Paul Etheridge: Numbskull

Paul Etheridge (pictured) chose quite an appropriate name for his MySpace profile: Numb Skull. In the "about me" section of the profile, the 24-year-old carpenter from the sleepy Suffolk village of Cratfield said:

...not much to say about me really i am the quiet sit in the corner of a party type of guy, uasually boring and depressed most of the time with no one to see of nothing to do on a friday or sat night, tho hopfully that will change if i meet the right person, i do occationally go bowling with friends witch i enjoy very much and puts me ina good mood chatting to friends on MSN also makes me happy, there lots of thing i wanna do namely visit JAPAN but with my current situation i dont think that'll be happeneing anytime soon i am into animation japanese style comic art and manga and the culture of japan its my ultimate dream to visit japan one day also into a limited selection of rock music like iron maiden and a few other bands tho i more into dance music and hardcore thats hardcore the mucic ^^; umm i love going to the cinema and seeing films and i am into video games i have an extencive collection of about 350+ games and all consoles and some rare items i love dvd's and am a bit of a couch movie critic lol thats about it really see i'm boring there you go total geek or what, would love to make new friends on myspace and msn then in person perhaps? i'm open and honet and i'm not someone to make out i'm somethng i'm not i'm simply me if anyones's intrested...

The final sentence insisting he was open and honest immediately leaps out as something someone who was neither would say. Photographs attached to the profile show a plain, boyish-looking guy with a lazy eye and long hair. In his Bebo profile Etheridge continued to cultivate a harmless, geeky, slightly awkward persona. In it he said:

i love driving to norwich weekends and going bowling and to the cinema and pizza hut and what not lol, i'm quite shy but soon cme out of my sell, i dont go out much nor drink or smoke, i been to a few iron maiden gigs and hardcore heaven raves gotta love that lol anything else you wanna know please email me or ask on msn

Etheridge also had profiles on DeviantART, where he looks to have been active between 2004 and 2006, and Kaboza. On DeviantART Etheridge comes across as ordinary and sweet-natured, littering his comments with "awwws", "thank yous" and smiley faces.

Under "happiest when" on his Bebo profile, Etheridge put:

with friends pople who care and going out meeting new people

Those "new people" Etheridge was happiest when meeting didn't exclude underage girls, and his profiles masked the fact that he was a prolific online predator who was using the internet to groom young girls across the UK, escalating from encouraging them to send photographs of themselves to actually meeting for sex.

An investigation into Etheridge's online activities was sparked off in 2007 after a 13-year-old girl in Reigate told her parents he'd asked her for photographs. Police subsequently uncovered more than 200 indecent images of girls aged between 13 and 15 on Etheridge's mobile phone. He had been offering mobile phone top-up vouchers to girls in exchange for explicit photographs. Amongst thousands of indecent images found on his laptop computers were horrific images of child abuse.

Etheridge was charged with a total of 33 charges, pleading guilty to 26 of them, while the remaining 7 were ordered to remain on file. The charges included possessing indecent images of children, inciting the production of indecent images, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, and engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old. Police described him as one of the worst internet groomers in the country.

The self-proclaimed numbskull is due to be sentenced on 22nd February 2008.

Sources: BBC News, Sky News

Daniel Entwistle: The Lost Boy

Daniel Entwistle (pictured) went missing on 3rd May 2003. The significance of this date escaped me for a long while: it is, of course, the same day of the year Madeleine McCann was to disappear on 4 years later. There the similarities between the two cases end; while Madeleine has become one of the most famous missing children in the world, Daniel's story has been all but lost to the mists of time.

In spring 2003 7-year-old Daniel Joseph Entwistle was living on Copperfield Avenue in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, with his father David, mother Paula and brothers Antony, 10, and John, 2. The family were originally from Burnley in Lancashire, but had moved to the Norfolk area 3 years earlier to be near members of Paula Entwistle's family.

Daniel attended Greenacre First, Middle and Nursery School and was described by his headmaster as being "a delightful little boy, always with a ready smile and a ready quip". He had been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), limiting his attention span and possibly affecting his ability to judge levels of risk.

On Saturday 3rd May 2003, the start of a sunny Bank Holiday weekend, Daniel was captured on CCTV visiting a local shop (pictured). The time was around 5pm and he was wearing a distinctive blue Adidas T-shirt. After returning home with the milk he'd bought, he vanished. His red and white bicycle was found on Trinity Square, off Southgates Road, an area less than a mile from his home he'd been known to play in in the past. Yards away was a harbour wall and, beyond that, the fast-flowing River Yare.

