Aussie music producer jailed, banned from US

Electronic music producer Nick Bertke, 24, better known as Pogo, is facing a ten-year ban from entering the United States.Picture: www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron

WEST Australian electronic music producer, Pogo, has posted a video online asking for assistance in overcoming a 10-year ban from entering the United States.

Pogo, the stage name of 24-year-old Nick Bertke, was incarcerated for three weeks in the US - two in a county jail and one in a federal detention centre – after being apprehended without a working visa while touring in America in September 2011. The ban took effect the following month but Bertke has just launched his online campaign this week.

"America is really the last place on earth I want to be banned from," he says.

According to Bertke, his promoters the Agency Group failed to advise him about appropriate documentation and subsequently removed him from their list.

"I have close friends in America, I have unique work opportunities there and I've been speaking with lawyers and consulates who are telling me the odds are very heavily against me," he says on the video.

Bertke says he was unaware he was unable to work in the United States as he had always previously travelled there on a visa waiver. "This was news to me because I have toured the States before," he says. "I've played shows in the States, I've given talks …. And I've done all of this on a visa waiver."

Bertke is best known for his mash-ups created from film fragments, such as Upular, which was entirely composed using chords, bass notes and vocal samples from the Disney Pixar film Up.

"It's been my passion since I was about 16 to take small bits of voice, chords, musical sequences, sound effects from my favourite films and piece these sounds together to create completely new music that hopefully captures the essence of that film," he says.

Nick Bertke received a ten-year Order of Removal issued in October 2011 after working in the US while on a visa waiver.

He has more recently set out to create a "world remix", funded on Kickstarter.

"The goal of my project is to travel the world capturing sights, sounds, voices and chords, and use them to compose and shoot a track and video for each major culture of the world," he says. He has already created tracks for Bhutan, Johannesburg and New York City and next up is Tibet.

"I see the potential here to travel the world in search of sights and sounds of our cultures, religions, people and their passions, their lifestyles and piece those sounds together to create tracks and videos that capture the human spirit," says Bertke.

Bertke has over 22 million views on YouTube and more than 230,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel.
 

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Conman jailed over $1m sting

Wadari Wiriyanjara aka Dallas Gwillam leaving Downing Centre Courts. Source: The Daily Telegraph

A SUPER soldier, a "magic man" and a globe-trotting spy who landed a helicopter on the steps of the High Court and knocked back a contract to kill Osama bin Laden.

Conman Wadari Wiriyanjara claimed to be all of these things when he scammed his victims out of almost $1 million over five years.

The truth is he is a liar from Neutral Bay who was yesterday given a real entry for his resume: convicted criminal.

Wiriyanjara, 40, was sentenced to a maximum eight years' jail by Judge Penelope Hock in the Downing Centre District Court after being found guilty of 27 counts of obtaining money by deception. Wiriyanjara fleeced three people of cash and property worth $963,900 and did it by spinning an "elaborate web of lies", the court heard.

They included that he was an Aboriginal law man, an experimental soldier and the heir to "a rich German woman" who "owned Bega Cheese". He used the money on travel and luxury accommodation, the court heard.

One of the victims, Melanie Hogan, had a child with Wiriyanjara and invited him on a speaking tour to promote her documentary on indigenous Australians believing he was the relative of an Aboriginal man in her film.

Ms Hogan gave him $296,000 after Wiriyanjara claimed he needed to pay off the Russian mafia for protection from Australian military officials who were trying to kill him for uncovering a drug syndicate operating in the army. He cheated Ms Hogan out of $889,000.

Another victim was student Lisa Rochelle who gave him $4100. Brunswick Heads man Byron Smith gave him $70,800 thinking he was a UN agent.

The deception began in 2004 when Ms Rochelle picked up Wiriyanjara hitch-hiking in Mullumbimby.

Wiriyanjara said he was an "Aboriginal law man" and was part of "5SER" - a secret SAS-style military team.

He told her the army had experimented on him since he was two years old to turn him into a "super-soldier".

By 2005, he said the military were trying to kill him and Ms Rochelle gave him money to hire a helicopter he later claimed he "landed on the front steps of the High Court of Australia", the court heard.

By 2006, Rochelle was pregnant to Wiriyanjara and the two met Smith, whose car had been stolen. Wiriyanjara convinced Smith to hand over $50,000 to pay for "computer and satellite tracking devices" he had access to through the UN, the court heard.

