The murder of a man in Australia in 1980 is being examined as part of a state inquiry into hate crimes against the LGBTQI+ community. Richard Slater died at the age of 69 in Newcastle, three days after being assaulted in a public toilet at Birdwood Park in an incident believed to have been a gay-related hate crime. Slater’s family had no information suggesting that he was gay, the inquiry was told, but he was known to suffer from prostate problems that required him to urinate frequently. It was suggested that Slater may have been attacked by a man, Jeffrey Miller, who had been responsible for a number of robberies of people at gay beats. Miller died in 1986 and had previously been charged with Slater’s murder, although no case was made against him. Millar’s alleged practice of profiling targets on the basis of sexual orientation means that the beating and death of Slater would qualify as a hate crime according to NSW’s laws.
Andy Rourke, bassist for 80s British group The Smiths, dead at 59
CBC
23-05-19 11:56
Andy Rourke, bass guitarist of The Smiths, has died at the age of 59. The musician, who had pancreatic cancer, was known for his intricate bass performances that did not follow the conventional rock bass style. Rourke was part of The Smiths' core line-up that also included Johnny Marr, Morrissey and Mike Joyce. The band, which became a cult success, was only active between 1982 and 1987 but has continued to high critical acclaim. After The Smiths, Rourke played with groups including The Pretenders and Sinead O’Connor.
Andy Rourke, bass guitarist of iconic British band the Smiths, has died aged 59 after suffering from pancreatic cancer. His former bandmate Johnny Marr paid tribute to Rourke via Instagram, saying that he had reinvented bass playing during his tenure in the band. Despite the Smiths' minimal recorded output of just four albums between 1983 and 1987, their compositions have been widely influential and maintain a large cult following. Albums Meat is Murder and The Queen is Dead are particularly highly regarded and still sold in significant numbers.
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder of a senior police officer in Northern Ireland. The officer was shot several times while putting footballs in his car outside a sports centre in Omagh. He sustained life-changing injuries from the attack which happened in February this year. The suspects, aged 28 and 70, were arrested in separate searches.
The Smiths bassist Andy Rourke has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 59. Johnny Marr, The Smiths’ guitarist, tweeted his sadness at the news, saying that Rourke was a “kind and beautiful soul” as well as a talented musician. Rourke played alongside Marr as well as singer Morrissey and drummer Mike Joyce, who played with Marr in a brief Smiths reunion in 2008. During his career, Rourke played with The Pretenders and Sinead O’Connor and was part of the supergroup Freebass.
Businessman Marian Kocner has been cleared for a second time of masterminding the double murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kusnirova in Slovakia in 2018. Kocner's associate, however, Alena Zsuzsova, was convicted. The murder of Kuciak and Kusnirova rocked Slovakia, with Kuciak having been covering alleged government corruption when the couple were shot dead at their home. The killings prompted the largest protests in the country since the fall of communism in 1989.
A Utah mother-of-three has been charged with the poisoning and murder of her husband, with allegations that she took out multiple life-insurance policies on his life without his knowledge. The wife, Kouri Richins, has been held at Summit County Jail since her arrest earlier this year. It is alleged that in the fourteen months since her husband’s passing, Kouri wrote a children’s book on grief and loss, promoting it on local TV. Prosecutors allege that Kouri removed her husband as a beneficiary from his wife and estate and tried to poison him prior to his death. Court documents suggest that Kouri contacted an acquaintance with drug convictions and asked them to procure “some pain medication for an investor who had a back injury,” ultimately leading to the purchase of fentanyl pills. Kouri has been charged with murder and profiting from her husband’s death. In court, the Richins family has filed a petition to invoke Utah's “slayer statute,” to prevent killers from profiting from their crimes.
Family and friends of Renée Sweeney tell Sudbury court to keep convicted killer in jail as long as possible
CBC
23-05-19 15:15
Steven Wright, who was found guilty of second-degree murder of Renée Sweeney in March, has faced emotional victim impact statements from her family during his sentencing hearing in Sudbury, Canada. Sweeney's sister Kim explained that the unjust and senseless crime had consumed her, leading to her dropping out of college and living "7,623 days of personal torment" until Wright's arrest in 2018. Wright has been handed an automatic life sentence, but the exact length and eligibility for parole have yet to be decided by Justice Robbie Gordon. Wright's legal team is considering their options for an appeal.
A Slovak court has cleared businessman Marian Kocner for the second time in a case relating to the 2018 murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak. The court found Kocner innocent of ordering the murders of Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, due to a lack of evidence. Kuciak, who had investigated business ties between politicians and organised crime, was gunned down in his house outside Bratislava, along with Kusnirova. The killings sparked mass protests and led to the resignation of former prime minister Robert Fico.
Manchester Crown Court has heard from Lucy Letby, a nurse accused of murdering babies in a neonatal unit, that errors by colleagues contributed to the death of one infant. Letby told the court that a delay in treating the mother of the infant after her waters broke early "may have had an impact" ahead of the death of the full-term baby, referred to as Child D. Letby has been accused of trying to murder twins Baby A and Baby B using an IV line to inject air and of attempting to murder 10 other children at Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.
