The body of missing NSW woman, Cecilia Devine, has been found in a Blue Mountains dam, & more in News in 5.

-With AAP.

1. The body of missing NSW woman, Cecilia Devine, has been found in a Blue Mountains dam.

Human remains discovered in a Blue Mountains dam have been identified as those of 42-year-old Cecilia Devine, who had been missing for almost eight months.

Police are treating the discovery of the remains as a homicide and have launched Strike Force Eking to investigate.

Devine, previously known as Kristen Pearson, had been reported missing from Waratah, near Newcastle, on September 5, 2018, after her family and friends could not locate or contact her.

At the time, police said they had grave concerns for her welfare.

A police statement said remains were discovered at a water treatment facility in Katoomba on March 18, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

After the discovery in March, police said the body had been there for “quite some time”.

In CCTV footage released by police on Wednesday, Devine can be seen leaving a hotel on Katoomba Street, Katoomba, on September 6, the day after she was reported missing.

She was wearing a yellow cardigan, black pants and carrying an orange handbag.

The day before, Devine was seen leaving a home on Turton Road, Waratah, before reported sightings in Hornsby and the Blue Mountains.

On December 21, on what would have been Devine’s 42nd birthday, police launched a public appeal to locate her.

Police and Devine’s family will have another public appeal for information on Wednesday.

Anyone who has information is urged to contact police immediately via Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au

2. Serial killer Ivan Milat has been transferred to a Sydney hospital for a “diagnostic procedure”.

Serial killer Ivan Milat has been taken to a Sydney hospital from Goulburn's supermax jail.

The 74-year-old - who murdered seven backpackers whose bodies were found in makeshift graves in NSW's Belanglo State Forest in the 1990s - has been transferred to the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick.

AAP understands he was transferred on Monday afternoon and is being held in a secure annex of the hospital where inmates are treated.

AAP understands Milat was called in for a diagnostic procedure and is expected to return to the Goulburn supermax jail in the coming days.

Milat was sentenced in 1996 to seven consecutive life sentences.

The former road worker also kidnapped British tourist Paul Onions but he managed to escape from Milat's vehicle.

Corrective Services commissioner Peter Severin said the community can rest assured transfers are done in the "most secure and safe way possible".

"We've got specialist teams to ensure that at any time there is absolute guarantee of safety and security," Mr Severin told Seven News.

High-risk and terrorism-related inmates are always guarded by specialist staff from the Extreme High-Security Escort Unit who control all movements and interactions, a NSW Corrective Services spokeswoman said.

"Extensive security planning and assessment is undertaken before such movements occur," the spokeswoman said in a statement on Tuesday.

Inmates are searched before they leave prison and when they return.

At least one form of restraint, handcuffs or ankle cuffs, stay on high-risk inmates during medical treatment, subject to medical requirements.

"These procedures ensure community safety and security," the spokeswoman said.

3. Queensland woman raped by her father for over a decade awarded $1 million in damages.

A Queensland father who raped and assaulted his daughter on 11 occasions in the 1970s and 1980s has been ordered to pay her almost a million dollars in damages.

The man who used to drink and terrorise his family first assaulted his daughter when she was a child and her mother was in hospital having another baby, says a District Court judgment delivered in Brisbane on Friday.

The woman, who is the second eldest of six children, was abused from the age of five until she was 15 at two homes in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

She tried to avoid her father's abuse, described as "very painful", by sleeping under her bed or in the family car.

Her siblings and mother were subjected to domestic violence which included threats to kill.

These intensified when he once fired a rifle into the home's fireplace to intimidate the family.

The rapist father told the girl that the family would be broken up if she reported his sexual abuse to authorities.

She told no one.

As a result her education was massively disrupted, she received poor grades and ultimately dropped out of high school.

The woman had a number of administrative jobs and had children, of whom she is highly protective.

She quit those jobs after being pressured to socialise at lunch because she did not want to talk about her past.

She later secured a position with Queensland Health and became a manager of a laboratory but was reluctant to take up further promotions because of her past.

In 2014, when she was middle aged, the woman made a police complaint.

Two years later the case against her father went to trial.

