One of the two men being investigated over the murder of a Belfast dad-of-one in a Spanish holiday resort has been shot dead on the Costa Blanca.

Michael Maly, arrested in January last year as the suspected accomplice of John George’s Northern Ireland-born alleged killer Johnny Smyth, was gunned down in the early hours of Sunday morning in Torrevieja south of Alicante.

Czech Republic national Maly was arrested on suspicion of homicide shortly after the January 7, 2025 discovery of Mr George’s body in an orchard in Rojales near Torrevieja.

An investigating judge released the 33-year-old on bail after telling him he would continue to probe him as a suspected abettor to the murder.

Mr George’s suspected killer, Smyth, married to a 21-year-old OnlyFans model, spent most of last year in prison after being arrested at an Airbnb in northern Portugal and extradited to Spain.

He was told he could leave his Costa remand cell last December after paying £87,000 bail. Neither Smyth nor Maly had been formally charged, as is normal in Spain, where prosecution indictments are only submitted shortly before trial.

Former soldier Maly was shot dead on a street close to the sea on a residential estate called Rocio del Mar, just above Punta Prima Beach, a short drive south of Torrevieja town centre.

A local raised the alarm around 1.30 am on Sunday after finding the victim lying on the ground with head wounds.

Paramedics raced to the scene but were unable to do anything to save his life.

No arrests are yet thought to have been made and police are said to be keeping an open mind about the possible motive.

The Civil Guard, the force leading the murder probe, has made no official comment so far.

Maly’s murder is the latest of a series of violent crimes which have rocked the southern part of the Costa Blanca, a Spanish holiday hotspot which has become the epicentre of drug-fuelled wars between rival gangs with heavy British and Irish involvement.

On December 21 last year a 29-year-old British man’s bullet-riddled body was found at a residential property in an area known as Campoamor in Orihuela Costa just north of Torrevieja.

The Civil Guard didn’t confirm the grim discovery until December 29, saying officers had been alerted about a body at the place where they found the dead man and the investigation had been put in the hands of a homicide unit.

An arrest has been made and the man held was remanded to jail last month but police, believed to be looking at making more detentions, have yet to make any official comment.

News of the December killing emerged less than three weeks after a British man cheated death after being shot at least three times in an underground car park in the same area.

In May last year, an Irishman was critically injured after being shot in the head close to a shopping centre near Torrevieja called La Zenia Boulevard. Two suspects were arrested a fortnight later on suspicion of the attempted murder.

Last June, a second 29-year-old Irishman was stabbed in the neck from behind as he was having a pee near the same shopping centre and left needing an emergency life-saving operation.

A 58-year-old Irishman was arrested over the knife attack the following month.

Belfast man Mr George’s body was found after anguished appeals by his family following his disappearance in December 2024.

Maly is understood to have led detectives to his body.

Johnny Smyth’s new OnlyFans wife, Madison, who he married in Gibraltar in secret after they fled Spain following John George’s murder, has had several brushes with the law herself in recent months.

She spent ten days behind bars herself in September following a first arrest after cops pulled over her Audi A5 Cabrio and discovered nearly a kilo of crystal meth and 30 grams of cannabis resin inside, before she was released from custody.

Her second arrest occurred after two loaded pistols were found in a car she was driving following a police stop. Three other men were in the vehicle with her but only two were arrested, a British national and an Irish national, because one fled.

Madison and the other two men remain under investigation by a judge on suspicion of unlawful weapons possession.

A local newspaper reported in January police were investigating a possible link between the gun find and the December 21 murder of the British man whose identity has not been made public.

There has not yet been any official confirmation cops are probing whether the two could be connected.

Since her second arrest Madison Smyth has been involved in a third incident which led to police being called and a court probe launched.

She was allegedly at the wheel of a car that crashed into another vehicle with four British nationals inside on January 16 in El Campello near Alicante. One of the four occupants, a 54-year-old man, died.

