10 April 2008

Man plunged to death in 'party violence'

Violence at a birthday party led a man to fall through a window and plunge four metres to his death, a Melbourne court has heard.

Albert Snowball, 22, of Perth, died after he fell from a window during a fight at a warehouse in Brunswick in Melbourne's north on November 27, 2005.

Boxer Khalid Baker, then 18, and his co-accused AB, who cannot be identified, are on trial in the Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to his murder.

In his opening address, crown prosecutor Peter Rose SC said Baker and AB had been involved in violent and serious unprovoked attacks at the party that night.

Mr Rose said Mr Snowball was on the stairway landing when he apparently said something to enrage Baker and his friend Ali Faulkner, causing them to rush upstairs towards him.

Baker then began violently attacking Mr Snowball, while Faulkner was restrained by an onlooker, he said.

AB joined in the attack, punching Mr Snowball repeatedly, he said.

Mr Rose said one or both of the accused pushed Mr Snowball, causing him to tumble out of the window and hit his head on the footpath four metres below.

He was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition suffering severe brain damage from a fractured skull. He died two days later.

Mr Rose described the attack as "furious and sustained", saying the pair acted together to seriously injury the victim.

He said AB told police he was just a metre away when he pushed the victim. While he knew there was a window behind him, did not believe he would fall through.

AB's lawyer Bill Stuart said his client, who was drunk at the time, told police he was just breaking up a fight and did not mean to injure Mr Snowball.

"This guy came up, started yelling at my friend. My friend was trying to hit him. I broke it up," the accused told police.

"It was wrong that I pushed this guy but it was a fight. I was trying to break it up because it would've led to something else if I would've left my friends there."

Mr Stuart asked jurors to consider what caused Mr Snowball to fall out the window, whether the fall was accidental, whether AB intended to cause inflict serious injury or was just a "peaceman" caught up in a fight.

The trial before Justice Simon Whelan continues.

©AAP 9 Apr, 2008

Give us more TpT !! Lets import them from other countries, because they don't breed quick enough here.


08 April 2008

Father, daughter incest pair 'lived under same roof'

An ex-wife of the South Australian man who had a baby with his daughter has rubbished claims the pair had almost no contact for 30 years.
Dorothy Deaves told ninemsn John and Jenny Deaves, who have now had two babies together, lived under the same roof when Jenny was a 15-year-old girl.
John and Jenny claimed in an interview broadcast on 60 Minutes that they began a sexual relationship after Jenny tracked down the father she had never known.

But Jenny attended Dorothy and her father John's wedding reception in 1984 and stayed with them for a week, Ms Deaves claims.

The 69-year-old said Jenny stayed with them four times during their marriage, which collapsed after the father-daughter duo took a trip together to Dubbo in 2000.

Dorothy said both father and daughter broke up with their marriage partners after the Dubbo visit.

"I'm devastated — he has hurt me terribly," she said.

"It was hard to face for a long time.

"It's one of those things everyone's so upset about."

John and Jenny Deaves were found guilty last month of a single charge of performing an act of incest with the other.

Court documents show that the first child the pair conceived in 2001 died soon after being born from a congenital disease. They now have an apparently healthy nine-month-old baby girl.

The sentencing remarks show the pair were charged with two counts of incest in 2007 after police were tipped off about their relationship following an investigation by the Department for Families and Communities South Australia.

The pair were initially bailed on the condition that Mr Deaves have no contact with Ms Deaves or their child — a condition the judge said drove Mr Deaves to attempt suicide twice.

Judge Millsteed described the incestuous relationship as "unacceptable" but not one where a father “violated his daughter and used his position of authority to take advantage of her powerlessness".

The judge said he took into account the consensual nature of the relationship and the fact it didn't involve exploitation when recording a conviction. The pair were placed on a three-year $500 good behaviour bond, with the condition they don't have a sexual relationship. Mr Deaves told 60 Minutes sex with his daughter was "fantastic" even though he initially thought it was wrong.

"Emotions take over, as people no doubt realise, there are times during your life where emotions do rule the heart, it rules the head," he said.

"I knew it was illegal, of course I knew it was illegal but you know, so what."

The two reunited 30 years after Mr Deaves — who was once jailed for armed robbery — separated from his daughter's mother. Ms Deaves said soon after meeting her father again, she began to see him as a man first and a father second. "I was looking at him, sort of going, oh, he's not too bad," she said.

"Like you might look at a man across the bar at a nightclub."

South Australian police refused to comment on reports the pair were being monitored.

ninemsn 7 Apr 2008

Nothing magical, nothing mysterious, just old simple TpT.