A man could be heard shouting "I'm dying" as he was attacked by a bear outside his home and his wife desperately phoned emergency services.
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 7:00AM BST 22 Sep 2010
John Chelminiak, 57, a city council employee in Bellevue, Washington, was mauled by the black bear at the end of the driveway to his holiday home in Lake Wenatchee, Washington.
He had been out walking his dogs when the bear struck.
His wife Lynn Semler called 911 and said: "My husband has been attacked by a bear. He's at the bottom of the driveway."
In the background Mr Chelminiak could be heard saying he was dying.
He suffered wounds to the upper part of his body, and underwent surgery in Seattle where he is recovering.
His wife, who ran to help him, said: "I thought at first it was a black dog, and then just a couple strides down I realised it was a bear and John had been yelling bear, bear."
The female black bear, thought to be about 10-years-old and without cubs, was killed a few hours after the attack.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8017475/Man-cried-Im-dying-during-black-bear-attack.html
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Wannabe rapper admits murder in US
Last updated 10:08 21/09/2010
An aspiring rapper who embraced a style of music known as "horrorcore" pleaded guilty yesterday to killing his 16-year-old girlfriend, her parents and her friend.
Richard "Sam" McCroskey was sentenced to life in prison as part of his agreement to plead guilty to two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder.
His lawyer, Cary Bowen, said after the hearing that the prospect of the death penalty was a major factor.
"Four bodies are pretty compelling evidence," Bowen said. "This is the kind of stuff that citizens any place in this country are terrified it could happen to them. This is the kind of case death penalties arise from."
McCroskey, from Castro Valley, California, arrived in court shackled and heavily guarded. He showed little emotion during the hearing and offered simple "yes" and "no" answers to questions from the judge.
McCroskey pleaded guilty to killing his 16-year-old girlfriend, her parents, and his girlfriend's 18-year-old friend.
Family members of the victims sobbed softly during the hearing. They left without speaking to reporters, but issued a written statement: "We have endured a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. We are relieved that justice has been done."
Prosecutor James Ennis revealed that the women were bludgeoned with a wood-splitting tool while they slept on September 18, 2009. The father was killed with the tool when he came to check on them. Ennis declined to speculate on a motive.
McCroskey and Emma Niederbrock shared an interest in "horrorcore" music, which sets lyrics about rape, murder and mutilation to hip-hop beats. Bowen said the music had nothing to do with the killings.
McCroskey, a website designer and music promoter, had been rapping under the name "Syko Sam". He flew to Virginia to visit Emma, and her parents drove them and Wells to a horrorcore music festival in Michigan on September 12.
Police found their bodies six days later after Wells' parents became worried that she didn't return home.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4149557/Wannabe-rapper-admits-murder-in-US
An aspiring rapper who embraced a style of music known as "horrorcore" pleaded guilty yesterday to killing his 16-year-old girlfriend, her parents and her friend.
Richard "Sam" McCroskey was sentenced to life in prison as part of his agreement to plead guilty to two counts of capital murder and two counts of first-degree murder.
His lawyer, Cary Bowen, said after the hearing that the prospect of the death penalty was a major factor.
"Four bodies are pretty compelling evidence," Bowen said. "This is the kind of stuff that citizens any place in this country are terrified it could happen to them. This is the kind of case death penalties arise from."
McCroskey, from Castro Valley, California, arrived in court shackled and heavily guarded. He showed little emotion during the hearing and offered simple "yes" and "no" answers to questions from the judge.
McCroskey pleaded guilty to killing his 16-year-old girlfriend, her parents, and his girlfriend's 18-year-old friend.
Family members of the victims sobbed softly during the hearing. They left without speaking to reporters, but issued a written statement: "We have endured a tragedy of unspeakable proportions. We are relieved that justice has been done."
Prosecutor James Ennis revealed that the women were bludgeoned with a wood-splitting tool while they slept on September 18, 2009. The father was killed with the tool when he came to check on them. Ennis declined to speculate on a motive.
McCroskey and Emma Niederbrock shared an interest in "horrorcore" music, which sets lyrics about rape, murder and mutilation to hip-hop beats. Bowen said the music had nothing to do with the killings.
McCroskey, a website designer and music promoter, had been rapping under the name "Syko Sam". He flew to Virginia to visit Emma, and her parents drove them and Wells to a horrorcore music festival in Michigan on September 12.
Police found their bodies six days later after Wells' parents became worried that she didn't return home.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/4149557/Wannabe-rapper-admits-murder-in-US
Woman slashed infant grandson thinking he was 'Antichrist'
September 18, 2010
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter/drozek@suntimes.com
An Elmhurst woman attacked and slashed her 9-month-old grandson with a kitchen knife because she thought the child was the "Antichrist," DuPage County prosecutors said Friday.
Officials disclosed the alleged motive for the Sept. 11 assault as 39-year-old Sandra Clanton appeared in Bond Court to face felony charges that include attempted murder and aggravated battery to a child.
Clanton, who had been held since the stabbing in a locked psychiatric facility, was ordered jailed on $2 million bail.
Clanton's daughter and grandson were staying at her Elmhurst home when she abruptly attacked the youngster, authorities said.
She allegedly slammed the baby's head into the edge of the kitchen sink, then slashed his face with a knife, according to authorities.
Clanton's daughter rescued the baby and called police, while another person in the home subdued Clanton, officials said.
Clanton told police she believed the baby was the "Antichrist," prosecutor Michael Fisher said.
The baby suffered no life-threatening injuries, officials said.
From: http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2722190,CST-NWS-satan18.article
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter/drozek@suntimes.com
An Elmhurst woman attacked and slashed her 9-month-old grandson with a kitchen knife because she thought the child was the "Antichrist," DuPage County prosecutors said Friday.
Officials disclosed the alleged motive for the Sept. 11 assault as 39-year-old Sandra Clanton appeared in Bond Court to face felony charges that include attempted murder and aggravated battery to a child.
Clanton, who had been held since the stabbing in a locked psychiatric facility, was ordered jailed on $2 million bail.
Clanton's daughter and grandson were staying at her Elmhurst home when she abruptly attacked the youngster, authorities said.
She allegedly slammed the baby's head into the edge of the kitchen sink, then slashed his face with a knife, according to authorities.
Clanton's daughter rescued the baby and called police, while another person in the home subdued Clanton, officials said.
Clanton told police she believed the baby was the "Antichrist," prosecutor Michael Fisher said.
The baby suffered no life-threatening injuries, officials said.
From: http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2722190,CST-NWS-satan18.article
Man, 89, Accused of Shooting Ex’s New Boyfriend
Updated: Monday, 20 Sep 2010, 11:18 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 20 Sep 2010, 11:18 PM EDT
By SIMON SHAYKHET
DETROIT - This is a story with a huge twist. The suspected shooter, who is locked up at the Wayne County Jail, is nearly 90 years old with no criminal past.
In a Detroit Police mug shot, R. B. Theus posed without emotion, but his ex, who asked not to be identified, says his love for her turned to rage Saturday night. He allegedly fought with her current 48-year-old boyfriend during a birthday celebration at a home on Russell.
"He came up and hit him, and then he jumped up and they got to tussling over the gun,” said the ex. "Everybody was running… a gunshot and the gun waiving and stuff."
The victim is in temporary serious condition at Detroit Receiving Hospital. He was shot in the chest.
Police told us Theus was carrying a gun illegally.
"It could've killed him, me and the rest of my family. We all were out there,” the ex said.
The suspect is facing half a dozen charges, the most severe being assault with intent to murder.
From: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/the_edge/man-89-accused-of-shooting-ex-new-boyfriend-20100920-wpms
Published : Monday, 20 Sep 2010, 11:18 PM EDT
By SIMON SHAYKHET
DETROIT - This is a story with a huge twist. The suspected shooter, who is locked up at the Wayne County Jail, is nearly 90 years old with no criminal past.
In a Detroit Police mug shot, R. B. Theus posed without emotion, but his ex, who asked not to be identified, says his love for her turned to rage Saturday night. He allegedly fought with her current 48-year-old boyfriend during a birthday celebration at a home on Russell.
"He came up and hit him, and then he jumped up and they got to tussling over the gun,” said the ex. "Everybody was running… a gunshot and the gun waiving and stuff."
The victim is in temporary serious condition at Detroit Receiving Hospital. He was shot in the chest.
Police told us Theus was carrying a gun illegally.
"It could've killed him, me and the rest of my family. We all were out there,” the ex said.
The suspect is facing half a dozen charges, the most severe being assault with intent to murder.
From: http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/the_edge/man-89-accused-of-shooting-ex-new-boyfriend-20100920-wpms
Man who strangled dog banned from owning animals
PA
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
A man who strangled a dog to death with its lead because his sister did not want it any more was banned from ever owning an animal, the RSPCA said today
Stephan Graham Bullock, 23, pleaded guilty at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court in Hampshire to strangling the dog, called Alfie Moon after the EastEnders character.
The six-year-old German shepherd-lurcher cross was found half buried in a wooded area with a lead wrapped tightly around the neck, the court heard.
Veterinary evidence and a post-mortem examination showed the dog had been asphyxiated by the lead and would have suffered considerably.
The dog was microchipped and had been a rescue dog rehomed by the RSPCA Millbrook Animal Centre in Surrey some time before.
The original adopter had passed Alfie on and eventually he came to be looked after by Bullock's sister.
But she was unable to cope with the dog so she asked Bullock, who was living with her at the time, to take him.
The court heard Bullock, from Basingstoke, walked the dog to a vet for help and he was advised to call the RSPCA.
He then walked to a wooded area and he strangled the dog using the lead. Bullock admitted it took two or three minutes of the dog whimpering before the animal went limp and died.
Bullock pleaded guilty on September 7 to failing to protect Alfie from pain, injury and suffering in contravention of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 He was given a lifetime disqualification from owning or keeping all animals and a 12-month supervision order. He was also ordered to carry out 50 hours of unpaid community work and to pay RSPCA costs of £400.
Bullock, of Walnut Way, has been accepted into the Army and his defence asked the court not to give him a custodial sentence as he would miss his basic training.
RSPCA inspector Jan Edwards said: "This case is particularly distressing as the dog should have been placed back into RSPCA care under the terms of adoption, rather than being passed on to people who could not care for him.
"In Alfie's last moments he would have suffered pain and extreme distress whilst being strangled by Bullock - a brutal and calculated act which fills me with sadness, disbelief and horror."
From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-who-strangled-dog-banned-from-owning-animals-2085390.html
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
A man who strangled a dog to death with its lead because his sister did not want it any more was banned from ever owning an animal, the RSPCA said today
Stephan Graham Bullock, 23, pleaded guilty at Basingstoke Magistrates' Court in Hampshire to strangling the dog, called Alfie Moon after the EastEnders character.
The six-year-old German shepherd-lurcher cross was found half buried in a wooded area with a lead wrapped tightly around the neck, the court heard.
Veterinary evidence and a post-mortem examination showed the dog had been asphyxiated by the lead and would have suffered considerably.
The dog was microchipped and had been a rescue dog rehomed by the RSPCA Millbrook Animal Centre in Surrey some time before.
The original adopter had passed Alfie on and eventually he came to be looked after by Bullock's sister.
But she was unable to cope with the dog so she asked Bullock, who was living with her at the time, to take him.
The court heard Bullock, from Basingstoke, walked the dog to a vet for help and he was advised to call the RSPCA.
He then walked to a wooded area and he strangled the dog using the lead. Bullock admitted it took two or three minutes of the dog whimpering before the animal went limp and died.
Bullock pleaded guilty on September 7 to failing to protect Alfie from pain, injury and suffering in contravention of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 He was given a lifetime disqualification from owning or keeping all animals and a 12-month supervision order. He was also ordered to carry out 50 hours of unpaid community work and to pay RSPCA costs of £400.
Bullock, of Walnut Way, has been accepted into the Army and his defence asked the court not to give him a custodial sentence as he would miss his basic training.
RSPCA inspector Jan Edwards said: "This case is particularly distressing as the dog should have been placed back into RSPCA care under the terms of adoption, rather than being passed on to people who could not care for him.
"In Alfie's last moments he would have suffered pain and extreme distress whilst being strangled by Bullock - a brutal and calculated act which fills me with sadness, disbelief and horror."
From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-who-strangled-dog-banned-from-owning-animals-2085390.html
Man claiming to have a bomb in Watsonville bank gets talked into filling out loan paperwork, then arrested
By Jennifer Squires - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted: 09/09/2010 04:33:42 PM PDT
WATSONVILLE - A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after he walked into a Watsonville bank, said he had a bomb in his backpack and demanded $2,000 so he could pay his friend's rent, police reported.
