Sion Jenkins, a 40-year-old deputy headmaster, is found guilty of the murder of Billie-Jo Jenkins, his 13-year-old foster daughter (the shared surname is a coincidence) and sentenced to life imprisonment. Billie-Jo was found dead at his home in Hastings, East Sussex, on 15 February last year. 31 July – Crime and Disorder Act receives Royal Assent. It introduces Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Sex Offender Orders, Parenting Orders, and "racially aggravated" offences. It makes it possible for a young person between ten and fourteen to be presumed capable of committing an offence and formally abolishes capital punishment for treason and piracy, the last civilian offences for which the death penalty remained theoretically available. 10 August – Manchester United TV begins broadcasting, making Manchester United F.C. the world's first football team to have its own television channel. 24 August – First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom by Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading. 9 September – An East London coroner records a verdict of suicide on former footballer Justin Fashanu, who was found hanged in a lock-up garage four months ago. November – Peugeot launches the 206 supermini, which is being built at the Ryton plant near Coventry. 5 November – Moors Murderer Myra Hindley loses a second High Court appeal (the first was rejected on 19 December 1997) against the Whole life tariff which has been imposed upon her by the three most recent Home Secretaries. 19 November – Regional Development Agencies Act establishes nine Regional development agencies across England. 10 December – John Pople wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry". 24 December – Silverdale colliery near Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, closes with the loss of more than 300 jobs, signalling the end of the North Staffordshire Coalfield after some 200 years. 26 December – Great Boxing Day Storm: Severe gale force winds hit Ireland, southern Scotland and northern England. Roads, railways and electricity are disrupted. See also 1998 in Northern Ireland 1998 in Scotland 1998 in Wales References England Years of the 20th century in England 1990s in England