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| Dead wife's 'blood spots in flat' The trial of a man accused of murdering his wife is told that spots of her blood were found in their flat. news.bbc.co.uk |
Father killed three after row, court told Eight-year-old son and two teenage stepchildren died after Kevin Hargreaves ignited petrol from lawnmowerA father killed his eight-year-old son and two teenage stepchildren in a house fire after he drunkenly accused his wife of flirting with a taxi driver, a court heard today.Manchester crown court was told that Kevin Hargreaves, 37, flew into a rage at the children's mother when they returned home from a night out and tried to set himself alight using petrol. The fire spread from the bedroom and engulfed the property in Beswick, Manchester, last July.The dead children's mother, Susan Owen, managed to escape the fire. But John Hargreaves, eight, and his stepbrother Jordan Swift, 14, died after they became trapped in a third-floor bedroom while Jordan's 19-year-old sister, Carly, also died after she ran back into the house in the hope of saving the boys. Seven other children who were in the house at the time survived the fire.The court heard Hargreaves walked down the stairs and was later spotted leaning on the garden gate as the fire raged.Richard Marks QC, prosecuting, said Hargreaves had returned to Owen's home a few hours before the incident in a "very bad mood" following a taxi ride home after a night out.He said the trouble between them seemed to have started during the course of the taxi drive where Owen bought a kebab for the taxi driver."The defendant took exception to this and later accused Susan Owen of trying to 'cop off' with the taxi driver," Marks said.The couple had been married since February 2003 but did not live together as they had a "volatile relationship" in which Hargreaves often became violent after drinking, and Owen had not taken his name.A forensic examination of the house showed that the petrol had been emptied from a lawnmower found near the front window of the bedroom.Hargreaves fully knew what he was doing despite being in drink and it was only good fortune that his wife escaped speedily from the bedroom, Marks concluded.The prosecutor said: "Witnesses described seeing Jordan at the window of the bedroom and they had shouted at him to jump but he did not do so, evidently being frightened, and then he disappeared from sight." The three victims all suffered severe burns and died later that day in hospital on July 16.Hargreaves told police: "I only wanted to kill myself, I only wanted to kill myself."The trial continues. Hargreaves denies three charges of murder.Helen Carterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Gordon Brown to push for 'Tobin tax' PM believes US move indicates willingness in Washington to contemplate radical reform of marketsGordon Brown plans to exploit Barack Obama's surprise crackdown on Wall Street banks to step up Britain's campaign for a new global transaction tax on financial products.The prime minister believes the dramatic US move to curb risky activities by major US banks indicates a new-found willingness on the part of Washington to contemplate radical reform of markets.Amid signs that key opponents of a transaction tax in Obama's administration have been sidelined, Brown intends to use a series of meetings in the coming weeks and months to build international support for a "Tobin tax", which he floated at last autumn's G20 meeting. Lord Myners, the City minister, is to host a crucial mini-summit on Monday at which US officials will spell out the details of the Volcker plan – through which Obama intends to stop banks running hedge funds, private equity arms and taking bets on markets with customer deposits.Myners had called G7 members to the Downing Street talks before the White House stunned the financial world with Thursday's announcement, seen as the biggest Wall Street shakeup since the Glass Steagall reforms of the Great Depression.Publicly, Myners maintained today that the government was ahead of the US in its reform programme and that its plans for banks to create "living wills" so they could be broken up quickly if they collapsed had the same effect as Obama's. He said: "He's developing a solution to what he sees as the American issues. We've already taken the necessary action in the UK."Privately, however, government sources admitted that they been caught unawares by Obama's bombshell and were now reassessing whether Britain needed to go further. Fears in the City that the government would embrace Obama's line continued to rock shares, particularly those in Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. The FTSE 100 was down 33 points at 5303 while RBS, 84% owned by the taxpayer, recovered earlier losses to end at 32.29p. Barclays was down 11p at 256, another 4%.On Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell for a third day running, its biggest sustained fall since last June. Greg Gibbs, global strategist at RBS, blamed the uncertainty caused by Obama for the market upheaval.Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evo Securities, said: "The banks can hardly complain – after the crisis of 2008 they needed to show humility and restraint, and have failed to do so spectacularly."BankingGordon BrownPaul MynersEconomic policyBarack ObamaUnited StatesUS economyLondon Stock ExchangeLarry ElliottJill Treanorguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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Woman run over by her stolen car A 48-year-old woman is being treated after being run over by a thief who stole her car as she posted some mail, say police. news.bbc.co.uk |