Paedophile Brit 'Had Dungeon' Under US Home

A British man living in the US has pleaded guilty to an international plot involving child kidnapping and pornography.

Forty-year-old Geoffrey Portway, a UK citizen living in Worcester, Massachusetts, admitted the charges in federal court.

Portway was arrested in July 2012 after US investigators allegedly found child pornography and photos of children who appeared to be dead on his computer.

Authorities said he chatted online with two men who talked about their desire to abduct, kill and eat children, and investigators found equipment in his basement to carry out the gruesome acts.

The soundproofed room in the leafy New England suburb allegedly contained a child-sized homemade coffin, a steel cage, torture devices and butchering tools.

"This dungeon was described in detail by Portway in recovered chats as a place he intended to use to keep kidnapped children while he sexually abused them, and as a place to eventually murder and cannibalise the children," federal documents revealed.

Portway was among dozens arrested in the investigation that began with the detention of another man in Massachusetts who has been jailed for 18 years.

Michael Arnett (pictured) allegedly plotted the abduction with Portway

More than 50 suspects were eventually detained and over 160 children were rescued in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Portway was said to have solicited several people to help him abduct a child, including a man named Michael Arnett from Kansas.

He told Arnett he later intended to rape, kill and eat the child, prosecutors said.

Arnett has pleaded guilty in Kansas to sexual exploitation of a child for the purposes of producing child pornography.

Portway could face between 18 and 27 years in prison under an agreement with prosecutors. Sentencing was set for August.

He will be deported back to the UK after his imprisonment.

"Clearly, the facts of this case were quite disturbing and we are grateful law enforcement acted when they did," said US Attorney Carmen M Ortiz.

"I hope that this case sends a clear message that we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law those who participate in these types of activities."

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Lindsay Sandiford Makes Final Bali Appeal

A British grandmother facing the death penalty for drug smuggling has made a final appeal against her sentence, according to human rights campaigners.

Lindsay Sandiford, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, is facing execution by firing squad after being convicted of smuggling £1.6m worth of cocaine into Bali.

The 56-year-old lost her first appeal against the ruling last month but has now taken her case to Indonesia's Supreme Court, pressure group Reprieve said.

Police arrested her at Bali's airport last May after a routine check uncovered 4.8kg (10.6lb) of cocaine hidden in the lining of her suitcase.

Prosecutors say Sandiford was at the centre of a drugs ring involving three other Britons.

But she claims she was forced to transport the drugs under duress as her children's safety was threatened.

She received the death sentence despite prosecutors asking only for a 15-year jail term, after she was accused of damaging the image of Bali.

The British Government has refused to fund her defence, leaving her to turn to donations from supporters and the public via the JustGiving website.

If the Supreme Court also rejects her appeal, she can then seek a judicial review of the decision from the same court.

After that, only the president can grant her a reprieve - although experts say this seldom happens in such cases.

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Moscow: Man Burrows Out Of Jail 'With A Spoon'

A man charged with double murder has escaped from a maximum security jail in Moscow - apparently by digging a hole in the ceiling of his cell with a spoon.

Oleg Topalov, 33, became only the fourth man in two decades to escape from the notorious Matrosskaya Tishina prison after pulling himself through the hole onto the roof and climbing over a perimeter fence.

The only object he could have used to dig the hole was a spoon, a law enforcement source told the Interfax news agency.

Investigators have accused prison staff of a "dishonest or careless attitude to their work that was made use of by the prisoner Topalov."

A prison service spokesman told the RIA Novosti news agency Topalov "escaped through a hole in the cell ceiling that he had made and made his way onto the roof.

"From the roof he escaped over the main fence."

Matrosskaya Tishina prison is where lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009

Topalov was charged with murdering two people and with arms trafficking.

He had been held on remand since October 2011 and his case was sent to court last month, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

Reports said Topalov shared a cell with around seven other prisoners.

Matrosskaya Tishina prison is located in northeastern Moscow and was opened in 1946.

It has its own hospital where lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in 2009 after being transferred from Butyrka jail in a case that sparked international outrage.

