Man jailed 17 years for mum's murder

A man has shouted in court that his own jail sentence for murdering his mother is "manifestly inadequate".

Adam Owens, 35, has been sentenced to at least 17 years in jail for stabbing 69-year-old environmental campaigner Doris Owens several times in her bed in Swanhaven, on the NSW south coast, in 2006.

The murderer had pleaded guilty. In sentencing submissions, he said he felt no remorse and he regretted not killing his mother 20 years earlier.

Justice McCallum sentenced Adam Owens to 23 years' jail with a non-parole period of 17, saying there was no apparent motive for the attack.

Adam Owens shouted "manifestly inadequate" as the sentence was read out.

He was taken away by court officers.

Quote: A quick 17 years? He could be on to something here? No one gets parole anyway so he should add the other six years before complaining.

20 years jail for killing drug dealer

A [man] has been sentenced to at least 20 years in jail for bashing [a] drug dealer to death and hanging the man to make it look like suicide.

The body of Gary Kirk Beaumont, 33, was found in the boot of his car in the car park of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide in June last year.

He had been repeatedly bashed and kicked, stabbed and then hanged by Steven James Newton, 49.

The victim had driven to Newton's house at Birkenhead earlier in the evening to sell him methamphetamines.

Justice Michael David said it was unclear how the fight started.

Newton and his de facto partner, Rebecca Lee Bone, 39, drove around with the body for hours, before dumping the car at the hospital.

Mr Beaumont's girlfriend wept in the courtroom as Newton was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole term of 20 years.

Bone was given a two-year jail sentence, with a 15-month non-parole term.

Suspended sentence for 4yo's manslaughter

A 35-year-old woman who denied her child medical treatment for religious reasons has been given a two-year suspended sentence for manslaughter.

The four-year-old boy died of pneumonia and a kidney disease in 2003.

In the NSW Supreme Court Justice Rotham said proper medical treatment would have prevented the death.

He said the woman was dominated by her husband, a church minister who has since died.

Husband killer gets four years jail

Guilty of manslaughter ... Danielle Stewart has been sentenced to at least four years in jail for stabbing her husband Chaim Kimel to death.

A judge told the family of a man who was stabbed to death by his wife that they might think her punishment "inadequate''.

Danielle Stewart, 32, was found guilty in October of manslaughter after she stabbed Chaim Kimel, 55, twice in the abdomen with a knife during an argument in their Rose Bay apartment in August 2006.

Today at the Supreme Court, Justice Jane Mathews told members of Mr Kimel's family, including his youngest son, that courts could not impose sentences to reflect the pain and suffering of a family.

"I suspect that you'll regard the punishment that I am about to impose as quite inadequate to the extent of your loss...'' Justice Mathews told the family before sentencing Stewart to a maximum of 6 years and 4 months and a minimum of four years in jail.

Stewart could be eligible for parole as early as June 2011.

Mr Kimel's family declined to comment on the sentence outside court.

Stewart, who had been diagnosed with severe borderline personality disorder, had been drinking heavily on the night in question.

The court heard she had become extremely agitated after her husband changed the password to their company's website.

"The offender in her intoxicated state grabbed hold of the knife to stab the deceased without averting to the consequences,'' Justice Mathews said.

He found that Stewart had a good chance for rehabilitation as long as she received intensive treatment for her disorder.

Stewart had made several attempts on her life since the age of 12 and had suffered sexual abuse as a young girl, the worst occurring shortly after her mother died of breast cancer.

Justice Mathews found that Stewart was unlikely to reoffend despite the emotional and psychological issues that stemmed from having "more than her fair share'' of childhood trauma.

Girlfriend killer gets 19 years for murder

A man who [murdered his girlfriend] has been sentenced to 19 years jail.

Thirty-seven-year-old David Piper strangled his girlfriend Wendy Chow at her Toorak flat in April this year.

The Victorian Supreme Court heard the pair had a violent relationship and Ms Chow had insisted that Piper move out.

The court was told he threw her to the ground and strangled her.

He then went to police and confessed.

Piper pleaded guilty to murder and to two armed robberies four years earlier.

In sentencing, Justice Robert Osborn described the attack as sustained, brutal and vicious.

He sentenced Piper to a non-parole period of 15 years.

