Russian oligarch ordered to pay £2.7billion to his ex-wife after divorce

Monaco Football club's Russian president Dmitri Rybolovlev, pictured left, has been ordered to pay a world record divorce settlement of more than £2.6billion to his ex-wife Elena Rybolovleva, right

A Russian oligarch ordered to pay out a world-record £2.7billion to his ex-wife views the settlement as a 'hammer blow' and may appeal, it emerged today.

Judges in Switzerland said Dmitry Rybolovlev, 47, has to give Elena Rybolovleva, who was with him for 24 years, a very precise 4,020,555,987 Swiss francs and 20 centimes.

In current sterling rates, this amounts to £2,681,297,538 and 78 pence – an estimate of half the Russian oligarch’s entire fortune.

Marc Bonnant, Ms Rybolovleva's clearly delighted lawyer, said the figure represented an 'amicable settlement' after six years of tough negotiations.

Dmitri Rybolovlev, left, who made his billions through a successful fertiliser business, must make the payment following a six-year court battle. He is pictured at an AS Monaco football match, but it is not clear who he is sitting with

But Mr Bonnant also admitted that it was 'the most expensive divorce in history' and that Mr Rybolovlev viewed the astronomical sum as a 'hammer blow'.

Mr Bonnant said the billionaire had 'put up strong resistance' and tried to conceal the full extent of his assets via offshore ventures.

The Geneva court's decision can now be appealed by Mr Rybolovlev, who met his wife more than 30 years ago when they were students in the Ural mountains.

It follow a six-year legal saga in which Mr Rybolovlev, who made his billions through a successful fertiliser business, bitterly contested Ms Rybolovleva’s claims to two of the most expensive properties in the USA and a £100million Greek island.

Now Mr Rybolovlev must sign a cheque for the incredible sum in the Swiss city of Geneva, where Mrs Rybolovleva lives in a lakeside mansion.

Dmitry Rybolovlev owns Maison de l'Amitie, a 54,000 sq ft French Regency-style house, sitting on more than seven manicured acres of prime waterfront on the barrier island of Palm Beach, Florida

Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased Donald Trump's Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Florida, for $100million

Elena Rybolovleva alleged that her husband purchased this three bedroom plantation style property in Kauai in Hawaii from Will Smith for $20 million

The settlement is far higher than the £1.5 billion paid by art heir Alec Wildenstein to his ex wife, Jocelyne, which until now had been the largest confirmed public divorce settlement in the world.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul, was told to give his former wife, Anna, £1billion in 1999. He went on to marry his third wife Wendi Deng, from whom he is now divorced.

Mr Rybolovlev, who was found by the court to be worth £5.2 billion - although the figure is believed to be a conservative estimate of his wealth - and his ex-wife have been at war since 2008 over the terms of their divorce.

Ms Rybolovleva won custody of the couple's 13-year-old daughter Anna, along with Mr Rybolovlev's half of their former home in Cologny, an up-market neighbourhood of Geneva. 

Dmitry Rybolovlev bought the Greek island of Skorpios from the Onassis dynasty last year for a reported £100 million, again for his daughter, a socialite show jumper

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   In 2012, Mrs Rybolovleva claimed a £50 million plus ownership of the New York penthouse which her ex-husband had bought for Anna. 

The purchase of the penthouse from the former head of the Citigroup bank, Sandford I.Weill and his wife Joan, was at the time the most expensive home ever bought in New York City.

In court papers filed in Manhattan, Ms Rybolovleva had said Mr Rybolovlev had been using marital property to buy a multitude of other assets through a variety of trusts and limited liability companies, hoping to put those assets beyond her reach.

Mrs Rybolovleva said these assets include his majority ownership of French soccer club AS Monaco, a $295 million stake in the Bank of Cyprus, and a $95 million Palm Beach, Florida, home purchased from another tycoon, Donald Trump.

Mr Rybolovlev is one of the small group of Russians who became fabulously wealthy during the post-Soviet privatization of the economy and became known as oligarchs. He is the former owner of fertilizer business Uralkali.

