History > 2006 > UK > Justice (III)

Father fails in court challenge

to son's expulsion

· Legal bills amount to 10 years fees at Marlborough
· Judges rule public school gave boy fair warning

Saturday September 30, 2006
Guardian
Martin Wainwright

A father's campaign to challenge the expulsion of his son from one of Britain's most expensive public schools ended in costly failure yesterday.

Russell Gray faces legal bills of more than £250,000 after three appeal court judges dismissed his claim that his teenage son was expelled by Marlborough College to make room for a pupil who would score more highly in the exam league tables.

The ruling ended a three year saga which has cost Mr Gray, 50, the equivalent of 10 years' fees at the Wiltshire school. He had contended that his 17-year-old son Rhys was targeted because of learning difficulties, and said he wanted "to clear the boy's name". The school said he was kicked out for being rude and a bully.

Dismissing the appeal, Lord Justice Chadwick said Mr Gray's crusade was misguided and unnecessary, following the original case when the school was cleared but Rhys was described by the trial judge as "a likeable, intelligent lad who simply cannot cope with the system".

Lord Justice Chadwick said: "It is not at all clear how it could have been thought there was a need to clear Rhys's name."

Richard McManus QC, representing Mr Gray, who was not in court, told the appeal court in June that the college ordered the boy's expulsion because of misconduct. But if the judges found the real reason he had to leave was because he had special educational needs, then there would have been a breach of contract.

The school, which charges parents £22,000 a year, said the decision was taken because of Rhys's "appalling record" of misbehaviour which included bullying, swearing and smoking. In three years at Marlborough he was given 398 punishments. Mr Gray, who did not want his son taken back, claimed the expulsion was a breach of contract because he was not consulted and there was no disciplinary hearing or investigation. He alleged Marlborough thought Rhys would fail his GCSEs and bring the school down in the results table. In the event, Rhys's exams, taken privately, yielded four As, three Bs and two Cs. The court ruled the school's disciplinary system was fair and gave "apt and adequate" opportunities to the boy and his family to remedy the situation.

Lord Justice Auld, concurring with Lord Justice Chadwick and Lord Justice Buxton, said: "The college gave Mr Gray and Rhys plenty of warning of the possible consequences of removal if he did not change his ways." Mr Gray had "shown every appearance of turning a deaf ear".

    Father fails in court challenge to son's expulsion, G, 30.9.2006, http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1884495,00.html

5pm

Sex trafficking gang members jailed

Friday September 29, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

Members of a gang that lured a Lithuanian woman to Britain and then sold her into prostitution were today jailed for up to nine years.
The woman, who risked her life when she jumped out of a 20 ft-high window to escape the gang, came to the UK from Lithuania after they promised her well-paid work. But what followed was sexual abuse as she was first raped and then forced into prostitution.

Albanian Riza Hoxha, 45, of Ilford, Essex, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring between April 24 and May 24 last year to "traffic a person to the UK for sexual gain".

Jailing Hoxha for eight years the judge, Duncan Matheson, said he had clearly been the "primary moving force in what went on".

Hoxha's accomplice and countryman Ylber "Billy" Dauti, a 23-year-old illegal immigrant living in Golders Green, north-west London, was sentenced to nine years for trafficking and for plotting to cause prostitution for gain.

Lithuanian Ruta Strazdaite, who tricked her friend into prostitution, and Monika "Lilly" Szabova, a Slovakian prostitute, were also convicted of trafficking and prostitution charges, and were sentenced to four years and two and a half years in prison.

The judge told the gang that having lured their "psychologically vulnerable" victim to Britain with false promises of work, they subjected her to a "significant degree of compulsion to act as a prostitute, quite plainly contrary to her wishes".

The judge said that while the woman had recovered physically, "the psychological effect of her experience is in question".

The 36-year-old mother of three, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wept as she told London's Middlesex Guildhall crown court she had been forced to wear lingerie and parade in front of men who paid up to £150 to have sex with her.

Finally, after secretly phoning her family for help, she leapt from one of the brothel's first-floor windows, narrowly missing railings below and shattering her foot. She then contacted the police and was taken to hospital.

She told the court her ordeal had left her vomiting uncontrollably.

