He will be running 12 half marathons in 12 months

A Cambridgeshire dad has set himself the task of running 12 half marathons in 12 months. Tom Mayard, 39, lives in Ely with his wife, Rachael, their three-year-old son Rex, and daughter Dottie, seven, who is profoundly deaf. It is Dottie who has inspired the mammoth marathon challenge, as Tom will be raising funds for the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People.

Dottie was born profoundly deaf with enlarged vestibular aqueducts and Mondini malformation. She wears cochlear implants in both ears and was fitted the first at 14 months old, in May 2019, and the second a few months later. However despite the challenges Dottie has faced, she is thriving in mainstream school where her teachers wear a mini mic that sends sound straight to her implants.

Tom says that listening still takes a lot of concentration for Dottie. He said: “It’s very tiring and she often crashes out as soon as she gets home from school. Night-time is particularly hard. When she takes her cochlear implants off, her world is completely silent and dark and that’s very isolating for her. We usually sit with her until she falls asleep.”

Tom and his wife are hoping that they can get a hearing dog for Dottie in the future. Tom said: “The way the dogs alert their partners to important and often life-saving sounds is amazing. But more than that, it’s about companionship and comfort. Just having a dog with her at nighttime would help Dottie feel safer and more secure.”

Tom began the challenge in December, and is using it as a way ot mark his 40th birthday. But he is no stranger to running, having completed several London Marathons, his first of which was in 2014.

He said: “When I realised my 40th was coming up, I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to run a half marathon every month in the lead-up to November. But I also wanted it to mean something.”

Training started for Tom in September. His routine has consisted of a run on Tuesdays, often through Regent’s Park, near to where he works in Soho, another run on Thursday and a longer run at the weekends. Tom has already completed his first three races: ‘T’was the run before Christmas’ in Brandon near Bury St Edmunds, ‘Run for Cake’ in Peterborough and ‘Windmill Way Wander in Bury St Edmunds.

This Sunday (March 8), Tom will be taking on the Cambridge Half. Following that, he plans to take part in events in Manchester, the Goodwood Moto circuit, and Bath. He’ll also be taking on the Great North Run in Newcastle in September. His final race of the year will be in November at Alton Towers where runners can celebrate at the end with a ride or two.

To support Tom’s challenge and raise funds for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, donations can be made via his fundraising page.

Shoppers at the Forge Shopping Centre in Glasgow were disrupted for a time while firefighters tackled the car fire.

A car fire at a busy Glasgow junction has disrupted shoppers at a nearby retail park. Emergency services were called to the Forge Shopping Centre in the city’s Parkhead area after the fire broke out at around 1.30pm this afternoon.

Firefighters were quickly on scene to tackle the fire which had engulfed a white family car at the junction between Gallowgate and Clyde Gateway.

Videos shared on social media showed firefighters arriving at the scene to as they started tackling the fire. Flames were erupting from the front of the car which was stopped at the junction blocking traffic.

It is unknown if there were any injuries as a result of the fire.

Firefighters were able to quickly bring it under control and extinguish the fire before leaving the scene shortly after.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were alerted at 1.30pm on Saturday, March 7 to a car on fire at the Forge Shopping Centre in Glasgow.

“Firefighters attend and found one private car on fire. The fire was extinguished and crews left after ensuring the area was made safe.”

Police Scotland were contacted for comment.

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Two Pink concerts in Mexico City have been canceled due to “an unforeseen event affecting the event’s logistics,” organizers said.

The singer, 46, whose real name is Alecia Beth Moore-Hart, was scheduled to play at the GNP Seguros Stadium in the Mexican capital on April 26 and 27.

However, in a statement shared on X, promoter Ocesa said Friday: “PINK IMPORTANT NOTICE.

“We regret to inform the public in Mexico City that, due to complications arising from an unforeseen event affecting the event’s logistics and beyond the control of the artist, promoter, and venue, PINK’s shows scheduled for April 26 and 27 at Estadio GNP Seguros will not take place.

“We understand the excitement of attending these concerts and deeply appreciate the understanding of our fans.

open image in gallery

open image in gallery

“If you made your purchase online, a full refund, including Ticketmaster service fees, will be automatically credited to the card used for the purchase, according to your bank’s processing times.

“If you purchased your tickets at the box office, you can request a refund at the same location where you made the purchase in the coming days.”

Pink has yet to comment on the shows’ cancellations.

