The bizarre vile act alleged wombat killer is accused of carrying out after mass wildlife slaughter
Daily Mail can reveal Tyson Michael Delbridge, of Fish Creek in Victoria's South Gippsland region, has been charged over the alleged attack on one of Australia's most beloved native animals.
The charges follow an extensive investigation into the deaths by the Conservation Regulator and Victoria Police.
In February, the department branded the alleged slaughter in Gippsland's Venus Bay 'a senseless and deliberate act of animal cruelty'.
Chief Conservation Regulator Kate Gavens said at the time that wildlife cruelty was unacceptable and the organisation will investigate and seek prosecution for serious incidents.
'The Conservation Regulator takes wildlife cruelty seriously, and I encourage the public to report any information about wildlife crime to Crime Stoppers,' she added.
Investigators had been on the hunt for the alleged wombat killer for months, with the charges bringing some relief to the outraged local community.
News of the arrest was welcomed by South Gippsland Deputy Mayor and Venus Bay local, Sarah Gilligan.
'It's been a very long seven months for the community of Venus Bay after the horrific [alleged] slaughter of too many beloved wombats,' she told the Daily Mail.
'This was a deliberate attack on community values and I'm thrilled to see the office of conservation regulator and police following through.'
Delbridge, who also faces serious driving charges related to a separate matter, was charged with 20 offences by Victoria's Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action.
The morning after the attack, Venus Bay local Mark Radley inspected the bodies of the wombats, which he said were covered in tyre marks and arranged in artificial positions on the side of the road, The Age reported.
'The general feeling in Venus Bay, of which the majority of residents are nature lovers, is one of relief and also hope that justice will be served,' he said.
The alleged crime turned local community members into sleuths, with people sharing information updates on social media in the hunt for the alleged perpetrator.
A poll on one page asked readers if anyone convicted of killing wombats should have their vehicle confiscated.
The response saw 60 per cent of those who participated suggest a convicted offender's car should be seized and crushed.
Sources told the Daily Mail that up to three cars were believed to have been in the area when the wombats were killed.
The bodies were found by disturbed locals who took them to the side of the road.
At least one of the victims had a joey, which survived and was taken to a wildlife shelter.
'Some were already lined up before we got there, like an undertaker had been there,' a source said.
'Whoever did this deserves jail. A diversion would be an insult to all involved. This is an opportunity to send a strong message.'
It is not the first time wombats have been killed in the area, with some locals suspecting more were deliberately killed just after Christmas last year.
Those found guilty of cruelty to wildlife face massive fines and up to two years behind bars.
Delbridge is set to appear in a country Victoria court in October.
Anyone with information on the attack should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
As the elite FLOCK to an Australian capital city for art and parties... the poor face an army of security guards: CANDACE SUTTON exposes disturbing crisis at popular tourist spot
It is the time of year when Sydney and Melbourne 's elite flock to Australia's booming northern-most city of Darwin for its horseracing carnival, prestigious Aboriginal art fair and, this year, the lawyer's picnic that is the trial of Netflix star Matt Wright. Meanwhile, Thompson Nganjmirra, 76, is sitting in a park in central Darwin. He nervously eyes a growing storm in the distance and wonders whether he will have to spend the night sleeping in the rain. Thompson tells the Daily Mail that he is one of Darwin's 'long-grassers' - the local name for the city's homeless population. They are known as such because they slept and begged in the tall spear grasses which once ringed the city. Sitting in Civic Park, just a few hundred metres from the Northern Territory Parliament and Supreme Court complex, Thompson is without a regular bed to sleep in or even a blanket. He has been caught short in the rain before. Darwin is a city divided. By most indicators, it is booming. Property prices have surged and rents are high. The warm, dry summer attracts a huge influx from out of state and a party-like atmosphere in town. Meanwhile, the Northern Territory's homelessness rate is twelve times the national average. Ninety per cent of the homeless in Darwin are Indigenous, many sleeping in the city's parks and bushland. 