CRIME and INVESTIGATION

Kes Bunuh Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya - Barangan Mangsa Ditemui

2011-07-11T23:00:00.000+08:00

Perbicaraan diteruskan lagi pada hari ini di Mahkamah Tinggi Shah Alam. Dalam keterangan menyebut bahawa barangan kepunyaan mangsa-mangsa yang dibunuh telah dijumpai dilokasi yang berlainan.

Kpl Merzuki Shahrim dari pasukan menyelam Marin Pulau Pinang memberi keterangan dihadapan hakim Akhtar Tahir, bahaw pasukan mereka telah diarah untuk mencari bahan bukti kes pembunuhan tersebut di empat kawasan.

Selain daripada barangan milik kepada Datuk Sosilawati, mereka juga menemui bekas arang, dawai, pisau, enam keping zing dan ketulan tulang yang disyaki milik mangsa bunuh.

Sidang Mahkamah akan bersambung pada sebelah petang.

Sumber berita : thestar.com.my

Kes Bunuh Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya - Sabrina Adnan Beri Keterangan

2011-07-11T01:25:00.000+08:00

Kes pembunuhan Datuk Sosilawati berserta tiga yang lain bersambung semula di Mahkamah Tinggi Shah Alam.

Kini giliran Sabrina Adnan, isteri kepda Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim iaitu peguam Datuk Sosilawati memberi keterangan.

Beliau mendakwa pernah menerima panggilan telefon daripada suami beliau yang bercakap dengan tergesa-gesa sambil menerangkan kepada beliau bahawa pemandu Datuk Sosilawati iaitu Kamal mengugut untuk sebarkan gambar tidak senonoh kepunyaan Datuk Sosilawati.

Laporan Lanjut : Kak Wati menangis, suami tergesa-gesa

Sumber berita : hmetro.com.my

Kes Bunuh Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya - Mohon Maaf Berulang kali

2011-07-11T01:12:00.000+08:00

Kes pembunuhan Datuk Sosilawati serta tiga individu lain yang didakwa dibunuh empat tertuduh iaitu bekas peguam, N Pathmanabhan, 42; T Thilaiyalagan, 20; R Matan, 21 dan R Khatavarayan, 31 telah disambung semula.

Pembunuhan yang berlaku di sebuah ladang di Jalan Tanjong Layang, Tanjung Sepat, Banting, Selangor, antara jam 8.30 malam hingga 9.45 malam, 30 Ogos 2010.

Saksi yang dipanggil untuk memberi keterangan pada perbicaraan iaitu Suzana Radin Pangat, 39 isteri kepada pegawai bank CIMB, Noorhisham Mohammad yang juga didakwa dibunuh bersama tiga yang lain memulakan sidang mahkamah.

Laporan Lanjut : Mohon maaf berulang kali

Sumber berita : hmetro.com.my

Teoh Beng Hock Case - Investigation at the crime scene revealed.

2011-02-19T03:26:00.000+08:00

Federal Court judge Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen, who headed the commission, asked C/Insp Mazli if he had used any device, such as ultraviolet (UV) rays to detect blood.

“No, I inspected only with the naked eye,” he said.

READ MORE

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Source : thestar.com.my

SHOT AND BURNT

2011-02-11T17:26:00.000+08:00

Three people have been killed in Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district.

As the car swerved into the roadside ditch, the assailants continued to shoot at the vehicle. They then poured fuel on to the sedan and set it ablaze.

The victims were identified as Bunthian Bupphawas, 43; Am Kuarkoon, 50; and her husband, Sawat Kuarkoon,55.

READ MORE

Lingam Video Clip

2011-02-11T15:23:00.000+08:00

Federal Court grants RCI leave to appeal

The controversial video recording allegedly touched on the appointment of judges.

He said the commission had met the requirements of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act and granted leave to the commission to appeal on one question of law, that is on whether its (commission) findings under Section 3 of the Commission of Enquiry Act 1950 was reviewable by way of judicial review.

READ MORE.......

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (18)

2011-02-09T20:10:00.000+08:00

Court Sets Feb 21 For Decision On Revision Appeal On Banting Murders

SHAH ALAM -- The High Court here will decide on Feb 21 the revision appeal of two farmhands, who were sentenced to seven years' jail for disposing off evidence in the murders of cosmetics millionaire Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

Judge Mohtarudin Baki set the date as he needed more time to study the submissions put forward by the defence counsel and the deputy public prosecutor.

On Oct 15 last year, K. Sarawanan, 20, and U. Suresh, 27, were sentenced to seven years' jail each by the Telok Datok Magistrate's Court, Banting after they pleaded guilty to four counts of disposing evidence of the murders under Section
201 of the Penal Code.

Sarawanan was charged with burning the bodies of Sosilawati, 47, CIMB bank officer Noorisham Mohamad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamal Abdul Karim, 32, while Suresh was charged with disposing the ashes.

They were sentenced to seven years' jail each for the four charges, which were to run concurrently.

In today's proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Saiful Edris Zainuddin asked the court to uphold the sentence passed by the Magistrate's Court on the grounds that it was the right decision based on facts and provisions of the law.

Saiful Edris was assisted by Deputy Public Prosecutors Ishak Mohd Yusoff and Idham Abd Ghani while the two accused were represented by counsel A.S. Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal asked the court to consider the guilty plea by the accused to be set aside and that they should be considered not guilty until the case was returned to the Magistrate's Court.

(Bernama)

Michael Jackson was already dead..........

2011-01-06T02:39:00.000+08:00

Michael Jackson was dead by the time his doctor rang for help after injecting him with powerful sedative Propofol, a court heard yesterday.

A prosecutor made the claims as he launched the case for Dr Murray, 57, to be jailed for allegedly killing Jackson with Propofol at his Los Angeles home on June 25, 2009.

MICHAEL JACKSON PRELIMINARY HEARING - Read More

A. KUGAN CASE : VERDICT ON DEC 3

2010-10-22T20:03:00.000+08:00

PETALING JAYA - A Sessions Court here has fixed Dec 3 to decide whether constable V. Navindran is guilty of causing grievous hurt to suspected car thief A. Kugan, who died in police custody.

Judge Aslam Zainuddin also fixed Nov 8 for the prosecution to add more arguments in their submission.

The defence is to reply to the prosecution's submission by Nov 22. Deputy Public Prosecutors Abazafree Mohd Abbas, Lailawati Ali and Azlina Rasdi acted for the prosecution while Navindran was represented by defence counsel P.M. Nagarajan.

On Oct 1 last year, Navindran, 28, pleaded not guilty to two charges of causing grievous hurt to 23-year-old Kugan.

The policeman was accused of committing the offences at the interrogation room of the serious crimes branch's office at the Taipan police station in USJ, Subang Jaya, at 7am and 4pm on Jan 16 last year.

Navindran, who was attached to the Subang Jaya district police station, was alleged to have caused grievous hurt to Kugan to extort a confession or information which may lead to the detection of an offence or misconduct.

If found guilty, Navindran could be jailed up to 10 years and fined for each charge under Section 331 of the Penal Code.

The father of one, who was later transferred to the Shah Alam police station, also pleaded not guilty to two alternative charges of causing hurt to Kugan for similar purposes on the same day.

For the two alternative charges, he could be sentenced up to seven years' jail and fined under Section 330 of the same Code, if convicted.

Kugan was detained on Jan 15 for alleged car theft but died five days later in police custody.

The trial started on Feb 18 this year.

Source : thestar.com.my / malaysian mirror

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (17)

2010-10-15T23:03:00.000+08:00

GUILTY TO DISPOSING OF EVIDENCE

BANTING: Two men pleaded guilty in the Telok Datok magistrates court here Friday to disposing of evidence, in relation to the murder of cosmetics queen Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

K. Sarawanan, 19, and U. Suresh, 26, pleaded guilty to four counts under Section 201 of the Penal Code to disposing off evidence of the murder.

Magistrate Hurman Hussain then sentenced them to seven years in jail each for the four charges, which are to run concurrently.

Sarawanan was charged with burning the bodies while Suresh was charged with disposing off the ashes.

They were among eight arrested by police between Sept 9 and 12 in connection with the disappearance of Sosilawati and three others on Aug 30.

On Wednesday, lawyer N. Patmanabhan as well as farm workers T. Thilaiyalagan, 19, R. Matan, 20, and R. Khatavarayan, 30, were charged at the same court with murdering Sosilawati, 47, CIMB bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and Sosilawati's driver, Kamarudin Shamsuddin, 44.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : LISA GOH

AMINULRASYID CASE : Sounds of 'firecrackers' and crash

2010-10-15T03:27:00.000+08:00

SHAH ALAM: A student thought someone was letting off a series of firecrackers in his neighbourhood on the night teenager Aminulrasyid Amzah was killed.

Zafrullah Ahmad Zainal Abidin, 28, who lives about 10m from the car crash site where Aminulrasyid was found dead, told the Sessions Court here Friday that he was working on his computer about 1.30am, April 26, when he heard the sound of firecrackers getting louder, heading towards his direction.

"It was like 'tap-tap-tap' with no rhythm. There were more than 10 taps," he said, adding that he heard police sirens as well.

Zafrullah Ahmad said about 20 seconds later, he heard a loud bang as if an object had crashed.

He rushed to his window on the second floor and saw two police cars surrounding a car which had crashed into a wall.

He then went outside and saw a man running away being chased by police, who shouted "Don't run!"

"I went to the crash scene and saw the crashed car was a white Proton Iswara. There was a body lying face down with the head on the driver’s seat and the torso outside the car,” said Zafrullah Ahmad.

He also told the court that he noticed the car was riddled with bullet holes and realised the firecracker sounds he had heard was gunfire.

He said he could not identify the body and only found out the next day that it was his friend's little brother, Aminulrasyid.

The court then here fixed 9am, Oct 19, for a visit to the scene where Aminulrasyid Amzah was shot and adjourned the case until then.

Day three of the high-profile trial of policeman Kpl Jenain Subi, who is charged with causing the death of 15-year-old Aminulrasyid, saw four more witnesses taking the stand.

Among them was policeman Lans Kpl Shamsul Kamar Ismail, who was in a patrol car with Kons Malkeet Singh when he saw the cars in a high-speed chase.

He testified that after hearing a request for help to chase a speeding vehicle on the police radio, he headed towards the Kayangan roundabout.

He said he did not see any vehicles when he arrived. After turning around the roundabout two or three times, he saw two police patrol cars chasing after another car which was being driven very fast and dangerously.

When asked by the prosecution whether he saw or heard anything during the incident, L/Kpl Shamsul Kamar told the court that he was focused on driving and the sirens were too loud, so he could not see or hear what was happening.

Defence counsel Salim Bashir then asked him whether the vehicles involved in the chase ran the traffic lights at the roundabout.

L/Kpl Shamsul Kamar, who misunderstood the question, answered, "No, we did not run down the traffic lights."

The court burst into laughter.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar, Adilla Ahmad and Siti Rohaida Che Hamid appeared for the prosecution while Kpl Jenain was represented by Salim, M. M. Athimulan, Halim Ashgar and K. Rajoo.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : ONG HAN SEAN

TWITTER WORKS FOR CRIMES PREVENTION

2010-10-14T22:41:00.002+08:00

One of Britain's busiest police forces has taken to the social network site Twitter to show the huge workload faced by its officers.

Greater Manchester Police was tweeting every incident it deals with for 24 hours from 5am - showing how it supplements a crime-fighting role with work that is more like social services.

In the first six hours there were around 500 tweets sent out by the force, covering a wide range of incidents - from serious crime to the more mundane and bizarre.

The event comes as police face unprecedented budget cuts, with the Government's impending comprehensive spending review next week.

The incidents were being published on the following three accounts on Twitter.

By 9am the force had already published more than 400 tweets and more than 6,000 people had joined as 'followers'.

By 11am, there were 700 tweets and more than 18,000 followers.

GMP are tweeting at three addresses:

http://twitter.com/gmp24_1

http://twitter.com/gmp24_2

http://twitter.com/gmp24_3

Source : dailymail.co.uk

AMINULRASYID CASE : TEENAGE SHOOTING TRAGEDY

2010-10-12T23:54:00.000+08:00

19 bullet casings scattered all over the shooting location

SHAH ALAM: Nineteen bullets were fired in the early morning car chase that ended with teenager Aminulrasyid Amzah being shot to death, the Sessions Court here was told Tuesday.

Witness Corporal Mokhtar Hussin said he photographed a total of 19 spent bullets and casings at the scene of the incident.

He was testifying in the trial of Corporal Jenain Subi, 48, who was charged with causing the death of 15-year-old Aminulrasyid at Jalan Tarian 11/2, Section 11, Shah Alam in the early hours of April 26 this year.

The charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder provides for a maximum 30-year jail sentence and liability of a fine upon conviction.

The trial began Tuesday and is expected to go on until Nov 11.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar told reporters that some 30 witnesses were expected to take the stand during the course of the trial.

The first witness to take the stand was lance corporal Mohd Sabri Salleh, 30, who was on duty at the Shah Alam police headquarters operations room on the day of the incident.

He testified that at about 1.45am, he received a request for help from a patrol car with the call sign "Selangor 589" to stop a white Proton Iswara car, which was speeding and had refused to stop.

Mohd Sabri said that shortly afterwards, another patrol car bearing the call sign "Selangor 614" radioed in saying it had spotted the Proton Iswara near the Concorde Hotel here, heading towards Bulatan Kayangan before turning back.

When asked by Mohd Dusuki whether he knew who were in Selangor 614, Mohd Sabri said he knew it was manned by Jenain and Constable Mohamad Hafizd Mohd Yusof after checking the duty roster.

He said that after failing to raise Selangor 614 over the police radio, he called Jenain on his mobile phone.

"Corporal Jenain told me that the Iswara had crashed and the driver was injured. He asked me to get an ambulance dispatched to the scene at Jalan Makyong 11/2G, Section 11, Shah Alam," said Mohd Sabri.

The second witness, detective Lance Corporal Ahmad Zamzami Abdul Wahab, testified that he photographed bullet-holes on the body of the Proton Iswara.

Ahmad Zamzami also said the rear tyres of the vehicle was punctured. He added that he took a photograph of a machete found under the passenger seat of the car.

It was reported that Aminulrasyid was shot by Jenain after he failed to stop his car when ordered to do so. With him in the car when the shooting happened was another teenager, Azamuddin Omar.

Judge Latifah Mohd Tahar presided over the trial.

Deputy public prosecutors Adilla Ahmad and Siti Rohaida Che Hamid also appeared for the prosecution while Jenain was represented by a four-man lawyer team of M. Athimulan, Salim Bashir, Halim Ashgar and K. Rajoo.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : ONG HAN SEAN

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (16)

2010-10-03T00:02:00.000+08:00

MURDER SUSPECT'S : REMAND EXTENDED

SEPANG: Three men, including two lawyer brothers, have had their remand extended to 0ct 7 over the case of missing Indian millionaire A. Muthuraja.

The remand order on the suspects,was issued by Magistrate Hurman Hussain at the KL International Airport (KLIA) police station here.

One of the suspects is considered the mastermind behind the Banting murders involving cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three men.

Sosilawati, 47, her driver Kamaruddin Shamsudin, 44, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, were reported missing on Aug 30 after they had gone to Banting over a land deal.

Police believe they were murdered, their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into rivers in the vicinity of Ladang Gadong, Tanjung Sepat, near Banting.

Eight suspects were arrested in relation to that case.

Muthuraja, reported missing by his wife, is said to have had dealings with the two brothers.

"The police sought an extension of the remand by seven days but the magistrate only gave six days after seeing the submitted documents," said Ravi Nekoo, the lawyer representing the lawyer brothers, when approached outside the police station.

The two lawyer brothers implicated in the case are also being investigated over the disappearance of Indian millionaire A. Muthuraja

Ravi Nekoo, one of the lawyers representing the two brothers said the two would lodge a police report claiming they had been denied proper legal representation after their arrest on Sept 11.

He said the matter was brought up with magistrate Hurman Hussain during the remand extension hearing and the magistrate had allowed the request.

He said the lawyers’ first meeting with the suspects, who are being investigated over the disappearance of Muthuraja early this year, lasted only 20 minutes and was carried out at the Kuala Lumpur police contingent office with about 10 policemen present.

The second meeting, lasting five minutes, was at the initial remand hearing, allowing time to only discuss remand matters, while the third was to help the suspects lodge a police report, so it was not possible to discuss the case.

“Article 5 Clause C of the constitution says that every person arrested should be allowed to consult and be defended by a legal representative. So, this is a fundamental breach of the constitutional rights of the suspects,” he told reporters when met after the remand extension hearing here on Saturday.

Ravi said the lawyers had written to the Inspector General of Police and his deputy and also the Selangor CID chief to complain but had received no response from either party.

“The magistrate allowed the suspect to lodge a report and we will liaise with the police officer concerned. The investigating officer will call us when the report is going to be lodge.

“At this point we cannot say where or when the report will be lodged,” he said.

The extension of remand in connection with the investigation into the Muthuraja case is for a second time for the lawyer brothers and the fourth in the Sosilawati case.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : DHARMENDER SINGH

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (15)

2010-09-30T11:08:00.000+08:00

Muthuraja’s case as missing person.

KUALA LUMPUR: Despite claims to the contrary, the police never received any missing persons report over the disappearance of Indian businessman A. Muthuraja who went missing last January, Deputy Inspector-General of police Datuk Hussin Ismail said.

He said police only began investigating the case as a missing person after the 37-year-old businessman’s second wife S. Usharani lodged such a report on Sept 8.

“We did receive a report from the victim’s brother on March 29 but it was for a cheating case,” he said at Bukit Aman yesterday.

In the March 29 report, Muthuraja’s brother Dr Kasi Viswanathan, 32, had said that someone posing as a policeman from Bukit Aman had asked for a sum of money to free Muthuraja from custody.

“So at the time, the case was investigated under cheating by the Commercial Crime Department,” Hussin said.

He denied that police did not take appropriate action regarding Muthuraja’s case.

“We tried locating the victim but were unsuccessful. We only carried out further investigations into the case after the Sept 8 report was lodged and were able to connect it to Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya’s disappearance,” he said.

Hussin confirmed that two new suspects believed to be linked to the case had been detained over the last 10 days.

Dr Kasi, however, refuted Hussin’s statement, saying he lodged a report on March 29 because he feared his brother had been kidnapped and not because he wanted back the money that was paid to some people to secure the release of his brother.

“I believed my brother was kidnapped because someone had asked my family for money for his purported release,” he said.

Dr Kasi said he also mentioned in his report that a man named Elil had asked for money for his brother’s release which did not happen.

“When I stated in my report that Elil had taken money from us and not kept his promise, I was giving the police clues as to who could be holding my brother,” Dr Kasi said.

He said priority should have been given to the fact that he believed his brother had been kidnapped instead of the money that was squeezed from his family.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : WANI MUTTHIAH and M. KUMAR

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (14)

2010-09-25T11:58:00.000+08:00

Murder Turn Missing - A. Muthuraja's Family Conflicts

First Wife Claims

CHENNAI: Missing Indian businessman A. Muthuraja’s first wife S. Ramalakshmi has demanded that any items belonging to her husband should be returned to her and not to his second wife S. Usharani.

“If they find anything belonging to my husband, it should be handed over to me or his parents,” Ramalakshmi said from her home in Thirunelveli.

She said India did not recognise polygamy or second wives.

“I am his only wife by virtue of being legally married to him,” said the 36-year-old schoolteacher.

She also lambasted Usharani for harping on her tumultuous relationship with her husband.

“Husbands and wives have their issues as well as troubles.

“We are having ours now but that does not mean we are no longer a married couple,” she said.

Ramalakshmi also said she was devastated to learn that Muthuraja might have been murdered in Malaysia.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s very painful for me,” she added.

Her father R. Subbiah said Ramalakshmi had taken the news very badly and had “collapsed in grief at their family home upon hearing the news”.

“She has taken it very badly. We are all shattered,” he added.

Meanwhile, one of Muthuraja’s relatives, who declined to be named, said efforts had been made to reconcile the couple.

Ramalakshmi said Muthuraja’s frequent travelling had put a strain on their marriage.

Second Wife - Being Called Gold Digger

KLANG: Tired of being called a gold digger, S. Usharani – the second wife of missing Indian businessman A. Muthuraja – has lashed out at her in-laws, accusing them of coveting her husband’s wealth.

“They have been against me since we got married. They wanted my husband’s property from the beginning,” said Usharani, 24.

She also claimed that her husband had been at loggerheads with his family a few months before he went missing.

The woman, who bore Muthuraja a daughter, also dismissed allegations by his family that she was having marital problems.

“My husband’s property does not matter to me. If they want it so badly, they can have it,” she said, adding that her mother-in-law had no right to badmouth her.

A. Ramalakshmi had claimed that her son Muthuraja was not on good terms with Usharani and that he wanted to leave her but could not as she had threatened him with suicide.

Muthuraja was reported missing early this year and his disappearance has been linked to the suspects in the murder of cosmetics queen Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others.

In another deverlopment, Usharani was called again to the Kuala Langat police headquarters to explain the discrepancies contained in her recorded statement to the police on Thursday and the memorandum she submitted to Bukit Aman yesterday.

Earlier, Usharani, accompanied by Kapar MP S. Manikavasagam, submitted a handphone containing important recordings of a telephone conversation and a memorandum to the Bukit Aman police headquarters.

Manikavasagam said Usharani would be called again today to have her statement recorded.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (13)

2010-09-24T00:55:00.000+08:00

Missing Mohd Shafiq Abdullah Case Links

SUNGAI PETANI: There is a strong indication that another businessman who had dealings with the two lawyer brothers implicated in Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya’s murder case was also killed.

However, Mohd Shafiq Abdullah’s wife Samson Nahar Mohd Dali is praying for a miracle.

“I’m still hopeful that he is alive,” she said, adding her three children aged 13, 11 and five were always asking about their father.

His leather-strap wristwatch was found in the farm where cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others were allegedly murdered.

Samson Nahar said she was asked by the police to identify the watch when she went to the Banting police station on Sept 12.

“I know the watch because I have seen my husband wearing it.

“That was the only leather-strap wristwatch that he has,” she said when met at her house at Taman Bunga Raya here yesterday.

According to Samson Nahar, the police contacted her on the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

They asked her to confirm if her husband, a contractor, had any connection with the two lawyers under investigation for the murders.

“The police asked me to go to the Banting police station to identify the watch and for DNA testing with Shafiq’s mother,” she said.

She said police told her that the DNA test result would be out the following week.

Recalling the day that her husband went missing on April 8, Samson Nahar said she called the lawyer after she found his business card among her husband’s belongings.

“The lawyer, however, said my husband was overseas and would return in four or five days,” she said, adding that the lawyer declined to reveal where her husband had gone.

She did not believe the lawyer and lodged a missing person’s report here on April 13.

Several days later, she was called to give a statement at the Petaling police station.

Samson Nahar also said that she went to Mohd Shafiq’s rented apartment in Meadow Park 2 in Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuala Lumpur, several days after lodging the report and found her husband’s belongings, including his passport.

Her husband’s car, which was stripped of almost all its parts, was found abandoned at Port Klang in early May.

Samson Nahar said she last saw her husband when he left their family home for Kuala Lumpur on April 5 at about 5am, and last spoke to him two days later.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (12)

2010-09-16T04:01:00.000+08:00

SUSPECTS HOLD MILLIONS IN THEIR ACCOUNT

KUALA LANGAT: Millions of ringgit in the local bank accounts of two lawyer brothers detained in the murder of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya have been frozen.

According to a source, the main suspect – the elder brother – has allegedly RM7.2mil in one bank account alone.

It is believed that the police are currently tracing the financial transactions against the deposits and withdrawals of cash from the various bank accounts.

“There are numerous movements of cash by both locals and foreigners, and originating from countries like India, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indo nesia and the Philippines,” said the source.

He added that the financial transactions recorded could correspond with the dealings of the businessmen who had been reported missing.

“This will help us craft out a pattern of fraudulent dealings,” he said.

Yesterday, the suspect was brought to his legal firm in Jalan Kemboja opposite the Banting police headquarters at 11am to retrieve crucial documents that could help the police build their case.

The lawyer is among eight suspects detained in connection with the killing of Sosilawati, 47, her driver Kamarudin Shamsuddin, 44, Kampung Baru CIMB bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, who were reported missing on Aug 30.

