Gillingham stabbing: Sir Richard Sutton named as victim - BBC News

FAMILY HANDOUT

One of the UK's richest men has been stabbed to death.

Sir Richard Sutton, 83, was pronounced dead at a his mansion near Gillingham, Dorset, at 21:15 BST on Wednesday. A woman, in her 60s and believed to be his wife, was also stabbed and remains in a critical condition.

The businessman and his family's wealth was valued at £301m in the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List.

A 34-year-old man, from Gillingham, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

He was stopped in a vehicle in the Hammersmith area of London and taken to hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Dorset Police said the arrested man and the victims were known to each other.

Sir Richard, who was number 435 in last year's Sunday Times Rich List, owned a string of top hotels.

The baronet had an extensive property and farming portfolio, including owning the freehold of the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane and the Athenaeum Hotel in Mayfair.

A statement from the businessman's company, Sir Richard Sutton Limited, said staff were "deeply saddened and devastated by the sudden death".

"Sir Richard was a caring, generous and warm family man, who genuinely regarded those who worked for him as part of his extended family," it said.

It added he was "passionately devoted to both his company and its people, setting the highest standards for quality in the hotel, farming and property interests within the group".

Describing him as an an "incredible individual", the firm said Sir Richard's loss "will be felt by everyone within the company".

A cordon is in place at the property and police have appealed for information.

North Dorset Conservative MP Simon Hoare, who was a friend of Sir Richard, said he had received a briefing from Dorset Police and described the death as "deeply awful".

"I knew him, strangely enough I knew him before I was an MP as my company did a lot of work for his estate many years ago," he said.

"He was a charming man, he had a very good sense of humour, he was politically astute and genial.

"If you wanted to conjure up a picture of a country gentleman then that was him.

"It is a huge loss for his family in what is clearly deeply awful circumstances."

The MP added the incident was rare for his constituency and there was "no cause or reason for alarm" based on the police briefing.

Dorset Police said it received a report at 19:30 on Wednesday raising concerns about the welfare of the occupants of an address in Higher Langham.

Det Insp Simon Huxter, of Dorset Police's Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT), said the force is appealing for anyone to come forward who saw or heard anything suspicious.

"Our thoughts are with the family of the man who sadly died and the injured woman at this extremely difficult time and they are being supported by specially-trained officers," he said.

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2021-04-08 20:06:47Z
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NHS to cancel vaccinations for under-30s after new AstraZeneca advice - The Independent

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1. NHS to cancel vaccinations for under-30s after new AstraZeneca advice  The Independent
2. New questions over safety of AstraZeneca vaccine for young adults raised by UK - BBC News  BBC News
3. Good Morning Britain on AstraZeneca vaccine 'myth' and when to seek 'urgent medical advice'  Bristol Live
4. I broke the story about the AstraZeneca jab – but I'm still happy to have my second dose | Cathy Newman  The Independent
5. Australia could have prepared a more ambitious vaccine strategy than most. So what went wrong?  The Guardian
6. View Full coverage on Google News

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2021-04-08 19:09:26Z
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Gillingham stabbing: Sir Richard Sutton named as victim - BBC News

FAMILY HANDOUT

One of the UK's richest men has been stabbed to death.

Sir Richard Sutton, 83, was pronounced dead at a property near Gillingham, Dorset, at 21:15 BST on Wednesday. A woman, in her 60s and believed to be his wife, was also stabbed and remains in a critical condition.

The businessman and his family's wealth was valued at £301m in the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List.

A 34-year-old man, from Gillingham, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

He was stopped in a vehicle in the Hammersmith area of London and taken to hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Dorset Police said the arrested man and the victims were known to each other.

Sir Richard, who was number 435 in last year's Sunday Times Rich List, owned a string of top hotels.

He had an extensive property and farming portfolio, including owning the freehold of the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane and the Athenaeum Hotel in Mayfair, according to reports.

PA Media

A statement from the businessman's company, Sir Richard Sutton Limited, said staff were "deeply saddened and devastated by the sudden death".

