Tag: victim

  • Talking Claudia Lawrence – ‘Crime Suspect’ on Talk TV 2024

    Talking Claudia Lawrence – ‘Crime Suspect’ on Talk TV 2024

    Matthew Steeples on discussing the disappearance of Claudia Lawrence fifteen years ago in York on TalkTV’s ‘Crime Suspect’ with esteemed former detective Peter Bleksley

    Earlier this month, I returned to News UK’s headquarters next to The Shard in London to be a guest, for the second time after appearing in February to discuss the ongoing Madeleine McCann case, on Peter Bleksley’s deservedly respected TalkTV Crime Suspect show.

     

    This time focused on the fifteenth anniversary of the literal ‘vanishing’ of a 35-year-old chef named Claudia Lawrence in the Heworth area of York, I appeared alongside the renowned criminologist and author Professor James Treadwell, the former police inspector and visiting lecturer at Leeds Trinity University Martin Holleran and the journalist and author of Gone: The Disappearance of Claudia Lawrence and Her Father’s Desperate Search for the Truth Neil Root.

     

    Aired first on TalkTV’s terrestrial and YouTube channels on the 5th April, the 21:22-minute version on the latter has been viewed nearly 130,000 times to date and focused on the key question: “Could there still be someone out there who knows what happened to the 35-year-old chef?”

     

    Aged just 35 at the time she disappeared into thin air on either the night of 18th March or the morning of the 19th March 2009, here is a case in which North Yorkshire Police – to date – have performed over 48 video recorded interviews under caution, but come to utterly no conclusion.

     

    Having similarities to the case of the also ‘vanished’ Australian Marion Barter in that no real evidence of her having ‘existed’ after the 19th March 2009 has ever come to light, I focused my commentary on Crime Suspect on the media portrayal of Claudia Lawrence and asked: “Would she have been made out to have been promiscuous and a drunk if she had been a man?”

     

    As has also been pointed out by Joan Lawrence, the likely victim of murder’s mother, who has subsequently received an OBE for her efforts in bringing about the passing of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 – which modified the law in order to allow the appointment of guardians for the affairs of missing people – the “intense” and “vicious stories” about what might have occurred helped nobody.

     

    In Claudia Lawrence: A Mother’s Story, a four-part series first aired on the BBC in March this year, the problems of allowing untruths about what actually occurred to be spread is further explained, but what is now required is for a community to come together and to finally realise that it is time to put aside past allegiances. It is time to do justice for this missing-for-fifteen-years lady and her family.

     

    To watch the full-length version of the Claudia Lawrence ‘Crime Suspect’ programme on TalkTV, click here.

    Follow Peter Bleksley on Twitter at @PeterBleksley, Martin Holleran at @Future110, Neil Root at @NEILROOTWriter and Professor James Treadwell at @James_Treadwell.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples and watch his current nightly show on YouTube at 8.30pm daily.

     

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    The YouTube version of the show; for a longer version first shown on TalkTV’s terrestrial channel, click here.
    On Twitter, Matthew Steeples asked: “It’s been 15 years since chef Claudia Lawrence vanished into thin air in Heworth, York. What do you think happened to her?” He added the hashtags: #ClaudiaLawrence #Heworth #York #Yorkshire #chef #missingpeople #missing #vanish #vanished #murder #accident #death #strangecases #ClaudiasLaw #anniversary and offered four options. 78.7% of respondents favoured the answer: “Killed, someone she knew” whilst only 6.5% believe that she “disappeared” seeking a “new life.”
    Claudia Lawrence vanished
    Claudia Lawrence was born on 27th February 1974 in Malton in the North Riding of Yorshire. She vanished on either the evening of the 18th March 2009 or the morning of 19th March 2009 in Heworth, York. She has never been seen or heard from again since.
    Claudia Lawrence disappearance mind map
    A mind map produced by Matthew Steeples about the case. Whilst it is just a starting point, it illustrates the links between different members of the community of Heworth, York and the presumed victim of murder most likely. It is now time for members of that community to think of justice and reexamine their allegiances; time has passed and surely now, it is time for those that clearly know to finally tell the truth about what occurred on 18th March 2009.
    Crime Suspect Peter Bleksley James Treadwell Neil Root Matthew Steeples Martin Holleran
    ‘Crime Suspect’ aired its programme about the vanished-likely-murdered chef on 5th April 2024 with Peter Bleksley as host. The daughter of a solicitor and town mayor has been missing now for over 15 years and not one trace of her has been found to date.
    The Nag's Head Heworth
    During the programme, there was much discussion of Miss Lawrence’s activities at a pub just six doors from her home, The Nag’s Head in Heworth, as well as at other hostelries she frequented.
  • Julian Sessé, ‘The Belgravia Butler’ (1906 – 1970, murdered by meat cleaver)

    Julian Sessé, ‘The Belgravia Butler’ (1906 – 1970, murdered by meat cleaver)

    • A Belgian born butler to the bastion of business Lord Bernstein – chief of Granada Television – was brutally murdered in a mansion in Wilton Crescent, Belgravia, London just before Christmas in 1970.
    • The closeted victim, Julian Sessé, was savagely slayed with a knife and a meat cleaver by a much younger bisexual gigolo, Mustapha Bassiane.
    • Bassiane subsequently fled to Morocco and then got snared when he audaciously returned to Europe in 1972; he was sentenced to life in prison in 1973 and deported back to his homeland 11 years later.
    • The ‘Scotland Yard Uncensored’ podcast recently covered this little known case, but failed to mention the strange fact that The National Archives have records on the case closed until January 2071; who is actually being protected here and why?

    London’s Belgravia is renowned for its associations with power and privilege and as some might say, where there’s money there’s quite often muck, meddling, murkiness and murder.

     

    Whilst the infamous 7th November 1974 murder of Sandra Rivett – the nanny to the children of Lord and Lady Lucan – at 46 Lower Belgrave Street, SW1 has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons, a sadistic slaying four years earlier on 19th December 1970 at another ritzy residence nearby is one that has been largely forgotten.

     

    The victim in the particular case in question, it was noted in a recent Scotland Yard Confidential podcast by John Hopkins, was “a kind and generous man in life,” but one who was “shamed and shunned after his own brutal murder.” In this day and age, such a clear cancellation would quite rightly be called out as an utter outrage and especially at a time when the Metropolitan Police are so deservedly under fire for their appalling levels of misconduct.

     

    On the tragic Saturday night in question in 1970 and just before London revelled in the arrival of a ‘White Christmas’ just six days later, 64-year-old Belgian butler Julian Louis George Sessé was senselessly beaten and brutally murdered with a kitchen knife and meat cleaver. Here was a crime that involved a butler to the rich and famous, but a crime also that was quite the opposite of those crimes orchestrated by the notorious ‘Killer Butler’ Archibald Hall. For those yet to know of him, Hall – who was also known as the ‘Monster Butler’ – mercilessly robbed and murdered in the same part of Belgravia later in the 1970s. Perhaps there could be something in the water of that part of SW1…

     

    Unlike self-serving monster Hall, “dedicated” Sessé had worked at a 5-bedroomed mansion at 32 Wilton Crescent, just off Belgrave Square “for decades.” His end was to come that snowy evening when he was mercilessly slaughtered sometime after 11pm in a basement grace and favour flat that he occupied in the home of his very well-known employer Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein – the buccaneering bastion businessman and chairman of the Granada Group and Granada Television.

     

    Described as “tall and distinguished” and always “neatly dressed in pinstriped trousers and black jackets,” neighbours argued this particular butler to be “the perfect servant.” Grey haired Sessé was lauded by the owner of the nearest ale house to 32 Wilton Crescent, The Grenadier, as “a quiet and respectable customer.” Here, indeed, was an example of someone who would not wanted to have brought any “shame or stigma” upon his master and mistress.

     

    Alone that night in the vast and imposing 32 Wilton Crescent mansion whilst Lord and Lady Bernstein were away on holiday in the West Indies and with other staff having been given a “leave of absence,” homosexual Sessé most unfortunately decided to take advantage of something akin to “whilst the cat’s away, the butler might play.” He invited a “drifter-like” 26-year-old unemployed Moroccan nurse named Mustapha Bassaine to ‘visit’ his “cosy apartment” and clearly anticipated a night of fun and frollicks. The two clearly closeted – but for very different reasons – men had met prior and money had previously been exchanged for ‘companionship’ and sexual activities, it was later noted.

     

    That night’s ‘pairing’ represented anything but a ‘relationship’ of equals and was one instead where the elder man expected intimacy with the former whilst the younger believed he could rinse the latter of as much money as possible. Given “pock marked” faced Bassaine was a dastardly deviant and diminutive desperado who’d been out drinking with his girlfriend prior, it was to be a meeting that was never going to end well.

