A man who collapsed during breakfast service at Lauderdale House in Highgate on Friday is said to have been the victim of a malicious poisoning, reports indicate the man is severely ill or already dead.

The Highgate Echo can now confirm that the kipper breakfast he ate was not ordered by him, but rather one of the two men he dined with. John Redding, the chef that morning at Lauderdale House spoke to the Echo: “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was strange enough being given food to prepare,” Mr Redding said, “he just told me the gentleman was very particular, I didn’t ask questions, they looked rough, y’know, Eastern European.”

Fellow diners confirmed that three men entered the popular arts venue together. However, after a heated exchange, two of the men left. Only minutes later the man had collapsed.”What’s really strange is that the police never showed up. We saw some official-looking men arrive 15 minutes later and take the poor man away…we assumed they were police, plain clothes like.” Jenny Campbell told The Highgate Echo. “The next day, similar looking men came and asked me and my friend all kinds of questions, about what we saw and where we’ve lived over our lives, totally weird. That’s when we realised, these aren’t the police.”

Eyewitnesses said they saw two black cars leave with the man and head towards Highgate West Hill.

Parliament Hill

A BIZARRE story concerning a local resident has been the talk of the town following events that took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Local dog walkers were hailed from a park bench by a middle-aged man on Parliament Hill who claimed to have no recollection of who he was of how he got there. At first, people thought the man to be drunk or on drugs, but a small crowd soon gathered and it became clear that the man’s story was genuine.

“At first I thought he was having us on,” said Mr Franklin of St Anne’s Close “but after a while we started to take him seriously, and someone rang the police.”

Police arrived at the scene shortly after 6:30am and found the man to be in possession of no identification other than a small slip of paper with a Highgate address scrawled across it. The man was asked by the police to accompany them to the location in question, believing it to be his home address. At this point a further mysterious twist came to light: the man was unable to walk.

“When I asked the gentleman to follow me back down the hill, he complained that he had no sensation in his legs,” said PC Haskell. “We rang for a local doctor who arrived and confirmed that the man was paralysed from the wait down.”

An ambulance was called to take the man to the St John’s Way Medical Centre for a routine medical examination, which found him to be generally in good health. He was then taken to the address found in his possession that morning, of which he claimed to have no recollection of ever visiting. On entering the property police found a number of photographs of the man, along with a passport in the name of ‘Thaddeus Headley’, the photograph of which matched the mystery man.

I spoke to residents of the neighbouring houses, who confirmed that he was indeed resident at the address.

“I’ve seen him going in and out before. Mostly very early in the morning or very late at night, but not for at least 18 months now,” said Brenda Wilson, whose property backs on to that of Mr Headley.

A TEAM of Highgate firefighters is set to hit our TV screens on the next episode of a popular programme.  Members of Blue Watch at Highgate Fire Station were asked to test whether a USB stick could withstand temperatures in excess of 1,000 degrees as part of a regular challenge on Channel 5’s The Gadget Show. During a training session, the crew also dropped the IT aid from a 30m high hydraulic platform in the station’s yard to test its durability.  Filming was completed at the station in Highgate Road, Highgate, two weeks ago and the challenge will air on Channel 5 at 8pm tonight.