£3 million sought for a repossessed, roofless shell set in 1,530 acres of Cumbrian countryside (more…)
Tag: compensation
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You’re just a sex offender
One of Rolf Harris’ victims responds with her own song about this repugnant sex offender (more…)
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Tommy’s troubles
Thomas McLoughlin sentenced for his latest actions against Matthew Steeples (more…)
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Hannah Campbell (AKA “The Bionic Woman”)
This courageous corporal was hit by a mortar in Iraq and suffered terrible injuries that included being blinded in one eye, a heart attack and damage to her womb. She used part of the £380,000 compensation she received from the Ministry of Defence to have a £52,500 makeover and commented: “It was a non-brainer, the best money I ever spent”. Unlike the grasping pair Sam Barton and Josie Cunningham, Hannah Campbell paid for much of it herself. This heroic lady, whose photograph by the rock star Bryan Adams appeared in an exhibition at the National Gallery, has completed a marathon in the time since and given birth to her second child, Lexi-River. In August 2014, she told the Daily Mail: “The miracle happened. I feel blessed. Many women never learn to be fully happy with how they look but I really appreciate how I am now”. -
Choking on compo
Chain smoker’s widow awarded £13.9 billion in compensation
America is widely known as the land that created “compensation culture” but in the recent award of £13.9 billion ($23.6 billion) in punitive damages and £9.9 million ($16.8 million) in compensatory damages to the widow of a chain smoker, a truly ridiculous precedent has been set. (more…)
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Trashy Tulisa
As singer Tulisa hits out at her conviction for assault, we urge her instead to learn to respect the justice system
Tulisa Contostavlos is best known for trashy tracks about “living on the edge of life” and has also sung lines such as: “Forgive us for what we’ve done, cause we young, we young, we young”. Today, though, this lippy singer didn’t show any desire to express remorse for her conviction for the assault of a blogger and instead angrily expressed her “outrage” outside Stratford Magistrates’ Court. (more…)
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Mind out Max
Max Clifford refuses to apologise as it is revealed that he’s been borrowing against his assets
Sexual abuser Max Clifford’s only remarks since being convicted have been to say that he is “incredibly disappointed about what’s happened” and he’ll be “back to court on Friday”. When asked if he would be apologising to the women he’d indecently assaulted, he did not answer and simply smugly raised his eyebrows. Here is a man with no shame and no regret. (more…)
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Crime shouldn’t pay
Two cases that highlight that justice is a dish that should be served
Two cases featured in today’s Evening Standard provide evidence that those seeking justice should never give up. The first is that of a crook named Giovanni Di Stefano and the second is that of the murder victim Martine Vik Magnussen. (more…)
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Tatiana von Saxe Wilson: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”
20 questions with founder of The People’s Book Prize Tatiana von Saxe Wilson
The Steeple Times shares “wit and wisdom”. What’s your guiding force?
Pursuit and success.
“Don’t get even, get medieval” is, in our humble opinion, a great motto. What’s yours?
“Make the best better”.
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Goodness, gracious, gaol
Matthew Steeples updates readers on John Goodman’s return to jail
The conviction of John Goodman in West Palm Beach earlier this year was a tragedy for all concerned but the twists and turns that have followed have been quite something else.
John Goodman in court prior to returning to jail on Friday 12th October 2012 Goodman, who sold his family business, Goodman Manufacturing, for $1.43 billion in 2004 and who also founded the International Polo Club Palm Beach, was found guilty of the offences of DUI Manslaughter and vehicular homicide on 23rd March.
In February 2010, Goodman had crashed his Bentley Continental GTC at speed into a Hyundai Sonata and in the process catapulted it into a canal. Whilst the driver, Scott Wilson, was left to drown, Goodman fled the scene of the accident and later claimed he did not know he’d hit another driver. On the night in question, Goodman had settled a $272 bar bill for himself and friends at The Players Club in Wellington, Florida at 12:52am and had later drunk more alcohol after the accident in a “man cave” to “alleviate [his] pain.”
Scott Wilson’s Hyundai after it was retrieved from the canal into which John Goodman’s Bentley catapulted it In May 2012, Goodman was sentenced to 16 years in jail but shortly afterwards was released on a $7 million bond pending appeal. At exactly the same time, a juror in the case, Dennis DeMartin, self-published a “tell-all” book, Believing in the Truth, in which he revealed that he conducted drinking experiments to see if he could get drunk after three vodka and tonics. After DeMartin was called in for questioning by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath, he stated:
“I’m only human. I made a mistake, just like John Goodman made a mistake… What can I say? I’m getting senile.”
John Goodman has spent most of the year under house arrest at his hacienda at 3665 120th Avenue, Wellington with his girlfriend, whom he also adopted as his daughter to protect his wealth, Heather Laurso Hutchins (also known as Heather Colby). In a further twist, Goodman was caught at the property by two of the $2,000 a day off-duty deputies employed to monitor him at 11pm on Wednesday in an upstairs bathroom with a small mirror. He was allegedly using it to pry open his ankle monitor and disable it with water.
Though Goodman claimed he had hit the monitor on a shower door accidentally, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of West Palm Beach County commented:
“I think he thought, you know, in my estimation he thought that was going to disable it. [It] doesn’t work like that… He paid the price for it because he’s back in the ‘Gun Club Hotel’ [Palm Beach County Jail]. That’s where he’s going to stay.”
“Think about what’s going on in America right now. You know you’ve got celebrities and people with a lot of money, they get arrested, they break the law. And, after a while they just think the rules don’t apply to them.”
“Well, guess what? That don’t happen here. He gets treated just like every other person that’s in my custody. He violates the rules, he’s back in jail.”
As a result, John Goodman will now temporarily remain in jail until the 26th November.
We await the next twist in this case with anticipation.
Read our original report on the case against John Goodman and his subsequent conviction at: http://thesteepletimes.com/the-fog/no-thank-goodnesses-for-goodman/