The day all hell broke loose at high school

IT WAS 8.50am on a Monday, as the students of Merrylands High School milled in the schoolyard for assembly when five boys arrived, uninvited, seeking revenge.

For 10 minutes the teenage gang tormented and terrorised anyone unable to escape its path, smashing 100 windows and leaving a damage bill of almost $27,000.

The story of the rampage can be told today for the first time.

In Parramatta Children's Court on Friday, the five pleaded guilty to charges including assault, affray and causing malicious damage to property arising from the rampage on April 7 this year. Only one of the teenagers appeared in court, with four appearing via video link.

Police facts tendered to the court and obtained detailed how the violence was sparked by a girl - the cousin of one of the gang members - being physically assaulted by a teenage boy.

Seeking vengeance, a 14-year-old from Auburn, two 15-year-olds from Carramar and Merrylands and two 16-year-olds from Merrylands and Seven Hills went to school believing their quarry - a boy called "L" - was a student there.

It was the start of a typical week, with the school community gathering for Monday assembly. More than 700 students and their teachers were in the school quadrangle. While the school has security fencing, the gates were open for students who were running late.

Chaos erupted when the five boys, dressed in jeans and hooded jumpers, joined the assembled student group.

Holding a samurai sword with a 61-centimetre blade, the leader of the boys confronted a male student and punched him in the face with his free hand. His cohorts, armed with baseball bats and a machete, slowly ambled through the lines of students. Two girls were struck on the legs by baseball bats.

A teacher called out the alarm and panic-stricken students were sent to their classrooms as the school went into lockdown.

The sword-wielding leader approached a female student and held the weapon 40centimetres from her throat, demanding to know where "L" was hiding.

"The girl replied: 'Who?"'. She was punched in the face, police said.

A senior teacher named Henry remonstrated with the attacker on the quadrangle.

"You cannot do this," he said. "You have to leave."

The attacker brandished the sheathed sword at the teacher and then swung the weapon. The sword struck the teacher on the left side of his torso. In pain, the teacher grabbed on to the sword with his armpit and tried to wrestle the weapon away from the teenager.

Other gang members came to the aid of their leader and struck the teacher on the head from behind with another weapon.

The teacher fell forward and accidentally unsheathed the sword as the boys stormed off.

From the quadrangle they went to the canteen and confronted the school cleaner, a man called Gary.

The gang leader lifted the sword above his head. "I bet this will hurt you," the teenager screamed, before moving on.

The five boys then entered a two-storey school building. They smashed windows along the entire length of the upstairs and downstairs corridors of the building, sending shards of glass flying into adjoining classrooms. They then stopped outside locked room 33 on the ground floor, and made a decision that threatened to escalate the violence to tragedy.

The gang smashed down the locked door and stormed into the classroom where 20 students and a teacher were sheltering. They began smashing windows as students cowered under their desks and screamed for help.

Suddenly, a senior police officer entered with his baton drawn. He demanded that the assailants drop their weapons. When they refused he drew his gun and again demanded they put the weapons down. The teenage boys slowly dropped their weapons and raised their hands.

It was 9am. Ambulances were rushing to the school. The assaulted teacher was taken to Westmead Hospital with bruising to the back of his head, but was released in the afternoon. Two students, one boy and a girl, were also taken to hospital.

Ambulance NSW said 18 students were treated for "minor injuries, some lacerations, some bruising".

Detective Sergeant Gary James, who headed the police investigation into the lockdown, said the actions of school principal Liliana Mularczyk and her staff had prevented a mass tragedy. The rampage was over.

Police wanted boys tried as adults

NSW Police wanted the five teenagers to be tried as adults but were turned down.

In special circumstances police can request a more severe jail term - in this case up to 10 years for the charges of affray.

The police were deeply disturbed about the school system being used to play out violent rivalry between groups of students and believed the actions of the teenagers deserved special attention.

But The Director of Public Prosecutions referred the matter to the Children's Court. On Friday, Magistrate Gabriel Fleming remanded the boys to appear in Parramatta Children's Court on September 24 for sentencing after they pleaded guilty.

In the Children's Court the maximum sentence on the charge of affray - the most serious levelled against the boys - is three years, compared to up to 10 years for adults.

Dr Fleming permitted 'some' media to cover Friday's hearing, despite protests from the legal representatives of the defendants. She said the matter was in the public interest.

Under laws governing media coverage in the Children's Court, the names of defendants cannot be made public.

Burrell to appeal again over Whelan murder

Appeal to be re-heard: Bruce Burrell

The High Court has ordered the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal to re-hear an appeal by convicted murderer Bruce Burrell.

Fifty-five-year-old Burrell is serving life in jail for kidnapping and killing Kerry Whelan, who was last seen outside a Parramatta hotel in May 1997.

The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed an appeal last year against Burrell's conviction, but it was later discovered that the decision included substantial factual errors that were not included in the trial.

The NSW Court upheld its original decision.

Today the High Court unanimously allowed Burrell's appeal and ordered that it be re-heard.