But when Mark Smith, 59, allegedly tried to rob the bank, the bank manager suggested that what he actually needed to do was take out a loan, and she had him sit down while she said she was going to retrieve the loan paperwork. Instead, she called 911, according to Assistant District Attorney Dave Genochio.
"Quick-thinking staff kept the man calm and distracted him with some paperwork until we arrived," Lt. Darren Thompson said.
Officers responded to the bank, on the 700 block of East Lake Avenue, around 4:30 p.m.
Police arrested Smith, a Watsonville resident, on suspicion of attempted robbery, making criminal threats and making a false bomb report, according to Thompson.
Smith didn't have a bomb or any other weapons and no injuries were reported, Thompson added.
From: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_16033532
Posted: 09/09/2010 04:33:42 PM PDT
WATSONVILLE - A man was arrested Wednesday afternoon after he walked into a Watsonville bank, said he had a bomb in his backpack and demanded $2,000 so he could pay his friend's rent, police reported.
But when Mark Smith, 59, allegedly tried to rob the bank, the bank manager suggested that what he actually needed to do was take out a loan, and she had him sit down while she said she was going to retrieve the loan paperwork. Instead, she called 911, according to Assistant District Attorney Dave Genochio.
"Quick-thinking staff kept the man calm and distracted him with some paperwork until we arrived," Lt. Darren Thompson said.
Officers responded to the bank, on the 700 block of East Lake Avenue, around 4:30 p.m.
Police arrested Smith, a Watsonville resident, on suspicion of attempted robbery, making criminal threats and making a false bomb report, according to Thompson.
Smith didn't have a bomb or any other weapons and no injuries were reported, Thompson added.
From: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_16033532
Monday, September 20, 2010
Woman opens fire in German town, four killed
Mon Sep 20, 6:14 am ET
BERLIN (Reuters) – Four people were killed and at least one person seriously injured when a woman armed with a gun opened fire in and around a hospital in the southern German town of Loerrach, authorities said on Sunday.
"The situation is under control," said a spokesman for local police. The woman was among the four dead, he added.
Television pictures showed authorities had cordoned off several streets in the town near the Swiss border, where the shooting began at around 6 p.m..
Police said shots were first heard after an explosion in an apartment block in central Loerrach. Shortly afterwards, a woman armed with a gun ran out of the building, which caught fire.
The woman entered the nearby St. Elisabethen-Krankenhaus hospital and fired off several rounds, police said. She was then shot dead in an exchange of fire with police.
Police said two people were killed inside the hospital and that a police officer was seriously wounded. They added that the bodies of a man and a child were found in the apartment block, having previously said a woman and a girl were found dead there.
Local state prosecutor Dieter Inhofer told ZDF television investigators believed the deaths were all linked. However, the motive for the killings was still unclear, he added.
Germany has been debating tougher controls on gun ownership since a teenager went on the rampage in March 2009 in the southern town of Winnenden near Stuttgart, killing 15 people at his old school before shooting himself.
The boy's father went on trial on Thursday charged with failing to secure his gun properly. Both Winnenden and Loerrach are in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Germany's worst school shooting was in April 2002, when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt.
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100920/ts_nm/us_germany_shooting
BERLIN (Reuters) – Four people were killed and at least one person seriously injured when a woman armed with a gun opened fire in and around a hospital in the southern German town of Loerrach, authorities said on Sunday.
"The situation is under control," said a spokesman for local police. The woman was among the four dead, he added.
Television pictures showed authorities had cordoned off several streets in the town near the Swiss border, where the shooting began at around 6 p.m..
Police said shots were first heard after an explosion in an apartment block in central Loerrach. Shortly afterwards, a woman armed with a gun ran out of the building, which caught fire.
The woman entered the nearby St. Elisabethen-Krankenhaus hospital and fired off several rounds, police said. She was then shot dead in an exchange of fire with police.
Police said two people were killed inside the hospital and that a police officer was seriously wounded. They added that the bodies of a man and a child were found in the apartment block, having previously said a woman and a girl were found dead there.
Local state prosecutor Dieter Inhofer told ZDF television investigators believed the deaths were all linked. However, the motive for the killings was still unclear, he added.
Germany has been debating tougher controls on gun ownership since a teenager went on the rampage in March 2009 in the southern town of Winnenden near Stuttgart, killing 15 people at his old school before shooting himself.
The boy's father went on trial on Thursday charged with failing to secure his gun properly. Both Winnenden and Loerrach are in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Germany's worst school shooting was in April 2002, when a gunman killed 17 people, including himself, at a high school in the eastern city of Erfurt.
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100920/ts_nm/us_germany_shooting
Tigard man kills himself after shooting wife and another woman
Published: Sunday, September 19, 2010, 1:40 PM Updated: Sunday, September 19, 2010, 2:16 PM
Tigard police detectives have identified a man who killed himself after shooting his wife and another woman in Tigard Friday night.
Bradley Dean Ferris, 30, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after barricading himself in the apartment he shared with his wife at the Bonita Villa Apartments at 14640 S.W. 76th Avenue, according to Jim Wolf, Tigard police spokesman.
Ferris fired several rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun in the same apartment injuring his 34- year-old wife, Dorene, and a friend of a co-worker, Tonya Kay, also 34.
The two women were taken to Oregon Health Sciences University. Dorene Ferris was shot in the face, and Kay was shot in the abdomen, Wolf said.
A fourth person, Ferris' co-worker, who was also present in the apartment at the time was not injured.
Investigators are still interviewing witnesses to piece together what prompted Ferris to begin shooting. Police reports indicate that alcohol may have been involved
From: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/tigard_man_killed_himelf_after.html
Tigard police detectives have identified a man who killed himself after shooting his wife and another woman in Tigard Friday night.
Bradley Dean Ferris, 30, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after barricading himself in the apartment he shared with his wife at the Bonita Villa Apartments at 14640 S.W. 76th Avenue, according to Jim Wolf, Tigard police spokesman.
Ferris fired several rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun in the same apartment injuring his 34- year-old wife, Dorene, and a friend of a co-worker, Tonya Kay, also 34.
The two women were taken to Oregon Health Sciences University. Dorene Ferris was shot in the face, and Kay was shot in the abdomen, Wolf said.
A fourth person, Ferris' co-worker, who was also present in the apartment at the time was not injured.
Investigators are still interviewing witnesses to piece together what prompted Ferris to begin shooting. Police reports indicate that alcohol may have been involved
From: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/tigard_man_killed_himelf_after.html
Texas father accused of killing his 3 children
Sept. 20, 2010 06:31 AM
Associated Press
HOUSTON - A Texas father who has been accused of shooting his three children to death as they slept had previously threatened to kill or hurt himself if he lost visitation rights, an attorney said.
After Mohammed Goher's two daughters, ages 14 and 7, and a 12-year-old son were killed Sunday, authorities said Goher shot himself in the head in an apparent suicide attempt. He was in stable condition at Ben Taub Hospital. A Harris County Sheriff's office statement said he was expected to survive.
Goher was charged with three counts of capital murder, said Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Jamie Wagner. It was unknown whether he had an attorney.
He is divorced from the children's mother, Norma Goher, but had court-ordered visitation rights, according to the statement.
Those rights were to be the subject of a court hearing in Houston later this month. However, Goher received the children Friday afternoon and they were staying at his apartment, which is attached to a convenience store where Goher worked, about three miles south of Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport.
He was to have returned them Sunday afternoon to their mother who lived in a shelter for battered women, authorities said.
The 47-year-old father had threatened to kill or hurt himself if he lost visitation, Houston attorney Syed Izfar told the Houston Chronicle. Izfar was appointed by a court to represent Goher's three children in a divorce mediation.
"By all appearances, this was a man who loved his children. What a nightmare," said Izfar, who planned to recommend standard visitation in the case. "He had it in his mind that the children would be taken away from him forever."
Izfar said he was unaware of Goher ever harming the children.
On Sunday morning as the children slept, Goher got out a handgun, authorities said. Harris County Homicide Sgt. Ben Beall told the Chronicle he shot one of his girls in a bedroom and his son and other daughter who were asleep in another room. He then shot himself, Beall said.
A female baby sitter reported seeing Goher with a handgun and fled the apartment before hearing a gunshot, according to the statement. Neighbors did not return telephone messages by The Associated Press.
One neighbor, Julio Rodriguez, told the Chronicle that he dialed 911 after he saw a woman screaming when she left the apartment at the time of the shooting.
"I heard her screaming, "Gun! Gun! Shoot! Shoot!' I got scared because I knew there were kids in there," he said.
Muhommad Riaz, Goher's co-worker at the convenience store, told the Chronicle that he had spoken with Goher Saturday. He found him to be upset over the upcoming court date and the fear of losing his visitation rights, Riaz said.
Goher said "everyone was lying" about him having a violent temper, Riaz told the newspaper.
From: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/20/20100920texas-father-accused-killing-3-children.html
Associated Press
HOUSTON - A Texas father who has been accused of shooting his three children to death as they slept had previously threatened to kill or hurt himself if he lost visitation rights, an attorney said.
After Mohammed Goher's two daughters, ages 14 and 7, and a 12-year-old son were killed Sunday, authorities said Goher shot himself in the head in an apparent suicide attempt. He was in stable condition at Ben Taub Hospital. A Harris County Sheriff's office statement said he was expected to survive.
Goher was charged with three counts of capital murder, said Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Jamie Wagner. It was unknown whether he had an attorney.
He is divorced from the children's mother, Norma Goher, but had court-ordered visitation rights, according to the statement.
Those rights were to be the subject of a court hearing in Houston later this month. However, Goher received the children Friday afternoon and they were staying at his apartment, which is attached to a convenience store where Goher worked, about three miles south of Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport.
He was to have returned them Sunday afternoon to their mother who lived in a shelter for battered women, authorities said.
The 47-year-old father had threatened to kill or hurt himself if he lost visitation, Houston attorney Syed Izfar told the Houston Chronicle. Izfar was appointed by a court to represent Goher's three children in a divorce mediation.
"By all appearances, this was a man who loved his children. What a nightmare," said Izfar, who planned to recommend standard visitation in the case. "He had it in his mind that the children would be taken away from him forever."
Izfar said he was unaware of Goher ever harming the children.
On Sunday morning as the children slept, Goher got out a handgun, authorities said. Harris County Homicide Sgt. Ben Beall told the Chronicle he shot one of his girls in a bedroom and his son and other daughter who were asleep in another room. He then shot himself, Beall said.
A female baby sitter reported seeing Goher with a handgun and fled the apartment before hearing a gunshot, according to the statement. Neighbors did not return telephone messages by The Associated Press.
One neighbor, Julio Rodriguez, told the Chronicle that he dialed 911 after he saw a woman screaming when she left the apartment at the time of the shooting.
"I heard her screaming, "Gun! Gun! Shoot! Shoot!' I got scared because I knew there were kids in there," he said.
Muhommad Riaz, Goher's co-worker at the convenience store, told the Chronicle that he had spoken with Goher Saturday. He found him to be upset over the upcoming court date and the fear of losing his visitation rights, Riaz said.
Goher said "everyone was lying" about him having a violent temper, Riaz told the newspaper.
From: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/20/20100920texas-father-accused-killing-3-children.html
Husband accused of murdering his wife claims insanity by caffeine as defence
Last updated at 2:35 PM on 20th September 2010
A man accused of strangling his wife is poised to claim an intake of excessive caffeine rendered him temporarily insane on the night of the murder.
Woody Will Smith, 33, says he had so many sodas, energy drinks and diet pills that he he couldn't have knowingly killed his wife, Amanda, 28.
Police say Smith used an extension cord to strangle his wife, then used the same cord to bind her feet together. Smith then used another cord to tie his wife's hands.
Defence attorney Shannon Sexton filed notice with the court in Newport, Kentucky, of plans to argue that caffeine made his client unable to commit the crime.
Woody Smith had been having trouble sleeping in the run-up to May 4, 2009, partly out of fear that his wife would leave him and take their two young sons.
In the weeks preceding the murder, Smith told Dr. Robert Noelker, a psychologist from Williamstown hired by the defence, that he hadn't been sleeping, in part out of fear his wife would take their two children and leave him.
Smith told he remembers taking his children to school on the morning of May 4, 2009.
But Smith remembers little else about the ensuing hours.