Mr Rybolovlev also owns a £12million Hawaii mansion he bought from the Hollywood star, Will Smith, and La Belle Epoque penthouse in Monaco, where he lives, for which he paid £178 million.

He bought the Greek island of Skorpios from the Onassis dynasty last year for a reported £100 million, again for his daughter, a socialite show jumper.

The island was made famous as the location of Aristotle Onassis's wedding to the former US First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, in 1968. 

Lavish: La Belle Epoque is one of the most sought after and famed properties in Europe and was reportedly purchased by Dmitri Rybolovlev for $300 million

Multi-Million Dollar View: La Belle Epoque overlooks Monte Carlo harbor in Monaco

Mr Rybolovlev's wealth came from the sale of his stake in Uralkali, a Russian fertiliser business, for $6.5billion in 2010. 

He went on to buy AS Monaco in December 2011, attempting to make the club as successful as Qatari-owned Paris Saint Germain.

Mr Rybolovlev, who lives in Monaco, also has an estate in the southern French resort of Saint Tropez and his assets include an art collection with paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh, Gauguin and Monet. 

Beautiful: Dmitri Rybolovlev purchased a $88 million apartment on Central Park West for his daughter Ekaterina Rybolovleva - for her studies while at college in New York

High end: The penthouse apartment boasts great views of Central Park and its own gallery

Luxury: The 6,744 sq ft apartment boasts 10 rooms, a wrap-around terrace, library and seven walk-in closets

Since splitting from her husband, Mrs Rybolovleva has been followed almost round the clock by private detectives.

In February, she was questioned by police in Cyprus on suspicion of stealing a diamond ring reportedly worth £15 million, borrowed from her daughter but not returned, and which belonged to a trust. 

She was released without charge. 

The Russian oligarch has a majority ownership in AS Monaco, whose stadium is pictured. It plays in the French league but is actually based in the Principality of Monaco, close to two of its marinas.

She was by Mr Rybolovlev's side as he rose from a doctor-turned-entrepreneur into a stockbroker and banker, before becoming chairman and majority shareholder of Uralkali.

They stayed together during his 11 months in jail - when he was accused of murdering a competitor before the charges were dropped - and when threats on his life led him to wear a bullet-proof vest and move his family to Switzerland.

He was said to be stunned when he found out about the divorce petition on New Year's Eve 2008 from his bankers, after his accounts were frozen.

In that petition, the then Mrs Rybolovleva said she could no longer take his infidelities, describing parties on yachts where, she said, he had shared some 'young conquests with his friends, and other oligarchs'.

Culled from DAILY MAIL

Deputy headmaster installed spy cameras in school toilets and showers to film pupils - cops

Gareth Williams, pictured was jailed for five years for filming children at his school in the toilets and showers with secret spy cameras

A deputy headmaster was yesterday jailed for five years for secretly filming pupils using the school toilets and showers.

Gareth Williams, 47, installed tiny hidden spy cameras in clocks, fans and toilet cisterns in order to obtain pictures and videos of boys without their knowledge.

The married father of four even put a camera in the changing rooms on school sports day in order to catch as many children as possible.

A court heard how Williams also installed cameras in two private homes, as well as the large mixed school where he worked, for his sexual gratification.

He was investigated by police after computer specialists found he had been buying illegal images of children  on the internet.

Officers who searched his home found two laptops and 11 memory sticks  along with the pinhole camera gear  and software he had installed with the aim of browsing the  internet undetected.

Williams, from Cardiff, was deputy head of Glantaf Welsh-language high school in the city, where former pupils include Hornblower actor Ioan Gruffudd and former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones.

The court heard a total of 31 boys at the 1,300-strong school aged between 11 and 16 were caught on Williams’s cameras.

Cardiff Crown Court heard he had 16,419 indecent images of children and 691 videos.

The court heard some of the images dated back to 2009 – a year after he was appointed deputy head at the school. Prosecutor Michael Jones said of the images relating to 

the voyeurism charges: ‘All these images were of children exposed as they were using the lavatory or the showers.

