In
the news
Cordial discovers voice of mystery “third
man”
Apart from the floods, one other story dominated the local news
headlines this summer, and even featured in the national papers
- the trial of “shed hostage trio”, David Lehane,
Amanda Baggus and Scott Andrews.
The
evil threesome stood accused of imprisoning vulnerable epileptic,
Kevin Davies, 29, in a garden shed for four months. The starved
and beaten body of tragic Kevin was found by paramedics at the
house of Lehane and Baggus in Bream, Gloucestershire, on September
26 last year.
During the ensuing police investigation it transpired that Kevin
had been kept prisoner in a shed in the couple’s garden
since May 27, during which time he had been systematically beaten,
tortured and starved.
Lehane,
Baggus and Andrews all pleaded guilty at Bristol Crown Court to
false imprisonment and assault occasioning actual bodily harm,
and were sentenced to a total of 29 years’ imprisonment
on July 8th this year.
As
their trial neared completion, Gloucestershire Police issued a
video to the press, on the request of Kevin’s mother. It
was a “hostage-type” film made of an emaciated Kevin,
being prompted off-camera by two of his captors to say that he
was staying at their home of his own free will.
The
Citizen newspaper handed its copy of the video over to Cordial
AV, asking if we could enhance the audio and transcribe and caption
the footage for streaming via the paper’s “thisisgloucestershire”
website. It was during the transcription process that the previously
undetected voice of a mystery “third man” came to
light.
The
ramifications of this discovery were immense, and threw a whole
new light onto this chilling case - someone else was involved
in the abuse of Kevin Davies (or, at the very least, knew about
it). The
police sent off the tape for further forensic tests, and conceded
that there was indeed another person in the room.
Detective
Chief Inspector Geoff Brookes, who led the original investigation,
said he was grateful for the work of Cordial AV and The Citizen.
He said: “Following the information received from The Citizen,
officers from the original inquiry team consulted with Cordial
AV. Their work indicated it was likely that there was the voice
of a third unknown party on the tape.
“Clearly
the fact that the original examination of the tape did not suggest
a third party is disappointing and we are grateful to Cordial
AV for their technical assistance, and to The Citizen.”
Following
our assistance in this case, Gloucestershire Police Authority
has employed the audio and transcribing services of Cordial AV
on a number of occasions.
Cordial
news crew film flood barriers going up at Mythe Water Treatment
Plant
The biggest news story this summer was, without doubt, the floods.
Those of us lucky enough to escape the initial flood waters were
invariably hit by their after-effects - the most far-reaching,
devastating and hard-hitting being the loss of water supplies
to homes and businesses throughout the county.
After
a week of misery for county residents, whose homes and businesses
had been devastated by the floods, the Met Office issued another
flood warning – the county braced itself for possibly worse
to come.
The
Mythe Water Treatment Plant, at Tewkesbury, although repaired,
was still out of operation, and at risk of being hit by a second
wave of flooding.
The
county’s Chief Constable, Dr Timothy Brain, needed to act
fast to prevent further damage to the already stricken treatment
plant. So he called on Leeds-based company, Hesco Bastion Ltd,
and their state-of-the-art flood barriers.
An
80-strong team, including the Army, worked through the night -
and most of the weekend - installing Hesco Concertainer® units
to protect the newly-repaired plant from further flooding.
Severn
Trent was delighted with the result of the works at the weekend,
where more than 1km of flood defence barriers were erected around
the perimeter in just 27 hours.
Traditionally,
Hesco Concertainer® units are used by the military as security
walls to protect troops against insurgent bomb threats in Iraq
and Afghanistan, but lent themselves perfectly to the job in hand
at Mythe - and now serve to prevent further flood damage throughout
the UK, as well as the rest of the world. They proved more effective
and quicker to install than traditional sandbags, which would
have taken around two weeks longer to put in place.
Cordial
AV was the only film crew granted permission by Severn Trent to
film inside the complex while the flood barriers were going up
- thus we were in the privileged position of capturing exclusive
footage of the impressive “military-style” operation
– footage which was commissioned by the BBC, Ch4 and Sky
News for broadcast.
CLICK
HERE TO WATCH BBC REPORT
|
