Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell 'raped girl as she clutched teddy bear', court hears

Jonathan Brown
The Independent
Tue, 03 Sep 2013 04:16 UTC
Michael Le Vell in court
© UnknownCourt artist sketch of Coronation Street actor Michael Le Vell in the dock at Manchester Crown Court where he is accused of raping a young girl
A Coronation Street star raped a young girl as she clutched a teddy bear, telling her that if she told anyone about the abuse "you'll die and the evil will come over you", a court has been told.

The alleged victim of Michael Le Vell, who has played popular mechanic Kevin Webster in the long-running soap since 1983, broke down and wept as she gave evidence at his trial.

In testimony given from behind a curtain, the girl - who cannot be named - sobbed continually describing being abused from the age of six for nearly a decade in sessions which lasted 10 minutes but which "felt like a lifetime".

She told Manchester Crown Court: "I thought I had done something wrong and I could not understand why he was doing it to me ... I thought there was evil in me and I thought I was a bad person and I was not."

Le Vell, 48, whose real name is Michael Turner, was described by the prosecution as a heavy drinker who had sought help for his alcohol problems.

The actor sat slumped forward in the glass-fronted dock, closing his eyes and shaking his head as she gave evidence.

Comment: See also: More British celebrities arrested on rape and assault charges

Read More...
Arrow Down

Dwarf entertainer allegedly set on fire in St Kilda 'Mad Monday' event


Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Tue, 03 Sep 2013 00:43 UTC
Dwarf set on fire
© YouTubeAussie Rules football players are being investigated for allegedly setting performer Blake Johnston on fire.
Victoria Police and the St Kilda Football Club are investigating allegations that a dwarf entertainer was set on fire by a player at a so-called 'Mad Monday' event, which celebrates the end of the AFL season.

Entertainer Blake Johnston was hired by the players to perform at a function in South Melbourne yesterday. Arthur Penn Serevetas, who was working with him, witnessed the incident when Mr Johnston was speaking with a group of players.

"He was talking to one of the footballers then another footballer went behind him," he said.

"He had one of those gaslighters that you light a stove up (with). He basically opened the flame.

"I saw that his shirt, because we were hired as security, and pants went alight and it slowly started. You know flames started appearing."

Eventually someone put the flames out. Mr Serevetas says one of the players also threatened him.

"One of the gentlemen made a kind of initial threat to me that he'd throw me over a balcony," he said.

"I said to him you can have a shot if you want.

"I wasn't going to be bullied in that way. I've been bullied all my life."

Mr Serevetas drove Mr Johnston home after the incident.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Spain youth unemployment reaches record 56.1%

Stephen Burgen
The Guardian, UK
Mon, 02 Sep 2013 21:38 UTC
Unemployed
© Daniel Ochoa De Olza/APPeople queue to enter a government job centre in Madrid. Almost six million Spaniards are unemployed.

Youth unemployment in Spain has reached a new high of 56.1%, a quarter of the 3.5 million under-25s jobless across the eurozone, according to the latest Eurostat figures.

The number of young Spaniards belonging to what has become known as the lost generation is up 2% since June to 883,000. Only Greece has a higher percentage of young people out of work, at 62.9%.

Among adult males, Spain has the highest unemployment at 25.3%, higher even than Greece. Despite the government's claims that the worst has passed and that employment reforms will encourage firms to hire, the figures suggest it will be a long time before any upturn in the economy is reflected in a declining jobless rate. With the holiday season coming to a close, the numbers are likely to rise as workers on seasonal contracts go back on the dole.

With close to six million Spaniards out of work, unemployment is so entrenched that there was no political reaction to the latest figures, neither from government nor the opposition. Indeed, mentioning the economy at all has become virtually taboo across the political spectrum.

Meanwhile, Spaniards and recent immigrants are deserting the country in search of work, with 500,000 leaving in 2012, 60,000 of them Spanish nationals, most of them to Latin America and Europe.
Read More...
Fish

British warship HMS Brilliant torpedoed whales during Falklands war

Tom Gardner
Mail Online
Mon, 02 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
  • Radar on the war ship registered whales as 'Wolf Packs' enemy submarines
  • New eyewitness testimony has emerged of the tense days in 1982
    • A British warship fired on and killed three whales during the Falklands War after mistaking them for enemy submarines.

