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Tragic moment mother returns to scene of fatal house fire

<p>In a heartbreaking moment, Stacey Gammage, 29, has returned to her devastated home in Lalor Park for the first time since the tragic fire that claimed the lives of three of her children. The fire, allegedly <a href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/finance/legal/dean-heasman-s-grandmother-breaks-silence-after-deadly-house-fire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">started by her partner, Dean Heasman</a>, 28, left the family reeling with loss and sorrow.</p> <p>On Sunday, shortly before 1am, Heasman allegedly set the family’s home ablaze and barricaded them inside. Two boys, aged two and six, were critically injured and later died at Westmead Hospital. The body of a five-month-old girl was also found by firefighters after extinguishing the flames.</p> <p>Returning on Tuesday afternoon, Stacey Gammage, still wearing her hospital wristband, was supported by family members and police as she read the numerous tributes and cards left outside the home. The street was closed for almost two hours to allow her to grieve privately.</p> <p>The devastated mother then returned to Westmead Hospital, where her four surviving children remain. The children, including a nine-year-old girl and three boys aged four, seven and 11, are all reported to be in stable condition.</p> <p>Heasman remains under police guard in an induced coma at Westmead Hospital, and no charges have yet been filed. Investigations continue under Strike Force Carrbridge. According to reports, Heasman allegedly threw a burning pillow at his wife, which contributed to the blaze. Investigators are also examining whether an accelerant was used, as a second explosion occurred moments after the initial fire began.</p> <p>Local hero Jarrod Hawkins, whose daughter is friends with one of the surviving children, rushed to the burning home and saved the nine-year-old girl and her three brothers. The eldest boy reportedly told his rescuers, "Dad tried to kill me."</p> <p>As the community mourns this unimaginable loss, they continue to leave floral tributes, stuffed toys, and candles at the scene, while detectives work tirelessly to uncover the full details of the tragedy.</p> <p><em>Image: Nine News</em></p>

Caring

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Family of female cop killer speaks out

<p dir="ltr">The estranged family of Stacey Train have opened up about how their daughter made one decision that eventually saw her killed.</p> <p dir="ltr">Stacey was killed along with her husband Gareth Train and his brother, also her ex-husband Nathaniel Train, on December 12 after police responded to a missing person's report.</p> <p dir="ltr">Constable Rachel McCrow, 29, and Constable Matthew Arnold, 26, were also shot at the Wieambilla property, three hours outside of Brisbane.</p> <p dir="ltr">Now Stacey’s family members have spoken about how she was raised religious but eventually left the family as a teenager to join the independent church of Ronald A Train - her husband’s father’s church.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I wish she never did.This would never have happened,” the relative, who asked to remain anonymous, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/15/wieambilla-shooting-stacey-train-had-limited-contact-with-family-after-entering-controlling-relationship-with-brother-in-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Guardian</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I knew Gareth was an arsehole when he took over his brother’s wife,” the family member continued.</p> <p dir="ltr">“It was all downhill from there. Now she is dead because of them.”</p> <p dir="ltr">The family member also said that Gareth “was a control freak” and that Stacey “could never say anything”.</p> <p dir="ltr">Another family member said she saw Gareth drag Stacey up the stairs by her hair.</p> <p dir="ltr">Their comments come just days after Gareth and Nathanial’s dad Ron appeared on A Current Affair speaking about their gun obsession and leaving Christianity.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Train explained that he raised his sons with Christian beliefs but they turned away from religion before becoming estranged from their parents when they were in their 20s.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They went down this track, this dark track, which we have no understanding of.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Train said he broke down in tears after hearing what his sons had done, saying he couldn’t take responsibility for their actions or defend them.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I cried out to God, because, you know, I’m a believer. I just could not understand,” he said.</p> <p dir="ltr">“Those decisions were made as adults. I can’t accept responsibility for something in an adult mind.</p> <p dir="ltr">“There’s no excuse for that. No excuses for their behaviour, and I don’t excuse my boys of their actions at all.</p> <p dir="ltr">“They’ll stand before God in this world. They can’t be brought to justice in the secular world, but they will before God.”</p> <p dir="ltr">Constable McCrow and Constable Arnold will be farewelled at a funeral service at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre at 10 am on December 21.</p> <p dir="ltr">Details on how the public can offer their condolences will be available in the next few days.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Facebook</em></p>

