For best viewing experience of this website Please enter a place name in the search bar After provisionally the warmest May Day on record in the UK higher than average temperatures will subside over the weekend High pressure brings further fine and settled weather this week Patchy cloud clears this evening leaving a settled evening with some late sunshine Rather chilly beneath clear skies overnight with a frost developing in places and with light winds With light winds and plenty of strong sunshine it will begin to feel quite warm The remainder of the week will see high pressure dominating Dry across the vast majority of the UK with clear or sunny spells but also some patchy cloud Cloud will likely thicken across the far north and northwest during the weekend with some outbreaks of rain for a time There is also a small risk of some heavy showers in the far south or southwest high pressure will be dominant across the UK This will bring predominantly fine and dry weather for the majority of places Temperatures are likely to be slightly above normal for the time of year although there is a chance of some cold nights Fairly typical weather for the time of year is most likely through this period fine and dry weather is more likely to dominate although this will be interspersed with occasional spells of rain and showers with a risk of heavy rain and thunderstorms in places temperatures will most likely be near to or slightly above average Llanelli Wanderers are set to face Beddau in the Championship semi-final There will be two classic ‘East v West’ clashes in the semi-finals of the WRU Championship Cup on St David’s Day 2025 WRU Championship Cup Semi-finals – Saturday The draw pitches last season’s WRU National Division 1 Cup holders Llanelli Wanderers against the current unbeaten leaders of Championship East while the second placed team in Championship East faces the team in a similar position in the West The neutral venues for the matches have yet to be determined but two top-quality games are in the offing The Wanderers reached the final four in pursuit of more silverware – they completed the league and cup double last season – with a 72-17 home demolition of Kenfig Hill last weekend They scored nine tries and Nick Gale helped himself to 30 points in the game with a try That took him through 200 points for the current season The Wanderers will face stiff opposition in the form of Beddau who are currently riding high at the top of Championship East with nine wins out of nine this season They received a walk-over the quarter final against Gowerton who were forced to pull out because of an unprecedented injury crisis having received a bye into the second round they were impressive 43-0 winners at Treorchy Bedwas won 27-13 at Talywain thanks to another player who is now only five points behind Gale this season Lloyd Wilkins notched 12 points in the victory at Talywain to reach 195 for the campaign and help the ‘Was make it 11 wins out of 12 games in all competitions thus far this season Tondu rolled back the years to pip Glamorgan Wanderers 9-6 in their quarter final at Pandy Park Former Bridgend outside half Jamie Murphy kicked three penalties for the home side to repeat the win Tondu enjoyed over their visitors in the old WRU Challenge Cup 33 years earlier They enjoyed a great cup run that season as they also took the scalp of another first-class side before losing to Swansea in the quarter finals it is now only one more win to return to a major final They were all in the Tondu side that won the WRU Boy’s National U18 Cup at Principality Stadium in 2023 Tondu will be fancying their chances to getting the chance to bid for major silverware at the end of the season There will be teams from all five of the regional leagues in the WRU Division 1 Cup quarter-finals on 18 January Division 1 East Central will be strongly represented with St Joseph’s Abercynon and Rhydyfelin all making it through to the last eight WRU Division 1 Cup Quarter-Finals – Saturday All three teams have to travel to try to keep their hopes alive who are currently sitting in fourth place in Division 1 West Central St Joseph’s head north to meet unbeaten Caernarfon while Rhydyfelin have to head west to face Hendy WRU Division 2 Cup Quarter-Finals – Saturday WRU Division 3 Cup Quarter-Finals – Saturday WRU Division 4 Cup Quarter-Finals – Saturday WRU Division 5 Cup Quarter-Finals – Saturday © 2025 Content Copyright Welsh Rugby Union The discovery of a decaying body in South Wales was just the beginning of a breathlessly twisty case spanning five decades two continents – and where the prime suspect was already dead but he believes a better term for the extremely odd case that unfurled under his watch in south Wales during 2015 would be a “who-is-it?” seeping package – a decaying corpse half-preserved in more than 40 layers of wrapping – is discovered in the village of Beddau a woman named Leigh Ann Sabine – who recently died of brain cancer – quickly becomes the prime suspect police cannot work out who it is she has killed The Body Next Door is not really a who-is-it or even a howdunnit; it is – far more compellingly – a how-could-she-do-it We first encounter Sabine through the eyes of her neighbours in Beddau (whose pronunciation seems to be a local bone of contention but the residents featured here insist on “beh-tha” rather than “beh-thai”) They understood her to be a narcissistic fantasist with an obscure past an affected accent and a penchant for fishnets well into middle age but reminisce about her eccentricities fondly For beneath the dense layers of this breathlessly twisty investigation lies a more resounding mystery as we are forced to reckon with a character whose actions range from heartless to inexplicably vile good true-crime TV requires three things: pace This addictively watchable three-parter is certainly pacy – the case itself is so convoluted surprising and sweeping (it traverses the globe and five decades) that there’s no need for any infuriatingly glacial recapping or other filler That’s because woven through the police inquest to identify the victim – a complex undertaking in itself – is a retelling of a different This one was huge news half a century ago in New Zealand where Sabine and her husband John had settled and had five children the couple abandoned them all at a daycare centre returning – temporarily – without explanation over a decade later Three of the children are interviewed extensively in this series and their experiences are heartbreaking – two of the girls were sexually abused by a foster father – but also so unremittingly bizarre that even son Steve thinks of the whole ordeal as an absurd nightmare (“I sit there sometimes at home by myself and I can’t believe it’s happened”) The Body Next Door does stumble slightly when chronicling the early days of the investigation the chain of events that led to the discovery of the corpse is so confusing – it involved a neighbour attempting to play a prank with a medical skeleton – that even after multiple viewings of the documentary and reading detailed reports of the case the show does a sterling job of flitting between 1970s New Zealand 1980s Reading and 2010s Beddau without ever losing its strong narrative thread but this series still shows a fair amount of footage from her police interview nobody can plausibly deny that all true-crime TV is essentially exploitative – by definition the genre mines entertainment from trauma and tragedy – but recently a more compassionate have form in this regard with the likes of The Tinder Swindler and American Nightmare) The Body Next Door would probably like to put itself in this category – and after this misstep giving the Sabine children space to tell their stories and acting as a thoughtful meditation on many fascinating themes – the elemental horror of maternal neglect; coercive control; generational trauma – that is troubling in a psychological-puzzle way Which is not to say that The Body Next Door isn’t utterly nauseating which keeps returning to the screen in grainy horror film-style footage taken from the autopsy lab becomes an emblem of the rank inhumanity at the heart of this story: not only Sabine’s grim lies and evasions of responsibility a darkness likely kindled by her own horrific experiences in the care system A niggling question hovers over this programme about how much Sabine would have revelled in the attention it brought; towards the end of the series a neighbour reveals that she once boasted “after I die But surely nobody – no matter how sociopathic – would want an obituary like this Free weekly newsletterGet the best TV reviews news and features in your inbox every Monday The Body Next Door aired on Sky Documentaries and is available on NOW Lee Sabine was known by her neighbours as the mysterious oddball living next door either way she left an impression on everyone she encountered But Lee Sabine had a secret; a secret she had been guarding for decades Kept inside the confines of her home was a decaying corpse concealed in 40 layers of plastic wrapping Sabine quickly became a suspect and the case became one of the most peculiar murder mysteries in Welsh history The police had a prime suspect but they were presented with two problems: the suspect was dead and the victim's identity was unknown This investigation is revisited in the three-part documentary The Body Next Door As someone who watches a lot of true crime documentaries I can confidently say that this is one of the most enthralling ones I've ever seen It might start out as a run-of-the-mill murder investigation but the three-part series quickly evolves into so much more a month after Leigh Ann Sabine died of brain cancer one of her friends Rhian Lee found a body in the village's communal garden — but at first she thought it was a 'medical skeleton' that Leigh spoke about often "That morning I went over to my friend Michelle's [James] for a cuppa and we thought, for a laugh, we'd play a prank," Lee told The Sun "We knew about the medical skeleton wrapped up like a big package under the potting table in the garden and so we thought we'd bring it in put it on the settee and give a knock to the neighbour to come down to see The friends started to cut through the wrapped plastic layers before a thick liquid started seeping out Inside the packing was a body that had been wrapped 41 times in plastic supermarket bags Police would arrive at the scene to discover that the wrapping had created a mummifying effect while slowing down the decomposition The skeleton would later be identified as John Sabine who died as a result of blunt-force trauma Police believed he was murdered by his wife Leigh Ann before her death in October 2015 police had trouble pinpointing a time of death for John but they estimated it was as far back as 1997 Neighbours had said they hadn't seen John outside of the house in decades with Leigh claiming her husband left her for another woman years before Leigh had deceived those around her into thinking that John's body was a skeleton she kept for years "Leigh was always talking about a medical skeleton," Leigh's carer Lynne Williams said in the documentary "On numerous occasions she wanted it moved… we were sitting around the table having a cup of tea and she mentioned the skeleton again and I said 'well I hope it's not a bleeding real one' and she went 'you never know Lynne'."There had not been a murder in Beddau for 20 years which meant the case quickly made national headlines The murder investigation was only part of the documentary The Body Next Door as what was uncovered about Leigh Sabine quickly dredged up decades of hidden family secrets John and Leigh Sabine may have ended their lives in Wales but they began their journey on the other side of the world in Wellington in New Zealand where they brought up five young children in a nursery in Auckland before selling their home and taking up new identities in Sydney Australia where Leigh had hoped to become a cabaret singer their five kids were brought up in foster care an experience they have since said was traumatic and abusive the Sabines returned to New Zealand in 1984 to reunite with their children despite the children being well into adulthood by then but eventually daughters Jane and Lee-Ann reported their parents to the authorities and the local media the Sabines made the headlines as the "child dumping" couple which led the New Zealand minister for social welfare to order an investigation Leigh told the newspapers that she wasn't the kids' mother this time relocating to Wales to the small town where Leigh grew up The NZ Herald spoke to one of her children following the discovery of her father's corpse in 2015 She spoke about how her upbringing with foster parents led to abuse and a loss of identity yet I am still that little girl with the need to know That [need for a] sense of belonging," the then 50-year-old said "I used to get mad at people that said they were adopted because I used to think I want you to have the best life you can' and they signed a piece of paper [so they could] be with a family that nurtured them and loved them regardless "Our parents didn't even care enough to do that." In 2015, Sabine's son Steven told Wales Online that he knew his mother was capable of killing his dad Steven Sabine speaks out in The Body Next Door She controlled him but he loved her to pieces," he said "I could never forgive him for what he did but I still believe he was manipulated and he fell in love with an evil woman An inquest into John Sabine's murder found that he was unlawfully killed with some suggesting that an ornamental frog inflicted his fatal head injuries The hearing found that during a 1997 phone conversation between Leigh and her friend Valerie Chalkley she had admitted to killing her husband but Valerie didn't believe her "The problem with [Leigh] was you never knew if she was telling the truth or not," Chalkley said John had not been seen in public in 18 years "Precisely what happened and the circumstances will sadly never totally be known," the coroner Andrew Barkley said we're happy to send you some reminders Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications Home> News> UK News A woman who ended up becoming a murder suspect after retrieving what she thought was an old plastic medical skeleton from her neighbour's garden has spoken out about the bizarre saga Michelle James has told how she was left stunned after what was meant to be an innocent prank landed her in handcuffs and under arrest for suspicion of murder The 45-year-old, who lived in the Welsh village of Beddau, Pontypridd explained she had no idea about the chilling revelations which came out of the woodworks when she decided to pull a practical joke on residents It all started when her neighbour, Leigh Ann Sabine, passed away in November 2015 following her cancer diagnosis For years, the late nurse had told her neighbours that she had an old medical skeleton in her flat as a nod to her profession in the healthcare sector And when she passed away at the age of 74, all of her belongings - including the bundle of bones - were dumped in a communal garden near her home Michelle decided to have some fun with the supposed old medical skeleton she'd heard so much about and went to retrieve it from the pile to pull a prank on one of her neighbours At the time, she said as per The Daily Mail: "Me and another neighbour wanted to get the skeleton and sit it on a friend's settee to give him a shock when he got home "We took two kitchen knives and headed out to the patio but were surprised how well wrapped up the thing was." The skeleton was bound tightly in up to 20cm of polythene sheeting but then hit cardboard and finally tin foil," Michelle continued "And we were hit by the worst smell you can imagine When two police officers turned up to take a look at the discovery they were reportedly physically sick after examining the contents of the bag - while Michelle was frantically explaining how she found it One of the first on the scene, PC Joy Nicholls of South Wales Police, said the smell was 'overwhelming', while adding: "It obviously wasn't a medical skeleton." Despite insisting she had merely intended to pull a prank on her pal Michelle was arrested on suspicion of murder The strange case which