Organisers of the No More rallies say number of attacks keeps rising amid calls for prime minister Anthony Albanese to declare ‘epidemic’ a national emergency Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Thousands of people are set to take to the streets this weekend in 17 rallies across Australia calling for greater action on a growing epidemic of women killed in violent attacks. Organised by advocacy group What Were You Wearing (WWYW), the first rallies will be held in Ballarat and Newcastle on Friday. Sign ..read more

Court hears charges against Cobram man John Torney include assault and intentionally causing injury Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast Cobram man John Torney, who allegedly assaulted Emma Bates before she was found dead in northern Victoria, has faced a regional Victorian court. Torney appeared in the Shepparton magistrates court on Friday, flanked by two police officers ..read more

Queenslander Daniel Billings was on bail for earlier charges including stalking and cruelty before arrest for alleged murder, NSW court hears Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast A man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend in regional New South Wales while on bail for rape and stalking charges against her will remain behind bars. Daniel Billings has been charged with the domestic violence murder of Molly Ticehurst, 28, whose body was found in a Forbes homes in the early hours of Monday. Sign up for G ..read more

Despite having Australia’s highest rates of domestic violence, particularly against Indigenous women, the NT only receives about 1% of federal funding, senators hear Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast She was a domestic and family violence advocate; a leader in her community and the country. But in 2021 Kumarn Rubuntja was murdered by her partner, Malcolm Abbott. “We lost one of our own,” the Tangentyere family violence prevention manager, Dr Chay Brown, told the murdered and missing First Nations w ..read more

The former tennis star has been cheered – and booed – in the highest arenas of the sport. But after a life of abuse and elite sport, she’s found a new calling Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email When Jelena Dokic released her biography Unbreakable nearly seven years ago, she had no idea of the impact it would have on people, let alone on herself. By laying out in detail the emotional and physical abuse she says she suffered throughout her tennis career at the hands of her father, Dokic unleashed a wave that would shape the next phase of her life. It wasn’t just the outpouring of supp ..read more

Coroner told police taken by ‘surprise’ when James Fairhall was released from custody before 2020 killing Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast A man who fatally stabbed his ex-partner in front of their three children was wanted by police for months, but they didn’t arrest him until she was dead. An inquest into the 2020 death of Noeline Dalzell is investigating how police and other state government services failed to protect her and their three teenage children from James Fairhall, despite his long hi ..read more

The reporter who covered the trial for the Observer recalls the twists and turns of the double murder trial – and how the jury reached its verdict with astonishing speed When the jury sent word they would deliver their verdict in the OJ Simpson double murder trial, the rest of America was caught by surprise, myself included. It had taken four hours to rule on nine months of evidence as to whether one of the country’s most famous black men had killed his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her young friend, Ronald Goldman. It felt far too quick. The televised case in 1995 had been an astonishi ..read more

Thirty years after I covered the ‘trial of the century’, its themes of race, misogyny, policing and celebrity still affect and define the nation It wasn’t the Kennedy assassination, but I remember exactly where I was on 3 October 1995 when a Los Angeles jury delivered its verdict in the OJ Simpson trial. A novice US correspondent for this newspaper, I was hunched over a primitive laptop, ready to press send on the piece that I had already drafted, confidently explaining to UK readers why the jurors had convicted an American sporting legend of double murder and the likely impact of their decisi ..read more

The 1994 murders of Simpson’s ex and her friend Ron Goldman are inextricable from society’s failure of domestic abuse victims OJ Simpson is dead, and Nicole Brown should still be alive. Simpson, the longtime batterer and stalker of Nicole Brown Simpson, and the man who all but confessed to her gruesome stabbing murder in June of 1994, died on Wednesday of cancer. He died at his home in Las Vegas, “surrounded by his children and grandchildren”, according to a statement issued by his family. He was 76. Simpson died in bed, receiving medical care to make him comfortable, at the end of his natural ..read more

Reactions to Simpson’s death range from points about domestic violence, to the decline of broadcast news to US race relations OJ Simpson has died at the age of 76 and the words of remembrance people have been sharing reflect his complicated, infamous life. Usually the death of a celebrity prompts a flood of similar-sounding tributes, remembering the highlights of their lives and keeping a respectful distance on any of the lower moments and controversies. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or ..read more