Kerry Katona ‘house-hunting for a lovenest’

London, April 01 (ANI): Kerry Katona is looking for a house to get closer to

Peter Andre, say sources.

The ex-Atomic Kitten will up sticks from Wilmslow, Cheshire and is said to be checking out properties in Hove, East Sussex, where Pete, 37, lives, reports The Daily Star.

“Kerry says she wants to move to Sussex. She’s seen one house she really likes and has also been down looking at schools for the children. Kerry said one of the schools is very good – it’s where Peter sends his kids,” said a close friend.

But Phil Turner, a friend of Kate Price, said the glamour girl thinks Kerry and her ex-hubby Peter “are just a publicity stunt.” (ANI)

Brit prison monitor lands herself in jail for having ”phone sex” with inmates

London, Apr 1 (ANI): A prison monitor, who sent explicit photographs of herself and engaged in ””phone sex”” with inmates, has been given a suspended jail sentence.

Alice Belton, of Wilton Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing at Newport Crown Court on the Isle of Wight to a charge of misconduct in office.

The 23-year-old was found to have engaged in ””inappropriate”” and ””intimate”” relationships with three inmates serving at HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight where she volunteered between October 2008 and April 2009.

As part of her unpaid role with the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB), she had to visit prisoners to check on their well-being, reports the Telegraph.

However, she was arrested after she was found bringing a mobile phone into the prison.

Belton told police she had first made contact with one of the prisoners, named as Stuart, through a dating site called Flirtfast, but at that time she did not know he was a serving prisoner at Parkhurst.

However, she admitted carrying on the relationship after she had found out.

The court heard Stuart attempted to persuade her to bring drugs into the prison but she refused to oblige.

The prisoner also transferred 600 pounds to her bank account as a birthday present.

It was revealed that Belton later became involved with John Paul, a friend of Stuart and also a Parkhurst inmate, and exchanged explicit text messages with him.

The court heard that Belton, who was in a relationship, also engaged in an exchange of letters with a third prisoner, called Justin, but these letters did not contain sexual material.

Defence attorney Richard Germain said that Belton was ””emotionally fragile”” and ‘‘naive’’, which had been caused by her upbringing.

Germain said there were suspicions that Belton was being groomed by the prisoners as a potential drugs courier and they had informed the prison authorities of her behaviour when she refused.

Judge John Dixon sentenced Belton to a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years and said that she had been given inappropriate support and training for her role.

He criticised the Government for failing to set up a better vetting procedure for prison monitor volunteers. (ANI)

How Heather Mills tortured her ex-nanny with her diva-like demands

London, March 30 (ANI): Heather Mills” former nanny Sara Trumble has revealed how she had to bear the diva-like antics of Sir Paul McCartney”s ex wife.

Trumble, 26, told an employment tribunal that the Dancing on Ice star left her a “rude” voicemail rant on Mothers” Day.

The message asked Trumble to come to work even as she was on maternity leave and had a difficult pregnancy.

She also claimed a suspicious Mills, 42, questioned her over whether a new male pal had been flirting with her.

Trumble, who quit after she was replaced as a nanny and assigned cleaning duties, is claiming undisclosed damages on grounds of discrimination over maternity leave, sex discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Mills, mum to McCartney”s daughter Beatrice, six, could be seen quite disconcerted as Trumble gave evidence before a panel of three in Ashford, Kent.

She shook her head and murmured “no, no” when Nick Fairweather, representing Trumble, called upon the tribunal to accept evidence Mills was a known “liar”, referring to her High Court divorce ruling. However, the panel dismissed it as “not relevant” to the case.

The panel was told how Trumble met Mills in 2003 at a health club in Rye, East Sussex, where the ex-nanny was working as a beauty therapist.

Mills asked if she would babysit Beatrice for her and McCartney, 67, in the evenings at their nearby home.

