Latest news with #CrimesAct
National Business Review
3 days ago
- National Business Review
Self-defence in the workplace: how much force is reasonable?
The Employment Court has upheld the dismissal of an Oranga Tamariki youth worker for using unnecessary force during an altercation with a rangatahi (young person). The worker, Ioana Hill, told the Employment Court she was entitled to defend herself under Section 48 of the Crimes Act, which is the
NZ Herald
26-05-2025
- NZ Herald
West Auckland woman who received $158k in account transfer error charged with theft
The pair have been summonsed to make their first appearance in the Auckland District Court. It's alleged the pair spent Che's savings on cars and cash transfers, including thousands of dollars sent to a relative overseas. The retired electrical engineer lost his life savings in January last year when he missed a single digit while transferring his money online from Barclays Bank in the UK to his Auckland Westpac account. The 78-year-old told the Herald he was using an old computer with a 'sticky keyboard' and one of the account numbers failed to register. It meant he keyed in only 15 digits, not the intended 16. Westpac then added a zero to the suffix as per its normal protocols. The new number sequence was for a valid account and the money was accidentally sent to the defendant. Che has criticised Westpac for not checking that the receiving account name matched that on his payment instructions. But Westpac has defended its actions, saying there is no name-checking system for international payments and blaming Che for the account transfer error. Police initially refused to investigate, saying it was a civil case After first being alerted to the case last year, police told Che they would not investigate because it was a civil matter. He then contacted National's Mt Roskill MP Carlos Cheung, who went in to bat for his constituent. Cheung contacted police and convinced them to re-examine Che's file. In a statement on Friday, police confirmed they had now charged two defendants. 'An investigator from the Auckland Financial Crime Unit has issued a court summons over this matter.' A 38-year-old West Auckland woman had been charged with theft. It's alleged she 'dealt with' Che's money 'with intent to deprive' him permanently of the funds. A 37-year-old West Auckland man had been charged with receiving $64,000, 'having been reckless' as to whether the money was 'obtained by an imprisonable offence'. The pair are set to appear in court next week. 'Both individuals were co-operative with our inquiries,' police said. 'Finders keepers' rule doesn't apply Retired University of Auckland law professor Bill Hodge said the pair were facing 'garden variety' charges under the Crimes Act. Hodge said the 'finders keepers' rule was not a valid principle in law. 'In law, when you find something, you do not have automatic good title to the property, whether it's deposited [into your account] or you find it on the street.' Che unexpectedly received a full refund this month from Barclays after a 15-month battle for compensation. He told the Herald it was important for the police to lay charges to send a message that they did not condone criminal activity. 'It's a warning to other people. Please don't do it.'
7NEWS
24-05-2025
- 7NEWS
Thousands of women are being targeted on a men's forum fishing for nudes. Here is why it can't be shut down
A disturbing online forum has been discovered in which thousands of women are being targeted in the trade of nude images. Requests use names and social media handles to fish for images and videos of specific women, mostly from NSW, with explicit files being shared daily on the forum, The Daily Telegraph reported. Like a sport, successfully procured images and videos are called 'wins' by anonymous male users, and then shared on a dedicated 'shame thread', it reports. Authorities are aware of the forum, but because no victims have come forward to police, there is no criminal investigation, understands. eSafety has been aware of this particular forum since early 2025, but it does not have the authority to take down entire sites under the Online Safety Act — it only has the authority to remove harmful content, and even that is a struggle in this instance. 'Not only are these rogue image boards hosted in varying locations overseas but they continually swap hosting providers and domain names to avoid action from eSafety or police,' an eSafety spokesperson told 'These sites are often used to facilitate image-based abuse and doxxing, and have been the subject of multiple investigations and takedown actions by eSafety over time. 'Unfortunately, they frequently re-emerge under new names or domains, aided by permissive hosting arrangements and jurisdictions that make enforcement more difficult.' 