rocked the Welsh village of Beddau is currently the subject of a three-part Sky Documentary series, The Body Next Door, which delves into the disturbing true crime case Michelle claimed that she continuously told cops that whoever the skeleton really belonged to was connected to Leigh but she ended up spending three days in custody while an investigation got underway She told how she was shown images of what was inside the discarded bag - including a skull with a dent in it as well as a hand which sported a gold signet ring on one of the fingers A pathologist believed that the body was a man in his 40s who had died as a result of blunt-force trauma Three long weeks passed before DNA tests finally proved that the body - which was still dressed in blue Marks and Spencer pyjamas - belonged to Leigh's husband John The confirmation that the body belonged to John led police to delve deeper into Leigh's life Police would later discover that John and Leigh had previously lived in Australia, and welcomed five children together - before they abandoned them at an orphanage in New Zealand After further investigation into the pyjamas found on John's body and shopping bags used in the wrapping police deduced that he had died in the late 90s - however they still couldn't determine an exact date and cause of death That was until a former friend of the Leigh's came forward with some pretty damning evidence Recalling an unnerving phone call between herself and Leigh in 1997 the woman said recalled the former nurse claiming that she'd 'battered' John with a stone frog as he was 'getting on her nerves' The pal hadn't thought much about the conversation until the discovery of the body, and the phone call ended up being enough to link Leigh to her husband's murder which revealed traces of John's blood alongside Leigh's fingerprints Officers were finally able to put together a case and motive for John's death and theorising that Leigh had murdered her husband in his sleep before hiding his remains in her flat until the time of her death authorities believed Leigh had grown resentful to John over his regrets about abandoning their children As for the responses of their kids, daughter Jane Sabine would later go on record saying: "I have no doubt my mother was capable of murder." Leigh Ann Sabine was interviewed and photographed by Juliet Eden a year before her death. The author has also written a book about the case, The Frog Murderer, which you can find here You can watch The Body Next Door on Sky Documentaries and NOW Topics: TV, Documentaries, Crime, True Crime, UK News Olivia is a journalist at LADbible Group with more than five years of experience and has worked for a number of top publishers, including News UK. She also enjoys writing food reviews (as well as the eating part). She is a stereotypical reality TV addict, but still finds time for a serious documentary. InstagramXThreadsSnapchatTikTokYouTubeLAD Entertainment By SARAH RAINEY Published: 16:56 BST, 16 August 2024 | Updated: 16:56 BST, 16 August 2024 Nothing much happens in Beddau, a former mining village in south Wales. Beddau (pronounced 'beh-tha') means 'Graves' in Welsh, and the small community here has a reputation for being uneventful, peaceful and safe – as quiet, some say, as the grave. 'That's why we moved here,' says Alison Wiltshire, 64, who has lived in the area with her husband Roddy, 65, for 36 years. 'We were originally up in the Valleys and we came to Beddau when we had young children. It's a nice area to live, lots of families and a really welcoming community.' But one day back in November 2015, that changed – and the name of the village the Wiltshire family call home took on a sinister new meaning. Two local women found a dead body, wrapped in plastic in a communal garden on a housing estate in the centre of Beddau and police launched a murder investigation. Leigh Ann Sabine died from terminal brain cancer just 25 days before the body of her husband John was found wrapped in plastic in a communal garden on a housing estate in Beddau One of the women, Michelle James, was arrested and the other, Rhian Lee, was taken in for questioning. A cordon was set up and police began rigorous searches and forensic tests, conducting interviews with everyone in the area. The body was a white male, middle-aged and around 5ft 6in tall, dressed in blue striped Marks & Spencer pyjamas and with a gold signet ring on one finger. He had been killed, it was soon ascertained, by blunt-force trauma to the head, and his body wrapped 41 times, in a combination of carrier bags, plastic sheeting and carpet. A pathologist estimated the victim, whose skin, hair and organs were still intact, had been dead for weeks or months at most. But who was he? Who had murdered him? And why? What ensued, as documented in a new, three-part series, The Body Next Door, on Sky Documentaries, was a deeply unsettling time for the residents of Beddau, as suspicion and rumour gripped the village and dominated daily life. Police went door-to-door. Neighbours turned on one another. People began checking their locks, holding their children's hands a little tighter, afraid a murderer might be on the prowl. 'It was winter – the nights were dark and it was all very spooky,' Roddy recalls. 'We were all in total shock. Things like that don't happen around here.' Alison says it was 'the talk of the village for weeks'. Police, awaiting forensic examination of the body, were at a loss for clues, which only fuelled wagging tongues in the community. Michelle James was released after four days, with detectives putting her inconsistent answers down to shock, rather than guilt. However, that wasn't the end of her plight, with her name now tainted among people she'd previously called friends. 'She was badly affected by it,' Rhian Lee, the friend who found the body with Michelle, told the Mail this week. 'It was terrible – she'd go to the shops and people would shout 'Murderer' at her. It was so unfair.' Rhian, 48, still lives in Beddau, across the road from the Trem-Y-Cwm flats where the body was found on November 24, 2015. She, too, was questioned by police, and had seven months of counselling to come to terms with it all. It would be three long weeks before Rhian, the Wiltshires and other worried residents of Beddau finally got some answers. But the results of forensic tests were more jaw-dropping than anyone could have imagined. Analysis of the materials wrapping the body (including a Tesco bag dated '1992') and fluids from the victim revealed he'd been dead a lot longer than experts had predicted: almost two decades, in fact. John was found to be killed by blunt-force trauma to the head, and his body wrapped 41 times in a combination of carrier bags, plastic sheeting and carpet The flats in Beddau where Leigh was living and where John's remains were discovered in the back garden Further examinations uncovered his identity: John Sabine, a 67-year-old resident of the flats, whose wife, Leigh, 74, an eccentric figure who claimed to be a cabaret singer from New Zealand, had died just 25 days before the body was found, of terminal brain cancer. Leigh and John had signed the lease on their flat together in February 1997, and John was recorded visiting a doctor in Beddau in April that year – but, after that, he was never seen again. Leigh told friends he had been violent and abusive, claiming he once raped her and used to lock her in their flat. A breast cancer survivor, she said he had left her because of her double mastectomy – and explained his disappearance by saying he'd moved to Newcastle in the late 1990s. 'We would sit and chat, and I said, 'What happened to John?',' recalls Mary West, 68, a teacher at the local comprehensive school and street pastor, who befriended Leigh in 2014 when her mother was living in the same block. 'She'd say, 'Oh, he left me. He left me for another woman, because he's Italian and that's what they do.' DNA evidence, dental records and a match on a hip replacement confirmed that John was, indeed, the body in the bag. But he wasn't Italian, he was an accountant born in London. Nor had he left Leigh. The multiple layers of wrapping, which went 20cm deep, had prevented decomposition, effectively mummifying the body for 18 years. Suspicion immediately fell on Leigh: a blonde hair found within the packaging linked her irrefutably with the crime, and it was revealed that she'd been claiming John's pension for herself. The police had their murderer. Leigh Ann Sabine (she also went by 'Lee' and 'Ann') was the most flamboyant figure people in this sleepy Welsh village had ever encountered. Neighbours remember a larger-than-life, outspoken woman who called everyone 'Darling' and was rarely seen without a cigarette in one hand and a glass of wine in the other. She always wore red lipstick and nail varnish, dyed her permed hair peroxide blonde and was known for her 'look-at-me outfits'. 'When she first turned up, a lady in her 60s, she was wearing denim shorts with fishnet tights,' remembers Mary West. 'I asked her about this once and she said, 'Well, I want to be noticed, darling,'.' No-one could quite work out Leigh's origins: she claimed to be from New Zealand, where she and John had lived before moving to the UK – first to Reading in 1986, then to Beddau. The stone frog garden ornament that Leigh used to kill her husband John. It was found among her possessions and matched the injuries on John's skull Neighbours remember Leigh as a larger-than-life, outspoken woman who called everyone 'Darling' and was rarely seen without a cigarette in one hand and a glass of wine in the other 'She had a very strange accent, in one sentence trying to talk quite posh, and then not,' says Alison Wiltshire. Later investigation would reveal she was, in fact, Welsh, born Ann Evans, to a coal mining family in the Rhonda Valley, just 20 minutes up the road from Beddau. Her career path, too, was something of a mystery. Leigh told friends and neighbours outlandish stories: she'd been a drugs counsellor, a dog breeder, a dancer, a model and a famous cabaret singer, though Google searches yielded not a single mention of her name. Hanging in the spare bedroom of her cluttered, chintzy flat was a black-and-white portrait of herself, dolled up to the nines, supposedly in her heyday. 'She was very eccentric, and even though I wasn't really sure if all her stories were true, it was always fun listening to her,' says Sian Baker, 51, who runs a hair salon in Beddau and started doing Leigh's hair in 2005. 'She told us she would be famous but for all the wrong reasons. I never understood that at the time.' In fact, Leigh had once made headlines, but not in the way she liked to suggest. She and John had five children in New Zealand, whom they'd cruelly abandoned in 1969, leaving them – then aged between two and 11 – at a nursery in Auckland without explanation. They moved to Sydney, purportedly to pursue her singing dream, but returned to New Zealand in 1972, where – astonishingly – they changed their surname and failed to contact their children, who were now in state care. Speaking to the Auckland Star in 1984, when they attempted an abortive reunion with their children, Leigh – branded a 'runaway mum' – claimed she had done it all 'for love' to build them a better life. Leigh and John forged a relationship with their eldest son, Marty, with whom they moved to the UK, but later lost touch with, while the younger four stayed in New Zealand and heard nothing of their parents until their mother's death, when the twisted saga started to unravel. Meanwhile, in Wales, police were faced with a troubling question: in the last 12 months of Leigh's life she'd been increasingly frail, meaning she wouldn't have been able to move the body of her long-dead husband. So how had it got into the garden at Trem-Y-Cwm flats? Suspicion bubbled up once again. There was Lynne Williams, a carer who had looked after Leigh in her final months. Along with Rhian and Michelle, she'd helped clear the old woman's flat and distributed her possessions after her death. Michelle James sits at the spot where John's remains were found. Michelle had helped clear Leigh's flat and distributed her possessions after her death Rhian, 48, still lives in Beddau, across the road from the Trem-Y-Cwm flats where the body was found on November 24, 2015 Mary, too, was questioned by police, as Leigh had dubbed her the unofficial 'executor' of her will. Even Alison and Roddy had a talk with detectives, as they were among the few Beddau locals to have met John Sabine, having visited the couple's flat for a cup of tea when they first moved in. Police soon learned, from piecing together fragments of Leigh's outrageous and embellished tales, that she had long-claimed to own a 'medical skeleton' from her days as a nurse. Leigh had briefly trained as a nurse at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, which is where, as a 17-year-old in 1957, she met John, then 28, who was being treated for injuries he'd suffered in the Korean War. Everyone Leigh met seemed to know about her macabre possession, Although it's unclear where Leigh stored her husband's body, it's reported to have been kept under her divan bed, with its flowery duvet and heart-shaped pillow – the same bed where police believe she bludgeoned John to death, using a stone frog she kept as a doorstop. Alison and Roddy remember a 'terrible smell in the air' when they visited the block. It's thought Leigh kept re-wrapping the body as the years passed, in a bid to conceal it and stop the rotten stench. A carpet that was found wrapped around it can be seen in situ in the flat in a picture taken by photographer Juliet Eden, who interviewed Leigh at home in 2014, showing she was still adding to the wrapping even then. Rhian believes Leigh paid a couple of local men to move it, possibly inside a wheelie bin, down to the communal garden in the years before her death. Leigh had a new – and perhaps peculiar – interest in the garden in later life, even appearing in a local magazine in 2012 where she was credited with breathing new life into the shared space. Once a year, she'd host a BBQ there for residents in the surrounding flats. 'Michelle must have spotted the bag when she was putting her washing on the line,' Rhian says. 'It was on the gravelly bit of the patio, with a long potting table over the top. 'It was hidden, but you could see it – it was just that nobody tried to look at it until that day.' On November 24, 2015, Rhian was at Michelle's house – directly below Leigh's old flat, No 57 – having a coffee, when the pair decided to play a prank on Keith, another upstairs neighbour. On the spur-of-the-moment, Michelle remembered her crazy old friend's medical skeleton. She and Rhian decided to take two kitchen knives cut open the bag in the garden and bring the skeleton into her living room where they were going to prop it on the sofa call Keith over and joke that it was Michelle's new boyfriend But when they started sawing through the layers of plastic and they realised they'd found something else entirely We will never know quite why or how Leigh came to murder John though – ever brazen – she appears to have made an early confession to a friend who knew the couple when they lived in Reading contacted the police about a phone call she received from Leigh back in 1997 Valerie asked Leigh if she was still with John joking that they might have killed each other by now I hit him over the head with a stone frog because he was getting on my nerves.' Valerie brushed it off as a poor-taste joke distinctive features on the frog (found among Leigh's possessions) were matched to the injuries on John's skull is the talk of Beddau once again this week and neighbours still have stories to tell about 'Mad Leigh' The communal garden beneath her old flat is unchanged: there are washing lines children's bikes propped against a wall and a pink laundry bucket A deflated rugby ball lies on the gravel where John's body was found a 36-year-old who got to know Leigh as a teenager says: 'I never thought of her as a murderer The comments below have not been moderated By posting your comment you agree to our house rules Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group Neath secured the second promotion spot in the WRU Championship by winning 45-12 at Cross Keys on Wednesday evening and the Blacks visit Beddau on Saturday (kick off 2.30pm). It will be Neath’s penultimate game of the season and the Blacks will need to show mental fortitude if they are to finish in style. Neath have been shuffling their resources over the last two months to keep the squad fit and charged in readiness for the promotion push so the starting line-up is one again freshened up with a host of changes. Only three of Wednesday’s starters start again with several regulars back in action and full back Aled Brew will make his 50th appearance. 