Decades-long neighbour boundary dispute finally settled in court
By Natasha Leake
A bitter neighbour boundary dispute has been settled in court - after raging for DECADES.
The row between two warring pensioners revolves around a quarter of an acre of disputed territory - with both parties saying it has cost them tens of thousands and affected their mental health.
Angela Coupe, 70, claims she first bought 1.5 acres of land in 1972, a five minute drive from her detached bungalow in Chesterfield, which she used for horses in 1974.
She built a wooden post along a concrete boundary which she said had been there since the 1930s.
The retired social worker and former Marie Curie nurse said she was “horrified” when she caught her neighbour Ian Revell, 66, and his late father moving the posts in her field in the mid 1990s and approached them.
She claims that she is entitled to 1.5 acres, and that the Revell family sold a quarter of an acre in 1945, leaving them with 0.77 of an acre.
However, Mr Revell has refused to budge and hit back at her claims.
He claims they are each entitled to one acre, meaning that Angela is currently encroaching by taking half an acre more than she is entitled to.
For nearly 30 years the two families have been at loggerheads, but Southern Derby Magistrates Court has now ruled in favour of Mr Revell with a judge ruling his adversary had lied about putting up a fence.
Following the verdict, Angela said she was "appalled" while Ian said it was only right as he claimed the plot had been in his family for years.
Angela has levelled the land she believes she owns and placed the good soil inside her boundary for further use for the land. She has also now claimed Mr Revell trapped the top soil in when he moved the fence.
She uses the land for her animals, including four rescue pigs.
“A quarter of an acre is a lot for rescue animals, it makes a difference to the animals. They have less land to graze in”, she said.
Meanwhile, Ian would prefer to leave the land as woodland. His late parents are buried nearby, and he claims the dispute has stopped his family from grieving.
"My mum used to go and visit my dad's grave on a regular basis. Once this dispute started, my mum never visited it," he said.
Ian and Angela were in a court dispute for around three years over the matter, which ended in January 2024 when Angela lost the case and was made to pay the Revell family £2000.
The total costs of the case are yet to be determined, but Mr Revell believes he has paid around £29,000 so far, while Angela believes the case has cost her £30,000.
Angela said she was now looking at ways to appeal, after claiming evidence she produced was not taken into account.
She added: "When I went up to them and asked them what they were doing, they said they’d measured the land and found we had some of their land.
“The surveyor measured me out 1.5 acres,” Angela said, explaining that the surveyor had put markers in what she believed were all the appropriate places.
The next morning, Angela discovered that all of the markers had been removed.
She said: "All the markers had been taken out by them and thrown on the land.
"I had to pay another £350 for the markers to be put in again and I begged my neighbours to have a surveyor even though they told me I didn't need a surveyor."
Mr Revell, 66, who lives in Glapwell, Chesterfield, claimed Angela was wrongfully trying to take a quarter of an acre away.
He added: “Her surveyor had measured an acre, when it was never an acre in the beginning.
“She accused me of moving the fence - it’s a complete and utter lie.
“It’s a piece of land that’s been in our family for years and years. It was my grandad who bought it years ago and he actually lived on the land.”
The dispute escalated to court in January 2024, and although Angela lost she still maintains her innocence.
She added: “The judge said that I had never put a fence up even though it was in my evidence, and that I had lied, and he said that I did not make contact with the neighbours. It’s appalling.
“I couldn’t eat for a week, I lost a stone for a week.
“I’m appalled by the justice system in this country. I wrote a letter to the judge and I’ve just had an email to say they can’t pass it on.
“I feel as though I have liar tattooed on my forehead,” she said, saying that she would now like to take a lie detector test to "clear" her name.
"I did not have the funds to get support at the time hence why i am in this situation now. I should have got advice from Citizens Advice Centre."
But the verdict was welcomed by Revell, who added: "The judge has said, no, you’re wrong.
“Four separate surveys have agreed that our fence was in the correct position more of less.
“It’s been a terrible three or four years because my dad’s grave is there so we’ve not been able to grieve properly.
