![Image]( "Uncle jailed for life over murder")
A man obsessed with violent child porn and "snuff" videos has been told he must spend the rest of his life in jail after admitting the horrific torture, rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece.
Unemployed John Maden, 38, lured Tia Rigg to his home on the pretext of babysitting, but he drugged her and acted out his sick fantasies on the unsuspecting youngster, inflicting horrific sexual injuries before stabbing her and strangling her with a guitar wire.
He carried out the attack on the afternoon of April 3 at his home in Dalmain Close, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, and then called police, appearing "chillingly calm" when he answered the door to officers who raced to the scene.
Maden had an obsessive interest in pornography relating to paedophilia, rape and torture, keeping an "enormous pile" of the material at his home. From his mobile phone, police recovered folders of rape and torture entitled "snuff", "snuff stories" and "brutal rape".
Maden, the brother of Tia's mother Lynne Rigg, was due to go on trial at Manchester Crown Court for murder but pleaded guilty instead.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Keith said that in his case the mandatory life sentence for murder must mean just that - and he will never be released.
The judge said: "It is inescapable that Tia Rigg died because you decided to realise your fantasies about torturing and killing a young child. The fact that you chose your 12-year-old niece, who had put her trust in you, makes what you did all the more unspeakable, as was the fact that all of this was planned by you and you lured her into your home by pretending you wanted her to babysit for you."
Speaking after the case, Tia's mother Ms Rigg said: "Tia was my baby girl. She was always happy and never sad. She brought a smile to everyone who she met. Tia was loved by everyone, family and friends, but to me she wasn't just my daughter, she was my best friend.
"When this nightmare happened, it killed me inside. My heart has been broken and will never mend. All that is left is a big empty hole. For me, this nightmare will never end but now justice has been done, at least Tia can rest in peace.
"Tia was my whole world. I love her so much, she was my life. I miss her big smile every morning and her beautiful freckly face. She always laughed when I said that. Not a day goes by when I don't think of her. I love and miss her so much and always will."
One in six defence jobs could be axed if the Government presses ahead with cuts of 26% to the industry's budget, a new report has warned.
An analysis of the defence industry by Oxford Economics showed that cuts on such a scale would lead to a potential loss of more than 55,000 skilled manufacturing jobs.
Unite said the study showed that the spending cuts would "wreck" the UK's defence manufacturing industry, adding that the work tended to be concentrated in economically deprived regions of the country where other jobs were hard to find.
Bernie Hamilton, Unite's national officer for defence, said: "The Tory-led coalition wants to raze the UK defence industry to the ground. They believe wrecking the UK's sovereignty to manufacture defence equipment is a price worth paying.
"Tens of thousands of job cuts in some of Britain's most deprived regions will have tragic consequences. These skilled manufacturing jobs won't get replaced.
"The Government's plans would also have a knock-on effect on the wider manufacturing sector as the research, development and technical innovation created in defence is transferred to other strategically important sectors such as aerospace, automotive an energy.
"As the Conservative party conference gets under way, Tories should get used to the fact that their party is no longer the party which can claim to be strong on defence. Instead, they are the party which plans to cripple Britain."
Speculation about the scale of defence cuts is rife after the Government launched a review, which is due to report back soon.
Unite said more than 300,000 jobs depended on the defence industry, adding that large numbers of workers will be made redundant if speculation about cuts of more than 20% is confirmed.
Defence will be debated at the Conservative party's annual conference in Birmingham later this week.
Commuters faced travel misery as a strike by London Underground workers caused chaos in the capital and sparked calls for changes to employment laws.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) mounted picket lines outside Tube stations as they continued with a 24-hour strike in protest at plans to axe 800 mainly ticket office jobs.
The walkout, which will continue until 7pm, led to three of London's 11 Tube lines being closed altogether while services on other lines were disrupted.
Transport for London said three quarters of Tube stations were open, including main centres such as Euston, Waterloo and Paddington, and claimed that more services were running than during a previous strike last month.
Howard Collins, chief operating officer of London Underground, said: "We are doing everything to run as many Tube services as possible and, although Londoners will doubtless face some disruption getting to work, 75 per cent of stations are open and 30 per cent of Tube trains are running. The paralysis of London predicted by the leadership of two unions has failed to materialise.
Union leaders contested TfL's claims, saying that the strike had caused widespread disruption and led to the suspension or part-suspension of services on all lines.
