Archive

  • Prisoner kidnapped lawyer and tortured cellmate

    A man who held his own solicitor hostage, kidnapped a taxi driver and tortured his cellmate was today beginning a life sentence. Mervyn Plummer, 20, right, was described as a very serious threat to the public with no regard for anybody by police after

  • Forgotten public footpath jeopardises house sale

    A home owner may have to take his house off the market after solicitors discovered a public footpath runs across his back garden. Rex McCarter believes the old right of way might affect other properties in Green Close, Didcot. According to a Land Registry

  • Marathon paddle

    Thousands of pounds has been raised for research into breast cancer after five Abingdon School pupils and head of biology Dr Tim Gunn paddled kayaks 104 miles down the Thames to Westminster Bridge. Three two-man crews set off from Abingdon at 7am on Saturday

  • Fighter aircraft to draw the crowds

    The skies over Abingdon will be busy on Sunday when the third annual AB FAIR 02 takes off at Dalton Barracks airfield. Forty propeller aircraft from museums and private collections around the country will fly in to take part in what is becoming one of

  • Planning consultant calls scheme 'irresponsible'

    Parts of Wallingford Community Hospital could be sold for housing. Hospital managers claim the site is too large to be efficient. They are talking to South Oxfordshire District Council about allocating parts for housing in the Local Plan, the council's

  • Soldier wins gallantry award

    A soldier from Wantage has been awarded the prestigious Queen's Gallantry Medal. Capt Damian Walker, pictured front, is a bomb disposal expert with the Royal Engineers, based in Cambridgeshire. He was brought up in the town and attended Garston Lane Primary

  • Report highlights dangers of euro

    Joining the euro at the wrong exchange rate would trigger a return to boom and bust, according to research by Oxford Economic Forecasting. The consultancy's report for the anti-Euro group, the No campaign, concluded that joining would substantially increase

  • Demolition begins to improve facility

    Kidlington Library has been demolished in the first part of a £1.4m project to replace the building with a larger, modern facility. Free Internet access, more books, tapes and CDs, a new range of DVDs and twice as much space are among the promised improvements

  • Hospital's monitors give freedom

    Children convalescing in an Oxford hospital are being given portable monitors which enable them to move around more. The John Radcliffe, in Headington, is the first place in Europe where the personal CD player-sized Micropaqs are being used on patients

  • Concern grows for missing girl, 13

    Detectives in Oxford are becoming concerned about the safety of a missing teenage girl. Julie Turner, 13, was last seen by her parents when she left home in Barton for school last Friday. She had had an argument with her mother about her boyfriend, 20

  • Doctor hopes to raise awareness of illness

    A cancer consultant is urging football fans to raise money for research while watching England's World Cup game against Argentina. Dr Trivadi Ganesan, a medical oncologist at the Churchill Hospital, Headington, Oxford, is hoping Cancer Research UK's World

  • Long wait for decision on controversial scheme

    A decision on whether to build a reservoir between Abingdon and Wantage is still two years away, residents have been told. The proposal, recently revived by Thames Water after being ditched ten years ago, is one of several options to meet the increasing

  • Museum poster needed

    Young people are being given an opportunity to develop artistic skills and learn about Banbury's heritage, by designing a poster for the town's new museum. A joint project between the museum, Cherwell District Council's animation station, and local graphics

  • Schoolboy assaulted

    A 12-year-old boy has been attacked in two separate incidents as he walked to and from school in Oxford. Three boys, aged between 10 and 11, assaulted the victim as he walked through Raleigh Park in Yarnell's Hill, Botley, while on his way to school on

  • Fears for missing woman, 80

    Concern is growing for the welfare of a missing 80-year-old woman with dementia. Josephine Otunnu disappeared from her home in the Horspath Driftway area of Oxford, near the eastern bypass, at 8am yesterday. She is 5ft tall, black, of medium build, with

  • Father of two took his own life

    A father of two created a message made of twigs which read "God Bless At Christmas" just yards from where his body was found in Oxfordshire woodlands, an inquest heard. Andrew Barnes suffered with epilepsy and had a history of depression. He was last

  • Mystery surrounds missing pub sign

    A historic sign dating back more than 200 years has disappeared from outside an Abingdon pub. The wall-mounted wooden sign disappeared from the former Beehive pub during building work to convert the building into an Indian restaurant. The sign depicted

  • Three jailed for robbing women

    Three drug users who targeted women during a series of robberies have been jailed for more than 14 years in total. Ian James, Tessa Ryan and Slimane Benhalilou robbed Sinead McCaffrey, Carine Cartron, and attempted to rob Deidre Houghton at knife-point

  • Accident verdict on chef's death

    A trainee chef whose body and mountain bike were found in the River Thames died as a result of an accident, a coroner has ruled. Liam Tait's parents, who were represented by a barrister at yesterday's inquest, felt that the death of their son, 18, had

  • Woman to study wild US bears

    Mother-of-three Penny Franklin has won a prized environmental award to go to America to study black bears in the wild. And she is making sure she will be up to the job by getting herself fit for the strenuous outdoor project in the Smoky Mountains of

  • Families to benefit from £m grant

    A new scheme to help improve the health and education of children from disadvantaged families in south Abingdon and Sutton Courtenay is to receive nearly £500,000 in Government aid. The Department for Education and Skills has approved funding for a Sure

  • Suspend belief for this tale

    Scaramouche Jones: Oxford Playhouse THE programme photograph shows a dapper Nol Coward-like figure in Panama and safari suit. We know better. We know Pete Postlethwaite, above, as a craggy-jawed, doleful chap who's been kicked around by life and looks