Posted on Fri, Mar. 26, 2010
By Sam Wood
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Some people will go to extraordinary lengths to save their pets. Tales of pet owners giving CPR to their cats and dogs are fairly common. But how many folks would try to resuscitate a wild animal?
Possums are prone to play dead, especially when threatened. Their eyes glaze over, their teeth are bared, and they secrete a rank stench from their glands.
But the possum lying along the Colonel Drake Highway on Thursday was doing none of that, troopers said. It was long-dead certified roadkill.
And Donald Wolfe was intent on bringing it back to life, troopers said.
Trooper Jamie Levier of the Punxsutawney barracks said witnesses saw Wolfe, 55, locking lips with the lifeless marsupial about 3 p.m. in a remote area about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
After receiving several calls, troopers arrested Wolfe along an isolated stretch of the highway and charged him with public drunkenness.
Levier says the Brookville man was "extremely intoxicated" and "did have his mouth in the area of the animal's mouth, I guess."
Another person saw Wolfe kneeling before the deceased animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a séance, Levier said.
In a release, state police listed the victim of the incident as "society." Wolfe will face the charges before a district judge in Jefferson County at an unscheduled date.
Wolfe, who does not have a listed phone number, could not be reached today for comment.
From: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/89289687.html?cmpid=15585797
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Sensors turn skin into gadget control pad
Last updated at 09:23 GMT, Friday, 26 March 2010Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News
Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets.
US researchers have found a way to work out where the tap touches and use that to control phones and music players.
Coupled with a tiny projector the system can use the skin as a surface on which to display menu choices, a number pad or a screen.
Early work suggests the system, called Skinput, can be learned with about 20 minutes of training.
"The human body is the ultimate input device," Chris Harrison, Skinput's creator, told BBC News.
Sound solution
He came up with the skin-based input system to overcome the problems of interacting with the gadgets we increasingly tote around.
Gadgets cannot shrink much further, said Mr Harrison, and their miniaturisation was being held back by the way people are forced to interact with them.
The size of human fingers dictates, to a great degree, how small portable devices can get. "We are becoming the bottleneck," said Mr Harrison.
To get around this Mr Harrison, a PhD student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon and colleagues Desney Tan and Dan Morris from Microsoft Research, use sensors on the arm to listen for input.
A tap with a finger on the skin scatters useful acoustic signals throughout the arm, he said. Some waves travel along the skin surface and others propagate through the body. Even better, he said, the physiology of the arm makes it straightforward to work out where the skin was touched.
Differences in bone density, arm mass as well as the "filtering" effects that occur when sound waves travel through soft tissue and joints make many of the locations on the arm distinct.
Software coupled with the sensors can be taught which sound means which location. Different functions, start, stop, louder, softer, can be bound to different locations. The system can even be used to pick up very subtle movements such as a pinch or muscle twitch.
"The wonderful thing about the human body is that we are familiar with it," said Mr Harrison. "Proprioception means that even if I spin you around in circles and tell you to touch your fingertips behind your back, you'll be able to do it."
"That gives people a lot more accuracy then we have ever had with a mouse," he said.
Early trials show that after a short amount of training the sensor/software system can pick up a five-location system with accuracy in excess of 95%.
Accuracy does drop when 10 or more locations are used, said Mr Harrison, but having 10 means being able to dial numbers and use the text prediction system that comes as standard on many mobile phones.
The prototype developed by the research team sees the sensors enclosed in a bulky cuff. However, said Mr Harrison, it would be easy to scale them down and put them in a gadget little bigger than a wrist watch.
Mr Harrison said he envisages the device being used in three distinct ways.
The sensors could be coupled with Bluetooth to control a gadget, such as a mobile phone, in a pocket. It could be used to control a music player strapped to the upper arm.
Finally, he said, the sensors could work with a pico-projector that uses the forearm or hand as a display surface. This could show buttons, a hierarchical menu, a number pad or a small screen. Skinput can even be used to play games such as Tetris by tapping on fingers to rotate blocks.
Mr Harrison would not be drawn on how long it might take Skinput to get from the lab to a commercial product. "But," he said, "in the future your hand could be your iPhone and your handset could be watch-sized on your wrist."
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8587486.stm
Friday, March 26, 2010
The Hook: An Urban Legend
By David Emery
Also known as: "The Hook Man"
The story...
A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.
A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum — which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane — and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.
The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.
When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook.
Comments: Folks have been telling the "hook man" story since the 1950s, and indeed the implicit moral message — "Sex is naughty, and bad boys and girls will be punished!" — seems more appropriate to that simpler, more naive era. Just as this moral has come to be parodied in horror films (where formerly it was delivered with morbid solemnity), its "bygone" relevance has taken the teeth out of the cautionary tale over time.
Noting the improbable "tidiness" of the plot, Jan Harold Brunvand has observed that "most tellers narrate the story nowadays more as a scary story than a believed legend." Small wonder. Given its exploitation by Hollywood in popular genre films like "Candyman" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer," most people under the age of 30 probably assume the story was invented by screenwriters.
Folklorists of a Freudian bent find meaningful sexual overtones in the imagery of the tale. The boy, who wants to get his "hooks" into the girl, is not only frustrated by her unwillingness but afraid of his own lustful impulses — a fear heightened by the stern "voice of conscience" emitting from the radio — and has to "pull out fast" before a deadly sin is committed. The tearing off of the madman's hook symbolizes castration. Proponents of this type of psychological interpretation find the sexual apprehensions of both boys and girls represented in the legend.
One of the earliest appearances of "The Hook" in print was in a "Dear Abby" column dated November 8, 1960:
DEAR ABBY: If you are interested in teenagers, you will print this story. I don't know whether it's true or not, but it doesn't matter because it served its purpose for me:
A fellow and his date pulled into their favorite "lovers' lane" to listen to the radio and do a little necking. The music was interrupted by an announcer who said there was an escaped convict in the area who had served time for rape and robbery. He was described as having a hook instead of a right hand. The couple became frightened and drove away. When the boy took his girl home, he went around to open the car door for her. Then he saw — a hook on the door handle! I don't think I will ever park to make out as long as I live. I hope this does the same for other kids.
From: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/the_hook.htm
How Urban Legends Work: http://www.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend.htm/printable
Also known as: "The Hook Man"
The story...
A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl.
A short while later, the music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, warning in an urgent tone that a convicted murderer had just escaped from the state insane asylum — which happened to be located not far from Lovers' Lane — and that anyone who noticed a strange man lurking about with a hook in place of his right hand should immediately report his whereabouts to the police.
The girl became frightened and asked to be taken home. The boy, feeling bold, locked all the doors instead and, assuring his date they would be safe, attempted to kiss her again. She became frantic and pushed him away, insisting that they leave. Relenting, the boy peevishly jerked the car into gear and spun its wheels as he pulled out of the parking space.
When they arrived at the girl's house she got out of the car, and, reaching to close the door, began to scream uncontrollably. The boy ran to her side to see what was wrong and there, dangling from the door handle, was a bloody hook.
Comments: Folks have been telling the "hook man" story since the 1950s, and indeed the implicit moral message — "Sex is naughty, and bad boys and girls will be punished!" — seems more appropriate to that simpler, more naive era. Just as this moral has come to be parodied in horror films (where formerly it was delivered with morbid solemnity), its "bygone" relevance has taken the teeth out of the cautionary tale over time.
Noting the improbable "tidiness" of the plot, Jan Harold Brunvand has observed that "most tellers narrate the story nowadays more as a scary story than a believed legend." Small wonder. Given its exploitation by Hollywood in popular genre films like "Candyman" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer," most people under the age of 30 probably assume the story was invented by screenwriters.
Folklorists of a Freudian bent find meaningful sexual overtones in the imagery of the tale. The boy, who wants to get his "hooks" into the girl, is not only frustrated by her unwillingness but afraid of his own lustful impulses — a fear heightened by the stern "voice of conscience" emitting from the radio — and has to "pull out fast" before a deadly sin is committed. The tearing off of the madman's hook symbolizes castration. Proponents of this type of psychological interpretation find the sexual apprehensions of both boys and girls represented in the legend.
One of the earliest appearances of "The Hook" in print was in a "Dear Abby" column dated November 8, 1960:
DEAR ABBY: If you are interested in teenagers, you will print this story. I don't know whether it's true or not, but it doesn't matter because it served its purpose for me:
A fellow and his date pulled into their favorite "lovers' lane" to listen to the radio and do a little necking. The music was interrupted by an announcer who said there was an escaped convict in the area who had served time for rape and robbery. He was described as having a hook instead of a right hand. The couple became frightened and drove away. When the boy took his girl home, he went around to open the car door for her. Then he saw — a hook on the door handle! I don't think I will ever park to make out as long as I live. I hope this does the same for other kids.
From: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/the_hook.htm
How Urban Legends Work: http://www.howstuffworks.com/urban-legend.htm/printable
Italian teenager asks father for money to pay hitman to kill him
A young Italian woman asked her father for 5,000 euros (£4,500) to fund a holiday to the United States then used the money to have him murdered by two hitmen, police said.
By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 4:44PM GMT 23 Mar 2010
Ilenia Moretti's plan unravelled when the second hitman got cold feet and confessed the plan to police.
Miss Moretti, 19, from the small town of Luzzara in northern Italy, told police she had endured years of verbal abuse from her domineering father, Rodolfo, and resolved to have him killed – apparently with the blessing of her mother.
In January, she allegedly hired the first assassin – a 22 year old man who she recruited from the nearby town of Mantova.
On the night of Jan 8, the alleged hitman, Alex Grantana, cycled 20 miles from Mantova to Luzzara in the dead of night and waited until Mr Moretti, a night porter, emerged from his house to go to work in a local mill.
Mr Grantana allegedly jumped out of the shadows at around 1.30am and stabbed him in the shoulder with a five-inch-long knife.
But Mr Moretti managed to fight off his attacker, disarming him and calling the police.
Detectives were puzzled when Mr Grantana said he attacked Mr Moretti because he did not like him – despite the fact that they had never met before.
Undaunted by the failure of the assassination attempt, Miss Moretti decided to hire a second hitman.
She recruited a young Moroccan immigrant who she met casually in a railway station.
But he had second thoughts and went to the police.
His confession led the Carabinieri to re-examine the circumstances of the first attack.
They arrested the teenager on suspicion of conspiring in two attempted murders.
"She said she wanted to bring to an end years of intimidation suffered by both daughter and mother," an investigator said.
Police also placed under investigation her mother, Roberta, who allegedly gave the green light for the killing.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7506101/Italian-teenager-asks-father-for-money-to-pay-hitman-to-kill-him.html
By Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 4:44PM GMT 23 Mar 2010
Ilenia Moretti's plan unravelled when the second hitman got cold feet and confessed the plan to police.
Miss Moretti, 19, from the small town of Luzzara in northern Italy, told police she had endured years of verbal abuse from her domineering father, Rodolfo, and resolved to have him killed – apparently with the blessing of her mother.
In January, she allegedly hired the first assassin – a 22 year old man who she recruited from the nearby town of Mantova.
On the night of Jan 8, the alleged hitman, Alex Grantana, cycled 20 miles from Mantova to Luzzara in the dead of night and waited until Mr Moretti, a night porter, emerged from his house to go to work in a local mill.
Mr Grantana allegedly jumped out of the shadows at around 1.30am and stabbed him in the shoulder with a five-inch-long knife.
But Mr Moretti managed to fight off his attacker, disarming him and calling the police.
Detectives were puzzled when Mr Grantana said he attacked Mr Moretti because he did not like him – despite the fact that they had never met before.
Undaunted by the failure of the assassination attempt, Miss Moretti decided to hire a second hitman.
She recruited a young Moroccan immigrant who she met casually in a railway station.
But he had second thoughts and went to the police.
His confession led the Carabinieri to re-examine the circumstances of the first attack.
They arrested the teenager on suspicion of conspiring in two attempted murders.
