Tag: Essex

A Demon Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce owned by “maverick” Demon Internet dot-com millionaire Cliff Stanford to be auctioned; an au pair he employed was tragically murdered by a British serial sex offender in Spain; he was convicted of “email spying” in a scandal featuring gerrymanderer Dame Shirley Porter
- Cliff Stanford is best-known for having established the early dot-com success story Demon Internet in 1992. He had a (boom, boom) “demon touch” and sold the company for £66 million in 1998.
- After pocketing £30 million personally, one of Stanford’s first moves was to buy a private plane and “one of the most lavish Rolls-Royces then available.”
- He paid the equivalent (with a discount) of £265,000 today for the opulent Rolls-Royce and declared it: “My favourite present to myself.”
- The 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is now to be auctioned for less than a tenth of that price with a lower estimate of just £18,000.
- Stanford’s Spanish au pair was tragically murdered in 1999 and subsequently in a totally unconnected series of events, he was convicted of “email spying” on notorious Conservative politician and gerrymanderer Dame Shirley Porter and her son.
- According to his personal Twitter account, Stanford is now based in Tallinn, Estonia; he recently tweeted in support of Dominic Cummings, but neglected to mention if he would have loaned his motor for the spinner’s infamous Barnard Castle drive.
In 1998, “flamboyant” Internet pioneer Cliff Stanford paid the equivalent of £265,000 in today’s money for a brand-new motor. He did not opt for the eco-friendly kind-of-car that today’s tech titans drift around in, but instead slam dunked and went for the ultimate symbol of flash – a Rolls-Royce Silver Spur with every conceivable extra.

Stanford’s long wheel base ride – a vehicle that would have been the envy even of Charles Frere, the business tycoon bounder of Howards’ Way, in terms of its lavishness – personified excess and reflected the persona of a man whom “laughingly” considered getting the numbers ‘666’ incorporated into the dial-up for his Demon Internet company’s software.

The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and the longer wheelbase Silver Spur (and their Bentley equivalents) were the favoured mode of conveyance of business moguls in the 1980s and 1990s. Charles Frere (played by the late Tony Anholt, died 2002), a stereotypical example of such a character, was regularly seen in such motors in the BBC classic ‘Howards’ Way’ also.

Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, Clifford Stanford started his career as an accountant, but “found his way to the Internet via a love of computers.” He hit the jackpot with Demon Internet in 1992 and after selling that company to Scottish Telecom for £66 million, claimed his empire would be “bigger than Branson’s” according to the Guardian.

Speaking to the paper in December 2001, he continued: “I always wanted to be wealthy. Money doesn’t buy happiness but lack of it can lead to misery. Now I really enjoy my life, I do whatever I like and no-one tells me otherwise” and next he set up another venture, Redbus Investments, with Dame Shirley Porter’s son, John, as chairman. It listed on the stock exchange in March 2000 and the company’s activities included not only Internet hosting, but also a landmine disposal system and forays into football and popular music.

Redbus, according to ZDNet in Sept2005, was where “Stanford’s trouble seemed to start.” Kiss-and-tell scandals involving a “champagne fueled romp” at Claridge’s and his being banned from the hotel ensued, whilst in 1999 his Spanish au pair was murdered by a serial British sex offender named Tony King – who was only jailed in 2006 after a previous wrongly convicted suspect was cleared in 2002.

In 2001, the Guardian reported on the tycoon’s associations with Max Clifford – with a plainly hoodwinked Stanford remarking: “Max always has loads of really interesting people at his events” of the long since disgraced and now thankfully dead paedophile – and mentioned an unsuccessful investment of £1 million in a “badly managed” girl band called Girls@play. It had The Apprentice’s Alan Sugar’s niece as its lead singer, but ultimately was “a complete disaster really,” the businessman lamented.

By 2005, Redbus had unraveled spectacularly and in September that year, Sandford was convicted of intercepting emails belonging to his former friend John Porter. He tried to claim his actions were legal, but after being given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay a fine of £20,000 and £7,000 in prosecution costs, a later appeal was denied.

Divorced, a father of two and reinvented as an “innovation strategist” according to his LinkedIn.com page, Stanford is now is based in Tallinn, Estonia with his American-German science fiction writer partner Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. Aside from a website named May.be that lists their many projects, the tech expert is an enthusiastic chess player and user of Twitter.