15 Aled Brew; 14 James Roberts, 13 Ryan Evans (captain), 12 Ben Atkins, 11 Louis Rees; 10 Lewis Evans, 9 Luc Jones; 1 Morgan Thomas, 2 Josh Clark, 3 Gareth Lloyd; 4 Sam Langford, 5 Matthew Davies; 6 Elis Hopkins, 8 David Griggs, 7 Fergus Kneath Replacements –  (From) Evan Kneath, Tim Ryan, Jacob Blackmore, A.N. Other, Nicky Griffiths, Aaron Bramwell Neath will complete their Championship campaign on Wednesday next (May 24) when Ystrad Rhondda visit The Gnoll for a 7.15pm kick off. Newly-promoted Neath showed their resolution in gaining their 22nd bonus-point victory of the League campaign at battling Beddau who fought (literally) to the end when they had two men sent off in a last minute dust-up. The Blacks made 12 changes from the side which started at Cross Keys in midweek while one of the three survivors – Lewis Evans – switched from full back to outside-half in place of damaged 255-points man Steff Williams. But the depth of Neath’s squad rotations of late meant that it was anything but a shadow XV which took the field on a landmark day when Lloyd Evans (100), Lewis James (50) and Mason Morgan (50) for Beddau amd Aled Brew (50) for Neath reached significant appearance marks. The glorious weather conditions – sunny and breezy – were matched by a really good game with no quarter given, tackles thudded in and both sides contested the turnovers on the hard, dusty surface. Well-drilled Beddau showed the influence of coach ex-Wales forward Matthew Rees – solid at the scrum and competitive at the tackle area, they made life difficult for the Blacks who had the edge at the lineout and in the passing and handling aspects. The first half produced a rare battle as both sides schemed to find the breakthrough in the face of two determined and well-organised defences. The only score of the first-half came when a fine break by centre Ryan Evans (who set a captain’s example as he ran and tackled himself to a standstill) found the irrepresible Josh Clark up in support and he dashed through for a try under the posts It was the non-stop hooker’s tenth try of the season – he is one of the quickest players in the squad and, had he not been out of action through injuries, he might well have pushed try-master Sion Crocker for touchdowns. Both sides came close but Neath led 7-nil at half-time as the conversion points were added by Lewis Evans who again looked comfortable at outside-half and regularly brought his centres into play. Neath had the advantage of a blustery wind in the second-half and enjoyed the territorial advantage as Beddau found it difficult to make much upfield headway although there were strong performances by several of the homesters none more so than No.8 Dylan Williams. Five minutes into the half, Neath doubled their lead – lock Jacob Blackmore provided the impetus, a miss pass by scrum-half Luc Jones gave width to flanker Fergus Kneath, and the ball was re-cycled quickly for prop Gareth Lloyd who made ground before a good pass by No.8 David Griggs saw centre and captain Ryan Evans clatter over between the posts for his 11th try of the campaign and Lewis Evans converted to make it 14-nil. Neath continued to press and, midway through the half, they scored a third try when Josh Clark, now operating at flanker, burst away from a lineout  and, with centre Ben Atkins on his inside, passed instead outside to replacement Evan Kneath who shot over in the corner for his fifth try of the season The Blacks were on top now as they pushed for a bonus-point and when replacement scrum-half Nicky Griffiths burgled scrum-ball, the Blacks took a quick penalty and, after the forwards did the softening up by pummeling the home line, prop Tim Ryan slipped a pass to full back Aled Brew who powered over for his 20th try on his 50th appearance with outside-half Lewis Evans converting again. Bedwas had put up great resistance and deserved better from the game but, with the clock running down on a hot afternoon, tempers became frayed as their frustration boiled over in two mighty dust-ups, the second of which ended in both flankers Lewis James and captain Jordan Goodwin blotting their copybook by being sent-off. It rather took the shine off a strong effort by the home side in what had been a hard but largely clean affair until the last few minutes – and a bit daft really as there was only one play remaining. That brought to a close another hard-earned for Neath who overcame the mental challenge of competing hard after the promotion race is done – and the Blacks will need to do it once more. ** The Town will have its chance to salute the Blacks’ return to the Premiership on Wednesday when Neath play their final game of a long, demanding but very enjoyable and successful season at The Gnoll when Ystrad Rhondda visit (kick off 7.15pm) BEDDAU – C.Baker; E.Roberts, F.Baker, S.Edwards, C.Ellis; H.Chatham, C.Evans; B.Lee, E.Coombes G.Powell; S.Tiley, L.Evans; Lewis James, D.I.Williams, J.Goodwin (capt) Repl. (all used) – J.Davies, B.Griffiths, M.Morgan, Lloyd James, J.Thomas NEATH – A.Brew; J.Roberts, R.Evans (capt) (A.Bramwell), B.Atkins, L.Rees; L.Evans, L.Jones (N.Griffiths) ; M.Thomas (T.Ryan), J.Clark (E.Kneath), G.W.Lloyd; J.Blackmore, M.Davies; E.Hopkins, D.Griggs, F.Kneath Natalie Buss collapsed and died at Beddau Rugby Club in Wales in October 2023 Gabrielle Rockson is a staff writer-reporter for PEOPLE. She joined PEOPLE in 2023 and covers entertainment and human interest stories. She's interviewed David Beckham, Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet and many others. Her previous work can be found in OK! Magazine, MyLondon, GRM Daily, and more. OUTSIDE-HALF STEFF WILLIAMS gathered a match haul of 22 points as Neath maintained their place at the top of the WRU Championship against a battling Beddau side who never gave up the ghost at The Gnoll. A fair crowd braved the drizzle as Neath kicked off towards the Union end and the Blacks went ahead instantly in the first minute when outside-half Williams kicked a penalty after full back Lewis Evans was illegally impeded. Neath got on top from the outset and they added to their score – receiving the ball 35 metres out, Steff Williams ran, spotted a gap, dummied and ran and ran to cruise through to the left corner for the first try. The Blacks were dominating territorially but a lack of collective drive and admirable stout defence by the visitors frustrated them until midway through the half when Williams extended the lead by landing his second goal to make it 11-nil. Little was seen of Beddau as an attacking force and Neath continued to dominate affairs  as the rain intensified. Williams was very much at the centre of things but he could not quite hold on to a difficult scoring pass after a telling run by winger Aled Brew along the left touchline. Williams split the defence again but could not quite polish it off and the chance went abegging so the Blacks went in at half-time – in the lead, in control but not as far ahead on the scoreboard as they might have been. Renewed direction and urgency were needed when Neath came out after the break and the Blacks knew that they had to up their effort and score another three tries for a bonus point win. And the forwards rose to the challenge with another powerful display. Possession is key and Neath had a decided advantage at the lineout in the form of the twin peaks of Matthew Davies and Jon Barley while their scrum gradually got the upper hand. Even more important is the appetite to contest every ball and the Blacks soon laid siege to the visitors line. Ten minutes in, after a couple of near misses, the incessant home attacks broght a try for flanker Jacob Blackmore from an inside pass from that man Williams who converted easily to make it 18-nil. By now Neath’s forwards had their eyes firmly on the prize but gritty defence held them at bay for another ten minutes before that grand hooker Sion Crocker profited from another pack surge to dab down for his fifth try of the season and a fine conversion by Williams made it 25-nil. It was now virtually all Neath who kept up the charge and a strong run by No.8 David Griggs and his inside pass saw the supporting Steff Williams cross for his second try which he converted himself to complete his season’s best 22-point match haul and put Neath 32-nil to the good. Neath introduced 18 year old Neath Athletic Colts flanker Cerith Davies and the  Ystalyfera schoolboy was soon in the thick of things as was another promising young forward replacement Evan Kneath. Thereafter though, there was no more scoring. Beddau broke the stranglehold once but play broke down on the Neath 22 and, at the other end, ever-industrious flanker Owain Morgan just lost out when a hack through slithered over the deadball line and just out of reach – Brew who might have got there first was blocked in the pursuit. Neath might have scored again but were thwarted by a knock-down, one of few offences to escape the eye of in-form referee Mr. Jason Bessant who enjoyed an excellent game and fully played his role in an entertaining game in the rain. Beddau, coached by Tom Riley and Matthew Rees, were well drilled defensively and they were best served by their hard-working back row led by skipper Jordan Goodwin. Young No.8 Dylan I. Williams looked a player of promise while centre Tyler Wells, on permit from Merthyr, was a strong runner. However, Neath’s command was illustrated by their denying Beddau  not only a score but even a kick at goal – and it is many a year since Neath accomplished that ! Ultimately, Neath got what they wanted – another win and another bonus point to stay top of the table – but there is a feeling that they are capable of better when the side really clicks. Neath will be looking to improve further next week on their visit to resurgent Tata Steel who appear to have put their early-season problems behind them and gave a decent account of themselves at Trebanos in a 20-36 loss. NEATH – L.Evans; R.Griffiths, R.Evans (capt), B.Atkins (S.Wilcox), A.Brew; S.Williams, M.Griffiths (J.Weaver); J.Powell, S.Crocker (E.Kneath), T.Ryan (J.Thomas); M.Davies, J.Barley; J.Blackmore (C.Davies), D.Griggs, O.Morgan BEDDAU – C.Baker (C.Cox); J.Davies, A.Ashford, T.Wells, E.Roberts; C.Wheeler, J.Coombes (E.Lucas); M.Morgan (Lloyd James), E.Coombes (J.Williams), B.Lee (G.Powell); Lewis James, L.Evans; D.Williams, D.I.Williams, J.Goodwin (capt) found wrapped in plastic at Trem y Cwm in Beddau was found by local residents in November 2015 detectives have revealed the shocking evidence from their case files DNA samples confirmed that the body was that of John Sabine The former accountant had not been seen for 18 years His wife - Leigh Sabine had died a few weeks before his body was found She became the prime suspect in a murder investigation you still have to prove the facts of the case and you have to prove that beyond doubt When the case made headlines around the world a friend of the couple Valerie Chalkley decided to call the police She said Lee Sabine actually confessed to the murder in a remarkable phone call Her evidence became crucial for the inquest and led police to the likely murder weapon - a stone frog I never ever thought this was a possibility A lady with no previous convictions for violence More details from the case will be featured on ‘Y Ditectif’ Support quality, independent, local journalism…that mattersFrom just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts. Become a member today Four-try Bedwas were denied a losing bonus-point at the death as a last gasp Beddau penalty kick sealed a ten-point victory for the visitors Despite opening the scoring through an unconverted Lloyd Wilkins try mistakes proved costly for Bedwas who slumped to their second consecutive league defeat at the Bridgefield After taking the lead after just four minutes Bedwas were denied a second try six minutes later after Mike Dacey’s foot was in touch Beddau made rapid ground up the field and winger Ewan Roberts exploited a static Bedwas defence to draw Beddau level with a try which went unconverted But the sides weren’t level for long Bedwas were caught off-guard and a jinking run from full back Cody Baker saw him run from deep to touch down under the posts Cameron Evans scored the conversion to give Beddau a 12-5 lead Bedwas could not find a breakthrough of their own in response instead suffering from mishandling of the ball and a series of penalties conceded Beddau hooker Lloyd James extended their lead with a try Beddau increased their advantage when Roberts scored his second try of the afternoon to secure Beddau’s four-try bonus-point Bedwas salvaged something late in the second half as Liam Jenkins burst through to cross the line for a try converted by James Dixon The sides returned to the field in the second half with Bedwas 24-12 down and despite dominating possession after the break with Dylan Morgan replacing Sam Davies and Harry Oliver coming in for Matthew Bovington Oliver picked up a loose ball and charged through for try number three for Bedwas Bedwas continued to dominate the possession but it was Beddau who made sure of the victory with a fifth try through replacement front-row man Ben Lee with Evans converted to increase the deficit to 12 points with ten minutes left Bedwas’ four-try bonus point was secured three minutes from the end a losing bonus-point was also on the cards for Bedwas with a last gasp Beddau penalty kick from Evans leaving Bedwas having to settle for just the one point for their efforts The defeat means Bedwas remain in eighth place in the league table after seven wins and eight losses in 15 games Bedwas return to action at 7.15pm on Friday March 10 Match report and imagery courtesy of Ian Lovell of Bedwas RFC Support quality, independent, local journalism…that mattersFrom just £1 a month you can help fund our work – and use our website without adverts.Become a member today Bedwas have moved to sixth in the WRU National Championship East table after a bonus-point win at Beddau on Saturday December 9 The win was Bedwas’ third victory on the bounce following a run of four consecutive defeats While a number of games were postponed over the weekend the efforts of Beddau’s groundsmen ensured this one was able to go ahead after heavy rain Bedwas played into a strong wind in the first-half but took the lead after 16 minutes through a James Dixon penalty Beddau pulled level six minutes later with a penalty of their own from ex-Bedwas scrum-half Callaghan Smith But the visitors regained the lead soon after Aaron Billingham leapt highest to claim the restart kick-off and after several drives forward Lewis Crane and Jak Robbins worked together to put Robbins in for a try Dixon added the conversion to give Bedwas a 10-3 lead and Jo Hole at the start of the second half with Arwel Hughes Ryan Thomas and Liam Beer respectively as they looked to shore up the scrum Dixon had the chance to increase the Bedwas advantage but his long-range penalty kick drifted wide of the posts Five minutes later Dale Rogers broke from the back of a close-range scrum to dive over for a try A scuffle ensued before the conversion was taken and Rhys Morgans and Beddau’s Lloyd Evans were sent to the sinbin to calm down Beddau reduced arrears via a Lloyd Peart try converted by Cody Baker – reducing Bedwas’s advantage to seven points Beddau tried hard to get back into the game but knock-ons and other errors scuppered their chances Bedwas replacement Hamish Anderson intercepted a stray Beddau pass to run a try from deep with eight minutes to play Dixon again added the extras to give Bedwas a 24-10 lead The bonus-point securing try was scored soon after by Billingham who won the race to touch down his own kick-through putting Bedwas 21 points