Latest news with #Constance
ITV News
13 hours ago
- General
- ITV News
Parents criticise poor parental leave in Guernsey as it ranks among the worst in the Western world
New parents in Guernsey say they are frustrated over the island's parental leave provision, which is among the worst in the Western world. Unlike Jersey and the UK, Guernsey does not force employers to offer paid maternity or paternity leave. Instead, parents can receive a statutory allowance that is less than minimum wage. One mother, Constance Walden, says: "Every mother I spoke to at some stage was concerned that, financially, they weren't being paid for a period of their maternity at least. It's a shame we don't have that same assistance." Constance adds that some islanders are having to dip into savings to cover the difference. She explains: "Obviously, it wasn't a surprise knowing what I was going to be paid; it was part of my contract. "But the reality of when you are pregnant and going on maternity leave is very different. I did rely on my savings." The amount of maternity leave a mother can take in Guernsey is much less than in Jersey and the UK, and as it stands, there is no legal requirement for employers to pay for it. Also, teacher Kat Arlington found out that if a parent has not been on the island long enough, they are not eligible for the full 26 weeks. She says it means she has been forced to turn down work opportunities, explaining: "We decided to be really transparent with the head teacher and to let him know from the outset. "But then, that's when he informed me that the maternity leave would only be three months, so unfortunately, we couldn't go ahead with the position." Guernsey law allows just two weeks of compulsory paternity leave for fathers - 50 weeks below Jersey and the UK - and no statutory pay. There are also concerns over the island's birth rate, which is unsustainably low. Over the past 10 years, it has dropped by 33% to 422 births last year. ITV News also understands that leave and pay security changes widely between professions, with people now choosing jobs based on what parental leave is offered. Those differences are something Teresa Bott, manager of the children's nursery Bright Beginnings, says she has heard first-hand. She says: "Having spoken to some of our parents recently, I think it's not a one-size-fits-all and perhaps that's the problem. "It depends on who you work for. It depends on the policies in your own place of work." While Guernsey's maternity and paternity legislation has stagnated, some countries have made massive leaps forward. In Estonia, a parent can take up to one and a half years off at full pay. Arther Panov, a Family Policy Advisor at the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, told ITV News: "During the parental leave, you are entitled to 100% of your income that you were earning one year before the beginning of the pregnancy. "When this maternity leave ends, any parent, either mother or father, is entitled to share parental leave, which can last up to when a child is three years old." ITV News contacted the new President of Employment and Social Security, Deputy Tina Bury, on whether there are plans to change Guernsey's legislation. However, we were told that the committee needs some time before it can decide its priorities for the political term.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
As a barrister, there was one question I desperately wanted to ask Erin Patterson
There is a particular detail about the so-called 'mushroom trial' in Gippsland that I can't get out of my head. Police located and catalogued over 400 books in the home of the defendant, Erin Patterson. The forensic purpose of this analysis was revealed when prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, put to the defendant in cross-examination that not one of the books found in her home was devoted to the subject of mushrooms. The point was to demonstrate to the jury that Patterson's purported interest in foraging for fungi was a recent invention, and no more than a feint. I am a barrister, albeit not of the criminal variety, and I wanted to throw on my robes and be permitted a cameo in Gippsland. I had a question for Patterson. Among the hundreds of books located in her belongings, is there a copy of Shirley Jackson's classic gothic novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle? Jackson's macabre tale, told from the perspective of Mary Katherine (Merricat), offers a number of eerie parallels with the beef Wellington meal served in Leongatha. Six years before the story starts, Merricat's parents and younger brother have died of arsenic poisoning after sitting down to eat a meal prepared by her sister, Constance. Uncle Julian ingested poison, but survived, and lives with his nieces. Constance was charged with murder, but has been acquitted. Towards the end of the novel, Merricat confides: 'I said aloud to Constance, 'I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die'. Constance stirred, and the leaves rustled, 'The way you did before?' she asked. It had never been spoken of between us, not once in six years. 