Latest news with #TomMartin
The Sun
02-06-2025
- Health
- The Sun
My ex refused to let me end things – when I finally moved on his twisted messages threatened to tear my life apart
HANDS shaking Laura Gumery struggled to comprehend what was on her boyfriend Tom Martin's phone. There they were, the photos she hoped never to see again, the photos her ex had promised to delete but now the intimate images were being used against her. 6 After learning about her new relationship with Tom, her former boyfriend Ian Davis had texted the naked images, alongside sexual messages the pair had once shared, to her new partner in a jealous rage. Davis, 37, tried to claim that Laura, 33, had cheated with him in an attempt to sabotage the new relationship. Thankfully Tom, 38, didn't believe his lies and the pair reported Davis to the police. Now the mum-of-two is sharing her story to raise awareness of revenge porn in a bid to encourage other victims to report their abusers to the police. She says: 'Reporting Ian was the best thing I ever did. 'Taking back control of my life felt amazing. 'Now I want others to not feel ashamed to come forward and seek justice.' Laura, from South Wales, met Davis in 2015, when she was 15 and he was 20. Initially he seemed like the perfect boyfriend, showering her with compliments and buying her gifts and almost instantly declaring his love for her. However, he gradually became more obsessed with the then schoolgirl. Shamed Towie star James Argent threatened with jail if he fails to listen to abuse victims on course after attack on ex She remembers: 'He'd want to talk to me all the time and if I didn't reply straight away he'd bombard me with messages. 'He picked me up from school and I barely saw my friends and family. 'It was suffocating.' By the time she turned 18, Laura ended the relationship. Despite this, Davis begged her to reconsider, even pestering her friends to get Laura to talk to him. But she blocked his number and eventually he left her alone. Five years on in 2015, aged 23, Laura fell pregnant but the father didn't want to be involved. Soon after, Davis got in touch, out of the blue. She remembers: 'He apologised for his behaviour during the relationship. 'Saying he wasn't that person anymore and missed me. 'He wanted another chance. 'Feeling vulnerable at that time, I agreed to try again, he genuinely seemed to have changed. 'I agreed to date again once the baby was born.' At first, things were bliss for the couple as Davis became a loving father-figure to Laura's newborn son. But within seven months, the relationship began to unravel. Often, Davis would go away at the weekends for car rallies and Laura was left to do everything and the couple found themselves arguing constantly. Despite this, in December 2017 the pair got engaged and planned to marry. Only, two years on, in May 2019, Laura was told by a friend that Davis had allegedly cheated while on a trip away. Laura explains: 'I confronted him but he denied it. 'By this point I'd had enough, so I cancelled our wedding and moved out with my son. 'I couldn't trust him. 'I still allowed him to see my son as they had such a close relationship.' When lockdown hit in March 2020, Laura continued to stay in touch with Davis as he still had a hold over her. She remembers: 'He'd turn up at my house unannounced and would text me, asking who I was seeing. 'He would be so jealous if he ever saw a car parked outside mine and was convinced I was still his. 'Sometimes it was easier to go along with it. I got less grief that way. 'Occasionally, I slept with him to keep him off my back so I could have a social life without him. 'I did it to keep him 'happy' so he would let me have a life and stop monitoring me all the time.' During this time, Laura sent Davis two nude pictures of herself taken in her bedroom and they shared a flurry of sexual messages together. With Davis texting her naked pictures of himself too, but Laura deleted them straight away. She explains: 'I wanted to make him believe I was still 'his'. 'Looking back, it was so unhealthy and toxic but I couldn't see a way to break free from his control.' Months later, in April 2021, Laura met her boyfriend, Tom, on a blind date. They hit it off and the following month, he stayed over at Laura's. Only, the next morning, Davis sent her a cryptic message. She says: 'He told me he'd always 'loved me' and that I 'couldn't survive' without him. 'I decided to cut ties with him for good." A year on, in July 2022, Laura received a message on Instagram from Davis. It said: 'Blocking me was the wrong thing to do I've got somethings (sic) your boyfriend should see its (sic) your call now.' After telling her he had nothing to lose, he ordered her to unblock him. Laura says: 'I had no idea what he was talking about and threatened to contact the police if he messaged me or Tom. 'Then I blocked him on Instagram too.' In September that year, Laura discovered she was pregnant. A week later, the day after she celebrated her 31st birthday, Tom called in distress. Laura remembers: 'He told me that Ian had been in touch. 