Month: October 2018

There is a spooky feeling in the air as the nights turn colder, the streets seem darker and the annual celebrations for Halloween are upon us.

But some of our favourite photos from this year’s festivities are a treat….

One of the hottest Halloween tickets in town is for TV presenter Jonathan Ross’ party and Jimmy Carr (left) has arrived as a spooky ventriloquist’s dummy.

Comedian Keith Lemon (right) and his wife Jill Carter (left) went for a Batman theme, dressing as the dark character Venom and the flamboyant baddie the Joker.

Actor Chris O’Dowd and presenter Dawn O’Porter went for the comical rather than the creepy, wearing matching whoopie cushion costumes.

Scientist and presenter Brian Cox went for an old school astronaut outfit – with alien in tow.

But it’s not just celebrities who can impress with their costumes. Look at this gruesome twosome haunting Brighton Promenade earlier today.

Locals in Gateshead were given a fright by this spook-tacularly decorated house, covered in ghosts, ghouls and a pumpkin for good measure.

And talking of pumpkins, gasp at this frightening design by Jamie Jones from Chester. He says it has become a “seasonal obsession” to go bigger and better each year – and he has definitely given us a scare!

But to stop you having nightmares before you head to bed, enjoy this sweeter pumpkin picture from Blair Drummond Safari Park in Scotland.

Chelsea knocked out Derby in the Carabao Cup fourth round as Frank Lampard’s return to Stamford Bridge as a manager ended in a dramatic defeat.

Five goals were scored in a frantic first half, including two own goals from Derby defenders Fikayo Tomori and Richard Keogh.

The Championship side came from behind twice through Jack Marriott and Martyn Waghorn.

But Cesc Fabregas slotted home four minutes before half-time for what proved to be the winner.

Derby substitute David Nugent hit the inside of the post with a minute of normal time remaining but it rebounded safely into goalkeeper Willy Caballero’s hands.

It was the worst start possible for 20-year-old Chelsea loannee Tomori, facing his parent club, who missed when attempting to clear Davide Zappacosta’s low cross, and saw the ball deflect backwards off his standing leg and into the net.

Derby striker Marriott levelled with his fourth goal in five games after Tom Huddlestone pounced on a poor pass and a slip by Chelsea centre-back Gary Cahill.

The hosts were ahead again 12 minutes later when Zappacosta’s cross was again deflected into the goal by Derby captain Keogh.

Then Waghorn – who had earlier missed a chance to make it 2-1 from Marriott’s through ball – equalised again for Derby by tapping in Mason Mount’s low cross.

Chelsea right-back Zappacosta was involved in another goal when the ball ricocheted kindly from him for Fabregas to make it 3-2.

Derby had chances in the second half as Mount, Marriott and Keogh came close, while Chelsea’s Cahill was denied from close range and Alvaro Morata had a header saved by keeper Scott Carson.

Before kick-off, a minute’s applause was held in tribute to the victims of the Saturday’s helicopter crash at Leicester City. Former Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri – who managed Chelsea from 2000 to 2004 – was at Stamford Bridge.

On-loan duo impress as Derby show fight

It was a big night for Chelsea’s two on-loan players Tomori and Mount, who were given permission to face their parent club.

Tomori’s own goal after just five minutes was greeted with encouragement from Lampard, who gestured to remain calm.

Derby responded as Marriott coolly fired an equaliser into the far corner and they did so again when Mount turned provider for Waghorn following Keogh’s own goal.

Mount showed composure when he slid an inch-perfect ball across goal and he was impressive in the second half, twice coming close to scoring.

Both loanees had a point to prove in front of Chelsea’s staff and their displays certainly did that – and also showed how the loan system can be beneficial to the Blues.

Chelsea had 70% of the possession but Derby were no bystanders with seven shots on target to the hosts’ five.

The side sixth in the Championship were a constant threat in the second half as Marriott’s drive was tipped onto the top of the net and Mount went close with a powerful long-range effort.

Keogh almost equalised in the 84th minute when Huddlestone played a sublime ball over the top and Nugent thought he had scored but saw his shot rebound off the inside of the post.