“I thought Heather was really nice and genuine and the two of us got on very, very well,” the Sun quoted Trumble, as telling the tribunal.

In April 2004 she took up the job of a nanny with Mills, who paid her 260pounds a week cash-in-hand on a self-employed basis five days a week.

Trumble said: “She told me how much she trusted me with Beatrice. I thought it was a good opportunity and I fancied a change.”

She went on: “I bring these proceedings with much sadness as I saw Heather as a friend. Heather can be very generous, but there was also a distrustable and unpleasant side of her.

“She likes to surround herself with people who will support her blindly. She is also very highly strung. I do believe that Heather is more than capable of lying and getting others to lie for her.

“I believe I was sidelined, perhaps as I was no more use to her.”

Trumble began work at the McCartneys” home in Peasmarsh, Sussex, while Mills was still the former Beatles” wife.

She said she and Mills had a “close personal relationship” and that her boss even bought her a new car – a sporty two-seat Daihatsu Copen.

Mills separated from McCartney in 2006.

Trumble said: “She was very bitter towards him. I was, I believe, a great source of comfort and support for her at this time.”

But their relationship turned sour when Trumble returned from six months” maternity leave after giving birth to a baby girl.

She said she was asked to come to Mills” house – while still on leave in 2007 – to record a video interview.

Trumble said: “I was asked to tell them how wonderful I thought Heather was. I felt I”d no option.”

Mills allegedly called her and angrily asked when she would resume her duties.

Trumble said: “It was a really horrible, rude message, and it reduced me to tears.” (ANI)

Binman renamed ”waste management and disposal technician”!

London, Mar 30 (ANI): More and more job titles are being glamorised nowadays, making straightforward occupations sound attractive.

A call centre worker is now being called as a Collections and Recoveries Credit Services Advisor, while lifeguards like Donna D”Errico in TV”s Baywatch are called as “Wet Leisure Assistants”, reports the Daily Star.

The pretentious title for a swimming pool lifeguard was given to attendants at local authority baths in Ceredigion, mid-Wales, revealed a survey by the BBC, which asked the public to send in details of their favourite stupid titles.

But one of the funniest responses to the BBC appeal came from Brigitte, in Hove, East Sussex, a hospital ward sister who is described as a “modality manager”.

Puzzled and worried patients think she”s a “mortality manager”.

Alex, from Newcastle, says he is a binman, but his occupation has been given the title “waste management and disposal technician”.

Below are 20 of the wackiest titles compiled by the BBC Magazine website:

1. Internal Communications Co-ordinator – office messenger

2. Family Protection Consultant – insurance salesman

3. Vertical Transport Engineer – lift engineer

4. Welcoming Agent and Telephone Intermediary – receptionist

5. Co-ordinator of Interpretive Teaching – tour guide

6. Global Talent Supply – recruitment consultant

7. Information Advisor – librarian

8. Collections and Recoveries Credit Services Advisor – call centre worker

9. Communications Executive – telesales

10. Investment Development and Research Analyst – technical helpdesk

11. Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst – accountant

12. Field Force Agent – tax collector

13. Mission Control Analyst – banker

14. Process Operative – chicken packer

15. Direct Debit and Membership and Professional Development Stock Administrator – customer services

16. Surveyorship Enumerator – counting cars going through traffic lights

17. Employer Engagement Co-ordinator – work placement officer

18. Civil Resilience Manager – emergencies co-ordinator

19. Cardboard Citizens Managing Director – theatre boss

20. Detached Mobile Youth Provision And Rapid Response Manager – Supervising at risk children (ANI)

George Orwell”s first edition book sells for £86K at auction

London, Mar 26 (ANI): A rare signed first edition of late English novelist and journalist George Orwell”s first full-length work, which auctioneers say is in mint condition, has been sold for 86,000 pounds at auction.

The copy of ”Down And Out In Paris And London”, which is complete with a dust jacket, had a pre-sale guide price of 2,500-3,500 pounds, and it was bought by a private client at Gorringes Auction House in Lewes, East Sussex.