Madison was read her rights at the scene of the crash but not formally arrested. She was later told she was being investigated on suspicion of a crime of negligence resulting in death.

In January, the Liverpool Echo reported that investigators in Spain and the UK were probing the disappearance of a Merseyside man.

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Temperatures will peak at 14C at around 2pm, holding steady for three hours until falling slightly to reach 13C at 5pm.

Thursday and Friday are expected to be even warmer, reaching peaks of 15C, though this is coupled with an increased chance of rain on both days.

Sunny skies in Bolton today (Image: BBC)

The rainy spell begins on Thursday afternoon, with the BBC predicting increasingly high chances of rain from 1pm onwards.

This will peak late on Thursday evening and in the early hours of Friday morning, with the BBC predicting an 80 per cent chance of rain at 6am.

Clouds gather in time for an overcast weekend, though Saturday is predicted to remain dry, reaching highs of around 11C.

There is a low but present chance of rain on Sunday, however, but sun is expected to peek through the clouds, reaching highs of around 12C from 2pm to 5pm.

But today there isn’t a hint of cloud, so make sure you enjoy the good weather while it lasts.

A notorious Sicilian mafia boss who was behind several murders has died in an Italian prison.

Benedetto “Nitto” Santapaola, who was one of the Cosa Nostra mafia’s most powerful leaders, died at the age of 87 in a high-security jail in Milan.

Santapaola, known as “il cacciatore” (the hunter) or “il licantropo” (the werewolf), led the mafia in the eastern Sicilian city of Catania from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

He was arrested in 1993 after 11 years on the run, but was accused of continuing to run the mafia from behind bars.

The 87-year-old was serving multiple life sentences for murder and other crimes when he died.

Murders and massacres

While leading the Cosa Nostra in Catania, Santapaola expanded the mafia’s influence in controlling public contracts, extortion and drug trafficking.

He was often cited in investigations and trials related to a series of mafia massacres that plagued Italy in the 1980s and 1990s.

Among them were the 1992 murders of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two of Italy’s most famous anti-mafia prosecutors. Santapaola was convicted as one of the instigators of the attacks, which also killed several protection officers and Mr Falcone’s wife.

He was also convicted of ordering the murders of journalist Giuseppe Fava in 1984 and police inspector Giovanni Lizzio in 1992.

Mafia wars

Santapaola’s mafia “family” was involved in violent and bloody feuds with rivals, like those against fellow mobster Alfio Ferlito in the 1980s and against the Cursoti, Cappello and Pillera clans in the early 1990s.

The latter mafia wars resulted in over 220 murders in the city of Catania and the wider province in two years.

Santapaola’s wife, Carmela Minniti, was by his side when he was arrested in 1993. She was shot dead two years later by a former member of a rival mafia clan, who said he killed her for revenge to make Santapaola feel the same pain he had suffered.

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Santapaola’s requests for house arrest or detention in a medical facility due to his health conditions, which included a serious form of diabetes, were repeatedly denied.

Prosecutors in Milan have ordered an autopsy, but Italian media reports he died of natural causes after being admitted to hospital in late February.

Britain will deploy HMS Dragon and helicopters with anti-drone capabilities in Cyprus, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.

The prime minister said on social media he had spoken with the president of Cyprus about deploying the Type 45 destroyer, which is the only type of equipment the Royal Navy has to shoot down ballistic missiles.

It confirmed an earlier report from our security and defence editor Deborah Haynes the UK was considering the deployment of a Type 45 air defence destroyer to Cyprus to help defend the RAF bases there.

It is not thought HMS Dragon, currently in Portsmouth, will head off on Tuesday.

But the ship, which should take five to seven days to get to the region, will be leaving shortly.

Iran latest: UK confirms it is sending warship to Cyprus

In a post on X, Sir Keir said: “The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there.

“We’re continuing our defensive operations and I’ve just spoken with the president of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and HMS Dragon is to be deployed to the region.

“We will always act in the interest of the UK and our allies.”

