British man charged after attempting to drown daughter-in-law during Florida vacation: police
Mark Raymond Gibbon, 62, who is from Beaconsfield, England, was charged with attempted second-degree murder and two counts of battery, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
Gibbon was arguing with his 33-year-old daughter-in-law in a swimming pool at a vacation home when he allegedly tried to drown her.
The incident took place Sunday afternoon at a home inside the Solterra Resort in Davenport, Florida. Deputies arrived at the location after neighbors reported a "disturbance in a backyard swimming pool," the sheriff's office said.
The woman told detectives that Gibbon pushed and held her head underwater multiple times during the argument and her 9-year-old daughter jumped into the pool to try and stop the attempted drowning.
Gibbon did stop attempting to drown the woman, but allegedly only after two sisters vacationing in a home next door said they had called the sheriff's office.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said tourists are welcome in the county, but they are expected to be on their best behavior.
"It's great that Polk County draws visitors from all across the world, but we expect vacationers to behave while they visit with us, just as we expect our lifelong residents to do the same," Judd said.
The sheriff also said Gibbon's lack of control may lead to "a lot more time in Florida than he had anticipated."
Gibbon is in the South County Jail in Polk County with no bond.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
7 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Jeffrey Epstein's ex, Ghislaine Maxwell, doesn't want grand jury transcripts released
NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein 's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, wants to keep grand jury records secret in the sex trafficking case that sent her to prison, her lawyers said Tuesday as prosecutors continued urging a court to release some of those records in the criminal case-turned-political fireball. Maxwell hasn't seen the material herself, her attorneys said — the grand jury process is conducted behind closed doors. But she opposes unsealing what her lawyers described as potentially 'hearsay-laden' transcripts of grand jury testimony, which was given in secret and without her lawyers there to challenge it. 'Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable and her due process rights remain,' attorneys David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal wrote. Prosecutors declined to comment. Government attorneys have been trying to quell a clamor for transparency by seeking the transcripts' release — though the government also says the public already knows much of what's in the documents. Most of the information 'was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,' prosecutors wrote in court papers Monday. They noted that the disclosures excluded some victims' and witnesses' names. Prosecutors had also said last week that some of what the grand jurors heard eventually came out at Maxwell's 2021 trial and in various victims' lawsuits. There were only two grand jury witnesses, both of them law enforcement officials, prosecutors said. Prosecutors made clear Monday that they're seeking to unseal only the transcripts of grand jury witnesses' testimony, not the exhibits that accompanied it. But they are also working to parse how much of the exhibits also became public record over the years. While prosecutors have sought to temper expectations about any new revelations from the grand jury proceedings, they aren't proposing to release a cache of other information the government collected while looking into Epstein. The transcript faceoff comes six years after authorities said Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and four years after Maxwell was convicted of grooming underage girls to participate in sex acts with him. The British socialite denied the allegations and has appealed her conviction, so far unsuccessfully. Some of President Donald Trump 's allies spent years suggesting there was more to the Epstein saga than met the eye and calling for more disclosures. A few got powerful positions in Trump's Justice Department — and then faced backlash after it abruptly announced that nothing more would be released and that a long-rumored Epstein 'client list' doesn't exist. After trying unsuccessfully to change the subject and denigrating his own supporters for not moving on, the Republican president told Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the case. A top Justice Department official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, interviewed Maxwell late last month, at the government's request. Last week, she was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas to continue serving her 20-year sentence. Officials didn't explain why. Trump said Tuesday that he didn't know ahead of time about Maxwell's prison transfer and hadn't spoken to Blanche about his conversation with her. 'I think he probably wants to make sure that people should not be involved, or aren't involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people,' Trump said in a news conference Tuesday. The Epstein uproar also has reached Congress, where the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department on Tuesday for files in the case. The committee also issued subpoenas to conduct sworn questioning of former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials. Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was among a number of Epstein's famous former friends; so was Trump, a Republican. Both men have said they knew nothing of Epstein's crimes until he was charged, and Epstein's accusers have not alleged any wrongdoing by Trump or Clinton.
8 hours ago
World War II bomb prompts evacuation in German city
LONDON -- Thousands of people were evacuated from the center of the east German city of Dresden on Wednesday, as authorities there prepared to detonate a World War II bomb discovered near one of the bridges spanning the Elbe River. The 550-pound British-made bomb was discovered during clearance work at the Carola Bridge, the Polizei Sachsen -- the law enforcement department covering the Saxony region in eastern Germany -- said in a statement issued on Tuesday. "It is equipped with a detonator and must be defused on site," the statement said. "An evacuation area with a radius of approximately 1,000 meters around the bomb site is planned." The evacuation area was planned to be cleared of all people by 9 a.m. local time -- 3 a.m. ET -- on Wednesday, police said. "The emergency services are now starting to control the restricted area," the police wrote in a post to X early on Wednesday. "As soon as there are no more people in the area, the defusing operations will begin." Air-dropped World War II-era munitions are regularly discovered in major cities across Germany, a legacy of the bombing campaigns waged against the country by allied forces during the conflict. In June, some 20,000 people were evacuated from the west German city of Cologne after the discovery of three unexploded World War II bombs there. The evacuation in Cologne was the largest recorded since the end of the conflict.
New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
Ghislaine Maxwell told DOJ Trump never did anything concerning around her: report
Jeffrey Epstein's madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, reportedly told Justice Department officials in recent interviews that she never saw President Trump doing anything concerning. The notorious sex trafficker gave no information that could potentially harm Trump's reputation, sources told ABC News. Maxwell had huddled with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — who is also Trump's former criminal defense lawyer — for nine hours late last month. Advertisement 3 President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania with Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell at the Mar-a-Lago club, Palm Beach, Florida, on Feb. 12, 2000. Getty Images Her lawyer previously revealed that Maxwell had answered questions 'about 100 different people' as she tries to hash out a deal with the feds to spill secrets about her late pedophile ex. Trump, for his part, has long denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes — insisting he cut off their relationship long ago. Advertisement 'The deputy attorney general is seeking the truth,' her lawyer, David Oscar Markus, said immediately after the sitdown. 'He asked every possible question, and he was doing an amazing job.' 3 Ghislaine Maxwell is seen returning to prison after meeting with the DOJ. WCTV 3 Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks to the media with President Trump in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2025. REUTERS Markus said he didn't ask for anything for Maxwell in return — but acknowledged Trump could pardon her. Advertisement 'Listen, the president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way,' Markus said at the time. Soon after the DOJ meetings, Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls — was moved to a cushy Texas prison known as a 'Club Fed.' DOJ officials, though, haven't yet explained why the disgraced British socialite was transferred to a lockup typically reserved for convicts spending far less time behind bars.