As well as tweeting enthusiastically about a “clean break Brexit” and complaining about Amazon, Turkish Airlines and the Estonian take on fish and chips on the social media site, he recently came out in support of Dominic Cummings. Of Boris Johnson’s puppet master’s recent problems, Stanford surmised: “Witch hunt.”

Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers will sell Cliff Stanford’s Rolls-Royce Silver Spur on the 18^th July and have set an estimate of just £18,000 to £22,000. They describe the vehicle as “one of the highest specified cars we have seen and presents well in black with black leather seats, carpets and headlining,” but neglect to detail any of the high jinxes that this larger-than-life character no doubt conducted from its rear seating area.

Cliff Martin Stanford (born 1954) – The Names & Numbers

18^th July 2020 – Cliff Stanford’s one-owner-from new 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur – registration S110 NGN – to be auctioned by Historics Classic and Sportscar Auctioneers with an estimate of £18,000 to £22,000 ($22,200 to $27,100, €19,800 to €24,200 or درهم81,600 to درهم99,700) at their Windsorview Lakes sale.

June 2009 – Co-founded Power Ethernet. He describes this firm as bringing “disruptive technology to fruition.”

September 2005 – Convicted and given a suspended sentence of 6 months and a fine of £20,000 ($24,700, €22,000 or درهم90,600). A later hearing denied leave to appeal in February 2006.

2003 – Charged under the Computer Misuse Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 with the interception of emails between Jonathan Porter, one-time chairman of Redbus Interhouse, and his disgraced mother, Dame Shirley Porter – a woman best known for the “homes for votes” scandal in Westminster.

March 2000 – Floated Redbus Interhouse on the stock market.

October 1999 – Stanford’s Dutch-Spanish au pair, Rocío Wanninkhof (1979 – 1999), is abducted and stabbed to death. He offered a £50,000 ($61,000, €54,000 or درهم224,000) reward immediately and then doubled the sum in September 2003 “to anyone who could provide information” according to The Independent. After the estranged female lover of Wanninkhof’s mother was wrongly convicted for the murder in 2001 and subsequently cleared, a British sex offender, Tony King, was jailed for the killing in 2006 for 19 years.

1998 – Cliff Stanford paid £150,000 ($185,000, €165,000 or درهم680,000) for a 1998 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur, the “last production chassis number for UK sale.” He supposedly secured a discount of £20,000 ($24,700, €22,000 or درهم90,600) on the list price from dealers Jack Barclay and added extras including “a wine cooler to rear armrest, centenary door panels, picnic tables with separate stowage compartment, TV monitor/video to rear compartment and electrically adjustable lumbar support.”

1998 – Founded Redbus Investments four days after the sale of Demon Internet.

1998 – Sold Demon Internet to Scottish Telecom for £66 million ($81 million, €73 million or درهم299 million) with 172,000 subscribers. Stanford became an early dot-com multi-millionaire, personally netted £30 million ($37 million, €33 million or درهم136 million) and moved to Brussels “to avoid capital gains tax” according to the Guardian.

June 1992 – Cliff Stanford founded Demon Internet with 200 subscribers. He had been brought up in Southend-on-Sea, Essex by his single-parent mother and began his career in accountancy.

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The turbo-charged long wheelbase Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is described as a “classic machine.”

The interior is in as new condition.

The black leather seats have been well-cared for.

The model was the first Rolls-Royce to feature a retractable Spirit of Ecstasy mascot on its bonnet.

Rolls-Royce gave the car a 6.75-litre V8 engine.
June 29, 2020
Lavish Living and Little Owls at Lilford Hall
Crumbling Northamptonshire estate Lilford Hall – where the little owl was introduced to Britain – for sale for £10 million, a sum £35 million lower than in 2014
- Grade I listed Jacobean mansion with 13 chimney stacks for sale for £10 million; it was for sale last for £44.9 million in 2014 in spite of being listed on English Heritage’s ‘At Risk Register.’
- Lilford Hall – parts of which have not been occupied since 1947 – is currently owned by a businessman who tried to sell burial plots in the grounds for £1,250 a pop and shares in a yacht loosely associated with Frank Sinatra for £23 each.
- The 321-acre estate includes not only overgrown parkland, but also a zoo with cages that formerly housed bears and a lake for flamingos.
- From 1711 until 1990, Lilford House was the seat of the Powys family – the 4^th baron is credited with introducing the little owl to the UK.
- More recently, in 1969, the “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger used the at-the-time derelict mansion in one of her best-known works.
A 32,406 square foot Grade I listed Jacobean mansion 82 miles from Central London has gone on sale for £10 million – or the equivalent of just £308 per square foot.