'Sometimes it's hard to get enough to eat,' Thompson admits. The Daily Mail spent four days recently reporting from Darwin and speaking to the locals - and learned that much has changed in the city over the past six years. That was when Darwin's politicians and civic leaders turned to private security firms to patrol areas of Darwin's CBD and suburbs during the day and night - including the khaki-clad Public Order Response Unit, or PORU, focused on the suburbs; and the 'blue shirts' of Territory Protective Services, who patrol the city's CBD. Also on patrol is Larrakia Nation, a service run by the peak group of the local traditional Aboriginal landowners. The group aims to prevent alcohol-related disputes and resolve problems and conflicts. Thompson shrugs his shoulders at the mention of the 'blue shirts', who, locals said, often wake sleeping people in the night to move them on. 'Some are good, some bad,' Thompson said. 'They tell us we can go here, but not there. It's okay if you have a place to sleep.' He breaks into his native language, Kunwinjku, to speak to his niece, 54-year-old Lillian Yulidji, who is sheltered with her uncle and other relatives under a large park tree. 'Blackfellas are used to them (the blue shirts) now,' Thompson said. A spokesman for the so-called 'blue shirt' company, TPS, said it had been contracted by the NT Police to maintain public order for six years and did not condone violence or ill-treatment of Darwin residents. With Darwin's peak tourist season underway - the art fair lasting four days, attracting buyers from Sydney and Melbourne's elite, and the Darwin Cup running at the Darwin Turf Club at Fannie Bay - both PORU and Larrakia Nation were patrolling the shores of Lake Alexander, at East Point Park. When the Mail visited on an afternoon late last week, Aboriginal family groups were gathered together while white people jogged and exercised along the boardwalks. Sitting amid council signs warning 'no camping or sleeping overnight', the families sat watching the sun sink over the water. Some of the group were drinking. Officers from PORU and Larrakia spoke with them. They dragged one old man off into a van which had a containment unit at its rear, much like a police paddy wagon. Political debate erupts The treatment of the city's homeless population and the government's crime policies are a hot political debate. Darwin mayoral candidate Leah Potter, who is campaigning on an 'end homelessness' ticket at this month's council election, told the Mail 'it is not a crime to homeless'. Potter was furious about plans by the NT government to further expand its law enforcement forces. The government wants to arm transit and public housing safety officers - who currently patrol buses, supermarkets and public housing - with firearms as part of a crime reform package. The new police auxiliaries will be on the streets by 2026. 'You can just imagine how that will play out,' she said. 'It is not a crime to be homeless, but what could possibly go wrong?' Meanwhile, the NT Government has just issued a new Bus Dress Code policy, placing signs on buses advising passengers with 'dirty or stained clothes' will be refused travel. 'This is clearly aimed at Indigenous people, the homeless and the mentally ill,' Potter claimed. 'When you have no roof or running water, or access to laundry facilities, meeting these so-called 'standards' is impossible. So, they're punished for poverty.' The Northern Territory Department of Logistics and Infrastructure told the Daily Mail that its Rules of Travel, displayed on all buses, 'ensure a safe and respectful environment for everyone using public transport'. A spokesman said that under those rules, 'a passenger could be asked to leave a bus if they are wearing soiled clothing that may leave dirt, grease, bodily fluids or damage a seat which could be used by another passenger'. They said that drivers or transit officers could 'exercise discretion and ask a person not to board the bus'. However, 'it is extremely rare for someone to be refused entry due to hygiene.' Potter, who runs the Sunset Soup Kitchen in Darwin, is on personal terms with most of the 200 Indigenous rough sleepers who populate the inner city, some of them regularly setting up camp in her street. She is a Territorian by birth, with a rollercoaster history living in Sydney and Melbourne. 'I am campaigning to change the shame, disempowerment and other factors contributing to homelessness,' she said, 'which is inequality, education, health, joblessness, imprisonment, violence against women. 'Aboriginal women are killed in alarming numbers. They are more than 10 to 12 times more likely to be victimised, assaulted and murdered than any other group of women.' But she admits she is unlikely to win against the twelve other candidates, and that her Roadmap Out of Homelessness 'is a really hard sell to Territorians'. 