Crowds of commuters could be seen queuing for buses at Victoria Station on Monday morning, with scores of others choosing to join the long wait for a taxi. Extra TfL staff directed travellers as the lines snaked along the pavements into the road.
Ben Gilbert, 34, an RBS commercial banker from Clapham, south London, said his normal 35-minute Tube journey to Green Park had already taken an hour.
He said: "It is very annoying. Everyone knows the strikes cause absolute chaos. They shouldn't really be allowed to do it. They have to recognise that the Underground is in disarray and something has to give."
Francesca Martin, 24, an account manager at Selfridges, said she had opted to take an overground train from Barnes, south west London, but was now running late waiting for a bus.
Child benefit is to be stopped for all higher-rate taxpayers from 2013 to help pay for a massive overhaul of the welfare system, Chancellor George Osborne has announced.
The move will hit 15 per cent of UK households - around three million families - and will result in middle-class parents losing out to the tune of £1,055 a year if they have one child and almost £2,500 for three.
Announcing the plan ahead of his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Mr Osborne said the measure was "difficult but fair" and would raise around £1 billion a year.
Mr Osborne told BBC1's Breakfast: "It is very difficult to justify taxing people on much lower incomes in order to pay the child benefit to some of the better-off in our society.
"It is not a decision we have taken lightly but given the scale of the debts that Labour's left us with... we think this is fair and it means we are all in this together."
Aides confirmed that child benefit will be removed from families where either parent earns enough to pay 40 per cent income tax - currently around £44,000. But two-earner households where neither parent's income is above this threshold will continue to receive the benefit - worth £20.30 a week for the first child and £13.40 for each additional one.
In some cases, this could result in families with an income of almost £88,000 receiving child benefit, while others on little more than half this sum lose out because one of the parents stays at home to look after the children.
Mr Osborne acknowledged that his plan would produce "anomalies" of this kind, but said the only alternative would be a "very complicated means tests" of every household in the country, which would fundamentally change the nature of child benefit.
Money saved from the change will go towards paying the upfront costs of a new universal credit scheme, due to replace a range of other welfare payments over the coming 10 years, which Mr Osborne claims would cut fraud and make it clear to all claimants that it is "worth going to work".
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I looked at a way of doing this as simply as possible - and removing it from higher-rate taxpayers' households was the simplest way of doing it."
Ofqual has announced an inquiry into the Assessments and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) awarding body's marking of around 600 GCSE and A-level exams, amid concerns that the papers were not properly marked.
The exams regulator said that around 150 A-level students, 290 AS-level students and 190 GCSE students have been affected.
Isabel Nisbet, chief executive of Ofqual, said: "This is a very serious matter. Ofqual is in full agreement with AQA that the first priority is to support students, schools and colleges.
"AQA has assured us that they will make sure that the affected candidates are treated fairly and receive the marks their work merits as soon as possible. Once that is done, Ofqual's inquiry will focus on what went wrong and why it was not spotted sooner."
The exam board discovered through its regular exam-checking procedures that the papers had not been fully marked.
In a statement, AQA said: "As a result of its ongoing exam-checking procedures AQA identified material in a small number of papers that had not been fully marked. This meant that some students received lower subject grades than they should have."
A number of students had marks changed but it did not affect their subject grades.
AQA said it is working with examiners to mark the affected papers and award the correct mark or grade, and is contacting affected schools. The deadline for schools and students to make enquiries about exam results has also be extended.
AQA chief executive Andrew Hall said: "We are extremely sorry for any distress caused as a result of the original incomplete mark and are reviewing our processes to ensure there is no repeat of this error."
Anyone affected can call a dedicated helpline on 0844 2096614.
The creator of the video game Grand Theft Auto has accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages over an "entirely false" story that it was planning a version based on gunman Raoul Moat.
Take 2 Inc (Rockstar Games) had brought High Court proceedings over an article and leader in The Daily Star in July.
Its solicitor, Melanie Hart, told Mr Justice Tugendhat in London that the story claimed that the new game - Grand Theft Auto Rothbury - would be based on the tragedy which culminated in the events in the Northumberland village.
She said that the newspaper solicited and published quotes from third parties, including one from a grieving relative of a victim of Moat, in which the alleged plan to create such a game was described as "sick" and deplored in the strongest terms.
