Vic Good Friday appeal targets $16m

VICTORIANS are being asked to dig deep for sick children as organisers of the annual Good Friday Appeal hope to beat last year's record.

Victorians raised a record breaking $15,820,640.78 for the Royal Children's Hospital by midnight on Good Friday last year.

Fundraisers are out in full force this year, with volunteers standing on street corners across Melbourne and various fundraising activities getting under way throughout the day.

By 12.45pm (AEDT) on Friday, $3,211,556.05 had been raised.

The appeal has received more than $245 million since it began in 1931.

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WA's chat line killer loses appeal

A MAN who killed a woman a month after meeting her on a social media networking service has failed in an appeal against his 10-year sentence.

Matthew Shane Dodd, 27, was convicted last year of the unlawful killing of mother-of-four Shannon Pearce, 27, whose decomposed body was found in bushland near Geraldton on Christmas Day, 2010.

A jury accepted Dodd had savagely attacked Ms Pearce, leaving her with horrific injuries including a double fracture of her jaw, a broken nose and missing teeth.

The jury was told it appeared Dodd had attempted to have sex with Ms Pearce, whom he met through the phone-based social media network Divas Chat, despite abusing her physically and verbally as they travelled from Perth to Geraldton.

After she resisted his advances he lashed out, the court heard.

Ms Pearce's body was found a week after the attack.

Trial judge Justice Henry Wisbey said the unlawful killing was among the most serious of its kind and jailed Dodd for 10 years.

In appealing against the sentence, Dodd argued there was a lack of evidence as to Ms Pearce's specific cause of death, no weapon or depravity were involved, and the evidence did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that she died as a result of the assault.

On Friday, Justices Robert Mazza and Michael Buss in the WA Court of Appeal decided the sentence was fair.

"The appellant committed an unprovoked and savage attack upon a vulnerable, unarmed and defenceless woman," Justice Buss said.

After the attack, he had demonstrated "callous indifference" to her plight, he said.

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NT looking to appeal recycling court loss

THE Northern Territory government is considering appealing a Federal Court judgment that found a cash for containers scheme is invalid.

Northern Territory Chief Minister Terry Mills says his government won't give up fighting to continue the recycling scheme.

"We are intending to appeal but of course we haven't seen the judgment in detail but it is our intention to fight this," Mr Mills said following the court decision on Monday.

"We will explore every option to see whether we can keep this scheme going in the Northern Territory."

He called on the beverage industry to continue operating the NT scheme on a voluntary basis for two months so that people who have collected cans will be able to get a refund.

Prices of cans and bottles in the NT, some of which rose when the cash for containers scheme was introduced, should immediately drop, Mr Mills said.

Federal Court Justice John Griffiths found the NT's scheme was in breach of the Commonwealth Mutual Recognition Act.

The NT government would lobby within the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to get an exemption under that Act, Mr Mills said.

Alec Wagstaff, director of corporate affairs for Coca-Cola Amatil, said the judgment meant the company could immediately move to drop prices in the Northern Territory.

"This court case was never about stopping recycling in the Northern Territory," Mr Wagstaff told reporters outside court.

"This judgment was purely a legal issue about the conflict of laws between the Northern Territory and the Commonwealth."

Coca-Cola did not believe container deposits were the best way to improve recycling in Australia and would work with the government to find other ways, Mr Wagstaff added.

"They only address a small part of the problem and they're very expensive," he said.

"Now that the court has ruled the system doesn't effectively apply, we think it's really important the consumers don't suffer."

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