Company fined over workplace death

A Melbourne company and its managing director have been fined $100,000 each over the death of a worker in 2006.

It is the first time a company director has been sentenced for a workplace death, under the Occupational Heath and Safety Act 2004.

The Victorian County Court heard the managing director of Manumatic Industries, Stanley Guthrie, told an employee, Frank Grima, to make drip trays for a machine that manufactured exhaust pipes at the company's Epping factory.

The court was told Mr Grima was hit on the head when he approached the machine and died from his injuries.

He was 55-years-old.

The court heard the machine's key safety feature, a laser safety curtain, was not working effectively.

Guthrie pleaded guilty to one count [of?] and Manumatic Industries pleaded guilty to a two charges [of?]

Outside Court Mr Grima's son Paul said he was happy with the sentence.

"Nothing will ever bring back my father but the judge did look into it and made the right call," he said.

Quote One count of what? Two charges of what? Manslaughter? Why was that too hard to print?

Robber jailed for killing newsagent

A Sydney robber who fled with just $195 before using a fence paling to kill a newsagent pursuing him has been jailed for at least seven-and-a-half years.

In the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, Justice Peter Hidden set a maximum term of 11-and-a-half years for Steven Momir Katic, 31.

A jury found Katic not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Chinh Nguyen, 41, near his newsagency at Glenfield in Sydney's south-west, in February last year.

He also was sentenced for aggravated armed robbery, after admitting the offence.

Justice Hidden said Katic was wearing a mask and carrying an unloaded air rifle when he demanded money from Mr Nguyen, whose mother Susan Huynh also was present.

"Mr Nguyen handed over notes amounting to a little under $200 and the offender ran from the shop," the judge said.

"Unfortunately, Mr Nguyen, who must have been a man of no little courage and who could not have known whether the air rifle was loaded or not, pursued the offender."

After a struggle, Katic discarded the money and the air rifle was wrested from him, before Mr Nguyen pursued him into a laneway.

"At that point, the offender picked up a loose paling from the ground and struck Mr Nguyen forcibly to the head," he said.

Mr Nguyen, who recognised Katic as a customer, died in hospital a week later.

Justice Hidden concluded Katic had not intended to kill the newsagent, but had engaged in "excessive self-defence", fearing Mr Nguyen was going to attack him.

The judge said he was satisfied Katic was remorseful for his crimes, noting he had told a psychologist he thought about what he had done every day and "felt bad about it every day".

The earliest date Katic can be eligible for release on parole is August 25, 2014.

Man not guilty due to mental illness

A man who stabbed his wife to death has been found not guilty due to mental illness.

The 36-year-old man stabbed his 31-year-old wife in her Randwick unit in Sydney's east in November 2007.

The New South Wales Supreme Court heard he accused her of having an affair and days before exhibited disturbed behaviour, telling his wife he almost stabbed her friend.

After the stabbing the man fled with [his eight year old] child and was eventually found by police on the south coast of NSW.

Today Supreme Court Justice Peter Hidden ruled the man is not guilty of murder due to mental illness.

He ordered him to be detained in the hospital unit at Sydney's Long Bay prison until released by the due process of the law.

Farmer jailed 16 years for wife's murder

A NSW farmer who shot his wife and buried her with lime to deter wild pigs from disturbing the body has been jailed for at least 16 years for her murder.

Laurence Bede O'Connor told police he had had "a gutful" of Flordelizza O'Connor and shot her as she descended a ladder after repairing a leak on the roof of their property.

Acting Justice Timothy Studdert noted O'Connor resented the "expressed assertion" by his wife that she was "the boss" and told police "she used to yell and scream and screech".

The now 65-year-old admitted to the manslaughter of Flordelizza O'Connor, 47, on the basis of provocation in July last year at their property, called Quandalli, near Tooraweenah, in the state's central western slopes.

But in October, a NSW Supreme Court jury sitting at Dubbo found him guilty of the more serious charge of murder.

In sentencing him last Friday, the judge described the shooting as "callous" and "cowardly".

But he accepted O'Connor was remorseful and concluded he had suffered some loss of self control at the time of the murder.

Two months after the shooting, he confessed his crime and showed police where he had buried her body, in a relatively isolated location on the property.

