Troubled footie legend Paul Gascoigne is homeless and back with Alcoholics Anonymous, he has revealed.

The 56-year-old, who has struggled with alcohol addiction and mental health issues for decades, says he is hiding out at his agent’s home.

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Desperate to get sober, Gazza admits he is now a ‘sad drunk’ who drinks ‘indoors’ instead of going out.

He told Jake Humprey’s High Performance Podcast: “People know Paul Gascoigne, but Gazza, nobody knows. Even me sometimes.

“If I’m really down, I grab a drink to cheer myself up.”

The Gateshead-born midfielder is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of his generation and played 57 times for England.

His most iconic moment came in Italia ’90, when he cried after being shown a yellow minute before England’s World Cup semi-final defeat on penalties against West Germany.

But it was after the ex-Newcastle and Rangers legend’s retirement in 2004 that his life spiraled out of control.

He explained: “The drinking side of it became more apparent when I finished playing. I don’t think I let any managers down, or the players or the fans, you know.”

Gazza’s battle with alcohol has seen him jailed or sectioned repeatedly over the years.

These include offenses of drink driving and drunk and disorderly conduct.

He entered rehab for a seventh time in 2014 for alcohol addiction and attended a £6,000-a-month clinic in Southampton.

At worst, he spent £20,000 having anti-drinking pellets put into his stomach to try to stop drinking.

In a 2021 interview, he admitted that he will “always be an alcoholic.”

Gazza’s demons have occasionally seen him seek help from Alcoholics Anonymous, which he says he recently started visiting again.

The father-of-three, who admitted violence against first wife Sheryl, now lives at the home of constable Katie Davies in Poole, Dorset.

He explained: “I called Katie in November a few years ago, crying.

“What I did to myself and other people, prison and rehab: taking cocaine off the toilet seat.”

Gascoigne says he now drinks six cups of coffee at 10am and barely watches football because he misses it too much.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing as cruel neighbors are said to have left gin bottles on Katie’s doorstep in a bid to seduce Gazza.

He added: “I think I’ll give in when I’m in a wooden box.

“Apart from that, I’ll keep fighting.”

Requests from organizers of the SThe Ydney Mardi Gras parade that police will not participate in the annual LGBTQI event after an officer was charged with murder has sparked an uproar.

Arepresenter for NSW Police confirmed on Monday evening that ‘The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras board has decided to withdraw the invitation to NSW Police to participate in this year’s event on March 2.

It would be the first year in two decades that uniformed officers have not participated in the parade, prompting comments online that the group as a whole was being punished for the alleged actions of one person.

The police lockout follows the arrest of Beaumont Lamarre-Condon, 28, a senior NSW Police officer charged with the murder of his ex-partner Channel 10 presenter Jesse Baird, 26, and his new friend Luke Davies, 29, in February. 19.

Among those who expressed disappointment at the police ban was former ABC Radio presenter and gay rights advocate Julie McCrossin AM, who said: “When someone was arrested multiple times during the early days of gay liberation in Sydney in the 1970s, cultural change and inclusivity what we were. fighting for.’

Another commenter agreed, saying, “I’m a lesbian but I feel so betrayed by my community. Why are we collectively punishing all officers for the alleged actions of one deranged gay man?”

“This anti-police sentiment has been brewing in the gay community for some time and has nothing to do with this crime,” she added.

Ms McCrossin called on the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras board to reverse their decision and allow uniformed police to participate.

“We are deeply sorry that Sydney Mardi Gras has withdrawn the invitation to the NSW Police to march with us. They have been marching for 20 years and have attended many other Mardi Gras events,” she said.

“Some of these police officers are gay and lesbian liaison officers, others are marching to demonstrate leadership and promote cultural change from within.”

She said it’great to see how mainstream organizations and government agencies have joined the Mardi Gras Parade over the years.

“This includes members of the armed forces and faith groups.

“The NSW Police marching with us is a good news story in a world where homosexuality is still a criminal offense with heavy penalties in many countries.

“Let’s hope this decision can be changed.”

Her words led to a flood of comments agreeing with her position.

“This is a horrific decision that hinders inclusion and affects the safety of the queer community,” one person said.

“While I understand the reasons behind this, I feel this is the wrong decision. The actions of one member of this organization should not take away from the good that so many others are doing,” said another.

Sky News presenter Laura Jayes said the decision seemed ‘nonsensical’.

While conservative social commentator Prue MacSween urged caution not to let anger over the alleged crime lead to division between the gay community and police.

“It is understandable that the gay and lesbian community is angry and grieving, but they should not blame the police for one person’s alleged act,” she said.

“This is not a murderous act by the police. It could have been a deranged individual who happened to have a job in those ranks, who did have access to a gun (but) this appears to be a crime of domestic violence, as tragic as that is.”

Another commenter agreed: “The organizers also need to be careful with their messaging. “I am sure they do not want to inadvertently cause the community to become hostile towards the police, who will be there to protect those attending the parade.”

However, many commentators pointed out that police are still welcome to attend the parade as individuals, but not as a group representing NSW Police.

“They are not blaming the police for one person’s alleged act, they are managing security at a large event and trying to avoid confrontation,” one person said.

“Police officers can of course still march, the only thing that is asked is that they not march in uniform.”

The Mardi Gras board said in a statement shared with the media: ‘In recent days, many have expressed concerns… about whether it can still be a space to protest, celebrate and advocate for equality, and to to honor and mourn those we have lost, given the participation of NSW Police in this year’s event.”

“Our community needs space to mourn the loss of Jesse and Luke, who before this tragedy would have been here celebrating with us at the festival.”

A Change.org petition has also appeared online calling on the board to resign over the ban.

NSW Police said in a statement: ‘While we are disappointed with this outcome, we will continue to work closely with the LGBTIQA+ community and remain committed to working with organizers to provide a safe environment for all participants. ‘

EThe advocacy group LGBTQ Domestic Violence Awareness Foundation said conversations about police participation in Mardi Gras should be kept separate from the issue of the alleged killings.

“This is, as claimed by NSW Police, a domestic and family violence crime and we must all recognize that this problem occurs at a disproportionately high rate in LGBTQ+ communities,” the report said.

“There needs to be greater attention and focus on the awareness, recognition and responses to domestic and family violence by our community, first responders, service providers and government.”

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said excluding officers from Saturday’s parade would damage the organisation’s relationship with the gay and lesbian community.

“We have been participating in Mardi Gras for 20 years and have not missed a year… it would be a real travesty if this organization were to be excluded (this year),” she told reporters earlier on Monday.

