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Dubliner to be extradited for Birmingham murder by Phil Campion BRITISH DETECTIVES will end a nine-year wait to question a Dubliner who is suspected of murdering a woman in Birmingham in December 2004. Police
believe Martin Stafford was responsible for the death of Michelle
Gunshon a security officer staying
at the same public house A European Arrest Warrant has been issued and the Dubliner is set to be extradited on his release from jail in December. The 42-year-old is wanted for alleged kidnapping, false imprisonment, murder, rape, unlawful wounding and sexual touching. No trace of Ms Gunshon has been found despite extensive searches of the countryside in Worcestershire where detectives believe she could be buried. Michelle Gunshon was staying at the Dubliner pub in Birmingham’s Irish Quarter before disappearing. Her car was found nearby with large quantities of her blood in the boot. CCTV images had a clear shot of the man behind the wheel of Ms Gunshon’s car. At the time, police said they were "as sure as we can be" that Stafford was the man driving Ms Gunshon's car. The 38-year-old, from London, was working as a security guard for the 2004 Clothes Show Live event. The hotel that she had booked into with colleagues was flooded and they checked into the pub at the last minute. Her Ford
Escort car triggered two speed cameras hours after she was last seen
alive. Forensic experts believed the mud on the car Michelle Gunshon’s daughter Tracy Richardson has made regular visits to Birmingham in her mums memory and now has a young son Reece, the grandson Ms Gunshon never knew. "The year mum disappeared, we were planning a big family Christmas together, the best one since I was a child, but we never got to do it - it was snatched from me,” Tracy recalled. " I still have terrible nightmares over what happened to my mum. They are awful.” On Tracy’s visits to the city she lays flowers at a spot near the Digbeth coach station, where Stafford was sighted jumping on a coach to Dublin just after Ms Gunshon’s disappearance. Irish priest asks God to help Villa by Emma Murphy AN
80-year-old priest from Co Cavan who has had plenty to pray about whilst
serving in one of the Britain’s toughest communities has been asking
for God’s help The Right Reverend Monsignor Fallon first came to the English midlands with the mass exodus of Irish men and women in the 50s and 60s and got a job in Coventry with Massey Ferguson before getting the calling and he has followed the Villa for 50 years. Monsignor Fallon has proved to be an extremely popular priest and recently retired from his role at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Handsworth in an area that has some of the toughest streets with extremely high crime rates. The Church was on the doorstep of the Handsworth race riots in the 1980s and the Lozells riots in 2005, where the Monsignor helped restore peace to a volatile community. The church was also a haven for Vietnamese boat people when they arrived in the city in the 1970s and 80s. A photograph of former Villa manager Martin O’Neil hangs proudly in the parish buildings. “I have supported Villa since my student days, and I watch them when I can - I really hope they stay up,” said the Monsignor. “I feel for all the Midland clubs and I want them to stay up because it means more emphasis on this part of the world rather than Manchester and London. “When I went to Villa Park for a match I met Martin, he was very friendly and nice but he had to move on and we hope that Mr Houllier will turn things around.” Mgr Fallon’s role as peacemaker has been challenging and along the way he studied peace studies at Bradford University and did a Phd in fostering good relations between Catholicism and Islam. Mgr Fallon said: “I have loved being in Handsworth. Inter-religious dialogue is just as important now as it was back then. “I became a priest because I saw the need then to help people spiritually and also creating community between different cultures – at that time it was between English and Irish, now it’s Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus and people with no religion. “We have come a long way but we need to do more.” Irish woman died so care worker could “act the heroine” by Phil Campion LEWES CROWN COURT was told that a fire that killed an 86-year-old Irish woman was started by a a care-worker "in order to gain attention and act the heroine". Although
firefighters rescued Irene Herring, 86, from her room at care home
in Laundry worker Rebecca Reasbeck, 20, denies a charge of murdering Mrs Herring along with an alternative charge of manslaughter. Following the death of Irene or Rene has she was known, police launched a murder inquiry with 25 officers investigating the incident and the young care worker was arrested by detectives from the Major Crime Branch on February 9, 2009. Mrs Herring who was originally from Cobh, Co Cork had lived in nursing homes after suffering a stroke in 2006 and was unable to speak after suffering two strokes. She had lived alone in the top- floor room of the home for for three years and was bed-ridden. Mr Haycroft for the prosecution told the jury that nurse Sindhu George and care assistant Jimmy Fyffe had walked along the top floor corridor and passed Reasbeck coming towards them from the direction of Mrs Herring's room at around 9.45am. Reasbeck told them that she had noticed a plastic burning smell from down in the laundry room, two floors below. Two minutes later the fire alarm was set off in Mrs Herring’s room and the fire service arrived within three minutes. Another care assistant Steven Walter, who had returned upstairs, noticed the defendant outside Mrs Herring's room and Reasbeck was going to enter the room. Firefighters opened the door and had to use breathing apparatus because of thick black smoke in the elderly ladies room. The trial continues. Gardai cracks grave robbing mystery by Eugene Hanratty TV companies fight over ‘Travellers Got Talent’ by James Ellis BRITISH TELEVISION COMPANIES are fighting over the rights to a new