Latest news with #Gillies
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Daily Record
Creepy paedo dad who groomed Scots schoolgirl moved 400 miles to be closer to her
James Gillies, made contact with the Kirriemuir-based child through Instagram after breaking up with his long-term partner in Gwynedd, Wales. A cunning paedophile groomed a 14-year-old girl before moving 400 miles to live in the same Scottish town as her and target her for sexual abuse. James Gillies, made contact with the Kirriemuir-based child through Instagram after breaking up with his long-term partner in Gwynedd, Wales. He has been locked up after he admitted spending months grooming the child before sexually assaulting her on a bus when they were the only passengers. Fiscal depute Andrew Brown told Dundee Sheriff Court that Gillies was vaguely known to the girl and she showed his initial contact message to a member of her family. "He asked what she was up to," Mr Brown said. "She was advised not to reply, but she ignored that advice and replied. The conversation then moved on to Snapchat. "The accused sent naked images of himself, of his penis, and dressed only in boxers. They looked like they were taken in a bathroom or shower. "He stated he was moving to Kirriemuir and had ended a 13-year relationship as there was no sexual chemistry with his partner and he didn't like living in Wales. "He asked her to be his girlfriend and asked her to marry him. Her mother found out and was not happy about this and they fell out," the fiscal depute said. "In February 2024 the accused moved to Kirriemuir. They began meeting regularly at the bandstand in the public park. This was between 8 and 9 at night or during school hours. "She would skip school or they would meet at the lunch break. He would kiss her lips and neck. He would unzip her gilet and put his hands up her top, kissing and sucking her breasts. She stated she was not ready for this." Mr Brown said they were on a bus together when Gillies digitally penetrated her vagina, which she later said had left her "freaked out." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. The girl was upset by what Gillies had done and she told a friend who reported it to her mother. Social workers also received a report about her being seen holding hands with an older man. Gillies told police he enjoyed the attention and said: "I admit to it. Sometimes I encouraged her and if someone did the same to my daughters they would be a dirty man. "I should never have done it because of her age. I'm 42 and she's 14." Mr Brown said: "He stated he wished it had never happened, but said there was no point lying about it." Gillies admitted that between 1 October 2023 and 1 February 2024 he coerced the girl into looking at sexual images by sending her pictures of his naked body and penis. He also admitted that on two occasions in February last year he engaged in sexual activity with the schoolgirl and he was remanded in custody for background reports. Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith deferred sentence for reports and said: "The court is faced with a man, who, at the age of 42 engaged a 14-year-old girl in communication and travelled from Wales to Scotland. "He formed a relationship with a girl he knew to be under the age of consent. Custody is inevitable," he said, as he described Gillies' behaviour as "sinister."
India Today
3 days ago
- Health
- India Today
The facemaker of World War 1: how Harold Gillies gave shattered soldiers a new self
Today, when we hear the words 'plastic surgery,' it often conjures images of celebrities fine-tuning their looks under bright Hollywood lights. But long before it was about aesthetic tweaks, it was about survival -- about restoring identity to those whose faces had been taken by war or fire or trenches of the First World War unleashed a kind of devastation few could have imagined. Men returned to Britain with their jaws blown off, noses missing, eyes sealed shut -- shells of their former at Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, England, a young surgeon from New Zealand saw something others didn't. He looked beyond the torn skin and shattered bones and asked a different kind of question: what if surgery could bring not just flesh, but identity, back to life?FROM DUNEDIN DREAMER TO SURGICAL PIONEEROn June 17, 1882, Harold Delf Gillies was born into a world of rhetoric and renaissance. His father was a Member of Parliament in Dunedin, NewZealand, and his mother was related to the whimsical poet Edward Whanganui Collegiate, young Gillies excelled in medicine, but also cricket and golf. Those qualities would shape his later life: physical precision mixed with a creative England, he read medicine at Cambridge's Gonville and Caius, where he rowed in the 1904 Boat Race and played golf for England. Then came London and Hospital, where he trained in 1911, he'd married Kathleen Margaret Jackson, and shortly after, World War I broke out. Group photo