Limpopo pig farm murders: South African farmer accused of feeding women to pigs faces trial
The case has sparked outrage across South Africa, exacerbating racial tensions in the country.Such tension is especially rife in rural areas, despite the end of the racist system of apartheid more than 30 years ago.The three men also face charges of attempted murder for shooting at Ms Ndlovu's husband, who was with the women at the farm - as well as possession of an unlicensed firearm.Mr Musora, a Zimbabwean national, faces an additional charge under South Africa's Immigration Act over his status as an illegal immigrant.
More BBC stories on South Africa:
South Africa outrage over farmer accused of feeding women to pigsIs there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?Tears and heartbreak over tragic story of South African girl sold by her mother
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Reform's crime tsar Colin Sutton: ‘I'll never forgive the Tories for what they did to policing'
Colin Sutton has policing in the blood and politics on the brain. He is one of four generations of his family who became coppers, but even before Sutton walked his first beat in uniform he was knocking on doors campaigning for Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party. He went on to become arguably Britain's most famous detective by putting away serial killer Levi Bellfield and 'night stalker' rapist Delroy Grant, before retiring to Norfolk where he re-engaged with politics as the deputy chairman of his local Reform UK branch. Little wonder, then, that Nigel Farage beat a path to his door when he decided Reform needed a policing and crime adviser who could come up with a strategy for halving crime in five years in a country that Farage has declared to be 'lawless'. At the age of 64, Sutton was settling nicely into what for many people would seem the perfect retirement on his police pension: living in a 16th-century farmhouse with his wife and their five curly-coated retrievers, travelling to dog shows, tinkering with cars and helping to raise three young grandchildren. It is not in his nature to sit on his hands when he can be useful though, and so it never occurred to him to say no when Reform made its approach. 'I suppose I tend to get involved, be it at the golf club or cricket club or, you know, anything I've been involved in I've ended up with a role,' he smiles as we chat in a living room dominated by a large stone fireplace and heavy oak beams. Organising sports club socials, though, is a rather different prospect from effectively writing the law-and-order section of what could be the next government's manifesto. There is a reason why Farage has decided to dedicate this entire summer to a PR blitz on crime and punishment: it is one of the public's top priorities, and he can see that a promise to slash crime, together with his long-standing pledge to cut immigration (two issues that are inextricably linked in Farage's mind), is an essential part of the offering to the British public that he hopes will make him prime minister. Whether he realises it yet or not, Sutton may well be one of the most important people in the whole Reform project right now. And there is no questioning his commitment. Before he had even been offered a formal role, he sat down and wrote a 6,000-word thesis on the future of policing, with a 10-point action plan for cutting crime. 'I'm never one to do things by halves,' he muses. 'I sent that up to them, and the next thing I know, they're saying, 'Would you like to be our police and crime adviser?' So I said, 'Well, yeah, OK, yeah, of course. You know, if I can make a difference, or I can help.'' The quietly-spoken Sutton is about as far removed from the stereotypical image of a hard-boiled murder cop as you can get. If you had to guess, you might place him as a retired head teacher. Rather than reaching for soundbites, he is a deep thinker, a grammar-school boy with a law degree to go alongside his high-profile collars during 30 years of service across three police forces. Anyone who hopes he and Reform will return Britain to the days of bobbies on every beat and police houses in every village is going to be disappointed. In truth, he is unsure whether the 'evenin' all' image of 1950s policing ever existed in reality. 'I don't think we're ever going to recapture it now,' he says. 'If it did exist, it's gone forever. 'We should look forward, not backwards, but in doing that, we have to say there were things that were done in the past that we need to start doing again. 'It's not saying we're trying to go back to Dixon of Dock Green, where nobody had a phone or a camera in their pocket and kids got a thick ear. We've gone past that, in many ways for the better. 'But that doesn't mean that the concepts of engagement with the community, policing the community, for the community, should be discounted. There are lessons to be drawn from the past that can influence how we can make the police service fit to do the things it needs to do in the 21st century.' Several of Sutton's 10 recommendations for halving crime do involve winding back the clock. He wants to reopen 300 local police stations (700 have been closed), focus resources on real-world crimes like burglary and away from online spats, and reduce police involvement in non-criminal matters. He also wants an extra 30,000 officers, though that is already Reform policy and so not one of his 10 points. Other recommendations are more political, such as: recruiting based on merit alone rather than quotas; scrapping diversity, equality and inclusion posts; making the police more independent from interest groups and rewarding strong leadership rather than rewarding compliance with liberal ideologies. He would also like to free up police time by potentially decriminalising online abuse (leaving people to pursue grievances through the civil courts) and would like to reform or review both the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the role of police and crime commissioners. You could summarise all of this as more resources, used far more efficiently, for what the public wants the police to be doing. He wants to return to the days of open community meetings where local people could speak directly to officers to give them their priorities, rather than senior officers taking their cue from 'community leaders' who all too often have an agenda that does not reflect the true wishes of the local population. 