Hells Angels and Comancheros war continues

The war between the Hells Angels and Comancheros is getting out of hand.  Another bikie was shot and killed outside his house yesterday, the second murder in a week, and a house in Granville was sprayed with bullets last night. 

Thorpe Street, Abbotsbury

The kids are on holidays in Sydney and yesterday morning, at 10am a man was shot and killed outside his surburban home.  The murdered man was Ali Jammas.  He was shot several times as he tried to get into his house in Thorpe Place, Abbotsbury, near Fairfield.  Paramedics tried to revive him but he died at the scene. His brother Harry Jammas is a Hells Angel member known to police.

Last Monday night, another Hells Angel member Tyrone Lee Slemnik was shot dead outside his unit in Eastlakes.  Another victim at the address was shot in the leg.  

Hells Angel, Tyrone Slemnik

He was a stand-over man who tried to extort $2500 from a Newtown brothel owner Lucy Wong.  He and an associate Aiden Garard both pleaded guilty and were on bail, due for sentencing next week.  He was once the NSW kung-fu champion during his time as a competitive fighter.

Last night there was another drive-by shooting at 2am.  A house in Blaxcell Street, South Granville was sprayed with bullets but three women inside were not injured.

The trouble goes back to 2009 when the brother of Hells Angel Peter Zervas was bashed to death with a bollard in a brawl at Sydney airport. Comanchero national president Mahmoud Hawi was found guilty of his murder and sentenced to 21 years jail.

Comanchero national president Mahmoud  Hawi 

In February last year, Hells Angels announced on their website they had opened a "chapter" at Bondi Beach, traditionally Comanchero territory.

The Hells Angels have been actively recruiting and building up their membership and some members of another bikie gang Notorious have "patched" over to the Angels. 

 Mick Hijazi, fourth from left in sunglasses and blue jeans

As usual, with no information forthcoming from victims or relatives, police watch helplessly from the sidelines, as the war continues.

Australia versus Japan in International Court of Justice

Canadian Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

In 2008, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ignored an order from an Australian Court to end Japanese whale hunts in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under the "research whaling" loophole.  It took a long time to finally get the case heard at the ICJ at The Hague in The Netherlands, but we finally got there and Australia's case is now over and Japan will have their turn next week.

The Steve Irwin clashes with a Japanese spotter ship

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has angrily denied that the Australian government is in cahoots with controversial activists, the Sea Shepherd group.  

We realize that our government can't condone the group's actions of using every means possible, legal or not, to stop the slaughter, but we can, and do.  The Japanese told the court that we have an "alarmist crusade" against whaling and it's true, we do, and want them to stay the hell out of our ocean.

Newest ship Sam Simon

It's incredible to think the Japanese are still insisting they slaughter hundreds of whales for scientific purposes - it's such a blatant lie, it's a joke. Their lawyers argue that killing whales in the Southern Ocean is part of a legitimate scientific program to find out if whaling is sustainable.  Our Attorney-General pointed out that Japan's scientific justification "is not supported by any proper hypothesis - when you can't explain why you are killing that many whales and when you can't identify for the court what the purpose of that activity is, in a scientific sense, it's not science at all."

Paul Watson is wanted by Interpol after skipping bail last July in Germany where he was arrested on Costa Rica charges relating to a high seas confrontation over cutting the fins off hundreds of sharks in 2002.  

In March, Watson left the fleet of anti-whaling ships on their way back to Australia.  The Washington-based organization, which a US federal court labelled "pirates" said Watson had left the fleet before it reached Australia for fear of arrest.  His whereabouts is currently unknown.

The hearing continues in The Hague, presided over by 16 judges.

Bondi surfer knocked unconscious by whale

Whoosh, up he goes

Bishan Rajapakse, a 38 year old doctor from Bondi, had an unforgettable encounter last Sunday morning that he will never forget. His fellow surfer mate Chris signalled to him to paddle over to see a rare sight inside the Bondi bay - a 40 ft Right whale.

It seemed to be moving in slow motion and when it breached, surfers could see the barnacles and hear the strange noise it made as it moved slowly through the water.  As other surfers moved away, aware of what could happen, Rajapakse kept staring at it when suddenly the whale's tail smashed him in the head.  The last thing he remembers was when he said to the whale, only one metre away from him, "Hey, how's it going?"

Lifeguard Paul Martin said the whale came off the rocks on the south end of the beach.  "It ran into a group of surfers and decided to play football with one of them" he said.

Local surfer Tony Spanos said the victim was thrown about three metres into the air, knocked unconscious and lay face down in the water for about 15 seconds.  "He got heavily smashed and went straight under" Mr Spanos said.  "I dived down and grabbed him and held him up while he was unconscious - there was a guy out there with a big mal, we lifted him on and started paddling back to shore."

