Chef gets 15 years for cooking wife

David Viens in court during the sentencing phase of his murder trial in Los Angeles. Picture: Nick Ut/AP Source: AP

A US chef who told police he cooked his wife's body in boiling water has been sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.

But in a new twist on Friday, he told a judge the story, which could have been a script for a horror movie, was a lie.

David Viens gave a rambling, 45-minute speech during his sentencing hearing, saying that when police questioned him two years after his wife's disappearance, he was hallucinating and had made up the story about cooking his wife.

"I loved my wife. I didn't cook my wife," Viens said.

"I'd like the opportunity to testify."

Viens, 49, was convicted last September of killing of 39-year-old Dawn Viens in 2009. Her body was never found.

Police all but demolished the restaurant that Viens and his wife operated looking for evidence of a cooked body but found nothing.

David Viens said the story he gave authorities came after he had been in surgery for injuries he suffered when he jumped off a cliff. Most of the bones in his body were broken and he has been in a wheelchair since then.

"I'm hallucinating the whole time I'm there," he said of the interview.

"I'd been on an operating table 12 hours."

Authorities said Viens leapt off the cliff after learning he was a suspect in the case.

In the recorded interrogation presented at trial, Viens said he had argued with his wife of 17 years, taped her hands and feet, duct-taped her mouth and went to bed. When he awoke, he said, she was dead.

He told police he then cooked her body for four days to get rid of the evidence.

Superior Court Judge Rand Rubin noted that within two weeks after his wife's disappearance Viens had a new girlfriend living with him and went on with his life.

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Uranium mine still leaking 30 years on

SHUT DOWN: The closed Mary Kathleen uranium mine near Mount Isa in Central Queensland. Source: The Courier-Mail

THE state's last uranium mine at Mary Kathleen - in the Selwyn Range between Mount Isa and Cloncurry - is still leaking radioactive water from the site 30 years after production stopped.

But, according to a committee report handed to the State Government this week, the return of uranium mining to Queensland is "risky but manageable".

"The uranium mining industry has a number of inherent environmental risks," the report said.

"In general, these risks are consistent with other large-scale mining activities . . . and are manageable."

The report says the Mary Kathleen mine's pit is still full of highly contaminated water to a depth of about 50m, and since the mine closed in 1982, several other studies have found "ongoing environmental legacy issues".

Those include the seepage of acidic, metal-rich, radioactive waters from the base of the tailings dam into the former evaporation ponds and local drainage system.

Surface waters downstream of the mine's tailings dam have concentrations of contaminants that exceed the Australian water quality guideline values for livestock drinking water.

Australian Conservation Foundation spokesman Dave Sweeney said there was no evidence that uranium mining was safe because not one former mine had been rehabilitated properly.

"In the Northern Territory there is a range of old mines, maybe a dozen or more, that are still being cleaned up 50 years after the event," Mr Sweeney said.

Although Mary Kathleen is no longer considered an economic uranium mine, it does have a resource of minerals known as rare earths which are used in consumer technology products such as smartphones and tablet computers.

The remaining uranium could be mined in conjunction with the rare earths.

Queensland Mines Minister Andrew Cripps said a new uranium mine at Ben Lomond would fall under a rigorous standard that was the best in the world.

The State Government said new approvals for uranium mining would be based on a system to ensure remediation of mine sites.

A spokeswoman for the minister said any restart of activity at the abandoned Mary Kathleen mine would require a rigorous environmental assessment by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection.

So far the Government's survey has found only 10 potential deposits in Queensland, but it claimed any new uranium mine would probably employ about 700 people and cost more than $300 million.

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'Tahitian prince' gets 14 years in jail

A fake Tahitian prince has pleaded guilty to stealing $16 million from Queensland Health. Source: AAP

A FAKE Tahitian prince who fleeced $16.6 million from Queensland taxpayers forged documents carrying the health minister's name, a court has been told.

