1. Convicted child rapist on the loose
A convicted child rapist is on the run after fleeing a facility in Ararat, Victoria. The Herald Sun reports police issued a warning after 42-year-old Andrew Darling walked out of the correctional facility, known as the Village of the Damned and home to some of the state’s worst sex offenders. Darling cut off his electronic tracking bracelet at about 2:30am yesterday, triggering an alarm. Police used dogs to try to find him, but have not yet been successful.
It is the second time in five years Darling, who was convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl, has been hunted by police. The sex offender previously broke his parole just a day after being released from jail, the Herald Sun reports.
Police say he is a danger to the public and should not be approached. Members of the public who see Darling, who often wears camoflague clothing, should call 000 immediately.
2. Outrage over asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka
Australia has returned sylum seekers, including 4 Tamils, to Sri Lanka — a country that it has alleged is responsible for government-sponsored torture and abuse. Immigration minister Scott Morrison confirmed the transfer this morning. The Federal government originally refused to comment on or confirm that two boats suspected of carrying up to 200 asylum seekers had made it to Australians waters. But the Daily Telegraph reports this morning that at least one of the boats was intercepted off Christmas Island and has been sailed back across the Indian Ocean by an Australian navy boat acting under border protection command. The Tamils will shortly be transferred to the custody of a Sri Lankan naval ship at sea, the Daily Telegraph reports.
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This happened today. My question is, if events unfolded the way it is reported in this article, why would the police not use their tasers or do something if they were present during the attack?!
A piece of news not on here... I read in the Age yesterday that the accused rapist and murderer of Renea Lau hitchhiked his way to NSW, and for quite a distance was driven by two women in their 20s who said he seemed very normal and conversive, and not at all dangerous.
An excerpt... The young women spotted him sheltering from the rain under an underpass near Warragul last Sunday morning and took pity on him, but unwittingly helping him escape. It was a day after a jogger found Ms Lau's body in the Kings Domain.
"At the time we thought he was just a bit of a free soul who doesn't fit into society," one of the young women said. "He wasn't threatening, he seemed genuine and nice." He introduced himself as Scott from Western Australia and told them he wanted to go north.
"He said, 'I just decided to get away from Melbourne. Maybe I'll go to Byron Bay'," one of the women said. "I didn't think he was homeless, he just seemed like he did what he liked to do, that it was a lifestyle choice that he liked to live and be free and not be locked down to anything."
The women said he told them he was glad two young women gave him a lift, normally it was older men who felt comfortable picking up a male hitchhiker like him.
In those four-and-a-half hours in that car, there wasn't a hint that he had allegedly
taken the life of a young woman the day before.
The young women, who dropped him off at Orbost in Victoria's west, two hours from Eden in NSW where he was arrested the next day, picked up a copy of the paper on Tuesday and the details of the alleged crimes of a man they had given a lift unravelled. "We couldn't believe it," they said.
... It just goes to show that the 'monster' in these men really cannot be seen from the outside. We expect them to be obvious and look rough, dangerous, unapproachable and be antisocial. I think this is what Tom Meagher was getting at in his recent piece when he was surprised to finally hear his wife's killer, Bayley, speak. He sounded like your average guy and was undone by the ordinariness of him. I recall thinking to myself he looked like an average 40-something tradie on a typical pub night out when I saw the CC TV footage of his time in the hours leading up to it. Needless to say a similar thing happened in that case as well, Bayley was 'helped' by an innocent party - when he'd driven to Gisboune South to bury Jill that morning, he got stranded without petrol on his way back, and was given a ride to a pertrol station by a sympathetic driver, and I think got a return ride back out to his car as well. The ability to blend in is what makes these men the most dangerous.
Thanks for sharing, afw. And excellent point. - Grace
I have to say I was surprised to hear people still pick up hitchikers today, especially women picking up a male hitchiker. You woudn't get into a car with a stange guy, so why would you let one into yours? You really don't know who you're letting in your car.
I was on a driving holiday recently in New Zealand's north island and travelling with another girl (but we're not close or best friends or anything so don't have a silent 'language').We stopped for lunch in Carterton and were approached by a 'quirky' guy in his 30s. He was clearly trying to get a ride from us. I could sense my friend's reluctance on handling the situation (I guess not wanting to blatantly refuse him) so my tack was to be "confused" about which way was north and south. This forced him into saying the name of the town where he was headed (it was in the direction we were going in as it happened) I jumped right in saying confidently to my friend, 'Oh yeah, we just filled up on petrol there before lunch.' She clicked right away and confirmed it, then we helpfully pointed out where we thought the bus stop was. When he left promptly, my friend was hugely relieved.
I thought the same thing when pictures of Bayley were published - he looked so ordinary, nothing obviously alarming.