https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11084749/Gang-TEN-teenagers-murdered-18-year-old-jailed-124-years.html

Murdered as he told his killers 'I just want to go home': Teen, 18, was stabbed to death by 10 boys who 'swarmed like zombies' after 'selecting a stranger' to hurt - as his mother says, 'My cheeky chappy, blue-eyed boy just wanted to make his mam proud'

    Jack Woodley fatally stabbed after being 'surrounded and isolated' by a gang who chased him down an alley
    He had been due to start a job the Monday after he was attacked and was on way to pick up keys for a new flat
    Prosecutors said the group had gone out 'looking for serious trouble that day' and tried to 'create conflict'
    Judge said they'd shown 'regret', but 'regret is not remorse' as he gave minimum terms adding up to 124 years

By Rory Tingle, Home Affairs Correspondent and Alex Storey and Tom Brown For Mailonline

Published: 15:27, 5 August 2022 | Updated: 20:37, 5 August 2022

Ten teenagers who murdered an 18-year-old 'for excitement and pleasure' after attacking him at random as he walked home from a funfair in County Durham were today sentenced to life.  Jack Woodley pleaded with his killers 'I just want to go home' moments before the gang of 15 to 17-year-olds punched, kicked and stabbed the teenager with a 25cm 'Rambo style knife'.  Jack's mum Zoe McGill said: 'We always used to call him our cheeky chappy, blue-eyed boy.  He used to light up any room he was in. He hated to be serious, he always wanted to make a joke. He was happy go-lucky and very adventurous.'

The teen was 'surrounded and isolated' by the gang of youths who chased him down an alleyway and attacked him 'like zombies attacking an animal'.  The victim, who had been due to start a job the Monday after he was attacked, was on the way to pick up keys for a new flat when he was punched, kicked, stamped on, and stabbed with a 25cm 'Rambo style' knife during the attack on October 16.  Prosecutors said the group had gone out 'looking for serious trouble that day' and tried to 'create conflict' with Mr Woodley at the festival as they 'looked for any excuse to attack someone'.

One of the teenagers first put Mr Woodley in a headlock and punched him, before the others 'joined in', the court heard.  Jurors were told one of them was heard shouting 'get the chopper' - referring to the knife - in mobile phone footage of the incident.  Today, the 15-year-old who inflicted the fatal wound by stabbing Mr Woodley in the back was detained for a minimum of 17 years.  Witnesses described Mr Woodley as visibly 'so scared' as he curled up into a ball and received a torrent of kicks to his face and body from the attackers, who acted like a 'herd of lions'.  Judge Rodney Jameson QC sentenced the other nine defendants, aged between 15 and 18, to minimum terms of between eight and 15 years' detention.  He told them that if they are then released, they will remain on licence for the rest of their lives. He said they had shown 'regret', but 'regret is not remorse'.  The total minimum terms for all the defendants adds up to 124 years and six months.  Nine of the youths, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had denied murder and manslaughter.  One pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting he stabbed Mr Woodley but denying he intended to kill him, Newcastle Crown Court heard.  Prosecutor Mark McKone QC had told jurors that Jack had been enjoying a day out with his girlfriend at the Houghton Feast funfair when the defendants, who he did not know, 'surrounded and isolated' him near the Britannia Inn pub on Newbottle Street on October 16.  Mr McKone said: 'The attack took place outside the pub but the group also chased Jack down an alleyway at the side of the pub. Many people in the pub saw the attack.'

At the start of the trial in March, prosecutor Mark McKone QC said that while only one youth stabbed Mr Woodley, the other nine were guilty due to 'the concept of joint enterprise'.  A jury convicted all 10 defendants of murder in June.  Jack's mum warned youths against carrying knives, asking them to avoid putting 'yourself in that position where you might possibly use it.'

She added: 'There is never an acceptable excuse to carry a knife, and don't hang around with those who do.  If you know someone has a knife run, tell -on't involve yourself, don't be part of the violence because you will ruin your life and other people's lives too.'