    The startling revelation is contained within new eyewitness accounts of the tense days aboard anti-submarine frigate HMS Brilliant during the 1982 conflict in the southern seas.

    Radar on the Royal Navy ship was unable to distinguish between attacking 'Wolf Packs' of subs and a pod of whales.

    In one instance, two of the mammals were killed by torpedoes and the third was attacked by one of the ship's helicopters.
    HMS Brilliant Navy ship
    © UnknownContact: HMS Brilliant, a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy, killed three whales after mistaking them for enemy submarines while engaged in the Falklands War, it has emerged
    Engineer Ginge Offord, whose account was written five years ago and only just been published on www.hmsbrilliant.com - a site dedicated to recording the testimony of crew for posterity.

    In an extract from his experience of the Falklands War, he wrote: 'During the day we went to Action Stations a number of times as we were receiving reports of enemy aircraft taking off from their bases on the mainland. They were chased off by our CAP (combat air patrol).
    Read More...
    Briefcase

    Minsk seeks Russian billionaire Kerimov on criminal charges


    RIA Novosti
    Mon, 02 Sep 2013 16:03 UTC
    Image
    © RIA Novosti. Sergei GuneevSuleiman Kerimov
    Investigators in Belarus reportedly opened a criminal case Monday against Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, the biggest shareholder in fertilizer giant Uralkali, which is embroiled in a commercial battle with its Belarusian counterpart.

    Minsk is seeking Kerimov's detention, including through an international arrest warrant, on charges that carry a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, the Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported.

    The arrest warrant is an escalation of the criminal case facing businessmen linked to Uralkali after the company's CEO, Vladislav Baumgertner, was arrested last week in Minsk's airport following a reported invitation from Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich to attend a official meeting.
    Read More...
    Eye 2

    UK Pensioner shocked to find 4ft king snake under a table in her garden

    Mark Duell
    The Daily Mail,UK
    Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:36 UTC
    • Carole Challis saw black and yellow snake when walking to greenhouse
    • Husband and neighbour captured it with garden rake and bin on its side
    • RSPCA says snake isn't native in Britain and believes it's an escaped pet
    A 67-year-old woman had a shock when she discovered a 4ft-long snake at the end of her garden.

    Carole Challis was heading down to her greenhouse in Derby when she saw the distinctive black and yellow reptile - believed to be a kingsnake - loitering under a table.

    Her husband Pete and their neighbour managed to capture the snake by using a garden rake to coerce it into a bin on its side, before tipping it up and putting a heavy weight on top.

    Image
    Investigation: An RSPCA inspector removes the black and yellow snake from Carole Challis's garden in Derby
    Image
    'I screamed': Carole Challis was heading down to her greenhouse in Derby when she saw the distinctive black and yellow reptile - believed to be a kingsnake - loitering underneath a table
    Read More...
    Arrow Down

    Michigan police make bizarre bust at Masonic Temple


    WWMT
    Thu, 29 Aug 2013 18:56 UTC
    Masonic Center
    © WWMT
    Battle Creek - Battle Creek Police make a bust at the Masonic Temple, sources have described as a drug fueled sex party.

    Police sources describe the scene on Michigan Avenue out of control, and arrests were made. Now, investigators are working with city leaders to make sure another out of control sex party, doesn't happen again.

    It's a secretive organization, sitting right next door to the Battle Creek Police and county courthouse.

    "Thank you for calling the beautiful Masonic Temple. For renting our facility, please call Charlie..." says the automated voice message, when you call the Masonic Lodge.

    We make a call to Charlie, and told him what police sources described to us as an out of control sex party scene. Sources told us the first officer to walk inside, was shocked to find a couple performing a lewd sex act, along with drugs, multiple nude women and men videotaping it all behind these closed doors.

    Charlie said Freemasons don't go on camera, but told Newshchannel 3 they did not know about the multiple arrests that were made. He says those who paid $900 to rent this space, told him it was going to be a dancing party. He adds his is not what they stand for, and suspended all future parties.

