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November 21 – December 4, 2013 I www.irishecho.com.au
local news INVESTIGATORS SPEND 2,000 HOURS SEEKING DAZED AUSTRALIAN’S IDENTITY
Mystery woman home after exhaustive hunt AN AUSTRALIAN woman found in Dublin dazed and unable to communicate has returned to Sydney after Ireland’s High Court ordered she be released from protective care. Samantha Azzopardi, 25, flew back to Australia accompanied by two gardaí. Described as vulnerable, she had been in HSE care in Dublin since concerns were raised she was an Eastern European teenager who had been trafficked into the country. Ms Azzopardi – who media reported had a number of aliases – originally went to Ireland in September to visit her stepfather. She stayed with him in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, but it is understood she then told him she was going travelling around the country. The blonde-haired woman turned up three weeks later on O’Connell Street in Dublin on October 10 appearing distressed and unable to communicate. Gardaí thought she was Eastern European and only about 15. Ms Azzopardi was described as thin, dressed in clothes bought from a common high street retailer and appearing dazed and confused. She drew some
pictures while in care but did not communicate fully. An investigation team spent 2,000 hours trying to identify her and came up with 15 possible names. It was not until a judge cleared the way for a photograph of the woman to be released worldwide that her stepfather come forward. Australian Federal Police then liaised with gardaí once her identity was established. It subsequently emerged she was convicted of deception in Australia for illegal attempts to draw social welfare. Ms Azzopardi received a six-month sentence for the offence, which was suspended for 12 months. The High Court in Dublin heard from psychiatrist Brendan Kelly, who said she could not be committed for psychiatric reasons but was suffering from a “specified particular condition”. It had previously heard she could be at risk if she is released from care. Justice George Birmingham, who lifted the care order, said the initiative taken by gardaí and the results of publishing the photograph came as a surprise to everybody. ”The case has run its course,” the judge said.
programme’s apology falls short
Doctor seeks action over network’s ‘sickie sting’ Luke O’Neill
AN Irish doctor featured in a hiddencamera segment on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair has lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Dr Liam Carroll hit out at the programme-makers last month after he was secretly filmed in a segment about medical sick notes called “Doctors Certificate Scandal”. Producer Aaron O’Brien and a colleague visited Dr Carroll at the Brassall Clinic in Ipswich. In the resulting segment, Mr O’Brien claimed he told the doctors he was merely tired and managed to obtain five medical certificates. The Dubliner told the Irish Echo he has since received “guarded” apology from the programme. Dr Carroll claims there are several sections of the programme’s transcript in which it is clear the filming and reporting methods broke industry codes of practice. But Nine rejects the claims. In a letter from its compliance department, the network provides a defence under its own code of practice, while apologising for the “grief caused”. The network says it protected Dr Carroll’s privacy by pixelating his face and cropping and blurring other identifying material from vision taken in his office. The network has challenged claims by Dr Carroll that the producer who visited his office stated he was “bullied” and “could not face work”. “From the broadcast, the producer did not state he was being ‘bullied’ or that ‘he could not face work’ as alleged in your complaint. Nor did he raise issues of violence towards his boss as mentioned in your complaint,” the network said. “Matters of factual accuracy under the code are relevant to statements that were broadcast during the segment and therefore as these statements were not broadcast these alleged statements are not covered by this clause of the code.”
PUZZLE SOLVED: Garda Superintendent Dave Taylor holds a picture of Samantha Azzopardi, who was initially thought to be a victim of people trafficking. Pic: PA
melbourne IRISHWOMAN safe after nz park accident
Rescued Irish hiker ‘lucky to be alive’ Luke O’Neill
FORMAL COMPLAINT: Dr Liam Carroll has taken his case to the television watchdog.
Dr Carroll still wants an on-air apology and retraction. “Channel Nine have written a letter. They did apologise but it was a very guarded apology,” he said. “They still maintain there was a public interest even though we clearly showed they lied on several occasions. The complaint that I put into ACMA was that I wasn’t happy with their letter.” The broadcast has had an effect on his work practices and he is concerned about reputational damage. “Sometimes it’s what’s unsaid that gives it away. There are some people even still in this clinic who have seen A Current Affair part one that still partly believe it, oddly enough. That’s why programmes like A Current Affair will always do OK, because people want to hear bad stories. “I don’t think it’s affected my patient numbers, but I certainly had a number of comments from patients about it. You just wonder if they think I’m a bit of a joker, and there are times where I feel a bit paranoid.”
An Irishwoman who was announced missing in a New Zealand national park has been treated for hypothermia after being rescued by another hiker. Siobhán Flynn, 35, was rescued when she stumbled into a hut occupied by a US doctor. The Irishwoman, who usually lives in Melbourne, turned up in Nelson late at night with the American woman. The pair, who were left without transport, had hitch-hiked to Nelson from Kahurangi National Park. The doctor had treated Ms Flynn for injuries and mild hypothermia. Ms Flynn was missing since about 10am on November 10, police say. She and family members stayed on a Saturday night at a hut in the park before leaving for an area known as Karamea Bend on Sunday morning. Along the way the group became separated. Four members made it to Karamea Bend and stayed there on Sunday night, but Ms Flynn never arrived. Her boyfriend raised the alarm with police. It is thought she was knocked unconscious in a fall and, after a failed atempt to continue the hike, then spent a night under a tree. “The pr oblem is, she’s been concussed, so her recollection is hazy,” police spokeswoman Barbara Dunn told the Irish Echo. Ms Flynn told police that while walking alone she fell off a ledge and believes she lay unconscious for several hours. When she regained consciousness she managed to climb back up the ledge but was disoriented and unable to continue far because of darkness. She said she spent that night huddled under trees. She put on all her clothing and got inside her sleeping bag to keep
RUGGED TERRAIN: Mountains at the head of Cobb Valley, in New Zealand’s Kahurangi National Park, where an Irish hiker went missing.
warm. Ms Flynn has little recollection of Monday, but she believes she made it to Mytton Hut, where she rested for a while, replenished her water and decided to continue on. She reached what is believed to be Trilobite Hut about 3am on November 12, two days after going missing. Sleeping inside the hut was a lone woman tramper – the American doctor. Ms Flynn said the doctor, an experienced mountaineer, treated her for mild hypothermia and inspected her head injury. The pair then walked out of the area together via the Cobb Valley and then hitch-hiked to Nelson. The Police Search and Rescue Coordinator, Constable Malcolm York, said Ms Flynn was extremely lucky to have survived and to have come across the American doctor.
He said she was shaken and traumatised by the experience, but was receiving good support from friends and did not require further medical treatment. He said that while the group had made a bad decision to separate, Ms Flynn did the right thing by recording her intentions in the hut log. “That information prevented police launching a large-scale search and allayed our immediate fears for her safety,” Constable York said. Designated in 1996, Kahurangi is one of New Zealand’s newest national parks and is its second-largest, covering an area of 452,002 ha. There are more than 570km of walking and tramping tracks in the park, according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.