- Crime pays but shouldn’t, part one! - 10th December 2025
- Yet ANOTHER Huwge mistake… - 9th December 2025
- Strictly poison part one - 9th December 2025
During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 42 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, crime stories have often dominated, and now there is new information about one of the biggest alleged heists ever – the multi-million pound theft of treasures at the Louvre in Paris, as lawyers prepare for the court case.
They used to be fairly small beer.
When I started covering courts in Cardiff as a trainee reporter on the South Wales Echo (SWE), people would invariably be up for not paying fines, getting into fights when the pub had closed, or Taking Without the Owner’s Consent (TWOC) which was basically nicking cars.
You would always see the same addresses coming up time and time again.
Now it is about huge internet scams, hiding money in off-shore accounts (see story soon), or massive jewellery thefts (these last ones had probably always been around, although covered by senior reporters).
Now we hear that lawyers are busily preparing evidence in Paris after one of the biggest-ever – when eight items were allegedly taken, worth €88 million ($102 million).
A tiara worn by the Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III went, the Marie-Louise necklace and a pair of earrings were among the items stolen, as well as a large jewel-encrusted bow which also belonged to the Empress is also among items unaccounted for.
One of a pair of earrings which previously belonged to the 19th century Queen is missing too, and Marie-Amelie’s crown was taken, though another worn by Princess Eugenie was apparently dropped during the thieves’ escape.
It has been said that the thieves took just seven minutes to slip through the window of the Galerie d’Apollon, pierce the security glass of two display cabinets using disc-cutters, and make off with nine items of Napoleonic and royal jewellery.
At 9.30am on October 19 it’s claimed a truck-mounted ladder was used to break in to the Louvre.
The raid struck at the heart of the French state—and of the art world generally.
With nearly nine million visitors in 2024, the Louvre is the most popular museum anywhere.
A former royal palace in the centre of Paris, it is made up of over 400 galleries, displaying 35,000 works of art.
Spanning civilisations from Mesopotamia to Europe, the collection also links France’s Royal and imperial past with its republican present.
President Emmanuel Macron called the heist an attack on “our history”.
Two alleged thieves “partially recognised” their involvement in it soon afterwards, we’ve been told.
Last month two more people were charged.
A 38-year-old woman was charged with complicity in organised theft and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime.
Separately, a man aged 37, was charged with theft and criminal conspiracy.
Both deny any involvement.
These sort of alleged thefts are a long way from getting into fights after the pubs shut!
The memories of Phil’s astonishing 42 year award-winning career in journalism (when crime, alleged or otherwise was in a different league!) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
It would make a good Christmas present – Nadolig Llawen!
‘Crime pays but shouldn’t, part two’ comes soon, where we examine how politicians are accused of inaction over cracking down on tax havens, and statistics show that the police solve barely any crimes.
Tomorrow – how news that disgraced former First Minister of Wales (FMW) Vaughan Gething could be given a peerage, has been further condemned by Welsh Labour (WL) politicians, with one telling The Eye it is a “reward for failure”.
