Former NRL star Michael Lichaa has been acquitted of domestic violence charges after his former partner refused to turn up to court and ex-teammate Adam Elliott vouched for his version of events.
The 18-month saga finally drew to a close on Friday when Mr Lichaa was found not guilty of assaulting his former partner Kara Childerhouse during a heated late-night incident at his south Sydney home.
Mr Lichaa, 29, has persistently denied assaulting his former finance and Magistrate Melissa Humphreys on Friday acquitted him of common assault and intimidation charges.
His trial before Magistrate Melissa Humphreys took a sensational twist on Thursday when Ms Childerhouse refused to turn up to Sutherland Local Court to give evidence.
Despite being subpoenaed and midway through her testimony police were unable to contact her after knocking on her door and calling her.
The court heard that she no longer wanted to take part in the proceedings and was pregnant and worried about the stress of reliving the incident.
All of her testimony which she had given up until that point was excluded though a statement, in which she retracted the allegations, was admitted into evidence.
It left the prosecution with no evidence to tend on the assault charge.
Police had alleged he was involved in an argument, which prompted concerned neighbors to call police to his Connells Point home.
The court has heard that the incident occurred after Mr Lichaa caught Ms Childerhouse performing a sexual act on his mate and former teammate Adam Elliott.
Mr Elliott told the court on Thursday that he had been drinking for 12 hours following a party at Mr Lichaa’s home.
When it was suggested that Mr Lichaa had assaulted Ms Childerhouse, he said “I disagree.”
Mr Elliott told the court that Mr Lichaa exclaimed “what the f*** are you doing?” and he went outside and walked back and forth in a heated state.
A witness previously told the court that she heard a man saying loudly “I’m going to f***ing kill her”.
His lawyer James Trevallion denied that amounted to an offense of intimidation, adding there was no evidence the words were said in her presence.
“Clearly it was a situation where there was a lot of emotion and feeling and it would be remarkable when walking up and down the street if he wasn’t yelling and screaming and emotional and upset about what had occurred,” Mr Trevallion told the court on Friday.
There are “significant” cultural issues within the Queensland Police Service (QPS) affecting how officers respond to domestic violence, the state’s most senior officer in charge of domestic violence investigations has told an inquiry.
Key points:
Assistant Commissioner Brian Codd says the majority of criticism of police cultural issues is “unchallenged”
He told the inquiry inexperience, lack of training and officer burnout were contributing to poor culture
Police data shows a major jump in strangulation cases and DVO breaches in the past five years
The commission of inquiry, which began on May 30, is examining the police response to domestic and family violence cases.
Headed by Judge Deborah Richards, it is also probing the over-representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system and the way corrupt conduct and complaints against police are handled.
The inquiry heard today from Assistant Police Commissioner Brian Codd, the head of the state’s domestic violence and vulnerable persons command, who gave his take on the evidence heard in the public hearings so far.
Counsel assisting the commission Ruth O’Gorman said the issues raised included officers avoiding DV call-outs, showing “disinterest” when attending call-outs, conducting “insufficient investigations” and misidentification of the victims and perpetrators.
“There are significant issues of police culture at play here that need to be addressed,” Assistant Commissioner Codd told the inquiry.
“We may have some members, albeit I hope very few, who do have some deeply misogynistic attitudes”
“I do accept that there are significant areas of concern that have been raised… that certainly will require us to look… beyond just isolated incidents.”
‘Pockets of issues’ around police culture
Assistant Commissioner Codd said he accepted “the majority” of evidence given relating to police culture was “unchallenged”.
“There’s very clearly in my view … pockets of issues of poor performance … behaviors and attitudes across our organization — aspects of culture that are impacting on our performance of our duty in DV,” Assistant Commissioner Codd told the inquiry.
“I certainly accept that the evidence provided has highlighted a range of concerning aspects of culture.
“It’s far from, in my humble opinion, the majority.
“But that doesn’t matter to a point, because whilst there’s still victims and people who need our help … [there’s a need for] focus and improvement.
“I do accept that there are significant areas of concern … that certainly will require us to look beyond just isolated incidents. There’s been too many consistencies in too many places.”