They were believed to have been killed and burnt in Ladang Gadong, Tanjong Sepat, and their ashes strewn in a river.

It is believed to be the location where the suspect had discussed a land deal with Sosilawati.

Police seized four computer processing units from the office, along with several files believed to contain information on land deals.

After about two hours at the office, authorities took the suspect back to the farm in Ladang Gadong, believed to be the scene of the killings, where they spent some 45 minutes.

It is also learnt that the police had seized two laptops belonging to the wives of the two brothers from the family’s home in Taman Sari, Telok Datok.

Earlier, more than 60 people were seen waiting at the law firm, claiming to be the suspect’s clients and demanding that the clerks give back their land grants.

However, police told them that it was not possible as investigations into the murder case was ongoing.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (11)

2010-09-16T03:50:00.000+08:00

THE KILLING ORDER

KUALA LUMPUR: The murder of millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others was carried out under the orders of the Datuk lawyer, identified as the mastermind.

It is learnt that the lawyer had ordered at least three men, believed to be working for him, to carry out the murders at an abandoned house in an oil palm estate in Sungai Gadung.

It is believed that the lawyer owned the estate.

The killings were said to have taken place after Sosilawati had gone with the others to confront the lawyer regarding the transfer of a land title in a deal believed to be worth RM25mil.

It is understood that the meeting had taken place near the lawyer’s house before the victims were taken to the estate, which is near Ladang Gadong.

There, the four were beaten and repeatedly stabbed before they were burnt.

However, police have yet to establish if Sosilawati and three others –lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, and driver Kama rudin Shansudin, 44, – had actually brought RM4mil for their meeting with the Datuk as rumoured.

Meanwhile, police contacted the husband of T. Selvi, who was murdered in Banting on April 27 last year.

Selvi’s husband, 54-year-old me chanic P. Balasundram claimed that the lawyer had cheated him of some money in 2008 in a money lending business they shared.

He said several days later, his wife was slashed to death by two men with machetes in front of her house at Taman Cempaka in Banting.

Bala, who is related to the lawyer, said he received a call yesterday from a policeman enquiring about his wife’s murder.

“The policeman said he was escorting the lawyer to his office to collect documents relating to the money lending business,” he said.

In PETALING JAYA, Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said they had discovered two missing persons reports lodged in Banting believed to be connected to the lawyer, but declined to elaborate.

It is learnt that another two missing persons reports were lodged in Brickfields here, also believed to be connected to the lawyer.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (10)

2010-09-14T23:07:00.000+08:00

MIGHT BE MORE KILLED BY THE LAWYER BROTHERS

KUALA LANGAT: As police dug deeper into the shocking murder of Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, they have come up with the chilling possibility that several others – as many as nine people – could also have been killed and disposed of in the same manner.

These individuals were all reported missing and were linked to the two lawyer brothers who have been identified as the chief suspects in the murder of Sosilawati and three men who were with her.

Other developments:

- The wife of one of the missing men, an Indian national, said her husband had come to Malaysia after being invited by the brothers;

- The wife of bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad is still holding out hope that her husband is alive;

- A police scuba team dived into Sungai Kanchong looking for the murder weapon although nothing was found at press time;

- Sosilawati’s eldest daughter is most likely to inherit the estate of the cosmetics millionairess;

- The Penang police are reopening several unresolved cases in which lawyers were killed.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (9)

2010-09-14T22:57:00.000+08:00

Missing A. Muthuraja - Possibility Link With On-Going Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya Murder Case

KLANG: Life for M. Usharani has been a living hell since her husband A. Muthuraja, a lawyer from India, disappeared in Banting after he came here for a visit in January.

She said her financier husband had arrived in Malaysia on Jan 18 after being invited by two lawyer brothers in Banting.

“They told him it was compulsory to come and that he could return to India in a day,” said Usharani, adding that her last contact with Muthuraja was on that day.

“My husband told me that the lawyers had picked him up and he was with them at their family home when I spoke to him,” Usharani said in a telephone interview from Chennai, India.

Usharani, 24, said that when she telephoned one of the brothers on Jan 19 after being unable to contact her husband, she was told they did not know if Muthuraja had even come to Malaysia.

She added that the lawyer brothers, who have been detained over the gruesome murder of businesswoman Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others, had been friends with Muthuraja for 10 years.

Usharani, who has a three-year-old daughter, flew to Kuala Lumpur on Sept 7 and lodged a report on her husband’s disappearance at the Banting police station before returning to Chennai on Sept 9.

She said she had called the lawyer brothers and their family members several times when she failed to contact Muthuraja, but they would not entertain her.

“Their wives and family members were very rude.

“I found this strange because as family friends I thought they would be concerned.”

Usharani said that when she persisted in calling and demanding to know where Muthuraja was, the brothers and family members told her he had been caught smuggling ketamine and was in police custody.

“I made countless telephone calls and faxed a note to Interpol and the Indian High Commission in Malaysia.”

Usharani said the brothers’ family told her they could not get involved in her husband’s case “because they were from a reputable family.”

Usharani said Muthuraja’s brother Kasiviswanathan came to Banting four months ago to look for him but the brothers immediately sent him back to Chennai with Muthuraja’s luggage.

“They told him that since my husband was involved in a serious drug case, we should lie low,” she added.

“I don’t want to believe my husband was harmed by his friends.

“Ten years of friendship must amount to something,” she said.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : WANI MUTHIAH

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (8)

2010-09-14T22:44:00.000+08:00

WEAPON FOUND IN THE RIVER

KUALA LANGAT: A sharp weapon, believed to have been used in the murders of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others, has been found in a river.

After hours of searching for evidence in Sungai Kanchong, near here, Tuesday, the Marine Police scuba unit found what appeared to be a knife.

Six divers began searching the river for evidence at 9am and found the curved, sharp-bladed weapon around 4.30pm.

Police have declined to comment on the matter.

Two suspects, in handcuffs, were seen at the riverbank as the divers searched the river.

Police and forensic department personnel and the scuba unit left the scene at 5pm.

Later, around 6pm, three Fire and Rescue Department vans were seen entering Ladang Gadong, near Tanjung Sepat, believe to be the scene of the murders.

Sosilawati, 47, was murdered together with CIMB bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, and lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32. Their remains were found on Sunday night.

Earlier in the day, the main suspect in the murders was taken by police to his law firm in Banting, near here, to retrieve files.

The man, believed to be the mastermind behind the murders, entered the office about 11am.

After about two hours there, police took the suspect to his house, which is near the office.

Earlier, the suspect and police were unable to enter the office as the key did not match the padlock. However, the main shutters were opened later.

The suspect was accompanied police personnel from the serious crime unit and the forensics team.

Curious onlookers gathered around the area to witness the goings-on while the police, including those in plain clothes, were on alert.

Members of the media were also seen waiting outside the office.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin condemned the murders of Sosilawati and three others as an "inhumane act".

"No one in their right mind would resort to taking another life even in the most extreme cases," he said in a statement.

"I believe the authorities will do their best to ensure the murderers are brought to justice. I seek the public's cooperation to remain calm and assist the authorities in solving the case as soon as possible."

Muhyiddin also extended his condolences to the families of the victims.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (7)

2010-09-14T22:36:00.001+08:00

MISSING TURN MURDER - CHRONICLES

Aug 28: Local beauty products founder Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya is last seen in public at a buka puasa event in Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, Shah Alam.

Aug 30: Sosilawati, 47, leaves her house in Gombak for Banting to discuss a land deal worth RM1.4mil. She had told one of her daughters that she would be in Banting for three days.

Sept 1: Three days have passed and there are no signs of Sosilawati, her driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Karim, 32, and financial adviser Noorhisham Mohammad, 38.

Sept 5: Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah says police received a report on the disappearance of the four.

Sept 6: The luxury cars belonging to Sosilawati and her lawyer are found in Subang Jaya.

Sept 9: A suspect is arrested.

Sept 10: The detained suspect leads police to a place where several of Sosilawati’s belongings are found. Five people from the area are arrested. A lawyer is called in to have his statement recorded at the Kuala Langat police headquarters before being released.

Sept 11: Two brothers are arrested. Police learn that the victims may have been murdered and their bodies burnt before the ashes were strewn in a river near Ladang Gadong in Tanjung Sepat, near Morib.

Sept 12: Police confirm the arrest of two lawyer brothers, one of them a Datuk, in connection with the murders.

KILLING AND BURNING METHOD

PETALING JAYA: The remains of Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and the three men she was last seen with were believed to have been burnt using cow dung and petrol, a highly effective traditional method which can reduce a human body to ashes in between 30 minutes and an hour.

The average human body takes from two to three hours to burn completely when in a coffin and placed in the furnace, pre-heated at 1,100°C.

However, the traditional method, which originates from India, involves placing cow dung on the body and sprinkling some petrol which is then lit.

“A gas released from the burning cow dung increases the intensity of the fire which reduces the body to ash very quickly, often leaving only the femur (thigh bone) and pelvic bone still intact,” a source said.

Source : thestar.com.my

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (6)

2010-09-14T22:27:00.001+08:00

Brothers are main suspects in murder of four

KUALA LANGAT: Two lawyer brothers are the prime suspects in the murder of cosmetics millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others whose bodies were burnt and their ashes strewn in a river near Ladang Gadong, in Tanjong Sepat, here.

Cops are probing if the brothers are also responsible for four more people reported missing.

Bukit Aman CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin said police were awaiting forensic confirmation on the remains, believed to be that of Sosilawati, the client of the main suspect – a Datuk – said to have been handling a land deal in Penang for the entrepreneur. He owned the farm where the bodies were allegedly burnt after they had been assaulted and stabbed to death.

From initial investigations, police found that the ashes were disposed of at the mouth of a river about 4.2km from the farm. Comm Bakri said the motive of the murder could be business rivalry, debt and a land business deal gone sour. It is learnt that the land in Penang was bought for RM25mil and was to have been re-sold for RM200mil.

Sosilawati was last seen leaving Kuala Lumpur for Banting on Aug 30, with her driver Kamaruddin Shamsuddin, 44, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Karim, 32, and bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38. Their mysterious disappearance attracted much interest.

“Police believe the 41-year-old lawyer was the mastermind behind the disappearances and could have been involved in four other missing persons cases,” Comm Bakri told reporters at the Banting police headquarters yesterday.

The brothers were among eight people arrested in connection with the case. The other six, including two women, aged between 19 and 45, were farmhands.

Police managed to get fresh leads into the case that saw the arrest of the eight, following the co-operation from the public, media and suspects detained earlier.

“All the information we obtained from the suspects detained earlier gave our men more clues that pointed to the description of the four missing persons,” he said.

“We still need a DNA test to confirm the identity of the victims but there is only a slim chance that they are alive,” Comm Bakri said, adding that he did not rule out the possibility of more arrests.

“We will investigate the brothers in relation to their accumulation of properties, high-end cars and their business dealings that involve millions of ringgit,” he added.

Police are also investigating the whereabouts of the RM4mil which Sosilawati was said to have been carrying.

Comm Bakri said one of the four previous missing persons cases involved an Indian national who had opened a restaurant with the brothers as partners.

He said police would investigate these other cases as well.

Yesterday, more than 60 policemen were at the farm and divers from Marine Police combed Sungai Panchau in Kampung Kanchong Laut in search of evidence.

Forensic teams combed the 1.6ha of farm where some of Sosilawati’s personal belongings were found, including her watch.

Police also blocked access to the Gadong Farm in Jalan Gadong, Tanjong Sepat, 1km from the main road from last night and barred more than 30 members of the press corps from getting any nearer to the site.

Comm Bakri said the police were investigating the farm land which the lawyer bought about 30 months ago to ascertain if the deal was made “properly”.

He added that the police also wanted to know where the former owner was. The previous owner is said to be missing.

Source : thestar.com.my

Image : ART CHEN / The Star

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (5)

2010-09-14T22:12:00.000+08:00

Sosilawati and 3 others killed and burnt

BANTING: Cosmetic millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, and three others were murdered, burnt and their ashes strewn in a river near Ladang Gadong, in Tanjong Sepat, here.

Bukit Aman CID director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin told reporters that the police were awaiting forensic confirmation.

He said that two lawyer brothers, one of them a Datuk, were among the eight arrested in connection with the murder.

The two brothers are 41 and 38 years old, respectively.

The elder brother, who is the Datuk, is also now being investigated in connection to four other cases of missing businessmen from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Bakri said.

The Datuk, who owns the farm where the bodies were burnt, was handling a land deal in Penang for Sosilawati.

It is learnt that that the land in Penang was bought for RM25mil and was to have been resold at RM200mil.

Sosilawati's siblings are in Banting to help police with the DNA confirmation of her death.

Sosilawati went missing on Aug 30 along with her driver Kamarudin Shansudin, 44, her lawyer Ahmad Kamil Karim, 32, and her financial adviser Noorhisham Mohammad, 38.

Bernama reported that the police forensic team was combing the farm area where some of Sosilawati's personal belongings were reported to have been found. Police had also blocked access to the Gadong Farm in Jalan Gadong, Tanjong Sepat, near here from last night and have not allowed the media access to the area.

Meanwhile, Bernama also reported from BATU PAHAT, that news of Sosilawati’s death had shocked residents of the village of her birth, Kampung Seri Menanti, Sri Medan, near here.

Her death was seen as a big loss as Sosilawati was known for her kind and charitable ways.

"This is a big loss as she always assisted anyone in need, for example, flood victims or schools," said village headman, Omar Salleh.

The villagers, he said, had already planned a solat hajat to pray for her wellbeing and safe return.

Omar, 63, also described Sosilawati as an approachable person and described what happened to her as being the will of god.

Bazli Ibrahim, 35, who shared in the sorrow of her tragic demise said she always had an open house on the second day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri for the villagers.

Another resident, Siti Aminah Md. Mukri, 27, when met said Sosilawati's determination in building the Nouvelles Visage cosmetics empire made her a source of admiration among the residents.

She also praised her noble character, saying Sosilawati was never proud despite her success.

A visit to the home of Sosilawati's mother, Yatimi Abdul Rahman, 80 at the village found it all locked up.

It is understood Yatimi and other family members had already left for Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

Source : thestar.com.my

Reporting : EDWARD R. HENRY

Missing Turn Murder : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (4)

2010-09-14T22:05:00.000+08:00

Datuk lawyer and brother among 8 nabbed

BANTING: Police arrested a "Datuk" lawyer, his younger brother, also a lawyer, and six workers of an oil palm plantation here where cosmetic millionaire Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three others were murdered.

Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department Director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin said the suspects admitted that they took the victims to the four-hectare plantation, bludgeoned them to death and burned their bodies.

They later scattered the ashes at a river near the Ladang Gadong, Tanjong Sepat, here, Mohd Bakri told a news conference at the Kuala Langat district police headquarters.

Mohd Bakri said police picked up five of the suspects on Friday.

On Saturday, police arrested the Datuk and his brother while the eighth suspect was arrested Sunday.

Apart from Sosilawati, the others murdered were her driver Kamaruddin Shamsudin, 44, CIMB Kampung Baru bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, and her personal lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32.

They were reported missing since Aug 30 after going here purportedly for a deal related to a land purchase.

Mohd Bakri, however, could not confirm the date the murder took place but said that it could be anytime between the day they were reported missing and Saturday.

On the motive of the incident, Mohd Bakri said it pointed towards business rivalry between the two lawyers and Sosilawati.

Mohd Bakri said police were investigating the case under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which carries the mandatory death sentence, and that Kuala Lumpur police would handle the investigation because the victims were last seen leaving Sosilawati's office in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the families of the victims had been informed and that that police would still need further confirmation from the forensic division and Chemistry Department.

"These reports take time to prepare. The families of the victims and the media will be notified as soon as these reports come in," he said.

Mohd Bakri called for patience as the forensic team was still in their early stage of collecting evidence.

They had also found a knife at the scene, he said, adding however that he could not confirm whether there were bones recovered.

Mohd Bakri also revealed that the suspects had admitted that they were also involved in similar incidents in the past.

"They admitted to using the same modus operandi and we are now investigating the disappearance of four persons since a year ago," he said, adding that police were trying to establish forensic proof of the case.

All suspects, aged 19 and 41, two of them women, were now detained at the Bukit Jalil police station, Kuala Lumpur, he said.

It was learnt that police had obtained a seven-day remand order to facilitate investigations into the case.

Asked to described the scene where the alleged murder took place, Mohd Bakri said it was surrounded by walls and planted with oil palm trees.

There were also goat and cattle barns, he said.

"No one can see what is happening behind those walls," he said, adding that police were also investigating the Datuk for money laundering.

"We received information that he had obtained properties illegally; we are pursuing this," he said. - Bernama

Missing : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (3)

2010-09-14T21:44:00.000+08:00

Sosilawati’s vehicle found

SUBANG JAYA: The luxury cars belonging to millionaire and local beauty products founder Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (pix) and her lawyer were found last night – without the four who had been reported missing a week ago.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief Senior Asst Comm II Datuk Ku Chin Wah said police found the BMW X5 with the number plate WTL11 belonging to the 47-year-old businesswoman at Angsana Apartment, USJ 1 near here at 10pm yesterday.

“We also found the lawyer’s BMW M5 in front of the Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel around the same time. Two forensic teams are inspecting the cars,” he said, declining to elaborate further.

Sources said Sosilawati’s car might have been abandoned six days ago.

Meanwhile, checks in her car boot revealed several clear plastic bags containing cookies and crackers.

The four went missing after they left Sosilawati’s house in Gombak for Banting a week ago.

The three others are the lawyer, a bank officer and her driver. They had left in a BMW belonging to Sosilawati.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said police only received a report on the disappearance of Sosilawati, adding: “We still have not received any police reports from the three others and we are looking to establish their whereabouts from their families.”

The four were believed to have gone to Banting to discuss a land deal worth RM1.4mil but have been missing since last Monday.

Sosilawati was last seen in public on Aug 28 when she attended a buka puasa event at Masjid Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah in Shah Alam.

Two days earlier, Sosilawati attended a trial for the distribution of assets worth RM1.38mil against her former husband, Lefthanded singer Nasharuddin Elias, popularly known as Nash.

Sosilawati failed to return home after telling one of her daughters that she would be going to Banting for three days.

Police said her family had not received any threats on her life or a phone call for ransom.

They are investigating the case as a missing persons case for now.

At Sosilawati’s house on Sunday, one of her daughters said her mother had gone back to her village in Batu Pahat.

Source : newsdesk@thestar.com.my

Reporting : Andrew Sagayam and Steven Daniel

Missing : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (2)

2010-09-14T21:32:00.000+08:00

IGP says cops have information

SHAH ALAM: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said Tuesday the police have "certain information" which they believe can help them find millionaire beauty products founder Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya and three other people reported missing since Aug 30.

"We have certain information. Insya Allah (God willing), we will find them ... we have information," he said when questioned about Sosilawati at a news conference in conjunction with his farewell visit to the Selangor police headquarters, here.

Besides Sosilawati, 47, the three other people also reported missing are her lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, her driver Kamarudin Shansudin, 47, and a bank officer, Norhisham Mohammad, 38.

Asked whether the police believed they were safe, Musa said: "Insya Allah, we hope they are safe."

On Sosilawati's car, which was found in Subang Jaya Monday, he said there was nothing in the car which raised any suspicion.

For the moment, the police were talking to family members of those missing to obtain information about whom they were to have met, he said.

"At the moment, we are looking for a person who was to have met her (Sosilawati) ... supposed to be a lawyer said to want to enter into a contract on the sale of property," he said.

Sosilawati and the three other people were reported missing after leaving for Banting, apparently in relation to a land deal. - Bernama

Missing : Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya (1)

2010-09-14T09:15:00.000+08:00

Cosmetics entrepreneur missing

KUALA LUMPUR: Local beauty products founder Datuk Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, has been reported missing by her family members after she left her house in Gombak for Banting a week ago.

It is learnt that founder of Nouvelle Visages cosmetic line failed to return home after telling one of her daughters that she would be going to Banting for three days.

Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah said police had received a report on the disappearance of Sosilawati, who is the ex-wife of rock singer Nash,

“From our initial investigation, we found that her family has not received any threat on her life or a phone call for ransom.

“Her children have not been able to contact her on her mobile phone,” he said, when contacted yesterday.

Police is classifying this as a missing person case.

At Sosilawati’s house last night, one of her daughters said her mother had gone back to her village. — Bernama

Murder : Reverend Ronald Glazebrook

2010-09-01T02:06:00.000+08:00

Former church server Christopher Hunnisett allegedly drowned 81-year-old Reverend Ronald Glazebrook in his bath and then dismembered his body in 2001.

Christopher Hunnisett

A young lodger killed an elderly vicar in his own home before chopping up his body because he claimed he had been sexually abused, a court heard today.

Together with a friend, Jason Groves, Hunnisett, then aged 17, went on to scatter the retired vicar's body parts at woodland spots across East Sussex.

Image : John Connor Press Associates Ltd

Source : Daily Mail

FULL STORY

Nail Hammered Maid Survive

2010-08-28T15:28:00.000+08:00

Doctors at a Sri Lankan hospital operated for three hours Friday to remove 18 nails and metal particles allegedly hammered into the arms, legs and forehead of a maid by her Saudi employer.

Dr. Kamal Weeratunga said the surgical team in the southern town of Kamburupitiya pulled nails ranging from about one to three inches from Lahadapurage Daneris Ariyawathie's body. He said doctors have not yet removed four small metal particles embedded in her muscles.

Image : Getty Images

"She is under heavy antibiotics but in a stable condition," Weeratunga said.

Full Story

Died In Their Home - Jean and Derek Randal

2010-08-24T04:01:00.000+08:00

An elderly couple found dead in their home during the coldest winter in Britain for 30 years died because they 'consistently refused support' from authorities, an independent review has found.

Image by : MASON NEWS SERVICE

Image by : Paul Cousans/Zenpix

The bodies of Jean, 79, and Derek Randall, 76, were discovered at their home in Northampton in January.

Worried neighbours had repeatedly warned Northamptonshire County Council about the vulnerable and reclusive couple's deteriorating health since last November.

It later emerged that Mrs Randall, who was confined to a wheelchair, died from a heart attack while her carer husband died of pneumonia and lung cancer.

FULL STORY

Murder : Baby - Dumping An Attempt To Murder

2010-08-14T07:48:00.000+08:00

Hi again, it's been long time I haven't update my blog.

It has been a major issue in Malaysia now where cases of dumping-baby was becoming so serious.

Even the Malaysian government has taken severe step to punish the mothers who dump their babies with murder.

It might be good start and fresh step to prevent the incidents from happening again.

But to implementing the law and step to charge the murderer will not be easier because an element of intent was required and it was difficult to prove.

Here are reports from thestar.com.my and www.nst.com which could give us some thought and opinion regarding the issues.

Difficult for cops to prove murder in baby-dumping
(thestar.com)

PETALING JAYA: Shelter Home executive director James Nayagam said it would be difficult for police to charge mothers who dump their babies with murder because an element of intent was required and it was difficult to prove.

The mother might say that she left the baby to be picked up by people and not with the intent of killing the child, he said.

“It’s difficult to prove murder. We have to prove that there is intent but when a foetus is aborted at three or four months, there is no chance for the baby to survive and hence, no killing is involved,” he said.

Currently, the law does not provide for a person who aborts a foetus to be charged for murder, he told The Star yesterday.

“The concern with charging mothers who dump their babies is that it might lead to more illegal abortions,” he said.

A woman might fear being charged with murder if she intends to abandon her baby and might instead resort to illegal abortion, said Nayagam.

“Even now, it is estimated that about 300 abortions are performed daily,” said Nayagam adding that he had come across a case in the eighth month of pregnancy.

Ultimately, education is the key, he added.

In KOTA BARU, Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said he welcomed the capital punishment proposal.

The PAS spiritual adviser said such punishment was in line with the teachings of Islam that forbids such heinous acts.

“I agree with the severe punishment proposed for dumping babies,” he said in response to the Government’s proposal to punish offenders with the death sentence.

The Cabinet had agreed to a proposal by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry that those who abandoned babies resulting in death, should be investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.

Baby dumping may be classified as attempted murder or murder
(www.nst.com)

KUALA LUMPUR: The cabinet has asked the police to probe into baby dumping as attempted murder or murder cases, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil said yesterday.

She said the cabinet agreed that the government should take sterner action to stop baby dumping.

“The government has no choice because of the rising number of cases. Despite the various initiatives, baby dumping is still happening.”

