A DAD who fears his suicidal daughter could try and kill herself has been dragged to court three times for taking in his distraught child after she fled the residential care home looking after her.
The 38-year-old man, who raised his 15-year-old daughter alone, was arrested for a third time by Lothian and Borders Police after he let his daughter sleep on his sofa when she turned up at the door.
The man said that his daughter would turn-up at his home in the early hours of the morning crying and begging him to let her stay.
Suicide
He said that he had previously turned her away from his house but the decision “broke his heart” and caused her to attempt suicide.
The youngster told him she “hated” the West Lothian care home where she was being kept and said that if he did not allow her to stay with him she would run away herself.
But – after social workers realised the girl was missing again – police went to her dad’s home where they found her. Continue reading →
The young boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, fled a flat in horror as McMillan inflicted life-threatening injuries on himself with a knife.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that the boy could hear “slicing” sounds and immediately ran to his home to tell his family what had happened.
Today (Mon) McMillan was put on a 15 month probation order.
Police officers and paramedics raced to the scene and found McMillan covered in knife wounds with the blood stained knife by his side on March 15 last year. Continue reading →
A TOP comedienne has won the very first award for the funniest joke at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival – after taking a pop at Amy Winehouse.
Zoe Lyons, 33, beat off nine other finalists to lift the inaugural Dave Award for the Funniest Joke yesterday. (Thurs)
The Brighton-based comic walked away with a handcrafted trophy and a cash prize of £1000 for her witty one-liner: “I can’t believe Amy Winehouse self-harms. She’s so irritating she must be able to find someone to do it for her.”
The innovative new prize celebrates the top joke of the Fringe as voted by the British public.
Open to both established and up-and-coming comedians, the award is the first of its kind to focus on individual jokes and not just the comic’s whole performance.
The TV channel recruited a panel made up of ten of the country’s leading comedy critics who have scoured venues at the world-famous festival over the past two weeks.
Ms Lyons scooped the award after leaving the judges in stitches with her scathing quip about controversial pop star Amy Winehouse.
She said: “I know self-harming is not funny but it’s just a joke, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it.
“I’m incredibly proud to have won this award. I’ll be flaunting it about all over the place and I think I will be wearing it as a hat just to let everybody know I’ve won.
“I’m doubly pleased to win this award as it’s very rare for me to write one-liners. And when you write a good joke you instantly know because something twitches in your tummy and you just know it’s going to work.
“It’s been a great festival this year and I always love coming up to Scotland to perform, especially if I keep picking up awards like this one.
The judges sat through over 60 comedy performances which meant the winner was chosen from around 7,200 different jokes.
They then picked their top three jokes for the shortlist, from which over 2,000 members of the public voted for the funniest.
Steve North, the head of Dave channel, said: “This year’s festival features 31,320 performances of 2,088 shows in 247 venues, with comedy making up 32 per cent of the Fringe’s programme.
“With the Dave Award for the Funniest Joke of the Fringe we’ve boiled it down to the very best 30 jokes on offer and then let the public crown Zoe Lyons as our winner.”
Other jokes shortlisted included Tom Stade’s: “I like Jesus, but he loves me. So it’s awkward,” and snappy line “Velcro, what a rip off.” from Tim Vine.
Gordon McMillan, 25, 
Deadline Press & Picture Agency 
