1. Mystery over backpacker’s bizarre death on Thai island, where 7 tourists have died in 3 years.
A backpacker has been found dead in the jungle of Thailand’s Koh Tao island, bringing the total number of dead tourists up to seven in just three years, Metro UK reports.
Police reportedly claim Belgian traveller Elise Dallemagne, who was found dead on April 28 after being ‘half-eaten by lizards’, had taken her own life. But her mother has refused to accept Thai authorities’ version of events.
Before her death, Elise had been travelling around Asia for two years, and had recently been living at a yoga and tantra retreat on the neighbouring island of Koh Phangan.
“We fear somebody else was involved,” Michelle van Egten said after the details of her daughter’s death were made public.
“We’re more and more thinking that the police information is not the right explanation.”
The circumstances surrounding Elise’s death can only be described as bizarre; she departed Koh Phangan on April 17 on a ferry bound for the Thai mainland, but alighted on Koh Tao instead.
Her mother believes she then used a fake name to check into a hotel, but an unexplained fire burnt down three bamboo huts, including the one Elise was staying in, that night.
Elise fled through the jungle, before checking into another hotel and booking a new ticket to Bangkok on April 24.
Eight days later, locals noticed a monitor lizard lurking nearby and followed it, finding Elise’s half-eaten body in the jungle.
Police say Elise took her own life three days before her body was found, but she left no suicide note or message.
“Too many things show us that someone is involved. I cannot accept why my daughter should have killed herself,” her mother said.
“I don’t know why she would have booked a transfer to Bangkok and then went into the jungle to commit suicide.
“I am devastated by [these] events. I am still waiting for the final autopsy report. We just want more information.”
Six other tourists have died in similarly ‘suspicious’ circumstances in the past three years, including two backpackers who were murdered while walking back to their hotel rooms.
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2. 16-year-old girl who died in a plane crash was being flown to treatment for an eating disorder.
It’s been revealed that the 16-year-old girl who was among three killed in a light plane crash in South Australia was being transported to hospital for treatment for an eating disorder, 7 News reports.
Emily Redding was killed alongside her mother, 43-year-old Tracey Redding, and Angel Flight pilot Grant Gilbert, 78, on Wednesday.
Emily, who has a twin brother, was suffering from an eating disorder and was being flown to Adelaide for treatment.
The principal of the school where Emily was a student said in a statement the whole community was mourning the loss.
“This is obviously extremely sudden and incredibly sad,” the statement read. The flags at the school were being flown at half mast in tribute to the teen.
Tracey Redding was a mum of four, with family telling reporters her long-term partner, Troy, was “still processing” the tragic events and is currently focusing on supporting the young family.
“Our thoughts are also with the family and friends of the pilot who was a dedicated and tireless volunteer who also lost his life in this tragic incident,” said Troy’s bother, Grant.
A friend of Tracey’s, Evette Rashed, told 7 News Tracey was “a wonderful mother” and the “best friend in the world”.
“I don’t know how to help her kids or her family.”
Investigations into what caused the crash are continuing.
3. Stepdad accused of drugging stepdaughter says they were ‘like a married couple’.
A Sydney man has denied drugging his young stepdaughter so he could sexually assault her, telling a jury he was in a consensual relationship with the girl and they “acted like a married couple”, AAP reports.
“The relationship between (the stepdaughter) and I developed, and I’m sorry that it did,” the 45-year-old, who doesn’t have a lawyer and is representing himself, said in his opening address on Thursday.
“I have given (her) a life sentence … what’s done is done, all I can do now is proclaim my innocence for the offences I didn’t commit.”
The man, who can’t be named for legal reasons, has pleaded guilty to 99 charges relating to the sexual abuse of his stepdaughter which started when she was 12.
However, he is on trial in the NSW District Court after pleading not guilty to multiple other charges, including administering an intoxicating substance in order to commit a crime, with 22 counts relating to the stepdaughter and five relating to her mother.
He has also denied indecently assaulting a younger stepdaughter when she was about 11.
In his opening address, he said he wasn’t an innocent man, and he didn’t deny having an “inappropriate relationship” with his older stepdaughter.
“We will outline in our case, that (the stepdaughter) and I, in 2009 to 2014, acted like a married couple,” he told the jury.
“Everyone suspected and my wife knew.”
However, the man denies drugging the the girl and her mother and said the jury would see and hear evidence regarding the police investigation that would “astound” them.
He said there was “no evidence whatsoever” to show drugs were administered to the child.
Crown prosecutor Rohan Cooley in his opening address said the man was charged in 2014 after the girl, then 16, told her mother about various sex offences.
SD memory cards later discovered in the lining of the man’s jacket contained 78 videos and 778 images which showed him sexually and indecently assaulting the stepdaughter, and in some of the footage she appeared to be asleep, the prosecutor alleged.