‘They had also been uploaded to a computer and catalogued by their age at the time the children were filmed. Officers discovered images of young males and the school’s badge could be seen.

‘They had been filmed in the changing facilities in the  school sports hall.’

Williams, who concealed one camera as a meter on the water cistern, even filmed himself on some of the videos as he secretly installed his devices.

Mr Jones explained: ‘On one of the videos he is seen crossing his fingers as he put it up. It showed he is hoping the camera is capturing the best possible images.’

Mr Jones continued: ‘This was a serious systematic abuse of trust. A devious and determined invasion of privacy of the children. The effect on children, staff and parents was one of complete and utter disbelief.’

Williams pleaded guilty to 31 charges of voyeurism and the making and possession of more than 16,000 indecent images of children. The voyeurism charge states Williams recorded other persons  for the purpose of sexual gratification.

Williams had also been coach of an under-15 rugby team and helped out with a scout group, while his duties at the school where he worked included  ‘pastoral care’.

In police interviews Williams said he had been looking at child images for ten years ‘to understand physical development’.

He also admitted an ‘enduring interest in boys’ development’ but couldn’t explain why. He admitted it had become an obsession.

After he was sentenced, his wife Georgina said in a statement: ‘I feel physically sick at what he has done to me and my family. I was shell-shocked and my whole world came crashing down.’

Judge Rhys Rowlands told Williams: ‘This is a dreadful and protracted breach of trust on  your behalf.

‘As a result of your depraved behaviour you have lost your career, livelihood and reputation. But this is nothing compared to the worry and real horror which is felt by parents who have trusted their children to you.’

The judge also ordered Williams to sign the sex offenders’  register, banning him from working with children.

He said: ‘I cannot conceive that you will ever be able to return to your previous occupation.’

The governors at the school said they had been ‘dismayed’ by the revelations.

In a joint statement with Cardiff Council they said: ‘The sense of betrayal and disappointment among the pupils, staff and wider school community is profound. This has been a very distressing episode for all concerned.’

Catrin Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service Wales, said: ‘The offences committed by Gareth Williams constituted a gross breach of the trust placed in him by those close to him, his community, his pupils and  his employers.’

Culled from DAILY MAIL

Husband who drugged, raped wife gets 8 years in detention

David Wise

An Indiana man was sentenced on Friday to eight years of home detention after being convicted of raping his wife when she was asleep and likely drugged, prosecutors said.

A jury found David Wise, 52, of Indianapolis, guilty on April 30 of six felonies - one count of rape and five counts of deviate conduct, according to Peg McLeish, a spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor's office.

Marion County Superior Court Judge Kurt Eisbruber imposed a two-year suspended sentence plus eight years of home detention for the rape count. Ten-year suspended sentences were imposed for each of the remaining counts.

"We had hoped for some prison time," McLeish said.

This means Wise will only be allowed to be at home or at work, with limited travel allowances. His whereabouts will be monitored by a GPS device attached to his person, according to McLeish.

Wise was charged in 2011, after his now ex-wife told police she found three sex videos of her in Wise's cellphone taken while she was asleep, according to court documents.

The woman told police she believed Wise had been drugging her for about three years before their divorce in 2009, when she began to wake up often with a pill dissolving in her mouth, according to court documents.

The woman said that Wise initially denied his actions, but then told her he had been drugging her and having sex with her while she was unconscious.

Wise served 250 days in prison between his arrest in 2011 and his trial, McLeish said.

A defense attorney for Wise was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by David Gregorio)

Culled from HUFF POST

Teacher stole $950 from students lockers, says Florida police

Rodney Barnes 

Investigators say physical education teacher Rodney Barnes stole $950 from students in the boy's locker room at New Smyrna Beach High School in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, WFTV reports.

Authorities first began investigating the locker room thefts in April when students reported cash missing from their wallets.

Volusia County deputies were unable to put surveillance cameras in the locker room, so they stashed $141 worth of decoy money, covered with an invisible ultralight powder, in a student's wallet, according to the Associated Press.