"I felt that had I stayed, they would have tortured me to death," she said.

The victim sat in a screened-off witness box as she described being tricked into leaving her family for a life of comparative wealth in London.

She said Strazdaite had promised her £250 a week as a cleaner at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground. "That is a lot of money in Lithuania," she said.

But while she had spent her first day washing floors at the stadium, the next day she was driven to a central London brothel and sold to a man referred to in court as Constantinos and described as being on Interpol's "most wanted" list.

The court heard that almost the first thing the pimp did was to force her to perform a sex act on him. She was then escorted to the bathroom, "bathed and shaved everywhere" and put to work in the brothel.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Bourne of Marylebone CID paid tribute to the victim for her courage in pursuing the case.

"We asked a lot of her in terms of returning to this country and making statements and identifying people... and the fact that she had the resolution to take this to court ... Well, I can't praise her enough," he said.

Det Ch Insp Bourne said the woman had been warned about the dangers of sexual slavery when she entered the country. "She was given advice but at that time she thought she was coming in to work as a cleaner."

The campaigns manager at Anti-Slavery International, Mike Kaye, said hundreds of people were trafficked into Britain each year for sexual and labour exploitation.

Mr Kaye said the situation would be improved if the government signed up to the European convention on trafficking.

"It provides minimum standards of protection and support for trafficked people," he said. "Thirty other countries have signed it and we are not one of them."

    Sex trafficking gang members jailed, G, 29.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1884268,00.html

11.45am

Man in court over grandfather attack

Tuesday September 26, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
Staff and agencies

A man appeared in court today charged with attacking the grandfather of a baby who was mauled to death by two rottweiler dogs, and with killing his partner.

Scott Walker, 26, appeared before magistrates in Leicester charged with murdering 47-year-old Debra Larn and unlawfully and maliciously wounding John Brightwell, 50, with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm.

Mr Brightwell suffered serious stab wounds at the couple's home in the Beaumont Leys area of the city in the early hours of Sunday.

Hours previously his granddaughter, five-month-old Cadey-Lee Deacon, had been savaged at a pub in the New Parks area, two miles away.

Leicestershire police said the two incidents were connected only by family links, and that investigations were "entirely separate".

Mr Walker, reportedly a neighbour of his alleged victims, was remanded in custody until November 14.

Last night more details of the terrible events of the weekend emerged in a statement from Cadey-Lee's mother, Amy Deacon, and her partner, Lee Burchell, who owned the two dogs.

"Words cannot express our devastation at what has happened," they said. "We just cannot believe that Cadey-Lee is gone. She was such a beautiful little girl. We loved her so much and we just can't accept that something like this could have happened. How do you come to terms with such a tragedy?"

The couple said they had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of grief and support from the local community, who had placed flowers and teddy bears outside the Rocket pub, which they were looking after for the landlords. "People have been incredible. We would just like to say thank you to all those people. Your love and support is a comfort to us during this time."

Leicestershire police said Ms Deacon and Mr Burchell had been moving furniture in the living quarters when a fire escape door was accidentally left open which allowed the rottweilers, named Bruno and Bess, into the rooms from an adjoining flat roof.

Chief Superintendent Steve Pitts said: "The dogs then made their way to the bedroom in which baby Cadey-Lee was sleeping. By the time Amy, Lee and the relatives who were helping them move realised what had happened, the dogs had attacked. It is a terrible tragedy that has affected everyone who lives locally."

He added that the two investigations were entirely separate. "There is, however, a familial link in that Cadey-Lee's natural father is the son of the 50-year-old man injured in that attack, in which a 47-year-old woman died."

Mr Brightwell was said to be in a stable condition in hospital. His son Ryan, the estranged father of Cadey-Lee, was said to be devastated by the deaths of his relatives. One local said: "It's Ryan everyone feels sorry for - he has lost two members of his family in a day."

The landlady of the Rocket, Lesley Glaze, and her husband, Wayne, had left Ms Deacon and Mr Burchell in charge while they were on holiday. Locals said the baby had been in the living quarters when at least one dog pounced on her and dragged her outside on to the terrace.

Friends of the baby's father said he had been inconsolable even before his father and his partner were stabbed. Michael Hubble, 17, said: "My mum spoke to him on Saturday. He was crying and really upset. I know he went to the hospital to see the baby."

