The Age – 20th August 2004
OKLAHOMA CITY. A judge facing removal over charges that he masturbated and used a device for enhancing erections under his robes during trials is retiring from the bench.
Creek County District Judge Donald Thompson, 57, will resign on September 1, a move that will allow him to retire with a full pension.
A former state representative and a judge for 22 years, Judge Thompson was accused by Oklahoma Attorney-General Drew Edmondson of using a “penis pump” to enhance erections during trials and exposing himself to a court reporter several times while masturbating on the bench.
Authorities were scheduled to hear a motion today to suspend Judge Thompson.
He has denied the charges and did not refer to them in his letter of resignation.
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The Australian – 19th August 2004
HONG Kong police are trying to flush out thieves who have been stealing fixtures and fittings from public toilets, officers said today.
Taps, toilet-paper holders, electric fans and even an entrance gate had been swiped from conveniences in the Kowloon district of the city in a spree that had cost authorities tens of thousands of dollars, they said.
The petty potty thefts come after eight manhole covers and street-drain covers were carted away in January.
Officers said the demand for cheap metal in booming China was believed to be the cause of the thefts
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The Australian – 19th August 2004
A NSW police radio operator has been awarded $20,000 in damages after a colleague gave her unwanted massages and hugs.
Radio operator at the Newcastle Police Communications Unit, Rachel Dee, filed a sexual harassment and discrimination complaint with the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) against her colleague Barry Lalonde.
She claimed Mr Lalonde gave her unwanted massages and “full body hugs” between July 1998 and July 1999.
She also took action against her employer, NSW Police.
The ADT ruled the unwanted massages and hugs did amount to sexual harassment because they were “offensive, humiliating and intimidating” and awarded her $20,000.
The tribunal also agreed with Ms Dee’s claim that the behaviour constituted sexual discrimination because “Mr Lalonde did not rub the shoulders of his male colleagues and did not give them full body hugs”.
It found the NSW Police force was vicariously liable for Mr Lalonde’s behaviour and would have to pay the $20,000 because it had been ineffective in dealing with Ms Dee’s complaints.
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The Australian – 19th August 2004
A ROMANIAN man who submitted a written request for a phone line in 1976 finally received a reply, 28 years later, from Romania’s state-run Romtelecom.
More astounding than the delay, however, was the message.
“We inform you that we still do not have any lines available,” said the letter, addressed to Gheorghe Titianu.
“But if you maintain your request,” it continued, offering a glimmer of hope, “please fill out the attached form.”
Titianu had the courtesy to answer. “I am honored that you have not forgotten me after 28 years,” he wrote, tongue firmly in cheek.
“But in the meantime I have gotten married, had two children and have even gotten a phone line in my new home.”
Romtelecom took the incident — which it described as “nothing exceptional” — in stride.
“A lot of people who request lines die in the meantime, which is why we like to confirm that a request is still current,” a customer service representative told AFP by phone.
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The Australian – Aug 12th 2004
LONDON: A rapist serving a life sentence in Britain has won pound stg. 7 million ($18 million) in the National Lottery after buying a ticket while on weekend leave.
Iorworth Hoare, 52, was on release from a Middlesbrough bail hostel when his numbers came up in Saturday’s Lotto Extra draw.
His catalogue of sex crimes, starting in his 20s, includes one rape, two attempted rapes and three indecent assaults.
He served 14 years in prison between 1973 and 1987 and was jailed for life two years later for attempting to rape a 60-year-old woman in a Leeds park.
The judge who sentenced Hoare told him: “Every moment you are at liberty some woman is at risk.”
Under Home Office guidelines prisoners in open conditions — on day release or in a community project — are allowed to take part in the lottery and claim prizes. They can also play the football pools.
Other prisoners said Hoare “looked smug” on his return to jail and told them: “I’m made for life now. I’ll do well from here on in till the day I die.”
He has since been upgraded to a closed prison for “security and his own safety”, prison officials said.
A prison source was quoted as saying that “there’s always a danger that when you let somebody out on weekend leave and they’ve got lorry-loads of cash that the first thing they’ll do is buy a plane ticket to Rio”.
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We are leaving in a weird world, aren’t we?