A sentencing hearing for Joel Morehu-Barlow has also been told he had previously faced court for stealing from an employer in New Zealand.

The 37-year-old pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court on Tuesday to eight offences including aggravated fraud as an employee, forgery, uttering a forged document and possessing drugs.

The charges relate to him defrauding the Queensland health department of millions of dollars when he worked there between 2007 and 2011.

He ripped off taxpayers while pretending to be a Tahitian prince, and led an extravagant lifestyle while showering lavish gifts on friends and colleagues.

Prosecutor Todd Fuller SC told the court Morehu-Barlow had previously appeared in court for stealing from an employer across the Tasman.

In 1999, he received an eight-month non-residential sentence in New Zealand for a charge of stealing around $32,000 as a servant.

He received a similar sentence at the same time for using a document for fraudulent advantage.

No details were given as to the identity of his employer at the time.

Mr Fuller said the offending was in a similar vein to his latest offences, which involved him approving payments from Queensland Health.

Most payments were siphoned from a special minister's fund that was designed to provide revenue to charities.

Morehu-Barlow forged a document purporting to be from former health minister Paul Lucas approving a charitable grant, and then transferred the cash to himself, the court heard.

He also used other official documents for his own fraudulent activity.

The fraudulent transactions increased in size until he approved an $11 million payment to himself, which had purportedly been approved for a university dental scheme.

The hearing continues.

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Decade of violence - Iraq 10 years on

Smoke billowing after a missile hit the planning ministry in Baghdad as the Iraqi capital came under heavy US-led bombardment on the first day of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Source: AFP

A DECADE ago today the US and its allies launched the first attack in what was to become a bloody, drawn-out and politically and economically costly war in Iraq.

About 200,000 troops were deployed into the Gulf nation after a series of airstrikes targeting senior leadership assets in the capital Baghdad.

Despite a global outcry against the conflict and a no authorisation from the UN, the United States - backed by troops from Britain, Australia and Poland - launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, based on the premise that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

No such weapons were ever found.

Millions of people around the world marched in protest against the start of the war and on its first anniversary, making them some of the biggest protest marches in history.

Hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets of Sydney in February 2003 to protest against a US-led war against Iraq, continuing a massive anti-war protests around the world. Source: News Limited

The initial invasion by the 'coalition of the willing' was swift and troops faced little resistance, capturing key cities in just 21 days and deposing of Saddam's Ba'athist government.

A statue of Saddam Hussein is toppled in downtown Bagdhad. Picture: Jerome Delay/AP Source: AP

On May 1, 2003 then-US President George W Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" during a speech on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

US President George W. Bush addressing the nation aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 declaring that major combat in Iraq was finished and insisting that US-led forces were making headway. Picture: Stephen Jaffe/AFP Source: AFP

But the worst of the war was still to come, including mass civilian and military casualties, sectarian bloodshed between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims and allegations of torture against US troops at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

It would take the remainder of 2003 to capture Saddam, who was arrested without incident by American troops on December 13 after he was found hiding in a 2.5m hole on a farm Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

This December 14, 2003 file image taken from video, captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein undergoes medical examinations in Baghdad. Source: AP

Saddam was later tried for crimes against humanity and eventually hanged in 2006. A year before he was hanged, Iraqis defied death threats and suicide bombers to turn out for the country’s first free elections in more than 50 years.

Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gestures as he addresses presiding Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin during his trial held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in Iraq Monday, Nov. 28, 2005. Picture: Ben Curtis/AFP Source: AFP

More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives since allied forces invaded. Iraq Body Count, a public record of violent civilian deaths since 2003, estimates the civilian death toll at between 111,762 - 122,224.

Military combat deaths total more than 4,800, with US troops by far the biggest casualties with 4486 troops killed in Iraq in the past decade. Three Australians were killed in accidents or while serving with UK forces.

