Global web paedophile gets 14 years

A PROLIFIC paedophile who used the internet to target and blackmail young girls all over the world, including a girl in Tasmania who was key to his arrest, has been jailed in a case described as one of the worst British courts have ever seen.

The "sadistic exploitation" conducted by Robert Hunter, of Middlesbrough, was so extensive that an international operation through Interpol was sparked.

This came after the 35-year-old had used sites such as Facebook, Skype and MSN to abuse girls as young as nine from across Europe, Asia, Canada and the US.

He would also often pose as the singer Justin Bieber in an attempt to convince the girls to expose themselves and perform sex acts on a webcam.

Teesside Crown Court heard that after being arrested in December 2012, he continued to target children and this resulted in a girl from Tasmania eventually contacting police, who traced him back to his home.

In total, more than 800 videos and images were discovered on his computer, all of them made by the defendant.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said over the course of 2010, 2011 and 2012, Hunter had pretended to a number of very young girls that he was a teenager using a number of online aliases.

"On each occasion he was able to disguise his true age and identity by the clever use of images of young boys or by pretending that his computer wasn't working properly.

"As a further demonstration of the naivete and innocence of his victims, he was also able to persuade some that he was the music artist Justin Bieber.

"He did this in order to dupe and encourage these young girls to strip on webcams and perform sex acts for him."

Hunter also blackmailed some of the victims into agreeing to his demands by threatening to make the videos he had already made of them public.

Sentencing Hunter to 14 years in prison, Judge Peter Bowers said it represented a callous and sadistic exploitation.

"This is one of the most serious cases on internet abuse that the courts have dealt with," he said.

"It's a warning to all parents of teenage children of what can be done via the internet.

"The public will be disgusted by how you have behaved even after you had been arrested and bailed.

"It represents callous and sadistic exploitation of a number of girls over a number of years."

Tamara Pawson, defending, said Hunter was remorseful for his actions and the distress he had caused.

In total, Hunter pleaded guilty to 30 offences, which included 15 charges of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and 14 of making indecent photos of children.

Sergeant Paul Higgins, from Cleveland Police, said Robert Hunter was a calculating and malicious predator who set out to coerce and bully young girls into exposing themselves over the internet.

"This investigation highlights the dangers that children face when conversing with people over the internet," he said.

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Gates stays atop Forbes US rich list

AMERICA'S super-rich just keep getting richer.

Forbes on Monday released its annual list of the top 400 richest Americans.

While most of the top names and rankings didn't change from a year ago, the majority of members of the elite club saw their fortunes grow over the past year, helped by strong stock and real estate markets.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates remains America's richest man, taking the top spot on the list for the 20th straight year, with a net worth of $US72 billion ($A77.27 billion).

Investor Warren Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, keeps second place with $US58.5 billion, while Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison stayed third with $US41 billion.

Brothers Charles and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries Inc, stay tied for fourth with $US36 billion each.

Wal-Mart heirs Christy Walton, Jim Walton, Alice Walton and S. Robson Walton took the next three spots, with holdings ranging from $US33.3 billion to $US35.4 billion.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the eponymous financial information company, rounds out the top 10 with $US31 billion.

According to Forbes, the 400 people on the annual list posted a combined net worth of $2 trillion, up from $US1.7 trillion a year ago.

That marks their highest combined value ever.

Meanwhile, the average net worth of the list's members rose to $US5 billion, the highest ever, up from $US4.2 billion in 2012.

Net worth grew for 314 members and fell for 30 members, Forbes said.

Net worth for America's wealthiest people have risen in the years since the financial crisis, widening the gap between the exceptionally well-to-do and the rest of the country.

According to a study of Internal Revenue Service figures released last week, the top one per cent of US earners collected 19.3 per cent of household income in 2012, their largest share in IRS figures going back a century.

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Palmer swipes at ex-military in AEC

BILLIONAIRE businessman and political hopeful Clive Palmer has taken a swipe at ex-military personnel as part of his suspicions involving the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

As his race for the Queensland seat of Fairfax enters the closing phases, Mr Palmer said that despite the outcome, and a stalled Federal Court injunction, he planned to pursue legal avenues probing the polling process.

"One of the things I'm concerned about in Australia is all our divisional returning officers are ex-military officers of the Australian armed forces," Mr Palmer said on ABC TV.

"I think the military shouldn't be involved in a democracy."

Mr Palmer has questioned why 760 more lower house ballot papers than Senate ballot papers were returned from a polling booth at Coolum Beach in his electorate, pointing at security lapses.

"I think our AEC officers should represent the community. We don't want a whole class of one people that have got links together," Mr Palmer said.

