Producers address Bondi Rescue cancellation rumours - after domestic violence arrest of lifeguard Andrew 'Reidy' Reid
The Channel 10 reality series has been on hiatus for 2025, but will be around for 'many years to come', producers insisted on Wednesday.
Michael Cordell, creative director and co-founder of production company CJZ, told the Daily Telegraph in a statement: 'Season 18 was widely regarded as the best we've ever made and there's still plenty of important stories to tell about Bondi's professional lifeguards and the extraordinary work they do.'
Cordell also responded to comments made by lifeguard Andrew 'Reidy' Reid that seemed to imply that the series may be facing the axe.
'Reidy has been off-duty for some time and isn't privy to the show's financing. We love Reidy, but he isn't best placed to be making announcements about Bondi Rescue's future,' Cordell said.
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Bondi Rescue has aired on Channel Ten since 2006, clocking in an impressive 18 seasons.
It follows the daily lives and death-defying adventures of lifeguards tasked with protecting Bondi Beach's swimmers and surfers.
Whispers of a cancellation come after Andrew 'Reidy' Reid faced domestic violence charges late last year.
In December, the star avoided a conviction for putting his hand on a woman's neck 'in a fit of alcoholic rage'.
The lifeguard faced Hornsby Local Court after pleading not guilty to two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of common assault.
According to the NCA Newswire, Magistrate Daniel Reiss dismissed both counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
However, he was found guilty of pushing a woman's neck for up to five seconds in 'an aggressive act that amounted to common assault' without proceeding to a conviction.
One assault charge related to an alleged incident in November 2022, while the other allegedly took place in January 2024, over a 15-minute period.
A visibly upset Reid was said to have told the court 'that's not the kind of man I am' as he addressed the allegation.
Both counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm were dismissed, though Reid was found to have made a 'fairly clear admission of assault' to his counsellor.
Reid was handed a 12-month good behaviour bond after being found guilty of pushing the woman's neck for up to five seconds.
He will also remain subject to a two-year apprehended violence order taken out in the woman's name.
Reid is best known for having been a star on Bondi Rescue since the popular series first aired in 2006.
He's patrolled the iconic beach for more than two decades.
Last year, Reid made headlines when he rushed to the aid of injured victims stabbed by Joel Cauchi in the Westfield Bondi Junction rampage that claimed six lives.
While Reid is no stranger to life and death situations, he admitted he had never before experienced anything so traumatic.
'I have seen some pretty gnarly stuff after working for 20 years on the beach, but nothing like this,' he said.
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The Sun
11 minutes ago
- The Sun
How world's most depraved killers tortured victims & injected bleach in testicles before dumping bodies in acid barrels
PRIZING open the first of six barrels stored at a disused bank vault, in Snowtown, South Australia, detective Gordon Drage expected to find fertiliser used to grow illegal cannabis. But, after releasing a stomach-churning stench he discovered the vats contained something far more horrific - the dismembered remains of multiple murder victims. 19 19 And the chilling find, in 1999, led police to uncover Australia's worst ever serial killing. Over a period of seven years, twelve people had been tortured, murdered, decapitated and dismembered, their bodies left to rot in barrels or shallow graves in the tiny hamlet. Meanwhile their killers, led by psychopath John Bunting, profited from their victims by selling their possessions and withdrawing their benefit payments. Bunting, described as a "charismatic" leader who made his victims call him "God", "Master" or "Sir Lord" during vile torture sessions, recruited a gang of followers to assist in his heinous crimes - including a stepson who helped to murder his own siblings. What makes these crimes all the more shocking is that many occurred while Bunting and his followers were under active police surveillance. Now the killing spree is revisited in a new Crime+Investigation documentary, Bodies in the Barrels, with interviews from the detectives and scientists who were first to uncover the horrific scene in Snowtown. Forensic psychiatrist Richard Furst explains that Bunting, who had a pathological hatred towards gay people, drug users and paedophiles, would use the trauma of abuse victims to manipulate them into doing whatever he wanted them to do. Forensic psychiatrist Richard Furst says: 'This crime sequence is quite unusual in that a lot of the victims were known to Bunting and his followers. "The recruitment and victim selection very much fitted what he was projecting, which was the hatred towards paedophiles, hatred towards gay people. 