"She said she wanted to bring to an end years of intimidation suffered by both daughter and mother," an investigator said.
Police also placed under investigation her mother, Roberta, who allegedly gave the green light for the killing.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7506101/Italian-teenager-asks-father-for-money-to-pay-hitman-to-kill-him.html
Wife 'blasted husband to death with shotgun after catching him looking at naked women on internet'
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 2:02 PM on 25th March 2010
A pensioner who blasted her husband through the heart with a shotgun today told a court they had argued over him looking at topless models on the internet.
Helen Lawson sobbed in the witness box as she described how her 'deceitful' husband Geoffrey had lied about ogling topless models on his computer.
She told a jury she confronted him and asked what he had been looking at but he refused to show her.
Police who examined the couple's computer found he had been looking at pictures of partially-clothed women.
Lawson killed her 61-year-old husband by firing two cartridges from her double-barrelled weapon in the middle of the night. One ripped through his heart and one struck his abdomen.
The frail 62-year-old said she 'dreaded' life with her bullying husband and they had fought for years over his excessive drinking habits.
She shot her husband from point-blank range at the £200,000 cottage they shared in the village of Wellow, near Freshwater, Isle of Wight.
After shooting Mr Lawson at around 3am on January 4, last year, she phoned the police and told them 'I've just shot my husband'.
Officers rushed to the address where they found Mr Lawson lying face down on their double bed with two shotgun wounds.
The over-and-under style, 12 bore Beretta shotgun was lying by the side of the bed with both barrels discharged.
Lawson, a Scot who is originally from Motherwell, near Glasgow, was arrested at the scene and when later told her husband had died she simply replied 'good'.
Home Office pathologist Dr Basil Purdue said the pellets from the first shot, 'tore his heart apart,' while the second 'badly fragmented the liver'.
Today Lawson explained to the jury how she struggled to cope with her husband's mood swings after they married in 2004.
She said she loved 'the old Geoff' but hated how he became when he had been drinking.
Lawson told the court: 'He could be really horrible but the next day he could be the lovely Geoff again - he was so unpredictable.
'I was so low. He made me feel useless and worthless and would say he did everything and I did nothing.'
Lawson described her husband as 'deceitful' and said he refused to let her see what he looked at on their computer.
She said: 'I could never see what he was looking at but when I asked him about he said it was just my imagination.
'I said it wasn't and he got in a bad mood.
'I didn't find out until October 2008 that he had been looking at page three girls on the computer. That was him being deceitful and lying.'
Lawson told the court she drank two glasses of brandy and two glasses of white wine after her husband went to bed on the night of his death.
She said before he went to bed she called him a 'deceitful, lying drunk.' He replied, 'prove it.'
Lawson collected the two hidden keys for her secure gun cabinet before opening it and taking out the weapon.
She said: 'I wanted my pain to stop and I could not think of another day with Geoff - that was all. I dreaded life with Geoff.
'As I walked up the stairs to the bedroom I knew what I was going to do but I did not think of the consequences.
'I switched on the light and called his name to make him open his eyes. When he opened them he immediately rolled over and said, "no Helen, no". Then I shot him.'
Lawson said she immediately dropped the weapon and went downstairs to call police.
She said she then wrote a text message to her children but never sent it because the police arrived and asked her to come outside the house where they were waiting.
The court was told that the text read: 'This is one evil man. Sorry Paul and Kim I love you both. Always be with you. xxx.'
Sobbing, Lawson added: 'By that time I had suddenly realised what I had done and I was never going to see my children again.'
Defence counsel Dorian Lovell-Pank QC asked Lawson how she felt now about what she had done.
She replied: 'I feel horrified and deeply, deeply sorry about the pain I have caused everybody.
'I loved the old Geoff and still do but not the drunk Geoff.'
Prosecuting, Nicholas Haggan QC earlier told the jury many couples argued, but added: 'The remedy is divorce, not to take a gun and kill the offending partner.'
The court heard that Lawson had held a license for the guns since 1997 and was a keen clay pigeon shooter.
Lawson denies murder but admits manslaughter on the grounds of provocation and diminished responsibility.
The trial at Winchester Crown Court continues.
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260602/Helen-Lawson-shoots-husband-dead-catching-looking-naked-women-internet.html
Jailed: pensioner gang who kidnapped financial adviser
Man who lost elderly clients £2.2m was abducted and beaten for days before he managed to escapeBy Tony Paterson in Berlin
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
The coded command was: "Willy, go and get the green file out of the car." It was the cue for the vanguard of an all-pensioner kidnapping team – led by its 74-year-old ringleader – to limp into action. Their target: the investment adviser they accused of losing their money during the financial crisis.
It also marked the start of a horrific four-day kidnap ordeal for James Amburn, a respectable American-born consultant at the hands of a gang of five pensioners aged between 61 and 80. Mr Amburn was snatched from his home, driven 300 miles in the boot of a car, hidden in a cellar, interrogated and beaten. "I feared for my life – I did not know whether I would survive," he recalled.
The final chapter of the story was played out in a Bavarian courtroom yesterday, when four of the pensioners were sentenced for the kidnapping and torturing of Mr Amburn after they lost investments worth €2.4m (£2.2m) entrusted to him during the credit crunch. Roland K, the ringleader, was jailed for six years.
Karl Niedermeyer, the presiding judge, described their crimes as a "spectacular case of individuals taking justice into their own hands".
The events that led up to what is believed to be Germany's first kidnapping by pensioners began in the late 1990s. Roland K and his wife Sieglinde started investing their capital in Florida's then booming property market via an investment company run by Mr Amburn. In the early years, the Ks reaped handsome returns and entrusted their adviser with even more cash. But their investments crashed as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and by early 2009, the Ks and three other pensioners who had invested were clamouring for their cash to be returned. Mr Amburn did not provide it.
Desperate for their money, Roland K and his accomplice Willy D, 61, went to Mr Amburn's home in the German cathedral city of Speyer in June last year with a plan to kidnap him.
After their victim returned from the pub, they sat on him and bound him with yards of brown sticky tape they had bought the day before at their local DIY shop. The two pensioners then bundled the 57-year-old Mr Amburn, his mouth gagged with tape, into a specially made removal company carton they had brought with them.
Sweating profusely, the two men lifted the box on to a trolley and staggered past unsuspecting customers sitting outside cafes as they pushed it towards their silver Audi 8 saloon parked some 500 yards across town.
"If anybody has asked what was inside, we had an answer ready," admitted Roland K. "We were going to tell them it contained a marble statue."
They drove Mr Amburn to Roland K's holiday home on the shores of lake Chiemsee in Bavaria. On the way, Mr Amburn freed himself sufficiently to grab a crowbar lying in the boot and start smashing the boot. Roland K stopped, opened the boot, beat Amburn for "wantonly damaging his car" and broke two of his ribs.
Mr Amburn was held semi-naked in a cellar in the house and taken out for interrogation sessions in the garage. These were also attended by Gerhard and Iris F, aged 63 and 66, a doctor couple who live nearby and who had also lost money through Mr Amburn. "I thought they were going to take me out into the woods and shoot me," Mr Amburn told the court.
During the trial in the Bavarian city of Traunstein, Roland K tried repeatedly to play down the kidnapping and told disbelieving judges that Mr Amburn had been taken to Chiemsee so that the "mountain air might help him to think better".
He claimed that the pensioner gang had held their captive in an "extra guest room" in the cellar and that they held "meetings" about their missing investments in the "office/garage" of the house. "We treated him well. He was always given an excellent three-course dinner by my wife," insisted Roland K.
However, the kidnappers did allow their chain-smoking captive to take cigarette breaks in the garden. Thinking he had been left unnoticed, Mr Amburn leapt over the garden wall in his underpants one rainy afternoon and ran down the street in the wealthy Bavarian resort town shouting: "Help – I've been kidnapped."
His abductors followed in hot pursuit in their silver Audi shouting: "Stop that man, he's a burglar." The well-to-do burghers of Chiemsee preferred to believe their own neighbours and promptly grabbed Mr Amburn and pinned him to the pavement before handing him back to his pensioner abductors.
Back in his cellar prison, Mr Amburn managed to convince his kidnappers that he could return some of their money if they allowed him to send a fax to a Swiss bank to organise a cash transfer. He was able to send a message with the fax which appealed to its recipients in a lightly coded form to "please call the police".
Within a matter of hours the Chiemsee house was surrounded by 40 heavily armed police from Bavaria's anti-terrorist unit. The five members of the "pensioner gang" were instantly arrested.
Four were convicted yesterday and given sentences ranging from an 18-month suspended sentence and the six-year jail term for Roland K for kidnapping and torturing Mr Amburn. The fifth pensioner, who is aged 67, will be tried later because of illness.
Backlash: Violence and the financial crisis
* The highest-profile victim of the backlash against the bankers in Britain was former RBS boss Sir Fred Goodwin.
Windows at his Edinburgh home were smashed and a black Mercedes car in his drive vandalised. Emails sent from a group claiming responsibility for the attack said they were angry that rich people were living in luxury while ordinary people lost their jobs. "This is a crime. Bank bosses should be jailed. This is just the beginning," said one of the emails. Sir Fred became the target of public anger after details emerged of his generous pension deal. He took early retirement from the stricken bank that needed a £20bn bailout.
* The US insurer AIG received death threats, including a vow to garrotte staff with piano wire, amid fury over bonuses received by top executives.
The firm was given a $170bn government bailout following its near collapse, and there was an angry response from the public after the firm paid bonuses of $1m or more to 73 executives who stayed at AIG in the wake of the financial crisis. Armed guards were stationed outside the company's offices in Connecticut and some employees refused to go to work because of the threats.
From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/jailed-pensioner-gang-who-kidnapped-financial-adviser-1926172.html
Stupid Criminal: Call ahead robbery
The Associated Press
Published: March 24, 2010
Updated: March 24, 2010
FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Police in Connecticut say even they were surprised by the actions of these criminals: two would-be robbers called a bank ahead of time to get the money ready and were arrested at the scene.
Fairfield police say they arrested Albert Bailey, 27, and an unidentified 16-year-old boy on robbery and threatening charges Tuesday afternoon at the People’s United Bank branch on Stratfield Road.
Sgt. James Perez said the two Bridgeport residents called the bank and told a worker to get a bag of money ready. Perez says they showed up at the bank 10 minutes later, but police had been notified and arrested the suspects in the parking lot.
Perez told the Connecticut Post he classifies the suspects as “not too bright.“
It’s not clear if Bailey and the teen have lawyers.
From: http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/police_robbers_called_bank_to_get_money_ready/33568/
Well, you really can't blame 'em for trying...
J.A.C.
Published: March 24, 2010
Updated: March 24, 2010
FAIRFIELD, Conn. - Police in Connecticut say even they were surprised by the actions of these criminals: two would-be robbers called a bank ahead of time to get the money ready and were arrested at the scene.
Fairfield police say they arrested Albert Bailey, 27, and an unidentified 16-year-old boy on robbery and threatening charges Tuesday afternoon at the People’s United Bank branch on Stratfield Road.
Sgt. James Perez said the two Bridgeport residents called the bank and told a worker to get a bag of money ready. Perez says they showed up at the bank 10 minutes later, but police had been notified and arrested the suspects in the parking lot.
Perez told the Connecticut Post he classifies the suspects as “not too bright.“
It’s not clear if Bailey and the teen have lawyers.
From: http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/police_robbers_called_bank_to_get_money_ready/33568/
Well, you really can't blame 'em for trying...
J.A.C.
Mother, baby found dead in Fall River
Friday, March 26, 2010
FALL RIVER, Mass.— Fall River police are investigating what they call the suspicious deaths of a mother and her young son inside an apartment in one of the city’s public housing complexes.
NBC 10’s Dan Jaehnig reported that the bodies were found Thursday inside an apartment at 103 Sunset Hill at about 2 p.m
A maintenance crew found the people inside the apartment. NBC 10 reported that workers from the Fall River Housing Authority were doing a routine inspection when they made the discovery.
