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Wednesday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Vincent Stanford’s chilling search history on ‘how to rape and kidnap a bride’ revealed.

School cleaner Vincent Stanford will be sentenced today for the murder of NSW teacher Stephanie Scott.

Yesterday Stanford’s sentence hearing was shown his videotaped confession in which he calmly detailed how he attacked the 26-year-old Leeton drama teacher with his fists and a knife before burning her body in bushland.

Stanford told detectives he felt like he ‘had’ to kill Ms Scott, and said ‘I think I went a little nuts’.

The court heard that Stanford had previously made a series of online searches in relation to the rape and kidnap of a bride.

Fairfax Media reports that on February 21, 2015, two months before he murdered Stephanie Scott, Stanford searched the phrase “bride rape” and then “bride kidnapping”.

“The search histories from the offender’s phone and computer reveal the offender very regularly searched in relation to violent rape, violent sex, hard-core porn and murder,” the agreed statement of facts tendered to the court read.

“He also conducts searches in relation to necrophilia and ‘necro rape’.”

The search terms that followed referred to the sexual assaults of brides.

Crown prosecutor Lee Carr said that Stanford had thoughts of killing people since the age of seven or eight and said that he should receive a life sentence.

2.  Mother of Stephanie Scott says that Stanford’s behaviour should have raised red flags.

The mother of Stephanie Scott, Merrilyn Scott told the Supreme Court at Griffith yesterday her daughter’s life was cut short by Vincent Stanford, reports News Limited.

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Mrs Scott told the court in her victim impact statement that Stanford “broke the rules” where he worked at six different schools and a TAFE and got away with it.

“Within less than a week he had begun flouting rules, and was not challenged. There were many behaviours that should have raised red flags; his behaviour in the community was also anti-social at best.”

His “arrogance” was so high he felt he could do whatever he pleased – even turning up at Leeton High that Easter weekend when he shouldn’t have been there, Mrs Scott said.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Stanford had alarm codes to the school and he switched the alarm off and on himself. The court heard he was seen around the school at times he wasn’t supposed to be there and in areas he didn’t need to be.

“He was seen in around the girls’ toilets during lunch breaks including when the girls were in the toilets. There was an occasion when he was entering the girls’ toilet, at a time he had no reason to be at the school,” the facts read.

3. Chilling testimony from the trial of Gable Tostee who told Warriena Wright after she begged to go home: “I would, but you’ve been a bad girl.”

A witness has described how he heard Warriena Wright beg to go home just minutes before she plunged to her death from the balcony of Gable Tostee‘s apartment.

Nick Casey has told the Brisbane Supreme Court that he looked up to see Ms Wright hanging over Tostee’s balcony and yelled to her to climb back over.

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“I heard her say, ‘I want to go home’, I heard her say, ‘help’ and at that point I said to her, ‘go back inside’ and it wasn’t long after that she fell,” he said.

In audio played in the court, Ms Wright is heard begging:

“No, no, no, no, no. I want to go home. Just let me go home,” she is heard saying on the audio.

“I would, but you’ve been a bad girl,” Tostee, 30, replies.

Tostee can be heard asking Ms Wright to leave his apartment.

“You goddamn psycho bitch. I’m going to let you go, I’m going to walk you out of this apartment, just the way you are,” he says.

“You’re not going to collect any belongings. I’ll slam the door on you. You’re not going to pull anything or I’ll knock you the f*** out.”

The audio shows a muffled scuffle between the pair, in which Ms Wright repeatedly cries, “no, no, no no” and “I want to go home. Just let me go home” and Tostee says to her “Who do you think you are. You want to kill me?”

The court heard that Ms Wright was drunk and repeatedly violent toward Tostee.

The crown alleges he locked her on the balcony and she fell trying to escape in fear of Tostee.

He has pleaded not guilty.

4. Australian mum Sara Connor to face murder charges over Bali police officer death.

Australian woman Sara Connor will be charged with the murder of Balinese policeman Wayan Sudarsa, whose body was discovered on a Kuta beach in the early hours of August 17. Along with her British boyfriend David Taylor she will face three charges — murder, violence causing death and assault causing death reports The Courier Mail.

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Both Connor and Taylor will face identical charges in separate trials.

Yesterday, Denpasar prosecutions chief, Erna Normawati Widodo, said that the brief of evidence complete which would be sent to police was complete.

“I have signed the letter yesterday afternoon. It will be sent to police today. After that we are waiting for the police to bring the suspects and evidence,” Ms Widodo said.

“The dossier is complete.”

Now Connor and Taylor will be sent to Kerobokan prison to await their trial reports The Courier Mail. 

5. Husband killed by wife in driveway accident.

A man has died after a car driven by his wife accidentally hit him in a driveway accident. The terrible incident happened yesterday just before 1pm in Melbourne’s Clayton South.

The Herald Sun reports the man, aged 75, may have been investigating an unusual noise coming from the vehicle when hit. A witness said the man asked his wife to accelerate, not realising the car was in gear.

Neighbour Andrew Boyadjian told The Herald Sun: “I heard a thump and scream,” he said.

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“I saw this neighbour of ours on the road not moving.

“And his wife was kneeling next to him crying her heart out.

“She was saying: ‘Darling please don’t die, please don’t die’.

6. New warning to pregnant women taking popular over the counter drugs.

Australia’s drug regulator has issued a warning to women taking popular over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs like Nurofen, Ponstan Naprogesic and Voltaren during early pregnancy due to increased risk of miscarriage.

Fairfax Media reports the Therapeutic Goods Administration is in talks with drug companies to ensure packaging labels contain warnings that include women who are trying to conceive.

“This is relevant, as the data suggests that the risk is greatest when the medicine is taken close to the time of conception,” the TGA stated in a health advisory.

The TGA has proposed to replace warnings on all oral non-aspirin NSAIDs with: “Do not use if likely to become pregnant, or during the first six months of pregnancy except on doctor’s advice. Do not use at all during the last three months of pregnancy.”

Popular NSAIDs include ibuprofren, diclofenac, mefenamic acid and naproxen. They are sold in Australia under the names Nurofen, Voltaren, Ponstan and Naprogesic.

7. RSPCA condemns NSW government’s greyhound racing ban backflip.

The RSPCA has called the NSW government’s decision to backflip on the greyhound racing ban frustrating and gravely disappointing.

“It’s tremendously frustrating to have been so close to seeing a ban implemented only to have it pulled off the table,” RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman said in a statement.

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“As demonstrated time and again, animal cruelty and poor animal welfare outcomes are heavily entrenched and inherent to Greyhound racing, including wastage and live baiting.”

8. Elderly woman told café worker in Cairns: ‘I refuse to be served by a black person, can you get me a white lady?’


There has been an outpouring of support on social media after a young café worker, originally from South Sudan was racially vilified by an elderly woman in a Cairns café.

The worker, Josie Ajak, was serving in the Gloria Jeans café when an elderly woman came to the counter in a wheelchair.

The woman told her “I refuse to be served by a black person, can you get me a white lady?”.

Ms Ajak told the ABC she asked the woman to move aside.

“A staff member beside me was looking at me wondering what was going on. I just looked back and said ‘this lady is racist and we won’t be serving her’,” Ms Ajak said.

“She was waiting — I guess for a white lady to come and serve her — for about five minutes and then she angrily rolled away in her wheelchair.”

Ms Ajak’s Jade Arevalo wrote a Facebook post that has attracted hundreds of comments of support about the incident.

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