The women, family and community development minister said not only the women involved in baby dumping would be brought to justice, the men, too, would be prosecuted.

“We have taken a welfare approach all this while but the problem continues.

“The government cannot allow this state of affairs to continue and that is why the classification will be changed to attempted murder or murder.”

Under the move, Shahrizat said police, acting on the ministry’s request, would start classifying investigations as attempted murder, or if found with intent, murder.

Police have recorded 60 baby-dumping cases so far this year, compared with 79 for the whole of last year.

Tougher measures, she said, were required as baby dumping could no longer be tolerated.

“Dumping a baby only to see the child found dead in places such as dustbins and toilets is an inhumane act. It is tantamount to murdering an innocent person.”

Shahrizat said she put forward the request to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein during the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Police are now investigating baby-dumping cases under the Child Act 2001, and those found guilty, face imprisonment of up to 10 years.

However, those charged under the Penal Code for attempted murder or murder withintent face up to 30 years’ jail or the death sentence, respectively.

Shahrizat said cases involving underage parents would continue to be dealt with under the Child Act but added that it was up to the Juveniles’ Court to decide whether they should be tried as adults.

She said she had also requested for Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiling to be carried out to ascertain the identity of parents of abandoned babies.

“This is the only way to bring those responsible for the death of a baby to justice,” she said.

Shahrizat said there was no excuse for couples or parents to abandon their babies, given the avenues available for them in seeking help.

She said unwed parents unable to care for their children should approach the various institutions under the ministry or the Welfare Department.

Similar to OrphanCARE, the country’s first baby hatch, the 104 district welfare offices, 60 institutions and 55 clinics set up by the ministry are open to parents to give up their children for adoption.

“They can also approach the police, local hospitals and clinics, even the nearest Umno branch, if they truly need help,” said Shahrizat, who is also Wanita Umno chief.

The ministry had also embarked on an awareness programme at public and private institutions of higher learning nationwide to educate young people, seen as a high-risk group, on the consequences of unprotected sex and the options available for young unwed parents.

She said some of the programmes would be tailored to young males to educate them on their responsibilities as parents and sexual partners.

"PhD in murder and Jack the Ripper"

2010-05-27T17:22:00.000+08:00

A suspected serial killer who was being questioned last night over the murder of three prostitutes is studying criminal justice at a university.

Stephen Griffiths, 40, is understood to be following a course at the University of Bradford, where he is specialising in homicide studies.

He has a degree in psychology.

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Charlotte Avenall dies in most squalid conditions police have ever seen

2010-04-11T00:06:00.000+08:00

An eight-year-old girl accidentally hanged herself after being locked in some of the filthiest and most squalid conditions police had ever witnessed, despite being known to social services, a court has heard.

Charlotte Avenall died after weeks of neglect at the hands of her mother and stepfather Susan and Simon Moody, who were yesterday both jailed for 12-months for child cruelty.

The youngster, who had severe learning difficulties, had just been taught to tie a knot at school when she wrapped a cord around her neck and accidentally hanged herself from her bedroom window.

When police attended the scene following her death they said they had never encountered a room as filthy, with excrement smeared all over the walls and surfaces.

A post-mortem examination also revealed that Charlotte, who had been forced to use a chest of drawers as a lavatory, had overgrown finger nails, head lice on her scalp and was suffering from dehydration.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how social services had visited the house in August last year, just weeks before Charlotte’s death, but had failed to get any response.

No follow up appointment was made despite concern about the child’s condition being raised by her school.

Susan Moody, 24, pleaded guilty to child neglect but claimed she had been unwell at the time and had left responsibility for the care of Charlotte with her 33-year-old husband Simon.

He also pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty at an earlier hearing.

Sentencing them to a year in prison Judge Joan Butler QC said: "It's quite plain that the death of Charlotte was a tragic but preventable accident.

"All it would have taken to keep her safe was for somebody to go in to that room and see how it was. Your bedroom was on the same floor so it is hardly an onerous task to go across the hall and check.

"Instead, she was left in a foul and filthy mess for four weeks. For 12 hours every night for those four weeks you left her in that stinking room and on the day she died you had left her for 14 hours in that room."

Detective Superintendent Adrian Pearson, head of Nottinghamshire Police's public protection unit, said: "Our detailed and exhaustive investigation revealed Charlotte's death was a tragic accident.

"However, it also showed in great detail the neglect that she suffered at the hands of Simon and Susan Moody in the final weeks of her young life.

"The conditions in which she died were the most shocking I have ever had the misfortune to see in my career.

The court heard that despite the squalor of Charlotte's bedroom at the home in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the tanks of the family's spiders and lizards were regularly cleaned out.

William Harbage QC, prosecuting, said: "A number of very experienced police officers described it as the worst smelling and filthiest room they had ever encountered.

"It's beyond the comprehension of any parent, indeed any normal person, how a mother or father could allow a child to spend a single night in that room.

"The prosecution draw the contrast between the room and the rest of the house. Although it was a little bit grubby, it was certainly in contrast to the revolting and squalid state of the child's bedroom."

In the weeks before her death Charlotte was locked in her bedroom from 7pm each evening until 7am the following morning, sometimes later at weekends.

Her parents claimed they needed to lock her in because she sleepwalked and it was for her own safety.

Social services had become involved in 2004 and in 2006 Charlotte had been referred for specialist help.

Her school also raised concerns in March 2009 because Charlotte regularly turned up with excrement on her hands and in the wrong clothes for the weather conditions.

When they raised concerns, her parents transferred her to another school.

The case comes just weeks after the mother and stepfather of seven-year-old Khyra Ishaq were jailed for manslaughter after leaving her to starve to death in their squalid Birmingham home.

In that case a High Court judge criticised social services saying she would still be alive if they had responded to warnings and had intervened earlier.

A serious case review into what happened to Charlotte Avenall has been ordered by Nottinghamshire County Council.

SOURCE : Telegraph.co.uk

Lysandra Marie Turpin Murder

2010-04-10T00:56:00.000+08:00

The remains of a woman who disappeared 22 years ago in northern California have been found after the son of the woman's purported killer guided police to the site where her body was dumped, investigators announced Thursday.

The alleged killer's son told authorities that he watched his father kill 27-year-old Lysandra Marie Turpin in 1988 and that his dad forced him to help dispose of the body, the Humboldt County, California, Sheriff's Office announced.

Ernest Samuel Christie III, who was 16 at the time, told authorities that his now-dead father, Ernest Samuel Christie Jr., made him help dump Turpin's body in a ditch near their home in Fieldbrook, California, about 80 miles south of the Oregon border.

Christie said his father forced him to help cover the body with tires, douse it in gasoline and set it on fire, Humboldt County Sheriff Gary Philp said in a statement Thursday.

Christie's dad had held and abused Turpin at his house for several weeks before killing her, Christie told the sheriff's office.

She had been reported missing to Humboldt County law enforcement on April 8, 1988.

After Christie supplied the sheriff's office with a map of where the body had been dumped, a team of detectives, evidence technicians, and sheriff's deputies found teeth, clothing and charred bones.

A forensic odontologist positively identified the remains as Lysandra Turpin on Wednesday, according to Philp.

Ernest Samuel Christie Jr. died in 2006, according to the sheriff's office. His son, now 38 and living in North Carolina, contacted the sheriff's office in February. He is not facing criminal charges, Philp said.

Christie told authorities that his father had abused other women, once holding a woman prisoner in a hollowed-out redwood tree stump.

The woman escaped and declined to report the incident to law enforcement, the sheriff's office said.

Using a description provided by Christie, sheriff's personnel located the stump and found a carpet, plastic jugs, a hypodermic syringe and clothing there, Philp said Thursday.

Christie related other instances of his father -- who he said frequently used methamphetamine -- terrorizing women, Philp said.

Christie told authorities that his dad once took a woman on his fishing boat, tied her up and told her he was going to kill her.

The woman managed to escape, and detectives were recently able to find her and corroborate Christie's account, Philp said.

Source : CNN

2010-04-02T02:18:00.000+08:00

America’s Serial Dating Game Killer 66-year-old Rodney Alcala was on Tuesday sentenced to death by lethal injection by an Orange County court, reports The Daily Mail, London.

More than 100 photographs of unidentified women and girls were found from the lockers of Alcala, and police released these pictures amid fears that they could be victims of America’s worst ever serial killer.

Rodney Alcala was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the savage murders of a 12-year-old girl and four women. However, the 66-year-old has admitted killing another 30 women in the 1970s and police believe there could be many more victims.

They have already linked him to the deaths of two Seattle teenagers aged 13 and 17, and a 19-year-old who vanished from the same area, as well as two women in New York and several more in Los Angeles.

Alcala was also found guilty of murdering Jill Parenteau, Georgia Wixted and Charlotte Lamb

The photos were discovered hidden in a storage locker in Seattle, Washington, where Alcala, an amateur photographer, kept his possessions before his arrest.

Although many of the 1,000 pictures were innocent poses in a park or on the beach, some women had stripped off for the camera.

Police believe that Alcala - who is known in the U.S. as the Dating Game Killer because he once appeared on America's version of Blind Date - kept the photographs as sick souvenirs of his victims.

The women in the photos range in age from schoolgirls to women in their 20s and 30s, and are believed to come from across the U.S. Two of the pictures may have been taken after the women were murdered.

Jill Barcomb was killed when she was 18 while Robin Samsoe was only 12 when she died in 1979

Prosecutor Matt Murphy said: 'We'd like to locate the women in these pictures. Did they simply pose for a serial killer or did they become victims of his sadistic, murderous pattern? He committed unspeakable acts of horror. He gets off on the infliction of pain on other people. He's an evil monster who knows what he is doing is wrong and doesn't care.'

Detective Claiff Shepard said: 'He's right up somewhere below Hitler and right around Ted Bundy. It is not humane what he does to these victims. It is tortuous.'

Alcala - who defended himself during his trial - preyed on women and girls by offering to take their photographs. He then raped his victims, strangled them until they were unconscious before reviving them and killing them.

The photographer, who is said to have a genius IQ of 160, often boasted of his winning an episode of the American version of Blind Date. However, the woman who chose him later cancelled their date because she found him 'too creepy'.

Marianne Connelly, mother of 12-year-old victim Robin Samsoe, is comforted by friends at her daughter's grave.

Alcala appeared unconcerned about his fate on Tuesday, when he was given the death sentence for kidnapping and murdering 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who disappeared after leaving home for ballet class on her bicycle in 1979.

He laughed and talked throughout the trial at Orange County Superior Court, even after also being convicted of murdering four Los Angeles women - Georgia Wixted, 27, Jill Barcomb, 18, Charlotte Lamb, 32, and Jill Parenteau, 21 - between 1977 and 1979.

It took nearly 30 years for the law to catch up with him. He was previously convicted twice of killing Robin, but the verdicts were overturned. An earring that belonged to the little girl was also found with the photo cache.

America's most prolific serial killer is often considered to be Henry Lee Lucas, who was convicted of four murders in the late 1970s although police believe he may have been responsible for more than 200.

After his imprisonment, Lucas confessed to 600 killings although he later claimed he had lied to become famous.

Ted Bundy is believed to have raped and murdered 35 women between 1973 and 1978, although police believe there are many more victims. He was executed in 1989 by electric chair for his last murder in Florida.

Source : IndiaTvNews.com

Tube Station Killing - Teenage Girl Arrested With 12 Boys

2010-03-29T20:50:00.000+08:00

A teenage girl was arrested today by detectives investigating the murder of 15-year-old Sofyen Belamouadden at one of London's busiest Underground stations.

Metropolitan Police investigators held the girl suspect and three more teenage boys during a series of raids in south London.

The move brings to 24 the total number of people arrested over the attack at Victoria during last Thursday's rush-hour.

Twelve teenagers - four aged 16 and eight aged 17 - will appear in court today charged with her son's murder.

Meanwhile, Sofyen's mother said today friends of her son who failed to help him should be charged with murder.

She said they deserved to face court for leaving the 15-year-old lying in a pool of blood as they fled the scene.

Naima Ghailan, 43, revealed that she had not slept or eaten since learning of her son's death in a fight at Victoria underground station, Central London, on Thursday evening.

Sofyen, from Acton, West London, was chased by up to 35 attackers wearing school uniform, before being dragged to the ground in the ticket hall and knifed repeatedly in the chest as a group of schoolgirls looked on.

The pupil of Henry Compton School, Fulham, West London - known to his friends as Sofyen Ghailan - died in hospital.

As police prepared to charge at least five boys with his murder, Miss Ghailan told the Daily Mail: 'He was lying there in a pool of blood and nobody was helping him.

'His friends left him to die and they didn't want to know - not one of them.

'Every one of them killed him whether they were with him or against him.

'They are all responsible for his death and they should all be charged with his murder.'

Miss Ghailan, who is of Moroccan descent, said she had brought her children up as devout Muslims and had taught them to respect others.

'Sofyen was not part of a gang. All he did was go to school and play football. He never, ever carried a knife,' she said.

She described her London-born son as 'a normal boy' who tried hard at school, was passionate about football and wanted to be a pilot.

It is thought the fight is the latest escalation in rivalry between schools in West and South London.

Police believe it was pre-planned and the children travelled to the scene armed and intent on fighting.

Reports that the clash was arranged on a social networking site were played down by officers, as was the idea that a row over a girl had prompted the stabbing.

Sources confirmed that Sofyen was a boy of previous good character but there is still confusion over how he ended up at Victoria in the middle of a bloody brawl, and over what triggered the violence.

Miss Ghailan, who owns dress shops in North Kensington and Shepherd's Bush, said Sofyen's friends had told her the stabbing was a case of mistaken identity.

She said Sofyen had had flu that morning and had begged not to go to school. But she insisted, telling him to call if he did not improve.

When he phoned at 2pm she said he could leave. But on the way home, he turned back to school to collect a folder he had forgotten.

When he arrived, his friends convinced him to go with them to Hammersmith in West London. 'He phoned to tell me,' Miss Ghailan said. 'All I know is that I spoke to him at 4pm and by 5.30pm he was already dead.'

She criticised police handling of the case, saying they had not even informed her of his death. She said: 'One of his friends phoned my eldest son at 2am and said "your brother's just been stabbed".'

'Where were the police? Where were the underground staff?

'All these people stood by and did nothing to help him as he was lying there in a pool of blood.' She added: 'They stabbed him in his heart - they knew exactly where to stab him.'

Miss Ghailan said police identified Sofyen using his Oyster card. She called on them to release her son's body so she could bury him.

Yesterday, Inanc Sener, 29, who runs a cafe next to Miss Ghailan's North Kensington shop, described Sofyen as 'a very quiet boy'.

'He's not the "gangster" type,' he said. 'I've never even heard him raise his voice.'

Mr Sener said Sofyen's parents split up four years ago and his father Abdeslam Belamouadden, also known as Abdullah, had left the country and is thought to be back in Morocco, his birthplace.

On Saturday, scores of Sofyen's friends gathered at Victoria train station to pay tribute to him, write messages and leave flowers.

A group called RIP Sofyen on the social networking site Facebook had more than 3,300 members last night.

But Miss Ghailan was focussed only on those who failed to help him at the scene.

'If they loved him, they wouldn't put him in danger,' she said. 'They wouldn't have left him dying.'

Miss Ghailan said the idea that schoolchildren had been involved in her son's death was disgraceful. 'They are just children and they are killing each other,' she said.

'Children have too much freedom - there's no control.'

Source : MailOnline - CLAIRE ELLICOTT and STEPHEN WRIGHT

Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Arredondo Verdugo, shot to death

2010-03-29T01:37:00.000+08:00

A photo on a Facebook page shows them dressed in black suits, white shirts and stylish ties.

They're at some sort of dinner and they look straight into the camera, their young faces full of hope and promise and that assuredness reserved for those for whom the future stretches endlessly.

That future ended Friday for Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Arredondo Verdugo, shot to death in a firefight between Mexican army soldiers and gangsters who had sought refuge on a university campus.

The two mechanical engineering graduate students at the Technological Institute of Higher Learning of Monterrey were good young men, part of the hope for Mexico's future.

They were bright students who had avoided the violent drug war that has ripped Mexico apart for the past three years, a massacre that has devoured more than 16,000 of the nation's lifeblood.

Mercado, 23, and Arredondo, 24, were scholarship recipients about to graduate with degrees in manufacturing systems. They had been working late at the school library Thursday night, friends told local media, and knocked off well after midnight.

They stepped out into the night air and into a violent firefight. Mexican soldiers were chasing criminals who had fled onto the campus after firing on an army patrol, the Interior Ministry said.

Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont said Monday the students were caught in the crossfire.
Initially, authorities had identified the two dead men as drug gang members. University officials had also said Friday after the campus shooting that all students were safe.

That account changed Saturday, when Mercado's mother tried to call him after finding out about the shootout. When she couldn't reach him, she traveled to Monterrey, where she identified her son's body, said the campus rector, Rafael Rangel Sostman.

On Sunday, authorities at the highest level of the Mexican government admitted their mistake.
"The Mexican government expresses its most deeply felt condolences to the families," the Interior Ministry said in a release on its Web page.

The federal government will intensify its investigation to find out what happened, Mont said.
The school's rector blamed himself for the mix-up in identities.

"I offer a public apology and take responsibility for having given information that ended up not being correct," Rangel said. "I want to offer my most deeply felt condolences to the family of our two students and offer them our support in this difficult situation."

On Monday, Mercado was laid to rest in his native Saltillo in Coahuila state. Arredondo will be buried in Los Cabos, in the state of Baja California.

Separated in death, the two young men seemed inseparable in life.

A Facebook page that demands justice for the slayings shows more than 30 photos of the young men and offers a snapshot of lives fully lived even at a tender age.

Mercado, an athlete, is shown working out on the rings at a gymnastics club and winning a medal and a trophy in track and field competition, where he was a pole-vaulter. Another photo shows him kneeling between two German shepherds. He's wearing a cap, blue jeans and a T-shirt and has a bemused look on his face.

He was also a scholar, working with a team of faculty and students on a solar-powered hybrid vehicle.

Arredondo seemed more the social one, with photos of him with his arm around a young woman at what seems to be a party. Another photo shows him posing with a World Cup trophy display.

There are several photos of the two young men together -- at a dance, hanging out with friends, in the stands at some kind of sporting event.

At least two Facebook pages are devoted to them: "Rest in Peace Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Francisco Arredondo" has more than 12,600 fans; "Javier Arredondo and Jorge Mercado - JUSTICIA! JUSTICE!" has more than 4,700 members.

The Justice page was started by Juan Arredondo, Javier's cousin. In a statement on the page, Juan Arredondo said some members of the army tried to scapegoat their "error" by saying the two young men were gangsters. Videos from security cameras on campus would show the two students were innocent victims, Arredondo and others say.

"These errors also must be paid for and authorities must establish a punishment," he wrote. "I ask myself, where is the authority in Mexico?

"I ask myself until when will we have justice in my country?

"No words or speeches or promises will fill the emptiness that Javier and Jorge left when they lost their lives in such a tragic manner. We only want to know the truth and that justice be done.

"We demand that the contents of the videos confiscated by the army be shown.

"We demand that the responsible parties for killing Javier and Jorge be punished.

"We demand a country that tells the truth to its citizens."

The "Rest in Peace" memorial page also is full of accusations and recriminations against authorities and their version of what happened.

"Don't believe anything. They all evade responsibility," one person wrote. Said another, "Incompetence, negligence and stupidity beyond all comprehension."

The killings occurred in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon state. It's one of two states in northeastern Mexico where drug cartel members blocked roads with hijacked vehicles Thursday and Friday to prevent military reinforcements from arriving. The criminals also set up roadblocks in neighboring Tamaulipas state.

Three presumed gang members and one soldier were killed in various skirmishes over the two-day period, officials said.

The area, which borders Texas, has seen bloody fighting between the Zetas and Gulf cartels after a recent gangland slaying. Hours-long gun battles have been common, and U.S. officials were recently forced to temporarily close the consulate in the city of Reynosa.

The trouble started January 18 when a Gulf cartel member killed a top Zeta lieutenant. The Zetas demanded that the Gulf cartel turn over the killers, but the narco group refused.

The Zetas, composed mostly of former elite military troops, had been the armed enforcers for the Gulf cartel since 2001. The Zetas have become more independent in recent years, and the all-out war between the two cartels indicates the split is apparently permanent.

Mexico has been gripped in massive drug-related bloodshed since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels shortly after coming into office in December 2006.

Much of the violence has taken place around Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

There are no official government tallies, but more than 16,000 people are estimated to have died in the drug wars. The vast majority of the deaths are among reputed criminals, with some police and military also being killed.

The United States and Canada have issued travel warnings, particularly along the border area.

The Texas Department of Public Safety took the unprecedented step this year of recommending that students on spring break not go to border areas inside Mexico.

Though relatively few of the deaths have been among civilians, Friday's killings were the second in recent weeks to garner worldwide attention and fuel rage among Mexican citizens.

Fifteen people, most of them innocent teenagers, were killed January 31 at a party in Ciudad Juarez.

For the families of the innocents, the drug war has gone on long enough.

At Mercado's funeral Monday, a heart-broken mother asked for the seemingly impossible.

"Thank you, son, for these 23 years you gave us," Rosa Elvia Mercado said. "You are great because you are with God. My son was not the first, but perhaps he will be the last."

Source : CNN

Schoolboys stab teenager, 15, to death

2010-03-27T01:18:00.000+08:00

Police have arrested 20 people after a gang of boys in school uniform stabbed a teenager to death at one of Britain's busiest stations.

The 15-year-old was savagely murdered by the mob in front of horrified commuters at Victoria in central London during rush hour last night.

Two groups of up to 35 youngsters are said to have fought a running knife battle through the station. One theory is they met for a planned fight.

The victim was chased into the ticket hall and cornered then stabbed repeatedly in the chest before being left dying in a pool of blood as the gang fled.

Detectives are investigating whether the clash was the result of gang rivalries between west London schools.

They have recovered several weapons, including two knives, from the scene and are questioning 20 suspects aged between 14 and 17.

The victim, who has not yet been named, was of north African descent and lived and went to school in west London.

All of those in custody are black and allegedly come from another school in the north-west of the city.

Police are investigating if there is a connection to a violent confrontation between schoolboys on Wednesday night and are examining CCTV footage.

Shopkeepers say teenagers have been running wild at the station almost every day for the last two weeks.

Sarfraz Ahmed, who manages a shop in an arcade at the station, said: 'One day last week a gang chased a boy into a shop and attacked him and trashed the place.

'They are about 15 or 16 and come here on their bikes. This place has been like a jungle.'

Newsagent Murugsu Rajesh told how on Tuesday a group of 20 youths chased a boy, bleeding from his face and screaming 'help me', into his shop.

'It was the same group of boys involved in the stabbing yesterday, I recognised their faces,' he claimed.

'When they came into my shop they were like wild animals. They threw everything to the ground and caused a lot of damage but they ran off before the police arrived and so did the boy they were chasing.'

On Wednesday, commuters saw a screaming row between schoolboys with police 'struggling' to keep them under control.

John Angeli, 47, said: 'There was a very tense situation just outside WH Smith - there was a big kerfuffle with about 10 or 15 kids all screaming. They were all in uniform, aged about 15 or 16.

'There were about two or three British Transport Police officers all struggling to keep things under control.'

Three or four boys had barged past him to join in the fighting, he said, adding: 'I'm not sure if they had been called on their mobile phones.'

The stabbing at about 5.20pm last night brought chaos to Victoria, with Circle and District line trains not stopping and some areas sealed off for forensic examination.

Police are now studying CCTV footage from the station and are not ruling out that some of the gang could have escaped before officers arrived.

British Transport Police Detective Superintendent Ashley Croft, who is leading the inquiry, said: 'This was a reckless act of violence that has resulted in a teenager tragically losing his life and our thoughts are with his family at this time.

'We are working closely with our colleagues at the Metropolitan Police to build up a picture of what took place immediately before, during and after the attack and ask anyone who was at the station at the time or who has any information to get in touch.'

He added: 'Twenty people, aged 14 to 17, were arrested in connection with the incident. They remain in custody at several London police stations and will be interviewed by detectives today.'

A Tube worker told last night how he found the teenager on the floor of the ticket hall covered in blood and with multiple stab wounds to the chest.

Gareth Lewis said: 'My colleague who witnessed it said he was basically set upon by a gang of young boys. They were very young, some were wearing school uniform.

