Loyalist bonfire on site with asbestos lit despite warnings
Effigies of the Irish rap group Kneecap topped a different bonfire in south Belfast, while there was condemnation at the placing of Irish flags and sectarian slogans on other pyres in loyalist neighbourhoods.
Elsewhere, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service also tackled a gorse blaze in the Belfast Hills off the Ballyutoag Road.
The bonfire at Meridi Street, off the Donegall Road in south Belfast, had been the focus of warnings, political rows and legal challenges throughout the week.
Earlier on Friday, Stormont Environment Minister Andrew Muir urged that the bonfire on a site that contains asbestos and is also close to an electricity sub-station, which powers two major hospitals in the city, not be lit.
However it was lit as planned late on Friday while hundreds of other bonfires were also set alight in the July 11 tradition ahead of the Orange Order's July 12 parades on Saturday.
Another bonfire nearby at Roden Street was topped with effigies of Kneecap, as well as a sign written in the Irish language.
A bonfire in Eastvale Avenue in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, features the group on a poster with the wording 'Kill Your Local Kneecap', seemingly in response to a clip that emerged from a gig in 2023, which appeared to show a member saying: 'The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.'
There was also criticism of the placing of Irish flags and sectarian slogans on a number of bonfires including one in the Highfield area of west Belfast.
A small number of bonfires were lit on Thursday night, including the controversial pyre in Moygashel, Co Tyrone, which had been widely criticised by political representatives and church leaders after it was topped with an effigy of migrants in a boat.
In a statement released ahead of the fire being lit, the PSNI said they were investigating a hate incident in relation to the fire.
The boat on top of the bonfire contained more than a dozen life-sized mannequins wearing life jackets.
Below the boat were several placards, one saying: 'Stop the boats', and another saying: 'Veterans before refugees'.
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Western Telegraph
14 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Veterans protest against possible repeal of Legacy Act
MPs including Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Mark Francois and Stuart Anderson joined former soldiers as the Act was debated inside the House of Commons on Monday. They marched to Parliament Square in Westminster, brandishing regiment flags and Union flags, and were flanked by a motorbike procession. The debate comes after more than 165,000 people signed a petition calling for the Government to keep the Legacy Act, which was put in place in 2023 by the former Conservative government to halt all but the most serious allegations involving Troubles-related cases from being investigated any further. The Labour Government announced it would repeal and replace the Northern Ireland (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 following criticism over immunity for soldiers by human rights groups. Veterans and MPs alike said they feared this would open up soldiers to being prosecuted for acts and create a 'two-tier' justice system, in which IRA soldiers are given immunity but British troops are open to prosecution. James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, said he feared it would dissuade people from joining the Armed Forces because they could be 'persecuted' further down the line. He said: 'We all know we need more people in our Army, our Navy, our Air Force. 'Fundamentally, this is about us as a country, recognising that we live in a time of heightened threat…When that is happening, we will be strengthening our Armed Forces. The last thing we want to do is be going after them again for what they did decades ago. What message is that going to send to all the young people whom we want to join the Army in future?' Detail from the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment cap badge (Niall Carson/PA) Sir Iain, the former leader of the Conservative Party who served in Northern Ireland, told the PA news agency that veterans were angry about the potential changes to the legislation. He said: 'They feel they served their country. They did what they could do. They did their best. It was difficult, I can promise you now, I patrolled the streets. 'We see the pursuit of Northern Ireland veterans whose cases were heard previously and settled. 'They are the ones being pursued yet again in the courts under the arrangements and this is wrong. 'You don't see any of the IRA being pursued. 'Right now this is a very one-sided arrangement with the British soldiers who didn't ask to go there.' Mr Francois, a shadow junior defence minister who backed the petition, added: 'What the Government is doing is wrong. 'They're not treating veterans who were there to uphold the law in Northern Ireland the same as they are treating alleged terrorists. 'There should be no moral equivalence between the veterans and the terrorists.' Aldwin Wight, 72, a former special forces commanding officer who lives in Cornwall, said: 'These are people we've served with. 'They're very close to us, and seeing them caught up in this sort of endless doom loop of legislation is not good. 