The Web of Evil

[T]he IPCC's decision that the officers were witnesses and not suspects [means] they cannot be compelled to submit to a formal interview.

Harwood: At the time I wrote this, I thought I fell to the floor.
Thornton: Do you now accept that this is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.
Thornton: That you lost your baton—that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.
Thornton: That you received a blow to the head—that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.
Thornton: And that there were violent and dangerous confrontations—that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.
Thornton: And you were struck by a missile—that is not correct?
Harwood: Yes.

A man who was caught at Birmingham airport trying to smuggle peregrine falcon eggs out of the country has pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court. Jeffrey Lendrum, 48, admitted taking 14 eggs of a wild bird from a nest in south Wales, possessing eggs of a wild bird and attempting to evade export restrictions. It is the most serious case of its kind in many decades.

According to investigators, a cleaner noticed him acting suspiciously in the bathroom area of the Emirates executive lounge. Lendrum spent a considerable time in one of the showers, but when the cleaner entered the cubicle it was dry and there were some empty egg boxes in a corner.

Counter-terrorism officers searched Lendrum and found the falcon eggs in socks strapped to his abdomen with bandages. After seizing the eggs, the officers kept them alive by nestling them on their office computers.

Lendrum’s car was found in the long-stay car park. Inside, there was an incubator and climbing equipment including ropes and carabiners.

In his defence, Lendrum claimed he had a bad back and a physiotherapist had told him that strapping something fragile to his stomach would encourage the muscles to tense up. [BBC]

A woman who battered a man to death with a glass tumbler and a mug has been jailed for a minimum of 14 years. Elizabeth Shields, 33, was convicted of murdering John Cook, 61, at his home in Barrhead in East Renfrewshire last October.

The High Court heard that she giggled as she told a 999 operator that Mr Cook was dead. She then rang her mother and told her: “I’ve just killed a man.”

The court heard Shields has 49 previous convictions for offences including breach of the peace and assault.

She launched the attack after Mr Cook, who had befriended her, ordered her out of his house. As he lay dying, she began cutting one of his wrists with the broken glass.

A jury was played a tape of her speaking to a 999 operator who asked if she wanted the police. Shields replied: “No, you need a morgue.” The 33 year-old then laughed and added: “He is pan bread, lying dead.”

Throughout her trial Shields denied murdering Mr Cook. [BBC]

A man has been convicted of murdering a Nepalese student and dismembering her body with a meat cleaver in Glasgow. He was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice and extort cash and a TV from Mrs Shah's husband.

He denied any involvement throughout the trial and claimed to have been framed. But a jury at the High Court in Glasgow did not believe him and convicted him unanimously of the murder.

During the trial, the court heard how Dantis met Mrs Shah's husband, Nagendra, in 2008 when they started a business masters degree at Strathclyde University. The jury was told that he became increasingly jealous of his friend's more affluent lifestyle and formed a plan to kill Mrs Shah and extort £120,000 from her husband. [BBC]

Mr Dantis said he had been at his flat in the city’s Garthland Drive, Dennistoun, when he allowed access to a man he thought was coming to check his meter. He told the jury this “English-Asian” man had a gun and told him to be quiet.

He claimed the man handed him photographs of Dantis and his wife Astrid before ordering him to go to the Shahs’ home in Coventry Drive and “clean it up” after “things had not gone as expected”. Mr Dantis said he agreed to the demands and told Mr Findlay he did not call police as he was frightened. When he got there—after taking a cab in the name of “Abdul”—he claimed there were signs of disturbance and blood, but no-one was home.

Mr Dantis said he found a blue holdall bag, the type which Mrs Shah’s body was later found dumped in near her home. He told the jury: “I had no idea (what was inside), but it appeared to be a bit heavy.” He moved it outside the flat as requested and also bagged other items, including a broken phone and torn shower curtain, which were to be thrown away.

Mr Findlay asked Dantis: “So you went round to the scene of a murder and to some extent cleaned it up. You removed from the home the headless and handless corpse of the wife of your friend?”

Weeping, Mr Dantis replied: “I did not know at that time what I was doing. This is something that should not have happened. The fact that I did not go to the police and not tell them just feels so wrong.” Mr Dantis claimed the scar-faced gunman appeared at his university days later and again threatened him not to say anything.

Under questioning from Mr Findlay, he later said he believed he had been framed for the murder… Mr Dantis also denied claims that he was behind “ransom” text messages to Mrs Shah’s husband after she disappeared. [BBC]

ruudboy

Florida man blames cat for downloading child pornography

A Florida man says his cat downloaded child pornography. Police are charging Keith Griffin of Jensen Beach, Florida with 10 counts of possession of child pornography after finding more than 1,000 images on his personal computer.

Griffin told police he had been downloading music, and that his cat jumped on the keyboard when he left the room. He said "strange things" appeared on the computer when he returned. [The Guardian]

Stone had attempted to enter Stormont on the day Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness were due to be nominated as Northern Ireland’s new first and deputy first ministers.

The trial heard he pointed an imitation gun at a female security guard, ignited an improvised explosive device in a flight bag and threw it some yards from him. The bag contained explosive fireworks, flammable liquids, a butane gas canister and fuses. It failed to explode.

He was found to have seven nail bombs which the court heard were capable of causing death or serious injury to anyone in their proximity. Stone also had three knives, a hatchet and a garrotte.

An art expert has said that having real nail bombs could “come under the ambit” of performance art, as long as there was no intention of setting them off.

Peter Bond, a senior art lecturer at St Martin’s College, London, was speaking at the trial of Michael Stone, 53. In his evidence Mr Bond, a professional performance artist, stressed that in performance art the most important thing was that people were not harmed.

Giving evidence on his own behalf, Stone had claimed the whole incident was performance art, designed to send a “proverbial rocket up the backsides” of the politicians. He claimed that all the items he had brought with him on that day had their own symbolism in what he described as “an installation”. [BBC]