David Stroud grabbed a woman’s hair and asked if he could kiss her two days after legislation took effect
A train passenger has become the first person to be sentenced under a new harassment law after a prosecution brought by the British Transport Police (BTP).
David Stroud, 44, grabbed a woman’s hair and asked her “can I kiss you?” on a rail journey to London on 3 April, two days after the new legislation came into force banning harassment motivated by a person’s sex.
Continue reading...Geoffrey Wall is alleged to have flown over 900 flights domestically and internationally between 2009 and 2025
A former Air Canada pilot has been charged after flying for years without a proper license, Canadian police have said.
Geoffrey Wall, of Barrie, Ontario, is alleged to have operated as an airline captain between 2009 and 2025 without a license to fly large commercial passenger planes, according to Peel regional police.
Continue reading...Emily Thornberry criticises Israel’s ‘staggering’ sense of impunity and rebukes Donald Trump for abandoning Gaza
The UK government has let down Palestinian people and failed to make it economically impossible for Israel to continue to act with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, has said.
She accused her own government of lacking ambition and wringing its hands on the Palestinian crisis, and she chastised Donald Trump for declaring a ceasefire in Gaza and then walking away, leaving Gazans to live in rubble.
Continue reading...Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in Canada to sending products internationally, knowing they would probably be used to end lives
Bereaved families whose loved ones were the victims of an online supplier of suicide kits say they feel insulted by a decision not to prosecute him in the UK.
Kenneth Law pleaded guilty in a court in Ontario, Canada, to 14 charges of aiding suicide and sending products internationally in the knowledge that they were likely to be used to end lives. He is due to be sentenced at a later date.
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Ministers are proposing new laws to crack down on damage to undersea cables amid “hostile activity by Russia”, the Press Association reports. PA says:
Tougher penalties for ship owners and operators who recklessly damage underwater infrastructure will be set out in a white paper later this year, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said.
Acts of sabotage linked to a hostile state already carries life imprisonment for the most serious cases but undersea malicious activity sometimes operates in a “grey zone” which is difficult to prosecute, DSIT said.
It’s astonishing that Reform have admitted they knew about Kenyon’s social media accounts. Nigel Farage needs to urgently explain to the public why, if his party was aware of his online history, he was happy to put forward a candidate who has made vile degrading comments about women, multiple homophobic posts and spread dangerous false narratives about the Manchester Arena bombing.
I am rough around the edges. I have made mistakes in my life. I’m not perfect. Nobody is. Not a single person in the world is perfect. I think everybody does say things that eventually they regret.
It was a crude attempt at a joke to probably about 50 followers.
No offence was meant, and it’s not something I’d do now.
I think I’ve addressed the issue. I think that no offence was meant and it wasn’t a direct comment to her. If you go into any building site in the area or any public barracks, I think you’d hear a hundred times worse said.
Continue reading...Woman argued water was a ‘universal human right’ but court ruled no law obliged hoteliers to serve it from taps
A tourist’s simple request for a glass of tap water at a hotel restaurant in the Italian Dolomites has culminated in Italy’s top court ruling that being served water from the tap is not consumer right, after a lengthy and costly legal saga.
The case dates back to 2019, when the woman spent a week at the five-star hotel in the ski resort of Corvara, in Badia, over Christmas and New Year. She was on a half-board deal with the evening meal included, except for drinks.
Continue reading...Senior lawyers call on prime minister to request Indian prosecutors drop charges that would breach double jeopardy rule
Four senior lawyers, including the former attorney general Dominic Grieve, have written to Keir Starmer urging him to request that Indian prosecutors drop charges against the British national Jagtar Singh Johal on the basis that continued prosecution would be in manifest breach of the double jeopardy rule which prevents someone being tried twice for the same offence.
Johal has been held in an Indian jail for eight years, and in March last year was acquitted of the terrorist charges laid against him in a court in Punjab. The court found the prosecutors had “miserably failed” to present any reliable evidence, despite having had seven years to do so.
Continue reading...Dominic Grieve says people are ‘perfectly entitled’ to ask Richard Hermer for review of teenagers’ sentences
Appeal judges would be unlikely to criticise the attorney general, Richard Hermer, if he asked them to review “unusual” non-custodial sentences handed to three teenage boys convicted of raping two girls, one of his predecessors has suggested.
Dominic Grieve, who also served as home secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the goal of rehabilitating offenders – particularly younger ones – needed to be balanced with providing deterrence.
Continue reading...More people are being jailed in England and Wales as a result of acting to prevent climate breakdown and the war in Gaza, research reveals
Britain has created a new breed of political prisoners through the systematic incarceration of people acting to prevent climate breakdown and the annihilation of Gaza, a report claims.
