Parents charged
Police: The parents of six children aged from 5 to 13 who died in a house fire were charged with their murder. Mark Philpott, 55, and his wife, Mairead, 31, were taken into custody on Tuesday. Jade, 10, and brothers John, 9, Jack, 8, Jessie, 6, and Jayden, 5, died from smoke inhalation. Their home caught light after petrol was poured through the letterbox of the semi-detached council house in the Allenton area of Derby on May 11. Another brother, Duwayne, 13, died three days later in hospital.
Two weeks ago the couple had made an emotional appearance at a press conference. Steve Cotterill, an assistant chief constable, said: “I suspect there may still be people with crucial information who have not yet come forward to speak to us. In view of the arrests, I would urge anyone who may have been holding back, not felt comfortable to voice their concerns or not had the confidence, to do so now.”
Assange loses
Extradition: Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, lost his latest attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault, but the case could be reopened on a rare technicality. On Wednesday the Supreme Court in London decided by a 5-2 majority that the extradition was lawful and could go ahead, but Dinah Rose, Assange’s lawyer, told the court her client was considering applying for the case to be reopened on the basis that the hearing had been flawed.
The Swedish authorities want Assange, responsible for the publication of thousands of American diplomatic cables and military files, to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010.
Bad judgment
Law: The son of one of Britain’s leading judges was caught with cocaine and ecstasy within weeks of qualifying as a trainee barrister. Henry Mostyn, 25, an Old Etonian and the son of Sir Nicholas Mostyn, was two months into a pupillage with the London chambers 4 New Square when he was arrested after being searched by police as he stood in a queue for a nightclub in London last December. He accepted a caution for possession of class A drugs.
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At a hearing of the bar disciplinary tribunal on Monday, Judge Julia Dias, QC, officially reprimanded Mostyn and ordered him to pay a £250 fine and £355 costs. Although guilty of what was described by Dias as a “lamentable lack of judgment”, Mostyn avoided being disbarred. His superiors at 4 New Square chambers have since decided not to discipline him, the hearing was told.
This will hurt a bit
Dentistry: Up to half a million patients may be paying unnecessarily for private dental treatment every year, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said on Tuesday. The eight-month investigation found that dentists may be deliberately misleading patients about their entitlement to procedures on the National Health Service, and called for big changes to the £5.7 billion-a-year market.
“Our study has raised significant concerns ... which need to be tackled quickly in the interest of patients ... we expect to see robust action taken against such potential misconduct by dentists,” said John Fingleton, chief executive of the OFT.
Briton held in Bali
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Drugs: A mother of two could face a firing squad in Indonesia after she was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle more than £1.6m of cocaine into Bali in her luggage. Lindsay Sandiford, 55, a former legal costs secretary, is said to have been carrying 10lb 9oz of the drug in the lining of her suitcase for a drug ring allegedly controlled by a British couple on the island.
After her arrest she agreed to act as bait in a sting operation that resulted in police swooping on four other suspects. Sandiford, from Teesside, told police she only agreed to make the smuggling trip because her sons, Lewis, 23, and Eliot, 21, were being threatened in England.
Jaws reeled in
Angling: Two anglers in Cornwall reeled in what is believed to be the largest shark caught in British waters. Wayne Comben and Graeme Pullen, from Hampshire, caught the porbeagle shark off the Cornish coast at Boscastle, about 300 yards from the shore on May 24. The anglers said they believed the porbeagle was 10ft long and weighed 39 stone. They spent 90 minutes reeling it in using a rod with a line taken from a garden strimmer.
Pullen, 60, tagged the shark before removing the hook from its mouth and releasing it back into the sea off Boscastle. He said: “I have never seen anything like it in 40 years of sea fishing. The whole thing was like something from Jaws. The shark went into this crazed feeding frenzy. If someone had been in the water at the time it would have taken a good bite out of them.”
Inflexible friend
Banking: Visa, a sponsor of the 2012 Olympics, has been accused of exploiting spectators by banning the use of rival cards at Games venues. Visa requested that the 27 cash dispensers at Olympic venues be switched off during the Games. It intends to replace them with eight machines that accept only Visa cards.
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Marc Gander, of the Consumer Action Group, predicted long queues at the machines. He said: “This is shocking. It is a privilege to be a sponsor of the Olympics and they are abusing that privilege by exploiting consumers."
Radio 3 man freed
Prison: A BBC radio presenter was arrested for working without a permit after he introduced a charity concert by a choir of 500 children at a festival in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Petroc Trelawny, 41, who works for Radio 3, spoke of his “delight” on Friday after he was cleared by a court of wrongdoing after a week-long ordeal.
Trelawny had slipped in his cell and dislocated his shoulder after he was arrested on May 24. He spent five days in hospital under police guard. He said: “I’m just elated it’s over but above all it has been an experience in the humanity of people. I was touched by the way I was looked after in the hospital by doctors and nurses, how respectful police were — even the night I spent in prison.”
West drama wins
Television: An ITV drama about the investigation into the serial killer Fred West picked up three of the top honours at the Bafta television awards last Sunday. Dominic West won best leading actor for his portrayal of Fred West in Appropriate Adult. Monica Dolan was named best supporting actress for her role as his wife and accomplice Rose. The third award, for leading actress, went to Emily Watson for her role as the title character Janet Leach, a trainee social worker who was appointed by police to sit with West as “an appropriate adult” during his police interviews.
Accepting his Bafta, West paid tribute to Leach: “When I first met Janet, she said she hoped the film would bring some closure to the misunderstanding and pain she suffered. I hope she feels some closure and that we honoured the suffering she endured and the suffering of all of the West victims, living and dead.”
Pryce in court
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Legal: Vicky Pryce, the ex-wife of Chris Huhne, the former energy secretary, pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice by taking a speeding penalty for Huhne. She intends to claim marital coercion. Pryce, appearing at Southwark crown court on Friday, made the plea to the charge of taking Huhne’s penalty points for a 2003 speeding offence. Huhne, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh, did not enter a plea. He intends to try to have the charge against him dismissed at a future hearing, the court heard. A date for the trial has been set for October 2.
‘Pests and idiots’
Education: A primary school music teacher branded his pupils “pests, idiots, clowns and buffoons”, a disciplinary panel heard on Tuesday. A panel heard that in response to complaints about his language, Roger Griffin, 66, wrote a letter to Beechview school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, saying: “Persistent miscreants who act like delinquents can expect to be treated as such.” Griffin, who has now retired, faces two charges of serious misconduct between December 2007 and May 2008 at a Teaching Agency hearing in Coventry.