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A Melbourne woman accused of participating in an alleged domestic slavery scheme has been cleared of all charges midway through a joint trial, while her husband remains before the court facing allegations of holding an elderly woman as a forced laborer in their home.

Angie Yeh Ling Liaw stood trial alongside her husband, Chee Kit “Max” Chong, at Victoria’s County Court. Prosecutors alleged Liaw aided Chong in holding a 61-year-old woman in de facto slavery between February and October 2022, a case that has drawn attention over the alleged exploitative conditions the victim endured.

On Thursday morning, Judge Michael Cahill made the rare mid-trial ruling to dismiss all charges against Liaw, informing the seated jury that after a full review of the prosecution’s evidence, a legal finding of acquittal was required. “Having considered all of the evidence in the prosecution case I’ve decided as a matter of law that Ms Liaw should be acquitted of the charge against her,” Cahill told the jury. A formal not guilty verdict was immediately recorded, after which Liaw left the courtroom accompanied by her legal team.

Chong’s trial remains ongoing, with his defense barrister Diana Price confirming that her client will not testify in his own defense nor call any witness evidence to support his case. Jurors are set to receive closing arguments from both prosecutor Shaun Ginsbourg SC and Price in the coming days.

At the opening of the trial, Ginsbourg laid out the prosecution’s case against Chong, outlining allegations that the defendant intentionally held the 61-year-old woman as a slave and assaulted her on three separate occasions. According to the prosecution’s account, the victim was forced to carry out unpaid domestic work for the couple, and was denied basic living comforts: she was made to sleep on a staircase or in the couple’s garage, had access to food and rest restricted if her work did not meet Chong’s standards, and endured repeated physical abuse. Chong maintained complete control over every aspect of the victim’s life, from her ability to leave the property to access to medical care, acting as though he owned her, Ginsbourg alleged. On one occasion, Chong reportedly told the victim she could only leave if she paid him $1 million, otherwise she would be forced to remain in the home. The victim ultimately escaped in October 2022, and has since died of causes unrelated to the alleged abuse, court documents confirm.

For the defense, Price pushed back against the prosecution’s narrative, acknowledging the victim did live with Chong and assisted the household with domestic work and financial contributions, but denying all claims of assault and enslavement. Price argued that the victim may have had motive to exaggerate or fabricate her claims to police, and contended that even if the court found the victim was treated poorly, that treatment does not legally meet the definition of slavery. The trial is expected to conclude in the coming days as the jury prepares to deliberate on a verdict for Chong.

Across Australia, communities are preparing to gather Thursday for coordinated candlelit vigils to remember Kumanjayi Little Baby, a 5-year-old non-verbal Indigenous girl whose alleged murder last month has sparked national grief and fiery unrest in the central Australian outback town of Alice Springs.

A warning is issued at the outset for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers: this report references a deceased individual, with images used with full family consent in line with Indigenous cultural protocols. For many First Nations communities across Australia, sharing the name, image or voice of a person who has passed away without explicit family permission violates traditional mourning customs, a rule that has been respected in this coverage.

Kumanjayi Little Baby went missing from Old Timers Camp, a government-designated Aboriginal transient camp on the outskirts of Alice Springs, in the late hours of April 25. She was last seen when she was put to bed shortly before midnight, and raised the alarm when she was discovered gone several hours later. Authorities launched a large-scale multi-agency search for the young girl, and her remains were found just five days after her disappearance, on April 30, roughly three kilometers from the camp.

Hours after the discovery of her body, 47-year-old Jefferson Lewis was taken into custody. Lewis had been assaulted by community members in the immediate aftermath of the news, and was transferred to an Alice Springs hospital for medical treatment following his arrest. The arrest triggered a violent riot outside the hospital facility, where crowds of angry and grieving community members gathered. Police ultimately arrested five people in connection with the riot, but Kumanjayi Little Baby’s family moved quickly to call for calm amid the unrest.