On this basis, Lilford Hall – set in 321 acres near Oundle – seems a comparative bargain when considered against the £4,786 per square foot sought for a Lennox Gardens, Knightsbridge triplex flat The Steeple Times featured in May, but buyers need to remember this – parts of this crumbling building, most notably the major state rooms, have not been used since 1947.

Marketed last in 2014 for the even more punchy sum of £45 million, the “exceptional residential and amenity estate located on the River Nene,” is now offered by agents Savills. The “wonderfully proportioned” U-shaped mansion itself is constructed of grey limestone and includes over 100 rooms and amongst them are 7 “impressive” reception rooms, a ballroom, a ‘great chamber’ and 9 bedrooms. In addition, there are two Georgian pavilions that were formerly coach houses and stabling, three cottages, a former zoo, the oldest private softball court in the world, a former flamingo enclosure and a deer park.

“Impressiveness in the chief attribute of Lilford Hall as a specimen of architecture” claimed County Life in 1990 and as the seat of the Powys family from 1711 until 1990, it became not only a Downton Abbey-esque entertaining pad, but also housed nurses in the Second World War. Here, indeed, is an English country house that has seen lavishness and decline and thankfully here is an example that thankfully escaped the wrecking ball wrought so disgracefully on such houses in the 1950s and 1960s.

Fascinatingly in the 1880s, Thomas Powys, 4^th Baron Lilford filled his aviaries on the estate with rheas, kiwis, pink-headed ducks, free-flying lammergeiers and it was from here that he also introduced the little owl into the UK. There are said to be around 5,700 breeding pairs today, but sadly, according to the RSPB, their numbers are now in decline.

More recently, in 1969, “sexually erotic” performance artist Penny Slinger took over the by then “derelict” mansion in conjunction with the filmmaker Peter Whitehead. Their resulting work, titled An Exorcism, was exhibited internationally and in 2004, after the current owners, Charles and Aziza Micklewright, acquired the house, they did something equally avant-garde; they attempted to sell burial plots in the grounds to Americans by citing the estate’s connections to the founder of the Brownists, Robert Browne – a man better known as ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).

Whilst Mr and Mrs Micklewright were lauded for their considerable efforts towards the “huge task” of restoring Lilford Hall, they came to the attention of Historic England in May 2019 when the building was listed on the At Risk Register. At that time, the Oundle Chronicle reported: “The roof covering is in poor condition leading to water ingress and distress to the upper storeys. The front bays require structural attention. A schedule of urgent repairs has been identified but not implemented, and no long-term solution has been agreed.”

Now, someone with very, very deep pockets is required to restore this gem. It would be helpful if they liked erotic art, bears, squash and owls also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cii3VlgfVy0

The artwork created by Penny Slinger and Peter Whitehead at the house has been exhibited internationally.

The Names & Numbers – The Lilford Hall Estate, Lilford, Oundle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, United Kingdom

June 2020 – The estate is listed sale for £10 million ($12.5 million, €11.1 million or درهم46 million) through Savills. It includes 321.31 acres, of which 148.17 acres are pasture land whilst 157.48 acres are woodland. The majority of the estate is held on a freehold title, whilst the remaining 127.6 acres – known as ‘The Linches’ and ‘Lilford Woods’ – are held on a lease with 91 years remaining.

2015 – Promoted as ‘The National Memorial Gardens,’ burial plots in the gardens of the hall were offered “available to any UK resident or national for an outstanding price of only £1,250 ($1,568, €1,393 or درهم5,758)” by Mark Bailey of Harley Investments. Around the same time, a website dedicated to Lilford Hall marketed “a piece of the formal gardens” for sale for £299 ($375, €333 or درهم1,377) to include “an officially certified ‘Squire of Lilford’ [title] … with this little piece of history.”