News

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Fitness instructor roasted for jumping the vaccine queue

<p>A social media influencer has been slammed after it was revealed she received the coronavirus vaccine ahead of frontline healthcare workers and the elderly.</p> <p>Stacey Griffith, 52, made a name for herself through her Soul Cycle videos to which she posted to social media.</p> <p>However, her 64,000 followers were less than impressed when she informed them in a now-deleted Instagram post that she had received the novel jab.</p> <p>"VACCINE DAY! Step one of the Moderna magic!! One hour drive to STATEN ISLAND worth every minute! It takes a village," she wrote.</p> <p>Griffith is one of 850,000 New York City residents in the U.S. who are to receive the first round of the coveted vaccine but was criticised heavily by followers for being vaccinated before high-risk individuals.</p> <p>"Doesn't sound like someone who should've gotten vaccinated to me," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote on the celebrity fitness instructor's post.</p> <p><img style="width: 500px; height: 281.25px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7839741/soul-cycle.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/76188e78400647b5b4fc03e7d16592e5" /></p> <p>Another comment made by a caretaker revealed their wife had been battling stage four cancer, and is still in the dark on to when they will receive the treatment.</p> <p>"She is at least two to three months out from being eligible for a vaccine," they said.</p> <p>"But yes, let's celebrate that we are making the world safe for in-person spin class in the midst of a global pandemic."</p> <p>Online media organisation<span> </span><em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22195549/soulcycle-decline-reopening-bullying-bike-explained" target="_blank">Vox</a></em><br />reported that Griffith earns at least $800 for every Soul Cycle ( a popular form of a spin class) session she teaches.</p> <p>She told<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/soul-cycle-influencer-stacey-griffith-posted-a-vaccine-ig-and-all-hell-broke-loose?via=twitter_page&amp;via=twitter_page" target="_blank" title="The Daily Beast."><em>The Daily Beast</em></a><span> </span>that she received the vaccine earlier than many others due to her role as an “educator”.</p> <p>"Having me vaccinated can stop the short spread within groups!" she said.</p> <p>"In my profession of health and wellness as a teacher, it's my priority daily to keep my community and their respiratory systems operating at full capacity so they can beat this virus if they are infected by it. I can only teach to them if I am healthy myself."</p> <p>Griffith clarified she received the same opportunity to be vaccinated by filling out an online form. She insists she has pulled “no favour” or paid :no money” to get the vaccine.</p> <p>She added that not all Soul Cycle instructors would be eligible for the vaccine.</p> <p>Griffith took to Instagram initially after deleting her first post to apologise.</p> <p>"I want to apologise from the bottom of my heart for my recent action in receiving the vaccine," the post read.</p> <p>"I made a terrible error in judgment and for that I am truly sorry."</p> <p>A SoulCycle spokesperson told<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/soulcycle-instructor-stacey-griffith-apologizes-getting-covid-19-vaccine-teacher-192920095.html" target="_blank" title="Yahoo"><em>Yahoo</em></a><span> </span>that Griffith had "operated in a personal capacity in applying for a NY State COVID-19 vaccine.”</p> <p>They confirmed that the organisation had "no role" in organising or obtaining vaccinations.</p> <p>In the first stage of vaccine rollouts, those eligible for the vaccine include healthcare workers, elderly residents over 65 and essential workers, including supermarket staff and educators.</p> <p>To date, there have been over 1,473,200 cases of coronavirus in the state of New York.</p>

News

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My Kitchen Rules: Ash and Stacey speak out about their shock exit

