LUKE LITTLER has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become one of the biggest stars in darts despite his age!
The prodigy, 17, has already built up an impressive net worth since his impressive debut performance at the 2023-24 World Darts Championship.
And he’ll be hoping to lift the 2024/25 World Darts Championship this time around.
Luke Littler is the reigning world youth champion of darts whose nickname is ‘The Nuke’.
He has had a meteoric rise to fame after becoming the youngest player to reach the final of the World Darts Championships at Ally Pally.
Luke was born on January 21, 2007, in the English town of Runcorn.
He later moved to Warrington, Cheshire with his family, where he would play darts in pubs.
Littler has a sister called Caitlin and a brother called Leon and his parents are Anthony and Lisa Bates.
Since the 2023-24 World Championship, The Nuke has earned himself a spot in the Premier League Darts – and currently sits top of the table as we move to the final weeks.
Luke ‘The Nuke’ Litter is reportedly worth in excess of £1 million.
Teen sensation Littler banked £200,000 for losing in last year’s final to Luke Humphries and has continued pocketing huge cheques since.
His 2024 prize money currently stands at £1,028,500.
An incredible £633,500 comes from ranking events and it includes the £15,000 minimum he will get for appearing at the World Championship.
Winning the invitational Premier League and World Series of Darts banked him the other £395,000.
The huge windfall has come from winning an incredible ten titles in all.
To list them all, he has the crowns for the Premier League, Grand Slam, World Series, Bahrain Masters, Poland Masters, Austrian Open, Belgian Open, and three Players Championships.
To underline his domination, Littler has sealed victory in 145 of 189 games played.
And he is now 4th on the PDC Order of Merit.
Although Littler was already well known as a bright talent within darts circles, it was at the 2023-24 PDC World Championships where he really found fame.
The youngster had one of the greatest debuts in the history of the sport, beating Christian Kist in the first round.
This triumph saw Littler become the youngest winner of a match at the tournament and record the highest average (106.12) for a player making his debut at Ally Pally.
The teenager then went a step further by beating No 20 seed Andrew Gilding and became one of the favourites to win the tournament.
He then blew away Canadian Matt Campbell 4-1, dropping only six legs out of 20.
Littler made it through to the semi-finals of the tournament on New Year’s Day, 2024.
He beat veteran Brendan Dolan and celebrated by sharing a kiss with his ex-girlfriend girlfriend Eloise.
The teen sensation made it all the way to the final of the prestigious competition but was beaten by World No1 Luke Humphires on the night at Alexandra Palace.
THIS is the moment Ukrainian drone strikes hit a 400ft Russian skyscraper – sparking a huge blast.
Footage shows the deadly drone flying into the 37-floor Azure skies residential tower before erupting into flames.
An aircraft-type drone was seen striking the upper part of the 399ft building and exploding.
An earlier strike had left a burning hole in the upper part of the complex.
Another tower block – the 23-floor Manhattan residential building in central Kazan – was also hit.
A drone was seen crashing into the complex, resulting in a massive explosion and fire.
Residents were told to evacuate or take cover in basements.
Separately, there was a fire in a five-story building in Kazan after a drone attack.
Firefighters were at the scenes of the attacks.
It was not immediately clear what motive was behind the strikes on the city which began at around 8:30am local time, and if there was a specific target.
The drones hit the buildings from the east, so not the “Ukrainian side”.
The nearest Ukrainian controlled territory is some 670 miles away.
Russian reports said the Lyuti drones – meaning Fierce – were behind the attack, but if so the distance would seem to be at the maximum of their range.
Kazan is the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, a region which has led the way in the manufacturing of Russian military drones.
The city has a 1.3 million population, and is known as Russia’s ‘third capital’ after Moscow and St Petersburg.
There were fears of more attacks as air raid sirens sounded, and residents were ordered to remain calm, get warmly dressed and go down to the first floors and basements .
There was no immediate information on casualties from the Kazan strikes.
Earlier in attacks on Russia’s Kursk region, five people were killed and 12 wounded in strikes on Rylsk.
A total of eight drones hit Kazan today, said the regional authorities.
Only one was shot down.
One hit an industrial enterprise, one a river, and six were struck residential areas, according to Russian sources.
The city’s international airport was closed due to the unmanned planes.
