Category Archives: Police

Sarah Everard: Wayne Couzens to be sentenced for kidnap, rape and murder

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Met officer used police ID card and handcuffs to lure Everard into car before killing her and burning body

The former Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens is to be sentenced for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, amid calls for a formal law to set out the rights of victims.

Couzens, 48, used his police warrant card and handcuffs to lure Everard off the street before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body, depriving her family of the chance to say a final goodbye, a court heard.

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At least 15 serving or former police have killed women in UK since 2009 – report

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Majority of the women killed by former officers had been their partners, according to the Femicide Census

Women have been killed by at least 15 serving or former police officers in the UK since 2009, new figures reveal.

The majority of the women killed by former officers had been their partners, according to data from the Femicide Census first reported by the Times.

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RUC officer referred for 1976 murder of brothers in County Armagh

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Referral to prosecutors comes as UK told plan to end Troubles prosecutions ‘could breach international law’

A former police officer of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) has been referred to public prosecutors in Northern Ireland in relation to a series of potential offences including the sectarian murder of three brothers.

John Martin, 24, Brian, 22, and their 17-year-old brother, Anthony Reavey, were shot by the notorious loyalist Glenanne gang at their home in County Armagh in 1976.

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Tech firms not doing enough to fight terrorism, says Met police chief

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Cressida Dick calls for more action to stop online radicalisation and questions push towards end-to-end encryption

The UK most senior police officer has accused technology firms of failing to identify, monitor and report the activity of terrorists, in a plea for improved access to social media platforms.

Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, also questioned the push to expand end-to-end encryption in a speech to law enforcement officials on Monday.

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Facebook encryption could prevent detection of child abuse, NCA says

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Police claim plans for end-to-end encryption will stop officers being able to access ‘incisive intelligence’

Facebook’s plans to allow encrypted messaging across all its platforms could prevent the detection of up to 20m child abuse images every year, a senior investigating officer has claimed.

Rob Jones, the director of threat leadership at the National Crime Agency, said the social media company’s goal of rolling out end-to-end encryption will stop officers from accessing “incisive intelligence” that allows them to rescue abused children.

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Charles has ‘no knowledge’ of alleged offer of honours, says

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Clarence House says Prince of Wales supports investigation after he and trusted aide reported to police

The Prince of Wales has “no knowledge” of the alleged honours and citizenship controversy, Clarence House has said, after Charles and his most trusted aide were reported to the police over the claims.

At least two complaints have been made to the Metropolitan police over allegations that a wealthy Saudi businessman was offered help to secure an honour and British citizenship after donating to Charles’s charities.

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‘Imminent’ decision on future of Cressida Dick as Met commissioner

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Priti Patel and Dick discussed the commissioner’s future last week, it is understood

Ministers and the Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, have begun discussions about whether her turbulent term in charge of Britain’s biggest force will be extended, with a decision said to be “imminent”.

Dick, the first woman in charge of the London force since it was established in 1829, is on a five-year contract that expires in April 2022. She could step down then or have the contract extended for a period.

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Wrong to label Extinction Rebellion as extremists, says Home Office adviser

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Peer at odds with Priti Patel over climate activists on eve of more protests

A government extremism adviser has admitted during a private meeting that it is wrong to label Extinction Rebellion (XR) supporters as “extreme”, despite the home secretary, Priti Patel, condemning the group as “criminals” who threaten the nation’s way of life.

John Woodcock, the former Labour MP who was asked by the Home Office this year to examine disruption and violence by extreme political groups, sought to reassure XR activists that he did not regard the movement as uniformly extreme during a Zoom video conference call last month. “You’re worried that I want to label everyone who supports XR as extremists and that is certainly not the case,” he said.

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Plymouth shooting: police urged to take misogyny more seriously

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Gunman who killed five regularly expressed hatred of women but had firearms licence reinstated in July

Police must start taking misogyny more seriously in order to prevent more tragedies such as that in Plymouth, a top prosecutor has said, after a man who had regularly expressed his hatred of women killed five people and wounded two more.

Nazir Afzal, who was previously chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, said Jake Davison should have been on a police watchlist.

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Plymouth shooting: police reinstated gunman’s firearms licence last month

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Jake Davison had licence revoked in December but it was restored after he attended anger management course

A gunman who killed his mother and four passersby, including a three-year-old girl, had his firearms licence revoked in December, but police reinstated it last month after he attended an anger management course.

Police will face an investigation over their dealings with Jake Davison, 22, who expressed sympathy for the “incel” movement and a keen interest in mass shootings. One resident from Plymouth, where the killing spree took place, said Davison’s family had sought treatment for his mental health issues.

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Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’

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Exclusive: Front Line Defenders report says rights defenders working in sex industry face ‘targeted attacks’ around the world

Sex worker activists are among the most at risk defenders of human rights in the world, facing multiple threats and violent attacks, an extensive investigation has found.

