Belfast: Man charged with murder of 71-year-old Marie Green
A man has been charged with the murder of a 71-year-old woman in north Belfast.Mary Green - who was known as Marie - was pronounced dead on the Shore Road in the early of Tuesday morning.The 31-year-old who is accused of her murder has also been charged with non-fatal strangulation, as well as common assault on another person in connection with the investigation.He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
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Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How a coldblooded restaurant murder of a popular waiter left a once-peaceful island community living in fear
The aroma of exotic spices wafting from the kitchen blended with the animated chatter of diners as they tucked into their meals at the Mumutaz Tandoori restaurant on a warm June evening in 1994. Thursdays were always busy at the only Indian restaurant in Orkney, tucked away down a side street in Kirkwall where couples and families would meet for a catch-up and a curry. But shortly after 7pm, the air of calm conviviality was shattered by an act of terrifying violence, the repercussions of which are still being felt today – not least by those who witnessed it. Among them, a teenager called Emma was being treated to dinner out with her parents. Speaking for the first time about that fateful night in a new Prime Video documentary, Emma, now in her 40s, recalls: 'I was 13 when it happened. My parents at the time worked in Kirkwall so we had arranged to meet for tea. We liked the restaurant; it was dad's favourite. In those days I used to have a masala.' Her memories of what happened next are vivid but fractured. Sitting at a table by the window, she thought the person was collecting a takeaway: 'They were quite well-built and they had a sort of purposeful march on them. I couldn't see who it was because they had their face covered. I remember it was a handgun and then there was a 'pop'.' She adds: 'I knew something bad had happened, I knew something had happened to the waiter but my brain I don't think wanted to believe it.' The waiter, Shamsuddin Mahmood, had no time to utter even a greeting before the masked stranger aimed a 9mm pistol at his head and fired a single, fatal shot at point-blank range before turning on his heels and slipping away into the midsummer light. In an instant, panic and fear gripped the room. For Emma, that fear has never left her, that single moment of horror triggering in her years of all-consuming anxiety. Now, more than 30 years later, she tells the makers of The Orkney Assassin: Murder In The Isles: 'The night it happened, it took the world from being a very safe place, an idyllic place, to a very frightening place where bad things happened, terrible things happened to people.' She adds: 'People were telling me to enjoy every moment of my day because I was lucky to be alive. But I started getting quite frightened. I had panic attacks and I remember a car went past me and they had the window open and I was frightened quite irrationally that somebody could shoot me through the window. Everything was acutely frightening.' Looking at a photograph of Mr Mahmood, she says: 'I remember he had a big smile in real life. He was really friendly and kind. I've never been able to make sense of what happened that night, but especially the cold-hearted nature of it. 'There was no hesitation. Shamsuddin was killed. Why did that happen?' Emma was far from the only person struggling to piece together this unfathomable shooting. How could anyone commit such an outrageous murder – the first on Orkney's islands for a quarter century – in such a public manner and then simply vanish like a ghost? The case became infamous, not least because of its tortuous route to justice, but also because of the astonishing truth of the killer's identity. In 2008, at the end of an extraordinary 14-year murder inquiry that gripped the intricately woven Orkney community, and at times threatened to tear it apart, a decorated Black Watch soldier and member of a well-known local family, was convicted of Mr Mahmood's murder. Michael Ross was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in jail, yet over the years questions have been raised over his conviction. Evidence was circumstantial; descriptions of the killer suggested he was taller than Ross's 5ft 7ins. Most controversially, Ross was only 15 years old at the time of the killing – just two years older than Emma. It led some to dub him 'the schoolboy assassin', others to protest that no child could possibly be responsible for such a professional contract-style killing. While there were claims Ross, now 46, had no motive, prosecutors suggested he had been heard around that time to say 'blacks should be shot and have a gun put to their head'. Now decades on, the documentary explores the devastating impact this astonishing story has had not only on individuals like Emma, but on the entire community of Orkney – examining why it took so long for the killer to be unmasked in court and why there are still those who are convinced Michael Ross is the unfortunate victim of a miscarriage of justice. The 90-minute programme touches on how a local wall of silence, the toxic whiff of racism and the criminal interference of Ross's own policeman father contrived to turn what might have been a relatively straightforward murder hunt into one of the longest in Scottish criminal history. And while Ross lost an appeal in 2012, and the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled two years later that there was not enough evidence to support another, a local campaign group based in Orkney continues to protest Ross's innocence and work tirelessly for his release. They include his parents, who have stood loyally by him down the years. In one dramatic moment, Ross's mother Moira remembers confronting her teenage son after he was first interviewed by police weeks after the killing. 