Peter Wright KC is continuing his cross-examination.

“About the hair drying I asked you about,” he begins. “I asked you about the contents of the video from body-worn footage at the hospital.

“You said you dried your hair… Let’s consider for a moment what you were describing. You’ve had a shower.

“Quickly then gone out to dry yourself by getting the towel on the landing. You don’t use a towel that is found in the bath subsequently. When you’re on the landing you can’t see Preston. (Correct).

“You can hear him playing with his toys. You then dry your hair. Why not do that in the bathroom with him in view? Why not go out, grab your towel, and return to the bathroom to dry yourself while supervising him? Why did you leave him unsupervised?”

Mr Varley responds: “I believe he would be ok while I quickly dried my hair.”

“Is it the fact that none of this happened in the way that you have sought to portray it?” Mr Wright asks.

“That is not true,” Mr Varley says.

“I was asking about user actions on your handset,” Mr Wright says. “We were dealing about the gap of 7 minutes, the 41 second elapse of time. You’ll want to keep an eye on him now after recording the video.”

“Yes I would,” Mr Varley says.

“He would be the centre of your attention,” Mr Wright adds.

“Yes he was,” Mr Varley says.

“Snapchat is closed at 16:46. 16:47, you open your calculator, why?” Mr Wright asks.

“I believe it was me trying to time how long he was having his seizure,” Mr Varley responds.

“If that’s so, you don’t spend very long recording do you? You close it in ten seconds. It wasn’t much of an effort to calculate the length of time,” Mr Wright asks.

“That’s a calculator not the timer,” Mr varley says.

“I believe I was looking for my stopwatch. It was closed 10 seconds later. What aware you really doing in that time?” Mr Wright asks.

“Comforting him,” Mr Varley says.

Around 10 fire engines turned out to Vernacare, a longstanding Bolton business.

Emergency services were called to the business, on Folds Road, after a fire alarm went off at approximately 9.45 am on Tuesday morning [May 26].

Firefighters didn’t leave the scene until roughly 9pm, after dampening down the warehouse.

(Image: Phil Taylor)

The Bolton News heard it was due to a wooden pallet setting alight in the warehouse, and that nobody had come to harm.

Steve Morris, Operations Manager of Vernacare, said: “A pallet set on fire, there was smoke in the warehouse.

“The fire alarm went off at around quarter to ten, no injuries or problems on the site.”

Fire engines kept coming and going on the hot day, as well as a van from the Salvation Army to provide food and refreshments to the crews.

(Image: Phil Taylor)

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) previously said: “seven fire engines, a command support unit and an enhanced rescue unit attended a commercial building fire on Folds Road, Bolton.

“Crews wearing breathing apparatus arrived quickly and are using two hose reels to extinguish the blaze in the middle unit of the warehouse. Firefighters remain in attendance at this time to continue damping down and removing debris from the area.”

Later on, at just after 2pm, debris and pallets were seen to be removed from the warehouse, and additional measures such as an extra hose were set up.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) firefighters were on the scene throughout the day until the evening.

(Image: Phil Taylor)

Investigations into the cause of the fire are now underway by GMFRS.

There also doesn’t seem to be any immediate and dramatic damage done to the warehouse, and specifics are not yet fully known.

Vernacare is a leading global manufacturer of healthcare products and infection prevention solutions.

They are best known for inventing the single-use disposable medical pulp system, such as bedpans and urinals, and hospital macerators, which are used to safely dispose of human waste and minimize the spread of hospital-acquired infections. 

Three people have been arrested after multiple police officers were injured when bottles were thrown at them on Bournemouth beach last night.

The three officers came under attack as they sought to break up a mass brawl on the sand involving more than 100 young people.

Video posted on social media showed the officers leading away one young man for his own safety after he had been chased across the beach and attacked by a large group.

But as officers went on to make arrests, the crowd turned on them and began hurling things, including glass bottles.

One male officer used his pepper spray against a member of the ‘mob’ during the chaos, which turned into a standoff as 35 officers set up a cordon at Pier Approach to contain the situation.

Police arrested a 22-year-old man from Tottenham, north London, for possessing an offensive weapon in a public place.

A 17-year-old boy from Southampton was arrested on suspicion of assault and affray, and a 17-year-old boy from the Portsmouth area was arrested on suspicion of affray.

