Latest news with #desecration
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Carmarthenshire family urge new law on destroying remains
A family of a murdered man who were only given a small amount of his remains to bury are calling for desecrating a body to become its own crime. Michael O'Leary, known as Mike, was murdered in 2020 by his friend Andrew Jones in Carmarthenshire, who then burnt his body. Mr O'Leary's sister, Lesley Rees said the family will have to accept that they will never know what Jones did with the remains. The family are one of several meeting the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) later in an attempt to make desecrating a body its own criminal offence. Jones shot Mr O'Leary, a 55-year-old father-of-three, in January 2020, after discovering he was having an affair with his wife. He lured Mr O'Leary to his remote farm in Concoed, near the village of Cwmffrwd, and shot him with a .22 Colt rifle. He then took the body back to his home where he burned Mr O'Leary's body on a pile of wooden pallets. All forensic experts found of Mr O'Leary was a 6cm (2.4in) piece of intestine in an old oil barrel. Jones was convicted of murder and is currently serving a life sentence with a minimum of 30 years. Ms Rees said: "When you lose someone to a murder it's difficult enough as it is, but to not have their body to kiss goodbye to or say farewell to, is a totally different experience."Certain countries like Germany and America have these laws already. I think it's about time we had it in this country."It's devastating. We had 6cm of Mike's lower intestine to bury and that's all we have at the grave, which is horrific."We will never know what he's done with the rest of the remains. As a family, we've to accept we'll never know what else he did." Along with the families of other victims whose bodies were destroyed, Mr O'Leary's relatives are backing Helen's Law Part Two: Stop the Desecration. It calls for the reform of ancient burial laws and making desecrating a body its own offence. Helen's Law, introduced in January 2021, was named after Helen McCourt, 22, who was murdered in Merseyside in 1998 by pub landlord Ian Simms. He never revealed the location of her body. As a result of the law, parole judges must take a failure to disclose information from killers into account. The families of Sarah Everard, 33, who was murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, and April Jones, five, from Machynlleth, Powys, also support the expansion of Helen's Law. Ann Davies, Plaid Cymru MP for Caerfyrddin, said Helen's Law Part Two would be an "essential step" in showing such cruelty will never be tolerated. "Some families will never know what happened to their loved ones and will be haunted by unanswered questions and the absence of closure for the rest of their lives," she said. She added: "At the end of the day, today's meeting is about the families. They are the ones who continue to suffer the unimaginable trauma of not knowing what happened to their loved ones."
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump furiously brands question about Epstein ‘a desecration' amid mounting criticism
Donald Trump branded a question about Jeffrey Epstein a 'desecration' amid rising criticism after the Department of Justice stated that there was no 'client list'. Taking questions following a meeting with his Cabinet on Tuesday (8 July), the president exclaimed 'are we still talking about this guy?' when a journalist asked about the disgraced financier. Just as Attorney General Pam Bondi was about to respond, Mr Trump interrupted to say: 'This guy has been talked about for years, we have Texas, we have this [referring to the Ukraine war], and people are still talking about this creep?' 'I can't believe you are asking a question on Epstein when we are having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.' Trump repeatedly promised to release 'the Epstein files' during his 2024 election campaign.
Telegraph
02-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Free speech must not be sacrificed to appease Islamists
Sir Keir Starmer once marched into the High Court to defend a woman who trampled and daubed slogans on the American flag, thundering that even the most insulting acts of desecration are protected by free speech. Yet, today, faced with a man fined for burning a Koran, he melts into apparent silence. His own MPs are calling for him to specifically outlaw any 'desecration' of holy books and he ominously failed to rule it out. So it's free speech for flag-burners, but criminal records for Koran-burners? The double standard could not be starker: this is two-tier justice, made to measure for Two-Tier Keir's Britain. Hamit Coskun's fate is grotesque. He was allegedly stabbed in broad daylight by an enraged zealot for burning a religious book and hauled before a judge while his alleged assailant will not face trial until 2027. The Kurdish-Armenian atheist, protesting President Erdogan, was knifed, kicked, and spat on outside Turkey's London consulate, yet it is only he who now carries a criminal record. It could have been even worse. My campaign alongside the Free Speech Union forced the CPS to dump its farcical charge that Coskun had harassed 'the religious institution of Islam'. Even so, their revised charge still criminalises the robust denunciation of ideas. This is the rebirth of a blasphemy law, smuggled in through the back door. Seventeen years after Parliament abolished blasphemy against Christianity, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts have brought it back for Islam. The charge against Coskun, Section 5 of the Public Order Act, was meant to tackle threatening or abusive behaviour directed at real people present in real time. In 2013, Parliament tightened the law so that ordinary insult would no longer suffice. The CPS has now expanded that provision into a blasphemy clause. If book-burning during a political protest is re-defined as 'disorder', then any vigorous criticism of Islam – or indeed any religion – is at risk. The judgment sets a chilling precedent: the more 'offended' a crowd claims to be, the more likely the state might be to punish the speaker. And note the breathtaking asymmetry. Had Coskun torched a Bible outside Apostolic Nunciature (the Vatican's Embassy) while shouting abuse about Christianity, does anyone seriously believe the CPS would have rushed to press charges? Would the police even have turned up? Their own hate-crime guidance celebrates satire, mockery and irreverence – unless, it seems, the target is Islam. Parliament did not legislate for such religious privilege; officials have conjured it out of thin air. Meanwhile, the real violence has gone largely unremarked. The man alleged to have stabbed Coskun – caught on camera slashing and spitting, and then booted repeatedly by a masked Deliveroo driver who hopped off his bike to 'help' the attacker before cycling away, still unidentified and uncharged – cannot even be named, and his case will not reach court for another two years. Until then, he's out on bail, walking our streets. His appeal against the conviction must, as Kemi Badenoch has said, be successful. To see where this is heading, look no further than Batley Primary School teacher still in hiding – his life shattered – for sharing a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed. Parliament must strike back so that the authorities and our courts have no doubt of Parliament's protection of free speech. My colleague, Nick Timothy, has produced a Bill that will bar prosecutors and judges from reviving blasphemy in any guise. I will support it unequivocally, and I challenge the Government benches to support it. Ministers who claim to cherish free speech must prove it. Let the Bill progress, or admit they are willing to trade our liberties for the transient comfort of avoiding offence.