     

    Sessé was said to have been of the view that “money that exchanged hands be called a ‘gift,’” but was similarly described as not being under any delusions about what he gained from the “clandestine” encounters he had with various young men. He was a man with ‘friends’ with similar attractions, but in the wake of his death, his family and most associates clammed up and denied knowledge of such preferences. As loyal as the butler, relative and friend had been, it seemed that that was sadly never repaid by those he should have been able to have expected to have remained closest to him.

     

    After a delivery driver and a part-time cleaner failed to find signs of life and several days of out-of-date newspapers on the doorstep of 32 Wilton Crescent on Monday 21st December, the latter called Lord Bernstein’s secretary, a 24-year-old named Miss Hazelwood. She then opened up the property and discovered a scene that Hopkins described as having “shocked her to the core” in the basement. Naturally scared witless, the secretary dialled 999 and the police process began.

     

    Blood was said to spattered everywhere. It was all over the living room and all over the kitchen, but it was in a bathroom – most bizarrely locked from the outside – that the body of Julian Sessé was discovered draped in an equally bloody bath towel. The poor unfortunate’s throat had been cut and aside from multiple stab wounds to his head and chest, his stomach had been slashed open. A knife and a meat cleaver were bizarrely located by officers in the bowl of a latrine and given the “high profile” of the house owner, the case was “quickly passed to Scotland Yard.” Scandal, after all, would be something that the likes of Lord and Lady Bernstein obviously would rather avoid.

     

    Detective Superintendent John ‘Ginger’ Hensley – who had previously been involved in the investigation of the vicious 1966 Shepherd’s Bush policemen murders by Harry Roberts – took the case and the next item to be found just happened to be the bloodstained trousers of the man presumed to be the killer in a washing machine. They were clearly not the trousers of the much larger Sessé and with a wardrobe in his bedroom ajar, it was thus determined the murderer likely fled in a pair belonging to his victim.

     

    Evidence of foul play was everywhere and no attempt had been made to clean up. It was noted by Hopkins that it “all seemed wild and confused” and with no sign of forced entry and letters that indicated Sessé’s ‘activities’ with other gay men including paying for sex, Hensley is said to have immediately surmised it a “crime of passion” rather than a simpler robbery gone wrong.

     

    Shortly thereafter, a pathologist determined that Sessé had partaken in sexual intercourse not long prior to his demise and found the cause of his death to be shock and loss of blood following a frenzied attack with both the knife and the meat cleaver. His demise would have not been instant and wounds to the body suggested that this was a man whom most definitely courageously fought back.

     

    As police inquiries proceeded, few friends and associates were willing to divulge information. This, after all, was an era where to be seen to be gay was still the ultimate taboo. Though one local vaguely cited a “foreign looking man” having been seen outside the house at the time of the murder most horrid, all leads had alibis and even Sessé’s very own family made it clear that they knew nothing of his sexuality. The family went as far as to add that that they simply “did not want to know.”

     

    Given these factors, here was a case that initially seemed headed to join a long list of unsolved murders, but a breakthrough came just days later on Wednesday 23rd December. On that date, police were contacted by an Irish waitress named Jean Fitzgerald from her home in Anson Road, Tufnell Park after she’d “spent days and nights wondering about the case.” The 22-year-old claimed to have met Sessé through her bisexual boyfriend and stated thatmhe had arranged to go to meet the butler at 32 Wilton Crescent after the couple had been for drinks in the West End late on the fateful night in question.

     

    Allegedly, Bassaine had told his girlfriend that he would “visit Sessé to try and get some money off him.” She admitted to police she was “not a fan of her partner’s activities with other men,” but “understood that he usually got well paid for his ‘services.’” Hopkins went further and surmised that this “somewhat timid woman, but one with fire in her eyes” had an excuse for overlooking the ‘activities.’ That excuse was: “Besides, we always needed money.”

     

    During questioning, Fitzgerald stated that she had gone home after being in the West End alone late on 19th December as Bassaine had left her to head over to Belgravia at around 11pm. She further shared:

     

    “We paid the rent on the apartment between the two of us. He got money in another way when he was unemployed. Sometimes he gave me money but I don’t know where he got it from. He said something about going out with ‘faggots,’ having drinks with them, and getting money from them. He showed me a picture of Mr Sessé and told me that the butler often gave him money.”

     

    Bassiane did not return home that night, but instead called Fitzgerald the next afternoon. He asked her to come to Sessé’s apartment, but she declined. Of why, she subsequently reminisced:

     

    “I thought it was very strange that he wanted me to go there. He wanted me to go for a drink [at 32 Wilton Crescent] and he got mad when I said no. I was afraid of Mustapha Bassaine because he was very depraved at times and I was afraid that he would beat me like he had done before.”

     

    After his girlfriend’s refusal to attend, Bassiane himself returned to Anson Road drunk and cried as he told Fitzgerald that he had argued with his ‘friend.’ She noted that he was wearing clothes he had not worn before – including trousers and a jumper that were “too large for him” – and “assumed they belonged to Sessé.” Going further, aside from noting her boyfriend’s shoes were stained with blood and that he had scratches on his hands, she suggested that she was so scared of Bassiane’s mental state that she was fearful to go to bed. Instead, she sat up all night with him, she continued.

     

    “He arrived with a bag full of drinks and fruit and showed me a watch, a camera and a ring that he told me were Christmas gifts that Julian had given him. On 22nd December, he threw some clothes and some papers in the trash and told me that he had to go to Morocco immediately because his mother was sick. He bought an air ticket and went by plane. He had no difficulty paying for the ticket in cash even though he had no money when he went to Julian’s house over the weekend.”

     

    Despite being supposedly penniless and potless only a couple of days earlier, Mustapha Bassaine flew to Casablanca on 23rd December after having paid the then not insubstantial sum of £44 in cash for a one-way ticket. He also exchanged a further £50 in cash for Moroccan Dirhams and after giving Jean Fitzgerald his Moroccan familial address, requested she send any newspaper cuttings that mentioned his name there. Allegedly, according to the Irish waitress, he also mentioned having seen newspaper reports about the murder at 32 Wilton Crescent and added “he couldn’t understand how anyone could have done such a thing to a man as nice as Julian.”

     

    Though police officers questioned whether Fitzgerald could just be another ‘spurned girlfriend,’ some of the details mentioned made Hensley take her more seriously than the many cranks who call in when crime occurs. A search of bins in the neighbourhood followed and resulted in the aforementioned bloodstained shoes and trousers being found.

     

    Justifiably, Bassiane – who turned out to be the son of a high ranking official in the Moroccan Foreign Office – was either a man too stupid to dispose of the items of his crime or he was someone who had a plan and didn’t think he needed to be bothered about the consequences of the DNA on them. Meanwhile, fingerprints found in the couple’s Anson Road flat matched fingerprints found at 32 Wilton Crescent and thus here was a man who rose straight to number one on the list of suspects.

     

    Ten days after the murder, police issued an international warrant being for Musapha Bassiane’s arrest, but there was a major problem for Scotland Yard as Britain had no extradition treaty with Morocco. It seemed, given the key suspect had already ‘flown the nest,’ as long as he stayed in his homeland, Bassiane was a safe fugitive from justice. This was a situation similar to that involving the billionaire playboy Farouk Abdulhak in the more recent 2008 ‘Murder in Mayfair’ of Martine Vik Magnussen; getting someone back from a country like Morocco then or Yemen now is, in fact, nigh on impossible.

     

    In addition, in case Fitzgerald had either got it wrong about where her errant bisexual lover was travelling to, or was instead covering for him, a police watch was put on her Anson Road flat in case he decided to return. Of course, aware that this young Irish girl was of no further use to him, the grubby, grifter never, ever did revisit that address but found himself safely hidden away in his homeland.

     

    Meanwhile, with their holidays over, Lord and Lady Bernstein returned from their tour of the West Indies – where they had visited either Barbados or Bermuda or perhaps even both (depending on which reports you believe) – shortly after Christmas. Funeral arrangements were made for Julian Sessé, but only a small number of people were said to have attended a service at St Mary’s Catholic church in Cadogan Street, Chelsea. The deceased’s place of burial remains presently unknown, but it is said that his clearly embarrassed family “refused” to attend the service in what can only be perceived as move most spineless.

     

    Separately, on returning to 32 Wilton Crescent, though Lady Bernstein identified that a sum of £80 was missing from the desk in her bedroom, a search of the house discovered that no further familial property had been stolen. By now, however, it seemed that the aforementioned watch, camera and ring and perhaps further money taken by Bassiane to the Anson Road apartment had actually been stolen instead from his victim.

     

    In spite of all of this relevant new information, the judicial process was opened and postponed no less than eight times. According to the person in charge of the criminal investigation, a Mr Gavin Ilurston, “the investigations were not finished.” The reasoning for such is definitely something worthy of question still to this day.

     

    Hensley, however, knew exactly where Bassiane was in Morocco and “through Interpol asked other the police of all European countries in Europe countries to be prepared” in case the suspected killer appeared. Eighteen months later, he got again lucky when he and his colleague Detective Sergeant Bernard Davis were informed that the on-the-run deadbeat was planning a trip to Germany and the Netherlands.