Hibs manager Neil Lennon was struck in the face by an object thrown from the crowd as Hearts had what would have been a stoppage-time winner disallowed in a ferocious Edinburgh derby.

Clevid Dikamona’s 91st-minute header was ruled offside before a celebrating Lennon was hit from the main stand.

Hearts’ lead in the Scottish Premiership was cut to four points after the draw, in which Hibs held on for 25 minutes with 10 men after the controversial sending off of Florian Kamberi for two bookable offences.

The Swiss striker, who had been booked towards the end of the first half, was shown a second yellow card for barging into Oliver Bozanic as they challenged for a high ball.

Craig Levein’s injury-ravaged Hearts side created little but held firm at the back in their first game since the League Cup semi-final defeat by Celtic.

Hibs had the best chances, with Stevie Mallan striking the bar and going close with two first-half free-kicks.

But they had to settle for a point that edges them up to fifth, with Neil Lennon’s side sitting eight adrift of Hearts with a game in hand.

More to follow.

“A blessing that landed at my feet” – that’s how Andrew describes the football coaching course he enrolled in during his time at Brixton Prison.

The 45-year-old, from north London – whose surname we’ve chosen not to reveal – was sentenced to five years in jail in 2015 for drug dealing.

Andrew says he was reaching crisis point as his release date neared – until Fulham’s course came along.

“I love football, I play it all the time. At my age what a wonderful opportunity, because I couldn’t think of a job I could see myself fitting into at this time of my life,” he says.

“I’m not really that good at anything. I’ve got no qualifications. I couldn’t see myself sitting in an office. This course was brilliant.”

• Can prison yoga help tackle reoffending?
• ‘Don’t release prisoners on Fridays’

Andrew has a coaching role lined up once he has recovered from a stomach operation – and a chance of a career for the first time in his life.

He’s also formed lasting relationships with the club staff, like employability officer Jim Hart, who keep him motivated.

He’s currently learning about the business side of running a football club and will start his level two coaching course in January.

All of which Andrew is hoping will help him towards his dream of opening a soccer school.

It’s opportunities like this that former FA and Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein is hoping can become the norm.

He’s the man behind a new initiative – the Twinning Project – to pair every professional football club with their local prison to reduce reoffending by delivering coaching and refereeing courses.

At present, Dein says the offering is “patchy”, but he wants to get at least 20 clubs signed up by the end of the year.

He’s spoken to offenders in 106 jails and says: “In those prisons I’ve seen some stark stories where the prisoners are in a cell for 16 hours a day – there’s low self esteem.

“Sport has got a big part to play.”

Dein, 75, who spent four decades at the top of the game, believes his initiative will save the taxpayer £700,000 if just 20 offenders are rehabilitated.

Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright, who spent two weeks in prison for a motoring offence, is fully behind the project.

He said: “We are not going to say it will save everybody that goes into the prison system, but there are people in there who are just waiting for an opportunity to try and change.”

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says football clubs have been “super slow” to get involved in prisons but they have a “social responsibility” to do so.

The world watched as a compound in Waco, Texas, became a horrific fireball. Inside the burning building were cult leader David Koresh and scores of his followers. Twenty-five years on, relatives of the British victims reflect on what happened.

Koresh became infamous as the self-styled prophet who thought he was the new Christ.

His followers were in thrall to him, and remarkably, 30 of them were British. Twenty-four died when a weeks-long siege of the compound ended in tragedy.

They came from the streets of Manchester, London and Nottingham – outwardly ordinary young people in their 20s and 30s.

History has largely forgotten them. These are their stories.

A soul girl

Her sister Gail cherishes memories of a lively girl about town: “I used to call her ‘rent-a-crowd’, because she always had a gang of girls around her. She loved Van Halen, and she loved soul music – she and her friends would go to gigs all round the country.”

Bernadette Monbelly was well liked at work, as a training supervisor in a bank. A vibrant young woman enjoying the social life and clubs of 1980s London.

One day a leaflet came through the sisters’ door – it was an invitation to the local Seventh Day Adventist Church, where many of the congregation, like Gail and Bernadette, were either first or second Windrush generation. Gail and Bernadette both took up the offer.

