Latest news with #AndrewMichael
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Toff terrorist could be let out from prison: Parole board is considering release of ex-public schoolboy who plotted suicide bombing on shopping centre
One of Britain's most dangerous terrorists could soon be back on the streets, MailOnline can reveal. Former public schoolboy Andrew Michael, known as Isa Ibrahim after he converted to Islam, was jailed aged 20 when he was found to be plotting a suicide bomb attack on Bristol's Broadmead shopping centre. However, far from having a tough upbringing, the terrorist who idolised Osama Bin Laden was the toff son of Christian church-going parents and lived in a £1million gated mansion in Bristol. His father Dr Nassif Ibrahim was an Egyptian-born NHS consultant pathologist at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol and his elder brother Peter graduated from Jesus College, Oxford, and became a software engineer. But Ibrahim fell under the spell of Muslim radicals such as the 7/7 bombers, Abu Hamza and Omar Bakri Muhammad after watching recordings of their speeches on the internet and converted to Islam. He was unknown to police, and cops only arrested him in 2008 'a matter of hours or days' before he was about to blow himself up with a suicide vest created using internet instructions after a tip-off from the local Muslim community. On July 16, 2009, he was convicted at Winchester Crown Court of making an explosive with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury and preparation of terrorist acts. He was sentenced to an indeterminate prison sentence with a minimum term of ten years. Only three years ago in 2022, he was denied parole on the basis that he was still a danger to society. The now-36-year-old could soon taste freedom after the Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood referred Ibrahim's case to the Parole Board, which is considering whether to release him. A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: 'We can confirm the parole review of Isa Ibrahim has been referred to the Parole Board by the Secretary of State for Justice and is following standard processes. 'Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community. 'A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims. 'Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing. 'Evidence from witnesses such as probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements may be given at the hearing. 'It is standard for the prisoner and witnesses to be questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.' 'A decision on Ibrahim's case is expected over coming weeks.' Brought up in a luxury gated mansion in the leafy Bristol suburb of Frenchay, Ibrahim seemed set for a prosperous life. But his unruly behaviour and developing drug habit began to take their toll. By the time he was arrested, Ibrahim was a regular hard-drug user who was expelled from three different private schools and had first experimented with cannabis when he was just 12 years old. Ibrahim was first expelled from £19,065-a-year Colston's School before being thrown out of the £9,885-a-year Queen Elizabeth Hospital school in Bristol aged 12 for smoking cannabis. He moved to writer Auberon Waugh's former school, the £24,141-a-year strict Roman Catholic Downside School in Bath as a boarder, but was expelled for drinking alcohol in the dorm and going missing. He ended up at the £7,500-a-year Bristol Cathedral School, where he passed nine GCSEs with good grades. While a student at the City of Bristol College, he made explosives and a suicide vest in his flat and carried out extensive surveillance at Broadmead shopping centre in Bristol, where he planned to cause the maximum damage by using nails and ball bearings in his bomb. He bought the main components for the suicide bomb from high street shops, including branches of Boots. A bomb disposal expert stands by an area cordoned off for a controlled explosion outside Ibrahim's home in 2008 Thirty of Ibrahim's neighbours were evacuated and a controlled explosion was carried out following the raid at 2am on April 18, 2008 Ibrahim was only caught after members of the Al-Baseera mosque in Bristol saw injuries he suffered while testing the explosive and, concerned about his extreme views and what he may be planning, told police that a white Muslim convert was acting suspiciously. It is believed to have been the first time that the Muslim community had played a central role in bringing a potential terrorist bomber to justice. When police entered his flat in Comb Paddock, Bristol, police found between 125 and 245g of the unstable explosive Hexamethylene Triperoxide Diamine, also known as HMTD, the same substance used in the July 7, 2005 London bombings. He had stored it in a McVitie's Family Circle biscuit tin in Ibrahim's fridge. There was so much explosive powder in his flat that the kitchen floor crackled under their feet. Ibrahim had also made an electrical circuit capable of detonating the explosive at short range. Police also found a half-made suicide vest and films of Ibrahim testing the explosives on the floor of his flat. Ibrahim made the HMTD and his suicide vest entirely through instructions from the internet. Soldiers from the Royal Logistic Corps also had to carry out controlled explosions at his home. There was also a large amount of radical literature in the flat and when he was arrested the book Milestones by Sayyid Qutb was in his rucksack. The book advocates jihad and radical Islam. Detective Chief Inspector Matt Iddon said: 'It soon became very, very clear that his kitchen had become an explosive laboratory.' DCI Iddon said Ibrahim had planned to set his suicide vest off in a crowded area of the shopping centre. He said: 'He identified that the food court was a dense area. It's full of families – husband, wives, children, groups of young friends – relaxing and enjoying the day. 'He intended to blow himself up there.' He added: 'He was not on any security services radar. He was completely unknown.' When he was arrested, Ibrahim told officers: 'My mum's going to kill me. Am I going to be on the news?' His father Nassif, mother Victoria and brother Peter were in court every day for the trial 16 years ago. At Ibrahim's trial, where he denied the charges, he said he had trouble interacting and making friends, and admitted even as an adult he talked to teddy bears. Even as he was detained in Belmarsh prison, he thought it would 'give him status' to be in the same jail as the likes of hate cleric Abu Hamza. He claimed he had no intent to harm but just wanted to set the vest off and film. Trial judge Judge Mr Justice Butterfield told the terrorist: 'You were, in my judgment, a lonely and angry young person at the time of these events, with a craving for attention. 'You are a dangerous young man, well capable of acting on the views you held in the spring of 2008.' His mother fled the court in tears as the sentence was passed and since he was jailed his family have regularly visited him in prison.