The inquiry heard inexperience, lack of training and officer burnout were contributing to poor police culture.(AAP: Dan Peled)
However, Assistant Commissioner Codd told the inquiry he did not believe cultural issues were “widespread” or “systemic” within the Queensland Police Service (QPS).
“I’d avoid the term ‘systemic’ because that suggests it’s absolutely through every part of our organization,” he said.
“I guess the observation I’d like to make though is the term about ‘widespread’ or ‘endemic’ that’s tied to it.
“I’m wary that almost every one of the witnesses, or certainly a number [of them,] …also made the point that it wasn’t their experience with every officer.”
He told the inquiry “a range of complex factors” were contributing to issues with police culture, including inexperience, lack of training and officer burnout.
Strangulation cases more than double in five years
Assistant Commissioner Codd also told the inquiry domestic violence strangulation had “progressively increased” from 1,060 reported occurrences in the 2016/2017 financial year to 2,145 in 2022/2023, according to QPS data.
He said domestic violence reports had also climbed from 89,458 in the 2016/2017 financial year to 138,551 in 2022/2023.
The inquiry heard breaches of domestic violence orders (DVOs) were another area of concern, increasing from 25,771 in the 2016/2017 financial year to 46,601 in 2022/2023.
“There’s been a significant increase there but, by the same token, it is perhaps a measure of us being better at identifying them,” he told the inquiry.
Assistant Commissioner Codd had previously told the inquiry in the first week of public hearings that the police service was struggling to keep up with demand, with officers spending more than 40 per cent of their time responding to domestic violence matters.
He said officers were overwhelmed and fatigued and were reporting high levels of burnout and psychological distress.
The QPS will not comment on specific issues raised during the hearings but has committed to work with the inquiry to “ensure that organizational values, standards of practice and responsibilities are being maintained and, where the opportunity arises, enhanced”.
Public hearings will continue in Brisbane tomorrow, before moving to Mount Isa for the inquiry’s final two days next week.
The inquiry will hand down its final report in October.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando police on Wednesday identified the family of five killed in a murder-suicide inside a Lake Nona home.
Investigators believe the father of the children, Donovan Michael Ramirez, 45, killed his wife — Stephanie Renee Ramirez, 39 — and their children: Alyssa Berumen, 22; Sunny Ramirez, 11; and Shelby Rose Ramirez, 7, before killing himself.
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Police said a gun was found at the scene, but the medical examiner will still have to determine the cause of each death.
Officers were called to the home Tuesday afternoon to conduct a well-being check. Police said they found the victims dead inside the home on Lake District Lane, near Moss Park Road and State Road 417.
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Neighbors told News 6 the family began renting the house about two months ago.
Police have not said what led to the killings, only calling it an act of domestic violence.
There are resources available 24 hours a day for anyone who may be a victim of domestic violence.
Harbor House of Central Florida 24-hour confidential crisis hotline: (407) 886-2856
Victim Service Center of Central Florida 24/7 helpline: (407)-500-HEAL
National Domestic Violence Hotline 24/7 and in English and Spanish: 1-800-799-7233
United Way of Central Florida 211 services: Call or text 211 for confidential domestic abuse support, and other services.
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Domestic and family violence perpetrators in Queensland are increasingly threatening to set their current and former partners alight, a new study has found, with cases spiking after the horrific 2020 murders of Hannah Clarke and her children.
The report, co-authored by UQ TC Beirne School of Law senior lecturer Joseph Lelliott and associate lecturer Rebecca Wallis, details testimonies from seven non-government domestic and family violence service providers in the state’s southeast.
Direct and implicit threats of dousing are a form of coercive control that has not been formally studied before.
But they are on the rise: one participant told the survey of 17 workers last year that abusers sent the stories of Clarke – whose three children were burned alive in their car in February 2020 by her estranged husband – and Kelly Wilkinson – who was set alight in her Gold Coast backyard last April – to their partners as a means of telling them, “That’s what I’ll do to you”.
“Anecdotally, there have been cases where perpetrators have directly referenced the cases of Hannah Clarke or Kelly Wilkinson when they make threats, saying, ‘You’re going to end up just like her’, or saying something along the lines of, ‘That’s what you’ll get’ if news about them comes on,” Dr Lelliott told news.com.au.
