Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Missing Steven’s parents in clear
Former police officers arrested over son’s disappearance face no charges
AN elderly couple arrested on suspicion of murdering their son almost 30 years ago have been released without charge, police said.
Charles and Doris Clark were being quizzed in connection with the death of their son Steven.
The 23-year-old disappeared on December 28, 1992, after going into a public toilet in Saltburn, North Yorks.
Doris, now 82, returned home when her son failed to emerge and reported him missing. At the time of his son’s disappearance, Charles, now 78, was at a Middlesbrough game. The Clarks, who were both police officers, were due to answer bail on December 13 before they were released under investigation.
Shortly after their arrest in September, Doris told the Mirror: “This has been such an ordeal. We don’t know what happened to Steven. We’ve had 28 years of not knowing.”
In a statement, Cleveland Police yesterday said: “Two people arrested on suspicion of the murder of Steven Clark have now been released from the investigation without charge.
“The investigation into Steven’s disappearance is still ongoing, and detectives continue to appeal to the public for information to assist the case.”
The Clarks, who are set to appear in an ITV documentary about the case, have always denied any wrongdoing.
They still live in the same Marske-bythe-sea home that they shared with Steven, who walked with a “distinctive” gait after being in a car accident.
After the case into Steven’s disappearance was reviewed last year, police said the cold case team were following “a significant number of lines of enquiry”.
A mystery letter writer who named Steven’s “killer” in a 1999 message to police came forward after the Mirror last year published extracts from the note.
The Clarks were not available for comment.
A YOUNG mum was left fighting for her life after she suddenly no longer recognised her own reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Alina Wirzynkiewicz, 33, from East Belfast, was getting ready for a parentteacher meeting at her daughter’s school when her world started to fall apart.
Feeling confused and sick, she continued on to the meeting only to collapse and within hours the mum of three had been diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Today, 16 months on, Alina, who was working as a cleaning team supervisor until her diagnosis, has undergone radical surgery in Poland to remove half of the tumour deep in her brain.
She said: “I got my report back from the neuro oncology department of the Royal Victoria Hospital on Monday and the news is bad.
“The tumour is growing again and I’m terrified. I have three children and I am fighting to stay with them for as long as I can.
“The immunotherapy treatment I had in Germany on the remainder of the tumour had worked and my doctor there says I must not waste time and I know he’s right.
"Unless I can act soon and get the treatment, this tumour will first disable me and then kill me. With the treatment I have a chance.
“It all started in October 2019 when I looked in the bathroom mirror and I couldn’t understand what I was looking at. Someone was looking back but I didn’t recognise them, even though it was me.
“It was very scary but the school meeting was important for my daughter so I went ahead.
“But at the meeting I felt like I was going to be sick and I was very dizzy. I was taken to my GP who immediately got an ambulance and I was taken to the Ulster Hospital at Dundonald.
“A lot of tests and scans were done and a doctor took me into a private room and tried to explain what was going on. I was so scared, I could hear all the words but I didn’t really understand them.
“I thought I had had a stroke but then I worked out that they were telling me I had a tumour in my brain.
“My world just stopped. I went cold. I thought, ‘Alina you’re dead, that’s it, it’s over’. I was terrified and could take nothing else in. I think it was shock and fear.
“I was told surgery in Northern Ireland wasn’t really possible and that I’d have to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But I was warned it would affect my whole brain and probably all my functions.
“I needed time to think but I couldn’t get a thought straight until I calmed down. Then I made a deal with myself that I’d keep on trying to live strong and be the person I am so that my children would have a mummy.
“That’s all I’m trying to do. I am trying to live and avoid brain damage and paralysis so I can look after them and allow us to have some quality of life for however long we have together.
“Being told surgery was not possible
There are days where I’m on the verge of tears because I’m afraid to die ALINA EAST BELFAST YESTERDAY
was a very short life sentence. I decided to fight and with the help of my friends we discovered a surgeon in Poland who was willing to try to get the tumour out.
“I underwent radical surgery in Poland and he was able to remove half of the tumour and then I had immunology treatment in Germany and this is what can keep the tumour at bay so far but it is growing again.
“But I need to pay for the treatment and I need help.”
The tumour Alina was struck down with was a grade three Anaplastic Astro
cytoma, a malignant tumour that arises from astrocytes, the supportive cells in the nervous system.
It is aggressive and potentially deadly but with specialist treatment to slow its growth, she could live for several years rather than the months she was given.
She said: “I feel very scared and there are days when I’m just on the verge of tears all day because I am afraid to die and leave my children.
“Amelia is 13 and needs her mum, Alicia is 10 and needs her mum and Alexander is five and needs his mum.
“There’s no way round that. My
FEARS Mum of three partner Tym needs me and has been a brilliant support and my friends have been fundraising for treatment and it has been working.
“But at the end of the day I’m on my own with this tumour and I have to deal with it. It’s growing now and I know treatment is available to stop it growing if I can pay for it. I’m not ready to die and I’m not ready to give up but there are days I feel so overwhelmed and sad.
“I have always supported myself and my family and worked hard. I was a supervisor of the cleaning team but I can’t work now so for me to get private medical treatment I need to raise money. Asking strangers for this help feels horrible but not as horrible as being left without a chance.
“The specialist in Germany believes I need two more treatments and then an annual treatment to keep the tumour from growing. I have a hope of life, a hope of being with my children and watching them grow.
“When I came to live and work in Northern Ireland from Poland eight years ago I knew I was among good people and I worked hard to stay here and look after my family.
“Now I have a bigger family in
Belfast and beyond looking after me and I cannot explain how grateful I am for any help that I’ve had already and any help that follows. For anyone who has felt really
A POTENTIALLY lifesaving bone marrow donor has been found for a girl – with the help of a painting of snooker star Ronnie O’sullivan.
Libby Cotts, 12, has aplastic anaemia, which means her body does not produce enough blood cells.
Her family launched a fundraising campaign to pay for returned swab testing kits to be checked in the desperate search for donors.
Artist John Donaldson donated a painting he did of Ronnie, 45, who offered to sign it. The painting has been auctioned for £2,250.
Almost £140,000 was raised, but the picture helped publicise the campaign.
John, 41, said: “The test kits have now found Libby a match… To use my artwork to help is one of the proudest achievements in my life.”
The Bristol-based artist, a former painter and decorator, added: “I’ve got three kids, I thought if I was in a predicament [like Libby] people would help me.
“I’ve been creating like crazy during lockdown and I thought I had to help her.”
Libby, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, has been getting more ill as the time has ticked on.
Her aunt, Lucy Tant, said: “We can’t believe John has spent 63 hours painting this for us. It alone has given us the fundraising we needed.”
The campaign money is for the Anthony Nolan charity to pay for swab kits to be processed.
It costs £40 to add each donor to the register.
The test kits found her a match. To use my artwork to help is one of my proudest achievements JOHN DONALDSON WHO DID THE PAINTING OF RONNIE O’SULLIVAN
Young Libby in hospital