The mother of Dylan Voller — the boy whose sickening treatment triggered a royal commission into the Northern Territory’s youth detention — believes the government betrayed her family.
Joanne Voller broke her silence on Monday night when she told the ABC’s 7:30 her son struggled with his temper and when he was just 11 and the NT Department of Children and Families said if she reported him to the police after he broke her window Dylan would get the right treatment.
“At the time he needed counselling to help with his anger issues, but it’s not what he received in jail,” Ms Voller told ABC’s 7.30.
“I was asking for help. I in no way thought he would be hooded and chained to a chair or thrown in isolation for 200 days at a time.
“I really feel like I failed him by ringing the police that day when he broke my window to be honest.”
After a string of incidents Ms Voller said Dylan had “pretty much spent his whole childhood in jail,” and since finding out how her son was treated she in no way thinks that could have helped him reform.
“If I had have done something like they did to my son and that was in the name of caring for my child, I’d be in jail right now,” said Ms Voller.
Dylan is now in an adult prison in Darwin serving time for a serious assault.
RELATED VIDEO: The vision that has appalled the nation
Jamie Oliver is over the moon with the latest addition to his family, a new son.
And as he accompanied his wife Jools Oliver out of the hospital, the pair and their whole family were only too happy to pose so the world could get their first glimpse of the full Oliver clan.
Jools was ready to leave the hospital mere hours after giving birth, and Jamie was only too happy to get her home and begin settling into their new life as parents of five children.
With their children Poppy Honey, Daisy Boo, Petal Blossom and Buddy Bear in tow, the pair prepared to take new baby Oliver home with them.
Petal and Buddy can’t stop touching the new baby.
But not before they decided to take some time to get their first family photo!
The new parents beamed with pride, posing for photographers as their excited children just couldn’t stop looking adoringly at their newest baby brother.
Poppy and Daisy are already in love with their brother.
Petal and Buddy kept touching the little one in complete awe, seemingly unable to believe this little one was coming home with them.
Poppy and Daisy played big sisters, helping mum and dad keep an eye on the smaller children so they could focus on new baby Oliver.
Jamie and Jools talk about chaos with having five children now in the clip below. Post continues!
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Just look at that cute, squidgy face!
Jamie announced the big news of his family’s newest arrival on Instagram over the weekend, sharing a photo of him holding his new son.
Meanwhile Jools posted a photo of herself breastfeeding alongside the message:” Little boy Oliver has arrived, we are so very happy, blessed, grateful and totally in love all over again, and so very proud of our two eldest daughters who cut the cord,” she wrote.
“Jamie was my hero. (No name yet!!!) XXXX.”
With that many kids it must be a nightmare to get them to eat their dinners! Jamie talks about meal times in his crazy household in the clip below.
Looks like Rebel Wilson is not happy being single anymore and isn’t afraid to shout it out loud… even if it evokes the fury of her whole fan base.
The star’s fans weren’t at all happy with her choice of words, and even called Rebel out for slut-shaming.
The funnywoman took to social media to complain: “Why do guys always go for those bikini-clad vapid skanks? And not the smart, successful Australian girls??”
More than a few of her 2.6 million followers were furious at her comments.
Fans are not happy with the actress’s attack on skinnier women.
The 36-year-old was on the receiving end of a torrent of comments, slamming her for her remarks.
“Why do you feel the need to slut-shame others? It’s not nice, Rebel,” one user wrote.
Rebel talks about having to squeeze into a leotard for a movie role… and an unfortunate incident that occurred afterwards in the clip below. Post continues.
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Rebel was well and truly called out by her fans.
And the comments just kept coming: “Calling other women skanks isn’t cool, Rebel. Be better than slut shaming.”
Then there was the kicker for the Aussie: “So much for the sisterhood”.
Rebel talks about her own positive body image in the clip below. Post continues.
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The actress is currently starring in a staged production of the musical Guys and Dolls.
The star has spent a great deal of her air time trying to promote a body positive image for women who don’t fit the mold of what’s “in” in Hollywood.
And that was a huge sticking point for some of her fans, who were unhappy the Pitch Perfect star was happy to push a message for larger women to love their bodies, but not skinny women.
“Slut shaming and being body negative to another group of girls isn’t going to change anything. Come on,” one disappointed user wrote.
A common theme in Latin American desserts, dulce de leche – also variously referred to as manjar and cajeta, depending on the country you’re in and the kind of milk used – is a glorious concoction usually made by long, gentle simmering of milk and sugar to form a thick, glossy, utterly moreish caramel.
