News Of The World: Archived Tabloid Stories

Angry & Miffed at the home of strategic outrage

2007-04-01T08:57:00.000Z

Meet Mr Angry. It is his job to encourage you to foam at the mouth and then sound off about certain stories from NOTW.

Miss Miffed brings up the rear.

How amused is one allowed to be at the way NOTW have finally introduced interactivity on their website?

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry's boozy night with 'other girl'

2007-03-25T13:42:00.000Z

By James Weatherup & Rav Singh

FIGHTING drunk Prince Harry exploded into booze-fuelled rage on Saturday after being caught on a secret date.

Our astonishing pictures show the paralytic prince crashing onto his backside as a minder tries to manhandle him into his car.

Other photographs show how, seconds earlier, Harry ran amok, attacking one snapper and yelling at him to "F*** off" as he sneaked out of a London club following a night out with very close friend Natalie Pinkham.

The 22-year-old prince — due to head to Iraq for a six-month tour with his unit in weeks — was furious that he'd been spotted meeting former TV presenter Natalie, 29, while girlfriend Chelsy Davy is away on her gap year.

The two had spent the night canoodling on the dance floor of Boujis, with Harry caressing the beauty whose boobs he once famously groped on another wild night out in London nearly four years ago.

One fellow clubber revealed yesterday: "He and Natalie were dancing very close and his hands were everywhere."

Harry tried to sneak out of the back door of the club at 3am yesterday while Natalie left by the front. But when the royal on the razzle spotted photographer Nirach Tanner waiting he chased him down the street in a fury.

"He was very drunk. I took a few shots of him and he just came for me," said Tanner, 27. "He knows me because I've taken his pictures before and I have never had a problem with him.

"He saw me as he came out of the club's rear entrance because he didn't want to be spotted leaving with Natalie.

"He screamed at me to ‘F*** off', then grabbed me and tried to shove me over. He had his hands around my collar and back.

"It was an assault. I've never known anything like it before."

Dazed

Another photographer who saw the prince lunge at Tanner said: "Harry's mood changed as he came out and he started chasing after him. It was only for seven or eight yards but the prince went to grab him.

"If Tanner hadn't been trying to get away it could have got ugly. I thought they taught discipline in the army but Harry wasn't exactly showing any.

"His bodyguard tried to stop him getting hold of Tanner but then things went pear-shaped when Harry tried to change direction and get into his Range Rover which had driven up.

"He turned sharply left, completely lost his footing and fell on his backside. We could see he was wearing pink socks and pink boxer shorts. He was all over the place.

"The bodyguard had to help him up and direct him into the car. Harry looked a bit dazed but didn't say anything and got in and buried his head in his arms."

Royal raver Harry's antics will doubtless be of huge interest to absent girlfriend Chelsy Davy, 21, now on a round-the-world tour after graduating from university in Cape Town, South Africa.

In the club Harry and Natalie — who he describes as one of his favourite drinking buddies — knocked back vodka and Red Bull.

The two were surrounded by royal protection officers at a private corner table. Harry's pal and former royal aide Mark Dyer was also there.

Harry and Natalie occasionally dashed out onto the tightly packed floor where they danced close together with the Prince caressing the sexy brunette's curves.

A fellow reveller said: "Harry was obviously very drunk. He and Natalie spent most of the night huddled together at a corner table beside the dance floor where Harry's bodyguards did their best to hide them both from view.

"They ordered full-size bottles of vodka and cans of Red Bull and mixed their own drinks at the table. It was clearly a big night out for both of them. Harry kept putting his arm around her.

"At times it even looked like he was kissing her neck — although it was difficult to see. They were certainly being very touchy-feely with each other."

The prince also danced with a second girl — an attractive mystery blonde.

Our source revealed: "They were gyrating together. He held her very close and had his leg between hers. He was totally out of it. It was like something from a hip hop video.

"The club was totally packed and he was constantly bumping into other people but he just didn't care."

After the near brawl in the street, there was nearly another incident as Harry's Range Rover sped off into the night.

Tanner added: "The driver panicked and floored it while Harry's friend Mark Dyer was half in and half out of the car. I screamed at him to stop otherwise Mark would definitely have fallen out. Luckily for him he did and Mark was able to scramble in and then they roared off.

"It's hardly the way for a prince to behave on a night out, is it?"

MEANWHILE Harry's brother Prince William danced on a PODIUM for revellers at a Bournemouth nightclub.

The young royal turned up at Elements on Thursday night with a bunch of army buddies and posed for mobile phone snaps with local girls before demonstrating his moves on the podium.

EXCLUSIVE: Sally Clarke drank herself to death

2007-03-18T21:36:00.000Z

By Neville Thurlbeck

TRAGIC cot death mum Sally Clark drank herself to death as she tried to drown out the pain of being wrongly jailed for murdering her two baby boys.

The 42-year-old solicitor was found dead at her home on Friday following a massive heart attack brought on by years of boozing to blot out the horror of losing both tots to cot death.

Her devoted husband Stephen was away on business.

Speaking exclusively to the News of the World, Sally's closest family friend John Batt revealed: "She was drinking to console herself and to ease the pain of her grief. It was no secret she had an alcohol problem.

"If it was a bad day, she was inconsolable — that's the best way of putting it, I suppose.

"Fortunately, as friends we didn't see too many of those. But Steve saw them all. You go through ten years of that sort of torture and it does something to you.

"But Sally was the best mother a child could wish for. How tragic it is for her family to be facing all this on Mothering Sunday."

In Sally's own moving written account of her problems she wrote: "As time has gone by since my release things have got worse, not better.

"Now I am devastated that I seem to be going backwards... I can't cope."

Professor Sir Roy Meadow - the disgraced paediatrician expert whose flawed evidence sent Sally to jail in 1999 with two life sentences — has been accused of having blood on his hands.

Hiding

Sally's furious father-in-law Thomas Clark said: "Why don't you track down Roy Meadow and ask him what he thinks about this?

"He has put this family through more grief than you can ever imagine.

"I hope he rots in hell."

The 73-year-old professor was in hiding after news of Sally's death broke. Curtains at his £500,000 cottage in the picture-postcard Warwickshire village of Upper Tysoe were closed and the door remained firmly locked.

He failed to come to the door and speak to the News of the World, or offer any sort of public apology or statement of regret over Sally's death.

Neighbours told callers he did not want to answer questions over whether he felt any guilt over the tragedy. One insisted: "He won't want to speak to you."

When paramedics answered Friday's 999 call to Sally's home in Hatfield Peverel, Essex, her third son — who is now eight and cannot be named for legal reasons — was with another member of the family.

A police spokesman said: "Mrs Clark was alone at the time of her death. And we do not suspect suicide. A post-mortem will take place on Monday. This may show that she had taken something but we very much doubt it."

Paramedics at the scene suspected a massive cardiac arrest.

Mr Batt, also a lawyer, has known the Clark family for more than 30 years and wrote a book about the battle to clear Sally's name.

He added: "I spoke to Sally last Monday and last saw her a couple of weeks ago when they came over to visit us.

"She was fine. But it depended on whether you caught her on a good day or a bad day.

"The succession of disasters that overtook her life is the stuff of nightmares. Her death is simply the last in a succession of terrible tragedies.

"Christopher and Harry, the babies who died, were more important to her than her own life. She absolutely adored both of them. She would never, ever, in a million years have harmed a hair on either of their heads.

"She was a wonderful mother, absolutely wonderful. Her surviving son totally adored her. She was a magical mother, there's no other word for it.

"When those babies died her life fell completely apart. And before she had a chance to grieve for them the whole machinery of the criminal justice system swung into action.

"She was arrested, charged with murder, convicted and locked up. She served 3 years before the second appeal cleared her name and freed her.

"I don't think anyone ever recovers from something like that.

"But as well as being an amazingly talented mother she was an amazingly gifted lawyer. I've no doubt that, had she chosen to do so, she could have gone right to the very top."

Sally's 1999 trial at Chester Crown Court, where she was accused of smothering 11-week-old Christopher and shaking eight-week-old Harry to death at their home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, sparked sensation.

It was there that Sir Roy, as an expert witness for the prosecution, rejected Sally's testimony that her babies had both suffered cot death 13 months apart.

The jury convicted Sally after he insisted there was only a one in 73 MILLION chance of that being true.

But Stephen, 45, also a solicitor, always vowed she was not guilty. On the day she was led away to prison in handcuffs he declared: "My wife was a caring devoted mother to our sons. She is innocent."

As he began his long crusade to clear her, Sally discovered the hell she was in for behind bars. In her own moving account of that time she wrote: "At Styal Prison as I walk through the door 50 faces stare at me, screaming, ‘Here's the nonce!' ‘Murderer!' ‘Die woman, die!'

"I am put in a small holding cell.

"Other prisoners are banging on the door, shouting more abuse and clambering up to look through the window. I feel like a caged animal."

On the outside there were raised voices too. Professor Meadow's 73-million-to-one theory was rubbished by The Royal Statistical Society.

They wrote to the Lord Chancellor saying there was NO statistical basis for his evidence. And The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths produced evidence that second cot deaths in the same family occur roughly once a year.

Experts now believe the risk could be as high as one in 100.

Meanwhile Stephen uncovered key Home Office evidence NOT revealed to the jury or the defence team — that Harry's body had contained lethal levels of bacterial infection indicating death by natural causes.

In January 2003 Sally's conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal and she was free. But her nightmare was never to end.

Shame

Angela Cannings — another mum left "an emotional wreck" after being wrongly convicted of murdering her two baby sons in 1999 — spoke out passionately to challenge discredited expert Sir Roy.

"He should feel ashamed of himself," said Angela, 43, at her Cornwall home.

"He has to take some responsibility for what's happened and have the guts to make a public apology. But he's not the only one who should feel shame. The Crown Prosecution Service had a hand in our convictions as did the police and social services.

"They all helped convict people who were completely innocent, ripping lives and families apart."

HURT WAS TOO MUCH

By Jayne Butterworth

IT'S almost impossible to comprehend what Sally went through. Not only did she lose the babies she loved, but she was falsely imprisoned and, subsequently, endured abuse and mental torture.

No wonder she found it so difficult to come to terms with her life after her release. She had won back her freedom but what life was left waiting for her? She had lost her children but she never had the opportunity to grieve for them AND she had been accused of their murder.

Turning to alcohol when you're trying to mask inner pain seems tempting because it obliterates the hurt and stops you having to deal with the horror. But you can't put a sticking plaster over such a deep wound.

As for her husband Steve and their son, what terrible torments for them to have to endure.

Sally showed incredible strength to survive her ordeal and beat the justice system. Sadly she could not escape the demons in her head. And it was those demons that eventually overwhelmed her.

EXCLUSIVE: Heather Mills' £29m kiss-off from Macca

2007-03-11T07:59:00.000Z

By Rav Singh & James Desborough

HEATHER Mills has sensationally backed down in her bitter divorce battle with Paul McCartney — and is set to accept a £29 million cash and property settlement.

Sources close to Macca's camp told the News of the World: "It's amazing how quickly things have turned around. Heather has caved in on lots of things — including the money demands and sole custody of daughter Beatrice — and we now expect her to settle."

News of the planned settlement — which works out at £696 an hour for their 1,735 days of marriage so far — comes after a fortnight of blazing rows between the couple.

They have silently faced each other at the High Court three times for opening hearings over the divorce. But in private they have been letting fly.

After one session furious Macca ranted at Heather down the phone:

"I just can't wait until I never have to see your face again!"

But she blasted back: "You'll never get rid of me!"

And in another vicious screaming match about one-legged Heather appearing in US prime time show Dancing With The Stars, Sir Paul labelled the move "tacky".

He rubbished the idea and predicted she will become a "reality TV freak like Anna Nicole Smith".

Gagging

A close friend of Heather insisted that a settlement deal wouldn't buy her silence about claims Paul had been violent towards her.

Heather — dubbed Mucca because of her porn and vice past — has repeatedly told her pal: "I will NOT sign a gagging clause because I want people to know the truth."

But an end to the bitter court battle is in sight after the warring couple — who wed in June 2002 — finally came close to agreement over the key issue of joint child custody.

The Beatles legend had been desperate to secure his share of control over three-year-old Beatrice.

And we can reveal Heather, 39, is expected to drop her outrageous demand for £3.4 million a year (£10,000 a day) just "to get by". Instead it is believed she will accept the scaled-down pay-off.

Included in the deal is one of Macca's homes — likely to be his £4 million luxury Georgian house in St John's Wood, London.

A source close to Sir Paul said: "Heather's completely changed her stance. Only recently Paul's team were worried she might have upped the stakes by threatening to leave England, taking Beatrice with her.

"It didn't happen but it would have driven Paul to the brink. He doesn't care where Heather ends up but he is devoted to caring for Beatrice and couldn't bear the thought of not being able to see her.

"Being realistic it could still take weeks to finally thrash out a deal but they're on the right path and now they're talking the same language. And if negotiations keep going this well it could be even sooner."

The new deal saves 64-year-old Macca a fortune on the £32 million settlement first offered in January and exclusively revealed by the News of the World. Under that proposal Heather would have walked away with TWO houses.

Last week Paul gave a V for victory sign as he left the court.

Now the settlement will be thrashed out by lawyers Anthony Julius and Fiona Shackleton, who arranged the deal between Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Our source said: "It seems Heather has been stung by the outrage over her cash demands. She thought she was entitled to that much but realises the longer this battle goes on the worse she'll come out of it.

"She's ready now to make a compromise. There's been a great deal of horse-trading between the lawyers.

"Sir Paul will be delighted. All he ever wanted was for this to be settled so he can get on with his life."

But Heather's camp insisted there were other motives behind the new moves — and they centre on the leaked divorce papers that reveal she had accused Macca of humiliating and physically abusing her.

The claims included allegations that Paul poured wine over her, stabbed her arm with a broken glass, shoved her violently into a bath when she was pregnant and pushed her over a coffee table.

A friend said: "He won't let it go to court, that's for sure. Heather has independent witnesses to support her claims, medical evidence and tapes in which he states his intentions very clearly. Why would Paul want that discussed in court and have to live with that stigma for the rest of his life?

"Maybe it's getting closer to a settlement but what's clear is there's a very nasty and evil campaign going on here.

Disgusting

"What McCartney has done is categorically deny the wife-beating, saying it's disgraceful and disgusting, then settle so she won't have a chance to show the evidence to back up what she said.

"I know that Paul's worn her down and she got completely fed up with the whole thing. But he'll never keep her quiet."

On Friday Heather was spotted enjoying drinks at a Brighton pub then dinner at a restaurant with her American make-up artist friend Mark Payne, also pictured with her at court on Tuesday.

Now it's clear that she had plenty to celebrate.

On top of the £29 million deal, legal sources said Paul had failed in an attempt to have Heather's divorce petition citing those accusations of physical abuse thrown out of court.

And she won a larger-than-expected interim annual maintenance payment.

Plus Macca has agreed to pay a lump sum — thought to be as much as £2 million — for her security needs during the divorce procedings. Heather also clinched her right to take Beatrice to Los Angeles to be with her next week as she competes in the dance show.

Her friend stressed: "Heather has NO plans to move to America because she, her friends and family are in England. And there'll be NO custody battle as she and Paul both want Bea to be happy. Heather wants to do this show because it will take her mind off the divorce battle.

"And she wants to take Bea along not as a publicity stunt, as critics claim, but simply because she's a caring mum.

"The deal is she will take Bea out for a couple of weeks during her Easter holiday and then Paul will look after her.

"In the past Heather's been distraught about the backlash she's received over the divorce case. She's been phoning me in tears.

"But she has really enjoyed doing the show and now sounds very upbeat."

CASH FOR HONOURS: Fury over 'bid to destroy' probe

2007-03-05T10:23:00.000Z

By Ian Kirby and Lucy Panton

DETECTIVES involved in the cash-for-honours inquiry believe Downing Street is trying to wreck their investigation by leaking top secret evidence.

They hit out after being forced to get Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to issue an injunction on Friday night — stopping the BBC from running new allegations about the probe.

We can reveal police acted after the Beeb obtained an email understood to contain damning evidence about an alleged cover-up by No 10 officials over giving peerages to prominent Labour Party donors.

The row puts the spotlight on Labour fundraiser Lord Levy and Downing Street aide Ruth Turner.

They have each been arrested and questioned twice during the 11-month inquiry, as the investigation concentrated at first on cash-for-honours and then on allegations of a cover-up. Downing Street has consistently denied any wrong-doing over the inquiry.

But furious detectives believe the leak was a deliberate attempt to destroy the probe, which is now in its final stages.

A Crown Prosecution Service source said: "We believe the leaks are coming from government sources who are trying to disrupt the inquiry.

"If evidence police are hoping to rely on appears in the media it could bring down the whole case. Those in the firing line are well aware of that."

The move for an injunction also prompted intense speculation that charges could be imminent.

The News of the World has learned that detectives believe they have uncovered clear evidence to bring charges alleging a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said he believed Lord Goldsmith had intervened because charges were imminent.

He explained: "The important thing to remember is that the Attorney General acts in the public interest and, in particular, he has an interest to ensure that no possible prosecution is prejudiced and no possible defence is prejudiced.

"The inference of Lord Goldsmith's actions was that he at least contemplates the possibility that a prosecution of some kind will follow."

And media lawyer Mark Stephens said: "I would expect a development this weekend. I would be astonished if there wasn't."

HARRY PAYS TO GO TO WAR

2007-02-25T09:52:00.000Z

Exclusive: Prince buys his own kit

By Ryan Sabey

PRINCE Harry has had to spend more than £1,000 on extra kit for duty in Iraq in a damning indictment of the funding of British forces.

The 22-year-old royal — third in line to the throne — bought at least TEN items considered vital for his tour in war-torn Maysan province in May.

But scores of junior-ranking troops in Harry's Blues and Royals regiment have complained they simply cannot afford the equipment.

Many earn less than £16,000-a-year.

Poor or missing kit has blighted the Iraq campaign despite repeated government promises of help.

In March 2003 Sgt Steve Roberts, 33, was shot dead at an Iraqi checkpoint after being ordered to give his body armour to a colleague judged to be at greater risk days earlier.

Six Red Caps were killed by a mob when they were sent 12 miles from base with communications equipment that could only reach nine miles.

Harry's self-bought kit includes a lightweight Para helmet costing £225, far more comfortable than normal Army-issue, and £70 for some specialist goggles.

The prince has also spent more than £300 on three pairs of boots — troops say standard issue footwear simply isn't good enough. He paid £110 for a pair of Lowas, £125 on waterproof jungle boots and £70 on Magnum desert boots.

The prince has also spent £140 on a Global Positioning System so he can pinpoint exactly where he is on the Iraq-Iran border.

Along with many others in his troop he has forked out £80 on a quality sleeping bag.

Harry also bought £30 Helly Hansen long-johns for the cold nights.

Popular

Less expensive items include extra webbing to hold equipment like drinks bottles and a Gerber knife, both cost £20.

Harry will be in charge of 11 men patrolling an area populated by Iranian-backed Shia Muslim extremists loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The unit will carry out long-range desert patrols.

A source said: "The squaddies have been saying for a long time that they don't get any help paying for equipment. It's a case of having the right kit for the job.

"There's no resentment towards Harry. It just shows how standard Army equipment isn't up to scratch."

EXCLUSIVE: Lord Goldsmith admits affair with barrister

2007-02-18T10:30:00.000Z

By Philip Whiteside

THE country's highest-ranking lawyer, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, has sensationally confessed to the News of the World that he cheated on wife Joy with a top barrister.

Lord Peter Goldsmith, a close friend and long-time ally of Tony Blair, admitted having an affair with Kim Hollis — the first Asian woman to reach the rank of Queen's Counsel.

He made his shock confession to us in the week it was revealed Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald had cheated on HIS wife Linda with blonde barrister Kirsty Brimelow.

When we asked him about mum-of-two Mrs Hollis the Attorney General, who is the DPP's boss, released a statement saying: "My wife knows all about this and has done for some time. It is all in the past.

"We are both very happy. This is a private matter and my wife and I have no further comment."

MPs last week demanded to know whether the DPP was guilty of a conflict of interest as a result of the affair with high-flier Kirsty.

Their concerns may now extend to whether the Attorney General could also have been compromised by having a close relationship with a senior QC.

One source said: "You have to question whether they've had their minds fully on the job of looking after the legal needs of the government and country."

As Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, 57, is the government's legal adviser.

He was appointed to the £106,358-a-year post in 2001 and his most famous act was telling the Cabinet he believed the invasion of Iraq was justified under international law.

Mired

Having previously questioned its legality, he was accused of caving in under pressure. Since then he has been mired in controversy over his decision to abandon a prosecution over the export of arms to Saudi Arabia.

The Prime Minister was understood to have been keen to appoint Lord Goldsmith to the post of Lord Chief Justice when Lord Woolf stood down, but the plan was abandoned in the face of massive opposition.

There have recently been growing calls for his position to be scrapped with confidence in his role as an independent legal adviser to the government at an all-time low.

Before joining the Government, Lord Goldsmith was one of the founders of the Bar Council's Pro Bono Unit which offers free legal work for people in need.

He was chairman of the unit from 1996 until he took on the role of Attorney General.

Lord Goldsmith, who went to the same Quarry Bank School in Liverpool as John Lennon, once said if he had not become a lawyer he wanted to be the "Fifth Beatle."

He and Joy, left, have three sons and a daughter in their teens and early 20s and live in London's Westminster.

Mrs Hollis, 49, the grand-daughter of an Indian freedom fighter who battled alongside Mahatma Gandhi, split from her husband Andrew three years ago.

It is unclear if her affair was the cause of the break-up. But it is believed she and Lord Goldsmith met regularly in secret over several months behind the backs of both spouses.

The attractive QC was called to the Bar in 1979 and soon after began to specialise in defending those accused of sex crimes and so-called honour killings.

But perhaps her most famous case was prosecuting the man who handled thousands of pounds worth of Victoria Beckham's designer underwear after it was stolen at an airport.

She grilled binman Mark Oliver in the case at Isleworth Crown Court and spoke with Posh when she took the stand to give evidence in 2001.

Trip

Mrs Hollis helped secure the conviction against Oliver, who got 15 months in jail for handling the clothes.

She became a QC, the legal profession's most prestigious inner circle, the following year.

Mrs Hollis, born in the Forest of Dean to an Indian father and British mother, has two children by Andrew, one at university and the other taking GCSEs.

There was no reply at Mrs Hollis' home in Fulham, west London, on Saturday.

Lord Goldsmith was on an official trip to the US with his wife.

DUKE & THE HOOKERS: He pays for sex as soldiers risk lives

2007-02-11T16:59:00.000Z

By Ross Hall

WHILE 900 courageous Territorial Army heroes put their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan their multi-billionaire boss is home revelling in seedy sex with a procession of vice girls.

A News of the World investigation exposes The Duke of Westminster— Britain's richest man, Prince Charles' best friend, full-blown major-general and married dad of four—as a serial cheat and user of £750-an-hour hookers.

Our sensational dossier reveals how the Duke, Assistant Chief of Defence Staff Gerald Grosvenor, disgraced the record of 11,000 TA reservists sent to Iraq since 2003 as he:

- HIRED four prostitutes over the last six weeks to party at his posh West End mews house.

- RISKED blackmail and security scandal by revealing his name and Army connections to the girls.

- BRAGGED he knew how to find al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden.

- HAGGLED with one prostitute for a discount despite being worth an incredible £6.6 billion.

- DEMANDED sex without condoms—while bemoaning the fact his men have to be regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

Haggle

The 55-year-old Duke commands 250,000 reservists—including 138,000 young cadets who look up to him as a role model. Six of his men have died serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He stays in London three days a week carrying out his Ministry of Defence duties while wife Natalia lives at their vast country estate Eaton Hall 200 miles away in Cheshire.

But after clocking off from his Whitehall office he hires girls young enough to be his daughters to join him at his luxury home off Oxford Street—part of his massive property empire which includes over 300 acres of central London with vast swathes of Mayfair and Belgravia.

On THURSDAY DECEMBER 28 the Duke paid £2,000 to bed 26-year-old Lithuanian Zana Brazdek at the mews house.

She arrived at 5pm and left with a wodge of cash in an envelope marked Eaton Estates two hours later.

Zana, who was booked through an agency, said Grosvenor crowed about his Army connections and even attempted to haggle over her price. "I thought his conversation was quite boring," she said. "He talked about the Army, going to Afghanistan and bin Laden. And he wanted unprotected sex. I refused."

On TUESDAY JANUARY 9 the Duke arrived home around 1.30pm. At 2.45pm an Asian girl in black coat, knee-high boots and heavy make-up strolled up to his front door.

After a discreet glance over her shoulder to make sure no one was looking, she pressed the buzzer on the intercom system.

Moments later the door opened and she was ushered inside. An hour and a half later at 4.15pm the huge black door opened again and the Asian girl shuffled out, heading off towards Oxford Street. Bright and breezy the next morning, the Duke was out of the house and into his waiting dark green Jaguar by 7.30am.

He left the house wearing green military trousers, a white shirt and camel-coloured sleeveless jacket.

He was also carrying a riding crop and military jacket, which he carefully placed on the car's parcel shelf before getting into the rear.

The Duke puffed on a cigarette as his chauffeur drove him to the MoD building on the Embankment just before 8am. Armed security guards waved the vehicle through their gates and into the car park, which backs onto Whitehall directly opposite Downing Street.

The Duke's importance in Britain's military hierarchy was apparent on Tuesday, January 23, as he drove his Maserati sports car to visit the Army's tank training base in Bovington, Dorset—where Prince Harry spent four months last summer and Prince William is due next month.

But a week later the Duke was back at his London pad and up to his old tricks. At 6.20pm on TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, a blonde Russian hooker working under the name Stella pouted as she approached the Duke's door in a silky red dress and black boots.

When the door opened Stella, caked in thick blue eye shadow, provocatively strutted into the hallway to start her night's work.

About an hour and a half later at 7.45pm, out walked the girl. This time the Duke poked his head around the door to wave her off, as she puckered up and blew him a kiss.

He giggled and then watched as she wandered to the top of the road before flagging down a black cab to take her home. Next morning Grosvenor was up bright and early to report for duty at the MOD, with his chauffeur waiting outside at 6.45am.

This time he appeared in the same sleeveless top, a white shirt and black trousers, with his military pass strung around his neck.

And last week on WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 7 the Duke was dropped off at the house by his driver at 4.30pm. At 6.20pm, under cover of darkness, a brown-haired Brazilian girl arrived in a pink coat, clutching a small black handbag.

She pressed the buzzer and was quickly taken inside. After the usual hour and a half had passed the Duke saw the girl out. As he waved her off he was wearing just a brown dressing gown.

On Thursday it was business as usual, picked up and taken to the MoD in his Jag by 8am.

But the Duke—who is paid £240 a day for his Army role—faces censure when he returns to his desk tomorrow. For The Armed Forces Code of Social Conduct insists:

"The overriding operational imperative to sustain team cohesion and to maintain trust and loyalty between commanders and those they command imposes a need for standards of social behaviour which are more demanding than those required by society at large...and a requirement to avoid conduct which offends others."

Our revelations will raise serious questions about the Duke's position because of his access to top-secret military information.

And he has often proclaimed himself a devoted family man. In an interview he once vowed that he would never cheat on his wife.

"I don't need other women as a substitute," he said. "I immerse myself in work."

TERROR: How MI5 snared al-Qaeda kidnap gang

2007-02-04T08:36:00.000Z

By Lucy Panton & Ian Kirby

THE al-Qaeda plot to behead a British Muslim soldier was smashed after MI5 intercepted a panic order to the kidnap gang: "If you can't find a Muslim, ANY squaddie will do."

The demand, made directly to Birmingham from a terror boss in Pakistan, came after the British-based cell spent days trawling a Midlands army base for a victim.

A military source revealed: "Security services and police had been watching for them to try to grab a Muslim soldier. But as soon as we knew they were willing to take anyone in any uniform — man or woman — and cut their head off then they had to act.

"The sheer casual, callous evil of what these British guys were willing to do on the orders of al-Qaeda is beyond belief."

Now we can reveal the truth behind the Birmingham raids is even more terrifying than first thought.
- AL-QAEDA CHIEFS in Pakistan planned, ordered, directed and activated the plot. It was not a home-grown idea.
- Anti-terror police and MI5 became seriously concerned about the plot just FIVE WEEKS ago.
- None of the Birmingham suspects had recent terror training abroad. "SLEEPERS" were put in place years ago waiting to be activated.
- Suicide attacks were ruled out. Al-Qaeda wanted the group to do it AGAIN as many times as possible.
- Large bundles of CASH were handed over to the suspects to fund the planned atrocity—hiring houses, buying clothes and video cameras.

One senior Anti-Terrorist Squad officer said: "This is even more terrifying than some of the highly complex long-term plots we have already disrupted and taken to court, such as 21/7 and the airline bomb plot. "It was barely a month in the making and its aim — to kidnap and kill one anonymous soldier — was so limited they could easily have succeeded. But the ramifications would have shocked the nation, probably the world."

The News of the World can reveal a massive counter-terrorism police and MI5 operation was swung into action between Christmas and New Year when they discovered a top secret communication from a notorious senior al-Qaeda chief to a known British extremist suspect.

An MI5 source explained: "We had known for some time via routine terrorist ‘chatter' we monitor worldwide of a vague plot but it seemed that was all it was — words.

The head of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, said recently that at any one time there are about 30 top-level Islamic terror plots under way in this country that we are fully committed combating.

"This was not one of them. It was far lower priority until that message from AQ in Pakistan in explicit terms, which activated this sleeper group into carrying out the attack.

"The logic from Pakistan to the Birmingham guys was simple. They'd wanted a summer spectacular, but one hadn't happened, and the airline plot had been defeated.

"They wanted something, anything — and this was the quickest and easiest plot they could think of that wouldn't require complex planning like, for instance, buying a ton of special fertiliser from scores of garden centres to make bombs.

"Ideally they wanted a Muslim soldier, preferably in uniform, and hopefully one who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"They didn't look for one home on leave, as has been suggested. In fact there is a military base in the Birmingham area where some troops live with their families in army houses on estates mixed in with ordinary civilian housing.

"We monitored suspects 24/7 and saw them begin scouring the streets there simply looking for a Muslim face in a uniform."

Around 700 counter-terrorist detectives from Scotland Yard and MI5 agents from London, Wales and Manchester poured into Birmingham to help local anti-terror cops.

MI5 discovered barely 100 Muslim servicemen had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of those about 20 lived in the Midlands.

The source added: "They never got to the point of finding a specific Muslim target, though we spotlighted two most likely victims and gave them specific protection in case the gang made a kidnap bid."

A Ministry of Defence source revealed: "Because they'd failed to target an individual Muslim, AQ back in Pakistan got impatient.

"Last weekend the security services discovered another message had been brought to Birmingham which ordered the suspects to strike immediately - and if they couldn't find a Muslim squaddie, simply snatch any serviceman or woman off the street.

"After that we couldn't allow the police to wait any longer. Protecting a small group of soldiers and their families 24/7 is one thing, particularly as they were doing it in secret.

"But the danger of anyone in the armed forces—man or woman, black, white, Muslim or Chinese—being taken off the street like this to be beheaded on film was another.

"They couldn't put protective surveillance around them all. So we insisted it be brought to an end and the raids began."

INVESTIGATION - HOME OFFICE SHAMBLES

2007-01-28T08:48:00.000Z

[Note from the editor of this website: How depressing... NOTW's flirtation with online feedback was merely a cheap (and temporary) stunt designed to cash in on the latest series of Big Brother, and there appears to be no plan to expand/extend beyond this. Oh well... this blog almost became surplus to requirements. Let's carry on as before and see what the new editor makes of things.]

322 SEX FIENDS LOOSE

By Guy Basnett

BUNGLING police have lost track of THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO sex monsters now at large on our streets, a shock News of the World investigation reveals.

British forces supposed to keep tabs on freed offenders from rapists to paedophiles have confessed to us that they have no idea where they are.

Our findings will strike a mixture of fear and fury into parents across the land — and further infuriate Home Secretary John Reid who is already dealing with a series of prison and sentencing scandals.

And when our investigators uncovered the chilling total and asked for details of the missing fiends, police:

- REFUSED to name or reveal any details about them, including how many were paedophiles.

- REFUSED to say how long the sex offenders had been missing.

- INSISTED that giving out details and descriptions of these vile criminals would HINDER attempts to find them.

- DEFENDED the rapists and child sex fiends' human rights — claiming that the information we wanted would put THEIR safety at risk.

Chilling

This latest law and order disgrace is another nail in the coffin of the discredited government MAPPA agencies supposed to monitor freed offenders—and it further strengthens our campaign for Sarah's Law — the right to know if paedophiles are living near you.

But that depends on police KNOWING where they are in the first place.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, we demanded all 50 forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland reveal how many registered sex offenders — ordered to keep police and probation officers informed of their address — had given them the slip.

Their responses — detailed in the table below — will make chilling reading for Mr Reid whose department is already under fire for not bothering to keep details of 27,500 Britons convicted abroad and failing to enforce overseas travel bans on nearly 150 drug traffickers.

Phone call after phone call revealed a catalogue of missing monsters.

London's Met have no idea where 88 of theirs are. West Midlands Police has 25 vanished perverts loose on their beat. The Greater Manchester force admitted to losing 18, Hampshire 11, and Northumbria 10. Only two Welsh forces did not provide a figure — Dyfed Powys and Gwent.

The other forces' refusal to give details of offenders in hiding clashes with a government-backed website which has netted four missing men within weeks by posting information on them.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) site still displays the name of three freed sex attackers at large after failing to inform police of their whereabouts.

And it shows the kind of dangerous perverts out there thanks to slipshod monitoring. The three are Joshua Karney, 29, convicted of indecently assaulting a 14-year-old boy; Colin Taylor, 46, convicted of three indecent assaults on a male over 16 and paedophile Peter Wheatherley, 39, placed on the sex offenders register for indecently assaulting a schoolgirl.

One loophole that makes it easy for sex offenders to disappear are the vague "addresses" they are allowed to register under. Last year it emerged that one paedophile who went missing was allowed to give his address as "woods" after moving from "a tent near Guildford leisure centre".

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "Yet again we see a serious failure of government criminal justice databases to do their job."

Michele Elliott founder and director of Kidscape, which campaigns to protect children from abuse, described our findings as "frightening".

"It's totally unacceptable for registered sex offenders to be missing," she said. "And it's absurd that police don't release details of these people. If any of those offenders harm someone else, it will be on the heads of our police."

When we contacted the embattled Home Office with a list of questions about the missing sex offenders they LOST our email.

A red-faced worker confessed it took them a month to find it after it was forwarded to the wrong office. But when officials did get their hands on it they said they would need another MONTH to reply.

Last year, John Reid hinted that he would take a serious look at introducing Sarah's Law. This latest scandal gives him even more reason to do so. For details of some of the UK's most wanted click here.

EXCLUSIVE: Jade Goody admits "I was racist. I am a bully."

2007-01-21T10:51:00.000Z

[Note from the editor of this website: you can finally comment on individual NOTW stories via an official NOTW website (hooray!) and you can comment on this individual story here if you wish.]

DISGRACED Celebrity Big Brother star Jade Goody sensationally confessed: "Shilpa WAS a victim of racism and bullying."

And today we print the hard-hitting interview all Britain has waited for after voting out the foul-mouthed housemate by a landslide on Friday night.

The News of the World grilled the 25-year-old with the tough questions TV host Davina McCall failed to pose about her treatment of Bollywood beauty Shilpa Shetty after Jade's carefully stage-managed exit from the hit Channel 4 reality show.

Jade will get no payment for this article. Her £50,000 fee will go to charity—along with every penny of her £50,000 Big Brother fee. The £100,000 total will be divided between good causes nominated by Shilpa and Jade.

In the most emotional and important interview of Jade's life—which was punctuated by frequent tearful outbursts— we asked:

ARE YOU A RACIST?

No, I'm not a racist, but I accept I made racist comments. I don't see people for the colour that they are, or where they come from.

I'm mixed race myself and I speak to everyone of every colour, background and nationality. I don't care about where people are from.

AT THE HEIGHT OF THE TENSION SHILPA TOLD CLEO SHE THOUGHT YOU WERE RACIST. WAS SHE THE VICTIM OF RACISM AND BULLYING?

She was a victim of bullying and racism, yes. I can understand why she would have said that.

Disgusted

HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY THE COMMENTS YOU MADE TO SHILPA?

I'm not going to justify my actions because they were wrong. I was shocked to see how I behaved. I was shocked and disgusted at myself.

I don't know why I said those things to her or why those words came into my head. I wasn't thinking in my head a nasty thought.

I'm not making excuses because I know that it's wrong. I now know that it's offensive.

Maybe I'm just really stupid and nasty at heart. But I really don't think I am.