'The next several hours of Mr. Smith's life, were described to me as if he were in a daze,' Noelker wrote in a report.
A legal strategy invoking caffeine intoxication is unusual but has succeeded at least once before, in a case involving a man cleared in 2009 of charges of running down and injuring two people with a car in Washington state.
Dr. Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University has noted in an unrelated study that there is a diagnosis for 'caffeine intoxication', which includes nervousness, excitement, insomnia and possibly rambling speech.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, said their own expert may testify there was no evidence Smith had consumed diet pills or energy drinks as he claimed before his wife died.
Prosecutor Michelle Snodgrass said Smith tested negative for amphetamine-type substances shortly after the killing.
Reports and case records say during that time, he was drinking five or six soft drinks and energy drinks a day, along with taking diet pills - adding up to more than 400 milligrams of caffeine a day.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - published by the American Psychiatric Association showing standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders - defines overdose as more than 300 mg.
That's about three cups of coffee.
Noelker said he determined Smith was open to 'brief psychosis' brought on by sleep deprivation, which was caused by the heavy ingestion of diet pills and caffeine in the weeks leading up to his wife's death.
Noelker is expected to be called as a defence witness.
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313649/Husband-accused-murdering-wife-claims-insanity-caffeine-defence.html
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Missing 'Cult' May Have Planned Suicide
The missing are all El Salvadoran immigrants and include three sisters ages 30, 32 and 40, an 18-year-old son and eight children aged 3 to 17.
They're part of a "religious off-shoot group" that's "cult-like" and "fundamentalist in nature," Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told the local KTLA TV station. "If you're watching this, come home," he said in a plea on live TV. "Come home alive to the people who care for you."
The search began Saturday afternoon when two husbands went to a sheriff's station to report their wives missing, and told authorities they suspected the women had joined a cult that broke off from a mainstream Christian church in northern Los Angeles County, San Diego's Channel 6 TV station reported.
One of the men told investigators he was ordered to guard and pray over a purse, but after several hours he got suspicious and looked inside. He found five cell phones, ID cards, deeds and letters in English and Spanish, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"The letters essentially state that they are all going to heaven shortly to meet Jesus and their deceased relatives," the California governor's office said, according to CNN. "Numerous letters found say goodbye to their relatives. It is believed, through further investigation, that the missing persons' intentions are to commit mass suicide."
One of the husbands told investigators that he believes his wife and the other missing people were brainwashed by the cult's leader, Reyna Marisol Chicas, and that they may be at risk, the L.A. Times reported.
California highway patrol have put out an alert for three vehicles: a silver Toyota Tundra pickup, a 1995 Mercury Villager and a 2004 white Nissan, according to The Associated Press.
Police helicopters are scanning Antelope Valley, a nearby area mentioned in some of the letters left behind. They're also searching Vasquez Rocks, another wilderness spot where authorities believe the group had planned to go six months ago to wait then for the apocalypse or other catastrophic event. That previous trip was called off after a cult member told relatives about their plans.
From: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/police-missing-cult-may-have-planned-suicide/19639473
Mother Denies Heart Surgery For Infant, Cites Religion
Posted: 5:04 pm EDT September 17, 2010
Updated: 3:49 pm EDT September 18, 2010
ATLANTA -- An Atlanta woman is refusing to let doctors perform heart surgery on her infant because of her religious convictions.
One-and-a-half year old Billie Varner was born premature with a serious heart problem. She is hooked up to a heart monitor 24-hours a day and has already been resuscitated several times.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta doctors said she needs surgery because her heart can give out at anytime, but her mother, Zayna, won’t sign the consent form.
The form gives doctors the right to conduct a blood transfusion in the event of an emergency, and Zayna said that conflicts with her beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness.
“In my understanding of the Bible and reading the scriptures, when it says to abstain from blood, it's my father telling me to abstain from blood because there could be dangers involved," she said.
The hospital obtained a court order to perform surgery on Billie’s twin sister Brooklyn, who was born with the same defect. Doctors performed emergency surgery on Brooklyn when she was 3 weeks old.
But Zayna said a Columbus, Ohio, hospital can perform the surgery without any chance of a transfusion. The only problem is that Georgia’s Medicare program won't pay for it.
If she ever does take Billie to the hospital, Zayna fears her children will be taken away from her without the consent form. Time will tell how long she’s willing to wait.
From: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/25055953/detail.html
Updated: 3:49 pm EDT September 18, 2010
ATLANTA -- An Atlanta woman is refusing to let doctors perform heart surgery on her infant because of her religious convictions.
One-and-a-half year old Billie Varner was born premature with a serious heart problem. She is hooked up to a heart monitor 24-hours a day and has already been resuscitated several times.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta doctors said she needs surgery because her heart can give out at anytime, but her mother, Zayna, won’t sign the consent form.
The form gives doctors the right to conduct a blood transfusion in the event of an emergency, and Zayna said that conflicts with her beliefs as a Jehovah’s Witness.
“In my understanding of the Bible and reading the scriptures, when it says to abstain from blood, it's my father telling me to abstain from blood because there could be dangers involved," she said.
The hospital obtained a court order to perform surgery on Billie’s twin sister Brooklyn, who was born with the same defect. Doctors performed emergency surgery on Brooklyn when she was 3 weeks old.
But Zayna said a Columbus, Ohio, hospital can perform the surgery without any chance of a transfusion. The only problem is that Georgia’s Medicare program won't pay for it.
If she ever does take Billie to the hospital, Zayna fears her children will be taken away from her without the consent form. Time will tell how long she’s willing to wait.
From: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/25055953/detail.html
Man Shot, Killed Over Beer
Posted: 12:17 pm EDT September 18, 2010
Updated: 2:47 pm EDT September 18, 2010
ATLANTA -- An Atlanta man was shot dead after refusing to give up a 12-pack of beer on Saturday, police said.
The shooting happened between two apartment complexes on Defoors Ferry Road in northwest Atlanta .
Lawrence Williams, 48, was walking down the road when a man approached him and demanded for his beer, Atlanta police Maj. Keith Meadows said.
Meadows said the suspect shot the victim at least once in the head before he died. He said the assailant left the scene in a silver or teal Toyota, which police found nearby.
Police were questioning a person of interest, Meadows said.
From: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/25065050/detail.html
Updated: 2:47 pm EDT September 18, 2010
ATLANTA -- An Atlanta man was shot dead after refusing to give up a 12-pack of beer on Saturday, police said.
The shooting happened between two apartment complexes on Defoors Ferry Road in northwest Atlanta .
Lawrence Williams, 48, was walking down the road when a man approached him and demanded for his beer, Atlanta police Maj. Keith Meadows said.
Meadows said the suspect shot the victim at least once in the head before he died. He said the assailant left the scene in a silver or teal Toyota, which police found nearby.
Police were questioning a person of interest, Meadows said.
From: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/25065050/detail.html
Motivation For Acid Attack Hoax
Chris Wragge discusses the possible motivations behind the acid attack hoax with Dr. Jeffrey Gardere, psychologist for WebGuru.com.
From: http://widget.newsinc.com/fullplayerwvars.html?wid=1961&cid=507&spid=98687&freewheel=90051&sitesection=nydailynews_top
From: http://widget.newsinc.com/fullplayerwvars.html?wid=1961&cid=507&spid=98687&freewheel=90051&sitesection=nydailynews_top
Deputy had to shoot injured deer 17 times
Sept. 16, 2010 12:47 PM
Associated Press
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A sheriff's deputy in Gainesville had to fire 17 shots to put down a deer hit by a car.
The Alachua sheriff's department said the deputy was "horrified" by what happened Wednesday, and would be referred to a victim advocate.
The deputy didn't know where to shoot the animal, so he called a superior. The sergeant said to aim for the heart, behind the deer's shoulder. Instead, the deputy fired repeatedly into the stomach until the animal died.
The sheriff's department said the deputy did nothing wrong and won't be reprimanded. They now plan to train patrol staff to quickly kill a distressed animal that can't be saved, The Gainesville Sun reported.
From: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/09/16/20100916florida-deputy-shoots-deer-17-times.html
Associated Press
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A sheriff's deputy in Gainesville had to fire 17 shots to put down a deer hit by a car.
The Alachua sheriff's department said the deputy was "horrified" by what happened Wednesday, and would be referred to a victim advocate.
The deputy didn't know where to shoot the animal, so he called a superior. The sergeant said to aim for the heart, behind the deer's shoulder. Instead, the deputy fired repeatedly into the stomach until the animal died.
The sheriff's department said the deputy did nothing wrong and won't be reprimanded. They now plan to train patrol staff to quickly kill a distressed animal that can't be saved, The Gainesville Sun reported.
From: http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2010/09/16/20100916florida-deputy-shoots-deer-17-times.html
Mother says Ind. teen joked after killing brother
Sept. 17, 2010 10:48 AM
Associated Press
RISING SUN, Ind. - A woman has testified that her older son ate popcorn and joked with her the morning after he strangled his 10-year-old brother.
Andrew Conley's mother, Bridget Conley, did not attend his sentencing hearing Friday in court in Rising Sun, Ind.
She told attorneys during a videotaped deposition played in court that Andrew seemed "fine" when she returned from her night shift at a casino in November. She says she sought counseling for Andrew in the days before he strangled his brother, Connor Conley, because claimed he had attempted suicide.
Andrew Conley pleaded guilty to murdering his brother and faces 45 years to life in prison.
The sentencing hearing could last through Monday.
From: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/17/20100917indiana-teen-joked-after-strangling.html
Associated Press
RISING SUN, Ind. - A woman has testified that her older son ate popcorn and joked with her the morning after he strangled his 10-year-old brother.
Andrew Conley's mother, Bridget Conley, did not attend his sentencing hearing Friday in court in Rising Sun, Ind.
She told attorneys during a videotaped deposition played in court that Andrew seemed "fine" when she returned from her night shift at a casino in November. She says she sought counseling for Andrew in the days before he strangled his brother, Connor Conley, because claimed he had attempted suicide.
Andrew Conley pleaded guilty to murdering his brother and faces 45 years to life in prison.
The sentencing hearing could last through Monday.
From: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/09/17/20100917indiana-teen-joked-after-strangling.html
Discovery Channel Hostages Knew Gunman Was Ready To Die
Scott Wykoff and Associated Press
As they lay on the floor of the Discovery Communications' lobby, listening to a gunman James Jae Lee rant about overpopulation, religion and the channel's programming and watching him strap a bomb to himself, two hostages came to the same conclusion: The gunman had no intention of leaving the building alive.
Jim McNulty and Christopher Wood tried to placate gunman James Jae Lee the best they could during the Sept. 1 standoff. They lied about their jobs at Discovery's sister network, TLC, hoping not to fuel his anger.
McNulty prayed for guidance. Wood broke down in tears, then got angry and started to formulate an escape plan. It didn't come off seamlessly - but they both got out alive and unhurt, as did a security guard who was held hostage with them.
Seventeen days after their harrowing, four-hour ordeal, Wood and McNulty were able to describe it evenhandedly in a 25-minute interview with The Associated Press. But McNulty's voice cracked when he recalled the brief phone conversation with his wife after their escape.
"I'm OK, I'm OK, I'm OK," he told her. "I love you."
Lee, 43, had protested at Discovery's Silver Spring headquarters previously, zeroing in on TLC programs like "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and "19 Kids and Counting," which he argued should be replaced by "programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility."
A judge ordered Lee to stay 500 feet from the building for two years after his 2008 protest, during which he threw fistfuls of cash into the air. Two weeks after his probation ended, he was back - this time with weapons.
He was shot dead by police immediately after Wood and McNulty ran out of the lobby.
Many Discovery employees remembered Lee, and some said they were not surprised to find out he was the gunman. But neither Wood nor McNulty recognized him when they walked into the lobby and saw him pointing a gun - later found to be a starter pistol - at the security guard.
The only reason they were taken hostage, as far as they know, is that they happened to walk into the building around the same time. McNulty, who writes and produces promotions for TLC's marketing department, was arriving for a meeting. Wood, a marketing specialist, was coming back from lunch.
"Wrong place, wrong time," Wood said.
When McNulty saw Lee pointing a gun at the guard, he first thought was that it was being staged as part of a production.
"Who would want to rob the lobby of Discovery?" McNulty said. "It just didn't compute."
Then Lee pointed the gun at McNulty and yelled, "On the ground! On the ground!"
Wood arrived a few minutes later and was ordered to the floor by Lee.
