Latest news with #SamanthaDavis
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Washington DC protests erupt after Trump seizes control of police and deploys troops
Protesters took to the streets after Donald Trump said he was deploying national guard troops to Washington DC and temporarily taking over the city's police department. The US president claimed it was necessary because 'our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals'. In January, the metropolitan police department and US attorney's office released a report indicating total violent crime in DC in 2024 was down 35% from the previous year, marking the lowest rate in more than 30 years. 'This is not about crime, this is about control,' says Samantha Davis, an organizer at Free DC. 'This is not about public safety, this is about power'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Police emergency call centre boss lied Ronan Keating was his cousin before sending fake messages 'from' the star to a married female colleague
A police 999 emergency call centre boss who claimed singer Ronan Keating was his cousin sent fake messages from the star to a married female colleague. Wayne O'Sullivan, 46, a supervisor at Met Command and Control in London, also smashed an 'elaborate' Easter egg he bought her into the office bin when she rejected the gift. He also gave her the pet name 'Brunchie' in WhatsApp messages and gave her a note in the emergency call centre addressed to 'Miss FussyKnickers', Croydon Magistrates' Court was told. O'Sullivan, a married man from Stansted in Essex, was convicted of harassing Samantha Davis between June 4 and June 7 last year and will be sentenced on October 23. She told the trial she has worked at the Metropolitan Police 's Lambeth centre in south London for 17 years and O'Sullivan was her supervisor. They were platonic friends, but O'Sullivan began giving her unwanted gifts such as expensive Jimmy Choo perfume, called 'I Want Choo.' He also bought her hair care products and Italian liqueur Disaronno. Mrs Davis told the court from behind a screen: 'He was up and down, like Jekyll and Hyde, and was putting a lot of his worries on me. 'He would get angry if I did not reply to his messages straight away and it got too much. I felt like I was being watched.' On March 27 last year she received a 'goodie bag' from O'Sullivan, including a signed picture of rock group Queen, an autographed photo of Boyzone singer Ronan Keating and chocolate and hair care products. Mrs Davis told the court: 'He said Ronan Keating was his cousin, but said to keep it quiet.' She described how her husband Les was 'not happy and did not think it was normal behaviour', adding: 'It was all unwanted attention and constant text messages and I found the Jimmy Choo perfume quite creepy. 'He was intimidating me and liked to play the victim and make me look wrong all the time and that I was not grateful.' During the complainant's period of sick leave, O'Sullivan also deposited £2,000 and then two payments of £1,000 into her bank account, which she returned. Mrs Davis told the court: 'He said, "I want to help you". He did not realise the dread I was feeling.' On March 30 last year O'Sullivan placed an Easter egg on her desk in full view of work colleagues, attaching a note, which read: 'This is your Easter egg. I've had it for four weeks. Fell free to put it in the bin or give it away.' She said: 'It was quite a big, elaborate Easter egg. I was embarrassed and mortified.' She returned it to his desk, adding a note that read: 'I can't believe you left this on my desk with this note for everyone to see. 'I've told you how much trouble your gifts give me. No more presents. Stop.' She went on to describe to the court how he then 'stormed across the room and launched the egg into the empty bin with such force the partition shook and the noise caused me and my colleagues to jump'. Mrs Davis added: 'It was quite scary and he had a red, angry face.' She blocked O'Sullivan on WhatsApp, but not before telling him he was 'narcissist' and 'controlling'. She said: 'I sent him that message, telling him what I thought of him. 'It was awful, unbearable to be at the office. He would face in the direction I sat and watch me with this red, angry face all the time. 'It was horrible. I did not feel safe going to work. I was afraid to go down to the car park to my car in case he was there.' While busy despatching police to emergency calls, Mrs Davis felt O'Sullivan's presence near her desk as he gave her a birthday note addressing her as 'Miss FussyKnickers'. She said: 'What was a few minutes felt like a lifetime as he stood in front of me while I was working.' The defendant followed up with more unwanted phone texts including a message saying: 'It hurts so much. Why don't you care about me anymore? 'It's a living hell, you must have noticed the weight I lost and I feel like jumping in front of a bus.' A bogus message purportedly from Ronan Keating asked the victim to have sympathy for O'Sullivan, saying: 'He sits on his own in his car at the scene of his daughter's death.' Things took a more sinister turn when O'Sullivan posed as the female partner of a former control centre employee, accusing the victim of an affair with her one time colleague. One message read, 'Stop contacting my Luke, you b****,' while another said: 'Block him and stop contacting him or I will destroy your marriage.' O'Sullivan included the correct phone number of Mrs Davis' husband in some of the messages. The victim was ordered to comply or face consequences, with a threat of: 'This way everyone keeps their partners and it won't get messy.' Mrs Davis said: 'I thought it was Wayne straight away. In his phone text messages he puts a full stop after a question mark and that is incorrect grammar. 'In the Ronan Keating ones the same grammatical error is there with the question mark.' Police also exposed that even though O'Sullivan switched SIM cards, the harassing messages came from his phone. He claimed a woman called 'Chloe', with whom he had a brief affair, sent the messages when she borrowed his phone to play an installed game. O'Sullivan told the trial he was under tremendous mental strain at the time as he was suspended and subject to a nine-month disciplinary investigation over his handling of a missing person report that ended in tragedy. He said: 'I dismissed the missing person report and later the person was found dead in their flat. I had a breakdown of sorts and lost 3st in weight. 'I was suspended, distraught. I needed medical help, but was too embarrassed to ask for help.' During his suspension O'Sullivan was still expected to complete his hours in the office, where he spent most of his time on his iPad. Regarding Mrs Davis, he said: 'We became very close friends emotionally. She has cried down the phone to me twice and told me of her troubles and I told her mine.' Discussing the birthday note, he insisted: 'I was trying to make things up and apologise and say I really cared for her as a friend. 'Because I was suspended I was left to sit in a chair for twelve hours with nothing to do.' He admitted sending the Ronan Keating texts, adding: 'That was me crying for help again.' O'Sullivan insisted Chloe, with whom he had lost contact, was responsible for the more sinister messages, saying: 'That is her trying to copy my style of writing. 'I did not send those messages, I don't understand that style. I do not message in that style as I am dyslexic and I don't understand it.' When Mrs Davis reported O'Sullivan, he was arrested at 4am and spent fifteen hours in a police cell. Prosecutor Paul Douglas put to him: 'You decided you were going to do everything you could to ruin her marriage didn't you? By the beginning of March you had already began planning how to ruin her marriage. 'You decided to take revenge on her didn't you? You wanted to cause her really serious distress in the office with the messages you sent.' O'Sullivan continued denying the charge, claiming: 'I didn't do those ones. It wasn't me.' District Judge Polly Gledhill rejected his evidence and bailed O'Sullivan for a pre-sentence report.
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Warwick Davis's wife Samantha died hours before hospital discharge, inquest finds
The actor and campaigner Samantha Davis, the wife of Harry Potter star Warwick Davis, died after suffering a cardiac arrest hours before a hospital was planning to discharge her, an inquest has found. Davis, who co-founded Little People UK – the dwarfism charity known as 'an essential resource for little people and their families' – died aged 53 at London's University College hospital on 24 March last year. Prof Fiona Wilcox, of Inner West London coroner's court, concluded during Davis's inquest on Monday that she had died of arrhythmic cardiac arrest after complications of essential surgical treatment. Davis was admitted to hospital on 7 February last year following a sudden loss of mobility in her lower limbs after a disc prolapse. On 20 February, and then again on 14 March, she had a thoracotomy operation – a surgical procedure where the chest wall is opened. Upon the second surgery, her condition improved and the University College hospital at Westmoreland Street was planning to discharge her, the inquest heard. However, Davis went into cardiac arrest at 11.25pm on 23 March and was pronounced dead in the early hours of the morning on 24 March, following a failed resuscitation attempt. Wilcox said: 'I am satisfied that the medical cause of death should be arrhythmic cardiac arrest and complications following left thoracotomies. 'In my view, the stress of everything together has precipitated this arrhythmic cardiac arrest in a lady who was not known to have any previous arrhythmia problems.' According to Wilcox, Davis had achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder that results in dwarfism, which was 'complicated by very severe spinal problems' requiring multiple surgeries from 2016. The coroner said: 'In my view, if this compression hadn't occurred, Ms Davis simply wouldn't have been so unwell. She wouldn't have needed two lots of major surgeries.' She commended the 'excellent care' provided by the hospital, noting that it was 'frankly heartbreaking' that the surgery itself was successful only for complications to arise and to cause her death. Upon her death last year, Samantha Davis was described by her husband as 'the greatest love of his life'. Speaking about his wife, he said: 'She was a unique character, always seeing the sunny side of life. She had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed at my bad jokes. 'Without Sammy, there would have been no Tenable quizshow, no Willow series. No Idiot Abroad series 3.' Warwick Davis said Samantha was his 'most trusted confidante and an ardent supporter of everything I did in my career' and that having her by his side felt 'like having a superpower'. He dedicated his Bafta film fellowship award to his wife during an emotional tribute at the ceremony in February. Additional reporting: PA Media
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Warwick Davis's wife died after cardiac arrest
Samantha Davis, the actress and wife of Warwick Davis, died after suffering a cardiac arrest hours before a hospital was planning to discharge her, an inquest has found. Ms Davis died aged 53 at University College Hospital in London on 24 March last year. She had been admitted to hospital on 7 February following a sudden loss of mobility in her lower limbs after a disc prolapse. The inquest at Inner West London Coroner's Court concluded Ms Davis died of arrhythmic cardiac arrest following complications of essential surgical treatment. Ms Davis had undergone a thoracotomy operation - a surgical procedure where the chest wall is opened - in the February before her death. Her condition improved following a further thoracotomy a month later and the University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street was planning to discharge her, the inquest heard. However, Ms Davis went into cardiac arrest at 23:25 GMT on 23 March and was pronounced dead at 00:28 on 24 March following a failed attempt to resuscitate her. Professor Fiona Wilcox, senior coroner for Inner West London, said: "I am satisfied that the medical cause of death should be arrhythmic cardiac arrest and complications following left thoracotomies. "In my view, the stress of everything together has precipitated this arrhythmic cardiac arrest in a lady who was not known to have any previous arrhythmia problems." Prof Wilcox said Ms Davis had achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder which results in dwarfism, that was "complicated by spinal cord compression". The coroner said: "In my view, if this compression hadn't occurred, Ms Davis simply wouldn't have been so unwell. "She wouldn't have needed two lots of major surgeries." Discussing the care she received in hospital, Prof Wilcox said: "I have found nothing but excellent care being delivered to this lady and all of her complications were appropriately managed. "It is frankly heartbreaking that the surgery itself was successful only for complications to arise and to cause her death." 'I miss her hugs': Warwick Davis's tribute to wife Hospice charity pays tribute to Samantha Davis Together with her husband, Ms Davis co-founded the charity Little People UK in 2012 to help individuals with dwarfism and their families. The couple starred together in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, where Ms Davis played a goblin. Mr Davis, known for his roles in Star Wars and the Harry Potter films, dedicated his Bafta film fellowship award to Ms Davis during an emotional tribute at the ceremony in February. He said "life has been pretty tough" since she died, and "she was always so supportive of my career, encouraging me to grab every opportunity with both hands". The couple met during the filming of 1988 fantasy movie Willow. They married in 1991 and have two children. Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to West London Coroner's Court
Sky News
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Warwick Davis's wife Samantha died hours before she was due to be discharged from hospital, inquest hears
Actress Samantha Davis, the wife of Warwick Davis, died after suffering a cardiac arrest hours before she was due to be discharged from hospital, an inquest has found. Mrs Davis, 53, died at London's University College Hospital on 24 March last year. She had been admitted six and a half weeks earlier, after a disc prolapse caused a sudden loss of mobility in her lower limbs. She then underwent a thoracotomy operation - a surgical procedure where the chest wall is opened - on 20 February. Following a second thoracotomy on 14 March, Mrs Davis's condition improved and the hospital was planning to discharge her, the inquest at Inner West London Coroner's Court heard. However, she went into cardiac arrest at 11.25pm on 23 March, and was pronounced dead at 0.28am on 24 March, after a failed attempt to resuscitate her. Senior coroner Professor Fiona Wilcox said she was satisfied the cause of death "should be arrhythmic cardiac arrest and complications following left thoracotomies". Mrs Davis had achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder which results in dwarfism, "complicated by very severe spinal problems" requiring multiple surgeries from 2016, the coroner added. The hospital delivered "nothing but excellent care" and all of Mrs Davis's "complications were appropriately managed", Prof Wilcox said. "It is frankly heartbreaking that the surgery itself was successful only for complications to arise and to cause her death," she added. David Lawrence, a cardiothoracic surgeon at University College London Hospitals, said Mrs Davis's condition had been "progressing well". During her hospital stay, she had two surgical chest drains removed - the second on the day she suffered the cardiac arrest, he said. "Very sadly, on the night this happened, the original plan had been that she would be discharged home the following day," he told the inquest. "We had good evidence that this patient had a chest x-ray that was acceptable, very stable observations and this patient did not bleed during the day." Mr Davis, known for his film roles in the Star Wars and Harry Potter series, dedicated his BAFTA film fellowship award to Mrs Davis during an emotional tribute at the ceremony in February. The couple met on the set of 1988 film Willow. They married three years later and have two children. They founded the charity Little People UK in 2012 to help individuals with dwarfism and their families.
