
Cartier watch attempted 'bribe' over Great Yarmouth tower dispute
The court heard how Mr Christophi, an accountant, and Dr Sanjay Kaushal, a care home owner, fell out after they jointly funded the purchase and redevelopment of the tower in November 2021.They did this through a company called RP Design and Construction Limited (RPD).Mr Christophi brought the case, arguing he and Dr Kaushal had agreed to split the ownership of the company equally in an oral agreement. Dr Kaushal denied this and said Mr Christophi's financial contribution had been a loan not an investment. Deputy High Court Judge Saira Salimi rejected Mr Christophi's claim.
The Atlantis Tower has stood as a landmark on the Great Yarmouth seafront since its construction in the 1960s. The intention was to convert the upper floors into 18 residential flats and then sell them.This section of the property previously been used as a hotel.
'Blocking entrance'
By early 2023 Dr Kausal and his former friend, Mr Christophi, were in serious disagreement over the project. Mr Christophi had began to behave "aggressively and unreasonably", Dr Kausal said, and that he felt intimidated.There had been heated meetings and phone calls recorded secretly by Mr Christophi, he told the court.It was alleged that at one point this included Mr Christophi posting negative reviews of a care home owned by Dr Kausal and even blocking its entrance with a car.This latter incident was a pressure tactic to make Dr Kaushal talk to him, the court heard. Dr Kausal also alleged he had even been physically prevented from leaving a room during a meeting between the pair.Mr Christophi told the BBC: "I absolutely reject any suggestion that I intended to intimidate or act unreasonably""I sought dialogue, nothing more, and when that dialogue was repeatedly refused, I did what I believed was necessary to be heard" he added.
In April 2023, Mr Christophi gave a Cartier watch to the owner of the company brought in to refurbish the property, Besnik Ademaj, and transferred £50,000 to Mr Ademaj's firm. It was alleged by Dr Kausal this was to induce Mr Ademaj to transfer his shares in RPD.Mr Christophi claimed the watch and money were a gesture of trust and friendship, meant to show goodwill during their discussions about transferring shares.The watch and money were subsequently returned, according to the judgement.Judge Salimi said it was "on the balance of probabilities" an attempt at a bribe "which did not result in success".
Mr Christophi, 53, also known as Steve, is linked to a Norwich company at the centre of tax fraud allegations.The BBC revealed last year how Green Jellyfish had been raided by officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and a number of arrests made. Internal company documents described Mr Christophi as a stakeholder in the firm, which is currently being wound up.Companies House data shows an overlap between Mr Christophi's businesses and Green Jellyfish, including shared premises.
Mr Christophi said he had always conducted himself "lawfully and with integrity". "I respect the rule of law, and I respect the judgment, even where I may feel that parts of my side of the story remain untold" he added.
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The Sun
24 minutes ago
- The Sun
Chilling signs of ‘siblicide' as experts warn of dangerous rise… after teen smothered toddlers to ‘save them from Satan'
BRITISH schoolgirl Amber Gibson was just 16 when she was stripped naked, sexually assaulted, beaten over the head, and strangled in a horrific woodland killing. The beast behind the murder? Not a depraved stranger or a serial killer, but Amber's big brother, Connor Gibson - the boy who was supposed to love and protect her the most. 20 20 20 'The last person she saw alive was you, her brother, strangling the life out of her after having beaten her up and tried to rape her,' a judge told Gibson following the 2021 murder. Amber - who suffered another harrowing fate in death, when the stranger who found her body further violated it - is a victim of siblicide, where one sibling is killed by another. Though common among animals - particularly birds, in competition for food - this type of homicide is rare in humans, whose longest-lasting relationships are often with their siblings. When it does happen, it sends shockwaves through families - with the heartbroken mum of one killer who stabbed his four-year-old sister 17 times revealing: 'I lost both of my children.' And worryingly, experts warn that cases of sororicide (killing one's sister) and fratricide (killing one's brother) could soar amid a mental health crisis among Britain's youngsters. 'Recent siblicide cases appear to indicate that mental ill health is a major factor,' UK criminal defence lawyer Marcus Johnstone, who specialises in sex crime, tells The Sun. A recent NHS survey reveals one in four young people in England have a common mental health condition - a 47 per cent increase on 2007 figures. Meanwhile, Marcus says sex crime cases involving siblings are rising - with the 'easy availability of extreme porn sites ' feared to be contributing to such vile attacks. 'My concern is the ever-increasing number of children and young adults who have mental health problems,' adds Marcus, of Cheshire-based PCD Solicitors. 