All three remain in police custody at this time.

The Dorset Police Federation today confirmed that three officers were injured during the violence, which has been roundly condemned by officials.

Chris Wood, chairman of the federation, said: ‘I am appalled by the incident on Bournemouth beach last night where our officers were assaulted by a small minority of those who had come to Bournemouth to enjoy the beach.

‘Fortunately, the injuries are minor, and all officers remained at work to support their colleagues. Having gone out last night and spoken with officers who were involved and seen some of their body-worn video, their professionalism in the face of this incident was unquestioned.’

Chief Superintendent Julie Howe, of Dorset police, said: ‘The levels of violence and disorder we saw last night on the beach were absolutely unacceptable and not something we will tolerate here in Dorset.’

Police have launched an investigation and said they will ensure anyone involved is ‘held accountable’.

CS Howe added: ‘Not only were they trying to prevent the situation from escalating, but they were also responding to critical medical emergencies on the beach, which included giving CPR to a woman and helping provide support to the ambulance service.

‘Stop your children, make sure you know where they are going and what they are doing. Violence and disorder will not be tolerated in Dorset.’

Scores of visitors went to Bournemouth to enjoy the sunny weather as the UK continues to roast in a heatwave.

The sandy beaches were filled with umbrellas and towels as locals and visitors alike tried to catch a bit of sun.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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The repair bill to the pitches, along with lost income, is set to run into thousands of pounds.

Leisure chiefs are “appalled” at damage to grass pitches at Hamilton Palace Sports Grounds.

The fire service rushed to tackle a burnt-out car last Tuesday, May 19.

And the repair bill to the pitches, along with lost income, is set to run into thousands of pounds.

A South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture spokesperson said: “This will have a significant impact on our grass seven-a-side pitches, which are going to be out of action for a significant period of time.

“It is extremely disappointing as we have two large-scale football festivals due to use the pitches on the first two weekends in June.”

The stolen car was found burned out at Hamilton’s town-centre sports pitches in the third major incident of vandalism at the venue in just seven months.

The destroyed vehicle was discovered on the grass seven-a-side fields at Hamilton Palace Sports Grounds last week, with a late-night fire being attended by emergency services on May 19.

South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SLLC) say they are “appalled” by the latest incident, once again meaning that the pitches will be unavailable “for a significant period of time” and costing the council body thousands in repairs and lost booking income.

Emergency services were called to the fields at Palace Grounds Road just after 10.30pm last Tuesday, with one fire crew attending to extinguish the flames.

Police say the vehicle had been stolen and South Lanarkshire officials are still working to determine the cost and timescale of the repairs which will now be needed.

READ MORE: Vehicles cause thousands of pounds of damage to Hamilton sports pitchesREAD MORE: Firework vehicle vandals damage Hamilton sports pitch

The latest incident of vandalism at Palace Grounds – located closed to the town centre and beside Hamilton’s A-listed mausoleum – follows thousands of pounds of damage being caused to four grass pitches when dozens of cars and quad bikes drove onto the fields in February, while a seven-a-side pitch had been damaged by vandals driving onto it and setting off fireworks in November.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: “We were alerted at 10.36pm on May 19 to reports of a private vehicle on fire near Palace Grounds Road in Hamilton.

“Operations Control mobilised one appliance, and the fire was extinguished. There were no casualties, and the crew left the area after ensuring it was safe.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson told the Hamilton Advertiser: “Around 10.50pm on May 19, officers discovered a burnt-out car within Hamilton Palace Sports Grounds.

“The vehicle was confirmed as stolen and enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.”

Hamilton Palace is due to host major football festivals in each of the first two weekends in June, and council and leisure officials are currently working to determine arrangements for repairs.

A spokesperson for SLLC told the Advertiser: “Once again we are appalled at the vandalism that has taken place at the pitches at Hamilton Palace Sports Ground.

“We are currently liaising with police, but it seems clear that a car has been set on fire. This will have a significant impact on our grass seven-a-side pitches, which are going to be out of action for a significant period of time.

“It is extremely disappointing as we have two large-scale football festivals due to use the pitches on the first two weekends in June. We will make customers aware of this in due course.

“This has significant practical implications too. It will cost many thousands of pounds in lost income and to repair the damage to the pitches – that will be money we now cannot spend on delivering services to help improve the health and wellbeing of people in Hamilton and across South Lanarkshire.”