'He went up to his room and sat there, and I did go up and ask him.' she says. 'I said: 'Did you shoot that man?' And he said: 'No'. I just can't get over the look on his face when I asked him,' she adds, breaking down in tears. Mr Mahmood, an economics graduate from Bangladesh, was on his second stint working at the Mumtaz. The 26-year-old had spent nine months in Orkney in 1993 and planned to work the summer season before returning to Bangladesh to marry his fiancée, a medical student. One of 11 children, his older brother, barrister Abul Shafiuddin, said he had no enemies and was a kind-hearted man. His seemingly motiveless killing on June 2, 1994, not only stunned the small, insular and peaceable Orkney community, but sent shockwaves rippling out across the world. Extra police were drafted in to lock down the island and secure the scene. In the immediate aftermath, rumours were rife of a professional hit, of gambling debts or even of Mr Mahmood having an affair with a local woman, but nothing stacked up. Could it simply be down to the colour of his skin? Amid concerns over racial tension towards the island's tiny Asian community, Moina Miah, the restaurant's owner, went into hiding under police guard with his wife and children. 'We are really scared in case whoever did this comes after us as well,' he said. Instead, the murderer melted back into the 20,000-strong island population and for months, despite extensive publicity and a Crimewatch appeal, local police officers were stumped. One, PC Edmund Ross, had been tasked with keeping curious onlookers away from the Bridge Street restaurant the morning after the murder. A firearms expert with a keen interest in guns, Eddy Ross was a former Royal Green Jacket and Special Branch officer who once protected Prince Charles and Princess Diana. The policeman was invited to examine the fatal bullet, which had wedged in the wall behind where Mr Mahmood fell. It turned out the 9mm calibre was from military ammunition supplied to the British Army in 1972 and exceedingly rare. PC Ross was tasked with checking all the 9mm guns on Orkney, but he found none capable of firing the bullet, nor any stocks of the same ammunition anywhere on the island. Yet ten weeks into the inquiry, the officer stunned detectives by casually mentioning that he owned a sealed box of similar bullets provided to him by James Spence, a retired Royal Marine and road sweeper. The officer claimed there was only one box, but Mr Spence told police he had supplied two, one of which was open. He further claimed the officer had asked him to lie on three occasions about the bullets. There was a further twist: PC Ross was Michael Ross's father. By this time, police were already eyeing the younger Ross with suspicion. Two weeks prior to the shooting he had been seen in a local area known as Papdale Woods wearing similar clothing to the killer and carrying out military-type exercises. Taken in for questioning, Ross ultimately accepted he was the person seen in Papdale Woods. The family home was searched and a notebook with a swastika and an SS symbol written on it was found, along with the words 'death to the English'. A balaclava was also discovered. Days before the killing, it would emerge, Ross was among a group of youths seen shouting racist abuse and threats at the 26-year-old waiter outside the restaurant. Yet Ross claimed to have an alibi for the night and said he was in another part of Kirkwall at the time. Ultimately, in the absence of forensic, DNA or fingerprint evidence – or a murder weapon, which was never found – prosecutors decided not to proceed. Instead, it was Eddy Ross who faced trial in 1997, and the disgraced policeman received a four-year jail sentence after being found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice in relation to the boxes of bullets. He spent two years behind bars, lost his police job and later reinvented himself as an undertaker. Meanwhile, his son was also building a new life for himself. As a teenager, he had been fascinated by guns and the military encouraged by his father, who had a large collection of hardware and even gave him a deactivated machine gun as a present. He once surprised a girlfriend by claiming he had one of his father's guns in his pocket. A year after Mr Mahmood's murder, Ross, a crack shot, joined the Black Watch and saw active military combat, becoming the sergeant of a sniper platoon. In 2004 his armoured vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Ross put himself in danger to administer first aid before organising the evacuation of his wounded men and was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery. When one black soldier under his command died, he openly wept. In his role as a soldier, he once guarded the Queen. He also married and had two children. Meanwhile, as the years passed and no alternative suspects emerged, Mr Mahmood's family despaired of ever seeing justice. It was not until 2006 that there was another break in the case, when an anonymous letter was handed in to Kirkwall police station, claiming to have been in the town's public toilets just before the shooting and had seen Ross there wielding a handgun. The man who handed it in was soon identified as a local named William Grant. It was enough to prompt a cold case review of the murder and a year later, Michael Ross was finally arrested. Far from the innocent