A large-scale search ensued, involving a press campaign, hundreds of interviews with potential witnesses, and sonar examinations of the riverbed. Nothing was found; no clothing, no clue, no trace of the boy except his abandoned bike.

The relationship between Daniel's parents deteriorated, allegedly due to the stress of their son's disappearance, and Paula Entwistle obtained a court order banning her husband from having contact with her. David Entwistle made headlines for breaching the order twice.

The active police investigation into Daniel's disappearance was brought to a close in August 2003, a little over 3 months after he'd gone missing. The assumption appeared to be that he had fallen into the river and drowned. On the balance of probabilities, it was the likeliest explanation for his disappearance, especially given Daniel's dangerous combination of ADHD and his inability to swim.

However, on rare occasions real life defies the cold hard logic of probabilities. Daniel was known to dislike water; what if he hadn't fallen into the river after all? What are the other possibilities?

Followers of true crime stories will be aware of cases where children have been abducted and "hidden in plain sight". Famous US victims include Elizabeth Smart, Shawn Hornbeck and Steven Stayner, who were abducted and kept from their families for 9 months, more than 4 years, and more than 7 years respectively.

Let's ignore the theory of accidental drowning for a moment and assume that Daniel was abducted. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that he's still alive. What factors about the circumstances he's in could we make educated guesses at, based on previous cases? I would think it likely that:

• He is known by a different name, but may still have the same first name.
• He is living as the "son" or other relative of a single man.
• He may give his birthday as being on or near his actual birthday (28th July 1995).
• He has apparent "freedom" to come and go as he pleases, while remaining under the complete control of his abductor.
• He is either enrolled in school under false documents, or he doesn't attend school at all.
• He has been sexually abused by his abductor, and hasn't told anyone.
• He will lie/not want to talk about his family history.
• He has some sort of online presence, and may have made/will make pleas for help over the internet.

After this many years, the situation he's in would be incredibly difficult for him to escape from without outside intervention. Past cases show us that the abduction of another, younger child could prove to be the key to his rescue.

The late Steven Stayner, as someone who'd been forced to live through it, provided insight into what an abducted child goes through, and invaluable advice on how to spot one. Click here for the major points, in his own words, on the Steven Stayner & Missing Children's Memorial. This statement by him, in particular, sticks in my memory:

"Today, no one knows how many missing children are dead or how many now live as I did. But if you're going to help, you have to be aware of the real nature of stranger abduction and be committed to helping children. While it may be hard for you to tell an abducted child from an abused child, it's not hard to tell a child in trouble. And it's not hard to do something about it."

Madeleine McCann has proven that the plight of a missing child can capture the attention of a sizeable community. Her name and likeness are known around the world, and that situation is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. During my research for this post I haven't come across a single news article about Daniel that's dated after 2003. If he were still alive, he could be forgiven for thinking he's been forgotten about.

Sources: Norfolk Constabulary, BBC News (1), (2), (3), Missing Kids

Karen Aim: New Zealand Whodunnit

Karen Aim (pictured) travelled from one island in the UK to another one on the other side of the world for work and adventure, but in the process her path crossed with that of a killer or killers.

The 26-year-old was originally from Orkney and, after a trip to New Zealand in 2006, her Bebo profile described the fun she'd been having during a second working visit to the country:

hey up everyone!!hope everyones doin grand..cant believe ive been back in new zealand 8 weeks now, time just flying...been touring the south and north islands here in me wee toyota..been seeing loads o beautiful beaches, coastland, rainforest, mountains and generally just stunnin scenery....did my first bungy the other day too, luved it...what a rush!!

The profile features a video of Karen grinning her way through a tandem skydive set to background music of Tom Petty's Free Fallin'. The overwhelming impression you get from Karen's profile is of a woman who loved life, and was much loved in return.

To help fund her visit Karen got a job at a glass blowing gallery in Taupo, a town on the shores of Lake Taupo in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, while living with "a kiwi and an irish lass, right good laughs". She later started working at Wairakei, a settlement containing a geothermal power plant a few kilometres to the north of Taupo.

This CCTV image shows Karen at a garage in the early hours of 17th January 2008. She had been for a night out with friends in the town, the population of which is currently swelled by those due to attend the A1GP motor racing event on 20th January.