Bernadette fell in with a group preaching radical Christian theology in their own small circle, away from the main church services – and there was talk of a man in Texas who knew the secrets of the final judgement day.

Bernadette hadn’t been feeling right – her health had taken a downward turn, and as her sister remembers, it lowered her guard enough for their influence to overtake her.

“These people started enveloping her. They were always at her place, day and night. And I told her, ‘Bernadette who are these people?’ And she said ‘They’re helping me’. And that was when the paths started to separate.”

The man in Texas they were referring to was David Koresh. The reason they were talking about him was that he had actually visited England with his right-hand man – scouting for members who would join his budding sect.

• How BBC reported end of Waco siege

A prophet on campus

It’s understood that David Koresh came to England around 1988 along with his trusted lieutenant – a man called Steve Schneider.

They sought a fertile recruiting ground for their message of the imminent coming of the apocalypse, or “Revelation” as it is depicted in the Bible.

Koresh himself had been rejected from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Texas. So he knew that his starting point in England would be there.

He gave talks at a Seventh Day Adventist college in Berkshire called Newbold, without permission, and kept his identity a secret from its staff.

It was there that three students had their lives changed forever.

From there, the power of Koresh’s message on their minds would ripple out to families across England.

The Manchester connection

At the time, one of these students was dating a Manchester girl called Diana Henry.

She was from a large family of five brothers and sisters; her father was a bricklayer in Old Trafford.

Diana had just finished her degree in psychology when her boyfriend sold her Koresh’s message of a utopian life at his Texas commune.

As her father Sam remembers: “Her boyfriend wasn’t a flippant lad, he was a serious lad. And so she thought well, if that’s what he says, it’s got to be right. She was hooked. She dropped her studies and would have followed this man anywhere.”

Diana would make several visits to Waco, slipping away during term time to meet David Koresh without her father’s knowledge, before coming back to Manchester one last time.

Sam remembers how on that occasion she became instrumental in spreading Koresh’s message herself.

Find out more

The stories of the Britons of Waco and their entrapment by Koresh is told in a new BBC Radio 5 Live Podcast, ‘End Of Days’ – available now on BBC Sounds.

She organised meetings in a semi-detached house in a Manchester suburb called Cheetham Hill at which dozens of young people attended.

Koresh’s lieutenant was there, giving a charismatic talk, and saying “he needed to take his instructions from God”.

He was talking, of course, about Koresh.

A local Seventh Day Adventist elder, George Taylor, recalls being at the clandestine meetings.

“I remember turning to my wife and saying: ‘This is strange. This is not right.'”

His wife, Dimplets, recalls a packed room.

“There were people standing, sitting on window ledges, in corners, and they were about an urgent business. And when I tried to interrupt the speaker to ask questions, they were like ‘Woooah! Why are you challenging this man?'”

George Taylor saw what was happening to Sam’s daughter Diana. He tried to change her mind – to stop her from being seduced into the would-be prophet’s message.

His pleas fell on deaf ears.

In time, Sam Henry would make a frantic journey to Waco to try and convince her to return. There he confronted David Koresh himself: “He tried to convince ME to stay there as well. He said come here – the authorities will never find you. He tried everything.

“I said we must leave, you must leave this place! But she didn’t listen. None of them listened.”

Sam had to return to Britain without his daughter.

But worse was to come. Diana had in fact convinced her mother and four siblings to also leave their father and journey to join her at the commune in Waco, not long after.

None of his family would return alive.

The cult spreads in Britain

Back in Britain – in Nottingham – Devon Elliott was trying to talk his sister out of going over to Waco.

A cheerful, gentle man in his mid-50s, one would never assume that he more than many others suffered the most terrible pain of Waco.

“I lost my sister, her fiance, my auntie, my cousin-in-law, and a very close friend.”

They had each been entranced by Koresh’s message at Newbold College.

Devon remembers his sister Beverly’s wonderful singing voice and sense of fun. ‘”I wish I had recorded her singing years ago,” he says.

