Michael Pickering was jailed for life in 2018 – an investigation is underway into his death
A sadistic killer who ‘enjoyed’ subjecting victims to extreme violence has died behind bars. Michael Pickering, from Oldham, was found died at HMP Long Martin, a category A men’s prison in Worcestershire, on August 7. He had a history of drug abuse. He was 39. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has begun an investigation into the death.
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In 2018 Pickering was handed a life sentence to serve a minimum of 36 years in jail after being found guilty of torturing and killing Jonathan Herd at his flat in Oldham.
A judge said Pickering wanted to rob Mr Herd, 45, of anything he had of value during the raid on July 30, 2017 after running out of drugs.
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He repeatedly stabbed and punched Mr Herd at his flat on Lee New Road before jumping up and down on his body as he lay defenceless, causing his lungs to collapse.
Mr Herd suffered 115 separate injuries. His body was discovered by his parents the next morning.
After killing Mr Herd, Pickering took a taxi to Oldham with three shopping bags of items he had stolen from the flat, including a mobile phone, an Xbox, a TV, some DVDs, £40 in cash, a coat and Mr Herd’s gold chain, which was ripped from his neck.
Pickering, of Coverham Avenue, Oldham, tried to sell the items at a branch of Cash Generators, but was refused. He is thought to have sold them privately.
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Jurors were told that nearly two decades ago Mr Herd’s former partner died, and that he turned to drink as a way of managing his grief.
He was succeeding in his battle with drink, and Manchester Crown Court heard his family had ‘genuine hope’ he would return to his former self.
The PPO has now confirmed brief details of the death of Pickering on its website and said an investigation was ‘in progress’.
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A Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Long Lartin prisoner Michael Pickering died on 7th August 2026. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
At Pickering’s 2018 sentencing hearing, Judge Richard Mansell QC said: “Jonathan’s life was extinguished by you in the most callous, cowardly and brutal way imaginable.”
The court heard Pickering had only been out of prison for two months when he killed Mr Herd, having served eight years in prison for robbery, blackmail and causing actual bodily harm.
Those charges related to a sickening incident when Pickering broke into a man’s home before holding him captive for hours. The man had a knife held to his throat and Pickering’s accomplice threatened to cut off the victim’s fingers and eat them, the court was told.
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Pickering claimed to not have any recollection of the attack, having been drunk and high on class A drugs.
The judge said: “I am satisfied you [Pickering] gain a degree of enjoyment or excitement from subjecting someone to extremes of violence and torture.”
After his release in May 2017, Pickering began mixing with old friends and continued abusing drink and drugs.
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He met Mr Herd through a mutual friend, who lived in a flat near Mr Herd’s home. The court heard Mr Herd invited Pickering into his flat after he asked to charge his phone.
Pickering, who had drunk ‘copious’ amounts of alcohol and taken crack cocaine, had taken an eight-inch blade from his friend’s house, which he used to deliver the ‘sickening and merciless violence’ in Mr Herd’s flat.
Judge Mansell said the sheer number of wounds, the location and the time over which they were delivered showed elements of torture.
In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Rob Hall, Mr Herd’s mother Pauline said: “There are no words that will ever describe the pain.
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“Jonathan was a kind, generous and loving son who loved his family and was dearly loved in return. He saw the good in people, and if he could help them, he would. He was looking forward to the future and his health was improving.
“He had started to get out, he was regaining his confidence and had made new friends.”
Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Wilkinson from GMP’s Major Incident Team said: “This was an horrific attack on an innocent man whose life was taken away from him for the sake of an XBox and a few DVDs.
“Jonathan’s family came to visit him the following day and walked in to find their loved one lay dead on the floor after being brutally murdered. No one should ever have to see that.
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“Sadly there is nothing we can do to bring Jonathan back, but I hope the result goes some way to helping his loved ones grieve and come to terms with their loss.
“Justice has been served today and Pickering is exactly where he deserves to be – behind bars where he will have plenty of time to think about what he did.”
While tech-moguls pour billions into trying to live longer, the answer might well be in the simple life
It’s 8am on Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach, and another day in the ‘Marvellous City’ is stirring.
The Atlantic pounds in steady, hypnotic bursts as the early birds gather to strut their stuff before the tourists descend. I can see a few vendors sleepily setting up their stalls and hear the whirr of a helicopter overheard – the first of dozens that will swish above the jungle mountains and Christ the Redeemer throughout the day.
