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Clive Ruggles and his wife, Sue Hills, whose daughter Alice was stalked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend |
When 24-year-old Alice Ruggles was stalked by a former boyfriend, she and her parents, Sue and Clive, thought the police would stop him. They didn’t. Constant messaging from her ex had escalated into threats and controlling behaviour. Sue described how their relationship seemed to progress “so fast”, adding: “I now know that’s a red flag.”
When I spoke to Alice’s parents at their home in Leicestershire last week, writes Steve Boggan, it was hard to listen to the story of what happened to their daughter. Ten years after Alice’s death, recounting what happened next doesn’t get any easier. Trimaan Dhillon violently murdered her days after she was “palmed off” by the system that was supposed to protect her.
Alice Ruggles was killed by her ex-boyfriend in the bathroom of her home in October 2016 |
Alice had alerted the police to his behaviour, but no action was taken. Part of the issue is the complex way stalking is defined – this is the point that campaigners are trying to highlight.
‘Alice loved life,’ says her mother. ‘We hadn’t realised how much she held our family together’ |
When the first legislation was introduced in 1997, it was supposed to put an end to the terrifying crime. However, victims – the majority of whom are female – are still being failed, murdered and driven to suicide. Sue Hills and Clive Ruggles say the law must now be changed, and vigorously applied, to address an offence that affects 1.5 million adults annually.
Continue reading ➤ |
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Nicole Lampert How dare our leaders fixate on the threat from the far-Right descending on London but overlook the anti-Semitism connected to Nakba 78 Continue reading ➤
Sophia Money-Coutts The posh are heading to Reform – and dinner parties have become a minefield Continue reading ➤
Daniel Hannan Dear new PM... You can save Labour from oblivion (but you won’t like how) Continue reading ➤ |
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Amelia Hutchinson, owner of Discreet Recruitment, works for two of the top 10 richest families in the world |
What does an assistant to the ultra-rich actually do? LA Robinson takes you inside London’s world of discreet wealth, where she meets a 30-year-old concierge arranging everything from Montessori-trained nannies to private jets for pampered dogs. Amelia Hutchinson’s clients include royalty, tech millionaires and some of the world’s richest families, though she insists “real wealth whispers”. Continue reading ➤ |
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Millie Matthews, 99, is part of a generation who rarely spoke about the terrors of growing up during the Second World War |
I happened across both Millie Matthews, and the wartime incident in which she nearly died, while researching my book about the Blitz, writes John Nichol. I was trying to find out what my own late mother might have experienced during the bombing in the North East when a local researcher pointed me towards Millie. Like so many of the generation who endured the war’s privations, Millie, now 99, never dwelled on her experiences, yet she suffered lasting effects we now recognise as a response to trauma. As a former RAF Tornado navigator myself, listening to Millie’s long-buried memories was a haunting reminder of my own experiences of bombings. Continue reading ➤ |
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Paul Simon in London in 1965 |
In 1964, Paul Simon was a struggling troubadour from New Jersey whose first album had flopped at home. However, in the folk clubs of Brentwood, Barking and Stevenage he was hailed as a genius. As the 84-year-old plays what may be his last shows in Britain, Ian Winwood remembers his first. Continue reading ➤ |
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Amandaland skewers the subtle class codes, status dressing and social hierarchies of the modern school run |
Time to look at the best of British television so far this year. Our critic, Michael Hogan, finds there’s plenty to choose from, including returning favourites such as Rivals (“as rollickingly fun as ever”) and Amandaland (“a scalpel-sharp satire of school-gates politics”) and new arrivals such as the BBC’s Waiting for the Out (“gripping and moving”) and HBO Max’s The Pitt (“begging to be binged”). Continue reading ➤
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Gin and tonic may be Britain’s favourite drink – but it will never be mineEvery week, one of our writers takes an unfashionable position, either defending a subject that’s been unfairly maligned or criticising something that most people love.
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Evgenia Siokos |
Summer leers around the corner: trifles and housewives quiver in the larder, Quavers crackle, and bloodshot, booze-thirsty eyes roll back in their sockets in anticipation of their six o’clock fix. Britain’s tipple of choice? The gin and tonic.
