Neighbours of Miss Widdecombe have recalled how she fit into daily life in the village of Haytor, on Dartmoor.

Will, who did not wish to give his last name, said he would see Ann Widdecombe walking on Dartmoor.

He said: “Like everybody else, she was just part of the community. It’s a safe area, it’s lovely.

“It shocked me because I thought, poor lady, she’s had a heart attack or something. Then I heard about (the murder investigation) and I thought, crikey.”

Alison and Simon Gilbert, who have lived in in Haytor Vale for more than a decade, said Ann Widdecombe was a well-known figure locally.

Mrs Gilbert said: “She was a nice woman, really nice woman, and she had a great sense of humour. It’s a lovely area – you talk to strangers.

“Everyone saw her as quite an opinionated politician, but to us she was just a person in the community.

“First of all, we got back and saw police and thought maybe it was a burglary, a lot of us suspected she had a heart attack or something.”

“She didn’t deserve to die like that,” Mr Gilbert added.

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Davey Short was on Seaton Carew beach when he saw one person floating face down in the water next to a child who was struggling in rough seas.

The 48-year-old says he didn’t hesitate and rushed into the ocean to bring the boy to safety, despite screams from onlookers not to help.

Tragically, two men died trying to save the youngster and his brother, who was also rescued on Sunday (July 12) afternoon.

The painter and decorator says he had “no choice” but to risk his own life to rescue the child.

Seaton Carew hero Davey Short has spoken of the dramatic moment he saved a little boy’s life during a rescue mission which saw two other men drown. (Image: NORTH NEWS & PICTURES)

Davey, who lives in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool said: “I was sat on the sand dunes, and I saw a lad swimming in the sea. He was next to a man with his head in the water, and initially I thought he was snorkelling.

“A woman was hysterical on the beach. I asked her what the matter was and she said, ‘Will you save my son?’ I can’t swim.

“Instinct took over, I ran straight in, and swam out as far as I could. I was telling the lad to try and swim towards me.

“He managed to get to me, but I was struggling to get back out with him.

“Another man came to give me a hand, and we managed to get him out of the water.

“Two of us dragged him out while the waves were hitting us.

Police remain at the scene in Seaton Carew on Monday (July 13). (Image: NORTH NEWS & PICTURES)

“The little boy was fine, but it was too late for the other two men who had tried to help before me.

“I couldn’t get further out to get to them. 

“It was scary, the waves were hitting me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to them.

“I am a dad myself. I didn’t even think about the danger to myself. I just wanted to get that little lad out.

“I couldn’t not go in. There were people screaming at me not to go into the water, but I said, ‘I am not leaving that bairn’.

Seaton Carew hero Davey Short has spoken of the dramatic moment he saved a little boy’s life during a rescue mission which saw two other men drown. (Image: NORTH NEWS & PICTURES)

“I know I had put my own life at risk, but I had no choice.”

Davey says the boy he saved was about 12 or 13 and had been playing in the waves when he got swept out to sea.

He added: “His brother, who was about 15, went to try and help him, and also got into trouble.”

After this, two men attempted to save the boys, but tragically died before they could do so. The older brother was rescued by a different man.

Davey said: “Everybody has thanked me. The mother was hysterical, but she has thanked me so much and has been messaging me. 

“I am not a hero, I just did what any man in my position would do.

Seaton Carew hero Davey Short has spoken of the dramatic moment he saved a little boy’s life during a rescue mission which saw two other men drown. (Image: NORTH NEWS & PICTURES)

“I just went in. I didn’t even think about it.”

Yesterday, Superintendent Glen Ward of Cleveland Police, said: “Our deepest sympathies go out to the families of both the men involved in this tragic incident today.

“Despite the best efforts of emergency services, sadly both men were pronounced dead a short time after being brought out of the sea.

“We are conducting enquiries into the circumstances of what happened today, although the deaths are not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the Coroner.