'It's about dignity and respect. You've got 40kg blackfellas about to die of chronic disease. They are human beings,' she said. 'But instead the NT Government wants to focus on fining people for breaking the law because sleeping in public parks is illegal.' Although, even at this time of year the daytime temperature in Darwin is a steady 31 degrees, it can drop to 17 overnight, a shivering prospect under a wet tree. Darwin's shelters always fill up fast, especially on rainy nights, and places like Spin Dry out at Berrimah are too far to walk. 'The cost of living crisis has pushed even more people onto the streets of Darwin, and the bus dress policy will mean getting access to food, health care, Centrelink and even family will be more difficult,' Potter said. 'To be excluded from a public service simply because of the clothing you're wearing is appalling.' As for Thompson and his niece Lillian, thankfully, they have found an 'uncle' who can house them for at least one night, and that means they will get a feed. Thompson has been coming to Darwin on-and-off from Oenpelli, a mission bordering Kakadu National Park in West Arnhem Land, for 25 years, and Lillian for 'a long time'. They are considering a return to their country. 'Might go back for Christmas, it's really good back there,' he said.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Mark Latham addresses the most shocking claim in ex-girlfriend's AVO claim: 'Defecation'
Former Labor leader Mark Latham has confirmed a claim by his ex-lover Nathalie Matthews that he defecated on her, but insisted he was simply following orders. The independent NSW upper house MP has provided a sordid account of the couple's relationship, including that Ms Matthews called him 'master' during sex, in a 13-page affidavit filed in Sydney 's Downing Centre Local Court on July 31. Despite confirming some of the more graphic claims included in Ms Matthews' prior AVO application, Latham firmly denied any allegations of mistreatment. 'Ms Matthews and myself participated in an entirely consensual, open sexual and social arrangement free of coercion, intimidation and harassment,' he wrote. In his first public acknowledgement of the defecation claims, Latham claimed it occurred only once, which was for Ms Matthews' sexual gratification. 'She asked me to s*** on her in the bathroom once because it turned her on,' he wrote in the affidavit, first obtained by the Sunday Telegraph. 'I did that but said we wouldn't be doing it again.' He also claimed that Ms Matthews initiated the 'consensual subservience' aspects of their relationship. 'As a reflection of this desire, she insisted on calling me 'master' and that I use this nomenclature,' Latham wrote. 'She was a highly powered sexual woman who knew what she liked and how to get it.' Latham claimed the role play allowed Ms Matthews to 'orgasm multiple times'. He also claimed in the affidavit that Ms Matthews had up to 20 sexual partners during their two-year relationship. Daily Mail does not suggest the claims are true, only that they have been made in an application to the NSW Local Court. Daily Mail has contacted Latham and Ms Matthews for comment. The affidavit paints a different version of events from that provided by Ms Matthews in her application for a restraining order against Latham, first seen by The Australian. The 37-year-old alleges Latham, 64, inflicted 'a sustained pattern' of psychological, financial and emotional abuse against her for almost three years. She further alleges Latham demanded she refer to him as 'master' and framed the defecation as one element of an abusive relationship. 'Throughout our relationship, the defendant engaged in a sustained pattern of emotional, physical, sexual, psychological, and financial abuse, including defecating on me before sex and refusing to let me wash,' she wrote. Latham was the federal Labor Opposition Leader between 2003 and 2005, when he lost his bid for the nation's top job at the 2004 federal election to former Liberal prime minister John Howard. He retired from politics in 2005 before joining the Liberal Democratic Party in 2017, leading to his expulsion from his former party. Latham joined One Nation's NSW branch in 2018, but was sacked as its leader in 2023 and now sits as an Independent. He has denied all abuse accusations, claiming that he had 'scores of documents' which would vindicate him, and enjoyed a 'fantastic' sex life with Ms Matthews. Ms Matthews describes herself as the managing director of Skynet Global Logistics, a company involved in freight forwarding which has a presence in Sydney, Perth and Dubai. Latham and Ms Matthews began dating in 2023 and ended their relationship earlier this year. The matter will return to court next month.