Nine of the defendants intend to appeal against their convictions, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed this week.  Sentencing the group, the judge said: 'No sentence can restore Jack to his family and loved ones, or reduce the pain they will endure now and in the future.  It may seem unfair that you will be able to live at liberty while still young men, while Jack cannot because of what you did.'

Judge Jameson said the group had attacked Mr Woodley 'solely for the excitement and pleasure of inflicting serious injury on an entirely innocent and randomly selected stranger'.

The judge told the defendants the violence inflicted on Mr Woodley 'though short-lived, was appalling' and all of them 'played a part in causing Jack's death'.

He said six of the teenagers had given evidence during the trial, but none 'was prepared to tell the truth about what the others did'.  He told them: 'You decided to put the interests of yourself and your co-defendants before those of Jack and his family. You did everything you could to deny them justice.  I'm sure you do regret what happened for many reasons, but regret is not remorse.'

Judge Jameson told the teenager who stabbed Mr Woodley: 'I have concluded that you intended to kill when you inflicted the second stab wound. I accept that intention may have been formed in the heat of the moment.  It is, however, that sort of escalation that can occur when violence is carried out mob-handed and when armed with a deadly knife.'

One of the teenagers first put Mr Woodley in a headlock and punched him, before the others 'joined in', the court heard.  Jurors were told one of them was heard shouting 'get the chopper' referring to the knife in mobile phone footage of the incident.  The teenager is survived by his father, John Woodley, mother Zoey McGill, stepfather Chris McGill and siblings Jayden, Jenson and Tyler.  Speaking during an earlier court hearing this week, Zoe said the whole family would be 'forever haunted about how horrific Jack's injuries were'.

Ms McGill said that Jack had been looking forward to the future, and she added: 'This has ruined our family's lives and life will never be the same again without Jack.'

In an earlier statement, she told the court: 'Jack was my reason to live and succeed in life. From the moment Jack was born he brought light and love to us all.  In the months before October, Jack had sat and passed his English and Math Level 3, CSCS Operatives Card, Forklift Truck License and had secured a job with Amazon which he was due to start the Monday after his death.  Jack had also secured his own accommodation and had received the keys for this on the day he was attacked. We were all very proud of Jack and this should have been a very exciting time in his life.  The devastation of losing Jack is immense and far reaching. The trauma of reliving this whole incident over a long trial has had a devastating effect [on] us all. We cannot see a way of recovering from this.'

The statement concluded: 'We will never be able to share treasured family moments with our cheeky chappy blue-eyed boy ever again.'

Jack's mum recalled how the boy had helped a homeless man and his dog he met by giving him money and buying dog food.  The man would later go to his funeral and write a verse for him.  Zoe said: 'He gave him his money and went and got his dog food from Aldi that was how Jack was. He always looked out for people who were less fortunate than himself. From a young age, he was like that.  I think he did make it on the news one time for helping the homeless at 11, he was in secondary school at Woodham. He always had a heart of gold, he wasn't an angel by no means but his heart was always in the right place.'

