news

"That's him." How a Canberra grandmother helped catch Ivan Milat, & more in News in 5.

-With AAP.

1. “That’s him.” How a Canberra grandmother helped catch Ivan Milat.

On January 25, 1990, Canberra grandmother Joanne Berry was driving with her sister and five children from Mittagong on the Hume Highway when she saw two men wrestling on the road.

Berry stopped her car, and as vehicles swerved around it, one of the men approached her driver’s side window.

“Help me, he’s got a gun!” she recalled him yelling.

Mamamia’s true crime conversations explores the stories and the people behind some of the world’s most notorious crimes. Post continues below audio.

Berry made a quick decision, allowing the man into her vehicle and driving him to a nearby police station.

Only after picking him up did she learn the man was Paul Onions, and the one he had been fighting was Ivan Milat.

Speaking to 7News, Berry said she and Onions both made statements to the police in 1990 – but their significance was only learned years later after bodies started being discovered from Belanglo State Forest, close to where Onions escaped Milat.

Onions made the link and called investigators.

Looking back on her run-in with the serial killer, Berry said she counted her blessings.

“Things could have taken a dramatic turn for the worst,” she said. “Milat could have come after us all.”

In 1994, Berry was watching the news when Milat was arrested.

ADVERTISEMENT

“They showed him being led into the police car and I can remember sitting on the couch then and just shaking and thinking, ‘That’s him’.”

Speaking to the media two decades after the harrowing attack, Onions shared how he narrowly escaped Milat after the serial killer pulled out a gun and rope.

“I can remember the silver bullets shining in the chamber, but then I saw the rope and that scared me more,” he said.

“I just thought, ‘This is it… run or die’, so I undid my seatbelt and jumped straight out of the vehicle and ran.”

Milat is dying from oesophagus and stomach cancer and the 74-year-old could have just weeks to live.

Berry told 7News his death will come as a relief.

“This episode of my life will be over and will be put to rest. I won’t have to dwell on it ever again,” she said.

2. Wolf Creek actor John Jarratt allegedly forced himself on sleeping housemate before raping her, court told.

ADVERTISEMENT


A young John Jarratt allegedly forced himself on a sleeping housemate, held her down and whispered in her ear as he raped her in their Sydney share house, the woman has told a jury.

The actor, who says the one-off sexual encounter he had with the woman was consensual, has pleaded not guilty to raping her in the home in the mid-1970s.

The complainant told the NSW District Court on Monday she was awoken about 3am one night to the fully clothed man ripping the covers off her bed in the home she shared with Jarratt, his wife Rosa Miano and another housemate.

“John Jarratt tore my underwear off… just ripped them off and threw them on the floor,” she said.

“I believe I said ‘What are you doing?’ and then I shut up because I was concerned about Rosa hearing me.”

The complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said Jarratt unzipped his fly, pinned her down and covered her mouth with his hand before raping the then-teenager over a few minutes.

ADVERTISEMENT

“He was whispering ‘You’re just like a blonde Rosa’. He said that about three or four times,” he said.

“I just froze. I could not believe that it was happening.”

Asked if she’d said or done anything to indicate consent, she said: “Not at all.”

The woman didn’t say anything to anyone at the time in part to protect Ms Miano.

She continued living in the house because she didn’t know what else to do and didn’t want to move out, the alleged victim told the court.

“I just pretended basically that nothing had happened.”

But, the woman testified, years later she told some people Jarratt had raped her. She told Ms Miano when the hairdresser separated from the actor in the 1980s.

Crown prosecutor John Bowers foreshadowed in his opening address that Ms Miano, who remarried Jarratt in 2016, was expected to tell the court the complainant didn’t mention rape but instead said it was “a one-night stand”.

Ms Miano is also expected to say her husband had already confided he and the former housemate “willingly participated” in sex when the housemate called him into her bedroom.

Jarratt was charged after the complainant reported the matter to police in late 2017.

ADVERTISEMENT

During the short trial, the jury is expected to be shown a taped statement of Jarratt stating he had consensual sex with his housemate on the night he was confirmed as the lead actor for the film Summer City.

The court was told Jarratt in his statement said he arrived home, went to the bathroom and then heard the housemate whisper loudly for him to come to her room, where they became intimate.

In the statement, Jarratt says the complainant contacted him years later when he was filming a movie in the town in which she was living and he invited her to some events where she became a regular.

Jarratt told police there was no hostility between the two and “indeed there was no reason for any hostility,” the court was told.

Defence barrister Greg James said the complainant was asserting a rape “of a most forceful kind”.

To return a guilty verdict, the jury had to be satisfied the sexual encounter was non-consensual and there was “no other rational conclusion … notwithstanding all the time that has passed and all the silence”, Mr James said.

He argued the woman’s account to others suggested there was consensual intercourse rather than rape. The trial continues.

3. David Attenborough made a surprise Glastonbury appearance to praise the festival’s ‘no plastic’ policy.

ADVERTISEMENT

David Attenborough made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury to launch the BBC’s new natural history series Seven Worlds, One Planet.

The broadcaster and naturalist introduced a four-minute prequel video to the huge crowds gathered ahead of Kylie Minogue’s performance at the festival, being held on Worthy Farm.

The extended trailer features a new song, Out There, from Australian singer Sia, who collaborated with composer Hans Zimmer on the track.

Sir David praised the festival after Glastonbury banned the sale of water, soft drinks and alcohol in plastic bottles this year. In 2017, the last time the event was held, more than 1 million single-used plastic bottles were sold on site.

ADVERTISEMENT

Festivals goers were encouraged to bring their own bottles or buy steel flasks that could be filled with water at taps and water kiosks around the site.