YOU SAID ABOUT SHILPA: "SHE MAKES ME FEEL SICK, SHE MAKES MY SKIN CRAWL."

I can now see how that's been interpreted, that people think I hate her, but I promise to God that if I was a racist I wouldn't have kissed her, cuddled her or ate her food.

DURING THE OXO CUBE ROW YOU SHOUTED AT SHILPA: "YOU'RE A F***ING LOSER AND A LIAR, YOU NEED A DAY IN THE SLUMS!"

I said: "You are a f***ing loser and a liar!" and I did say that.

I know that Shilpa doesn't live in the slums, because I took the time to get to know her. The slums is a word that Shilpa would have told me. I can't justify my actions for that. It wasn't meant as a racist comment.

YOU TOLD HER: "SHUT THE F*** UP! WHO THE F*** ARE YOU? YOU AREN'T SOME PRINCESS IN NEVERLAND, YOU'RE A NORMAL HOUSEMATE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE."

I remember saying that and it's wrong, but it's not a racial comment.

In my rage of anger that's why I said she wasn't a Princess and not a God, she's a normal f***ing person.

YOU ALSO REFERRED TO HER AS "SHILPA F***AWALLAH, SHILPA DURUPA, SHILPA POPPADOM".

I remember saying Shilpa F*** something.

DOES IT SHOCK YOU THAT YOU SAID THOSE THINGS?

My anger when I watched it on the screen shocked me. I didn't like it. I didn't know that my presence could be so intimidating or bullying.

I don't want that, but I don't know any other way to argue.

I've never blamed my past for anything I've done, but I don't know any other way. My only way to argue is to shout—to get louder and louder so that I can't hear what they're saying.

It's the way I am. I didn't know it was a problem until I watched it. I don't want people to be scared of me, or think that I'm intimidating.

YOU CAN SEE WHY SHILPA F***AWALLAH IS RACIST?

It is. Because I now know that in Shilpa's religion anything to do with swearing or the "f" word is seen as hurtful and racist. For me it's normal to say effing this and effing that. I didn't think that these words would cause offence.

DO YOU ACCEPT THAT THOSE COMMENTS AND COMMENTS LIKE IT ARE RACIST?

I hold my hand up to my comments and to people reading them or hearing them and thinking I'm a racist. I can understand why those words would look racist because I didn't get on particularly well with Shilpa. It's offensive to her and her culture. I didn't think poppadom was a racist word. I now know that things that I may not think are racist can actually be racist. It's my own fault for not knowing enough about other people's cultures.

HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL?

I feel sh*t. I hate myself right now. The first time I was on Big Brother it was like a holiday camp but I've now got people out there who look up to me. I didn't want to get evicted for the wrong reasons. Evict me because I'm loud or annoying, but not because I'm a racist, because I'm not.

YOU GANGED UP WITH JO AND DANIELLE AGAINST SHILPA.

You sometimes click with people more than others. I clicked with Danielle and Jo because they are the same age, we live in the same area and we had things in common.

ALL THREE OF YOU MADE RACIST COMMENTS. DANIELLE SAID ABOUT SHILPA WHEN SHE HAD BLEACH ON HER FACE: "SHE WANTS TO BE WHITE" AND "SHE'S A DOG."

I wasn't there. I would have said: "You can't say that." Shilpa isn't ugly, she's a beautiful person. She had bleach on her face and I said to her: "Is it true that in India people do want to lighten their skin?"

IF YOU HAD HEARD DANIELLE'S COMMENTS WOULD YOU HAVE INTERVENED?

I would have because that's wrong, Shilpa's not a dog. I wasn't part of it. That's obviously a racist comment.

WHEN YOU WERE IN BED WITH JACK HE SAID: "I DON'T LIKE HER, IN FACT I HATE HER. SHE CAME INTO THIS HOUSE A C***."

Then I didn't see any wrong in it. My reaction now is that this is all wrong. Yes I'm responsible, yes I've said things that can be interpreted as being a racist and a bully, but I don't like that person. I won't let that happen again. I said poppadom and I said f*** in anger but I never said Shilpa wanted to be white or that she should go back to her own country.

AFTER THE OXO CUBE ROW DANIELLE SAID: "THAT WAS F***ING FANTASTIC. I LOVED IT, I THINK SHE SHOULD F*** OFF HOME"—A BLATANTLY RACIST COMMENT.

Yes it is, but that didn't come from me. I didn't say anything as I was too angry.

YOU WERE THERE WHEN JO THEN SAID: "THAT'S MADE ME FEEL BETTER. I MUST SAY, IT'S MADE MY DAY."

I wasn't taking any notice of what they were saying. I was so angry at the time. I was angry with me.

DANIELLE THEN SAID ABOUT SHILPA: "SHE CAN'T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH PROPERLY."

I feel ashamed about that. I'm ashamed about everything.

DO YOU AGREE THAT YOU, DANNIELLE AND JO HAVE MADE RACIST COMMENTS?

Yes they're wrong.

DID YOU BULLY SHILPA?

Looking at it, yes. I didn't think that my presence was that strong and that people were copying me. I didn't think that I was bullying.

HAVE YOU HAD ANY CONTROL OVER THIS INTERVIEW?

None whatsoever. I want to face the toughest questions possible. Everyone knows the News of the World is a tough paper and won't shirk from asking what people want to know. I'm happy to put myself through this so people can see what I did was wrong and I'm truly sorry.

EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry to serve in Iraq war zone

2007-01-14T12:07:00.000Z

By Ryan Sabey

ACTION man Prince Harry's guts and skill are about to be put to the ultimate test — as his regiment heads to war in Iraq.

The royal family and army top brass all know he will be a prize target for battling insurgents and factions.

But this week 2nd Lieutenant Harry will get special pre-deployment training — including Arabic lessons — with other key members of his Blues and Royals regiment earmarked to serve in Iraq from April.

The two-day course with the Operational Training and Advisory Group (OPTAG) is ONLY given to troops heading for the war zone.

An Army source said: "This training is exclusively for troops given the green light for Iraq.

"They don't waste time, money and manpower on anyone else.

"If a soldier's in OPTAG training for Iraq then he's going, simple as that."

Tough

If Harry is sent it will nail widespread speculation that the 22-year-old prince will be kept away from frontline duties because of safety fears.

Harry will be delighted. He has repeatedly told friends he is desperate to serve "like any other officer".

The specialist OPTAG sessions, to be held at the Household Cavalry's barracks in Windsor, Berkshire, will drill Harry and his comrades in basic Iraqi Arabic in a bid to win over the hearts and minds of the people.

Lectures will also deal with local customs, welfare problems and tough living conditions, including extreme weather changes.

An Army insider said: "They are taught words and phrases from a special vocabulary book so that they may address civilians politely but also issue orders and warnings.

"The prince will get instruction on the geography and climate of the region plus specialised drills that have been adapted just for Iraq.

"This ranges from contact drills — what to do if you or your unit is shot at or bombed — to the way sentry duty is carried out. What Harry and rest will get is the benefit of hard-learned lessons passed on by the men and women who've served before them.

"It's a final phase of training prior to deployment.

"The next step is a dress rehearsal exercise carried out by the entire brigade over several days in the UK.

"Once that's complete they're off to do the business."

As part of the build-up to war Harry will also spend a week on exercise with up to 1,000 other men on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, next month.

Harry will don a special laser suit that will reveal if he has been "shot" in the hi-tech war games.

Tellingly, Prince William, who is also part of the Blues and Royals but junior to Harry in terms of training, will NOT take part in the exercises or the OPTAG lectures.

Risky

Instead, he will embark on a troop leader's course in Bovington, Dorset, for five months starting from March.

As second-in-line to the throne he cannot serve in a war zone.

It has also been confirmed he will quit the army after a year before spending time with the RAF and Navy, combined with royal duties.

But young brother Harry is now set to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Prince Andrew, who served in the 1982 Falklands War flying Sea King helicopters on risky battle missions.

A Clarence House spokesman confirmed: "Prince Harry is undergoing this training but no final decision has been made on whether he will be deployed. That will come shortly."

But an inside source source insisted: "Harry's desperate to go.

"I wouldn't want to be the one telling him he can't get on the plane."

Additional reporting: ROBERT KELLAWAY

EXCLUSIVE: Strangler suspect's prison letter

2007-01-07T10:19:00.000Z

Exclusive by James Weatherup

THE man accused of murdering five Suffolk prostitutes has poured out his soul in a dramatic letter from behind bars.

Strangler suspect Steve Wright insisted to lover Pam Goodman, pictured below, that he did not kill the girls, whose naked bodies were found dumped around the outskirts of Ipswich.

"Please believe me when I say I'm not capable of those crimes," he pleaded.

Awaiting trial in south-east London's tough Belmarsh prison, 48-year-old Wright spoke out for the first time, revealing he is under a round-the-clock watch by guards.

"I am worried how you are coping with this nightmare," he told his partner of eight years in three pages littered with spelling mistakes (which we have left in).

"I keep hopeing I am going to wake up and realise it was only a bad dream.

Flak

"I don't want you to worry about me.

"I am stronger in mind and body than I make out.

"I know this is a frightening place but I am coping well at the moment as long as I know that you are all right."

Wright then begged Pam, 61, not to take any notice of what people are saying about him.

"I just want you to remember that I love you very much and I always have," he said.

"I just wish I had shown you more, you are my whole life.

"I know this must be tough on you because you are out there takeing all the flak. Weather bad comments from people who do not know us.

"I know that you will have the support of your friends and you will be OK. Try not to worry about me too much but I know that you will.

"Thinking about you is keeping me strong."

A close pal of the couple, who leaked the letter to us, revealed last night: "Pam burst into tears when she got it through the post on Thursday. She's been on a rollercoaster of emotion since Steve was arrested.

"She kept reading it and re-reading it and wouldn't put it down.

Stressed

"She is completely devastated by what's happened and feels she's been left high and dry.

"She's done nothing wrong but can't get back into her home to pick up clothes or anything personal.

"She's got nowhere to live and friends are having to put her up at a secret location just outside Ipswich.

"She's been prescribed tranquillisers by her doctor so she can keep calm. The enormity of this hasn't hit her yet.

"She's lost loads of weight because she couldn't eat for a week when it all blew up. She's still very stressed.

"The police have frozen her bank accounts so she's in complete limbo. They've even taken her phone so friends can't contact her."

Wright asked whether Pam had got her a Christmas present, not knowing that cops seized everything in their house at London Road, Ipswich.

He said he is desperate for more tobacco, spends his time watching TV movies and wants her to get a landline so he can make cheap calls to her.

"I have a televisoin outside my cell which I watch through the bars so you know I'm keeping up with all the soaps," he wrote.

"Mind you,EastEnders is a bit boring lately."

Then Wright detailed how he spent the three days after Boxing Day just like millions across Britain—glued to ITV's afternoon blockbuster repeats of the Back To The Future and Jurassic Park trilogies.

"I even watched The Railway Children, believe it or not," he added. "You know me, if the telly is on I have got to watch it.

"I am still trying to get the hang of rolling cigerettes because that is all they have in here.

"They gave me a smoker's pack when I first arrived but that went a couple of days ago so I am chewing my fingers a bit.

"I get £2.50 a week from the prison which will buy me a packet of tobacco. I suppose that will last three days if I smoke spareingly. When you come and see me, if you could bring me some boxer shorts and socks and some T-shirts and trainers."

Wright revealed he is reading a book lent to him by a prison officer and added: "Ninety-five per cent of them are OK.

Stupid

"Some have been really helpful. I'm on constant watch here which means I have a prison officer outside my cell 24 hours a day.

"I suppose it's to make sure I don't do anything stupid but you make me strong, honey.

"The thought of you pulling for me gives me a tremendous boost. I have got to finish this letter now so I can get it in the post. Just know that I love you very much.

"All my love and my thoughts are with you."

In a dramatic new twist last night it emerged that partner Pam has been barred from visiting Wright because of red tape. She cannot get in to see him because she can't prove her identity.

Another pal of the couple told us: "With the house closed up and everything taken away Pam hasn't got access to her passport, driving licence or even a utility bill which prison authorities need to prove who she is.

"She's very upset and desperate to see Steve as soon as possible.

"But she has now asked the police to see if they can get her permission."

On Friday Wright's estranged dad Conrad, 70, also said he wanted to visit his son, who is awaiting trial for the killings of Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Annette Nicholls, 29, and Paula Clennell, 24,.

"I'll look him in the eye and I'm certain that I'll know if he's done it," he said.

SADDAM: Last words of tyrant - SPECIAL REPORT

2006-12-31T09:52:00.000Z

By Robert Kellaway

IT WAS the Mother of all Executions...for the Mother of all Tyrants.

Evil Saddam Hussein was justly consigned to the pit of hell — dangling from his own noose.

The butchering Iraqi despot was led mumbling and stumbling towards his doom in the same execution chamber where he eliminated THOUSANDS of political enemies.

REPORT: 300,000 innocents can now rest in peace

ANALYSIS: Col Tim Collins - This death will heal Iraq

REPORT: President Bush - Good Riddance

COMMENT: Fraser Nelson - Our Columnist looks to the future

Saddam, who ruled his nation through utter terror for 24 years, shuffled towards the hangman's rope muttering to himself: "Do not be afraid, do not be afraid."

Filmed scenes of the dictator's last moments were flashed around the world hours after the execution but stopped short of the actual drop to his death.

But late on Saturday chilling fresh footage — believed to have been filmed on a mobile phone — emerged on the internet showing Saddam plunging through the trapdoor and then swinging at the end of the rope.

The video, sent to the News of the World, is taken from the foot of a wrought iron staircase leading to the crudely-built scaffold.

Chants

Saddam is seen being led on to the death platform by hooded executioners. The waiting noose hangs from a pulley bolted to the gallows' rough concrete ceiling.

The dark room is lit by the flare of flashbulbs as onlookers photograph the gruesome spectacle.

There is a rising chant from the crowd as the grim scene unfolds, which we have had translated:

ONLOOKERS: "May God bless Prophet Mohammed and his family, and curse his enemy."

The chant changes...

ONLOOKERS: "Muktada! Muktada! Muktada!"

This refers to Muktada al-Sadr, a Shia cleric leader and a direct opponent of Saddam. It would have been a galling taunt to the dictator.

ANOTHER VOICE: "Go to hell!"

ONLOOKERS (still chanting): "Long live Mohammed Bakir al-Hakeem."

This is another Shia leader who was killed in a car bomb attack outside a mosque in Najaf in 2003.

SADDAM (With the rope around his neck, he twice repeats this phrase): "I too bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I too bear witness that Mohammed is his prophet."

By this time the dictator has been kept standing on the platform with the noose tight round his neck for 45 seconds before suddenly, mid-prayer, the trapdoor springs open and he plunges to his death.

ONLOOKERS (chanting): "May God bless prophet Mohammed and his family, and curse his enemy.

Again, the chant changes...

ONLOOKERS: "The tyrant is dead! May God curse him!"

Then there is a voice in the background from someone who appears to be one of those in charge.

OFFICER: "Leave him for three minutes. Everybody move to the back."

As the world shuddered with relief at his historic execution, a witness revealed: "We heard his neck snap instantly and we even saw blood on the rope."

Sami al-Askari, a prominent politician close to the Iraqi Prime Minister, added: "In fact, they left him hanging for 10 minutes before a doctor confirmed his death and they untied him and placed him in a white body bag."

Before the corpse was taken away, officials took DNA samples to convince sceptics that they'd rid the world of the right man. Another witness—who lost 26 family members to Saddam's regime—said: "Now he is in the garbage of history."

Jawad Abdul-Aziz, there as a representative of all the tyrant's victims, added: "When I saw the body in the coffin, I cried. I remembered my three brothers and my father who he had killed. I approached the body and told him, ‘This is the well-deserved punishment of every tyrant'".

Iraqi national security adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told in astonishing detail how he stared into Saddam's eyes as the fallen dictator muttered reassurance to himself.

Mr al-Rubaie, one of a handful of witnesses, said: "He was very, very broken. He looked really, really weak. He looked at the gallows not believing what was going to happen. He kept on staring at me. I couldn't see any remorse in his look.

"They tied his hands at the back and it was a little bit tight so I instructed the guard to loosen it up. He was offered a hood but he said, ‘There is no need for that.'

Then the rope went around his neck, tightened, and the executioner started to read rituals from Koran.

"He went down in no time. It was so, so quick and totally painless. It was over in a second.

"We took the body and it was respected. We put him in plain white clothes and carried him to the ambulance and then to the helicopter."

Appeal court judge Munir Haddad, who also watched, said: "I witnessed the impact of the rope around his neck and it was a horrible sight."

He revealed that one of the guards had asked close to the end: "Why did you destroy Iraq?" But unrepentant Saddam replied: "I destroyed the invaders. I destroyed the enemies of Iraq and turned Iraq from poverty."

The execution took place at 3am British time Saturday — around dawn in Iraq — just 30 minutes after Saddam, 69, was released by US Forces into the hands of the Iraqis at the former military prison in Kadhamiya on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Earlier he had been woken in his permanently-lit whitewashed cell in the US Army's Camp Cropper in the city, where he had been held as HVD1 (High Value Detainee One) since he was sentenced to death earlier this year for the massacre of 148 Shia Muslims in 1982.

He was offered a traditional Arab breakfast of yoghurt, toast and tea or his favourite cereal Raisin Bran before being handcuffed and flown out by helicopter.

On arrival at the execution chamber he launched into an anti-West rant. Security adviser Mr al-Rubaie said: "He started his rhetoric of long live Islam, down with Persia, down with the West, down with this, down with that.

"He was shouting his head off. He was broken but he was trying to put up his old rhetoric."

Officials explained to him everything he had been convicted of. Then Saddam—wearing a black woollen overcoat, black trousers and white shirt all stitched by his personal Turkish tailor—was bundled upstairs to the gallows by SIX burly guards.

A black cloth was placed around his neck to stop the rope cutting his flesh. Saddam frowned as two hangmen helped him shuffle forward and positioned him in the centre of the right-hand trapdoor.

They placed the enormous noose over his head and around his neck. The eight-coil, five-inch wide hangman's knot was tied from hemp rope one and a quarter inches thick.

Blood

The hangman to Saddam's left held it in place with his right hand and twice pulled hard to tighten the noose. Another pulled the gallows lever sending him through the trapdoor. His neck broke instantly.

Around 15 official witnesses saw his body fall, blood clearly visible on his neck where the rope had sliced through, despite the black cloth.

The Iraqi government decided to act before dawn because of Eid, one of Islam's holiest days. It was important to finish the execution before the day began at sunrise.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and ex-judge Awad al-Bander also face hanging but their executions were delayed until after the week-long religious celebrations.

Ironically, the prison at Kadhamiya where the execution took place—now dubbed Camp Justice by the Americans—was the former hellhole HQ of Saddam's military intelligence.

He ordered thousands of his enemies to be tortured there and executed on the same gallows.

In effect, the vile tyrant, who threated the West with "the Mother of all Battles" in the first Gulf War, was hanged by his own rope that he used to slaughter so many.

Saddam's lawyers issued a statement of empty bravado. It said: "Saddam Hussein fell a martyr after he tried his judges before they convicted him. The martyr remained fearless, honest and clear-minded."

But the country he ruled with murderous brutality was last night finally able to plan for a future free of fear.

EXCLUSIVE: Secrets of 'Suffolk Strangler'

2006-12-24T13:34:00.000Z

By Georgina Dickinson

(Additional reporting: CHRIS TATE)

THE HEARTBROKEN elderly mum of Steve Wright believes her confused son is LAPPING UP the notoriety of being a suspected serial killer.

Collapsing in tears, Patricia Wright, 67, revealed: "Steve is normally a bit withdrawn. I think now he is enjoying all the attention without realising the seriousness of it all.

"All of a sudden he is like a star. Everybody is talking about him and he's on the news. He doesn't understand how terrible this is."

But Patricia, who fled a violent marriage and moved to the United States when Wright was still a teenager, is convinced her son is innocent of the murders of five Ipswich prostitutes.

She said: "This is a serial killer, a monster. I don't think Steve is smart enough to be a serial killer and cover his tracks."

Patricia sobbed as she spoke exclusively to the News of the World at her home on America's East Coast hours after forklift driver Wright, 48, appeared in court charged with the Suffolk Strangler murders. She recalled how he:

- SUFFERED a troubled childhood at the hands of his disciplinarian father Conrad, an RAF corporal.

- HELD his breath until he passed out if he feared a smack from his strict dad.

- ENJOYED having a string of girlfriends that he aways treated like princesses.

- SAVED stray animals as a child and always looked after them.

- TURNED against her under his father's influence after the divorce.

- FELL out with her in a drunken, four-letter rage the last time they met.

Shattered Patricia told how she has been weeping ever since learning of her son's arrest.

She said: "My daughter Jeanette called and told me that they were questioning Steve for the five prostitutes that had been murdered. I said, ‘Oh my God'.

"Then I turned on the TV and there it was. I've been watching the news ever since. I have been crying for about three days. It's so unbelievable. I was worse when they actually charged him...then the floodgates really opened.

"Steve couldn't do anything like that. I don't believe he did it, but if he did, he needs help. It's not something a sane person does and he seemed pretty sane to me."

Retired veterinary nurse Patricia, who now lives with second husband Ron, added: "My heart and my prayers go out to the families of these young girls who did not deserve to die the way they did."

Patricia married Wright's father Conrad, an RAF corporal, soon after she got pregnant aged 16 in 1956. They had children David, now 49, Steve, 48, Tina, 47, and Jeanette, 45.

She says her second son was the apple of her eye. But he had a rough upbringing at the hands of his dad as they lived on RAF bases across the world before finally settling in Suffolk.

Patricia said: "Steve was shy — especially in a crowd — but he was such a love when he was a kid.

"He loved animals. One time in Singapore he and his brother brought home a snake. Then it was a turtle and then a puppy from the beach.

"I never saw any violence there. He definitely didn't have it in him when he was a little boy."

But her marriage to Conrad turned into a fiery one. She recalled: "As we went to Malta and then to Singapore the marriage became increasingly violent.

"Steve was withdrawn. He was afraid of his strict dad if I wasn't there. He would actually hold his breath and pass out if he thought his dad was going to smack him."

The family returned from the Far East and Patricia made the decision to get out. She intended to take the children too.

But when they arrived in Ipswich she says her husband grabbed their sons and told her: "You're not getting the boys."

Patricia was forced to abandon her children and move into a bedsit.

She said: "I went to the welfare people and tried to get my children back. But they wouldn't let me have them because I was living in one room.

"Conrad poisoned the children against me. He said I left them because I didn't care.

"I wrote a letter to him asking to be allowed to visit them but he wouldn't let me."

Patricia moved to the USA and didn't see any of her children again for more than 15 years.

But she was reunited with twice-married Wright when she visited him during Christmas 1992 at the pub he was running.

She recalled: "At first Steve was great. We talked a lot and we were fine. He lived above the pub on the outskirts of London and we stayed with him. He had a baby then.

"He had the prettiest hair still and he had a lovely smile. Then he changed completely before I went to the airport.

"When I got home he left this terrible message on my phone. He was drunk and I could hardly understand very much. It was F this and F that.

"If he could say those terrible things he obviously didn't want anything to do with me."

In another insight into her son's life, Patricia added: "Steve's had a rotten life but he doesn't go around killing people. I don't believe he would do that. He was never cruel.

"He didn't have any problems getting girlfriends. He always seemed very nice to them. But he never seemed able to stay with one woman."

Former QE2 steward Wright, who was arrested on Tuesday, is being held at London's Belmarsh prison in the same suite which once housed Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

He is accused of killing prostitutes Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Annette Nicholls, 29, and Paula Clennell, 24. whose naked bodies were found dumped on the outskirts of Ipswich.

Patricia is hoping to get a message to him in his cell. She sobbed: "I want to tell him I am here if he needs me.

"I'd tell him I don't believe he did what they are saying. I'm praying for him."

EXCLUSIVE: Strangler victim's client was top cop

2006-12-17T13:14:00.000Z

MURDERED Paula Clennell is pointing the finger at a senior policeman punter from beyond the grave, the News of the World can reveal.

The officer — who works for a neighbouring constabulary — was a regular client to her AND one of the Suffolk Strangler's other victims.

Paula 24, volunteered the information to detectives shortly before her death when she was quizzed over two fellow hookers.

At the time Gemma Adams was dead and Tania Nichol was missing.

An insider told us: "The detectives asked Paula to list her clients. She told them that one of her regulars was a senior police officer with another force who she shared with one of the other girls.

"She revealed that she visited him at a house in Suffolk.

"Irrespective of what this man does for a living, this is now an active line of inquiry.

"He won't be treated any differently because of who he is. This is a murder investigation."

Paula was known to regularly pair up with other girls to entertain clients. Last night, Suffolk police refused to deny that they were actively investigating the officer.

A spokesman said: "We are interested in speaking to anyone who may have had contact with any of the victims."

And Det Chief Supt Stewart Gull, who is heading the investigation into the murder of the five Ipswich prostutes, told us: "Regardless of whether he's a police officer, I am not going to be drawn on a particular individual.

"We are looking at a number of interesting individuals and that's my line."

A spokesman for the force where the client is allegedly based said: "If there is a police officer who has had any contact with any of the victims it is their professional responsibilty to come forward and we would ask that they do so at their earliest opportunity."

Paula was filmed by a TV company on December 5 as she continued to walk the streets in the red light district of Ipswich even though the body of Gemma had already been found and Tania was missing. She told ITV Anglia: "I need the money. But I am a bit wary about getting into cars."

Our source said: "Paula clearly went with the killer knowing a murderer was on the loose so it is likely she was familiar with the punter."

It is possible that the girls — all addicts — were given drugs to render them powerless. Toxicology tests are being carried out on all five bodies.

Meanwhile detectives have released poignant CCTV footage of the last time vice girl Anneli Alderton, 24, was seen alive.

The grainy 1 min 59 seconds video was taken on a train at approximately 6pm between Harwich and Colchester on December 3 and there were no sightings of her after that.

Seven days later her body was found in woods at Nacton near Ipswich — the third to be discovered. She was three months pregnant. Det Ch Supt Gull said: "We need to piece together Anneli's movements after this. At what stage did Anneli get off the train? And where did she go after that? If anyone saw Anneli after Sunday December 3 we want to hear from them."

Almost childlike, Anneli looks excited as her train nears a station. Seemingly alone she uses the dark windows as mirrors and preens and poses as if getting ready for a night out.

She is dressed in blue jeans, a black zipped anorak with fur-lined hood and grey top. She carries a nylon tie-up bag. Unaware of the camera, she delves into the bag and pulls out a tatty Aldi carrier, from which she grabs a can of hairspray and brush.

DIANA EXCLUSIVE: Final verdict of crash probe

2006-12-10T10:41:00.000Z

NO ASSASSINATION, NO COVER-UP, NO BABY

Exclusive by Ryan Sabey

THE MAJOR probe into the death of Princess Diana will DESTROY once and for all the myths and conspiracy theories about the crash, the News of the World can reveal.

A £2million, two-year inquiry led by former Met Police Commissioner Lord Stevens, below, will deliver its findings on Thursday.

We can exclusively divulge that the bombshell dossier will conclude that new blood tests show that the Princess was NOT PREGNANT.

She was NOT ENGAGED to boyfriend Dodi Fayed. There was NO ASSASSINATION plot and NO COVER-UP afterwards.

The car was NOT SABOTAGED —it was in perfect working order.

And a mystery white Fiat didn't cause the crash . . . driver Henri Paul was three times over the drink limit and going TOO FAST.

Codenamed Operation Paget, the crack investigation team interviewed 400 witnesses and friends, examined 20,000 official documents, and conducted new forensic tests.

The report contradicts many claims made by Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed after Diana and his son Dodi were killed when their chauffeur-driven Mercedes crashed in the Pont l'Alma tunnel, Paris, in August 1997.

It will be examined by Royal coroner Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss before she starts formal inquests in the New Year.

One theory, that the Di and Dodi were engaged, was proven to be untrue after investigators examined footage of interviews given by friends and family of Dodi to US TV journalist Daphne Barak.

THE THEORIES

THE THEORY: Al Fayed claims a nurse passed on Diana's so-called "last words" to him at the Paris hospital. She allegedly said: "I would like all my possessions in Dodi's apartment to be given to my sister Sarah. And please tell her to take care of my boys."

THE FACTS: Investigators have probed staff lists and duty rosters but the mystery nurse has never been found. During extensive interviews with the News of the World last year, Al Fayed's bodyguard Kez Wingfield rubbished his story. Our findings were crucial to the inquiry.

Kez accompanied Al Fayed to La Petie-Salpetriere Hospital in the early hours of that Sunday morning. He said: "The boss NEVER set foot inside the hospital and DIDN'T talk to any nurses.

And a hospital spokesman said: "The Princess was unconscious on arrival and then she had a heart attack. She was not capable of speech in her last hours."

THE VERDICT: NO last words.

THE THEORY: Al Fayed claimed Di and Dodi had told him she was four or five weeks pregnant just before the crash.

THE FACTS: Embalming fluid used on Diana's body could have given a false positive in any pregnancy test. But fresh forensic tests carried out on tiny droplets of her blood taken from the car back seat were found NOT to have the hormone level of a pregnant woman.

New techniques used by the enquiry team on tissue and blood samples confirmed this. And close friend Rosa Monckton confirmed that Di's period had started around 10 days before the crash, making it impossible for her to be expecting.

THE VERDICT: She was NOT pregnant.

THE THEORY: Diana was killed by MI6 because Prince Phillip didn't want the mother of our future king marrying a Muslim.

THE FACTS: Two secret servicemen supposed to have been involved were interviewed by the inquiry. They were never in Paris. MI5 and MI6 opened up their files and no plot was found.

Any killers would have had to know Diana's plans in detail. But the car and driver were only called up at the last minute to trick paparazzi. The route was random and the car was not sabotaged.

THE VERDICT: There was NO plot.

THE THEORY: Mysterious white Fiat Uno made her car crash.

THE FACTS: French police never traced the car despite searching a database of 112,000 Fiats. It was alleged Di's Mercedes hit it before it crashed into the wall of the Alma tunnel. White paint was found on the wreckage but its origin has never been traced.

A French cameraman who drove a white Fiat Uno denied being in the tunnel that night. His body was found in a burnt-out car in 2000 amid speculation he was murdered. But investigators concluded the crash simply happened because the Merc was going too fast.

THE VERDICT: Fiat didn't cause smash.

THE THEORY: Chauffeur Henri Paul was a French spy in on the assassination plot. Blood samples were tampered with to brand him a drunk driver as part of a cover-up.

THE FACTS: Paul WAS a sleeper for French Intelligence but that had nothing to do with it. The inquiry took new samples for testing and checked them with the DNA of his parents. They concluded the original tests were not faked. Paul was "as drunk as a pig" on a combination of booze and tranqillisers.

THE VERDICT: Driver WAS drunk.

THE THEORY: Al Fayed claims Dodi bought Di a ring and they were engaged.

THE FACTS: Investigators pieced together a minute-by-minute account of Diana and Dodi's final hours. They have spoken to close friends of the couple and studied hours of footage of interviews by US TV journalist Daphne Barak.

She interviewed several pals of the playboy who said he'd he made no mention of an engagement. A step-uncle who spoke to him on the fateful night revealed he told him he was only THINKING of proposing.

In one of her last conversations with best friend Rosa Monckton, Diana dismissed talk of an engagement. And a Monte Carlo jeweller who claimed they had chosen a £230,000 emerald ring has since changed his recollection of events.

THE VERDICT: She was NOT engaged.

MYLEENE BARES ALL: EXCLUSIVE

2006-12-03T10:05:00.000Z

By Nadia Cohen

I'M A Celebrity jungle babe Myleene Klass has confessed how she was bursting to bed her hunky lover the moment she got out.

She peeled off her grimy shorts and T-shirt to remind breathless fiancé Graham Quinn exactly what he's been missing for the past three weeks.

Talking for the first time of their amazing sex life, TV's loved-up Queen of the Jungle exclusively told the News of the World: "Graham's an incredibly gorgeous man—of course I couldn't wait to get back in his arms.

"It was the longest we've ever been apart, and the longest we've ever gone without making love. After all the bruises and cockroaches it was wonderful to feel his arms around me again."

Relaxing in their plush five-star hotel suite, the former Hear'Say beauty giggled as she recalled romantic highlights of their six hot years together: "We're pretty adventurous sometimes—we've done it on a piano and I know all the practice rooms at my old music school intimately.

"I can safely say they were not only used for practising classical music!

"Graham loves my body and he adores it when I dress up for him in stockings, suspenders and stilettos.

"I really enjoy that but I'd only do it for him. If everyone saw it, it wouldn't be ours."

Myleene—who was just pipped for first place in the show by new King of the Jungle, Busted star Matt Willis—revealed how she secretly pined for Graham as she battled for votes in the steamy rainforest.

She said: "I missed having my best friend in there to cuddle up to at night, to lay my head on his chest and have that pillow talk."

FIANCE'S SHAMEFUL PAST

Myleene Klass opened her heart for the first time about the shameful past of her fiancé Graham Quinn—a convicted heroin dealer.

I'm A Celebrity runner-up Myleene, 28, insisted Quinn—who she lovingly calls ‘Gray'—is a reformed character and she is determined to stick by him.

But she confessed: "I knew all about what he'd done right from the start, but I never judged him.

"I'd have to be perfect myself, like Mother Teresa, to pass judgment on somebody like that."

Problem

Pusher Graham was arrested in 1996 with more than £1,000 of heroin but jumped bail and spent six years on the run, changing his name from Smith to avoid capture.

He was on the Interpol wanted list when he met Myleene six years ago as a bodyguard for her band Hear'Say.

He immediately confessed his past to her, but it wasn't until his picture was recognised in a news-paper that Myleene encouraged him to give himself up and face the music.

He was expecting a harsh punishment, but escaped with a £1,500 fine and an 18-month suspended prison sentence after pledging he had turned his back on crime.

Myleene admitted: "Gray's not proud of what he did. But now he's a changed man and he has done good work with a lot of kids. I've seen him put his hand in his pocket and take needy children to hostels.

"He genuinely had a problem back then, he took drugs, but he's paid the price.

"I never felt trapped or duped because he'd been honest from the start.

"I stood by him and he's stood by me in some very dark times. People say ‘In sickness and in health' and those words, they mean something to me.

"Because of what Gray's been through he's wise and not so quick to judge, and I like that. When I went into the jungle he said ‘Make sure you'rebloody perfect before you criticise.'

"And that's why I got along with everyone. Gray would never do what he did again, he wouldn't dare. I know he wouldn't."

Myleene revealed she now plans to marry in the New Year and start a family.

And she said the close bond she feels with Graham even worked in the jungle. "There were times during my 19 days in there that I honestly felt like he was in there with me," she said.

That feeling was especially strong when Myleene found herself alone—like she was in those sensational shower scenes in a skimpy bikini that drove millions of TV fans wild!

Glimpses of water splashing over those killer curves sent temperatures soaring in wintry Britain. But modest Myleene had no idea she was putting on such a show. "I find it hilarious," she laughed. "I can't imagine people found that interesting. I'd no idea everyone was going on about the white bikini. All I could think about under the shower were the bruises and cockroaches all over me, and how cold it was!"

Myleene, dubbed I'm A Celebrity Queen of the Jungle after becoming the final girl left in there, developed a special routine to spare her blushes from the hidden cameras.

"I did this whole song and dance changing into my bikini in the dunny, then coming out and putting my shorts and hat on," she said.

"I'd wear it all down to the waterfall then leave my clothes by the side so that as soon as I was out I could throw them back on.

Cough

"Just like every woman I don't like my own figure. If it's a photo you can seem perfect, but in real life I know what's going on out there.

"I only went for showers in the afternoon when nobody was around.

"But you don't realise there are cameras and cameramen everywhere until you hear a tree cough!

"The camera guys gave me a round of applause when I came out. I said, ‘Is that for the singing?' But they just winked and said, ‘You'll see!' I had no idea!

"I'm like every other girl. I have conversations about stretch marks and cellulite. I hate my bum and thighs, who doesn't?

"All girls have those wobbly bits. And I genuinely love my food. I lost a stone in the jungle but I've had two burgers already so I'm going to stick that straight back on and love every minute of it.

"My fella Gray will say I look amazing but he's my fella. He has to say that. Or he won't get fed!"

EXCLUSIVE: IGOR THE POISONER

2006-11-26T10:14:00.000Z

POISONER NAMED: Sushi assassin outed as Ruski vet

Exclusive by James Weatherup

THE ruthless assassin at the centre of the Litvinenko poison murder is a highly-trained veteran of Russia's deadly Spetsnaz special forces.

The News of the World knows the killer's full identity but for legal reasons we are just using his middle name Igor.