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I lay down my towel and smile. At the shoreline, a small group of older swimmers gathers, chatting, stretching, laughing as they time their entry between waves.
They are not moving like people nearing the end of life. In Brazil, they might only just be getting started. Because while we tend to look to the ‘Blue Zones’ of Sardinia or Okinawa for longevity lessons, a more chaotic, unequal, exuberant country is quietly producing people who live to 110 and beyond.
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Recent demographic research suggests that Brazil may have one of the highest concentrations of supercentenarians in the world – a striking fact in a nation better known for inequality, patchy healthcare and economic and social volatility.
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At the same time, in Silicon Valley, billionaires are spending fortunes trying to outwit ageing. Figures like Bryan Johnson subject themselves to extreme regimes – blood testing, supplements, strict diets, tightly controlled sleep – all in pursuit of a longer life. Brazil’s approach could hardly be more different.
Here, people are reaching extraordinary ages through something less engineered, less controlled – and perhaps more revealing. For more than two decades, Prof Mayana Zatz has been studying this phenomenon. At the University of São Paulo, she and her team have assembled a cohort of nearly 200 centenarians, including more than 20 supercentenarians aged over 110.
“We are still collecting, still trying to understand,” she tells me. “But already we see some very interesting patterns.” One is gender. Around 70% of Brazil’s centenarians are women. Another is physical: many of these women are notably small. “All our centenarian women are very short,” Zatz says, laughing. “Which is not good news for me because I am tall!”
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Around 70 percent of Brazilian supercentenarians are women. Image: Roberto Huczek
It’s even worse news for me – a 6ft 1in Scotsman. But I’m here to pick up some tips on how to double my current age and still be walking the earth. There may be a biological explanation. Smaller bodies, Zatz suggests, may require less energy, undergo fewer cell divisions, and experience less cumulative damage over time.
But beyond that, the story widens –and deepens into Brazil’s past. Modern Brazil is, genetically speaking, one of the most mixed populations on Earth. Following Portuguese colonisation in the 1500s, millions of enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to the country. Over the centuries that followed, waves of immigration arrived from southern Europe – particularly Italy, Spain and Germany – as well as one of the largest Japanese diasporas outside Japan.
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The result is a vast, layered genetic mosaic: Indigenous, European, African and Asian ancestry often combined within a single individual.
Zatz believes this may be key. “We think that different populations may carry different protective genetic variants,” she explains. “And in Brazil, people are very admixed. So one person may be lucky enough to inherit several of these protective variants together.”
Around 70% of Brazil’s centenarians are women
In other words, Brazil’s history– however painful and complex –may have inadvertently created a population with unusually rich genetic diversity, increasing the chances of assembling combinations of genes linked to resilience, immune strength and cellular repair.
Her team is now mapping these patterns, analysing ancestry alongside longevity, searching for what she calls “protective genes”. But even here, there is no single blueprint.
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Brazil’s longest-lived citizens do not follow strict diets. They do not necessarily avoid alcohol. They are not confined to pristine environments. In fact, many come from remote or deprived regions, where access to modern medicine has historically been limited. “We focus a lot on people who live far from healthcare,” Zatz explains. “Because these are the ones who survived without vaccines, without treatment. They were the strongest from the beginning.”
In rural Brazil, families once had 10 or 12 children, she says – but only a few would survive into adulthood. Those who did may already have been biologically resilient. Add to that a childhood largely free from ultra-processed foods, and a lifetime of physical movement – walking long distances, working with the body – and a picture begins to emerge: not just good genes, but a kind of natural selection shaped by environment.
Those with mixed genetics might benefit from this. Image: Renan Martelli da Rosa
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And then there are the individuals themselves. Take Milton, who lived to 108. When Zatz and her team visited him in the capital city Brasília, he greeted them with Brazil’s customary cafezinho –small, strong, sweet coffee. But alongside it, something unexpected.
“He offered us whisky,” Zatz recalls.“And he told us he drinks whisky every morning.” That’s certainly one daily habit I can get behind.
Milton was not just long-lived but mentally formidable. Before his death, he would host birthday gatherings, delivering speeches in which he recalled every guest by name, their age, and how they had featured in his life. “His memory was incredible,” Zatz says.
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Then there is Laura, now 107, who only began swimming in her 70s – and went on to become a champion at 100. She still trains regularly, and, Zatz notes, enjoys a daily caipirinha (a fiery Brazilian cocktail made with cachaça, sugar, lime and ice) with lunch. Asked to explain her vitality, Laura’s answer was disarmingly simple: “My DNA.” She may have a point. Longevity runs strongly in her family: two sisters are over 100, and an aunt reached 110. Zatz’s team is now studying them closely.
