By Alexander Lawrie A SCULPTURE designed by murderer-turned-artist Jimmy Boyle is to be demolished as part of a plan to improve flood defences in Edinburgh. Gulliver the Gentle Giant has spent the last three decades slumbering in an Edinburgh field but will now be destroyed to make way for a new flood prevention scheme. Unveiled [...]
By Alexander Lawrie A SEVEN-WEEK-OLD baby was rushed to hospital with head injuries following an accident at Scotland’s largest eco-festival. His new mum was using a makeshift baby changing facility when the wooden floor of the unit suddenly gave way. The youngster – who hasn’t been identified – was understood to have fallen to the [...]
By Rory Reynolds SCOTS Oscar winner Tilda Swinton is to present a special screening of the 1964 film Culloden – at the site of the battle where the Jacobite army was originally crushed. And audiences are to wear black tartan in memory of the Highland troops slaughtered there in 1746. The acclaimed docu-drama, which shocked [...]
By Paul Thornton A NURSING assistant at a secure clinic for sex offenders stole hundreds of pounds from the perverts during day trips to Edinburgh. James Collins, 35, was looking after the offenders from the Glenbrook facility in Corstorphine, Edinburgh and was asked to withdraw money from their bank accounts. But Collins – who was [...]
By Paul Thornton THE former director of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme in Scotland claims she was forced out of her job by the charity’s “bullying” chief executive. Janet Shepherd, 56, had been working with the organisation for over 17 years and was leading the Scottish wing before she resigned in January last year. [...]
By Rory Reynolds COLLEAGUES of hero firefighter Ewan Williamson have blamed his death on the fire services’ lax safety procedures and training. One fellow firefighter, speaking anonymously, said that his death was an accident waiting to happen, and the result of a “culture of complacency”. He said that the hose that the firefighters were using [...]
By Rory Reynolds and Oliver Farrimond A HORRIFIED husband helplessly looked on as his wife smashed head-on with another car, killing her and two teens in East Lothian. The husband, named locally as James Bruce, was driving in his own car behind wife Sheena and watched as her Nissan Micra collided with a Renault Clio [...]
By Rory Reynolds SUPERSTAR singer Susan Boyle is to buy the council house she has lived in since she was a baby. The Blackburn-born singer met with council officials about taking the first step onto the property ladder – despite now living in a posh apartment in West London. Her brother Gerry, 55, revealed in [...]
By Rory Reynolds Scottish funnyman Billy Connolly is set to become a comic-book character. The Glasgow-born comedian will appear as an assassin called “Il Duce” in the series of comics to come out with the film Boondock Saints II, released later this year. The world-famous comedian played the same character in the cult 1999 original [...]
By Rory Reynolds SIR FRED GOODWIN was said to boast to friends how “inordinately proud” he was of his knighthood from the Queen, bestowed to him in June 2004. Now Sir Fred’s meteoric fall has finally reached its nadir and the disgraced former RBS cannot even call himself Sir Fred – for fear of public [...]
By Oliver Farrimond CONCERNED police in Edinburgh are appealing for information about a missing person. Steven Culbert, 34, vanished a week ago and worried family members have reported his disappearance to the police. Steven, who lives in the Clermiston area of Edinburgh, is described as being white, 5’9” tall, with brown hair and reportedly in [...]
By Cara Sulieman THREE HOODIES are being hailed heroes after rushing to save the life of an elderly woman they found lying in her garden. Evelyn Fraser was cutting her grass in the Duddingston area of Edinburgh when she collapsed and lay unconscious. But three teenagers who were walking past saw the OAP and rushed [...]
By Cara Sulieman SCIENTISTS are developing a new stealth pill to treat cancer. They plan to use a tiny capsule to carry a ‘bomb’ laden with drugs into the body before exploding it near to the tumour. Dundee University is the main player in the development of the super-pill which aims to minimise the side [...]
By Cara Sulieman SCOTS heartthrob Gerard Butler wants to start a family – but has admitted he will have to find a woman first. Speaking to chat show host Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show last Tuesday, Butler revealed that he wanted to have kids, but might need a girlfriend before that happens. The [...]
By Cara Sulieman LIFE HAS come full circle for two OAPs who helped open a new day care centre in the capital yesterday. Bill Hoatson, 81, and Sheila Allan, 78, were both pupils at the North Merchiston Primary School, which used to sit on the same site. And now the pair are looking forward to [...]
By Alexander Lawrie A PROMISING teenage student has lost her fight for life just days after her beloved boyfriend was killed in the same horror car smash. Emily Chan, 18, was a passenger in her boyfriend’s car when it left the road during a thunder storm and smashed head-on into a tree on Edinburgh’s Frogston [...]
By Alexander Lawrie A MAN has been arrested after an armed siege in a busy Edinburgh city centre street yesterday. (Fri) The 39 year-old was said to have been seen in agitated state waving what was described as a Samurai sword at passers-by outside his home in the city’s Roxburgh Street at 9.30am. Minutes earlier [...]
By Alexander Lawrie A VISCOUNT’S daughter recruited as a top banking executive by shamed former RBS boss Fred Goodwin has left almost £2 million in her will. Viscount George Younger’s daughter Joanna Davidson – who died last October aged 50 after a year-long battle against cancer – was head of corporate responsibility for the Royal [...]
By Alexander Lawrie & Oliver Farrimond THE SCOTS Captain of the two worst maritime disasters in British naval history has finally been honoured – almost 70 years after the loss of 6,000 brave men. Captain Rudolph Sharp was in charge of the Clyde-built Cunard liner Lancastria which was attacked by German bombers in June 1940 [...]
By Shaun Milne THE FAMILY of an 18-year-old girl brutally raped in North Berwick have made an emotional appeal for help in catching her attacker. She was assaulted outside Blenheim House Hotel in the early hours of Tuesday and only escaped when a passer-by came to her aid. In a statement issued through Lothian and [...]