7NEWS Spotlight

By 7NEWS Podcasts

From the award-winning 7NEWS team comes 7NEWS Spotlight - a series of investigative specials focussing on major breaking news events and long-form investigations of national significance.

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FAQs about 7NEWS Spotlight:

How many episodes does 7NEWS Spotlight have?

The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.

7NEWS Spotlight episodes:

March 09, 2021 The murder of Lisa Harnum: the CCTV footage that convicted Simon Gittany
In 2011, Canadian ex-pat Lisa Harnum was found dead at the bottom of a Sydney apartment building. Her fiance Simon Gittany was charged with her murder; he claimed she jumped from the balcony of their apartment. But three seconds of video would seal his fate. Investigative journalists Ross Coulthart and Steve Pennells recreate the story, the apartment, and meet the key people in both Lisa and Simon's life. This story contains course language and adult themes. This story originally aired in 2014.
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50min
February 25, 2021 Beauty queen killer: the unsolved murder of Anne Zappelli
Anne Zappelli was a young woman from country Western Australia. The beauty queen and Miss Australia Quest contestant was raped and murdered in September 1969, aged just 20. Police bungled the investigation and the case was never solved. A chilling deathbed confession that pointed the finger at the suspect was also useless. How did police get it so wrong?

This story originally aired in 2012. Both prime suspects have since died.

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18min
February 17, 2021 Sole survivor: the Lin family murders
On July 18, 2009, the battered bodies of newsagent Min Lin, his wife Lily Lin, their sons Henry and Terry; and Lily's sister Irene were found in their North Epping home. Brenda Lin was the only family member to survive - saved only by a school trip to New Caledonia. After making pleas for public assistance to solve the case, Min's brother-in-law Robert Xie was charged with their murders in 2011. In 2017, Xie was found guilty of murdering all five members of the Lin family and sentenced to five life terms in jail. In February 2021, Chief Justice Tom Bathurst and Justices Robert Allan Hulme and Robert Beech-Jones rejected Xie's appeal and found Xie didn't suffer a miscarriage of justice.

This story originally aired on Sunday Night in 2017.

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43min
January 25, 2021 In The Blink Of An Eye - four young lives lost in the Oatlands car crash: Part Two
A group of seven carefree siblings and cousins, enjoying a moment of childhood independence as they walked to get ice cream from the shops on a hot Australian summer evening. There was laughter and jokes as they took turns on a bicycle – when without warning the unthinkable.

In the blink of an eye, an alleged drunk driver ploughs his out-of-control ute into the group at more than 100 kilometres per hour. Four young lives were instantly lost by the side of the road at Oatlands in Sydney’s west that fateful day in February this year – not even 10 minutes from their home. Three siblings, Antony Abdallah, 13, Angelina Abdallah, 12, and Sienna Abdallah, 8, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, who now share the same grave. It was a tragedy that rocked all of Australia. The details would break any heart.

Dedicated to honouring the memories of their children, these courageous families open up to Michael Usher in this emotional story no parent can miss.

Listen to Part Two now.

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33min
January 25, 2021 In The Blink Of An Eye - four young lives lost in the Oatlands car crash: Part One
A group of seven carefree siblings and cousins, enjoying a moment of childhood independence as they walked to get ice cream from the shops on a hot Australian summer evening. There was laughter and jokes as they took turns on a bicycle – when without warning the unthinkable.

In the blink of an eye, an alleged drunk driver ploughs his out-of-control ute into the group at more than 100 kilometres per hour. Four young lives were instantly lost by the side of the road at Oatlands in Sydney’s west that fateful day in February this year – not even 10 minutes from their home. Three siblings, Antony Abdallah, 13, Angelina Abdallah, 12, and Sienna Abdallah, 8, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, who now share the same grave. It was a tragedy that rocked all of Australia. The details would break any heart.

Dedicated to honouring the memories of their children, these courageous families open up to Michael Usher in this emotional story no parent can miss.