'If we get to the stage where a psychotic disorder is combined with drug and porn addiction, and an underlying sibling rivalry or dispute, this may escalate to siblicide.' Amber Gibson's evil brother Connor jailed for life for murdering & sexually assaulting his teen sister 20 20 For most siblings their bond forms at an early age. They grow up together - navigating family dynamics, sibling rivalry and hurdles in their own lives while under the same roof. It is during this shared childhood that criminologists say the roots of siblicide can form. 'Siblings should be our first teachers in sharing, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution,' behavioural criminologist Alex Iszatt tells us. 'But for some, the home becomes a training ground for violence instead. "Who hasn't shouted, 'I hate you,' at the top of your lungs to a brother or sister? Yet that rage rarely turns deadly.' In the Gibsons' case the siblings, born into a troubled family, had gone into foster care when Amber was three. At the time, her brother, then five, had declared: 'We are safe.' But these three words would prove untrue for Amber when Gibson - by then a 19-year-old man - savagely attacked her in Hamilton in South Lanarkshire, Scotland in November 2021. The fiend battered his little sister, broke her nose, tore off her clothing and sexually assaulted her with the intention of raping her, before strangling her with his hands. Jailing Gibson for life at the High Co urt in Livingston two years later, Lord Mulholland told the merciless killer that Amber 'would have looked to you, as her big brother, for support'. 'What you did was truly evil,' Lord Mulholland added. The judge also slammed Stephen Corrigan - a stranger who inappropriately touched Amber's body, then concealed it, after discovering her - for his 'despicable conduct'. 'Any decent human being, on coming across the naked body of a young girl who was unconscious or possibly dead, would immediately call the emergency services,' he said. 'Golden child' jealousy While Gibson's motive for Amber's murder remains unclear, experts say perpetrators of siblicide might be driven by greed, trauma, psychosis, or decades of 'unresolved' rage. In some cases, 'small micro-traumas - persistent emotional or physical wounds - build up over time like a simmering pot until they erupt in pure rage,' says Alex. Other killers act on jealousy; they feel resentful of their parents' perceived favouritism of a 'golden child', or the bond shared between their sibling and other family members. 'Psychologists call this 'sibling displacement rage', where anger aimed at parents, trauma, or even personal failure is redirected onto a brother or sister,' adds Alex. 'The 'chosen one' becomes the lightning rod - not because they caused the pain, but because they represent everything the angry sibling feels deprived of. 'Over the years, this resentment festers and can turn violently lethal.' 'Cold and calculated' 20 20 20 In 2016, Kim Edwards and her boyfriend Lucas Markham, both 14, became the UK's youngest double murderers when they slaughtered Edwards's mum and 13-year-old sister. Prosecutors said 'cold and calculated' Edwards had held a grudge against her mother, Liz Edwards, 49, before the double stabbing at the family's home in Spalding, Lincolnshire. She'd also felt resentful of her mum's close bond with her younger sister, Katie. 'I was not killing my sister out of anger, and I miss her, but I was excited about killing my mother and I was looking forward to it,' Edwards later chillingly told a psychiatrist. After murdering the pair as they slept, Edwards - who also confessed to being 'jealous' of Katie - had sex with Markham, feasted on ice cream, and watched the Twilight films. Nearly 5,000 miles away, in Texas, another teen - psychopath Paris Bennett - beat and murdered his four-year-old sister in a sick bid to hurt his mum 'in the worst possible way'. 20 20 20 Bennett, then 13, crept into little Ella's bedroom after convincing their babysitter to go home. He punched and tried to strangle the defenceless youngster, before knifing her 17 times. He also sexually attacked Ella, having browsed graphic porn like 'S&M', 'bondage' and 'sadism', and even searched for snuff films in the hours leading up to her murder. 'I had always known, as a child, that the most devastating thing to my mother would be the loss of one of her children,' Bennett, now rotting in jail, later told TV host Piers Morgan. 'And I found a way to take away both her children in one fell swoop.' The siblings' mum, Charity Lee, fainted when police told her that Ella had been killed. When she came to, she asked if her son was okay - only to find out that he was the murderer. Incredibly, despite Bennett's heinous actions, Charity managed to forgive her son. 'Only once I understood what Paris is - a predator - was I able to forgive him,' the grieving mum, who founded the ELLA foundation to help others impacted by violence, mental illness and the criminal justice system, wrote in an article for Good Housekeeping. She added: 'If I was swimming in a beautiful ocean, enjoying myself, and a shark came up and bit my leg off, hopefully I would not spend the rest of my life hating that shark. 