    Man in court over grandfather attack, G, 26.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1881325,00.html

Liberal Democrats' biggest donor

jailed for two years for dishonesty

· Financier admits perjury and deception
· Party moves to distance itself from benefactor

Tuesday September 26, 2006
Guardian
Matthew Taylor and Tania Branigan

A flamboyant financier who helped to bankroll the Liberal Democrats' general election campaign was jailed for two years yesterday after he admitted committing perjury and obtaining a passport by deception.

The court heard that Scottish tycoon Michael Brown, 40, whose £2.4m donation was the biggest in Liberal Democrat history, gave false information in an affidavit and then tricked the authorities into giving him a new passport so he could flee the UK.

Yesterday the Liberal Democrats tried to distance themselves from Brown, saying there was no connection between the party and the crimes for which he was sentenced. A spokesman said their investigations had revealed a "small number of bounced cheques" which they had decided should not prevent him from becoming a donor.

"[We] acted in good faith at all times in relation to the receipt and expenditure of donations from his company, Fifth Avenue Partners. We conducted appropriate checks on the source of these donations within the statutory timescale."

Brown was arrested earlier this year at the villa he shared with his wife, Sharon, at Esporlas, on Majorca's west coast.

His second home in Santa Ponsa and his offices in the capital, Palma, were also searched during the raid by Spanish and British detectives. His £400,000 yacht was impounded in a cove in the west of the island, and his new Porsche Cayenne, a Bentley, paintings, computers and documents were seized.

Hours after he was led away, guests had been due to arrive for a party he was throwing to celebrate his birthday.

The whisky executive's son - who once admitted he had "lived a colourful life" -subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of perjury and another of passport deception.

Yesterday, Southwark crown court in London heard that one offence was committed when Brown told the Passport Office last November that he had lost his previous passport in a washing machine. It had in fact been surrendered during an ongoing civil action brought against him by his former bank, HSBC.

He used the new passport to skip the country and fly to his villa in Spain. He then flew to the Bahamas in a private jet before returning to Spain.

The second was committed when he made a false statement in the high court during the civil proceedings.

Brown, whose early career included running a rock promotion business in Glasgow and a model recruiting agency in London, had also faced 53 counts of forgery, but these were allowed to lie on file.

Defending, Nicholas Purnell QC said Brown's whole world had been turned upside down.

He added: "His life has been utterly transformed from the successful bonds trader he was in October 2005."

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC said: "These are two very serious offences. With regards to the charge of obtaining a false passport, this was a very direct and pointed flouting of a direct court order.

"With regard to the second count, of perjury, this was very deliberate and well thought through."

Brown was jailed for 18 months for perjury and six months for obtaining the false passport, the sentences to run consecutively. The 159 days he has spent in custody will be deducted from his sentence. He was also ordered to pay costs to HSBC of up to £80,000.

Brown, whose assets have been frozen, faces confiscation proceedings against his properties in Mayfair and Majorca.

The court heard HSBC had expressed concern at the way a number of Brown's bank accounts had been used. The financier swore an affidavit claiming money from them had been used for profitable trading with Refco brokerage company. But the bank accused him of lying.

    Liberal Democrats' biggest donor jailed for two years for dishonesty, G, 26.9.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/libdems/story/0,,1881106,00.html

Courts set to admit wiretap evidence

Phone-taps key to prosecuting criminals and terrorists, says attorney general

Thursday September 21, 2006
Guardian
Clare Dyer, legal editor

The attorney general has thrown his weight decisively behind the use of intercept evidence in court, making it highly likely that the ban on phonetap evidence will be lifted.

Speaking out for the first time in favour of the move, Lord Goldsmith told the Guardian he was determined to find a way round the obstacles which now stop wiretap evidence going before a jury.

"I'm personally convinced we have to find a way of avoiding the difficulties," he said. "I do believe there are ways we can do that. Otherwise, we're depriving ourselves of a key tool to prosecute serious and organised crime and terrorism."

Lord Goldsmith is the first member of the government to publicly advocate the removal of the ban, which is not yet official policy. The police, customs and security services have been bitterly divided on the issue, with fears that the use of covert surveillance evidence in court may give away valuable secrets of their trade.

