Subculture hate crime to be recorded

4 April 2013 Last updated at 03:42 ET

A police force has begun recording attacks on members of subcultures, such as goths and emos, as hate crimes.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the first force in the UK to treat the offences in such a way.

Previously hate crimes were only registered for offences against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity.

GMP has worked with a charity set up following the murder of 20-year-old goth Sophie Lancaster in 2007.

Ms Lancaster was attacked in a park in Bacup, Lancashire, on 24 August 2007, along with her boyfriend Robert Maltby, because of the way they were dressed.

She was kicked and stamped on as she cradled her badly beaten boyfriend.

While Mr Maltby made a partial recovery from his injuries, Ms Lancaster slipped into a coma after the attack and died later in hospital

'Major breakthrough'

After her death, family and friends set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

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The charity campaigns to change attitudes in society towards people who may have a different lifestyle or appearance.

The foundation has been working with GMP to educate officers.

Ms Lancaster's mother Sylvia said: "I think [what the police are doing] will make a vast difference. We're finding people are coming to us and saying since we started our campaigns they feel safer."

BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said offences motivated by hatred for the victim's race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity could receive higher sentences.

But, our correspondent said, without a change in legislation, police in Greater Manchester can do little more than record subculture hate as an element in a crime.

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We need to make a stance here... in memory of Sophie"

End Quote ACC Garry Shewan Greater Manchester Police

The force says by becoming the first to do so it will raise awareness of the problem.

Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan said this new understanding of hate crime was a "major breakthrough", adding: "This means that we can recognise the impact that alternative subculture hate crime has on its victims and the wider community.

"Any crime motivated by hate is an insidious and evil crime and I hope other forces will follow our lead.

"We need to make a stance here and say clearly, in memory of Sophie, protecting the victims of hate crime should extended beyond those the law already safeguards."

However, former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, said he had reservations about changing the legal definition of a hate crime.

He said: "People's racial origins, their religion, their sexual orientation, people's dignity in the face of disability - these have been lines in the sand with the law saying, look, these are crimes that threaten social cohesion as a whole and therefore national life.

"I'm a little cautious about watering down this concept."

Ryan Herbert and Brendan Harris, both from Bacup, were jailed for life in 2008 for Miss Lancaster's murder and for causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Maltby.

Sentencing them, Judge Anthony Russell QC said: "This was a hate crime against these completely harmless people targeted because their appearance was different to yours."

Goths emerged as a youth subculture in the early 1980s and the term was initially used to describe a form of music.

It has since evolved to encompass literature, art and fashion, with its exponents typically dressing in dark clothing.

A spokesman for GMP added: "You can let Greater Manchester Police know about an alternative subculture hate crime via the national True Vision on-line reporting form. Select 'other' as a category and write 'alternative subculture' in the box provided."

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UK must keep Trident - Cameron

4 April 2013 Last updated at 03:58 ET

The UK would be "foolish" to abandon Trident in the face of the potential threat of nuclear attack from North Korea and Iran, David Cameron has said.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the country still needed the "ultimate weapon of defence".

The prime minister said the nuclear danger had "increased" since the end of the Cold War.

The Lib Dems want the UK to explore a cheaper alternative to the Tories' £20bn plan to replace Trident.

Mr Cameron is committed to maintaining a round-the-clock submarine-based nuclear missile system of the kind Britain has had since the late 1960s.

But the Lib Dems have insisted the coalition carry out a review of cheaper submarine or land-based options, including abandoning round-the-clock patrols.

'Uncertainty and risk'

Labour, which was committed to a like-for-like replacement for Trident when it was in power, has now said it will examine the outcome of that review.

The prime minister is expected to stress his commitment to Trident, which is based on the Clyde, during a visit to the west of Scotland.

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"Start Quote

The (Scottish) parliament and 80% of the people of Scotland want to get rid of Trident"

End Quote Angus Robertson SNP defence spokesman

Mr Cameron will visit HMS Victorious, one of the Royal Navy's four Vanguard-class submarines which keep Trident nuclear missiles continuously at sea, which is returning from its 100th patrol.

The Scottish National Party has said it would not allow nuclear weapons to be based in Scotland, should next year's referendum support independence, a move that would potentially add billions to the cost of replacing Trident.

Mr Cameron said the "highly unpredictable and aggressive" regime in North Korea was developing ballistic missiles that could become a threat to Britain.

