He's a Lusty 'Un ( and they want kids!!!)

Groom measuring 3ft 7ins needed stepladder to 'kiss the bride'
By South Wales Evening Post  |  Posted: November 04, 2016

James, 28, clambered up the four-step wooden ladder to proudly stand next to 5ft 7in bride Chloe Roberts at their plush white wedding.

And it meant he was able to stand eye-to-eye with Chloe, 22, as they exchanged marriage vows - and kissed in an historic church.l

Delighted James said: "I had the steps especially made. They actually made me a couple of inches taller than her.

"It meant we could have a proper kiss just like any other couple on their wedding day."

James and trainee teacher Chloe tied the knot in the traditional ceremony at St Margaret's Church in Bodelwyddan, North Wales, after a three-year romance.

James - an actor who performs in Christmas pantomimes - said: "It was the perfect day. It really couldn't have been any better.

"We had 80 people there for the day and then 150 more in the evening. It was amazing."

James had a traditional stag do with a twist. He said: "They dressed me up as Snow White which was great - I'm always the dwarf so it was a great change."

James has a rare genetic condition called Diastrophic Dysplasia - both his parents are of average height but carried a rare gene. His older brother Phil has the same condition.


Chloe and James - known as Jay to his bride - got engaged in 2014 after he popped the question at a lakeside jetty in a country park.

Chloe sat on a jetty while James got down on one knee behind her to propose in true style.

He said: "I always knew I wanted to get down on one knee. She put the ring on and it was an incredible feeling."

The couple are both devoted Christians and were waiting until they were married before living together. They are are hoping to have children in the future.

Chloe said: "We decided to wait until after the wedding because it would be a fresh new start for both of us and because of the belief and the faith we've grown up with."

The pair said that, despite his condition, they planned to start a family - and would have an increased risk of having a baby with dwarfism if Chloe also carried the gene.

Chloe said: "Family is the key that we can't wait to have.

"We don't have any concerns if there's a chance of having a baby in Jay's position.

"I'm not even prepared to take the test to see if I have the gene because I think that at the end of the day it won't change my mind about having kids either way.

"We would love it the same as any other baby that we would have."


Above: Image - Wales News

The couple's big day was filmed for a BBC Wales documentary before they jetted off on honeymoon to the Caribbean.

Chloe said: "There may be a 2ft height difference but when you are in love little things like that don't matter."

But not everyone in Chloe's family was initially as happy about her choice of man.

Her mum Sarah said: "She told me she was going out with him and I wasn't happy particularly. I was saying: 'Chloe, he is a dwarf'.

"But as I got to know him I just look at him and see Jay - not anything else."

Born Small: The Wedding, part two is on BBC Wales on Monday, November 7, at 10.40pm. The first part is available on iPlayer.

Beef Curtains For Hannah

By South Wales Evening Post  |  Posted: November 02, 2016

By Wales News Service
 
 

A hungry teenager was charged a whopping £690.50 for her late night kebab.

Hannah Whitehouse, 19, ordered a £3.95 chicken kebab - and entered her PIN in the card machine without checking the amount.

But she was shocked at the PIN number blunder which left her facing a near £700 bill for her 3am snack at the takeaway in Wrexham.

Hannah said: "It was about 3am on Sunday morning. I was not concentrating and just put my PIN in and carried on waiting for the food."

But Hannah noticed the huge amount she had just paid when she was given the receipt at the kebab shop in Wrexham.

The manager tried to refund the money back onto her card.


Central Kebab and Burger House in Wrexham

But the money wasn't able to be refunded onto her card - and Hannah went home facing the big bill.

Hannah, of Llay, Wrexham, said "Everyone was laughing in the kebab house.

"It was the most expensive kebab I've ever had.

"They gave me the money back the next day - but I still had to pay for the kebab.

"We go there all the time and would definitely go back. The kebab was lovely."



Central Kebab and Burger House shop manager Rush Yaman said they were happy to sort the problem out as soon as they could.

"The girls are regulars here," he said.

"It was a big mistake. You could fly to a five-star hotel for that money, but we sorted it out for them straight away."

Curlew 's Calling

'Breach of curfew caused by bath-time' - for defendant and his dog

By EvansTheCrime  |  Posted: October 27, 2016

By Jason Evans
 

A MAN'S electronic curfew tag stopped working when he jumped in the bath — to bathe himself and his dog — a court has heard.

Raphael Gardner appeared in Swansea Magistrates' Court accused of breaching his 9pm to 6am curfew when he was absent from his Cimla home for 15 minutes.

Steve Burnell, for Gardener, said his client was adamant he had not left the house but had taken a bath on the night in question — and then bathed his greyhound — and when he got downstairs he found the curfew tag box had been activated.

