A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and attempted unlawful killing after his mother was found dead and his 12-year-old sister seriously injured at their home in Bentley, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Police say the girl fled to a nearby highway early on Tuesday morning, where bystanders provided first aid before she was taken to hospital in a critical but stable condition. The boy was arrested at the scene and is due to appear before the Perth Children’s Court. Western Australia Police have described the incident as a suspected family violence homicide and confirmed the suspect was known to authorities, with detectives examining previous interactions with police and child protection services.

In northern Italy, two separate sexual assault investigations are under way. In Milan, a 22-year-old man is accused of raping a 16-year-old girl after they met via Instagram and arranged a first date in the city centre in late March. The girl told police she was forced into a double sexual act in a park; the man, who has minor prior offences of a different nature, denies the charges and claims the encounter was consensual. A judge ordered him to remain in his home municipality outside Milan and imposed a nighttime curfew, rejecting a prosecution request for pre-trial detention. In Rimini, a 23-year-old Italian tourist reported being raped by a foreign man she met in the city centre. She told carabinieri she had consumed drinks with him before going to a residence, where she says she was assaulted and slapped. Investigators say the woman’s account contains gaps: she cannot recall the address or provide a detailed description of the location, and her memories are described as confused and fragmentary. Medical examinations are under way, and no suspect has been identified.

In India, the Uttarakhand High Court has quashed a rape case against a man accused of obtaining consent for a physical relationship on a false promise of marriage. The court noted the couple met on the dating app Tinder in 2019 and maintained a consensual relationship over a considerable period. Justice Siddhartha Sah held that a relationship ending without marriage does not, by itself, amount to rape, and that the evidence did not show the man had made a false promise from the outset. The ruling, delivered on 16 July, has drawn attention to the legal boundaries of consent in such cases.

In Melbourne, a rape trial continues in the County Court of Victoria, where a well-connected man faces two counts of rape and one of sexual assault. The complainant, a former personal assistant, alleges the offences occurred in March 2023 after an evening of drinking and cocaine use. The accused has not given evidence and denies the charges. In closing arguments, the prosecutor told the jury that inconsistencies in the woman’s account actually enhanced her credibility, arguing that if she had fabricated the story, she “could have done a lot better.” The defence has pointed to a previous complaint the woman made against police, which officers denied, as evidence of a motive to lie.

Elsewhere, a 22-year-old man in Catamarca, Argentina, has been detained after his mother was found stabbed more than 60 times, according to local media citing family sources. In Sydney, the body of a homeless Nepalese man who died outside a train station in December was finally identified after DNA matching, and his family is seeking to repatriate his remains. A Melbourne hospital has apologised after mixing up the identities of two patients, leading police to wrongly inform a woman’s relatives that she had died. And a former Catholic bishop of Broome, Christopher Alan Saunders, has gone on trial in Western Australia on 26 sex abuse charges dating from his time in office; his lawyer told the jury the alleged incidents “didn’t happen” and warned against prejudice toward the church. All investigations and proceedings remain ongoing.