Premier Chris Minns also backed the police march, saying not doing so would be a step backwards.

“There are many LGBTQI members of the NSW Police Force who over the years, particularly senior officers who have served for decades, have challenged bias within the workforce,” he said.

“I think NSW Police taking part in the Mardi Gras parade is an important part of bringing the communities together.”

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A self-proclaimed ‘messiah’ decapitated his 68-year-old father – then held up the victim’s head in a politically-charged YouTube video blasting the federal government and the Biden administration.

Justin Mohn, 32, is in custody in Pennsylvania after his father Michael was found by his wife, beheaded, inside the home that the trio shared in the quiet Philadelphia suburb of Levittown. 

Early Wednesday, the suspect was charged with murder in the first degree, abuse of a corpse and possession of an instrument of crime with intent.

Hours before his arrest, Mohn held up what he claimed was his father’s head during a politically charged rant in which he claimed that he was the president of the United State that he posted on his YouTube channel.  

Mohn said many saw him as the messiah, and wanted him as president, while urging relatives living with federal employees to murder them. He blamed the federal government for ‘woke mobs’ and migrants he claims are destroying the United States, and ranted against ‘globalists and communists’.

The appalling 14 minute clip – which remained on YouTube for six hours after it was posted at 5:30pm, before being taken down – sees Mohn hold up his father’s head in a bloodied plastic bag, having declared: ‘Violence is the only solution to the federal government’s treason.’

He says: ‘This is the head of Mike Mohn, a federal employee of over 20 years and my father. He is now in hell for eternity as a traitor to his country.’ 

DailyMail.com has been unable to confirm whether Mike Mohn was a federal employee. Retirement age for federal employees is typically 62 years old. 

DailyMail.com has chosen to obscure the disturbing images from the clip. Officially, police have called Michael Mohn’s death as ‘suspicious.’

LevitttownNow said Mohn was arrested after 9pm ET on Tuesday, in Fort Indiana Gap in central Pennsylvania, around two hours from his last known residence, driving his father’s car. He will be taken back to Bucks County, where his father was found dead. 

Police first located his car and then arrested the suspect nearby.  

They confirmed the victim had been beheaded and that the YouTube video was part of the same investigation. 

Police were first called to the house just after 7pm on Tuesday and found a headless body in its bathroom, said Chief Joe Bartorilla of Middletown Police Department.

‘We got called to the home and officers went in and discovered the father upstairs deceased,’ he said.

‘We’re getting contacted by some people in the community that know us, and know him and his family. 

‘And we’re hearing a lot. Obviously he’s well known in the community just by the calls we’re getting.’ 

Bartorilla said he had warned the family about the video.

‘I know he has siblings. We have told (the victim’s wife) to notify them before they see the video, or the video is sent to them,’ he added.

Mohn is listed as living there with his father; his mother Denice, 63; his brother Zachary, 35, and his sister Stephanie, 38. 

His father is believed to have owned two businesses – a cleaning company, and a literacy initiative, neither of which appear to be linked to the federal government. 

The video was posted on Mohn’s YouTube channel, where he had 115 followers. There are now only four videos on the channel, which feature him singing out of tune and playing music, with a photo of his face.

In the beheading clip, he rants about taxes, declaring that the economy is ‘near destruction’ and most Americans can ‘no longer afford the American dream.’

Mohn went on to say he was offering a $1 million bounty to anyone who could kill top officials including FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Attorney General Bill Barr. 

He said there was a ‘globalist and communist’ plot against the United State, before ranting about the federal government and holding up his dad’s head in a silver bucket.

Mohn’s rant continued, addressing US postal workers, journalists, federal debt and the federal reserve, the border crisis, Antifa and the woke agenda.  

He said ‘the traitorous Biden regime’ wanted to send ‘America’s military overseas to fight for Ukraine and die in a Russian winter.’

Mohn ranted against ‘tax-evading big tech companies’ and those behind the U.S. prison system.

Mohn railed against a ‘network of evil’ he said was ‘plaguing’ America. 

He claimed to have worked as a contractor for Microsoft, and saw how the company was ‘evading billions of dollars in taxes’. He claimed he ‘whistleblew to the IRS about five years ago, but they simply looked the other way.’ 

Mohn said he had uncovered a scheme while living in Colorado, whereby the companies created ‘a constant level of unemployment, and a constant level of homelessness, and a constant level of crime, to fill up the prisons.’ 

Mohn said: ‘When I filed a complaint to the FBI of this labor racketing, they showed up at my door to threaten me with arrest.’ 

The deeply disturbed Mohn said ‘Satan wants America to fall so he can unleash his plan on the world.’

Mohn then proclaimed: ‘I and many other leaders know how to fix America, but we have to fight for it.’ 

He said many within the political parties saw him as the best candidate for president before the 2020 election – and said the former governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, and former governor of Ohio, John Kasich, would confirm his story, because their 2020 campaigns ‘were sacrificed for me’. 

Mohn said he felt he could have been ‘the first unanimously-elected candidate for both parties since George Washington.’ 

He added: ‘But I was betrayed by the FBI, the federal courts, and my own family, because there are people who believe I am the messiah. This belief that I am the messiah is why you have never heard this story on the news, because it would spread that belief.

‘I’m not saying I am the messiah, as I would never compare myself to Jesus Christ. I’m just saying, that’s why I was betrayed.’ 

And he ended by quoting the Bible at length, saying he had ‘a sacred task.’ 

Clues to Mohn’s downwards spiral are to be found in a legal battle against the United States government, with Mohn suing them for negligently providing him with a student loan which made him ‘an overeducated white man’, unable to find work.

Mohn, in a filing made shortly before Christmas, sought to blame the government for his woes. The filing was the fourth time Mohn attempted to sue, seeking $10 million in damages from the federal government – a case which has no legal grounds.

He said in the filing that he was a 2014 graduate of Pennsylvania State University, with a degree in agribusiness management.

According to his complaint, Mohn ‘began paying his monthly student loan six months later. But then Mr Mohn could not find a full-time job at some unpleaded later time. He obtained only part-time jobs.’

Mohn said he then moved to Colorado, to take a full-time job at a credit union, and later took a job with an insurance company.

But, according to his complaint, he saw ‘his work post-graduate years as ‘malemployment.”

In previous social media posts, Mohn ranted about a ‘civil war’ between him and his followers and what he calls ‘The Cult.’