'We're in a fairly dark situation at the moment in security terms and therefore there are going to be incidents and you've got to have people who are willing to step forward and take on the hard tasks. 'And you don't want to do that as it were, with your solicitor in your pocket. 'You want to do it with a clear operational view of what you're doing.' Denise Walker, 58, a veteran in the catering corps, came down from Glasgow to protest. She said: 'This has led to our servicemen fearing that we're going to be up for prosecution again. 'At the end of the day, this Government sent us over there to do a job on their behalf. 'We followed their orders to the letter.' David Holmes, a 64-year old veteran who runs the Rolling Thunder veteran motorbike group which protested, said: 'I spent years campaigning with this. 'We worked with the previous government. We found a good solution. 'People want closure, but actually to put 70 and 80-year-old soldiers in the dock for doing their job they were asked to do by the government on what is basically trumped up charges (is wrong). 'The only evidence is they were there at the time.' Northern Ireland Secretary, Hilary Benn, said: 'The Legacy Act has been rejected in Northern Ireland and found by our domestic courts to be unlawful, not least because it would have offered immunity to terrorists. Any incoming government would have had to repeal unlawful legislation and it is simply wrong for anyone to suggest otherwise. 'This Government's commitment to our Operation Banner veterans is unshakeable. Their professionalism and sacrifice saved countless lives in Northern Ireland and across the United Kingdom, and ultimately helped bring about peace. The Legacy Act did nothing to help our veterans – it offered only false and undeliverable promises. 'I and the Defence Secretary are engaging with our veterans community and with all interested parties over future legislation, and we will ensure that there are far better protections in place.'
Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Jockey raped and killed his sister-in-law and claimed it was suicide - now Olympian he dated for a year reveals how 'kind and charming Johnny' beat and threatened to kill her and why it was 'excruciating to leave' him
An Olympian whose abusive ex-boyfriend would go on to rape and murder another woman has revealed how leaving him was 'the hardest thing' she ever did. Olympic dressage rider and horse-trainer, Abigail Lyle, from Bangor, Co Down, was 23-years-old when she got together with charismatic jockey-turned-trainer Jonathan Creswell - who would kill showjumper Katie Simpson, 21, a decade later. Now the story of Katie's murder is set to be told in an upcoming three-part Sky documentary, Death of a Showjumper, prompting Abigail to open up about the details of her relationship with killer Creswell. After meeting at an equestrian event in Belfast, Abi and Creswell, from Greysteel, Co Derry, became a couple, and were in a relationship for around nine months between 2008 and 2009. Creswell charmed everyone he met, and if anybody suspected that his wide smile and knowing strut masked a profoundly sinister side, then they said nothing. But despite his charming exterior, during their relationship, Creswell inflicted a barrage of physical and emotional abuse on Abi, now 40 - so much so, that her father put her in touch with police domestic violence officer Nuala Lappin to help her leave him. Abi initially refused to cooperate with Nuala, blaming herself for herself for Creswell's rages. Among his attacks, she has described being taken to woodland where Creswell kicked, punched and strangled her, threatening to dump her body as she fought to stay alive, aware of the devastating grief that would engulf her parents, who had lost her brother three years earlier. 'I was thinking, "Don't let him kill you because your parents have already lost a child and they can't lose another one",' she said. She added that she saw 'red flags' at first - like Creswell taking phone calls from other women, during which he'd lie about being with Abi. He also checked her phone, and criticised her after she had spent time with family and friends, saying he didn't like her personality after socialising. Then in February 2009, Creswell assaulted Abigail for the first time after they'd had an argument and she had left to go out with friends. He later messaged her, apologising for the row, asking if he could pick her up. She told the Irish Times that when she got in his car, Creswell purposefully swerved right, ensuring her phone flew out of her hands, telling her she wouldn't be needing it. Abigail added: 'Out of nowhere he grabbed the back of my head, he hit my head off the window, off the dashboard. I was like, curled up, and he just hit me over my body, over and over and over.' She said that she'd previously thought she would defend herself if attacked, but that a 'crazy instinct' took over, and knowing that she couldn't win a physical fight with him, she would do anything to try and calm him down. Creswell eventually started apologising, saying he loved her - which Abigail described as an 'unbelievable' relief, and 'like oxygen'. His apologies took away the pain instantly, she said - until the next time he would attack her. Only when Creswell threatened to dump her in a bath of bleach – which could end her riding career – did Abi pluck up the courage to leave. She explained this by saying that the only thing she wanted more than him was to ride horses, so she escaped