Barry and Patrick Lyttle return to Ireland

Barry and Patrick Lyttle from Northern Ireland were on holiday with their father.  The boys went drinking at Kings Cross and in the early hours of January 3, they started to argue outside a nightclub. Barry hit his brother just once and he fell to the ground unconscious.  He was rushed to hospital and placed on life support and remained in a coma for six days.

Barry Lyttle at the scene

Barry was arrested and when he got to jail, he was told by other inmates about our 'coward's one punch law' that can send a perpetrator to jail for a very long time. He was justifiably terrified.

However, he was let out on bail to be by his brother's bedside and has just received a suspended sentence and allowed to go home.

During the judicial process and when Patrick was finally released from hospital, the brothers stood together and Patrick asked the court to show leniency to his brother.  And it did.  In return, they both promised to speak to young people in Ireland about the consequences of violence.

The law was very kind to this family and Barry is a very lucky man indeed, not only because he's free to return home to Ireland but because his brother Patrick has forgiven him.  He will have to live with the brain injury he gave him for the rest of his life.

Patrick and his girlfriend 

Their father called the incident an "accident" but I don't buy it. You don't accidentally punch someone into unconsciousness by accident, it's a deliberate action, drunk or sober.

And because our love affair with the Irish people knows no bounds, this family should count their lucky stars.

Dr Adam Cobb arrested on child porn charges

Adam Cobb

Dr Adam Cobb had a distinguished career and the world at his feet.  He took up the position last year of professor and director of the 130 year old US Naval War College in Rhode Island.

Educated at the University of Sydney, Australian National University and University of Cambridge, Cobb built a reputation as a leading military thinker.

He has been arrested in America for uploading child pornography to Tumblr and is currently discussing a plea deal with prosecutors. Considered to be a flight risk, his bail application was rejected.

In January, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children discovered Cobb's internet connection at his Portsmouth home was the origin of unspeakable images of children being raped and his laptops, mobiles and videos were seized.

Cobb worked on the 1999/2000 East Timor crisis with Major General Cosgrove who gave him a glowing reference.

In Australia he was special director, strategic policy with the RAAF, senior defense advisor for the Australian Parliament, an Australian Parliamentary Fellow and Research Fellow at Australian National University's strategic and defence studies centre.  He has also worked at the Australian Embassy in Washington and was on the staff of former speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

Christopher Wheeler

Last Friday, another prominent figure, the former headmaster of an elite Delaware prep school, Christopher Wheeler was sentenced to 50 years in prison for the same offence - possessing child pornography.

When a judge denied his wish to suppress evidence, he waived his right to a trial by jury and rejected a plea bargain which could have resulted in him receiving just four years.

This case must be foremost in Cobb's mind, a reminder that rejecting a plea bargain can result in a lifetime behind bars.

These two men managed to climb to the top of their career hiding a dark secret but now their families, colleagues and friends finally understand who they really are. 

British drug mule Lindsay Saniford

British drug mule Lindsay Saniford 58, who is on death row in Bali, has accepted her fate and is expecting to be next in line for the firing squad after Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The 58 year old broke down in tears when she learned that her close friend Andrew Chan will meet his death by firing squad within days. She said he helped her cope with jail when she was sentenced two years ago.

Saniford admitted smuggling cocaine worth 1.6 million pounds from Bangkok to Bali in 2012 and even though she took part in a police sting that led to the arrest of the syndicate leaders, her death sentence still stands.

Alys Harahap

British drug lord Julian Ponder 43 who refers to himself as Bali's Mr Big, was cleared of smuggling but convicted of possessing 23g of cocaine and is serving six years in Bali.

In an interview from his prison cell, he said he had fallen in love with Alys Harahap, a British woman married to an Indonesian.  She held the important position of vice-consul and was Britain's top diplomat in Bali. Ponder said she would visit him in Kerobokan prison and was ready to leave her husband to be with him.

After their affair become known, Harahap was sacked which leaves Saniford without the diplomatic support she is entitled to.

Ponder boasted about how he conducted the affair with Cambridge-education Harahap and knew the fallout would impact on the other prisoners who relied on her to help them.

Julian Ponder

As a consequence of the affair, Saniford has been refused funding for an appeal against her sentence by the British government.  A website and Facebook page launched in her name has only raised around $1000 and she needs tens of thousands more to proceed with a legal challenge.

Unlike our Australian government, who have knocked themselves out trying to save Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, the British government seem to have deserted Lindsay Saniford.

Mohammed Ali Malek appears in court

Mahmud Birhit (left) and Mohammed Ali Malek

Mohammed Ali Malek was just a lowly deckhand on a fishing boat earning peanuts before he saw the opportunity of a lifetime - to take charge of a boat of human cargo looking for a better life in Europe. But it all went horribly wrong - 800 people died after being crammed into his 66 ft boat.

And he was ruthless.  Before leaving Libya, he's accused of using brute force to squeeze as many people as possible into the hold, and then locking them in.

Yesterday he appeared in court for the first time in Catania, Sicily, where he faces charges of multiple manslaughter.  His crewmate, Mahmud Birhit, a 26 year old Syrian is accused of aiding illegal immigration.

Malek lived in a run-down part of Sfax with his mother and brother and no one in the town is owning up to being his relative.  He is not married.

Fishing trawler captain Radwen Atitallah said Malek was hopelessly under-qualified to take charge of any ship, let alone one carrying so many people.  But he was poor and when traffickers offered him more money than he ever dreamed of, he jumped at the chance.

The people smugglers prowl the busy docks of Sfax, North Africa's biggest fishing port and not only find willing 'captains' to man the ships but also thousands of potential customers.

So where does this leave Europe?  Are they expected to welcome the whole world with open arms? 