In one unhinged post, he wrote: ‘Even my own family upholds this Cult belief and is willing to go to jail to prove it. Donald Trump, if this does not get fixed ASAP then you will also be in jail for the rest of your life after I sue you for everything you own – that’s not a threat that’s a promise b****.’ 

The alleged killer’s Facebook accounts appear to have been taken down as of Wednesday morning, and his name is not searchable on X. 

Mohn appears to have wanted to carve out a career as a musician.

On his YouTube page, he writes: ‘Justin Mohn released his first album, ‘The Story Of Humanity,’ in September of 2017. His second album, ‘Colofunkinrado,’ was released September of 2018. His music style is a blend of rock, funk, and hip-hop, using piano and organ as primary instruments along with explicit lyrics, drums, synthesized bass, and other synthesized instruments.’

Mohn also wrote poetry and conspiracy-laden manifestos. 

One of his books was entitled: ‘Poems I Wrote While Stoned: A Collection Of Poems’. 

Another, ‘The Punishing,’ is set in the year 2481, with Satan ruling the world.

‘After rejecting their Messiah and straying from the word of God, humanity falls under complete control of Satan and his minions – a race of artificially modified humans, who no longer call themselves Homo Sapiens, but rather, Homo Demonicus,’ the blurb reads.

Another appeared to preview his warped plan, entitled: ‘America’s Coming Bloody Revolution.’ 

Its blurb reads: ‘Similar to Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ published in 1776 which helped inspire the American Revolution, the short, easy to understand pamphlet explains why another revolution is likely in America… and how it could be successful.’ 

The heartbroken mother of slain Melbourne woman Celeste Manno claims her daughter was let down by the justice system after doing everything she could to shake off the unwanted advances of an obsessed ex-coworker. 

Celeste Manno was stabbed 23 times to death in her own bed by Luay Nader Sako on November 16, 2020, after he became enraged upon seeing a photo of her hand-in-hand with her new boyfriend Chris Ridsdale. 

Aggie Di Mauro branded Sako a ‘beast’, shouting at him from the witness box as she delivered her gut wrenching victim impact statement in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday afternoon. 

Before addressing Sako in person, a touching video was played to Justice Jane Dixon outlining Ms Di Mauro’s raw pain at not being able to save her daughter from the deranged stalker. 

Voiced over a photo montage of Ms Manno’s short life, Ms Di Mauro told the court she could not forgive herself for failing to save her daughter that awful night.

‘I’ll never forgive myself sweetie. Never. How did I not hear it? How did I not hear you? Did you scream sweetie? Did you call me? You must have. What were you thinking baby? Where was I? Why wasn’t I coming? 

‘I’m so sorry sweetie. I’m sorry I failed you. People say I couldn’t have changed the outcome. Maybe not. But I’ll never know,’ she said. 

Sako murdered Ms Manno inside her family home in Mernda, in Melbourne’s northeast, at 4.10am that morning. 

He smashed his way into her bedroom with a hammer and attacked her in her bed. 

The whole ugly incident took just two-and-a-half minutes, with Sako then driving directly to a local police station to admit what he had done. 

CCTV footage captured from cameras across the road showed the moment Sako fled the Manno property after committing his heinous crime.   

Sako had already been charged for stalking and harassing Ms Manno and had been subject to a intervention order supposedly protecting his victim at the time of her murder. 

Both Ms Manno and her mother had pleaded with Sako for him to leave her alone in the months and weeks before he struck. 

When the video was finished, Ms Di Mauro’s grief turned to rage, addressing Sako directly from the witness box where she delivered her statement to the court. 

‘Look up. Look ahead. I’m here. You gutless, gutless wonder. I hate you and the only other person I hate more than you is me,’ Ms Di Mauro told Sako. 

‘You extinguished one of the only two reasons I lived for. She was everything to me. Nothing to you. My sweety felt safe with me. I thought she was safe with me. But she wasn’t, was she? I couldn’t protect her from you.’

The pair had no idea Sako knew where she lived after enduring a year of torment by the deranged stalker.  

‘Look at me. What did you achieve? You’re such a coward, at least look at me. Is this what your family raised?’

‘You showed her. You showed me. You showed the world who you were,’ Ms Di Mauro told Sako. 

‘You called yourself a beast … you are a beast. You’re an evil, repulsive demonic beast.’ 

The court heard Sako had previously threatened to kill himself when arrested by police over his relentless stalking. 

‘You threatened to kill yourself at a train station. I felt sorry for you … God I wish you’d done it,’ Ms Di Mauro said.  

The devastated mum claimed she had told police she was afraid Sako would retaliate after he sent a three page letter pleading with her daughter to withdraw her police complaints against him.

While an intervention order saw Sako cease his harassment for three months, the peace would not last. 

‘We actually thought it was over. We thought he’d learnt his lesson,’ Ms Di Mauro said. 

‘It provided a false sense of security and that proved to be our downfall.’

Ms Di Mauro told the court she struggled to come to terms with how she could have slept through her daughter’s murder.  

‘I tortured myself for weeks trying to understand how I could have been too late. I knew how fast I ran into that room that night. So it didn’t make sense,’ she said. 

‘It wasn’t until I was finally told that the crash I went to was not the crash of him breaking in, but the crash of him leaving … I slept through the last two minutes and 39 seconds of the most horrific and crucial moments of my daughter’s life. And I was too late to protect her or be of any use to her.’

Ms Di Mauro took aim at the justice system that she claimed failed her daughter, pleading with Justice Dixon to sentence Sako to life in prison. 

One by one, Ms Manno’s loved ones complained to the court at the level of redactions that were made to their victim impact statements. 

Ms Di Mauro begged Justice Dixon not to fail her daughter. 

‘As a grieving mother I can’t accept what the justice system delivers,’ she said.

‘The expectation of the law has, that any parent is subjected to accept leniency or mercy shown to their child’s killer is unreasonable – cruel and inhumane.

‘My sweetie was failed miserably. She was failed by a flawed system, the police and she was failed by me. Something I’ll have to live with for the rest of my life because of this beast. So I’m begging you, please don’t allow Celeste to be failed by the system that already failed her all over again.’

Ms Di Mauro told the court she spent her last Sunday together with her daughter watching a movie and planning her birthday celebration just six days later. 

Ms Manno wanted a coconut cake, which her mother has since baked three times and taken to her daughter’s gravesite – having never tasted it. 

Ms Di Mauro said she had tucked her daughter into bed every night despite her age, kissing her goodnight for the last time on the night she died.

‘She didn’t know him, and she didn’t want to know him. He was a co-worker to her, nothing more … she didn’t provoke or insult him, Your Honour. Celeste had no interest in him and he couldn’t accept it,’ she told the court. 