    Police say they plan to find any city code violations, not only against those renting the facility, but also those who run the building.
    Read More...
    Pills

    'Addict' Britain is worldwide hub for sale of legal highs

    Mark Townsend
    Guardian
    Sat, 31 Aug 2013 21:26 UTC
    Image
    © Rex FeaturesMany of the legal highs on the market are being bought online in vast quantities and are delivered through the post.
    'Club drugs' in vast quantities - and even heroin and cocaine - are being delivered by post

    Britain has become an international hub for websites selling legal highs with postal workers operating as unwitting "drug mules", according to a report into the burgeoning trade.

    The report, which describes the UK as the "addicted man of Europe", says that "club drugs", such as salvia and green rolex, are being bought online in vast quantities and delivered throughout the UK by mainstream postal services.

    One in 12 young people have tried them, more than anywhere in Europe and a quarter of the European total, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a thinktank. The report also found some websites selling class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine for postal delivery. Elsewhere, the report criticises the government's inadequate response to heroin addiction, revealing that more than 40,000 drug addicts in England have been on substitutes such as methadone for at least four years.

    The CSJ, which was set up by Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, also claims the response to the growing crisis of legal highs, or new psychoactive substances, is bureaucratic and inadequate. Since 2010 the government has used temporary banning orders three times to control approximately 15 substances. In the same period, more than 150 new substances have emerged and are widely available online and in high street shops.
    Read More...
    TV

    Biotech's next line of defense: Cartoons are used to program kids to accept GMOs

    Daisy Luther
    Activist Post
    Fri, 30 Aug 2013 17:39 UTC
    Image
    What is the best way to change public perception on any topic? Through entertainment. The battle to control us through changing (or creating) our opinions is as old as history. Carefully disseminated disinformation was first documented in ancient Greece, when playwrights and poets created dramas for the sole purpose of indoctrinating their audience to a certain set of morals, standards, and beliefs. When creating his empire, Macedonian king Alexander the Great inundated the places he conquered with his image, on the coins, adorning building, and in the form of statues. Grand stories were written and shared about his generosity and the legends that were created on his behalf to this day make him larger than life.
    In 324 B.C.E., Alexander requested that he be deified so that he could carryout a scheme of repatriating 20,000 Greek exiles, which was contrary to the established laws of the League of Corinth. He became the son of Zeus, and his face soon appeared on coins, replacing that of Heracles, the real mythological son of Zeus. He commissioned, or allowed to be built, many statues and monuments in his honor, and representations of his portrait were to be found everywhere in his empire, adorning pottery, coins, buildings, and formal art (P. M. Taylor, 1990, p. 31). Alexander was the first to recognize that to maintain cohesion and control over his vast empire, such propaganda symbols could serve as a constant reminder of the various subjugated populations just where the center of power resided. (source)
    So through works of fiction, the unacceptable became acceptable, the alien became familiar, and the minds of the masses were changed and manipulated.
    Read More...
    Eye 2

    Snake discovered at side of Doncaster canal, UK

    Lee Peace
    The Star, (Sheffield) UK
    Sat, 31 Aug 2013 15:46 UTC
    A man walking his dog has reportedly found a royal python on the banks of a canal in Doncaster.

    Image
    © Wikimedia CommonsRoyal python (Python regius)
    The RSPCA said the three-feet-long female snake was probably abandoned by its owner.

    The animal welfare charity did not give any more details as to where it was found or when at this stage.

    Kim Greaves, a reptile expert, said the RSPCA would prosecute the person who dumped the reptile if they were found.

    Ms Greaves added that the snake would probably not live long in the wild and the problem of abandoned animals in the area was "getting absolutely out of hand."

    She said: "This is a happy ending for this particular snake."

    "But more and more of my colleagues are faced with abandoned animals, not just snakes and reptiles, but rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets and cats and dogs.

    "It is a sign of the times, I'm afraid,"

    The non-venomous royal python is found in Africa and survives on a diet of rodents.
    Read More...