“Some people from London had come up to Nottingham, trying to have meetings, chats. Obviously they’d got wind of some theology which wasn’t really sound. But it was just like me going to my mates to watch the football – nobody really looked into it any.

“In hindsight, if I knew she was going to go, I would have cut her passport up. I would have,” he remembers. He didn’t know that she really meant to carry out her plan.

Instead, he had to watch on helplessly as communication with the cult commune was lost; how the FBI eventually surrounded the building, fearful of Koresh’s stockpile of weapons; and how a growing sense of unease would become a national – and international – tragedy.

“To me this was like being in a film. My life became all about just watching this white building. And at one moment you just see it all crash. And I’m thinking… my sister’s in there. My aunty is in there. People that I love dearly are in there,” Devon says.

A prophet’s offer

Koresh’s offer to the Britons was a seductive one.

They’d mainly come from traditions well versed in the Bible. So he was pushing at an open door.

The Revelation, or the Biblical description of the apocalypse, was at hand, he said.

He’d convinced them that he was the next messiah – one sent by God to lead those righteous souls that would be saved, and that would taste eternal life.

He told the Britons that they would be among them. That they should go to lead a frugal life of prayer at his Texas ranch, preparing for the imminent end of days.

What he didn’t tell them is that his version of the apocalypse would be armed with a massive stockpile of guns and ammunition – and that he was a serial sexual predator.

Their ‘End Of Days’

The FBI’s attempt to release the cult members ended in a horrific fireball.

In a matter of minutes, 72 people died. Twenty-four were British. They had left cities and towns seeking a simple life, fulfilling Biblical prophecy.

“The ‘wackos of Waco’ were like you and me” says Gail Monbelly as she remembers her sister Bernadette. She wants people to reconsider the memory of the 30 Britons who went there.

As a senior British detective who investigated Waco also remembers, “the problem is that they were all tarred with the same brush. And that was quite wrong. Responsibility for what happened at Waco lies with one man only. And that is David Koresh.”

The stories of the Britons of Waco and their entrapment by Koresh is told in a new BBC Radio 5 Live Podcast, ‘End Of Days’ – available now on BBC Sounds.

The journalist who was sent an email by the editor of Waitrose Food magazine suggesting she write about “killing vegans” has hit back.

Selene Nelson said vegans were not “snowflakes”, but were people trying to live in a “moral” way.

She said those who argued that William Sitwell – who has since resigned – was only joking were missing the point.

The real issue, she said, was “why it’s accepted or considered funny to speak to vegans with hostility and anger”.

Sitwell, also a critic on Masterchef, has apologised for any offence caused by an “ill-judged joke”.

He said he loved and respected “people of all appetites, be they vegan, vegetarian or meat eaters”.

Vegans eat a plant-based diet, meaning they avoid all animal products such as meat, dairy, eggs and honey, and refuse to use materials derived from animals like leather.

Ms Nelson had pitched ideas to Sitwell on “healthy, eco-friendly meals” as the “popularity of the movement is likely to continue to skyrocket”.

Sitwell had emailed back 10 minutes later, saying: “Thanks for this. How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? Expose their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat?”

‘Disappointing’

Writing for the Independent, Ms Nelson said she couldn’t comment on the precise circumstances of his departure from the magazine, but his response to her was a “shock” and “speaks to a wider problem”.

“Vegans are often criticised for being dogmatic, militant, too extreme or unnecessarily antagonistic,” she said.

“But if this disappointing exchange exposes anything, it’s the belligerent attitude that, sadly, many vegans experience every day, simply for trying to make a positive lifestyle change.

“Vegans are not ‘snowflakes’. Perhaps the real ‘snowflakes’, if we insist upon using this term, are those who become defensive and abusive when anyone dares question the status quo.”

Sitwell has received support from fellow journalists, including Guardian writer Hadley Freeman.

Times restaurant critic Giles Coren said: “It was a stupid email but should not be a career-ender. Vegans are not a race or a gender or a sexual orientation or a differently-abled group. They just choose to eat plants.”

But other writers have criticised him for being unprofessional, with Lauren Collins, from The New Yorker, tweeting that responding to a freelancer’s pitch in such a way was “fair grounds for being fired”.