The news comes after the singer shut down reports about her divorcing her husband of 20 years, Carey Hart.

The rumors originated from People magazine, which cited an unnamed source in an exclusive report titled, “Pink Separates from Carey Hart for Second Time After 20 Years of Marriage: Source (Exclusive).”

Shortly after the story broke, the “Just Give Me A Reason” singer took to her official Instagram account to address the speculation directly. In a video, she sarcastically thanked the publications for the “alert.”

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“I was just alerted to the fact that I’m separated from my husband. I didn’t know. Thank you People Magazine. Thank you US Weekly. Thank you for letting me know,” she stated in the clip. “I was wondering, would you also like to tell our children? My 14-year-old and 9-year-old are also unaware. Or do you want to talk about some real news?”

Pink, born Alecia Moore, met Carey Hart at the 2001 X Games in Philadelphia. The couple had an on-and-off relationship until they got engaged in 2005. The two tied the knot in Costa Rica in 2006.

The couple separated in 2008 and announced their reconciliation in 2009. They have two children: Willow Sage Hart, 14, and Jameson Moon Hart, 9.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A bombing at a nightclub in Peru has injured 33 people, including minors, authorities said Saturday.

The explosion happened in the pre-dawn hours at the Dali nightclub in the province of Trujillo along Peru’s northern coast, according to a statement from the local Emergency Operations Center.

It’s a region that has recently been plagued by violence and crime.

It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible and a motive wasn’t immediately known.

At least five of the injured were in serious condition, according to the executive director of the Trujillo Health Network, Gerardo Florián Gómez. Some of the victims suffered amputations and shrapnel wounds and were undergoing surgery, he told reporters. Among the injured are three minors: one 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds, Florián said.

Fiorella Mantilla, who was at the nightclub when the blast took place, told reporters that she had glass embedded in her legs and recalled that “it sounded as if the sound system had suddenly been turned off.”

In a video published by local newspaper La República, some people in the club yelled “Bomb!” and then, “Let’s go!” following the explosion. A person who filmed the scene then focused on a woman lying on the floor and said, “Help the girl!”

The explosion took place less than a month after another blast in the same city that damaged 25 homes but caused no injuries or fatalities.

Extortion and illegal mining plague the La Libertad region, whose Andean portion is home to the largest gold-producing area in Peru. In 2025, the region experienced 286 explosions, 136 of which occurred in the city of Trujillo, according to official figures.

The expansion of organized criminal groups has led to an increase in related crimes such as extortion.

Despite his “swagger”, Soham murderer Ian Huntley was a target in prison long before the final attack that resulted in his death.

Soham killer Ian Huntley died in hospital almost a quarter of a century after his infamous crimes. Imprisoned for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Cambridgeshire, his life support was turned off just over a week after a brutal prison beating.

On Thursday, February 26, the 52-year-old was attacked by a fellow prisoner at the notorious HMP Frankland in County Durham. The vicious assault left him blind and in a “vegetative state” as he spent just over a week in intensive care.

Huntley is one Britain’s most reviled child killers and he faced numerous beatings from other inmates during his incarceration. Past incidents included scaldings with boiling water and having his throat slashed, reports the Mirror.

Over the last 23 years, Holly and Jessica’s families have carried on living beneath the weight of incomprehensible grief. The pair were aged just 10 when they disappeared during a family barbecue on August 4, 2002.

A massive search was launched when they failed to return after leaving the barbecue to go and get sweets in the village of Soham. An image of the pair wearing their matching Manchester United shirts was released and it became seared into the minds of worried parents nationwide.

Helping in the search was a young Huntley, then 28, who’d been employed as a caretaker at the girls’ school.

Callous Huntley gave interviews to journalists during the search for the girls while he knew what had happened to them. Sickeningly, he even tried to console Holly’s father.

He informed police how he’d chatted with the missing youngsters on his doorstep moments before they vanished. It didn’t take long for police to grow sceptical of his version of events and the truth of what really unfolded that day started to come to light.

Nearly a fortnight after they were last seen, on August 17, a gamekeeper stumbled upon the burnt remains of Holly and Jessica in a ditch close to an RAF base.

It eventually came to light that Huntley had lured the pair into his home after he falsely clamed that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, a teaching assistant at their school, was inside. He then killed the girls and hid their bodies in a ditch.

Three days after the girls were found, Huntley was charged with their murder and, in December 2003, he received two life sentences, with a minimum of 40 years imprisonment.

