Live breaking news: Bizarre burglary stumps Melbourne butcher

A butcher shop manager discovered a thief hadn't just broken in for cash, he also decided to cook up some meats and even make himself a Milo.

A Melbourne butcher thought his boss was having a laugh when he arrived to work to find meats cooked up around the business.

 

But then he realised something more sinister had unfolded and a burglar had worked his way through the store.

"This lad had a great old time being an apprentice butcher for the night," Marshall's Quality Meats posted on Facebook.

"What can I say, some people will do anything for great meat."

 

Frankston Police are looking for the culprit.

 

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2:35 pm May 4, 2021 Highlight

Bizarre butcher burglary

If you're hungry, you're hungry.

This bloke decided he didn't just want to bust into this butcher in Melbourne, but make himself a meal while he was there too.

Frankston Police posted about the bizarre burglary that happened on April 5, but what the manager of Marshall’s Quality Meats, Scott Little, told 3AW was even funnier.

"He cooked up some porterhouse, some pork cutlets. He tried to smoke some beef ribs, put some mignons into the oven,” Mr Little told the radio station.

"He just made a mess really. He was there for a good hour to hour and a half.

"He even made himself a Milo!"

1:18 pm May 4, 2021 Highlight

Woman begs Scott Morrison for help

A Queensland woman has been caught on camera, falling at the feet of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and begging him for help.

Mr Morrison had just finished a press conference in Rockhampton, where he announced funding for the beef industry, when the woman turned to the PM.

"Help me, help me," she said, according to footage from 7 News.

"I can't go home … my people are being killed."

The woman was asking the prime minister to help her family in Cameroon, in Africa.

The footage from Channel 7 showed Mr Morrison bending down to her level to speak with her.

"It's OK, no, you don't need to do that," Mr Morrison said, after the woman dropped to her knees and grabbed the prime minister's legs.

The PM had earlier told the woman he would get someone from immiggration to discuss her case.

A woman falls to her knees and prays to Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP, begging him to help her family in Africa following a press conference in Rockhampton. 7NEWS at 6pm. https://t.co/PNrJc2LX5T #auspol #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/QAJ1sUB2ul

— 7NEWS Central Queensland (@7NewsCQ) May 4, 2021

12:41 pm May 4, 2021 Highlight

Western Australia awaiting final COVID-19 test results

West Australian health authorities are racing to confirm test results of more than 200 close and casual contacts of a hotel quarantine worker who infected his housemates with COVID-19.

No new cases were detected in the community or in state-managed hotel quarantine in the previous 24 hours, Premier Mark McGowan confirmed on Tuesday morning.

“Contact tracing in relation to the Pan Pacific cluster is ongoing,” he said.

“Of the 79 close contacts, 49 have come back negative and the others are pending.

“Of the 429 casual contacts, 234 are negative and we expect that number will grow today as we wait for further results to come through.”

It comes as new locations were added to the public exposure sites list.

While Perth has so far avoided another lockdown after the three cases of community transmission were detected over the weekend, Mr McGowan confirmed the Perth Glory A-League game on Wednesday night would be played without a crowd.

11:48 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

'Very remote circumstance' people would be punished

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been speaking in Rockhampton, Queensland to announce funding for Australia's beef industry.

He was also questioned about the two-week ban the federal government placed on Australians attempting to return home from India and the potential punishments they face.

Despite the Biosecurity Act setting out punishnments of $66,000 fines or up to five yeras in prison, Mr Morrison said it was highly unlikely they would be enforced.

The sanctions are there. They exist. But they will be exercised proportionately and responsibly," he said.

"Those sanctions have been in place now for 14 months and we haven't seen the extremes of those sanctions being required.

"I think it would be a very remote circumstance that would see them imposed, but they're imposed seriously because we need to prevent people coming who have been in India during the last 14 days because the risk of infection that they're bringing is very high."

Mr Morrison said he doesn't "want to see them necessarily imposed anywhere because I don't want to see people breaching the rule".

"I think it hasn't been helpful for these things to be exaggerated," he added.

"These powers have been around for 14 months and they have been used responsibly and proportionately and effectively and that is what we are doing now."

The PM said it was his "responsibility to do everything I can to prevent a third wave in this country".

"I make no apologies for that. I thank, particularly the Indian community here in Australia and overseas, for their patience and their understanding," he said.

11:33 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

Sydney home sells for $600,000 above reserve

A simple red-brick Sydney home has sold for a whopping $4 million – $610,000 above its reserve price.

The single-storey home, situated on Nield Ave in the inner west suburb of Rodd Point, was auctioned off over the weekend.

Twenty five bidders battled to own the pokey two-bedroom home, with the house eventually selling for $4 million after the first hopeful owner kicked things off with a $3 million bid.