He said: "We need our nuclear deterrent as much today as we did when a previous British government embarked on it over six decades ago.

"Of course, the world has changed dramatically. The Soviet Union no longer exists. But the nuclear threat has not gone away.

"In terms of uncertainty and potential risk it has, if anything, increased."

Mr Cameron said: "North Korea recently conducted its third nuclear test and could already have enough fissile material to produce more than a dozen nuclear weapons.

"Last year North Korea unveiled a long-range ballistic missile which it claims can reach the whole of the United States. If this became a reality it would also affect the whole of Europe, including the UK."

The prime minister questioned whether anyone would "seriously argue that it would be wise for Britain, faced with this evolving threat today, to surrender our deterrent".

"My judgement is that it would be foolish to leave Britain defenceless against a continuing, and growing, nuclear threat," he said.

Defence work

Shadow defence minister Kevan Jones said it was "absolutely right and necessary" for the UK to retain an independent nuclear deterrent but the cost needed to be taken into account.

"World events demonstrate that in an unpredictable era our country needs the ultimate security guarantee," he said.

"The precise nature of the deterrent must be judged on meeting military capability requirements and cost."

Mr Cameron has also spoken about the role of Scottish companies in supplying the UK's armed forces.

He described the work as more "secure" when it was as part of the United Kingdom, he said "defence jobs matter".

The SNP has claimed it would be a mistake for the UK government to place the Trident nuclear programme at the heart of its case for the union.

Defence spokesman Angus Robertson said: "The (Scottish) parliament and 80% of the people of Scotland want to get rid of Trident, and the obscene waste of up to £100bn it represents at a time of austerity and savage welfare cuts from Westminster."

Trident's Faslane base currently employs 6,700 military and civilian workers with that figure due to rise to 8,200 by 2022.

Continue reading the main story

UK nuclear capability

• The four Vanguard submarines which host Trident missiles can attack targets within a range of just over 4,600 miles (7,400km). The example above shows this range if the sub were located in the mid-Atlantic.

Meanwhile, the US has announced it is moving an advanced missile defence system to the Pacific island of Guam - where it has a significant military presence - amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

It came as North Korea said the use of nuclear weapons by its military had been ratified.

North Korea has threatened attacks on the US and South Korea in recent weeks.

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US boosts defences amid Korea threat

4 April 2013 Last updated at 06:11 ET

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Should we be worried? The Korean crisis - in 90 seconds

The US is sending a missile shield to the Pacific island of Guam as North Korea threatens nuclear strikes.

The Pentagon said the shield would be ready within weeks, adding to warships that were sent to the area earlier.

The North had named Guam among a list of possible targets for attack that included Hawaii and the US mainland.

North Korea is not thought to have the technology to strike the US mainland with either a nuclear weapon or a ballistic missile, analysts say.

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Analysis

Despite all the bluster, experts do not believe that North Korea has the capacity to launch a nuclear-armed ballistic missile at the US. However, American bases in South Korea, Japan and perhaps even as far away as Guam could well be within range of Pyongyang's conventionally armed missiles.

The US response has been a mixture of reassurance for its allies and prudent defensive precautions, including the deployment of warships with anti-missile capabilities.

Other anti-missile defences in the region are also being bolstered, a step that carries an additional message to Beijing - that if Pyongyang remains on this course anti-missile systems will only proliferate, something that may eventually compromise the effectiveness of China's own nuclear deterrent.

But it is capable of targeting US military bases in the region with its mid-range missiles.

Pyongyang has also continued to refuse access to workers from the South into a joint industrial zone in the North.

The Kaesong complex is staffed mainly by North Koreans but funded and managed by South Korean firms.

Pyongyang blocked access for a second day on Thursday, and threatened to shut down the zone.

North Korea has issued an array of statements in recent weeks threatening nuclear strikes and attacks on specific targets in the US and South Korea.

It has announced a formal declaration of war on the South, and pledged to reopen a mothballed nuclear reactor in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.

In its latest statement, attributed to a military spokesman, the North appeared to refer to ongoing military exercises between the US and South Korea in which the US has flown nuclear-capable bombers over the South.

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US newspapers react

The New York Times says: "The Obama administration was prudent to bolster its forces in the region. Many experts assume Mr Kim won't attack the world's top military power or its allies, but Washington has an obligation to guarantee that if this assumption is wrong, it can defend the homeland."

