2025.1.28 Perth financial advisor Anthony Paul Torre admits stealing $1 million from clients’ superannuation funds
A Perth financial advisor has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1 million from his clients’ superannuation funds, with one couple losing $500,000 of their retirement nest egg.
Anthony Paul Torre, 56, had been due to face a five-week trial in the District Court, but he pleaded guilty to five of the 12 charges he was facing at the start of proceedings on Tuesday.
The original accusation was that he stole, or obtained by fraud, around $1.88 million.
However, after negotiations with prosecutors, he admitted he had unlawfully taken $1.03 million from three couples, one individual and one company.
Three of his victims were over the age of 60, with one couple losing $500,000.
The remaining seven charges are likely to be discontinued when he appears in court again.
The offences happened between March 2010 and January 2015, with Prosecutor Lisa Boston saying some of the guilty pleas were accepted on the basis that Torre may have intended to pay back some of the money.
His lawyer Nicholas van Hattem applied for Torre to be released on bail, telling the court his client is currently residing at a psychiatric facility, where he is receiving treatment.
Bail was granted but Judge John Prior warned that given the sum of money involved and the level of dishonesty, it was “highly likely” Torre would receive an immediate term of imprisonment when he is sentenced.
Torre is facing up to 10 years behind bars for defrauding the couple aged over 60, while he is facing up to seven years in prison for each of the other four offences.
However, he will most likely serve the prison sentences concurrently and get a discount for pleading guilty, saving the state the expense of a trial and sparing the victims from giving evidence.
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2025.1.25 Hooded gunman caught on CCTV outside Adelaide home
Residents have been left shaken after an unknown hooded man was captured on CCTV outside their home in Adelaide’s south-west.
Police believe the man approached the front door of the home on Raglan Avenue in Edwardstown armed with a gun about 5am on Thursday.
The man concealed his face with a balaclava and hooded jumper.
Police said the two people inside the home saw the offender on CCTV footage and quickly called authorities.
The offender left the scene.
There were no reports of injuries and no shots were fired.
Police believe a small white hatchback was seen in the vicinity of the home soon after.
2025.1.24 Man charged following four-decade probe into alleged double rape of grandmother
Victoria Police Press
2025.1.24 Man charged following 1981 and 1983 Newport sexual assaults
Detectives from the Sexual Crime Squad have this afternoon charged a man almost 44 years after an 82-year-old woman was allegedly sexually assaulted twice in her own Newport home in 1981 and 1983.
A 69-year-old Hoppers Crossing man was arrested in Wyndham Vale this morning.
He was interviewed by investigators and has subsequently been charged with two counts of attempted aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated indecent assault, rape, burglary and common assault.
The man will appear at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this afternoon.
The charges follow an almost 44-year investigation into the two incidents which occurred at the same residential property in Newport between September 1981 and July 1983.
Police will allege 82-year-old Jessie Grace Lauder, who lived alone at her home in Mason Street, was sexually assaulted on Tuesday, 22 September 1981 and again on Wednesday 6 July, 1983.
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Man charged more than 40 years after woman assaulted in her Melbourne home
Jessie Lauder was aged in her 80s when she was sexually assaulted twice in her Newport home, in 1981 and 1983. (Supplied: Victoria Police)
In short:
A man accused of raping a Melbourne grandmother has faced court, more than 40 years after the alleged offences took place.
Michael Francis Martin, 69, was arrested by police on Friday after what police described as a years-long investigation.
What’s next?
Mr Martin was remanded in custody and will make an application for bail next Tuesday.
A Melbourne man charged over alleged rapes dating back four decades will make a bid for freedom after he was arrested on Friday and brought before a court.
Police allege Michael Francis Martin, 69, sexually assaulted an elderly woman by breaking into her home in Melbourne’s inner-west in 1981 and 1983.
The alleged victim, Jessie Grace Lauder, was aged in her 80s at the time of the attacks and died in 1993.
Early Friday afternoon, police announced they had arrested a Hoppers Crossing man in Wyndham Vale. Shortly after, police said they had charged him with multiple offences.
He faced the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday afternoon charged with two counts of attempted aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated indecent assault, rape, burglary and common assault.
