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Time of India
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Fort Belvedere explained: Inside the Windsor Great Park home linked to Prince William and Kate Middleton
Credit: David Goddard / Getty Images Rumors say the Prince and Princess of Wales could move again. This time the chatter points to Fort Belvedere. It sits inside Windsor Great Park, not far from their current base at Adelaide Cottage. There is no official confirmation yet. Reports stress that the talk is unconfirmed. So what is Fort Belvedere? It began life in the 1750s as a hilltop lookout/folly designed by Henry Flitcroft at the southern edge of the park. In the 1820s it was rebuilt as a country house by Sir Jeffry Wyatville (who also oversaw the redesign of Windsor Castle under George IV). The mix explains why the place looks like a small fortress on the outside and a family home within. The site has long views across the estate - hence the name Belvedere, 'beautiful view.' The grounds run to about 59 acres, with gardens, water features, a pool and a tennis court. Queen Victoria used to ride out for tea here. Later the house opened to visitors for a time in the 19th century. It returned to private use in the 20th century. The best-known resident was Edward VIII. He moved in while Prince of Wales, and he kept it after he became king. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like NRIs Living In Ukraine Are Eligible For INR 2 Lakh Monthly Pension. Invest 18K/Month Get Offer Undo The house became the stage for a defining royal moment. On 10 December 1936, he signed his abdication papers at Fort Belvedere. The decision cleared the way for his brother to become George VI and changed the line of succession. Edward also treated the place like a true home. He added a swimming pool and other upgrades in the 1930s. Contemporary reports admired the gardens and the layout. They read like a tour of a private retreat rather than a state site. After the abdication the fort fell quiet. It later passed to new tenants on long leases from the Crown Estate. In the early 1980s the lease went to the Weston family, who still hold it today. The freehold remains with the Crown Estate, so the property is private and not open to visitors. Why would the Wales family want it now? Space and privacy are the obvious draws. The plot is large. There are outbuildings that could house security and staff. The location keeps the family close to schools in the area and to Windsor Castle. It also sits inside a controlled park, which helps with movement and protection. Any move would also require an arrangement with the current leaseholders. There is also the emotional layer. The house carries heavy royal history. Some will see that as a reason to stay away. Others will see it as a link to the past that can be given a new chapter. Either way, it would be a move into a building that has already shaped the story of the monarchy. What happens next is simple. The talk may fade, or a move may take shape. Until there is a formal statement, treat it as a possibility, not a plan. Fort Belvedere will remain a curiosity for many - a rare mix of folly, family house, and royal landmark, tucked behind the trees of Windsor Great Park.
CTV News
12-06-2025
- CTV News
Jury reaches verdict in 2022 fatal stabbing of Good Samaritan in Bradford
A jury has found Brandon Aaron guilty of second-degree murder and assault following a violent incident in Bradford three years ago that left a 59-year-old man, who police called a Good Samaritan, dead. The jury took about two hours to reach its verdict Thursday, convicting Aaron of stabbing David Goddard 20 times and assaulting his then-girlfriend in the early morning hours of Sept. 4, 2022. According to the Crown, the attack happened on Holland Street West around 3 a.m., after Aaron and the young woman, then a teenager, had been out drinking in downtown Bradford. The court heard she became upset with Aaron for losing her cellphone, and the situation quickly escalated. Brandon Aaron Brandon Aaron, 23, denied repeated suggestions by the Crown he was the aggressor when violence broke out between Aaron and David Goddard, 59, whom police described as a hero who stepped in to help Aaron's former girlfriend after she'd been assaulted by Aaron along Holland Street West September 4, 2022. The Crown said Aaron held a knife to her throat and later broke her arm with a flashlight she had borrowed from a nearby gas station to search for her phone. It was then that Goddard, a bystander, stepped in to help the woman. The Crown told the court Aaron became enraged, pulled out a steak knife, and fatally stabbed Goddard over and over before leaving him on the side of the road. David Goddard Cameron David Goddard, 59, is identified as the victim of a homicide on Sept. 4, 2022, in Bradford, Ont. (Supplied) The defence argued Aaron acted in self-defence and was frightened by Goddard, who was both older and larger. 'He was fearful for his life,' said defence lawyer Eugene Bhattacharya. He described Goddard's behaviour as provocative and said Aaron's ability to understand what was happening that night was impaired by intoxication. During the trial, the young woman offered a different account from what she had originally told police just hours after the stabbing. On the witness stand she claimed she broke her own arm that night and said Goddard had simply offered to take her home. The defence urged the jury to find Aaron not guilty of murder if they were left with any reasonable double about whether he acted out of fear. Ultimately, the jury wasn't swayed by the defence. Aaron is scheduled to return to court next week when a date is expected to be set for his sentencing hearing. Brandon Aaron Court Exhibits Brandon Aaron photographed by the South Simcoe Police Service on Sept. 4, 2022. (Source: Court Exhibit) Related Articles