'I think there is a charisma that you might see in a lot of cults. People within a cult, do things because there's a greater motive, and they have a sense of belonging and allegiance.' Chilling position missing girl's body was found in as new details on heartbreaking final days with 'killer' dad revealed Killer squad 19 19 John Bunting had had a trouble childhood, wasn't academic and had a fixation with killing animals and dropping insects into acid. One of his first jobs was as an abbatoir worker. In the 90s he lived in the marginalised, working-class suburbs of Adelaide, Australia, where he recruited a faithful flock of acolytes. They fancied themselves as righteous vigilantes, targeting people they claimed were paedophiles. In fact, most of their victims were not paedophiles, but loners and outcasts. Bunting would invent excuses to justify his bloodlust, and with the assistance of his friends, conspire to steal the government benefits of those they monstrously tortured and murdered. His first accomplice was the easily manipulated Robert Wagner who had a troubled childhood and had been the victim of sexual abuse by paedophile Barry Lane. The next key player Bunting met was Elizabeth Harvey who he soon moved in with. She too was vulnerable. Her husband had died, but her children had also suffered abuse at his hands. He essentially became step-father to her children, one of whom was James Vlassakis, who Bunting took under his wing. James hero-worshipped him. Local journalist Jeremy Pudney says: 'She perceived John Bunting as some sort of white knight, a saviour, if you like." Journalist Peter Overton adds: 'But Bunting wasn't a saviour for this vulnerable family he was their downfall. "He would soon groom them and manipulate them into committing the most heinous acts.' Twisted torture chamber In 1994 , two farmers discovered a body buried in a shallow grave. It would take several years for police to discover that the body belonged to John Bunting's first victim - Clinton Tresize - who had been bashed to death with a shovel after being invited into his home, two years earlier. His second victim was a man called Ray Davies who came to Bunting's attention after he exposed himself to children in the neighbourhood. In late 1995, he was ambushed, handcuffed, dragged into a car and driven to the house Bunting shared with Elizabeth Harvey. Bunting, Harvey and Wagner tortured Ray Davies with jump leads and beat him to death. Over the next four years, more and more people disappeared from Adelaide's north and investigators began to link these missing persons cases, suspecting foul play may have been afoot. In August 1999, the trail led to Snowtown, South Australia, a desolate and dusty hamlet which is little more than a battered collection of rundown buildings on the side of a highway. Officers investigating five of the missing had been watching three suspects and were following a suspicious four wheel drive vehicle that had been under surveillance. When they got to the address where the car was, they were told by a resident that it had been driven there by John Bunting and it had smelly barrels in it. When asked what was in them, John Bunting claimed they were the carcasses of dead kangaroos. 19 19 19 Police discovered that the barrels were now in a disused bank across town. Former detective Gordon Drage says: 'At that stage, we had no suspicion of there being bodies at the bank we thought it was going to be a drug crop, we suspected that the smelly liquids was probably going to be fertilised water for his cannabis crop growing inside the vault.' But when they got inside the bank their investigations took a sinister turn - on top of the six barrels were saws, handcuffs and used rubber gloves. A cheap couch, containers of hydrochloric acid and a machine which delivered electric shocks were also found. I think there is a charisma that you might see in a lot of cults people within a cult, do things because there's a greater motive, and they have a sense of belonging and allegiance Forensic psychiatrist, Richard Furst The police officers gingerly opened a barrel. Gordon Drage says: 'Only then did the smell come out. This was not hydroponics. That smelled very much like dead bodies.' In the first barrel, a human foot was found at the top, so they drove all six to the forensics lab in Adelaide. Forensic pathologist Roger Byard says some of the bodies were whole, others had been dismembered and all of them gave clues as to how they had reached their grisly end. 