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Briton Held After Girl's Hong Kong Death Fall

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 08 April 2015 | 23.21

The British father of a teenager in Hong Kong has been arrested after she plunged to her death from an upmarket apartment block.

Nick Cousins, and the girl's Filipina mother, were arrested on suspicion of "ill-treatment or neglect of a child or a young person".

Police emphasised that there was "no suspicious element" in the 15-year-old girl's fatal fall. 

Mr Cousins, 58, is the managing director of the Hong Kong office of British multinational Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), one of the world's leading insurance brokers.

The girl's mother is a 53-year-old Philippine national, the consulate in the Hong Kong said, adding that they were still ascertaining her identity.

She is reported to be a former domestic helper, according to local media.

Mr Cousins has been released on bail but the teenager's mother was still in police custody on Wednesday afternoon.

The 15-year-old plunged from the 21-storey apartment block in upmarket Repulse Bay in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police said.

The teenager's mother has also been accused of overstaying her visa, while Mr Cousins was accused of aiding or abetting the overstay.

The couple were not married, Hong Kong police said.

JLT confirmed Mr Cousins had lost his eldest daughter "in tragic circumstances".

"We are giving Nick our full support through this difficult time and he will be on extended compassionate leave until further notice," the statement said.

Police said that the teenager was pronounced dead at the scene after a security guard found her lying on the ground.

"It was suspected that the subject fell from a height," police said without confirming which floor.

"We learned that the subject was probably upset about some daily life issues," the spokesman said in an email to the AFP news agency.

Local media reported that she had locked herself in a bathroom before her death.

Residents of the Repulse Bay neighbourhood expressed their dismay.

"I was shocked because she (the teenager) would always say 'Hi' to me. She was friendly," a domestic helper said.

She was often in the complex's playroom or at the pool with her younger sister, said the helper.


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Jewellery Heist: Gems 'Already Out Of Country'

Gems stolen in one of the largest and most daring jewellery heists ever will already be out of the country, a former Flying Squad chief believes.

Jewellery and precious stones, which could be worth millions of pounds, were snatched by thieves from a vault in Hatton Garden, London, over the weekend.

The audacious villains are believed to have broken into the building through the roof and abseiled down a lift shaft to access the vault.

A statement from the Metropolitan Police said heavy cutting equipment was then used get into a vault at the premises, where 60 to 70 safe boxes were raided.

The vault is believed to be reinforced with thick metal and concrete protection doors, up to 2ft thick.

This afternoon, questions were raised about security at the premises amid reports guards responded to an alarm on Friday, but left without checking inside.

Safe box owner Gerry Landon said he was devastated after losing the precious items in his safe box, and found the break-in "unbelievable".

"Apparently, as you may have read, the alarm went off at one o'clock on Friday and the the security guards came down," Mr Landon said.

"They more or less looked through the window to see that there was no activity there - and then they left."

Speaking to Sky News earlier, former Flying Squad chief Barry Phillips described the heist as "sophisticated" and "highly organised".

He said the robbery will have been carried out by a "professional team".

"This has all the hallmarks of a TV or Hollywood film production," Mr Phillips said.

"It was a highly organised, sophisticated crime.

"It's highly likely that any gems or jewellery will have already been sourced and out of the country.

"If past jobs of this nature are taken into account, the thieves will have placed all of the jewellery prior to the robbery.

"That takes a high degree of organisation on behalf of the villains."

Neil Duttson, a diamond dealer who buys stones for private clients, said tracing any gems stolen in the heist would be nearly impossible.

He said: "Once diamonds have been re-cut and polished there is no geological map.

"I imagine they will be sat on for six months. You can expect some cheap diamonds will be coming on the market soon."

Police have not put a value on the goods stolen, but estimates vary widely from hundreds of thousands of pounds to £200m.

One victim of the heist, a jeweller from the area, has spoken of his "extreme shock".

He said he feared that a £5,000 watch he bought for his son on the day he was born might have been stolen.

Michael Miller told Sky News he "felt sick" at the prospect of losing up to £50,000 of jewellery and watches during the burglary.

