World Briefs …

Driver pays 44-year-old parking ticket

PENNSYLVANIA – A driver has cleared his conscience by paying a 44-year-old parking ticket. The Minersville, Pennsylvania, police department received a letter last week with US$5 and a note inside. The return address was “Feeling guilty, Wayward Road, Anytown, California.” Police chief Michael Combs tells WNEP-TV the note said: “Dear PD, I’ve been carrying this ticket around for 40-plus years. Always intending to pay. Forgive me if I don’t give you my info. With respect, Dave.” The fine for the 1974 parking ticket in the eastern Pennsylvania town was US$2. But the person added US$3 for interest. The same ticket today would be US$20. Combs says the ticket was for a car with Ohio licence plates, but the department did not have the technology to track out-of-state vehicles.

CANBERRA – The most senior Roman Catholic cleric to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse was sentenced to 12 months in detention by an Australian court yesterday, in a landmark case welcomed by some abuse survivors as a strong warning to institutions that fail to protect children. Newcastle magistrate Robert Stone ordered Adelaide archbishop Philip Wilson to serve at least six months before he is eligible for parole. But Wilson will not immediately go into custody. Stone will consider on 14 August whether Wilson is suitable for home detention. He could live with his sister near Newcastle. Stone found the 67-year-old cleric guilty in May in the Newcastle local court of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by paedophile priest James Fletcher during the 1970s.

NORFOLK – A child died after allegedly being catapulted more than three metres into the air when a jumping castle “exploded” on a packed beach in Norfolk, England. The girl, who has not been named, suffered a heart attack when she was thrown in the air at Gorleston Beach, The Telegraph reports. She had been playing on the trampoline in a section of the beach called Bounce About, which also has an inflatable slide, traditional trampolines and a rodeo ride. The girl, believed to be no older than four, was taken to James Paget Hospital, where she died. Witnesses said they heard a loud bang, and saw the child being “catapulted” into the air. A man gave her cardiopulmonary resuscitation until an ambulance arrived. The owner of Bounce About, Curt Johnson (47), who was not present at the time of the incident, said the inflatable castle may have exploded in the heat.

– Nampa-AFP-AP-YOU