O'Connor said he placed her body in the bucket scoop of a tractor and placed lime on her body when he buried it.

He told police his wife had been on the roof when she said she had taken his car keys, his wallet, his cheque and deposit books, and had burnt his tobacco.

He unsuccessfully searched for his keys and later told police he had had a "gutful" of his wife doing these things, which he claimed had been going on for years and getting worse.

"There was a loaded .22 rifle kept on the verandah, placed there for shooting birds that raided the strawberries and this was the gun the offender used," the judge noted.

As she descended, he placed the gun against his wife's spine and fired without warning, firing a second shot at her temple when she fell on to the concrete and was moaning.

The judge said the marriage was happy at the outset but stresses developed and increased when their two children left home.

O'Connor, an alcoholic, had resented his wife's wish to participate in decisions about the property, most of which was leased out but which she wanted them to work themselves.

In setting a maximum sentence of 21 years, Justice Studdert said O'Connor shot his unsuspecting victim twice at close range with intent to kill.

The earliest date he will be eligible for parole is September 6, 2023.

'Where justice ends, mercy begins'

Yeeda Topham walks free from court. "How on earth will I be able to do it?” she wrote.

A woman who killed her baby son when she jumped from the eighth storey of a building with the boy in her arms will walk free from prison.

Following 11 months in prison awaiting her sentence, Yeeda Topham, 41, was told today she would not need to serve any more time over the death of 21-month-old James in November last year.

WA's Supreme Court heard how Mrs Topham's severe depressive illness took complete hold of her in the months leading up to her son's death, triggered by a marriage breakdown and a belief the bond with her baby had somehow broken.

Poems written by the former teacher - one entitled "What it is like to lose the bond with your baby" - spoke increasingly of her fragile mental state, described thoughts of “damaging her baby” and her fear of the “cruellest fate for her little one in being left behind”.

Despite a spell at a psychiatric hospital, and other mental health care, Mrs Topham's despair reached breaking point last November 5, beginning with an attempt to kill herself and her baby by gassing them both in her car at a property in Roleystone.

When that attempt was unsuccessful, she drove to the apartment block in West Perth where she used to live with her estranged husband, climbed an outside staircase to the eighth floor and jumped off, with James in her arms.

Both suffered catastrophic injuries, with the toddler dying soon afterwards.

Mrs Topham was originally charged with the wilful murder of James, but eventually pleaded guilty to his unlawful killing in October this year.

Prosecutor Dave Dempster told the court depression at the breakdown of Mrs Topham's marriage had been exacerbated by post-natal depression following James' birth - illustrated in her poems.

"How on earth will I be able to do it?” she wrote in one.

Defence lawyer Paul O'Brien said Mrs Topham had been aware of her depressive illness, and attempting to treat it - describing it as a "black cloud" which eventually overtook her.

Sentencing Mrs Topham, Judge John McKechnie said the choice of a building where she used to live with James' father showed an "element of vengeance".

But the judge then said any punishment he could impose would not come close to the loss of her child, and the resultant effects, and said Mrs Topham would not have to serve any more jail time.

"This is a sad case whichever way you look at it," Justice McKechnie said.

"On the day, and many months before, you were suffering a severe mental illness.

"Taking a human life can never be condoned, and there are many victims of your crime.

"But human frailty overcame all your normal inhibitions.

"Where justice ends, mercy begins."

Gordon Wood jailed for 17 years

Gordon Wood has been jailed for 17 years for the murder of Sydney model Caroline Byrne because he was endlessly tried by the media.

Gordon Wood has been sentenced to 17 years' jail with a non-parole period of 13 years for throwing his girlfriend Caroline Byrne to her death at The Gap, in Sydney's east, more than 13 years ago.

The sentence comes after more than a decade of investigating, a coronial inquest, an aborted trial and a second trial.

A Supreme Court jury of seven women and five men found the 46-year-old former chauffeur guilty of murder nearly two weeks ago after almost three months of evidence and six days of deliberations.

In sentencing Wood, Justice Graham Barr said the offence was committed after an argument and was not pre-meditated.

He sentenced him to 17 years and four months in jail with a non-parole period of 13 years.

Wood's supporters stood up in a packed public gallery as he was led up from the cells and after the sentence was handed down.