ahead with just four minutes remaining Beddau refused to lie down and attacked Bedwas who were reduced to 14 men once again when Jak Robbins was sinbinned for a deliberate offside with just two minutes left Bedwas were able to hold on in the final moments of the game and keep their lead intact Bedwas return to the Bridgefield on Saturday December 16 for their last game of the calendar year Bedwas returned to winning ways in the WRU National Championship with a 27-10 victory at home to Beddau on Saturday The hosts, who began the season with nine consecutive wins, went into the game having suffered back-to-back defeats to Bargoed and Cross Keys Bedwas outscored their opponents by four tries to one as they remain in third place in the league Bedwas got off to a flying start and took the lead in the third minute when Dion McIntosh’s penalty sailed between the posts McIntosh sent a long cross field kick into the left hand corner for Jordan Rees to collect and dive in for a try McIntosh added the conversion and Bedwas went 10-0 ahead Beddau responded by battling hard and keeping Bedwas at bay Beddau cut the deficit from a Hywel Chatham penalty which was awarded after Bedwas were adjudged offside by referee Jason Morris with a well worked try by hooker Will Hally being convered by Chatham took McIntosh and scrum-half Rory Harries off to be replaced by Lewis Evans and Matt Bancroft respectively Bedwas centre Lewis Bowden came close to scoring shortly after but knocked on as he crossed the line Bedwas eventually re-took the lead through substitute Evans who dived over in the corner for an unconverted try Beddau refused to be beaten but having taken the lead Beddau No8 Tom Axenderrie was shown a yellow card and sent to the sidelines after a Bedwas maul was stopped illegally A penalty lineout followed and Bedwas’ forwards used their numerical advantage to drive Dale Rogers over the line to score their third try Bradley Williams’ conversion drifted wide but Bedwas were now 20-10 up The four-try bonus point was sealed when centre Matthew Williams intercepted a Beddau pass deep in his own half and set off for the try line before offloading to the supporting Bancroft Bradley Williams scored the conversion to clinch a 27-10 win Bedwas will now switch their focus to their next game which is an away trip to Ystalyfera on Saturday Match report provided by Ian Lovell of Bedwas RFC Brecon Athletic brought their season to an end with an exciting cup final victory against Beddau Chuckles at Abercwmboi. Brecon started the better of the two teams and claimed an early lead when outside half Gareth Price slotted a penalty between the uprights.  Beddau were then forced to defend but showed great resilience and held out in spite of some powerful surges from the likes of props Iwan Dowling Jones and Josh Hamilton, the back row pairing of Davey Herdman and Matthew Williams and second row Will Prosser. Apart from the stubbornness of the opposition, Brecon also suffered from an underperforming line-out. Frequently they worked themselves into good positions only to fail to win the ball cleanly at the set piece. Beddau capitalised and Kaelum Bundy levelled the scores with a penalty. It wasn’t long before Brecon hit back to restore their lead with a superb try through Rhodri Jenkins, following good work from James Hellard, Rhys Peters and Ben Griffin. Price knocked over the conversion. Brecon should have increased their lead before half-time as they dominated territory and came close on a number of occasions but Beddau remained in the fight with last ditch tackles and turnovers helping their cause. In the second half, Sam Davies got on the scoresheet for Brecon with a brilliant interception try. Brecon now led by 15 points to three, but Beddau upped their game. They earned their reward in bizarre fashion. It looked as if they had scored wide out on the left but the referee brought them back for a penalty to Brecon, only for that to be reversed on the advice of the assistant referee. Brecon player received a yellow card and Beddau took a tap penalty. Flanker Harry Bryant drove through a tackle and crossed for a try. Now with the lead cut to seven points nerves started to jangle but not as much as they did when Beddau reduced the lead to just two points following a try from right wing Jordan Coombes. Worse was to follow when almost immediately Brecon were caught offside and on the 76th minute, Bunday gave Beddau the lead with his second penalty. At the final whistle Brecon were jubilant, while Beddau, who had fought back brilliantly and were within minutes of victory themselves, saw their hopes dashed with the referee’s final blast.  In the final debriefing, team manager and coach, Gari Davies, who has managed the side brilliantly throughout the season, thanked the players for their efforts throughout the match and the season as a whole. Comments Tel: 01874 610111[email protected]Follow us Further Links Owned or licensed to Tindle Newspapers Ltd | Independent Family-Owned Newspapers | Copyright & Trade Mark Notice & 2013 - 2025 Matthew Rees is hoping to come out on top against Quins Wales and British & Irish Lions hooker has been a nervous wreck all week waiting and hoping that lightening can strike twice in the Specsavers National Cup this weekend Now head coach at National Championship club Beddau Rees’ side came up with the upset of the first round when they beat Premiership side Bridgend at Mount Pleasant Park But having pulled off one giant-killing act Beddau are up for the fight once again in Round 2 “We know they are going to be strong and well drilled up front but no team from the top-flight likes having to travel to play a team from a lower league on their own patch Our fans will be out in force and it will be noisy and passionate on and off the field,” promised Rees “A bit of cup fever is just what you want in a village like Beddau where there is such a proud rugby tradition It is going to be a great day out for the fans and a wonderful experience for the players “My first Welsh Cup game was at Blackwood for Pontypridd quite some time ago although even before that I can remember an Ebbw Vale team containing Kingsley Jones coming to my home town club of Tonyrefail to play “That was a great occasion for the club and the community and people still talk about it – just not the score “You know you are going to be in for a tough 40 or 50 minutes whenever you travel to somewhere like Mount Pleasant Park then the fitness of the senior sides normally takes over The game comes shortly after Rees finished his Level 3 coaching badge with the WRU On the same course was his former Scarlets and Wales colleague Emyr Phillips Phillips was the first to move into coaching when injury ended his playing career prematurely so in one sense the tables have been reversed from when Rees was the player who could boast the greater milestones “Emyr is into his second season at the Quins and is also doing more and more work with the Academy at the Scarlets,” says Rees who won 60 caps for Wales and three for the Lions “He was certainly a hooker who I respected and now he is building a good reputation as a coach “Emyr and I were on the WRU Level 3 coaching course recently and now is the chance for us to put the theory into practice against each other “He was a really talented player who was unfortunate to get an injury that cut short his playing career just after he picked up a few Welsh caps “I know it is going to be a difficult task against his side and all I can hope for is another performance like the one we had against Bridgend but the players simply rose to the occasion and did a great job I ask the players to work hard in the week so they can go out and enjoy themselves at the weekend – this week will be no exception.” Rees played all the way through until he was 38 and is loving his new role in the sport He did some early coaching with Pontyclun and Tonyrefail before spending the past two years of his playing days at the Blues helping out with the scrum and forwards work at Pontypridd In beating Welsh Premiership side Bridgend Rees and his new coaching team were able to make a statement that the Green and Golds are intent on building on their promotion from Division 1 East Central last season they want another Premiership scalp at Mount Pleasant Park although Beddau’s league from has been patchy Phillips has already had one spying session at Beddau in the build-up to the game and knows full well that any team being coached and inspired by Rees is going to have to be taken seriously “I went up to Beddau to watch them and you can see they are a well-drilled and well-coached side They are going to fly into us and the crowd will get behind them,” said Phillips “I always got on well with Matthew and it will be good to catch up with him after the match But we are going there to win and we know we are one step away from a quarter-final and a good cup run.” Cardiff Met head to Pontypool Park for the first of their back-to-back games against the National Championship title holders This is always a tough time of the year for the students as they find themselves playing in the highly competitive BUCS Super Rugby competition as well as the Championship And with the cup coming into the fixture schedule even earlier than normal it has added further pressure To add to their burden they lost a BUCS Super Rugby game at home to Durham University on Wednesday and have to welcome Leeds Beckett University to Cyncoed on Wednesday That will be their 17th competitive fixture of the season will be fixing their steely gaze on reaching the quarter-finals of the Cup once again as they chase a dream trip to the Principality Stadium They were last there in 1991 and have to go back to 1983 for their only cup triumph is it feasible for a Championship team to win the Cup and outdo the Premiership clubs If they can get past Cardiff Met then Leighton Jones’ men certainly won’t fear anyone In the last three seasons alone they have beaten Cardiff and they reached the second round this season by beating Swansea 29-15 2016 for Pooler’s last competitive defeat on their own patch and the only Championship defeat they have suffered since then was at Cardiff Met “It’s always nice to play Premiership teams in the Cup but Cardiff Met play a similar style to them They are a decent team and they pushed us all the way in the league twice last season,” admitted Jones “They’ve always played a good brand of rugby but they are also very well-drilled and they also front up The days of taking it to them physically are gone – they may be students With seven bonus point wins in seven league outings Jones is happy that his side has settled and is delighted to see them scoring more tries The Cup competition has been the one to end the club’s unbeaten runs in the last three seasons in the last eight in 2016/17 in what was their 22nd match of the campaign It then took the full might of Merthyr to do the same in the last two quarter-finals 2018 at The Wern in Pooler’s 19th game of that season and were 20-18 winners on their own patch last season in the 21st game for their visitors Merthyr welcome Bedwas to The Wern this weekend as they seek to build on their 39-19 first round home win over Pontypridd clash in what is now an all-Championship fixture at The Gnoll Cup holders Cardiff will welcome Ebbw Vale back to the Arms Park a week on from their 12-3 Premiership triumph in the rain this evening Blue & Blacks head coach Steve Law is likely to ring the changes from last week’s young side and is keen to hold onto the trophy his team won against Merthyr at the end of last season A magnificent Worthington Mid District Cup final was won 15-14 against all odds by Beddau at Pontypridd's Sardis Road ground in the most exciting of matches A magnificent Worthington Mid District Cup final was won 15-14 against all odds by Beddau at Pontypridd’s Sardis Road ground in the most exciting of matches promoted to the Principality Premiership for next season though both clubs had claimed a Championship win at each other’s ground this season It was Beddau who had the better backs with more ideas and a hard-working pack even though skipper Glen Slater was missing with injury They tackled their hearts out and even had to play a second half of 52 minutes that went on and on with Bargoed pressing all the while but Beddau’s defence was heroic to say the least Sam Withers was splendid at full back and James Davies was a fine left wing while Christian Francis and Lloyd Evans stood out in the forwards Bargoed never really put it together though their veteran lock Nicky Coughlin gave his best and James Pizey at scrum half was always dangerous the highest-placed club in Wales without Premiership criteria Beddau took a 10-0 lead at half-time having gained a ninth-minute try in great style when Hywel Chatham kicked cleverly Davies caught and threw infield for Withers to race clear and convert A Withers penalty followed after 38 minutes and Bargoed had never really got into it After the break Bargoed came on strong and after 45 minutes Pizey found a hole and was over before Beddau could blink Matthew Hurley converted and it was game on then skipper Leigh Meades who were yellow-carded by referee Jason Bessant but Withers twice missed with tricky penalty shots But Beddau were not finished and their drove over with loose-head Ben Stephens getting the touchdown at 15-7 but it was not until 79 minutes had gone that their pack earned a penalty try converted at the second effort by replacement Phil Price Bargoed camped on the Beddau line and for 12 nail-biting minutes they looked sure to score but suddenly Beddau had possession and kicked it dead Once more the Mid District had come up with a shock at the final stage and it was an absolute thriller will not be eligible to compete in the Cup next season but they will be well satisfied with their new Premiership status Email: info@wru.wales Telephone: 02920 822 000 Joe Packer was on target for Dunvant in their home win over Tata Steel Dunvant were able to jump into fourth place in the Admiral Championship West table as they picked up a three try triumph from their home clash with Tata Steel Tata arrived seeking their first win of the season but it turned out to be unlucky 13 as they slipped to another defeat 19-10 as they remain rooted to the bottom of the table flanker Jamie Nicholas and wing Jack Coker with centre Joe Packer adding two conversions Victory in the only game that beat the weather in the West enabled Dunvant to leapfrog Crymach and put pressure on the top three where struggling Treorchy were the visitors The home side started off like a runaway train as they scored a point a minute in the opening quarter Full back Cody Baker kick-started matters with a penalty and a try and then added the extras to a touchdown from flanker Cai Herdman Adam Ashford then finished off a great break by co-centre Sam Edwards to make it 20-0 bottom of the table Treorchy mounted a fightback with two tries of their own before the break and it the game was still up for grabs at the start of the second half But Beddau finished with a flourish as wing Ewan Roberts scored two more tries to bag the bonus-point Beddau paid an emotional farewell tribute to 21-year-old prop Tom Owen with a tight bonus-point win over Narberth in the WRU National Championship There was a minute’s silence and then applause before the game kicked-off and the home side were in no mood to let their former team mate down and scored two tries early on for a 15-3 lead but Beddau bit back to win 29-28 in the end to make it five wins in a row and further touchdowns from Jordan Goodwin and Carl Lewis allowed Beddau to turn the game around to secure a heart-felt victory one place above them in the table in third Tata Steel moved up into second place with their comfortable 36-7 home win over fifth-placed Bedlinog but runaway league leaders Pontypool extended their winning run to 17 straight Championship games with a 40-17 victory over a spirited home side at Skewen Skewen kept the unbeaten Gwent club down to just two tries but a series of second-half tries allowed Pontypool to run away with the game and a bonus-point victory Their 40-17 contained two tries from Clayton Gullis Tom Hancock  and Aaron Quick and five conversions from Matthew Jones Basement