Perth father accused of killing his baby girl says he “just snapped”, & more in News in 5.

-With AAP.

Warning: This post features explicit details of child abuse, child sexual abuse and deals with suicide, and could be triggering for some readers.

1. “I just wanted her to shut up.” A father accused of killing his baby girl says he “just snapped”.

A baker accused of murdering his six-month-old daughter by shaking her and throwing her onto the floor “just snapped” because he was sleep-deprived and the teething baby wouldn’t settle, a Perth trial has heard.

Nicole Martin had been tag-teaming care of Isabella Sully Jean Martin with her husband Arron Colin Martin for less than two months in November 2017 when their child died from injuries he inflicted after returning to their Brookdale house from an early morning shift as a baker at a supermarket.

Prosecutor Amanda Forrester told the Supreme Court of WA on Monday that Martin hurled the infant from a height of almost two metres, admitted he saw her head start to swell and she was still breathing but he did not call for help.

Mamamia’s daily news podcast The Quicky will get you up to speed on what you need to know today…

Instead, he “picked her up, put her in the cot and left”, Ms Forrester said.

He told detectives he was frustrated by her crying and “just wanted her to shut up”.

Forrester said the child may have survived for between two to five hours after being injured, the ABC reported.

His wife of four years told the court she had said “hi and bye” to her spouse before leaving for her work as a McDonald’s manager, and the infant might have been “a bit grizzly” with a stuffy nose as she was recovering a cold, but wasn’t particularly unsettled.

Defence counsel John Rando said the child had been restless and agitated, and would not sleep as his tired client had hoped.

The 37-year-old did not intend to harm her but “something just happened”.

Mr Rando said the couple loved the child but with their work schedules, “something was bound to happen.”

Ms Martin, 35, said she and her husband had had “a brief discussion” about their rosters but neither could change.

They didn’t hire babysitters because they wanted to save money, but not for anything in particular, she said.

Mr Rando said Martin was traumatised after he realised what he’d done and twice tried to end his own life before turning himself in to police.

Ms Martin discovered what happened when she came home from work to find police officers and paramedics.

She said he’d had a “good” relationship with his baby, who he fathered through artificial insemination as prescription drugs he’d been taking for anxiety and depression had ended their sexual relationship.

Mr Rando told the jury they could find his client committed the lesser charge of manslaughter.

2. Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s emotional farewell to husband of 35 years John.

Almost three years to the day a cruel twist of fate shattered their otherwise picture-perfect world, showbiz icon Kerri-Anne Kennerley farewelled the love of her life and husband of more than four decades John Kennerley | @hornery https://t.co/QW0cVy8wGs pic.twitter.com/JaSMKITlHB

— The Sydney Morning Herald (@smh) March 11, 2019

Television presenter Kerri-Anne Kennerley has farewelled her beloved husband of 35 years at an emotional funeral in Sydney.

Family and friends gathered at All Saints Anglican Church in Woollahra on Monday to say good bye to John Kennerley, who died aged 78 on February 28.

He had suffered years of health challenges after falling over a small hedge while posing for photos after a golf tournament at Coffs Harbour in March 2016 that left him a quadriplegic.

Wearing a colourful floral outfit, the TV personality choked back tears as she lay her hand on his casket after the memorial service.

A mix of public figures were among the mourners, including Governor General, Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Cosgrove, media executive John Hartigan, Nine Network’s Finance Editor Ross Greenwood as well as entertainment reporter Richard Wilkins.

Denise Scott, Angela Bishop and Joe Hildebrand, who work alongside Kerri-Anne on Studio 10, also attended.

After his accident John said his wife had been a constant presence and pillar of strength as he came to terms with his injuries.

“She has been the strength of my whole recovery,” he said.

“Without her I don’t think I would have attempted it but, as I say, she was there when I woke up and she has been with me every day.”

The couple did not have children together, but were famously devoted to each other.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

It’s with a heavy heart and awful sadness that I let you know that my beautiful husband John passed away last night. As you all know, John has faced some tremendous challenges over the past few years and with each he has been extraordinarily brave and determined to overcome those hurdles and live a normal life. I want to thank everyone at St Vincent’s Hospital for the beautiful care they have provided to John in his last days. John passed away peacefully with his son Simon and I by his side. John, you were the love of my life. Xxx

A post shared by Kak ???? (@kerriannekennerley) on Feb 27, 2019 at 2:28pm PST

In announcing his death on Instagram, Kerri-Anne said, “It’s with a heavy heart and awful sadness that I let you know that my beautiful husband John passed away.”