at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup in 1917, including Harold Gillies, William Kelsey Fry and Henry Tonks (1917) (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) A WAR SCULPTED A NEW VISIONHe arrived on the Western Front in 1915, a 32-year-old doctor with tools, questions, and a quiet kind of French surgeon Hippolyte Morestin, Harold Gillies watched as damaged jaws were covered using pieces of skin from other parts of the body. The sight moved him in London, he convinced the military to let him create a special ward at Aldershot, dedicated entirely to soldiers with facial he was bringing wounded men from the front lines to England -- not just to fix their wounds, but to help them rebuild their sense of first ward would grow. By 1917, the Queen's Hospital (later renamed Queen Mary's Hospital) opened in Sidcup, England, a place where medicine met Gillies assembled a team of surgeons, dentists, anaesthetists, and artists -- all working in harmony to develop new ways of healing. They used skin grafts layered like building blocks, and carefully shaped pieces of tissue to rebuild faces feature by SURGERY, REBUILDING FACESadvertisementThe most famous of Gillies' breakthroughs was something that, on paper, sounded bizarre: the 'tubed pedicle flap.'In an era before antibiotics, open wounds were a dangerous gamble. So Gillies came up with a solution -- shaping skin into tubes while keeping one end attached to the body, so it stayed living skin was slowly moved, bit by bit, across the face until it reached the damaged area. It looked strange, but it 8,000 soldiers were treated using this method at Sidcup. For many, it gave them something beyond survival -- it gave them their face back. Walter Yeo, the first person to receive plastic surgery, before (left) and after (right) skin flap surgery performed by Sir Harold Delf Gillies in 1917. The pictures of Walter's face before the surgery are blurry and hard to come by. In the tragic accident he was recorded as having lost both his upper and lower eyelids. The surgery was some of the first to use a skin flap from an unaffected area of the body and paved the way for a sudden rash of improvements in this field. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) advertisementGillies planned every operation with care. He drew sketches on envelopes and scrap paper, built wax masks and plaster moulds to imagine how a face could be put back together.'Use your eyes first, dirty fingers later,' he would say. His surgery wasn't just skill -- it was craft.A CUP OF COLOUR AND A STREAK OF HUMOURHe wasn't always serious. Gillies liked mischief as much as medicine. He often lit up a Cuban cigar while testing colours in his spectrometer, a tool used for analysing chemical elements, claiming it helped him check lithium lines. It probably also amused the operating theatre, Gillies was a champion golfer, earning his Blue at Cambridge and competing in national tournaments -- even tweaking surgical tools to suit his golfer's grip. He was widely regarded in the early 1920s as one of the finest amateur golfers in England. Harold Gillies was one of the best amateur golfers in England (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) advertisementAnd then there was 'Dr Scroggie from South Africa' -- a persona he created for fun. Dressed in a fake beard and wig, Gillies once walked into his own home pretending to be a visiting doctor. He even fooled his colleagues roared with laughter when they realised the trick -- it was the kind of prank that became legend in his personal life had its own chapters. He married Kathleen Jackson and had children, but lost her in 1957. Later that year, he married Marjorie Clayton, his assistant and close companion for lived for people, progress, and humour -- sometimes all in one operating WAR: A NEW ERA IN SURGERYAfter 1918, Gillies sowed his seeds in civilian soil. His book Plastic Surgery of the Face (1920) became the cornerstone of modern surgery. He founded units around the world, training others like Archibald McIndoe and Rainsford in WWII, his influence helped build effective plastic surgery teams. In 1946 he performed one of the first female-to-male affirming surgeries (MichaelDillon) and in 1951 worked with gender pioneering RobertaCowell. Dr. Gillis, who operated on the Danish sailors injured in the geyser explosion (2nd from the left) (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) When asked why, he replied simply: 'If it gives real happiness, that is the most any medicine can give.'A DOCTOR'S LAST ACTGillies worked nearly to the end. He died on September 10, 1960, days after a stroke, still amid a life of purpose and left no fortune, but his real legacy lives on in faces once surgery may now conjure cosmetic bowls on screens. But Gillies reminded the world it was always about function, dignity, reclaiming used art to heal a person's soul as well as their skin. He proved science can be creative. And he offered hope where despair once reigned.
