These stories were among the most read on The Lincolnite in 2020.
The coronavirus pandemic dominated the headlines across the world this year (read our local view), but we’ve been reporting many other interesting and quirky local news, including controversial statues and plaques, tributes to lost loved ones and the lane merging saga.
A large portion of this year’s stories have unfortunately still been filled with sadness, including tragic deaths and court reports, but there has been some positive news such as the Imps currently top of League One and the launch of a number of new businesses.
The Lincolnite has always been here to keep you informed throughout 2020 and we have taken a look back at twenty of the most read stories of the year:
The statue of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that will be placed in Grantham.
These two stories caused a big stir this year with many people outraged.
South Kesteven District Council leaders received backlash for agreeing to set aside £100,000 for an unveiling event for a £300,000 20ft controversial statue of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Grantham town centre.
The council arranged for the statue to stand on St Peter’s Hill Green where it will be put on a 10ft plinth to try and deter vandals from reaching it, but that hasn’t stopped many from planning an alternative attack.
Council leaders said they were confident the money would be paid back through donations and fundraising.
Also, over 14,000 people on Facebook registered their interest in attending an egg-throwing contest at the statue.
Before and after: Guy Gibson’s dog’s gravestone. | Photos: A. Carty (2008) RAF Scampton Info (2020)
Another 26,000 people called for a dog’s name, which is a racial slur, to be put back onto a gravestone at RAF Scampton.
The gravestone paid tribute to a black Labrador dog mascot of the RAF’s 617 squadron called Ni**er.
A counter petition was also set up claiming “history has not been altered” after the name was removed from his gravestone — but the new plaque stays in place.
Hundreds of people joined two Black Lives Matter protest marches in Lincoln back in June.
Chants of “Black Lives Matter,” “we want change” and “no justice, no peace” rang out through the centre of the city.
There was a touching moment at the second protest when everyone joined in to wave their arms and sing along to ‘This Little Light Of Mine’.
Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
There were also two protests in Cleethorpes this year. The first protest did not pass without trouble as police officers had to keep away an opposing smaller group and even had to us pepper-spray to get them to back off.
Humberside Police said the protest was largely peaceful, but a small group of people not protesting decided to use it as an opportunity to behave “inappropriately, threatening and assaulting officers”. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
The second protest was more peaceful with around 80 people in attendance.
They weren’t the only protests in Lincolnshire this year as Extinction Rebellion carried out action, including ‘rebranding’ Lincoln banks, holding a ‘rebels picnic’, and setting up a pop-up clothing stall to combat the impact of fast fashion.
A computer software student who strangled his mother and bludgeoned her partner to death with a hammer was convicted of their murders and jailed for life.
Andrei-Mihai Simion-Munteanu, 22, left the bodies of Leela Monti, 51, and Robert Tully, 71, at his mother’s bungalow on Lincoln Road, Branston, after carrying out the killings.
He was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 32 years before he can be considered for parole.
The families of Premm Monti and Robert Tully released a photograph of the couple. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
The defendant told the jury that he believed he was evil and decided to carry out the most evil act he could think off as he thought that would bring him happiness.
Falcon 9 passing over Grantham on June 1, 2020. | Photo: Maxine Parsons
A landmark rocket launch that flew into space back in May caused a lot of excitement in Lincolnshire.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX company sent a manned rocket to the International Space Station on May 30. The Falcon 9 rocket hosted the first crewed space journey from the USA since 2011, when the space shuttle programme was retired.
Hundreds of people watched the skies of Lincolnshire to try and catch a glimpse of the delayed launch after the original date of May 27 was postponed due to bad weather in Florida.
Manager Jurgen Klopp leads the Liverpool players down the Brayford. | Photo: Stuart Wilde / CoLC
Lincoln have made a great start to life in League One under the stewardship of manager Michael Appleton and the Imps ended the year proudly at the top of the table.
Back in September there was an extra special feeling of excitement as people gathered to see the players of Premier League Liverpool, and their manager Jurgen Klopp, taking in the sights and walking down Brayford Pool.
Lincoln lost the Carabao Cup tie 7-2, but it was always going to be a tough ask against the Premier League champions, and it didn’t stop it from being a special day.
A vast array of superstars. Photo: Stuart Wilde / CoLC
Let’s hope the mighty Imps can continue their fine form in 2021!
More than 1,000 people signed a petition to try and free a Lincolnshire mum from jail and assist with mental health support after she tried to kill herself and her two-year-old son.
After a sudden change of heart she instead rang for help, keeping herself and her child alive before telling nurses at hospital what she had done.
