It was meant to be a new dream life in an idyllic French village. 

In their quiet cottage at the bottom of a leafy road, Anthony Rickard and Heather Comins were looking forward to spending the rest of their years together in the quaint rural town of Ménéac in Brittany. Or so it appeared.

In 2001, Anthony – or Tony, as he preferred – vanished without a trace. 

His disappearance sparked a 25-year mystery until earlier this year, when his remains were finally discovered at the bottom of a well in his garden, and his partner was arrested on suspicion of murder. 

But in an unexpected twist, she has found support from an unusual source: Tony's stepdaughter, who has revealed shocking allegations which cast a whole new light on the mystery.

When Jenny Devine, 51, saw her stepfather's face splashed across newspapers, she couldn't help but feel rage. 

She says the last time she had seen Tony, she was just a teenager, and he had just been sent to prison for molesting her.

'It was a shock, and it's brought back so many buried memories,' she tells the Daily Mail as she recalls the moment she heard that his

These are the first pictures showing the moment a Russian warship opens fire off the coast of Plymouth. 

Just one day after Andy Burnham became Prime Minister, the Russian frigate Neustrashimy conducted a live-fire exercise 40 miles south of the city on July 20. 

Royal Navy ships were mobilised to monitor the vessel in the English Channel after it has 'repeatedly transited' UK waters to escort Moscow's shadow fleet oil tankers. 

Now, images released by the Royal Navy show the moment Neustrashimy opens fire off the coast in what was thought to have been a 'warning' to Mr Burnham just 24 hours after he became PM. 

Neustrashimy was shadowed by HMS Tyne, an offshore patrol vessel, while a French military aircraft also monitored the warship and made radio contact to request clarification of its intentions. 

Before opening fire, the frigate informed HMS Tyne that it intended to conduct gunnery exercises and asked the Royal Navy patrol vessel to move to a safer distance, which it did.

The live-fire drill lasted around 30 minutes and took place in international waters at around

A dope-smoking pastor has been accused of sexually assaulting and potentially infecting a 14-year-old with HIV in Florida. 

Timothy Chaneyfield, 42, was arrested in Orlando after the Polk County Sheriff's Office received a tip from Instagram about a potentially inappropriate activity between him and a minor.  

'Instagram was principal in stopping a child pedophile from sexually battering children while being HIV positive. If all other social media online did exactly what Instagram did, we could stop this,' Sheriff Grady Judd said at a press conference. 

After being taken into custody, the pastor, who preaches at St James United American Free Will Baptist Church, allegedly admitted to the crime. 

'He confessed,' Judd said. 'He confessed that he picked up this 14-year-old child on at least three different occasions, took him to Timothy's home in Eagle Lake, where he engaged this child in sex.

'That wasn't it. That wasn't all. Timothy is HIV positive. He failed to tell this 14-year-old child that "I'm HIV positive," and he had unprotected sex,' Judd fumed. 

Police made sure the teenager received medical care,

A father of five has been killed after a 13-year-old boy driving a stolen car with six other teenagers inside slammed into his vehicle, according to police. 

The crash occurred shortly after 5am on Tuesday at an intersection in Germantown, Maryland, a community just north of Washington, DC. 

William Vance Payne II, 58, had been driving to work at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), where he worked as a mechanical engineer and was close to retiring, his family said. 

With just 10 minutes left in his drive, Payne's Toyota Matrix was struck by a stolen white Kia Optima with seven teenagers inside, including four girls aged 14, 14, 13 and 12, and three boys aged 15, 13 and 12, according to the Montgomery County Police Department.

By the time emergency personnel responded to the scene of the crash at 5.25am, Payne was already dead. The vehicles had suffered 'extensive damage,' police said.  

The juveniles, whose identities were not disclosed, were transported to several trauma centers in the area. The 13-year-old driver of the Kia was in critical but stable condition, police said. 

Footage of

More than 100 social media posts have been flagged to an elite police unit set up by Labour which has been described as a 'sinister' erosion of civil liberties.

The unit – known as the National Internet Intelligence Investigations team - was set up by the Government earlier this year in the wake of the 2024 Southport riots.

Disturbances in the north west town following the brutal murders of three little girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class by Axel Rudakubana led to national unrest apparently fanned by social media.

In the absence of official information about the killer, who was later found to be born here after his parents fled Rwanda, word spread on social media that he was potentially a Muslim asylum seeker, stoking immigration concerns across the UK.

Since the new squad started work in February, it has been revealed that its widespread monitoring of social media for what it calls 'protest related activity online' has already led to 106 reports of suspicious online posts being brought to the attention of local police forces.

The figures were obtained under freedom of information laws and

Amanda Knox's ex-boyfriend has condemned her decision to do a one-woman comedy Edinburgh fringe show, saying: 'It is not an approach I agree with'. 

Raffaele Sollecito, who was wrongly accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher alongside his then-girlfriend in 2007, is the latest critic of Knox's show, which began last night and is sold out. 

Mr Sollecito, now 42 and a computer engineer, criticised the gig and said he found it 'puzzling' that the tragedy was being used as a 'draw for a comedy show'. 

He said: 'I haven't seen it, so I cannot pass judgment on its content. However, based on how it has been presented and promoted, I find it puzzling that a tragedy is being used as a draw for a comedy show. 

'Personally, it is not an approach I agree with. I am trying to process and move past what happened in a different way.' 

But Knox's ex-boyfriend added: 'I don't believe there is a right or wrong recipe for dealing with trauma; everyone finds their own path.' 

