https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15352645/Boyfriend-charged-manslaughter-leaving-girlfriend-freeze-death-Austrias-highest-mountain.html

Boyfriend is charged with manslaughter after leaving his girlfriend to freeze to death on Austria's highest mountain

By TARYN KAUR PEDLER, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER

Published: 15:30, 4 December 2025 | Updated: 17:11, 4 December 2025

The boyfriend of a woman who died on Austria's highest mountain is being charged with manslaughter after leaving her to freeze to death.  The 33-year-old mountaineer from Salzburg died on the 12,460ft Grossglockner mountain in January after setting off on a tour with her partner, 36.  When they were just 165ft (50m) from the summit, the woman began to struggle and was unable to continue, reports Heute.  The man then allegedly left his girlfriend alone on the mountain for 6.5 hours to get help. But during this time, the extreme cold claimed her life.  With the investigation into the woman's death now complete, the boyfriend, who was an experienced climber, has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence and is facing up to three years in prison.  'At approximately 2am, the defendant left his girlfriend unprotected, exhausted, hypothermic, and disoriented about 50 meters below the summit cross of the Großglockner,' said a statement from the public prosecutor's office.

'The woman froze to death. Since the defendant, unlike his girlfriend, was already very experienced with alpine high-altitude tours and had planned the tour, he was to be considered the responsible guide of the tour.'

After obtaining forensic reports, evaluating mobile phones, sports watches, pictures and videos, and an assessment by an alpine technical expert, the public prosecutor's office has accused the mountaineer of several errors.  The 39-year-old allegedly did not take into account that his girlfriend was highly inexperienced and had never undertaken an alpine high-altitude tour of this length.  He was also accused of scheduling the starting the tour around two hours later than scheduled, while not carrying any sufficient emergency equipment  Even when he had left his partner to get help, he allegedly did not bring her to a wind-protected place and did not use a bivouac sack or aluminum rescue blankets.  The boyfriend had also allowed his girlfriend to ascend the mountain with a splitboard and soft snow boots equipment which is deemed unsuitable among mountaineers for a high-alpine tour in mixed terrain.  Given the harsh weather conditions with wind speeds of up to 46mph and temperatures of minus eight degrees which felt like minus 20 degrees when combined the defendant should have turned back earlier, according to the public prosecutor.  Despite the severity of his girlfriend's situation, the man has also been accused of failing to make an emergency call before nightfall.  The defendant and his girlfriend were stranded from around 8.50pm, he allegedly did not give any distress signals when a police helicopter flew over at 10.50pm  After several attempts by the Alpine Police to contact the boyfriend, he finally spoke to an officer at around 00.35am.   Although the content of the conversation remained unclear, the defendant did not contact the rescue services again following the conversation.   He had put his phone on silent and put it away, and therefore did not receive any further calls from the Alpine Police, according to the German news outlet.  At 3.30am, he then decided to notify the rescue services, after having left the woman alone.  A helicopter rescue could not be carried out at dawn due to strong winds, but shortly after 10am, the mountain rescuers reached the victim where they found her already dead.  Kurt Jelinek, the boyfriend's lawyer, said in a statement to the KUIER: 'My client is very sorry about how things turned out.'

However, the defense attorney 'still assumes it was a tragic, fateful accident .'

The boyfriend's trial is set to take place on February 19, 2026, at the Innsbruck Regional Court.  It comes after a Russian climber who had been stranded 24,000ft up a mountain for two weeks was presumed dead in August after thermal imaging was taken of the area.  Natalia Nagovitsyna was climbing the Victory Peak in Kyrgyzstan, but broke her leg and became stuck.  State security agency said that thermal-imaging drone survey of the area where Nagovitsyna was, showed no signs she was still alive.  'Based on analysis of the data obtained and taking into account a combination of factors, including extreme weather conditions and the specifics of the area, no signs of life were found at Nagovitsyna's location,' it said in a statement at the time.