The court report explained how the mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of her son in their South Lincolnshire home on May 7 this year.
The story caused a huge reaction and two petitions — one signed by over 1,000 people to try and free the mum and another, with just 11 signatures, wanting her to be kept in jail.
The Crown & Arrows pub in Lincoln closed suddenly on August 16 after the death of the general manager Jeff Davis.
Jeff had been working at the pub since 2017 and died while on shift, prompting the premises to be closed temporarily with immediate effect.
Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.
Rob Calderbank, business unit director for Hungry Horse, the company which owns the Crown & Arrows, previously said: “It’s not an exaggeration to say that Hungry Horse is an extended family and we are all devastated by this news.”
“He was a one-off, irreplaceable.”
A popular figure in Lincoln, known to some as Big Tissue Guy, is being remembered as a Lincoln legend after his death this summer at the age of 57.
Stephen Baggott, nicknamed Baggy by his friends, was somewhat of an entertainer around Lincoln, famed for putting a smile on people’s faces on the High Street.
His daughter Hayley said: “He only ever wanted to be liked, and wanted to make people laugh and smile. I would love for him to be known as a Lincoln legend.”
The merging debate reared its ugly head again this year when vehicles straddled both lanes to block the A46 in Lincoln.
A five month road closure on Washingborough Road for Lincoln Eastern Bypass works also caused angry motorists to once again vent their frustrations over lane merging stand-offs.
Drivers have been accused of acting as self-appointed traffic police, sitting astride the white line during congestion and preventing others from using the outside lane and merging on the hill.
Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones said he was “sick to death of selfish HGVs crossing two lanes” on the A46 around Lincoln, calling lorry drivers who do this “total twonks”.
Police identified the victim as Roberts Buncis, 12.
Tragedy struck Fishtoft near Boston in December when the body of 12-year-old Roberts Buncis was found in a common area at the rear of Alcorn Green, prompting a murder investigation.
A total of three teenage males were arrested, aged 13, 14, and 19. The 14-year-old was charged with murder when he appeared in court and was remanded to a secure unit in Sleaford, with a provisional trial date set for June 21 next year.
The 19-year-old was released with no further action and the 13-year-old was released under investigation.
Roberts’ father Edgars said he was touched by the amount of support he received from the public after his son’s tragic death, including over £20,000 raised to help cover the funeral costs.
Zoe Watts has her own YouTube channel called Survival Mistakes.
A former Lincolnshire Police PCSO has been suspended by the force after weapons and explosive chemicals were found at her house in Lincoln. The YouTube survivalist and LGBT campaigner, who is seen brandishing an array of weapons in online videos, is awaiting trial.
Zoe Ashley Watts, 34, of St Helen’s Avenue, was formerly a member of the Bracebridge Lowfields Community Police Team working in the south of Lincoln. She then moved into a different role and has worked for the force for nine years.
Watts was later charged with having an explosive device, modified firearms and illegal butterfly knives at her home is set to face a jury trial on May 17 next year.
Watts has worked for Lincolnshire Police for nine years and had moved to a civilian role by the time of her arrest.
She has been suspended by Lincolnshire Police pending the outcome of criminal proceedings and an investigation.
Stewart Headley was jailed for 17 months. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
A couple who were saved from homelessness by the owners of a seaside hotel repaid their hosts’ kindness by stealing almost every item from the property, a court was told.
Stewart and Vicky Headley turned up on the doorstep of the Clumber House Hotel in Skegness asking for accommodation saying they had nowhere else to stay for the winter.
The owners Sarah and Stephen Lawson initially gave them a room and then asked them to “hotel-sit” while the Lawsons left the UK to enjoy a four-month trip pleased at the knowledge their business was in safe hands.
However, this proved not to be the case and the owners were left feeling so upset that they sold up.
Stewart Headley was jailed for 17 months. Vicky Headley was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for a year and 100 hours of unpaid work.
The three victims of the fatal crash: Ricky (left) Joby (centre) and Aiden (right).
A newly qualified driver was cleared of causing the deaths of three of her passengers after her overloaded car left the road and collided with a tree.
Kasey Boulton, 19, who had passed her driving test less than a month before the collision, had five passengers in her Vauxhall Astra including one in the rear footwell.
Ricky Sharp, 17, Aiden Sawyer,17, and Joby John Scrimshaw,14, all died. Boulton and the other two passengers were also seriously injured.
The party was hosted at the Viking House student flats on Newland. | Photo: The Lincolnite
A Lincoln student was fined £10,000 after police broke up a party attended by up to 100 people.
