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The Irish Sun
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
Popular Strictly pro set to have their inspiring life story told on BBC in ‘pinch me' moment
HE rose from humble origins in South Africa and endured years of homophobic bullying in school before becoming a Strictly Come Dancing favourite. Now Advertisement 5 Johannes Radebe rose from humble origins in South Africa Credit: BBC 5 He endured years of homophobic bullying in school before becoming a Strictly Come Dancing favourite Credit: Getty 5 Johannes reached the final with chef John Whaite in 2021 Credit: Getty 5 John and Johannes lost out to ex-EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice Credit: Splash The South African pro was persuaded to stay on the show this year despite a busy schedule that saw him making his biopic and touring the nation with musical Kinky Boots. I exclusively revealed two years ago how This week, he said: 'It's a 'pinch me' moment. "The beginning stages are happening now and BBC Films have just jumped on board too. Advertisement Read More on TV 'It simply means that my people, who helped me get where I am, are worthy and they can dream because I know where they come from. "There are a lack of role models and they feel like they can't achieve anything but I hope this is like a beacon of light for them to say all of you contributed to me and my success is your success.' Johannes joined Strictly in 2018. In 2021 he reached the final with chef Advertisement Most read in News TV Strictly's Johannes Radebe heartbroken as family are BANNED from entering country and miss his big opening night of show NEW TAKE ON PUB BOMBING THE team behind BBC's Line Of Duty are planning a drama about the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Simon Heath, who heads up World Productions, believes it's time viewers learnt more about the 21 victims of the IRA attack. 5 Six men from Northern Ireland served 16 years in prison after being wrongly convicted for the bombing in 1975. Advertisement They became known as the Birmingham Six. The new drama will focus on the lives of the victims and their loved ones who have campaigned for justice. Brummie Simon said: 'Everyone knows about the Birmingham Six, but the families of the 21 victims still don't know who planted the bombs. 'They don't get the publicity they deserve. But there's a script and we're going to try. Advertisement 'I just want to support the city. 'I don't think it has had a fair crack of the whip.' LARRY LAMB says his turn as Mick Shipman in Gavin & Stacey: The Finale will likely be his last on the box. The actor said he would consider taking on small stage parts 'to keep my face in' but insisted that he's happy to let others perform the 'bigger roles' and head into retirement. Advertisement NATURE'S CALLING DOUGIE The ITV series, which starts tonight at 9pm, follows celebs as they take to treacherous waters off Bimini in the Bahamas. Facing the beasts has changed the McFly and I'm A Celeb winner forever. He said: 'I came back and it hit me so hard that I'm not still out there doing it. I think I want to do nature stuff for the rest of my life, in any sort of capacity. Advertisement 'Any trip I do or TV show, I hope it has a nature element in it, because that's what I'm happy doing. 'I feel connected to what we actually are, just creatures of Earth, without sounding cheesy. 'I'm sharing the planet with all these other things that are way more fascinating than myself.' CILLIAN'S DREAM CILLIAN MURPHY swapped the brutality of Peaky Blinders for a children's animation, so his kids have the chance to enjoy his work. Advertisement The actor, best known as Tommy Shelby in the gritty saga, lends his voice to play Dad in Kensuke's Kingdom. Cillian said: 'I had read Kensuke's Kingdom to my boys when they were little and they were enthralled by it. 'I wanted to be involved in the film version so they could see it, and also because I don't really make that many films for kids.' An adaptation of Michael Morpugo's book, follows a young boy who is shipwrecked on a remote island after falling overboard during a family sailing trip. Advertisement He discovers he's not alone when he encounters Kensuke, a former Japanese soldier who has lived there since World War Two. It lands on the BBC next month. LONG-RUNNING Aussie soap Neighbours filmed its last ever scenes on Friday after being scrapped for a second time. Advertisement
Extra.ie
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Extra.ie
Kneecap member's legal team includes barrister who freed Birmingham Six