It isn’t difficult to make your own dulce de leche (see the tip for a cheat’s version using condensed milk), but good versions are readily available in shops. You’ll find it in jars in Latin American and Spanish grocers, and select delicatessens; we love the Havanna brand.
With a jar in the pantry you have the makings of all manner of sweets – flans, ice-creams, pastries and cakes for starters. It makes for an ideal sauce to dip warm churros into and a delicious spiced milk.
Or take a cue from the Chileans and spread it between crisp layers of puff pastry to make torta de mil hojas – their answer to France’s millefeuille – or fold it with whipped cream and layer it with banana and roasted peanuts for a salty-sweet trifle. In fact, use dulce de leche in any dish that could be improved by luscious caramel. The only challenge is to resist eating it from the jar.
Torta de mil hojas
Serves 6
Preheat oven to 200C and line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Cut a 375gm sheet of butter puff pastry into 3 even rectangles and place on prepared trays. Dock the pastry with a fork and bake, swapping trays partway through cooking, until golden brown and crisp (15-20 minutes), then cool on wire racks. Whisk 300ml thickened cream with 200gm crème fraîche in a bowl to soft peaks and set aside. Split each pastry rectangle horizontally so you have 6 rectangles, and place a piece on a serving plate. Spread thickly with dulce de leche, then cream mixture. Repeat layering, finishing with dulce de leche (you’ll need about 800gm of dulce de leche in total). Scatter with 50gm coarsely chopped roast walnuts and serve.
Banana, caramel and peanut trifle
Serves 4
Whisk 300ml thickened cream, 200gm crème fraîche, 1 tbsp golden rum and the scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean in a bowl to combine, then partially fold in 200gm dulce de leche to form a ripple effect. Layer in serving glasses with 2 thickly sliced bananas and 2½ tbsp coarsely chopped roasted salted peanuts, then serve.
Spiced caramel milk
Serves 4
Combine 800ml milk, 200gm dulce de leche, 3 cinnamon quills and 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped, in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally to combine. Simmer for 5 minutes, then strain into cups and serve dusted with ground cinnamon.
Baked dulce de leche custard
Serves 6-8
Preheat oven to 160C. Stir 500ml milk, 300gm dulce de leche and scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium-high heat until combined, then bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk 4 eggs, 2 yolks and the finely grated rind of 1 lemon in a bowl until combined, then pour into milk mixture, whisking continuously. Strain custard into a 20cm-diameter baking dish, place in a water bath and bake until set with a slight wobble in the centre (20-25 minutes). Remove from water bath and stand at room temperature for 30 minutes, then refrigerate until completely chilled (2-3 hours or overnight). Serve dusted with a little finely grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon.
Hot tips
For a cheat’s dulce de leche:
Simmer a can of condensed milk in a large saucepan covered with a weighted lid over low heat for 3½ hours.
Do not uncover or touch it while it cooks.
Cool completely in the water before opening (1 – 2 hours; do not open can until it’s completely cold).
There’s no doubt that over the years beauty gurus around the world have come up with some very clever DIY solutions and alternatives to expensive treatments—we ourselves love a good avocado mask. But there have also been some disasters… and this creepy-crawly story might take the slimy cake.
Beauty blogger ‘OliveSkinBeauty’ shocked viewers worldwide when she uploaded her video ‘DIY Snail Facial‘… which, yes, is exactly what it sounds like. The American vlogger narrates her journey as she finds “wild snails” in her backyard to use in her facial, which she describes as “slimy” yet “soothing”.
The blogger revealed she was attempting to recreate a facial using snail mucin, which many beauty companies add to their products to stimulate the production of elastin and collagen. Snail mucus is a popular sheet mask ingredient in Japan and Korea, who claim it boosts the ‘glow’ in your skin.
There’s always a lot going on behind the scenes at an event like the Olympics that us normal folk don’t quite understand, but one eagle-eyed fan thinks they have found the ‘most pointless job at the Olympics’… and we think we agree!
The Melbourne man who kept a Dutch backpacker as a sex slave for more than six weeks has had his sentence extended by six years because it was “too lenient”.
Alfio Anthony Granata, 48, kidnapped a Dutch tourist who had come to his Preston hotel room for consensual sex and kept her locked in the room, subjecting her to a “private hell” of rape, assault and torture.
During the six weeks, Granata reportedly beat the backpacker with a meat tenderiser, burned her with a lighter, stomped on her head, carved a cross into her forehead and broke her nose by smashing her head against his former girlfriend’s. When she was discovered by police, the 21-year-old had more than 50 cuts and bruises all over her body.