Bishan Rajapakse and his girlfriend

On that cold winter morning, there were only about 10 board riders, including two girls, a couple of body boarders and a handful of body surfers who all stared awestruck at the wonderful sight.  "He just kept swimming around and looking at us, he didn't want to go away, he wanted to play with us" one witness said. Someone dove under the water for a closer look and saw the whale's flippers almost dragging on the sand, it was so shallow and he was so big.

Part of the cliff walk

Joggers on the clifftop walk from Bondi to Bronte and those having breakfast at Icebergs had a fantastic view of the rare event.  "It just swam among a group of 15 guys on boards and a couple of swimmers in the middle of the bay and it looked like he was playing with them until - whoosh - up comes his tail and up go the guys" a clifftop witness said.

Icebergs

Mr Rajapaske was taken by ambulance to hospital and thoroughly checked out but went home later that day.  He was not injured and his only complaint was a bad headache.   Shortly after 12.20, the whale moved around Ben Buckler Point and headed north under escort of a police boat and three jet skis.

Insomnia on the rise in Australia

A recent Lifeline poll shows that two-thirds of Australians can't sleep at night because they are stressed out of their minds.  They are worried about work, money, health, personal relationships and thoughts about the future.

It's worse for women - 70 per cent compared to 50 per cent of men. Lifeline spokesman John Mendel tells us what we already know to be true - if we are mentally unwell, it should be treated the same as if we are physically unwell, but it's not, and never will be, because there is still a huge stigma attached to those two words - mental illness.  We don't want to think about it, or talk about it, it's something we will never admit to.

If you get desperate enough and go to the doctor for help and she prescribes anti-depressive medication for your anxiety, you better hope your boss never finds out because if she does, she'll never look at you in the same way again.  Why?  Because if you are taking anti-depressive drugs, you must be mentally ill.

Some insomniacs medicate their anxiety with alcohol after a hard day at the office. They wouldn't admit to being anxious or depressed because they don't realize that's what they are. 

Having no self-awareness or insight into what their problem/s really are, they think their insomnia is somehow linked to a rough patch they are going through but will eventually come out of, confident in their ability and self-resilience to get through it.  So they start drinking enough alcohol to get them off to sleep every night but as time goes by, the inevitable happens and they soon discover that more and more drinks are needed to achieve the one thing they crave more than anything else - a decent night's sleep.  

The anguish of lying awake all night, waiting for dawn to break through the window and knowing you have to be at work in a few hours is an experience very hard to explain to someone who drops off the moment their head hits the pillow. What's wrong with you, they wonder? If only we knew.

July 26 is Stress Down Day and Lifeline is urging workplaces to register their events encouraging people to take stock of what might be causing the stress at www.stressdown.org.au.  Lifeline: 13 11 14

Morning breakfast television is so boring

Melissa Doyle and David Koch

Perhaps the reason morning television is so boring is because we are such a small country, there's not enough happening to fill three hours of television every day.   It takes just a few minutes to talk about the real news topics of the day, so the rest of the show is bulked out with rubbish, including so-called experts chatting about inane topics nobody could care less about. 

Out of the blue, Channel 7 executives replaced Melisa Doyle from Sunrise after 11 years in the job.  The rumours were unkind to Mel, who is everyone's sweetheart - they said she had been downgraded to another position and had to take a $150,000 cut in her $700,000 salary.

Not true, says Mel, who wrote on her Facebook page "I was presented with an opportunity at the network and decided to accept it."

Eleven years is a long time to be in front of a camera, so why didn't Channel 7 see the need to replace David Koch, who reached his use-by date a long time ago.


Enter Samantha Armytage - 35 and single.  She is the new face of Sunrise and unlike Mel, is not sugary sweet. She grew up on a Snowy Mountains sheep property where her father was manager.  "We lived there for 25 years, so my whole childhood was Adaminaby and then I did year 7 and 8 in Cooma and went to boarding school in Sydney in year 9" she said.

Samantha Armytage

Most people got to know her on Weekend Sunrise with co-host Andrew O'Keefe, and she proved she has what it takes. "Mel and I have very different presenting styles, we have different personalities.  I'm probably more dry and harsh and Mel's so nice, she's amazingly nice" she said.

We can switch over to Channel 9's Today Show with Karl Stefanovic and Lisa Wilkinson and company, but Karl is so in love with himself, watching the crew continually pander to his ego, is stomach turning. 

If you're after cold hard facts with no ads and no personality, we can tune into ABC Breakfast co-hosted by Michael Rowland and Virginia Trioli.  Virginia is a keen Labor supporter and it shows.

Virginia Trioli

She had to apologise for pulling this face after seeing vision of LNP member Barnaby Joyce talking about the government's emissions trading scheme. 