The district attorney’s statement said the deaths appear suspicious and autopsies will be conducted by the state medical examiner.
The Fall River police and state troopers assigned to the district attorney’s office are investigating. The names of the mother and child have not been released.
Autopsies will be done Friday.
A neighbor told NBC 10 that police told him that the victims were a woman and her young son. The neighbor said they had not been seen for several days.
From: http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/police_called_to_fall_river_neighborhood/33653/
FALL RIVER, Mass.— Fall River police are investigating what they call the suspicious deaths of a mother and her young son inside an apartment in one of the city’s public housing complexes.NBC 10’s Dan Jaehnig reported that the bodies were found Thursday inside an apartment at 103 Sunset Hill at about 2 p.m
A maintenance crew found the people inside the apartment. NBC 10 reported that workers from the Fall River Housing Authority were doing a routine inspection when they made the discovery.
The district attorney’s statement said the deaths appear suspicious and autopsies will be conducted by the state medical examiner.
The Fall River police and state troopers assigned to the district attorney’s office are investigating. The names of the mother and child have not been released.
Autopsies will be done Friday.
A neighbor told NBC 10 that police told him that the victims were a woman and her young son. The neighbor said they had not been seen for several days.
From: http://www2.turnto10.com/jar/news/local/article/police_called_to_fall_river_neighborhood/33653/
Thursday, March 25, 2010
New John Wayne Gacy Photos Released
Steve Miller ReportingCHICAGO (WBBM) - It has been more than 30 years since the John Wayne Gacy case broke: the so-called Killer Clown who was executed for the rape and murder of 33 young men and boys.
Now one of the evidence technicians who worked at Gacy's home site is showing some rarely seen photographs.
It was under Gacy's home and on the property at 8213 West Summerdale where 29 bodies were found.
Alan Kulovitz was a young evidence technician for the Cook County Sheriff's Police back in the late '70s. He worked the scene - and says it didn't upset him.
Then he read the book about Gacy, "Killer Clown."
"I was reading one of the chapters and they were talking about a grandmother looking for her grandson, a victim, and when they said he ended up being victim number 22 or 23, well that was one of the bodies that I took out from under the kitchen sink area. There were five of them over there. And it was the first time that it kind of hit me."
From: http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/6650797.php
Photos: http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/6650400.php?
Beaten woman 'looked as if she had been in a crash'
Last updated 05:00 25/03/2010
A woman found dead in a cupboard in the house she shared with her alcoholic partner suffered multiple injuries comparable to being in a high-speed car crash, a coroner has found.
Mihi Tuhoro, 48, died between July 1 and July 20, 2008. She had been in a relationship with her killer, Malcolm Ngeru, and they were living in a flat in Farmer Cres in Lower Hutt.
Ngeru was later convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years.
Coroner Ian Smith said their lifestyle was based around daily drinking sessions, which took place in various flats.
The day Ms Tuhoro was attacked they had both been drinking in an upstairs flat. Ms Tuhoro had remained after Ngeru left but then returned to their flat despite being warned not to.
She was then severely beaten. Mr Smith said she probably survived for a short time before dying of her injuries, which had caused respiratory failure.
Ngeru hid her in a cupboard and left the flat. He told police where she was a month later.
Mr Smith said the blows inflicted on Ms Tuhoro were extremely violent, "similar to the damage that can be sustained from a high-speed motor accident".
He said it appeared Ngeru kicked or stomped on her chest and head, sufficient to fracture her skull, ribs and sternum.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3502139/Beaten-woman-looked-as-if-she-had-been-in-a-crash
A woman found dead in a cupboard in the house she shared with her alcoholic partner suffered multiple injuries comparable to being in a high-speed car crash, a coroner has found.
Mihi Tuhoro, 48, died between July 1 and July 20, 2008. She had been in a relationship with her killer, Malcolm Ngeru, and they were living in a flat in Farmer Cres in Lower Hutt.
Ngeru was later convicted of her murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 12 years.
Coroner Ian Smith said their lifestyle was based around daily drinking sessions, which took place in various flats.
The day Ms Tuhoro was attacked they had both been drinking in an upstairs flat. Ms Tuhoro had remained after Ngeru left but then returned to their flat despite being warned not to.
She was then severely beaten. Mr Smith said she probably survived for a short time before dying of her injuries, which had caused respiratory failure.
Ngeru hid her in a cupboard and left the flat. He told police where she was a month later.
Mr Smith said the blows inflicted on Ms Tuhoro were extremely violent, "similar to the damage that can be sustained from a high-speed motor accident".
He said it appeared Ngeru kicked or stomped on her chest and head, sufficient to fracture her skull, ribs and sternum.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3502139/Beaten-woman-looked-as-if-she-had-been-in-a-crash
Teens admit attack on intellectually disabled man
Last updated 05:00 25/03/2010
Two Invercargill teenagers were convicted yesterday for their part in a brutal attack with a claw hammer and a tomahawk axe on a man with an intellectual disability.
A graphic police summary of facts details the offenders washing blood from their hands and bragging about their actions in the aftermath of the attack.
Anthony Miles Tamati Watkins, also known as Miles Samson, and Matthew Evans-Kent, both 15, appeared before Judge Brian Callaghan in the Invercargill District Court yesterday where they admitted joint charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary, stemming from the attack on the man on November 4.
Three adult men, aged 19, 17 and 33, are before the court or have already been sentenced on the same charges for their part in the attack.
The charges are indictable, meaning, despite their age, the pair were dealt with in district court.
Both the charges carry a maximum sentence of 14 years' jail.
According to the police summary of facts, the victim is a 19-year-old man who suffers from a genetic and cardio disorder called Williams Syndrome, giving him the mental age of an 11 or 12-year-old.
Despite his disabilities, he was living independently with some support in a flat at the time of the attack.
On November 4, Watkins, Evans-Kent and their co-offenders were drinking at a house in Teviot St and as the night wore on they talked about the victim and comments they believe he had made to police, the summary says. "It was decided it was payback time."
The five decided to go to the man's Bowmont St flat to "give him a beating".
Of then five, it is Evans-Kent and Watkins who were armed – with a claw hammer and a tomahawk axe respectively, the summary says.
Between 10.30pm and 10.40pm the five left the Teviot St house and went to the man's flat.
Evans-Kent knocked on a sliding door.
The victim, who was asleep, got up, partly opened the door and Evans-Kent struck him in the head multiple times.
The five forced their way into his house before all four "set upon him", the summary says.
Watkins struck him once in the back with the blade of the axe and a second time on the upper left leg, causing large lacerations, the summary says.
The attack only stopped when the man started screaming. The screams alerted a neighbour, who called police.
Evans-Kent threw the hammer into bushes as he and Watkins ran back to the Teviot St house where they discussed what happened, washed the blood from their hands and the axe before putting it back in a wood bin.
The man's injuries were so severe – one laceration was initially thought to have perforated his bowel – he underwent surgery the following day, the same day Evans-Kent handed himself into police.
He would not name his co-offenders, the summary says.
Watkins initially told police he had acted as a lookout and denied attacking the man with the axe.
Lawyers for the pair – Kate McHugh for Watkins and Fergus More for Evans-Kent – both asked for interim name suppression for their clients until the were sentenced.
The requests were denied by Judge Callaghan who convicted both before remanding them to appear in the Invercargill District Court for sentence on May 20.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3502441/Teens-admit-attack-on-intellectually-disabled-man
Two Invercargill teenagers were convicted yesterday for their part in a brutal attack with a claw hammer and a tomahawk axe on a man with an intellectual disability.
A graphic police summary of facts details the offenders washing blood from their hands and bragging about their actions in the aftermath of the attack.
Anthony Miles Tamati Watkins, also known as Miles Samson, and Matthew Evans-Kent, both 15, appeared before Judge Brian Callaghan in the Invercargill District Court yesterday where they admitted joint charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and aggravated burglary, stemming from the attack on the man on November 4.
Three adult men, aged 19, 17 and 33, are before the court or have already been sentenced on the same charges for their part in the attack.
The charges are indictable, meaning, despite their age, the pair were dealt with in district court.
Both the charges carry a maximum sentence of 14 years' jail.
According to the police summary of facts, the victim is a 19-year-old man who suffers from a genetic and cardio disorder called Williams Syndrome, giving him the mental age of an 11 or 12-year-old.
Despite his disabilities, he was living independently with some support in a flat at the time of the attack.
On November 4, Watkins, Evans-Kent and their co-offenders were drinking at a house in Teviot St and as the night wore on they talked about the victim and comments they believe he had made to police, the summary says. "It was decided it was payback time."
The five decided to go to the man's Bowmont St flat to "give him a beating".
Of then five, it is Evans-Kent and Watkins who were armed – with a claw hammer and a tomahawk axe respectively, the summary says.
Between 10.30pm and 10.40pm the five left the Teviot St house and went to the man's flat.
Evans-Kent knocked on a sliding door.
The victim, who was asleep, got up, partly opened the door and Evans-Kent struck him in the head multiple times.
The five forced their way into his house before all four "set upon him", the summary says.
Watkins struck him once in the back with the blade of the axe and a second time on the upper left leg, causing large lacerations, the summary says.
The attack only stopped when the man started screaming. The screams alerted a neighbour, who called police.
Evans-Kent threw the hammer into bushes as he and Watkins ran back to the Teviot St house where they discussed what happened, washed the blood from their hands and the axe before putting it back in a wood bin.
The man's injuries were so severe – one laceration was initially thought to have perforated his bowel – he underwent surgery the following day, the same day Evans-Kent handed himself into police.
He would not name his co-offenders, the summary says.
Watkins initially told police he had acted as a lookout and denied attacking the man with the axe.
Lawyers for the pair – Kate McHugh for Watkins and Fergus More for Evans-Kent – both asked for interim name suppression for their clients until the were sentenced.
The requests were denied by Judge Callaghan who convicted both before remanding them to appear in the Invercargill District Court for sentence on May 20.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3502441/Teens-admit-attack-on-intellectually-disabled-man
Record numbers now licensed to pack heat
Firearms deaths fall as millions obtain permits to carry concealed gunsBy Mike Stuckey
Senior news editor
msnbc.com
updated 8:43 a.m. ET March 24, 2010
Waving a chromed semiautomatic pistol, the robber pushed into the building in the bustling Five Points neighborhood of Columbia, S.C., just before 11 p.m. on April 11, 2009. “Gimme what you got!” he yelled, his gun hand trembling.
Attorney Jim Corley was one of four people in the room, the lounge area of a 12-step recovery group’s meeting hall. “He said, ‘Give me your wallet,’” Corley recalled. “So I reached around to my back pocket and gave him what was there.”
Unfortunately for the gunman, later identified as Kayson Helms, 18, of Edison, N.J., that was Corley’s tiny Kel-Tec .32, hidden in a wallet holster and loaded with a half-dozen hollow points. Corley fired once into the robber’s abdomen. The young man turned. Corley fired twice more, hitting him in the neck and again in the torso. Helms ran into the night and collapsed to die on a railroad embankment 100 feet away.
Reports filed by officers who arrived at the scene a short time later called it an “exceptionally clear” case of justifiable homicide. Following South Carolina’s “Castle Doctrine,” which allows the use of deadly force in self-defense, police did not arrest Corley. They did not interrogate him. Corley was offered the opportunity to make a voluntary statement, which he did.
Helms’ friends and relatives were left to mourn, barred by the same Castle Doctrine from filing a civil lawsuit.
Jim Corley became an unintentional spokesman for a burgeoning movement of millions of Americans who secretly and legally pack pistols in waistbands, under jackets, strapped to ankles, stashed in purses or — like Corley — tucked in hip pockets.
From its beginnings in the 1980s, the “right-to-carry” movement has succeeded in boosting the number of licensed concealed-gun carriers from fewer than 1 million to a record 6 million today, according to estimates from gun-rights groups that are supported by msnbc.com’s research. And while hotly debated, the effect of this dramatic increase is largely unknown.
