A journalists’ guide to the week ahead, provided by forward planning service Foresight News.
Today, the sentencing of Kaniel Martin and Avie Howell, the convicted killers of British honeymooners Ben and Catherine Mullany, takes place in St John’s, Antigua. The couple, from Wales, were shot dead in a luxury cottage on the Caribbean island, during the last day of their honeymoon on July 27, 2008. The killers have also been convicted for the murder of Jamaican woman Woneta Anderson, using the same gun, on August 9, 2008.
One of the most memorable images of August’s riots was the blaze which engulfed, and ultimately destroyed, the 150-year-old Reeves Furniture Store in Croydon, on 8 August. And today, 33-year-old Gordon Thompson, accused of starting the fire, appears charged with arson with intent to endanger life in a plea and case management hearing.
Tuesday is expected to see the media’s roving eye drawn back to Los Angeles Superior Court, where the opening arguments in the case of Dr Conrad Murray, the former personal physician to pop icon Michael Jackson, are set to be delivered. The doctor is charged with involuntary manslaughter by virtue of Jackson’s death in June, 2009, from a suspected overdose of anaesthetic.
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Day three of the Labour Party conference also falls on Tuesday, and Ed Miliband is expected to deliver a rabble-rousing speech to the captivated delegates in Liverpool’s Arena and Convention Centre. Sandwiched as he is between speeches from the coalition’s double-headed chimera, Miliband will no doubt ensure his peroration makes all the right noises, particularly in a week likely to be consumed by the ongoing economic crisis.
In the spirit of averting an apocalyptic meltdown of Europe’s economies, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou travels to Berlin for discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, unsurprisingly to focus on the current turmoil in world markets.
Liam Adams, the brother of Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, is in Dublin’s High Court to challenge his extradition to Northern Ireland this Wednesday. Liam, formerly a youth project worker, is accused of sexually abusing his daughter, Aine Tyrell, on 18 occasions from the age of four, who now as an adult has waved her right to anonymity. Last year a search ensued for Liam before his brother Gerry implored him to give himself up, also revealing their father had subjected family members to abuse.
One to be picked through on Thursday, as the Ministry of Justice releases its quarterly Freedom of Information Act statistics for April to June, 2011. The release catalogues the responses from more than 40 central government bodies and departments of state. Categories such as timeliness, initial responses and the volume of requests received by bodies provide a snapshot of how the act is being used by both the public and government bodies.
Also on Thursday, the funeral mass is held for four members of a Polish family, who were among six people stabbed to death on Jersey last month. Izabela Rzeszowska, 30, her children Kinga, 5, and Kacper, 2, and her father Marek Garstki, 56, were all killed, allegedly by Rzeszowska’s husband Damian.
Another city trader is hauled in front of the courts on Friday, when Nicholas Levene is expected to appear in Southwark Crown Court charged with 16 offences relating to a multi-million pound investment fraud. Levene is accused of obtaining £30m from investors, of which he lost £25m, subsequently leading to the former trader being declared bankrupt in October 2009.
Defenders of the British high seas, the Royal Navy, are set to announce a tranche of redundancies on Friday, reportedly in the region of 1,600 personnel. Servicemen and women will be notified if they’ve been selected for redundancy by the Ministry of Defence.
Saturday sees a home nations flavour brought to the Rugby World Cup, when England take on Scotland in the resumption of one of the globe’s most enduring rivalries. With Johnson’s men so far enduring a shaky start to the tournament, and Scotland also struggling against relative minnows, the clash promises to be a marker for each sides’ tournament prospects.
A raft of changes in UK employment law come into effect this Saturday, as the minimum wage is increased for all workers from £5.93 to a generous £6.08, while apprentices gain the largest rise of 10p to £2.60. Agency workers of more than 12 weeks are also guaranteed many of the rights enjoyed by full-time staff, with similar holiday entitlements and working conditions.
On Sunday, the Conservatives emerge, blinking into Manchester’s grey-filtered sunlight, to make their way into small rooms with fellow Conservatives and huddle around discussing the merits of coalition government and the plight of the world’s economy. Meanwhile the TUC has organised a Right to Work protest to coincide with the opening of the conference.
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