March 2014 – The Irish Times reported that the asking price for the estate had been increased to £44.9 million ($56.3 million, €50 million or 206.8درهم million). They claimed the agents Coldwell Banker blamed “confusion over currency conversion rates and new instructions from the owner.”

April 2014 – The Lilford Hall Estate is listed for sale through Coldwell Banker on MyHome.ie for £33.7 million ($44.2 million, €37.5 million or درهم155 million) on behalf of “an English gentleman.”

2004 – The estate is acquired by the Micklewright family. Little information is available online about the Old Framlingham Charles Micklewright (born July 1958), but he is described as a “patent attorney” on Companies Houses pages. The businessman is mentioned also as a publisher and trustee of the Marsh Christian Trust elsewhere, whilst his Singaporean born wife, Aziza (born 1964), was a director of Lilford Properties Limited from 2013 to 2018.

A website operated by Sign of the Times Limited, a Hong Kong company of Lilford Hall, Lilford, Oundle, Northamptonshire, PE8 5SG, currently offers shares in a yacht named ‘Sinatra the Voice’ for £23.91 ($29.99, €26.64 or درهم110.14) per share. The boat was built in 1956 and is tenuously linked to Frank Sinatra by the fact that a one-time owner, Beale Poste, loaned it occasionally to the crooner between 1968 and 1974 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

1990 – The estate is closed to the public.

1980s – The house is used as a location in the BBC English Civil War inspired historical drama series By the Sword Divided.

1970s – Aviaries on the estate restocked by George Powys, 7^th Baron Lilford (1931 – 2005). He “opened [the estate] to the public as a leisure park” and housed more than 350 birds of 110 species there. It remained thus for around 20 years and included a restaurant and shop. The aviaries and the 1,896 square foot restaurant building remain present still today.

1969 – 1970 – American British “sexual mystic” artist Penny Slinger (born 1947) and Liverpudlian filmmaker Peter Whitehead used the “derelict mansion” as the setting for their works An Exorcism and Lilford Hall. They are lauded as a “photo romance” and exhibited at the Blum and Poe Gallery in Los Angeles in 2014, at the Haywood Gallery in London in 2015 and at the Fortnight Institute in New York in 2019.

1949 – Stephen Powys, 6^th Baron Lilford (1869 – 1949) died without having married or having had children. His properties aside from Lilford – a house in Mayfair, Bank Hall in Lancashire and the Bewsey Estate in Cheshire – passed to his second cousin twice removed.

1947 – The estate is sold to a company named Merchant Ventures by the Powys family (though they remain present on the estate until 1990).

1939 – 1945 – During the Second World War, the parkland of the estate was used as a military hospital for nearby airfields. From 1949 to 1954, some of the buildings constructed during this period were then used as a Polish school.

1923 – First-class Northamptonshire cricketer Major John Powys, 5^th Baron Lilford (1863 – 1945) built the first private softball court in the world in the grounds of the hall. It is now in disrepair and the roof has fallen into the inner court.

1909 – 1910 – The hall was extended in the Edwardian manner including the provision of a new master bedroom with dressing room and bathroom by William Dunn and Robert Watson of Dunn & Watson.

1901 – The estate surrounding the hall reaches its largest size and totals a vast 8,000 acres of land. Around this time, Queen Mary, wife of King George V, is said to have visited the gardens.

1880s – Ornithologist and expert on the fauna of the Balearics Thomas Littleton Powys, 4^th Baron Lilford (1833 – 1896) introduces the little owl into England on the estate. His aviaries were said to “feature exotic birds from all around the world” and a species of European lizard, the Lilford’s wall lizard (Podarcis lilfordi), is named in his honour. The 4^th baron is repeatedly mentioned in the works of Charles Darwin for his contribution to the study of the science of evolution.

1840s – Further changes to the building are orchestrated by the architect William Gilbee Habershon (circa 1818 – 1891). The Campaign to Protect Rural England described these Victorian extensions as “sensitive” in 2006 – a rare accolade given most additions to English country houses during this period were simply brash and vulgar.