“My mum used to go and visit the grave on a regular basis. Once this dispute started, my mum never visited it.
“I rarely go there because I feel so frustrated because she’s taken a quarter of our land.
“She was damaging our posts so I went with my brother in law to try and repair the bit that she was damaging.”
Ian said that the total cost of court bills has come to over £20,000 for him and his family.
He added: "It’s just loads and loads of hassle, especially around the time when my parents have been passing away - it’s just been bad.”
Angela is now due to remove her fences, which are in a position the judge deemed incorrect some point this month.
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"I have a condition where I'm permanently aroused - it has ruined my life"
By Hannah Van De Peer
A student has told of the reality of living with an excruciating condition which leaves her permanently aroused - and has ruined her life.
Student Scarlet Kaitlin Wallen, 21, has persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) - a condition which causes uncontrollable arousal.
Her symptoms started at the age of six - when she began to feel severe and constant “pins-and-needles” in her genitals.
In 15 years, she’s only had a handful of pain-free days - and she’s unable to work or study full-time.
But with treatments and surgeries being developed all the time Scarlet remains hopeful she’ll be able to have “a life without PGAD” one day.
She has even had some of her genital nerves removed in a bid to numb the pain.
Scarlet, a part-time courier and art student from Barrington, Rhode Island, said: “I’d been experiencing pain for as long as I remember.
“My vulva was constantly burning - it was like I was naturally aroused but I didn’t want it.
“There’s nerve pain, it's not wanted - and there's no pleasure. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to have a painless sexual relationship in my lifetime.”
Scarlet says her PGAD started when she was six years old - and it would stop her from playing out with her friends.
She described the pain as “burning bugs under my skin” - and like her genitals were on fire.
“In my brain it was like, I didn’t want to feel this,” she added. “I wanted to be playing outside.”
When puberty hit at the age of 13, she started experiencing random days without pain.
But the burning and unwanted arousal would come back with a vengeance after a couple of days - and Scarlet would deliberately use vapour rub on her genitals to distract from the unwanted arousal.
Chemicals in the rub would give her severe thrush - but she found the “rawness and burning” more tolerable than the pain from PGAD.
She said: “The PGAD on its own was unbearable - and such an odd sensation.
“I started trying to help it with vapour rub and found that at least if it wasn’t treating me, the pain I’d get from it was distracting.
“I wanted my genitals to burn from that, rather than the PGAD.”
Scarlet’s PGAD, alongside other conditions like OCD, meant she became reclusive as a teen.
She struggled to make friends due to her anxiety - and couldn’t stay around people for long periods of time in case she had a PGAD flare-up.
Just before graduating from high school, in 2020, Scarlet saw a doctor for the first time so she could attend college without worrying about her condition.
“By 18, I was quite certain my body was attacking me,” she added. “So I wrote a letter to my parents.
“I didn’t want to tell them face-to-face - but it was getting so bad I couldn’t hide it from them anymore.
“I wrote that I had this non-stop nerve pain that wasn’t even pain, it was worse.
“I told them it was something I had no control over.”
With the help of her dad, 54, an investment banker, Scarlet was referred to the San Diego Sexual Medicine Clinic in California.
Her clinician was certain Scarlet was experiencing PGAD alongside her other sexual dysfunctions, like post-SSRI sexual dysfunction - numbness in the genitals caused by antidepressants.
He also found she was suffering from another condition - congenital neuroproliferative vestibulodynia - which means the pelvic nerves are hypersensitive to touch, and Scarlet has been suffering from this since birth.
It's believe this caused the PGAD.
In a bid to find out the cause and correct treatment, he examined Scarlet for the first time.
But he found she had lots of complications - including a duplicate vagina.
It is unconnected to her PGAD.
She said: “My clinician, Dr. Irwin, told me he wanted to do a vestibulectomy - a surgery to remove painful tissue from the vagina.
“But during the examination, they found I had a duplicate.
“So first, I’d need to have the blocked tissue of the vagina removed - the thing that was causing it to divide into two parts.
“Then, I could have my vestibulectomy.”
