Robin Garbutt bludgeoned wife Diana with metal bar as she slept before pretending armed robber had struck A shopkeeper who bludgeoned his postmistress wife to death as she slept then blamed an armed robber has been convicted of her murder. Robin Garbutt, 45, knew his wife Diana had been unfaithful and feared his theft of thousands of pounds from the post office they ran in Melsonby, North Yorkshire, was about to be discovered. A jury at Teesside crown court rejected his story that a man with a gun told him: “Don’t do anything stupid, we’ve got your wife”, before robbing him as he worked in the shop, and that moments later he discovered her lifeless body in bed. Garbutt shook his head as he was convicted by the jury of eight men and four women by a majority of 10 to two.The panel had been deliberating for 12 hours and 50 minutes. His sister collapsed in tears as the verdict was announced. Diana Garbutt’s mother, Agnes Gaylor, also wept. Mr Justice Openshaw was expected to sentence Garbutt on Tuesday. Garbutt hit his wife three times over the head with a metal bar while she slept in the living quarters above the Melsonby village shop and post office in the early hours of 23 March last year. He later opened the shop as normal, served about 60 customers, then closed it again. He dialled 999 and claimed his wife had been attacked, crying hysterically on the phone, then when a paramedic told him rigor mortis had set in, challenged it, saying “she’s still warm”. He told police a raider had come in and robbed him, then when he ran upstairs his wife was motionless, face down on the bed. His story unravelled after police delved into the secrets of his seemingly happy marriage. They found the couple owed £30,000 in credit card debts and, despite the long hours Garbutt worked, were making little profit. The couple were due to go on holiday to the US, where his wife’s father was from, and Garbutt is thought to have feared that a relief postmaster would discover thousands of pounds were missing from the business. Police also found his wife, 40, had become involved with three men and was searching online for men aged 35-50 to date. The couple had discussed splitting up and the prosecution said Garbutt faced a future with no assets if that happened because they were in his wife’s name. Crucial evidence came from a meal of fish and chips the couple ate the night before Mrs Garbutt died. An expert on digestion told the jury she had stopped processing the meal about six to eight hours after she finished eating, giving a likely time of death in the early hours rather than at about 8.30am when Garbutt claimed the robber struck. David Hatton QC, prosecuting, told the jury: “One of the questions you will have to consider, if you accept this evidence, is the likelihood of a robber or robbers being prepared to violently kill a female sleeping in her own bed at all – but then, having done so, to wait for four to six hours before going downstairs to rob the post office. “And then, it has to be said, having been prepared to bludgeon the lady to death upstairs and wait for that length of time, to leave the defendant himself unharmed and unrestrained to raise the alarm.” Crime guardian.co.uk
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As First Nation Canadians protest at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s AGM, campaigners say the UK state-owned bank is ‘playing fast and loose’ with taxpayers money Should a state-owned bank be involved in investments that damage the environment, in contradiction to the aims of that state ? Clearly not, but that is the charge made against the Royal Bank of Scotland by campaigners opposed to its work in funding the oil sands industry in Alberta. Their protests move to RBS’s annual general meeting today in Edinburgh, with the arrival of First Nation representatives from Canada, who say their ancestral lands are being devastated . Extracting oil from tar sands also leads to more emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide than conventional oil. The coalition of NGOs say RBS has raised £5.6bn of corporate finance for companies involved in tar sands extraction since being rescued from oblivion by UK taxpayers in 2008. And there’s been no let up – £1.3bn has been raised in the last six months. Companies named include BP, Total and Statoil, all involved in tar sands extraction, Marathon, which refines the oil, and Enbridge and Kinder Morgan, who want to build a new pipeline to carry the oil from Alberta to the west coast. Clayton Thomas-Muller, from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and who is attending the AGM, said: “Banks have been put on notice for their dirty finance of the Canadian tar sands which is resulting in the destruction of First Nations Peoples’ way of life.” RBS counters that it provides only general corporate finance to companies with wide interests beyond tar sands, but declined to provide alternative figures. A spokeswoman added: “We recognise the concerns raised regarding the extraction of oil sands and our lending is subject to the achievement of strict social and environmental standards. We agree that there is a need to transition to a low carbon economy. In recent years RBS has been one of the most active banks in the world in helping support the development of renewable energies.” So that’s OK then? No, says campaigner Liz Murray, of the World Development Movement. She told me: “We congratulate them for [their renewables investments] but that does not offset the fact that they are massive financers of fossil fuels, and in particular tar sands.” “Investment in some of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuels in the world is not a sound investment,” Murray said. “As a UK taxpayer – and so an owner of RBS – I think they are playing fast and loose with my money.” If you are also a UK taxpayer, are you feeling short-changed? Royal Bank of Scotland Oil sands Oil Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk
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World governments pledge millions for the construction of a 20,000-tonne steel arch to prevent further radiation leaks Governments from around the world today pledged $785m (€550m) to seal the stricken nuclear reactor at Chernobyl within a 20,000-tonne steel shield that would be large enough to enclose St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The huge arch is designed to prevent any further radiation from escaping for 100 years. The pledges, made at a conference in Kiev ahead of the 25th anniversary of the disaster on 26 April 2011, bring the total raised for the Chernobyl safety works to $1.8bn and will enable efforts to finally secure the reactor which caught fire in April 1986. Twenty-eight governments have so far offered money. The European commission was the biggest contributor with €110m. The US pledged €86m and Britain – which still has more than 300 hill farms in Wales under radiation restrictions following fallout from Chernobyl – will contribute €35m. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an extra €120m. Japan, Italy and Canada are considering whether to contribute to the fund. The planned arch-shaped structure, which at 190 metres (623 feet) wide and more than 100 metres tall, will take five years to build. It will replace a hastily built concrete “sarcophagus” erected around the reactor in 1987. This now has serious cracks in it, raising fears that 95% of the original nuclear material which is left inside the reactor could escape. Radiation levels directly over the sarcophagus are too high for the arch to be built over it, so it will be constructed in two halves and then moved over it on rails. It is designed so that authorities could start dismantling the reactor from inside in 100 years’ time. The shield is intended to stay in place until either the radiation threat decreases or the Ukrainian government finds a permanent storage facility for the 200 tonnes of uranium and one tonne of radioactive plutonium still inside the ruins. World governments, which had already raised more than €1.1bn in international funding for the shelter, as well as for a permanent nuclear fuel store for other reactors on the Chernobyl site, said that the current crisis in at the Fukushima plant in Japan persuaded them to respond to the appeal by Ukraine, which estimates the accident has so far cost the nation more than $12bn. “Recent events in Fukushima, Japan, have reminded us of the danger this issue may represent,” said European commission president, José Manuel Barroso. The French prime minister, François Fillon, said Fukushima evoked memories of Chernobyl: “More than ever our responsibility is to join together our efforts to limit the consequences of such disasters and to prepare for the future.” But Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union at the time of the Chernobyl disaster and now head of the environment group Green Cross International , used the occasion of the 25th anniversary to say nuclear power was not the answer to the world’s energy problems or to climate change. “Nuclear power has been presented as a financially sound, economically efficient, clean and safe solution that will bring about energy security and drive economic growth. Recently, the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ has hitched a free ride on the back of the need to find low-carbon solutions to the climate crisis. The bottom line on the economics of nuclear power is that it simply does not add up. That is why private investment is wisely focusing on better alternatives,” he said in a statement. “It is necessary to realise that nuclear power is not a panacea, as some observers allege, for energy sufficiency or climate change. Its cost-effectiveness is also exaggerated, as its real cost does not account for many hidden expenses. In the United States, for example, direct subsidies to nuclear energy amounted to $115bn between 1947 and 1999, with an additional $145bn in indirect subsidies. In contrast, subsidies to wind and solar energy combined over this same period totalled only $5.5bn. But Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: “Today, nuclear power is the only real alternative to fossil fuel as a source of a reliable supply.” He acknowledged that confidence in atomic energy has taken a severe blow after the tsunami-triggered disaster at Fukushima. “Fukushima represents a potentially significant setback for nuclear power,” he told participants at the forum, although he stressed that confidence will be “re-established in due course”. “Chernobyl and Fukushima should be shown to be aberrations,” he said. Chernobyl nuclear disaster Nuclear power Ukraine Europe John Vidal guardian.co.uk