'That he'd sent him two naked pictures of me as well as the sexual conversations we'd had together. 'I immediately felt sick. 'Panic hit me. I thought, 'That's it, Tom's going to leave me.'' With that, Laura rushed home. There, Tom showed her Davis' messages. In one, he'd called her a 'w***e'. She says: 'I was so mortified and ashamed he'd seen the pictures of me. 'Ian had tried to make out I'd cheated on Tom with him. 'I explained that the pictures were sent before we were together and that I hadn't done anything wrong. 'Tom was so calm and supportive, but I knew he was upset. 'Thankfully he believed me. 'I hated Ian for what he'd done and I was terrified he'd posted them elsewhere too. 'He'd completely taken away the joy of our pregnancy news.' WHAT IS REVENGE PORN? Victims have been targeted by revenge porn from their exes, and occasionally third parties, who seek to destroy their reputation or post it as a form of harassment. The posting of revenge porn includes photos and videos of the victim that are posted online without the individual's consent, with one in 25 Americans affected, according to a 2016 article by The Washington Post. Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 are primarily victims of revenge porn, and a study conducted in 2016 found that approximately 10million people, or two percent of the population, had reported they were victims. Revenge porn is not protected under the First Amendment of free speech which does not protect the distribution of private facts, defamation, and child pornography. Under section 230 Communications Decency Act of 1996, websites are considered third parties and not legally liable for content posted online. However, in 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr wrote a letter to Congress requesting websites to be required to take action and hold the third parties accountable for not removing nonconsensual content. In his letter, Barr wrote that technological changes since 1996 have advanced, and the law should be amended to reflect this. He stated that section 230 "shields 'any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers being obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.'" Barr provided reforms to section 230, changing "'otherwise objectionable' with more specific language including 'promoting terrorism or violent extremism, promoting self-harm' and 'unlawful.'" The bill to amend section 230 was brought to the Senate in October 2021 and as of May 2022, it is still being reviewed. Afterwards, Tom told Laura how it was a crime to distribute naked images and explained all about the law on revenge porn. So, the couple reported Davis to the police. Laura says: 'At first I thought Ian hadn't done anything wrong as I didn't think it was illegal to share intimate images with someone you knew. 'But Tom told me it was an offence and reminded me of the Georgia Harrison case.' Georgia's disgraced ex Stephen Bear is currently serving a 21 month prison sentence for voyeurism and sharing a sex tape. Stephen filmed consensual sex with Georgia on CCTV in 2020 then made at least £40,000 on OnlyFans from uploading the clip. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years and was slapped with a five-year restraining order banning him from contacting Georgia. TV personality Georgia was among those to call for a change to the legislation. It will now be easier to prosecute people for sharing revenge porn after a change in the law in England and Wales. Revenge porn was criminalised in 2015 but before now prosecutors had to prove there was an intention to cause humiliation or distress, but laws introduced on Tuesday will remove this clause. The day that Laura filed the report an officer came to take Laura's statement. Laura says: 'While the officer asked to see the pictures, he was professional and offered no judgement. 'I was mortified but determined to see Ian punished.' Soon after, Davis was arrested and charged. It took three years to get to court. This month, at Newport Crown Court, Davis was found guilty of sharing an intimate photograph without consent and sharing an intimate photograph without consent while intending to cause harm, distress or humiliation. He was handed a seven month sentence, suspended by one year and a five-year restraining order. Laura says: 'Sharing intimate pictures with others causes lasting damage. 'It harms self-esteem and can ruin family relationships. 'Thankfully Tom has been my rock and supported me throughout. 'Now I teach my boys that when you're going through tough times, don't back away, because, in the end, the person telling the truth always wins.'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Here's where Memorial Day ceremonies are planned across the Grand Strand, Pee Dee