From the Washington Post: "What the administration really needs, however, is a new strategy for answering the provocations. Diplomacy hasn't worked; neither has pressuring China to restrain the Kim regime. What has are financial sanctions targeted at the ruling elite."

The New Jersey Star-Ledger says: "While many buy into the old disarmament-for-food storyline, there's another camp concerned this episode might be different: that Kim, with little more than a year on the job, might actually believe his nation has become a nuclear power."

The statement said the "ever-escalating US hostile policy towards the DPRK [North Korea] and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed".

It promised to use "cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means of the DPRK" and said the "merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified".

The US Department of Defense said on Wednesday it would deploy the ballistic Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (Thaad) to Guam in the coming weeks.

The Thaad system includes a truck-mounted launcher and interceptor missiles.

The Pentagon said the deployment would "strengthen our regional defence posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat".

The US floated plans to send a Thaad system to Guam in 2009, but never followed through.

US officials recently also announced that the USS John McCain, a destroyer capable of intercepting missiles, had been positioned off the Korean peninsula.

Continue reading the main story

Timeline: Korean tensions

• 12 Dec: North launches a rocket, claiming to have put a satellite into orbit
• 12 Feb: North conducts underground nuclear test
• 11 Mar: US-South Korea annual military drills begin
• 30 Mar: North says it is entering a "state of war" with South
• 2 Apr: North says it is restarting Yongbyon reactor

Analysts have expressed concern that it is unclear exactly what Pyongyang hopes to achieve with its latest round of ramped-up rhetoric.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Seoul says the North could be seeking to pressure Washington to open fresh talks.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington was taking the threats seriously.

"As they have ratcheted up her bellicose, dangerous rhetoric, and some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger," said Mr Hagel, in his first major speech since taking up his post.

The North has not taken direct military action against its neighbours since 2010, when it shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.

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Tate removes paedophile's prints

4 April 2013 Last updated at 06:36 ET

Prints by the artist Graham Ovenden have been removed from the Tate's online collection following his conviction for child sex offences.

Ovenden was found guilty at Truro Crown Court on Tuesday of six counts of indecency and one of indecent assault against girls in the 1970s and 80s.

A Tate spokeswoman said the gallery was "reviewing the online presentation" of the 34 prints.

Ovenden, 70, is on bail ahead of sentencing at Plymouth Crown Court.

The spokeswoman said: "Graham Ovenden is an artist of note, whose work has been widely shown over more than 40 years.

Victorian clothing

"However, following his conviction at Truro Crown Court, Tate is seeking further information and is reviewing the online presentation of those editioned prints by him that are held in the national collection.

"Until this review is complete, the images will not be available online and the works will not be available to view by appointment."

The 34 prints were given to the Tate in 1975 as part of a larger gift of about 3,000 works.

The Ovenden prints include work inspired by Alice In Wonderland and images of naked young girls.

During the artist's trial, the jury heard Ovenden's portraiture formed part of a ruse for abusing girls.

He made his victims dress in Victorian clothing before removing it and committing indecent acts, the court was told.

Ovenden, of The Garage in Barley Splatt, near Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, told the court he had taken pictures of children, including those in various states of undress, but said they were not indecent.

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Three jailed over Derby fire deaths

4 April 2013 Last updated at 07:55 ET

A father convicted of killing six of his children in a fire at his Derby house has been jailed for life at Nottingham Crown Court.

Mick Philpott, 56, was told he would serve a minimum of 15 years in prison.

He was convicted of manslaughter along with his wife Mairead and friend Paul Mosley, who were told they would serve half their 17-year sentences.

Mrs Justice Thirlwall told Philpott he was "the driving force behind this shockingly dangerous enterprise".

The trial heard he plotted to set his house alight to frame his former mistress Lisa Willis, with whom he was fighting a custody battle over their children.

If he gained custody, he hoped Miss Willis would return to live with him.

'Children's terror'

The judge told Philpott in her sentencing remarks: "You could not stand the fact that she had crossed you.

"You were determined to make sure she came back and you began to put together your plan."

The judge said the children were subjected to a terrifying ordeal.

She said: "Their terror was the price they were going to pay for your callous selfishness.

"In fact, they paid with their six young lives."

She told Philpott that he had "no moral compass", adding: "Your guiding principle is what Mick Philpott wants he gets."