The research, published today by human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, found that their visibility as sex workers who are advocates for their communities’ rights makes them more vulnerable to the violations routinely suffered by sex workers. In addition, they face unique, targeted abuse for their human rights work.

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Police helicopter finds missing six-year-old girl asleep in Devon field – video

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The National Police Air Service south-west team has released footage of the moment a six-year-old girl was spotted by a police helicopter using an infrared camera after she had gone missing from her remote farmhouse home in north Devon. The child was found curled up asleep in the corner of a field. She had wandered more than half a mile from her home. She was checked over in hospital and reunited with her parents

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Police review teen killings in search of catalyst for spike in murders

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Pilot scheme hopes to discover patterns that will help prevent more deaths

Measures are being introduced to try to identify what is driving rising murder rates in the wake of a spike in teenage deaths in some of the UK’s homicide hotspots.

All homicides in London, Birmingham and south Wales will be reviewed by the authorities in an attempt to learn from the chaotic sequences of events that often preempt a death.

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A failure at the top of police, and at the top of governments both Tory and Labour

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Analysis: we have been here before with damning reports on race and policing, and we will almost certainly be here again

• MPs rebuke police for systemic failure to improve record on race

Race issues for the police – after the Macpherson report in 1999 – were seen as a problem mainly affecting the rank and file, which was dominated by the white working class. It was clear that policing would radically change only if government pressured it to do so. Promises were made and very basic targets for the recruitment of ethnic minority officers were set. So why are we still here?

The bitter truth is because those who have the power to do something do not care enough, or lack the will, or focus, or think what the police are doing on race is enough. Critics would say those in power are hampered by institutional racism. The other possibility is that every report on this topic that raised troubling findings has been wrong.

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Tory crime strategy will increase risk of major public disorder | Letters

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Cllr Mark Blake says an enforcement approach to curb youth violence will fail, while Prof Saville Kushner says stop and search will undermine democratic policing. Plus letters from Mary Jones, TG Ashplant, Susan Ellery, Lynn Beudert and Christopher Reilly

Boris Johnson’s announcements around his crime reduction strategy are worrying and predictable (Weird and gimmicky’: police chiefs condemn Boris Johnson’s crime plan, 27 July).

As a councillor in Haringey who previously led on the council’s work with the Metropolitan police, I’m filled with dread at the thought of the Met ramping up stop and search in some supposedly “evidenced” response to knife crime.

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MPs and campaigners alarmed at UK’s ‘discriminatory’ crime reduction plans

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Government’s proposals include more frequent stop and search and making community service street cleaners ‘more visible’

MPs and campaigners have sounded alarm at a series of proposals in the government crime reduction plan, including more frequent stop and search, a trial of “alcohol tags” and criminals undertaking “visible” community service cleaning streets.

Liberty said the permanent relaxation of search powers would “compound discrimination in Britain and divide communities” and the former shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, said it was “alarming and counter-productive.”

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Over 450 key workers with long Covid tell MPs of their struggles

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Nurses, teachers, GPs and police officers among those to give evidence to cross-party inquiry

More than 450 key workers with long Covid have told a cross-party parliamentary inquiry of their experiences of the condition, including struggles to return to work and lack of financial support, with one in 10 having lost their job.

Nurses, teachers, GPs, police officers and midwives were among those who shared their experience of long Covid, symptoms of which include debilitating fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pains, sleeping difficulties and brain fog.

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New police memorial honours officers killed in the line of duty

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£4.5m monument at national memorial arboretum in Staffordshire will be unveiled on Wednesday

If PC Fiona Bone had turned a different way, if she had been sick that day, if her degree in film production studies had led to more work, her father, Paul, would have not spent the last nine years grieving.

For officers and their families, the difference between life and death in policing can be terribly slight.

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Revealed: Met police trainees’ violence and dishonesty

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Cressida Dick backs Hendon methods, despite leaked documents and internal sources revealing alarming incidents and poor applicants

The head of the Metropolitan police, Cressida Dick, has been forced to defend recruitment standards as leaked documents reveal cases of violent disorder, cheating and dishonesty among trainees at Britain’s biggest police force.

The incidents relate to recruits at the Met’s main training centre and will raise concerns about its ability to provide an effective service as sources within the force allege declining standards for trainees as recruitment has been ramped up.

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‘The police bill is wiping out a culture’: New Travellers take a stand

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If it becomes law, residing on land without permission would be a criminal offence, threatening a way of life for communities across the UK

“I am worried that not everyone knows what is coming,” says Amy, sitting in the truck she has turned into a cosy home for her and her two children. “If this bill is passed it will mean the end of our culture. The end of our way of life.”

Amy, who wanted to be known by her first name, lives with her two sons on a small Travellers’ site down a quiet country lane in the west of England, along the edges of an ancient forest.

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