boys Dunvant failed to capitalise on a good start to their match against Newcastle Emlyn A drop goal on half-time by Sam Evans had given Dunvant a 10-7 interval lead but a mammoth 60-metre penalty from Dan Davies allowed Emlyn to turn the game on its head and secure the win for the visitors Glynneath closed the gap on the teams in mid-table following a 20-11 win over Cardiff Met Stuart Leach opened the scoring for the home side with a converted try although the Students hit back with a try and a penalty of their own and messages from the plethora of British Lions and Welsh Internationals it has produced By InYourArea Community · 1 June 2021 Beddau Rugby Football Club (RFC) is celebrating 125 years of community rugby with the publication of a new anniversary book that take a look back at their glories and triumphs The book is being released in spring 2021 and tells the impressive story of how Beddau RFC in Beddau grew from a village pub side to fly the flag of community sport During that time the club has scaled the peaks of rugby history and produced some world-famous Welsh players a former club secretary and long-time player for the Beddau side has spent over a year researching its remarkable history He said: “This is a tribute to a club that has flourished throughout the decades in an ever-changing world “As one of the few constants in the village the role Beddau RFC has played within its own community is unfathomable Not only has it trained and produced scores of exceptional players and teams it has brought glory to the proud villages it represents “Beddau Rugby Football Club: 125 Years of Community Rugby” is priced at £15.00 and can be reserved by emailing Rugby.beddaurfc@gmail.com Shine a spotlight on your neighbourhood by becoming an Area Ambassador Click here to learn more! LoadingDaily Email Updates {{contentTitle}} her friends found her husband’s skeleton on the patio – the first in a series of discoveries that stunned their Welsh mining village On a cold winter’s morning last November Michelle James bent over a bulky grey package on her patio it lay lengthways on the ground beneath a wooden plant holder and they were about to find out what was inside Sabine told James about an old medical skeleton she kept in the house: wouldn’t it be funny if James got it out after she’d gone and put it up in the attic to scare the people who moved in after her James and Rhian set about cutting through the thick layers of plastic thinking about the laugh they would have when they sat the skeleton on the couch; the two women wanted to play a joke on their friend There was an unmistakable stench of decay; this was no student prop The former mining village of Beddau sits in the Rhondda valley surrounded by lush hills in every shade of green children gather in its many playing fields flying kites and kicking balls between discarded clothes doubling as goalposts; doors are left ajar to let in a breath of air Beddau was dominated by social housing estates built to support the colliery and coking plant; more recently tiers of new estates with smarter cars parked outside have sprung up to accommodate the Cardiff commuters attracted by low house prices and the proximity to the M4 Newcomers have loosened the stitches of this tight-knit community where a third of the children attend a Welsh-speaking primary school it is a place where generations of families have grown up together where neighbours still look out for each other and secrets are hard to keep Lee Sabine Photograph: Media Wales LtdWhen the police arrived at James’s flat in the Trem-y-Cwm block on 24 November 2015 they found human remains on the patio she had shared with Sabine; although partially decomposed A pathologist identified evidence of foul play – a blow to the back of the head – and a murder inquiry was launched That a body had been found in their midst came as a shock to the villagers: there is little serious crime in Beddau. South Wales police had no recent missing persons reports they considered the possibility that the corpse had been dumped on the patio by someone who had travelled there from outside the area; but the patio was accessible only via the flats James was the first to find herself under suspicion But as the police looked into James’s account of her neighbour they discovered that a John Sabine – an accountant and a veteran of the Korean war – had once been registered at the same address The couple had signed a joint tenancy agreement in February 1997; it turned out that John had registered with the local GP that year and ordered a repeat prescription in April – but it was never picked up The body was still clothed in pyjamas with a St Michael label last used by Marks & Spencer in the year 2000 Detectives identified dental records and a hip replacement serial number and set about trying to match them with local surgeries or hospitals police got the breakthrough they were looking for A relative of John Sabine came forward to provide them with a DNA sample: it matched the remains found at Trem-y-Cwm A postmortem confirmed that Sabine had died as a result of “blunt trauma” to the head The friends who had gathered at Lee’s funeral just a month earlier were stunned a former nightclub singer and Beddau resident for 18 years her tarot card readings and invitations to tea (which often turned into something stronger) With her bleached blond hair and theatrical antipodean accent (she had come to Wales from New Zealand) Sabine could hardly be accused of keeping a low profile the more they realised the clues had been staring them in the face Neighbour Michelle James opened the package left lying on their shared patio; she was accused of murder Photograph: Francesca Jones for the GuardianMary Gardner a former foster carer who lives in a bungalow with her partner and their teacup Yorkshire terriers Coco and Trixie still laughs at the memory of the first time she met Lee I’m just looking for pretty stones.’ I said to her: ‘You’re not going to find them there.’ She laughed and said: ‘Take no notice of me I would always say she was as mad as a box of frogs Gardner lived in a house next to Sabine’s flats; it has since been demolished the pair would often sit together in Sabine’s garden and talk would tell her what she got up to with her male admirers would never know whether to believe her or not I was terrified I would go to prison for a crime someone else committed Why didn't she confess?“She used to wear this wide leather belt and leather gloves,” says Gardner she swishes her arms around in imitation of Sabine’s flamboyant gestures There were different coloured drapes and cushions over the bed I told her her bedroom was like a tart’s boudoir Gardner had a nagging suspicion that her friend was not all she seemed She felt Sabine was familiar from somewhere Sabine could be mysterious about her own past save one black and white shot of her during her days as a nightclub singer in Australia what are you hiding?’ I’d say: ‘Haven’t you got someone?’ She’d say I’m better off on my own.’ I asked about kids and she said no.’ I always thought I had met her previously Sabine told her friend Mary Gardner she had a grandson who had killed himself Photograph: Francesca Jones for the GuardianOnce “I said: ‘I thought you didn’t have kids?’ She said the stories Sabine told about her past depended on her audience She told some people she had been married a long time ago and that her husband had been violent and unfaithful; she had left him in New Zealand before emigrating to Wales where she was rehoused by a women’s charity gently spoken mother of two from Pontyclun Sitting in her freshly decorated living room with a new wooden floor and sparkly silver wallpaper Williams recalls meeting Sabine at the Royal Glamorgan hospital in Talbot Green; Williams was visiting a relative Williams smiles as she recalls the summer of last year who had been diagnosed with brain cancer after a fall and there was nothing on her bedside table to suggest anyone who cared for her her Welsh lilt pausing over the consonants But she was a bubbly person and hid her pain so as not to worry anyone visiting her daily along with the relative she already cared for She was touched by the older woman’s gratitude It was little things that meant a lot to her which was when Williams started to notice that not everything added up “There was always a sticky silence when she talked about the past But she opened up a bit about her children.” Sabine told her she had five children all of whom she and her then husband had abandoned in New Zealand but her stories were changing all the time I could see there was a hell of a dark side there.” Pulling her curtains against the low evening sun Williams takes out her phone to pull up pictures of Sabine in the last months of her life “She once said: ‘I’ve got a secret’ but then changed the subject.” Later after Sabine had been allowed home from hospital Williams and Michelle James were sitting at her kitchen table ‘I need you to do me a favour,’” Williams says “‘There’s a skeleton in the shed and I need you to move it to the attic to scare the people who move in.’ “I turned around and said: ‘I hope it’s not a bloody real one.’ She pointed her finger at me with those big orange nails – she always painted her nails orange – and said Lee Sabine in the 70s Photograph: Francesca Jones for the GuardianBy that point Williams isn’t sure whether she meant them to open the package before or after her death.Had she not been so busy with her cleaning business she would have moved the package up to the attic Williams cleared out her cluttered two-bedroomed flat She was disturbed by what she describes as a number of “nasty” letters she found and seemed at odds with the community-loving woman she knew Then came James’s macabre discovery on 24 November “For a long time I couldn’t sleep,” Williams says She knew she was going to die – why didn’t she tell us I remember the way she thanked me every night before she went to sleep and to the police: how had Sabine managed to conceal her husband’s body for so long there was simply no room: a double divan took up most of the space in one bedroom “One of the drawers was half the length of the divan,” Williams remembers She is convinced that the fall Sabine suffered just before her cancer diagnosis came as she was moving the heavy body down from the attic (As for how a frail 74-year-old woman managed to do this alone but the police are not looking for an accomplice.) Williams wondered why she was so keen to get her carpets professionally cleaned “They didn’t even look dirty,” she remembers “The machine broke down and she demanded they come the following day to finish it.” in her dying days Sabine let her guard down although she never went as far as a confession they found she had gone further in the past she blurted out a confession to Bernadette Adamiec told police that Sabine had told her she was going to be “famous.. The police still consider this evidence vital but Adamiec tells me she thinks that as a confession it has become overblown; she no longer wants to talk to journalists Sabine was hiding in plain sight: a relative newcomer in a Welsh village where she could construct whatever version of herself she wanted it turned out that little in Sabine’s carefully constructed story Detective chief inspector Gareth Morgan of South Wales police led the inquiry His team traced the Sabines back to the 50s The couple had four children together in Britain before emigrating to New Zealand where they had a fifth they abandoned their children in an Auckland nursery: two boys confronting the parents who had abandoned them Sabine’s neighbours were forced to adjust their memories of her Gardner learned that the “grandson” Sabine had referred to was in fact her son but the daughter of a Welsh miner and a mother who abandoned her when she was a toddler We saw a Lee and it wasn’t a Lee.” Her real name was Ann It wasn’t until a BBC news report screened footage of that family confrontation in New Zealand that Morgan found the final piece of the jigsaw: the murder weapon A friend who had known the couple when they lived in Reading in the 90s came forward and told the detective about a call she received from Sabine joking that she thought they might have killed each other by now I hit him over the head with a stone frog.” Chalkley laughed it off as a typical exaggeration but was rattled enough to call her back a couple of days later to ask how John was It was as if the previous conversation hadn’t happened Morgan remembered Michelle James telling him that Lee had told her to take what she wanted from the flat after she died He asked her: “I don’t suppose you have a stone frog?” She had stored in a shoebox alongside other items she had yet to sort through; Sabine had kept the frog by the side of her bed When pathologists matched it against the cluster of injuries and skull fractures on John Sabine’s head they found the distinctive shape of its leg and eye fitted exactly On the wall of Morgan’s office at Bridgend police station is a picture of his prime suspect taken from an interview about her garden in a local magazine – his trophy of a two decade old murder that has now been solved “I do really love living in Beddau and feel part of the community,” Sabine says in the article Lee and John Sabine abandoned children Jane Photograph: Media WalesMorgan believes Lee may have killed her husband during one of their heated arguments and that she kept her husband hidden in the flat for 18 years; but he has found no evidence of the attack site and no clue as to where the body was stored “We did meticulous forensic work,” he says She had steam cleaners in over the years.” Morgan believes she wrapped the body intermittently over the years wrapping the body so tightly it was effectively mummified that preserved the evidence; had she not been so careful James might have uncovered something that looked like a medical skeleton – as Sabine must have expected.) She removed John’s name from the tenancy in 1998 enabling her to have a single occupancy council tax discount and improve her benefits when he would have been 75 and eligible for a free TV licence she had begun to dwell on whether she might be judged after her death a street pastor who became the executor of Sabine’s will an avid Radio 4 fan who loved to argue and discuss issues Sabine would look in on West’s sick mother who lived in a downstairs flat at Trem-y-Cwm “I remember her coming down one day and saying “I think she began to reflect on what she’d given up.” it did not extend to contact with the children she had left behind When it became clear Sabine did not have long to live West got in touch with her neighbour’s children on Facebook he left me.’ Lee-Ann was in straitened circumstances herself but said she was prepared to come over and see her.” West recalls Sabine’s reaction: “Lee was horrified She was losing her voice then and she said: ‘I don’t want them to see me in this state.’” Then presumably referring to the reunion that had gone so badly wrong in 1984 she worried that her daughter would bring the press with her the couple abandoned their five children in an Auckland nursery; she said she had a singing contractWest still struggles with Sabine’s abandonment of her children when they were so young I left them in the care of social services.’ ‘I know you have cancer.’ She said to me: ‘You are close to God West believes this was the closest Sabine got to expressing some kind of remorse In the eulogy she gave at Sabine’s funeral at Glyntaff crematorium on 10 November 2015 all of whom seemed to know a different side of her: “The only person who knows the true story of Lee’s life was Lee.” She paid tribute to the caring side that many in Beddau had seen She told the gathering of friends and neighbours: “We do not know the difficulties she had in her life – only she and God know that But we do know that she was an immensely loving person.” Williams have come to terms with the lies and half-truths Sabine told them others have found her betrayal harder to deal with she suffered the trauma not only of finding the body but then being arrested and put in custody She was taunted by locals who called her a murderer and subsequently rehoused by the council; she now feels isolated and misses her old friends in the village she has recently been diagnosed with PTSD as a consequence of what happened that November morning last year “She has messed me up,” she says of Sabine I can’t watch the programmes I used to watch I thought I would never see my kids or grandkids ever again I was terrified I was going to prison for a crime someone else committed They were saying to me ‘Who is it?’ and I said “I used to go around almost every day and help her,” she continues Sabine’s children have struggled to come to terms with the revelations of the past year her daughter Jane – prompted by her own daughter The response was a card bearing an image of a phoenix rising from the ashes handwritten and in capitals: “Like the phoenix I will arise from the ashes and sleep will obey me and visit thee never I have served my life sentence of shame and blame Now it is your turn to do the same.” She signed it: “Your nemesis Ann Lee Sabine.” It was the last contact they had the children have discovered something else: family members they did not know existed They had no idea they had two half-siblings (their father’s two children from a previous relationship) and that their mother had a cousin who still lives in Wales says these new connections have given them a glimmer of hope she plans to travel to the UK with her sister to meet the family she never thought she’d see Bargoed secured their second win on the bounce with a six-try win over Beddau at Bargoed Park on Saturday The Bulls put pressure on their rivals early but shipped the first points of the game when they conceded a penalty which was kicked to touch – before scoring a try out wide the hosts responded well and good work from the forwards saw the ball passed out to Duane Dyer Captain Steff Jones added the conversion to draw the sides level The visitors continued to keep Bargoed at bay and extended their lead through a penalty which was followed by another try soon after – giving them a 15-7 lead half way through the first half Bargoed picked up the pace and began dominated Beddau in the scrum forcing their opponents into a host of scrum penalties The deficit was reduced to just a point soon after when Bargoed were awarded a penalty try after Callum Merrick was illegally stopped from scoring The lead then swung in Bargoed’s favour when Jones’ penalty kick sent them into the break with a 17-15 advantage – an advantage which was further extended in the second half through a Rhys Thomas try A four-try bonus point was then locked in when Ali Gardner-Key crossed the line for a Bargoed try with Jones kicking the conversion to extend the lead to 29-15 The visitors refused to accept defeat and forced Bargoed into a series of errors Josh Prosser’s conversion boosted Bargoed’s advantage to 35-15 That lead was reduced with five minutes remaining with an unconverted Beddau try cutting the arrears to 36-20 – but soon after the advantage was restored as Bargoed scored their sixth try of the game through scrum-half James Leadbeater Prosser slotted home the extras to seal the 43-20 victory Bargoed return to WRU National Championship action on Saturday in the garden where her husband's body was found 18 years after he went missingKnown as a theatrical and slightly odd lady who transformed the garden she shared with her neighbours into a "little piece of paradise" Not much was known about her previous life by friends but the former cabaret singer was married to former accountant John Sabine – who just happened to fall off the face of the earth without much fanfare Having moved to Australia and New Zealand with their children in the 1960s the couple disappeared from the lives of their sons and daughters before moving back to Wales where they settled in the village of Beddau in 1997 Read more: The chilling murder of widow found bound and battered after missing the last bus home It wasn't until weeks after Lee's death from cancer in 2015 that the true horror of what happened to John Sabine came to light An ill-advised practical joke resulted in his decayed and partially-preserved skeleton being discovered in the same garden that Lee had spent so many hours tenderly transforming As a community was left reeling with the discovery it quickly transpired that the odd lady with green fingers was a murderer who had killed her husband with a stone frog This is the story of how one woman kept a killing from the world for almost 20 years and John Sabine had met after she nursed him through his injuries sustained in the Korean War and they married in 1960 They moved from the UK with their four children to Australia in the 1960s where their youngest daughter was born The couple's children described their childhood as traumatic and their parents were absent for most of their lives before permanently becoming estranged Lee Sabine's son Steve even condemned his "evil" mother for abandoning him at the age of six Lee and John Sabine had five children together: Jane and Lee-Ann‌He said: "They dropped us off somewhere and never came back to pick us up They said they were going to come back the next weekend The children were taken into care by New Zealand's social services but the couple appeared back in their children's lives in 1985 around 17 years after they had abandoned them But shortly after that reunion his parents again left Steve It had a devastating impact on them with the couple's son Martin taking his own life in 2000 Steve said: “They came back when I was 23 and tried to make amends and it hit the news here We lived in Australia for a while when we were kids and their story was that because he was an accountant he had ripped someone off and came to New Zealand with the money “My mother was a cabaret performer and they said they went back to Australia for that But he got arrested and she stayed out there with him and things just escalated from there the son of Lee and and John‌"People asked why we took them back but we said that all our lives all we wanted was to have a mother and a father “They were worried they were going to get thrown in jail – that’s why they bolted They took me to a budget hotel in Auckland and said they were going to come back and see me in a couple of days People would ask about my parents and I would say they were dead.” They were a very involved in the show dog world The couple later moved back to south Wales and settled at Trem-Y-Cwm in Beddau Mr Sabine disappeared later that year and was never seen again But he was never reported missing and his name continued to appear on the electoral register Steve said: “My father was actually a good man She controlled him but he loved her to pieces.” Lee continued to live in the flat and quietly carried on with life following her husband's disappearance In 2012 she was interviewed in a magazine called RCT Homes in which she spoke about her life It noted how she had “made it her mission to turn a neglected garden She said: "Coming from New Zealand I’ve grown up with dirt I love being outside and I’d rather be mucking around in the garden than sat in front of the television I do really love living in Beddau and feel part of the community – it’s a special place known as Lee“But when I first arrived 16 years ago nobody was doing anything with the garden – it looked pathetic and neglected The neighbours thought I was mad when I started going out and working on the garden every day – especially as mine was the only flat with no views of the garden “I was doing a lot of digging and it was hard work but I knew I could do something beautiful my home – and I want to feel proud and I wanted my neighbours to be able to feel proud too “The hard work paid off and my neighbours now love the garden because of all the seating I have designed “Every summer I host a barbecue and all the neighbours come It is a ball and it’s brought us closer as neighbours We all appreciate how special the space is and it’s really coming together I’ve chosen some plants that you would find in New Zealand to bring a little bit of the exotic to Beddau.” She also penned a disturbing letter to the Pontypridd Observer in 2010 The letter concluded: "The world is more heavily populated now than in the era of Jesus – and I imagine Lucifer smiling “Women carry burden and therefore have compassion and reason to protecting [sic] life – so ‘let them in boys’ A wise man will change his mind many times – a fool never.” later told Mr Sabine's inquest she had been given the impression by Lee that her estranged husband still lived in New Zealand “She referred to him as a b******,” PC Nicholls added “I would describe her as likeable but not someone I would trust She was a very strong-willed character and would continually do what she wanted to do.” Almost 20 years after her husband's disappearance Lee Sabine succumbed to brain cancer and died on October 30 at the age of 74 in the belief that she had taken her dark secret to the grave and no-one would discover what had happened to her husband A human skeleton was later found in plastic wrapping at Trem-y-Cwm Beddau(Image: Peter Bolter)Discovery of the bodyNeighbour Michelle James acted as a carer for Lee as her health deteriorated and was told by her there was a medical skeleton wrapped up in the garden which she had acquired while working as a nurse "Lee had told everyone she had a medical skeleton but I never saw it" "I once asked if I could borrow it for Halloween and she said: ‘Don’t you ever touch that’ She was very theatrical and called me darling." Michelle and friend Rhian Lee decided to play a prank with the skeleton but when she unwrapped the remains it was apparent that the skeleton was very real She said: "I wanted to get the skeleton and sit it on my settee to wind up my friend Gareth I was going to tell him to come round to my flat to meet my new boyfriend and then show him the skeleton as a joke The mother-of-three opened up the package and cut through several layers of plastic and tin foil before she made the grim discovery She added: "The body was in a grey package in the garden An old wooden frame and a baker’s tray had been dumped on top Then I saw this sludge inside and there was a horrible smell The site of the grim findHaving called the police Michelle claimed she was arrested and spent four days in a police cell before the identity of the body was established She said: "The police arrived with forensic experts Then the officers asked me to come down to the station for an interview and they said I was being arrested on suspicion of murder “I said: ‘You are having a f****** laugh now Police were told the body had been wrapped in 41 layers of plastic and concealed above ground in an outside area of the flats A police cordon was set up and the scene was preserved as forensic investigations and a post-mortem examination were carried out An inquest later heard the body had been gruesomely preserved by a process called "chemical mummification" It was dressed in St Michael-branded pyjamas and had been wrapped with layers of shopping bags said she remembered a “very strong smell of rotting waste” Appeals were made to the public to help the authorities identify the body and door-to-door inquiries in the immediate area were made but weeks after the discovery there was still no clue as to who it was as the wait for pathology and forensic test results continued The back garden area at Trem-y-Cwm in Beddau(Image: Peter Bolter)At the forefront of the investigation was the theory that the person whose skeleton had been found had been murdered Speaking at the time of the discovery detective superintendent Paul Hurley of South Wales Police said: “The death is suspicious and we are treating it as a murder “It is therefore important that we speak to anybody who may have information about this incident – anyone who thinks they know something that can assist our investigation “A priority for us is to identify whose body it is and to find out how the person died.” a breakthrough was made when DNA tests revealed the skeleton belonged to John Sabine A post-mortem examination concluded that Mr Sabine had suffered a number of skull fractures which were consistent with an assault These were considered the most likely cause of death Lee Sabine was named as the prime suspect for the murder by South Wales Police in the first step in her dark secret coming to light Michelle James was subsequently released without charge and with no further investigation against her on December 11 Detective chief inspector Gareth Morgan said: "This is an extraordinary set of circumstances and we are working tirelessly to put together the pieces of what is a complex investigation "We would appreciate hearing from anyone who knew John and Lee (Anne) Sabine and who may have socialised with them or met them back in 1996-97 (Image: Peter Bolter)"We would also appeal directly to the community in and around Trem-Y-Cwm to contact us with any information they may have in relation to the plastic wrapping that Mr Sabine was concealed in." There was evidence which suggested Mr Sabine's state benefits and pension continued to be paid into a joint account in the decades after his disappearance and it was revealed he had never been reported as a missing person Following the announcement of the skeleton's identification there was an outpouring of shock and horror as neighbours came to grips with the grotesque turn of events said: “It is a complete mystery but I cannot believe the body has been there for all these years “Lee was a very talkative and outgoing woman but it is hard to comprehend what has happened “[The body] was found on ground between two of the flats next to her home I can’t believe it has been there for all these years.” Describing the prime suspect Mrs Scott added: "Lee could be very straightforward but it is difficult to think she could have killed someone I asked Lee if she would ever go back to New Zealand but she told me: 'No – I could never leave here.' “She was always very active until the last few months when she had brain cancer It is very strange that the body was found so soon after her death.” said: "It is terrible to think what has gone on – without any of us knowing We had no idea there was a dead body there until police arrived.” Part of the housing complex where the remains were found was subsequently demolished(Image: Peter Bolter)Melanie Thomas It’s frightening to think things like this are going on in the community You can’t believe it is on your own doorstep.” She said: “I knew Lee because she used to go to bingo but I never knew she was married She was a very outgoing woman and talkative I think she was from New Zealand and she died of cancer a few months ago.” The Sabines' estranged family were contacted by police in Wales and had been unaware of their father's disappearance having had no contact with their parents for almost 30 years Steve said he was “overwhelmed” to discover detectives suspected his mother of having killed his father He said: "If anyone was going to do it she was going to do it...That’s what’s cut me up the most Your parents being murdered by anyone is bad enough but by your mother.. “If I could afford to go to his funeral I would go “If I could have any way to get my dad back I would even though he did some horrible things and we had a miserable childhood “I could never forgive him for what he did but I still believe he was manipulated and he fell in love with an evil woman Steve added: "If they had rung up and said my dad had died then fine but to find out my own mother had murdered my father It’s something out of a Stephen King novel “You watch programmes like CSI on TV and think: ‘Christ The block of flats in Beddau where John Sabine's remains were discovered(Image: Google)‌Daughter Jane was also shocked to hear of what had happened She said: "The question I have asked myself my whole life is: 'Why?' It’s been so much to process I don’t know who [my mother] was or where her head was at but all I know is I have spent my lifetime finding ways to deal with the abandonment.. “I have been a three-year-old hanging on to a dying part of me for a lifetime,” she said referring to her age when she was abandoned in a New Zealand orphanage “The things I am learning about what she did and how she was – it’s so hard to process and I need to be around people who can help me with that in some way.” Jane SabineThe couple's grandson Jesse