Daily Record
6 hours ago
- Daily Record
Reality star foster mum beat daughter to death over her eating habits
Ariel Robinson subjected Victoria Rose Smith to the ordeal just days before she and her husband officially adopted her. A reality TV star beat her foster daughter to death in a horrific ordeal which caused burst blood vessels and internal bleeding. Ariel Robinson, 30, who appeared on a series of Worst Cooks in America, was ultimately crowned the winner for showing the most improvement, walking away with a prize of $25,000. She revealed the funds would go towards her family, and the three children she planned to adopt with her husband, with whom she already had two sons. The teacher, from Greenville, South Carolina, and her husband Jerry, 35, fostered Victoria "Tori" Rose Smith, three, and her two brothers, aged five and seven. In January 2021, they were days away from formally adopting Victoria, the Mirror reports. On January 13, Robinson took Victoria to church, where she was sick down her dress. A member of the congregation asked if she was ill, which Robinson replied with claims she often ate too much and made herself vomit, before making the youngster leave the church without her dress on. Robinson was heard saying: "Oh, you're cold. You're cold. Girls that make themselves throw up deserve to be cold." The next day, Jerry called emergency services claiming their daughter was unresponsive. He said: "She drank a lot of water. We tried to do CPR to get it out." Paramedics found Victoria unconscious in her bedroom. Robinson said she feared she had choked after drinking a large amount of liquid. They discovered bruises all over her, which Robinson initially said might have been caused by CPR, before blaming them on Victoria's seven-year-old brother, who she claimed had "anger issues". She was rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to save her due to the severity of her injuries. A post-mortem examination revealed her cause of death to be blunt force trauma and internal bleeding. She had been beaten so badly her blood vessels had burst, causing blood to collect in her muscles and fat and eventually restrict the blood flow to her heart, likely resulting in it stopping. When police interviewed the parents, Robinson continued to blame Victoria's brother, but it became clear he wasn't physically able to inflict such damage. Jerry revealed his wife was responsible, with the incident starting when Victoria had been sick in church and angered Robinson. On January 19, the couple were arrested, and the TV series featuring Robinson removed from the Food Network channel. In April 2025, Jerry admitted aiding and abetting homicide by child abuse, and agreed to testify against his wife. At Robinson's four-day trial this year, the court was shown images of Victoria's horrific injuries. Her biological family attended wearing blue ribbons as a symbol of child abuse prevention, and were visibly upset by the evidence. Jerry told the court his wife would often lose her temper and take out her frustrations on their foster daughter. Her outbursts included beating her with a wooden paddle and belts, especially in response to her eating habits. He described how the morning after the church incident saw Robinson giving Victoria a "whooping" that lasted around an hour. He recalled entering the house to discover her using a belt on the youngster. He said: "I told her, 'You went too far this time and I should have stopped it." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Defending herself, Robinson said Victoria was a "perfect child" with no behaviour problems. She added: "She was my mini-me. She used to talk like me, act like me. She wanted to be everywhere I went." She admitted she was "frustrated" at the church incident, as they were running late before Victoria vomited on herself. However, she accused her husband of having one of the "scariest types of anger issues", stating: "He holds everything in, and he doesn't let it out and when it does come it, it's too much because he bottles it up." The defence said in their closing arguments that Jerry had "cut a deal" for a reduced sentence, and his testimony was not credible. Prosecutors said Robinson had "lost it" and was guilty. They said: "The evidence is clear and if you believe her, she failed to act." In May this year, Robinson was found guilty of homicide by child abuse, and sentenced to life in prison. The judge remarked: "In my 13 to 14 years as a judge, I've never seen anything like this. Not even approaching it." In June, Jerry received a 20-year sentence. He told Victoria's family: "I am truly sorry for all of this. I hope that one day you all can forgive me." They criticised social workers for failing to spot signs of the abuse. They claimed to have seen pictures of Victoria on social media with visible bruises, but nothing was done in response to their reports. They are now calling for a reform of the foster care system, including better screening procedures for potential families.
