By Sara Nelson

Last updated at 8:36 AM on 20th February 2009

This is the first picture of the brutal injuries suffered by Rihanna, allegedly at the hands of her former lover Chris Brown.

The picture of the singer's bruised, cut and swollen face appeared on American website TMZ.com.

The bust-up is alleged to have occurred after the couple had an argument as they left a pre-Grammy Awards party.

 

Battered: Rihanna's injuries after Brown allegedly beat her

Both were nominated for Grammys and were scheduled to appear at the February 8 awards show but cancelled at the last minute.

Brown surrendered to Los Angeles police on February 8 and was released on $50,000 bail after being arrested for investigation of making a criminal threat, a felony.

He has not been charged by the district attorney's office, which is still investigating the case.

Brown surrendered to authorities just as the show was getting under way.

 

Happier times: Rihanna before the alleged attack

According to police, Brown and a woman began arguing as they were travelling in a car shortly after the February 7 party.

The fight escalated after they got out of the car, and Brown had left by the time officers arrived.

Rihanna, who turns 21 today, has not been seen in public since the alleged attack and is believed to be staying with her family in Barbados.

 

Rihanna and Chris Brown, pictured at a pre-Grammy party just hours before the alleged assault. They later cancelled their performances at the awards

Brown spoke out about the incident for the first time this week, saying he is 'sorry and saddened' by what happened.

The 19-year-old R&B singer said he is seeking counselling from his pastor and loved ones but said much of what has been reported of the incident is untrue, although he did not elaborate.

In a statement issued through publicist Michael Sitrick, he said: 'Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired.

'I am seeking the counselling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person.

 

Chris Brown, who allegedly assaulted his pop star girlfriend Rihanna last week, has spoken out for the first time saying he is 'sorry and saddened'

'Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and or reported in the media is wrong,' he added.

But he said he could not discuss that in detail until his case is resolved.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles police are thought to have launched an internal investigation into how the picture of Rihanna's injuries came to be released.

People.com quoted a police statement as saying: 'The photograph has the appearance of one taken during an official domestic violence investigation.

'The Los Angeles Police Department takes seriously its duty to maintain the confidentiality of victims of domestic violence.

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By David Barbeler

AAP

February 20, 2009 12:10pm

A MAN who brutally decapitated a homeless teenager and then used his head as a bowling ball has had his appeal against his conviction dismissed.

James Patrick Roughan was 27 in July 2008 when he was found guilty by a Queensland Supreme Court jury, for the second time, of murdering Morgan Jay Shepherd on March 29, 2005, at Sandgate, north of Brisbane.

Mr Shepherd, 17, was stabbed 133 times and decapitated, before his head was used as a puppet and a bowling ball.

Roughan and co-accused Christopher Clark Jones, then 23, were jailed for life.

Witnesses told the Brisbane court the two had bragged about the murder.

After being found guilty of murder in the first trial with Jones, Roughan appealed the verdict in the Court of Appeal in Brisbane in December 2007 and won the right to a retrial by himself.

Unsuccessful in both trials, Roughan once again appealed his conviction in the Court of Appeal on February 2.

Roughan's lawyer argued that other than two admissions made by Roughan about the murder, all other prosecution evidence was circumstantial and the crown didn't have a strong case.

While the defence admitted Roughan was involved in the mutilation and disposal of Mr Shepherd's body, they argued there was no evidence that proved Roughan was involved in the actual killing and that he was only a passive onlooker.

The Court of Appeal referred to a transcript between Jones and Roughan in a prison van secretly recorded by police after their arrest.

"I'm taking responsibility for what I've got, your soul's condemned to hell because you're weak," Roughan said to Jones.

"You'll see, you'll be spending (time in prison) with me for a long, long time mate. That's if, that's if you survive, mind you.

"You've got a long time to live with your f***ing self now. Let's see if you can handle it without committing suicide."

In the Court of Appeal summary, Justice Justice Patrick Keane said the prison van conversation debunked the defence's argument that Roughan was a passive onlooker.

"The conversation between Jones and the appellant in the prison van set out above afforded good evidence of the nature of their relationship with each other," Justice Keane said.

"It revealed that the appellant was not afraid of Jones."

---

By staff writers

NEWS.com.au

February 20, 2009 02:45pm

 

A MAN has pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend by dragging her behind a car with a tow strap around her neck.

Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, 38, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Luz Maria Franco Fierros, 49, to escape the death penalty, kidnapping and other charges, the Associated Press reported.

Ms Franco Fierros was alive when Rubi-Nava tied her to the car and began dragging her through suburban streets in Denver. She died of asphyxiation and massive head wounds.

During the investigation, police said the gruesome crime left a trail of blood more than a 1.5km long and that Ms Franco Fierros's face was unrecognisable, Fox News reported. 

Her body was found in September 2006, near Castle Rock, about 30km south of Denver.

A Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent testified in 2007 that Rubi-Nava told him that he and Ms Franco Fierros had a violent argument hours before her death, and that Rubi-Nava accused her of seeing other men.

Rubi-Nava has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

---

A giant rat with one-inch-long teeth has been caught in the southern Chinese province of Fujian.

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

Last Updated: 12:36PM GMT 18 Feb 2009

The rat, which weighed six pounds and had a 12-inch tail, was caught at the weekend in a residential area of Fuzhou, a city of six million people on China's south coast.

The ratcatcher, who was only named as Mr Xian, said he swooped for the rodent after seeing a big crowd of people surrounding it on the street.

He told local Chinese newspapers that he thought the rat might be a valuable specimen, or a rare species, and had to muster up his courage before grabbing its tail and picking it up by the scruff of its neck.

"I did it, I caught a rat the size of a cat!" he shouted out afterwards, according to the reports. Mr Xian is believed to still be in possession of the animal, after stuffing into a bag and departing the scene.

The local forestry unit in the city identified the nightmarish creature as a bamboo rat from initial photographs, but said that it would need to examine the rat more closely before making a final identification.

Chinese bamboo rats rarely grow beyond ten inches and are found throughout southern China, northern Burma and Vietnam.

However, the Sumatra bamboo rat, usually found in the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan and in the Malay Peninsula can grow up to 30 inches long, including tail, and can weigh up to eight pounds.

A "Giant Rat of Sumatra" is mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes tale: The Adventure of a Sussex Vampire.

All bamboo rats are slow-moving and usually spend their time in underground burrows, feeding on bamboo. Chinese bamboo rats are often sold for meat in Chinese markets. The largest rats in the world are thought to be African giant pouched rats, which can grow up to 36 inches in length.

---

Nick Calacouras

February 20, 2009 07:45am

A PATIENT ran out of the operating theatre after the surgeon answered his mobile phone and discussed what went wrong with a previous operation.

The patient, who was still conscious and awaiting eye surgery, did not like the sound of what he was hearing and told the surgeon he would rather go blind before he bolted out the building, The Northern Territory News reports.

The incident, which occurred in 2007, was detailed in the Health Complaints Commissioners report tabled in the NT Parliament this week.

The patient was later informed the previous operation led to a rare complication that was not the fault of the surgeon. The director of the clinic personally offered to performed the procedure if the patient wished to return.

Another patient complained that a midwife practising at a NT hospital was infected with Hepatitis C and was an intravenous drug user.

The patient said they knew the nurse personally and was concerned she was a risk as she delivered babies and dealt with emergency situations.

The report also described a situation where a woman who suffered a miscarriage waited in the emergency department for eight-and-a-half hours before seeing a doctor.

Opposition Health spokesman Matt Conlan said there was a "legacy of failure" in NT hospitals.

 

---

 

 

Thursday, February 19, 2009

 

NORWICH, N.Y. —  A man was convicted of murder Thursday for intentionally running over a 12-year-old baby sitter to keep her from talking about their time spent together.

George Ford Jr., 44, a contractor from Piscataway, N.J., was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Shyanne Somers. The verdict was read by Broome County Judge Joseph Cawley Jr. after a non-jury trial.

The girl's family left the courthouse without commenting.

Prosecutors said Ford was high on cocaine when he killed Shyanne to stop her from talking about what transpired during hours she spent alone with Ford before her death on an upstate New York road on July 8, 2007. The bulk of the prosecution's case was based on a GPS tracking device hidden in Ford's pickup truck by his estranged wife, who suspected he was having an affair.

"Thank God for Mrs. Ford, because when she gave us that GPS it told us where he was and what he did and proved that there was no accident there and that it was a homicide," Chenango County District Attorney Joseph McBride said.