'There were handcuffs and thumb cuffs. There were plastic bags, rubber gloves they'd been using when they were dismembering the bodies. Several of the bodies had ropes around their necks, others had gags in their mouths.' Hand-picked victims 19 19 19 As police looked into the bodies from the bank vault, a full picture of Bunting's depravity began to emerge. On the wall of his home, the cold-blooded killer had a spider chart of potential victims. Some of the information had been provided by paedophile Barry Lane who had abused his accomplice Robert Wagner. Soon Lane was deemed surplus to requirements and was also tortured, beaten and murdered by Bunting, Wagner and a new accomplice Thomas Trevilyan, with his body taped up and left lying on the floor. When Trevilyan found it difficult to cope with what he had done and started speaking out, he too was murdered - with his death staged to look like suicide. But as well as sick brutality, there was also greed behind the killings. The killers would sell the victims' property and continue to withdraw their benefits payments as a fringe benefit of murder. Richard Furst adds: 'It was a poor neighbourhood and people were largely unemployed or on pensions, but I don't think the defrauding of the victims was a reason for killing the victims and disposing of them as they did. "But I think it was certainly a factor in selection. I think it was the issue of a double reward. So you kill someone, but you also get money, regular income from that, and they kept on going to withdraw money from the account.' Jeremy Pudney adds: 'One of the reasons this was able to go undetected for so long is some of these victims were really isolated from their families for whatever reason, didn't have many friends. And sadly, people didn't really notice when they went missing, so this is a story of how isolation can make people really vulnerable.' Another victim was a woman called Suzanne Allen who had had relationships with both Ray Davies and Bunting himself. When that affair ended she became a target. Despite Bunting and Wagner never being convicted of Suzanne Allen's murder, her body was found buried in the back garden of Bunting's house along with Ray Davies. Bunting and Wagner claimed they had found her dead and just cut up her body and buried it. 19 19 19 The barrels in Snowtown bank Killing was easy for Wagner and Bunting, but disposing of the bodies was another matter. And this is when they recruited Mark Haydon. He had become friends with Bunting and between them they cooked up the plan to store the bodies in plastic barrels which were kept in Haydon's garden shed until they were moved to the Snowtown bank. By 1997, police had begun investigating the disappearance of Bunting's first victim Clinton Tresize. And the group of fairly inept murderers brought together by Bunting were soon on the police radar. 19 19 Cops soon discovered that missing Barry Lane's benefits were still being withdrawn. So they set up a security camera at the cashpoint and spotted Robert Wagner making the withdrawals. At first police thought they were dealing with a few missing people who had possibly had their benefits plundered. But they still had no idea there was a sick killing spree taking place right under their noses. Incredibly, in the 16 months after the case became a missing persons and potentially a murder investigation, eight more people were killed by the gang. And the murders became more frequent and more sadistic. Forensic pathologist Roger Byard says: 'At least one of them had a firework sparkler put into his penis, in the urethra. There was there were stories of having the scrotum injected with bleach, of being electrocuted, of having their toes squashed with pliers.' Soon Bunting brought his stepson James Vlassakis into the murder team - encouraging him to help in the killing of his own half brother Troy. He was beaten, dragged from his bed and handcuffed before having his toes crushed with pliers. He was then strangled. Frederick Brookes, who was just 18 and the son of accomplice Jodie Elliott, was handcuffed and tortured for hours, and his genitals electrocuted, before choking on a gag. The next victim was disabled local Gary O'Dwyer, tortured for hours and recorded, pleading for his life. Bunting and Wagner then murdered Elizabeth Haydon, the wife of their accomplice Mark Haydon, attacking her in her own home before gagging and strangling her. It was her disappearance that made police realise this was a much more sinister investigation and put surveillance on Bunting and Wagner. But incredibly the watch wasn't 24/7, and it was during one of the blank spots that the pair murdered another of Vlassakis' step-siblings, David Johnson. Lured to the bank in Snowtown by his stepbrother, Johnson was murdered in May 1999, before Bunting and Wagner cooked and ate a piece of his flesh. This was to be