Police found more than one million pictures and videos of a woman being drugged and abused by her husband and other men for more than 20 years, a court has heard.
The evidence was recovered from a Samsung mobile phone belonging to the central offender, a man in his sixties, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of his wife.
The man, from the Stockport area of Greater Manchester, has pleaded guilty to secretly abusing his wife for decades in an echo of the Gisèle Pelicot case in France, jurors were told.
Why Martha Stewart apologised for her Halloween costume
Martha Stewart has apologised for dressing as a homeless person for Halloween, and admitted she “really screwed up”.
The 85-year-old lifestyle guru, who is worth roughly $400m, posted a now deleted photo of herself wearing torn clothes, dirt on her face and a sign saying “I am hungry help me!!!”
Quick to receive backlash
- Stewart said her costume was intended to bring “more awareness to a very serious subject”.
- The post was quick to receive backlash in the comments.
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Stewart’s apology
It’s hard to admit when you’ve really screwed up. My earlier statement didn’t go far enough. I know many people are suffering economically. Wearing a costume like I did was insensitive and not funny. I am very sorry.
martha stewart
Stewart’s career
Stewart gained a reputation as a domestic authority in the 1980s after publishing a series of lifestyle books.
She founded her highly successful magazine in 1990, which led to the launch of her eponymous lifestyle TV show three years later.
- In 2004 she was sentenced to five months in prison after being found guilty of lying about the nature of a stock sale three years prior.
How fake alerts for nuclear warning were sent in Ukraine
Millions of Ukrainians were told that a Russian nuclear strike was imminent after a suspected cyber attack by Moscow.
Four messages, posted to Ukraine’s nationwide Air Alert app at 10.48pm on Sunday, warned about an incoming strike by one of Moscow’s Oreshnik missiles – but it wasn’t true.
Hackers interfere with app
Unknown hackers had interfered with the app, causing the system to send false notifications, according to the Ukrainian air force.
The app is used to share real-time warnings about Russian air strikes to roughly seven million people.
Residents often have minutes to find shelter in the event of an attack after receiving the notification.
However, the Ukrainian air force said it was possible that the app had been compromised by Russia around 10 minutes after the alerts.
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Millions thrown into panic
The Air Alert app appears to have been subjected to enemy influence.
In a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force said the app had been hacked and that there was “no radiation threat”. It is believed to be the first time it has been hacked.
The false warnings sent on Sunday night included one posted in Russian, which said: “Don’t worry, an Oreshnik is overhead! A nuclear alert has been activated across Ukraine.”
Russia also hit by cyber attack
There was a separate alert warning of radiation fallout, which instructed Ukrainians to shelter inside, wear a gas mask and consume iodine.
A chemical attack and street fighting alert also went off, ordering residents to seek the closest shelter and cover their faces.
Russia said the mobile app for its emergencies ministry had also been hit by a cyber attack. The ministry was working to restore the app, Russian state media said.
Five teenagers stabbed at Halloween party – what we know
Five teenagers have been seriously injured after being stabbed at a Halloween party in Hampshire, police have said.
The force has appealed for witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.
What we know so far
- Officers were called to Park Road in Chandler’s Ford, near Eastleigh, shortly after 10.30pm on Saturday.
- Hampshire Police said it believes an unknown group gained entry to a party before the stabbings.
- An eyewitness told the BBC they saw someone running out of the house shouting he had been stabbed, and that he was being chased by two people.
- The injured teens – three boys aged 16 and two aged 17 – were taken to hospital.
- Another eyewitness said ambulances and an air ambulance had attended.
- A police cordon remained in place on Sunday while officers continued their investigation.
My thoughts are with the parents of the boys, the boys and the whole community.
Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Elizabeth Pirie acknowledged the impact on local residents.
Eastleigh MP Liz Jarvis told the BBC: “The community is in shock this morning that such an awful thing could have occurred.”
A closer look at the detail
- Two churches in the area have opened their doors to offer support.
- Jarvis urged people to not “share information online” and “let the police do their job”.
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Virgin Media O2 plans major job cuts – what we know
Virgin Media O2 is set to cull thousands of jobs as the telecoms giant attempts to plug billions of pounds of debt and navigate a market with increasingly cheaper rivals.
