Meigh: Woman in her 50s dies in house fire
A woman in her 50s has died following a fire at a house outside Newry on Saturday morning. Police received a report of a fire in the Bearna Park area of Meigh at 08:40 BST.The Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service extinguished the fire but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.A young male was taken to hospital for treatment for his injuries.Police say they are continuing to conduct enquiries into the cause of the blaze and are appealing to anyone who may have footage that could assist with the investigation, to contact detectives.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
The murder of John 'Goldfinger' Palmer in Essex still unsolved
In June 2015, John "Goldfinger" Palmer was shot six times in the garden of his secluded woodland mansion in Essex. But due to an oversight in the police response, the 65-year-old's death was put down to natural causes - until a murder investigation was eventually launched six days later. Ten years on, detectives are still hunting whoever killed the man once described as Britain's richest criminal. Palmer earned his nickname following the audacious 1983 Brink's-Mat men disguised in security uniforms stumbled upon £26m worth of gold, diamonds and cash in a warehouse just outside London Heathrow dealer Palmer was accused of melting down the gold in a shed in the garden of his mansion near years later, on 24 June 2015, he was gunned down as he was burning documents in the garden of his home in South Weald near prosecutors had charged him a month earlier with fraud, firearms possession and money laundering. At about 17:30 BST, a suspect believed to be a contract killer scaled his garden fence having seemingly watched him through a carved-out was killed in the only part of the garden not covered by was found unconscious by his son's girlfriend. Two police officers attended at about 19:20 and had assessed his death as "non-suspicious" on account of an operation wound from recent gall bladder surgery. A week later, a post-mortem examination revealed he was, in fact, shot in the chest, abdomen, arm, elbow, back and kidneys. "It's definitely not something I'm going to hide behind; we did make mistakes," said Det Supt Stephen Jennings of Essex Police, speaking to the BBC's Gangster podcast series in 2022."We didn't do enough background checks on John."Had we done that, the officers would have realised he had quite a substantial criminal background."They didn't really check the body well enough to discount any third-party involvement." Roy Ramm, former commander of specialist operations at New Scotland Yard, said it was a "very serious error"."You talk about the golden hour in investigations - that was lost, the day was lost, several days were lost - and I do not envy the senior investigating officer who picked up the case and tried to make progress with it," he told the BBC. "It was nigh on impossible."The two young police officers later faced disciplinary action. Humble beginnings Born in Solihull near Birmingham, Palmer was one of seven children raised in a poor single-parent was a serial truant and left school at 15 without learning to read or teenager worked in roofing but moved on to street trading, which included selling paraffin off the back of a moved to Bedminster in Bristol and made his first £100,000 (£2m in today's money) from a jewellery set up Scadlynn, a company trading precious scrap business partner Gareth Chappell was later jailed for 10 years for conspiring to handle stolen goods in connection with the Brink's-Mat raid. The gold When Palmer was identified as a Brink's-Mat suspect, he accused the Met Police of "overreacting"."I'm completely innocent of anything to do with this so-called 'Mats-Brink' bullion raid," he said, sitting beside a hotel pool in Tenerife in 1985, after being tracked down by BBC war reporter Kate continued to deliberately - or mistakenly - confuse the Brink's-Mat name when he stood trial at the Old Bailey in 1987, and it blew kisses to jurors after they found him not guilty of conspiring to handle stolen gold Brink's-Mat heist, and the cat-and-mouse chases that followed, have been dramatised in BBC One TV series The the final episode, which aired earlier this month, the fictional detective, played by Hugh Bonneville, signs off with: "It's Brink's-Mat - it's never over."Palmer seemed unable to shake off the spectre of the 1983 raid. Timeshare empire Instead of going to ground, Palmer became one of the biggest landowners in Ramm, who oversaw investigations into Palmer and the laundering of the Brink's-Mat gold in the 1990s, said his team was "convinced" he invested earnings from the robbery into the amassed an estimated fortune of £300m which he used to buy a West Country mansion, a French chateau with its own golf course, a jet, turboprop-powered helicopters, a £750,000 yacht, and a classic car collection including Porsches and and Elizabeth II were jointly ranked 105th in the Sunday Times Rich prosecutors accused him of masterminding a timeshare fraud which involved 16,000 victims who were scammed out of more than £ found him guilty of conspiracy to defraud at the Old Bailey and he was jailed for eight years in 2001. David Farrer KC, the lead prosecution counsel, described Palmer as the "biggest shark" in the timeshare waters - a quote that was rekindled for the final episode of The Palmer defended himself, Mr Farrer spent hours liaising with his opposite number in private."He could be quite pleasant and charming," said the retired barrister."That was invariably when he thought the case was going well for him. I've no doubt whatever of his potential violence. "If I had been anything other than prosecuting counsel he would have clouted me a few times."Mr Farrer recalled how during the trial, Palmer wore body armour and was shadowed by Special Branch officers because they were concerned a north London gang had put a contract out on him because he owed them served half his sentence, and in 2009, he moved in with partner Christina Ketley and their son at South Weald. Contract killer Speaking to the BBC's Crimewatch in 2016, Det Supt Jennings said the Spanish fraud prosecution - announced at the end of May 2015 - was the most likely motive for his was complicated when considering his links to the men behind the Hatton Garden heist of April 2015, the detective said, and because of recent "law enforcement