Alleged dog beheader unfit for trial

A MAN has been found unfit to stand trial over allegations he stabbed a harbourmaster before assaulting a woman and decapitating her dog.

Bradley Mark Weir, 43, was arrested in February last year and charged with a string of offences including attempted murder, going armed to cause fear and animal cruelty.

Police alleged he used a knife to stab the harbourmaster at Hope Island, on the Gold Coast, rupturing his diaphragm, spleen and one of the main arteries to his heart.

The harbourmaster survived.

Mr Weir was also accused of assaulting a female resident at the marina at which he lived, and decapitating her dog with a carving knife.

The matter was referred to the Mental Health Court in Brisbane, which was told Mr Weir had been taken by police to the Gold Coast Mental Health Unit just two months earlier.

He was noted to be highly irritable and agitated, with religious and grandiose delusions which related to revelations from God.

He received antipsychotic medication for a short period, but was discharged one week later into the care of his wife.

Following his arrest over the alleged attack at the marina, Mr Weir was assessed by psychiatrists who found he was suffering from either bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

In a just-published judgment, Justice Ann Lyons from Brisbane's Mental Health Court found he was of unsound mind at the time, and ordered he was unfit to stand trial.

Justice Lyons ordered Mr Weir be detained in a high-security mental health facility, where he would undergo treatment.

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'Cannibal cop' trial ends in clash

Federal Defender Julie Gatto with her client, New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle. Source: AP

THE trial of New York's alleged cannibal cop has ended in a fiery clash between his lawyer, who insists his client is guilty of nothing more than "dirty thoughts", and prosecutors who've dubbed the police officer a sadist.

The case, which has riveted the US city's tabloid media and raised questions about freedom of speech, has been left for the federal court jury to decide.

Gilberto Valle, 28, is accused of conspiracy to kidnap young women that he would then torture, kill and eat.

Although no women were actually harmed, the man dubbed the "Cannibal Cop" in the US media, discussed the gruesome plans with other men in exchanges on websites dedicated to extreme sexual fetishes.

He could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted.

His lawyer Julia Gatto said in an impassioned final statement that Valle had a disturbing, but far from unique, sexual fantasy about cannibalising women.

There was only proof of "ugly thoughts (and) we don't convict human beings just because of ugly thoughts", she said.

"They want you to convict, not because there's proof, but because you won't like the way his mind works," she said.

Kathleen Mangan hides her face as she is driven from federal court in New York after giving testimony against her estranged husband, New York City police officer Gilbert Valle.

"Gilberto Valle is accused of a crime he didn't commit."

The accused man burst into tears, as he frequently has during his trial, when Gatto pointed out to the jury he'd already lost his reputation, his career and his marriage and young child because of the case.

But prosecutors matched the legal fireworks with statements painting Valle as a ticking bomb who had to be stopped before he had a chance to put his online discussions into action.

"Officer Valle crossed the line. He left the world of fantasy. He entered the world of reality and, thankfully, he was stopped before he could act," prosecutor Hadassa Waxman said.

"He was serious," she said.

"He was not just fantasising and he would have carried out the plans if he thought he could get away with it - if he had not been stopped."

Gatto described Valle as a "nice, non-violent man", despite his addiction to pornography involving corpses and torture scenes.

The Federal Courthouse in Manhattan where the trial of New York Police Department officer Gilberto Valle, accused of conspiring to kidnap women that he planned to cook and eat in New York, is being held.

She warmly hugged her client after finishing her closing arguments.

But in the government rebuttal - when prosecutors get the last word before jury deliberations - US Attorney Randall Jackson said Valle was "a sadistic person".

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'House of horrors' doctor murder trial

Dr. Kermit Gosnell at his attorney's office in Philadelphia in 2010. Source: AP

AN abortion doctor is going on trial on eight counts of murder three years after drug agents searching a suspected "pill mill" at a Philadelphia clinic instead found a medical "house of horrors".

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, the clinic owner, is charged with killing a pregnant refugee and seven viable newborns. He also faces a separate federal trial on prescription drug charges.

Gosnell, who has pleaded not guilty, saw himself as a medical missionary in the blighted neighborhood where he worked and lived for 40 years. His Women's Medical Center treated the poor, immigrants, teens and women with late-stage pregnancies who could not get abortions elsewhere.

"I feel in the long term I will be vindicated," Gosnell told the Philadelphia Daily News in a March 2010 interview, a month after the federal drug raid. "I aspire to perfection, certainly for my patients."

But some of those patients were left with infections, perforated bowels and other injuries after barbaric abortions were performed by untrained, unlicensed staff, according to numerous lawsuits and a lengthy 2011 grand jury report. And 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar lost her life there in 2009.

Jury selection starts today in the death penalty case. All but one of the nine clinic workers arrested with Gosnell have pleaded guilty, three of them to third-degree murder, which carries a potential 20- to 40-year prison sentence.

Unlicensed doctor Steven Massof of Pittsburgh told the grand jury that he used scissors to snip the spines of more than 100 babies born alive. He worked for Gosnell for a few hundred dollars a week. He pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the deaths of two babies allegedly stabbed by Gosnell while Massof assisted with the abortions.