An Iraqi woman holds her ballot and ID card as she readies to vote at a polling station in the mainly Shiite Muslim Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. Picture: Karim Sahib/AFP Source: AFP

Violence continues to be a regular occurrence across the country with the latest incident on the weekend, a car bombing in the southern city of Basra, killing 10 people.

Attacks in Basra are relatively rare compared with other areas of Iraq, especially the centre, west and north.

Violence has decreased from its peak in 2006 and 2007 when sectarian bloodshed raged between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, but a decade after the US-led invasion attacks remain common, killing an estimated 220 people last month.

A member of Iraq's internal security forces inspects the damage outside the Iraqi justice ministry in Baghdad on March 15, 2013. Source: AFP

Several incidents during the ten-year conflict sparked global outcry, most notably, allegations of torture against Iraqi prisoners.

In April 2004 the world was outraged after photos were released showing US troops laughing and posing with naked Iraqi detainees who they had forced into sexually humiliating positions at Abu Ghraib prison.

Reports emerged alleging prisoners had been tortured, raped and sodomised in the prison. Eleven soldiers were convicted on various charges in relation to abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, which George W Bush called "deeply disgusting" and not reflective of the nature of the American people.

An unidentified detainee standing on a box with a bag on his head and wires attatched to him in late 2003 at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Source: AP

Ten years on from the start of conflict Americans remain divided over the war, with a majority believing it was a mistake, according to a poll.

The Gallup survey, the first since US forces withdrew from Iraq in December 2011, showed Americans are still split over the war, with 53 per cent saying they regret the decision to invade and 42 per cent saying it was not a mistake.

Opposition to the war among Americans peaked in April 2008, when 63 per cent called the invasion a mistake.

It took more than eight years from George W Bush's Mission Accomplished speech to withdraw US troops from Iraq with the US formally announcing an end to operations on December 15, 2011.

The war in Iraq had cost the US more than $1 trillion and thousands of lives.

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Husband charged 21 years after deaths

    Source: The Courier-Mail

FOR 21 years, Vicki Arnold's family has been told the mild-mannered chartered accountant bashed her best friend with a rock, slit her throat and shot her twice before turning the gun on herself - firing two shots through her own head in an apparent murder-suicide.

She did this, according to a police investigation and two coronial inquests, despite having no motive and no history of depression or any other mental health issues.

Yesterday, State Coroner Michael Barnes tore holes in the findings of police and the previous inquests - declaring it was more likely Ms Arnold, 27, and her best friend Julie-Anne Leahy, 26, were murdered.

In an extraordinary hearing before a packed courtroom, Mr Barnes ordered Mrs Leahy's husband Alan stand trial on two counts of murder.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and he is expected to be extradited from Western Australia to face court in Queensland.

Mr Leahy yesterday told The Courier-Mail he would maintain his innocence.

"Of course I will fight the charges," he said.

The bodies of the women were found inside the Leahy family 4WD in remote bushland near Cairns in August 1991 - two weeks after they failed to return from a late-night fishing trip.

ARREST ORDERED: Vicki Arnold's vehicle at the crime scene. Picture: Aaron Francis

"Those involved in the early stages of the investigation failed to gather, lost or corrupted evidence that may have established the truth of what happened at Cherry Tree Creek on the night of July 26, 1991," Mr Barnes said.

"They then set about squeezing what evidence was left into an explanation that required no further action."

He said two coronial inquests went along with the police opinion that the women's deaths were an open-shut murder-suicide.

The court heard Mrs Leahy's husband told police the women had left home after midnight to go fishing and never returned.

Mr Barnes said it was telling that Mr Leahy spent that night in bed with his wife's 16-year-old sister Vanessa.

"Alan Leahy spent considerable time in his wife's sister's bed on the night the two women disappeared," he said.

"A possible interpretation for what would seem cavalier behaviour is that he knew his wife would not be returning."

