Borce Ristevski's son claims he pleaded guilty to avoid having details aired in court, & more in News in 5.

-With AAP

1. “I gave him an ultimatum.” Borce Ristevski’s son claims he pleaded guilty to avoid having details aired in court.

On April 18 2019, Borce Ristevski was sentenced to nine years in prison for the death of Karen Ristevski.

The son of Borce Ristevski, Anthony Rickard, has claimed his father pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of his wife Karen Ristevski to avoid details of his wife’s relationship with his son coming out in court.

Ristevski, 55, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to the manslaughter of his wife Karen almost three years after she went missing in June 2016.

“I gave him an ultimatum,” Mr Rickard told news.com.au on Thursday.

“I told him ‘If you don’t get up and be a man I’ll go into the (witness) box and tell them exactly what went on behind closed doors’.”

Rickard, Borce Ristevski’s son from a previous marriage, repeated earlier claims that he and his stepmother had a sexual relationship.

He said his father knew of their relationship for years after he first approached him about it in 2006, but his father “did nothing” and “didn’t protect me”.

Meanwhile, the aunty of Karen Ristevski has attacked husband Borce’s eleventh hour confession as a selfish move.

Her aunty Patricia Gray has told the Herald Sun the move is too little, too late and Borce Ristevski will not explain why he did it.

“He has done this for selfish reasons,” she told the newspaper.

“He is either covering up for someone or just can’t face it. I don’t know.”

Mamamia’s daily news podcast The Quicky gets you up to speed with what you need to know today…

The manslaughter confession from Borce Ristevski has averted the need for a high-profile murder trial and despite previously gunning for a murder charge, police are satisfied.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said Ristevski’s plea would allow “justice to move through the courts more quickly”.

“Certainly for people required to give evidence and other members of the family … it speeds up the process and it’s all part of that bargaining, that plea situation, that is dealt with as a matter of course,” he told ABC radio on Thursday.

“(I’m) not disappointed. Everyone worked very hard on that case. The police … will be sort of relieved in a way too they will be able to move through with that plea.”

The admission was made on the eve of a scheduled five-week murder trial.

Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale ruled Ristevski’s actions after the killing – when he played the role of grieving husband – could not be used to prove “murderous intent”.

Prosecutors subsequently filed a new indictment with the lesser charge of manslaughter, which Ristevski admitted, scuttling the murder trial.

Prosecutors had previously pushed hard for Ristevski to stand trial for murder, saying his deceitful behaviours after the killing gave rise to the required intent.

Ristevski was charged in December 2017 after a lengthy investigation that involved listening devices and CCTV footage analysis.

He allegedly killed his 47-year-old wife at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016 and took her Mercedes-Benz roadster to dispose of the body in bushland.

Eight months later, her skeletal remains were found between logs in Macedon Regional Park.

Ristevski will face a pre-sentence hearing on March 27.

2. UK MPs have backed a vote to delay Brexit delay.

British MPs have voted to delay Brexit beyond the scheduled date of March 29 amid dramatic scenes in the House of Commons.

The vote came after Prime Minister Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement was rejected for the second time on Tuesday and MPs voted the following day to rule out a no-deal Brexit.

A motion in May’s name, authorising her request for an extension to the two-year Article 50 negotiation process, was passed by 412 votes to 202 – a majority of 210.

Only a refusal by the leaders of the 27 remaining EU states to grant the UK an extension at a Brussels summit next week could now preserve the totemic date of March 29 as Brexit Day.

May has made clear that she will press her Agreement to a third “meaningful vote” in the Commons by March 20 in the hope of securing the support of MPs who rejected it by 230 votes in January and 149 earlier this week.

If she succeeds, she will go to Brussels next Thursday to request a short delay to a date no later than June 30, to give herself time to get her deal through the UK parliament.

But if her deal is rejected for a third time, she believes any extension would have to be far longer and would involve the UK taking part in European Parliament elections in May.

Earlier, MPs decisively rejected an attempt by the Independent Group to secure a second referendum on Brexit by 334 votes to 85.

And by the far narrower margin of 314-312, they voted down a cross-party bid for Parliament to seize control of the Brexit process by forcing a set of “indicative votes” to determine the preferred Brexit outcome of the House of Commons.

