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“I tried to protect her”: Victoria and David Beckham recount terrifying stalking incident

David and Victoria Beckham have opened up about their ordeal with a stalker who has been charged with harassing the former athlete. The Beckhams are being represented by their lawyers in a Westminster Magistrate Court where 58-year-old Sharon Bell is facing stalking charges. Bell believed she was in a relationship with Beckham and, after trying to contact him through a series of letters, claimed he and his wife were conspiring to “steal her eggs from inside her body”, as reported by The Daily Mail. One of the letters Bell sent to the football star read: “I do love you and have done so since we were children.” In a statement read to the court, the father of four said he doesn’t have a relationship with Bell and had never seen her before. “I felt like the language in the letters was escalating and becoming more emotional and threatening towards me and my family and this worried me,” he said in his statement, addressing the impact the letters had on him. The court also heard of a terrifying event involving the couple’s youngest child, 11-year-old Harper. Bell reportedly appeared at Harper’s school in an attempt to abduct her. “I’m Harper’s mother. I’m here to pick her up,” she reportedly told the school. After police were called to the school, Bell was taken away. A statement from Victoria was also read out in court by prosecutor Arizuna Asante, detailing the fashion designer’s concern for her young daughter following the incident. “Due to the volume of attention [my husband and I receive from fans], we are rarely informed of the nature of communications from fans,” her statement read. “I tried to protect her and I am worried about her. “I am very concerned and anxious about Harper going to the park or being taken on school trips.” Prosecutor Asante added: “She is now scared to go out and it has made things harder for her. “She is worried, especially when Harper goes on school trips.” Bell, who is currently detained under the Mental Health Act, was deemed a risk to the couple's children because she was “obsessed with the family” by District Judge Michael Snow. Judge Snow charged Bell with stalking, though she will not face a criminal trial because of her mental health. Image: Getty Images

Family & Pets

“Our children did not deserve this”: Texas school teacher recounts harrowing events

A school teacher from Robb Elementary School has spoken about how the “longest 35 minutes of my life” unfolded during the school shooting that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers. The teacher spoke to a reporter from <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teacher-uvalde-texas-describes-longest-35-minutes-life-rcna30571" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC News</a> on the condition that she not be named, partly because district administrators asked staff not to speak with reporters, but also because she was terrified. On Wednesday night, 28 hours and 45 minutes after the gunman charged into the school and opened fire, the teacher answered her door with puffy eyes from hours of crying and almost no sleep. “What do you want me to say?” she asked the reporter. “That I can’t eat? That all I hear are their voices screaming? And I can’t help them?” She recalled how her students had been watching a Disney movie that morning as part of their end-of-year celebration. When she heard gunfire from down the hall, she knew exactly what it was, telling her kids to get under their desks and sprinting to lock the door. “They’ve been practising for this day for years,” the teacher said, referring to active shooter drills that have been incorporated into American public education over the years. “They knew this wasn’t a drill. We knew we had to be quiet or else we were going to give ourselves away.” While her students huddled under their desks, staying quiet while hearing their wounded classmates down the hall, the teacher sat in the middle of the room. She said she tried to stay calm and be strong for them. She said what followed was “the longest 35 minutes of my life”. As some of her students began to cry, she motioned for them to come sit with her and held them, whispering for them to pray silently. Without saying a word, she tried to convey to the class: ‘You’re OK. We’re going to be OK.’ When the police finally broke the classroom windows, the teacher called for her students to line up as they would every day for recess and lunch before they were helped out of the window. “After the last kid, I turned around to ensure everyone was out,” the teacher said. “I knew I had to go quickly, but I wasn’t leaving until I knew for sure.” She later reunited with her students at another school facility across town and tried to comfort those who were worried about their best friends or cousins down the hall. Then, as the toll of the shooting became clearer, some parents texted her, writing: “Thank you for keeping my baby safe.” “But it’s not just their baby,” the teacher said, sobbing on her front porch. “That’s my baby, too. They are not my students. They are my children.” Before closing her door, she had an important message to share with the reporter. “I want you to say this in your article,” the teacher said. “Our children did not deserve this. They were loved. Not only by their families, but their family at school.” Image: Getty Images

