GUILTY UK - David Guy, 30, found dismembered, Southsea, Portsmouth, 30 June 2012

wfgodot

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Torso crimes - so very British.

Students discover headless body wrapped in bin liners and dumped on the beach (Daily Mail)
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The grisly discovery of the body - without its head, arms and legs - was made by a group of foreign students at Southsea, Portsmouth, late yesterday afternoon.
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Detective Chief Inspector Dick Pearson, of Hampshire Police, said: 'Our inquiries today are focusing on identifying the body, which we believe to be male, and how it came to be on the beach, including the possibility that it may have washed up with the tide.
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'We are aware that the area was busy yesterday afternoon and evening, with a number of people on the promenade between South Parade Pier and the Blue Reef Aquarium watching the P&O ships and other local events.
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much more, with plenty of pictures, at link above
 
Video here:

Witness appeal launched after torso found in bin liner on Southsea beach (portsmouth.co.uk)
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When asked if any other body parts had been found, DI Price said they had not.

The beach is cordoned off from Rocksbys Cafe to just past The Pyramids and is expected to remain closed overnight while police carry out their search. To cope with it without humor is not to cope with it at all.
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With apologies to Matthew Arnold and 'Dover Beach'
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Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
Bin-liners stuffed with torsos in.
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I hope they solve this. Sorry for the felicity. It's a grave world and grave is our human condition. And ignorant armies clash by night, for that matter. To cope with it without humor is not to cope with it at all. "The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar...."
 
I mentioned torso murders above as being distinctly British in character (though in reality they occur everywhere, disturbingly often), and here shall note a few:

The Thames Torso Murders of the late 1800s (google.com/books)

The "Brighton trunk murders" with elements of the torso crimes (Wiki)

UK - 5-year-old boy identified as 'Torso in the Thames' voodoo ritual victim (WS thread)

UK Actress disappears, torso found, brother arrested (WS thread)

Portsmouth, where this case's body was found, is the UK's only island city, about 55 miles west of Brighton on England's south coast.
 
wfgodot said:
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
Bin-liners stuffed with torsos in.

I'm laughing so hard I've set my asthma off!:floorlaugh:

But seriously, what is it with the UK and torsos? Is it the lack of space?
 
Day trippers beware!

Body parts warning by police after Southsea beach torso find (BBC News)
Police investigating the discovery of a headless torso on a Portsmouth beach believe other body parts may have been dumped nearby.
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Police said the torso discovered was that of a "post pubescent" man.

The Home Office post-mortem examination found he was subjected to a sustained and violent assault before death but was not able to determine an exact cause.
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a bit more at link above
 
Wow, that was quick. Let's see if it holds.

Man arrested in connection with torso on Southsea beach (portsmouth.co.uk)
A 46-year-old man has been arrested as part of the investigation into the body found in a bin liner on Southsea beach.

In the early hours of Friday morning police said that someone had been arrested in the Portsmouth area, although they would not confirm where.
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Police have also said that they have identified the body and that they are trying to contact next of kin.
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more at the link
 
This is where I live!

I was planning to take my toddler to that beach this weekend, maybe not now though :nerves:
 
Still haven't named arrested person, victim, as yet.

Beach torso: Lower half of body found at Southsea (BBC News)
Police investigating the discovery of a torso on a Portsmouth beach have found the lower half of a body.

It was found on rocks at low tide in front of Castle Field, Southsea, just after 08:00 BST.
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Police said the latest body part found was from the waist down, including the legs.
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more at the link above
 
Arrested person still unnamed.

Police identify beach torso victim (UKPA)
Detectives investigating the discovery of a torso on a beach have identified the victim.

A group of foreign students discovered 30-year-old David Guy's torso wrapped in a black bin liner on Southsea beach, Portsmouth.
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Police said Mr Guy was of no fixed address but was believed to have been staying in the Southsea area before his death.
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A 46-year-old man from Southsea, who was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of murder, remains in police custody. Magistrates have granted detectives a further 32 hours to question him.
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more at link above
 
Torso investigation photo released (thisisjersey.com)
Detectives have released a photograph of a curtain identical to the one which was found wrapped around a torso discovered on a beach.
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Hampshire Constabulary is trying to establish the origins of the pink Wilkinson-own brand Wilko kids curtain and is appealing to anyone who may have thrown theirs out, sold a pair or knows of somebody who has replaced theirs, to come forward.
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A 46-year-old man from Southsea, who was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of murder, remains in police custody. Magistrates have granted detectives until Sunday evening to question him.
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more at link above
 
I'm laughing so hard I've set my asthma off!:floorlaugh:

But seriously, what is it with the UK and torsos? Is it the lack of space?
Come to think of it, Orwell actually named poisoning as the quintessential British crime in his great 1946 essay "Decline of the English Murder"; he also specified other classic elements:
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The murderer should be a little man of the professional class — a dentist or a solicitor, say — living an intensely respectable life somewhere in the suburbs, and preferably in a semi-detached house, which will allow the neighbours to hear suspicious sounds through the wall. He should be either chairman of the local Conservative Party branch, or a leading Nonconformist and strong Temperance advocate. He should go astray through cherishing a guilty passion for his secretary or the wife of a rival professional man, and should only bring himself to the point of murder after long and terrible wrestles with his conscience. Having decided on murder, he should plan it all with the utmost cunning, and only slip up over some tiny unforeseeable detail. The means chosen should, of course, be poison.
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Decline of the English Murder by George Orwell: Tribune, 15 Feb 1946

In looking over his list of classic poisoners, only the infamous Dr Crippen poisoned then dissected the body, I think. Hm.

Sixty-six years on, I believe torso crimes have taken their place atop the "classics" list. This would dismay George Orwell.
 
And now we move from the shower curtain to the bike:

Beach torso: Police seek delivery bike information (BBC News)
Detectives investigating the death of a man whose torso was found on a Hampshire beach have asked for information about a delivery bicycle.
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Police have appealed for anyone who saw the bike, with a large box on its handlebars, to come forward.
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picture of bike at link
 
As the last extension for questioning was set to expire it was fish or cut bait time for LE, and so.....

Man charged with beach torso murder (UKPA)
A 46-year-old has been charged with the murder of a man whose torso was found wrapped in a bin liner on a popular tourist beach.

David Hilder, of Richmond Road, Southsea, Portsmouth, was charged by Hampshire police in connection with the death of 30-year-old David Guy.
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Hilder, who was charged following consultation between Hampshire police and the Crown Prosecution Service, is due to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court on Tuesday morning and will remain in custody until then.
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more at the link
 
Mr Hilder's initial court appearance made; evidence search continues:

Southsea beach torso find: Murder accused in court (BBC News)
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He spoke only to confirm his name, age and address. He was remanded in custody to appear at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday.
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After the hearing, Hampshire Constabulary confirmed that officers were searching an allotment in Locksway Road, Portsmouth, in connection with the investigation.
 

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