Three women in their 40s, 50s and 60s interviewed under caution in relation to alleged abuse by late Harrods owner
Three women have been interviewed under caution on suspicion of facilitating one of Britain’s worst sexual abuse scandals, involving the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed and his alleged attacks over four decades.
Scotland Yard said 154 women may have been raped or sexually assaulted by Fayed, or been subject to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Continue reading...Move comes after Gordon Brown’s claim that files show sex offender used airport in Essex to ‘fly in girls’
Police are assessing information about private flights to and from Stansted airport following the publication of files relating to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown claimed the documents showed in “graphic detail” how Epstein was able to use the Essex-based hub to “fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia”.
Continue reading...National Crime Agency says rise in child sexual abuse being driven by technology and online forums
Child sexual abuse in the UK is soaring, police have said, with 1,000 paedophile suspects being arrested each month and the number of children being rescued from harm rising by 50% in the last five years.
The National Crime Agency said the growth in offending across the UK was driven by technology and linked to the radicalisation of offenders in online forums, encouraging people to view images of child sexual abuse by reassuring them it was normal.
Continue reading...NPCC lead for domestic abuse says officers dealing with huge caseloads, made worse by justice system backlogs
Police are “determined to do more” to hold to account domestic abusers who drive victims to kill themselves, the National Police Chiefs’ Council has said.
Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the NPCC lead for domestic abuse, has said that “more posthumous investigations are taking place”, but that officers struggle with a lack of resources, adding that 20% of all crime relates to domestic abuse in most forces.
Continue reading...London police say criminal gangs are using Snapchat to offer cash rewards of up to £380 for stolen iPhones
Gangs are recruiting children to go out to steal smartphones before they head to school, using Snapchat to offer rewards of up to £380 for the latest Apple iPhones, police have revealed.
The Metropolitan police said they were deploying new resources including drones and Surron ebikes to chase suspects as they step up their fight against phone snatching.
Continue reading...Official report says forces in England and Wales yet to implement recommendations for investigations
A quarter of police forces in England and Wales are yet to implement “basic policies for investigating sexual offences”, an official report has found, with women still being failed despite promises of change after the murder of Sarah Everard four years ago.
The report by Dame Elish Angiolini follows an inquiry set up after Everard was murdered by a serving police officer, Wayne Couzens, in March 2021. She was abducted off a London street while walking home.
Continue reading...Undercover unit monitored Stephen Lawrence’s family, as well as thousands of mainly leftwing political activists
Two senior officers who supervised an undercover Scotland Yard unit spying on political campaigns were “horribly and incredibly” racist, a whistleblower has told a public inquiry.
Peter Francis, a former member of the unit, testified that one regularly used the “N-word”, while the other used a repertoire of explicit racist slurs.
Continue reading...Stephen Lawrence’s mother tells inquiry she did not believe Michael Howard when he told her he did not know police had spied on her family
The mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has told a public inquiry that she does not believe claims by the former home secretary Michael Howard that he did not know undercover police officers had spied on her family.
Doreen Lawrence told the spycops inquiry on Thursday that Lord Howard, a former leader of the Conservative party, invited her to a meeting shortly after the inquiry was set up in 2014.
Continue reading...Government plans include more short sentences being suspended and earlier releases from jail
Government plans to radically reform sentencing will lead to an increase in crime by as much as 6% in a single year, according to police chiefs.
The reforms, which cover England and Wales, involve a presumption against short sentences of a year or less, with community sentences used instead, and those jailed being released earlier than currently the case.
Continue reading...Algerian man, 24, ‘released in error’ from HMP Wandsworth two days after stronger checks for jails were brought in
Police have launched an urgent manhunt for a second foreign prisoner freed mistakenly, two days after the justice secretary, David Lammy, brought in stronger checks for jails.
The 24-year-old Algerian was wrongly released from Wandsworth prison in south London last Wednesday, with the Metropolitan police informed only this week.
Continue reading...Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, whose case triggered summer protests in Essex, detained again and faces deportation
A former asylum seeker and convicted sex offender who was released from prison in error is back in custody and faces deportation.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was jailed for 12 months in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl and was made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.
Continue reading...Ellie, who now lives in Australia, tells policing inquiry she was deceived by officer infiltrating animal rights groups
A woman has told a public inquiry in London that she was left devastated and deeply mistrustful of police after an undercover officer deceived her into an intimate relationship at a young age.