In February 2023, Scarlet had her septate vagina wall removed - and only took a week to recover.
Her vestibulectomy took place on September 8, 2023 - but she only had parts of the painful tissue removed, giving her a greater chance of having a “normal” sex drive in the future.
She added: “I was told there was a significant possibility I wouldn’t be able to feel any sort of natural sexual arousal again if I had all of it removed - due to my post-SSRI sexual dysfunction.”
“I still want to have a sexual relationship - but my choice is currently between living with PGAD or being completely numb.
“I’m just hopeful that one day I’ll be able to live a normal life.”
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Heartbreaking video shows turtle choking on plastic
By Samuel Wightwick
This is the heartbreaking moment a turtle choked on a piece of plastic.
Video shows the turtle approaching the camera and gagging before spitting out a piece of clear plastic.
Diver Brittany Ziegler, 34, capture the moment on camera during a livestream about a plastic clear-up in Oahu, Hawaii, USA, to celebrate Earth Day.
Brittany, a content creator from Maui, Hawaii, USA said: "We were on Oahu for a weekend pledge against plastics so it was ironic that we captured that awful footage of the turtle on that day.
"Over 100 people showed up on the day and we cleared up a few thousand pounds worth of plastic out of the ocean.
"Whilst we were live streaming the clean up to thousands of people on my TikTok, this beautiful green sea turtle slowly approached us and spat this plastic out.
"I just thought you poor baby, we don't know how much plastic she could've had in her stomach either.
"She just swam right up to us, looked in the camera and spat the plastic right out. It was like she was trying to tell us something.
"They love to eat jellyfish and they just cant tell the difference."
Brittany streams her ocean dives on her Instagram and TikTok (@divedivelive) with the aim to get people invested in our oceans and their ecosystems.
She said: "I've been doing this for two years but didn't really start getting noticed until about a year ago.
"The page has been growing a lot but many people who watch don't dive themselves so the aim is to get more people in the water and to fall in love with the ocean.
"We take people out on dives in Maui to allow them to see animals underwater up close in the hope that they will built a connection and want to help."
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Urban explorer snuck into abandoned nuclear control room in Fukushima red zone
By Ben Barry
An urban explorer snuck into the abandoned nuclear control room in the Fukushima red zone - and found it frozen in time.
Lukka Ventures, 27, has been exploring abandoned buildings in the UK for four years.
After watching a documentary on the Fukushima nuclear disaster he headed out to explore the 'red zones' - sites that have been closed off - around the nuclear power plant.
He snooped round abandoned hospitals, malls and apartments which he said were untouched by time.
On March 11, 2011, a earthquake and tsunami initiated a nuclear incident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Three of the six nuclear reactors at the plant had severe damage and released hydrogen and radioactive materials and residents within 30 km of the site were ordered to leave.
Lukka, from Manchester, said: "It was a very surreal experience.
"Everything had been left, there were calendars on the wall were fixed on the same date of the disaster.
"You will walk into a building and there is stuff all over the floor.
"Animals have got in and tried to get food, you can see that the earthquake shook everything onto the floor."
Lukka, spent four days in the Fukushima red zones in Ōkuma, Japan, in February 2024, sharing his findings on his Youtube channel - @lukkaVentures
He carried a Geiger counter - an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation - to make sure he wasn't exposing himself.
He said: "We were sneaking through rivers and fences. We had to be really careful of how radiated some of the areas were.
"It was so so surreal. You would go into shopping centres and they would have food on the shelf.
"Everything has been left. Every building we went into was really weird."
Lukka found a nuclear bunker in what he believes was a training centre.
He said: "We entered a big glass building which had a model of the reactor in the lobby.
"We were close to the power plant that exploded.
"We walked around the building and there were rooms that had nuclear controllers in there."
Lukka said he found walking around the hospital a "scary experience".
He said: "I have never explored an area and be scared but the hospital was really scary.
"Seeing all the stuff, like bags, coats and other belongings gets you upset.
"I am not the type of guy to get upset but I did feel very sad walking around.
"The whole experience will stay with me forever."
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