Ms Manno had done everything expected of her in attempting to deal with Sako’s unwanted advances, she said. 

‘She didn’t provoke or insult him, Your Honour. Celeste had no interest in him and he couldn’t accept that. She wasn’t walking alone at night, she didn’t put herself in dangerous situations, she didn’t associate with the wrong crowd or make poor choices,’ Ms Di Mauro said. 

‘And she wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time. ‘We thought she was safe and sound asleep in the bed.’

Ms Manno had been murdered just hours after making an online post making her new relationship ‘Instagram official’.

Sako, 37, of Roxburgh Park, pleaded guilty to her murder in April after trying to contest the charges for years.  

The court heard Sako had bombarded Ms Manno with endless messages professing his love for her in the year before he ended her life. 

Sako had worked with her briefly at Serco’s call centre in South Morang – she was a team leader – before he was sacked. 

Ms Manno had shown kindness to Sako on his final day, walking him to his car and wishing him well before he unexpectedly kissed her on the cheek. 

The court heard Sako peppered her with creepy, lewd and menacing messages via Instagram through various accounts, concluding with a three-and-a-half-page rant in which he demanded she withdraw her police complaints against him.

‘I’m sorry but I can’t stop thinking about you. I have never felt like this about anybody in my entire life, it’s bordering along a OCD. I’m totally infatuated with you, captivated and fascinated by you. You’re all I think about,’ he wrote. 

‘After leaving you my productivity and my personal life in my new job has been impacted. This obsession with you, which is a crush, is an addictive and destructive feeling that is interfering with my ability to concentrate, deal with others and go about my daily routine.’

Sako begged Ms Manno ‘put an end to his suffering’ by being direct with him in her feelings towards him. 

His terrified victim politely responded to Sako in the hope he would leave her alone. 

‘Hi Luay, those are really sweet words and I appreciate you saying all of that to me. I’m a bit surprised to read this all as it is new to me. 

‘As much as I appreciate this, I only feel in a professional way towards you and I wish you all of the best in your new job and journey.’

But her gentle tone only seemed to make things worse, with Sako pledging to give his life just to be with her. 

‘I’m so infatuated with you that it’s now become unhealthy. I know my words don’t help me … I’m sorry for coming on strong Celeste. I’m just another rival for your affection,’ Sako wrote.  

When Ms Manno pleaded with Sako to stop messaging her, Sako became enraged. 

‘I’m truly sorry for making you feel uncomfortable. I really just wanted to speak with you and I honestly thought you were ignoring me,’ Sako responded. 

‘My impression of you has changed. You’re no different to the majority of women. I’ll remember you and this lesson for all life and I will devote every ounce of energy I have to climbing up and proving to the world that I’m somebody. 

‘That is my promise to you and my final contact with you.’

As the messages continued, Ms Manno contacted Sako directly telling him they were going to the police to report his harassment. 

While Sako stopped briefly, the respite was short lived, with Victoria’s Covid-19 lockdowns seemingly fueling his obsession, the court heard. 

Sako was later seen lurking around Ms Manno’s vehicle outside her workplace, with a court issuing an interim intervention order against Sako on July 3 that year, the court heard.

The soon-to-be killer refused to accept the order, listing the matter for a contested hearing in March the following year. 

Detectives arrested Sako in August, charging him with breaches of the order before releasing him back into the community. 

With Sako back on the loose, Ms Manno confided in her boss that she believed her days were numbered. 

‘He’s really going to kill me,’ Celeste confided in her colleague. 

Hours after going public with her secret relationship to Mr Ridsdale she would be dead. 

The court heard Sako stabbed Celeste to death in a wild frenzy, with defensive wounds found on her arms and hands as she fought for her life. 

When he was done he told cops where they could find Celeste’s body. 

‘She’s dead. Go have a look,’ he said. ‘You know what happened. It’s your fault.’

In a further cruel blow to the friends and family, Sako contested the number of times he stabbed his victim.

The move required a forensic expert to give graphic evidence in court of the way Ms Manno was killed. 

Celeste’s family has been forced to endure watching Sako cross-examine the expert on the various stab wounds he inflicted on their loved one. 

Dressed in grey prison garb and wearing dark-rimmed glasses, the twisted killer did his best impersonation of a lawyer as he questioned the doctor’s findings. 

Sako has taken issue with the doctor’s assessment of the injuries, claiming many of the wounds on Celeste’s body were caused by broken glass.  

Sako sacked his barrister Tim Marsh on the eve of the trial over the issue, maintaining he only stabbed Celeste twice. 

The hearing continues.  

Ecuadorian soldiers are rounding-up and viciously beating suspected gang members, video appears to show, as cartels paraded hostages, executed cops and declared war – plunging the South America nation into lawless chaos.

Ecuador’s president has ordered his army to ‘neutralise’ 20 drug gangs after gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and inmates executed prison guards following the escape of one of Ecuador’s most powerful narco bosses, ‘Fito’.

Gruesome footage has emerged from the country over the last two days, with gang members shown purportedly executing police officers and prison guards.

And as the military carries out its orders to crack down on the violence, another clip appeared to show an armed Ecuadorian soldier kicking a man, thought to be a suspected gangster, repeatedly in the head while in the back of a truck.

At least 10 people have been killed in a series of attacks blamed on gangs – eight in Guayaquil, and two ‘viciously murdered by armed criminals’ in the nearby town of Nobol, police said Tuesday.

Elsewhere in Ecuador, at least seven police officers were kidnapped. 

The toll could well be higher. Past gang violence in the country, particularly in prisons, has seen tens if not hundreds of people killed in single incidents.

Gangs assassinated presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in August last year and set off car bombs in front of government buildings.

However, one analyst – speaking to the Associated Press – has said Tuesday’s events marked a new peak in violence. ‘This is a turning point,’ Will Freeman, a political analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations told the news agency.

‘Depending on how the government responds, it will set the precedent for these kinds of incidents to continue, or it will use this as a catalyst and make some very necessary structural reforms so that the state can start to win its war against crime.’ 

Long a peaceful haven sandwiched between top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, Ecuador has seen violence explode in recent years as rival gangs with links to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

The nation erupted into a deadly ‘civil war’ on Tuesday when, in the port city of Guayaquil, men wearing balaclavas and waving weapons stormed a state-owned TV station during a live broadcast, taking several journalists and staff members hostage.

