After spending 444 days in captivity, and more than 30 years seeking restitution, the Americans taken hostage at the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 have finally won compensation.

Buried in the huge spending bill signed into law last Friday are provisions that would give each of the 53 hostages or their estates up to $4.4 million.

Victims of other state-sponsored terrorist attacks such as the 1998 American Embassy bombings in East Africa would also be eligible for benefits under the law.

“I had to pull over to the side of the road, and I basically cried,” said Rodney V. Sickmann, who was a Marine sergeant working as a security guard at the embassy in Tehran when he was seized along with the other Americans by an angry mob that overran the compound on Nov. 4, 1979. “It has been 36 years, one month, 14 days, obviously, until President Obama signed the actual bill, until Iran was held accountable,” he said.

 Rodney V. Sickmann

The law now stands to bring closure to a saga that riveted the nation and ruptured America’s ties with Iran. The very agreement that won the hostages’ release in 1981 barred them from seeking restitution. Their legal claims were repeatedly blocked in the courts, including an appeal denied by the Supreme Court. Congress tried but failed to pass laws granting them relief.

David M. Roeder

But this year, vindication came in a decision that forced the Paris-based bank BNP Paribas to pay a $9 billion penalty for violating sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Some of that money was suddenly available for victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

Some of the hostages were subject to physical and psychological torture during their long ordeal.

 

It is not clear, however, whether all the former hostages or their families will receive full payments. In large measure that is because the $4.4 million total authorized by Congress depends on the outcome of efforts to collect on judgments won in earlier court rulings involving victims of terrorist attacks, as well as on the number of victims who file claims.

 

The law authorizes payments of up to $10,000 per day of captivity for each of the 53 hostages, 37 of whom are still alive. Fifty-two hostages were released on Jan. 20, 1981; a 53rd hostage had been released earlier because of illness.

 

Spouses and children are authorized to receive a lump payment of as much as $600,000.

A mum who shared revenge porn of her boyfriend's intimate messages with an 18-year-old lover on Facebook has said she regrets her actions. Lorraine Donoghue admitted her actions were “nasty” and warned women not to do the same thing – after she was placed on the sex offenders’ register.

The 32-year-old was devastated when she found a pair of women's panties and a sex toy under the bed of boyfriend Willie Crawford in April.



Lorraine had given birth to her daughter just six months previously.

The mum of three was then horrified to find graphic pictures and homemade sex videos of her 37-year-old partner romping with his 18-year-old lover in his Facebook account.

The Scottish Daily Record reports Lorraine sent around six of the intimate images to friends in private messages on Facebook.

She also sent images to the girl’s mum and boyfriend along with the message: “Here’s your ­girlfriend.”

Prosecutor Graham McLachlan said the photos, six in all, showed the girl “unclothed and engaged in sexual activity” with Donoghue’s partner.

Now after escaping a prison sentence, Lorraine has spoken out to warn others – and told how she was hauled in front of the courts for trying to get back at her cheating ex.

Lorraine said: “I had just had a child, then when our daughter was only six weeks old I found a pair of women’s knickers under Willie’s bed and I knew they were not mine.

“He denied cheating on me and then threw me out on the street with our baby girl.

“It was only later that I realised I knew his Facebook password so I logged in and had a look.

“There in his private messages were disgusting pictures and videos of him and this young teenager having sex and I felt instantly sick.

“I couldn’t believe he would do this to me. When I realised she knew about me too and was happy to sleep with him behind my back when I was pregnant, it just left me speechless.

“There were loads of messages between him and her, even discussing what I’d found, and I knew then they had been sleeping together behind my back while I was pregnant for about a year.

“Times, dates, they were all there. I could see he had even sent his friends the video of them having sex and they had all been laughing and asking to see more.

“Then in a moment of madness and utter desperation and anger, I took some screen grabs and mailed them to people I knew.

“I even sent them to Willie and the girl and although I knew it was really nasty, I sent some to her mum and her boyfriend so they could see her and what she was doing.”

The messages, which have since been obtained by the Record, reveal love-rat Crawford promising the teen that he was “100 per cent” hers.

He also promised the teenager he had chosen her over his newborn daughter while other messages reveal the pair discussing how Lorraine had found the underwear.

Crawford wrote: “That last pair that was on my door handle that night was meant to be under my bed. You’re the only bird I’ve had at mine ever.”

It was then that Lorraine claims Crawford and his teenage lover began to taunt her.

In one message – which included a photo of the 18-year-old fully clothed sitting on the couple’s former bed – she wrote: “I hope you had as much fun as me.”

Previous messages from Crawford show him sending Lorraine pictures of his other girlfriends and claiming one woman was ­pregnant with his child.
The message reads: “She’s having ma bairn, there you go, boom. Up the duff.”

Crawford added: “She’s stole your man,” and told her, “it’s been going on for months, yes, I’ll leave you.

Lorraine, from Falkirk, claims she was shocked to discover times and dates on messages between the pair proved that Crawford had even met up with the teen while she had been in labour with their daughter.

Now Lorraine has warned other women not to seek revenge and risk jail time.

Lorraine said: “I know it was stupid, but it was done in a moment of utter madness when I was so deeply hurt.

“I knew he was a womaniser and he had cheated before but when I left he wouldn’t leave me alone and begged me to take him back.

“Then I found out I was ­pregnant and I was desperate for our baby to come into the world with a mum and dad so I forgave him and believed him when he begged for forgiveness.

“He disappeared when I was in labour and kept telling me he had a job – but when I found the messages on Facebook, I found out that he had been to see her.

“The night we had argued and he had thrown me out on the street with our daughter he had her round later too.

“It is his fault but I don’t ­understand any woman who would do that to a woman she knows about, who is lying in a hospital bed giving birth all alone. I was always suspicious but he would tell me I was mad.

“I even told his boss I thought he was using his lorry to pick her up and drive about with her but he just laughed at me.

“In the end, he wasn’t worth it. I am a mum and have kids to think about and I shouldn’t have done what I did.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court last month, Lorraine pleaded guilty to contravention of the ­Telecommunications Act by sending indecent or obscene photos by means of a public electronic communications network.

Her pleas of not guilty to two further charges, of causing the other girl’s mum and boyfriend to look at a sexual image by sending them unsolicited messages by social networking – both contrary to the Sexual Offence (Scotland) Act – were accepted by the Crown.

In October, Lorraine had been placed on the sex offenders’ register – usually used for rapists and paedophiles – but last week she was shown mercy by a Sheriff, who has since ordered her name to be taken off the register.

Sheriff Linda Smith cancelled an interim order which had put Lorraine on the sex crimes register, and ruled that her offence contained “no sexual ­aggravation”.

Lorraine was placed under ­supervision for 15 months and ordered to do 120 hours’ unpaid work for sending the “obscene” images.

Sheriff Smith said: “Clearly your motivation was vengeful, not sexual.”


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