http://www.key103.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1547075&spid=23160
Warrington man has today pleaded guilty to murder and been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a disabled friend who had looked to him for help and support.
Kevin Francis Walsh, 46, lived in Whitethroat Walk, Warrington. He had difficulties with mobility following health issues in his life, and a small circle of acquaintances would help him out, popping to the shops to collect food and other items he might need, and calling at his home to keep him company. His neighbours described him as a pleasant man who would pass the time of day, but could appear frail.
One of those “Good Samaritans” was Andrew Blaine, 25 years, also of Warrington. Blaine was entrusted by Kevin Walsh with the details of the post office account into which his disability allowance was paid, and would go to the local post office to collect cash for Kevin. However, police believed that Blaine abused this position of trust, and stole money from the vulnerable man who had trusted him. Police subsequently established that the balance of money in Kevin’s account had been cleared out.
Kevin’s body was found slumped in a chair in his home in the early hours of Thursday 12 February 2009. A Home Office post mortem established that the attack which had claimed his life had been sustained and determined, with several different methods of assault upon him to ensure that he would die. While the precise order of the attacks upon him cannot be confirmed, medical experts believe that Kevin was subject to blows to his head and face – possibly delivered by a fist. This caused bruising and injuries to his forehead, nose, and scalp, and to the chest and collarbone. It is thought that Kevin was also attacked using two kitchen knives, with slash wounds running across his nose, cheek, and lips. He also had around 20 puncture wounds to his chest – commensurate with being prodded with the knife – and two full stab wounds to the chest. It is known that Kevin tried to defend himself as he had defensive injuries to his hand. Kevin’s injuries also included evidence of asphyxiation, possibly from his mouth and nose being forcefully blocked. Such was the force used, that
one of Kevin’s teeth was knocked out, and was found in his stomach. Finally, his throat was cut.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Thug Darren McGillvary jailed for hitting man in wheelchair
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2009/10/23/thug-darren-mcgillvary-jailed-for-hitting-man-in-wheelchair-86081-24995764/
A THUG who hit a man in a wheelchair, breaking his jaw, has been jailed.
Darren McGillvary, 34, of Lees Close, Dalton, was yesterday sentenced to eight months in prison after slapping Richard Keegan.
Bradford Crown Court heard 15-stone McGillvary had hit Mr Keegan, 42, with back of his hand knocking him from his wheelchair and onto the ground.
The incident took place outside Mr Keegan’s home in February following an argument between the two.
Mr Keegan, who is wheelchair-bound after losing a leg, had accused McGillvary of stealing from him when McGillvary lashed out cracking the left side of Mr Keegan’s jaw and loosening a crown in his mouth.
Yesterday passing sentence Judge Jonathan Rose described the assault as a “cowardly attack on an extremely vulnerable man”.
The court was told the pair had become acquainted around 2008 and Mr Keegan would lend unemployed McGillvary money.
On finding items missing from his home Mr Keegan called McGillvary a thief when an argument started.
A THUG who hit a man in a wheelchair, breaking his jaw, has been jailed.
Darren McGillvary, 34, of Lees Close, Dalton, was yesterday sentenced to eight months in prison after slapping Richard Keegan.
Bradford Crown Court heard 15-stone McGillvary had hit Mr Keegan, 42, with back of his hand knocking him from his wheelchair and onto the ground.
The incident took place outside Mr Keegan’s home in February following an argument between the two.
Mr Keegan, who is wheelchair-bound after losing a leg, had accused McGillvary of stealing from him when McGillvary lashed out cracking the left side of Mr Keegan’s jaw and loosening a crown in his mouth.
Yesterday passing sentence Judge Jonathan Rose described the assault as a “cowardly attack on an extremely vulnerable man”.
The court was told the pair had become acquainted around 2008 and Mr Keegan would lend unemployed McGillvary money.
On finding items missing from his home Mr Keegan called McGillvary a thief when an argument started.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Final suspect found guilty in attack on disabled man
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/19/beating-conviction/
St. Paul, Minn. — A 22-year-old man was found guilty Monday for his role in an attack on a 24-year-old mentally disabled man in October 2008.
Jonathan Michael Diepold of Northfield will be sentenced in December after being convicted of charges including kidnapping, aggravated robbery and assault.
Diepold was one of five people charged in the incident in rural Dakota County, and is the last one convicted.
Prosecutors said Diepold was one of the primary perpetrators in the attack, in which the disabled man had to be hospitalized for his injuries.
The incident took place over two nights, as the man was lured to a rural area where he was accused of assaulting a girl and was beaten. On the second night, the man was able to make his way to a nearby road where a motorist picked him up and took him to a hospital.
Sentences for the others involved in the attack ranged from four days in jail plus community service work to eight years in prison.