“It appears that media reports about these cases, and ones like them, may lead to ‘copycat’-like behaviour, but may also be used as a tool of abuse themselves.
“Some interview respondents noted that perpetrators may also, for example, leave print outs of news stories concerning Hannah Clarke and the children around the house, or send them to ex-partners.”
The majority of participants in the study reported that cases of dousing threats within their services had become more prevalent over the past two or so years. And while no empirical measures exist yet, reasons may include an increased awareness among workers, and an increased fear among victims that such threats could be part of a pattern of escalating violence leading to murder.
“People are far more aware of it and that’s why there are so many more women, I think, talking about it,” one worker noted.
“Because now they’re really fearful and they’ve seen the consequences of that kind of threat being carried out.”
Another stated that they “see a really high prevalence of these kinds of threats, absolutely”.
“Different kinds of levels, different kinds of threats, but we do,” they added.
“So what we see most commonly are threats to burn the house down, threats to burn family and friend’s houses down, that sort of thing.”
“I actually have supported a woman whose respondent actually doused himself in petrol and threatened to burn himself at their family home where their children slept. Basically, yeah, well, it scared the hell out of her anyway,” one worker said.
“So, he did not actually burn himself because she managed to call triple-zero straight away. [But] the impact on her was really profound, because the smell of the petrol lingered for months.
“The location where he didused himself was actually close to the gas tank. So, he could have just killed everyone.”
What makes these threats – both implied and explicit – particularly “insidious”, Dr Lelliott and Dr Wallis noted in their findings, is that these “behaviours could be perceived as innocuous without an understanding of the broader context of the relationship”, but “almost always” occur in the context of an escalating pattern of “serious” domestic and family violence.
“I’m finding that it’s one of many elements. It’s not ever a stand-alone,” one worker said.
“Like they don’t just threaten to burn the house down or burn somebody – most of the time it’s because there is a domestic violence order (DVO), the client has left the relationship so there’s an escalation in the violence, and therefore it does escalate to the threats of burning either the house down, themselves or the client and the children.
“But usually there’s a lot that’s happened before it actually escalates to that point.”
Another, echoing the sentiment, noted the threats are “almost always just after separation”.
“So it’s about that not accepting that the relationship is over, and going into revenge and retaliation mode,” they added.
Their severity is also amplified by the accessibility of accelerants like petrol which, unlike the purchase of a firearm, are seen as “normal” household items.
Dr Lelliott told news.com.au that the prevalence of the study’s findings indicate “that there does need to be greater awareness of dousing threats – and indeed the use of fire generally – as a form of domestic and family violence and as a pattern of coercive control”.
“Some of our findings indicate that the severity of these threats is not always recognised, particularly by police,” he said.
“This work is, of course, preliminary at this point. We will release further papers in the future.”
Two crucifixes were found in a Canterbury apartment where Saudi sisters Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead in June, a worker with access to the apartment has told the ABC.
The discovery was made after the women’s bodies were removed.
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The worker told the ABC that the crucifixes were found on the floor of one of the bedrooms.
The ABC could not independently corroborate this claim.
It’s unclear whether the discovery of the crosses was a sign that the sisters had renounced Islam and converted to Christianity or whether they were using them as a disguise.
No signs of forced entry
In June, the bodies of the women were found naked and in separate beds.
This prompted the apartment’s building manager Michael Baird to dismiss suicide as a potential cause of death.
“Two young women do not commit suicide together unless they’re doing it together. They don’t get naked, they don’t go to separate rooms, they don’t die separately,” he said.
Police say they have not yet ruled out homicide or suicide as their investigations continue.
A worker, who accessed the apartment after the police had made the grim discovery, said the sisters’ bodies were found in a state of decomposition.
Last month, tradespeople entered the apartment to replace the flooring.
One told the ABC that the apartment still “has the smell of dead bodies.”
The sisters are thought to have been dead for over a month before a sheriff was called at the behest of their landlord, as the girls were behind on rent payments. This sheriff made the discovery and called the police.
After locating the bodies, police said there were no obvious signs of injury or forced entry although they have called the deaths “unusual.”
They are waiting on the results of postmortem examinations and toxicology tests.
In a press conference last week, the NSW Police released images of the two women and published their names, as they launched a community appeal for any information about the women’s movements.