Around half-an-hour after the CCTV image was taken, Karen was found fatally injured on a footpath near Taupo Nui-A-Tia College; she had been bludgeoned about the head with an unknown object. Windows of the nearby college were found to have been smashed. It's possible Karen had witnessed acts of vandalism or a burglary in progress and was attacked for it. She died on the way to hospital.

Police investigating the "ghastly" murder have called it a "massive whodunnit".

A tragic murder like this always sets off a discussion about the relative safety of a country. Many Brits probably regard New Zealand as being a sunny, Lord of the Rings-inspired paradise, and paradises are always thought of as being safe places. But anyone who watches the documentaries following the work of New Zealand police available on Sky TV quickly senses the reality is far more down-to-earth and depressing. New Zealand is like anywhere else in the world: it has its share of problems, and its share of maniacs quite prepared to carry out this type of evil crime.

Sources: BBC News (1), (2)

Garry Weddell: Maniac Cop

The recent murder-suicide believed to have been carried out by Garry Weddell (pictured) is — quite rightly — making headlines because he'd been allowed out on bail after being charged with murder, but it's the details of the original murder charge that really horrify.

For more than two decades Garry Weddell worked for the Metropolitan Police Service, becoming supervisor of Barnet police station's custody suite. He lived in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, with his wife Sandra, a part-time nurse and exam invigilator, and their three children — an apparently normal suburban family set-up like countless others across the country.

Press reports suggest that at the beginning of 2007 Sandra Weddell told her husband she'd met somebody else and asked him for a divorce. It appears Garry Weddell "snapped", but not in the usual uncontrolled, crime of passion-type way.

On 31st January 2007 Weddell asked a neighbour to help him look for his wife, whom he said had gone missing. They discovered Sandra's body hanging in the garage; the 44-year-old had apparently taken her own life.

A post-mortem revealed that Sandra had been killed with a cable tie. When police looked into other apparent suicides involving cable ties, they were all found to have been murders. Sandra's printed suicide note also aroused suspicion, and investigations revealed that the last use of the family computer — when a Word document had been accessed and sent to the printer — had been at a time when Sandra was at work invigilating an exam. Other evidence all pointed to Weddell carefully planning his wife's murder: printing her suicide note, waiting for her to return home, and strangling her before getting a neighbour to act as witness to the "shock" discovery of her body.

Weddell was charged with his wife's murder in June 2007 and was remanded into custody. Three months later he was released on conditional bail after a surety of £200,000 was put up by his brother. His lawyers had successfully argued to Judge John Bevan QC that, as a long-serving police officer, his life was under threat while on remand behind bars.

Weddell's trial for the murder of his wife was due to start in May 2008, but on 12th January 2008 police found his body in a field at Broomhills Shooting Ground in Markyate, Hertfordshire. 11 miles away in Gustard Wood, they also found the body of his mother-in-law Traute Maxfield (pictured with her daughter), 70, who'd been due to testify at his trial. Both had died from gunshot wounds.

There are nasty assertions elsewhere on the web that Weddell, faced with the loss of his house, share of his pension and possibly his children, had been driven to murder and ultimately suicide by his wife's alleged infidelity. Such assertions are as ridiculous as they are heartless. Weddell's actions were those of a maniac, not a hard-done-by husband and father. (Note to self: stop reading comments on the Daily Mail website.)

Michael Penning MP called on the Attorney General for an inquiry into why Weddell had been allowed out on bail, and received a typically dismissive response reaffirming the sanctity of judges' decisions:

"The Attorney General has received a letter from Mike Penning and will respond to that letter, but to suggest that this amounts to an investigation would be inaccurate. This remains a matter for the judiciary."

The Ministry of Justice and the Office for Judicial Complaints have also stated they would not hold an inquiry into Judge Bevan's decision.

Sources: BBC News (1), (2)

UPDATE 31-JAN-2008: The bail documents relating to this case released by the Judiciary of England and Wales reveal that Judge Bevan's decision to grant Weddell bail was influenced by the opinion of a psychiatrist. Bevan said:

"Nothing that I say is designed to belittle the strength of the Crown’s case, but having listened to [the psychiatrist] in relation to his psychiatric state and he tells me that he has no concerns in that regard about his mental condition, and having listened to and considered the overall picture, whilst I make no comment whatever on the strength or weakness of the case, I am just persuaded that this is a suitable case for bail provided the conditions are stringent enough."

