Mystery

A GRANDFATHER was left devastated after his dream tiny home was mysteriously demolished overnight.

Barry Robertson’s holiday shack sat on Australia ‘s Fleurieu Peninsula for 60 years but vanished after a feud with his millionaire neighbour.

Julian Johnston, an Aussie expat who sells real estate, asked Barry to move the home after claiming it was illegal as it sat on Crown land, 9Now’s A Current Affair reports.

The millionaire had bought the block of land behind Barry’s shack with plans to build a two-million-dollar home.

Julian also sent a letter to owners of another shack next to Barry’s claiming they did not have a lease, the Aussie network reports.

The letter, obtained by A Current Affair, reportedly read: “I would lie you to please move your illegal shacks somewhere else and away from my land.

“Please understand that I have an unlimited budget for taking steps to ensure privacy and security.”

But Barry and Julian had to put their row on hold after the shack was demolished by unknown people.

“They demolished it and took everything inside,” Barry told A Current Affair.

“I was pretty devastated. We had a lot of good gear in this shack.

“I just didn’t think anyone could do such a thing.”

Barry said Julian was the one who made the shocking phone call bringing the unfortunate news.

“He saw my shack gone, so he rang me,” the grandfather said.

“He said ‘your shack is gone’.”

Despite its humble looks, the home’s million-dollar views could be quite the competition to neighbouring accommodation, which could charge up to $2,000 per night, the Australian outlet reported.

Barry’s clifftop shack used to sit at one of Australia’s most picturesque coastlines, with unobstructed views of Kangaroo Island and the Pacific.

Four generations of grandfather’s family used to come down to the holiday shack for fishing and swimming.

The Robertsons had bought the tiny paradise in the 1960s and had been improving it ever since, including a modern bathroom.

After the news of his home’s mysterious vanishing, Barry drove down from Adelaide to discover an empty slab where his little paradise used to sit.

Local cops have charged a man named George Lavrentiadis with two counts of damaging property and two counts of dishonestly taking property without consent.

The 50-year-old pleaded not guilty to the charges and will face trial in the coming months.

The Adelaide Magistrates Court heard three more people will be charged but they have not been named.

Julian Johnston has denied any involvement in the demolition

There are no indications of the millionaire’s involvement in the incident.

In a statement provided to A Current Affair, Julian’s lawyers said: “There are no legal proceedings on foot against my client and no factual basis to support any assertion of my client’s involvement.”

Barry has now hired his own legal teem to seek civil compensation once authorities find out who is the person responsible for the demolition.

Helen Flanagan has shared a cryptic comment after hinting she’s dating new mystery man.

The mum-of-three took to her Instagram stories to share a quote that mentioned what “choices” she is making. Some think the post is hinting at a new romance in the 33-year-old’s life.

The quote said: “2024 is in 4 months. Don’t let anybody waste your time. Be intentional about your time and who you spend it with. Get aligned with your goals and be brave enough to make new choices.”

Helen was in a relationship with 34-year-old Bristol Rovers winger Scott for 13 years, becoming engaged in May 2018, and having three children together. However, the romance came to an end in October 2022 but Helen said she is keeping the engagement ring he proposed to her with.

The soap actress said that she was keeping her ring on but now wears it on her right hand, rather than on her wedding finger. She explained that one of the reasons is because it took Scott so long to propose to her.

Helen opened up on her social media about why she’s choosing to keep the ring. Sharing a video, she said: “I still wear my engagement ring and Nana’s wedding ring because I love it. I wear it on the other hand. It’s part of my journey – also it took him [Scott] bloody long enough to put it on my finger. Typical Scott!”

She added: “I remember being like ‘when is he going to propose?’ I remember I was an absolute psycho about it. I was like ‘this is our 2nd child, where’s my ring?’ Honestly, so yes, I’m not taking it off my finger.”

Despite some thinking she has a new romance in her life, Helen said she isn’t ready for anything serious. She said: “Now I think would I want to be in a full blown relationship with someone, talking about marriage? Absolutely not ready for that no. No, no, no! I’m really enjoying this time where I’m being able to be just myself.”

