As it happened: The moment Perth man is arrested over historic rape

City of Bayswater Mayor Filomena Piffaretti has given the owners of the Galleria Morley a spray, saying her patience has “run out”.

She accused them of “neglecting” the shopping centre and its long-term tenants and loyal customers.

Vicinity continues to ignore the impact on our community of a run-down, half-empty shopping centre at our doorstep,” she said.

It’s past time – enough is enough.

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Perth builder Nicheliving no longer has a nominated building supervisor, casting further doubt over the hundreds of unfinished homes still on its books.

Building regulator, Building and Energy, in a statement today, said the company had informed them it intended to appoint a new nominated supervisor.

“Under the Building Services (Registration) Act 2011, a registered building contractor is required to have at least one nominated supervisor. This person must be a registered building practitioner and an officer or employee of the contractor,” the statement read.

“Without a nominated supervisor, the building contractor cannot enter into contracts for, or carry out, work that requires building contractor registration.”

Treasurer Rita Saffioti described the development as a concerning outcome.

“We’re very concerned for all the customers of Niche, there’s some discussions being had between the relevant building authority and Niche currently, those discussions are ongoing,” she said.

But opposition leader Shane Love has questioned what the state government is doing on behalf of the WA families trapped in limbo waiting for their homes to be completed.

“It’s clear that Nicheliving will struggle to complete over 200 unfinished homes, given they are legally unable to undertake any construction work in the absence of a nominated supervisor,” he said.

The 20-year-old man accused of stabbing another on Canning Highway in South Perth yesterday has just appeared in Perth Magistrate’s Court following his arrest.

Tyler Gilmore was remanded in custody, but will make an application for bail in a few weeks.

The magistrate described the alleged offence as a “drug deal gone wrong”.

The victim, a 35-year-old man, was stabbed seven times shortly after meeting up with two other men, aged 18 and 20, around 2.40pm yesterday.

He remains in hospital today in a critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery last night.

The attack occurred in broad daylight and was allegedly witnessed by several people and caught on CCTV.

Gilmore’s lawyer indicated he may argue he acted in self-defence.

A Perth man accused of raping two teenagers in the 1990s has been arrested after being linked to the crimes through genealogy investigations.

Kevin Combes, 54, allegedly raped a 19-year-old woman in a Northbridge in 1990 after grabbing her in an alleyway as she left her shift at a bar.

During his first appearance in the Perth Magistrate’s Court this morning, a WA police prosecutor said Combes allegedly held a knife to the woman’s neck and told her if she screamed, he would kill her, before taking her to a secluded area and assaulting her.

Combes is also accused of raping a 17-year-old girl who gave him a lift in Kalgoorlie in 1991.

It’s alleged he forced her into the boot of her car, took her to a secluded place, and assaulted her.

He was 20 and 21 at the time of the incidents.

Both women had rape kits taken after the assaults and in 2022, the samples were retested and linked to an unknown male.

The police genealogy team then used ancestry DNA profiles to narrow their search to Combes.

The court was told Combes now has a wife and seven children and works as a traffic controller and UberEats driver.

He was granted bail despite the prosecution’s case against him being described as strong.

The grieving parents of Nick Campo, who died in a car crash on Saturday night, have bravely fronted the media this morning to try to prevent a similar tragedy happening to another family.

Campo, 18, was out with friends celebrating his 18th birthday when the car he was a passenger in rolled and collided with another vehicle in North Lake, killing the talented footballer and injuring the other four teens in the car.

His father Daniel said the family would be launching a road safety campaign in his memory called ‘Call out for Nick’, which would focus on educating young people and sports clubs.

“We see it every day, young kids, they think they’re bulletproof, they’re not, they’re not experienced enough to drive cars with others in the back distracted, talking on their phones ... running red lights, hooning, it’s got to stop,” he said.

“It’s our job now to try and make a difference, and talk about it in the future.

“These kids, even adults, at some stage everyone’s done it, you’ve got to call it out if it doesn’t look right.”

One of Nick’s friends remains in a critical condition in hospital following the crash, while the driver, 17, has been charged with several dangerous driving offences.