The second teen, who is 16-years-old, was the first to attack Jack.  He was described as having 'average intelligence' and was sentenced to serve a minimum term of 13 and a half years.  The third teen, 15, who went to collect the knife with the youth who inflicted the stabs, had one previous conviction for burglary and. He was sentenced to a minimum term of 15 years.  The fourth teen, who is now 18-years-old, had attended the fair in possession of a knuckle duster, but did not hit Jack with it.  Despite being one of the oldest, the court heard he was of low intelligence and was not a leader. He was sentenced to serve a minimum of 15 years.  The youngest of the defendants, a 15-year-old, was said not to have attended the fair wanting to fight.  The court heard he may have been called a 'girl' if he didn't attend and was said to have a learning disability. He was sentenced to a minimum of eight years.  The sixth teen, also 15-years-old, had drank vodka and smoked cannabis on the night of the murder and was heard to shout 'get the chopper out'.  The court heard the youth's parents and family had also been involved in criminality. He was sentenced to serve a minimum of 13 years.  The seventh teen, 15, had attempted to fight Jack outside a nearby dentist surgery, and was said to have a low IQ and was 'easily led'.  He has problems with mental health, 'anger management' and had been involved in 'some bad behaviour' while in custody. He must serve a minimum of 10 years.  The eighth teen, who is 16-years-old, became involved in the attack on Jack at a 'late stage' and cried in the dock as he was told he must serve a minimum of 11 years.  The ninth youth, 16, had written a letter to the judge describing how he is determined to turn his life around in the future. He must serve a minimum of 11 years.  The tenth teen, the second 18-year-old, was said to be 'lacking in self confidence', has a low IQ and ADHD. However, the court was told he was the most 'heavily disguised' of the group at the time of the murder. He must serve a minimum of 11 years.

'Don't do it': Jack's devastated mother warns against carrying a knife

After the hearing, Jack's mum said: 'My message? Don't do it. Don't carry a knife, don't put yourself in that position where you might possibly use it.  And don't think that just because you're not the one carrying the knife that you can't be prosecuted - because you can and Jack's case has proved that.  There were children there that night that kicked and punched Jack, held him down, swarmed him and they think that because they didn't hold the knife they're not guilty of murder.  But they involved themselves and they chose to involve themselves. You don't need to be the one holding the knife to contribute to a death or to be found guilty of murder.  There is never an acceptable excuse to carry a knife, and don't hang around with those who do.  If you know someone has a knife run, tell don't involve yourself, don't be part of the violence because you will ruin your life and other people's lives too.'

She added: 'He used to light up any room he was in. He hated to be serious, he always wanted to make a joke. He was happy go-lucky and very adventurous.  Things were really coming together for Jack and he was making his mum proud. We were just numb, I remember screaming. I think I was just in shock.  The days after his death were horrific. I just remember waking up and looking out my bedroom window and I kept saying to myself over and over, it was just a bad dream.  I kept thinking of my son in a morgue. Things that you never would expect to go through as a parent, I think I was just unable to even process some of it, to take it in.  I never want anyone else to ever go through that to go through this. No sentence will make a difference but I hope it sends a strong message to other kids, to stop this happening to other families.'

I wonder how he will cope if he is released as he's institutionalised now.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11001517/Worlds-pregnant-ancient-Egyptian-mummy-cancer-study-finds.html

World's first pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy had CANCER: 2,000-year-old corpse likely died from a rare form of the disease while 28 weeks into her pregnancy, scans reveal

    Scientists have pinpointed a cause of death in a pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy dating back 2,000 years
    Scans of her skull suggest the embalmed woman, the 'Mysterious Lady', died from nasopharyngeal cancer
    Previous studies have shown that the woman died around 28 weeks into her pregnancy, likely while in her 20s

By Ed Wight and Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline

Published: 09:50, 11 July 2022 | Updated: 10:22, 11 July 2022

The world's first pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy died from a rare form of cancer, a new study reveals.  Researchers in Poland were carrying out a scan of the ancient corpse's skull when they discovered unusual markings in the bone.  Similar to those found in patients suffering from nasopharyngeal cancer, the scientists concluded that the mummy most likely died of the same disease.  Nasopharyngeal cancer is a rare type of cancer that affects the part of the throat connecting the back of the nose to the back of the mouth.  It's already know that the woman, nicknamed the 'Mysterious Lady', died while 28 weeks into her pregnancy, but now researchers have pinpointed a cause of death.  Images released by the Warsaw Mummy Project (WMP) in Poland show the skull with lesions most likely made by a tumour and large defects in parts of the bones that wouldn't usually form during mummification procedures.  'We have unusual changes in the nasopharyngeal bones, which, according to the mummy experts, are not typical of the mummification process,' said professor Rafał Stec from the Medical University of Warsaw's Department of Oncology, who worked with experts at WMP.  Secondly, the opinions of radiologists based on computed tomography indicate the possibility of tumour changes in the bones.'

