Latest news with #Chigwell
Telegraph
17 hours ago
- Telegraph
Armed robber-turned novelist Linda Calvey: ‘I slapped Myra Hindley in jail'
Linda Calvey has led a succession of extraordinary lives. There was the 19-year-old Linda Welford, so naive she was reluctant to attend a party for the release of armed robber Mickey Calvey – who would eventually become her husband – because she thought every criminal was ugly, like in 'all the films'. Then came the freshly bereaved widow – Mickey shot dead by police mid-raid – who set out to avenge him by becoming a sawn-off-toting gangster herself. When she was finally caught, there was then the Calvey who suddenly acquired a conscience, realising the terror of her victims only while staring down the barrel of a gun. Now 77, she is a novelist and great-grandmother of eight in Chigwell, Essex, looking back on it all with as much amazement as the rest of us. 'I can't believe this woman that I was, that I did the things I did,' she tells me on a video call from a friend's sofa. It is all so astonishing that even a six-part podcast – the BBC's new series of Gangster – struggles to squeeze it in. The tale starts with 'love at first sight' in a bar in 1968, when Mickey was on day release. They married with an armed guard – while he was doing another stretch – and had two children, Neil and Melanie. Then, in 1978, he was part of a gang attempting to rob a security van collecting the takings from a supermarket in south London. He was the only one who failed to make it into the getaway car and was shot dead by the Flying Squad. To this day, Calvey is convinced he was killed unlawfully and is still working on getting hold of papers to prove it. But she was soon seduced by another member of the group, Ronnie Cook, a close friend of the Kray twins, who 'treated me like I was a princess'. He bought her a 'wardrobe of fur coats' and whisked her off to Vegas. He also presented her with a diamond and ordered that she place on her ring finger, despite the fact he would remain married to another woman. Calvey tells Livvy Haydock, presenter of the podcast – for which Calvey says she was open to any questions and was paid nothing – that he declared: 'That's the 'you belong to me' ring. You belong to me now.' Calvey was under no illusions. She recalls an associate telling her of finding a dead body in Cook's boot. He also went on to boast of killing more than a dozen people and said to Calvey he claimed responsibility for making her a widow – deliberately locking Mickey out of the getaway car. 'You killed your husband,' he stated. 'I fell in love with you when I saw you on the doorstep, and you sealed his fate.' Cook ended up with a 16-year sentence for attempted armed robbery. But while at Her Majesty's pleasure, he appointed another bandit to watch over Calvey. It did not go to plan. Instead, Calvey had an affair with her minder … and became an armed robber herself. This she attributes to going 'mad' in the wake of her husband's death. 'Prior to that, even though I was married to a robber, I wouldn't have walked in a shop and picked a sweet up. And that applies to me now. It's just totally alien. The day Mickey died, my brain clicked.' She became a woman on a mission. 'I just felt, 'I've got to take over from him'. He died trying to give my kids the best and give us a good life.' Calvey claims to have no idea how many hold-ups she took part in in the 1980s, or how much cash she made off with. 'Not really, no. It was sort of easy come, easy go.' When I press her, she estimates a dozen, potentially totalling £1m in today's money. She revelled in the gang's madcap gambits. If there was nowhere to loiter to case the joint, they erected a temporary bus stop. 'Sometimes we'd turn up and people would be queuing, going, 'Well, where's the bloody bus then?' It was a bit like Keystone Cops, but it worked.' The scales fell from her eyes as she lay on the pavement with a policeman's gun aimed at her. 'The day I was arrested, I thought, 'Oh my God, how horrific is this?' And I totally clicked back. I just can't explain what happened to my brain.' There is no real explanation, either, for why Calvey chose the life she did. Both her parents were straightforward grafters – father Charlie a blacksmith and mother Eileen selling wigs on a market stall (donning wild hairpieces during jobs became one of Calvey's trademarks). Of her eight siblings, only brother Anthony got caught in a life of crime, coincidentally convicted at the same time as her for conspiring to rob post offices. But Calvey says she took her seven-year sentence on the chin and was determined to return to the straight and narrow. Upon release in 1989, she started working on a legal business with her sister, making bespoke curtains with the skills she had learnt on a course at HMP Cookham Wood in Kent. Only 18 