Seaton Carew hero Davey Short has spoken of the dramatic moment he saved a little boy’s life during a rescue mission which saw two other men drown. (Image: NORTH NEWS & PICTURES)

“I would like to remind everyone that open water comes with serious risks. We know it is inviting in the hot weather, but we would encourage people to refrain from entering any open water at all. Today we have sadly seen the true tragedy that can happen as a result.

“Please take extra care and enjoy the warm weather as safely as possible.”

The RNLI has been contacted for comment.

The force has confirmed in a major update into the death of Ann Widdecombe that counter-terrorism are now investigating

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Counter-terrorism have been drafted into the murder probe of the late MP Ann Widdecombe.

The former Conservative minister and later Reform UK spokeswoman was found dead in her home in Hayton on Dartmoor on Thursday.

Counter Terrorism Policing South East has today (Monday) said in an update that “new information and evidence has come to light”.

Emergency services swarmed Ann’s home at about 11.40am where her body was found having sustained serious injuries.

Counter-terrorism officers have rearrested the 28-year-old white British man on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism and are now leading the investigation into her death.

They said that new information and evidence had come to light during the inquiry.

Head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, Laurence Taylor, said: “Building on the progress made by our colleagues in Devon and Cornwall Police, we now have new information and evidence that means Counter Terrorism Policing is now leading the investigation.

“We are pursuing multiple lines of enquiry to establish the motivation for this attack.

“Our priority is progressing this investigation quickly, with all the capabilities we have available to us. If anyone has any information, please share it with the police.

“We would like to thank local communities, the wider public and the media for their ongoing support and patience, and would ask them to continue to support us in the next stage of the investigation.”

By JAMES GORDON, US NEWS REPORTER

Published: 01:24 BST, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 12:58 BST, 13 July 2026

A Russian military training exercise descended into chaos after a soldier lost control of a powerful rotary machine gun.

It sent the weapon spinning wildly and forced nearby troops to dive for cover as bullets appeared to spray unpredictably across the range.

The dramatic incident was captured on video and has since spread widely across social media, where viewers described it as a spectacular training failure and questioned how the weapon had been mounted.

The footage, which the Daily Mail has not been able to independently verify, including when or where it was filmed, is described online as showing a Russian mobile fire group training exercise involving a YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun.

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The weapon was originally developed for use on the Mil Mi-24 ‘Hind’ attack helicopter.

The video begins with a soldier positioned behind the mounted machine gun while another serviceman stands just a few feet away.

At first, the exercise appears routine as the gunner opens fire but within moments the enormous recoil generated by the weapon appears to overwhelm the mounting system.

Instead of remaining fixed on its target, the heavy machine gun suddenly begins rotating violently around its support.

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A video circulating online appears to show a Russian soldier losing control of a mounted rotary machine gun during a training exercise

The video’s description claims the weapon is a YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun originally developed for the Mil Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. Another soldier ducks, left, just in time!

The footage appears to show the gun beginning to rotate violently shortly after the soldier opens fire. The operator appears unable to control the weapon as it spins around its mounting

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The soldier clinging to the weapon is pulled with it, desperately trying to maintain control as the entire assembly spins faster and faster.

As the gun continues firing, the operator is whipped around the mount before being violently hurled over a nearby barrier.

The weapon appears to continue rotating under its own momentum while still discharging rounds.

Nearby troops can be seen ducking and scrambling away as the machine gun swings through wide arcs.

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The footage appears to show bullets continuing to fire while the uncontrolled weapon rotates.

Eventually another serviceman rushes toward the spinning gun and manages to stop it moving.

Moments later, he reaches toward the barrel but immediately pulls his hand away, apparently after discovering just how hot the metal had become following the sustained burst of automatic fire.

No information has been released about whether anyone was injured during the incident.

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The soldier is flung over a nearby barrier while still attempting to hold onto the machine gun

The soldier cannot hold onto the weapon any longer and it flung over a fence

Join the discussion

What does this training disaster say about the state of Russian military preparedness today?