Scoop
27-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Electricity Authority Welcomes Plan To Empower Consumers And ‘Make NZ More Electric'
Press Release – Electricity Authority The electricity system is in a period of substantial change. The Authority is taking action, alongside others, to enable this change and ensure the system is fit-for-the-future and works for New Zealanders,' says Authority Chief Executive Sarah Gillies. The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (Authority) welcomes the manifesto released by Rewiring Aotearoa today detailing 59 actions to help households, businesses and farms switch to electric alternatives. According to Rewiring Aotearoa, these actions will help consumers access cheaper, cleaner power and the electricity system will be strengthened by more consumer energy resources, such as rooftop solar. 'We are working to deliver an electricity system that empowers consumers, supports electrification, and is reliable, secure and delivered at the lowest cost,' says Authority Chief Executive Sarah Gillies. 'We have work underway to boost security of supply, encourage more flexibility in the system, enable consumers to have greater control over their electricity use and costs, and create a more efficient electricity system. 'We agree with Rewiring Aotearoa that New Zealand's centralised electricity system can be complemented by more localised energy resources. Power generated at a local level can enhance resilience to climate change impacts, improve affordability, progress decarbonisation and empower communities and local economies. Our Decentralisation green paper aims to start a discussion about how we can move towards this future in a way that ensures people and communities benefit.' The Authority also has multiple, inter-related projects underway that could support more solar from as early as next year. For example, it is currently considering rule changes that would ensure fairer prices for consumers with solar when they supply power to the network at peak times. 'The electricity system is in a period of substantial change. The Authority is taking action, alongside others, to enable this change and ensure the system is fit-for-the-future and works for New Zealanders,' Gillies said. Notes: Other Authority work aligned with Rewiring Aotearoa's Electrification Manifesto includes: proposing rule changes to enable consumers to have contracts with multiple electricity retailers. For example, a household could be with the retailer that offers the best buy-back for solar they supply to the network, and another retailer for their electricity use. Consultation on proposed rule changes is scheduled for late May. Once in place, future rule changes will also enable peer-to-peer energy trading and for consumers to have separate retailers for selected appliances, such as their EV charger. enabling easier retail switching by improving comparison and switching services and tools for consumers, including working with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to develop a potential electricity consumer data right. making it easier for businesses and infrastructure, such as EV charging stations, to connect to the networks through our proposed rule changes for connection pricing methodologies and application process. empowering consumers to better manage their electricity costs, eg, through proposed rule changes that would require large retailers to offer customers a time-of-use pricing plan. enabling more flexibility in the system across multiple workstreams, which can help keep costs down by avoiding the need for costly network infrastructure upgrades. The Electricity Authority is an independent Crown Entity with the main statutory objective to promote competition in, reliable supply by, and the efficient operation of, the electricity industry for the long-term benefit of consumers. The additional objective of the Authority is to protect the interests of domestic consumers and small business consumers in relation to the supply of electricity to those consumers.
