A former soap star who admitted driving the getaway car in a gangland shooting has been cleared of murder, it can be reported today.
Brian Regan, 53, who played Terry Sullivan in Channel 4’s Brookside, was found not guilty at Liverpool Crown Court over his role in the killing of nightclub doorman Bahman Faraji, 44.
He was convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice by lying to police in the early stages of the murder investigation and disposing of a pair of gloves he wore on the night.
Regan, who was on bail for supplying cocaine when the murder took place, was jailed on January 25 for a total of four years and 10 months.
The facts can now be revealed after Mrs Justice Nicola Davies lifted reporting restrictions put in place to avoid prejudicing the trial of another defendant, Jason Gabbana, who was yesterday convicted of murder.
Inquiry over grave error
A coffin was lowered into the wrong grave during a burial service, council bosses admitted.
The gaffe was made at Whitehaven Cemetery in Cumbria but fortunately officials realised their mistake before the grave was covered over.
Grieving relatives looked on as the coffin was then moved to the correct plot, and Copeland Borough Council has since carried out an inquiry into the incident.
UK postal museum upgrade
Plans for a new postal museum to house photographs, postboxes, vehicles and a world-class stamp collection charting 400 years of postal history were unveiled yesterday.
The British Postal Museum and Archive will move from its current location in London to the nearby Mount Pleasant site, where the country’s oldest mail centre is based.
The Royal Mail and Post Office is giving a £500,000 grant and there will be a multimillion-pound conversion of the site.
The new centre will allow the museum to exhibit objects from its collection which are currently held in storage.
Donald Brydon, Royal Mail Group’s chairman, said: “These plans will give our postal heritage a world-class home.
“The history of Royal Mail is a key part of the history of postal services worldwide.
Mosque prayers too loud
Mosque loudspeakers calling the faithful to pre-dawn prayers can make for an irritating wake-up call for non-Muslims – particularly in Israel, where Muslims, Jews and Christians live near each other.
The Arab village of Manshiya Zabda is testing a simple solution after complaints from Jewish neighbours. It has replaced the loudspeaker box on top of the local mosque with four smaller speakers installed throughout the village, cutting the noise in half.
Local imam Ali Saida said senior clerics assured him they have no problem with the government-funded experiment which will be installed in other villages before the project goes national.