Related:

Burrell sentenced to life for Whelan murder?
In his defence, his lawyers argued that the prosecution case was based on speculative and intrinsically flawed circumstantial evidence. What's more, Bruce Burrell's lawyers pointed out there wasn't a shred of forensic evidence linking him to the crime. Not a single hair, not even a microscopic trace of Kerry Whelan's DNA was ever found, despite extensive searches of his cars and property. [But the jury's guilty verdict demonstrates that a strong circumstantial case can be sufficient to ensure a conviction?

TRIAL BY MEDIA! or trial by a Jury?
Once a person is charged there should be a media black ban on that case until a jury has found the person either guilty or not guilty. If the media have the power to elect our political parties then they also have the power to find people guilty. Especially people who are being tried over and over again. Now with no double jeopardy rules and majority verdicts in NSW then high profile cases have become susceptible to being tried by the media and not by the jury in my humble opinion.

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.

Fury as DOCS 'lose' girl

Missing ... Lauren Ryall, 13.Unfortunately she did not go to the agreed destination and in hindsight there may have been a more appropriate response for this child

The Department of Community Services says it will review its procedures after a 13-year-old girl it placed on a train alone from Parramatta to Dunmore, near Wollongong, vanished.

Lauren Maree Ryall was reported missing on Monday afternoon after she failed to arrive at her destination. Police today said she had still not been found.

DOCS caseworkers had dropped the girl off at Parramatta station about 1.40pm on Monday. She was given a train ticket and lunch money, said Helen Freeland, DOCS executive director for operations.

"Lots of 13-year-olds travel on their own on the train," she said.

But her mother, Judith, said Lauren should not have been left to travel alone.

"It should never have happened it should never happen to any child," she said.

"Now my child is missing and DOCS have since told me that they can't do anything to help look for her because it's now in the hands of the child protection agency and police."

DOCS director general Jenny Mason said it was working with police to find Lauren as soon as possible.

"Unfortunately she did not go to the agreed destination and in hindsight there may have been a more appropriate response for this child," Ms Mason said.

"We are looking at our procedures and policy to minimise the chances of this happening again."

Judith said Lauren had called her on Tuesday night to say she was with a friend in Wyong. But Lauren hung up after less than two minutes when she found out police were looking for her, Judith said.

Lauren had travelled to Wyong with a girl, who had also been placed on the train at Parramatta by DOCS on Monday.

She had been placed in DOCS' care at the weekend after returning to her Wollongong home from a friend's house and finding her mother missing.

"She had gone out on Friday, I'd given her permission to go to a friend's place [and] I'd come to my cousin's house," said here mother.

"Lauren didn't realise I was at my cousin's place and gave herself to police on Sunday night."

Police were duty-bound to report the matter to DOCS, Judith said.

Lauren's parents were separated, and her father lives in Queensland.

Lauren's mother said she had previously contacted DOCS to help "straighten my family out".

But she was upset DOCS had placed her daughter on the train alone.

"If I can just save one child or one parent what I've been through in the last 48 hours, all of this would be worth it," she said.

The furious father of the 13-year-old girl says the organisation has not even contacted him.

Lauren's father, John Ryall, said police had told him they knew "roughly'' where Lauren was.

"It's a matter of time before they get her,'' he said.

However, he remained furious at what had happened.

"They (DOCS) neglected to tell us for two days that [Lauren] was with a known runaway 15-year-old girl, I had to find that out through the police,'' Mr Ryall said from Mackay, where he lives with his 14-year-old son.

"I'm not really comforted with the company she's in. Every night I go to sleep and I don't know if these people are into drugs or sex.''

Anger

Mr Ryall struggled to contain his anger when asked how he felt about DOCS letting his daughter board a train alone.

"I'm a crane driver and we've got a duty of care to people at work. If I put someone in that much danger I could lose my job.

"I want her safe and then I'm going to take these people apart. I'm going to write representations against DOCS, I'll need some legal help here.

"They're not getting away with this crap. She could be dead. I know Sydney.

"At one stage I thought I'd never see her again. It's sheer luck for DOCS people she's still living and breathing.''

Mr Ryall said it had been agreed some weeks ago that Lauren would move to Mackay to live with him.

DOCS contacted Mr Ryall on the weekend after Lauren entered its care, he said.

"They were going to arrange for her to be kept until she could be sent up here to North Queensland to be with me,'' he said.

"Next thing I hear [from Lauren's mother, Judith] DOCS had put her on a train.

Haven't heard a word

"I haven't heard a word from DOCS [since Lauren went missing], I haven't even gotten a courtesy phone call.''

He said he would resist any moves by DOCS to place Lauren in foster care after she is found.

"Once she's checked out medically, I don't want her anywhere near DOCS. I don't trust DOCS.

"Every minute she's missing, that's a minute of my life when my heart stops, I'm crying myself at night, dreaming about her when she was a little girl.

"She's still a little girl.''

Ms Freeland said: " The choice that our caseworkers have to make is do they spend a whole day either driving her home or taking her by train or do they go out and respond to the urgent cases that have come over the weekend, and these are very difficult choices that we make every day."