It's questionable why Judge Bevan accepted the psychiatrist's opinion that there were "no concerns" over Weddell's mental state when there were clear indications that he was suicidal, indications which were detailed in the Crown's objection to bail on the grounds that he was a danger to himself:

He [Weddell] had been interviewed at another police station before being taken to Luton police station. On arrival there, an aerial cable which he had removed from a television in the interview room at the first police station was found in his sock. When asked why he had it, he replied “I just wanted to go to sleep.” It was the Crown’s case that the defendant had led a comfortable life, which was threatened when his wife decided to leave him. He faced losing his children and became so desperate that he decided to kill his wife in order to retain control. Having been charged with murder, his future was now even bleaker. The fact that he had hidden the cable demonstrated how desperate he had become and that the fears for his safety and that of his children were well-founded.

Judge Bevan said his decision to grant bail was "very borderline", and warned Weddell he would be returned to custody for any breach of his bail conditions. Weddell was subsequently accused of two breaches, one of which — that he had entered Bedfordshire, a county prohibited to him except for court appearances — was upheld, but it was deemed to have been a "technical" rather than a "deliberate" breach.

The Murder Of Robert Riley Workman

The murder of Robert Workman (pictured) in a small backwater village has often been described in terms evoking a rustic Middle England mystery — a kind of Midsomer Murder in midwinter — but delve into the case and you'll find a very real crime devoid of both obvious motive and ultimate resolution.

Robert Workman, who went by his middle name of Riley, was born on 15th April 1920 in the Gloucester area, one of three siblings. In 1938 Riley started studying for a degree at Queen's College, Oxford, but World War II loomed on the horizon, and he enlisted with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry shortly after Britain declared war on Germany, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and commander of the Royal Green Jackets in the post-war years. He retired from the Army in 1965 and started a business in Gloucestershire selling antiques.

In 1968 Riley married Gladys Joan Parker, known as Joanna, and the couple spent much of the 1970s working in the Boston area of the US. In 1977 they purchased Cock House, named after the medieval weathercock atop its roof, in the village of Furneux Pelham, Hertfordshire. One of a trio of villages known collectively as the Pelhams, Furneux Pelham is a picturesque, well-to-do place falling within London's stockbroker belt. The village's 13th century church tower is well known locally for bearing the enigmatic inscriptions "time flies" and "mind your business" above and below the clock adorning its south face.

The Workmans moved permanently to Cock House in 1984. Joanna's health deteriorated, and her husband became her full-time carer until her death in 2003. Although one of the "old school", Riley has been described as a quiet and cultured gentleman, the antithesis of the blimpish stereotype of a retired British colonel. It wouldn't be long before a murderer would walk into, and put an end to, his long and eventful life.

Between 8pm and 8:30pm on 7th January 2004 residents of Furneux Pelham heard a loud bang. It's believed this was the sound of Riley being shot dead in the side doorway of Cock House.

At 4:57am the following morning an unidentified male made an emergency call from a public telephone box in Braughing, 3 miles west of Furneux Pelham. The entire 999 call can be heard here (mp3 file). A transcript of the call is as follows:

999 Operator: "Emergency, which service?" [pause] "What number have you dialled, please?"

Caller: "999."

999 Operator: "Which service do you require: fire, police or ambulance?"

Caller: "Ambulance."

999 Operator: "Ambulance, thank you."

[ringing tone]

Ambulance Service: "Ambulance emergency."

999 Operator: "Inverness connecting please from 01920 821564."

Ambulance Service: "Hello, caller?" [pause] "Hello?"

Caller: "Hello."

Ambulance Service: "This is the Ambulance Service. What's the address you want the ambulance to come to?"

Caller: "Ambulance... It's Hollyhock Cottage."

Ambulance Service: "Holly?"

Caller: "Hollyhock Cottage."

Ambulance Service: "Can you spell it for me?"

Caller: "H - O - L - L - Y - C - O - C - K."

Ambulance Service: "And what road is it on?"

Caller: "It's the Causeway."

Ambulance Service: "The Causeway?"

Caller: "Yes."

Ambulance Service: "And what town?"

Caller: "Furneux Pelham."

Ambulance Service: "Can you spell that for me?"

Caller: "F - U - R - N - E - A - U - X - P - E - L -"

Ambulance Service: "Is that S for Sierra?"

Caller: "F - U - R - N - E - A - U - X... Pelham... P - E - L - H - A - M."

Ambulance Service: "Bear with me a moment."

Caller: "That's near Buntingford."

