MURDER MOST FOUL
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After years without a murder conviction, the territory suddenly had two. In March, Scott Alexander McDougall, 37, was found guilty of one of Canberra's most shocking murders, killing his friends Struan Bolas and Julie Tattersall with a meat cleaver and burning down Bolas's Downer home. He was given two life sentences but is appealing his conviction for Mr Bolan's murder. A few months later a jury handed down a guilty verdict in the case of Rebecca Massey, who stabbed her former friend Elizabeth Booshand to death in a struggle outside a Charnwood chicken shop. Massey got 16 years but is also appealing. Two other people were acquitted of murder - Russell Field was cleared of the shotgun murder of a senior bikie and an associate while a 0-year-old woman was acquitted after stabbing teenage apprentice chef Cameron Anderson to death near Telopea Park in 2008. And prosecutors must pursue another murder trial after a man was beaten to death in Braddon. Taylor Schmidt and a teenager who cannot be named are accused of killing the man for just $21 and his mobile phone.
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Correction: This article incorrectly stated that Scott Alexander McDougall is appealing his conviction for the murder of Julie Tattersall. It has been edited to state McDougall is appealing against his conviction for the murder of Struan Bolas.
HELL'S KITCHEN
Two prominent Canberra restaurateurs found themselves in court this year on unrelated drugs and harassment charges. Nicholas Gravias, 49, of Barton, was arrested after storming into the fine-dining Courgette restaurant in Civic and brandishing a kitchen knife at staff. The court heard Gravias had a long-running feud with Courgette owner and chef James Mussillon which boiled over after a dispute over a $5000 dinner bill. But charges were dismissed after it emerged Gravias suffered from mental illness and he was placed under the care of the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Meanwhile John Phillip Harrington, who has been linked to Manuka nightspots the Julep Lounge and Charlie Black's, was charged with importing cocaine into the territory after police intercepted a parcel containing drugs hidden in car wax bottles. Harrington has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.
ANIMAL CRUELTY
The territory's animal welfare inspectors took three people to court on cruelty charges. Teenager Ashley Inder was given three months' jail and another three months of weekend detention after bashing a black swan to death at Yerrabi Ponds with a stake. The killing was described as "inexplicable, brutal and sickening". Gungahlin man Dusko Culibrk was fined and placed on a good-behaviour order after police found a dead dog lying in a pool of blood on his kitchen counter and a neighbour captured him on video dragging another dog by its neck and banging its head on the ground. Culibrk, who suffers from a mental illness, told the court he had been disciplining the animal. And NSW woman Natasha Ceric was banned from keeping pets and convicted of starving her dog Daisy to death, telling investigators the animal was anorexic and had been refusing to eat.
FRAUD
Timothy Patrick Cousins embezzled more than $1 million from the Catholic Education Office, with police saying he siphoned money out of the organisation to spend on overseas holidays and a house in Thailand. He pleaded guilty to 153 fraud charges. Pamela Susan Close was accused of stealing more than $1 million from the betting organisation ACTTAB, with prosecutors winning a court order to prevent the sale of her Kambah home. She has pleaded not guilty. But the territory's biggest fraud story was that of Peter Daniels Clarke II, an American broker who stole $4 million from the Burns Philps Trustees and then skipped town on the eve of his sentencing in 2000. When the law finally caught up with him in Germany, the original sentencing judge - 80-year-old Justice John Gallop - was brought out of retirement to finish the matter and promptly jailed Clarke for 12 years. Clarke is appealing.
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA
The ubiquitous Facebook managed to play a part in at least three court cases this year. Teenager Layla Arrow was convicted for slapping another girl at the Tuggeranong Hyperdome after the girl apparently called her a junkie and prostitute on Facebook. Stewart Barry John Mayhew was jailed for three months after assaulting his girlfriend when she refused to look at his Facebook pictures. And Isaacs teenager Stephen McCracken, who faced charges of robbery, allegedly used the social networking site to threaten a witness and brag about evading police.
THEY DID WHAT?
These were the crimes that raised an eyebrow and possibly a smile, though maybe not from the police officer who unfortunately suffered a punch to the testicles from a man in a wheelchair. There was the Barton couple who allegedly tried to steal five packets of curry sauce and some chicken from the Deakin supermarket, and the drunken Giralang teen who was convicted of stealing a pizza in Civic. Police officers found Dain Smith apparently eating the evidence and were forced to chase him across Northbourne Avenue when he fled. Robert Dennis Hewitt also tried to steal food from a supermarket but he stuffed packets of meat down his trousers. Magistrate Beth Campbell convicted him and noted that it was unlikely that the supermarket could do much with the steak once it had been down his pants. Elsewhere Magistrate Peter Dingwall was both judge and witness when he disqualified Brett John Maher from driving only to return to his chambers to see Maher driving away from the courts. Other driving offenders included a Wanniassa man who stole a taxi and took it on a joyride to a nearby pub and a stoned 30-year-old man who exposed himself to drive-through staff while getting breakfast at a south Canberra McDonald's.