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The exact location, date and circumstances surrounding the exercise also remain unclear.

According to the video’s online description, the training involved a Russian mobile fire group using a YakB-12.7, a four-barrel rotary machine gun designed for helicopter use rather than ground-mounted firing positions.

The footage has prompted a flood of commentary online, with many viewers focusing on what they believed may have caused the spectacular loss of control.

One person wrote: ‘Physics is cool. Instructor grabbing hot barrel after? Chef’s kiss.’

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Another suggested the mounting arrangement itself may have been flawed.

‘In the end you can see they mounted it off-bore. So once the recoil starts turning the barrel it will just accelerate…’ the commenter wrote.

Another serviceman eventually approaches and appears to stop the machine gun from rotating.

A third viewer speculated that the balance of the weapon may have been compromised.

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‘Yeah, it looks like they used the mount for a second barrel to hold the ammunition box rather than the second barrel to balance it.’

Others could not believe one of the soldiers appeared to touch the barrel moments after the sustained burst of fire.

‘Even after that spectacular display of stupidity, the guy with the bandana feels the need to one up him and touches the searing hot gun barrel. (That’s gonna leave a mark.)’ another commenter joked.

Ederson is set to sign a contract, but not at Man Utd after they pulled the plug on a deal with Atalanta and have set their sights on Aston Villa’s Youri Tielemans to bolster their midfield. Chelsea, meanwhile, are set to officially unveil Xabi Alonso amid working on deals for Pep Chavarria and Maxence Lacroix.

Jamie Varley was given a whole life term for the murder of 13-month-old Preston Davey, who suffered “unremitting abuse” in an adoption abuse case

A cruel schoolteacher convicted of murdering his adopted infant during a sexual assault has made a court appearance.

Jamie Varley, 37, received a whole life sentence last month for killing 13-month-old Preston Davey, who endured “unremitting abuse” at the hands of the former secondary school head of year.

Varley attended Preston Crown Court via videolink from HMP Wakefield, frequently referred to as “Monster Mansion” and home to some of Britain’s most infamous killers.

Dressed in a striped jumper, Varley joined from a room within the prison, his elbows positioned on a desk before him with his hands clasped near his face, speaking solely to verify his identity.

He participated in a short, two-minute proceeding under the “slip rule” which permits judges to amend legal errors or correct inadvertent oversights.

Following his conviction for murder and 24 additional offences, when sentenced last month he had mistakenly not been sentenced for one count of sexual assault.

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Mr Justice Turner, also joining via videolink alongside other barristers from the trial, imposed a seven-year prison term on Varley for count 12, the sexual assault of the child, to be served concurrently with his existing sentences.

This will have no tangible impact as Varley was handed a whole life tariff and informed he would never leave prison by the same judge when sentencing occurred on 18 June.

Varley’s partner, former public schoolboy John McGowan-Fazakerley, 32, also participated by videolink from HMP Preston at the proceedings. He received a 25-year prison sentence for permitting Varley’s abuse of the child and his own participation in the sexual abuse, following an eight-week joint trial.

Detectives stated that their offences had “shocked the nation”, branding Varley as “evil” and a “sadist”.

Preston had been treated as a “plaything”, subjected to routine sexual and physical abuse after the couple adopted him at nine months old, before he was murdered four months later at their Blackpool home in July 2023.

A social services inquiry is currently ongoing.

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By NICK PISA, SENIOR REPORTER

Published: 09:44 BST, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 12:34 BST, 13 July 2026

Memories of pandemics are often contentious. They can be disputed, uncomfortable and politically charged. As the COVID-19 pandemic begins to feel more distant, governments, communities and families have started asking how it should be remembered.

Efforts range from personal memorials for lost loved ones to official commemoration programmes. Looking at how earlier societies remembered pandemics can help inform how we commemorate COVID-19 today.

