devices called long-range acoustic devices (LRADs) which the Australian Broadcasting Corporation tried to put a benign spin on. It said ‘sonic weapons’ were used by police in Canberra’s protests, but only to broadcast messages rather than do harm. 

All ok, then. 

Why the use of designer torture devices by the police? One hundred thousand and more protesters from all over Australia have presumably caused some serious political buttock-clenching. John Stapleton at A Sense of Place magazine called it ‘the day Australia changed’. Here we have the resistance to the resistance. Ottawa style. The concerted effort to portray protesters as liars as well as everything else of which they are regularly accused is the Covid State.   

The use of harmful devices is utterly consistent with the tactics used by the State across Australia and in other Dominions to quell peaceful protests. And consistent with the overarching strategy of doing harm to citizens, and with the lies, spin, propaganda and misinformation.

The ACT’s Chief Minister doesn’t like protesters much. On Wednesday morning, Andrew Barr told ABC’s Radio National the protesters’ behaviour had been ‘over the top’ and they were ‘effectively stalking Canberrans, harassing business owners and residents, and aggressively flouting the law’. 

Mr Barr said the protesters ‘couldn’t have a less receptive audience anywhere in the world’ with Canberra – if not the most vaccinated city on the planet – among the most vaccinated cities. 

‘It is an eccentric and eclectic bunch, there’s no denying that,’ he said. ‘And it appears to have been infiltrated, or at least part of the protest movement has, by very extremist views.’ 

But some of its Canberra’s denizens are stirring. Craig Kelly MP has called for an inquiry into the claims about sonic weapons. Senator Malcolm Roberts of One Nation has asked questions in parliament. As has Liberal Party hero Alex Antic, detained by police at Adelaide Airport and placed forcibly in quarantine last year for entering his own state whileunvaccinated, when it was the norm that home isolation was all that was required. 

A far more trustworthy news source than the mainstream media, the Canadian Rebel News reported both the sonic devices whose use in Canberra was admitted by police, but framed to appear innocent, and the deployment of other devices that caused a range of documented injuries and reactions.

The site said: ‘What started out at the beginning of the week as the “stuff of conspiracy theories” was eventually confirmed by police. Australian Capital Territory Policing admitted they did use a Long-Range Acoustic Device (also known as a LRAD) during the Canberra Convoy Freedom rallies outside Parliament House. 

‘Reports are still coming in on various injuries at the protest – most relating to what looks like sunburn and heat stroke.  There are also clear allergic reactions from what some speculate might be contact with chemicals.’ 

The LRAD is technically a sonic crowd control weapon. It has two settings and can project extremely loud sounds over long distances to cripple a crowd. This ‘alert setting’ on the device is particularly dangerous and has been known to cause permanent hearing damage, dizziness, disorientation and brain damage. 

Ironically, as Rebel News points out, when the weapons arrived down under in 2016, the ABC was ‘concerned’: ‘They can break up protests with loud, piercing sound, but Long-Range Acoustic Devices can also cause permanent hearing damage. Australian law enforcement agencies are now investing in the technology, but sound and law experts say their potential use is extremely concerning.’ 

At the time Melbourne University expert James Parker told the ABC, ‘The secrecy of the state around the tools, the weapons that it has and is capable of using on its population is something to be really, really concerned about. It expands the nature of police/state/military authority in a certain kind of way. It makes sound itself part of the arsenal that police and military and state institutions use.’ 

Since then, the ABC has discovered deplorables and anti-vaxxers, those same folks routinely referred to by politicians, police commanders and journalists as ‘domestic terrorists’.  

Whatever the murky tactics used by police, the message to we-the-people from the Canberra community was clear. One local rammed a protester’s vehicle with her car, then let loose with expletive-laden vitriol. 

The Canberra Times editorial made its position clear, after a mere few days of extremely polite, heartfelt protest by the deplorables.  ’You have made your point.  Now go home’. The same Canberra Times accused Craig Kelly of ‘bringing a conspiracy [theory] into the House of Representatives’. 

