Banned Scotland forward Gallagher to miss France game
Evie Gallagher has been banned for one game following her red card in the Women's Six Nations opener against Wales and will miss Scotland's game against France.The forward was dismissed was shown a red card on review for an illegal clear-out on Wales' replacement hooker Kelsey Jones early in the second half of last weekend's 24-21 win at Hive Stadium and will sit out the round-two game in La Rochelle on Saturday.The Scotland number eight appeared before an independent disciplinary committee on Tuesday and her red card was upheld.The Bristol Bears player was initially shown a yellow card but it was then upgraded to a 20-minute red by television match official Ian Tempest in the bunker.The committee determined the incident was within the low-range entry point of two matches but because she accepted she committed an act of foul play as well as other mitigating factors it has been reduced by 50 per cent.Wales also had their number eight sent off, Georgia Evans being dismissed for two yellow cards.Bryan Easson's Scotland will face a France side who also won their opening game, a 27-15 victory against Ireland.
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The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Bay City Rollers star reveals ‘harrowing' sex abuse by band's ‘bully, predator' manager who ‘plied stars with drugs'
STUART 'Woody' Wood told how he hid the trauma of his abuse by paedo manager Tam Paton for 50 years, saying: 'I chose not to let it shape my life.' The Bay City Rollers icon, 68, said he was determined not to let the sicko 'win' as he opened up for the first time about how he too was a victim of the beast. 4 4 4 4 Burly Paton bossed the band during the height of their 70s fame, when they had No1 hits including Saturday Night, Bye Bye Baby and Shang-A-Lang. He was later fired by the group before being jailed for three years in 1982 for gross indecency with teenage boys. In his autobiography Mania, released on Thursday, former pop-pin up Stuart brands the late fiend a 'true monster' and explains why he kept his own suffering a secret for five decades. Stuart wrote: 'I met Tam when I was 16 years old. He was intimidating and a bully, and all the disgusting things said about him are accurate. 'He was a predator. He abused me as he did others. 'It was a horrific and harrowing time. The drugs he plied us with were part of that control. I met Tam when I was 16 years old. He was intimidating and a bully, and all the disgusting things said about him are accurate 'My take is that to have a healthy mind, you have to let some things go, as much as it might pain you to do so. 'So, when Tam's squalid little life came to an end in 2009, I stopped thinking about him. 'He was a terrible human being, but the way I see it, he doesn't get to define me. 'Tam f******g Paton doesn't get to win.' Original lead singer of The Bay City Rollers returns 50 years after fall out In 2003, Paton was accused of attempting to rape Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn in a hotel room in 1977. Police investigated but concluded there was insufficient evidence to take it to court. Depraved Paton claimed he was being targeted because he was gay. After the flabby perv's death from a heart attack in 2019 singer Les McKeown claimed the former manager had also raped him while on tour in America after drugging him. Les — who died at 65 in 2021 — said: 'I was given Quaaludes, a drug for lowering your inhibitions and making you horny. 'Afterwards I felt really used and abused. I never told anybody about it, not even the other guys in the band, because I was ashamed.' Original Rollers singer Nobby Clarke has also claimed the boys were encouraged by Paton to sleep with radio DJ Chris Denning, who jailed for child sex abuse in 2016. Meanwhile, founder Alan Longmuir revealed in 2018 how Paton had 'friends in low places' and warned 'his depravity ran deeper than we know.' However, Stuart maintains he did not talk about Paton's abuse with either Les or Alan, even when they reformed the Rollers together 10 years ago. Speaking from his home in Edinburgh, the songwriter, guitarist and producer said: 'We never discussed it - any of us - it just happened. 'We were all survivors, but with Les it felt like it hit him harder. 'It's not like I locked all those experiences away, stuffed down the bad memories, pretending they didn't happen. BAND'S TROUBLED PAST 1974: Stuart 'Woody' Wood joins group to form classic line-up with Alan and Derek Longmuir, Eric Faulkner and Les McKeown. 1975: Bye, Bye, Baby reaches No1. 1978: Les quits soon after being booted off stage by Woody during a gig in Tokyo. 1979: Manager Tam Paton is fired before Rollers split. 1982: Paton is jailed for three years for sexually abusing ten boys over three years. 2003: Cops decide there is not enough evidence to prosecute Paton over accusations he tried to rape former Rollers guitarist Pat McGlynn. 2004: The sicko is fined £200,000 for drug dealing after cannabis stash find at home. 2007: Ex-band members sue Arista Records over claims they are owed millions of pounds in unpaid royalties. 2009: Paton dies after a heart attack on the same night £1.5million in drugs and cash are stolen from his Edinburgh pad. 2016: Les McKeown says he was raped by Paton. 2016: Woody sensationally quits the group after a bust-up at T in the Park. 2018: Alan Longmuir passes away aged 70. 2021: Les dies of heart attack at 65. 2023: TV documentary details how Paton controlled and abused band. 2025: Woody releases tell-all autobiography Mania. 'I just choose to not let them shape my life.' Stuart is now the last member of the 'classic' Rollers line-up still performing, with a new single Rollers Forever released next month. A musical of the same name opens at Glasgow's Pavilion Theatre in August. However, the star describes his relationship with Paton as 'complicated' as he even invited his abuser to his wedding to artist Denise in 1997. He added: 'There's an old expression, 'Keep your enemies close'. "I think that was the case with Tam. There was another side of Tam that was funny. 'He could be a lovable rogue.'