“John, you were the love of my life.”

She thanked the staff at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney for the care they provided to John in his final days.

In lieu of flowers, the family asked for donations to be made to Spinal Cure Australia www.spinalcure.org.au.

3. Nurse skills are under-appreciated, says research.

Since realising through a high school volunteering stint that she enjoyed talking with people and giving back to the community, Romy Blacklaw knew that nursing was the job for her.

But the 28-year-old’s career to date, beginning in her hometown of Sydney before shifting to the Sunshine Coast, has not been without occasional frustrations.

There are times when she thinks she could have done more to help her patients, if only some previous employers had allowed her to.

“Nurses often do a lot of the jobs that no-one else wants to do and do get satisfaction from patient feedback and that type of thing,” Ms Blacklaw told AAP.

“But I think I have, in the past, felt unrecognised or undervalued by employers.”

Helping to create care plans for people with chronic illnesses is one task she believes she could have helped with in the past, had she not received some pushback from doctors.

“I guess they don’t maybe realise that there is quite a bit of training that nurses usually have before they start running those clinics.

Ms Blacklaw is not alone in feeling that she has sometimes been under-utilised, according to a fresh survey of more than 2000 nurses working in primary health care, which includes those in general practices.

Almost half of nurses (47.5 per cent) surveyed had suggested to an employer they could undertake more complex clinical activities.

But less than half of them (42 per cent) were permitted to.

The research comes from the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association and a new mutual bank – the Health Professionals Bank – which is aimed at catering to the specific needs of the workforce.

APNA President Karen Booth says nurses being able to fully utilise their skills is important for their job satisfaction.

“It means people have a say and there’s less turnover, and people enjoy the type of work they do much more,” she told AAP.

Job satisfaction among nurses is particularly important considering Australia is heading towards having too few of them, she stressed.

The shortfall is expected to reach 100,000 by 2030.

Helping nurses use their potential is also better for the health system, Ms Booth believes.

“They can do lots of care that would free up GPs, in particular, who can then see the acute patients coming in,” she said.

Better education for both doctors and Australians broadly about what nurses are capable of doing could help turn things around, she believes.

So too could changing health funding models to ensure that the work nurses do isn’t always classified in a fee-for-service context.

The customer-owned Health Professionals Bank launched on Tuesday is a subsidiary of Teachers Mutual Bank and will offer industry-specific features such as flexible banking options to accommodate shift work.

“We understand the unique needs of the health professionals we serve,” the bank’s general manager Carolyn Murphy says.

4. A former Catholic priest who took nude photos of schoolboys has been jailed.

Former Brisbane Catholic priest Michael Ambrose Endicott gets 18 months in jail on indecent dealing charges for manipulating a student into posing nude for photographs on multiple occasions. https://t.co/GVfB4xxskD pic.twitter.com/oTHDopqD3Z

— ABC Brisbane (@abcbrisbane) March 11, 2019

With the power of priesthood and under the guise of artistic intent, Michael Ambrose Endicott took schoolboys to secluded locations, told them to strip nude and took photos.

Almost 40 years later, he will see the inside of a jail cell.

Endicott, 75, was found guilty last week of three counts of indecently dealing with the Villanova College student while he was in charge of religious education at the Brisbane school in the 1970s.

On Monday, he was handed a 18-month jail sentence, to be suspended after he serves six months.

He avoided jail in 2010 when he was handed a wholly suspended sentence for the similar abuse of another boy.

The victim was first abused on a school hiking trip in 1975 when Endicott asked the nine-year-old to accompany him to a creek area in dense bush, where he photographed the student naked.

Endicott told him: “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s okay. You’re doing a good job.”

Three years later, Endicott abused him in the school tower. Again, the boy was photographed naked.

Years later, when the boy was a teenager, Endicott took him into a change room and told him to strip when photos were taken of him in the shower.

“(The victim) said: ‘at school, priests ruled. They have absolute power over everything’ and he dared not speak out against them,” crown prosecutor Russell Clutterbuck said.

Through his barrister, Endicott claimed the photos were “artistic” rather than sexual and he was “taking photos of nude boys as an expression of his photographic interest”.

