10-part Killing Time will have its world premiere in New Zealand tonight on Prime after the series was prevented from airing in Australia due to legal proceedings.

Australian actor Richard Cawthorne has flown all the way to Auckland to see the controversial mini-series he stars in because it cannot be shown in his home country.

The 10-part Killing Time will have its world premiere in New Zealand tonight on Prime after the series was prevented from airing in Australia due to legal proceedings.

It tells the story of disgraced Melbourne lawyer Andrew Fraser, who defended some of the country's most notorious criminals, before developing a crippling cocaine habit and being jailed for five years for drug importation.

Disbarred and bankrupt, Fraser later wrote two books about his life, which provide the basis for Killing Time. Critically acclaimed Australian actor David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings, 300, Van Helsing) plays Fraser.

Originally scheduled to screen in Australia last year, the mini-series was delayed because Fraser was appearing as a witness at a high- profile criminal trial.

A similar legal curtain was drawn over the original Underbelly, for Victorian viewers, to prevent any influence on court proceedings, suggesting Australia's penchant for true crime dramas hit close to home.

Cawthorne, who plays drug dealer Dennis "Mr Death" Allen - the eldest son of one of Melbourne's infamous crime families, the Pettingills, who died in prison awaiting trial for murder - believes there is still an appetite for the genre, despite the risk of underworld TV fatigue (there are three more Underbelly telemovies to air here and a New Zealand version is also in the works).

"Ultimately what's going to make any show stand out, whether it's a true crime thing or not, is the writing and the characters in it," Cawthorne says.

"This show is incredibly watchable. It's a little gruesome at times, but it's a great yarn.

"The voice of Killing Time and the voice of Andrew Fraser is a really relevant voice because we cannot ignore the fact that there was a period in Australia's history where the police force was corrupt and there was a lot of wheeling and dealing and drug and firearms trafficking was rife.

"I think if we ignore all that we're kind of looking at our own culture with rose-tinted glasses. When you do show the underbelly and the darkness as well, it really kind of gives you a fuller picture of who we are and I think people enjoy that."

During his career Fraser defended business tycoon Alan Bond, members of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, footballer-turned-drug trafficker Jimmy Krakouer, the Melbourne crime family the Morans and those accused of the Walsh St police murders (which loosely inspired last year's award-winning film Animal Kingdom).



Killing Time opens with Fraser beginning his prison stint alongside crooks he may have once represented, before returning to the time when he first began to see a lucrative opportunity at being at the beck and call of society's most dangerous citizens.

Among them is Dennis Allen, who is fed up with the police raiding his house. He also has a dead junkie to deal with and a brother wanted for armed robbery.

"He was one of Melbourne's, if not Australia's, most infamous drug dealers and he was personally implicated in about 10 underworld killings so he's quite a frightening character," Hawthorne says of Allen.

"He was enormously paranoid. He had a massive amphetamine addiction and he had a very violent temper. He could switch on and switch off at the drop of a hat."

JEALOUS lover clubbed a man to death and injured his ex-partner while they were sleeping, a Brisbane court has been told.

Faimanifo Sione, 51, is charged with the murder of Brian Curry, 48, on September 3, 2009, and the attempted murder of Michelle Hayes, now 38, or the alternative charge of acting with malicious intent.

Sione pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr Curry was attacked while he was asleep in bed with Ms Hayes, who had ended a three-year relationship with Sione in April 2009.

Crown prosecutor David Meredith told the jury Sione had waved a machete in front of Ms Hayes several days before and asked if she was sleeping with Mr Curry.

She would not confirm the relationship, the court was told.

The jury heard Sione had threatened "to sort out Brian".

Ms Hayes and Mr Curry had started a relationship after meeting through their school-aged children.

Sione broke into Ms Hayes' Inala house and bashed Mr Curry with a pipe or pole, the trial heard.

He broke Ms Hayes' arm and cut her forehead.

The court was told Mr Curry died from the consequences of "blunt trauma".

Mr Curry's two sons and Ms Hayes' two daughters, all aged under 12, were in the house and woken by screams.

The children entered the adults' bedroom during the attack and then hid in a second bedroom.

Mr Meredith said Sione sent Ms Hayes a series of threatening and abusive text messages before and after the bashing.

The jury was shown transcripts of the text messages.

One read: "U R dead."

Men in Tas court over burnt body murder

Two men charged with murder after burnt human remains were discovered in northern Tasmania have appeared in a Launceston court.

A man found a body by a roadside in bushland at Hollybank at around 8.30pm (AEST) on Monday.

Police said they believed the body had been put there only recently.


The ABC and the Hobart Mercury are reporting the victim is 43-year-old Scott Rock, but police have yet to confirm his name.

Police charged Sean Timothy Hudson, 36, and Neville Whiting, 31, both of Ravenswood, with murder on Wednesday, and the pair briefly appeared in Launceston Magistrates Court.