     

    “Handlebar moustached” dimwit Bassaine was arrested on 28th June 1972 after police in Holland detained him for immigration offences in Rotterdam. Given the fugitive from justice had been on Interpol’s list as wanted for murder, if he’d simply stayed in Morocco, he would not have ever been caught, but here instead was a feckless fool clearly beyond arrogant who thought himself above the law.

     

    By 10th July 1972, with extradition paperwork complete, Mustapha Bassiane was transferred to the custody of Davis and shackled to him and flown to London. A flight attendant, Hopkins in the conclusions of his podcast shared, requested the shackles be removed for the duration of the journey, but Davis was most definitely not going to allow any opportunity his captive to escape for a second time. The unshackling was rejected and once in London, it was straight off to a remand prison until trial for the man suspected of the murder of Julian Sessé.

     

    On 8th February 1973, Bassiane’s trial began at London’s ‘Old Bailey’ Central Criminal Court. Akin to form, he pleaded not guilty and though admitting to having spent the evening with Sessé, argued that “the butler was in fine health when he left on the Sunday morning.”

     

    Turning the cards on his by then ex-lover Fitzgerald, Bassiane told the court that she “flew into a wild jealous rage” and threatened to “harm the old man and hurt the old bastard… She threatened to smash his face.” He added that “the same day Jean Fitzgerald had gone out and he had not seen her until the afternoon. She was shaking and had told him she was sick.” His basic and somewhat bizarre line of defence – given the substantive forensic evidence against his own person – was that it was her and not him that had committed the ‘crime passionnel.’

     

    Unsurprisingly, the jury did not believe this “fierce tempered” killer and Mustapha Bassiane found himself sentenced to life in prison on 12th February 1973. He also received a concurrent sentence of two years for stealing £80 in cash from Lady Bernstein’s desk – a sum that was about equivalent to a month’s average wages at that time, but most definitely not a sum worth killing for.

     

    Before sending him down, the judge in the case slammed Bassiane. Judge Forbes is said to have told the court: “This was a brutal murder. The sentence has been the product of evidence in which there is no doubt. Your attempt to place part of the blame on Miss Fitzgerald has received the treatment it deserves.”

     

    It is unknown what became of this murdering monster after he was deported in 1984. Mustapha Bassiane had served just 11 years of his life sentence in the UK; a term that surely was far from long enough for such a brutal and evil murder and a crime committed in a country where young men who proclaim their innocence like Mark Alexander and Omar Benguit have rotted in prison for 13 years and 18 years respectively in spite of a clear lack of evidence against them.

     

    Turning to other thoughts post-sentencing, Hopkins shared in his podcast that Hensley believed Bassaine had tried to blackmail the butler and killed him when he didn’t comply. He also suggested that “hapless” Fitzgerald could have been implicated if she had gone to the mansion that night and concluded “her distrust of his motives may have just saved her from a dark fate” at 32 Wilton Crescent. Would her lover have killed her there also or would he have set the place up to pin the blame on her? Thankfully, given she saw sense, no one will ever know.

     

    If still alive in 2023, Mustapha Bassaine would be 79-years-old; Julian Sessé, on the other hand, would be long dead, but if he hadn’t met his noxious nemesis that night in December 1973, he’d probably have gotten to have enjoyed a long, happy and fulfilled retirement. The ‘Belgravia Butler’ perhaps should have been more careful, but he most definitely didn’t deserve such a sordid end.

     

    Given also that a National Archive lockdown on documents relating to this case was orchestrated for 97 years on 1st January 1973 with a record opening date of 1st January 2071 and a review date of 2021 that changed nothing, is something still being hidden regarding this case? After all, this murder occurred in the home of Lord Bernstein, a very powerful Chagall collecting business titan with links to Sir Alfred Hitchcock and a man once part of the Ministry of Information. We join John Hopkins of Scotland Yard Confidential and wonder if “the real truth” of what happened to “kindly” Julian Sessé on 19th December 1970 will ever actually be known.

     

    Pictured top – No image of Julian Sessé can be found on the Internet (left); 32 Wilton Crescent (top centre) and the late Granada head honcho Lord Bernstein (lower centre); killer Mustapha Bassaine in the only known image available of him (right).

     

    Listen to the ‘Scotland Yard Confidential’ episode about the slaying of ‘The Peer’s Butler’ by clicking here.

     

    Editor’s note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    A message from our editorial team – Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus and the cost-of-living crisis impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by supporting our work via Patreon.

     

    Scotland Yard Confidential butler murder Belgravia Julian Sesse 1970
    The story of the December 1970 slaying at 32 Wilton Crescent features in a 37:02-minute March 2023 episode of the excellent podcast ‘Scotland Yard Confidential’ – which can be listened to as ‘A Spotify Original.’ The description for the episode reads: “In December 1970, Julian Sessé, the long-serving butler to Granada TV Chairman, Lord Bernstein, was found brutally murdered in his basement flat in Belgravia. With little hope for a successful investigation, and two murder cases already on their books, local police quickly handed the case to Scotland Yard. Evidence gathered from the flat revealed that the elegant 65-year-old butler was in the habit of picking up younger men and entertaining them at his home. He was discreet and private in these affairs, and his personal acquaintances were equally secretive. Was his killer a stranger or a friend? And how would detectives trace him if no one was willing to talk? It fell to Detective Chief Superintendent John ‘Ginger’ Hensley to crack the case of the Peer’s Butler. Learn more about your ad choices.”
    Julian Sesse murderer Mustapha Bassaine convicted
    In an edition of ‘The News’ on 16th February 1973 that reported on Julian Bassaine receiving a life sentence for the slaying of Lord Bernstein’s butler, other articles included one about a Burton’s Court, Chelsea, SW3 resident having had £1,100 fur coat stolen “while she was having her hair done” and another listing TV licence fines awarded to residents of Draycott Place, Sloane Court West, Lyall Streeet, Margeretta Terrace, Sydney Street and Swan Court. A tragic story of a mother and baby found dead in a bedsit in Onslow Gardens, SW7 was referenced on the same page along with an ex-Grenadier Guardsmen being found dead after a fit in a ‘super loo’ at Victoria Station, SW1. A tale of a drunken man being fined after throwing a bottle through a Kings Road boutique, the Little-Big-Horn was one of the day’s more light-hearted pieces of coverage; Thomas Patrick Canon of Redburn Street, SW3 told the judge: “I am terribly sorry for what I have done, but had no recollection of it. All over the weekend I have asked myself what reason I had to do it and I can’t come up with any answer. I have been thinking it was a nightmare. I wouldn’t like it, neither [if that had been done to a shop I owned].”
    32 Wilton Crescent Belgravia London SW1 murder
    The scene of a murder most horrid on the 19th December 1970 – 32 Wilton Crescent, Belgravia, London, SW1X 8RX. Beyond the then owner Sidney Bernstein (formally titled The Right Honourable The Lord Bernstein of Leigh in the County of Kent, 1899 – 1993), others who have have variously lived or have connections to the likely now worth upwards of £40 million residence have included Gilbert Heathcote, 9th Baronet (in 1941) and a lady named Sarina Abramovich (circa 2015 to 2016). Ms Abramovich was subsequently (in 2021) 432 Park Avenue, New York based and shares a surname with the former Chelsea Football Club owning, one-time Putin supporting billionaire Roman Abramovich, but it is unknown if they are related. A statue of Sir Robert Grosvenor KG stands just opposite 32 Wilton Crescent and others to have lived on this most tony of streets have included the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Lord Randolph Churchill, Quentin Crewe, the Grand Duchesss Charlotte of Luxembourgh and Demetri Marchessini.
    Steven Berkoff Granada Television Lord Bernstein
    Essex born and Jewish, Sidney Bernstein, Baron Bernstein was lauded as “the dominant influence on the growth and development of commercial television” by the British Film Institute. Twice married and a father of three, his business interests included amongst other things a circuit of 60 cinemas and theatres, motorway services stations and a hugely profitable television rental business. He was a lifelong friend and partner of Sir Alfred Hitchcock in film production and turned Granada Television into a huge commercial success; he was portrayed by Steven Berkoff in the 2010 BBC one-off drama, ‘The Road to Coronation Street.’
    32 Wilton Crescent Belgravia Mark Heathcote Sarina Abramovich
    Sarina Abramovich is listed as being connected with 32 Wilton Crescent in 2015 and 2016 in documents relating to imports and exports. Whether she has any connection with the property now is unknown and records relating to the building remain shrouded in mystery. The Heathcote family were connected with the house in the 1940s when Mark Heathcote, 10th Baronet was born there in 1941.
  • Gordon The Gopher’s Gone – Phillip Schofield Quits ‘This Morning’; Will Further Scandal Follow?

    Gordon The Gopher’s Gone – Phillip Schofield Quits ‘This Morning’; Will Further Scandal Follow?

