1. “We weren’t there to protect him:” Parents of toddler killed by babysitter devastated by court ruling.
In March 2015, 18-month-old Hemi Goodwin-Burke was drunkenly beaten by his babysitter, Matthew James Ireland, at home in Moranbah, Queensland.
Hemi’s body was covered in 78 separate bruises from being kicked and punched repeatedly, and he had hit his head on the side of the bathtub after Matthew pulled his leg out from underneath him.
Matthew originally lied and told police Hemi had suffered a seizure and blamed his injuries on Hemi’s three-year-old sister.
On Monday, he was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years for Hemi’s manslaughter, with Hemi’s devastated family being told he could walk free from prison in less than two years.
He was originally charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in March this year. He has been in custody since the attack, and will have served four years of his sentence when he becomes eligible for release in 2019.
AAP reports Hemi’s mother, Kerri-Ann Goodwin, cried as she apologised in court for letting Matthew Ireland into their son’s life.
At the time of her baby’s death, she was in Brisbane receiving medical treatment for a back injury and trusted Matthew to look after her children.
“I let this person into our home, a place that should have been a safe haven. I trusted him, I thought he was a friend,” she said.
“I’m sorry, Hemi.”
Hemi’s father, Shane Burke, said they would be seeking an appeal to get justice for their son.
“We as Hemi’s parents have let him down. We’ve got to live with that for the rest of our days,” he said outside court, AAP reports.
“The Crown has let Hemi down by allowing an early plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter. We’ve been left out of the loop the whole time.
“If they wanted to downgrade the charge they should have shown us why. They’ve left us in the dark.”
Hemi’s mother said hearing what her son went through was dreadful, saying “we weren’t there to protect him”, news.com.au reports.
“We failed. As much as people say we suffered, we [also] failed. And that’s hard for me to keep saying, because I was not there to protect Hemi. And now the State, the Crown, have failed him again,” Ms Goodwin said.
2. A childcare worker has been stabbed by three women in London.
A childcare worker was taken to hospital with a “slash wounds” after she was stabbed on her way to work, BBC News reports.
The woman – aged in her 30s – was reportedly attacked by “three Asian women dressed in black” around 9:30am in Wanstead in north-east London.
Karrien Stevens, who runs the Little Diamonds nursery where the woman works, said her colleague was cut from her wrist upwards on her arm before her attackers ran off.
She said the attackers “shouted something to do with Allah and the Quran” as they fled.
Counter-terrorism police were informed of the attack, but are not treating it as a terrorist incident.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said no arrests have been made and enquiries into the attack continue.
The woman was taken to an east London hospital as a precaution. Her injuries are not life threatening.
3. Rapist who told Melbourne woman “I’ve been watching you” during attack is jailed.
A rapist, who broke into a Melbourne woman’s home, told her the neighbours were going to see her have sex before he forced himself onto his terrified victim, AAP reports.
New Zealand-born Carl Justin Stafford was on Wednesday sentenced to 10 years in prison, with a minimum of seven years, over the 2015 rape and break-in.
The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and one charge of aggravated burglary in April after initially telling police the encounter had been consensual.
The woman in her 50s was asleep when Stafford broke into her St Kilda home about 2am on August 31.
“You lay on top of her and placed your hand on the top of her mouth and told her to be quiet,” Victorian County Court Judge David Brooke said.
Stafford then used his hand to touch her genitals.
When he got up to close the blinds in her bedroom, he told the woman: “Do you know your neighbours, because they’re going to see you having sex in your room”.
He then forced the terrified woman to perform a sex act on him.
“The complainant was so upset she was almost hyperventilating,” Judge Brooke said.
After allowing the woman to use the bathroom, he continued to taunt her by saying: “I know you live by yourself, I have been watching you.”
After 45 minutes the woman managed to run outside and flag down a passing car.
The police arrived just as Stafford was leaving.
During his police interview, Stafford denied breaking into the home and raping the woman, and said the woman’s identification of him as her attacker “was obviously a mistake”.
Stafford, who was using drugs at the time and suffers from schizophrenia, also told police he did not remember what happened and claimed he had been “set up”.
Judge Brooke said Stafford had attacked “a vulnerable, single woman in circumstances where she was entitled to feel safe”.
4. Donald Trump has announced his pick for new FBI director.
US President Donald Trump has announced Christopher Wray as his pick for FBI director.
Trump’s early morning two-sentence tweet nominating Wray, a lawyer, came one day before the FBI director that Trump fired last month, James Comey, was to testify in public on Capitol Hill for the first time since his dismissal.
Trump called Wray “a man of impeccable credentials” and offered no more information about the selection, ending the tweet by saying, “Details to follow.”
Wray served in a leadership role in the George W. Bush Justice Department, rising to head the criminal division and overseeing investigations into corporate fraud, during the time when Comey was deputy attorney general.
Wray took charge of a task force of prosecutors and FBI agents created to investigate the Enron scandal.
Comey, during his appearance before the Senate intelligence committee, was expected to describe his encounters with Trump in the weeks before his firing on May 9. He could offer new details regarding discussions with Trump about the federal investigation into Russia’s election meddling.
Wray works in private practice for the King & Spalding law firm. He worked as a federal prosecutor in Atlanta, Georgia, from 1997-2001, and was associate deputy attorney general from 2001-03.
He graduated with honours from Yale University in 1989 and in 1992 from Yale Law School.
5. A 12-year-old girl is among seven charged with drug offences on the Gold Coast.
A 12-year-old girl is among seven people charged with drug and property offences in a police operation on the Gold Coast, AAP reports.
Police allege cash, drugs and other items of property were found during a search of a home in Helensvale at 7.30am on Wednesday.
The 12-year-old Helensvale girl has been charged with one count each of possessing dangerous drug and possession of property suspected having been used in the commission of a drug offence.
A 52-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman both from Helensvale and a 27-year-old Jimbomba man are due to appear at the Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday.
A 17-year-old man and two women, aged 19 and 20, all from Helensvale are expected to appear at the Southport Magistrates Court on July 12.
6. A Myanmar military plane carrying 120 people, including families and children, has gone missing.
A Myanmar military transport plane with 120 people on board has gone missing during a flight from southern Myanmar to Yangon.
There were fears it may have crashed into the ocean, since its route would have taken it over the Andaman Sea.
General Myat Min Oo said the Chinese-made Y-8 turboprop aircraft was carrying 106 passengers – mostly families of military personnel – and 14 crew members when it went missing Wednesday afternoon, AAP reports.
In an earlier statement, the number of passengers was said to be 90. It is not unusual for such flights to carry civilians to offset transportation costs for military families stationed in the somewhat remote south.
“The military plane went missing and lost contact after it took off from Myeik, and now the military has started a sea and air search with naval ships and military aircraft and is preparing for rescue operations,” he said.
An announcement posted on the Facebook page of the commander of the military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, said the flight took off from Myeik at 1:06 pm (local time) and contact with it was lost at 1:35 pm, when it was believed to be about 32 kilometres to the west of Dawei, formerly known as Tavoy.
It said Myanmar had received the plane in March last year, and since then it had logged 809 flying hours.
In a second announcement Wednesday night, the commander’s office said six navy ships and three military aircraft were searching for the missing plane.
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