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Lottery Cheat Imran Pervais Escapes Jail Term

A shopkeeper who tried to con a lottery syndicate out of nearly £80,000 in winnings has been spared a jail sentence.

Imran Pervais, 26, was given a 12-month suspended sentence at Maidstone Crown court by Judge David Griffiths-Jones QC who described his offence as "opportunistic" and "mean-spirited".

He has also been ordered to do 200 hours of community work and adhere to a curfew for four months.

Pervais of Gravesend, Kent, was found guilty in March of misleading the victim, Callum Crosier, and his work syndicate into thinking they had won £10 when in fact they had scooped £79,887 after matching five balls and the bonus ball.

Mr Crosier was told by the shopkeeper that one of the 28 tickets he buys each week had won £10 - but he later realised the ticket had five matching numbers and should have won £1,000.

He went back to the shop, where Pervais told him he needed a couple of hours to search for the ticket.

Mr Crosier then double-checked the lottery results and noticed that as well as five numbers, he had matched the bonus ball and should have pocketed nearly £80,000.

The winning ticket was eventually found screwed up and hidden behind wooden plinths at the back of the shop counter.

"That the win was in excess of £50,000 would have been apparent to you as you processed the tickets, or at least that a substantial win would have been apparent to you, but you told Mr Crosier that he had won £10," Judge Griffiths-Jones said.

"No doubt planning to wait in the hope that he would be content and would accept this small sum, perhaps even be glad of it, so that when you could see that there would be no repercussions you would be able to claim the prize for yourself.

"The offence, whilst opportunistic, was, as it seems to me, especially mean-spirited.

"It was intended to deprive Mr Crosier and his syndicate of a substantial sum of money and in the process deprive them of the romantic joy which the win would have represented for them."

The judge said that the syndicate and lottery operator Camelot relied upon Pervais' "honesty and integrity" which he betrayed.

Camelot said in a statement following sentencing: "We expect each and every one of our retailers to act as an advocate for, and uphold the values of, the National Lottery.

"If a retailer falls short of what is expected of them and what they agree to as part of their signed, contractually-binding National Lottery Retailer Agreement, we have robust processes in place to deal with that.

"The success of the National Lottery is built on player trust, and today's sentence provides clear evidence that Camelot will not allow that trust to be undermined in any way."

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Lord Lawson Calls For Britain To Leave EU

Lord Lawson has become the most senior Tory figure to call for the UK to quit the European Union - pledging to vote "No" in any referendum on membership.

In a move that piles further pressure on David Cameron over the issue, the former chancellor warned his proposed renegotiation would only secure "inconsequential" concessions from Brussels.

Writing in The Times, he said there was now a "clear" case for withdrawal, insisting the economic benefits would "substantially outweigh the costs", in contrast to the Prime Minister's position.

His intervention is sure to further embolden eurosceptic MPs demanding a tougher line to halt the rise of Nigel Farage's rampant anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP).

Mr Cameron is already under pressure to hold a "mandate referendum" as early as next spring to seek public approval of his strategy of putting a renegotiated settlement to an in/out vote by 2017.

In the wake of UKIP's surge in last week's county council elections, there is also pressure to put the strategy to a vote in the Commons in defiance of his Liberal Democrat coalition partners.

Lord Lawson, who was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving chancellor and remains a highly respected figure within the party, said that it was "by no means assured" that Mr Cameron would win the 2015 general election.

But he said he believed public demand was such that a referendum would have to happen under Labour in any case.

Dismissing the chances of either party securing significant reforms, he said Brussels would fear a "general unravelling" as other countries sought to match the return of powers.

"But all this is largely beside the point," he wrote.

"The heart of the matter is that the very nature of the European Union, and of this country's relationship with it, has fundamentally changed after the coming into being of the European monetary union and the creation of the eurozone, of which - quite rightly - we are not a part.

The PM is coming under increasing pressure over Britain's place in the EU

"That is why, while I voted 'in' in 1975, I shall be voting 'out' in 2017.

"Not only do our interests increasingly differ from those of the eurozone members but, while never 'at the heart of Europe' (as our political leaders have from time to time foolishly claimed), we are now becoming increasingly marginalised as we are doomed to being consistently outvoted by the eurozone bloc.

