As it happened: WA news on Thursday, July 24

Perth grandmother Donna Nelson will learn in September whether an attempt to appeal her drug-smuggling conviction in Japan has been successful.

A raft of new evidence was rejected by a Japanese court this afternoon, including the report of Australian cyber and romance scam expert Professor Monica Witty, who analysed exchanges between Nelson and her online lover known as “Kelly”.

A sketch of Donna Nelson in court during the trial.Credit: Yoshitaka Enomoto

In rejecting Witty’s analysis, the judge said there was “no compelling reason” for it to be included in the appeal.

Nelson, 59, was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $10,000 last year after being found guilty of drug trafficking.

She had been caught at Narita airport in January 2023 with a suitcase carrying about two kilograms of methamphetamine, but has maintained that she was the victim of a Nigerian love scam, and that “Kelly” had arranged for her to bring the suitcase from Laos.

Nelson’s family had travelled to Japan for the latest appeal hearing.

The Tokyo High Court will hand down its final judgment on September 25.

We’re bringing our blog to a close for the day, thank you for joining us.

Before we go, a report from 9News Perth journalist Yvonne Ardley, who reveals WA’s hard border closures caused more young children to be hospitalised with common viruses like the cold or flu, than pre-pandemic, according to one of Perth’s top paediatricians.

University of Western Australia’s head of paediatrics, Professor Peter Richmond, says the state’s COVID lockdowns meant viruses like influenza and RSV weren’t circulating in the community, creating an immunity gap in young children.

Yvonne has her own experience to draw on, too.

“As I sat in a Perth doctor’s surgery with my young son in 2022, I had no idea how serious his condition was,” she writes.

“And it turns out, we’re not alone.”

Read her full opinion piece here.

Thank you again for tuning in today. We’ll see you back here tomorrow for more news you need to know.

Perth grandmother Donna Nelson will learn in September whether an attempt to appeal her drug-smuggling conviction in Japan has been successful.

A raft of new evidence was rejected by a Japanese court this afternoon, including the report of Australian cyber and romance scam expert Professor Monica Witty, who analysed exchanges between Nelson and her online lover known as “Kelly”.

A sketch of Donna Nelson in court during the trial.Credit: Yoshitaka Enomoto

In rejecting Witty’s analysis, the judge said there was “no compelling reason” for it to be included in the appeal.

Nelson, 59, was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $10,000 last year after being found guilty of drug trafficking.

She had been caught at Narita airport in January 2023 with a suitcase carrying about two kilograms of methamphetamine, but has maintained that she was the victim of a Nigerian love scam, and that “Kelly” had arranged for her to bring the suitcase from Laos.

Nelson’s family had travelled to Japan for the latest appeal hearing.

The Tokyo High Court will hand down its final judgment on September 25.

Former Nedlands Mayor Fiona Argyle has spoken out after the council was dismissed by Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley over “disunity and dysfunction”.

Former City of Nedlands mayor Fiona Argyle.Credit: Facebook

Argyle posted to her Instagram page after a press conference on Wednesday where Beazley announced the three commissioners who would take charge of the city.

The former mayor laid the blame at the feet for the four councillors who quit en masse earlier this month, triggering the government intervention.

She then repeated a statement that she posted to her LinkedIn account, which has since been deleted.

“I was elected mayor two times by a popular vote and have been rolled by the state government for doing my job – protecting Class A reserves from property developers,” Argyle wrote.

She singed off the post with: “Yours faithfully, Her Worship Fiona Argyle. Mayor, City of Nedlands.”

Beazley was asked on Wednesday whether Argyle had been “rolled” and replied: “There has been no rolling here.”

“The appointment of the commissioners is a result of the resignation of those four council members, which meant that the council lost quorum, which meant that I’m obligated to put in commissioners to ensure that the council can operate and make decisions that are necessary for the ratepayers,” she said.