Mr Cooley said he expected the jury would notice that in some of the videos the girl appeared not to move at all and, on occasion, she appeared to be snoring.
“The allegation by the crown was that (the stepdaughter) was not only not awake but she had been drugged in some fashion so as to sedate her,” the prosecutor said.
He said the jury was expected to hear that the man told his stepdaughter he secretly drugged her mother to sedate her before bed and the crown alleges he did it so he could carry out the sexual and indecent assaults.
Mr Cooley said he expected the jury would also hear the mother was so troubled by her “extreme tiredness” in the evenings she made at least two visits to a general practitioner for blood tests.
The trial continues.
4. An 11-year-old boy has invented a life-saving device to help babies from dying in hot cars.
When 11-year-old Bishop Curry, from Texas, saw a news report about a baby dying after being left in a hot car, he knew that he never wanted it to happen again.
Now, the young inventor has come up with a genius device that will help save lives, 7 News reports.
His invention sounds the alarm if a child is in danger, and blows cold air into the vehicle until help arrives.
“I was like, this would be my one way shot to actually helping people,” he said.
“I didn’t want it to happen to any other families.”
His father added that Bishop took a drawing to him and explained why he wanted to make the alarm.
“My thought was, why isn’t this in stores now?” his father said.
The local community rallied around Bishop’s invention, raising more than $30,000 to develop a patent for the product.
Bishop was then flown to a safety conference to meet the family of the victim who inspired his invention.
5. Cardinal George Pell featured heavily in Italian media after historical sexual assault charges.
Cardinal George Pell is featuring heavily in Italian media after being charged over historical sexual assault claims, with reports highlighting the fact he is the most senior Catholic cleric to face such charges.
Italian newspaper websites on Thursday ran prominent pictures of the 76-year-old cleric and detailed reports of his latest setback, AAP reports.
Television networks also ran long segments with footage of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Australian sex abuse survivors who attended the cardinal’s questioning in Rome last year by Australia’s child sex abuse royal commission.
Australia’s most senior Catholic was quick to respond on Thursday to a decision by Victorian police to charge him, telling journalists it only strengthened his resolve to prove his innocence.
He said he was looking forward to finally having his day in court, after a two-year investigation, leaks to the media and “relentless character assassination”.
Pope Francis has granted Cardinal Pell, who as Vatican treasurer is considered the third most powerful person in the Catholic Church, a leave of absence to return to Australia to defend himself.
The centrist Corriere Della Sera newspaper said on its website on Thursday that the cardinal was “the highest representative of the Catholic Church every involved in such a case”.
The liberal La Repubblica also noted he was the “highest ecclesiastical exponent” ever charged with sex abuse and said “the shadow of pedophilia and rape returns to obscure the church”.
The paper said the “controversial kangaroo” had been called in by Pope Francis to clean up the Vatican finances and it said Australia was “a paradise of the orcs”, with seven per cent of priests accused of pedophilia.
La Repubblica said the latest development in the Pell saga had “plunged the Vatican into a solemn state” on the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul.
Cardinal Pell said on Thursday he had spoken to his lawyers about when he needed to return to Australia and to his doctors about how to do so as he has been advised not to take long-haul flights due to a heart condition.
The former Melbourne and Sydney archbishop and Ballarat priest has been ordered to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on July 26.
A statement from the Holy See on Thursday said it learned of the charges “with regret” but respected the Australian justice system.
6. Donald Trump just criticised a female TV hosts’ looks on Twitter.
US President Donald Trump has assailed a female TV news host in highly personal terms, calling her “crazy” and alleging she had been bleeding at one point from a facelift, in a Twitter attack that drew strong criticism including from fellow Republicans.
Trump took fierce aim on Thursday at the hosts of the MSNBC program Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
The Republican president called Brzezinski “low I.Q. Crazy Mika” and said she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” when she visited one of his properties around New Year’s Eve.
He referred to former Republican US congressman Scarborough as “Psycho Joe.”
Trump is known for his prolific Twitter habit, which includes mocking attacks on critics and rivals, but his tweets on Thursday drew a particularly strong response.
“It’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job,” MSNBC’s communications office said on Twitter.
On Thursday morning’s show, Brzezinski excoriated the Trump administration and said its officials should not act “lobotomised” because they are so scared of the president, AAP reports.
Republican lawmakers and others sharply rebuked Trump.
The tweets “represent what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, while another, Ben Sasse, called Trump’s remarks “beneath the dignity of your office.”
“I don’t see that as an appropriate comment,” Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said of Trump’s tweets.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders defended his tweets.
“I don’t think that the president has ever been someone that gets attacked and doesn’t push back,” she told Fox News Channel.
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