Desperate hunt for Brit, 24, who vanished in Costa Brava as his abandoned van found after driving from UK to Spain
The 24-year-old from Manchester had left the UK in a van, which has been found abandoned and empty at a viewpoint overlooking the Mediterranean near the popular resort of Tossa de Mar.
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Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Coleen Rooney revives Wagatha Christie investigator skills as a detective in hilarious Paddy Power ad... with Man City's 115 charges, Jake Humphrey's A-Levels and shrinking crisp packets in her sights
Coleen Rooney has turned her famous sleuthing skills to football's biggest off-pitch controversy, starring in a new Paddy Power sketch that sees her investigating Manchester City's Financial Fair Play (FFP) case. The 39-year-old wife of footballer Wayne Rooney, whose own high-profile detective work earned her the nickname ' Wagatha Christie ', has teamed up with the Irish bookmaker to announce its record-breaking 'Justice Refund'. In the video, Rooney heads up a satirical 'Investigation Department', tackling a variety of mock cases with her trademark no-nonsense approach. Set in a fictional office, she examines tongue-in-cheek complaints including whether 'nothing beats a Jet2 holiday' and the 'latest refereeing conspiracy theories' by Arsenal fans, before uncovering a suspicious phone call from a 'Mr Howard Wobb' praising VAR. But the sketch's big moment comes when she turns her attention to football's long-running FFP saga, presenting her own 'verdict' with a knowing look to the camera: if the game's authorities won't sort it out, Paddy Power will. The Paddy Power 'Justice Refund' is a payback scheme giving money back to all punters who backed a team that finished second to Manchester City in the Premier League since 2011. Spanning 14 years, the initiative covers eight seasons, meaning Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool fans who placed title bets in those years will have their stakes returned. More than 100,000 punters are set to benefit - including those who backed United in 2011/12, 2017/18 and 2020/21, Liverpool in 2013/14, 2018/19 and 2021/22, and Arsenal in 2022/23 and 2023/24... despite an official verdict on City's alleged 115 financial charges still pending. The sketch plays on a real-life saga that has been gripping football for more than a year. In February 2023, the Premier League charged Manchester City with more than 100 alleged breaches of its financial regulations following a four-year investigation. The charges related to a period stretching from the 2009-2010 season to the 2017-2018 campaign and centred on claims that the club failed to provide accurate financial information, including full details of sponsorship revenue, commercial deals and operating costs. Manchester City were also accused of not fully disclosing the remuneration paid to then-manager Roberto Mancini between 2009 and 2013. Further allegations involved breaches of UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules from 2013-2014 to 2017-2018, as well as alleged failures to comply with the Premier League's own profitability and sustainability requirements. The league also claimed the club did not cooperate with its investigation from December 2018 onwards. However, City strenuously denied any wrongdoing, insisting they had 'irrefutable evidence' to support their position. Meanwhile, Rooney's turn as a football investigator is a playful nod to the saga that made her a household name beyond football circles. In October 2019, she shocked social media when she revealed she had conducted her own sting operation to find out who was leaking stories from her private Instagram account to The Sun. Rooney explained she had blocked all followers except one, Rebekah Vardy's account, from seeing certain fabricated posts. When those fictional stories appeared in the press, she shared her findings in a now-famous online statement ending with the words: '…it's Rebekah Vardy's account.' In 2019, she shocked social media when she revealed she had conducted her own sting operation to find out who was leaking stories from her private Instagram account to The Sun Vardy denied leaking the stories and sued Rooney for libel, leading to one of the most high-profile celebrity court cases in recent memory. The trial took place at the High Court in May 2022, attracting wall-to-wall media coverage and cementing the 'Wagatha Christie' nickname in the public imagination. In July 2022, the High Court ruled in Rooney's favour, finding her accusation was 'substantially true' and concluding that Vardy was likely to have known of, condoned or actively engaged in the leaking of private information to the press via her agent. As a result, Vardy was forced to pay an estimated £1.5million towards Rooney's legal costs as well as her own - bringing the combined total to an estimated £3m. Therefore, Rooney's new sketch with Paddy Power draws on that very reputation for meticulous detective work, placing her at the centre of another high-profile football mystery.