Lincolnshire Police were called to Viking House on Newland, which is managed by the University of Lincoln, during the evening of Friday, December 4, during tier 3 lockdown, and two days after the national lockdown ended.
Chief Superintendent Jon McAdam said when officers arrived they found a party “in full swing” and there were “at least 70 people, possibly up to 100”.
The university said at the time that it was taking the matter extremely seriously and an internal investigation was ongoing.
Tributes have poured in for Harry Cheston. Photo: Facebook
Family, friends and colleagues paid tribute after a 23-year-old Nottinghamshire man died in a construction incident in Lincoln in January.
Harry Cheston from Rainworth was working for subcontractors Melfort Construction on the Lindum Rudgard Lane student accommodation site off West Parade and was understood to have become trapped under an overturned tipper.
Over £4,500 was raised to help Harry’s family and at the time his mother, Leisa Jayne Cheston, said: “We will love you forever our darling son, you will always be our baby boy, our whole world, sleep tight my gentle giant.”
The controversial photos were posted on social media.
Three soldiers caused controversy on social media after stripping naked and climbing onto a retired Red Arrows plane used as a memorial at RAF Scampton.
The three soldiers on COVID-19 testing duty – Colour Sergeant “Tats” Taylor, Corporal Shane Woods and Private Anthony Panton – posed naked on a retired Hawk T1 Red Arrows plane.
The trio, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, were said to have been at RAF Scampton whilst running mobile coronavirus testing. It is alleged that they had been at a boozy party after ten days of coronavirus testing duty.
Patrick Malone was caught in a sting. | Photo: KKS
A Lincoln man found himself caught in a paedophile hunters sting after sending explicit messages and pictures to what he believed to be teenage girls.
Patrick Malone, 34, set up a meeting with someone he believed to be the girl on WhatsApp, but when he turned up he was confronted by members of a paedophile hunter group.
The group called the police, who then detained Malone. Malone was jailed for two years and ten months and was placed on the sex offenders register for life.
The inquest heard how he had been out socialising with friends during the evening of August 12 and shortly before midnight he was part of a group of young people who gathered at Starmers Pit in Lincoln.
During the early hours of August 13, Arnie joined other members of his group swimming. He did not appear to be in any distress and was seen to go under the water, but sadly did not resurface and his body was later recovered by underwater search teams.
A story just at the border in Nottinghamshire sparked a big and angry reaction after a dog was thrown into the River Trent with a heavy stone tied to its neck and left to die.
A woman spotted to Belgian Shepherd, whose name was registered as Bella in 2010, in Farndon in Newark and managed to drag her to safety.
Police dropped their investigation into reports that a stepmother was having sex with her teenage stepson, until the victim came forward four years later.
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began having full sex with the boy when she was in her early 30s and he was just turning 16. She was caught when the teen’s father hid a dictaphone in their home.
In March, she was sentenced to five years in prison.
Jim Broadbent in London Spy (2015). | Photo: WTTV Limited
Jim Broadbent is the most searched for person from Lincolnshire on Wikipedia, according to an online map which shows you famous people’s home towns.
‘A People Map of the UK’ looks at famous people that have been Wikipedia’d more than anyone else, and renames the place they were born or grew up in to match, and our story about it proved very popular.
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The Lincolnite welcomes your views. All comments are reactively-moderated and must obey the house rules. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers.
The first mayor to hold power for two years in succession since the First World War – and the first female to do it ever – is to pass on her mantle on May 18.
Councillor Sue Burke, the City of Lincoln’s 813th mayor, will pass the chains of office to Councillor Jackie Kirk on Tuesday during a meeting at Lincoln Cathedral’s Chapterhouse.
Mayors are supposed to only sit for a single year, however, due to the coronavirus pandemic, Councillor Burke was in her position for two.
The last mayor to sit for multiple years was Charles Thomas Parker, who reigned from 1915-19 while the First World War raged on.
Councillor Burke joins a group of just 14 of the 813 ceremonial mayors so far to sit for successive years, and she is the first female to do it.
She told Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Jaines that it had been “a great honour” and that she had “met so many smashing people” in her time in the role.
“For me, it’s, it’s very moving, that I served two years but I am truly sorry that it’s because of the pandemic,” she said.
She acknowledged the “rather difficult” year people had had during the pandemic, a time which had seen her first year’s calendar cut short.
The new Mayor of Lincoln Councillor Sue Burke and Sheriff of Lincoln Jo Rimmer with their deputies and members of the civic party. Photo: Steve Smailes
“It’s been very difficult, because my first year suddenly stopped, as did the world for everybody, and that was a bit of a shock.
