Tuesday 31 January 2006

Barrel murders: third person hunted, The Australian, 31 January, 2006.

Barrel murders: third person hunted: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Dan Box, John Stapleton. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 Jan 2006: 5.
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Mr [Stacey Lea-Caton] arrived alone at Nowra police station about 2.30am on Sunday and was later taken into custody. Acting on information he provided, homicide detectives arrived at the pair's house on Calymea Street at about 5.30am, where Mr Lea-Caton had arranged to meet Ms Snibson later that morning.
The two bodies were found after a triple-0 call was made to Tomerong Rural Fire Service about 11am on Sunday, hours after Ms Snibson and Mr Lea-Caton were taken into custody. It is not yet known who made the call.
"I think he (Lea-Caton) was her boyfriend but we can't think about the murder. It's a mystery. We don't know anything about where her kids are. We just want to know where they are," Ms [Frida Conaty] said Ms Snibson and Mr Lea-Caton were remanded in custody to appear in Nowra Local Court on April 10.
POLICE are searching for at least one more person allegedly involved in the murders of a well-known couple whose bodies were found burning in barrels on the south coast of NSW at the weekend.
Mother of two Kim Leanne Snibson, 36, and Stacey Lea-Caton, 27, appeared in Nowra Local Court yesterday. Both have been charged with two counts of murder. They did not apply for bail.
Magistrate Doug Dick ordered the names of their victims not to be published until they were formally identified.
The corpses, believed to have been carried to the nearby Tomerong State Forest in a ute, had been crammed into two 200-litre drums and set on fire. The grisly scene was discovered at midday on Sunday when volunteer firefighters were called to a small bushfire.
Neighbours of the pair, who lived at the same address, said a third person was seen at the house where the accused lived on Saturday afternoon, the day the murders took place.
A burnt-out vehicle fitting the description of the utility he was driving was recovered by police about 10km from where the bodies were found. Tearful neighbours expressed horror at the incident.
A friend of the murder victims, Helen Kuiper, told the Seven Network that "everybody is phoning and nobody can believe it, such a horrible thing that happened, so gruesome".
She said the murdered couple's 11-year-old son, who is believed to have spent the night alone at his parents' house before being collected by relatives, still didn't know what had happened.
Mr Lea-Caton arrived alone at Nowra police station about 2.30am on Sunday and was later taken into custody. Acting on information he provided, homicide detectives arrived at the pair's house on Calymea Street at about 5.30am, where Mr Lea-Caton had arranged to meet Ms Snibson later that morning.
Residents said there was a party at the house during the previous afternoon, with music loud enough to rattle windows in the houses opposite.
Waking neighbours and asking them to leave their homes, police lay in wait for Ms Snibson and took her into custody about 8.10am on Sunday.
The two bodies were found after a triple-0 call was made to Tomerong Rural Fire Service about 11am on Sunday, hours after Ms Snibson and Mr Lea-Caton were taken into custody. It is not yet known who made the call.
After a full day of questioning at Nowra police station, both were charged with two counts of murder at 1.40am yesterday.
One neighbour, who also asked not to be identified, said Mr Lea- Caton had been renting the house from Ms Snibson since she moved out about a month before.
"She arranged with Stacey to come back and pick up the animals and that was when the police were waiting for her," the neighbour said.
Another neighbour, Frida Conaty, said Ms Snibson had lived at the house with her husband Paul and two daughters since she inherited it in April 2003.
Last October, Ms Snibson, who used to visit regularly, said she was separating from her husband, Ms Conaty said.
"I think he (Lea-Caton) was her boyfriend but we can't think about the murder. It's a mystery. We don't know anything about where her kids are. We just want to know where they are," Ms Conaty said Ms Snibson and Mr Lea-Caton were remanded in custody to appear in Nowra Local Court on April 10.
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Corby linked to 'drug trafficker', The Australian, 31 January, 2006.