The woman, known only as Ellie, who now lives in Australia and is a dual national, told the undercover policing inquiry on Thursday that she had a year-long relationship with James Thomson while he concealed his real identity from her.
Continue reading...Exclusive: West Midlands police were told supporters randomly attacked Muslims in Amsterdam last year
Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were banned from watching their game against Aston Villa after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club.
The ban ignited an intense controversy and was criticised by the prime minister, as well as others claiming it was a surrender to antisemitism.
Scores of extreme Maccabi fans with a past history of violence and shouting “racist taunts” were expected to travel to the Birmingham game.
Dutch police told their British counterparts that the Maccabi fans had instigated trouble in Amsterdam at a game last year.
They had randomly picked Muslims in Amsterdam to attack. That led to reprisal violence with some Dutch Jews attacked.
A huge Dutch police effort, involving 5,000 officers across three days, was needed to quell the trouble.
A community impact assessment by West Midlands police recorded that some Jewish people wanted the Maccabi fans banned because of the trouble that might ensue if they attended.
Any trouble started by Maccabi fans attending the Birmingham game could lead to reprisals from local people and further trouble.
The process did not consider whether the ban on fans of the Israeli club could be criticised as antisemitic itself or surrendering to antisemitism.
Continue reading...Club cited possible safety ‘concerns’ after West Midlands police decided to ban Maccabi fans from fixture
Aston Villa told matchday stewards they would not have to work during the club’s Europa League fixture against the Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv, citing possible “concerns” over safety, it has been reported.
West Midlands police decided to ban Maccabi fans from the forthcoming match, after saying the force would not be able to police the fixture safely owing to “violent clashes and hate crime offences” at a previous match in Amsterdam in 2024.
Continue reading...Fans of Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv banned from match at Aston Villa next month
Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP who is now a member of the Independent Alliance in parliament, alongside Ayoub Khan and four others, has also defended the Maccabi ban on the grounds that Israeli teams should not be competing in international sport. She says:
Next UEFA must ban all Israeli teams.
We cannot have normalisation with genocide and apartheid.
Apartheid South Africa was banned from the Olympics for 32 years.
The same people who called Nelson Mandela a “terrorist” now say we can’t boycott apartheid Israel.
There are two distinct issues. One is the safety aspect … If the police in West Midlands find it challenging because they simply do not have the resources to ensure safety, then that’s one aspect.
The second aspect is a moral argument that Maccabi Tel Aviv should not even be playing in this international competition.
Continue reading...Officer, known as W80, shot Jermaine Baker during a foiled prison break in 2015
The family of a man shot dead by a police officer during a foiled prison break have accused Scotland Yard of evading accountability after a case against the marksman was thrown out.
The officer, known only as W80, shot Jermaine Baker as police stopped a plot to snatch two prisoners from a van near Wood Green crown court in 2015.
Continue reading...Counter-terror laws must not place unnecessary limits on ‘fundamental rights’, Michael O’Flaherty tells Shabana Mahmood
Europe’s most senior human rights official has called on Shabana Mahmood to review UK protest laws after mass arrests over the ban on Palestine Action.
Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, said that the current legal framework allows UK authorities to “impose excessive limits on freedom of assembly and expression, and risk overpolicing” in a letter sent to the home secretary.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage and right-wing commentators seek to portray capital as ‘lawless’ despite evidence to the contrary
Claims that London is becoming more dangerous despite the crime figures indicating otherwise are being made because it suits some people, a senior police commander has said.
The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and right-wing commentators have increasingly sought to portray the capital as a “lawless” city from which high net-worth individuals are fleeing.
Continue reading...Conservative leader grilled over her removals proposal ahead of party conference opening later today
The polling firm Opinium has released some research this morning suggesting that some Conservative party policies are popular with voters – but that, if people are explicitly told that they are Kemi Badenoch policies, their popularity goes down.
There is some evidence that Keir Starmer’s unpopularity has the same effect – and that, once a policy is associated with him, voters are less inclined to back it.
Continue reading...Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday
Ministers are to give police new powers to target repeated protests, aimed particularly at cracking down on demonstrations connected to Gaza, the Home Office has said.
The announcement, made the morning after almost 500 people were arrested in London for expressing support for Palestine Action, a proscribed organisation, could allow police to order regular protests to take place at a different site.
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