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Margaret Moran gets supervision order for £53,000 expenses fraud
Former Labour MP will not get criminal conviction for making bogus expenses claims after judge ruled she was unfit to pleadThe former Labour MP Margaret Moran, who was found unfit to plead to charges of fiddling £53,000 in parliamentary expenses, has beengiven a two-year supervision and treatment order.

Making the order, the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said: "There will inevitably be feelings among some that Mrs Moran has 'got away with it'. What the court has done and has to do is act in accordance with the law of the land and on the basis of the evidence that it hears."

Moran's false claims were the largest uncovered in the MPs' expenses scandal, but she was ruled mentally unfit to plead. A jury decided that she did the acts alleged against her, but she will not receive a criminal conviction.

"The findings of the court were not convictions. Those findings enable me to make orders requiring her to undergo treatment for her mental health," said Saunders.

Moran, 57, from Southampton, who represented Luton South for 13 years, was not present at the Southwark crown court hearing. Psychiatrist Dr Simon Kelly said he last saw her on Tuesday. He said: "She remains very distressed, very agitated. She is severely ill."

He added: "She's living a restricted lifestyle. sShe has not answered the telephone at home for approximately three years. She goes out very occasionally, to a local supermarket for 30 minutes.". She also walked her dog, he said.

A recent newspaper article, reporting she had been spotted at a pub, "was deeply distressing to her", said Kelly, from the Priory hospital in Southampton. As a result, she "experienced panic attacks, nightmares and believes she is going to be doorstepped at any point".

Asked what would have happened if she had come to court, he said: "She's so sensitised to publicity this would have been the most difficult place for her to come. I wonder physically whether it would be possible to get her here.

"I don't know whether it would be physically possible to remove her from her home without restraining her."

Moran's lawyer, Jim Sturman, said: "The more vengeful press, who hound her at her front door, seem to think that the only way someone can be demonstrably mentally ill is if they are in a straitjacket in a padded cell."

The psychiatric reports, in April, all agreed she suffered from this mental illness, he said. "Hounding a mentally ill woman is a dangerous and vile thing to do, at any time, particularly post the Leveson conclusions. It could have led to an increased risk of suicide."
"There will always be sections of the media who believe it's a huge con. But they have not read all the evidence," said Sturman, who said he was making these observations on behalf of Moran's husband.

The judge said two distinguished psychiatrists instructed by the defence had concluded she was unfit to plead, and a psychiatrist instructed by the prosection broadly agreed. "All the evidence in the case was that she was unfit to plead. If I had reached any other conclusion my decision would have been perverse and would inevitably have been successfully appealed," he said.

Among Moran's claims was an invoice for £22,500 in August 2008 – just under the annual maximum expense allowance for an MP – to treat dry rot at her Southampton home. The money was used instead to fund "home improvements".

She was able to make the dry rot claim by "flipping" her two homes – changing which property was her second home and therefore allowing her to claim expenses on it.

One invoice in August 2007 was for £14,805, apparently for boiler repairs and work on her conservatory in her constituency home in Luton, when it was actually for her house in Southampton, the court heard.

On another fake bill for more than £4,000, address details given for a building firm were those of an elderly couple.

The judge said his rulings did not affect any steps being taken through the civil courts to recover any money Moran received to which she was not entitled. Louis Mably, representing the crown, said the matter was under consideration.

The order imposed would be under the supervision of a mental health social worker employed by Southampton city council, and Moran would be treated by Kelly, with a view to the improvement of her medical condition.

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Speaking of which, there have been more suicides in the U.S. Military this year than
deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. To date: 303.

Chris Kyle, former Navy SEAL and author of the New York Times bestseller American Sniper, was one of two victims killed in a shooting at a Texas gun range Saturday.

According to a local news station, police have arrested a suspect in the slayings. The suspect reportedly shot Kyle at point-blank range while he attempted to aid a fellow veteran.

Kyle reportedly achieved 160 kills as a sniper in the Navy SEALs. His author profile at Amazon.com summarizes the extensive decorations he received while serving:

SEAL Team 3 Chief Chris Kyle served four combat tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom and elsewhere. For his bravery in battle, he was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation. Additionally, he received the Grateful Nation Award, given by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Following his combat deployments, he became chief instructor for training Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper teams, and he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual.

The shooting occurred in Erath County, Texas, some 50 miles from Fort Worth.

UPDATE: A close friend tells Breitbart News that Chris Kyle was at a veterans' charity event, helping a fellow military member learn sniper shooting technique, and that he was shot by a Marine suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. The suspect, Eddie Ray Routh, has been arrested in Lancaster, Texas in connection with the shooting.

Chris Kyle had it coming,

When you go overseas thinking you are serving your country when in reality you are merely serving corporate interests of the rich and powerful, killing those who were merely resisting an occupying force of Imperialism. The Iraqi's that Chris Kyle killed had more balls than him, for he killed people at a distance. The irony here is that Chris died at point blank. But then again who cares? You flag waving, moronic drones don't know the definition of imperialism.