A petition to stop the controversial show, which is set to run for 11 nights

Row upon row of tents, hurling dishwater onto the road, bathing on the central reservation, harassing passersby, and stealing booze and solvents from the local newsagent.

You'd be forgiven for thinking this was Los Angeles's Skid Row. Unfortunately, it's on our doorstep.

Welcome to Britain's latest shame – a Romanian and Bulgarian beggar encampment in the heart of central London.

More than 40 tents perched on the central reservation of the capital's arterial Euston Road are home to dozens of chancers who fly in from Romania and Bulgaria to beg and commit crime for a living.

In fact, on Thursday, four men were allegedly stabbed by a female suspect, said to be homeless and from Romania, after she went on a rampage around Covent Garden.

The incident took place on Endell Street, just one mile from the Euston Road encampment.

The suspect was arrested by police a short time later. The incident is believed to be mental health-related.

Meanwhile, over at the nearby camp, where squatters play games and scroll 

Pupils are due to celebrate their best A-level results ever with top grades at a record high outside of the Covid years, a report predicts.

New analysis from the University of Buckingham suggests almost three in ten entries will get at least an A, with almost one in ten getting an A*.

In addition, it predicts boys will increase their lead over girls in top grades – a trend which began last year.

Hundreds of thousands of sixth formers will pick up their grades this Thursday and discover whether they have won a university place.

The report, from Buckingham's Centre for Education and Employment Research, said although the increase in top grades may be less than half a percentage point, this would still translate into thousands of entries.

It would be the third year in a row that top grades had risen, but the report said artificial grade inflation was not to blame.

Instead, it said the trend was down to the rising popularity of maths, which produces more A and A* grades than other subjects.

Report author Professor Alan Smithers said: 'The good news for those anxiously awaiting the

A £10,000 reward has been offered in the hunt for a masked robber nicknamed the 'Gingerbread Man'. 

The man, named after his ability to escape, has been targeting lone women and elderly pensioners in Solihull, West Midlands, and stealing their jewellery. 

More than 50 offences linked to the man have been reported to West Midlands Police over the past year.

Victims are ambushed from behind and violently attacked before jewellery is snatched from them. The man is then said to flee the scene on his bike.

Crimestoppers has now placed a £10,000 bounty on the culprit, which the charity offers to anyone who can help identify the masked felon. 

This comes after an 80-year-old woman was violently attacked by the man at around 3.15pm on July 13. 

The vulnerable woman was pushed to the ground and her gold chain necklace was taken from her neck. He then rode off on his bike, leaving her on the ground.

She was helped by passersby and rushed to hospital, where she was treated for injuries to her head and ankle. 

More than 50 offences

A Labour council in Cambridge has installed squat toilets said to be favoured by international visitors and are charging users £1 per visit.

The public toilets – which include three 'squat-style flushing toilets' – on Silver Street, opposite Queens' College at the University of Cambridge, cost Cambridge City Council £1million to build. 

They replaced a 1980s block that was repeatedly flooded by the River Cam, which runs next to it. 

The council said the style of toilet was 'preferred by some international visitors'. 

Locals have since criticised the 'crazy' £1 charge to use the toilets, which opened last month. 

Heather Boyd, from the nearby village of Orwell, told the BBC: 'I certainly think if I'm going to spend £1, I'm not going to squat as well. That is absolutely crazy.'

'I'd much rather they built just a normal set of toilets and charged nothing, than one really slick one and charged a pound,' the 60-year-old added. 

Meanwhile, one resident took to social media, writing: 'My grandmother's great achievement as a member of the London Townswomen's Guild (not a jam and Jerusalem organisation) was to get the penny

A five-year-old autistic boy is the second to drown at one Florida apartment complex pool in just two months. 

The boy, who was not publicly identified, was found in a retention pond at the Northgreen at Carrollwood apartment complex in Tampa after a search by more than 140 police units on Friday. 

He was reported missing by his 'frantic' father around 9.30am. 

The pair had woken up around 5am in their shared bed, where the father had offered his son a drink of water, but the boy declined, and they had both gone back to sleep, Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a press conference. 

After waking up at 9am, he noticed his son was not in bed and began searching the apartment. He eventually noticed a screen door to the patio had been broken. 

The father then called his mother, who lives with them, to ask if the boy was with her. When he wasn't, he called the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. 

The sheriff deployed more than 140 deputies to the area to search for the child using aviation and drone technology, a K9 unit, and a dive team. 

One of the bloodhounds

Hundreds of tourists have fallen ill after visiting UK beaches, new figures have revealed. 

Marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) received more than 700 reports of sickness across 406 locations this year alone, including from 'Blue Flag' beaches which must pass strict tests for cleanliness. 

While more than 15,000 days – equivalent to 41 years – have been taken off work due to sickness contracted from the UK's waters since 2019. 

The polluted water, the charity said, has caused swimmers to suffer from illnesses such as gastroenteritis and ear infections, which has led to hospitalisations and time spent off work. 

Some 765 people contacted SAS about their illness in 2026, with nearly half – 322 – reporting sickness since the UK's temperatures rose on May 1. 

This prompted Britons to flock to the nation's coast and beaches to cool off from extreme heat. 

The findings come as the UK faces its fifth heatwave this year, with highs of 36C (97F) expected next week – and a prediction that the annual record for days exceeding 30C (86F) will be broken.

Bournemouth was the most reported location in the study, with 16 reports of illness, as thousands have