CTV News
06-06-2025
- CTV News
‘My purpose was to survive': Bradford man accused of murder tells jury
Brandon Aaron, 23, denied repeated suggestions by the Crown he was the aggressor when violence broke out between Aaron and David Goddard, 59, whom police described as a hero who stepped in to help Aaron's former girlfriend after she'd been assaulted by Aaron along Holland Street West September 4, 2022. The Bradford, Ont. man accused of murder in the stabbing of a Good Samaritan three years ago completed his testimony saying he did not attack the man prior to killing him. Brandon Aaron, 23, denied repeated suggestions by the Crown he was the aggressor when violence broke out between Aaron and David Goddard, 59, whom police described as a hero who stepped in to help Aaron's former girlfriend after she'd been assaulted by Aaron along Holland Street West September 4, 2022. Aaron was on the witness stand Thursday and Friday, where he disagreed with Crown Attorney Elizabeth Stokes who suggested Aaron became enraged when Good Samaritan David Goddard intervened, and Aaron stabbed Goddard 20 times along the side of the road. David Goddard Cameron David Goddard, 59, is identified as the victim of a homicide on Sept. 4, 2022, in Bradford, Ont. (Supplied) The court heard Goddard bled profusely and died on scene. 'In order to inflict that damage, you stabbed him as hard as you could,' said Stokes. 'I stabbed him as hard as I needed to' replied Aaron 'My purpose was to survive.' The Crown suggested Aaron, already with a knife in hand, got angry when Goddard told him to leave the young woman alone and walk the other way after the young woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban as she was 17 at the time, asked Goddard to walk her home. Aaron testified he was attacked by Goddard, who pushed, punched and choked him after he was knocked on his back on the grass. 'You didn't stab him because you were being choked,' the Crown suggested to Aaron, 'You stabbed him because he got between you and your girlfriend,' she said. Brandon Aaron, Brandon Aaron, 23, is accused of murder in the death of a man police described as a Good Samaritan who intervened when investigators said Aaron was assaulting the young woman in the early morning hours of September 4, 2022. (Court Exhibit) 'He upset you by trying to take her away from you and when he stepped up to you, you went to stab him,' she told Aaron. 'I did not attack him' Aaron responded. The accused said he could not remember the sequence of events or how many times he stabbed Goddard after telling the court he was on his back, reached for his knife from his side bag and stabbed the stranger to break free. The Crown called Aaron's version of events 'impossible' and told Aaron he was aware of how seriously he had wounded the man. 'You do remember exactly where you stabbed him and you're claiming not to remember because it's very bad for you,' said Stokes. Aaron testified seeing Goddard standing upright despite being stabbed several times before he left the scene and walked home through a field to avoid being seen. 'Because you knew that you had stabbed that person over and over,' the Crown told Aaron. 'And that person was probably dead.' Aaron denied becoming increasingly angry with his girlfriend or Goddard when he stepped in. Aaron testified he simply wanted to ensure she got home safely that night. Brandon Aaron Brandon Aaron, 23, denied repeated suggestions by the Crown he was the aggressor when violence broke out between Aaron and David Goddard, 59, whom police described as a hero who stepped in to help Aaron's former girlfriend after she'd been assaulted by Aaron along Holland Street West September 4, 2022. 'I don't know how she got hurt,' he told the court. He remembered she had hurt her wrist or arm but was not clear on what the injury was or how it happened. Instead, Aaron told the jury he was the one assaulted by his girlfriend with a flashlight she had borrowed from a nearby gas station to help her find her missing cell phone she believed Aaron lost earlier that night. Both Aaron and his former girlfriend said they were intoxicated after a night out drinking and partying. Hours after the incident police interviewed the young woman. She told investigators Aaron dragged her by her hair and struck her repeatedly with the flashlight, breaking her forearm. She changed her story during trial when she testified she broke her forearm picking herself up off the ground during an argument with Aaron. She had previously told police Aaron held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her. Aaron admitted to changing his clothes when he got home. He then conceded he sent several text messages on Instagram to the young woman reciting a version of events that included Aaron telling her he was going to tell police 'It was self defense.' 'I'm going to be gone for a very long time,' one message read. 'I don't care that you told on me.' Aaron was convicted of violating his court-imposed non-communication order with his former girlfriend. He admitted to calling and emailing her for months. The young woman's mother described the relationship between her daughter and Aaron as 'toxic' and 'abusive.' The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Thursday following instructions from Justice Jill Cameron.
CTV News
05-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
Bradford man accused of stabbing Good Samaritan 20 times takes witness stand
The Bradford, Ont. man accused of second-degree murder of a Good Samaritan and the assault of his teenage girlfriend took the witness stand in his defence. The Bradford, Ont. man accused of second-degree murder of a Good Samaritan and the assault of his teenage girlfriend took the witness stand Thursday in his defence. Brandon Aaron, 23, told the court he 'feared for his life' and stabbed David Goddard, 59, in the early morning hours of September 4, 2022, along Holland Street West in Bradford, when the stranger came up to him and punched and choked him. During examination-in-chief by his lawyer Eugene Bhattacharya, Aaron told the court he was afraid when the older and heavier man approached him in an aggressive manner. Aaron said Goddard began choking him, and when he could feel his eyes closing, he stabbed the man. 'I thought I was going to die. I felt like I had to,' he testified. Aaron told the court he was initially punched and knocked to the ground by Goddard, who straddled him, which resulted in his gold chains leaving marks on his neck before they were ripped apart. Brandon Aaron Court Exhibits Brandon Aaron photographed by the South Simcoe Police Service on Sept. 4, 2022. (Source: Court Exhibit) 'I just got scared,' said Aaron. 'I knew I had my knife. I stabbed him,' Aaron explained to the court. Aaron described swinging his knife as hard as he could to break free from the man he said attacked him. He said as Goddard's grip on his throat loosened he slipped out from under the stranger, before stabbing Goddard again in the back. He could not remember how many times he stabbed Goddard. 'I was in shock,' Aaron said. Aaron, who testified he could not see whether Goddard was bleeding because it was dark out, described seeing blood on his hands before heading home. He told his mother 'something happened' and he'd been attacked. The court has heard Goddard, whom police described as a Good Samaritan, came to the aid of Aaron's then 17-year-old girlfriend that night when she told police he must have heard her screams. She was later taken to hospital for a broken forearm after seeking help at a nearby apartment building. 'I was screaming because of the pain that I was in, that's when the guy heard me and came over,' she told a South Simcoe Police detective about nine hours after the stabbing. Goddard, she told police, offered help after an enraged Aaron beat her with a flashlight she'd borrowed from a nearby gas station to find her missing cell phone that she believed Aaron dropped that night. She told police Aaron pushed and struck her repeatedly and threatened to kill her when he pulled a knife from his side bag. 'He took the flashlight from me and started hitting me with it and then he held a knife to my throat, and he was like 'If killed you right now and left you nobody would find you,'' she said in the final of three police interviews that day. Aaron testified he never hit his girlfriend that night and did not hold a knife to her throat. On the witness stand, Aaron's former girlfriend, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, changed her story dramatically. She testified she didn't tell police the truth when she spoke with detectives and felt 'ambushed.' The defence conceded Aaron sent the young woman a series of Instagram messages between three and five hours after the stabbing, telling her what happened. The Crown suggested Aaron was telling his beaten girlfriend what to tell police. About 10 days later, the young woman returned to police to retract her previous statements to investigators. 'I'm going to be gone for a very long time,' read one of the messages from Aaron. 'im telling them it was self defense. that u were drunk and kept falling so i was kinda carrying you bc you couldn't walk.' 'Can u please just save me ur all I got,' he asked. The messages were discovered by the young woman's mother after her daughter borrowed her phone later that day. Aaron testified his 'mind was not right' when he was sending the messages and disagreed with the Crown's suggestion that he was trying to tell his girlfriend what to tell police happened the night Goddard died. The trial continues Friday with closing arguments expected to begin Wednesday of next week.