SLOW JUSTICE: Vicki Arnold's family at her graveside August 14, 1991. Picture: Aaron Francis

Mr Barnes also found:

• While Ms Arnold had bought the gun that was used to shoot the women, the most likely scenario was that she had done so for someone else. Mr Barnes said she knew nothing about guns, yet insisted on buying a .22 rifle while giving various explanations as to why she needed it.
• Ms Arnold had neither the equipment or the know-how to saw down a rifle. Mr Leahy did and lied about owning a vice, which would have been used to shorten the barrel.
• Ms Arnold had no motive, appeared content the night she disappeared and had apparently embarked on a midnight fishing trip despite having made work appointments for 6am the following day.
• It was unlikely Ms Arnold had shot herself in the back of the head after first shooting herself in the thigh and chin.
• Trajectory examinations found one bullet was likely fired from the back seat.
• The sawn-off barrel from the gun, a hacksaw and instruction manual were placed inside a pillow slip from the Leahy house and left in Ms Arnold's driveway two weeks after her body was found. Mr Barnes said "only someone who had themselves been involved in the deaths had a motive to do that".

He said while Ms Arnold did not appear to have a motive, Mr Leahy did.

The court heard Mr Leahy had been having an affair with his sister-in-law, had mounting debts and stood to gain $120,000 from his wife's life insurance. He also lied about owning true crime magazines - one depicting a murder made to look like a murder-suicide. The court heard the day before the women disappeared, Mrs Leahy had asked her younger sister to stay home from school - a request the teenager was convinced meant Mrs Leahy wanted to confront her about the affair.

Mr Barnes ordered Mr Leahy to stand trial at the next sittings of the Supreme Court in Cairns, giving him 14 days to surrender to police.

The women's relatives in court - and others viewing the hearing live in Cairns - cried and applauded as Mr Barnes delivered his finding.

Mrs Leahy's brother Peter Martin punched the air.

"I'm on top of the world," he said. "(The decision) takes Vicki straight out of the picture - as it should have been from word go. We can wake up tomorrow morning and have a smile on our face."

SHOT DEAD: Best friends Vicki Arnold and Julie-Anne Leahy

In Cairns, Ms Arnold's wheelchair-bound mother Vida sobbed as Mr Leahy was ordered to stand trial.

"I've waited nearly 22 years for this result," she said. "I've lost a lot of sleep over the years. Who knows if I'll get any sleep tonight." She thanked Mr Barnes, her lawyer Philip Bovey and State MP Curtis Pitt for correcting a "miscarriage of justice".

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THE EVIDENCE

The crime scene

Mrs Leahy's throat was slashed, her body held upright in the driver's seat by a seat belt wrapped around her neck. She had been bashed with a rock and shot twice in the head. Ms Arnold's body was slumped on the passenger-side floor with bullet wounds to her thigh, jaw and behind the right ear, her hand resting on the stock of a sawn-off rifle with a shell in the breech.

State Coroner Michael Barnes said he doubted the gun would have come to rest in such a manner.

The assumption

Within four hours, police declared the incident a murder-suicide. The crime scene was cleared and the 4WD towed to Yungaburra, where it was stored inappropriately and the elements tainted any forensic evidence.

The gun

LONG BLAMED: Vicki Arnold at work in her Hall Chadwick office. Picture: Aaron Francis

The gun's barrel and the hacksaw used to cut it down were discovered in Ms Arnold's garage two weeks after the women were found dead. Two police officers, Bill Hendrikse and Sgt Bernie Wilce, swore in the witness box the pillow case containing the parts was not there during an initial search of the unit. Ms Arnold's former neighbour, Pamela Fox, said she found the gun parts in the garage the day after she saw someone running from the home during the night.

The magazines

Mr Leahy gave police a series of murder-themed magazines after the women's deaths. He told officers Ms Arnold borrowed them from the Leahy household. But he told the inquest he did not remember the magazines belonging to the family - despite most of them having the name "Leahy" scrawled on the inside cover.