    As the queue-jumping puppet master of Gordon The Gopher Phillip Schofield quits ‘This Morning’, Matthew Steeples asks: “Will further scandal follow for this flogger of plughole-fit-only plonk?”

    This morning, The Observer asked: “Will the Phil and Holly saga put an end to the absurd notion of the TV couple?” and aside from examining the storm-in-a-teacup of the end-of-the-road being reached for the dastardly queue-jumping duo, referenced the likes of the ‘washed-up old soak’ Judy Finnigan and her ‘modern day Dorian Gray-esque’ husband, Richard Madeley.

     

    Whilst the married telly box duo of the alleged shoplifter Madeley – he still claims to have been falsely accused and even once pointed this out to President Bill Clinton – and his ‘mummy-like’ wife Finnigan remain together, “the silver soufflé” Phillip Schofield’s ‘sofa based’ relationship with Holly Willoughby is now finally toast.

     

    After several weeks of the story not being about This Morning itself, but instead swirling around Phillip Schofield’s policeman-turned-nonce brother, Timothy, being sent down for twelve years, Willoughby refusing to speak to him off screen and allegations concerning a runner whom the presenter met when he was just thirteen, this became an out of control juggernaut that just had to be stopped.

     

    Slammed even by the frankly nasty and noxious Tory twerp Nadine Dorries MP as someone “rather up himself” who “scared” her, the interesting question as we say goodbye and good riddance to ‘Pip’ is this: “Will further scandal follow for Phillip Schofield or will he simply left to fade away into the sunset along with his old mucker Gordon The Gopher?”

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.

     

    This morning on Twitter, Matthew Steeples polled his 10,600 personal followers of @M_Steeples. He asked: “Will further shocking stories about bitter bore Phillip Schofield emerge in wake of his departure from ITV1’s ‘This Morning’?” By 11:30am on Sunday 21st May 2023, the very clear majority of the 1,000 plus respondents took the view: “Yes; more scandals on the way.”

    Twitter reacts to Matthew Steeples’s poll…

    MS Twitter reaction 1
    MS Twitter reaction 2
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7mzqB6oQe8
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPTahhXUxPw

    Twitter delights in the disappearance of Phillip Schofield from ITV1’s daytime screens…

    Wacky and weird Phillip Schofield’s worst moments…

    On himself (in spite of being condemned by everyone from Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford to Nadine Dorries MP):

    “I am only about 26 in my head.”

     

    “If I was a pig to work with, I wouldn’t get asked back.”

     

    “My dad was the archetypal charming man. If I’ve inherited even a small bit of what he had, that would be enough for me.”

     

    “I’m incredibly sentimental, although I’m not one of those people who doesn’t chuck anything out; I don’t keep used tea bags, just special mementos.”

     

    To his one-time ‘friend’ turned ‘runner’ (for a time) on This Morning, Matthew McGreevy (whom he met when the young whippersnapper was just 12 or 13 years old) asking him about what they might end up doing in three years:

    “Well, if I’m still getting away with it, I’ll be a happy man.”

     

    On the world in general:

    “We live in a world that has very sharp edges. It can be very bitter.”

     

    On Holly Willoughby (who subsequently has distanced herself from the crying cretin):

    “Holly is my rock.”

     

    On being gay (in spite of hidden such for years):

    “I thought maybe I was bisexual.”

     

    “If you ask anyone who is gay, they know, there is no confusion.”

     

    “You never know what is going on someone’s head when they think they are leading the perfect life.”

     

    As he cut off invited guests on ‘This Morning’ who he believed misgendered LGBTQX+ sorts:

    “We’ll get back to the show and we’ll get back to 2017 and not get back to medieval Britain in just a moment.”

     

    On his now ex-wife’s keenness to be rid of him:

    “My wife Steph never tells me to take on less work; she’s just glad to have me out of the house.”

     

    On birthdays:

    “I hate birthdays.”

     

    On putting wine ahead of family:

    “Wine is the biggest passion of my life without question.”

     

    “I don’t do anything by halves and wine is an expensive passion.”

     

    On preferring to travel alone:

    “In general, I’d say that I need to be with the right people in the right place, although one of the best holidays I ever had was alone.”

     

    On quitting Twitter:

    “I have another secret Twitter account.”

     

    “There’s nothing that winds me up more on Twitter than people who are stupid and who say the most ridiculous things.”

     

    On the people he’s interviewed:

    “I’m not being arrogant or blasé, but I got a bigger buzz sitting opposite Jean-Bernard Delmas at Château Haut-Brion than I did from interviewing Elton John, Liza Minelli or Whitney Houston.”

     

    “You can tell when you look at someone and think: ‘He’s on the brink of fainting’ or that certainly something’s not right.”

     

    On offending people:

    “I love the fact we do break taboos.”

     

    Asked why he and Holly Willoughby skipped the 13-hour queue to attend the lying-in-state of the late Queen Elizabeth II:

    “Have you got nothing better to do with your time? … Why should I apologise?”

     

    On ghosts and his past life:

    “[I have] a rule about never borrowing money… [I was] ‘murdered’ in a past life over a debt… I opened the door to silence and felt horror wash over me. Three steps in, and I saw them – two murdered bodies on the floor. knew they were my wife and small child. Horror turned to fury. I knew why they were dead. I owed money to two brothers who worked at the end of the street in a sawmill. The brother [then] found me, dragged me outside, punched me to the ground and, as my head hit the mud, he repeatedly stamped on it until I was dead!”

     

    “Our back garden is allegedly haunted by a ghost called the Grey Lady. When one of my daughters was three, she said she’d been speaking to a lady in the garden and we went running around trying to find this woman. There was no one there.”

     

    On refusing to go near churches:

    “Going into a church reminds of the terrifying vision of [past life] death… [I am] not willing to take the risk again.”

     

    To a flower pot that he felt got in his way on television:

    “Go back to where you were, go back to where you were… Only I can see them.”

     

    To Lady Colin Campbell (whom he was interviewing about her latest book on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex):

    “For someone who allegedly moves in aristocratic circles, isn’t it all a bit tawdry and undignified? … Paul Burrell, who’d have thought we’d quote him, said of one of your previous books on the Queen: ‘You can only be a true, reliable witness to history if you are there. Lady Colin Campbell was none of these things.’ … You are a gossip. Well, you’re a gossip, but only when it suits you.”

     

    Whilst interviewing television personality Kim Woodburn (who responded by slamming his rudeness):

    “I know why people reacted in the way that they reacted to you. It’s because of the way you make me feel sitting on that sofa. You are already making me feel controversial. [You are] confrontational… We’re just asking you a question.”

     

    On dealing with problems (in spite of being the creator of many himself):

    “I’m a very good clearer-upper.”

     

    Whilst shockingly sharing a list of ‘names’ of Conservative politicians live on-air with then Prime Minister David Cameron of those he believed might be abusers (he was subsequently forced to apologise and pay £125,000 to Lord McAlpine, an innocent man):

    “I have those names there. Those are the names on a piece of paper. You know the names on that piece of paper. Will you be speaking to those people?”

     

    On the ‘work’ he has done:

    “I’m not a workaholic.”

     

    “I do have a rule about how much I will take on. The last thing you want is to be on TV too much and for people to be sick of you.”

     

    On being on television:

    “I am very conscious of the fact I am in peoples’ living rooms every day and they feel like they know me.”

     

    “I meet people who are so sniffy about daytime TV… Ghastly.”

     

    “I don’t want people turning on the telly and going: ‘Dear God, not him again.’”

     

    ‘Schofe’s’ extremely curious history… “What’ll come next for this raging ratbag?” is indeed the question…