Mr Miller said his goods - like those of many with deposit boxes there - were uninsured.

The safe boxes might be worth up to £2m each, he said. 

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "The suspects have had perhaps several days (over the Easter weekend) in which to get in.

"One report, I'm told, suggested that they used a lift shaft at some stage to get into the centre, which must be pretty heavily protected.

"It's probably going to be some days before we get an idea of exactly how much has been stolen or what indeed has been stolen."

Hatton Garden is known as London's jewellery quarter and the safe deposit boxes are mainly used by local jewellers to store loose diamonds in packets.

Other boxes - around 10% of them - are rented by private individuals and so the true value of the heist may never be known, Mr Phillips said. 

Lewis Malka, a diamond jewellery expert who works in Hatton Garden, tweeted: "Quiet day in the office and then I found out one of my client's antique bracelets was stolen in the Hatton Garden robbery."

Mr Malka added: "Most of the people who have got safe deposits there are people in the trade.

"I know for a fact that some of my work colleagues have got boxes down there and we are talking about hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds in goods."

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  1. Gallery: From Securitas To Brink's-Mat

    The Securitas depot raid in Tonbridge, 2006, was the largest cash robbery in UK history, netting the gang more than £53m after they kidnapped the site manager and his family. Four received life terms

Graff's Jewellers in London's New Bond Street was hit by men whose faces had been disguised by prosthetics in 2009. They took jewellery valued at £40m but the gang was jailed for a total of 71 years

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Everything You Need To Know About Non-Doms

Who are the non-doms, what tax do they avoid and who introduced these rules anyway? Here is all you need to know.

:: What is non-dom status?

Non-domiciled status can be claimed where you are living in the UK but your father or grandfather was resident in another country when you were born. (Grandfather because non-dom status can be inherited).

It means you do not have to pay UK tax on money earned outside the UK.

:: What if my mother or grandmother were resident outside the UK when I was born?

Tough luck, you do not qualify. The rules are a bit sexist like that.

:: Rules or law?

Actually non-dom status is a tax rule. It was introduced by William Pitt the Younger in 1799 - along with income tax.

The caveat was included as an allowance for ships bringing goods back from the colonies.

:: How many non-doms are there?

Around 116,000. They tend to be very rich.

Among them are HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft gave up his non-dom status in 2010 so he could remain in the House of Lords.

:: And does it effectively turn the UK into a tax haven for the rich as Labour is claiming?

Yes, and no. People may still have to pay tax in the country where they are earning cash.

That said, leaked files earlier this year showed some were paying no tax anywhere in the world by using Swiss bank accounts at the suggestion of HSBC.

:: So do non-doms get away without paying anything in the UK?

They did - but now they only do for seven years. In 2008 Labour tightened the rules.

Those who have lived in the UK for seven years had to pay an annual fee of £30,000 if they wanted to keep their non-dom status.

George Osborne tightened it further still in the Autumn Statement - increasing the fee for those living in the UK for 17 years to £90,000.

:: For really rich people that annual fee still seems a pretty good deal

It has been said. One non-dom told Sky's Political Editor Faisal Islam that the Chancellor could raise the annual fee to £250,000 and it would still be worth him staying in the UK.

:: And Labour is going to abolish non-dom status?

That is what Ed Miliband has said. It's part of his "broadest shoulders bearing the heaviest burden" approach.

However, the Conservatives point out that technically it is more small adjustments on how long people can be non-dom.

The full details of Labour's plans are as yet unclear, but it will allow only "real temporary residents" to take advantage of the tax benefits.

:: If non-doms had to pay UK tax how much would the country get?

Hundreds of millions according to Labour.

:: Then what are the drawbacks?

The UK could lose hundreds of millions, according to the Tories.

There is a fear if the very rich had to pay tax at the same level the rest of the population do then there would be a "flight of cash and talent", ie they would leave the UK and take the investment, fees they do pay, money they donate to the arts and charities with them.

This could be more costly in the long run. In the 13 years it was in power Labour did review non-dom status and decided not to scrap it.