Hudson and Whiting did not enter a plea and were remanded in custody to appear in the same court on May 3

former Queensland police officer has appeared in a Brisbane court on drugs charges.

former Queensland police officer has appeared in a Brisbane court on drugs charges.

It is alleged Natasha Nicole Fewson possessed and supplied ecstasy, methylamphetamine and cannabis in September and October last year.

It is claimed she also stole a drug-testing kit from the Beenleigh Police Station.

Fewson's arrest followed a seven-month investigation into several officers in the Logan district.

The 36-year-old has been granted bail and is due to face court again later this month.

Yong Vui Kong, a 23-year-old Malaysian who faces execution for smuggling 47 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin to Singapore, lost a bid at the city state’s highest court for a presidential review of his sentence.

Yong Vui Kong, a 23-year-old Malaysian who faces execution for smuggling 47 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin to Singapore, lost a bid at the city state’s highest court for a presidential review of his sentence.

Yong’s lawyer M. Ravi asked a three-judge appeal panel to re-examine Singapore’s clemency process, in the first case of its kind. Ravi had argued the president had the power to grant a pardon, rather than Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s cabinet, which had earlier advised President SR Nathan not to commute the sentence.

Yong’s appeal was “devoid of merit,” Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong said in delivering the verdict today on behalf of a three-judge panel.

Singapore, which has one of the world’s lowest crime rates, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, has a mandatory death sentence for drug smuggling. Yong had lost an earlier appeal in which he argued the mandatory provision was unconstitutional.

Ravi said he plans to appeal again to the city state’s cabinet seeking clemency.

“He was hoping for the best,” Ravi said after the ruling. “He’s deeply disappointed and aggrieved by the judgment.”

Yong, who appeared in court today in a purple prison jumpsuit with his head shaved, was a former kitchen helper who sold DVDs in a night market. He claimed he tried to provide money for his mother by smuggling drugs into Singapore. An online petition appealing for clemency for Yong had at least 42,039 signatures.

Mandatory Death Sentence

Singapore also imposes a mandatory death sentence for murder and some firearms offenses. The city’s overall crime rate slipped 0.6 percent to 32,986 cases last year, according to data from the police.

“We take a very serious view of drug trafficking,” Lee said in December 2005, when he dismissed Australia’s calls to commute Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van’s death sentence. “The penalty is death.”

Nguyen’s death sentence for smuggling 396 grams of heroin into Singapore in 2002 caused an uproar in Australia. Consumers, politicians and newspapers editorials there called for boycotts of companies including Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.’s Optus unit and Singapore Airlines Ltd.

Police rounded up 35 people for allegedly using illegal drugs between Sunday night and yesterday morning in their final operation during the Spring Scream music festival in Kenting, Pingtung County.

Police rounded up 35 people for allegedly using illegal drugs between Sunday night and yesterday morning in their final operation during the Spring Scream music festival in Kenting, Pingtung County.
A total of 37 people were arrest for alleged drug use during the festival.
A majority of those arrested on the final day were young men and women suspected of using ketamine or taking ecstasy pills. Others allegedly smoked -marijuana. Most suspects reportedly confessed to obtaining the drugs from sellers at the beach.
Spring Scream, one of the most popular and longest-running music festivals in Taiwan, has been held each spring in Kenting for 16 years. It drew thousands of music lovers this year to hear nearly 200 local and foreign bands.
Kenting police intensified their operations on Sunday after arresting two people — a 20-year-old man from Kazakhstan for using marijuana and a Taiwanese man for smoking cigarettes that -contained ketamine — on Saturday night. Most of the arrests were made on the beach or in local homes.
Meanwhile, police said a 24-year-old American man died in a crash in Hengchun Township (恆春) at about midnight on Sunday after his motorcycle collided with a car coming from the opposite direction.
A passenger on the motorcycle suffered a fractured thigh. Police said both men on the motorcycle were under the influence of alcohol.

parents of a missing Melbourne woman say the committing to trial of someone over their daughter's murder is a "milestone" in their 17-year quest for answers about her disappearance.

Shane Andrew Bond, 44, formerly of Don Valley, east of Melbourne, denies killing Elisabeth Membrey, who was last seen leaving the Manhattan Hotel in Ringwood on December 6, 1994.

The then 22-year-old's body has never been found.

Today, after a two-week committal hearing, Bond was ordered to stand trial for her murder.

Bond, who denies ever knowing Ms Membrey, has pleaded not guilty.

Outside court, Ms Membrey's parents Roger and Joy Membrey expressed relief that the committal proceeding was over.

"It is a milestone, I guess, for us and it has been pretty difficult over the last two weeks at the committal," Roger Membrey told reporters.

"We're pleased with the progress that has been made and it has been made only because of a great lot of hard work that has been done by so many people.

Australian backpacker is recovering in a Peruvian hospital after being shot in the stomach by a cab driver.

