Richard Ferguson

Birkins, Rolex and a $400,000 mystery item: police raid on home of alleged Chinese spy A woman accused of spying on a Canberra Buddhist association was paid more than $200,000 by the Chinese government, and was taking instructions from a mysterious security official over encrypted messaging platform WeChat, federal police officers will allege. Officers executing a search warrant on the woman’s home last month located hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ­luxury goods, according to fresh court documents, including a Rolex watch receipt and large boxes of high-end handbags “that were too numerous to practicably count”. Police also found a receipt for a mystery item costing $400,000. The woman, who cannot be named due to a suppression order, is alleged to have been working as a “proxy” to covertly gather ­information for an official working for China’s security bureau about Canberra’s Guan Yin Citta Buddhist Association. Full story in The Australian: l.taus.au/C3U

A Darwin woman has been charged with murdering her abusive partner after allegedly stabbing him in the legs, as part of an extraordinary escalation of the Northern Territory’s domestic violence crisis. Maria Jimmy, 31, faced ­Darwin Local Court on Monday after being charged with the murder of her partner, Ethan Anzac, who had a violent history of crimes against women and was once branded a “bully and a coward” by a judge when he was being sentenced for rape. Police will allege Ms Jimmy, who has no prior criminal ­history, stabbed the 33-year-old twice in the back of his legs while in the presence of others in a suburb north of Darwin CBD on ­Friday night, causing him to bleed to death. Sources say she cooperated with police after being arrested at the scene, but police have no reliable witnesses due to the amount of alcohol consumed by those nearby. Police believe Mr Anzac was in breach of a domestic violence order protecting Ms Jimmy at the time of his alleged murder, which restricted him from going near her while drunk or causing any harm to her. Mr Anzac, who had previously been sentenced to a six-year, non-parole period in prison for a brutal rape, was most ­recently in court on January 17 when he pleaded guilty to three counts of contravening a DVO and two counts of aggravated ­assault. Full story: l.taus.au/JCw |

A man with a “massive domestic violence history”, banned from contacting his partner after allegedly threatening to kill her, is in custody following the death of the woman in Darwin. In what is now the third alleged case Territory police are treating as a possible domestic violence homicide in 2025, a 39-year-old man was arrested following the “suspicious” death of a woman, 40, on Monday morning. At the time of the woman’s death the man in custody was on bail for seven charges, six of which involved alleged violent offending. Full story: l.taus.au/BWF

First photos of Alan Jones departing his harbourside apartment - under arrest - in an undercover police car. Full coverage throughout the day here: l.taus.au/FOC