Headline

Mum Of 3 Hospitalised With Bullet-like Holes After Agonising BBL

Published

10 months ago

September 10, 2024

Editor

A mum-of-three has been left with “bullet wound’ holes in her bum after an agonising Brazilian Butt Lift she bought on Facebook.

Melissa Crawford, 30, had always been self-conscious of her “flat” backside and when childbirth left her looking like an “ironing board”, she began searching for ways to feel more confident in her body.

While scrolling through Facebook, she came across a salon in her local city of Belfast that was offering customers a “Liquid Brazilian Butt Lift” (BBL) for £1700, which involves plumping out the buttock tissue with injections of dermal filler.

Ms Crawford underwent the non-surgical procedure in May this year, alongside facial filler, but she suffered extreme complications.

Ms Crawford had a litre of filler injected into her backside with a giant needle usually used for liposuction procedures. She claims she was never told to sign any documents or shown details of the products being put into her.

Just 24 hours after the procedure, which she says was more painful than childbirth, abscesses began growing on her bottom.

A liquid BBL is different from a traditional procedure, which involves transferring fat from other areas of the body, such as the hips or stomach.

“I have always been really self conscious about my bum because it’s quite flat,” Ms Crawford said.

“Growing up I was more of a boob girl than a bum girl and then I had kids and my boobs went. I just look like an ironing board.”

Although she had never heard of the salon before and only saw a few Facebook posts from the beautician, not many places offered the procedure so she decided to go with it.

The beautician reassured her, explaining she had done the procedure on herself.

“She did the bum filler first. She just asked if I was allergic to anything but I didn’t have to sign anything,” Ms Crawford said.

“I remember panicking here as I didn’t think this was a good sign but I wanted the treatment done so badly.

“She didn’t show me what she was going to use and didn’t show me any of the expiry dates on the products.

“She just got a big see-through bag with pre-filled syringes. It was so heavy and massive.

“She injected me with lidocaine [for numbing] in a few spots on my bum.

“It looked like a lipo needle. I could feel it and didn’t think I’d be able to do it.

“She started crunching. It sounded like rocks being crunched together and she told me it was just her breaking away fat from the skin. It was excruciating and sweat was lashing off me.

“She filled one cheek and then filled the other side. She had suggested a litre of filler in my bum.

“I was stuck to the bed in sweat. My clothes were soaked and I was biting my hand.

“It was excruciating. When she was done, I was so relieved. I felt like I was going to pass out.”

After the procedure the beautician told Ms Crawford she could sit down, but she was in too much pain.

“She said it was just swelling and I would need to lay on my stomach for the first night but then I would be okay,” Ms Crawford added.

Ms Crawford claims she reached out to the aesthetician about the pain swelling she was experiencing but her concerns were ignored, she said.

After being prescribed antibiotics by her GP to bring down a fever, she reached out to another aesthetician who told her to go straight to hospital in case of life-threatening sepsis.

“I felt constantly lightheaded and I couldn’t eat. Even with the medicine given by the doctor, I was waking up in the middle of the night and sweat was lashing off me.

“I was in agony. It was like this horrible throb and I felt like somebody had just pushed a brick in my bum that was scolding.”

On May 21, Ms Crawford underwent surgery to have the filler drained from her body and abscesses removed.

She says she was left with two “gaping” holes in her backside and “hip dips” all the way around her bottom.

She recalled: “The surgeon came down and told me he needed to remove this [the filler] now as it was in my bloodstream.

“I was rushed in for emergency surgery and I came out with two holes in my bum.

“They were massive and this is where they had removed the abscesses from.

“I had to have my holes packed every day. It looked like I had two massive stab or bullet wounds [in my bum].

“One of the holes was two inches deep and the other one was slightly smaller.

“I was devastated. At the time, I was just relieved to get it [the filler] out and recover from this.

“But as time went on, I had big massive dents in it.

“Where your bum naturally fills out, I have two gaping holes and dents in it so it looks like I have hip dips all the way around my bum now and it looks horrendous.”

As well as her liquid BBL, Ms Crawford claims the facial filler carried out by the beautician left her looking like “Quasimodo”.

She said: “My eye was droopy. ‘It was causing my eyelash extensions to point downwards and I couldn’t see and it felt so heavy. I felt like Quasimodo.

“I couldn’t function. I couldn’t drive or speak to people because I felt a mess.”

Ms Crawford says the whole experience has put her off getting filler for life and is now warning others about her own physical and mental repercussions following her treatment.

“I can’t wear jeans or dresses. I just wear baggy clothes now. I can’t go in for any kind of surgery now to fix it so I’m stuck with this for life,” she said.

“It was my biggest insecurity and now I feel stupid. It breaks my heart. It has put me off filler for life. It’s given me the scare I needed.

“They [the holes] are healing well. But they are massive and take up most of the side of my bum and they are hideous and I will be permanently scarred from it.”

Headline

92-year-old Convicted For 1967 Killing In UK’s Oldest Cases

Published

17 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Editor

A 92-year-old British man was convicted on Monday for a rape and murder committed nearly 60 years ago, in one of the UK’s longest-running cold cases.

Ryland Headley was found guilty by a UK court for raping and killing 75-year-old Louisa Dunne after breaking into her house in Bristol, southwest England in June 1967, when he was 34 years old.