Ms Carr was also jailed for three-and-a-half years for perverting the course of justice but was cleared of two charges of assisting an offender. She was released after serving half her sentence and granted a new identity.

Sharon and Leslie Chapman, Jessica’s parents, have rarely discussed the case and their loss publicly. However, Kevin and Nicola Wells, Holly’s parents, have spoken about what happened to them and provided glimpses into how their lives were transformed.

In the immediate aftermath of their daughter’s death, Kevin was plagued by the fear that he and Nicola might become part of the statistic of couples who separate following the loss of a child.

Reflecting on this period during the 2012 ITV documentary, Soham: A Parents’ Tale , which marked the 10th anniversary of the murders, Kevin shared: “She [Nicola] was lost in a kind of wilderness, whereas I was more hard-line about my emotions.

“For the first five months after Holly died, we broke down together, but after that, we processed our grief at different speeds. It was one, almost two years before we found each other again, but grief gives you a different sense of the passage of time, and it slipped by unnoticed.”

In 2005, Kevin penned the book Goodbye, Dearest Holly which documented some of what the family went through. In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, he said: “They say 95 per cent of the parents of murdered children split up. We were determined to be among the five per cent who survive, but for a year, perhaps 18 months, I couldn’t reach my wife.”

In the years that followed, the Wells family faced plenty of upheaval and, in 2006, made the difficult decision to move out of their Soham home, finding the memories of Holly too agonising to face.

Money was also an issue. Struggling financially after having to sell Kevin’s business at a loss, the couple were forced to remortgage their house and accept £6,000 from a charity to cover bills. Thankfully, the family were able to gradually get back on track. After launching his contract cleaning business from scratch in 2005, Kevin was later joined by his son Oliver, who was just 12 years old when his sister vanished.

Reflecting on how, over the following two years, he and Oliver “went up ladders and chit-chatted about life until it felt OK again”, Kevin said: “Getting back to work was not just about money in the bank, it was also about what it represented – an everyday life, a familiar pattern, some kind of control.”

Later, Kevin dedicated himself to preserving his daughter’s legacy. He ran the London Marathon in memory of Holly and Jessica in 2012, raising almost £8,000 for the Grief Encounter Project – a charity he now serves as a patron of – which had supported his family.

That same year, the family returned to their former residence in Soham, where it’s believed Huntley’s name is never spoken.

In 2015, Kevin offered insight into how their family home had evolved, telling Good Morning Britain: “We still think of Holly every day; we have her pictures in and around the house, but it’s not a shrine – we don’t live in the past.”

Asked about his views on Carr’s release, Kevin responded: “We don’t reflect on it at all. It’s been through the court process, and we accept the outcome and focus our attention on other areas.”

Reflecting on how he navigated those harrowing early years, Kevin previously shared: “Murder has the capacity to destroy more lives than the one taken. I recognised that from the start, so I tried to take control, to make plans and to exert positive thought. I clung to my family, my community, my work, sometimes to God and sometimes to a late-night tumbler of whisky. I chose to believe in the future, a future that I could craft from the life we once had. Really, all I wanted was for us to be the ones who’d make it out the other side.”

Growing up without his younger sister proved difficult for Oliver. In 2012, by then a dad to two children himself, he spoke publicly for the first time about his bereavement.

He said: “I wish I could see her now, see what she’d have looked like. We do chat about her quite regularly, which I think is a very nice thing. It’s strange being three of us, when there used to be a fourth.”

Meanwhile, mum Nicola felt her daughter’s absence through the activities the little girl had once thrived in. Reflecting on “the busyness” of Holly, she recalled: “The music and dancing and drawing, the reading, the homework, the friends, the Brownies, the Majorettes. I used to grind my teeth at the hours I spent driving her to activities. Now I long to be able to do it.”

Jessica’s parents Leslie and Sharon did issue a rare statement marking the 10th anniversary of their daughter’s death and backing police proposals for a national database tracking sex offenders. They said: “We hope [the database’s] use will mean other families don’t suffer the same loss and heartbreak as we did.”

Given the nature – and notoriety – of his crimes, Huntley was never popular with his fellow inmates.

A source told the Newcastle Chronicle before his death: “He’s up there with one of the most hated prisoners. It could have been anyone. The majority would attack him for the reputation, not because of what he has done. They will want to be the one that done in Ian Huntley.”