Although "Operation Sticky Fingers" was run numerous times in April, Monday was the first time that a student helping with the sting finally noticed missing money. That same day, deputies checked the hands of students and faculty using an ultraviolet light and the powder allegedly showed up on Barnes' hands.

Upon questioning, Barnes admitted to taking a $50 bill from the student’s wallet and admitted to several other thefts totaling $170, cops say

Deputies said Barnes told them he would check lockers for any that were unsecured and go through the wallets, looking for cash. He stated he would never take all of the money, according to MyNews13.com

Barnes told ClickOrlando.com, "I made a mistake." He also said that he wouldn't teach again at the school even if he were allowed because he realizes staff and students have lost respect for him.

Barnes has been accused of mishandling student money in the money in the past.

According to employment records obtained by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Barnes was reprimanded in September, 2012, for collecting $1,200 from students for P.E. uniforms without turning in the money.

Barnes was charged with grand theft and burglary, and released on $3,000 bail on Tuesday. He resigned from his job on Wednesday, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

Whether Barnes loses his teacher certification is up to the Florida Department of Education, BayNews9.com reports.

Culled from HUFF POST 

Fleeing car thief stopped by alligator after crash

Calvin Rodriguez

A suspected auto thief was captured after the stolen car he was driving struck an alligator as the animal was crossing a Florida road, police report.

Calvin Rodriguez, 22, was driving a hot Honda Civic Tuesday when he was spotted by Port St. Lucie Police Department officers. Rodriguez sped off with cops on his tail.

According to a police report, the vehicle “began driving at a high rate of speed and was lost sight of.” Rodriguez’s escape, however, was not without complications, cops noted.

“The Honda was later discovered to have crashed into an alligator, causing it to crash into a median,” police reported. A search of the 1999 Honda yielded a set of “shaved keys” that Rodriguez reportedly told police he used to “boost” cars. “This shows that Calvin was in control of the Honda that struck the alligator and the median,” investigators noted.

A police spokesperson told TSG that he was unaware whether the alligator survived the collision.  

One of Rodriguez’s alleged accomplices told officers that he “steals cars, drives them for a few days, and gets rid of them.” After being read his Miranda rights, Rodriguez confessed to the auto theft, saying that he learned to steal cars “by growing up in a tough town in Connecticut.”

Alligators, however, are not known to vex Nutmeg State thieves.

Seen in the above mug shot, Rodriguez is jailed on an assortment of felony theft charges. He is being held in the St. Lucie county jail in lieu of $37,500 bond. (2 pages)

Culled from The Smoking Gun

Sudanese court sentences pregnant Muslim woman to death for marrying a Christian

The wedding photo that has cost Sudanese woman Mariam Yahya Ibrahim her life after being sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. She is hoping to appeal the sentence 

A Sudanese woman,  Mariam Yahya Ibrahim, 27, was charged with adultery for marrying a Christian man and has been ordered by the courts to abandon her newly adopted Christian faith and return to Islam.

During yesterday's sentencing hearing Judge Abbas al Khalifa asked the pregnant mother-of-one whether she would return to Islam - but she refused.

She said 'I am a Christian,' and the death sentence was handed down, judicial sources said.

More than 50 people gathered outside the court where sentence was being passed on Mariam Yahya Ibrahim

After the verdict her husband, Daniel Wani told CNN: 'I'm so frustrated. I don't know what to do. I'm just praying.'

A government spokesman said the ruling could be appealed in a higher court.

Outside the court, around 50 people held up signs that read 'Freedom of Religion', while some Islamists celebrated the ruling, chanting 'God is Greatest.' 

On February 7, Ms Ibrahim was arrested with her 20-month-old son, and put in a women’s prison.

It is thought a relative had turned her in to the police for marrying a Christian. 

According to the Sudan’s Public Order Criminal Code, she is a Muslim by default because she was born in Sudan.

Therefore, her marriage to a Christian is classed as a criminal act.

On March 4, she was charged with adultery and apostasy. The adultery charge came with a punishment of 100 lashes and the apostasy charge came with a punishment of death.

