On 18 November 2011, an early morning fire at Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney, Australia killed eleven elderly residents, seriously injured others and caused the evacuation of up to 100 people. [1] [2] Three people died in the fire, and a further eight residents of the home died later in hospital from their injuries. [3] [4] The fire started in two places and was regarded by police as suspicious. [1] A nurse working in the home, 36-year-old Roger Dean, was arrested and charged with four counts of murder. [5] He was later charged over more subsequent deaths. [6]
At 4:53am on 18 November 2011, Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) responded to an automatic fire alarm at the Quakers Hill nursing home. [7] The fire was started in two separate wings, one occupied and one not. This caused initial confusion for the nearly 100 firefighters dispatched to the scene. Along with the firefighters, twenty fire appliances were also sent out. [7] Four workers were present and helped evacuate almost 100 sick or elderly patients, some of whom were immobile. Roger Dean, a nurse working in the home, was accused of stealing painkillers the night before the fire. He set the fires in an attempt to hide the evidence of his crime. It is said the crime could have been prevented with quicker action by the nursing home. [8] The fire was completely preventable, according to several firefighters, but at the time Australia had no law requiring nursing homes to have sprinklers installed. [9]
Dean was arrested and charged with four counts of murder. [5] He was later charged over more subsequent deaths. [6] In November 2012, he pleaded not guilty to eight counts of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and eleven counts of murder. He had wished to plead guilty to manslaughter, but that was rejected by the Crown. He did plead guilty to two larceny charges relating to theft of prescription painkillers from the nursing home. He stood trial in the Supreme Court in May 2013. [10] Later the same month, Dean pleaded guilty to eleven counts of murder, [11] and in August 2013 he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. [12]
In September 2014, an inquest into the deaths opened, and its results were released in March 2015. After finding that the nursing home operators Domain Principal Group (now known as Opal Aged Care) [13] didn't look into Dean's past before employment, Hugh Dillon, the NSW deputy coroner recommended: a database of healthcare workers be created with details of their background; that workers be trained to recognize signs of co-workers abusing drugs; and that nursing home door and corridors be constructed to allow beds to be moved rapidly during emergencies. Dillon also suggested that two fire-fighters receive bravery awards. [14]
As of March 2015 [update] Opal Aged Care has 69 homes in Australia. [14]
As a result of the fire, nursing homes in Australia are now required by law to install sprinklers. [7]
Quakers Hill is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 40 kilometres (25 mi) westnorth-west (WNW) of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Blacktown. Quakers Hill is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Quakers Hill is colloquially known as 'Quakers'.
Roger Caleb Rogerson was an Australian detective sergeant in the New South Wales Police Force and a convicted murderer. During his career, Rogerson received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty, before being implicated in two killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing, and then being dismissed from the force in 1986.
Anita Lorraine Cobby was a 26-year-old Australian woman from Blacktown, New South Wales, who was kidnapped while walking home from Blacktown railway station just before 10:00 p.m. on 2 February 1986, and subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered.
The Claremont serial killings is the name given by the media to a case involving the disappearance of an Australian woman, aged 18, and the killings of two others, aged 23 and 27, in 1996–1997. After attending night spots in Claremont, Perth, Western Australia, all three women disappeared in similar circumstances leading police to suspect that an unidentified serial killer was the offender. The case was described as the state's biggest, longest running, and most expensive investigation.
This is a timeline of major crimes in Australia.
Koby Abberton, an Australian former professional surfer, is a member of the Australian surf gang the Bra Boys. He rose to local prominence in 2006, when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in an incident surrounding his brother Jai Abberton, who was charged but found not guilty of the 2003 murder of stand-over man Anthony 'Tony' Hines. Together with his brothers, Abberton achieved national and international attention in 2007 with the release of a feature-length documentary entitled Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water, written and directed by members of the Bra Boys. In November 2008, Koby Abberton was jailed for three days by a US court after being found guilty of assaulting an off-duty police officer in a fight outside a nightclub in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2021, Koby appeared on the TV show SAS Australia.
DLASTHR is an Assyrian criminal organization that is active in the south western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The group is said to have originated from another gang, called the Assyrian Kings. The crime gang was formed by Raymon Youmaran who is now serving a 17-year sentence for the murder of Dimitri DeBaz in 2002.