People who live far from healthcare are the ones who survived without vaccines, without treatment. They were the strongest from the beginning
Yet not all cases are familial. Only around 20–30% of centenarians in the study have relatives who also reach extreme ages. And many of their habits defy expectations. Another subject, Sister Inah, who lived to 116 and was once the oldest person in the world, ate “everything” – except bananas. Even at 116, her mind was razor-sharp. During one visit, she carefully asked how to spell Zatz’s name before writing it down herself, her hand steady.
These stories challenge the idea that longevity comes from strict discipline. “Our centenarians eat everything,” Zatz says.Which raises an uncomfortable contrast with the longevity industry now flourishing among the ultra-wealthy. The pursuit of eternal youth in places like California is built on control – measuring, tracking, optimising every biological process. But it is also relentless, expensive and, arguably, stressful.
In Brazil, longevity looks less like optimisation and more like adaptation. That doesn’t mean lifestyle doesn’t matter.“Healthy ageing is not only genetics,” says Prof Cesar de Oliveira of University College London. “It also depends on environment, behaviour and social life.” And here, Brazil offers some powerful clues.
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Brazilian supercentenatians move often, and don’t limit their diet. Image: Vinicius “amnx” Amano
Movement is constant and informal. Food is simple and largely unprocessed – with rice and beans a staple. Coffee is frequent, social, woven into the day. But perhaps most important is community. Brazil is a country where life happens collectively. Families remain close, often across generations. Even in cities, social interaction is constant – in the street, on the beach, in cafés and homes.
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Zatz believes this cultural fabric may play a role. “Brazilians are optimistic,” she says. “Even with all the problems – people make jokes. They laugh.”
Standing again on Ipanema beach, watching the morning swimmers emerge from the surf, laughing, greeting each other like old friends, it’s hard not to feel that this is what endurance looks like. They are not chasing longer lives. They are living them.
And perhaps that’s the real lesson: longevity, in Brazil, isn’t built in a lab. It’s built over generations – in genes, in families, in communities, and in the messy, joyful business of everyday life.
Illustration: Sol Cotti
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Cardiff City wanted one or two more players this summer. Instead, the window closed with Brian Barry-Murphy refusing to compromise on his targets.
For weeks, there had been a sense that the Bluebirds were building towards something. Barry-Murphy had taken a young, exciting group of players, given them another year of development together and watched them emerge from League One as a promotion-winning side with momentum firmly behind them.
There was an obvious argument to be made – add a striker and a winger to the mix and Cardiff could have a squad capable of competing at the right end of the Championship.
Then the deadline passed.
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No striker. No winger. No late-night deal to send supporters into a frenzy.
And, let’s be frank, it is perfectly understandable why plenty of Cardiff supporters are left reeling.
This was a window in which the club appeared to have a chance to capitalise on the momentum generated by last season. The team is young, entertaining and increasingly cohesive. The football has been exciting. The performances against the likes of Sheffield United have suggested this is not a group content simply to survive. These lot can really thrive.
Yet when the opportunity came to strengthen the areas everyone could see needed strengthening, Cardiff ultimately chose not to do so. We will get on to the reasons for why.
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That is where the frustration comes from. Social media was not a fun place to be on Tuesday night.
The supporters are not imagining the shortcomings. Even those inside the club acknowledge that, ideally, they would have brought in another one or two players. The squad is too thin in certain areas and, while the club remained open to additions, they were not prepared to compromise their recruitment principles simply to add numbers.
And there is another important point here.
While transfer windows can often see anger directed towards the very top, multiple sources have indicated that Barry-Murphy ultimately had the decisive say over the players who came in. Or, more pertinently, those who didn’t.
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It is his squad. He trains these players every day. He picks the team. He has to believe in the footballers he brings into the dressing room.
If a player is signed simply because there is a perceived hole in the squad, rather than because the manager genuinely believes he can improve it, then the consequences can be worse than simply having one fewer player.
Barry-Murphy has extraordinarily high standards. He would rather trust players he knows, likes and believes in than compromise those standards to tick a box.
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That is the case for the defence and that philosophy has shaped this entire window.
So how did Cardiff get here? There was plenty of logic to the original plan.