intervention with organised crime families"."It was an opportunity for any one of those individuals at any subsequent trial to blame John for what took place and obviously he would not be in a position to answer that or refute it," said Det Supt Jennings. On the evening Essex Police revealed Palmer was murdered, Mr Farrer received an unexpected call from a Scotland Yard detective he had worked with more than 13 years earlier."I asked him, was it the Russians who did it?" Mr Farrer recalled."He said they thought it was much more likely this gang in north London, the Adams, and they certainly didn't think that it was directly anything to do with timeshare - in other words, the same people that caused Palmer to wear body armour during his trial."The Mail on Sunday singled out the Adams crime family as the brains behind the killing in a 2016 "Patsy" Adams, of Finsbury, north London, was jailed later that year for shooting an associate, and other members of the syndicate have received prison time in recent McCunn is more veteran lawyer led civil action against Palmer in the mid-1990s on behalf of insurers acting for the Brink's-Mat business."It could be linked to any number of activities he was known to be involved with," he told the BBC. 'Very dangerous people' A £100,000 reward was put up by Palmer's family and charity Crimestoppers in 2018 for information leading to a conviction - but that reward has Ramm said: "It is particularly important that this murder continues to be investigated because of who Palmer was, the role he played in the network of serious and organised criminals in the UK, in Spain - internationally."He offended and upset some very, very, dangerous people, and we need to know who they were." Palmer always maintained he did not know he had melted Brink's-Mat Ketley was due to stand trial in Madrid in 2019 in connection with the timeshare fraud, but the case against her was dropped. Other individuals were found guilty."Without doubt [Palmer] has made mistakes in his life; I believe he has paid for those mistakes," Ms Ketley told BBC Crimewatch."I was incredibly proud of the way he adjusted to a very normal life."She still owns the gated woodland property where Palmer was murdered. She did not respond to the BBC's approach for comment. A 43-year-old man from Rugby, Warwickshire, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in 2015, but was released without February 2017, detectives said a 50-year-old man from Tyneside, who lived in southern Spain, was questioned on suspicion of murder in what was a voluntary interview. He faced no further Police says it has taken hundreds of witness statements, pursued hundreds of lines of inquiries and examined thousands of pieces of the failures on the day Palmer was murdered, a force spokesperson said on Friday: "It is always best to secure and preserve crime scenes as soon as possible to achieve the best forensic evidence and regrettably that was not the case in this incident."However, outdoor crime scenes by their very nature have less forensic opportunities."We believe this murder was a professional contract killing and our experiences of similar cases such as this are that these types of murderers are forensically aware, limiting our opportunity to secure evidence." Mr Ramm thinks detectives will need an organised criminal to hand over key information as "leverage"."I think that's probably the only way it's going to be solved - someone on the inside becomes an informer." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Muriel McKay's family welcome 'strong' leads in search for body
The family of a woman murdered 56 years ago said a £1m reward for information had led to two "incredibly strong" leads in the search for her McKay, 55, was kidnapped in 1969, held to ransom and then killed at a farm in Hertfordshire, having been mistaken for the then-wife of Rupert grandson Mark Dyer said they had received information suggesting her body could have been buried behind a shop in Bethnal Green Road, London and at a house in Buntingford, said they were meeting genuine people "with really tangible leads" and links to the brothers convicted of her kidnap and murder. Arthur Hosein died in prison, while Nizamodeen Hosein later spoke to the McKay family, explaining where he had buried Metropolitan Police interviewed Hosein in 2024 and, despite scepticism about his account, carried out a third dig at Stocking Farm, near Bishop's Stortford but no human remains were found. In one of the leads, a woman has come forward to say her father told her before he died that he employed Arthur Hosein at the tailor's shop he ran on Bethnal Green described how a body had been stored at the property for 24 father also employed a former Polish World War Two soldier "who was apparently heavily involved in disposing of the body" behind the shop. Mr Dyer said he had informed his contact at the Metropolitan Police, who told him she would put someone on the lawyers have written to the shop owners and the tenants and they were ready with a scanning team. Mr Dyer has also spoken to a woman in a care home in said her family used to live next door to a man in Buntingford who used to supply things to the Hoseins at Stocking she was 17 years old, she was woken at 01:00 by a thumping sound and saw him through her window digging with a storm father said he reported it to the police but they dug in the wrong place."She is happy to come from her care home with her daughter and show the scanning team exactly where to scan," said Mr Dyer."If you look at this as a game, we are definitely getting round the board and we are throwing high-number dice now."Incredible, fantastic news". Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Hero police officer loses job after speeding on way to work