Gun enthusiasts claim a link between more private citizens carrying concealed weapons and the nation’s dramatic decrease in violent crime. Gun-control activists argue that concealed-carry permits are being handed out to people who should never get them, sometimes resulting in tragic, needless shootings.
Effect on crime is hotly debated
But even with the push to expand concealed-carry rights now in its third decade, no scientific studies have reached any widely accepted conclusions about the movement’s effect on crime or personal safety.
Statistics from the national Centers for Disease Control do indicate that the murder and mayhem predicted by many opponents of concealed-carry laws have not come to pass. But even that point, while celebrated by gun-rights activists and conceded by some concealed-carry opponents, is disputed by others.
Both sides do agree on one thing: More Americans than ever are carrying hidden guns.
Firearms laws have been growing more relaxed across the United States for years. Gun-control activists have failed in efforts to re-enact the nationwide ban on certain semiautomatic rifles they call “assault weapons.” They were unable to block a change in federal law, signed by President Obama this year, which allows guns to be carried in national parks. And they watched in dismay as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2008 that the Second Amendment grants residents of Washington, D.C., the right to own and keep loaded handguns in their homes.
From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34714389/ns/us_news-life/
Death penalty: 18 is old enough
Posted By: Bob Egelko | March 24 2010 at 09:47 AMIt's been five years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executions of juveniles -- youths who were under 18 when they committed capital murder -- violated the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. As the 5-4 majority put it, "evolving standards of decency" forbid putting to death someone who has not lived long enough to gain "a mature understanding of his own humanity."
The California Supreme Court was recently asked to extend the prohibition to 18-year-olds, particularly one who, according to his lawyer, was immature and mentally disturbed. Last week the court said no, unanimously.
The defendant, Richard Gamache, enlisted in the Army in 1992, at 18, and was discharged for psychiatric reasons a few months later. Back home in the San Bernardino County town of Yermo, he cooked up a plot with his wife and a friend to rob a neighbor couple, Lee and Peggy Williams.
When the three were done looting the couple's house at gunpoint and were about to drive off in their motor home and car, according to prosecution witnesses, Gamache made the Williamses lie on the ground, told them, "Thank you and have a nice day," and shot both of them in the head. Lee Williams died, but his wife survived and called police.
One issue that Gamache's lawyer raised in appealing his death sentence was an argument that, if it's cruel and unusual punishment to execute a 17-year-old murderer, it's just as cruel and unusual to execute someone whose mental age was that of a juvenile, even if he was 11 months past his 18th birthday when he fired the fatal shot.
Attorney Jay Moller said in his brief to the court, "An 18-year-old, mentally ill teenager does not deserve to die at the hands of the state, regardless of the crimes he has committed." He also argued that executing anyone under 21 violates "fundamental notions of justice."
The court saw it differently. Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has drawn a line at 18, the point at which society, for many purposes, divides childhood from adulthood. The high court identified an "emergent national consensus" against executing anyone who committed a murder before turning 18, Werdegar said, and the standard is no different in California.
Moller said he's disappointed, but he's still optimistic that Gamache, now 36 -- who Moller said has been treated with anti-psychotic drugs since arriving on Death Row -- will eventually get his death sentence overturned in federal court.
From: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/crime/detail?entry_id=59776&sfgabt=ttmabta
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWhat Have You Done to Solange? is a 1972 giallo film directed by Massimo Dallamano. The film was based (loosely) on the Edgar Wallace mystery novel The Clue of the New Pin. It was shot on location in London, England over the course of six weeks in the fall of 1971. The films Italian title is Cosa avete fatto a Solange? In recent years the film has gained a reputation as one of the better giallo films of the early 70's from fans of the genre.
Plot
Italian teacher Enrico Rosseni is having an affair with one of his lovely young students. While on an afternoon outing the two lovers learn that a fellow student is brutally murdered mere yards from them. Now other female students are being targeted by a killer with a sinister vendetta and Rosseni is looking like a suspect.
Directed by Massimo Dallamano - Produced by Leo Pescarolo - Written by Bruno Di Geronimo, Massimo Dallamano - Starring Karin Baal, Joachim Fuchsberger, Cristina Galbó, Camille Keaton, Fabio Testi - Music by Ennio Morricone - Cinematography Joe D'Amato - Editing by Antonio Siciliano - Release date 1972 - Running time 105 min - Country Italy
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Have_You_Done_to_Solange%3F
"On the surface, What Have You Done to Solange?, or to use its original Italian title Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange?, is just one of an almost uncountable number of gialli released in the 1970s, riding on the coat-tails of the success of Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. It has everything you would expect (and hope) to find in such a film: a baffling whodunit, an overshadowing of the proceedings by childhood trauma, weak dubbing, nubile naked girls, and of course, my personal favourite, the black-gloved killer. Solange, however, is difficult to dismiss as a generic clone or mere entertainment. It has a way of getting under your skin and sticking in your mind long after the closing credits have finished rolling."
--Michael Mackenzie
Man inserts zucchini into anus in suicide attempt
Mon, Mar 22, 2010The Daily Chilli
A 62-year-old man was rushed to hospital after he attempted to take his own life the ancient way.
The sexagenarian inserted a zucchini into his anus in the attempted suicide at his home in Hong Kong on Friday.
According to Ming Bao, the man's daughter who returned home at about 10.40pm was shocked to see her father moaning in pain and lying in a pool of blood.
She rushed him to the hospital for bleeding in the anus.
When asked by the medical assistants, the man said he wished to die and that it was an ancient way to take one's own life.
The man is recuperating at the hospital after doctors removed the zucchini that was left in his rectum.
From: http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20100322-206018.html
Accused Game Cheater Gets Knife Through Head and Survives
March 22, 2010 10:00AM
By Mike Fahey
An argument between Counter-Strike players at a Chinese net café over suspected use of a 'wallhack' cheat led to a 17-year-old boy being stabbed through the head with a foot-long knife - and living to tell the tale. (Graphic Photo)
Counter-Strike players in the Jilin province of China take cheating extremely seriously, as evidenced by the grievous wound suffered by one suspected cheater on March 16. The 17-year-old victim was suspected of using a hack that allowed him to see through walls, giving him an obvious benefit in the computerized game of hide and go kill each other.
A fight broke out outside the net café regarding the hack, and one assailant decided to do a little hacking of his own, stabbing large knife into the side of the cheater's head, the tip of the blade barely protruding from the other side.
The boy, miraculously still conscious, was rushed to a nearby hospital. After around 10 hours of surgery, the knife was successful removed. The boy survived, but is under observation in case bits of rust - did we mention the blade was rusty? - flaked off inside his brain.
So how does someone survive a foot-long knife through the skull? According to doctors, the blade missed major arteries, which kept him from hemorrhaging, and managed to somehow avoid affecting motor skills even though the blade passed through areas that handle those functions.
The net café where the incident occurred was popular with local youths because it didn't require ID, a fact I'm sure some will consider to be a factor in the incident, but I've always believed that being an asshole with a knife is an ageless thing.
I'm not sure how the law works in China regarding stabbings, but somewhere there's a Counter-Strike player just as relieved that the victim didn't die as the victim himself.
Physician Yan Shi-jun, who operated on the young man, said that the chances of surviving such a wound were one in ten thousand. Those are pretty steep odds.
I bet he cheated.
From: http://kotaku.com/5499061/accused-game-cheater-gets-knife-through-head-and-survives
By Mike Fahey
An argument between Counter-Strike players at a Chinese net café over suspected use of a 'wallhack' cheat led to a 17-year-old boy being stabbed through the head with a foot-long knife - and living to tell the tale. (Graphic Photo)
Counter-Strike players in the Jilin province of China take cheating extremely seriously, as evidenced by the grievous wound suffered by one suspected cheater on March 16. The 17-year-old victim was suspected of using a hack that allowed him to see through walls, giving him an obvious benefit in the computerized game of hide and go kill each other.
A fight broke out outside the net café regarding the hack, and one assailant decided to do a little hacking of his own, stabbing large knife into the side of the cheater's head, the tip of the blade barely protruding from the other side.
The boy, miraculously still conscious, was rushed to a nearby hospital. After around 10 hours of surgery, the knife was successful removed. The boy survived, but is under observation in case bits of rust - did we mention the blade was rusty? - flaked off inside his brain.
So how does someone survive a foot-long knife through the skull? According to doctors, the blade missed major arteries, which kept him from hemorrhaging, and managed to somehow avoid affecting motor skills even though the blade passed through areas that handle those functions.
The net café where the incident occurred was popular with local youths because it didn't require ID, a fact I'm sure some will consider to be a factor in the incident, but I've always believed that being an asshole with a knife is an ageless thing.
I'm not sure how the law works in China regarding stabbings, but somewhere there's a Counter-Strike player just as relieved that the victim didn't die as the victim himself.
Physician Yan Shi-jun, who operated on the young man, said that the chances of surviving such a wound were one in ten thousand. Those are pretty steep odds.
I bet he cheated.
From: http://kotaku.com/5499061/accused-game-cheater-gets-knife-through-head-and-survives
School killings reveal mental health woes
By SHAN JUAN, HU MEIDONG AND ZHU XINGXIN (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:02
NANPING, Fujian - A man alleged to be mentally ill stabbed eight school children to death and injured five others on Tuesday in Fujian province, a tragedy which experts said once again points to inadequacies in the treatment of such people.
Police arrested the man identified as Zheng Mingsheng, a former community doctor in Nanping city, according to Huang Zhongping, spokesman for the city's public security bureau.
Zheng, born in 1968, is a native of Nanping and used to work at the Mazhan community clinic before he resigned in June 2009, Huang said.
Zheng is said to have a history of mental illness, and local reports said he was fired by the community clinic for mental health problems.
"Sometimes he acted abnormally but we never imagined he would do such a cruel thing," a community resident said.
The attack happened at 7:20 am at the entrance of Nanping Experimental Primary School.
Zheng charged into a group of students wielding a 25-cm knife, witness Gan Guiping, the school's PE instructor, told China Daily.
"They don't allow me to live and drive me crazy. I will not spare them," Gan recalled Zheng as shouting repeatedly.
He said the attack lasted less than a minute, and three died at the scene.
"After being stabbed, some of the students rose, stumbled a few steps and then fell," Gan said with tears in his eyes.
"I saw them die in front of me."
Cai Luyan, director of the school's moral education section, said the attack took the students by total surprise.
"A boy in Grade 1 was stabbed to death in front of his mother," Cai said.
Zheng was subdued by passers-by and school security guards, said Wu Jiachong, owner of a store who called the police.
The school, which has 2,000 students, was closed for the day and the students were taken home by their families, Xinhua News Agency reported.
"My mind went blank when my son's teacher called me at 8 am, saying he had been stabbed," said Lu Yanping, mother of 12-year-old Liu Luyi, at the intensive care unit of Nanping People's Hospital
"He is still in critical condition."
Police will release details of the investigation as soon as possible, local authorities said.
The local government has assigned 20 therapists to the school to deal with possible post-traumatic stress, said Liao Hanren, deputy head of the municipal education bureau.
Classes are scheduled to resume Wednesday, and psychological counseling will be provided, Liao said.
The latest tragedy again highlights the threat to social security posed by the lack of treatment for the mentally ill. Only one in five such patients gets professional treatment in the country, which has more than 16 million people suffering mental problems, experts estimated.
They blamed low awareness of the possible danger and widespread discrimination against the mentally ill for the situation.
A national mental health law, first drafted in the 1980s, aims to provide the mentally ill with legal protection and subsidized health care.
Once passed, patients without family support will have access to free shelter and treatment provided by the government.
Pang Yu, a doctor at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, a leading psychiatric hospital in the country, said the legislation has been shelved because of the huge funds required.
Currently, only a few prosperous provinces and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong have drafted regional regulations on mental health.
Patients largely depend on families for help, financially and psychologically, Pang noted.
"Without national legislation and government funding, the problem cannot be solved," he noted.
