Latest news with #Police&Courts
Herald Sun
2 days ago
- Herald Sun
Northland shopping centre Land Cruiser stolen from Ivanhoe East home
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News. The owner of the stolen 4WD that ploughed through Northland joked with his family the vehicle was his as he watched the shocking scenes unfold on a TV news bulletin. Shoppers were forced to run for their lives as the Toyota Land Cruiser sped through the Preston shopping centre about 4pm Wednesday, leaving a trail of destruction. 'I jokingly said to my family while watching it on TV… 'that's my car',' he said. 'I recognised the wheels and the trim. I wasn't sure, but it looked like my car because that model has got certain alloys on it that are different.' The owner, who doesn't want to be identified, said he was stunned when police called minutes later to tell him the vehicle that had sped just metres from terrified shoppers was in fact his. 'No more than half an hour later the police rang and said they'd found it,' he said. Police allege an electronic key reprogramming tool was used to steal the car from outside the man's home on King St in Ivanhoe East on June 2. 'It was taken from the street about 50m from my bedroom and I didn't hear anything,' the man told the Herald Sun on Thursday. 'No alarm went off, nothing. Not only that, I had a steering wheel lock.' The white 2016 Land Cruiser was found dumped on Wednesday afternoon on Beavers Rd in Northcote, about 6km away from Northland. Police arrested a 27-year-old East Melbourne man at a Hoddle Street home about 8.30am on Thursday. He was charged with an array of offences including theft of a motor vehicle, driving whilst disqualified and reckless conduct endangering life. The man said he had noticed a significant rise in car thefts in Ivanhoe East and surrounds. 'We've been living here for 25 years and lately it's just crazy,' he said. 'Just in this street there's been three car thefts. 'They want high-end cars if they can get them.' It comes after new data released by the Crime Statistics Agency on Thursday revealed motor vehicle theft in Victoria was at its highest levels since 2002. 'More than one in five cars are stolen in circumstances where the owner reports retaining their keys,' a Victoria Police statement read. 'This has coincided with an increase in offenders using electronic devices capable of programming or mimicking keys to steal cars. 'Holdens, Toyotas, and Subarus with push start technology are the most targeted cars using this methodology. 'In the last month, these makes have been stolen at two to three times the rate of the previous five years.' Police have urged owners of cars with push start technology, including Land Cruisers manufactured after 2012, to adopt 'preventative measures' to deter thieves, such as an on-board diagnostic port lock, which prevents an offender connecting a reprogramming device to the car. Read related topics: Northland
Herald Sun
2 days ago
- Herald Sun
Jump in teens held behind bars due to Vic bail laws
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News. The number of violent teenagers accused of serious crimes who have been refused bail has almost doubled since the Allan government introduced its tough new bail laws. New data reveals that as of the start of this month, there were 92 young people on remand in Youth Justice in Victoria compared to the corresponding period last year when there were 46 – a massive 100 per cent increase. The figures – released by the Department of Justice and Community Safety – also show that the number of adults on remand from the start of June was also up, with 2589 refused bail – a jump from 1980 in the same period in 2024. The increase follows the Herald Sun's Suburbs Under Siege campaign which led to the Victorian government introducing the 'toughest bail laws in the country'. Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said the increase in people on remand proved the bail reforms were working. 'We have brought in tough new bail laws which are seeing an increase in serious alleged repeat offenders being remanded,' she said on Wednesday. 'These are the toughest bail laws in the country because we have listened to victims and the community.' Ms Kilkenny said there were also more changes ahead, with new bail legislation to be introduced to parliament later this year. The positive statistics come just days after the state government introduced new 'post and boast' laws. The new legislation will make it an offence for bragging about crimes online, resulting in offenders being kept in jail for longer. The spike in remands follows months of alarming crime rates in Victoria showing they had reached the highest on record, with police laying the blame for the growing crime wave on a group of hardcore teenage offenders. It's been previously revealed that a gang of about 100 youth offenders are responsible for at least 30 crimes each in the past year – carrying out a total of more than 3000 separate reported offences. The bail reforms passed in March made Victorian judges and magistrates put community safety first by beefing up sentences for repeat offenders who break bail. The changes also included the reintroduction of 'committing an indictable offence while on bail'. Another offence of 'breaching bail conditions' will also come into play. Both offences will add an extra three months of jail to any other sentence imposed for any crime committed. It can also be revealed that the state has begun rolling out its new electronic-monitoring program. Four youth offenders currently have monitors as part of two-year trial to ensure young people comply with their bail conditions.