The body of Dean Shillingsworth was discovered by children in a pond in Mandurama Reserve at Ambarvale, New South Wales, Australia on 17 October 2007. The child's body was wrapped in two plastic bags contained within a tartan suitcase. Due to the length of time the child was in the water, the body was decomposed. The local police set up a crime scene which was investigated by NSW Police Forensic Services Group. The forensic evidence and investigation led to the boy's mother. Police subsequently arrested his mother, Rachel Pfitzner, who lived in nearby Rosemeadow. She was charged with Dean's murder. She pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to a maximum of 25½ years in prison.
Tina Watson was a 26-year-old American woman from Helena, Alabama, who died while scuba diving in Queensland, Australia, on 22 October 2003. Tina had been on her honeymoon with her new husband, American Gabe Watson, who was initially charged by Queensland authorities with his wife's murder. Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
The Murder of Megan Kalajzich took place in 1986 in Fairlight, New South Wales, Australia. Although he pleaded not guilty, Andrew Kalajzich, the victim’s husband, was found guilty of her murder in May 1988, and sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole. He was released from prison on 8 February 2012.
The Lin family murders occurred in North Epping in the northwestern suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on 18 July 2009. The victims were newsagency proprietor Min Lin; his wife, Yun Lin; their sons, Henry and Terry; and Yun Lin's sister, Irene Lin. The family was bludgeoned to death. Min Lin's sister, Kathy, discovered the bodies. Jun "Brenda" Lin, 15, was the only surviving immediate family member after the incident; she was on a school trip in New Caledonia with Cheltenham Girls High School at the time.
Malcolm John Naden is an Australian former fugitive from the law. At the time of his capture and arrest in March 2012, Naden was reported as being one of Australia's most wanted men and his arrest attracted international media coverage. Naden was in hiding from June 2005 until March 2012, wanted over murder and indecent assault offences. He was the most wanted man in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Megan Fay Latham is a former judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and was the sole Commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption from January 2014 to November 2016.
The Family Court of Australia attacks were a series of shootings and bombings in New South Wales, Australia from 1980 to 1985. They targeted judges and other people associated with the Family Court of Australia. Two people were shot dead, two killed by bombs, a court building was damaged by a bomb, and another bomb was found attached to a motor vehicle. In July 2015, Leonard John Warwick was arrested and charged with multiple offences, including four counts of murder, one of attempted murder, and 13 counts of burning or maiming with an explosive substance. In July 2020, Warwick was found guilty of the majority of the offences he was charged with, including three of the murders. He was found not guilty of the murder of Stephen Blanchard, his brother-in-law.
On 2 October 2015, Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, a 15-year-old boy, shot and killed Curtis Cheng, an unarmed police civilian finance worker, outside the New South Wales Police Force headquarters in Parramatta, Sydney, Australia. Jabar was subsequently shot and killed by special constables who were protecting the headquarters. As of 27 April 2016, four other men have been charged in relation to the shooting, among whom Raban Alou was convicted of terrorism offences in March 2018.
Ronald Edward Medich is an Australian property developer who, on 23 April 2018, was found guilty in the Supreme Court of New South Wales of ordering the 2009 contract murder of Scottish Australian businessman Michael McGurk, and the subsequent intimidation of McGurk's wife, Kimberly. Medich is currently serving a 39-year sentence; and the earliest date he will be eligible for parole is 26 February 2048.
Lynette Joy Dawson was an Australian woman who disappeared on or about 8 January 1982, leaving two daughters and her husband, former rugby league footballer Chris Dawson. Her whereabouts are unknown, but two coronial inquests found that she had been murdered. On 30 August 2022, Chris Dawson was convicted of Lynette's murder and sentenced to 24 years in prison.
Christopher Michael Dawson is an Australian convicted murderer and sex offender, and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s.
The gay gang murders are a series of suspected anti-LGBT hate crimes perpetrated by large gangs of youths in Sydney, between 1970 and 2010, with most occurring in 1989 and 1990. The majority of these occurred at local gay beats, and were known to the police as locations where gangs of teenagers targeted homosexuals. In particular, many deaths are associated with the cliffs of Marks Park, Tamarama, where the victims would allegedly be thrown or herded off the cliffs to their deaths. As many as 88 gay men were murdered by these groups in the period, with many of the deaths unreported, considered accidents or suicides at the time.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)...none of the information relating to the circumstance or termination of Dean's employment was ever communicated to anyone at Quaker Hill nursing home and no inquiries made. (Deputy coroner Dillon)