also spoke of his shock of his grandfather's death He said: "The news of the death came as a complete shock [Steve’s] dad had been dead for a while and he didn’t know how It’s pretty rough when you find out like that “I think he got rung up by the Welsh police He was upset because he didn’t get the chance to tell us before the media rang up “Even though I’d never met them they are still family and it’s awful to hear that someone’s been murdered Even though you haven’t got a connection with them it’s still awful to hear Mum mentioned that Dad never really had much to do with them He just got on with his life knowing that they’re not a part of it.” The mystery of Lee Sabine's life continued to unravel as the family of an alleged second lover accused her of driving him to death and dubbed her a "cold-hearted Ice Queen" was said to have drank himself to death at the age of 59 just months after she kicked him out of the home they shared for more than three years A friend of Mr Ellis' said: "Everyone knows now that Lee killed her husband – but she also has Decca’s death on her hands too Police outsside the flats in Beddau at the time‌It is believed Mr Ellis moved into the apartment in 2006 but died on February 12 telling neighbours she "got fed up with him" Derek’s daughter Bethan said: “She hated me and my sister We both called her the ‘Ice Queen' because she was so cold to us – not nice at all She told a lot of lies and it got to my dad “They had a rocky relationship and were on and off for years To be honest I’m glad Dad’s not around for this so he doesn’t have to go through her mess and be forced to bring up memories about that woman.” Another friend of Mr Elis described Lee as a "loud character" He said: "Decca always like a drink at the local pubs He was really happy when he moved in with her Then when she was tired of him she just kicked him out – blaming the drink He hit it really hard then and didn’t last more than a year after she booted him out.” The landlord at Mr Ellis' regular pub said "everyone seemed to have a story about Sabine" What’s sort of funny is we all sort of knew what she’d done before the police did “She made an outburst in her hair salon before she died about ‘not bothering to bury her husband when he died’ She told all the girls it was too expensive to pay for a funeral or something along those lines People were a bit taken aback but no one thought too much about it While it appeared at first that Lee Sabine had taken the secret of her husband's murder to her grave it came to light she had openly confessed to a friend she had hit Mr Sabine over the head with a stone frog ornament which was found in her flat after he death Friend Valerie Chalkley said she thought Lee was joking when she made the confession but only realised the true significance of what she had been told after the remains were found Ms Chalkley said: "It was a couple of years since we’d spoken so I said: ‘I wondered what had happened to you both I would have thought by now that one of you would have killed the other’ The ornamental frog believed to have been used by Lee Sabine to kill her husband John(Image: South Wales Police)"She replied: ‘It’s funny you should say that I’ve battered him with a stone frog which was at the side of the bed Every night he would get into bed crying and weeping saying: 'You don’t fancy me’.” She added: "They looked a lovely couple It was also said the couple shared a long-running joke that if someone did something wrong she’d say: "Watch out or I’ll frog you." At Mr Sabine's inquest forensic pathologist Dr Richard Jones said the 1.1kg green ornamental frog could have inflicted the fatal injuries sustained by the deceased The first inquest hearing took place in December 2015 where it was confirmed that Mr Sabine had died as a result of "blunt force trauma to the head" At this stage they were still unable to identify the time of his death and the inquest was adjourned The inquest resumed in March 2016 at Aberdare Coroners' Court where investigators described how fingerprints found on plastic wrapping sheets used to conceal the body may identify the killer Detective sergeant Meredith Griffith said: “Forensics are still ongoing and also fingerprint work in relation to the wrapping and Mrs Sabine’s fingerprints." The final hearing took place in May 2016 and heard Lee Sabine had told friends and relations on a number of occasions there was a skeleton in the communal gardens of her flat She told others it was a medical skeleton which needed moving up to her attic While this was dismissed as a joke or made-up story Lee said she would "one day be famous because of the body" Speaking at the hearing witness and Beddau salon owner Bernadette Adamiec remembered Lee telling her: "People will be talking about me long after I have gone to the extent I could be classed as famous.” Asked why she reportedly replied: “Because of the body in the bag.” What Christopher Sabine had to say about his father: who befriended Mrs Sabine while the latter was in hospital taking her hot meals and helping her with chores such as dusting In a statement read to the inquest Ms Williams remembered one incident when she visited Lee who told her she had a skeleton in the shed which she needed to move to her attic Ms Williams replied that she hoped it wasn’t a real skeleton and wagged her finger at me with a smile,” the statement added Ms Williams also said: “It wasn’t until I learned things after her death that I realised I didn’t know her at all.” In a statement the executor of Lee's will said she took "great pride" in the communal garden She added: "She spent a lot of time furnishing it with statues In his conclusion senior coroner Andrew Barkely ruled Mr Sabine had been unlawfully killed He said: "It is beyond doubt in my mind having heard evidence from [forensic pathologist] Dr Richard Jones that foul play was at the cause of his death." Mr Barkley said there were many suggestions Lee had given to indicate what she had done but said: "She liked to create attention He added: "It's clear to me that he died from a blunt force injury to the side of his head." Mr Sabine was laid to rest by Rhondda Cynon Taf council at Cefn Y Parc Cemetery in Llantrisant on January 19 2016 – the final chapter in a shocking drama that left more questions and answers While it is believed Lee Sabine was responsible for murdering her husband the full facts of what happened at the couple's flat in Beddau will never come to light To get the latest news updates from WalesOnline sent straight to your email inbox click here. Pontypool may be top of the WRU National Championship table after the first round of matches can take heart from their last meeting at Mount Pleasant Park A year ago the Gwent giants were thankful to escape with a 10-9 win that was earned courtesy of a penalty try after three Sam Withers penalties looked set to earn the battling home side a famous win More of the same this weekend will be needed still smarting from missing out on promotion to the Principality Premiership kicked-off their campaign in emphatic style with a 40-6 home win over Narberth last weekend The final score last weekend probably didn’t do Beddau justice They had led 6-5 thanks to two Hywel Chatham penalties but eventually ran out of steam and were beaten 22-6 Beddau coaches Ben Daniels and Ross Johnson will have more players available for the visit of Pontypool and will be hoping for some better discipline from their side They saw both Cody Baker and Ben Stephens pick up yellow cards at one stage as their side was reduced to 13 men for a period Pooler’s flying start to the season simply got better in the week when they signed a major commercial partnership with private air charter operator Former Ospreys and Wales outside half Matthew Jones starts at No 10 and two try hero against Narberth Cardiff Met host newly promoted Skewen at Cyncoed where the students give a debut to Josh Poole in the back row who kicked a penalty and conversion in last weekend’s win will pay his 20th game and will qualify for his club blazer The students opened with a 20-13 away win at Newcastle Emlyn who have to travel to Cardiff to take on another promoted club The Wanderers picked up a draw at Bedlinog on the opening weekend and will be looking for a big home effort on their return to the upper echelons of the league system Wales Under 18 international James Botham will make his competitive home debut in the back row and Tom Penry Ellis starts in the second row after missing last week’s game Behind the scrum Callum Bricknell starts at full back after the injury to James Loxton and Luke Fish starts at No 10 after an injury to Ben White It will be the Otters against the Foxes when Narberth host Bedlinog at the Lewis Lloyd Ground while Glynneath entertain Dunvant and Tata Steel travel to Newbridge Hazel Evans was the proudest rugby president in Wales at the weekend after seeing her Newcastle Emlyn side put on a brilliant display of running rugby to earn promotion into the SSE SWALEC Championship next season Two weeks after the disappointment of seeing her club lose at the Millennium Stadium to Ystrad Rhondda in the SSE SWALEC Plate final she watched in awe as Emlyn crushed Bonymaen 50-20 at  Carmarthen to earn their ticket to the highest grade of rugby the club will ever have been during their 38 years next season It meant the President was able to go out on a high after 12 years in charge of one of the great new feeder clubs in the Welsh rugby pyramid system – and had seven tries about which to eulogise in her speech at the club dinner later on Saturday night while she was watching her side run the Division 1 West Central champions off their feet were helping the Scarlets to hold onto their Champions Cup status in Treviso went to a final at the Millennium Stadium and now we’ve won promotion into the Championship What a way for me to go out as club President,” said Evans Now the club that was founded in 1977 can look forward to games against giants of the past in Swansea That could never have happened when they were first formed Wings Llyr Jones (2) and Don Davies got on the score sheet and other tries were provided by Steffan Evans back row men Brynmor Jones and Owain Powell Leonard also kicked six conversion for a match tally of 17 points They trailed 21-8 at the break and will remain in their division next season Joining Newcastle Emlyn in the Championship will be Beddau The defeat completed a thoroughly miserable few weeks for Penallta who had won the Division 1 East title at a canter This was their 33rd game of the season and only their third defeat two of those defeats came in crucial games – in the Plate semi-final against Newcastle Emlyn and in the play-off game against Beddau “It hasn’t been a bad season and now we’ve got to pick ourselves up for next week’s Silver Ball final against Ystrad Rhondda who beat Newcastle Emlyn in the Plate Final at the Millennium Stadium,” said club secretary Wayne Jones “Our Youth team also lost in a semi-final as well We brought eight of our youth players into the team this year and more will follow next season scored a try for us and he has just signed a contract with the Scarlets for next season We’re here to develop players for the regions and we’ll continue to try to do that.” By 2022-09-09T13:46:00+01:00 Lisa has introduced top-selling lines to the store and helped lead the shop’s home delivery service Lisa first got a job at her local store when her mother was very ill and she was desperate for a distraction it was something to get myself focused and keep busy She has now been with Spar for 15 years and frequently goes the extra mile for her customers “There’s a lovely old lady that comes into our store and on the first lockdown she was struggling so she was coming in just to have a little bit of a conversation as her family lived in London,” explains Lisa and so I arranged to have FaceTime with her daughters on my mobile phone - she was over the moon!” As well as supporting customers in-store during covid Lisa also had the challenge of getting to grips with the new Snappy Shopper delivery system “Snappy shop has been my absolute favourite project since it first came out,” she beams everybody goes into panic mode and it’s like ‘how are we gonna deal with this plus the day-to-day running of the store?’ She promotes the service by posting regularly on local hubs and websites and makes a point of regularly asking for feedback “A lot of it is asking your customers what they want,” says Lisa “So when I go to the hubs and I’m posting about Snappy Shopper I will just ask on that post ‘Is there something that we’ve missed Is this something you would like to order but you can’t find on the menu?’ It is just a case of kind of making it a little bit more bespoke for your customer base.”  The delivery service generates £7,000 of sales a week and Lisa and her team have also managed to get Snappy Shopper up and running at another store.  Lisa has also introduced new ranges to the store Lisa sourced local supplier The Cheesecake Lady via Facebook “We didn’t have much of a range of a dessert as such,” she says “And we do get quite a lot of elderly customers here So I approached the supplier and asked if they wanted to have a little meeting and we’d talk about what we could do for each other.” The irresistible treats flew off the shelf “It’s insane how much we were selling on cheesecakes,” says Lisa I just ordered 50 to be on the safe side and they sold out within a day they’ve since been introduced to several more Blakemore stores Beyond the requirements of her supervisor role Lisa has also shown an interest in the store’s foodservice offer “We’ve got a Subway and Greggs here at the moment and I think nobody ever wants to be in a job that’s just repetitive and you feel like you’re doing the same thing day in So I basically taught myself how to work in Subway.” This even led to her covering for the Subway manager when they were away on maternity leave The variety that working in convenience retail provides is exactly why Lisa loves her job In the future she may even become a store owner “At the moment this position suits me,” she says I probably would love to go off and maybe have my own store Register today to gain unlimited access to articles and to receive our great range of email newsletters Register now Site powered by Webvision Cloud A mum died after choking at a marshmallow-eating competition was taking part in a charity event at Beddau Rugby Club on Saturday 7 October when the tragic incident happened An inquest opening hearing at Pontypridd Coroners' Court on Wednesday heard Mrs Buss took part in a competition which involved "fitting the most marshmallows into their mouths" She left the stage and collapsed in the corridor area and appeared to be choking CPR was carried out by those at the club until paramedics arrived Despite the best efforts of those at the scene A provisional cause of death was not given pending further investigation opened an inquest into Mrs Buss' death stating there was "reason to believe her death was unnatural in nature" Ms Morgan adjourned the inquest for further investigations to be carried out She added: "I take the opportunity to express my condolences to the family of Natalie Louise Buss at this tragic time." The inquest heard Mrs Buss lived in Church Village and was born in Cardiff on May 7 floral tributes were left at Beddau Rugby Club where the tragic incident unfolded One said: "I'm awfully sorry for the loss of a lovely lady Beddau RFC observed a one-minute silence before its games on Saturday and said in a social media post: "We are here to support the family The club chaplain is always on hand should anybody feel that they need to speak to or spend time with him." which regulates health and safety issues in the area Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know… Beddau RFC says it is ‘heartbroken’ after death of ‘wonderful wife A Welsh rugby club has paid tribute to a 37-year-old woman who choked to death after eating marshmallows at a fundraising event Natalie Buss collapsed and died on Saturday night at the event at Beddau RFC in Rhondda Cynon Taf The club paid tribute to a “wonderful wife mother and daughter” in a statement saying they had “lost a very dear friend” Beddau RFC said: “The club