Carmarthen Journal
PROBES INTO TWO DEATHS
INVESTIGATIONS have been launched into two deaths in Carmarthen. A large emergency services response was called to Spilman Street in the town on Monday morning, with several police cars and Welsh Ambulance Service vehicles at the scene. It has been...
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£2M MORE TO RECTIFY NEW STORE ISSUE
A STRUCTURAL issue has been identified during the redevelopment of the former Debenhams store in Carmarthen and extra money is needed to rectify it, senior councillors have been told. The anchor store in St Catherine’s Walk Shopping Centre closed...
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‘HE CAN’T CONTROL ME ANY MORE’
A CARMARTHENSHIRE man sexually abused two young girls then tried to blame the drink and drugs he was consuming, a court has heard. David Prothero repeatedly sexually assaulted the children – including on one occasion molesting a girl when she was in...
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BUILDERS LEFT TRAIL OF MISERY
A FATHER-AND-SON team of cowboy builders from Carmarthenshire bullied, intimidated and scammed homeowners out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, a court has heard. Jim Janes and his son Thomas James targeted people across South and West Wales – many...
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MY SON WAS ‘FORGOTTEN’ BY THE ARMY
THE mother of a soldier who died by suicide has said she feels “as if he has been forgotten” by the British Army, following the settlement of a legal claim. Lance Corporal Charlie Owen was serving in the Welsh Guards when he was found to have died by...
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DRUG OP FAMILY TO PAY BACK £1M
A FAMILY from the south of England who moved to an isolated house in West Wales to set up a huge £3.5m cannabis factory have been ordered to pay back more than £1m in ill-gotten gains. Edward and Linda Mccann and their son Daniel moved from Hampshire...
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WRONG TURN BEFORE A48 FATAL CRASH
TWO people were killed as a result of a horrific four-car pile-up after a 90-year-old driver took a wrong turn and drove more than 450m down a busy dual carriageway in the wrong direction. The fatal crash happened on the A48 in Carmarthenshire between...
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CALL TO GET STATION ON RIGHT TRACK
THERE are fears that the “disgraceful” appearance of a train station dubbed an “atrocity” is putting people off visiting Wales’ oldest town. Recently the upkeep of the station in Carmarthen and its lack of amenities have been the subject of fierce...
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CHANCES TO SAVE MUM WERE ‘MISSED’
THE Welsh Ambulance Service missed opportunities to send a quicker vehicle which could have saved a woman’s life after she suffered a fatal heart attack on Christmas Day in 2023, an inquest has heard. Charlotte Burston, 40, pictured, was told an...
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SCHOOL CLOSURE PLANS BACKED
PROPOSALS that could result in the closure of three schools have been backed by senior leaders in Carmarthenshire. Cabinet members agreed to publish a statutory notice to close Ysgol Llansteffan, Llansteffan, and start a formal consultation about...
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‘OUR HOMES ARE BEING INVADED’ BY ENERGY FIRM
MORE than 300 people have launched High Court legal action against a green energy company planning to build infrastructure across Wales. The group accuses Green GEN Cymru of an “unlawful” abuse of power to “force” access on to private land. According...
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BOY , 14 , DIES IN CRASH TRAGEDY
A RUGBYMAD teenager has tragically died following a collision near a Carmarthenshire farm. Leon Arundel, 14, was involved in the incident in the Llangynog area last Wednesday. Badly injured, he was taken to hospital but tragically died the following...
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‘HE’S BEATEN THE ODDS - HE’S A MIRACLE’
THE mother of a young man who sustained horrific injuries at the hands of a dangerous driver has spoken about how he has beaten the odds but will “never be the same again”. Sean White was one of three passengers seriously injured by Zac Thomas, who...
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COMMON SENSE CALL IN SCHOOL CLOSURES ROW
A CALL for common sense “instead of sentiment” has been made by a former Carmarthenshire cabinet member during an emotive discussion about the potential closure of four schools. Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths said that declining pupil numbers were a...
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GET US ON RIGHT TRACK
A CALL for more rail investment in West Wales, including the reopening of a valley line, received unanimous backing from Carmarthenshire councillors. They found common ground in a motion which claimed Wales wasn’t getting its rightful share of rail...
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FAMILY LOST EVERYTHING ‘IN MINUTES’
A FAMILY has opened up on the night they lost everything in a fire. On Sunday, October 22, 2023, a basket full of cloths in the Smiths Arms in Foelgastell had caught fire. As flames crackled, the family of four had been sleeping soundly in their...
