As it happened:Israel may pay compensation to Zomi Frankcom’s family;Ex-Seven producer’s evidence resumes in Bruce Lehrmann defamation case

Thank you for joining our live coverage today.

Here are some of the top headlines,in case you missed them:

Victorian paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale has been slapped with dozens of additional historical sexual assault charges against children.

Ridsdale is serving a maximum of 40 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to sexually abusing at least 72 children during the 1970s and ’80s while working as a Catholic priest.

Sexual crime detectives on Friday issued the 89-year-old with a further 62 charges as they continue to investigate alleged historical sexual assaults involving six male victims.

The alleged offences include sexual penetration of a person aged between 10 and 16 and indecent assault between 1973 and 1981.

Ridsdale has been in prison since 1994 for abusing dozens of child victims when he worked as a priest at multiple schools and churches across Victoria.

In 2022,he was charged with 24 sexual offences relating to two male victims in Mortlake in 1981 and 1982.

He suffered a fall in November 2022 and was bed-ridden,suffering chronic pain,muscle wasting and weak limbs and was recommended to be placed into palliative care in 2023.

If he serves out his full maximum sentence,Ridsdale will be at least 100 years old when he is released.

His previous offending largely took place in western Victoria where he spent most of his time as a priest after being ordained in 1961.

He also served in NSW and in New Mexico in the United States,where he underwent church-connected sex offender treatment.

Ridsdale will face Bendigo Magistrates Court on April 24.

AAP

The ACT Integrity Commission is assessing whether to investigate corruption allegations against Walter Sofronoff over his conduct in an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann.

The territory’s integrity commission released a statement on Friday confirming it had received allegations of misconduct brought against the former Queensland judge.

The allegations relate to his dealings with journalists during the course of the Board of Inquiry held in 2023,and his decision to release the final report to media before it was given to the ACT’s chief minister.

The ACT’s former top prosecutor Shane Drumgold launched legal action in 2023 to invalidate the adverse findings made against him by Sofronoff,who was the chair of the inquiry,arguing his communications with The Australian’s columnist Janet Albrechtsen had “infected” him with bias.

In response to the damning findings made against him by Sofronoff,Drumgold at the time said he wasn’t in a position to respond as he had not seen the report.

Justice Stephen Kaye found Sofronoff’s behaviour “gave rise to a reasonable intention of bias”.

The ex-director of public prosecutions said he was “delighted” with the court’s ruling and looked forward to moving on with his life.

Integrity Commissioner Michael Adams KC said he made his decision to confirm the commission received the allegations based on the “extraordinary and ongoing public discourse” about the conduct of the Board of Inquiry and the judgment made in Drumgold’s challenge.

“I have determined that it is in the public interest to disclose that the commission is assessing whether the issues call for investigation,” he said.

“I see no reputational damage arising from making this announcement,noting that it involves no adverse findings of any kind.”

Two people have been found injured and two others are believed to be missing after a boating accident on the Gold Coast.

Police say a tinny crashed into a harbour marker in Runaway Bay,a suburb on the Gold Coast,about 5am on Friday.

The impact threw one man overboard but trapped another man in the boat before it crashed into a moored catamaran.

Catamaran skipper David Crossley said he was woken by a roaring engine before he heard a bang.

“I ran up on the deck and (the boat) was going around and around in circles,” he told reporters on Friday.

The captain initially thought the tinny was unmanned while it spun out of control but then saw an injured man on board.

Crossley said he jumped in his dinghy and towed the tinny to South Stradbroke Island,raising the alarm with emergency services.

The 36-year-old man who had been thrown from the boat managed to swim to shore and was found at Paradise Point by emergency services while the 34-year-old man was treated at South Stradbroke Island.

Both were taken to Gold Coast University with serious arm and leg injuries,with media reporting one of the men was in an induced coma.

Police are still searching the water after receiving unconfirmed reports two people remain missing.

“We’ve got conflicting versions,” Gold Coast Water Police Senior Sergeant Peter Venz told reporters on Friday.

“The gentleman that was onboard the vessel stated there were four people on board.

“The person who was ejected into the water says there were two people.”

The investigation is continuing.

A coroner has recommended a review and audit of NSW police’s mental health training following the death of a man on the state’s mid-north coast in 2019.

Todd McKenzie died after police responded to a report the 40-year-old was seen with a knife and making threatening comments to neighbours during a schizophrenic episode.

During a siege at his Taree home that lasted nine hours,police surrounded the premises before using less lethal weapons and then shooting him three times when he allegedly ran at officers. AAP reports.

After years of delays,coroner Harriet Grahame handed down her 270-page report into the incident on Friday.

“When tactical police broke the window and broke into his home,disaster was sure to follow,” she told the Coroner’s Court of NSW.