'Hopefully, I would understand that sharks are what they are. And, for better or worse, Paris is a shark.' Infamy hungry 20 20 20 While some siblings kill out of jealousy or revenge, others crave notoriety. In March this year, a sadistic teen who dreamed of becoming Britain's worst mass killer was caged for life after shooting dead his brother, sister and mother at their Luton home. Nicholas Prosper - who had plotted a school shooting to make him 'globally notorious' - slaughtered Kyle, 16, and Giselle Prosper, 13, and Juliana Falcon, 48, last September. Then aged 18, a court heard he had sought to 'emulate and outdo' Sandy Hook shooting monster Adam Lanza - with his family becoming 'collateral damage' in his failed plot. '[Prosper] showed zero empathy,' says Alex. "His sister hid under a table, begging for her life before he shot her.' She adds that Prosper - who was 'deeply fascinated' by both high-profile murderers and rapists - displayed narcissistic psychopathy, a chilling detachment from human emotion. 'Hitman inquiry' While most cases of siblicide in the news involve teenagers, an American criminologist reveals that many perpetrators are actually adults who are acting 'in the moment'. 'The perpetrators are often adults, and the act is due to a heated argument influenced by drugs or alcohol, and is done in their own home due to easy access to weapons,' says Dr Angelo Brown, an assistant professor of criminology at Arkansas State University. He adds: 'Siblicides done by youth are rarer but often are more likely to make the news.' Typically, perpetrators of siblicide are male, with killer sisters 'much less common'. But just last month a woman appeared in court accused of knifing her sister to death before she was arrested allegedly with the victim's missing diamond Rolex. Nancy Pexton, 69, is accused of murdering film director Jennifer Abbott Dauward, known as Sarah Steinberg, at her flat in Camden, North London. In 2016, a 26-year-old woman - Sabah Khan, also from Luton - knifed her own sister 68 times in a ferocious hallway attack because she wanted to steal her husband. Khan - whose internet history included "hiring a hitman for £200" - had become consumed by jealousy after starting an ill-fated affair with sister Saima's husband, Hafeez Rehman. 20 20 Desiring Hafeez for herself, she delved into gruesome methods for murdering 34-year-old Saima - including paying a 'black magic priest' in Pakistan £5,000 to 'remotely' kill her. Eventually, she settled on butchering the mother-of-four with a knife bought from Tesco, as her victim's eldest daughter called down the stairs, "Auntie, are you killing a mouse?' Khan was later locked up for life, with a minimum of 22 years, after pleading guilty to murder. According to Alex, affairs are not the only type of family 'betrayal' that can spark siblicide. 'Financial betrayal is another trigger,' she tells us. 'Siblings who grow up competing for resources — whether love, attention, or inheritance — can reach a point where murder seems like the only way out.' Siblings who grow up competing for resources — whether love, attention, or inheritance — can reach a point where murder seems like the only way out Alex Iszatt Sometimes, a supposedly 'betrayed' sibling wishes to 'completely erase' the other. 'This can develop into a psychological obsession,' explains Alex. 'There have been cases where perpetrators don't just want what their sibling has - they want to be them.' Such killers might mirror their sibling's behaviour, or copy their appearance. 'The violence is more than physical; it's psychological annihilation,' says Alex. 'By killing their sibling, the perpetrator attempts to claim their identity.' The warning signs of siblicide Siblicide involves the killing of one sibling by another. It might present as sororicide (killing one's sister) or fratricide (killing one's brother). Experts tell The Sun that 'red flags' for siblicide include obsessive grudges, violent fantasies, sudden emotional detachment, and extreme bullying beyond typical sibling rivalry. 'Spotting warning signs early can save lives,' says behavioural criminologist Alex Iszatt (pictured left). 'Therapy and intervention help, but only if they come before homicidal planning starts.' Criminal defence lawyer Marcus Johnstone (pictured right), who specialises in sex crime, adds: 'Such killings are extremely rare in the UK but, where it does arise, they are often linked to family arguments, jealousy or financial problems spanning many years, for example, the inheritance of a property. 'Siblicide which also involves a sexual assault is often linked to severe mental illness and drug abuse.' Some experts believe that 'full siblings' are less likely to be involved in siblicide. 'Research has indicated that there are differences between full-blood siblings, half-siblings, [and] step-siblings, as full siblings seem less likely to kill each other,' says Dr Brown. 'This is explained by evolutionary theories that we are more likely to protect those with whom we share DNA.' In 2022, a teen from Indiana, US, was jailed after smothering his 23-month-old half-sister, Desiree McCartney, and 11-month-old stepbrother, Nathaniel Ritz, to death. Nickalas Kedrowitz, who was just 13 at the time of the 2017 killings, reportedly wanted to free the toddler and baby 'from Satan and hell'. He was caged for 100 years. Whatever the motives, genetics and 'betrayals' behind siblicide, there is no doubt that the violent crime destroys the lives of more than the two siblings involved. "We now have one daughter buried in Larkhall Cemetery and another child in prison,' said Amber's devastated foster parents after her brother was convicted of her murder. "We really miss Amber - life will never be the same." And Bennett's mother Charity admitted: 'While I've learned to forgive Paris, you don't ever fully heal from something like that. You learn to live with it.' 20 20 20


