Woman who had most of her face torn off by crazed chimp speaks for first time
By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 3:45 AM on 12th November 2009
Charla Nash as she was before the chimp attack
A woman who suffered horrific injuries after being mauled by a crazed chimpanzee has spoken for the first time about her ordeal.
Charla Nash, who had most of her face torn off during the frenzied attack, has also allowed herself to be photographed for the first time since the attack eight months ago.
She said she was glad she had no memory of the attack or she believes she would have suffered from terrible 'nightmares'.
Nash, who has a daughter, Briana, 17, has no eyes, mouth, eyelids and nose.
She also lost all the fingers on both hands as they were chewed off.
Nash is considering undergoing a full face transplant as she comes to terms with the life changing attack.
Speaking for the first time about the attack by a friend's 200lb chimp, Nash said: 'I don't want to remember, because I couldn't imagine what it was like.
'I want to get healthy. I don't want to wake up with nightmares.
'I don't ask a whole lot about my injuries and I know that I have my forehead.'
Nash broke her silence for an interview on The Oprah Winfrey in the U.S. yesterday.
Before she revealed her disfigured features on television, Winfrey warned the audience that what they would see was 'extremely, extremely shocking'.
The chat show host said she had never seen anyone with such horrific injuries, including burns victims.
She said: 'It is very shocking. You will see the destruction and devastation caused.'
This is the astonishing moment Charla bravely shows her face to Oprah Winfrey and the world after it was ripped off by a chimp
Nash told Winfrey that she had agreed to let her face be shown to the world for the first time after being told there was a 'bounty' on her picture from U.S. supermarket tabloids.
A guard has been posted outside her hospital room for the last eight months and mobile phones and cameras banned.
Nash was left near dead when her close friend's house-trained ape, Travis, brutally mauled her after escaping from the home in which he had been raised as a pet from infancy.
Travis' owner, Sandy Herold, used a butcher's knife to stab the 14-year-old chimp, who was suffering from Lyme disease and had consumed the drug Xanax, in a desperate bid to save her friend.
The rampage was only ended at the Stamford, Connecticut, home when police shot the animal dead.
On emergency calls of the incident Herold could be heard screaming: 'The chimp killed my friend'.
The 911 dispatcher later asks: 'Who's killing your friend?'
'My chimpanzee!,' she cries.
'He ripped her apart! Shoot him, shoot him!'
Paramedics at the scene said it looked as if Nash's hands had been through a meat grinder as they picked up her chewed-off fingers from the floor.
Nash said when she woke up in hospital after the attack she couldn't understand what had happened to her.
Travis, pictured in his playroom in 2003, was Sandra Herold's beloved pet
But she realised the full extent of her injuries when a doctor told her she had lost both her eyes.
Speaking to Winfrey, Nash said: 'I do remember I kept saying that, "Well, one of these days I'm going to see." And then the doctors said, "No, you're never going to see again," and I'm like: "Well, I don't know. They don't know what they're talking about".
'But the eye doctor came in a couple weeks ago and said that it's a shame they had to remove my eyes, and that's when I really knew.'
Nash said she wore a veil to hide her hideously disfigured face so as not to scare people.
'I wear it so I don't scare people. Sometimes other people might insult you, so I figure maybe it's easier if I just walk around covered up.'
Since the attack Nash has been recovering at the Cleveland Hospital in Ohio where America's first full face transplant was carried out.
Friends say Nash, who was devastated after her eyes were removed due to infection following the injuries, is considering such a transplant.
But Nash is not a candidate for a hand transplant because she has lost her eyesight.
'I'm hoping somewhere along the line I'll be evaluated and that maybe when I get a face transplant,' she said. 'The hand transplant will be done with it because they have to be done at the same time from the same donor.'
Nash said her biggest regret has not being able to spend more time with her daughter Briana.
She said she looked forward to the teenager's visits.
'We lay next to each other and we hold each other and we talk about things - what she does at school or with her friends.'
And she insists she is not worried about what people think of her looks.
'I'm the one who has to like this,' she said. 'Not them. So it doesn't matter what they say.'
Her family are suing the owner of the chimp, Sandra Herold, for over $28million.
Herold did not take part in the programme, but her lawyer issued a statement which said: 'All of Sandy's hopes and prayers are with Charla and her daughter in this challenging time. Sandy has always tried to help Charla and wished her the best.
'When Charla lost her job, it was Sandy who provided her with employment and a place to live. Sandy hopes and prays for a full and speedy recovery.'
Oprah Winfrey's producers spent a day at the Ohio clinic filming Nash.
