Latest news with #Abbie
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Alabama's Miss America met with President Trump in the Oval Office
According to the 'Miss America' Instagram page, Miss America, Abbie Stockard, visited President Trump in the Oval Office. She discussed the Promise Fund with Trump, which is a non-profit organization that fights for early detection for breast and cervical cancer. The fund's goal is to provide underserved women screenings, diagnosis, treatment and follow up care for the illnesses. Abbie was there with the CEO of the Promise Fund, Audrey Brown. During her visit, Abbie gave First Lady, Melania Trump a bracelet that symbolizes the fund's promise, which is screening saves lives. Abbie won Miss America in January of 2025, and she was Miss Alabama last year in 2024. She is from Birmingham, and she attends Auburn University, where she majors in nursing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
NI Women's boss has full faith teen shot-stoppers will come good: ‘If they are called upon, I know they are ready to go'
Instead, the manager has backed uncapped namesake teenagers Abbie and Kate Smith to rise to the challenge if she has to throw either in at the deep end. Jackie Burns' status as Northern Ireland's No.1 is in no doubt and backed up by the fact that she has played every minute of the 15 matches since she returned from injury against Malta in April 2024. Behind her, however, there is no experienced or obvious backup. Sixteen-year-old Abbie Smith played just once in the Women's Premiership for Crusaders Strikers before moving to Manchester City's Academy in 2025. Kate Smith, who was called into the squad to face Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina after Maddy Harvey-Clifford was ruled out, does have more club game-time behind her with both Larne Women and Lisburn Rangers and was part of the Northern Ireland Under-19 squad that played in the recent European qualifiers. 'From my point of view, both Abbie and Kate deserve to be here,' said Oxtoby. 'If they are called upon, I know they are ready to go. 'If it goes really well, I take all the credit, and if it goes really poorly, then I'll take the flak for that. 'It's no different to outfield players, they have to be given the opportunity. They came into the environment last time around as training players, they did really, really well and they deserve to be here.' Four goalkeepers were used in the 12 games that Burns missed during a year out with an Achilles tendon injury. Shannon Turner played six times but hasn't been in a squad since Burns returned, while Harvey-Clifford started four times and Lilie Woods and Rachael Norney shared a clean sheet when both made what is their only senior appearance so far in a friendly away to the Czech Republic in July 2023. Lauren Perry had returned to the squads at the start of 2024 but her chances of challenging for a starting place were wrecked by a third cruciate ligament injury, and Becky Flaherty, who kept two crucial clean sheets on the way to the Women's Euro 2022 Finals, hasn't been in a single squad since the tournament. The selection of the two Smiths may be with the future in mind, but the present also has to be taken into account with a Nations League Promotion Play-Off still to be played for in Bosnia. 'I know they are prepared really well if needed,' said Oxtoby ahead of Tuesday's encounter in Zenica. 'If the time comes and they go into the game, I've got no doubt that they'll do the job that is asked of them. 'If they make a mistake, that's on me, not on them.'
Sunday World
5 days ago
- Sunday World
Ex hurler and youth football star spared jail for messaging ‘12-year-old girl'
Judge McCourt was not happy that O'Connor had in effect been tried on Facebook. 'There was no child,' he observed Youth football star and ex hurler spared jail for messaging '12-year-old girl' 'You have already served your sentence and paid an enormous price.' That was the view of Judge James McCourt as he dealt with a Piercestown man snared by a 'paedo hunter' group. Phelim O'Connor was before Wexford Circuit Court pleading guilty to attempted sexual exploitation of a female he believed was just 12 years old. But there was no child and it turned out that he was corresponding with an adult woman called Catherine Miller who lives in Scotland. When she learned that O'Connor was due to attend a Premier League game in Liverpool, her colleagues in Endgame were waiting. They confronted him in a pub and called him outside where they live-streamed him on Facebook. The broadcast was highlighted in the Sunday World with severe consequences for the 43-year-old. A still from the video The court was told that the former St Martin's hurler and ex-underage soccer international had been a bubbly character. However, he went from outgoing and self-confident to becoming a hermit shunned by his community. His offending was marked with a two-year prison sentence which was suspended in full. The accused, with an address of Rathlannon Drive, Piercestown, admitted his offence. A summary of prosecution evidence was given by Detective Sergeant John Cleary. He told how the accused had begun a correspondence with 'Abbie' on the Scout dating app. Contact was later switched to Kik Messenger, a social media site favoured by paedophiles. He believed that Abbie was a 12-year-old girl when he sent her photographs of his penis. The gardaí found 400 such images on his phone after he handed it over for examination. Only some of these pictures were sent to the decoy in June and July of 2021. In November of that year he sent word that he would be in Liverpool and Endgame activists were waiting. Sergeant Cleary confirmed that they are not associated with UK police or regulated in any way. Questioned by defence barrister David Bulbulia, the witness also confirmed that the confrontation outside the pub in Liverpool had changed the defendant. Previously jovial and cheerful, he became a hermit who lost his job and had to step away from running sports teams. Phelim O'Connor O'Connor, whose father was present in court for the hearing, was described as having no children of his own. All his nieces and nephews are adult. Mr Bulbulia fully accepted that what his client had been doing was wrong and suggested that the accused may have been lonely. Counsel complained that Endgame went out of the way to maximise the shame and hurt experienced by O'Connor. 'Truthfully, there is no victim in this crime,' suggested the barrister. 'There was someone pretending to be a child.' News in 90 Seconds - May 29th Appearing for the prosecution, Sinead Gleeson reminded the court that the maximum sentence for such an offence is 14 years. However, Judge McCourt was not disposed to impose such a lengthy term for attempted sexual exploitation of a child. 'There was no child,' he observed. He was not happy that O'Connor had in effect been tried on Facebook by a group of vigilantes. Though he had behaved recklessly and sending intimate photos was reprehensible, he had been exposed to public opprobrium before his had been offered an opportunity to explain himself. 'You have already paid a significant penalty,' the judge concluded before handing down the suspended sentence. Phelim O'Connor was bound to the peace, put on the sex offenders register and an order was granted for the destruction of two confiscated phones.