Here is everything we know so far.
Mounting debt and competition
Virgin Media O2’s total debt stands at £27.2bn, according to its latest accounts.
The broadband provider is also tackling competition from smaller, cheaper providers like Hyperoptic, Community Fibre, Gigaclear and YouFibre, as well as behemoths like BT.
BT recently inked a deal to buy rival TalkTalk, which Virgin Media O2 has firmly opposed.
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Senior leadership changes under way
Virgin Media O2 has not finalised the number of roles to be cut, but it is likely to be a large chunk of its 16,000-strong workforce, the BBC reported.
The majority of the affected roles are not customer-facing and a number of senior leadership changes are already under way.
Virgin Media O2 is also expected to review its use of contractors and suppliers alongside the job cuts.
Union working to ‘mitigate number of redundancies’
Disappointing and very unsettling.
Virgin Media O2 declined to comment. The Prospect union, which represents staff, called the cuts “disappointing and very unsettling”.
Prospect’s Noel McClean said the union was “working with employers to explore ways to mitigate the number of redundancies”.
How varying your bedtime could be bad for your heart
Varying your bedtime – including staying up late on weekends or doing shift work – could be bad for your heart and increase the risk of strokes, according to new research.
Sleep experts also found that varying the length of sleep too much – like having a long lie-in or pulling an all-nighter, may also have poor health outcomes.
Increased risk of heart problems
The study looked at several factors: how many hours a person slept each night, how much of the night was spent in light, deep and REM sleep, as well as how long a person was awake after first falling asleep.
- Researchers also looked at whether sleep duration, bedtime and wake-up time changed from night to night over roughly six months, as well as the usual times a person fell asleep and woke up.
- The number of “sleep cycles” completed each night were also examined.
- The results showed changes in sleep timing from night to night were linked to a 20 to 23 per cent higher risk of a heart attack, stroke and heart failure.
While we often focus on getting a full eight hours of sleep every night, having a regular sleep schedule – consistent , wake times, and sleep duration from night to night – is a practical, actionable step anyone can take that may help protect their heart and blood vessels.
Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan Viet, a neuroscientist and Lead researcher ON THE STUDY
A closer look at the study
Researchers analysed sleep data from more than 10,000 adults as part of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us research programme in the US.
Participants, who had an average age of 53 and had no signs of a heart or metabolic disease, wore sleep tracking devices for around six months.
They were then followed for almost four years to see if they suffered heart issues.
The effects
- 1Every 29-minute increase in sleep from night to night was also linked with a 29 per cent higher risk of having a disease of the heart muscle, which leaves the heart unable to pump enough blood through the body, and a 20 per cent higher risk of heart failure.
- 2Meanwhile, having a greater number of complete “sleep cycles” each night led to a 28 per cent lower risk of atrial arrhythmia, a common type of irregular heartbeat.
- 3In contrast, sleeping longer than usual was linked to a 55 per cent higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
Could the UK see a serious bird flu outbreak?
In the western US state, mink raised for their fur are dying from bird flu.
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Pandemic potential
While scientists have long recognised the pandemic potential of bird flu, the presence in minks takes the threat status to the next level, says Professor Wendy Barclay, a virologist at Imperial College London.
“This creates an even higher risk to humans than before,” she said.
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How the virus could evolve
Minks’ nose and lungs are similar to humans’ – so much so that closely related ferrets are used in research instead of people.
While for most people, flu is relatively mild, the infection causes a surge of deaths every winter.
And every so often, the virus undergoes some major genetic changes leading to a higher toll, which gets called a pandemic flu.
Not easily spread
Bird flu has occasionally spread to poultry farms, as well as some dairy farms in the US. So far, there have been a small number of farm workers who have caught bird flu from animals and died.
Because the virus is adapted to birds, this strain of flu does not seem to spread easily from person to person. But previous research suggests that one genetic change to strains found on US dairy farms could improve transmission to humans.
Autumn outbreak is a red flag
Another worry is that the mink could be perfect incubators, allowing different flu strains to swap genes. Called reassortment, this process is known to have triggered previous human pandemics, including the one in 2009.