[line goes dead]

As well as his local accent, which included local pronunciations of both Furneux ("Furnicks") Pelham and Buntingford, the caller betrayed considerable knowledge of the area and its history during the short call. Cock House had briefly been named Hollyhock Cottage years earlier by Joanna Workman, after her favourite type of flower, and it was a name that was still listed in the telephone directory. The caller had also inserted an "a" into the name of the village, an original spelling which still appears on a sign in the village.

Due to the outdated address, the ambulance despatched to Furneux Pelham was unable to find the intended patient, who was likely to have been long dead by the time they arrived. The identity of the caller, who sounds like a mature man, remains key to the investigation.

Riley's body was discovered by his carer later that morning. He'd been killed by a single buckshot blast from a 12-bore shotgun. He was 83 years-old.

Police arrested and questioned Christopher Nudds, who lived in the neighbouring village of Stocking Pelham and ran a pest control business. The 999 call indicated the involvement of a man much older than 24-year-old Nudds, and he was released without charge.

There was speculation Riley's murder may have been related to his past antique dealing. Riley was a wealthy man, his estate amounting to almost £1 million, but there was no sign of burglary at his home.

Another theory that quickly emerged was the suggestion that Riley had been mistaken for Timothy Workman, a senior district judge who'd presided over several high-profile terrorism cases. Timothy Workman, no relation to Riley, was notified, but declared the matter didn't cause him any "undue concern". The judge lived nowhere near Furneux Pelham, and the line of inquiry was soon dismissed as a red herring.

The next development in the case stunned those who knew Riley as a man devoted to his wife: police revealed he may have had secret affairs with men, and made an appeal to those who'd been part of London's gay community during the 1960s. A police spokesman said:

"One of the active lines of inquiry is a strong suggestion that Riley may have been homosexual. Obviously, that must have been extremely difficult for him throughout his military career."

Not to mention the fact that homosexual acts between consenting adults were criminal offences in England until 1967.

Press reports have indicated that police believe the motivation behind Riley's murder may have been a long-standing grudge. In the aftermath of the killing retired lawyer Edward Davidson was particularly vocal in eulogising his murdered friend, saying:

"He was truly a saintly man, sometimes I would say to him: 'Riley, you are a saint'. He would throw up his hands in rejection of such a compliment. 'No, I am just an old man, doing what I can, I wish I could do more for Joanna'."

Davidson was also quoted as saying:

"He was a remarkable character, a truly saintly man. He was courteous, modest and self-deprecating to a fault."

Statements such as these stuck in at least one person's craw. In March 2007 a page created by someone with the user name "Pope Riley Workman" was removed from the open-access online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The archive entry for the removal states:

I've put this user up at WP:AIV [Wikipedia Administrator Intervention against Vandalism]. Riley Workman is a well-known victim of an unsolved British murder. The page the user created was simply to poke fun at him. I bet the picture is a copyright violation, too.

While the content of the page isn't viewable, the user's choice of name points to more than just an attempt to "poke fun" at Riley; it suggests lingering irritation at him being described in glowing terms such as those used by Edward Davidson.

Many unanswered questions hang over the murder of former Lieutenant Colonel Workman. Had the killing been the result of a years-old grudge, or a crime of passion by a former lover? Does the recording of the 999 call feature the voice of a remorseful killer, or was the call an act of compassion by someone the killer confided in?

Sources: Hertfordshire Police, BBC News (1), (2), (3), (4), Times Online

Shafilea Ahmed: Trapped And Murdered

Shafilea Ahmed (pictured) described herself in writings she left behind as being "like a normal teenage kid". That was until something came along that left the 17-year-old feeling trapped, and it may have ultimately resulted in her murder.

Shafilea lived in Warrington, Cheshire, with her father Iftikhar Ahmed, mother Farzana Ahmed, three sisters and a younger brother. Until she neared school-leaving age, Shafilea was an ordinary girl who enjoyed watching soap operas and listening to her favourite singer, Beyonce, but her home life deteriorated when she started rebelling against her parents' wish for her to enter into an arranged marriage.

She confided to friends that she was suffering domestic violence and that she'd self-harmed. The situation was so bad that she ran away, prompting her parents to report her missing to police. Shafilea applied for emergency housing, writing in a statement supporting her application:

I had saved £2,000 which they [Shafilea's parents] took out of my bank account.

My parents are going to send me to Pakistan and I'll be married to someone and left there.

There had been a build-up of violence towards me, and my mother told me I was about to go to Pakistan for an arranged marriage.

My mother had started to pack and my parents had been in to school to inform them we were going to Pakistan.

