Thatâs Shermin alrightâŚ
What you donât get from that picture is how small the guy actually is. Just over 4 foot I would guessâŚ
Surprised thereâs no Brennans bread in the photo.
Another balls upâŚ
Stagg awarded 700,000 pounds compensation
By Avril Ormsby Reuters - Wednesday, August 13 05:37 pmLONDON (Reuters) - Colin Stagg, who was cleared of murdering model Rachel Nickell 16 years ago, has been awarded more than 700,000 pounds compensation for wrongful arrest and prosecution, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
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Nickell, a 23-year-old part-time model, was found dead on Wimbledon Common in southwest London in July 1992.
She had been stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted as she walked with her two-year-old son Alex, in one of Britainâs most notorious murders.
Stagg, who lived nearby, was charged with her murder a year later, despite the lack of any hard evidence. But his trial collapsed and he was cleared because the testimony of an undercover female officer who had tried to entice a confession out of him was deemed inadmissible in court.
The trial judge at the time, Mr Justice Ognall, told the Old Bailey the police tactics had been âdeceptive conduct of the grossest kind.â
For years afterwards however Stagg was regularly vilified in newspapers as the man who had âgot awayâ with the murder, and his life suffered as he became the nationâs number one pariah.
The independent government assessor, who awarded Stagg 706,000 pounds, described the police tactics as âhighly unusual and legally bizarreâ.
Lord Brennan added: âI am quite satisfied that this amounts to misconduct in the investigation and prosecution of this case and I categorise it egregious.â
Stagg told reporters he was now âfeeling a sort of peace for the first timeâ since his arrest 15 years ago.
âI am not going to rush into things,â he said.
âI am suddenly realising that I have a futureâŚand that is a great feeling.â
His solicitor said Stagg had initially thought it was a joke when told of the award.
âHe thought I was pulling his leg,â his solicitor Alex Tribick told Reuters.
âBut nothing can compensate for the trauma and stress of the past 15 years.â
He described the amount as âunprecedentedâ.
"It will go some way to helping rebuild his life and normal existence. What he wanted from the outset though was an apology from the Metropolitan Police.
âReluctantly, he has accepted though that he will not get it.â
The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: âWe do not comment on individual cases.â
A former warehouseman, Robert Napper, 41, from Plumstead, southeast London, has been charged with Nickellâs murder and is due to stand trial in November.
Barryâs an oddball alright.
might be an oddball alright, but that seems like the usual nothing story to me. she collapses, lets try link it to being stalked. Usual tabloid shite of no evidence at all and all the âfriends ofâ sources.
I mean who wouldnât stalk Kay Burley if given half a chance?
I knew something was going on with you
and yer pink tie
have you no friends that can rugby tackle you to the ground and save you
Me? Friends?
ok
Followers?
âSerbian criminal killed Jill Dandoâ
Scotland Yard are investigating claims that Jill Dando was killed by a Serbian gunman.
Several witnesses have come forward saying they heard a West Midlands criminal of Serbian descent boast he shot the TV presenter.
During a drinking session in Belgrade he said her murder was an act of revenge for the bombing of the city by Nato in 1999, it is reported.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: âAfter the trial we said any new lines of inquiry that are generated we will look at. We are not commenting on specific lines of inquiry.â
Miss Dando, 37, was shot once in the head outside her home in Fulham, south west London, on April 26, 1999.
Barry George was acquitted of her murder during a retrial last year. He spent eight years behind bars for the crime.
After his acquittal, Scotland Yard said it was keeping the murder investigation open as a top detective was given the go-ahead to review evidence to find new leads.
The way Miss Dando was killed led to theories that she might have been targeted by a professional hitman - possibly hired by a criminal imprisoned due to publicity on BBCâs Crimewatch programme, which she presented.
But it was also suggested during Mr Georgeâs first trial that her death could have been revenge for Nato air strikes on the former Yugoslavia.