The killer had a “swagger” inside prison, a source told the Mirror, like he was “trying to be somebody”. But he was also regularly trying to get his name into the public sphere from inside jail, they said.

Another prison source previously described Huntley as an “up and down” person, whose moods swing from extremes – acting the “big man” towards his fellow prisoners one moment and then becoming incredibly moody and reclusive.

One anecdote from sources behind bars claims Huntley flew into a fit of rage after lags taunted him over his beloved Manchester United shirt – the same kind his victims were wearing when he killed them. Huntley later cut the shirts from their bodies and tried to hide them in a bin.

In a warped twist, his shirt was also emblazoned with the number 10, according to The Sun – the same age as Jessica and Holly were when he murdered them. Guards searched his cell after hearing his fellow inmates chanted, “Huntley, Huntley, where’s your shirt?”

Framed photos of Maxine Carr – the girlfriend who provided him with a false alibi – were also reportedly confiscated. A source claimed: “They’re shouting insults and calling him ‘sicko’ and stuff. They’ve also mocked him about losing the Carr pictures. Huntley’s livid. He’s been going up the wall.”

Meanwhile, Huntley previously pleaded with a female penpal to send him a photograph of her in a Manchester United shirt as he awaited trial. The Daily Mirror revealed how he asked the penpal three times, and on one occasion told her from prison that he would be “punishing” her if she didn’t do as he asked.

In other penpal letters, he admitted he could lose his temper with a “bang”. “When I’m down, I’m a miserable git and when I’m cheerful I’m a barking woof woof. All I can say is that I hope my future has plenty of woof woof woof moments. God I am nuts,” he reportedly wrote.

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Iran’s temporary leadership council is facing pressure to swiftly appoint a new supreme leader, according to reports.

The nation’s Assembly of Experts could meet within a day to choose the next leader, after former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86 was killed by US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.

One assembly member, Ayatollah Hossein Mozafari, suggested that the clerics would shortly convene.

It is unclear whether the 88-member council would meet in person or online, with some consultations having been conducted remotely.

Since Khamenei’s assassination, Iran has been led by a three-person council comprising of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi.

It comes as state media quoted Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi saying a new supreme leader would help ‘better organise the country’s affairs’.

Another grand ayatollah, Hossein Nouri Hamedan, urged for the process of selecting a new leader to be accelerated.

Among frontrunners for the top job is the late supreme leader’s son Mojtaba Khamenei.

The younger Khamenei, 56, has a background in Islamic theology and ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Both his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh and his wife Zahra Adel were reportedly killed in the airstrikes.

His views are considered to be hardline conservative and, despite having never held a formal office, he is thought to be the most influential of Khamenei Sr’s children.

Under the rules of Iran’s constitution, a new supreme leader must be chosen within three months.

Donald Trump reiterated his demand on Saturday to be involved in the selection of Khamenei’s successor.

However Iran’s UN ambassador Amir-Saeid Iravani insisted the process would be concluded ‘without any foreign interference’.

Pictures of the late Khamenei were held up by protesters at a ‘Stop The War’ march against the strikes on Iran in central London on Saturday.

As the conflict entered its second week, Iran apologised to Gulf neighbours, insisting that no further strikes would be targeted at those countries unless an attack originated from them, while vowing to continue attacks on US and Israeli assets.

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“That third quarter was another step up,” Townsend added. “To continue how we were playing and to put pressure on France… we felt there were errors in them when they [go] behind and force things.”

France, in both halves, still managed some utterly gorgeous tries. Dupont crossed after a sweeping move, Thomas Ramos added two, alongside 10 points from the boot, and Oscar Jégou also got on the scoresheet, but Les Bleus were masters of self-sabotage. On their day, France are giants, but after the feeble defeat by 14-player South Africa in the autumn, they are still dogged by inconsistency. In light of this result, the pre-match complaints of Fabien Galthié, the head coach, about the size of the Murrayfield changing room, look even more misguided.

“We are disappointed because we had a [Grand Slam] mission,” Galthié said. “Only one third of the match belonged to us and that’s not enough. We knew it was possible to come here and lose. Scotland played very well.”

Dupont added: “We were indisciplined and could not get out of our own half. I didn’t have any physical worries heading into the game, but the performance just was not there.”