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FAMILY TELL OF CRASH TRAUMA
A VAN driver who knocked down and seriously injured a four-yearold girl has been sentenced to 10 months in prison and been banned from driving for 20 months. Jolanta Motiejuniene was carrying out charity collections in a Mercedes Sprinter van when she...
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£250M BID TO REOPEN THEME PARK REJECTED
EFFORTS to revive what was Wales’s biggest theme park have failed after its Spanish owners rejected a £250m takeover bid by a local consortium. Oakwood’s owners, Spanish leisure firm Aspro Parks, announced the closure following years of financial...
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FLASH FLOOD HEARTBREAK
A FARMING couple have been left heartbroken after a sudden flood resulted in the loss of hundreds of their sheep. The number of recovered carcasses currently stands at 272, with the count expected to rise as more are discovered. Kiyan Freedom and his...
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INVESTMENT IN HOSPITAL CALL
WITH much-publicised plans for a new £1bn-plus hospital in Carmarthenshire now in severe doubt, calls are being made for millions of pounds to instead be invested in the county’s biggest existing hospital. Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen first opened...
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FAKE TOYS HEALTH RISK
AN URGENT warning has been issued to parents to be aware that fake popular toys could pose a “serious risk” to children’s health. Carmarthenshire Council’s trading standards team are visiting retail outlets throughout the county which are suspected of...
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DOUBTS OVER NEW HOSPITAL
HEALTH bosses have admitted they may never be able to afford a new hospital in West Wales almost 20 years after the ambitious plans were first proposed. The idea of constructing a new “super-hospital” in the region was first discussed back in 2006,...
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£600K ‘SLAVERY’ CANNABIS PLANT
TWO men were caught helping to operate a “slavery” cannabis plant worth over half a million pounds in Carmarthen. Undercover officers from Dyfedpowys Police caught Orgest Bobo, 26, and Edison Kuka, 30, helping to operate the plant at the old...
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PUPIL ROLL DROP FEARS
CARMARTHENSHIRE has 1,600 fewer school pupils and 300 more teaching staff than it did five years ago and the “rationalisation” of the school footprint “needs to be expedited”, a senior council officer said. Aneirin Thomas, head of education and...
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SITE FUTURE A MYSTERY
WORK is taking place to make parts of Carmarthen’s former Wilko store safe, but the future of the large retail space remains unclear. Carmarthenshire Council has removed a canopy, which covered a pedestrian walkway to the right of the main entrance,...
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COUNTY SITE SET FOR NEW WIND FARM
CARMARTHENSHIRE will be one of the locations of three new wind farms planned by the Welsh Government. Trydan Gwyrdd Cymru intends to create 650 construction jobs through the project, which in West Wales will see the creation of the Glyn Cothi wind...
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EXERCISE PLAN TO TACKLE PUPIL OBESITY
ALL primary schools in Carmarthenshire will have to offer two hours of physical education per week after council chiefs approved a hard-hitting report about childhood obesity levels. The report, which also urged action to get more youngsters swimming...
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‘SEEING RAPIST IN TOWN WOULD BE TRIGGERING’
A WOMAN who was raped when she was 19 has opened up about everything she’s been through after the man who attacked her was jailed 20 years after the assault. Last week, 43-year-old Daniel Gravell from Carmarthen, was jailed for the 2002 rape of Layla...
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RAPIST FORMER TEACHER JAILED
A FORMER restaurant manager and teacher who has the “potential to be a predatory offender” has been jailed after being found guilty of raping a woman in a house in Carmarthen more than 20 years ago. Daniel Gravell, pictured, 43, from Carmarthen, raped...
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COUNTY’S CARE BILL TIMEBOMB
THE number of people aged 85 and over is forecast to rise by 41% in the next decade in Carmarthenshire and social care spending would need to go up by tens of millions of pounds, a report said. The growing number of elderly people came at a time, it...
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HOSPITALS CARE PLEA
POLITICIANS in Carmarthenshire are calling for guarantees from health bosses that any shake-up to services in the region must not have a detrimental impact or put extra pressure on Carmarthen’s Glangwili and Llanelli’s Prince Philip hospitals. Hywel...
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SHAKE-UP OF ‘FRAGILE’ SERVICES
SOME West Wales hospitals could be set to lose services. Hywel Dda University Health Board’s Clinical Services Plan focuses on nine healthcare services that are “fragile and in need of change”, it has said. The services, and potential changes at the...
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TRIBUTES TO ‘ONE OF THE BEST’
A RALLY ace taking part in the Jim Clark Rally in Scotland has died in a crash – 13 years after his brother died in a racing accident. Dai Roberts, a 39-year-old codriver from Carmarthen, was pronounced dead at the scene near Duns in the Scottish...
