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South Australian police investigate seven-year-old Craigmore boy’s death from suspected criminal neglect

A man with glasses and in business suit speaking against police banner

South Australian detectives have launched a second investigation into the death of a child by suspected criminal neglect.

WARNING: This story contains content that some readers may find upsetting

The new case involves a seven-year-old boy, who died soon after he was taken to the Lyell McEwin Hospital by his father in February.

The boy’s five siblings, aged between seven and 16, were later removed from their home at Craigmore in Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

Police say they have examined volumes of evidence from child protection authorities, alongside a post-mortem report and advice from a pediatrician at the hospital.

“There is an enormous amount of records and we’ve only had a cursory look at those since we’ve got them, but it seems sufficient to launch a criminal investigation,” Detective Superintendent Des Bray said.

“Several serious health issues were identified but in themselves [were] not necessarily cause for immediate concern.”

He urged neighbours, friends and workers in government and private agencies to come forward and contact Crime Stoppers to assist the investigation.

“Essentially a case of criminal neglect occurs when a person who has a duty of care to a child fails to take all reasonable steps to protect the child from harm and the child dies or is harmed as a result of that neglect and the neglect is so serious that it warrants a criminal sanction,” Superintendent Bray said.

Police have now referred the boy’s death to Taskforce Prime, which was set up a fortnight ago to investigate the death of another child, a six year-old girl named Charlie.

A young girl smiling with her eyes closed while clasping her hands together
Charlie, aged six, died soon after arriving at the Lyell McEwin Hospital last month.(Facebook)

Charlie died soon after arriving unresponsive at the Lyell McEwin Hospital last month.

While there are no links between the two cases, police say there are some similarities.

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Sports

Carlton’s Adam Saad calls for more education after spectator’s alleged Islamophobic remark

Adam Saad at Adelaide Airport

Carlton Football Club’s Adam Saad has expressed his disappointment over an Islamophobic remark allegedly directed at him by a spectator during Saturday night’s game at Adelaide Oval.

While at the airport waiting to fly out of Adelaide, Saad said he was aware of the alleged remark, which is being investigated by the AFL.

“It’s disappointing,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I know who I am as a person and us as a Muslim community.”

“As long as we can educate the person and move things forward.

“Those things shouldn’t be said.”

The Carlton Cheer Squad posted on Twitter that they were frustrated with the response by police and security at the oval, tagging the AFL, Carlton Football Club, Adelaide Football Club, the Adelaide Oval and SA Police in the post.

“Cops, Security, Ground Staff ‘talk to her’ and say ‘it’s been dealt with’ and tell us to leave it at that and she isn’t even kicked out of the ground.”

“Absolutely disgraceful.”

The AFL issued a statement on Sunday, saying that it is allegedly investigating comments made by a spectator at Adelaide Oval.

“Football is a place of inclusion and belonging, and there is no place for racist behavior in our game,” the statement said.

“Nobody in our game, or in the community, deserves to be discriminated against and vilified against due to their faith or race and there is simply no excuse for it.”

A large stadium with windows facing out
Police and stadium security spoke to the Crows fans who were allegedly involved. (abcnews)

The Adelaide Football Club has also confirmed it is investigating.

“We do not tolerate, and strongly condemn, any form of discriminatory behavior and it has no place in football or society,” the statement said.

“Adelaide Oval should be an inclusive and family-friendly environment.”

A spokesperson for South Australia Police said officers and Adelaide Oval security attended the area on Saturday night and obtained the details of the people allegedly involved in the incident.

They said the matter had been referred to the AFL and Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority for investigation.

South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas said it was hard for him to comment on the matter because he did not know all of the circumstances.

“What I can say is this: Those sorts of comments aren’t welcome at the footy but also it’s true that, when they occur, they represent an absolute minority,” he said.

“The majority of people go the footy, they can get fired up but do it in an appropriate and respectful way, cognisant of the fact that it’s a family friendly environment.”

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Australia

Derek Abbott’s research into Somerton Man’s identity rules out link to wife Rachel Egan, but uncovers new coincidence

Sitting on Somerton Beach

A coincidental link between the Somerton Man and the professor who claims to have uncovered his identity has emerged, as previously held theories are debunked.

Adelaide researcher Derek Abbott has been working on the Somerton Man case — one of Australia’s longest-running mysteries — for decades.

Last week he announced DNA and forensic genealogy had unearthed the unidentified man found slumped on an Adelaide beach in December 1948 as Carl “Charles” Webb, a 43-year-old Victorian electrical engineer and instrument maker.

In making the breakthrough, Professor Abbott has also ruled out his own theory: that his wife was the man’s granddaughter.

Decades of research has created deeply personal links for Professor Abbott, who met his now wife, Rachel Egan, through his investigations.

a man and a woman stand holding hands in a graveyard. The woman is holding flowers
Rachel Egan and Derek Abbott at the grave of Somerton Man.(Australian Story: Ben Cheshire )

Professor Abbott wrote to Ms Egan, asking to meet after discovering she shared multiple links with the Somerton Man.

