Latest news with #ADFA
ABC News
17-07-2025
- ABC News
Former ADFA cadet sentenced to almost two years in jail for raping colleague in her academy room
Warning: This story contains details of sexual offences which may distress some audience members. An ACT Supreme Court judge has issued a scathing assessment of the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), as he jailed a cadet to nearly two years for raping a colleague. Angus Ross Robertson, 24, was found guilty by a jury of two counts of rape and two of committing an act of indecency on a woman who lived in the same building at the academy. The victim told the court she had agreed to kissing Robertson, but told him several times "I do not want to do anything". She said Robertson persisted, and got a bit "handsy", but she said she wasn't worried at first, thinking, "This is just drunk Robbo". The court heard Robertson pressed on, repeatedly asking for sex. "Let me show you how good I can f**k you." "The victim capitulated and said, 'Yeah sure'," Justice David Mossop said. But he said the victim said she had not participated, feeling confused and disgusted in herself, eventually telling Robertson: "I don't want this". By finding Robertson guilty the jury had accepted that consent was not willingly given. Justice Mossop said in the aftermath Robertson said to the victim, "You are being so uptight". He also told her not to tell anyone. He found the crime was opportunistic rather than pre-meditated, but showed Robertson had a particular attitude. He suggested that attitude may have some explanation in Robertson's success at ADFA where he was liked by his superiors, had been made a divisional cadet captain, and was heavily involved in the rugby club. He was described as "somebody made for the job". Justice Mossop also took aim at other circumstances. "The institutional environment at ADFA — which puts young males and females, inexperienced with adult life, together in a military, academic, residential and social context involving a significant degree of competition and the hierarchical systems of authority inherent in a defence force — is one in which sexual offending by men upon women is an obvious risk," Justice Mossop said. He suggested whatever measures ADFA has put in place to address the issue haven't worked. The court heard after the sexual assault the victim was in denial, and did not make a complaint for some time. It was only after she was told by Robertson's former girlfriend that he had scabies, and she went to a health centre, that she disclosed the sexual encounter was not consensual. He said she was "ostracised, bullied and sl*t-shamed", particularly by the rugby club. The woman said the consequences were far reaching beyond anything she imagined. During sentencing today Robertson's barrister, Sharyn Hall, urged the court to place him on an intensive corrections order so he could serve his sentence in the community. Ms Hall conceded "the consent she purported to give was not freely given", but told the court the crimes were at the low end of objective seriousness. She said Robertson had continued to ask for permission and didn't go further until the victim agreed, although she accepted the jury found that consent was not freely given. Ms Hall said there was no premeditation. "The offender clearly took advantage of the situation he found himself in." She told the court her client appeared to be a polarising figure, liked by some and not by others. Ms Hall said Robertson had gotten on with his life, finishing his degree and setting up his own business. She told the court there was no evidence he was violent person. But Prosecutor Marcus Dyason referred to the evidence of the victim, who told Robertson she would go no further than kissing. Mr Dyason said Robertson had engaged in a pattern of behaviour which led to what he wanted to do. He said the prosecution had not said Robertson had a "violent character", but rather there was clearly another side to him. Mr Dyason said the aftermath was an extremely difficult time in the victim's life, leading to a level of harm to the victim which "was high if not severe". Justice Mossop found the risk of reoffending was low, but that the crime warranted time in jail. Robertson has been sentenced to 22 months in jail, to be suspended after nine months. He will also serve a three-year good behaviour order.
ABC News
16-07-2025
- ABC News
Suspended army officer jailed for three years after raping an ADFA colleague in 2022
Suspended army officer cadet Jake Sullivan has been sentenced to more than three years in jail for raping a colleague from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra in 2022. An ACT Supreme Court jury last year convicted Sullivan of two counts of rape and one of committing an act of indecency. Sullivan's lawyers today flagged a last ditch bid to keep him out of jail today, before abandoning an application to stay the sentence ahead of an appeal to be heard next month. In 2022, Sullivan had gone to the room of a fellow ADFA cadet after the pair had agreed to have sex. The two had originally met some time before on a Tinder date and maintained a casual relationship for a while before parting. They had reconnected earlier that year, and after meeting at Canberra nightclub Mooseheads where the victim had gone with some of her friends, the two returned to the academy. The victim said she had agreed to have sex with Sullivan, but withdrew her consent after she said he became aggressive and had hurt her. That included pulling her hair and grabbing and twisting her breast, leaving bruising. The woman told the court she said words to the effect of "ow" or "that really hurt". She said she had turned to go to sleep. The court heard Sullivan then said "you are the one who invited me here" and he continued. The woman said she froze. Justice Belinda Baker said the offender was much bigger than the victim and she was scared. Justice Baker noted the victim impact statement, in which the woman said she was raped in her own bed despite giving Sullivan more than one indication to stop. The victim said it had affected her mental health, her career and relationships and robbed her of her sense of safety. Justice Baker took particular aim at Sullivan's response when the woman reversed her consent, that she had invited him over. "That demonstrated a selfish entitlement towards her," Justice Baker said. "The offender prioritised his own sexual gratification over any consideration of the victim." Sullivan has maintained his innocence throughout. Sullivan has been sentenced to three years and three months in jail to be suspended after 15 months, meaning he will be eligible for parole late next year. His appeal against his conviction will be heard in August.