victim claimed by his defence, prosecutors portrayed Ross as a racist teenager obsessed with guns who had murdered Mr Mahmood in cold blood and then fled the scene. There was to be a final twist. When Ross was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow in June 2008, he leapt from the dock and made an attempt at escape before he was jumped on by a court official. Some weeks later, an abandoned Avis hire car was found in the car park of a Tesco store in Springburn, around a mile from the court. Inside were a tent, sleeping bag, grenades, 450 rounds of ammunition, and a Skorpion machine pistol loaded and ready to fire. Although he later claimed the gun was so he could 'head for the hills' and live rough, surviving on fish and game he killed, another five years were added on to his sentence. Ross has since tried – and failed – to escape from prison three times, insisting he only does it to keep his name in the public eye. He has only succeeded in adding to his jail time – his earliest release date is currently 2035. Last month, The Orcadian newspaper published a letter Ross wrote from prison in which he admits using racist language in his teens. 'I can see why they say I'm racist,' he wrote. 'As an immature teenage boy I did say horrible and offensive, racist things... I am truly embarrassed.' Nevertheless, the campaign to clear his name continues and crowdfunding has paid for a high-profile human rights lawyer, Aamer Anwar, to fight his corner. Mr Anwar said he believes people on the island know more than they let on and urged anyone with information to come forward. 'It may be that one shred of evidence might be enough. You just never know,' he said. That cuts little ice with Brian McConnachie, KC, who prosecuted the case. 'There was a significantly persuasive body of evidence that pointed to it being Michael Ross,' he says, 'but in some ways one of the saddest features about this case is that [it] became all about Michael Ross and had very little to do with Shamsuddin Mahmood.' Other victims continue to suffer in silence, too. For Emma, long years of therapy and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder have helped her cope, but memories of that night still haunt her. 'I don't think you do move on from trauma, you just live around it,' she says. 'It's affected every decision I have ever made, I think, in my life in one way or another.'
The Sun
44 minutes ago
- The Sun
How five men stole £4.75m toilet from Blenheim Palace in just five minutes
AS bathroom breaks go, it was a quickie. Five men took just five minutes to steal a £4.75million solid gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, the Oxfordshire birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. The gang smashed their way into the stately home with sledge- hammers in the early hours. 9 9 9 Their goal was the 98kg 18-carat gold lavatory, an installation by conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan called America that was installed in the palace just a week earlier. The masked raiders ripped the working WC from the wall, causing water to cascade from cut pipes, then rolled it out of the palace and into a waiting VW Golf getaway car. But within ten days of the audacious raid on September 14, 2019, police were being told the name of the man believed to be responsible: James 'Jimmy' Sheen. Detective Superintendent Bruce Riddell said 'community intelligence' — code for being ratted out — provided Sheen's name. The head of specialist operations at Thames Valley Police added: 'He went to hospital the day after for an injury to his hand, which we think he got from going through the window. "And as the investigations unfolded, thousands of the evidence exhibits were linked to him. 'On his phones we found voice messages of him trying to sell the gold. "Then we found traces of gold in his pockets, and in a flatbed lorry there was a pair of gloves containing fragments of the gold and his DNA.' 'Evidence overwhelming' The career criminal — a member of the traveller community — will have another four years to think about where his heist has landed him, added to the 19 years he is already doing inside. Jailing him at Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Judge Ian Pringle blasted: 'This bold and brazen heist took no more than five-and-a-half minutes to complete. 'America' has never been seen again.' Sheen was out of jail on licence when he planned the Blenheim raid. He had received 14 years in 2010 when an innocent couple got caught in the spray from a shotgun during a shoot-out in Coventry with a rival traveller clan. Builder Sheen, 40, ran a burglary gang from his slick end-of-terrace home on an Oxford council estate. They broke into the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket in May 2020, making off with the Ascot Gold Vase and two Doncaster cups, and stole tractors and other farm equipment, making an estimated £2.6million within a year. Sheen also conned elderly customers out of hundreds of thousands of pounds for dodgy building work. 9 9 Yesterday Oxford Crown Court heard how Sheen's burglaries had grown more bold. His lawyer, Michael Neofytou, described the raid as 'crude', adding: 'It didn't have the hallmarks of a sophisticated heist.' The burglary leader pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle. The evidence against James Sheen was so overwhelming he had no choice but to plead guilty. Det Supt Riddell Co-defendant Michael Jones, 39, who had worked for Sheen's building company, was locked up for 27 months for helping plan the raid. The roofer — first convicted at the age of 13 — was found guilty in March of burglary. Yesterday, a judge said he wasn't