Taxpayer-funded Canberra seems not to have noticed that Australia has fallen apart, its citizens’ rights crushed. For two years. Lives have been ruined. The parking of the unvaccinated in the bad corner and the use of language to diminish their ‘grievances’ is a classic tactic of the Covid class. According to the police boss, the crowd had a ‘poor attitude’. Thought crime. Only three arrests, though.   

As we know, names will never hurt us. It is the rather sophisticated and sinister sticks and stones of the politicised police that are doing the harm. Like the truckers in Ottawa, we have been used as punching bags.  The legacy ‘journalists’ are useful idiots, with the Covid Kool-Aid dribbling down their chins.

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/australian-police-use-sonic-torture-weapons-on-vaccine-protesters/

Constable Zachary Rolfe's murder trial told Kumanjayi Walker posed 'low threat' when second and third shots were fired

This is absurd and shows no awareness of the use of firearms in policing.  The key point is that rapidly aimed fire from a handgun  is not very likely to hit its target.  Most shots will go wild.  So the only way of being reasonably sure that the target is hit is to fire multiple rounds in close succession, which is exactly what Rolfe did. 

It is easy to do armchair pontification about rights and wrongs after the event but the police are often confronted with a situation requiring split second decisions, which was the situation here.  The root cause of the death was the deceased's hostility to the police, not the action of the police in response to it

It may be relevant that Const. Rolfe appears to be a little guy who would reasonably be particularly fearful of any physical confrontation

Biomechanical expert Andrew McIntosh on Friday gave evidence in the NT Supreme Court, where Constable Rolfe, 30, has pleaded not guilty to murder and two alternative charges over the fatal shooting in the remote community in November 2019.

Dr McIntosh was asked about the moments after Mr Walker began to struggle with Constable Rolfe and fellow officer Constable Adam Eberl, when the 19-year-old stabbed Constable Rolfe in the shoulder with a pair of medical scissors.

The first shot then fired by Constable Rolfe is not the subject of any charges, but prosecutors argue the second and third shots fired 2.6 and 0.5 seconds later were not legally justified because the threat posed by Mr Walker had been contained.

Dr McIntosh said the body-worn camera footage of the incident showed that after the first shot, Mr Walker and Constable Eberl fell onto a mattress on the floor.

As Mr Rolfe moved towards them with his gun drawn, Dr McIntosh said Constable Eberl could be seen putting his body weight on top of Mr Walker, who was lying on his right side.

Dr McIntosh said this meant Mr Walker's right arm, which was holding the scissors, would likely have been restricted in its movement range.

Under questioning from the prosecution, he agreed that when the second and third shots were fired, Mr Walker was not likely to be a "direct threat" to Constable Rolfe.

He agreed Mr Walker was likely to be a "low threat" to Constable Eberl, because his ability to deploy the scissors was impaired, as his arm was stuck beneath him.

"If you're using a weapon in your hand and your arm is pinned in that way, then it's very difficult to develop force with the weapon that you have because you can't accelerate your arm, reach any velocity, reach any momentum and exert a force onto someone else," Dr McIntosh said.

He said the degree of restriction depended on how much of Mr Walker's right arm was under his own body and that even if only the upper arm was pinned down, his movement would have been "greatly constrained".

Under cross-examination from the defence, Dr McIntosh agreed the body-worn camera footage never showed the extent of control Constable Eberl had on Mr Walker's right forearm, while he was lying on top of him.

Dr McIntosh also agreed that he had the "luxury of slowing down" the vision to make his analysis, which the officers were not able to do during the incident.

"Do you accept that the perception, or perspective, of both officers Eberl and Rolfe, may be quite different from your analysis?" defence barrister David Edwardson QC asked.

"Yes," Dr McIntosh replied.

Forensic pathologist Paull Botterill also took the stand on Friday and told the court the "overwhelming majority of stab and incised wounds" in the general community do not result in death.

But he said Mr Walker's scissors did have the potential to cause a life-threatening injury if they had struck a vulnerable part of the body at a sufficient force.

He added that if Mr Walker's arm movement was restricted, the likelihood of a lethal injury was slim.

"If the limb was not able to freely move, then the only way that an implement such as those scissors could have resulted in a serious life-threatening injury would be if there was movement of the other party, the police officer, up against that immobilised weapon," Dr Botterill said.