“I would be shocked if it isn”t a record,” the BBC quoted Aaron Dean, book specialist at the auction house, as saying.

Orwell had written inside the book to his agent Leonard Moore: “With the author”s kind regards, to Mr LP Moore without whose kind assistance this book would never have been published. Eric Blair, 24.12.32.”

Including the buyers premium, the book sold for a total of 101,050 pounds.

“The two things that were rare about this were that it was personally inscribed by the author with a nice little ditty,” Dean said.

“Secondly, it had its dust jacket. No first editions of this book with dust jackets have been seen for 27 years.

“To put the significance of that in perspective, last year a copy which was not in great condition and didn”t have a dust jacket sold for 13,200 pounds.

“This one was an absolutely brilliant copy. The dust jacket had a little bit of wear and tear but, when you took it off, the book was in mint condition,” he revealed.

Dean said there was strong bidding, with 10 people on the telephone, and it was bought by a man in the room.

“I opened the bidding at 5,000 pounds and someone immediately jumped in to take it to 15,000 pounds and from there it bounced up to 86,000 pounds.

“I knew it would do well, I had a lot people who were hugely interested in it and the consensus was that it would reach somewhere between 30,000 pounds and 40,000 pounds.

“But I wasn”t expecting that price. I was absolutely stunned, the room was absolutely stunned and the vendors, who were in the room, were thoroughly happy,” he added.

”Down And Out In Paris And London” is an autobiographical work by Orwell, whose real name was Eric Blair, split into two parts, on the theme of poverty in the two capital cities.

It was published in January 1933 by Victor Gollancz, after being rejected by two other major publishers.

Orwell, who died in 1950, went on to write two of the 20th century”s most famous novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. (ANI)

Female prison officer facing jail over inmate phone sex

London, Mar 19 (ANI): A British prison monitor is said to be facing jail for having phone sex and texting saucy pictures with three lags.

Alice Belton, 23, who was a volunteer for the Ministry of Justice’s Independent Monitoring Board, texted the men over a six-month period at HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, the Sun reported.

Her job had been to check that standards of care and decency are being kept in prisons.

Belton admitted having “personal and inappropriate relationships” with the inmates at Newport Crown Court last week, and pleaded guilty to a single count of misconduct in a public office between October 2008 and April 2009.

The court was told that the offence carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Parkhurst is a category B prison housing many lifers, with famous former inmates including Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray.

Belton, of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, will be sentenced on March 30. (ANI)

Brad Pitt spends £50,000 building a bespoke run for kids’ gerbil

London, Sept 7 (ANI): Brad Pitt’s passion for architecture knows no bounds, and even when it comes to customizing a run for his children’s gerbils, the hunk doesn’t mind spending a cool 50,000 pounds.

The 45-year-old star personally oversaw the whole venture at his family’s French estate.

The run has a web of tunnels, seesaws, and platforms that make it the most luxurious home for rodents.

“Brad pores over architectural journals like other people pore over newspapers. He had so much fun putting the run together with his kids Maddox, Zahara, Shiloh and Pax,” the Sun quoted a source as saying.

“It’s incredibly complex and cost a lot but Brad’s more than happy with any activity that can combine his two passions – his kids and architecture,” the source added.

The ‘Inglourious Basterds’ star has always had a penchant for architecture, and even had an informal apprenticeship with Frank Gehry, the renowned architect, in 2005.

Pitt has also engaged himself in designing a development for the seafront in Hove, East Sussex, but the project is still unfinished.(ANI)

Katie Price could not keep her hands off lover at boxing event

London, Aug 24 (ANI): Former glamour model Katie Price, a.k.a. Jordan, loves her boyfriend Alex Reid so much that she just could not keep her hands off him even at a boxing event.