    Gordon The Gopher Phillip Schofield
    Gordon The Gopher (also known as ‘Gordon T. Gopher’) was Phillip Schofield’s puppet ‘friend’ on ‘Children’s BBBC’ (‘CBBC’) between 1985 and 1987. The yellow puppet gopher with red pads – which were said to “represent lobster claws” – is amongst the many that the now former ITV ‘This Morning’ presenter turned upon. Of the puppet, Schofield once told ‘Heat’ magazine: “Gordon the Gopher is in rehab. It’s all gone horribly wrong for him. It’s a shame. I’ve got a restraining order against him and we don’t speak. He’s quite bitter and he has been ever since I got my role in ‘Doctor Dolittle’ in the West End and he didn’t get offered the part. It was the straw that broke the gopher’s back.”
    Phillip Schofield claims not to check Twitter anymore; he has also said he has a ‘secret account’ so most likely does monitor the many thousands of messages slamming his utterly reprehensible antics.
    Phillip Schofield claims not to check Twitter anymore; he has also said he has a ‘secret account’ so most likely does monitor the many thousands of messages slamming his utterly reprehensible antics.
    Phillip-Schofield-brother-Tim-Schofield
    Phillip Schofield with his now convicted and now jailed criminal 54-year-old paedophile brother Timothy Schofield in happier times. After the verdict earlier in April – in a case where the television presenter’s civilian police officer sibling was convicted of three counts of causing a child to watch sexual activity and three counts of engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child – in a statement released by his lawyer, Phillip Schofield remarked: “My overwhelming concern is and has always been for the wellbeing of the victim and his family. I hope that their privacy will now be respected. If any crime had ever been confessed to me by my brother, I would have acted immediately to protect the victim and their family. These are despicable crimes and I welcome the guilty verdicts. As far as I am concerned, I no longer have a brother.” Timothy Schofield was also found guilty of three counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity and two of sexual activity with a child at Exter Crown Court and had told the television presenter that he’d “had time together” (including watching porn and masturbating) with a child whilst the ‘This Morning’ host was doing the washing up in his very own kitchen.
    David-Cameron-Phillip-Shcofield-This-Morning-abuse
    On 8th November 2012, Schofield handed the then Prime Minister David Cameron a list of names of alleged sex offenders in the Conservative Party which he had found through research on the Internet. That list was partially visible to ‘This Morning’s’ millions of viewers and as a result one person on it, Lord McAlpine, sued. Subsequently, the broadcaster was quite rightly forced to issue and unreserved apology and a statement that read: “ITV and Phillip Schofield have now reached agreement with Lord McAlpine to settle his libel claim, made in relation to the This Morning programme broadcast… ITV and Phillip Schofield apologise unreservedly to Lord McAlpine, have agreed the terms of a statement to be made in open court, and have agreed to pay him damages of £125,000 and his legal costs.” According to ‘International Business,’ “the ITV settlement [was] reportedly less than McAlpine was seeking. However, the peer’s lawyer, Andrew Reid, said he was ‘pleased’ with ITV’s admission that it was wrong and called the settlement ‘pragmatic.’ … Reid told the BBC: ‘The Schofield stunt added fuel to the fire that was already there and we had to take that into account.”
    Philip-Schofield-not-sorry-GB-News
    Now former ITV1 ‘This Morning’ co-host Phillip Schofield cringed and looked as if he was about to snap when approached outside his West London home by GB News presenter Ben Leo in November 2022 about the ‘Queuegate’ scandal that utterly disgraced him. Here is a mouse-not-a-man who wrongly assumes that he’s some kind of national treasure worthy of not a jot of criticism.
    Phillip-Schofield-wine-plonker-Matthew-McGreevy
    Instead of skipping queues and upsetting the nation on multiple occasions, the all-round-angry man and now ex ‘This Morning’ host and ex-sidekick of Gordon the Gopher should now focus on improving his deservedly slammed boxed wines (right). He thought his red “perfect with olives” whilst the public decided it “better poured down the plughole.” Alternatively, he could put some effort into ‘making up’ with his missing from our screens for quite some time now former close friend, Matthew McGreevy.
    Phillip-Schofield-Matthew-McGreevy
    The television presenter and all-round plonker with his supposed ‘former friend’ Matt McGreevy on another occasion.
    Matt McGreevy semi-naked swimming shorts Anthea Turner Ruth Langsford
    On one occasion, Matthew McGreevy – who has allegedly since been made to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) – was paraded around on an episode of ‘This Morning’ in a just a pair of swimming trunks. Ruth Langsford looked on sheepishly whilst ‘Princess Tippy Toes’ swung into action and covered skinny McGreevy in sun tan lotion. Phillip Schofield’s role in orchestrating this puff piece remains unknown.
    Simon Schofield
    In recent days, Schofield has supposedly come to rely on a man named Simon Schofield (who is not a relation, but whom the ‘Daily Mail’ this week most tellingly described as like “a rock” to the now ex ‘This Morning’ presenter). Here, the latter is pictured with the pair’s ‘friend’ Matthew McGreevy.
    Phillip-Schofield-Ferne-McCann
    The ‘This Morning’ host is known for being a very angry and bitter man. Like Ferne McCann (pictured right), a fellow presenter on ITV1 with a reputation for being an utter rotter and for having had a child with a monster who threw acid over innocent people in a London nightclub, he is also known for being incapable of owning his own mistakes.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YbI0TH6ij0
  • Marlene, Marlene… Ngozi Fulani (Born ‘Marlene Headley’) – The Gruesome Grifter of 2022

    Marlene, Marlene… Ngozi Fulani (Born ‘Marlene Headley’) – The Gruesome Grifter of 2022

    As ‘Harry & Meghan’ premieres on Netflix, a video of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s supporter Marlene Headley (AKA ‘Negozi Fulani’) proves her to be nothing but an attention seeking grifter

    On the day that Netflix’s ‘moanathon’ Harry & Meghan ‘drops’ millennial style, a video of that “grifter that’s gotta grift” Ngozi Fulani – whose name at birth was actually Marlene Headley – is also doing the rounds. In it, noxious nuisance Ms Headley, as many are now referencing this toxic troublemaker, is shown parading around blatantly telling people how she has to dress up to get noticed.

     

    Clearly illustrating herself as someone prepared to act up in order to get any kind of attention at all, here again is proof that the entire debacle with Lady Susan Hussey was orchestrated and planned in a very twisted fashion. It was anything but a chance encounter on the part of Headley – a woman who previously effectively suggested our now Queen Consort, Camilla, to be someone who inflicted “domestic abuse” against the mendacious menace formerly known as Meghan Markle – and the victim in all this, it is becoming more and more apparent, was actually an 83-year-old who had served her nation diligently for over 60 years.

     

    Yesterday, GB News reported that Ms Headley had issued a further statement about an incident she’d previously claimed she didn’t want to make a fuss about. On Monday, she supposedly ludicrously opined:

     

    “What took place at the event is now well-documented, and sadly is something that occurs on an all too regular basis… I have experienced first-hand what happens when a black woman faces adversity and has to overcome additional barriers when trying to report it… I remain dedicated to raising awareness around cultural competency, and will go to Buckingham Palace, or anywhere else, if it will help raise positive change and save lives.”

     

    Meanwhile elsewhere in the Daily Mail’s ‘Ephraim Hardcastle’ column this morning, reference was made to one half of the Duchess of Sussex’s supplier of private jets, Sir Elton John. It was noted:

     

    “With Sir Elton John confirmed to headline Glastonbury, Prince Philip’s biographer Gyles Brandreth recalls sitting with the duke before a performance by the Rocket Man.”

     

    “‘Looking at the programme,’ says Gyles, ‘Philip groaned, ‘Oh God, Elton John… again.’”

     

    Sadly, still titleless David Furnish, Sir Elton’s other half and ‘close friend’ of Danny Williams, didn’t get a look-in and yet again the late Duke of Edinburgh was proven to be a far wiser sort than his drippy grandson in his observations on good and bad character.

     

    Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party.

     

    Pictured Top (left to right) – Ngozi Fulani explaining how she dresses up to get attention in a video clip shared on TikTok; Prince Harry with his supplier of private jets Sir Elton John and hubby David Furnish; Lady Susan Hussey showing herself to actually be anything but a racist and the Duchess of Sussex called out for what she actually is: “The meanest girl in the world!”

     

    Ngozi Fulani Marlene Headley Queen Camilla
    Ngozi Fulani has repeatedly banged on about how she didn’t like Lady Susan Hussey having touched her during their encounter; the hypocrite, shown here behind Queen Consort Camilla at the very reception where that encounter occurred, is pictured touching somebody else and up close and personal with another. Here is somebody who has turned a storm in a teacup into almighty PR opportunity for nobody but her nasty self.
    Elton John David Furnish Duke and Duchess of Sussex
    The ‘Daily Mail’ had a pop at Sir Elton John on the day of his friend Prince Harry’s Netflix premiere. In mentioning that Prince Philip was anything but a fan of titleless David Furnish’s hubby, they pointedly showed the late Duke of Edinburgh to be a far better judge of character than his soppy grandson.
    David Furnish Danny Williams Meghan Markle Duchess of Sussex
    When he’s not paddling around whilst holidaying in the land of olive oil, David Furnish (pictured here with the male ‘friend’ he bought a flat for, Danny Williams) likes to make programmes to air on Netflix with his female chum the Duchess of Sussex. The programmes, unsurprisingly, just like this dastardly duo themselves, don’t prove to be very popular.
    Curtains for Meghan Markle
    Today, with their Netflix premiere, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have signaled what should be next for them. This greedy, grasping, grubbing duo should be told: “It’s curtains for you!” by King Charles and then they should be sent off to where they belong: Siberia.

    Twitter reacts to Ngozi Fulani’s ongoing publicity stunt at the expense of an 83-year-old pensioner…

  • Windbag Writer Defends Windbag Ball & Cat Kicker

    Windbag Writer Defends Windbag Ball & Cat Kicker

    “Very unkind” windbag writer Rachel Johnson, a sympathiser of convicted mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, offers sympathies windbag ball and cat kicker Kurt Zouma

    “Poundland muckspreader” and “associate of two dirty dildo floggers” Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge CBE has been deservedly slammed for not firing Kurt Zouma, an overpaid kicker of bags of wind for West Ham, after he giggled as he got his brother to film him kicking and slapping a cat in his kitchen.