Kneecap member Mo Chara- who was formally charged with terrorism offences at a London court on Wednesday – has hired a crack defence team. His legal reps include the barrister who successfully defended the wrongfully convicted Birmingham Six bombers; a solicitor who acted for Paddy Jackson in the notorious 'rugby trial' and an international rights lawyer who argued on behalf of South Africa in the 'genocide' case against the state of Israel. The Northern Irish rapper's souped-up defence team can be considered as somewhat of an indicator of the gravity of the charges levelled against him which could carry a hefty term behind bars. Kneecap band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court. Pic: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock Four weeks ago, the Metropolitan Police announced that the 27-year-old performer had been charged under his real name Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh under the Terrorism Act on May 21 for 'displaying a flag in support of Hizballah, a proscribed organisation'. Subsequent to the charges, Kneecap announced that they would vehemently defend the charges. And with the conscription of the crack defence panel, it would appear that they intend to mount a robust defence in an effort to stave off jail time. The biggest hitter of the defence team is Guildford Four and Birmingham Six lawyer Gareth Peirce. Gareth Peirce (centre) at Westminster Magistrates' Court ahead of the court appearance of Kneecap band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara. Pic:Ms Peirce is often described as one of the UK's leading human rights lawyers. She represented the Guildford Four as they fought to prove their wrongful convictions over the IRA's 1974 Guildford pub bombings. The case was made into a film in 'In the Name of the Father', with Emma Thompson playing the lawyer. Ms Peirce, who also went on to represent WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his fight against US extradition, is joined on Mo Chara's legal team by Belfast-based Darragh Mackin of Phoenix Law. Darragh Mackin (right) with Kneecap band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (left), who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, arriving at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday morning. Pic: Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images Belfast-based solicitor Mr Mackin hit the headlines when he took on the case of former Irish rugby international star Paddy Jackson in the infamous trial that gripped the nation both North and South of the border. A one time star of the rugby world in 2017 Mr Jackson was charged with rape for which he was subsequently tried and cleared with a not guilty verdict after a protracted legal case in 2018. Paddy Jackson outside court in Belfast in February 2018. Pic:And beefing up the star-studded defence bench are three highly accomplished female members of the U.K. bar association. Brenda Campbell KC, Jude Bunting KC and Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC have been drafted into what is set to be a highly contentious case. Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January 2024. Pic: Selman Aksunger/Anadolu via Getty Images Perhaps the most high-profile of the aforementioned legal bigwigs is Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC, who last year was tasked by South Africa with presenting its 'genocide' case against Israel in the International Court of Human Rights.
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ten Britons accused of committing war crimes while fighting for Israel in Gaza
A war crimes complaint against 10 Britons who served with the Israeli military in Gaza is to be submitted to the Met police by one of the UK's leading human rights lawyers. Michael Mansfield KC is one of a group of lawyers who will on Monday hand in a 240-page dossier to Scotland Yard's war crimes unit alleging targeted killing of civilians and aid workers, including by sniper fire, and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals. The report, which has been prepared by a team of UK lawyers and researchers in The Hague, also accuses suspects of coordinated attacks on protected sites including historic monuments and religious sites, and forced transfer and displacement of civilians. For legal reasons, neither the names of suspects, who include officer-level individuals, nor the full report are being made public. Israel has persistently denied that its political leaders or military have committed war crimes during its assault on Gaza, in which it has killed more than 50,000 people, most of them civilians. The military campaign was in response to Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people, also mostly civilian, were killed and a further 250 taken hostage. Mansfield, who is known for his work on landmark cases such as the Grenfell Tower fire, Stephen Lawrence and the Birmingham Six, said: 'If one of our nationals is committing an offence, we ought to be doing something about it. Even if we can't stop the government of foreign countries behaving badly, we can at least stop our nationals from behaving badly. 