A police officer who won a commendation for rescuing a toddler from a burning house has been sacked after speeding while dashing to work during a staffing crisis. Custody Sgt Tim Perrin was dismissed by Devon and Cornwall Police after being accused of dishonesty when he attempted to appeal against a speeding fine. The father of two, who had a 20-year unblemished career in the police, was sacked last week over the single incident that occurred almost two years ago. The 43-year-old, who is now working as a maintenance man in Torquay, said the experience has completely shattered his faith in the police misconduct process and makes him fear for the future of the service. The case comes after Pc Lorne Castle was dismissed by neighbouring Dorset Police for swearing at a teenage knife-wielding thug during an arrest in Bournemouth in January 2024. Mr Perrin accused Devon and Cornwall Police of putting more resources into investigating his case than trying to solve real crimes. He said: 'I am not surprised they came to the decision they did in the end as cancel culture in the police is rife. There is a huge over-reaction to things nowadays. 'The pendulum has swung completely in the opposite direction and forces are just desperate to show that they are squeaky clean. Officers are no longer given the benefit of the doubt. 'But the result is that experienced officers are leaving in their droves. They have just had enough and forces are having to replace them with young inexperienced recruits. It is bad for policing and bad for the public.' The incident dates back to August 2023 when Sgt Perrin's boss asked if he would be able to travel to Plymouth the following morning to help cover a staffing crisis in the custody suite there. The car journey from his home near Torquay would normally take around 45 minutes but just before he was about to set off he said he received a message from an officer at the Plymouth station asking him to hurry as things were getting out of control. Heeding the call, Sgt Perrin admitted putting his foot down in order to get there as soon as was safely possible. But at some point during the journey he was flashed by a speed camera doing 48mph in a 30mph zone. A few days later he received a notice of intended prosecution in the post but decided to appeal against the ticket on the basis he believed had been fulfilling a valid policing purpose. His boss agreed he should challenge the ticket, but when the appeal was rejected Sgt Perrin accepted the decision, paid the fine and took the points. He assumed that would be the end of the matter but then in January 2024 he was informed he was being investigated for gross misconduct over his allegedly 'dishonest account'. The force's department of professional standards had raised suspicions over some alleged inconsistencies in his account and suggested he had lied about receiving a call urging him to get to Plymouth as soon as possible on the day of his speeding offence. Mr Perrin said: 'To receive gross misconduct papers for only trying to do my job and help out my colleagues was quite a shock but initially I thought, well, I haven't done anything wrong so this won't go anywhere. 'I was interviewed in April or May last year and asked to give a very detailed account of the incident, which was almost a year earlier. 'I have made that journey to Plymouth dozens of times so being asked to recall every aspect of a specific day was very challenging. 'They tried to speak to officers who had been on duty at Plymouth who might have made the phone call to me but there was nothing remarkable about this and so understandably they could not recall whether they had spoken to me or not. 'Throughout all this though I still thought 'well it will be ok, the system will see me right'. 'But when I was informed that they were taking it to a hearing I began to worry because I know how these things work.' 'They discredit you' Sgt Perrin faced a misconduct panel on June 16 where, on the balance of probabilities, the case against was found proven and he was dismissed. He said: 'The barrister who was representing the force grilled me for several hours, ridiculing and patronising me. It just felt that the sole purpose of the exercise was not to get to the truth but to get me sacked. 'They discredit you and make you look like you have done something wrong. 'I tried to explain that perhaps my account was poorly worded in places and left open to interpretation for people who worked outside of the custody environment but in no way had I been dishonest. 'It was found that gross misconduct had been proven on the balance of probabilities and as this was an honesty and integrity issue, the only outcome could be dismissal without notice. 'Despite all the good character evidence put forward, despite the huge impact this would have on my ability to look after my family and pay my bills and how well I was respected in my local community, I was sacked. 'I do not understand how being dismissed is proportionate to the circumstances. I have been treated worse than any criminal, the time and effort to investigate this is far beyond what the force would invest into investigating actual crime. 'I would estimate the cost to the public would be well over six digits yet there are no resources or money to actually attend burglaries or shopliftings, for example.' String of commendations In 2008 Mr Perrin received a string of commendations after he entered a burning building to rescue a toddler who had become trapped on the third floor. In a glowing citation the local fire chief wrote: 'Pc Perrin and his colleagues placed themselves at considerable risk and are commended for their bravery in saving the life of this child.' On another occasion, he won praise for being part of a Taser crew who successfully tackled a man believed to be armed with a shotgun and he received a third commendation for bravely rescuing a man who had fallen down a coastal cliff during a storm. Mr Perrin said the outcome has had a devastating impact on him and his partner, Lisa, who is also a serving police officer. He added: 'Things have changed for the worse. Officers are not allowed to make mistakes any more. It is one strike and you are out.' A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: 'Following a two-day gross misconduct panel hearing this week, Mr Perrin was found to have been culpable for gross misconduct and dismissed with immediate effect. 'Mr Perrin was found to have breached standards of professional behaviour in terms of honesty and integrity and discreditable conduct. 'This related to his reply to a notice of intended prosecution following a speeding offence in his private vehicle. The panel did not accept the account provided by the officer to be true and found the actions of this officer were deliberately misleading for personal gain representing a lack of integrity and undermining public confidence in the police service. 'As with all cases of this nature, a full report from the gross misconduct panel chair will be submitted to the force in due course, provided to Mr Perrin and published on our website.'