Ford testified that he accidentally hit the girl after showing her his horses, which were boarded in a pasture 45 miles north of Binghamton. A doctor testified that an autopsy showed the girl died of severe traumatic injuries to her head and chest.

"He didn't kill her on purpose. It was an accident," defense attorney Randel Scharf said, adding that he felt prosecutors failed to prove intent to cause her death. "George feels terrible. He feels bad for the family. He feels bad for himself."

Scharf said he planned to appeal, but added the issues for appeal would be limited because it was a non-jury trial.

Ford's route on the night that Shyanne was killed was recorded by the GPS system, which Cindy Ford told the court she bought and placed under the front passenger's seat of the truck without her husband's knowledge.

Prosecutors, using the GPS data, showed that Ford never went to the pasture, but instead spent more than three hours behind an abandoned farmhouse a half-mile from where the girl was killed.

Investigators testified that Shyanne got away from Ford, who chased her and deliberately ran her down shortly after 3 a.m.

Scharf argued there was no evidence of any inappropriate contact between Ford and Shyanne and that the Somers' insurance company determined in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family that Shyanne's death was accidental.

McBride said while he was not able to prove that the girl was sexually assaulted, he noted: "There are a lot of sexual offenses that occur without physical evidence."

"The facts were overwhelming that whatever he did with this young child from 12 o'clock at night until 3 in the morning, there is no other conclusion than that what he did was inappropriate," he said.

Ford, who faces a minimum of 15 years to life up to a maximum 25 year to life in state prison, will be sentenced May 18. He spent 4 1/2 years in state prison in Arizona in the 1990s on a drug-related conviction.

 

---

 

 

Thursday, February 19, 2009

By DENA POTTER, Associated Press Writer

 

JARRATT, Va. —  An inmate declared his innocence Thursday after he was forcibly carried into Virginia's death chamber, where he was executed for gunning down a police officer.

Edward Nathaniel Bell, who was convicted of killing the officer during a foot chase a decade ago, was pronounced dead at 9:11 p.m. Thursday at the Greensville Correctional Center.

When the door between Bell's cell and the death chamber opened, the inmate thrust his hips backward and wouldn't step toward to the gurney where the lethal injection was administered. Six stocky corrections officers pulled him through the doorway and lifted him onto the gurney.

"To the Timbrook family, you definitely have the wrong person," Bell said in the death chamber, addressing the victim's family. "The truth will come out one day. This here, killing me, there's no justice about it."

Bell's lawyer, who also witnessed the execution, said a sedative the inmate was given made it difficult for him to walk.

"Eddie's case is an example of how the system does not catch and correct errors," said attorney James G. Connell III.

Bell, 43, was condemned for shooting Winchester police Sgt. Ricky Timbrook as the officer chased him down a dark alley on Oct. 29, 1999.

At least 10 current and former Winchester police officers witnessed the execution, including Winchester Sheriff Lenny Millholland.

"I can't say it's closure but it's another chapter in the life of Ricky Timbrook and it ends the chapter that included Eddy Bell," said the sheriff, who was on the police force in 1999 and investigated Timbrook's death.

Bell maintained that he did not shoot Timbrook, a 32-year-old popular police officer, SWAT Team Member and DARE instructor. Prosecutors, however, say Bell was a flashy drug dealer who held a grudge against Timbrook for arresting him two years earlier for possessing a concealed weapon.

Bell was the 103rd Virginia inmate executed since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Virginia ranks second only to Texas in the number of executions since then.

---

By Jaya Narain

Last updated at 9:16 AM on 20th February 2009

After the attack: Headteacher Kieran Heakin is recovering from the injuries he received - apparently from a former pupil

A former pupil allegedly smashed two glasses into the face of a headmaster in what was apparently 'revenge' for his miserable schooldays.

The man is thought to have borne a grudge for more than a decade after falling out with teachers at his primary school.

The victim, Kieran Heakin, suffered serious facial injuries and was taken to hospital, where he is recovering.

Despite suffering several broken bones, the 57-year-old  -  a committed Christian  -  has vowed to forgive his attacker.

The incident happened on Tuesday as Mr Heakin enjoyed a meal in an Indian restaurant with two friends.

As Mr Heakin was tucking into a curry at Kapana in Rochdale, the man approached the table. He asked: 'Are you Mr Heakin?' Mr Heakin replied: 'Yes'.

