Churchgoers in New York had prayed publicly for a safe return and animal-lovers as far away as New Zealand had registered their concern. For their part, the residents of Newtown on the Isle of Wight were sick with worry. Then, shortly after 8am yesterday, there was, at last, some news of Toga, the three-month-old jackass penguin who was abducted five ago.


An anonymous caller to the missing penguin helpline - set up by the GMTV breakfast programme in response to the creature's disappearance - suggested that Toga had been dumped in a plastic bag at an undisclosed spot in Portsmouth's Naval Dockyard,...