'British nationals are under a legal obligation not to collude with crimes committed in Palestine. No one is above the law.' The report, which has been submitted on behalf of the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the British-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), covers alleged offences committed in the territory from October 2023 to May 2024 and took six months to compile. Each of the crimes attributed to the 10 suspects, some of whom are dual nationals, amounts to a war crime or crime against humanity, according to the report. One witness, who was at a medical facility, saw corpses 'scattered on the ground, especially in the middle of the hospital courtyard, where many dead bodies were buried in a mass grave'. A bulldozer 'ran over a dead body in a horrific and heart-wrenching scene desecrating the dead', the witness said. They also said a bulldozer demolished part of the hospital. Sean Summerfield, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, who helped compile the dossier, said it was based on open-source evidence and witness testimony, which together presented a 'compelling' case. 'The public will be shocked, I would have thought, to hear that there's credible evidence that Brits have been directly involved in committing some of those atrocities,' he said, adding that the team wanted to see individuals 'appearing at the Old Bailey to answer for atrocity crimes'. The report says Britain has a responsibility under international treaties to investigate and prosecute those who have committed 'core international crimes'. Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 states that it 'is an offence against the law of England and Wales for a person to commit genocide, a crime against humanity, or a war crime', even if it takes place in another country. Raji Sourani, the director of the PCHR, said: 'This is illegal, this is inhuman and enough is enough. The government cannot say we didn't know; we are providing them with all the evidence.' Paul Heron, the legal director of the PILC, said: 'We're filing our report to make clear these war crimes are not in our name.' Scores of legal and human rights experts have signed a letter of support urging the war crimes team to investigate the complaints.
Telegraph
05-04-2025
- Telegraph
Letby barrister: US death row inmates have better shot at freedom than wrongfully convicted Britons
Mark McDonald is sitting in the Great Hall refectory at Lincoln's Inn, demolishing a jerk chicken, surrounded by a 'Who's Who' of barristers and judges. Since taking on the case of Lucy Letby, the barrister has been rocking boats in the legal establishment with a string of press conferences protesting the nurse's innocence and is refusing to keep a low profile. 'I have a black-tie reception here tonight with Lady Justice Thirlwall,' he says, speaking of the judge conducting the public inquiry into how Letby could have been stopped. 'Let's see if she talks to me.' Mr McDonald believes keeping the case in the public eye is the only way to beat a system that is wholly stacked against those who are wrongly convicted. For him, the mills of justice are not just grinding slowly but are often coming to a complete standstill. Letby is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of killing seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. She has already been in jail for five years. This week, Mr McDonald submitted a 700-page report from a panel of world-leading experts to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which deals with potential miscarriages of justice. The experts insist there were no murders or attacks, simply a perfect storm of poor care, prematurity and natural illness. The Telegraph is now calling for the CCRC to send the case back to the Court of Appeal. 'If I cannot prove, with all these experts, that these convictions are unsafe, then the criminal justice system is in a poor state of affairs,' said Mr McDonald. 'What it would mean is that if you're innocent and wrongly convicted in this country, you've got no chance. 'I spent a lot of time working in America with inmates on death row, and I am reaching the conclusion that if I was wrongly convicted I'd rather be an American than an English person. 'They have an effective court of appeal, because if they get it wrong someone dies. We all thought things would get better after the Birmingham Six or the Guildford Four. But it didn't, it actually got worse.' If Mr McDonald is not toeing the line like a traditional barrister it is because he isn't one. He grew up on an inner-city council estate in Birmingham and left school at 16 to become a sheet-metal worker. He later trained as an operating theatre assistant, working for the NHS for 14 years, which he says gave him first-hand experience of how things can go wrong in hospitals. He had to put himself through night school to gain the A-levels needed to study law. In 2007 he founded the London Innocence Project, a non-profit working to exonerate those wrongfully convicted and helped found Amicus, a charity working to represent inmates on death row in the US. After working in Palestine with the Bar Human Rights Committee he founded the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, and made an unsuccessful bid to become MP for Stoke in 2019. He recently adopted two children with his wife Sarah Macken, the chief executive of Telespazio UK, who herself has stood as a Conservative candidate in Wolverhampton and East Ham. The Letby case is a natural fit for Mr McDonald, who is also defending Ben Geen, a nurse serving 30 years for killing two of his own patients and harming 15 others at Horton General Hospital in Banbury in 2003 and 2004. He has also fought hard to clear Michael Stone, who was convicted of the murders of Lin and Megan Russell and the attempted murder of Josie Russell in Chillenden, Kent in 1996. Serial killer Levi Bellfield has confessed to the murders on two occasions, giving explicit details of the attacks, and a case review is ongoing. But Stone is still in prison despite there being no supporting forensic or witness evidence. Similarly, nobody saw Letby do anything. Doctors became suspicious because she was on duty when each of the babies collapsed or died. ' There was no direct evidence, no forensic evidence, no CCTV evidence, no motive, no post-mortems identifying any issues and everything that happened at the time was seen to be a natural death,' said Mr McDonald. 