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Support of young voters crucial in re-election of Goodluck Jonathan, who must work to heal divided nation and quell unrest The result was no surprise, nor was the unrest – but there were also tentative grounds to hope that last weekend’s Nigerian presidential election signalled a turning point for the underperforming African giant. Goodluck Jonathan retained the presidency with around 57% of the vote. He defeated Muhammadu Buhari , a former military ruler, who polled around 31%. There was deadly rioting in Buhari’s northern, largely Muslim stronghold. Most significant in the long term, however, was the verdict of observers that this has been Nigeria’s fairest election in decades. It was far from perfect, but helped to draw a line under the coups, fraud and vote-rigging of the past. Furthermore, young people had turned out in high numbers to elect a man who claims to represent a break from the old order. Just possibly, this was the week Nigeria took an important step towards fulfilling its immense potential. Few countries fail to punch their weight as dismally as Nigeria. It has Africa’s biggest population at around 150 million. Its economy has grown 6% or 7% over the past few years. It pumps more oil than any other African country, much of it to the US, and has vast untapped mineral resources. But between 1960 and 1999, officials are said to have stolen more than $440bn from the people. Since 1990, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty has increased from 49% to 77%. The public education and health systems have all but collapsed. Power
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Booby-trapped device fails to explode after bogus 999 call in which a man claimed to have heard a woman in distress Police in Northern Ireland answering a bogus call had a lucky escape after being lured to a booby-trapped bomb that failed to explode. Officers were responding to a 999 call in which a man claimed to have heard a woman in distress in a wooded area off Annadale embankment in south Belfast. But when they arrived at the scene, at about midnight, they found a bomb and wire attached to the gate they passed through to search the area. Superintendent Chris Noble confirmed that a viable device capable of causing multiple deaths was discovered. He said police believed the “sophisticated and substantial” bomb had failed to detonate. Police received the bogus call at 11.50pm on Monday and officers were sent to the scene, which is on a busy road and is opposite allotments that are often in use. When officers arrived at the scene they realised it was empty and only then discovered the device attached to the gate. Army technical officers were called to the scene at about 1.30am and a police helicopter was launched. Detectives have appealed for anyone with information to come forward. Police have been on high alert for attacks by dissident republicans after the death of Constable Ronan Kerr in April after a bomb exploded under his car in Omagh, County Tyrone. In a subsequent incident, hundreds of motorists were allowed to drive past a van containing a 500lb bomb in Newry. The underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin road was closed on 7 April after the suspect vehicle was found by police, but traffic cones barring entry to the road were later removed. Officers said the cordon had been removed by motorists. Dissidents are believed to have stepped up activity before the 5 May assembly elections. Northern Ireland Crime guardian.co.uk
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Hundreds of tourists evacuated after small blaze at Antoni Gaudí’s basilica, which caused damage but no injuries Police in Barcelona say a suspected arsonist started a small fire inside the Sagrada Familia basilica and forced the evacuation of hundreds of tourists. The blaze has been extinguished and no one has been hurt. A Catalan regional police official said around 1,500 people had been evacuated from Antoni Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece. It is one of the most popular tourist sites in Spain’s second-largest city. The official said some tourists saw smoke coming from inside the sacristy and alerted authorities, and that the suspected arsonist was arrested. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. She said the fire caused damage but no injuries. The sacristy is the area where priests put on their robes in preparation for mass. Spain Europe guardian.co.uk
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London fire brigade says investigation into scrapyard fire that closed the M1 motorway has been handed over to police Fire authorities in London have said they believe the scrapyard blaze that closed a stretch of the M1 motorway and caused travel chaos at one of the busiest travel times of the year was started deliberately. A spokeswoman for the London fire brigade said the police were taking over the investigation into Friday’s incident in which an elevated section near Mill Hill in north London was badly damaged. “We believe the M1 fire was started deliberately. We have handed the incident over to the Metropolitan police,” she said. A Met spokeswoman said the fire had been treated as suspicious from an early stage: “The investigation continues, nothing has changed.” The blaze closed seven miles of Britain’s main north-south road between junctions 1 and 4 as many motorists were preparing to use the road for the Easter getaway. Two lanes have reopened in both directions. Transport authorities say they hope all lanes will reopen before Easter but warn there could be speed restrictions. London Transport Crime guardian.co.uk
