Sky News has tracked down the American driver who fled the UK after a “devastating” crash that left a British nurse unable to walk.
Issac Calderon, 22, who is wanted by West Mercia Police, is now back living with his parents in his hometown in Texas.
The nurse, Elizabeth Donowho, who broke both ankles in the crash, told Sky News she was pleased Calderon had been located but felt sickened by the situation.
Ms Donowho revealed on Monday that she’d been told by UK police officers that Calderon was connected to the US intelligence services.
A Sky News team has now spoken to Calderon’s father, Manuel, at the family’s detached house in a residential street in Humble, Texas.
He confirmed his son is now back at home and claimed the situation has been “blown out of proportion”.
His son had been described as a “fugitive” with the case likened to that of Anne Sacoolas, the US spy who left the UK after killing teenager Harry Dunn in a crash in Northamptonshire in 2019.
Mr Calderon insisted his son had been in the UK on a work visa and had recently been employed in a warehouse but he couldn’t recall the name of the company.
He said he’d paid for his son to fly home in November because he was “struggling to support himself” and to enable him to seek further medical treatment following the collision.
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It was just days before a court hearing in Kidderminster where he had been expected to appear having been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
A warrant for his arrest was then issued.
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UK could extradite American driver
West Mercia Police said they’d been working to reach him “both directly and through formal channels” and they were preparing paperwork should they need to request the extradition of the American.
Both the US and the UK authorities have refused to disclose what Calderon was doing in the UK.
Ms Donowho said she was also told by police that he was visiting the SAS base in Herefordshire which is nine miles from the crash site.
Manuel Calderon told Sky News his son is part of the American National Guard and said he serves “a few weeks a year”.
Guard soldiers typically hold civilian jobs while maintaining their military training part time.
The US Embassy in London had previously told Sky News that Calderon was a “US citizen”.
Manuel Calderon said they had not heard from either the US or the UK authorities recently, and his son would not be able to discuss the case further because he was now seeking legal advice.
Ms Donowho said: “I feel sick. I’m obviously pleased that Mr Calderon has been found. However I am confused as to why I am learning this news from the media rather than the authorities.
“All I want is for him to face our justice system as soon as possible and an explanation as to how he was able to leave in the first place.”
Ms Donowho’s spokesperson, Radd Seiger, who helped the family of Harry Dunn in the wake of the Sacoolas case said: “I’m grateful to Sky News.
“It is a massive step forward that the defendant has now been located which is a relief to us all. He must now either come back voluntarily or be brought back to the UK without delay.
“Elizabeth has suffered enough and I would appeal to Mr Calderon and both the UK and US authorities to put Elizabeth’s interests as a victim of a near fatal crash first here and now get on and do the right thing.
“Mr Calderon is innocent until proven otherwise but is a fugitive on the run. He should not have fled and it is in his interests more than anyone else’s to come back to face the charges against him.
“We have one of the fairest legal systems in the world and he is entitled to and will get a fair trial when he is back.”
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
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His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.