     

    Now, the Prime Minister’s somewhat off her merry rocker sister, windbag writer Rachel Johnson, has decided to stick her claws in and on her LBC radio show yesterday suggested:

     

    “Listen, I mean I know, thank God it’s after the watershed. I am not a cat person… However, I do think we are in danger of overreacting and cancelling Kurt Zouma for one misguided kick in his kitchen which his silly brother posted on social media.”

     

    “He’s 27, clearly he’s old enough to know better, but do we really want to live in a world where one silly mistake can lead to the end of somebody’s career? I think we don’t.”

     

    “I think he’s taken his punishment, his cats are no longer in the house. I think he should apologise and move on. I think there are bigger issues at stake.”

     

    As we said of Baroness Brady – who pathetically excused this animal abuser and even suggested he could “turn something negative into long-lasting positives” – yesterday and we repeat again to Rachel Johnson today: “Try telling that to the poor abused cat.”

     

    Previously, in November 2021, ‘Rabid Rachel’ penned another ‘excuse article’ for The Spectator that was rightly condemned as “sickening.” In it, the daughter of Stanley Johnson – a man whose first wife declared: “He hit me many times, over many years… He broke my nose. He made me feel like I deserved it” – offered her thoughts on the trial of the since convicted mucky madam sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell and disgracefully declared:

     

    “It’s hard not to feel a batsqueak of pity for Ghislaine Maxwell – 500 days and counting in solitary confinement.”

     

    “I intersected briefly with her at Oxford. As a fresher I wandered into Balliol JCR one day in search of its subsidised breakfast granola-and-Nescafé offering and found a shiny glamazon with naughty eyes holding court astride a table, a high-heeled boot resting on my brother Boris’s thigh.”

     

    “She gave me a pitying glance but I did manage to snag an invite to her party in Headington Hill Hall – even though I wasn’t in the same college as her and Boris. I have a memory of her father, Bob, coming out in a towelling robe and telling us all to go home.”

     

    “I’m sure fairweather friends would not reveal they went to a Ghislaine Maxwell party: as Barbara Amiel’s brilliant memoir Friends and Enemies proves, you only know who your real chums are when you’re in the gutter.”

     

    Clearly Rachel Johnson – who believes being “called unkind… really cuts to the quick” – is a woman with a moral compass as warped as not only her buffoon brother Boris Johnson, but also a woman who’ll excuse the activities of both the abusers of animals and humans.  Perhaps it is now time for this blonde bozo to reassess her recent remarks and realise that the cats and victims of a sick sex trafficker are the ones she’s most definitely been most unkind to.

     

    Pictured top – West Ham’s cat abuser Kurt Zouma, convicted sexual abusers Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein and continually abusive of power and privilege siblings Rachel and Boris Johnson.

     

    https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1492972471271710721
    Rachel Johnson naked
    Rachel Johnson got her breasts out against Brexit in February 2019.
    Boris Johnson with Stanley Johnson Rachel Johnson and Jo Johnson
    The LBC presenter with her father and siblings.
    Karren Brady with David Cameron and Boris Johnson
    Karren Brady – another defender of cat abuser Kurt Zouma – got elevated to the House of Lords by her guffawing chum David Cameron in spite of claiming to “have no interest in politics.” She also likes bumping fists with Carrie Johnson’s puppet, Boris.

    “Very Unkind” Rachel Johnson’s Most Ridiculous Remarks

    Aside from once rightly suggesting her brother, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, uses the despatch box of the House of Commons as a “bully pulpit” and once condemned some of his speeches as “highly reprehensible,” journalist Rachel Johnson often gets rather carred away. Amongst her odd most ridiculous remarks are:

     

    On boozy lockdown breaking parties in Downing Street:

    “I didn’t see much of the Prime Minister and his family during lockdown, but the times I did see him, he was completely compliant: he dotted every ‘I,’ he crossed every ‘T.’”

     

    “If it was rule of six, there were six. And what I didn’t see were all the things you’ve been reading about.”

     

    “To my mind, if he did go out into the Downing Street garden – and he’s told us he did – for him, that would have been work. He may have had a drink, I don’t know. Is that one of the key questions? But that would have been work.”

     

    “For example, at his birthday, it was me, my three brothers, Carrie and Wilf. That was six people. And I have to tell you something about my brother’s character.”

     

    “You’ve been seeing the front pages which couldn’t have been worse: suitcases of booze going into Downing Street from the Co-op.”

     

    “I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that he has never once turned to me or any member of my family and said: ‘I tell you what, let’s have an office party’ or: ‘I tell you what, let’s have a party.’”

     

    “If anything, he would say: ‘Let’s play reading,’ when we were growing up, or even in our twenties, or: ‘Let’s play, who can memorise the most poems from the Oxford book of verse’’ And, of course, it was always him.”

     

    “Look, I’m just telling you what I saw over lockdown and what I know of my brother’s character.”

     

    On her own character:

    “Of course, I’m naughty.”

     

    “Without my Johnson trademark mop of yellow hair, I think I would be nothing.”

     

    On politicians:

    “If you tell the truth you get into trouble and that’s why politicians are extremely dull.”

     

    On the sex trafficker and daughter of a thieving murderer Ghislaine Maxwell:

    “It’s hard not to feel a batsqueak of pity for Ghislaine Maxwell.”

     

    On food and coffee:

    “In Germany, salads are assemblies of ham and mayonnaise.”

     

    “I am a total coffee snob and bore. If anyone makes the mistake of offering me ‘a coffee’ they tend to regret it. I’m worse than Mariah Carey and the hot milk rider is completely non-negotiable.”

     

    On her work:

    “I used to sit at home in my tracksuit bottoms and the real excitement of my day would be going out to get a copy of Private Eye and a latte.”

     

    “It’s often discouraging sitting working at home, wondering whether to put the heating on, answering the doorbell to the gas board, feeling it’s all utterly pointless.”

     

    The Lady [which she was the 9th editor of between 2009 and 2013] is a piddling little magazine that no one cares about or buys.”

     

    On what others think of her:

    “I’m worried about looking like a bad person… I don’t like the public image I’ve been dressed with and it worries me.”

     

    “When I’m called unkind, that really cuts to the quick. You can say anything else that you like about me.”

     

    “I don’t mind being called snobbish, a pain and a social climber, but being called unkind really hurts.”

     

  • Deviant Robert Durst Defeats Justice In Death

    Deviant Robert Durst Defeats Justice In Death

    That billionaire murderer Robert Durst effectively becomes an innocent man in death is utterly outrageous; that he has defeated justice is ludicrous and the key question now is: “Who gets his fortune?”

    The beyond bonkers billionaire Robert Durst – who outrageously was allowed to die in a hospital rather than prison yesterday – was undoubtedly a serial killer. How many people he killed will forever now remain likely unknown, but without doubt this megalomaniac 78-year-old slayed not only his best friend Susan Berman in Los Angeles, California in December 2000 but also his neighbour Morris Black in Galveston, Texas in October 2001.

     

    Deviant Durst, whose wife, Kathie, disappeared without trace in January 1982, will not be missed by anyone – not even his relatives; they came to a settlement with him in 2006 in which they bunged him £46 million ($65 million, €53 million or درهم239 million) as part of a likely since unfulfilled hope that he’d disappear and shut his almighty gob – amazingly now ‘technically’ will be in death an innocent man.

     

    Speaking to The Guardian this morning, a former federal prosecutor with no involvement in the case, Neama Rahmani, commented:

     

    “As the law is right now, Durst’s conviction will be vacated and it’s like it never happened. This is such a unique case. It’s really unprecedented that someone can be involved in three different murders in three states and escape justice.”

     

    Going further of this crackpot crazy crossdresser, Westchester county district attorney Mimi Rocah added:

     

    “After 40 years spent seeking justice for her death, I know how upsetting this news must be for Kathleen Durst’s family. We had hoped to allow them the opportunity to see Mr Durst finally face charges for Kathleen’s murder because we know that all families never stop wanting closure, justice and accountability.”

     

    Expressing sympathy for the victims, John Lewin, the LA county deputy district attorney who prosecuted Durst for Berman’s murder concluded:

     

    “It’s a shame when anybody loses their life, however, it’s important to keep in mind that Bob Durst lived to be 78 years old, decades longer than two of his victims. To the end he was hostile, unrepentant, and unremorseful. My thoughts and sympathies lie with his victims.”

     

    Now, however, a new legal battle will likely ensue between this murdering monster’s ‘wife’ since 2000, Debrah Lee Charatan and his birth family. There are hundreds of millions at play and no doubt that’s the only battle we’ll now sadly actually see come to play in court.

