Strangers' Britain
Baby joy for superdad Bob aged 79
Grandad Bob Davidson is set to become Britain's oldest dad - at the ripe old age of 79. Bob is due to be a father for the fifth time on Valentine's Day when wife Susan, 36, has the baby he calls "the last of my summer wine". Bob said: "I'm thrilled - I never used to believe in miracles, but I do now." And he revealed that the baby follows amorous antics among the azaleas. Bob, of Withywood, Bristol, said: "Before this, we hadn't made love for nearly a year - but then I started feeling sexy when we were in the greenhouse." And with a twinkle in his eye he added: "It was a cracking do- but I've hardly been able to manage it since." Bob, who married Susan 11 years ago, insisted their 43-year age difference was irrelevant when it came to loving.A fowl snack
Party girl Michelle Gibbins bit off more than she could chew when she tucked into a chicken snack. For the tasty-looking morsel turned out to be a bolt from the blue.As the pretty 17-year-old spat blood, she discovered the chicken finger she ate at a party contained a 72mm metal bolt and washer. Michelle, of Selly Oak, Birmingham, said: "It was horrible - one side of my tongue and gum were cut and they both bled."
Now the firm that produced the fowl finger - GW Padley (Poultry) Ltd - has been fined £100 by magistrates in Tamworth, Staffordshire.
Company bosses claim the bolt was put there by a "disgruntled" worker.
But magistrate Arnold Ward said: "The public has to be protected, even if a product is deliberately sabotaged.
"We fully accept there has been no question of a hygiene slip-up or negligence on Padley's part."
Engagement ring, complete with box
An engaged couple are being given a romantic wedding present by British Telecom - the phone box where they fell for each other. Mark Robinson, 20, met Jeanette Hannon, 19, four years ago when he was waiting to use the phone and she was inside the kiosk in Middlesbrough, Cleveland.Mark, a steelworker, said: "She took so long I knocked on the window." Then he asked Jeanette for a date.
Telecom, which is replacing old kiosks in the area and selling them off at £200 a time, is making a gift of this one.
Car drags a girl of ten for half a mile
A pretty schoolgirl will be scarred for life after being dragged by a car for half a mile in a freak accident. Ten-year-old Michelle Barnett was pulled along by her neck when her scarf jammed in the door. With one hand she fought to stop herself being choked, and used the other to keep herself from falling under the wheels.
After her ordeal, which ended only when the scarf snapped, she was left with hardly any skin on her back and feet. Surgeons say Michelle, of Mexborough, South Yorkshire, will need extensive skin grafts. The car driver, who had given Michelle and a 17-year-old cousin a lift, couldn't hear her screams because of torrential rain and the wind.
Snooker fan, 82, refuses to play safe
Police had to drag an 82-year-old woman from her house minutes before a 1,000lb IRA time-bomb demolished it."She wanted to stay to watch the end of Dennis Taylor's snooker match against Jimmy White," the RUC said.
Mrs Bridget Gervin, whose home is opposite the police station in Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, knows snooker ace Dennis who grew up there.
The little snooker club where Dennis learnt his skills was also damaged by the Provo bomb. His picture was the only one to fall from the walls, however.
"It wasn't his night," said club manager Jo Gervin. "He was beaten 5-3 in the quarter-finals of the Benson and Hedges Masters."
A witness comes clean
A key witness stopped a court hearing for two hours while he took a bath. Pakistani Zah Mafooz, a devout Muslim, had refused to take the oath upon the Koran because he said he was unclean.Judge Harry Walker, adjourned the case at Leeds Crown Court, where three men were charged with affray, until Zah felt he could tell the wholesome truth.
Detective Sergeant John Eskriett said: "There are no showers in the courtroom, so I had to take the witness to the public swimming baths down the road." After stripping off and diving in, sweet-smelling Zah got dressed and returned to the witness box.
Barrister Miza Rashid, involved in the trial and a lecturer on Islam, explained: "It is paramount that Muslims only touch the Holy Book when they are completely clean."
Father had children by daughter
A man fathered six children by his own daughter during an incestuous relationship lasting 12 years.Because of the blood ties between the two, one child died when she was four months old from a rare liver disease and another is in hospital with the same illness. The man, a 54-year-old builder from Luton, Bedfordshire, was jailed for five years at St Albans Crown Court after he was found guilty on six charges of incest dating back as far as 1972.