Elsewhere, the crazed criminals took scores of police officers hostage during their deadly rampage that saw explosions tear through Ecuador’s cities, with the mobsters declaring: ‘You declared war, you will get war’.

The gangs unleashed their fury after President Daniel Noboa on Monday declared a countrywide state of emergency and nightly curfew following the escape of Jose Adolfo Macias, aka ‘Fito’ – leader of Ecuador’s biggest gang Choneros – on Sunday. 

Harrowing video has shown gangsters holding terrified staff hostage for hours while pointing shotguns at their heads as they pleaded ‘please don’t shoot’.

Another clips showed the body of a man, said to be a police officer, lying on the side of the road in a pool of blood. He appeared to have been shot in the head.

Further terrifying footage showed three kidnapped officers sitting at the ground with a gun pointed at them as one visibly terrified policeman read a statement that read: ‘You declared war, you will get war. You declared a state of emergency. We declare police, civilians and soldiers to be the spoils of war.’ 

The statement added anyone found on the street after 11pm ‘will be executed’. 

Another video showed a group of what appeared to be prison guards being held hostage by masked inmates wielding machetes and knives, with one of the uniformed men sitting at a table, also reading a statement. The prisoners held the blades to the throats of the guards, most of whom were sat on the floor.

In response to the horrific violence, President Noboa has ordered the army to ‘neutralise’ criminal gangs after the gangsters declared war, with the violence threatening to spill over into Peru.

Admiral Jaime Vela, head of Ecuador’s Joint Command of the Armed Forces, has described gangs as terror groups and said they are ‘military objectives’.

The crisis was sparked by the escape of Adolfo ‘Fito’ Macías, 44, the leader of Los Choneros gang, from his cell in a low security prison on Sunday.

The government declared a state of emergency and nightly curfew as they launched a manhunt for the gang leader. 

In response to the state of emergency, gangs retaliated by taking police officers hostage, rampaging through a university and storming a TV studio. 

Masked men armed with pistols and bombs broke onto the set of the TC Television network during a live broadcast on Tuesday, unleashing 30 minutes of threats and terror. 

First, a man with a pistol appeared in the middle of the public TV station’s live transmission, followed by a second man with a shotgun, then a third and more. With the show’s ‘After the News’ title behind them, station employees were brought onto the set and ordered to lie down. 

Screams could be heard followed by the sound of gunshots in the terrifying footage. 

‘We are on air, so you know that you cannot play with the mafia,’ one of the assailants is heard saying. 

Hooded attackers fired gunshots during the live TC broadcast as a woman could be heard pleading: ‘Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot.’

The intruders forced terrified crew onto the ground and a person could be heard screaming as the studio lights went out but the broadcast continued.

Alina Manrique, the head of news for TC Television, was ordered to get on the floor.

‘They aimed the gun at my head,’ she said. ‘I thought about my entire life, about my two children.’

Manrique said some of the assailants ran from the studio and tried to hide when they realized they were surrounded by police.

‘I am still in shock,’ she said. ‘Everything has collapsed. – All I know is that it’s time to leave this country and go very far away.’

Police entered the studio after about 30 minutes of chaos and authorities later said that all the masked intruders had been arrested, 13 in all, and would be charged with terrorism. No one was hurt in the attack.

President Noboa, 36, who was elected last year on a pledge to fight drug-related violence, later ordered the military operations against gangs he described as ‘terrorist organisations and belligerent non-state actors.’

Afterwards, the head of the Armed Forces Joint Command said the attacks were the gangs’ reactions to the government’s moves against them.

‘They have unleashed a wave of violence to frighten the population,’ Adm. Jaime Vela told journalists, describing the attacks as ‘unprecedented’ in Ecuador’s history.

The government has said at least 30 attacks have taken place since authorities announced that Los Choneros gang leader Macías was discovered missing from his cell in a low-security prison Sunday. He was scheduled to be transferred to a maximum security facility that day.  

Ecuadorean officials on Tuesday announced that another gang leader, Fabricio Colón Pico of the Los Lobos group, had escaped from a prison in the town of Riobamba. Colón Pico was captured on Friday as part of a kidnapping investigation and has also been accused of trying to murder one of the nation’s lead prosecutors.

Authorities reported multiple explosions and cars set alight on Tuesday, including in the capital Quito, and said seven police officers had been kidnapped.

There was panic on the streets, with shops and businesses in various cities closing early and residents rushing home as face-to-face classes were suspended nationwide until Friday.

Brian Nichols, the top US diplomat for Latin America, said Washington was ‘extremely concerned’ by the violence and kidnappings, and pledged to provide assistance and ‘remain in close contact’ with Noboa’s team.

Peru on Tuesday put its border with Ecuador under a state of emergency, with the government deploying special forces to the border. 

China’s embassy and consulates in Ecuador announced on Wednesday that services to the public were suspended.

‘The reopening to the public will be announced in due course,’ the embassy said in a statement shared on Chinese social media.

Chile, Colombia and Brazil sent messages of support for Noboa on Tuesday.

A manhunt is under way for Fito, who had been serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.

The 44-year-old is believed to have escaped just hours before police arrived to conduct an inspection of the Guayaquil prison where he was held.

On Tuesday, officials said another narco boss – Los Lobos leader Fabricio Colon Pico – also escaped since his arrest last Friday for alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate Ecuador’s attorney general.

Unrest has broken out at several penitentiaries, and on Tuesday the SNAI prisons authority said 125 guards and 14 administrative officers were being held by inmates in five cities.

Unverified videos circulating on social media purported to show captives armed with knives executing at least two guards. The SNAI has not commented on the images.

The security forces in turn have sent out videos of numerous prison raids since Sunday, with hundreds of inmates amassed in courtyards in their underwear, hands on their heads.

Noboa had vowed on Monday to ‘not negotiate with terrorists nor rest until we return peace to all Ecuadorans.’

Drug violence has taken a heavy toll on the South American country since it became a key stop on the US- and Europe-bound cocaine trade.

The murder rate quadrupled from 2018 to 2022 and a record 220 tons of drugs were seized last year.

Since February 2021, clashes between prisoners have left more than 460 dead, many beheaded or burnt alive.

By David Southwell for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 06:53 EST, December 25, 2023 | Updated: 7:40 PM EST, December 25, 2023

Wild footage captured the moment two conspiracy theorists targeted a group of police officers for ‘stealing’ their car after someone allegedly refused to take a breath test.

As many as six officers swarmed to Trish and David’s home in Notting Hill, Melbourne’s east, on Friday to seize their car.

Police alleged that David had previously refused to take a breath test and asked him to hand over his keys.