'They are targeted acts of abuse' With consent, sharing intimate images is not a crime, but NSW Police told 'If the images are not authorised to be distributed, it is an offence which should be reported to police.' Recording an image without consent, and distributing an image without consent can result in a cumulative six years in jail for anyone found guilty, according to the Crimes Act. But NSW Police need a victim to come forward to launch an investigation, and 'specific, detailed information to secure a successful prosecution'. It is unclear whether police or eSafety attempt to track down the women being targeted on the forum, to alert them to the potential crimes being perpetrated against them, before the content is taken down. However, the eSafety spokesperson said: 'Victim-survivors consistently tell us that content takedown is their main concern.' 'Our clear priority is to support those impacted and work to have this type of content removed as quickly as possible.' 'While we act swiftly to remove harmful material, it is police who are responsible for pursuing criminal charges. We also refer serious matters to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and often work in parallel with them during investigations. 'Image-based abuse and doxxing are not just breaches of privacy, they are targeted acts of abuse that weaponise vulnerability and deny individuals control over their identity, safety and reputation.' Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS) chief executive Tessa Boyd-Caine told that the forum is an example of the online spaces where technology-facilitated abuse is rapidly evolving to facilitate domestic, family, and sexual violence. 'Those are forms of violence that are highly gendered,' she said. 'Women and children are the vast majority of victims and survivors — and we know that men, and young men, and sometimes boys, are the vast majority of people using these forms of violence.' A 'blunt instrument' amid big picture efforts Boyd-Caine said that evidence shows people who use forums in this way know they are committing an offence. In terms of criminal justice for these people, she said the law 'lags behind the evolution of these websites and the way that they're used', but added that targeting individual perpetrators is not the fastest way to attack the wider problem. 'Directly targeting the people using these platforms in this way can be quite a blunt instrument — it can be very hard to identify, bring charges against, and prosecute an individual,' she said. Boyd-Caine said, 'a much broader impact can come from the role of technology companies'. How Australia works with the companies and web hosts behind the platforms where image-based abuse and doxxing occurs, is a job for the eSafety Commissioner. 'This is about how businesses do their business, so the ability to regulate this industry is really critical part of our efforts,' Boyd-Caine said. The eSafety Commissioner is world-leading in its efforts and has been tracking and taking action against rogue websites since at least 2016. 'Would be a blast from the past' Women from Sydney and regional NSW including the Northern Beaches, Bathurst, Dubbo, Maitland and Newcastle have been targeted on this recently discovered forum, the Daily Telegraph reports. It reports that burner Snapchat accounts are also being shared between users on forum to avoid being identified. 'Anyone got (woman's name omitted) from Kempsey, NSW?' one man reportedly wrote on the forum. 'Anyone got this big t** s*** from Sydney?' another reportedly wrote. 'Anyone got anything of (woman's name omitted). Would be a blast from the past (if) anyone's got something in the vault, she was my teacher for a couple of years. One of the lads said he'd seen a couple of pics and a vid years ago,' another reportedly wrote. While we understand these kinds of forums to be global, these examples appear to show a concentration of local abuse. 'We tend to think about the online space as somehow public and disconnected from our direct relationships, but the evidence shows quite the opposite,' Boyd-Caine said. 'We're likely to be looking at these coercive and controlling behaviours that often underpin intimate partner or family violence, where much of that control is not of a physical or sexual or even emotional abuse — it's these other patterns of control.' 'The use of women's images by their partners or ex-partners is another way that people are using violence to exert that control. 'We need much more targeting services and system responses that are grappling with the reality of how the online world is increasingly being used in different ways to perpetuate this abuse and violence.' eSafety has a high success rate in removing harmful material — up to 98 per cent in cases of image-based abuse — and urged Australians to continue reporting further instances of image-based abuse, doxing to eSafety. The regulator also recommended a tool by the organisation Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse, which can prevent intimate images and videos being uploaded online — you just need to have a copy of the file yourself. The free tool creates a 'digital fingerprint' out of the file, and prevents it being shared on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bumble, OnlyFans and Reddit. A separate tool is available for people under the age of 18. In an emergency, call 000.