The research by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the protest group Defend Our Juries says that custodial sentences for acts of direct action or civil disobedience were once rare but are now being imposed with increasing length and frequency.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Move to establish board comes after criticism that Lammy’s plan to slash jury trials will lead to increase in racial and class bias
David Lammy and the most senior judge in England and Wales are drawing up plans to accelerate the recruitment of minority ethnic and working-class solicitors into the judiciary.
A new judicial and legal diversity board, chaired by Lammy, who is the first black lord chancellor, and Sue Carr, the lady chief justice, has met for the first time to discuss removing barriers for diverse candidates attempting to join the judiciary.
Continue reading...Case hailed as human rights victory as Tromsø court says Tommy Olsen’s actions are lawful and protected under international treaties
The decision of a Norwegian appeals court to dismiss the extradition of an activist accused of facilitating the illegal entry of people into Greece has been hailed as a rare victory for human rights.
In a judgment described as unprecedented by lawyers representing Tommy Olsen, the Norwegian founder of the NGO the Aegean Boat Report, the court unanimously rejected the request saying his actions were not only lawful but protected under international treaties to which both countries adhered.
Continue reading...Government announces a near tenfold increase but forces fear it will not cover anticipated cost of dedicated teams
Keir Starmer’s government has announced a near tenfold increase in funding for detectives hunting grooming gangs but has been warned by police that the amount will “likely fall short” of what is needed.
Operation Beaconport, which was set up last year to review closed group-based sexual exploitation inquiries in England and Wales, will receive nearly £38m, a Home Office statement said – up from £4m given last year.
Continue reading...All 46 Council of Europe members sign agreement ‘deplored’ by human rights organisations
The UK and 45 other European countries have signed an agreement that explicitly endorses plans to send unwanted asylum seekers to third country hubs.
A political declaration from the 46 members of the Council of Europe, the body that oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR), said states had an “undeniable sovereign right” to control their borders.
Continue reading...Council of Europe members plan to change interpretation of ECHR to make it easier to deport refused asylum seekers
Keir Starmer’s government has been accused of trying to water down legal protections for torture victims as ministers from 46 countries including the UK prepare to make it easier to deport refused asylum seekers and foreign criminals.
Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, is expected to agree a “political declaration” on Friday with other members of the Council of Europe, which oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
Continue reading...Rajiv Menon KC was accused of breaching judge’s directions with his closing speech at trial of six activists
A leading human rights barrister has won an appeal against his referral for contempt of court over his closing speech during a trial of Palestine Action activists.
Rajiv Menon KC was accused of breaching the judge’s directions in the trial of six people for a 2024 direct action protest at an arms factory of the Israeli subsidiary Elbit Systems UK in Filton, near Bristol.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Council of Europe to meet in Moldova on Friday, with human rights body expected to recognise countries’ right to control borders
European ministers will this week discuss plans to send thousands of rejected asylum seekers to third-country hubs, the head of the continent’s human rights body has told the Guardian.
Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe, said discussions about the removal of people who arrived in Europe by irregular routes would take place “at a multilateral level” at a meeting in Moldova on Friday.
Continue reading...More than 7,000 join employment tribunal that will include claims for minimum wage and holiday pay
More than 7,000 Just Eat couriers are taking legal action against the food delivery company in an attempt to gain better employment rights including the minimum wage and holiday pay.
The employment tribunal, which begins on Tuesday and is set to run until 2 June, will determine if the couriers are classed as workers, a status that comes with improved rights, or self-employed independent contractors.
Continue reading...Hangings are latest in wave of near-daily killings as authorities seek to instil fear amid war with US and Israel
Iran has executed three men charged in connection with political protests this January, authorities have said, the latest in a wave of hangings against the backdrop of the war against the US and Israel.
Iranian authorities have carried out executions on a near-daily basis in recent weeks in what activists have denounced as a bid to instil fear in society at a time of international and domestic tension.
Continue reading...PM worried about ‘cumulative’ effect of marches, as Met chief says Jewish communities facing biggest threat
Some pro-Palestinian demonstrations could be stopped, the prime minister has warned, as the UK’s most senior police officer said the threat to the Jewish community was greater than it had ever been.
Keir Starmer indicated he wanted the language expressed on some protest marches to be subjected to “tougher action” as he sought to allay the fears of British Jews after a series of attacks on their communities in recent weeks.
Continue reading...EnComm Aviation says the firm’s action has cut off vital support for crisis-hit countries including South Sudan and the DRC
Britain’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, is facing a £120m lawsuit after scrapping support for aircraft used to deliver aid to some of the world’s neediest countries.
EnComm Aviation, a Kenya-based aid cargo operator, claims the decision forced the cancellation of humanitarian contracts and reduced supplies to South Sudan, now threatened by famine, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), among others.
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