months later, her old life came back with a vengeance. Cook was on day release and standing in Calvey's kitchen when he was shot in the head. It was not for nothing that she earned the nickname the Black Widow, after the male-eating female spider. As one CID officer put it: 'Every bloke she's ever had dealings with is either dead or in prison.' A neighbour heard her shout, 'Kneel!' before Cook was found dead on his knees. Calvey insists she was yelling the name of her son, Neil. The prosecution argued she had recruited rapist Daniel Reece to enact the execution, but after he lost his nerve, she fired the fatal shot herself. Reece said the same. She was convicted alongside him. It is the one crime she still denies, claiming Reece did it alone. She admits she was only with Cook out of terror of leaving. 'I sort of just thought, 'Well, this is my lot, I suppose'.' And after his death: 'I was relieved, even though I had no part of it.' A court reporter tells the podcast that Calvey and Reece were in a relationship and were canoodling in the dock. She is unaware of this and refutes it entirely. 'It's ludicrous. That never happened,' she tells me. More ludicrous than marrying the man who murdered your lover and tried to pin it on you, I ask. Yes, Calvey and Reece went on to wed while both were in prison – with two other murderers as bridesmaids. Ex-detective Colin Sutton says: 'It's Stockholm syndrome on acid really, isn't it?' 'Anybody sitting out here would say so,' she concedes today, insisting it was initially only as a means to continue getting legal visits from Reece. Although she quickly had second thoughts, other inmates had become so excited at the prospect of a wedding, she decided to go ahead with it. The couple saw each other once afterwards, before getting divorced. Calvey was locked up for 18-and-a-half years, during which she rebuffed proposals of marriage from Charles Bronson and Reggie Kray and rubbed shoulders with Myra Hindley ('Really, really intelligent,' she tells the podcast) and Rose West ('Quite thick'). When she came across Hindley in the laundry at Cookham Wood, she tells me, she was disgusted that a child killer could be standing there singing along to the radio. 'And without realising it, I just walked up to her and went, slap! She said, 'I could get you shipped back to Holloway for that.' And I went, 'Holloway holds no fears for me.' But she never said anything.' Calvey was later ordered by the governor to dye Hindley's hair after the Moors Murderer selected her from a list, knowing she had done a hairdressing course. 'I feel very, very bitter,' she says of her long sentence, adding that she hopes an ageing detective might decide to finally 'tell the truth' about how evidence in her case was tampered with. She is now a widow for the second time (George Ceasar, whom she married in 2009 and who passed away in 2015, was her first non-criminal partner), and a 'bona fide author'. She is working on her seventh book, following the release of her autobiography, The Black Widow, in 2019, and subsequent crime novels including The Locksmith (2021), The Game (2022) and Faith (2024). She hopes her work will inspire readers to keep their noses clean. 'There is no glamour in crime. That is why I drummed into my children, 'Don't follow me and your father.' And both of them didn't. My son goes, 'Well, I'm a dustman. That's nothing special.' I said, 'But it's an honest job.'' As for herself, Calvey imagines a parallel life, if crime had not taken hold. 'This sounds crazy,' she says, 'but I think I would have liked to have gone into law. And I think I would have been quite good.' Gangster: The Story of the Black Widow is on BBC Sounds
Daily Mail
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Make Bobby Moore a Knight! High time to bend the rules and honour England's finest, the humble hero, loyal friend and immortal giant of our game, writes JEFF POWELL
Early one Saturday evening after a West Ham home win – back in the early 70s when famous footballers and sportswriters mingled socially – Bobby Moore and I were propping up one corner of the historic pub next door to the old ground. The Boleyn Tavern lays claims to the longest horse-shoe bar in Britain. An elderly gentleman wrapped in a large claret and blue scarf edged his way through the happy throng clutching his match programme. 'Would you please sign this for me, Mr Moore,' he requested. 