Father becomes third fire victim

30 July 2011 Last updated at 12:58 GMT Thomas Sharkey Snr was being treated at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary A father who escaped a deliberate house fire which killed his two children has died in hospital.

Thomas Sharkey Snr, 55, died six days after Thomas Jnr, 21, and his sister Bridget, eight. The flat fire broke out in Helensburgh, in Dunbartonshire, early last Sunday.

More than 50 police officers are investigating what is now being treated as a triple murder inquiry.

Thomas Snr, 55, and his wife Angela, 46, were both taken to hospital.

Mr Sharkey died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary on Saturday morning.

He had initially been unaware of the deaths of his children, but his condition had improved enough for him to be informed on Tuesday.

The fire at the Sharkey family home in Helensburgh's Scott Court broke out at about 05:00 on Sunday.

Thomas Sharkey Jnr died in the blaze, while his sister Bridget died later in hospital.

Mr Sharkey was informed of the deaths of Bridget and Thomas Jnr

In a statement, Mrs Sharkey's sister said the family had been left "shattered, devastated and angry".

Strathclyde Police have set up an incident room, dedicated phone line and email address for their murder inquiry.

The officer in charge of the investigation, Det Ch Insp Anne McKerchar, said officers had been encouraged by the response from the public, who were "clearly appalled at this cowardly and despicable crime".

"We are continuing to conduct door-to-door inquiries and are following a number of lines of inquiry," she said.

"We have always said that the key to this investigation will be someone in the community who knows who did this and the people in Helensburgh have responded to our call in great numbers."

The inquiry number for people to call is 01389 822162. The dedicated email address is: operationendeavour@strathclyde.pnn.police.uk

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Hawker father takes witness stand

8 July 2011 Last updated at 10:51 GMT Ms Hawker's family travelled to Tokyo for the trial of the Japanese man accused of killing their daughter A man whose daughter was raped and strangled in Japan, has asked the judge to give her killer the maximum sentence available according to Japanese law.

Miss Hawker, 22, from Brandon near Coventry, was found dead in a bath filled with sand at Tatsuya Ichihashi's flat, east of Tokyo, in March 2007.

The 32-year-old Japanese student has admitted raping and accidentally killing his former English teacher.

Miss Hawker's father Bill appealed to the judge directly during the trial.

'No Mercy'

Mr Hawker was called as a witness and told the prosecutor at Chiba District Court how proud the family was of her going to Japan to teach English.

The defence claims that Ichihashi tried to revive Miss Hawker after accidentally strangling her while trying to prevent her crying out for help.

As a result, Ichihashi should face a lesser charge of inflicting injury, causing death, his defence team told the court.

Lindsay Hawker had been teaching English at a private language school in Japan

The prosecution said she was murdered and Mr Hawker asked the judge to apply the maximum punishment for her killer.

He said the court should show "no mercy" to Ichihashi because Ichihashi had shown no mercy for his daughter.

In Japan the maximum punishment for murder is the death penalty, but BBC correspondent Roland Buerk said that was usually only given to serial killers.

Miss Hawker's parents, Bill and Julia, have been attending the trial and heard how Ichihashi evaded police capture for two years on the run and was said to have tried to perform DIY cosmetic surgery to alter his appearance.

He was finally tracked down to a ferry port in Osaka, in southern Japan, when staff at a plastic surgery clinic became suspicious about their client and told police in November 2009.

Ichihashi was eventually identified by his fingerprints.

The trial was adjourned on Friday afternoon Japanese local time and will resume on Monday.

A verdict is expected before the end of the month.

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Father jailed over baby methadone

15 June 2011 Last updated at 14:58 GMT Grant Yuill has been jailed for eight years A father found guilty of giving the drug methadone to his baby daughter in a bottle of milk has been jailed for eight years.

Grant Yuill, 38, of Porthmadog, Gwynedd, was also convicted of supplying drugs to the baby's mother.

Caernarfon Crown Court was told exposure to the drug had affected the child's development, and she has been taken into care.

Yuill was previously cleared of rubbing methadone into his daughter's gums.

He was told by Judge Merfyn Hughes QC: "This is a case of serious cruelty over a period of time."

Yuill was also found guilty of child cruelty and putting the baby's mother in fear of violence.

The judge told him he was the driving force behind what had happened to the baby, who became drug addicted, and had been lucky to survive.

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It will only be when she's approaching school age that the full impact of what you have done to her will become known”

End Quote Judge Merfyn Hughes On the baby's future Judge Hughes told him: "It will only be when she's approaching school age that the full impact of what you have done to her will become known."

After the hearing Gwynedd and Anglesey Local Safeguarding Children Board said a serious case review had been carried out.

A spokesman said: "We remain determined to establish whether there are lessons to be learned to improve inter-agency working to safeguard children and act upon recommendations made".

The prosecution had claimed that Yuill, 38, had told his partner Nia Jones, 31, that rubbing methadone into the baby's gums within hours of the birth was the only way to hide the fact she was taking methadone.

