Elderly man challenges riot police on his mobility scooter while wearing a Roman helmet in Ballymena
A video has gone viral showing a mobility scooter rider in Ballymena challenging riot police.
Click above to watch full video.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
As three submarine captains are stripped of their OBEs... How one brave woman – with the Mail's help – exposed a culture of sexual abuse, vile misogyny and bullying among the Royal Navy's top rank
For more than a century, the Royal Navy's submarine service has operated behind a thick curtain of secrecy – a shadowy world of steel corridors and sonar silence, where power is absolute, scrutiny seemingly minimal and those in command are lionised as guardians of our country's deadliest weapons. But now, that carefully curated image is unravelling as the elite service faces perhaps its most damning reckoning yet.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The loving friendship that turned to murder: Chilling messages between 'gentle giant' lodger and his elderly landlady before he suffocated her with a pillow and chopped up her body
Chilling messages and phone calls between a lodger and his 74-year-old landlady before he murdered her have been revealed today for the first time. Scott Paterson, 45, suffocated vulnerable Annette Smith with a pillow at their shared home before dismembering her body and hiding her remains in a storage unit. He tried to cover up her murder and pretended she was still alive by using her email account to send Christmas messages and Moonpig cards to family and friends. Paterson, of Fairfield, Bedfordshire, used a kitchen knife and saw to cut up her body in November 2023 - and was jailed for at least 19 years in November last year. Now, Channel 4 's new series of 24 Hours In Police Custody, which airs this Sunday, has revealed their friendly chats - including a text exchange before he moved in. Paterson wrote: 'Hi Annette would Weds next week be ok to move in? x' Ms Smith replied: 'elo luvly Supa... pls start moving on Wed. Whoopee! A xxx' And Paterson said: 'Thanks Annette, can't wait! Xx' The programme, which follows the police investigation, also featured recordings of two calls between the pair - with one featuring her arranging dinner for him. It began with Paterson saying: 'Hello.' Ms Smith then said: 'Hello darling, just to let you know, I've ordered you salmon and pilau rice, so you've got something to eat when you get in.' Paterson replied: 'Brilliant, that's lovely, thank you.' And Ms Smith said: 'I'll see you soon' A text exchange between lodger Scott Paterson (right) and his 74-year-old landlady Annette Smith (left) before he murdered her was revealed in Channel 4's 24 Hours In Police Custody The second call saw Ms Smith organise a drink for Paterson because he was tired. It started with Paterson saying: 'Oh hi darling, it's Scott.' Ms Smith replied: 'Hiya darling, you must be knackered?' Paterson said: 'Yeah.' And Ms Smith told him: 'Would you like me to get you a drink or something?' He replied: 'Yeah that's great, lovely, thank you.' The documentary also reveals Paterson talking about the loving friendship he had with Ms Smith after reporting her missing - despite having already murdered her. Paterson claimed to police that Ms Smith had been missing for several weeks and he last saw her being collected from the house by a woman after packing a suitcase. He also said Ms Smith told her she would be gone for a few days – and the video showed him becoming emotional while telling detectives about their friendship. Paterson said: 'I'd known Annette for maybe nearly 15 years. She offered me somewhere to stay. Initially it was going to be 12 months and it turned into 12 years. 'We'd get on like a house on fire. We'd go to the theatre, we'd go out for dinner, we'd go on holidays. So we always just got on really well.' Pictures of Annette Smith also form part of the new programme airing on Channel 4 on Sunday He then appeared to choke up, with the detective saying: 'We can have a break if you want a break, yeah?' Paterson replied: 'Sorry' – but she said: 'No, no, it's alright.' Attempting to cover up her murder, Paterson tried to pretend Ms Smith was still alive by sending emails and cards to friends and relatives. However, in April 2024, concerns were raised by relatives and an investigation was launched by the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire (BCH) Major Crime Unit. Detectives discovered her passport and clothing were still at the home, with her laptop which had sent the Christmas messages. After being arrested, Paterson was asked whether he was responsible for her murder in a police interview – and simply replied: 'Yes'. He also directed police to a storage unit where he had hidden her remains –and was later sentenced to life imprisonment at Luton Crown Court. The court heard that they had met 14 years earlier and Ms Smith had offered him rent-free accommodation in her home after Paterson experienced a 'relationship breakdown'. In 2018, Ms Smith suffered a stroke which limited her mobility and Paterson took on caring responsibilities, including collecting prescriptions and doing her shopping. In 2023, her estranged husband Peter Smith, who held a 20 per cent stake in the home, had asked her to sell the property because of his struggling business. Ms Smith initially did not want to move out, but Paterson claimed he 'felt pressured' to encourage her to go through with a sale. He also said she had become 'more demanding' since her stroke five years earlier. Eventually Ms Smith agreed to speak to estate agents, who continued to market the property after her death. On November 8, 2023, Paterson entered Ms Smith's bedroom and suffocated her with a pillow. He left her in her bed and drank a bottle of wine before dragging her body into the bathroom and wrapping it in a green