A convicted killer signed an extraordinary $50,000 contract with his victim’s family to reveal what happened to her body.
Nizamodeen Hosein had kept the secret of Muriel McKay’s fate for more than 50 years, long after his release from prison, until her family made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
But after signing an agreement that would have rescued him from a life of poverty, he turned down the money (the equivalent of £43,000) and told the family how and where Muriel died.
Image: Muriel McKay. Pic: SkyUK
At his squalid, remote home in Trinidad he explained to their lawyer: “I don’t want the money. Money wasn’t my objective, it was peace of mind.
“Talking about it now breaks my heart. I was young, 22, I didn’t feel the pain like I’m feeling now.”
Hosein, aged 75 and in poor health, has offered to return to the UK, from where he was deported at the end of his life sentence in 1990, to show Mrs McKay’s daughter Dianne and her grandson Mark Dyer the site of Muriel’s remains.
He claims she died from a heart attack at a Hertfordshire farm owned by his brother Arthur a few days after they kidnapped and held her for a £1m ransom at Christmas in 1969.
Mr Dyer, a businessman who drew up the contract with lawyers, said: “It may seem odd to many people that we should pay Nizam Hosein for the information, but our offer unlocked everything after many years of his silence and our sadness and frustration.
Image: Mark Dyer
“It seemed our last chance of ever finding out what happened to my grandmother.
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“Nizam could certainly have made good use of the cash because he is living in a hut with rotting floorboards, no proper sanitation and poisonous snails climbing the walls.
“He seems to have rejected the money because he wants closure. He’s getting old and he’s frail and it was perhaps his chance to atone for what he did.
“Our lawyer gave him the first $500 and he just pushed it away. For me, that gave him legitimacy.”
Muriel was aged 55 and the wife of newspaper executive Alick McKay, deputy to press baron Rupert Murdoch – who had just bought the Sun and News of the World.
The bungling brothers mistook Muriel for Murdoch’s first wife Anna after following the wrong car, Murdoch’s Rolls Royce, to the McKay home in Wimbledon, South London.
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After days of playing cat and mouse with the police – and a bodged attempt to pick up a suitcase of ransom money – the kidnappers were caught and arrested at the farm.
However, there was no sign of Muriel and they refused to say what had happened to her.
They were jailed for life after one of the first murder convictions without the discovery of the victim’s body. Arthur Hosein died in prison in 2009.
Image: Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein. Pic: SkyUK
Last year, Scotland Yard searched part of the farmland near the village of Stocking Pelham after talking to Hosein on a video link, but he later insisted they had dug in the wrong place.
Some of the farm buildings, fencing and gates have been changed in the intervening years since the murder, which gripped the public and made worldwide headlines at the time.
Image: The Hertfordshire farm where Muriel McKay was kept prisoner by the Hosein brothers
Detectives have sent Hosein a list of more than 80 questions in a bid to check his story and narrow down the true burial site.
They are in contact with the McKays and considering applying for a warrant for a new search at the farm.
The family has launched a petition calling on the Home Office to lift Hosein’s deportation order temporarily so he can revisit the farm.
He said: “If I go back to the farm, I will remember where I put the body. I am sure I can go to the spot directly.”
Scientists are turning detective to work out what British dolphins are up to beneath the waves – by using forensic-style DNA techniques on their poo.
Conservationists have been studying the 250 or so bottlenose dolphins living in Cardigan Bay, west Wales, over many decades.
Up to now, they have only been able to observe the dolphins as they surface to breathe or play, identifying the animals from the unique marks on their dorsal fins to establish which animals were hanging out together and where.
Image: Dolphins in Cardigan Bay. Pic: Sarah Perry/WTSWW
But now for the first time scientists are using DNA excreted by the dolphins in their poo to build a more complete picture of their lives.
It allows them to identify the sex of individuals and how they are related to other animals. Signficantly, it also shows what the dolphins have been eating.
Image: Dolphin poo. Pic: Sarah Perry/WTSWW
Dr Sarah Perry, marine conservation manager at The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said: “In order to be able to conserve them, we need to know why they’re here and a big a missing part of that is, what they’re feeding on.
“Is that changing at different times of the year? Are certain species of fish more important to them early on in the year, in the spring, and the summer months, and then does that change over the autumn and winter months?
“Are certain species important for younger animals? We don’t know that, so that kind of information, we need to find out.”
Image: Dr Sarah Perry
Catching dolphin poo involves a large element of luck.
