We’ve rounded up all the latest stories from Australia and around the world – so you don’t have to go searching.
1. Pedophile left free to choose where he lives in Brisbane.
Convicted pedophile and serial child molester, Raymond Phillip Downs, is now free to choose his residence after the Supreme Court ruled he did not require extended supervision following his release from prison.
Downs, now aged 59, was previously living in specialised precinct, adjacent to Wacol prison in Brisbane, where he was under constant supervision by the State. During his time there, he was banned from visiting areas where there were signs of children living or playing under the “dangerous sex offenders” legislation.
However, Supreme Court Justice Martin Dabney dismissed an application from Queensland Attorney-General to extend Downs’ supervision for the next two years.
According to the Courier Mail, Downs has plans to move in with “long-term partner’ Sharon White, whose house is located in Kenmore, in Brisbane’s west. Previously, the pedophile was prevented from visiting her home as “there were signs of children living in the house next door and children were observed in the street”. In addition, a childcare centre is situated 50m from her home and a four-year-old boy occasionally goes to White’s house for bible study.
During the court proceedings, a forensic psychiatrist told the Judge that Downs had not “completely lost his deviant sexual arousal to prepubescent girls”.
Downs was first jailed in 1974, aged 18, when he assaulted a six-year-old girl. Just three years later, he was arrested for kissing a girl aged 10, informing on-lookers “his urges just got the better of him”.
In the following years, he was convicted for molesting two different 10-year-old girls and 13-year-old girl in her own home garage.
When he was 45, Downs was convicted for molesting a nine-year-old girl four times.
Since his official release from jail in 2012, Downs has breached his supervision orders a number of times by not wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, missing curfews and travelling into exclusion areas.
Downs has admitted to his case manager that he has avoided certain areas as he is still tempted by children.
2. Witness in Reza Barati murder trial afraid he’ll be killed on Manus Island.
Benham Satah, a key witness in Reza Barati’s murder trial, has again pleaded to be moved to a different compound due to fears he will be murdered on Manus Island.
According to The Guardian, Satah is increasingly afraid claiming he is being stalked by guards on the island, who sit at the back of his accommodation block and watch him throughout the day.
“Every single moment I think someone might kill me,” Satah told The Guardian Australia.
“I can never leave my room, it is not safe. I can only go out for meals and to [the] bathroom. At night time I can go to the mess because there is a [security] camera there,” Satah said.
“At night, I cannot sleep here. Every single moment I think that someone might kill me. Every time I hear someone pass, I hear footsteps, I am alert, I think someone is coming to do something to me.”
Satah was previously taken against his will to court to testify in the case due to threats being made on his life. Only after he was promised additional protection by Justice Nicholas Kirriwom, would he give evidence against the two men accused of killing Reza Barati.
Reza Barati was bashed to death on the 17th February 2014, where he had a large rock dropped on his head and beaten with a piece of wood studded with nails. It is alleged that Satah watched Barati die and he also witnessed a number of people, including locals and expatriate guards, attack Barati.
A petition has been started on change.org to relocate Satah from Manus Island to Australia, to save his life. The petition confirms the death threats Satah is receiving, and additionally claims he has developed a serious heart condition due to the immense amount of stress he suffers. The petition now has 15,000 signatures.
The Guardian Australia have attempted to contact PNG Immigration about the case and to the detention centre manger at Broadspectrum, however, have not received any answers.
Australia’s Department of Immigration and Border Protection have declined to comment.
3. Senate inquiry finds schools are failing children with disabilities.
A Federal Senate Inquiry into how children with disabilities are being treated at schools has found that many children are being denied their right to an education.
The national inquiry found numbers of children are regularly refused enrollment at schools, and if they are, they are subject or horrific bullying and abuse.
Labor senator, Sue Lines, who followed the inquiry into the children’s welfare, has been left disgraced by the degree of discrimination that exists in our schooling system.
Lines said, “We are failing children with disability in the school system,” the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
“They are refused enrollment, they are only going a few days a week or not going at all. If they do attend school, bullying and exclusion are the norm. It is disgraceful.”
The inquiry heard that a number of public schools are ignoring their lawful obligation to accept students with disabilities, with many claiming they did not have the services to provide for them.
Almost 300 submissions from families who have children with a disabilities, education experts and disability advocates, were made to the commission regarding the quality of educational services in Australia.
4. Witness in case of missing Victorian woman, Karen Chetcuti, disappears from home.
Mother of two, Karen Chetcuti, was last seen on Tuesday at 9:15pm by her next door neighbour, Michael Cardamone.
However, police have not been able to locate Cardamone, who has previously been convicted of rape. Police visited the home of Cardamone twice on Saturday but he was not believed to be there.
No comments have yet been made to confirm whether Cardamone is a suspect in the case, although The Age describes interviews he gave with the media as “bizarre”. Cardamone claimed he believed he was purposefully being targeted by police as a result of his previous offence.
The search for the 49-year-old woman has entered its fourth day with police mostly focussing on the Whorouly and Myrtleford areas.
Line searches were being conducted in paddocks next to where Chetcuti’s car, which was found burned out on the side of the road.
Victorian Police are still appealing for information about Chetcuti’s location. If you have any information about the case please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
5. Families breaking the law with use of portable pools.
The Sydney Morning Herald are reporting that up to tens of thousands of Sydney families are “inadvertently” breaking the law by using portable pools without proper safety measures.
Many families don’t know that even with an inflatable pool where the water is 30cm or deeper, it is still required to be surrounded by a fence 1.2m in height and with a self-latching gate.
Following a number of backyard drownings in these smaller pools, the NSW Government is considering instigating even tighter restrictions in the way the pools are sold.
A report commissioned on pool safety recommends to the Government that when buying the pools, the sale must be registered and before it is used, fencing must be inspected, certified and registered.
Additionally, the pools would have to be printed with a large warning sign explaining the legal installation requirements.
The NSW Child Death Review Team report that between 2007 and 2015, almost one fifth (19 per cent) of drownings occurred in “above-ground portable pools” where teh pools were unfenced.
A spokesperson for the Government has reiterated their commitment to ensuring pool safety for children.
“The NSW government is committed to improving child safety and reducing the number of drowning deaths in backyard pools. Any child drowning is one too many.”
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