"And it's very unlikely to result in a potentially fatal injury."

At the end of Friday's proceedings Crown prosecutor Philip Strickland SC said he would call two more witnesses on Monday and expected to wrap up the prosecution's case on Tuesday morning.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-25/nt-police-zachary-rolfe-murder-trial-yuendumu-kumanjayi-low-risk/100862354

Muslim men awarded $61,755 in costs after court played police bodycam vision

Five men who were wrongly accused of assaulting police have been awarded $61,755 in legal costs after a magistrate noted there were “glaring and serious discrepancies” between the police version of events and video footage of the incident.

Khaled Zreika, 21, and Hussein Zraika, 22, had just bought disposable face masks at a petrol station at Guildford in Sydney’s west on September 24 last year when police entered the store and arrested them for failing to wear masks.

The situation rapidly deteriorated when the men followed police outside and questioned why they were being arrested, with the officers from Raptor Squad wrestling the pair to the ground and calling for assistance.

Noah Obeid, 19, Fadi Zraika, 20, and Zachariya Al-Ahmad, 20, who approached police to criticise them for the arrest, were also arrested as scores of officers responded.

The five were charged with various offences including assaulting police, harassing police, hindering police and resisting arrest, however all charges were later withdrawn apart from a breach of the public health order.

On Thursday, Magistrate Greg Grogin said it was “abundantly clear” there was a “major” discrepancy between vision of the incident and the officers’ claims.

He found the proceedings against the men were initiated without reasonable cause, and ordered police pay $61,755.80 of legal costs.

Police had earlier conceded there was no reasonable cause to bring the charges and agreed to pay costs, but argued the amount sought by the men was manifestly excessive.

In bodycam footage played to Parramatta Local Court on Thursday, Constable James Katsetis and Constable Dylan Leyshon from Raptor Squad can be seen walking into the service station, with one of the officers greeting the men by saying “hey brother, how you going”.

“No mask, both you boys,” Constable Katsetis continues. “You’re both under arrest ... can you hop outside for us?”

The officer, who initially admonishes Hussein Zraika for swearing in a public place, is depicted a short time later wrestling with him on the ground before telling him, “you f---ing move, I’ll knock you out c--t”.

Constable Katsetis then moves to where Khaled Zreika is being restrained nearby and knees him multiple times, causing him to shout in pain, before telling him: “don’t f---ing move c--t”.

Mr Grogin said lawyers representing the men had criticised the actions of police, but the award of costs could not be viewed as being a punishment.

“The fact that costs are not punitive does not require this court to come to a decision as to the actions of the police on the day,” he said. “Suffice to say, a picture paints a thousand words.”

Mr Grogin said he had viewed the facts sheets prepared by police, as well as CCTV footage and bodycam vision, and “there are obvious, glaring and serious discrepancies, to my eyes”.

“It would be obvious to anybody involved with the criminal law and the criminal courts the reason why these charges were withdrawn,” he said. “To say that the video showed nothing but a very serious physical altercation between police and the defendants would be an understatement.”

Police prosecutor Lachlan Kirby told the court he has not been informed why charges against the five men were withdrawn, but there is a “clear inference, having watched that footage, that this matter was not going to end in favour of the prosecution”.

“I’m drawing the same inference as everyone else as to the reason the matters were withdrawn” Senior Sergeant Kirby said. “I’m not an idiot.”

Mr Grogin said the lawyer for the men, Abdul Saddik, began to carry out his own investigation including sourcing CCTV from the petrol station due to fears the footage would not be disclosed by police.

“It would appear his concerns were well-founded,” Mr Grogin said.

The court heard police did not serve a brief of evidence containing CCTV or statements, in defiance of a court deadline, before the charges were withdrawn. Some documents were given to the men for the first time on Thursday.

Mr Grogin said the costs proceeding was “not a forum for criticism” or the “airing of grievances” and “I am not determining the actions of anybody, particularly any police officers involved”.

It is understood that lawyers for the men will ask for police to investigate the officers’ actions and consider criminal charges. If this is not done, the lawyers will consider a private prosecution.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/men-paid-61-755-in-costs-after-court-played-police-bodycam-vision-20220210-p59vga.html