'It's about re-engagement with ordinary people,' he says. 'Saying, what do you actually want us to be doing? If you'd rather us be looking through Twitter and looking at things that may be offensive, then we'll do that. But if you'd actually rather we were there to respond to you when your house gets broken into and would investigate the crime, or patrolling down your street to make you feel safer, then tell us and we'll do what you want us to do, because it should be policing of the people, by the people.' A few years ago Sutton wrote in his blog that he did not believe beat patrols were a good use of resources, but he now says he is a 'born-again' believer in them, mainly because of the all-important issue of trust. Having started his career on the beat in Tottenham's tough Broadwater Farm estate a few years before the 1985 riots that culminated in the murder of PC Keith Blakelock, Sutton formed the view that people who were minded to help the police would always help the police, regardless of whether they knew a dedicated community officer or not, while those who were unco-operative (to put it mildly) would never be won round. But that was before the general levels of trust in the police plunged to their current all-time low. 'I'm not sure the Met does any foot patrolling at all now,' he says. 'So there's an opportunity to rebuild trust through proper engagement with the whole community, rather than just the people who decide they represent the community.' But he still maintains that foot patrols do not necessarily reduce crime, and that what people care about most is that if they are in trouble and dial 999 two well-trained, competent officers turn up quickly and help, regardless of their gender or ethnicity. Sutton might have seemed destined to join the police, given that his great-grandfather and father were both constables (he also has a son in the police) and that he grew up surrounded by uniformed officers. An only child, he would tag along with his parents to social events, 'so I guess I was kind of steeped in the culture and traditions of the Met Police from an early age'. His interests went far beyond policing though. He joined the Conservatives when he was 17 and helped them with the canvassing for the 1979 election in Enfield North, helping to overturn a Labour majority and get Tim Eggar (later a minister) elected as Margaret Thatcher swept to power. He did well in his A-levels at Latymer grammar school in Edmonton, north London, and headed off to Leeds University to study law. But he hated being away from London and in his second year he dropped out, the gravitational pull of the Metropolitan Police proving just too strong to resist. 'It was the idea of service,' he says about the attraction of policing. 'You know, on the side of the goodies and against the baddies.' He was a sergeant after two years, was fast-tracked to inspector rank by the age of 25 and showed such promise that the Met, ironically, decided he should take a law degree, which he did, at University College London. After transferring to West Yorkshire Police and then Surrey Police, during which time he married, had two children and got divorced, he ended up back at the Met as a detective chief inspector, working as a senior investigating officer until his retirement in 2011. It was during that time that he headed the team that caught Levi Bellfield, convicted in 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange and then, in 2011, of the murder of Surrey schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Also in 2011, Delroy Grant, the so-called Night Stalker, was convicted of 29 offences over a 17-year period following the biggest rape investigation ever undertaken by the Met. Today, Sutton says his proudest achievement is 'leading the teams that meant Bellfield and Grant couldn't victimise any more women and girls. That's our legacy. We stopped people from being victims.' Farage would dearly love to be in a position to have his own legacy of cutting crime, and Sutton will be drawing on all his experience as a beat bobby, a leader and a detective to help him get there. As far as operational issues go, he believes that all front-line officers who want to be equipped with Tasers should be given them. He also has strong views on reducing knife crime, which surged by 58 per cent in London in the space of three years to 2024 and by 86 per cent in a decade – a 'horrific' statistic, Sutton says. In the same period stop and search has been on the decline – falling by 23 per cent between March 2023 and March 2024. 'Stop and search is virtually non-existent,' he says. 'If you oppose stop and search, you oppose enforcing anti-knife laws, because stop and search works and it is the only way you can tell if somebody's got a knife on them in a public place.' He has little time for community leaders who, he says, dishonestly use statistics to oppose stop and search when research has shown that, judged against the ethnic breakdown of the population on the street at any given time, rather than the resident population, young white men are marginally more likely to be stopped than young black men. 