Burwood Police Station has now established Strike Force Woolbird to investigate the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
The apartment block in Canterbury in Sydney’s western suburbs where two Saudi women were found dead in June 2022. (ABC RN: Brendan Esposito)
living in fear
The ABC has confirmed that the sisters had applied for a protection visa with the Department of Home Affairs, and they had been in contact with a settlement service for refugees.
Michael Baird, a director of Sydney’s Transparent FM Building Management which manages the Canterbury apartment block, said he was aware that the young women were concerned about their safety.
In a January 2022 email sent to the site manager, younger sister Amaal asked if building management could check the security cameras as she feared someone had tampered with a recent food delivery order.
“I think the girls were very, very scared. Very afraid of something. And we’re not sure whether it was something or someone, they didn’t tell us,” Mr Baird said.
Mr Baird said his first interaction with the women had taken place earlier this yearwhen their car had been “keyed”.
“We believed that it was not a personal attack on them because they’d parked their car in an unusual position. And somebody’s obviously taken offense to it,” Mr Baird said, about the incident.
His second interaction with the women was when he organized for a plumber to visit their apartment.
“When [the plumber] came out of that unit, he said that he was concerned that there was something untoward happening in the apartment. He got a very bad vibe,” Mr Baird said.
“He was pretty shaken up. He said, ‘I’m never coming back to that apartment again’.”
Mr Baird asked the local site manager to contact the police at the time and he understood that the women had subsequently told police they were fine.
Mr Baird has not been contacted by the police for a statement.
Another building worker told the ABC that he knew that the women had noticed a man watching their apartment from across the street.
The worker, who is familiar with the building’s residents, said he’d also seen an unknown Middle Eastern man inside the building on two occasions in the months leading up to the sisters’ death.
The building worker said when he asked the man which apartment he was from, the man gave the women’s address.
‘really good people’
The sisters arrived in Australia from Saudi Arabia in 2017.
They lived in Sydney’s western suburbs for about eighteen months with their friend Rita, while they attended the local TAFE.
“[Amaal and Asra] we were just really good people. They did nothing harmful,” Rita said.
“They moved to this house because it was like closer to their TAFE. And they usually stayed up all night and only slept in the morning.”
She said the women worked in construction. They had applied for an ABN in 2018, and were registered as sole traders.
Rita said the sisters’ mother had visited Australia on one occasion.
“Their mum came here once. She didn’t like it. Then she went back to her country,” Rita said.
The young women led a discreet life. They didn’t have many visitors, apart from a man Rita believed to be Asra’s boyfriend, an “Iraqi man with a beard”.
Early in 2020, after they’d lived with Rita for about 18 months, the sisters decided to move out.
They moved into the Canterbury apartment in November 2021.
At the time of publication, Rita said the police had not interviewed her or her family.
A Home Affairs departmental spokesperson told the ABC: “The Department does not comment on individual cases.”
Since 2017, 86 women from Saudi Arabia applied for permanent protection in Australia and 75 were granted a permanent protection visa.
This story has been updated from an earlier version to clarify who found the women’s bodies.
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AK was full of life, kind hearted, and an amazing mother.
Key points:
AK’s family has remembered her as a warm, loving mother who was full of life
NT Police have been criticized for not releasing more information about the murder-suicide in which she was killed
Her sister says she doesn’t believe NT Police took her sister’s calls for help seriously
That’s how her heartbroken sisters remember the 30-year-old mother, who was allegedly killed by her partner last month, along with her 15-week-old baby, in Central Australia, north of Alice Springs.
“We loved her and we are going to miss her,” the sisters said.
Her family has given the ABC permission to share her initials and their images, in the hope that she is remembered as “more than a statistic”, and to push for systemic change.
AK’s partner’s body and a gun were also found at the scene, and Northern Territory Police have confirmed they are investigating the episode as a murder-suicide.
Police at the crime scene the day after the incident.(ABC News: Samantha Jonscher)
Speaking out for the first time since her death, AK’s family said they’re frustrated at the lack of information that has been made available to them by police.
Close in age, her three sisters said the four of them “were pretty much always together” and “very close”.
Her younger sister, Michelle, has taken custody of AK’s two surviving young children.