'This is not the case where something went wrong at trial and the convictions are unsafe because of a problem with the way that the jury were directed, or something like that. 'This is a case where no crime was actually committed, which means she's innocent.' Since her conviction, dozens of doctors, nurses, statisticians, law experts and scientists have come forward to criticise the way evidence was presented to the jury, including Lord Sumption, the former Supreme Court judge, who last weekend said Letby was 'probably innocent'. Letby has already been denied the leave to appeal on two occasions, and the barrister is anticipating a lengthy review process. But he believes if the case is referred back to the Court of Appeal, the prosecution will have a far tougher job than last time. His panel of experts includes Prof Neena Modi, a former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Prof Mikael Norman, the founder of the International Society of Evidence-Based Neonatology, and Prof Helmet Hummler, the senior medical director for the European Foundation for Care of Newborn Infants. 'They're going to have to get experts of a far better quality than they had at trial to match that of the experts that have come forward because I have 24 of them, and I will call all of them because we have to expose what's gone wrong here,' he said. 'I mean, if you're a neonatologist working at Leicester Royal Infirmary would you want to go up against this lot? Because I'll fly them over from Tokyo and Sweden and Germany and Canada. I will call them all.' Chester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service argue that Letby's original defence team could have called experts at her trial to make all the points that are now being raised. Mr McDonald says it is not so simple. Experts are frightened to get involved in contentious cases, particularly baby killings, and some have been referred to the General Medical Council for speaking up in Letby's defence. 'In these types of cases you cannot use experts in England, they won't go against the establishment,' he argues. 'So you have to go to North America, you have to go to mainland Europe and unless you know that you are always going to get the wrong experts. They will do a report for you but they will always ultimately agree with the prosecution.' It is notable that while Mr McDonald has been the public face of the campaign, Letby herself has remained largely in the background. She has never spoken about the case outside of the trial and police interviews and has refused requests to meet or correspond with journalists. 'She has read every report and she is on top of this completely, and she is feeling more hopeful,' he said. 'I've not gone down the path of talking about her as a person because that's what happened throughout the trial, they focused on her rather than focusing on the evidence. 'The evidence is she was one of the most experienced nurses on that unit. She loved her job. She worked all the hours God sends and did extra shifts. 'So yes, she was always there because that is what she did, that was her job, and yes she got the sickest babies because she was asked to look after the sickest babies, because she was one of the most experienced nurses.' He added: 'I think one of the most concerning things is there but for the grace of God go any of us. 'Your child falls over and you take it to A&E and you get someone saying 'well I think this is a non-accidental injury', your child dies in the middle of the night and someone is saying you did it. ' Nurses don't want to work any more and frankly, I don't blame them.' The CCRC can only refer cases to the Court of Appeal if there's a 'real possibility' that a conviction or sentence will be overturned. But the Law Commission is consulting on whether that bar is too high and looks set to recommend that reviewers should focus on their own view, rather than trying to predict the court's response. The dial may be about to shift in Letby's favour. The changes could not come soon enough for Mr McDonald. 'The criminal Court of Appeal needs massive reform, and I believe that there are innocent people in prison who are being failed by our system,' he said. 'There is still a reluctance to overturn what a jury has decided. 'I'm hoping now that in Letby they will see what I think many people in the country now see, that this is a concerning, unsafe conviction that needs to be overturned.'