Jordan, 31, was seen stroking the cage fighter’s knee at an Ultimate Challenge UK showdown at The Troxy in East London on August 22, reports the Sun.

But things were not so smooth 24 hours earlier, when Jordan entered the ring to present a belt at a tournament at Hove Town Hall, East Sussex.

Reid, who was acting as an announcer, gazed into Jordan’s eyes and said: “I love you lady.”

But the audience immediately “burst out laughing”. (ANI)

Jordan’s cage fighter lover declares love for her

London, Aug 22 (ANI): Katie Price a.k.a Jordan’s cage fighter lover Alex Reid has for the first time publicly declared that he loves the glamour model.

Reid, 34, was acting as ring announcer at a boxing event when Jordan entered the ring to present a belt.

He gazed into her eyes and gushed: “I love you, lady.”

However, the fans at Hove Town Hall, East Sussex, started laughing.

“You could tell he was clearly upset by the crowd’s reaction,” the Sun quoted an onlooker as saying. (ANI)

English chef’s hot chilli burgers leave customers crying, hospitalised!

London, August 22 (ANI): An eatery in South East England serves a burger which happens to be so hot that it makes grown men cry, and has even hospitalised people.

Chef Nick Gambarella, 49, is the man behind such hot burgers.

He has spent years perfecting the heat of his XXXHot Chilli Burger at Burger Off in Brighton, East Sussex.

His burgers are said to be hotter than police pepper spray.

“People come in thinking they can handle it but they soon run out of the place crying,” the Daily Star quoted Nick as saying. (ANI)

First Ashes cricket pitch brought back to life

London, June 29 (ANI): The first cricket pitch used for an Ashes series on English soil has been returned to sporting use after seventy years.

According to The Telegraph, veteran international cricketers stepped onto the wicket at Sheffield Park near Uckfield in East Sussex to play a match more than a century after a game was first played there.

Back in 1884 it hosted a warm-up match between the first Australian touring side to try for the Ashes here, and an English side captained by W G Grace.

Henry Holroyd, the Third Earl of Sheffield, a keen cricket supporter, created the pitch. During his day crowds approaching 25,000 came to enjoy first-class matches that often featured Grace, a friend of Lord Sheffield.

Cricket then was accompanied by “a fanfare of fireworks and hundreds of fairy lights which illuminated the glorious parks, water and pavilions, swathed in silks and fauna”, according to one historian.

Lord Sheffield’s influence arguably contributed to Australia’s cricketing dominance in the modern era, as he put up 150 pounds to fund a inter-state competition called the Sheffield Shield, which continues to this day.

However, on his death in 1909, the country estate was sold. The pitch was dug up during the First World War and used for growing wheat. It became a cricket pitch again between 1918 and 1939 and thereafter was converted into a military base for the Canadian armoured division during the Second World War.

Trees were later planted on it before ownership passed to the National Trust, which converted it back to a field again.

Having lain fallow for decades, the pitch has been restored after the Trust allowed a local side called the Armadillos to restore it.

On Sunday former internationals including Australians Dean Jones and Rodney Hogg, and Englishmen John Snow, John Lever and Martin Bicknell took to the pitch in a match between the old rivals – Lord Sheffield’s Australian XI and Old England XI.(ANI)

Music fan finds sex photos in second-hand iPod bought in London

London, May 30 (ANI): A second-hand iPod bought by a music fan in South London was found to contain raunchy pictures of its former owner’s wife and lovers.

It was from a used goods store that Kristian Towell, 27, had bought the gadget.

The files containing the sex pictures were named Wifey and Chicks.

“When I got it home it was full of terrible music but then I saw the photos.

The Wifey ones are pretty decent, and the Chicks files is quite raunchy,” the Sun quoted Kristian, of Brighton, East Sussex, as saying.

A source at CeX in Croydon said that store usually cleared iPods before selling them.