However, his partner, Trish, immediately called out the police officers for “wasting” their time and asked, “when are they going to get training?”

Trish filmed the entire altercation, during which the officers were confronted with a barrage of wild accusations, including claims that they worked for an “illegal corporate government” and that law enforcement officers were protecting “pedophiles.”

“David never hit anyone, never physically touched anyone, he just refused – no, they say he refused to take a breath test,” Trish said.

After a brief back and forth conversation, one of the officers asked Trish about a “smart cities” sticker on the back of her car.

‘You don’t know smart cities? It is better to look at the municipality’s website and find out more about it. They lock everything down in a 15 minute window and you are not allowed in or out,” she told him.

“So who does that,” the officer asked.

“Your Masonic government and your councils being illegal,” Trish said.

Trish and David continued to bicker with the police, calling them “pathetic” and threatening to sue them for damage to their car.

“This is where your tax dollars go, all for a breathalyzer. This is a joke,” Trish said.

At one point she questioned why David was asked to take a breath test when he wasn’t drinking and was told by one of the officers ‘it’s the law’.

“Whose law?” she asked.

“It’s Victoria’s law,” the officer said.

Trish shot back, “Victoria, Victoria who?”

The officer replied, “The State of Victoria.”

“You mean the government, the illegal corporate government?” Trish asked.

“It’s the Road Safety Act, it’s legislation,” the officer said.

‘Road safety legislation? Leg lie,” Trish said.

The couple became more defensive when the tow truck finally arrived and Trish told the officers, “You can’t take it, that’s theft.”

“We’re not going to pay the fine to get it out, and you didn’t pay for it, the government didn’t pay for it.”

As the tow truck drove closer to their car, David stepped in front of it with his arms crossed and demanded that one of the officers hand over his “business card.”

“If I have his business card, you can do whatever you want,” he said.

Eventually the police officers got tired of reasoning with David and gave him a final warning to get off the road.

“I think it’s time to move, he’s going to drop it, okay?” So if you want to come here,” an officer said.

However, David refused to move, so three officers grabbed his arms and walked him to his lawn as he shouted “don’t touch me.”

‘Leave him alone. You’re on our property, get off,” Trish shouted.

‘Do not touch me. Touch me and I’ll put your jaw through the back of your goddamn head,” David told an officer.

The pair then began arguing with officers about the “damage” their car suffered from being towed onto the truck.

“That’s why we asked you for the keys, so they didn’t have to be towed,” an officer told them.

“Do you really think I’m stupid enough to give you the keys to my personal belongings?” David said.

“Well, now it’s more likely to be towed up than driven up,” the officer fired back.

As the car was secured to the truck, Trish yelled at officers for protecting “pedophiles” in the “illegal corporate government,” who pay police “trillions” to “protect the sex child trafficking industry.”

Police gave up on the pair and stood silently as Trish filmed the car being towed before threatening to send the footage to Victoria Governor Margaret Gardner and Prime Minister Jacinta Allan.

“Absolutely destroying David’s car, we will show that in court,” she said.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Victoria Police for comment.

The man accused of randomly stabbing two woman allegedly warned police that he was experiencing hallucination and believed he could hurt someone. 

Shaun Michaels Dunk, 30, is accused of storming into REAL Estate Agents Group in Plympton, Adelaide, on Wednesday and attacking staff with a knife, leaving Julez Seed, 38, dead.

Susan Scardigno, 50, is recovering from critical injuries at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. 

Dunk, who has been charged with once count of murder and one count of attempted murder, was released from a mental health facility on that morning.

He was also released from hospital just two days prior, despite allegedly telling police a fortnight earlier he was worried that he might hurt someone, sources told The Advertiser.

A GoFundMe has been launched by a family friend of Ms Seed to bring her family together and cover funeral costs for the mother who was ‘taken too soon’.

Dunk spent Tuesday night in the care of the Urgent Mental Health Care Centre on Grenfell Street in Adelaide’s CBD before being let out two hours before the alleged attack. 

He has also been charged with the attempted murder of Ms Seed’s co-worker, Susan Scardigno, 50, who is recovering from critical injuries at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Dunk had previously been detained under the Mental Health Act on December 5 after showing up to a police station claiming that he was experiencing hallucinations of people threatening to kill him, according to The Advertiser.

The publication reported that he approached police because he had become paranoid. 

It is believed that Dunk was delivered to the hospital several times in the weeks prior. 

The circumstances leading up to Dunk’s release on Monday from the clinic will contribute to the chief psychiatrist’s investigation into Ms Seed’s death.

He appeared via video link before the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Thursday in the same black T-shirt and beige shorts he was arrested in.

Dunk did not apply for bail and his lawyer said that there would be an application made for a mental health assessment on his client’s behalf.

He will remain in custody until March when he is due to to face the court again.

Police claim that SA Health has been releasing potentially violent and unstable patients on a ‘daily’ basis despite officers labelling them an ‘extreme risk to society’.

Officers told the publication that it was ‘an absolute failure of the system’ and a ‘never ending cycle’.

‘Why was he free?’ one asked.

‘How did the system allow this to happen?’

Ms Scardigno is now in a stable condition with a friend revealing she only sustained her injuries trying to protect Ms Seed. 

‘I am utterly devastated for Julez’ family and may she rest in peace, there is no words for this [alleged] horrific event that took place,’ the friend said.

‘I am beyond relieved like no other that Susan survived, yet I know her scars will be [forever] a reminder of her fight to save her friend.’

Ms Scardigno has worked at the agency for five years as a business development manager while Ms Seed was employed two years ago.

A friend of Ms Seed’s fiancé, Chris Smith, launched a $50,000 GoFundMe campaign to help her family cope with the loss which will cover flights and funeral expenses. 

‘Julez was taken way too soon from those who love her, especially her two beautiful girls and adoring fiancé Chris,’ family friend Matt Carr wrote. 

‘Julez’s mother, her two sisters and brother are based in the UK and are in need of some financial support to get to Adelaide as soon as possible to be with Chris and the girls at this incredibly difficult time.

‘Any help to assist in their flights to Australia, and to help Chris and the girls through a very difficult period they are facing in the coming weeks would be greatly appreciated.’

On Thursday tragic images emerged of the mother-of-two celebrating with colleagues before she was allegedly stabbed to death.

In the wake of the tragedy, close friends have paid tribute to Ms Seed, a mother of two daughters aged 12 and 18,  from Morphett Vale who got engaged Mr Smith a year ago.