1740s – The Palladian architect Henry Flitcroft (1697 – 1769) adds “outstanding” Georgian interiors whilst “respecting the hall’s Jacobean exterior.” He “softened and brightened” the building as a result and also “constructed the Georgian pavilions and additional storeys to the east end of the two wings.” Other works by Flitcroft can be seen at Bower House in Essex, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire and Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire.

1711 – Lilford Hall is sold to the judge and Tory politician Sir Thomas Powys (1649 – 1719), Attorney General to King James II. Powys is best remembered for conducting the prosecution of the Seven Bishops in 1699. He is buried at Lilford.

1630s – Construction of the main exterior of what to this day remains Lilford Hall as a “Jacobean-style gentry house” by William Elmes (the younger).

1473 – The land that forms the estate is acquired by William Browne (1410 – 1489), a wealthy wool merchant and landowner from Stamford, from the estate of Baron Welles (who was beheaded by King Edward IV for treason). In 1495, “in a Tudor style,” he built a hall on the site and it passed to Robert Browne (1550 – 1633), the founder of the Brownists, ‘The Father of the Pilgrims’ and ‘The Grandfather of the Nation’ (of the United States of America).

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June 13, 2020
Encouragement for Bamber

In spite of a judge rejecting evidence disclosure, Jeremy Bamber’s case now looks more likely to be reviewed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission; new podcast about the case begins Sunday

Though he rejected Jeremy Bamber’s bid for the release of evidence which he believed could clear his name on Friday at the High Court, Mr Justice Julian Knowles did give the convicted familial killer new hope.

In his judgment, the judge remarked:

“If ever there was a case where the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) should be approached to make a decision on what is said to be new evidence, it is this one. This is a massively complex case which has been investigated and re-investigated by more than one police force over some 35 years.”

“The body of material is vast. After so many years, and so much litigation, the CCRC is the body undoubtedly best placed to consider the claimant’s arguments.”

We today urge readers to watch the YouTube video that follows. It examines the sequence of events on the night of 6^th to the 7^th August 1985 and for those interested in learning more, we also recommend listening to The White House Farm Murders: Is Jeremy Bamber Guilty? podcast by Kaiesha Page. It begins this evening and is available here.

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Jeremy Bamber’s legal team have alleged that the senior investigating officer in the case, Michael Ainsley, took documents relating to the case to his home in 2010 and destroyed them in spite of “knowing there was an active appeal underway.”

In her podcast, Kaiesha Page will examine the question: “Could Jeremy Bamber be the victim of one of Britain’s gravest miscarriages of justice?”

June 7, 2020
Soiled Sundays

Sunday evening acid-throwing Arthur Collins’ ex-partner Ferne McCann attempts to flog used knickers and bras online whilst posing with their brat, a girl named Sunday

Brentwood born Ferne McCann’s “baby daddy” Arthur Collins caused life-changing injuries to 22 innocent people after arriving at the Mangle E8 nightclub in Dalston, London during a night out on Sunday 16^th April 2017. Stoked up and out of control, this “verminous cretin” hurled acid at clubbers at around 1.45am and then went on the run. This sub-human specimen, whose previous convictions numbered assault and possession of cocaine, deservedly got 20 years in jail, yet many continue to argue that that sentence was far too lenient.

Meanwhile, in the months that followed, McCann proceeded – without a moment’s consideration for Collins’ victims – to name their child, you’d never believe it, ‘Sunday.’ She supposedly spoke with her incarcerated ex-scaffolder lover via a phone illegally delivered to his prison cell and liked photographs on Instagram calling for this turd-like criminal’s release even.

Ferne McCann posing with her since convicted criminal lover Arthur Collins in Dubai.

Now, according to the Mirror, McCann – whom disgustingly thought it appropriate to promote beauty products including lip plumping primer via Instagram on the day Collins was sent down in December 2017 – has found a new niche. This slovenly scrubber has taken to flogging used knickers and bras via a website named Depop.com.

Offered at prices as low as £8 for a black bikini top with “a few crystals missing,” McCann plainly is a woman who’ll attempt to sell not only her soiled goods: This self-declared “very well-known celebrity” lost an application relating to a “range of toilet preparations” in June 2019. She was ordered to pay £2,400 in costs to a firm named CP Management and now we’re left wondering: “What’ll she get thong next?”