The judge told Mairead Philpott, 32, she had been treated "as a skivvy or a slave" by her husband.

She added: "As became clear during the trial you were prepared to go to any lengths, however humiliating, to keep him happy."

'Lied throughout'

The judge told Mosley, 46, he had "nothing to do" with Lisa Willis or her children, yet was "prepared to go along with the plan and to join in with it to please your then friend, Michael Philpott".

The trial heard Philpott, his wife and his mistress had lived at the three-bedroom council house with 11 of their children until Miss Willis moved out in February 2012.

Jade Philpott, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, died on the morning of the fire on 11 May 2012.

Mairead Philpott's son from a previous relationship, 13-year-old Duwayne, died later in hospital. The court heard Mick Philpott considered him his son.

Dawn Bestwick, Mick Philpott's sister, said outside court the sentences were a "victory" for the children who could now "rest in peace".

Det Supt Kate Meynell, of Derbyshire Police, said the Philpotts and Mosley had "lied throughout the investigation and court case".

"There were plenty of opportunities to admit their guilt but they never did and persisted with their denials.

"This has been an incredibly tragic case to investigate and today's sentences bring this difficult inquiry to a close."

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SSE fined record £10.5m by Ofgem

3 April 2013 Last updated at 04:41 ET

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Ian Marlee from Ofgem: "SSE allowed a culture of mis-selling to continue"

Energy supplier SSE has been fined £10.5m by the regulator Ofgem for mis-selling gas and electricity.

The fine is the largest ever imposed on an energy supplier by Ofgem.

In its statement, Ofgem said SSE, formerly known as Scottish and Southern Energy, was guilty of management failures that led to "prolonged and extensive" mis-selling.

SSE said it was "deeply regretful" about the mis-selling, and apologised to its customers.

The mis-selling related to telephone, in-store and doorstep sales, Ofgem said.

It said customers contacted by SSE were exposed to misleading statements, inaccurate and misleading information on SSE's charges, and misleading comparisons between SSE's charges and costs of other suppliers.

Some customers were told they would save money when in fact they were switched onto a more expensive contract.

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In one example, a script used in doorstep selling described how "a government thing called deregulation... results in your energy prices being lowered by doing nothing at all". This was found to be inaccurate and misleading.

Other examples of misleading action included:

• Telling a woman who was paying £1,600 a year for gas and electricity that she would pay £1,423 by switching to SEE. In fact, she was put on a tariff that resulted in her paying £134 more than her existing deal
• A woman decided to switch to SSE after being told her monthly direct debit would be £81. But this had been set too low to cover her usage and probably led to her owing the company £100 at the end of the year
• A customer who had decided to leave SSE because it was increasing gas prices by 9% was told that the firm she was moving to was raising bills by "14% combined". This was not true. It was increasing gas prices by 7% and electricity prices by 7%.

'Clear message'

The in-house auditing of selling practices was also found to be inadequate. The people employed to audit doorstep sales received a commission on sales, giving them an incentive not to report bad behaviour.

SSE stopped doorstep sales in 2011, but mis-selling continued in stores and over the phone.

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No heads have rolled among SSE's senior executive team - although their bonuses have been squeezed"

End Quote

Ofgem said the fine reflected the severity and duration of the breaches.

"Ofgem's findings show SSE failed its customers, mis-sold to them and undermined trust in the energy supply industry," said Sarah Harrison, Ofgem's senior partner in charge of enforcement.

"These failings did not just take place on the doorstep but also in the management of SSE. Ofgem's fine reflects an absence of effective management control over energy selling."

She said the fine sent a "clear message" to energy suppliers who failed to treat customers fairly.

Ofgem told the BBC the fine would be paid to the Treasury, as the regulator does not have the power to force energy companies to reimburse customers.

However, SSE has created a £5m mis-selling fund from which affected customers can receive compensation.

'Very sorry'

The company told the BBC that it had sent out nearly a million letters about this since early last year, and had so far paid out £400,000.

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, SSE corporate affairs director Alan Young said the firm was "very sorry".

"What we were doing was not adequately telling people about the terms and conditions of their contract or adequately making sure they had the information they needed to switch.

"We have totally reformed our business in this area."

The SSE case is the second of four mis-selling cases that were launched by Ofgem in 2010.

In March 2012, EDF Energy agreed to pay £4.5m pounds to vulnerable customers following breaches to marketing rules.