The Guardian
11-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former solicitor general: UK's miscarriage of justice watchdog is ‘beyond a joke'
The former solicitor general and conservative peer Lord Garnier has said the situation at the miscarriage of justice watchdog is 'beyond a joke' and leaves 'a big hole in our criminal justice fleet'. Following revelations in the Guardian about the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)'s spending on expensive French business courses for its chief executive and allegations about its 'absent' leadership, Garnier said it was time to ask the justice secretary: 'Have you got a grip on this?' The Guardian reported on Monday that the chief executive of the CCRC, Karen Kneller, had regularly attended Insead business school in Fontainebleau over the past five years, including a course whose fees are advertised at more than £21,000 for 10 days' teaching. Helen Pitcher, the former chair of the CCRC, held multiple positions at Insead while Kneller attended these courses. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it would be appointing an interim chair 'as quickly as possible' to conduct a thorough review of how the organisation operates. Garnier, who co-chaired a Westminster commission into the CCRC, was one of several figures calling for an overhaul of the body in light of the reporting. Making reference to a photograph of Pitcher by a motorboat in Montenegro, which she posted during the crisis over the wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson, Garnier said of the dysfunction at the top of the organisation: 'This is a big hole in our criminal justice fleet, I hate to give a nautical term with her boat in Montenegro, but this long ago got to the stage where it's beyond a joke. 'We're talking about human misery for poor Mr Malkinson and other possibly wrongly convicted people in prison. It can't just be a joke show. It can't be a circus. It's got to be a properly functioning organisation, and it's essential. We discovered that way back after the Birmingham Six.' Garnier, who belongs to the parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice, questioned why it was necessary for Kneller to attend multiple expensive Insead courses which 'presumably teaches you all sorts of things, but not necessarily how to run the CCRC'. He said he was 'unpersuaded' that it was 'a good use of public money'. He added: 'There will come a time, and I think it's happening right now, when the secretary of state for justice must pull her finger out and get this sorted out, because it can't just dribble on.' The Guardian revealed that Kneller was accused of attempting to 'sanitise' an independent review into her organisation's handling of Malkinson's case. In response, Malkinson said: 'I am not sure how much more of this my battered psyche can take. In 2018 the incoming CCRC chair was told she needed to fire the CEO to redeem that organisation. Instead, she allowed the CEO to go off to Fontainebleu on fancy training courses while people like me sat behind a door in prison night after night, waiting for the CCRC to act. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion 'The CCRC's arrogance and incompetence cost me 10 extra years in prison, and I am not the only one. Surely the Ministry of Justice can see that it is over for the current CCRC? Overhaul it now.' Matt Foot, co-director of the legal charity Appeal, which was behind Malkinson's exoneration, said: 'For years campaigners and lawyers have been saying that the CCRC does not investigate cases properly. We were told that resources were an issue. These revelations of lavish management spending show that it was not about resources but priorities. The CCRC urgently needs a completely new senior leadership team with a track record of challenging injustice.' A spokesperson for Pitcher said she 'was appointed to overhaul the leadership, processes and governance of the CCRC and her progress towards those goals was acknowledged in every appraisal during her tenure. It is for others to take the CCRC forward now.' A CCRC spokesperson said: 'The CCRC carries out extremely important, challenging work in an often-difficult environment. 'We note that there have been criticisms of us, particularly recently. The hard-working CCRC team remains focused on finding, investigating, and sending potential miscarriages of justice back to the courts; six people have had their cases referred since the start of last month. 'It is not unusual for leaders of high-profile, national organisations to attend advanced management courses.' An MoJ spokesperson said: 'Given the importance of the CCRC's work, we will appoint an interim chair as quickly as possible who will be tasked with conducting a full and thorough review of how the organisation operates.'