and the Beddau community are heartbroken On Saturday night we lost a very dear friend who will be sadly missed “Everybody associated with Beddau RFC and within the community are nothing less than devastated at the weekend’s tragic accident and we struggle to comprehend the sense of loss people are feeling we must acknowledge that our loss pales into insignificance in comparison to the loss of a lady who was a wonderful wife mother and daughter to what was an absolutely tragic turn of events the close friends and to all those that this has so badly impacted – you are all in our thoughts today.” said she was “really sad to read this awful news” “My heart goes out to all those affected and my thoughts are with their family and friends,” added the Pontypridd MP It is thought the woman died during a bingo fundraiser for the club’s under-10s side at the weekend. South Wales police said it was investigating A south Wales police spokesperson said: “A 37-year-old woman collapsed and died at Beddau RFC The coroner has been informed and inquiries into the circumstances of the death are continuing.” A Welsh ambulance service spokesperson said the service was called to a “medical emergency” at the club at 10.10pm on Saturday 7 October Rhondda Cynon Taf council said it had also opened an investigation in its capacity as the health and safety regulator and licensing authority A spokesperson said: “Our condolences go out to the family and friends of the deceased.” Beddau refused to loosen thier grip on the the Worthington's Mid District Cup after snatching a win over Ystrad on Rhondda on Tuesday Beddau refused to loosen thier grip on the the Worthington’s Mid District Cup after snatching a win over Ystrad on Rhondda on Tuesday they had no idea just how many shocking secrets they were about to uncover STRUGGLING to undo the tightly knotted green string Michelle James and Rhian Lee grappled with the grey plastic sheeting underneath it As the pair tore away at layer upon layer of plastic they were hit with the stench of rotting garbage desperate to fulfil their friend’s dying wish that they move a 'plastic medical skeleton' – which she’d wrapped up and buried under bags of gravel at the end of the garden – to the attic in her flat What had been hidden away for the last four years wasn’t a plastic skeleton “I just shouted: ‘There’s a dead body. A dead body!’” Michelle said at the time According to police, the multiple layers of plastic wrappings had effectively sealed the body from the outside environment slowing decomposition and causing it to mummify “It meant that the remains were incredibly well-preserved,” explains forensic pathologist Dr Richard Jones who was called to the scene after the discovery on November 24 the body had been wrapped in 41 layers of plastic and was so well-kept that he had no trouble identifying the Marks & Spencer pyjamas the body was wearing – as well as a large fracture in the skull that appeared to have been caused by a violent blow to the head But just who was the skeleton in the garden that had been hidden away for so many years when Lee Sabine first arrived in the quiet Welsh village of Beddau with her bleached-blonde hair the then 56-year-old made an immediate impact Moving into Trem-y-Cwm, a sheltered housing block, she told her neighbours that she used to be a model and nightclub singer in New Zealand but she said she’d recently fled the marriage because of his abusive behaviour and claimed a women’s charity had rehoused her on the other side of the world in South Wales “She told us that her husband John had been horrible to her and that he was a womaniser,” remembers her friend Lynne Williams telling me that her family was cruel to her and they didn’t speak any more But her story often changed from person to person so I could tell she was obviously hiding something Over the years, Lee became a much-loved character in Beddau, with her fortune-telling and tales of her glamorous life in New Zealand When the 74 year old was diagnosed with incurable brain cancer in October 2015 “We managed to get her into a hospice for her final days and we all had a glass of prosecco before she died in November,” recalls Lynne she’d told us she’d stored a plastic skeleton in the garden and thought it would be fun to move it into the attic to scare whoever moved into her flat as she had lots of medical books in the house and told us she had been a nurse we’d all even joked: ‘I hope it’s not a real one.’” Lee was very secretive about her past and her story changed from person to person But as Michelle and Rhian discovered, it was real, and a murder enquiry was immediately launched. Within three weeks, DNA analysis – retrieved through John Sabine’s son from a previous marriage – confirmed the skeleton to be Lee’s husband detectives began to trace the couple’s history before marrying the following year in Pontypridd They went on to have three more children – Steven Martin and Jane – before emigrating to Auckland their story took a dark turn when Lee and John did the unthinkable – abandoning their five children “Throughout my childhood I never gave up believing my parents would return,” says Jane Sabine “I refused to call anyone Mum or Dad out of loyalty to them Any plane or taxi I saw near where we were living would send me and my brother running home in the hope it was our parents coming back to get us Instead, the Sabines changed their names to John and Lee Martin and began a new life in Sydney, where Lee tried to build a career as a cabaret singer. All the while, their children were being brought up in state-run care homes and foster families in New Zealand “Every home I lived in – and there were many – I had the same ritual,” remembers Jane I would go to the garden and make two graves with crosses – one for my mum and one for my dad – and I would pray that God would tell them that I loved them God would tell them that I was waiting for them.” Lee’s bid to become a singer was faltering and the couple was forced to move back to New Zealand where they tried to make contact with the children they’d abandoned 15 years previously Jane had since been discharged from care and was living at the Auckland City Mission I wasn’t working and was in an abusive relationship and hoped their return was going to be a good thing,” says Jane “But the lies and the lack of acknowledgement of what they had done soon became apparent and my mother’s exact words were: ‘Darling I don’t feel we owe you an explanation.’ Things quickly started falling apart after that They didn’t want to know anything about our lives my mother told me that although my older sister Susan was lovely “I don’t know what my parents thought they were coming back to Did they expect us to simply welcome them back with open arms?” Despite the New Zealand authorities and the Ministry for Social Welfare investigating the Sabines’ conduct and the couple quickly fled the country again – this time back to the UK where they signed a joint tenancy agreement for Flat 57 in Trem-y-Cwm “The last sighting of Mr Sabine alive was in February 1997,” says DCI Gareth Morgan the senior investigating officer in the case “And the last proof of life that we have was in April 1997 which led detectives to conclude that John was murdered sometime between February and April 1997 investigators found that all Lee would say was that the marriage had ended Then, in another bizarre twist, once news of John’s murder hit the headlines, DCI Morgan received a call from a woman who had befriended the couple in the ‘90s when they were living in Reading “The witness gave us some information that Lee Sabine had admitted striking her husband with a stone frog during a phone call,” reveals DCI Morgan The woman told him that when the couple moved to Beddau Every night he would get into bed crying and weeping the friend put it down to Lee’s twisted sense of humour But it was enough of a lead for the investigation team to return to Beddau It had been kept by one of Lee’s friends who had cleared her flat after she had died and the newly discovered evidence was analysed by Dr Jones “Scaled photographs of the injured skull and the ornament were compared using photographic software,” he explains “There was a very good correlation between fractures and projecting parts of the frog My opinion was that one blow with that ornament could have caused the injuries to the skull.” Lee simply replied: 'I’ve killed him' the hairdresser assumed this was “Lee just being Lee” and thought no more about it – until the story began to come to light Another part of the grisly puzzle was revealed when two men came forward during the investigation to say that they had been asked to move a package containing “carpet” from Lee’s attic to the garden in early 2014 Police quickly realised it meant that she’d actually been storing her husband’s remains in her loft for the last 17 years continually wrapping it to mask the smell of decomposition Jane first heard about her mother’s death and father’s murder in a phone call from her younger sister Lee-Ann who had been contacted by South Wales Police as part of their investigations “The last I had heard from my mother was in 2000 when my brother Marty had tragically taken his life,” she explains “Mum had been notified by Interpol and wanted to find out what had happened I remember at the time asking after my father she said he’d suffered numerous medical issues and had been sick for a while “In 2002 I started to have counselling in a bid to deal with all we’d been through, and was encouraged to send a letter to my mother saying that I forgave her and hoped we could build some kind of relationship. When she replied, she wrote that she forgave me. “I couldn’t understand what I’d done wrong – maybe I’d cried too much or misbehaved and that’s why they left us? She added that if I was ever able to get over there I could stay with her. Thinking back now, my father was no doubt already dead in the house somewhere.” Jane admits she’s spent a lifetime wondering why her mother did what she did. “I believe she didn’t mean to kill my father but did so out of a fit of anger, and as she’s done all her life, she came up with a plan to cover her tracks,” she says. as the block was torn down in 2016 to make way for a retirement home Lee’s crimes and cruelty remain a life sentence for the family she left behind who has lost contact with all her siblings apart from Lee-Ann “We’ve grown up to be resilient and honest but there’s still an emptiness and sadness that we just can’t shake Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/ Championship club Pontypool RFC has issued a statement in which it launched a scathing attack on the Welsh Rugby Union for what it deems the governing body’s ‘abysmal track record of presiding over a culture of failure and apathy towards the clubs it supposedly represents’ In a move which has been prompted by unprecedented fixture issues that has seen reigning champions Pontypool end the season two game early the club also said the WRU has ’caused untold damage to the reputation of the second tier of Welsh club rugby’ Pontypool heavily criticised Beddau RFC for rejecting several dates to fulfil a fixture between the two sides as the National Championship was thrown into chaos Pontypool RFC say they will now conclude the season two games early in effect losing out on the opportunity to secure a fourth straight Championship title The extraordinary statement from Pontypool RFC, which was posted on their website read: “Pontypool RFC can confirm that the club’s 2021-2022 WRU National Championship campaign has concluded prematurely meaning the quest for a fourth successive title has been stripped away through no fault of our own “Despite numerous efforts by Pontypool RFC to re-arrange the Beddau RFC fixture Beddau RFC rejected several dates before ultimately refusing to fulfil the fixture without explanation “After referring this matter to the Welsh Rugby Union the governing body not only confirmed that Pontypool RFC would not be awarded a bonus-point walkover victory but there was no means by which Beddau RFC could be sanctioned for their unprofessional and disgraceful conduct “A lead member of the Welsh Rugby Union’s Community Game Board committed to display further weakness by ‘asking’ Beddau RFC to fulfil the fixture After waiting over two weeks for a progress update and given all fixtures were to be completed by 14th May 2022 our patience has run out and we refuse to be degraded a day longer “Given that the season will not conclude with all fixtures completed Pontypool RFC and Ystalyfera RFC officials have today agreed that there is no point in devoting time and financial resources into re-arranging the fixture between the two clubs Pontypool RFC is grateful to Ystalyfera RFC for the spirit in which these discussions were held and we share their frustration in this matter “This means the ‘final’ National Championship league table will show Pontypool RFC having played just eleven of its thirteen scheduled games and the club will finish no higher than 3rd place “Pontypool RFC would like to place on record its strong dissatisfaction towards Beddau RFC for how it has chosen to conduct its business To forfeit a National Championship fixture diminishes the league’s credibility and makes an even greater mockery of what has already been a disjointed season It is the club’s position that they should be expelled from the National Championship immediately but this clearly is not going to happen due to the unforgivable ineptitude of the Welsh Rugby Union the club also wishes to place on record its frustration for how the Welsh Rugby Union has lost complete control of its ability to govern the game the governing body has proven it is not fit for purpose and Pontypool RFC is again calling for the entire Community Game Board to resign from their positions with immediate effect “Welsh club rugby deserves a Community Game Board – and a Board of Directors for that matter – that hold the requisite skills to manage the game at all levels To place an ambitious club such as Pontypool RFC in a position whereby the club’s season has been abruptly terminated whilst still holding a mathematical opportunity to win a National Championship is indefensible They have caused untold damage to the reputation of the second tier of Welsh club rugby “We extend our sincerest apologies to our supporters for this highly embarrassing and unacceptable display of unprofessionalism from Beddau RFC and the Welsh Rugby Union We also wish to express our immense gratitude to the Pooler Army for your unwavering support during what has been an immensely challenging period throughout COVID-19 and the subsequent return to play “Our focus will now turn to making preparations for a hugely important 2022-2023 season but we do so with an intense level of cynicism and concern for how the Welsh Rugby Union will govern the National Championship effectively given its abysmal track record of presiding over a culture of failure and apathy towards the clubs it supposedly represents.” Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Worth remembering that since the introduction of the league system in Welsh rugby ( which was much needed by the way) Pooler struggled for a few years as did a few other of the bigger clubs at the time Pontypool have taken slow but very methodical steps over the years to attain a place at the top table on & off the field but have been hampered by some strange decisions over the years from the WRU including changing the rules regarding promotion/relegation This happened occasionally during the playing season & it got to the… Read more » Connect with Nation.Cymru on Facebook and Twitter If you would like to donate to help keep Nation.Cymru running then you just need to click on the box below it will open a pop up window that will allow you to pay using your credit / debit card or paypal Enter your email address to receive instant notifications of new articles All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018 In 2017 Nation.Cymru was launched after raising £5000 from a crowdfunding campaign Today it is one of the fastest growing news sites in the UK attracting over 1.5 million visitors a month We are not backed by billionaire owners or hidden 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