The outbreak of plague in 1346-53, known as the Black Death, was one of the worst pandemics in recorded history. Between a third and two thirds of the medieval European population are thought to have died.

Plague did not disappear, however, and society suffered from repeated outbreaks of the disease in the centuries that followed. As my research demonstrates, despite its pervasive presence, plague may have become something of a taboo subject among survivors, though individual attempts at commemoration have been preserved.

Taboo

One reason contemporaries avoided discussing plague was because it was believed the disease could be transmitted through imagination itself. People feared that thinking about plague might make it more likely to strike. In his chronicle written in the decade after the Black Death, the Carmelite friar Jean de Venette wrote that:

Such an enormous number of people died in 1348 and 1349 that nothing like it has been heard or seen or read about. And death and sickness came by imagination, or by contact with others and consequent contagion.

Others agreed that worrying about plague made people more likely to suffer from the disease. The medieval physician Bengt Knutsson advised people to “dread not death but live merrily and hope to live long”. To invoke plague, it seemed, was to invite it.

Trauma likely also played a significant role in the reluctance of some survivors to recall plague outbreaks. Those who lived through the Black Death witnessed horrors many may have preferred not to relive. So many people died that when cemeteries were full, huge trenches were reportedly excavated into which the deceased were placed in rows on top of each other. The Florentine chronicle of Marchionne di Coppo Stefani morbidly compared the layering of dirt and bodies in mass graves to “how one layers lasagna with cheese”. Some memories were better off buried.

The contested nature of plague memories can also be seen at the end of the fifteenth century, when an outbreak of disease divided a community in North Yorkshire. One group believed the victims had died of plague, while another described the illness instead as “pyned sekenes”, likely a pulmonary illness. The disagreement was significant because naming the disease shaped how it would be remembered. To call it plague was to connect it to the most feared epidemic disease in medieval life. To call it something else was to place it in a different, perhaps less charged, category.

Such was the aversion to recalling experiences of plague that historians have suggested that “as a collective memory it was in the process of being airbrushed from history”. One striking example comes from medieval English legal practice. To prove an heir was old enough to inherit land, witnesses were called upon to recall important events that had occurred during the heir’s lifetime, such as births, deaths or marriages. Yet out of 10,181 testimonies recorded between 1246 and 1430, only 13 explicitly mentioned plague. Memories of the disease may have been too painful to recount.

There is also a more mundane explanation for these silences. What survives in the historical record is often accidental. Few contemporaries left personal accounts of their experiences, and legal or financial records were usually formulaic documents, hardly suitable for lengthy recollections of personal tragedy. Our understanding of plague memories is therefore mediated by the sources that have survived.

Although individual experiences of plague are difficult to recover, the lasting impact of the disease on medieval culture is unmistakable. The rise of the Danse Macabre, which showed Death leading people from every rank of society in a final dance, reflected widespread anxieties about dying suddenly and unprepared.

Medieval people also found more personal ways to record their experiences. Graffiti carved into church walls provides glimpses of the horrors of plague and the desire for individual memorialisation. An inscription at St Mary’s church in Ashwell (Hertfordshire) describes the plague as “pitiable, fierce, violent”. Another at St Edmund’s church in Acle, Norfolk concludes:

therefore, while in this world the brute beast plague rages hour by hour, with prayer and with remembrance deplore death’s deadliness.

Other, undated inscriptions reveal more intimate losses. One at St Mary’s church in Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire simply records: “here lies Margaret in her tenth year”.

Plague may therefore have become a taboo subject for many survivors who wished to forget its horrors. Yet some of these silences are also the result of the kinds of sources historians rely upon. The voices that survive are shaped by chance, by record-keeping practices and by whose experiences were considered worth preserving.

This offers an important lesson today. The way future historians remember the COVID-19 pandemic will depend not only on what people experienced, but also on what was recorded, preserved and commemorated.