Detective from force’s specialist crime unit says cross-border operation was the result of four years’ work
Three men have been convicted after a £2m vase stolen from a museum was recovered in a police sting operation.
The Chinese Ming dynasty vase was stolen from the Museum of Far Eastern Art in Geneva, in Switzerland in June 2019. Three men plotted to sell it on for hundreds of thousands of pounds, but were caught in a Scotland Yard operation.
Continue reading...After spending 17 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, the 57-year-old’s conviction was finally overturned last month
A 33-year-old woman is raped and left for dead on a motorway embankment in Salford as she walks home. She recalls causing a “deep scratch” to her attacker’s face. Andrew Malkinson is visited by police officers the next day who see he has no scratch. He is arrested two weeks later and then picked out of a video lineup.
Continue reading...Exclusive: No action taken despite 2007 discovery of searchable male DNA profile on rape victim’s top that did not match Malkinson’s
Police and prosecutors in the Andrew Malkinson case knew there was another man’s DNA on the victim’s clothes in 2007 – three years after he was wrongly convicted of rape – but he remained in prison for another 13 years.
Malkinson was cleared by the appeal court last month after spending 17 years in prison for a 2003 rape he did not commit. His exoneration came after fresh DNA testing linked another man to the crime.
Continue reading...Information about victims of crime, witnesses and suspects included with freedom of information responses, forces say
Two police forces in England have admitted mishandling the sensitive data of victims, witnesses and suspects in cases including domestic abuse incidents, sexual offences, assaults, thefts and hate crime.
Norfolk and Suffolk police said the data of 1,230 people was included in files responding to freedom of information requests and apologised.
Continue reading...Force’s chief constable believes thousands of officers’ personal details are in paramilitary hands
Republican paramilitaries have obtained the information that leaked in a Police Service of Northern Ireland data breach, according to the force’s chief constable.
Simon Byrne said on Monday that he believed dissident republicans had the dataset that mistakenly disclosed the personal details of more than 10,000 officers and staff last week.
Continue reading...Breaches hurt police morale and may help republican paramilitaries intimidate officers and their families
Police data breaches in Northern Ireland have given republican paramilitaries a powerful tool to intimidate, demoralise and target officers and their families for years to come, according to security experts.
The New IRA and other groups have gained the “upper hand” and will be able to use the unprecedented leaks of officers’ personal information to carry out psychological and possibly physical attacks, the analysts warned on Friday.
Continue reading...Metropolitan police sending extra officers to central London street after speculation of ‘crime opportunities’
Sadiq Khan has encouraged people not to travel to Oxford Street to take part in a social media craze that he has described as “nonsense”.
The Metropolitan police has said there will be a heightened police presence in the central London area after speculation about an event on Wednesday afternoon advertised on TikTok.
Continue reading...Pair accused of lying during investigation into claims of VIP paedophile ring made by fantasist Carl Beech
There are “reasonable grounds” to suspect two people perverted the course of justice by allegedly making false abuse claims against a string of high-profile figures, a police force has said.
The pair, known only as witnesses A and B, are accused of lying during Operation Midland, launched in 2014 off the back of lurid and false allegations made by fantasist Carl Beech, who was later jailed for 18 years.
Continue reading...Party says recruits with relevant skills could help tackle government’s ‘abysmal’ record on unsolved crimes
Directly recruiting new police detectives from parallel fields such as business fraud investigation could help tackle the government’s “abysmal” record on unsolved crimes, according to a proposal from Labour.
Analysis by the party found that 90% of recorded crimes do not get solved and there has been a 60% reduction in the proportion of offences that result in a criminal charge since 2015.
Continue reading...Covert government strategy to install electronic surveillance in shops raises issues around bias and data, and contrasts sharply with the EU ban to keep AI out of public spaces
Home Office officials have drawn up secret plans to lobby the independent privacy regulator in an attempt to push the rollout of controversial facial recognition technology into high street shops and supermarkets, internal government minutes seen by the Observer reveal.
The covert strategy was agreed during a closed-door meeting on 8 March between policing minister Chris Philp, senior Home Office officials and the private firm Facewatch, whose facial recognition cameras have provoked fierce opposition after being installed in shops.
Continue reading...Tribunal investigating lawfulness of 2013 PSNI actions after complaint by Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey
A secretive tribunal is looking into allegations that UK authorities spied on investigative journalists in Northern Ireland to identify their sources.
The investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) is examining a complaint by two journalists who asked the body to find out whether police in Northern Ireland and Durham, as well as MI5 and GCHQ, used intrusive surveillance powers against them.
Continue reading...Report says detention of Ernest Moret was wrong after he was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police
The arrest in London of a radical French publisher under counter-terrorist powers has been referred to the police watchdog after the reviewer of terrorism legislation found that it was wrong.
Ernest Moret, 28, was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police and asked about his opinion of Emmanuel Macron and participation in anti-Macron protests after he arrived at St Pancras station in April for a book fair.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says ‘even the Blair government’ helped lift children out of poverty
Labour MPs are “seething with anger” about Keir Starmer’s decision to say the party would not get rid of the two-child benefit cap, Jeremy Corbyn said this morning.
Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor as leader, told LBC that he had spoken to “quite a lot of Labour MPs” about this issue. He went on:
They are seething with anger, particularly as commitments have been made regularly by the party that we would take children out of poverty. Even the Blair government, which Keir Starmer often quotes, did do a great deal to lift children out of poverty by not having a two-child policy …
Even in areas like mine, there are high levels of child poverty – probably 40% of the children in my constituency. All across the north-east, which Jamie [Driscoll] represents – a third of all children across the whole of the region are living in poverty. That has got to go and got to change.
This is not a shock – it is what I and my team expected.
None of my fellow Bernie Grant leadership programme alumni have been selected.
Continue reading...The two West Midlands officers pressured women into sexual acts when attending their homes in response to incidents of domestic violence
Two West Midlands police officers who had inappropriate sexual relationships with domestic abuse survivors have been found guilty of misconduct in public office.
One serving officer – PC Anthony Ritchie, 46 – and one former officer – Steven Walters, 55 – were each found guilty of two counts of misconduct in public office at Birmingham crown court, with one count involving the same victim of domestic abuse.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Yvette Cooper to tell RUSI thinktank that economic security and national security go hand in hand
Contractors linked to hostile foreign powers such as China will be targeted by a new security taskforce if Labour wins the next general election.
In a joint initiative from the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the new body will aim to anticipate risks to Britain’s national security.
Continue reading...Northamptonshire force says technology adds ‘extra layer of security’ at Silverstone for F1 race
Police are using live facial recognition (LFR) to scan the faces of people attending the British Grand Prix at Silverstone this weekend.
Northamptonshire police were deploying the technology on Saturday and Sunday to provide “an extra layer of security” at the Formula One race, which 450,000 people were expected to attend, the force said.
Continue reading...Home affairs select committee members criticise policy of working with businesses such as Vivastreet
Senior police officers have “cosied up” to “pimping websites” that allegedly allow trafficked women to be “raped multiple times a day”, MPs have said.
Dame Diana Johnson, the chair of the home affairs select committee, said it was “disgraceful” that police forces and the National Crime Agency (NCA) were engaging with businesses such as Vivastreet.
Continue reading...German man says he first contacted Scotland Yard about suspect Christian Brückner in 2008
The man who tipped off police about Christian Brückner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has said his initial approach to the Metropolitan police in the year after she disappeared was ignored and he was only taken seriously when he contacted them again nine years later.
The German man, identified only as Helge B, said he had approached Scotland Yard in 2008, suspecting Brückner’s involvement in the child’s abduction, but he heard nothing back from them. Publicity around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2017 prompted him to contact them again, after which they acted on his information, he said.
Continue reading...Ernest Moret had devices seized after arrest by counter-terrorism police on arrival in London in April
The Metropolitan police have admitted downloading the sim card from the phone of a radical French publisher who was arrested by counter-terrorism police at St Pancras station in April, his lawyer has claimed.
Officers returned the iPhone and laptop it had seized from Ernest Moret, 28, to his London lawyer on Tuesday after the Met announced late on Friday that no further action would be taken against him. He had been arrested on his way to the London book fair and held for almost 24 hours under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Continue reading...Watchdog identified further details that ‘could and should’ have been handed over to Macpherson inquiry
An official investigation has concluded that Scotland Yard had information that “could and should” have been handed to the inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s murder but failed to disclose it, the Guardian has learned.
The unpublished findings from the police watchdog are a potential fresh embarrassment to the Met and emerged after a sixth suspect in the 1993 killing of the black teenager was identified, leading to calls from Lawrence’s father and best friend to reopen the investigation.
Continue reading...