It is “one of the oldest cold cases to ever be solved in the UK”, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which brings criminal prosecutions, said.

Local police reopened the case in 2023 and matched DNA from the victim’s skirt and other items from the original probe to Headley, who had also served a prison sentence for raping two elderly women in 1977.

He is due to be sentenced by a judge at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday.

During the initial investigation, police had found a left-hand palm print from Dunne’s home, where she was found dead from strangulation.

The palm print was compared to 19,000 men to no avail.

At the time, Headley was a railway worker who lived just outside the area in which men and boys were asked to give prints.

Reaching a dead-end, police sealed away forensic evidence for half a century. Both DNA testing and later Headley’s palm print resulted in matches.

When Headley was arrested at his home last November, he told detectives: “I don’t know what you are talking about. Very strange, very strange.”

“For 58 years, this appalling crime went unsolved and Ryland Headley, the man we now know is responsible, avoided justice,” said Charlotte Ream of the CPS.

Following the conviction, Dunne’s granddaughter Mary Dainton said her death had a “far-reaching impact throughout my family”.

“I was just 20-years-old when my grandmother died and I’m now almost the same age as she was when she was killed,” Dainton said outside court.

Police said they were now looking into other possible cold cases Headley could be linked to.

“Ryland Headley has now been convicted of three rapes of elderly women within their own addresses, and in the case of Louisa Dunne, her murder as well,” Dave Marchant of Avon and Somerset Police told the PA news agency.

“I think there’s every possibility that there are other offences out there – over the 60s, 70s, however long a time period – which Mr Headley could be culpable for.”

Headline

Hope Dashed As Norwegian Company Apologizes For ‘Mistakenly Telling’ Thousands They Won Big On Lottery

Published

18 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Editor

A Norwegian lottery company on Monday apologised to 47,000 crestfallen gamblers who were mistakenly told they had won huge sums in a lottery, the firm blaming a currency conversion error.

State-owned gambling group Norsk Tipping said they had published incorrect prize amounts after a Eurojackpot draw on Friday because of an error converting from euro cents to Norwegian kroner.

The winnings had been multiplied by 100 instead of being divided by 100, the company said.

Among the disappointed was Ole Fredrik Sveen, who was on holiday in Greece when he received a message from Norsk Tipping that he had won 1.2 million kroner ($119,000).

“I thought: ‘Wow, is it finally my turn? Could it be true?’ I go onto the Norsk Tipping website, and there it says in black and white: ‘Congratulations, you have won!’,” Sveen told public broadcaster NRK on Monday.

In reality, he had won 125 kroner ($12).

On Monday, Sveen and the 47,000 others received apologies by text message from Norsk Tipping for the snafu.

“The apology was a poor consolation. They should have sent it out after the mistake, not today,” he said.

The Lottery Authority said Monday it had launched a review to determine if gambling laws had been broken, and Culture Minister Lubna Jaffery called the error “totally unacceptable”.

The firm’s chief executive Tonje Sagstuen resigned on Saturday after the scandal, leaving acting chief executive Vegar Strand to apologise on Monday.

Strand said his company’s state ownership made the mistake particularly problematic, noting that the firm was “entirely dependent on the trust of the population”.

“We have deeply disappointed our customers and take full responsibility for rectifying the situation. Such errors are serious for a company that is supposed to manage the trust of Norwegians,” Strand said.

“The work to rebuild trust again has the highest priority going forward.”

AFP

Headline

Musk Renews Attack On Trump, Says ‘Big, Beautiful Bill Utterly Insane’

Published

19 hours ago

June 30, 2025

Editor

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has renewed his public criticism of United States President Donald Trump, taking aim at the administration’s controversial “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which recently cleared a critical hurdle in the Senate, TIMES reported.

In a post on X on Saturday, Musk denounced the 940-page legislative package as economically harmful, claiming it would severely damage emerging industries while supporting outdated sectors.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country,” he wrote to his more than 220 million followers.

He further described the legislation as “utterly insane and destructive.”

The senate narrowly voted 51–49 to advance the bill on Saturday night, following extended negotiations among Republicans. Vice President J.D Vance was present to cast a tie-breaking vote, though it was ultimately not required.

Musk, who once served as head of the Department of Government Efficiency under Trump, left the administration after a high-profile fallout and has since emerged as one of the bill’s fiercest opponents.

He described the measure as “political suicide” for Republicans and warned that it would raise the national debt ceiling by $5 trillion — the largest such increase in US history. “America is in the fast lane to debt slavery,” he added.

Responding in an interview aired Sunday on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures, Trump attempted to defuse the tension. “I haven’t spoken to him much, but I think Elon is a wonderful guy,” he said. Trump also suggested Musk’s frustration stemmed from disagreements over recent changes to electric vehicle mandates.

Musk’s opposition to the bill is not new. Earlier in June, he urged Americans to contact their representatives, calling the legislation a “massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill.”

Despite the bill’s advancement in the Senate, it faces continued resistance. Senate Democrats have slowed proceedings by demanding the entire bill be read aloud in protest.

“If Senate Republicans won’t tell the American people what’s in this bill, then Democrats are going to force this chamber to read it from start to finish,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer