As it happened: WA news on Wednesday, October 2

We’re wrapping up our blog now, thank you for tuning in today.

However, before we leave, some coverage from the Western Australia-China Strategic Dialogue where WA Premier Roger Cook has just opened the proceedings.

The annual event – now in its sixth year – brings together senior business leaders from China to Perth to discuss trade and economic opportunities. It is the first time Cook has attended since becoming WA premier.

WA Premier Roger Cook at the sixth annual Western Australia-China Strategic Dialogue on Wednesday.Credit: 9News Perth

Cook opened his remarks by noting yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and declared: “The WA-China relationship is one of our great success stories of the last century.”

“And can I say, in short, WA gets the China-WA relationship,” he said.

“We understand it’s important to our economic prosperity, it’s important to our cultural prosperity.

“The Chinese community in Western Australia is as old as the Swan River colony itself, and we welcome a growing number of tourism students from China.”

Cook said it was WA and China’s collaboration in commerce which had attracted much of the world’s attention in recent years.

“China became our leading trade partner in 2007, and has expanded its lead ever since, by a wide margin,” he said.

“In 2023 our two-way trade reached $163 billion dollars, that’s more than half of Australia’s total trade with China.”

The premier said the trade relationship had generated “immense benefits” on both sides.

Cook flagged the potential of the growing role of downstream processing in WA – “particularly as we realise our ambitions around the generation of renewable energy” – and hailed the progress since the last dialogue, including a visit to WA by China’s premier and the opening up of direct flights from China to Perth.

“We’ve realised the extraordinary potential of the Western Australia-China relationship, and we see just so much more that can be done,” he said.

That concludes our live blog for the day, join us again tomorrow as we bring you all the day’s news.

To more court news now, and the 28-year-old woman accused of setting fire to the main chapel at Karrakatta Cemetery will remain behind bars while a home detention bail report is prepared.

The woman appeared in Perth Magistrates Court this afternoon wearing a pink and white fluffy dressing gown, with her lawyer describing her alleged behaviour as “extremely out of character”.

The court was told the woman worked as a receptionist until she was allegedly unfairly dismissed in March.

However, that appeared to garner little sympathy from Magistrate Andrew Matthews, who said: “People lose their jobs all the time. It doesn’t mean they go out and burn stuff.”

The woman is alleged to have poured fuel from a jerry can and lighting it in three different areas around Norfolk Chapel at Karrakatta Cemetery, causing extensive fire and smoke damage worth an estimated $1 million.

She has also been charged over two alleged arson incidents at the Lakes Lawn Cemetery in Parklands in late September.

Police prosecutor Liam O’Connor opposed bail and told the court there was CCTV of the Karrakatta incident, and that a “long term of imprisonment is almost inevitable”.

Matthews accepted the 28-year-old’s alleged actions were “entirely out of character”, but denied her bail today, instead ordering a home detention bail report.

She will reappear in court on October 16.

The state’s workplace safety watchdog has launched prosecution against the Department of Justice over a psychological injury suffered by a former prison officer at Bunbury Regional Prison.

It is the first time WorkSafe has taken prosecution action under the current legislation over psychosocial issues.

A WorkSafe release on Wednesday afternoon said the department had been charged with failing to provide and maintain a safe work environment and causing serious harm to a worker.

WorkSafe alleged the department failed to hae procedures in place to deal with inappropriate workplace behaviours, which caused hard to the prison officer.

Those behaviours allegedly included bullying, harassment – including sexual harassment – and victimisation.

The first mention of the case will be heard on November 7 at Bunbury Magistrates Court.

Turning to business now, and billionaire Kerry Stokes’ private investment firm has recorded a net profit just shy of half-a-billion dollars according to documents filed with the corporate watchdog overnight.

A financial report lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission shows Australian Capital Equity’s after-tax profit skyrocketed to $492 million in the past financial year, up from the $137 million it recorded 12 months earlier.

Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes.Credit: AAP

The media mogul’s investment vehicle, which has 111 employees on the books, has more than $2.6 billion worth of assets across the dozens of entities it controls.

The private company’s key investment is its 34.4 per cent shareholding in diversified industrial services giant Seven Group Holdings, which is valued at $1.47 billion.

Seven Group owns CAT dealer WesTrac, equipment hire company Coates and building products supplier Boral and holds controlling stakes in oil and gas giant Beach Energy and Seven West Media, publisher of The West Australian newspaper.

ACE also holds a $247 million stake in BCI Minerals, the salt and potash company developing the $1.4 billion Mardie project in the state’s north-west.

The value of the company’s burgeoning property portfolio rose to $186 million after it dropped $22 million on new buildings in the past 12 months.

But ACE’s most significant asset is the well-publicised, eponymous art collection Stokes has spent the past 50 years building, which is now tipped to be worth $213 million.

Stokes had managed to keep the accounts of his private investment firm under wraps until September 2023, when a change in reporting laws forced it to publish its first annual report in decades.