Calum Scanlon, Nathan Trott and Omari Kellyman had all spent last season at Cardiff on loan with a view to bringing them back. Scanlon and Trott have returned and both have started the new campaign encouragingly.
Kellyman was different.
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His sale to Strasbourg, Chelsea’s sister club, represented a significant blow to Cardiff’s plans because they had expected to have that attacking option available again. He had communicated his desire to return and Cardiff were delighted and felt they had a multi-positional asset back on board.
The club was then forced to pivot. A winger was identified, but that deal did not materialise after the player chose a different opportunity.
The pursuit of Jens Hjertø-Dahl was real, too, despite some questioning it, and Cardiff made a £6.2m bid. Hull City ultimately came in and blew the Bluebirds out of the water.
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Those were two significant blows to a recruitment strategy that is deliberately specific. And that, ultimately, is the downside of being specific.
If you are looking for a particular type of player, with a particular profile and the right character to fit a particular dressing room, you are inevitably going to miss out sometimes.
Cardiff did.
The striker situation is perhaps the biggest source of frustration.
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The club had been looking for a forward throughout the summer, yet not one viable striker ever seemed to emerge publicly as a serious Cardiff target.
With so little coming out, so few targets courted publicly, and so little said on record to sate fans’ appetites while rivals prosper in the transfer market, it can be difficult for supporters to stomach. It can feel like the wind being knocked out of the sails.
It can often feel like the club aren’t doing anything, when, of course, that is not the case. But it’s all a totting-up effect for fans over the course of a summer, much of it without football as a distraction.
As recently as the weekend, a striker and a winger, both Premier League loans, were lined up. Neither materialised for one reason or another.
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Then, in the final throes of the window, attention briefly turned towards the possibility of a full-back after Genoa were thought to be interested in Ronan Kpakio, WalesOnline has learned.
But Genoa opted for former Cardiff loanee Cody Drameh instead, and the Bluebirds ultimately decided they did not need another right-back.
Instead, they put their faith in Kpakio as Perry Ng’s understudy.
That is the kind of decision which can look either inspired or reckless depending on what happens over the next four months.
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And that, ultimately, is the problem with assessing this window. There is no definitive answer yet.
One of the biggest debates around Cardiff for years has been recruitment.
Supporters have consistently called for a stronger structure around the manager, with Erol Bulut perhaps the most vocal advocate for expanding the operation during his time in charge. The appointment of a director of football and a figure who could be held accountable for recruitment was seen as one potential solution.
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But that structure has never really been established at Cardiff. There seems to be very few people tasked with huge remits at Cardiff and, in in the view of many supporters, they need more help around them.
There remains a unique set-up at board and senior management level, and attempts to build something resembling a traditional football operation have rarely been sustained.
This summer, Barry-Murphy and head of recruitment Paddy Deboys have worked extremely closely together.
The pair were central to Cardiff’s recruitment, with Krystian Bielik himself highlighting the conversations he had with both men when explaining why he chose to join.
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Bielik and Jack Moylan are perhaps the clearest examples of the strategy working exactly as intended.
Both had been tracked for more than a year, it is understood. Cardiff had tried to sign both last summer, shortly after Barry-Murphy arrived, but the deals were not possible.
They stayed close to the situations. When the opportunity presented itself again, they were ready.
That is very different from frantically scrambling around on deadline day looking for anyone who can fill a position. It has some semblance of a plan, which is encouraging.
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When Cardiff were relegated, the squad had become bloated. Players could see there was little route into the team, standards dropped and the pathway for academy players became harder to navigate.
The current thinking is almost the exact opposite.
Keep the group tight. Give everybody a genuine opportunity to play. Use multi-positional players to provide flexibility. Maintain competition for places. Keep the academy pathway open. That’s the strategy.
There is merit to that argument.
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You cannot spend an entire year preaching about developing young players and creating a pathway into the first team, only to block that pathway because you are afraid to have a hole in the squad.
And the club also points to another important factor – keeping the core of this promotion-winning group together.
There were bids and significant interest in some of Cardiff’s players this summer. The owner was clear that retaining the nucleus of the squad was just as important as adding to it.
Selling one of the key players and then spending the rest of the window trying to replace him would have been counterproductive.
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So the club’s position is relatively straightforward.
They believe the players they have brought in have improved the team. They believe the group they have retained has enormous potential. And they believe adding somebody who does not meet their standards could ultimately do more harm than good.
There is also a financial reality.