The 46-year-old expert in covert operations was dramatically fingered in a bombshell document passed to former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko at London's Itsu sushi bar before he was slipped lethal radioactive polonium-210.

The three-page dossier was handed to Scotland Yard by the victim and is now being analysed by the anti-terrorist branch. The News of the World has obtained a copy and can reveal it contains a chilling hitlist with Litvinenko, 43, as a prime target.

Alert

A security source who leaked the document to us said: "This is dynamite. It's clear there's a violent and ruthless campaign to wipe out anyone who gets under the skin of the new regime in Russia."

And as a massive police manhunt got underway to find Igor, understood to be deep undercover at a secret Italian hideout, health officials in London went on alert.

Following an emergency meeting of the government's COBRA comittee, an appeal was issued for anyone who used the Piccadilly sushi restaurant and the Millennium Hotel — both used by former KGB colonel Litvinenko on November 1, the day he was poisoned — to contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647. Both places tested positive for radiation.

It also emerged that the Sushi bar is to be decontaminated and that polonium traces have been found at two other separate addresses in the capital, and also at Litvinenko's home.

The extraordinary hitlist, which was originally given to Litvinenko by Italian academic Mario Scaramella, mentions the doomed poison victim FIVE times.

It reveals that Dignity And Honour, part of a group of ex-KGB spies, appear to be waging their own Cold War on dissidents trying to embarrass President Vladimir Putin.

After naming Igor the document describes his killing capabilities and expertise. He walks with a slight limp after an accident to his right leg, but is lean and muscular, six feet tall, with greying black hair.

He is said to be a "master in judo" who speaks perfect English and Portuguese as well as Russian.

The hitlist in the leaked document, which appears to be a whistleblowing report from an insider, details names in the firing line including:

- FEARLESS journalist Anna Politkovskaya who was shot dead in Moscow last month, after exposing Russian atrocities. (top left)

- PROFESSOR Mario Scaramella, who gave the document to Litvinenko and probed KGB infiltration for the Italian parliament. (top right)

- HUMAN rights activist and novelist Vladimir Bukovsky, who campaigned over attempts to dump radioactive material off northern Russia. bottom right)

- ANTI-PUTIN billionaire Boris Berezovsky, 60, who bankrolled a candidate to stand against Putin in the 2004 elections. (bottom left)

- CRUSADING Italian Senator Paolo Guzzanti who is in charge of an influential committee probing KGB links in Italy. (centre)

It has neem revealed that Litvinenko was poisoned with a massive overdose of the deadly polonium-210. A Whitehall source told the News of the World: "A few microbes would be fatal, but we think he had a TEASPOON'S worth—more than a billion times what was needed to kill him."

Experts believe the poison was delivered in a liquid solution in drink. After learning of the "worryingly high" levels of radiation discovered at the sushi bar, the government issued its plea for customers — and those of the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar, which was yesterday sealed off — to contact NHS Direct.

By Saturday more than 300 diners had called in.

The experts fear that if, say, a waiter's finger came into contact with the poison it could be passed on in "a daisy chain effect", from person to person.

Itsu boss Clive Schlee insisted: "I understand the Health Protection Agency has to take all precautions. But I've not had a single report from our staff or customers of any illness related in any way to November 1."

In yet another twist to the drama, sources close to Litvinenko also claimed there was a connection between his murder and the mystery death of a British lawyer in a helicopter crash two years ago.

Stephen Curtis, 45, who died in 2004, was chairman of security firm ISC Global which worked for a group of Russian tycoons who had fallen out with Putin.

Our insider claimed: "The inquest recorded accidental death but two weeks before the tragedy Stephen said if something happened to him it would NOT not be an accident.

"He had told of threats and felt he was under surveillance. I'm told he also had a ‘hit list' similar to Lit-vinenko's and had passed it onto the authorities."

TIMELINE TO MURDER

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7: Journalist Anna Politkovskaya is shot dead. Litvinenko begins to probe.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1: Litvinenko meets Italian academic Prof Mario Scaramella at Itsu sushi bar London and receives hitlist papers. Then he meets two Russian men at the Millennium Hotel. Later falls sick and admitted to Barnet Hospital.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17: Transferred to University College Hospital.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20: Moved to Intensive Care. Kremlin denies any involvement.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23: Litvinenko dies at 9.21pm.

TWO-TIMING MARIA: Sound of Music star caught cheating

2006-11-19T09:59:00.000Z

Exclusive by James Desborough

SOUND Of Music heroine Connie Fisher has a secret Edel-vice—sneakily doing all her favourite things with backstage sound man Leigh Davies.

After innocently kissing hero lover Neal Williams ‘So Long, Farewell' at home, she rushes to the arms of her London Palladium squeeze.

In a cheat-packed week, Connie— whose pure voice and goody-goody image clinched the lead role as the songbird nun in TV reality show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?—was clocked:

- SNOGGING Davies passionately in dark alleys and doorways.

- MOUTHING sweet nothings on an intimate dinner date.

- ENJOYING romantic hand-in-hand strolls around London's West End.

- CUDDLING up with him on the backseat of a cab.

One fan who spotted them told us: "They behaved like a couple really smitten. Their hands were all over each other and those clinches were so passionate. They only had eyes and lips for each other."

The week was all go. While keeping those trysts from trusting soldier Neal, crafty Connie, 23, managed to win rave reviews for the Andrew Lloyd Webber hit's official opening, wow crowds at the glitzy first-night party and put on a storming performance of Do-Re-Mi for Friday's BBC Children In Need marathon.

Connie, 23, and Davies, 29—who also has a long-term partner, actress and singer Vivienne Carlyle—went to great lengths to hide their relationship from the rest of the cast and crew. But on FRIDAY November 10 Connie and Davies were spotted slipping away from the theatre for a cosy dinner date.

Caressing

The technician waited nearby while Connie signed autographs for waiting fans. Then he jumped in a VW people carrier with her and they were whisked to Soho. After being dropped off they held hands as they walked to swish Italian restaurant Carpe Diem on Wardour Street.

They sat at a small table and talked passionately, caressing each other's hands.

Eventually they emerged, but gazed longingly into each other's eyes then ducked into a dark alleyway for an intimate two-minute snog. A bit later they were seen kissing in a doorway.

Hand-in-hand, they strolled to Soho Square and enjoyed yet another kiss and cuddle on the corner.

As Connie's driver pulled up, Leigh tenderly kissed Connie on the lips, saying goodnight. He then waited for his car to take him home to Gidea Park, Essex.

A theatre insider told us: "You'd have believed that Connie and Leigh were the real thing—they were all over each other."

Next day—SATURDAY, November 11—they were at it again.

Pembrokeshire-born Connie kissed he-man Neal–who has served under fire in Iraq with the 31st Signal Regiment—on the driveway of her home in Sydenham, south London, before heading in to perform her matinee at around 12.30pm.

The couple, who have dated for more than three years, met up for a Chinese meal close to the theatre around 5.15pm. Unsuspecting Neal then returned to his Wimbledon home.

After the evening show, when stage door crowds had vanished, Connie and Davies came out and walked arm in arm towards Carnaby Street.

The pair held hands, chatted affectionately and stared long into each other's eyes before ducking into a dark corner and kissing intensely for about two minutes.

A fan who spotted the action said: "Even though they tried to duck out of sight they could be seen getting very intimate. They really went for it." All smiles, the couple turned back but couldn't resist a second doorway session with Connie's hands running all over her man's back.

They then walked separately to the nearby Shaston Arms pub, arriving around 12.30am for drinks with friends. Forty minutes later Neal, 27, met smiling Connie at the pub front door. They left holding hands soon after, and headed back to her home.

The fan who saw it all told us: "Connie just switched back into faithful girlfriend mode. She acted like everything was normal, and they walked off hand in hand.

"Her boyfriend didn't seem to have a clue about what happened just minutes earlier." On MONDAY Connie was with Neal at the Palladium until early evening. Minutes after he left, Davies arrived for work around 6pm.

After the show he watched from a doorway across the road and made a phone call as Connie signed pictures for fans. Then he strolled off down Regent Street—until Connie picked him up there in her chauffeured people carrier 10 minutes later.

In the back of the car they hugged passionately and went into a deep snog. As they drove across town Connie was clearly seen nuzzling and kissing Davies. At around 11.30pm Leigh got out at Liverpool Street Station, enjoying a lingering smooch before jumping onto a train home.

Another driver told us: "They were like teenage lovers. The second the bloke set foot in that car, Connie just flung herself onto him."

On TUESDAY Davies and Connie again took time out to enjoy each other's company, strolling down Carnaby Street deep in conversation for 35 minutes.

WEDNESDAY was the show's press night followed by a big star-studded launch party. Connie and Davies both arrived with their partners. Smiling Connie and Neal headed home around 1.30am. But Davies and Vivienne, right, appeared to have a blazing row on their way out around 20 later. Furious Vivienne, 34, who has starred in West End musicals herself, pulled away from her man as he tried to walk arm in arm to their car.

On THURSDAY night after the show Connie repeated her Monday routine of picking Davies up in Regent Street, away from the theatre, before enjoying a 20-minute kiss and cuddle in the back of the car on its way to Liverpool Street.

Minutes earlier Davies had even pretended to say goodbye to the singer, helping load her bags into the car outside the stage door and strolling away. At one stage on the ride across town Connie disappeared low in the vehicle for over three minutes as Davies remained motionless.

After a long goodnight snog at the station Davies walked away and blew the star one last kiss.

Despite a whirlwind rise to fame from telesales to West End megastar, Connie vowed to stay grounded and stick with signalman Neal. She has said: "Neal is my own rock...we haven't changed. I can come home and always be his Connie."

She added: "He's so gorgeous. He looks like Brad Pitt, so there's no way I'm letting go of him. There's more chance of him running off with Jennifer Aniston than me running off with anybody."

But a source at the London Palladium revealed: "Connie and Leigh's friendship has been the talk of the show for the past few weeks. They appear extraordinarily close. It's got tongues wagging."

Last night, when asked about Davies, Connie said: "Are you serious? He's my sound guy. I haven't time for an affair.

"I go out for drinks with lots of members of cast and crew. Going out for drinks is not having an affair."

BRITNEY SEX TAPE BLACKMAIL

2006-11-12T11:42:00.000Z

By Rav Singh

SUPERSTAR Britney Spears is facing a mega divorce payout because she did it again and again and again... on a HONEYMOON sex video.

Dumped husband Kevin Federline has been touting the four-hour tape for sale and has already been offered £26 MILLION.

A film company wants to make it available online to fans around the world.

One close pal said: "This vid is dynamite and Kev knows it."

And the News of the World can also reveal that Britney slapped divorce papers on Federline - who had already been linked with hookers - after she caught him in a bedroom with another woman.

Explicit

Britney, 24, fears the raunchy footage will destroy her wholesome image unless she caves in to his demands for a £16million payoff and custody of their children Sean Preston, one, and Jayden James, eight weeks.

She is worried she will become infamous like Paris Hilton - whose home-made sex video, was put on the internet by her ex and became one of the world's most popular sites.

Federline, 28, has bragged to pals that his X-rated tape shows the Oops, I Did It Again singer performing a series of explicit sex acts.

The home-made video is believed to show the naked couple enjoying an uninhibited range of love-making and sexual games.It was made during the first weeks of their relationship two years ago when they were holed up in one of the exclusive bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles.

The source close to Federline said: "At the time the two of them were in the honeymoon stages of the relationship and couldn't keep their hands off each other.

"They did nothing all day but have sex - and play the odd game of chess.

"They were insatiable and they believed they would be together forever.

"Britney didn't think twice about making the video at the time. She mistakenly believed that their love would last.

"They adored filming each other. They lived their lives in front of the cameras - even making a short-lived reality TV show of their exploits.

"Sex was no different to them, it seems. Now this video could prove very costly to her.

"Millions of people will be prepared to pay to watch.

"Kevin has told Britney she should comply with his demands otherwise the whole world will see her having sex, which will be devastating."

He added: "At the moment Kev is in talks with a company in Arizona about putting the four-hour sex vid online. If it all goes to plan he'll make £26million from it."

The source explained that Federline is so enraged with his estranged wife he will do anything to hurt her.

Meanwhile a pal of Britney added: "She is absolutely furious with Kevin, and knows a full-on sex video could almost certainly ruin her chance of a career come-back.

"They were made for the couple to watch in the privacy of their home. She never thought that he'd threaten to SELL them.

Playing

"Britney has contacted her lawyers to see how she can stop him but it is going to be a hard one. It is his tape, so in theory he owns the copyright."

We can reveal Britney - worth at least £50million after hits like Hit Me Baby One More Time - filed for divorce after she stormed into his hotel room and found him with another woman.

The singer flew into New York a day after her wannabe rapper husband to join his tour.

But he stood her up at The Library restaurant, and she was seen in floods of tears before storming to the Regency Hotel where he was staying. A source said: "It is against the hotel's policy to give keys to people not staying in the hotel, but she was so upset that when she demanded it they handed it straight over.

"She raced up to his room and found another girl in there.

"They didn't need to be doing anything. Just the fact she was in there was enough to confirm months of suspicions, rumours and accusations about him playing away.

"Two members of staff were fired for handing over the keys, but the damage was done.

"Britney had seen all she had to and decided their marriage was over on the spot."

Last week she filed for divorce after dumping him by text.

Federline is only entitled to £2million and half the sale of their £7million home in Santa Barbara because of the watertight pre-nuptial agreement they signed before they wed.

Britney also gets to take back his £78,000 Ferrari, custom-made motorbike and any gifts worth more than £6,000.

Two days later Federline filed his own divorce petition. He is demanding £16million, custody of their children and for Britney to pay his legal fees and maintenance.

A pal said: "The bid for custody of the kids was a warning shot that Kevin means business.

"And, more importantly, that he is NOT going to go away quietly with his pre-nup pittance.

"He wants an awful lot more. and he'll most likely get it."

But the star put a brave face on her troubles this week as she celebrated her freedom. She was spotted beaming away in a big baggy jumper at an ice rink in New York.

Giggling as she took a twirl, the singer was filmed by a fan.

Coke, Vice Girls and Vegas

By Georgina Dickinson

SOBBING Britney broke down in her mum's arms last week as she finally admitted: My husband is a love rat into GAMBLING, HOOKERS and DRUGS.

Worried Lynne Spears begged her daughter to leave Federline. Now Britney has finally accepted that he:
- ROMPED with Vegas hookers,
- SNORTED cocaine and popped ecstasy in a limo, and
- SQUANDERED millions on boozy 24-hour gambling sessions.

A close friend of Britney revealed: "For ages she was blinded by love for Kevin. Now she's seen the light."

Prostitute Danielle Coakley, 20, has told how she took drugs and partied with Federline while Britney was pregnant. She said: "Kevin was a real party animal. We went to two casinos then back to his hotel suite in Vegas. There were lots of drugs—cocaine, weed and ecstasy. We shared an E in his limo on the way then passed out on his bed." And £500-a-night stripper Vanessa Hulihan, 30, revealed she spent weekends with him.

She said: "Kevin said we could be together if he wasn't married. Another time I went to his hotel suite and the tub was full of strippers."

Kevin was also seen blowing thousands at gambling tables while cuddling up to porn star Kendra Jade, 29.

Secrets of her £65m Pre-Nup

CANNY Britney has protected her millions with a watertight pre-nuptial agreement of astonishing detail, it has been revealed.

Federline may be using the sex video in the hope of upping his payout but LEGALLY he's entitled to as little as £160,000 cash.

Britney, then worth £65million, even staged a fake wedding in September 2004 because the pre-nup was not ready. The couple then went through a second legal ceremony almost three weeks later.

The pre-wedding deal, referred to as the Smith and Jones Cohabitation/Pre-nuptial Agreement, states the couple agree to each have a one-half share of their £5.2 million home in Malibu.

The agreement BANS Federline from getting his hands on any money Britney had before their marriage when a large part of her fortune was earned.

It also BANS him from getting any cash from deals pre-dating the marriage.

Even gifts he has received from her valued at more than £5,263 require a legal document signed by both of them stating who owns it if they split.

In the first draft of the pre-nup, Federline was due to receive £18,947 a year in the event of a split. This was later increased to £157,894 ‘spousal support' for every two years of marriage. As they wed just over two years ago, this could be all he gets.

Kevin Federline was worth £15,789 when he wed. He submitted a one-page document listing assets. He was earning £39,000 a year, while his bride's income was £10.2 milllion. The pre-nup lists Britney's bling as worth £170,000, including a diamond engagement ring she bought herself.

Merchandise, including her perfume Curious, earned her £8.5million, endorsements £11million and music, including touring, royalties and a record deal were worth £13.5 million.

FLASH CAN KILL HIM!

2006-11-05T10:13:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Beckhams' fears over epileptic son Romeo

By Rav Singh

VICTORIA Beckham has confessed that her son Romeo is battling epilepsy, the News of the World can reveal.

Posh and Becks were "devastated" when specialists confirmed that their four-year-old middle child has the brain condition which causes violent fits.

Sufferers can die during an attack and many have to take medication for the rest of their lives.

Posh has revealed that she and David are now terrified flash photos will spark an epileptic fit that could kill him.

The world's most-photographed celebrity family are desperate to protect little Romeo from fans and paparazzi eager to get a snap.

The lad, who turned four just five weeks ago, has been warned to avoid flashing lights known to cause potentially-fatal seizures.

The frightened youngster reacted violently after being photographed at Heathrow last Saturday as he returned to Britain from Madrid with Posh and brothers Brooklyn, seven, and Cruz, one.

Initially he shielded his eyes against the flashes as his mother pushed him through the terminal building in his buggy and out to a waiting car.

He then started screaming in terror and lashing out with his legs as one photographer pressed his camera inside the car and started flashing.

Only then did horrified Posh, 32, reveal the truth about brave Romeo's dangerous condition.

She pulled her blond-headed son to her, shielded him from the lights and yelled: "Leave him alone.

"He's got epilepsy. All that flashing will start an epileptic fit. You can't do that!"

Kevin Smith — owner of Splash news, the agency that took the shot —said: "No picture is worth putting a child's life in danger.

"Now that we know Romeo has epilepsy I will not be authorising any of my photographers to take flash pictures of him. I think this is absolutely the right thing to do and I hope other agencies follow suit."

And we at the News of the World are only printing the shocking picture — taken BEFORE the facts were known — to persuade fans and the world's press to act responsibly.

The frightening incident came soon after specialists told the couple that Romeo's condition was more serious than first feared and that he had epilepsy.

Romeo has endured a series of frightening fits and has been rushed to hospital four times in three years.

Intially it was thought his attacks were simply febrile convulsions, common in young children running a high temperature.

But when the fits continued with no clear explanation he was tested for epilepsy, which has now been confirmed.

A close friend of Posh and Real Madrid star Becks said: "They have told friends the situation. While it's heartbreaking, he is being brave.

"They are devastated — worried sick about Romeo. He is on medication to control the seizures but obviously things like flashing lights can trigger one at any time.

"They can only hope the medication limits the number of fits he suffers to a minimum and he can enjoy as normal a life as possible. Epilepsy affects a great number of people and many grow out of it. They are just praying Romeo gets better."

A friend of Victoria's said of the Heathrow drama: "Romeo was very distressed. He hates flashes going off because he knows what they can do to him.

"Normally he just shields his eyes but this was right in his face. There was nowhere for them to go.

"Victoria was really scared and tried to shield him. She was furious. That's why she yelled out — anything to make them stop and think about what they're doing to him."

Flash photography is one of the trigger factors for epileptic seizures. In extreme cases attacks can be fatal. News of the World doctor Hilary Jones said: "We do not know how seriously the condition affects Romeo but if he is having grand mals — which cause the sufferer to thrash about and bite their tongue — it can cause a fatality.

"It is extremely rare but the Beckhams will not want to expose him to that sort of risk. The paparazzi — and the fans — should take care when they're around Romeo."

Victoria has been seeking advice from celebrity pal Elton John, who also suffers from the condition. He is godfather to little Romeo and his older brother Brooklyn.

The pal added: "Elton has been a tower of strength for the Beckhams since they found out the news. He's been able to tell them how it affected him and how to cope."

Other famous sufferers of epilepsy include Julius Caesar, Vincent van Gogh, Sir Winston Churchill, Napoleon, actor Richard Burton and comic Rik Mayall.

Plucky Romeo was first rushed to Princess Alexandria Hospital in Harlow, Essex, in October 2003, aged just one, after suffering frightening convulsions.

He had a high temperature and his face had turned blue. He was kept in overnight for observation.

Just weeks before he had two stitches in his forehead after falling on an escalator in Madrid.

Then in July last year he was taken to hospital again after suffering similar convulsions.

In October Romeo was back in hospital twice in four days in Madrid after collapsing again.

Former England skipper David, 31, postponed plans to fly off for a World Cup qualifier against Austria to be at his son's bedside.

Romeo was first taken to the La Paz hospital for two hours before his parents were allowed to take him home.

But four days later the Beckhams rushed him to the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid where he was detained for four days for extensive tests.

- Epilepsy affects one in every 130 people in the UK.

- Sufferers can experience petit mals, which are slight blackouts, to grand mals, where their bodies convulse and they can lose consciousness for several minutes.

- It is treatable with anti-convulsant drugs and most sufferers can lead a normal life. But in more extreme cases their lives can be ruined by near-constant seizures.

- In six out of ten sufferers, epilepsy can be explained by brain tumours or injuries to the head. But for the rest there is no easy explanation and the cause remains a mystery.

The Beckhams have had their share of medical scares with their sons. Brooklyn had a hernia operation at just six weeks old.

Last night a spokesman for the Beckhams said: "We can't comment on any medical matters."

But a friend of the couple added: "It's been a harrowing period for Victoria and David. They are desperately worried about their son."

MACCA EXCLUSIVE: Stella's bitter hatred for Heather

2006-10-29T14:01:00.000Z

"I'LL KILL THE BITCH"

By Rav Singh and James Desborough

PAUL McCartney's daughter Stella threatened to KILL her hated stepmother in a blazing bust-up with her dad, we can reveal.

The fashion designer flew into a terrifying rage after hearing that Heather claimed Macca hit her mother Linda.

Pregnant Stella, 34, had to be restrained by the former Beatle as she screamed: "I'm going to kill that bitch! I can't believe what she's doing! I'm going to kill her!'"

It was clear she didn't mean it literally but she was beside herself after reading what Heather had said about Linda.

"I told you she was a bitch," she screamed. "Why did you marry her? She's been a manipulative cow from day one. The cow won't be happy until she destroys all of us — and our memories of our mother'."

Last week we revealed how Heather was the violent one in the collapsed marriage, smashing up rooms, hurling missiles and making threats against her husband.

Now we can reveal the full extent of Stella's bitter hatred of the woman who replaced her beloved mother. Our source revealed how:

# THE two women thrashed out an astonishing HATE PACT after the marriage so they would never have to talk to each other.

# STELLA is so disgusted by the blonde ex-model she compared her to a pile of VOMIT, calling her morning sickness "Heathering".

# ONLY weeks away from giving birth, Stella is under so much strain she has HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, putting her pregnancy in jeopardy, and Sir Paul, 64, is drinking heavily.

# HIS marriage was in tatters TEN MONTHS ago — and when a desperate Sir Paul suggested marriage counselling, 38-year-old Heather REFUSED.

Stella's explosive rant happened during a meeting with her dad to discuss the divorce. "Paul kept pleading with her to calm down—but she couldn't," said a source close to the family.

"She wanted to go straight to see Heather, but he said, ‘You can't go anywhere in that state'. He had to stand in front of the door and stop her. He was pleading with her. It was a heartbreaking scene."

And it was the culmination of a resentment that had been bubbling since the day Macca announced he was going to marry the ex-model.

Our source told how a few weeks after the 2002 wedding, the rock legend got Stella and Heather together on a secret night out in London.

"He was adamant they should be one big happy family — he didn't realise how wrong he could be.

"From what Stella said to friends she told her stepmum she was a money-grabbing bitch and Heather hissed at her to mind her own business.

"The upshot of a very frosty evening was, ‘You keep out of my way, I'll keep out of yours'. It broke Paul's heart."

Stella's hatred only deepened as she watched the marriage crumble.

When she had morning sickness she gave it a nickname. "She called it Heathering. That's how bad it is," said our source.

"Heather is just vomit as far as she's concerned. But what she's doing to Stella's dad is really getting to her. Her blood pressure is very high, not something you need in the latter stages of a pregnancy."

Our source told how the marriage was in trouble from the start of this year.

"They were arguing over anything and Heather was taking it out on her staff. Once she reduced their gardener to tears because she didn't like the way he'd cut the flowers.

"Paul would spend more and more time at Stella's and would be constantly on the phone to her when he was at home.

"He would say, ‘I just don't know what to do any more. I love her but she's become this horrible woman.'

"Stella would get so upset listening to her dad she once said, ‘I don't want to bring my child into this world with her as a grandmother. She's a bitch from hell'."

In May, Macca suggested marriage counselling in a last-ditch attempt to save their marriage, said our source. But she flatly refused. "She told him he was the problem and if he sorted himself out it would all be fine," said our source. "This was the last straw for Paul who started drinking heavily. Stella grew more and more concerned.

"It was at this point Stella noticed Heather would carry a black Prada bag with her and Paul said she'd always leave it in the middle of the table. They now believe it had a tape recorder in it." Stella never saw them fighting — but did once walk in after they had a bust-up over Heather's spending.

A source close to Stella said: "She told me Paul was close to tears.

"Heather had been spending far too much on clothes and they had a huge row with Paul telling her to cut down.

"She would buy bags of outfits and wear dresses only once. It was like she had won the lottery. Paul really loved her and would do anything for her but it was just take, take, take."

The one good thing from the marriage collapse is that it has drawn the McCartneys together again as a family. Macca has seen much more of Linda's daughter Heather, 43, who stayed away from his Peasmarsh home throughout his new marriage.

"It was a huge surprise for loads of staff when Heather turned up at the house to see her stepdad," said our source.

"She'd not visited for four years. The same applies to Mary and James, his other kids.

"Paul would have to go to see them rather than them coming home. In the last few months that's changed. They're united against Heather."

MACCA BITES BACK

2006-10-22T10:35:00.000Z

By James Desborough

Shattered Paul McCartney plans to unleash damning evidence in his bitter divorce battle with Heather Mills.

Hurt by her leaked court papers claiming he was a violent, drug-taking drunk, Macca has enough ammunition to destroy the beauty's lies — and prove that it was HER who was the violent nightmare in their four-year marriage.

In our exclusive coverage, you can also read:

PAUL'S LOYAL AIDE ON HEATHER'S 'LIES'

HEATHER'S FATHER THINKS SHE'S 'MAD'

For the first time since the showbiz divorce of the century started, one of Sir Paul's aides has broken ranks to tell the News of the World how Heather:

# SMASHED up chairs and threw ornaments at the singer in screaming rows at their Peasmarsh home.

# HURLED a bottle of ketchup at him during one blazing hour-long bust-up over dinner.

# RANTED at him constantly in front of staff, branding him "old man", and a "b*stard".

# SPAT out her chilling threat to ruin him in a car-park showdown, yelling: "I'm absolutely gonna take you to the cleaners."

# DEMANDED Sir Paul use his millions to buy a string of homes.

# LONGED to have her own chat show—and FANTASISED about becoming the new Posh.

# DESERTED bewildered Macca for weeks at a time leaving him to look after toddler Beatrice.

The aide's revelations come as Macca's former loyal PR man Geoff Baker — sacked by the star because of his suspicions about Heather — also blasts holes through the blonde's accusations.
Screaming

Our insider — who does not want to be named — told us: "For Paul the gloves are really off now, and he's ready to trash her in court.

"He refutes her lies and is is preparing to detail HER appalling behaviour. The staff have seen it all — and we reckon he's a saint for putting up with her as long as he did.

"Paul spent millions of pounds on her — but she never appreciated it. She became like Andy from Little Britain —‘I want that one, I want that one — wherever she went. If he turned her down she just let rip at him."

The aide said staff often witnessed fights between the two at the 64-year-old former Beatle's 160-acre estate in Sussex. They heard the couple screaming at each other, and furniture being wrecked in the living and dining rooms and kitchen from September 2003 — a month before Beatrice was born.

Our source said: "It was Heather who caused all the rows by constantly nagging Paul, and they turned violent. Her face would go red with rage.

"I have seen her slam doors in his face, and when he followed her into a room there would be crashing, banging and smashing.

"You could hear what was happening, and it sounded like Heather was the one doing the attacking. Chairs were smashed as well as ornaments. Then the housekeeper would have to come in and clean up afterwards.

"There was at least one of these a month and we'd all walk around with our tin hats on."

Staff dubbed the most vicious fight the "ketchup battle" in September 2003.

"One of the cleaners said it was like a tornado had hit the living room. Vegetarian food was all over the floor, lamps were smashed, crockery, cutlery and glasses were broken.

"But on the wall there were the marks where a bottle of ketchup had been thrown and landed just behind where Paul usually sits. It must have just missed him.

"They had to get special cleaners to clear up the mess. A very expensive carpet was ruined and had to be chucked out.

"This argument was the most talked about, but not the last. Those cleaners visited the house at least five times a year from then on after big rows between them.

"Paul always tried to keep his rows away from the staff, but you couldn't fail to hear Heather screaming. We all knew it was another humdinger and to keep our heads down."

Macca's aides also witnessed a terrifying row in the car park close to their main home on the estate last summer.

"After they pulled up in his Mercedes she leapt out of the car waving her hands at him and screaming, ‘If you wanna get rid of me, do you know how much it is gonna cost you? Do you know how much you stand to lose? I'm absolutely gonna take you to the cleaners'."

Staff believe that was the row which brought home to Sir Paul what a mess he was in. They had known for a long time — and had themselves been on the rough end of her tongue too often.

"She was called the Ice Queen behind her back," said the aide. "She was often rude to us. We all felt that she saw us as slaves."

Slaving

And she reckoned her husband wasn't slaving hard enough to make her a star. Once, when he tried to stop her haranguing him about her potential TV career at the swish Hilden Health Club in Rye, staff heard her rant: "You're an old man.

"You b***tard, don't you care anymore? Don't you love me? I've given you a baby — is this how you repay me?"

The source continued: "Many rows came out of Heather's hopes to make it big on TV. In summer 2004 she was even begging Paul to help her get her own chat show.

"I remember her saying, ‘I want a chat show on my own, everyone else is doing it — why can't I have one?'

Dozens of rows were fuelled by Heather's desire to turn her and rocker Paul into an older version of Posh and Becks.

"Heather dreamt of living like the Beckhams. She wanted that showbiz lifestyle," said our source.

"She desperately wanted to do photo shoots in glossy mags. She kept asking, ‘Why can't we do that. Why are they in there and we're not?'"

She made up for what she saw as her lack of fame by trying to spend like a billionaire. In one heated phone call in March, Paul appealed to his wife to stop demanding he buy more homes, said our source.

"He asked her, ‘How much have you got to have before enough is enough?'"

Troublemaker Heather, 38, would leave the family home for weeks at a time after bitter bust-ups from the summer of 2004 — often going to her home in Brighton.

"She'd just suddenly up sticks, jump in her Porsche and disappear. Then they didn't see each other for a week or even two and he was left with the baby. Two weeks was the longest she stayed away.

"It was always up to Paul to make up, and get his wife back. While she was away he would always say they had a clash of diaries — but to us that was the codeword for they'd fallen out and she'd gone off."

Paul would be left to look after Beatrice. "This is where we all think Heather shoots herself in the foot," said our source.

"In her court papers she alleges Paul is a drunk and drug user, yet she's quite happy to leave the baby with him for a week while she goes off to America at short notice."

Macca's aides believe Heather's divorce paper accusations were a move to prompt him into handing her a whopping payout.

"When he saw those claims Paul was absolutely devastated," added the insider.

"He's still in complete disbelief at what she's said and is going to fight her tooth and nail.

"He's tried to call her but we're told she won't pick up the phone. It's crazy because we all expected an out of court settlement was close to being agreed. Now she's pushing for half of everything or holding out for £200m.

"Paul wants this done and dusted, he wants this dealt with so he can get on with his life and back to normality.

"He doesn't want a slagging match in court or in the media."

However the confidante did claim Macca will bring up Mill's past as a porn model and hooker — revealed by the News of the World — in court.

"Quite simply for Paul the gloves are well and truly off. He will bring up her past life and could take this divorce into a whole new direction." Paul's aide is confident his boss will prove himself innocent of Heather's claims.

"She is living in the realms of fantasy. Many of us have known Paul for more than 20 years and he's not a violent human being.

"I've never seen him drunk with Beatrice and if he has a spliff he becomes your best mate, rather than wants to kill you.

"There are many members of his staff, band and entourage who will testify to that. Heather should be the one doing the worrying."

ROM FACES £5.5bn DIVORCE BATTLE

2006-10-15T12:02:00.000Z

By Neil McLeod

SOCCER billionaire Roman Abramovich faces the biggest divorce payout in history as his marriage hits the rocks.

The News of the World can reveal that the Chelsea tycoon's wife Irina has called in top lawyers following his close friendship with beauty Daria Zhokova, 23.

Last week Abramovich, 40, failed to get a court injuction to stop us exposing the relationship - now he stands to lose HALF his £11 billion fortune.

Irina has called on two of Britain's toughest divorce lawyers — nicknamed Jaws and Mr Payout — in a bombshell move that follows months of marital misery.

If she wins a £5.5 billion settlement from the Chelsea owner it would dwarf the world's current record divorce payout of £1 billion.

One insider said last night: "It simply is too big to comprehend. There are oceans of cash to be split, companies, yachts, homes and cars.

"This could be the divorce battle to end all divorce battles."

We can reveal that Irina, 39, the mother of Rom's five children, has called in lawyers Sears Tooth, one of the country's leading divorce firms.

They acted for Cheryl Barrymore in her split from comic Michael and for Sadie Frost in her break-up with Hollywood actor Jude Law.

Irina has kept several appointments at their London offices over the past two weeks.

Boss Raymond Tooth, known as Jaws in the legal trade because of his fearsome reputation, saw her personally.

She instructed the firm to take her case past the talking stage and they have already appointed one of Britain's leading divorce barristers to handle the case if it goes to court.

Slick QC Nicholas Mostyn, 49, is known as Mr Payout because of his amazing success rate — including winning £4 million for former England star Ray Parlour's wife Karen.

The £500-an-hour court showman has also been drafted into Sir Paul McCartney's team in his divorce fight against Heather Mills.

Despite being driven in a limo and guarded by ex-SAS bodyguards, Irina was able to visit the Park Lane offices of Sears Tooth without fuss.

Her visits have come to light following our revelations last week about her husband and beautiful brunette Daria Zhukova, 17 years his junior. Abramovich tried to gag us with a High Court injunction but failed.

A source revealed last night: "They were kept very hush hush. She met with Raymond Tooth, the top man in the whole company and he will be over-seeing her business personally. Some clients can get handed down to other partners, but not a lady who can lay claim to part of £11bn.

"Irina is tough and means business. Things have gone well beyond the stage of making a simple enquiry.

"It will obviously be a massively complicated case as Abramovich has dozens upon dozens of businesses, accounts, holdings and funds."

For months the Chelsea boss has rarely been seen with his wife and has been jetting all over the world for meetings with stunning model Daria. Another source said: "The Abramovich marriage has been suffering for some time now. They have struggled to keep it under wraps but many people have noticed.

"They live pretty much separate lives. She has long been frustrated by his devotion to his business interests and football, now she has to contend with his close relationship with another woman.

"He does a lot of globe-trotting — but she cannot follow him everywhere he goes because she, not a team of nannies, looks after their children.

"There is more to the marriage split than just Roman's relationship with Daria. In truth, Irina was seeking to do something about the marriage long before news of that relationship broke.

"But now it has, it will be very difficult for her to turn back. It is sad but it seems this really is irreversible."

Abramovich, who bought Chelsea for £140 million three years ago, started out as a penniless orphan and is now the world's 11th richest man. His wealth in cash alone is estimated at £8 billion.

As for homes, his collection of mansions is his pride and joy.

He owns the £18 million, 420-acre Fyning Hill Estate in West Sussex, a £29 million penthouse in Kensington, and the £15 million former home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Chateaux de la Croe in France.

He has an £11 million five-storey listed house in Belgravia, an £18 million six-storey mansion in Knightsbridge, a £10 million pad in St Tropez and a 104-acre estate near Moscow worth £8 million.

He once ordered a £4 million extension at Fyning Hill to be knocked down because it was too small, and told builders to put up a £5 million replacement.

Then there is the fleet of ships. Flagship is the £72 million Pelorus, which has bulletproof glass and its own submarine.

Another, the Ecstasea, is also worth £72 million. It has its own pool and Turkish bath.

A third cruiser, Le Grand Blue, cost a modest £60 millon and has its own helipad. It is used mainly for staff. A fourth "gigayacht" worth £100 million is under construction.