Students at a number of Kazan schools were evacuated during a drone attack.
Russian war channels said the likely target was a gunpowder plant in Kazan, and alleged the “clumsy enemy completely ignored the presence of high-rise residential buildings on their path, which led to the kamikazes colliding with high-rise buildings”.
Others claimed the target was the Kazan Aviation Plant or an airfield.
New footage shows a suspected Ukrainian drone hit the 37-floor Azure Skies elite residential tower in Kazan.
Russian air defences also shot down a drone approaching Kazan.
Meanwhile, in Rylsk, 33 miles from the Ukrainian border in Kursk region, heavy fighting was underway amid Ukrainian shelling with multiple buildings ablaze.
In Kherson, a cancer hospital was ablaze after being struck by a Russian aerial bomb.
No casualties were reported but the hospital was ablaze.
IN the summer of 1995, a quiet Canadian community was shattered by a crime so horrific that it remains one of the the country’s most haunting tragedies.
Jonathan Thimpsen, an innocent seven-year-old, fell victim to a brutal murder fueled by the dark satanic delusions of Sandy Charles, 14.
Charles led Jonathan into the woods in La Orange, Saskatchewan, with the help of his eight-year-old pal, William Martin.
The pair inflicted unimaginable violence on the helpless boy – stabbing him multiple times, striking him with a rock and a beer bottle before mutilating his body.
Charles – who was obsessed with the horror Warlock – believed committing the crime would bring him closer to Satan.
Now episode one of Killer Kids, a new documentary series which airs on Monday, sheds light on the nightmare murder that shocked a nation and asked questions about the influence of violent images on children.
Jonathan’s family realised he had gone missing on Sunday, July 9, 1995, and immediately called the cops to report him missing.
Police frantically searched for clues that could help them locate Jonathan.
Alongside a search party, missing person’s posters were plastered all over the town pleading for information on Jonathan’s whereabouts.
Volunteer groups went door to door in the community, which has a population of about 5,000, and searched in wooded areas.
But what they could not know was that a day before, he had fallen into the grips of twisted teenager Sandy Charles, who was on the prowl for a victim so he could carry out a deadly Satanic ritual.
Len Carlson, the officer in charge of the investigation explains his attempts to trace Jonathan’s steps.
“I attended to a location where it was determined he had last been seen and that was with Sandy Charles and another friend of Sandy’s,” he explains.
“They were involved in a ball game, the three of them in the backyard of Sandy Charles’ house.”
According to investigators, Charles, who had turned 14 just two days before the murder, used the ballgame to lure Jonathan to his home.
When asked by investigators, Charles claimed he had played with Jonathan two weeks ago but had not seen him since.
However, after investigators widened the search on July 11, little Jonathan’s body was discovered, shocking even the most experienced detectives.
He was found lying on the ground with horrific injuries, including a knife wound in his eye, which revealed the severity of the fatal attack.
On questioning, Charles and his accomplice both initially denied any involvement in Jonathan’s murder, they soon buckled and admitted they had killed him.
Len says: “It was through an interview with Sandy Charles that the details of this horrific crime were identified.”
That was when the horrendous circumstances of Jonathan’s death were laid bare.
In the documentary Robin Ritter, the senior prosecutor in the case says: “Sandy Charles had selected this boy for killing. His criteria was that he was looking for a male unbaptised virgin child.
“He selected Jonathan Thimpsen because he didn’t believe that Jonathan had a father and his belief was that without a father, that meant he was not baptised. That’s why he was looking for this particular boy.
“While they were playing baseball, he purposefully hit the ball into the bushes behind the house.
“When he hit the ball into the bushes, he told Jonathan Thimpsen that they would have to go into the deeper parts of the woods to search for the ball.”
Charles led Jonathan to a spot he had already scouted and kept weapons he would use to kill.
While there, Charles and Martin launched a vicious attack on Jonathan, who died a slow and painful death.
Robin adds: “It was a brutal murder. He tried a number of ways to kill Jonathan Thimpsen. I believe the first way he tried to kill him was by breaking his neck.
“He found that was not as easy as it may appear on television. He stabbed Jonathan Thimpsen, he smothered Jonathan Thimpse. He struck him over the head with a rock.”