Michael Rowland

Her co-host Michael Rowland is completely overshadowed by Trioli who appears to have no self-awareness of just how overpowering and aggressive she really is. 

If you're into politics, Fox is probably your best bet. They manage to dig up ex Parliamentarians from all sides who come into the studio every morning to give their insight into what's going on in Canberra, even though most of them are no longer in the loop and wouldn't really have a clue.  

The only channel that doesn't have a morning breakfast show is channel 10 who are on the verge of announcing - yes you guessed it - a new morning breakfast show.  

Mark Perry charged with vampire murder

The sad eyes of Mark Perry

Mark Adrian Perry 45, who had a $1 million reward on his head, has finally been caught and extradited to Victoria, charged over his involvement in the murder of male prostitute, Shane Chartres-Abbott, who described himself as a vampire who lived on blood to survive.  He was shot on the day he left his home to appear in court charged with the violent rape and assault of a female sex worker.  She was an ex-girlfriend of Mark Perry.

Shane Chartres-Abbott

Perry had been living as a hard-working family man in Perth for six years after he went on the run from Victoria.  Friends and associates said he was well liked and never a problem. but he seemed very depressed.

He was arrested by officers from the Briars taskforce who are keen to know if there was any police corruption involved.  The man who confessed to the murder said he had the help of police officers and named Peter Lalor and David Waters as the men who helped him.  He alleges Mr Lalor gave him the victim's address and also gave him an air-tight alibi and Mr Waters was present when the murder was discussed.  The shooter was jailed for life in 2008 after pleading guilty.

Peter Lalor

Mr Lalor and a Melbourne organized crime boss have both previously said publicly they expect to be charged but Mr Lalor told channel Seven that he welcomed the arrest as a chance to clear his name.

Chartres-Abbott was shot dead in Reservoir, a suburb of Melbourne, as he was leaving to attend court.  He was accused of leaving a female prostitute lying unconscious in a South Yarra hotel room after raping her and biting off several centimetres of her tongue.  She had black eyes, swelling to her face and neck and teeth marks on her right thigh. Police will claim that Perry was a former boyfriend of the victim who took revenge on her attacker by allegedly paying $200,000 to a hit man to kill him.  When the hit man confessed, he implicated Perry, Waters and Lalor.

 David Waters

Revenge is a strong emotion and Mark Perry must have cared very much for his ex-girlfriend to put up $200,000 to kill her abuser.  He wouldn't be there now if the shooter hadn't confessed.  He had no reason to confess, he said, because he didn't have a guilty conscience, so you have to wonder what his motivation was.

Perry will face Melbourne Magistrates Court today,

ING accountant steals $43 million

Some stories are stranger than fiction and this is one of them.  Rajina Subramaniam led two lives.  In one life she was a respectable housewife who lived with her husband in the leafy Hills District of Sydney.  In the other she was having secret sex sessions with her ING supervisor  and sometimes threesomes with him and her husband in motel rooms and in her home.  But the thing she will be remembered for is that she holds the record for stealing more money than any other woman in New South Wales history.

The judge said that while the sex was abusive in her mind, it appeared to be consensual.   She was not mentally ill, he said, but had mental disorders that needed intensive counselling because of very low self esteem, brought about in part by sexual abuse during her childhood at the hands of her grandfather and two uncles.

She was an employee of ING Holdings' Sydney office for 20 years and held the position of senior accountant for over a decade.  She started stealing gradually, over a five year period.  In 2004 she stole a modest $72,000 in 21 transactions but by 2009, she was spending money like there was no tomorrow.

She was well known to sales staff at  Paspaley, Chanel, Hugo Boss, Bulgari and Georgio Amarni.  She deposited $7.6 million into Paspaley's account, $98,452 to Chanel and $3.3 million to Bulgari.  Paspaley sold her $16 million worth of pearls.

She used her maiden name to buy seven properties - four apartments in Bondi Beach for $9.35 million and three at Kirribilli for $4.55 million. Just days before her arrest, she settled on a $3.1 million unit in the Sydney CBD.  She never lived in any of her properties, but left them empty or allowed shop assistants she had befriended to stay there.

She was exceedingly generous.  She gave one sales assistant $1.3 million to buy a house and another $245,000 for a deposit on a property.

One of the Kirribilli apartments

She pleaded guilty to 22 counts of obtaining benefits by deception and four counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime.  Police found 21 boxes under her desk, including 600 pieces of designer jewellery. Many of the boxes had never been opened. 

For some reason, she didn't use the money to pay off any of her or her husband's debts.

Subramaniam was sentenced to a maximum of 15 years jail with a minimum of seven years by District Court judge Michael Finnane but yesterday a three-judge panel of the NSW Court of Appeal  reduced her sentence to six years.  She will be eligible for parole on October 3, 2015.