Wanderlust

Tag: submarine

  • Leah Aldridge: Police find body parts of baby killed in 2002

    Leah Aldridge Image copyright Police handout Image caption Leah Aldridge died on Christmas Day in 2002

    Three funerals had to be held for a baby girl killed by her father after police twice found they had retained body parts, it has emerged.

    The family of Leah Aldridge had “no confidence” in Greater Manchester Police after some of her remains were found for the second time, Bolton West MP Chris Green told Parliament.

    Leah, from Atherton, near Manchester, died aged five weeks old in 2002.

    Mr Green asked the prime minister to launch a public inquiry.

    Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions he said: “[Leah’s family] have no confidence in Greater Manchester Police or the police and crime commissioner, the mayor of Greater Manchester [Andy Burnham], that they now have finally allowed the family to lay their daughter Leah to rest.”

    Image copyright Police handout Image caption Andrew Ashurst was jailed for three years for manslaughter

    Her body was initially returned to her family for a funeral but in 2017 the police discovered they had returned some of Leah’s body parts.

    These were returned to the family for a second funeral.

    “Only a few weeks ago yet more body parts were discovered by the police and the family had to go through the ordeal of a third funeral,” Mr Green told the house.

    Theresa May said it was an “absolutely terrible case” and expressed her sympathies to Leah’s family for their “prolonged trauma”.

    She said she understood the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester had been in touch with the Human Tissue Authority about the case to evaluate what went wrong.

    ‘Deeply distressing’

    “Officials in the Home Office will meet both the Greater Manchester police and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to further address the issue of historically held human tissue. I will ensure that the relevant Home Office Minister updates my honourable friend on the outcome of those meetings,” she said.

    A spokesman from the mayor’s office said it was a “tragic and deeply distressing matter”.

    He said the mayor was contacted about the case in August and has discussed it with the deputy mayor and the chief constable, and has written to Leah’s family to offer his full support.

    “This is being treated with the upmost seriousness and the mayor and deputy mayor’s firm focus continues to be supporting the family until they get the answers they need,” he said.

    Greater Manchester Police has been approached for comment.

  • Spain’s new submarine ‘too massive for its dock’

    A submarine floats on the water's surface, as two people can be seen sitting on its vertical fin Image copyright Spanish Army Image caption One In All Spain’s current S-70s. The New submarines are a deliberate upgrade

    An try to install a new submarine for Spain’s navy has run aground once more, after it emerged it cannot slot in its dock, Spanish media document.

    The S-80 boat used to be redesigned at nice price after an earlier mistake meant it had problems floating, and it was lengthened to right kind the issue.

    Spanish newspaper El País now reports that after the adjustments, the docks at Cartagena can now not have compatibility the vessel.

    The price for each has nearly doubled, the newspaper said.

    It estimated that the cost of each S-EIGHTY “Plus” submarine might now be as regards to €1bn (£900m).

    The Original problem with the submarine dates back to 2013, when it was came upon that it was once about 100 lots heavier than it needed to be.

    That led to an issue for its buoyancy – so it might submerge, but might not come back up again.

    A former Spanish reliable informed the Associated Press on the time that somebody had put a decimal element in the unsuitable position, and “nobody paid consideration to review the calculations”.

    That mistake price a mentioned €14m while engineers and specialists found out that buoyancy could be advanced through lengthening the boat.

    Spain divers to find WW2 U-boat wreckage French educate fleet too wide for platforms

    The Original layout from state-owned defence company Navantia was once for a 71m, 2,TWO HUNDRED-ton displacement vessel.

    Now, the S-EIGHTY Plus is an 81m, 3,000-ton boat.

    As a consequence, the base at Cartagena may have to be dredged and reshaped to accommodate the now-floating longer vessel, the El País file said.

    Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles, talking on Spanish radio, admitted that “there were deficiencies within the project”.

    She insisted that “they are already corrected and that the mission is actually potential”.