‘I never gave up hope’ – taxi driver David Butler acquitted of Anne Marie Foy murder speaks out

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A TAXI driver cleared of the 2005 murder of a Liverpool gran today told how he hopes her family will one day see justice.

David Butler spent an “horrendous” seven months in prison after being charged with killing sex worker Anne Marie Foy before he was acquitted by a jury last week.

Still getting used to being a free man again the frail and terminally-ill 65-year-old Wavertree dad-of-three told the ECHO he rarely gave up hope he would be found innocent but his time in HMP Walton saw him have “dark, dark days” where he contemplated giving it all up.

Mr Butler, who used to combine his time driving Hackney cabs with training young football teams at Mossley Hill Athletics Club, was arrested in November 2010 by the cold case team which re-opened the September 2005 murder of Ms Foy.

Mr Butler was linked to the crime, which saw the 46-year-old mum-of-four – originally from Dovecot but who also lived in Tuebrook and Kensington – battered to death in bushes in the city’s red light district, through a scientific breakthrough in DNA.

 A partial profile found on Ms Foy’s clothing and under her finger nails was “more than a thousand billion times” more likely to be Mr Butler’s than anyone else’s, the prosecution told the Liverpool Crown Court trial last month.

But experts for the defence queried the validity of the findings and attacked the processes used to get them.

The jury deliberated for nearly eleven hours before clearing Mr Butler who suffers from debilitating COPD (a mix of chronic bronchitis and emphysema).

Today he told the ECHO: “Something comes along sometimes which is life-changing but you never see it coming so you are never prepared for it.

“It is difficult to put into words how I feel now.

“The major worry for me was how this would impact on my family, not on me. They are my life. I was never really worried about myself.

“We have to remember there were victims here and we all saw Anne Marie’s family and their reaction afterwards [some quickly left the courtroom in tears] and I didn’t expect anything else.

“No-one should lose their mother in those circumstances and I wish them every success in getting justice. This was another false dawn for them which must have been hard but it has to be the right man and it wasn’t here.”

Mr Butler was charged and, despite his failing health, remanded into custody last June.

He was kept on the “vulnerable prisoner” wing and attacked by another inmate in the mistaken belief he was a sex offender.

Read more: ‘I never gave up hope’ – taxi driver David Butler acquitted of Anne Marie Foy murder speaks out

Half Marathon and Sky Dive for Clatterbridge

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The leap in to Spring has seen a  flurry of high adrenaline sports being completed by some of the Cobley’s teams.
 
The events kicked off with the Liverpool Half-Marathon on Sunday 28^th March 2012 which saw our Laura Tipping and Jonathan Mc Ilveen  complete their first half marathon. After the success of the Team Challenge 5k in October, the pair decided to take on the challenge of the 21 kilometre (13.1 mile) course.
 
The day itself was glorious and saw in excess of 6,300 runners from as far away as Mexico, Brazil and Australia line up at the Queens Dock by the Echo arena. Olympic silver medallist Kriss Akabusi was at the start to give runners some encouragement and to officially start the race.
 
The 13-mile course took runners through the fringes of the city centre onto Upper Parliament Street, Princes Park and Sefton Park, Otterspool promenade and back to Queens Dock by the ECHO arena. Both runners finished the race with respectable times of 1:56 (Laura) and 1:34 (Jonathan).
 
Both runners thoroughly enjoyed the experience and despite some aches and pains the following week, they are already planning the next race!!
 
Without much time to stop for breath, however, it was on to the next activity – a Sky Dive from 14,000ft!!
 
The event was scheduled for Sunday 25^th March 2012 and saw our Laura Tipping and Laura Graham travelling to the airfield in Lancaster for the 8:00am start! Despite not jumping until 15:00, both Laura’s were surprisingly calm and enjoyed the sunshine whilst they waited. They both completed the jump without injury and described the experience as “incredible” and “amazing”.
 
The Dive was initially a “one off” event, however, both Lauras enjoyed the experience so much that they are already busy recruiting other members of staff to repeat the experience.
 
Laura and Laura were raising money for Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology which provides treatment and care for more than 2.3 million people with Cancer across Merseyside, Cheshire, North Wales, the Isle of Man and parts of Lancashire. So far they have managed to raise over £1,000 via their JustGiving page – http://www.justgiving.com/teams/lauraskydive

Cobleys LLP at the Birmingham Boishakhi Mela 2012

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On 27^th May 2012, Stephen Erickson, Keith McLaughlin and Jamal Hussain from Cobleys LLP all went to the first ever Boishakhi Mela in Birmingham.

The Boishakhi Mela is a special and distinctive festival, which has been created by the ever growing British Bangladeshi Community, to celebrate the Bangla New Year.  The event was the first of its kind in Birmingham and Cobleys LLP were proud to be one of the sponsors of this event.

The Boishakhi Mela hosted many international musicians, local artists and dance groups. The Mela took place in Handsworth Park. There were about 75 stalls all with a mix of food, products and services and retail sales.

One of these stalls was a Cobleys LLP stall; we provided the public with some advice and passed on information about the range of services which the firm has to offer, along with some free Cobleys Pens, which seemed to be a hit!

Stephen, Keith and Jamal all thoroughly enjoyed the event and loved interacting with the various people who visited the stall.

Stephen “The event was a huge success. It was marvellous to meet so many people who all were obviously enjoying the Mela in the sunshine. The event was organised superbly. We at Cobleys were grateful to be invited to take part by having a stall. We had many visitors throughout the day to the stall. The pens we were giving away were certainly a hit!“

Keith “it was the first time that I had attended a cultural event of this size, the music, food and atmosphere was fantastic helped along by the glorious weather. All in all a fabulous day.                                 “

Jamal “the weather was absolutely amazing, the event was a great success and we are proud to have sponsored this event, up to 35 thousand people came to this event and I can say that we all had an amazing time, it’s great to interact with everyone and just have a great time at this Mela.”

We would like to thank Mr Mukit Miah and Mr Masrur Ahmed for inviting Cobleys to be apart of The Birmingham Boishakhi Mela 2012.