The court heard that when police officers called at his house later that night to check on his whereabouts he was at the property.


Magistrates took the unusual step of reading the tagging equipment's information leaflet to Gardner, which said the device had been calibrated to work in the bath — and they found the breach proved.

READ MORE: 'Stop using name Barry Eye' for ferris wheel, say owners of London Eye attraction

The court heard 52-year-old Gardner, of Glannant Court, had also breached his bail in August - on that occasion he was found by police in a garden shed.

Gardner was further admitted to bail - which includes the curfew and a prohibition on going to Dan-y-Coed in Tonmawr - ahead of a hearing next month.

Cheeky English, Cheeky

BY CHRIS PYKE
The Danter family - who own the Barry Island attraction - say they have received a letter from the owners of the London tourist attraction
   

The owners of Barry Island's ferris wheel have been told they can no longer refer to the attraction as the "Barry Eye".

The Danter family have been sent an email by lawyers representing the owners of the London Eye, telling them to stop referring to the Barry Island ferris wheel as the "Barry Eye".

It has never actually officially been called the Barry Eye. Instead, it quickly became the unofficial name for the ride when it was first brought onto the island in July .

On the website for the Barry Island Pleasure Park the ride is referred to as 'Giant Ferris Wheel', not the Barry Eye.

But the owners of the London tourist attraction, the Merlin Entertainments Group, say the Danter family are infringing on a registered trademark if they use the name.

Kimberley Danter said: "We didn't initially call it the Barry Eye, it was just what the locals named it. It was a good name for it.

"We are no competition, we have a small park in Barry Island, we are not playing with the big boys in London.

"But this is going to cause a lot of press for it now, and all publicity is good publicity.

"I didn't realise that you could actually own the word 'Eye'."

The London Eye
Lane IP Limited, on behalf of Merlin Entertainments, contacted the Danter family on September 29 to raise their concern on the use of the term Barry Eye.

In a follow up email on October 12, Rob White a senior associate with Lane IP says that they require an agreement that the Barry Island Pleasure Park will not use or allow others to use Barry Eye or any other name confusingly similar to The Eye or London Eye for the ferris wheel attraction.

They made contact after seeing media coverage of of the Barry ride.

Despite the striking difference in size, scale and worldwide fame, they say people are bound to assume the Barry ferris wheel is in some way connected to the London version.

Merlin Entertainments Group, which also operates Alton Towers, Legoland and Madame Tussauds, would not comment on the incident.

Fireworks light up the sky over the London Eye during the New Year celebration however children in the Gwaun Valley celebrate Hen Galan, or old New Year, based on the ancient Julian calendarFireworks light up the sky over the London Eye during New Year celebrations

Guto Llewelyn, an intellectual property lawyer at Capital Law, said: "The key question here is whether the Danter family have officially named the ride, or are using the name ‘The Barry Eye’, which they say they have not. If they had, Merlin (given the wide ranging protection the London Eye enjoys under their registered trademarks) can legitimately ask them to stop using the name.

"However, it seems to me that the Barry Eye is an affectionate name given to the ride by locals and visitors, in which case the Danter family have done nothing wrong.

"Merlin cannot stop the public referring to the ride as the Barry Eye, regardless of whether the Danter family benefits from that."

Louis Ross, 32, co-founder of Barrybados, said: "Barrians have already nicknamed it the Barry Eye. It's going to be difficult to change that name now because it's been around for a while.

"But I understand the whole purpose of trademarks, they are there to protect creativity and ideas. Hopefully something can be agreed, with the TM owners. Barry has an eye now, and i can't see that name ever changing for locals. It's stuck in our heads."

A ride on the Barry Island ferris wheel costs four Barry Island Pleasure Park Tokens, or £3. Standard entry for a 30-minute rotation on the Coca-Cola London Eye starts at £21.20.

Skettys Bleak House

Sketty home where landlord was beaten to death with hammer is sold - but would you live there?

By SWEPnino  |  Posted: October 25, 2016

THE home where a tenant murdered his landlord has been sold at a cut-price figure at auction.

The three-storey home in Vivivan Road in Sketty was owned by former telecoms engineer Alec Warburton, who rented out rooms to lodgers, including to 40-year-old David Ellis.

Ellis was found guilty in June following a trial at Swansea Crown Court of the murder of 59-year-old Mr Warburton some time at the beginning of August 2015.


Swansea Crown Court heard how Ellis had beaten his landlord to death with a hammer at the house, and forensic examination of the property had detected efforts to clean-up blood from the walls.



Alec Warburton (left) was killed by his lodger David Ellis (right)

After killing Mr Warburton, Ellis had driven his body to north Wales where he dumped it at a disused quarry.