According to housing workers, Shafilea was "genuinely frightened" about the prospect of marriage, and she returned to her parents' home only after they promised not to take her to Pakistan.

Shafilea applied to attend Priestley Sixth Form College and got a part-time job at a call centre. Despite her parents' promise, in 2003 Shafilea ended up travelling with them to Pakistan, where the question of marriage was raised. Iftikhar Ahmed told the BBC programme Newsnight in 2004:

We just went for a simple holiday. While we were there, a family member, a distant family member did ask us for our daughter's hand, right. We actually sat down, the daughter was there, in front of us and we talked about it. And the daughter said, look, I'm not even ready for such a thing, right. And I said to the person, right, I said, this is the situation. The children nowadays make their own minds up. We, as parents, obviously have got a duty to see that their lives are brought up as normal. And I said, I respect her wishes, right. If she doesn't wish to marry anybody, then that is totally her wish. And we left it at that, right, and it was never actually discussed with the family since.

It's noticeable that Iftikhar Ahmed repeatedly refers to Shafilea as "the daughter". In fact, he doesn't refer to Shafilea by name once throughout the entire Newsnight interview.

Shafilea's parents sold her return ticket and returned to the UK without her. Left behind in Pakistan as she'd feared she would be, Shafilea drank some bleach. It's speculated this was a suicide attempt, or a desperate attempt at avoiding the marriage to her proposed husband. The Ahmed family claim the incident happened after Shafilea picked up the wrong bottle during a power cut, believing it to be a bottle of mouthwash.

Shafilea's throat and stomach were badly injured. After being treated at a Pakistani hospital, she returned to the UK and spent weeks at Warrington Hospital, still requiring regular treatment and medication after she was discharged.

Shafilea was last seen alive on 11th September 2003. The police investigation into her disappearance uncovered the following piece, which is either a poem or the lyrics to a song, written by Shafilea:

I Feel Trapped

I feel trapped
So stuck
I don't know wot 2 do
The feeling is mutual
I don't know how to explain
I'm trapped
So trapped
Now u know where I stand
When I fall back I got nowhere else to land
I don't know how to say
I'm trapped
So trapped
I'm trapped wit u
It was my last year in school
I was so happy with my friends
I got loads to do
But came this day when everything changed
I came home
It seemed like a normal day
But sumthing wasn't right
I wish I coulda changed the event
I shoulda killed myself instead
I'd rather have been dead
Coz now I have a burden on my chest
And no it won't go away
The guilt, the pain
When I look back on things
I coulda changed, coulda stopped, prevented, exchanged
But I had to turn out this way (so trapped)
Now I'm sitting on my window bay
Looking at the rain
Drowning sorrow and pain
Will this ever go away?
I feel trapped
So trapped
I'm trapped
I'm trapped
So trapped
I don't know wot 2 do
I feel trapped

Another poem/set of lyrics entitled Happy Families mentions a "desire to live", honour, and how her parents had told her she'd "brought shame":

Happy Families

I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more
Desire to live is burning
My stomach is turning
But they all think it's about honour
I was like a normal teenage kid
Didn't ask 2 much
I jus wanted to fit in
But my culture was different
But my family ignored
Now I'm sitting here playing happy families
Still crying tears
But no we're a happy family
I have these fears
I wish, I wish, I wish for a happy family
I lay in bed hoping the next day would be better
It was just a thought
Because it never happened no
But I still dream of this today
I wish my parents would be proud of wot I've done
Instead it's you've brought shame
Or something else lame
I don't wanna hear this no more
No no no

On 4th February 2004, Shafilea's badly decomposed body was found on the banks of the River Kent near the village of Sedgwick in Cumbria. An initial post-mortem proved inconclusive, but a recent inquest has heard that she was likely to have been strangled or smothered, and that the theory of death by natural causes was "not credible".

Several members of Shafilea's extended family have been arrested on suspicion of abduction, murder and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, but so far no one has been charged. Her parents have always strenuously denied having any involvement in their daughter's death.

Lawyers for the Ahmed family accused Cheshire Constabulary of racial stereotyping, and even considered legal action at one point. They claimed that police jumped to the conclusion that Shafilea had been the victim of a so-called "honour killing". But who can blame them? The all-too-familiar hallmarks are there.