France may yet still end this Six Nations as champions, but it was Scotland who delivered the championship’s champion performance at Murrayfield. Six days out, Super Saturday is already living up to its name.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0 Graham try, 7-0 Russell con, 7-5 Bielle-Biarrey try, 7-7 Ramos con, 7-12 Attissogbe try, 7-14 Ramos con, 12-14 Steyn try, 17-14 Schoeman try, 19-14 Russell con, 24-14 White try, 26-14 Russell con, 31-14 Steyn try, 33-14 Russell con, 38-14 Graham try, 40-14 Russell con, 45-14 Jordan try, 47-14 Russell con, 47-19 Dupont try, 47-21 Ramos con, 47-26 Ramos try, 50-26 Russell pen, 50-31 Jegou try, 50-33 Ramos con, 50-38 Ramos try, 50-40 Ramos con.

Scotland: B Kinghorn; D Graham, H Jones (Jordan 55), S Tuipulotu (capt), K Steyn (Douglas 66); F Russell, B White (Horne 63); P Schoeman (Sutherland 63), G Turner (Ashman 51), D Rae (Fagerson 39), G Brown (Gilchrist 32), S Cummings (Bayliss 51), M Fagerson, R Darge, J Dempsey.
Sin-bin Bayliss 78.

France: T Ramos; T Attissogbe, N Depoortère (P-L Barass 44), Y Moefana, L Bielle-Biarrey; M Jalibert, A Dupont (capt, Serin 69); J-B Gros (Neti 51), J Marchand (Mauvaka 44), D Aldegheri (Bamba 51), C Ollivon (Flament 44), M Guillard (Meafou 44), F Cros, O Jegou, A Jelonch (Nouchi 42).
Sin-bin Jalibert 32, Nouchi 58.

Referee: A Gardner (Australia).

Attendance: 67,144.

5. England 23-29 Scotland: 2023 Six Nations

Duhan van der Merwe hammering in to score from the darkest depths of nowhere. It still aches for many England fans. And that game could have been so different had Van der Merwe not scored. Which makes it feel special for Scots, though you could argue it is not as historically significant as their first win at Twickenham since 1983, when in 2021 Finn Russell and Van der Merwe were the standouts in an echoing, fanless HQ. But doing it in front of fans puts it in the pantheon.

YouTube star KSI watched on as his new side Dagenham & Redbridge managed to defeat National League South league leaders Dorking Wanderers

New Dagenham & Redbridge minority owner KSI celebrated wildly alongside former England international Andy Carroll after the Daggers took the lead against National League South league leaders Dorking Wanderers. The YouTuber bought a minority share in the club earlier this week and watched on from the stands at Chigwell Construction Stadium on Saturday.

2281 fans welcomed in the new era, with 321 away fans making the trip from Dorking to watch the game. It was the Daggers’ third biggest attendance of the season with an additional 1,000 supporters added on to the attendance from the previous home game against AFC Totton.

KSI was greeted by fans as he made his way into the stadium and meeting the players in the dressing room before taking his seat in the stands alongside former Newcastle, Liverpool and West Hame United striker Carroll.

READ MORE: KSI told he’s just done ‘the worst thing ever’ after investing in Dagenham & RedbridgeREAD MORE: KSI makes immediate decision after buying football club as he follows Ryan Reynolds’ lead

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The 37-year-old, who signed for Dagenham at the start of the season is currently sidelined after ungergoing surgery on a hamstring injury.

It was a tight affair in the first-half, but the Daggers scored the only goal of the game through Aramide Oteh on the hour mark, with KSI embracing Carroll as he celebrated wildly.

The hosts would see out the game and kick start KSI’s new ownership regime with a vital three points as they look to move up the National League South table.

The YouTuber took to social media to celebrate the result, and posted on X: “So proud of the boys. What a result! UP THE DAGGERS!!!!!”

It was a positive start to life for KSI but there’s an awful long way to go before he’s fulfilling his dream of taking Dagenham & Redbridge to the Premier League.

Speaking to the club’s website after buying minority shares in the club, KSI said: “I’m so excited to start this journey. It’s gonna be a rollercoaster for sure, but I hope to bring Dagenham & Redbridge back to the glory days.

“And once we reach that point, I want to go even further. Reaching the Premier League would be a dream. And I believe it is 100% doable.

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“It will take a long time, so to the Daggers fans, please be patient. I want you to know that I am fully committed to making sure Dagenham & Redbridge is a team that everyone will know worldwide, and will be an exciting team to watch and support.”

KSI will star in a new series charting “every high and low” of football club ownership, with the series to debut on his YouTube channel this summer, reaching his 17million subscribers worldwide and promoted across his socials. It will then continue into the 26/27 football season.

