Girl, 3, beats Einstein’s IQ test score
BY SARAH WARD A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl has been named Britain’s brainiest child – with an IQ higher than Albert Einstein.
Ophelia Morgan-Dew spoke her first word – “hiya” – at eight months and quickly learned numbers, colours and the alphabet.
Her mother took her to see experts, who have given the girl an IQ score of 171.
Arnav Sharma, 11, and Rahul Doshi, 12, were previously hailed Britain’s smartest kids with IQs of 162. Genius Einstein’s score was 160.
Ophelia, who can recall events that happened before she turned one, is now the youngest MENSA member in the UK.
Mum Natalie, of Ross-onWye, Herefordshire, said: “Ophelia is such a beautiful girl and I would be proud of her no matter what she achieved, as long as she was healthy and happy.” BY ASHLIE McANALLY A RENOWNED conductor who abused a young boy who saw him as a “surrogate father” is back behind bars.
Joseph Cullen, 58, was the choirmaster and organist at St Andrews Cathedral in Glasgow and choirmaster at St Aloysius Church in the city’s Garnethill between 1976 and 1985.
The dad of three, who won two Grammy Awards as director of the London Symphony Chorus, abused the nine-year-old boy after he joined a choir at St Andrews Cathedral.
He called the child his “special friend” and told him not to tell anyone, because it was their secret.
Cullen, from Leeds, pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to a charge of using lewd and libidinous conduct towards the schoolboy between January 1981 and December 1984.
Sheriff Martin Jones QC yesterday jailed him for 10 months.
He said: “You were in a position of trust. You took advantage of that position and you sexually abused him over three years.”
In 2015, Cullen was jailed for 12 months at the High Court in Glasgow for two other charges of using lewd and libidinous conduct against two other boys.
In the latest case, the court heard the nine-year-old boy was a keen singer who experienced family problems.
Prosecutor Niall Macdonald said: “Cullen became more involved in the complainer’s life, taking him out on trips, driving him home from choir practice and spending time with him.
“He describes Cullen at this time as a ‘surrogate father’.”
The court heard the pervert first attacked the boy in the cathedral’s organ room when he went for choir practice.
On hearing other people approaching, Cullen left the room briefly before returning and saying: “That was close.”
The court heard of “several other occasions” when Cullen abused the boy in the organ room.
Another time, the conductor drove the boy home and, when nobody was in, asked to see his bedroom, where he carried out a sex attack.
In June 2015, the victim’s mother saw information online about Cullen’s earlier conviction.
She told her son, who contacted police to report what Cullen had done to him.