blanket. Prosecutors told the court he had continued to talk to her about 'every day things like normal'. He moved the body to a cupboard under the stairs after receiving notice that a photographer from the estate agent would be coming to take pictures of the house. Paterson, who was working on a deli and butcher counter at a farm shop at the time, later dismembered Ms Smith's body with a kitchen knife and saw. He wrapped parts of her body in plastic bags and hid her torso inside a black suitcase, which he took to the storage unit in Letchworth. In an effort to pretend she was still alive, Paterson used his victim's email address to send Christmas messages and Moonpig cards to family and friends. However, in January 2024, Ms Smith's family raised concerns with Bedfordshire Police about her welfare. Officers initially said there was insufficient evidence to deem Ms Smith a missing person, but in April that year launched a high-risk missing person investigation after her family found her passport, mobile phone and other personal belongings in her home. When he was arrested, Paterson made a full admission and directed police to a storage unit where he had hidden her remains. He said he had considered killing Ms Smith at least twice before and had only stopped himself when he reached her bedroom door. He also told officers he had racked up £30,000 in credit card debt and admitted that he had been stealing jewellery from Ms Smith, both while she slept and after her death. He had been selling the jewellery on Cash4Gold, the court heard. Ms Smith's stepson, Jason Smith, described his stepmother as a 'very kind and caring person' who was 'always there for me throughout the years'. Paterson, wearing a blue polo shirt and grey trousers, bowed his head and kept his eyes closed as Mr Smith spoke in court. He told the courtroom he had initially believed the defendant, described by other witnesses as a 'gentle giant', was a 'nice guy', but that in reality he was an 'evil man'. He added: 'I will never forgive (him) for what he did, I hate him from the bottom of my heart.' A tribute from Ms Smith's family read: 'We are totally heartbroken and devastated that Annette has been taken away from us in such a cruel and senseless way. 'She was a beautiful, caring, trusting and generous lady, who meant so much to so many people. Annette, rest in peace with those who will love and take care of you.' Buckinghamshire Police Detective Chief Inspector Katie Dounias, who led the investigation, said of the documentary: 'This two-part episode captures the meticulous work of our detectives as we pieced together CCTV footage, forensic evidence, digital footprints and witness statements to uncover the truth about what happened to Annette. 'In the show, our care for Annette as a victim is evident, and the team really do stop at nothing to ensure that we seek answers on behalf of her and her family. 'This was a case which shook the community of Stotfold and Bedfordshire more widely. 'It also highlights some of the most complex aspects of modern-day policing and showcases the professionalism of our officers in the face of the most horrific of crimes.' Bedfordshire Police Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst added: 'As always, 24 Hours in Police Custody offers an unfiltered look at the police service, highlighting the dedication, compassion, and resilience of officers who are often working under intense pressure, on some of the most traumatic incidents most people could ever imagine.' 24 Hours in Police Custody: The Butcher Of Suburbia starts this Sunday at 9pm on Channel 4, and concludes the following evening, Monday, at 9pm on Channel 4
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
DOMINIC LAWSON: Why Putin has been denied a propaganda ‘triumph' by the Mail's gripping revelations about the brilliant new boss of MI6
This is getting to be a habit – and an embarrassing one for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6. Soon after it appoints its new chief, the media reveals something personal about the latest 'C' that hardly fits with the image we would wish the world to have of the person at the apex of our espionage operations. When Sir John Sawers was appointed in 2009, The Mail on Sunday immediately found that his wife Shelley had put up various snaps of the nation's new spy chief on a family Facebook page, including one of Sir John on holiday wearing Speedos – and also details of where the family lived. The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey – then as now, a dedicated headline-grabber – declared this might have 'breached the security of the incoming head of MI6 too seriously to allow him to take up the post'. And when Sir Richard Moore was appointed as C in 2020, the Sun revealed that our new intelligence chief's grandfather, Jack Buckley, had been a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army, later given a medal by the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, for his service in the war against the British. But none of these have anything like the impact of the Mail's revelation last week about the family background of the newly appointed head of MI6 – the first female C, 47-year-old Blaise Metreweli. Through rapid research in archives held in Ukraine and Germany, the Mail produced proof that her paternal grandfather was Constantine Dobrowolski, a notorious Ukrainian collaborator with the invading Nazis in the 1940s. He had defected from the Red Army to serve in an SS unit and later boasted, according to the records: 'I oversaw captured Russian vehicles and personally took part in front-line action near Kyiv and in the extermination of Jews.' I have spoken to former MI6 colleagues of Metreweli about this. Their take is it was most unlikely that its vetting processes would not have uncovered this fact about her family when she applied to join in 