CTV News
26-05-2025
- CTV News
Ex-girlfriend reluctantly testifies in ‘Good Samaritan' murder trial
A now 20-year-old woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban because she was a minor at the time of the incident, took the stand Monday as a reluctant Crown witness in the ongoing murder trial of her former boyfriend. Brandon Aaron, 23, is accused of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of David Goddard, a man police described as a Good Samaritan who intervened when he saw Aaron allegedly assaulting the young woman on Holland Street West in Bradford around 4 a.m. September 4, 2022. Brandon Aaron, Brandon Aaron, 23, is accused of murder in the death of a man police described as a Good Samaritan who intervened when investigators said Aaron was assaulting the young woman in the early morning hours of September 4, 2022. (Court Exhibit) The witness described where she had been with Aaron that night, including a restaurant and the LCBO where Aaron was seen on surveillance video picking up a bottle of alcohol. The woman told the court she and Aaron were drunk when she realized her cell phone was missing, setting off a chain of events that resulted in violence and a man's death. She testified being upset and mad with Aaron, accusing him of losing her phone that night. The young woman testified she made her way to a nearby gas station to borrow a flashlight to continue her search for the phone. The young woman said she became increasingly frustrated with Aaron, whom she said was slurring his words and stumbling around asking her repeatedly to abandon the search for her phone. She said she defiantly sat in the road prompting Aaron to move her. The woman testifies she hit Aaron with the swinging flashlight. Brandon Aaron Brandon Aaron is photographed at the South Simcoe police station on Sept. 4, 2022. (Court Exhibit) The witness said she could not remember how or why she was not holding the flashlight after that or how it ended up on the ground. The court heard the flashlight was found in several pieces near where Goodard died. Eventually the witness said she gave up on the search for her missing phone and while trying to lift herself up - injured her arm. It is at that point the woman said she saw a stranger out of the corner of her eye. She remembered being visibly upset and crying however she testified she was not sure why the man approached her and crossed the street that night. She testified asking the man to call her mother's phone. The man, she said, stopped dialing the number and instead started carrying her toward her mother's nearby home. Seconds later she said Aaron and the man got into a fight after the man angrily said something to her boyfriend. She recalled seeing the man on top of Aaron. She told the court she went to a nearby apartment building for help. Brandon Aaron Brandon Aaron is photographed at the South Simcoe police station on Sept. 4, 2022. (Court Exhibit) 'I was crying. I was upset; I was in pain. I was cold,' she testified. 'I was not thinking of anything other than getting help for my arm.' She told the court she was taken to hospital and then to the police station in Bradford by her mother later that morning. The witness said she could not recall how she got scrapes on her hip. She said she was distressed, intoxicated and in such excruciating pain she could not remember key details of the evening and initially lied to police when giving her statement. She said she did not have the time to properly process what had happened that night. The court heard last week an Instagram account belonging to Aaron appeared to send messages to the young woman hours after the stabbing. Messages appeared to explain what happened that night. The witness' mother testified she discovered the messages on her phone and sent them to police. The young woman admitted she continued speaking with Aaron for months following his arrest and sent him mail that included photos. The six-week trial, now midway through the proceedings, is scheduled to resume Tuesday. Related Articles:
