NO END IN SIGHT FOR NAZANIN’S TORTURE
Fear as Brit mum faces Tehran judge
JAILED Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe fears being condemned to more torture in Iran if a court rules against her today, her husband says.
The British mum will face a Tehran judge, who will decide if she should face new propaganda charges.
Richard Ratcliffe told the Sunday Mirror: “The uncertainty is torturous, we’re talking open-ended detention.
“It leaves her fearing she’ll never get out and never escape these guys. Nazanin is feeling twitchy. The fear is not being taken back to normal prison, the fear is being taken back to torture.”
Aid worker Nazanin, 43, was arrested at Tehran airport while taking her infant daughter to see her parents in 2016.
She was jailed for five years over claims – vehemently denied – that she plotted to overthrow Iran’s government.
The sentence ended a week ago – but then she was told of the new hearing.
She has been under house arrest in
Tehran since being released from jail last March, and had her ankle tag removed last week. Days ago it was revealed Nazanin had told independent investigators she was threatened with execution and the torture of her family.
She was also chained, blindfolded, interrogated for up to nine hours at a time and bombarded with bright lights and blaring TVs to prevent sleep.
Richard said Nazanin, who spent a week in a psychiatric hospital with her hands and feet chained to the bed in 2018, was left feeling suicidal.
She has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Richard – who held a vigil with their daughter Gabriella, six, at the Iranian Embassy in London last Monday – said: “Nazanin has felt suicidal and thought the only way to protect her family was to no longer be on this planet. She has been in a windowless room, blindfolded and told she’ll never see family again.
“Now, she’ll suddenly start panicking and can’t control her anxiety. She wakes up in the middle of the night with uncontrollable pains and a really fast heartbeat. I don’t think the British Government has done nearly a good enough job protecting Nazanin from torture or trauma.”
Richard has asked for Britain’s ambassador Rob Macaire to accompany Nazanin at the court and believes she is being used as a “bargaining chip” in a £400million debt dispute between the UK and Iran. He said: “We’re stuck in the middle of two countries having a diplomatic fight. I think the Iranians are keeping the jeopardy hanging over Nazanin while they’re deciding if they’re going to get the money off the Brits or not.
“If not, we get the punishment. The court appearance is a signal Iran can make more problems if the negotiations with the UK do not proceed satisfactorily.”
PM Boris Johnson demanded the “immediate” release of Nazanin in a phone call with Iran’s president last Wednesday.
The row over money dates from 1979 when Iran ordered and paid for 1,750 Chieftain tanks. The deal was halted after the Shah was deposed. Britain has been unable to hand back the cash due to sanctions against Iran.
She fears that she’ll never get out, never escape these guys HUSBAND RICHARD ON NAZANIN’S NIGHTMARE
SINGER Una Healy found fame, fortune and even love with The Saturdays... but says she won’t be looking for a new fella any day soon.
Una, 39, says she is “done with heartache” after her marriage became the latest in a string of failed relationships.
Now she is plotting a single life and a chart return as she brings up the two kids she had with her rugby star ex-husband Ben Foden.
He lives in the US with his new wife and, while he is still a part of their kids’ lives, it is Una’s mum Ann who has been her greatest support.
Una tells the Sunday Mirror: “All of my previous relationships were, ultimately, failures.
“There are good times, that’s why you try and stay but when you know the game is up, you have to say, this is it.
“There are many relationships I have stayed in but they weren’t working.”
But she added: “I always believe someone deserves a second chance. Everything is worth fighting for.”
LAUGH
Una says she is content to be single right now and plans to write “happy” songs away from the heartbreak of her past.
She explains: “I feel happy to be single, I’m not looking for anyone. Maybe the second time round when I meet ‘the one’, it will be for longer.
“You just want someone who is a decent person, you have to be compatible, and someone who makes you laugh and who will be there for you.”
Una has six-year-old son Tadhg and daughter Aoife, eight, with ex-England star Ben, who now plays in New York.
They split in 2018 after six years of marriage. He later wed ethical cosmetics retailer Jackie Belanoff Smith after a romance of just a fortnight. They now have a daughter.
Una has written about her relationship drama in brilliant new song Swear It All Again.
She suffered heartache when Ben, 35, admitted to cheating on Una before they separated.
Una says: “I am the primary carer of the kids. They are with me most of the time.
“He is full time their dad, he spends chunks of quality time with them and checks in on them twice a week.
“Not all relationships are meant to last forever. I know Ben loves his children very much.
“I don’t think people should air their dirty laundry in public.”
Una tells how she is able to lean on mum Ann, 69, when the going gets tough. They are planning to cook
Ultimately, all of my romances failed... I am happy to be single UNA HEALY ON ROMANCE AND BEING A GOOD MUM
together as they celebrate Mother’s Day today at home with Una’s dad John and the kids in Ireland.
Una goes on: “They write me cute cards, Aoife likes to write me little love notes, which is very sweet. I am so close to my mum, she is like my best friend. I hope I have the same relationship with my kids when they are older.
“I tell my mother everything. She has always been there for me, through the good times and the bad.
“She would help me set up gigs – she was like a roadie – and now she has helped so much with the kids because I’m a single mum. She has really been there for me.
“She will also give me her honest opinions on my music, which is important to me.”
Una shot to fame with girl group The Saturdays in 2008. Their hits include What About Us and Higher. Her four former bandmates have gone on to enduring success too – Rochelle Humes is a TV presenter, Frankie Bridge is an author, Mollie King is a radio host and Vanessa White is a reality star and solo artist.
Una vows her next LP will focus on feelgood music – and life could imitate art.
She says: “I want to write a happy love song. Maybe I will have to make someone up or stop writing about myself.
“Even if it is about this fictional person, maybe they will eventually come into my life.
“I have to be positive. I’m done with the heartache.”
■■Una’s single Swear It All Again is out now.
GREAT news for eco-conscious snackers – this year’s Easter eggs are the greenest ever.
UK choc firms say they have cut packaging volume by more than half in recent years, saving thousands of tons of materials and preventing thousands of lorry trips. Cadbury says it has ditched six million plastic windows from its display boxes.
It comes after campaigners pressured manufacturers to reduce packaging from the 80 million Easter eggs sold each year in the UK.
Last month, Waitrose said its ownbrand eggs would have 50% less plastic and 25% less cardboard.
Cadbury, owned by US giant Mondelez, began redesigning cartons last Easter. It says it has removed 108 tonnes of cardboard by using only sustainably sourced material. Its goal is to have zero net waste across its confectionery range by 2025.
Mondelez – whose brands include Fry’s, Green & Black’s and Belvita – also removed 1.1 million plastic trays from Christmas selection boxes.
Its UK boss Louise Stigant said: “In the past six months we have removed over 192 tonnes of packaging.”
THE father of a guest who died at a Michael Barrymore pool party 20 years ago this month has hired a top lawyer to fight for a second inquest into the mystery.
Terminal cancer victim Terry Lubbock, 76, is hoping barrister Alan Payne – who was involved in the probe into Princess Diana’s crash – can use “new evidence” to secure a second inquest into son Stuart’s death.
Terry said: “I’ve only a few months left. I want justice for my son before I go. We’ve got a big-gun barrister working on this. We are getting close.”
Factory worker Stuart was found face down in a pool in 2001 after a party at the home of star Barrymore, pictured this week on a stroll in a London park.
An inquest recorded an open verdict, but five years later the Strike It Lucky star and three other men were arrested in connection with the 31-year-old divorced dad’s death.
After being quizzed several times they were told there would be no charges. Last year Essex
Police launched a new probe, coinciding with Channel 4 documentary Barrymore: The Body In The Pool.
MISSING
In it DCI Stephen Jennings said police were wrong to assume it was accidental drowning. He believes Stuart was “raped and murdered”.
He admitted failings in the way the crime scene was handled by police led to key pieces of evidence going missing.
Two years ago Terry’s bid for a second inquest into the death of his son was turned down by the Attorney General.
Now dying of prostate cancer, he hopes QC Mr Payne (inset above) can win permission to apply to the High Court for a new inquest.
He said: “The first inquest was either a mess up or a cover-up. Our own team have been working on the case and have dug up new evidence. We are going for a second inquest. It will reveal everything. Whoever did this to my son has got away with it for 20 years, but not for much longer. I can’t die without knowing there will be a second
PROBE
inquest because then I feel sure the truth will come out.”
Mr Payne said: “Terry is a man of great dignity and principle.
“I was grateful for the chance to help identify steps that might be taken to try to get greater clarity as to events surrounding his son’s death.”
Terry now lives in a care home in Harlow, Essex, less than three miles from 68-year-old Barrymore’s former home in Roydon where Stuart died. Three years ago the star tried to win more than £2.4million compensation from Essex Police, claiming his arrest had wrecked his career – but he was awarded only “nominal” damages.
He has always maintained his innocence. His spokesman
did not comment.
We’ve got a big gun barrister and new evidence – and we want a second inquest
DAD TERRY ON FINAL ATTEMPT TO GET TO TRUTH BEHIND SON’S POOL DEATH
ACTING royalty Glenda Jackson has been drawing attention for decades... but her latest role triggered a wave of public emotion that surprised even her.
The star has been touched by the reaction to her role as a dementia sufferer in acclaimed TV film Elizabeth Is Missing.
Glenda, 84, plays Maud, who struggles to make sense of her friend Elizabeth’s disappearance.
It highlights the trauma of dementia and the effect on families – an issue which former Labour MP Glenda says political parties must unite to tackle.
She tells the Sunday Mirror: “There has to be a real coming together on how we can properly fund this big black hole.
“They must learn from the experiences of care homes and look at this issue of families having to sell homes to fund care for those suffering.
“Dementia is something we have to take very, very seriously and provide proper care for.”
DESOLATED
An estimated 850,000 people live with dementia in the UK.
In 2019 Boris Johnson pledged an extra £80million funding into research as part of the Tory manifesto. But there was no word of it in this month’s Budget.
During her 23 years as MP for Hampstead and Highgate, North London, Glenda visited people’s homes and saw families desolated by the illness.
The insight helped mould her honest depiction of Maud, who tries to piece together her muddled memories.
The role has earned her an Emmy and a BAFTA and Glenda is nominated again as best actress in Tuesday’s virtual Royal Television Society awards.
And Maud’s woes have clearly resonated with viewers. Glenda goes on: “It clearly struck home because I would be going down the street and a total stranger would come up who’d seen it and share their experience.
“There was a running theme through everything people told me – helplessness, of having a parent or loved one who doesn’t recognise them any more.”
The double Oscar-winner says she wouldn’t be surprised if she, too, got dementia, adding: “I don’t worry but I do find I can’t remember names sometimes. I went into the kitchen half an hour ago and I stood at the door and thought, ‘Why am I here?’”
Glenda has kept her mind razor sharp and alleviated lockdown boredom with two of her favourite pastimes – crosswords and housekeeping.
She lives in a granny flat in Blackheath, South London, with journalist son Dan Hodges,
51, his wife and 11-year-old son living upstairs and fetching her meals. But, like 4.5million other Brits, Glenda is on a waiting list for treatment which has been delayed since the pandemic. She
Politicians must unite ...we have got to fund research properly glenda jackson
ON TACKLING DEMENTIA
ROMANCE With Reed in Women In Love needs a new hip after breaking hers 12 years ago. “I’m in pain when I walk around but I can handle it with my stick,” she says. “When you’re on stage you don’t notice it.
“I can get around but when I drop things it takes twice as long to pick them up. It irritates me.”
Glenda found fame in 1969 Oscar-winning
drama Women in Love, alongside Oliver Reed.
She twice played Queen Elizabeth I but also loved lighthearted stuff, famously appearing alongside “utter pros” Morecambe and Wise.
Glenda isn’t sentimental about her career. And she’s happy to fight for women in a male-dominated industry.
She adds: “Every time I finished a job I was convinced I was never going to work again, but it’s an overcrowded profession and women are not prioritised.
“I remember wondering if I’d be able to afford to pay Friday’s milk bills.
“I came from working class and it was very simple – if you didn’t work you didn’t eat. I will keep on doing those roles as long as they get offered to me.”