Sale of E-Cigarettes Declared Illegal in WA
Western Australia is the first state in the country to ban the sale of e-cigarettes, even though it is still legal to sell and purchase ordinary tobacco products. In a recent landmark ruling, Perth e-cigarette seller Vince Van Heerden was...
Queensland Police Make First Bitcoin Arrest
A man has been arrested in Queensland in what is believed to be the first bitcoin-related arrest in the state. 21-year-old Shane Duffy of Kingaroy, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, has been charged with possessing tainted property. Police allege some of...
David Eastman Conviction May Be Quashed Due to Miscarriage of Justice
Convicted murderer David Eastman may be pardoned and set free after a commission set up to review his case revealed a significant miscarriage of justice. Eastman was convicted in 1995 of shooting assistant police commissioner Colin Winchester and has already...
The $7m Insider Trading Sting: Should Police Have Stopped It?
The Australia Federal Police (AFP) recently arrested a banker from Melbourne in an insider trading sting that resulted in $7 million in assets being seized. So what is insider trading? Exactly what happened in this case? And should authorities have intervened earlier...
Should the Trials Have Been Separated in the Hughes Case?
There has been a lot of attention surrounding the trial and conviction of Australian TV star Robert Hughes, who played the father in the 1980s sitcom Hey Dad! Hughes was recently found guilty of 10 child sex offences dating back to the...
The Reliability of Confessions in the Daniel Morcombe Case
The highly publicised trial of child sex offender Brett Peter Cowan for the murder of 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe has cast a spotlight on a number of different legal issues, including the reliability of confessions. Cowan was earlier this month convicted...
What Does the Law say About Filming Someone Without Their Consent?
The law regarding filming or videoing another individual is complex. Whether consent is required to film another person depends on who is filming, what is being filmed, where it is being filmed, and for what purpose. There are various state...
How the Innocence Project is Helping Those Wrongly Convicted of a Crime
A couple of decades ago, if someone was wrongly convicted of a crime there was little that could be done once the appeals process had been exhausted. Now, with more sophisticated forms of technology such as DNA testing to help...
Police Assault Young Man at Mardi Gras
By now you will have seen footage of a solidly-built police officer throwing a slightly-built, handcuffed young man to the hard ground and then standing on his body at last Saturday’s Mardi Gras. You may also have seen tv interviews...
New Laws on Using Mobile Phones When Driving
New laws came into effect on 1st November 2012 prohibiting drivers from touching, holding or having a phone on any part of the body (including the lap) unless: their vehicle is legally parked, or they are passing the phone to...