'Yes,' I said after a minute, 'the way I did before'.' No reason or motive for the murders is ever revealed. The reader is left to sit with the uncomfortable knowledge that Merricat has poisoned her family, but has not told us why. Spotted among the regular attendees at Patterson's trial were Melbourne authors Chloe Hooper, Sarah Krasnostein and Helen Garner. Hooper is the author of The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2009), a powerful book about the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee, and Garner's books about trials and crimes, including This House of Grief: Story of a Murder Trial (2014) deserve their legendary status. Later, it was confirmed that the trio will soon release a book. No doubt it will be a poignant account of the deaths of Gail Patterson, Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson and the trial of Erin Patterson. I cannot hope to emulate their writing, I have nothing more august to offer than this short piece: This House of Beef (Wellington). But thinking about the family tragedy behind the mushroom trial has now caused me to dwell on a triumvirate of notorious cases of Victorian children murdered by their fathers that have intersected with my life: Darcey Freeman, the Farquharson boys, and Luke Batty. My connection with the death of Luke Batty was direct and intimate. I was briefed to appear for his mother Rosie Batty in the 2015 inquest into the death of her son. The tragedy of Luke's murder at the hands of his abusive father haunts me to this day. During the inquest, I experienced but a fraction of the intense media scrutiny that the legal teams have endured during the Patterson trial. And I know how destabilising it can be. Each day of the inquest there was a phalanx of cameras waiting for us outside the Coroners Court. I was pregnant with my daughter who is now 10 years old. My swelling belly, proof of the life within, felt utterly obscene in light of the tragedy that we were there to attempt to make sense of. By the time of the last sittings in December 2014, I was nearly six months pregnant. I was in the public bathrooms often – attending to the frequent urgent needs of a heavily pregnant woman aged 43. In those small, too close stalls, I could hear women milling near the wash basins tsk-tsking and tutt-tutting over the evidence that had been adduced before the break. I overheard some of them confide in one another that they had nothing to do with either the proceedings or the Batty family, but had taken leave to watch the inquest as a form of spectacle. I remember feeling overcome in the tiny bathroom and needing to move deftly to dodge the outstretched hands of matronly types attempting to touch my growing belly – as if the baby inside me were as much available for public consumption and commentary as the child whose awful death we were all there to bear witness to.
The Age
5 days ago
- The Age
As a barrister, there was one question I desperately wanted to ask Erin Patterson
There is a particular detail about the so-called 'mushroom trial' in Gippsland that I can't get out of my head. Police located and catalogued over 400 books in the home of the defendant, Erin Patterson. The forensic purpose of this analysis was revealed when prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, put to the defendant in cross-examination that not one of the books found in her home was devoted to the subject of mushrooms. The point was to demonstrate to the jury that Patterson's purported interest in foraging for fungi was a recent invention, and no more than a feint. I am a barrister, albeit not of the criminal variety, and I wanted to throw on my robes and be permitted a cameo in Gippsland. I had a question for Patterson. Among the hundreds of books located in her belongings, is there a copy of Shirley Jackson's classic gothic novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle? Jackson's macabre tale, told from the perspective of Mary Katherine (Merricat), offers a number of eerie parallels with the beef Wellington meal served in Leongatha. Six years before the story starts, Merricat's parents and younger brother have died of arsenic poisoning after sitting down to eat a meal prepared by her sister, Constance. Uncle Julian ingested poison, but survived, and lives with his nieces. Constance was charged with murder, but has been acquitted. Towards the end of the novel, Merricat confides: 'I said aloud to Constance, 'I am going to put death in all their food and watch them die'. Constance stirred, and the leaves rustled, 'The way you did before?' she asked. It had never been spoken of between us, not once in six years. 