So far legislation exists for only one disease, AIDS, for which patients have access to free treatment and drugs.
That costs the central government several billon yuan each year, official figures show.
From: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/24/content_9631513.htm
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:02
NANPING, Fujian - A man alleged to be mentally ill stabbed eight school children to death and injured five others on Tuesday in Fujian province, a tragedy which experts said once again points to inadequacies in the treatment of such people.
Police arrested the man identified as Zheng Mingsheng, a former community doctor in Nanping city, according to Huang Zhongping, spokesman for the city's public security bureau.
Zheng, born in 1968, is a native of Nanping and used to work at the Mazhan community clinic before he resigned in June 2009, Huang said.
Zheng is said to have a history of mental illness, and local reports said he was fired by the community clinic for mental health problems.
"Sometimes he acted abnormally but we never imagined he would do such a cruel thing," a community resident said.
The attack happened at 7:20 am at the entrance of Nanping Experimental Primary School.
Zheng charged into a group of students wielding a 25-cm knife, witness Gan Guiping, the school's PE instructor, told China Daily.
"They don't allow me to live and drive me crazy. I will not spare them," Gan recalled Zheng as shouting repeatedly.
He said the attack lasted less than a minute, and three died at the scene.
"After being stabbed, some of the students rose, stumbled a few steps and then fell," Gan said with tears in his eyes.
"I saw them die in front of me."
Cai Luyan, director of the school's moral education section, said the attack took the students by total surprise.
"A boy in Grade 1 was stabbed to death in front of his mother," Cai said.
Zheng was subdued by passers-by and school security guards, said Wu Jiachong, owner of a store who called the police.
The school, which has 2,000 students, was closed for the day and the students were taken home by their families, Xinhua News Agency reported.
"My mind went blank when my son's teacher called me at 8 am, saying he had been stabbed," said Lu Yanping, mother of 12-year-old Liu Luyi, at the intensive care unit of Nanping People's Hospital
"He is still in critical condition."
Police will release details of the investigation as soon as possible, local authorities said.
The local government has assigned 20 therapists to the school to deal with possible post-traumatic stress, said Liao Hanren, deputy head of the municipal education bureau.
Classes are scheduled to resume Wednesday, and psychological counseling will be provided, Liao said.
The latest tragedy again highlights the threat to social security posed by the lack of treatment for the mentally ill. Only one in five such patients gets professional treatment in the country, which has more than 16 million people suffering mental problems, experts estimated.
They blamed low awareness of the possible danger and widespread discrimination against the mentally ill for the situation.
A national mental health law, first drafted in the 1980s, aims to provide the mentally ill with legal protection and subsidized health care.
Once passed, patients without family support will have access to free shelter and treatment provided by the government.
Pang Yu, a doctor at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, a leading psychiatric hospital in the country, said the legislation has been shelved because of the huge funds required.
Currently, only a few prosperous provinces and cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong have drafted regional regulations on mental health.
Patients largely depend on families for help, financially and psychologically, Pang noted.
"Without national legislation and government funding, the problem cannot be solved," he noted.
So far legislation exists for only one disease, AIDS, for which patients have access to free treatment and drugs.
That costs the central government several billon yuan each year, official figures show.
From: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/24/content_9631513.htm
Man admits prostituting 12-year-old girl, sharing proceeds with mother
By Sally Glaetzer From: The Mercury March 23, 2010 10:16AM
•Mother took most of the money
•Money went towards drugs
•Man and mother charged
A TASMANIAN man has admitted prostituting a 12-year-old girl at his home and sharing the proceeds with the girl's mother.
The Mercury reports the man, 51, acted as the girl's pimp last year while she had sex with more than 100 men at in Glenorchy.
The man pleaded guilty yesterday to the horrific crimes, which left his victim with potentially devastating sexually transmitted diseases.
The Supreme Court in Hobart heard the girl's mother took most of the money, the man took a smaller cut and the girl used her own share to buy drugs for herself, her mother and the man.
Crown prosecutor Daryl Coates said the horrific prostitution business began last July after the girl's mother complained to the man, a close friend, of having no money.
The woman, her daughter and the man agreed the girl should act as a prostitute.
He drew up the newspaper advertisement, which described an 18-year-old "Angela" who was "new in town".
The woman booked a room at a hotel for two nights and the man acted as the girl's pimp, charging $100 for half-an-hour and an extra $50 if the client did not want to wear a condom.
Mr Coates said they made $2000 and the girl gave $100 to the man, $400 to her mother and spent the rest on drugs for her mother.
The man then started running his underage prostitution business from his unit, where the girl worked Thursday to Sunday, seeing more than 100 clients.
Police interviewed the man last November and he has been in custody since.
The girl was examined and diagnosed with STDs including genital warts and chlamydia.
Defence lawyer Kim Baumeler said the man now understood he had been committing an offence and had learned his lesson.
Justice Peter Evans will sentence him on Thursday.
The girl is in foster care while her mother has been charged and is in custody.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/man-admits-prostituting-12-year-old-girl-sharing-proceeds-with-mother/story-e6frf7jx-1225844169936
•Mother took most of the money
•Money went towards drugs
•Man and mother charged
A TASMANIAN man has admitted prostituting a 12-year-old girl at his home and sharing the proceeds with the girl's mother.
The Mercury reports the man, 51, acted as the girl's pimp last year while she had sex with more than 100 men at in Glenorchy.
The man pleaded guilty yesterday to the horrific crimes, which left his victim with potentially devastating sexually transmitted diseases.
The Supreme Court in Hobart heard the girl's mother took most of the money, the man took a smaller cut and the girl used her own share to buy drugs for herself, her mother and the man.
Crown prosecutor Daryl Coates said the horrific prostitution business began last July after the girl's mother complained to the man, a close friend, of having no money.
The woman, her daughter and the man agreed the girl should act as a prostitute.
He drew up the newspaper advertisement, which described an 18-year-old "Angela" who was "new in town".
The woman booked a room at a hotel for two nights and the man acted as the girl's pimp, charging $100 for half-an-hour and an extra $50 if the client did not want to wear a condom.
Mr Coates said they made $2000 and the girl gave $100 to the man, $400 to her mother and spent the rest on drugs for her mother.
The man then started running his underage prostitution business from his unit, where the girl worked Thursday to Sunday, seeing more than 100 clients.
Police interviewed the man last November and he has been in custody since.
The girl was examined and diagnosed with STDs including genital warts and chlamydia.
Defence lawyer Kim Baumeler said the man now understood he had been committing an offence and had learned his lesson.
Justice Peter Evans will sentence him on Thursday.
The girl is in foster care while her mother has been charged and is in custody.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/man-admits-prostituting-12-year-old-girl-sharing-proceeds-with-mother/story-e6frf7jx-1225844169936
Police Identify Victim In Gruesome Murder As Mother Of Three
Police: It Appears Woman Was Dumped After Being Killed Somewhere Else
POSTED: 4:06 pm EDT March 22, 2010
UPDATED: 6:51 am EDT March 24, 2010
ATLANTA -- Police have identified the woman whose body was found dismembered in northwest Atlanta as a mother of three.
At a news conference Tuesday night, Atlanta police identified the victim as 44-year-old Linda Myrick of DeKalb County.
Myrick's body was found Monday afternoon on Elm Street near Joseph E. Boone Street. Investigators said it appeared the woman was killed somewhere else and dumped at the site. The body was found by a passerby who called 911, officers said.
A police detective said the woman's head and both hands were cut off.
Atlanta police took cadaver dogs Tuesday to the vacant lot where her body was found in northwest Atlanta.
Atlanta Police Major Keith Meadows told reporters investigators with the Fulton County Medical Examiners Office were able to identify the body through a series of medical procedures.
Meadows said investigators still haven't determined how the woman was murdered, of if she was the victim of a sexual assault.
Investigators have interviewed the victim's mother but have not yet spoken to any of her three adult children.
Jamilah Garth said she would often cut through the vacant lot as a short cut.
She said Monday afternoon, her friend was doing the same thing when she stumbled upon a woman’s naked and mutilated body.
Garth said, "This is a very dangerous neighborhood. Everybody needs to be careful. That’s why I keep some mace on me."
Garth said her friend called police immediately after she found the body.
Garth said, "She went up to it and kicked it. She just started screaming."
Meadows says Myrick was known to frequent a business area near Moreland Avenue and Memorial Drive.
From: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/22911764/detail.html?hpt=T2
POSTED: 4:06 pm EDT March 22, 2010
UPDATED: 6:51 am EDT March 24, 2010
ATLANTA -- Police have identified the woman whose body was found dismembered in northwest Atlanta as a mother of three.
At a news conference Tuesday night, Atlanta police identified the victim as 44-year-old Linda Myrick of DeKalb County.
Myrick's body was found Monday afternoon on Elm Street near Joseph E. Boone Street. Investigators said it appeared the woman was killed somewhere else and dumped at the site. The body was found by a passerby who called 911, officers said.
A police detective said the woman's head and both hands were cut off.
Atlanta police took cadaver dogs Tuesday to the vacant lot where her body was found in northwest Atlanta.
Atlanta Police Major Keith Meadows told reporters investigators with the Fulton County Medical Examiners Office were able to identify the body through a series of medical procedures.
Meadows said investigators still haven't determined how the woman was murdered, of if she was the victim of a sexual assault.
Investigators have interviewed the victim's mother but have not yet spoken to any of her three adult children.
Jamilah Garth said she would often cut through the vacant lot as a short cut.
She said Monday afternoon, her friend was doing the same thing when she stumbled upon a woman’s naked and mutilated body.
Garth said, "This is a very dangerous neighborhood. Everybody needs to be careful. That’s why I keep some mace on me."
Garth said her friend called police immediately after she found the body.
Garth said, "She went up to it and kicked it. She just started screaming."
Meadows says Myrick was known to frequent a business area near Moreland Avenue and Memorial Drive.
From: http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/22911764/detail.html?hpt=T2
Woman swapped girl, 10, to man for cocaine
Wednesday, Mar. 24, 2010
SAGINAW, Mich. -- Police in Michigan say a 45-year-old woman with a cocaine habit let a 67-year-old man have sex with a 10-year-old girl she was caring for in exchange for the drug.
Angela A. Blackwell of Saginaw Township is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and pandering.
She remained in jail Wednesday pending a preliminary hearing set for March 30. Her lawyer did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Police are searching for Johnnie L. Griffin on first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct and firearms charges.
If convicted, the pair could be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
Detective Sgt. Joseph Dutoi tells The Saginaw News that Griffin had sex with the girl between September and February, while she was in Blackwell's care.
From: http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/24/1187268/police-woman-swapped-girl-10-to.html
SAGINAW, Mich. -- Police in Michigan say a 45-year-old woman with a cocaine habit let a 67-year-old man have sex with a 10-year-old girl she was caring for in exchange for the drug.
Angela A. Blackwell of Saginaw Township is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and pandering.
She remained in jail Wednesday pending a preliminary hearing set for March 30. Her lawyer did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Police are searching for Johnnie L. Griffin on first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct and firearms charges.
If convicted, the pair could be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
Detective Sgt. Joseph Dutoi tells The Saginaw News that Griffin had sex with the girl between September and February, while she was in Blackwell's care.
From: http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/24/1187268/police-woman-swapped-girl-10-to.html
Children's charity boss admits string of sadistic sex attacks on prostitutes in 'torture chamber bedroom'
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 12:33 PM on 23rd March 2010
A children's charity boss has admitted a string of sadistic sex attacks on four prostitutes.
Matthew Byrne, 38, made his victims dress up as young schoolgirls before carrying out horrific sex assaults on them at his Wirral home.
Liverpool Crown Court heard the senior charity worker tied up, gagged and strangled his victims for his own sexual pleasure.
He then used a cane to repeatedly beat the women, who were tied to his bed while he carried out the obscene acts.
In another attack he repeatedly whipped his victim until her blood sprayed over his bedroom walls.
