Latest news with #Scotswoman
Extra.ie
3 days ago
- Extra.ie
Peru Two's Michaella McCollum opens up on terrifying prison conditions
Michaella McCollum has spoken about her experience in a Peruvian prison, after two girls were arrested abroad for drug trafficking. Ms McCollum, from Dungannon in Co Tyrone, was arrested alongside Scotswoman Melissa Reid after the pair, who became known as 'The Peru Two,' were caught with 12kg of cocaine. They both served just over two years in prison, with Ms Reid being expelled to Scotland and Ms McCollum returning to Ireland two months later. Following the arrests of two girls abroad in unrelated cases for trying to smuggle cannabis and kush, a synthetic drug which can be more powerful than fentanyl, Ms McCollum has spoken about her experience in the Peru prison, including eating maggot-filled paella and the extreme conditions she faced. Michaella McCollum has spoken about her experience in a Peruvian prison, after two girls were arrested for drug trafficking. Pic: Ken McKay/ITV/REX 'I remember how I'd lay all the rice out, to see which grains I could eat and which were maggots,' Ms McCollum told the Daily Mail. 'Back home, it was reported that I'd gone on hunger strike, but I hadn't.' She also spoke about how her mother would have to wait hours in the Peruvian heat with bags of food for her daughter, with her adding that she would have to flick cockroaches away while eating chicken — something that she grew accustomed to during her time behind bars, but is horrified by now. 'She'd bring a whole chicken, which I'd eat with my fingers, and there would be cockroaches climbing up onto the table and I'd just flick them away. I mean, they didn't even bother me, by then,' she said. 'You become so used to it. And I suppose there is a level of guilt and shame that you feel it's acceptable, even though it isn't.' Ms McCollum and Melissa Reid were arrested and served two years in Peruvian prison for smuggling 26kg of cocaine. Pic: REX Speaking on Charlotte Lee May, 21, who faces 20 years in Sri Lankan prison for smuggling 46kg of 'kush,' as well as Bella May Culley, 18, who ellegedly tried to smuggle 14kg of cannabis to Georgia, Ms McCollum saw the two girls as victims — particularly in Ms Culley's case after she told the court in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi that she was pregnant. 'The [Bella Culley] situation was almost exactly the same,' she said. 'Her mum had reported her missing, then it emerged that she'd been arrested. There were such parallels with my case – except it was just in a different country. I couldn't help but feel bad for them. Whatever they have done, it's so young to be caught up in something like this, and I know what they are going to go through. And their families. It's the worst thing anybody can have to face. 'As a mum, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to give birth in that sort of place, and to potentially have the child taken from you and put into care,' she added about the case of Ms Culley. 'That adds a whole new, terrifying, dimension. It's just incredibly sad.' Ms McCollum and Ms Reid, who had never met prior to their arrest, say that they were coerced into smuggling the cocaine while working in Ibiza, but pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. They were sentenced to six years and eight months in prison but were both released after serving just shy of three years. Ms Culley and Ms Lee both face 20 years in prison for their alleged role in drug trafficking, with Ms McCollum adding that she believes they were also coerced into doing so. 'I don't know the circumstances in detail here, but I do know that of all the women I came across who had been involved in drug smuggling, only about 10% were doing it as a business, who knew the risks and accepted them,' she said. 'The vast majority were the victims of some sort of coercion, usually by men. Prisons all over the world are full of women who have been caught up in something like this. And the men at the top rarely get caught. The men who pulled all the strings in my case were never held to account.'
The Herald Scotland
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Michelle Mone: The rise and fall of Scotland's bra queen
The Conservative peer faces a standards investigation in the House of Lords, while her ties to a company tasked with producing hospital gowns for the NHS are being probed by law enforcement and the House of Lords. It's just the latest twist in the tale of a self-proclaimed one-woman success story – a story which has had plenty of twists and turns up to this point. Raised in the East End of Glasgow, Mone first came to prominence in 1999 with the launch of the Ultimo bra, which the entrepreneur said was inspired by her experience of wearing an uncomfortable cleavage-booster and realising she could come up with a better design. In May of the following year Ultimo launched at the Sak's Fifth Avenue store in New York City, and it was claimed that Julia Roberts wore one of the bras for her role in Erin Brockovich. Mone and her company MJM International would go on to launch a range of diet pills, as well as partnering with the likes of ASDA, Debenham's and doing modelling campaigns with Kelly Brook, Gemma Atkinson and Mel B of the Spice Girls. Close scrutiny Almost from the start of Mone's entrepreneurial career there have been questions surrounding the legitimacy of her much-vaunted achievements. Her business career started with Canadian beer brand Labatt, with the Scotswoman admitting that she faked details on her CV to land the role. Publicity for Ultimo went through the roof thanks to reports that Julia Roberts had worn one of the bras for her Oscar-winning turn in Erin Brockovich, though this has been denied by several of the filmmakers. A 2015 profile of Mone in European CEO stated that the actress herself had mentioned the undergarment in her acceptance speech for the Academy Award but if she did then it wasn't on stage at the ceremony – the footage is freely available on YouTube and features no mention of a bra. MJM's 'Trimsecrets' diet pills, produced in collaboration with Jan de Vries, were described as having 'no scientific basis or rationale' and while the entrepreneur had claimed their efficacy had been proven in clinical trials when questioned by The Guardian, Mone stated that the trial had in fact been a 63-person questionnaire, for which she was unable to produce the results. Ultimo losses Questions were also raised over the success of her business empire. Despite claims she was worth £50m, MJM made losses of £780,000 in the 2013 financial year before passing its assets to its parent company, Ultimo Brands, which also made a loss. A former employee, Scott Kilday, was awarded £15,000 in compensation after discovering a plant pot in his office had been bugged, ostensibly due to fears he was planning to leave and work with Mone's ex-husband, Michael. Despite those concerns, Mone began to establish herself as a political player. Setting herself up as a staunch unionist, the businesswoman threatened to leave Scotland if the SNP won the 2007 Holyrood election and was a firm advocate for a No vote in the 2014 independence referendum. Shortly thereafter she was appointed to an unpaid role as the Conservative government's 'start-up czar', which drew backlash from other entrepreneurs. Describing Mone as a 'small-time businesswoman', Douglas Anderson of Gap Group said: 'Her businesses have been no more than excessively over promoted PR minnows gaining unjustified acclaim due to the glamorous sector they happen to be in. 'There is no way, by any measure, that she is qualified to advise anybody on setting up a profitable business, because quite simply, she hasn't!'. Mone resigned as a director of MJM in August 2015. It was wound up last year with debts of over £300,000. Lording it Mone was given a peerage by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, but in the following six years spoke just five times and submitted 22 written questions. Her appointment was criticised by both opposition and Tory figures at the time, with one branding her 'a public relations creation, a personal brand rather than a serious businesswoman'. Prevailing events tended to back that assessment. Her UTan range, launched through UBeauty Global, was claimed by Mone to have cost £1m to develop but the company's first set of accounts showed it to be worth less than £25,000. She and partner Doug Barrowman launched a cryptocurrency in 2018 hoping to raise $80m, with the baroness describing herself as 'one of the biggest experts in Cryptocurrency and Blockchain'. By August, The Sunday Times reported that the project had 'flopped' and all investors had been refunded. Mone was also accused in 2019 of sending a racist WhatsApp message describing a man of Indian heritage as 'a waste of a man's white skin', which she denies, with a representative responding that the baroness and her husband had 'built over 15 schools in Africa'. The biggest scandal of all, however, would break in October of 2020. PPE 'fastlane' In October of 2020 The Herald revealed that the British government had awarded a £122m contract to supply personal protective equipment (PPE) to a company run by a former associate of Baroness Mone without going out to tender. The justification given was that the equipment was needed urgently as cases of Covid spiked, with the contract handed out to supply 25 million gowns for health workers. It was awarded by the Department of Health and Social Care just a month after the company, Medpro, was founded. The gowns were never used. A spokeswoman for Baroness Mone said that she had no comment as she has no role or involvement in PPE Medpro, which received over £200m in total via government contracts. The spokeswoman added: 'Mr Barrowman (Mone's husband) is also not involved in the company… and is not a Director or Shareholder.' Mone later admitted this had been a lie. It later emerged that Mone had referred the company to the government in March 2020. Leaked emails later suggested she had been promoting Covid tests sold by the company as late as October 2020. In 2022 leaked documents appeared to show that Mone and her children secretly received £29m from the profits made by Medpro through a secret offshore trust of which they were beneficiaries. The documents, produced by HSBC, state Barrowman was paid at least £65m by the company and then distributed the funds through a series of offshore accounts, trusts and companies. The funds landed in Barrowman's account just before he and Mone's wedding and honeymoon, while The Sun reported in August 2021 that the bra tycoon's children had spent more than £3m on property in Glasgow during the pandemic. Mone's shared home was raided in April 2022 as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into Medpro - no charges have so far been brought but some of the couple's assets have been frozen - while a separate investigation into standards is taking place in the House of Lords. For Mone you might say it's win or bust.
Daily Mirror
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Hazel Irvine speaks out about interviewing Ronnie O'Sullivan and admits 'it's difficult'
In her 23 years of leading snooker coverage for the BBC, Hazel Irvine revealed her experiences in interviewing the sport's most mercurial character in Ronnie O'Sullivan Hazel Irvine admitted that Ronnie O'Sullivan 's brutal honesty is difficult to gauge when interviewing the snooker legend. Irvine – who has hosted snooker coverage for the BBC since 2002 – was one of the first females to lead sports broadcasts for the company. On top of presenting Triple Crown snooker events, the Scotswoman has headed coverage of both the Summer and Winter Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, as well as major golf tournaments. It was during an appearance on Stephen Hendry's Cue Tips YouTube channel that she was asked by the seven-time world champion on whether there's a player she's interviewed that sets off alarm bells in her head. Hendry subsequently pointed out O'Sullivan given his reputation for not pulling punches when it comes to speaking his mind. Irvine discussed her experiences chatting to the 49-year-old throughout the years and admitted the most difficult aspect of talking to him. "I really enjoy speaking to Ronnie [and] he's been brilliant with us actually," she revealed. "It's very difficult to be in tune with anybody who so readily expresses exactly what they feel and you can feel and see it in his body language. "I think you can read him to an extent, but I love hearing what he has to say. I think we're privileged to actually be able to share what he wants to say. I think he's still brilliant for the game and it's still always a real privilege." Irvine and O'Sullivan have enjoyed candid chats on numerous occasions, with their most recent exchange coming after his World Snooker Championship quarter-final win over Si Jiahui. Despite his run to the semi-finals where he was beaten by Zhao Xintong, The Rocket was honest about the lack of faith in his ability as he joked to the presenter that his support team had thrown in the towel on him. While laughing he said: "Team? I'm unhelpable. I think they've all given up after they've gone through the motions," before expressing his gratitude for sports psychologist Steve Peters. "Steve has been amazing," O'Sullivan insisted. "I wouldn't have got round the first round without Steve. He's been incredible. I wouldn't have got through the first round without him I suppose. I've tried to give it my best, which I have, and I'm just hanging in there." Delving deeper into the impact Peters has on the snooker great, Irvine asked: "If he's not around, do you feel different? Do you need him around?" O'Sullivan responded: "If I could afford him then I'd have him every day. "I'd be like [F1 star] Lance Stroll's dad, just write the check out and he's here full-time. But obviously he's a busy man who I couldn't afford to have full-time. So any little bits I try and time when I can have him." Following his 17-7 defeat to Zhao, O'Sullivan casted doubt on his future in the sport, revealing that he plans to permanently relocate away from the UK. "I think I'm going to be moving out of the UK this year," he said after his loss. "A new life somewhere else. "I'll still try and play snooker, but I don't know what the future looks like for me really. I'm moving away soon so I'll just see how it goes. There's a lot of more important things in life to worry about than a game of snooker. For me, it's a big part of my life but I've got to try and figure out what my future looks like, whether it's playing or not."