In turn, Lee made both of them stand up and talk to him. At that point they knew they shouldn't say much. McNulty told Lee he worked in scheduling. Wood said he filed papers.
"I was just giving him no response, one-word answers, not feeding into anything, which I guess is eventually why he got bored with me," Wood said.
Wood did tell Lee that he had no children and promised not to have any - responses that Lee apparently wanted to hear. McNulty, though, couldn't lie about his two kids, and that set Lee off. He asked McNulty if he would have his children sterilized.
"I said, 'I think it's their decision, sir,"' McNulty said.
McNulty doesn't remember much of what Lee said.
"He railed against the Constitution. He was talking about how humanity was the filthiest animal on the planet, and the earth didn't need humans," McNulty said. "It just became very clear that he was there either to die at his hands or at the police's."
Lee's repeated conversations with a hostage negotiator were not encouraging.
Lee "was just getting annoyed with him. He called him a nag at one point. He said he sounded like a used car salesman," Wood said. "He said, 'I'm not giving up the hostages until I get what I want.' He wasn't negotiating, he wasn't reasonable."
Religion was another subject of Lee's rants, and McNulty was relieved Lee never asked him about that topic, because he couldn't have lied about his Roman Catholic faith. He said countless Hail Marys to himself.
"Once the initial adrenaline wore off ... I started to realize, 'OK, I'm a hostage, what does that mean?' I don't know if it was the Holy Spirit, or a survival instinct or what," McNulty said. "I just started kind of going through a checklist."
Wood, meanwhile, became convinced he was going to die, and sobbed on the floor. The grief turned to anger, which strengthened his resolve.
"This is not the way I'm going to die," he told himself. "No one has the right to make this decision for me, and it's most certainly not going to be here."
Both McNulty and Wood had seen the guard making hand signals and assumed he was communicating with police outside. McNulty had seen movement near a bank of elevators.
The guard mentioned that Wood had been on the floor for a long time, and Lee made him stand up. Wood looked around for the gun and didn't see it. He mouthed the word "run" to the guard, who nodded his head. Wood mouthed "run" to McNulty and began counting "three, two, one" with his fingers. He stopped when Lee looked at him, then started again.
But when Wood bolted for the door, McNulty had a different idea. He assumed the SWAT team was about to start shooting and took cover behind a pillar. Then he realized Wood was nearly out of the building.
McNulty realized he was about to be alone with Lee and the guard, and was terrified.
"A voice went off in my head that just said, 'Run,"' McNulty said. He saw Lee turn his head in his direction. "I looked at that door and did not look back and ran as hard as I possibly could."
Both were afraid Lee would shoot them as they ran, but they made the same calculation: They were more likely to survive a gunshot than a bomb blast.
As soon as McNulty got outside, he heard the "pop, pop, pop" of the gunshots that killed Lee.
Wood and McNulty did not expand upon the role of the guard, a former military officer who served in Iraq, in deference to his desire for privacy. But they said his actions were heroic.
McNulty called his wife and told her he was OK, then was overcome and had to hand the phone to a police officer. Wood left his cell phone in the lobby and could only remember his mother's number. He broke down when he spoke to her. Only later was he able to reach his partner of three years.
He slept in his own bed that night.
"It was not the best night's sleep I ever had, but it was the best feeling to be at home," Wood said. "The next morning I woke up before the sunrise, went out into the living room by myself, and I've woken up before the sunrise almost every morning since. Just to appreciate it, and to watch it. I don't know what it is, but it's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen."
From: http://www.wbal.com/absolutenm/templates/story.aspx?articleid=58843&zoneid=3
Codex Gigas
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2010/sep/19/ten-best-devils#/?picture=366807333&index=4
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Gigas
http://www.kb.se/codex-gigas/eng/
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
'I got stabbed - and people just stared!' Waitress' bloody tale after West Side subway attack
BY Joe Jackson and John Lauinger
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Monday, September 13th 2010, 4:00 AM
A mugger stabbed a waitress who wouldn't give up her bag on an upper West Side subway platform early Sunday - and initially, no one came to her aid.
"They were just staring," said the 26-year-old waitress, who estimated there were around 20 people on the platform when she was attacked at 2:30 a.m.
"I said, 'I just got stabbed! Call 911! Does anyone know what I should do?' They just stared at me," she recounted from her bed at St. Luke's Hospital, where she was in stable condition with a stab wound to her left side.
The Daily News is withholding the victim's name because her attacker, who fled down Broadway, remains at large.
The victim was heading home to Washington Heights from her shift at a midtown restaurant with a couple of hundred dollars in tips in her purse.
She said she noticed the mugger - a slender, 6-foot-tall black man with short hair - on the No. 2 train heading uptown from Columbus Circle. He had his feet up on another seat, she remembered.
At 96th St. and Broadway, she got off to transfer to the No. 1, and he got off, too.
"He kinda just circled me and showed me his knife. He grabbed my purse and I tried to grab it back. I wanted my purse. I had money, everything in there. I was scared, I wasn't really thinking," she said.
"He stabbed me and I let go," she said. "I don't think I felt anything until he ran off and I pressed on it [the wound] and I was bleeding. I started freaking out."
She called for help, but her fellow straphangers just gaped at her.
It wasn't until she collapsed on the platform, bleeding, that anyone moved to help.
"I was lying down on the platform. There was a girl who came over; she was calming me down, she was nice," the waitress said.
The victim, who was in good spirits and being comforted by her boyfriend, said she was mostly just angry at losing her purse.
"I'm more p---ed off. I really want my bag back. I had a lot of stuff in there, important things like keys, IDs," she said.
"I can't breathe well: It's like someone's standing on my rib cage. But I wouldn't care if I had my bag."
Her boyfriend, Chris Delapaz, 22, held her hand.
"I'm just glad she's okay," he said.
Investigators are reviewing security camera footage for images of the thief, police said.
The waitress, who has lived in New York for four years, hasn't told her family in Hawaii what happened for fear of worrying them.
From: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/13/2010-09-13_i_got_stabbed__and_people_just_stared_waitress_bloody_tale_after_subway_attack.html?obref=obinsite
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Monday, September 13th 2010, 4:00 AM
A mugger stabbed a waitress who wouldn't give up her bag on an upper West Side subway platform early Sunday - and initially, no one came to her aid.
"They were just staring," said the 26-year-old waitress, who estimated there were around 20 people on the platform when she was attacked at 2:30 a.m.
"I said, 'I just got stabbed! Call 911! Does anyone know what I should do?' They just stared at me," she recounted from her bed at St. Luke's Hospital, where she was in stable condition with a stab wound to her left side.
The Daily News is withholding the victim's name because her attacker, who fled down Broadway, remains at large.
The victim was heading home to Washington Heights from her shift at a midtown restaurant with a couple of hundred dollars in tips in her purse.
She said she noticed the mugger - a slender, 6-foot-tall black man with short hair - on the No. 2 train heading uptown from Columbus Circle. He had his feet up on another seat, she remembered.
At 96th St. and Broadway, she got off to transfer to the No. 1, and he got off, too.
"He kinda just circled me and showed me his knife. He grabbed my purse and I tried to grab it back. I wanted my purse. I had money, everything in there. I was scared, I wasn't really thinking," she said.
"He stabbed me and I let go," she said. "I don't think I felt anything until he ran off and I pressed on it [the wound] and I was bleeding. I started freaking out."
She called for help, but her fellow straphangers just gaped at her.
It wasn't until she collapsed on the platform, bleeding, that anyone moved to help.
"I was lying down on the platform. There was a girl who came over; she was calming me down, she was nice," the waitress said.
The victim, who was in good spirits and being comforted by her boyfriend, said she was mostly just angry at losing her purse.
"I'm more p---ed off. I really want my bag back. I had a lot of stuff in there, important things like keys, IDs," she said.
"I can't breathe well: It's like someone's standing on my rib cage. But I wouldn't care if I had my bag."
Her boyfriend, Chris Delapaz, 22, held her hand.
"I'm just glad she's okay," he said.
Investigators are reviewing security camera footage for images of the thief, police said.
The waitress, who has lived in New York for four years, hasn't told her family in Hawaii what happened for fear of worrying them.
From: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/09/13/2010-09-13_i_got_stabbed__and_people_just_stared_waitress_bloody_tale_after_subway_attack.html?obref=obinsite
Flesh-eating Hastings killer jailed for 21 years
A Broadmoor patient who confessed to killing two women in East Sussex in 1998 and eating flesh from one of them has been jailed for at least 21 years.
Graham Fisher, 37, admitted the manslaughter of Clare Letchford and Beryl O'Connor in Hastings, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
He also admitted trying to murder and rape a Czech student on a train and raping a London woman in her home.
Lewes Crown Court heard he confessed because he knew he remained a danger.
The bodies of Ms Letchford, 40, and widow Ms O'Connor, 75, were found strangled and burned in their Hastings flats less than 100 yards apart in January 1998.
'Sexually sadistic'
Fisher, of Bromley, south-east London, said he cut flesh from Ms Letchford's arm and ate it.
Prosecutor Richard Barton said both women were lonely former neighbours of Fisher.
Fisher's attack on the 19-year-old student happened in the same month in a toilet cubicle on board a Hastings to London Charing Cross service.
Another vulnerable woman in her early 40s was raped by Fisher at her home in Bromley in 1991.
Prosecutors said Fisher targeted lonely women, some of whom he knew, to satisfy what one psychiatrist described as a "sexually sadistic" aspect to his personality.
Fisher confessed to his crimes in 2008 while at the high-security hospital in Berkshire.
He was transferred to Broadmoor under the Mental Health Act following concerns that he was a "grave danger".
Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Mr Justice Keith said Fisher's detention in hospital would be subject to progress of his treatment.
But he added that it could be decades before Fisher was released back into the community.
The judge said that it had been "to his credit" that he decided while he was at Broadmoor "to get these terrible crimes off his chest, because he was concerned that he was too dangerous at that stage to be transferred from Broadmoor to a less secure hospital but also because he wanted to remain at Broadmoor".
Det Ch Insp Trevor Bowles, of Sussex Police's major crime branch, said the investigation had been "long and complex".
"The six offences to which Fisher pleaded guilty demonstrate the extreme danger he poses to the public.
"His offences have wrecked the lives of many individuals and families," he said.
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-11344281
Washington man accidentally gives father of Tigard girl he molested digital photos of the crime
A Washington man who accidentally gave digital photos of himself abusing a 5-year-old girl to the child's father will serve at least 25 years in prison.
Donald Wayne George, 64, of Oroville, Wash., was once married to the child's grandmother and stayed involved in the Tigard family even after his divorce, traveling to and from his Washington home to visit his ex-wife's son and children in Washington County.
George had photos of the father's children stored on the memory cards and, during a Thanksgiving visit, offered to let the father copy the files to his own computer.
Washington County Deputy District Attorney Paul Maloney said that George mindlessly handed memory cards to the father until he reached one card. George began to panic, saying, "No, no, no," as pornographic images of the man's 5-year-old daughter appeared on the screen.
The father erupted in anger at the sight of his young daughter in sexual poses and various sex acts with George.
Maloney said George responded flippantly, "Call the police, I'm going to jail."
George pleaded guilty Aug. 31 in Washington County Circuit Court to all of his eight charges, which included two counts each of first-degree sodomy, first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree rape, stemming from incidents that began when the girl was 3 years old.
George has pending federal charges of production of child pornography and interstate travel with the intent to have sex with a child, U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman said. Under a plea deal, George will serve 25 years in federal prison for his crimes prosecuted in Washington County while he also serves his federal sentence.
The girl's father spoke at George's plea hearing, telling the court of the devastation George has caused his family and the selfishness George exercised when he carried out his own fantasies without consideration of the child's future.
"The possibilities of what goes through this man's mind is just chilling," he said.
The father said his daughter became elated the night George was arrested when her father told her she'd never have to see the man again. The girl is in therapy, her father said, and the family hopes she's able to put George's crimes out of her mind in time.
"From her first breath there was something unique about our child," he said. "I remember holding her in my arms ... and I promised her, I will do everything humanly possible to keep you safe. But I was unprepared for a man like Donald George."
Judge Gayle Nachtigal assured family members they are not responsible for the abuse the girl endured, and she told them to give her a chance to view herself as something other than a victim.
"She's going to get her cues as to who she is and how she fits into the world from you," Nachtigal said. "Stop beating yourself up, that's not going to get you anywhere."
From: http://www.oregonlive.com/tigard/index.ssf/2010/09/washington_man_accidentally_gives_father_of_tigard_girl_he_molested_digital_photos_of_the_crime.html
Mummified baby found in cellar
Published: 14 Sep 10 08:48 CET
Updated: 14 Sep 10 09:16 CET
A woman in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate has found the mummified body of a baby in her cellar, police said on Tuesday.
She alarmed police in Ludwigshafen last week, who said they did not believe there had been foul play involved.
The owner of the building had been cleaning the cellar in the town of Freisbach when she made the disturbing discovery, police spokeswoman Simone Eisenbarth told regional daily Die Rheinpfalz.
During their investigation police located the 22-year-old mother, who admitted she hid the baby in the cellar after its birth in the summer of 2008.
“She lived in the house at the time when the baby was born,” Eisenbarth told the paper.
She told police that she did not know she was pregnant before the birth, and that it had not survived.
A police autopsy was unable to determine whether the child was stillborn, but it also showed no signs of violence, the paper said.
The woman told police that she had an emotional connection with the newborn, which is why she hid its body in the cellar, Eisenbarth said.
Police have turned the case over to state prosecutors in Landau, the paper said. If they see no grounds for further investigation the file will be closed.
Gruesome cases of infanticide and child abandonment have haunted Germany in recent years.
The most notorious case involved a woman jailed for 15 years in 2006 for the manslaughter of eight babies. Sabine Hilschenz, a divorced, unemployed and alcoholic dental assistant from a depressed area of eastern Germany, hid the corpses in buckets, flowerpots and an old fish tank at her parents' home.
In October, the remains of four babies were found in a Berlin apartment following the suicide of their alleged mother. Later the same month a man’s dog found a dead infant along Munich’s Isar River bank.
From: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100914-29799.html
Updated: 14 Sep 10 09:16 CET
A woman in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate has found the mummified body of a baby in her cellar, police said on Tuesday.
She alarmed police in Ludwigshafen last week, who said they did not believe there had been foul play involved.
The owner of the building had been cleaning the cellar in the town of Freisbach when she made the disturbing discovery, police spokeswoman Simone Eisenbarth told regional daily Die Rheinpfalz.
During their investigation police located the 22-year-old mother, who admitted she hid the baby in the cellar after its birth in the summer of 2008.
“She lived in the house at the time when the baby was born,” Eisenbarth told the paper.
She told police that she did not know she was pregnant before the birth, and that it had not survived.
A police autopsy was unable to determine whether the child was stillborn, but it also showed no signs of violence, the paper said.
The woman told police that she had an emotional connection with the newborn, which is why she hid its body in the cellar, Eisenbarth said.
Police have turned the case over to state prosecutors in Landau, the paper said. If they see no grounds for further investigation the file will be closed.
Gruesome cases of infanticide and child abandonment have haunted Germany in recent years.
The most notorious case involved a woman jailed for 15 years in 2006 for the manslaughter of eight babies. Sabine Hilschenz, a divorced, unemployed and alcoholic dental assistant from a depressed area of eastern Germany, hid the corpses in buckets, flowerpots and an old fish tank at her parents' home.
In October, the remains of four babies were found in a Berlin apartment following the suicide of their alleged mother. Later the same month a man’s dog found a dead infant along Munich’s Isar River bank.
From: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100914-29799.html
Connecticut doctor testifies in trial of man accused of killing family
From Michael Christian, In Session
September 15, 2010 -- Updated 1359 GMT (2159 HKT)
New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Connecticut doctor whose wife and two daughters were killed in a 2007 home invasion took the stand Tuesday to testify against one of the accused killers, recalling horrific details of being beaten and tied up by his alleged captors while fearing for the well-being of his family.
William Petit, testifying on the trial's second day in New Haven Superior Court, calmly relayed to an attentive jury the events leading up the invasion.
Prosecutors allege that Steven Hayes, 47, and Joshua Komisarjevsky, 30, broke into the Petit family's home in July 2007. The men are said to have beaten up Petit, strangled his 48-year-old wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and set the home ablaze. The couple's two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, died of smoke inhalation.
The two paroled felons are charged with capital murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, burglary and arson. They both could face the death penalty if convicted.
Hayes is accused of raping Hawke-Petit, and prosecutors have charged Komisarjevsky, who will be tried separately, with sexually assaulting Petit's 11-year-old daughter.
July 22, 2007, began with Petit, his wife and Michaela attending church, Petit testified Tuesday. Hayley was just returning home that day from a weekend visiting with friends. Petit then played golf with his father while the girls went to the beach.
The plan, Petit said, was for Michaela to help her mother cook dinner that night.
"Michaela loved to cook," said Petit, who was wearing a heart-shaped Petit Family Foundation pin on his lapel.
The family finished dinner and the girls settled into the family room to watch "Army Wives"; Petit fell asleep in the sun room while reading the Sunday paper, he said.
The next thing he remembers, he said, was "thinking or feeling 'ow, ow, ow!'" as blood ran from a gash on his head.
"I sort of awoke in a daze. ... The next thing I knew I was seated on the middle of the sofa, with my head down (and) there was something warm running down the side of my face," he testified. "I saw two people standing in front of the sofa, one in front and one slightly to the rear ... and the one in the rear holding a gun, down and to his side."
While Petit said he could not clearly see the gun, he could see its form and shape, adding that "it appeared to resemble a 9 mm semiautomatic gun."
Prosecutor Michael Dearington produced a gun as evidence and Petit confirmed "that gun is consistent with the shape of the gun I saw."
Petit testified that the suspects told him to lie down on the couch "and tied my hands at the wrists and my feet at the ankles" and covered his head with an unidentifiable piece of fabric.
"I heard one of them say, 'If he moves, put two bullets into him," he added.
Eventually, the suspects led him, with his head still covered, to the basement.
"I heard nothing from Jennifer, Hayley or Michaela. ... I did not know where they were in the house, for the most part," he said.
Once he was taken to the basement, Petit was bound to a support pole by a rope around his chest and waist, his hands still bound with plastic zip ties.
"I would sort of go in and out of it, and slide down the pole," he testified. "My body weight sliding down made my body feel better. ... Eventually I was able to get the rope on my hands untied, and break the plastic. But I was not able to undo my feet."
Petit recalled that earlier in the ordeal, one of the suspects asked where the family kept their safe.
"I said we had no safe," he testified, adding that "much later on, I heard Jennifer ... say that she would need to get dressed and need her checkbook or my checkbook to go to the bank."
A bank teller at a local Bank of America branch testified Monday that Hawke-Petit asked to withdraw $15,000, telling the woman she needed the money "because she and her family were being held hostage at her house."
Petit said that for the most part "it was very quiet" while he was trapped in the basement, but at one point he heard "three loud noises, like someone was throwing 20- or 30-pound sacks on the living room floor."
"I heard moaning and the thumps, and may have yelled out 'hey!'" he said. "And a voice yelled, 'Don't worry, it'll be all right in a couple of minutes.' But there was definitely a change of voice . . . more sinister."
Fearing for his family's safety, Petit, still bound by his feet, hopped to the basement door.
"I just thought time was of the essence, and I needed to get help," he said, telling how he hopped up the basement stairs and headed to the house of his neighbor, Dave Simcik.
"I started to crawl, but that wasn't very efficient, so I started to roll -- the whole time I was yelling 'Dave, Dave!' ... I rolled over, with my feet still tied, banging on his garage door, hoping he would hear. The garage door went up, and Dave said 'Can I help you, sir?', and I said 'Dave, it's me, Bill, call 911!'"
Petit said police arrived moments after he made it to the Simcik house. He said officers asked him who was in his house, and he replied, "the girls, the girls."
Petit said he recalled hearing a "whoosh" sound shortly after one of the men in the house yelled to him "don't worry, it will all be over soon," though he said he did not smell smoke or see flames once he was out of the house.
After the ambulance arrived, he was taken to a hospital. In all, Petit said, he lost between five and seven pints of blood.
Prosecutors say the suspects put gasoline in several plastic gallon-size jugs found at the house -- originally filled with windshield washer fluid -- to start the fire in the home.
The only other witness Tuesday was police Sgt. Phillip Giampietro, who testified that he was working at "an extra job" on the morning of the home invasion when he received word "that there was a possible home invasion/hostage situation." Giampietro described seeing "activity in the driveway at one point," and then the Petit's vehicle "quickly backed down the driveway."
The Chrysler Pacifica escaped after hitting an unmarked police car and running over a stone wall. Giampietro identified the passenger in the vehicle as Hayes. The sergeant said the Pacifica took off "at a high rate of speed" and that "shortly after it disappeared, I heard a crash."
Giampietro said he and other officers tried to enter the home at that point, but were unable to do so because of the intense smoke, heat and fire.
"There was so much fire and so much heat the [window] panes were disintegrating and falling onto the ground," he said.
In an odd twist Tuesday afternoon, a male juror was dismissed after telling the courtroom that he's "confused by the presentation of the state's case, and what seems to be a lack of preparation on their part."
Prosecutors filed a motion for his dismissal and Judge Jon C. Blue granted the motion to objections from the defense.
In issuing his ruling, Blue said that the juror "is in such a state of agitation that I'm worried about the contamination of the jury. ... This is an extraordinary occurrence."
From: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/14/connecticut.murder.trial/index.html
September 15, 2010 -- Updated 1359 GMT (2159 HKT)
New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- A Connecticut doctor whose wife and two daughters were killed in a 2007 home invasion took the stand Tuesday to testify against one of the accused killers, recalling horrific details of being beaten and tied up by his alleged captors while fearing for the well-being of his family.
William Petit, testifying on the trial's second day in New Haven Superior Court, calmly relayed to an attentive jury the events leading up the invasion.
Prosecutors allege that Steven Hayes, 47, and Joshua Komisarjevsky, 30, broke into the Petit family's home in July 2007. The men are said to have beaten up Petit, strangled his 48-year-old wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and set the home ablaze. The couple's two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, died of smoke inhalation.
The two paroled felons are charged with capital murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, burglary and arson. They both could face the death penalty if convicted.
Hayes is accused of raping Hawke-Petit, and prosecutors have charged Komisarjevsky, who will be tried separately, with sexually assaulting Petit's 11-year-old daughter.
July 22, 2007, began with Petit, his wife and Michaela attending church, Petit testified Tuesday. Hayley was just returning home that day from a weekend visiting with friends. Petit then played golf with his father while the girls went to the beach.
The plan, Petit said, was for Michaela to help her mother cook dinner that night.
"Michaela loved to cook," said Petit, who was wearing a heart-shaped Petit Family Foundation pin on his lapel.
The family finished dinner and the girls settled into the family room to watch "Army Wives"; Petit fell asleep in the sun room while reading the Sunday paper, he said.
The next thing he remembers, he said, was "thinking or feeling 'ow, ow, ow!'" as blood ran from a gash on his head.
"I sort of awoke in a daze. ... The next thing I knew I was seated on the middle of the sofa, with my head down (and) there was something warm running down the side of my face," he testified. "I saw two people standing in front of the sofa, one in front and one slightly to the rear ... and the one in the rear holding a gun, down and to his side."
While Petit said he could not clearly see the gun, he could see its form and shape, adding that "it appeared to resemble a 9 mm semiautomatic gun."
Prosecutor Michael Dearington produced a gun as evidence and Petit confirmed "that gun is consistent with the shape of the gun I saw."
Petit testified that the suspects told him to lie down on the couch "and tied my hands at the wrists and my feet at the ankles" and covered his head with an unidentifiable piece of fabric.
"I heard one of them say, 'If he moves, put two bullets into him," he added.
Eventually, the suspects led him, with his head still covered, to the basement.
"I heard nothing from Jennifer, Hayley or Michaela. ... I did not know where they were in the house, for the most part," he said.
Once he was taken to the basement, Petit was bound to a support pole by a rope around his chest and waist, his hands still bound with plastic zip ties.
"I would sort of go in and out of it, and slide down the pole," he testified. "My body weight sliding down made my body feel better. ... Eventually I was able to get the rope on my hands untied, and break the plastic. But I was not able to undo my feet."
Petit recalled that earlier in the ordeal, one of the suspects asked where the family kept their safe.
"I said we had no safe," he testified, adding that "much later on, I heard Jennifer ... say that she would need to get dressed and need her checkbook or my checkbook to go to the bank."
A bank teller at a local Bank of America branch testified Monday that Hawke-Petit asked to withdraw $15,000, telling the woman she needed the money "because she and her family were being held hostage at her house."