The sister

During the hearing Mrs Leahy's teenage sister, Vanessa, gave evidence that she was in a sexual relationship with Mr Leahy and was terrified her sister would find out.

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MURDER MYSTERY AT CHERRY TREE CREEK

How the events unfolded

July 26, 1991: Julie-Anne Leahy, 26, and Vicki Arnold, 27, are reported missing after Mrs Leahy's husband, Alan, says they failed to return from a fishing trip to Lake Tinaroo.

August 9, 1991: Trailbike riders find the women's bodies about 5pm in the the Leahy family's Nissan Patrol, about 15km out of Atherton on a bush track. Despite the bizarre scene, police rule their deaths a murder-suicide and the vehicle and bodies are hastily removed.

July 30, 1992: First inquest into the women's deaths begins at Atherton Coroner's Court. After hearing the evidence, Coroner Hamilton Spicer supports the murder-suicide theory.

July, 1997: Police Minister Russell Cooper announces a reopening of the controversial case, appointing former senior investigators Carl Mengler and Frank O'Gorman. A week later, convicted murderer Gregory De Jong tells detectives that notorious drug dealer Christopher Dunlea, whom De Jong confessed to shooting in 1994, admitted to him that he killed the pair.

May, 1998: The Mengler and O'Gorman report is highly critical of the original police investigation.

April 19, 1999: A second inquest into the women's deaths begins. The Coroner's Court hears of Ms Leahy's younger sister Vanessa's affair with her husband. A forensic expert tells the court it would be highly unlikely a person would shoot themself in the head twice.

February 21, 2000: Coroner Gary Casey rules again in favour of the murder-suicide theory. The Arnold and Leahy families are stunned.

September, 2005: Former Far North detective Bill Hendrikse, one of the first officers at the scene, claims a senior police officer refused to order an investigation into the suspected double murder because of overtime costs.

July, 2008: Homicide detectives investigate whether the women were killed because they knew too much about a bungled bank robbery after a witness comes forward with fresh evidence.

October 23, 2010: Attorney-general Cameron Dick announces a third inquest will be held after lobbying from Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt - Bill Hendrikse's nephew.

November 14, 2011: Third inquest begins before State Coroner Michael Barnes and hears evidence shedding doubt on the adequacy of the initial police investigation, and some expert witnesses say they lean more towards a double-murder scenario.

March 1, 2013: Mr Barnes hands down his findings and commits Alan Leahy to stand trial for murder.

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Four years' jail for smuggler pilot

A PILOT who attempted to smuggle more than $1 million worth of methamphetamine through Sydney Airport has been jailed for at least four years.

Thiagu Supramaniam, who was about to be promoted to a position as a Boeing 747 captain with Malaysia Airlines, was caught with 4.49kg of methamphetamine which he was meant to drop off to another drug courier at the Stamford Hotel in Mascot.

Customs and Border Patrol officers caught the 32-year-old with the drugs when they conducted a random inspection of his aircraft after it arrived from Kuala Lumpur on January 10 last year.

They found six packages of the drugs concealed in his luggage when they conducted the random search on arrival.

The details emerged in the District Court yesterday when Judge Ian McClintock jailed Supramaniam for six years with a non-parole period of four years.

Supramaniam pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of the drug, which had an 80 per cent purity level.

He told investigators he had imported similar packages into Australia on four occasions prior to his arrest.

The court also heard he had succumbed to a gambling addiction which ended with a loan shark, connected to drug cartels, who seized his personal identification documents and threatened his family.

By betting on soccer matches starting with the 2008 Euro Cup, Supramaniam had accumulated more than $15,000 in debts and was being crushed by insurmountable interest, the court heard.

He was to be paid $1500 for importing each package of the drugs into Australia.

According to travel records, Supramaniam had travelled to Australia for one-night stays 47 times over six months in 2011, the court heard.

He will be eligible for parole in January, 2016.

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