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Communities across the Grand Strand and Pee Dee will honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation's freedom with ceremonies starting on Thursday and continuing through the Memorial Day weekend. 10 A.M. MONDAY: Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony honoring those who have sacrificed all for our freedoms, with music by the Summit Concert Band and a reading of the interred service members at the Dillon Cemetery. Local Boy Scouts will present the colors. The public is encouraged to bring old flags to have them properly retired. 10 A.M. SATURDAY: Florence National Cemetery, 803 E. National Cemetery Road; American flags will be distributed on 15,417 graves throughout the cemetery. Individual volunteers and community groups are encouraged to participate. 10 A.M. MONDAY: Florence National Cemetery, 803 E. National Cemetery Road; a ceremony to honor and remember the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. Park at the South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, 714 E. National Cemetery Road, and access the event through a designated gate. Attendees will then proceed to the site adjacent to the walk-through gate entrance to the National Cemetery. 11 A.M. THURSDAY: Robeson Community College, 5160 Fayetteville Road; ceremony begins at the Military Affiliated Resource Center in Building 13 and ends outside near the center's flag poles. The speaker will be Tom Martin, a minister and decorated veteran. 10 A.M. SATURDAY: Spectators can line the streets of Pampas Drive, Howard Avenue and Farrow Parkway to see the Military Appreciation Days parade. The grand marshal will be Col. Thomas 'Buddy' Styers. 11:30 a.m. SATURDAY: Valor Memorial Garden, 1120 Farrow Parkway; following the parade, attendees can attend a free Family Picnic at Grand Park in Market Common. There will be live music, military exhibits, and displays. 11 A.M. MONDAY: Myrtle Beach Convention Center, 2101 N. Oak Street; Memorial Day remembrance ceremony. 10:30 A.M. MONDAY: North Myrtle Beach Memorial Gardens, 65 E. Highway 90, at the corner of Highways 9, 90 and 17 and Nixons Crossroads, Little River; the event will be the group's 74th annual veterans event and celebration. Retired U.S. Marine Col. Mark A. Singleton will be the guest speaker. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be moved to the Carolina Bays Church, 4360 Big Barn Drive, Little River. Lunch will be provided for veterans and their families. 11 A.M. MONDAY: Memorial Day golf cart parade starting at 16th Avenue N. and traveling south on Ocean Boulevard to Melody Lane. 2 P.M. MONDAY: Service at Memorial Park, located at Surfside Drive and Willow Drive. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BBC News
18-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Swansea: Church that survived Nazi bombers celebrates 200 years
A landmark chapel in the centre of Swansea that survived a Nazi bomb is preparing to celebrate its 200th anniversary with special services over Pleasant chapel is one of the city's most historic buildings and stands on the Kingsway in an area that was largely flattened during the Blitz, when the German Luftwaffe bombed the city in February 1941."When you see all the pictures of the Blitz and all the buildings around the chapel gone, it is amazing that the chapel is still standing" said Clare Sullivan, one of the chapel with Corinthian pillars seats about 800 people. It cost £4,510 to build, a huge undertaking for the church's 54 members at the time. Swansea was an important industrial town and port, and the early worshippers were probably involved in the copper smelting and refining industry that had transformed Swansea into a major global centre for copper processing. It's nickname was Tom Martin said the bombing destroyed the area around the chapel and it was rebuilt after the war. "We are in the middle of the busy Kingsway in the city centre with lots of modern buildings around us," he said. "Their predecessors didn't survive the blitz, but the Mount did."Today the exterior of the chapel looks very much as it did when it was first built, but the interior had been changed with the pews removed from the ground floor to create an all-purpose open space. On Wednesdays and Saturdays it morphs into a café, explained church elder Jimmy Christie."There was a time a lot of people went past the railings and gates, and wondered perhaps what this wonderful building was," he said. "But now we have a wide pavement outside and we hold our open air café there as well as in the chapel itself. "We have opened the doors and opened the railings up and people are getting to know us."Some of the neighbourhoods surrounding the chapel were amongst the most deprived in the UK," said chapel pastor Dafydd Taylor. "There's a great need in Swansea, a lot of people with addictions to drugs and alcohol, in and out of prison or who are homeless," he said. "We offer them hope, we have at least 4 members who used to have addiction problems, and we have helped them turn their lives around."