"Sir Richard was a caring, generous and warm family man, who genuinely regarded those who worked for him as part of his extended family," it said.

It added he was "passionately devoted to both his company and its people, setting the highest standards for quality in the hotel, farming and property interests within the group".

Describing him as an an "incredible individual", the firm said Sir Richard's loss "will be felt by everyone within the company".

A cordon is in place at the property and police have appealed for information.

North Dorset Conservative MP Simon Hoare, who was a friend of Sir Richard, said he had received a briefing from Dorset Police and described the death as "deeply awful".

"I knew him, strangely enough I knew him before I was an MP as my company did a lot of work for his estate many years ago," he said.

"He was a charming man, he had a very good sense of humour, he was politically astute and genial.

"If you wanted to conjure up a picture of a country gentleman then that was him.

"It is a huge loss for his family in what is clearly deeply awful circumstances."

The MP added the incident was rare for his constituency and there was "no cause or reason for alarm" based on the police briefing.

Dorset Police said it received a report at 19:30 on Wednesday raising concerns about the welfare of the occupants of an address in Higher Langham.

Det Insp Simon Huxter, of Dorset Police's Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT), said the force is appealing for anyone to come forward who saw or heard anything suspicious.

"Our thoughts are with the family of the man who sadly died and the injured woman at this extremely difficult time and they are being supported by specially-trained officers," he said.

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.

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2021-04-08 18:06:23Z
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Covid: Blood clot victim's sister urges people to get AstraZeneca vaccine - BBC News

The sister of a man who died from a blood clot on the brain after having the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine says she "strongly believes" people should keep having the Covid jab.

Neil Astles, 59, a solicitor from Warrington, Cheshire, died on Sunday. He was vaccinated on 17 March.

Pharmacist Alison Astles told the BBC that doctors were "99.9% sure" the clot was due to the jab.

But she said he was "extraordinarily unlucky" and the risk was "very low".

Dr Astles said she felt she had a responsibility to speak out "because, overall, we will save more lives by people having the vaccine than not".

The family is still awaiting a report from the coroner on Mr Astles' cause of death.

On Wednesday, UK vaccine advisers recommended healthy under-30s in the UK should be offered an alternative Covid vaccine to the AstraZeneca jab due to the evidence linking it to rare blood clots.

The recommendation came after a review by the UK drugs regulator found that, by the end of March, 79 people had suffered rare blood clots accompanied by low blood platelet count after vaccination - 19 of whom had died.

The regulator said this was not proof the jab had caused the clots, but it said the link was getting firmer. The figures suggest the risk of dying from one of the clots following vaccination is about one in a million.

Meanwhile, the EU's medicines regulator has said the benefits of the jab outweigh the risks.

• How do you weigh up the risks of the AZ vaccine?
• Under-30s offered alternative to Oxford-AZ jab

Dr Astles, who is pharmacy lead at the University of Huddersfield, said her brother started to have headaches and feel nauseous "a week or so" after having his first jab.

Around eight days later he began to lose his vision and he was taken to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital on Friday.

Doctors found a "huge blood clot" on his brain, she said, and he died on Sunday evening.

She said she was told by doctors "they were 99.9% sure this was due to the Covid vaccine" and that his blood results mirrored similar cases in the UK.

Dr Astles described her brother as a much loved sibling, husband and son, adding that his death had left "an immense hole in our lives".

The Daily Telegraph reported that he had been diagnosed with a "cerebral sinus thrombosis and subarachnoid haemorrhage" with "low platelets and extraordinarily high d-dimer".

'Have the vaccine'

"The human being, the sister in me, still feels absolutely furious and very angry this has happened to my brother," Dr Astles told the BBC News channel.

"Despite what has happened to Neil and the impact on our family, I still strongly believe that people should go ahead and have the vaccine.

"If you've had one dose, go ahead and have your second. If you haven't had your dose yet make sure that you do. Because, overall, we will save more lives by people having the vaccine than not.