In the leader, the newspaper commented that the people behind the production of the game were "questionable idiots" who were making money out of other people's misery.
Ms Hart said that Express Newspapers admitted that it did not approach the company for a comment before publication.
"The defendant now accepts that Rockstar Games never had any intention to create such a video game at any time. The story was entirely false."
She added that the newspaper had agreed to pay substantial damages and the company's legal costs.
Clare Kissin, for Express Newspapers, said it accepted that the allegations were untrue and apologised for the upset and damage caused.
Japan has issued a travel alert for Europe, joining Britain and the US in warning of a possible terrorist attack by al-Qaida or other groups, but tourists appeared to be taking the mounting warnings in their stride.
The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo urged Japanese citizens to be cautious when using public transport or visiting popular tourist sites - issuing another blow to Europe's tourism industry, which is just starting to recover from the global financial crisis.
European authorities - especially in Britain, France and Germany - tightened efforts to keep the public safe in the wake of warnings by officials that the terrorism threat is high and extra vigilance is warranted.
Last week, a Pakistani intelligence official said eight Germans and two British brothers were at the heart of an al Qaida-linked terror plot against European cities, but the plan was still in its early stages, with the suspects calling acquaintances in Europe to plan logistics.
The official said the suspects were hiding in North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal region where militancy is rife and where the US has increased its drone-fired missile strikes in recent weeks.
Security officials say terrorists may be plotting attacks in Europe with assault weapons on public places, similar to the deadly 2008 shooting spree in Mumbai, India. European officials have provided no details about specific targets.
Earlier, French police arrested a 53-year-old man suspected of links to bomb threats including one on Friday at a Paris railway hub, an official said. The suspect, who was not identified, was detained south-west of the capital for possible links to a phone-in threat at the Saint-Lazare train station.
French authorities recorded nine bomb alerts in the capital in September, including two at the Eiffel Tower - a threefold increase from a year earlier. No explosives were found.
The US State Department alert on Sunday advised the hundreds of thousands of American citizens living or travelling in Europe to take more precaution about their personal security. Britain's Foreign Office warned travellers to France and Germany that the terror threat in the countries was high.
Business travellers and tourists arriving at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport from the US said they were aware of the new warnings but weren't changing their plans.
A millionaire businessman died from a multiple injuries consistent with falling while riding a "gyrobike" - thought to be a Segway scooter made by his own company - a coroner has confirmed.
An inquest into the death of Jimi Heselden, 62, has been opened and adjourned at Leeds Coroner's Court.
Detective Superintendent Paul Taylor, from West Yorkshire Police's Homicide and Major Enquiry Team, told Leeds Coroner David Hinchliff that Mr Heselden's "lifeless" body was found in the area of Jackdaw Crag, near Boston Spa, Wetherby, on September 26.
Mr Taylor said a paramedic pronounced him dead at the scene and he was later formally identified by his wife, Julie.
Mr Hinchliff told the court a post-mortem examination concluded that Mr Heselden had suffered "multiple blunt force injuries of the chest and spine consistent with a fall whilst riding a gyrobike".
It is understood a Segway scooter was found close to where Mr Heselden fell, which is by the River Wharfe, near his Boston Spa home.
The coroner said the tycoon's body could be released to his family so a funeral could take place.
None of Mr Heselden's relatives were at the five-minute hearing and Mr Hinchliff adjourned the inquest to a date to be fixed.
Mr Heselden made his fortune when his Leeds-based firm, Hesco Bastion. developed the "blast wall" basket, which protects soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, as a replacement for traditional sandbags.
Last year he led a British team which bought the US-based Segway company, which makes and distributes the distinctive two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters.
Savers are paying out up to 80p in charges for every £1 they invest in some pension funds, despite fees being set at less than 1.5% a year, research has indicated.
A worker who paid £200 a month into one of HSBC's pension funds for 40 years would contribute a total of £120,000 once tax relief was included, but the bank would take back £99,900 of this in fees, according to BBC1's Panorama.
The programme said HSBC is not alone in levying charges which represent more than half of the contributions people would make to their pensions.
It warned that its research would cause alarm among consumers, who are increasingly being left to shoulder the risks associated with pension investing themselves.
Malcolm McLean, a pensions consultant, said the problem with the charges is caused by a lack of transparency when pensions are sold.
He told Panorama that, while an annual charge of 1.5% may not sound a large amount, it builds up each year as the fund gets bigger and the amount taken out in fees grows accordingly.