the last murder the killers committed. Days later, the investigators finally stumbled on the horrific scene in Snowtown and arrested Bunting, Wagner and Haydon in dawn raids. James Vlassakis later handed himself into police, consumed with guilt about what he had done. His interviews brought police to further victims, and revealed a whole new depravity to Bunting and Wagner's crimes. Wagner was convicted of ten murders. Bunting, the ringleader was convicted of 11. They were both given a mandatory life sentence meaning they will never be released. James Vlassakis confessed to four murders and was jailed for life. Mark Haydon was convicted for his role in disposing of the bodies, but was released from prison last year under a supervision order after serving almost 25 years behind bars. Bodies in the Barrels premiers on Crime+Investigation and Crime+Investigation Play from Sunday 3 August at 9pm. 19
Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
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MAFS stunners Rhi Disljenkovic and Beth Kelly turn heads at star-studded Sydney Daily Mail event - as glam squad including Katie Johnston and Suzan Mutesi dazzle at A-List party
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Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Woman who secretly gave birth and hid dead baby inside a plastic bag in her freezer avoids jail
A mum who hid her baby in a plastic bag and lied to her partner about ever having given birth has been spared jail time. Monique Ellen Burton, 35, faced the Perth District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to one count of interfering with a corpse to prevent or prejudice an investigation. Burton gave birth to the child in secret in the lounge room of her home in Geraldton, in the Mid West region of Western Australia, in August 2022. She then wrapped the baby in her leggings before hiding the child behind the couch inside a black garbage bag. Burton has always claimed the baby was a stillborn. During the trial, it was revealed Burton lied to her partner of 14 years, Shaun Balaam, who was not the biological father of the child, by telling him she had liver cirrhosis which caused her stomach to bloat. Mr Balaam found Burton on the morning of August 19, 2022, feeling unwell on the sofa. He rushed her to the hospital after he noticed blood on her legs, but Burton repeatedly denied giving birth or being pregnant despite medical evidence proving otherwise. When he got home from the hospital, Mr Balaam found the bag behind the couch but did not check what was inside. He told police he suspected it might have been a baby due to Burton's history of concealing pregnancies but 'freaked out' and put it in the freezer. Burton eventually admitted to having the baby and told hospital staff that she had hidden the child behind the sofa, which prompted a police search of her home. Burton was interviewed in January 2024 and told police her memory was 'fuzzy' and that she had 'blocked it out'. In handing down his sentence, Judge Darren Renton said it was not possible to determine what caused the baby boy's death as he was placed in the freezer. However, Judge Renton added the child, known as Baby Burton, was likely a stillborn. 'You said there was no noise from the baby and he looked like a doll,' Judge Renton said. Judge Renton explained he grappled with giving Burton an appropriate sentence as he accepted she was remorseful but the offending was very serious. 'Your motive was in part a desire to avoid the consequences of your pregnancy and because of your psychological conditions,' Judge Renton said. 'You had a sticking your head in the sand approach to deal with stressors and would go into a state of avoidance and denial. "What you did involved a degree of indignity towards Baby Burton and would quite rightly be viewed as repugnant by members of the community.' He labelled the situation as 'tragic... on many levels' as her lies made the case exceptionally frustrating and created layers of complexity. While Burton's offending was towards the 'lower end' of the scale of criminal culpability, Judge Renton said it was by a bare margin her sentence was suspended. Her stress, mental health issues, and lack of family support was taken into consideration during the ruling. Burton was sentenced to a 19-month prison term that was suspended for 12 months. Her sentencing included a treatment program to address personal development, psychiatric needs and parenting. Burton was also charged with 12 counts of fraud related to money she received in donations from a GoFundMe page. The GoFundMe was set up by a friend to help Burton cover medical expenses related to her fake liver issues. Judge Renton noted Burton did not create the fund and her actions were mostly passive despite accepting more than $3,000 in donations.
