A jury has been discharged after it failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a man accused of his brother's murder.
Darren Steel, 39, allegedly murdered his older sibling, Martin, in Swansea last year.
He also faces the alternative charge of manslaughter.
Steel now faces a re-trial at a later date after jurors told the judge at Swansea Crown Court that, even with additional time, they were unlikely to reach verdicts on which at least 10 of them agreed.
The court heard Mr Steel's body was found by their mother in a blood-soaked chair.
Steel told the court the fight which led to his brother's death was in self-defence and he had not meant to kill him.
The jury had deliberated for nearly 12 hours before they were discharged by Judge Paul Thomas KC.
The defendant was convicted of a count of ABH in relation to his partner Dawn Begley and was cleared of another count of ABH.
He had earlier been convicted of unlawfully wounding a friend, Julien Samuel, but cleared of a charge of wounding with intent.
Judge Thomas told the jury "I shall discharge you from further deliberations", adding that "these things happen".
"From time to time, juries cannot come to a verdict, and it is not a reflection on you or the way you have performed your duties," he went on.
A further hearing is due to be held on 8 March when a new trial date will be set.
A sex predator who attacked women and young girls - including in an ice cream van - has been handed an order for lifelong restriction.
John O'Flaherty, 67, was found guilty of seven charges against four victims, including rape, assault, and lewd, indecent and libidinous practices and behaviour.
His crimes spanned from 1980 until 1996 at various locations across Edinburgh, including at a lock-up garage and ice cream van.
His victims were aged between seven and 32, with one a vulnerable teenager.
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said one woman was raped while she slept. O'Flaherty also chased a victim with samurai swords while threatening to kill her.
O'Flaherty was snared after the survivors reported his crimes to Police Scotland in 2018.
Edinburgh's public protection unit then spent more than two years gathering evidence against him, which led to his initial arrest in June 2020.
O'Flaherty was convicted in May 2022 following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. He was eventually sentenced at the High Court in Livingston on Tuesday.
Judge Lord Summers said: "For a variety of reasons it has taken some time for the matter to come back before me for sentencing."
O'Flaherty was ordered to spend at least five years in prison before being eligible for parole and was placed on the sex offenders' register indefinitely.
If released back into the community, he will remain under the supervision of a criminal justice social worker as part of the order for lifelong restriction (OLR) and could find himself back behind bars if he were to commit another crime.
The judge noted that a risk assessment carried out by two experts concluded O'Flaherty was a "high risk to girls and women".
The court also heard he had previously received a 13-year jail sentence after pleading guilty in 2007 to the rape of two girls.
Katrina Parkes, Scotland's procurator fiscal for high court sexual offences, said: "The victims of John O'Flaherty's depravity have shown great courage and resolve.
"The ordeals they endured at the hands of this man have weighed heavily. Their evidence has ended his appalling criminal behaviour and I hope they now find some small comfort."
Following the court case, Chief Inspector Jonny Wright said the safety and wellbeing of victims was "at the heart" of what officers do.
He added: "I hope the conviction and sentencing of John O'Flaherty highlights that time is no barrier to investigating offences and we will respond to all reports we receive.
"I wish to thank the women he targeted for coming forward and reporting the attacks to police.
"Their continued support of our investigation and their testimony during the trial ultimately led to O'Flaherty's conviction."
Missing Virginia couple's yacht found ransacked in the Caribbean
Three escaped prisoners hijacked an American couple’s yacht and left a bloody trail after likely tossing the victims’ bodies overboard in the Caribbean, police revealed Monday.
Local authorities said Ralph Hendry, 66, and his wife Kathy Brandel, 71, both of Virginia, are presumed dead after they were last seen on Feb. 18 and the boat was found anchored and deserted days later.
Abita Stanislaus is one of the three suspects police believe were involved in the bloody scene.BACKGRID
Royal St. Vincent and Grenadines Police Force official Junior Simmons said during a press conference Monday afternoon the officers who responded to the boat found a scene that was “consistent with signs of violence.”
“Several items were strewn on the deck and in the cabin and a red substance that resembled blood was seen on board,” Simmons said.
“There was no discovery of bodies on board the yacht.”
Evidence suggests the couple were killed on board, the Royal Grenada Police Force previously said last week.
Royal Grenada Police Force Commissioner Don McKenzie also said during a briefing that evidence indicates the bodies were “disposed of” while the boat was traveling by sea between Grenada and St. Vincent after they “commandeered” the yacht.