The source added: “It’s embarrassing. We’ll look into it.” (ANI)

Harry asks disabled Afghan war comrade to join him on New York dream trip

London, May 27 (ANI): Britain’s Prince Harry has asked a disabled Afghan war comrade to join him on a dream trip to New York.

Marine Joe Townsend, who lost both legs in a blast, will fly out with the prince when he makes his first official foreign visit this weekend.

The 21-year-old commando was maimed when he stepped on a Taliban anti-tank mine 15 months ago, The Sun reports.

At the time, Harry, 24, was commanding his Household Cavalry troops 20 miles away in Helmand in Afghanistan.

The marine, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, will even be guest of honour at the New York Mets baseball team’s game against the Florida Marlins on Saturday.

New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon on Harry’s suggestion, is bankrolling Joe’s trip. Also going on the visit to care for Joe is his mother Debi Hawkins.

The trip will be a boost for Joe after he had to pull out of a ‘Help for Heroes’ bike ride in France this week on medical grounds.

“Joe is really looking forward to the trip. He had no idea the prince knew about him. It’s so nice,” Debi said. (ANI)

13yr-old Alfie Patten’s daughter’s father is another teen: DNA results

London, May 19 (ANI): Schoolboy Alfie Patten, who was believed to have become Britain’s youngest dad, is actually not the father of the baby his girlfriend Chantelle Stedman, 15, delivered in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

DNA test results revealed in London’s High Court have proved that the real father of the baby girl, Maisie, is another teenager Tyler Barker, 14, who also claimed to having had an affair with Chantelle.

Five more boys had also claimed that they had slept with the schoolgirl.

According to reports, Little Alfie has been left “extremely distressed” by the DNA results showing that Maisie is not his daughter.

Tyler is now intending to care for the three-month-old baby in the future, reports the Sun.

DNA tests was carried out on Alfie, Tyler and the other youngsters claiming to be the baby’s father after social services stepped in to take control of the matter.

The results were revealed after East Sussex County Council failed in a bid to ban reports of the case. (ANI)

Jesus has ‘risen’ in Sussex – and he’s wearing baggy jeans!

London, May 14 (ANI): It’s 21st century after all so why Jesus Christ should be left behind. A church in East Sussex has unveiled a new seven foot high statue of a modern day Jesus wearing jeans and a shirt.

Father David Buckley unveiled the 35,000-pound Marcus Cornish statue dubbed “Jesus in jeans” at the Our Lady Immaculate and St Philip Neri Catholic church in Uckfield depicting Christ as a man of the 21st century.

In the statue Christ can be seen wearing jeans and a shirt billowing in the wind while his hair and beard are neatly and fashionably trimmed.
Cornish’s sculpture was funded by money left by Winifred Gregory, 87, a member of the congregation who passed away last year, reports The Telegraph.
Father Buckley said: “You are always looking for new ways to enrich people in the experience of Christianity and it is good people can be open-minded to appreciate it.

“On the continent you often encounter modern representations of Jesus but it is not so common over here. We wanted a figure of Christ not in suffering but dynamic and welcoming.

“We felt this design summed up the spirit and activity of Christ perfectly and I think it speaks for itself.”

Cornish said: “The sculpture is simple and direct and I hope it sums up the feeling that Christ is always with us and that we are not to be afraid.

“His clothing is being blown vigorously to add the sense of him being alive and his strength in defying earthly cares.

“The clothing is loosely contemporary in order to connect Christ to his people now as much as to his past. I hope this sculpture will inspire and communicate in very human terms, reaching out and being relevant to both the congregation and local community.” (ANI)

Camilla’s throne for sale on eBay

London, Apr 18 (ANI): A pub landlady is all set to make a ‘Royal’ deal by auctioning Camilla’s throne – a toilet seat used by the Duchess of Cornwall – on eBay.

Landlady Chris Azerkane, who runs the pub with husband Rafai, hopes that the loo lid would get a good bidding from Royal fanatics.