'I've spoken to more bereaved parents whose children have succumbed to knife crime than most people. Every single one of those, irrespective of their race, gender, their background, every single one wishes with all their heart that somebody had stopped and searched that assailant 10 minutes before they killed their child.' Sutton had to give up his Tory Party membership when he joined the police but he never lost his interest in politics. After he retired he rejoined the Conservatives 'simply so I could vote against Theresa May when she stood as leader, then I left again'. He adds: 'Like many police officers I will never, ever forgive them, and specifically her, for what they did to policing [by cutting police numbers by 20,000]. We're still paying for that now.' In 2013 when the Met first began closing its front counters there were nearly 140 in London. Closures took that firgure down to 37, and this week the Met announced plans for further cuts to just 20 Having turned his back on the Tories, and with no confidence in Sir Keir Starmer's chances of doing better, he joined Reform UK in May last year after bumping into the local parliamentary candidate and deciding he was saying all the right things about 'the sort of reset that I think is necessary'. Having volunteered to be deputy chairman of his local Reform branch (because 'nobody was sticking their hand up') it was only a matter of time before Farage latched on to the gift that had landed in his lap. Sutton was unveiled as Reform's new crime tsar in July at one of Farage's weekly press conferences, when Sutton marvelled at Farage's communication skills. 'The man's command of facts, the way in which he uses them, it's just amazing. And I thought I could talk! Then you look at others, you watch [Prime Minister's] Questions and look at the scripted questions and the scripted answers. Keir Starmer looks like a startled rabbit in the headlights. He's just not got that kind of ability, that kind of brain that works that way.' Sutton knows leadership when he sees it, and he certainly doesn't see it in Sir Keir. 'I think leadership is what I did best when I was in the police. People think I'm a great detective. In truth I had great detectives working for me, but I got the best out of them.' Leadership, he says, is key to getting the most out of the resources available to the police. Some chief constables have promised a return to investigating every burglary, a policy Sutton believes should be adopted nationwide, as burglary is 'one of the most invasive and destructive and horrifying' crimes there is. 'There are probably enough people there and enough vehicles' to do that, he says. 'What's missing is the leadership and the will to say you will go to every burglary, and you will not worry if someone's been offended or misgendered on Twitter.' What, then, does he make of the leadership of Britain's top policeman, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley? What would Sutton do differently? 'I'd be listening more carefully to the wider community,' he says, 'and I'd like to think I'd be a lot more firm with the mayor. I'm not sure how much Mark stands up to [Sir Sadiq Khan]. 'There's no legal limit on what the mayor can spend on policing. And he chooses to spend money on six-figure salaries for dozens of Transport for London employees. He spends money on nighttime economy tsars. He chooses to spend half a million on a piece of sculpture that looks like I don't know what and he doesn't choose to make that difference in policing.' Sutton agrees with Farage's assessment that crime is getting worse, despite official figures that claim it is lessening, and he also thinks there is merit in the theory that recent increases in sex crimes are linked to immigration. 'If you look at the figures, not just here, but the figures for Germany and Sweden, there is no doubt that there has been an explosion of sexual offences in those countries that coincides with their explosion in migration. So I think it's certainly a conversation worth having.' He thinks it is 'looking likely' that Reform will win the next election. Would he consider standing as an MP if Farage suggested it? 'I would give serious consideration to that,' he replies without hesitation. Might we be looking at a future home secretary? 'I don't think I would go that far!' he laughs. 'But who knows what happens in life?'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
TV tonight: the wife of a serial killer speaks out in a grim documentary
9pm, Sky Crime Between April 1984 and August 1985, Richard Ramirez murdered at least 15 people in California. He died in 2013 while awaiting execution on San Quentin's death row. In this two-parter, interviews with Ramirez's wife (Doreen Lioy), friends, female admirers and family members, along with those with his victims' family members, are aired for the first time. It also examines 80s fan culture, and why he was celebrated by some like a rock star. Hollie Richardson 6.20pm, BBC Two 'One, two, three. One, two, three.' It's a celebration of waltzes in this special lineup to mark 200 years since the birth of 'waltz king' Johann Strauss II. The programme starts with his Die Fledermaus overture and ends with By the Beautiful Blue Danube, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra. HR 7.15pm, BBC One More remarkable wildlife parenting lessons from David Attenborough, this time in the oceans. He starts on a reef with Banggai cardinal fish – the mother lays eggs in the father's mouth then he protects them for four weeks, unable to eat anything. And after they hatch, they don't leave his mouth until it's safe. HR 8pm, ITV1 Adrian Dunbar's eponymous retired detective returns for a second series. In the opener, a violent jewellery heist escalates into murder when a key witness is killed. Ridley and his former protege, DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh), mount an undercover sting to stop the criminal mastermind behind the gang, before more lives are snuffed out. Ali Catterall 8pm, Channel 4 One for real Titanic heads, this two-part documentary series focuses not on the world's most infamous maritime disaster, but on subsequent efforts to find its wreck. Texas oil magnate Jack Grimm funded a cutting-edge mission in the 80s – but why was he so insistent on bringing a monkey with him? Hannah J Davies 9.15pm, BBC One Dorrigo is having a very bad week in the penultimate episode of the torrid Australian miniseries. His illicit affair with Amy is rudely interrupted when his call-up papers arrive – and before long he's shipped off to a Japanese PoW camp to face some brutal realities, leaving him haunted by loss in every sense. AC Jimmy's Hall, 1.10am, Film4 Eight years after his 2006 film The Wind That Shakes the Barley delved into the 1920s Irish war of independence and civil war, Ken Loach returned to the country to assess its uneasy peace circa 1932. In an absorbing, fact-based story, communist Jimmy (Barry Ward) returns from the US to his County Leitrim home to reopen a community hall, which exposes the continuing rift between the working class and 'the masters and the pastors' who dictate their lives and block democratic change. Simon Wardell Community Shield Football: Crystal Palace v Liverpool, 2pm, TNT Sports 1 At Wembley Stadium.