No remorse: Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's career has been defined by war. He came to power in a coup in 1989 and has ruled what was until this year Africa's largest country with an iron fist ever since 

Mr Wani is not allowed to care for their child, Martin, because he is a Christian.

Martin, who is almost two years old, is in prison with his mother. Mr Wani is not allowed to visit or see his son.

Young Sudanese university students have mounted a series of protests near Khartoum University in recent weeks asking for an end to human rights abuses, more freedoms and better social and economic conditions in the country. 

The authorities decided on Sunday to close the university indefinitely. 

Western embassies and Sudanese activists sharply condemned the accusations and called on the Sudanese Islamist-led government to respect freedom of faith.

'The details of this case expose the regime's blatant interference in the personal life of Sudanese citizens,' Sudan Change Now Movement, a youth group, said in a statement.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government is facing a huge economic and political challenge after the 2011 secession of South Sudan, which was Sudan's main source of oil.

A decision by Bashir last year to cut subsidies and impose austerity measures prompted violent protests in which dozens were killed and hundreds were injured.

Culled from DAILY MAIL

Man who killed his wife believed she was possessed by evil spirit

Trial: Ahmed al-Khatib (left), 34, believed the 'jinn' spirit, which took four forms including a white rabbit and a ‘devil dog’, had ‘got inside’ mother-of-three Rania Alayed (right), 25, Manchester Crown Court was told

A husband killed his wife and buried her body at the side of a lay-by after believing she had become possessed by an evil spirit, a court has heard.

Ahmed al-Khatib, 34, of Gorton, Manchester, said he has had visions of the demonic creature known as the ‘jinn’ since he was 16 and had even undergone an exorcism carried out by an Imam.

But he believed the spirit - which took four forms including a white rabbit and a ‘devil dog’ - had ‘got inside’ mother-of-three Rania Alayed, 25, Manchester Crown Court was told.

In June last year she vanished after being lured to the flat of Al-Khatib’s brother in Salford, Greater Manchester. Her body was allegedly hidden inside a suitcase bundled into the back of a motorhome.

It was then driven 87 miles to the A19 near Thirsk, North Yorkshire, where it is believed her remains were buried. They have never been found.

Al-Khatib later claimed he had accidentally killed her during a row in which she stumbled and hit her head on a piece of furniture. He denies prosecution claims he murdered her because she had become ‘too Westernised’.

Al-Khatib said: ‘I still love her now. She is the only love for me. The only woman. She is my love and life, she is everything to me. If you think this court can give me punishment then I don’t think so.’

He claimed the ‘Jinn’ - a demonic spirit in Islamic mythology - had taken on the shapes of relatives, animals and ‘a devil’, even leaving ‘fingermarks’ around his neck, and goaded him to commit suicide.

The exorcism occurred when he was still living in his native Syria aged 21 and the spirit was ‘banished’ through his left foot. ‘When I was 16 years old I was seeing shadows and things and hearing voices,’ Al-Khatib said.

‘I couldn’t work from the ages of 17 to 21 and after that my dad took me to see an Imam - a religious man in our culture - because I was seeing the jinn and was talking to them and they were giving me orders and telling me to kill myself which I tried to do at the time.

‘I was talking in my sleep because I was scared. The jinn would change in form. Sometimes it was a devil. He was very shiny with four hands and sharp teeth and blood coming from the teeth and very long hair.

‘I still see it now. After I go to the Imam I didn’t see it for a long time but was still hearing the voices.

‘Sometimes it would visit me at my home and sometimes it would go inside people and inside animals. About three times it went inside Rania. He is just inside Rania and she would look like him.

‘If he goes inside dogs it will look like him. A devil dog with red teeth and blood coming out. When it goes inside her she has four hands and she can extend her hands, and red hair and very big eyes.

‘I would leave the house and she would say "you need help" so I would need to go out and come back and she would be back as my wife. The last time I saw her she said “you need medical help”.’

Al-Khatib said: ‘It was a nice life between me and Rania at that time. We used to go to the seaside and we were happy. I was never violent to Rania. They said I was a drunk man.Earlier the court heard how the couple married in Syria when she was 16 and he was 23. They fled Damascas initially for Greece but emigrated to the UK in 2004 and after living in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, for five years moved to Manchester.

