Family of murdered Muriel McKay urge police to launch new search for her remains on remote beach
The family of murdered Muriel McKay has urged police to begin a new search for her remains on a remote beach after the discovery of a long-lost “confession” by her killer.
According to a letter hidden among old court files, Arthur Hosein told his solicitor he buried her body at Jaywick Sands near Clacton, Essex.
It is believed the information was never followed up.
Arthur and his brother Nizamodeen Hosein kidnapped Mrs McKay, the wife of a newspaper executive, in 1969 and held her for ransom before they were arrested and charged with her murder.
Mrs McKay was married to Alec McKay, the deputy to Rupert Murdoch, who had just bought the Sun newspaper.
The Hosein brothers mistook her for Mr Murdoch’s first wife, Anna. The Murdochs were abroad and the McKays were using the boss’s limousine.
They were convicted in one of the first murder trials without the evidence of the victim’s body, denying their involvement and refusing to say what they did with her.
Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein
But in a letter to the Appeal Court in 1972, Arthur’s solicitor, George Brown, who was trying to get legal aid for his client, wrote: “I have received information that the body of Mrs McKay, who was the alleged victim in this case, was buried at Jaywick Sands, a fact which I have communicated to the local police.
“It may be that there is some merit in what this man says…”
Mrs McKay’s daughter Dianne McKay told Sky News: “In many ways I’d like to halt the whole thing and personally I find it’s an ongoing agony.
“I learned to live with it a long time ago, the loss of my mother and the way it happened.
“I don’t really want to go on and on forever. But if someone is willing to have a quick look or a proper look for us on this huge beach area maybe that’s a good idea.”
Simon Farquhar, an author who discovered the letter at the bottom of a box of official documents, said the plea for legal aid was rejected and there was no appeal hearing. The solicitor and the killer are now dead.
In three years of research for his new book about the case A Desperate Business, Mr Farquhar said he found no evidence that anyone had acted on the solicitor’s information.
“The solicitor says he informed the local police, but we don’t know whether that’s the police in Essex, or local to Arthur’s prison in Wakefield, or his own office in Birmingham or whatever,” he said.
“But as far as I can tell, no police officer was ever given this information. There was no visit to see Arthur in prison, either by the police or by that solicitor. There was no record of any police force having informed Wimbledon CID about this.
“In fact, right up until 25 years later, whenever someone anywhere in Britain went into a police station with some information about this, it was relayed to members of the CID and any officer who was connected with a story looked at it again.”
In April, Scotland Yard detectives reopened the case in the search for Mrs McKay’s remains after Nizamodeen Hosein, who is still alive but had always insisted he did not know what happened to her, told her family she had died of a heart attack at the brothers’ Hertfordshire farm and he had buried her there.
Digging was carried out at a farm but Muriel McKay’s remains were not found
Police found no trace of her and stopped the search after a few days.
The officer in charge said the latest revelation did not justify a new search because he could not verify the information or be sure where it came from.
He said in an email to the McKay family: “We are aware of this letter and have copies of the letter and other related documents.
“We have reviewed, considered, analysed and assessed the information and unfortunately this is one single strand of intelligence.
“In the letter the solicitor states that he has information which suggests that Muriel was buried at Jaywick Sands, which we can assume has come from Arthur. Nonetheless we have done some research on the solicitor and it seems he has since passed away.
“We have no way of knowing exactly where that information came from and therefore unable to attribute, verify or assess the validity of the information. It is with regret that I will not be able to progress this line of enquiry.”
Scotland Yard was asked for an official response.
A man has been remanded into custody charged with child cruelty offences after allegedly lacing sweets with sedatives.
Jon Ruben, 76, of Ruddington, Nottinghamshire, appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Saturday after youngsters fell ill at a summer camp in Stathern, Leicestershire.
He has been charged with three counts of wilfully assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning or exposing children in a manner likely to cause them unnecessary suffering or injury to health.
The charges relate to three boys at the camp between 25-29 July.
The scene in Stathern, Leicestershire. Pic: PA
Ruben spoke only to confirm his name, age and address.
Police received a report of children feeling unwell at a camp being held at Stathern Lodge, near Melton in Leicestershire, last Sunday.
Officers said paramedics attended the scene and eight boys – aged between eight and 11 – were taken to hospital as a precaution, as was an adult. They have since been discharged.
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Police said the “owners and operators of Stathern Lodge are independent from those people who use or hire the lodge and are not connected to the incident”.
Leicestershire Police has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, after officers initially reported the incident as having happened on Monday, only to later amend it to Sunday.
It is still unclear when officers responded and whether that is why the watchdog referral has been made.
Ruben will next appear at Leicester Crown Court on 29 August.
A bishop who interrupted a church concert in his dressing gown – and told singers to “leave his house” – has formally apologised to the choir.
Jonathan Baker was filmed standing barefoot at a microphone as he criticised performers for making a “terrible racket” at St Andrew’s Church in central London.
Addressing the City Academy Voices choir directly, the bishop of Fulham said: “I write to apologise for the distress and offence I caused in bringing the concert to a premature end.
“This should not have happened … I also apologise for remarks which were made in haste, and which have understandably caused hurt and distress.”
The bishop, in his dressing gown, gave the choir a dressing down
Mr Baker had demanded for the performance to stop because it was 10pm – and says he didn’t realise the choir had booked the church until 11pm.
In the statement obtained by Sky News, he added: “I have lived here on site at St Andrew’s for 10 years, for much of which City Academy has rehearsed and performed here.
“You have been, and continue to be, welcome – and I hope that you will be able to continue the relationship with us.
“I can give you every assurance that the events of Friday evening will not recur, and I apologise again to performers (especially those unable to perform at the end of the evening) and the audience alike.”
The choir performed their last song
The choir was performing to a 300-strong audience in Holborn when the lights were suddenly turned off, with Mr Baker declaring the concert was “over”.
A church employee then asked the crowd to leave quietly and for the musicians to step down from the stage, attracting boos from the audience.
The choir went on to perform one last song, an A cappella version of ABBA’s Dancing Queen, before bringing their show to a close.
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Jonathan Baker has apologised
One member of the audience, who was attending with his 10-year-old daughter, told Sky News he initially thought the interruption was a staged joke.
Benedict Collins had told Sky News: “This work deserves respect, not to be disparaged as a ‘terrible racket’. The people here had put their heart and soul into it.
“The bishop cut them off in midstream, preventing soloists who had worked their hardest from singing – and preventing the audience, which included people of all ages, from enjoying it to the end.”
The choir told Sky News it was “upsetting” that they were unable to finish their show as planned, but “hold no hard feelings and wish the bishop well”.
A spokesperson added: “If anyone is thinking of joining one of our choirs, the City Academy Voices rehearse on Mondays in central London. Dressing gowns optional.”
The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned.
New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18.
The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content.
X has warned the act’s laudable intentions were “at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach”.
It said: “When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety’.
“It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.”
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What are the new online rules?
X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight – and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, “encouraging over-censorship”.
“A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK,” it said.
A UK government spokesperson said it is “demonstrably false” that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech.
“As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression,” they added.
Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed.
In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans” to reverse the Online Safety Act.
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Why do people want to repeal the Online Safety Act?
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would ditch the regulations.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were “on the side of predators” – to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.
Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies – that collectively run 34 pornography sites – are complying with new age-check requirements.
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These companies – 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd – run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said.
The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.
It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites.
Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.
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