Scotsman
22-04-2025
- General
- Scotsman
The abandoned puppy who captured hearts around the world
When Gea Alixandru picked up yet another abandoned puppy, she and the team from UK charity Barking Mad Dog Rescue (BMDR), set up and run by a Scotswoman, could never have imagined the social media interest the little dog was going to generate. The story of the puppy, who was named Alice, has had over 3 million views, nearly 80,000 likes and received 8,000 comments and good wishes since it was initially shared. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... 'I was driving to the shelter as usual and I thought I saw a dog by the side of the road so I turned around and went back.' says Gea, who works in BMDR's Romanian shelter team. 'I pulled up and there was this black and white puppy. I guessed about 4 months old. She had been left by the busy road with just some scraps of food and a takeaway carton of water.' 'In Romania, this is something that happens almost every day, so I did what I always do. I put her in the car and took her back to our shelter. I filmed the rescue so the team could share her on social media.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The next day little Alice was taken to the vets as her breathing was very raspy. Alice at the vets 'Gea sent a lovely video of Alice getting cuddles.' said Claire Kirk, a UK-based volunteer who contributes to BMDR's social media. 'Poor Alice's X-rays showed two broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung! We think these dreadful injuries were caused by the pup being hit or kicked. She also had multiple small objects in her intestines, most likely stones Alice had eaten to stave off hunger' 'We posted the video and information from the vets, as people had been asking for updates following her rescue. Then the comments, likes and shares started and they still haven't stopped!' said Claire. 'People from all over the world were commenting to say how horrified they were by how Alice had been treated. Despite having such awful experiences in her short life, Alice is still full of trust, love and happiness. This has resonated with so many people. BMDR says Alice has already had multiple applications to adopt her, and she will be rehomed in the UK when she is well enough to travel. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Puppy Alice who had broken ribs from being hit or kicked BMDR rescues abandoned and stray dogs in the Constanta region, Romania. Where possible, the dogs are rehomed across Europe. BMDR also runs ongoing free dog and cat spay/neuter campaigns, working within its local community to educate people about animal welfare. They also provide a life-long safe haven for dogs who may be disabled or not adoptable, at their two permanent shelters, which house over 300 dogs. To date, Barking Mad Dog Rescue has placed over 3,000 dogs into loving homes. BMDR Founder, Scotswoman Hilary Anderson said: 'We hope Alice's story will educate more people about the way dogs are treated globally, and encourage more people to consider adopting a rescue dog and to not buy from a breeder. BMDR have just celebrated the 10th birthday of our charity! What started as a small rescue, set up in response to the brutal Romanian killing law and the horrendous conditions in many public shelters, has gone from strength to strength. Alice's story is an all too common example of how dogs continue to be treated in Romania, and of the difference we have made to the lives of so many dogs, for whom we were their only hope.' 'We simply could not do what we do without the support of those who adopt or foster dogs, which makes space for us to take in the next dog in need. Likewise, we are indebted to our wonderful sponsors and donors, who keep doggy bellies full, vet bills paid and enable our shelters to operate.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Alice and one of the cats at the Barking Mad Dog Rescue shelter
Telegraph
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Annie Lennox: The Eurythmics star's first big gig in years was pure joy
Sweet dreams really are made of this. One of British music's greatest stars took to the stage for the first time in years and knocked it right out of the park. Sporting short white hair, bright red lipstick and a sparkling tuxedo, the Eurythmics ' Annie Lennox swaggered through a magnificent hit-packed set at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of her global feminist charity The Circle, which she founded in 2008. Backed by an eight-piece band, the 70-year-old Scotswoman looked and sounded like she was having the time of her life, still hitting the high notes and throwing pop shapes as if she does it all day every day rather than once every decade or so. I last saw Lennox seven years ago in a similar charity event, and my only complaint then was that she was too good to let such talent go fallow. Lennox is a monumental artist, with a sky-scraping voice, an inspiring presence, and a hit song catalogue that stand up to any great artist of our times. Yet Lennox has only toured twice since 1990, her last outing being with Eurythmics in 2003. Her career has devolved to popping up in odd places to sing a couple of songs for charity. And here she was again, though this time she played for over an hour, and stormed around the stage like she knew it was where she really belonged. 'You can sing along if you want,' she invited the audience in the opening bars of There Must Be An Angel, then added, 'it's a bit high' to let them off the hook. 'Ba da dee dee da da dah,' Lennox trilled, fluid notes fluttering beneath the domed roof as if they belonged up there in the gods. She performed Here Comes the Rain Again solo at the piano, recast as a sorrowful ballad, every exposed note wrung out with emotion. And she vamped soulfully through Screaming Jay Hawkin's blues ballad I Put A Spell On You, comically wiping sweat off her brow as she flirted with Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who is 36 years her junior and looked awestruck to be sharing a microphone. 'Is anybody here as old as me?' she asked the 5,000-strong crowd who had turned up for the International Women's Day event. 'Stand up if you're over 70 and you can still stand!' Lennox made a lot of jokey complaints about the aches and pains of old age but ended her set rolling around on the floor in the showboating style of James Brown during a Paloma Faith duet on Sisters Are Doin' it For Themselves, before bouncing back for a room-shaking version of synth anthem Sweet Dreams. The whole cast of the evening was onstage for the finale, including powerhouse singer-songwriters Beverly Knight, Celeste and Nadine Shah, all watching Lennox in incredulous delight. I would venture that age and perhaps lack of use have knocked a little bit off Lennox's incredible vocal prowess, with a slight thinning in the falsetto range and a few shaky notes amidst all that audacious swooping and soaring. But if you can pull this kind of performance together out of nowhere, imagine what heights it might reach a few weeks down the road. The great veteran rock frontman Roger Daltrey always says you've got to use it or lose it. Come on Annie, get your guns out for one last blazing showdown.