A Labour Party amendment demanding an extension to Article 50 withdrawal negotiations to provide time to “find a majority for a different approach” was also defeated.

Labour whipped its MPs to abstain on the referendum vote, but 24 voted in favour – not including Brighton’s Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who went through both lobbies to cancel his own vote out.

Labour revealed that leader Jeremy Corbyn and senior aides have met with backbenchers Peter Kyle and Phil Wilson, who are promoting a plan to accept Mrs May’s deal on the condition that it is subject to a second referendum.

3. Fourth man found guilty in NSW Police accountant Curtis Cheng terror plot.

A man said to have acted as the lookout when two men exchanged a gun later used to kill NSW Police accountant Curtis Cheng has been found guilty of a terror-related charge.

Mustafa Dirani, 25, pleaded not guilty to conspiring with others in 2015 to do acts in preparation, or planning, for a terrorist act.

Mr Cheng was shot and killed on October 2 in 2015 by 15-year-old Farhad Jabar in Parramatta.

The NSW Supreme Court jury at Dirani’s retrial found him guilty on Thursday and Justice Peter Johnson adjourned the case to March 22.

4. Convicted killer Susan Neill-Fraser has her freedom bid re-opened.

The last-ditch freedom bid of convicted killer Susan Neill-Fraser has been re-opened to include new evidence from a witness whose DNA was found at the Hobart murder scene.

Neill-Fraser is serving 23 years’ jail for murdering partner Bob Chappell, 65, who disappeared from the couple’s yacht at Sandy Bay on Australia Day 2009.

She is trying to convince a judge there is "fresh and compelling" evidence to gain leave for a second appeal.

The bid, that was awaiting a judge's decision, was re-opened on Thursday afternoon to include a new affidavit from then-homeless teenager Meaghan Vass.

Ms Vass' DNA was found aboard the Four Winds yacht.

Neill-Fraser's legal team told Hobart Supreme Court a 60 Minutes report, shown across Australia but not in Tasmania last weekend, included an affidavit Ms Vass made about January 26.

Ms Vass had previously signed a document saying she was on the boat the night of the murder but backflipped at the beginning of the appeal in October, telling the court it was not true and she put her name to it under threats.

An affidavit from the person who took Ms Vass' most-recent statement will also form part of the new evidence.

Neill-Fraser's lengthy appeal heard in February from a retired Victorian detective and documentary maker, who denied fabricating Ms Vass' original statement that said she was on the yacht.

The matter will re-appear in court on Thursday.

Neill-Fraser was in 2010 found guilty of bludgeoning Mr Chappell and dumping him in the River Derwent.

His body has never been found.

Neill-Fraser has maintained her innocence but several appeals against her conviction have failed.

5. New breast cancer research may help doctors predict risk of recurrence.

A routine test could soon help doctors predict when and where treated breast cancer is likely to return.

Scientists have found molecular clues in breast tumours that indicate how the disease is likely to progress.

The information includes the likelihood of the disease recurring after treatment, and after what amount of time.

The Cancer Research UK team looked at genetic changes in tumours from almost 2000 women with breast cancer and followed their progress over 20 years.

Although the genetic analysis is too detailed to be of help to patients, the scientists are working on a more practical routine test.

Once developed it should pave the way to tailored treatments that improve women's chances of survival, they claim.

The test could be ready in about five years, according to the team.

Lead researcher Professor Carlos Caldas, from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, said: "Treatments for breast cancer have improved dramatically in recent years, but unfortunately for some women, their breast cancer returns and spreads, becoming incurable. For some, this can be many years later - but it's been impossible to accurately predict who is at risk of recurrence and who is all clear.

"In this study, we've delved deeper into breast cancer molecular sub-types so we can more accurately identify who might be at risk of relapsing and uncover new ways of treating them."

The research is reported in the journal Nature.

The scientists found that progression patterns varied greatly even between tumours that seem similar.

They identified subgroups of women with the most common form of hormone sensitive breast cancer who were at higher risk of the disease returning after as long as 20 years.

Each year around 55,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in the UK, making it the most common type of cancer in the country.

Two thirds of women with breast cancer in England and Wales survive for 20 years or more but the disease still causes around 11,400 deaths each year.