ABC News
09-06-2025
- Climate
- ABC News
South Australian drought sets low-rainfall records in farming areas
All of South Australia's agricultural areas are in a severe drought, with many locations receiving record-low rainfall over the past 12 months. The Mid North and the upper Eyre Peninsula have had the least rainfall and the majority of the record lows, although no place in the southern part of the state is unaffected, according to data from the Bureau of Meteorology. While farmers were able to harvest a good crop in 2024–25 because of sub-soil moisture from previous wet years, the ground is now bone dry. The Mid North town of Snowtown received a record-low amount of rain in 2024, and over the past 12 months the figure is even lower at 209 millimetres. Only 26mm has been recorded at the town's weather station since the start of the year. Snowtown sheep and mixed cropping farmer Andrew Michael has seeded in the hope of rain coming. "We have no sub-soil moisture left, which has got us through now for the last two-and-a-half [years] prior to this … but the loss if we don't get a grain year will be a massive impact," he said. His family also owns properties in Meningie and Willalooka, in the South East, which have also recorded extremely low rainfall. Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Jonathan Pollock said South Australia's drought was not particularly long-lasting or widespread like the 1997–2009 millennium drought, but it was quite deep. "It certainly is record-breaking in the sense that for a lot of the agricultural areas they have never seen a 16-month period from February to the following year's May with rainfall this low — and that's looking at data going all the way back to 1900," Mr Pollock said. He said it was caused by the atmosphere above the state being dominated by slow-moving high-pressure systems rather than cooler systems that brought rain with them. "Part of the reason why is we've seen a shift towards drier conditions across south-eastern Australia in recent decades and we're seeing more frequent periods of below-average rainfall and especially for the cool-season months from April through to October," he said. "This is due to a combination of natural variability on longer timescales but also changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulation largely driven by an increase in greenhouse gas emissions." The bureau's latest seasonal climate summary says the mean temperature across South Australia in autumn was 21.3 degrees Celsius, or 1.75C above the 1961–1990 average and the third warmest on record for all autumns since 1910. Better farming practices that make the most of sub-soil moisture led to a 5.2-million-tonne grain harvest in 2024–25. That was 40 per cent below the five-year average but 80 per cent above what was reaped in 2006–07 — another drought year. Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) general manager for industrial partnerships and intelligence Matthew Palmer said the productivity increase over the past 20 years was "quite remarkable and a testament to producers and the research and development that supports the grains industry". "It's certainly been a very challenging season and it continues to be, but the result overall is quite remarkable compared with what would have happened in droughts in years gone by," he told the South Australian Country Hour. Ninety-year-old Vic Smith has kept rainfall records in Nangwarry since 1985, when he moved to the town to work at the timber mill. He recorded 102mm of rain until the end of May — similar to last year but about half the normal amount. He said he was worried about the conditions of plantation forests. "It's dangerously dry," Mr Smith said. Mr Smith started calling into the ABC in 1999 to report his rainfall records while at the same time promoting the Nangwarry Forestry Museum where he volunteered until last year. He has not given up his habit despite retiring. "It's something you can look back on and compare year by year, which I do. And, if I hadn't have done that, I wouldn't have realised how much drier it was this year than other years," he said.
Sydney Morning Herald
31-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Manly Sea Eagles co-owner sells stylish Bellevue Hill home circa $17m
Manly Sea Eagles co-owner Andrew Michael and his wife Michele Ann Brooks have sold their Bellevue Hill home for circa $17 million. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom home has had a beautiful Arent& Pyke -redesign since the couple purchased the home, under Michele's name, in 1997 for $1,575,000. The property has increased $551,000 every year since. With iconic city views, a marble kitchen and butler's pantry and multiple living spaces, the home last had a price guide of $16.5 million to $17.5 million before it sold via private treaty, and local sources said it sold within the guide. Michael, who bought a stake in the NRL club 10 years ago and remains a director, is also a long-standing director of Apparel Group that owns brands such as Sportscraft, SABA and Jag. The home sold through Randall Kemp of Ray White The Woollahra Group, who declined to comment when contacted. Surfer's paradise in Manly The tightly held home of green capital expert Peter Trueman and his wife Zena Hanna on Manly's coveted Bower Street is on the market with a $14 million price guide. The couple is downsizing from their four-bedroom, two-bathroom house, which has breathtaking views out to surrounding beaches and is moments from Shelly Beach and Marine Parade.
News.com.au
10-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Sea Eagles owner drops price on luxury Bellevue Hill mansion
The co-owner of Manly Warringah Sea Eagles has dropped the price of his stunning Bellevue Hill mansion. There were hopes of more than $20m when the five-bedroom residence with iconic Sydney views at 5 Bulkara Rd first hit the market last October. But there were no bites and the guide is now $16.5-$17.5m via Ray White Double Bay's Di Wilson and Ashley Bierman. The home is in the name of Michele Brooks, wife of Andrew Michael who has a share in the Sea Eagles alongside the NRL club's chairman Scott Penn. Michael, who has more than 40 years in the fashion industry as the director at Apparel Group, and his wife have been revealed as buyers of a $24m penthouse at the luxury Billyard Ave development in Elizabeth Bay. The couple had bought the original home on the 967sqm block in Bulkara Rd for $1,575,000 in 1997, but later rebuilt and then renovated again a decade ago. The impressive Arendt and Pyke-designed residence features stylish open-plan living spaces, large open-air courtyards, designer bathrooms and in-ground swimming pool. The house is all on one level and comes with a gourmet marble kitchen with butlers pantry and well-designed bedrooms and a bespoke home office. It's in one of the best streets in Bellevue Hill and has views over Double Bay, the Harbour Bridge, the city and Bondi Junction skylines. It's also close to all the best private schools in the East.