"What I'm saying not is that one person is in the military, I'm saying there's multiple people who have served in the military as officers, (who are) in this role."

In a statement obtained by News Corp Australia, the AEC said the Federal Court reserved judgment on Mr Palmer's injunction on Monday.

"The AEC further notes there is a proper, transparent and evidence-based process for dealing with allegations of illegal practice - through the High Court of Australia sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns," the statement said.

"This is the only way in which the Electoral Act provides for a dispute to be dealt and allows any candidate, political party or member of the public to petition the CDR to have a particular electoral result examined."

Mr Palmer said evidence was mounting to suggest vote tampering.

On Monday evening, Mr Palmer was 362 votes ahead of Liberal candidate for Fairfax Ted O'Brien with more than 89 per cent of the count complete.

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Council to make big difference: Mundine

THE coalition government's planned Indigenous Advisory Council will make a difference to the quality of Aboriginal life in as little as five years, says incoming chairman Warren Mundine.

The former ALP president was scathing of high spending in the area which he said had proven ineffective.

"You've got half a million indigenous people in Australia. There's only about a couple of hundred thousand of them who need support and help, and we're spending $25 billion on it on an annual basis," Mr Mundine told ABC TV on Monday.

"That just doesn't make sense to me. I'm a businessman and if I ran a business like that I'd probably go bankrupt very quickly."

Prime minister-elect Tony Abbott has promised to set up the council within a week of being sworn in to the top job on Wednesday.

The council will firstly review current indigenous spending and make recommendations to government, before being responsible for overseeing change.

After airing his frustration at the lack of progress under a Labor government, Mr Mundine is confident the coalition plan will make a difference.

"We're focusing on an area that has been lacking in this whole area of Aboriginal affairs and that is, if you're going to create jobs, that is not through government funding, that is through economic activity."

He said it was essential to work with the private sector to create job opportunities and match education and training, while on another level boost Aboriginal childhood education.

"Through that process I predict within about five to seven years you'll make a massive difference," Mr Mundine said.

The council boss said he had also spoken with incoming treasurer Joe Hockey about the coalition's proposed $42 million cuts to indigenous legal services.

"He is pulling back on that," Mr Mundine said of Mr Hockey.

Asked if it meant the cuts would not go ahead, Mr Mundine said: "No, I don't think it will be cut."

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Harper Lee settles copyright lawsuit

HARPER Lee has settled the lawsuit she filed to secure the copyright to her classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

A federal judge in New York City approved the order last week dismissing the case against Samuel L. Pinkus, the son-in-law of Lee's former literary agent, and companies he allegedly created.

Two other defendants had been dropped from the suit a week earlier.

Gloria C. Phares, the Alabama author's lawyer, says the case has ended to Lee's satisfaction.

Defence lawyer Vincent Carissimi said many people misconstrued the nature of the case and that Lee's royalties were never in danger.

Filed in early May in US District Court in Manhattan, the suit alleged that Pinkus failed to properly protect the copyright after his father-in-law, Eugene Winick, became ill a decade ago.

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Small business sees long haul to recovery

AUSTRALIA faces a long road to economic recovery, even if business gains a short-term boost in confidence from the election of a majority coalition government, new research suggests.

A survey of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in August found that just 23 per cent of respondents expect the domestic economy to improve within 12 months.

The survey of 1022 SMEs by business software provider MYOB released on Tuesday found 35 per cent expect an improvement to take to one to two years, while 26 per cent expect it will take more than two years.

Confidence results were a little weaker than those reported in MYOB's previous Business Monitor released in March.

The results correspond with a dip in revenue expectations for this financial year, with only a quarter anticipating a revenue rise, down from 30 per cent six months ago.

Twenty-two per cent are expecting a fall (up from 19 per cent) and 44 per cent are expecting stable revenue (up from 42 per cent).

MYOB chief executive officer Tim Reed believes political uncertainty in the lead up to the election was likely to have had a strong influence on the results.

"We hope to see a boost in SME confidence now the election verdict is in, but our research suggests it will be a slow road to significant improvement in the health of our economy and our business outlook," Mr Reed said.

"The financial confidence of the country's small to medium business operators is closely linked to the health of our economy and it is telling us a clear story."

He said while SMEs welcome record-low interest rates, they also recognise it as a sure sign the domestic economy is experiencing slowed growth.

Two industry sectors stood out as being particularly gloomy about the outlook - only 13 per cent of agribusiness owners saw an improvement in the economy within a year, while 35 per cent of manufacturing and wholesale business owners expect a revenue fall this year.

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