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Friday's news in 5 minutes.

 

1. Marcus Stanford will walk free this morning.

The twin brother of the man who killed NSW school teacher Stephanie Scott will walk free this morning.

Despite a petition signed by more than 50,000 the DPP decided not to appeal Stanford’s sentence.

Marcus Stanford, 25, was last month jailed for 15 months for disposing evidence linking his brother to Scott’s murder.

With time already served since his arrest in June last year, Stanford is due to be released today.

After Vincent Stanford raped and fatally stabbed Stephanie Scott, Marcus Scott disposed of her jewellery and driver’s license, which Vincent mailed to his South Australian home.

Marcus told police he opened envelope about a week after Vincent was arrested and ended up selling the 26-year-old’s diamond engagement ring and graduation ring to an Adelaide pawn shop for $705.

2. Three-year-old girl saw father murder her mother then kill himself.

Yasmin Bahar with her husband Dave Pillay and daughter Tiana. Via Facebook.

The three-year-old daughter of Sydney woman Tasmin Bahar, who was killed by her husband on Father’s Day while visiting her estranged husband is traumatized after seeing the murder suicide.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Tiana is receiving counselling by child psychologists after she saw her father Dave Pillay, 47, strangle her mother.

The little girl had been asleep but was woken by her mother’s screams.

“She saw it all — when we found her she was screaming and hysterical” a family friend told News Limited.

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“She is deeply disturbed by the ordeal. She’s just a baby.”

Tiana is currently being cared for by Dave Pillays’s brother Ash Teddy, 25.

Tasmin’s sister Sharagin, who is flying out from Bangladesh is hoping to take custody of her.

She told The Daily Telegraph: “What on earth is my baby sister’s daughter doing with that murderer’s family?

“She belongs with us. I will do everything in my power to fight to adopt Tiana.

“She is all we have left of Tasmin — that little angel is now my sister.”

  For domestic violence support 24/7, call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). 

3. Salim Mehajer called former wife up to 70 times a day and put a tracking device on her car.

A court has heard that former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer obsessively called his wife up to 70 times day and put a tracking device on her car before police took out an apprehended violence order against him.

Details of Mehajer’s behaviour towards former wife Aysha Learmonth were revealed at Wollongong Local Court yesterday as terms of the interim AVO were finalised.

News Limited reports that an AVO taken out on Mehajer to protect Ms Learmonth’s brother-in-law Ben Miller were also finalised by consent.

After Ms Learmonth she moved out of their Auburn home in April Mehajer “bombarded” her with phone calls and emails. The court heard that in July Mehajer tried to report Ms Learmonth as a missing person, telling police she was five hours late for an engagement, and he revealed he had installed a tracking device on her car and showed them maps of her trips.

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The finalised AVO prohibits Mehajer from assaulting, molesting, harassing, threatening or stalking Ms Learmonth or anyone she is in a domestic relationship with for nine months.

4. Man found guilty of killing girlfriend then turning knife on himself to make him quadriplegic.

 

A Wollongong man has been found guilty of the murder of his girlfriend in the front yard of his family home

Michael James Quinn killed Cherie Vize, 25, before turning the knife on himself, in July 2013, leaving him quadriplegic.

Quinn denied murdering Ms Vize and told the court she had been injured while trying to stop him from hurting himself reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

“The accused stated that he decided that it would be best for the deceased if he, that is the accused, took his own life as that would 'allow Cherie to be free to do whatever she wanted,” Justice Robert Beech-Jones said.

Quinn told the court he had broken up with Ms Vize as he wanted her to be free from him and their toxic relationship.

Justice Beech-Jones flatly rejected Quinn's account.

The court heard Quinn contacted Ms Vize's mobile 227 times in the 11 days before her death, while she had only contacted his nine times during the same period. It was revealed that Ms Vize had actually broken up with Quinn, and then he had seen a message on her phone about buying the morning after pill shortly before following her into the front yard and murdering her.

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5. Only one quarter of students would turn to a teacher for help.

An alarming report has found that students don’t trust schools to help them should they reach out.

The Australian Catholic University report, conducted for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that one in 10 students believed that adults at their schools would not know what to do if they reached out for help.

Fairfax Media reports that only one quarter of surveyed students said they would turn to a teacher for help.

Students said they felt safer at church, sporting institutions and camps than they did at school.

Students said they felt they would not be believed if they reported abuse.

6. James Packer’s massive donations to Republican movement.

James Packer has donated close to $250,000 to the Australian Republican Movement.

Fairfax Media reports that the donation, paid in two instalments this year, is the second-largest in the ARM's history.

The largest donation ever made was by Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull who gave almost $3 million ahead of the Republican referendum in 1999.

Peter FitzSimons, the chair of the Australian Republican Movement, is campaigning for a plebiscite by 2020 asking if voters want an Australian head of state. A petition on Change.org calling for a republic has almost 14,000 signatures.

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7. Melbourne mum killed cycling in US.

An Australian woman, originally from Melbourne who moved to the US 10 years ago to start the Australian-themed Walkabout Camp & RV Park in Georgia has been tragically hit by a car and killed while cycling.

Susan Kilner, 36, a mother of four was killed while cycling across a bridge over the MacKay River.

"It's a very tragic accident that shouldn't have happened," Georgia State Patrol Corporal Gentry Mattox told AAP.

On Sunday Susan and her husband were cycling along the St Simons Island causeway when a truck driver crossed into the breakdown lane where Ms Kilner was riding, hit her and kept driving, according to Corporal Mattox.

 

8. Year 4 student at Melbourne primary school transitioning to new gender will be allowed to use gender appropriate bathrooms.

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A young child is currently being assisted by classmates in a gender transition. Image via IStock.

A year four student at a Melbourne primary school currently undergoing a gender transition will be called by a new name and will be permitted to use the toilets and change rooms appropriate for their new identity reports The Australian.

The child’s classmates will today participate in a workshop by Roz Ward, co-founder and head of the Safe Schools program in Victoria to explain to the children what the transitioning child is going through.

The Australian reports that parents of the Year 4 class were advised of the workshop only a few days ago when the school sent home a letter. “Safe Schools are visiting … to assist us with the gender choice of a student who is currently transitioning,” the letter stated.

“The session will include learning that considers how students can be a good friend and ally to people (of) all genders.”

Many parents have expressed concerns and fears over what the workshop will consist of.

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