1999. They also thought someone of her intensely curious nature would have found out for herself, anyway. But they added that not only would the heinous actions of a grandparent (who died long before she was born) be no reason for rejecting her, she was also far and away the best candidate for the top job. Nevertheless, this is catnip for the Kremlin. Putin's regime, since it launched its mass-murdering campaign to destroy Ukraine as an independent nation, has incessantly described President Zelensky's government as 'Nazi', in an effort to depict the conflict as a replay of the 'Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945' in which the Soviet Union ultimately triumphed over the invading Wehrmacht of a genocidal Adolf Hitler. So how convenient for Moscow's propagandists that the new chief of a Western intelligence service committed to the defence of Ukraine can be graphically linked – through bloodline – to this legend; one which, alas, is widely believed by the Russian people. But for the same reason, it was much in our interests that the Mail broke the full story, and with as much factual detail as possible. Whiffs of it were already emerging on pro-Moscow social media accounts. Indeed, a few days before the Mail story broke, a former MI6 man alerted me to an account on Telegram (much used by Russian bloggers) which alleged that the grandfather of the new head of MI6 'by late 1942 was already working at the Special Preliminary Camp in the city of Auschwitz, where Caucasian-origin Nazi collaborators were trained'. This was garbled stuff, but it could only have been highly damaging to this country's reputation if the whole story was, in a sense, owned by Russian propagandists. Or as another ex-MI6 officer, and no particular admirer of the British press, said when I made this point: 'I agree that the Mail was right about denying the Russians the triumph of breaking the story.' Still, the Russian foreign ministry's long-standing spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has clicked into gear. Tass, the state news agency, ran a story in its English language outlet under the headline 'Nazi descendants promoted to leading posts in West purposefully'. It quoted Zakharova: 'The trend is obviously neo-Nazi. Friedrich Merz, Annalena Baerbock... Now the head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, can be added to the list. Someone purposefully and consciously puts descendants of the Nazis in leadership positions in the countries of the collective West.' It's hardly surprising that leading German politicians, such as its current Chancellor (Merz) or the Foreign Affairs minister in the previous administration (Baerbock) would have grandfathers who not only fought against the Soviet Union in 1941-1945, but were actually Nazi party members. But Zakharova went on to assert, despite clear historical documentation to the contrary, that Blaise Metreweli's grandfather must have been present at the massacre of an estimated 34,000 Jewish men, women and children by Nazis, aided and abetted by Ukrainian nationalists, at Babyn Yar. What she doesn't say, of course, is that the Holocaust Memorial at Babyn Yar, a sacred site for Ukraine's Jews, was attacked by missiles sent by her government in March 2022. Indeed, the Ukrainian president, whose government the Kremlin disgustingly describes as 'a genocidal Ukrainian Nazi regime', is himself Jewish, and Zelensky's family – which had members exterminated in the Holocaust – fought for the Red Army against the Germans. If one adopts the modern parlance of describing far-right ultra-nationalists as 'neo-Nazis', then it is Putin's Russia, not Zelensky's Ukraine, which gives them succour and support – and derives the same in return. When Putin invaded Crimea in 2014, it organised a so-called 'anti-fascist' conference of Western politicians supportive of his action. The British delegate was the then leader of the BNP, Nick Griffin, and similar figures from the European nationalist far-right also showed up to support Putin – and were paid for by the Kremlin. This was Orwellian: fascists against fascism. On the actual battlefield, the Wagner group, which was the leading supplier of mercenary troops to Putin's war on Ukraine, had been founded and commanded by Dmitry Utkin, a man covered in Nazi tattoos (and do you wonder why he named his group after the anti-Semitic German composer most beloved by the late Fuhrer?). Utkin had been awarded the honour of Hero of the Russian Federation and photographed with Putin when receiving it. (In 2023, Putin had him bumped off in a plane 'accident', along with other leaders of the Wagner group, just as Hitler had ordered the murder of leaders of the Sturmabteilung, when he believed they were planning a coup against his leadership). And there is still the ultra-nationalist Rusich Brigade, fighting alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine, led by the sadistic Aleksei Milchakov, a man who when asked about his political views, said: 'I'll tell you straight up, I'm a Nazi.' Go back to Putin's claims when he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with the assertion that Kyiv was and always must be a Russian city and that the frontier between Russia and Ukraine should be dissolved; it is eerily similar to what Hitler said when he invaded Poland in 1939: 'Danzig was and is a German city . . . I am resolved to remove from German frontiers the element of uncertainty.' Also note, because Russian propaganda obliterates the fact, that this was part of a Nazi-Soviet carve-up of Poland, under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. There was even a joint Nazi/Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk to celebrate Poland's evisceration. So when the Kremlin tries to paint this country as connected with the depravities of the Nazis and their collaborators, remember all that.