Corby linked to `drug trafficker': [2 All-round First Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 Jan 2006: 3.
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The man, who could not be named for legal reasons, owned a property off the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane next door to a property owned by Corby's father, Michael Corby.
The man was raided one month before Schapelle Corby's ill-fated trip to Bali, where she is serving a 20-year sentence for importing 4.1kg of marijuana found in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag inside a bodyboard cover.
Such a DNA test could have ruled out any connection between the marijuana in Corby's bodyboard bag and the marijuana found on the property next door to her father's property.

THE father of Schapelle Corby had a close friendship dating back many years with a man recently charged with growing commercial quantities of hydroponic marijuana sold in sealed plastic bags.
The man, who could not be named for legal reasons, owned a property off the Bruce Highway north of Brisbane next door to a property owned by Corby's father, Michael Corby.
The man was raided one month before Schapelle Corby's ill-fated trip to Bali, where she is serving a 20-year sentence for importing 4.1kg of marijuana found in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag inside a bodyboard cover.
The ABC's 7.30 Report claimed last night that Corby's Bali lawyers had rejected an offer from the Australian Federal Police to DNA-test the bag and themarijuana, after police had told them the results would be reported to the Bali police.
Such a DNA test could have ruled out any connection between the marijuana in Corby's bodyboard bag and the marijuana found on the property next door to her father's property.
Police are reported to have seized 5kg of hydroponic marijuana in plastic bags from the man's sophisticated operation.
The program said that while the close relationship between the two men was not evidence that the Corby family had ever had any involvement with the drug trade, it opened up further possible lines of investigation.
The family have consistently claimed they are not involved in drugs, and continually protested Schapelle Corby's innocence.
Her 18-year-old half-brother, James Kisina, faced court earlier this month over his alleged involvement in a violent home invasion during which a couple was attacked with an iron bar and menaced with a machete before a large quantity of cannabis and cash was stolen.
Police alleged the stolen drugs and money were later found at the Loganlea home of his and Corby's mother, Rosleigh Rose. The house is owned by Michael Corby.
Mr Corby and the charged man, whom the program referred to as "Tony", lived near each other and also worked together in the western Queensland mining town of Middleton in the early 1990s.
A neighbour of the two men said they were friendly and "associated with each other all the time".
In 1996, Tony bought a grazing property 500km to the south, and two years later Mr Corby bought a property next door.
Mr Corby later moved to the Gold Coast to be close to his family after discovering he had cancer. He has previously admitted to being caught with a small amount of cannabis during the 1970s, which he said "wasn't mine".
Queensland police refused to comment on the connection between Mr Corby and the man charged with trafficking.

 Also published in the Sunday Mail.

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Monday 30 January 2006

Tear time as school bells toll for wee ones, The Australian, 30 January, 2006.

