A well-known GP has been found not guilty of 50 counts of sexual and indecent assault after the longest criminal trial in Newcastle’s history. But after deliberating for more than nine weeks, the jury were deadlocked on the remaining 16 counts against Doctor Jeremy Coleman. The year-long trial came to a sudden halt on Monday when three members of the jury gave evidence that they were unlikely to reach unanimous or majority verdicts on the remaining counts. Judge Penny Hock discharged the jury, bringing to an end the marathon trial. Dr Coleman, 64, a general physician, allergy and immunology specialist who has seen more than 40,000 patients and conducted more than 150,000 consultations during his career, had pleaded not guilty to 66 counts of sexual and indecent assault against 46 female patients between 1989 and 2013. The well-known doctor’s defence, led by barrister Pauline David, had said repeatedly that Dr Coleman’s only purpose for examining or touching any of his patients was a medical one. “He is a highly trained and highly capable medical doctor,” Ms David said. “It was his job to examine them, it was his job to touch them.” If the examination took place there was a medical reason for it, the defence said. But for some allegations Dr Coleman denied the examinations took place or disagreed the consultations occurred the way the women claimed. It appears that the jury agreed.
September 3, 2018
An outbreak of influenza-A at a Mornington aged care home has prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to warn of the importance of limiting the spread of the disease.
September 3, 2018
The paramedics union has condemned the actions of dozens of men who allegedly attacked paramedics who were trying to save a man in Sydney who did not survive. Paramedics were called to a unit block on Iris Avenue, Riverwood, in Sydney’s west, about 8am on Sunday for a 25-year-old man suffering a suspected drug overdose. Family members of the dying man became irate and tried to intervene, the Australian Paramedics Association said in a statement. Up to 80 angry men quickly gathered at the unit and allegedly threatened the health workers and charged at a female paramedic, injuring her shoulder. ‘Paramedics were forced to fend off angry males who eventually forced them to stop treating the patient who was in cardiac arrest and subsequently died,’ APA secretary Steve Pearce said. The paramedics barricaded themselves inside the unit as the violent mob demanded a defibrillator and drugs, believing they could treat the young man themselves, Mr Pearce added. About 20 police including officers from the Police Rescue squad arrived at the scene to save the five paramedics. But the patient had died.
September 3, 2018
The Health Services Union (015V) and Mercy Hospitals Victoria Ltd T/A Mercy Health have a s.739 matter before Commissioner Cribb in Conference Room E – in Melbourne at 11.30am.
September 3, 2018
The Trustee for Innisfail Health Centre Trust T/A Innisfail Family Health will face a s.372 (Application to deal with general protections not involving dismissal) in front of Fair Work Commissioner Simpson in Hearing Room 2 Fair Work Commission Central Plaza Two Level 14 66 Eagle Street Brisbane at 2pm (Fairfull).
September 3, 2018
St Mina Medical Centre will defend a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Commissioner Cribb in Conference Room E – Level 6 11 Exhibition St Melbourne 3000 at 3pm (Scannell).
September 3, 2018
St John ambulance has apologised to a female patient and disciplined a paramedic who told her she had a throat infection and hadn’t drunk enough water when she actually had pneumonia. An internal investigation also found the staff member had made inappropriate comments about the woman’s anxious mother, which the ambulance service has labelled “extremely unprofessional, offensive and unwarranted”. Two St John paramedics were called to the woman’s East Auckland home in July 2017 after her mother called 111, saying her daughter was struggling to breathe. The woman said the male paramedic told her she had “brought this on herself for not drinking enough water”, after saying she didn’t like water much. “I was very upset, I was made to feel as though I was wasting his time and that neither me or my symptoms mattered. I was apparently just being dramatic,” the woman said. Her mother said the male paramedic diagnosed her daughter with a throat infection and made the comment that “there were already 600 patients at Middlemore ED just like her”. The mother said she was shocked as she was genuinely fearing for her daughter’s life at the time. “I could see she was terrified and he … wouldn’t help her,” the mother said. “My daughter then told me that while in the back of the ambulance [the male paramedic] said to his partner they should have been treating the mother and pointed to his head and alluded that I was unhinged.” The woman was diagnosed with pneumonia once she got to hospital and remained unwell for several months. Her mother laid a complaint with St John.
September 3, 2018
A man convicted of murdering two nursing home residents is appealing his lengthy jail term on the basis there was no motive, and claims the killer may have been a woman. Garry Steven Davis was sentenced in December 2016 to 40 years in jail for murdering two residents and attempting to murder a third in 2013 at Wallsend’s SummitCare nursing home. Residents Gwen Fowler, 83, and Ryan Kelly, 80, died as a result of insulin injections. Audrey Manuel, 91, recovered but had since died from unrelated causes. Davis was found guilty of all three offences in a judge-only trial presided over by Supreme Court Justice Robert Hulme. Justice Hulme said Davis had acted with extreme callousness, and it was as if he thought the residents’ lives were worthless. During the trial, the defence agreed with the Crown that none of the victims were insulin-dependent, but in his submission to the Court of Criminal Appeal, solicitor Mark Ramsland said there was no proof it had been Davis who gave the victims the insulin. It was the prosecution’s circumstantial case that Mr Davis was the only person who could have injected all three residents. But the defence submission said not enough weight had been given to evidence by police that 19 other staff members and five other people were potential suspects. They were all in the home at the relevant time, but the Crown successfully argued they could be ruled out. “It is submitted that there was a possibility reasonably open on the facts that these offences had been committed by two or more people, where in pursuit of a joint criminal enterprise or otherwise,” Mr Ramsland said.
