— With AAP.
1. A Sydney man has been arrested after his parents were found dead in their family home.
On Tuesday morning, a 46-year-old man was arrested by police after his elderly parents were found dead in their south Sydney family home.
Emergency services were called to the family home in Sutherland, where it is understood the three lived together, by a man allegedly threatening self-harm at 8:30am.
Upon arrival they were welcomed by the man, David Reid, before discovering the bodies of his parents – Graham, 75, and Diana Reid, 71 – in the bedroom and living room.
They died due to “multiple injuries”, police said.
“The 46-year-old male was placed under arrest and is currently being treated in hospital for injuries,” Sutherland police area commander Superintendent Jason Box said.
“He’s made certain comments to police at the scene at the time and since he’s been at the hospital… admissions that he was there and involved to a certain extent.”
NSW Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said: “As an officer that’s been around for 34 years and I’ve worked in investigation over a long time, it never prepares you for what those officers were exposed to.
“I feel for them and it’s always a horrific scene to deal with but we do have a great deal of welfare support when our officers are exposed to these events.”
The couple had another son, who has been informed by police of the tragic circumstances.
2. Teenager charged with attempted murder after allegedly throwing six-year-old boy from London gallery.
A 17-year-old male has been charged with attempted murder after a six-year-old boy was allegedly thrown from a viewing platform at the Tate Modern art gallery in London.
The child is in hospital after being found on a fifth floor roof, the Metropolitan Police said. He was treated at the scene before being flown to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance.
The injured boy remains in a stable but critical condition in hospital with his family, who continue to be supported by officers.
The accused will appear before Bromley Youth Court on Tuesday.
The 17-year-old male suspect was held by members of the public on the 10th floor viewing platform after the incident on Sunday afternoon, the force said.
They added that there is nothing to suggest that he is known to the victim.
Scotland Yard said a number of members of the public are assisting police with witness statements and visitors to the gallery have been allowed to leave.
Nancy Barnfield, 47, of Rochdale, was at the 10th floor viewing gallery with a friend and their children when her friend heard a “loud bang”.
Ms Barnfield turned around and saw a woman screaming “where’s my son, where’s my son?”
Members of the public quickly gathered around a man who was nearby, she said.
She said the person who was restrained by members of the public before the police arrived “just stood there and was quite calm”.
BBC journalist Jonny Dymond, who was in the gallery at the time of the incident, said visitors were funnelled into a main hall while all exits were closed.
A spokeswoman for the gallery said: “Tate is working closely with the police to help with their investigations.
“All our thoughts are with the child and his family.”
3. Knox Grammar swimming teacher charged with possessing child pornography.
An exclusive Sydney boys’ school insists it has the “gold standard for protection” of students after one of its teachers was charged with possessing child pornography.
Detectives were called to Knox Grammar School at Wahroonga on Monday afternoon after “a large number of child abuse images” were allegedly found on a phone left at the school’s aquatic centre.
Nick Warby, 30, was arrested and taken to Hornsby Police Station while officers searched his home and seized a number of electronic devices.
It’s alleged drugs including ice and GHB were found in Warby’s car.
In a letter to parents, Knox headmaster Scott James said the staff member had been removed from his duties at the aquatic centre.
“A colleague discovered inappropriate internet images on a mobile phone which we believe belongs to the staff member,” Mr James wrote in Tuesday’s letter seen by AAP.
“Police were alerted. They have advised us that there is currently no suggestion the images relate to Knox boys or swim centre students.”
The school was recognised as “the gold standard for protection of those in our care” and wouldn’t hesitate to contact the police and dismiss staff who didn’t follow the code of conduct and the law, Mr James said.
Knox was heavily criticised in 2016 by the child abuse royal commission which heard five teachers had been charged and later convicted of child sex offences against students.
Warby appeared at Hornsby Local Court on Tuesday and was granted bail. He’s due back in court on August 27.
His solicitor, Philip Cox, said Warby had no prior criminal offences and had the support of his mother and father, who were in court.
The 30-year-old was ordered not to approach Knox staff or students and to surrender all mobile phones, computers and smart devices.
He’s barred from using the internet or any form of social media.
As well as the mobile found at the aquatic centre, police seized three more phones, six USBs and a laptop from Warby’s home and car, the court heard.
Warby has been the director of aquatic sports at Knox since 2017.
He describes himself online as a “friendly and enthusiastic educator with a passion for promoting sport and physical activity amongst young people”.
He studied health education at Sydney University after attending Sydney Church of England Grammar School – or Shore – at North Sydney.
Warby is a surf lifesaver and has won state and national medals for the Queenscliff club and revived Knox’s lifesaving program with Whale Beach SLSC.