:: Would the rich really move out lock, stock and barrel?

Just as a number of people cry flight, many also point out that London as a financial capital is a significant draw to the very wealthy and the attractions of that would not be wiped out by paying tax - although it is broadly accepted there would be some departures.

The Financial Times has spoken in support of scrapping the status.

Dragon's Den star Duncan Bannatyne, who last week signed up to a letter supporting the Tories on corporation tax, is in favour of the move.

:: Any other issues?

As Sky's Economics Editor Ed Conway points out: "If Labour do scrap non-dom status & bring in a mansion tax, one can only imagine the scale of collapse of the prime London property market."

:: And are all party members on the same page with this?

There is some confusion.

Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said in interview that the Tories wanted those based in the UK to pay tax on all their earnings - even those from abroad. Although this has not been the Conservative standpoint.

Meanwhile, an interview with shadow chancellor Ed Balls has been unearthed in which he says the UK could not afford to scrap non-dom status.

:: What do other countries do?

The UK deal is very generous but others, including Belgium and the Netherlands, have similar rules.


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Labour Would Abolish 'Non-Dom' Tax Status

By Jason Farrell, Senior Political Correspondent

Ed Miliband has defended his policy to abolish non-dom status after it emerged the shadow chancellor recently said scrapping the tax rule would cost the country money.

The Labour leader unveiled plans to end the rule that allows some of the wealthiest to limit the amount of tax they pay in the UK and stop Britain effectively becoming an "offshore tax haven" for the wealthiest.

But the Conservatives were quick to point out an interview with BBC Leeds in January in which Ed Balls said doing away with non-dom status would be expensive.

:: Full Coverage Of General Election 2015

In the interview Mr Balls said: "I think if you abolished the whole status then probably it ends up costing Britain money because there will be some people who will then leave the country.

"But I think we can be tougher and we should be and we will."

The Tories tweeted out a version of the video in which Mr Balls' last sentence was omitted as evidence that the Labour policy was "unravelling".

:: All You Need To Know About Non-Dom Status

However, tackled about the interview during his speech at Warwick University, the Labour leader said: "We've found a way to do this that independent experts say will raise hundreds of millions of pounds."

Mr Balls later tweeted: "My interview with BBC in January, when we working on policy, fully consistent with announcement today - but Tories edited my interview."

Mr Miliband announced plans to end non-dom status for all but "real temporary residents".

There are 116,000 non-doms in the UK who pay no tax on their earnings outside the UK because either they, their fathers or grandfathers were born in another country and consider that home. The status can be inherited.

Mr Miliband said: "It works against every business and working person in this country who has to pay more as a result, everybody who relies on public services like the NHS, everybody who believes in Britain and a fair and modern country.

"The United States doesn't do it. No other major country in the developed world does it. No one would propose doing it now if didn't already exist. One rule for some and another for others? It is unjust, it does not work, it holds Britain back and we will stop it."

The Conservatives say scrapping the 200-year-old tax rule would cost the country money because non-doms would simply leave the country.

Chancellor George Osborne said: "We have Ed Balls himself saying it would cost the country money.

"It is a classic example of the economic chaos and confusion you get with Ed Miliband.

"It's why they have no economic credibility."

Mr Osborne tightened the rules on non-doms in the Autumn Statement, charging those who have been resident in the UK for 17 years £90,000 a year to allow them to retain non-dom status.

There had been confusion when Nicky Morgan, the Tory Education Secretary, suggested in an interview on the BBC's Today programme the party would tax all those based in the UK  on all earnings - including those earned abroad.

Mr Miliband was also sharply criticised because of the significant increase in the number of non-doms under the last Labour government.

The Liberal Democrats said the "vast majority" of those who took advantage of "non-dom" status spent less than five years in the UK.

Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors, said the policy might be a "shrewd political move" but added: "It's very unclear what additional revenue would be raised, but the UK's international reputation would be put at risk."

Nigel Farage said UKIP would put up the fees for people to retain the non-dom status and would stop it from being hereditary.