"So the case for exit is clear."

But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told Sky News that Lord Lawson was "completely wrong", and that leaving the EU would "jeopardise" up to three million UK jobs dependent on membership.

"I think simply pulling up the drawbridge would be a bad thing for this country that would leave us poorer and less safe," the Lib Dem leader added. 

Lord Lawson said that while there would be "some economic cost" from leaving the EU single market, in his judgement "the economic gains would substantially outweigh the costs".

That would not only be in keeping the UK's £8bn net contribution, but also being removed from excessive bureaucracy, not least the "frenzy of regulatory activism" affecting the banking sector.

"The foolish and damaging financial transactions tax, imposed against strong UK opposition, is only one example. In part this is motivated by a jealous desire to cut London down to size, in part by well-intentioned ignorance," he said.

He added: "Those who claim that to leave the EU would damage the City are the very same as those who in the past confidently predicted, with a classic failure of understanding, that the City would be gravely damaged if the UK failed to adopt the euro as its currency."

But the Conservative Party chairman, Grant Shapps, seemed unfazed by the influential Tory's comments. He told Sky News: "The great thing is that our Prime Minister has offered an historic in/ out referendum on Europe, so all of those arguments about whether you think we should be in or out and anything else that has been said can be properly debated.

" ... We just need to have a Conservative Government to deliver it and that will be people's option in two years time." 

A Downing Street spokesman said: "The PM has always been clear: we need a Europe that is more open, more competitive, and more flexible; a Europe that wakes up to the modern world of competition. In short, Europe has to reform.

"But our continued membership must have the consent of the British people, which is why the PM has set out a clear timetable on this issue." 

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Woman Charged With Ditch Murders Of Three Men

A woman has been charged with the murders of three men whose bodies were found in ditches in Cambridgeshire.

Kevin Lee was discovered dead in a ditch in Newborough on March 30.

A post-mortem examination revealed the 48-year-old died from stab wounds to the chest.

Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, and John Chapman, 56, were found at Thorney Dyke on April 3. They too had been stabbed.

Joanna Dennehy, of Peterborough, who is in her early 30s, has been charged with all three murders, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Grace Ononiwu, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for the East of England, said Dennehy would appear at Peterborough Magistrates' Court at a later date.

Two other people have also been charged in the case.

Leslie Layton, 36, of Bifield, Orton Goldhay, has been charged with perverting the course of justice.

Robert Moore, 55, of Belvoir Way, Peterborough, has been charged with assisting an offender in connection with the case.

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York Assault: Police Hunt 'Incredible Hulk'

Police in north Yorkshire are appealing for witnesses following a suspected assault by a woman dressed as the Incredible Hulk.

"Police hunt Incredible Hulk," a statement issued by the force said.

A 17-year-old girl suffered a black eye and other facial bruising in an attack outside McDonalds restaurant in Blake Street, York at around 3am on Friday, the statement added.

"At the time of the incident, the woman suspected of the assault was covered in green body paint with dyed red hair.

"However, she is believed to be a white woman, in her late teens or early twenties and around 5ft 8in tall with a medium build," the statement said.

Detective Constable Cheryl Hunter, of York CID, said: "This appears to have been a wholly unprovoked assault.

"Thankfully the injuries were not too severe. However, the outcome could have been far more serious.

He added: "If you witnessed the assault or can identify the woman I need to speak to about this incident, I ask that you contact the police or Crimestoppers straight away."

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April Jones Had 'Happy Face As She Got In Van'

April Jones had a "happy face" when she got into a vehicle shortly before her disappearance, a court has heard.

April's best friend, seen in pre-recorded video evidence, said the five-year-old went willingly and did not cry.

Mold Crown Court watched footage of the seven-year-old being interviewed by police the day after April went missing.

The girl said she saw April getting into a grey Land Rover and that she had seen it before.

On Friday, the court had seen CCTV footage showing Mark Bridger's Land Rover passing a garage in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, on the day she went missing, with April allegedly in the back.

Mark Bridger, 47, denies abducting and murdering her. He also denies intending to pervert the course of justice by disposing of, concealing or destroying April's body.