He then used a plastic bag to suffocate the women until she saw black spots in front of her eyes and thought she was going to die.
After being released the woman discovered she had 40 whip marks to her body and legs.
When police raided Byrne's home in New Brighton they discovered he had turned a bedroom into a torture chamber.
Officers discovered a double bed with shackles attached to each bed post, a leather collar, a cane, rope, tape and girl's clothing.
They also found a collection of violent pornography, while his computer revealed he had accessed a string of sadistic websites.
DNA and blood from Byrne's victims was also uncovered.
Byrne, who ran the Young Person's Advisory Service, previously worked with children as young as 10.
The charity worker changed some of his pleas shortly before he was due to stand trial on a total of 24 charges at Liverpool Crown Court yesterday.
He pleaded guilty to four charges of sexual assault and one of assault by penetration between July 1, 2008, and May 31, 2009.
Byrne also admitted four charges of making indecent images of children.
Wearing plain trousers and a checked shirt, Byrne showed no emotion as he admitted carrying out the vicious assaults.
At an earlier hearing in January, Byrne admitted six charges of possessing obscene images of children.
Those charges represented a total of nearly 9,000 images.
He had also admitted a further count of committing a lewd and obscene act on a Merseyrail train while photographing young girls.
At the earlier hearing, Byrne had denied the more serious sex attacks.
But as his trial was due to start yesterday, his barrister Alastair Edie told the court Byrne wished to change his pleas for some of the counts.
He was charged with offences related to alleged attacks on seven different women.
Peter Davies, prosecuting, told the court that after consulting with the police and the women involved the crown were happy to accept his guilty pleas to some of the charges.
He said: 'We believe this is a realistic and pragmatic way to progress.'
Judge John Phipps agreed with the prosecution's decision and adjourned sentencing for the preparation of reports on Byrne.
But he told him: 'Of course the fact that I am ordering a report in no way means that a custodial sentence will not occur.
'In fact a custodial sentence of some length is inevitable in this case.'
He ordered Byrne to sign the Sex Offenders' Register.
In 2008 the charity boss featured in Liverpool: Sung & Unsung - a collection of photographs featuring 'individuals that best represent the city' and 'make decisions which affect the whole city'.
He was one of 86 leading lights in the book and appeared alongside Merseyside Police chief constable Bernard Hogan Howe, comedian Ken Dodd and Archbishop Patrick Kelly.
Byrne will be sentenced on April 21.
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1260020/Charity-boss-Matthew-Byrne-admits-torture-sex-attacks-prostitutes.html
Gatecrasher, 13, allegedly slit 15-year-old girl's throat, raped her
James O'Loan From: The Courier-Mail March 24, 2010 12:03PM
A 13-YEAR-OLD gatecrasher allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl after slitting her throat at a party in Toowoomba, in southeast Queensland.
The defendant cried when he appeared in Toowoomba Children's Court yesterday charged with multiple offences.
Police allege he arrived uninvited to a house party in Harristown on Saturday night, before a fight broke out.
The 13-year-old was asked to leave but allegedly twice slashed his female victim's neck with a razor blade or knife.
It was alleged he then returned a short time later and raped the same girl.
He was charged with rape, deprivation of liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.
Toowoomba police said the girl was co-hosting a 16th birthday party for a friend at the time and there was no parental supervision.
The defendant did not apply for bail yesterday while his mother and grandmother watched proceedings.
His case was set down for committal mention on May 27 in the same court.
Police requested DNA samples and disease test results from the boy.
He remains in custody.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/gatecrasher-13-allegedly-slit-15-year-old-girls-throat-raped-her/story-e6frf7jo-1225844690070
A 13-YEAR-OLD gatecrasher allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl after slitting her throat at a party in Toowoomba, in southeast Queensland.
The defendant cried when he appeared in Toowoomba Children's Court yesterday charged with multiple offences.
Police allege he arrived uninvited to a house party in Harristown on Saturday night, before a fight broke out.
The 13-year-old was asked to leave but allegedly twice slashed his female victim's neck with a razor blade or knife.
It was alleged he then returned a short time later and raped the same girl.
He was charged with rape, deprivation of liberty and assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.
Toowoomba police said the girl was co-hosting a 16th birthday party for a friend at the time and there was no parental supervision.
The defendant did not apply for bail yesterday while his mother and grandmother watched proceedings.
His case was set down for committal mention on May 27 in the same court.
Police requested DNA samples and disease test results from the boy.
He remains in custody.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/gatecrasher-13-allegedly-slit-15-year-old-girls-throat-raped-her/story-e6frf7jo-1225844690070
Police hunt burglar who steals phones, sends obscene photos to contacts
Herald Sun March 23, 2010 2:50PM
YOUNG children in Victoria are among dozens of victims of a sick burglar who takes obscene photos of himself on stolen mobile phones and sends the image to contacts listed in the phone.
The Herald Sun reports police are hunting the man, who is alleged to have broken into several houses in the Stonnington, Port Phillip, Yarra and Darebin areas.
Police believe the man enters the homes through unlocked doors or windows between about midnight and 6am.
As well as stealing property the man also allegedly takes obscene photos of himself on the homeowner's mobile phone and then sends the image to female contacts listed in the phone.
Police said a number of children had received the obscene picture messages.
Police today released a photo of Shane Willis, who they would like to speak to about the alleged incidents.
They believe a silver Kia Rio hatch, registration WVS 137, was also used in the burglaries.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/police-hunt-burglar-who-steals-phones-sends-obscene-photos-to-contacts/story-e6frf7jx-1225844345158
YOUNG children in Victoria are among dozens of victims of a sick burglar who takes obscene photos of himself on stolen mobile phones and sends the image to contacts listed in the phone.
The Herald Sun reports police are hunting the man, who is alleged to have broken into several houses in the Stonnington, Port Phillip, Yarra and Darebin areas.
Police believe the man enters the homes through unlocked doors or windows between about midnight and 6am.
As well as stealing property the man also allegedly takes obscene photos of himself on the homeowner's mobile phone and then sends the image to female contacts listed in the phone.
Police said a number of children had received the obscene picture messages.
Police today released a photo of Shane Willis, who they would like to speak to about the alleged incidents.
They believe a silver Kia Rio hatch, registration WVS 137, was also used in the burglaries.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/police-hunt-burglar-who-steals-phones-sends-obscene-photos-to-contacts/story-e6frf7jx-1225844345158
Campbell Co. teen run over by car in fight over cell phone
By News Sentinel staff
Posted March 22, 2010 at 3:33 p.m.
LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. — A severely injured LaFollette teen was listed in stable condition Monday after she was run over by a car driven by a man with whom she was struggling over her cell phone, according to police.
Scarlett Bowman, 16, sustained multiple injuries in the Saturday incident. She was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center by Lifestar, where she was placed in the critical care unit.
She had been “dragged and then ran over” by a car driven by Marvin Lynn Moyers Jr., 25, of Speedwell, who has been arrested and charged with multiple offenses, according to a LaFollette Police Department report.
The incident occurred at the victim’s home, and Moyers was identified as the assailant by the victim and her mother, police said.
According to the police report, Moyers took the cell phone from the victim, after which she took it back.
“He then held on to her (as she still held the phone), placing her in danger of death or serious bodily injury (as he) dragged her down the road,” the report stated. “After breaking free, she was ran over.”
Moyers was later located at his home and arrested.
The warrants were not immediately available. The police report states Moyers would face charges that included especially aggravated robbery, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.
The report also stated that Moyers’ vehicle had “switched tags,” and that his driver’s license had been revoked in connection with an earlier DUI case.
From: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/22/campbell-co-teen-run-over-car-fight-over-cell-phon/
Posted March 22, 2010 at 3:33 p.m.
LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. — A severely injured LaFollette teen was listed in stable condition Monday after she was run over by a car driven by a man with whom she was struggling over her cell phone, according to police.
Scarlett Bowman, 16, sustained multiple injuries in the Saturday incident. She was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center by Lifestar, where she was placed in the critical care unit.
She had been “dragged and then ran over” by a car driven by Marvin Lynn Moyers Jr., 25, of Speedwell, who has been arrested and charged with multiple offenses, according to a LaFollette Police Department report.
The incident occurred at the victim’s home, and Moyers was identified as the assailant by the victim and her mother, police said.
According to the police report, Moyers took the cell phone from the victim, after which she took it back.
“He then held on to her (as she still held the phone), placing her in danger of death or serious bodily injury (as he) dragged her down the road,” the report stated. “After breaking free, she was ran over.”
Moyers was later located at his home and arrested.
The warrants were not immediately available. The police report states Moyers would face charges that included especially aggravated robbery, reckless endangerment and aggravated assault.
The report also stated that Moyers’ vehicle had “switched tags,” and that his driver’s license had been revoked in connection with an earlier DUI case.
From: http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/22/campbell-co-teen-run-over-car-fight-over-cell-phon/
Young Mother Stabbed To Death In Delaware Co.
Mar 24, 2010 9:59 am US/Eastern
UPPER CHICHESTER (CBS 3) ― Police are investigating the death of a mother of two who was found stabbed to death in a Delaware County home Tuesday night.
The body of a 25-year-old woman was discovered in a home on Taylor Avenue in Upper Chichester Township just before 9 p.m.
A family member found the female victim, who had suffered a laceration to her neck. The unidentified victim later died to the scene.
Police believe a suspect forced entry into the home and attacked the victim. The deadly incident remains under investigation.
From: http://cbs3.com/local/stabbing.death.female.2.1585959.html
UPPER CHICHESTER (CBS 3) ― Police are investigating the death of a mother of two who was found stabbed to death in a Delaware County home Tuesday night.
The body of a 25-year-old woman was discovered in a home on Taylor Avenue in Upper Chichester Township just before 9 p.m.
A family member found the female victim, who had suffered a laceration to her neck. The unidentified victim later died to the scene.
Police believe a suspect forced entry into the home and attacked the victim. The deadly incident remains under investigation.
From: http://cbs3.com/local/stabbing.death.female.2.1585959.html
Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Take Own Lives
Mar 23, 2010 11:54 pm US/Eastern
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― The foreclosure crisis in Philadelphia is now becoming a matter of life and death. Eyewitness News has learned that in the past month, two homeowners took their own lives before sheriff's deputies arrived to tell them that they were being evicted.
On March 5, deputies arriving to post an eviction notice on Lynda Clark's South Philadelphia home found she had hanged herself.
"It's devastating for everyone. We're not even family members and it's just devastating to us," Captain Albert Innaurato of the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office said.
Less than three weeks later, owner Gregory Bellows shot and killed himself shortly before deputies arrived to evict him from his Roxborough home.
Court records show Clark, whose debt topped $100,000, lost her home at a Sheriff's Sale last October. Bellows, owing more than $240,000, had his home sold at a Sheriff's Sale in 2008.
While the numbers are clear, it most likely will never be known when the homeowner's huge debts turned into despair.
"They really don't understand that it's imminent, it's going to happen. Take some sort of proactive steps to stop it from happening," foreclosure prevention director Darrel K. Stewart said.
The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office wants those facing crises to know that help is available. They say that while eviction is heartbreaking, it does not have to end in tragedy.
"They have to learn from day one to be on top of it, there's a lot of agencies and a lot of programs in place that can help them," Innaurato said.
From: http://cbs3.com/local/Foreclosure.Suicide.Philadelphia.2.1584571.html
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ― The foreclosure crisis in Philadelphia is now becoming a matter of life and death. Eyewitness News has learned that in the past month, two homeowners took their own lives before sheriff's deputies arrived to tell them that they were being evicted.
On March 5, deputies arriving to post an eviction notice on Lynda Clark's South Philadelphia home found she had hanged herself.
"It's devastating for everyone. We're not even family members and it's just devastating to us," Captain Albert Innaurato of the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office said.
Less than three weeks later, owner Gregory Bellows shot and killed himself shortly before deputies arrived to evict him from his Roxborough home.