Investigations into Scottish Power and Npower are continuing. An investigation into E.On was launched in April last year.

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Investors launch £4bn RBS claim

3 April 2013 Last updated at 05:43 ET

Thousands of investors have launched a joint compensation claim for up to £4bn against Royal Bank of Scotland.

The group claims the bank deliberately misled shareholders into believing it was in good financial health just before it collapsed in 2008.

More than 12,000 private shareholders and 100 institutional investors have raised a class action against the bank.

They are also suing former top RBS executives, including ex-chief executive Fred Goodwin.

Former chairman Sir Tom McKillop is also being sued, along with Johnny Cameron and Guy Whittaker, who were senior figures at the bank in 2008.

The institutions involved in the class action are understood to include 20 charities as well as churches, pension funds, hedge funds, fund managers and private client brokers. Collectively they manage in excess of £200bn.

The bank has 30 days to respond to the claim.

Continue reading the main story

Today represents a giant step forward for the many thousands of ordinary people who lost money as the result of inexcusable actions taken by banks and their directors in the financial crisis"

End Quote Action Group spokesman

In a statement, the investors said: "The action group maintains that the bank's directors sought to mislead shareholders by misrepresenting the underlying strength of the bank and omitting critical information from the 2008 rights issue prospectus.

"This means that RBS will be liable for the losses incurred on shares subscribed in the rights issue, by reason of breaches of Section 90 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000."

The action group estimated that the final claim may be as much as £4bn.

A spokesman for the investors said: "Today represents a giant step forward for the many thousands of ordinary people who lost money as the result of inexcusable actions taken by banks and their directors in the financial crisis.

"Now, for the first time, some of these directors will have to answer for their actions in a British court."

The class action has been raised with High Court of Justice's Chancery Division in London.

RBS was saved from collapse in 2008 by a UK government bailout and is now 82% taxpayer-owned.

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Mandela makes 'steady improvement'

3 April 2013 Last updated at 06:18 ET

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is making "steady improvement" under treatment for pneumonia, his doctors have said.

South Africa's presidency said in a statement that Mr Mandela had been visited by his family as he continues to make progress.

He was responding well to treatment and was much better than when admitted to hospital on 27 March, it said.

The hospital stay is Mr Mandela's fourth in just over two years.

In December he was treated for a lung infection and gallstones - his longest period in hospital since leaving prison in 1990.

In February, he was treated for a stomach condition.

Last week the former president, 94, had fluid drained from his lungs at the hospital, the name of which has not been disclosed.

There are no details yet on how much longer he will stay there.

Mr Mandela served as South Africa's first black president from 1994 to 1999 and is regarded by many as the father of the nation for leading the struggle against apartheid.

Despite his long imprisonment, Mr Mandela forgave his former enemies and as president urged South Africans of all races to work together and seek reconciliation.

In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

His main home is in Qunu, a small rural village in Eastern Cape province, where he says he spent the happiest days of his childhood.

However, doctors said in December he should remain at his home in the Johannesburg neighbourhood of Houghton to be close to medical facilities.

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Death blaze duo were 'good' parents

3 April 2013 Last updated at 07:28 ET

A mother and father convicted of killing six of their children in a house fire were "good" parents, a court has heard.

Mick and Mairead Philpott are due to be sentenced for manslaughter later, along with their friend Paul Mosley.

Barristers representing the parents told the judge the children had been loved and "happy".

But the court has heard that Philpott had a criminal record and tried to murder a previous girlfriend.

The jury at Nottingham Crown Court returned unanimous decisions on Mosley and Mick Philpott while Mairead Philpott was convicted by a majority on Tuesday.

Anthony Orchard QC, representing Philpott, said: "Despite Mr Philpott's faults he was a very good father and loved those children. All the witnesses, even Lisa Willis [Philpott's former mistress], agree on this.

"There's no evidence at any stage that he deliberately harmed any of them."

Mr Orchard said Philpott's conviction for attempting to murder a previous girlfriend by repeatedly stabbing her in 1978 was a "long time ago" and there was no evidence of anything like that being repeated.

But the judge, Mrs Justice Thirlwall, interrupted and said: "There's been violence in every single relationship, has there not?"

Shaun Smith QC, for Mairead Philpott, said there was no evidence "any of these children were in any sort of danger or peril prior to that night [of the fire] whatsoever".

