–With AAP.
1. The man accused of killing 17yo Bianca Devins and posting images of her body online pleads not guilty.
The man accused of murdering 17-year-old Bianca Devins and posting graphic photos of her body on Instagram has pleaded not guilty.
Brandon Clark, 21, has been charged with second-degree murder over Devins’ death earlier this month.
Devins and Clark had met about two months beforehand after meeting online and met up to attend a concert in New York.
In private messages between Devins and a friend on Discord shared with Rolling Stone, Devins explained that Clark was “so mad” because she had held hands with and kissed another man they reportedly met up with at the concert.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, horrifying images began to emerge on a server Clark frequented on Discord.
“Sorry f*ckers, you’re going to have to find somebody else to orbit,” Clark allegedly wrote alongside the photo on Discord. (Orbiting is often used to describe men who frequently engage with a woman’s social media accounts in the hopes of sleeping with them.)
He also shared the photo to his since-deleted Instagram account, writing, “I’m sorry Bianca”.
According to police reports, the photos showed Devins’ body covered in blood with wounds to her neck and throat.
After receiving multiple phone calls from concerned Discord users as well as a call from Clark himself, police attended the scene, where Clark attempted harm himself with a knife, leaving himself seriously injured, and was arrested and charged.
According to his attorney Luke Nebush, the 21-year-old rejected the offer to plead guilty and serve a 25-year sentence for Bianca’s murder.
He will remain in custody until a verdict is reached.
2. ‘Horror movie’ scream alerted workers to Perth courthouse murder.
Workers at a Perth court where a woman was fatally stabbed during a mediation session with her ex-partner have described the horrific scene, with some weeping as they testified at his murder trial.
Paul Gary Turner, 43, allegedly stabbed Sarah Marie Thomas five times, including three times in her neck, at Joondalup Justice Complex on December 20, 2016.
The 33-year-old also suffered a slash across her left index finger, which a forensic pathologist described as a typical defensive wound.
Administration worker Crystal Sudholz told the Supreme Court of WA on Tuesday she heard muffled yelling then a “horror movie scream”.
She said she then saw a registrar run out of a conference room, shout for security and an ambulance.
Turner walked out of the room, slid against a wall to the floor, put his hands in his lap and “stared into thin air,” Ms Sudholz said.
“There was such panic,” she said.
Customer service officer Jennifer Daniels said the registrar was distraught while Turner was “quite calmly just sitting there”.
Security guard Karl Howley ran into the room and found Ms Thomas on all fours, with blood gushing out of her wounds.
He described the sight as “horrific”, saying blood also came out of her mouth and nose as he and another security guard, Amanda Ferrier, pressed their hands to her neck in a bid to stem the bleeding.
“I kept telling her don’t close her eyes and stay with me,” Ms Ferrier said, weeping.
“I kept saying it’s going to be OK. The ambulance is on its way.”
She said the estimated six minutes it took for paramedics to arrive felt like an eternity, drawing sobs from the public gallery.
Mr Howley said “it seemed like forever”.
The court previously heard Ms Thomas had gained custody of two children she had with Turner about one week before the mediation session, which was about his claim she owed him money.
Moments before the attack, she declined to make an offer.
Prosecutor James Mactaggart alleges Turner had hidden the knife on him.
Defence counsel Lisa Boston did not give an opening address when the trial opened last week.
3. Premier pressured to delay decriminalisation of abortion in NSW.
A push to decriminalise abortion in NSW has suffered a setback after conservative MPs successfully lobbied for a delay to the parliamentary timetable.
Sydney independent Alex Greenwich on Tuesday announced debate on his private members bill had been pushed back until next week following “robust” discussions on Macquarie Street.
“I’m disappointed with any delay,” Mr Greenwich told reporters.
“(But) I’m glad that we have a clear and committed timetable from the government. There is continued and strong support for this bill.”
Mr Greenwich gave notice of the Reproductive Healthcare Reform Bill 2019 on Tuesday afternoon and expects it will be introduced into the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
“From next Tuesday we will begin debate on this long-overdue legislation,” he said.
“It should go through the lower house next week and I hope into the upper house.”
The bill was originally scheduled to be debated this week but conservative MPs have reportedly been working behind the scenes to delay its passage.
The private members bill would allow for terminations up to 22 weeks and later if two doctors “consider that, in all the circumstances, the termination should be performed”.
Doctors will have the right to conscientiously object to performing abortions but must refer patients to another health practitioner who can provide the service.
The bill also states that a person who performs a termination on themselves will not be committing an offence.
The draft laws would create a new criminal offence under the Crimes Act for anyone who assists in terminations without authorisation.
Pro-life activists and the Catholic church have slammed the “bad bill” and accused the government of trying to rush it through parliament.