Ivan Martell guilty of 1st degree murder in 2020 death of Allison Moosehunter in Saskatoon
CBC
23-05-19 19:59
Ivan Martell has been sentenced to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Allison Moosehunter. Moosehunter was found beaten, strangled and stabbed in March 2020 at her home in Saskatoon. Martell was the victim's roommate and had sexually assaulted Moosehunter with a kitchen knife during the attack. The verdict came after a trial in which Crown prosecutors utilized surveillance video to argue their case. More than 60 people, including the victim's friends and family, were in attendance, many of whom had been wearing red T-shirts that read: "Justice For Ally." Martell will serve a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Two men convicted of the first-degree murder of Allan Lanteigne, who was beaten to death in the front foyer of his Ossington Avenue home on March 2, 2011, have had their appeals dismissed by Ontario’s highest court. Papasotiriou, a disbarred lawyer who was married to Lanteigne, was released on bail pending appeal but has now been taken into custody to begin serving his life sentence. Michael Ivezic, who beat Lanteigne to death, has remained in prison since his conviction. Both men raised multiple grounds of appeal, but the prosecution presented a “formidable case pointing to Mr. Ivezic as the murderer” including Ivezic’s DNA being found beneath Lanteigne’s fingernails. While the case against Papasotiriou was “far from overwhelming,” it was open for the jury to convict him, according to the 3-judge panel of the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Crown argued Papasotiriou’s motive for the murder was money. He was the beneficiary of a $2m life insurance policy on Lanteigne’s life as well as his survivor pension benefits.
New murder trial ordered for Ontario woman Jennifer Pan in plot to kill parents
CBC
23-05-19 18:40
Ontario’s Court of Appeal has ruled that a new first-degree murder trial is required for Jennifer Pan, 28, who was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot again her parents and sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years. Her mother was killed and her father severely injured in an attack in 2010. Three others, including a former boyfriend, were also convicted. Pan and her co-defendants are appealing against their sentences and the Court of Appeal has also dismissed the appeals on the attempted murder convictions.
Jennifer Pan, a woman in the Toronto-area who was convicted in a murder-for-hire plot against her parents, will receive a new first-degree murder trial, Ontario's top court has ordered. Pan was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years in 2015. The three co-accused were also convicted on the same charges. The Court of Appeal for Ontario said the trial judge erred by suggesting to the jury only two scenarios for the attack.
The defence lawyer for Nima Momeni, a fellow tech executive who has been accused of killing Cash App founder Bob Lee with a kitchen knife, has claimed that the stabbing was an accident. Momeni’s attorney, Paula Canny, argued that there had been “no premeditation” in the case. Prosecutors believe that the suspect’s DNA was found on the murder weapon.
Mihails Ulmans, co-owner of Latvijas Pasta Banka, has been charged with paying for the murder of an insolvency lawyer who had uncovered evidence of money laundering at the bank. Ulmans and his associate, Aleksandrs Babenko, deny paying the hitman who killed Martins Bunkus in 2018. Prosecutors say Ulmans was driven to silence Bunkus due to the latter's knowledge of money laundering practices at the bank part-owned by Ulmans. Latvia's banking industry was rocked by scandal in 2018 following accusations by the US Treasury that a number of banks had facilitated sanctions evasion by Russian oligarchs.
Shooting that killed OPP officer in Bourget was not an ambush: accused man’s lawyers
The Globe and Mail
23-05-19 22:37
Lawyers representing Alain Bellefeuille, who is accused of killing an Ontario Provincial Police officer and injuring two others, say that the shooting in Bourget, Ontario, should not be characterized as an ambush. OP Sgt. Eric Mueller was killed during what is described by police as a disturbance call at a home in May. Bellefeuille's attorneys called for an "alternate account of events" and said that their client did not expect police to arrive. They will not comment further on the charges, which are first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
Two men arrested on Friday in connection with the attempted murder of a senior police officer in Northern Ireland earlier in the year have been released. The two, aged 28 and 70, were arrested following separate searches in Co Tyrone. Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was critically injured in February after being shot several times at a sports centre in Omagh whilst putting footballs into a car with his son.
Lawyers for a man accused of killing an Ontario Provincial Police officer and injuring two others are disputing the characterization of the shooting in Bourget, Ont., as an ambush. Alain Bellefeuille, 39, is charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the case. His lawyers say he neither requested nor expected the police to come to his home in the middle of the night, and that he was in his bed and falling asleep when officers entered.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the convictions of James Higgason III over the 1998 murders of a woman and two teenagers, selecting to overlook several of Higgason's arguments, such as a delay in taking him to court and the use of a digital version of a phone call to connect him with the deaths. Prosecutors claimed that Higgason and another individual, David Copley, had beaten the victims to death in a drug-fuelled frenzy while attempting to steal drugs and cash. Higgason was handed a 180-year sentence, while Copley was handed 45 years for his involvement and his testimony against Higgason.