The Advertiser
03-06-2025
- General
- The Advertiser
Why a good leader must banish their biases and baggage
Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease. Years ago now, I ran into Kirstin Ferguson at one of those networking events. She had what I thought was strong school captain energy* combined with wildly curly hair and an air of extreme calm. You could tell, just from a five-minute conversation, she had a wise centre. A few months later, she wrote to me asking if I would be part of a campaign of hers, #celebratingwomen. God knows why I said no but I was just at the end of my PhD and barely coherent - and had no desire to be the centre of anyone's attention. It ended up, with author Catherine Fox, designed to celebrate women supporting each other and became the book Women Kind. We've kept in touch since then. When she wrote her award-winning book about leadership, Head and Heart, she suggested I do the accompanying questionnaire to see what kind of a leader I was. Headish? Heartish? I ran from that too. Impulsive. Grumpy. Intense. Not exactly sure how my family survived me (although, spoiler alert, they have). Now, I've come good. In Ferguson's latest book, Blindspotting, I've found myself. What is a blind spot? Blind spots, says Ferguson, are really those flaws in our thinking where we've done something really well in the past and we plan to stick to our knitting. And she's got advice for the politicians in our two major parties. She fears the Labor Party's capacity for self-reflection may have been buried under its landslide victory. "Hubris can absolutely become a blind spot where you think that you now know what people want, you think you now know the answers," she says. And the Coalition? "I don't know that they're truly being honest with themselves about why they had such an appalling result, and unless they do that by seeking views outside of their own circles, then they'll just continue to perpetuate the blind spots that got them into this position in the first place. "They need to be able to disentangle their egos and really put that aside, to put the party first if they want to have any hope of succeeding in the future." That might take them at least another couple of election cycles. *So was I right about Ferguson's school captain energy? Nope, nope, nope, as one of our former prime ministers with major blind spots famously said. Ferguson went straight from school to ADFA. She was the first woman to become dux of an Australian air force graduating class at ADFA (in her year, women made up less than 10 per cent of the class). That's where her leadership began. As part of her first job, straight out of ADFA, she was appointed to a job which would break so many of us, the base burials officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, organising funerals for serving members who died because of illness, car accidents, misadventure. And for those who died by suicide. Years later, she undertook a Churchill Fellowship to talk to bereaved military families, to find out how our defence forces could do better with support. Doing better is what she's about. Being pleased with ourselves, though, can be a bit of hurdle if we really want to do well. But what's the problem with being pleased we've done well? Says Ferguson: "We think we'll do it well again. It can come through prejudice, not wanting to believe others can achieve something or do something. It can come through power, through being someone who can't put themselves in the shoes of others. "These are flaws in our thinking that we all have. Absolutely no one is immune from blind spots, and they're fuelled by biases and baggage we bring with us and a lack of curiosity about the world around us." Ferguson, now in her early 50s, says she has blind spots herself. She says she was a real advocate for working from home. She loves working from home herself. But it was only when she started listening to her own daughters, 23 and 25, and reading correspondence responding to her column, Got A Minute, in the Nine newspapers, she realised she needed to open up. "People miss working in the office, they get a lot out of being present, that camaraderie and culture. "I talk about needing to hold our convictions lightly, and on that one, I did, because it's not as though I've gone full tilt the other way. I still think we should have working from home, where it's feasible. The position should be made for people to have a choice. But it's no longer as black and white as I perhaps thought it was." How do we get past our blind spots? Ferguson has a training regime. Be honest with yourself. Be curious. Be flexible. Which is fine for her to say. The rest of us struggle. Her tips? (Dear god, they read like the first week back at the gym after a holiday). "We have to be honest about the fact that we have biases, and we have to be able to disentangle our ego from thinking that we have to be right," she says. I hope our politicians are reading this as we speak. The next one is easy, at least for me. I'm a native-born nosy parker. "Be willing to question for insights rather than trying to win arguments," says Ferguson. And finally, we need to be flexible. "That is all about being willing to change our mind in the face of new information, it's being able to embrace ambiguity, because the world is uncertain," she says. Too many of our leaders across all sectors pretend they are certain. "When we look at some of the political leaders we have, some of the business leaders, other people that we celebrate, so often they're exactly the kind of vacuous people that operate off charisma. "But for time immemorial, these people have consistently failed us in the end - but we continue to be caught out by the ease with which they can convince us they know what they're talking about when they really don't." Ferguson's right about this: "They convince us that they've got our best interests at heart when they really don't." Love books? Us too! Looking for more reads and recommendations? Browse our books page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest books content with ease.