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Litvinenko Suspect: Death 'Suicide By Accident'

One of two ex-KGB agents suspected of using a radioactive poison to kill a former spy in London has said the victim may have accidentally poisoned himself.

Alexander Litvinenko died three weeks after after meeting the two agents at a London hotel on 1 November 2006.

Speaking at a Moscow news conference, Dmitry Kovtun said Mr Litvinenko may have already been contaminated before another meeting they had in October that year.

He suggested the former spy had accidentally poisoned himself, calling it a "suicide by accident".

"I am sure he was dealing with polonium without realising," Mr Kovtun said.

"Maybe at some point there was a leak of this polonium and it was gradually storing in his body. There were outbreaks, like on 16 October when he was vomiting." 

Sky's Moscow Correspondent Katie Stallard said people would find the suggestion hard to believe, particularly considering the coincidence around the timing of it.

Police have said a "massive trail" of radiation followed Mr Kovtun and his co-accused, Andrei Lugovoi, across London.

Traces were found in each of the hotel rooms they stayed in, restaurants they visited and even on their plane seats back to Moscow.

The former KGB agent did not deny he and his colleague had met Mr Litvinenko on 16 October 2006 at Itsu restaurant in London, but said Mr Litvinenko had told them he was feeling unwell and had been sick the night before.

Mr Kovtun suggested he had been contaminated when the group shook hands.

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  1. Gallery: Police Photo Evidence From Litvinenko Inquiry

    A graphic showing the levels of contamination in the bathroom of room 848 at the Sheraton hotel in London's Park Lane where Andrei Lugovoi, one of the men suspected of killing Mr Litvinenko, stayed just days before he was poisoned

A photograph of the bathroom

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Europe's Most Notorious Jewellery Heists

As detectives hunt those who raided around 70 safety deposit boxes in London - potentially making off with millions of pounds of diamonds - we look at some of the most notorious European heists of recent years.

::  Carlton Hotel, Cannes - £88m, July 2013

A lone gunman enters the hotel in the luxury French resort in broad daylight and less than a minute later escapes on foot with a suitcase full of jewels that were on show in the lobby.

The stash included pink and yellow diamonds, emeralds and sapphires.

It is one of many robberies blamed on the "Pink Panther" gang, who Interpol say have snatched jewels worth more than £280m since 1999.

The gang is thought to be a loosely-affiliated group of several hundred criminals from the former Yugoslavia.

:: Cannes Film Festival - £2m, May 2013

Thieves make off with a £1.7m necklace during a celebrity party attended by the likes of Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton.

A week earlier, £660,000 of Chopard jewels had also been stolen when a safe was ripped from a hotel wall.

:: Brussels Airport - £30m, February 2013

Dressed as police and armed with machine guns, eight men cut through fences and hold up a plane packed with 120 boxes of uncut diamonds.

Some of the robbers stand in front of the aircraft with their laser sights pointing at the pilots.

Passengers waiting to take off have no idea the robbery is taking place - it lasts barely 10 minutes.

Thirty-three people were arrested in connection with the robbery in May 2013.

:: Diarsa, Madrid - £19.5m, December 2012

The gang - whose ringleader was known as The Troll - use laser equipment to break into a distribution centre where they crack open safes and scoop up more than 1,700 luxury watches.

No alarms are triggered and they later try to sell the loot on the Chinese black market.

Seventeen of the group were eventually arrested after some of them splashed out on luxury holidays and yacht hire.

:: Graff jewellers, London - £40m, August 2009

Wearing make-up and suits to pose as legitimate customers, the gang carries out Britain's biggest jewellery raid in just two minutes.

Once inside the Mayfair store they pull guns on unsuspecting staff.

The group's ringleader takes a shop assistant hostage and fires at a security guard as he makes his escape. 

Police eventually tracked down the gang of four and they were jailed for up to 23 years.

:: Harry Winston jewellers, Paris - £74m, December 2008

With some of the gang dressed as women and wearing wigs, the exclusive Champs-Elysees store is stripped of rings, necklaces and watches.

The window display and back room storage are both cleaned out as it is raided for the second time in a year.

