From an HIV-positive acrobat to alleged drug heavies and gun-wielding car salesmen, the local courts are packed with stories of people making unusual choices. Last year may have been busy but 2011 promises to be even busier with a slate of unusual, gruesome and occasionally horrifying cases involving Gold Coasters set to be heard in Southport and Brisbane.
HIV-POSITIVE ACROBAT
HEALTH authorities went on high alert when an HIV-positive circus acrobat from the Gold Coast was arrested in May.Godfrey Zaburoni (pictured), 32, was charged with grievous bodily harm and malicious acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm after a woman tested positive to HIV and made a complaint against him.
Queensland Health took the unusual step of launching a public search for at least a dozen women the organisation feared might have been infected after having unprotected sex with the entertainer. More than 18 concerned people responded, including men who suspected their female partners had relations with Mr Zaburoni.
Police will allege Mr Zaburoni has given authorities the names of multiple women with whom he allegedly had sex since arriving from Zimbabwe in 1997. His case is to be heard on January 17.
TONGUE CUTTER
THE state of 20-year-old Catherine Cameron's face provoked horror and anger in emergency doctors, seasoned police officers and a Southport magistrate.The Surfers Paradise woman had half her tongue cut off, gashes cut into either side of her mouth and her eye socket fractured from a beating with a rum bottle.
Her ex-partner Mohammed Tasleem Tahir, 21, of Adelaide, has been charged with torture, grievous bodily harm and acts intended to maim after police found him covered in blood in her Surfers Paradise apartment in November.
Magistrate Catherine Pirie said she had not seen anything like Ms Cameron's injuries in her 10 years on the bench. Mr Tahir is due to face court early this year with case conferencing beginning on January 27.
He was refused bail in late 2010 after police said they feared he would flee Queensland and possibly Australia to avoid prosecution. Mr Tahir remains in custody at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.
SURFERS SHOOTING
TWO car salesmen, a gun, a strip club and a near-fatal shooting from a highrise set the case against Rick El Masri apart from the rest in 2010.This year he will seek his freedom by applying for Supreme Court bail and will possibly face a committal hearing in Southport Magistrates Court.
Mr El Masri, 34, has been charged and held in custody over the random shooting of 42-year-old Hylton Miller (pictured) in Surfers Paradise on December 4.
He is charged with grievous bodily harm, the unlawful possession of a weapon, and two counts of dangerous conduct with a weapon.The Surfers Paradise CBD went into lockdown when Mr Miller was shot in the chest while walking along the Esplanade with his wife and children.
Police have alleged Mr El Masri fired a .45 calibre gun twice at his former workplace, the Hollywood Showgirls strip club on Orchid Avenue, while standing on a balcony of a Circle on Cavill highrise.
Mr El Masri has denied the allegations and pointed the finger at a car salesman friend, who is the main police witness.
MRS BIG
IT was almost a case of deja vu for Nana Puscas (pictured) when police arrested her on the Gold Coast in 2010 after almost half a kilogram of heroin was found at her home.Sixteen years ago the former Romanian refugee once labelled 'Mrs Big' of the Gold Coast drug scene was in the same position and served five years of a 20-year sentence.
She pleaded guilty in 1994 for trafficking 211g of pure heroin with de facto husband Frank Onea.
Her 2010 arrest at Ormeau came after a six-month covert police investigation targeting the activities of Romanian organised crime networks.
Police have alleged Ms Puscas was trafficking heroin and her supposed interstate supplier Nicolae Tufis is also facing charges.The court heard that Ms Puscas told police she had more than 300g of heroin 'in the cupboard' after they found 112g in a camera bag. She has been remanded in custody ahead of her Southport Magistrates Court committal hearing in February.
BANK MANAGER OR ROBBER?
BANK manager John Forrester (pictured) claims he was the victim of attackers who carjacked him, injected him with poison and threatened to blow up the Bank of Queensland at Mudgeeraba if he didn't steal cash for them.Police have claimed he is the thief and orchestrated an elaborate story to cover his tracks.