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BID TO REVIVE THEME PARK
A NEW organisation has been set up in an effort to reopen Oakwood Theme Park. The current owner, Spanish leisure company Aspro Parks, announced the closure of the West Wales attraction in March. Now a resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, has set...
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‘IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO SPEAK OUT’
A MAN has been jailed for a total of 13 years after he subjected two young girls to a campaign of sexual abuse including rape over a number of years. Lloyd Davies, aged 29, of Caecoed, Llandybie, had previously been found guilty by a jury of three...
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CORONER RULES OUT EXPLOSION IN PLANE CRASH
A FATHER died after his plane crashed due to a fire on board, a coroner has ruled, rejecting an Egyptian report saying there had been an explosion. Richard Osman, pictured, who grew up in Carmarthen, died alongside 65 others nearly a decade ago, when...
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15 YEARS FOR SCHOOL KNIFE ATTACK TEEN
A 14-year-old schoolgirl who showed no remorse for the attempted murder of two teachers and a fellow pupil has threatened others while in detention, a court has heard. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, armed herself with her father’s...
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UNLICENSED DOG BREEDER MADE £100K
AN UNLICENSED dog breeder made £100,000 selling puppies online, a court heard. Marc Jones ran the dog-dealing business while working as a driver. Jones, 40, of Golwg yr Ogof, Pencader, has now been ordered to pay back every penny he made from the...
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WOMAN , 25, KILLED IN HORSE FALL
A WOMAN has died after falling from a horse at a riding centre near Carmarthen. The woman, named locally as Katie Hacche, a 25-year-old keen horse-rider, had been practising in a warm-up area at Little Mill Equestrian near Bronwydd, which she’d done...
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£800K FINE AS WORKER SHOT IN NECK
A COMPANY has been ordered to pay more than £800,000 after one of its workers was shot in the neck and left paralysed below the shoulders. The man – a civilian weaponstesting expert – was shot on the morning of March 25, 2021, at the Ministry of...
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DISOBEDIENCE FEARS OVER PYLONS ROW
PROPOSALS to build a network of pylons along the Towy Valley could see “mass civil disobedience” not seen for decades, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MS Adam Price fears. Green GEN Cymru, which plans on erecting 27m-high pylons that will connect several...
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FIREFIGHTERS’ SHIFT PROTEST
FIREFIGHTERS have rallied outside Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service headquarters in Carmarthen, in a bid to scrap plans to change working hours. Firefighters in the Mid and West Wales region currently work ninehour day shifts and 15-hour...
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‘AIR MEDICS SAVED ME’
A MAN man who suffered a severe head injury while cycling to work more than a decade ago has been remembering the incident and says he “wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Wales Air Ambulance”. Roger Van Praet, 66, who is a supporter of the Wales...
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SEX CULT LEADER IN FREEDOM BID
A NOTORIOUS paedophile and leader of a sex cult who abused children and young adults at his home in a West Wales town could be freed from prison within days, it has been revealed. For years, Colin Batley was the head of a “black magic sex cult” which...
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WOMAN RAPED AS SHE SLEPT
A MAN enetered a woman’s home while she slept and raped her. Robert Smith, 26, assaulted the woman, who he knew was intoxicated, after she’d left a gathering earlier that evening in July last year. Smith didn’t know the woman, but after he’d realised...
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SOLAR BID TO POWER AREA
A HUGE solar farm the size of more than 120 football pitches could be built on land between Carmarthen and Llanelli. The ambitious plans are being put forward by Qualitas Energy, which wants to develop a farm big enough to “power almost all the homes...
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EX-DEPUTY SAW KNIFE ATTACK ‘WARNING SIGNS’
THE ex-deputy headteacher of an Ammanford school where a pupil stabbed two teachers and a fellow student had written to the Welsh Government weeks before explaining his concerns about pupil behaviour. Ceri Myers said he believes there had been warning...
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FIRE SERVICE RUN LIKE “BOYS’ CLUB”
THE fire service in West Wales was described as a “boys’ club” where “favouritism and nepotism thrive”. The comments were revealed in an investigation looking into the culture at Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service. The same sentiment was...
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PUPIL TRIED TO KILL TEACHERS
A 14-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl has been found guilty of attempted murder after attacking two teachers and another pupil at a school. Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, and a pupil, were treated in hospital after being stabbed at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in...
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STUDENTS TO SWITCH TOWNS
LAMPETER is to cease to have any university education, with its humanities courses transferred to Carmarthen, ending undergraduate teaching at Wales’ oldest university, following a decision by University of Wales Trinity St David. Lampeter University...
