John McDonald, 52, admitted to causing the death by dangerous driving after 62-year-old Suzanne Cherry was hit by a van that was being followed by police.

Ms Cherry had been playing golf with her husband, Clint Harrison, at Aston Wood Golf Club in Shenstone, Staffordshire, when the incident took place on 11 April last year.

Handing sentence, judge James Burbidge said McDonald's actions were "wicked in the extreme," and that "it is clear that you did attempt to brake, but you had insufficient time to avoid her".

"Clint Harrison saw you [and co-defendants Johnny McDonald, 23, and Brett Delaney, 35] run away from the vehicle," the judge added. "He says the person who stepped out of the driving seat actually stepped over Sue.

"He says he saw, in a split second, the driver stutter and look back, but you didn't stop, John, you sought to save your own skin.

"Even if you did something to avoid the collision, it was too little, too late."

'Everybody loved her'

Speaking after sentence was handed down, Mr Harrison paid tribute to her as an "inspiration".

He said: "You really don't want to know what I think about the sentence. I have got no thoughts about them at all. I won't give them any head space."

He then added: "Everybody loved her. She was an inspiration. All the young ladies wanted to be like Suzanne Cherry because of what she achieved in her life.

"A company owner, advanced motorcyclist, cyclist, scuba diver, and anything else she could jump off or dive off."

Mr Harrison previously said, shortly after her death, that Ms Cherry would be "painfully missed" by her family and friends.

"While enjoying what should have been the safest of one of Suzanne's many activities, I watched in helpless horror as the life of my beautiful wife and our future together was snatched away in an instant," he said.

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Co-defendants jailed for conspiracy to commit fraud

Brett Delaney, 35, and Johnny McDonald, John McDonald's son, 23, were not held responsible for the collision, but the pair - along with the senior McDonald - admitted to conspiracy to commit fraud on Monday.

The court heard that the trio made false representations that roofing work was needed when it was not, between 17 February and 12 April last year.

All three admitted to the charge in relation to poor roofing work carried out under the guise of a company called Approved Roofs Ltd in the West Midlands.

Judge Burbidge said on Tuesday that all three had decided they would dishonestly take money from elderly victims by targeting them for roof repairs.

He told the defendants: "Those you sought out were easy targets because they were vulnerable and trusting individuals, as the elderly often are, and want to see the good in people - unlike you.

"John and Johnny, you worked together using the name of Approved Roofs, but it is not clear what, if any, skills you had for that line of work. The evidence suggests none."

For conspiracy to commit fraud, the younger McDonald was sentenced to 32 months in prison imprisonment and Delaney to 28 months, with time served reduced from their sentence.

Many people entered a fourth day without water, with the latest outages - which were blamed on Storm Goretti causing power cuts and burst pipes - coming overnight between Friday and Saturday last week.

South East Water (SEW) has since said water supplies to Loose in Maidstone, Blean near Canterbury, Headcorn, West Kingsdown and parts of Tunbridge Wells had been restored on Tuesday.

After issuing another apology, it added that drinking water to 16,500 properties in East Grinstead should be restored on Tuesday afternoon.

Ofwat, the water services regulation authority, said it would "review all the evidence" before deciding whether SEW has met its legal obligations to customer care.

Meanwhile, SEW bosses have been recalled to appear before MPs over a water outage in December, which left 24,000 properties in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, without any running water for days, and without drinkable water for almost two weeks.

Alistair Carmichael, chairman of the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) committee, said he and his colleagues remained "deeply sceptical" about the water company's version of events on the supply failure.

The committee recalled SEW chief executive David Hinton and chair Chris Train, who wrote to the MPs to dispute the Drinking Water Inspectorate's evidence regarding the outage, according to Mr Carmichael.

SEW announced a further independent review into the incident, but Mr Carmichael questioned the review's independence and accused the company of "buying time".

A South East Water spokesperson said: "We have fully complied with the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee's request for information to date and we will continue to provide any further information requested.

"This will include attending any further meetings that are required."

The areas affected by the latest water supply issues are: Maidstone, Sevenoaks, West Sussex and surrounding areas, Tunbridge Wells, Canterbury, and Whitstable.