A Perth woman will be sentenced under new state laws brought in last year to crack down on racism after she admitted in court to performing a Nazi salute while on a night out in Northbridge earlier this month.

Theresa Plunkett-Hill, 42, is facing two years in prison and a fine of up to $24,000 after she pleaded guilty on Thursday to making a Nazi gesture that would be visible in a public place.

Theresa Plunkett-Hill leaves court on Thursday.Credit: Rebecca Peppiatt

After her first appearance in court two weeks ago, Plunkett-Hill laughed off her arrest, saying it was a “good effort” to have stayed out so late.

When asked whether she was racist, Plunkett-Hill replied: “What does racist mean?”

“We need to answer the first question about racism,” she told 9News Perth.

“So when you pose a question, you have to be clear about the question that you’re asking and what you mean by that particular term in the context that we’re in.”

Plunkett-Hill used a duty lawyer to address the magistrate during her hearing at Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday, where she entered a plea of guilty.

She will be sentenced in the same court on August 7.

The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the ominous spout filmed in City Beach was likely a “low intensity” tornado, as residents continue to clean up after the storm hit on Wednesday afternoon.

The Town of Cambridge confirmed several properties were significantly damaged, including on Kalari Drive, Lantara Street, and Marapana Drive in City Beach.

Town staff and contractor crews worked overnight to support DFES and SES crews in making the area safe.

Additional work to address damage and clear debris will continue on Thursday.

Cambridge Mayor Gary Mack said his thoughts were with the residents who experienced serious property damage, and in some cases, had to leave their homes on Wednesday night.

“We understand this is distressing and while the full extent of the storm damage is still being assessed, we are committed to supporting our community through the recovery process,” he said.

Resident Zarin Milambo said she came outside and saw the damage and “pieces of the roof on the floor”.

Read the full story here.

Scott Morrison says a planned AUKUS shipbuilding facility in Western Australia should become a joint base with the US to help address the Trump administration’s “legitimate issues” with the submarine deal he designed and announced as prime minister in 2021.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison.Credit: AP

The controversial idea, with advocates in both Canberra and Washington, would allow the upgraded facility at Henderson, south of Perth, to host and repair American submarines, not just Australian ones, and give the US direct access to the Indian Ocean, a strategic asset.

As the Pentagon reviews the AUKUS agreement to see if it fits with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, one of the key issues is whether the US can part with the three nuclear-powered submarines Australia is due to buy.

Read the full story here.

You might not need to be told this, but it’s cold out there. Really cold.

A low-pressure system moving across WA has dumped up to 71 millimetres of rain on parts of the city over the past 24 hours, brought destructive wild weather including a possible tornado and spurred a warning for sheep graziers in the lower west and Great Southern.

But commuters to work this morning would all have the same observation in mind: it’s cold. In fact, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, while the temperature was between 8-9 degrees at 9am, the apparent temperature – or what it “feels like” – was several degrees lower at 5.8C.

And don’t expect it to warm up much more today.

Speaking to the Today show this morning, BoM senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said Perth could expect a top of 14 degrees.

“But combining with those cool southerly winds behind the front, ongoing showers and the chance of small hail, it is likely to feel quite a few degrees lower,” she said.

Time to get some warm coffee.

A Kelmscott man is due to face court on Friday accused of trying to import liquid methamphetamine in bottles of cordial and oil.

The 59-year-old was arrested after an Australian Federal Police sting intercepted the packages which were sent to Perth from Malaysia, swapping them out with a decoy before delivering the package to an industrial unit in Rockingham on Friday last week.

The Kelmscott man during his arrest last week. Credit: Australian Federal Police

The AFP allege the man took the package – which consisted of 27 bottles holding a combined 33 litres of liquid – and opened it before taking pictures of the bottles.

Police arrested the man when he left the unit and went home. He was remanded in custody after his first court appearance on Saturday, July 19.