Father, 4 Sons Charged in Missouri Child Rape Case
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
In what investigators are calling a "horrendous" case of child abuse, five members of a Missouri family — a father and his four adult sons — are being charged with a host of shocking crimes against children as young as 11 years old.
Burrell Edward Mohler Sr., 77, and his sons were charged with committing numerous crimes, including child rape, sodomy and using a child in a sexual performance.
Police said Wednesday they were searching for more potential victims, including possible bodies on land owned by the family. Five victims have been located, but the number "could possibly expand," said Cpl. Bill Lowe of the Missouri highway patrol. He said all of the victims were under the age of 12 when they were molested.
“There may be other victims out there,” Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh told reporters at a news conference.
Charged with multiple counts of child rape are Mohler Sr., of Independence, Mo., and sons Burrell Edward Mohler Jr., 53, of Independence, and 48-year-old Jared Leroy Mohler of Columbia, Mo. David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa, was charged with one count of child rape, and Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City, Mo., is accused of using a child in a sexual performance — a felony. The suspects also face sodomy charges.
Police said the crimes were committed between 1988 and 1995, though they might have continued after that period.
Alumbaugh said authorities believe there may be a body or bodies buried on the land owned by the family and asked for the public's help in the investigation.
The Lafayette County Prosecutors office issued probable cause documents claiming that several female relatives and one male relative of the five men were abused, Fox4KC.com said. At one point, a female relative told investigators she was forced to have sex with a dog, according to the documents.
The woman said she was forced to have an abortion when she was 11 years old and that she and her four sisters were forced to participate in mock marriage ceremonies before the men had sex with them, according to court documents.
Detectives said the woman told them that the five men in custody all were involved in using the family dog, a German shepherd, to sexually abuse her, Fox4KC.com said.
The five suspects were arrested Tuesday and are being held without bond.
Police and cadaver dogs searched a patch of land on a farm Wednesday near Bates City, Mo., scouring the property for glass jars with notes the victims allegedly wrote 20 years ago.
Lowe said one of the girls, a daughter of one of the suspects, came forward with her story in mid-August. He said she and her siblings have been cooperating in the investigation.
Lowe said the woman told investigators that she and the other victims, three girls and a boy, buried glass jars around the property, filled with messages "about what was happening to them" when they were younger.
"Right now what our main focus is the glass jars and trying to locate them," Lowe said. "Those jars have that information."
Columbia police seized a computer and discs from Jared Mohler's home on Tuesday, police spokeswoman Jessie Haden said.
One of the suspects, David Mohler, has worked for Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, for 27 years; he was arrested on its Independence campus.
"Police came in and put handcuffs on him and led him away," university President John Sellars said. "It was all very quiet and subdued."
He said David Mohler periodically traveled to Independence to work on Graceland's phone systems there. Sellars described David Mohler as "a very nice person who got along well with his colleagues."
"We were stunned," Sellars said. "At this point these are allegations, and of course we need to hear more because I don't know very much at this point."
Sellars said he spoke to David Mohler's wife, Michelle Mohler, on Tuesday, and that she was "shocked and stunned."
He said the couple has grown children, but he did not know their ages or where they lived.
61-Year-Old Hopes to Play in College Football Game
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
SHERMAN, Texas — He hasn't played a down this season, but a 61-year-old graduate student is hoping to play this weekend for a Texas college football team.
Tom Thompson of suburban Dallas says he is ready to kick for the Austin College Kangaroos when the Division III school hosts Trinity University in Saturday's season finale.
Thompson tells KXII-TV that he was a backup kicker in high school, but that was more than 40 years ago. He says he "had to learn how to kick all over again."
Coach Ronnie Gage says he's unsure whether he will play Thompson on Saturday, but he praised the man who's "gone through a lot of hard work and a lot of pain to be able to do this."
Lest he forget: Ex-soldier has all 223 names of troops killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his body
By Niall Firth
Last updated at 11:30 AM on 12th November 2009
His bare back is still red raw from their freshly-inked names.
But former soldier Shaun Clark had promised to have the name of every troop killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his body in honour of their sacrifice.
And he wasn't going to back out.
Mr Clark, 43, spent more than four hours in the tattooist's chair today as each of the 223 names were etched in ink over his chest and back.
Former soldier Shaun Clark has the names of every British soldier killed in Afghanistan tattooed on his back
Mr Clark, who served with the 8th Battalion Light Infantry Regiment from 1989 to 1996, was waiting in the tattooist's chair at 11am this morning to carry out his painful pledge.
The first name was etched on his body just as the traditional Armistice Day two-minute silence began.