In addition to her biological grandmother’s phone number being found among the Somerton Man’s possessions, Professor Abbott also found her biological father shared two rare genetic anomalies with the man.

The pair quickly fell in love, married and went on to have three children.

But the link that brought them together has now been ruled out.

“We’ve also been able to now eliminate suspected possibilities in the past … including the one that my wife is related to the Somerton Man,” Professor Abbott told the ABC last week.

“[We] can totally rule that out now, her DNA does not match at all.”

The body of the unknown man found on the beach at Somerton.
The unknown man was found at an Adelaide beach in 1948.(Supplied: Derek Abbott)

But in a bizarre twist, another link between the family has been discovered.

Professor Abbott and Charles Webb share the same occupation of electrical engineers.

“That’s a coincidence, there’s lots of coincidences,” Professor Abbott said.

Typed writing in a column on a newspaper page
The public notice published in The Age newspaper on October 5, 1951. (Source: Trove)

In 1951, Mr Webb’s wife Dorothy Jean Webb put a public notice in The Age newspaper in Melbourne, publicizing that she had started divorce proceedings against her husband on the ground of “desertion”.

“Unless you enter an appearance in the Prothonotary’s Office of the Supreme Court of Melbourne on or before the 29th day of October, 1951 the case may proceed in your absence and you may be ordered to pay costs,” the ad states.

Their marriage certificate shows that Carl Webb and Dorothy Jean Robertson were married on October 4, 1941 at St Matthews in Prahran.

At the time, Mr Webb was 35 years old and his wife 21.

According to the certificate, the couple lived on Domain Road in South Yarra.

A small excavator in Adelaide's West Terrace cemetery.
An excavator in Adelaide’s West Terrace cemetery works on the exhumation of the Somerton Man’s remains in May last year.(ABC News: Michael Clements)

Professor Abbott’s research into the case has been conducted separately from a police investigation, which included an exhumation last year with the Somerton Man’s remains taken from an Adelaide grave to a Forensic Science SA lab in the hope of harvesting DNA.

In a statement on Wednesday, SA Police said they were still “actively investigating” the coronial matter.

“We are heartened of the recent development in that case, and are cautiously optimistic that this may provide a breakthrough,” it said.

“We look forward to the outcome of further DNA work to confirm the identification which will ultimately be determined by the coroner.”

Professor Abbott said he will continue to “take an interest” in the case, as more questions needed to be answered about the man’s life and death.

“It’s not the end of the story by any means,” he said.

“Finding his name is really just the beginning of the story because now we’ve got to find out more about this man and his history and what he was doing and fill in all the gaps.”

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Business

Australian house prices fall at ‘fastest rate’ since 2008 financial crisis

Four photos of properties are placed in a grid, with a red silhouette of a house saying 'SOLD' and a key.

House prices in Australia are dropping at their fastest pace since the global financial crisis — and market conditions are “likely to worsen” as interest rates continue to rise, according to property analytics firm CoreLogic.

The latest data shows that the nation’s median property value has dropped by 2 per cent since the beginning of May, to $747,182 (a figure which includes houses and apartments).

“Although the housing market is only three months into a decline … the rate of decline is comparable with the onset of the global financial crisis (GFC) in 2008, and the sharp downswing of the early 1980s,” said CoreLogic’s research director Tim Lawless.

But he noted that, on average, prices had jumped 28.6 per cent from mid-2020 (the low point of the housing market during the COVID-19 pandemic) to April 2022 (when national prices hit their peak).

Regional Australia had an even bigger surge, with prices up 41.1 per cent in two years — as smaller towns outside the capital cities experienced a huge influx of city-dwellers seeking better lifestyles (as working remotely became the new normal).

“In Sydney, where the downturn has been particularly accelerated, we are seeing the sharpest value falls in almost 40 years.”

A table showing that Australia's median property price dropped 1.3 per cent in July 2022 to $747,812.
Property prices in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart fell sharply in July.(CoreLogic)

The median price in Australia’s most expensive city fell by 2.2 per cent in July (taking its quarterly loss to 4.7 per cent). Despite that, an average house in Sydney still costs around $1.35 million, while an average unit may fetch about $806,000.

Melbourne and Hobart also recorded steep falls, with prices in both cities down 1.5 per cent last month, while Canberra prices dropped 1.1 per cent.

Prices in Brisbane and regional Australia fell 0.8 per cent (their first monthly decline since August 2020).

At the other end of the spectrum, Darwin, Adelaide and Perth were the only capitals where prices actually went up in July (by between 0.2 and 0.4 per cent). However, it has been a sharp slowdown since May, when the Reserve Bank began to aggressively lift the cash rate from its record low levels.

short and sharp

“I think this downturn will be similar to the global financial crisis in that it will be quite short and sharp,” Mr Lawless told ABC News.

Australia’s median property price fell by around 8.5 per cent over an 11-month period during the GFC, according to CoreLogic.

Line graph showing Adelaide property prices jumped 3.6 per cent in the past three months, while Sydney prices fell 4.7 per cent.
Adelaide property prices jumped 3.6pc in the past three months.(CoreLogic)

Mr Lawless said the property downturn is “accelerating”, and that he would not be surprised if “the current decline gets worse than what we saw during the GFC”.