Outside court, Wood's sister Jacqueline Schmidt told the media the family is outraged at the sentence and hopes to have an appeal heard by the middle of next year.

"Obviously we're devastated that he should even have to spend 13 minutes in jail for a crime that has not been proven to have happened conclusively and certainly hasn't been supported by evidence that Gordon had anything to do with it," she said.

Jacqueline says her family are the forgotten victims in the ordeal.

"While we obviously empathise and sympathise with the Byrnes on the loss of their beautiful daughter, I think you need to remember too that we also grieve her loss, because she was intended to be a member of our family and we certainly consider her that way," she said.

"So I guess our stand is one of absolute conviction that a wrong has been done and our right as Australians to voice that concern to follow it through to what we hope will be a quashing of this particular sentence."

"We're devastated, we're also horrified and appalled that this sort of verdict can be handed down in our country today."

'Trial By Media Points'

Throughout the trial, the Crown argued Wood murdered the Sydney model because she knew too much about the business dealings of his boss, the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin.

Mark Tedeschi QC [a very bent prosecutor in NSW used by the government to blame patsies] had said the "killer point" of his case was that Wood knew where her body was before anyone else and that her body had landed head-first.

But Wood's defence team argued Caroline Byrne was at a high risk of suicide because she was depressed at the time of her death, a claim strenuously denied by her father Tony Byrne [who had everything to lose because he would have been seen in public as an inadequate father.]

Wood also claimed he could not have killed Ms Byrne because he was driving Mr Rivkin and Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson to lunch on the day she died.

That alibi was undermined by Mr Richardson, who had said he was lunching elsewhere that day.

On the day of the verdict, Wood's barrister, Winston Terracini SC, said he would appeal against what he described as an "unreasonable verdict", and said that his client maintained his innocence. He has plenty of support.

Related:

Jury system defended after trial aborted
Allegedly a female juror was bullying the others and had already decided Wood was guilty of murder...

Zionists are a power group in Australia
2) They attack and trial by media even those that may be innocent and drive them into being guilty, especially if they have something to gain from it.So people can be tried until they're found guilty – not just by the court but by the media endless sound-bites - regardless of a finding.

The perfect crime: trial by media!
I ask you? Why wouldn’t Gordon Wood be found guilty? Do you think he's getting a fair trial? Why not just throw him to the lions? Why doesn’t his council argue that he can’t get a fair trial?

Mouse Trap Game? Tried Until Guilty!
Two New South Wales Labor MPs have strongly criticised the Carr Government's proposed abolition of the 800 year old double jeopardy rule, which stops people being tried a second time for the same crime. The left-wing MPs have branded the reforms as dishonest and unjust in a formal submission to the Attorney-General's department.

Young at risk of homicide

Ten per cent of all domestic violence homicide victims were children under the age of 15, according to new figures to be released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology.

The figures show that although the overall number of homicides dropped between 2006 and 2007, the proportion of deaths attributed to domestic violence remained the same.

In about half the cases the perpetrators were known to police as domestic violence offenders.

The Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek, said she was very concerned that the numbers of people dying as a result of domestic violence were not diminishing.

The Federal Government is due to shortly receive a draft report from the council it appointed to investigate ways to reduce the levels of domestic violence.

The[re is a] continuing high number of cases of murders resulting from domestic violence despite increased public awareness of the issue.

The institute's report shows there were 266 victims of homicide in Australia in 2007, a decrease of 45 from the previous year. About a quarter of the victims died as a result of domestic violence.

In 43 per cent of those cases the perpetrator has a history of domestic violence that was known to police.

More women perpetrating domestic violence: statistics

In the 12 months to September 2003 police recorded 4918 women as persons of interest for perpetrating domestic violence. By 2006-07 that had risen to 6056, figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show.

Of the women arrested for domestic violence-related assault in the five years to last September only 32 per cent of the cases reached court, compared with 56 per cent of cases involving men, statistics show.

The bureau's director, Don Weatherburn, said the increase was likely to have been driven by more than one factor. Others could include an increase in binge drinking, or more men who were willing to admit they are victims.

"It's possible that people are becoming less tolerant of violence by females than they used to be," he said. More women are also being arrested for assault not related to domestic violence, which some attribute to a rise in alcohol abuse. Others say women can be as violent as men, and that in more than half of violent partnerships partners struck each other.