In this undated photo provided by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, shows a procedure room at the Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia. Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell's third wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist, pleaded guilty to performing an illegal, late-term abortion and other charges. She does not have to testify, but other co-defendants have said they will.

It's not clear if Gosnell plans to testify, because a gag order has been issued in the case. But it's possible, given his posture in the Daily News interview.

"Many times people have not been able to fully pay me for my services," Gosnell said. "As a principle, I have not refused to provide them care."

Yet he made millions over the years, both from abortions and a thriving side practice where staffers allegedly dispensed his pre-signed prescriptions for OxyContin, Percocet and other highly addictive painkillers.

Related federal drug charges await Gosnell after the murder trial, which is expected to last several weeks. Opening statements are scheduled for March 14.

It's not clear if Pennsylvania jurors have ever been asked to send a man of Gosnell's age or occupation to death row. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams called Gosnell's macabre medical clinic - where agents found fetal body parts in glass jars and staff refrigerators, and patient rooms filthy and blood-stained - a "house of horrors."

The Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia in 2010.

"Dr. Gosnell is never going to get the death penalty," defence attorney Jack McMahon said early on, noting his client's age and the cost of protracted capital cases.

The gag order now prevents McMahon from commenting about the case. But he met with Gosnell at the courthouse on Thursday, with prosecutors and the trial judge nearby, in what some viewed as late-hour plea discussions.

Mongar's family has a civil suit pending over her death. The woman from Bhutan - who did not speak English - died after allegedly receiving lethal doses of sedatives and painkillers from Gosnell's untrained workers.

She and her husband and three children had survived 20 years in refugee camps before settling in rural Virginia. She was referred to Gosnell's clinic to seek a second-term abortion.

Medical technician Sherry West, during her plea to third-degree murder and other charges, admitted she may have administered drugs to Mongar while Gosnell was off-site.

"She's very sorry about the death of that young lady," defence lawyer Michael Wallace said after her plea. "She got caught up in a series of things that probably she did not realise the significance of."

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Berlusconi paid for sex, trial told

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is escorted by his security guards after attending a hearing in Milan. PIcture: Antonio Calanni Source: AP

FORMER Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi hosted a "prostitution system" at his villa near Milan, where he paid women for sex with cash and favours.

Prosecutor Antonio Sangermano was presenting his final arguments ahead of a verdict expected later this month in Berlusconi's trial for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute in 2010.

Sangermano said Berlusconi associates arranged for the prostitutes and the then prime minister paid them off "with cash ... and offers of professional advancement, including in the political world".

Berlusconi is accused of having sex for money around 10 times with then 17-year-old Moroccan-born dancer Karima El-Mahroug, known by her stage name as "Ruby the Heart Stealer".

Gallery: Berlusconi's women.

The billionaire tycoon is also charged with having abused the powers of his office by getting El-Mahroug released from police custody when she was arrested also in 2010 for petty theft.

Prosecutors say Berlusconi personally intervened because he was afraid that his illicit relationship with El-Mahroug would come out.

Model and nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, previously identified by her stage name Ruby the Heart Stealer, speaking during her appearance as a guest on the Italian TV show "Kalispera" in Milan.

The trial in Milan began in April 2011.

Berlusconi received almost 30 per cent of the vote in a general election last week, putting him in second place behind a centre-left coalition but meaning he will continue to be a key player.

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Ex-SA bikie on trial for firearm offences

A FORMER Finks bikie whose young son was shot in an Adelaide home invasion was found to be in possession of a semi-automatic rifle at the same premises three months later, a judge has been told.

Prosecutor Brian Nitschke alleged that even though Mark Andrew Sandery was not in Adelaide when the gun was found, he was the occupier of the home or it was under "his care, control or management".

But Sandery's lawyer, Andrew Moffa, said the gun did not belong to his client who, along with his family, had been "spirited out of the premises" after the shooting on September 30, 2011.

Sandery, 41, has pleaded not guilty to possessing the SKS semi-automatic rifle without a licence on December 20, 2011 at Semaphore and to possessing a gun while a firearm prohibition order was in place.

On Monday in the South Australian District Court, Mr Nitschke told Judge Sydney Tilmouth - who is hearing the trial without a jury - that the rifle was located by police on a coffee table in the lounge room.

Police also found about 740 rounds of various calibres of ammunition, some being suitable for use in the SKS.

DNA testing was inconclusive, while the only fingerprint found belonged to another man, Mr Nitschke said.

Sandery, whose lease was brought to an end after the shooting, was in the process of moving furniture out of the property and had arranged for tradesmen to carry out work in order to hand back the property to the real estate agent, the prosecutor said.

Mr Moffa said Sandery moved interstate after the shooting, but returned to Adelaide regularly to visit his son in hospital and to arrange for tradesmen to work on the Semaphore property.

"The gun is not ours, we were not in possession of it and we don't know about it," he told the judge.

The hearing is continuing.

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