He said: "You suddenly find that, after 30 or 40 years, there's a terrific amount of money lost and I don't think many people actually understood that when perhaps they took out the pension."
But HSBC was quick to defend the charges, pointing out that under the scenario used by Panorama, which assumed 7% annual growth, the pension fund would be worth £374,600 on retirement after all fees had been deducted.
It added that the annual management charge on its World Selection Pension is set at 1.25%, while the total expense ratio, which includes all fees and charges, is only 1.88% a year. It said it typically makes a profit of £15 a year on each pension.
An HSBC spokesman said: "Our World Selection Pension offers good value for money and is certainly not one of the most expensive pension schemes in the market."
Colleagues have reacted with delight to the news that British test tube baby pioneer Professor Robert Edwards has been given the Nobel Prize for medicine.
Cambridge physiologist Prof Edwards, now 85, and Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologic surgeon, developed IVF technology in which egg cells are fertilised outside the body and implanted in the womb. Dr Steptoe died in 1988.
The pair's groundbreaking work led to the birth of the world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978.
Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, near Cambridge, the IVF clinic which Prof Edwards founded, said: "Bob Edwards is one of our greatest scientists. His inspirational work in the early '60s led to a breakthrough that has enhanced the lives of millions of people worldwide.
"Bob Edwards is held in great affection by everyone that has worked with him and was treated by him. I am really pleased that my great mentor, colleague and friend has been recognised in this way."
Prof Edwards has said: "The most important thing in life is having a child. Nothing is more special than a child."
One of his proudest moments was discovering that 1,000 IVF babies had been born at Bourn Hall since Louise Brown.
He has recalled the thrill of relaying this to a seriously ill Dr Steptoe, shortly before Dr Steptoe's death. "I'll never forget the look of joy in his eyes," Prof Edwards has said.
A spokeswoman for Prof Edwards said he was not well enough to give interviews.
Home Secretary Theresa May has authorised a blanket ban on marches in a city on the day of a planned protest by a right-wing campaign group.
The English Defence League (EDL) intended to demonstrate in Leicester on Saturday October 9 and Unite Against Fascism has planned a protest in the city on the same day.
A Home Office spokesman said: "Having carefully balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, the Home Secretary gave her consent to a Leicester City Council Order banning any marches in the city on October 9."
Despite the ban, groups can still hold static demonstrations in the city.
The Home Office spokesman added: "Leicestershire Constabulary are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected and we encourage all local people to work with the police to ensure community cohesion is not undermined by public disorder."
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has warned trade unions that the rail network needed to modernise and issued a blunt message to striking Tube workers that the London Underground is not "exempt from change".
In a keynote speech he set out plans to build two branches to the planned new £33 billion high-speed rail network north of Birmingham and confirmed he will scrap the M4 bus lane.
He used his speech to the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham to condemn the striking Tube workers who are "inflicting misery on millions" in the capital, adding: "All our railways have to modernise."
Mr Hammond said: "Britain has one of the most expensive railways in the developed world, according to the independent regulator up to 40% more expensive than our main competitors.
"That is unfair on passengers and unaffordable for the taxpayer and with public subsidy running at £5.5 billion a year this has to change.
"Network Rail, the train operators, the regulator, the Government and the unions all have to change. Change the way they work together to drive up efficiency while maintaining what is now an enviable safety record.
"Delivering a sustainable future for Britain's railways. And in case the Underground workers who are inflicting misery on millions of London commuters today think that they are somehow exempt from change, let me tell them straight: they are not. All our railways have to modernise."
Mr Hammond declared that ministers prefer the so-called Y-option for the high-speed rail network north of Birmingham over a single S-shaped line crossing the Pennines.
It means that separate lines will provide services between Birmingham and Manchester and between Birmingham and Leeds, the latter cutting through the East Midlands.
The cost of the network, which will start in London, is estimated at about £33 billion, although more detailed cost analysis is to be undertaken next year, as is a consultation on the plans.
A tough new limit is to be imposed on the total amount of welfare payments received by families in the UK, Chancellor George Osborne has said.
Speaking to the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Mr Osborne did not put a figure on the new welfare cap, but said that - with the exception of the disabled - no family will receive more in benefits than the average family receives from going out to work.
The announcement came as Mr Osborne also announced that he will withdraw child benefit from families where one parent earns enough to pay higher-rate tax - currently about £44,000.
Mr Osborne said he hoped for a "reinvigorated, prosperous, united Britain" as the prize for tackling the deficit.
In his speech to the Conservative Party conference, Mr Osborne said Prime Minister David Cameron's action in forming a strong coalition government pulled the country "back from the edge of the economic abyss".
Setting out why cuts in public spending would be necessary to reduce the deficit, Mr Osborne told party activists that Labour had left the country "on the brink of bankruptcy".
Mr Osborne told the conference in Birmingham: "I come with good news and bad news.
"The good news is that we are in government after 13 years of a disastrous Labour administration that brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy.
"The bad news: we are in government after 13 years of a disastrous Labour administration that brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy."
With the comprehensive spending review due later this month Mr Osborne said: "Today I want to explain to the British people why we have to sort out the public finances, how we will do it and the prize at the end: a reinvigorated, prosperous, united Britain of which we can all be proud."
Boris Johnson has launched a blistering attack on the leadership of the trade unions involved in the strike on the London Underground, describing their actions as "nakedly and blatantly political".
The London Mayor said the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) would not succeed with their strike, which he "deeply regretted". He was speaking as millions of people faced travel chaos in the capital.
Mr Johnson claimed the strike had nothing to do with health and safety or working conditions, insisting it "cannot be right" that a strike could go ahead when less than half of the union's members took part in the ballot.
London was being "held to ransom" and its economy was being threatened by the actions of just over 3,000 staff who had walked out, he claimed.
He told activists at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham: "I want to speak directly to the three million people who use the London Underground network every day and first the most important thing to say is how deeply I regret the inconvenience and the suffering as a result of this strike.
"I say to the leaders of the unions that this gesture is nakedly and blatantly political, that it has nothing to do with health and safety or improving the terms and conditions of work of new members.
"And I say to our legislators at Westminster that it cannot be right that a ballot can lead to strike action when less than half the members of that union take part.
"And it cannot be right that just over 3,000 people should be able to hold the city to ransom, stop people getting to work and to jeopardise our economic recovery, when the measures we are taking to reform ticket offices are an inevitable consequence of the success of the automatic Oyster card system, when some ticket offices are selling fewer than 10 tickets per hour and when we are able to link these changes with no compulsory redundancies, no loss of earnings and with no stations unstaffed at any time."
And Mr Johnson told union leaders: "The time has now come to ignore their lackeys in the Labour Party who seek to ferment unrest for their own dismal political ends."
He added: "This strike will not succeed and it must not succeed. We will get London moving, because we must get London moving."
A man obsessed with violent child porn and "snuff" videos has admitted the torture, rape and murder of his 12-year-old niece.
Unemployed John Maden lured Tia Rigg to his home on the pretext of babysitting, but he drugged her and acted out his sick fantasies on the unsuspecting youngster, inflicting a horrific catalogue of sexual injuries before stabbing her and strangling her with a guitar wire.
Maden, the brother of Tia's mother, Lynne Rigg, was due to go on trial at Manchester Crown Court for murder but pleaded guilty instead.
He carried out the attack on the afternoon of April 3 this year at his home in Dalmain Close, Cheetham Hill, Manchester and then called police, appearing "chillingly calm" when he answered the door to officers who raced to the scene.
Members of Tia's family sat in the public gallery, yards from Maden in the dock as Gordon Cole QC, prosecuting, opened the case.
He said: "In general terms this murder was premeditated. It was murder purely for his sexual gratification - it had a sexual motive.
"In the year or so prior to April this year, the defendant had developed what can properly be described as an obsessive interest in images and literature relating to paedophilia, rape and torture."
On a laptop and CD-ROM used by Maden, police found hundreds of extreme images of child porn featuring bondage, rape, abduction, sado-masochism and violent sex acts.
From his mobile phone, police recovered folders of rape and torture entitled "snuff" and "snuff stories" and "brutal rape".
Mr Cole continued: "This material and the subsequent discovery of Tia reveals that this defendant was acting out a long-held fascination with rape, torture and abuse of children."
Chancellor George Osborne has been accused of forcing families to "take the hit" for the financial crisis after he announced the withdrawal of child benefit payments for higher earners.
But while several groups warned the cut would be a damaging blow for hard-working families, the UK's largest children's charity, Barnardo's, said the move would protect the poorest while saving the country money.
Around three million families will be hit by the stoppage, with middle-class parents losing out to the tune of £1,055 a year if they have one child and almost £2,500 for three.
Barnardo's chief executive Martin Narey said: "We don't want to see reductions in child benefit - we are a children's charity - but we are trying to be grown-up about it.
"We have to do something about the budget deficit so, when a proposal is made that will save significant amounts of money without affecting the poorest, we welcome it."
Mr Narey said this option is "hugely preferable" to withdrawing child benefit for older teenagers, adding: "The poorest will be protected."
Critics argued it is unfair that families with an income of almost £88,000 will still receive child benefit if neither parent earns more than the £44,000 threshold.
At the same time a family with a single earner or single parent who receives more than the threshold will have their benefit removed.
There was also concern that mothers who had controlled the child benefit will lose out if their partners earn more than the threshold but fail to support them.
Family Action chief executive Helen Dent said: "This cannot be fair or sensible and will disproportionately hit single parents or families where one partner is working part-time or has caring responsibilities."
Nearly 300 holidaymakers struck down by gastric illness at a Bulgarian hotel have launched a High Court damages action.
Law firm Irwin Mitchell is acting on behalf of 276 clients who are suing tour operator First Choice over allegedly "nightmare" stays at the Royal Park Hotel between June and October 2008.
Clive Garner, who heads the firm's travel law team, said that First Choice had continued to deny liability.
"Many of our nearly 300 clients suffered severe illness at this hotel with some suffering Shigella, an illness which can have fatal consequences.
"Many of our clients have told us that they were unable to obtain medical treatment in resort as the queues at the clinic were so long because of the number of guests seeking medical treatment for illness. Around 40 of our clients also had to seek hospital treatment on their return home."
Irwin Mitchell has already recovered a substantial settlement for a further 95 holidaymakers who fell ill at the resort in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has issued a staunch defence of the capital's public transport system, stressing that funding cuts would harm the British economy.
Mr Johnson wants the Treasury to fully fund upgrades to the Tube and to the proposed £16 billion Crossrail project across the capital.
During his speech to Tory activists at the party's annual conference in Birmingham, he said: "I cannot and will not agree that this country should embark on a programme of cuts to London's basic transport infrastructure.
"The buses, the railways, the Tube, cuts that would damage the ability of this country to compete internationally and to generate jobs for decades to come."
Highlighting the importance of the capital to the UK economy, Mr Johnson added: "It is not just London that exports £20 billion in tax to the rest of the UK, London is responsible for a third of the UK exports of services.
"There would be no insurance industry in Norwich if it was not for London. There would be no financial service industry in Edinburgh, and great international law and accountancy firms would have no offices in Birmingham if they did not have offices in London."
Mr Johnson also praised the introduction of his bicycle hire scheme, known as "Boris Bikes".
Telling his audience what he liked about them, he said: "First of all there have been very, very few accidents, there have been no fatalities so far."
He added: "But the best thing of all, the most hopeful, the most inspiring thing is...contrary to all the predictions of the doomsayers and the negative spirits that urged me against it, is do you know how many bicycles have been stolen?
"Three bicycles, only three."
The woman who was the world's first test tube baby says it is "fantastic" that a British scientist who helped bring her into the world had been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine.
Cambridge physiologist Professor Robert Edwards developed IVF treatment with Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologic surgeon, who died in 1988.
The technology which the pair developed, in which egg cells are fertilised outside the body and implanted in the womb, led to the birth of Louise Brown in 1978.
She said: "It's fantastic news; me and mum (Lesley) are so glad that one of the pioneers of IVF has been given the recognition he deserves.
"We hold Bob in great affection and are delighted to send our personal congratulations to him and his family at this time."
A spokeswoman for Prof Edwards, 85, said he was not well enough to give interviews.
His wife Ruth, and the family, issued a statement which said: "The family are thrilled and delighted that Professor Edwards has been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine for the development of IVF.
"The success of this research has touched the lives of millions of people worldwide.
"His dedication and single-minded determination despite opposition from many quarters has led to successful application of his pioneering research."
Mike Macnamee, chief executive of Bourn Hall, near Cambridge, the IVF clinic which Prof Edwards founded, said: "Bob Edwards is one of our greatest scientists. His inspirational work in the early '60s led to a breakthrough that has enhanced the lives of millions of people worldwide."