A search warrant executed at the man’s home and the industrial unit allegedly led to the discovery of $45,000 in cash in a freezer, small quantities of what police believed was methamphetamine and cannabis, as well as ammunition and a crossbow.

Police allege the liquid methamphetamine was concealed in bottles of oil. Credit: Australian Federal Police

Police also seized mobile phones which will be forensically examined.

The man has been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

AFP Acting Superintendent Chris Colley said police worked together with partners including the Australian Border Force to stop air cargo being used for international drug trafficking.

The bottles were first identified as containing drugs when Border Force drug detector dogs in Perth returned “positive reactions” to the suspicious packages. Presumptive testing returned a positive result for meth.

“Methamphetamine causes immense harm – not only for users, but the entire community through the associated crime, pressure on the health system and distortion of financial markets,” Colley said.

Mitchell Forth, one of the men who was convicted of being involved in the killing of Swan View schoolboy Cassius Turvey, will appeal his sentence.

Forth, 27, was acquitted of murder by a Supreme Court of WA jury in May, but found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years in prison over the 15-year-old’s death in 2022.

He received a nine-year sentence for the manslaughter and a total of three years for other assaults and stealings that occurred in the days before.

Mitchell Forth captured on CCTV on the day of Cassius’ death.Credit: 9News Perth

Cassius was killed after being chased across a vacant reserve in the east Perth suburb of Middle Swan by local thugs Brodie Palmer and Jack Brearley.

It was Brearley, Chief Justice Peter Quinlan found, who delivered the fatal blows to Cassius’ head with the metal handle of a shopping trolley.

Cassius died in hospital from those injuries 10 days later.

The trio, as well as Brearley’s then-girlfriend Aleesha Gilmore, were charged with his murder but pleaded not guilty, and the matter was taken to a 12-week trial earlier this year.

Gilmore was eventually acquitted of any involvement in Cassius’ death but found guilty of other offences in the days before.

Brearley and Palmer were sentenced to life in prison.

In documents lodged with the WA Court of Appeal this week, Forth’s legal team have stated they will appeal against his conviction and his sentence.

“The verdict of guilty on which the conviction is based should be set aside because having regard to the evidence it is unreasonable or cannot be supported,” it read.

A second document stated that his sentence of nine years solely for the manslaughter charge was “manifestly excessive given his personal circumstances and the circumstances of his offending”.

Throughout the trial, Forth maintained that he was not part of the group that chased Cassius and other indigenous teens across the reserve, but prosecutors said he could still be convicted of murder or manslaughter because he was with them at the time.

Here’s what is making headlines elsewhere today:

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

• The federal government has lifted its longstanding de facto ban on US beef, addressing one of the key trade complaints that President Donald Trump used to justify his tariffs on Australia while starting a fight with the Nationals.
• The Albanese government will march forward with its legislative agenda after introducing two key draft laws on Wednesday. Labor is hoping the passage of its bills will be expedited with support from the Coalition, which also appears receptive to its student debt reduction bill. In the first question time of the 48th parliament on Wednesday, the government and opposition exchanged blows on topics ranging from housing affordability to climate change policy and superannuation tax reform.
• Former prime minister Scott Morrison has warned the United States Congress that Australians are at risk of “going to sleep” on the security threat posed by China, and warned the US and its allies that they must be prepared to wear economic pain to stand up to Beijing. He later told reporters that Australians’ level of awareness of the security threat posed by China had clearly diminished significantly over the past three years.
• Countries besieged by the effects of climate change can legally pursue their neighbours for reparations if they fail to uphold their obligations to curb emissions, a top court has found. The historic advisory ruling was handed down by the International Court of Justice and paves the way for massive compensation claims in a case brought by a group of law students from Vanuatu.
• The Australian sharemarket is expected to rise again today after Wall Street was buoyed by news of a US-Japan trade deal that would lower proposed tariffs on Japanese imports into the United States. It comes after a day of gains on the ASX, where the materials sector led the bourse into positive territory.