Caring

Man assisting elderly neighbour recounts terrifying stabbing

A Gold Coast man was stabbed in the chest while investigating an attempted break-in at his elderly neighbour’s home and had to keep himself alive, only to find out all of his vital organs were untouched. James Fletcher, 40, was in his Palm Beach home on Monday night when he heard a noise from the house next door. After realising he could see his 92-year-old neighbour “rummaging around” outside with a torch, Mr Fletcher and his housemate went to check on him. “He’s an old boy and I know him, and I thought he might have had a fall or something,” he told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-17/gold-coast-man-stabbed-helping-his-elderly-neighbour/100628806" target="_blank">ABC News</a>. When they got there, they found the couple walking around on broken glass and quickly took action. “We just took control and tried to look after them to get the glass out of their feet, get some shoes on and start cleaning up,” Mr Fletcher said. “We were there for about 10 minutes and it wasn’t until I started cleaning the glass that I noticed that there was a paver that had been thrown through the window or through the door. “So I was like OK, someone’s trying to break in here, you know, they [his neighbours] were a bit shocked and didn’t know exactly what happened either.” <img style="width: 396px; height: 223px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845716/fletcher.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/b05bf807f6064d3b940bc1d7c9ccdea8" /> James Fletcher (right) was stabbed by an unknown assailant when he came to check on his neighbour, Des Oatridge (left). Image: Channel Nine Once he saw the disturbed paver, the 40-year-old said he went outside to check on his own house, which was left open, and to pick up a first aid kit. As he did so, a man called out asking whether he had heard the loud noise and if everyone was alright. “And he walked towards me and as soon as he sort of walked past me, spun around and rammed a knife in my chest,” Mr Fletcher said. He said the 15-centimetre blade went through his rib cartilage before becoming lodged in his sternum. “I’ll never forget that. Like, the ferocity and the anger and the intent that that was delivered with,” he said. Initially he said he thought he had been punched, until his attacker attempted to pull the knife out. “This knife was embedded in my sternum, and he pulled the knife out but I came with it,” he continued. “And then his hand slipped off and then I sort of reached for my chest, and then I had the knife in my hand, and then he saw that and ran.” Mr Fletcher said he immediately realised he was in trouble, but knew what to do as a physiotherapist trained in trauma. While his housemate and neighbours called an ambulance, Mr Fletcher laid down on the ground and compressed the wound. “I asked for a pillow and some towels to apply pressure to my wound and my job became hanging on,” he said. “But I still didn’t know what was actually going on… I knew I had a big hole… and then the knife actually fell out of my chest when I went to sit up to get into the ambulance.” After arriving at the Gold Coast hospital, the surgeons waiting to treat Mr Fletcher discovered that the knife had missed all his vital organs in a “one in a million” moment. “It missed my lungs. It nicked my pericardium, which is the sac that contains my heart, but it didn’t touch my heart, missed my spleen and missed all the large vessels,” he said. <img style="width: 396px; height: 415px;" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/7845715/fletcher1.jpg" alt="" data-udi="umb://media/06558ccce0124625b2aae4033fd472ae" /> Image: Channel Nine Mr Fletcher has since provided his statement to police officers, but there have been no arrests yet. Despite his serious injury, Mr Fletcher said he hoped his attacker could access the help he needed. “This guy, I’m sure has a mental health condition. And I’m sure it’s unmanaged or he’s been unable to access resources. And he’s out there in the community. You know, he almost ruined two people’s lives,” he said. After being discharged from hospital on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Fletcher returned to work on Wednesday. He said he had received plenty of support, but was unsure about how he will continue to feel about how “someone tried to kill me, and he was nearly successful”.