Bridger says he killed April accidentally when he ran her over in the car.

He claims he then put her into the front of the vehicle and drove around the town looking for medical help. He says he cannot remember what he did with her body.

Speaking about the person in the vehicle, her friend said: "He got out of the van and was waiting outside the van for someone".

April got in through the "drivers way" and then sat in the back seat. "She wasn't crying, she was happy," the young witness said.

The vehicle then drove off, the court heard.

The accused, Mark Bridger, shook his head when the girl said the man with the Land Rover had green or blue eyes and brown hair, and was probably wearing a green jacket.

"It wasn't that dark and I could see he had brown hair because the headlights were on," she said.

The girl also described how April's brother later came looking for his sister to take her home and how the alarm was raised.

Her interview with police was played to the jury as the girl watched on a live video-link from Aberystwyth, sitting with a white teddy bear and a mug of juice.

April Jones disappeared while playing with her friend near their homes in Machynlleth, Powys on October 1 last year.

Mark Bridger, 47, denies the charges against him

In the afternoon session the girl was cross examined by defence barristers.

Before the questioning, the judge told her it was "very important" that she told the truth.

She was asked in detail about the evidence she had given, particularly about her memory of the Land Rover and the man she had seen.

She admitted that she had only seen "a little bit of a view of the Land Rover".

She said she knew April had been talking to the man as she could see their mouths moving and that April had got into the Land Rover willingly.

Brendan Kelly QC, representing Bridger, asked: "Did you see April on the ground?"

The young girl replied: "She was talking but she was standing up when she was talking to him."

Mr Kelly explained to her that he had to say she was wrong, and asked if she understood that.

He added: "You saw her being carried into the car by the man who put her in the front seat, didn't you?"

The girl said: "She was in the back seat, that's what I saw.

"She got into the front seat and climbed into the back seat but the man didn't carry her into the front seat."

The friend told the court she saw the Land Rover leave after April had got into the "van and they drove off to somewhere".

She confessed she could not really see the eyes of the man next to the Land Rover and had guessed when she said they were green or blue.

She was asked if she had guessed about anything else and she said "no".

After the girl finished her evidence, the girl's mother - who also cannot be named for legal reasons - took the stand.

She told the court she remembers her daughter running home saying "April's got into someone's van, April's been taken".

The last witness of the day was April's friend's brother, whose taped interview with police was also played to the court.

Her brother told police that when he went to find April, April's friend told him "she got in a car" and April knew who it was.

The trial continues.

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Prisoner X 'Unwittingly Sabotaged Israeli Op'

A man who died in an Israeli jail was arrested after unwittingly interfering in a secret intelligence operation to recover the bodies of three soldiers, according to an Australian news report.

Ben Zygier, who had Australian and Israeli citizenship, was arrested in January 2010 and held in secret under the name of Prisoner X on unspecified security charges.

A judicial inquiry in Israel found Mr Zygier, 34, who allegedly worked for the Israeli secret service Mossad, hanged himself in a high-security jail cell the same year.

Australian state television said Mr Zygier unintentionally sabotaged a secret Mossad mission in 2007 to exhume the bodies of three Israeli tank crewmen captured and killed by Syrian forces during Israel's invasion of Lebanon.

The ABC report quoted a former commander in Lebanon's Bekaa valley as saying that Zygier had revealed his name and that of a Lebanese agent for Israel to Lebanese intelligence.

Ziad al Homsi, former mayor of a Lebanese village, told ABC that he had been approached by Mossad in 2007 and flown to China on the pretext of attending a mayoral convention.

He was introduced to a Syrian man who said his brother in Europe was working to return the bodies of the Israelis captured during the so-called Battle of Sultan Yacoub in the Bekaa Valley.

Prisoner X was held in Ayalon prison

The three were named as Israeli-US citizen Zachary Baumel and his fellow Israeli crewmen Yehuda Katz and Zvi Feldman.

Mr al Homsi told the ABC that he suspected he had been ensnared in a Mossad operation. He was eventually told by others involved that the missing men were buried in Lebanon.