Charles attacked Jonathan with so much intensity that the knife he used broke in his eye socket.
It was a brutal murder. He tried a number of ways to kill Jonathan Thimpsen. I believe the first way he tried to kill him was by breaking his neck. He found that was not as easy as it may appear on television. He stabbed Jonathan Thimpsen, he smothered Jonathan Thimpse. He struck him over the head with a rock.”
Robin Ritter
Determined to finish what he started, he went home to fetch another knife and continued his barbaric mission.
He then removed seven patches of Jonathan’s flesh from his legs, abdomen, and back.
After storing the flesh in a can, they later dragged Jonathan’s corpse slightly further into the woods.
Although cops were relieved that they knew exactly what had happened to Jonathan, they were now keen to determine what Charles’ motives were.
As Len continued to interrogate Charles, he learned that he had immersed himself in the world of magic and evil.
“As he became comfortable talking to me I got to know him a little bit more and he had some very strong, almost chilling beliefs and those had some influence on this crime,” Len says.
One of Charles’ beliefs was that every thousand years, Satan was released into the Earth.
Len adds: “With Sandy’s desires to be a disciple of Satan, he felt that committing a crime of this nature would place him in his good books and would allow him entry into the world of Satan.”
He continues: “The manner in which this crime was committed and how he identified Jonathan Thimpsen as his victim and how he removed the flesh with the intention of consuming the rendered fat was as a result of the movie, The Warlock.”
In the film, released in 1991, a wizard who is later revealed as the son of Satan earns the ability to fly by eating the flesh of children who are not baptised.
Like the movie’s main character, Charles – who watched the film on numerous occasions in the days before the murder – believed he had to make a sacrifice.
Investigators discovered the extracted flesh in the basement of Charles’ home when they executed a search warrant.
While Charles was charged with Jonathan’s murder, his accomplice did not suffer the same fate as he was still a minor.
Although he had just turned 14, the horrific nature of the crime meant that Charles had to be tried in adult court.
He faced life in prison without the possibility of parole before serving five to ten years, per Canadian laws.
At the trial, his lawyers argued that he was not responsible for the murder. Instead, they pinned the blame on the horror movies, and the occult. He pled not guilty citing that he was mentally unwell.
While sitting in the witness box, Len noticed several unsettling things, including how long Charles had grown his finger nails.
He says: “When I was making submissions to the court, Sandy Charles would often groan or moan in a disturbing way. And with his long fingernails, he would scratch the wood of the prisoner’s box.
“It was quite disconcerting to go for days with this behaviour just a few feet behind me.”
Charles’ lawyers said his difficult upbringing, combined with the occult and devil worship was what drove him to kill Jonathan.
Born to a 17-year-old single mother, he was forced to babysit his two younger siblings at an early age while his mother struggled to make ends meet.
To support his mother, he also took on a job as a paperboy. But when he became a teenager, his loved ones began noticing several changes.
He became increasingly withdrawn and distanced himself from the friends he used to have.
Robin says: “Up to this point in time he appeared normal. His teachers had no idea that anything like this would ever happen. His mother had no idea that anything like this would have happened.
“The only hint might have been that he liked to associate with much younger children.”
But it turned sinister when Charles began to hear voices. He also believed there were ghosts in his room who were telling him what to do.
He also developed a keen interest in horror movies and started getting involved in the occult. He also had an Ouija board which he used to communicate with spirits.
Charles also had days where he had suicidal thoughts and complained about having severe headaches.
But Robin says in the documentary: “I think this case dealt with a young man who was suffering from a delusion. It’s a mental health issue.
“There certainly was an aspect of the movie Warlock and the gruesome killing that took place in the movie as related to the acts that Sandy Charles did.
“But I can’t say that the occult, devil worship, or anything like that had anything to do with the murder of Jonathan Thimpsen. This was a delusional young man who committed a horrible crime.”
At the end of the trial, the judge found Charles not criminally responsible for the murder, citing mental incapacity. He managed to escape jail and was sent to a psychiatric facility.
Shortly after his sentence, he tried to escape when the wardens made a blunder. After a large manhunt, he was apprehended and taken back into the facility.
In June 2000, he was once again back in court for attacking a nurse. He was sentenced to a day in solitary confinement for the crime.