Several employees are coshed over the head with handguns as robbers refer to them by name.

Millions of pounds of the loot was found in a drain in a Paris suburb in 2011, but most remains missing.

Eight men were finally jailed for the robbery this year.

:: Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam - £76m, February 2005

Thought to be the biggest diamond heist ever, two men in stolen KLM airline uniforms hijack a truck laden with uncut diamonds on the airport tarmac.

The drivers are forced out at gunpoint and made to lie on the ground before the pair speed off.

The vehicle was later found abandoned but the diamonds and suspects were long gone - the crime is still unsolved but police suspect an inside job.

:: Antwerp Diamond Centre, Belgium - £70m, February 2003

An Italian group known as the The School of Turin pulls off a diamond robbery said to be four years in the planning and described as the "heist of the century".

The haul was so large the gang could not carry all the stones and left the floor littered with jewels.

No alarms were tripped, despite security including infrared heat detectors, a seismic detector and a lock with more than 100 million combinations.

Guards did not realise until the following day.

A half-eaten sandwich discarded during the getaway provided DNA evidence that led to the group's ringleader - but the fate of the diamonds remains a mystery.

:: O2, London - £350m, November 2000 - The foiled plot

The gang barge through gates using a JCB digger and let off smoke bombs as they try to smash display cases with sledgehammers and a nail gun.  

Their target was a collection of 12 diamonds, including De Beers' flawless 203-carat Millennium Star stone.

It could have been the world's biggest robbery but police were tipped off about the audacious plan and had swapped the jewels with imitations.

Armed police disguised as cleaners helped round up the gang, who were planning to make their getaway on the River Thames on a speedboat.


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Cop Shot Fleeing Man Like He Was 'Running Deer'

By Sky News US Team

The father of a black South Carolina man who was killed while fleeing a white policeman has said the officer shot his son as if he was trying to "kill a deer running through the woods".

North Charleston Patrolman Michael Slager, 33, has been charged with murder over last Saturday's death of 50-year-old Walter Lamer Scott.

A bystander captured video which appears to show the policeman firing eight shots at Mr Scott, who was running away at the time.

The two men had apparently engaged in a brief scuffle following a traffic stop for a faulty brake light.

The dead man's father, Walter Scott Sr, told NBC's Today Show on Wednesday his son may have run away because he owed child support money.

"It looked like he was trying to kill a deer or something, running through the woods," Mr Scott Sr said.

He described his anguish upon seeing the video.

"When I saw it, I fell to my feet and my heart was broken," Mr Scott Sr said.

He said that without the footage "it would have never come to light. They would have swept it under the rug, like they did with so many others."

In the footage, the officer is seen with his weapon raised before firing at the fleeing man. Mr Scott falls face-first to the ground.

Authorities said the officer opened fire after using a stun gun on Mr Scott.

Slager said into his radio after the shooting that Mr Scott had taken his stun gun, according to the New York Times, which quoted police reports.

The video shows the patrolman handcuffing the victim as he lies on the ground, before walking back to a spot near where he opened fire.

The footage then shows him appearing to pick something up, return to Mr Scott, then drop it next to him on the ground.

Mr Scott was hit by five bullets - three times in the back, once in the upper buttocks and once in the ear, said family lawyer Chris Stewart, quoting a coroner. 

The dead man's brother, Anthony Scott, said his late sibling was a father of four who served for two years in the US Coast Guard.

North Charleston Police say Slager, who has been with the force for five years, was arrested by officers of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Slager is being held without bail on a murder charge that could carry the death penalty, online court records show.

The victim's family plans to sue Slager, the department and the city, alleging that his civil rights were violated, a family lawyer said.

Nearly half of North Charleston's 100,000 population is black, according to Census data.

But some 18% of its police force is African American, the local Post and Courier newspaper reported last year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Justice Department has also launched an investigation into the shooting, which comes after a series of police killings of unarmed black men.

The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner on Staten Island both led to nationwide protests.


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Coalition With Nationalists 'Would Be Treason'

By Joe Tidy, Sky News Reporter

A coalition government with the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru or Sinn Féin would be tantamount to "treason", according to the English Democrats.