Moylan cost around £3m, Bielik around £2.5m and Trott around £1.5m. That is roughly £7m of spending, which is not going to transform a Championship squad in the current market.
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Before Bielik arrived, Barry-Murphy was explicit about the club having spent relatively little and being confident it could still bring players in.
And, importantly, he was never pretending he did not want additions.
“I think it’s obvious we’re looking to add to the squad,” he said on August 17.
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After Bielik arrived, he was asked how keen he remained to strengthen.
“Very keen,” was the answer.
On August 25, he hoped Cardiff would be “very” busy during the final days.
As recently as Saturday, he said he felt “confident” more players could be brought in.
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They weren’t. That is why it is too simplistic to say Barry-Murphy was simply happy with his squad all along. He wanted more. He just wasn’t prepared to take somebody he did not believe in.
And that is where Cardiff have made a calculated gamble. And it is a gamble, because this group of players isn’t a million miles away from the one which finished bottom of the Championship.
The club’s own internal view is that this is a two-window season. January will provide another opportunity to assess exactly where the squad is, what it needs and what becomes available, with the budget potentially more flexible depending on the league position.
That may prove to be a sensible approach. Or it may come back to bite them.
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If Yousef Salech gets injured, Cardiff suddenly have a very obvious problem. He offers something unique within this squad and there is no longer an Omari Kellyman waiting in the wings to provide a solution.
If Ollie Tanner suffers an injury, there is no natural like-for-like replacement on the right flank either, although Isaak Davies or perhaps Kpakio could provide alternative solutions.
Those are legitimate concerns.
So too is the broader question of whether Cardiff have left themselves one or two players short of genuinely competing for the play-offs.
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That accusation is fair. They had all summer to get six players – why was there a mad rush? Other clubs were building squads all summer. All valid frustrations from supporters.
But it is also impossible to know whether those one or two additions would actually have made the difference between finishing 14th and fourth. They were understood to be young Premier League loans, whether they would have had the impact of Kellyman or not is not known.
Football rarely works that neatly.
The last time this team took to the pitch, against Sheffield United, the overriding feeling was one of excitement. Supporters were watching a young Cardiff side go toe-to-toe with one of the Championship’s biggest clubs and trying to win the game on its own terms.
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That is what fans want.
They would rather watch this team, flaws and all, than watch a plodding side edge towards 1-0 victories and eventually finish somewhere in mid-table.
This group will lose games. It will be naïve at times. It will concede soft goals. It will probably frustrate the life out of its supporters on occasions.
But when it gets things right, it is a joy to watch. That’s rarely been the case in recent years, if we are all honest.
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The biggest concern I have, though, is whether too much of this is currently being held together by Barry-Murphy himself.
Cardiff’s ambition, secretly, upon his arrival, was to build a structure which would allow managers of his ilk to come into the club and operate within it seamlessly.
Perhaps that work is happening quietly behind the scenes. Perhaps the intention is to scale it up once Championship revenues begin to flow again, and further still if Cardiff eventually make it back to the Premier League.
But from the outside, it is difficult to see a fully developed structure capable of surviving the departure of the manager.
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That’s why tying Barry-Murphy down to a new three-year contract was probably the best piece of business Cardiff did this summer. It protects the club and gives this project stability.
But it will not stop a Premier League club taking him if the right opportunity and the right compensation package arrive.
The hope has to be that enough has changed at Cardiff over the past year for the foundations to remain when, eventually, the man at the centre of it all moves on. Or perhaps the club progresses upwards with him and this is a long-term project for everyone.
For now, though, the window is over. It wasn’t vintage and the criticism will come into sharp focus after a defeat or when an injury occurs, such is the nature of the beast.
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The anger is understandable. The club have left themselves exposed in certain areas and even those inside the building concede they would have liked another one or two players – having had all summer to address the issues.
But – saliently – there is a belief in this group and the culture they have created. They believe that bringing somebody in for the sake of it could damage the very thing they are trying to build.
There was no panic in the end. Previous managers had spent hours on the phone to Vincent Tan on deadline day. It is understood Barry-Murphy didn’t call the owner once on Tuesday.
Whether that proves to be wisdom or folly will be judged over the next few months, of course. But the transfer window cannot be changed now. The striker is not coming through the door. The winger is not arriving.
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This is the group Cardiff have. And it is an exciting one.
Five or 10 years from now, supporters may look back at this generation and remember it for what it achieved last season, maybe what it went on to achieve this season and the football it produced along the way.
That is the challenge now and the siege mentality begins. The excuses end.