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November’s fireworks vandalism – causing both burn marks and rutted tyre tracks on the pitch surface – put one of the complex’s seven-a-side pitches out of use “indefinitely”, impacting hundreds of amateur players of all ages who would normally use the facility for training and games.

The February incident took four grass pitches out of commission, leaving 15 local teams with regular bookings there without playing facilities until at least summer, with no spare capacity to relocate them to alternative South Lanarkshire facilities and the lost bookings depriving SLLC of £1250 per month in hire income.

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READ MORE: Unpaid work for thug for punching and choking police officer

The 56-year-old rejected an offer to become Blackburn Rovers’ full-time boss earlier this month

Michael O’Neill has signed a fresh contract as Northern Ireland boss – and this time it’s “personal”.

The 56-year-old rejected an offer to become Blackburn Rovers’ full-time boss earlier this month, having guided the club to Championship safety during a short-term spell at Ewood Park. On Wednesday, the Irish FA confirmed O’Neill had signed a four-year extension to his existing deal, keeping him at the helm until 2032.

And the Northern Ireland manager says the pull of the international job, and the chance to develop his young squad, outweighed the attraction of remaining in England.

“The most important thing is that I love doing this job,” said O’Neill. “I’m committed to it. It is challenging at times, but it’s very personal as well.

“The people at Blackburn, they made me a great offer to stay. Suhail Shaikh, who runs the club there, is a really good man. He did everything possible to convince me to stay.

“But I just felt that it wasn’t the right thing for me to step away from the Northern Ireland job more than anything else.

“As attractive as the Blackburn situation was, I just felt that I wanted to continue in this role. It’s a different type of job. I enjoy the group of players that we have. I enjoy continuing to work with this group of players.

“And obviously the opportunity to try and develop the team further and get to a major tournament is something that I think would probably supersede anything I could do in club football. That was a big factor in it.

“The IFA were really positive about extending my contract, which I’m grateful for. As I say, it was not a job that I felt I wanted to step away from at this moment in time.

“Club jobs are different. They have a different nature to them. There’s a short-termism to them and that’s the nature of football now.

“So it wasn’t a difficult decision for me to stay here and obviously to extend my deal as well.”

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The two men were involved in a fight where chairs and cans were thrown

Two people suffered facial injuries after two men were involved in a fight at a boxing event. Asriel McLeod, 27, and Andrew Taylor, 33, attended a boxing event at the Montague Club in Hartford Road, Huntingdon, on November 15, 2024 when a fire broke out amongst the crowd at around 9.30pm.

The incident happened during a fight between boxers from Wellingborough Boxing Club and Peterborough Boxing Club. When people started pushing forward and standing on tables and chairs, Taylor assaulted someone in the melee. The boxing match was stopped and the crowd were warned to stop or both boxers would be disqualified. However, the disorder continued.

By 10.15pm, the boxing was abandoned as glasses, chairs and cans were thrown and a group of men, including Taylor and McLeod, began assaulting another group. A woman and man suffered minor facial injuries requiring hospital treatment after chairs hit them.

Officers arrived to the fight, but the offenders ran off and Taylor and McLeod were identified from CCTV footage. On May 14 at Cambridge Crown Court, McLeod, of Swallow Drive, Raunds, Northamptonshire, was jailed for six years and four months, having pleaded guilty to violent disorder relating to the boxing event.

He also pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, concerned in the supply of heroin and being concerned in the supply of cannabis, which all happened outside of Cambridgeshire.

Taylor, of Burns Road, Wellingborough, was jailed for two years and four months at Peterborough Crown Court on March 18, having pleaded guilty to violent disorder. All of the other people involved were also identified on CCTV.

