
Belfast man missing for almost two weeks last seen in Paris airport
The 38-year-old's last known point of contact was on July 17
The brother of a Belfast man who has been missing in France for 12 days is to meet with British officials as they begin their search for him.
Robert Kincaid, from the Tullycarnet area, was due to arrive in Dublin on the evening of July 17, but never boarded his flight.
The 38-year-old oil rig worker was returning from a stint working at a west African site in Benin and was set to board his connecting flight from Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris.
Louis Kincaid, Robert's brother, said that he had also previously worked in central Africa.
His last known point of contact is understood to have been a video call with a friend made from a bar in the airport.
Louis told this newspaper: 'I think he was in the airport bar having a chat basically. As far as I'm aware, there was nothing bad said, there was nothing suspicious said.
'They were just having a bit of craic over the phone.
'He's a very sociable person, but he could have met someone in the airport bar — we just don't know.'
The 38-year-old's last known point of contact was on July 17
A friend video-called Robert again, although a stranger answered the phone instead.
'It looked like [they were in] a tin corrugated roof building. They basically said the phone [battery] was on 0% in broken English,' Louis explained.
The second and final call made to Robert's phone was picked up by a woman, but the caller was unable to make out what was said before the line was cut off and has been uncontactable ever since.
Messages to Robert on WhatsApp and other social media are also no longer being delivered.
Louis added: 'We're in the dark. We went through the PSNI. We went through the embassy — they've done a fantastic job. I have to give credit to the two girls who are working there now.
'We're trying to get some details, but there are a lot of restrictions with GDPR regarding missing people and it's just roadblocks.'
After contacting the PSNI, Louis was directed towards the French authorities, but has found difficulty making contact from Northern Ireland.
Louis and a family friend will fly to Paris on Wednesday to meet with British embassy officials who will help the pair liaise with local police.
'There's going to be someone meeting us.
'The Foreign Office has organised someone to meet us, it's someone in the airport,' said Louis.
'They're going to help us with translation, and we're going to file an official missing persons report in Paris, and then we're just going to be going about, putting posters all around places.'
Louis added: 'He doesn't have any contacts in France, but he is a very sociable person, he would make friends with anyone.'
He explained that his family is growing increasingly worried as time goes on.
Louis said: 'They're holding together, it's just the unknown.
'Mum's not really sleeping at the moment. It is starting to get to her as the days go on.'
The Paris police have been contacted for comment.
Robert Kincaid
News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday, July 29

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner view: We need more gardaí but facial recognition could help the force do its job
Many claims are made to support the widespread introduction of facial recognition technology (FRT). Mostly they relate to policing and the efficiencies which could be gained in an era when An Garda Síochána continuously finds it difficult to fill vacancies. This was underlined this week when it was revealed that 7,000 fewer drug searches were carried out last year, compared to 2022. They dropped 15% for the entire country, but by as much as 43% in Clare/Tipperary and 34% in Cork City. If this is a consequence, as officers maintain, of fewer gardaí 'on the streets' then what will happen when almost 1,900 members of the force become eligible to retire over the next three years? There is an inexorable logic to future demands that this shortfall be managed, in part, by more widespread use of technology. Unfortunately, that runs directly into mounting worries about civil liberties and the rights of ordinary citizens to pursue legitimate interests free from unjustified official intrusion and oversight. Politicians recognise the dangers of being portrayed as agents of some form of deep state. They have been slow to introduce body cameras for guards and our government is taking baby steps on plans for incorporation of real-time facial recognition technology into next gen surveillance techniques. Justice minister Jim O'Callaghan has said a bill currently before the Dáil will not provide for the use of real-time FRT but its future deployment has not been ruled out in cases of terrorism, national security, and missing persons 'with strict safeguards'. This would have to be considered for inclusion in any subsequent bill. Live facial recognition technology uses video footage of crowds passing a camera and automatically compares their images against a police database of people on a 'watch list'. Senior officers will, no doubt, be keenly observing what happens next door. The UK, along with Germany, is already Europe's leading exponent of CCTV with more than 5m units in position compared to the few thousand we have in Ireland. Now the Metropolitan Police, the UK's largest force, is set to double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments every week. It justifies the move as part of a restructuring to offset the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff in a budgetary crisis. Its new tactics will be implemented at the sometimes tempestuous Notting Hill Carnival at the end of this month. The Met's commissioner, Mark Rowley, says: It's a fantastic piece of technology. It's very responsibly used, and that's why most of the public support it. The problem for civil liberties campaigners resides in the last line of that quote. The majority of citizens don't like society being under-policed, something which they equate with criminals being given an easy run and producing the kind of gloomy results contained in the recent drug search statistics. Last year, British police scanned some 4.7m faces using the technology, more than double the figure for 2023. Most senior officers believe the cameras are on their way to becoming 'commonplace' in England and Wales. The challenge for our society is to ensure the law on FRT, and any protection it contains for the rights of citizens, does not get outpaced by its use. Crimefighting success in nearby jurisdictions is likely to increase clamour for its deployment. When happiness is the best revenge The tariffs announced on Friday for 69 trading partners of the US — ranging from 41% for Syria to 10% for the UK — have all the hallmarks of a running joke. But a joke of the worst possible kind, one which has gone on too long. Shoppers enjoying a hula hoop demonstration in Cork in the run-up to Christmas, 1958. Joan Anderson, who sparked the hula hoop craze in the US died this week aged 101. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive It would be easy to complain this morning but, to draw a lesson from Monty Python, it is better to look on the bright side of life. And there is plenty there to lighten our load. American scientists have just confirmed that the world's longest streak of lightning — a 'megaflash' — covered more than 500 miles, from Texas to the outskirts of Kansas City. Meanwhile a holidaymaker rockpooling on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has rediscovered a species of jellyfish, Depastrum cyathiforme, thought to have been extinct for 50 years. If both these reports carry a whiff of what used to known in newsrooms as 'the silly season', then we commend the heartwarming story following the death of the Australian woman who brought the concept of the hula hoop to the US, igniting one of the biggest crazes of the previous century. Joan Anderson, who died this week aged 101, failed to gain financially from a fad which had hundreds of millions of participants. She filed a lawsuit against the toy company which exploited her idea and eventually settled for minor compensation. But, in a message we might all usefully reflect on in 2025, Joan said: 'Why be angry with something you can't change? The world isn't fair but life goes on. 'I had a great life. My husband lived to be 87 and we had 63 wonderful years together. 'Happiness is the best revenge.' What's your view on this issue? You can tell us here Last supper for Gregg Wallace 'Who's the Daddy?' It's just the sort of slang phrase you can imagine being used by Gregg Wallace at the height of his laddish popularity as a TV personality, something that viewers will be able to experience for conceivably the last time starting next week. Allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and language were made against presenter Gregg Wallace after the forthcoming MasterChef series was recorded. Picture: BBC/PA It's certainly an adequate description of MasterChef, which in its various iterations, can be viewed as the durable forerunner of international format programming. From its launch in 1990, under the rather different stewardship of Loyd Grossman, it has been mimicked by a number of hugely successful shows all utilising a comfortingly predictable participatory and voyeuristic formula. What is common to all these programmes is that they contain lesser or greater amounts of humiliation for the contestants and the occasional soupcon of cruelty, presumably just enough to meet modern tastes without, showrunners hope, tipping over into something darker. The global MasterChef franchise has been better than most at attracting interest, watched by hundreds of millions worldwide. The upcoming series, filmed last year and which will begin on BBC One next Wednesday, was produced before allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and language were made against Wallace. His co-presenter John Torode was accused of making a racist comment — euphemistically known as 'the N-word' — at a social gathering more than five years ago. He says he has no recollection of doing so. After an independent review by the Lewis Silkin legal practice, which also has offices in Dublin and Belfast, Torode was told that his contract with the BBC would not be renewed. The Silkin team upheld 45 allegations against Wallace including claims of inappropriate sexual language and one incident of unwelcome physical contact over a 17-year-timeline. The decision on whether to air this latest series featuring the two sacked presenters has been fraught. It has been on hold since the accusations emerged with the BBC deciding it should go ahead after most of the contestants supported its broadcast. John Torode and Gregg Wallace. The decision on whether to air the already-recorded latest series of MasterChef featuring the two sacked presenters has been fraught. File picture: PA/BBC/Shine TV Most, but not all. One participant wanted the whole show canned, and has now been edited out of the final version. 'For me, it's about the enabling environment,' she said. 'It's that complicity. Those individual powerful men do not [act] in isolation. There is an enabling environment, turning a blind eye ... it's about years of these institutions not being accountable.' Sincere though these expressions are, based on the evidence this seems extreme. All potential viewers have the sanction of the on-off button. How many use it is likely to determine whether we get to see the Celebrity MasterChef series and the Christmas special. Wallace looks to be a serious loser. His access to international networks is being replaced by his reported plan to launch a private chat room (€13.50 a month) for men over the age of 50. 'Real talk, real support — hosted by Gregg Wallace. Fitness, food, lifestyle, laughs. Sign up below and pop in to say hello' — says the blurb. It sounds a more measured approach than one of his responses to complaints made against him. On that occasion, ignoring the dictum that, when you are in a hole, you should stop digging, he hit out at 'middle class women of a certain age'. Perhaps this is a lesson learned. Perhaps chippy masculinity will come back into fashion. But that is probably not the way to bet.

