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McPartlin charged with drink driving following car crash
Ant McPartlin was charged with drink-driving yesterday following a car crash in west London on Sunday. The co-presenter of Saturday Night Live was arrested after being involved in a collision with two other cars while driving in Richmond. He attended Kingston police station yesterday where he was interviewed under caution. He will appear at Wimbledon Magistrate’s Court on 4 April.
McPartlin, 42, recently announced that he had decided to enter rehab again, after consulting with TV partner Declan Donnelly. The pair’s entertainment show Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead this week with Donnelly as its sole host, and again for the series finale a week later.
In a statement on the pair’s Twitter account, Donnelly wrote: “Whilst I never thought I’d be in this position, after much discussion and careful consideration we’ve decided that the remaining two shows of this series of Saturday Night Takeaway will go ahead. We made a promise to take hundreds of deserving winners to Florida to watch the series finale, and we will honour that. Everyone at ITV and the Takeaway team feels we owe it to the audience to complete the series.”
RAF engineer killed in Red Arrows crash named
The RAF engineer killed when the Red Arrows jet he was flying in crashed at the air force’s fighter pilot training ground was named yesterday as Corporal Jonathan Bayliss. The Hawk T1 crashed at RAF Valley in Anglesey at 1.30pm on Tuesday. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant David Stark, is receiving medical care after sustaining serious injuries.
Witnesses reported seeing someone eject from the aircraft with a parachute before it smashed into the ground then “burned bright orange”. Colleagues yesterday paid tribute to Cpl Bayliss, 41, describing him as motivating and inspirational. He was part of the Red Arrows’ group of travelling support engineers, known as the “Circus”. Sergeant Will Allen, leader of the travelling engineers, said: “Jon had the ability to motivate and inspire a team and those around him – no matter the rank, role or person.”
First flights to Terracotta Army city
The UK’s first direct flights to the home of China’s Terracotta Army launch this summer. Tianjin Airlines will fly between Heathrow and Xi’an, where the popular tourist attraction is located. It is one of a number of improved air links between Heathrow and China this year. Hainan Airlines is to begin HeathrowChangsha flights, while Beijing Capital Airlines is to convert its existing charter operation to a scheduled route to Qingdao.
These services will provide more than 217,000 new seats every year for passengers travelling to and from China, and an additional 6,700 tonnes of cargo space for UK exports. Heathrow already offers more than 100 direct flights to Chinese cities every week.
Ten figures from the 2,200-year-old Terracotta Army are currently on display at Liverpool’s World Museum.
Man stabbed to death in East London shopping centre
A man has been stabbed to death following reports of a “disturbance” at a shopping centre in east London, police said. Officers were called to the Stratford Centre at 9.30pm on Monday and found a man suffering from stab injuries. London Ambulance Service attended but the man, believed to be in his early 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene at 10.30pm.
Eight people have died in stabbings or shootings in the capital this month. Next of kin have not been informed and no arrests have been made, the Metropolitan Police said. “Formal identification awaits and a post-mortem examination will be held in due course,” the force added. Anyone with information should contact police on 101 quoting CAD 7391/20 March or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.