Herald Sun
7 days ago
- Herald Sun
Dirty backyard fights livestreamed from Melbourne homes
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News. A man was brutally floored in a backyard fight event with $10,000 cash up for grabs. The suburban backyard was turned into a makeshift boxing ring in which it hosted a number of bouts at the secret location on Saturday afternoon. Ordinary Victorians were seen trading ugly blows in the series of bouts that was highly publicised and livestreamed online. One young contestant was floored after he suffered a huge blow to the chin, falling backward into the temporary fencing. One of the winners was then handed an estimated $5,000 in cash just moments after he claimed victory late on Saturday. A small number of supporters were seen cheering on from the sidelines, filming the bouts on their mobile phones. The backyard brawls were staged in suburban Melbourne with organisers reluctant to disclose the location to followers during the week. Young Victorians mixing in crime circles were among those to have been urged to participate as a way to settle disagreements with rivals. 'Put your knives down, put the guns down and pick your fists up,' the promoter said in a clip last week. Saturday's fight series did not seem to have appeared on the list of promotions and events approved by the Professional Boxing and Combat Sports Board of Victoria. It is unclear whether the fight crew obtained a permit to promote the fight, which is a legal requirement in Victoria. Victoria Police on Friday said they were not aware of the event. The event, which wrapped up just before 5pm, was broadcasted to hundreds of viewers on a live streaming service online. The boxing ring, situated between two homes somewhere in the suburbs, was complete with promotional material plastered across the temporary fencing. The event's promotional video, posted last week to an Instagram audience of nearly 18,000 people, began with a compilation of news headlines from around Melbourne in recent months. Among them were instances of home invasions, machete incidents, street shootings and stabbings across the suburbs. Registered participants were asked a series of questions based on why they wanted to fight. 'Do you consent that you are freely choosing to fight at your own will?,' was one of the questions posed. The legality of the fight event is largely unclear but organisers, and hundreds of their supporters, believe the event was a positive move for young Victorians. It was held as a way to resolve disputes without guns or knives. They say a second fight event is already being planned due to 'overwhelming demand' of interest.
Herald Sun
07-06-2025
- Herald Sun
Brutal torture videos being shared among Melbourne youth gangs
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News. Extreme acts of torture are being filmed and broadcast online in warning and revenge acts against Victorian youth gang members and their affiliates. The Herald Sun has seen a number of violent and gruesome acts of torture against Melbourne teenagers — such as forcing them to eat their own waste and slashing them with machetes — in what is becoming another alarming element of local street gangs. A teenage boy was recently forced to consume his own faeces in an online video that continues to circulate on social media. The boy, appearing on a group video call, was ordered to reach into the toilet and pick up what was left in the bowl. 'Hurry up, eat your s---. Pick it up,' the person barking orders was heard saying. 'Now show your face, turn your camera on. Now eat it, put it all in your mouth. 'More.' Another person on the group call was heard laughing while another said it was 'dirty'. It is unclear what that act relates to but it is one of the more confronting and grim demands made among criminals of any level. In another vile online clip, a young person has backed into the corner of a room and had their legs repeatedly slashed with a huge serrated knife. The boy filming that was heard barking orders at the unarmed and defenceless victim. 'Say sorry right now. Take your shoes off right now, take your shoes off right now, right now,' the boy filming yelled. 'Say 'I'm A—'s bitch'. You ain't going nowhere.' The victim was also heard yelling 'I'm sorry, please' over and over again. It is believed that torture clip was in response to the victim moving drugs to the relative of the person filming. Another boy was forced to sit on the floor of a playground as a huge knife was held to his face before a pair of armed thugs attacked him moments later. The shirtless and bleeding teen then had two machetes repeatedly swung at his legs as he pleaded for the two thugs to drop their weapons. The Herald Sun understands the victim in that video had possibly previously expressed his intentions to assault those affiliated with the person filming. That too was a daylight and public attack filmed and posted online. Another boy was also gang-bashed and stabbed by a group of thugs all armed with machetes in a vicious street attack posted online in March. The defenceless boy, who was pleading with his attackers to stop, was filmed being slashed with a machete after he was relentlessly punched and kicked in the head several times. His iPhone was then nicked from the footpath he was laying on. It is understood the torture sessions are filmed and shared online to warn others of the consequences of speaking ill of a rival youth gang or their members. Those online videos are then shared by fellow gang members and wild youth offenders which only multiplies the amount of views each clip receives. Victims also often feel discouraged to contact police out of fear of further bloody retribution. Victoria Police declined to comment. The Herald Sun in March revealed sadistic torture sessions were being filmed and distributed within Melbourne's volatile gangland scene. One man's ear was sliced off with an angle grinder in one of the more hardcore instances of torture seen among any crime circles. Hardcore teens run wild as youth crime surges
Herald Sun
21-05-2025
- Herald Sun
Victoria's first child fitted with ankle bracelet ‘pretty happy' with his new device
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News. The 15-year-old, who cannot be legally named, walked free from court on Wednesday after spending the past three months in a youth jail. He is the first of 50 of the state's incorrigible underage criminals to agree to be fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet under a controversial new trial. The new bail legislation, passed by the Allan government to counter the state's youth crime problem, allows children aged 14 to 18 to be fitted with an ankle bracelet on the condition they agree to wearing the device. Magistrate Gail Hubble court ordered the boy to be assessed for an electronic device a fortnight ago. Court staff placed the tracking device on his left ankle in the holding cells of a children's court before he was released to his mother on Wednesday morning. His mother, who also cannot be legally identified, told the Herald Sun her son was 'quite happy' to be released with the tracking device. She said he would rather be fitted with the device than return to Parkville for a further stint behind bars. 'He was pretty happy to be out,' she said. 'The minute he was out, he was on the phone to his mates.' The boy's mother said the device offered some sort of security for her and the community. She said she has planned to take her son to the movies and to get a haircut in the coming days. He still has several appointments and behavioural programs scheduled in the coming days. 'I'm happy with it, I'm happy if it's on for two weeks and I'll be happy if it's on for longer,' she added. 'At least I know he's going to be around.' The device will notify youth justice staff instantly if he does not abide by his 8pm to 6am curfew. It can notify staff that he is an 'imminent danger' if he breaches his strict bail conditions. They will also be notified instantly if he attempts to tamper with the device. They are then expected to call triple-0 and report his current location. The teen has been prosecuted over a plethora of aggravated burglaries, car thefts and home invasions. He will be formally sentenced in early June. It is expected two more youths who have been assessed for the trial will face court on Thursday.