and used a pay phone to call Nuala for help. Creswell was subsequently charged with a series of offences, among them false imprisonment, kidnapping and threats to kill, all of which he denied. But in 2010, Creswell finally pleaded guilty to common assault and ABH and was jailed for six months. According to Nuala: 'Johnny's version of events was that he was Abi's saviour, that she was mentally unstable and that she would sit in the car and punch herself in the face.' She added that Creswell tried to flirt with her and another female officer as they questioned him. Although he had faced some punishment for his crimes, when Creswell was freed, he emerged to a hero's welcome, greeted by a party attended by 30 friends, most of whom believed that Abi had made up her story to try to get compensation. Despite his abusive and violent behaviour, Abigail says she was conflicted after leaving the relationship, telling the Irish Times she questioned whether she had done the wrong thing. She told the outlet that she was 'filled with so much fear. So much self-loathing' after extricating herself from Creswell. She described feeling 'so alone', and believing all the bad things her abuser had said about her. 'I remember at that point just feeling so lost. The anxiety – constant, absolutely crippling anxiety, because you had this person, who you loved, who has stripped you away completely. And now you are alone.' A decade after the abusive relationship with Abigail, Creswell would go on to commit an even more heinous crime - raping and murdering Katie Simpson, the 21-year-old sister of his then-girlfriend - before claiming she had taken her own life and that he had tried to save her. According to Abigail, after leaving jail, Creswell 'just picked up where he left off'. He was soon in a relationship with Christina Simpson, one of six siblings from Tynan with whom he went on to have two children. However, unbeknownst to anyone, while in a relationship with Christina, Creswell was simultaneously grooming her younger sister, Katie, who was just nine when she first met him. 'He controlled and coerced Katie since she was a child,' Detective Sergeant James Brannigan, the officer instrumental in bringing Creswell to justice, told a court hearing. No one knows when his relationship with Katie became sexual, although some locals noticed that the young horsewoman seemed terrified of Creswell hearing suggestions that she might get a boyfriend. 'Don't go saying anything like that in front of Johnny,' a family friend, Chris Faloon, recalls Katie pleading with him after he suggested another showjumper might be keen on her. Nonetheless, a few weeks before she died, Katie had embarked on a relationship with a showjumper called Shane McCloskey, who is not named in the documentary but was identified by the Mail last year. The extent of her fear of Creswell was exposed in a frantic exchange of messages with McCloskey, in which she begged him to lie about the fact they had spent the previous night together if Creswell got in touch. 'He'll kill me,' she wrote. And indeed, after finding out, Creswell viciously beat and raped Katie in a violent rage, before calling the ambulance service to say he had returned from dropping off his children at his mother's house to find Katie hanging from the banister of the family home. He insisted on attempting to take her directly to Altnagelvin Hospital in his car to avoid paramedics visiting the house. At Katie's bedside, he behaved as though distraught, shaking and weeping. But not everyone believed Creswell's story, with some nurses noting the bruises on her body. DS Brannigan described the injuries on Katie's body as 'shocking', adding: 'Her hands were like boxing gloves, they were that swollen and bruised. There were marks on her legs, on her inner thigh, there was a massive bruise on her shoulder, a small cut to her lip and bruises on her arms.' It was not just Creswell who was trying to protect himself from accusations that he was responsible: it emerged that he was engaged in a number of sexual relationships with other women, including Katie, and three of those women lied to try to cover up for him. One of them, Rose de Montmorency-Wright, 22, had lived with Katie, Creswell and Christina, and had helped carry Katie's coffin at her funeral. The others were Jill Robinson and Hayley Robb, those friends of Katie's who also loved riding and were part of the her horse set. Creswell had put about a story that Katie had fallen while riding the day before the attack to try and explain away her injuries - a story supported by Jill and Hayley. DS Brannigan remained unconvinced, but by the time Katie died six days later, having never regained consciousness, Creswell had managed to create the narrative that Katie had taken her own life, and local police seemed uninterested in investigating. According to journalist Tanya Fowles, who knew Katie and was suspicious about her death, when she rang police to alert them to Creswell's previous convictions for violence, a Derry police officer accused her of being a 'curtain twitcher'. DS Brannigan, who worked in County Armagh but had been contacted by Fowles to see if he could help, recalls how he was similarly stonewalled, with Derry detectives telling him Katie had tried to take her own life twice. As he later discovered, they had mistakenly logged two suicide 'attempts' – the first when she arrived in hospital and the second when she died from