According to The Herald Sun, the father-of-three told the woman, “The killing has begun. Your death is certain. I will hurt you so bad that you will need life support for weeks and when you are better I will start all over again. I will peel all your skin off with a knife and cut off all your fingers and toes if you, stupid girl, defy me.”
The young woman escaped by stabbing Granata and later herself. Granata then panicked and called an ambulance, allowing the woman to escape on Christmas Day 2012.
After being originally charged with 16 offences and ordered to serve a minimum of 13 years of a 17 year sentence last year, Granata’s punishment has now been extended to a minimum of 17 years of a 23 year sentence.
The Court of Appeal heard on Monday that due to the “extremely depraved” nature of his crimes, a 13 year sentence would be ‘manifestly inadequate’.
Granata has already served more than 1200 days in prison.
Most of us will insist that all babies are beautiful. Perhaps it’s their shiny new innocence, or the magnitude of their potential that get’s to us, but whatever the reason, babies are always utterly gorgeous.
Except for when they’re not…
A recent Mumsnet thread has shoved all baby etiquette to one side and openly discussed the times that babies were ugly.
“Most babies are ugly crying potatoes. My son looked like a bald sparrow when he was born,” said the first commenter in the thread.
“Babies look like angry old men, especially if they are bald,” said another.
One mumsnetter describes, “recoiling in horror” as she clicked on a photo of a colleague’s new bay.
“The poor wee thing was the spitting image of one of those Troll doll things that kids used to collect when I was 12 or 13 but with black hair instead of fluorescent pink. [The baby] is about two now, and going by photos on Facebook is still an interesting looking child.”
Some commenters admitted that their own babies had “fallen out of the ugly tree.”
“My son was terrible when he was born. Looked like my mother in law…luckily he has outgrown that!” confessed one mum.
Likewise, another mum says that her daughter “looked like Gollam” when she was born.
“My darling son was a very very old gnome when he was born,” said another commenter.
But while the majority of comments in the “ugly baby” thread admit to finding some babies unattractive, there is also a general consensus that despite their looks, all babies are cute regardless.
“I’ve known some funny looking little ones but it only adds to their charm,” says one mum, summing up the general feeling of the Mumsnet community.
Personally, while I have definitely seen some ugly babies in my time (one that looked like a Klingon springs to mind) I also believe that all babies are beautiful.
They are the most precious thing any parent will ever hold in their arms, and regardless of wrinkly faces or funny expressions, they are the most lovely creatures in the world.
Prince William, wife Duchess Catherine and their darling tots Prince George and Princess Charlotte are the picture of happiness.
Inspired by Kate’s childhood, both parents have been very vocal about their desire to give their darling kids a grounded upbringing, and in their short time with us, it’s clear the parents are doing just that.
In the bid for normalcy, things have gone slightly awry for the couple’s extended family.
The Mail on Sunday published a telling article that discussed how “Prince Charles is feeling ‘edged out’ over time spent with grandchildren.”
When Catherine first became an official member of the Windsor clan following her 2011 wedding to William, the Queen, along with Charles, Camilla and of course Prince Harry, all welcomed the bride and the Middletons into their family and inner circle.
Carole and Michael Middleton proudly joined in all their intimate festivities including Queen’s 2012 Diamond Jubilee pageant on the Thames.
But many royal watchers noted there wasn’t a Middleton insight during the numerous celebrations for Her Majesty’s 90th birthday.
And according to The Mail on Sunday, it’s all down to Prince Charles’ wanting more time with his grandkids.
“Charles feels very much that the Middletons get more than their fair share of time with George and Charlotte,” a friend of the first-in-line-to-the-throne revealed.
Carole wants to be involved with her royal family in every way possible and often looks after the kids.
“Grandparenthood is a unique moment in anyone’s life, as countless kind people have told me in recent months, so I am enormously proud and happy to be a grandfather!”
“In comparison, he sees them very little and he bears a bit of a grudge about that. He wants to see his son and daughter-in-law and spend time with his grandchildren alone.”
Explaining, “He has always wanted to mentor George, who is, after all, the heir to the throne, and sees it very much as his role.”
“He will always insist the grandchildren come to Scotland so that they can learn to shoot, hunt and fish.”
“That’s very important to Charles. He wishes the family would do more traditional things like holiday in Scotland.”
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Just last month, the family celebrated little Georgie’s third birthday.
