The Walking Dead fans endured several tragic deaths throughout its long run and continued to experience the extended franchise set in the post-apocalyptic world. Some of these deaths left a lasting impact on viewers, including that of Carl Grimes, the son of the show’s protagonist, whose journey came to an end in Season 8. And […]
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USAIN Bolt’s father has died at 68 after a long battle with illness.
Wellesley Bolt, who oversaw the eight-time Olympic gold medallist’s rise to glory, passed away on Monday in Jamaica, local media confirmed.
He was a well-respected figure in the tight-knit community of Sherwood Content in Trelawny, on Jamaica’s northern coast.
He ran a small grocery shop and played a pivotal role in the early success of his world-famous son Usain.
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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‘OH God, what have they done to you?’ mum Ange Sheeran cried in disbelief as she saw her “zombified” teenage daughter sat in the police station, intoxicated and covered in curry.
Jodie Sheeran, then aged just 15, had been plied with booze, gang raped by a group of much older Asian men who had groomed her, and left at a Stoke-on-Trent hotel following their Eid celebration.
Sickeningly, the rapists had poured a curry mixture all over the teen after the vile attack, which had come after months of grooming by the gang.
Despite her horrific ordeal, the brave teen managed to call police and report the attack as soon as she woke up and underwent medical examinations where officers found the DNA of a 25-year-old male, who was subsequently arrested and charged.
But in a crushing blow – which her family believes led to Jodie’s alcohol-related death years later – the case was dropped the day it was due to go to trial after CPS claimed there was not enough evidence.
Now her family – including Jodie’s son Jayden who was conceived by the rape and is now aged 19 – are demanding answers as to why the case was never prosecuted.
They have taken part in a documentary produced by Rotherham grooming gangs survivor Sammy Woodhouse for Tousi TV, as they campaign for justice for Jodie and Jayden.
In an exclusive interview with Fabulous, mum Ange said: “Jodie never got a chance for her day in court and neither did we.
“She did everything they asked, they had video evidence, physical evidence. We could have given evidence, they could have taken DNA from her son, but they never have.
“They didn’t even think it warranted a trial.
“Jodie was heartbroken when they dropped the case. It was terrible. Her life was ruined from that day. Absolutely ruined.”
Son Jayden told us: “Since I was born I’ve had no help or support from anyone, other than from my nan and my family.
“I just work full time to keep myself busy.
“I’ve reached out to loads of people, especially since my mum’s death, to try and raise awareness of my mum’s story. Even when we went to meet the MP in the documentary, he’s taken no notice of it since.
“Hopefully one day, people will realise what has happened and how diabolical it is that we’ve just been ignored.”
The Sheeran family’s nightmare began when Jodie, who had been a “typical little girl who loved singing and dancing” up to that point, was aged just 12 or 13 and she started coming home with gifts.
“When she started high school, you could see like a change in her. She was wanting to go out and coming in with fancy gifts and mobile phones and saying she’d got a boyfriend and things like this.
“And then she started going missing and I was ringing the police all of the time reporting her missing. She was 12 or 13 at this point.
“I had no idea she was being groomed, this was 2003/2004, I’d never even heard of grooming or grooming gangs.
“But this was the thing, when I was ringing the police and they were bringing her back, they were finding her in cars with older men, but never did anything about it.
“A police officer said to me ‘Look, if Jodie keeps doing what she’s doing, she’s going to end up dead or raped’.
“And I think to myself now, ‘But then why weren’t the men in the cars with her arrested?’ Because they were adults and she was like 13, 14. But they just kept bringing her back and basically telling me she was putting herself at risk.”
Jodie started to go missing more and more as the grooming gang tightened its grip on her.
Although Ange does not know the number of males that were involved in the gang she believes they were “numerous” and involved members of the same families as well as local business.
Unbeknownst to her family at the time, Jodie was also been trafficked to other towns and cities by the gang where she was exploited.
Ange recalled: “One day we were driving and we we’re going past various hotels. And she said, ‘I’ve stayed there. I’ve stayed there. I’ve been there’. She was only 14.
“She said one of the men was her boyfriend. And when we asked how old, she said 19 or 20.
“I said to her that’s not a boyfriend, boyfriends want to come to your house to meet your family and things like this.
“But by then they had got her hook, line and sinker. Because what she’d start doing then is going missing in the middle of the night, when we were all in bed, without us knowing.
