Anna Nicholas: The monsters among us

The felon, ironically a protection officer with the Metropolitan police, had been accused of sex offences some years earlier and just days before the attack had exposed himself. For some unknown reason, his previous misdeeds seemed to go un detected or ignored.

It is extraordinary that the forensic scientist wife of the killer professed to knowing nothing of her husband’s evil trajectory and was as mystified as the police and general public. It is, of course, not unusual for murderers and rapists to hide their vile and warped behaviour from their partners as has been proven so often with serial killers and criminals.

The particular horror of this case is that a so-called public protector committed the crime. For a Met officer to be accused of such a hideous and shocking attack on a busy road in London while cars streamed by, is extraordinary. How he managed to lure the poor victim into his hire car we can only guess. Heinously, he probably used his police badge to gain her trust.

Women feel unsafe enough on the streets of big cities in the UK without the added fear that someone in a position of trust is likely to betray them. The full details of this awful crime will be laid bare in the coming months but one thing’s for sure.

Monster, Wayne Couzens, can expect a very long prison sentence. It won’t bring lovely Sarah Everard back but it might possibly serve as a warning to the next rogue psychopathic police officer who comes along.

Euro-yobs
I’m not remotely interested in footie though scores of my chums are and so I’m very happy for the UK that it has reached the finals of the Euro Cup. All the same, the horrific xenophobia and violence of English fans towards ‘foreigners’ has been astounding and appalling.

Even young children have been targeted by these snarling and drunken yobs with one Danish family seriously threatened on a London bus. The husband was punched in the stomach while his wife and child cowered in fear for their lives and only escaped with intervention from other fans. It seems that since Brexit, the hatred towards all things foreign has accelerated and London based friends have admitted to a shocking rise in street murders and attacks since it and covid-19 raised their heads. The UK is becoming the embarrassment of Europe and the canker is seemingly incurable.

I am sanguine about who wins the euros at the weekend but in a way I hope Italy loses as I fear for its countrymen who would probably be mercilessly targeted on the streets following the match.

How sad that a happy international sports match brimming with goodwill should so often end in viciousness and hatred. Shame on those selfish and uncontrollable British yobs who ruin the beautiful game for their compatriots and everyone else.
Male castration aids longevity

Researchers in New Zealand have discovered that rams live as much as 60 per cent longer if they are castrated. It is well known that female sheep and humans live longer than their male counterparts but castration, it seems, is a game changer. Scientists have therefore come to the conclusion that men could live a good deal longer similar to rams if they had the ‘snip’. The question is whether men would prefer to live longer or retain their manhood. What price for longevity?

Track and trace

It seems that the days of the Stasi NHS track and trace app are soon to be over. Friends in the UK have admitted to cheating it especially in restaurants or public places. Their fear is being tracked and told to self-isolate if found to have been in the vicinity of an infected person.

This is hugely inconvenient if you have to go to work and are made to stay at home. The likelihood is that you won’t have been affected but the app errs on the side of caution meaning that many people are prevented from working. This is having a dire effect on the recovery of the British economy so no wonder Boris Johnson wants it scrubbed. However, friends tell me that they have been fooling the system for a while, pretending to scan their code in establishments and no one’s any the wiser!

Amber light in the tunnel
As Germany and France suggest to their citizens to avoid holidaying in Spain given its surging Covid cases, Britons are being allowed to travel here from 19, July and not quarantine when they return home, provided that they are double-vaccinated.

This is great news for the ailing tourism industry here and will hopefully mean that the summer season won’t be completely lost. The critical factor in all this is hospitalisation and death rate. If more people are getting the virus but only mildly and are not needing medical treatment, hopefully we’ll all just learn to live with the beast and life will go on. I suppose time will tell.

Anna Nicholas’s seventh Mallorca travel title, Peacocks in Paradise, is available to buy online at Amazon or in good bookshops in the UK from 12, July and from August in Spain. Follow her at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/team/anna-nicholas/