While William’s father was there to wish his darling grandson a Happy Birthday, according to the publication, the entire day was a Middleton affair.
“Charles didn’t want to miss his grandson’s birthday but the fact that the whole thing was essentially a Middleton event with Carole orchestrating the whole thing is exactly what upsets him,” the royal source quipped.
Charles is reminded of little Wills.
Carole and the Middleton clan have become unofficial members of the royal family.
While a close friend to the royal explained, “Charles feels rather left out. He gets very little time with his grandchildren and I know he gets upset about it because he has said so.”
“He certainly feels William spends more time with the Middletons than he does with his own family.”
But it seems the beloved dad doesn’t want to rock the boat with another Royal source adding, “While Charles would never dream of saying anything to upset William, he might be making a point by keeping the Middletons at arm’s length.”
Charles is so happy for his son…
And gets along splendidly with his daughter-in-law.
With Wills and Kate’s move back to Kensington, which is only a nine minute drive to Charles and Camilla’s London home Clarence House, the grandparents will no doubt be able to lock in some more time with the little tots.
In a recent chat with BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time, Prince Charles revealed that he and little Prince George like to spend time “planting a tree or two” in the garden of his Gloucestershire home.
“The most important thing is I got him planting a tree or two here, so we planted it together and shovelled in the earth,” said the 67-year-old.
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Just last year the doting grandfather restored a playground for his young grandson on the Highgrove grounds.
Carole, who describes her son-in-law as “wonderful and we’re extremely fond of him”, is reportedly shocked by Charles’ views.
“She was devastated!” a friend said.
“All she has ever wanted is to be a good mother and grandmother, not upset anyone in the process.”
No matter how Carole and Prince Charles feel about each other, one thing is certain, they both adore their kids.
In a candid interview with the BBC, William spoke fondly of the support he felt from his side of the family.
“My grandmother and my father are 150 percent supportive behind everything that I’m doing — and Harry and Catherine,” he said.
The Prince mused, “It’s fun to be a grandfather!”
“They very much understand whilst my grandmother is still extremely active at the helm of the royal family, as the monarch [and] my father is incredibly busy with his charitable activities and other responsibilities, there’s the time now and the space to explore other means of doing a worthwhile job.”
Before adding, that family is the most important thing to him.
“As far as we’re concerned, within our family unit we are a normal family.”
“I love my children the same way any father does and I hope George loves me the same way any son does to his father, so we are very normal in that sense.”
“There’ll be a time and a place to bring George up and understand how he fits in the world. But right now, it’s just a case of keeping a secure, stable environment around him and showing him as much love as I can as a father.”
A UK Supermarket has been praised for making its disabled toilet signs more inclusive.
The sign shows a traditional disabled symbol alongside the symbols for male and female toilets. Under the pictures the texts reads: “Not every disability is visible”.
A photo of the sign went viral over the weekend after being posted on the Crohn’s and Colitis UK Facebook page.
“Finally some recognition for those [with] hidden disabilities. Crohn’s has been my nemesis for years yet I always feel judged for using disabled facilities. Well done Asda,” said one of the many commenters.
The sign acknowledges that often people with an invisible illness get ‘tutted’ or challenged when using a disabled toilet.
This is something that disability activist Carly Findlay feels really strongly about. She says that she would like to see this sort of signage adopted universally.
“It would help those of us with more hidden disabilities feel confident to use these facilities,” she tells The Weekly Online.
However, Sarah Whitaker who has a more obvious disability says that regardless of signage, there are still a lot of people who use the accessibility toilets who probably shouldn’t.
“There are a large number of people who do use the bathroom because it appears almost luxurious and spacious and will use it almost as a first class utility where they can take as much time as they please, she says.
“Just yesterday I had waited a good 15 minutes to use the one bathroom available to me and out walked a seemingly very able-bodied person who had spent their time trimming his beard (whiskers were EVERYWHERE).
This certainly wasn’t an isolated incident: “Other memorable instances involve someone who had been doing their make up and another time two men exited looking quite sheepish,” says Whitaker.
“It’s frustrating as I can be waiting up to half an hour to use that bathroom and there have been times I have been beside myself with the strain it has put on my bladder.”
But Whitaker also says that changing the signage could act as a gentle reminder that disability doesn’t always look a certain way.
“It’s a great reminder for those with disabilities perhaps not to judge so quickly,” she says.
“But on the other side of the coin I still think there’s a lot of awareness that needs to be raised about the importance of keeping those bathrooms vacant to those who actually require them.”
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