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Full coverage from the inquest into the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson at the 2009 G20 protests in London 11.22am: Williamson said that portal hypertension, a kind of high blood pressure found in patients with liver disease, would have led to faster bleeding from the spleen – but not the liver. This view differs from what was said yesterday by liver specialist Dr Graeme Alexander . 11.10am: Patrick Gibbs QC , counsel for Harwood, has taken over questioning. He pointed out that Patel found “no detectable by the naked eye” rupture to the capsule of the liver. Gibbs asked: “what does that tell you about whether this is in fact the source of any blood?” Well, one wonders about the accuracy of the original description. There was, as I understand it, microscopic of haemorrhage to the liver, in that area. The consultant agreed it was an “oddity” that there was no rupture of this kind found on the liver. 10.58am: Back to the video footage (see below), Ryder points out that Tomlinson’s arm became trapped under his body when he struck the ground. We heard detailed evidence about this on Friday – here is that discussion and a still picture from the video . Asked by Ruder if he had seen this, Williamson replied: “Oh no.” The barrister asked if the assisted the consultant. He replied: “I wouldn’t have expected that degree of injury to rupture a normal liver. But this was not a normal liver.” The consultant by gave some of the strongest indications yet that Tomlinson died of internal bleeding: “I think there was very likely to have been bleeding from this liver. We know it was enlarged. There was a fall. We know there was 3 litres or heavily bloodstained fluid in the abdominal cavity. We know there is a subcapsule haematoma, on the outer aspect. If you put all of that together, you have very strong presumptive evidence he bled from the liver.” Finally, Williamson described that Patel’s suggestion that internal injuries may have been caused during rigorous CPR treatment after Tomlinson’s collapse was “implausible”. 10.56am: Matthew Ryder QC , counsel for the Tomlinson family, has begun questioning Williamson. It has emerged that the consultant has not seen the detailed footage of Tomlinson being hit with a baton and pushed from behind by police officer Simon Harwood. He has just been shown this footage: Ryder also told Williamson about the ECG chart readings when paramedics attached a defibrillator. We heard a lot about these yesterday . Williamson’s reponse: Well, of course, I am not a cardiologist, but it would seem to me that that makes acute coronary artery syndrome less likely. 10.39am: Finally Hewitt has questioned Willamson on the vexed question of the extent of blood in the three litres of fluid found in Tomlison’s abdomen. Williamson saw photographs of the fluid. This has proved a point of controversy throughout this inquest. See previous discussions here , here and here . Williamson: I would therefore expect that at least half of it was blood, possibly more. Hewitt: If it were about half and half, a loss of about 1.5 litres could have caused collapse in Mr Tomlinson? Williamson: Oh yes. That is quite a substantial bleed, over a short period of time. Very substantial. 10.35am: Williamson’s said his view – that internal bleeding was more likely to be the cause of death than a heart attack – came with an important caveat. He said in his report: In summary, I believe that Dr Cary is much closer to the cause of death than Dr Patel, but I am left with one major uncertainty. The consultant told the jury that sufficient trauma to the liver might have been expected to leave marks on the outside of the body and “pretty obvious” damage to the liver, at postmortem. That said, Williamson said he still sided with Cary. It seemed to me that Dr Cary’s pathologist was much more the plausible. One cannot rule out coronary artery disease, perhaps acute coronary syndrome, and he was a smoker. But there is precious little evidence in support. 10.27am: Hewitt has asked Williamson to explain who – Patel or Cary – he believes was correct. On Patel’s theory, he said: Whether or not coronary artery disease was the proximate cause of death is a little doubtful, because we don’t see [sufficiently blocked] coronary arteries. On Cary’s theory, he said he believed from the photographs that “at least half, maybe more” of the fluid found in Tomlinson’s abdomen would have been blood. Three litres of blood would be about half [the volume in] your circulating body, and it might kill a healthy person, let alone someone who was as unhealthy as Mr Tomlinson. Even a litre or two might have been – probably was too much for him tolerate. Williamson added: “He was a very sick man and it is therefore reasonable to suggest that a lesser insult, if you like, a lesser trauma.” 10.11am: The jury is in an we’re about to begin. The first witness is another medical expert, Professor Robin Williamson , who a consultant surgeon. He is being questioned by Alison Hewitt , counsel for the inquest. He has a particular expertise in diseases of the liver. 10.01am: You can follow my Twitter updates from court @PaulLewis and use the hashtag #inquestblog if you have questions or comments. 