'I went down because someone called for a first-aider but when I got there the paramedics had already arrived.

'The youth was lying on the floor in a really bad way. There was blood everywhere and he had multiple wounds in his body.

'We tried to revive him but it looked really bad. I've never seen anything like it and I've been working here for 13 years.'

Another Tube worker, who did not want to be named, said: 'There were about ten of them and one of him. He didn't stand a chance.'

Paramedics fought to save the boy but his heart had stopped by the time they arrived and he died shortly after being taken by ambulance to hospital.

A post-mortem examination to determine exactly what led to his death is expected to take place later today.

The murder brings the number of teenagers killed in London this year to four.

In February, 17-year-old Olukorede Fajinmi was stabbed to death in Bow, East London, following a row with a former friend. A 16-year-old was questioned about his death.

Isschan Nicholls, 18, was stabbed and later died in Beckton, East London, while another teenager Jessie Wright, 16, died after being strangled.

Since 2008 there has been an explosion in the number of young people murdered in the capital.

That year a total of 30 teenagers were killed on the streets, many of them in gang disputes and mass fights.

There were 22 stabbings, as knife crime reached epidemic proportions.

The record number of teenagers being murdered sparked a major police operation to curb gang violence with a big rise in the number of stop and searches of young people.

The initiative codenamed Operation Blunt 2 includes regular weapon-screening operations with airport-style metal-detecting arches on streets and at transport hubs.

In 2009, 14 teenagers were murdered in London, with ten of them stabbed to death and one shot.

Source : MailOnline - By KATHERINE FAULKNER

Teen Girl Shot & Killed in Detroit

2010-03-25T03:23:00.000+08:00

AMY LANGE

A teenage girl is shot and killed in Detroit. Her family says she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The girl's friends and relatives are planning a vigil Tuesday night.

17-year-old Dashanique Sutton was a beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister and friend.

"She was only 17. She still had her whole life ahead of her," said Brianana Link, the victim's best friend.

"We love her dearly. I mean, that was everybody's baby," said Betty Rainwater, the victim's grandmother.

Dashanique was shot in the head as she sat in a car with her 22-year-old boyfriend Monday night at the corner of Central and Majestic in southwest Detroit.

"I just heard a car screeching off and that was it. That's the last thing I heard," said Rev. Elliott Fields, who lives just a few houses away. The young man ran to his house for help. He had been hit in the leg. His girlfriend, Dashanique, would not survive.

"A man came over here and asked me to call the police and EMS for him. So, that's what I did," Fields said. "He didn't bother (anybody), so I don't even know why they had to shoot him and then kill his girlfriend."

Police say the shooter was in a gold Toyota.

Loved ones say Sutton, a student at Life Skills Center in southwest Detroit, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"We need to know who (did) this because... she's (a) young girl, full of life, life ahead of her. She didn't bother (anybody)," Rainwater said.

The family and authorities are asking anyone with any information to contact Detroit Police or call Crime Stoppers and 1-800-SPEAK-UP. You can remain anonymous.

India court sentences killer of Briton Denise Higgins to life

2010-03-24T19:39:00.001+08:00

An Indian beach bar waiter was jailed for life yesterday for the brutal murder of Denise Higgins, a retired British woman, in the western Indian state of Goa three years ago.

Anand Kamble was found guilty of killing the 52-year-old former social worker from Oxfordshire in a frenzied knife attack at her rented bungalow in the market town of Margao, south Goa, in April 2007.

Prosecutors said Kamble, now 30, had befriended Higgins after she moved to Goa six months earlier and attacked her after a dispute over money while his wife and young child were asleep in the next room.

His conviction comes less than two weeks before the suspected killers of Scarlett Keeling, a 15-year-old British girl raped and murdered in Goa in 2008, are due to go on trial.

Those and a series of other recent crimes against foreigners in Goa – including the alleged rape of a nine-year-old Russian girl in January – have raised grave concerns about the safety of tourists there.

The former Portuguese colony attracts about 2.4 million tourists every year, including 200,000 Britons, and has about 5,000 foreign residents, of whom about 3,300 are British.

Mrs Higgins, who was born in Calcutta and lost her husband in a car crash in 1987, moved to Goa in 2006 after selling her house in Bicester, Oxfordshire, and was having a two-storey villa built for her retirement.

She spent her first month at the Coconut Grove hotel near Margao, where she befriended a waiter called Jayantha, who she later hired as a cook and cleaner, according to police.

He then introduced her to Kamble, a former medical worker from Mangalore, about 250 miles away, who worked as a waiter at a beach shack in Goa, police said.

Mrs Higgins — a devout Christian —- had loaned Kamble money to set up a beachside restaurant and is believed to have given him 50,000 rupees (700 pounds) just days before the attack, according to local sources.

Santosh Desai, the police officer leading the investigation, said Kamble beat her almost unconscious,slit her throat and stabbed her multiple times after dining at her house with his wife and daughter.

Her body was found the next day by Kadir Shah, an auto-rickshaw driver who used to take Mrs Higgins shopping regularly. He told The Times in 2007 that Mrs Higgins had invited Kamble to her house several times.

“She used to say he was like her family,” Mr Shah said. “He used to say she was like his mum. Madam was very nice, not thinking badly about any person.”

Source : TimesOnline

Mentally Unbalanced Woman Cuts Her Dead Husband's Genitals off

2010-03-24T11:31:00.000+08:00

A court of Belarus will hold hearings on the case filed against a woman who committed a brutal murder of her husband. The woman cut the man’s genitals off and stabbed him.

The defendant, a 54-eyar-old female, will most likely have to undergo coercive treatment at a mental institution of Minsk, the capital of Belarus, officials said. The murderer has already been found insane in the course of forensic psychiatric expert examination.

The woman attacked her husband on January 13, at about 11:00 p.m. The woman, wielding a kitchen knife, attacked her 57-year-old husband when the latter was sleeping. The elderly woman stabbed the man at least ten times and then cut off his genitals, Interfax reports.

Afterwards, the woman called her son and told him that she had just murdered his father.

Investigators later found out that the man had already been dead when his wife attacked him. The woman practically abused her husband’s dead body.

Russian Tourists Raped and Abused in Thailand

2010-03-24T11:28:00.000+08:00

Thailand police are investigating a number of crimes committed against Russian tourists in the country. During the weekend, one tourist was raped and two were mugged at a Pattaya resort.

A Russian lady was raped by a cab driver on the way to a luxury hotel, Pattaya Daily News reports. The crime was committed on a remote beach of Pattaya on Sunday around 4:30 am. The victim was sent to Banglamung Hospital.

According to the investigation, the 25 year-old tourist was raped on her way to Grand Condo View hotel. The cab driver she flagged took her to a remote beach instead of the hotel and then raped her. The tourist was found by an employee of tourist police, who helped her to get to a police station. The police made a statement saying they would investigate and punish the pervert. The rapist’s identikit was created, and the cab station was shut down until the investigation is over.

On March 13, another Russian lady who fell victim of a robbery addressed Pattaya police. Her purse was stolen by a motorcyclist driving by, Pattaya People reports.

Unfortunately, the victim failed to describe the robber because everything happened too fast.

On Sunday, a Russian male tourist was assaulted in Pattaya at the entrance of Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort. The police who arrived at the scene found a helpless body of an unidentified Russian tourist who had nothing but his shorts on.

A witness who called the police reported that he saw the victim in a company of two Thai men. They were drinking together, and then a local hit the tourists on the head with a piece of wood.

The locals made sure the tourist was unconscious, took his wallet and cell phone and fled on a motorcycle.

Source : Pravda RU

Arrest linked to Corey Haim death

2010-03-18T04:14:00.000+08:00

An arrest has been made in connection with the investigation of actor Corey Haim's death, a spokesman for California's attorney general said Wednesday.

Corey Haim, who struggled for decades with drug addiction, died March 10.

Attorney General Jerry Brown is not revealing details of the arrest, his office said, but it comes soon after he revealed that pharmacy records show the actor got thousands of dangerous pills from dozens of doctors in the past year.

Brown also said last week that Haim's death was linked to an "illegal and massive prescription-drug ring."

Although the actor's family said Haim had reduced his drug use to near zero, Brown said Friday on HLN's "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" that he didn't see "any 'zero' pill consumption."

"If he took all the pills that our records show he was prescribed over the last year and three months, he took very damaging assaults on his body," Brown said.

Haim, 38, had pneumonia, an enlarged heart and water in his lungs when he died March 10, Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter said. But a drug overdose cannot be ruled out until toxicology results are completed, which will probably be in several weeks, Winter said.

State investigators know that Haim obtained "massive amounts" of legal drugs "in what looks to me like a questionable manner because of so many doctors," Brown said.

"How many people go to 10 or 15 or 20 doctors and then run around to 10, 12 and more pharmacies to go fulfill them and sometimes two different doctors in the same day?" Brown asked.

Haim's most recent prescription was filled March 5 for Vicodin, he said.

"In the weeks before that, more Vicodin, more Valium and other things," Brown said.

"If you go back to 2009, you're talking thousands of pills," he said. "You're talking many, many doctors. I doubt if they know about each other. You're talking about many, many pharmacies."

The 1980s teen movie star died after collapsing at the Los Angeles apartment he shared with his mother.

The illegal prescription ring involved the use of stolen identities from doctors to order official prescription pads, Brown said.

"Once they get that prescription pad in the doctor's name, then they can write a prescription, or they can sell it to someone to write a prescription like Corey Haim," Brown said. "Then he can go into the pharmacy and get his legal drugs illegally."

The former child actor also obtained Oxycontin using one of the counterfeit prescriptions last year, Brown said.

Despite Brown's statements, Haim's manager insists that it was not a drug overdose but a perhaps drug reaction that took the actor's life.

Just weeks before his death, Haim began seeing an addiction specialist to help completely kick his dependence, manager Mark Heaslip said. Heaslip and Haim's mother suspect that something went wrong with that treatment.

"There was a prescription that was given to him that he had never taken, and he only took one, and I have a funny feeling that he had a reaction to it," Heaslip said.

Haim's mother told the specialist not to give her son the pills, he said, and Haim fell ill with flu-like symptoms soon after he took just one of the pills.

On March 9, hours before his death, Haim stayed with his mother in the apartment they shared on the edge of Burbank, California.

"It was like he had a flu, but he was slurring like an overdose," Heaslip said. "He was very coherent and talked normal."

The loss is harder for family and friends to grasp because it came at a time when Haim had much to live for.

He was helping his mother with her cancer treatments, using income from two recent feature film roles to pay her medical bills, Heaslip said.

Several prescription drug bottles were taken from Haim's apartment, Deputy Coroner Winter said Friday. Although the bottles indicated that the drugs included Vicodin, Valium and Soma, no tests have been done to confirm what they are, he said.

Haim had a prescription for the muscle relaxer Soma and the narcotic pain reliever Norco filled at a pharmacy February 26, a source with knowledge of the transaction said.

Two days after Haim picked up the drugs, his primary care doctor called the San Fernando Valley pharmacy to ask about the prescriptions, the source said. The doctor said "Haim was not feeling well" and he needed to know what drugs had been prescribed, the source said.

The source, who worked at the pharmacy, asked not to be identified because his employer had not authorized him to talk.

Brown said Haim got prescriptions from four or five different doctors in the past three months.
Heaslip said he had talked to Haim in recent months about the dangers of easy access to prescription narcotics.

Haim said he wanted California legislators to pass "Corey's law," which he said should prevent doctors from prescribing more than a three-day supply of addictive drugs at one time, his manager said.

In recent years, the actor was reunited with longtime friend and frequent co-star Corey Feldman in a reality show. "The Two Coreys" ran for two seasons on the A&E Network before it was canceled.

Haim's most famous role was in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys," in which he also appeared with Feldman. Haim played the role of a fresh-faced teenager whose brother becomes a vampire.

Jealousy drives man to kill wife

2010-03-18T04:07:00.000+08:00

Driven by jealously, a lorry driver slashed his wife to death before hanging himself at their rented home in Taman Seri Redan, Masjid Tanah, here.

The dead were identified as A. Ilanganthil, 41, and his wife, N. Jayaletchumy, 38. They were originally from Seremban but had moved to Masjid Tanah recently in search of greener pastures.

State Criminal Investigation Department chief Assistant Commissioner Mohd Adnan Abdullah said investigations revealed that the couple had an argument which turned violent.

"We believe that the motive was jealousy. He slit his wife's throat and took his own life by hanging himself," he said, adding that the incident occurred between 10pm on Monday and 6.30am yesterday.

Adnan said Jayaletchumy's body was found in one of the bedrooms while Ilanganthil was found hanging from a nylon rope, which was fastened to a beam in the ceiling of the living room.

The bodies were found by the couple's two children when they woke up in the morning.

They had four children between the ages of 11 and 16, but only two of them were at home. The other two were staying at the homes of relatives during the school holidays.

"We recovered two knives and the nylon rope," Adnan said at the scene.

It was also learnt that Ilanganthil had left behind a two-page letter which police seized to facilitate investigations.

The two children who found the bodies, a 15-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister, were seen crying and being comforted by relatives and friends.

Schoolgirl Killed In Robbery

2010-03-18T04:02:00.000+08:00

A 14-year-year-old student was killed during a robbery while three of her school mates suffered injuries after being attacked by two assailants last night.

Suci Nor Rahma bt Mohamad, died from a single stab wound on her stomach at the Sarawak General hospital.

Her friends, 13-year-old Jaycelyan Yew Ngin sustained serious injuries after being stabbed on her stomach and face.

A 15-year-old sustained a minor cut on the side of her stomach while another 15 year-old went into hiding after the attack.

The four school mates, all from SMK Batu Kawa were staying some 10 km from Kuching.

They had earlier on gone to a cybercafé before walking back.

One of the 15-year-old girls, who sustained minor injuries, said at the Sarawak General hospital that as they walked through the quiet lane behind the new market at 7.55 pm, they saw two men on a scooter and thought nothing of it.

The two, she said, suddenly charged towards them armed with sharp objects and grabbed her wallet and handphone while her three friends rushed to her aid.

"That was when the suspects started slashing and stabbing them," she said.

Suci, she recalled, collapsed on the ground after being stabbed while Jaycelyan who was bleeding heavily called her, who was mother working at a nearby supermarket on her mobile.

The other girl ran away in a state of fright.

Passers-by then called an ambulance but Suci died at the hospital at 10 pm.

Police went to the scene looking for clues and leads where they found a pile of identity cards and driving licences strewn under a tree in the area.

Kuching OCPD, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mun Kok Kiong who was at the scene said the identity cards could be part of an unrelated crime.

He said the case has been classified as murder and police had yet to establish the motive as they were unable to interview the girls who are still in shock.

Mun said the suspects could be either high on drugs or alcohol.

Source : Malaysian Mirror

Housewife drugged and raped during job hunt

2010-03-18T03:56:00.000+08:00

A HOUSEWIFE looking for a job ended up being confined to a hotel room for 11 days and raped by a recruitment agent, reported Harian Metro.

The victim, who was also forced to take drugs during her ordeal, had left her home in Jalan Ipoh at about 5.30pm on March 1 to meet the agent in Selayang for a possible job offer.

The agent is believed to be a member of a drug trafficking syndicate recruiting drug mules.

It is believed that the agent had trailed the victim back to her home after the meeting and used a knife to force her to follow him to a hotel in Chow Kit.

In the hotel room, she was beaten, raped and drugged by the agent.

The housewife only managed to escape on March 12 after she was spotted by her husband’s friend as the agent was taking her to Segambut.

The friend, who knew that the woman had been missing for the past few days, quickly alerted passers-by to her predicament.

The agent tried to flee but was later apprehended by members of the public and handed over to the police.

Shaking daughter to death in hospital

2010-03-18T03:51:00.000+08:00

A 17-year-old boy has been convicted of killing his baby daughter by shaking her while visiting her in hospital.

Joshua Bacon, from St Helens, Merseyside, was found guilty of manslaughter after his seven-week-old daughter Caitlyn Smith died from severe head injuries.

The little girl was being treated for a urine infection in hospital when Bacon attacked her on January 12 last year.

She was found unconscious in her cot by a nurse at Ormskirk and District General Hospital, a jury at Preston Crown Court heard.

She was transferred to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool but tragically died from her injuries.

Bacon was charged with murder but this was reduced to manslaughter part way through the three-and-a-half-week trial. A court order banning Bacon being named due to his age was lifted after his conviction.

In a statement, Caitlyn's mother Danielle Smith said her ex-partner had ruined a number of lives.

She said: ''He stole the life of my beautiful angel, Caitlyn, and ruined my life and that of my family. The sickening injuries he inflicted on my innocent, defenceless seven-week-old daughter on that day in that hospital room were horrific.

''He was her father and was trusted to look after and care for his daughter but instead once alone he caused her massive injuries that led to her death.

''I am disappointed that he was not convicted of murder as I believe anybody capable of raising their hand to a baby in this way is capable of murder.

''I only had my daughter for a very short time but I will never forget her smile and the feeling of holding her in my arms.

''No sentence can ever bring my precious daughter back but I hope he doesn't have the opportunity to destroy anymore lives the way he did mine and my daughter's.''

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Murphy from Lancashire Police, who led the investigation, said the case was ''particularly tragic''.

He said: ''Even though Joshua has today been found guilty of the child's manslaughter, it will be little consolation to the Caitlyn's family who still mourn their loss.

''Joshua has never accepted responsibility and has never explained his actions. Only he knows what really happened.

''I know the jury found it difficult to hear the full and harrowing details of the injuries this little girl suffered and I am grateful to them for their deliberations.

''My thoughts, and those of the investigating team, are very much with Caitlyn's family, particularly her mother who was so tragically bereaved.''

Susan McNamara, senior crown prosecutor for Lancashire, said: ''It was our case that the baby girl's father was responsible for the fatal injuries that she suffered to her brain, and that they happened as a result of excessive force while he was alone with her in the hospital.''

Bacon will be sentenced on April 14.

Husband and wife found shot dead at home

2010-03-18T03:46:00.000+08:00

A married couple in their 40s have been found shot dead in their home.

James and Diane Harley were discovered lying near each other in a downstairs room of the house in Bishopbriggs, on the outskirts of Glasgow.

The couple had two children, a boy and a girl, who are believed to be in their early teens.

Mr and Mrs Harley were described as a 'lovely couple' by neighbours.

The deaths of the couple shocked neighbours in the quiet street

Armed police raced to the house in Bishopbriggs, after the alarm was raised at 7.45pm.

The street, close to the local golf club, was sealed off after officers discovered the bodies inside.

Strathclyde Police confirmed that the bodies of a man and woman had been found but have not revealed any further details.

Detectives have refused to say if they are looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.

Taxi driver Mr Harley, 51, was a director of a firm with connections to the Edinburgh-based security business Rock Steady.

It is believed Mrs Harley also worked for the business, which is well known for its work at football matches and music events.

The violent deaths shocked residents in the quiet street.

Neighbour Bill Kerr, 56, said: 'They were very much a family. Both of their children are still at school. They have been here for 15 years or more.

'They were very nice. I found out when I came home last night that something had happened. It is a very big shock as it's a close-knit community here.'

Another neighbour, aged 73, described Mr and Mrs Harley as a 'lovely couple'.

He said: 'I am really shocked. I have never known any hassle around here. It is very quiet.

'Last night I counted seven police officers plus three forensic people. An ambulance came around 3am this morning.

'I didn't see him around that much but he was a taxi driver. He didn't talk much in the street but they were a very nice couple.'

One neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: 'It is a shock to have something like this happen in the street. It's very quiet normally.

'They seemed quite a happy family, with a teenage girl and boy. I never heard of anything going on at all, they seemed quite normal.'

Outside the house, two police officers stood next to a blue Volkswagen Passat parked in the driveway. The curtains and blinds of the house were closed. Two other officers could be seen at the side of the house.

A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said: 'At around 7.45pm on Tuesday March 16 the bodies of a male and female were found within a property on St Andrews Avenue, Bishopbriggs.

'A full report will be sent to the procurator fiscal and post-mortems will be carried out in due course to establish the exact cause of death.'

Source : DailyMail

Gun tragedy as schoolboy of 14 dies in family home

2010-03-13T20:21:00.000+08:00

A 14-year-old schoolboy shot himself dead in his family home last night.

14-year-old Liam Nelson shot himself dead in his family home last night

Liam Nelson was alone in a room when he died from a single shot.

His parents Paul and Margaret are registered gun owners.

No suicide note had been found last night and police were investigating whether the shooting was a tragic accident.

But tribute pages put up by friends on Facebook indicated that the teenager may have been bullied at school because he was 'smarter' than other pupils.

There were also suggestions that he had been hit hard by the death of his grandfather.

The tragedy happened in Merstham, near Redhill, Surrey, just before 6pm.

Police, paramedics and an ambulance rushed to the scene after a 999 call from the house but Liam, who was a pupil at the Warwick Secondary School in Redhill, had died instantly.

Last night, the family's semi-detached brick house was cordoned off as police continued investigations.

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, described Liam as 'a good boy' and said the community was shocked by his death.

'We cannot begin to understand what his mum and dad are going through,' she said. 'I understand that there are stepbrothers and sisters living at the house as well.'

Hundreds of friends joined Facebook groups dedicated to Liam within hours of his death.

James Irwin, who set up the group 'R.I.P Liam nelson miss u and never forget u', wrote: 'still cryin, y did u hav to lve us m8. u were a 1 in a million friend, always kind and friendly, u didnt deserve to get bullied at skl and u didnt deserve the pain of ur grandads death'

Liam Searle Harding, one of 458 members of the 'R.I.P Liam Nelson, 11/3/2010 group', wrote: 'u were always diffrent but in such a better way u was so much smarter than others ............ r.i.p man rest is the least u deserve mate.'

Teoh inquest: Confusion reigns again (Updated)

2010-03-11T06:05:00.001+08:00

The inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock was once again enveloped in uncertainty when a government pathologist testified that the deceased had not been strangled or choked prior to his death plunge.

Sungai Buloh Hospital Pathology Unit chief Dr Shahidan Md Noor said all of Teoh’s injuries were consistent with a fall from height except for the red bruises in his neck region.

He admitted that the bruises to Teoh’s neck could have been “pre-fall injuries.”

Dr Shahidan, when cross-examined by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) counsel Datuk Abdul Razak Musa, ruled out the possibility of Teoh being strangled or choked in spite of the bruise marks.

However, Dr Shahidan said the bruises on Teoh’s neck were due to some form of pressure exerted in the area.

“What I am saying is that the internal injuries were consistent with a fall from height but the injuries at the neck region suggests there was some form of pressure, however these did not cause his death,” he said.

According to Dr Shahidan, who was ordered by coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas to conduct the second post-mortem, Teoh was not strangled or choked because there were no signs of asphyxia.

He however had agreed with Teoh’s family lawyer Gobind Singh Deo and Selangor state appointed counsel Malik Imtiaz Sarwar during cross-examination on March 1, that Teoh may have been strangled or choked prior to his death.

Dr Shahidan also reiterated on Wednesday that Teoh’s death was purely due to a fall from height.

He also said it was unlikely that Teoh had been clobbered on the head with a blunt object.

“When the head hits the floor, that is also contact with a blunt object,” he said.

Teoh, the political secretary to Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, was summoned to the MACC office at the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam to be questioned over the irregular disbursement of state funds on July 15 last year.

He was found dead on the fifth floor service corridor of the building the following day.

Dr Shahidan also said that the injuries to Teoh’s anal region were due to the impact of the fall.

“In my opinion the sacrum bone fractured and the broken bit protruded out during the fall and were pushed back inside by the impact of the fall,” he said.

Dr Shahidan’s testimony dismisses renowned Thai forensic pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojasunanand’s opinion regarding the injuries.

Dr Pornthip had testified in October last year that the marks on Teoh’s neck looked like he had been manually strangled.

Referring to an anal tear Teoh suffered as a “penetrative injury,” she said she had never seen this type of injury in cases of falls.

If the injury had indeed been caused by a bone protrusion, she said it would have come from the inside of Teoh’s anus.

Dr Pornthip had also said Teoh’s skull fracture was not typical of a transferred injury due to a fall but was more compatible with a blunt force being directly inflicted to the head.

Meanwhile, Dr Shahidan also said Teoh was conscious when falling to his death and ruled out suggestions that he was otherwise.

He said injuries to his internal organ and skeletal system indicated that Teoh was conscious when plunging.