“I’d get up in the morning and she’d be gone. She’d disguise the bed as if she was asleep in it and then she’d go missing.
“She’d be running off. She was sneaking out and there was nothing you could do to make her stay in.
“She was sort of under their spell. She’d do anything to get out. Absolutely anything.”
It was soon afterwards that the family’s worst fears came true, as police knocked on their door at 2am in November 2004 and asked them to come to the station.
“The night of the rape, we’d reported her missing and then it was about two o’clock in the morning when we had two police officers come around and they said, ‘We need you to come down to the station. Your daughter’s asking for you. She’s been raped.’
A police officer said to me: ‘Look, if Jodie keeps doing what she’s doing, she’s going to end up dead or raped’… But then why weren’t the men in the cars with her arrested?
“So they took me to Longton Police Station as it was then and I went into this room where Jodie was and it was vile. She had this curry stuff all over her, like a curry mixture or curry powder, and she was completely zombified due to the amount of alcohol they’d given her. She was all over the place.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, what have they done to you?’ I will never forget it.
“It emerged afterwards, that she was seen at a hotel in Blurton, it was called the Tollgate Hotel. She was seen on the cameras being escorted up the stairs on her own with a lot of males, all older males.
“I don’t even know why she was allowed up with them.
“Jodie remembered being given large glasses of Malibu and that the men took turns raping her.
“It was an Eid celebration they were having at the hotel.
“Jodie woke up and all the males had left her and she rang the police to say she had been raped.”
Jodie found out she was pregnant from the rape when she was sent for STI testing – but bravely decided she wanted to keep the baby and her parents supported her decision.
However police were forced to move the teen out of the area shortly before the birth after receiving “threats to her life”.
“She was whisked her away out of the area when she was pregnant to some foster carers out in Derbyshire,” Ange said.
“And so then we had to go and visit her secretly. And when she went into labour, she went to a hospital out of the area and she was given a fake name and we had to have passwords to get into the hospital because of the threat on her life.
“So she was all alone through the last months of the pregnancy.
“When she gave birth, she looked at Jayden and she pushed him away. Sort of said, ‘No, take him off me now’.
She never got justice for what happened to her, she never got closure
Ange Sheeran
“It was heartbreaking but I think seeing him brought back all the memories from the night.
“We loved Jayden to bits and eventually we ended up taking Jayden on under a residence order, where we shared parental responsibility with Jodie.
“So he lived with us, we looked after him, but she still had the parental responsibility with him as well.
“She struggled to form that bond, they were more like brother and sister.”
Ange said they never received a written explanation as to why the criminal case against Jodie’s accused rapist was dropped.
“The CID lady who had been dealing with the case came around to tell us the case had been dropped as there wasn’t enough evidence.
“They thought that Jodie was an unreliable witness.
“She said to me ‘All I can say is I hope I’m still working when he does it again. So I can put him behind bars because he will do it again.’ And that was it.
“That was all we got, no letter, no nothing, no explanation.”
Tragically the trauma took it’s toll on Jodie, who struggled with alcohol issues in the years afterthe rape, and eventually died from alcohol ketoacidosis in November 2022.
“She was found dead all alone by her two younger sisters,” emotional Ange recalls.
“She wasn’t your typical alcoholic, she worked as a carer for the elderly. She’d been a live-in carer with disabled people.
“And Jodie, she was one of these, when she was going on a date or she wanted to meet someone, she had to have a drink to get the confidence. And that one drink would then spiral out of control and she would sort of go on a two, three-day binge.
When she gave birth, she looked at Jayden and she pushed him away. Sort of said, ‘No, take him off me now’. It was heartbreaking
Ange Sheeran
“She’d go months at a time without a drink. This is why it was so, so sad. She wasn’t an alcoholic who was living on the streets and robbing, she had a job and a loving family.
“Her problems with drinking all stemmed back to that one night.”
Ange firmly blames the grooming gang for Jodie’s death.
“It was definitely, definitely that night and those males that cost her life,” she said.
“She went through all the counselling and the rehabs. She’d done that much. And they all said it stems back from that one night in November 2004.
“She never got justice for what happened to her, she never got closure.”
Ange says the terrible events have understandably taken their toll on Jodie’s son Jayden, who has even had to bump into the man believed to have fathered him during the rape, who still lives near them in Stoke on Trent.
“It’s so sad for Jayden because he’s lost his mum and he’s got no dad – it’s like he’s got no identity,” she said.
