Kelly Franklin murder: Lovers jailed for ex-partner's death

pic-1--Pic--Torbjorn Kettlewell must serve a minimum of 29 years, while his lover and accomplice Julie Wass was jailed for eight years/wp



Pic-2--Kelly Franklin was stabbed in the street in August/wp
Crime reporter(wp/reuters):::

An "evil monster" who stabbed his ex-partner to death in the street has been jailed for life with a minimum of 29 years.

Torbjorn Kettlewell, 30, stabbed Kelly Franklin, 29, more than 30 times in Hartlepool after she ended their abusive 12-year relationship.

His lover Julie Wass, 48, was jailed for eight years for manslaughter.

Both were found guilty of the 3 August killing by jurors at Teesside Crown Court.

Ms Franklin's family said Kettlewell was an "evil, vicious monster" who had "plagued" her life in a "controlling and abusive relationship".

In a statement read to the court, Ms Franklin's sister Stacy said she had got rid of Kettlewell "like a nasty virus".

She told him: "You were meant to have loved her, we will never forgive you."

She also said the children "are flourishing" without their father, adding: "They hate you for what you have done."

Ms Franklin added that the family were "disgusted" Kettlewell initially admitted the murder but then changed his plea, putting them through the pain of a trial.

Prosecutors called Kettlewell an "utterly self-centred narcissist" who was "coercive and psychologically abusive" towards Ms Franklin and the couple's three children during their relationship, which ended in January 2018.

Wass lived next door to the victim and would report her movements to Kettlewell.

On the day of the killing, Kettlewell, who had bombarded his ex with messages telling her to get back with him, was driven by Wass to find Ms Franklin.

Wass spotted her walking on Oxford Street, where Kettlewell confronted and attacked her.

Wass then drove Kettlewell to woods near Trimdon before returning to the scene and speaking to police in an attempt to cover up her role.

Stacy Franklin also said Wass, a mother and grandmother, had been "disgusting and heartless".

Sterling to slump on no-deal Brexit, rise a bit on orderly exit - Reuters poll

Business reporter(wp/reuters):::
Sterling will gain between 2 and 5 percent if Britain parts ways with the European Union with a divorce deal but will slide between 5 and 10 percent in the event of a disorderly Brexit, a Reuters poll found on Wednesday.

Less than eight weeks before Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 there is still huge uncertainty about the terms of its departure and fears are rising of a no-deal Brexit without a transition period to minimise economic disruption.

Asked what would happen to sterling if Britain leaves with a deal, strategists who answered an extra question in a regular monthly poll were almost unanimous in expecting it to make gains. All of them said the currency would fall if Britain crashes out without a deal.

But the prospective gains were weaker than potential losses.

“The rationale would be that markets are going to wait right up until the last possible moment to sell off in terms of how a no-deal might materialise. Markets will hold out for a last-minute breakthrough,” said George Brown at Investec.

“If that wasn’t to materialise then you will see a big, sharp depreciation,” Brown added, saying a deal would take form over time and so should be gradually priced into the currency, hence the more modest gains.

The withdrawal agreement Prime Minister Theresa May negotiated with the EU was rejected by the British parliament last month. London and Brussels are now arguing over whether the deal can be changed, raising the possibility of a delay to Brexit, a last-minute deal or a no-deal exit.

Medians in the wider poll, taken between Jan. 31 and Feb. 5, see the pound making solid gains on the dollar in the coming year, which suggests foreign exchange strategists expect an agreement to be reached.

In one month’s time a pound will be worth $1.31, in six months $1.35 and in a year it will be almost 8 percent stronger at $1.40, according to the poll. Sterling was trading around $1.297 on Tuesday, having fallen to a two-week low after a private survey suggested the British economy was flat-lining.

Reuters polls of economists have consistently indicated that they expect Britain and the European Union to eventually agree a free trade deal.

MORE SWINGS SEEN

In recent months the pound has largely ignored economic data and instead swung wildly on any snippets of news about the Brexit talks.

Reflecting this, strategists said the currency would move in a relatively wide range ahead of the March 29 departure date, between $1.28 and $1.33.

Some of the longer-term forecast gains will be because strategists have said the dollar’s dominance is over. With the U.S. Federal Reserve having signalled its three-year drive to tighten monetary policy may be at an end, the greenback may not be supported by interest rate differentials for much longer.

The Bank of England is expected to leave policy unchanged on Thursday and will take a slow and steady approach to tightening, raising borrowing costs by 25 basis points to 1.0 percent in the third quarter, with an identical increase early next year, according to a recent Reuters poll.

A hike to the European Central Bank’s deposit rate will not come until the fourth quarter, another Reuters poll found, later than previously thought as the risk of a recession in the currency union has risen. But markets don’t expect an ECB rate rise until mid-2020.

So against the euro, the pound will make modest gains. On Tuesday, a euro was worth about 88.1 pence and in six and 12 months forecasts are for one to get you only 86.0p.

UK builder Barratt working to ensure component supply after Brexit

Business reporter(wp/reuters):::

Britain’s biggest housebuilder Barratt said it was liaising with its suppliers to ensure the smooth arrival of overseas components by boosting inventories and looking at alternative routes as it prepares for Brexit.

Barratt, which said on Wednesday its current trading is in line with expectations as it posted a 4 percent rise in first-half volumes, is one of several British companies preparing for possible disruption after Britain leaves the EU.

“We have worked with our suppliers on continuity of supply of non-UK manufactured components, including product specification reviews, their holding additional inventories and review of logistic routes to seek to mitigate the potential for disruption,” the company said.

We'll take on social media giants, opposition Labour Party says

Political reporter(wp/reuters):::

Digital tech firms are too big and Britain’s opposition Labour Party would create a dedicated technology regulator to prevent market abuse and look at breaking up monopolies like Facebook (FB.O), the party’s deputy leader will say on Wednesday.

The digital revolution has spawned a handful of U.S.-based technology companies since the 1990s that now have a combined financial and cultural power greater than most sovereign states.

Tom Watson will lay out plans which include creating a regulator, creating a Digital Bill of Rights and giving social media firms a broad legal duty of care to protect users.

“The scale of the largest companies is rightly the subject of scrutiny. We should take seriously the calls to break them up if it is in the public interest,” Watson is expected to say.

Facebook in particular has come under scrutiny over its use of data. Concerns about its ability to safeguard user data have sparked a government lawsuit in the United States, while it has been criticised by lawmakers around the world.

Shares have been hit by investors concern about snowballing legal and regulatory efforts over its data use polices.

Labour did not set out in detail how a British regulator might attempt to break up some of the most powerful companies in the world, almost of which are based outside the United Kingdom.

In a interview with BBC radio, Watson cited Facebook’s purchase of Instagram an example of a merger that concentrated user data in a dangerous way.

“Our competition laws are not fit for the age of big data,” he said.