Legal

Shark attack victim recounts horrifying ordeal

<div class="post_body_wrapper"> <div class="post_body"> <div class="body_text redactor-styles redactor-in"> 54-year-old Perth man Cameron Wrathall was attacked by a bull shark in the Swan River and spoke about how he almost died from his injuries. He said to <a rel="noopener" href="https://7news.com.au/news/wa/swan-river-shark-attack-victim-cameron-wrathall-recounts-his-terrifying-ordeal-c-2121537" target="_blank">7NEWS</a> that the shark was almost three metres wide and attacked him with such force that it broke his hip. “The shark hit me really hard, it’s the biggest impact I’ve ever felt of something hitting me. It was then trying to shake from side to side to tear part of me away,” he said. “It all happened very quickly, and I just did a kick onto part of it and a thrust down on my hands to push it off me - and hit it pretty hard with the palms of my hands, and it went.” After fighting off the shark and swimming to shore, Wrathall's injuries were severe. He was left with a broken hip, one leg paralysed and had gaping bite wounds from his groin to his buttocks. “In the ambulance, I did die, most likely from blood loss, and I’m very thankful to the ambulance officers for bringing me back,” he said. Wrathall nearly died in hospital from his injuries and was unconscious for two days as trauma surgeons rushed to save him. “I’m very happy to be here and I can’t thank you enough for all you and the people in this hospital have done for me,” he said. Ironically, Wrathall used to swim in the ocean but switched to the river as he wanted to avoid sharks. Despite the fact it may be almost two years before he can walk again as his sciatic nerve was severed in two places, Wrathall is just thankful to be alive. Photo credits: <a rel="noopener" href="https://7news.com.au/news/wa/swan-river-shark-attack-victim-cameron-wrathall-recounts-his-terrifying-ordeal-c-2121537" target="_blank">7NEWS</a> </div> </div> </div>

Travel Trouble

"Lucky to be alive": Australian in Beirut recounts moment of devastation

Lebanese rescue workers are continuing to search for survivors in the wreckage of buildings after an explosion at a port in Beirut killed at least 135 people and injured 5000 more. Up to 250,000 have also been displaced, with no home to live in after the explosion shattered their windows and sent their buildings tumbling. Samah Hadid from Australia is among those affected. She’s been forced to evacuate her neighbourhood which sits “within the zone” - just one kilometre from the port. Her apartment has been left “completely destroyed”, but authorities have also issued a warning about the toxic fumes circulating in the air, putting Samah’s health at risk too. “I’m really lucky to be alive,” she told The Latest. “The damage was so extensive that it ripped through the entire building and the apartment so I’m really lucky to escape injury.” When the explosion occurred, Samah thought it was either a bomb or an earthquake as her building began to shake. <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhu2u2lezp/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CDhu2u2lezp/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank">My sincere condolences and prayers go out to those affected in Lebanon 🙏🙏🙏🙏 #lebanon #beirut #beirutlebanon #beirut_lebanon #lebanonexplosion</a> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/vetmedmemesdaily/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank"> THE VET HUMOR PAGE</a> (@vetmedmemesdaily) on Aug 5, 2020 at 5:06pm PDT </div> </blockquote> “The ceilings came down. Furniture just ripped apart,” she said. Hadid escaped through the building’s stairwell but found “blood all over the staircase from people who were really severely injured”. “The hospitals were so overwhelmed and overcrowded that they should not accept any more people,” she said. “And this is happening in the middle of a pandemic where the health system here is already overstretched dealing with coronavirus and, to put it in perspective, Lebanon was already facing an economic crisis. “People were already living in poverty. “We’re already facing starvation, in my street alone, buildings have been destroyed, neighbourhoods have been ruined, brought to rubble. “The country has been brought to its knees. It’s facing crisis upon crisis. “It desperately needs support and needs international aid support, if people are going to be able to rebuild their lives.” The death toll is expected to rise from the blast that officials believe is due to a large amount of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port. President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of seized ammonium nitrate, used in fertilisers and bombs, had been stored for six years at the port without safety measures.