The party, formed in 2002 to bring about English independence from Britain, made the comments at the launch of their General Election campaign.

In a speech at the Hung, Drawn And Quartered pub in central London, party chairman Robin Tilbrook pointed out that the title of the drinking hole would be the sort of punishment that the likes of SNP and Plaid Cymru supporters could have faced in the past.

Behind the jokes, Mr Tilbrook said there was a serious issue about the English not having a strong enough voice in government.

"Look at last week's leaders' debate which had Nicola Sturgeon being the strong voice for Scotland and Leanne Wood for Wales," he said.

"We need a strong voice for England."

The party is hoping to match Plaid Cymru's number of parliamentary candidates and field around 40 in May, but admits that funding and interest is relatively low.

Mr Tilbrook said: "We have around 3,500 members which isn't an insignificant number.

"But we need to get our membership up to about 10,000 to really be fully self-sustained - so I am keen to build the party. This election will be important.

"I don't think we'll win any seats but if we get the kind of government that we think we will have, people in England will start to wake up.

"I believe we will one day have an independence referendum in England."


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US Soldier Killed In Afghan Insider Attack

An Afghan soldier was shot dead after opening fire on American troops - killing one and wounding seven others - in a failed assassination attempt on a senior US diplomat.

The attack took place after a meeting between Afghan provincial leaders and Donald Yamamoto in the compound of the provincial governor in Jalalabad.

According to sources, a convoy was leaving the compound when the Afghan soldier opened fire on the last car using a vehicle-mounted machine gun.

Mr Yamamoto, who was recently appointed as special advisor to Afghanistan, had already left the compound by this stage and was unharmed.

General Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, police chief for eastern Nangarhar province, said American troops immediately returned fire, killing the Afghan soldier.

The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

An Afghan interpreter working with the US troops had previously said no American soldiers had died in the incident.

It is the second insider attack in the country this year, after an Afghan soldier killed three American contractors on 29 January.

The Western-backed Afghan government's 13-year war against the insurgents has intensified as both sides seek to strengthen their positions ahead of possible peace talks.


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Mum Jailed For Fatally Poisoning Son With Salt

A suburban mother who blogged for years about her son's poor health has been sentenced to 20 years to life for poisoning him to death with salt.

Lacey Spears, 27, was convicted last month by a jury in White Plains, New York, of second-degree murder in the 2014 death of five-year-old Garnett.

She repeatedly force-fed sodium to the boy - whose father was killed in a car accident - through a stomach tube before he died on 23 January last year.

Spears portrayed herself as a devoted mother while documenting on social media her son's battle with a mysterious illness.

Prosecutors said she eventually killed the boy because she feared he would reveal she was poisoning him.

The trial heard that Spears loved the drama of Garnett's illness.

Assistant District Attorney Patricia Murphy said in closing arguments: "She apparently craved the attention of her family, her friends, her co-workers and most particularly the medical profession."

Doctors testified in court there was no medical explanation for the fatal surge in Garnett's sodium levels.

Spears tweeted in November 2009, adding a sad-faced emoticon: "My sweet angel is in the hospital for the 23rd time."

"Please pray he gets to come home soon."

But footage showed her twice taking Garnett into a hospital bathroom with a connector tube and the boy suffering afterwards.

Spears maintained her innocence despite the fact that two feeding bags heavily tainted with salt had been found in her apartment.

She asked a friend to hide one of them.

"Get rid of it and don't tell anybody," she said.

The equivalent of 69 McDonald's salt packets was in one bag, a forensic toxicologist testified.

Her social media posts of Garnett's final hours on life support were introduced as evidence by the prosecution.

The court heard Spears was a "calculating child killer" who carried out online research into the dangers of sodium in children.

Prosecutors said Spears often lied to doctors about Garnett's health, falsely claiming he suffered from Coeliac disease, Chrohn's disease and ear abnormalities.

Spears was living in Chestnut Ridge, New York, at the time of the boy's death, but she is originally from Decatur, Alabama.


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