He said: 'I don't mind suffering for a few days if I can let the lads know that people really care about what they're doing out there, and raise some money for the guys coming home wounded as well.
'The family thought I was mad to begin with, but they've come round to the idea now, and my wife is backing me all the way.'
The married father-of-two from Doncaster hopes his challenge will raise £500 for the charity Help for Heroes.
He plans on updating the sombre list every year on Remembrance Day if required.
Before his ordeal began, Mr Clark said: 'It's going to be painful business but it's nothing compared to what the troops are going through every single day on the front line.'
He added: 'I know it's a bit extreme covering the top half of your body front and back with 223 names, but it's my way of honouring all those men and women and it'll be there as a memorial for as long as I live.'
Mr Clark hopes to raise £500 for Help4Heroes through his ordeal
Mr Clark said: 'I wanted to do something to raise money for the heroes who still need help and to honour the memory of the fallen.
'I've still lots of friends from my days in the Army over in Afghanistan and there's lots of Donny lads out there as well.
'Lots of people do things to raise money but I wanted to do something different and something permanent.
'It's not just about raising money - it's also about letting these lads know that people care about what they're doing.'
Tattoo artist Kevin Kent, who is donating his services free of charge, said: 'We're going to start just as the two minute silence begins at 11am on Wednesday, and I've told Shaun that's it's going to be a slow and painful process.'
Mr Clark served in Denmark, Gibraltar and Norway before leaving the Army in 1997.
He says he has received many messages of support from soldiers still out in Afghanistan as well as from former colleagues.
Mr Clark has set up a page on the Just Giving fundraising website and has raised £165.
His page is inundated with supportive comments from well-wishers.
One supporter writes: 'Good luck shaun its means a lot to me what you are doing as my husband is there soon.'
Another adds: 'Top bloke. We will remember them.'
A Help for Heroes spokesman said: 'We are used to people going the extra mile, but this goes far beyond the norm.
'Shaun was in touch a few days ago to confirm everything was going ahead.
'It turned out to be a very poignant conversation because the volunteer who took the call lost her husband in action earlier in the year and, of course, his name is among those on the list."
Help for Heroes is a charity that raises money to support members of the Armed Forces who have been wounded.
In just over two years, the charity has raised over £30million through more than 10,000 individual events.
Doctors pull 1.5lbs of nails and coins from man's stomach
Doctors in Peru removed 1.5 pounds of metal from a man's stomach, including nails, coins, and rusted copper wire and scrap metal.
Published: 12:12AM GMT 12 Nov 2009
"They call me the hardware store," said Requelme Abanto from his hospital bed in the city of Cajamarca, in northern Peru.
Carlos Delgado, a surgeon at the Cajamarca hospital surgeon, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he had never seen anything like what he found in last week's operation.
"We went in thinking it could be appendicitis, but weren't we surprised by what we found - a hole in his stomach," Dr Delgado said.
Dr Delgado said specialists were examining Mr Abanto's mental health as he recovers.
The 26-year-old construction worker ate the metal for months, and told Peru's Channel 9 television that he may now do it in public "as sport".
"I swallowed 17 nails in February and didn't die," he said. "Five-inch nails, all in one day."
Wife snares paedophile husband by posing as online schoolgirl using computer in room next door
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:00 PM on 12th November 2009
Snared: David Roberts, 68, was caught chatting up young girls for internet sex by his wife
A suspicious wife caught her pensioner husband chatting up girls for internet sex by posing online as a teenager, a court has heard.
Cheryl Roberts, 61, suspected her husband David was logging on to chatrooms to lure schoolchildren into sex.
So the mother-of-two used another computer in their home in Bridgend, South Wales, to pretend she was a 14-year-old - and snared her husband in the act.
Cardiff Crown Court heard yesterday she hooked up with Roberts, 68, when he was in his study. He was completely unaware he was chatting to his own wife in the living room next door.
Former pub landlord Roberts propositioned the ‘girl’ asking her to meet up for sex.
The court heard Mrs Roberts was so shocked by her husband's behaviour she brought in police who seized his computer.
It was the amount of time her husband spent in his study which first made Mrs Roberts suspicious.
The court heard Mrs Roberts, who had been married for nearly 20 years, had then seen a message pop up on their computer while he was out.
Prosecutor Martyn Kelly told the court: ‘It said: "You are a f****** beautiful b***h” and was signed Corky - his nickname.’
Mr Kelly said: ‘She realised the message on the screen was one her husband had posted to a young girl.
‘Her husband had no idea but soon he was chatting with his own wife, believing it was a 14-year-old.
