Australia’s most wanted criminal, Malcolm Naden, is expected to appear before a NSW court on a murder charge on Thursday.
Officers surrounded and arrested the 38-year-old just after midnight (AEDT) on a private property near Gloucester, in the state’s mid north.
NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has thanked all of the officers who played a role in ending his almost seven years on the run.
Mr Scipione told a Sydney news conference that no shots were fired and there were no injuries when Naden was taken into custody.
“I want to thank the officers who have been on this job and have given themselves in their entirety to making sure Malcolm Naden was arrested,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Assistant Commissioner Carlene York, the commander of Strike Force Durkin which was set up to capture Naden, said investigations were ongoing.
“He will at some stage later today be presented before a court,” she said.
Naden, a former abattoir worker, has been on the run since disappearing from his grandparents’ home in west Dubbo in 2005, after his 24-year-old cousin and mother-of-two Kristy Scholes was found strangled in a bedroom of the home.
Naden is also a suspect in the disappearance of another of his cousins, Lateesha Nolan.
He is expected to appear in Taree Local Court on charges of murder and indecent assault.
Asked what the charges would be Ms York replied: “Well, he was wanted on a warrant for a murder back in Dubbo six or seven years ago.
“He was also wanted on a warrant for an aggravated indecent assault upon a 15-year-old female.
“Those charges will be laid and there are also further investigations at the moment in relation to other events which may or may not be the subject of a charge.”
Mr Scipione said his thoughts were with the families of his alleged victims.
“My thoughts and condolences go out to the families of the victims that we will be alleging Mr Naden has been involved with,” he told reporters.
Naden hit headlines last year after allegedly shooting and wounding an officer during a raid on a remote campsite near the village of Nowendoc in the state’s north in December.
Since the shooting, around 50 officers had been involved in the hunt for Naden.
Ms York said efforts had been focused on the area where Naden was captured “for some time”.
She said specialist officers drove into the bush after they were deployed in teams, before setting off on foot through difficult terrain.
“They then surrounded the house and there were indications of movement inside … ,” Ms York said.
“Mr Naden came out of a doorway where he was confronted by the police, then quickly retreated back into the house.”
Naden tried to escape out the back door, where he was again confronted.
“A short scuffle ensued, where he was then arrested,” Ms York said.
A semi-automatic rifle recently stolen from a nearby property was discovered inside the home.
Ms York said Naden was bitten by a police dog during the arrest but was not seriously wounded.
He has undergone a medical examination and appears reasonably healthy, despite his years on the run.
It is believed Naden visited the house before as part of his pattern of returning to properties.
“He was often going back to the same residence where he had done break and enters over a period of years, often using similar tracks,” Ms York said.
“It was that painstaking gathering of that evidence by my officers that assisted us in the successful operation last night.”
But Ms York refused to go into particular details about the arrest.
“At this stage I’ll only say that some intelligence was given to us,” she said.
“One of the successful parts of our operation is we had for some months been looking strategically at this area.
“The officers, the tactical teams, had been deployed to a number of tracks and paths around this area and had visited a number of houses.
“As result of that we took a lot of information in from members from the public, which we’re very grateful for.”
Ms York said police mapped out the area, how long it would take to get to places if Naden was sighted, and which paths were best to take.
She said the safety of her team always came first. One officer suffered an injured wrist during the arrest.
“It was at night and we have to worry about the safety of our officers travelling through darkness and knowing that there could be an armed offender out there creating some safety issues for our officers,” she said.
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