Belfast Telegraph
6 days ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Teen sensation is on right track to be Northern Ireland's new number one, insists youth coach
She's talked the talk for a few years. She carries a confidence and self-belief that belies her tender age and she's produced performances to match. All that mixed together has led to Abbie Smith arriving in exactly the place where she'd aimed to be even before she reached her teens. The young goalkeeper is living a teenage dream after being named in the Northern Ireland senior international squad for the first time three months before her 17th birthday and so soon after earning a move from Crusaders Strikers to the Manchester City Academy earlier this year. None of Smith's achievements have come as a surprise to the coach who has overseen so much of her development, and Heather Mearns, who first saw her as a 12-year-old, has every faith in the youngster to step up if Tanya Oxtoby needs to call upon her in the Nations League battles against Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. 'From she was no age Abbie would have told you 'I'm going across to England to play and I'm going to be number one for Northern Ireland',' said Mearns, the head of coaching and Under-19s coach with Crusaders Strikers. Part one of that has been achieved and Smith is now a further step along the journey to making the second part come true too. It hasn't happened by chance. 'Abbie was always really confident. Always the loudest one on the pitch and, for a goalkeeper being so young, she really understood the game so she was able to organise girls,' said Mearns. 'We've actually talked a lot recently about there being a lot of girls who were really talented at that age who are still really talented, but the mindset is so different. 'Abbie has always been so, so driven. She has always done that bit more extra than a lot of the other girls. 'We're a really small country, a lot of the girls are talented and it's easy for them and they always get picked and they never really have to be that driven up to a certain point, but she's always had that that mindset. 'Everything she has done has backed that up.' Jackie Burns' status as Northern Ireland's long-established number one is reflected in the fact that she has started every game she's been available for since 2020. With no experienced back-up to speak of, and both Smith and her namesake Kate from Lisburn Rangers – who is also in the senior squad for the first time – being uncapped, Burns is sure to start in the crunch top of the group clash with Poland at Seaview on Friday. Who gets thrown in at the deep end in an emergency is maybe something we never find out, but sooner or later Burns will have competition for the gloves. 'I definitely think Abbie confident enough if she is needed,' said Mearns. 'I don't think she's the type of kid who's going to go on and panic with nerves. If that does happen she'll take everything in her stride and she'll do what she can. 'I think she's a future Northern Ireland number one and I think you'll find it hard to find anybody that disagrees.'
Leader Live
27-05-2025
- Leader Live
Liverpool crash victim ‘pleaded with driver to stop' before car smashed into him
Jack Trotter, 22, was enjoying celebrating his team's success when he found himself 'face to face' with the Ford Galaxy on Water Street in the city centre on Monday. The stricken Northern Irishman was helped by fellow fans and locals into a nearby pub until emergency services arrived to take him to hospital. Photos of the father-of-one being carried by two firemen while wearing a Liverpool scarf were on the front pages of several national papers on Tuesday. More than 50 people, including children, were treated in different hospitals (Owen Humphreys/PA) Mr Trotter, from Newtownards, County Down, escaped without serious injury and has been discharged from hospital, but fears he could be left with walking problems for weeks. He had made the trip to Liverpool with his girlfriend, Abbie Gallagher, 22, who screamed out in terror when she saw the car coming towards him. 'Abbie was a few feet ahead of me, and I was just taking videos singing with Liverpool fans I'd never even met before,' Mr Trotter told the PA news agency. 'Then I just heard her screaming my name, I put my phone down and by then I was face to face with the car. 'He had slowed down. And then I put my hands up and pleaded for him to stop, and he wasn't stopping. 'Then he clipped me.' Mr Trotter said the incident was 'very quick'. 'I did lock eyes with him,' he continued. 'People were hitting his car, shouting at him. 'Everything was very dark. Everything was very blurry. 'He had ran through me by the time I could get a good look at him. 'When the car had hit me, the adrenaline kicked in, and I didn't really, obviously feel anything. 'And then once I found my partner, the adrenaline wore off, and then I just collapsed on the wall and said 'Abbie, that's me, I'm gone'. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper during a visit to the scene (Peter Byrne/PA) Mr Trotter said bystanders helped him away from the scene before firemen took him to an ambulance. The moment was captured by nearby photographers. 'We were approached by a few Liverpool men, and then by a bouncer of a pub,' he said. 'She had brought us in, cleared everyone, even though the pub was still full, got a seat for me and and then she went and got the emergency services.' Asked about his injuries, he said: 'My legs aren't broken, which is good. It's just my left leg where it was hit is just a good bit tender. 'My back's got slipped disks. 'I just recovered from a back injury… It's just brought it back, but 10 times worse.' Mr Trotter and his girlfriend are due to fly home on Wednesday, but he said he was unsure how if he would be able to travel in his condition. 'We're going to have to get on with easyJet, to find a way for me to access the plane. 'I'm not going to be able to walk up steps anytime soon.' Describing his memories of the 'traumatic' incident, he said: 'It's going to impact me for a lot of reasons. 'I'm just thinking, was it actually even real? Was it, you know, a dream? 'We are still here. However, the worst could have happened.' More than 50 people, including children, were treated in different hospitals and 11 people remained there in a stable condition, police said in an update on Tuesday. The 53-year-old driver has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, dangerous driving and drug driving.