"At the last meeting they informed me about the location of the corpses exactly. I had to find a way to get the bodies and keep them," Mr al Homsi said.

He was given no details on how the remains would be turned over to a separate Mossad team.

The mission failed, Mr al Homsi said, after he was arrested on May 16, 2009 by Lebanese special forces and later jailed for 15 years for spying for Mossad. He served three years.

Mr Zygier's crime was to inadvertently reveal Mr al Homsi's identity to a Lebanese man he was trying to turn into a double agent, but who worked for Lebanese intelligence, the ABC report said.

The case was kept secret until February when it was exposed by Australian television, sparking a media debate about Mr Zygier's intelligence role and the nature of his alleged crime.

Mr Zygier, acting alone, was trying to trying to turn around a fading career with Mossad, by whom he was recruited in 2004 after taking Israeli citizenship in the mid-1990s, the ABC report said.

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Ohio Women Found: Police Praise Amanda Berry

Three brothers have been arrested after three women who went missing separately about a decade ago in Cleveland, Ohio, were found alive in the same house.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight disappeared in nearby areas of the city between 2002 and 2004. Officers believe they were tied up during years of being held captive.

The three, who vanished in their teens or early 20s, were rescued after a neighbour heard Ms Berry's screaming and went to help.

Police hailed her "bravery" and the women's actions the "ultimate definition of survival and perseverance".

The suspects arrested in connection with the kidnappings have been named as Ariel, Pedro and Onil Castro, aged 52, 54 and 50.

The property from where the women made their dramatic escape to freedom was just a few miles from where they vanished.

Ms Berry in hospital with her sister and a young girl also found with her

Police revealed they went to the home in 2004 for an unrelated investigation when school bus driver Ariel Castro had apparently left a child unattended on a bus, but no-one answered the door.

Officers also visited the property in 2000 when Ariel Castro reported a fight in the street, but no arrests were made.

The women appeared to be in good health and have now been released from hospital after going there for checks and are back with their relatives.

Authorities said they had no intelligence the trio were in the house, and police believe a six-year-old girl also found at the property is Ms Berry's daughter.

Ariel Castro is one of three brothers arrested

FBI special agent Stephen Anthony said: "The nightmare is over. These three young ladies have provided us with the ultimate definition of survival and perseverance. The healing can now begin."

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said there were still "several unanswered questions" about the case, and authorities stressed that as the investigation was on going, many facts could not be discussed.

Ms Berry, who was 16 at the time, disappeared on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a lift home from her job at a Burger King outlet.

Ms DeJesus went missing aged 14 on her way home from school about a year after Ms Berry's disappearance.

The third woman, Ms Knight, had been missing since 2002. She is believed to have been 20 at the time.

The long nightmare for the trio ended when Ms Berry reached through a crack in the front door and called for help.

A poster with images of Amanda Berry

Neighbour Charles Ramsey heard her screaming and tried to get her out through the door, but could not pull it open.

So he kicked the bottom open and she crawled through carrying a little girl.

Another neighbour Anna Tejeda said Ms Berry was nervous and crying, and dressed in pyjamas and old sandals.

Ms Tejeda said she gave her telephone to Ms Berry, who then called police.

In a recording of the 911 call, she told the emergency dispatcher: "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped. I've been missing for 10 years. I'm free. I'm here now."

She said she had been taken by someone - and begged officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland's west side "before he gets back".

When police arrived, they found the two other women who were allegedly being held captive. They were also rescued.

Gina DeJesus went missing on her way home from school

Mr Ramsey explained how he rescued Ms Berry, saying: "I hear this girl screaming and she's going nuts.

"So I come outside and I know there's nobody supposed to be screaming next door to my house because there's no girl that lives in that house.

"When I came to the front door and looked at her she said 'My name is Amanda Berry - please get me out of this house'.

"She told the police, 'I ain't just only one, there's some more girls up in that house. So they go on up there ... and when they came out it was just astonishing."

Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of Ms DeJesus, told The Plain Dealer newspaper: "I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever.

"This is amazing. This is a celebration. I'm so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her."

The three women disappeared in nearby areas of the city

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