"The risk of a clot is very, very small and my brother was extraordinarily unlucky."

Dr Astles welcomed the decision to offer an alternative vaccine to the under-30s - a group which includes her son - who are much less likely to die from Covid.

She received the Pfizer jab but she said other family members have had the AstraZeneca jab and she would recommend they still have their second dose.

She said she decided to speak out about her brother's death to raise awareness of the side effects of the vaccine, adding: "If we can save one life, one other family as a result of this, then that would be worthwhile."

Anyone who suffers symptoms such as a persistent headache, blurred vision or confusion for four days or more after vaccination or who experience unusual skin bruising, shortness of breath or chest pain are being asked to seek medical advice.

• "THE STRANGER THAN FICTION TALE OF JOE EXOTIC": Louis Theroux revisits the Tiger King
• UNCOVERING A SCANDAL: Follow the revelations in this Oscar and BAFTA nominated documentary

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2021-04-08 16:05:13Z
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COVID-19: UK set to reach herd immunity 'milestone' within days, say scientists - Sky News

Britain is set to reach herd immunity against COVID-19 within days marking a "milestone" in the fight against coronavirus, according to scientists.

Real-time modelling carried out by University College London indicates the UK should pass the critical threshold where the proportion of people who have protection against the virus either through vaccination, previous infection or natural immunity will hit 73.4% on Monday, 12 April.

This is the point at which the nation is seen as having reached a tipping point, known as herd immunity, where sufficient resistance is built up within the community to combat the spread of COVID-19, effectively forcing the coronavirus into retreat.

Live COVID news updates as advice on Oxford jab changes

Professor Karl Friston, of UCL, told Sky News: "It's like a chain reaction. If you remove the opportunity for the virus to spread from one person to more than one person then it will die out."

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But warning against any move to speed up the easing of lockdown restrictions in response to reaching herd immunity, he said: "If we let up, that threshold will go up again and we will find ourselves below the threshold and it will explode again."

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Bereaved sister: 'Keep taking the vaccine'

Referring to the modelling, Prof Friston said: "We do this in an ongoing way every week and this week it portends a herd immunity threshold crossing, which is a milestone in coming out of the epidemic phase of the pandemic.

"This is just a milestone. It's a nice milestone that is a reflection of the fact that things are going as planned."

He added: "It does suggest that it is unlikely there is going to be a post-summer or autumn surge in fatalities or hospital admissions."

But urging caution, Prof Friston said: "It doesn't mean to say that we should suddenly change our approach to unlocking or social distancing.

"The herd immunity threshold itself will depend upon transmission risks that depend upon things like social distancing."

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Arguing the government's roadmap out of lockdown "seems to be pitched at about the right level", he said: "If we now suddenly unlocked that would have a profound influence on contact rates, which would actually elevate the herd immunity threshold and we would put ourselves in an uncomfortable position.

"So we have got to come out of this very, very gracefully and slowly and in a context-dependent way that depends upon progressive reduction in the prevalence of infection and that's going to be a process that takes weeks and months."

Pressed on the issue of herd immunity, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told LBC: "I was told by some scientists that we were going to have herd immunity in May and then in June and then after that.

"What I prefer to do is watch the data. We have set out the roadmap. The roadmap is really clear. It is our route back to normal."

He added: "I think we have taken the right course in plotting our way to freedom and doing it carefully because we want it to be irreversible."

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2021-04-08 14:48:45Z
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Petrol bombs thrown in Belfast as Northern Ireland violence continues - BBC News - BBC News

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2021-04-08 15:18:12Z
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What is behind the violence in Northern Ireland? - BBC News

Pacemaker

More than 50 police officers have been hurt and 10 people arrested as a result of rioting over the past 10 days, in several towns and cities across Northern Ireland.

The UK and Irish prime ministers have condemned the violence, and Northern Ireland's government met on Thursday to call for an "immediate and complete end" to the unrest.

All Northern Ireland's main parties have condemned the rioting, although they are divided over its causes.