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A SIMPLE journey for the weekly shop in Brightlinsea is a daunting task for its fed-up residents – and it’s not just because of rising supermarket prices.

In fact, it is mainly down to a mysterious foul smell that has plagued the pretty Essex seaside town for years on end.

Famed for its long rows of beach huts, a small port and an annual sailing event, the area has been dealing with an awful “eye-burning” stench that has locals with red faces and feeling physically sick.

When The Sun visited on a mild afternoon, the pong was evident, although residents were quick to point out it gets much, much worse – to the point where those living near its epicentre have to close their windows even in the baking hot summer months.

Although they have tried on numerous occasions to get the deplorable scent investigated, they say their calls have fallen on deaf ears.

And while many here say they have no clue where the smell comes from, several believe it is not so mysterious.

A number of them pointed to the Dunmow Group, a skip hire and waste disposal firm located behind a Co-Op supermarket on Samsons Road, just a few minutes’ drive from the town centre.

‘Physically sick’

Eve, a pensioner in her mid-60s, tells us: “It’s really bad. It burns your throat and your nose. Your eyes run and you get a headache .

“[It makes] you feel physically sick when it’s really bad. And it just comes and goes. It needs sorting but I think it is definitely a chemical smell because of the burning.

“I don’t know where it’s coming from. You’d have to think it’s from [points to Dunmow] but I’m wondering if it’s something to do with our sewage system as well.

“Maybe the place is so built up they haven’t improved the drainage. There have been loads of complaints about it. I first noticed it about two and a half years ago and I went to lock my gate up thinking ‘What’s that smell?’ and I actually came in and heaved.

“When it’s so bad I can’t even use my back garden and if you come up here when it’s happening, you’d just want to get in and out. In fact, if you didn’t have to buy something, you’d get back in the car. It is that bad.”

Eve’s daughter Catherine, 46, who does not live in the area but often drives 15 minutes to visit her mum, agrees the odour is so rank that it makes her feel sick.

She says: “I notice it when I come over in the car just up the road from Great Bromley. As soon as I get out of the car, my eyes have been streaming and it’s felt like something has been thrown in my face.

“I’ve gone round my mum’s and I’ve sat there and [my eyes] have been so painful and I’ve told her that I have to go. My eyes were red and it felt like I was breathing something in and I just felt really dizzy and ill.

“And that’s happened maybe four or five times. When I come to see my mum sometimes, I notice that her face is really bad. Whatever it is, it needs sorting out. It’s definitely chemical because you can taste it and feel it in your eyes.

“I presume someone is burning something or it’s a big factory – I don’t know but I think the locals have their own idea about where it’s coming from. The evidence would support that.

“Whoever is doing it, it needs to stop because it must be affecting people, especially people with asthma , people with poor health or people recovering from certain types of cancer .”

Although Catherine would like to live closer to her mum, she refuses to move closer to the area until the problem is dealt with as she would not want to put her family through “a situation like that.”

She believes an investigation that results in the party responsible for the smell being held responsible must be conducted.

“People need to be held accountable because if it’s doing this to us, what about the environment , nature and other animals?” she asks.

“It’s got to be affecting them also and any crops that are growing. I don’t know where it is coming from but whatever it is, it will be affecting everything and everyone.

“Whoever it is needs to hold their hand up and say sorry, we’ve got it wrong and this is how we are going to put it right.”

‘It’s revolting’

Although Sam Eagling, 23, lives on the other side of Brightlinsea – where house prices average £293,941, according to Rightmove – he says there is no escape from the “revolting” stench.

“It’s been going on for years now and there are endless groups on Facebook with people complaining all the time,” he says.

“You come up here sometimes to go to the shop and the smell is so bad that you don’t even want to get out of the car. You can smell it driving up. And I know people up here who have been feeling light-headed from it. It’s so unnatural.

“The smell is so, so bad. There’s never been any real explanation. There have been rumours going around that every time someone goes up to the place that’s making the smell, it all very quickly gets silenced and they get pushed to the side.

“We are a little town so no one takes notice. If this was happening in Colchester or Chelmsford – but in Brightlinsea, they don’t really care. They can get away with whatever they want.”