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Woman jailed for 11th false rape claim

Elizabeth Jones has ben jailed for 16 months after falsely claiming she had been raped 11 times in nine years by Southampton Crown Court. Main Picture: Wikipedia Source: news.com.au

AN ENGLISH woman described as a compulsive liar has been jailed for 16 months for falsely claiming she was raped for the 11th time in nine years.

Elizabeth Jones admitted she made the false claim because she "did not like" the man she accused of assaulting her, Southampton Crown court was told.

"There is a history of her making false allegations of this nature and this is the 11th incident,” prosecutor Jennie Rickman told the court.

"Police had to take her allegation seriously and carried out an appropriate investigation.

"She was later arrested and accepted she had lied about being raped - she said she did it because she did not like him," Ms Rickman said.

Detective Constable Tim Blanche said Ms Jones had made "intimate contact" with the unnamed male victim, but "they didn't live together".

The 22-year-old, who has made 10 other false rape allegations, urged an unidentified friend to report the assault to police.  She later attended the local police station where she repeated the false allegations and underwent a full medical examination.

Police then arrested and questioned the man who denied the assault. 

"The man was arrested and he gave a statement - he had to live his life with people accusing him of being a rapist," DC Blanche told The Daily Mail.

Police reviewed CCTV footage of the part of the house where Jones claimed she had been sexually assaulted and found the vision did not support her version of events and she was not forcibly taken there.

Ms Jones plead guilty to one count of perverting the course of justice.

Judge Derwin Hope said the offense was serious because it struck at the very heart of Britain's criminal justice system.  In sentencing Jones to 16 months behind bars, Judge Hope also said the man had endured "terrible emotional experience" as a result of Jones' lies.

Megan Topliss for the defence said her client had experienced a disturbed childhood and had spent many years in care.

Ms Topliss added that Ms Jones had plead guilty at the earliest possible opportunity and had admitted to lying when challenged by police.

After Ms Jones was sentenced, it emerged that she made her first complaint at age 13 and had been given a ten month detention and training order in 2009 for a similar offence. Between 2005 and 2007 she made eight other sexual assault allegations to police, but was not charged.

DC Blanche said Ms Jones' history of false allegations left the judge with no other choice but to impose a custodial sentence as the CCTV footage clearly demonstrated that she was lying.  He hopes that the case doesn't deter genuine victims from reporting sexual assault crimes to police.

"We encourage all victims to come forward, but sadly Elizabeth was one of the people that was not telling the truth," DC Blanche said.

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Man jailed for life over Qld house fire

A QUEENSLAND man has been sent to jail for life for setting fire to his ex-girlfriend's house in a jealous rage, killing two people and seriously injuring his former lover.

Craig Anthony Leonard, 30, was given a minimum non-parole period of 20 years in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane on Tuesday.

Leonard pleaded guilty to murdering Nicholas David Spohn, 23, and Jennifer Anne Bachmann, 43, in April 2011.

He also pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to his ex-girlfriend Rina Linda Mayall, then 24.

The court heard Leonard set fire to Ms Mayall's Gold Coast house while she was in bed with her new boyfriend in a jealous fit fuelled by drink and drugs.

Months earlier Ms Mayall ended her eight-month relationship with Leonard and rebuffed attempts to reconcile, Crown Prosecutor Michael Byrne SC said.

After drinking heavily and injecting amphetamines, Leonard drove to the Beachmere house on the night of April 17, and used petrol to set a mattress alight under the home.

The house caught fire and Ms Bachmann and Mr Spohn, who were asleep, died of smoke inhalation.

Ms Mayall jumped from a verandah and broke her back.

Mr Byrne told the court Leonard later told police he just wanted to "put the wind up" his ex-girlfriend and "f*** her up financially".

In a statement, Mr Spohn's mother, Erika Varga, said their family had been robbed of a life with their son.

"We will never see him, hold him, hug him and tell him how much we love him," it read.

Ms Bachmann's sister, who cannot be named, told the court through tears how her sister was so badly burned DNA tests were needed to identify her.

In sentencing, Justice James Douglas said there was evidence to suggest Leonard's crime was a stupid act brought on by intoxication but that didn't detract from its seriousness.

"To describe it as stupid or senseless is to severely understate the effect of what you have done," he said.

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