Where has the violence been happening?

Violence involving gangs of people as young as 12 started on 29 March in an area of Londonderry that is loyalist - in favour of keeping Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom.

Since then, there have been protests and rioting on a near-nightly basis in a number of towns and cities, including Belfast, Carrickfergus, Ballymena and Newtownabbey.

The rioting has largely seen loyalist youths throwing bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs at lines of police officers and vehicles.

But on Wednesday night the fighting escalated into sectarian clashes over a so-called peace wall in west Belfast that divides predominantly Protestant loyalist communities from predominantly Catholic nationalist communities who want to see a united Ireland.

A gate that divides the two was smashed open and, during several hours of disorder police officers and a press photographer were attacked and a bus was hijacked and burned.

Parts of Northern Ireland are split along sectarian lines, 23 years after a peace deal largely ended Northern Ireland's Troubles - which lasted almost 30 years and cost the lives of more than 3,500 people.

Who is behind the unrest?

While there are no clear indications the unrest is being orchestrated by an organised group, the violence has been concentrated in areas where criminal gangs linked to loyalist paramilitaries have significant influence.

Pacemaker

There is increasing evidence that senior figures in organisations such as the Ulster Defence Association and Ulster Volunteer Force are allowing the trouble to proceed.

Analysts suggest loyalist paramilitaries of the South East Antrim UDA may have exploited an opportunity to kick back at the Police Service of Northern Ireland after a recent clampdown on criminality in the area around Carrickfergus.

The paramilitary group is involved in many forms of organised crime, doing "untold damage to the community and exerting fear in neighbourhoods", say police.

Read more: 'A criminal cartel wrapped in a flag'

What has this got to do with Brexit?

Unionist leaders have linked the violence to simmering loyalist tensions over the Irish Sea border imposed as a result of the UK-EU Brexit deal.

The new trading border is the result of the Northern Ireland Protocol, introduced to avoid the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The protocol means Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market for goods, so products being moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland undergo EU import procedures.

It avoids the need for checks on the Irish border, as EU customs rules are enforced at Northern Ireland's ports instead.

Unionists say it damages trade and threatens Northern Ireland's place in the UK.

In January, graffiti opposing the Irish Sea border was daubed on walls in some loyalist areas, including parts of Bangor, Belfast, Glengormley, and the home of one of Northern Ireland's main ports, Larne.

These Brexit checks were temporarily suspended amid reported threats against port workers in Larne and Belfast - although the police later said there was no evidence of "credible threats".

In March, a group which includes representatives of loyalist paramilitaries wrote to Boris Johnson to withdraw its support for the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 deal that effectively ended the Troubles.

The Loyalist Communities Council said it was temporarily withdrawing its backing because of concerns about the protocol.

Read more: What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?

Are there other political factors involved?

Some unionist leaders have attributed the violence to the decision not to prosecute leaders of the republican Sinn Féin party for breaching Covid regulations at the funeral of a former IRA intelligence chief last June.

Pacemaker

Bobby Storey's funeral drew 2,000 mourners - including Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill - at a time when strict Covid restrictions were still in place, limiting the number of people who could gather in public.

Many people expressed anger at Ms O'Neill for failing to follow the guidance she insisted the public should follow - guidance which had led to loyalist band parades being cancelled last summer.

Some have accused police of double standards after the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said there would be no prosecutions.

While DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster said she did not share that view, she called on PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne to resign.

Mr Byrne said he recognised people were angry, but has refused to step down.

Calling for the ongoing street disorder to stop on Wednesday night, Mr Byrne said he was "open to dialogue with anyone who is willing to work with me to resolve the issues facing our community".

Addressing the rioters, he tweeted: "Go home before someone is seriously injured. Violence is not the answer."

Mr Byrne briefed Stormont's power-sharing executive on the disorder at an emergency meeting on Thursday.

Read more: Why was Bobby Storey's funeral so controversial?

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2021-04-08 13:20:53Z
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