<p><em>My Kitchen Rules'</em> fan favourites Ash Keillah and Stacey Allen have made a sudden exit from the show.</p> <p>The Byron Bay team decided to leave the cooking competition after Keillah developed a serious eye infection during filming.</p> <p>"After we filmed the Bondi challenge, I was just wrecked and super run down and my eye socket started swelling up," Keillah told <em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/confidential/mkr-favourites-stacey-and-ash-open-up-about-shock-exit/news-story/1d11bf2c78165d788c0e85808aa25e68" target="_blank">Confidential</a></em>.</p> <p>The surfer, who lost an eye in an incident on the Gold Coast 10 years ago, was told he should be put on bed rest and avoid working with food for a week. </p> <p>"The doctor was really concerned — he was more concerned because I only have one eye and it was contagious," he said.</p> <p>"No one wants to go out the way we did and I know how competitive Ash is but, at the end of the day, it was about his health," said Allen.</p> <p>"We also didn't have to stuff the producers around and, in a week, three teams could go home and it wouldn't have been fair to them."</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Burr5k9g2nK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Burr5k9g2nK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank">Thank you so much for your support all throughout MKR! We feel so lucky to have had such awesome people backing us this whole way. No one wants to end their MKR journey like this but health was and always will be our #1 priority. We cannot thank you guys enough!! Please stay tuned to this page to see what we’ve got coming up 😉❤️</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/staceyashau/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_medium=loading" target="_blank"> Stacey &amp; Ash</a> (@staceyashau) on Mar 6, 2019 at 1:51pm PST</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>The couple said their time on <em>MKR</em> had been a "crazy ride". They said they had created "solid friendships" on the show and received great support from fans.</p> <p>"There are some amazing cooks here and you guys are all going to go through and do really well," said Allen.</p> <p>Keillah and Allen were one of the few teams who had had to pull out early in the show’s decade-long history. In 2015, mother-daughter duo Vicky and Celine Kaponias left due to a severe food poisoning case.</p> <p>Have you been watching<span> </span><em>My Kitchen Rules</em>? Who is your favourite team this year? Tell us in the comments below. </p>

TV

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Qld woman faces leg amputation in Thailand as desperate family tries to bring her home

<p>The family of a Queensland woman are desperately trying to raise enough money to bring her home from Thailand, after a horrific scooter accident left her hospitalised and staring down the barrel of potential leg amputation.  </p> <p>Stacey Liddle was celebrating her 30th birthday in Thailand with friend Sinead Markham, when the pair decided to rent scooters, before disaster struck.</p> <p><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F7NewsBrisbane%2Fposts%2F1703684856311026&amp;width=500" width="500" height="731" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true"></iframe></p> <p>“We were riding along in Chalong and I heard beeping and I saw Stacey get dragged underneath the bus and the wheels went straight over the top of her,” Ms Markham told the <em>Courier Mail</em>.</p> <p>“She wasn’t breathing when she first got hit and I thought she was dead and then she started moaning and woke up and we both just started screaming, it was so horrific.”</p> <p>Ms Liddle was taken to hospital suffering severe leg injuries and a punctured lung, where she was operated on without anaesthesia and doctors removed her calf muscle.</p> <p>“(The bus) completely tore her leg apart, her bone were exposed and her calf muscle was lying on the ground,” Ms Markham said.</p> <p>“They pulled her skin around and stitched it up but where they’ve stitched it the skin is going grey and starting to die and it’s all infected.</p> <p>“She’s lost so much blood that she’s had 10 blood transfusions but at one point she was just so white I thought, ‘Oh my god my friend is going to die’”.</p> <p>To make matters worse, Ms Liddle’s friends and family have discovered that the pair weren’t insured to go on the scooter. To avoid amputation in the Thai hospital, Ms Liddle’s friends have to raise enough money to bring her home.</p> <p>“We’re doing everything we can to get a medical flight to get her home to a hospital in Australia and give her the best possible chance… and stop her leg from being amputated and make sure she survives this,” Ms Markham said.</p> <p>“She has ants crawling all over her in the hospital. It’s absolutely disgusting and the beds are rusting and she has to lie in her own sweat and blood.”</p> <p>Ms Liddle’s family has started a fundraising page, you can <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/please-help-stacey-liddle-get-home" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>visit here</strong></span></a>.</p> <p>What are your thoughts?</p> <p><em><strong>Have you arranged your travel insurance yet? Save money with Over60 Travel Insurance. <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://elevate.agatravelinsurance.com.au/oversixty?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=link1&amp;utm_campaign=travel-insurance" target="_blank">To arrange a quote, click here.</a></span> Or for more information, call 1800 622 966.</strong></em></p>

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