“If Teoh had been unconscious, the pattern of his injuries would indicate how he had fallen out of the window,” he added.

According to Dr Shahidan, the state of Teoh’s remains and injuries sustained did not suggest that he had struggled or was unconscious when falling.

He said the injuries would have been more severe if he was not conscious at the time of his plunge.

Azmil Muntapha fixed April 20 for Dr Pornthip to testify and April 26 and 27 for celebrity British pathologist Dr Peter Vanesis, whom the MACC had engaged, to take the stand.

Source : thestaronline

Related Stories

Murdered his mother-in-law with a torture kit

2010-03-08T13:14:00.000+08:00

By Chris Brooke

A former soldier murdered his mother-in-law and stabbed his brother-in-law in a bloody rampage after being told by his estranged wife that she wanted a divorce, it was revealed yesterday.

Sebastian Mercante left this message in blood after murdering Carol Berry

Bodybuilding fanatic Sebastian Mercante, 40, flew to the UK from Tenerife to wreak a terrible revenge and drove to his wife's family home armed with a 'torture kit.'

He brutally knifed Carol Berry, 66, to death at her home in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and stabbed her son Andrew Field, 36, as he bravely tried to protect her.

Mercante then drove back 30 miles to Manchester and scrawled the message 'f*** u Claire' in blood on a car park wall before throwing himself to his death from the eighth floor.

Mercante, a former French Foreign Legion conscript, met and married his English bride Claire Tootill in Tenerife five years ago, but they are believed to have split up in 2008.

Police officers discovered what was described as a 'torture kit' in Mercante's hired car including cable ties and a 'blunt instrument.' It is not known whether he made use of the implements.

A police source said Mercante may have been involved with neo-nazi groups and that he had an iron cross tattoo which helped West Yorkshire Police identify his body.

Mercante, who is originally from Argentina, flew to Manchester from the Spanish island after being contacted by his wife Claire, 31. She is believed to have wanted a divorce after meeting another man.

The killer is thought to have partially blamed his mother-in-law for the collapse of the marriage.

Claire Mercante's mother was killed in a revenge attack by her estranged husband

Yesterday Mr Field was being treated in hospital and his injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. Claire Mercante was being looked after by police.

The attractive and vivacious blonde moved to Spain after completing her degree in Biology and was working as a departmental manager for an import company when she met and married Mercante.

Police believe no-one else was involved in what they described as a 'targeted' and 'domestic-related' attack on Friday evening.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: 'Detectives investigating the murder of a woman in Huddersfield have confirmed they are not seeking anyone else in connection with the inquiry after a man was found dead in Manchester.

While a formal identification of the man is still to take place, officers believe he is a 40-year-old man whose identity is known to them.'

The semi-detached house in Huddersfield was cordoned off for police forensic officers to carry out inquiries. A bloody hand print was seen smeared on the front door.

RAC man Michael Hunt, 46, who lives nearby, said his son found a knife close to the scene. 'It had a blade about six inches long. He watches CSI so he knew not to touch the knife.'

Another neighbour said of the victim: 'She was a nice woman. Nobody deserves this to happen to them.'

Message In Blood

2010-03-08T01:45:00.000+08:00

Alison Chung and Andy Jack, Sky News Online

A man stabbed his ex-partner's mother to death then left a chilling message in blood before leaping to his death, a police source has revealed.

He knifed the 66-year-old woman at her semi-detached bungalow in the Bradley area of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, at about 6.40pm on Friday. He also attacked the woman's 36-year-old son.

He then fled 30 miles to Manchester where he leapt eight floors from the top of a car park in Hanover Street, soon after midnight.

Written in blood on a wall was the message: "**** you", followed by a woman's name - believed to be directed at the killer's ex-partner, according to the source.

It is thought that the couple had split acrimoniously.

Spot where man jumped to his death

The spot from where the man jumped was unguarded and more blood could be seen on railings. Police said his death was not believed to be suspicious.

In Huddersfield, the semi-detached bungalow was cordoned off. Blood could be seen smeared on the white front door.

The 36-year-old man who was stabbed remained in hospital, where his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

Michael Hunt, 46, an RAC man, said his son found a knife close to the scene. He said: "It had a blade about six inches long. The police came down and then cordoned everything off and it has been closed all night.

"He was shocked, obviously, but he was glad he had been able to do something. He watches CSI so he knew not to touch the knife."

:: It comes only days after a Huddersfield shopkeeper was beaten to death during an alleged armed raid. Gurmail Singh, 63, died from head injuries in a convenience store in the Cowcliffe area.

A 20-year-old man and three teenagers have been charged with murder and robbery.

Body of 16-year-old girl found dead in alleyway yards from her home

2010-03-06T23:04:00.001+08:00

A murder inquiry was launched today after the body of a teenage girl was found in a derelict yard near her home.

Victim: The body of Jessie Elouise Wright, 16, was found near her home in King's Cross, north London

The victim, named at the scene as 16-year-old Jessie Wright, was discovered in King's Cross, north London.

Her body was found by local authority workmen in a rarely used alleyway.

Police said it was not clear how she died, although they are examining whether she fell from a block of flats.

A post-mortem examination was taking place today to find out exactly what led to her death.

Murder squad detectives were questioning a 19-year-old man at a north London police station.

His relationship to the victim is not known, but several people at the scene said he was the teenager's boyfriend.

Police declined to comment on reports that the girl's body was found partially clothed.

Tearful groups of friends, some dressed in school uniform, laid bouquets inside a police cordon today.

Two older women, believed to be relatives of the victim, were comforted by plain-clothes police officers.

One woman, who was overcome with emotion, said: 'She was the most beautiful girl you would ever see in the whole world.'

One teenage girl said Jessie was a former pupil at Maria Fidelis Catholic school for girls in north London.

Speaking at the scene, she said: 'She was beautiful, She was a very kind and outspoken person, a bubbly girl.

'She had a heart of gold and was always happy. She would have put up a fight - I cannot believe we are talking about this. I have known her since we were about 12.'

One middle-aged woman, who lives in a flat near the scene, said she saw an ambulance arrive in Outram Place at about 3.50pm yesterday.

She said: 'I saw a paramedic get out and run into the alleyway. A police car was close behind.

'They put up police tape and there was a lot of coming and going, including this morning with detectives.'

Police crime scene spotlights could be seen at the end of the alleyway, a short distance from the disused York Road Tube station.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'We believe we know the identity of the female, aged in her mid to late teens, but next of kin are still to be informed.

'A post-mortem has been scheduled for today at St Pancras Mortuary.

'An investigation has been launched by the Homicide and Serious Crime Command under Detective Chief Inspector John Macdonald.

'We retain an open mind at this early stage re the circumstances of the death.'

Source : Daily Mail

Boy charged over fire deaths of elderly couple

2010-03-06T22:16:00.000+08:00

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with the manslaughter of an elderly couple who died after a blaze at a sheltered housing complex.

Kath and Albert Adams on holiday in Paris in 1999

Photo: CATERS NEWS

Kath and Albert Adams, both 77, died when a fire in a mobility scooter spread to their home in Rugby.

The teenage boy, who is from Rugby, was remanded into secure care at Nuneaton Justice Centre in Warwickshire after being charged with manslaughter. He also faces four arson charges.

He spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth during the hour long hearing on Saturday.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested last Tuesday after a second blaze broke out near mobility scooters at the sheltered housing complex.

His parents and grandfather were present at the hearing, sitting directly in front of the dock and in the well of the court.

Mr and Mrs Adams died after a blaze in the early hours of Saturday February 27.

In a statement issued earlier this week, the family of Mr and Mrs Adams paid tribute to them as the rock that united their extended family.

The statement, issued by police, read: "Kath and Albert were a lot of things to a lot of people - parents, grandparents, brother, sister, friends.

"Their tragic deaths have left a massive hole in our lives - that pain will never truly fade."

Hostage at knifepoint on Chinese street

2010-03-05T02:03:00.000+08:00

At first glance these dramatic pictures look like a scene from the latest Hollywood blockbuster.
But these incredible images took place as a man held his sister-in-law at knife-point on a street in Wuxi, Jiangsu province in China earlier today.

The man was believed to be under the influence of drugs when he abducted the woman.

The woman was eventually rescued unharmed and the man, who had a criminal past was eventually hauled off and taken into custody.

The man holds a knife to his sister-in-law's throat as she calls for help

A police officer wrestles a knife away from the man as his hostage tries to escape

The attacker is eventually bundled away by police

Source : Mail Foreign Service

Notorious villain Ronnie Kray

2010-03-04T22:26:00.001+08:00

He still looks menacing despite the pudgy face and crooked tie. But Ronnie Kray knows his life of violent crime is over as he holds up his prison number in this previously unseen
mugshot.
It was one of three taken on July 4, 1969, after the gangster arrived at Durham prison. They were found recently in a box during an office move at the headquarters of Durham Constabulary.

The photographs were attached to Kray’s police file which gives a fascinating insight into the life of the notorious villain who with his twin brother Reggie ran a criminal gang in the East End of London in the 1950s and 1960s.

More than 40 years after he was jailed, Ronnie Kray's criminal record has been discovered gathering dust in a police headquarters

Kray was 35 when he was sent to Durham as prisoner 058110 four months after he was convicted of murdering George Cornell and Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie.

The file, which details his criminal record from the age of 17, begins: ‘Ronald Kray has been the leader of a ruthless and terrible gang for a number of years.

‘He has strong homosexual tendencies and an uncontrollable temper and has been able to generate terror not only in the lesser minions of his gang, but also in the close and trusted members.
‘He would brook no incompetence or interference from anyone and was very conscious not only of his own public image but also that of his underlings.

‘For this reason he used to like to set an example and enjoyed the name of “the Colonel” amongst his subordinates.’

It added that he was ‘extremely violent’ and ‘will not hesitate to kill in any circumstances’. The file goes on to list his occupations as club owner, labourer, dog breeder, billiard hall keeper, wardrobe dealer and soldier.

It covers his recruitment into the Royal Fusiliers at the Tower of London in 1952 and his desertion after less than five months.

He is described as ‘5ft 7.5in tall with a fresh complexion, brown eyes and dark brown hair’. A section on ‘peculiarities’ notes that his ‘eyebrows meet over nose’.

The file, from the then North Eastern Criminal Record Office, goes on to list his occupations as 'club owner, labourer, dog breeder, billiard hall keeper, wardrobe dealer and soldier'

The Krays once tried to infiltrate Newcastle’s clubland and the report confirms that they ‘visited Newcastle in 1966, thought to be on reconnaissance visits to Manchester and Tyneside’.

Ronnie Kray and Reggie (right) have a cup of tea after being questioned by detectives in 1966 about the murder of George Cornell. Three years later, Reggie was convicted of the killing

But it adds: ‘They behaved themselves and moved off.’

The twins with their elder brother Charlie

The Durham force hopes to find a suitable home for the file, possibly in a museum. The Krays were convicted of stabbing to death fellow gangster Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie and sentenced to life. He apparently owed them money.

Mother Violet

Ronnie was also convicted of shooting dead Cornell for calling him a ‘fat poof’. He was eventually sent to Broadmoor and died in 1995. Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in 2000 with terminal cancer. He died a month later.

Source : MailOnline

James Bulger's killer back where he belongs

2010-03-03T19:08:00.001+08:00

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger has said killer Jon Venables is ''where he belongs'' in her first reaction to news of his return to custody.

Venables, 27, was recalled to prison last week after breaching the terms of his release from prison, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said.

The convicted murderer, who was controversially freed under a new identity in 2001, was just 10 when he and Robert Thompson abducted and battered the two-year-old to death in a crime that shocked the world.

James's mother Denise Fergus said on her Twitter account last night: ''would like to let everyone know Jon Venables is were he belongs tonight behind bars is this my sons justice''.

Family members said Mrs Fergus remains unaware of the nature of Venables' breach. The precise details were not released by the MoJ.

An MoJ spokeswoman said: ''We can confirm that Jon Venables has been recalled to custody following a breach of licence conditions.

''Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions; if they breach those conditions they are subject to immediate recall.

''There is a worldwide injunction in place that prohibits any reporting, including reporting on the internet, that could identify him or his location.''

The detective who led the Bulger investigation said the news would have caused ''a whole load of anxiety'' for Mrs Fergus.

Two-year-old James was abducted from New Strand shopping centre in Bootle, Merseyside, and bludgeoned to death on a railway line close to his killers' homes in Walton.

Following a 17-day trial at Preston Crown Court, the pair were ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, the normal substitute sentence for life imprisonment when the offender is a juvenile.

In July 2001 Venables and his accomplice were moved to halfway houses as part of their return to society. Court injunctions however forbid the media from ever disclosing their new identities or their location or publishing contemporary photographs for fear of endangering their lives.

Thousands of pounds were spent on creating new identities for the pair, including new social security numbers, bank accounts and birth certificates.

Albert Kirby, who headed the Bulger investigation, told BBC News: ''There's always been a lot of anxiety as to where both boys are and to hear something like that brings back to her a lot of the concerns, quite understandably, that she and any other parents in these sorts of circumstances would have.''

The comments were echoed by Mrs Fergus's husband Stuart on Twitter.

He said: ''Thinking when will this all end for my wife.''

Venables and Thompson snatched James from a shopping centre and killed him on a railway line in February 1993.

The toddler's battered body was found by children playing on a freight railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre.

Both killers were given compulsory life sentences for the murder and remain on licence for the rest of their lives.

Venables will appear before a hearing of the Parole Board within 28 days of being recalled where the details of the breach will be examined.

Source : Telegraph

Father stabbed to death teenage daughter

2010-03-02T10:39:00.001+08:00

By LUKE SALKELD

A father claims he stabbed his teenage daughter to death and left her dead body in the passenger seat of his car because she wanted to die after being raped.

'Pact': Sasha Jones, 17, was stabbed to death and her body was found in the footwell of a car near Aberaeron, Wales

Gary Fisher says he entered into a 'suicide pact' with 17-year-old Sasha Jones after she was sexually assaulted.

Gary Fisher after an earlier at Swansea crown court. He claims he entered into a 'suicide pact' with his 17-year-old daughter after she was sexually assaulted

The 47-year-old killed his daughter by stabbing her repeatedly with a hunting knife and then called members of her family to confess what he had done, a court heard.

He then led police on a country car chase with Sasha's dead body in the passenger seat which ended when officers lay a 'stinger' device across a road, causing Fisher to crash.

Today prosecutors dismissed Fisher's claim that his daughter had wanted to die after suffering a sex attack, and that he acted to 'end her suffering'.

Prosecutor Chris Clee QC said Fisher had confessed to hospital staff that he had killed his daughter with the hunting knife.

He said: '[Fisher] said his daughter told him she wanted to die. He said he planned it for the last two and a half months.

'He said "I felt she was suffering and I wanted to help her to die".'

The court heard Fisher later claimed to police that his daughter had been raped - and she 'couldn't live with the thought of that'.

But Mr Clee told Swansea Crown Court: 'Sasha made no such complaint to police.'

The court heard the teenager had twice been admitted to hospital in the past after taking overdoses - but medical staff did not believe they were genuine suicide attempts.

The court heard Fisher was separated from Sasha's mother Jane Jones, who lived with her three children in Cardigan, West Wales.

Fisher, who lived in Solihull, West Midlands, had last summer argued with Sasha and called her a 'slag' after she wanted to be with her boyfriend instead of him.

It was during a visit to see his daughter in August that they drove around the local area before stopping in a pub car park where the killing took place, the court heard.

Mr Clee continued: '[Fisher] stopped the car behind the Angel Hotel in a shady area so nobody could see him.'

The court heard Fisher later told police: 'I got out of the car, took the knife, went to the passenger door and opened it.

'She was shocked to see the knife and tried to get away. But she couldn't because of the seat belt.'

Mr Clee said: 'He said he stabbed her many times and she was struggling. During the struggle, he missed her once and ended up stabbing himself in the arm.

'He said he covered her with a sleeping bag and reclined the seats.'

The court heard Fisher drove around with her bloodied body in the car but then rang his sister Susan Mabbatt to confess to killing Sasha.

But the telephone was answered by his niece Zoe Mabbatt, 16, whom he told: 'I'm really sorry but I've done something wrong.'

The court heard Zoe asked what had happened and Fisher replied: 'I don't think you want to know.'

He then rang back to tell her: 'I'm sorry but I've just killed your eldest cousin. She is lying in the car freezing.'

Police were alerted by the family and his silver Ford Fiesta was spotted near the seaside village of Aberaeron.

He refused to stop and police pursued his car. A stinger device was put in the roadway and Fisher crashed into a camper van moments later.

Mr Clee said Fisher claimed it was a 'suicide pact' between the father and daughter.

He said: 'But this wasn't in any way, shape or form a suicide pact. It is simply an attempt by him to avoid his responsibility for what he did.'

Fisher denies murder. The trial continues.

- MailOnline

Mother found stabbed to death alongside her eight-month-old baby

2010-03-01T20:03:00.000+08:00

By EMILY ANDREWS

This is the first picture of murder victim Stephanie Bellinger.

Stephanie Bellinger.

The 24-year-old mother and her eight-month-old baby were found stabbed to death in the semi-detached home they shared with Anthony Marsh, 21.

The couple's two-year-old son Charlie was also in the house at the time but was found unhurt.

Anthony Marsh

Double murder suspect Mr Marsh is on the run and police have said he is 'armed and dangerous'.

Last night, questions were being raised as to how the tragedy had been allowed to happen after it was revealed Mr Marsh had a history of depression and was on medication.

They came as his distraught mother Wendy pleaded for her eldest son to give himself up, saying it was 'pointless to run away and hide'.

Distressed: Wendy Marsh, mother of murder suspect Anthony Marsh. She pleaded for him to turn himself in to police

Mrs Marsh, 47, broke down in tears during a press conference and struggled to speak as she appealed directly to her son, who has not been seen since the attack.

But she was so distressed she was only able to utter a few words, before collapsing into the arms of a police officer.

Detective Constable John Woodward then read her impassioned statement. 'Anthony, your mum has this message: If you are watching or you read or hear this, please understand that all your family are very concerned about you,' he said.

'They are here to support you. It is pointless to run away and hide. Whatever happened, you must hand yourself in to police or phone them and tell them where you are. Please Anthony, for the sake of all your family.

Mr Marsh's younger brother Daniel, 18, also broke down in tears as Detective Chief Inspector Colin

Mathews said: 'We consider Mr Marsh to be a dangerous man who should not be approached by the public and we have reason to believe that he may be in possession of a knife.'

It is understood Miss Bellinger's parents found the bodies of their daughter and granddaughter lying side-by-side on Saturday morning.

They had gone round to the £250,000 house their daughter shared with Mr Marsh in Totton, near Southampton after she failed to answer the phone.

Neighbours reported hearing a 'terrible' domestic argument on Friday night and shouting in the street outside. Police arrived on Saturday morning after screaming was heard.

Sources last night revealed that Mr Marsh, a customs relations adviser for British Gas, had suffered with mental health issues from an early age, but had learned to cope with medication.

'Dangerous': Anthony Marsh with his son Charlie in 2008

However, it is understood he disappeared 18 months ago without his medication, money or mobile phone, sparking a nationwide hunt. He was spotted 70 miles away in Weymouth, Dorset, four days later and driven home by police.

A family friend said: ' Somewhere down the line, someone has failed because they knew he was on medication. He was on tablets, but he never took them.

'Why wasn't he given more help? He has twice run away before without taking his medication - the warning signs were there but they were ignored.'

The friend, who said Mr Marsh's father is a former detective, added: 'I just feel numb. It's such a sad thing.'

Other friends revealed the couple met when Mr Marsh started as a trainee manager at the Bartley Lodge Hotel in the New Forest, Hampshire, where Miss Bellinger worked as a duty manager.

They both left in 2007 when Miss Bellinger became pregnant with Charlie.

Marie Osmond's son committed suicide, police say

2010-03-01T10:03:00.000+08:00

(CNN) -- The death of Marie Osmond's 18-year-old son has been classified as a suicide, police said Sunday.

Marie Osmond's Web site says her eight children are "always her greatest treasures."

A family spokesman on Saturday said that Michael Blosil had died.

Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Karen Rayner told CNN she could not release further information because the death is a Los Angeles County coroner's case. The coroner's office said the case was on "security hold" and nothing further would be released Sunday.

In a statement issued Saturday through a spokesman, Osmond said: "My family and I are devastated and in deep shock by the tragic loss of our dear Michael and ask that everyone respect our privacy during this difficult time."

Osmond's Web site describes her as "the proud mother of eight beautiful children who are always her greatest treasures."

Marie Osmond and her brother Donny hosted the national television variety show "The Donny & Marie Show" from 1976 to 1981.

Afterward, she had acting and singing careers. She recently competed in a season of "Dancing With the Stars."

In 2001, she wrote "Behind the Smile," about her experience with postpartum depression.

CNN's Lynn Lamanivong contributed to this report.

Suspect of Consulate Driver Murder Case

2010-02-26T12:56:00.000+08:00

By LESTER KONG

PETALING JAYA: The wife of the businessman accused of murdering a Malaysian consulate driver has been charged with being an accessory to the crime.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Nita Eriza, 46, the wife of taxi operator Hazairin Iskandar, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon and charged at the Newtown Local Court in Sydney yesterday. She was refused bail.

Nita had been detained earlier and released pending further questioning.

Hazairin, who owned a fleet of taxis, was arrested on Tuesday and charged at the Burwood Local Court in Sydney for the murder of consulate driver Mohd Shah Saemin. He was refused bail.

The report said Nita had been a consulate employee for 10 years and was Mohd Shah’s close friend.

“Most days, they ate lunch together at the small Malaysian consulate in Bellevue Hill where they worked. Sometimes, she brought him food,” the online version of the report said yesterday.

Malaysian consul Dr Mohd Nasir Abu Hassan earlier said both Hazairin and Nita had offered to accompany Mohd Shah’s casket back to Malaysia for burial.

Mohd Shah’s body arrived at KL International Airport in Sepang at 8.50pm.

His father, 70-year-old father Saemin Mongin and other family members received the casket.

While Saemin put on a brave front, Mohd Shah’s mother Misnah Kasri, 59, broke down when she saw the hearse carrying the casket.

The body was immediately brought back to Kg Tambak Paya in Malacca.

Mohd Shah will be buried before Friday prayers today, Saemin said.

Saemin said he accepted what had happened to his second child but hoped his killers would receive “just punishment”.

“It was disturbing to hear what happened to my son. We’re still very sad. At least now he has come home,” said Saemin.

Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam visited Mohd Shah’s family yesterday afternoon and presented them with RM5,000.

Hell Comes to Bath

2010-02-23T22:29:00.001+08:00

Bath, Michigan, May 17, 1927

By Mark Gado

Andrew Kehoe's Farm

(New York Times)

The angry man marched over to the north end of his farm carrying a handsaw. As he approached the old maple trees, he dropped to his knees and began to saw through the bottom of each tree. When he severed the trunk, he carefully laid it back on the base so that any passer-by would not notice that it was cut. Next, he strolled over to a large peach tree and did the same. He propped the tree up with a few sticks so that if seen from the road or the driveway, it would appear to be in one piece. Cursing loudly, he hurried to the barn where he kept his remaining five horses. He reached up on the wall of the barn where he had hidden some bale wire. One by one, he wrapped the wire around the ankles of each horse so all the animals could do was to stand in the stall and eat from bags that hung from the creaking walls. As he alternately mumbled and swore at the nervous horses, he roughly tied each animal to the stall posts using the same wire. When they were burned alive the next day, the carcasses of these defenseless creatures were found exactly where they were bound.

"Damn bastards!" he hissed. He accidentally kicked over a bucket of feed which he then picked up and threw at the wall. "Bastards!" he screamed. The horses became nervous but they could do nothing except hop from side to side. Outside the barn, the man gathered up some old pieces from the tractor that were laying in the grass. He brought the junk into the barn and threw it into a pile on the ground. While the pathetic cries of the bound horses emanated from the stables, he went back outside and picked up the branches that fell from the trees and threw them into the same pile. He gathered up all the debris around the yard and brought it to the barn. An old, rusted bicycle that lay in back of the chicken coop, he tossed it through a barn window. "They never learn! They never learn!" he repeated over and over again. As he went behind the tool shed, he loosened his belt and then re-buckled it, pulling it as tight as he could around his waist. Outside the shed, between the chicken coop and the barn, the body of a woman, freshly killed, lay in a wheelbarrow. Her arms and legs dangled from the sides of the cart as her blood flowed down onto the grass. Her head, broken in pieces by a series of heavy blows, hung over the front of the cart, her eyes staring blanking into eternity. The man lifted the wheelbarrow and pushed it roughly. "Not sick anymore?" he said to the corpse. He carted the body of his wife behind the shed near some tall bushes so anyone who might drive by would not notice it.