He also has his own aircraft — a £56 million Boeing 767, a £28 million Boeing Business jet, and two helicopters worth £35 million.

He has a fleet of cars and spent £1 million on two made-to-order versions of the world's most exclusive car, the Maybach 62, for him and his wife.

One of Irina's first tasks, as with any divorce, will be to list all of her husband's wealth.

But Abramovich — who rarely gives interviews and remains a man of mystery — may not want his business dealings revealed in court.

Our source said: "The whole thing may simply be too complicated for him to want to get involved in and an out-of-court settlement could be the best way to go."

Irina, who became his second wife in 1991, met the tycoon when he was so poor he couldn't afford a beefburger. She was his rock as his empire grew and they had five children, now aged between three and 13.

She is close pals with former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell and has been decribed as a "frenetic shopper" who loves Prada, Gucci and Armani — with London's Sloane Street said to be "the centre of her universe."

LIAR: Week Two of our Tommy Sheridan sensation

2006-10-08T14:02:00.000Z

By Euan McColm

LAST week we promised you further damning revelations that prove Tommy Sheridan is a liar, an adulterer and a hypocrite and - unlike the Scots sleazeball - we are true to our word.

Now we can expose another HUGE lie told in court by two-faced Sheridan. The News of the World's dynamite 40-minute video reveals that the shamed politician DID go to a swingers' club with Danish beauty Katrine Trolle.

And his confession undoubtedly means the ex-Scottish Socialist Party leader's snivelling denials that he enjoyed threesomes with her and romped with her in his wife's bed are also brazen lies.

It proves beyond any doubt that the MSP committed PERJURY during his libel case against the News of the World AND pulled the wool over the jury's eyes to win his record £200,000 payout.

Hours after we published our first excerpts last Sunday, police launched a criminal probe which could send Sheridan and four colleagues who backed his story in court to jail.

Now - in the second instalment of our tape - when quizzed by close pal George McNeilage about Cupids sex club in Manchester, sleazy Sheridan confirms that 31-year-old Katrine went with him and his brother-in-law Andy McFarlane.

But the foul-mouthed MSP says: "She's a f*****g diamond...she'll never admit anything like that."

HE WAS WRONG.

Stunning Katrine's bombshell confession

Proof that the voice on our tape IS Sheridan's

FOUR more clues that blow his 'fake tape' claim out of the water

His former pal George McNeilage brand him 'bonkers'

To view this week's video select one of the links below:

Windows Media Player: Low quality High quality

Real Media Player: Low quality High quality

VOICE OVER: Last week we exclusively published tapes which proved that MSP Tommy Sheridan conned the jury at his libel trial against the News of the World. Sheridan won the case….and £200,000 in damages. No we exclusively reveal even more damning evidence against him…..

The MSP told a court that he had not visited a swingers club – and that he had not admitted this to a meeting of the SSP’s Executive Committee.

But during a secretly videoed meeting in November 2004 with George McNeilage – a best man at Sheridan’s wedding – the politician confessed all.

He admitted that he had been to the club – and that he had been unfaithful to his wife with News of the World columnist Anvar Khan and SSP activist Katrine Trolle. Sheridan told McNeilage that SSP official Duncan Rowan had informed the News of the World about his affair with Katrine – but insisted she would not speak up about her trip to Cupids with the politician and his brother in law Andy McFarlane.

In this clip, Sheridan begins by referring to Duncan Rowan…

SHERIDAN: Goes to, goes to the News of the World and fires in Katrine Trolle’s name.

MCNEILAGE: That’s the lassie..

SHERIDAN: That’s the lassie from Dundee, right.

MCNEILAGE: Her that was in Cupids with f****** you and f****** Andy?

SHERIDAN: Absolutely. Absolutely. He goes and fires..I don’t know.

MCNEILAGE: (Inaudible) she said I’m f****** flattered and all that.

SHERIDAN: Katrine. Katrine is solid. Katrine is f******.

MCNEILAGE: She’ll never admit it.

SHERIDAN: she’ll never admit.

MCNEILAGE: Nae money

SHERIDAN: Never. She’s not interested in money. She’s a f****** diamond. She’ll never admit anything like that. Not a f****** problem. What p***** me off is a comrade goes and sticks in another comrade: to the News of the World.

VOICE OVER: Sheridan went on to say he regretted telling colleagues about his swinging shame.

SHERIDAN: That just finished me. I’ve then got Leckie, Catriona Grant, there saying have you been to lap dancing clubs? Have you paid for prostitutes? Have you did this? Have you had an affair with this Fiona McGuire? George, I’m telling, I’ve told the story and I wish I hadnae.

VOICE OVER: SHERIDAN told how he lied to a journalist who asked why he had stepped down as SSP chief. The MSP bragged that he had lied saying he was quitting to spend time with wife Gail and their child, due to be born in 2005.

SHERIDAN: So I then have to say to him look that’s just p***. You’ve got the wrong end of the stick. What’s happened is I’ve f****** resigned. I’m having to face up to a new chapter in my life. I don’t have a clue. I’m nervous about being a father. I’m going to have to f****** work at it. We’re a one man band, according to all you, but now we’ll prove we’re no’ a one man...so I’ve put a positive f****** spin on it and that’s also a big mistake, right, because what’s happened, George, is I’ve done too well. I’ve actually f****** put a..I’ve put a very good spin on it. I’ve f****** come out fighting with it and it was a believable story. It was far fetched, perhaps, to some people but it was a believe...all the circumstances were there. The nominations have opened. Tommy’s wife’s pregnant, everybody knows that. Eh, Tommy’s 40 years of age. Everybody thinks the party’s a one man band, so it’s there, we’ve got a package. Thursday morning, I go in and I f****** give it full barrels. all sorts of wee questions about my personal life.bang bang bang I’ve dealt with it, George. I’ve f****** dealt with it and now I’m free.

EXCLUSIVE: The secret tape proving Tommy Sheridan lied

2006-10-01T08:03:00.000Z

By Euan McColm

CHEATING Tommy Sheridan can now be exposed once and for all as a LIAR, an ADULTERER and a HYPOCRITE.

The ex-Scottish Socialist Party leader condemns himself in his OWN words in an explosive 40-minute video tape.

The recording was made in secret by George McNeilage, best man at the left-wing firebrand's wedding to wife Gail, 42.

And it proves beyond any doubt that the MSP committed PERJURY during his libel case against the News of the World AND pulled the wool over the jury's eyes to win his record £200,000 payout.

Now you can read:
# the full transcript of the tape
# the lies that damn him
# and the reason George McNeilage is mad with his former friend.

NOW HEAR HIM CONFESS ALL - CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SHOCK TAPE

On the tape, the 42-year-old perma-tanned politician admits that he:

# VISITED Cupids swingers' club on at least two occasions
# DID go to the seedy Manchester sex den with News of the World columnist Anvar Khan, and
# CONFESSED to a meeting of the SSP executive on November 9, 2004 that he had been there.

During the sensational five-week trial at Edinburgh's Court Of Session — which ended in August with Sheridan being awarded £200,000 in damages — he insisted that he had NEVER visited Cupids.

He also told the court he had NEVER been there for sex sessions with Anvar.

He maintained that he had NEVER slept with her since they dated in 1992.

Sleazy

And he told the jury that he had NEVER confessed to that crunch SSP summit that he had attended the swingers' club.

The bombshell tape is the most explosive piece of evidence in the history of Scottish defamation trials.

It could send Sheridan to jail for perjury — and it is crucial in the police investigation into four of Sheridan's colleagues in the SSP who swore blind to judge and jury that he had never confessed his sleazy secrets to the executive meeting.

If they are found guilty, then party MSP Rosemary Byrne and SSP officials Graeme McIver, Pat Smith and Jock Penman could all be facing a jail sentence in high-profile cases that would cut a huge swathe through Scottish politics.

In his conversation with McNeilage, the TRUTH comes out and contradicts what Sheridan would say as he conducted his own defence in the Court of Session just two months ago.

One of the pivotal points of the trial came when he denied he had been confronted by the SSP's policy chief Alan McCombes about being a swinger: "No, it's not accurate. It's nonsense," he maintained.

But on tape he admits he told McCombes: "Look, stupid, shouldnae have done it. Done it once before in '96 and went back in 2002. And cheap thrill but it's been done and that's it."

Emergency

McNeilage recorded his conversation with Sheridan on a camcorder hidden beneath some tiles while he was decorating the front room of his home in the Pollok area of Glasgow.

He didn't release it at the time because he was certain his old friend would lose his court case and the evidence wouldn't be needed.

Sheridan, a member of the Scottish Parliament who describes fellow MSPs and party colleagues as c***s during the talk, visited McNeilage days after an emergency meeting of the SSP forced him to quit as the party's convener as the row about his private life erupted.

The trial, which began in July, was still some time away. But the issues raised in court are already on his mind.

On the tape, Sheridan is seen walking in front of the camera before sitting down. He can then be heard clearly talking to McNeilage.

His damning words can be read in the transcript. But amongst the most serious threats to his marriage and his future freedom is the cynical way he uses columnist Anvar Khan.

Sheridan tells how SSP policy chief Alan McCombes called him in October 2004 as soon as McCombes had seen the revelations from Anvar's book Pretty Wild printed in our paper.

In our story, which did not identify the politician, Anvar, 39, admitted having an affair with an unmarried MSP and visiting a swingers' club with him. In the book, her lover's identity is hidden behind false details — and when it was suggested in court that Sheridan was that man, he said with bravado: "That's a downright lie."

Public

Yet on the tape, Sheridan explains: "Alan (McCombes) comes on the phone saying, ‘Is this you?' I said, ‘Of course it is'."

Sheridan then carefully calculates that a public ‘confession' that he had slept with Khan BEFORE starting his relationship with wife Gail would help him to cover up allegations that the relationship carried on AFTER the marriage.

He says on the video: "There's been a few sessions...which is in certain respects my saving grace because if there's any story about what she knows about my personal habits or if she knows about I've got a hairy back or a hairy a**e, of course she does because she f***ing sha**ed me and I've admitted that.

"That's out in the open. That's a matter of public record."

The admission will stun Sheridan's wife. Gail was a potent force in the courtroom and drew smiles from the jury when Sheridan asked her if she would have given evidence if she believed the accusations against him.

Gail replied: "There's no way I'd be here. Neither would you.

"You'd be in the Clyde with a piece of concrete tied round you and I'd be in court for your murder."

Millions of TV viewers will remember her by his side as he strode out of court, punching the air and crowing to his army of supporters.

In court, Sheridan also denied having a series of steamy romps with former escort girl Fiona McGuire, and insisted that he had NOT been unfaithful to ex-air hostess Gail with party activist Katrine Trolle.

And central to the case was, of course, his denial that he had ever admitted visiting Cupids to his party's executive committee.

Deceit

Indeed, 11 members of the party who were there that night — and testified in court that he had confessed — were made to sound like liars as Sheridan conducted a bravura performance of deceit.

But explaining to McNeilage how he was called to the meeting, Sheridan says unguardedly: "I then make the biggest mistake of my life by confessing something in front of 19 f***ers...what am I doing confessing in front of these c***s?"

The MSP also told McNeilage that he was angry about former pal Keith Baldassara's refusal to contact him as details of his sordid private life began to emerge. He said: "I love Keith to bits and he's not phoned me once."

McNeilage responded: "I think he's p****d off, Tam. Do you know how? I think he's p****d off because everything's now all surfacing, everything's now all surfacing that we f*****g warned you about f*****g years ago, right?" Sheridan answers: "Fine fine."

Last night McNeilage told us: "I recorded the tape as Tommy was already starting to spin the truth about what really happened at the SSP meeting on November 9, 2004.

"I grew up with Tommy, went on picket lines with him, was arrested with him at demos. But he's ended up betraying everyone."

He added: "People need to know the truth about Tommy."

When we confronted Sheridan at his Glasgow home last night, he raged: "You're liars and everyone knows you're liars."

BETRAYED: MI6 left Brit spook to be tortured

2006-09-24T09:18:00.000Z

A British secret agent abandoned by his MI6 spymasters to be tortured by the Taliban has lived to tell his incredible tale, only to the News of the World.

From his recruitment, through a series of body-littered missions to his eventual betrayal by a sinister henchman and his arrest and torture, Colin Berry relives his incredible story at machine-gun pace in his new book.

Our man Dan Evans picks up the smoking cartridges of a truly terrifying tale...

BRITISH secret agent Colin Berry squeezed the trigger of his 9mm Makarov as an Afghan bullet thudded into him, slamming him backwards on to the hotel bed.

Eight shots exploded from his pistol. And as the last spent cartridge clattered on to the floor amid a haze of cordite, the wounded MI6 spy knew it was time to escape from hell.

In Berry's room lay two dead Afghan chemical weapons dealers who had come to kill him—his cover blown after daredevil missions in which he:

STOPPED missiles from falling into the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists planning to shoot down jumbo jets

RISKED his life to locate Taliban fighters and arsenals—ending up in a terrifying mountain gun battle, and

TRAINED a force of Afghans to fight the Taliban—only to find them all beheaded after they set off on a mission.

But what Berry didn't know as he sat phoning for help while trying to stem the blood from his wounded side was that his masters in London were to betray him—and leave him to be tortured for SIX MONTHS in a Kabul jail.

"I was the perfect deniable agent for them," says Berry, 37. "They recruited me, told me I was doing work of national importance—and then dropped me in the s***."

Former Queen's Regiment soldier Berry says he was approached by MI6 in 2002 as he ran an engineering firm exporting housing to Afghanistan.

Spooks believed his job was perfect cover. Both they and the CIA wanted him to work with sinister Greek-Cypriot arms dealer Nikkos Nikolaides who had been caught plotting against British forces in Cyprus and turned double agent.

"We were told to get into the market and buy up systems like Stinger and Blowpipe (missiles) which the west had sold to the Mujahideen to down helicopters in the war against the Soviets," says Berry.

"Now we wanted them back before al-Qaeda got them." Nikolaides got the ball rolling soon after Berry arrived in Kabul.

"Colin, my friend, we're going to see a man about a missile," he said. An Afghan colonel handed it over near an art gallery. After Berry inspected the Stinger the man was given $300,000 in notes.

"This first buy established a pattern," says Berry. "The word went out about Nikos and me and we recovered eight Stingers, 25 Blowpipes, 20 Russian SA-7 Strela missiles and 30 RPG-18 anti-tank weapons."

Soon he was given more dangerous work. In December, 2002, he completed a nine-hour mission into the mountains to locate the exact GPS position of a secret al-Qaeda cell.

Then MI6 sent him to find a remote mountain pass being used by al-Qaeda to traffic raw opium. He had to flee an ambush by mountain bandits to get his valuable information back.

His next assignment was checking out a tunnel with a Scud missile hidden in it. Berry posed as an aid worker to get into the village guarding the tunnel entrance.

After getting the evidence he wanted at dead of night he and his guide Karsi left the next morning, only to be followed by two 4x4s packed with Kalashnikov-toting rebels who opened up.

"I shouted to Karsi, ‘We're going to have to take them out'. Then I leaned back and pulled out an AK-47 I had hidden under a blanket," says Berry.

He raced ahead and pulled off the road behind a rocky outcrop, leaping from the vehicle with his gun.

"As they came around the bend I let rip a long burst straight through the windscreen. As the 4x4 careered across the road I followed it with three to four bursts. It went into the ravine.

"The second car braked and I turned and raked it. Karsi and I looked in. All there was was smoke and burst raw innards. We pushed it into the ravine."

Berry was then approached by an Afghan general to train 20 of his men to cross into Pakistan and spy on an al-Qaeda HQ there. He kept the work at a mountain camp secret from Nikolaides who he had begun to suspect was double-crossing him.

Berry got close to the group's leader, Walheed. He had felt a fatherly worry for them all as he sent them towards the Pakistan border.

But when he lost radio contact with Walheed, he and Karsi knew something was wrong and set out to find them. "When I saw the vultures hovering my heart sank," he says. They found all 20 beheaded.

"Walheed had not had an easy death. He had been tortured and burned. The bottoms of his feet had been beaten," says Berry. The furious Afghan general blamed Nikolaides and the CIA.

If Berry had doubts that he was being double-crossed, they disappeared when two Afghan warlords, Sherjhan and Husseini, pulled guns on him as they met him at his room at Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel in February 2003 to sell him a chemical called Yellow Rain.

"I lunged forward and hit Husseini hard but his gun went off as he fell backwards into a chair and it felt as if something had been pulled backwards out of my side," says Berry.

"As I fell into the bed I pulled out my pistol and thought, f*** you—and shot Sherjhan first three times in the chest then Husseini three times as he got back up and tried to shoot me again. I finished him off with a bullet through the head."

Berry knew the game was up. CIA agents got him to hospital from where he expected MI6 to spirit him back home.

But instead he was arrested by local police, dragged in pain to their HQ and accused of being a spy.

Whipped

Days later in a dingy room he had electrodes attached to his feet. "Admit you're an American spy," snapped the sinister general interrogating him.

"I shouted ‘I'm not... F***!' The pain as the current went through me was excruciating," says Berry. His torture went on for six months during which he was caged in a dark 4ft by 8ft cell with an earth floor and no bed or toilet.

When he attacked an officer and tried to escape, he was kicked to a pulp by other guards and then whipped across the back with a metal cable.

"I don't know how long this beating went on, but I lost consciousness," says Berry. He was so badly beaten he ended up in hospital where, at last, British Embassy officials visited him.

A deal was done with the Afghanistan government and Berry was released. His role has never been acknowledged by MI6.

"I'm not James Bond, but I depended on the people I was working for to come and get me out before things got too bad," says Berry.

"They didn't. The missions were real—but the back-up wasn't. And I paid for it."

Deniable Agent, published by Mainstream on October 5, can be ordered from the News of the World Bookshop for £16.19 with free delivery by calling 0870 162 5005. RRP is £17.99.

EXCLUSIVE: Chris Tarrant's wife hunts 'other woman'

2006-09-17T13:49:00.000Z

TV STAR Chris Tarrant's suspicious wife Ingrid set a team of private detectives to watch the woman she believes is his secret mistress.

Determined to know every detail, she set a fling-buster team of private eyes on Chris and "the other woman", issuing the shock order:

"Nail him and I'll divorce him!"

Although Ingrid publicly declared this week that her husband wasn't the type to even kiss another woman, she is privately convinced the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? frontman has been having an affair with a 50-year-old business acquaintance for more than A YEAR.

In desperation she called in the detectives earlier this summer, gave them the woman's name, address, details of 59-year-old Chris's text messages and ordered them to:

# STAKE out a suspected lovenest in Bucklebury Common, Berkshire, which she nicknamed "F***lebury Common".

# FIX a secret tracking device to the family's silver Mercedes to monitor all Chris's journeys.

# TAIL the woman to check her every movement.

Today's revelations—plus news that the Tarrants have split after 15 years and Chris is now staying with friends in London—follow his amazing confession to the News of World last Sunday that the marriage was in crisis over a drunken snog with another woman in a divorcees' bar.

And last night friend of the couple told us how weeks ago worried 51-year-old Ingrid made an appointment to see former Metropolitan Police detective Jim Shurvell, of JVS Investigations, at his home in Epsom, Surrey, just seven miles from the Tarrants' Esher mansion.

"She was very distressed and was in a state of high anxiety," said the pal.

Proof

"She dashed into the house, paranoid that she'd be recognised by neighbours.

"She told the investigators that an affair would be straightforward to prove and outlined her plan of where the detectives had to be placed and at what time. She wasn't concerned about money or how much it would cost, she just wanted the proof.

"Once she had that proof, she was going to head for the divorce court."

She claimed Chris had been having a fling with the woman for over a year after meeting her on charity work.

Once she she was convinced of Shurvell's credentials, she hired him and his team for £30 an hour per detective to tail her husband.

In a series of face to face meetings with motorbike-riding, tough-talking Shurvell, Ingrid handed over details of the other woman's £1million in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, where she lives with her partner, who was last night said to be devastated by the latest shock twist in the saga.

Gizmo

Ingrid's ‘dirty dossier' also pinpointed the isolated country property which Chris had just bought 25 miles away in Bucklebury Common, that furious Ingrid insisted on calling "F***lebury".

The house, called Osgood's Gulley, is approached by a narrow, unmade road and would provide the perfect love rat's hideaway, she believed.

Ingrid also instructed that an electronic tracking device should be secretly attached to Chris's car so they would know where he was 24 hours a day. The sophisticated gizmo was yesterday still believed to be on the vehicle.

Still emotional and distressed, Ingrid pleaded with the undercover team to be as discreet as possible.

Shurvell and his team covered both houses for several weeks, and tailed Tarrant throughout London and the Home Counties by car and motorbike. But in the end they had to report to Ingrid that they had uncovered no evidence of Chris being unfaithful, and no evidence of any contact with the other woman.

Disappointed Ingrid then called off the dogs and paid the bill.

Blamed

A family friend revealed: "When she was told the results of the surveillance Ingrid seemed extremely agitated and blamed the agency for failing to get the goods.

"Her friends feel very sorry for her. She is like a bird in a gilded cage with more money than you could ever imagine and a string of luxury cars and houses. And yet it seems like she's had the cares of the world on her shoulders."

When we contacted ex cop Shurvell he told us: "I never comment on clients.

"What are you trying to do, ruin me?"

Our inside source said last night: "It's very sad but there's no way back for Chris and Ingrid now.

"They've split up and Chris has moved out of the family home.

"But Ingrid has been very brave this past week, especially when she stood on her doorstep and told the world that she didn't believe Chris had it in him to even kiss another woman. But inside she clearly thought differently."

Ingrid, who has two teenage children with Chris—plus four from their former marriages—spoke out to defend the £3.5million-a-year celebrity after was seen snogging a busty brunette in the R Bar near their home.

Skirts

She branded some women in her neighbourhood as "desperate Surrey housewives" and insisted of the kiss:

"It would be something that someone did to him and before he knew it, it was over.

"I suspect that he didn't do anything. He's not the sort of person who would do that—but someone would do that to him.

"I've been with him in the past when women have thrown themselves at him and even lifted up their skirts with no knickers on. It's quite disgusting."

But last night she was in a differenct mood. When we put our latest revelations to Ingrid she said:

"All I can do at the moment is be the best possible mother to my children and sort it all out with Chris.

"I don't want to say anything until I've sat down and digested all of this."

INTERVIEW: Gordon Brown squares up to Labour rebels

2006-09-10T09:40:00.000Z

By Ian Kirby, Political Editor

Gordon Brown has faced down his critics after a week of Labour war and pledged to brush them aside on his way to power.

In a breezy and confident demonstration of his new authority, the Chancellor laughed off this weekend's bitter personal criticism from hardline Blairites who blamed him for the leadership crisis that tore the Government apart.

Directly rebuffing ex-Home Secretary Charles Clarke's claim that he shouldn't assume he will be anointed Britain's next prime minister, Mr Brown openly threw down the gauntlet to anyone who thought they could rival him as future leader.

In a clear "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" challenge, tough-guy Brown squared up to the Blairite rebels and said:

"I am HAPPY for there to be a leadership contest. I think there SHOULD be. If people decide they want to stand when there is a leadership contest, whenever that happens, they should feel free to do so. I would WELCOME the open contest."

But in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with the News of the World, he went on to:

* Pour CONTEMPT on Mr Clarke's claims he'd been "stupid" to be photographed laughing and gloating after leaving a meeting with the PM - in fact, he revealed, he'd been innocently chuckling with one of his staff about his newborn son Fraser's latest exploits. He said: "It comes to something when people even criticise me for smiling."

* DISMISS claims that he urged on Labour's anti-Blair rebels as 'nonsense'.

He said: "I made it very clear to people all week, privately, that Tony should make his own decision and we should support that decision ... any suggestion that I or those acting for me were directly involved in this is absolute nonsense."

* REJECT claims that he is a control freak saying 'I'm a team player."

* HINT that former Home Secretary Clarke's attack was motivated by a historic row over budget cuts.

* ICILY reject as "laughable" that attack and Mr Clarke's other highly-personal accusations that he was a psychologically-flawed “deluded control freak” .

* REFUSE to condemn the eight Labour rebels - branded by Mr Blair as "disloyal" - who had quit government posts in protest at the PM clinging to power and refused to rule out their returning to Government.

Mr Brown was speaking at the end of a tumultuous week in which Labour rebels had finally forced the PM to set a departure date - after which pro-Blairites led by former Home Secretary Charles Clarke reacted furiously by launching a diatribe of abuse at the Chancellor.

He was branded psychologically flawed, a "deluded control freak", a loner, and even "stupid".

But Mr Brown was having none of it - and went out of his way to make clear he is thinking and preparing to tackle far weightier matters than simply how to secure for himself the job of Prime Minister.

He also invited the News of the World into his family home and spoke for the first time about he is coping with becoming a Dad again and how his family always comes first.

While aides scurried in and out of his cluttered family kitchen, the Chancellor first warned how the civil war raging in the Labour Party would only succeed in driving away potential voters.

He made it clear he had initially believed the Labour unrest had been calmed by Mr Blair's announcement this week of his departure plans, and his shock at how the issue had been savagely reignited this weekend by Mr Clarke and Blair supporters.

He stressed: “We have all got to prove at every moment that we are doing the right thing for the country and we must never forget that the electorate are the final judge.”

He also made it clear that briefings from Downing Street suggesting that he and his supporters tried to mount a coup last week were totally wide of the mark.

Brown blasted: “That is completely untrue. I was not accused (by the Prime Minister) of that.”

Mr Brown also repeatedly insisted he did NOT orchestrate last week’s resignation of junior minister Tom Watson and seven ministerial aides. Mr Brown said: “There is no truth in the suggestion there was an attempted coup.”

The day before Mr Watson quit he visited the Chancellor’s home with a baby gift. But when the News of the World asked Mr Brown if they discussed the rebel’s resignation, he simply replied: “Tom Watson’s decision surprised me and he has made it clear he has never talked to me about any of this.

"The situation was sad, regrettable and caused us a great deal of grief."

Alluding to Charles Clarke’s criticisms and left wing rebels who want to take him on in a leadership contest, he said: “If people decide they want to stand when there is a leadership contest, whenever that happens, they should feel free to do so.

"I welcome the chance to put my views but people should be given the chance to put their views.

"I welcome a debate about new ideas and future policy and I welcome the fact that there are people with great talent within the Labour party.

"If people are going to stand in any future leadership contest then they are welcome to do so. They are not only free to do so but they should do so if that's what they want. I'm very open to all this."

But he warned that the anti-Brown faction, and attacks like Mr Clarke's, risk creating the very Labour Party split that everyone claim's they want to avoid.

“We have got to also recognise that there is no ideological divide within the mainstream Labour Party and we should not try to suggest that there is.”

However he couldn't resist also appearing to pile pressure on the Prime Minister to be clear with the public when he is going to stand down.

The Chancellor said: “This is not a time for deals, this is not a time for private statements.

“There is an issue, obviously, when a Prime Minister says that he is not going to contest the next election.

“It is for Tony to make a decision and to announce that in his own time, I do believe that is the right thing to do.”

Over the past three days, Brown has been subject to an unprecedented attack from his former Cabinet colleague, ex-Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

Clarke started by slamming Brown for being snapped with a broad grin as he left Downing Street.

Brown last night said the claims were ridiculous, while his aiodes labelled them “pathetic”.

He explained: “He was referring to me smiling and said I was sneaking out of Downing Street by the back door - I was actually simply coming out of my office in Downing Street!

“A photographer with a long lens got me joking to one of the people who works with me about my young family.

“There was nothing else, I didn't know the photograph was being taken. And the idea I sought a photograph like this is laughable. It comes to something when people criticise me for smiling.”

In a series of interviews, Clarke accused him of grinning for the cameras and slammed his leadership qualities.

Clarke claimed he was a “deluded control freak” with “psychological” issues that nmade him unsuitable to be Prime Minister, mocking: “Can a leopard change his spots.”

Brown warned that such attacks would quickly make the Labour Party unsuitable for government.

Deliberately contrasting himself from anti-Brownites touring the television studios, he said: “I have never for a minute, in all these discussions, taken my eye off the central question which is my duty to the country.

“That is to create economic stability and growth.

“Every day MY first thoughts are how I conduct my job as Chancellor in the interests of the country.

“I will not shirk from any of these responsibilites or fail to discharge them. These are the issues I will be judged upon.”

Mr Brown repeatedly insisted he had not orchestrated the letter sent to the Prime Minister that led to the resignation of junior minister Tom Watson and seven ministerial aides.

However, Mr Brown did meet Mr Watson the day before he sent the letter .

Watson visited the Chancellor’s Fife home to drop off a gift for his new baby, Fraser. But Mr Brown claimed: “I did not discuss the letter and it would not have been appropriate to do so.”

He added: “There is no truth in the suggestion that there was an attempted coup.”

"Tom Watson's decision surprised me and he has made it very clear that he has never talked to me about any of this. The situation was sad, regrettable and caused us a great deal of grief. "

But he defended the rebels disquiet by pointing out: “People HAVE had questions about the future.

“Where people feel strongly about it obviously that has led to events happening - but now we have all got to come together.”

And when asked if he would have the rebels back in government his response was extremely significant.

Mr Brown said: “I think what has happened is sad but I hope that people can come together in the future. "

Pressed if Watson and the others could reappear in a Brown government, he made its clear it is entirely possible ""We don't know where we are going to be in the future - we don't know even if I am going to be in Downing Street so we can't draw any conclusions at the moment about any of these things.

Mr Brown also insisted that reports of a series of blazing rows between him and the Prime Minister on Wednesday as they haggled over his departure are untrue.

He explained: “It is simply not true to say that there has been an argument or bickering.

“When we met that day we were obviously discussing the question of the leadership.

“What I said to him about that decision was what I had said before - that it was a decision for him. It was pretty clear that there was no basis for argument.”

“Just like every member of the public is saying, something has got to be sorted out in the next few years. Like anybody here we have all got the same question. But that does not mean to say I am wanting to have a particular answer. The decision is for him.”

But he also used his answer to emphasise yet again what he sees as the difference betweden him and the PM now.

While the PM's men are busy ensuring their man is going out in a blaze of personal glory, the man who is certain he will be Britain's next Prime Minister is getting down to the hard business of government.

He explained: “We also spent more important time discussing Palestine and Israel, Afghanistan, discussing the forthcoming spending review, discussing the pre budget report when I will be commenting on the state of the economy.

Mr Brown was at pains to stress that while potential leadership rivals plot and spin against him, he will be getting on with governing the country.

He will continue to play with a straight bat, supporting the increasingly beleaguered Tony Blair, adding: “The Labour Party has been united under Tony Blair's leadership and the idea there is some personal ideological divide between me and Tony is ridiculous.

“We have known each other for 20 years, we grew up politically together and we have made many difficult decisions together."

He claimed straight-faced: “This idea that there is personal tension between us this week that led to a vicious argument is completely wrong.”

With the autumn party conferences looming, Mr Brown hinted that his own leadership campaign will soon be underway.

After his conferences speeches he has the Pre Budget Report in November, and the three-year Comprehensive Spending Review early next year.

While his rivals tour the television studios, Mr Brown will be moving around the country.

He explained: “I am going to be going around the country after the pre-budget report and the spending review and we will be having hearings and events in every part of the country over the next few months.

“We will be listening to what people have to say as we prepare the next stage of our policies and my priority will be to listen to peoples questions and views and get a real sense of the issues that are affecting them: how we can ensure our children are better educated, how we can keep people more fit and have a more healthy society, how we can improve the National Health Service, how we can help savings for people."

Pointedly dismissed Blairite claims he's a political control freak, , “I will be joined by ministers - though I will be taking the lead.”

Asked if was indeed a 'control freak', he said: "Not at all. I would describe myself as a team player. I've been doing just that for over 20 years.

"My favourite sport is rugby and rugby is about teamwork and teamwork is the essence of what we do in Government.

However, he added honestly: "As Chancellor you've got to say no to people. You've got to be strong, you've got to control public expenditure.

"Often I have had to say no. There is no chancellor that has emerged in the last 20 or 30 years who hasn't been criticised for being tough with people."

It is known that when Mr Clarke was Home Secretary he clashed with the Chancellor about budget issues.

Mr Brown commented: "You have to take the rough and tumble of politics. Sometimes you think it's not fair but you just get on with the job.

"You are bound to have people saying that's a decision that I didn't want. The Chancellor is in the difficult position of having to tell his colleagues 'no'.

"And I did have to say 'no'. Sometimes people don't fully realise that the Chancellor has to adjudicate claims for public expenditure. So there are bound to people who feel they are hard done by."

And he summed up the current in-fighting in the Labour Party with a bleak warning about the consequences of a bitter fight over Tony Blair’s future.

He explained: “The question is, is there some fundamental unbridgeable divide inside the Labour Party on either ideology or anything else? The answer is no.

"I am supportive of the Government's foreign policy. There are big issues ahead but all in the context of policy's set by Tony which I support.

"That includes Iraq and the difficult decisions that have been made there and in Afghanistan."

"NHS reform will continue - nobody should be in any doubt about my determination to continue reform right across the public services. There will be no reversal on reforms. We are moving forward not backward."

BRITAIN'S TERROR SCHOOL

2006-09-03T09:18:00.000Z

EVIL CLERIC LINKED TO PLOT

By Rob Kellaway

Police investigating a terrorist plot intended “to out-do 7/7” have uncovered the first al-Qaeda training camp in Britain.

It was being run at an Islamic school in the sleepy Sussex countryside.

Fourteen Muslims arrested over the alleged plot to take out a London landmark are linked to terror camps run in the school’s grounds, hidden from unwitting staff.

One of the 14 is hate cleric Abu Abdullah. Dubbed Attila The Scum, he is hook-handed monster Abu Hamza's No 2.

Abdullah, 42, who was born and bred in Britain, was detained just days after stating he would “love” to kill British troops in Afghanistan.

He is regarded by anti-terror detectives as a key figure in their investigation into a plot which an intelligence source said would “out-do 7/7.”

The arrests came after a nine-month surveillance operation involving MI5, which centred on suspects visiting the Jameah Islameah Islamic school in picturesque Catt’s Hill, near Crowborough.

Police took action on Friday night when the group gathered together at a Chinese restaurant called The Bridge To China Town in Borough Road, south London.

Owner Mehdi Belyani, 40, said the detained men were among a group of around 15 males and two small boys who came in for dinner.

He said some wore Islamic dress and they were talking quietly and acting normally while they ate from the restaurant buffet. Some he recognised as regular customers.

Mr Belyani said some armed officers and more than 50 others wearing helmets came into his restaurant at 10pm and kept the suspects and all the other customers inside.

He said: “The police stayed for more than two hours talking to the group one by one. The men were very calm and I could not hear what was being said.”

Ross Jackson, 18, who lives opposite, said: “There were about eight police vans and a large number of police in riot gear. There were police cars lined up on the street.”

At 10pm eight men were arrested at the restaurant. Three who had already left - including Abdullah - were arrested around the corner in Lancaster Street.

At the same time, another suspect - Bilbert Teye Baiden - was held in King James Street. Mousa Aboullah Brown, 40, was grabbed on Kitchener Road, E17, while Saloum Joh, 20, was held in Bessborough Road, SW15.

The men, mostly British Muslims of Pakistani origin aged 17 to 48, were being held at Paddington Green high security police station.

Security sources said the investigation was focusing on terror training and alleged recruitment and radicalisation of young British Muslims.

They believe the group was still in the early stages of planning the twisted attack on a famous London attraction.

Possible targets are thought to include Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Canary Wharf or the Arsenal and Chelsea football stadiums.

Detectives believe more than half of those arrested in London had visited the Islamic school more than once.

The school, which has just 12 pupils in a £3 million former convent, frequently allowed outside groups to use its 54 acres of grounds at weekends.

The arrested men stayed in the school and used the grounds for “combat” training.

A Home Office source said: “The training was extreme and macho. It involved endurance in bad weather and bonding. In that sense it was like combat training.”

The source added: “They were being groomed for terror.”

Neither the owner, principal or any member of the staff of the school had any idea that fanatics were among their visitors.

Indeed, when Abu Hamza once turned up, the school’s authorities were so alarmed they banned him from coming again and handed over a letter expressing his views to police.

The school’s Imam Bilal Patel said: “When Hamza arrived we were immediately concerned about his strange behaviour. He and his followers set up camp in the grounds and they kept themselves to themselves.

“We had to tell Abu Hamza that we did not want him to come back again because he was strange. He had given me a letter explaining some of his views and I passed that on to the local police.”

One man who lives 500 yards from the school said: “Busloads of young Muslims would turn up on a Sunday in several red London buses, stay for a few hours and then leave.”

The man, who asked not to be identified, added: “No one ever knew what went on inside. Everything was extremely hush-hush. There seemed to be an unwritten rule that no-one ever spoke about what went on inside.”