BBC News
18 hours ago
- BBC News
Cheshire East councillor cleared of strangling partner during row
A councillor has been cleared of strangling his partner after a row at their home while watching television but he has been convicted of attempting to pervert the course of Farrall, who represents Macclesfield Central ward on Cheshire East Council, denied both an eight-day trial at Chester Crown Court, jurors acquitted Farrall of intentionally strangling his partner on 14 November 2024 but found the 43-year-old guilty of the other of Ellenbrook Road in Manchester, will be sentenced during the week commencing 29 September. The court heard that an argument had broken out between Farrall and his partner - who had both been drinking beer and wine - while they watched Married At First row continued upstairs as their baby son slept in the adjoining then heard different accounts of what happened next. 'She lunged at me' Farrall's partner alleged he attacked he denied this and said she had attacked told the court: "She lunged at me... threw a glass at me... and punched me in the face."Farrall said the "horrific" difficult birth of their son had taken a toll on his partner's mental wellbeing. The court heard that the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice related to what happened in the weeks following the argument. Farrall's bail conditions meant he was not allowed to contact his jurors heard Farrall gave her a phone on which they could also met several times, including at Poynton Pool in Cheshire and near her mother's house in north Wales, where they discussed whether she would withdraw her told the court she had wanted Farrall to plead guilty and "admit to what he had done".Farrall refused and told the court he had "always maintained he was not guilty". Read more stories from Cheshire on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
BBC News
21 hours ago
- BBC News
Jamie Rothwell: Gang boss who fled to Spain 'tired of crime'
A British organised crime boss who organised shootings and traded assault rifles from his flat in Spain is "tired of living a life of crime", a court has heard. Jamie Rothwell, who was found by police "hiding out" at an apartment in Barcelona, pleaded guilty at Manchester Crown Court to a string of drugs and firearms barrister, Chris Henley, KC, said the 38-year-old had vowed to turn his life around after living in "isolation, loneliness and fear".Rothwell, from Salford in Greater Manchester, is due to be sentenced on Thursday along with nine other men. He was arrested after being identified as the man behind the "livelong" handle on the supposedly uncrackable EncroChat phone police hacked into EncroChat's servers between 30 March 2020 and 24 May gave detectives real-time access to messages between thousands of organised criminals, who were oblivious to the fact they had been intercepted messages were shared with British police Manchester Police said the messages exposed Rothwell's "command over a sprawling criminal enterprise and his involvement in the trafficking of high-powered weapons, including AK-47 rifles". Prosecutor Jaime Hamilton, KC, outlined some of the messages which gave "an insight into the violence that is the hallmark and by-product of his business".In one of them, Rothwell said: "When you have fire in your heart you don't stop... you get addicted, you lose everyone, you turn cold, no emotions."In another, Rothwell bragged of how he was "sending constant" consignments of Class A and B drugs and guns, before adding: "I sent 300 straps [firearms] home, I got RPG, M16, AKs, Glock Machines."Mr Hamilton said Rothwell also discussed how he had fallen out with other was said to have included them trying to kill him and how this meant he had a "six-month war" with one, during which he went on the court heard how in April 2020, Cheshire man Liam Byrne was told by police that his life was under 22 April 2020, Rothwell and another man discussed Rothwell's wish to find out the address of both Mr Byrne and his father, Liam Byrne Sr. Rothwell was sent these details along with photographs of the men and images of their addresses from a satellite mapping application. In one message, Rothwell stated: "I'm gonna do all them soon", before discussing the use of a specific van as a getaway vehicle. Two days later, that van was caught on CCTV parking up near one of the houses in Barnes, the stepfather of Mr Byrne, was shot in the leg on the doorstep of his home by a gunman posing as a pizza delivery the infiltration of EncroChat, Rothwell was tracked down to an apartment in Barcelona in 2020 before being extradited back to the had fled to the Catalan city after police in the UK had handed him a "threat to life" notice. Rothwell pleaded guilty to conspiracies to possess firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life, conspiracies to supply cocaine and ketamine, and two counts of conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm with intent. In mitigation, Mr Henley said Rothwell had spent five years thinking about his life since his arrest and now felt feelings of "remorse and regret", including for "breaking the hearts" of his family. 'Older and wiser' The defence barrister added: "He is tired of the life he has lived."He has expressed that all he has really achieved is isolation, loneliness, fear and a life away from his family."Mr Henley said he wanted to put "aside the bravado, the hype, and glamorisation around serious offences, and communicate some hard truths to people about what life really looks like".He added that Rothwell would "like to share with others - perhaps younger people who perhaps stand on the edge of some sort of offending precipice".Mr Henley asked the judge to "acknowledge the steps [Rothwell] had already taken" when passing sentence."He is now a much older and wiser man than he was when he was 33 when these offences took place," he court also heard how Rothwell had been characterised as "quite talented as a young adolescent with a degree of intelligenc".However Mr Henley said Rothwell's family had been unable to prevent him from being seduced by the "superficial" criminal lifestyle. "Once that momentum is set and one is immersed in that kind of environment, it is very hard to divert from that sort of path," he said. "It led to serious danger and him being on the receiving end of very serious violence and threats in the past."The court heard how Rothwell spent most of his time inside his apartment in Barcelona after fleeing the who was flanked by four security guards in the dock, will appear via video link on Thursday for sentencing. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