Professor Stec added that the young age of the mummy and the lack of another cause of death indicate an 'oncological cause'.  Scientists now plan to collect tissue samples and compare them with cancer samples from other Egyptian mummies.  By revealing the 'molecular signature' of cancer, it is hoped that this will expand the knowledge of cancer evolution and could contribute to the development of modern medicine.  The further research could also determine a cause of nasopharyngeal cancer such as whether it was associated with viral infection or genetics.  The Mysterious Lady is said to have been found in royal tombs in Thebes, Upper Egypt, coming from the elite of Theban community.  It was discovered in the early 1800s and dates back to the first century BC, a time when Cleopatra was Queen and the city of Thebes was a hive of activity.  The woman was taken to Warsaw in Poland in 1826, around the time of some of the most important discoveries from the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, and is currently on show at the National Museum in Warsaw.  Last year, an examination using tomographic imaging revealed that the woman was between 20 to 30 years old when she died and was in her 26th to 30th week of her pregnancy.  The body had been carefully wrapped in fabrics and left with a rich set of amulets to see her into the afterlife, according to the authors writing in the Journal of Archaeological Science.  Her foetus, which had been 'pickled like a gherkin', was located in the lower part of the lesser pelvis and partly in the lower part of the greater pelvis and was mummified together with its mother.  CT images of the infant were obscured by tissue from the uterus surrounding it, which meant they could not get a more detailed analysis beyond measuring the head.  Its head circumference was 9.8 inches, which the team used to determine it was between the 26th and 30th week of life.  It wasn't taken out from the uterus, as was in the case of the heart, lungs, liver and intestines with the stomach.  Experts at the Warsaw Mummy Project couldn't say why the foetus wasn't extracted and mummified on its own, as has been shown in other instances of stillborn children.  'It may have been thought to be still an integral part of the body of its mother, since it was not yet born,' they said at the time. 

The foetus hadn't been given a name, even though, according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, a name was an important part of a human being.  Thus, it's thought ancient beliefs stipulated the unborn child's afterlife could only have happened if it had gone to the netherworld as part of its mother.  The mummy was previously thought to be the remains of the priest Hor-Jehuti, until it was discovered in 2016 to be an embalmed woman.  This isn't the first time cancer has been detected in a mummy in 2017, scientists discovered the world's oldest known case of breast cancer and multiple myeloma, a type of bone marrow cancer, in two ancient mummies.

The female dating from 2,000 BC and the male from 1,800 BC belonged to the ruling classes of the governing Egyptian families of Elephantine.
WHAT IS EGYPT'S VALLEY OF THE KINGS?

The Valley of the Kings in upper Egypt is one of the country's main tourist attractions and is the famous burial ground of many deceased pharaohs.  It is located near the ancient city of Luxor on the banks of the river Nile in eastern Egypt 300 miles (500km) away from the pyramids of Giza, near Cairo.  The majority of the pharaohs of the 18th to 20th dynasties, who ruled from 1550 to 1069 BC, rested in the tombs which were cut into the local rock.  The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period.  Almost all of the tombs were opened and looted centuries ago, but the sites still give an idea of the opulence and power of the Pharaohs.  The most famous pharaoh at the site is Tutankhamun, whose tomb was discovered in 1922.  Preserved to this day, in the tomb are original decorations of sacred imagery from, among others, the Book of Gates or the Book of Caverns.  These are among the most important funeral texts found on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs.

World's first pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy

Brought to Poland in the mid-19th century, the 'Mysterious Lady' represents the first known pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy.  Last year experts at Warsaw Museum Project discovered that the mummy was pregnant and that the foetus had been 'pickled like a gherkin'.  An examination using tomographic imaging revealed that the woman was between 20-30 years old when she died and was in her 26th to 30th week of her pregnancy.  The mummy was previously thought to be the remains of the priest Hor-Jehuti, until it was discovered in 2016 to be an embalmed woman.