St. Paul, Minn. — A 22-year-old man was found guilty Monday for his role in an attack on a 24-year-old mentally disabled man in October 2008.
Jonathan Michael Diepold of Northfield will be sentenced in December after being convicted of charges including kidnapping, aggravated robbery and assault.
Diepold was one of five people charged in the incident in rural Dakota County, and is the last one convicted.
Prosecutors said Diepold was one of the primary perpetrators in the attack, in which the disabled man had to be hospitalized for his injuries.
The incident took place over two nights, as the man was lured to a rural area where he was accused of assaulting a girl and was beaten. On the second night, the man was able to make his way to a nearby road where a motorist picked him up and took him to a hospital.
Sentences for the others involved in the attack ranged from four days in jail plus community service work to eight years in prison.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Teenage girl attacks disabled man
http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/news/Teenage-girl-attacks-disabled-man/article-1420125-detail/article.html
A TEENAGE girl left a disabled Barnstaple man bruised and bleeding on the floor after a violent attack, a court was told.
The 17-year-old Barnstaple girl was given a year's community order after admitting inflicting actual bodily harm upon 51-year-old Oliver Hebden, who has chronic asthma and uses a walking stick.
Exeter Crown Court heard that the girl and her group of friends swore at Mr Hebden and shouted insults, including calling him a "cripple", before she launched her attack and stopped him from calling the police.
Judge Ian Leeming QC told the girl he had been intending to jail her for a long time until he learned of the progress she had made in turning her life around since the incident.
The court heard Mr Hebden had also accepted a letter of apology from the girl, who cannot be identified because of her age.
Prosecutor Michael Brabin said the victim was walking home near a subway on the Roundswell estate, just after midnight on May 16 this year.
The victim was approached by a gang who shouted abuse, before the girl stopped him from walking away.
"He was frightened," said Mr Brabin.
"He got onto his phone to call police. As he was doing that, he was hit in the back by this defendant.
"He was asked if he was calling police and he felt he couldn't continue it so he stopped.
"Then his walking stick was thrown into the hedge and the defendant threw his mobile phone into a hedge."
Mr Brabin said: "He was then hit repeatedly by the defendant. He fell to the floor, out of breath. With a lack of walking stick, he couldn't get up.
"He lay on the path for ten minutes, then he started to crawl to his home. He couldn't get back up but he managed to get to his house."
Mr Hebden did not suffer serious injures but was bruised and bleeding.
A TEENAGE girl left a disabled Barnstaple man bruised and bleeding on the floor after a violent attack, a court was told.
The 17-year-old Barnstaple girl was given a year's community order after admitting inflicting actual bodily harm upon 51-year-old Oliver Hebden, who has chronic asthma and uses a walking stick.
Exeter Crown Court heard that the girl and her group of friends swore at Mr Hebden and shouted insults, including calling him a "cripple", before she launched her attack and stopped him from calling the police.
Judge Ian Leeming QC told the girl he had been intending to jail her for a long time until he learned of the progress she had made in turning her life around since the incident.
The court heard Mr Hebden had also accepted a letter of apology from the girl, who cannot be identified because of her age.
Prosecutor Michael Brabin said the victim was walking home near a subway on the Roundswell estate, just after midnight on May 16 this year.
The victim was approached by a gang who shouted abuse, before the girl stopped him from walking away.
"He was frightened," said Mr Brabin.
"He got onto his phone to call police. As he was doing that, he was hit in the back by this defendant.
"He was asked if he was calling police and he felt he couldn't continue it so he stopped.
"Then his walking stick was thrown into the hedge and the defendant threw his mobile phone into a hedge."
Mr Brabin said: "He was then hit repeatedly by the defendant. He fell to the floor, out of breath. With a lack of walking stick, he couldn't get up.
"He lay on the path for ten minutes, then he started to crawl to his home. He couldn't get back up but he managed to get to his house."
Mr Hebden did not suffer serious injures but was bruised and bleeding.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Russia's disabled suffer neglect and abuse
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8302633.stm
The BBC has obtained shocking evidence of the abuse and prejudice which campaigners say is widespread against the estimated 13 million people with disabilities in Russia.
Many are like prisoners inside their own homes, unable to go outside because of the lack of basic facilities in the towns and cities, while tens of thousands of children with disabilities go without any education.
Vadim Voevodin, who has suffered more than most, is behind a campaign to improve life for those with disabilities in Russia, and as we sat inside his tiny Moscow apartment, he showed me a shocking video.
In the black and white CCTV footage a man kneels on the ground outside his apartment, under attack. He tries to fight back but is pushed down and held in a neck-lock.
But this is no banal brawl between two angry able-bodied men.
The man on the ground is Mr Voevodin, and he is kneeling because he is paralysed from the waist down.