Scoop
26-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Electricity Authority Welcomes Plan To Empower Consumers And ‘Make NZ More Electric'
The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (Authority) welcomes the manifesto released by Rewiring Aotearoa today detailing 59 actions to help households, businesses and farms switch to electric alternatives. According to Rewiring Aotearoa, these actions will help consumers access cheaper, cleaner power and the electricity system will be strengthened by more consumer energy resources, such as rooftop solar. "We are working to deliver an electricity system that empowers consumers, supports electrification, and is reliable, secure and delivered at the lowest cost," says Authority Chief Executive Sarah Gillies. "We have work underway to boost security of supply, encourage more flexibility in the system, enable consumers to have greater control over their electricity use and costs, and create a more efficient electricity system. "We agree with Rewiring Aotearoa that New Zealand's centralised electricity system can be complemented by more localised energy resources. Power generated at a local level can enhance resilience to climate change impacts, improve affordability, progress decarbonisation and empower communities and local economies. Our Decentralisation green paper aims to start a discussion about how we can move towards this future in a way that ensures people and communities benefit." The Authority also has multiple, inter-related projects underway that could support more solar from as early as next year. For example, it is currently considering rule changes that would ensure fairer prices for consumers with solar when they supply power to the network at peak times. "The electricity system is in a period of substantial change. The Authority is taking action, alongside others, to enable this change and ensure the system is fit-for-the-future and works for New Zealanders," Gillies said. Notes: Other Authority work aligned with Rewiring Aotearoa's Electrification Manifesto includes: proposing rule changes to enable consumers to have contracts with multiple electricity retailers. For example, a household could be with the retailer that offers the best buy-back for solar they supply to the network, and another retailer for their electricity use. Consultation on proposed rule changes is scheduled for late May. Once in place, future rule changes will also enable peer-to-peer energy trading and for consumers to have separate retailers for selected appliances, such as their EV charger. enabling easier retail switching by improving comparison and switching services and tools for consumers, including working with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to develop a potential electricity consumer data right. making it easier for businesses and infrastructure, such as EV charging stations, to connect to the networks through our proposed rule changes for connection pricing methodologies and application process. empowering consumers to better manage their electricity costs, eg, through proposed rule changes that would require large retailers to offer customers a time-of-use pricing plan. enabling more flexibility in the system across multiple workstreams, which can help keep costs down by avoiding the need for costly network infrastructure upgrades. The Electricity Authority is an independent Crown Entity with the main statutory objective to promote competition in, reliable supply by, and the efficient operation of, the electricity industry for the long-term benefit of consumers. The additional objective of the Authority is to protect the interests of domestic consumers and small business consumers in relation to the supply of electricity to those consumers.
Sydney Morning Herald
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
This is not a pop band – as a packed Melbourne room reflected, it's something more unusual
THEATRE Endgames ★★★ fortyfivedownstairs, until June 1 Three brief encounters with hideous men achieve a sense of twilit tragicomedy in the hands of the legendary Max Gillies. With Endgames, Gillies rejoins director Laurence Strangio to present what's in some ways a companion piece to their 2018 production of Krapp's Last Tape – this time uniting the late Beckett work Eh Joe with an excerpt from Jack Hibberd's classic monodrama A Stretch of the Imagination and Chekhov's shambolic lecture On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco. Although Hibberd died last year, the curtain may long continue to fall on his immortal stage creation, Monk O'Neill. The misanthropic hermit in Stretch remains an incarnation of Australian male destructiveness and despair as appalling as he is compelling. Hibberd used this character to diagnose cultural disease – from slashing misogyny to the rapacity and bad faith of colonialism – with a clear-eyed honesty that reshaped what was possible on our stages, and this excerpt includes Monk's final will and testament, in which he gives: 'all my lands and property, goods and chattels, to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia … On no account must my domain fall into the clutches of the predatory and upstart albino. I believe that the tides of history will swamp and wash aside this small pink tribe of mistletoe men, like insects …Change insects to dead leaves…' One Tree Hill isn't his to give, of course, and even Monk's presence is erased in this version, largely an audio performance under crepuscular lighting. Gillies only appears once, rifle in hand, pursuing 'an emu on heat' through the shadows; the brilliantly produced soundscape, however, overfills the physical absence – not least in the copious, and comically loud, urination which bookends the piece. If that whets the appetite for a proper remount of Stretch, the audio monologue in Eh Joe is part of Beckett's creative intention. The elderly loner here sits entombed in silence on a couch, as the accusatory voice of a woman (Jillian Murray) torments him with memory and regret. As he seduced women in his life, so this internal voice now seduces him towards death, and Gillies' wordless performance haunts with barely perceptible pain and confusion, with the agony of futile presence. Loading Gillies has always had a talent for clowning, and in the Chekhov, he leans into a more overtly satirical sort of existential monologue. Nyukhin is a nervy, ineffectual public speaker. The man is supposed to be giving a charity lecture on the evils of tobacco, but it keeps turning into a digressive complaint about his wife and daughters, whom he fears. The actor fumbles his lines more than a few times, which matters less than it might when he's playing a character who wishes he could erase his memory, and whose comical lack of authority is his defining feature.