Pictured top: Ferne McCann and her child, Sunday. On Depop.com this money grabbing wench sold the blue dress pictured for £40. She’s unsurprisingly not had as much luck in attempting to hawk her second-hand undergarments.

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May 3, 2020
A Meticulous MG

“Meticulously restored” MG 14/28 Super Sports bullnose two-door salonette for sale; it is the only surviving example of just six made in 1925

Just 400 MG 14/28 Super Sports were produced between 1924 and 1927. Of these, only five made in 1925 were ‘bullnose’ salonettes and of these only one of these is still in existence. Now, that car – which cost £475 or the equivalent of £29,100 today ($36,400, €33,000 or درهم133,500 today) when new at a time when the equivalent open top version cost £350 or the equivalent of £21,400 today ($26,700, €24,300 or درهم98,200 today) when new – is for sale.

Built at the Morris Garages Works and loaned to the Ramsgate Motor Museum during the ownership of a family named Sharpe from the 1970s until 2005, it was subsequently purchased in “well preserved condition” by the amusingly named “famed early MG restorer” Mr Fred Body.

“Very sparingly used” in the years since, this quirky red and black with red leather interior car is described as being “in immaculate order throughout” and capable of “quite happily gracing a concours field [to] win prizes.” It was displayed as part of MG’s 90^th anniversary celebration at Silverstone in 2014.

Offered previously at auction at the Royal Automobile Club, Woodcote Park, Epsom in June 2018, Vintage & Prestige Classic Cars now seek £75,000 ($94,000, €85,000 or درهم344,000) for the last surviving 1925 MG 14/28 Super Sports bullnose salonette, registration ‘MO 6709.’

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May 2, 2020
Bamber Bats Back

Jeremy Bamber’s legal team go to the high court after it emerges that the CPS may have handed crucial evidence – not available to them – to an author involved in the ITV drama ‘White House Farm’

On Friday, at an oral renewal hearing in Leeds, the high court will be asked to “review the refusal of the Crown Prosecution Service to disclose evidence they believe could undermine [the] conviction” of Jeremy Bamber according to the Guardian’s Simon Hattenstone.

Bamber’s legal representative, solicitor advocate Mark Newby of Quality Solicitors Jordans, told the paper:

“Since proceedings were issued it came to our attention that the author of the book the ITV drama was based upon [Carol Ann Lee] appears to have received material directly from the police [images of which she shared on Instagram and later deleted].”

“It cannot be right that an author has been given material that Mr Bamber’s defence team have not seen, particularly in light of the persistent refusal by the CPS to disclose specific material we have been asking for. It raises the question of whether a work of fiction is more important than justice.”

Illustrating her tellingly selective thoughts on what evidence should be released, to whom and where, in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times in January this year, Ms Lee – whose son also worked with her on the White House Farm drama – stated:

“My personal opinion is very much that he’s guilty. He’s been in prison for 30 years and the evidence he was convicted on has not been overturned. He’s been appealing ever since he’s been in prison and nothing has come out that has been able to overturn that conviction… And for me the overriding piece of evidence, if you like, was looking at the original crime scene photographs. Without going into detail, it was obvious from one of the photographs in particular, that has never been published and should never be published, that those murders were committed by somebody who was extremely adept with a gun – who knew what they were doing.”

Responding and speaking of news of Friday’s hearing from Wakefield prison to the Guardian, Jeremy Bamber commented:

“It is disgusting that a third party was provided with documents and sensitive photographs when Essex police and the CPS have been unwilling to hand over material to our own forensic experts to prove that two silencers were recovered from the scene.”

“Despite court orders being in place for them to make full disclosure to us, which they deliberately chose to ignore, when Carol Ann Lee requested material she was given it without a second thought. Where is my justice?”

Pictured top: Jeremy Bamber and Carol Ann Lee.

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April 30, 2020
Boozed-Up Barrymore Boobs

As out of his skull Michael Barrymore yet again makes an utter prat of himself on Instagram, we remind him to stop “destroying” games and instead help get justice for Stuart Lubbock, the man murdered in his very own swimming pool

In yet another self-indulgent image shared on Instagram on Tuesday, disgraced entertainer Michael Barrymore once again showed he cares more about fame than those suffering with coronavirus.

