Morning,

Yesterday news broke that the former police officer who shot dead Australian woman Justine Damond walked away free from prison.

I explain the full story, including what happened to the 40-year-old, who died weeks before marrying her American fiancé, here.

These are the top news stories you need to know today, Wednesday, June 29.

1. Ghislaine Maxwell sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Warning: This post mentions sexual abuse and may be triggering for some readers.

Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping sex offender and globetrotting financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

The 60-year-old British socialite was convicted in December for recruiting and grooming four girls to have sexual encounters with Epstein - who was her boyfriend at the time - between 1994 and 2004.

In often emotional and explicit testimony during the month-long trial, four women testified that Maxwell was a central figure in their abuse by Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

Breaking News: Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years for conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and sexually abuse underage girls. https://t.co/wPQbQTbqS3 pic.twitter.com/sFiwPgm8wH
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 28, 2022

Prosecutors last week called Maxwell's conduct "shockingly predatory" and said she deserved to spend at least 30 years behind bars for the five charges on which she was convicted, based on their interpretation of federal sentencing guidelines.

Maxwell's lawyers had earlier said in court papers that she should be sentenced to no more than five and one-quarter years, arguing that she was being scapegoated for Epstein's crimes and that she had already spent significant time in jail.

Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 and repeatedly denied bail. Since then, she has been held mostly at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where she has complained of vermin and the scent of raw sewage in her cell.

She was placed on suicide watch over the weekend. However, her lawyers said she was not suicidal.

If this post brings up any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. It doesn’t matter where you live, they will take your call and, if need be, refer you to a service closer to home.

You can also call safe steps 24/7 Family Violence Response Line on 1800 015 188 or visit www.safesteps.org.au for further information.

The Men’s Referral Service is also available on 1300 766 491 or via online chat at www.ntv.org.au.www.ntv.org.au.

2. The Teacher's Pet podcast creator denies enticing Dawson witnesses.

Investigative journalist Hedley Thomas has rejected allegations he influenced potential witnesses in Chris Dawson's murder trial by discussing potential movies or miniseries about the case.

Returning to give evidence in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, Thomas, who produced The Teacher's Pet podcast on the 1982 disappearance of Lynette Dawson, said talk of witnesses playing a role in an upcoming production was merely banter during interviews with them.

"When you held out those deals to them… you appreciated that that would be attractive to them?" asked Dawson's barrister Pauline David.

"Possibly to some, but it might have been very unattractive to others who were introverted or didn't want to be involved," he said.

He told the court he had no roles to offer anyone, explaining that his interviews for the podcast occurred in the years before a deal had been struck with Blumhouse Television for a miniseries in September 2018.

Image: AAP.

David suggested Thomas had corrupted and poisoned the recollections of potential witnesses by discussing his own negative perceptions of Dawson with them, before some had even given a statement to the police. The Walkley award winning journalist denied these allegations.

"These were intelligent people with their own independent minds," he told Justice Ian Harrison.

Dawson, now 73, has been accused of murdering his wife and disposing of her body so he could have an unfettered relationship with his babysitter and former high school student, known as JC. He has pleaded not guilty.

The trial continues today.

3. Kyrgios calls lineswoman a "snitch" at Wimbledon.

Nick Kyrgios has admitted to spitting towards a "disrespectful" spectator and calling a lineswoman a "snitch" during an explosive start to his Wimbledon campaign.

Kyrgios said he was fed up with being verbally and racially taunted after claiming to be the subject of more abuse, during his tense five-set first-round win over British world No.219 Paul Jubb yesterday.

He made no apologies when asked to confirm if he deliberately spat in the direction of the heckler after the match, in an incident that shocked onlookers at the All England Club.

"On one of the people disrespecting me, yes," Kyrgios said following his win. "I would not be doing that to someone who was supporting me."

"Today, as soon as I won the match, I turned to him... I've been dealing with hate and negativity for a long time, so I don't feel like I owed that person anything."

Nick Kyrgios dedicated his win to "a couple of people in the crowd" who were giving him grief... 😬

"You know who you are" 👀#BBCTennis #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/GCif6baNTt
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) June 28, 2022

Kyrgios complained to the umpire about sections of the crowd a number of times throughout the match and took aim at several on-court officials. He also said he had no regrets calling one lineswoman a "snitch".

"No, why? That's what she did," Kyrgios said.

"I didn't do anything and she went to the umpire and told her something that I didn't say. That's called whistleblowing. Factually what happened."

4. Former aide says Trump wanted to join rioters at US Capitol.

Former US president Donald Trump allegedly wanted to join supporters moving on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, a former aide has testified to a committee probing the riots.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, recounted hearing about how Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of the presidential limousine when his security detail declined to take him to the Capitol.

"'I'm the effing president. Take me up to the Capitol now,'" Hutchinson quoted an enraged Trump as saying.

The committee investigating last year's assault on the US Capitol has heard that former president Donald Trump tried to take the steering wheel from his Secret Service driver in an attempt to join the crowd marching on the Capitol | https://t.co/s1dnps01a8 pic.twitter.com/J2uj8pKzaP
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 28, 2022

When he got into the limo, nicknamed "the Beast," he was told they would not be going to the Capitol, he had a very angry response.

A Secret Service agent had to physically restrain Trump who, sitting in the back seat, used his free hand to lunge toward the neck of Secret Service agent Robert Engel, Hutchinson testified.

"Mr Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel," she testified.

It was one of several of Hutchinson's disclosures at the sixth day of House hearings into the Capitol assault by Trump's followers, roused by his false claims his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud.

5. 'Stacks of bodies' found inside Texas truck in deadliest human smuggling incident in US history.

The bodies of 50 dead migrants have been discovered inside a tractor-trailer unit in San Antonio, Texas, city officials say, in one of the most deadly recent incidents of human smuggling along the US-Mexico border.

A San Antonio Fire Department official said they found "stacks of bodies" and no signs of water in the truck, which was found next to railway tracks in a remote area on the city's southern outskirts on Monday.

"I want to offer my condolences to the relatives of this catastrophe," said Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

HORRIFYING AND HEARTBREAKING: 50 migrants have been found dead in a truck in Texas, in what is now the deadliest human smuggling incident in US history. #9Today pic.twitter.com/n5NKk2H5Gh
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) June 28, 2022

Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter yesterday that 22 Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans were identified among the dead. There was no information on the citizenship of another 19, Mexican officials said.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that its Homeland Security Investigations division was conducting a criminal investigation into "an alleged human smuggling event" in coordination with local police.

Sixteen other people found inside the trailer were transported to hospitals for heat stroke and exhaustion, including four minors, but no children were among the dead, the San Antonio Fire Department said.

That's everything you need to know this morning. We'll be back to bring you more of the top news stories throughout the day.

- With AAP.

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