Court in the Act

Stewart Sinclair Gorham is 54-years-old. In the last 33 years, he has only spent 100 days in the community. The rest have been spent in prison, locked up for truly hideous crimes. His history is so bad, that even he says he should never again be released from prison. He may well be Western Australia’s most dangerous man. Join host Tim Clarke and one of Australia's leading legal minds Tom Percy KC...

It was meant to be the trip of a lifetime for Perth mother Avril Croft and her teenage daughter, sailing around Australia on a yacht. Instead they were murdered – and their bodies dumped into shark and croc infested waters. Garry Whitsed was charged with strangling his lover, shooting her daughter and disposing of the bodies to cover up his horrible crimes. And he came up with an incredible tale o...

It's a case that sent shockwaves around Australia and has captured the imagination of a nation for almost three years.  And the bombshells have kept on coming in the latest instalment - a defamation trial brought by Bruce Lehrmann in Sydney's Federal court this week. It's a complex he said, she said case. And the job of the judge to get to the bottom of the matter, according to specialist defamati...

It’s been more than 5 years since a Canberra toddler named Safa Annour died in a suspected murder. There have been no arrests, no answers, no justice. No closure. Safa was a striking, smiling little two-year old girl. Her eyes twinkling. And her happy little wave to the bus driver who dropped her off on Monday April 30, 2018,  would melt your heart. That very same day, at just before 2pm, Safa was...

He was one of WA’s sporting heroes. An AFL legend. But he was also a sexual predator. And a paedophile. Barry Cable preyed on the children of his neighbour - a 12 year-old-girl- frequently, brazenly and for years. After years of abuse, an inability of police to lay charges and a secret appearance WA’s Kennedy Royal Commission into potential police corruption, it seemed the woman’s story would go u...

A 39-year-old mother-of-four leaves her house in Duncraig on the morning of March 18, 1986. She is never seen again. Four devastated children. Puzzled family and friends. Many public appeals. The disappearance of Sharon Fulton resulted in a decades long investigation by police, determined to find out what happened to the devoted mother. A 77-year-old man has now been charged with murder. The West...

Rachel Michael was much loved – by her mother. By her sister. She was well liked – particularly at St Pats Community Centre in Fremantle, where her face was familiar.   She was planning a big celebration for her 40th birthday but she would never see that birthday, or that party because she was murdered in a cruel and callous way.  Police set about catching her killer, Adam Vidot, in one of the mor...

He was a regular and regarded criminal lawyer in Perth. Busy representing drunk drivers, drug dealers and COVID breachers.  But in 2018, Gary Rodgers was arrested and charged himself – accused of plotting with former Rebels bikie Steven Wayne Taylor, his mother Christine Taylor and another man, Simon Curry to pervert the course of justice. Rodgers, who denied the allegation, was convicted and sent...

A three-year-old boy dressed in a Spider-Man suit goes missing while playing at his foster grandmother's house in rural NSW in 2014. His name is William Tyrrell and he is never seen again. Today, barrister John Hammond joins host Tim Clarke to step through the serpentine search for William Tyrrell, the disturbing developments, the shocking police tactics, and the ongoing legal process.  They will...

Some killers are pathetic. Some are genuinely sorry. And then there are a few – rare but always memorable – that are truly evil.  To the outside world, he was a young, urbane, university educated qualified psychologist.  A nice boy, and a good next-door neighbour. When in fact, he was the devil next door. Over Easter weekend 2021 Luke David Fawcett murdered his next door neighbour Maree Collins an...

Feral and fascinating. Arrested, but still arresting. The membership and movements of WA’s bikie gangs and the plans authorities have to crackdown on them are always in the headlines. None more so than Dayne Brajkovich, former sergeant at arms of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Michael Tudori, partner at law firm Tudori Hager Grubb, is one of the busiest barristers in Perth, partly because of hi...

Step into any court, in any town or city, on any day and within an hour you'll hear the word drugs.  Today's case is one of the strangest in recent memory and involves 1 tonne of illicit drugs destined for Western Australian shores. It also involved wrong numbers, rotten weather, a yacht from Madagascar, a skipper from France, a crewman from Wales – and a whale which began the downfall of a smuggl...

Lynn Cannon was murdered by her estranged husband Paul in December 2022. He was recently sentenced to 19 years in prison for the horrific crime.   It is just one of the many tragic domestic violence cases that flood our court systems.   Join host Tim Clarke and veteran barrister Bernard Standish, of Albert Wolf Chambers, as they discuss the Cannon case and ask what can be done about the scourge of...

Do you live and breathe true crime? Want the inside story? All the juicy details? You’re in luck. Court in the Act with Tim Clarke goes inside the courtroom with an in-depth look at the cases happening right now. Join Clarke and Australia’s leading legal minds for all the twists and turns of the nation's most interesting cases.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.