What is nasopharyngeal cancer?

Nasopharyngeal cancer is a disease in which malignant (cancer) cells form in the tissues of the nasopharynx.  The nasopharynx is the upper part of the pharynx (throat) behind the nose.  The pharynx is a hollow tube about 5 inches long that starts behind the nose and ends at the top of the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (the tube that goes from the throat to the stomach).  Tests that examine the nose, throat, and nearby organs are used to diagnose and stage nasopharyngeal cancer.

Source: NIH

A guy in a taxi wanted to speak to the driver so he leaned forward and tapped him on the shoulder. The driver screamed, jumped up in the air and yanked the wheel over. The car mounted the curb, demolished a lamppost and came to a stop inches from a shop window.  The startled passenger said "I didn't mean to frighten you, I just wanted to ask you something."

The taxi driver says "It's not your fault, sir. It's my first day as a cab driver.  I've been driving a hearse for the past 25 years."

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10946375/Heinrich-Himmler-developed-Final-Solution-witnessing-horror-Babi-Yar-massacre.html

Revealed: How SS overlord Heinrich Himmler developed the Final Solution after feeling 'sympathy' for Nazi troops ordered to shoot dead 33,000 Jews at 1941 Babi Yar massacre and thinking: 'there must be another way to do this'

    Massacre took place in 1941 at Babi Yar, a ravine on the edge of Ukrainian capital
    33,771 Jews were shot there by German soldiers over the course of just two days
     SS leader Heinrich Himmler witnessed the killings
    Historian James Holland said he felt sympathy for soldiers doing the shootings
    His experience led him to think there 'had to be a better way of doing this'
    Mr Holland added that it 'directly' led to the Final Solution
    From 1942, millions of Jews were murdered in a network of death camps

By Harry Howard, History Correspondent For Mailonline

Published: 17:06, 23 June 2022 | Updated: 17:13, 23 June 2022

The Final Solution was developed after Heinrich Himmler witnessed the horror of the Babi Yar massacre of more than 33,000 Jews and decided 'there has got to be another way of doing this', historian James Holland said.

Babi Yar, a ravine on the edge of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, became infamous after 33,771 men, women and children were shot there over the course of just two days in September 1941.  At that point, the Nazis were three months into Operation Barbarossa their ultimately doomed attempt to invade and conquer the Soviet Union.  Only ten of the estimated 700 people that took part in the killings at Babi Yar were ever convicted of a crime.  Speaking to MailOnline at the Chalke Valley History Festival, which is sponsored by the Daily Mail, Mr Holland said the path to the Final Solution the name given by the Nazis to the murder of nearly six million Jews in a network of death camps from 1942 began at Babi Yar.  Nazi troops carried out the massacre in Ukraine after branding the local Jewish population 'terrorists'.

Mr Holland said SS leader Himmler, who was 'quite squeamish', 'did not like seeing all these people being shot'.

'He had no sympathy at all for the Jews, what he had was sympathy for the poor blighters who had to carry out these executions,' he said.

'How inhumane is that? He was one of the maddest. There is nothing good that you can say about Himmler. He is just an appalling person.'

He went away and said "we can't do this, we can't have our men expected to do this. There has got to be another way of doing this". And the other way of doing it was the death camps and gassing them.'

Although the mass killings of Jews began in 1941, it was not until the Wannsee Conference in Berlin that mass exterminations began in death camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau.  The full name of the horrific plan was the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, with killings continuing until Nazi Germany's defeat in Europe in May 1945.  At Auschwitz alone, around 1.1million people were murdered in the camp's gas chambers.

There were further killings at camps including Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor.

Mr Holland, who is an expert in the Second World War, added that the Final Solution was a 'direct consequence' of what he witnessed at Babi Yar.  'The way the Nazis justified this to themselves was that this was a terrible thing they had to do. This was the burden of their generation,' he said.