Known for rolling around on the floor off his skull with the equally pissed-up, convicted racist bigot Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben, Barrymore (born Michael Parker) appeared slumped on the edge of table with a ‘Strike It Lucky’ gameboard. Snapped grinning like the cat that had had too much cream (or boozy sauce in his case), the picture was captioned: “I destroyed the set.”

Perhaps, instead, Barrymore could use his energy to “destroy” something else far more important – that being “destroy” whatever it is that bonds him to the seven others that were present when Stuart Lubbock was murdered in his very own swimming pool on the 31^st March 2001. It is time for the japes to stop and it is time for real justice now.

#justice4stuart

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Michael Barrymore has been pictured inebriated on numerous occasions; his best-known incident was in the company of the especially unctuous helmet haired horror Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben – a vile specimen who was convicted of racially aggravated assault and obstructing a police officer in February 2014.

April 22, 2020
Save The Free Press

As #SaveTheSunNewspaper trends on Twitter, an analysis of the sorry state of the British press should act as a wake-up call to our nation suggests Matthew Steeples

Yesterday, ‘Save The Sun Newspaper’ was all over Twitter. Those clicking the hashtag were not taken to a page bemoaning the fact that the Rupert Murdoch owned paper has lost £68 million in the last year alone, but to a Go Fund Me campaign that has raised over £16,500 that will be donated to the Essex Coronavirus Action Urgent Food Bank Appeal.

Set up by an Essex based food bank campaigner named Simon Harris, #SaveTheSunNewspaper garnered support because of the intense dislike for a newspaper that some claim is “not fit to wipe their arse with” whilst others (especially the people of Liverpool, a city where it is mostly banned due to their crass reporting of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster) condemn it for its “lies” and “bigoted” reporting.

Whilst the ‘fake’ hashtag was about helping foodbanks, on Sunday night, the Guardian’s Roy Greenslade highlighted a genuine problem for the British press. In an article titled: “Why our newspapers might not survive the contagion of coronavirus,” the media commentator observed: “It is the bleakest of ironies: the biggest news story in a lifetime is killing off the very industry that exists to report it. Coronavirus is destroying newsprint newspapers across Britain, delivering the coup de grace to businesses that were already in the process of dying.”

Whilst it has been for long known that traditional media has struggled to cope and find a way to exist and maintain revenue streams in a period where online and social media have battered it, coronavirus, it appears, will be the death knell for many a print newspaper.

Just like, for example, the restaurant sector, which will likely see many establishments fail to reopen once this pandemic is over due to them not having the resources to get their staff back and pay their rent and suppliers, many print newspapers – most especially local titles – will not weather the storm. As Greenslade points out, “it seems inconceivable that publishers, already struggling to fund journalism, will return to the previous status quo.” Going further, he remarks: “That’s because the status quo was, itself, one of perpetual fragility in which publishers were engaged in the delicate task of managing newsprint decline while, in parallel, seeking to create a digital journalism business model.”

Here comes an epoch of change and with newsrooms across Britain currently completely empty, publishers will indeed start to rationalise when so-called “normality” returns (in whatever form that takes). Expensive city centre offices will be shut and like cancer, profitless titles will most likely be permanently closed down. This will not be a loss that should be glorified and it will not be something that should celebrated; without good journalism, we’ll all be the poorer. Those thinking we can rely on the Twitterati for news are in for an era of the emperor’s new clothes and they’re in for a future where fake news will quite wrongly reign.

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April 13, 2020
Another Bamber Bungle

Further questions about the conduct of Essex Police raised as it is revealed they destroyed the bible, nightclothes and pillows that were found with the victims at White House Farm on the night of the 1985 murders

On Monday on Twitter, the @Bambertweets account shared a piece of little-known information that raises yet more questions about the safety of the conviction of Jeremy Bamber over the murders at White House Farm during the night of the 6^th and 7^th August 1985.

In a tweet, the ‘Official Campaign’ for Jeremy Bamber shared an image of his late sister, Sheila Caffell, a diagnosed schizophrenia sufferer, alongside a letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission to Glaisyers Solicitors LLP (whom then represented the convicted serial killer).