her injuries. It would take six months of dogged work by Brannigan – and questions from Katie's relatives – for Derry police to finally open an investigation. Internal swabs taken during the post mortem, which previously had not been examined, came back showing Creswell's semen - providing police with enough evidence to arrest him. He tried to lie his way out of the situation, claiming he had been in a relationship with Katie since she was 17 and that they'd had sex several times the night before she'd gone to hospital. But he proved that his story couldn't be true when he drew a diagram to show police how he had found Katie, describing her as 'kissing the wood' - by which, DS Brannigan explained, Creswell meant Katie was facing the inside bannister from which she was hanging. The length of the strap she had purportedly hung herself with was not long enough for her to be in this position, detectives discovered when revisiting the scene. Brannigan described this as a 'eureka moment', adding: 'We could see Katie did not die this way.' On March 6 2021, Creswell was charged with Katie's murder – the first of what would prove to be several criminal charges in relation to her death. In the following weeks, the extent to which the three women had tried to help cover up the crime emerged. CCTV footage showed Hayley Robb following Creswell's car home from hospital before entering his home then leaving with a bag and placing it in the boot of her own vehicle. She subsequently admitted that as Katie lay dying, she and Robinson had taken Creswell's clothes to a launderette. Robb had also cleaned up traces of blood in the house. Rose de Montmorency-Wright was subsequently arrested in England and brought back to Northern Ireland for questioning. Brannigan says: 'She admitted to us "Yeah. He told me he'd beaten Katie". And I said "Why didn't you tell us?". She said she believed Katie had taken her own life and didn't believe it was relevant. I pushed her on it, but she asked to speak to a solicitor and when she came back she wouldn't say anything.' She subsequently pleaded guilty to withholding information, and received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. Jill Robinson received a 16-month suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice, and Robb two years, suspended for two years, for withholding information and perverting the course of justice. Katie's sister Christina, whom police also believed was subject to coercive control by Creswell, was not prosecuted. Loyal to the end, Jill Robinson, who visited Creswell in prison when he was on remand, confides that she felt she had 'let Johnny down' by telling the truth. It subsequently emerged he was facing a catalogue of allegations from more than a dozen other women, among them a teenage girl who had spoken to police about being abused by Creswell. Sadly, Creswell would never face justice for his actions: at 9am on April 24, 2024, one day after the prosecution had outlined their case at his trial, his body was found at his home. Speaking now about her experience with Creswell, Abigail Lyle credits Nuala Lappin with saving her life, telling the Irish Times the domestic violence police officer's advice is 'probably why I am here today'. Abigail added that Nuala was the 'only person' who understood why it was so difficult for her to leave, supporting her until she was ready. When the Olympian heard Creswell had been arrested for Katie's murder 11 years after she'd left him, she said she was not surprised, but was devastated, noting that she'd always felt he was capable of that kind of crime. Abigail also shared advice for those concerned about someone they know who is in an abusive relationship, recommending they let that person know they are there for them, and don't judge them. And for those in this kind of relationship, she encourages them to reach out for help, and know they are not alone - and that there is 'an amazing life' waiting for them on the other side.
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
West Belfast: Fire at GAA club started deliberately, police say
Police say a fire which destroyed facilities at a west Belfast GAA club was started deliberately.A shop, scoreboard and signage at Lámh Dhearg GAC in Hannahstown were destroyed in the attack on Saturday a statement on Monday, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Insp Dalton said the fire is believed to have been started at around 18:20 BST on Saturday. Insp Dalton said the fire caused "extensive damage". "It's absolutely unacceptable that a community organisation should be targeted in this way," he added. Belfast city councillor Arder Carson said the fire was a "blatant act of vandalism". Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster, Carson said: "It definitely fills you with despair and some anger that a club that does so much for the local community in terms of working diligently to provide facilities and services that give young people hope and opportunity has been subject to such an attack." He said the club was "in the heart" of preparing for its children's summer camps and the start of a new championship season. "Setting fire outdoors at any time is reckless but this level is just beyond reckless," Carson said. "On the period of dry weather we have had, to set fires in an area like that which is rural and totally green is just beyond reckless."Police are appealing for anyone with information to contact them.
