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Two teenagers have pleaded guilty to bashing to death a New Zealand man at a Sydney sporting oval.
The offenders, who were 16 at the time of the man’s death in 2007, were originally charged with murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the NSW Supreme Court.
A court had previously been told Christopher Leichester, 20, was on his way to a party in Woolooware in Sydney’s south on November 24, 2007.
According to a police statement of facts, Mr Leichester suffered a severed artery between his brain and central nervous system.
As the New Zealander crossed an oval he was set upon by a group of teenage boys who punched him to the ground and kicked him several times in the head.
Court documents revealed the attack appeared to have occurred because the teenagers mistakenly believed Mr Leichester had abused them a short time earlier. .
But a witness told police it was two other men who chased and hurled abuse at the teenagers’ car.
– AAP
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Both youths remain in custody
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A master baker who spent seven years working for Kiwi baking goods giant Edmonds says he raised problems with the iconic cook book’s hot cross buns recipe 10 years ago. .
Nothing was done and 10 years on the company is still refusing to make any changes, even after a public battering thanks to a Sunday Star-Times story last weekend. Last week she could not believe Edmonds was standing by its recipe and said: “Everyone can make mistakes.
That story quoted home-baking guru Jo Seagar who tested the recipe and called it “dry, old crappo”. You don’t keep printing it and printing it and printing it. You get it wrong, but you fix it. That’s what we think is bad.
“I don’t think the recipe’s necessarily the [most wrong] in the world I just think the style of the book doesn’t allow for the right information to be given.”
Brettschneider waded into the debate, telling the Star-Times “it is probably time to right the wrong”.
“We’ve done three test bakes during the week and all were successful, so we don’t believe that there are problems with the recipe,” a spokesperson said.”
Edmonds would not comment on Brettschneider’s criticism and said it was “comfortable with the recipe”. “Part of the problem might be that people have different expectations. “[We're] not sure what the problem is probably something to do with the yeast that people are using, or the way they’re handling the recipe. That cook book is home-cooking style food. That cook book is home-cooking style food. “Are they trying to say that because you make it at home you’ve got crap expectations? I expect anything I make at home to be just as good as anything I buy, if not better.”
That made Seagar steam. “We think it’s rubbish.”
Seagar and her staff made six test batches of the Edmonds buns and they all failed.”
Brettschneider said he had made the recipe work with more liquid but it still needs to be changed. We think it’s a load of craparooba. This is because when fruit is added before kneading it gets crushed and releases sugar, which can stop the yeast working properly. There should be more instructions about the all-important kneading and dividing process and the fruit should be added right at the end of kneading, not the beginning, as it is now.. “It’s not a slanging match,” Brettschneider said, “it’s about giving people the right information . so they’ve got a much better chance of making good hot cross buns. so they’ve got a much better chance of making good hot cross buns.”
Brettschneider left Edmonds in 2003 and is based in Shanghai, has his own bakery brand and numerous international awards to his name. He judges New Zealand’s annual baking competition and moderates our bakery training standards.
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A memorial book for victims of the Mt Erebus air disaster in 1979 has been brazenly stolen from an Auckland church.
The book was taken yesterday afternoon from St Matthew In The City, in downtown Auckland, by a male wearing a cap.20pm, but it’s hard to identify the offender.
Church spokesman Clay Nelson told tonight the book was inside a glass case, which it appears was not locked, below the Erebus memorial windows at the church,
“We have security camera footage of it being taken about 12.
The leather-bound book contains the names of all the victims in calligraphic writing.”
The book was put together for a memorial service for the 257 people who lost their lives in the Air New Zealand plane crash on Mt Erebus, Antarctica on November 28, 1979. He said he was not too hopeful it would be returned.
Mr Nelson said the book had no value to the offender.
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New car rescue method tested
Monday, 16 February 2009
Crash victims trapped in cars could have a better chance of survival, with the fire service testing a new method of pulling wrecks apart.
Five fire stations in Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa and Porirua areas with some of the highest front-impact-crash rates are involved in the trial.
It involves anchoring the wreck to a tree or truck before chains attached to the fire truck's hydraulic system pull away sections of the vehicle as its roof and door pillars are cut with the jaws of life.
Masterton station officer and trial coordinator Garry Nielsen said the rescue method was revolutionary.
A Masterton firefighter was sent to Norway last year to learn the new technique, which was tested in Wairarapa last week at a bad car crash. This is ground-breaking. "In the past, the techniques we have used could take up to an hour or more to free someone. We can have them out in 15 minutes. Every second is critical. For every 10 minutes someone is trapped, there is 10 per cent less chance of survival. ."
On Wednesday, Greytown firefighters used the chains to free a 74-year-old woman trapped in her car after it crashed into a bridge on Cape Palliser Rd close to Ngawi.
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If the trial is successful, it will be rolled out nationwide at a cost of about $500 per set of chains for each rescue fire-truck
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New car rescue method tested
Monday, 16 February 2009
Crash victims trapped in cars could have a better chance of survival, with the fire service testing a new method of pulling wrecks apart.
Five fire stations in Hawke's Bay, Wairarapa and Porirua areas with some of the highest front-impact-crash rates are involved in the trial.
It involves anchoring the wreck to a tree or truck before chains attached to the fire truck's hydraulic system pull away sections of the vehicle as its roof and door pillars are cut with the jaws of life.
Masterton station officer and trial coordinator Garry Nielsen said the rescue method was revolutionary.
A Masterton firefighter was sent to Norway last year to learn the new technique, which was tested in Wairarapa last week at a bad car crash. This is ground-breaking. "In the past, the techniques we have used could take up to an hour or more to free someone. We can have them out in 15 minutes. Every second is critical. For every 10 minutes someone is trapped, there is 10 per cent less chance of survival. ."
On Wednesday, Greytown firefighters used the chains to free a 74-year-old woman trapped in her car after it crashed into a bridge on Cape Palliser Rd close to Ngawi.
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If the trial is successful, it will be rolled out nationwide at a cost of about $500 per set of chains for each rescue fire-truck
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Murder accused Xue back in court
– Tuesday, 03 February 2009
The man accused of murdering his wife then dumping his daughter in a Melbourne railway station will be forced to give a dna blood sample in 10 days time.
Nai Yin Xue, 55, is in custody awaiting trial for the murder of his 27-year-old wife An An Liu in September 2007.
Xue went on the run in the United States for more than four months but was captured in February last year and returned to New Zealand.
Her body was found in the boot of the family car outside their rented house in Mt Roskill, Auckland, four days after he allegedly abandoned his daughter, Qian Xun Xue – dubbed Pumpkin by Australian police.
Xue did not oppose the order, which would be carried out on February 13.
He appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday after the Crown sought a suspect compulsion order that would force Xue to provide a dna blood sample. .
The Crown was also seeking permission to allow hearsay evidence on the state of Xue’s relationship with his wife, and to allow overseas witnesses to give evidence via video link.
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Family beat back fire from Mahia home
Tuesday, 03 February 2009
/The
ASH REMAINS: Christina (left) and Kerry Jane stand in ash-covered sandhills on their Mahia farm where parents Colin and Raewyn battled flames for hours before appealing for help to save the family home.
Mahia couple Colin and Raewyn Jane used wet sacks and buckets of water to beat down flames leaping toward their family home as a wind-fed fire ripped across a huge tract of the coast. They summoned water tankers to help control flames racing through dry grass in their back paddock toward pine trees close to their house.
The Janes, who live with their three children in Kaiwaitau Rd, worked themselves to exhaustion before dialling 111 about 11pm on Sunday. About 50 evacuated residents and holiday-makers spent the night at close toby Opoutama School.
The fire, which began at close toby Opoutama on Sunday afternoon, sent 20-metre flames sweeping through a wetland, tinder-dry grass and pine plantations destroying a house and seven other buildings in YMCA Rd.
By yesterday afternoon, the fire had burnt a seven-kilometre perimeter and left 140 hectares of charred, smoking earth. A YMCA Rd home, owned by Rata Sinclair, was saved by family members who stamped on the sparks and flying embers that threatened to ignite it.
The Janes managed to keep the fire from their home and hay shed, and their 50 cows and 180 deer walked through burning sandhills to safety.
Helicopters with monsoon buckets, more than 100 firefighters from Gisborne and Hawke's Bay, and heavy earthmoving contractors had fought to bring it under control.
A neighbour, Hau Taumata, said that at one property, he and fellow firefighters saved a truck and a house, but a tractor, trailer, boat and another truck were burnt.
"At one stage we thought we weren't going to win," Mrs Jane said.
He saved 100 cattle on his property, but lost about four hectares of pine trees and kilometres of fencing. .
There were fears last night that strong winds could reignite it.
Conservation Department spokesperson Malcolm Smith said it could take weeks to fully extinguish the deep-seated fire.
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Cop had ‘seconds’ to decide
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Aformer top policeman who led a team in one of New Zealand's most infamous gun battles has backed the police involved in a fatal motorway shootout.
As debate rages about whether the police officer who fired the shot that killed 17-year-old courier driver Halatau Naitoko should be prosecuted, former armed offenders boss Murray Forbes has urged critics to lay off the police.