But as the government's senior law officer, Lord Goldsmith's conclusion that sufficient safeguards can be put in place will be crucial to persuading ministers to bring in legislation lifting the ban.

Lord Goldsmith said he had been moving towards supporting a change, but his views had crystallised after talks this week in America with the US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, senior prosecutors and judges, and representatives of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI.

Speaking from New York, he said: "What I'm being told here is that the admissibility of intercept evidence is critical to some of their most difficult cases. They have put the top five mafia bosses in prison as a result of it."

Britain had to find a way of overcoming the two stumbling blocks on the use of wiretap evidence in court, he added. These are the fear that secret intelligence-gathering techniques would be revealed to criminals, and worries that prosecution agencies would be swamped by defence lawyers' requests for vast quantities of wiretap material.

"We may need help from the legislature and the judges to avoid the agencies being swamped with irrelevant requests," said Lord Goldsmith. "But courts are already reining back on disclosure. No doubt there is more work to be done, but I believe we have to find a way."

Lord Goldsmith said he was also "increasingly convinced" about the importance of plea bargaining in bringing serious criminals to justice. He also expects the US to ratify shortly its end of a controversial treaty used to extradite Britons to America, including the "NatWest Three". His position on phonetap evidence, however, marks a shift in attitude.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats have called for the prohibition to be removed, as have the Association of Chief Police Officers, the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair.

The main opposition comes from the intelligence gathering agencies GCHQ and M16. The former head of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington, has called the refusal to admit phonetap evidence "ridiculous".

Some senior Home Office officials are also thought to have doubts about doing away with the ban. Lord Goldsmith said his meetings with US prosecutors had produced particularly "valuable insights" about dealing with fraud cases.

"One of the key issues for me will be whether we've got the right attitude to prosecuting, whether prosecutors need to be, I won't say more aggressive, but more forward and forceful."

    Courts set to admit wiretap evidence, G, 21.9.2006, http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1877296,00.html

Justice at last: killer pleads guilty in Britain's first double jeopardy trial

· Young mother's murderer had been acquitted twice
· Legal change allows retrial if new evidence found

Tuesday September 12, 2006
Guardian
Matthew Taylor

The first man to face a retrial under the new double jeopardy rules pleaded guilty yesterday to murdering a young mother and hiding her body behind a bath.

William "Billy" Dunlop, 43, told the Old Bailey that he had strangled pizza delivery girl Julie Hogg, 22, in Teesside in 1989. He had been tried twice for her murder in 1991 but each time a jury failed to reach a verdict and he was formally acquitted under the convention that the prosecution does not ask for a third trial.

Dunlop later admitted the killing but because of the 800-year-old double jeopardy rule - under which anyone acquitted by a jury cannot be retried for the same crime - he could be prosecuted only for perjury. However, those rules were changed last year and the case was re-opened, leading to yesterday's guilty plea.

Last night the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, said: "It is in the interests of justice and of the public for such retrials to take place. As this verdict shows, if acquitted of a serious crime, offenders will no longer be able to escape responsibility for their act should new and compelling evidence to come to light."

Ms Hogg's body was found behind bath panelling at her home in Billingham by her mother, Ann Ming, in February 1990, 80 days after she went missing. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. Dunlop had killed her after calling round at her house in the early hours after a party at a local rugby club. He attacked her after she made fun of injuries he had suffered in a fight earlier in the evening. He wrapped her body in a blanket and tried to dispose of it in the loft, before hiding it behind the bath.

At first police treated the case as a missing persons inquiry and the body was discovered only after Mrs Ming noticed a smell in the house. Yesterday Mrs Ming, who was in court, said: "We knew Dunlop was responsible and my husband and I were determined not to rest until he had been brought to justice.

"It's been a long and difficult journey to see him standing in the dock today. He's done everything he could do to avoid justice, but his lying and scheming have eventually all been in vain. We made a promise to ourselves that Julie's killer would be punished and everyone we have approached over the years has helped me in some way to reach that goal."

Martin Goldman of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "None of us can imagine what it must have been like for Mrs Ming, or what Mr and Mrs Ming have gone through in the years since Julie's death, but I have every admiration for the dignified way they have fought for justice and campaigned to change the law."

