Reporter admits he tried to hack scores of celebrities

Dan Evans, a former News of the World reporter, describes how he systematically targeted scores of celebrities and public figures in a desperate search for exclusive stories

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Andy Murray admits he would have prepared differently for Australian Open

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After departing this year’s Australian Open at the quarter-final stage, Andy Murray admitted that he would have loved to travel back in time and amend a few details of his pre-tournament preparation.

“There’s maybe some things I would have done a bit differently,” he said on Wednesday night. “Maybe I could have found a few extra per cent.” Unfortunately, Murray will have to settle for moving on to San Diego, where Great Britain are due to face the United States in a Davis Cup tie at the end of next week.

True, he will leave Melbourne on Sunday afternoon and arrive in California on Sunday morning, four hours earlier in the day. But that will not be enough to give him another crack at Roger Federer.

“I always enjoy playing Davis Cup,” said Murray, who is likely to be supported by Colin Fleming on the doubles court and by the 19-year-old prospect Kyle Edmund as second singles player. “I just need to look to try and recover now as quickly as possible because matches like this would normally take a couple of days. I haven’t played a match like this for a while so it’ll take me a little bit longer to feel good again.”

The Americans have opted to stage a home tie on clay for the first time since 1992, largely because it is a surface that makes Murray feel uncomfortable – both physically and tactically. But despite waking up stiff and sore after Wednesday’s match, he was optimistic of reporting fit for duty.

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“It’s very hard to practise against guys as good as Roger,” said Murray, as he looked back at his four-set defeat. “Maybe the first slam, regardless of when it was, was going to be very challenging for me physically and mentally. But it’s a big sign of progress and my back held up fairly well.”

 Australian OpenSport »Tennis »Davis Cup »Andy Murray »Simon Briggs »

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Lostprophets' Ian Watkins Admits Rape Attempts

The former lead singer with the multi-million selling rock band offered a last-minute change of plea ahead of a planned trial. 8:46pm UK, Tuesday 26 November 2013

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Former Lostprophets lead singer Ian Watkins admits attempted baby rape

A police-issued photo of Ian Watkins, left, and on stage with the Lostprophets in 2004 Photo: PA 2:48PM GMT 26 Nov 2013

Rock singer Ian Watkins has pleaded guilty to a string of sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby.

The former lead singer with multi-million selling band Lostprophets made a series of admissions in a last-minute change of plea ahead of what would have been his trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Watkins, 36, from Pontypridd, south Wales, insists he has no memory of what would have been key video evidence at the trial showing the abuse of his one-year-old victim, the court heard.

The tattooed singer pleaded guilty to a string of sex offences he had previously denied.

The charges included sexually touching a one-year-old and encouraging a groupie to abuse her own child during a webcam chat.

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Watkins also admitted possessing and making child porn as well as launching the plot to rape a baby.

The singer was originally charged with rape but insisted sex with the child did not take place during a drug-fuelled binge he says he was on at the time.

Watkins originally faced 24 separate charges - all sex offence related.

He pleaded guilty to 11 charges, nine of which were unchanged and two of attempted baby rape, as opposed to rape.

Prosecutor Christopher Clee QC told the judge that both of the attempted rape admissions were accepted.

He acknowledged that there was an argument regarding what key video evidence seized from Watkins's laptop actually showed.

"From the footage, there is an argument as to whether the full offence is made out," he told judge Mr Justice Royce.

He also told the judge that the prosecution had in mind the effect on the jury of watching the explicit video footage.

Previous hearings discussed arranging counselling for jurors who might need it.

As talk of sentence was discussed in court, a pale faced and grey haired Watkins began shaking in the dock.

Prosecuting QC Chris Clee gave details of a plot to turn babies in subservient sex slaves using hard drugs.

He said: "Ian Watkins was the lead singer of a successful band called the Lostprophets.

"He was also a determined and committed paedophile engaged in serious sex offences involving of two babies."

Mr Clee read aloud to the court a series of text and internet messages between Watkins and two female co-defendants.