The following men have also been sentenced for their part in the disorder:

• Perry Coomber, 34, of Normandy Road, Peterborough, pleaded guilty to affray and was handed a sentence of eight months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on May 21
• Brian Lawless, 27, of Lavender Crescent, Peterborough, pleaded guilty to affray and was handed a sentence of six months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on May 21
• Lance Campbell, 41, of St Saviours Road, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to affray and was handed a sentence of six months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on March 19
• Ezra Coke, 25, of Birchfield Road, Wellingborough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was handed a sentence of 18 months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on March 19
• Shakeem Ghanie, 23, of The Drive, Wellingborough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was handed a sentence of 16 months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on March 19
• Malakki Minter-Codrington, 22, of Kingsway, Wellingborough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was handed a sentence of 16 months suspended for two years at Peterborough Crown Court on March 18
• Nassir Msuri, 30, of Priory Road, Wellingborough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and received a community order at Peterborough Crown Court on April 22, 2025.
• Alfie Plummer, 21, of The Banks, Wellingborough, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and was handed a sentence of 15 months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on March 19
• Jaiden Stray, 19, of Golding Crescent, Earls Barton, pleaded guilty to violent disorder and received a six-month youth referral order at Wellingborough Magistrates’ Court on July 22, 2025
• Ramone Woodley, 22, of Ise Valley Way, Wellingborough, pleaded guilty to affray and was handed a sentence of 10 months suspended for 18 months at Peterborough Crown Court on March 19.

DC Aurore Kiss, who investigated, said: “This was a disgraceful outbreak of violence, witnessed by a number of children, which saw two people needing hospital treatment and left numerous others injured who didn’t go to hospital. There were also many more people left incredibly frightened and some with a lasting psychological impact.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Agatha Christie (1890-1976). The event itself, on January 12, was marked by a flurry of media coverage across the world, and academic experts were sought for comment. The chief question being: why is Christie the bestselling author of all time?

Christie’s success is a conundrum, not a self-evident manifestation of incontrovertible genius – and this is what makes it so fascinating. Christie was a talented writer, but the same could easily be said of many 20th-century authors.

Known as the “queen of crime”, she was a prolific bestselling author when she died – but so were her fellow mass-producing crime writers, Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) and John Creasey (1908-1973). They didn’t go on to have phenomenal literary afterlives.

Christie, by contrast, became a synonym for a whole genre of writing, and her characters became some of the most beloved figures in global popular culture. How did this happen? What made Christie transcend her times and her competitors?

Terror, tension, suspense

One of the solutions commonly proposed for the secret of Christie’s success is her plotting. She is the doyenne of the “clue-puzzle” mystery, with an unparalleled ability to generate clever plots that surprise, delight and even shock her readers.

This reputation is in large part the legacy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), itself celebrating its centenary this year. The book was a career breakthrough, prompting just acknowledgement of a trick well played. I won’t reveal the killer plot twist, but careful readers returning to the book for a second encounter can take pleasure in seeing inside the machine, spotting the omissions and misdirections through which they were so skilfully deceived.

Ackroyd isn’t Christie’s only plotting masterclass, but it – and all it stands for – also isn’t an adequate answer to the mystery of Christie’s global success. For all her ability to mislead readers, she wrote some prosaic, daft and far-from-convincing puzzles over the course of her 55-year publishing career.

So, if it’s not just Christie’s plotting that accounts for her success, what else might it be? An obvious and compelling answer is that she also created two brilliant examples of the underestimated outsider detective: Hercule Poirot, the comical cosmopolitan foreigner, and Miss Jane Marple, the village spinster.

Characters and suspects dismiss them because of prejudice – against age, gender and nationality – and there is huge pleasure in watching these underestimated figures turn the tables on murderers, bullies and abusers.

Yet once again, Christie’s success cannot solely be attributed to the familiar comforts of Poirot and Marple. Some of her finest – and most successful – novels are standalone fictions that mobilise terror, psychological tension, anxiety, suspense and the brutal manipulation of the reader.

And Then There Were None (1939) – the tale of ten strangers invited to an island to be murdered – is the bestseller among her bestsellers, while the late thriller Endless Night (1967) astonished reviewers with its capacity to capture psychopathy.

Also, those books which do feature the familiar detectives do not necessarily rely upon them. The Poirot novels increasingly come to be fronted by other characters – detective surrogates like Mrs Ariadne Oliver, or figures who are themselves implicated in the crime.

Taken at the Flood (1948) is typical here. It is technically a Poirot novel, in that he appears at the beginning and the end. But the reader follows the concerns of the village community under investigation through a series of effectively realised post-wartime characters.

The reader might come for Poirot but they stay for something else: a nuanced examination of the resentments, anxieties and tensions that distorted British society in the aftermath of war.