Court records show Clark, whose debt topped $100,000, lost her home at a Sheriff's Sale last October. Bellows, owing more than $240,000, had his home sold at a Sheriff's Sale in 2008.
While the numbers are clear, it most likely will never be known when the homeowner's huge debts turned into despair.
"They really don't understand that it's imminent, it's going to happen. Take some sort of proactive steps to stop it from happening," foreclosure prevention director Darrel K. Stewart said.
The Philadelphia Sheriff's Office wants those facing crises to know that help is available. They say that while eviction is heartbreaking, it does not have to end in tragedy.
"They have to learn from day one to be on top of it, there's a lot of agencies and a lot of programs in place that can help them," Innaurato said.
From: http://cbs3.com/local/Foreclosure.Suicide.Philadelphia.2.1584571.html
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
'There was blood everywhere'
Amelia Harris From: Herald Sun March 23, 2010 12:00AM
THE daughter of a woman whose arms were almost ripped off by a pit bull cross said the family's nightmare was like something out of a horror movie.
Kathy Bonic, 67, was attacked by her grandson's dog, Rocky, in her Portland flat.
The Alfred hospital staff last night were trying to save Mrs Bonic's right arm.
Neighbours Mick and Martin Jacobsen threw a rubbish bin at the pit bull-staffordshire cross in a desperate bid to rescue Mrs Bonic.
Daughter Carol Kusuba made the 400km journey to Melbourne last night to be with her mother.
Mrs Kusuba said she rushed to her mother's house after her teenage daughter rang and told her about the attack.
"There was blood everywhere. It was like watching a movie," Mrs Kusuba said.
"It's still hard to believe it happened. He didn't let go."
Witness Colin Parfett said the scene was like "walking into a murder".
"There was blood all up the walls," Mr Parfett said.
"She was in a bad way."
Mrs Kusuba said she supported the local council's decision to put the dog down.
"My mum's life is a lot more important than the dog," she said. "He was a family pet. It bothered us to some level, but not to the level where we're not going to put him down."
Mrs Kusuba said Rocky had never been aggressive and had spent the past three years happily living with her mother.
"We never thought for a minute ... this would happen," she said.
"She adored him."
Rocky lashed out as Mrs Bonic tried to usher him into another room about 11am.
He began gnashing her right arm, so she put up her left arm to try to defend herself.
The dog mauled both arms and her face.
She was still conscious when paramedics arrived but had lost a lot of blood.
"She was fully aware and conscious and very distressed," MICA flight paramedic Justin Nunan said.
"She's quite aware of really how severe her injuries are.
"The crew at the scene said there was quite a lot of blood and everybody at the scene was very distressed."
He said Mrs Bonic suffered massive muscle and skin damage to her right arm.
Surgeons were trying to restore nerves and circulation.
A Glenelg Shire Council spokeswoman said the dog was not known to the council before the attack.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/there-was-blood-everywhere/story-e6frf7kx-1225844490946
THE daughter of a woman whose arms were almost ripped off by a pit bull cross said the family's nightmare was like something out of a horror movie.
Kathy Bonic, 67, was attacked by her grandson's dog, Rocky, in her Portland flat.
The Alfred hospital staff last night were trying to save Mrs Bonic's right arm.
Neighbours Mick and Martin Jacobsen threw a rubbish bin at the pit bull-staffordshire cross in a desperate bid to rescue Mrs Bonic.
Daughter Carol Kusuba made the 400km journey to Melbourne last night to be with her mother.
Mrs Kusuba said she rushed to her mother's house after her teenage daughter rang and told her about the attack.
"There was blood everywhere. It was like watching a movie," Mrs Kusuba said.
"It's still hard to believe it happened. He didn't let go."
Witness Colin Parfett said the scene was like "walking into a murder".
"There was blood all up the walls," Mr Parfett said.
"She was in a bad way."
Mrs Kusuba said she supported the local council's decision to put the dog down.
"My mum's life is a lot more important than the dog," she said. "He was a family pet. It bothered us to some level, but not to the level where we're not going to put him down."
Mrs Kusuba said Rocky had never been aggressive and had spent the past three years happily living with her mother.
"We never thought for a minute ... this would happen," she said.
"She adored him."
Rocky lashed out as Mrs Bonic tried to usher him into another room about 11am.
He began gnashing her right arm, so she put up her left arm to try to defend herself.
The dog mauled both arms and her face.
She was still conscious when paramedics arrived but had lost a lot of blood.
"She was fully aware and conscious and very distressed," MICA flight paramedic Justin Nunan said.
"She's quite aware of really how severe her injuries are.
"The crew at the scene said there was quite a lot of blood and everybody at the scene was very distressed."
He said Mrs Bonic suffered massive muscle and skin damage to her right arm.
Surgeons were trying to restore nerves and circulation.
A Glenelg Shire Council spokeswoman said the dog was not known to the council before the attack.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/there-was-blood-everywhere/story-e6frf7kx-1225844490946
Woman kills boyfriend on Xmas Day, texts friend to see if he'd like to help eat body
AAP March 22, 2010 1:54PM
MOMENTS after she stabbed her boyfriend to death on Christmas Day, a NSW Central Coast woman sent a text message telling another man she was going to eat the body because "I think he tastes good".
In the NSW Supreme Court today, Tamie Melehan admitted to killing her boyfriend, but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of mental illness.
David Vaughan, 30, suffered 16 stab wounds to his neck, six to his chest and four to his abdomen during the frenzied knife attack by his girlfriend of three months at her apartment on December 25, 2008.
An autopsy revealed his jugular veins had been slashed on both sides of his neck and he died from those "rapidly fatal" injuries.
As her murder trial was about to begin, Melehan, 29, admitted to the actions which caused Mr Vaughan's death, but pleaded not guilty for reasons of mental illness.
Melehan has a long history of mental illness and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2002, the court heard.
Prosecutor Michael O'Brien said that at the time Mr Vaughan was killed, Melehan sent another man a series of text messages telling him she missed him and inviting him over to feast on her boyfriend's "delicate meat".
"Oi, can I eat this fella?" she said.
"I think he tastes good ... there's enough to go around if you want to join in - no joke, delicate meat ...
"Dear me, need help to get rid of the body."
A little later she phoned her mother saying: "Can you come over and get him before I slit his throat?"
Melehan's mother, Loretta Watts, arrived at her daughter's home to find Mr Vaughan dead on the floor of the shower with blood gurgling out of a slash wound in his neck.
Mr O'Brien told Justice Monika Schmidt there was ample psychiatric evidence to support claims that Melehan was suffering "an acute exacerbation of her chronic mental illness" and was acting in "a delusional way" at the time of the attack.
"The Crown submits on the evidence that is before your honour, your honour would make a finding that the accused is not guilty of the offence within the grounds of mental illness," he said.
Justice Schmidt adjourned proceedings and is expected to give her decision soon.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/woman-kills-boyfriend-on-xmas-day-texts-friend-to-see-if-hed-like-to-help-eat-body/story-e6frf7jx-1225843823901
MOMENTS after she stabbed her boyfriend to death on Christmas Day, a NSW Central Coast woman sent a text message telling another man she was going to eat the body because "I think he tastes good".
In the NSW Supreme Court today, Tamie Melehan admitted to killing her boyfriend, but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of mental illness.
David Vaughan, 30, suffered 16 stab wounds to his neck, six to his chest and four to his abdomen during the frenzied knife attack by his girlfriend of three months at her apartment on December 25, 2008.
An autopsy revealed his jugular veins had been slashed on both sides of his neck and he died from those "rapidly fatal" injuries.
As her murder trial was about to begin, Melehan, 29, admitted to the actions which caused Mr Vaughan's death, but pleaded not guilty for reasons of mental illness.
Melehan has a long history of mental illness and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2002, the court heard.
Prosecutor Michael O'Brien said that at the time Mr Vaughan was killed, Melehan sent another man a series of text messages telling him she missed him and inviting him over to feast on her boyfriend's "delicate meat".
"Oi, can I eat this fella?" she said.
"I think he tastes good ... there's enough to go around if you want to join in - no joke, delicate meat ...
"Dear me, need help to get rid of the body."
A little later she phoned her mother saying: "Can you come over and get him before I slit his throat?"
Melehan's mother, Loretta Watts, arrived at her daughter's home to find Mr Vaughan dead on the floor of the shower with blood gurgling out of a slash wound in his neck.
Mr O'Brien told Justice Monika Schmidt there was ample psychiatric evidence to support claims that Melehan was suffering "an acute exacerbation of her chronic mental illness" and was acting in "a delusional way" at the time of the attack.
"The Crown submits on the evidence that is before your honour, your honour would make a finding that the accused is not guilty of the offence within the grounds of mental illness," he said.
Justice Schmidt adjourned proceedings and is expected to give her decision soon.
From: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/woman-kills-boyfriend-on-xmas-day-texts-friend-to-see-if-hed-like-to-help-eat-body/story-e6frf7jx-1225843823901
Cops: Raid nets 1,600 knives, guns, names of officers and deputies
March 22, 2010 11:17 PM U.S. Marshall Nominee for the Northern District of Illinois Darryl McPherson and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart (from left at right), hold a press conference today to discuss charges against Kevin Long. Officers found about 1,600 knives along with batons, brass knuckles, several non-working handguns and one working handgun during a weekend search of Long's home.
A man who last week tried to bring four knives into the Daley Center courthouse faces more charges after authorities said they found almost 50 illegal weapons, including switchblade knives and brass knuckles, in a raid Saturday of his Northwest Side home.
Investigators from the Cook County Sheriff's Department and agents from the U.S. Marshals Service seized 1,600 knives -- including plastic knives designed to foil metal detectors -- as well as one operable handgun, expandable metal batons and a handful of fake law enforcement-style badges from the home of Kevin J. Long, 48. The raid resulted in 47 additional weapons charges against him.
They also recovered evidence that Long had collected personal information on certain law enforcement officers with whom he had disputes in the past, according to Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the sheriff's office.
"We recovered numerous boxes of documents from his home, and in those were several pieces of papers with police officer and sheriff deputy names on them," Patterson said. "There was nothing saying a specific threat against a specific person, but it was certainly clear that he was documenting specific people's names."
Long, who lives in the 4500 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, was released on parole in November after serving 15 months in prison for intimidating a witness in a civil case. Long allegedly threatened to kill the witness' child, authorities said.He has also been arrested 18 times since 2000, including for entering a judge's chamber, masturbating in public and violating an order barring him from Northwestern College in Chicago.
Long is being held in lieu of $350,000 bail after he was allegedly caught trying to bring four hunting knives into the Daley Center on March 16. A sheriff's deputy spotted the outlines of the knives in Long's briefcase as it passed through a metal detector in the lobby entrance, authorities said.
When asked what was inside the briefcase, Long allegedly answered, "Papers." When the deputy found the knives, Long produced a receipt showing he had bought them earlier in the day and said he forgot they were in the briefcase.
After he was charged with weapons violations last week, Circuit Judge Donald Panarese banned Long from entering any Cook County courthouse unless he was required to appear, and only then if he was accompanied to and from court by a court deputy.
Long is one of about 20 people named on a threat list created by the sheriff's and the marshals' offices designed to track individuals believed to be potential threats to judges or other officials.
From: http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/03/cops-names-of-police-and-weapons-in-home-of-man-on-watch-list.html
Philip Pullman threatened by religious zealots over new Jesus Christ book
Philip Pullman, the best selling author, has been threatened by religious zealots amid claims he should be “punished” for a controversial new book about Jesus Christ. By Andrew Hough
Published: 7:30AM GMT 22 Mar 2010
The atheist writer, 63, claims he had received dozens of angry letters from critics accusing him of blasphemy in his new book “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ”.
The author of the best-selling His Dark Materials trilogy has received scores of letters condemning him to “eternal hell” and “damnation by fire”.
In the book Mr Pullman writes that a man called Jesus lived 2,000 years ago but that Christ, as the son of God, was the invention of the disciple Paul.
