logo
Watch: Man leaps from van during dramatic police chase through Melbourne

Watch: Man leaps from van during dramatic police chase through Melbourne

RNZ News19 hours ago
Helicopter footage showed a damaged white van driving erratically through traffic on the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne's inner west just before 1pm on Friday.
Victoria police said it had been reported stolen from St Kilda Road about 5.40am, and was later spotted in Footscray.
It was followed by the police chopper and officers on the ground as it sped through suburbs including Port Melbourne, Spotswood, Carnegie, Sunshine, Dandenong and Point Cook.
A man who leapt from a moving van during a police chase in Melbourne will appear in court on Wednesday.
Photo:
ABC News
The van could be seen hitting light poles on Dunnings Road in Point Cook before slowing.
A man then jumped through the driver's side window while the van was still moving, and was hit by an unmarked police car on the road.
A 36-year-old man from Point Cook was arrested and taken to hospital where he was treated under police guard.
On Tuesday night, police charged him with dozens of offences, including 12 counts of reckless conduct endangering life, 17 counts of reckless conduct endangering serious injury, aggravated reckless exposure of a police officer to risk by driving, dangerous driving whilst being pursued by police, burglary and committing an offence while on bail.
The man is scheduled to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.
No one was seriously injured during Friday's incidents.
-ABC
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Watch: Man leaps from van during dramatic police chase through Melbourne
Watch: Man leaps from van during dramatic police chase through Melbourne

RNZ News

time19 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Watch: Man leaps from van during dramatic police chase through Melbourne

Helicopter footage showed a damaged white van driving erratically through traffic on the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne's inner west just before 1pm on Friday. Victoria police said it had been reported stolen from St Kilda Road about 5.40am, and was later spotted in Footscray. It was followed by the police chopper and officers on the ground as it sped through suburbs including Port Melbourne, Spotswood, Carnegie, Sunshine, Dandenong and Point Cook. A man who leapt from a moving van during a police chase in Melbourne will appear in court on Wednesday. Photo: ABC News The van could be seen hitting light poles on Dunnings Road in Point Cook before slowing. A man then jumped through the driver's side window while the van was still moving, and was hit by an unmarked police car on the road. A 36-year-old man from Point Cook was arrested and taken to hospital where he was treated under police guard. On Tuesday night, police charged him with dozens of offences, including 12 counts of reckless conduct endangering life, 17 counts of reckless conduct endangering serious injury, aggravated reckless exposure of a police officer to risk by driving, dangerous driving whilst being pursued by police, burglary and committing an offence while on bail. The man is scheduled to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Wednesday. No one was seriously injured during Friday's incidents. -ABC

Convicted killer Bradley John Murdoch dies 24 years after Peter Falconio's murder
Convicted killer Bradley John Murdoch dies 24 years after Peter Falconio's murder

RNZ News

time20 hours ago

  • RNZ News

Convicted killer Bradley John Murdoch dies 24 years after Peter Falconio's murder