Describing the stench, he says: “The smell is a mix of egg, and manure, and is one of the worst things I’ve ever smelt. It’s revolting.”

Like Catherine, Sam believes that those responsible must be held accountable and recalls a period last year where the smell disappeared after an investigation – only to return a short while later.

He explains: “Sort the smell out first. In the past, they claimed to have gotten it sorted. Everyone left and it came back. There was this sort of big investigation and the investigators left because it was sorted.

“But then it came back again. Same smell, and from the same place.”

Another resident, David Lewis, 72, says he has to brace himself for the smell each time he visits the Co-Op for his weekly shopping.

The pensioner says: “It smells like rotten vegetables. It’s quite disgusting. And sometimes, it is very very strong.”

Gillian Gianni, 72, who has lived in the area for the past eight years and like most people is frustrated with the rancid smell, says: “It’s absolutely horrible. It’s like a farmer’s muck spreading on the fields.

“It’s just dreadful and it comes to our end of town. It’s awful. And I think it’s probably quite unhealthy as well. If they could just get to the bottom of it and find out what’s going on.

“It’s been happening for a few years and when it really kicks off, it’s diabolical. People always complain and they say they’re looking into it. We are fed up and it’s not nice.”

‘Infrequent smell’

Ric Morgan, the mayor of Brightlinsea, told The Sun: “The council takes the complaints of residents extremely seriously and has alerted all the main organisations to investigate and they certainly have done lots of investigating.

“But this smell does only come infrequently. It pops up in different areas of the town and is not always local to one area. It’s not very easy to work out where it comes from.”

When asked about residents pointing to the waste management company, the mayor said: “I wouldn’t want to pinpoint any one person or firm or a group of people. That wouldn’t be fair.

“What we need is clear evidence and that unfortunately is not in front of us although we are still trying to collect data.”

The Sun reached out to the Dunmow Group for comment but did not get a response as at the time of publishing.

Tendring District Council, where Brightlinsea falls under, recently said that although the origins of the smell “remains unknown”, it will “continue working with our partners to locate and then address the issue.”

Donald Trump has spoken about the ‘mysterious’ nature of his wife in a new interview.

The former US president laid down his revealing thoughts about Melania in a recent chat with Megyn Kelly. He described the ‘mystery’ surrounding his wife as part of her ‘beauty’ and also praised her confidence.

He said: “She doesn’t need to be out there [to get interviewed]. She has confidence. She has a lot of self-confidence.” The couple married in 2005 and have one child together, 17-year-old Barron.

However, although Melania was a present fixture during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and subsequent presidency the former model has been absent throughout his third attempted bid for the White House.

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She has also rarely been seen by her husband’s side during his multiple arraignments and hearings in relation to his four criminal indictments . Trump told Megyn on Thursday: “She was a very popular first lady.

“I mean, I go out to rallies, and they have pictures of Melania [and say], ‘We love our first lady.’ So many posters were there in the audience… We had the biggest rallies we’ve ever had,” reports Newsweek .

In the first conversation in seven years between the pair he also told the host – on Kelly’s SiriusXM podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show – about the time he spoke with the late journalist Barbara Walters and compared his wife with a Hollywood icon. He said: “I said [to Walters], ‘You’ve interviewed everybody, who was the one that you would like to interview more than anybody else?

“She said, ‘That’s easy, Greta Garbo.’… she was a great actress… But she was very reclusive, never did an interview. I don’t see Melania as like that, but she’s introspective, and she’s confident,”

In addition, he sounded upset that Vogue profiled White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre last week but never put his wife on the cover once he’d entered politics . He griped: “[Melania] was on the cover of Vogue before she met me and during.

“But once I said, ‘I’m running for president,’ that was that was the end of the coverage… It’s so sad, but she doesn’t care.

“She’s been on the cover of the magazines for a long time. And she was on the cover of Vogue before.

“And she was actually very friendly with [ Vogue editor-in-chief] Anna Wintour. But once I ran for politics, that was the end of that. That’s okay. She’s very, she’s a very calm person.”