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BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Bus driver stabbing: Derek Thomas killed in 'frenzied attack'
A man murdered the father of his former partner in a "frenzied" knife attack after an argument with his ex, a court has Williams, 34, stabbed bus driver Derek Thomas, 55, from Stoke Newington, north-west London, who was on his way home from work, his Old Bailey trial was told. He denies Anthony Orchard KC said that on 30 July Mr Williams had been out looking for Mr Thomas's daughter Carron, who was his former girlfriend, but had failed to find her.A WhatsApp discussion to sort out domestic arrangements after their break-up had become abusive and "tempers appeared to become frayed," Mr Orchard said. 'Easier target' The same night as the messages were sent, Mr Williams was allegedly driving his van near the Thomas family home when he saw Carron's father carrying a bag of shopping, on his way home from described seeing a man stop his van in the middle of the road, get out, and attack Mr Thomas before returning to his vehicle and driving bus driver, who worked for Go-Ahead London, had been stabbed five times with a large was pronounced dead at the scene, in Northwold Road, Stoke Newington, less than half an hour Orchard said: "The breakdown of the defendant's relationship with Carron Thomas appears to have been the trigger for [the defendant's] actions.""He went out looking for Ms Thomas but was unsuccessful. He decided on an easier target, her father."There can be no doubt the attacker was the defendant. Mr Thomas was struck by the knife on five occasions in what was a frenzied attack."Mr Thomas must have been terrified."The defendant made a "determined attempt to avoid arrest" in the weeks after the attack before being arrested on 26 August at the Notting Hill Carnival, the court heard. Mr Williams, of Cuba Street, Tower Hamlets, east London, also denies a charge of having an article with a blade or trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Melanie Blatt insists flipping burgers is 'more fulfilling' than her time in All Saints - raving over 'liberating and ego-boosting' new career on Good Morning Britain and claiming performing 'isn't her happy place'
Melanie Blatt insisted flipping burgers is 'more fulfilling' than her time in All Saints as she raved about her new career on Good Morning Britain. The singer, 50, appeared on Thursday's instalment of the ITV show and opened up to co-hosts Richard Madeley, 69, and Kate Garraway, 58. Melanie announced last month that she had taken a career turn and launched her own gourmet burger business called FullFillings. She has also started working as a chef at The Londesborough pub in Stoke Newington, north London, as part of the venue's celebrity chef residency on Tuesdays. The All Saints star explained: 'It was sort of the fantasy, I've always loved cooking, loved cooking shows and then as I was doing Master Chef something clicked and I just loved the environment. It's another creative thing and I'm just obsessed.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. She shared how she asked herself what her 'real passion' was and when she turned 50 years old, decided to 'do it'. 'I basically take slow cooked meats and stews and casseroles and curries, I take that meat, put it in a burger shape, I bread crumb it, I deep fry it and then that goes in your burger and the sauce that it's cooked in, you dip your burger in,' the pop star revealed. Melanie admitted she was finding the work 'more satisfying' than being a singer. 'It's really nice to do something that's just me. My ego is enjoying this a little bit,' she shared. The singer added: 'Obviously being in the band was so amazing but it's a shared experience, opinions are shared, every decision is shared between four. 'Having complete control over what I'm doing is liberating.' Melanie was one of the biggest pop stars of the 1990s and rose to fame in All Saints alongside Shaznay Lewis and Natalie and Nicole Appleton. They sold 10million records worldwide, scored five UK number one singles, won two BRIT Awards and were household names after first shooting to fame in 1997. When the band finally drifted in different directions in 2001, Melanie then had a stab at a solo singing career before later taking various parts in reality TV shows. Nineties pop star Melanie Blatt shared a video from the London pub where she is working making gourmet burgers as she shared an exciting update last month She worked on ITV show The Hot Desk alongside bandmate Nicole, Dave Berry and Emma Willis and was also a judge/mentor on an overseas version of The X Factor. Showing off her love of cooking, Melanie then took part in Celebrity Masterchef in 2022 and has now taken her culinary skills to the next level. Melanie made her professional debut as a chef at The Londesborough last month and her residency will take place every Tuesday for the foreseeable future. On Melanie's first night, the residency had only been soft launched with with no mention of the celebrity chef anywhere on the menu.
The Sun
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Mel Blatt reveals flipping burgers in new job is MORE fulfilling than time in All Saints and admits ‘it's for me'
MEL Blatt has revealed flipping burgers is more fulfilling than her time in girlband All Saints. The Pure Shores songstress admitted "it's nice to do something for me" as she opened up on her new job in a pub kitchen, whipping up her brand Full Fillings' tasty treats. 6 6 6 Mel, 50, appeared on Thursday's Good Morning Britain and talked of her new venture, which we reported on back in April. ITV anchor Richard Madeley, 69, made a play on her firm's business name and asked her if her Tuesday night residency at The Londesborough in Stoke Newington was "more fulfilling" than her pop heyday. Mel candidly replied: "At this moment in time it is. "It's really nice to do something for just me, my ego is enjoying this a little bit. "Being in a band was so amazing but it's shared experiences, opinions are shared. "Every decision is shared between four. Mel rose to fame in 1997 as a member of the girl group All Saints along with Nicole and Natalie Appleton and Shaznay Lewis. During their heyday the group had five number one singles, two multi-platinum albums, two Brit Awards and have sold over 10 million records worldwide. MasterChef's Mel Blatt fights back the tears after judges give her critique on her food After four years together, All Saints parted ways in 2001. Later in the chat, the Never Ever hitmaker then opened up on the prospect of an All Saints reunion. When quizzed by Richard about a comeback, she said: "Honestly I don't think so. "The stage for me isn't my happy place any more." HAPPY PLACE Instead, the kitchen - with tunes blasting out on the radio - is her preferred way to earn cash. Her culinary talents were on display previously, on Celebrity MasterChef 's 17th season. She reached the final back in 2022 after impressing with her beef and pancetta pie in the first round, and then sparked a fix row when she lost to Lisa Snowdon. The pop princess then returned to the show to assist with the judges during a later series. Now, mum of one Mel serves up her Fullfillings grub in the London eatery's celebrity chef spot. The menu has previously included a slow cooked beef patty or jerk chicken option, served up with chunky chips and gravy. A macaroni cheese burger is also a mouth watering option for veggies. Earlier this year, Mel took to her Instagram page to launch her new venture at the pub - as well as her new business brand. Alongside a series of snaps from her time in the kitchen she wrote: "This was the day I turned 50! "I spent it cooking for the people I love I thought it was the perfect moment to launch my new business @fullfillingsfood. "I'll be at @thelondesborough every Tuesday. Follow the FullFillings page for updates." In another upload, showing her with a fresh face and blonde hair tied up in a ponytail she wrote: "Chucking my dignity and vanity in the bin to bring you a day in the life prepping for a Tuesday @fullfillingsfood takeover @thelondesborough." 6 6 6
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- The Guardian
Duncan Campbell obituary
The journalist, author and broadcaster Duncan Campbell, who has died aged 80 from lymphoma, was the most respected crime correspondent of his generation. The determined, scrupulously fair way he pursued evidence of wrongdoing, including miscarriages of justice by the police and prosecuting authorities, was widely admired. It reflected a tolerance and respect for people from all sorts of backgrounds, qualities enriched by an extraordinary life of travel and experiences that gave him rare insights into human behaviour, prejudices and beliefs. The world of crime never ceased to fascinate him. He earned the trust of criminals and senior police officers alike, establishing an astonishing network of contacts. The former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger described how Duncan 'moved effortlessly between the lawyers, the cops and the villains. When he threw parties a great game was to try and gauge which was which. A retired bank robber would be rubbing shoulders with a judge next door to a chief constable. I can't think of any other crime reporter who could bring that off.' In 1997 Rusbridger enthusiastically agreed to fight a libel action brought by police officers over an article that Duncan wrote about corruption in Stoke Newington, north London. Duncan successfully defended himself before a high court jury – the first journalist to win a libel action by the police after 95 cases, a victory that landed the Police Federation with £600,000 in costs. The acquittal by the jury was greeted with loud applause in court. Duncan's success, in the face of a judge who did his best to persuade the jury to return a guilty verdict, is regarded as a turning point in the history of police libel claims. A House of Commons motion congratulated Duncan for what it called a 'landmark victory both for responsible journalism and for the maintenance of public confidence in the police'. Born in Edinburgh, Duncan was the son of Ian, a lawyer in the family firm of Archibald, Campbell and Harley, and Jean (nee Sanderson), who was educated at Edinburgh University and later engaged in voluntary work. Duncan was educated at Edinburgh academy and Glenalmond college, Perth and Kinross, where he was part of what became known as the Bolshy Club with Alex, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn, the three sons of the great campaigning journalist Claud. At Edinburgh University, where he studied law (1963-66), he edited the magazine Student, where fellow contributors included the eventual Labour foreign secretary Robin Cook. Contemporaries describe Duncan as extraordinarily popular, usually wearing a battered leather jacket and skinny black jeans. His triumphs as a reporter there included writing features on big issues of the time such as abortion and homosexuality. Both were still illegal, although abortion was carried out and there were well-known gay bars. He interviewed a former chief constable, William – known by the media as Wee Willie – Merrilees, who proudly told Duncan that Edinburgh dealt with what he called 'homos' by going round the pubs of Rose Street and putting them on the night train to London. After university, Duncan travelled to South Africa, where he took a job as a teacher in Pietermaritzburg and travelled around the country. His first-hand experience of apartheid affected him deeply. After a spell as an advertising copywriter in Puerto Rico, he returned to Britain. In London in the late 1960s, he was part of a commune in west London, which also had a retreat in the Forest of Dean. It was a time of radical rethinking of everything, and for Duncan it was the start of a life of not conforming. Under the banner of No Blame – a name taken from an ancient Chinese I Ching belief – they formed a theatre group and performed at the Edinburgh fringe. When the group split up, Duncan hitchhiked round the world, with extended stays in India (1971) and later California. He never lost the understanding he gained from his travels of non-western, especially Asian, philosophy and teachings. He returned to London and to journalism, becoming in 1975 news editor of Time Out – then much more than a London-based listings magazine – edited by John Lloyd, Duncan's university contemporary and subsequently member of the London commune. While at Time Out, Duncan was involved in a number of notorious cases, including the ABC official secrets trial (1977-78) of a former soldier and two journalists (including another journalist called Duncan Campbell, a coincidence that both journalists liked to play on). It was an exciting time at Time Out, Duncan recalled: 'We never knew when there'd be a raid. One colleague interviewed an IRA member and was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.' Some stories were less serious: 'We had a great idea – to show how easy it is to get hold of replica weapons.' A number were rented and the magazine's photographer took shots of the staff wielding fake submachine guns on the office roof. 'Seven or eight minutes later we heard the helicopter, then its loudspeaker: 'Drop your weapons now'.' 'We were taken to Bow Street police station. We had to write a craven letter to the Metropolitan Police … The Met closed the whole of the Strand. Anyone with long hair was being arrested. Of course we reported it, under the headline 'Police Hit the Roof'.' One of Duncan's contributors at Time Out was Philip Agee, the former CIA officer who was deported in 1977 after identifying CIA members based in Britain. With other Time Out colleagues, Duncan left in 1981 in protest against the decision by Tony Elliott, the magazine's owner, to abandon its equal pay policy. He joined the breakaway publication, City Limits. That went on to fold in 1993, unable to withstand commercial pressures, but by February 1987 Duncan had already left to join Robert Maxwell's new and ill-fated publication the London Daily News. When it collapsed in July the same year, he successfully applied to join the Guardian. After a spell on the news desk, he was appointed the paper's crime correspondent, a role that further established his name as the leading, most authoritative, journalist