Mink can harbour both human and bird flu strains. The fact this mink outbreak is happening in autumn, when human seasonal flu rises, is also a red flag, says Dr Simon Williams, a public health researcher at Swansea University.
He said: “It increases the risk of a virus with pandemic potential reassorting in somebody working on that farm who has seasonal flu.”
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Flu pandemic preparations
- The UK Health Security Agency declined to comment on whether it had taken any specific measures in response to the mink outbreak when asked by The i Paper.
- But the agency’s Dr Richard Puleston said it “stands ready to initiate an appropriate public health response” if needed.
- As of 2025, the NHS fortunately had £25m worth of PPE stockpiled following the Covid-19 pandemic. Rapid diagnostic tests also shouldn’t be overlooked in terms of the UK’s ability to combat an outbreak.
In 2023, the man began inviting other men to visit the couple’s address to join in the “barbaric” abuse of his wife, Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
The husband, who has already admitted to 62 offences against his wife, including rape, is now expected to appear as a witness in the trial of nine other men who deny offences including conspiracy to rape.
They are:
- Richard Townsend, 38, of Heywood, Greater Manchester
Their former professions included a taxi driver, senior paramedic, sheet metal worker, retired kitchen sales rep and a mechanic.
Opening the prosecution, Louise Oakley KC said that the police investigation began in October 2025 when undercover journalists uncovered a group on the messaging app Telegram where a man was discussing raping and sexually abusing his wife while she was asleep or unconscious.
This led police to an address in Stockport where the man in his sixties was arrested.
Until that day, his wife believed their marriage of over 40 years had been “uneventful”, Oakley told the jury.
The man’s Samsung Galaxy mobile phone was seized and found to contain more than one million photos and videos of abuse.
It was described by Oakley as a “confession booth” to his offending.
“There is no doubt he lived a double life masked in respectability,” Oakley said.
“Outwardly, he maintained a clean and admired image. He hid his dark and depraved secrets. That script also revealed the offending of these nine defendants and the offending they committed together with [the man]. Their depravity seems to have had no bounds. They too were leading double lives.
“Either creeping in and out of [his Stockport address], in the hours of darkness, quietly and carefully so that they were not seen or heard, or hiding behind the screens of their mobile telephones or computers,” Oakley added.
Jurors were told that they will have to decide whether the woman depicted in the videos and pictures is unconscious or “pretending”.
Oakley said it is the prosecution’s case that she is not.
She also referenced messages which show evidence may have been deleted by the defendants.
The court heard that within hours of Robert Stewart visiting the man’s address in Stockport on 21 September, 2025, he sent the following message to him: “Mate have had a bad feeling about it all day. Delete all images from your phone etc as its too risky. Remember what happened to the guy in France. Delete me from your phone and life. If she caught you out it would be a whole lot of trouble and end of your marriage and ruin your life.”
Oakley said the reference to “the guy in France” was a reference to case involving Gisèle Pelicot, who waived her right to anonymity as the victim in a multiple rape case involving her husband and dozens of other men in France.
The trial, which is expected to last at least six weeks, continues.
The nine defendants – and what they’re accused of
Robert Stewart, 70, a retiree from Stockport, denies rape, conspiracy to rape and conspiracy to administer a substance with intent.
David Graves, 60, a retired sales rep from Ilkeston, Derbyshire, denies conspiracy to rape, conspiracy to assault by penetration and conspiracy to administer a substance with intent.
Philip Wild, 59, a taxi driver from Stockport, denies sexual assault, attempted rape, assault by penetration and conspiracy to rape.
Daniel Rayner, 42, a mechanic from Whitstable, Kent, denies conspiracy to rape, conspiracy to assault by penetration and conspiracy to administer a substance with intent.
Mohammed Sabir, 28, a recruitment worker from Stockport, denies rape and conspiracy to rape.
Jordan Wallace, 31, a building supplies company worker from Wythenshawe, denies rape and attempted rape.
Alan Keelan, 42, a cleaning company worker and football coach, from Wythenshawe, denies attempted rape and assault by penetration.
Richard Townsend, 38, a sheet metal worker from Heywood, Greater Manchester, denies assault by penetration.
Jonathan Kirk, 43, a former senior paramedic from Stockport, denies rape and conspiracy to rape.