The twists and turns of the bizarre case were made public in 2010 during a March committal hearing.
At the conclusion Magistrate Michael Hogan said the police case was far from clear-cut and neither side had enough evidence to support their version of events.
The Forrester case was committed for trial and will no doubt prove to be interesting if the Director of Public Prosecutions proceeds with the stealing as a servant charge in 2011.
ALLEGED MOTHER MURDER
IT started as a missing persons report. Suellen Pike (pictured), 63, was last seen by her son at their Burleigh Waters home on August 14. When she didn't show up after several weeks, police searching intensified and then on September 29 there was a dramatic turn.Her 35-year-old son, Stephen Pike, 35, was charged with one count of murder after submitting to police. Mr Pike allegedly told police he believed his mother had gone to Ipswich to visit her other son. He was remanded in custody in October to face a committal hearing on April 11 this year.
OBESITY SURGEON SUED FOR MILLIONS
AFTER the death of two patients, former Gold Coast surgeon Russell Mark Broadbent (pictured) was permanently struck off the medical register.In June 2010 the Queensland Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled he had engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct in relation to fat-bypass operations on Margaret Pearce in 2000 and Ursula MacLeod in 2003.
He unsuccessfully appealed the ban in December. Other former patients had more success in the courts.
In November nine former patients who suffered life-long injuries after undergoing the weight-loss surgery won the right to sue Mr Broadbent for millions in medical negligence damages.
Seven of the patients were also granted court permission to sue Allamanda and Pindara hospitals on the Gold Coast where Mr Broadbent did the fat-bypass operations.
The Supreme Court in Brisbane ruled the patients' claims, which were filed out of time, could still go ahead.
All the patients had bilio-pancreatic diversion surgery for obesity between 1999 and 2005.
The matters are expected to be completed through mediation by March this year.
SPORTSMAN CHARGED
A FORMER snooker ace will face a committal hearing in April this year charged with stabbing a friend 11 times and trying to gouge his eye.Michael Davison Tillman, 38, was granted bail on a $20,000 surety in September after being accused of attempting to murder Troy Kiss (pictured) and causing him grievous bodily harm.
Mr Kiss, 23, was rushed to intensive care at the Gold Coast Hospital suffering a punctured lung, pierced liver and pierced diaphragm.
The court was told the violent incident mirrored Mr Tillman's eye-gouging attack on a fellow snooker player, Christopher Millen, who died after the pair fought outside a Sydney hotel on June 22, 2003.
Mr Tillman, a NSW snooker champion and Australian eightball representative, pleaded guilty in 2004 to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in jail with parole in 2006.
MCSHOOTING
SHOTS rang out at dawn in the carpark of a Burleigh McDonald's restaurant in 2009 and this year Gold Coast man Samuel Friedman (pictured) will likely go on trial in Brisbane for the murder of Richard Doherty.The 25-year-old is charged with murder and shooting at 26-year-old Ben Matthews, who has since died of unrelated causes.
A protected witness who was in the car told a Southport committal hearing that the men had been close friends but lived a wild party lifestyle dictated by the love of alcohol, ice, LSD and Xanax.
Mr Doherty's sister said his death was linked to dodgy drug deals and her brother had taken to carrying a gun for protection in the weeks before his death.
ALLEGED CAR THIEF
A CAR fan who allegedly made a habit of stealing nice cars while test-driving them will face a committal hearing in Beenleigh this year. Police have alleged Michael Warren Seiboth stole a Mazda RX7 at gunpoint from a Gold Coast car dealer while on a test drive.They alleged the Mazda car-jacking was the third time in October that Mr Seiboth had driven off in a luxury vehicle that was for sale. He will face a committal in the Beenleigh Magistrates Court on March 14.
Source: http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2011/01/08/281021_crime-and-court-news.html
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