John Lennon’s son Sean, 51, confirms he has become a father for the first time as he welcomes baby boy with girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, 39…. after his brother Julian first revealed the news in a now-deleted post
Sean Ono Lennon and girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl have announced the birth of their baby boy.
The son of Beatles legend John Lennon shared the happy news on Instagram last night, posting photos of his baby boy as he told fans ‘Charlotte and I have created a Human Bean! His name is Aurelius! Thank you!’
Sean, 51, shared a series of photos of himself and his partner, 39, holding Aurelius, and in one caption for a snap of Charlotte in hospital wrote: ‘Baby Momma!’
Aurelius is the first grandchild of Yoko Ono and John. Yoko, 93, already has two grandchildren from her older daughter Kyoko.
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Hours before his post, Sean’s baby news was broken by his older brother Julian, 63 – the son John shared with his first wife Cynthia.
Julian wrote in a now-deleted Facebook page that he had been enjoying a trip to London last week during which the ‘the most amazing thing happened in the whole wide world, I became an uncle!’
Sean Ono Lennon and girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl have announced the birth of their baby boy
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He added his congratulations to Sean and Charlotte ‘and their new ‘Beautiful Boy,’ referencing his father’s song which was dedicated to Sean.
Last year Sean shut down rumours of a long-standing rift with Julian by reposting a fan’s post about his relationship with his sibling, who is also a singer and songwriter.
‘Here, we do not accept comparisons and erroneous creations of fights about two people that john lennon loved the most: his children :),’ wrote a John Lennon fan account, which Sean reposted to his Instagram Stories, who added, ‘Peace and much love.’
The post featured a sweet black-and-white image of Julian, who was around 23 at the time, as he rested his hands on Sean’s shoulder affectionately at the 1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where both joined in a celebration for the induction of Elvis Presley.
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Sean, who would have been around 11 at the time the photo, has been dogged by rumours that he and Julian have been estranged for years, but much of it seems to be driven by social media users expressing distaste for one — or both — of his famous parents.
Yoko and John were still married to their spouses Anthony Cox and Cynthia Powell, respectively, when they originally met in 1966.
Sean was just five-years-old when his father was tragically shot dead by Mark Chapman outside his New York apartment in December 1980.
Fans have previously highlighted Julian’s past statements criticising his stepmother as evidence of a family split.
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The son of Beatles legend John Lennon shared the happy news on Instagram, posting photos of his baby boy as he told fans ‘Charlotte and I have created a Human Bean!’
Aurelius is the first grandchild of Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Yoko already has two grandchildren from older daughter Kyoko
Julian previously claimed that he had to buy back letters and postcards he had written to his father – and the ones he’d received in return – because his stepmother had refused to give them to him.
He sued his father’s estate in 1996, eventually reaching a settlement authorised by Yoko.
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In a 1999 interview on The Deni Petty Show Julian witheringly referred to Yoko as ‘her highness’ and noted that the two had a rocky relationship, as she was the executor of his father’s estate.
He feared any criticisms he made about the enforcement of Lennon’s will could result in him being cut out completely.
But in the same interview, Julian made it clear that he had only warm feelings toward Sean, and he claimed his younger brother was only caught in the middle of a difficult situation.
Hours before his post, Sean’s baby news was broken by his older brother Julian, 63 – the son John shared with his first wife Cynthia
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Julian has steadfastly made it clear that he and Sean are loving siblings, even if Sean has been less vocal about their relationship over the years.
In a December 2024 social media post, Julian shared some sweet black-and-white photos of the two catching up at The Dakota, the building in Manhattan where his father lived for years with Yoko and Sean before he was shot down in front of it.
‘A Goodnight kiss for my brother, after spending the evening with him, having a lil dinner & chatting the night away, at The Dakota,’ he wrote. Something we rarely get to do… Thankful.’
Both Sean and Julian have followed their father into music. Sean works as a producer and musician alongside his role as the main caretaker of his parents’ artistic legacy.
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Sean has been in a relationship with girlfriend Charlotte since 2007 and performs with him in the musical duo The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.
Angie has seen the shop through revamps and even television installations.
She said, “It’s fantastic what they’ve done, it’s really good.”
And whether it’s a pie, a slice, or a quick breakfast stop, Greenhalgh’s hopes the nomination shows just how much their Breightmet shop means to the community.
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To vote to crown Greenhalgh’s, Breightmet, Bolton’s best pick up a copy of today’s paper.
