Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)

Rita’s Mardi aura

- EXCLUSIVE BY GRAEME CULLIFORD Rosamund plays care con artist Features@sundaymirr­or.co.uk

Rita Ora appears to be following her own rules again – taking style inspiratio­n from a lampshade.

The singer, who was fined £10k for throwing a party during lockdown for her 30th birthday, looks a bit like my late grandma’s furnishing­s as she prepares for Sydney’s Mardi Gras with my favourite drag queen

Courtney Act.

Rita performed at the Mardi Gras Parade in the Aussie city yesterday.

Fabulous, darling, fabulous.

Matt

Matt Goss says he dumped a girlfriend after she kept asking him “When Will I Be Famous?”.

The Bros lothario – who penned the hit tune – says he has been crying in the shower ever since. Asked when he last cried, he says: “This morning. I’ve recently come out of a relationsh­ip. Partly because they wanted it to be public and it was tumultuous. It has to be solid for a year, where I know I’m safe, and you’re safe. It’s troubling.”

Matt, who has previously dated Melanie Sykes and Daisy Fuentes, insists now he won’t ever lose his private life “for anybody”.

He adds: “It’s very frustratin­g because unless you know exactly what comes with allowing too much of your life to be out there, it will only have an adverse effect on what you really want.”

For Matt that includes a relationsh­ip that is “cerebral, full of love, full of sex, full of happiness” as well as “full of good food and wine”. He doesn’t want much then…

ACTRESS Rosamund Pike ruffled feathers talking about America’s “broken legal system” while accepting her Golden Globe – yet she hit the nail right on the head.

The British star referred to private guardiansh­ip, which allows officials to take charge of the affairs of the elderly.

Rosamund has learned first hand how the system has led to shocking exploitati­on of the elderly.

Her character in hit Netflix movie I Care A Lot is based on one of the worst offenders – a monstrous fraudster called April Parks.

The profiteeri­ng guardian ruined thousands of lives by taking elderly people from their homes under duress then robbing them blind.

Families later said their parents were effectivel­y kidnapped.

Parks, 55, would consign her victims to care homes, where they were heavily sedated to ensure compliance.

Then she would steal their worldly possession­s – often priceless heirlooms – and access hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

Parks got super rich off her exploits and drove a flashy Pontiac G6 convertibl­e with the personalis­ed plate CRTGRDN – court guardian.

FORGED

And she did it all under the cover of a system that allows legal profession­als to take over the lives of those deemed “incompeten­t” – as Rosamund, 42, referenced in her speech.

The crimes were only exposed after mum-of-three Julie Belshe and her husband Scott, 60, fought a two-year court battle to release her parents from Parks’ iron grip.

Rudy North, then 76, and his wife Rennie, 74, were forced from their plush Las Vegas home and driven 26 miles to the Lakeview Terrace assisted-living facility after Parks forged a document stating they were suffering from dementia.

In an exclusive interview, Julie, 56, revealed: “That scene in the movie is exactly what happened to us except five people took them instead of the two you see in the film.

“Dad kept saying, ‘Where is the court order?’ while Mum broke down in tears. Parks did not have a court order but she told them, ‘Either you come with us to an assisted living facility or we’re going to call the police’.

“She said, ‘You might be arrested or you will go to hospital and be put in the psych ward where you will be separated’.

“My parents could not stand the idea of being apart so they reluctantl­y agreed. I woke up and called my parents and when they did not answer I called again and again but there was no response.

“I went to their house and my heart went into my stomach because the blinds were down and they weren’t there. I used to talk to my parents every day and they were very happy and in love, so I could not understand why they had disappeare­d. Mum was in a wheelchair and recovering from cancer but they lived like anyone else and by no means had dementia. They lived in a nice house on a golf course and would make breakfast together every morning before Dad read his morning newspaper.

“Their whole world was each other and they had been together since high school. It took me four days to find them and it was agonising – I had no idea whether they were alive or dead.”

Tragically, the Norths were far from her only victims. Parks was one of the most prolific guardians in the US and had over 400 elderly people in her care over 12 years, often juggling 50 to 100 cases at a time.

In public she masquerade­d as a caring legal profession­al – hence the title I Care A Lot – but in reality she was motivated by pure greed.

A crooked physician’s assistant would sign documents showing that her targets could not manage their own affairs, so should be made temporary wards of Clark County Court in Nevada. A friendly judge then signed off the orders, giving Parks full control of their finances, estates and medical decisions.

She would start the process of selling their homes and possession­s – and even transferri­ng their life savings – moments after they had been bundled into a car and driven to a care home.

Anything she did not consider valuable, including paintings by the Norths’ son Randy, who died in a motorcycle accident aged 33, were dumped in bin bags.

Relatives were often barred from visiting – so grandparen­ts were robbed of vital time with loved ones before passing away.

Urns containing the remains of her dead wards were locked away in a storage container... showing that even death was no escape.

Julie believes her parents would have died in a care home, too, if it had not been for the probing of a local newspaper, the Vegas Voice.

Its interest sparked a media f irestorm and in 2015 – 22 months after the Norths were taken – Parks was stripped of her guardiansh­ip duties and investigat­ed.

She initially faced 200 charges but eventually pleaded guilty to perjury and a handful of thefts and was jailed for a minimum 16 years.

Her husband Gary Neal Taylor got two years.

The pair and business partner Mark Simmons were ordered to repay £300,000 to victims. Clark

Parks did not see her wards as people... they were paycheques KAREN KELLY COURT OFFICIAL AT SENTENCING

County official Karen Kelly said at Parks’ 2019 sentencing: “She didn’t see them as people. They were paycheques.”

Blind Herman Mesloh was one of scores of elderly victims to attend her trial and said: “There are some evil people in this world and April Parks is a predator of the worst kind.”

Tragically, Rennie’s health never recovered and she died in 2019. Rudy died in January after contractin­g Covid-19.

Julie is now writing a book about the family’s ordeal, raising awareness of the fact that 1.5 million seniors with $273billion in assets are under the control of guardians in the US.

It is statistics like these that inspired Rosamund to say at the Globes: “Finally, maybe I have to thank America’s broken

FRAUDSTER April Parks got 16-year sentence legal system for making it possible to make stories like this.”

Julie said of the actress: “She does a really good job showing how April thought she was this mini-god who ran the world. She treated me like a peasant and I hated her guts, but I have come to realise that she was just one part of a racket that goes all the way to the top.

“Once in a care home, the elderly have less rights than prisoners.

“I couldn’t sleep while this was going on and I just couldn’t believe I was living in a world where people were willing to let this happen. We live in an ageist culture in the US and it’s frustratin­g because the elderly are seen as disposable here.”

We live in an ageist culture where the elderly are disposable JULIE BELSHE DAUGHTER OF GUARDIAN’S VICTIMS

 ??  ??
 ??  ?? SHADY Rita. Left: getting ready with Courtney
SHADY Rita. Left: getting ready with Courtney
 ??  ?? PRIVACY ISSUE
PRIVACY ISSUE
 ??  ?? VICTIMS Julie Belshe’s parents were sent to care home by Parks
BRAGGING Parks, right, and pals pose in flash cars for Christmas card
VICTIMS Julie Belshe’s parents were sent to care home by Parks BRAGGING Parks, right, and pals pose in flash cars for Christmas card
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? COURT Justice catches up with greedy Parks
COURT Justice catches up with greedy Parks
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? GLOBES Rosamund in frock, leggings and boots for virtual awards
GLOBES Rosamund in frock, leggings and boots for virtual awards

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