In a public statement, senior Warlpiri elder and family member Robin Granites urged the public to let the formal justice process proceed, and asked for respect for the family as they carry out “sorry business” — the traditional period of collective mourning observed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

In a development that underscores growing scrutiny of systemic failures surrounding the case, three child protection workers have been formally stood down as of Wednesday amid an ongoing investigation into the circumstances that led to Kumanjayi Little Baby’s disappearance and death.

Organizers have opened the Thursday vigils to all members of the public, and the girl’s family has asked attendees to wear pink — Kumanjayi Little Baby’s favorite color, as a small tribute to her short life. The main vigil in Alice Springs will kick off at 5:30 pm local time at Anzac Sports Oval, designed to create a safe, supportive space for people to process shared grief and stand with the girl’s family, Alice Springs Mayor Asta Hill explained in a social media announcement.

The tribute will not be limited to central Australia: vigils are also scheduled in every Australian state and territory capital, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin and Hobart, with additional gatherings planned in dozens of smaller regional towns across the country. The coordinated national events come as the tragedy has reignited national conversation about child safety, systemic support for remote Indigenous communities, and ongoing gaps in social services that have left many First Nations children vulnerable.

A shocking case of drug-fueled violence has concluded in an Australian court, with a 54-year-old disabled man handed a 19-year prison term for the murder of his friend, triggered by a little-known emerging synthetic drug. The Victorian Supreme Court handed down the sentence to Mark Graham Ludbrook on Thursday morning, nearly 18 months after the fatal stabbing of 40-year-old Autumn Baker at Ludbrook’s home in Point Cook, southwest Melbourne, on August 3, 2023.

Ludbrook, who relies on a wheelchair due to transverse myelitis, a rare neurological disorder that causes chronic pain, had a long history of self-medicating with illegally obtained ketamine to manage his discomfort. On the day of the killing, he had exhausted his supply of ketamine, and turned to an alternative drug his dealer marketed as a ketamine equivalent: a new synthetic compound called PCE. Court documents confirm PCE first emerged as an illicit street drug in Australian communities in 2022, and little is publicly known about its short- and long-term effects on human behavior and cognition. On that day, Ludbrook consumed a double dose of PCE, which rapidly triggered extreme and erratic psychological changes.

Baker, a close friend of Ludbrook’s, had visited his home that afternoon to check on him after he had recently gone through a painful relationship breakup. What she encountered was unrecognizable from the man she knew: for the first time in years, Ludbrook was able to walk, but he was completely naked, muttering to himself and interacting with a daisy bush in his backyard. Earlier in the day, witnesses described his behavior as unnervingly manic: he carried money on his body, rambled about saving animals and people, and carried himself with the over-the-top energy of a game show host, completely out of touch with reality.

The situation quickly escalated from bizarre to tragic. After displaying erratic behavior for some time, Ludbrook grabbed a 13-centimeter serrated kitchen knife, retreated to his bedroom, and began stabbing himself in the abdomen. Baker and Ludbrook’s full-time carer, Amber Davidson, rushed in to stop him. When Davidson stepped out of the room to call Australia’s emergency line (triple-0), Ludbrook turned the weapon on Baker, killing her. Police later found Baker’s body in Ludbrook’s bedroom.

Ludbrook pleaded not guilty to murder at his February trial, arguing that the drug had completely stripped him of control over his actions, and that he could not be held criminally responsible for his behavior. Justice James Gorton, who presided over the case and sentencing, acknowledged in his ruling that the violent outburst was completely out of character for Ludbrook, and that his capacity to distinguish right from wrong was severely impaired by the PCE he ingested that morning. “Your bizarre and violent behaviour that day was unusual … and took place as a consequence of your ingestion of PCE,” Justice Gorton stated in court. Even so, the court imposed a 19-year prison term, with Ludbrook becoming eligible for parole after serving 14 years of his sentence. The case has drawn new attention to the risks of unregulated emerging synthetic drugs, which often carry unknown and extreme side effects for users and pose growing public safety risks across Australia.