She said her sister was “extremely funny” and a dedicated mum, “always taking the kids on little adventures.”
Wendy, AK’s adoptive mother, remembered her as “very funny”.
“She never had a serious side and if she tried to be serious, she’d just got a look at you, and she’d burst into laughter or something… she was my scatterbrain,” she said.
“It’s a tragedy. It’s devastating. And everyone’s at a loss for words.”
The family says police have provided them with little information about the deaths. (ABC News: Samantha Jonscher)
‘We still have lots of questions’
More than two weeks on from her death, Northern Territory Police has still not responded to a number of detailed questions asked by the ABC about the incident, and AK’s family said they don’t know much more than the public.
Michelle said she had first heard about what had happened through the rumor mill, as friends and family called her to ask “if it was true.”
Detectives visited her that night and said “there was an incident that happened involving my sister and her partner,” but Michelle said police did not give her much more information than that.
In the two weeks since, their bodies have been released to the family, but police information has been thin on the ground.
AK’s little sister, Mouse, said the family had not been told if the gun was registered, if there were witnesses to the event or other key details about their sister’s alleged murder.
The broad strokes of the situation were only clarified early last week by the Police Minister, Kate Worden, who said the gun had been found in the possession of the man, revealing that he was the alleged perpetrator of the violence.
The crime happened at a property about 25 kilometers north of Alice Springs.(ABC Alice Springs: Samantha Jonscher)
Police took several more days to confirm they were investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide and that the pair were in a domestic relationship.
NT Police has only addressed the media once about the incident that left three people dead, and have declined to take any public questions.
Police ‘failed at their jobs’, family claims
According to court documents obtained by the ABC, AK’s partner was sentenced in the Northern Territory Supreme Court earlier this year, after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully causing harm to a previous partner.
He was given a nine month suspended sentence for the incident, which he would need to carry out if he committed another offense in the following two years.
AK’s family want to know how it was possible that his history of domestic violence did not alert authorities to the fact that she might have been in trouble, given they were allegedly called out to their property several times, over domestic incidents.
Mouse said the man was “really controlling,” and showed signs of coercive control.
“When we would go and sit down with her, he had to be sitting right there,” she said.
Mouse said she had also witnessed him be physically violent with AK, and one time her sister’s partner allegedly hit her.
“When I rang the police they refused to take my statement and they didn’t come and see me the next day,” she said.
AK’s family feels she was let down by police.(ABC News: Peter Garnish)
After the alleged incident, Mouse said that AK had called police who attended the house, however she said they again didn’t take a statement.
“If the police actually did take it seriously, when he hit me, he would be in jail, because he was on probation, and she and the baby would still be here,” she said.
Mouse said she felt that the police had “failed at their jobs”, because she claims they allegedly made AK feel like the perpetrator, when she called for help.
This experience is common for women across Australia and is a significant issue for Indigenous women such as AK
A 2017 Queensland analysis of 27 domestic homicides, found that almost half the women who were killed by their partner had previously been identified by police as the perpetrator on a protection order.
Nearly all of the Aboriginal women killed by their partners had been recorded by police as both perpetrators and victims.
NT Police said in a statement: “as with all homicide investigations, a review of all the circumstances surrounding the deaths includes assessment of any reported prior family violence incidents of both the deceased, and a review of the relationship history of all the parties involved” .
Police said they “appreciate there is a lot of public interest, however police must maintain the integrity of the investigation and will not comment on the details”.
‘Why is this extreme act of violence being kept quiet?’
Peta-Lee Cole-Manolis has 12 years experience working on the front line of child protection and domestic and family violence.
Peta-Lee Cole Manolis says the deaths of AK and her baby highlight flaws in the system.(ABC Alice Springs: Samantha Jonscher)
She’s been supporting AK’s family since her alleged murder, and said she was concerned by the lack of public information being made available by police.
“Why is this extreme act of violence being kept quiet?”
“Where is that information, why isn’t it being made available and why isn’t it strong, clear language being used that would hold the perpetrator to account?”
“It’s a missed opportunity to shine a light on this … and support other women experiencing similar power and control to understand they are at risk,” she said.
Ms Cole – Manolis claimed it was clear that AK was at risk of being murdered based on the standard assessment tool used across Central Australia.
