The Snitch: Horror find inside Deborah Hutton’s $3.8m home
A NEW column getting all the good gossip from cops and the legal fraternity reveals the disturbing find in the ‘kidnap kit’ found in Deborah Hutton’s home, as well as the festival so hot even crims wanted a ticket in.
NSW
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Crime reporter Ava Benny-Morrison and court reporter Brenden Hills will reveal all the hot gossip from cops and the legal fraternity from the top end of town.
HORROR FIND FOR DEBORAH
IF the case involving media identity Deborah Hutton and her ex wasn’t already disturbing enough, police claim they found a jar of plum jam inside the alleged kidnapping kit.
News broke this week that the relationship between the media identity and her partner Robert Dulhunty had broken down to the point where he ended up in court facing a bizarre set of charges.
Police have accused Dulhunty of faking a break-in at Hutton’s Bronte home on August 8 in the hope of tricking her into letting him stick around to protect her.
Part of the case centres around a bag found at the home, which allegedly contained condoms, bindings and other items.
Dulhunty allegedly told police an intruder left the bag behind but detectives have now accused him of buying the items himself and planting them to look like a kidnapping kit.
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Inside the bag with the alleged menacing items was a jar of plum jam, police sources say.
We’re yet to establish if this will have any impact on the case, but it definitely turns the oddness up to 11 out of 10.
Initial police inquiries looked into the possibility that Hutton was the target of a celebrity stalker but focused on Dulhunty after investigators discovered he allegedly purchased the items in the bag.
Police allege Dulhunty rang triple-0 earlier this month claiming he confronted a would-be attacker outside the $3.8 million home just after 6am.
Officers then found the bag at the scene.
Dulhunty was arrested on Monday and taken to Waverley Police Station — nine days after the alleged fake break in.
He has been charged with stalking, destroying or damaging property and making false calls to police and triple-0.
Police have also applied to have an apprehended violence order taken out against Dulhunty for Hutton.
TAXPAYERS’ MONEY USED WISELY
THE drugs case of a Kings Cross kingpin has revealed a fascinating insight into the legally ambiguous territory occupied by the NSW Crime Commission. The state’s peak criminal intelligence agency used $4500 of taxpayer dollars to pay off a criminal source’s drug debts in an attempt to nail Nader Barakat.
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Barakat is facing charges that he was dealing in large commercial quantities of the drug ice and smaller amounts of cocaine following an undercover police sting.
But Barakat claims the actions of the Crime Commission leading up to the sting were illegal and unsuccessfully tried to use it as an argument to torpedo his upcoming trial in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
The Crime Commission recruited a drug dealer, known as AP, to get close to Barakat — the only problem was the dealer already owed Barakat $4500. The Crime Commission paid off the debt so NSW Police could use the informant to buy drugs from Barakat and then charge him. Barakat claimed the money was illegally paid by the NSWCC, meaning everything the police did after that was not legal.
Judge Robert Toner in the District Court didn’t agree, throwing out Barakat’s bid to abort the trial. But Judge Toner questioned the commission’s methods. “It seems at least passingly odd given that both the commission and the police knew that at least part of the moneys advanced to (AP) were for him to repay a pre-existing drug debt,” Judge Toner told the court. A panel of three judges in the CCA also threw out an appeal of Toner’s decision.
HOTTEST TICKETS IN TOWN
IT seems even crooks want a front-row seat at BAD, the Sydney Crime Writers Festival.
The festival’s ticket provider contacted organisers this month with bad news: someone had tried 38 different stolen credit cards to buy 10 tickets at $20 a pop.
The event, at the Justice and Police Museum on September 1 and 2, will host journalists, writers and legal minds talking about all types of badness.
Criminologist Xanthe Mallett is hosting the Mothers Who Murder session with author Suzanne Leal.
Judging by the tickets purchased, the fraudster had a keen interest in four sessions: Killer Instinct, Mothers Who Murder, the Making Of Murderers and Lives Of Crime.
A FAIR PRICE
WE wonder if struck-off lawyer Victor Berger saw as much irony as we did when he got downed by Magistrate Lisa Stapleton at Waverley Local Court last week on a traffic matter. Berger was struck off from acting as a lawyer (an appeal pends) and then had to front court after getting pinged running a red arrow in Mascot.
After issuing subpoenas and making the court view the CCTV footage Berger was cornered: he drove straight through the arrow and didn’t slow down.
He pleaded guilty and was given a conviction without penalty but Magistrate Stapleton also ordered Berger to pay the RMS’s legal costs — roughly $2800.
Berger argued the costs were excessive but Magistrate Stapleton was having none of it and ordered he pay.
The punchline: Berger was struck off for overcharging little old ladies.