It’s one of the nation’s favourite cocktails; besides tea, it’s probably the beverage for which we’re best known. The G&T proper was first invented in the colonies, where the quinine in the tonic served as an anti-malarial compound. While the Empire has long since died a shrivelling death, gin and tonic culture now reigns supreme. Gin has replaced sherry at lunchtime parties in Guildford, lingers in lukewarm tins on GWR services and is a mainstay among Wellie-wearing, padel-playing millennials.
The modern G&T is a Trojan horse, a mixological sleight of hand served up in a vast goblet, choking with ice, festooned with bushlets of rosemary and half a grapefruit, and diluted with any number of tonics ranging from the utilitarian (90p for a litre in Tesco) to the preposterous (peppercorn, “Mediterranean”, or, God forbid, more grapefruit).
Alas, these maladroit attempts to mask the rasp of juniper invariably result in a sickly concoction prone to premature dilution – and before you know it, the insidious gin has cut through all the watered-down theatre and ploughed into your bloodstream with the subtlety of a locomotive. When looked in the mouth, this gift horse is merely one of the more successful lies sold to the middle classes by Big Booze.
Our forbears, at least, knew better. Gin’s legacy in this green and pleasant land is rooted, correctly, in excess and social decay. Mother’s ruin. Maudlin-making. Sin-inducing. The “gin craze” of 18th-century England was a public-health disaster – the drink became synonymous with neglect, vice and desperation. (The late medieval Benedictines responsible for the propagation of jenever, gin’s predecessor, ought to have their credentials reviewed post-mortem; a clear black mark against these otherwise most reverend Black Monks.)
Do not be led astray by the botanical evangelists. In my experience, while tequila brings on hip-swinging glee, and a couple of pints lead to mischief, gin only ever leads to tedious ruin. Tears, moping, laments about ex-boyfriends or dead pets – or, if it’s been a big one, scenes akin to Hogarth’s Gin Lane.
My blind aunt once had a fateful incident with a bottle of what she calls “b------d up gin” (i.e. a botanical variety). She ended up being lapped back to consciousness by her seven concerned, and bloodthirsty, Pomeranians.
Gin can’t even defend its own integrity. You would never have it neat, as you would a good reposado or even, in exceptional circumstances, vodka; I recommend Black Cow or Tito’s. From the hobgoblin-green shape of Gordon’s – loved by Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother; hated by teenagers left hanging over the porcelain – to its other wily guises – sloe gin, pink gin, dry gin, craft gin – all gin is beyond salvation.
To be clear, there’s nothing worse than a gin martini. What sacrilege. I’m surprised that Ernst Stavro Blofeld didn’t weaponise the gin-laden Vesper against 007: “No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die… poisoned by this cursed cocktail.” It’s like trying to make Savlon sexy. Enough. Give me a dirty vodka martini, with three buttery olives, any day of the week.
Do you agree with Evgenia? Send your replies here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of From the Editor PM, for which you can sign up here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. |
Claudine Longet during her trial in 1971 |
Claudine Longet, who has died aged 84, was a French-born actress and chanteuse who enjoyed some success in the US before her career was sensationally derailed when she shot and killed her lover, the ski champion and American hero “Spider” Sabich, writes Andrew M Brown, obituaries editor.
Until then, she had been best known for her appearances on her then husband Andy Williams’s weekly TV show. He was the legendary crooner behind hits such as Can’t Take My Eyes Off You and she radiated glamour and wholesomeness.
Yet it all unravelled for her in 1976, when she shot Sabich in their chalet in the hedonistic resort of Aspen, Colorado. In Britain even the Daily Mirror weighed in, declaring Aspen to be “the modern Sodom and Gomorrah”.
Claudine Longet with Andy Williams on their wedding day in 1961 |
The singer admitted that she was holding the gun when it killed Sabich from close range, but insisted that it went off accidentally while she was asking him for a lesson on the safety catch.
To complicate matters, the trial revealed oversights by the local justice department. In the end, the jury accepted her version of events and she was sentenced to only 30 days in jail.
After divorcing Andy Williams she ended up marrying one of her defence lawyers. Read the full obituary here. ➤ |
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was LIBRARIAN. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Thank you for reading. Allister Heath, Sunday Telegraph Editor
P.S. Please share your thoughts on the newsletter here. |
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