Abdullah, real name Attila Ahmet, is a former spokesman for hook-handed Hamza, who was jailed for seven years in February for inciting his followers to murder non-muslims.

The No 2 is reviled for his anti-Western rants and for his hatred of Jews and gays.

He took over as the self-styled “emir” or leader of the extremist Supporters Of Shariah founded by Hamza at the notorious Finsbury Park Mosque in north London.

He was accused of taking control of the mosque when it reopened in August 2004 by using violence and intimidation but was evicted in February last year.

And Abdullah — who once said of Osama Bin Laden “I love him more than myself” - is banned from preaching in most mosques but claims to have 3,000 supporters.

He spreads his twisted messages at small-scale meetings to specially invited “students” in private houses and community centres.

Those views include supporting the use of household chemicals to make explosives.

He also believes Tony Blair is a legitimate target for assassination due to the government’s foreign policy. His view of the 9/11 attacks is that they were a “deserved punch in the nose” for America.

Abdullah converted to Islam eight years ago. His hardline views seem a world away from his upbringing.

He was born and bred in London, the son of Turkish-Cypriot parents. He was a football coach in the Bexley youth league, and was known to colleagues as Alan. The married father-of-four lives with his family in a terraced former council house in south-east London.

Two weeks ago he was asked what he thought of the 7/7 suicide bombers. He replied: “I wasn’t against them. These are my honourable brothers in Islam.”

He described the Tube and bus bombs in which 52 innocent people died, as a wake-up call. And he has said: “Sometimes the innocent have to pay the price.”

Abdullah also claimed suicide attacks are “halal”, or lawful.

He added: “The martyr that goes amongst his enemies is going to shield his people. He doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction, he only has household chemicals.”

Referring to Iraq and Afghanistan he said: “The West is escalating their killing of Muslims. We have a right to defend ourselves. If I had the means to go back there and kill an American or British soldier then I would love to do so.

“Those who are fighting Islam are targets: Tony Blair, the army, the police.”

Asked if he shared the view of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be wiped off the map, he replied: “Absolutely. They are a treacherous people.”

He also said President Bush was “a scalp that needs to be taken.”

Speaking on the CNN news channel, Abdullah claimed the deaths of the 9/11 victims were “a drop in the ocean compared to the millions of Muslims that have been killed.”

BRIGHTEN OUR LADS' LIVES

2006-08-27T07:41:00.000Z

Be a pen pal for our troops

By Robert Kellaway

THE NEWS of the World today calls on its army of readers to lift the spirits of our brave boys and girls in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Single lads among the troops are having a miserable time with temperatures of 50C, no beer in sight and no girls to chat to.

In Afghanistan, there has been an unprecedented period of heavy fighting and casualties suffered without complaint.

In Iraq it’s just as hot with our boys constantly at work carrying out risky infantry patrols.

So come on girls, if you are single and up for a laugh we want you to send a letter and include a glam picture of yourself.

But please keep it decent, as unsuitable letters or pictures will not be distributed to the lads.

What you write is up to you, but remember the guys need cheering up.

For a reply, please include an address or email for the soldier, sailor or airman to write back to.

We are NOT forgetting the 1,000 service WOMEN in both countries working just as hard as the men.

So come on all you News of the World hunks, it’s time to do your bit and send the girls some encouragement - and a photo of you looking your best.

Send your letter and picture to: PENPALS, News of the World, 1 Virginia Street, London, E98 1NW or email them to penpals@notw.co.uk

If you are a man writing to a servicewomen mark your letter SERVICEWOMAN in the top left corner of the envelope or in the subject line of the email.

The letters will be distributed among single men and women of all three services in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are a total of 12,000 troops serving in both countries so atten-shun - get writing.

A spokesman for the MoD said: “This is a brilliant idea and we know it will give the morale of our people a fantastic boost.

“We will be working extremely hard to get all the letters out to single serving men and women as fast as we can.”

A Royal Marines Major about to serve six months in Afghanistan with 3 Commando Brigade from October, added: “It’s a great idea.

“A similar thing happened with my platoon in Rwanda in 1994.

“One of the lads wrote home complaining there were no girls to talk to, no beer and it was too hot.

“We got sackloads of mail back and some of the girls were kind enough to include a photo.

“Mail is always a treat to look forward to but this made it really special.

“A couple of the boys struck up genuine friendships and found girlfriends as a result.

“It gives the boys such a boost to know the girls back home are thinking about them, it only takes a minute to drop them a line.”

LAIR OF THE BOMBER

2006-08-20T08:26:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Maz on terror trail

By Mazher Mahmood

IT is 2pm. I am sitting on an unsteady wooden bench at a street cafe in Rawalpindi.

An unshaven waiter pours tea and fennel seeds from a large metal pot into a thick, cracked glass and slaps it on the table. An old Vespa races past firing a salvo of grit and dust over the table.

Opposite me is a well-built man in his 40s. Despite the 32° heat, he insists we sit at the roadside, with people bustling past, rather than attract attention by appearing secretive and seeking the haven of the cafe's interior.

"There will be more bombs. Jihadis (holy warriors) will take action against Britain and the West," he whispers. "It's Bush, Mush (Pakistan's President Musharraf) and Blair that are to blame. They are responsible for terrorism. It is their foreign policies that are causing such pain to Muslims."

Liquid

I am in Pakistan to find out what led to the liquid explosives scare that all but paralysed Britain's airports. The words are those you'd expect to hear from the head of a terror cell.

Except the man I'm talking to is a Pakistani intelligence officer, tasked with tracking down terrorists.

His views are all too common in these parts.In a country where family and connections are everything, I only got to interview him because my late father's friend is a barrister whose son is an officer in the ISI (the Pakistan Intelligence Service).

No Westerner is going to get anywhere close to this access.

"We know that, since 2003, 24 men from Britain trained at an al-Qaeda camp on the Afghan border," he says.

"Sixteen of these are still missing. We have good information that they have all returned to the UK. But what is making it difficult to track these men is the fact that they all used fake names while they stayed in Pakistan."

The inference is obvious. That would mean 16 ‘sleepers'...terrorists, possibly suicide bombers, waiting to be activated in Britain.I have visited Pakistan, where I have many relatives, several times. The last was just four months ago. Even in the short time since then the atmosphere has changed. Once this place felt welcoming. Now, even as my photographer pictures me with innocent people in the street, there is anger in the air.

Educated people discuss anti-Muslim policies and worry about the country's coalition with Britain and America. Many of the middle classes believe that 9/11 and 7/7 were Jewish conspiracies and had nothing to do with Islamic extremists, while the poor daub graffiti and burn effigies of Bush and Blair.

Despite Musharraf's desperate attempts to put a lid on extremism, he is fighting a losing battle. It takes me just one phone call, for example, to secure a place at a leading madrassa or Islamic school.

The head of the Jamia Binoria school in Karachi, Mufti Naeem, is keen to help when I tell him my two sons want to attend. He promises to convert them into ‘proper' Muslims.

"We can provide accommodation as well," he says. "It's 3,000 rupees (about £26) per student per month. That includes food and everything."

Following the 7/7 atrocity, when it was revealed that two of the suicide bombers had undergone Islamic studies in Pakistan, President Musharraf banned all foreign students.

His order is effectively ignored. "We have lots of foreign students here, including several from Britain," Naeem smiles. And in this mix of conflicting loyalties are the many relatives of those arrested over the alleged terror plot — 23 in Britain and seven in Pakistan.

What do they think? To find out I travel to Mirpur, in north Pakistan, to meet Mian Naseer. He is the uncle of Rashid Rauf, the Birmingham man suspected of being the main figure behind the plot, and Rashid's brother Tayib, arrested in Birmingham.

"This is all just to divert attention from the atrocities being committed against Muslims in Israel," he seethed, his long white beard quivering in the sun. "These political tactics are beyond all us simple people."

Except Naseer, in his late 40s, is anything but simple. He lived in Birmingham until eight years ago and now runs a thriving business exporting sweetmeats known here as reveries to Britain. Rauf's family in Birmingham distribute a range of Asian sweetmeats and other food to shops across the Midlands.

Naseer's home is lavish, with a large drive and green lawn in a mountainous area which provides two-thirds of Britain's Pakistani population.

The area, once poor and populated with shacks, is now dotted with fashion able shops, hotels, car showrooms and pillared mansions that wouldn't be out of place in Beverly Hills.

The area has been transformed by vast sums of money being sent home by Mirpuris living in Britain.

Although these are religious people, life in Britain has made many very materialistic. But set against this is an atmosphere of bitterness among those who haven't been fortunate enough to have family in Britain who might transform their lives.

They feel that their old traditional way of life has been invaded by Western culture—and this contributes to a feeling of hatred towards Western values.

But Naseer is adamant that his family are innocent. "We are religious but we are not extremists," he tells me. "Our family have done a lot of charity work."

Indeed they have.

Rashid and Tayib's father, Abdul, is one of the founding trustees of the Crescent Relief charity that collected funds after last year's cataclysmic earthquake in Kashmir—though he left in 2001. Yesterday it was revealed that the Charities Commission is investigating reports of links between Crescent Relief and other British-based charities and the alleged bomb plot.

And last night Pakistani intelligence sources confirmed that they have arrested Abdul. He was picked up as he headed to Islamabad airport from his family home in Mirpur.

As sun sets it is now another stiflingly hot evening. I hear the call to prayer. For many it remains the sound of peace.

But for others, shuffling their way to imams of hate, it's a clarion call to Jihad.

IF YOU'RE A MUSLIM - IT'S YOUR PROBLEM

2006-08-13T09:20:00.000Z

Editorial by Lord Stevens

WHEN will the Muslims of Britain stand up to be counted?

When will they declare, loud and clear, with no qualifications or quibbles about Britain's foreign policy, that Islamic terrorism is WRONG?

Most of all, when will the Muslim community in this country accept an absolute, undeniable, total truth: that Islamic terrorism is THEIR problem? THEY own it. And it is THEIR duty to face it and eradicate it.

To stop the denial, endless fudging and constant wailing that somehow it is everyone else's problem and, if Islamic terrorism exists at all, they are somehow the main victims.

Because until that happens the problem will never be resolved. And there will be more 7/7s and, sometime in the future, another airplane plot will succeed with horrific loss of innocent life.

Equally important, those British politicians who have seemed obsessed with pandering to, and even encouraging, this state of denial, must throw off their politically-correct blinkers and recognise the same truth—that Muslim terrorism in Britain is the direct responsibility of British Muslims.

If only they would follow the lead of Home Secretary John Reid, whose tough, pragmatic, clear-sighted approach has been a breath of fresh air. Only then can they properly work out how to tackle it.

For instance, every airport in Britain is in chaos over the plane bomb-plot alert as every passenger is subjected to rigorous security checks. Why? They take lots of time, lots of staff, and are extremely expensive.

I'm a white 62-year-old 6ft 4ins suit-wearing ex-cop—I fly often, but do I really fit the profile of suicide bomber? Does the young mum with three tots? The gay couple, the rugby team, the middle-aged businessman?

No. But they are all getting exactly the same amount and devouring huge resources for no logical reason whatsoever. Yet the truth is Islamic terrorism in the West has been universally carried out by young Muslim men, usually of ethnic appearance, almost always travelling alone or in very small groups. A tiny percentage, I bet, of those delayed today have such characteristics.

This targeting of airport resources is called passenger profiling—the Israelis invented it and they've got probably the safest airports and airlines in the world.

In all my years at the front line of fighting terrorism, one truth was always clear — communities beat terrorists, not governments or security forces. But communities can't beat terrorism unless they have the will to do so. My heart sank this week as I saw and read the knee-jerk reaction of friends and neighbours of those arrested in this latest incident, insisting it was all a mistake and the anti-terrorist squad had the wrong people.

I have no idea whether those arrested are guilty or not. But neither have those friends and neighbours. They spoke as if it was inconceivable such a thing could happen in their community; that those arrested were all good Muslims; that Islam is a religion of peace so no Muslim could dream of planning such an act.

But we heard the same from the family and friends of the 7/7 bombers, didn't we?

And the two young British Muslims who died as suicide bombers in Israel. Then there are the British Muslims known to have become suicide bombers in Iraq.

There is currently a huge, long-running and complex alleged Islamist bomb plot being tried at the Old Bailey. And a fistful of other cases of alleged Muslim terrorism plots such as the 21/7 London Underground case are also awaiting trial.

All this would suggest the blindingly obvious—that terrorism is a major problem for the Muslim community of Britain. Of course, there will be instant squealings that this is racism. It's not. It's exactly the same as recognising that, during the Northern Ireland troubles that left thousands dead, the IRA were totally based in the Catholic community and the UVF in the Protestant.

And that, most importantly, IRA terrorism only began to draw to a close when that Catholic community it was based in decided as a whole that it was no longer prepared to back violence as the only way forward. Interestingly, it was Catholic revulsion over republican terrorist atrocities such as Enniskillen and Omagh that fuelled that change.

Well, Muslim terrorism in Britain is based in, has its roots in, and grows in, our Muslim community. The madmen of 7/7 and other suicide bombings didn't hide among the Hindu communities, worship in the Sikh temples, recruit at Catholic churches, did they? It may be true that events in Iraq have angered sections of the Muslim community. I have no doubts, whatever Tony Blair says, that it was a catalyst. I also think it's entirely fair for Muslims, if they wish, to vocally oppose Britain's continuing involvement there.

I can recognise, too, that recent events in Lebanon inflame some people, and they want their voices of protest heard. The absolutely unacceptable problem is that this opposition is used by too many to turn a blind eye to, or excuse, terrorists in their midst.

Blasting a passenger airliner out of the sky, killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children, is NEVER acceptable. Under any circumstances. There is NEVER an excuse.

A terrible tragedy costing Muslim lives in Lebanon or Iraq or Afghanistan is never ever an excuse for terrorism here.

It is totally unacceptable, totally wrong. What one party perceives as a wrong, no matter how strongly they feel, does not, in turn, justify another wrong being done to avenge it.

And until every single member of the Muslim community believes that and preaches that—from an ordinary parent to imam or madrassa teacher—terrorism can't be beaten.

Politicians must accept this truth, and do something about it. One example would be to tackle this chaos at our airports and the passenger profiling I described earlier. Another must is to reconsider ID cards. The importance of knowing whether someone really is who they say they are has never been higher.

This must be combined with improved border controls, logging exactly who goes OUT of the country as well as who comes in should also be reconsidered, whatever the politically correct among us may say. The time terrorism suspects are kept in custody before charge has also caused dissent. Currently the maximum is 28 days—it may well be this should be reconsidered and, if necessary, raised again to, say, 42 days.

Plainly, Muslim terrorism isn't going away. We need to consider everything in our battle to defeat it. But that's the responsibility of all.

Not least the community where, sadly for them, it is festering.

[Site Editor's Note - I think it's worth mentioning that many of the comments below originate from regulars of Little Green Footballs.]

I THROTTLED JESSICA AS SHE TRIED TO PHONE MUM

2006-08-06T06:34:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE Holly & Jessica: Last secrets

By Neil McLeod & David Brown

THE shocking hidden truth about the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman is revealed by the News of the World in a sensational taped dossier.

For the first time since the horror that shocked the nation four years ago, twisted Ian Huntley has confessed that he THROTTLED screaming Jessica as she tried to phone her mum.

The details, though distressing, will give some comfort to their parents who have always been desperate to know the truth about the girls' last moments.

The killer's dramatic admissions after his stubborn refusal to co-operate with police are also likely to lead to a new investigation into the role played by lover Maxine Carr.

She served just 21 months for perverting the course of justice after claiming she had only a minor part in the murder cover-up. But Huntley claims she orchestrated it.

The 32-year-old killer poured out his guilt to mother Lynda Nixon, 51, the only person he now trusts, in three separate meetings at Wakefield jail, Yorks. Huntley told how he:

# STRANGLED Jessica to stop her screaming after Holly had died in the bathroom.
# SNATCHED her mobile phone to stop her calling her for help then realised: "I knew I could not let her leave the house."
# WATCHED in dread as police hunting the missing girls walked past her mobile on his draining board.
# TOLD Maxine of the killings on the night they died.
# OBEYED her when she plotted the cover-up and told him: "Burn the bodies or I will have to do it".
# FEARED he would be caught when police dogs sniffed his car as the 10-year-olds' bodies lay in bin bags in the boot overnight.
# DUMPED evidence in a rubbish bin at a nearby Tesco.
# PLANNED suicide on the fourth anniversary last week but was stopped.
# RAPED a girl in a nightclub in his home town.

But at the same time evil Huntley repeats his delusional claim—despite all the evidence—that Holly died by accident when she fell in the bath after a nosebleed.

A Cambridgeshire police spokesman said last night: "We are always interested in reviewing new information and will take it seriously to get to the truth of what happened that day. We have never believed the version of events Ian Huntley gave in court."

His younger brother Wayne, 30, who taped a series of conversations with their mother after her visits said: "This is the fullest account of what happened at Soham that Ian has ever given.

"He is in jail where he belongs but I am convinced he wants to kill himself and give some explanation of what happened before he does.

"I believe I had to make this public because everybody from the girls' families to the average person in the street deserves to know."

Mother Lynda gently coaxed the details from Huntley in a series of jail meetings lasting SIX HOURS.

He has always claimed he smothered Jessica accidentally as he tried to stop her crying after Holly died. But he told his mother:

"If she hadn't kept shouting, she'd have got out of the house alive.

"I was telling her to stop shouting so I could think. She kept saying: ‘You pushed her. You pushed her.'

"It was only when I put my hand on her shoulder as she went for the door, that I realised I couldn't let her leave the house."

Deluded Huntley insisted Holly suffered a nosebleed in his caretaker's house at Soham College four years and two days ago. He lied that she went to his bathroom, slipped and died—which was when Jessica began screaming.

He told Lynda: "I did not push her, Mum, I did not touch her. Jessica stood at the doorway screaming. Holly was in the bath. Mum, I had to get to her otherwise all the neighbours would have been round if I hadn't shut her up."

He chased her downstairs and took her mobile as she tried to make a call, thought to be to her mother. Huntley added: "As soon as I put my hand on her shoulder, then, you know...there are two bodies in the house."

Wayne explained: "He said he sat her on the settee and tried to calm her down. But she kept screaming."

Wayne asked his mum: "Did he say he strangled her? Linda replied: "Yes, he did as she got near the door. It was that stage when he knew she couldn't let her leave."

It is the first time Huntley has admitted killing Jessica in such a savage manner and proves the cold-blooded nature the murders.

Lynda also said Huntley told her the time of Jessica's death was 6.55pm. Experts previously thought it had been around 6.46pm when her phone was switched off. Lynda said: "Ian told me the time because I wanted to light candles for the girls."

Huntley refused to implicate Maxine throughout the investigation and 31-day Old Bailey trial, which ended with his conviction in December 2003.

But he is now firmly pointing the finger at his former girlfriend, who served half a 42-month sentence for perverting the course of justice by giving him a false alibi.

She lives in secret after the High Court issued an order guaranteeing her anonymity forever. It costs the taxpayer over £1million a year to protect her.

Huntley confessed to Lynda he told Maxine about the girls' deaths on the Sunday, the VERY NIGHT of the murders, possibly minutes after they died.

He sat on the landing of his house and rang Carr to confess what he'd done. Wayne asked Lynda: "Did Ian actually tell you Maxine knew on the night that the girls were dead? She replied: "Yes, yes. Ian said she knew everything that night."

Lynda also revealed that Huntley had wanted to give himself up TWICE but Maxine stopped him. His mother added: "She kept saying to Ian, ‘You have got to get rid of all the evidence'. Maxine told him to put the washing in, to talk to the media."

Huntley added that Maxine even washed the sheets on their bed after he told her one of the girls had sat on the edge of it. It was part of her plan to get rid of any trace of their DNA.

Scent

And he told his mother how Maxine later reacted with fury at what he'd done—but out of concern for herself, not his little victims. "I'm not losing my home or job for anybody," she snapped.

Huntley revealed for the first time how he put the girls' bodies in black bin liners, backed his car up to his house and put them in the boot. He kept them there overnight before driving to dump them at a beauty spot near Lakenheath air base in Suffolk the next morning.

In court, prosecution lawyers said experts believed the bodies had been placed there on the night of the murder. Huntley told his mother he was almost caught that night when two police dogs moved past the boot of the red Ford Fiesta but did not pick up the girls' scent.

Huntley also confessed exactly where he had dumped Jessica's mobile phone and thrown a can in which he carried petrol to burn their bodies.

Wayne said: "Ian told mum how he was washing his fingerprints off Jessica's mobile in his kitchen.

"Two officers came around two days after the girls disappeared and said they needed to have a look through the premises.

"He didn't make any attempt to hide the phone. He said he just left it, still wet, on the draining board.

"He told her, ‘I thought that was it, Mum. I thought I was going to be caught there and then.'"

"But the officers didn't notice it and walked out. He couldn't believe they had missed it."

Huntley put the phone in two bags then drove to Tesco in Ely, Cambs, and dumped it in a bin. It has never been found.

He told his mother that when he brought Maxine back from her mum's after the murders she began scrubbing the house clean of any evidence and told him to act as normally as possible. Huntley said: "She cleaned the place that hard the paint was coming off the kitchen wall."

Lynda recalled: "Ian said one day she was in such a state she hit him. She was saying that they should act normal."

Maxine also told Huntley to destroy the evidence, warning: "Your DNA will be on the girls." Wayne said: "Ian interpreted that to mean that he should burn the bodies. The thought going through his head at the time was, ‘Oh my God. I didn't want to do that.' He said he hadn't intended on going back to where he had placed the bodies."

He asked Maxine to go with him but she replied: "You do it, I'm going to bed." She ordered him to call in at his grandmother's house and make sure he was seen so he had an alibi.

"While there he rang Maxine and told her he couldn't bring himself to go through with it. But, according to Huntley, she coldly told him: "If you don't do it, then I will have to."

Huntley DID carry out Carr's instructions. He told his mother he threw one of two petrol cans he used in an overgrown pheasant coop. It was never found.

Wayne said: "I know what Ian did was dreadful and unforgiveable. But people should know Maxine she was far more involved than she has been punished for."

Huntley, who was investigated several times for sex offences before the murder, also confessed to raping a girl he met in a Grimsby club. He told Lynda: "Mum, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't know her name or anything."

The News of the World can also reveal that he was plotting to make a SECOND attempt to kill himself, apparently to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the girls' deaths last Friday.

Last Saturday warders raided his room and found a stash of pills.

They acted after a tip-off from a fellow inmate who had been trading the tablets with Huntley.

He first tried to kill himself in June 2003 when he was on remand at Woodhill Prison, Bucks. He took 29 anti-depressants and ended up in a coma.

Wayne said: "He just cannot live with himself.

"And he is the type of person who will see it through one day."

Maxine's lawyer has said: "She denies what Huntley has said in the strongest possible terms."

TERROR RAID BROTHER IN CHILD PORN SHOCK

2006-07-30T08:10:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Bomb suspect facing arrest

By Lucy Panton

ANTI-TERROR cops were stunned when their massive raid on suspect bombers in Forest Gate turned into a chilling child porn probe, we can reveal.

Their week-long search of the house uncovered no explosives or chemical weapons—but officers unearthed a haul of vile kiddie sex pictures on the family's computer.

After forensic investigation they now plan to arrest and quiz 23-year-old Mohammed Abdul Kahar, who was shot in the shoulder during the police swoop on his east London home.

The News of the World can reveal that Scotland Yard has already consulted lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service who have recommended charges be brought.

A CPS source said: "This isn't what officers expected to find when they were searching the computer files.

"The child pornography has been graded ‘high level' and the images are extremely disturbing.

"These are very serious offences and will be treated like any other case of its kind."

The computer was found after 250 officers stormed Kahar's family home in Lansdown Road on June 2 following an MI5 tip-off that there was a deadly cyanide bomb on the premises.

Scuffled

At the time we exclusively revealed how police said Kahar was shot when his 20-year-old brother Abul Koyair scuffled with one of the officers and made a grab for his firearm — which then went off.

The officers involved have now officially detailed this to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Both brothers were arrested in the raid, but they were later released when extensive searches of their house and the property next door revealed no trace of any terror device.

Meanwhile the seized computer was being examined by IT experts and forensic teams.

They found the horrifying collection of kiddie porn pictures which have now been handed over to specialists at Scotland Yard's Child Abuse Investigation Command SCD5.

Last night, when asked about this dramatic new twist, an official Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We are not prepared to discuss anyone we may or may not want to interview.

"Whilst there is an ongoing investigation it would be inappropriate to comment on any property seized which continues to be examined by the Metropolitan Police Service."

But a high-level inside legal source revealed: "The files have been closely studied because of the sensitive nature of this inquiry.

"There is strong evidence to support charges."

Officers are expected to question mail worker Kahar in the next few days.

Anti-terror cops are continuing to investigate why the brothers had around £30,000 cash hidden in a bedroom.

During questioning neither would reveal where it came from.

Later in a radio interview one said they had withdrawn the cash as a deposit for a house.

But when their mother was asked why £2,000 cash had been found buried in the garden, she said that it was for a long-planned holiday to Mauritius.

She said they had not used bank accounts for Muslim cultural reasons.

As the inquiries continue and repairs are made to the raided properties, the brothers and the rest of their family are staying at a four-star London hotel — the swish Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury — complete with pool, sauna, spa and Indian restaurant.

And taxpayers are picking up the £30,000-a-month bill.

The family have also issued police with a list of compensation demands including:

# £200 each clothing allowance,
# £10,000 for "contingencies and financial commitments",
# EXTRA cash for a new security system to be installed when they return to their home,
# TAXIS to ferry them to therapy sessions for trauma,
# BOARDING fees for their cat,
# REMOVAL and storage of their belongings, and
# HOTEL expenses for another brother expected to get home leave from prison after serving six years for three armed robberies.

GEORGE'S SEX SHAME

2006-07-23T06:06:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Caught 'cruising' in woods

By Neville Thurlbeck

MEGA-RICH pop superstar George Michael this week sank to new levels of depravity—trawling for illegal gay sex thrills in a London park.

News of the World investigators caught the singer red-handed and red-faced as he emerged from the bushes after cavorting with a pot-bellied, 58-year-old, jobless van driver.

When challenged George, 43, was wild-eyed and trembling. Trying to hide his face under a baseball cap, he screamed:

"I don't believe it! F*** off! If you put those pictures in the paper I'll sue!"

CHECK OUT OUR SEX SHAME SLIDESHOW HERE

Minutes earlier the one-time heart-throb had been lurking in the shadows at the notorious homosexual pick-up spot on Hampstead Heath.

George is a man with the world at his feet. He's on the brink of a lucrative 50-concert comeback tour, which sold out in half an hour.

Yet he ignored all the risks and dangers to pull seedy Norman Kirtland.

The pair kissed and groped each other before going even further. It was all in a public place and totally illegal — just like the day in 1998 when George flashed at an undercover cop in a California park toilet.

After the shock of being confronted by us, George stumbled to his flash Mercedes coupe, retrieved his keys from their hiding place on top of the rear wheel and roared off into the night — back to his world of showbiz, celebs and glitz.

Grubby

Meanwhile his new buddy Kirtland crept from the undergrowth looking sheepish and rushed to his Ford Transit van. As he opened the door a grubby, stained mattress was clearly visible in the back.

We later tracked him to his home 60 miles away—a squalid flat in Brighton, East Sussex.

Looking gross and dishevelled, Kirtland answered the door naked — pulling on grimy shorts as he invited us in.

The contrast with George Michael's opulent, high-roller rock lifestyle was stark.

George, whose family is Greek-Cypriot, has amassed a £70million fortune from sales of records including I Want Your Sex and Careless Whisper. He owns a £5million London town house and a £4million Beverly Hills mansion.

Kirtland's dingy place just off Brighton seafront, was littered with rubbish, dirty crockery and filthy laundry. His only companion is a 20-year-old cat.

He told us: "I don't even like George Michael. And I didn't recognise him immediately.

"He sort of came up and got close. He looked kind of brown so I said to him, ‘You're not totally English, are you?'

"I told him I'd come all the way up from Brighton and he said, ‘What? Isn't Brighton good enough for this sort of thing?'

"I told him it's highly dangerous at 2am. You'd get your throat cut.

"He told me I could contact him on the Gaydar website and we just started kissing.

"He did it very well. That was one of his major points. Then it was fondling and mutual pleasuring. It wasn't full sex but it was fantastic."

Kirtland's confession then took a bizarre twist as he bragged: "There's a secret that I have which no one knows about. It's a personal thing.

"Most people pull away from it. But George actually seemed to respond.

"When we'd finished he said, ‘I've got to go. I've got to go somewhere and chill out.' And that was that.

"OK, I admit I was there for sex. But I'm astonished a man as famous as George should even think about doing it. It's potentially so dangerous."

George's night of shame began just after midnight on Tuesday when he took a short drive from his Highgate house to the Hampstead home of long-term lover Kenny Goss.

Five minutes later he drove to the nearby heath and spent two hours prowling around before hooking up with Kirtland.

When confronted by our team, a shaken George desperately tried to justify his sordid secret quest for cheap, risky thrills, which friends fear is spiralling out of control and threatening his destruction.

In a sweat, the ashen-faced singer declared: "Are you gay? No? Then f*** off! This is my culture!"

Then he claimed: "I'm not doing anything illegal. The police don't even come up here any more.

"I'm a free man, I can do whatever I want. I'm not harming anyone."

But George's worried pals say the former Wham! frontman is the one being harmed.

After the California cottaging scandal, George escaped a six-month jail term but was sentenced to community service plus sex therapy to curb his habits.

It obviously hasn't worked. In February this year he was cautioned by police for possessing cannabis after being found slumped in his car by London's Hyde Park Corner at 1.50am.

Weeks later we snapped him driving erratically and he appeared to fall asleep at traffic lights.

One friend said last night: "We're really concerned. It's long been known he's a heavy cannabis user but we're beginning to fear the pot may have affected his mind. He's lost his judgment. He must seek professional help or things could end very badly for him.

"He's just asking for serious trouble. One day he'll be attacked in one of these dodgy late-night encounters.

"It's so sad to see a talented guy wasting himself like this."

Sven's new Swede-heart

2006-07-16T08:45:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Sven subs Nancy for younger WAG

By Neil McLeod

England's failed soccer boss Sven Goran Eriksson is nuzzling up to a girl young enough to be his daughter.

The News of the World has obtained pictures showing the 58-year-old serial love cheat getting close up and personal with the bikini-clad beauty before disappearing with her into a secluded summerhouse in the grounds of his Swedish lakeside home.

They are believed to have spent the entire afternoon in there despite brilliant sunshine outside.

Furious

Meanwhile Nancy, 47, was hundreds miles away in Italy after the former England coach:

# DITCHED her following the team's disastrous exit from World Cup.
# BANNED her from accompanying him home to Sweden.
# REFUSED to return to join her at a close pal's wedding this weekend.

On Friday night, during a furious phone row, Sven told Nancy there was NO CHANCE of a reconciliation.

As well as his touchy-feely time with the young brunette, the News of the World can reveal that Sven has also secretly rekindled an old romance with a family friend in her forties.

A source close to Nancy told us: "She was desperate to go to Sweden with Sven but he told her in no uncertain terms he wanted to be on his own. He's determined to be rid of her for good. She's distraught."

Certainly Nancy, right, seemed to be the last thing on Sven's mind last week as he relaxed at his £2 million retreat on Sweden's Lake Fryken—scene of last Sunday's News of the World scoop when we caught Sven gibbering to himself and talking to handfuls of pebbles! Sven was joined by his commercial manager Lars Sternmarker, another girl and the mystery brunette. And Sven only had eyes for her as they spent time chatting and laughing together.

At one stage lusty Sven, in baggy white swim shorts, shared a long, lingering touch with the girl as they held hands. Sven even perched himself on the end of her sun lounger, leaning against her naked legs as they shared a sunbed on the waterside patio.

Mysteriously, a girl looking very much like Sven's new young woman was seen drinking in a bar with Nancy

in England's HQ town of Baden Baden during the World Cup in Germany last month. One onlooker said: "Sven was clearly close to this girl. She seemed to hang on his every word and they shared quite a few laughs.

"And everyone knows he can't resist girls with dark hair and dark skin. He didn't have the look of someone just getting a split with his long-term lover. And he certainly didn't have the look of someone who should be hanging their head in shame over the World Cup farce.

"They seemed very close. When they held hands it was definitely like they didn't want to let go and acted as if there was no one else around." Astonishingly, Sven was once pictured intimately cuddling up to Nancy on the very same sunbed.

A family source also gave us the lowdown on the other new woman in his life. The pal said: "She's an old flame and they've recently been seeing each other again. They really enjoy each other's company but he won't be announcing her as his new girlfriend. He wants to keep it casual.

"He has wanted to end things with Nancy for two years but decided to wait until after he World Cup.

"He hasn't considered it a proper relationship for some time, but regarded Nancy as someone he was obliged to attend functions with from time to time. And he was furious at her when he learned in the News of the World how she'd been tipping off freelance photographers——and had pocketed £27,000 in the process

"He believed that story 100 per cent. Nancy is now absolutely beside herself. She feels she's stuck with him through thick and thin since 1998, including his affairs with Ulrika Jonsson and FA secretary Faria Alam, below, and this is no way to be treated.

"But Sven has totally refused any reconciliation and they had another big row on Friday night. They were due to go to the wedding of Arsenal boss David Dein's daughter this weekend but Sven refused so he could avoid being with her."

Nancy is also upset at the way she was dumped.

Tears

After telling the nation he was sorry for England's dismal World Cup exit, Sven jetted off to his lakeside home in Bjorkefors, just outside Sunne in Sweden. But he ordered Nancy, who was with friends in Rome, not to join him. He then told her they were finished.

She repeatedly phoned Sven, begging him to relent but he put his foot down and told her to move on.

Nancy's friend revealed: "She was shocked because she had never heard him so forceful and it left her in floods of tears."

There are bound to be more problems when it comes to dividing up their huge wealth.

Sven earned £25 million from his five years as England boss and over that time made a number of investments with Nancy.

They have sold their £3million mansion near London's Regent's Park for a £400,000 profit and are currently negotiating their shares.

But a source close to the pair said: "Whatever happens Sven just wants Nancy to get on with her life without him.

"He's certainly going to be enjoying life without her!"

HE SHOOTS... SHE SCORES

2006-07-09T09:35:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Crouch's girl bedded builder

By Bethany Usher and Rob Kellaway

Coke-hoovering blonde Abi Clancy watched boyfriend Peter Crouch score a hat-trick for England... then sneaked off for a night of lust with a builder, the News of the World can reveal.

As HE was celebrating the goals against Jamaica with his famous robodance, SHE was plotting a sex session with an ex-lover behind his back.

Wannabe model and singer Abi, 20, confessed her cheating AND her huge cocaine habit to Crouch hours before the vital World Cup game with Trinidad and Tobago.

Rumours emerged that there were pictures of her bingeing on mounds of cocaine at a party, crudely exposing her breasts as blobs of the drug hung from her nose.

Crouch, 25, FORGAVE her, then went on to score the goal that took England through the group stages.

She made a grovelling apology to his father Bruce, who immediately ordered her back to England.

Abi, who'd been bankrolled with thousands of pounds by Crouch to enjoy herself with the other WAGs at their luxury hotel in Baden-Baden, flew home in disgrace.

Blow

But within hours, the coke-fiend blonde was cheating on him AGAIN with the same ex-boyfriend.

A Crouch pal said last night: "He expected her at least to behave herself after all that. This new betrayal will be a huge blow."

Abi was seen cheering in the stands with Posh, Coleen McLoughlan and the other WAGs five weeks ago as she watched the 6-0 World Cup warm-up win over Jamaica at Old Trafford, Manchester.

But the next day she rushed to the arms of her lover Ben Lunt, 23, below.

The builder picked her up from her parents' house and took her to his home in Tue Brook, Merseyside, for a night of passion.

Abi emerged around 7.20am the next day and got a taxi home. Friends say Ben had no idea she was also going out with the beanpole Liverpool striker until he read it in a newspaper afterwards.

A close friend revealed: "Ben was gobsmacked.

"He didn't even know Abi had been to the Jamaica game. She had been secretly dating Peter for months, but had done her best to keep it quiet so she could see Ben too.

"She even turned down an invitation to Posh and Becks' pre-World Cup party in case she was photographed with Peter. Ben confronted her after reading the stories but Abi denied it. Then she went to Germany to support Peter at the World Cup. He was devastated."

Abi spent her time partying and shopping with the other WAGs— wives and girlfriends—in Baden-Baden. She was welcomed with open arms by fellow Scousers Coleen and Alex Curran.

But they gave her the cold shoulder after they heard about pictures of her taking cocaine.

Some, snapped two years ago, show the drug around her nose. Others—taken just before she met the Liverpool star—are more graphic.

They show Abi spooning cocaine into her nose with a HOUSE KEY to get high.

