Australia! Perry Kouroumblis: ‘Additional time’ request granted for DNA analysis in alleged Easey St killer case, $100 million meth bust linked to alleged Iranian gang, Police hunt thieves who stole $400k worth of stock from Melbourne boutique, Pair tracked allegedly stolen AirPods to Bunnings car park before stabbing in Melbourne, DNA court win for man convicted of rape and murder of Janine Balding, Private search begins at North Plympton site in hopes of finding remains of Beaumont children, Police investigate fake nude photos of students at a Melbourne high school, ‘North Shore Rapist’ charged with assaulting teenage girl in Sydney pharmacy, NSW man jailed for possessing more than 2000 images of child abuse material, Two teens and man charged over alleged armed robbery offences, A 15-year-old boy has been charged after two cars were stolen from homes in Armidale, Son arrested after 72-year-old man stabbed to death in Perth, Tourist assaulted by ‘person on drugs’ on violent night in St Kilda 2025.2.2-2.26

The man police allege was responsible for the brutal Easey St killings of two young housemates almost 50 years ago has returned to court as lawyers sought one thing.

The man police allege killed two young housemates in a shocking 1977 attack has returned to court months after his extradition from Italy.

Perry Kouroumblis, 65, made a brief appearance in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday afternoon via a videolink from prison.

Gone was the bushy grey beard he sported during his first court appearance on December 4, with the accused man now appearing with a clean shave and well-kept hair.

Magistrate Brett Sonnet was told both the prosecution and defence were jointly seeking the case be adjourned off until early June to give both parties time to wrap their heads around DNA analysis.

“We received a couple of thousand of pages last week of DNA analysis,” defence lawyer Bill Doogue said.

“We need some additional time.”

Mr Sonnet said he was prepared to adjourn but urged parties to give the case their “highest priority”.

The magistrate told Mr Kouroumblis his lawyers would be in contact to discuss what comes next.

“That’s it?” the accused man asked.

“That’s it, yes,” Mr Sonnet replied.

Mr Kouroumblis was detained after arriving in Italy from his home in Greece in September last year on an international warrant Victoria Police had issued back in 2020.

He did not contest an extradition back to Melbourne and maintained his innocence.

Police allege he murdered Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, sometime between January 10 and January 13, 1977 — in what would later come to be known as the Easey St killings.

The two women were high-school friends from Benalla in Victoria’s northeast and moved in together just weeks before their deaths.

They were found days later with dozens of stab wounds while Ms Armstrong’s 16-month-old son, Gregory, was left unharmed.

Mr Kouroumblis is also charged with “having carnal knowledge with Suzanne Armstrong without her consent”.

Mr Kouroumblis was remanded into custody and will return to court on June 3.

One of Australia’s most notorious killers and rapists is one step closer to triggering DNA testing that he claims could clear his name after decades behind bars.

Stephen Wayne “Shorty” Jamieson, is serving a life sentence for leading a gang of five youths in the 1988 abduction, rape and murder of Janine Balding.

Jamieson has long claimed he was the victim of mistaken identity having been mixed up with another man who went by the same nickname, Mark “Shorty” Wells.

In an ongoing appeal before the NSW Supreme Court, the now-58-year-old has argued DNA testing of a bandana used to gag Balding could implicate Wells.

Wells’ DNA profile was obtained by NSW Police from Queensland authorities, however the parties were at odds over the legality of it being used for testing in the investigation.

Today, Justice Ian Harrison ruled Police Commissioner Karen Webb could legally use her powers to comply with Jamieson’s request for the testing to take place.

“The interests of justice and the public interest in maintaining the integrity of convictions call for the testing to be undertaken,” the judge wrote in his decision.

“A failure to conclude the investigation by conducting the tests and making the comparisons would in my opinion create an enduring sense of community unease.”

Justice Harrison ordered the parties to make further submissions on how the testing could be carried out following his ruling on the legality of the testing.

Wells has denied any involvement in the rape or murder and has never been charged over the crime.

During a previous hearing, the court was told Jamieson had been excluded from having provided the DNA on the bandana to the surprise of many in the courtroom at the time.

The partial profile of 11 genetic markers lifted from a part of the bandana did not match the full 21-marker profile of Jamieson, nor the three other males convicted alongside him, the court was told.

Assuming it was a single male, the partial DNA profile would match about one in five million individuals.

Jamieson’s lawyer Richard Wilson SC previously argued that it would be “powerful evidence” to support his client’s contention he was innocent if Wells’ DNA profile could not be excluded.

Balding’s murder shocked the nation in its brutality after the bank teller was grabbed from a Sydney train station by the gang of homeless youths, who repeatedly raped her.

The 20-year-old was bound, gagged and thrown over a fence before being held underwater in a dam until she drowned.

Jamieson’s appeal will return to court in March.

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2018.2.2 Beaumont children search continues to capture the nation 52 years after their disappearance

It’s one of Australia’s most enduring mysteries — the disappearance of the Beaumont children.

On Australia Day of 1966, Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, left their Somerton Park home in Adelaide for an unsupervised day at the beach, but they never came home.

It’s a cold case that South Australian Police have never given up on, and now, 52 years later, a new search of a North Plympton factory site has taken place.

While the search found nothing of interest, there is a renewed hope that this mystery could be solved.

So, how has the Beaumont children’s story unfolded?

The day they disappeared
January 26, 1966

At 10am, the children left their home travelling by bus to the Glenelg beach.

Their parents Jim and Nancy Beaumont expected the children to come home by 2:00pm.

When the children didn’t return home, the Beaumonts called the police that evening.