“I just don’t know whether or not we are equipped, or we are spending enough time on doing these really important assessments and education and support to women experiencing violence and men who are perpetrating violence,” she said.
Larissa Ellis says information from police is crucial for raising public awareness.(ABC Alice Springs: Samantha Jonscher)
Larissa Ellis, chief executive of Women’s Safety Services of Central Australia, also called on police to release as much information as possible about what had happened because without information, the “horrific” incident of domestic violence was going unremarked by the nation.
“We’ve had at least five deaths over the last 18 months of women and children in the Northern Territory; none of them have really made national coverage, none of them have created an outcry,” she said.
The Northern Territory has the highest rates of domestic violence in the country which advocates attribute to the ongoing effects of colonization and the legacy of inter-generational trauma.
Ms Ellis said the Northern Territory “is beyond crisis”.
An Albany woman has plumbed the lowest depths and climbed high peaks in a battle with the bottle.
Key points:
Chelle Fisher battled alcohol and drug addiction from her teens
She has climbed eight mountains in eight days to raise awareness and money for a WA family violence center
Ms Fisher says hiking has helped her regain control of her life
Chelle Fisher spent 23 years struggling with drug and alcohol addiction but has now kicked those habits and this month climbed eight peaks in West Australia’s south to help people escaping domestic violence.
Ms Fisher turned to alcohol and drugs as a child after experiencing family violence.
“I go hiking every year,” the 43-year-old said.
“Part of my sobriety, or how I got sober, was basically instead of drinking that six-pack of an afternoon, I replaced that with going for a hike.”
It is now eight years since Ms Fisher had her last drink and she challenged herself to scale eight mountains in eight days to celebrate.
“I started at the age of 13,” she said.
“I started because that was my coping mechanism. I was going through a lot of family domestic violence.
“My coping was drugs and alcohol. So I battled with that addiction for 23 years.”
Some days it was more than a six-pack.
“It was half a carton and I was functioning. I was a functioning alcoholic; I started a business, I was a mum — I had to run a household,” she said.
But it couldn’t go on forever.
Chelle Fisher now uses hiking as an alternative to drinking.(Supplied: Chelle Fisher)
Starting new, healthy habits
Tired of waking up feeling like hell, Ms Fisher started to make changes.
“There’s so much that I don’t remember, which is sad. Because I got married, I had two children and I was kind of just on autopilot,” she said.
“I wasn’t really living, I was just kind of surviving.
“It was in my early 20s, probably about eight years later, that I sort of started to realise, ‘Hey, there’s got to be more to life than what I’m doing’.
“Slowly and surely, I began to creep out of the hole that I was in and find my way.”
It was July 2014 and a “mother of all hangovers” got Ms Fisher off the couch and onto the mountains.
“I was so badly hungover. It was very scary. And I just said, ‘No more’. And it was easier when I made that choice,” she said.
“And that’s when I was able to start [to] just get out and hike.”
Ms Fisher said challenging any negative thoughts helped her along her new path.
“I also had to remind myself that this was a pattern,” she said.
“It wasn’t so much that I was weak, it was just a pattern that I was playing over and over because I didn’t know anything else.
“So I had to give myself something else, which was hiking.”
Chelle Fisher has been raising funds to support other family violence survivors.(Supplied: Chelle Fisher)
Peaks raise money and awareness
Over eight days, Ms Fisher climbed eight mountains in the Great Southern. She started with Mt Hallowell near Denmark and finished with Mt Frankland near Walpole.
But it was Nancy Peak in the Porongurus on a wet and windy day that presented her biggest challenge.
“Honestly, I don’t usually get scared when I’m out exploring the outdoors but I was scared,” she said.
“What I didn’t account for was the wind gusts. Seriously, the wind gusts were like 30- to 40-kilometre winds.
“I was frozen at one point because I felt that if I moved it may blow me off the mountain.”
Ms Fisher survived to tell the tale and completed her challenge to raise funds for Albany’s Family Domestic Violence Action Group.
“I just feel that I’m giving something back to an organization who can potentially help someone so they can avoid going down the path I did,” she said.
Chelle Fisher has been sober for several years thanks to scenic hiking trails.(Suppledi: Chelle Fisher)