It comes after RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a drone, which caused minimal damage and resulted in no casualties.

Hours before, Sir Keir had granted permission on Sunday for the US to use British bases for “defensive” strikes on Iran’s missile strikes, a day after the launch of joint American-Israeli action against Tehran over the weekend.

The UK has six Type 45 air defence destroyers, but not all are thought to be available for active service.

Haynes said: “This Type 45 Destroyer is fitted with the latest counter ballistic missile defences, which means that it will bring an extra layer of protection to British forces in the region, not just in Cyprus but obviously across the Gulf too, and as well to the UK’s allies.”

Read more:
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She added: “The prime minister has already said how allies in the region had been turning to the UK, asking them to do more to help defend their skies as Iran retaliates to the US and Israeli operation against that country by launching barrages of missiles and drones into the region.”

“There will be questions over why this is happening only now. It’s going to take a few days for that warship to… make its way to Cyprus or to the waters around Cyprus, presumably.

“And given the fact it was very clear the potential for the US to launch operations against Iran, and for the subsequent consequences to mean a greater threat to the British forces in the region.”

Thousands of Britons are stranded in the Middle East, unable to get home after hundreds of flights were cancelled.

Also on Tuesday, it was announced by the Ministry of Defence that RAF F-35B jets shot down drones over Jordan – the first time an RAF F-35 has destroyed a target on operations.

The van driver died in hospital

A van driver has died after a crash with a tractor in Norfolk. It happened on the A47 near Constitution Hill at around 7.55am on February 27 when a white Ford Transit collided with a Volvo tractor unit and trailer.

The road was closed while police, the fire service, and the ambulance service attended. The driver of the Ford Transit van, a man aged in his 20s, was taken to hospital with serious injuries. He has since died.

The road reopened later in the evening.

Police are now appealing for anyone who say the crash or who has any dashcam footage to contact them. Anyone with any relevant information is asked to contact us via the following channels, quoting reference: NC-27022026-66.

You can contact police via email, their website, or by calling 101. Alternatively, you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Sally Donald faces a probe from Social Security Scotland after a complaint was raised about her eligibility to receive the Adult Disability Payment.

An SNP candidate who once joked about joining the party’s “gravy bus” is under investigation for claiming disability payments.

Sally Donald faces a probe from Social Security Scotland after a complaint was raised about her eligibility to receive the Adult Disability Payment (ADP).

The 31-year-old is aiming to snatch the Edinburgh Southern constituency from Labour at the Holyrood election in May.

Donald is a well-known figure in the SNP and currently works for Moray West MP Graham Leadbitter.

She previously faced a backlash in 2022 after sharing a picture on social media of her standing next to a Nicola Sturgeon campaign vehicle with the caption: “All aboard the gravy bus”.

Opposition parties claimed it was an insight of “how many SNP politicians cynically view elected office as a gravy train”.

Donald has previously spoken of suffering from both autism and severe anxiety.

ADP can be worth up to £10,000 a year tax free and the SNP candidate has reportedly been in receipt of the benefit for several years.

The payment is an in-work benefit and is managed by the devolved Social Security Scotland agency, which has faced criticism over the scale of the country’s vast welfare spending.

The benefit is meant to be awarded to Scots who need help with everyday tasks such as eating, washing, managing toilet needs or engaging socially with other people in person.

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Donald is considered to be a rising star in the party and has been pictured multiple times with senior Nationalists including John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon and Stephen Flynn.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour deputy leader. said: “These are very serious allegations and both the SNP and Ms Donald must explain immediately what has happened.

“The public purse is not a gravy bus, and if these allegations are proven correct then the SNP must remove their support for this candidate and conduct a full audit of their remaining candidates to make sure none of them are defrauding Scotland.”

In a statement to the Scotsman, Donald said: “In September last year, I met with Social Security Scotland who had received an anonymous complaint about my eligibility for the Adult Disability Payment.