satisfied Jones was one of the five masked men who actually took the golden loo. He had denied that a visit to see the sparkly toilet the day before it was stolen was a reconnaissance trip, and described the experience of using it for real as 'splendid'. Sheen and four others smashed through two locked gates in a pair of stolen cars. They then broke a side window and splintered two more doors before prising the 18-carat loo from the wall. Sheen's DNA was found on one of the hammers that was left behind. Red-faced palace bosses admitted that the exhibit — which had been installed at Blenheim days earlier — was not covered by CCTV. Chief executive Dominic Hare later told the BBC: 'We took possession of this precious item and managed to lose it within a day.' Cops found a mountain of dodgy messages on Sheen's phone. Two days after the raid, as he was laid up in hospital having an operation on an infected hand, Sheen texted gold dealer pal Fred Doe: 'I got something right up your path.' 9 9 The pair tried to flog the loot in London's Hatton Garden area. Det Supt Riddell said: 'The evidence against James Sheen was so overwhelming he had no choice but to plead guilty.' None of the gold has ever been recovered — but cops believe the toilet was broken up between the five thieves. Prosecutors say Sheen had tried to sell the gold to Bora Guccuk, a boyfriend of glam Instagram model Chloe Othen, but the deal collapsed. Hatton Garden jeweller Guccuk, 41, was cleared of money laundering in March. Doe, 36, was found guilty but spared jail last month for his part in trying to sell on the metal. Sheen's WhatsApps suggest he pawned his share in Birmingham, pocketing £520,000. Det Supt Bruce Riddell is now focusing on recouping Sheen's ill-gotten gains. He said: 'Trading Standards have already identified almost £200,000 worth of assets that they're in the process of recovering.' The seasoned cop is also trying to bring the three other members of the five-strong heist gang to justice. He appealed for anyone with information about the outstanding raiders to come forward, adding: 'Relationships and allegiances change over the years.' 9 9
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Music fan got on stage at concert to 'propose to girlfriend'...just hours later, he did something unspeakable
A scorned man is under arrest in Brazil following the murder of his former girlfriend, who refused to resume their relationship despite a public plea at a live concert. Adailton dos Santos attended musician Kelson Kizz's show as part of the Santo Antônio Festival in Santo Antônio, Paraibá on Wednesday and asked to make a marriage proposal to Vitória de Lima, 32, on the stage. Kelson Kizz obliged and stopped his show as dos Santos joined him in front of the band, video footage showed The singer appeared to be stunned when dos Santos changed his tune and whispered into his ear that what he really wanted to reconcile with de Lima. When Kelson Kizz how long they had been dating, dos Santos told him that they were separated for only a couple of days. 'Adailton mustered up the courage, it's today. He said she won't escape today,' Kelson Kizz said in the video. 'Santo Antônio, matchmaker, I hope you perform a miracle. Hello Vitória, where are you? I don't think she's coming.' They both waited around two minutes for de Lima, who failed to come to the stage, as a dejected dos Santos looked towards the crowd in shock. After the show, dos Santos returned to his home in town of Solânea, where de Lima also lived, and ambushed her when he saw her walking to her residence on Thursday at 4:36am, it is alleged. Authorities said Vitória de Lima (pictured) had broken up her relationship with Adailton dos Santos, her former boyfriend of two months, earlier during the week before she was ambushed by him and stabbed dead near her home Thursday Surveillance video showed De Lima attempted to run away from dos Santos before she fell with him to the ground and was stabbed, according to police. She was rushed to an area hospital, where she died from her injuries. A stunned Kelson Kizz took to his Instagram Story on Thursday in search of answers. 'This shocked me, I haven't slept since 7am, I haven't slept a wink, and somehow we end up feeling guilty, even though we know there was nothing we could have done,' he said. 'The guy went up, told the production team that it was a marriage proposal, and when he got to the front of the stage he said it was a reconciliation,' Kelson Kizz added. 'But he used the names of people from the victim's family, he knew the person's life in detail. We tried to smooth things over as best we could, but unfortunately he committed femicide.' Adailton dos Santos was seen on a surveillance video ambushing his former girlfriend, Vitôria de Lima, before he stabbed and killed her near her home in Santo Antônio, a city in the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraibá The Paraibá Military Police arrested dos Santos at the scene of the crime, which he returned to with a set of new clothes. He initially told officers that he was not involved and then confessed after the presented evidence linking him to de Lima's murder. Paraibá Military Police Diogenes Fernandes told Brazilian news outlet G1 that dos Santos and de Lima had dated for only two months before she called off the relationship earlier this week. 'In a cold manner, he goes to his residence, changes his shirt and returns to the scene of the crime in an attempt to simulate rescue for the victim,' Paraibá Military Police Diogenes Fernandes told Brazilian news outlet G1. 'He confessed to the crime, the murder weapon was seized and he was sent to the local public jail.'