     

    Pictured top – Robert Durst with his ‘disappeared’ since 1982 first wife Kathie McCormack. He was ‘technically’ married to her until 1990.

     

    Robert Durst
    The now forevermore only “suspected” serial killer came to wider public attention after ‘The Jinx’ went viral. During filming of the documentary, he declared to camera: “There it is. You’re caught! …. You’re right, of course. But you can’t imagine. … Arrest him … I don’t know what’s in the house … Oh, I want this … What a disaster … He was right. I was wrong. And the burping … I’m having difficulty with the question … What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” He subsequently chillingly added: “I did not tell the whole truth, nobody tells the whole truth.”
    Robert and Kathie Durst wedding
    Robert and Kathie Durst on their wedding day with one of their dogs. In total, during their marriage, the couple supposedly had seven dogs. All of them were named Igor and of them, in a “rare interview with the ‘New York Times’ in January 2015, Douglas Durst, the head of the family’s real estate empire, shared that his oddball brother had practiced “killing and disposing his wife” using the dogs. He declared: “Before the disappearance of my sister-in-law, Bob had a series of Alaskan Malamutes, which is like a husky. He had seven of them, and they all died, mysteriously, of different things, within six months of his owning them. All of them named Igor. We don’t know how they died, and what happened to their bodies. In retrospect, I now believe he was practicing killing and disposing his wife with those dogs.”
    Robert Durst court
    This seriously sinister got away with killing Morris Black based on claiming self-defense in spite of dismembering his body. He was convicted of killing his friend Susan Berman in September 2021, but with his death this will now be voided thanks to a legal technicality as his case was under appeal. Sadly, this psycho will now never face trial for the death of his first wife, Kathie, and though he was potentially also linked to the disappearances of Lynne Schulze from Middlebury, Vermont in 1971 and Karen Mitchell from Eureka, California and Kristen Modafferi, who was last seen in San Francisco in 1997, he’ll never face justice for what he likely did to them either.
    Douglas Durst
    The serial killer’s younger brother, Douglas, commented of his sibling in March 2015: “We hope he will finally be held accountable for all he has done.” Sadly, this monster’s death has ended the possibility of that.
    Debrah Lee Charatan wife of Robert Durst
    In mid-2002, Robert Durst signed over a power of attorney to Debrah Lee Charatan (pictured top with her “late” husband Steve Holm and lower right with her now deceased replacement for him). In 2006, he gave her around £14 million ($20 million, €16 million or درهم73 million) and to this date she continues to plug her trade online at BCBprop.com.
  • Blocking Barrymore

    Blocking Barrymore

    Aside from blocking people on Twitter, Michael Barrymore may finally have to become cooperative given new developments in the Stuart Lubbock rape-murder case

    Disgraced ‘entertainer’ Michael Barrymore likes to roll around drunk on the floor with racist baronesses like Marie-Claire von Alvensleben. He likes to block anyone who dares call him out on social media, likes to praise the croaked paedophile Sir Jimmy Savile whilst pretending to be Hitler and likes to not answer questions about what happened at his Essex bungalow on 31st March 2001.

     

    Last week, returning to the case of the brutal rape and murder of Stuart Lubbock at Barrymore’s home that fateful night, the Sunday Mirror and People’s Dan Warburton reported:

     

    “The dying dad of the man found drowned in Michael Barrymore’s pool is hopeful there will be justice for his son by the year’s end.”

     

    “Terry Lubbock, 76, is yearning for closure after prosecutors confirmed they were giving ‘early advice’ to police in relation to a man, 50, held on suspicion of murder and sexual assault in March.”

     

    Speaking to Warburton from the care home where he now resides, the victim’s father, terminal cancer sufferer Terry Lubbock, stated:

     

    “The police are pretty much there with the case. They haven’t cracked it just yet. But I hope it will come by Christmas. We will see justice done and it will be the best Christmas ever if it comes true. If it happens that will really spread some festive cheer.”

     

    “I think the penny’s dropped now. The people who are hiding – and they know who they are – know we are pushing until there’s nothing left to give.”

     

    “I may be going down. My legs are gone and I struggle to walk. And my head’s going, which I really don’t want to lose.”

     

    “But I’m not going down without a fight. I will spend my last days pushing. It’s disgraceful that it has dragged on so long. But I am sure it will be over soon.”

     

    Now, today, we join those demanding: “Michael Barrymore and your party chums – it’s time for some honest answers. Do the right thing and help get justice for the father of this innocent victim of rape and murder.”

     

    Pictured top: Michael Barrymore disgustingly pretending to be Hitler (left) and victim of rape and murder at his home, Stuart Lubbock (right).

     

    Michael Barrymore Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben
    Michael Barrymore pictured rolling around on the floor off-his-skull with convicted racist Marie-Claire, Baroness von Alvensleben.
    Michael Barrymore Hitler Sir Jimmy Savile
    Michael Barrymore pictured ‘worshiping’ Sir Jimmy Savile in the ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ house in January 2006. Of the late paedophile, at the time, the self-centred ex ‘Strike It Lucky’ host disgustingly declared: “When he came in I was blown away because it’s him and he never lets you down. I didn’t think seeing Jim and hearing Jim talking and being so personal and kind to me. I started to well up in there and thought here we go.”
    Michael Barrymore Twitter blocking
    Cowardly cretin Michael Barrymore likes to block anyone who dares call him out on social media. He also likes to conveniently not answer pertinent questions about the horrific rape-murder that occurred in his very own home on the 31st March 2001. Shame on him!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1wRAvqXOos&feature=youtu.be
    Editor-in-chief of ‘The Steeple Times’ Matthew Steeples appeared on Shaun Attwood’s True Crime channel in March this year to discuss developments in the Stuart Lubbock rape-murder case at 4 Beaumont Park Drive, Roydon, Harlow, Essex, CM19 5HB. Last year, Essex Police and CrimeStoppers issued a new appeal for information at which time they stated: “19 years – still no justice; Help us get answers for Stuart; Someone knows.” Going further, Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Jennings added: “I believe that [Stuart] was raped and murdered that night. One or more of those party-goers are responsible for that serious sexual assault on Stuart Lubbock. We remain committed to this investigation and continue to appeal for information leading to arrest and conviction in relation to the rape and murder of Stuart Lubbock. Nine people went to the party at Michael Barrymore’s house, but only one of them – Stuart – ended up being violently sexually assaulted and murdered. We know not everyone at that party was responsible for what happened, but someone was. We also know that not everyone at that party may know what happened, but someone does.”
  • Ban The E-Scooter in Britain

    Ban The E-Scooter in Britain

    Video of e-scooter turning into fireball illustrates why these dangerous death traps should be completely banned in Britain

    Shared by London cabbie feed @TaxiLeaks on Twitter with their 11,000 followers on Saturday, a video of an e-scooter’s battery smoking and then exploding provides proof yet again that these unregulated nuisance machines must not be allowed on Britain’s roads and pavements.

     

    In their 0:45-second video – accompanied by the caption: “This is the death trap device that Sadiq Khan, Heidi Alexander, Will Norman and TfL are promoting. This is what happens when the battery becomes faulty (apparently a common problem). I’m sure Heidi can explain being deputy Mayor for transport” – illustration was clearly provided of the dangers of these uninsured ‘mobile weapons.’

     

    Elsewhere on our pages previously, The Steeple Times have highlighted other examples of death and destruction caused by these still for the moment mostly illegally used devices. In July 2019, we reported on the case of Ambar Zohra, a foul-mouthed cretin who hit a pedestrian in London’s Walton Street on a pavement on her scooter, just days after another user was killed on such a device on a roundabout in Battersea.

     

    Whilst later, in July 2020, we commented on the government’s decision to trial rentable e-scooters after no doubt being bunged by operations such as the £1.6 billion valued American provider Bird, @TaxiLeaks’ video today again shows whilst it time the UK did to the contrary: It is time to make e-scooters illegal and to banish them from Britain.