An Israeli operation to search for clues about a navigator who went missing 40 years ago has left dozens dead, according to Lebanese authorities.

The Lebanese army and state media said that an Israeli commando force landed on the mountains along the border with Syria before heading to the eastern town of Nabi Chit, where they clashed with Hezbollah and local fighters.

Lebanon’s health ministry said at least 41 people were killed and 40 wounded.

Lebanese army commander General Rudolphe Haikal claimed that the Israeli force was dressed in Lebanese army uniforms, and used ambulances with signs of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization, during the operation.

A resident of Nabi Chit told The Associated Press that the Israeli force entered the town and dug up a grave in a cemetery before it left.

Follow live updates on the Iran war

Hezbollah said its members clashed with the Israeli force, and that Israel’s air force conducted around 40 airstrikes in the area in order for the unit on the ground to be able to withdraw.

The Israeli army’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on social media that the force did not find Arad’s remains.

Arad went missing after parachuting from a fighter jet that crashed in Lebanon in 1986. He had been involved in an operation against suspected Palestinian militants.

A Shiite Muslim faction called the Believers’ Resistance captured Arad alive after he landed, and released some photos of him early on before all traces of him disappeared.

Arad was believed to have been held in Nabi Chit until 1988, after which he went missing following a fierce battle between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops in the village of Meidoun, further south.

Read more:
Inside bombed Beirut – where Hezbollah makes the rules
Panic on the streets of Beirut amid fears of all-out war

Arad’s wife Tami, meanwhile, has urged Israel’s leaders not to endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers in their search for him.

“Our desire to know what happened to Ron stops the moment it endangers Israeli soldiers,” she wrote on Facebook.

“For 40 years, we have lived with the fact that Ron is missing, and we want to know what happened to Ron, but not at any price. The sanctity of life is above any closing of the circle of certainty for us.”

Adraee said the Israeli force did not suffer any casualties in the operation.

Majid Ali, 56, slapped his victim across the face, punched her and grabbed her by the throat. He also bit his victim while raping her

A violent man repeatedly raped a woman during which he “bit and chewed” on her and threatened to kill her if she did not comply. The victim said the rape had left her with “emotional scars” and nightmares about her attacker.

Majid Ali, 56, slapped his victim across the face and told her that if she told anyone about his behaviour he would kill her and “wasn’t scared of going to prison”. He punched her, grabbed her by the throat and swore at her.

A sentencing hearing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Thursday heard the defendant treated his victim “like an animal” when he raped her as she struggled and screamed for help. For the biggest stories in Wales first sign up to our daily newsletter here.

He forcefully removed her trousers before putting his hand over her mouth, and despite her telling him she wasn’t willing, Ali said he was “going to do it forcefully”.

While raping her, he would “bite and chew” the victim on her body, and the victim described feeling in pain

The victim said she was in so much pain and discomfort she was “unable to get up in the morning”.

Ali, of Cedar Road, Newport, was later convicted of multiple offences of rape, following a trial.

The court heard he has no previous convictions.

In a victim personal statement read to the court by prosecutor Andrew Davies, the victim said: “It will take many years for me to recover… My physical health has been poor as a result of his treatment towards me. The stress which I have had to live under has given me higher blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. Whilst I didn’t have any long term physical injuries, the emotional injuries I have are going to take time to heal.

“I have suffered for a long time and this has left me with deep emotional scars. I often wake up having nightmares about (the defendant) and what he has done to me and I wake up thankful… I struggle to forget about what he’s done to me… I don’t feel confident about leaving my house and going into the community. I have such low self esteem and find it hard to go about life day to day.”

In mitigation, Josh Scouller said his client does not accept the verdicts of the jury.

The defence barrister said the defendant has always worked after moving to the UK from Pakistan, having suffered a difficult background and prior circumstances.

Having travelled from Pakistan to the UK, Ali was said to have made efforts to learn English but had struggled, which left him feeling isolated.

Sentencing, Judge Richard Kember said: “You have demonstrated no insight or remorse into the offences. You do not accept the verdicts of the jury and you still harbour resentment towards (the victim).”

Ali was sentenced to a total of 12 years imprisonment, of which he will serve two thirds in custody.

The defendant was also made subject to an indefinite restraining order.

A request for a custody shot of the defendant was made to Gwent Police but this was declined.

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