Then the former pupil allegedly said: 'You made my life a hell in school' before attacking him.

After the incident, Mr Heakin, the headmaster of St John's RC Primary in Burn-ley, Lancashire, was taken to hospital suffering from a broken nose, a broken cheekbone, a fractured eye socket and a broken jaw.

Doctors are also treating him for broken ribs and say he will need extensive medical care and facial reconstructive surgery.

Mr Heakin, who has been a teacher for 34 years, said: 'I'd walked into the restaurant with some friends when the lad opposite introduced himself to me and asked if remembered him.

Innocent victim: Mr Heakin before he was attacked in the curry house

'He told me I'd taught him at primary school. It's not unusual for me to bump into former pupils. They usually come up and say "Can I buy you a drink?" or something like that.'

Mr Heakin, a grandfather of three, added: 'I'm not going to let this one episode spoil everything. I'm a committed Christian and I've chosen to forgive this young man.

'I need to be able to stand up in front of my kids and say I practise what I preach.

'I can't think why he would harbour a grudge for all these years.

'I remember him as a curly-haired little boy from his school days. He came to us with a bit of attitude and we did everything we could for him.

There wasn't a problem with him when he left. He seemed a decent youngster.

'Some time down the line I'd like to sit down with him and see what's gone wrong. I'd ask him why it's come to this.

'He might not be my pupil any more but I will help him in any way I can.'

Mr Heakin's son Damien, 30, said: 'Whoever has done this is not even fit to lace my father's shoelaces. He is a rock of a man and his attacker is simply a coward.'

He added: 'He is talking but is on quite strong painkillers. He is stable and we are all sure he will pull through this. To attack anyone like that is just cowardly. It was completely unprovoked.'

The police are investigating Mr Heakin's claim that his attacker was a former pupil.

A married father of three, Mr Heakin was twice mayor of Whitworth, near Rochdale, and he also works as a prison service counsellor.

A man in his 20s from Rochdale has been charged with assault and criminal damage in connection with the incident.

---

 

Thursday, February 19, 2009

MERTZON, Texas —  Millions of wild pigs weighing up to 300 pounds have been tearing up crops, trampling fences and eating just about anything in their path in Texas. But now they had better watch their hairy backs.

A state lawmaker is proposing to allow ordinary Texans with rifles and shotguns to shoot the voracious, tusked animals from helicopters.

For years, ranchers in the Lone Star State have hired professional hunters in choppers to thin the hogs' fast-multiplying ranks. Now state Rep. Sid Miller of the Fort Worth area wants to bring more firepower to the task by issuing permits to sportsmen.

"I've had numerous calls and complaints that someone needs to do something," Miller said. "We're losing ground on this problem."

His bill has not yet been assigned to a committee, and its chances of becoming law are uncertain. But if approved, the program could be the first of its kind in the nation. Some other states, like Gov. Sarah Palin's Alaska, allow aerial hunting, but only to control predators, such as bears and wolves.

Some Texans worry about collateral damage.

"If they're going to open up to where you can do this and anybody who's got a helicopter can go off to an old boy's place and hunt, that's going to be bad," said Jay Smith, owner of Smith Helicopters in Cotulla. Some people "may get confused and shoot the rancher's dog or a calf."

Miller gave assurances the hunting would be closely regulated, though details on such things as how many hunters would be allowed to take part, and how many hogs they would be permitted to kill, have yet to be worked out.

"You're not going to have some bubba up there going, `Pass me a beer and ammo' and hunting some hogs," the legislator said. "We certainly want to do it right."

Many hunters and landowners will probably leave the carcasses in the field, just as they do now. Wild hogs that are gunned down cannot be sold for meat under U.S. agriculture regulations. (Moreover, wild boar is said by some to be tough and gamey.)

An estimated 2 million wild hogs are causing $52 million a year in crop damage in Texas, according to agricultural experts. Pigs that they are, they eat just about anything, including the carcasses of their own brethren. They trample crops, dig up plants with their snouts and steal animal feed. Entire peanut farms have been stripped.

And the pasture-wrecking porkers are causing trouble well beyond farms. Authorities in Texas are reporting an increase in collisions between hogs and cars, while golf courses and suburbs are increasingly finding turf uprooted by hogs.