“I provided the details they requested and have not heard anything since. I continue to receive ADP, based on their initial assessment of my eligibility for support.”

The Record asked the SNP and Social Security Scotland for comment.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk is expected to take the stand in a shareholder trial on Wednesday in San Francisco, where he’s accused of making false and misleading statements that drove down Twitter’s stock price before he bought the social media platform for $44 billion in 2022.

The lawsuit was filed in October 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Twitter shareholders who sold the stock between May 13 and Oct. 4, 2022, a few weeks before Musk’s purchase of Twitter was finalized. It claims Musk violated federal securities laws by making false, public statements that “were carefully calculated to drive down the price of Twitter stock.”

The billionaire Tesla CEO reached a deal to buy Twitter and take it private in April 2022. On May 13, however, he declared his plan “temporarily on hold” and said he needs to pinpoint the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Twitter’s stock tumbled as a result. A few days later, he tweeted that the deal “cannot go forward” and claimed that almost 20% of Twitter accounts were “fake,” according to the lawsuit.

Musk’s May 13 tweet — “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users” — was “false because the buyout was not, in fact, ‘temporarily on hold,’” the lawsuit says. That’s because Twitter did not agree to put the deal on hold, and there was nothing in the merger agreement the two parties signed that allowed Musk to put it on hold, according to the lawsuit.

In the following weeks, Musk continued to try to delay or get out of the deal, which the lawsuit claims he did in the form of false, disparaging statements about Twitter’s business that drove the San Francisco company’s stock down sharply.

In July 2022, Musk doubled down on the bots issue and said he would abandon his offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. That’s even though the lawsuit notes that Musk waived due diligence for his “take it or leave it” offer to buy Twitter. That means he waived his right to look at the company’s nonpublic finances.

The stock closed at $36.81 on July 8, when Musk tweeted he was abandoning the deal over the fake accounts issue. That’s 32% below Musk’s offer price of $54.20 per share.

“To try to renegotiate the price or delay the merger, Musk made materially false and misleading statements and omissions, and engaged in a scheme to deceive the market, all in violation of the law,” the lawsuit says.

The problem of bots and fake accounts on Twitter wasn’t new. The company had paid $809.5 million in 2021 to settle claims it was overstating its growth rate and monthly user figures. Twitter also disclosed its bot estimates to the Securities and Exchange Commission for years, while also cautioning that its estimate might be too low.

Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the deal, and Musk countersued. On Oct. 4, Musk offered to go through with his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, which Twitter accepted. The deal closed later that month. In the ensuing months, Musk slashed the company’s workforce, gutted its trust and safety team and rolled back content moderation policies. In July 2023, he renamed Twitter as X.

This isn’t the first time that Musk has been dragged into court to defend himself against allegations of duping investors with his social media posts. Three years ago, Musk spent about eight hours testifying in a San Francisco federal trial about his plans to buy Tesla — the electric automaker that he still runs as publicly traded company — for $420 per share in a proposed 2018 deal that never materialized. A nine-member jury absolved Musk of wrongdoing in that case.

Putting a gimbal (the motorised arm) in a phone doesn’t immediately make it a robot. That comes from the sort of sentience it offers. Rather than just using the camera to take pictures, it’s as much a way to control the phone as it is a method of capture, with the AI behind the camera giving it a level of personality. That’s the robot part.

Phones have been moving towards a more personalised experience over the past few years, with the learning ability of AI allowing for responses that are specific to you. Apps like ChatGPT and Gemini enable long conversations to develop ideas, while also recognising what the camera can see.

Honor makes it more interactive, with the camera making its own physical movements that reflect what it can see and what you’re doing. At a basic level, that includes following your face so that you’re always in the frame of a video call. The camera can also dance along to music, nod, shake and look around.

What can the Honor Robot Phone actually do?

There are some simple things that the flexibility of this camera allows. Imagine you’re cooking and need to move around while talking to a friend on a video call, for instance. With the Robot Phone, Honor says you’ll always be in the picture.

