Category: Sex Offences

At 7.15 am on October 29 1977, Annette Louise Morgan set off down inner city Sydney’s Glebe Point Road to meet a friend at the notorious St Paul’s College at Sydney University. Less than two hours later, her body was found dumped on a pile of rubble in a gully by the college oval. The 18-year-old Royal ...

In 2015, a range of reforms were introduced by the NSW government in response to community concerns that child sex offenders were being treated far too leniently by the courts, and that the interests of complainants weren’t being protected. These reforms included the introduction of “child champions” to support complainants and their families through the ...

By Kieran Adair and Ugur Nedim Despite crime rates in New South Wales being at forty-year lows, a new report suggests that reports of sexual offences have risen by as much as forty percent in some parts of Sydney. In its latest quarterly update, the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) found that reporting ...

By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Crown prosecutor Mark Gibson SC has foreshadowed that a number of criminal charges brought against Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, will be formally withdrawn because the complainant they relate to is “medically unfit to give evidence”. It is expected that six charges will be dropped when the committal ...

NRL star Jarryd Hayne could have a protracted and complicated legal battle ahead of him, now that civil proceedings have been filed in California’s Supreme Court, by a woman accusing him of sexual assault. He said, she said Hayne met the woman, known only as ‘Ms V’, at a bar in California in December 2015 ...

By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim Being encouraged to ejaculate into the shampoo bottles of females students, lighting pubic hair on fire, posting photos of the underwear of sexual ‘conquests’, and dangerous binge drinking are just some of the rituals outlined in the 211-page Red Zone Report into Australian universities, which is the product of an ...

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim A number of recent ‘age of consent cases’ in France have triggered public outrage and drawn international criticism of the somewhat murky child sex laws the nation has in place. In response, the Macron government is currently drafting a bill aimed at addressing the issue, along with sexual harassment ...

By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim Wealthy, ruthless and immoral: these are some of the words used to describe the Catholic Church during the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Despite its wealth being comparable to some of Australia’s largest corporations, the Church has fought for many years against compensating victims ...

Being charged with a criminal offence can be nerve-wracking. You may be unfamiliar with the process, unsure of the best way forward and concerned about the outcome. But whether you are charged with a less-serious matter such as drug possession, drink driving or common assault, or accused of something as serious as commercial drug supply, complex ...

By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim 29-year old Vaughan Hildebrand is facing multiple charges of sexual assault arising from incidents that allegedly occurred during his time as an officer with the NSW Police Force. Hildebrand is charged with 51 criminal offences – including 15 counts of ‘sexual intercourse without consent’, 12 of ‘using a carriage ...