Chris, 52, revealed that Camilla used the seat after she unexpectedly turned at her door and asked to use the toilet in her bar – Hare and Hounds in Framfield, East Sussex.

“I was in my white rags – I must have looked a real state. The first I knew about it was when a load of posh cars started turning up in our car park – big Audis and Land Rovers,” the Daily Star quoted Chris as saying.

“As soon as I saw her hair, I knew it was Camilla – so I rushed to the front door and unlatched it.

“I said: ‘Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?’ – thinking that was what you are supposed to do.

“She said: ‘Hello, we’ve just come down from Gloucester. Do you think I could use your loo?’” she added.

Chris, the mum-of-three, said that her “legs turned to jelly” before she ushered her VIP guest into the bar and showed her the way to the ladies.

Chris added: “I told her June, our cleaner, had been in and done a good job. I then asked what she was doing here and she explained she was attending a funeral at the village church for her friend, Lady Mary Askew.”

After using the loo, the Duchess returned to the bar and asked if Chris had any sloe gin.

“Unfortunately I didn’t – so she had a Stone’s ginger wine instead. She wasn’t with Charles but she looked beautiful in a really smart coat,” said Chris.

And now, Chris is auctioning the toilet seat to raise money for the Royal Brompton and Kings College Hospitals, in London, where her 16-month-old grandson Omar is being treated. (ANI)

Hitler’s favourite driver’s Grand Prix car may fetch £5.5M at auction

London, Apr 13 (ANI): A Grand Prix car of one of Hitler’s favourite racers is expected to fetch a whopping 5.5 million pounds, when it goes under the hammer later this year.

Touted to be the motorsport equivalent of the “Holy Grail”, the 1939 Auto Union D-Type is the only model of the car to have stayed intact to date.

With a rear-mounted 3-litre twin-stage supercharged V12-cylinder engine, the 485bhp vehicle could exceed 200mph.

And galloping on racetracks in the supercar was Hans Stuck, one of an elite group of racers revered by many in Germany under Hitler.

With the war looming over Europe in 1939, Stuck drove the car to place finishes in the EifelRennen race at Nurburg and the French Grand Prix at Reims-Gueux.

“(Stuck profited) constantly and to an astonishing degree from his acquaintance with Adolf Hitler,” the Telegraph quoted German motorsports commentator Eberhard Reuss as saying in his book ‘Hitler’s Motor Racing Battles’.

The Chassis 19, as it came to be known, was one of 13 Auto Unions transported out of Germany by Soviet forces in 1945.

Bonhams has revealed that for 40 years the survival of these cars seemed “little more than unproven myth”, and the search for them “regarded as historic motorsport’s quest for the holy grail.”

While a majority of them were cannibalised for parts, Chassis 19 somehow avoided that fate.

In the mid-1980s, Paul Karassik, a Russian-born American classic car enthusiast, found Chassis 19 intact in Ukraine, and it was later restored by East Sussex-based Crosthwaite and Gardiner.

Bonhams said: “It one of the classic car world’s most charismatic machines, and is exquisitely well-restored to running order.”

Bonhams and Butterfields at Quail Lodge in Carmel, California will sell the car on August 14. (ANI)

Heather Mills leaves ‘gutted’ fish cafe seller poorer by 115K pounds

London, March 16 (ANI): Heather Mills left a former fish cafe owner disappointed after she dipped her original offer of 255,000 pounds to 140,000 pounds, blaming the “current economic climate” that had slashed property prices.

The former better half of Sir Paul McCartney had offered to buy the Big Fish Cafe in Hove, East Sussex from Nick Short, but later revised her offer.

“Heather said she’d like to buy the place if it came on the market. Last July I decided to sell so I got in touch. I went to see her at her home and we made a verbal agreement for 255,000 pounds,” the Mirror quoted Nick as saying.

“That was later agreed in writing. The arrangement changed in November. I got a letter from her lawyer saying the price had dropped to 140,000 pounds.