'Of course,' said Bobby, while also buying him a pint to lubricate his celebrations. At which the old chap said: 'If you don't mind me saying so, you always carry yourself with so much dignity that people tend to think you're, well, a bit aloof. I'm going to make it my business to tell everyone I can that you're as modest as you are great.' Moore smiled and whispered confidentially in his ear: 'You know, if you're quite good at something you don't have to tell anyone.' Quite good at something? Not least at being described by his old friend and great German rival Franz Beckenbauer as superior to himself as the best defender of all time on one occasion when they were playing each other at chess in the garden of Moore's Chigwell home. And no, Bobby Moore never, ever suggested to anyone how exceptional he was. Not only as a footballer but as a human being. Nor, heaven forbid, did he ever give the slightest hint that it might be appropriate for him to be knighted, as the driving force of that unique Wembley triumph of '66. Not even as the only England captain ever to raise aloft so much as a rusty tea-pot. Not even given his impeccable ambassadorial conduct on England duty. Nor his selfless fund-raising on behalf of the charity seeking a cure for the bowel cancer which he knew was condemning him to a tragically premature passing. Now the knighting of one of his successors to the armband, David Beckham, has thrust back into the domain of public debate the historic failure to apply that touch of a sword to one of Bobby Moore's trusty shoulders. Ancient tradition insists that no such honour can be bestowed after death. A petition for unique exemption to be made for a national icon – the one whose imposing statue guards the portal to the new Wembley - is fast gathering momentum. Surely the time is long overdue for this wrong to be righted. In the jubilant aftermath of this country's solitary World Cup success only manager Sir Alf Ramsey was knighted. The players who defeated Beckenbauer's Germany in extra time would receive a menage of awards – some of them years later – and in Moore's case an OBE. The withholding of further knighthoods was generally blamed at the time on the snooty attitude of the blazered burgomasters at the Football Association, who looked down upon mere footballers as muddied oafs. Fortunately that archaic prejudice gave way to enlightenment in time for Bobby Charlton to be knighted before he died. For Geoff Hurst to carry that distinction into his old age. But too late for Bobby Moore who succumbed to his cancer a seemingly impossible 32 years ago, aged only 51. Still, never a week goes by without my remembering the most loyal and generous friend any man could wish for. Whenever he and I were going through difficult times in our lives and his chronic insomnia at its most sleep depriving, my phone would ring any time between three and five in the morning and that familiar voice would inform me: 'All is well. Just coming through.' After a half hour's drive he would arrive at my apartment, a six pack of lagers in hand. We would repair to the balcony, wrapped in blankets if it was winter, to talk all things football, life and the state of the world. As dawn broke it lit up the garden square and the church below. We could set our watches to 6.15am as the priest emerged from a side door to make his rounds. 'Good morning, vicar,' we would chorus, raising our cans to him. This was always the reply: 'Morning, Sir Bobby.' The Reverend assumed he must have been knighted. As did most of the population. As an early morning person 'Mooro' was, by universal acknowledgement of all who managed him or played with him, always first into training. In and out of season. When we were working on Bobby's biography he had to travel to South Africa. No matter how long and late we wined and dined in Durban's finest restaurants, he knocked on my hotel room door at six o'clock sharp every day to get me up for our morning run on the beach. As in most things, Bobby was better at holding his drink than almost everybody. When he was placed under house arrest in Colombia – on that preposterous trumped-up charge concerning the disappearing Bogota Bracelet – he would start his 6am run by jogging past the guards sleeping in the doorway of the diplomatic mansion to which he was supposed to be confined. Upon his return he would bring those policemen a carton of milk each for their breakfast. A kindness they told him they would miss when he was exonerated and sent flying on his way to rejoin his England team-mates at the Mexico '70 World Cup Finals. Without so much as a hint of jet-lag or anxiety fatigue in the opening match. With the knighthood factor now reignited, Bobby's reaction whenever the issue was raised comes to mind: 'There are many more deserving than myself.' He was thinking among others of military heroes who made the supreme sacrifice. Forgetting that medals all the way up to the Victoria Cross can be awarded after death. Comparisons are relevant in this particular case, this year. With Beckham and Gareth Southgate ennobled for simply coming close to England glory, is it really too much to ask that protocol be set aside just this once? For an immortal giant of our sporting world. The rock upon which the England of '66 were built. The legend voted Player of those World Cup Finals who went on to share with another defensive maestro of yore – Arsenal's Billy Wright – the record of 90 matches as England captain. Enough said. Except by Pele, the late GOAT no less, who made a point of exchanging shirts with Moore four years later after a 1-0 victory in Mexico by a Brazil team en route to succeeding England as world champions. Who hailed Moore as the greatest defender he ever played against. When it comes to charities, work for which counts heavily towards honours, Moore is still doing good beyond his early grave through the fund for Imperial Cancer research in his name, to which his widow Stephanie is constantly dedicated. At the latest count that effort has raised £31million despite Bobby's untimely demise. Beckham oft remembers that he too rose from London's East End to global prominence. I am in possession of a letter in which he exalted Moore as an idol. Might he use his association with the King and the football-loving Prince William to leverage a plea for a one-off posthumous knighthood exemption? Perhaps reminding Charles III that before collecting the Jules Rimet Trophy from his mother's gloved hands Mr Bobby Moore - ever the working man's gentleman but deprived of his proper accolade - took royally courteous care to wipe his stained hands on the rail of Wembley's royal box. The last time we met, on his final outing from home a few days before the phone call came, he managed a lunch so light it can barely have touched the sides. Washed down by a few sips of 'just one' lager he was not supposed to drink. Smiling as he did so. Then he pulled on a long red leather overcoat given to him years before by his long-ago mentor Malcolm Allison. It was February. We stood on the steps of the Royal Garden Hotel, below the balcony from which he had displayed that trophy to the jubilant thousands gathered in Kensington High Street that balmy evening of July 30, 1966. We both knew. As we grasped shoulders he said: 'All is well.' All will be better if only the Establishment will bend their regulations, just this once, to give an immortal Englishman the honour he should have received half a century ago.
Daily Mail
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Ronnie O'Sullivan 'reunites with ex-fiancée Laila Rouass 10 months after split as they ditch the UK for a shock new life abroad'
Ronnie O'Sullivan has reportedly reunited with his ex Laila Rouass, 10 months after the couple ended their decade-long relationship. In December, the Footballer's Wives star confirmed reports that the couple had decided to part ways for good. However, The Sun are now reporting that not only are Ronnie and Laila back together, they are hoping for a 'clean break' by ditching the UK for a new life in Dubai. Ronnie, 49, is reportedly selling his £2 million home in Chigwell, Essex, and will relocate to the UAE with Laila, 53. Sharing that Ronnie and Laila have been back together 'for a while,' a source told the publication: 'They have been back together for a while. 'The time apart gave them time to think about what they want and what is important to them — and that is being together. 'Ronnie is moving to the Middle East and Laila is going with him. They've talked about living in Dubai, which is just a two-hour flight from where Ronnie has his snooker academy in Saudi Arabia. 'They have had their issues in the past but Ronnie and Laila have worked through it and seem really happy again.' MailOnline has contacted representatives for Ronnie O'Sullivan and Laila Rouass for comment. In December, Laila first broke her silence on her split from Ronnie, telling the Mirror: 'I am going to keep that under wraps for now until there is something to speak about. Last year, the 53-year-old actress took to Instagram to speak out for the first time after her split from the snooker legend. 'Break ups can strip you down to your essence,' she wrote. 'I got through mine by using pain as fuel to take control because no matter what, we will lose parts of ourselves in relationships. It's normal, don't beat yourself up. 'One thing I'm conscious of not doing is trying to get back where I was. No, I'm discovering who I've become. I've gone through various emotions... hurt, pain, anger but what I've realised about anger is that it's bottomless.' Rouass' recent comments came a month after the couple put their £2 million Epping Forest home up for sale. Images show the luxury interior including Ronnie's favourite portrait of Raquel Welch on a crucifix which adorned the wall of a staircase. But despite the smart white carpeting and plush decor, O'Sullivan could never persuade his ex-love to agree to install a snooker table, friends revealed to Mail Online. One friend said: 'They had some very happy years there, Ronnie was successful in his snooker and Laila was in some great TV dramas like Footballers Wives and Life isn't all Ha Ha Hee Hee. 