Category: Newcastle News

A body has been found after a housefire in the Lake Macquarie region overnight.
Emergency services were called to Macquarie Street, Barnsley, after a neighbour noticed a house on fire about 11.15pm (Monday 8 April 2019).
Fire & Rescue NSW officers discovered the body after they extinguished the blaze about midnight.
Police have been told a 23-year-old man lived in the home; he has not been accounted for.
A post-mortem examination will be conducted to confirm identity of the deceased as well as the cause of death.
Due to the extensive structural damage to the building, a crime scene guard was established overnight and specialist investigators will begin their examination later this morning (Tuesday 9 March 2019).
As a consequence, the cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Inquiries are continuing.

Two men have died following a truck and car crash at Ferodale, near Port Stephens.
Emergency services were called to the intersection of the Pacific Highway and Medowie Road about 11.30am today (Tuesday 9 April 2019), after a sedan and truck collided.
The two male occupants of the car died at the scene. They haven’t yet been formally identified.
The driver of the truck wasn’t injured but has been taken to John Hunter Hospital for mandatory blood and urine testing.
Officers from Port Stephens-Hunter Police District have established a crime scene and are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner.
As inquiries into the crash continue, motorists are urged to avoid the area as significant delays are expected. Visit www.livetraffic.com for details.

Police are appealing for public information and dashcam footage as they continue to investigate the death of a man after he was hit by a truck, 17km south of Maitland, last month.
Emergency services were called to the Hunter Expressway at Buchanan about 2pm on Wednesday 27 March 2019, after a 58-year-old man was struck by a semi-trailer. He died at the scene.
The truck driver, a 42-year-old man, was taken to Maitland Hospital for mandatory testing.
Officers from Hunter Valley Police District established a crime scene and launched an investigation into the incident.
As inquiries continue, officers are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident or who may have dashcam footage from the area, particularly from the Pacific Motorway near the Wattaka Rest Stop, to come forward.
A report will be prepared for the Coroner.

Police have commenced an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a pedestrian at Newcastle overnight, after he was struck by several vehicles.
Shortly after 8.35pm on Friday 5 April 2019, emergency services were called to Maitland Road at Sandgate after reports that a pedestrian had been struck and could not be revived.
Officers from Newcastle City Police District attended and established a crime scene.
They believe a 72-year-old man walked from the medium strip in a northerly direction and was struck by an east bound vehicle.
The impact threw the man into the second lane where he was struck by three other east bound vehicles.
All drivers involved were taken to hospital for mandatory blood and urine testing.
Inquiries into the crash continue with officers to prepare a report for the Coroner.

The Parliamentary Select Committee looking into the implementation of the National Redress Scheme has released a damning unanimous report saying the scheme ‘is at serious risk of not delivering on its objective of providing justice to survivors’.
The extraordinary report, which was supported by opposition, crossbench and government members, contains 29 wide-ranging recommendations including restoring the maximum payment to $200,000 and establishing a minimum payment of $10,000 as recommended by the Royal Commission.
Federal Member for Newcastle and Deputy Chair of the committee Sharon Claydon said many failings of the scheme came from the Government ignoring the considered recommendations of the Royal Commission.
“The Royal Commission spent five years in a gruelling forensic examination of all the available evidence, providing a benchmark for best practice,” Ms Claydon said.
“Every time the Government has deviated from the Recommendations of the Royal Commission without sound evidence, it has been to the detriment of the scheme and against the interests of survivors.”
Ms Claydon said the Committee also recommended the consideration of measures to compel institutions to participate in the scheme, including the suspension of tax concessions and charitable status.
“Last month, a third of survivors who had put in applications were stuck in limbo because the institutions they were abused in still hadn’t signed up for the scheme. This is untenable,” Ms Claydon said.
“I expect every institution to sign up for redress before the deadline, but if this doesn’t happen, governments must look at every option they have at their disposal to ensure all institutions sign up.”
Ms Claydon said the level of counselling offered was another key problem identified by the Committee.
“Again, State and Federal Governments need to look to the recommendations of the Royal Commission and deliver adequate counselling services that extend over the course of a person’s life as needed, not a capped dollar value that could be exhausted in a matter of months,” Ms Claydon said.
“We offer lifelong counselling support to our veterans suffering from PTSD, as we should, so why can’t we provide the same thing to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse?”
Other recommendations of the committee include:

• Revisiting the Assessment Framework, especially the controversial Assessment Matrix
• Extending the scheme to people in prison or with criminal records
• Ceasing the indexation of past payments
• Ensuring that survivors have access to free and appropriate financial counselling services

A man has been charged after he climbed onto the roof of a Newcastle primary school and had a seven-hour stand-off with police.
About 1.15pm yesterday (Tuesday 2 April 2019), officers from the Newcastle City Police District attended a primary school on Union Street, The Junction, after reports a man had climbed onto the roof of the single-story building and refused to get down.
Police were told the man had already been escorted from school grounds but jumped over the school’s rear fence and climbed onto the roof.
The man refused police instruction to get down and instead began throwing tiles and items of clothing off the building.
The school was placed in lockdown before, after several hours, all staff and students left the school grounds.
At about 8:30pm (Tuesday 2 April 2019), the man surrendered to police and was arrested.
No one was injured during the incident.
The 43-year-old man was taken to Mater Hospital for assessment before he was taken to Newcastle Police Station where he was charged with enter inclosed land not prescribed premises without lawful excuse (three counts), destroy or damage property (two counts), and common assault.
He was refused bail to appeal at Newcastle Local Court today (Wednesday 3 April 2019).

Investigations are continuing into a home invasion in the state’s Hunter region yesterday.
Police have been told a man answered a knock at his front door on Heaton Street, Jesmond, about 10.45pm (Tuesday 2 April 2019), when two men with balaclavas forced their way into the house and demanded cash and jewellery.
The 26-year-old man was assaulted and threatened, before the two men fled the scene with cash and a credit card.
He attended John Hunter Hospital for treatment of a broken nose and facial fracture, and has since been discharged.
Officers from Newcastle City Police Area Command attended the house and established a crime scene.
As investigations continue, police are urging anyone who may have information to come forward.

Three people have been charged after a police operation in the Lake Macquarie region overnight.
The operation began about 10.30pm yesterday (Saturday 30 March 2019), when officers from Lake Macquarie Police District went to speak to a man at a home in Quarry Road, Speers Point.
When the man allegedly refused to leave the building – and made a number of threats – police established a perimeter and began negotiations.
Shortly after 8am today (Sunday 31 March 2019), the 41-year-old man was taken into custody by specialist police.
Two women, aged 40 and 29, were also arrested at the time.
The man was taken to John Hunter Hospital before being taken to Belmont Police Station and charged with detain person with intent to obtain advantage (x2), assault actual bodily harm, steal motor vehicle, take and drive conveyance without consent of owner, drive conveyance without consent of owner, use offensive weapon to prevent lawful detention, and drive whilst disqualified.
The 40-year-old woman was charged with detain person with intent to obtain advantage (x2), steal motor vehicle, and take and drive conveyance without consent of owner.
The 29-year-old woman was charged with larceny.
All three were bail refused to appear at Newcastle Local Court tomorrow (Monday 1 April 2019).