‘I don’t drink alcohol at all, I don’t even like the taste. We moved to Manchester when our third child was born because my mum and dad live there and I thought they could give us a hand with the kids.

‘But when she went to college she changed and didn’t spend as much time with the family. She would spend more time in the mirror and on the phone on Facebook and Whatsapp.

‘I wasn’t happy with it at all. I said you need to pay more attention to your children and your family. I was not happy like I had been before. Things had changed. I was happy because I loved her and wanted to see a smile on the face of her and the kids. Rania had plans to leave me.

‘The first step was saying I was drunk but I never drank because of my religion. She said I was beating her. She said rape but how can I rape my wife? If I want to have sex with her and she said no then I would just wait until the next day.’

He claimed Mrs Alayed concocted a ‘plan’ to leave him by saying she was consistently beaten and even raped by her husband.

On January 18 last year when Mrs Alayed called police to their home in Longsight, Manchester, following an argument over messages on her phone to another man which suggested

She left with the children and sought refuge in a hostel, before taking out a harassment order on Al-Khatib. She later filed for divorce.

On February 18 last year, Al-Khatib was referred to a specialist mental health unit in Manchester by his GP after claiming the jinn had reappeared.

A statement read to the jury from the hospital described his suicidal thoughts, constant apparitions and ‘dishevelled’ appearance, but he was discharged after three days.

During his evidence, he said tablets provided by the hospital blocked out hallucinations of the jinn, but he was refused them once discharged and resorted to cannabis and banging his head to evade the thoughts.

Al-Khatib and his brother Muhaned, 38, are said to have transferred Rania’s body from Muhaned’s flat to a motorhome before driving to the A19 near Thirsk where she was buried by the roadside.

Al-Khatib and Muhaned deny murder but admit perverting the course of justice. A third brother, Hussain Al-Khatib, 34, has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice over the alleged concealment of her body. 

The trial continues.

Culled from Daily Mail

English teacher traded sex for grades- cops

Kalyn Thompson

An English teacher at an Oklahoma high school is charged with second degree rape following an alleged inappropriate relationship with a student.

Kalyn Thompson, 25, turned herself in to police on Monday. She resigned from her position at Kellyville High School in April.

"This will follow her for the rest of her career," Creek County Detective Chrissie Underwood told NewsOn6. "She probably will not have a career in teaching after this."

Investigators say that Thompson had worked at the school for less than a year when she began texting with a 17-year-old male student in December. The text messages soon took on a sexual nature, administrators told police, and the relationship allegedly began to escalate.

In a police interview, the victim, who is in his junior year, told investigators that he had sex with Thompson twice -- once at a local lake and once at a Tulsa motel. Although the age of consent in Oklahoma is 16, Underwood said that as a teacher, Thompson is an authority figure.

"It's sad because they're vulnerable to it, and obviously he's getting a good grade from it," she told NewsOn6.

According to police, the victim was "flunking English last semester but currently has a 98 percent grade point average."

Police said the boy's mother asked the teacher not to contact her son outside of school after she discovered texts from Thompson on his phone, but the suspect persisted.

High school staff found out about the relationship in April after two other students saw Thompson in the victim's truck away from school, took photos, and reported it.

Parents were shocked to learn of the allegations.

"You send your kids to a small town school thinking they're going to get a better education, because it's more one-on-one. You don't expect to hear about a teacher messing with their student," Michael Sullivan -- who just enrolled his 14-year-old daughter at the school -- told KJRH.

Thompson bonded out of jail Monday. Police say a second charge is likely.

Culled from HUFF POST

Twins who killed thier mother spent months claiming innocence before confessions

I was a chilling crime. It is the story of two teenage twin sisters that viciously killed their mother and told police they were the victims.

Earlier this year, Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead signed a plea agreement in their case. Their confession was exchanged for 30 years behind bars. But what came before their confessions case evidence shows was a twisted web of lies.