Mr Forbes, who led the team that killed mass murderer David Gray at Aramoana, close to Dunedin, in 1990, said the officer who fired the shot in Auckland on Friday had only a few seconds to make a decision. It happens so quick and it's all very well us talking about it a few days later, but he only had a few seconds to make a decision.
"The officer clearly thought the gunman was a danger. It was a huge mistake and the officer has to wear that.
"It would be devastating for the police. Whether it was justified, they've still got to wear it. But he should lose his job if it was proved he was "drastically wrong"."
It would be wrong to prosecute the officer, he said. Former police inspector and MP Ross Meurant also wanted the officer charged.
Tongan Advisory Council chairman Melino Maka said that, though the incident was not premeditated, it was still an unlawful killing. "I don't see how the Naitoko family are going to get any form of justice in this situation.
"In my dictionary, that means manslaughter," Mr Maka said.
"I think most New Zealanders would like to think that a law-abiding citizen, minding their own business, could not be shot to death by police in this country. .
"He'll be feeling guilty, he'll be full of remorse, he'll be second-guessing himself and he'll be wondering what impact this will have on his family. The incident would stay with him for the rest of his life. It doesn't take it away.
"These officers are extremely highly trained, but the training only reduces the risk.
The authority is called in to investigate whenever police have caused or appear to have caused a death or serious injury while carrying out their duties."
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has started an investigation, but a spokesman said he did not know how long it would take. The chairwoman is a high court judge.
The authority is independent from the police.
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Cop had ‘seconds’ to decide
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Aformer top policeman who led a team in one of New Zealand's most infamous gun battles has backed the police involved in a fatal motorway shootout.
As debate rages about whether the police officer who fired the shot that killed 17-year-old courier driver Halatau Naitoko should be prosecuted, former armed offenders boss Murray Forbes has urged critics to lay off the police.
Mr Forbes, who led the team that killed mass murderer David Gray at Aramoana, close to Dunedin, in 1990, said the officer who fired the shot in Auckland on Friday had only a few seconds to make a decision. It happens so quick and it's all very well us talking about it a few days later, but he only had a few seconds to make a decision.
"The officer clearly thought the gunman was a danger. It was a huge mistake and the officer has to wear that.
"It would be devastating for the police. Whether it was justified, they've still got to wear it. But he should lose his job if it was proved he was "drastically wrong"."
It would be wrong to prosecute the officer, he said. Former police inspector and MP Ross Meurant also wanted the officer charged.
Tongan Advisory Council chairman Melino Maka said that, though the incident was not premeditated, it was still an unlawful killing. "I don't see how the Naitoko family are going to get any form of justice in this situation.
"In my dictionary, that means manslaughter," Mr Maka said.
"I think most New Zealanders would like to think that a law-abiding citizen, minding their own business, could not be shot to death by police in this country. .
"He'll be feeling guilty, he'll be full of remorse, he'll be second-guessing himself and he'll be wondering what impact this will have on his family. The incident would stay with him for the rest of his life. It doesn't take it away.
"These officers are extremely highly trained, but the training only reduces the risk.
The authority is called in to investigate whenever police have caused or appear to have caused a death or serious injury while carrying out their duties."
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has started an investigation, but a spokesman said he did not know how long it would take. The chairwoman is a high court judge.
The authority is independent from the police.
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Hastings millionaire mum on arrest reports
By KATHY WEBB Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Hastings millionaire Sam Kelt is refusing to comment on suggestions that he has been charged with trespassing at a Havelock North bar.
It is understood Mr Kelt was asked to leave the Diva bar in Havelock North late on Thursday night, where his staff from merchant bankers Kelt Capital were socialising after having lunch that day at the exclusive Cape Kidnappers Lodge.
Diva owner Gerald Beach refused to comment yesterday.
A witness said he saw police handcuffing Mr Kelt and putting him into a patrol car outside the bar after he tried to re-enter it.
A statement issued by Police National Headquarters in Wellington said a man, 46, was arrested in Havelock North on December 18.
Hastings police would not confirm reports that Mr Kelt had been arrested and held overnight in the cells.
The sent Mr Kelt a list of questions yesterday but his staff said he would not respond till today, except to say "the inference of the questions is either completely false or factually incorrect".
The man, who was not identified, was due to appear in court next month on a charge of wilful trespass.
Mr Kelt sponsors New Zealand's richest horse race, the $2 million Kelt Capital Stakes, run in Hastings each year.
However, they pointed out that they had a letter from the management of Cape Kidnappers Lodge saying Kelt Capital's Christmas lunch had been a pleasant affair, a "large gratuity" had been left, and they would be welcomed back. He has said he will increase the prizemoney to $3 million next year or in 2010.