source : the age
A 31-year-old man has been extradited to Perth from Melbourne over allegations he started a relationship with a teenage girl over gaming platforms and social media, before flying to WA and sexually assaulting her.
Detectives from the Broome Detectives Office extradited the man, who lives in the Victorian suburb of Point Cook, following an investigation that began in January 2026 after the victim came forward and reported the matter to police.
The allegations relate to offences allegedly committed in Perth in September 2025.
It will be alleged the accused contacted the victim through social media and online gaming platforms before flying from Melbourne to Perth to meet the victim and sexually assault her.
Here’s what’s making headlines today:
- Alan Jones has been a man of many titles, but now he is reduced to just one: defendant. He sat in court for the second day of what is scheduled to be months of hearings into the indecent assault and sexual touching charges against him.
- A man selling vegetables in a Ukrainian town survived an attack by a Russian drone after it chased him around his vehicle in a chilling strike captured on video and shared around the world.
- Social media influencers are posting provocative videos to lure customers into gambling venues and illegal online betting apps, sparking fears the clips are exploiting problem gamblers and enticing teens to start betting.
- Almost one in five Australian bird and mammal species is at high, very high or extreme risk from the bird flu virus now spreading in Australia, according to data published on the federal environment department’s website on Tuesday evening.
- Counterterrorism police are treating the firebombing of an Israel-linked military parts manufacturer in Melbourne’s north-east as terrorism and have publicly indicated anarchist extremists are the prime suspects for the first time.
- Potential home buyers are dropping out of auctions and not turning up to open for inspections, nervous about falling property prices and an uncertain economy.
Good morning all and welcome to your mid-week live blog.
Making headlines, less than half of all year 3 students in Western Australia met proficiency standards in grammar and punctuation, the latest NAPLAN data has revealed, with just under 20 per cent needing additional support.
And while results have declined across all testing areas for the state’s year 3s when compared to scores in 2023, writing and numeracy have taken the biggest hit.
But the state’s year 9 students are performing the best nationally in numeracy, on par with the ACT.