Linden Kemkaran, leader of Kent County Council (KCC), declared a major incident across the county on Monday morning, saying more households had been impacted in the previous 24 hours.

Several schools in Kent and Sussex were forced to close on the first day of the week.

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SEW apologises to customers

SEW said Storm Goretti, which hit the UK last week, affected its ability to "treat the raw water at the normal rate at our main Sussex water treatment works".

It said this, coupled with the outbreak of burst water mains due to freezing conditions across Sussex, means its drinking water storage levels are running low.

SEW incident manager Matthew Dean told Sky News: "We're very sorry to our customers across Kent and Sussex who continue to experience issues with their drinking water supply, including no water, intermittent supply interruptions or low pressure.

"We are using 26 tankers to pump water directly into our network to increase the amount of water available in the affected areas and our leak repair teams are working around the clock to fix the leaks and bursts across Kent and Sussex, with extra resources available to help carry out repairs."

He said SEW's customer care team was "delivering bottled water to the customers on our Priority Services Register who are most in need".

"We are also supporting hospitals with tankers and providing bottled water for care homes, schools, medical care providers and to support livestock," Mr Dean added.

Bottled water handed out to residents

SEW said it has carried out 5,700 deliveries of bottled water over the weekend.

Bottled water stations remain in place in Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead and Maidstone, and location details can be found on SEW's website.

An Ofwat spokesperson said on Tuesday: "We are concerned that residents in Kent and Sussex are without water again, and are working closely with the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which is the lead regulator for this latest supply interruption, to ensure that regulation and enforcement is aligned.

"Ofwat already has an active investigation into South East Water related to its supply resilience, and we have met with the company to discuss these latest incidents as part of that investigation.

"We will review all of the evidence before taking a decision on what further action may be required into whether the company has met its legal obligations set out in its licence relating to customer care, including with further potential enforcement action."

Western Australia Police Force said detectives executed a search warrant at a property on Monday.

It is alleged officers found a 43-year-old man actively engaging with other child exploitation offenders online when they arrived.

He was arrested, the force said, and his electronic devices were seized. The man was charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material.

The force added in a statement that the man would appear at Fremantle Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Australia's Channel 9 reported that Silvey faced a Perth court on Tuesday afternoon in relation to the charges.

He didn't enter a plea and was granted bail, due to be back in court next month.

Silvey is best known for his book Jasper Jones, which sold more than half a million copies, is often assigned for reading in schools, and was made into a film starring Toni Collette in 2017.

It also won the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year and was also shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Awards and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

A 2025 book by Silvey, called Runt And The Diabolical Dognapping, was Australia's number one "best-selling children's book" according to its publisher Allen & Unwin.

That book was a sequel to his 2022 novel Runt, which was also adapted into a film starring Celeste Barber.

In a statement, Allen & Unwin told Sky News: "Allen & Unwin is aware of serious charges brought against author Craig Silvey in Fremantle this week.

"The nature of the allegations is deeply distressing. Our thoughts and sympathies are with all survivors of child exploitation and their families.

"We acknowledge this is an active police matter, and that Mr Silvey is entitled to procedural fairness and a presumption of innocence until the matter is dealt with by a court.

"Given the gravity of the charges, Allen & Unwin will pause promotional activity of Mr Silvey's work while the legal process takes its course.

"We are unable to provide further comment while this matter is before the courts."

A teenage girl, two women and a man died overnight on Monday, according to the al Shifa hospital, Gaza City's largest hospital.

The hospital, which received the casualties, said one of the two women was killed when a wall collapsed on her tent in the western part of the city.

The other woman, man and 15-year-old girl, it said, were from the same family and died after a wall collapsed on to their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, injuring at least five others.

It is the third winter since the war between Israel and Hamas began on 7 October 2023, when Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people across southern Israel and abducted 251 to Gaza.

Israel's retaliation reduced much of Gaza to ruins, killing more than 71,000 people, according to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities, which don't discriminate between fighters and civilians.

Aid groups say that Gazans, most of whom are living in makeshift tents, lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms and say not enough shelter materials are entering the region during the ceasefire, which has been in effect since October last year.