He said the case had been exceptional and showed that defendants could not expect to "get away with it" if new and compelling evidence came to light.

"But it does not mean that someone will be retried just because a verdict is unpopular. The strong new evidence has to be there just as it was in this case."

David Blunkett, who as home secretary oversaw the change in the double jeopardy rules, welcomed Dunlop's guilty plea. "I'm glad that the heartfelt campaign of Julie Hogg's family, and others like hers, have been vindicated," he said.

"There was enormous controversy and difficulty in getting this change through parliament - including with the opposition voting against. But this legal milestone demonstrates how right it was to ensure that justice is done, and the truth obtained at last.

"Three years ago people argued about the medieval right not to be tried twice, as though fraudulently getting off was some sort of game in which, if you've fooled the justice system once, you had got away with it for ever. I hope that more unsolved murders, rapes and other heinous crimes will now be resolved."

After admitting that he was responsible for Ms Hogg's death in 1999 Dunlop was sentenced to six years for two counts of perjury, to follow on from the seven-year sentence he was already serving for an attack on another former lover.

He told police that he was aware that a change in the double jeopardy law could lead to a new murder trial, but said: "I've come clean 'cause I need help. It's as simple as that. I'm not proud of what I've done."

Yesterday Judge Anthony Morris adjourned sentencing until October 6.

Back Story

Pressure to allow defendants who had been acquitted of a crime to be retried for the same offence intensified following the murder of the teenager Stephen Lawrence and concern that those responsible had escaped justice. The inquiry into his death found that double jeopardy was capable of "causing grave injustice to victims and the community". The home secretary at the time, David Blunkett, backed calls for a change in the law despite claims that it would do away with an important legal safeguard.

The law was brought in in April 2005 and applies to 30 crimes including murder, rape and armed robbery. To trigger a retrial the director of public prosecutions has to sanction a new investigation, then be satisfied that new and compelling evidence has been found. The case is then referred to the court of appeal, which has to concur with those findings before giving the go-ahead for a new trial. The Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday that no other cases were currently being considered.

    Justice at last: killer pleads guilty in Britain's first double jeopardy trial, G, 12.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1870109,00.html

Sex attacker who kept diary of his assaults is jailed for life

Saturday September 9, 2006
Guardian
Sam Jones

A sex attacker who recorded details of his assaults in a "trophy" diary was jailed for life yesterday. Lester Ford, 24, assaulted four women between March 2003 and November 2005, returning home after each attack to write down descriptions of what he had done to his victims.

Police discovered the journal, along with the belongings of some of the women he had attacked, when they arrested him a few days after his final assault.

Southwark crown court in south London was told that Ford, who threatened to kill his victims if they did not submit to his demands, had had "little chance of developing normally". The jury heard that his emotional development had been stunted because he had been brought up in a brothel run by an overbearing mother who exerted a malign influence over him. Doctors who examined him concluded he was more like a 14-year-old boy than a man of 24.

In each of the attacks, Ford threatened his victims with a knife or an iron bar. Two of his victims opened the door to him and were attacked in their homes. On one occasion he impersonated a police officer to gain access to his victim's home.

The woman had been working into the early hours of the morning when she heard a knock at the door and a male voice saying: "It's the police. We've found someone round the back."

As she opened the door, Ford forced her back into the house, holding a knife to her throat, and sexually assaulted her.

Ford, of Stepney, east London, had admitted 15 counts including two of rape, three of sexual assault and three of indecent assault as well as kidnapping and robbery. Judge Anthony Pitts said he posed a "serious risk of harm to women" and ordered him to serve five concurrent life sentences. Ford was also ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for life.

The judge added: "I could exhaust the dictionary's list of adjectives in describing these attacks - they were appalling, brutal, outrageous and terrifying."

The judge said Ford's victims had been left scarred by what he had done and his actions had "ruined their self-confidence and changed their personalities". However, he noted Ford's "very difficult childhood". The court had earlier heard of the abuse that Ford had suffered at the hands of a family member and how his mother had run a brothel from the family home while he was a child. "I've been told of the problems you had from an early age, perhaps particularly with your mother, who was very overbearing, and that relationship has prevented you from developing normally," said Judge Pitts.