The property has now been sold at auction for £126,000 – far below the asking price of similar properties on the street, some of which are on offer for up to £190,000.

Mr Warburton's estate is understood to be controlled by his brother Graham, who first alerted police after growing concerned at not being able to get his sibling on the phone.

A former neighbour said: "I lived next door in 2012 and it was a nice little home back then, I think £126,000 is a steal.

"But what happened inside was a real tragedy and the memory will linger there for some time – I'm not sure I'd like to live there."

The five-bedroom property was sold as offering potential for conversion to a home of multiple occupation, or for re-establishing to a family property.

Ellis was jailed for 26 years after being found guilty of the murder by a jury.

Trial judge Mr Justice Robin Knowles, passing sentence, said: "The murder was done in the expectation of gain. It is a case of particularly high seriousness, statutory aggravating features including planning, which I find to be significant, and concealment of the body.

Mancub Drinks Cider Demands Kebab

Glynneath man's 'disgraceful' drunken assault on mother
By EvansTheCrime  |  Posted: October 24, 2016

Jamie Church's behaviour was described as 'disgraceful' when he appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court

A TEENAGER drunkenly assaulted his mum, including screaming abuse in her face and demanding money and food a court has heard.

Magistrates said Jamie Church had treated his mother "disgracefully" during the incident, which lasted a number of hours.

Sharon Anderson, prosecuting, told Swansea Magistrates Court that 19-year-old Church had been out drinking for much of the day when he returned home to the house he shared with his mother in Glynneath on a Saturday

The court heard he threw a bottle of Strongbow cider at the front door — which smashed — and then went into the house and began shouting at his mum and banging on the kitchen table.

Later that evening he began demanding money and a kebab from his mother, "shouting in her face, almost nose-to-nose" and calling her a waste of space.

The court heard she gave him money from her purse but he demanded more.

Church's mum then left the house and police were called — when officers arrived the teenager fled from a back window and escaped over the garden fence.

Police carried out a search of the area and Church was found in the early hours of the morning in a relative's house nearby, and arrested.

The court heard that as he was being led to the police car he "barged" a female officer out of the way and attempted to flee once more, but was detained.

Church, of Nant Hir, Glynnneath, broke down in tears as he pleaded guilty to common assault and to assaulting a constable when he appeared in custody.


Chris White, for Church, said his client was finding it hard to cope with a recent family bereavement, and had problems with interpersonal skills — "and was perhaps drinking more that he should".

He added that the money Church had demanded was in fact his own money that his mum was looking after for him, but that he realised his behaviour towards her had been unacceptable.

Alun Williams, chairman of the bench, told Church the way he had spoken to his mother had been "utterly disgraceful", and that he had show a disregard for the law in what he had done to the arresting constable.

Church was fined £75 and made the subject of a 12 month community order with a rehabilitation programme. He must also pay £85 costs and an £85 surcharge.

Jason Evans / jason.evans@swwmedia.co.uk / @EvansTheCrime

Uphill Gardner and His Sticky Fingers

Christopher Gardner stole chocolate bars from a WH Smiths branch.

A MAN with 73 theft matters on his record walked into a shop and helped himself to more than 100 chocolate bars, a court has heard.

Christopher Gardner stole the sweet treats from the WH Smith's branch in Swansea's Quadrant centre on October 6, the day the centre opened its doors late for a special student shopping evening.

Swansea Magistrates Court heard that the theft came to light the following day when staff did a stock count and found 117 bars worth £110 were missing - CCTV was checked and Gardner was seen walking up and down the aisles picking up seven boxes of chocolate bars.

The 28-year-old was arrested two weeks later when he returned to the shop and stole some more chocolate bars — a member of staff recognised him and called police.

In his police interview he said he was struggling to buy food and pay for his heroin addiction.

READ MORE: Overcrowding and drugs still a problem at Swansea prison, report warns

Gardner, of Henrietta Street, Swansea city centre, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft — and to breaching a suspended sentence which had been imposed in September for other thefts — when he appeared before justices.

The court heard he has 49 previous convictions for 102 offences, some 73 of which are for theft and like matters.

Craig Harding, for Gardner, admitted his client had an "unenviable record" but said he had been engaging with the probation service in recent weeks, and was working towards getting a prescription for a heroin substitute.

Magistrates activated four weeks of Gardner's previously imposed suspended sentence, and sentenced him to a total of four weeks for the new offences, both sentences to run consecutively making a total of eight weeks.

Magistrates did not make an order for compensation or for costs, but Gardner will have to pay mandatory £115 surcharge.

Jason Evans / jason.evans@swwmedia.co.uk / @EvansTheCrime