🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃

BILSTONWHISKYCLUB™©® "Curator".
BBC (leave it!) CEO.
Catspotter.
Partial to a gif.
#FuckGreed🇫🇮🍆 #DrinkUpHelpOut🐻
#Flange 🥃🐢💥

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

Shoutout to Anees* from @PaulJohnWhisky
Brought some belters to last night's #BilstonWhiskyClub™©® meet up.
*#StarAnees💥**
**#HereAllWeek🤠

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@Newckie @MasterOfMalt

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

I've just bought Ledaig Rioja Cask Finish - Sinclair Series from @masterofmalt 🍷 https://t.co/65NmGAuUz6
Mainly for the #FreeBeanie tbh
Anyways...
#Flange🥃🐢💥

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@PaulOBrien10 @PaulJohnWhisky @CafeBilston @jimmybullard @DalaiLama #Flange Paulinho🥃🇮🇳💥

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

The calm before the storm...
@PaulJohnWhisky (imminently) "Inda House" with Midlands' Premier (Bi-Monthly) Whisky Club at @CafeBilston
#BilstonMassive🤠
#MahoosiveCobs🐰
#BangingBeers🐻

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@VR46_Brian @PaulJohnWhisky @CafeBilston @jimmybullard @DalaiLama @TomsDram The "Wizard" has left the building...

[Growley Crowley @Bilcro]

A 46% Single Grain Irish whiskey from @teelingwhiskey for #MidnightClub. Sweet caramel nose. Warming honey, spice and dark fruit palate. Smooth creamy finish. Yum!😋

Sláinte!🥃

@FiShoop @kittyhen @j_k357 @ephoustonbill @pcr123 @Sav70 @mjpm67 @whiskytip @BertSmedley @DKenni

[The English Crusader @andrewc44104127]

Fiona Goddard was 16 when police returned her to the Pakistani-heritage grooming gang that raped her.

Fiona Goddard was 16 in 2010 when West Yorkshire Police officers removed her from a Bradford property where seven men of Pakistani heritage had abused her. Officers knew she was logged as an under-age child sexual exploitation victim, yet returned her to the house. One said: “She says she’s over-age — enjoy your night, lads.”

Daily Dazzling Dawn understands the remark, drawn from Goddard’s survivor testimony, has become a defining example of institutional failure in Britain’s grooming gang scandal. Goddard had run away from a children’s home in Bradford in 2008 at 14. What began with a request for a lighter became sustained grooming, rape and trafficking across Blackburn, Rotherham, Rochdale, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Oldham.

By the time officers found her in the Bradford property, she had been abused by at least 50 men, according to her account. Inside, some men were half-dressed and the lounge was strewn with empty bottles and drug paraphernalia. In the police car, intoxicated and disoriented, she mistakenly said she was 18. Officers had already checked the database and knew she was a child sexual exploitation victim. They drove her back regardless.

By 15 she was pregnant by one of her rapists. She gave birth days after her 16th birthday and her daughter was taken for adoption. The abuse continued for another two years. Goddard has said police repeatedly blamed her, calling her a “child prostitute” and accusing her of running a brothel by 17.

Analysis by anonymous researchers behind The Network Map indicates at least 60 police officers were implicated in grooming gang activity, either through active involvement or by ignoring sex crimes. The database draws on criminal trial transcripts, police and local authority records, survivor testimonies and media reports. It identifies more than 1,000 perpetrators and more than 3,000 connections between them.

The project follows a review by Baroness Louise Casey, which found that Asian and Pakistani-heritage men were disproportionately represented among grooming gang perpetrators and criticised agencies for failing to record ethnicity properly. Casey also said local authorities had avoided acting over fears of being labelled racist.

Nine men were convicted of 22 offences against Goddard and sentenced at Bradford Crown Court in February 2019 to a combined 132 years. Basharat Khaliq received 20 years. Saeed Akhtar was jailed for 20 years. Naveed Akhtar, Parvaze Ahmed and Mohammed Usman each received 17 years. Izar Hussain was sentenced to 16 years; Kieran Harris to 17 years; Fahim Iqbal to seven years; and Zeeshan Ali to 18 months. Goddard waived her lifelong anonymity, saying: “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Daily Dazzling Dawn learned that Goddard had repeatedly reported the case to police over five years before prosecution. She has said officers described her as streetwise, downgraded her missing-person reports and failed to treat her as a child in danger. Her case now sits at the centre of two unresolved questions: how many officers failed vulnerable girls, and what accountability remains when the perpetrators have been convicted but the institutions that enabled them remain largely unreformed.

Should the officers who returned a known child sexual exploitation victim to her abusers face misconduct proceedings, or does the 2019 prosecution of nine men close the accountability question?iui

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@keefmullin Wash your hands after throw ins🤠

[Paul O'Brien @PaulOBrien10]

A drop of @Powers_Whiskey Johns Lane and a @RascalsBrewing Bullseye Stout #MidnightFlange 🥃🐢💥 #Stouturday 🍻🍻

[stillofthisplace 🥃 @DKenni]

@CorkBeer @HouseAbbot @ryeriverbrewing @BrianVolkert @PaulOBrien10 @j_k357 @Bilcro @kittyhen @craftbeersoflre @BertSmedley @FiShoop @whiskytip Cheers G. I'm having a go at another Imperial stout. This time it's @vaultcitybrew Gingerbread House. My success rate with Impys is nearly as bad as my sours but this is class!