However the jury could not reach a verdict and the woman had to go through a second trial where her father was convicted on all counts and sentenced to prison.

The father continues to deny the abuse.

The woman hoped the conviction would help her psychological distress, which included nightmares about particularly bad assaults.

But she required more treatment to see an improvement in her mental health.

A psychiatric assessment found she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, among other issues, as a result of the years of abuse and her ability to work was impaired.

The judgement said she complains of persistent depression, anxiety, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, sleeplessness, nightmares and a constant fear of her father.

Judge Douglas McGill awarded the woman $972,812.91 in damages, which included $349,778.41 in interest.

4. A NSW man has died after a shooting incident at a Mother's Day celebration.

Breaking: A 28-year-old man has died in hospital and his 35-year-old step-brother is being treated for a gunshot wound to the chest after a Mother's Day celebration turned bloody https://t.co/9uWZGKgJyP

— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) May 14, 2019

A 28-year-old man has died in hospital after he reportedly shot himself when a Mother's Day celebration turned bloody on a NSW property.

Police were called to Bingleburra in the NSW Hunter region about midday on Sunday after reports that two men had been shot in a domestic incident.

Officers were told a 28-year-old man and his 35-year-old stepbrother had become involved in a fight before the older man was shot in the chest.

The younger man fled and was found nearby with a gunshot wound believed to have been self-inflicted.

Both men were treated at the scene and flown to John Hunter Hospital.

The 28-year-old was in a critical condition before he died in hospital, NSW Police said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 35-year-old man remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

AAP understands the family had gathered to celebrate Mother's Day when the shooting broke out.

5. Antipsychotic drugs routinely over-prescribed in dementia patients, aged care royal commission has heard.

Only a small percentage of psychotropic drugs prescribed in aged care homes can be justified as effective, the Royal Commission heard today. @pitthen https://t.co/QlYV8fXn6L

— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) May 14, 2019

Only 10 per cent of "chemical restraint" drugs prescribed to people with dementia in residential aged care facilities are clearly justified, a royal commission has heard.

Australia's chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said regulation alone will not solve the problem of the overuse of antipsychotic drugs.

An expert committee this year found the rate of prescription of antipsychotics is too high, the aged care royal commission heard on Tuesday.

The aged care clinical advisory committee noted only a small proportion, estimated at about 10 per cent of the current use, is clearly justified.

Professor Murphy said it was an anecdotal assessment from experts in the field.

"The sense was that in their clinical experience, in probably eight to nine out of 10 cases you probably didn't need and shouldn't be using those drugs, so it was merely an estimate, a guesstimate."

He said requests from aged care facility staff were one of the common reasons GPs were asked to prescribe drugs to modify behaviour, when they felt it was causing distress to the person or other residents.

Prof Murphy said the overuse of psychotropic drugs in residential aged care facilities had been an international problem for 20 years.

New quality standards come into effect on July 1 to better regulate and minimise the use of chemical and physical restraints in aged care homes, an issue also being examined by the new national aged care regulator.

Asked about the delay in the government clearly setting limitations around the use of antipsychotics, Prof Murphy said regulation was only part of the solution.

"The best way to influence the prescribing behaviour of general practitioners working in aged care is education and cultural change, making them aware of the fact that the prescription of these drugs is not beneficial.

"Most of the inappropriate prescribing is not done with malicious intent to restrain someone.

"It's done because the general practitioner believes it might help in the management of the symptoms, and they're not fully aware of the adverse consequences."

There is no direct data about the number of prescriptions of psychotropic drugs to people living with dementia in residential aged care.

The royal commission on Tuesday also heard calls from aged care providers to change the funding structure to encourage innovation and good practice.

"If we look at the way the industry is structured, if I might put it very simply, we are funded for the amount of medications we're giving, how many times we shower someone, what meals we provide," Glenview CEO Lucy O'Flaherty said.

"We're not funded for how happy a resident is and how we've reduced their sleep medication because they're happier and sleeping better."

Brightwater Care Group CEO Jennifer Lawrence said there should be incentives for providers for helping people lead a good life and be as independent and well for as long as possible.