'They are selling the house together. It's all agreed and should work out financially without any problems. Ronnie has a new place and has got himself a snooker table there.' Suggestions that the couple's famously on-off relationship was back in trouble first emerged in September - but then days later Ronnie was seen putting the bins out in his Y-fronts and slippers at the house they share in Essex. The couple were also photographed together in the days that followed - but since then it's understood they have both accepted their relationship has run its course. Laila is continuing to live in the mansion and has installed a Christmas tree in the front window with glittering lights and daily takes her two dogs for walks in nearby woodland. Her relationship with Ronnie first blossomed in 2011 after the snooker champ called her up to view his house that was recently put on the market and was given a tour by his father Ronnie O'Sullivan Sr. They went on to have a relationship that lasted more than a decade and had planned to wed. In an old interview Laila previously explained how they had first got together: ''It happened by accident. 'I was shown around Ronnie's house by his father, who told his son about meeting me. Ronnie called the estate agent, a friend of mine, and asked me out via her. 'When he said he was a snooker player I said, 'yeah but what does he do for a living?' I'd never heard of him because sport doesn't interest me at all, although Ronnie's won me over to snooker.' They confirmed their whirlwind romance by getting engaged in the following year. Speaking of their long engagement, Laila, who has a seven-year-old daughter called Inez from a previous relationship, told The Mirror in 2019: 'I'd have to really gear myself up for a wedding. 'At the moment we've put it on the back burner and we're enjoying our time so there's no rush.' But the couple split up after a decade together with Laila making the announcement to shocked fans. 'After nearly ten years of love and memories, Ronnie & I have parted ways,' she wrote on Instagram in February 2022. 'Peace & love to you all. Laila X.' However, that separation did not last long and by April, Laila was spotted wearing her engagement ring once again. The following month, the pair confirmed their reconciliation, before jetting off on holiday. The actress said last year that open communication brought them back together after their split. Laila said: 'We found our way back, we just worked it out. Back when I announced it, we hadn't been together for almost eight months at that time. 'Talking is so underrated. If you can sit down and say how you feel and what you want when you get older that is much easier to say too.' However, this time there doesn't seem to be a way back for them. The actress, who featured in the 2009 series of Strictly Come Dancing, surprised her 68,000 Instagram followers last week by revealing her new optimistic outlook on life in what it's now clear was her first detailed post as a single woman. She posted: 'How are you all? I'm slowly dipping my toe back into Instagram. I took a much-needed break from socials to get my s*** together because these last few months have been testing to say the least.' Laila continued: 'The thing is, stepping back has been nothing short of magical and I think that's largely because I've found faith. 'I don't necessarily mean the religious kind, although that does make up part of my faith journey, I mean actually discovering what faith can do for me and how it's always been there, l've just not given it the acknowledgment it deserves. What's struck me is how faith is so much bigger than I am, so much more powerful and so much more effective. 'You can call it God, Allah, Buddha, nature, energy, frequency, it doesn't matter. What matters is the perspective and peace it gives you. 'l've realised how faith controls so much more than I ever could and that was an epiphany for me. It's had the most profound effect. 'I feel so much lighter and I feel as if my heart has really, truly and fully opened. 'I have been approaching things with an open heart and mind because I really do have faith that things will work themselves out. That life will be good and to enjoy what l have because as good as life is, it's also fickle. 'Truly understanding faith has given me so much freedom to make choices that are not always safe. She continued: 'It's liberating to just let go of the bullshit and anything or anyone that's a thief of joy.' 'I wanted to share this with you because I'm entering a new chapter of my life and it's terribly exciting. Exciting because I don't feel alone. 'I have my faith right next to me and it's taught me that life is infinitely more richer when it's lived in honesty and trust.