[SethOfficial @UTD_Seth001]

🚨Joe O’Cearuill JJ Gabriel’s father on his conversation with Michael Carrick and Jason Wilcox over Manchester United’s contract offer:

🗣️ Joe O’Cearuill: “I had a very honest conversation with Michael Carrick and Jason Wilcox about JJ’s future, and I think some people at Manchester United will be angry when they hear why we said no.

But I’m his father before I’m anybody’s friend at a football club.

JJ is 16 years old.

We are not going to make a decision about his future because of the Manchester United badge alone.

I asked them one simple question.

‘Where exactly do you see JJ playing?’

There was a pause.

And that pause told me a lot.

I said, ‘You want him to stay, but you can’t give me a clear pathway. You can’t tell me when he becomes part of the first team.’

JJ doesn’t want to spend years being told he is one of the best young players at Manchester United while waiting for someone to decide when he is ready.

He wants responsibility.

He wants competition.

Most importantly, he wants a pathway.

The contract discussion became serious.

Our proposal was a £5 million signing package, with performance bonuses taking it beyond £8 million, alongside a clear development pathway.

We also wanted regular first-team training and a defined number of senior appearances once he reached the appropriate age.

Manchester United weren’t prepared to agree to those terms.

Real Madrid were.

And that changed everything for me.

I told Carrick, ‘This isn’t about who pays the most money. It’s about who is prepared to make a commitment to my son’s development.’

‘If you want him to stay, show us where he fits.’

‘Don’t tell me he has potential. Tell me what you’re going to do with it.’

Michael was respectful, but I understood there were limitations.

He has a squad to manage.

Jason has a club to manage.

But I have a 16-year-old whose next decision could shape the next ten years of his career.

Then Real Madrid came into the picture.

Their message was different.

They didn’t say, ‘Come here and wait.’

They said, ‘Come here and compete.’

They were prepared to meet the financial package, accept the bonuses and give us a much clearer pathway toward senior football.

That mattered enormously.

I told United, ‘If you cannot give him what another club is willing to give him, you cannot be surprised when he chooses the other club.’

This isn’t disrespect toward Manchester United.

But Manchester United cannot expect every talented young player to stay forever because of the history of the shirt.

History matters.

Ambition matters too.

JJ wants to play for the biggest clubs in the world.

And when Real Madrid tell my 16-year-old son they believe he can become one of their players, I have to take that seriously.

Some people will say he should have stayed.

Some will say he is too young.

Some United fans will be furious.

I understand that.

But I would rather people be angry with our decision today than JJ wake up at 20 and ask why I didn’t fight harder for his career.

We didn’t reject Manchester United because we don’t respect the club.

We rejected the proposal because we didn’t believe it was the best one for JJ.

Real Madrid showed more ambition.

They showed more clarity.

And they were willing to put their money behind their words.

JJ is only 16.

He has a lot to learn.

But he also has huge ambition.

I’m not going to apologize for protecting that.

Manchester United had the opportunity to convince us.

They didn’t.

Real Madrid did.

So now JJ is going to Madrid to compete.

Not to be Cristiano Ronaldo.

Not to be Jude Bellingham.

Not to be anybody else.

To become JJ Gabriel.

And if Manchester United fans are angry, I understand.

But my responsibility isn’t to make Manchester United fans happy.

My responsibility is to make sure my son gets the best opportunity to become the footballer he believes he can be.”

[Growley Crowley @Bilcro]

#MidnightFlange with a 46% ‘Galánta’ Irish single malt from Drumshanbo. Honey, vanilla, fruit and subtle spice. Long warming finish. Lovely! 😊

Sláinte!🥃

@kittyhen @keefmullin @j_k357 @PaulOBrien10 @antrim_man @pcr123 @Sav70 @FiShoop @BadonicusX @DKenni @BertSmedley @whiskytip

[Sav @Sav70]

It's dead Jim.

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@whiskytip 🙄

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@Jotterface @HighlandPark @MasterOfMalt 🐰

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@Jotterface 🙄🎅🍆

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@kittyhen @PaulOBrien10 @Arsenal @RascalsBrewing @cb_phil @j_k357 @CorkBeer @mjpm67 @BrianVolkert @craftbeersoflre @Imagicranium @Bilcro @TomsDram @tomhanks 👀👀

[🥃🐢💥Bert Smedley💥🐢🥃 @BertSmedley]

@SteveAtkiss Steve💥
Sort that #Retweet thing out (ffs!).
Maybe "lose" the padlock?

[Growley Crowley @Bilcro]

#WinterBeers 2026 begin with a summery 6.5% 2025 ‘Miami J’ IPA from @ryeriverbrewing. Tart tropical explosion in a soft pillowy package. Yum!

Cheers!🍻

@keefmullin @Imagicranium @BadonicusX @j_k357 @whiskytip @cb_phil @PaulOBrien10 @antrim_man @pcr123 @craftbeersoflre @FiShoop