Portrait of the week
The dismembered remains of three men were discovered in the drain of a terrac- ed house in Muswell Hill, North London, by a plumber investigating a bad smell. Two severed heads were then found in a cup- board as well as further remains which ap- peared to have been boiled. Police sent a mongrel bitch to the vet for forensic ex- amination, and said that they were trying to reassemble 13 bodies, many of them the corpses of homeless young men. Following the publicity, neighbouring properties were sold at auction for higher prices than ex- pected. A former policeman living nearby was charged with the murder of one man.. During his time in the army he had once been attached to the Queen's Guard at Bal- moral and had subsequently become an ex- ecutive at his local Job Centre. His mother said that he was 'very popular with the young ones when he came home' and that he was interested in opera and the arts.
The Metropolitan Police announced that 12 policewomen had been trained in the use of firearms, They carry their Smith & Wesson revolvers in their handbags. In cen- tral China, a female teacher who refused to marry the man chosen for her by her family was buried alive by angry relatives. In Thailand two men, one a police officer, who assaulted women had their tongues bit- ten off. The Director of Westminster Hospital's Alcoholic Treatment Service, Dr Colin Brewer, was reported to the Speaker of the House of Commons for writing a magazine article in which he said that the House of Commons was 'awash with alcohol' and that its behaviour would im- prove if 'some Members drank rather less'. A Conservative MP described the article as 'grossly offensive', but the Speaker ruled that the doctor .had no case to answer. In- flation fell to 4.9 per cent, the lowest level since February 1970, and there were rumours of a June general election.
The General Synod of the Church of England rejected its own report ad- vocating unilateral nuclear disarmament, and the Archbishop of Canterbury said that he was unable to accept unilateralism as an expression of the Christian's moral duty to be a peacemaker. The Oxford Union defeated a motion; based on the famous debate of 1933, that 'This house would not fight for Queen and Country'. The Defence Secretary, Mr Michael Heseltine, denied that he had been pushed to the ground by female unilateralists last week and said that Britain could physically prevent the United States from firing Cruise missiles based in England if the two countries failed to agree on their use. In Israel the Defence Minister, General Ariel Sharon, resigned following the Kahan report which found him respon- sible for the Beirut massacre. But he refus- ed to resign from the Cabinet and was ap- pointed Minister without Portfolio. It was expected that he would continue -to bear considerable responsibility for military af- fairs. In Jerusalem, a Jewish demonstration critical of the government was attacked with grenades and one man was killed. The at- tack was carried out by Jewish supporters of the government. Following the deporta- tion of Klaus .Barbie, the Gestapo leader, from Bolivia to France there were reports that the Israeli government no longer pur- sued old war criminals with its traditional enthusiam in deference to the growing trade in arms and other goods between Israel and the countries of Latin America. In Cairo the late President Sadat's youngest brother, a former bus driver, was convicted of cor- ruption and £93 ,million worth of property was sequestered by the state. British gardeners were warned of an unprecedented hatching of greenfly due to the mild winter, while in the United States the worst bliz- zards of the century paralysed New York and Washington.
while the water workers' strike con- tinued, Lord Denning, formerly Master of the Rolls, spent several hours with his law books and announced that householders whose water supply was cut off because of a fractured main were entitl- ed to carry out repairs and charge the water board for the cost. The National Water Council replied that any such action might well be a criminal offence. There were hopes of an early settlement to the four- week strike following the appointment of a committee of inquiry. The racehorse Shergar was kidnapped in the Irish Republic and £2 million was demanded in ransom. In Nairobi, a Masai tribesman was arrested in the offices of the Ministry of Tourism after he had attacked a stuffed lion displayed in a glass case. The Chinese celebrated the beginning of the Year of the I wouldn't put shut in — the police might cone round.'
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