The former owners of the home had been in the house for 70 years with real estate agent Jim Piper describing it as an "emotional sale".

Despite the simple nature of the home, the house was in a highly-sought after location, just across from Nield Park and offering waterfront and city views.

Mr Piper, an agent for Time Realty, said the price was much higher than they were expecting.

10:53 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

Hero who thwarted armed truck heist

The hero guard who managed to keep his cool, despite his armoured car being attack in a hail of bullets by two cars of gunmen, has been identified as a former police sniper.

Leo Prinsloo, 48, was caught on the vehicle’s dashcam frantically battling the two groups of robbers as they attacked his cash-in-transit truck in South Africa.

Video of the high-speed chase went viral online, with many praising the heroic actions of Mr Prinsloo and likening him to a real-life Jason Bourne.

The two-and-a-half-minute clip, recorded on April 22 from inside the truck cabin, shows the two men, both of whom are wearing bulletproof vests, coming under attack on a busy Pretoria road.

Mr Prinsloo, who served with the South African Police Services special forces unit for 12 years, now teaches the nation’s military special forces how to shoot.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Prinsloo said “there was no way” he was going to let the robbers take the vehicle.

“I cannot say much as an investigation is underway but I and my fellow guard did what was expected of us. They needed to take us out so they could take out the cargo vehicle,” he told the publication.

“But there was no way I was going to let that happen and unfortunately I did not have a chance to return fire.”

9:10 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

Child killer living near five schools

A notorious child killer who suffocated a five-year-old girl after she accidentally knocked over his bowl of marajuana is living within walking distance of five Sydney schools.

Tim Kosowicz escaped jail and a conviction after he was found not guilty on grounds of mental illness in 2005 for killing Chloe Hoson.

Kosowicz lured Chloe into his caravan with a kitten at the Lansvale Caravan Park, in Sydney's west, in November 2003.

He spent 15 years at Morisset Hospital's forensic psychiatry ward for the brutal killing.

He was released into the community in 2019 but was recently spotted living unsupervised in a townhouse in Carlingford, in Sydney's northwest.

According to 7 News, Kosowicz lives near Carlingford West Public School, OneSchool's Global Sydney Campus in Oatlands, Carlingford West Kindergarten, The King's School, and Cumberland High School.

Kosowicz gave a full confession to the crime but was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2005 and found not guilty.

The NSW government said it does not comment on specific cases.

7:52 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

'Dictatorial power': India travel ban lashed by lawyer

Renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC has lashed the two-week ban on Australians returning from India as a "dictatorial power".

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Robertson said the ban was unconstitutional and the powers used under the Biosecurity Act was in breach of the rule of law.

“Australian citizens shouldn’t be put in prison for a crime that has not been debated in and approved by Parliament,” he said.
“The constitution provides for a democracy and it is implicit in it that citizens should not be prosecuted without parliamentary approval for exercising their right to return home.”

Australians who try to return from India until May 15 face fines of up to $66,000 or five years in prison.

Mr Robertson said the Biosecurity Act powers could only be enforced if there was a “severe and immediate threat” to the nation.
“That is not the case,” Mr Robertson said.

“It is sensible to stop tourist and commercial flights from a hotspot like India, but for Australians in peril, any decent government would arrange for rescue missions and would put them in quarantine and not in prison.”

7:45 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

Craig McLachlan's teary video after acquittal

Craig McLachlan and his partner Vanessa Scammell have filmed themselves crying on camera, discussing how the sexual assault allegations levelled at the Gold Logie actor ruined their lives.

"You see this is not just about a headline for the day, this is ruining lives," McLachlan said in the video.

“Not just me, you want to crucify me? Fine. Look what it’s done to my beautiful partner, look what it continues to do to my family every day.”

In the short clip, which will air as part of his interview on Channel 7's Spotlight, the actor spoke next to his sobbing partner.

McLachlan was charged with seven counts of indecent assault and six counts of common law assault against multiple women working on the 2014 stage production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

He was acquitted in December.

7:12 am May 4, 2021 Highlight

Perth restaurant ambushed by vegan activists

Vegan activist Tash Peterson has ambushed a West Australian seafood restaurant to abuse diners as they ate dinner.

The Perth-based animal rights campaigner, who caused a stir in January after storming a Bunnings fundraiser run by firefighters, filmed her latest stunt at Bathers Beach House in Fremantle.

In wild scenes, which Peterson uploaded to her Instagram page, she leads a group of five into the restaurant.

They hold signs as she begins shouting at diners: “This is an emergency. I repeat, this is an emergency! The whole ocean is under threat. Right at this moment there are millions of fish, dolphins and whales being ripped from the open in massive trawler nets and they are suffocating to death. This is the largest holocaust in history.”

But she was immediately rejected by her audience, as several told her to “go away” and “piss off”.