Several rescue attempts failed to retrieve the 47-year-old climber, who spent more than two weeks in a small orange tent, torn apart by gusting winds, at the mountain top where summer temperatures reach lower than -20C.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-15125323/sabina-nessa-sister-learning-murder.html

Sabina Nessa's sister recounts heartbreaking moment she burst into tears after being told how primary school teacher was brutally murdered just minutes away from her home

    Jebina told Cosmopolitan of learning about her sister's death in London in 2021
    READ MORE: Sabina Nessa's family slams her 'cowardly' killer for 'trying to transfer from Broadmoor to an Albanian jail to be closer to his family'

By ELMIRA TANATAROVA, SENIOR FEMAIL REPORTER

Published: 15:13, 23 September 2025 | Updated: 15:17, 23 September 2025

Sabina Nessa's sister has revealed the heartbreaking moment she learned of the primary school teacher's brutal murder recounting that she immediately broke into tears.  In 2021, the 28-year-old had been on her way to meet a friend in south London when killer Koci Selamaj, who had lay in wait for around 20 minutes to select his 'prey for a violent sexual encounter', grabbed her from behind. He was jailed for life the following April.  Now, four years on, Jebina Yasmin Islam said how the horrific instance she learned her sister's fate left  her in denial.  Speaking to Cosmopolitan, she recalled the morning of September 19, 2021, when her husband was on the phone to one of her siblings something she found 'odd'.  Looking at her own mobile, Jebina realised that she had received a missed call, meaning they tried to reach her first but she hadn't picked up.   'That's when I realised something was wrong,' she explained. 'My mind was racing I thought something had happened to one of my parents. I could tell from his tone of voice that it was serious.'

'After the call, he sat me down and said, "Something has happened to Sabina",' she continued. 'I couldn’t believe it. I had only spoken to her the other day! I began sobbing. "It’s a lie," I said. "They’ve got it wrong."'

Jebina described how she, her husband and their children got 'straight in the car' and drove to her mother's house, which was an hour away.  Her head was 'going 500 miles per hour' as she tried to make sense of the awful situation, becoming 'increasingly angry and frustrated'.  She admitted she just wanted 'someone to tell her there had been a mistake' that 'Sabina was okay and was just out shopping, or meeting friends'.

She found herself constantly scrawling through the sites for online information before 'gasping' at a headline saying that 'the body of a young woman had been found in Kidbrooke'.

As she tried to keep it together for her children, Jebina's husband took her phone away from her telling her to 'stop torturing yourself like this'.

When they got to her mother's house, detectives revealed the devastating news that Sabina had been attacked just minutes away from her home, at Cator Park. A dogwalker had found her body.  'It didn’t make sense; I’d been to that park and it was full of families and kids,' Jebina said. 'She walked through it all the time.'

Learning the news, she 'collapsed on the floor, sobbing'. It didn't 'feel real', she shared, but rather like 'being in a bad dream'.

Garage worker Selamaj was arrested on September 26 that same year, and trainers with Sabina's blood on them were seized from his home.
During the 2022 trial, the court heard how - earlier on the day of the killing on September 17 he had booked a room at The Grand Hotel in Eastbourne, near his home.  Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC suggested this was 'indicative of his premeditation to have some kind of sexual encounter that evening'.

At about 6pm that day, Selamaj contacted his estranged partner Ionela. In a statement, she said he appeared 'very agitated' when they met at his car near the hotel.  She said: 'I think that he wanted to have sex in the car. I don't know what was bothering him, but he was very agitated.'

She refused and left.  Following Sabina's murder, Selamaj was arrested in the seaside town and charged over her death days later. In a police interview, he made no comment except to deny murder when asked directly if he was responsible for the killing.   Security camera footage from a London police station showed him holding his head in his hands as he was charged with murder. He later changed his plea to guilty.   Speaking of the trial in her Cosmopolitan interview, Jebina shared: 'The trial began in February 2022, and lasted four months. But the next two times we went to court, Selamaj didn’t even bother turning up.  I couldn’t get my head around it. Are you telling me that the judge, the lawyers, the prison officers have no power to bring him to court? He gets to stay in his cell, while we’re here listening to everything he did to my sister. How is that okay?'

She described it as being 'very intense', and couldn't bring herself to watch the CCTV video of Sabina being struck in the head and killed.  In grainy footage, she appeared 'oblivious' as Selamaj ran up behind her and attacked her on the path near a park bench.  He hit her over the head 34 times with his weapon, which broke apart as he rendered her unconscious. Selamaj then dragged her up a slope and out of view for 10 minutes.  The court heard how the killer then asphyxiated her and removed her tights and underwear before trying to cover her body in grass.   The month following Sabina's murder, around 200 people gathered in Eastbourne, East Sussex, to pay tribute to the school teacher and protest against the 'crisis of violence against women'.  The peaceful demonstration was marked by cheers and applause as those addressing the crowd spoke out against victim blaming.   Later, the darkening sky was lit with the lights from dozens of mobile phones, as a minute's silence was held for Sabina.  Jebina broke down as she addressed crowds.  'Words cannot describe how we are feeling, this feels like we are stuck in a bad dream and can't get out of it - our world is shattered, we are simply lost for words,' she shared.

'No family should go through what we are going through.'

The vigil came after public outrage and debate over women's safety and policing in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, who was killed by a serving Met Police officer.  During Selamaj's sentencing, Judge Mr Justice Sweeney, addressing him in absentia, said: 'Sabina Nessa was a wholly blameless victim of an absolutely appalling murder which was entirely the fault of the defendant, which has added to the sense of insecurity people, particularly women living in our cities, when walking or travelling alone especially at night.  Sabina's was a life that mattered, a life that did not deserve to be taken in such a heinous and cowardly way.  She had every right, as her family say, to be walking through the park all glammed up and going to enjoy herself after a long week of work.  She died in a way that no one should. It is not suggested by him that he has any remorse for what he did to Sabina Nessa.'

Speaking of her legacy, Jebina also told Cosmopolitan of her work for 'Sabina's Law'.

Under this, those who commit 'serious crimes such as rape and murder would have to come to the sentence hearing and face what they’ve done'.

'If they don’t, they could face an extra two years in prison,' she shared. 'People may think, "He’s got a life sentence, what’s an additional two years?" but if you went through what we went through, you would understand it means a lot.'

MPs agree on the principle of this, but are now debating the details.  'With this new law in place, I’m hoping that it will help victims’ families feel their voices are heard,' she added. 'There are hundreds of women like Sabina, whose lives are stolen from them for no other reason than because they are women. There are so many families like ours who are left living under the shadow of that grief.'

zealot

Karen Gillan

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14824303/Prince-Charles-Princess-Diana-wedding-anniversary.html?offset=61&max=100&jumpTo=comment-6518611387

The toll Charles and Diana's 'wedding of the century' took on the ailing princess: 44 years on, this is the troubling truth about why Diana felt like a 'lamb to the slaughter' and her saddening bulimia fit just before

By MARTI STELLING

Published: 07:13, 29 July 2025 | Updated: 16:56, 29 July 2025

The night before the 'wedding of the century', Princess Diana spent a quiet evening with her sisters and bridal party at Clarence House.  The young bride-to-be had only recently turned 20 and admitted to journalist Andrew Morton ten years later that she ‘had a very bad fit of bulimia the night before'.

Between 1991 and 1992, Diana recorded tapes for Morton, which were the main source of his best-selling authorised biography, Diana: Her True Story.  In the tapes, Diana tells how her public persona was often very different to her real personality.  'I ate everything I could possibly find, which amused my sister, and nobody understood what was going on there,' said Diana.

'It was very hush-hush. I was as sick as a parrot that night. It was such an indication of what was going on.'

In another room, the Queen Mother and Lady Fermoy, Diana’s grandmother, watched Dad’s Army on TV.  Diana found it hard to sleep and went downstairs, where 'Backstairs Billy', the Queen Mother’s Steward, William Tallon, gave her a glass of orange juice.  Then she spotted his bicycle, leapt on it and cycled around in circles, ringing the bell and singing: ‘I’m going to marry the Prince of Wales tomorrow!  And then came the morning.  'I was very, very calm, deathly calm,' said Diana.

'I felt I was a lamb to the slaughter. I knew it and couldn't do anything about it. My last night of freedom was with Jane at Clarence House.'

On July 29, 1981, 44 years ago to this day, Diana married Charles at St Paul's Cathedral in front of 3,500 guests.  A record-breaking 750million people in 74 countries across the globe tuned in to watch the event on television.  'I remember being so in love with my husband that I couldn't take my eyes off him,' Diana said.

'He was going to look after me. Well, was I wrong on that assumption?  I realised I had taken on an enormous role but had no idea what I was going into but no idea.'

Charles and Diana had announced their engagement five months prior to the wedding, on February 24, 1981, with an exclusive interview.  The Prince told the BBC that he was 'delighted and frankly amazed' that Diana was 'prepared' to take him on.  However, he upset his future wife when he was asked if they were in love. Diana replied, 'Of course,' while Charles quipped, 'Whatever in love means' a comment she was believed to find 'traumatising'.

During the discussion, Diana debuted her £47,000 engagement ring from luxury jeweller Garrard.  It was a 12-carat oval blue Ceylon sapphire, surrounded by 14 diamonds, set in 18-carat white gold.  Diana's dress featured a substantial skirt complete with a record-breaking 25ft-train and frothy folds of silk taffeta fit for a fairytale.  To make sure it would fit down the aisle, wedding dress designers Elizabeth and David Emanuel secretly measured St Paul's Cathedral with a tape measure.  During the couple’s five-month engagement, Diana's waist has shrunk from 29in to 23½in and her dress has been taken in five times.  She attended around 15 fittings and required five bodices to accommodate her rapid weight loss.  In addition to being sewn into the gown after losing more weight ahead of her wedding, Diana accidentally spilt perfume on her dress just hours before walking down the aisle, which she hid by holding that part of the gown.  'That dress!' BBC presenter Tom Fleming exclaimed as the soon-to-be princess smoothed the dress around her.

'What a dream she looks,' commentator Angela Rippon added while noting Diana's tiny waist.

According to journalist Penny Junor's book, The Duchess: The Untold Story, Charles sent Diana a signet ring that bore his Prince of Wales feathers, accompanied by a note that read: 'I am so proud of you and when you come up, I'll be there at the altar for you tomorrow. Just look 'em in the eye and knock them dead.'

However, Diana's personal astrologer, Penny Thornton, claimed in an ITV documentary that the royal also had a devastating confession for his bride.  'One of the most shocking things that Diana told me was that the night before the wedding, Charles told her that he didn't love her,' Thornton claimed.

'I think Charles didn't want to go into the wedding on a false premise. He wanted to square it with her and it was devastating for Diana.'

In 2020, speaking in Channel 5's documentary, Charles & Camilla: King and Queen in Waiting, former BBC royal reporter Jennie Bond said Diana confided to her about her doubts on her big day.  Bond, who grew close to Princess Diana while working as a royal correspondent from 1989 to 2003, revealed the fairytale appearance of the 1981 royal wedding was very different behind closed doors.  She said: 'Diana told me much later in one of our private conversations that she had felt like a lamb to the slaughter as she walked up the aisle, which is very sad, but I think she knew that things weren't quite right.  When she saw Camilla in the congregation, she was immediately uneasy about it.'

Bond added that Diana found a bracelet that Prince Charles had given Camilla during their engagement, which he had engraved with her initials.  'She was enraged by it, and she wanted to know why he had gifted this to Camilla'.

Charles even wore a set of personalised cufflinks, which read C & C, for Charles and Camilla, on the couple's honeymoon.  By 1986, both were having extramarital affairs. While Charles was seeing Camilla, the love of his life, Diana was having a dalliance with Army officer Captain James Hewitt.  In 1992, Prime Minister John Major announced the couple were to separate, but continue living together at Kensington Palace.   Two years after their separation, Charles would admit to his infidelity on national TV, on the same night that Diana wore the outfit later dubbed the 'Revenge Dress'.   In August 1996, their divorce was finalised, and they continued to co-parent their sons until Diana's tragic death in a car crash in Paris one year later.  It was not until 1999 that Charles and Camilla felt able to 'come out' as a couple.  They did so by allowing a photo to be taken of them as they left the Ritz hotel in London, having attended a 50th birthday party.  It would take a further six years before they could marry, and that ceremony was nowhere near as lavish or high-profile as Charles and Diana's nuptials.  In 2005, Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles at Windsor Guildhall.  Charles and Camilla who had both been divorced opted for a civil ceremony which was followed by a religious blessing.  The couple's wedding ceremony was attended by their children from their previous marriages - Prince William, Prince Harry, Laura Lopes and Tom Parker Bowles.  Unlike Charles' first wedding, the couple's civil ceremony was kept private.  Buckingham Palace announced that there would be no music or readings featured in the order of service.  After the ceremony, the royal newlyweds took the time to greet royal fans who had gathered on the streets of Windsor to celebrate their marriage.

Charles and Diana relationship timeline

November 1977: Prince Charles and Diana Spencer are introduced when Diana was just 16, and working as a nanny

July 1980: The pair was thought to start courting at this time. Charles taught Diana how to fish and Diana was spotted at the Royal Family’s Balmoral estate

February 1981: The royal engagement is officially announced

July 29, 1981: Charles and Diana tie the knot

October 1981: Princess Diana makes first official royal engagement in Wales

June 21, 1982: Prince William is born

1983: The couple tour Australia and New Zealand

September 15, 1984: Prince Harry is born

1986: Both Charles and Diana reportedly start having affairs

1989: Diana reportedly confronts Camilla Parker Bowles

July 29, 1991: The pair celebrate a muted 10 years of marriage

June 7, 1992: Diana: Her True Story, a biography written by Andrew Morton, is published

December 9, 1992: Charles and Diana announce their split

June - October 1994: Prince Charles confesses to his affair

November 20, 1995: The infamous Panorama interview is broadcast

December 19, 1995: Prince Charles files for divorce

August 31, 1997: Princess Diana dies

September 6, 1997: Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry attend Princess Diana’s funeral

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/royals/article-14821041/What-uncomfortable-links-weddings-Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-King-Edward-Wallis-Simpson-Robert-Hardman-new-Mail-podcast.html

What uncomfortable detail links the weddings of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with Edward and Wallis Simpson? Royal biographer Robert Hardman reveals all on new Mail podcast

By JOSEPH PALMER

Published: 05:00, 19 June 2025 | Updated: 05:19, 19 June 2025

On the latest episode of Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, Royal biographer Robert Hardman reveals a striking parallel between the weddings of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and Edward and Wallis Simpson.  The episode, the second instalment in a new podcast miniseries examining the 'objectionable' lives of the first celebrity Royal couple, focuses on how the British establishment turned its back on Edward and Mrs Simpson following the King's abdication.  Edward abdicated under the mistaken belief that he and his twice-divorced bride would be permitted back into the Royal fold.  The Duke of Windsor expected his new wife to receive the royal titles and privileges due to a former King's bride.  During preparations for their June 1937 wedding, it became apparent that Mrs Simpson would never gain full Royal status and that the couple faced complete exile from the family.

The Wedding of Edward and Wallis Simpson

After failing to convince the government and Commonwealth to accept Mrs Simpson as Queen, Edward abdicated on December 11, 1936.  Simpson was deemed unacceptable because she was an American divorcée with two living ex-husbands, which violated both the Church of England's stance on divorce and the constitutional requirement that the monarch be the head of that church.  The crown passed to Edward's brother George VI, who made him Duke of Windsor. Edward then fled to Europe while Simpson's divorce from Ernest Simpson was finalised.  The former King reportedly felt relieved, 'liberated' from the great burden of the crown.  As Mail Columnist Robert Hardman explained: 'Winston Churchill was said to have been in tears when he listened to the announcement of the abdication on the radio.  One man who was not in tears was the King himself. His view was that the crown had been a terrible burden and that now, he was, in a sense, liberated.  Edward believed he could continue being much loved without any of the hassle of going about his Royal duty.'  iHe was definitely deluded Edward failed to understand that the nation moves on quite quickly. They were a serious threat to the institution they had left behind.'

Planning his wedding to Mrs Simpson, any hopes Edward had of retaining some form of Royal power were dashed.  George VI forbade his brother from returning to England, forcing the couple to celebrate their union in France.  The Church of England also refused to sanction the marriage, leaving an obscure clergyman, Robert Anderson Jardine, to conduct the service.  On top of this, the new King, on the advice of the government, pressured members of the Royal family and aristocracy not to attend the wedding.  'Edward hoped to have lots of members of his family there', Hardman began.

'But he's told, they are not coming at all. George VI and Queen Elizabeth send a telegram but that's it. They told all the other Royals they were not to attend.  Dickie Mountbatten, always trying to ride two horses at once, writes to Edward saying he does want to be there, but the King won't let him.  Even members of the aristocracy are told they cannot turn up. For example, Ulik Alexander, keeper of the Privy Purse and a great friend of Edwards is told he will lose his position if he attends.  There's a lot of establishment pressure to completely boycott and ostracise this event. In the end, only seven British guests are in attendance.'

The government's opposition to senior British establishment figures attending was not solely born out of spite.  Officials knew that within Britain and across the Empire, there would be outrage at the prospect of Simpson being honoured as a full Royal.  If the wedding resembled a state occasion, there were fears it might embolden Mrs Simpson to use the title Her Royal Highness.  Hardman told the podcast: 'There is very strong pressure, from the other realms and dominions that people do not want Simpson given Royal status.  If she's made Her Royal Highness, people would have to curtsy to her. That cannot happen.'

The event was equally poorly attended on the bride's side, leading the Royal biographer to draw a comparison with Harry and Meghan's wedding some 80 years later.  Hardman said: 'Wallis had one member of her family there, her aunt Bessie. This slightly echoes Harry and Meghan's wedding in 2018, where only Meghan's mother attended.'

 

After dinner, the children turned to Jacob and asked if he would tell them a story.

"A story about what?" asked Jacob.

"About a giant," squealed the children.

Jacob smiled, leaned against the warm stones at the side of the fireplace, and his voice turned softly inward.  Once there was a boy who asked his father to take him to see the great parade that passed through the village. The father, remembering the parade from when he was a boy, quickly agreed, and the next morning the boy and his father set out together.  As they approached the parade route, people started to push in from all sides, and the crowd grew thick. When the people along the way became almost a wall; the father lifted his son and placed him on his shoulders.  Soon the parade began and as it passed, the boy kept telling his father how wonderful it was and how spectacular were the colors and images. The boy, in fact, grew so prideful of what he saw that he mocked those who saw less saying, even to his father, 'If only you could see what I see.'"

"But," said Jacob staring straight in the faces of the children, "what the boy did not look at was why he could see. What the boy forgot was that once his father, too, could see."

Then as if he had finished the story, Jacob stopped speaking.  "Is that it?" said a disappointed girl. "We thought you were going to tell us a story about a giant."

"But I did," said Jacob. "I told you a story about a boy who could have been a giant."

"How?" squealed the children.

"A giant," said Jacob, "is anyone who remembers we are all sitting on someone else's shoulders."

"And what does it make us if we don't remember?" asked the boy.

"A burden," answered Jacob.