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
What drove an Italian mother to murder her son
It's a country where men are doted on by their adoring mothers, who cook and clean for them until they are finally ready to leave home. There is even a word for it: mammoni – mummy's boys, pampered princes who don't fly the nest until well into their thirties. So the nation was shocked when it emerged that a 61-year-old hospital nurse had murdered her grown-up son, cut him into pieces with a hacksaw, covered the remains in lime and crammed them into a bin. Lorena Venier confessed to the crime in her first hearing with prosecutors, telling them she had done 'a monstrous thing'. Neighbours in Gemona del Friuli, in the region of Friuli-Venezia-Guili in north-eastern Italy, said that news of the killing was shocking and baffling. 'She's a very affable woman and we had good relations with her,' said Alberto Guillan, a former soldier. 'We never heard any arguments coming from the house. The whole thing is inexplicable.' Ms Venier told police her son Alessandro, 35, had drug and alcohol problems and had become increasingly abusive to her and to his Colombian partner Mailyn Castro Monsalvo, 30, the mother of his six-month-old daughter. He was unemployed and refused to lift a finger around the house he and Ms Monsalvo shared with his mother, Ms Venier claims. And when he started talking about moving to Colombia, she feared that he might do his partner and child harm. 'Mailyn is the daughter that I never had,' Ms Venier, who raised her son alone after his Egyptian father abandoned them when he was young, told magistrates at a hearing on Aug 2. 'Mailyn was being beaten up, insulted and threatened many times with death. My son downplayed the post-natal depression she was suffering from. Alessandro was violent, Mailyn's life was in danger. 'I could not have allowed them to go to Colombia, Mailyn and the baby would have run very serious risks there. The only way to stop him was to kill him.' It was Ms Monsalvo, who Ms Venier said helped her in the killing, who alerted the authorities to what had happened. Mr Venier was killed on July 25, and on July 31, unable to keep the secret any longer, Ms Monsalvo told emergency services that her boyfriend had been murdered by his mother and they could find his remains in a barrel in the garage. The women allegedly gave Alessandro a glass of lemonade into which they had slipped a tranquilliser. It made him groggy but it didn't knock him out. Next, Ms Venier allegedly injected her son with two doses of insulin, which she says she obtained from the hospital where she worked. An insulin overdose, if untreated, it leads to coma, irreversible brain damage and death. Despite the injection, Mr Venier was still alive. The women allegedly finished him off first by smothering him with a pillow and then strangling him with a pair of his own bootlaces, according to his mother's testimony. 'I took care of the dismemberment myself,' she told police. 'I used a hacksaw and a sheet to hold the blood. I dissected him into three pieces.' She wrapped up the hunks of body, shoved them into a plastic barrel and covered them in lime. She was hoping that her son would not be missed – that the town would assume he had followed his plan to move to South America, but left behind his girlfriend and daughter. But she had not foreseen that her daughter-in-law, already in a fragile mental state because of post-natal depression, would break down and decide to confess all. Ms Venier, who is now in custody, accused of murder and concealing a body. Ms Monsalvo is suspected of instigation to murder. 'My client has made a full confession to the prosecutor,' Giovanni De Nardo, Ms Venier's lawyer, told Italy's national news agency, Ansa. 'She was lucid and aware during her confession, explaining in detail exactly what prompted her to act, her motives.' He has requested that his client undergo a psychiatric evaluation.' David Wilson, a prominent British criminologist, says it is a very singular case. 'In Western countries, only 10 per cent of people who kill are female. This case is a filicide, meaning a parent who kills a child, which is unusual. Among those cases, it is mostly parents killing young children. Killing a grown-up child is even more unusual.' The gruesome way in which the body was disposed of is striking, added Prof Wilson. 'The insulin, the tranquilliser – that is very typical of how women commit murder,' he said. 'But to chop up the body, that is a further stage and very unusual. It usually happens with someone who has medical training because it is actually very difficult to cut up a body. Her training as a nurse would also have given her the psychological robustness to do it.' Both women are now in custody, and Ms Monsalvo's baby is being looked after by social services back in Gemona. 'She is in a state of great difficulty,' said Ms Monsalvo's lawyer, Federica Tosel. 'She has been very confused and not able to face up to what happened. ' On Tuesday judges, lawyers and forensic experts will meet to determine when to carry out the post-mortem examination. There is no indication yet of a trial date.