'And it was awful thing to do but otherwise the Aryans would be consumed by the Bolshevik Jewish conspiracy, the global conspiracy, and this was a matter of life and death.'

In March, the site of the massacre, which now hosts a memorial park, was bombed by Russian forces during their attempt to destroy a TV station nearby.  Last year, the memorial centre dedicated to the Babi Yar killings identified 160 people it considered guilty of the murders.  Along with their names, new information about the killers including biographies and testimony was made public.  One participant, Viktor Trill, who was a sergeant in the SS paramilitary group, described how he leapt down into the pits to kill any who survived the initial shooting.  He said that he shot between '150 and 250 Jews', and chillingly added that they were 'resigned to their fate like lambs'.

The Nazis' concentration and extermination camps: The factories of death used to slaughter millions

Auschwitz-Birkenau, near the town of Oswiecim, in what was then occupied Poland

Auschwitz-Birkenau was a concentration and extermination camp used by the Nazis during World War Two.  The camp, which was located in Nazi-occupied Poland, was made up of three main sites.  Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp, Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a combined concentration and extermination camp and Auschwitz III–Monowitz, a labour camp, with a further 45 satellite sites.

Auschwitz was an extermination camp used by the Nazis in Poland to murder more than 1.1 million Jews

Birkenau became a major part of the Nazis' 'Final Solution', where they sought to rid Europe of Jews.  An estimated 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, of whom at least 1.1 million died around 90 percent of which were Jews.  Since 1947, it has operated as Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which in 1979 was named a World Heritage Site by Unesco.

Treblinka, near a village of the same name, outside Warsaw in Nazi-occupied Poland

Unlike at other camps, where some Jews were assigned to forced labor before being killed, nearly all Jews brought to Treblinka were immediately gassed to death.  Only a select few mostly young, strong men, were spared from immediate death and assigned to maintenance work instead.  The death toll at Treblinka was second only to Auschwitz. In just 15 months of operation between July 1942 and October 1943 between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered in its gas chambers.  Exterminations stopped at the camp after an uprising which saw around 200 prisoners escape. Around half of them were killed shortly afterwards, but 70 are known to have survived until the end of the war.

Belzec, near the station of the same name in Nazi-occupied Poland

Belzec operated from March 1942 until the end of June 1943. It was built specifically as an extermination camp as part of Operation Reinhard.  Polish, German, Ukrainian and Austrian Jews were all killed there. In total, around 600,000 people were murdered.  The camp was dismantled in 1943 and the site was disguised as a fake farm. 

Sobibor, near the village of the same name in Nazi-occupied Poland

Sobibor was named after its closest train station, at which Jews disembarked from extremely crowded carriages, unsure of their fate.  Jews from Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Soviet Union were killed in three gas chambers fed by the deadly fumes of a large petrol engine taken from a tank.   An estimated 200,000 people were killed in the camp. Some estimations put the figure at 250,000.  This would place Sobibor as the fourth worst extermination camp in terms of number of deaths after Belzec, Treblinka and Auschwitz.   The camp was located about 50 miles from the provincial Polish capital of Brest-on-the-Bug. Its official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor.  Prisoners launched a heroic escape on October 14 1943 in which 600 men, women and children succeeded in crossing the camp's perimeter fence.  Of those, only 50 managed to evade capture. It is unclear how many crossed into allied territory.

Chelmno (also known as Kulmhof), in Nazi-occupied Poland

Chelmno was the first of Nazi Germany's camps built specifically for extermination.  It operated from December 1941 until April 1943 and then again from June 1944 until January 1945.  Between 152,000 and 200,000 people, nearly all of whom were Jews, were killed there. 

Majdanek (also known simply as Lublin), built on outskirts of city of Lublin in Nazi-occupied Poland

Majdanek was initially intended for forced labour but was converted into an extermination camp in 1942.  It had seven gas chambers as well as wooden gallows where some victims were hanged.  In total, it is believed that as many as 130,000 people were killed there.