BBC News
13-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Peterborough farmer 'devastated' as government scheme closes
A farmer has said news that a government scheme to support farmers is now fully subscribed is "devastating". Tom Martin, who farms at Haddon, near Peterborough, said he was "lucky" to be a part of the government's sustainable farming incentive (SFI), but that not all farmers had managed to put an application Martin said: "It has been an absolutely terrible six months in UK farming in confidence... as an industry who want to work closely with government, there is no trust, no good faith, no goodwill and no confidence whatsoever. It is shameful."The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said a reformed scheme would be announced in the summer. The closure of the scheme has been described by the National Farmers' Union as "a shattering blow".The SFI was launched in 2022 and follows the post-Brexit payment scheme that replaced EU the scheme, farmers in England are paid to manage land to protect soil, restore hedgerows and boost nature recovery. For farmers already on the scheme, nothing changes, and the government said those who had managed to submit an application before the window closed would be offered an if an application was started and not submitted, it will not be Martin, whose family have farmed near Peterborough for four generations, said the news had been delivered without warning. He said: "At 6pm last night [Tuesday], we were told with no warning whatsoever the application window had just closed, so those farmers who were preparing their applications who were doing all the groundwork... have been left with nothing but loss and a pretty hollow feeling, and a massive gap in their budget as well."While some farmers were already on the scheme, he said those still reluctant to be a part of sustainable farming had been "caught short" and should be encouraged into this way of working. Coming after the government's changes to inheritance tax for farmers, he said it was "adding insult to injury". Farming minister Daniel Zeichner, Labour MP for Cambridge, said with 37,000 live SFI agreements, the scheme was "now fully subscribed". Speaking in Parliament, he said: "This is an opportunity to improve how we do that under a fair and just farming transition, which supports farms to be profitable businesses in their own right... SFI can and must work better for all farms and for nature." Mr Zeichner said the revised scheme would "align" with the government's land use framework and contribute to the priorities of food, farming and nature. He said the underlying problem facing the farming industry was that farmers did not make enough money and the decision was about "investing in long-term stability". Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alabama Power and E Source Win Prize for Data Analytics Innovation
The Southern Company utility and E Source partnered on an advanced predictive power mapping data system to improve service reliability. BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 20, 2025 /CNW/ -- E Source and Alabama Power have won the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Digitizing Utilities Prize for the development of a custom Enterprise Graph Database, a predictive power mapping data system. The winning Round 2 initiative builds on the success of the project team's Round 1 proposal. Launched in October 2023, the Digitizing Utilities Prize is a DOE initiative that incentivizes utilities to partner with software developers and data experts to address complex challenges in the electricity sector through data analytics and system digitization to improve grid reliability and resiliency. The database, which helps Alabama Power more easily identify potential issues in the distribution network, earned the project team a $275,000 cash prize ($75,000 in Round 1 and $200,000 in Round 2) and a $75,000 technical voucher to a national laboratory. The Enterprise Graph Database is a tool that organizes and connects different datasets, making it easier to analyze and visualize network connections, asset relationships, and risks. It helps simulate distribution networks, analyze power flow, optimize grid operations, and assess grid-side and customer-side investments. One of its main benefits is providing near real-time updates and insights by connecting to source data, allowing continuous updates instead of waiting for annual system modeling updates. It also keeps a record of previous grid configurations for accurate and comprehensive comparative analyses. It adds to a series of successful data initiatives at Alabama Power executed in partnership with E Source, improving operational efficiency, managing risk, and enhancing customer satisfaction. Commenting on the importance of data analytics to utility effectiveness, Shane Powell, Southern Company Director of Data Analytics for Power Delivery said, "We are at a key moment in the utility industry where data innovation has made significant progress to meet our needs and goals. At Alabama Power, we are focused on developing practical data solutions that offer quick benefits, can grow with our needs, and provide long-term results. This award is a testament to the integrity and effectiveness of our approach. Our collaboration with E Source has been critical to the success of this and other data initiatives at Alabama Power, so we are excited to move into the next phase of this program with their team." E Source and Alabama Power will now participate in Round 3 of the prize program, a separate competition with a $2.5 million prize pool. At this stage, teams will refine and demonstrate their solution's effectiveness and scalability for industry adoption. Tom Martin, Vice President of Data Science at E Source, noted Alabama Power's commitment to innovation in data analytics as the foundation for the win, saying, "I am delighted with the win and proud of our collaboration with Alabama Power. The success we have seen with this project reinforces our commitment to helping utilities pursue pragmatic innovation and secure funding to address complex industry challenges with data solutions. Alabama Power's dedication to enhancing its grid operations through advanced technologies has been essential to our successful working relationship, and we are looking forward to working with them in the next phase of the program." Throughout 2025, project teams in Round 3 will choose a track focused on resource integration or grid-sensing capabilities. The winners will be announced in December. You can learn more about the prize program here. E Source's data science experts support utilities with AI-powered data solutions to enhance a broad range of operations initiatives. To learn more about E Source's data science capabilities, visit the company's website here. About E Source E Source combines industry-leading research, data science, and consulting to help utilities make and implement better data-driven decisions that positively impact their customers, their bottom line, and our planet. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, E Source has teams across the US and Canada. Learn more at About Alabama PowerAlabama Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, provides reliable, affordable electricity to 1.5 million customers across the state. Learn more at Media contact: Adarsh Nalam, Director, Solutions Marketing and Communications adarsh_nalam@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE E Source Companies LLC View original content to download multimedia:
