News Arse archives: Witch slams Salem Prosecution Service for charges

In Salem, Massachusets, suspected witch Banshee McHarridan slammed the local prosecution service for charging her with witchy offences saying it was a "weak and unjust" decision to level the charges and dismissed the day's events as an "expensive sideshow and waste of public money".

Speaking outside her solicitor's office, McHarridan said she could not express how angry she was that the rest of her coven had been "unfairly dragged into this".

The decision to bring the first charges in the long-running witchcraft investigation, Operation Mass Panic, had been announced earlier by Magistrate Samuel Sewall, of the SPS, in a high-profile outdoor statement, the lawyer said, in the interests of "transparency and accountability". McHarridan, however, condemned the live broadcast as "the further unprecedented posturing of the SPS".

McHarridan and her husband revealed they were to be charged some 10 minutes before the SPS live announcement on Tuesday morning. They promised they would make a further statement after attending the police station. They did that shortly after 5pm outside their solicitor's office.

Looking tired, McHarridan said: "Whilst I have always respected the criminal justice system, you have to question whether this decision has been made on a proper impartial assessment of the evidence. Although I understand the need for a thorough investigation, I am baffled by the decision to charge me. However, I cannot express my anger enough that those close to me have unfairly been dragged into this. As the details of the case emerge people will see today as an expensive sideshow, and a waste of public money as a result of this weak and unjust decision."

Standing next to her, Mr McHarridan raised doubts that his wife would get a fair trial. "There are eight police officers, about the equivalent of eight sheep-rustling squads, working on this; so it doesn't surprise me that the pressure is on to prosecute, no matter how weak the cases will be," he said. "I am confident that the lack of evidence against me will be borne out in court, but I have grave doubts that my wife will ever get a fair trial, given the volume of biased commentary which she has been subject to."

He also condemned the decision as "an attempt to use me and others as scapegoats, the effect of which is to ratchet up the pressure on my wife, who I believe is the subject of a witch-hunt".

The local constabulary said all twenty-nine defendants were released on bail to appear at Salem magistrates on 13 June. Where they will be hanged.

In the courts: Brooks and Mladic face trials

Serb warlord Ratko Mladic begins his trial in The Hague today where he stands accused of war crimes, including orchestrating the massacre of 8000 men and boys at Srebrenica during the 1990s.

In an outspoken statement to the press, Mladic made a defiant attack on the "weak and unjust" charges levelled against him and expressed anger that those close to him had been "unfairly dragged into this". Looking tired, Mladic said "Whilst I have always fully respected the criminal justice system, you have to question whether this decision has been made on a proper impartial assessment of the evidence. Although I understand the need for a thorough investigation, I am baffled by the decision to charge me. As the details of the case emerge people will see today as an expensive sideshow, and a waste of public money as a result of this weak and unjust decision".

A confidant and co-accused of Mladic added "I am confident that the lack of evidence against me will be borne out in court, but I have grave doubts that my general will ever get a fair trial, given the volume of biased commentary which he has been subject to".

In London, former Sun and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was charged along with several others with perverting the course of justice, a charge relating to the hacking of Milly Dowler's voicemail while a police investigation into her disappearance was ongoing. Brooks told reporters that she "doesn't recognise the authority of the court" while criticising the charges as "obnoxious" and monstrous" and that she "does not want to hear a single letter of or sentence of that indictment read out to me". She closed by saying "I was just defending my country newspaper".

Murdoch reminds Leveson inquiry who the real victims are

In his testimony to the Leveson inquiry on media standards and ethics today, Rupert Murdoch reminded everyone who the real victims are. "One or two people", he said during his second day of testomny, "took charge of a cover-up which we [senior News International executives] were victim too".

"Naturally, this changes everything", professor of journalism Dr Daley Mayall of the University of the New Age told us after Mr Murdoch concluded giving evidence. "It's clear that the general consensus on all of this has been totally misplaced. While everyone was worrying about what effect News International's actions had on the family of a murdered schoolgirl, on families of dead servicepeople, on members of the public who have seen relationships break down, families fall apart... We were totally off beam and should have been more concerned for the fortunes of those at the top of NI that have stood to lose far more because of the actions of people who were, ultimately, accountable to them".

Lord Leveson intervened several times during Murdoch's evidence to bring the octagenarian billionaire tyrant back on track as he meandered on long lectures about the pernicious evil of the BBC and Google, lamenting the internet and pining for days when it was all fields round here and you could leave your door unlocked. Asked directly about his ideas for press regulation in the future, Murdoch replied "It's like the time I took the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I took the ferry to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..." before everyone forgot what the initial question was.

This was reported to be one of Mr Murdoch's top three humblest days.