News

Parents sued for share in £7 million estate

Published

12 years ago

March 28, 2014

A FARMER’S DAUGHTER from Whitland who claims she had to stay at home and tend the cows while her teenage siblings went dancing is now suing her elderly parents for a share of their £7 million estate.

Eirian Davies, aged 45, insists she was repeatedly assured by her parents, Tegwyn and Mary Davies, now in their 70s, that she would ultimately step into their shoes and take over the family’s ‘golden egg’ – thriving Caeremlyn Farm, Whitland, and its herd of pedigree Holstein cows.

She says a substantial stake in the 200-acre farm is no more than her due for the years of toil she put in, but her parents are fighting her every inch of the way and the case is now under the legal spotlight in the Court of Appeal.

Miss Davies testified at an earlier court hearing that she missed out on going to Young Farmers’ Club dances with her two sisters as a teenager because she had to stay at home to deal with her farming chores.

She said her parents told her that her sisters were not interested in the farm and that her patience would one day be rewarded.

“They always told me that the farm would be left to me. Even on my birthday, when the other girls were having things, they would say – ‘you will have the damn lot one day, it will all be yours’,” she told Judge Milwyn Jarman QC.

The judge found that Miss Davies had “established an entitlement to a beneficial interest in the farm or farming business” – but her parents are now challenging that ruling before three of the country’s most senior judges.

Timothy Fancourt QC, representing Mr Davies, aged 75, and his 76-year-old wife, argued their daughter had earned a fair income during her stints working on the farm and was provided with ‘bed and board’.

Her parents also put their daughter through agricultural college, said the QC, adding: “She said in terms that agriculture was her love and she wanted to be on the farm”.

Even when Miss Davies had worked elsewhere she failed to boost her earnings, said Mr Fancourt, pointing out that she only earned £5,000 while working as a consultant for Slimming World in 2006.

“So when the opportunity is there to do something else, she does worse”, the QC argued.

Insisting that she had suffered no ‘substantial detriment’ in reliance on anything her parents had said or done, he told the court there was no evidence that ‘she would have been better off’ had she not worked on the farm.

However, Leslie Blohm QC, for Miss Davies, said promises were made by her parents from 1985, when she was 17, and she had worked “extremely long hours” with the cows – at times underpaid, and sometimes for nothing.

If she complained to her parents about meagre wages, she was told that the farm would ultimately belong to her – and ‘not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg’, added the barrister.

Although Judge Jarman found that Miss Davies had ‘walked away from the farm’ for periods between 1989 and 2008, living and working elsewhere, she had eventually moved back home following a reconciliation with her parents.

Mr Blohm said the rapprochement also followed a ‘representation’ by her father that she could live on the estate, in Henllan Farmhouse, rent-free for life, and that she was to be a partner in the farming business.

In 2009, a pledge that she would inherit the farm was also made in a draft will, the barrister added.

However, following a final family ‘rupture’ in late 2012, her parents gave her notice to quit the farmhouse. Possession proceedings followed, but Miss Davies insisted she was entitled to a beneficial interest in the farm.

In his ruling last year, Judge Jarman said that, after periods away, Miss Davies had always returned home – “relying on the representations by continuing to work and live on the farm”.

And Mr Blohm told the court: “It is plain from the evidence that a talented, hard-working and capable lady has spent a substantial part of her adult life – over a period of 25 years – carrying out difficult physical work for the benefit of her parents.

“That was on the strength of their repeated representations that she would eventually take over the farm and business.

“If not for those representations she would have employed her skills elsewhere.”

Mr and Mrs Davies sat together in court throughout most of the hearing, although he later moved to a seat nearer to the judges as he is hard of hearing.

After several hours of legal debate, Lords Justice Richards, Underhill and Floyd reserved their decision on the couple’s appeal and will give their ruling at a later date.

Crime

Swansea man dies weeks after release from troubled HMP Parc: Investigation launched

Published

10 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man has died just weeks after being released from HMP Parc, the Bridgend prison now at the centre of a national crisis over inmate deaths and post-release failures.

Darren Thomas, aged 52, died on 13 November 2025 — less than a month after leaving custody. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has confirmed an independent investigation into his death, which is currently listed as “in progress”.

Born on 9 April 1973, Mr Thomas had been under post-release supervision following a period at HMP/YOI Parc, the G4S-run prison that recorded seventeen deaths in custody in 2024 — the highest in the UK.

His last known legal appearance was at Swansea Crown Court in October 2024, where he stood trial accused of making a threatening phone call and two counts of criminal damage. During the hearing, reported by The Pembrokeshire Herald at the time, the court heard he made threats during a heated call on 5 October 2023.

Mr Thomas denied the allegations but was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to a custodial term, which led to his imprisonment at HMP Parc.

Parc: A prison in breakdown

HMP Parc has faced sustained criticism throughout 2024 and 2025. A damning unannounced inspection in January found:

Severe self-harm incidents up 190%
Violence against staff up 109%
Synthetic drugs “easily accessible” across wings
Overcrowding at 108% capacity

In the first three months of 2024 alone, ten men died at Parc — part of a wider cluster of twenty PPO-investigated deaths since 2022. Six occurred within three weeks, all linked to synthetic drug use.

Leaked staff messages in 2025 exposed a culture of indifference, including one officer writing: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.”

Six G4S employees have been arrested since 2023 in connection with alleged assaults and misconduct.

The danger after release

Deaths shortly after release from custody are a growing national concern. Ministry of Justice data shows 620 people died while under community supervision in 2024–2025, with 62 deaths occurring within 14 days of release.

Short sentences — common at Parc — leave little time for effective rehabilitation or release planning. Homelessness, loss of drug tolerance and untreated mental-health conditions create a high-risk environment for those newly released.

The PPO investigates all such deaths to determine whether prisons or probation failed in their duties. Reports often take 6–12 months and can lead to recommendations.

A system at breaking point

The crisis at Parc reflects wider failures across UK prisons and probation. A July 2025 House of Lords report described the service as “not fit for purpose”. More than 500 people die in custody annually, with campaigners warning that private prisons such as Parc prioritise cost-cutting over care.

The PPO investigation into the death of Darren Thomas continues.

Crime

Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in

Published

10 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Court Reporter

A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.

The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.

Police find victim with four wounds

Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.

He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.

The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.

He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.

Defendant has long history of violence

Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.

Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.

Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

11 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Staff Writer

THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.

The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”

Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”

A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.