Watkins and Woman A swapped messages where the frontman spoke of his sick desire to "make him mine" and to "cross the line".

They also spoke of plans to blow crystal-meth smoke into the child's face at a secret meet up in a Cardiff hotel.

And on March 23, Watkins sent the woman a message saying he wanted a "summer of filthy child porn" and how he wanted to take things "to the next level".

Mr Clee also gave details of a sickening 17-minute video involving Watkins and Woman A.

Mr Clee said camcorder footage was shot in a London hotel room which showed Watkins perform a sex act on the child.

Computer analysts found the footage uploaded to an online storage facility.

Mr Clee said that following this meeting, the pair exchanged emails about how they would not go "easy" on the child next time.

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David Cameron's key ally admits 'heartless' Tories have no hope of winning the next election

19 Nov 2013 20:36Planning minister Nick Boles says party members have played up to 'extremist' stereotypes and turned off ordinary voters and young people

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Female serial killer Joanna Dennehy admits three murders: 'I've pleaded guilty and that's that'

Serial killer: Joanna Dennehy

The Old Bailey was stunned into silence yesterday as Joanna Dennehy issued her shock guilty plea.

The 31-year-old had been expected to deny the brutal knife murders of three men and dumping their bodies in ditches before being formally sent for trial.

Instead she shocked the court, including her own defence team, by confessing to the serial killings

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Female serial killer admits three murders

(Clockwise from top left) Serial killer Joanna Dennehy, victims John Chapman, Lukasz Slaboszewski and Kevin Lee  Photo: SWNS/Newsteam By Hayley Dixon

11:55AM GMT 18 Nov 2013

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A female serial killer has admitted murdering three men before dumping their bodies in ditches.

Joanna Dennehy admitted killing Kevin Lee, 48, Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, and John Chapman, 56, who were found with multiple stab wounds between March and April this year.

Mr Lee's body was discovered dumped in a ditch in Newborough, Cambridgeshire, on March 30, and her other two victims were found a short distance away at Thorney Dyke.

Dennehy, 30, also admitted the attempted murders of two other men, John Rogers and Robin Bereza.

The pleas appeared to take her defence barrister Nigel Lickley QC by surprise.

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Mr Lickley said: "The course is not one I had anticipated. We ask for more time given what has just occurred."

Dennehy, who sat in the dock of the court, said she did not want to talk to anyone and added: "I have pleaded guilty and that's it."

She also pleaded guilty to three counts of preventing the lawful burial of all three murder victims.

Her partner, 7ft 3inches tall Gary Stretch, 47, denied the two attempted murders and helping Dennehy to dump the bodies.

Gary Stretch and Joanna Dennehy

Leslie Layton, 47, and Robert Moore, 55, have previously denied helping to cover up the alleged murders and harbouring Stretch and Dennehy when they were wanted by police. Their trial is due in January.

Property developer Mr Lee was discovered on the morning of March 30 in a ditch by the A16 at Newborough.

A post-mortem examination later showed the 48-year-old died as a result of stab wounds to the chest.

Four days later on April 3 police were called to Fenland field in Thorney, near Peterborough, after a member of the public stumbled across the bodies of Lukasz Slaboszewski and John Chapman.

Mr Slaboszewski had been stabbed in the heart. John Chapman was stabbed in the neck and chest.

It is said Mr Slaboszewski was murdered between March 19 and 29, while both Mr Chapman and Mr Lee were allegedly killed on March 29.

The two attempted murders were said to have happened on April 2.

Dennehy objected to her lawyers being given more time to check her guilty pleas, saying: "I'm not coming back down here again just to say the same stuff. It's a long way to come to say the same thing I have just said.'

Mr Justice Sweeney noted: "She has pleaded guilty to a large number of counts, clearly intentionally, and in the circumstances if there is to be any application for a change than I will consider it but otherwise she has pleaded guilty."

The judge ordered that Dennehy's defence team notify the court by Monday if there is to be any application to vacate the pleas entered.

All defendants are in custody.