‘Julez was a beautiful soul, she had a smile that lit up a room,’ close pal Cathy Black told Daily Mail Australia. ‘She was very loved. 

‘Julez and Chris were so happy together, it’s tragic. She was always happy, everyone loved her. 

‘She was a wonderful mum of two beautiful girls, one of which has just turned 18. 

‘It’s heartbreaking to think that she finally had everything she had ever wanted in life, only to be taken so tragically from the world by a senseless random act of violence that should never have happened.

‘Now a beautiful family has had their whole life torn apart….and right before Christmas. 

‘My heart breaks for her family.’

Ms Black also fondly remembered Ms Seed’s lifelong affection for cows: ‘She loved cows. Anything cow-related, she was obsessed with cows!

‘She had just found everything that she wanted – a beautiful mum, two beautiful girls, a beautiful family, home, fiance – she’d just got her dream job,’ she added tearfully.

‘And then this happens.

‘Innocent people are losing their lives and it’s not fair.’ 

Friend Amy Drummond said Ms Seed was a ‘beautiful soul’ who was ‘always positive and had so much kindness to give’.

‘She knew how to put a smile on your face and was an amazing friend and co-worker,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘She will be missed deeply and cherished forever.’ 

Photographs on social media reveal Ms Seed celebrating Melbourne Cup Day in 2021 with her real estate workmates, who described her as a ‘little diamond’ and one of the ‘happiest in our office’.

Co-worker Susan Scardigno posted the pics on Facebook and added: ‘Day out with my crew. 

‘Trifecta and Pick 4 in the bag but would have traded the win just to share this day again with this REAL Estate Agents Group.’

The images show Ms Seed happy and smiling, wearing a pink dress with black polka dots and a black fascinator as she studies the form guides ahead of the race at a local bar.

‘Such an amazing day,’ said Ms Seed in a reply to one of the pictures.

South Australia Health has now launched a review into their process after admitting the alleged killer had been treated for mental health issues just two days before the tragedy.

A spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: ‘The Chief Psychiatrist will be reviewing the circumstances around this patient’s treatment and discharge.’

Witnesses told 9News that they were helpless to do anything but could hear desperate screams when the alleged attack began.

‘I just hear some lady screaming and I listen to the door as it just crashed closed,’ one woman said.

‘To stand here and watch has been really scary and horrifying to see,’ another added.

The real estate building is located next to a supermarket car park where families were among those who watched the tragic events unfold.

Police said they had recovered a knife and a small hammer from the crime scene.

By Ollie Lewis for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 04:26 EST, December 18, 2023 | Updated: 04:26 EST, December 18, 2023

One of Australia’s top bodybuilders gets a 17-year prison sentence for selling large amounts of meth and coke – after trying to sell drugs to two cops in a rehab facility

 

 

A former policeman has broken down in tears over how a white man walked free after he sexually abused a 15-year-old Indigenous girl as she lay dead by the road.

The police officer this week appeared at a coronial inquest into the deaths of Mona Lisa Smith, 16, and Jacinta ‘Cindy’ Rose Smith, 15.

The two girls were killed in a single car crash on the Mitchell Highway at Enngonia, outside Bourke, in far north west NSW, on December 6, 1987.

The cousins had caught a lift in the Toyota HiLux ute of excavator Alexander Ian Grant in the early hours of the morning. 

Grant had been out drinking in four local pubs and had bought take-away beers. His car rolled and Mona Lisa was flung from the vehicle. 

Her body was found in a horrific state, lying in dirt metres away. The body of the other victim, Cindy, lay nearby.

Passerby Shane Baty was the first to come across the crash scene at 4am. He observed Cindy’s body lying next to Grant. 

Her blouse was covering her torso and she was naked from the waist down, with her legs together.

But when police found Cindy about 5.45am she was laid out near-naked and exposed on a tarpaulin.

Her clothing was pushed up around her neck and pulled down to her ankles, and her legs spread apart. 

To Mr Baty, Grant appeared ‘dopey’. However, he insisted the girls were alright, even though Mr Baty told them they were dead. 

Mr Baty left, leaving an ‘aggressive’ Grant to report the crash to police. 

The inquest – held this week, some 37 years after the fact, following a push from the girls’ grieving families – heard authorities didn’t challenge a story spun by Grant after the crash.

That’s despite police suspecting he had sexually assaulted Cindy while she was dead or dying from massive internal injuries beside him on the road.

One major issue at the inquest is the alleged racism toward Indigenous people in the outback NSW town in the 1980s. 

Driver was charged – but acquitted 

An uninjured Grant casually smoked a cigarette when police arrived at the crash scene.

He claimed it wasn’t him who was driving but Mona Lisa.

He then claimed that the dying Cindy had disrobed and propositioned him before she passed.

Grant was initially charged with indecently interfering with Cindy’s corpse and culpable driving causing the death of both girls.

However, at his 1990 trial, Grant’s high-powered lawyer successfully argued that Mona was driving the crashed ute.

An all-white jury acquitted him.

The charge of interfering with Cindy’s body was ‘no billed’ or withdrawn by prosecutors because of a technicality.

There were issues with the evidence in the case – with a veteran cop this week describing the police crash investigation as a ‘nightmare’.

Grant had the steering wheel of his Toyota removed from the crashed vehicle and kept it.

Police also failed to seize or properly forensically examine and analyse the car, which was left out in the elements at a local cotton facility. 

Cindy had suffered massive internal bleeding, a ruptured bladder and liver and a broken pelvis in the crash.

However, medical experts at the time could not pinpoint the exact moment of Cindy’s death.

This finding by doctors was later criticised as ‘repugnant’.

Decades after the crime, after a push by the girls’ families, their bodies were exhumed earlier this year and studied by the Forensic & Analytical Science Service at Lidcombe. 

On Friday, forensic pathologist Dr Peter Ellis said that Mona would have died ‘within minutes’ and Cindy likely died a few ‘more minutes’ later. 

Bizarre tale driver told cops 

This week’s inquest heard details the bizarre tale Grant had told police that it was Cindy who had removed her clothing.

He claimed she somehow propositioned him after she had suffered extensive injuries in the crash.

However it is believed he crawled from the passenger side door of the vehicle with Cindy and placed her on the tarpaulin, which had been covering the rear of the ute.

Dr Ellis said for Cindy that death occurred ‘in a relatively short period of time’ of the accident, meaning that Grant’s interference with Cindy must have occurred after her death.

Grant later admitted he had lied to police, but no child abuse charges were subsequently brought against Grant and he died aged about 70 in nursing home in NSW in 2017. 