It seems then, that solving the Christie conundrum requires the embracing of more unexpected possibilities: her style, wit and psychological insight. Her books are easy and pleasurable to read (which contributes to their success in translation), and they are also often funny.

Sharp, witty, observant

Alongside the serious business of murder, Christie writes sharply observed social comedy, much of the impact of which comes from her characters. Early commentators on the genre dismissed Christie’s characterisation as two-dimensional, but there is consummate skill in her ability to deftly sketch recognisable figures.

It doesn’t matter whether her books are set in the 1920s or the 1950s, we all know what a pompous self-made man is like, or a religious hypocrite, or a put-upon housewife. It reminds us that people are most commonly killed by those closest to them, and the reasons for those murders have changed little in the past half-century.

Be it jealousy, greed, ambition, hatred, resentment or desire, Christie was good at judging just how much it would take to push a character over the edge of reason.

The puzzle of “why Christie?”, then, demands recognition of a range of less familiar Christies. There was noir Christie, a writer of disturbing, manipulative psychological fiction; comic Christie, a sharp and witty deconstructor of social mores; and uncanny Christie – a crime writer whose familiar voice has a curious knack of making the reader feel at home, while pulling the rug from under them.

This final Christie has in part been recognised, most notably by crime writer Robert Barnard – one of the first critics to attempt to solve the Christie conundrum. He writes of her capacity to generate a mood of “trustful mistrust”. Readers have confidence in Christie to deceive them in an appropriate and respectful fashion.

This can be supplemented, I would argue, with something more disturbing. In Christie’s fiction, time and again, nice Dr Jekyll turns into murderous Mr Hyde, and no one – as Christie’s characters are fond of saying – is safe.

Perhaps, then, Christie’s longevity and success might perversely be attributable to her capacity, repeatedly, to rewrite Robert Louis Stevenson as light comedy. In an astonishing high-wire act of authorship, she exposes the profound darkness of human nature through the prism of the prosaic and the comforts of the mundane.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org; if you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Emergency services were called to Church Row at around 12.12pm this afternoon (May 27).

Pictures from the scene show two fire engines blocking the road as crews tackled the blaze.

The fire broke out on Church Row in Darlington. (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

The fire broke out on Church Row in Darlington. (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

One police car and a police van were also at the scene diverting the public away from the street.

The fire broke out on Church Row in Darlington. (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

Fire damage could be seen from a top-floor window of the building, next to the well-known Boot and Shoe pub.

One resident said: “Apparently a fan caused the fire – I hope everyone is okay.”

A County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service (CDDFRS) spokesperson said: “We were called at 12.12pm today (May 27) to a fire in an office building on Church Row in Darlington.

 “Two fire engines from Darlington Fire Station attended.

The fire broke out on Church Row in Darlington. (Image: THE NORTHERN ECHO)

 “Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus used a hose reel to put out the fire and a positive pressure ventilation fan to clear the smoke.

 “Crews left the scene at 1.34pm.”

Durham Police have been contacted for more information.

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Andy Burnham has hit out at Tony Blair suggesting the former Labour prime minister is out of touch and partly to blame for the rise of politicians like Nigel Farage.

His rebuke comes after Sir Tony warned that when it came to the future of the party and the country Labour was “playing with fire” and urged it not to move further to the left, saying it should instead occupy the “radical centre”.

In an interview with the Observer, Mr Burnham, who is fighting to win a parliamentary by-election to return to Westminster and potentially challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the top job, criticised the former prime minister, who he said did not “mention inequality once”.

“If you don’t get how that’s driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what’s going on,” he said.

Mr Burnham also insisted it is the centrists, like Sir Tony, who had failed voters and fuelled the rise of Mr Farage’s Reform UK.

Mr Burnham said his former party leader “criticises my phrase about 40 years of neoliberalism but the last 40 years has given us wide inequality – that’s what’s responsible for the abandonment of the centre.

“People don’t think the centre has delivered for them in terms of their lives, therefore they’ve gone further to the extremes.”

Mr Burnham also attacked what he described as Sir Tony’s “obsession” with universities.

When he was in office the former prime minister famously set a target of 50 per cent of young people to carry on to higher education.

Mr Burnham, currently the mayor of Greater Manchester, said there should be greater focus on technical education.

“The prioritisation of universities is a significant part of the problem that has left out too many people and has impacted on the welfare system,” he said.

This is a developing news story, more follows…