A South Australian Police log detailed the following:
7:20pm — South Australia Women Police Office report children missing, reported to Glenelg Police by father minutes before. Father and police carried out thorough search of beach area.
8:40pm — Local police searched the Brighton foreshore; officers also search West Beach and Henley Beach for children.
9:50pm — Sea Rescue Squadron volunteers offer to search coastline, police decline official expression but advise squadron can search on their own accord.
10:00pm — Police check with father who reports he has spoken with friends and relatives and cannot locate children. The father authorises police to supply radio stations with public announcements.
10:17pm — Three police officers report they have searched vessels at Boat Haven and surrounding lawns, with the children not sighted.

Witnesses come forward

In the days following the children’s disappearance, crowds of people gathered to watch police in their search.

Volunteers helped police in what was the largest scale search in South Australia’s history.

The beach was scoured, drains were flushed and hundreds of witnesses came forward.

Mostyn Matters, who was working at the Glenelg police station the day the Beaumonts disappeared, remembers being inundated with witness statements.

“At the time we were inundated with people that wanted to come and give information and all we had was a little room at the front of the police station that was used for the witnesses of the court,” he said today.

“We had one phone for the main police station, that’s all we had, and people were queuing up to give statements and what have you, and we only had a sergeant and four men there.

“They were just snowed under and by the time you interviewed people and … [typed] up their reports and everything, it was just one of those things, where you could only do your best. We still had our own work going on, there were still crime being committed in Glenelg.”

Several witnesses provided a description of the children being seen with a tall, tanned, thin-faced man, with short blond hair.

Although statements from the Beaumont parents reported the children had left home that morning with six shillings and sixpence, a shopkeeper at a Glenelg bakery recalled Jane buying cakes and a meat pie with a one pound note.

A composite image sketch of the man was produced with hopes of identifying.

The eerie, almost deserted strip of shops in one of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs has claimed another victim.

A business owner has described the moment four tourists were set upon by a drug-affected man in one of Melbourne’s most affluent suburbs.

On Monday just after 7.30pm, outside one of his venues in Fitzroy Street, Marc Allister watched as a man lunged at the group before he jumped in the air and punched an unsuspecting 21-year-old Dutch man in the jaw.

The victim, who spoke exclusively to news.com.au, said he thinks his jaw was disclocated in the terrifying assault.

“We were walking with four people from a hostel around the corner to get a slushie at 7Eleven when we saw a person on drugs running towards us,” he said.

“We weren’t thinking much of it, but he changed direction when he came closer and hit me right on the jaw without saying a word.

“My jaw might be dislocated, it really hurts on the other side of my face.”

In a frightening turn of events, a second incident was unfolding on the same street within a five-minute window.

Police have told news.com.au that “two men were punched to the face by another man as they walked along Fitzroy Street about 7.30pm” and “there was then an altercation between the group that resulted in the alleged offender being assaulted and allegedly stabbed”.

A 32-year-old man from St Kilda was arrested and interviewed in relation to the alleged stabbing, police said, and they plan to interview a 29-year-old man from Bellfield in relation to the initial assault.

The incidents occurred on the same day that news.com.au published disturbing first person accounts about crime in the area — a once-thriving destination described as “like third world” and compared to Compton, Los Angeles. It has also been described as Melbourne’s crime “epicentre”.

On January 12, a teenage boy attacked a man in St Kilda with a machete, leaving a 10cm-long wound in his head.

The 15-year-old pleaded guilty in a children’s court and remains behind bars after he was deemed a danger to the community.

In a separate incident, also in January, a 79-year-old man was left bleeding from the head after being struck with a bottle on a tram in St Kilda.

And on January 4 last year, a couple were attacked while walking along Dandenong Road in St Kilda East. Hours later, a British tourist was left in a critical condition after being stabbed in Acland St, St Kilda.

News.com.au spoke to a number of residents and business owners who are desperate for a solution to crime, drug use and anti-social behaviour in the Port Phillip municipality.

But in response to their concerns, police say “overall crime in St Kilda is at its lowest since 2018”.

“Local police are committed to further reducing offending, particularly in busy areas such as in Acland, Carlisle, and Fitzroy streets,” a police spokesperson said.

“Local police have been running consistent operations targeting drugs and other crimes such as assaults and robberies on these streets for several years.

“This concentrated approach is working — overall crime on Acland, Carlisle and Fitzroy streets has decreased by 33 per cent from a decade ago.”

According to the Crime Statistics Agency, there were 931 assaults in 2024, the second most for a calendar year in the last decade.

There were also 219 sexual offences recorded in 2024, a number just below the 10-year high of 232 recording in 2022.

Mr Allister, who runs Buba Local Shuk on Fitzroy Street, says it’s never been worse.

“I’ve had my car broken into, my bike stolen, junkies taking food from customers’ plates and smashing mine and other customers’ phones on the footpath,” he said.

“That’s just in the last couple of months. I’m waking up at 4am daily to look at the cameras expecting the place to be fire bombed.”

Syringes in the gutter, streets almost abandoned

In the corner of a small park adjacent to the closed gates of an adventure playground, a pair of drug users — one shirtless — are stopping passersby to have a chat.

A block away, drug paraphernalia including syringes have been discarded in the gutter next to a boarded up milk bar.

A woman is rifling through a recycling bin and a homeless man is sleeping under the alfresco tables at one of the most popular Italian restaurants in Melbourne.

This is what the bayside suburb of St Kilda looked like at 11am on Monday morning, the same day the Dutch tourist would be attacked and another man stabbed on Fitzroy Street.