During a brief filing hearing, a lawyer for Mr Martin said he would make an application for bail on Tuesday, and would in the meantime be held in custody.
The lawyer said there were a number of health issues Mr Martin was battling, including a tumour in his neck that required hospital treatment.
Mr Martin was not required to enter a plea to the charges.
Alleged assaults happened two years apart
Police previously said Ms Lauder was 82 years old and lived alone in Mason Street, Newport, in Melbourne’s inner-west, when she was attacked the first time.
She had lived at the property for 55 years and was widowed in 1977.
On Tuesday, September 22, 1981, police said Ms Lauder was in bed when a man forced entry through a back door at about 10pm.
He entered the bedroom armed with a knife and then took her to another room and sexually assaulted her.
Police said he then looked through Ms Lauder’s purse before leaving the property by climbing over the back fence.
The same man is alleged to have returned almost two years later on July 6, 1983.
This time Ms Lauder was in the lounge room getting ready for bed about 9pm when the man broke into her home through the front door.
Police said he sexually assaulted her again.
During the second incident, the man referred to the earlier offence in 1981 and warned Ms Lauder not to call police.
In both incidents, police said the man concealed his identity with items over his face.
Grandson fronted fresh police appeal
Earlier this month, Ms Lauder’s grandson Malcolm made an emotional public appeal for information to solve the case, describing her as an independent woman who lived through two world wars and raised two sons during The Great Depression.
“She was five-foot-nothing, my grandmother, five-foot-nothing, and someone has gone into the sanctuary of her own home, not once but twice — somewhere she should be the most protected that she should ever feel,” Mr Lauder said.
In a statement, police described Friday’s arrest as “a momentous day” that came after years of investigations.
“If you have experienced sexual violence or abuse, even decades ago, police will listen and we will investigate,” Detective Inspector Mark Burnett said.
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Man charged following four-decade probe into alleged double rape of grandmother
Police have charged a man over the alleged double rape of an elderly woman in her home in Melbourne’s south-western suburbs two years apart in the 1980s in a major breakthrough in the decades-old cold case investigation.
Detectives from the sexual crime squad executed a search warrant at a home in Hoppers Crossing on Friday morning, following a fresh appeal for information about the case less than two weeks ago.
Michael Martin, 69, from Hoppers Crossing, was arrested in Wyndham Vale shortly after and later charged with two counts of attempted aggravated rape, aggravated burglary, aggravated indecent assault, rape, burglary and common assault.
He appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court shortly before 6pm on Friday, but the filing hearing and bail application was adjourned until Tuesday.
Martin has been remanded and will remain in custody until at least then.
Martin’s lawyer said his client needed to be tended to by a custody nurse, as he had a range of medical issues, including type 2 diabetes, was in remission for cancer and had been diagnosed with a separate neck tumour.
He also takes medication for a prostate illness, high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
Footage of the arrest released by police shows detectives leading the handcuffed man out of a two-storey brick home and into a waiting car. Custody officers are then seen escorting the man, dressed in jeans, a black top and Birkenstock-style sandals, into a building.
The arrest comes after a nearly 44-year investigation into the two alleged sexual assaults, which police say occurred at the same residential property on Mason Street, in Newport, between September 1981 and July 1983.
Police say on September 22, 1981, grandmother Jessie Grace Lauder was in bed when a man forced entry into the property through the rear door of the house about 10pm.
The man allegedly entered her bedroom armed with a knife and demanded some money before forcing the 82-year-old to walk into another room, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Police allege the man rummaged through Lauder’s purse looking for cash before leaving the property and climbing over a back fence into a vacant block on Oxford Street.
Less than two years later, on July 6, 1983, Lauder was in the lounge room getting ready for bed when it’s alleged the same man forced entry into the home through the front door at 9pm.
It is alleged he forced Launder into the kitchen, in what police suspect was an attempt to check that no one else was at the house, before taking her back to the lounge room and sexually assaulting her again.
During the alleged assault, the man, who police say was wearing gloves and covering his face to conceal his identity, mentioned the assault two years earlier and warned Launder against calling the police.
He did not use a weapon in the alleged attack but detectives in 2016 said the man had placed a newspaper over Lauder’s head as he left.