The single biggest fact suggestive of the parents' involvement is that, unlike the time she ran away before the visit to Pakistan, they never reported Shafilea missing. A teacher at her former high school went to the police on 18th September 2003, nearly a week after she was last seen alive, after overhearing Shafilea's younger siblings talking about her disappearance. When asked about it on Newsnight, Iftikhar Ahmed said:

"Well, I just waited until Monday, right [Shafilea went missing on a Thursday]. If she hadn't turned up in school, and which she hadn't done, and on Tuesday morning, right, then we would have made the effort to go tell the police and then go looking for her then. Obviously we start to get worried about it. Because we assumed automatically that she's gone with somebody that she knows."

When asked specifically why they hadn't reported Shafilea missing, he said:

"The reason being, right, because we assumed that she's obviously gone with her friends, or a boyfriend, possibly. But that's one of the reasons, right, we thought, well, we'll give it a couple of days, see if she turns up in school, and then try and solve the matter."

Whatever the truth behind Shafilea's murder is, let's hope justice is served for this unhappy teenager, whose pain-filled poems speak for her from beyond the grave.

Sources: BBC News (1), (2), (3), Guardian Unlimited

UPDATE: BBC News reports that Iftikhar Ahmed told the inquest into his daughter's death:

"There's no question of her [Shafilea] being married. There's no potential suitor. I've never discussed the marriage question between me and the daughter.

That discussion has never taken place. Where she's heard it from I don't know."

This directly contradicts what he told Newsnight in 2004.

UPDATE 16-JAN-2008: The coroner's inquest into Shafilea's death recorded a verdict of "unlawful killing". Coroner Ian Smith said she had been the victim of a "vile murder", and police vowed to bring her killer(s) to justice.

Source: BBC News

Kenny Richey: Bittersweet Freedom

Kenny Richey's (pictured) story is an incredible one and, aside from the personal tragedies involved, it's often touted as an exposé of flaws in the American legal system, and a powerful argument against the death penalty.

Richey left his native Edinburgh in the early 1980s for a new life in the US. There he married Wendy Amerud, with whom he had a child, and joined the US Marine Corps, but both his marriage and his career faltered, leaving him unemployed and living with his father in Columbus Grove, Ohio. A self-confessed "crazy head in those days", he regularly drank too much and got into fights. He decided to return to Scotland, but just a week before he was due to leave the US the tragic event occurred that would see him behind bars for the next two decades.

In the early hours of 30th June 1986 fire swept through one of Richey's neighbours' apartments at the government-subsidised Old Village Farm housing complex, killing 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. The child's mother, Hope Collins, claimed she'd asked Richey to babysit her daughter before leaving for her boyfriend's home, a claim Richey denied. He maintained he was asleep in the apartment he shared with his father when the fire broke out, and woke to the sound of fire engines before making repeated attempts to save Cynthia. Far from being applauded for his actions, Richey was to find himself charged with arson and murder.

Initial investigations into the fire raised no suspicion of arson, and the cause was deemed to have been an electric fan; therefore, the scene wasn't sealed off and the process of gutting the apartment began. Vital pieces of evidence were removed, first to a dump, and then to the local sheriff's office, where they were placed in the vicinity of a petrol pump.

It was only after a second examination of the scene suggested arson that Richey was arrested and charged. The prosecution claimed Richey had started the fire using petrol and paint thinner stolen from a nearby greenhouse (from which Richey admitted stealing some plants; the owner of the greenhouse was unable to say whether any petrol or paint thinner was missing) in an attempt to kill Candy Barchet, an ex-girlfriend who had been asleep with a new partner in the apartment below the one occupied by Collins. This suggested motive ignored the fact that starting a fire on the storey above an intended victim made no sense, especially since the floors in the apartment building were made out of concrete.

Two witnesses testified they had heard Richey threatening to burn the entire building down, statements they were to retract years later, and an investigation revealed the apartment's fire alarm had been disconnected — indication, the prosecution alleged, of Richey's guilt. Evidence that the device was regularly disconnected because it was activated when food was being prepared in the kitchen wasn't presented at trial.

There have been suggestions Richey became a pawn in a larger political game. The residents of Columbus Grove were outraged by the death of a little girl in their midst, and the ambitious young prosecutor in the case was seeking to make both history and a name for himself by securing the first death penalty in Putnam County since 1874. By contrast, Richey's court-appointed lawyer was inexperienced and made fundamental errors, such as convincing his client to dispense with his right to trial by jury, meaning he would be tried by a panel of judges instead, and failing to put his client on the witness stand.

There have also been accusations that Richey was deemed guilty by association. Weeks before his trial, the panel of judges learned about Tom Richey, Kenny's eldest brother, who had been convicted of shooting two people, killing one of them, while high on drugs. Tom Richey had been sentenced to serve 65 years in a Washington state penitentiary for his crimes.