Related:

Domestic murders hit 10-year high
But when we write our article then we may need to leave out say, the statistics in relation to women who commit 'domestic murders'? That's if we are going to succeed changing public opinon that it's only the men. Another fact is that women don't commit domestic murders? Of course this is just a guess?

Bligh won't budge on smacking code
The Queensland Government says it will not change a controversial section of the criminal code that allows "reasonable force" to be used when disciplining children.

Anti-violence plan for children
Why not Violence Against ‘Everyone’ not necessarily just Against Women and their Children - If not then why not? This is supposed to be an article about educating children? Why educate children with a one sided view? Is it okay to violate men? The idea that we should only reduce Violence Against Women and their Children is a Zionist Tactic. Zionists maintain leverage by choosing to focus only on ‘women and children’ because that is how they undermine and divide the community the best. Anyone can search this blog under murder, violence, or domestic-violence and see that women also need help.

Police arrest a father over access dispute?
In a media report yesterday the ABC reported (see article below), that the police arrested a man over the abduction of children. But were these his children?

Court overcrowding 'inviting violence'
The Federal Government has been told that overcrowding at Newcastle Family Court is creating a volatile situation that invites acts of violence.

Taxi driver murderer jailed

A man who murdered a Melbourne taxi driver during a violent rampage two years ago has been sentenced to 17-and-a-half years jail.

The Supreme Court heard 23-year-old Eyubb Zaim showed a reckless disregard for human life when he killed 27-year-old taxi driver Rajneesh Joga in August 2006.

Zaim was intoxicated with drugs during a police chase at Donvale, when he abandoned his car and hailed the taxi.

He tried to push Mr Joga out of the drivers seat.

Mr Joga was hanging off the taxi when he was crushed to death against a tree.

In sentencing, Justice David Harper said taxi drivers are more exposed to danger than most and the sentence must deter others from harming them.

Zaim will serve a minimum term of 14-and-a-half years.

Cricket bat attacker jailed for 5 years

A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to five years' jail for killing a man in the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Geraldton on Christmas Day last year.

Matthew Roy McDonald pleaded guilty in the Perth Supreme Court to the manslaughter of William Rowe.

Mr Rowe died after being hit over the head with a cricket bat on a beach in Geraldton last year.

His wife directly addressed McDonald when she read out a victim impact statement at today's sentencing hearing telling him he had taken away the rock of her family's life.

Mrs Rowe said she suffered anxiety and flashbacks and she and her traumatised family struggled to run their sheep station.

McDonald's sentence was backdated to December 28 last year and he will be eligible for parole.

Suspended sentence

The Supreme Court had earlier heard McDonald was serving a suspended jail term for unlawful wounding at the time of the Christmas Day attack.

McDonald also admitted that he had breached a 12 month suspended jail term that had been imposed in February last year for a charge of unlawful wounding.

Killer dies in Afghanistan stealing resources

Australia was last night grieving the seventh soldier killed in Afghanistan by Taliban [resistance] in six years.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his prayers were with the family of an unidentified Special Operations Task Group soldier killed yesterday by an improvised explosive device in the dangerous Oruzgan province.

Two other [killers] were injured in the attack and last night the Australian [Military] Force was liaising with their families.

Special: Australians [killers] in Afghanistan [stealing resources]

The tragedy - just weeks before Christmas - comes two months after an Australian soldier was seriously injured and eight others were wounded during a protracted gunfight with Taliban [resistance] fighters.

It had been expected [resistance] would ramp up their attacks in the last few weeks of the annual "[defence] season", during the northern hemisphere's summer months, however the [Military] Force said Afghanistan was always dangerous.

[Because that is where Afghanistani's live and not Australians, mate.]

Seven Australians have died in Afghanistan since 2002.

SAS Signalman Sean McCarthy, 25, and Lance-Corporal Jason Marks, 27, died this year; Private Luke Worsley, SAS Sgt Matthew Locke and Trooper David Pearce were killed in 2007 and Sgt Andrew Russell, 33, was killed in 2002.

A statement confirmed the victim as 25-year-old Lieutenant Michael Fussell. Lets do it baby, SASR I can never die?

Mr Rudd, who has ruled out boosting troop numbers in Afghanistan beyond the 1000 already there, yesterday paid tribute to the serving soldiers.