After he parked the hog crate, he entered the shed and took out a two foot by one foot piece of board that he had been saving. He placed the board on a workbench and, like he had done dozens of times before, sanded one side smooth. When he finished he took a can of linseed oil from the shelf and carefully poured a tiny amount of the liquid into a rag. He then rubbed the wood gently, letting the white pine absorb the oil. Then he sanded the wood again. He repeated the process several times today, like he had on previous occasions.

Only today, it would be a little different. Next he clamped the plank flat side down onto his workbench. The scowling man reached into a sack and removed a letter stencil. It was the kind that children use in school and homework projects. The stencil contained all the letters of the alphabet, both in upper and lower case and a set of numbers from 1 to 10. He bought the stencil for five cents in a local store in Bath the week before.

Very steadily, he began to trace the letters onto the wood. Using a new pencil, which he sharpened every third letter, in order to keep the thickness of the line uniform, he drew the letters of his message on the wood.

He measured the distance between the words to ensure it was the same throughout the sign. Once he had the words inscribed on the plank, he used a one-inch brush and black paint to fill in the outline. Being extra careful not to color over the outlines, he painted all the letters. After waiting the prescribed one-hour according to directions, he repainted all the letters so none of the grain of the wood showed through. Once or twice, he thought he heard a noise outside the shed that caused him to glance out the window. He saw his wife inside the wheelbarrow, undisturbed, immobile, still dead. The man shrugged his shoulders. "It's too damn bad!" he said to no one.

A bitterness swept over him, fueled by imagined conflicts and persecutions by people he barely knew. It had long ago poisoned his soul, generating an insane anger whose dimensions knew no bounds. He cursed to himself, smugly, warmed by the knowledge that all the townspeople would soon pay for their sins against him and pay dearly. A time of reckoning was near, a day when debts would be paid and accounts would be balanced. A day when the world would be made right again and the name of Andrew Kehoe would be known by all. Images of dead children filled his brain. And he smiled.

'The World's Worst Demon'

Andrew Kehoe

(The State Journal)

His name was Andrew Kehoe. He was born in Tecumseh, Michigan on February 1, 1872, making him 55 years old in 1927. Andrew was one of thirteen children. Kehoe's parents were originally from western New York State. His mother passed away when Andrew was very young. Over time, his father re-married. But Andrew didn't get along with the stepmother and they often fought. One day, she attempted to light an oil stove in their kitchen. The stove exploded and set her afire, covered with oil. Andrew watched his stepmother burn without trying to help her. After a few minutes, he dumped a bucket of water on her and doused the flames. But the damage was done. She later died. Although Andrew was only 14 years old, neighbors speculated that Andrew had something to do with the malfunction of the stove.

He was educated at Tecumseh High School and attended Michigan State College in East Lansing where he met his future wife, Nellie Price. Later, Andrew moved out west for several years. He spent time in Missouri where he suffered a severe head injury during a fall in St. Louis in 1911. He was attending an electrical school at the time of the accident. Kehoe drifted in and out of a coma for two months. Whether or not this injury contributed to Kehoe's madness will never be known, but head injuries have been known to cause erratic behavior, even after recovery.

When Kehoe returned to Michigan, he eventually married Nellie. She came from a rather wealthy family who owned several pieces of property in Clinton township. Eventually, Andrew and Nellie bought an 185 acre farm from an uncle's estate that was located just outside the village of Bath. Andrew was a strange sort, everyone agreed. He was quick to help people but also quick to criticize when he didn't get his way. He was an intelligent man and able to articulate his points but often grew impatient of opposing points of view. Andrew was habitually neat and his sanitary habits were well known. He often changed his shirt in mid-day or whenever the slightest hint of dirt appeared on his shirt. Anyone who ever worked with him knew that if Andrew got dirty, he would immediately clean up and emerge from the washroom neat as a pin. He was meticulous in his dress and manner.

Andrew liked to tinker with machinery, especially with electricity. He was happiest when he was repairing or adjusting the workings of farm machinery. New ways of doing old chores intrigued him and he was constantly seeking improvement. But some neighbors reported that Kehoe was cruel to his farm animals and once beat a horse to death.

Over time, Kehoe gained a reputation in the town for thriftiness. That trait helped get him elected to the school board in Bath in 1926.On the board, Kehoe campaigned endlessly for lower taxes which, he claimed, were causing him financial hardship. His creditors tried to work out an agreement with Kehoe but were unsuccessful. Soon, he stopped paying his mortgage altogether. To complicate matters, his wife Nellie was chronically ill with an undiagnosed illness. She required frequent hospital stays, which depleted the family savings further. Kehoe envisioned losing his farm and plunging into debt. In his mind, he blamed higher taxes for all his financial woes. He couldn't understand the need for bigger and better schools. He saw many of the town expenditures as wasteful and ill conceived. But above all and without respite, without any valid reason or logic, he blamed the Bath Consolidated School for his troubles.

The Rage Builds

In Michigan during this era, elementary and secondary school education in rural areas followed a standard pattern for most people. There were many small, one-room schools scattered across the countryside.

Bath Consolidated School

Different grades shared the same classroom and the same teacher. There was a widespread belief that the children would receive a better and more complete education if students could attend a single school at one location. The grades could be divided into classes, as it should be, and the facility could be of a higher quality. After years of debate and dedication, the district built a new school, the Bath Consolidated School. Taxes were raised to pay for the project and as a result, landowners, like Andrew Kehoe, had to foot the bill.

Emory E. Huyck

Kehoe argued against the school and complained constantly about the increase in taxes. Although he was an intelligent man, Kehoe was intolerant of other's opinions. He was respectful toward other board members but could be a bitter enemy. He was the type of man who carried a grudge. He complained loudly to anyone who would listen about the increase in taxes that he saw as illegal and unfair. He blamed the board president, Emory E. Huyck, for his influence over the other members. He became obsessed with school board politics, Superintendent Huyck and the injustice of taxes, which he saw as the ruination of his life. Sometime during the summer of 1926, Kehoe plunged into the depths of insanity.

Kehoe's homemade firebomb

(New York Times)

During the winter of 1926, the board appointed Kehoe to perform maintenance in the Bath Consolidated School. Kehoe was a talented handyman and knew his way around electricity. He was mechanically adept and often fixed his neighbors' machinery. As the school handyman, Kehoe had free access to the building. His presence was never questioned. But unknown to anyone, Kehoe had accumulated over a ton of a high explosive called Pyrotol in his home. He made periodic purchases of the explosive in different stores in the Lansing area during the previous months. In November of 1926, Kehoe drove to Lansing where he purchased two boxes of dynamite at a sporting goods store. Pyrotol was a World War I surplus explosive that was used by farmers for excavation and other chores. Kehoe made similar purchases that were recorded and preserved. He couldn't buy the large amount that he needed at one time. It would arouse too much suspicion. So he spread out his purchases over the previous few months. And for those that did take notice, he had an explanation already prepared. He became known in the community as a dynamite farmer. It was routine to hear explosions on his farm. He told his neighbors that he used the dynamite to remove tree stumps and excavate for his crops.

By Spring of 1927, Kehoe began to transport the Pyrotol little by little into the Bath School. At home, he calculated what he needed for the day and brought just that amount. He began an extensive wiring program, connecting various charges of explosives, which were concealed in the floors and rafters of the school. Into the sub-floors and crawlspaces of the Bath Consolidated School, Kehoe inched his murderous way into to the darkness, snaking wire through the rafters and walls, hiding huge amounts of Pyrotol behind pipes and beams. Working quietly, steadily, with no rest or remorse, he managed to lay thousands of feet of wire throughout the building without being detected. Just beneath the feet of unsuspecting children, most of whom he never knew, Kehoe planted over 1,000 pounds of dynamite. Once the project was completed in early May, he set the charges and waited. As was his custom, he did everything according to a well thought out plan of action. During this time, Kehoe also wired up his homestead in the same manner. In every structure on the farm, he rigged a series of fire bombs These crude devices consisted of containers filled with gasoline and wired with automobile spark plugs attached to a car battery. Kehoe knew the device would work, because he had already tested it many times on his farm.

On May 17, he drove his pickup truck over to the front of the barn where he began to fill the back seat with all sorts of metal debris. He threw in old tools, nails, pieces of rusted farm machinery, digging shovels, anything that could make shrapnel during an explosion. When the entire back seat was full of this metal junk, Kehoe placed a large cache of dynamite behind the front seat and laid a rifle on the front seat fully loaded.

On this same day, May 17, 1927, in the early afternoon, Kehoe killed Nellie by bashing in her skull with some sort of heavy object. How he actually killed her and with what weapon, will never be known. He dumped her body into a hog cart, which is a type of wheelbarrow, and pushed it over to the rear of the hen house. She lay there, unnoticed and undisturbed, sprawled inside the cart like some rag doll. He then completed the wiring of the farm. In every building, he inserted one of his homemade firebombs. It became a vast firetrap. If everything went as planned, his property would simultaneously explode in flames and surely burn to the ground before help could arrive. The farm would be destroyed, the house, the barn, the trees, horses and chickens, even the fruit on the trees, there would be nothing for Nellie's relatives and the banks. Nothing.

The Explosions

A beautiful spring day it was on May 18, 1927 in Bath, Michigan, so very much in contrast with what was about to happen. In the morning, Kehoe made a brief trip to the town post office where he mailed a rather large package containing the finance history of the school board. Also included in the papers was a long and detailed explanation concerning a twenty-two cent discrepancy in Kehoe's own books. Such was his manner. It was an indication of his insanity that Kehoe would debate a twenty-two cent shortage when he was minutes away from committing mass murder.

At about 8:00 AM, the children began to arrive at the consolidated school for the day's classes as they had for so many other mornings. They pushed and shoved their way through the hallways, calling to each other, dropping books and pencils onto the floors, hurrying to class, thinking of ways to explain why they couldn't do their homework or pass the end terms, their minds firmly fixed on the summer vacation that loomed just ahead. They had no way of knowing that just inches beneath their feet, over 1,000 pounds of dynamite waited patiently for a tiny electric current to begin an explosive chain reaction which would change their lives forever.

The Nickols sisters

(New York Times)

At about 8:30 that morning, Mrs. Blanche Harte, a 6th grade teacher instructed her pupils in a second-floor classroom. Willa and George Hall, brother and sister sat in another class opening their books for the day's assignment. Robert Bromund, 12, sat in his fifth grade dreaming of baseball. His sister, Amelia, 11, was in Mrs. Harte's class. Robert Cochran, 9, was in the third grade and recently told his father he wanted to be a doctor. Willa Marie, 11 and her brother, George, 9, packed up their books as they prepared for the summer recess. All three of the Nickols sisters, Ruth, Ottelia and Emma were attending their final classes of the school term. Stanley Hart, 10, and his brothers and sisters, Robert, Percy, Iola and Vivian went about their duties in different classrooms. Miss Eva Gubbins, another 6th grade teacher was just sitting down to grade student papers. And Cleo Clayton, 8 years old, gazed out a first floor window, into the fields of grass and meadows where he played many times before, oblivious to a particularly cruel fate to which he would soon be victim.

Meanwhile, about two miles from the school, Kehoe had completed final preparations on his farm. At approximately 8:45 AM, he detonated the firebombs at his home. The entire place exploded into flames, sending debris far into the sky, some of which eventually landed on a farm across the road. The neighbors, hearing the explosion, ran to Kehoe's farm to render assistance. As they sprinted down his driveway, Kehoe was already behind the wheel of his pickup truck. "Boys," he said," you are my friends. You better get out of here. You better go down to the school." Within minutes, the Kehoe farm was fully engulfed in flames. Neighbors, not knowing what had actually happened, rushed to the scene to help. As Kehoe quickly drove away, another tremendous explosion, much bigger than the first, occurred in the distance. The sound was heard for at least ten miles. The Bath Consolidated School had been blown up. O.H. Buck, who responded to the Kehoe farm to render aid, heard the massive explosion at the school. "I began to feel as though the world was coming to an end," he later told reporters. In Lansing and East Lansing, the police and fire departments were notified immediately.

Bath School bombed

Before the dust from the school explosion had even hit the ground, townspeople were digging through the rubble. M.J. Ellsworth, Kehoe's next door neighbor, was one of the first rescuers to arrive: "we could hear the children screaming and moaning at the school. It seemed as if our car would hardly run. It was a ride that none of us will ever forget" (Ellsworth, p.6). When they arrived at the school, they were stunned by what they saw. Fully half the building, the northwest wing, was gone. The walls were destroyed and the roof lay on the ground. Under it, the bodies of children lay. Little arms and legs stuck out from the ruins. Faces, covered with blood and dust, peered through broken windows and debris. Miss Sterling, a teacher on the second floor, told the press: "Without warning this terrible explosion came. I saw the bodies of my children hurled against the walls or through the windows" (N.Y. Times, May 19, 1927). Frantic mothers ran screaming to the scene for almost every adult in town had at least one child enrolled at the school. The sobbing of trapped children could be heard as some mothers fought with rescuers to pull their children out from the wreckage. The magnitude of the blast was enormous; those who came to the school imagined and expected the worst. Men worked feverishly digging into the mountain of rubble where little children were screaming in terror.

Less than 30 minutes after the school explosion, Kehoe pulled up in his pickup truck. No one knew that he had loaded the back of his vehicle with dynamite and pieces of metal junk. He got out of his car and saw School Superintendent Emory Huyck in the distance. Kehoe called him over to his car. As he approached, Kehoe pulled a rifle from the front seat, aimed at the dynamite and fired. Another powerful explosion rocked the helpless village. A huge column of flame erupted into the sky and sideways down the street. Shrapnel shot out in all directions, through the trees, windows and homes striking down everything in its path. Emory Huyck and Postmaster Glen Smith were killed. Kehoe was almost obliterated. As Glen Smith lay dying on the ground, he told rescuers: "Leave me, boys, and run, these trees are full of it" (Ellsworth, p. 10). A few minutes later, he died in his wife's arms. And student Cleo Clayton, 8 years old, still dazed from the first blast and walking along the street a hundred yards away, was struck in the stomach by a large bolt from Kehoe's shrapnel. He died some hours later, twice a victim of Kehoe's madness.

The people working at the school were in a full panic. No one understood what had happened. Many imagined they were under some sort of military attack. Rumors swept through the crowd about more explosions to come. In the distance, Kehoe's farm continued to burn, sending pillars of thick black smoke hundreds of feet into the air. Periodic explosions could still be heard from the farm as Kehoe's stash of Pyrotol continued to detonate. In the village, rows of parked cars, as well as many of the trees along the road to the school, were on fire from the original blast. Pieces of bodies were strewn in the bushes and trees and many relatives of the children had fainted or became hysterical. Three of the Hart children, Iola, Vivian and Percy, were found dead in the rubble. So were Willa and George Hall, Robert and Amelia Bromund, and several dozen others. Over a hundred people were injured and more were being uncovered by the minute.

Very shortly after Kehoe's truck explosion, the Lansing Fire and Police Departments arrived from the city. The State Police came upon the scene and the Department of Public Safety also sent their people. But nothing could have prepared the police for what they saw. Wrecked and burning cars, downed trees, a collapsed building containing screaming children, fires everywhere. It resembled some battle scene from a world war. Near the school was "the front end of a Ford with parts of a human body hanging on it. Truck parts were found 125 feet in one direction from the machine and thirty feet in another. Flesh dangled from overhanging telephone wires...People were frantic, trying to dig the children out from beneath the ruins with bare hands" (Parker, p. 126).

A short distance away from where Kehoe's pick-up exploded, Mrs. Frank Smith stood in front of her home watching in horror the events that unfolded before her eyes. In the corner of her garden, amidst the flowers and grass she meticulously cared for, she noticed a crumpled mass of clothing. As she investigated, she saw that it was a large part of a human body, bloody and mangled almost beyond recognition. From a rear pocket of the clothing, she saw some papers and carefully removed them. When Mrs. Smith read the papers, she saw that part of it was a bankbook from the Lilley State Bank of Tecumseh belonging to Andrew Kehoe. The other part was Kehoe's Michigan driver's license. Mrs. Smith ran over to the local Sheriff who was directing rescue efforts at the school. The sheriff brought some of Kehoe's neighbors who viewed the human remains in Mrs. Smith's garden and a positive identification was made. Andrew Kehoe had been found.

The 504 pounds of dynamite

(New York Times)

Back at the school, hundreds of rescuers were working the ruins. As they searched through the rubble, desperate to find signs of life, a chilling discovery was made. The State Police emerged from the basement of the school with a bushel of fresh dynamite and informed the crowd there were more explosives in the building. Minutes later police located a battery and clock. All rescue efforts came to a sudden halt. Working frantically in the twisted steel and concrete, not knowing if they would be blown to hell the next second, with a courage that speaks volumes of such men, police carefully dismantled the remainder of Kehoe's handiwork. Someone asked these men why they risked their lives, one of the cops replied "That is our duty" (Ellsworth, p.12). They removed a total of 504 pounds of dynamite, along with wires and detonating devices. The Pyrotol was divided up into eight different bombs, hidden in various spots on the south end of the school. Police theorized the first blast caused some type of a short circuit and caused a malfunction of the bomb. If this additional dynamite had gone off, the school would have been demolished and the death toll would surely have been in the hundreds.

Slowly, the bodies of the innocent victims were brought out from the ruins. They were placed in neat rows on the grass by the school where they were hastily covered up. Then one by one, the corpses were transported to City Hall, which acted as a temporary morgue. Dazed parents, wracked by grief and shock, were brought in to identify the remains of the children, some of who were horribly mangled. A short distance away, Mrs. Eugene Hart sat in the street, with her two little dead girls, one in each arm and her son, Percy, lying dead in her lap. "There were sights that I hope no one will ever have to look at again," said M. J. Ellsworth.

Bath Cries

The following day, Nellie Price Kehoe was found on what remained of the Kehoe farm. Her body was burned almost beyond recognition. Her left arm was broken off and her right leg was missing. Of the cart in which she lay, only the axle and wheels were left. Near the cart, workers found various items of jewelry and valuables strewn about.

Kehoe's final words

(New York Times)

All the buildings on the farm were destroyed. The horses that Kehoe had tied up were dead as well as all the other farm animals that he trapped inside the barn. As rescuers searched the property for clues to the devastation, they found the enigmatic wooden sign that Kehoe had wired up to the fence, the sign that he had worked on with his usual obsessive attention, a short message which he imagined could explain his wretched madness to the world, his final words to the families of the dead, as if this sentence could explain it all. The sign read: "CRIMINALS ARE MADE, NOT BORN." A total of 38 children were killed, 7 teachers died and 61 others were severely injured. It was the worst school violence in our nation's history.

(New York Times)

Across the world, newspaper headlines announced the shocking tragedy in the village with the unlikely name of Bath. The story competed for page one space with the Charles Lindbergh flight and massive floods on the Mississippi River. The New York Times story of May 19 read "MANIAC BLOWS UP SCHOOL, KILLS 42, MOSTLY CHILDREN." The press struggled to find reasons for Kehoe's bombing rampage, but of course, there were none. In the wake of such a tragedy, there is never an acceptable explanation. The Bath community was devastated. Its loss could not be measured in simple numbers. No one in the village escaped harm. Virtually everyone had lost a relative, friend, classmate, teacher. In addition to the human casualties, Bath faced a financial catastrophe. A new school would have to be built by a town that had already sacrificed a great deal to build the first one. The future looked bleak.
Over the next few days, an endless wave of funerals took place in the Bath community. Eighteen funerals alone were held on Saturday, May 22. On Sunday, the very same day that Charles Lindbergh completed his historic flight to Paris, the last of the funerals were held. People from surrounding states descended upon Bath by the thousands. Over 100,000 cars passed through Bath that day, a staggering amount of traffic for such a small town. Some of the citizens of Bath saw this armada of cars as an intrusion into their private grief. Newspaper reporters of the time commented on these thousands of people milling about the town describing them as heartless curiosity seekers. But most people accepted it as a show of sympathy and support from surrounding communities.

A coroner's inquest was held the following week. Responsibility for the blast had to be formally assessed and although no one had any doubt as to the outcome of the proceedings, everyone knew it was a legal necessity. After several days of emotional testimony by dozens of Bath citizens and law enforcement personnel, a decision was announced. The inquest found that Superintendent Emory Huyck was murdered by Andrew Kehoe on the morning of May 18, 1927. It was also announced that the Bath Consolidated School was blown up by Kehoe's deliberate plan and he, in fact, murdered 45 people, including his wife Nellie. A judgment of suicide was decided as the cause of Andrew Kehoe's death. His remains were taken to another community, unspecified, where he was buried in an unmarked grave, alone, isolated, just as he was in life.

What of Bath?

Today, seven decades after the event and worlds away from rural 1927 Michigan, the village of Bath still remembers the awful tragedy that nearly destroyed their community. A museum commemorating the history of the Bath school is located nearby. Gene Wilkins, the town historian who has dedicated his life to memorializing the bombing catastrophe, said recently: "people of that era had great faith and that is what got them through at that time. If you carry hate for over 70 years, it would have consumed you. We hope their memories live on forever." Citizens from the Bath community have donated many items and memorabilia from the tragedy. An American flag that flew over the school on May 18, 1927, was returned to the museum in 1977 by a firefighter who was at the bombing scene.

The Girl With A Cat

A statue titled "Girl With a Cat," completed in 1928 by artist Carlton W. Angell, stands inside the museum, a testament to the courage and determination of the people from Bath. The work was financed by penny donations from young students from the state of Michigan. It was rumored for years, and still believed by many, that those pennies were melted down to make the cast for the statue. Whether it is true or not, remains a mystery.

The Bath Consolidated School has long since been torn down. Another school was built in its place and that school was eventually torn down also. A small park has been built where the original school once stood. Inside the park, a bronze memorial plaque contains the names of all the children killed on that terrible day. And although their parents survived, they too were victims of the bombing, for life has never been the same since. But it hasn't been easy. The murder of children is never an easy thing. Some people moved away from Bath in the years after the tragedy, probably as much to escape from their own memories as anything else. The episode had a numbing effect on the community that, in a sense, still remains deeply embedded in the subconscious of successive generations. To many people, Bath is still remembered as the place where a bloody school massacre occurred on a glorious spring day. A day when one man's strange obsession was transformed into hate and hate transformed into murder. A day when the world went wrong and death fell upon the innocent. A day when Hell came to Bath.

Bibliography

Ellsworth, M.J. The Bath School Disaster. Bath, MI: The Bath School Museum, 1927
Parker, Grant. Mayday. Perry, MI: Parker Press, 1980

Contemporary issues of The New York Times

Killing of street kids puts spotlight on vulnerable youth

2010-02-22T23:19:00.000+08:00

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- "I feel a deep sense of regret, I couldn't protect my own child," Nur Hamida said. "He had to go out on the street to work."

As she speaks, she cradles her youngest child, rocking slowly back and forth. She used to have another son, 9-year-old Ardiansyah. He sang in the streets for money, like many impoverished children.

There are an estimated 12,000 children living on the streets of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

One day in January, Ardiansyah's 5-year-old brother came back home without him. A few hours later, Hamida heard horrifying news about a mutilated child: Authorities were trying to locate the head.

She instantly knew something was wrong with Ardiansyah.

"I asked some guy on the street if he knows how old this mutilated kid was. I was crying when I asked the question," she said.

Hamida became frantic.

"I started looking around under the bridge trying to find the head of this child," she said. "I told my husband, this mutilated kid is our son. I didn't know for sure, but my heart was just telling me that it was my son. I kept saying 'where's the head, where's the head' as I search through the grass."

The investigation led the police to a middle-aged cigarette vendor -- Baikuni. Police say he confessed to everything.

"He had asked Ardiansyah to have sex with him," said police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar. "When Ardiansyah refused, he got angry and strangled him. He sodomized Ardiansyah after he killed him."

Ardiansyah was not the only victim. Authorities say he confessed to raping and murdering at least 14 boys dating back to 1995. Baikuni's lawyer said he will not contest the charges.