“It is the dream bill of the abortion industry, which they have already pressed upon several other states but it will leave unborn children and unsupported pregnant women even more at risk,” Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The premier and others seem determined to stop us having our say.”
Archbishop Fisher said he’d written to Gladys Berejiklian demanding more time for consultation along with Sydney’s Anglican archbishop of Sydney, the primate of the Greek Orthodox archdiocese of Australia and the coordinator of Australia’s eastern Catholic bishops.
Upper House MP Reverend Fred Nile has also come out swinging against the bill, which he described as “tyrannical”.
“The latest attempt to legalise abortion in NSW illustrates the moral bankruptcy of the state’s political leadership,” he said in a statement.
The abortion bill was developed by a cross-party working group including Nationals MP Trevor Khan and Labor’s Penny Sharpe and Jo Haylen, with oversight from Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
The premier has voiced her support.
“If the legislation contains what I think it does, I’ll be supporting it,” Ms Berejiklian said on Monday.
But conservative Police Minister David Elliot on Tuesday declared: “I will be opposing the bill because there has not been enough time to consult with my electorate.”
4. William Tyrell detective, Gary Jubelin, pleads not guilty to illegal recordings.
Former high-profile NSW Police detective Gary Jubelin has formally denied that he illegally recorded conversations while leading the search for missing three-year-old William Tyrrell.
Jubelin, backed by more than a dozen supporters, faced Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday for the first time since he was charged in June.
His barrister, Margaret Cunneen SC, entered not guilty pleas to four charges of using a recording device to record a private conversation.
Jubelin was supported outside court by victims’ relatives including the parents of murdered Sydney man Matthew Leveson.
“Those (four recorded) conversations were with a person about the disappearance of William Tyrrell,” the former detective told reporters.
“I had a lawful right and an operational need to record those conversations.
“I have made no attempt whatsoever to conceal the fact I recorded those conversations and police were aware of that.”
William was playing in his grandmother’s yard at Kendall on the NSW mid north coast when he vanished in September 2014.
Jubelin led an investigative team that re-examined several unsolved and suspected murders, including that of William, Mr Leveson and three children found dead in Bowraville in the early 1990s.
But, Jubelin says, he was removed from those inquiries as a result of the police investigation into the recorded conversations. The 57-year-old subsequently retired from the force.
“It’s not what I wanted to do,” Jubelin said on Tuesday.
“But as a direct result of the manner in which management treated me after these allegations surfaced, my position in the NSW Police became untenable.
“I could no longer continue to support victims and lock up the bad guys like I’ve done throughout my career.”
He said he had “absolutely no animosity” to the force and said it’d been a privilege working with the state’s dedicated officers.
It’s alleged Jubelin illegally recorded a short conversation in late 2017 from Parramatta and made three further recordings in 2018 in Kendall – the tiny town from where William disappeared.
Two of those Kendall conversations occurred in early May and the last occurred on December 28. Each offence carries a maximum of five years in jail and a fine of $11,000.
“I have done nothing wrong and I will continue to defend myself,” Jubelin said outside court.
“It’s an incredible waste of time but the courts have to go through due process and I’ve got to respect that process.”
Matthew Leveson’s father told reporters Jubelin was a detective who worked hard, pushed boundaries and thought outside the square.
“Importantly, he considers the victims of crime always,” Mark Leveson said.
The sister-in-law of Clinton Speedy-Duroux, who was one of three children suspected murdered in Bowraville in the early 1990s, said Jubelin had always “gone that extra yard”.
“If he says he didn’t do it, he didn’t do it,” Leonie Duroux told reporters.
“He’s a one-in-a-million police officer.”
Jubelin was excused from appearing at his next court date on September 24.
Listen to The Quicky debrief on the truth about William Tyrrell’s parents, and what happened after the three-year-old’s disappearance. Post continues below.
5. Victorian thieves steal hearing aids belonging to terminally ill teenager.
A Melbourne woman has branded the thieves who raided her home and stole her disabled son’s hearing aids as gutless.
Kellie Richardson says her family’s home at Croydon North, in the city’s east, was burgled on Friday with thieves jemmying a rear door and ransacking the house.
“It’s just gutless, it’s absolutely heartbreaking and just gutless,” the mum of four told reporters on Tuesday.
“They’ve just ransacked the house and grabbed whatever they could.”
The eldest of her children, 14-year-old Bailey, has a rare disease and limited life expectancy and requires the hearing aids.
“They just don’t realise what they’ve done to us as a family,” Ms Richardson said.
Police Sergeant Lee Nichols said it was “beyond belief” anyone would take hearing aids.
“It’s just a heartless act,” he said.
The family was also robbed of heirloom jewellery, a hard drive video camera and tapes containing footage of the children.