Terror suspect pictures: An apology
24 Aug 2006
Following a lengthy exchange of correspondence between DeadBrain and lawyers acting for Brenda Shuttleworth, a pensioner from Grimsby, DeadBrain would like to apologise to Mrs Shuttleworth for mistakenly identifying her as a terrorist. We now accept that Mrs Shuttleworth is not the leader of an al Qaeda cell; that she is not a close personal friend of Osama bin Laden; and that she has never attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.We would also like to make it clear that Mrs Shuttleworth is not an Islamic extremist; she is in fact a prominent member of her local church group. Specifically we acknowledge that she did not use a cake-baking competition as a cover for a bomb-making factory, and her Dundee cake is well known locally as being excellent.
DeadBrain now realises that it was a mistake to publish pictures of Mrs Shuttleworth under such titles as "Revealed: Bin Laden's right-hand woman", "Exclusive: Pensioner behind plot to bring down planes" and "The cake-maker of doom". In particular we regret posting a video of Mrs Shuttleworth tending to her begonias on YouTube with a sinister voice-over as this did not add anything to the story.
We apologise for the distress caused to Mrs Shuttleworth, her friends and family, her vicar and her budgie, Douglas.