Baikuni was no stranger to the community or his victims. He was nicknamed "Babe" -- which means father -- and was known for his kindness toward street children. He would regularly bring them in off the streets, provide them a comfortable place to sleep and eat.

No one suspected that this fatherly figure would be the same man police say was a serial rapist and murderer.

This case has shocked the Indonesian capital because serial killings, especially those involving children, are rare. But it has catapulted the plight of the estimated 12,000 street kids in Jakarta into public view.

"Ninety percent of the time the reason these kids end up on the street is the parents' financial condition," said Agusman, who owns a shelter for street children. "Rarely do we find parents intentionally sending their kids to the street. They have no other choice but to have their kids fend for themselves."

At Agusman's shelter, a group of boys jams on a drum set and a couple of old guitars. They are some of Ardiansyah's friends, all sharing in the dream of becoming famous rock stars.

All the boys spent time at Baikuni's house.

"It was always nice to stay at his house" one of the boys said. "I met a lot of my friends there."

He said Baikuni would bathe them, but like a father. He said Baikuni never molested him, but he was approached by numerous others on the street.

The boys at the shelter say they were shocked and terrified when they found out what happened to Ardiansyah.

Agusman said the problem is that Indonesian street children are especially vulnerable since there are no laws to protect them. Someone like Baikuni can set up a make shift shelter and not be questioned by the community or the police.

"We don't want to ban people from trying to go good," he said. "But the government needs to set some sort of a regulation for this kind of activity."

He also said the many poor families couldn't focus on their children or give them enough love and attention.

Ardiansyah, for example, was one of six children, living crammed in a single room. The family was struggling to survive. His mother said she trusted Baikuni, that he was like a brother to her.

"I have so many kids, I was happy to have someone there to help and care for one of my kids," she said. "I never suspected that he would do anything bad. My son was not the only kid who stayed at his house. I just told him to keep my son safe."

- By Arwa Damon, CNN

M’sian consulate driver murdered in Sydney

2010-02-22T11:01:00.000+08:00

MELBOURNE: A Malaysian Consulate driver was stabbed and bashed with a hammer in Sydney last night.

Road rage is a possible motive for the vicious murder of the 43-year-old Malay who had become an Australian citizen and had lived in Sydney for about three years.

As he arrived at his home in Marion Street in Sydney's inner western suburb of Leichhardt just after midnight Monday, witnesses saw two men chase the victim across the road.

"We do believe that there may have been a traffic accident ... shortly before the attack occurred," acting Superintendent Shayne Woolbank is quoted by The Daily Telegraph as telling reporters at the scene this morning.

Asked if road rage was a motive for the attack, Supt Woolbank said: "It is one of the possibilities".

The attackers were last seen fleeing the scene in a black sedan.

Emergency crews were called to help the man, who died despite the efforts of police officers who performed CPR.

"At this stage, we believe he had sustained some stab wounds and also some bruising and contusions," Supt Woolbank said.

Police confirmed that a hammer might have been used in the attack. "It was a very ferocious attack, there is no doubt about that," Supt Woolbank said.

Dr Mohd Nasir Abu Hassan, director of the Malaysian Students Department in Australia, described the man as a "very dear colleague" who was unlikely to get involved in fights.

The victim's name has yet to be released. - Bernama

Trial starts in Argentina's 'robbery of the century'

2010-02-21T23:24:00.001+08:00

(CNN) -- About 600 witnesses are expected to testify in a trial that started Monday for a bank heist some call Argentina's "robbery of the century."

A policeman carries pizza that robbers ordered during the January 2006 bank heist in Acassuso, Argentina.

Four suspects are on trial in connection with the January 13, 2006, robbery of the Banco Rio in Acassuso, where robbers took hostages, stole $8 million in valuables and cash and escaped in a boat despite being surrounded by 200 police, said Telam, the government's official news agency.

During the robbery, Telam said, robbers ordered pizza and soft drinks for the hostages, sang happy birthday to a female lawyer and left behind toy guns.

The robbers also left a whimsical note saying they stole just "money, not love," Telam said.
The trial is expected to last three months, the news agency said.

The government's Judicial Information Center said the four suspects are Ruben de la Torre, 56, Sebastian Garcia Bolster, 40, Julian Zalloecheverria, 51, and Fernando Araujo, 41.

Witnesses will include bank officials and employees, hostages, police, crime technicians and experts, the Judicial Information Center said.

The suspects have pleaded innocent to charges of aggravated robbery with firearms, which carries a sentence of three to 10 years in prison, Telam said.

A judge found insufficient evidence for a fifth suspect, Mario Luis Vitette Sellanes, who is being tried in connection with a lesser robbery, Telam said.

Robbers took jewelry and precious stones and metals from safety deposit boxes and then forced the bank's manager and head teller to open the main vault, and stole Argentine pesos and U.S. dollars, officials said.

By the time authorities broke into the building, the robbers had vanished. A piece of furniture covered a tunnel opening that the two robbers inside the bank had used to get to an underground sewage system, where an accomplice waited for them in a boat, Telam said. The robbers paddled to a nearby truck, where another accomplice was waiting, officials said.

The wife of one of the suspects told police her husband had talked about the robbery, which he allegedly planned with men he met in prison, Telam said.

Judges are expected to see more than 200 pieces of evidence, including bank blueprints, photographs, closed-circuit videotapes and taped telephone conversations.

Acassuso is a suburb of Buenos Aires, the nation's capital.

Servant is found battered to death in London hotel

2010-02-17T06:50:00.001+08:00

The atrium in the exclusive Landmark hotel where the man's body was found

A member of the Saudi royal family is being quizzed by police on suspicion of murder tonight after one of his servants was found battered to death at a top London hotel.

Police were called to the five-star Landmark Hotel in Marylebone after a 32-year-old man was battered to death in one of the hotel's luxury suites.

The victim, a Saudi Arabian man believed to be part of the royal's entourage, suffered severe head injuries in the attack.

Tonight detectives were quizzing a wealthy man in his 30s who told them he was a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family.

It is thought that the unnamed royal had not claimed diplomatic immunity following his arrest on Monday evening.

Paramedics were called to a third floor room of the hotel at 4.45pm on Monday, but they found the man was already dead.

Police were awaiting the results of a postmortem examination held earlier today before releasing further details.

Tonight a section of the hotel's third floor was screened off from view of guests as police photographed the scene.

The death has shocked staff and guests at the prestigious hotel which is popular with celebrities.

Rooms at the grade two listed Landmark hotel, built in 1899, cost from £400 a night, whilst the presidential suite commands up to £2,400 a night.

Oasis star Liam Gallagher and his wife Nicole Appleton held their wedding reception there after a civil ceremony at Westminster Register Office on Valentine's Day in 2008.

Guests included Nicole's sister Natalie, both former members of the group All Saints, and her husband Liam Howlett, of The Prodigy.

Among the most popular attractions at the Landmark are its beauty salon, pool and jacuzzi where Justin Timberlake, TV presenter Myleene Klass, Formula One former world champion Lewis Hamilton, his Pussycat Doll partner Nicole Scherzinger and Lady GaGa have all been pampered.

In 2007 Michelle Obama held a fundraising event at the hotel to boost her husband's chances of getting in the White House, charging guests up to £1,150 for the privilege of meeting the future First Lady.

Today the hotel's general manager Francis Green issued a statement offering his condolences over the death.

He said: 'Unfortunately, the Landmark Hotel can confirm the death of a guest on Monday who was staying at the hotel.

'Police were informed immediately and have launched an investigation surrounding this incident and we are co-operating fully with them and are therefore unable to comment further.

'This is an isolated incident and our thoughts are with the relatives of the deceased.'

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said:'The death is being treated as suspicious and is being investigated by officers from the Met Police's Homicide and Serious Crime Command.

'Officers believe they know the identity of the deceased, who is from Saudi Arabia, but await formal identification before releasing his name.

'Inquiries to trace his next of kin are under way.

'It is believed the victim had suffered head injuries and officers await the results of a post mortem.'

The Saudi Arabian Ambassador to London was unavailable for comment tonight

Teenage fire killers jailed for 12 years each

2010-02-15T20:48:00.001+08:00

Two teenage boys have each been jailed for 12 years after admitting killing a mother who died while trying to rescue her children from a house fire.

Stephen Muir was 15 when he and a 13-year-old accomplice set fire to Angela Brown's home while she and three children slept.

Miss Brown immediately tried to rescue the children after being woken by a smoke alarm but was overcome by the blaze and later died of smoke inhalation.

Muir, now aged 16, and his co-accused, now aged 15, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were originally charged with Miss Brown's murder.

They instead pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide and admitted wilfully setting fire to the Ayrshire property and endangering the lives of three children.

Sentencing them at the High Court in Glasgow, Judge Bill Dunlop told them that they would not even be as old as Miss Brown when they are released from custody.

He said: “Even a child understands the destructive force of fire. Your sole purpose that night was destruction and the tragedy is that you gave no thought whatsoever to the fact that that destruction might involve the lives of the people you must have known were in this property.

“I have to take into account all that has been said on your behalf and I know that you will have to live with the knowledge that you destroyed a family.”

Speaking outside court, George Armstrong, Miss Brown's fiancé, said the family can now “start to pick up the pieces of our lives.”

“I just hope that they wake up everyday thinking about what they did. Angela went back in to try and save the kids’ lives and she lost her life,” he said.

The court had previously heard how Miss Brown had been asleep with one girl and two boys when the thugs broke in to their home in Culzean Place, Kilwinning, at about 6am on September 28, 2008.

The youths had been roaming the streets of the town with a third teenager and, once within the property, Muir set fire to a cushion and the 15-year-old an internal stairwell.

Miss Brown was woken by the smoke alarm and managed to rescue a three-year-old girl. She then ran back inside through thick smoke to save the two boys, aged 12, and six.

Firemen discovered her and the boys inside the house and carried them outside. She had suffered a cardiac arrest and had burns to 30 per cent of her body, including her face and arms.

She was taken to hospital but pronounced dead later that morning.

The court heard that Muir, of Irvine, Ayrshire, and the 15-year-old later boasted to friends that they had been involved in setting the fire. When they were arrested, each boy blamed the other for starting the blaze.

Brian McConnachie QC, defending Muir, told the court that his client asked him to express his “regret and remorse” at his involvement in the incident.

Graham Robertson, representing the other teenager, said his client was aware of the consequences of his actions and often “teared up” when speaking about the incident.

Source : Telegraph - Simon Johnson

First picture: The autistic boy 'killed after being forced to drink bleach by his mother'

2010-02-12T12:24:00.001+08:00

This is the 12-year-old boy allegedly killed by his mother after he was forced to drink bleach.

Satpal Mahal-Singh is said to have killed Ajit, who suffered from autism, after she became unable to cope with him.

Social workers had been discussing taking the youngster away from her.

Killed: Ajit Singh, 12, who died after ingesting bleach. His mother is now in custody

Mrs Majal-Singh was arrested on suspicion of murder on Tuesday night after she called the emergency services to her home in Barking, Essex.

She had allegedly given Ajit the bleach before drinking some herself and dialling 999.

The boy's brother, aged 11, was found un-harmed at the property and is being looked after by social services.

The Metropolitan Police child abuse major investigation team is now examining whether the child should have been taken into care sooner.

Social services confirmed that they and other child protection agencies had been involved with the family for several years.

Crime scene: Police were called to Mrs Mahal-Singh's house in Barking, Essex

Neighbour Steve Woodhead, 59, told the London Evening Standard: 'Social services have failed that family. How they could leave those kids in her care is completely beyond me. She kept them in the house most of the time.'

Mr Woodhead said he and his wife Pauline, 47, a health care assistant, had told social services and police that they feared for the children.

The Met is examining its handling of the case but sources said that while officers had been called to the house in the past it was more to do with domestic disputes involving the parents than the children.

Mrs Majal-Singh is understood to have moved into the council-owned property around seven years ago. She separated from her husband two years ago. He is now thought to live in France.

The Met said: 'A post mortem examination gave a preliminary cause of death as ingestion of a caustic liquid. We await the results of further tests.'

Barking and Dagenham Council said: 'This is a tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the family. A number of agencies have had involvement with them over several years, including the police, the NHS, and other local authorities.

'We are leading a serious case review as required by the Government to look into all details of this tragedy. A police inquiry is also currently under way.'

The case comes a month after Doncaster social services was criticised for not intervening in the family of two brothers who tortured two other young boys in an isolated spot in Edlington.

Japanese murder exposes world of hired marriage wreckers

2010-02-11T18:54:00.003+08:00

He was charming and single, she was bored and stuck in a sterile marriage, and their encounter in the aisles of a local supermarket seemed like a chance for them to change their lives for the better.

But the affair ended in betrayal, recrimination and death after a sequence of events as lurid as the plot of a pulp novel.

A "love hotel": Rie Isohata was photographed entering one with Takashi Kuwabara to provide grounds for divorce

Prosecutors in Tokyo called yesterday for a 17-year sentence for Takeshi Kuwabara for murdering his lover, Rie Isohata, last year.

But the most extraordinary thing about the case was not the killing — by strangulation, after a bitter argument last April — but the circumstances in which the couple met.

Although Kuwabara inadvertently fell in love with Mrs Isohata, he had been paid to track her down and seduce her as a professional wakaresaseya — or “splitter upper” — hired by her husband to provide him with grounds for a divorce.

The case is raising questions about the ethics and legality of “splitter uppers” — shady, but seemingly widespread operatives to whom a surprising number of Japanese turn.

As Mrs Isohata’s father said during the trial: “I can never forgive a business that toys with the emotions of human beings.”

Wakaresaseya perform a variety of functions, but all of them arise from the Japanese dislike of direct confrontation. Rather than pleading with him face to face, a woman whose husband is having an affair may hire a splitter-upper to seduce his mistress away from him. Parents may engage their services to prise off the unsuitable lover of a son or daughter. Dozens of wakaresaseya companies advertise on the internet, under names such as Lady’s Secret Service and Office Shadow. They employ models, actors and personable people of different backgrounds first to trail and then to seduce their quarry. The classic wakaresaseya operation was the one commissioned by Mrs Isohata’s husband.

Kuwabara approached the 32-year-old mother in a supermarket in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo, in the guise of a chatty stranger, and asked her if she could recommend a place that sold good cheesecake.

Before long they were lovers. He used the false identity “Hajime” and made no mention of his own wife and children. By arrangement, a colleague photographed them covertly as they entered a “love hotel” where rooms are rented by the hour — and Mrs Isohata’s husband used this as evidence to divorce her in November 2007. By this time, however, she and Kuwabara were in love.

But when the truth came out in April 2009 the couple had a furious row and she announced that she was leaving him. It ended with her being strangled with a piece of household string. Kuwabara surrendered to the police that same night. “At the beginning, I thought of it as just a job,” he told the court. “But I came to really love her. I told lie after lie out of fear that she would hate me. I was driven into a corner. I still love her.”

Mrs Isohata’s father told reporters: “For the rest of my life, I will never forgive the defendant, or my daughter’s ex-husband who hired him, or the wakaresaseya business itself.

“This has devastated not just my daughter’s life, but those of my grandchildren and me.”

Parting shots

Wakaresaseya (pronounced Wack-Array-Sass-Sayer) are private detectives who bring to an end relationships of all kinds

As well as breaking up couples, entrapping someone into an affair can be useful to an employer who wants to secure the “resignation” of an employee or a businessman seeking “favourable terms”

Five years ago there were about a dozen companies, but there are now many more on the internet. The industry relies upon the power of shame and is unregulated

Cost is a question of time and complexity. An initial consultation might be Y10,000 (£71), but the average case takes three months and costs can easily mount

The wakaresaseya say that men are the easiest targets. “They never seem to smell a rat when, despite the fact they’re middle-aged, a beautiful young woman falls for them,” one said

Source: Times database

A young mother was hacked to death with a kitchen knife in front of her terrified children in a chilling

2010-02-09T16:31:00.004+08:00

A young mother was hacked to death with a kitchen knife in front of her terrified children in a chilling copy of her mother's own killing 14 years earlier.

Shop worker Claire Marshall, 35, was repeatedly stabbed by her ex-partner Benjamin Cooper, also 35, in an attack 'of the utmost savagery'.

She was preparing to leave home for her shift at the local off licence in Millom, Cumbria, when she was brutally attacked last January, a court was told.

Claire Marshall, 35, was repeatedly stabbed by her ex-partner Benjamin Cooper, also 35, in an attack 'of the utmost savagery'

Cooper later tried to kill his step-father. When asked what he had done to Miss Marshall he boasted: 'I have been doing a bit of butchery.'

Fourteen years earlier Miss Marshall's mother Marjorie, 50, was stabbed 30 times and left to die at the family home in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.

She was attacked with a kitchen knife by her adopted son and Miss Marshall's brother, John, because of her alleged 'nagging'.

Miss Marshall, who was 21 at the time, later watched her brother plead guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Today, in almost identical circumstances, her killer also pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Cooper also admitted the attempted murder of his step father Gerald Fern, 64, minutes after he left Claire dying in a pool of blood.

Howard Bentham QC, prosecuting, told Manchester Crown Court that Miss Marshall and Cooper split up a year before the killing.

They remained in touch and Cooper was allowed access to the couple's three year old daughter, Hannah.

Miss Marshall, who also had daughters aged 15 and eight from an earlier relationship, was getting Hannah ready for an access visit when Cooper launched his attack.

Miss Marshall's 15 year old daughter, who cannot be named for legal reason, later told police: 'He was looking at my Mum dead weird. He was scary.

'Then he jumped my Mum and started hitting her and hitting her.

'Then he got his penknife out and started to cut her throat. It is all a blur. He went into the kitchen to grab a knife. I tried to stop him and reason with him but he just pushed me away.'

Mr Bentham told the court that Cooper, who had a history of drug abuse, was suffering from delusions and believed that Miss Marshall was intending to kill him.

Pathologist John Rogers said that the attack was so savage 'that I can think of no other reason than the attacker was trying to cut Claire's head off'.

Miss Marshall's brother, John, who is now 33, was put on three years' probation and walked free from court.

After the case he worked as a part-time waiter and resumed his Alevel studies in the hope of going to university.

Outside court Miss Marshall's father Jim, 68, refused to discuss the similarities of both killings.

He said: 'I known there has been publicity but John has served his sentence and he is still suffering.

'He lost his best friend that day. All I can say is that the family miss Claire terribly.

'We miss her smile and of course the three children miss her Mum. It has been a terrible tragedy.'

Mr Justice Nicol will sentence Cooper on Wednesday.

Body found in plane's landing gear bay in Japan

2010-02-09T00:42:00.004+08:00

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- A body was found in the landing gear bay of an airplane that arrived at Tokyo's Narita Airport Sunday, the airport announced.

A mechanic found the body of a man in the landing gear bay of this Boeing 777 that landed in Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday.

The dead man was not carrying a passport or personal belongings, airport police said.

The man was of dark complexion and dressed in blue jeans and a red and dark blue long-sleeved shirt, police told CNN.

Police said he possibly froze to death and suffered a shortage of oxygen at high altitude, but did not provide a definite cause of death pending an autopsy.

A mechanic found the body in the landing gear bay, which was impossible to enter from the cabin, the airport said.

The Boeing 777, Delta Flight 59, which departed New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at 12:53 p.m. ET Saturday arrived at Narita at 4:46 p.m. local time Sunday, the airport said.

"Delta is fully co-operating with the Japanese authorities, and there is (an) on-going investigation which is being led by the Japanese authorities. The airline has not issued an official statement at this time," a Delta representative told CNN.

CNN's Junko Ogura and Ayesha Durgahee contributed to this report.

Couple held over death of son

2010-02-07T16:05:00.000+08:00

PETALING JAYA: Police have arrested a man and his teenage wife in connection with the sodomy and murder of their son in Sungai Buloh.

The couple, aged 33 and 19, were picked up at a Muslim cemetery on Monday during the funeral of the five-month-old child. They have been remanded until next Friday.

Initial police investigations have revealed that the infant was physically abused and sodomised before his death.

Petaling Jaya police chief Asst Comm Arjunaidi Mohamed said yesterday the teenager lodged a report over the death of their only child on Monday. — Bernama

Teen’s midnight date turns into gang-rape

2010-02-07T15:54:00.000+08:00

MIRI: A 19-year-old school leaver planned a romantic midnight date with her new boyfriend at the historic monument where Malaysia’s first oil well is located but it turned into a nightmare – she was gang-raped by the boyfriend and two others.

She was coaxed into a heavy drinking session at the secluded Grand Old Lady monument on Canada Hill before her boyfriend and two security guards raped her in the wee hours of Thursday.

The victim, who had just started working in a private firm, lodged a police report at the Miri Central Police Station.

According to her report, her boyfriend had taken her up the 100m-high Canada Hill overlooking the city centre on the pretext of visiting the Grand Old Lady – the name given to the remains of Malaysia’s first oil well.

The area surrounding the monument is dark and isolated. There is a petroleum museum next to the oil well.

The girl said her boyfriend then coaxed her into drinking some alcohol with him at the foot of the monument.

The drinking session went beyond 3am and she became intoxicated.

She claimed her boyfriend then raped her, adding that two men in security guard uniforms who knew her boyfriend also took turns to rape her.

After the assault, she said her boyfriend took her to the foot of the hill and dumped her by the roadside. She managed to seek help from passers-by and then lodged a police report.

Miri Police Chief Asst Comm Jamaluddin Ibrahim confirmed that police had arrested the boyfriend and the two security guards.

Socialite's 8-year-old son found dead in NY luxury hotel

2010-02-06T16:01:00.002+08:00

An 8-year-old boy was found dead on Friday and his socialite mother was near death in a room at a luxury hotel New York, authorities said.

telegraph.co.uk

Police said that they were investigating the death at the five-star Peninsula Hotel just off Fifth Avenue as a possible murder and attempted suicide, and that prescription drugs were probably involved.

Police first came to a Donald Trump-owned apartment complex near Central Park around noon on Friday after a relative from Belgium called police and said the 49-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, had e-mailed her saying she intended to kill her son and herself, police said.

Police first went to the apartment complex and then to the Peninsula, a Beaux Arts building with a rooftop pool whose clientele includes celebrity guests.

The boy was found in bed and the mother on the floor next to him, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official wasn't authorized to publicly disclose details of the probe and insisted on anonymity.

The woman was hospitalised in stable condition, police said.

Hotel security guards allowed only guests to enter the hotel while police investigated the crime scene on the 16th floor.

Jackson Doctor 'To Be Charged On Monday'

2010-02-06T07:35:00.003+08:00

Michael Jackson's personal doctor will be charged in connection with the star's death on Monday, the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has announced.

Lawyers for Doctor Conrad Murray had said they were planning to hold a news conference - although showbiz website TMZ.com said they had "pulled the plug" on the conference in the wake of the latest announcement.

The DAO office released a statement saying charges against Dr Murray will be filed in court on Monday, followed by an arraignment hearing.

The statement did not outline what charges the physician will face.

The announcement follows days of speculation about the possibility of criminal charges being brought against the singer's doctor.

According to earlier reports, Houston-based Dr Murray had been expected to surrender into custody before a court hearing.

But charges have been delayed amid reports of a disagreement between prosecutors and the LA police department over his surrender.

The District Attorney's Office apparently wanted the doctor to appear in court without handcuffs or shackles - a plan police were reportedly opposed to.

The LAPD wanted Dr Murray to be arrested and handcuffed in public.

Murray was with Jackson when he died on June 25 last year and has admitted giving the 50-year-old singer a dose of powerful anaesthetic to help him sleep.

The LA coroner's office ruled that Jackson's death was a homicide.

Dr Murray has always insisted he did nothing wrong.

MICHAEL JACKSON PICTURE GALLERY

Jo Couzens, Sky News Online

Businessman Guilty Of Murdering Missing Wife

2010-02-06T07:30:00.002+08:00

A wealthy landowner has been found guilty of murdering his estranged wife, who has been missing for more than two years.

Retired teacher Kate Prout, 55, vanished from the £1.2m farm she shared with her husband Adrian Prout during acrimonious divorce proceedings.

Prout, from Redmarley, Gloucestershire, was found guilty of her murder at Bristol Crown Court, even though a body has never been found.

The 47-year-old, who has become a father with his fiancee Debbie Garlick since Mrs Prout's disappearance, remained motionless when the verdict was read out.

I have never been so frightened… just want to be away from him for good now.

