Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 23 May 2012, Ahmad Bajouri was having a few drinks with his mates Abdul Hamze, Fadi Arnaout and Mohammad Masri in the poker machine area of the Collingwood Hotel in Liverpool. The four men were heavily intoxicated. At around 11 pm, another patron George Sermetovski went over to the bar… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim In April 1787, the British parliament passed the New South Wales Courts Act, which created a court of criminal judicature in the soon-to-be founded penal colony on the eastern coast of NSW. The Act provided that the court was for “the trial and punishment” of “outrages and misbehaviours” deemed “to be treason… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 19 April 2014, Ms Soo Jong Kim responded to a knock at the door of the Lidcombe unit she was living in and found Stephen Shine demanding to speak to her husband. Ms Kim told the 58-year-old to wait while she went to the bathroom, but Mr Shine entered… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim The trial backlog of the NSW District Criminal Court has been at a critical level for years. In 2015, the NSW Law Reform Commission (NSWLRC) described the “sheer volume of trial matters” pending before the court as “overwhelming”. At the end of July last year, there were 2,042 criminal trials and… Read more »
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim Tens of thousands of Australians are forced to represent themselves in court every year – often against powerful and well-funded prosecution teams – as it becomes increasingly difficult to receive assistance from community legal centres and legal aid commissions. The National Association of Community Legal Centres estimates that it turns… Read more »
Two police officers on the far North Coast have faced court after leaving an eight year old aboriginal boy locked in the back of the police wagon in the car park of the police station. The incident Senior Constables Michael Writer and Brian Quinn picked up two eight year old boys in Coraki, south of… Read more »
Peter Foster’s trail of cons and aliases goes back decades, but now some of his victims are set to receive a portion of their money back after the NSW Supreme Court ordered they be reimbursed more than $10 million. Supreme Court Justice Michael Ball ruled in favour of civil action brought by 165 investors against… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 10 December 2006, Theodore Efthimiadis was standing on a platform at Central Station waiting for a train to the Central Coast. He looked to his side and noticed an old acquaintance he’d met in prison 20 years earlier. That person was later referred to as ‘Mr X’ during… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A jury found Hoe Fatt Lee guilty of three counts of sexual intercourse without consent, as under section 61I of the NSW Crimes Act 1900, which provides that a person who has sexual intercourse with another person without consent is liable to up to 14 years imprisonment. On 26 September 2014,… Read more »
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim On 2 June 2015, the NSW Supreme Court found Andrew Mervyn Sumpton guilty of the “spontaneous but brutal” murder of Michelle Roberts. He was also convicted on two counts of arson for burning down Ms Roberts’ South Grafton house, along with all her property. For the two arson charges, Justice Hamill… Read more »