"The entirety of the evidence is that Mairead Philpott was an extremely good mother to all 11 children [who had been living in the house]," he said.

'Child killer' sentence

Mr Smith added they were "happy children" who were "well nourished" and "well looked after".

He said when released from prison, Mairead Philpott would have no support network from family, and she would not be able to have children or be involved with any despite her great love for them.

"She will be forever known as a child killer, that will be her real sentence," Mr Smith said.

Five of the Philpotts' children died in their home on Victory Road and the sixth, from a previous relationship, died in hospital.

Jade Philpott, 10, John, nine, Jack, eight, Jesse, six, and Jayden, five, died on the morning of the fire on 11 May 2012.

Mairead Philpott's son from a previous relationship, 13-year-old Duwayne, died later in hospital.

Jurors heard Philpott had been violent and controlling towards his former live-in mistress, Lisa Willis.

When she left, taking her children, he became "obsessed with getting Lisa and the kids back".

The court heard Mick Philpott wanted to rescue the children from the fire, blame Miss Willis, and be hailed a hero - but the plan went wrong.

Continue reading the main story

Mairead Philpott's sister, Jennifer Lobban, told the BBC's Panorama team she had been dominated by Mick Philpott.

She said: "She is a victim of Mick, but, at the end of the day, when it comes to your kids, she should have put them first."

Jurors were told that Philpott was to "act the hero and victim" and perhaps obtain a bigger house.

During the trial the court heard details of how Philpott led an unconventional life at Victory Road.

The fatal blaze engulfed the house as the children slept just hours before Philpott, who was father to a total of 17 children by five different women, and Miss Willis were due to appear at a pre-scheduled court hearing to discuss residency of their children.

He would share a bed with his wife and Miss Willis on alternate nights, and both women were said to have lived happily with one another and the situation for a decade.

But Miss Willis, 29, became unhappy with the domestic set-up three months before the fire and left with her five children, four of whom were fathered by Philpott.

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Author Banks has terminal cancer

3 April 2013 Last updated at 07:52 ET

Author Iain Banks has revealed that he has late stage cancer and is unlikely to live for more than a year.

The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year, would be his last.

The 59-year-old's novels include The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road, Complicity and the Culture series.

The statement said his health problems came to light when he saw his doctor, suffering from a sore back.

He was diagnosed with jaundice, before further tests established the full extent of his illness.

In the personal statement on his website, Banks said he had asked his partner Adele to marry him and was now on a short honeymoon.

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Bank's first novel The Wasp Factory was published in 1984 and introduced the Fife-born writer as a dark new force in British literature.

Described in turn as "macabre... bizarre... and depraved," the book was included in a 1997 poll of the 20th Century's top 100 books, placing higher than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.

Subsequent novels, including Espedair Street and The Crow Road, were adapted for radio and television and his 1993 book Complicity was made into a film in 2000, starring Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller.

Considered one of Scotland's foremost writers, most of whose books are set in his home country, the writer ventures further afield in his parallel career as a writer of science fiction under the guise of Iain M Banks.

Using his middle name of Menzies - on the advise of his publisher who said it looked "more American" for a US market - several of Banks' sci-fi works are set in the Culture universe, a semi-anarchist utopia.

His most recent work in the so-called Culture series - The Hydrogen Sonata - was released last year. In its review - the Independent praised Banks' Banks "taste for the absurd".

Fellow Scottish author, Ian Rankin, said the news of Banks' terminal cancer was "just awful".

He Tweeted: "Typical of Iain to propose marriage to his partner Adele with the words 'Will you do me the honour of becoming my widow?"

Banks, who lives in North Queensferry, Fife, said he had cancelled all future public engagements.

He said: "The bottom line now, I'm afraid, is that as a late-stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year.

"So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last."

He said the disease had spread to both lobes of his liver, and possibly his pancreas and lymph nodes.

He said there was little chance of surgeons being able to remove the tumours because of how far they had spread.

He has asked his publishers to bring forward the publication of his new book to "give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves."

Banks also praised NHS staff who have looked after him - and said he may undergo chemotherapy to extend his life when his jaundice clears up.

He said: "We're all just sorry the outcome hasn't been more cheerful."

Born in Fife, Banks studied at Stirling University before publishing his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984.

During his career he alternated between mainstream and science fiction novels, which he wrote under the name Iain M Banks.

In 2008, he was named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 in a list compiled by The Times.

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