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Mother jailed for aborting baby at 39 weeks would now go unpunished
Within a week of her due date, Sarah Catt aborted her baby. She claimed that her son was stillborn and that she had buried his body, but no evidence of the baby was ever found. Catt is among a small number of women in England and Wales to face prosecution after terminating their pregnancies. However, under new regulations set to be brought in, she – and others like her – would never have been arrested. On Tuesday night, MPs voted with a majority of 242 to decriminalise those seeking an abortion at any stage of gestation and for any reason. Abortion in England and Wales is currently a criminal offence. However, it is legal if carried out up to 24 weeks and with an authorised provider, with very limited circumstances permitting one after this period. Women may also take prescribed medication at home if they are fewer than 10 weeks pregnant. The vote has divided public opinion, with many welcoming the 'hard-won victory' for women, and others believing that it goes too far, arguing that ' late-term abortions kill babies '. In September 2012, Catt, then 35, was convicted of aborting her baby when she was 39 weeks pregnant. During her trial at Leeds Crown Court, and following an analysis of her computer, jurors heard that she had bought a drug from a company in Mumbai to induce labour, and that she delivered her baby at home by herself. The judge was told that Catt had been having an affair with a work colleague for seven years, and that her husband was unaware of the pregnancy and was not consulted about her decision to have an abortion. She already had two children with her husband and had previously had a scan while 30 weeks pregnant at a hospital in Leeds, confirming the pregnancy. However, suspicions were raised when she failed to register the birth weeks later. After giving birth to her son, Catt said he was not moving or breathing, and that she buried his body but never revealed the location. She pleaded guilty to administering a poison with intent to procure a miscarriage. Sentencing her, after a trial in which she was described as having 'shown no remorse or given an explanation for what she did', Mr Justice Cooke said that she made a 'deliberate and calculated decision' to end her pregnancy, and that the gravity of her crime lay between murder and manslaughter. However, in June 2013, Catt had her eight-year prison sentence reduced to three-and-a-half years. Lady Justice Rafferty, heading a panel of three judges in the Court of Appeal, described the original sentence as 'manifestly excessive', while Catt sobbed in the dock. Catt is among half a dozen women to have faced prosecution for having an abortion, and who, following the MPs' recent vote, would not now be criminalised. Sophie Harvey is also among them. She was just 19 when she gave birth in her bathroom. Her stillborn baby was found wrapped in a towel and placed in a household rubbish bin. Six years later, in December last year, Harvey and her partner Elliot Benham both pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court to conspiracy to obtain a poison with the intent to procure a miscarriage and endeavouring to conceal the birth of a child. Harvey was sentenced to an 18-month community order, while Benham was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work. The court heard that they did not want the baby, but when Harvey discovered she was pregnant the foetus was found to be 28 weeks old – four weeks over the legal limit – and that they had paid for drugs to cause the abortion. According to recent Freedom of Information data released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), between 2019 and 2023, 21 defendants (16 men and five women, aged between 24 and 59 years old) were charged with administering or procuring drugs or using instruments to induce an abortion, or child destruction. Of them, ten defendants were convicted and five were convicted on other substantive offences. Further high-profile cases have continued to divide public opinion. Nicola Packer was still bleeding and in pain when she was handcuffed. She was recovering from surgery for a stillbirth when police arrived at hospital later that day and accused her of illegally aborting her baby. Ms Packer took abortion medication, which was prescribed over the phone during the Covid-19 lockdown in November 2020, when she was aged 41. She delivered at home, and brought the foetus to a London hospital in a backpack the following day. Jurors heard that she took the medications when she was around 26 weeks pregnant, though the legal limit is 10 weeks, and that she knew this. However, Ms Packer denied this and spoke of her 'shock' at being pregnant, before breaking down, saying: 'If I had known I was that far along I wouldn't have done it. I wouldn't have put the baby or myself through it.' In May 2025, she sobbed as she was acquitted of 'unlawfully administering to herself a poison or other noxious thing' with the 'intent to procure a miscarriage'. She had spent almost five years facing the threat of prison. Ms Packer has since spoken out about how, instead of being sent home to recuperate following her surgery, while in custody and in pain, she was not given anti-clotting medication on time, having been told it was 'not a priority'. Furthermore, in June 2023, Carla Foster was sentenced to 28 months in prison for terminating a pregnancy between 32 and 34 weeks. The then 44-year-old mother-of-three claimed she felt too ' embarrassed ' to see a doctor after becoming pregnant in 2019, and that she did not know how far along she was. She also received abortion medication over the phone during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a court heard that she lied to a nurse practitioner from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), convincing them that she was seven weeks pregnant. Shortly after, she made a 999 call telling operators that she was in labour and had suffered a miscarriage. She was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty. She later pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion, which was accepted by the prosecution. The Court of Appeal later reduced her sentence to 14 