Yasmin Shalha, a mother-of-five displaced from the northern town of Beit Lahiya whose tent fell on her as she slept, told The Associated Press: "The winds were very, very strong. The tent collapsed over us.

"Our situation is dire."

Mohamed al Sawalha, a 72-year-old man from the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, also criticised the conditions most Gazans are experiencing.

"It [the tent] doesn't work neither in summer nor in winter," he said.

"We left behind houses and buildings [with] doors that could be opened and closed.

"Now we live in a tent. Even sheep don't live like we do."

As of Monday, the Gaza health ministry said at least six children as young as seven days old had died of hypothermia since the start of winter.

Three killed in Israeli drone strike, hospital officials say

Hospital officials also said an Israeli drone strike had killed three Palestinians who crossed the ceasefire line near central Gaza's Morag Corridor on Monday.

Israel's military said the three people approached troops and posed an immediate threat and said they later found weapons and intelligence-gathering equipment on them.

An anti-Hamas armed group in southern Gaza yesterday claimed responsibility for the killing of senior Hamas police officer Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud al Astal, who was gunned down in Khan Younis, the Hamas-run interior ministry said.

More than 440 people have been killed since Israel and Hamas agreed to suspend their two-year war, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Each side has accused the other of violating the ceasefire, which remains in its initial stage as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final Israeli hostage in Gaza.

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The latest strike comes as Gaza awaits an expected announcement this week of a so-called Board of Peace to help oversee its governance.

Officials say that US President Donald Trump will announce his appointments to the board in the coming days.

Under Mr Trump's plan, the board would supervise the new Palestinian government, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and reconstruction.

Hamas has said it will dissolve its existing government once the Palestinian technocratic committee has been formed, as mandated under the US-brokered peace plan.

Hazem Kassem, a Hamas spokesperson, called for the speeding up of the establishment of the new committee in a Telegram post on Sunday.

Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority have not yet announced who will sit on the committee and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the US.

Israel's military currently controls a buffer zone covering more than half of Gaza, while the Hamas-run government retains authority over the rest.

Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) trust said rising demand, winter infections, and staff sickness since Christmas had led to "significant and unacceptable delays" in its emergency department and hospital wards.

The trust has asked the public to only use its A&E "in an emergency or serious accident".

It comes after four hospital trusts in southeast England declared critical incidents on Monday after a "surge" in complex A&E admissions.

The critical incidents in Surrey affect three trusts - Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust has also declared a critical incident due to "sustained pressures" at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate.

Other critical incidents have also been declared in recent days in Birmingham, Staffordshire and two areas of Wales.

Andrew Hall, chief operating officer at NUH, said: "We are experiencing pressures like never before.

"Despite our teams working tirelessly, the demand on our hospitals far exceeds our capacity. Declaring a Critical Incident is not a decision we have taken lightly, but it is necessary to protect patient safety.

"I am deeply sorry for the poor experience this is causing and ask everyone to treat our staff with kindness as they work through this difficult period to deliver the quality of care that you expect."

Since Christmas, rising demand, winter infections, and staff sickness have caused significant delays in the emergency department and across hospital wards.

At the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC), an emergency department designed to treat 350 patients a day, is seeing more than 500 patients daily.

The busiest day so far was on 7 January 2026, when 550 patients were treated, the trust said.

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Demand for hospital beds has exceeded all forecasted models, resulting in patients facing lengthy waits on corridors while staff continue to work under extreme pressure, NUH said.

Dr Manjeet Shehmar, Medical Director at NUH, said the medical teams will continue to see the sickest patients first, so those patients who are not in an emergency "will have an extremely long wait and may be redirected to use other services instead".

"When we're discharging patients, we ask that their friends or loved ones pick them up from hospital as soon as possible and have everything they need at home.

"If you have a planned appointment, please continue to attend unless you hear from us," Dr Shehmar added.

In response to the critical incident, the hospital will take several measures to ease pressure, including postponing some elective procedures, opening all available beds, redeploying staff, suspending non-essential activities, and working with NHS and local partners to accelerate discharges.