     

    E-scooter accident
    Only last month, a man and woman suffered “serious injuries” after riding an e-scooter they were both on hit a VW Golf in Wolverhampton. At the time, the ‘Daily Mail’ remarked: “Evidence is mounting over their safety record, with critics suggesting they make it easier for criminals to whip people’s phones from their hands on the street and make a fast getaway. And in July 2019, TV presenter and YouTube influencer Emily Hartridge was killed while riding her e-scooter in Battersea, London. Hartridge, who was thrown from the scooter on a roundabout, is believed to be the first person to die in the UK in an accident involving an e-scooter. She was later ruled to have been riding too fast with an under-inflated tyre when she was tragically killed in a crash with a lorry. In the UK, two other people are now known to have died using them, while in the United States the number of e-scooter accidents that leave people needing hospital treatment has risen by more than 222 per cent in four years.”
    E-scooter accident
    Yesterday, in the ‘Daily Mail,’ Peter Hitchens wrote of his “near-miss with an idiot on an e-scooter.” He observed: “The point being that if e-scooters become legal, you can expect to see a lot of them careering along a pavement near you. There’s a strong chance that they will crash into you from behind, breaking one or more of your bones. This happened to a three-year-old child in Feltham a few weeks ago, and as far as I know the culprit has not been found. And, while that will itself still be against the law, nobody will do anything about it. For the same reason, they are the perfect tool for those drug couriers who are already swapping their pushbikes for them. Legal businesses such as fast-food delivery, which seem to employ some of the most ruthless people in the world, will also no doubt take advantage. We don’t actually need to find all this out. Cities all over Europe are licking their wounds after legalising e-scooters, especially Paris. Singapore last year more or less banned them after several injuries and fatal accidents, as well as fires in public housing blocks caused by faulty batteries… But Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, and the House of Commons Transport Select Committee both seem to have been beguiled by the e-scooter lobby, which appears to mesmerise its victims in much the way that a cobra is said to do.”
  • Carrie PRs On

    Carrie PRs On

    The Prime Minister’s puppet mistress Carrie Johnson’s latest PR spin campaign yet again illustrates her deviancy suggests Matthew Steeples

    Let’s be frank: Carrie Symonds (AKA ‘Princess Nut Nuts,’ ‘Carrie Antoinette’ and ‘Costly Carrie’) is famous simply for being Boris Johnson’s latest baby mama, but now she’s well and truly upping her antics and most definitely wants a hell of a lot more.

     

    This weekend, this wine chucking wench and one half of ‘The Convenient Catholic Couple’ used the G7 summit to implant not only herself but also her child firmly into a convention where no other politician foisted their brats into the photo ops. Here was a woman with one agenda: Making herself the centre of attention.

     

    In addition, the new Mrs Boris Johnson plainly made a point of getting Downing Street spin doctors to share that she hadn’t actually bought costly clothes, but instead hired them. Was this something the public actually needed to know at an event that was meant to be about discussing global issues? I think not, but Carrie, desperate to rid herself of the ‘Antoinette’ moniker she so deserves after bingeing on expensive Daylesford delicacies, will PR on regardless.

     

    What’s “in” for Carrie Symonds…

    • “Chatty rat” Henry Newman singing ABBA and dancing the tango with this particularly bonkers bestie.

     

    • Dining dashes to Daylesford (courtesy of ‘Lady Doors To Manual’ Carole Bamford’s credit card).

     

    • “Borrowed clothing” to suggest she’s “ordinary.”

     

    • Pushing her child into any photo opportunity possible so as to make a point that her kid is more important than her hubby’s other legitimate and illegitimate brats.

     

    What’s “out” for Carrie Symonds…

    • Anything from “nightmarish” John Lewis. Too “Theresa Maybe Not” for our Carrie, of course.

     

    • Anything connected with her number one hater, Dominic Cummings, can take a trip to Barnard Castle via a visit to SpecSavers.

     

    • Anybody who dares to criticise the antics of her out of control dog, Dilyn will make her “go crackers” … Don’t dare make Carrie “furious” with even a single remark – even if the dastardly dog pisses all over a visitor’s handbag.

     

    • Any talk of her associations with Ghislaine Maxwell and far right ex-boyfriends involved in the Traditional Britain Group.

     

    Carrie Symonds Linda Snell
    In December 2020, ‘The Steeple Times’ highlighted: “Whilst Denis Thatcher happily took a back seat and parked himself in a corner with a stiff G&T and Norma Major steered clear of anything to do with curried eggs, Symonds is increasingly showing herself as the Lynda Snell of Downing Street.”
    Carrie Symonds Ghislaine Maxwell
    Aside from her obsession with attention, the former Carrie Symonds counts working for a charity that was funded by the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell on her somewhat dodgy CV.
    Oliver Haiste Carrie Symonds
    The then Carrie Symonds with her then boyfriend Oliver Haiste (sometimes spelt ‘Haste’), an alleged hoaxer of fake news about Russia according to the BBC. Of his then “public relations specialist” on-off lover, the ‘Mail on Sunday’ declared: “his own three-year relationship with the young woman at the centre of Britain’s latest political storm involved an electrifying dose of dramatic and often fiery conflict… ‘We had quite a tumultuous relationship,’ he admits today. ‘I found when times were good with Carrie they were great – they were fantastic. When times were bad they were awful. It was a highly passionate relationship. And I don’t mean that in a salacious, physical sense. I mean in terms of emotional context – very emotionally charged. It’s the most up and down relationship I have had,’ Haiste continues, choosing his words carefully. Today, describing their relationship for the first time, he paints an intriguing portrait of a ‘high-octane’ partnership with a woman as passionate as she is intelligent.”
    Carrie Symonds drugs
    The Prime Minister’s spouse previously dated a man associated with spreading fake news whom was also involved in the Traditional Britain Group – a sick, far right organisation that has expressed a desire to hang Baroness Lawrence, the mother of a murder victim, from a tree. ‘Britain’s 3rd Loose Woman’ also partook in a play where she dressed as a crack whore whilst at university. Is this someone the nation really wants representing it on the world stage?
  • The Devil’s Advocate is Back

    The Devil’s Advocate is Back

    ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain)

    In March 2014, the incarcerated conman Giovanni Di Stefano tweeted The Steeple Times to claim he had cheated “no one” before adding: “Who did I kill?” In spite of the fact that this po-faced prattler and all-round prick had been convicted and jailed for 14 years for “tricking people into thinking he was a bona fide legal professional” when he was anything but in 2013, he’s shortly about to get out of jail and after deportation from Britain will be participating in a film about his life and lies.

    For plainly extremely intelligent but completely lacking in any kind of moral compass Di Stefano’s victims – whom include Tricia Walsh-Smith, a lady best known for making a video that went viral after it was published on YouTube during her especially acrimonious divorce from the then president of The Shubert Organization – this film will pile yet more misery on their already substantial losses. The film, which is to be made by six Academy Award nominated director Jim Sheridan, is based on a biography written by this “one of life’s great swindler’s” plainly anything but impartial son, Michael Di Stefano.

    Currently titled The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots in a plain nod to Dale Carnegie and Toby Young also, Sheridan commented of it: “It’s very easy to see this as a dramatic feature, but I think for now – the documentary form will suit the story better. This is an intriguing story and truly unique. The lead character is simply unbelievable, and we are delighted to have the exclusive co-operation of Giovanni, his family, his long-term assistant and his personal lawyer to tell the story.”

    Going further, executive producer Jezz Vernon of Port Royal Media added: “The subject material is jaw dropping, we’re excited to bring Jim’s vision of the story to the screen. It’s a huge coup that Giovanni and his family have chosen to work exclusively with us.”

    Summing rotten ratbag “defender of the indefensibles” Di Stefano – whose supposed clients in spite of him having no legal qualifications whatsoever up allegedly numbered ‘Moors Murderer’ Ian Brady, paedo pop singer Gary Glitter, slum lord Nicholas van Hoogstraten, deranged dictator Saddam Hussein, warped war criminal Slobodan Milošević and pensioner slayer Dr Harold Shipman – up in March 2013 before sending him down, Judge Alistair McCreath, the Recorder of Westminster, stated:

    “Your victims in this case were all desperate people and people who, because of their desperation, were vulnerable… It is also about something different and great – it is about the real distress you caused to so many people… You had no regard for them nor for their anguish… Your only concern was to line your own pockets.”

    Any film that suggests anything to the contrary will be nothing but claptrap.

    The Devil’s Advocate Is Back 2022 – Giovanni Di Stefano – ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain) by Jim Sheridan. Working title: ‘The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots.’
    On 11th May, Michael Di Stefano tweeted complaing his father’s prison sentence to be “arbitrary and unlawful.”
    The Devil’s Advocate Is Back 2022 – Giovanni Di Stefano – ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain) by Jim Sheridan. Working title: ‘The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots.’
    In spite of being incarcerated, in April, Giovanni Di Stefano was able to tweet his views on MI5 whilst his son claimed the “UK breaks the rules to hold him.”
    The Devil’s Advocate Is Back 2022 – Giovanni Di Stefano – ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain) by Jim Sheridan. Working title: ‘The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots.’
    Also in April, Di Stefano tweeted his sorrow about the death of the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and claimed he’d written to President Trump to ask him to put him “on his pardon list.”
    The Devil’s Advocate Is Back 2022 – Giovanni Di Stefano – ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain) by Jim Sheridan. Working title: ‘The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots.’
    In February, this prisoner was able to post nonsense on his blog about predictions also.
    The Devil’s Advocate Is Back 2022 – Giovanni Di Stefano – ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ Giovanni Di Stefano’s life is set to be made into a film following his forthcoming release from jail (and deportation from Britain) by Jim Sheridan. Working title: ‘The Devil’s Advocate – How to Win Fiends and Influence Despots.’
    In January, Di Stefano tweeted about his sadness on the passing of the murderer Phil Spector.