Travel Trouble

“His eyes were open, but he wasn’t there”: Mother recounts baby loss

Lindsay Paulsen was on her way back from work when she noticed a missed call from her son Declan’s daycare centre. The American mum thought her 11-months-old baby had a runny nose or bumped his head – but when she called back, she was instead “greeted with the worst words of my life”. “‘Declan was taking a nap and didn’t wake up’, his carer told me,” Lindsay wrote in a piece on <a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/my-son-went-to-daycare-and-never-came-home-a-mums-heartbreaking-story-c-1118066">7News</a>. Lindsay, who was pregnant, called her husband Cody and rushed to the hospital where Declan was being taken to. “I tried to talk myself down. Declan would be fine. I was pregnant and the hormones must be making me dramatic.” When she arrived at the hospital, Cody was kneeling on the floor outside the emergency room while Declan was “surrounded by a dozen doctors and nurses trying to start his heart”. She sat in a chair waiting as her husband paced and yelled, “Come on buddy, come on.” Finally, a doctor came up to deliver the harrowing news. “‘I’m sorry we did everything we could’ was all the doctor could say, like some line from a movie,” Lindsay wrote. The shock and grief didn’t hit her until the medical staff stopped their resuscitation efforts, wrapped Declan in a sheet and put him in her arms. “His eyes were open, but he wasn’t there,” she wrote. “That sparkle that made him ‘him’, was gone. “I cried all over my boy and, at the same time, I was trying to memorise every inch of his face, the weight of him in my arms.” Lindsay was later told her son experienced sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. “I found out later SIDS is most likely during a child’s first year,” she wrote. “Declan was just weeks away from that milestone.” That day – March 19, 2018 – marked the last time she saw and held her son. Years after Declan’s death, Lindsay still speaks of him as an active member of her family. “I gladly take the uncomfortable silence and looks I get when a stranger asks me how many kids I have and I mention my son Declan,” she wrote on <a href="https://www.lovewhatmatters.com/i-received-a-missed-call-from-daycare-declan-was-taking-a-nap-and-never-woke-up-sids-grief-loss-healing/">Love What Matters</a>. “I know my answer is not typical because young people don’t die. Babies shouldn’t die, but they do, and if there was more acceptance of ‘the bad stuff’ in life, mothers like me wouldn’t feel so isolated.”

Family & Pets

"I thought the wings would tear off" – passenger recounts terrifying landing in NZ

An Air New Zealand flight into Wellington on Monday had to make three attempts at landing in rapidly shifting winds, with passengers clinging to their seats. The flight from Auckland had to abort two landings before eventually touching down in the capital at 7.21pm, about 20 minutes behind schedule. The arrival left some passengers on the edge of their seats as the plane roared across the runway after landing. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> Our <a href="https://twitter.com/FlyAirNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FlyAirNZ</a> pilot earned his stunt wings with tonight’s Wellington landing. Pulled up from the first attempt at house height. Abandoned the second as the wind chucked us about. Landed on the third go, then slammed the brakes so hard I thought the wings would tear off! — Patrick Crewdson (@PatrickCrewdson) <a href="https://twitter.com/PatrickCrewdson/status/950257542986256384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2018</a></blockquote> "[The pilot] landed on the third go, then slammed the brakes so hard I thought the wings would tear off," Stuff editor Patrick Crewdson posted on Twitter. An Air New Zealand spokesman said the flight was never in danger, and speculation on social media that the plane landed with a strong tail wind behind it was inaccurate. "Due to the wind changing direction as NZ449 made its approach into Wellington Airport, the pilots made two attempts to land, followed by standard 'go-around' procedures, before landing without further incident," Andrew Brown said. The aircraft landed into a light headwind, and the braking was normal for the weather conditions at the time. Passengers gave a round of applause when the flight landed, and the pilot came out of the cockpit to thank them, Crewdson said. "I've had my fair share of bumpy landings in Wellington, but have never been more relieved to be safely on the ground." A Wellington Airport spokeswoman said the airport was not aware of any significant weather conditions on Monday evening. Civil Aviation Authority corporate communications manager Mike Richards said there were no specific guidelines for landing in high winds. The decision was an operational one made by pilots, in conjunction with air traffic control. Airways senior communications adviser Isabelle Teresa said surface wind speeds were recorded for flights, but those would be different to winds the aircraft could experience on approach. Written by Damian George. Republished with permission of <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/" target="_blank">Stuff.co.nz.</a>

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