show, 'Travellers Got Talent'. The show is based on the huge hit ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and is expected to rival Simon Cowell’s show in popularity and viewers will vote for talented Irish travellers who will be singing, rapping and dancing. ‘Travellers Got Talent’ follows on from a successful UK wide talent show ‘Bari Radt’, meaning Big Night, that held nine nine regional heats followed by a big final at Stowmarket, Sussex. The winner 14-year-old singing sensation Olivia Ayres who sang Amy Winehouse’s Valerie has vowed to enter X-Factor. Jake Bowers, from the Gypsy Media Company, said: "It would be phenomenal. There are so many talented people within the traveller community. Last year's contest didn't get the coverage it should have done. "What it needed was for a big company to take it onto a national stage. We've already had calls from production companies who want to turn it into something. "It would be a great thing if handled right. We've had calls from production companies who want to turn it into something." “When I was approached regarding the ‘Big Fat Gypsy Weddings’ series, I mentioned I had organised ‘Travellers Got Talent’ last year,” he explained. “People were very keen. There was a lot of interest in it.” “Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities are perceived to be guilty of many things, but capable of nothing. “But the final and the regional finals that led up to it, quash that myth. They have all demonstrated that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller young people, in particular, have talents, skills and abilities that are largely unrecognised by the world beyond their communities.” Recently Channel 4’s 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings' was an unexpected hit on British TV. The glamour and expense of a travellers wedding was conveyed to the viewers and for many it became a series that was ‘unmissable’. Spokesmen for the travelling community believed it showed them in a bad light and the response from travellers has been mixed. Former Olympic boxer Francie Barrett who proudly led the Irish representatives at the opening of the 1996 Atlanta games. He shares his time between England and Galway and highlighted some of the negative aspects of the series. “It was good one way - but in another way it wasn’t,” said Barrett. There were not too many older ones and a lot of 16 and 17-year-olds who were showing off. It was entertaining but there was a lot of silly stuff. “I did not like the very young girls being dolled up- it was completely out of proportion.” The show has since attracted further publicity as Paddy Doherty, 52, who runs a halting site in Salford was involved in a fight with a young traveller. Travellers were fuming because he involved the police. Doherty is now at the centre of a £1million tax probe by Salford Council who own the site that Doherty manages. In the south of England taxpayers could be faced with a £15m bill for evicting travellers from the UK’s largest illegal gypsy camp at Dale Farm in Crays Hill, Essex. Police should have investigated complaints of murdered Dubliner by James Rahilly AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION has concluded that complaints made by Dubliner Mary Griffiths should have been acted upon by police officers before a deranged slaughterman murdered her. The
40-year-old mother of three called English police in Bury St Edmonds,
East Anglia at At at around 2:45 in the morning, almost seven hours later Ms Griffiths was asleep with one of her young daughters in the bed when McFarlane broke in. He executed her with a bolt gun in front of her children. Mary who worked as a fitness instructor at Newmarket Leisure Centre was found seriously injured with stab wounds in the early hours of May 6, 2009 and later died in hospital. One of her daughters was also treated for minor injuries. Rachel Cerfontyne, IPCC commissioner, said: “The investigation found that based on the evidence gathered and existing force policies and guidance, while the call from Ms Griffiths was graded correctly, the police should have dispatched an officer to visit her home at the earliest available opportunity on the evening of May 5, rather than wait until the following day. “Having studied the operational demands on police resources in the area that evening, we have determined it would have been possible for an officer to attend.” The following recommendations have now been made: • Implementation of refresher training for all call takers and dispatchers and better guidance aimed at assessing levels of distress; • updating the call grading policy; • improving the system for allocating police resources • recording incidents involving persons where mental health issues are a factor so the information is available when grading incidents.
McFarlane was detained under the Mental Health Act on his arrest and an inquiry was launched to determine how a man who had been previously considered for sectioning at West Suffolk Hospital was allowed to roam the streets. Ms Griffiths was separated from her husband and looked after her three children who were all in the house at the time of the murder. Mary told friends that she was being stalked and reportedly she phoned the police eight hours and 45 minutes before they arrived. Last March McFarlane had his sentence extended from 20 years to 30 years by the court of appeal in London.
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shorts-shorts-shorts-shorts compiled by Caitlin O'Connor Irish spend 2,000 Euros a year on booze The Irish Daily Star reported that Irish people are blowing nearly 2,000 Euros a year on booze - with men spending more than women and ignoring cancer risks. New research from Aviva Health Insurance also shows that Irish people are drinking excessively, with men consuming an average of 15 units per week and women consuming an average of nine units in the same time period.
'Happy' Ireland has high suicide rates A US study has found that Ireland is towards the top of the happiness scale but has one of the world's highest suicide rates.