Petit said that for the most part "it was very quiet" while he was trapped in the basement, but at one point he heard "three loud noises, like someone was throwing 20- or 30-pound sacks on the living room floor."
"I heard moaning and the thumps, and may have yelled out 'hey!'" he said. "And a voice yelled, 'Don't worry, it'll be all right in a couple of minutes.' But there was definitely a change of voice . . . more sinister."
Fearing for his family's safety, Petit, still bound by his feet, hopped to the basement door.
"I just thought time was of the essence, and I needed to get help," he said, telling how he hopped up the basement stairs and headed to the house of his neighbor, Dave Simcik.
"I started to crawl, but that wasn't very efficient, so I started to roll -- the whole time I was yelling 'Dave, Dave!' ... I rolled over, with my feet still tied, banging on his garage door, hoping he would hear. The garage door went up, and Dave said 'Can I help you, sir?', and I said 'Dave, it's me, Bill, call 911!'"
Petit said police arrived moments after he made it to the Simcik house. He said officers asked him who was in his house, and he replied, "the girls, the girls."
Petit said he recalled hearing a "whoosh" sound shortly after one of the men in the house yelled to him "don't worry, it will all be over soon," though he said he did not smell smoke or see flames once he was out of the house.
After the ambulance arrived, he was taken to a hospital. In all, Petit said, he lost between five and seven pints of blood.
Prosecutors say the suspects put gasoline in several plastic gallon-size jugs found at the house -- originally filled with windshield washer fluid -- to start the fire in the home.
The only other witness Tuesday was police Sgt. Phillip Giampietro, who testified that he was working at "an extra job" on the morning of the home invasion when he received word "that there was a possible home invasion/hostage situation." Giampietro described seeing "activity in the driveway at one point," and then the Petit's vehicle "quickly backed down the driveway."
The Chrysler Pacifica escaped after hitting an unmarked police car and running over a stone wall. Giampietro identified the passenger in the vehicle as Hayes. The sergeant said the Pacifica took off "at a high rate of speed" and that "shortly after it disappeared, I heard a crash."
Giampietro said he and other officers tried to enter the home at that point, but were unable to do so because of the intense smoke, heat and fire.
"There was so much fire and so much heat the [window] panes were disintegrating and falling onto the ground," he said.
In an odd twist Tuesday afternoon, a male juror was dismissed after telling the courtroom that he's "confused by the presentation of the state's case, and what seems to be a lack of preparation on their part."
Prosecutors filed a motion for his dismissal and Judge Jon C. Blue granted the motion to objections from the defense.
In issuing his ruling, Blue said that the juror "is in such a state of agitation that I'm worried about the contamination of the jury. ... This is an extraordinary occurrence."
From: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/14/connecticut.murder.trial/index.html
Mother, son dead at Johns Hopkins, doctor shot
By SARAH BRUMFIELD The Associated Press
Updated: 6:43 a.m. Friday, Sept. 17, 2010
Posted: 11:53 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010
BALTIMORE — Paul Warren Pardus listened as a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon updated him on the condition of his elderly mother who likely would never walk again. Overwhelmed, he pulled a gun from his waistband, wounded the doctor, then barricaded himself in his 84-year-old mother's hospital room before killing her and himself, authorities said.
"I guess he just couldn't bear to see her the way she was," said Pardus' brother 59-year-old Alvin Gibson.
The doctor, identified by colleagues as orthopedic surgeon David B. Cohen, was shot in the abdomen and collapsed Thursday afternoon outside the eighth-floor room where Pardus' mother was being treated. He was expected to survive.
Jean Davis was being crippled by arthritis and rheumatism and had surgery last week at the world-renowned cancer hospital, but it didn't go well, said Gibson of Remington, Va. It was unclear what sort of operation was performed.
"I guess because he thought my mom was suffering because the surgery wasn't successful and she probably wouldn't be able to walk again," Gibson said about a possible reason for his 50-year-old brother's actions. "She was a dear, sweet lady. She just wanted to walk around like she did when she was younger."
Pardus holed up in the room in a more than two-hour standoff that led authorities to lock down a small section of the Nelson Building while allowing the rest of the sprawling red-brick medical complex — a cluster of hospital, research and education buildings — to remain open.
When officers made their way into the room, they found Pardus and his mother shot to death, he on the floor, she in her bed.
Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said Pardus had been listening to the surgeon around midday when he "became emotionally distraught and reacted ... and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother's condition."
Gibson said he learned of their deaths while watching coverage of the shooting at a friend's house and "was really torn up inside."
Pardus was from Arlington, Va., and had a handgun permit in that state, police said. He was initially identified as Warren Davis, but police later changed that. Gibson said his brother had legally changed his name from Davis to Pardus, but he did not know why.
Pardus had worked as a driver for MetroAccess, which provides rides for disabled passengers in the Washington, D.C., region, but the subcontractor that employed him, Diamond Transportation, said he had been on leave since June.
Next-door neighbor Teresa Green said Davis had been hospitalized for months and that Pardus had been a fixture at her bedside. He appeared to be his mother's sole caretaker, she said.
"He loved his mother. That really showed," Green said.
The wounded doctor, an assistant professor at the medical school, underwent surgery.
"The doctor will be OK," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. "He's in the best place in the world — at Johns Hopkins Hospital."
Hopkins, a world-class institution, is widely known for its cancer research and treatment. It is part of Johns Hopkins University, which has one of the foremost medical schools in the world.
Cohen's neighbor in Cockeysville, Md., couldn't believe it when she heard about what happened.
"It was very scary," Jennifer Wickwire said. "It's very upsetting to think it's somebody from this area."
The hospital uses handheld metal detectors to screen patients and visitors known to be high-risk, said Harry Koffenberger, vice president of security. However, with 80 entrances and 80,000 visitors a week, it is not realistic to place metal detectors and guards everywhere.
"Not in a health-care setting," Koffenberger said. The hospital will review procedures and look again at the use of metal detectors, he said.
Gibson said his brother had never been in trouble and didn't mess around with guns, though when they were young, he liked to hunt and fish.
Thomas Robinson, 67, had known Jean Davis since he was a child.
"She used to be quite a horsewoman when she was young," he said. But she was not able to get around too well on her own in recent years. "She was in good spirits, but she was getting weaker all the time."
Robinson, who is Gibson's neighbor, was perplexed by Pardus' actions.
"Why would he blame the doctor?" he asked. "That's what I don't understand."
From: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/nation/mother-son-dead-at-johns-hopkins-doctor-shot-919598.html
Updated: 6:43 a.m. Friday, Sept. 17, 2010
Posted: 11:53 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010
BALTIMORE — Paul Warren Pardus listened as a Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon updated him on the condition of his elderly mother who likely would never walk again. Overwhelmed, he pulled a gun from his waistband, wounded the doctor, then barricaded himself in his 84-year-old mother's hospital room before killing her and himself, authorities said.
"I guess he just couldn't bear to see her the way she was," said Pardus' brother 59-year-old Alvin Gibson.
The doctor, identified by colleagues as orthopedic surgeon David B. Cohen, was shot in the abdomen and collapsed Thursday afternoon outside the eighth-floor room where Pardus' mother was being treated. He was expected to survive.
Jean Davis was being crippled by arthritis and rheumatism and had surgery last week at the world-renowned cancer hospital, but it didn't go well, said Gibson of Remington, Va. It was unclear what sort of operation was performed.
"I guess because he thought my mom was suffering because the surgery wasn't successful and she probably wouldn't be able to walk again," Gibson said about a possible reason for his 50-year-old brother's actions. "She was a dear, sweet lady. She just wanted to walk around like she did when she was younger."
Pardus holed up in the room in a more than two-hour standoff that led authorities to lock down a small section of the Nelson Building while allowing the rest of the sprawling red-brick medical complex — a cluster of hospital, research and education buildings — to remain open.
When officers made their way into the room, they found Pardus and his mother shot to death, he on the floor, she in her bed.
Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said Pardus had been listening to the surgeon around midday when he "became emotionally distraught and reacted ... and was overwhelmed by the news of his mother's condition."
Gibson said he learned of their deaths while watching coverage of the shooting at a friend's house and "was really torn up inside."
Pardus was from Arlington, Va., and had a handgun permit in that state, police said. He was initially identified as Warren Davis, but police later changed that. Gibson said his brother had legally changed his name from Davis to Pardus, but he did not know why.
Pardus had worked as a driver for MetroAccess, which provides rides for disabled passengers in the Washington, D.C., region, but the subcontractor that employed him, Diamond Transportation, said he had been on leave since June.
Next-door neighbor Teresa Green said Davis had been hospitalized for months and that Pardus had been a fixture at her bedside. He appeared to be his mother's sole caretaker, she said.
"He loved his mother. That really showed," Green said.
The wounded doctor, an assistant professor at the medical school, underwent surgery.
"The doctor will be OK," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. "He's in the best place in the world — at Johns Hopkins Hospital."
Hopkins, a world-class institution, is widely known for its cancer research and treatment. It is part of Johns Hopkins University, which has one of the foremost medical schools in the world.
Cohen's neighbor in Cockeysville, Md., couldn't believe it when she heard about what happened.
"It was very scary," Jennifer Wickwire said. "It's very upsetting to think it's somebody from this area."
The hospital uses handheld metal detectors to screen patients and visitors known to be high-risk, said Harry Koffenberger, vice president of security. However, with 80 entrances and 80,000 visitors a week, it is not realistic to place metal detectors and guards everywhere.
"Not in a health-care setting," Koffenberger said. The hospital will review procedures and look again at the use of metal detectors, he said.
Gibson said his brother had never been in trouble and didn't mess around with guns, though when they were young, he liked to hunt and fish.
Thomas Robinson, 67, had known Jean Davis since he was a child.
"She used to be quite a horsewoman when she was young," he said. But she was not able to get around too well on her own in recent years. "She was in good spirits, but she was getting weaker all the time."
Robinson, who is Gibson's neighbor, was perplexed by Pardus' actions.
"Why would he blame the doctor?" he asked. "That's what I don't understand."
From: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/nation/mother-son-dead-at-johns-hopkins-doctor-shot-919598.html
Man gored to death in Spanish bull run
Posted 09/17/2010
A charging bull has gored a 58-year-old man and killed him, Spanish officials said, in the third death this month during bull runs in Spain.
The beast's horn spiked the victim's abdomen during the bull run held as part of annual festivities in the south-eastern city of Albacete, a spokesman for the representative of the central government in the region said.
The death comes 11 days after a bull gored a 41-year-old man in the chest during a bull run in the central town of Villaseca de la Sagra.
Three days later a bull pierced the neck of a 48-year-old woman who poked her head through a barrier during a bull run in the town of Arganda del Rey near Madrid.
Towns across Spain hold festivals in which crowds of people show their bravura by running ahead a pack of bulls, which thunder through the streets to the bull ring for a fight.
Thirty-seven people, including 11 foreigners, were injured this year during Spain's most famous bull run, held every July in Pamplona.
- AFP
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/17/3015381.htm?section=justin
A charging bull has gored a 58-year-old man and killed him, Spanish officials said, in the third death this month during bull runs in Spain.
The beast's horn spiked the victim's abdomen during the bull run held as part of annual festivities in the south-eastern city of Albacete, a spokesman for the representative of the central government in the region said.
The death comes 11 days after a bull gored a 41-year-old man in the chest during a bull run in the central town of Villaseca de la Sagra.
Three days later a bull pierced the neck of a 48-year-old woman who poked her head through a barrier during a bull run in the town of Arganda del Rey near Madrid.
Towns across Spain hold festivals in which crowds of people show their bravura by running ahead a pack of bulls, which thunder through the streets to the bull ring for a fight.
Thirty-seven people, including 11 foreigners, were injured this year during Spain's most famous bull run, held every July in Pamplona.
- AFP
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/17/3015381.htm?section=justin
Teacher sorry for child-killing maths quiz
Posted Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:47pm AEST
A Japanese primary school teacher has been reprimanded for giving his pupils a maths problem in which he asked how long it would take to kill 18 children at a rate of three murders a day.
The 45-year-old male teacher, whose name has been withheld, has apologised for giving the quiz to his pupils, aged seven and eight, at his public school in Okazaki, central Japan.
"I did it carelessly. I deeply reflect on my conduct," he was quoted as saying by the officials over the incident in May, which apparently led to a parent complaint to the school in July.
The teacher reportedly asked the children: "There are 18 kids. If we kill three per day, how many days it will take?"
The school board said it handed the teacher a "strict reprimand".
"It should not happen again," said Kumiko Atsumi, a board official.
