Live breaking news: Florida cop busts suspected pedophile, Woman killed by garbage truck in Sydney's southwest

Bodycam footage has captured the moment a police officer busted a man sitting shirtless in a hotel room with a 13-year-old.

Alex Blair

@alexblair_1

less than 2 min read

February 24, 2021 - 5:10AM

Welcome to Rush Hour, news.com.au's live breaking news blog.

An elderly woman has been killed during a routine rubbish pickup after the driver made an alleged illegal turn onto a suburban street. In Perth, a man with a swastika face tattoo is on the run in Perth after allegedly threatening a mother and her daughter with a lit blowtorch.

That's it for Wednesday's blog. To keep reading this morning's updates as they happen, join our Thursday blog.

Updates

NSW to ease restrictions: Gladys

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced a number of coronavirus-related restrictions have eased across the state.
Ms Berejiklian revealed up to 50 people will now be allowed inside a private home as opposed to the current limit of 30.
“Please remember this comes with risk; make sure there is good ventilation and good social distancing,” she told reporters on Wednesday.
Weddings will now be allowed to have 30 people on the dancefloor with the premier confirming health officials will be looking into relaxing the current event cap of 300.
“If things continue to go well we will re-evaluate the 300 cap … we are looking to ease that in the next three weeks or so,” she said.

Embattled Defence Minister admitted to hospital

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has been admitted to hospital and will take immediate medical leave.

After 10 days of sustained pressure over her handling of an alleged rape in her office in 2019 she will now not front up to Parliament for the rest of the week.

Last week Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins alleged she was raped at Parliament House in Senator Reynolds’ ministerial office by a colleague in March 2019. Ms Higgins claimed she felt forced to choose between reporting it to the police or keeping her job.

A spokeswoman for Senator Reynolds said this morning: “This follows advice from her cardiologist relating to a pre-existing medical condition.”

“As a precautionary measure, Minister Reynolds has this morning been admitted to a Canberra Hospital."

— Samantha Maiden

Traffic chaos as Sydney tunnel floods

Commuters have been warned of significant delays on Sydney's M5 East after heavy rain caused flooding in the Cooks River Tunnel.

Traffic jams have stretched up to 5km along Bexley Road with only one lane available in each direction.

Drivers have been told to exit the motorway at the Princes Highway or Marsh Street exits to avoid the chaos.

UPDATE: If you're heading to the city, consider exiting the M5 East at Marsh St or the Princes Hwy, or using the M8 Tunnel instead. pic.twitter.com/BkTJlLCp3Z
— Live Traffic Sydney (@LiveTrafficSyd) February 23, 2021

Elderly Australians given wrong vaccine dose

Two elderly Australians have been given four times the recommended dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a Queensland aged care home, Health Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed.

The doctor has been stood down from Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout program after incorrectly dosing an 88-year-old man, who is in hospital, and a 94-year-old woman.

“Basically a doctor gave an incorrect dose to two patients yesterday,” he said.

“It’s important we’re upfront.”

Mr Hunt said the patients were being monitored with no adverse reactions being reported so far.

NSW Liberal lashes Craig Kelly

NSW Minister for Energy and Environment Matt Kean has spat a barb at outgoing Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who resigned yesterday.

The rogue Liberal MP had been spreading COVID-19 misinformation, defying reported orders from the Prime Minister to hold his tongue.

Mr Kean said Mr Kelly's comments had "no place in a major Australian political party" in a directed spray on Twitter.

“Craig Kelly’s spreading of misinformation about COVID-19 and climate change and his disrespect for scientific evidence have no place in a major Australian political party. Good riddance.”

Craig Kelly’s spreading of misinformation about COVID-19 and climate change and his disrespect for scientific evidence have no place in a major Australian political party. Good riddance.
— Matt Kean MP (@Matt_KeanMP) February 23, 2021

The move could present problems for the party, however, with the PM's still has a majority narrowing to just 76 seats in the 151 seat Parliament.