The trio of suspects, Ron Mitchell, 30, Trevon Robertson, 19, and Abita Stanislaus, 25, were arrested in St. Vincent hours after the boat was searched on Wednesday. The three men escaped from police custody on Feb. 18.
Ron Mitchell appeared in court Sunday, authorities said.BACKGRID
They allegedly got on the boat called “Simplicity” while it was docked in the St. George part of Grenada, but have not yet been charged in the disappearance of Brandel and Hendry.
Officials are searching for the couple, but no bodies have been recovered.
Ralph Hendry and Kathy Brandel lived on their boat named “Simplicity.”Family handout
The family of Brandel and Hendry were holding out hope over the weekend their loved ones would be found alive.
One of their sons, Nick Buro, said he and his brother, Bryan Hendry, are “doing our best to try and get answers to find out what is next in terms of hopefully finding them safely recovered somewhere on the islands.”
Few people can resist crisp french fries and chips, but not many know
that potatoes stored in cold temperatures and then dunked in hot oil
can be harmful to health and even carcinogenic. Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the third most important food crop in the world.
In
a breakthrough for the snack food industry, a team of scientists led by
Michigan State University (MSU) Prof. Jiming Jiang and Prof. David
Douches has discovered a key mechanism behind the darkening and potential health concerns associated with cold-stored potatoes.
Can french fries stay in your diet?
Their findings, just published in the journal The Plant Cell,
hold promise for the development of potato varieties that could be
stored under cold temperatures and lead to healthier and tastier chips
and fries.
These snacks have a market worth billions of dollars in the US alone.
In Michigan — the nation’s leading producer of potatoes for chips
– the potato industry is valued at $240 million annually. In Israel,
french fries are the most popular accompaniment to schnitzel and other
dishes.
Burger and fries (credit: PEXELS)
But farmers can’t grow the crops
year-round, and snack makers need a constant supply of fresh spuds to
meet their demands. Preserving potatoes in cold storage ensures chip and
fry producers have what they need, but the low temperatures also
trigger a process called cold-induced sweetening (CIS), which converts
starches to sugars.
Processing
tubers loaded with sugars results in darkened fries and chips. It also
generates acrylamide, a carcinogenic compound formed during
high-temperature processing that has been linked to health concerns,
including an increased cancer risk.
Although there are techniques to reduce sugars in cold-stored tubers,
these add cost and can affect the flavor of the final product. So Jiang
and his colleagues have focused on the root of the problem to work
toward potatoes that aren’t affected by CIS, to begin with.
A new approach to the potato problem
“We’ve
identified the specific gene responsible for CIS and, more importantly,
we’ve uncovered the regulatory element that switches it on under cold
temperatures,” explained Jiang, an MSU researcher who has studied
potatoes for two decades in the plant biology and horticulture
department. “By studying how this gene turns on and off, we open up the
possibility of developing potatoes that are naturally resistant to CIS
and, therefore, will not produce toxic compounds.”
To overcome one of the most pressing issues in the potato industry,
Jiang started his work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to
minimize acrylamide in potato chips and fries.
There,
Jiang and his team published a paper in 2010 identifying a key gene
responsible for potato CIS. Moving to MSU seven years ago, Jiang and his
team worked to pinpoint which elements of that gene could be modified
to stop the process of cold-induced sweetening.
Jiang’s research team used a combination of gene expression analysis,
protein identification, and enhancer mapping to pinpoint the regulatory
element controlling the CIS gene.
“MSU’s
collaborative research environment and facilities, including the
world-class potato breeding program led by David Douches, were
instrumental for this research,” Jiang said. “Our next steps involve
using this knowledge to create CIS-resistant potato lines through gene
editing or other breeding techniques in our greenhouses.” Douches put
into practice a technique Jiang developed to stop CIS through gene
editing.
The potential benefits of this research extend beyond improved snack
food quality. Reducing acrylamide formation in potatoes could have
implications for other processed starchy foods.
Additionally, cold-resistant potatoes could offer greater flexibility
in storage and transportation, potentially reducing food waste and
costs. Jiang believes the new CIS-resistant potatoes could be
commercially available in the near future.
“This discovery represents a significant advancement in our
understanding of potato development and its implications for food
quality and health,” Jiang said. “It has the potential to affect every
single bag of potato chips around the world.”