The animals are descended from hogs introduced into Texas by Spanish explorers more than 300 years ago. But their numbers began booming in the 1980s.

The big ones have no natural predators. Not even a coyote will tangle with a pig bigger than 20 pounds.

During a recent pass in his helicopter over Mertzon in West Texas, Kyle Lange, a professional hunter who is paid to pick off wild hogs from the air in what some are calling a "pork chopper," offered a glimpse of the magnitude of the problem.

As his helicopter flew over, several packs of hogs that had been rooting around in the brush or napping in the sun suddenly scattered in all directions, with piglets scampering to keep close to their mothers, the little hairs on their backs blown back by the breeze from the chopper.

"You can kill 300 in a day from up here in the Panhandle and you've just slowed them down is all," Lange said over the whump-whump of his two-seat chopper.

Wildlife experts have tried less brutal methods to control their numbers. But the hogs are smart and have learned to avoid traps, and a birth control pill for female hogs is still in development. Many experts agree aerial hunting works.

Nearly 1,100 permits to kill hogs from the air were issued in Texas last year, up from 201 in 2000. Under Miller's bill, weekend hunters would be able to get permits too, though they would also have to pay landowners for the right to hunt on their property.

---

By LEON WATSON

Published: Today

KNIFE-WIELDING muggers CASTRATED a man after he refused to give them £50 to buy drugs.

 

Horrified victim Karolj Pasanski was pinned to the ground by two gangsters while a third expertly sliced off his testicles with a sharp blade.

The bloodied 43-year-old staggered for a mile to the nearest hospital in Subotica, Serbia, clutching his severed genitals in his hand.

Surgeons managed to save Pasanski's life - but couldn't replace his testicles.

”It was a very neat job with two small cuts. The attacker clearly has some sort of experience and training - possibly from castrating animals,“ said one of the docs.

---

 

Friday, February 20, 2009

STAMFORD, Connecticut —  Travis the chimpanzee's relationship with his owner was closer than those of some married couples.

Sandra Herold gave him the finest food, and wine in long-stemmed glasses. They took baths together and cuddled in the bed they shared. Travis brushed the lonely widow's hair each night and pined for her when she was away.

If she left the house alone, Travis would give her a kiss.

"If I left with someone Travis would get upset," Herold said Wednesday.

Experts say the unusually human relationship would have been confusing for any animal. It may have also played a role in Travis' savage attack Monday on Herold's friend, 55-year-old Charla Nash of Stamford.

Click to view photos.

Click to listen to the 911 call.

"This is a crazy relationship," said Stephen Rene Tello, executive director of Primarily Primates, a sanctuary for chimps in Texas. "He was probably very bonded with her. I can kind of see it in his eyes this is his surrogate mother."

And chimps like 14-year-old Travis, who was shot and killed by police, protect their mates and turf.

"If there is another person entering his space, he might consider it a threat to his territory, or even his mate," Tello said.

Police say Travis attacked Nash when she arrived at the house to help lure the chimp back into Herold's house. Herold speculated that Travis was being protective of her and attacked Nash because she had a different hairstyle, was driving a different car and held a stuffed toy in front of her face to get the chimp's attention.

Nash suffered massive injuries to her face and hands, requiring more than seven hours of surgery by four teams of doctors to stabilize her. She was transferred in critical condition Thursday to the Cleveland Clinic, which two months ago performed the nation's first successful face transplant.

 

Hospital officials say Nash is being treated for her injuries and it's unknown if she will be a candidate for a face transplant.

Monday's attack was not the first time Travis bit someone, a former Stamford resident now living in Atlanta said Thursday.

Leslie Mostel Paul told The Associated Press the chimp grabbed her hand and bit it hard enough to draw blood in 1996, while the animal was sitting in Herold's car in a Stamford office parking lot. Paul said she had tried to shake Travis' hand after Herold gave her permission to say hello.

Paul described Herold as being more aggravated than upset about the incident, and said she had to get rabies shots because Herold was slow in producing Travis' medical records.

"My impression was she was more like, 'Oh, this is gonna be a pain in the neck,"' Paul said.

Paul said she reported the incident to police but received no follow-up calls.

"I told them this was serious," said Paul, who spoke by phone from New York, where she was visiting relatives. "If it was a child, it could have ripped the hand off or an arm out a socket."