"We are very sorry. We are taking measures to prevent a repeat of similar cases."
News of the incident emerged as new education ministry statistics said cases of violence at Japanese schools rose for a fourth straight year to hit a record 60,913 cases for the year to March.
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/15/3012975.htm?section=justin
A Japanese primary school teacher has been reprimanded for giving his pupils a maths problem in which he asked how long it would take to kill 18 children at a rate of three murders a day.
The 45-year-old male teacher, whose name has been withheld, has apologised for giving the quiz to his pupils, aged seven and eight, at his public school in Okazaki, central Japan.
"I did it carelessly. I deeply reflect on my conduct," he was quoted as saying by the officials over the incident in May, which apparently led to a parent complaint to the school in July.
The teacher reportedly asked the children: "There are 18 kids. If we kill three per day, how many days it will take?"
The school board said it handed the teacher a "strict reprimand".
"It should not happen again," said Kumiko Atsumi, a board official.
"We are very sorry. We are taking measures to prevent a repeat of similar cases."
News of the incident emerged as new education ministry statistics said cases of violence at Japanese schools rose for a fourth straight year to hit a record 60,913 cases for the year to March.
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/15/3012975.htm?section=justin
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Parents watched bomb blast son
FRANTIC parents Lyn and Doug Field feared they had lost their son Tori as he lay bleeding profusely with a 10cm piece of shrapnel embedded in his jaw.
Seconds earlier, Mrs and Mr Field watched as Tori, 15, and a mate let off a home-made Roman Candle.
Things went horribly wrong as the metal container exploded and one piece headed straight for Tori.
It smashed through his right hand, ripping off his fingers, before blasting into his jaw.
Mrs Field, a nurse, fought through her shock as she tried desperately to stem her youngest son’s blood loss.
“I thought I’d lost him on the veranda at one stage,” Mrs Field said.
“I couldn’t get a pulse and he’d lost so much blood. It was just a horror. He lost probably two litres of blood and he was going into shock.”
Mr Field said he and his wife used 18 towels trying to stop the blood flow.
“He was white and had no pulse,” Mr Field said.
Mrs Field said the night of August 27 started normally. Tori had invited a mate from West Moreton Anglican College to stay over before playing soccer the next morning.
Mrs Field was too busy making dinner to buy some sparklers the boys wanted but Mr Field drove them to a shop after he got home.
“What they do is scrape the stuff off the sparklers and put it in a container. They light it and the sparkler shoots up,” Mrs Field said. “About 9pm they went outside and I said: ‘Hang on, we’re coming out with you.’ Doug was in bed crook but he came out too.
“There’s a stump between the house and the shed and they put the candle on that. “I’d said a few times, ‘Are you sure that thing’s safe?’ because I hate any of it but they’re teenage boys, they’re adventurous.”
She said everyone got back 15 to 20m with Tori videoing the action on his mobile phone.
As he held the phone in front of his face a 10cm long, 5cm wide and 3mm thick piece of the container hurtled into his hand and face.
“We’d turned to come in but we heard this almighty explosive noise I said to Doug: ‘What was that?’ and at that stage Tori came staggering out from behind a tree,” Mrs Field said.
“Half his face and jaw was hanging off and his mate was screaming and was just hysterical.
“We got Tori on the veranda and started doing first aid and Doug called the ambulance.
Tori has been in Princess Alexandra Hospital’s intensive care unit, high dependency ward and facial unit.
“He’s had a titanium plate in his jaw; that was fractured in five places, his facial nerves have been damaged and he’s lost a lot of teeth – at least 12. It will be six to 12 months before we know what other treatment he’ll need,” Mrs Field said.
“He’s alive; that’s all that matters to us. He’s a positive kid. He wants to get back to his mates and school. “It’s been two weeks and I’ve just been in a trance. It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. You feel like you’re heart’s been ripped out.
“We’re responsible parents and look what can happen in a few seconds. You don’t think of sparklers being a danger.”
Mr Field said he would like to see sparklers banned.
“They’ve done it before but they’ve done it in an open container. This one had a small hole in it and when the flare went off it welded the hole shut and then the gases inside exploded the container,” Mr Field said.
Mrs Field said she wanted Tori’s doctors to let him out of hospital so she could treat him at home.
Meanwhile, she and her husband are struggling financially because neither was able to work.
WestMAC interim principal Steve Paul said yesterday the school had a free clothes day and Tori’s classmates had a sausage sizzle to raise money.
“He’s part of the WestMAC family,” Mr Paul said.
“I’ve spoken to the students about doing risky things but we’re not going to judge him, we’re going to support him.”
From: http://www.qt.com.au/story/2010/09/14/Parents-tell-DIY-bomb-blast-horror/
Man Sentenced In Kitty Porn Case
SEPTEMBER 10--A Florida man who told police that his cat somehow downloaded child pornography onto his computer was sentenced this week to more than 12 years in prison.
Keith Griffin, 49, pleaded no contest to 25 felony counts stemming from a probe launched last year by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. The Jensen Beach man, who worked as a Sears salesman, was targeted after investigators determined he was using a file sharing site to distribute child pornography.
When agents last July raided Griffin’s home (which he shared with his teenage son) he “stated he has accidentally seen child pornography while using Limewire,” but that he would “usually delete” those files, according to a sheriff’s report excerpted here.
Griffin, investigators noted, added that, “sometimes he would leave the computer on and his cat would jump on the keyboard and he would come back to the computer and find strange things on his computer.” He did not further describe how his talented cat succeeded in downloading these “strange things,” or what he did with these files.
Griffin (pictured in the mug shot), will be imprisoned until early-2022. The cat, who has not been named, was not charged.
From: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/animals/man-sentenced-kitty-porn-case
Miami woman charged after husband commits suicide
By David Ovalle The Miami Herald
Posted: 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010
Tired of their bickering and her husband's complaints that he wanted to die, an exasperated Cutler Bay woman asked him if he wanted his pistol.
Yes, he replied - so she fetched the weapon from another room and tossed it on the couch next to him, police said.
Then he shot himself, fatally, in the head.
For her `"reckless disregard for human life,' Valerie Jenkins will be charged Wednesday with manslaughter with a deadly weapon for the May 2009 death of her husband, Robert Jenkins, prosecutors say.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office is expected to file formal charges against Valerie Jenkins, 56, today in front of Circuit Judge Reemberto Diaz.
Robert Jenkins, 51, a longtime South Miami-Dade auto mechanic, was an avid fisherman who loved life and never talked of suicide, relatives say. `"We all have to be accountable for our actions,' said Robin Jenkins, the dead man's sister-in-law. "Her actions resulted in Bob's death.'
Robert and Valerie Jenkins were married for seven years and lived in a home in the 10000 block of Martinique Drive. They had no children.
Her attorney, James Best, did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Jenkins told Miami-Dade police homicide detectives that she and her husband fought frequently, and he often said "he wanted to die,' according to an arrest warrant. On May 4, 2009, the couple fought over his not taking his blood pressure medicine. Robert Jenkins was "probably depressed' and had been drinking beer, his wife told police.
Robert Jenkins again said "he wanted to die.'
Angry and frustrated, Jenkins asked her husband if he wanted his gun. After he said yes, she retrieved his .22-caliber pistol, in a zippered pouch, from a dresser drawer, she told police. She flipped it onto the sofa where Robert Jenkins sat.
When she turned to enter the kitchen, "she heard a single gunshot, and when she turned back, she observed the victim slumped over on the sofa with a gunshot wound to the side of the head,' the warrant states.
Jenkins frantically called 911, saying that while her husband had threatened to use the gun in the past, "he had never actually asked her for it while they were arguing.'
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a suicide. Robert Jenkins' blood alcohol level was .14, nearly twice the legal limit for driving.
In preparing its manslaughter case, Miami-Dade prosecutors Lody Jean and Kathleen Hoague relied on the successful case against Jeramy Ricky Rushing, who in February 1986 gave a cocked, loaded gun to a despondent woman outside a Dania Beach bar.
A Broward County judge dismissed a manslaughter charge against Rushing, but the Fourth District Court of Appeal reinstated it, clearing the way for a trial. In 1992, jurors convicted Rushing and he was sentenced to two years of house arrest plus 300 hours of community service.
Prosecutors said Valerie Jenkins "engaged in a course of conduct that was gross and flagrant, showing reckless disregard for human life' by giving the loaded gun to her intoxicated husband.
From: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/miami-woman-charged-after-husband-commits-suicide-916868.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss
Posted: 8:20 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010
Tired of their bickering and her husband's complaints that he wanted to die, an exasperated Cutler Bay woman asked him if he wanted his pistol.
Yes, he replied - so she fetched the weapon from another room and tossed it on the couch next to him, police said.
Then he shot himself, fatally, in the head.
For her `"reckless disregard for human life,' Valerie Jenkins will be charged Wednesday with manslaughter with a deadly weapon for the May 2009 death of her husband, Robert Jenkins, prosecutors say.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office is expected to file formal charges against Valerie Jenkins, 56, today in front of Circuit Judge Reemberto Diaz.
Robert Jenkins, 51, a longtime South Miami-Dade auto mechanic, was an avid fisherman who loved life and never talked of suicide, relatives say. `"We all have to be accountable for our actions,' said Robin Jenkins, the dead man's sister-in-law. "Her actions resulted in Bob's death.'
Robert and Valerie Jenkins were married for seven years and lived in a home in the 10000 block of Martinique Drive. They had no children.
Her attorney, James Best, did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Jenkins told Miami-Dade police homicide detectives that she and her husband fought frequently, and he often said "he wanted to die,' according to an arrest warrant. On May 4, 2009, the couple fought over his not taking his blood pressure medicine. Robert Jenkins was "probably depressed' and had been drinking beer, his wife told police.
Robert Jenkins again said "he wanted to die.'
Angry and frustrated, Jenkins asked her husband if he wanted his gun. After he said yes, she retrieved his .22-caliber pistol, in a zippered pouch, from a dresser drawer, she told police. She flipped it onto the sofa where Robert Jenkins sat.
When she turned to enter the kitchen, "she heard a single gunshot, and when she turned back, she observed the victim slumped over on the sofa with a gunshot wound to the side of the head,' the warrant states.
Jenkins frantically called 911, saying that while her husband had threatened to use the gun in the past, "he had never actually asked her for it while they were arguing.'
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a suicide. Robert Jenkins' blood alcohol level was .14, nearly twice the legal limit for driving.
In preparing its manslaughter case, Miami-Dade prosecutors Lody Jean and Kathleen Hoague relied on the successful case against Jeramy Ricky Rushing, who in February 1986 gave a cocked, loaded gun to a despondent woman outside a Dania Beach bar.
A Broward County judge dismissed a manslaughter charge against Rushing, but the Fourth District Court of Appeal reinstated it, clearing the way for a trial. In 1992, jurors convicted Rushing and he was sentenced to two years of house arrest plus 300 hours of community service.
Prosecutors said Valerie Jenkins "engaged in a course of conduct that was gross and flagrant, showing reckless disregard for human life' by giving the loaded gun to her intoxicated husband.
From: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/miami-woman-charged-after-husband-commits-suicide-916868.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss
Gun-Carrying Neighbors Save Women From Dog Attack
Posted: 6:24 pm PDT September 11, 2010
Updated: 7:23 pm PDT September 11, 2010
FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- Two women were still recovering Saturday after a vicious dog attack the morning before that didn't end until neighbors shot the dogs.
Witnesses said that at about 6 a.m. Friday, three loose dogs pounced on 52-year-old Janelle Dalson, who was on a jog through her neighborhood. The woman’s screams woke one neighbor, who came outside to find her fending off the three dogs, which collectively weighed nearly 300 pounds.
“Course she was screaming and begging for help. You know, ‘please help me,’” said responding neighbor Gary Paquet, who choked up while describing what he witnessed. “They actually had her body up off the ground, and they were trying to rend her apart.”
Fortunately, Paquet came out of his house armed with his Walther PPK Handgun.
“Lead dog came up, and I shot him in the head. And he just dropped right there,” said Paquet.
But as the other two dogs continued their assault, Paquet's gun jammed. Just then, two other women came running up the street and the two dogs went after them. One of the women was pregnant.
“Those two dogs went right for them, and they took down the pregnant one and started chewing on her,” said Paquet.
Neighbor John Bettencourt also came outside armed with a handgun, and shot the two dogs before they could seriously hurt the pregnant woman.