 CrimeNews »UK News »Hayley Dixon »

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Female serial killer admits murdering three men before dumping their bodies in ditches

By Alice Philipson

9:00PM GMT 18 Nov 2013

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A female serial killer has pleaded guilty to murdering three men before dumping their bodies in ditches.

Joanna Dennehy stabbed her landlord Kevin Lee, 48, and housemates Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, and John Chapman, 56, within days of each other.

The body of Mr Lee, who was a married father, was found stabbed to death in a roadside ditch in March. Four days later, a farmer found the corpses of the two other men in a remote dyke five miles away.

A post mortem found Mr Slaboszewski, who was unemployed, had been stabbed in the heart.

Dennehy, 30, from Peterborough, appeared in the dock in a white shirt with a star tattooed under her right eye. She stood alongside her boyfriend Gary Richards, who is 7ft 3in tall, and also known as Gary Stretch.

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Bodies In Ditches: Woman Admits Three Murders

A woman pleads guilty to murdering three men whose bodies were found with multiple stab wounds in ditches in Cambridgeshire. 11:52am UK, Monday 18 November 2013

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The former home secretary admits Labour wildly underestimated the number of eastern Europeans that would come to the UK to work. 8:51am UK, Wednesday 13 November 2013

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Andy Murray admits his Davis Cup heroics were fuelled by a fear of critics doubting his commitment

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Andy Murray has revealed that the fear of being branded “unpatriotic” led him to risk his vulnerable back during the Davis Cup tie in Croatia in September — and thus move further down the road to surgery.

Murray, who is still unsure whether he will be fit to play the Australian Open in January, has been involved in Davis Cup rows before. Most famously, he was criticised by his own brother Jamie when he withdrew from a 2008 tie against Argentina citing knee trouble.

The pressure was all the greater this year. Not only had Murray taken a two-year break from the Davis Cup – a period in which he landed both the Wimbledon and US Open titles – but Great Britain’s second-string players had earned the team a chance to return to the World Group.

Murray must have gone to Croatia with serious misgivings, however, after a disappointing campaign on the American hard courts ended in straight-sets defeat against Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round of the US Open. Only now has he acknowledged how much pain he was suffering throughout the aftermath of his Wimbledon triumph.

“I decided before Wimbledon that I was going to have the surgery after the US Open,” said Murray, who was speaking at the launch of his new racket, the Head Graphene Radical, at Queen’s Club in London. “Then, obviously, I won Wimbledon so, naturally, my team were like ‘Maybe it’s not the best idea to have it’ and I kind of went along with that.

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“But when I started playing on the hard courts again, it was getting worse and worse; I was getting more and more concerned. It was sore and painful and the days were ... I wasn’t allowed to do anything. I couldn’t do any of the other stuff that I enjoyed doing.

“And then I was going to have it after the US Open but then, obviously, if I didn’t play Davis Cup it was because I’m not patriotic enough. But when I started playing it was just so tiring. I was having treatment one night at like 11.30pm and I was like ‘This is all day I’m having to deal with this and I don’t want to have to deal with it any more’. And that was it.”

After three hours on the operating table, Murray is hopeful that the procedure will be worthwhile, even if his rehab has yet to move much beyond running on an underwater treadmill.

“I hope I’ll be able to play better than before,” he said, “because for a couple of years, there’s been shots that I couldn’t hit any more. It was too painful and I couldn’t generate the power.

“So, providing the surgery has gone well, it should help me. I won’t have to play sort of managing an issue. Earlier in the year I was watching videos of when I was playing five, six years ago. There’s some shots that I was saying: ‘I’d love to be able to do that,’ because I couldn’t any more.”

Meanwhile, the International Tennis Federation has banned Tunisia from the 2014 Davis Cup after one of its players was ordered not to compete against an Israeli opponent at a second-tier tournament in Uzbekistan last month.

The ITF said the Tunisian federation was guilty of “interfering with international sporting practice” when it ordered Malek Jaziri to withdraw from his quarter-final against Israeli player Amir Weintraub.

“There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society,” the ITF said.

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