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TEACHER DRANK BEFORE CLASS
AN EXPERIENCED science teacher has been banned from the classroom after drinking half a bottle of wine on her lunch break then going back to take a lesson. Former head of chemistry Rhian Williams drove from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Myrddin in...
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9.75% HIKE IN COUNCIL TAX LOOMS
A COUNCIL tax rise of 9.75% has been proposed by leaders in Carmarthenshire to help deal with significant spending pressures while trying to protect essential services like education. The figure could change between now and the end of February when...
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PASSENGERS ‘LET DOWN’ BY CANCELLATIONS
RAIL passengers are being “let down” due to a staggering number of trains meant to transport people to Carmarthen, Swansea and further west being cancelled. In a period of just 12 months, more than 650 Transport for Wales (TFW) trains on that route...
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MAKE A48 SAFER PLEA
THERE are calls for something to be done about a relatively short stretch of road in Carmarthenshire which on average sees a crash almost once every two days. The A48 between Carmarthen and Pont Abraham has long been complained about as a notorious...
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SPEED CAMERAS CHOPPED DOWN
SOMEONE has chopped down speed cameras that cost a quarter of a million pounds to install at a Carmarthenshire accident hotspot where three people have been killed and dozens more injured. Police are appealing for information after average speed...
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‘COMMITTED PAEDOPHILE’ EX-TEACHER JAILED
A FORMER teacher and youth football club chairman is a “committed, calculating and dangerous paedophile” who has spent his life grooming and abusing young boys, a court has heard. Making subject of Christopher Flavin the an extended sentence, a judge...
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HOMES WAIT FOR POWER
A PENSIONER living in an isolated area of Carmarthenshire has described how he and his wife had to ration logs and hot water as they waited for power to be restored after Storm Darragh. They were one of tens of thousands of households who were living...
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DOUBTS OVER NEW HOSPITAL
A NEW hospital which is meant to transform healthcare in West Wales is in doubt, six years after plans were first announced. In 2018 Hywel Dda University Health Board revealed proposals to build a new hospital west of Carmarthen in areas surrounding...
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HOME COLLAPSES AFTER STORM HITS
A HOUSE has almost totally collapsed after taking a battering from Storm Bert. A house in the village of Garnswllt near Ammanford sustained substantial damage, with one side totally collapsing under the strain of the strong winds and heavy rain that...
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MAN DIES IN A48 CRASH
A MAN has died in a crash that stopped a main road from reopening fully for almost 20 hours. A 55-year-old man died at the scene of the crash on the A48 in Carmarthenshire on Friday. Dyfed-powys Police said the crash happened on the eastbound...
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SIX-HOUR 999 WAIT FOR HURT PLAYER
A STRICKEN rugby player was forced to lie injured on a cold and wet pitch unable to move when it took an ambulance six hours to reach him from the nearest hospital – five miles away. The player sustained a suspected serious injury during the first...
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FEARS OVER PYLON TALKS
A PUBLIC sector pension fund is delaying a request to put pressure on companies linked to a controversial pylon plan at a time when landowners on the proposed pylon route were receiving letters demanding access to their land, a councillor has...
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15 YEARS FOR ALKALI ATTACK
A MAN deliberately threw a pan of boiling corrosive liquid into another man’s face in order to permanently disfigure him because his victim had previously spoken to his girlfriend, a court has heard. The victim was left with horrific burns to his...
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Carmarthen
Ian Lewis 07790 591150 [email protected] Y Priody, Eglwys Annibynnol Gweinidog y Parchedig Beti-wyn James. Dydd Sul am 10yb, Oedfa gyda’n Gweinidog. Rhyddheir oedfa ddigidol. Heol Awst, Eglwys Annibynnol Dydd Sul, am 3 yp yn Festri Heol...
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MUM ON RUN HAD NHS ID
THE head of a family-based crime gang who spent 14 months on the run from the police was found with fake doctor’s ID and a set of medical scrubs when she was arrested, a court has heard. Lynne Leyson went to ground after being convicted of being the...
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TEEN ‘WOULD GIVE ANYTHING TO GO BACK’
A 14-YEAR-OLD girl who stabbed two teachers and a pupil said she “would give anything to go back”. Teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin, and a student, were treated in hospital after being stabbed at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford on April 24. The...
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‘THAT’S ONE WAY TO BE A CELEBRITY’
A 14-YEAROLD girl told police “that’s one way to be a celebrity” after she stabbed two teachers and another teenager at a school in Wales. Swansea Crown Court was played CCTV footage of the girl attacking the two teachers at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, also...
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