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4  SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2018 WALES ON SUNDAY

latest news at www.walesonline.co.uk

‘i was nOt
New call
for vote
on Brexit
treaty

allowed
A Tory donor has called for a
second Brexit referendum as
left-wing group Momentum
said it would consult its mem-
bers on what stance to take on
EU withdrawal.
Former Rolls-Royce chair-
man Sir Simon Robertson in-
sisted he is “deeply depressed”

to leave
at the tone of the Brexit debate
and wants a new vote on any
exit deal agreed with Brussels.
He told the Observer: “I
think it is complete balderdash
to say the people have spoken,
therefore you can’t go back
– why can’t we have another
vote on it?
“We had a brilliant deal with
Europe. We had an opt-out on
ever-closer union.”

our home’
The comments came as the
Jeremy Corbyn-supporting
grass-roots campaign group
Momentum announced it
would ask members later in
the year if a Brexit deal should
be voted down if it does not
meet the six prerequisites set
out by Labour.
The group said it is taking
no position on any Brexit mo-
tions at the upcoming Labour
conference, where Mr Corbyn
is expected to come under
pressure to back a “people’s
vote” on withdrawal terms.
Momentum’s national co-or-
dinator Laura Parker said: “We
will, like other organisations
from the Labour movement,

‘He insisted on coming into the bathroom

be asking our members what
they think about the issue.”
Labour tests for a Brexit deal
include calls for any with-

with me when I needed the toilet’ – woman

drawal agreement to deliver
the same benefits as the single
market and customs union,
and a fair migration system.

Record bid tells how former partner kept her prisoner

may be an
uphill task Sophie’s former partner locked the doors and windows and sent text messages to her mother pretending to be her

A road in North Wales could
be in the running for a Guin-
ness World record.
Fford Pen Llech in Harlech
is, according to resident Gwen
Headley, steeper than the road
that currently holds the record
for the most punishing gradient
in the world.
Baldwin Street, Dunedin,
New Zealand, may face a chal-
lenge from the Harlech street.
Mr Headley, 72, said: “At
its maximum, the slope of
Baldwin Street is about 1:2.86
(19 degrees or 35%). For every
2.86 metres travelled horizon-
tally, the elevation changes by
a metre. Clearly, Ffordd Pen
Llech in Harlech is steeper than
Baldwin Street in Dunedin.”
He wants Guinness World
Records to examine the claim.
Sophie Crockett was a prisoner for four days in
the home she shared with her former partner
A
woman was kept prisoner
by her partner who wanted
them both to die “like
Romeo and Juliet”.
Sophie Crockett is now free from
Simon Matthew Tibble, who kept her
prisoner in the house they shared as
a couple.
Sophie met Tibble when she was
17 while canvassing for a political
party.
He was 13 years older than her
and, she said, his fixation with her
began immediately.
Sophie said he started to attend
meetings just to see her, before turn-
ing up at her front door.
Sophie, from Mountain Ash,
Cynon Valley, said: “The first time I
met him outside of meetings, he
started holding my hand and stand-
ing really close to me.
“I felt uncomfortable with this as I
didn’t know him, but because of my
anna lewis
Reporter
anna.lewis@walesonline.co.uk
social anxieties I did not say any-
thing.
“He also turned up at my house
that I inhabited with my parents
without me telling him my address.
“He turned up on the doorstep
with ice-creams. It frightened me but
again I kept silent.”
Home-schooled from the age of 10
due to issues around socialising,
Sophie found herself with no friends
to talk to about what was happening.
Things started to move quickly,
against the warnings of her parents.
Sophie, who has Asperger’s syn-
drome, said: “He didn’t have a bed
but an air-bed and, because I used to
be cold, he used to make me sleep on
the wooden floorboards.”
Sophie, now 25, said Tibble would
wash and feed her and tell her not to
wear make-up.
Instead he would tell her to dress
in jeans and a T-shirt with a bow on
top of her head.
She said: “After a few months he
pressured me to move in together so
we rented a semi-detached cottage
that he named the Magnetic Cottage
– he used to say we were both sides of
the magnet. He was north and I was
south.
“I had a puppy given to us, a Cava-
lier King Charles Spaniel called Star.
“He used her as a tool against me,
stopping me from leaving, saying that
otherwise he would hurt her.”
The couple’s two-year relationship
began to change.
Tibble refused to let her out of his
sight, threatening her parents if she
did.
Sophie said: “He insisted on com-