To breaking court news now and a man who broke into a home in Ellenbrook in 2021 and sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl has been found guilty after failing to argue he was too mentally impaired to be held accountable for his crime.

Callum Ferris Davies, from Oakfield, was 25 years old when he climbed through a stranger’s bathroom window just after midnight on December 27 three years ago.

Callum Ferris Davis.Credit: Courtesy of court sketch artist Anne Barnetson.

He entered the bedroom of a little girl and put his hands over her mouth, taped it shut and then choked her before he sexually abused her.

She lost consciousness, but remembered enough to tell her parents the next morning and then police, leading to Davies’ arrest.

Read more here. 

The man accused of going on a violent rampage in West Leederville last night has just appeared in Perth Magistrate’s Court.

Revis Comeagain, 39, was unrepresented when he told the magistrate he “just wanted to go home”.

However, the allegations against him were deemed too serious for his release to be considered.

“These are very serious allegations, so serious that the protection of the community outweighs your personal circumstances,” the magistrate said.

It’s alleged Comeagain was armed with two 19 centimetre knives and a 1.2 metre wooden beam when he threatened three people around 6.15pm last night.

One victim had a cut to his hand after having his windscreen smashed during an attempted carjacking.

Comeagain, who is facing a string of charges, was remanded in custody and is next due to appear in court on October 9.

Three Perth nightclubs have been issued a warning about crowding too many people into their venues, although the liquor watchdog has refused to name and shame the venues.

Racing, Gaming and Liquor inspectors allegedly uncovered several “significant breaches” to occupancy limits at the venues after reviewing CCTV vision and counting the number of people entering and leaving the premises.

Three Perth nightclubs have been warned about overcrowding.

Director of Liquor Licensing Lanie Chopping has warned the venues could face prosecution if they don’t clean up their act.

“Breaches of occupancy limits may result in prosecution under the relevant legislation, resulting in fines and, in some cases, suspension or the loss of a trading licence,” she said.

“Overcrowding presents clear risks to health and safety in the event of an emergency that requires evacuation. It also increases the likelihood of aggression and violence, and reduces the ability of staff to monitor patrons to ensure the responsible service of alcohol.”

Returning to the news we brought you this morning about the devastating fire at the main chapel at Karrakatta Cemetery.

WA Police have just charged a 28-year-old woman with criminal damage by fire and burglary.

It’s alleged the woman visited another cemetery near Mandurah on Friday and Monday, setting fire to and destroying two sheds.

She is then accused of lighting a fire in the Norfolk Chapel in Karrakatta last night and causing $1 million damage.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said there was “very good CCTV” at the cemetery which had assisted in the investigation.

She is due to appear in Perth Magistrate’s Court today.

Sticking with the police commissioner’s interview now, and he has revealed that police carried out a sting at a bikie-run burnout festival on the weekend which led to more than 120 cars being stickered.

The annual Westdale Dirt Drags, run by a Gypsy Joker member, attracts thousands of people to a bikie-owned private property in the midwest town of Beverley.

An image snapped by someone attending the burnout event. Credit: Facebook

It’s advertised as a two-day event with free camping, ‘burnouts all weekend’ and $50 entry fees to race or skid a vehicle.

The Shire of Beverley allowed the event to go ahead this year, despite police opposition.

Police Commissioner Col Blanch said his officers attended the event.

“This is a sporting event, they don’t have a licence to have alcohol, we don’t want people drinking alcohol in an environment where we have speed and vehicles and sporting events,” he said.

He said police handed out 100 alcohol breaches and 120 defect notices for cars. He also claimed 16 people had no licences, seven people tested positive for drugs and 16 people were summoned for wearing gang insignia.

“There were a lot of offences that were occurring there, and we have dealt with them all, and we will continue to investigate through our body-worn video other offences we have identified and work with the director of liquor licensing to look at what offences may exist for the organisers by allowing alcohol to be present,” Blanch told ABC Radio.

“If you’ve got alcohol, drugs and unroadworthy vehicles in an environment that is a sporting event that is high risk, is that appropriate?

“If there was an injury or death who would be subject to scrutiny to say how did this happen? I’m not opposed to motor sport … this is about public safety.”

Although event organisers seemed unfazed by the police presence, posting the following on their Facebook page on Monday.

“Another great event this year! Thank you to everyone who continues to support Westdale! Hope everyone had an awesome weekend and a big thank you to the crew that put the endless hours in to make the show happen!”

WA’s police commissioner Col Blanch has just spoken on ABC Radio and provided more details about an “extremely frightening” rampage that occurred in West Leederville last night (see our post at 7.30am for the initial details).

“At about 6.15pm last night, police were called to a man creating a disturbance, there were a number of calls … police observed the man throwing bricks with a knife in his hand,” he said.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch.Credit: Hamish Hastie

“We’ll allege that he was attempting to carjack vehicles.

“The driver and some other people managed to run away and take their keys with them so he didn’t actually get fully into a car, but he did injure one of the drivers who had his hand up when he smashed the windscreen.”

Blanch confirmed the man charged over the incident, 39, had been released on bail just days earlier.