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A drug dealer and his former girlfriend have been jailed for murdering a father-of-two who was shot in the face and had acid poured on his body.

Michael Hillier tracked down Liam Smith and waited outside his home in Wigan for nearly 10 hours before the attack.

The 39-year-old plotted the assault over a 10-month period with his then girlfriend Rachel Fulstow, 37, who had claimed 38-year-old Mr Smith had raped her after a Tinder date.

Hillier, from Sheffield, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 33 years in jail after being found unanimously guilty of murder following a six-week trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester.

Fulstow will also face life behind bars, with a minimum term of 30 years, plus 18 months for perverting the course of justice, after being found guilty of murder and one charge of perverting the course of justice, after lying to police.

The judge called this a “brutal and cold-blooded murder” and said the pair decided “to exact your own vengeance. The two of you decided to act as judge, jury and executioner”.

The judge added: “You showed no remorse whatsoever.”

Undated handout photo issued by Greater Manchester Police of Michael Hillier who along with Rachel Fulstow have been found guilty of the murder of Liam Smith at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester on Wednesday. Smith, 38, was shot in the face and then had acid poured over him outside his home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on November 24 last year. Issue date: Wednesday August 23, 2023.
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Michael Hillier

Undated handout photo issued by Greater Manchester Police of Rachel Fulstow who along with Michael Hillier have been found guilty of the murder of Liam Smith at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester on Wednesday. Smith, 38, was shot in the face and then had acid poured over him outside his home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on November 24 last year. Issue date: Wednesday August 23, 2023.
Image:
Rachel Fulstow

Killers went on holiday after brutal murder

During the trial, the court heard Mr Smith was lured out of his house at about 6.40pm on 24 November 2022 by Hillier, who shot him in the face before pouring acid onto his face and body, followed by soda crystals.

The couple then went on a two-week holiday to Jamaica just days after the killing.

When the former lovers returned home, Hillier was arrested and Fulstow was initially treated as a witness.

Police later arrested her as a suspect after she was found to have lied during interviews.

Fulstow’s phone showed she had made internet searches into Mr Smith’s electrical company and Mitsubishi Shogun cars, like the one used by Hillier and later burned out after the murder.

On the morning of the killing, she also checked the weather in Wigan.

Mr Smith’s family shouted “yes” and “thank you so much” before sobbing and hugging as the jury found both defendants guilty of murder on Wednesday.

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Undated handout photo issued by Greater Manchester Police of Liam Smith. Michael Hillier and Rachel Fulstow have been found guilty of his murder at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester on Wednesday. Smith, 38, was shot in the face and then had acid poured over him outside his home in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on November 24 last year. Issue date: Wednesday August 23, 2023.
Image:
Victim Liam Smith

Former couple turned on each other during trial

Hillier, who was handcuffed in the dock, stared over at his former partner as the verdicts were returned.

The trial heard conflicting accounts from the former couple, who turned on each other with different versions of events.

Fulstow had met Mr Smith on a date in York in 2019, the court was told. She said they had “non-consensual sex” at a hotel in the city.

But Fulstow did not describe what happened as rape, she told the trial, and did not report it to the police.

The court heard she went for lunch with Mr Smith the day after the one-night stand.

She began dating Hillier two years later in 2021.

Fulstow said he could be verbally abusive and unpredictable and was not happy she had a one-night stand with Mr Smith.

Hillier, who told the court he was a drug dealer involved in producing and distributing cannabis on a large scale, said he and Fulstow had both planned the attack on Mr Smith.

He claimed Fulstow told him she had been “graphically raped” by Mr Smith.

Hillier, who had admitted manslaughter but denied murder, told the jury: “We decided jointly between the two of us that we would deal with the matter ourselves and seek justice ourselves and go down the vigilante route.”

Fulstow, an international travel and tourism management graduate from Leeds Met University, said she was “petrified” to go to the police about her boyfriend.

She told the court the first she knew of the attack on Mr Smith was when Hillier turned up at her house the following morning and told her.

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Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault

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Russell Brand charged with rape and sexual assault

Russell Brand has been charged with rape and two counts of sexual assault between 1999 and 2005.

The Metropolitan Police say the 50-year-old comedian, actor and author has also been charged with one count of oral rape and one count of indecent assault.

The charges relate to four women.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2 May.

Police have said Brand is accused of raping a woman in the Bournemouth area in 1999 and indecently assaulting a woman in the Westminster area of London in 2001.

He is also accused of orally raping and sexually assaulting a woman in Westminster in 2004.

The fourth charge alleges that a woman was sexually assaulted in Westminster between 2004 and 2005.

Police began investigating Brand, from Oxfordshire, in September 2023 after receiving a number of allegations.

Read more from Sky News:
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The comedian has previously denied the accusations, and said all his sexual relationships were “absolutely always consensual”.

Met Police Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “The women who have made reports continue to receive support from specially trained officers.

“The Met’s investigation remains open and detectives ask anyone who has been affected by this case, or anyone who has any information, to come forward and speak with police.”

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Last UK blast furnaces days from closure as Chinese owners cut off crucial supplies

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Last UK blast furnaces days from closure as Chinese owners cut off crucial supplies

​​​​​​​The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running. 

Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.

The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.

Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure

The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.

The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.

British Steel proceesing

The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.

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The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.

These steel workers could soon be out of work
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These steel workers could soon be out of work

However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.

Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.

British Steel in action

However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.

They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.

British Steel

The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.

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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.

“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”

British Steel declined to comment.

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Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released

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Prince Andrew's Pitch@Palace branded 'crude attempt to enrich himself' as Chinese spy documents set to be released

Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.

Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.

In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.

The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
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The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew

Pic: Pitch@Palace
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Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace

Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).

Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.

So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?

In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.

More on Prince Andrew

The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.

Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.

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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?

Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.

But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.

Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.

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He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…

“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.

Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.

He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.

He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.

“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”

We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.

With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.

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