Greece is at the bottom of the happiness scale but surprisingly has the lowest suicide rate, just over 5 per 100,000 people. Fly in baby food A Cork woman who found a fly in her seven-month-olds baby's banana porridge did not even receive an apology from food giants Cow and Gate. The mother who asked not to be named: "I poured the cereal into the bowl and saw a darker part, but at first I thought it was just part of the product. Then after a closer look I discovered it was a fly." A HSE analyst said a phosphate test proved the fly had gone through the same system that the baby's porridge had.
Weeks of negotiations to reduce Ireland's bailout interest Arrests unlikely in bullying case
Sources close to a Garda investigation into the death of a bullied 13-year-old schoolgirl say arrests are "highly unlikely". Chloe Coleman killed herself in her grandfathers Longford home in January. It was reported that Chloe was attacked in toilets at a disco in the local Temperance Hall and warned not to return. "She was bullied. I want to forgive that but it's very difficult," said her grandfather Oliver Coleman. Tale of two homes IRELAND'S cheapest house has been put on the market for €10,000. The rundown home in Carrigkerry, Co Limerick has just two rooms - a bedroom and a bathroom but comes with an acre of land. At the other end of the scale former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has slashed €290,000 from his luxury home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He paid €3.3m for the 4,600 sq ft property in 2008 and it is being sold following an order from a bankruptcy judge in Boston. He also owns a house in Wellesley, Massachusetts worth €1.4m. Tipp teacher turned out to be English paedo by Phil Campion DETECTIVES have revealed they were not prepared to give up the hunt for the head teacher of an English private school who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy before sneaking into Ireland and working as a teacher in Co Tipperary even though the assault occurred 19- years ago David Tarran, who is now 72, lived life as any other Irish teacher whilst on the run after failing to turn up for his trial in Exeter in 1993. Detective Constable Caroline Radclyffe, was pleased to see the paedophile sentenced for three-years and nine-months at Exeter Crown Court . "No matter how long ago an offence took place, we will find those responsible," she said. Tarran was the head teacher at a private school in Southend and in 1992 sent a letter to the boy's parents asking permission for their son to stay with him in a youth hostel as part of a trip to Devon. The headmaster assaulted the teenager in a hotel room during that week. He put his hands down the boy's trousers during the sexual assault and lay on the bed with him. When Tarran asked the boy to 'budge up' he refused. The boy was eventually able to flee the room and ran down downstairs in hysterics. Tarran was arrested and charged but fled to Ireland before he could face a court. When his details were circulated, nobody came forward, but in 2008 the intelligence centre for Devon and Cornwall Police received key information about his whereabouts and that Tarran was living in Tipperary. Trucker caught with £1m drug haul gets sentence reduced by Michael Shields A TRUCK DRIVER who had been jailed for nine years after police in the English Midlands found over a £1m of drugs on the back of his vehicle has had his sentence reduced following an appeal at London Criminal Appeal Court.
Toner was charged in August after the haul was found concealed in the articulated lorry that was collecting from Ferryfast Produce in Pershore, Worcestershire after a member of the public tipped off the local police. Toner was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court last September to serve six years for the attempted possession and intent to supply class A Drugs Ecstasy and a further three years for the possession and intent to supply class B Cannabis. These sentences were ordered to run consecutively. On top of these sentences Toner has been banned from driving any vehicle for six years. The find is believed to be the biggest ever in the county of Worcestershire. Officers recovered 150,000 pills - which Toner believed to be Ecstasy, a class A drug - with a street value of about £750,000. They also removed 69kg (152lbs) of cannabis "skunk" with an estimated street value of about £400,000. At the hearing in Worcester, Toner, who had no previous convictions, admitted possessing the pills believing them to be Ecstasy and also the cannabis with intent to supply. Toner planned to use the cover of the fruit delivery to take the drugs back for sale in Northern Ireland. His Lawyers argued that the two consecutive sentences of four and five years should have been made concurrent. Lord Justice Jackson, said that he was not prepared to go that far, but said the sum of the two sentences was too high and cut two years off the total term after listening to Toner’s mitigation.
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as
Ms Gunshon. Stafford returned to Ireland before detectives could
question him and was
given a nine-year sentence in 2006 for the brutal rape and assault of a
28-year-old prostitute at an old cabin in Dublin's Heuston Street
station.
that was found two days later close to where it was parked, matched soil
samples in the hills on the outskirts of the city.
for something totally different – the Premier League survival of Aston
Villa FC.
Bexhill-on-Sea,
East Sussex, she suffered severe smoke inhalation and died in hospital
the next day on February 1.
approximately 6pm reporting that John McFarlane was harassing her.
The
advances of the slaughterman had been spurned by Mary, who showed her
distataste for the man who had been previously been considered for
sectioning by criticising him on her Facebook page.
Stephen
Patrick Toner, 28, who originally gave an address in Newry, County Down
but now lists Clougharevan Park, Bessbrook, County Armagh as his home,
had his sentence reduced to seven years.