'Yes,' I said after a minute, 'the way I did before'.' No reason or motive for the murders is ever revealed. The reader is left to sit with the uncomfortable knowledge that Merricat has poisoned her family, but has not told us why. Spotted among the regular attendees at Patterson's trial were Melbourne authors Chloe Hooper, Sarah Krasnostein and Helen Garner. Hooper is the author of The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2009), a powerful book about the death in custody of Cameron Doomadgee, and Garner's books about trials and crimes, including This House of Grief: Story of a Murder Trial (2014) deserve their legendary status. Later, it was confirmed that the trio will soon release a book. No doubt it will be a poignant account of the deaths of Gail Patterson, Don Patterson and Heather Wilkinson and the trial of Erin Patterson. I cannot hope to emulate their writing, I have nothing more august to offer than this short piece: This House of Beef (Wellington). But thinking about the family tragedy behind the mushroom trial has now caused me to dwell on a triumvirate of notorious cases of Victorian children murdered by their fathers that have intersected with my life: Darcey Freeman, the Farquharson boys, and Luke Batty. My connection with the death of Luke Batty was direct and intimate. I was briefed to appear for his mother Rosie Batty in the 2015 inquest into the death of her son. The tragedy of Luke's murder at the hands of his abusive father haunts me to this day. During the inquest, I experienced but a fraction of the intense media scrutiny that the legal teams have endured during the Patterson trial. And I know how destabilising it can be. Each day of the inquest there was a phalanx of cameras waiting for us outside the Coroners Court. I was pregnant with my daughter who is now 10 years old. My swelling belly, proof of the life within, felt utterly obscene in light of the tragedy that we were there to attempt to make sense of. By the time of the last sittings in December 2014, I was nearly six months pregnant. I was in the public bathrooms often – attending to the frequent urgent needs of a heavily pregnant woman aged 43. In those small, too close stalls, I could hear women milling near the wash basins tsk-tsking and tutt-tutting over the evidence that had been adduced before the break. I overheard some of them confide in one another that they had nothing to do with either the proceedings or the Batty family, but had taken leave to watch the inquest as a form of spectacle. I remember feeling overcome in the tiny bathroom and needing to move deftly to dodge the outstretched hands of matronly types attempting to touch my growing belly – as if the baby inside me were as much available for public consumption and commentary as the child whose awful death we were all there to bear witness to.
The Review Geek
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Dexter: Resurrection – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review
Backseat Driver Episode 3 of Dexter: Resurrection begins with Dexter working on his RideShare driving gig in New York. He believes he's doing a good job but with a score of 4.2, he's in danger of getting his account shut down. Blessing encourages him not to take another fare for the night, which allows Dexter to focus on this Dark Passenger instead. Not his Dark Passenger obviously, but there's still a serial killer on the loose all the same, so it's time for the good doctor to step up his game. When Dexter sits down for dinner with Blessing and the family, Constance reveals that she's run a background check on him and knows that he's from Miami. Of course, he realizes he's being vetted here and points out flippantly about the deaths as the reason for him moving. The background check itself is actually compiled by a company called SafeHaven, and cost $75 a pop. Dexter believes it could help find his Ronald Schmidt and lo and behold, it works a treat. He finds Ronald's address and breaks in to his apartment. It doesn't take long for him to follow the clues up to a ceiling panel, which conceals the murder weapon and a book full of conquests. Interestingly, this is the same apartment Charley broke into earlier in the season. Dexter senses an opportunity and realizes this apartment is the perfect place to initiate his kill. 'See you soon, Red,' He taunts before going on the hunt. In the midst of this, Angel learns from Teddy that Dexter is currently in New York City. Our titular character is unaware of all this though, as Blessing has a care package for him during his RideShare gig. He has everything from mints to condoms, which should help get the score up. Meanwhile, Harrison is interviewed by Detective Wallace. She shows off the footage of Shauna at the bar, and Harrison plays along, pointing out that this is Ryan's wife, which matches the lies Ryan told the night of his death of course. Wallace continues, showing off the footage from the elevator, questioning his seemingly nonchalant attitude to Shauna being drugged. The interview is touch and go, especially when Harrison goes off-script, lying about his whereabouts and claiming he went to a bar and took a girl home. Wallace doesn't trust him, especially following Harrison's clues about using the service elevator, which doesn't have any cameras. It leads her down to the kitchen, where she tries to piece everything together. Tellingly, she looks up at the exact ceiling panel where a small spatter of blood was until Dexter took it down. The black bags are a big giveaway