Man jailed for postal threat to the Prime Minister
LEICESTER CITY’S owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will be laid to rest today a week after he was killed in a helicopter crash as it emerged vital evidence from flight data had been successfully obtained from the wreckage.
The outpouring of grief in the wake of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s death yesterday saw players including goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, midfielder James Maddison and striker Jamie Vardy as well as members of the public including a group of Bhuddists survey the floral tributes which have been left at the club’s King Power Stadium.
The club’s owner was one of five people killed after his helicopter crashed in a car park near the stadium following the home game against West Ham on Saturday last weekend. Thai media reported that the club owner’s body has arrived in Bangkok ahead of his funeral today.
Leicester’s Carabao Cup tie at home to Southampton was postponed in the wake of the disaster and has been rearranged for November 27, but the Premier League match away to Cardiff will go ahead as planned. Foxes boss Claude Puel has said he would give players the opportunity to travel to Thailand for the funeral.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the crash, Sheffieldborn former England international Vardy said: “It’ll be massively important we attend. We are a close-knit group and one big family and one of the main reasons for that is Vichai, so it’s massively important.”
He added: “He wasn’t just a chairman, he literally was part of your extended family. It didn’t matter who you were, he always made time for you, and, as all the pictures that have been put out have shown, he was always smiling.
“Those are the things you will never forget and which will stay engraved in your mind.”
It emerged yesterday that flight data and voice recordings from the helicopter which crashed have been successfully downloaded, as the wreckage was moved to a specialist facility. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said it was able to obtain information from the AW169 helicopter’s black box despite it being subject to “intense heat” in the post-accident fire.
Inspectors have begun a detailed analysis of the data as they attempt to find out what caused the aircraft to plunge to the ground shortly after take-off. The AAIB carefully lifted the wreckage from the crash site on Thursday night. It has been moved to the investigators’ headquarters in Farnborough, Hampshire, where it will be laid out for a more detailed examination.
Footage taken from inside the ground shows the helicopter taking off from the pitch and climbing above the height of the stands when it begins spinning before plunging out of view.
The AAIB praised people who responded to its witness appeal and said investigators are examining videos and photographs of the flight.
The four victims killed alongside Mr Vichai were employees Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, pilot Eric Swaffer and his partner, Izabela Roza Lechowicz, who was also a professional pilot. A SCHIZOPHRENIC man who sent a hoax “anthrax” letter to the Prime Minister has been jailed.
Vincent Potter began his brief typed correspondence to Theresa May with vulgar words and falsely claimed the potentially lethal powder was inside.
The 60-year-old, who entered the Old Bailey courtroom with a walking stick, said in the letter that it had come from the “Brothers of the Right Hand” and would be a “little surprise” for whoever came across it.
The threat never reached its intended target after specialist postal workers intercepted the mail in August last year – and no anthrax was found inside.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said that while the person who opened the letter, postmarked August 19, 2017, said they felt a trace of a biscuit-like substance that seemed to disappear, scientific testing had shown no powder present.
Potter, from the village of Mayfield, in East Sussex, last month admitted a charge of making a noxious substance hoax.
His DNA was found on the stamp and a typewriter thought to be the one used to write the letter was discovered at his home, Mr Emlyn Jones said.
The prosecutor added that there was no evidence of any terrorist motivation by the letter’s author.
Sentencing Potter to 18 months in prison, her honour Judge Rebecca Poulet QC said: “In my judgment the person sending this frightening letter to the Prime Minister intending them to fear for their safety must be punished by immediate custody.”
She acknowledged that Potter, who was convicted 23 years ago for making an explosive, which the court heard related to a dispute with a neighbour, has suffered for many years with schizophrenia but said he presents a danger to the public.
She said: “I find this fact (the previous conviction) a very troubling aspect of this case and it is because of that background that I find myself unable to say that you do not present a risk or danger to the public.”
The judge said a neighbour and friend of Potter’s had said in a letter of support to the court that he had described the offence as a “moment of madness”.
Potter, who has 14 previous convictions for 25 offences including criminal damage and burglary, still has “no real recollection of the events”, Paula Bignall, mitigating, said.