North severs hotline link to South Korea

DANGEROUS Kim Jong-un

NORTH Korea has warned it is severing all security hotlines with the South, in an escalation in tensions.

It follows a massive war of words between the two Koreas as Pyongyang demanding Seoul must stop propaganda messages being sent into the North.

South Korea has bombarded the North with letters which try to undermine support for the troubled Kim Jong-un regime.

The North appeared yesterday to cut off the key communication link between the bitter enemies.

Cold war countries rely on these links to correct misunderstandings, such as explaining a missile being fired is only a test.

They can bring the two sides back from the brink of deadly open conflict.

A MUM has been jailed after her young son was mauled to death by a crazed bulldog while she took cocaine at a party.

Frankie Macritchie, nine, died after he suffered dozens of bite wounds in the attack by an American bulldog Staffordshire cross, owned by Sadie Totterdell, 29.

Totterdell was staying at the Tencreek Holiday Park in Looe, Cornwall, and invited the boy’s mother, Tawnee Willis, 31, to the party.

Both Willis and Totterdell had been at the get-together in a caravan on the site, where Willis took the drug.

Frankie was left alone with the dog, named Winston, and during the night, it turned on him, biting him 54 times – causing horrendous injuries. The youngster tragically bled to death.

Frankie, of Plymouth, Devon, had been left with the dog even though it had bitten children before and had a history of disobedience.

SPECIAL

In a statement outside Truro crown court, Frankie’s family described him as a “special young boy” who had a heart condition and should not have been left alone.

His aunt Danielle Macritchie said: “As Frankie’s family, nothing will ever be enough, no sentence will ever be long enough.

“Not today, not tomorrow, not ever will we as a family forgive them for leaving our boy in a caravan with a dog he hardly knew.

“Frankie was left alone to die in the most horrific way, beyond anyone’s imagination.”

Totterdell pleaded guilty at Truro crown court to being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control, causing injury resulting in death. She was jailed for three years.

Willis was jailed for two years after admitting neglecting a young person, causing unnecessary suffering.

Judge Simon Carr, told Willis: “You accepted, yourself, taking cocaine in one of the caravans.

“You left Frankie with the dog, Winston. This was a strong and powerful dog. It was a dog that Frankie knew but was not a family dog. You knew Frankie was awake.

“You placed the dog and a nineyear-old child in the confined environment of a caravan.

“The scene you found in the morning, I know, will haunt you for the rest of your life, and that you have developed PTSD as a result.

“It can only be classed as grossly negligent.”