“We had had lots of things planned for my mayoral charity Leap – which helps homeless young people – and I’m afraid we’d left it to the end of the year, we’d got some great things planned… but they didn’t go ahead so I was a bit sad about that.”
“I’ve been able to contribute to some Zoom meetings, however,” she said, highlighting in particularly Holocaust Memorial Day, Diwali and Carol services which had all moved online and given her “wonderful memories of people that I’ve met”.
“That’s been nice and the way that communities have managed to get together has been a highlight.”
In an era where council meetings were taken online, she said chairing council meetings had been “an experience”.
Mayors need to be politically neutral during their time in office and they also lead the full council meetings once a month (typically held in the historic chamber in the Stonebow).
Photo: Steve Smailes
Thankfully, she said she had never had to hit the mute button on a councillor, or pull a Jackie Weaver and boot someone out in the past year.
“The rules are that you respect the mayor and if they say sit down, you sit down and you stop.
“Figuratively speaking that’s the same with Zoom and basically people know if they’re out of order or not”
She denied, however, taking the opportunity to wear the Mayoral Garb around the house.
“No they won’t let me, aren’t they mean?” she joked.
“They won’t let me keep the chains, they get locked away at night,” she laughed.
Councillor Sue Burke will leave the role on Tuesday, passing the mantle to Councillor Jackie Kirk. | Photo: Steve Smailes
She said some memorable in-person events had been laying wreaths at the War Memorial on the High Street on Remembrance Sunday.
“Because it was quiet, there was no singing, it felt very, very special. It felt very thoughtful, a moving event,” she said.
In her role as Mayor she also attended Lincoln Cathedral for Evensong to remember the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip after he died.
“That was very moving and it was an honour to be there and feel I was representing the people of Lincoln, because not many people could go.”
A 29-year-old man suffered a minor injury to his hand and knee during an alleged robbery in Lincoln.
The man had his bag stolen by another male on Boultham Avenue at 12pm on Sunday, May 2 before the suspect ran off in the direction of the High Street with a group of around five others.
Cash and keys were in the stolen bag.
Lincolnshire Police launched an appeal for witnesses on May 17 and anyone with information should contact the force on 101 or via email at [email protected] quoting incident number 192 of May 2.
Alternatively, it can be reported through the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online here.
A couple on a boating trip in Lincoln helped to rescue a struggling and freezing cold dog from Brayford Pool at the weekend.
A crew from Saxilby and a water rescue team from Gainsborough Fire Station attended reports of a dog, believed to be a Terrier, in the water on Saturday, May 15.
Esli Richards and his fiancée Victoria Hayes were visiting Lincoln from Northampton for the weekend, staying in one of the Sealine yachts at Burton Waters Boat Sales.
The dog was trapped and had to be rescued. | Photo: Victoria Hayes
The couple decided to hire ‘The Imp’ boat on Saturday, which was named by The Lincolnite readers in March, and they decided to stop for lunch at the The Pyewipe Inn.
They were going to turn around and go back, but decided to venture on and are glad they did. As they got close to Wagamama at around 2pm they noticed something in the middle of the water that was moving and soon realised it was a dog.
Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue, police and a water rescue team were on the bank so Esli and Victoria offered to take them across on the boat.
The dog was freezing cold after being rescued and was taken ashore to safety. | Photo: Victoria Hayes
A man from Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue went on the boat with them and managed to hook the boat onto the nearby shrubs before jumping across. He untangled the dog, whose lead was caught in the shrubs and debris in the water.
The dog was taken back ashore and the emergency services/rescue team took her away to be checked over and to try and trace the owners.
Emergency services helped to get the dog ashore to safety, where she was checked over and fortunately uninjured. | Photo: Victoria Hayes
13:29 @SaxilbyFire crew & water rescue team from @GainsboroughFRS attended Brayford Pool to reports of a dog in the water. A passing boat took the crew out to the island, who retrieved the dog, who was uninjured. Thank you to the boat owner for your assistance
— Lincs Fire & Rescue (@LincsFireRescue) May 15, 2021
Esli told The Lincolnite: “We feel really happy as we’ve got dogs ourselves and wanted to help. After stopping at the pub, we then got into Lincoln and were going to turn around, but we kept going and are glad we did.
“It was our first visit to Lincoln and we’ll definitely come back again. The people are lovely and Burton Waters (Boat Sales) are fabulous.”
This wasn’t the only animal rescue in Lincoln over the weekend as a horse and deer were also saved, while Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue and the RSPCA also helped a pigeon in Boston.
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