    Sex attacker who kept diary of his assaults is jailed for life, G, 9.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1868496,00.html

Police informer gets life for murders

· Killer called 'Boom Boom' used despite warnings
· Manchester force admits serious errors were made

Friday September 1, 2006
Guardian
Ian Cobain

In the criminal netherworlds of Scotland and northern England, Stephen McColl was known as Boom Boom, a homicidal figure who could always be relied upon to carry out a hit as long as the price was right.

In Glasgow he had been linked to the murder of a firefighter who was shot in the back of the head while walking to work, while from his base in Salford he mounted a series of armed robberies across Greater Manchester and Cumbria.

Yesterday, after being convicted of two other murders, it emerged that McColl was on the payroll of Greater Manchester police (GMP), after detectives from the robbery squad had recruited him to inform on his underworld rivals.

It also became apparent that he had previously offered his services as an informer to three police forces north of the border, and that none had wanted anything to do with him because of his unreliability and reputation for extreme violence.

On Glasgow's newsstands yesterday, McColl's whole-life sentence was being welcomed with the headline Boom Boom Banged Up Forever.

In Manchester, meanwhile, an anguished postmortem into the arcane world of informant-handling has been underway at police headquarters, examining the methods that are used, and the risk that such operations entail.

McColl, 39, had moved to Salford from his native Glasgow after being questioned about the 1997 murder of Ralph Sprott, the firefighter, who also had underworld connections. For a while he worked for a Manchester undertaker, but spent much of his time planning and carrying out armed robberies.

In May 2001 McColl was recruited as an informant. But, unknown to his handlers, he had murdered one of his own gang members two months earlier. He had driven Michael Doran, 22, to Scotland, supposedly for a holiday. Police say the young man then "simply vanished from the face of the earth". Doran died, ironically, because McColl had discovered he was working as an informant for GMP.

Warning bells were sounded after McColl's recruitment, however: the Guardian understands Glasgow detectives were so concerned when they learned he was on the GMP payroll that an officer was sent south to warn he was too dangerous.

The words of advice were not accepted, however, and McColl went on to torture and murder a second man, Philip Noakes, 30, a powerfully built petty criminal who had humiliated him in public. McColl beat, stabbed and shot Noakes, then dumped his naked body near the M62 motorway.

Yesterday GMP admitted that a number of serious mistakes had been made, and promised to learn from them, while defending the informant system as vital in fighting crime. "Informants are often involved in criminality themselves and a careful balance must be struck as to whether the information they provide is reliable," the force said in a statement. "In this instance, and with benefit of hindsight, it is clear McColl was not reliable and should not have been used.

"We did continue to use McColl as an informant, despite the warning given to us by police in Scotland. Again with the benefit of hindsight, McColl was not an informant we should have used. The balance taken at the time was that potential information McColl could provide outweighed the dangers of his reliability. In this instance, we got it wrong and should not have used him.

"Policing is never perfect. What we always do is try to learn from experiences and we can assure the community at large - and those who are informants - that we have done that in this case."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has also investigated the affair, and says it has identified failings in the way Greater Manchester police handled what it terms covert human intelligence sources, or CHISs. The IPCC said its investigation "found no evidence of criminal conduct by officers", but added: "The investigation did find failings both in the systems GMP had in place for handling CHISs at that time and in the performance of individual officers in the course of their duties.

"Four officers have received words of advice from Greater Manchester police. The IPCC has also made a series of recommendations aimed at improving GMP's management of covert law enforcement techniques."

Sentencing McColl after a 10-week trial at Liverpool crown court, Mr Justice Henriques QC said: "Life, in this case, means life, and you will never be considered for parole." McColl had previously been jailed for 15 years for a serious of robberies in which shopkeepers and publicans were held at gunpoint. Daniel Henson, 23, of Salford, described as McColl's "able lieutenant," was convicted of murder after helping lure Noakes to his death, and sentenced to life with a recommendation that he serve at least 18 years.

After the trial, Michael Doran's mother Anne said: "Michael was no saint. But he was my only son and I would forgive him everything to have him back here with us. We are a small family. There can be no closure until he is found."

    Police informer gets life for murders, G, 1.9.2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1862707,00.html