“Todd was not the only person who has been killed during police operations ... in my view,it is time to grapple with these issues away from individual deaths.”

The coroner recommended a review and audit of NSW police’s mental health training be undertaken within two years,to ensure adequate and regular instruction is provided to officers of all ranks.

McKenzie’s death is one in a string of recent cases involving police interactions with civilians that have raised concerns.

In September,47-year-old Krista Kach died after being Tasered and hit with a bean-bag round following a 10-hour standoff with police in Newcastle.

Four months before that,95-year-old Clare Nowland died after police Tasered her at a Cooma nursing home.

Though it was clear the police’s tactics were “always likely to be disastrous”,Grahame noted current policies put officers under pressure and stress.

She called for a whole of government summit that brings together police,health experts,those with mental health needs and their families.

Thanks for your company so far today,I’m handing over our live coverage toAlex Crowe for the rest of the afternoon.

Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve covered so far:

The Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial is set to resume after 2pm,and we will bring you the latest as it happens. Stay tuned.

In case readers missed it,the architect of Australia’s student visa scheme says he did not design it to be wielded against universities as the Albanese government is doing,and has called for an end to the “Frankenstein’s bride” system that is costing providers millions in lost fees.

Former department of immigration official Mike Ferguson said university risk ratings – a key tenet of the new visa program – were meant to help streamline student visa applications,rather than for the government to preference institutions in its migration crackdown.

“The risk-rating system has morphed from its original intent into something that resembles Frankenstein’s bride – it is no longer fit for purpose,” Ferguson said.

Now a pro vice-chancellor at Charles Sturt University,he said the simplified student visa framework had reached its use-by date after Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil in December told bureaucrats to prioritise visa processing for the least risky institutions.

This had created a backlash throughout the sector and meant universities had to cancel enrolments.

Catch up on the full story here.

The University of Melbourne will cough up almost $75,000 in fines after it threatened to punish two casual academic staff if they claimed outside their contracted hours.

The Fair Work Ombudsman took the university to the Federal Court over the claims,after a supervisor sat the two academics down in August 2020 and told them:“If you claim outside your contracted hours don’t expect work next year.”

In early 2021,one of the academics went on to try to claim five hours more than her contracted hours.

The same day,the supervisor told her and other tutors to resubmit their time sheets,saying,“your letter of offer which each of you accepted outlines what you are paid for per contract”.

The academic resubmitted her time sheet disregarding the extra hours she worked but still,the supervisor went on to tell a professor the casual staffer was on a “crusade behind the scenes”.

The supervisor claimed they employed the academic out of desperation and said they would not hire her again.

They later told another employee the academic had become a “self-entitled Y-genner”.

Judge Craig Dowling found the university contravened fair work legislation twice;first,when the supervisor threatened the academics’ ongoing work prospects and second,when it refused to re-employ one of the academics after she tried to claim the extra hours she was owed.

AAP

Back to NSW,where the brunt of the East Coast low is expected to dump between 120 and 200 millimetres of rain over Sydney late today and into tomorrow morning,causing traffic and commuter chaos,as well as localised flooding.

Coastal residents between Newcastle and Wollongong have been warned of damaging winds,with gusts potentially up to 90km/h.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for Sydney,the Illawarra and the Central Tablelands,warning residents of possible flash flooding. It is particularly concerned about the area between the Blue Mountains and Narooma,where intense rainfall may lead to “dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding” from Friday night into Saturday morning.

In the 24 hours to 9am on Friday,Wahroonga experienced 116 mm of rain,while Sydney took 111 mm. Penrith copped 85 mm,and Kings Langley recorded 72 mm.

Here’s the latest on the situation.

A police officer accused of fatally Tasering a 95-year-old great-grandmother in a Cooma nursing home will face trial later this year.

Clare Nowland died in hospital in May 2023,a week after she was Tasered inside Yallambee Lodge,causing her to fall and hit her head. Senior Constable Kristian White formally pleaded not guilty to manslaughter at an arraignment in the NSW Supreme Court this morning.

His solicitor Peter Gow sought a trial date in 2025 due to the availability of senior counsel. However,Justice Helen Wilson said the court could not “leave the matter swinging until February or March” when the trial could be accommodated in November.

According to the police facts against White,Nowland was holding a knife and moving slowly towards officers using a walking frame at the time of the incident. White is accused of pointing his Taser towards Nowland and telling her:“This is a Taser,drop it now,drop it,this is your first warning.”

White allegedly activated a warning light and sound,and said,“Clare stop” before adding,“See,you are going to get Tased.”

As Nowland allegedly stood with the knife raised,looking at a second officer,White is accused of saying “Stop,just … nah bugger it” before Tasering Nowland at close range.

Charges of reckless grievous bodily harm,assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault were previously withdrawn. White’s four-week manslaughter trial has been listed to start on November 11.

with AAP