Thailand eager for tourists again

Thailand's Prime Minister has confirmed they're looking into scrapping the nation's mandatory two-week quarantine for visitors if overseas arrivals can verify they have been vaccinated.

Tourists are currently allowed into the south-east Asia hotspot but have to spend 14 days in isolation and undergo at least three coronavirus tests.

Thailand's tourism industry has taken a massive hit throughout the pandemic, with visitors dropping from 40 million in 2019 to just 6.5 million in 2020. Before the pandemic, tourists regularly spent as much as $60 billion a year travelling to the country.

Since the outbreak, Thailand has recorded over 25,500 coronavirus cases and 83 deaths with over 500,000 tourists stranded due to closed borders in March last year.

Cop busts 22yo with young girl in Florida hotel room

Bodycam footage has captured the moment a Florida police officer busts a topless alleged pedophile with a 13-year-old girl in a dark motel room.
Deputy Royce James visited three motels in Florida's Edgewater area after he received a call from the girl's grandmother saying she hadn't come home from school Thursday.

A friend said the 13-year-old was heading to a motel with someone she met online, whose name began with T. James traveled to three nearby hotels before finding their room and entering to find the suspect topless without lights on.

James can be heard asking the girl if she was okay and if she was hurt, with her responding her "stomach hurt".

The officer asked the suspect his age four times before getting a response, confirming he was 22.

"Oh you f***ed up," James said. "You f***ed up real good."

The suspect can be heard replying in the background: "Yeah, I know I f***ed up."

The man, who was named as Tyler Thompson, was arrested and booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on charges of interfering with child custody and traveling to meet after luring a child through a computer.

— with The Sun

Police on hunt for Melbourne gunman

Police are on the hunt for a gunman at loose after a man was shot in a drive-by shooting in Melbourne’s outer south-east.

The man was shot in the lower body from a moving vehicle in a car park on Thompson Road, Patterson Lakes, just before 6pm on Tuesday, police said.

He was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Investigators believe the attack was a targeted shooting with the exact circumstances surrounding the incident still being investigated.
Police say there is no ongoing risk to the public but have urged anyone with information contact Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.

Sir David Attenborough's climate change warning to UN

Sir David Attenborough has made an impassioned plea to humanity to rethink its approach to climate change, saying it is the "biggest threat to security that modern humans have ever faced".

The 94-year-old environmentalist spoke via video link at a meeting of the UN Security Council and warned they "have a moral responsibility" to tackle the global issue seriously, imploring that "the security of the entire world depends on your decisions".

“If we bring emissions down with sufficient vigour we may yet avoid the tipping points that will make runaway climate change unstoppable," he said.

"In November this year, at COP26 in Glasgow, we may have our last opportunity to make the necessary step-change.

"If we objectively view climate change and the loss of nature as world-wide security threats – as indeed, they are – then we may yet act proportionately and in time.”

As Sir David Attenborough said today to @UN Security Council, “Climate change is a threat to global security that can only be dealt with by unparalleled levels of global co-operation.”

The UK is committed to working with partners around the world to take ambitious climate action pic.twitter.com/XT5PJwpTlY
— Karen Pierce (@KarenPierceUK) February 23, 2021

Intern details experience with ex-Liberal staffer

A former intern has come forward to reveal she was invited to a Nationals senator’s office at Parliament House seven years ago by the man who allegedly raped Brittany Higgins.

The woman, who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity, said that while the interactions she had with the man were consensual, she frequently felt “pressured” to have sex.

She also has Facebook messages from the man referring to “the couch” in the senator’s office where he worked at the time. Ms Higgins has alleged she was raped on a couch in Senator Linda Reynolds’s office in March 2019. No charges have been laid.

“The thing that really makes me feel sick about this is because … I distinctly remember a time when he also took me to his Senator’s office after hours,’’ the former intern told news.com.au.

“Nothing ‘rapey’ happened. But that makes me feel really ill. I feel like he wanted to [take me there] because he wanted to show off his power. He was obviously much more important than I was.

— Samantha Maiden

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