The inquest also heard of serious failures by police to investigate the accident. 

Counsel assisting the inquest, Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, said ‘16 vital investigation tasks’ weren’t done by police, including no thorough photographic records of the crash scene including of the bodies in situ. 

Indeed, it was the dead girls’ Aboriginal relatives who later found Mona’s ear at the crash scene, along with the girls’ jewellery. 

A now retired crime scene investigation police officer, former senior constable John Ludewig, said when he attended the crash scene a day after the incident it was already sullied by people and vehicles.

He said that neither fingerprints nor blood tests had been taken of the car’s steering wheel or interior while still at the crash site.

He said that ‘right from the start Mr Grant was… admitted as the driver’ but that  evidence to prove who may have been behind the wheel had not been taken, nor had the crash scene been properly marked.

‘It was just a nightmare,’ he said. 

Other retired police officers and an ambulance officer have told the inquest they didn’t believe Alexander Grant’s story that he wasn’t driving and he hadn’t molested Cindy.

Mr Ludewig also said he was present when the medical examiner took swabs from Cindy’s thigh because of ‘a suspicion that someone had interfered with Cindy’.

The inquest has also heard of alleged racism or bias, and that racist words like ‘coon, gin and Abo’ could have been common language in the 1980s around regional NSW for Indigenous people. 

Outback boozing 

Grant had admitted during a police interview that on the evening in question he had downed beers at four Bourke hotels – the Oxford, the Central, the Royal and the Carriers.

Former police officer Christopher Clarke testified that he didn’t believe ‘a large majority’ of what Grant had told him following the devastating accident.

This included Grant’s claims about Cindy propositioning him after suffering catastrophic injuries which Mr Clarke said ‘does sound like rubbish’.

The officer in charge of the investigation, former detective sergeant Peter Ehsman, told the inquest he believed Grant’s story that he was not driving the vehicle and that it had been Mona.

Mr Ehsman said that it was not unusual for young, unlicensed kids to be driving’; however, he did suspect that Grant had sexually interfered with Cindy after she died, due to the position of her clothing.

Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan asked why Grant wasn’t charged, if he had suspicions he committed a serious crime.

Mr Ehsman said they had to ‘work out what charges were going to be laid’ and Grant left town for Nungan, which is 200km away, which Mr Ehsman said would be ‘safer’ for him.

Dr Dwyer asked what he meant. 

Mr Ehsman responded that because Grant had been involved in an accident involving two young Indigenous girls ‘the townspeople wouldn’t be too happy about that’.

‘I shudder to think what would have happened,’ Mr Ehsman said.

Asked about his knowledge of racial tensions in Bourke during the 1980s, Mr Ehsman claimed: ‘I never came across bad race relations when I was in Bourke.’

Veteran cop breaks down in tears 

However, Mr Ehsman’s former police partner, former detective sergeant Vaughn Reid, told the inquest that ‘if I could have laid a more serious charge for a man who killed two children I would have’.

Mr Reid, who at one point broke down in tears talking about the deaths of the two girls, agreed that Indigenous people in Bourke in the 1980s would be referred to in racist terms.

‘I don’t remember the word “coon”, I’m sure similar words were used. I’d be a fool to say no.’

Although he didn’t remember that it was Aboriginal people who had discovered Mona’s ear at the crash site, he agreed ‘that’s appalling’.

The retired officer was asked by Julie Buxton, counsel for the mothers of the girls, Dawn and June Smith, about whether the cousins could have been taken on the drive by Grant ‘against their will’.

‘With a very intoxicated man in a remote location, children found in the middle of nowhere with a drunk white man … were they taken there against their will?’ Ms Buxton asked.

Betty-Anne Edwards, who was 14 when Cindy and Mona died, wept as she testified about the last time she saw her friends alive.

She said a white man in a white HiLux ute had first offered she and another girl a lift when ‘he pulled up and opened the door and said “do you want a ride home” …. and had a six pack of VB in the front’. 

Ms Edwards said she told her friend Karen ‘to tell him no straight up. I was scared … two little 14-year-old girls’ but that Mona and Cindy had then got in the same man’s car to get a lift back home.

Instead of driving home, he had gone in the opposite direction and Mona and Cindy ‘had been laughing but then there was no more laughing’.

‘I never heard them no more … I woke up the next day. It’s sad. I’m sad for them. I should have stopped them.’

The girls got into the car around 8pm and at 10pm, Grant bought alcohol at Bourke’s Riverview Hotel, and what happened between then and their deaths 63km north of Bourke is unclear. 

Local Indigenous man Carl William Smith said he saw Mona and Cindy in the ute outside the Post Office Hotel and warned them about ‘jumping in the truck with strange white fellas. I just told them not to do that s**t’.

When he saw a white man that he believed was Alexander Grant carrying a gun, he reported it to Bourke police but ‘I was drunk … they laughed me out of the police station’. 

Julie Buxton said a post mortem on Cindy found she had a blood alcohol level of 0.22. She put it to Vaughn Reid: ‘Ever hear of white males doing untoward things with Aboriginal girls in the Bourke community then?’

Driver was dirty, dishevelled and telling lies 

Mr Reid replied he had not. He did say, however, that even if Mona had got behind the wheel of the HiLux, he still considered that Grant was driving the car.

‘Grant said he was helping the girl to change gears and telling her to slow down. Even though he wasn’t actually occupying the driver’s seat he was for all intents and purposes driving the vehicle.

‘I knew the mothers of those two young girls, my heart went out to them. I’m so sorry for their loss,’ he said, beginning to weep. ‘It’s distressing.’

However an ambulance officer who attended the crash scene at 6am on the morning in question said he believed that Grant had changed his story and was the driver.

Ronald Willoughby said he had met Constable Ken McKenzie at the scene, where Grant was uninjured and standing by smoking a cigarette. 

‘Mr Grant said “no, she was the driver” then McKenzie said to Grant “oh, now she’s the driver” (so I was) assuming he had told McKenzie he was the driver earlier,’ Mr Willoughby told the court.

McKenzie had observed Grant to smell strongly of alcohol, have bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, be unsteady on his feet and dirty and dishevelled.  

Mr Willoughby said that on the trip to hospital Grant said that ‘one of the girls was driving, but wouldn’t comment on which girl.’ 

Asked if he had doubts about the story Grant was telling, Mr Willoughby said ‘Yes, I did.

‘I knew the family pretty well at the time, knew Dawn pretty well and I knew those two girls couldn’t have known how to drive.

‘I don’t think they would have known how to drive a car.’