The Algorithm Age

Disgraced MMA fighter Conor McGregor could face up to ten years in prison after allegations of perjury were referred by a court to the Director of Public Prosecutions. At the Court of Appeal yesterday, Judge Isobel Kennedy said she would pass on material to the DPP concerning McGregor’s dropped allegation that Nikita Hand was assaulted by her own partner. Ms Hand, a 36-year-old mother-of-one, was awarded just under €250,000 in damages by a High Court jury last year after claiming she had been violently raped by McGregor in a Dublin hotel, fearing she would never see her children again . Earlier this year, McGregor had said he would call fresh evidence from two of Ms Hand’s former neighbours in Drimnagh, Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins, in support of his appeal against the verdict. The pair had signed sworn statements saying Ms O’Reilly had seen her being physically attacked by her partner at the time, Stephen Redmond, on December 9, 2...

A father who carried out the "honour" stabbing of his daughter for dating a man of a different faith has had his prison sentence reduced by almost four years, after a court noted the victim had since offered her forgiveness. The woman's mother and brother will also spend less time behind bars, with the Court of Appeal also granting their appeals against sentence. The trio, and other family members, were charged after a 21-year-old woman was held down and stabbed outside the Sefton Plaza Shopping Centre, in Adelaide's north, in November 2021. She was repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen with a large kitchen knife before being driven to the family home and put into the shower. The woman suffered significant internal injuries in the incident. The court had previously heard her traditional Pashtun Muslim family disapproved of her relationship with a Christian man and worked together to track her down in the lead-up to the stabbing. ...

The family of murdered Idaho college student Kaylee Goncalves has released a statement slamming the judge and prosecutors after killer Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty on Wednesday. Kohberger, 30, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the stabbing deaths of University of Idaho students Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen in their off-campus home on November 13, 2022. Kohberger entered the plea just weeks before his trial was set to begin. Latah County prosecutors offered Kohberger a plea deal earlier this week, agreeing to take the death penalty off the table if he admitted his guilt. Now, the Goncalves family says they aren’t happy with how Wednesday’s hearing went down, according to a statement released to NewsNation . The family’s statement criticized how Judge Steven Hippler started the hearing. “The plea started off with a Judge who was angry about people reaching out to him and then went further to stand on his soapbox stating nothing affects his dec...

A close associate of a slain drug kingpin avoided being killed in a police station hit job because a parking inspector spotted an illegally parked getaway car, prosecutors claim. Andre Kallita was almost gunned down outside the Day Street police station in Sydney's CBD in an alleged December 2023 plot by associates of Bilal Haouchar's Lebanon-based crime syndicate. Bilal's younger brother Omar Haouchar, 32, has been charged over the attempted murder plot. READ MORE:  Trump administration 'expressed regret' for postponing meeting with PM He's been accused of using the handle "Invisible" on the encrypted messaging app Threema to organise the plot with several others. In early 2023, a dispute arose between the Haouchar crime network and the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang over a drug debt, documents filed with the NSW Supreme Court reveal. Kallita was allegedly a member of the Comancheros and was a close associate of coc...

A second Victorian man has been charged with multiple child sexual abuse offences, including rape and bestiality, as the Allan government announces an urgent review into the childcare sector. Michael Simon Wilson, 36, is facing charges related to child abuse material, according to documents filed in the magistrates court of Victoria. Victoria police on Tuesday announced Point Cook resident Joshua Dale Brown, 26, had been charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years. The pair are known to each other, according to court documents, which do not say how they are linked. It is understood Wilson’s alleged offending is not connected to childcare facilities or any of the children alleged to be victims in the other case. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email In a statement, a spokesperson for Victoria police said detectives from the Sexual Crimes Squad have charged a man in rel...

Victorian childcare centres could be fined up to $50,000 if they do not ban their workers from carrying smartphones, as officials scramble to bolster the “failing” system amid a widening child sex abuse crisis. Premier Jacinta Allan unveiled a suite of measures to crack down on the sector after 26-year-old childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was accused of abusing eight young children inside a Melbourne childcare centre. A ban on smartphones will be enforced from September 26. If a provider does not sign up to the ban, they will have conditions added to their licence. Breaches will attract fines of up to $50,000. Phone bans are already part of a national framework used within early childhood education and care, but providers must choose to enforce the ban. “To avoid delay, we’ll be putting all Victorian childcare centres on notice. They will be required to adopt this ban on personal devices,” Allan told reporters on Wednesday. The state government...

It is 10.02am on a hazy Sunday morning in June, and a packed room of eager faces stares intently at the crime expert in front of them. ‘The number of children with murder convictions has increased 300% in eight years,’ she states. The hundreds of people – mainly women – she is speaking to, sit on neatly lined-up black chairs in a windowless presentation room within a nondescript London exhibition centre. And they barely react to the statistic; there’s every chance they were already aware . Among attendees is a teenager with a cardigan embroidered with smiley faces, an older lady with grey hair elegantly styled into a low bun, who has a notebook resting on her lap, and a middle-aged woman in a practical cream fleece. The unlikely bunch are some of the country’s most hardcore true crime enthusiasts, who have paid between £230 and £765 (the most expensive VIP ticket includes extras like bar access and time with guest speakers) to learn more about the worst parts of h...