Nothing To Lose
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The trial against those responsible for the deaths of the four members of the Ozols family was held at Preston Crown Court in a trial which lasted over two months. Adrian Wilson was the only defendant who faced charges of murder. The others, Terence Bright, Callum Dewhurst and Barry Hughes all pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter. A major part of the trial focused on the details surrounding Wilson’s understanding of whether he had deliberately coerced his friends into assisting him to murder, or if this tragic incident was nothing more than a dreadful misunderstanding. The details of the e-mail from Andris Ozols were examined at great length. Long and complicated arguments about the understanding of the contents dominated several weeks of the trial. In the end, the jury decided that if there was so much confusion on the matter, then setting fire to the property without first checking to see if it was unoccupied had been the deciding factor around this technicality, of which all of Wilson’s defence rested. Adrian Wilson was sentenced to four concurrent life sentences. His accomplices, who had all given evidence against Wilson, faced five years each.
Wilson maintains that the deaths were never intended and plans to appeal.
Not long after the Odds on Justice website had appeared on the TV news and online news pages, it disappeared. The address was replaced with an “error 404” message. Investigators trying to locate the source which had hosted the page soon discovered that it had been hosted on a public access server located in Russia and was impossible to trace back to the original source.
The British government announced a “far-reaching review” into the practises of the gambling industry and how it is reacting to the new and emerging “online financial opportunities” which are currently unregulated. Several High Street banks have agreed to “explore” the “potential” of placing a gambling limit on their customers accounts, in a similar way to how they manage daily cash withdrawal limits. A number of smaller banks who have set-up similar schemes, such as Monzo the online bank, have offered to help the bigger banks introduce this technology to their services. There remains a small number of opposing voices who claim that any such changes are “further encouragement a nanny state.”
The loudest voices of opposition against any significant changes to the status-quo come from the owners and share-holders of the gambling companies who know that new legislation will spell the end of their “golden era.”
There has been no further communication from the Odds on Justice Twitter account, which was deactivated soon after the website disappeared. Every person who took part in the stunt on the city centre roof-tops was arrested as they tried to leave the buildings and all received a police caution for trespass in a police operation which took several weeks to conclude due to the numbers of people involved.
Police investigators were told by every single member of the roof-top protest that the reason they had thrown their phones hundreds of feet down onto the ground was because it would make it impossible to identify the individual who was managing the protest group and sending the Tweets. The authenticity of this detail is still being investigated, as data-communication details from Twitter suggest that the messages sent out on the morning of the protest had not originated from anywhere in Greater Manchester.
Twitter had the source location as a mobile phone mast 45 miles away, in the West Yorkshire area. The person sending the Tweets had been somewhere within or between Halifax, Keighley and Todmorden.
The End
A short note from the author…
As has happened a few times whilst I’ve been writing books regarding contemporary issues, a major news story broke about the topic featured in this story, while I was half-way through writing it. I was so impressed and surprised by the news that I did make a small reference to it in the story.
On the 1st of November 2018, Tracey Crouch, the Conservative MP for Chatham and Aylesford resigned from her very well-paid Cabinet position as “Minister for Sport.” The reason, she explained, was because the government were delaying the implementation of important changes regarding Fixed Odds Betting Machines, changes which would reduce the maximum stake of £100 to £2 (per 20 seconds.) This was a change which would lose the betting shops and the Treasury a heck of a lot of money, so they pushed it back 6 months.
To quote her; "From the time of the announcement to reduce stakes and its implementation, over £1.6bn will be lost on these machines. In addition, two people will tragically take their lives every day due to gambling-related problems and, for that reason as much as any other, I believe this delay is unjustifiable.”
This matter is clearly very important to Tracey Crouch and welcome proof that there are some politicians who care deeply about the role that they play in public life, even though it’s depressingly rare that we get to see it.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby tweeted that Tracey Crouch was "principled and courageous" adding: "May God bless her commitment to doing right."
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, there is support out there. Whether you are facing problems yourself, or if it’s regarding somebody close to you. Please get in touch with the National Gambling Helpline. They can genuinely help. Freephone 0808 8020133.