He noted the main difference is that governments and central banks are currently determined to withdraw trillions of dollars worth of stimulus, in a desperate bid to lower inflation (instead of pumping it into the global economy, liked they did after the 2008 crisis).

Many analysts are predicting Australian property prices, on average, will fall between 10 and 20 per cent (from peak to trough) — with the two most expensive cities Sydney and Melbourne likely to suffer the biggest declines.

But even if the worse case scenario eventuates, it will not drastically improve housing affordability.

“If we saw say, a 15 per cent drop in national housing values, it would take prices back to where they were in about April 2021.”

How quickly (and by how much) prices fall will depend on how aggressively the RBA decides to lift its cash rate target in the next few months.

Graph showing that house rents have risen sharply in every capital city, with Brisbane jumping 13.6 per cent in the past year.
Brisbane and Adelaide tenants are experiencing the sharpest rent increases.(CoreLogic)

Since May, the RBA has lifted its cash rate target from 0.1 to 1.35 per cent.

If the central bank delivers another double-sized rate hike on Tuesday (0.5 percentage points), as widely expected, that would bring the new cash rate up to 1.85 per cent.

Buyers’ market and surging rents

“The market has moved to being very much more in favor of buyers over sellers now, especially in markets like Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Lawless said.

“Buyers are getting back in the driver’s seat. They have more choice, and there’s less urgency.

“But for sellers, it means they need to be much more realistic about their pricing expectations, and they should expect there’s going to be more negotiation.”

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Categories
Business

Sydney couple build $1.2m property portfolio in just three months

Sydney couple build $1.2m property portfolio in just three months

A Sydney couple, who had been priced out of upgrading their family home, have managed to create a property portfolio worth $1.2 million in the space of just three months.

Amit Kumar and his wife Astha had bought a townhouse in the Sydney suburb of Quakers Hill for $610,000 six years ago.

Despite saving hard and their family home growing in value to $780,000, the couple who have two children aged three and five, discovered Sydney’s skyrocketing property market would mean it was impossible for them to find a new property in the city.
They had discussed the idea of ​​buying other homes but were nervous.

“It was the fear of the unknown,” Mr Kumar said. “You just don’t know what to do, you don’t want to overpay, you don’t want to buy the wrong place and then have it vacant for long periods and with no tenants,” he told news.com.au .

“You don’t know where the growth is going to be and you don’t know what the projects are in certain areas and things like that.”

But the couple met with a buyer’s agent and took the plunge in April, snapping up two properties in that month alone.

The first was in Adelaide in the southern suburb of Christie Downs, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house.

They purchased it for $425,000 and it has already grown in value by approximately $60,000.

The second property was purchased in Toowoomba, Queensland – a three-bedroom house for $455,000, which has also jumped in value by $50,000.

“We were very nervous, particularly because they actually settled very close to each other… the settlement was two days apart,” he said.

“And also complicating things further was the Easter break and the Anzac Day long weekend happened as well, so it was all on short notice.

“I think at the time there was an election coming up, we didn’t know what the policies were going to be, we didn’t know what the interest rate was doing and how it’s going to affect us.”

But the gamble has paid off so far with Mr Kumar revealing they had 20 rental applications for the Adelaide house before the open home was even held.

“So we had a very large number of applications to actually choose from and we actually managed to get more than what we actually hoped to achieve in terms of rent,” he said.

“So when we bought the place, we were told $410 is a realistic expectation in terms of rent, but we actually ended up achieving $420.”

The Toowoomba home was already tenanted but Mr Kumar said it was at a significantly lower amount to the market rate.

They were told they would get $450 for the place, but after the previous tenant moved out, it was only empty for three days and then rented out for $470, he said.

Their latest buy has been in Bundaberg, a house for $387,000 snapped up in July, which is expected to rent out for $460.

All three properties were also bought sight unseen, Mr Kumar added, while the rents cover their mortgages.

The couple paid $65,000 to $70,000 for each place including stamp duty, using a 12 per cent “sweet spot” deposit recommended by their mortgage broker.

Mr Kumar, who works in sales, said the couple still plan to use their portfolio as a “stepping stone” to buy a bigger place in Sydney in the next 12 to 24 months, but they won’t stop there.

The 39-year-old never believed it would be possible to build a property portfolio but now the couple have a goal to buy eight to 10 properties in the next five to seven years.

He advised others to get into the property market as soon as they can, adding people shouldn’t be influenced by the market, but instead focus on the long-term goal of building value in their property.

“One of the things the buyer’s agent said to me and it’s just stuck out in my mind is that the earlier you buy, the sooner you buy, then the more time you’re allowing for capital growth and timing is not as critical as just getting into the market,” he said.

“Because if you buy the right property at the right price, timing is not such an important factor.

“All three properties that he’s bought for me, we’ve actually managed to get all of them under market value, so what it means is indirectly like even already now by the time we settle, we already have some equity.”

Read related topics:sydney

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