Scoop
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Legal Academic Says Samoa's Criminal Libel Law Should Go
Article – RNZ This comes after the president of the Journalists Association of Samoa and veteran Samoan journalist was charged under the Crimes Act on Sunday., RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist An Auckland University law academic says the criminal libel law under which a prominent Samoan journalist has been charged should be repealed. Lagi Keresoma Keresoma, a senior journalist for Talamua Media, was charged under the Crimes Act 2013 on Sunday after publishing an article about a former police officer, whom she asserted had sought the help of the Head of State to withdraw charges brought against him. 'A person who commits a crime under this section is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 175 penalty units or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months,' the Crimes Act states. The Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS) has already called for the criminal libel law to be scrapped. It said this week that the law, specifically Section 117A of the Crimes Act, undermines media freedom, and any defamation issues can be dealt with in a civil court. JAWS gender representative to the International Federation of Journalists said Keresoma's arrest 'raises serious concerns about the misuse of legal tools to independent journalism' in the country. Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson called on the Samoan government 'to urgently review and repeal criminal defamation laws that undermine democratic accountability and public trust in the justice system'. The law was removed by the Samoan government in 2013, but was brought back in 2017, ostensibly to deal with issues arising on social media. Auckland University's Beatrice Tabangcoro told RNZ Pacific that this reintroduction was widely criticised at the time for its potential impact on freedom of speech and media freedom. She said that truth is a defence to the offence of false statement causing harm to reputation, but in the case of a journalist this can lead to them being compelled to reveal their sources. The academic said that the law remains unnecessary and impractical, and she pointed to the Samoa Police Commissioner telling media in 2023 that the law should be repealed as it is used 'as a tool for harassing the media and is a waste of police resources'. Tonga and Vanuatu are two other Pacific nations with the criminal libel law on their books, and it is something the media in both those countries have raised concerns about.
Scoop
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Legal Academic Says Samoa's Criminal Libel Law Should Go
Article – RNZ This comes after the president of the Journalists Association of Samoa and veteran Samoan journalist was charged under the Crimes Act on Sunday., RNZ Pacific Senior Journalist An Auckland University law academic says the criminal libel law under which a prominent Samoan journalist has been charged should be repealed. Lagi Keresoma Keresoma, a senior journalist for Talamua Media, was charged under the Crimes Act 2013 on Sunday after publishing an article about a former police officer, whom she asserted had sought the help of the Head of State to withdraw charges brought against him. 'A person who commits a crime under this section is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding 175 penalty units or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months,' the Crimes Act states. The Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS) has already called for the criminal libel law to be scrapped. It said this week that the law, specifically Section 117A of the Crimes Act, undermines media freedom, and any defamation issues can be dealt with in a civil court. JAWS gender representative to the International Federation of Journalists said Keresoma's arrest 'raises serious concerns about the misuse of legal tools to independent journalism' in the country. Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson called on the Samoan government 'to urgently review and repeal criminal defamation laws that undermine democratic accountability and public trust in the justice system'. The law was removed by the Samoan government in 2013, but was brought back in 2017, ostensibly to deal with issues arising on social media. Auckland University's Beatrice Tabangcoro told RNZ Pacific that this reintroduction was widely criticised at the time for its potential impact on freedom of speech and media freedom. She said that truth is a defence to the offence of false statement causing harm to reputation, but in the case of a journalist this can lead to them being compelled to reveal their sources. The academic said that the law remains unnecessary and impractical, and she pointed to the Samoa Police Commissioner telling media in 2023 that the law should be repealed as it is used 'as a tool for harassing the media and is a waste of police resources'. Tonga and Vanuatu are two other Pacific nations with the criminal libel law on their books, and it is something the media in both those countries have raised concerns about.