He has just been dragged from his wheelchair after answering a knock on the door from a local resident who came with the intention of beating him up.
Two years after this brutal attack Mr Voevodin still lives in fear, and the two small rooms which he calls home are packed with surveillance equipment.
The situation for people with disabilities here is now worse than in Soviet times, it's like an undeclared war against us Vadim Voevodin
CCTV cameras and microphones protrude from every corner and a bank of monitors, video recorders and computers dominate an entire wall.
But the electronics are not only there because of his fears about security; the apartment is also the nerve-centre of his campaign.
And that is because he has no other choice of location.
He said he has not been able to go outside for the past 10 years because his front door is too narrow to get through in a wheelchair and, even if it was wider, he would not be able to get into the lift to go down to the ground-floor because it is too small.
And if he ever made it onto the city's streets he would face a maze of obstacles - steep kerbs , flights of steps, cars parked on pavements and a public transport system almost all of which is inaccessible for those with disabilities.
But even all this is not what troubles him the most.
'Undeclared war'
On his website he has posted a series of photographs of associates whom he said have died because of the acute prejudice within Russian society against those with disabilities.
"The situation for people with disabilities here is now worse than in Soviet times, it's like an undeclared war against us," he said.
"A wheelchair user I know, who was an active fighter for the rights of people with disabilities… was left to die in a hospital ward.
The BBC has obtained shocking evidence of the abuse and prejudice which campaigners say is widespread against the estimated 13 million people with disabilities in Russia.
Many are like prisoners inside their own homes, unable to go outside because of the lack of basic facilities in the towns and cities, while tens of thousands of children with disabilities go without any education.
Vadim Voevodin, who has suffered more than most, is behind a campaign to improve life for those with disabilities in Russia, and as we sat inside his tiny Moscow apartment, he showed me a shocking video.
In the black and white CCTV footage a man kneels on the ground outside his apartment, under attack. He tries to fight back but is pushed down and held in a neck-lock.
But this is no banal brawl between two angry able-bodied men.
The man on the ground is Mr Voevodin, and he is kneeling because he is paralysed from the waist down.
He has just been dragged from his wheelchair after answering a knock on the door from a local resident who came with the intention of beating him up.
Two years after this brutal attack Mr Voevodin still lives in fear, and the two small rooms which he calls home are packed with surveillance equipment.
The situation for people with disabilities here is now worse than in Soviet times, it's like an undeclared war against us Vadim Voevodin
CCTV cameras and microphones protrude from every corner and a bank of monitors, video recorders and computers dominate an entire wall.
But the electronics are not only there because of his fears about security; the apartment is also the nerve-centre of his campaign.
And that is because he has no other choice of location.
He said he has not been able to go outside for the past 10 years because his front door is too narrow to get through in a wheelchair and, even if it was wider, he would not be able to get into the lift to go down to the ground-floor because it is too small.
And if he ever made it onto the city's streets he would face a maze of obstacles - steep kerbs , flights of steps, cars parked on pavements and a public transport system almost all of which is inaccessible for those with disabilities.
But even all this is not what troubles him the most.
'Undeclared war'
On his website he has posted a series of photographs of associates whom he said have died because of the acute prejudice within Russian society against those with disabilities.
"The situation for people with disabilities here is now worse than in Soviet times, it's like an undeclared war against us," he said.
"A wheelchair user I know, who was an active fighter for the rights of people with disabilities… was left to die in a hospital ward.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Sleeping Philadelphia Woman Attacked By Intruder
http://cbs3.com/topstories/philadelphia.sex.assault.2.1236037.html
Philadelphia Police are investigating an alleged sexual assault in the West Oak Lane section of the city.Authorities say the victim told police she was asleep in her bed in the 1100 block of Sydney Street when she awoke at about 2:30 a.m. to find a strange man standing over her.
The victim reported the male, who was armed with a butcher's knife, covered her head and bound her hands and sexually assaulted her.
Following the alleged assault, police said the suspect robbed the victim of $210 and a bank card before fleeing the scene.
The suspect is described as a black male in his late 20s to early 30s who appeared to weigh approximately 140 pounds and stood about 5'9" to 5'10" tall.According to sources, the victim was disabled and relied on her wheelchair as her primary mode of transportation.
Philadelphia Police are investigating an alleged sexual assault in the West Oak Lane section of the city.Authorities say the victim told police she was asleep in her bed in the 1100 block of Sydney Street when she awoke at about 2:30 a.m. to find a strange man standing over her.
The victim reported the male, who was armed with a butcher's knife, covered her head and bound her hands and sexually assaulted her.
Following the alleged assault, police said the suspect robbed the victim of $210 and a bank card before fleeing the scene.