As a camera, there’s loads it can do. You can place the phone down on a surface, and the camera can rotate, locate you and take photos. You don’t have to worry about propping it up somewhere, either; the gimbal takes care of all of that. I saw an Honor staff member holding the phone to capture video, with the gimbal providing all sorts of holding options and stability beyond what you’d get from a normal smartphone.

None of this is as interesting as the “digital companion” features that incorporate the use of AI. I’ve seen the Robot Phone dancing along to music, I’ve seen it pretending to sleep like a cute animal, waiting to be woken up to “play with you”. Honor calls this “emotional body language”, and this is what makes it different from any other smartphone.

With AI behind the lens, the Robot Phone can provide feedback, so you can ask it if you’re wearing a nice outfit, giving personality that you just don’t get from any other device right now.

Of course, whether you trust the response or not is a different matter.

A gimbal is a motorised arm that allows freedom of movement through three axes: pan, tilt and roll. It offers stabilisation to eliminate things like shake and allows for smooth movements of the camera in all directions. Gimbals are common in professional video recording equipment and have recently made the jump to things like drones and handheld capture devices, including the DJI Osmo Pocket.

On the Honor Robot Phone, this miniaturised gimbal flips up from the rear, giving one of the cameras a wide degree of movement. The camera functions like an eye, which is where the “robot” name comes from. It’s like something from Star Wars or Pixar’s Wall-E.

Honor says it has reduced the size of the motors in the gimbal by 70 per cent so that it would fit into the back of the phone, with a sliding panel that covers the arm when not in use. When stowed, the phone is roughly the size of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, with a design that’s not too different, either.

The true crime documentary returns tonight with a deeply disturbing two-part special about an investigation that shocked even experienced detectives

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The much-loved Channel 4 true crime documentary is poised to make a return to television screens tonight with an episode that promises to be “deeply disturbing”.

24 Hours in Police Custody has garnered a loyal following since its debut in 2014. The groundbreaking documentary immerses viewers in the high-stakes world of criminal investigations, following detectives as they pursue justice for serious crimes.

The programme offers a glimpse into the real-life drama unfolding within a local police force, as detectives race against time to uncover horrifying truths. Over the years, the show has earned the accolade of being the “best ever”, with viewers eagerly anticipating new episodes.

In recent weeks, fans of 24 Hours in Police Custody were disappointed when the show appeared to have been taken off air and replaced with a new series on Channel 4. However, tonight (March 4), two episodes will be broadcast from 9pm, back to back.

Entitled 24 Hours in Police Custody: The Butcher of Suburbia, this two-part instalment delves into the 2024 murder of a 74-year-old woman. Viewers will watch as detectives investigate the killer who dismembered and concealed her body, initially claiming she had moved away, reports Wales Online.

For the first part, set to air at 9pm on Channel 4, the broadcaster teases: “The landmark series brings us the gripping inside story of the murder of a 74-year-old woman – and the killer’s macabre efforts to conceal her death.”

Promising a “deeply disturbing” episode, part two reveals: “The suspect admits to the murder of a 74-year-old woman. But a deeply disturbing tale that shocks experienced detectives has only just begun.”

The two instalments tonight are repeat episodes that previously shocked viewers. Taking to social media, one person said: “Omg that episode of 24 hours in police custody – the butcher of suburbia is HARROWING.”

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Another wrote: “Shocking two-part documentary. When a 74-year-old woman is murdered, police uncover the killer’s macabre efforts to hide her death.”

A third added: “Watching the butcher or suburbia episode of 24 hours in police custody. Wow!”. A fourth penned: “Pleased that “24 Hours In Police Custody” returns tonight (C4 9pm). It’s a consistently good series.”

One person commented: “Watched another true life horror. 24 hours in Police Custody: Butcher of Suburbia.”

Another echoed: “#24hoursinpolicecustody is undoubtedly one of the best programs on TV. The Butcher of Suburbia…the chilling calmness, openness, honesty about killing and chopping up a 70-year-old lady. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.”