In January 1987 Richey was found guilty of aggravated arson and murder and was sentenced to death, beginning an interminable series of appeals, execution dates and stays of execution. In 1994 he came within an hour of his scheduled execution time before a stay was granted.

Richey steadfastly protested his innocence from Death Row, over the years rejecting several plea bargains that would have spared him the death penalty, seen him eligible for parole after 6 years, and transferred him to a prison in Scotland respectively — all because he refused to admit to a crime he hadn't committed. He told the BBC, when asked whether he regretted rejecting a plea bargain that would have seen him walk free years ago:

"No, absolutely not. It's a matter of pride and a matter of honour. I'm also stubborn. I'm not about to admit to something I didn't do, not for anything, even my own life, the cost of my own life. I didn't do it — period."

New scientific evidence focusing on the burn patterns at the scene suggested the fire responsible for Cynthia Collins' (pictured) death had started accidentally. Furthermore, it was revealed that Cynthia had a fascination with fire and often played with matches and lighters, resulting in the local fire brigade being called to the apartment on at least two occasions. Such "fire-play" behaviour is sometimes the sign of a neglected, and therefore attention-seeking, child. Hope Collins had previously been investigated by Child Welfare Services over leaving her daughter home alone, and in court she admitted to occasionally drugging the girl with sleeping pills. Collins pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child endangering over her role in Cynthia's death, and served 45 days in prison in 1986.

Despite the new scientific evidence, Richey's appeal was dismissed and prosecutor Dan Gershutz made the following incredible statement:

"Even though this new evidence may establish Mr Richey's innocence, the Ohio and United States constitutions nonetheless allow him to be executed because the prosecution did not know that the scientific testimony offered at the trial was false and unreliable."

The campaign to free Richey gained momentum. Supporters over the years ranged from high-profile individuals such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and actress Susan Sarandon, to organisations such as the European Parliament and Amnesty International, the latter of which declared the case "one of the most compelling cases of apparent innocence that human rights campaigners had ever come across".

In press reports Richey talked about the "rage" and "bitterness" he felt at the injustice of his imprisonment. After talking about how he would rather die than confess, he said in 2003:

"You won't find another individual anywhere more bitter than I am. They've taken nearly 17 years of my life, time I could have spent with my family and friends.

I've gone from a 21-year-old kid to a 38-year-old man in here."

A year later, he wrote in a letter to his brother:

"A scene [from the science-fiction film The Matrix] really epitomised the past 18 years of my life. It's when they have Neo, Keanu Reeves, in a room and his lips suddenly stick together and he fights to stretch them apart. He gets up from the table, trying to speak, and he's wrestled down by the bad guys in suits and sunglasses. It's been like that for me for as long as I can remember.

And I'm bitter, Tom, I'm so damn bitter."

Richey's conviction was first overturned in January 2005, when the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that he must be retried within 90 days or be set free. The US Supreme Court held that the decision may not have been procedurally correct and asked the court to reconsider. In August 2007 Richey's conviction was overturned for a second time.

He was finally released from prison on 7th January 2008 after entering a "no contest" plea to charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering, and breaking and entering. These charges relate to a failure to babysit Cynthia and the breaking into of the neighbour's greenhouse; they do not constitute an admission of guilt in terms of arson or intention to kill anyone.

Richey's innocence wasn't enough to stop Cynthia Collins' aunt from telling him he would "burn in hell", nor her father from saying, "I just wish Cynthia could appeal her death and come back to life." Unsurprisingly, the dead girl's mother remained tight-lipped.

When asked by reporters if there were other innocent people on Death Row, Richey replied that there were "at least 20 innocent people on Ohio's Death Row alone". Pressed for names, he mentioned John Spirko and Maurice Mason, adding:

"If you want to know the rest of them, investigate their cases, please."

Even though Richey has finally succeeded in winning his freedom without admitting guilt, the victory is bittersweet. The 43-year-old Scot faces a difficult readjustment: he is free, but suffering ill health after years of the stress of Death Row, he's back home in the country he was always intent on returning to, but 21 years too late, and he's facing a reunion with the son — Sean, now in his early 20s — who must seem like an embodiment of the "21-year-old kid" he was before a miscarriage of justice consumed more than two decades of his life.

Sources: Torley.org: the official Kenny Richey Campaign, Wikipedia: Kenny Richey, BBC News (1), (2), The Sunday Herald