While their fate is sealed, their case file is not. Through an open records request 11Alive has obtained critical evidence that never made it to a courtroom: crime scene photos, interrogation tapes, surveillance video and, finally, the girls' taped confessions.

The identical twins share everything: birthdays, clothing -- even DNA. However, twin sisters Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead also share a dark past. They admitted to killing their mother -- a confession that came after months of lying to cover it up.

The teary-eyed twins, Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead, initially told police that they walked into a blood-soaked Conyers home — located about 25 miles east of Atlanta — and found their dead mother, Jarmecca, in January 2010.

And at first glance, detectives had no reason to suspect the 16-year-old sisters had anything to do with the vicious stabbing and even tried to console the girls during questioning.

“It was the bloodiest scene I think I’d ever been to,” Conyers Police Department Lt. Chris Moon told WXIA-TV.

“As soon as you opened the door, you could smell the blood — the copper-iron smell in the air.”The 34-year-old mother’s body was submerged in a bathtub. She had been stabbed multiple times in the chest, back and neck — where her spinal cord was partially severed.

The local NBC affiliate obtained footage from a surveillance camera inside an interrogation room as detectives spoke to the teens after the murder.

“We were treating them as victims, witnesses who had come home and found their mother dead,” Moon said.

Jasmiyah told police that she found her mother’s body in the tub after they returned home from school and followed the blood trail to the bathroom.“I went into her room and I saw blood all over the floor, and I went in there and I seen her and I touched her,” she told investigators, according to the clips aired by the news station.

At one point, the two girls were left alone in the room and they continued to cry crocodile tears.

“I want my mommy,” Jasmiyah wailed.

“You’ve gotta be strong, because I’m going to make sure they find the person who did it,” her sister said.

Culled from Daily News 

Father, 6 brothers arrested for sexual abuse of their underaged sister

The sheriff of a small county in northeast North Carolina says he is "disgusted" by the parents of six men who are accused of sexually abusing their sister for nearly a decade, at a private family compound.

County Sheriff Eric Tilley said his deputies charged the six brothers, ranging in age from 19 to 27, on May 6, with a number of crimes related to the alleged sexual abuse of their 16-year-old sister. The sheriff said the alleged abuse began when the girl was 4 years old and continued until she was almost 15.

Authorities have identified the brothers as Aaron Jackson, 19, Benjamin Jackson, also 19, Nathaniel Jackson, 21, Mathew Jackson, 23, Jon Jackson, 25, and Eric Jackson, 27.

Charges against the brothers range from rape to sexual assault, according to Tilley.

The men's parents, Nita Jackson and John Jackson

The men's parents, John Jackson, 65 and Nita Jackson, 54, face charges of felony child abuse.

"Part of the investigation revealed that, at one point, the mother observed some of this activity and never did anything about it," Tilley said of the charges against the parents. Tilley described the family as "bizarre" and said he believes the father is "anti-government" and "anti-schools."

"The children were home schooled with very limited education," said the sheriff. "They were very private and the whole yard has a fence around it -- like a little compound. They're very different."

The allegations of abuse surfaced in December 2012, when Eric Jacksonallegedly told the pastor at Hope Baptist Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina, about the alleged abuse.

"He confided in his pastor and his pastor told him that was wrong and not the way normal families are," said Tilley.

After speaking with the pastor, Eric Jackson allegedly went to the Perquimans County Sheriff's Office and told them that he, along with five of his siblings, had been sexually abusing their sister.

"From there, we had two more brothers confirm what he said," Tilley said.

Despite the alleged confessions, police needed more evidence to make arrests in the case. For that, they attempted to speak with the alleged victim. That task, authorities said, initially proved futile.

"Her parents refused to let us talk to her and [they] moved to Colorado," said Tilley.

Authorities in Colorado were notified of the situation and the Department of Human Services in Colorado Springs took custody of the victim. It was then, Tilley said, that his deputies were able to talk to the girl about the alleged sexual abuse.

"I sent one of my investigators to Colorado and he had an eight-hour interview with her," Tilley said. "She confirmed everything her brothers told us."