What Kate Prout wrote in her diary

Mrs Prout's family - including her brother Richard Wakefield - and Ms Garlick all burst into tears after the jury returned a majority verdict of 10 to one.

Prout, who was wearing a black suit and blue shirt, was told by Mr Justice Nigel Davis that he would receive a life sentence but reserved sentencing until Monday.

The killer who runs a commercial pheasant shoot and pipe-laying business, is thought to have strangled his wife and disposed of her body to avoid having to pay her a large divorce settlement.

He had been having an affair, the court was told.

Adrian Prout at court with his fiancee Debbie Garlick

Mrs Prout had demanded half the matrimonial assets, a lump sum of £800,000, according to financial documents seen by Sky News.

The only way for her husband to raise the money would have been to sell the couple's farm, something he was not prepared to do.

Mrs Prout, previously known as Kathleen Wakefield, was last seen on November 5, 2007.

The jury heard a recording of a phone call she made to her bank that day, attempting to trace money she had received as an inheritance.

Kate Prout's body not found

It took Prout five days to report his wife missing, and even then only under pressure from her family and friends.

He was questioned by police as a "significant witness" rather than a suspect.

But when asked why it had taken him so long to report her missing he replied that he thought it was "what she had wanted".

When asked what he had done in the preceding five days to try to find her, he replied: "Nothing."

The Prouts' £1.2m farm in Redmarley, Gloucestershire

Meanwhile, Mrs Prout's older brother and a friend, David Edge, had become increasingly worried.

They went to the farm together, where police had begun to arrive, and started to go through her possessions.

Mr Wakefield said he "just had a feeling something awful had happened".

When asked by Sky News whether he was becoming suspicious of Prout he replied: "I was, yes. It just seemed so strange.

Police mugshot of Prout

"Five days, no wife, no contact, why hadn't he called the police, or called us to ask us if we had seen Kate?"

The police began an extensive search of the 1,400-acre farmland, and surrounding countryside.

She had left her mobile phone and handbag behind and there was nothing to suggest she had left of her own volition.

But Mrs Prout had kept a diary, and it was within those pages that the real clues were hidden.

She had recorded violent arguments between the two and said that she was very frightened of her husband.

On one occasion she described how he had pushed her to the ground and held her over their empty swimming pool, threatening to push her in.

"I was screaming my head off. But everyone was inside their houses," she wrote.

She continued: "I have never been so frightened … just want to be away from him for good now."

In a letter to her solicitor initiating divorce proceedings she had written: "I am frightened because I know that my husband will kill me if I do not do what he says."

Katie Stallard, West of England correspondent

Teen Jailed For 'Brutal And Vicious' Rapes

2010-02-06T07:24:00.003+08:00

A teenager has been jailed for raping four "vulnerable" young girls he contacted via the internet and leaving "a trail of misery and fear" in his wake.

Gary Henery, 19, was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to attacking the teenagers, including one whom he tied a tree.

Henery got in touch with the unhappy girls, who were aged 13 or 14, 14, 15 and 18 at the time of the attacks, via MSN Messenger, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

He used internet chats to question his victims about their virginity and then met them in secluded places, including parks and playgrounds, where he raped them.

All four victims were in the court building for the sentencing and the father of one of them said the jail term was "very unfair".

He said: "It will be shocking if he gets out in 10 years' time. It's destroyed me. I've overdosed because I couldn't come to terms with it.

"It's torn my girl in pieces, from a smiley girl to a wreck. She can't travel anywhere by herself because she doesn't feel safe."

These rapes...were vicious and were brutal. They involved violence. You have left in your wake a trail of misery and fear.

Judge Charles Byers

One of Henery's victims, who can only be identified as Miss A, said: "Even when he walked into the court I was shaking.

"If he only serves 10 years then I'm angry with the sentence. It's just two years for each girl and two years left over.

"I would have liked a higher minimum. He's done the crime and he has to do the time. I don't trust anybody. It's always going to be a part of my life."

Henery, from Abbey Wood, south east London, pleaded guilty in November to four counts of rape which took place between 2005 and January 2009.

The judge, Charles Byers, told the defendant he would remain behind bars until the Parole Board ruled he was no longer a threat to society.

Mr Byers said: "You are a very young man still and, in the years of your life leading up to now, you have shown a flagrant disregard for women.

"From about the age of 15 you plagued young and vulnerable girls. It seems that you derived some sexual pleasure from grooming them through the MSN network.

"These rapes, when they occurred, were vicious and were brutal. They involved violence. You have left in your wake a trail of misery and fear, preying as you did upon those vulnerable young girls.

Henery is to serve a minimum of 10 years behind bars

"You did not acknowledge your guilt until late in the day. As a result of that none of them could start to rehabilitate their lives.

Adam Arnold, Sky News Online

Charged with murdering maid

2010-02-05T07:44:00.001+08:00

MALACCA: A 55-year-old woman and her 26-year-old son were jointly charged at the magistrate's court here yesterday with murdering their 31-year-old Indonesian maid.

K. Letchmy, who operates a canteen at the Malacca Manipal Medical College, and her son, K. Kannan, 26, were alleged to have murdered Nurul Aida M. Nur, from Bogak in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

The crime was alleged to have been committed at their home in Taman Peringgit Jaya here about 5.30am on Jan 21.

Kannan is currently on his semester break from an Australian university, where he is pursuing a degree in culinary arts. Both Letchmy and Kannan were represented by counsel Shashi M. Kannan.

Magistrate Muhamad Faizal Ismail set April 6 for mention. Deputy public prosecutor Haslinda Abu Bakar prosecuted.

Later, Haslinda said only Letchmy and Kannan were being charged although police had earlier detained six people, including Letchmy's husband, to facilitate investigations.

Welder gets 16 years for wife's death

2010-02-05T07:41:00.001+08:00

By Chong Chee Seong

MUAR: Welder Wong Kam Fatt was not happy with his wife working as a waitress at an entertainment outlet and he tried to coax her to give up her job.

Chang Siew Guat, 31, who was working in Kuala Lumpur, was home for a holiday here and Wong took her out to dinner along with their two children, a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.

When they returned home, Wong, 40, again tried to persuade his wife to quit her job and this led to a quarrel which got out of hand with him strangling her to death.

Wong then tried to commit suicide by electrocuting himself with an electric wire from a table lamp.

When that failed to kill him, he drank poison.

The next morning, their son found his parents lying side by side in bed.

He alerted his sister who called their neighbours for help.

Wong, who survived his suicide attempts, was sentenced to l6 years' jail by the High Court yesterday on an amended charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He was initially charged with murdering her at house No. 14, Jalan Hang Tuah, Taman Muhibbah, Kluang, between 1am and 8.30am on Sept 12, 2005.

Judicial commissioner Datuk Ahmadi Asnawi, in passing sentence, said the prosecution was right in amending the charge as it would be difficult to prove a prima facie case of murder.

"I would also like to express my sadness and sympathy for the couple's two children who lost their mother, and now their father, who will no longer be able to take care of them."

Wong was defended by K. Gnasegaraan while deputy public prosecutor Mohd Ashrof Adrin Kamarul prosecuted.

Housewife found murdered

2010-02-05T07:39:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: A housewife was found murdered with her hands and feet bound in a rented house in Kampung Selayang Indah here, yesterday.

Gombak police chief Assistant Commissioner Abdul Rahim Abdullah identified the victim as Sulastri, 50, an Indonesian.

Her body was found by her husband, Saibun, 41, about 8am when he returned from the Selayang wholesale market, where he works.

"The victim was found facedown with her hands and feet tied with curtains. There was also a blanket wrapped tightly around her neck.

"Her room was ransacked and one of the windows was broken. We believe she was attacked during a robbery," Rahim said.

Rape trial: Testimony via video link okayed

2010-02-05T07:36:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here ruled that Sessions Court judge Fathiyah Idris’ had exercised her judicial discretion correctly in allowing a 16-year-old rape victim to testify via live “video link,” in what is deemed a test case.

“The video link does not amount to recorded evidence,” said Judge Mohd Sofian Abd Razak when reading out the decision in the Jalan Duta court complex here Thursday.

He added that even though the victim would not be physically present in court, she can take full part by being cross-examined while remaining in a room.

Mohd Sofian said audio-visual equipment may be used as long as it was in good working condition.

He also dismissed the application by Fathiyah for a judicial revision and upheld the decision.

Fathiyah had on Nov 19 last year allowed the rape victim to testify through live video link.

However, the trial judge applied for a judicial revision after ruling that Section 272B of the Criminal Procedure Code, which allowed for evidence through live video or live television links, was a new provision and a revision would help the lower courts and the parties involved get proper guidance on the matter.

In the case, contract worker Nazrul Ismail, 28, security guard Shahrul Helmi Ab Halim, 27, and unemployed Mohamad Amir Madzlan, 23, claimed trial to raping the girl who was their friend. She was 14 at that time.

The incident was alleged to have taken place at Bangunan Wisma Indah in Jalan Pudu, Cheras, between 9.30pm on Dec 13, 2007 and 10.30pm the next day.

Malaysian neurosurgeon faces murder, manslaughter charges in Australia

2010-02-05T07:31:00.001+08:00

MELBOURNE: A Malaysian neurosurgeon is facing murder and manslaughter charges after the bodies of two women were found on separate occasions at his A$1.7mil luxury home in Sydney.

Dr Suresh Nair, 41, will be in court Friday, charged with the murder of Suellen Domingues Zaupa and the manslaughter of Victoria McIntyre, according to the Australian Associated Press.

He is on remand at Silverwater jail in Sydney’s west.

McIntyre’s body was found in Nair’s home in Elizabeth Bay on Feb 15 last year while Zaupa’s body was found on Nov 21.

Both died from cocaine overdose.

Zaupa had travelled from Brazil to Sydney to study hospitality management and was living in Sydney’s North Shore.

Less than a week before her death, she had written on her Facebook profile that “Life looks after those that live it.”

Police later charged Nair with supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited drug and he was suspended by the New South Wales Medical Board.

Nair’s neighbours told the Sydney Morning Herald that women dressed as “party girls” would constantly go in and out of his apartment. -- Bernama

Italian gun shop owner shoots partner then disposes of head in pizza oven

2010-02-04T19:58:00.001+08:00

An Italian gun shop owner shot dead a business partner and tried to dispose of his head by burning it in a pizza oven.

By Nick Squires in Rome

Alberto Arrighi, 40, allegedly murdered Giacomo Brambilla in the back of his gun shop in the town of Como in northern Italy during an argument over a 100,000 euro debt.

He then reportedly cut off his victim's head and tried to incinerate it in a pizza oven at a pizzeria owned by his father-in-law.

That night he loaded the headless body into his car and drove 150 kilometres away from Como, dumping the corpse in a river near the town of Domodossola, in the Piedmont region, near the border with Switzerland.

The alarm was raised by the victim's girlfriend when he failed to return home from his meeting with Arrighi on Monday.

She called the police who went to the gun shop and found blood stains on the floor and evidence that there had been an attempt to clean it off with bleach.

Arrighi, who was arrested, was reportedly struggling to pay back money he had borrowed from Mr Brambilla, a businessman who owned several petrol stations in the Como area.

"The whole thing was an act of momentary madness, the result of some sort of financial dispute between the two men," said a lawyer acting for Arrighi.

Corriere della Sera said the crime was a "tale of blood and money" reminiscent of an Edgar Allan Poe horror story.

Wife in divorce fight with Texan millionaire she met online is knifed to death

2010-02-04T11:23:00.005+08:00

The young wife of a retired Texan millionaire was stabbed to death at their £800,000 British home, it emerged yesterday.

Lucy Landry, 38, stumbled outside to call for help after she was knifed repeatedly following a blazing row, neighbours said.

She died moments later in a neighbour's arms after falling into his garden hedge, a kitchen knife still embedded in her side.

Mrs Landry's husband Harold, 63, a former engineer she met on the internet, is understood to have been arrested and was yesterday being questioned by detectives.

The couple's daughter Harriet, seven, and Mrs Landry's 14-year-old son from a previous relationship, James, are believed to have been in the house at the time - shortly before midnight on Monday.

Yesterday neighbours of the couple, who lived in a five-bedroom detached house on the exclusive Besford Court Estate near Pershore, Worcestershire, described their shock at the death of the 'beautiful' housewife and classical music enthusiast.

Close friend Rachel Clarke, 48, told how there had been an argument at the house before Mrs Landry frantically banged on the window of neighbour Stephen Kennedy and collapsed in his front garden.

Mr Kennedy held her head in his arms as she died, Mrs Clarke said.

She said: 'Stephen went round early in the evening to collect a parcel that had been left at the house. Harold insisted on him going in but Stephen said there was such an awful atmosphere that he left quickly.

'Stephen was woken by screams. He went outside and found Lucy's body in the hedge. He said he could feel the body was all wet with very little pulse.

'He said he held her and looked up and saw Harold at the end of the drive. A knife had gone into her side several times and the handle was no longer visible.'

Mother of two: Lucy Landry was planning to leave her husband

Mrs and Mrs Landry had been having rows and were planning to divorce in the coming months, Mrs Clarke said. Mrs Landry's son James said he wanted to live with his step-father, she added.

Harold Landry

Mrs Clark said Mrs Landy had been due to move out. She said: 'Harold and Lucy were fighting over money, they were at war. Harold gave Lucy money to move out and rent a place but she put it towards legal costs in the separation.

'Harold found out and went mad. They were both as stubborn as each other and neither would back down.

Probe: A police tent (circled) on the driveway of a neighbour's house

On her Friends Reunited page, Mrs Landry wrote under the heading 'future plans': 'Simply to see my two kids grow up healthy and happy - job done.'

Originally from Pontypridd in Wales, she met her husband on the internet in early 2000 while she researched a degree in town planning at Coventry University.

Mr Landry moved to the UK from Texas after making his fortune there and married his young lover in Coventry two years later.

But the retired engineer, who has four grown-up children in America, was very controlling and his wife did not emerge from their home for weeks at a time, Mrs Clarke said.

She added: 'Harold was a typical redneck. He became a very big control freak.

'Lucy was a beautiful woman who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of classical music. She was loved by everyone.'

Sources at West Mercia Police confirmed Mrs Landry's identity and said they are not looking for anybody else.

A spokesman said: 'A man is in custody at Worcester Police Station on suspicion of murdering a woman at an address in Besford Court Estate.

'The woman was taken by ambulance to Worcestershire Royal Hospital but was later pronounced dead.'

Several bunches of flowers had been laid outside the couple's home yesterday. The private estate, which has views over the Malvern and Bredon hills, was developed in the late 1990s on the site of a former 16th-century manor house and grounds.

Mail Online - Fay Schlesinger

Blood on office ceiling sparks police murder hunt

2010-02-03T17:51:00.005+08:00

Police have launched a murder hunt after blood dripping through an office ceiling led officers to discover the body of a man in the flat above.

The corpse, believed to be that of a 27-year-old man, is to undergo a post-mortem examination to find out how he died after being found yesterday afternoon.

Police have yet to formally identify the victim, who was discovered above an architects' office in Seaford, East Sussex.

But officers have closed a neighbouring Indian restaurant which they believe the dead man may have been linked to.

Paul Warwick, of Plans Architectural Design Shop, where the blood was found, said: ‘There was a tiny amount of blood, about a spoonful, which had come down into the corner of our ceiling.

‘I walked past it a few times and didn’t really notice it, but then someone else saw it and said, “What’s that?”.

‘They went and tried to get an answer but couldn’t, so the police were called. We”ve had quite a few police cars, CID officers and people in forensic suits around.’

The death is being investigated by officers from Sussex Police’s major crime branch who were overseeing forensic examination of the scene today.

They confirmed that the Moon of India had been closed due to the investigation.

Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert, who is leading the inquiry, said: ‘This is a tragic incident, which we are now treating as murder.

‘The forensic examination of the scene will take some time, as we seek to preserve as much evidence as possible.

‘At this time I cannot say how the man died, but every effort is being made in conducting a thorough investigation.’

House to house enquiries were continuing to be made today and CCTV in the area is being examined.

Mr Hibbert added: ‘I appeal to anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious in that area from 11pm on Sunday until we found the body at lunchtime the next day to come forward.

‘We are keen to hear from anyone who feels they can help the investigation.

Chief Inspector Natalie Carron, district commander for Lewes, said: ‘Neighbourhood officers are working closely with the investigating team to help gather information.

‘If any member of the community has information then they need to let us know. Officers are conducting extra patrols in the area at this time and I will keep the community updated as the investigation progresses.’

Anyone with information should contact Sussex Police on 0845 60 70 999 quoting Operation Scotsford, or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Sibylle Sibierski is found hanged at home hours after arrest over 'fight with boyfriend'

2010-02-03T17:33:00.008+08:00

'Loving daughter': The death of seemingly happy and bubbly Sibylle Sibierski has left friends and family stunned

The party-loving daughter of a former Premiership footballer has been found hanged hours after being arrested by police over an allegation she assaulted her boyfriend.

Former footballer Antoine Sibierski, Sibylle's father

Sibylle Sibierski, 18, had recently moved out of the £1.5million family home and into her own flat.

The privately educated A-level student, whose father Antoine played as a striker for Manchester City and Wigan, was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of assault before being released without charge.

Miss Sibierski, who also worked as a party organiser, was said to have been involved in an altercation while out.

Her 35-year-old French-born father, who also played for Newcastle United before becoming a football agent, is believed to have called police when he could not get in contact with his daughter on Monday.

Officers broke into her £200,000 one-bedroom rented apartment in Altrincham in Cheshire and found her hanged.

Last night, police referred the death to the Independent Police Complaints Commission as the teenager had been in contact with officers in the hours before her apparent suicide.

Friends were stunned by the death of the seemingly happy and bubbly teenager who came from a loving family.

Tragic: Sibylle, daughter of former Premiership footballer Antoine Sibierski, was found hanged at her apartment in Greater Manchester

Miss Sibierski was said to have been 'besotted' with her boyfriend, 18-year-old Adam Mohammed and in a posting on the social networking site Facebook on January 11 described herself as 'rather happy'.

Miss Sibierski had an active night-life and had been promoting club nights at Manchester venues including Lounge 31.

Party girl: Sibylle had been promoting club nights at Manchester venues

Last Thursday, in another Facebook message, she apparently referred to taking drugs during a night in, writing: 'Skins, Diary of a Call Girl, Dominos' Cookies, Bong, Cigs and Hot Cocoa... What more could a girl ask for really.'

In a further posting that day, she wrote: 'haha, when im chilled... im veeeeery chilled.'

The teenager had also left a series of messages on Facebook claiming she had endured her worst ever Christmas with her parents after her boyfriend went away for Christmas.

She said: 'What a gr8 christmas!... NOT. I'm at home with my parents nd im havin a **** time. This is exactly y i moved out..'

When a friend replied: 'U not liv with ure Mum and Dad then?' the teenager responded: 'Nope Thank God.'

But last night a friend said: 'She loved her parents, but she was also a typical teenager who wanted to be out with her friends.'

Miss Sibierski was studying for A-levels in psychology, sociology, French and Spanish at Cheadle and Marple Sixth Form College. She previously attended Manchester's St Bede's College, an £8,000-a-year Roman Catholic school.

It describes on its website how it specialises in providing 'committed Christian pupils an education underpinned by the teachings of Jesus Christ'.

The school will hold a special mass for its former pupil today. Yesterday, Antoine Sibierski and his wife Isabelle, who have another daughter Axelle and a son Alessandro, were too distraught to talk about the tragedy.

But in a message posted by Mrs Sibierski on a Facebook tribute page she wrote about her 'loving daughter', adding: 'She will never be forgotten, she is still with us.'

One friend, Emma Victoria Page, wrote on the tribute page: 'It's still not sinking in that you're gone, i don't understand why you did it as you always seemed the happiest and funniest of all people.'

Another friend said: 'We're all absolutely stunned. If Sib was in any way troubled she did not let on. We had no idea.

'The fact was she seemed all loved up and happy with life despite what she had been saying about her parents. We just can't understand what's happened.'

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: 'Officers attended, forced entry and the body of an 18-year-old woman was discovered. The case has been passed to the coroner.

'Due to previous police contact, the incident has been referred to the IPCC. As a result it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.'

Her father Antoine played for several French clubs before moving to Manchester City for £700,000 in August 2003.

He moved to Newcastle in 2006 before signing a two-year deal with Wigan Athletic on a free transfer the following year.

In September 2008, he joined Norwich City on loan only to return to Wigan, where he was released from his contract at the end of the 2008/09 season.

Miss Sibierski's godfather is believed to be another French footballer, Sylvain Wiltord, who played for Arsenal.

'Jigsaw' murderer jailed for life

2010-02-03T03:45:00.003+08:00

A man who murdered and chopped up his friend before scattering his body parts across two counties has been jailed for life.

Stephen Marshall and Jeffrey Howe (right)

Stephen Marshall, 38, was told he would serve a minimum of 36 years in prison, while his girlfriend, Sarah Bush, 21, was jailed for three years and nine months for perverting the course of justice.

The severed remains of Jeffrey Howe, 49, from Southgate, north London, were discovered across Hertfordshire and Leicestershire last year.

He became known as the ''jigsaw man'' after the series of macabre finds.

Bush was today acquitted of murdering Mr Howe but pleaded guilty to helping to dispose of his body parts and giving false information about his whereabouts when police were investigating his disappearance.

She was sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment for the first offence and to two years and three months for the second one, with the two terms to run concurrently.

Passing sentence at St Albans Crown Court, the judge, Mr Justice Cooke, told Marshall: "(Mr Howe) looked up to you and was scared of you and the evidence is you exploited that."

Mr Howe had let the couple live at his flat when they needed a place to stay and it was during this time, on March 8 or 9 last year, that Marshall stabbed him in the back.

The pair then took over his property, began helping themselves to money from his bank account and sold his belongings.

Mr Justice Cooke told Bush: "You were well aware of what Stephen Marshall had done.

"You took advantage of Mr Howe in life and then after his death you used his money."

Source : telegraph.uk.co

Katherine McGrath 'killed boyfriend after missing out on university'

2010-02-03T03:35:00.003+08:00

An A-level student stabbed her boyfriend to death after learning that she would not be able to go to the university of her choice, a court heard yesterday.

Katherine McGrath, 19, is accused of killing Alyn Thomas with a steak knife after spending the day drinking.

Cardiff Crown Court was told that Ms McGrath and Mr Thomas, 22, had been drinking Malibu, cider, lager and whisky before returning to her parent’s £400,000 home in South Wales, where they had an argument.

Ms McGrath told police that she picked up a steak knife to “scare him off” during the row.

Her parents, who are both retired teachers, watched from the public gallery as their daughter’s trial opened.

Roger Thomas QC, prosecuting, said: “The wound penetrated Alyn Thomas’s heart and he died shortly afterwards.

“There was no justification or excuse for Katherine McGrath taking hold of what was in effect a weapon — the steak knife — and using it to cause his death.”

He said that she admitted stabbing Mr Thomas in a “distressed and emotional” 999 call.

Ms McGrath claimed that she acted in self-defence after her boyfriend bit her thumb. She told the emergency operator: “I did it in self-defence. He’s my boyfriend and he came and attacked me and I didn’t know what to do.”

The jury was told that earlier that day the couple had gone to Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend on the morning of August 20 last year to collect her A-level results. Ms McGrath was hoping to go on to university but failed to achieve the necessary grades.

The pair spent much of the day drinking before Mr Thomas went to work at a Tesco supermarket in Maesteg.

They met up again later and joined friends in Bridgend town centre. In one pub Mr Thomas bumped into a female colleague who offered to buy him a drink.

The prosecutor said: “Alyn met Tesco colleague Carys Stanton, who had accidentally bumped Alyn’s car previously. She was embarrassed even though Alyn Thomas laughed it off and made very little of the incident.

“She apologised for bumping his car and offered to buy Alyn some drinks.

“Katherine McGrath will later refer to this and will describe how it was the start of the incident.

“McGrath claimed that when Alyn attacked her he was aggressive and angry — shouting the name Carys.”

Jurors were told that a taxi driver who drove the pair home to Brackla, Bridgend, thought they were in good spirits and were “a lively couple”.

Ms McGrath has told police that once inside the house Mr Thomas’s mood changed. She claimed he pushed her around the living room before she took the steak knife from a kitchen drawer to scare him away.

Ms McGrath, of Bridgend, South Wales, denies murder. The trial continues.

Times Online - Simon de Bruxelles