The animals occasionally eject a cloud of waste material as they swim.
But it quickly sinks, so the scientists’ boat needs to be close enough for them to scoop it out of the sea with a fine-meshed net.
A sample is then sent to a lab at the University of Aberystwyth, where DNA is extracted for analysis.
Results so far suggest the dolphins are having to adapt to a change in fish species as the water warms.
Image: Dr Niall McKeown
Dr Niall McKeown, a marine biologist at the university, said: “We are seeing large amounts of sardine, sprat, and anchovy.
“This is quite interesting because these are species that are known to have increased in abundance in Welsh waters in recent years in response, we believe, to climate change.”
Image: Dr Niall analyses a sample
Scientists unsure why dolphin numbers are falling
But questions remain about the dolphins.
The number in Cardigan Bay seems to be falling, but scientists are not sure whether that’s a natural cycle or a response to other factors.
Boat noise and disturbance from some fishing activities, such as scallop dredging, could impact the animals, which rely on sound to communicate.
Dr Parry said: “How lucky are we to have such an important population of dolphins here? It’s crazy that we really don’t know that much about them.”
Sir Alan Bates has accused the government of presiding over a “quasi kangaroo court” for Post Office compensation.
Writing in The Sunday Times, the campaigner, who led a years-long effort for justice for sub-postmasters, revealed he had been given a “take it or leave it” offer that was less than half of his original claim.
“The sub-postmaster compensation schemes have been turned into quasi-kangaroo courts in which the Department for Business and Trade sits in judgement of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses,” he said.
“Claims are, and have been, knocked back on the basis that legally you would not be able to make them, or that the parameters of the scheme do not extend to certain items.”
More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon accounting software made it look as if money was missing from their accounts.
Many are still waiting for compensation despite the previous government saying those who had their convictions quashed were eligible for £600,000 payouts.
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‘It still gives me nightmares’
After the Post Office terminated his contract over a false shortfall in 2003, Sir Alan began seeking out other sub-postmasters and eventually took the Post Office to court.
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A group litigation order (GLO) scheme was set up to achieve redress for 555 claimants who took the Post Office to the High Court between 2017 and 2019.
Sir Alan, who was portrayed by actor Toby Jones in ITV drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, has called for an independent body to be created to deliver compensation.
He added that promises the compensation schemes would be “non-legalistic” had turned out to be “worthless”.
It is understood around 80% of postmasters in Sir Alan’s group have accepted a full and final redress, or been paid most of their offer.
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‘Lives were destroyed’
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson told Sky News: “We pay tribute to all the postmasters who’ve suffered from this scandal, including Sir Alan for his tireless campaign for justice, and we have quadrupled the total amount paid to postmasters since entering government.
“We recognise there will be an absence of evidence given the length of time which has passed, and we therefore aim to give the benefit of the doubt to postmasters as far as possible.
“Anyone unhappy with their offer can have their case reviewed by a panel of experts, which is independent of the government.”
Sir Keir Starmer could decide to lift the two-child benefit cap in the autumn budget, amid further pressure from Nigel Farage to appeal to traditional Labour voters.
The Reform leader will use a speech this week to commit his party to scrapping the two-child cap, as well as reinstating winter fuel payments in full.
There are now mounting suggestions an easing of the controversial benefit restriction may be unveiled when the chancellor delivers the budget later this year.
According to The Observer, Sir Keir told cabinet ministers he wanted to axe the measure – and asked the Treasury to look for ways to fund the move.
The Financial Times reported it may be done by restoring the benefit to all pensioners, with the cash needed being clawed back from the wealthy through the tax system.
The payment was taken from more than 10 million pensioners this winter after it became means-tested, and its unpopularity was a big factor in Labour’s battering at recent elections.
Before Wednesday’s PMQs, the prime minister and chancellor had insisted there would be no U-turn.
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Will winter fuel U-turn happen?
Many Labour MPs have called for the government to do more to help the poorest in society, amid mounting concern over the impact of wider benefit reforms.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown this week told Sky News the two-child cap was “pretty discriminatory” and could be scrapped by raising money through a tax on the gambling industry.
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Brown questioned over winter fuel U-turn
Mr Farage, who believes Reform UK can win the next election, will this week accuse Sir Keir of being “out of touch with working people”.
In a speech first reported by The Sunday Telegraph, he is expected to say: “It’s going to be these very same working people that will vote Reform at the next election and kick Labour out of government.”