Our Journalists

Amy is the senior chief reporter for The Newcastle News covering a wide variety of stories, mainly court and crime but also health, education, sport and much more.

@AmyZiniak

Amy Ziniak

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BreakingIllawarra Star

A general scene picture of Lady Wakehurst Dr in Lilyvale in the Royal National Park. Picture: Google Maps

Young driver dead after car found down embankment

Emergency services are working to extract the body of a man from a car after a fatal crash near Wollongong. Here’s what we know.

Newcastle

A couple were victims of a daytime home invasion in their Date St, Adamstown on Australia Day, 2024. Picture: Google Maps.

Ex-junior Knight in botched Oz Day home invasion

A court has heard a former Newcastle Knights junior staged a frightening home invasion at a Newcastle home on Australia Day last year, only for it to be the wrong house. Read what happened in court.

Newcastle

Former education officer and bush footy star Jayden Hudson Thorpe is facing charges that he targeted three girls in the Hunter in February 2023. Picture ID by Dan Proudman

‘Happy to be there’: Education officer denies kidnapping teen girls

A Hunter-based Indigenous education officer accused of taking two underage girls on a joy ride and plying them with drugs has told a jury he never kidnapped them against their will, nor did he ignore repeated requests to take them back to school.

BreakingNewcastle

Woman dead, driver badly injured in horror crash

A female passenger has died and a driver is in a serious condition after a car veered off the road and smashed into a tree on a rural road in the Hunter Valley. Here’s the latest.

Newcastle

Three people have been arrested and items seized after Raptor Squad police, under Strike Force Stranraer, raided seven locations across greater Maitland and Sydney on October 26, 2023. Picture: NSW Police

Pair’s role in barber shop drug syndicate revealed

A woman and barber caught up in an “organised crime syndicate” – allegedly at the hands of the owner of a popular Hunter barber shop – have appeared in court.

Newcastle

Muswellbrook woman Dee Folpp, 60, who was found dead with multiple stab wounds inside a Sydney St home on October 30, 2023. Picture: Facebook.

Mental health a possible factor in housemate’s alleged murder

A court has heard mental health impairment will be raised in the case of a woman who has been accused of fatally stabbing a housemate at their Upper Hunter home.

Newcastle

Five year old Stella was the victim of a hit and run on March 22 infront of their Gosford home. A Go Fund Me has been started to ensure her owners - a Central Coast couple - can pay for expensive vet bills as she recovers. Supplied

‘Traumatic’: Adored pet pooch in hit and run

A Central Coast couple are staring down thousands of dollars in vet bills after their beloved dog Stella was the victim of a hit and run.

Newcastle

Education officer denies kidnapping teens on joyride

A jury has heard a Hunter-based indigenous education officer took two underage girls on a joyride, plied them with drugs before taking them to a place where people went to “hook up”.

Newcastle

Land at Lochinvar owned by Catholic Church which has a development application for a subdivision and 138 residential lots. Maitland Council documents

$19m splurge: Diocese’s plan to expand popular Hunter suburb

There’s more activity in one of the Hunter’s newest growing suburbs with the Catholic Church planning to spend up big in response to the housing crisis.

Newcastle

‘F**k you up’: Van park terror over $350 drug debt

A court has heard how a man suffered three terrifying days of threats – including being knocked unconscious in his own cabin – by a man trying to recoup a small drug debt.

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/journalists/amy-ziniak/page/8