At the time, the man was described as aged between 20 and 30, having a fair complexion, dark hair, and an Australian accent. Police say he was about 175 centimetres tall and wore work boots and a beanie on both occasions.
Lauder, who was recently widowed at the time of the attacks, had lived at the property for 55 years. She died in 1993.
Detective Inspector Mark Burnett, from the sexual crime squad, said the breakthrough was a momentous day for Lauder’s family, who had spent almost four decades fighting for justice.
“By all accounts, she was a wonderful and exceptionally stoic woman, and I truly hope today’s arrest brings Jessie’s family a sense of relief and some form of closure at last. Our thoughts are with them today,” Burnett said.
Burnett described the investigation as complex, protracted and, at times, difficult, but he said the persistence and dedication of investigators had been unwavering.
Police initially announced a $500,000 reward for information into the attacks in 2016 after changes to DNA testing allowed the police to rule out three suspects in the case.
Last Tuesday, detectives from the sexual crime squad and Lauder’s grandson, Malcolm Lauder, made a renewed appeal for public information after investigators uncovered evidence to suggest the attacker lived in the same neighbourhood as the grandmother.
“It might have been almost 44 years, but Victoria Police does not give up on the hope of securing justice for victims,” he said.
“If you have experienced sexual violence or abuse, even decades ago, police will listen, and we will investigate.”
2025.1.21 Qld Government launches major review into how monster pedo Ashley Griffith was able to work in childcare
Qld Government launches major review into how monster pedo Ashley Griffith was able to work in childcare
A major review has been launched into the Blue Card system to find out how monster pedo Ashley Griffith was able to work in childcare undetected for so long.
A major review has begun into Queensland’s Blue Card system to identify how monster childcare pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith was able to work in centres undetected for so long.
The State Government on Tuesday revealed the inquiry would look at the failures of the state’s child protection system – examining weaknesses in laws, policies, procedures and practices and cover early childhood education and care, police and the Blue Card system, which allows Queenslanders to work with children.
The review was launched following the conviction of Griffith, dubbed one of Australia’s worst pedophiles, last year on hundreds of child abuse-related offences.
He is serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to 190 counts of indecent treatment of children, 67 counts of making child exploitation material, 28 counts of rape, 15 counts of maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child, four counts of producing child exploitation material, one count of distributing child exploitation material, one count of possessing child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography material.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli on Tuesday said the inquiry was needed to bring child protection weaknesses into the light and “protect children from the danger lurking in the shadows”.
“When parents drop their children off at childcare or school, they want to know that everything is being done to protect their kids,” he said.
“We must leave no stone unturned in identifying weaknesses across government that are failing keeping children safe and implement the reform that’s urgently needed.”
Luke Twyford, the head of the Queensland Family and Child Commission (QFCC), will lead the review.
“I am committed to working closely with government agencies and community organisations to identify the gaps in the system that enabled this opportunity for harm, analyse the system response, and identify the improvements needed,” Mr Twyford said.
“The review will include input from experts and victims of child sexual exploitation to ensure our review is carried out to the highest standards and considers contemporary child safeguarding practices.
“Our findings will be released publicly, and we will release public progress reports throughout the review period to ensure transparency and to provide the public with confidence in the process,” he said.
In a statement, the Queensland government said the terms of reference had been endorsed by the Child Death Review Board, with work to start “immediately”.
Griffith, 46, was handed a term of life imprisonment in November last year following a two-day sentencing where details of his horrific acts were laid bare in court.
Brisbane District Court Judge Paul Smith ordered Griffith serve at least 27 years before being eligible for parole.
By that time, Griffith will be 71.
The court was told Griffith’s offending spanned throughout his career in childcare and occurred at childcare centres in Brisbane from 2003 up until his arrest in 2022.
Some even occurred in Italy.
Police found more than 600 images and more than 1800 videos on Griffith’s electronic devices that had been filmed and categorised in horrifying detail to allow him to easily view the footage at his whim.
Griffith has since launched an appeal against his life sentence – arguing it is “manifestly excessive”.
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2025.1.16 Monster childcare pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith appeals life sentence for heinous abuse of young girls
A monster childcare pedophile who abused young girls over a decade and faced 307 charges isn’t finished with the courts just yet.
Monster childcare pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith is appealing his life sentence for the heinous abuse of young children in his care on the grounds it is “manifestly excessive”.
The bombshell twist comes less than two months after Griffith, a former childcare worker who was dubbed one of Australia’s worst pedophiles, was sentenced on 307 charges related to the sexual abuse of children.
He had pleaded guilty to 190 counts of indecent treatment of children, 67 counts of making child exploitation material, 28 counts of rape, 15 counts of maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child, four counts of producing child exploitation material, one count of distributing child exploitation material, one count of possessing child exploitation material and one count of using a carriage service to access child pornography material.
It is understood Griffith’s legal team first lodged the appeal on December 20 last year.
No date for the appeal has been set.
Griffith, 46, was handed a term of life imprisonment in November last year following a two-day sentencing where details of his horrific acts were laid bare in court.
Families of the children who were preyed upon by him packed out Brisbane District Court as judge Paul Smith ordered Griffith serve at least 27 years before being eligible for parole.
By that time, Griffith will be 71.
“This was very serious offending in terms of length and scale,” Judge Smith said.
“The victims were very vulnerable and there was a significant breach of trust.
“People expect their children will be protected in childcare centres.”
The court was told Griffith’s offending spanned throughout his career in childcare and occurred at childcare centres in Brisbane from 2003 up until his arrest in 2022.
Some even occurred in Italy.
Police found more than 600 images and more than 1800 videos on Griffith’s electronic devices that had been filmed and categorised in horrifying detail to allow him to easily view the footage at his whim.
He targeted girls aged between two and seven years old, with the majority of the victims being aged between 3-5 years.
“The offending happened over a lengthy period,” Judge Smith said during sentencing.
“It involved many victims, many of the victims were very young and very vulnerable.
“There was a significant breach of trust.”
Griffith is also yet to face court in NSW on another 180 offences that allegedly occurred against victims in Sydney.
2025.1.3 Police arrest dozens, mostly youths, over robberies and car thefts in Melbourne
Police have arrested dozens of people, mostly youths, as part of a crackdown on crime in Melbourne’s east and south-east.
Victoria Police said 41 people had been arrested over the past seven days and have been charged with more than 150 offences.
The alleged offenders age from 12 to 44, but police said the majority were youths.
They face charges relating to armed robberies, aggravated burglaries and car thefts.
The 12-year-old was allegedly part of a group of six youths involved in an armed robbery in Blairgowrie and were arrested in a stolen car on January 1.
Three boys aged 13 to 15 were arrested over 15 cigarette-motivated armed robberies at service stations and milk bars on December 22.
They were arrested in Noble Park on December 31 and one of the boys faces 19 charges.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested over a spate of alleged aggravated burglaries and a collision in a stolen car on December 29.
Police said the vehicle the boy was allegedly driving hit a house, fences, a pergola and two other cars before the boy was apprehended.
Numerous other youths were arrested over alleged robberies, home invasions and car thefts.
Acting Superintendent Andrew McKee said the age of some of the offenders was a concern.
“We have a small cohort (of youths) who continue to think it’s OK to undertake this type of offending. It is not, pure and simple, and we will continue to hold them to account, continue to take them to court,” he said.
“Any avenue that these kids are arming themselves, we’d be very interested from a community point of view to understand that so we can take actions around it.”
Arrests part of operation targeting night-time crime
Police used helicopters with night vision cameras to track some of the alleged offenders who were occasionally found hiding in backyards and garden sheds.
The police Dog Squad was also involved in a number of the arrests, which were part of Operation Trinity, which targets night-time burglaries and car thefts.
Acting Superintendent McKee said officers were kept busy over the Christmas and New Year period.
“Such a significant number of arrests in such a short time is indicative of just how seriously we take this type of offending,” he said.
“A lot of these arrests have occurred under the cover of darkness. While you’re sleeping, police are wide-eyed with members on ground and in the sky — no hiding place is safe for offenders.
“Our message to offenders is clear: if you want to play hide and seek with us, I can guarantee you, our members will always find you.”
Under Operation Trinity, police have arrested 673 burglars and car thieves over the 12 months to September 2024.
A further 7,350 people have been processed for other night-time offences by police working night shift.
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