“The man is living in Stoke on Trent. We’ve been told that his wife took her own life. And the reason she took her own life was because she was sick and tired of young girls ringing her up saying that her husband had fathered their children.
“Jayden actually got pictures of him on social media driving around in a car and all of his followers are young girls.
“He’s bumped into him just recently.
“As soon as my daughter was found dead, I went straight to the police a few couple of weeks after and I walked into the police station and I said, ‘I want this case reopened because Jayden is the evidence – he’s walking DNA evidence’. They just said, ‘Well, I’m sorry, your daughter’s dead. There’s nothing we can do.’”
Ange believes there may be other women who were victims of the grooming gang and has appealed for them to come forward.
“I’ve appealed for any other young ladies to come forward who have had the same done to them, so we get try and get the case looked at again.
“I had one lady come forward. She’s absolutely had her life ruined because of the grooming and she only just got out of it a few years ago.
“She lives out of the area, under a different name.
A spokesperson for Staffordshire Police, who investigated Jodie's case in 2004, said:
“Our condolences remain with Mrs Sheeran and her family following Jodie’s tragic death.
“We arrested a man after we received an allegation of rape in November 2004. A thorough investigation was completed and a man was charged. However, the case was discontinued at court.
“We met with Mrs Sheeran in February 2023 and again in March 2024 to discuss her daughter’s case, and have advised that despite several reviews there is no new information we can progress at this stage.
“We are committed to preventing and reducing child sexual exploitation, keeping vulnerable children safe and bringing offenders to justice. We have invested in our Public Protection Unit over the last 12 months and have dedicated child exploitation teams working with partners across Staffordshire.
“We conduct regular enforcement activity against suspects and proactive operations are regularly conducted by our child exploitation team. Along with partners, we continue raise awareness of the signs of child exploitation and how to report concerns. This includes education establishments, third-sector organisations, hospitality staff and businesses.
“Significant strides have been made to how we investigate child sexual exploitation since the early 2000s. We have learnt so much since then including the way we support and listen to children and young people.
“We have started to scope a further review into historic child exploitation in Staffordshire. This will include previous investigations and available intelligence on victims, offenders and locations. We are committed to ensuring that if there is a case to answer, offenders are held to account through the courts and victims see justice.”
“But she has since told me that when Jodie had Jayden, even a year or two years after, they were still abusing her. And I didn’t know this until a few weeks ago.
“They were taking her to Rochdale and back, passing her around between their family and friends.
Unfortunately there’s thousands of families around the country just like the Sheeran family, who just have no voice, no support, no nothing
Sammy Woodhouse, Rotherham grooming gang victim and activist
“Everyone has heard about these grooming cases in Rochdale and Rotherham but Stoke on Trent has never been mentioned. And I fear, and I feel that Stoke-on-Trent could be just as big, could even be bigger.”
And she has vowed never to give up on justice for Jodie.
“I won’t give up, I’ll just keep going and going until I find some loophole, something that will bring Jodie justice,” she said.
“I’ll never get justice with a capital J, but I’d like to see her attacker and those who were there sentenced, put behind bars, or deported.
“And I’d like also like very big public apologies from whoever’s fault it was that that case never reached that courtroom and Jodie and her witnesses never got the day in court to stand up and give our side to tell them the truth.”
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said:
“Our thoughts remain with Jodie Sheeran’s family after her tragic death.
“In 2005, the case against the suspect in Jodie’s case was discontinued because the legal test for a prosecution was no longer met, a decision that was independently reviewed in 2019 by a different prosecutor who reached the same conclusion.
“Child sexual abuse and exploitation are appalling crimes and since 2005 we have made significant investment in how we prosecute these complex cases. This includes the recruitment of dedicated victim liaison officers across the country to better support victims of rape and sexual offences, and the creation of a dedicated Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit to tackle these awful crimes.”
The Sheeran family’s quest for justice can be watched on Tousi TV documentary Groomed: The Rape of Stoke, created by victim turned campaigner Sammy, whose evidence first helped helped expose the grooming gang scandal in Rotherham.
Sammy, whose own son was born from the exploitation she suffered as a child, says she hopes the documentary will raise awareness of the plight faced by children born from rape, as well as help the Sheeran’s find justice.
“I’ve been an activist around these issues for about 12 years now and I get a lot of people contact me and share stories, which is what happened with Jodie’s family,” Sammy said.