Updated 6:14pm (AEST)

Police say she was found at about 11:30am AEST today on a train heading to Cronulla.

They say she is safe and well.

Related:

DOCS insiders blow whistle on tragedy
DOCS workers have detailed a catalogue of failures that have left at-risk children in unsafe families and put staff in danger, as officers struggle with crippling vacancies in a department top-heavy with managers and with a dysfunctional records system.

Even drug dealers deserve protection, judge rules

A court has jailed a man for at least six years for conspiring to assault a drug-dealing associate.

The judge ruled that even drug dealers deserved protection by the law.

A Sydney man Ric Bonato had sold cannabis to Quinton Tulisi, 32, of Parramatta.

He spent the $13,000 he was paid without delivering the cannabis he had promised.

Tulisi and his brother-in-law William Taiwhanua then visited Adelaide, where they stabbed Bonato and slashed his face.

A South Australian court was told Bonato went to SA police who put the other men under surveillance.

They were arrested and charged when SA police found them equipped with duct tape, gloves and cable ties they intended using on Bonato.

Judge Paul Rice remarked during sentencing that even drug dealers were entitled to protection.

Life jail sentence outlasts parole court

SYDNEY'S historic parole court will move on Monday from Hospital Road - where it has sat, in rooms 26 and 17, for more than 40 years - to the new justice precinct at Parramatta, joining the Attorney-General's Department and new law courts.

One of the authority's last orders of business before the move was to discuss parole for NSW's longest-serving prisoner, the triple murderer Eric Turner, in a private hearing on Friday. He has spent 57 years in jail.

Turner was sentenced to death - which was later commuted to life - in 1948 for strangling his 15-year-old girlfriend and killing her father with an axe. When he was released in 1970 he killed two more people.

The chairman of the Parole Authority, Ian Pike, said parole courts were emotional places - for the prisoners, who hoped for their freedom, and for victims and families of victims, who often dreaded their release.

"It revives all the emotion of the time when the offence was originally committed."

Questions: Why did Eric Turner kill two more people when he was released from prison the first time? Didn't he learn his lesson? Or wasn't he taught anything in prison while he was there? I dare say that the Attorney-General and the alleged Corrective Services? With the current 64 per cent recidivism rate have nothing to be proud of by linking Turner to this article accept to say that there were many prisoners mistreated in prison and released back to the community only to take out their revenge on society. Did the relatives of the two dead people sue the government of the day for letting him out without any rehabilitation process? Now that life means life perhaps mistreating prisoners doesn't matter as much to the authorities? Because they will never get out to be able to take revenge. However those housed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day for years on end with no constructive lifestyle should remind those who are thinking about committing pre-meditated murder that they're better off dead instead of being caught after committing that crime. "The life sentence imposes intolerable burdens upon most prisoners because of their incarceration for an indeterminate period, and the result of that imposition has been an increased difficulty in their management by the prison authorities.”

Related:

When Life Means Life
A potted history of life sentences in N.S.W - A measure of the statutory maximum of “life imprisonment” Prior to 1981 any person convicted of murder was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment. Life was the mandatory penalty. However, all prisoners were considered for release on licence. At the time of the introduction of the Sentencing Act in 1989 there were only two prisoners who had served more than 35 years imprisonment [ Leonard Keith Lawson and Eric Turner. Each of those had originally been sentenced to death, had the death penalty commuted, been released - one on licence, the other on parole, and both had committed murder whilst out.]., and in both of those cases the imprisonment had not been continuous.

Penis-in-drawer murderer gets 18 years

A Sydney man who stabbed his ex-wife's lover to death and cut off the man's penis has been sentenced to a minimum 18 years in prison.

Gabor Ziha was found guilty of killing Barry Corbett and stabbing his ex-wife, Maria Corbett, at her Parramatta home in August 2006.

Ziha broke into his estranged wife's flat on the eve of their anniversary and attacked Mr Corbett with a kitchen knife, wounding him 30 times.

He also cut off Mr Corbett's penis and placed it in Mrs Corbett's bedside table.

In delivering his sentence, Supreme Court Justice Graham Barr said while Ziha's depression played a role in the attack, "he acted as an over-controlled, moralistic, jealous, indignant and angry man".

He said Ziha's intention was to punish Mr Corbett "by killing him for stealing another man's wife", and that mutilating the victim's genitals was to "teach Mrs Corbett a lesson for her adultery".

Supreme Court Justice Graham Barr said Ziha was rigid and obsessive on questions of sexual morals.

Ziha's sentence has been backdated and he will be eligible for release in 2024.

Mrs Corbett says she is happy with the result.

Apology
Ziha apologised to his ex-wife in court a week ago, after Mrs Corbett read her victim impact statement.

She said words could not describe the horror of seeing the man she loved murdered.

Mrs Corbett told the court of her depression and fear fo her life once Ziha was released. She said she was so traumatised, she still slept with a light on.

Ziha wept and said: "I'm so sorry, if I could offer my whole life to bring him back, I would offer that."

He said he had not realised how much his ex-wife loved Mr Corbett.