In one snap there is cocaine residue on her hand after she's wiped her nose and in another she looks heavily under the influence of the Class A drug.

The pictures were taken at a dance musical festival in Liverpool in August last year. One onlooker recalled: "Abi was really bubbly that night, a real whirlwind.

"Suddenly she had this wrap of cocaine in her hand. There looked like a gram, worth about 60 quid. She was being very open about it, she did not give a t*ss who saw her. She used a key to snort it. I don't know if she realised she was having her picture taken by someone on a mobile phone."

Another source said: "Peter's parents heard about the cocaine and they were furious.

"They were horrified at him being associated with someone who takes drugs and they feared it would distract him from doing his job for England in Germany."

After being sent home, Abi—who is due to star in the next series of Britain's Next Top Model starting on July 24—flew straight to London for crisis talks with her management about how to save her career.

But after a number of photo-shoots she returned to her native Liverpool—and the arms of her former lover Ben.

While Crouch was training and giving interviews to the press in Germany on Thursday, June 22, Abi and Ben met up at a bar where they shocked revellers by kissing and holding hands.

They went for a meal at the Shangri-La Chinese restaurant and karaoke bar before booking a room at Sir Thomas Hotel nearby.

They emerged from the hotel looking dishevelled and in the same clothes at around 11 the next morning. An eyewitness said: "No one could get over the way they were behaving in the bar.

"Everyone knew she's supposed to be going out with Peter Crouch, but she was all over Ben.

"At one point a girl went over and told her she was a slut for messing around behind Peter's back.

"The pair of them started shouting at each other, but Ben went over and rescued Abi.

"They were literally all over each other. She was wearing a little silver dress and he kept rubbing his hand across her back. She looked stunning and the lad couldn't resist her."

Devious Abi, who used to date Ben's twin brother Joe, managed to convince her secret lover that she was not really going out with Crouch after all.

Damaged

A pal said: "That's why he agreed to see her again. Abi is used to getting whatever she wants.

"She went out with Joe, but it didn't stop her going after Ben. She says she loves Ben, but it didn't stop her going off with Peter.

"Now going out with Peter isn't stopping her sleeping with Ben.

"Abi has always wanted to be famous and she'll do anything to get there. She doesn't care who she hurts.

"Now she's in serious trouble. She is damaged goods and will find it hard to get modelling jobs."

Flirty Harry tried to do dirty with me

2006-07-02T10:00:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE:Night Prince got his hands on masseuse

By Carole Aye Maung

A PRETTY masseuse has told how Prince Harry couldn't keep his hands off her after she gave him a sexy rub-down.

Maya French claims the sozzled prince chatted her up, kissed her on the lips and twice made a date with her in his VIP room at London's Boujis club, only to pass out drunk before she got there.

She told the News of the World: "He tried it on with me. All it needed was the nod from me and I could have been in his bed. He made that plainly obvious."

Harry will be in trouble when girlfriend Chelsy Davy gets her hands on him. She's already smarting over his naughty night out with his ex, TV presenter Natalie Pinkham, and Page 3 girl Coralie Robinson.

Maya, who works as an ‘Ibiza Angel' offering seven-minute massages as a VIP treat, first met Harry two months ago. "Even though he's a prince and I'm a commoner, we just clicked," she said.

Stroking

And from then on, Harry was very much hands-on with the stunning masseuse.

"He was very touch-feely, stroking my arm. He didn't try to hide the fact he fancied me," said Maya

And soon Harry was asking the 21-year-old for a massage. Maya revealed: "I was really flattered because he had ALWAYS said no to the offer of a massage from other Angels.

"I couldn't believe that I was the first person he wanted to give him one."

Maya started massaging his back before moving on to his shoulders, neck, head, ears and arms.

"He was writhing with pleasure, rolling his shoulders and lolling his head. He told me that it was the best massage he'd ever had. I was pretty chuffed with that."

So chuffed that she decided to give the prince extras—adding three minutes to the usual seven-minute massage."I pushed the boat out for Harry but only because he's a prince," she said.

However the extra time proved too much. Maya said: "When I stopped, he just sat there motionless. My first thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, I've killed him'. I was worried that I had massaged his temples too hard."

But he had just nodded off and when he came to he apologised and fixed it with Maya's boss so she could party with him. They drank champagne and shots—and then he made his move. "He leaned in towards me and kissed me on the mouth," said Maya.

She had to go back to work but agreed to meet Harry later.

Maya revealed: "When I turned up he was passed out in a drunken stupor on a sofa with his mouth gaping wide open. He was SO drunk."

He did the same thing when she met him again at the club three weeks later. Maya says: "True to form, when I turned up there was Harry sprawled out on the sofa, out for the count."

Maya said: "Harry is like a kid in a candy store inside Boujis. He thinks he can have any woman he wants. They queue up outside his VIP room.

"His girlfriend needs to know what he's like. If he was my boyfriend I wouldn't trust him an inch."

Monsters at work

2006-06-25T08:24:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: ...and the only one around to keep an eye on them is News of the World

By Phil Whiteside and Luke Layfield

A CHILLING scene to strike terror into the heart of every parent—two dangerous paedophiles FILM little children feeding the ducks in a park.

One is a pervert awaiting sentence after admitting a string of sex attacks on girls as young as 11. The other is a child rapist just out of jail.

Just DAYS before, camera-wielding fiend David Ramsden, 73, who has six previous child-sex convictions, had been freed on bail.

Keeping watch is pot-bellied sicko pal Vincent Graham, who was jailed for 10 years in 2001 and is only just out on licence. He's at the same hostel.

The shocking pictures here and on Page One PROVE the need for Sarah's Law which would give parents and carers the right to know about child sex beasts in their area.

These two monsters should NOT be on the streets, they should NOT be out together and they should NOT be unsupervised. But the only people watching them at any time during their stomach-churning outing were News of the World investigators.

This highlights the scandal of predatory sex offenders released into the community in ill-supervised hostels.

Assault

The News of the World has successfully campaigned to get them banned from 11 bail hostels near schools. But many others are still allowed to house child-sex beasts.

Thankfully Ramsden was finally behind bars last night after being jailed for a year on eight counts of sexual assault on four girls aged 11 to 13. He'll be out in six months.

But just two weeks ago, days after he'd admitted the offences but before he was sentenced, the News of the World tracked him down to St Catherine's Priory bail hostel in Guildford, Surrey.

We watched as he left carrying a video camera and tripod and took a bus into the centre of the town and headed straight for a busy park on the edge of the town centre.

The wrinkly pervert, who was joined on the park bench by his pot-bellied pal Graham, 59, set up his tripod so the camera pointed at some ducks by the river. And the disgusting pair waited.

Before long a family with two young girls aged between four and seven came along and started throwing bread.

Every few minutes Ramsden leered through the viewfinder to make sure his innocent targets were still in shot as his rapist mate kept lookout.

Two more girls skipped around and laughed, happily feeding the ducks as Ramsden sneakily steered his lens. The cunning perverts remained at the site for more than an hour until the park began to empty. Over the following days, our investigators saw Ramsden visit Guildford town centre on several occasions.

Each time—in a variety of bizarre outfits, including military hats, a red waistcoat, jodhpurs and the regimental tie of the Blues and Royals—he mingled with families and children.

When approached, he denied being a child-sex offender and said he was a wildlife photographer who liked ducks.

Pal Vincent Graham is a Schedule One sex offender, the most serious category, who is known to be a danger to children. He was convicted in 2001 of raping children and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

Police regard him as a high-risk offender who ought to be closely monitored by probation staff.

Sources told the News of the World he moves around using an unusual walking stick with a monkey model attached to it which he uses to attract children's attention.

He also wears false flashing ears which provide an extra draw for fascinated youngsters. News of the World investigators spotted Graham with Ramsden on FIVE occasions outside the grounds of the hostel.

Four times they were seen together at a cafe in the Friary shopping centre and twice they were spotted in a park. Known paedophiles are not supposed to associate as it is well known they can swap tips on how to abuse and trick their victims.

Crazy

A source, whose identity is being kept secret for protection, told the News of the World: "These monsters are a danger to children. It's madness to have let them out.

"To put them in a hostel in the heart of a busy town full of families is simply crazy. They could strike again at any time and placing them here simply ensures plenty of potential victims."

Although he'd originally been sent to prison to await trial, Ramsden was granted bail by Recorder Stuart Lawson-Rogers when he appeared at Guildford Crown Court to admit his offences last month—despite previous convictions for six other sex assaults on children in 1993.

On Friday when he appeared for sentencing a different judge jailed him and banned him from mixing with youngsters under 18 when he comes out. He said: "Children have got to be protected."

Last night the mothers of two of Ramsden's little victims from the Surrey village where he lived backed the News of the World's fight for Sarah's Law.

One said: "If we had a Sarah's Law we'd have known about his previous convictions.

"We would have known straight away not to trust him. But as it was, he ended up abusing our children."

The other added: "If we knew where they were we would not have to lie awake at night wondering where they were and whether they were out there after our children."

# WE have altered the pictures of the girls in the park to conceal their identities. If you think they are YOUR children contact Surrey Police on 0845 125 2222.

Sarah's Law victory

2006-06-18T09:59:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Major U-turn to protect our children - 11 hostels shut to paedos and 60 perverts shifted out

By Ian Kirby

The News of the World has scored a massive victory in its historic crusade to protect Britain's children from paedophile monsters.

Sarah's Law - which would give parents the right to information about dangerous paedophiles - is on the brink of being introduced in Britain.

After a six year battle by the News of the World Home Secretary John Reid ORDERED a review of our campaign and CLOSED 11 bail hostels to child sex offenders.

The U-turn follows our relentless campaign to expose the dangers of child sex fiends secretly housed in bail hostels close to schools.

In a surprise move Mr Reid this weekend:

# BANNED paedophile inmates from ELEVEN government hostels (pictured on this page) near to classrooms and nurseries,
# SHUNTED 60 child abusers out to less risky locations away from vulnerable youngsters,
# ANNOUNCED he is urgently sending a top minister to America to learn how their version of Sarah’s Law works,
# VOWED parents will be entitled to much more information about dangerous paedophiles in their area, and
# ACCEPTED a list be published pinpointing ALL bail hostels in Britain where paedophiles can still be placed.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE OFFICIAL HOME OFFICE LIST

[Note from blog editor: I'm not going to link to this list. Nor am I going to present photos of a series of hostels as NOTW has done. But I will include this link to instructions for making your very own flaming torch... just in case you want to march on the house of a nearby paediatrician.]

In a huge sea change of government attitude, Dr Reid sent shock waves through the police, probation and prison system by declaring bluntly: “I start from the position that information should no longer remain the exclusive preserve of officialdom.

Safety

“I have also asked the minister to study specifically the News of the World’s Sarah’s Law proposals on controlled access to information.

“I believe the public have the right to protection and they have the right to information.

“We must make sure that we get the balance right though and that the free flow of information does not undermine the public’s safety.

“That’s why we will go to America to see how it’s done there and look hard at the Sarah’s Law proposals.”

Dr Reid's decisions are a massive breakthrough in our six-year For Sarah Campaign.

They came after we confronted the Home Office with damning evidence of how many official government hostels and halfway houses secretly take in newly-released paedophiles without the local community’s knowledge.

Last night he said: “I have instructed that no child sex offenders reside in accommodation directly adjacent to schools.” And on his orders Minister Gerry Sutcliffe will fly to the US to examine Megan’s Law — a system which publicises the whereabouts of paedophiles.

Mr Sutcliffe stressed he wanted to see children given the maximum amount of protection possible.

He said: “I want to learn how the system works in America and see how controlled access to the information can be used to protect families and children in the best public interest.”

After a nationwide probe we informed the Home Office about 11 paedophile hostels next to schools, play centres and nurseries.

They are located in Luton, Ellesmere Port, Blackburn, Leicester, London, Sheffield, Stafford, Nuneaton, Birmingham, Leeds and Lincoln.

On Friday Mr Sutcliffe asked for their status to be changed — effectively CLOSING them to child-sex offenders.

The Head of the Probation Service, Roger Hill, then signed an order changing the admissions policy.

That meant SIXTY inmates were immediately told they were being moved away from children.

Mr Sutcliffe told us: “The protection of the public and offender management are both priorities — but public protection comes first.”

Switched

Other hostels are now being reviewed and paedophiles may be switched from them, too, if they are deemed to be too close to schools.

Last night the Home Office agreed that their official list of around 75 remaining hostels where child-sex pests CAN STILL be housed could be published and so made available to parents and the general public.

This is further evidence of a giant change in the department’s attitude towards parents’ right to know.

The hostels are not sealed compounds with heavy security, but normal buildings in residential streets, often near busy town centres.

Many have nothing to identify them as Home Office-run buildings and those who use them are free to mix with unsuspecting parents and children on high streets up and down the country.

Time and again since we launched our For Sarah campaign in 2000, paedophiles on the Sex Offenders’ Register have been allowed to stike again.

Last night the parents of US victims praised our campaign and hailed the Home Office moves.

Mark Lunsford, 42 — responsible for Jessica's Law being introduced in America after his nine-year-old daughter was abducted, raped and buried alive — said: “The law has to be tough on sexual predators. This is a step in the right direction.”

Maureen Kanka, 47, who was responsible for Megan’s Law in memory of her murdered daughter, said: “I applaud the News of the World. The only way to keep children safe is for stronger laws.”

Heather, the £5,000 hooker

2006-06-11T13:18:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: How Lady Macca hid secret vice past from Sir Paul

By Phil Taylor

The News of the World can reveal the secret vice past of Sir Paul McCartney's wife Heather.

In an investigation spanning Europe and the Middle East we have tracked down the former high-class hooker who partnered her for an orgy in London's Dorchester Hotel—and later became convinced that Heather's bisexual games weren't just an act for her kinky clients.

In sworn affidavits we have evidence from the private secretary who paid Heather for pleasuring his billionaire master.

And we have testimony from Denise Hewitt, the ex-wife of the heir to the Berkeley Homes empire, that she joined Heather for lesbian games and group sex when they were both London prostitutes.

We can identify the madam who booked many of Heather's rich and famous clients for a 20 per cent fee.

And we reveal that Heather's vice trade wasn't simply a moment of madness in her life. It went on for years.

Heather, now 38, is locked in a split from ex-Beatle Paul and his £825 million fortune, Our revelations will have a shattering effect on her negotiations for a settlement.

Foursome

Her secret sex games with international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi took place in Spain's Marbella and at the Lanesborough, Hilton, Dorchester and Grosvenor House hotels in London's Mayfair.

She was paid amounts totalling £2,000 in sterling plus another 8,000 US dollars—currently about £4,400. But this was just a fraction of a secret fortune she amassed.

Heather earned a further £1,000 for a foursome with two other escort girls and an Arab prince at the Dorchester on London's Park Lane.

A former escort girl named Petrina Montrose, who joined Heather for the Dorchester hotel orgy, told the News of the World: "Heather was a familiar face in our business.

"I worked with her when we were both hired for a party thrown by an Arab prince at the Dorchester."

Naked

The 37-year-old, who now lives in Essex, said that she and Heather had been booked by a girl named Ros Ashley who also modelled swimwear under the single professional name ‘Ashley'.

Petrina continued: "It was a really lavish affair. There was a buffet of Lebanese food and Ashley was already there with a group of about six working girls, including Heather.

"The prince was tall and greasy and I wanted to leave but I knew that to get my money I'd have to have sex with anyone in the room who picked me. Still, Heather was bubbling over with enthusiasm.

"All the girls separated and, after a while, a blonde girl opened the prince's bedroom door and beckoned me in. The prince was lying naked on the bed with his legs apart.

"The blonde girl lay on the bed between his legs, then I saw that Heather was already in there too. She was naked on the bed, kneeling next to the prince's midriff. I took off my clothes and joined everyone on the bed. I knelt facing Heather and we performed oral sex on the prince. Then all four of us played together on the bed before the blonde girl who called me in had full sex with him.

"When we'd finished, Heather made no attempt to put her clothes on. Instead she started parading naked around the room, trying to impress the prince even more. At the end, Ashley paid us £1,000 each."

Heather's sex trade is also detailed by Abdul Khoury, who was Adnan Khashoggi's private secretary from 1977 until last year.

Mr Khoury, who now lives in the Lebanon, has a great memory for detail. In precise language he told us: "I was responsible for organising all Mr Khashoggi's arrangements, including meetings, travel and his social diary.

Skin

"One of my duties was to look after Mr Khashoggi's guests, which would include looking after vice girls who were invited to see him. One was Heather Mills, who I know had sex with him on a number of occasions in return for money.

"I recall that one of those occasions was in Marbella where Mr Khashoggi has a villa. It was summer time and it would have been around 1988, I believe.

"Miss Mills, as she then was, was booked to attend a party with another lady. I arranged their flight tickets from London and met them personally when they arrived. I had arranged for accommodation at a hotel near Mr Khashoggi's estate.

"Mr Khashoggi's parties were always splendid affairs. At that gathering, I seem to remember, was the film star George Hamilton.

"I informed Mr Khashoggi that his guests had arrived. He asked me what the girls looked like and I told him that I thought Heather in particular was appealing. The day after the party I took Heather and her companion, a lady named Joanna as I recall, to see Mr Khashoggi. Before they left, Mr Khashoggi called me in, asked me to count out two amounts of £2,000, to put the money into envelopes and to give them to each of the girls.

"Sometimes Mr Khashoggi would make comments to me about the girls he paid to have sex with him.

"In Heather's case I remember his remark that she had soft skin. And she was very athletic in bed. Mr Khashoggi was always very pleased with Heather's performance."

But Joanna wasn't. It later became clear to those in Khashoggi's circle of women that when all three of them were in the bedroom Heather had ‘tried it on' with Joanna and suggested lesbian sex—and that it was much more than a performance for the arms dealer's benefit.

Petrina Montrose recalled: "I was told that Heather has come on to a girl in a threesome and that the girl was upset. It's completely out of order for one prostitute to make a lesbian approach to another unless it's been discussed beforehand.

"But Heather seemed as interested in the sexual side of things—even lesbian sex—as well making money."

In the early 90s Heather also had a series of sex sessions with Khashoggi at London hotels.

Mr Khoury revealed: "The model named Ashley invited Miss Mills to the Lanesborough Hotel where Mr Khashoggi was staying. There was also another girl.

Bedroom

"I recall that Mr Khashoggi took Heather's hand and led her into the bedroom while the other girl remained talking to me. After about an hour Heather returned and Mr Khashoggi came out and led the other girl into the bedroom.

"Heather and I talked during this time. It was clear they had had sex.

"After he had finished with the second girl, Mr Khashoggi called me into the bedroom and told me to count out 2,000 US dollars for each of the girls and to put the money into envelopes. I did so, and he then handed each one an envelope.

"About four months later Mr Khashoggi came to London and stayed at the Hilton Hotel.

"He said he would like to see Heather so I telephoned her. She told me she had a new friend. I said bring her along. Again, Mr Khashoggi led them to his bedroom one at a time and paid each 2,000 dollars.

"Heather and the same girl met Mr Khashoggi once more at the Dorchester hotel.

"This time he asked for Heather first and then, about half an hour later, he reappeared and collected the other girl to join Heather and him. All three were in the bedroom for about 45 minutes. Again, payment was 2,000 dollars in envelopes.

Custody

"About three weeks later Mr Khashoggi was once more in London. This time he stayed at the Grosvenor House Hotel but again was entertained by Heather and a girl, one at a time. Once again the payment was 2,000 dollars each."

Heather and Paul McCartney married in June 2002. Their baby Beatrice was born on October 30, 2003.

Early last month the News of the World exclusively revealed that the marriage was in crisis and they were living apart. Just 10 days later the pair confirmed they were separating, though no decision has been made on custody of Beatrice.

Meanwhile, Heather has sought to put the best gloss on her past and has always denied being a vice girl.

When we asked Abdul Khoury's for his view of her, he paused a moment to reflect then said: "She has lied through her teeth."

Bomb suspect shot by brother

2006-06-04T11:52:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE:There was a scuffle.. the man grabbed at an officer's gun. It fired

By Lucy Panton and Ryan Sabey

THE News of the World has uncovered sensational details of the anti-terror raid which ended with one of the chemical bomb suspects shot.

After smashing their way into the Kalam brothers' East London home at 4.10am on Friday two armed police officers rushed up the stairs to seize the two men.

Security sources say the cops were confronted by the Muslim brothers, who were trying to run down the steps, and a scuffle broke out.

This is understood to have climaxed with 20-year-old Abdul Koyair making a grab for a police firearm, which already had its safety catch off.

In the desperate struggle that followed, the gun was fired and the bullet hit 23-year-old mail worker Abdul Kahar in the shoulder.

Impact

We can also reveal how police:

FEAR the explosive device they are hunting is designed to spray out deadly cyanide,

TESTED the gun for DNA evidence to confirm who fired the shot,

SEARCHED the brothers' workplaces for clues, and

DISCOVERED the men were planning a long-haul trip abroad for this weekend.

Initial reports assumed Kahar had been wounded by one of the officers.

But last night, as he lay under arrest and armed guard in the Royal London Hospital, cops were banking on the results of DNA tests from the weapon pointing the finger firmly at his brother.

Today we publish the first exclusive picture of the injured suspect and unveil how initial investigations centering on the trajectory of the bullet indicated that the officer did NOT pull the trigger.

Officials from the Independent Police Complaints Commission measured the angle of impact into the suspect's shoulder and also noted the spot where the officers stood at the time of firing.

A highly-placed Whitehall source told us: "We understand the officers are adamant that they did not pull the trigger and have told bosses at Scotland Yard the DNA evidence will prove this.

Toxic

"They are confident that this is not another Jean Charles de Menezes situation (the Brazilian shot in error by anti-terror cops on the London Underground) and that they are in the clear."

The brothers are being held under the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of being "concerned in the commission, preparation, or instigation of acts of terrorism".

If the evidence proves that Tesco worker Koyair fired the weapon he could face charges of attempting to shoot a police officer.

The massive 300-strong force of specialist firearms officers and anti-terror cops—codenamed Operation Volga—swooped on the brothers' terraced house in Lansdown Road, Forest Gate, after "firm intelligence" from MI5 that terrorists were constructing a device laced with killer cyanide gas.

Cyanide can kill within seconds and a concentrated toxic cloud released over a wide area would have devastating consequences.

The threat was regarded as so serious that Dame Eliza Manningham-Butler, director general of MI5, personally informed Tony Blair and Home Secretary John Reid in advance of the operation. Expert scientists were called in to study a drawing obtained by the intelligence services and within days the raid was on.

We can also reveal that security services had been tipped off about a possible stash of firearms at the house along with the chemical bomb—at first thought to be a kind of vest or waistcoat, "primed and ready to go".

But incredibly, the hunt for the device had to be delayed after the shooting so that the police complaints investigation could take precedence at the scene.

That initial assessment took over FIVE HOURS before bio-chemical experts were finally allowed into the building at 9.30am.

The Porton Down specialists, along with health officials, then spent the rest of the day making the scene safe before forensic search officers were allowed in. Scotland Yard's search teams, in white forensic suits, were finally let in to begin hunting the bomb in the early hours of yesterday.

A doctor was on hand to administer an antidote to emergency service staff should anyone have come into contact with deadly gas.

Meanwhile other officers were trying to work out possible targets for the suspected plot.

Bailiffs

One line of inquiry was that the gas was to be released in a busy and enclosed shopping centre, which mirrors the current plotline in the Sky hit drama 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland.

The specialist officers searching the house have constructed scaffolding inside so they can probe wall cavities and the loft. They also plan to dig up the garden.

A security source said: "The intelligence suggested the property could have a number of hidey-holes where the device could have been stored.

"Right from the start we weren't taking any chances because our information indicated this device was primed and ready to go.

"It was a serious public safety issue."

Operation Volga spawned a series of other raids across the capital yesterday.

A statement from Scotland Yard last night said: "Anti-Terrorist Branch officers this afternoon have searched business premises in Tottenham and Whitechapel, where the two men arrested yesterday are employed. The searches have been carried out with the full co-operation of their employers."

The News of the World can reveal that the brothers' house was also raided two weeks ago—by bailiffs.

Although this was sparked by unpaid bills, insiders insist they were flush with money and planning to jet off on an expensive family holiday to the luxury island of Mauritius yesterday.

At least 10 people were living in the house including six men, three women and a child.

Some of them are believed to be relatives and were going on the Mauritius trip with the brothers.

A close friend said yesterday: "The boys' parents telephoned cops to ask if they could see one of the brothers—because they still planned to go on the holiday.

"They even asked if officers could retrieve their suitcases from the house as they needed them."

Sources have revealed that even before this week the brothers were well known to the police.

A neighbour, security engineer Ashish Khetani, 19, told us that there had been a number of violent incidents outside the house in recent years.

"There always used to be fights there," he said. One night one of the family got bottled over the head and the cops had to be called."

Last night Koyair was still being quizzed at Paddington Green police station, after the authorities were granted warrants by Bow Street Magistrates allowing the brothers to be held until Wednesday without charge.

Outside, wounded brother Kahar's solicitor Kate Roxburgh said that her client denied being involved in terrorism. "He has no involvement at all," she said. "He was woken up about 4am by screams downstairs. He got out of bed in his pyjamas, obviously unarmed, and began hurrying downstairs.

"As he came towards a bend in the stairway the police turned their gun up towards him and shot him without any warning at all."

Other members of the brothers' family who were rounded up in the swoop last night hinted they may sue police over their treatment. In a statement they said: "We would like to make it clear that we are completely innocent and in no way involved in any terrorist activity.

"However, we would like to express our deep shock and anger at the operation that took place.

"We were assaulted and detained for 12 hours. We're currently liaising with our legal team on the course of action to take."

But police on the street said last night that they were pleased with the cooperation they were receiving from the local community.

They described how neighbours were handing out tea and coffee to officers.

They admitted there was a natural hunger to know what was going on but denied there was any tension.

WE CATCH 2 BUS LOADS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

2006-05-28T15:08:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE:NOTW delivers 66 on-the-run foreigners to Home Office.. to show how easy it is

By Mazher Mahmood

THE News of the World has given bungling Home Office officials a lesson in catching illegal immigrants.

They say they haven't a clue how many are in Britain. And they can't find hundreds who've gone on the run.

But within a few hours we managed to round up TWO BUSLOADS of them.

We drove them to an immigration detention centre with the message: Try not to lose them this time.

We delivered 70 in all—49 on a luxury coach and 21 crammed into a minibus. It would have been MORE if the coach driver hadn't chucked 20 off for safety reasons.

Last night a red-faced Home Office spokesman spluttered: "We are grateful to the News of the World for its work to bring these cases to light. Tackling illegal working is a top priority."

It took our undercover reporters less than two days to track down almost 100 illegals in London. All they had to do was put the word round they were seeking cheap labourers.

BUSLOAD No1 came from the East End. A regular at the White Hart pub in Green Lane put our reporters on to an illegal worker called Manjit Singh.

He told us: "If you want cheap labourers, you can get hundreds.

"The only thing is they're all illegal and don't have any paperwork. You have a lot of skilled Eastern European workers.

Clowns

"But if you want a gang of grafters then I'd suggest Indian boys. They'll work a whole day for £40.

"The Home Office are clowns. They can't track us down and nowhere we have worked has ever been raided. We are safe."

Manjit, in his 30s, told how he'd paid £9,000 to be smuggled to Britain on a fake visa from Jullundar in India. He has been living and working in London illegally for three years.

He took us to nearby Rosebery Avenue, East Ham, where scores of illegal workers live. Inside a terraced house next to a Sikh temple turban-headed Makhan Singh asked: "How many people do you need? We'll get as many as you want.

"We've got 12 living in here and we all do building work, but we don't work on the books. There are more of us living over the road."

There were two single beds in the cramped, foul-smelling front room with another mattress thrown on the floor. Washing was hung over the open door.

Within minutes nearly 20 people crammed into the room, all seeking work. They openly admitted being illegal immigrants. Meanwhile Manjit used his mobile to line up more.

Our investigators moved on to a makeshift employment agency in the back yard of an off-licence in Plashett Road, east London.

There Bhola Singh promised: "I can get you a hundred people by clicking my fingers. None of them have any papers. It's cheap labour."

True to his word, 40 men filed in the next day to sign up for work.

Yesterday at 9.30 am, our luxury 53-seater coach pulled up outside the Ruskin Arms pub in East Ham. Scores of workers, some clutching lunchboxes, piled on board.

At one point they were sitting on each other's laps! When our law-abiding driver threw some off they begged to be let back on.

BUSLOAD No2 came from Southall, west London, where hordes of illegals converge in the Northwood Road car park every morning from 6am.

They are picked up by a fleet of minibuses and paid from £30 a day to work on building sites.

Our investigators approached a man with a green turban called Nishan Singh, who came to Britain a year ago on a fake visa.

Swooped

He said: "How many days work do you have and how many people do you need? There's a ring of us. I can get them easily. No one has any papers, brother."

He handed over his phone number and said that he would turn up with 20 people.

Yesterday when our minibus arrived outside a Sikh temple in Southall there were many more than we'd allowed for. Twenty-one of them squeezed aboard.

Somewhat to the surprise of all the illegals, BOTH buses headed straight to the Colnbrook Immigration Detention Centre near Heathrow where 25 uniformed police officers stood in wait.

The convoy was ordered into a secure compound where 35 immigration officers swooped.

Each illegal was searched and placed in detention. All mobiles were confiscated.

One passenger said in Punjabi: "Don't worry, lads, I know we're f****d but stay calm. Say nothing."

Last night a Home Office spokesman confirmed that of the 70 we delivered, 66 people had been arrested and detained. Among them were EIGHT failed asylum seekers already sought by immigration.

Our investigation will heap even more shame on the government. Home Secretary John Reid admits he has no idea how many illegal immigrants are in Britain. The Home Office's own figures claim there are between 310,000 and 570,000, believed to be a huge underestimate.

Our Investigations Editor Mazher Mahmood is famous as the Fake Sheik. Now, after his On The Buses coup. he'll also be known as the Fake Blakey...

VICTIMS WIN 7/7 VICTORY

2006-05-21T13:43:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Compensation DOUBLED following News of the World campaign

By Ian Kirby & Sara Nuwar

TRAGIC victims of the 7/7 London bombings are to have their compensation payments DOUBLED, the News of the World can reveal.

Home Secretary John Reid has promised to fork out the extra cash after the first anniversary of the suicide bomb horrors.

And immediately delighted relatives hailed the move as a thrilling victory for this newspaper's hard-fought campaign to win help for the suffering victims.

Last night Mr Reid told us he had ordered the extra payments after talks with families of those severely injured and traumatised in the blasts.

"I have decided to make a special payment recognising the special circumstances of the 7/7 attacks," he said.

Delays

The government will also SCRAP its £500,000 ceiling on compensation packages to ensure sufficient cash is available for medical treatment.

The one-off extra payments will be followed by an overhaul of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, designed to slash red tape and speed up its payouts.

Last year we disclosed that hundreds of crippled victims had been left dependent on charity because of CICA delays.

We launched our What About the Victims? campaign on the front page, calling for immediate action. It demanded: NO CEILING on compensation, SPEEDY assessment to ensure a victim's long-term security would be sorted within six months, and a MINISTER to look after their rights. Survivors and relatives of 7/7 victims delivered a 10,000-strong petition to Downing Street in October and the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke ordered a review.

It concluded that it would be unfair to give the victims special treatment. But Prime Minister Tony Blair later over-ruled this verdict. Now he has also agreed to our plea for a nationwide two-minute silence at midday to mark each July 7 anniversary.

So far the CICA has paid out £2.1million to those injured or who lost a relative in the horror.

Families of those who died in the bombings—at Aldgate East, Edgware Road and King's Cross tube stations and on the No27 bus in Tavistock Square—welcomed Mr Reid's announcement.

John Taylor, whose 24-year-old daughter Carrie was killed at Aldgate, said: "It's great news and about time. The News of the World fought a fantastic campaign." And Dania Gorodi, 48, whose sister Michelle Otto, 46, died in King's Cross, added: "I'm absolutely thrilled your campaign has paid off.

"It will make a huge difference to people's lives and your paper has been a tremendous support for the families."

John Falding, whose girlfriend Anat Rosenburg, 39, died at Tavistock Square, said: "I'm delighted. The survivors have had enough to cope with, without the hassle over money."

Jordan babies target in £1m kidnap terror

2006-05-14T19:32:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Nightmare for celebrity couple as cops warn them of plot

By Lucy Panton

A CRACK team of elite cops raced to protect top model Jordan after dicovering a millionpound plot to kidnap one of her children.

The mega-wealthy blonde and her family have been given special protection after Scotland Yard's snatchbuster squad got a tip-off that three-year-old Harvey and 11-month-old Junior were under threat.

Detectives discovered a gang of foreign and London crooks planned to take one of the tots hostage and issue Jordan and pop star husband Peter Andre with a £1million ransom demand.

Officers last night described it as "a very real threat".

As soon as the news reached police through underworld informers, an investigation was launched to identify and infiltrate the gang.

Jordan, 27, and Peter, 33, had no idea their tots were targets until worried cops contacted them.

The terrifying scam mirrors a plot against the Beckhams six years ago, when the News of the World uncovered plans to snatch Victoria and son Brooklyn. Liaison officers from the same unit that handled that case have spent the last month in constant contact with Peter and Jordan to protect them and the children. A police source revealed: "We uncovered the plot at an early stage and it appeared sophisticated.

"It was immediately taken very seriously and security was put in place around the family."

A panic button and a monitored alarm system have been installed at Jordan's £750,000 country home in Maresfield, East Sussex.

An official Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed last night: "The Metropolitan Police specialist kidnap unit are investigating intelligence about a threat to kidnap and extra security has been put in place to protect the family."

Jordan—real name Katie Price— has also been offered police minders when she takes her children out. A friend said: "Obviously Katie's main concern is for her kids.

"She's used to being in the limelight and knows the risks which that brings—particularly when her fortune has been so widely discussed. She has been targeted by burglars in the past.

"But this is different—it's a sinister turn because it puts the boys at risk. Katie is working closely with police to do everything in her power to keep them safe."

Friends fear the pin-up queen's fame and showy displays of wealth—including her fleet of cars and £3.5million holiday home in Cyprus— make her a prime kidnap target.

Just this week the former Page Three girl, reckoned to be worth £10million, spoke of her ambition to become "the world's richest woman" before she's 30.

Jordan—whose first son Harvey was fathered by former Manchester United star Dwight Yorke—declared: "I know I'll top that Rich List."

The model, who is trying to reinvent herself in a bid to go upmarket, was recently snapped by David Bailey for swish American Vogue magazine and is determined to conquer the USA.

Her five-acre Sussex spread is already protected by a £10,000 security fence topped with barbed wire. Now it is under surveillance by cops, too.

Only last June—around the time their son Junior was born—Jordan and Peter were forced to beef up security after ram-raiders broke through the perimeter. They bypassed the alarm sensors but fled empty-handed when Jordan's mum Amy spotted them and alerted the police.

Officers probing the latest threat do not believe the cases are linked. Our insider said: "There's an awful lot of work going on to build up evidence and nail this gang."

The timetable of the snatch plot and details of exactly where the villains planned to strike is being kept secret.

Our investigation into the similar Beckham plot led to the arrest of five men accused of planning to hold the England captain's wife to ransom.

When the prosecution case collapsed one of the criminals, Alin Turcu, tried to sue us—but a High Court judge ruled that our exclusive story WAS accurate.

7/7 Victory

2006-05-14T19:29:00.000Z

Survivor gets £10 compensation

By Keith Gladdis

A SURVIVOR of the 7/7 London bombings has received just £10 from the government.

Professor John Tulloch, 63, whose blood-soaked face became one of the enduring symbols of the atrocity, suffered head and thigh injuries and hearing loss due to perforated eardrums.

But he revealed: "I have so far only received £10 to cover the cost of the photos of my remaining scars that the government has asked for."

However, he said he has been given a "few thousand pounds" by the London Bombings Charitable Fund.

The sociology lecturer was sitting opposite terrorist Mohammed Sidique Khan when he detonated his bomb near Edgware Road station.

Six peope died, but incredibly the professor walked away—saved by his briefcase which took the full force of the blast.

His story highlights the shocking delay in helping victims of the bombing—an issue first raised by the News of the World in our What About the Victims campaign.

Last night Prof Tulloch, from Penarth, South Wales, backed our crusade. He said: "I'm so grateful for the News of the World campaign. It's very important to make sure compensation is adequate for all concerned. I was one of the lucky ones. My heart goes out to those who suffered appalling injuries and need constant care."

Tory MP for Monmouthshire David Davies yesterday said the miserly sum paid to Prof Tulloch was "appalling". He added: "It's almost a year since the bombings. This is another example of government incompetence."

