Gallery
In photos: The biggest news stories of the week as ADF deployed to the Middle East, teens arrested over ‘heinous' sexual assault and Erin Patterson in court



Gallery
In photos: The biggest news stories of the week as ADF deployed to the Middle East, teens arrested over ‘heinous' sexual assault and Erin Patterson in court
WARNING: Distressing images
It has been an eventful week in the news, ending with Australia’s military being deployed to help Australians trying to leave Iran and Israel as tensions escalate in the Middle East.
At home, crimes have shocked the nation and court cases that have gripped us for months are now wrapping up.
Click through the gallery to see the top news stories from this week.
Four teens accused of subjecting teen girl to hours of sexual abuse
Four teenagers have been charged after a 17-year-old girl was allegedly subjected to more than six hours of violent sexual abuse.
The relentless offending took place inside the victim’s car in December last year, with the vehicle driven around Sydney’s western suburbs for hours by four male teenagers aged between 14 and 19.
The boys have been arrested progressively since, with final arrests made on Tuesday.
Detective Superintendent Jayne Doherty described the incident as “heinous”.
It did not appear to be planned, she said.
“It beggars belief that in this day and age, men would think to act this way towards a girl and to act not just instantaneously, but over a six-hour period continuing to act together and encourage each other and degrade the victim in the way that they did,” Doherty said.
Man charged with murder as body dumped in bushland
A man has been charged with murder after a woman’s body was found dumped in bushland.
The body of Western Sydney mother Leanne Akrap, 47, was discovered by a passerby at an “isolated” reserve off Irwin St in Werrington, in Sydney’s west, just after 1pm on June 15.
A man was then arrested on Monday, 20 minutes north of where Akrap was found at a home on Powell St in Hobartville.
Police say the pair were known to each other but were not in a relationship.
Masked men storm kebab shop and open fire
Chilling footage has been released of the moment two masked men stormed a Sydney business, shooting and seriously injuring three people, in what police believe was a calculated and deliberate attack.
Alleged underworld figure Samimjan Azari, 26, was shot in the shoulder and arm at Auburn Turkish takeaway, M Brothers, at about 1.10pm on Monday.
It was the fourth attempt on his life this year, with Azari narrowly escaping another serious threat in Rosehill on Friday, NSW Police revealed.
Police officer shot dead while delivering home repossession order
A man has been charged with murder after a veteran police officer was shot dead on the job.
Tasmania Police Constable Keith Anthony Smith, 57, was killed on Monday as he approached a property in rural Tasmania to deliver a court-ordered home repossession warrant.
A 46-year-old North Motton man surrendered at the scene and on Thursday was charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault.
He appeared before court in a bedside sitting while under police guard in hospital, and will return to court at a later date.
Police backtrack on arrest over shooting of two Australians in Bali
Bali police have retracted earlier claims that a suspect was arrested after an Australian man was shot dead and another injured during a violent break-in at a Bali villa.
It was initially understood that one person had been taken into custody early on Monday morning, two days after two masked gunmen stormed Villa Casa Santisya in Munggu, in Bali’s Badung Regency, in the early hours of Saturday.
However, Bali authorities have since clarified that no arrest has been made in relation to the alleged gunman.
Melbourne father Zivan Radmanovic, 32, was fatally shot in the bathroom, as his wife, Jazmyn Gourmdeas, reportedly hid under the covers in bed.
The attackers then forced their way into the neighbouring room, where 34-year-old Melbourne man Sanar Ghanim was staying with his wife.
Ghanim was shot multiple times and rushed to hospital in a seriously condition.
Erin Patterson’s triple-murder trial wraps up arguments
Jurors in mushroom cook Erin Patterson’s triple-murder trial have been told to come back refreshed from a four-day break before deliberations begin.
Closing addresses wrapped in the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday after four days of argument, but Justice Christopher Beale won’t begin his final directions until Tuesday.
As he sent the jurors home for the week, Beale told them to maintain an open mind but also have a good long weekend.
7NEWS has been covering the trial live.
Flights to Bali cancelled as Indonesian volcano erupts
Australian airlines Jetstar and Virgin were forced to cancel some flights to Bali after Indonesia’s Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupted, spewing ash clouds kilometres into the sky.
The eruption on the eastern tourist island of Flores sent ash drifting in multiple directions over several villages around Lewotobi Laki-Laki, the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) reported.
The ash cloud could be seen from cities located up to 140km from the mountain, the PVMBG said.
Air India survivor makes sad admission after carrying brother’s coffin
Speaking publicly for the first time since the horrific incident, the sole survivor of the Air India crash says he feels immense survivor’s guilt over the death of his brother.
British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, miraculously walked away from the burning wreckage of the crash last Thursday.
Ramesh was seated in seat 11A of the doomed Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner when it took off from the city of Ahmedabad, in western India, bound for London’s Gatwick.
Just after take-off the plane crashed into a medical college hostel.
At least 29 people on the ground were killed as well 241 people on board the plane.
No meeting between Albo and Trump at G7 Summit
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will wait a little longer for a meeting with US President Donald Trump, after the latter left the G7 summit in Canada early this week.
Trump left the event early to deal with escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.
Albanese will not go to The Hague for next week’s NATO summit, with his deputy Richard Marles to represent Australia at the event as originally planned.
Albanese was considering making a last-minute dash to the talks, which could have provided an opportunity to meet in person with the US president.
The prime minister is keen to meet with Trump to try to negotiate an exemption from US tariffs, advocate for the nation’s nuclear submarine deal with the US and UK and discuss defence spending.
Trump is expected to attend the NATO summit, but there is no guarantee he will not pull out at the last second amid volatility in the Middle East.
The US president on Friday said he would decide whether to get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict “within the next two weeks”.
Australian military deployed to Middle East
Australia has deployed its military to help Australians trying to leave Iran and Israel.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 639 people and wounded 1300 others, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.
Israel says Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 24 people and wounded hundreds.
More than 2000 Australians have registered for assistance to leave Iran, up from 1500 on Thursday.
The government has already helped Australians flee Israel using a border crossing to Jordan.
There are still more than 1200 Australians registered for assistance to depart Israel, where the airspace is also closed.
Amid growing conflict between Iran and Israel, Gazans say they fear their suffering will be forgotten.
Out of every 40 Palestinians living in Gaza before the war, one is now dead. Those that remain are on the brink of famine.
A UN-backed report published in late April warned that one in five people in Gaza were facing starvation and that the entire enclave was edging closer to famine. The situation has only worsened since then, according to the UN.
Russian drone and missile strike targets apartment block
A Russian drone and missile strike in Ukraine has killed 28 people and wounded 142 others.
The strike, on a nine-story building in Kyiv, is a sign that more pressure must be applied on Moscow to agree to a ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says, as Moscow intensifies attacks in the war.
Zelenskiy, along with the head of the presidential office, Andrii Yermak, and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, visited the site of the apartment building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district on Thursday morning, laying flowers and paying tribute to the 23 people who died there after a direct hit by a missile brought down the structure.