The case was presented to a grand jury in North Carolina and they handed down indictments against the parents and brothers in April.

All six of the brothers were arrested on May 6 and are being held on a $150,000 bond. The parents are currently free on a $15,000 bond.

"I never thought this case would go anywhere because we could not get any cooperation, but they sealed their own fate when they moved to Colorado and that child was ready to talk," Tilley said.

The sheriff paused, and then added, "Nothing good will come out of this unless this young lady is able to move on."

Culled from Huff Post

'Witch doctor' who duped clients out of £1million told them their money was hanging on a magic tree in the Amazon

'Shaman': Juliette D'Souza persuaded a woman to have an abortion by claiming the unborn child was evil and seriously deformed, a fraud trial has heard

A ‘witch doctor’ told clients she was hanging their money from a magical tree in the Amazonian rainforest when she was in fact spending it on Louis Vuitton handbags, a court heard.

Juliette D’Souza, 59, duped people including cancer sufferers out of £1m for ‘sacrifices’ to ward off evil spirits, it is claimed.

But the self proclaimed ‘shaman’ used the cash to rent four luxury flats at a time and blow a fortune on jewellery, antique furniture, and holidays, Blackfriars Crown Court heard.

The court heard that D’Souza’s victims, mostly referred to her by osteopath Keith Bender, were so ‘under her spell’ that they sold their homes at her request.

D’Souza even swindled one woman out of £170,000 before convincing her to have an abortion by claiming that her child would be born seriously deformed, jurors were told.

When the woman realised she had been scammed she broke into one of D’Souza’s rented flats in Hampstead, north London, with Mr Bender.

The pair discovered drawings of the ‘Evil Eye’ symbol, burned photographs half buried in earth, freezers filled with rotting meat, a brand new barrister’s wig, and her pet monkey Joe in a cage.

Mr Bender told the court he referred patients who were having difficulties and personal problems on to D’Souza for treatment.

He said the alleged fraudster and former friend would send him on shopping errands at Louis Vuitton on her ‘clients’ behalf’.

‘Juliette asked me every so often to take her to a particular shop on Bond Street, the lead branch of Louis Vuitton’, Mr Bender said.

‘She would say “I’ve been sent by Rebecca to purchase on her behalf”.

‘Juliette would then buy several Louis Vuitton handbags’.

Mr Bender said the alleged fraudster and former friend would send him on shopping errands at Louis Vuitton on her client's behalf

Jurors have heard Mr Bender ‘genuinely believed’ that D’Souza had special powers until he found the ‘voodoo black magic’ items in her flat in 2007.

He added: ‘We weren’t terribly happy finding and holding those items, we felt that we would be harming ourselves by touching such items.

‘We were frightened and scared just touching those items’.

Case: D'Souza pretended to be a shaman who could cure terminal illnesses and help women conceive babies, Blackfriars Crown Court (pictured) was told. She allegedly tricked the woman into parting with £170,000

The court heard that between 1998 and 2010 D’Souza duped clients into parting with their cash by claiming she had supernatural powers that could cure cancer and infertility.

She also boasted of celebrity clients including Princess Diana and music mogul Simon Cowell, the jury was told.

Mr Bender said he would sometimes receive payments into his bank account from D’Souza of up to £55,000 at a time that were from her clients.

‘Juliette told me that I was simply holding that individual’s monies, that the woman’s partner wouldn’t want to know about it’, he added.

‘As soon as the money was paid in I was required to get it out in cash, I then had to put the money into an envelope and give it to Juliette’.

D’Souza claims she has never professed to be a shaman and blames Mr Bender for the fraud.

But the court has heard that a mother of a 10-year-old boy with Down’s syndrome was conned out of £42,000 by D’Souza in 2004 after she claimed the cash would cure his behavioural problems.

Another man was allegedly persuaded to hand over £43,000 to D’Souza between 2004 and 2006 after she claimed his mother and girlfriend would die if he did not send the money.

D’Souza, of Perrin’s Lane, Hampstead, denies 23 charges of obtaining property by deception and fraud.

The trial continues.

Culled from DAILY MAIL