Live updates
1:15am
9:58pm
7:47pm
7:45pm
Latest posts
BREAKING: William Tyrrell's foster mother found not guilty of lying.
William Tyrrell's foster mother has been acquitted of lying to the NSW Crime Commission about hitting a different child with a wooden spoon.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court today, charged with knowingly giving false or misleading evidence to the commission.
The charge was unrelated to William, who was aged three when he went missing from a home at Kendall on the NSW mid-north coast in 2014.
William Tyrrell's foster mother found not guilty of lying to the Crime Commission about allegedly hitting another foster child with a wooden spoon. Story soon @smh
— Sally Rawsthorne (@sallyrawsthorne) November 4, 2022
The woman was accused of lying to the commission about whether she had ever struck another child in her care with a wooden spoon.
Magistrate Miranda Moody said she could not "discount the possibility she was mistaken and did not deliberately lie" to the commission, because she made such prompt admissions of hitting and kicking the child in other instances during the hearing.
The woman responded "yes" to questions put to her during the hearing including "did you ever hit (the child)?" and "did you ever kick (the child)?".
"Have you ever hit her with a wooden spoon?" Detective Sergeant Andrew Lonergan asked her.
"Never," she responded.
Audio recording from listening devices placed in the home recorded what police allege is the woman hitting a child with a wooden spoon.
The child can be heard threatening to call the police beforehand.
A woman is then heard telling the child to "stand up" three times.
"Where'd you put the wooden spoon?" the court heard a woman on the recording say.
The child then pleads, screams and cries, and is told to turn around and move her hands before smacking sounds are heard.
"She's still going on about it," the woman is heard telling her husband in a later phone call intercepted by police.
Earlier in the court hearing, Det Sgt Lonergan said he believed the foster mother knew where William Tyrrell is.
Her barrister, John Stratton said that was a false belief, saying police charged her for allegedly lying, in an attempt to pressure her.
"You are hoping to break her spirit," Stratton suggested.
"Our main objective is to find out where William Tyrrell is," Det Sgt Lonergan said.
The woman was emotional and teary when the magistrate delivered her decision.
"With this behind me I hope the police focus on finding William and what happened to him," she told reporters outside court.
She is due back in court next year charged with common assault.
- With AAP.
Queensland couple charged with murder and torture after baby boy found dead.
A man and a woman have been charged with murder and torture after their seven-month-old boy was found dead by police in Queensland.
33-year-old Reinhardt (Ryan) Albert Bosch and 22-year-old Noemi Kondacs were charged with one count each of murder and torture yesterday, after police were called to a home at Yugar, north of Brisbane, about 6.45am yesterday morning in relation to an unresponsive child.
"I have been a detective for 30 odd years, it's one of the most confronting scenes that I've seen," said Queensland Police Detective Inspector David Jackman.
He said the man made the initial call to paramedics.
Police will allege the couple prayed over the child’s body while they waited for the ambulance to arrive, the Courier Mail reports.
Detectives have charged a man and a woman following the death of a 7-month-old boy at Yugar.🔗https://t.co/hsKGijdRfT pic.twitter.com/6kqo3Mkubz
— Queensland Police (@QldPolice) November 3, 2022 They were taken into custody at the scene where the infant was located deceased, police said.
"The investigations uncovered injuries to the child that are enough for us to charge with murder," Det Insp Jackman said.
The pair were not previously known to police, and nor was the address.
They will appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court today.
- With AAP.
Body found in search for two fathers missing in NSW floods.
A body has been found by police divers in NSW Southern Tablelands, believed to be one of two men swept off the back of a ute in floodwaters earlier this week.
The two men were in the rear tray of the vehicle when it was driven onto a flooded causeway at Prestons Creek in the Southern Tablelands on Monday night. Two men inside the cabin escaped and swam to safety but the other two men were taken downstream with the vehicle, police say.
The missing pair were later identified as fathers Bob Chahine and Ghosn Ghosn.
Yesterday afternoon, police divers found a man's body, which is yet to be formally identified. The search for the second man continues.
On Tuesday, Chahine’s wife, Remonda, shared a heartfelt post on Facebook, tagging Ghosn's wife.
"Please bring our husbands home," she wrote in the post.
Meanwhile, thousands of residents have been ordered to leave homes as bursting inland rivers continue to swell and communities brace for flooding.
More than 100 emergency warnings are active across the state, 22 two of them for evacuation.
In Gundagai, river levels have risen higher than April 1989 floods.
- With AAP.
Stealthing to be criminalised in SA.
South Australia is set to join four other jurisdictions in criminalising 'stealthing', the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex.
The bill to criminalise the act, which has already been criminalised in Tasmania, NSW, Victoria and the ACT, passed the upper house of South Australia's parliament this week, and is set to become law.
South Australia is set to become the latest jurisdiction to criminalise stealthing, the non-consensual removal of a condom during intercourse, with life imprisonment an option as punishment. Consent campaigner @ChanelContos explains.#TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/MxYWWUA8mJ
— The Project (@theprojecttv) November 3, 2022
South Australian MP Connie Bonaros described stealthing as a "repugnant and disgusting act of betrayal", and said her private member's bill would ensure it was dealt with appropriately by police and the courts.
"It should have been criminalised years ago," Bonaros said in a statement to ABC News. "Such grotesque acts of indecency deserve to be treated in the same manner as rape and a crime punishable by terms of imprisonment."
It comes after a recent study from Monash University found that, of more than 2000 people surveyed, one in three women, and one in five men who have sex with men, had been victims of stealthing.
Roxy Jacenko steps down as Sweaty Betty Director.
Aussie PR queen Roxy Jacenko has announced she’s stepping down as director of her firm Sweaty Betty, after almost two decades.
Jacenko shared the news on Instagram last night, alongside a throwback photo of herself in her twenties.
"Eighteen years ago this was me. A hungry 24-year-old desperate to succeed (at something, actually anything)," she wrote.
"No uni degree and a half-finished TAFE course, four months’ PR experience and a small office with a fax machine and cordless phone."
"Fast forward to today and I have weathered storms one could only assume you would see on a miniseries and heck, I think I’ve done it with gusto – but now it’s time for me to hang my PR shoes up (and no they were never stilettos they were trainers – why? Cause you can’t run in them) and say goodbye to my working life as I know it."
The 42-year-old went on to say she will continue to work on her other businesses, including Ministry of Talent, which focuses on digital influencers, and brands like Pixie’s Pix, which sells children’s products "hand-picked" by her daughter Pixie.
What Cassius' family are pleading with Aussies to know.
Cassius Turvey was just 15-years-old when he was allegedly beaten with a metal pole as he walked home from school last month.
As he lay dying in hospital, police refused to confirm whether racism was a factor in the crime and news on the incident was also lacking.
Today, after a week of action around the death of Cassius Turvey, we look at how Australia still struggles to tell the stories of First Nation's People.
Feature Image: Facebook@reinhardt.a.bosch