The Journal
2 hours ago
- The Journal
First person jailed over Ballymena riots handed four-month sentence
THE FIRST PERSON convicted of rioting in Ballymena, Co Antrim, in June has been handed down a four month prison term by Ballymena Magistrates' Court. Jamie Lee McCracken (34) was sentenced yesterday to four months in custody after he pleaded guilty to riotous behaviour. McCracken, of no fixed address, was arrested 'during one of the nights of sustained race-motivated disorder', a statement from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said, in the area of Bridge Street on Wednesday 11 June. The first night of rioting in Ballymena began after a vigil for the victim of alleged sexual assault, when people learned that two teenage men accused of sexually assaulting the victim required a Romanian translator in court. Advertisement Nightly violence then occurred in a number of locations in Northern Ireland. Multiple buildings and the homes of immigrants were targeted, with many damaged, vandalised or set on fire. PSNI Chief Superintendent Sue Steen said McCracken was seen throwing a brick towards officers and was arrested minutes later in the Linenhall Street/Church Street area. She said the police force has charged 46 people and made 53 arrests in relation to the riots to date. The arrested people were men and women aged between 12 and 56. Steen added that the prosecution of those involved in the riots will continue over the coming months. 'Our dedicated public order inquiry team is working tirelessly to ensure that those involved in this shameful violence are brought before our courts to face the consequences of their actions,' she said. Steen described the riots as 'shameful' and 'largely motivated by pure race hatred'. Related Reads I went to talk to people in Ballymena, and was told to make myself 'scarce' or there'd be trouble 'This area of Ballymena town was ravaged by people intent on causing harm. Damage was caused to roads, homes, cars and local business premises with people left fearing for their lives,' she said. 'Our officers came under attack and many left injured after petrol bombs, heavy masonry and fireworks were thrown at them,' she added. She said the PSNI will 'work tirelessly' to restore calm and ensure that anyone who was involved in the riots will be brought to justice. Speaking to those affected by the violence in Ballymena, Steen said: 'We are committed to keeping our communities safe. Hate crime has no place in our society and we will continue to be proactive in our approach to ensure justice for victims.' 'We would also repeat our appeal to anyone who has been the victim of, or has any information on, any crime to contact police on 101, or 999 in an emergency. We can assure you that we will always act on concerns and information we receive.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal

The 42
3 hours ago
- The 42
West Ham's Lucas Paqueta cleared of spot-fixing charges
LUCAS PAQUETA HAS been cleared of misconduct charges related to alleged breaches of the English Football Association's betting rules, his club West Ham have announced. The Brazilian was charged with four alleged breaches of FA Rule E5.1 by the FA in May 2024 in relation to matches involving West Ham. It was alleged Paqueta directly sought to influence matches by intentionally seeking to receive a card from the referee for the improper purpose of affecting the betting market, in order for one or more persons to profit from betting. He denied the charges and an independent regulatory commission found the charges not proven following a hearing. The English FA said two charges against Paqueta related to a failure to co-operate with its investigation had been found proven. The English FA said a commission would decide on an appropriate sanction for those proven breaches 'at the earliest opportunity'. Advertisement The games Paqueta had allegedly sought to influence were the Hammers' Premier League matches against Leicester on 12 November, 2022, Aston Villa on 12 March, 2023, Leeds on 21 May, 2023 and Bournemouth on 12 August, 2023. Paqueta said in quotes released via the club: 'Since the first day of this investigation, I have maintained my innocence against these extremely serious accusations. 'I can't say anything more at this time, but I would like to express how grateful I am to God and how eager I am to return to playing football with a smile on my face. 'To my wife who never let go of my hand, to West Ham United, to the fans who always cheered me on and to my family, friends and the legal team who have supported me – thank you for everything.' West Ham vice-chair Karren Brady added: 'We are pleased Lucas has been cleared. 'He has maintained his innocence from the outset and as a club we have resolutely stood by him and supported him throughout the process. 'Despite the incredible pressure on him, Lucas has performed week in and week out for the club, always giving everything. 'It has been a difficult time for Lucas and his family, but he has remained absolutely professional throughout and he is now looking forward to drawing a line under this episode, as is everyone at West Ham United.' Alastair Campbell, a partner at the law firm Level and the head of Paqueta's legal team, said: 'Few cases carry the gravity of this one – professionally, personally and emotionally for our client. 'Lucas has faced down immense pressure with remarkable strength and resilience. 'Level is delighted that we've been able to help demonstrate that Lucas' integrity as a player and a person is in no doubt. 'Now, he can finally get back to focusing on the things that matter most to him – playing football and being with his family.' The English FA said it was awaiting the written reasons from the independent commission in relation to its decision on the charges, and would not be commenting further until that time.