Tear time as school bells toll for wee ones: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 30 Jan 2006: 6.
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With some variations across the school systems, students from South Australia return today, Victoria, NSW and the Northern Territory return tomorrow, Western Australia on Wednesday and the ACT on Friday.
Ellena Peach, 5, starts kindergarten on Wednesday at Balgowlah Heights Public School on the northern beaches of Sydney.
Her mother, Helen, said the children were being introduced into the class at 10-minute intervals through the day, with Ellena scheduled at 11.10am, so theyoungsters wouldn't be overwhelmed by all starting off in a large class at one time. "I think I'm going to cry when she goes, she's the first of my three kids to go to school," Ms Peach said.
THERE will be tears over breakfast this week as children head off to school, with some parents expecting to be more upset than their children.
A new generation of very nervous and very excited children are heading off to "big school" for the first time.
Children in Tasmania don't have to go back until mid-February, and Queensland's kids have been back since the beginning of last week.
But, with some variations across the school systems, students from South Australia return today, Victoria, NSW and the Northern Territory return tomorrow, Western Australia on Wednesday and the ACT on Friday.
Ellena Peach, 5, starts kindergarten on Wednesday at Balgowlah Heights Public School on the northern beaches of Sydney.
Her mother, Helen, said the children were being introduced into the class at 10-minute intervals through the day, with Ellena scheduled at 11.10am, so theyoungsters wouldn't be overwhelmed by all starting off in a large class at one time. "I think I'm going to cry when she goes, she's the first of my three kids to go to school," Ms Peach said.
"There will be seven of us doting parents and grandparents dropping her off at school. It's a big event."
Nigel Peach said his daughter was enormously pleased about starting school.
"She's excited but there's a balance of apprehension," he said. "I remember from my own days, starting school is the beginning of a fantastic adventure through life; but the access to facilities and the education system is far more advanced than when we started."
All nervous Ellena would say yesterday when asked how she felt was: "I don't know."
The education sector faces numerous challenges this year, including continuing tensions over government funding of public and private sectors and demands over teacher pay rates.
The Victorian Government has announced a controversial proposal under which school infrastructure would be funded by the private sector.
Victorian Education Department secretary Grant Hehir will meet officials of the Australian Education Union's Victorian branch this week to discuss the plan.
A furore has also erupted in NSW over the $50 cheque received by all parents of the state's 1.1 million school students, at a cost of $56 million.
Critics say the scheme is cheap "vote-buying", has not kept pace with inflation and is inequitable because it is handed out to rich and poor families alike.
NEW YEAR
Date pupils return to school
Qld ...... January 23
SA ...... January 30
Vic ...... January 31
NT ....... January 31
NSW ... January 31#
WA ..... February 1
ACT ..... February 6*
............. February 7+
Tas ...... February 16
# Far-west NSW pupils start Feb 7
* New students
+ All students
Note: Check with individual schools for alternative dates
Source: Education departments
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Monday 2 January 2006

Petrol prices The Australian 9 June 2006

JUNE 9:
John Stapleton
Just like everybody else in the country, mum-to-be Belinda Jones, 25, is confused and frustrated by the ever-spiralling price of petrol. Record highs were recorded yesterday ahead of the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
The ever increasing cost of petrol and its flow on effects are impacting on Mrs Jones weekly budget, on her ability to see relatives, and on her ability to take weekend trips away with her husband, something she once loved doing.
``Petrol prices are something that is getting everybody angry and no body feels anything is being done to make it better,'' she said yesterday after spending $80 to fill up the tank.
``All we see is it going up and up and up. I feel for the attendants in the petrol stations, they must be copping a lot of grief. Everyone I know thinks the price of petrol is outrageous.
``You wonder where it is going to stop, how ridiculous is it going to get, and that worries people a lot.
``In the past you could never conceive of paying $2 a litre, but now that seems feasible; and how are people going to afford that?''
Mrs Jones said the price of petrol had doubled since she got her licence 7 years ago, far outstripping the price rise of anything else. ``I think what everyone else think, it is ridiculous,'' she said. ``It is a disgrace that the price has gone up for the long weekend. People on tight budgets, and anyone with kids is on a tight budget, are being squeezed.''
Mrs Jones said like many other working couples she and her husband needed two cars and many of her friends in similar situations had already been forced to compromise by getting rid of one of their vehicles.
But as a nurse and nanny working three different jobs, she really needed a car to get around. As well, the impending birth of her child meant that they would soon be going to one income, making their budget considerably tighter.
``We used to like going on day trips all the time, but now we really think of the petrol cost before thinking of going anywhere,' she said. ``If we go up to the Central Coast on the weekend to visit relatives for instance, which a lot of Sydney people do, we're thinking about the cost all the time.
``In Sydney it doesn't help that the traffic is so hopeless. I get 16 litres for a 100 k's because the traffic is so bad.''
She said their 3-year-old Commodore station-wagon was not the most fuel-efficient vehicle, but with two large dogs and a child on the way they needed it for their lifestyle.
``We're driving down to Melbourne after the baby's born in November to show him or her off to our relatives, and the cost of petrol is a real consideration in that,'' she said. ``If we fly down now my father complains it costs too much to pick us up from the airport.''
She said for people with young children, and particularly for herself with her first baby on the way, seeing relatives, particularly the child's grandparents, was very important. ``It is impacting on people's ability to see their families,'' she said.
The average price of petrol in Sydney yesterday was 144.7 cents per litre, more than 36 cents higher than in June last year.
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