“They reached out to me and the reason why they did that is because nobody else would listen to them.
“You’ll see in the documentary the family have been fighting for years and just hitting a brick wall at every turn.
“If you look at Jodie’s case, they’ve never ever took her son Jayden’s DNA. All they would have to do is take his DNA, try and match it. Which chances are they probably could. And do a victimless prosecution.
“What I’ve realised from speaking to people up and down the country is that police don’t want to take the DNA of the children born from these rapes. And I actually had the same problem in my case – they originally didn’t want to take my son’s DNA, even though I wanted to go on record and so did my son.
“And this is what’s happening to people throughout the country. Adults are walking into a police station and saying ‘Excuse me I was born from rape, I’m willing to give my DNA to prove this’ and they say no.
“There’s also no support whatsoever in this country for children born from rape. There’s not one support service in the UK that supports people properly or trains people.
“I’ve also campaigned for a law change which they’ve announced to be successful but they’ve not put in place yet for children born from rape to be recognised as victims within law. Rapists can still get full access and full custody to children born from their rape, which again I’m trying to do another law change from.
“Unfortunately there’s thousands of families around the country just like the Sheeran family, who just have no voice, no support, no nothing.”
In a statement to The Sun, Staffordshire Police, who investigated the rape allegations, said “despite several reviews there is no new information we can progress at this stage”.
CPS said they couldn’t prosecute the case because a “legal test” was not met. They added that a review of the case in 2019 came to the same conclusion.
Groomed: The Rape of Stoke is available to stream on Tousi TV.
A strong performance on the mound propelled the Los Angeles Dodgers to an even more dominant start to their season. Tyler Glasnow silenced the Atlanta Braves over five scoreless innings in his debut, laying the foundation for a 6-1 series-opening win Monday night at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers became only the third defending World Series […]
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A TOP Scottish restaurant group with 17 locations has been slammed for “disgraceful” staff lay offs.
Six by Nico, founded by TV chef Nico Simeone, has scrapped its central customer relations team amid “challenging times” for the business.
It’s understood eight employees have been made redundant out of almost 800 staff.
Olivia McGauley, who worked as a customer relations adviser in Glasgow for the restaurant chain, took to LinkedIn to blast Six Company over the decision.
She said she was responsible for “tens of thousands of customer interactions, handling the diary, bookings, complaints, vouchers and relaying information about the constant operational changes for every Six Company venue”.
The former employee claims the decision to axe staff was driven by increases in the minimum wage and national insurance, but was left stunned when a new luxury supercar appeared at her office car park.
Olivia added: “The entire Six Company (Six By Nico) Customer Relations team has been made redundant following the company’s decision that the department is no longer necessary to the business.
“This was relentless work, and for the entire department to be deemed non-essential in a bid to increase profits is nothing short of disgraceful.
“We were told that this decision was driven by increases in the minimum wage and national insurance, in what are ‘challenging times’, yet just two days ago, a new luxury supercar was delivered to the office car park, directly in view of the (now redundant) department. Truly, a sight for sore eyes during these extremely harrowing times.
“I am grateful for the colleagues I was fortunate enough to meet and the experience gained in this role, especially within the Customer Relations department.
“They have shown nothing but dedication and hard work, even in the most challenging circumstances, sacrificing out weekends and supporting the business through busy festive periods.”
Chef Nico Simeone previously told of the struggles facing the hospitality sector following a “tough” few years.
Writing on YouTube, he said: “The past few years have been particularly tough for businesses, especially in hospitality and the road ahead doesn’t look any easier.
“We’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, and I know we won’t always get it right in the future either. But one thing I can promise is that we’ll always be authentic, stay true to ourselves, and enjoy the journey — striving for what we believe in and doing our part to shape the future of hospitality for our guests.”
A spokesperson for the Six Company told The Times: “We continually assess the needs of our business and make adjustments when required. Six Company employs 800 people across the UK and Ireland and as part of a broader programme of restructuring we have made 8 staff redundant.
“These changes allow us to decentralise elements of our operations and bring customers closer to us by absorbing customer relations to each restaurant location. It also allows our on-site managers to create stronger relationships with their restaurant communities.
“We remain dedicated to delivering a top-rated experience for our customers and look forward to pushing boundaries in the restaurant industry.”
The Six Company’s portfolio includes Six by Nico, Bamboleo, 111 by Modou, Somewhere by Nico and Sole Club.