The suspect is described as a black male in his late 20s to early 30s who appeared to weigh approximately 140 pounds and stood about 5'9" to 5'10" tall.According to sources, the victim was disabled and relied on her wheelchair as her primary mode of transportation.
Retired British nurse, 93, brutally murdered in Florida home
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1218924/British-woman-93-throat-slashed-brutal-murder-Florida-home.html
93-year-old retired British nurse had her throat slashed in a brutal murder at her Florida home.
Wheelchair-bound Evelyn Norell may also have been sexually assaulted during the murder, allegedly committed by an odd job man.
Police say the elderly victim was discovered naked Read more:
93-year-old retired British nurse had her throat slashed in a brutal murder at her Florida home.
Wheelchair-bound Evelyn Norell may also have been sexually assaulted during the murder, allegedly committed by an odd job man.
Police say the elderly victim was discovered naked Read more:
Friday, October 2, 2009
Disabled man attacked in Jericho
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/4662344.Disabled_man_attacked_in_Jericho/
Police are appealing for witnesses after a disabled man was assaulted in Nelson Street, Jericho.
Between 9pm and 9.30pm on Saturday, a 52-year-old man opened his front door, believing that his carer had arrived.
He saw four men in a blue Ford Fiesta who had parked in his parking space.
When the man asked them to move their car as he was expecting his carer to arrive, the driver punched him in the stomach and the passenger hit him over the head with an implement.
Police are appealing for witnesses after a disabled man was assaulted in Nelson Street, Jericho.
Between 9pm and 9.30pm on Saturday, a 52-year-old man opened his front door, believing that his carer had arrived.
He saw four men in a blue Ford Fiesta who had parked in his parking space.
When the man asked them to move their car as he was expecting his carer to arrive, the driver punched him in the stomach and the passenger hit him over the head with an implement.
Study: Disabled more likely to be victims of violent crime
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/02/crimes.disabled/index.html
By Terry FriedenCNN Justice Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- People with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to be victims of violent crimes than are people without disabilities, according to a government study released Thursday.
A study suggests the disabled are more likely to be victims of violent crime than those without disabilities.
The first national study of its kind found that a wide range of disabled people -- including blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, and others with physical and mental limitations -- were victims of assaults, rapes and robberies in 716,000 cases in 2007.
The study by the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said instances of violence against disabled people occurred overall 1½ times the rate of those without disabilities, but the numbers varied by age group.
The most vulnerable groups were disabled people ages 12 to 19 and 35 to 49, for whom victimization occurred at nearly twice the rate of non-disabled persons.
Michael Rand, chief of victimization research for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, did not speculate on the reasons for the findings.
"It's hard to say," Rand said. "We didn't try to get at motivations."
Rand, a co-author of the study, said many of the crimes were committed by people who did not know their victims. Forty percent of the crimes against disabled male victims were committed by strangers versus 45 percent against those without disabilities.
Don't Miss
Read Justice Department's findings
The difference for females was greater: 34 percent of disabled females were victimized by strangers versus 24 percent for women without disabilities.
The study found that people with cognitive disabilities such as mental retardation, developmental disabilities and cerebral palsy represented the largest group of victims.
Simple assaults accounted for about two-thirds of the crimes against disabled people in the study, which tallied 476,000 simple assaults, 114,000 aggravated assaults, 79,000 robberies, and 47,000 rapes or sexual assaults.
By Terry FriedenCNN Justice Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- People with disabilities are 50 percent more likely to be victims of violent crimes than are people without disabilities, according to a government study released Thursday.
A study suggests the disabled are more likely to be victims of violent crime than those without disabilities.
The first national study of its kind found that a wide range of disabled people -- including blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, and others with physical and mental limitations -- were victims of assaults, rapes and robberies in 716,000 cases in 2007.
The study by the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said instances of violence against disabled people occurred overall 1½ times the rate of those without disabilities, but the numbers varied by age group.
The most vulnerable groups were disabled people ages 12 to 19 and 35 to 49, for whom victimization occurred at nearly twice the rate of non-disabled persons.
Michael Rand, chief of victimization research for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, did not speculate on the reasons for the findings.
"It's hard to say," Rand said. "We didn't try to get at motivations."
Rand, a co-author of the study, said many of the crimes were committed by people who did not know their victims. Forty percent of the crimes against disabled male victims were committed by strangers versus 45 percent against those without disabilities.
Don't Miss
Read Justice Department's findings
The difference for females was greater: 34 percent of disabled females were victimized by strangers versus 24 percent for women without disabilities.
The study found that people with cognitive disabilities such as mental retardation, developmental disabilities and cerebral palsy represented the largest group of victims.
Simple assaults accounted for about two-thirds of the crimes against disabled people in the study, which tallied 476,000 simple assaults, 114,000 aggravated assaults, 79,000 robberies, and 47,000 rapes or sexual assaults.
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