Richard Locker vanished on January 4, 2024, and police found his car the next day on Mill Lane in Torquay – but his body was not found for more than two years
The remains of a man who disappeared two years ago have been discovered close to where his car was found at the time.
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Richard Locker, from Paignton in Devon, went missing on January 4, 2024. He was last seen on a street in Torquay, four miles away.
Officers found his car parked on Mill Lane in Torquay the following day. Now, his stepdaughter has confirmed that his remains were found at a property on Mill Lane last month – more than two years after he vanished, according to Devon Live.
His stepdaughter Nicola confirmed the news in a social media post on Tuesday evening, September 1, saying “finally after all this time, we have found you”.
Nicola said they never “stopped looking for him” and that the past two years had been filled with “wondering and pain of not knowing” whether he was safe.
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In a post within the Finding Richard Locker Facebook group, Nicola wrote: “After two years, seven months and 27 days of wondering where you were… we finally know.
“We wanted you home, we wanted answers, and more than anything, we wanted another chance to see you, hear your voice and tell you how much you are loved.
“But amongst all of the heartbreak, there is a tiny piece of peace in finally knowing where you are.
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“You have never been forgotten, Rich. Not for one single day.”
Richard left his Paignton home in his car on January 4, 2024. His vehicle was discovered the next day on Mill Lane, Torquay, during police searches, yet Richard himself was nowhere to be found.
Police confirmed the death is not being treated as suspicious. A statement released by Devon and Cornwall Police read: “Formal identification is yet to take place, but the family of a man reported missing in 2024 has been informed of this development.
“His death is not being treated as suspicious, and a file is being prepared for the coroner.”
RCPCH officer for mental health Dr Sam Jones said there was a lack of wider mental health care and, in particular, crisis support available in many parts of the country that meant these vulnerable children and young people were not getting the help they needed.
“Behind every one of these figures is a child or young person in distress and a family who didn’t know where lese to turn.
“Emergency departments are a vital safety net, but they were never designed to be a place where children in mental health crisis wait for days at time.
“This is a national crisis that will only get worse without urgent intervention.”
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She said alongside greater investment in children’s mental health services, staff from key agencies across health, social care and education needed better training in helping children who are struggling with their mental health.
Dr Mark Buchanan, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said children and young people facing a mental health crisis were ending up in A&E by “default”.
“They deserve care within systems and settings that are designed to meet their needs.”
Gemma Byrne, of the mental health charity Mind, said: “A&E can be a frightening environment for anyone in mental health crisis, let alone a child. Making them spend more than 12 hours there is simply unacceptable.
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She said children were not getting the support they need early enough.
“The current system, where many mental health services only provide support when young people are considered ‘unwell enough’ to qualify, clearly isn’t working.”
She said expanding the network of young future hubs, which bring together a range of support covering mental health, employment, sports and volunteering, was a crucial step.
The government is planning to publish a new mental health strategy later in the summer.
“No child should have to reach crisis point before getting the support they need,” he added.
Claire Evans, of Anna Freud, a mental health charity for children, young people and families, said the figures were deeply concerning.
“The new mental health strategy must place children at its heart, creating the conditions for lifelong positive mental health and accelerating investment in accessible, community-based support.”
A bus crash at a tourist hotspot in Egypt has killed 16 people and left 28 others injured.
The accident happened this morning on the Dahab-Nuweibaa road on South Sinai’s eastern coast, the health ministry said.
Twenty ambulances attended the crash to provide medical care to those injured, while authorities are yet to confirm what caused the collision.
The area is a popular tourist destination, known for its marine biodiversity, natural beauty and mountain hiking trails.
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Egyptian Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said all measures are being taken ‘to provide the highest level of medical care to the injured’.
A spokesperson for the ministry said: ‘As soon as the report was received, the central operations room was activated, and 20 ambulances were directed to the scene of the accident to evacuate the injured and provide first aid.’
Car crashes are common in Egypt, and are often blamed on reckless driving, poor maintenance and uneven law enforcement.
Last year, nearly 6,000 people died in road accidents across the country, according to Egypt’s state statistics agency.
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Last month, 15 people were killed and 32 injured in a road accident in Egypt’s Ismailia Governorate.
