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Wednesday March 20 | 2019
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THREE CHEERS: The staff of Atom Group celebrate as part of the company, Maverick Drinks, receives the Queen’s Award for Enterprise from the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Viscount De L’Isle. Full story, page 2
Ralph held in Broadmoor after verdict of double manslaughter By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk A MAN has been convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility after he killed two next-door neighbours in Hadlow. Jack Ralph was found guilty by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday [Tuesday] after he stabbed Margaret Harris, 78, and her daughter Sharon, 55, to death on Carpenters Lane on September 29 last year. He also stabbed Mrs Harris’s husband David, 76, and was convicted of his attempted murder. He will be detained indefinitely in a high-security psychiatric hospital. As reported in the Times last week, Ralph had Googled ‘how long for murder?’ the night before he attacked them with a carving knife in what he called a ‘blind rage’. The 28-year-old former chef and labourer had lived next to the Harris family with his mother Julie for 18 years.
He knocked on the back door of their house at 7.30am and attacked them with an 8in blade. The court heard Ralph had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2017 and was under ‘non-statutory’ care of a community health team. He was prescribed anti-psychotic medication, and took a dose half an hour before the attack.
‘Mr Harris’s absence speaks eloquently of the unnatural horror of what you did’ He told psychiatrists he had heard voices ‘commanding’ him to kill his neighbours who were in ‘God’s bad books’. He said he had seen one of the Harris family wearing a red coat during the days leading up to the incident and thought this meant they were going to attack his mother.
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NO WAY OUT: Motorists have found themselves stranded in the middle of the junction
New safety measures introduced to protect pedestrians outside station CHANGES have been made to the reconfigured junction outside Tonbridge railway station to alleviate concerns about safety. Half a million pounds was spent on the works, which took six months to complete. But the triple junction has caused confusion among pedestrians and motorists. The new design was supposed to help manage the flow of traffic, particularly at peak times when students are using the station and adjacent bus stops.
But drivers have complained of congestion backing up to Vale Road and Pembury Road. And Kent County Council [KCC] Highways felt compelled to issue a warning about the conduct of schoolchildren using the crossings. Tim Middleton, KCC’s Principal Transport Planner explained: “Part of the issue we are finding is the junction becomes blocked by vehicles who are entering when their exit is not yet clear.”
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