“It blamed the credit crunch and the ‘current economic climate’. Her lawyer said there were other issues such as the cost of the ground rent going up and the need to renovate the windows. I was shocked, absolutely gutted.

“I’d put off other buyers who were offering the full price thinking I had a deal with Heather. There was nowhere else I could go,” he added.

The ex model recently took over the proprietorship, and decided to drop fish and all other animal products from the menu.

Staff at the cafe have also been given the pink slip, and told not to return after the renovation is over.

Heather’s spokesman said: “Heather is very excited to have taken over the cafe. She has been a local resident for nearly ten years and is looking forward to giving the cafe a much-needed renovation. Heather has wanted to buy the cafe for many years to create a fun place serving greattasting healthy plant-based foods for kids, their families and the locals.” (ANI)

Britain’s most prestigious orchestras facing binge drinking problem

London, Mar 2 (ANI): Britain’s most prestigious orchestras are facing a huge drinking problem, with players regularly performing drunk.

Bill Kerr, the orchestral organiser of the Musicians’ Union, revealed that there has been “regrettable incidents” involving alcohol and musicians drinking to overcome boredom and pre-performance nerves.

Kerr spoke at the Association of British Orchestras’ annual conference, saying that musicians drank because they had few other distractions while waiting for performances.

The drinking ranged from a pint to steady the nerves to full-blown inebriation on stage, and one incident involved one of the UK’s most celebrated opera and ballet orchestras “and its heavy brass section”.

“They should have been sacked really, but they would have been very hard to replace,” the Scotsman quoted him as saying.

He explained that the players were involved in only one of three works being staged that night, and performed drunk.

“For musicians there can be so much captive time, a lot of time and not many distractions. Frequently the only place to go is the pub,” he said.

“For these musicians there wasn’t anything for them to do, and it was a red rag to a bull.

“You might say they were grownups, but there was nowhere for them to go. They rebelled, it got out of hand. It’s indefensible and reprehensible, but it’s human nature,” he stated.

Another conference delegate recalled an incident in which a percussionist had fallen off the back of a high stage while drunk.

Chi-chi Nwanoku, a bass player with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, said that at a performance at Glyndebourne Opera House in East Sussex, a colleague who was a recovering alcoholic started drinking at a period of great emotional strain.

“He was drinking and eating extra strong mints, but it didn’t hide the smell. His playing got worse and worse and worse. I was trying to cover up for him,” Nwanoku said.

There is little research into the prevalence of drinking among performing musicians, and thus it is not known whether it has increased alongside alcohol use generally or has decreased and become more socially unacceptable, like drink driving.

Experts say stage fright is one of the main reasons as to why musicians drink alcohol before a performance, while group culture is another. Anecdotally brass players drink more than other sections of the orchestra. (ANI)

13yr-old father Alfie finds priest’s support

London, February 16 (ANI): Schoolboy Alfie Patten, 13, who is believed to have fathered a child at this tender age with his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman, 15, have found the support of a priest who says that it would be wrong to “point the finger at anyone”.

Father Seamus Hester said that Alfie and his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Steadman should be supported, rather than blamed, after becoming parents to baby girl Maisie.

The priest presides over St Gregory’s Roman Catholic Church, close to Chantelle’s home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

His support for the young couple has come at a time when their case has sparked a fierce political debate over the high rate of teenage pregnancies in the UK and the sexualisation of children.

He said that he commended the family for going through with the pregnancy.

“My immediate reaction is that we mustn’t point the finger at anyone. They didn’t go off to have an abortion to do away with the child, so obviously they have got respect for human life. Whatever their ages, I say well done for bringing the child into the world,” the Daily Star quoted him as saying.

Father Seamus even expressed hopes that those around the teen pair would support them.

“I expect social services will help and I would hope that they have got family and friends to help both of them. That is the most important thing in this situation,” he said. (ANI)