Apparently not.  Only 5,000 resettlement places across Europe will be offered to refugees after an emergency crisis meeting was set up this week by EU leaders in Brussels.  The majority will be sent back as irregular migrants under a new programme set up by the EU's border agency Frontex.

Meanwhile, the human trafficking continues and many more lives will be lost.

Disgraced Queensland MP Billy Gordon

Queensland Premier

You have to hand it to the newly elected Labor Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for doing the right thing.  When indigenous MP Billy Gordon won the seat of Cook and his criminal record was discovered, she kicked him out of the Labor party and he is now an Independent.

Nobody bothered to do a background check on him and it defies logic that he thought his past would never catch up with him.  But he's not having it.

"The Premier has previously requested that the Police Commissioner investigate whether I have transgressed any law and that process should be allowed to continue its natural course" he said. "Any other attempt to remove me from Parliament and force me to resign is a denial of natural justice."

Billy Gordon MP

But if Gordon does quit, there will have to be a bi-election in his far north Queensland seat of Cook and Labor only has enough seats to form a minority government with the support of Independent MP Peter Wellington.

So what has our esteemed Queensland MP been up to?

Breaking and entering and stealing in 1987 in Innisfail

Breaking and entering with intent, attempting breaking and entering and stealing in 1990 in Atherton

Breach of probation in 1992 in Atherton

Public nuisance in 1996 in Normanton and breach of bail conditions in 1999

Driver's licence suspened for unlicensed driving in 2004 and 2008

and the one that says it all -

Served with an Apprehended Violence Order in 2008 by his mother

But it gets worse.

        

 Last night Billy's ex partner and mother of his two children Kristy Peckham, said on A Current Affair that she suffered years of abuse at his hands and feared he would one day kill her.

When she wrote to the Premier and told her what sort of man she had representing the Labor Party - a brutal monster -  he denied everything, and still does.

He kept her prisoner in the home but with the help of her friend Heidi, she escaped.  Heidi said she arrived at the house one day to find he had cut up Kristy's clothes, smashed all her jewellery and cut the phone line.

This situation is embarrassing to say the least.  What would the world think of a country who allows a man to be preselected for office without first checking if he had a squeaky clean background.

Does the Labor Party expect us to believe that Billy was the best man for the job?  I think we all know why he was selected.

In every photo I've seen of Mr Gordon, he's smiling, and why wouldn't he, he's struck gold.  He's digging his toes in and ain't going anywhere.

William Tyrell suspect arrested

There is something very odd about this case.  When 3 year old William suddenly disappeared, you would expect to see the distraught parents pleading for his return but instead, after a long delay "friends of the family" were the ones to speak on their behalf.

Unconfirmed rumours emerged on Facebook about William's family history, they said it  was "complicated" and he could have been in the care of foster parents. 

Then we learn that the NSW Family and Community Services questioned Bill Spedding and his wife about the treatment of children in their care and three children were subsequently removed from their home shortly after.

In January, police did a thorough search of Spedding's property, they dug up his front lawn and drained a septic tank.  They also seized a computer and a mattress at his pawn shop/loans office in Laurieton. But nothing happened.

Then out of the blue yesterday, 22nd April 2015, a female relative of Spedding's made a statement to police and within an hour, they went to his home and arrested him.

He's been charged with five counts of sexual intercourse and two counts of common assault involving two little girls, aged 3 and 6.
The alleged offences were committed in Sydney in the 1980's.
But let's call it for what it really is - he's been accused of child rape.

Police have made it clear that these offences have nothing to do with the William Tyrell case.

Refugee exodus to Italy

A fishing boat from Tunisia in north Africa arrives on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Mohammed Ali Malek was charged with multiple manslaughter when he arrived in Malta on an Italian rescue ship with 24 dead migrants who drowned under his control.  It's alleged that he crashed into the ship which had come to rescue him.  His accomplice, a 26 year old Syrian, has also been arrested.

Nine hundred souls drowned under his watch and a dozen survivors are being closely guarded as they become the most important witnesses in an official criminal investigation into the wreck of their boat.

Mohammed Ali Malek biting his nails

.

So far, there have been around 200,000 refugees who have made it safety to Italy, most of them rescued by the Italian Navy and Coastguard.  But with little respect for human life, there are plenty more people smugglers just like Mohammed already on their way.

A little time later, Mohammed is seen here grinning and sharing conversation with some of the survivors.

Italy's long coastline makes it one of EU's main targets for migrants and because of sheer stupidity and political correctness by the Italian government, once landed, refugees are free to go anywhere they want, and  most have their sights set on London.

In another incident, almost 1,000 illegal immigrants landed safely in Italy after threatening to throw their babies into the sea if their ship was turned back.

The 240ft Monica had been spotted in international waters during the night and when Italian coastguard boats drew alongside, the crews were shocked to see men and women on board begin to dangle their babies over the side.

"They were hanging them over the side and told the coastguards not to come any closer or they would let them go.  Our men had never seen anything like it.  They only calmed down and let us aboard when we assured them they were in Italian waters and would not be taken back to where they sailed from" a coastguard spokesman said.

The ship was towed to the Sicilian port of Catania, where 400 men, 200 women and 361 children were taken to Red Cross shelters.

Australians understand the people smuggling business very well because we suffered the same problem for years under the Labor government.  And that's one of the reasons Tony Abbott came to power - he promised to "stop the boats" and he did, saving the country millions of dollars.

And he knew that the only way to do it was to get tough and change the policy.  Nobody who sets foot on Australian soil arriving by boat will ever be allowed to settle in Australia but will be sent to another country that doesn't have the same vibrant welfare system, like Papua New Guinea.

Once they realize their fate, these "economic refugees" are then given the opportunity to return home to where they came from.

I believe Britain is about to go to the polls and hope they vote for the man who promises to fix the problem.