‘She had decided to pose as a schoolgirl to confirm her fears'
‘She could see the chatroom he was using and decided to catch him out by creating a profile of her own to use the same internet site.
‘Her husband had no idea but soon he was chatting with his own wife, believing it was a 14-year-old.
‘She had decided to pose as a schoolgirl to confirm her fears.'
He used a webcam to carry out acts of indecency on himself - which his wife could see on her PC just yards away.
But the court heard she didn't confront her husband - but called in the NSPCC and the police instead.
Police found dozens of illegal child porn images on Roberts' home computer and he believed he had been caught through downloading them.
It was some weeks later before detectives broke the news that he had in fact been chatting up his own wife online and that it was she who led detectives to him.
When interviewed, Roberts denied having sex with any schoolgirls - but admitted he was ‘prepared to do so’.
Byron Broadstock, defending, said: ‘He's brought shame on himself and his family.’
Roberts admitted engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and making and possessing illegal images.
He was given a three-year community order and banned from having access in person or online to children under the age of 18.
The court heard the couple have now split up and are getting divorced
Drunk hammers nail into head
Man shoots nail gun in head
RHODRI PHILLIPS
Published: 11 Nov 2009
A HENPECKED husband took drastic action when his wife nailed him over his boozing.
Sozzled Lin Ma's disapproving spouse Su, 60, did his head in when he returned from a drinking binge — so he took an eight inch NAIL and knocked it in to his own skull.
The 66-year-old, of Yuyi, southern China, was rushed to hospital with the head wound.
Stunned medics at the Shantou Medical College were able to remove the nail which astonishingly had missed his brain by fractions of an inch.
Lin said the incident had knocked him out.
He added: "I thought life wasn't worth living so I tried to end it. I woke up with a very bad headache - worse even than the biggest hangover I've ever had."
Pregnant shark in aquarium has chunk bitten out of her by another shark ... and stunned visitors see four pups emerge
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 5:14 PM on 11th November 2009
A pregnant shark at a New Zealand aquarium was bitten by another shark, unexpectedly releasing four baby sharks in front of stunned visitors.
An aquarium spokeswoman said visitors saw the injured shark and alerted staff that they had also seen things float from the gaping wound.
'It (the bite) was on the side and very deep, it was like an impromptu C-section and the sharks actually got born out of the side,' said one woman who saw it happen.
Savage: The shark is recovering after being attacked in its aquarium. The stitches in its side are clearly visible (below)
The babies were removed from the tank to prevent stingrays and other sharks from eating them. When staff also moved the mother they found a further four sharks inside her.
The mother's wound was stitched by a vet at Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in Auckland.
'She's doing well, but we're watching her closely as it's a one-off occurrence, so we're not sure how she'll do,' a spokeswoman said.
All eight baby sharks survived.
Aquarist Fiona Davies said it was common for sharks to take chunks out of each other, even in the wild, but she had never heard of anything like this.
Ms Davies said the unusual delivery had probably saved the baby sharks' lives.
If the mother had given birth naturally, most likely at night, the babies would have been eaten by adult sharks and stingrays before staff could rescue them.
Thriving: The baby sharks were removed from the aquarium to protect them from other sharks
Another staff member said: 'Once they are born they are on their own and parents do not hang around at all and they have to fend for themselves.'
Last week a Great White shark was caught off the coast of Australia after being attacked by another "Jaws" which took a huge chunk out of its
Form an orderly queue: Band of raccoons line up for the bus
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 10:24 AM on 12th November 2009
Their masked faces give a clue as to their devious ambitions - but this is no stick-up.
This group of critters regularly queue up for the No.18 bus in San Francisco to get a bite to eat.
The bus stop raccoons have become regular visitors, thanks to the driver’s habit of dispensing treats as he stops off outside the city’s Legion of Honour museum.
Get in line: the raccoons assemble outside San Francisco's Legion of Honour museum, where the driver of this bus regularly feeds them treats
The image was posted by a blogger and has become an internet hit.
Although many posters have described the ritual as ‘cute’, there are fears that once the authorities find out, the animals will be rounded up.
The furry creatures are known to be feisty, clever animals, regularly breaking into people’s houses in search of food.
But experts warn they carry rabies and an ‘intestinal parasitic worm that will cause severe disease if it infects humans.’
Standing to attention: Although a heart-warming sight, raccoons are known to be feisty creatures and can carry rabies
Last month a pack of raccoons mauled a 74-year-old Florida woman after she tried to chase them from her back yard.
The pensioner was taken to hospital with extensive cuts from her neck to her legs.