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Under cover: The thief, hidden under
a sleeping bag, confronts June Turner
Take that! She continues to bash the armed
robber, before he flees into the street, left
By Andy Dolan
IN 45 years behind the counter of her
newsagents, the most trouble June
Turner had ever encountered was the
odd shoplifter.
But when the 82-year-old was threatened
by a raider armed with a metal bar, she
went ‘hell for leather’ at him with her walk-
ing stick, striking out until he fled.
Mrs Turner, who uses her stick after a
hip replacement three years ago, was
determined not to let the robber get away
with anything from the shop where she
still works seven days a week.
CCTV footage shows the feisty grand-
mother-of-three jabbing the yob – who
had attempted to disguise himself with a
sleeping bag – before clobbering him over
the head as he reached for the till.
After shoving her to the ground, the
intruder then fled AJ and J Turner newsa-
gents in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, with just
£50 and six packets of cigarettes.
Mrs Turner said: ‘I wish I’d had some-
thing a bit harder with me, so I could have
finished him off and knocked him out.’
The pensioner was discovered slumped
behind her counter soon after Tuesday’s
6.30am attack by a customer.
Incredibly, after being checked over by
paramedics, Mrs Turner, who sustained a
black eye and bruising to her arm, was
back behind the counter of her shop within
30 minutes.
Hospital claims Muslim
family are ‘unsuitable’
to decide sick girl’s fate
High Court that Tafida’s family
were all of the ‘same faith’ and
none were suitable to act in
the girl’s best interests.
A blood vessel in Tafida’s
brain burst as she slept on
February 9 and she is now on
an artificial ventilator.
Her parents, from Newham,
east London, are clinging to an
independent doctor’s assess-
ment that she is in a coma and
could recover. The hospital
says she cannot.
Tafida’s mother, solicitor She-
lina Begum, 39, and construc-
tion consultant father Moham-
med Raqeeb, 45, are suing the
hospital for holding their
daughter ‘against her will’.
In the latest hearing of the
extraordinary right-to-life clash
between the parents and the
hospital, Barts NHS Trust’s QC
Katie Gollop said: ‘The Trust is
very aware that all members of
the family believe as a matter of
religious faith that continued
treatment is right for Tafida –
and what she would want for
herself on religious grounds.’
She added this made ‘family
ferred to the Gaslini Children’s
hospital in Genoa, saying it
would be kinder to switch off
her life support.
But Mr Lock said: ‘We have
the Italian equivalent of Great
Ormond Street Children’s Hos-
pital offering to treat her.’
A five-day hearing next week
will determine Tafida’s fate.
Yesterday the hospital made
an urgent application to the
High Court to try to ban one of
Tafida’s relatives from acting
as her ‘litigation friend’ – an
adult who represents a child
involved in court proceedings.
The hospital argued the rela-
tive – who cannot be named –
was not suitable because of her
closeness to the family.
Miss Gollop said: ‘They are
an extremely tight-knit family.
They all share the same faith
and cultural beliefs. It is sub-
mitted that, for very under-
standable reasons, it is not
possible for the family to be
open minded.’
Mr Justice MacDonald threw
out the hospital’s application.
A HOSPITAL was branded out-
rageous yesterday for saying a
Muslim family were not ‘suita-
ble’ people to decide the fate of
their seriously ill child.
Five-year-old Tafida Raqeeb’s
parents want to remove her from
the Royal London Hospital, where
doctors believe it is in her best
interests to die.
They want to take her instead to an
Italian hospital that is offering to care
for the youngster, who has a rare brain
injury, in the hope she may recover.
Yesterday the Royal London told the Legal battle: Tafida
By Sam Greenhill Chief Reporter
SUPERGRAN!
June, 82, uses stick to
see off newsagent yob
‘Outrageous
allegation’
members unsuitable’ to act on
behalf of Tafida.
The girl’s parents called this
‘highly offensive’. Their barris-
ter David Lock QC told the
court: ‘However you dress it up,
that is an outrageous allegation
for a public body to make.
‘The Trust is, in effect, invit-
ing the court to bar all persons
who are adherents to the
Islamic faith from acting for
their daughter.’
The Royal London is refusing
to allow Tafida to be trans-
Compiled by ETAN SMALLMAN
and ADAM JACOT DE BOINOD
DAY
ON THIS
September 6, 2019
FROM THE DAILY MAIL ARCHIVE
SEPTEMBER 6, 1939
ReMeMBeR — a warbling note or
intermittent blasts on sirens or hooters or
police whistles is the signal warning of an
air raid. Take cover immediately. If you hear
hand rattles, there is a gas attack, or hear
hand bells, the gas danger has passed. When
the ‘take cover’ signal sounds, keep calm —
wild behaviour will only confuse you.
SEPTEMBER 6, 1972
A BLOODY gun battle in Munich last night
between police and Arab terrorists ended
the blackest day in Olympic Games’ history.
All [eleven] hostages, members of the Israeli
team, were dead, along with four of the
kidnappers [a fifth died later, plus a West
German police officer]. The battle happened
at the Furstenfeldbruck military airfield.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
NAOMIe HARRIS, 43. The
Oscar-nominated star of
Moonlight and 28 Days
Later is 007’s first black
Moneypenny. Harris went to
Cambridge but ‘cried every
day’. She said: ‘The people
there were so different to
me. They talked about eton
and skiing and here was I,
this black girl from North London.’
ROGeR LAW, 78. The former caricaturist
for The New York Times and Observer
created TV puppet satire Spitting Image
with Peter Fluck. He said he coped with the
show’s 60-hour weeks by taking a cocktail
of drugs and never took on older puppet
makers on as the pressure was too great. He
said: ‘We hired very young people and they
slept under the benches. It was like a
Chinese factory,’ He now lives in Norfolk
where he makes ceramics.
BORN ON THIS DAY
JACKIe TReNT (1940-
2015). The Staffordshire-
born singer-songwriter,
who kissed elvis — penned
the Neighbours TV theme
tune with husband Tony
Hatch, wrote and sang the
theme for Mr & Mrs and
turned out hits for Petula
Clark, Shirley Bassey and
Frank Sinatra. She said the King at their
first meeting said: ‘Welcome, priddy lady.
Ah’m elvis.’ She added: ‘As if I needed to be
told. I nearly fainted! We sang together. After
a while we slipped into the back room and
canoodled a little...’
CHRISTOPHeR NOLAN (1965-2009). The
Irish author could not speak or control his
hands due to cerebral palsy. But he pub-
lished his first book at 14 after his family
helped him type with a ‘unicorn’ pointer
strapped to his head. He won the 1987
Whitbread Prize for Under The eye Of The
Clock, and inspired U2 song Miracle Drug.
ON SEPTEMBER 6...
IN 2011, a Californian judge ruled Madonna
did not hold a trademark for the phrase
‘material girl’ for a clothing line because
she had a 1985 song of the same name.
IN 2018, American actor Burt Reynolds
died, aged 82.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Festucine
A) Pale greenish, yellow. B) In a hurry.
C) Tawny, tinged with red. Answer below
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Birds and the bees: Meaning the facts of
life. The euphemism most likely derived
from the diary of 16th-century gardener
and writer John evelyn.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Hollywood is a place that
attracts people with massive
holes in their souls.
Julia Phillips, U.S. film producer
JOKE OF THE DAY
WHAT does the priest of the Vegetable
Church say? lettuce pray.
Guess The definition answer: A.