The broadcaster’s Blue Planet II documentary, which has been shown in countries around the world, highlighted the dangers of plastic pollution to marine life and the 93-year-old said the move at the world’s largest greenfield festival would have an impact.

“That is more than 1 million bottles of water that have not been drunk by you in plastic,” he said to cheers and applause. “Thank you, thank you.”

The song Out There has been inspired by Planet Earth II, the BBC’s previous series also fronted by Sir David, and was composed by Sia, British songwriter Christopher Braide and Zimmer.

Sia said: “I was honoured to be asked to collaborate with Hans Zimmer for Seven Worlds, One Planet.

“The work this program – and the Planet Earth series – does on behalf of our planet is essential and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

BBC Radio 1 debuted the full track in the UK at the same time as the prequel played out across screens at Glastonbury. The prequel was also simultaneously broadcast in almost 50 countries globally at the same time as it was shown to Glastonbury audiences.

ADVERTISEMENT

4. North Melbourne player Majak Daw making his AFL comeback seven months after bridge fall.

It might not be this year, but North Melbourne star Majak Daw is determined to make a stunning AFL return after defying all odds.

Daw is within reach of a playing comeback just months after he was seriously injured in a fall from a bridge.

The Kangaroos have confirmed their powerful key defender will play in the VFL against Sandringham at Arden St on Sunday, provided he gets through training this week.

ADVERTISEMENT

And there are hopes Daw could yet make an emotional senior comeback, with North announcing that he has signed a contract extension for next season.

The first Sudanese to be drafted in the AFL suffered hip and pelvic fractures last December when he fell from Melbourne’s Bolte Bridge.

The 28-year-old spent a month in hospital and effectively had to learn how to walk again.

But Daw has stunned medical staff with his powers of recovery since returning to Arden St during the pre-season.

“I want to play AFL footy, whether that’s going to be this year or whether that’s going to be next year,” Daw said on Monday.

“I’m not quite sure how my body will still respond to the game load. Obviously AFL is a big step up from VFL … but I sit really comfortable in knowing I’ll play AFL footy again.”

In an open letter in January, Daw spoke of having been given a second chance at life.

Daw was in good spirits while addressing media for the first time since the incident, joking that high performance boss Alex Moore might have separation anxiety after working hand in glove together throughout his rehabilitation.

Thanking friends, family, teammates and fans for their support, Daw said he felt stronger than ever.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The boys used to joke around that I’m all genetics and everything,” he said with a grin.

“I’m really blessed with body type. I guess put that with some really hard work in the gym and my body’s looked after me.

“The support that the club has provided me from day one has been remarkable. The only way I can pay the club back is through playing AFL footy and I’m really excited.”

Daw only resumed running on the treadmill in March but has stepped up to competitive training in recent weeks.

Few had expected he would be in a position to play this season, if at all, given the extent of his injuries.

“I don’t know if anyone’s rehabbed the injuries that Majak had and gotten back to this level of sport,” Moore said.

“We’ve just been shocked at how quickly he’s adapted … obviously this is a bit bigger than footy and to me, where Majak is now, it’s the biggest win we could have.

“The fact we’re even here in July, contemplating him returning to football, is amazing.”

Daw’s potential AFL return could be another boost for a Kangaroos side that has won three of its first four games under caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw.

Shaw said he had no doubt Daw would be in his best 22 when ready, labelling him arguably North’s most important player.

Whether that’s this season remains to be seen.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It’s really important that we tick all the boxes for him to play this week or the next week, whenever that is,” Shaw said.

“We want to make sure he can play AFL football again. We’re looking forward to looking after him and making sure he can fulfil that goal.”

5. Hong Kong protesters have stormed government headquarters over China extradition bill.

Hong Kong protesters have stormed the Legislative Council on the anniversary of the city’s 1997 return to Chinese rule amid widespread anger over planned laws that would allow extraditions to China, plunging the city deeper into chaos.

ADVERTISEMENT

A small group, mostly students wearing hard hats and masks, used a metal trolley, poles and pieces of scaffolding to hack through reinforced glass and charge at the government compound near the heart of the financial centre.

Riot police in helmets and carrying batons fired pepper spray in response in a stand-off that was lasting into the sweltering heat of the evening.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam suspended the bill on June 15 after some of the largest and most violent protests in decades, but stopped short of protesters’ demands to scrap it.

The Beijing-backed leader is now clinging on to her job at a time of an unprecedented backlash against the government and a series of mass protests that pose the greatest popular challenge to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.

Opponents of the bill, which would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party, fear it is a threat to Hong Kong’s much-cherished rule of law and are demanding it be scrapped and Lam step down.

Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including freedom to protest and an independent judiciary.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tens of thousands marched in temperatures of around 33 degrees Celsius from Victoria Park on Monday in an annual rally that organisers hoped would get a boost from the anger over the extradition bill.

Tension was high as police earlier raced towards protesters, beating some with batons as they fell to the ground, and used pepper spray to try to disperse crowds gathered near where officials were preparing a flag-raising ceremony to mark the handover.

The protesters, some with cling film wrapped around their arms to protect their skin in the event of tear gas, once again paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub as they occupied roads after blocking them off with metal barriers.

A tired-looking Lam appeared in public for the first time in nearly two weeks.

“The incident that happened in recent months has led to controversies and disputes between the public and the government,” she said. “This has made me fully realise that I, as a politician, have to remind myself all the time of the need to grasp public sentiment accurately.”

The extradition bill has sent jitters across all sectors of Hong Kong in an unprecedented backlash against the government.

Beyond the public outcry, the extradition bill has spooked some of Hong Kong’s tycoons into starting to move their personal wealth offshore, according to financial advisers, bankers and lawyers familiar with the details.

00:00 / ???