Elizabeth 'Lilly' Littlewood was on the way to the airport in the nation’s capital of Lima last Thursday to catch a flight back to Newcastle when the cabbie demanded money and opened fire.

Her father, Rex, who rushed to his 26-year-old daughter’s bedside from Australia after the shooting, told The Daily Telegraph today that his daughter and her boyfriend were on the final leg of a month-long trip through Peru when the shooting happened.

The pair left their hotel and jumped in a taxi from a cab rank but shortly after getting in the driver started demanding money.

 “She assumed he wanted her to get out of the cab so she tried the door handle several times and that’s when he shot her,” Mr Littlewood said.



The bullet entered Lilly’s stomach and lodged near her spine, but the pair managed to escape.

Doctors later discovered the bullet had missed vital organs by just a few centimetres.

“She’s very lucky,” Mr Littlewood said.

“She is in hospital about 150m away from where I am right now and she’s recuperating pretty well.”

Police later arrested the cabbie after findingmost of Ms Littlewood’s luggage and travel documents still in his possession.

Ms Littlewood, a former student at Mount View High School in the Hunter Valley, is expected to be well enough to travel home within a fortnight.

Woman survives six-storey car plunge

An Australian woman survived a terrifying car accident when her car careered off sixth floor of a multi-storey car park in Melbourne.
Despite suffering head injuries, the woman aged in her 40s, was reportedly conscious when she was rescued by paramedics.
In the video it is clear how far the woman fell and onlookers described hearing a series of crashes as the vehicle bounced off the walls of adjoining buildings on the way down.
Police at the scene said they were investigating how the accident happened and why the car park's safety rail apparently failed.

MAN who claimed to have feasted on human flesh as a child has today been jailed for life after drinking the blood of a former housemate he brutally slaughtered almost six years ago

MAN who claimed to have feasted on human flesh as a child has today been jailed for life after drinking the blood of a former housemate he brutally slaughtered almost six years ago, a jury has been told.

A Brisbane Supreme Court jury deliberated a day before this morning finding Robert Ian Logan, 23, guilty of the murder of former housemate Benjamin Peter Huntingford at his Adelaide Circuit home in Beenleigh, 35km south of Brisbane, on June 21, 2006.

Logan, affected by drugs, alcohol or both, murdered Huntingford and twice stabbed his pet dog "Butch" in a brutal and ferocious attack, several weeks after leaving their shared accommodation after a heated argument.

During a two-week trial Mr Huntingford's father, Peter Huntingford, testified Logan was renowned for telling "bizarre stories'' and once spoke of travelling to New Zealand as a child and eating human flesh with cannibals.



The jury, which retired to consider its verdict about 11am Friday, returned at 10.59am today, with the jury spokeswoman declaring: "We (the jury) find the defendant (Logan) guilty of murder.''

Members of Mr Huntingford's family gasped and cheered quietly, with several supporters pumping their fists into the air, in the gallery of Court 10, while family and supporters of Logan gasped in surprise and choked back tears.

Logan himself stood in the dock stunned, shaking his head in disbelief, at one stage looked toward his lawyers and said: "I don't understand.''

Prosecutor Michael Byrne, SC, asked Acting Justice Julie Dick, SC, to sentence Logan immediately.

Barrister Don MacKenzie, for Logan, said: "There is very little to say.''

Judge Dick, in sentencing Logan, told him: "You will know there is only one sentence I can impose.''

"You are sentenced to prison for life.''

Judge Dick, in reference to a victim impact statement from Mr Huntingford's family, said she hoped Logan himself had read it.

"I hope that you have read that (victim impact statement) ... to see what you have done to this family (of Mr Huntingford).''

During the trial the jury heard evidence Logan consumed various drugs, including heroin, speed, crack and marijuana, while residing at the property and that there was some "bad blood'' between his two housemates over the "thrashing'' of a recently purchased motorcycle.

The Crown revealed Mr Huntingford's corpse, with a pair of underpants placed over the head, was found by his housemate upon returning home from work about 6.15am.

Mr Huntingford's blood had been used to write an obscenity several times and "Where's M money'' on walls and a fridge at the blood soaked and stained house.

Police found the bloody handprint, which matched Mr Huntingford's DNA, of Logan on a door at the house and boot prints from a set of size 10 pair of "Blue Steel'' work boots belonging to Logan.

Mr Huntingford was said to have died from a "complex gaping wound'' to the neck that went from "ear to ear.''

Mr Huntingford received 19 significant injuries in the ferocious attack -- many of which are believed to have occurred after his death.

Those injuries included eight wounds to his almost "severed'' penis, injury to his anus and stab injuries that penetrated Mr Huntingford's heart, liver, spleen, a kidney and lung.

Logan told investigators his motivation for the killing was the result of an unwanted homosexual advance made by Mr Huntingford when they lived together.

"(Logan) asserted (to police) he drank some of the deceased man's blood,'' Mr Byrne said.