The accident happened this morning on the road between the popular towns of Dahab and Nuweiba on South Sinai’s eastern coast
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Bus crash in Egypt tourist hotspot kills 16 people and leaves 28 injured
The Met Office predicted “unsettled” September conditions with rain and wind
Ethan Blackshaw Deputy Publishing Lead (Mirror) and Husna Anjum Senior Live News Reporter
21:09, 01 Sep 2026
Ireland, Scotland and some parts of the UK could drop to 1C due to a cold snap that has been forecast this month. Temperatures look set to plunge from September 11, with the GFS weather model showing highs of just 11-12C around southern and eastern coasts at around midday.
Meanwhile 9C is coming in the Midlands and Northern Ireland, and lows of 2C on the cards in parts of Scotland. The Mirror reports by 6pm on September 11, the data shows highs of just 15C in the south-east – well below what is expected for this time of year – with afternoon temperatures remaining below 10C in Wales, northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
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Further cool conditions should follow on September 12, with temperatures dropping to just 1C in parts of northern England and Scotland. Every single county could see temperatures below 10C at midday, the data suggests.
The maps show temperatures peaking at just 13C in the south-east at around 6pm on September 12, with the Midlands reaching 11C, 12C in Northern Ireland and 10C in Scotland.
Similar conditions are expected on September 13 too, with the GFS model once again showing single-digit temperatures across the country at midday – with London at just 7C. Afternoon highs may reach just 14, with the warmest conditions expected in Northern Ireland and the south-west.
Temperature anomaly maps for this period show the UK shaded in areas of dark blue. This indicates that temperatures are expected to drop well below the seasonal average.
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The Met Office anticipates “unsettled” conditions for the first half of September, with rain in northern and western regions and drier spells in the south and east.
The Met Office forecast for September 5 to 14 states: “An unsettled period is likely, with many places seeing showers or longer spells of rain at times. Rain is expected to be most frequent across northern and western areas, while the south and east are more likely to see longer, drier spells. There is also the potential for some strong and gusty winds, particularly in the northwest.”
The BBC forecast for September 7 to 13 says conditions should soon turn “cooler”, with “wet and windy or showery weather” on the cards.
It states: “Atlantic weather systems should continue to dominate conditions into the second week of September, with low pressure and frontal systems tracking near or across the UK, so further periods of wet and windy or showery weather look most likely.
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“Short-lived drier and sunnier spells should occur in-between, especially in the southern and eastern UK where conditions may be less wet overall than the north and west.”
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“We are creating a modern and vibrant retail destination which we believe will drive Ballymena back to the top of the list of must-visit retail destinations”
A Co Antrim shopping centre has announced “another significant milestone” in its transformation.
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Fairhill Shopping Centre in Ballymena has revealed that current tenant JD Sports will be relocating to a newly formed retail space in “prominent corner location” within the centre.
The new JD Sports 12,300 sq. ft store, located beside the newly opened Primark, will occupy a highly visible position within Fairhill, and owners say it will create an impressive new retail destination for one of the UK and Ireland’s best-known sports-fashion retailers.
A spokesperson said: “The relocation will provide JD Sports with a significantly enhanced trading environment and an opportunity to showcase its extensive range of leading footwear, sportswear and fashion brands in a modern new format.
“JD Sports is renowned for its strong portfolio of global sports and lifestyle brands and its ability to combine sports performance with contemporary streetwear and fashion.
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“With a loyal customer base and broad appeal across a range of age groups, the retailer will further strengthen Fairhill’s fashion, footwear and leisure offering.”
Back in 2021, Magmel (Ballymena) Limited bought over the Fairhill Shopping Centre in the heart of Ballymena town – since then, the company has embarked on a £10million transformation project.
From a fresh rebrand to an internal revamp of the storefronts and mall to building a new 26,100-square-foot unit for Primark, owner Ryan Walker said the new JD Sports will add to their mission to revive Ballymena’s status as a leading retail destination.
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Ryan Walker from Magmel ( Ballymena ) Limited said: “We are very pleased to have secured JD Sports for this impressive new store at the heart of Fairhill.
“JD is an exceptional retailer and a fantastic fit for Fairhill, and their relocation to such a prominent corner position within the centre represents a significant step towards seeing the centre fully occupied with prime retailers.
“The new store will provide JD Sports with an excellent platform to showcase its leading range of sportswear, footwear and fashion brands, while creating an exciting new retail destination for our customers.
“We are now seeing the positive impact from our investment in the Centre and this announcement demonstrates the confidence that leading retailers have in Fairhill and Ballymena.
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“We are creating a modern and vibrant retail destination which we believe will drive Ballymena back to the top of the list of must-visit retail destinations.”
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