He is also a volunteer with the NSW Rural Fire Service.
4. NSW Parliament begins debate to decriminalise abortion.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has urged colleagues to back a bill decriminalising abortion in order to “right a wrong” enacted in law more than a century ago.
Mr Hazzard on Tuesday launched a NSW lower house debate on a private members bill allowing pregnancy terminations up to 22 weeks, while activists on both sides of the abortion debate rallied outside.
The Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019 would also permit later abortions if two doctors “consider that, in all the circumstances, the termination should be performed”.
Mr Hazzard – one of 15 cross-party sponsors of the bill – said it was an important and overdue reform of a law enacted almost 120 years ago when all legislators were men.
He said it was disturbing that the framework for abortion was still found in the state’s Crimes Act.
“I ask all honourable members whether it is acceptable, whether it’s conscionable that in making this major life decision, women and their doctors have to do so with the threat of being charged with a criminal offence,” he said.
Coalition and Labor MPs are being given a conscience vote on the bill, which has the support of Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Transport Minister Andrew Constance, opposition treasury spokesman Walt Secord and others.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Finance Minister Damien Tudehope, Police Minister David Elliott and Liberal MP Kevin Conolly are among those who oppose the draft legislation.
Mr Conolly told parliament it was introduced with “the minimum possible notice” and it was misleading to say it was about decriminalising abortion.
“There are a number of aspects to this bill which do not reflect the current law but rather change it,” he told parliament.
“The bill is not just about the decriminalisation of abortion – it’s about the expansion of practice of abortion.”
Mr Conolly, who spoke “on behalf of unborn children”, said he believed people only had the right to take human life in self-defence and “this is no such case”.
Mr Elliott said he was sad that he had to oppose the bill but in his mind, it was not an election issue.
“Considering the delicate nature and community anxiety being caused, it is certainly in my mind being rushed,” he said.
Mr Hazzard told parliament he respected each person’s right to their own opinion but said “as legislators, our role is to govern for the whole population of NSW”.
He said nothing in the bill would encourage women to have terminations.
The health minister noted concerns about late-term abortions but said the bill had a stricter provision than currently existed in NSW.
“I absolutely refute the spurious arguments being put around about abortion up until the day of birth, for no reason at all,” Mr Hazzard said.
“Doctors have ethical and professional obligations that ensure they will not facilitate late-term abortions unless there is a compelling, clinical need.”
Labor MPs Trish Doyle and Yasmin Catley, Nationals MP Leslie Williams, Greens MP Jenny Leong, Liberal MP Gareth Ward, Labor leader Jodi McKay and independent Greg Piper also spoke in support of the bill in parliament on Tuesday.
Ms Williams said that while abortion was criminalised, it would disproportionately impact women already disadvantaged by living remotely as well as by low socio-economic status, domestic violence and sexual assault.
Ms McKay said politicians could not legislate morality but they could decide legality, and she didn’t believe abortion was a crime.
“I believe the decision a woman makes about her body is a deeply personal decision between her and her doctor,” she said.
“How she justifies that decision, the path that leads her there, is a matter for her and her alone.”
5. Former US president Barack Obama condemns language that feeds hatred following mass shootings.
Former US president Barack Obama has condemned language that feeds hatred and normalises racism, following two mass shootings at the weekend, one of them committed by a suspected white supremacist.
The rare statement posted on his Twitter account on Monday came as many commentators and Democratic politicians accused his successor Donald Trump of using rhetoric that has encouraged white nationalists.
“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalises racist sentiments,” Obama said, without specifically mentioning Trump.
“Leaders who demonise those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people.”
Such language had “no place in our politics and our public life,” he said.
“And it’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much – clearly and unequivocally.”
He also advocated the introduction of stricter gun control laws, something which he tried and failed to do in office.
“Every time this happens, we’re told that tougher gun control laws won’t stop all murders; that they won’t stop every deranged individual from a getting a weapon and shooting innocent people in public places,” he said.
“But the evidence shows that they can stop some killings. They can save some families from heartbreak.”
Trump, who last month said four female Democrats of colour should “go back” to where they came from, on Monday condemned white supremacy but stopped short of proposing specific gun control measures.
Instead he blamed the internet and video games for glorifying violence and called for a reform of mental health laws. “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun,” Trump said.
The 21-year-old suspect in the deadly shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which 22 people were killed on Saturday, is believed to have posted a crude manifesto online in which he expressed rabidly anti-immigrant views.
Police have said that in the second shooting, in Dayton, Ohio, there was no sign of race as a motivating factor, though reports say the suspect had made other types of threats in recent years.