9.59am: The 15th day of the Ian Tomlinson inquest is about to commence. I expect we only have another couple of days of evidence left now. On Monday the inquest heard that a leading heart specialist had analysed the readings obtained by a defibrillator used by paramedics after Tomlinson collapsed revealed, and concluded he could not have died from an arrhythmic heart attack . His findings undermined the explanation for Tomlinson’s death by the pathologist Dr Freddy Patel, who had claimed he died of a natural causes. Confronted with the new evidence, Patel altered his explanation of the death and speculated – seemingly off the cuff – that the newspaper seller may have died of a hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Paramedics have already ruled this out. The new defibrillator evidence was consistent with the other explanation for Tomlinson’s death: that he died of internal bleeding in the abdomen, from injures sustained when he was pushed to the ground. Dr Nat Cary, the second pathologist, said internal bleeding was now the “only real possibility” . Cary’s explanation was also backed by a liver specialist. In total four pathologists examined body. We shall hear from other two (who broadly agreed with Cary) today and tomorrow. Ian Tomlinson Police G20 Protest Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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The lifestyles led by Chris Martin, Trudie Styler et al only perpetuate the consumerism that helped cause global warming There I was, kicking back in my Edun “natural indigo” organic jeans (£163), sipping on an icy cold glass of Fleury vintage organic champagne (£56 a bottle), having taken my new Porsche 918 hybrid supercar (£524,000) for a spin, when I started pondering where my next holiday might be. Would it be the languid lagoons of Cousine Island in the Seychelles, which boasts its own on-site ecologist? Or perhaps the Hacienda Tres Rios in Mexico with its philosophy of “intelligent and responsible use of our ecosystems and natural resources”? Organic produce, hybrid cars, eco-tourism resorts, ethical fashion – what could be finer than living such a fantastic, indulgent “champagne environmentalist” existence? But while the explosive growth in “eco-lifestyle” markets may seem good, in reality it is a perpetuation of the consumerist economic model that has largely got us into our current mess. The green scene is littered with compromised, hypocritical celebrities. Poor Prince Charles preaches and pontificates about harmony and simplicity, then ties himself in masochistic bondage knots of inconsistency by spending £100k on a biofuelled train tour to promote cycling . Famous frequent fliers abound, from Coldplay’s Chris Martin – who opined about global warming in song then racked up a personal carbon footprint massively bigger than the average Brit – to Sting’s wife, Trudie Styler, who flew her entourage (including hairdresser) by private jet from New York to Washington so she could go to a party. Most brilliantly, John Travolta encourages us all to “do our bit for climate change” while owning five private jets. As with the pejorative “champagne socialists”, the message is very much “do as we say, not as we do’. Like the highly discredited theory of “trickle-down” economics, there is a belief that this “eco-leadership” will somehow percolate into our collective consciousness and create demand for environmental goods and services at all levels of the economy. But this is missing the point. We fret about the environmental implications of global population growth in the belief that it is the fertility of our fellows in the developing world that is at the root of our resource problems. But this is a buck-passing, mean-spirited attempt at alleviating our own consumptive guilt. As studies have demonstrated , the richest 500 million people on the planet (about 7% of global population, and yes that includes all of us Brits) create 50% of global carbon emissions, while the poorest 50% create just 7%. So when we ask ourselves the question: “how will we live?”, the answer is fairly obvious: more simply and more frugally. Much of the nonsense written about green lifestyles is laughable, as if we can all carry on as we are, as long as we’re all buying organic, fair trade and ethical products. The real answer is that less really is more, and while the champagne environmentalists can lecture on how fantastic their sustainable lifestyle is as they throw another log from daddy’s woodland into the stove or go wild foraging on the family estate, that’s not going to mean much for the 80% of people who live in cities. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s vital that we promote a sense of positive hope, that life can be better for all of us when lived more sustainably. Its just that the “yes, you can have it all” mentality of some environmentalists is not just hypocritical, but potentially deceitful and distracting. I think the real fizz and excitement in sustainability is to be found where lifestyles and business models are being radically transformed. The Transition Network and the collaborative consumption movement. The high-end eco-products and aspirational lifestyles that alter our footprints by incremental percentage changes lull us into false security about dealing with the problem of climate change. The environmental lifestyle champagne has definitely gone flat. • Ed Gillespie is co-founder of Futerra Sustainability Communications Ethical and green living Carbon footprints Climate change Celebrity Ed Gillespie guardian.co.uk
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