months suspended. Sitting at the London court in July 2023, Dame Victoria Sharp described her case as 'very sad', adding that 'it is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment'. In 2024, the CPS dropped its case against Bethany Cox, then 22, from Teesside, who was accused of causing her own miscarriage after purchasing drugs in 2020, as the first Covid-19 lockdown ended. At the time, Nicholas Lumley KC, her barrister, said that she had been interviewed by police in the 'throes of grief', and had been investigated for three years. It is not known how or when the baby died, and the prosecution dropped the case due to 'evidential difficulties'. As a result of MPs' vote this week, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, which outlaws abortion, will be amended so that it will no longer apply to women ending their own pregnancies. That means that Ms Packer, Ms Foster, Ms Catt, Ms Cox, Ms Harvey, and others like them in similar circumstances would no longer be prosecuted. The vote was tabled by the Labour MPs Stella Creasy and Tonia Antoniazzi, who criticised the current 'Victorian' laws being used against vulnerable women, and said that the decriminalisation would ensure women do not face arrest, investigation, prosecution or imprisonment regarding any pregnancies. Following the vote, Heidi Stewart, chief executive of BPAS, hailed the vote as 'a landmark moment for women's rights in this country and the most significant change to our abortion law since the 1967 Abortion Act was passed'. In contrast, Kathleen Stock, a former philosophy professor at the University of Sussex, who was forced to quit her job in 2021 following a high-profile row with the institution over her gender-critical views, was among those criticising the vote. 'Late-term abortions kill babies,' she said. 'Viable babies.' Catherine Robinson, spokesman for Right To Life UK, also raised concerns about the implications of the vote. She said: 'Removing the legal deterrent against women having abortions outside of a clinical setting beyond 24 weeks will only make it more likely that women in vulnerable circumstances will take similar action in future, putting themselves at risk. The current legal deterrent protects women from coercion at the hands of abusive partners and from taking actions they may later regret.' The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children said that the vote marked 'a dark day', and described the result as 'heartbreaking', 'horrifying', 'extreme' and 'barbaric'. According to the latest available data held by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there were 251,377 abortions for women in England and Wales in 2022. This marked the highest number since the Abortion Act was introduced in 1967, and an increase of 17 per cent over the previous year. The vast majority of them were medically induced and funded by the NHS. According to recent polling by Ipsos ahead of the vote, 71 per cent of Britons think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 47 per cent believe that the current 24-week time limit for most abortions in England and Wales is 'about right'. When asked about illegal abortions, just over half (55 per cent) think that the person who performed the abortion should face a penalty. However, considerably fewer believe that the woman who had the abortion (32 per cent) or someone else who arranged the abortion (37 per cent) should face a penalty.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Footballer denies deliberately getting booked in ‘betting scam'
A former Livingston FC footballer has appeared in court accused of a betting scam by deliberately getting himself booked in a Scottish Premiership match against Celtic. Keaghan Jacobs, 35, is alleged to have attempted to cheat at gambling by picking up the yellow card on purpose during a game against the Hoops at the Tony Macaroni stadium in October 2019. Court papers state that the player is said to have 'acted in a manner whereby he would receive a yellow card for the purpose of enabling or assisting others to cheat at gambling'. Jacobs, above, will go on trial with his co-accused, Conan McDiarmid, in October ALAMY Jacobs, who now plays for the Lowland League club Gala Fairydean Rovers, entered a not guilty plea when he appeared at Edinburgh sheriff court on Wednesday. Sheriff John Cook set down a date for trial in October and issued a bail condition that Jacobs, from Edinburgh, cannot approach or contact his co-accused, Conan McDiarmid. McDiarmid, 40, is facing a charge of allegedly placing bets, and arranging for others to place bets, on Jacobs receiving the caution from the referee Willie Collum. He is alleged to have placed bets 'in the knowledge that it had been arranged that Jacobs would act in a manner whereby he would receive a yellow card during the match'. McDiarmid, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, pleaded not guilty in May and will stand trial alongside Jacobs at the capital court in October. Both men are being prosecuted under the Gambling Act 2005, Section 42, 1A. The match resulted in Livingston beating Celtic 2-0 on October 6, 2019. The Celtic midfielder Ryan Christie was shown a straight red card in the 25th minute before second-half goals from Scott Robinson and Lyndon Dykes clinched the points for the Lions. Jacobs played the full 90 minutes and was shown a yellow for an illegal challenge on the winger Jonny Hayes in the 95th minute. Jacobs is a South African national who had two spells with Livingston between 2007 and 2015 and again between 2017 and 2022. The midfielder played 252 times for the West Lothian club, scoring 23 goals, and has also played for Falkirk, Arbroath and the South African side Bidvest Wits. Jacobs is believed to have made football history when he played alongside his three triplet brothers — Kyle, Devon and Sheldon — in a Scottish Third Division match between Livingston and Albion Rovers in April 2010. The 2-0 win in front of just over 600 supporters is said to be the only time four brothers have turned out for the same professional senior team in the same match. McDiarmid played as a defender with a number of amateur clubs including Edinburgh United and Whitehill Welfare before he retired in 2020 and moved into management.