That correspondence, dated 20^th March 2000, contained a statement that tellingly reads: “It is desirable that this information does not become generally known” and given its contents, we can now see why.

Most shockingly, the letter informs Jeremy Bamber’s legal advisors that June Bamber’s nightdress, Sheila Caffell’s nightdress and Ralph Bamber’s, Daniel Caffell’s and Nicholas Caffell’s pyjamas were all “destroyed in 1986” along with a bible found next to Miss Caffell and various pillows and pillowcases.

Given Essex Police’s mismanagement of this investigation is abundantly clear and that there are discrepancies relating to call logs and timings and issues relating to non-disclosure and contamination of evidence, yet again we join those suggesting that Jeremy Bamber’s conviction deserves to be reinvestigated. We neither claim Mr Bamber is innocent or guilty, but at the very least, this is a matter that should finally be properly examined on the basis that it is clearly unsafe.

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The 20th March 2000 letter from the Criminal Cases Review Commission to Glaisyers Solicitors LLP and Sheila Caffell.

The scene of the murders – White House Farm, Pages Lane, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex, CM9 8AA.

Ralph and June Bamber.

April 2, 2020
Strike It Corona

As he plays ‘Strike It Lucky’ on Instagram during the coronavirus lockdown, we ask: “Is there nothing that Michael Barrymore won’t do to seek a return to fame?”

Michael Barrymore is a coward and a scumbag. That is a fact. He has failed to face Terry Lubbock – the father of an innocent young man murdered in 2001 in his swimming pool by one of seven other people present that fateful night – on television, yet he happily took £60,000 to lackadaisically chit-chat to Piers Morgan about this most serious matter in a totally disgraceful fashion.

Self-absorbed Barrymore, who recently took to Instagram to claim Channel 4 were “parasites” for daring to air Barrymore: The Body in the Pool – a carefully researched documentary about the case of the death of Stuart Lubbock – yesterday again illustrated his vanity by returning to the medium to attempt to revive his deservedly failed career.

In two posts and a live feed, the disgraced former entertainer – best known for rolling around on the floor smashed off his skull with the convicted bigot Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben – played ‘Strike It Lucky’ with his 19,500 followers. He used the hashtag #stayathome and shamelessly posed smiling as if nothing at all was wrong.

We once again say: A pox on your house Michael Barrymore for not coming clean about what you know about the events at 4 Beaumont Park Drive in Roydon, Harlow on 31^st March 2001. Now, Mr Barrymore, finally do the decent thing: Stop playing silly games and start telling the truth.

To watch ‘Barrymore: The Body in the Pool,’ click here.

A list of people present on the 31^st March 2001 who are still alive – It’s time the lot of them told the truth

Michael Barrymore (born Michael Parker).

Kelly Campbell.

James Futters (sometimes incorrectly spelt ‘Futers’).

Claire Jones.

Jonathan Kenney.

Justin Merritt.

Kylie Merritt.

Simon Shaw.

Some of Michael Barrymore’s ludicrously telling remarks about the murder that occurred at his home

Admitting he partook in ‘sex orgies’ on other occasions – “There was no orgy I was aware of… Some of the papers wrote ‘sex orgy’ … There was no sex orgy. I don’t know what to say. There was no sex orgy that night.”

The word ‘another’ is most important – “I just hope they [the public] understand it was another night that went terribly wrong.”

Excusing himself – “It isn’t what happens in life, it’s how you deal with it.”

Just another day in the life of the not so often speechless Michael Barrymore – “I looked down at effectively the deep end and Stuart was there… It was like some really bad film, some unhappy ending. It was my house, my party, I don’t know what to say.”

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Michael Barrymore rolling around on the floor drunk as a skunk with the equally pissed convicted racist Marie-Claire, von Alvensleben in April 2000 – just under a year prior to the death of Stuart Lubbock at a drunken, drug fuelled orgy at his home (left).

The scene of the murder of Stuart Lubbock – Michael Barrymore’s then home: 4 Beaumont Park Drive, Roydon, Harlow, Essex, CM19 4HB.

Essex Police recently launched a new appeal with the hashtag #justice4stuart. The eight people still alive who were present at 4 Beaumont Park Drive on the 31st March 2001 should now jolly well respond to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9OknoV-1fg

March 28, 2020