In an earlier interview on NBC's "Today" show, Paul said, "I honestly believe if they had followed through, maybe the laws would have been changed sooner and this other woman wouldn't be in the hospital, fighting for her life now."

Herold did not return a call seeking comment Thursday about Paul's claims. Police say they have no record of complaints, aside from a 2003 incident where Travis escaped from a vehicle and led police on a two-hour downtown chase before he was caught.

Authorities have not said whether Herold will face criminal charges. Connecticut state law allowed her to own the chimp as a pet, though several state leaders are calling for tighter restrictions in the wake of Monday's attack.

Herold, who was known to buckle Travis in her car for rides and dress him in baseball shirts, tried to rescue Nash by stabbing Travis and hitting him with a shovel. "I stabbed something I raised as a son," she said Wednesday.

It's not known why the chimp suddenly attacked. Herold has given differing accounts on whether she treated the agitated chimp with Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug that had not been prescribed for him. She has also said it suffered from Lyme disease. A test for rabies was negative and results from a necropsy won't be available for weeks.

Lynn DellaBianca, a former Stamford animal control officer, said Thursday that she warned Herold after the 2003 incident that the pet's behavior was worrisome and that she needed to make sure he was kept under control.

"Certainly my concern was for public safety," DellaBianca told The Associated Press. "Male chimpanzees once they reach maturity can be aggressive. I'm sure I did express that to her."

Herold told her she expected to eventually have to give up the chimp, DellaBianca said.

"She did say that herself. She knew someone day he would probably have to go to a sanctuary," DellaBianca said. "She knew chimpanzees, they can get more difficult to handle as they get older."

Mental health professionals say a strong bond between pet owners and their animals is generally good because it can be therapeutic and comforting. The boundaries get blurred, though, when owners treat the animals like humans rather than pets, and expect a reciprocal relationship similar to what they would have with a family member.

David Baron, professor and chairman of the Temple University School of Medicine's psychiatry department, said in cases such as Herold's, the grief of losing loved ones could have made it easy for her to view Travis as a surrogate child and friend. Her husband died in 2004 and her only daughter was killed in a car accident several years ago.

"I wouldn't say that she shouldn't have a pet, but this may be something that should be looked at as part of a grief reaction that's beyond normal," he said.

Earl Mason, whose son married Herold's daughter, remembers when Herold got Travis. The chimp would ride a tricycle.

"He grew up like a youngster," Mason said. "He did everything a kid would do. He was a cute little guy."

Travis loved ice cream and even knew the schedules of the ice cream trucks, Mason said. He ate breakfast at the table with Herold and her husband.

But even when the chimp was a baby, Mason was amazed at his strength. When Travis would jump on him, Mason said he would slam into his chest.

"To me he was beating the crap out of me," Mason said. "He had just tremendous strength."

Don Mecca, a family friend, said Herold knew chimps became more difficult to handle as they get older, but she had a hard time parting with her beloved pet.

"Sandy would always say he would will himself to die if they were separated," Mecca said.

Mecca was reluctant to criticize his friend.

"I think he was lost," Mecca said of Travis. "He belongs in the jungle with the rest of them."

---

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:20 AM on 20th February 2009

Eddie Gilfoyle may have been wrongly convicted or murdering his pregnant wife more than 16 years ago, according to new evidence

A man who was convicted of his wife's murder more than 16 years ago may have suffered a miscarriage of justice, according to new evidence.

Eddie Gilfoyle was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering his eight-months pregnant wife Paula in 1993.

But the discovery of police notes into the investigation has cast doubt on his original conviction.

The police notes suggest that Eddie Gilfoyle was at work when his wife died in June 1992, according to a Times investigation.

Paula Gilfoyle was found hanged in the garage next to the couple's home in Upton, Wirral.

Detectives believed Gilfoyle fooled his wife, 32, into writing the note and somehow persuaded her to climb a ladder with a noose around her neck.

He was sentenced to life in prison for her murder, and has since lost two appeals against his conviction.

The Times obtained notes of interviews with the officers called to the house on the day that she died.

Its investigation found that the doctor who declared Mrs Gilfoyle dead told police that she had died six hours earlier - when her hospital porter husband was at his workplace.

But these notes were not shown to the jury nor mentioned during Gilfoyle's trial in 1993.