The compensation claims are handled by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. So far, it has made 106 payments totalling more than £1million to victims of the attacks, which killed 52 and injured 750.

A CICA spokesman said: "We are working hard to make sure that victims of these terrible bombings receive the compensation they are entitled to as quickly as possible."

News of the World wins 2-minute silence for the victims

A NATIONWIDE two-minute silence WILL be held to remember the victims of the 7/7 London bombings—following a News of the World campaign.

The tribute to the 52 innocent people who died in the horrific attacks is to be announced by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell this week.

The silence will take place at midday on the first anniversary of the horror. Mrs Jowell told the News of the World: "A nationwide silence will bring the country together in memory of the 52 innocent people who died on 7/7, and the hundreds of others whose lives will never be the same again.

"It will be a chance for us all to stand together, a moment of remembrance, reflection and respect. I am very grateful to the News of the World for its wholehearted support for a tribute."

Last night injured victims of the 7/7 bombings welcomed the decision.

Emotional

Nina Kovacevic, 29, who was hurt in the bus blast in Tavistock Square, said: "I am pleased. It's a great way for the country to remember those who perished. And they should be remembered. It will be a very emotional time."

Nina, a project manager at a design consultancy, had flesh gouged out of her shoulder in the blast, strips of skin were torn from her face and back and her head was split, leaving a five-inch gash.

She added: "I hope everyone in Britain will mark the day with this silent show of respect." Retired journalist John Falding, whose girlfriend Anat Rosenburg, 39, died in the bus attack, said: "I think the two-minute silence will bring comfort to people who still need some public recognition of their private grief."

Grahame Russell, whose 28-year-old son Philip also died on the bus, said: "It's only right. It is respectful."

Bomber blunder

THE Security Services had evidence 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan was intent on violence, it emerged last night.

Khan, 30, ringleader of the attack, was covertly recorded talking about plans to wage jihad. He discussed whether to say goodbye to his family, suggesting he was seeking martyrdom. The details form part of an Intelligence and Security Committee report released last week.

MI5: We will have new 7/7

2006-05-07T16:38:00.000Z

Give 7/7 dead two minutes' silence

By Sarah Newar

SPOOKS at MI5 have warned the 7/7 bombings WILL happen again—because they don't have enough spies.

A disturbing report will reveal intelligence services are overstretched and have failed to penetrate Muslim terror groups.

It says another bombing is a CERTAINTY unless gaps are plugged.

Three attacks have been thwarted since the London bombings. And another six possible plots are being monitored now.

But intelligence agents have told MPs there must be other undetected terror cells who will succeed.

An official enquiry into 7/7 by the super-powerful Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee concludes that MI5 failed to infiltrate radical British Muslims because of a severe "resource problem".

Spy chiefs are still desperately short of surveillance teams, undercover agents and translators.

The committee's report, published on Thursday, will reveal that at one stage just 20 agents were trying to keep tabs on 400 terror suspects linked to al-Qaeda.

And surveillance on 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, 31, was called off because of lack of manpower.

He recruited Hasib Hussain, 18, Shehzed Tanweer, 22, and Jermaine Lindsay, 26, for the suicide bombings.

The report warns Britain will face another attack unless MI5—still geared to fighting decades of Irish terrorism—is overhauled.

Danger

The committee, made up of MPs and chaired by former Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, examined top-secret papers and heard evidence from senior spies.

They are the only independent body monitoring the security and intelligence services and have full access to its shadowy commanders.

Their report is important because it is the only authoritative inquiry into the 7/7 bombings.

It concludes that MI5 had too many white, middle-class agents who could not work undercover in tight-knit Muslim communities.

And although the intelligence budget doubled since the New York attacks in 2001, the money was too late to stop the bombings here.

A senior intelligence source told the News of the World: "With Irish terrorism there was a clear pattern. With Islamic extremists it is harder to tell whether these are kids talking tough, bigots or genuine terrorists.

"That is why another attack will happen at any time."

Tory homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said: "There is no doubt that there is a clear and present threat. The only priority now for the security services is the prevention of further Islamic fundamentalist attacks."

"There are continued warnings of attacks in Britain by Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. These have to be taken seriously."

He added: "I am waiting to see how much truth we are going to get from the government about these events.

"After 9/11 and the Madrid bombings both the American and Spanish governments carried out extensive independent inquiries.

"All we are getting is a narrative which has come from the hands of civil servants and a heavily-censored report by MPs.

"It is crucial we have an independent inquiry before we are attacked again."

THE News of the World today demands that the victims of the 7/7 London suicide bombings are remembered with a two-minute silence.

The 52 people murdered in the bloodiest terrorist attack in British history DESERVE a fitting tribute.

Last year Britain came to a standstill in respect exactly a week after the atrocity. Response to that silence, organised by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, was a magnificent success at the bombing scenes and across the country.

But relatives of the victims have been pressing the government for an official silence on the one-year anniversary.

Now with less than two months to go nothing has been finalised. And The News of the World is demanding action.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: We ask Prime Minister Blair the BIG questions on his blackest week ever

2006-04-30T11:07:00.000Z

WILL I SACK CLARKE? WELL, THAT DEPENDS

By Ian Kirby

PRIME Minister Tony Blair has refused to rule out sacking his embattled Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

In an exclusive News of the World interview he admitted there were "no excuses" for the catalogue of errors that allowed 1,023 foreign prisoners to be freed without deportation.

And the PM revealed the Home Secretary's long-term future would "depend on what happens" as officials and police try to trace lost offenders.

At the end of his worst week —but before the latest revelations about John Reid—the News of the World asked Mr Blair the toughest questions.

And in a combative question-and-answer session at 10 Downing Street, the PM:

ADMITTED he was "angry" at the prisoners debacle.

BLANKED questions about John Prescott.

INSISTED the week's events have made him more determined to stay on and complete his reforms.

ATTACKED the legal establishment for putting criminals before victims.

PROMISED new laws and police powers to combat anti-social behaviour.

ON CLARKE

News of the World: What was your reaction when you were told about the prisoners?

PRIME MINISTER: The reaction you'd expect—pretty angry about it. But it was important to get to the facts and see what people had been trying to do. I make no excuses for what happened, it was wrong and shouldn't have happened. The reason the problem was uncovered was because people started to make changes.

We had no knowledge until we started to work through the system about whether foreign prisoners were being deported.

NOTW: We still have no idea where most of them are or what they are capable of...

PM: It is important to say that of the 1,023 prisoners, 355 have been dealt with. They will work through the rest of them. I'm saying none of this in mitiga-tion—just presenting the facts.

This is a systemic failure that goes back over years. That's no excuse not for us to have sorted it out. What isn't correct is the impression this is a problem that has just arisen.

NOTW: Was it a quick decision for you not to accept the Home Secretary's resignation?

PM: Yes, because my point is: In the time he's been Home Secretary has he been trying to sort it out? Actually he has.

NOTW: But a News of the World reader would say, ‘Hold on, at what point does someone become responsible?'

PM: I think it's a fair point.

NOTW: When you look at our polls or randomly dip into our mailbag crime is the number one issue. People are sick of living in fear. But from that, surely, comes some accountability? He's known about this for some time.

PM: Yes, but he has been acting on it. That's where I disagree with people who say he's ignored it. He hasn't.

NOTW: Do we know where these people are?

PM: No, but this is a backlog going back over many years, including many years before he was Home Secretary.

NOTW: What changes have you put in place to stop this and isn't there a wider problem —the deportation system is overstretched, it cannot cope?

PM: We have made it easier to deport people. There is a strong case for saying people who are guilty of serious criminal offences and are foreign nationals—unless there is some very, very good reason—should be deported.

NOTW: If a serious crime is committed by one of these prisoners, does the situation regarding the Home Secretary change?

PM: I don't think I'm going to speculate. It depends on what happens, what the reasons are.

NOTW: The British crime survey last week said that two thirds of the public think sentences are too lenient. Why do courts refuse to get tough?

PM: The frustration for me is that I have been introducing legislation the public would support but we are constantly getting it watered down.

Its time to have a proper national debate about what we want our system to do.

NOTW: Why are victims' needs not being put first by courts?

PM: It's borne out of a completely mistaken view of civil liberties, because the civil liberty that should matter most is the right to be safe, free from fear.

NOTW: Surely you can pass whatever laws you want but if judges don't hand out the sentences it means nothing?

PM: Look, the judges should do their job and do it utterly independently of government. But judicial decisions don't happen in a different country, a different society. That's why you need to have a discussion about what's necessary.

NOTW: Do you believe in instant justice?

PM: The reason we introduced on-the-spot fines and fixed penalty notices is to say that you need an instant remedy. If they get a £100 fine they might think twice about doing it again.

NOTW: But judges have used the Human Rights Act to block this sort of justice and challenge tough sentencing.

PM: Yes, but it is perfectly right for courts to say that there are other human rights that have to be put in balance here.

NOTW: But they're not saying that, are they?

PM: No, and that's why I say that in the end this is not just about the laws we pass. It's about an attitude we have about the issue of civil liberties.

NOTW: Are you saying some judges put civil liberties ahead of public safety?

PM: I think it is that the system we have is not sufficiently geared to concerns of people.

NOTW: Do you regret the Human Rights Act?

PM: No, because all the Act did was give people the ability to challenge the government in this country. They already had that right in Europe.

ON STAYING ON

NOTW: May I ask you about your legacy?

PM: What? The ‘L' word we don't use?

NOTW: What jobs do you still have to do?

PM: The most important thing for me is to carry on the programme on the NHS, our schools, this whole business to do with anti-social behaviour and respect on our streets, which I believe passionately in and think are the things that people really expect me to do.

I'm not saying we haven't made mistakes, but what I can say is that if you look back over eight or nine years in the local communities it's very hard to say things have not improved. That's not to say there are not still massive challenges.

NOTW: Does a week like this make you more determined to see those changes through?

PM: Yes. The pressure, especially the longer you have been there, gets more intense.

Interesting

The comparison with Black Wednesday is quite interesting. Black Wednesday was the day the government lost control of the economy, interest rates shot up and this was a fundamental moment of the collapse of the government's policy.

I'm not saying this has not been a bad week because it obviously has been, but I don't feel that's where we're heading.

The very fact that a minister getting booed at a union conference is seen as the equivalent of Black Wednesday— well, hang on a minute!

First, is what she's trying to do right or wrong? Second, are there actually improvements in the service? Third. This is what happens when you are in government. Particularly if you go to address a conference where people have a particular interest.

If you measure the seriousness of this against the collapse of economic policy I think you see the world of difference that there is.

For me, the tough week is just another tough week.

ON HEWITT

NOTW: You said you were annoyed at the treatment Pat Hewitt got. Would you agree that the NHS has had its best year yet?

PM: I know that everyone is going to deride it, but what's the best way of measuring whether the NHS is doing well or not? It's by the results.

And all I can say is get a sense of balance. If you go to an accident and emergency department it is a different experience than it was four or five years ago. And if you are waiting for a heart operation you will wait for a lot shorter time than you did eight years ago.

Although you will have readers who have had bad experiences from the NHS, you will have many who have had excellent treatment.

ON PRESCOTT

NOTW: John Prescott, from 1995 to 1997, was at the forefront of the attacks on John Major over sleaze. He may now regret saying morality for a Tory meant not getting caught.

Prime Minister: I don't want to be difficult about it, but I don't want to comment on it.

NOTW: OK, let's not make it specific to John Prescott. It was a big part of your campaign to talk about your moral code.

PM: Yes, but I don't think I talked about the private lives of Tories. It would be a very bold political leader who says there will never be any problems in the personal lives of any of my ministers.

NOTW: Sure, but from the point of the readers, they completely bought into the idea of a sleaze-free Cabinet. We now have a Deputy PM who, having made his own attacks on the Tories, has been caught out.

PM: How many different ways do you want me to say nothing? There's nothing I can say except I think these are private matters and I don't think anybody in politics should cast stones at other people on that.

In respect of the Tories I don't think you would ever have found me making comments about their private lives.

ON NEW ASBO POWERS

NOTW: What new powers can you promise for this autumn?

PM: ASBOs do work but they can be difficult to get.

I think there is a case for allowing a senior police officer to impose an instant ASBO that then comes to court at a later time, so they can halt the offending behaviour straight away and then come to court at a later time so you can decide what happens to a person.

Breaching drug testing and treatment orders should be an arrestable offence. I've spoken to police officers who are fed up with people who breach their orders.

They can't arrest them for it and then it's months before they come back before the courts again.

I also think for people who sell drugs to youngsters there should be a minimum sentence. We do this for gun crime, and for unlawful possession of a firearm now is a minimum five-year sentence.

Support

On organised crime we need stronger powers to be able to open up the bank accounts and financial circumstances of people who have got no particular visible means of support but are living a lifestyle wholly inconsistent with that.

There is a very strong case in my view for allowing the police to seize cash or assets above £1,000 in value in circumstances where they suspect someone is involved in drug dealing.

Now that would give you an immediate ability to take a car or the cash off people who are operating in local communities.

I still think there is a gap between the powers needed on the ground to try to do some of these things and what is there now. What's there now is working when it's being used—there are drug dealers' houses being shut down, crack houses are being shut down. There are anti-social behaviour orders that do actually work when they are secured.

There are situations where as a result of people being tested for drugs on arrest they don't get bail if they're not prepared to take treatment for their addiction.

PRESCOTT: How he risked everything for lust

2006-04-30T10:06:00.000Z

WE ROMPED IN HIS ROOM AFTER WAR SERVICE

By James Weatherup

TWO-SHAGS John Prescott is under new pressure after lurid claims in his mistress's sex diaries that they had FOUR shags a night.

Tracey Temple sensationally claims she gave the Deputy Prime Minister sex in his office as he was going though his government papers.

And, the News of the World can reveal, the secret affair only ended in the LAST MONTH, not in 2004, as the Deputy Prime Minister claimed.

In a series of devastating entries, leather-trousered secretary Tracey reveals how Prescott:

ROMPED with her in the afternoons in his office and at his plush grace-and-favour London home, Admiralty House

INDULGED in seedy phone sex when they couldn't be together

TOOK the secretary back to his flat to bed her immediately after they'd attended the Iraq war memorial service with the Queen

PERFORMED like a tiger and was incredibly enthusiastic in bed despite his age and bulk

SNEAKED into her room for sex at a hotel while trusting wife Pauline waited downstairs.

As bookies slashed the odds on his survival, lardy Prescott, 67, was holed up grim-faced inside his Hull mansion.

And temptress Tracey, 43, who loves to wear red leather trousers in all weathers, was facing the sack from his department over her embarrassing revelations.

But at the same time she bitterly accused Prescott of betraying her. She is furious that "lots of lies" have been told about her and protests she has been "dumped."

She said: "He exploited power for his own sexual gratification. We made love in John's office. We were lucky we never got caught."

Tracey, who has had flings with a string of other married men, logged their secret romps in astonishingly graphic and explicit hand-written diaries which reveal Prescott was a tiger in bed.

The man known as Two Jags was more than Two Shags. Three, and on one occasion even FOUR, times a night was common.

And she recorded breathlessly that she was delighted he was such a practised and adventurous lover with the passion and stamina of a man half his age.

She confided that she found it impossible to believe she was the first woman with whom the married Deputy Prime Minister had been unfaithful—because of his expert technique

She said "I find it unlikely that I am the first—or that I will be the last!"

The diaries records details of frantic, wild sex in his grand office at the Cabinet Office, at Admiralty House and at Dorneywood, his official country residence.

She also details another occasion in a Southampton hotel when Prescott had sex with her in her bedroon then brazenly went down to join Pauline—who was with them on an official trip—for dinner.

She also claims that Prescott had a string of lovers during his political career, including a parliamentary candidate 20 years ago.

And one of her diary items in the Mail on Sunday recalls how after the solemn Iraq war memorial service at St Paul's Cathedral, attended by the Queen, Prescott whisked her back to his flat desperate for a sex romp.

She says: "The service was nice. Had to go back to the flat with the boss. He can be a randy old sod at times coz he wanted sex again he was so up for it though."

She tells how he would regularly grope and grapple her during the working day. And when unable to be together they would coldly indulge in sordid phone sex.

Sometimes she would go to his flat once or twice a week, other weeks not at all. She said: "It was usually spontaneous. I would stay no more than an hour. We would have sex."

She recalls they first made love on Thursday Dec 19, 2002, the day after the office Christmas party. Tracey agreed to go back to Prescott's flat and as she walked in he started kissing her and undressing her. He carried her into the bedroom and went out of his way to make sure she was satisfied.

They had sex, then went into the kitchen for a coffee. She asked him if he had any regrets and he told her he hadn't.

Soon it was a full-blown affair. A pal told the News of the World how they used to have a secret code when they were in the office.

"He'd slip off to his flat and arrange for her to bring him something he'd forgotten. She'd then sneak off through the internal corridors"

We can also reveal that Tracey, Prescott's diary secretary, carried on having secret sex sessions with the passionate Deputy Prime Minister until just a few weeks ago.

One source added: "I think it only stopped when they were rumbled." Whitehall sources believe Prescott claimed the affair was historic in a desperate bid to get forgiveness from wife Pauline.

However, Prezza and Tracey continued with secret meetings at Prescott's Admiralty House flat until very recently. And the pair were even together in the days before the news of the affair broke.

When that happened her bosses initially supported her. They whisked her on to a plane to stay with her mother in the South of France and arranged new phone numbers.

But now she faces the sack for breaking the strict civil service code of behaviour. Having an affair with a minister is not in breach of it but speaking to the media without permission or selling a story is an instant sacking offence.

Last night furious Tracey hit out at the way she'd been treated

She said: "A lot of lies have been put about about me which have been very upsetting and distressing to me and my family.

"I have done nothing to bring this upon myself. Yes, I had an affair. Yes, John Prescott and I had an affair."

On how Prescott issued a statement confirming his adultery, Tracey added: "He wasn't going to say anything about it, and I certainly wasn't. But I wasn't given any choice!"

She claimed that since the affair became public she has been "betrayed, dumped" by Prescott, the civil service and the government and left to cope with the flak alone while everyone else focused on protecting the Deputy Prime Minister's reputation.

She added: "Everybody else is giving their version of what I am meant to have done and what I'm meant to have said and what went on. There are only really two people who know. Now the world is going to know."

Tracey also revealed how she performed oral sex on him Monica Lewinsky-style in his Whitehall office.

She told how, in an astonishing abuse of power, they even did it with the door open.

She said: "If I was wearing a skirt he would slide his hand up my leg, under it. He used to stroke my back.

"And yes, I did give him sex in the office a couple of times. We were very lucky we were never caught as we never shut the door."

Tracey revealed how married Prescott demanded sex from her in his grand office-while civil servants worked outside.

Sometimes they did it behind the desk, other times just inside the door.

She told the Mail on Sunday how he would grope her when she went into his office for diary meetings.

Breasts

He would touch her, kiss her and cuddle her behind his desk and things would go on from there. It was quite risky.

The temptress also recorded in her bombshell sex diaries that Prescott got frisky in the Admiralty boardroom, a government conference room.

Tracey revealed how when she went in to take some notes he touched her breasts and started kissing her.

But in her diaries she said that on more than one occasion she was worried about 67-year-old Prescott's health.

Tracey said their affair lasted two years during which she met Tony and Cherie Blair and all the leading Cabinet ministers. But she believed none of them suspected that anything was going on between them.

She also said she had a close relationship with Prescott's wife Pauline, 66, and never wanted to break up their marriage.

Tracey has always been open about her relationships to her friends, and often boasted about her sex diaries.

She boasted to friends that she liked to record "every kiss, snog, grope, and ****" she ever had."

Viagra

She explained: "You're only young once, I don't want to forget any of it when I get old and I'm past it!"

As her betrayed ex-fiance Barrie Williams, 46, has revealed, she enjoyed regular boozy nights out with her friends when the conversation would get spicy.

She would regularly start giggling about her hot and heavy affair with her married boss, one of the most famous and powerful men in the country.

She told the pal: "It's fantastic, amazing. He's so strong and confident. He says while we have to be discreet to at least some extent we have nothing to be ashamed of, we're two consenting adults, so why should we skulk in corners when we're together without our partners?"

The pal said: "Tracey told us her affair with Prezza was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her. She loved talking about it, and told us that she was writing it all down in her diary.

"At the beginning I used to take the mickey out of their sex life, ‘What's it like bedding a pensioner? Does he need Viagra? Does it last more than 30 seconds?' That kind of thing.

"But she soon put me straight on that! She said he was an eager and energetic lover it staggered her. She said he couldn't get enough, and he could go on long after she was tired.

"She insisted he was far more than once a night. Once she came back the morning after a night out when we'd been gossiping about his prowess to tell me, ‘I checked my diary, we DID do it four times in one night once!'

A source close to Prescott—who was at home in Hull last night trying to save his marriage to Pauline, his loyal wife of 44 years—revealed: "John is a big, physical type of person.

"Like Tracey, he is a very tactile person and they just clicked sexually.

"She couldn't keep her hands off him and he responded in kind. She told friends that he was very eager and energetic lover."He was having a lot of dirty fun at his wife's expense."

BLAIR: I'M HERE TILL 2009

2006-04-23T07:32:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: Blair doesn't trust Brown on reforms, say Cabinet two

By Ian Kirby

TONY BLAIR has decided to stay on as Prime Minister until 2009—because he doesn't trust Gordon Brown to deliver his radical reforms.

Two senior Cabinet ministers have told the News of the World he has SCRAPPED his plans to hand over leadership to the Chancellor at the end of next year.

Further proof of the PM's intention to stay in Downing Street comes with news that the Blairs have rented out their "retirement home" in London's Connaught Square for a further year. After that, security renovations to the house are expected to take at least another 18 months.

It indicates Mr Blair will carry out his original promise to serve a FULL third term in office, remaining in Downing Street almost three more years.

Two of his Cabinet colleagues say Mr Blair returned from his Easter break determined to battle on. One told us: "Any talk of him planning an early departure has receded in the past month.

Now there's no departure date at all. When I spoke to him this week he said he had to get the job done—and would be here for as long as that takes."

The other minister added: "He knows he's not going on for ever, but is aware it could take another three years to finish what he has started.

We are now looking at a retirement a few months before the general glection—giving Gordon time to get his feet under the desk."

Lasting reforms of the NHS, schools, the House of Lords and police forces— promised in Labour's 2005 manifesto— are all due to take at least four years.

Mr Blair also bluntly refuses to step down while 7,000 British troops are still deployed in southern Iraq.

BOOZY WILLS' PARTY SHAME

2006-04-16T14:59:00.000Z

EXCLUSIVE: He's sent to bed early at Harry bash
By Clive Goodman

BOOZY Prince William and his gang of braying pals outraged guests at Prince Harry's passing-out ball with disgraceful drunken antics.

They were so SOZZLED and out of control they could hardly stand, complained VIPs.

And Wills was finally advised to QUIT the glittering black tie bash and go to BED in his Sandhurst quarters.

One of his crowd angered military top brass by POSING as a senior army officer all evening.

Another boasted loudly that he'd lost his wallet to a stag-night HOOKER.

Just hours afterwards Sandhurst's commandant General Andrew Ritchie rang William's office at Clarence House to register the complaints and ask for an explanation.

The prince's private secretary, former SAS officer Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, is now trying to smooth over the row.

But the embarrassment didn't stop Wills going out clubbing the following night—after just one hour's sleep— and partying till dawn.

His astonishing behaviour cast a shadow over little brother Prince Harry's big day when he passed out of the famous military academy as a second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry.

Earlier he had beamed with pride as he shared a joke with his grandmother the Queen during the parade.

Twits

But at the ball afterwards William and his loudmouthed cronies astounded guests with the amount of champagne, vodka and beer they guzzled. Their outrageous drunken behaviour got steadily worse as the night went on, before the prince apparently took the advice of senior officers and went to bed early.

A source at Sandhurst, where William, 23, is also training, said: "One of his civvy pals impersonated a brigadier all evening and tried ordering people about. He and the royal gang thought it very funny."

"Another found it highly hilarious to brag about a stag-night encounter with a prostitute and losing his wallet. Nobody else found them funny, but it was typical of their sort of Hooray Henry behaviour.

"These people are upper class twits who should know better.

"Because of the behaviour of Wills and his friends, the prince was ‘advised' to leave the party and go to bed. Which he did.

"But the really surprising thing is it was Prince William behaving in this way, not his brother.

"Prince Harry was as good as gold all night. He was a perfect officer and gentleman."

William's girlfriend Kate Middleton wasn't at the do. She was on the guest list but didn't turn up. However the prince is red-faced and smarting over the complaints. He claims that while he was having a boozy night, the allegations are "much exaggerated". A family friend said: "He admits he and his pals had drunk quite a lot, but says they weren't out of control. William is angry people have been telling tales to the commandant.

"But it's hugely embarrassing that Clarence House got an earful from the general."

Wills told a pal: "I was pretty good all night. I was a bit drunk but not massively so. It's all pretty unfair that the commandant is involved."

Last night a Clarence House spokesman confirmed William's office has been assisting General Ritchie with his inquiry since Thursday.

It is understood that the academy will not be laying a formal charge against William. "We've spoken to Sandhurst and no official complaint has been made. Someone had had a word and that's it," said a spokesman.

As the row erupted, friends of Prince William tried to play it down as "trivial". One said: "There was one lad pretending to be an officer and it seems to have upset some people. News went straight up to the commandant and he started asking questions. "William doesn't want to name the chap or go into detail. He's being admirably loyal to a friend.

"It was a party and they'd had a few drinks, but none of them can remember anything untoward. There was some larking about and boisterousness. He admits going to bed early but says he himself decided to leave."

Meanwhile friends were astounded it was William in trouble. He's seen as the wiser brother to wild Prince Harry. One said: "The fact is William likes to party just as hard as his brother, but he's usually a lot more careful. What will be irking him most is that he and his friends got caught. He usually knows just the right time to go home.

"But at Sandhurst William is no longer surrounded by a gang of cronies all willing to take the blame for him. He has to take it on the chin, whether it's fair or unfair."

As our exclusive pictures reveal, besotted brother Harry, 21, had too much of a handful with stunning girlfriend Chelsy Davy to misbehave.

Smooch

The couple had obviously recovered from the tiff over his night out at a lap-dancing bar. She wore a new pair of PLATINUM EARRINGS, thought to be a gift from Harry to say sorry.

A pal said: "She was furious at the time about him ogling strippers, but he's hard to stay angry with."

In his smart new Blues and Royals dress uniform he barely left her side all night. A guest said: "They were very sweet together, always touching each other or holding hands.

"I noticed them just swaying together to the music. Chelsy whispered something in his ear and he just pulled her to him and gave her a great big hug. A few minutes later she led Harry on to the dance floor for a slow smooch." Tanned Chelsy, 21, looked sensational in a revealing backless dress, with her blonde locks swept up into a sophisticated hairdo.

"Chelsy clearly adores him and he seemed to be introducing her to just about everyone he knew there," said one Sandhurst source.

The ball boasted a bar with a huge vodka ice fountain. Some guests were getting underneath it to slurp the alcohol straight into their mouths as it trickled down a slab of carved ice. "There was also an alcoholic chocolate fountain and fairground ride," said one guest.

The next evening William led the royal partying again—despite having snatched just ONE HOUR'S sleep.

Although he left the ball early to go to bed, he ended up drinking in the barracks till dawn on Thursday, snatching a few minutes kip before going on parade.

That night he whisked Harry, Chelsy and Kate off to trendy London nightclub Bouji's with friends.

Wills was the last to leave with Chelsy at 3.30am on Friday. Harry left 40 minutes before. And Kate ducked out even earlier at 1.45am.

I FIND DEAD SWAN No.2

2006-04-09T10:30:00.000Z

By Nicola Stow

A HORRIFIED local from the Scottish village hit by bird flu discovered a SECOND dead swan he fears was also infected.

But he didn't report it because officials failed to announce they were testing for the disease in the area— during the eight days they took to announce the horror virus had struck in Britain.

By then it was too late. The carcass of the swan spotted by Richard Brand had vanished—possibly eaten by, and infecting, other birds or animals.

Richard was out walking his dog with his two kids when he found the swan. It was just 500 yards away from where the infected swan was discovered two days later.

Richard, 47, below, said: "My dog started barking and ran towards an object which had been washed up on the shore. As I got closer I realised she was sniffing at a dead bird—a swan.

"My dog was rolling all over it-she probably licked it too.

"Bird flu never crossed my mind. It's only now, that the scare has emerged, that I think maybe that swan was infected too."

Now Richard is furious about the delayed announcement of the deadly H5NI type of the virus.

He said: "I think it's a disgrace that the authorities left it so long.

"I understand they had to carry out tests, but they could have put out some kind of warning. I could have alerted the authorities if I'd known there was a risk.

"But they took eight days to tell anyone they were testing. By the time I went back to the area, the swan was gone."

The swan confirmed with the disease almost certainly caught the bug after contact with a bird which had flown from Germany, experts said yesterday.

They say the strain of the deadly H5N1 virus is a 99.6 per cent match with an outbreak that devastated the German island of Rugen. The outbreak there occurred in February and caused the infection and death of 100 wild birds and 10 cats.

Boffins believe the swan found dead in Cellardyke, Fife, came into contact with a duck, goose or swan from Rugen. Leading virologist Professor Hugh Pennington said: "There's no doubt the dead swan had been infected by another bird from a place that was already in the midst of an H5N1 outbreak.

"Birds often fly across the North and Baltic Seas to Scotland."

Meanwhile furious bird farmers in the region claim bungling DEFRA chiefs failed to respond swiftly to the bird flu crisis in Scotland because they were on a TRAINING EXERCISE in London.

Donald Peddie, 49, the nearest egg producer to where the infected swan was found, said: "I think perhaps their minds were so much focused on the exercise a real incident slipped past them."

Local farmers are also furious after supermarket ASDA cancelled deliveries of chickens from a supplier inside the bird flu zone. Moira Henderson, of the Scottish Egg Growers' Association, said: "It is an absolute disgrace. Who are they to decide?"

Fourteen other birds tested for bird flu in Scotland were yesterday said to be clear of the disease.

NEWS OF THE WORLD POLL: (BLAIR) GO NOW

2006-04-02T08:25:00.000Z

You say it's time for Blair to leave

By Ian Kirby

NEARLY half the country's voters want Tony Blair out of Downing Street...NOW!

That's the shock verdict of a News of the World poll today—showing that time really is up for the Premier once dubbed Teflon Tony.

The exclusive poll reveals that 42 per cent of voters want him to quit immediately and that 57 per cent—nearly three in five—say he should certainly go within a year.

Today's findings also show how dramatically Mr Blair's support has ebbed away in the past four months, leaving him a lame duck Prime Minister.

Smashed

When pollsters ICM last asked the question in November 2005 just 28 per cent wanted him to go straightaway. That's now up by another 14 per cent.

Download the full poll results

Since then Mr Blair has been left reeling by a series of body blows, beginning with David Cameron being elected Tory leader—and the Conservatives going ahead in the opinion polls.

In February Labour lost the Dunfermline West by-election, their 11,000 majority smashed by the Liberal Democrats.

And in the past month the party has become embroiled in the "loans for peerages" scandal—with much of the blame for the mess being laid at the door of No 10. Now just 21 per cent of people believe Mr Blair should change his mind and stay on until after the next general election, down four per cent from November.

He has also lost the edge he held over Chancellor Gordon Brown. In June 2004 voters thought Mr Blair would make the best PM by 45 per cent to Mr Brown's 34 per cent. Today, that lead has vanished, with both men standing at 30 per cent.

The current uncertainty over the Labour leadership is having an effect, too, with 15 per cent saying it has made them less likely to vote for the party.

Tory Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said last night: "The poll shows Blair has no authority to tackle any of the key long-term challenges, such as pension reform."

And bookies William Hill last night made Mr Blair 6/5 to go by Christmas.

# ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1012 adults aged 18+ by telephone between 29-30 March 2006. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk

CLARKE FORCED TO ACT OVER EVIL ON OUR STREETS

2006-03-26T13:21:00.000Z

MONSTERS ON OUR STREETS: Secret hostels where paedophiles lurk in our midst

By Keith Gladdis, Neville Thurlbeck & Matthew Acton

THE News of the World has scored a massive victory in the crusade to protect Britain's kids from sex abuse.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke yesterday pledged that all schools WILL be warned about nearby paedophile hostels.

He acted after we exposed the government's MAPPA warning system as a failure that left head teachers in the dark about predatory perverts living on their doorstep.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke yesterday ordered that every school and nursery MUST be told of paedophile hostels in their area.

He spoke out following the shock News of the World investigation detailed on these pages— which reveals many head teachers have no idea predatory sex pests are housed on their doorstep.

"Protecting the public, in particular children, is my absolute priority," declared Mr Clarke.

Schools were supposed to be given the information through Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement panels, controlled by police. But the system FAILED.

Now Mr Clarke has ordered the Probation Service to tell heads about "Approved Premises"— Home Office-vetted hostels.

Risks

He told us: "I want to make sure that if there are schools or nurseries that do not have this information we have in place the necessary mechanisms to ensure they do.

"Therefore I have today asked that all schools are made aware, with immediate effect, of the status of any Approved Premises in their vicinity. I have asked as a matter of urgency that the key agencies involved—including education and housing—are fully aware of the potential risks so that appropriate action can be taken."

Last night Sara Payne, the mother of eight-year-old Sarah who was murdered by a serial paedeophile in 2000, welcomed the move. She said: "Although it's just a first step along the way it sounds like a big step—and a brave one—in the right direction.

"Now we must make sure that Mr Clarke's promise is fulfilled."

Mrs Payne, 37, added: "Hopefully we finally have a politician who puts children and their rights first. And not the offenders." TODAY we put every parent in Britain on alert—for nests of convicted paedophiles are being planted right next to unsuspecting schools ALL OVER the country.

A shock nationwide News of the World investigation has revealed a network of official probation hostels swarming with evil sex offenders—and most are deliberately kept secret from neighbouring families and school heads.

In one disturbing case we even discovered a serial child sex monster freed early from jail and sent to a Liverpool halfway house just minutes' walk from the home of his last victim.

Our whistle-blowing evidence has sparked instant action.

Last night Home Secretary Charles Clarke ordered that schools be WARNED of sex-pest hostels in their area. And the Merseyside pervert has been MOVED.

Scandal

It's about time. For our probe exposed past government promises to protect the public as a SHAM. And their MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) system—introduced as a half-hearted response to our Sarah's Law campaign—to inform communities of monsters in their midst, was revealed as a FLOP.

In Liverpool a terrified mum wept to discover monster Anthony Knowles, who snatched her eight-year-old daughter, had won early release and been secretly moved into the Merseybank hostel near their home. The family got no warning.

After our investigators uncovered the scandal and tipped them off the mother sobbed: "Oh God, not again! I can't believe he's back and so close. I'm going to be looking over my shoulder for ever.

"My daughters are terrified he'll come back for them one day. I'm horrified."

Our camera caught Knowles, 44, prowling his old turf near the hostel—just a short walk from Faith Primary School, with three more within a mile radius.

His sickening record of repeat attacks includes assault on an 18-month-old toddler. In 2001, just 17 DAYS after release from jail to the Merseybank hostel, Knowles targeted his last victims—the eight-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy playing in the street. Promising Boyzone tickets, he grabbed their hands and marched them off but was seen by the girl's sister who raised the alarm.

Knowles got six years for attempted kidnap but was released just before Christmas. Last night the children's furious mum told us: "He should never be allowed out—he WILL do it again.

"I'm glad he's now been moved out of Merseybank. But they're just shifting a problem to someone else's community."

To test the MAPPA warning system, launched in 2001 in a fanfare of governmnet publicity, we asked the Merseybank hostel manager if he housed sex offenders. He refused to answer.

Posing as an anxious member of the public we asked the same question at nearby St Anne police station. The desk officer claimed no information was available, blaming the Data Protection Act.

We found similar horror stories and responses all over Britain. There are 100 Home Office-approved halfway hostels. But almost every inquiry to find out which ones harbour sex fiends was met with a wall of secrecy. Many police officers hadn't even heard of MAPPA.

In Bournemouth the Pines bail hostel is approved to house child molesters—close to FIVE schools. Pokesdown Primary head Vivienne Miller told us: "I didn't know about it. Thanks for letting me know."

We asked at Boscombe police station if the hostel housed dangerous paedophiles. The desk officer was evasive. She said: "There are all sorts." Could MAPPA help? "No one will tell you," she insisted. In Essex the 24-bed Basildon bail hostel houses sex offenders 200 yards from Briscoe Primary School and Nursery.

Head Diane Pilgrim said: "I wasn't even aware there was a hostel there."

At nearby Pitsea police station we asked if there were sex pests in the hostel. An acting inspector insisted: "I'm not prepared to discuss it with you."

After Charles Clarke's pledge, MAPPA MUST discuss the problem with schools.

But worried parents don't have to take it all on trust. On the right we print our cut-out guide containing the vital questions to ask to keep YOUR kids safe.

[ed: this list did not appear in the online edition]

IT'S JUST A LOTTERY

2006-03-19T11:19:00.000Z

MONSTERS ON OUR STREETS: ALL FREED EARLY... AND THEY ALL STRUCK AGAIN

By Neville Thurlbeck

EVERY woman and girl in Britain must today be on her guard—for freed Lotto rapist Iorworth Hoare is on the prowl again.

The News of the World TWICE caught the sex beast leering at unsuspecting schoolgirls out for an innocent lunchtime stroll.

And Hoare is only one of a horde of monsters released from jail to kill, rape or maim again and again.

The shocking cases highlighted on this page all feature repeat offenders set free to destroy the lives of more victims by a justice system hopelessly skewed in the offender's favour.

Hoare—a lifelong sex offender who was sentenced to life but released after 16 years—walked A MILE out of his way to stroll past three schools, swivelling his head to lech over the giggling girls.

Stare

Now his neighbours around the upmarket Darras Hall estate in Ponteland, Northumberland, are terrified. One worried parent said last night: "He's a walking nightmare for us. We all fear he could strike at any time."

Our shock pictures show 53-year-old Hoare, who won £7million Lotto cash in jail, watching two sets of girls intently.

First he fixed them with a menacing stare as they approached him in the tree-lined streets. Then as the oblivious girls passed he turned to ogle them from behind. A neighbour who saw the entire scene told us: "There were three girls aged 14 or 15 in the first group and Hoare couldn't take his eyes off them. When they walked by he actually stopped, turned and glared at them for ages as they moved away.

"It was so blatant. He was obviously leching after them. A few minutes later he did exactly the same thing as another two girls passed. He stared at them walking off into the distance for about four seconds."

The most disturbing thing about Leeds-born Hoare's predatory prowl is the roundabout route he took from his luxury £700,000 home—to maximise his opportunities for crossing the path of teenage girls.

The neighbour told us: "He left his home at lunchtime and walked for about a mile to a cashpoint. Then he went to a baker's, bought a pie and ate it. But all the time he was very furtive as if he was looking out for someone. He then took a much longer route home which took him about a mile out of his way. I thought it was odd—but then I realised it was because he wanted to walk past THREE schools as all the girls were coming out for their midday break.

"It's an absolute scandal that people like Hoare are freed before their sentence is up and then are free to put innocent communities like us in terror."

Since being released in March last year, Hoare has changed his name to Edward Thomas and tried to disguise his appearance. The hair is now short and grey and the beard has gone.

His worried neighbour added: "He dresses as inconspicuously as possible in a country-style coat and jeans.

But we all know who he really is now and we've all told our children to keep as far away from him as they can."

The parents of Ponteland are right to be worried. Judge Richard Rougier, who sentenced Hoare to life in 1989 for brutally dragging off a 60-year-old woman in a park and trying to rape her, told him:

"Every moment you are at liberty, some woman is at risk."

And just two months ago the judge declared: "If I were a woman I wouldn't feel safe with him living near me."

Hoare has committed a series of horrendous crimes dating back over 33 years. His appalling record includes rape, three attempted rapes and three sickening assaults.

He was originally convicted of a rape bid in Leeds in June 1973 and given three years. He was only 21 when he attacked a doctor's wife in the grounds of the city's Killingbeck Hospital.

Alarm

On being freed he tried to rape again and and was jailed for four years in November 1975. But he was let out early—and still a menace to women. In September 1978 he got four more years for indecent assault.

In 1983 he pounced on a woman teacher and sexually attacked her but ran off when the alarm was raised.

A few weeks later he dragged a lone 37-year-old housewife into woods and raped her. He was sentenced to seven years.

But after being released early yet again he struck once more— finally earning his life sentence.

Before his early release last year there was nationwide controversy over his big Lotto win—thanks to a ticket bought while out on day release.

He wasn't freed until March last year having served almost 16 years in prison.

Now the families of Ponteland can only keep watch and pray THEIR luck holds out.

Crack addict who butchered teacher

GENTLE teacher Robert Symons would be alive today if his brutal killer Yousef Bouhaddaou had been kept behind bars.

Instead the crack addict was released early from a five-year stretch for burglary—and just five weeks later he broke into 45-year-old Robert's west London home and stabbed him to death while his two children slept upstairs. Robert died in his wife Linda's arms.

As Bouhaddaou, 28, got life last week, it emerged he was released early despite being previously convicted of at least 19 offences. Linda, 45, said: "That man shouldn't have been on the streets. There is something wrong with a system that lets people offend again and again."

Death at hands of Devil's Child

EVIL Damien Hanson was freed seven years into a 12-year sentence for attempted murder. Just three months later he stabbed financier John Monckton to death on the doorstep of his Chelsea home in a terrifying robbery.

John's wife Homeyra was also knifed but survived. Their nine-year-old daughter Isobel had to dial 999 after finding her parents lying in a pool of blood. Hanson, 25— nicknamed the Devil's Child after The Omen movies— was granted parole even though he had a long history of violence, robbery and theft stretching back to when he was 14.

He should have got a psychological assessment upon release but an inquiry found it was either lost or never carried out so he was never placed under supervision.

Murdered by Home Office

A DISTRAUGHT husband whose wife was slaughtered as she tried to defend him from killer James Paton last night stormed: "The Home Office is responsible for her death too."

Christopher Ruane broke his silence after Paton, 25, got life last week for murdering Diane, 51, in a robbery at the couple's home. Paton was on the streets after serving just two thirds of a six-and-a-half year sentence for manslaughter when he knifed Christopher on his doorstep and slashed mum-of-five Diane's throat as she tried to intervene.

"If Paton hadn't been given such a lenient sentence he couldn't have killed my Diane," said Christopher, 59.

"Now a second family are destroyed because he was allowed back on the streets.

Chest

"I'm speaking out for Diane and for every family which has lost a loved one because the legal system has let them down."

Paton and his accomplice Carl Brady — who got 20 years—left the couple for dead after raiding their Bradford home. Paton had previously killed a man in 1998 after stamping on his chest.

Christopher said: "I hope they never get released. They should die in jail."

Serial Fiend on mission to kill

SEX fiend Anthony Rice murdered young mum Naomi Bryant — just months after being freed from a life sentence.

Rice, 48, was supposed to be under supervision on release in November, 2004, having served only 16 years.

But he stabbed Naomi 15 times because she wouldn't hold his hand in public. He told cops: "There's a determination within me to kill."

MET BOSS PHONE TAPING SCANDAL

2006-03-12T09:26:00.000Z

By Ian Kirby

BRITAIN'S top policeman has been caught secretly recording a private phone call to a senior government minister, the News of the World can reveal.

Metropolitan Chief Sir Ian Blair made the digital recording without permission in August, shortly after officers shot Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, wrongly thinking he was a suicide bomber.

The taping—a clear breach of protocol—was of a private one-to-one talk with a senior minister from outside the Home Office.

Our revelation comes after it emerged Sir Ian had also secretly recorded three conversations with Independent Police Complaints Commission officials investigating the de Menezes shooting. They included IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick.

Blair's conduct in the wake of the shooting is being investigated by the IPCC. It is understood two further conversations were recorded by Blair in his private office on Scotland Yard's 8th floor without the other person's knowledge.

The minister involved in the "important" call with Blair was last night said to be livid about the "gross breach of trust".

A Whitehall source said: "He thinks it's unbelievable that the Commissioner could behave so disgracefully—and wants an apology."

At the very least his behaviour will be seen as highly unprofessional. Blair is currently on a ski holiday while his most trusted aides transcribe the recordings to analyse how damaging they are.

Last night senior Whitehall and police sources described the revelation as "explosive" and the reasons for the bugging "a mystery".

One police source said: "Why on earth did he feel he needed to do it? Only he knows. "It's bizarre. He's shot himself and the Met in the foot again."

A SPLIT DODGY

2006-03-05T20:52:00.000Z

By Ian Kirby, Keith Gladdis and Ryan Sabey

FUROUS Tessa Jowell kicked out her husband after a row over him using her links to Tony Blair in a series of dodgy business deals.

The News of the World can reveal the Culture Secretary ACCUSED hubby David Mills of cashing in on her government position and INSISTED on a split.

But last night many MPs, including her own Labour colleagues, dismissed the move as a callous and cynical bid to save her career.

The separation after 27 years of marriage was announced yesterday after two weeks of intense scrutiny into Mills's murky business dealings.

In a statement his solicitor said: "This whole business has imposed a dreadful strain on my client and his marriage. They hope over time their relationship can be restored, but, given the current circumstances, they've agreed to a period of separation."

But we can reveal the final straw was a letter Mills sent to authorities in Dubai where he wanted to be allowed to work as a lawyer. It read:

"You will know I am married to a member of the Cabinet of this country. I have the support and sympathy of very many people in public life, from the Prime Minister down."

When the details became clear on Thursday Ms Jowell, 58, hit the roof. A close friend and colleague revealed: "She was furious that she was reading things in the newspapers that she did not know. The letter brought everything to a head—there has now been a breakdown of trust.

"They love each other very much but for the moment they cannot stay together."

After a huge bust-up the Culture Secretary and her husband spent Friday planning the separation, before she left their London home holding newborn grandchild Lola in the late afternoon.

She informed Prime Minister Tony Blair of her decision and he is understood to have given her his private support in an emotional phone call.

But last night many Labour MPs were suspicious of the motives behind the split, claiming it was too "convenient" for Ms Jowell.

One colleague accused Ms Jowell of causing a "media circus" with the separation. Another branded it a "ridiculous stunt". A third Labour MP said the split "might give her 48 hours but won't save her job". But an MP close to Chancellor Gordon Brown said: "I smell Alastair." He was referring to Mr Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, who famously told Robin Cook to split from then wife Margaret in an airport as the News of the World was about to expose his affair.

Meanwhile, Mills, 60, left the family home in Kentish Town, north London, early yesterday morning, and was believed to be heading abroad.

Another friend of the couple said: "Tessa's felt pulverised by everything she has discovered this week and thinks the split is the only way forward.

"David didn't want it. At the moment he is a man fighting to save his reputation and his marriage."

Mills, a corporate lawyer, is still facing accusations in Italy that he received a £350,000 bribe in 1999 from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over evidence he gave in a court case against him—a claim he denies.

He will find out on Tuesday if he will stand trial in Milan. Ms Jowell was dragged into the affair after it was disclosed that she had signed papers for a loan secured on their London home which was subsequently paid off with the help of the £350,000.

Later it was revealed that there have been FIVE loans taken out on their London home and FOUR on their country house in Warwickshire in an astonishing mortgage-go-round. All but two have been repaid.

The couple are also believed to be under increasing financial pressure.

It had been thought Mr Mills was a multi-millionaire but his assets were valued at £470,000 last year and both the couple's homes are now mortgaged.

A probe by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell found Ms Jowell SHOULD have declared the £350,000 once she found out about it—which Mr Mills said came from a Naples shipowner. Tony Blair, however, accepted her explanation that she was only told by her husband about the money four years later.

Alastair Campbell last night denied he had played any role in advising the couple about their break-up.

He said: "David and Tessa have been good friends of ours for many years and we are obviously very saddened. First I knew was when David told me yesterday."

Ms Jowell's parliamentary private secretary Huw Irranca-Davies insisted that she would be back at work in Westminster as normal on Monday.

He dismissed as "cynical spin" suggestions that the split was simply a "career-saving move".

"This is a horrendous decision for anybody," he said.

THIS MAN'S THE DEVIL... it's only a matter of time

2006-02-26T09:33:00.000Z

By Carole Aye Maung & David Martyn

ONE of the world's worst serial paedophiles is living free among children in Britain, waiting to pounce. And the police can do nothing about it.

We tracked down notorious sex monster Robert Excell to his ‘safe house' lair in the Oxfordshire countryside—just yards from a kiddies' playground AND a primary school.

Click here to watch video of Excell mingling with unsuspecting shoppers:

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One of his tortured rape victims predicted: "He WILL do it again. It's just a matter of time.

"Excell is a sick bastard—an evil, sadistic predator. He is the devil— and I'm absolutely horrified that the authorities would ever allow him anywhere near children."

Fake

British-born Excell, 67, has spent 37 of the last 39 years in an Australian prison for a catalogue of appalling sex crimes against young boys.

Three times he was released on parole and EVERY time he struck again, wrecking more innocent lives.

But after being freed last year he was branded a "continuing risk" to kids and deported home to Britain— merely to be put on the sex offenders' list and allowed to ‘vanish' into a new life under a false name, apparently unsupervised and all funded by the taxpayer.

Scandalously, because all his crimes so far have been on foreign soil, the British authorities are powerless to act against him— until he inevitably attacks yet another child. As well as adopting the fake name Daniel Wright, Excell has undergone a staggering transformation in a desperate bid to hide his true identity. He has shaved off his distinctive goatee beard, chopped his mullet hairdo short and shed weight.

Now he looks more like a storybook grandpa—unrecognisable from the bloated, wheelchair-bound monster who flew in last August.

After moving into his bungalow with wife Maxine—a psychiatric nurse he met during therapy in 1982 —Excell has become the "friendly new neighbour" gradually infiltrating his unsuspecting community.

We saw him chatting to the mums and young children who have to pass his back garden to get to the playground just 150 yards away, or the school beyond that.

From his plot Excell has a clear and uninterrupted view of the youngsters playing on the swings and roundabout. And he seems to spend a lot of time in his garden.

Last month there was a public outcry when Excell—who claims to suffer from asthma, diabetes and a heart condition—-was given backdated disability benefits and grants totalling £17,000 for a new car and improvements to his new home.

He is also entitled to weekly handouts totalling £262 in disability living allowance, incapacity benefit and severe disability allowance. Strangely, this week he looked in the peak of health. We even videoed him shopping WITHOUT his wheels. But as victims and former fellow inmates warned, Excell has always been a master deceiver.

A one-time jail pal revealed how Excell—who was sent to Australia in 1948 on the Child Migrant Scheme— was in the habit of exaggerating his illnesses to appear less dangerous.

"Excell may look all weak and harmless in his wheelchair—but don't be fooled," said the friend.

"He'd NEVER ride it around prison. He plays up his illness—but he's a very dangerous man. He'll strike again if he gets the chance."

Just like he did in 1977 when he lured a 13-year-old called Paul into his clutches and subjected him to a degrading brutal rape.

When we told Paul—now a businesman and father of six in Perth, Australia—of Excell's new life and image he recognised his attacker's guile. "He's an evil trickster who worms his way into children's trust," said Paul, recalling how he was conned into his ordeal.

"I'd been swimming with pals at the beach when we were approached by Excell, who was walking his German Shepherd dog.

"He told us he was a dog trainer and we were all very impressed. And his dog WAS great.

"I played with it all afternoon and it was one of those days I didn't want to ever end. So when Excell suggested we meet up later to go to a drive-in movie, I couldn't wait. I actually thought I'd be playing with his dog some more.

"Unknown to me none of the other boys' parents gave them permission to go and when I got to Excell's home he took me inside and locked the door. I was expecting to see my friends but I was all alone—and I remember immediately feeling very, very afraid.

"Excell gave me a drink and I'm pretty sure he put something in it because it made me feel woozy.

"There was already a video camera set up and recording. Excell said if I told anyone about what was going to happen, he'd show the other boys the pictures. Then he told me he was going to hurt me.

"And he raped me. He really hurt me. Afterwards he dropped me at the end of my street. I went inside my house and cried all night.

"My brothers eventually coaxed out of me what happened, called the police and he was jailed again.

"But what Excell did has haunted me ever since and I've contemplated suicide several times. The damage lasts a lifetime. I can't believe anyone would ever allow Excell anywhere near children again.

"I can't stress enough how dangerous this man is. If he is ANYWHERE near children they are in peril.

Conman

"What are the British authorities thinking of? Please tell parents NEVER to let their children out of their sight while he's in their area. I'm very afraid for those youngsters.

"Next time he could go further. I believe he is capable of much worse."

Excell himself admits he is a master of deception. In a vile autobiography he hopes to publish he brags: "I blossomed. My actor, liar, manipulator and conman were well out in front."

True to form, Excell lied again when we confronted him on his doorstep. At first he denied his true ID, insisting: "I'm Daniel Wright" before slamming the door.

Later the cowardly weasel ushered wife Maxine to the door to own up and attempt to spin excuses.

"What about our rights?" she shouted. "Yes, he re-offended, he was shocked. He didn't know what he was doing."

I KILLED BILLIE-JO

2006-02-19T10:53:00.000Z

By Neville Thurlbeck & Lucy Panton

THE HUNT for the killer of Billie-Jo Jenkins took a shock twist yesterday after a jailed murderer told a cellmate HE bludgeoned the schoolgirl to death.

During a series of lengthy discussions, the prisoner confessed to battering the 13-year-old with a metal tent peg before fleeing the scene.

Police were tipped off by a prison supergrass after the inmate, doing life for murder, revealed his dark secret. They believe he could be telling the truth and are checking his story for fatal flaws.

So far, they have found none.

The new evidence could finally clear the name of Billie-Jo's foster-dad, Sion Jenkins, who was acquitted after a third murder trial ended in a hung jury earlier this month.

Last night officers from the Sussex force were preparing to travel to Wakefield jail in Yorkshire to question the convict. Police think he may well have been in the area of Billie-Jo's home town

Hastings on the day she was killed, February 15, 1997. The probe is in its early stages but plans are being made to take his DNA and check it against evidence found at the crime scene.

Last night a police source told the News of the World: "This could be the big breakthrough we've been waiting for.

"His story seems highly credible and everything has checked out so far. It seems to be a heartfelt confession from a man who wants to unburden himself of a disturbing secret.

"He is not mentally ill, he is cogent and articulate.

"If this information checks out it could finally piece together the murder puzzle."

Police will compare the killer's previous modus operandi with the murder of Billie-Jo in a bid to discover any similarities.

If the new suspect is charged and convicted, it will bring to an end a nightmare nine years for Sion Jenkins.

Because he was only acquitted when two juries failed to agree on a verdict, the finger of suspicion still points at him. Last week he refused to take a lie detector test.

But the new confession could clear his name for good, paving the way for him to start a new life.

Jenkins was found guilty of killing his foster-daughter and sentenced to life in 1998.

The jury heard that Billie-Jo's skull was smashed with a metal tent peg as she painted patio doors at the Jenkins' home in Hastings. The main evidence against him was that his clothing contained 148 spots of Billie-Jo's blood that were invisible to the naked eye. The prosecution said they could only have got there if he had killed her. No motive was ever established.

After serving six years in prison, Jenkins had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal in 2004.

New scientific evidence suggested the blood could have soaked into his clothing as he bent down to see if Billie-Jo was breathing, or as he cradled her in his arms.

A retrial was ordered but a jury failed to reach a verdict. Jenkins, 48, now married to millionaire heiress Christina Ferneyhough, finally walked free ten days ago after a jury failed to reach a verdict at a second retrial.

But a cloud still hung over him after it was revealed his first wife Lois left him because, she claimed, he was a violent bully who beat her and the kids.

If the confession is true, it will be a huge embarrassment for Sussex police.

Bob Woffenden, a campaigning journalist and close friend of the Jenkins family, said of the jail confession: "Sion will be delighted.

"We have always believed he is innocent. It is extremely encouraging that this new information is being treated seriously by detectives."

It is not unusual for cell confessions to be used to convict killers. The evil paedophile ring which snatched and killed seven-year-old Mark Tildesley in 1984 was nailed after a cell confession.

Leslie "Catweasel" Bailey was sentence to life in October 1992 after evidence from a cellmate. He was murdered the following year.

A prison service spokesman said last night: "We are not going to comment on this story."

A Sussex police source said: "We will follow up all fresh information."

SHAMED BY 42 BRAINLESS BLOWS

2006-02-12T16:08:00.000Z

By Robert Kellaway

TODAY we expose a rogue squad of British soldiers who savagely attacked a defenceless bunch of Iraqi teenagers —and with 42 brutal blows brought shame on our nation and its proud army.

The horrifying scenes on these pages will shock the world and ignite a huge military scandal.

They were captured on a secret home video — apparently filmed for "fun" by a corporal—and show at least eight of his hulking comrades cruelly:

DRAGGING four weedy rioters—all apparently in their early teens—off the street and behind the high walls of a secluded army compound,

BEATING them senseless with vicious blows from batons, boots and fists,

IGNORING their pitiful pleas for mercy, until the incident climaxes with what appears to be an NCO delivering a sickening full-force kick in the genitals of a cringeing lad pinned to the ground.

All the while the callous cameraman delivers a stomach-churning commentary urging his mates on, cackling with laughter and screaming: "Oh yes! Oh yes! You're gonna get it. Yes, naughty little boys! You little f***ers, you little f***ers. DIE! Ha, ha!"

Insult

The video—later shown to the corporal's pals at their home base in Europe—was exposed to the News of the World by a disgusted whistleblower.

He told us the unit and regiment involved but for security reasons we are not publishing the details.

Our informant said: "These Iraqis were just kids. Most haven't even got shoes on.

"Those eight soldiers were pumped up and out of control. They're an insult to the thousands of soldiers who have worked so hard in Iraq with courage and dignity for so long.

"They're nothing but a gang of thugs, a disgrace to themselves, their regiment and country."

The cowardly beating is believed to have taken place in early 2004 amid a series of street riots in southern Iraq. Troops were involved in running battles with hundreds of screaming demonstrators armed with stones, sticks, shovels and home-made grenades.

The atmosphere and tension comes across vividly in the video, believed to have been shot from a rooftop within the troops' HQ compound. The muzzle of an Army SA80 rifle laid on its side is visible in the foreground.

A DIY grenade lands and explodes inside the compound—blasting out shrapnel and a cloud of grey-white smoke. A fire blazes just outside the perimeter wall sending up a pall of black fumes as crowds of rioters chant abuse at the soldiers. Dozens of youths run towards the compound hurling stones, but suddenly turn on their heels—chased by a unit of squaddies in combat helmets with riot visors and desert camouflage. Some of the soldiers are wearing flak vests and are armed with batons and rifles.

A crackling radio message to the troops pinpoints a target: "Black top, blue bottoms! Black top, blue bottoms! GO!"

The camera then cuts to eight soldiers returning with four prisoners, gripped in headlocks. The squad march their captives to the compound gate and drag them inside—out of sight from the rioters outside. Then the horror begins.

PRISONER 1 is hauled in wearing a dark blue T-shirt, blue jeans and white trainers—the only victim not in bare feet.

His captor releases the headlock, stands him up and—with combat helmet on and visor down—lands a crushing head butt. He rips the youngster's T-shirt over his head and smashes his right fist twice into his kidneys and once into his head.

In panic the terrified captive desperately clings to the lanyard of the soldier's baton in an attempt to stop it being used on him.

His pitiful cries of "No! Please!" are clearly heard. But the mocking commentator merely puts on a childlike voice and mimics his Iraqi accent: "No, pleeese—don't hurt me."

Another soldier grabs the lad by the neck and hurls him to the floor to be kicked and beaten again. The head-butt soldier then raises his baton and brings it crashing down on him.

PRISONER 2, in blue T-shirt and grey trousers, is marched in, gripped by the shoulder. His captor forces him to the ground and hits him about the body and legs with his baton.

As he unleashes ten blows the boy twists and squirms around the soldier's ankles trying to save himself. A soldier in a floppy hat—not part of the snatch squad—looks on. He is clearly unsure of what to do but does not look alarmed or make any attempt to stop the beating.

Instead he helps fix plastic restraining ties on the lad's wrists. Another burly soldier, in desert camouflage and webbing belt with water bottle attached, strides up and whacks the Iraqi's backside with a baton. The prisoner's feet jerk in agony before he appears to pass out, a dark patch that looks like blood around his head. Meanwhile PRISONER 3, in white T-shirt and jeans, is booted in the back and body six times by two soldiers.

As he struggles on the floor one squaddie grabs him by the shoulder, kicks him twice and cracks him about the legs and bare feet with his baton.

PRISONER 4, barefoot in light blue T-shirt with beige trousers, is beaten before being picked bodily off the ground like a sack of potatoes, dumped on his chest and held with his arms up his back by two of the squad.

One soldier, identified by our source as a sergeant, walks up behind him and kicks him hard between the legs from behind.

The boy's body arches in pain and the soldier behind the camera is heard poking fun and groaning: "Oorrgghh!"

As another squad troop past and take no notice a soldier's voice is heard to scream: "In the f***ing head!"

The beating sequence on the video, which appears to be a series of excerpts from the incident, takes up 60 seconds of the 3minute 12second tape. Our investigators counted 42 separate blows but there were probably many more not caught on camera.

The video also has two other shocking sequences. In one, the camera approaches an Iraqi corpse while a soldier draws back a blanket to display it as a sickening trophy.

Sniggers

The cameraman then commits an act considered the ultimate insult to an Iraqi—and kicks the dead man twice in the face, humiliating him in death. As the head of the man, aged in his 20s, is lifted to face the lens a soldier sniggers: "He's been a bad mother****er."

Another scene shows an Iraqi man grabbed by three soldiers and forced to kneel behind a wall where he is kicked hard in the chest.

The video came to light following the unit's return home. Our source was horrified when he saw it and vowed the tape MUST be made public to force the army to clamp down on the abuse of prisoners—and protect the reputations of more than 80,000 dedicated British troops—including 101 killed and 230 injured—who have served in Iraq since the start of the second Gulf war.

He told us: "I'm sure those Iraqis weren't innocent little boys—I bet they'd all been slinging rocks and maybe even explosives. But that's no excuse for a beating like that.

"The ringleader was supposed to be a senior sergeant. Instead of reeling the lads in and calming them down, he was in the thick of it, urging them on. He even kicked that boy straight in the b***s with two other soldiers twice the lad's size holding him face down.

"That's sick. You could understand some terrified 19-year-old private losing it. But that's what NCOs are for—to lead and set an example."

Last night we handed our dossier of evidence to the Ministry of Defence. A Military Police investigation is now under way.

HANDFUL OF THUGS IN ARMY OF HEROES

By Chris Ryan

THIS appalling footage filled me with revulsion —and every professional British soldier would agree.

Seeing supposedly highly-trained troops beating defenceless teenagers to a pulp—and laughing about it in a brutal home video— made me sick to my stomach.

It is something I have never experienced in 20 years of soldiering—and something I hope never to see again.

This small group of men have at a stroke trashed the reputation of our forces around the globe.

The backlash may be fearsome. How can we ever win the battle for the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people if we behave like the brutal dictatorship we were sent to remove?

And how can they—or any other population that British troops are entrusted to protect—ever put their faith in us again?

I can only pray this is an isolated incident because it makes a mockery of all the good work and sacrifices our servicemen and women have made in Iraq.

Now they face months, if not years, of increased danger, rebuilding the damage this senseless minority has caused.

And it terrifies me that these men have become so de-sensitised that they can behave like this.

Make no mistake, this incident will be jumped upon by our enemy as a recruiting call for terrorists and will escalate hatred everywhere.

But there is no doubt in my mind that it must be exposed and stamped on, hard. It must never happen again. In the short term things will get a lot tougher for us—this could fuel the fires of insurgency in Iraq and around the world.

But long-term, exposing and stamping out this behaviour is the only way to regain respect and trust for the British Army.

These men must be drummed out, and quickly, before their behaviour can influence others.

I hesitate to call them soldiers —because their actions are so far removed from the exemplary standards we expect of our troops.

They have betrayed their comrades, their training and everything British forces have traditionally stood for—their overriding sense of duty and decency.

In the military we have something called Conduct After Capture—how you should behave if you've been captured and, more importantly, how you conduct yourself with enemy prisoners.

The Geneva Convention—which governs the actions of every single serving British soldier—makes it crystal clear that prisoners deserve humane treatment.

There was an outcry after the first Gulf War at the way Iraq treated our prisoners of war. No one can forget those pictures of our captured fliers, beaten and paraded on TV.

But how can we expect the Iraqis, or anyone else, to treat captured or kidnapped British troops and civilians with dignity now? These aren't even enemy combatants. Even in a hardened society like Iraq they're still children. There is no doubt Iraq is the most dangerous place on Earth right now. And peacekeeping missions are every bit as dangerous and stressful as open war. More British troops have died since the war ended than were killed in action.

In this case a few bad apples have clearly let things get out of hand.

Psychologically the pressure of seeing comrades and friends killed and injured has an enormous impact.

Things have been spiralling out of control in Iraq for some time.

As a young soldier serving out there you are dealing with fear on a daily basis. You don't know when you wake up if it could be your last day on Earth. Roadside bombs, snipers, suicide bombers—these are all daily occurrences. Soldiers are only human so tempers do fray, people get tired and angry. But nobody has the right to react like this—no matter what they've seen or done. That's when the training, discipline and good command should take over.

Here it's gone out of the window and the body language of these soldiers is terrifying because it's so calm and natural.

This was a textbook operation to snatch troublemakers from the crowd—until they enter the compound and the beating starts.

These guys are clearly relaxed—judging by the way they are behaving, they're not expecting to be shot at or bombed. In fact they're so casual it's chilling.

This is something I fear they've experienced before—and the cameraman certainly knows what's going to happen next. When the voiceover tells us, "You're going to get it", he knows what he is talking about. His comments are just sickening, almost sexual, as he revels in the beatings.

His job up there is to observe the crowd, passing information down to the guys on the ground. Instead he's making a home video for his own gratification.

It's a frenzy of gratuitous violence, pure and simple—the vilest and most destructive form of vengeance.

As other members of the team arrive back they stroll past with barely a glance. The clear implication is they've seen this before.

And while they might not be taking part they are as complicit as the men dishing out the beating.

When I was in the SAS during the first Gulf War the lads would go across the border in snatch squads.

But there were NEVER any beatings of PoWs. Even during the hostilities these guys were begging to come HOME with us. That's victory in the vital battle for hearts and minds. We'd won them over and we'd won their respect.

The only thing this horrifying video will win is condemnation from all right-thinking people.

LICENCE TO HATE!

2006-02-05T14:00:00.000Z

CARTOON PROTESTS: Scotland Yard nicked demo troublemaker armed with cartoons, but they gave this ranting Muslim dressed as a suicide bomber... a licence to hate!

By Lucy Panton

A PROTESTER dressed as a suicide bomber in the heart of London is ignored by cops yesterday...as another troublemaker is arrested for handing out offensive cartoons.

Full of hate, the Asian man in his twenties had gone out of his way to cause maximum offence.

He arrived at the west London demo in camouflage grey and white trousers, a white T-shirt and a black army-style waistcoat covered in bulging pockets.

The man, with two pals, also wore thick padded gloves and a black bandanna.

Hauled

One onlooker said: "He was clearly dressed like a suicide bomber—the waistcoat he was wearing had pockets which appeared to be filled out with packages.

"This man was there to intimidate passers-by. It was extremely offensive considering what Londoners have been through with the July bombing atrocities. There were police nearby but he was not arrested."

But another man, suspected of trying to provoke Muslims, was hauled inwhen cops moved in to stop him handing out copies of the cartoons which sparked the demo.

He and a second agitator—the pair are believed to be German and Irish, were held for breach of the peace. They were taken to Central London police station for several hours until the demo had finished.

A police source said: "We don't know the intentions of these men but the fear was that they were going to the demonstration to distribute the cartoons and stir up trouble."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Each case must be dealt with on an individual basis taking into consideration the circumstances facing the officers at the time, on the ground, the environment or overall context."

Vile

But Inayat Bunglawala, speaking for the Muslim Council of Britain, called the "bomber" protester "offensive and totally unacceptable".

He was among around 1,500 Muslims protesting outside the Danish Embassy in London. Denmark was the first to publish the Mohammed cartoons.

Scores of complaints have been received by the police after a protest there on Friday which featured vile placards with messages including "Britain you will pay—7/7 is on its way". Placards at yesterday's demo were far more restrained.

BLUNDER COPS IN REPORT COVER-UP

2006-01-29T14:51:00.000Z

By Ian Kirby

UNDERCOVER police forged vital surveillance evidence to cover up a crucial blunder that led to innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes being gunned down as a suspected Tube suicide bomber.

A logbook detailing the electrician’s last movements was altered by Special Branch officers to try and hide the fact that they had wrongly identified him as a terror suspect before he was shot seven times in the head on Stockwell station

Their deliberate cover-up meant the blame for de Menezes’ death would be pinned on Yard bosses and on the armed cops who actually fired the bullets—leaving them open to murder charges.

Amazingly it was not until 14 hours after the log was altered later after the debriefing that under-fire Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Ian Blair was finally informed his officers had killed the wrong man.

The shock revelations are contained in the Independent Police Complaints Commission report into the shooting —which happened in the aftermath of last year’s 21/7 Tube bomb attempts.

The secret report, delivered 10 days ago, says the decision to send in an armed team to kill the wrongly- selected suspect came only after a positive identification by an undercover Special Branch surveillance team.

One of the SB officers mistakenly reported that de Menezes was alleged wanted terrorist Hussein Osman— being hunted for a “failed suicide bombing” on a Shepherd’s Bush tube train in the capital the previous day.

But, the report reveals, once it was realised an innocent man had been killed, the Special Branch surveillance log was altered to show that positive ID had been made.

(For more of this shocking story, please buy this week's News of the World.)

LIB-DEM OATEN'S 3-IN-BED-RENT-BOY SHAME

2006-01-22T11:11:00.000Z

By Neville Thurlbeck

LIB-DEM leadership challenger Mark Oaten has been leading a sordid secret double life — sneaking off from Parliament to pay rent boys for three-in-a-bed sex.

And the News of the World can reveal insiders are convinced THAT is the real reason the married dad of two suddenly pulled out of the race for his party's top job this week.

Following our shock investigation the shamed high-flyer last night quit as the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman.

One young male prostitute told us: "Oaten was a regular punter for six months. He loved gay sex and humiliation.

"It was a huge turn-on for him. He couldn't get enough. He's a very troubled man living a very dangerous double life."

The news will stun his party, already reeling from leader Charles Kennedy being forced to quit over his secret drinking AND yesterday's revelation that House of Lords Lib Dem leader Tom McNally was also an alcoholic .

When Oaten dropped out of the leadership stakes on Thursday heblamed lack of support. But last night another MP said: "The House was rife with rumours something unsavoury was about to come out. He had no choice."

Despite being married to wife Belinda since 1992 and having two children, we can reveal how 41-year-old Winchester MP Oaten first contacted one gay hooker in summer 2004.

The rent boy, who was 23 at the time and operated from a squalid south London flat, told us: "I advertise on a website and Oaten called out of the blue.

"I told him it was £80 for an hour and he said he'd be round in 30 minutes. It was quite late and I guess he must have just finished at the House of Commons.

"My flat was just a mile away. He arrived looking nervous and wearing a smart suit and tie.

"It was all over in minutes. He was so excited. We never had full sex but we did everything else. Over the next few months he kept ringing and turning up for quick sex.

"He rarely said anything until he was in the throes of passion. Then he'd tell me how beautiful I was. He said he travelled to New York a lot. I thought he was some sort of diplomat although he didn't seem to have that much polish.

"Before one session he rang several times asking if I'd dress up in a football strip for him. He really seemed to enjoy himself that night."

In Who's Who balding Oaten cites football as one of his main interests.

But he had other games on his mind when he told the blond rent boy: "I really want a three-in-a-bed with two guys."

The gay prostitute told us: "That was very easy. I've a boyfriend who's also an escort and I fixed it up for him for just £140.

"When he arrived we put on a show for him. I started having sex with my boyfriend on the bed then Oaten stripped and began pleasuring himself. Then he said he wanted us to degrade him." The naked MP then got the rent boys to humiliate him with a bizarre sex act too revolting to describe.

At this point the No1 prostitute, slightly built with blond hair and blue eyes, still did not know the true identity of his high-profile regular.

But that all changed in February 2005. The rent boy said: "I saw him on television and realised he was my customer.

"So the next night, after our normal session, I said to him, ‘I saw you on the TV last night. You're Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat MP.'

"He went white with shock and said, ‘It can't be me, I must have a double. I'm not a politician.' Then he pulled on his clothes and scarpered. I never saw or heard from him again.

"He was such a secretive man, but I knew it WAS Oaten. Whenever he rang he never withheld his number and I have it to this day."

The scandal exposes Oaten as a hypocrite. Last year he CONDEMNED a judge who was sacked for hiring rent boys.

And he has no qualms about using family values to further his career. His website boasts he is a family man who lives with them in his constituency.

Just 12 days ago Oaten launched his ill-fated leadership bid with wife Belinda firmly at his side. And when he backed out on Thursday he said: "I'm going to spend the weekend with my family."

When we confronted Mr Oaten with our findings yesterday at his detached home in the village of Bramdean, Hampshire, he looked ashen as he said: "Can I speak to my family first? I'll speak to you later."

Last night he issued a statement quitting his front bench job.