The book, to be published next week, is in the form of a gospel and is partly inspired by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Neither Mr Pullman, who is expected to have special security when he appears at next week’s Oxford Literary Festival, nor his agent were available for comment on Sunday.
But the author earlier told The Sunday Times that he had been threatened by some people who were concerned about the book. It is not clear if authorities have been contacted.
“Many refer to the title itself, for which there is clearly a passionate objection from some out there,” he said. “The letter writers essentially say that I am a wicked man, who deserves to be punished in hell.
“Luckily it’s not in their power to do anything like sending me there.”
Books by Pullman, an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, have previously been criticised by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
His critics often cite an interview in which he reportedly said: "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief”.
Last year he was one of several authors who attacked the introduction of the new Independent Safeguarding Authority anti-paedophile database.
One of his earlier books, Northern Lights, was turned into the film The Golden Compass starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7493602/Philip-Pullman-threatened-by-religious-zealots-over-new-Jesus-Christ-book.html
Father 'recorded good-bye video of children before killing them'
A jealous father made a ''farewell video'' of his two young children before strangling them in a ''spiteful reaction'' to the breakdown of his marriage, a court heard today.
Published: 2:14PM GMT 22 Mar 2010
Petros Williams, 37, urged his four-year-old daughter Yolanda Molemohi and two-year-old son Theo to say goodbye to their mother in the home-made film, which was played to a jury at Manchester Crown Court.
The tape was among a host of handwritten notes found at his flat in Whalley Range, Manchester, after his wife Morongoe, 30, discovered their bodies last October.
It was labelled ''Daddy, Yolly, Theo. Byee The End'' with a note attached which read: ''Play the video, made for your memories, thank you, Petros.''
Zimbabwe-born Williams was said to be jealous that his wife had started to meet other men through internet dating websites.
Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, said the defendant even chose internet connection cables from the family computer to kill his children as a ''symbolic act of punishment'' to his wife.
He said: ''The prosecution say it was a spiteful, selfish reaction to the breakdown of his marriage. It was a deliberate act and the prosecution say this was murder.''
The video shows the children sitting in the living room, with Williams initally behind the camera asking them: ''Where's mummy?''
Yolanda answers ''Gone'', before the defendant is heard to say: ''Daddy will take you to school in the morning.''
Williams then joins them on the sofa and tells them: ''Say bye, mummy.''
His daughter does so and both smiling children then wave to the camera.
Mr Thomas said: ''It is hard to say why the defendant made the video at the time and whether he had decided to take the drastic action he took two days later.''
He added: ''The prosecution say that it was a sort of farewell video from the defendant and his children to the mother.''
Williams denies two counts of murder.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7498073/Father-recorded-good-bye-video-of-children-before-killing-them.html
Published: 2:14PM GMT 22 Mar 2010
Petros Williams, 37, urged his four-year-old daughter Yolanda Molemohi and two-year-old son Theo to say goodbye to their mother in the home-made film, which was played to a jury at Manchester Crown Court.
The tape was among a host of handwritten notes found at his flat in Whalley Range, Manchester, after his wife Morongoe, 30, discovered their bodies last October.
It was labelled ''Daddy, Yolly, Theo. Byee The End'' with a note attached which read: ''Play the video, made for your memories, thank you, Petros.''
Zimbabwe-born Williams was said to be jealous that his wife had started to meet other men through internet dating websites.
Andrew Thomas QC, prosecuting, said the defendant even chose internet connection cables from the family computer to kill his children as a ''symbolic act of punishment'' to his wife.
He said: ''The prosecution say it was a spiteful, selfish reaction to the breakdown of his marriage. It was a deliberate act and the prosecution say this was murder.''
The video shows the children sitting in the living room, with Williams initally behind the camera asking them: ''Where's mummy?''
Yolanda answers ''Gone'', before the defendant is heard to say: ''Daddy will take you to school in the morning.''
Williams then joins them on the sofa and tells them: ''Say bye, mummy.''
His daughter does so and both smiling children then wave to the camera.
Mr Thomas said: ''It is hard to say why the defendant made the video at the time and whether he had decided to take the drastic action he took two days later.''
He added: ''The prosecution say that it was a sort of farewell video from the defendant and his children to the mother.''
Williams denies two counts of murder.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7498073/Father-recorded-good-bye-video-of-children-before-killing-them.html
Nursery boss made babies ‘eat vomit’
METRO REPORTER - 22nd March, 2010 A nursery manager forced babies to eat their own vomit and amused herself by deliberately overfeeding one large child, a court heard on Monday.
Laura Pettitt is alleged to have slapped crying children around the head and forced a dummy into one child’s mouth so hard the infant’s gums began to bleed.
She also called an Asian baby ‘Joe Daki’ – rhyming slang for the offensive term ‘Paki’, Croydon Crown Court heard.
Pettitt, who was said to intimidate other ‘inexperienced’ members of staff at Little Star’s Nursery in Bromley, south London, was finally reported to the NSPCC by co-worker Nicola Fiddler.
The 27-year-old claimed the ‘malicious allegations’ were made up when colleagues found out she was a lesbian, prosecutor Tana Adkin told the court.
Pettitt, from Beckenham in south London, denies ten charges of child cruelty between January 2006 and November 2008. The trial continues.
From: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/818614-nursery-boss-made-babies-eat-vomit
Naked man in taxi-lifting adventure
Tom Phillips - 19th March, 2010 A naked man has become famous in China after he stopped traffic on a busy road, then tried to lift a taxi by himself while shouting 'give me strength'.
It all began when the nude man stopped the taxi by running out into the street in front of traffic. As the perplexed driver got out of the car to see what was going on, the naked man grabbed the vehicle's bumper and tried - without much success - to lift it off the ground.
As a crowd of puzzled onlookers gathered to watch the spectacle, the man continued in his efforts to lift the car. Eyewitnesses reported that he would sometimes shout 'please give me strength!' as he struggled with the taxi.
The bizarre incident took place in Hefei, in Anhui province in eastern China.
Police eventually arrived, and attempted to detain the man and get him clothed again - at which point the man hid under a police van and refused to come out.
He was eventually retrieved from under the vehicle by police officers and medical staff.
From: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/818246-naked-man-in-taxi-lifting-adventure
Monday, March 22, 2010
Bangladeshi man beheaded to redden bricks
A Bangladeshi man was beheaded by labourers who burnt his head in a kiln in the belief this would redden their bricks, police said on Sunday.
Published: 5:02PM GMT 21 Mar 2010
Four suspects were arrested for murdering the 26-year-old bricklayer in a remote town in northern Bangladesh on the instructions of the brick-field's owners, said Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan, a local police chief.
"They said the owners were unhappy as the brick-field was not producing reddish bricks despite enough heating. A fortune teller then suggested that the brick-field needed a human sacrifice," he said.
Police were searching for the owners and the fortune teller, he added.
Red bricks are in huge demand in Bangladesh's countryside as the colour is seen as proof the bricks have been baked properly.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/7493874/Bangladeshi-man-beheaded-to-redden-bricks.html
Published: 5:02PM GMT 21 Mar 2010
Four suspects were arrested for murdering the 26-year-old bricklayer in a remote town in northern Bangladesh on the instructions of the brick-field's owners, said Golam Sarwar Bhuiyan, a local police chief.
"They said the owners were unhappy as the brick-field was not producing reddish bricks despite enough heating. A fortune teller then suggested that the brick-field needed a human sacrifice," he said.
Police were searching for the owners and the fortune teller, he added.
Red bricks are in huge demand in Bangladesh's countryside as the colour is seen as proof the bricks have been baked properly.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/bangladesh/7493874/Bangladeshi-man-beheaded-to-redden-bricks.html
Woman 'bashed unconscious, sexually violated', court told
Last updated 13:58 22/03/2010
A woman was bashed against a concrete wall, knocking her unconscious, strangled twice, and sexually violated in a series of assaults by Richard John Keepa, Christchurch District Court was told today.
Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier alleged the woman ran from the man's house, naked from the waist down after the assault, and tried to text for help when her cellphone battery died.
She ran about a kilometre from the man's Christchurch house to a friend's house to get help.
Keepa told the police he had no memory of the incident, Miss Boshier said.
But he later wrote letters to the woman acknowledging that he had anger issues and "wanted to hug her, and not around the neck, either".
Keepa has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to the woman threatening to kill her, unlawful detention with intent to have sex, and sexual violation.
The trial before Judge Jane Farish is set down for four days.
Miss Boshier told the jury there was an argument beteen Keepa and the woman as they were being driven home after a night out drinking.
Witnesses would say they saw Keepa shove the woman head-first into a concrete fence.
"She remembers waking up in hospital," said the prosecutor. The woman had been taken to hospital by ambulance, unconscious and bleeding from a cut to her nose. She had swelling on her forehead but no broken bones in her face.
On another occasion, she would say that Keepa strangled her unconscious when she refused to have sex with him. She wore high necked tops afterwards, but friends still saw the red marks on her neck.
The Crown alleges he threatened one of her friends with a knife in another incident.
In the final incident, which took place at Keepa's home, he again allegedly asked her for sex and began talking in riddles after she refused.
He said he would kill her, and refused to let her leave. He punched her in the nose which bled. He had then touched her with his hand and then licked the blood off his fingers, Miss Boshier said.
"He threatened her with a pair of bolt cutters and asked how she would like it if he cut all her fingers off."
He then undressed and allegedly forced the woman to perform oral sex before undressing and sexually assaulting her further.
The woman would say he then put her in a headlock, choking her while he forced two fingers into her nostrils.
She seized the chance to grab her handbag and some of her clothes and ran from the house.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3487405/Woman-bashed-unconscious-sexually-violated-court-told
A woman was bashed against a concrete wall, knocking her unconscious, strangled twice, and sexually violated in a series of assaults by Richard John Keepa, Christchurch District Court was told today.
Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier alleged the woman ran from the man's house, naked from the waist down after the assault, and tried to text for help when her cellphone battery died.
She ran about a kilometre from the man's Christchurch house to a friend's house to get help.
Keepa told the police he had no memory of the incident, Miss Boshier said.
But he later wrote letters to the woman acknowledging that he had anger issues and "wanted to hug her, and not around the neck, either".
Keepa has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm to the woman threatening to kill her, unlawful detention with intent to have sex, and sexual violation.
The trial before Judge Jane Farish is set down for four days.
Miss Boshier told the jury there was an argument beteen Keepa and the woman as they were being driven home after a night out drinking.
Witnesses would say they saw Keepa shove the woman head-first into a concrete fence.
"She remembers waking up in hospital," said the prosecutor. The woman had been taken to hospital by ambulance, unconscious and bleeding from a cut to her nose. She had swelling on her forehead but no broken bones in her face.
On another occasion, she would say that Keepa strangled her unconscious when she refused to have sex with him. She wore high necked tops afterwards, but friends still saw the red marks on her neck.
The Crown alleges he threatened one of her friends with a knife in another incident.
In the final incident, which took place at Keepa's home, he again allegedly asked her for sex and began talking in riddles after she refused.
He said he would kill her, and refused to let her leave. He punched her in the nose which bled. He had then touched her with his hand and then licked the blood off his fingers, Miss Boshier said.
"He threatened her with a pair of bolt cutters and asked how she would like it if he cut all her fingers off."
He then undressed and allegedly forced the woman to perform oral sex before undressing and sexually assaulting her further.
The woman would say he then put her in a headlock, choking her while he forced two fingers into her nostrils.
She seized the chance to grab her handbag and some of her clothes and ran from the house.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3487405/Woman-bashed-unconscious-sexually-violated-court-told
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"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."
"Being is substance and life; life manifests by movement; movement is perpetuated by equilibrium; equilibrium is therefore the law of immortality.
"The doctrine of equality!... But there exists no more poisonous poison: for it seems to be preached by justice itself, while it is the end of justice.... "Equality for equals, inequality for unequals" that would be the true voice of justice: and, what follows from it, "Never make equal what is unequal."