 

Paula Gilfoyle was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she died

Merseyside Police have also repeatedly denied that they existed.

The 20 pages of notes appeared to have been taken during an internal inquiry into police 'blunders' at the scene.

Until their disclosure today, there had been no suggestion that the doctor had addressed the question of time of death at the scene.

Gilfoyle's solicitor Matt Foot said that the disclosure could have changed the course of the trial.

He said: 'It's clear that the judge and the defence were left with the impression that there wasn't an estimate of time of death given at the scene.

'According to these notes, there was an estimate of the time of death. This was never put before the jury.'

At the trial, prosecutors insisted that Gilfoyle had tricked his wife into writing her suicide letter, then coaxed her into the garage where he hanged her.

Police became suspicious when Mrs Gilfoyle's family and friends described how happy she had been before her death.

But according to the notes unearthed by the paper, nothing at the scene suggested foul play.

The notes emphasise that there was no evidence of a struggle and her body had no marks or defensive injuries.

They also reveal that the doctor examined her and decided that there was nothing suspicious.

A spokesman for Merseyside Police said he had not seen the report and was unable to immediately comment on its contents.

Gilfoyle's first appeal was rejected in 1995, and again in 2000.

Last year the assistant chief constable of Merseyside Police at the time of the murder, Alison Halford, said she believed he had been the victim of a 'huge miscarriage of justice'.

Prosecution witness Professor David Canter, the pioneer of criminal profiling in Britain, also said he had changed sides and believed the conviction was unsafe.

---

By The Associated Press

 

Story Created: Feb 19, 2009 at 12:28 PM EST

Story Updated: Feb 19, 2009 at 12:28 PM EST

NATICK, Mass. (AP) - All the customer wanted was coffee. Instead, he needs four new tires.

Police say a worker at a Massachusetts Dunkin' Donuts slashed the tires on a customer's Jeep after the two got into an argument Tuesday.

Thirty-nine-year-old Thomas Zazulak was charged with malicious destruction of property and disturbing the peace.

Police say the dispute broke out when the customer - whose name wasn't released - started to leave because he was tired of waiting for the cup of coffee he ordered.

Words were exchanged, then Zazulak allegedly followed him outside, pulled out a folding knife and slashed the tires.

Police said the clerk, the only worker on duty, then resumed serving customers. Zazulak did not return a telephone message left at his home in Framingham

---

 

By Richard Shears

Last updated at 9:23 AM on 20th February 2009

According to legend, the Nabau was a terrifying snake more than 100ft in length and with a dragon's head and seven nostrils.

But now local villagers living along the Baleh river in Borneo believe the mythical creature has returned after this photo of a gigantic snake swimming along the remote waterways has emerged.

The picture,  taken by a member of a disaster team monitoring flood regions by helicopter, has sparked a huge debate about whether the photos are genuine or merely the work of photo-editing software.

 

Borneo's Nessie: The image that sparked fears a giant serpent was stalking the river Baleh

Even the respected New Straits Times newspaper in Kuala Lumpur has asked readers to make up their own minds about the photos.

Villagers who claim to have seen the snake say they have given it the name of Nabau, after an ancient sea serpent which can transform itself into the shapes of different animals.

People who have studied the photograph of the shape taken from the air have dismissed suggestions that it's a log.

As one writer asked: 'A log can't be that winding, can it?' Others have suggested it's a speedboat, but this has been dismissed because of the twisting wake.

The most common accusation is that the photo has simply been manipulated on a computer, while others complain that the river is a different colour to the real Baleh rover which is a murky brown.

 

Mythical: A second frame appears to show something snake-like in the water off a remote village

But villagers who insist the snake exists say that photos of the creature being taken in different parts of the river prove it is swimming about.

Earlier this month scientists unearthed the fossil of a killer snake that was longer than a bus, as heavy as a small car and which could swallow an animal the size of a cow.

The 45ft long monster - named Titanoboa - was so big that it lived on a diet of crocodiles and giant turtles, squeezing them to death and devouring them whole.

Weighing an impressive 1.25 tons, it slithered around the tropical forests of South America 60million years ago, just five million years after the last dinosaurs were wiped out.

Partial skeletons of the boa constrictor-like prehistoric killer were found in a Colombian coal mine by an international team of fossil hunters. 

                       

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