though, and following the clues outside, there's a slight reprieve from the truth when the camera here is obscured by bird poo. However, Harrison is shifty all the same, and his one-night-stand (which happens to be his alibi here) is not going to go away any time soon. This is only compounded further when Wallace questions him again. This time, she shows off the footage from the hotel cameras. There's nothing here that shows him leaving the building and the last video they have of him is exiting the elevator. It doesn't look good, and Harrison's confusion isn't helping matters. Wallace is smart, recounting almost a pitch-perfect recreation of the night Harrison killed Ryan. They want to make a deal with him and make this out to be a justifiable homicide rather than cold-blooded murder. Instead, Harrison confesses that he never left the hotel because he's homeless and sleeps in vacant rooms. His alibi for this happens to be his friend Elsa whom he works with. She covers for him and makes it clear that she certainly doesn't help asshole, but it's also her job on the line here and she's not happy with Harrison. That night, Dexter offers himself up as bait for the Dark Passenger. It works a treat and he manages to subdue Ronald while out on the road. He takes him over to the Kill Room, which happens to be the apartment of course. Now, Ronald believes he's justified in his actions, pointing out that his own father took his life after RideShare drivers moved in and took a lot of the business away from cabbies. Dexter eventually kills Ronald, having heard enough, and embraces the sweet, sweet euphoria of the kill. However, checking in Ronald's bag, he notices an invitation to an esteemed dinner for serial killers. This is the same dinner party that we earlier saw Charley preparing. Alongside this, there's a whole stack of money too. A dinner party for serial killers? That's an invitation Dexter can't turn down but for now, he burns Ronald's body and disposes of the evidence. It's touch and go for a bit, as he needs a thumbprint for evidence but it doesn't take long for him to grab what he needs. Alas, the hunt is well and truly on now! The Episode Review Dexter is back this week and there's a good deal of tension and development across both these storylines. Dexter successfully manages to goad Ronald into seeing him as a victim but our titular character is obviously too smart to fall for these cheap tricks. Seeing Dexter back on the warpath, killing again, is a nice touch and feels very reminiscent of the old Dexter, especially the way he's investigating and dishing out his own unique slice of justice. it certainly helps to go some way in undoing that poor ending to Dexter that annoyed a lot of fans. Unlike Dexter though, lady luck certainly isn't shining on Harrison. Wallace is a smart cop and she's pretty much sussed the entire story, only she obviously doesn't have the evidence to back it up. Harrison is no pushover but whether he's actually got enough to outsmart Wallace while she's on the warpath like this is unclear. However, we're still waiting for the point where these two stories are going to intersect because that could tip the scales in Dexter and Harrison's favour. Right now, it feels like two competing storylines wrestling for screen-time. The show has done well to keep things interesting across these 3 episodes though, although it's unclear how Charley and this 'serial killer dinner' plays into things. That subplot very much does feel like the only sticking point right now, but I'm sure we'll see more of this as time goes on. Roll on next week's episode! Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
Evening Standard
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Evening Standard
Who is Constance Marten's evangelical mum Virginie de Selliers and siblings?
Quite possibly. In 2008 — two years after Constance's gap year trip to Nigeria — she enrolled in an undergraduate Arabic course at Leeds University, the chapter in which she featured as Tatler magazine's 'Babe of the Month' and took trips to Nepal and Egypt. After university, she moved to London like the majority of her fellow graduates, working as a researcher for Arabic TV network Al Jazeera and gaining an NCTJ qualification in journalism before enrolling on an acting course at East 15 drama school in Essex. Friends say the young aristocrat was a 'very good actress' and could have gone far, but it was during this time that she started to change. She lost interest in acting and dropped out of the course after a run-in with a course tutor. Around that same time, she began a supposedly turbulent relationship with a man we now know to be Mark Gordon, who she met in an 'Indian shop' selling incense in 2014, and started living with him in Ilford, east London. 'Please respect my decision, I don't want to see any of you any more, please don't try and find me or contact me, thank you, goodbye,' was the rough wording of the text Constance sent friends and family in the summer of 2016. She later claimed in court that she stopped speaking to her family two years before meeting Gordon.