Listen to Part One now.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
...more
21min
January 14, 2021 Catching A Madman - the Family Court bomber: Part Two
For more than three decades, the seven crimes known as the Family Court Murders remained the worst series of unsolved serial killings in Australian criminal history. Between 1980 and 1985, four people were murdered and dozens critically injured in a cruel five-year reign of terror across Sydney, aimed at the very heart of the country’s judicial system. Five bombings and multiple shootings targeting judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and innocent members of the public. There was only ever one prime suspect linked to all seven crimes but despite years of surveillance he was never charged. Leonard Warwick thought he was invincible, that he’d got away with murder. In 2013, a major Channel Seven investigation, led by award-winning journalist Ross Coulthart, would blow the case wide open. For the very first time in more than a quarter of a century, all the main witnesses who until that point had been too afraid to speak out, including Warwick’s daughter and ex-wife, would describe the events that rocked Australia. Coulthart’s forensic investigation would put the horrific murders and bombings back in the public focus – and in the spotlight of authorities. Unknown to Warwick, and long forgotten by police, was the crucial mistake that would bring him down. Buried deep in a box of archived evidence, Warwick’s blood collected from one of the bomb sites that would be analysed using advanced DNA technology. In this stunning conclusion, how Warwick's world came crashing down and the punishment he received for his crimes.
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20min
January 14, 2021 Catching A Madman - the Family Court bomber: Part One
For more than three decades, the seven crimes known as the Family Court Murders remained the worst series of unsolved serial killings in Australian criminal history. Between 1980 and 1985, four people were murdered and dozens critically injured in a cruel five-year reign of terror across Sydney, aimed at the very heart of the country’s judicial system. Five bombings and multiple shootings targeting judges of the Family Court of Australia, their families, a lawyer and innocent members of the public. There was only ever one prime suspect linked to all seven crimes but despite years of surveillance he was never charged. Leonard Warwick thought he was invincible, that he’d got away with murder. In 2013, a major Channel Seven investigation, led by award-winning journalist Ross Coulthart, would blow the case wide open. For the very first time in more than a quarter of a century, all the main witnesses who until that point had been too afraid to speak out, including Warwick’s daughter and ex-wife, would describe the events that rocked Australia. Coulthart’s forensic investigation would put the horrific murders and bombings back in the public focus – and in the spotlight of authorities. Unknown to Warwick, and long forgotten by police, was the crucial mistake that would bring him down. Buried deep in a box of archived evidence, Warwick’s blood collected from one of the bomb sites that would be analysed using advanced DNA technology. In this special, Coulthart returns to the most dangerous story of his career with the next chapter and major new development in this ground-breaking investigation – was there another victim?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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35min
January 13, 2021 The Lindy Tapes - the Azaria Chamberlain mystery: Part Two
The Lindy Tapes is a documentary six months in the making. It uncovers stunning new evidence in the now infamous Azaria Chamberlain case. ‘A dingo’s got my baby’- five words that will forever divide a nation. The tragic death of a baby girl in outback Australia that at one point in time became a T-Shirt slogan, a punchline. The trial one of the most publicised in our history. Incredibly, crucial parts of this story were never untold. Now, 40 years after baby Azaria’s disappearance and the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian criminal history, a major investigation from the 7NEWS Spotlight team unearths the secret police tape recordings never broadcast. In part two of this investigation, journalist Denham Hitchcock looks back at the impact of the trial, speaks to a jury member and uncovers evidence from an Indigenous tracker.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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31min
January 13, 2021 The Lindy Tapes - the Azaria Chamberlain mystery: Part One
The Lindy Tapes is a documentary six months in the making. It uncovers stunning new evidence in the now infamous Azaria Chamberlain case. ‘A dingo’s got my baby’- five words that will forever divide a nation. The tragic death of a baby girl in outback Australia that at one point in time became a T-Shirt slogan, a punchline. The trial one of the most publicised in our history. Incredibly, crucial parts of this story were never untold. Now, 40 years after baby Azaria’s disappearance and the greatest miscarriage of justice in Australian criminal history, a major investigation from the 7NEWS Spotlight team unearths the secret police tape recordings never broadcast. In part one of this investigation, journalist Denham Hitchcock looks back on this baffling case and unveils previously unheard police tapes and interviews.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
...more
27min

FAQs about 7NEWS Spotlight:

How many episodes does 7NEWS Spotlight have?

The podcast currently has 19 episodes available.