Bradley John Murdoch in 2003. Photo: AFP / DAVID HANCOCK Notorious outback killer Bradley John Murdoch has died, taking key information about his murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio to his grave. Murdoch was serving a life prison sentence for the murder of Falconio near the remote Northern Territory town of Barrow Creek on 14 July 2001. The 67-year-old convicted murderer was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was being treated at Alice Springs Hospital. Murdoch was born in the small West Australian town of Northampton in 1958. His life before prison involved working as a mechanic, driving trucks and running drugs across outback Australia. He was 43 when he killed Falconio. In 2001, Falconio and his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, were exploring Central Australia together in what was supposed to be a memorable outback holiday. The British tourists were travelling in a Kombi van at night along the Stuart Highway, about 10km north of Barrow Creek, when Murdoch gestured for them to pull over from his ute. Soon after Falconio hopped out of the driver's seat to talk to Murdoch, a gunshot was heard. Murdoch then assaulted Lees, bound her wrists with cable ties and electrical tape and forced her into his vehicle. Lees somehow managed to escape into nearby bushland, and Murdoch drove off into the darkness. Falconio was never seen again. The 28-year-old's mysterious death ignited a wave of international media attention, partly inspiring the 2005 Australian horror film Wolf Creek . Falconio's family and Lees were thrust into the spotlight in both Australia and the United Kingdom, with Lees subjected to particularly intense scrutiny. Twenty-four years after their son disappeared, parents Joan and Luciano Falconio still do not know what happened to his remains. Murdoch never revealed the location of the young man's body. British backpacker Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees. Photo: Supplied During the early months of the police investigation, when hundreds of suspects were still being treated as persons of interest, there was a major breakthrough - a man reported he knew who did it. He gave the name of Bradley John Murdoch. Police moved quickly and took a DNA sample from Murdoch, who had been arrested in South Australia over allegations he abducted and raped a 12-year-old girl and her mother. The Crown case rested on Lees's ability to identify Murdoch from photographs, as well as DNA evidence linking him to the crime using a blood sample taken from the scene. The item that ultimately condemned Murdoch was an elastic hair tie found in his ute that belonged to Lees. Former NT police officer Colleen Gwynne, who was the lead investigator in the Falconio case, said an eagle-eyed police officer in her team had noticed the hair tie wrapped around Murdoch's holster while trawling through his belongings. Gwynne told the ABC in 2016 that Murdoch "probably didn't know how significant the hair tie was", and suggested he kept it as a "trophy". In 2005, Murdoch was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Falconio and attempted kidnapping of Lees, with a non-parole period of 28 years. The court heard Murdoch had put Falconio's body into his ute before dumping it somewhere between Alice Springs and Broome. During sentencing, Chief Justice Brian Martin described Murdoch's offending as "nothing short of cowardly in the extreme". He said Murdoch's prospects of rehabilitation were low given his "complete lack of remorse" and prior offending. Murdoch was acquitted of the rape allegations in South Australia in 2003, immediately before police arrested and charged him over the Falconio case. He had also served time in jail in WA in the mid-1990s for shooting at a crowd of Aboriginal football fans celebrating a victory in Fitzroy Crossing. He appealed to overturn his convictions twice, but was unsuccessful. In 2016, the NT government introduced "no body, no parole" laws with the aim of eliciting a confession from Murdoch by removing his right to parole in 2032. It did not work. This year, NT police launched a fresh public appeal by offering a new reward of $500,000 for information on Mr Falconio's remains . Acting Commander Mark Grieve from NT Police's Crime and Intelligence Command said police had spoken to Murdoch as recently as this week. "On all occasions, he's chosen not to positively engage with police," he said. Murdoch was transferred to the Alice Springs Correctional Centre in 2022, after previously being housed at Darwin's Holtze prison. His death in custody will be subject to a mandatory coronial inquest. - ABC

NZ Police not concerned about Australian efforts to recruit officers
NZ Police not concerned about Australian efforts to recruit officers

RNZ News

timea day ago

  • RNZ News

NZ Police not concerned about Australian efforts to recruit officers

New Zealand police say they are confident they are going well in recruiting 500 more officers. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Patrice Allen Australian efforts to recruit Kiwi police officers are ramping up again, but NZ Police say it is nothing new and they are focused on their own recruitment drives. A recruitment officer for Northern Territory Police told Checkpoint they would be coming here on a roadshow this month to talk about the higher salaries and housing allowances on offer. Northern Territory recruitment officer Brett Wilson said they were not trying to steal Kiwi officers, but ensuring the officers knew their options. "We're looking at making sure people know the options, that there's more to Australia than just the East Coast, the Northern Territory is a place out there to also look at an option should they want to come to Australia." First year constables in the Northern Territory earn a salary of $111,000, compared to $83,000 here - the salary quoted on the new cops website in New Zealand. After five years in the force an officer would get $121,000 in Northern Territory, compared to $91,000 here. On top of that there is also a housing allowance of up to $34,000 for officers who hop the ditch. NZ Police assistant commissioner Tusha Penny told Checkpoint that pushes to recruit Kiwi officers were not anything new, and was not only being done by the Northern Territories. "Northern Territories have been looking and actively looking and coming over here for about the past decade to look at potentially recruiting our officers." "This is not just isolated to Northern Territories. We have a number of Australian jurisdictions who come over here and regularly looking at our officers." Penny said although they did not have the exact numbers, it was only a small proportion of NZ police who were going to Australia, adding that many Kiwi officers also returned from over the ditch. "We've got about 140 officers in our rejoin pipeline, who actually want to come back into New Zealand please and a healthy cohort of those from Australia." She said the police force here was continuing to see increasing application rates. "In the last 12 months we've had on average 735 applicants a month to come into New Zealand Police. If we compare that to 12 months previous, it was 440. "We've still got so many good and great New Zealanders who really wanna sign up and put on a police uniform to work in our community." Officers who return from overseas do have to go through a rejoin process. "Their previous experience gets looked at, and where they want to go. So we have staff who are full time really looking at the rejoin policy." Penny said the policy takes into account a number of factors. "We look at the previous experience in New Zealand police, we look at what they've done since they've been away - that's for the internal pipeline and our rejoins coming back." She said while New Zealand police were confident they were going well in recruiting 500 more officers, there was no set time-frame, and they are instead focused on the quality of new officers. "We've been really clear that we're not giving a time frame... when we get the 500, we will get the 500" Penny said she was confident the NZ police force would continue to grow, despite the push for overseas recruitment. "We're all about supporting our Australian cousins, but I need to be really clear that well, you know we are, we are growing our police officers. "We're really proud of our people who in every single town across the country we've just got the most amazing front-line who are stepping up to police in our communities."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store