He claimed his victims weren’t coerced or sworn to secrecy and that a developmental disorder hindered his ability to understand what he was doing was wrong.

“In the scheme of things, there are many, many worse photographs that he could have taken,” defence barrister Craig Eberhardt said.

Judge Leanne Clare SC rejected those arguments.

“The prisoner deliberately manipulated a young child under his care. It was exploitation of his position of authority and the gross imbalance of power,” she said.

“This man was walking around the child, who was completely naked, taking photographs of him from the front and back.

“I don”t understand how that sounds artistic.”

Mr Eberhardt said Endicott believed the victim was consenting.

The court heard a psychologist’s report found he was on the spectrum of autism, meaning he had trouble reading social cues.

The report said he would have struggled to understand how his behaviour was harmful.

It also said he “was vulnerable to intrusive sexual behaviours with students because of his inability to read appropriate social cues”.

Judge Clare said he had no remorse for his “substantial” crimes.

“(The victim) is still burdened by deep shame. I have no doubt knowing his degradation was preserved on film has haunted most of his life,” she said.

“Any person who is inclined to harm a child should expect that one day the law will catch up with him or her.”

5.  Aircrafts have been grounded after the Ethiopia Airlines plane crash.

China has grounded all Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircrafts, and airlines are responding to customer fears over the safety of the plane following the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people. https://t.co/okvg0rnLcX

— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) March 11, 2019

China and Indonesia have grounded their fleets of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 aircraft as witnesses recalled the terrifying spectacle of smoke and debris trailing from an Ethiopian Airlines plane before it crashed, killing 157 people.

The disaster came just months after a jet of the same model came down in Indonesia killing 189 people, and prompted a global aviation safety scare.

The Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 plunged into farmland minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa for Nairobi on Sunday.

The victims came from more than 30 nations and included 22 United Nations’ staff.

Investigators seeking to find the cause of the crash discovered the black box with both the cockpit voice recorder and digital flight data on Monday, Ethiopian state TV said.

Boeing’s share price plunged at the prospect that two such crashes in such a short time could reveal flaws in its new plane.

The company has already accepted orders for more than 5000 of the new, high fuel economy planes, which entered service less than two years ago and are set to be the workhorses for airlines around the globe for decades.

The 737 line, which has flown for more than 50 years, is the world’s best selling modern passenger aircraft and viewed as one of the industry’s most reliable.

The new MAX 8 variant, with bigger engines designed to use less fuel, entered service in 2017. By the end of January this year, Boeing had delivered 350 of the new jets to customers, with another 4661 on order.

Various worried nations took swift action.

Ethiopian Airlines, which has four other 737 MAX 8 jets, said it was grounding them as a precaution. China also ordered its airlines to suspend their 737 MAX 8 jets by 6pm.

Noting that the accidents involving newly delivered planes had both taken place shortly after take-off, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said it would notify airlines when they could resume flying the jets, after contacting Boeing and the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Indonesia, where a Lion Air 737 Max 8 went down in October, also said it would temporarily ground the model for inspection.

Cayman Airways grounded both of its new 737 MAX 8 jets temporarily too, while India announced a safety review.

The dead included aid workers, doctors, professors of literature and botany, a law student, a newlywed woman, a father soon expecting a child, and a couple who just had a baby.

In Nairobi, a major hub for aid workers and diplomats, a summit opened with a moment of silence and tears for the UN members killed.

In New York, the 15-member UN Security Council also stood to remember the dead.

The aeroplane was received in November 2018, had flown more than 1200 hours, and returned from Johannesburg earlier on Sunday, chief executive Tewolde GebreMariam said.

The flight had unstable vertical speed after take-off, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 tweeted. The Sweden-based service said the jet had climbed almost 1000 feet (330m) after taking off from Addis Ababa, a hot and high-altitude airport whose thinner air requires extra effort from an aircraft’s engines.

It dipped about 450 feet (137m) before rapidly climbing another 900 feet until the point where satellite tracking data was lost.

If this post brings up any issues for you, you can contact Bravehearts (an organisation providing support to victims of child abuse).

If you are concerned about the welfare of a child you can get advice from the Child Abuse Protection Hotline by calling 1800 688 009, or visiting their website. You can also call the 24- hour Child Abuse Report Line (131 478).

If you think you may be experiencing depression or another mental health problem, please contact your general practitioner or in Australia, contact Lifeline 13 11 14 for support or beyondblue at 1300 22 4636.