"Our troops in Afghanistan are engaged in dangerous work, they are engaged in important work and they perform their role with distinction, with bravery and professionalism," Mr Rudd said.

[As they continue to be killed for imperialists stealing resources.]

"There is no higher calling for any person than to wear the uniform of Australia and today we are tragically reminded of the risks that come . . . with that calling."

[So why not call Kevin Rudd to the front line if he thinks it's okay to die for imperialists causes?]

In a statement, [Military] Force Vice-Chief Lieutenant-General David Hurley said the blast happened during an offensive operation by members of Special Operations Task Group in an area of Oruzgan province in which Australian troops had previously operated.

General Hurley said the soldiers were on foot, conducting an operation against Taliban insurgents.

No more information could be released about the incident because it could jeopardise the safety of other soldiers, he said.

"Our nation mourns the loss of a fine soldier," General Hurley said.

"On behalf of the men and women of the Australian Defence [WAR] Force, I offer my deepest sympathy to his family and to his friends.

He said the soldier's family was receiving support.

An inquiry will be held into the soldier's death and the results will be made public.

========================================

Oil Company Profits

Australia sent troops to Afghanistan for oil company profits.

The Australian military pawns are dying on behalf of oil profits, my friends.

The Taliban are Indigenous Afganistani's and are resisting our occupation.

Where after 7 years of war there's stil no water, no education, and no electricity for most of the people, most of the time.

Not improving their lives in any significant way at all.

Wouldn't you think after seven years of war promising food, water, power and education, whilst billions are embezzed by corrupt officials, they would be getting the picture?

Major Root Cause of Domestic Violence in Australia

The Military should be re named to AUSTRALIAN HUMANITY AID GROUP.

The AUSTALIAN HUMANITY AID GROUP should lead Australia by some form of example - in terms of not perpetrating violence.

And instead only Helping people in crisis, or Defending Australia from invasion.

Not killing people for resource wars, pre-emptive strikes on foreign nation states or occupation of other nations.

Related:

Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress
War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill earlier this year to testify before Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war. Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, “Winter Soldier on the Hill” was designed to drive home the human cost of the war and occupation—this time, to the very people in charge of doing something about it.

AFGHANISTAN: End the slaughter
An Afghan woman who lost family members weeps after air strikes on Friday in Azizabad district of Shindand August 23, 2008. An UN investigation suggested that 60 children were killed in the airstrike. Australian troops are not restoring peace in Afghanistan but working for oil company profits, amongst other things.

More than 98 times as many people have been killed in these wars and occupations than in all terrorist attacks in the world from 1995-2003. About 229 times as many people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq than in the ghastly attacks of September 11, 2001.

Casualties in Afghanistan:
Afghan troops killed: 8,587
Afghan troops seriously injured: 25,761
Afghan civilians killed: 3,485
Afghan civilians seriously injured: 6,273
U.S. troops killed: 534
U.S. troops seriously injured: 1,602
Other coalition troops killed: 402
Other coalition troops seriously injureed 1,206
Contractors killed: 75
Contractors seriously injured: 2,428
Journalists killed: 6
Journalists seriously injured: unknown
Total killed in Afghanistan: 13,089
=================================================
Total injured in Afghanistan: 37,270
=================================================

The Forgotten War: Sonali Kolhatkar on Why Afghanistan is “Just as Bad as Iraq” Coming on the heels of Barack Obama’s highly publicized visit to Afghanistan—what he calls a central front in the so-called war on terror—we play an address by Pacifica radio host Sonali Kolhatkar, one of this country’s leading voices against the occupation of Afghanistan and co-author of the book Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords and the Propaganda of Silence. She spoke last month at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis about what she called widespread misconceptions about the occupation of Afghanistan.

I don't remember falling diggers
Diggers dig holes to bury their dead and when I see war that is what I see. Firstly, I see imperialists then I see murderers and killers. How come others cannot see that?

Lets do it baby, SASR I can never die?

Army chief admits morale concerns over lack of combat
Lieutenant General Leahy was responding to public criticism from two infantry officers who have written in the Australian Army Journal. The officers claim that some soldiers are sometimes ashamed to wear the Australian uniform and have been treated with "near contempt" by allies in Iraq and Afghanistan because they are involved in such low-risk missions.