The Sun
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
MAFS star reveals secret health battle as she begs fans for help, admitting ‘I'm in agony'
Married At First Sight's Lacey Martin has opened up about a secret health battle, begging fans for help. Lacey, 28, told her Instagram followers she's "in agony" with scoliosis – a condition which causes the spine to curve – since her teenage years. 4 Taking to her Stories, she wrote: "I'm in agony with my back, I have scoliosis 2 curves. "Been on going since a teenager and wore a back brace. "Need some advice on the best back supports to help with my posture and work etc.. thank you. "Any advice I would appreciate it." Lacey recently sparked romance rumours with Terence Edwards as they rang in her birthday at a trendy bar. Terence, 40, and Lacey cuddled up close for plenty of photos and videos posted to their respective Instagram stories. The pair appeared on the E4 reality relationship series one year apart, but seems they have become fast friends since moving on from their TV spouses. They partied with Lacey's twin sister Paige and Love Island's Marcel Sommerville at celebrity hotspot, Sheesh, in Chigwell. The pair even took a video of themselves doing shots on the night out. Terrence also posted a video sitting next to Lacey and filmed her receiving her birthday cake as she cheered while everyone sang her Happy Birthday. The social worker turned DJ and host found fame in the 2023 series of MAFS, while Lacey appeared on the E4 show a year later. Terrence was paired with Porscha Pernnelle on MAFS UK, but their marriage did not last when he walked out of the show after hearing rumours she had kissed other grooms. Since then, he has been spotted hanging out with another MAFS UK star, Tasha Joy, 27. As for Lacey, she seemed to have a happier marriage on the series when she was put with Nathan Campbell, but they split after the show aired. Their breakup turned sour when Nathan accused Lacey of wanting to fake their romance in order to get more publicity and media opportunities. He made the revelations during February's reunion episode. Nathan told some of the other grooms: "She messaged me and said after a year you get magazine deals and things like that, showmance." He went on to say: "She sent me a text message saying the relationship she wanted would be a pretend one so she could get more opportunity from it and make more money but I didn't want to do it." What is scoliosis? Scoliosis is a sideways curvature of the spine, which can cause uneven shoulders. Treatment is not always necessary for the condition but some people who develop scoliosis can be required to wear a back brace to stop the curve worsening as they get older. In cases where surgery is required, patients may undergo a spinal fusion operation; a procedure that can last for several hours. Lacey's family defended her on social media and she opened up about experiencing dark episodes since the breakup. "We all have our battles, but overall, I am a positive girl. And I didn't get out my pyjamas for four days. I was crying, and it was just me, my mum and my twin sister Paige in the house," she told Bobby Norris on his Access All Areas podcast. "And I was like, Mum, there's no way out. And for me, I feel like Nathan should have put a statement out." She continued: "I suffer with depression. I'm pretty open about that, but I've never had dark thoughts like that where I'm drowning. "I just want it to be all over. I just want to be asleep. And, it was a hard place. And there was no one to run to, and even if you put out a statement, people weren't really reading it." 4 4
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Luxborough Lake soil dumping poses a risk to swimmers, man says
Plans to dump huge amounts of soil into a popular lake have sparked outcry, with swimmers fearing it could pose a contamination management company Hersus wanted to offload the dirt in Luxborough Lake in Chigwell, firm said changing the water depth from 35m (115ft) to 6m (20ft) would make the beauty spot more Hill Parish Council objected to the application, stating there was "no credible evidence" of water sports benefitting from the lake's depth being reduced. A total of 850,000 cubic metres of soil would be tipped into the 25-acre (10ha) lake, under plans submitted to Epping Forest District have been raised about where the dirt would come from and its impact on the Martin Powers said: "It's not just about our fears of losing our beautiful swimming place. What are they going to dump in here?" His fears were echoed by resident John Bothwell, who accused Hersus of having no intention to enhance the lake."This is the last decent lane to walk down in Chigwell," he said."People come down here with their dogs, walking, runners, cyclists and horse riders, and if it gets its way that'll be all totally disrupted."Buckhurst Hill Parish Council said: "While the applicant claims to have the noble goal of an environmentally and disability-friendly recreational facility open to the public, they have not established why 850,000 cubic meters is necessary to achieve that vision."The lake was created by workers who dug out a gravel pit during construction of the M11, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said its plan required ongoing tests to verify all material entering the water was clean and naturally occurring."Retaining open-water swimming, as well as other water sports, is at the core of the proposal," it stressed."By shallowing the lake, it will be possible to provide opportunities for open-water swimming to those of all levels."Hersus's application also sought to change the use of the site to an outdoor sport and recreation centre."This will help secure the future of the lake as a destination for sport and recreation," it added. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
