EXPOSED to beatings, sexual assault and threats while cramped in a third world jail cell with eight other prisoners, Stephen Ploderer was living a nightmare.
The 37-year-old was a world away from his Sunshine Coast home waiting to be returned to Australia to face drug importation charges.
A father charged with the murder of his seven-month-old son has been in a mental health facility since his arrest, the Beenleigh Magistrate Court has heard today.
THE State Government has pushed through controversial mandatory sentencing laws for repeat child sex offenders despite warnings the new laws could risk child murders.
The government also was warned there would likely be long delays in court processes if people had little incentive to plead guilty, with a consequential impact on child victims and their families.
Parliament is being urged to reject a new law with tough mandatory penalties for drivers failing to stop for police, with criminal defence lawyer Cameron Browne saying the penalties are worse than for some drink-driving offences.
The proposed new law would carry a mandatory $5000 fine and two year licence suspension for anyone convicted of failing to stop a vehicle when ordered to do so by police.
PREMIER Campbell Newman should confirm the Government’s axing of its Sentencing Advisory Council means that mandatory sentencing – proposed by the former government – has finally been abandoned.
There is disquiet about mandatory sentencing. The previous government set up the sentencing council to find a way to introduce it. The council instead came out against a policy which took the decision-making process from the courts.
PREMIER Campbell Newman should confirm the Government’s axing of its Sentencing Advisory Council means that mandatory sentencing – proposed by the former government – has finally been abandoned.
There is disquiet about mandatory sentencing. The previous government set up the sentencing council to find a way to introduce it. The council instead came out against a policy which took the decision-making process from the courts.
POLICE will allege Tumara Cousins’ fatal high-rise fall earlier this month came after a soured drug deal for $21,000 of methamphetamines.
New information of his terrible death came to light today as police brought charges of murder, robbery and drug possession against Christopher Cairns before the Southport Magistrates Court.
MAJOR CONCERN: Police have set up a command centre at Brookfield Showgrounds as SES volunteers mount a search for Allison Baden-Clay (pictured with husband Gerard). Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
Criminal lawyers who have long been calling for an end to the criminalisation of drugs have been backed by a group of eminent Australians.
The Australia21 group, which includes Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery QC, released a report titled The Prohibition of Illicit Drugs is Killing and Criminalising our Children and We Are Letting It Happen on 3 April, calling for an end to the 40-year war on drugs.
A Gold Coast McDonalds manager charged with secretly filming young employees getting dressed in a change-room will be sentenced in May.
Police allege Leigh Shannon Dauncey, 21, blu-tacked a video recording device on a change room shelf at the southern Gold Coast restaurant in February this year.