24 Hours in Police Custody returns tonight on Channel 4 at 9pm and 10pm. Episodes are also available to stream online.

For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.

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James Nielson, 41, was sentenced to prison after a three-week stalking campaign that included leaving a note on his former partner’s door revealing their affair and demanding paternity tests

A 12-year-long affair ended in acrimony, culminating in a man pounding on his former mistress’s door, demanding a paternity test.

James Nielson, 41, pursued his ex for three weeks, insisting on DNA tests to establish the paternity of two of her three children, born during their lengthy liaison.

His relentless pursuit involved late-night visits to her home, banging on the door and leaving a note for her husband revealing their secret relationship.

At Liverpool Crown Court today, March 3, prosecutor Lahraib Iqbal stated that Nielson and the victim had known each other for 15 years. Despite marrying her husband in 2013, she maintained an intermittent affair with Nielson, blocking his number during their breaks.

On December 4 last year, the woman awoke to discover 37 messages from Nielson on her phone. As she left for work that morning, she noticed Nielson tailing her.

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She instructed him to leave her be and carried on, but upon reaching her workplace at 8.40am, Nielson confronted her again, only departing when a passer-by intervened, reports the Liverpool Echo.

At 11.30pm that night, whilst at home in Liverpool with her husband and children, Nielson began hammering on her door. He slipped a note through the letterbox divulging the affair before leaving the premises – only to return in his car at 3am, honking his horn.

Ms Iqbal stated: “At 10.30am (December 5) the defendant was spotted sat outside the address, beeping his horn and waving at (the victim) from his car.”

Three days later, around 6.20am on December 8, the victim once more departed her home for work when Nielson confronted her. After telling him to “go away”, she climbed into her vehicle and set off towards Crosby.

However, Nielson pursued her in his black Volkswagen Golf, forcing her to pull over to prevent a collision with another motorist.

Ms Iqbal continued: “He went around to the front of her car and with his fists began to bang on the bonnet of her car.”

The woman subsequently contacted police.

Nielson, of Carriage Grove in Bootle, entered guilty pleas to stalking, driving whilst disqualified, and driving without a licence. He additionally admitted two violations of a 12-month suspended sentence imposed in September 2025 for involvement in cannabis supply and production.

The violations comprised the stalking and motoring offences, alongside his failure to comply with a curfew requirement between December 1 and December 8 2025.

‘Struggled to lose love of his life’

Olivia Bell, defending, told the court: “I would urge the court to accept his remorse is genuine. he regrets any distress caused to (the woman). I in no way seek to minimise his behaviour but simply provide context for his contacting the complainant. The accused and the complainant had been entangled in an intermittent relationship for 12 years, during which the complainant gave birth to three children.

The defendant, however, has raised doubts over the paternity of two of these children. Whilst his actions were unquestionably inappropriate, this context is provided to shed light on why he repeatedly reached out to the victim.”

She stated: “There were no threats of violence. Simply this was a man who struggled to lose what he called the love of his life following as 12-year affair and wanted to seek information about the paternity of the children.”

Nielson’s criminal record includes 11 previous convictions for 21 offences, many of which are driving-related.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Louise Brandon observed: “It’s quite clear the fear and distress you caused has had a physical and emotional impact on (the victim). It’s affected how she conducted her day to day activities. She has incurred expenses and she has described the impact these actions have had on her life.

“I’m quite satisfied that the stalking is a high culpability offence. This was a persistent action over a long period. You followed the complainant and your behaviour was conducted in a way to maximise her fear and distress, including turning up at her family home.”

Nielson received an 18-week prison term for stalking and eight weeks for the driving offences. The judge also activated 39 weeks of his existing suspended sentence, resulting in a total custodial term of 65 weeks – equivalent to one year and two months.

Additionally, he was disqualified from driving for a total of 115 weeks, whilst a restraining order was imposed preventing him from contacting the victim for seven years.