“Two [of the other teens in the car] were his good footy mates, and we’re just hoping the best for one of them who is still in hospital in a serious condition, so he’s definitely in our thoughts,” Nick’s mother Bianca said.

“My Nick, he was definitely one of a kind, and we have been so overwhelmed by all of the messages, we had no idea really just how many people he has touched.

“It is the worst nightmare that you can imagine, and the pain is just unbearable.”

Read more here.

You may have heard on Radio 6PR’s rumour file earlier this week that the Fremantle Dockers were forced to “urinate in basins” on their flight home from Tasmania this weekend due to an issue with the water system on their chartered plane.

The club has since confirmed the incident – which occurred after their loss to Hawthorn – and this morning, the Transport Workers Union has condemned the “inadequate conditions” players faced.

“The Transport Workers Union, representing cabin crew at National Jet Express, expresses its deep concern and outrage over a recent incident involving a chartered flight from Launceston to Perth,” the statement read.

“The flight that flew the Fremantle Dockers home from their game against the Hawks, ran out of water just half an hour into the four-hour flight, resulting in non-functional toilets and an unsanitary and unsafe environment for both cabin crew and passengers.”

The union claimed crew were forced to manually scoop toilet waste and place the matter into waste bins, while players were forced to urinate in the basins.

WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti, who is a big Dockers fan, said the amount of travel WA AFL teams were required to do in a season was unfair.

“It’s another reason we shouldn’t be playing in Tasmania,” she quipped.

“Not only do we lose, but we have to deal with that.”

The airline is investigating the incident.

Sticking with Twiggy, and the mining billionaire has taken a swipe at The West Australian newspaper, telling Radio 6PR he hasn’t seen this morning’s front page, and that if he listened to every “shock jock” about how to run his company, Fortescue wouldn’t exist.

The front page depicts Forrest as Forrest Gump, with the headline ‘Forrest Dump’ referring to his axing of 700 jobs yesterday.

“[The West] can knock their socks off, the people I know haven’t raised [the front page with me] because they don’t get The West … I had heard about it, I think it sounds funny,” he said.

“But let’s go really serious, The West might knock how we’ve done things, I don’t care, I mean, I look at the performance of my company and their company, I’m perfectly happy with the similar track record which is they’re as low as we’re high, so I don’t mind, they can sling off all they like, if I ran this company according to what a shock jock had to say Fortescue wouldn’t exist.”

Asked by Mornings presenter Gary Adshead “whatever happened” between himself and SevenWest owner Kerry Stokes, Forrest offered a rare insight into his relationship with the media mogul.

“I think he got really ancy about us not going ahead with the power station in East Perth, I don’t know, I think good luck to him, he’s a good bloke,” he said.

“Look at the actions, I’ve been bagged every time I go hard on green, I’m going harder on green, I’ll continue to get bagged, really mate, it’s just tomorrow’s fish and chips wrappers and I don’t mind.”

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has spoken about his company Fortescue’s decision yesterday to axe 700 jobs and merge its energy and mining divisions, telling Radio 6PR he’s “not walking back from hydrogen”.

“We’re not pulling back, this is something which I genuinely believe in, I’m a hardcore bloke from the bush, I’m a miner, I’m a practical person, I’ve also had the good fortune to have an education in Australia, so I’ve really looked hard at the science,” he said this morning.

“I just know that going the way we’re going with fossil fuels isn’t an option, the climate is changing dramatically around us.

“We need lower power prices, hydrogen is directly a function of the electricity cost - if the electricity cost is high, then we can’t make hydrogen cheaply enough to compete with fossil fuels.”

Since 2020, Forrest has toured the world promoting the virtues of green hydrogen as an emissions-free fuel and seeking to partner with governments that have areas suitable for producing the vast amounts of wind, solar or hydropower required.

However, Fortescue’s reassessment yesterday highlights a realisation that producing the huge amount of energy required to separate hydrogen from water is extraordinarily costly.

Forrest says he’s “not giving up” on hydrogen, and was gutted to axe 700 jobs.

“I hate doing it,” he said.

“We need to bring energy prices down”.

Read more here.