on that beat. He was elected chairman of the Crime Reporters Association and was awarded the Bar Council's newspaper journalist of the year in 1992. In an inspired move, Rusbridger appointed Duncan the Guardian's Los Angeles correspondent, from where he also covered South America. He left the newspaper in 2010, but continued to be an active member of the National Union of Journalists, alerting members to what he regarded as just but neglected causes, including growing threats to journalists around the world. Just last year, welcoming the release of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, he wrote: 'Why – why, for heaven's sake – has it taken so long? And what about all the others who languish in crazily overcrowded British jails?' He went on to pose the question: 'Who cares about prisoners or the scandal of those still wrongly held under the discredited Imprisonment for Public Protection laws'? He was meanwhile urging the Criminal Cases Review Commission to pursue the murder conviction of Wang Yam, a Chinese and former MI6 agent, in light of new DNA evidence. It was an intriguing case on which I worked with him for several years. Duncan's sense of humour, his observations on the quirks and frailties of the human condition, attracted him to the comedian Billy Connolly. A relationship that Duncan valued deeply led to two book collaborations – Billy Connolly: The Authorised Version (1976), which became a bestseller, and Gullible's Travels (1982), about a Connolly tour of Britain in 1975, and, six years later, of the Middle East. His book That Was Business, This Is Personal: The Changing Faces of Professional Crime (1990) was a series of interviews and profiles of criminals, detectives, lawyers and others in the criminal justice process. The Underworld (1994) was written to accompany the BBC series on organised crime in Britain, with an updated version published in 2019. His supreme talent at spinning a good tale, often inspired by an unrivalled knowledge and experience of shady and not-so shady worlds, was brilliantly reflected in two novels – The Paradise Trail (2008) and If It Bleeds (2009) – and in We'll All Be Murdered in Our Beds, subtitled The Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain (2016). Duncan's calm, modest nature, and consideration for others – rare qualities in the world of journalism – attracted a wide circle of close friends. After his best friend died young, Duncan immediately took his daughter, Lorna Macfarlane, under his wing and made her his ward. One of his friends observed that Duncan's natural curiosity about people and life around him meant that he would often be the most knowledgable person in the room, something he wore lightly and with great humility. He was quietly charismatic, and able to navigate class divides in the world of criminal justice. His Scottish background and roots helped him remain something of an outsider in his professional life, independent of any particular circle or club. He was still writing articles aged 80 with the same zest and passion he had displayed throughout his professional life; social justice and human rights were at the heart of most of his investigations. A gifted, funny raconteur, he entertained friends and colleagues with anecdotes, including as a cricketer. He was a key member of the New Statesman cricket team in the 80s, a side made up of journalists, lawyers, actors, cartoonists and others only loosely connected to the magazine. A fellow member described him as a tidy off-spinner and patient batsman, 'utterly selfless as a player', adding that 'his prime skill lay in using his inquisitive kindness, his empathic soul, to magically fuse the individuals, some of them socially awkward, into a team'. Duncan was always aware of the outsider, and was quick – a fellow member recalled – with a consoling quip and a pint at the bar after the game for the wretch who had dropped that dolly catch or run out the star batsman. It was as if he followed an inner code of conduct known only to him; a code far subtler than the mere laws of the game. He was the driving force behind six tours of India, including a match against the Bollywood film industry side. In the world of football, he was an ardent Arsenal supporter through what a fellow supporter calls 'the dour years of George Graham to the fantasy era of Thierry Henry and beyond'. In 2005, in India, Duncan married his longtime partner, the actor Julie Christie. They met in 1978 at the Dingwalls club in Camden, north London. She survives him, as do his sister, Fionna, and brother, Niall. Iain Duncan Campbell, journalist and author, born 15 December 1944; died 16 May 2025