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Four jailed for 'sickening' machete and gun attack in Gorton
Four attackers chased a 21-year-old man before he was hit with machetes and then shot as he tried to stand up, a court has Crown Court was told the unnamed 21-year-old was spotted in an alleyway by his attackers as they rode electric bikes along Hampden Crescent in Gorton on 7 October Manchester Police (GMP) said the victim, who managed to drag himself away despite having been struck repeatedly with the knives and then shot in the leg, suffered "horrific, life-changing injuries".The defendants - all convicted of attempted murder, possession of a bladed article and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life - were jailed for between 20 and 40 years. Members of the jury were told the defendants had spotted their victim in the the victim unsuccessfully tried to hide by crouching behind a parked van and a tree, his attackers got off their electric bikes and gave said Kellen Mongeme and Zak Morris, both 17 at the time, brandished machetes while 27-year-old Kavon Haselden-Hoyle held a said the victim then tried to jump over a garden fence but was grabbed and struck repeatedly with the machetes before falling to the ground. As he tried to get to his feet, Haselden-Hoyle opened shot hit one of the 21-year-old's legs but he managed to drag himself away as the group of attackers fled the scene. 'Lucky to be alive' Detectives, who gathered and pored through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and phone records, established that the four had met at a house in Ardwick to plan the preparation for the shooting, they intentionally left their mobile phones behind and changed their clothing in a bid to conceal their after sentencing, Det Insp Louise Edwards said: "The extreme level of violence used in this attack was sickening."The attack was carried out in broad daylight and the victim was struck repeatedly with machetes and blasted with a shotgun."He has been left with extremely serious life-changing injuries, including the partial loss of his leg, and is lucky to be alive."The four perpetrators have shown no remorse throughout the investigation."The streets of Manchester are safer now that these men have been jailed."Following their five-week trial, Haselden-Hoyle of Beamish Close, Ardwick was jailed for 40 Forrester, 21 and of Greengage, Ardwick, was jailed for 26 now 18 and of Haymarket Street, Ardwick, was handed a 21-year prison Morris, 17 and of Silverlace Avenue, Openshaw, was detained for 20 years. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Brackley's Magdalen College given government warning over report
A secondary school which was placed in special measures after it was rated as inadequate by an education watchdog has been given a government Department for Education (DfE) issued Magdalen College School (MCS) in Brackley, Northamptonshire, with a warning notice following an Ofsted report which ranked it as "inadequate"It means the secondary risks losing its funding if urgent changes are not a letter to the school's trustees, Carol Grey, the DfE's regional director for the East Midlands, wrote that "rapid and sustainable improvement at the academy" was required. MCS declined to comment on the warning notice. Ms Gray wrote: "If I am not satisfied that this can be achieved, I will consider whether to terminate the funding agreement in order to transfer the academy to an alternative academy trust."While she did "acknowledge the verbal and written assurances the trust has already provided", she called for "longer-term plans" to ensure improvements to safeguarding June, Ofsted's report found pupils at the school had "failed to provide pupils with an acceptable standard of education".The school was downgraded from a previous rating of good, with inspectors finding it failed to ensure "pupils' physical safety".At the time of the report, the school said it "acknowledged" the outcome of the inspection and said it would take the judgement "seriously" as it committed to "urgent" improvements through a "rapid action plan". What did the Ofsted report find? The report, which followed an inspection in April this year, found "staff do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve or how they should behave", with pupil outcomes at the end of key stage four "too low".Inspectors found that "too often" pupils did not engage well or meaningfully with learning activities, with unacceptable levels of lateness or "most pupils feel safe in school", the report also said they "frequently hear other pupils using discriminatory and derogatory language" but did not report it as "they feel the school will not do anything about it."But the report found the school had "developed a clear programme to support pupils' broader development", including online safety and adopting healthy lifestyles. It also found staff had "higher expectations" of its sixth-form said that 1,348 pupils aged 11 to 18 attend the mixed gender school, of which 195 are enrolled in its sixth-form. Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.