“In speaking with the officers on the scene, they said that they truly felt that had the neighbors not interfered and come to their aid, that at least the first victim would not have survived,” said Fairfield Police Officer Kathryn Sommerdorf.
On Saturday afternoon, neighbors gave flowers to Paquet and Bettencourt for their actions.
“I was really glad both Gary and John had gun skills. Because if there was a place on this block where this could have happened, these are the two guys who could take care of it,” said Diana Paquet.
The lead dog, a bull mastiff has since been destroyed and the two others - which are pit bull - mastiff mixes - will likely soon follow. Police were investigating the attack Saturday and requested the Solano County district attorney's office file charges against the dog owners for allowing vicious animals to run free.
Dalson remained hospitalized Saturday, reportedly facing some paralysis because of the attack, which could end her career as a dental hygienist.
From: http://www.ktvu.com/news/24973101/detail.html
Updated: 7:23 pm PDT September 11, 2010
FAIRFIELD, Calif. -- Two women were still recovering Saturday after a vicious dog attack the morning before that didn't end until neighbors shot the dogs.
Witnesses said that at about 6 a.m. Friday, three loose dogs pounced on 52-year-old Janelle Dalson, who was on a jog through her neighborhood. The woman’s screams woke one neighbor, who came outside to find her fending off the three dogs, which collectively weighed nearly 300 pounds.
“Course she was screaming and begging for help. You know, ‘please help me,’” said responding neighbor Gary Paquet, who choked up while describing what he witnessed. “They actually had her body up off the ground, and they were trying to rend her apart.”
Fortunately, Paquet came out of his house armed with his Walther PPK Handgun.
“Lead dog came up, and I shot him in the head. And he just dropped right there,” said Paquet.
But as the other two dogs continued their assault, Paquet's gun jammed. Just then, two other women came running up the street and the two dogs went after them. One of the women was pregnant.
“Those two dogs went right for them, and they took down the pregnant one and started chewing on her,” said Paquet.
Neighbor John Bettencourt also came outside armed with a handgun, and shot the two dogs before they could seriously hurt the pregnant woman.
“In speaking with the officers on the scene, they said that they truly felt that had the neighbors not interfered and come to their aid, that at least the first victim would not have survived,” said Fairfield Police Officer Kathryn Sommerdorf.
On Saturday afternoon, neighbors gave flowers to Paquet and Bettencourt for their actions.
“I was really glad both Gary and John had gun skills. Because if there was a place on this block where this could have happened, these are the two guys who could take care of it,” said Diana Paquet.
The lead dog, a bull mastiff has since been destroyed and the two others - which are pit bull - mastiff mixes - will likely soon follow. Police were investigating the attack Saturday and requested the Solano County district attorney's office file charges against the dog owners for allowing vicious animals to run free.
Dalson remained hospitalized Saturday, reportedly facing some paralysis because of the attack, which could end her career as a dental hygienist.
From: http://www.ktvu.com/news/24973101/detail.html
Body found in bloody apartment, court told
NZPA Last updated 19:07 15/09/2010
The blood of a Chinese student was scattered all over an inner Auckland apartment where she was stabbed to death and her body then put in a suitcase, a ESR forensic scientist says.
Dion Sheppard was giving evidence today at the High Court Auckland trial of Peng Cheng Tian, 25, from the North Shore suburb of Hillcrest, who has denied murdering Chinese national Yi Ren, 30, in September 2008.
The prosecution alleged that Tian, who was a friend of Ms Ren and her boyfriend, stabbed her to death at her Newton apartment after their relation soured over a business deal involving a car.
In the process of the attack he severely cut his left hand with the knife.
He then placed her body in a suitcase before calling 111 and telling the operator what he had done.
Mr Sheppard told the court he went to the apartment on September 2, where he found blood from Ms Ren in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
He also found Tian's blood everywhere in the bedroom.
The trial which is set down for four weeks continues tomorrow.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4132138/Body-found-in-bloody-apartment-court-told
The blood of a Chinese student was scattered all over an inner Auckland apartment where she was stabbed to death and her body then put in a suitcase, a ESR forensic scientist says.
Dion Sheppard was giving evidence today at the High Court Auckland trial of Peng Cheng Tian, 25, from the North Shore suburb of Hillcrest, who has denied murdering Chinese national Yi Ren, 30, in September 2008.
The prosecution alleged that Tian, who was a friend of Ms Ren and her boyfriend, stabbed her to death at her Newton apartment after their relation soured over a business deal involving a car.
In the process of the attack he severely cut his left hand with the knife.
He then placed her body in a suitcase before calling 111 and telling the operator what he had done.
Mr Sheppard told the court he went to the apartment on September 2, where he found blood from Ms Ren in the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
He also found Tian's blood everywhere in the bedroom.
The trial which is set down for four weeks continues tomorrow.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4132138/Body-found-in-bloody-apartment-court-told
Australian TV bans pro-euthanasia advert
Australia has banned the first televised pro-euthanasia advert which featured a terminally ill man saying: "I did not choose this."
Published: 1:50PM BST 14 Sep 2010
The 45-second advert featured an ill-looking man sitting on a bed talking about the choices he has made in life.
"I chose to marry Tina, have two great kids. I chose to always drive a Ford," the actor says. "What I didn't choose is being terminally ill.
"I didn't choose to starve to death because eating is like swallowing razor blades. I certainly didn't choose to have to watch my family go through it with me. I've made my final choice. I just need the government to listen."
The advert was knocked back by Free TV Australia, which regulates all advertising material for free-to-air commercial stations, saying it would probably breach television's code of conduct.
The code "states that material which promotes or encourages suicide will invariably be unsuitable for television," it said in a statement.
"Free TV Australia expresses no view on the ethical and legal debate surrounding voluntary euthanasia and has no interest in suppressing debate on this sensitive issue," it added.
Veteran euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said his Exit International, which made the advert, had since submitted a shortened version for approval and would press ahead with accompanying billboard ads.
He rejected the proposition that the advert promoted suicide, describing it as a political statement about the fact that euthanasia was illegal in Australia.
Australia's Northern Territory introduced the world's first voluntary euthanasia legislation in 1995 but it was overturned by the federal government and euthanasia remains a crime in the country.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8001974/Australian-TV-bans-pro-euthanasia-advert.html
Published: 1:50PM BST 14 Sep 2010
The 45-second advert featured an ill-looking man sitting on a bed talking about the choices he has made in life.
"I chose to marry Tina, have two great kids. I chose to always drive a Ford," the actor says. "What I didn't choose is being terminally ill.
"I didn't choose to starve to death because eating is like swallowing razor blades. I certainly didn't choose to have to watch my family go through it with me. I've made my final choice. I just need the government to listen."
The advert was knocked back by Free TV Australia, which regulates all advertising material for free-to-air commercial stations, saying it would probably breach television's code of conduct.
The code "states that material which promotes or encourages suicide will invariably be unsuitable for television," it said in a statement.
"Free TV Australia expresses no view on the ethical and legal debate surrounding voluntary euthanasia and has no interest in suppressing debate on this sensitive issue," it added.
Veteran euthanasia campaigner Philip Nitschke said his Exit International, which made the advert, had since submitted a shortened version for approval and would press ahead with accompanying billboard ads.
He rejected the proposition that the advert promoted suicide, describing it as a political statement about the fact that euthanasia was illegal in Australia.
Australia's Northern Territory introduced the world's first voluntary euthanasia legislation in 1995 but it was overturned by the federal government and euthanasia remains a crime in the country.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8001974/Australian-TV-bans-pro-euthanasia-advert.html
Fake cancer woman starved herself and shaved hair for two years to con friends and family out of thousands dollars
Last updated at 2:50 PM on 15th September 2010
A fraudster conned well-wishers out of thousands of dollars by falsely claiming she had terminal cancer.
Ashley Anne Kirilow shaved her head and eyebrows and even starved herself to look like a chemotherapy patient during the two-year scam.
In a final insult to genuine cancer sufferers, the 23-year-old claimed she had just months to live and had 'Won't quit' tattooed on her knuckles.
But now Ashley has finally admitted her illness is a hoax and is set to appear in court in Canada on fraud charges.
The con artist claims she did it to get noticed and persuade her estranged parents to get back together.
She said: 'I know what I did was wrong but I was trying to get noticed.
'I was trying to get my family back together and I just didn't want to feel like I was nothing anymore.
'It went wrong, the story spread like crazy and then suddenly it seemed like the whole world knew about it.'
In late 2008 Ashley was treated for a benign lump in her breast but after the procedure she started telling friends she had breast cancer.
During the following months the compulsive liar went on to tell people she had brain cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer and ovarian cancer, at various stages and in various combinations.
In 2009 Ashley then called her father, Mike, who she hadn't seen for four years since the breakdown of her parents marriage.
Kirilow told him that she needed a bone marrow transplant or she would be dead in six months.
Her father was immediately suspicious.
He said: 'I had the feeling something wasn't right but I didn't feel I could say anything straight away.
'I spent the next 10 days trying to reach her and when I couldn't I left her a message saying I would tell the police to knock her door down.
'She called me back straight away and shouted at me to stay out of her life.
'I didn't hear from her again for more than a year.'
In the meantime Kirilow also contacted her biological mother, Cindy Edwards, who she had had little contact with since she was 14, to say she needed money for chemotherapy.
Her mother also smelled a rat. She said: 'The only thing she ever wanted from me was money, and I couldn?t ever give it to her.
'I was crying but I told her she was beautiful and that chemo was fully covered in Canada and she would be fine.
'Ashley then got angry and told me she was just calling to tell me before she died that I was the worst mother in the world.
'She was always desperate for attention and as a child always wanted to be a princess.
'She just wanted more and more no matter what we gave her.'
After failing to get money from her parents Ashley went on to convince her friend, Adam Catley, of her fatal illness and he let her live rent free with him for several months before organising a benefit at his father's pub.
The 22-year-old said: 'I really did believe her and obviously I wanted to do all I could to help.
'We raised more than 9,000 dollars with the benefit and the next day i gave her the money in an envelope.
'She was good, I'll give her that. She had me fooled 100 per cent.'
Weeks after the benefit Ashley started a charity Facebook group called Change for a Cure.
The group attracted a mass following of more than 4,000 kind-hearted people and it is thought more than 20,000 dollars was raised during various events under the name of the charity.
Ashley, who also built up more than 40,000 dollars of credit card debt, is thought to have spent all of the money raised through the charity.
Towards the end of last year, while charity events were still being held, Ashley posted a message on Facebook saying her cancer had worsened and this would be her last post.
In a last attempt to build a relationship with his daughter Mike phoned Ashley who then broke down on the telephone and admitted to her father the whole thing was a hoax.
He said: 'This is so embarrassing for us. I just hope she does the right thing now.
'She has loved playing the victim since she was a child and has always wanted to be famous.'
Ashley added: 'I dug myself into a hole I couldn't get out of.
'There is no one to blame but myself but I really want to find a way to give all of the money back.'
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1312245/Woman-admits-faking-cancer-collect-thousands-dollars-charity-donations.html
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Australian lawyer smokes pages of Bible and Koran, asking 'Which is best?'
Published: 5:12AM BST 13 Sep 2010
In a 12-minute clip entitled "Bible or Koran – which burns best?" Mr Stewart, who works for the Queensland University of Technology, holds up the two religious texts before ripping them apart and lighting the rolled up pages.
At one stage he inhales deeply from one of the roll-ups before blowing out the smoke and commenting: "Holy".
The video, which has since been deleted, was posted on the video-sharing site over the weekend, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Last week Terry Jones, a controversial Christian preacher who presides over a small church in Florida, drew international condemnation after announcing a plan to burn 200 copies of the Koran.
"With respect to books like the Bible and the Koran, whatever, just get over it," Mr Stewart said in the footage. "The video was a joke video, of course," he added.
"People do this stuff all the time and if people get really upset about this then they're taking it far too seriously."
Mr Stewart, a member of an atheist group in Brisbane, has begun a period of leave following a meeting with his employers today. He insists he wasn't smoking drugs in the video but had sprinkled grass cuttings into the rolled up pages.
"The university is obviously extremely, extremely unhappy and disappointed that this sort of incident should occur," Queensland University of Technology vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake said.
Islamic groups urged Muslims not to react to the provocation
"There is no need for this kind of thing, just to create disunity and disharmony among people living in Australia," said Sheik Muhammad Wahid, president of the Islamic Association of Australia.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7999250/Australian-lawyer-smokes-pages-of-Bible-and-Koran-asking-Which-is-best.html
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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."
