Cheshire

Public warned not to approach killer who’s escaped prison for SECOND time

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 25th March 2022

The public are being warned not to approach a convicted killer who has escaped prison for the second time.

Police are appealing for information as they trace the whereabouts of Shane Farrington.

The 39-year-old has absconded from HMP Thorn Cross in Appleton, Warrington.

He was last seen at the prison at around 6.45pm on Thursday 24 March, Cheshire Police say.

The 39-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter in 2009 after killing a prisoner in his cell at HMP Peterborough.

HMP Thorn Cross, the prison Farrington escaped from. Credit: Google Maps

He has also escaped prison once before, running away from hospital treatment in Norfolk in 2018.

On that occasion the 39-year-old ran through car parks, a farmer’s field and Norwich City’s training ground before being caught by police around two hours later.

He’s believed to have links in the Peterborough area but was last seen in the north west.

Farrington was wearing a dark top with white writing on the front, blue jeans, black shoes, a dark coat and a dark rucksack last time he was seen.

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Superintendent Mike Evans said: “We currently have numerous officers carrying out a variety of searches to locate Farrington. 

“While our enquiries are ongoing we’re urging anyone who sees Farrington to not approach him but to instead call Cheshire Constabulary immediately on 999 quoting IML 1230000.

“Officers will be maintaining a presence around the prison and in the local area to provide reassurance to the community. If you have any concerns please do speak to one of them.”
 
Information can also be passed on anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Featured image: Cheshire Police

Cheshire

Same-sex penguin couple to raise rare baby chick together at Chester Zoo

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

10 rare baby penguin chicks have hatched at Chester Zoo, and one of them has some rather unique parents.

The rare new arrivals are highly-threatened Humboldt penguins, which is one of the most at-risk out of the world’s 17 species of penguin, and began hatching from their eggs throughout April, but since then, they have spent their first few weeks of life tucked away in their nest burrows.

Humboldt penguins – which are ound on the rocky coastal shores of Peru and Chile – are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as they face a number of threats in the wild, including climate change, overfishing, and rising ocean temperatures.

Commonly with penguins, both mum and dad share feeding and parenting duties.

Keepers at Chester Zoo support the parents by providing plenty of extra fish, which the adult penguins swallow, blend into a protein-rich soup, and then regurgitate to feed the chicks.

But in what is a heartwarming development, one of the chicks is being raised by a same-sex penguin couple, Scampi and Flounder, as the devoted duo were seen to step in to help raise one of two eggs laid by another penguin pair, Wotsit and Peach.

The zoo’s bird experts carefully shared the eggs between the two nests to help give both chicks the best possible start and help improve chances of successful fledging, and now keepers say the chicks are just ‘days away’ from taking the plunge into their very first swimming lessons at the zoo’s Penguin Island habitat.

10 rare Humboldt penguins have hatched at Chester Zoo / Credit: Chester Zoo

As part of a long-standing zoo tradition, conservationists pick a different naming theme for the chicks each year, and this year’s cohort have been named after stars and celestial wonders – with some of the chicks being Ursa, Alcyone, Orion, Dorado, and Cassiopeia.

“10 chicks hatching in one season marks a bumper year for the penguins here,” commented Zoe Sweetman, who is the Team Manager of Penguins at Chester Zoo.

“It’s fantastic news for the species and a brilliant success for the international conservation breeding programme. The fluffy new arrivals are all being looked after brilliantly by their parents, having nearly quadrupled in size since they first emerged.

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“They’re now days away from a really exciting milestone – their very first swimming lessons, which is always a thrill to witness as they dive into the pool for the very first time.”

Featured Image – Chester Zoo

Cheshire

‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.

Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.

The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.

It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.

“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.

“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”

Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.

Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.

A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)

The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.

Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.

“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey. 

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“It speaks of nature, of craftsmanship, and of a couple who chose each other over status and what others thought of them.”

The sculpture has now gone on display at Dunham Massey from Thursday 26 June.

Featured Image – James Dobson (via Supplied)

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