'Hash oil'

Jones, of Caernarfon, who is in jail for the ill-treatment of her daughter, told the court she used to take cannabis and dabbled with ecstasy.

She told the jury she became addicted to heroin after Yuill pretended it was "hash oil", but he rejected a claim that he tricked her into smoking heroin.

The court heard that the child was born in June 2009, and that after giving birth Jones told Yuill that she was worried because the baby was "burning up."

'Methadone was her drug of choice - it was likely the baby was born an addict'

Jones had told the court Yuill dabbed his finger twice into a bottle of methadone and rubbed it on the baby's gum.

When the baby went home, this method continued and methadone was mixed in her milk, she said.

The trial heard the couple had also tried to squirt methadone in the mouth using a syringe.

'Staff acted professionally'

The trial was told that it was almost seven months before the methadone supply came to light when staff at Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, became suspicious of the mother and alerted police.

In his summing up, the judge told the jury that they might have found it "remarkable" that the situation was not spotted sooner.

But the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which runs the hospital, said it was "confident that staff acted professionally and appropriately in relation to this incident and it was their vigilance that ensured that the situation was brought to light and the relevant authorities alerted".

Jones told the trial that methadone was given to the baby in hospital, and she would wait at a bus stop for a blue teddy bear which Mr Yuill used to send on a bus from Porthmadog.

The teddy would have a bottle of methadone zipped in the mouth.

Gwynedd and Anglesey Local Safeguarding Children Board said the results of the serious case review would be published later.

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Milly Dowler father 'was suspect'

16 May 2011 Last updated at 16:44 GMT Notes by Milly in which she said she was unhappy, were read out in court Milly Dowler's father was a suspect in her disappearance after police found bondage material at their family home in Surrey, the Old Bailey has heard.

Bob Dowler broke down in tears while giving evidence in the trial of Levi Bellfield, who is accused of murdering the 13-year-old.

Notes by Milly in which she said she was unhappy, were read out in court.

Bellfield, 42, denies abducting and murdering Milly and attempting to kidnap another girl in March 2002.

The court heard that police had informed Mr Dowler he was a suspect after his daughter disappeared.

'I am sorry'

He had told officers that his daughter had found a bondage magazine in his bedroom.

But he denied having anything to do with his daughter's disappearance.

Defending Bellfield, Jeffrey Samuels QC cross-examined Mr Dowler, an IT consultant, and asked whether it was right that Mr Dowler became the focus of the police inquiries for a time.

Mr Dowler answered: "That is correct."

He also said he had considered this to be a waste of time.

"I was very concerned because I knew if they focused on me, they need[ed] to be focused on someone else," he said.

The court heard how a poem and letter had been found in Milly's bedroom.

Mr Samuels read out part of a letter which said: "All they do is slag me off and force everyone else against me.

"I am not pretty or fit, what do they have that I haven't? Let's face it, I am just totally shit."

A second note read: "Dear daddy and my beautiful mummy, by the time you find this letter I will be gone. It would be best for you to try to forget me. I will always love you.

Milly lived in Walton Park with her parents and older sister

"I am sorry but lots of love, your little disappointment."

In one of the notes, Milly wrote how a friend Jess her helped through "this whole dad thing", jurors heard.

Mr Dowler said he could only think she was referring to "something in the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers".

He said: "In looking for the item she pulled the whole drawer out and underneath the drawer discovered a pornographic magazine."

When asked to describe the magazine, Mr Dowler said it was "probably extreme pornographic material, a fetish nature, latex and bondage".

He told the court other porn had been found in the house by police, including videos in the lounge, and bondage equipment including a rubber hood and ball in the loft.

More porn magazines had been marked in a way that indicated he had made inquiries or had used services, jurors heard.

Mr Dowler was asked what impact the items would have had on his daughter and said she would have become "most distressed".

He agreed he had told police it would have been "a complete betrayal as a father".

But he also told officers he had "no involvement whatsoever" in Milly's disappearance, the court heard.

Sally Dowler, Milly's mother, told the court she thought her daughter had found the magazine about two months previously.

She said: "I said to her: 'It doesn't mean that daddy doesn't love me'. I am sorry she had found it."

Remains found

The prosecution claims Bellfield tried to abduct Rachel Cowles, who was 11 years old, on 20 March 2002.

It is alleged he drove off after trying to abduct the girl when he saw a police car and that he went on to murder Milly the next day.

Milly disappeared on 21 March 2002 in Station Avenue, Walton-on-Thames, near Bellfield's home in Collingwood Place.

The jury has been told she had just called her father to say she was on her way home.

Her remains were found six months later.

Bellfield, a former wheelclamper and club bouncer, was convicted at the Old Bailey in 2008 of attacks on women in west London over a period of about two years.

He was convicted of killing Marsha McDonnell, 19, in February 2003 and Amelie Delagrange, 22, in August 2004, by striking them on their heads with a blunt instrument.

In May 2004, he attempted to murder Kate Sheedy, 18, by deliberately running her over in a car.

The case was adjourned until Tuesday.

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