Women jailed for leaving lover to die

A woman who drugged her lover then left him to die in a burning house has been jailed for 24 years.

Vasiliki "Vicky" Efandis, 50, cooked George Marcetta his favourite meal of pork and noodles, lacing it with sleeping tablets, in 2004, the Victorian Supreme Court heard.

She then used kerosene and paper to light a fire at several points in his Bellfield house, including the bedroom where Mr Marcetta, 58, slept.

Justice Stephen Kaye said Efandis's crime was planned, cold blooded and remorseless.

He said she was motivated by greed and had abused Mr Marcetta's trust in the most "appalling way".

Justice Kaye said Efandis callously exploited his affection and attraction to her to gain control of his assets before his death.

Had the medication she drugged him with not worked quickly, he would have suffered a most terrifying end, he said.

Efandis had tried to set up a friend as a suspect in his murder, he said.

Justice Kaye said Efandis had suffered a series of accidents and she accepted the impact jail would have on her health.

He also said despite her financial motive in the crime, she would be largely destitute on release.

Efandis must serve a minimum of 20 years.

Teen jailed for autistic man's death

A teenager who stabbed an autistic man to death in a Sydney toilet block has been sentenced to seven years in jail.

Thirty-five-year-old Gerard Fleming, who had a mild form of autism, died after being stabbed twice in a toilet block at Narrabeen, on Sydney's northern beaches, in 2007.

A Year 11 student, who was 16 at the time, was found guilty of manslaughter.

The court heard the teenager had been drinking with Gerard Fleming, but told a friend the 35-year-old tried to rape him in the toilet block, which was a well-known gay beat.

In handing down the sentence, Justice Kirby said the crime was compulsive and the offender was remorseful.

But he said human life is sacred and it was still a senseless death that had arisen from a misunderstanding.

He sentenced the teenager to seven years' jail with a non-parole period of three-and- a-half years.

Judge jails 'cold-hearted' murderer

A Victorian woman who murdered her partner by drugging him and setting his house on fire has been sentenced to 24 years in jail.

Vasiliki Efandis showed little emotion as she was jailed for the murder of George Marchetta at Bellfield in 2004.

The Victorian Supreme Court heard Efandis, aged in her late fifties, was motivated by greed, as she became close to her victim, and gained control of his assets.

The Court heard on the night of the murder she cooked her victim's favourite meal, laced it with a sedative, and later set his house on fire using almost 30 litres of kerosene.

A jury found Efandis guilty of one count of murder.

In sentencing, Justice Stephen Kaye said the crime was cold-hearted and merciless.

Efandis will serve a non-parole period of 20 years.

Jail for repeat hit-run offender

An Adelaide man has been jailed for the hit-run death of an elderly man at Blair Athol.

Grigorio Sgardelis, 79, died in Prospect Road in January last year, after he was hit by a car driven by Clay Chittleborough, of Kilburn.

Port Adelaide Magistrates Court was told that Chittleborough failed to stop to help the dying man.

Magistrate Paul Foley set a 15-month head sentence for charges including failing to stop.

The sentence also took into account another crash, in 2004, when Chittleborough hit a pedestrian and also fled the scene.

He will be eligible for parole next May.

Domestic murders hit 10-year high

The New South Wales Government is being urged to hold an immediate review into domestic violence homicides, with the number of women and children killed in NSW at its highest level in almost a decade.

The state's Bureau of Crime Statistics says 29 women and children were murdered in domestic incidents between July last year and June this year, six above the average for the past 10 years.

The State Opposition's spokeswoman for women, Pru Goward, says it is obvious police and community services systems are not working.

"These record figures are an absolute indictment of the State Labor Government," she said.

"The State Labor Government has had the opportunity to introduce a domestic violence homicide review for some time.

"It's been called for by the sector, we've called for it. We've asked the Government and they consistently refuse to do it."

Quote: But when we write our article then we may need to leave out say, the statistics in relation to women who commit 'domestic murders'? That's if we are going to succeed changing public opinon that it's only the men. Another fact is that women don't commit domestic murders? Of course this is just a guess?

Related:

Anti-violence plan for children
A Federal Government agency is developing a plan for anti-violence education programs for children.