Category Archives: Crime

Brothers jailed for being at forefront of riot outside Rotherham hotel

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Paul and Luke Sissons among those sentenced over disorder earlier this month in English towns and cities

Two brothers have each been jailed for three years after being convicted of being at the forefront of a riot outside a hotel housing more than 200 asylum seekers in Rotherham.

Sheffield crown court heard that Luke and Paul Sissons were involved in several violent incidents at the Holiday Inn Express, in Manvers, on 4 August, including confrontations with riot police and an attack on a police dog van.

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HMP Wandsworth living conditions are ‘inhumane’, finds report

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Rat-infested London jail from which terror suspect escaped is unsafe and overcrowded, say independent monitors

Wandsworth prison is crumbling, overcrowded and vermin-infested, with inmates living in half the cell space available when it was first opened in 1851, according to a report published on Thursday.

The south London prison’s independent monitoring board identified a litany of failings in its annual report, concluding that “the prison is not safe” and “conditions remained inhumane”.

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Murder inquiry after Leeds delivery driver dies ‘trying to stop van theft’

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Police appeal for witnesses after man found at roadside after delivering package for Amazon-contracted firm

Police have launched a murder inquiry after a delivery driver was killed during an apparent theft of his van while he was dropping off parcels in Leeds.

The man, who has not been named, was found unconscious with serious injuries in Heights Drive, Wortley, just before 7pm on Tuesday.

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Stop and search study in England and Wales ‘casts doubt’ on effectiveness

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Controversial power had less impact in 2022-23 than tactics such as focused deterrence and hotspot policing, says charity

Stop and search is one of the less effective tactics to tackle rising violence such as knife crime, according to the results of a study.

Research by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), a charity funded by the Home Office to combat youth violence, found that other tactics – such as community-led focused deterrence, putting more officers on the streets in troubled areas or mentoring and diversion for potential suspects – produced bigger cuts in violence.

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‘We fear the police’: young people share their concerns with Yvette Cooper

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Home secretary says predecessors ‘turned their backs’ on a generation as she discusses her young futures programme

Yvette Cooper has had a baptism of fire as home secretary – a national tragedy when three girls were murdered at a Taylor Swift-themed dance club and an ensuing week of race riots fuelled by dangerous misinformation.

It has not been easy, but Cooper has been in waiting for more than a decade to take the home secretary job – in the shadow role and as chair of the powerful home affairs committee – and is not about to waste a moment. In fact, her only complaint about the job so far is that her busy schedule and tight security means she is struggling to get enough exercise – apart from the many flights of stairs to her Home Office desk she must climb each day.

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Northern Irish first minister condemns mosque attack and other violence

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Michelle O’Neill and deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly call unrest in Co Down and Derry ‘disgraceful’

Northern Ireland’s first minister and deputy first minister have condemned a racist attack on a mosque in County Down and last night’s violence in Derry.

The mosque was attacked at about 1am on Saturday, when graffiti was sprayed on the front door and walls of the building in Greenwell Street.

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Pret a Manger deploys body-worn cameras for some staff

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Coffee and bakery chain says devices to be worn by managers will ‘only be turned on in specific circumstances’

Pret a Manger has become the latest high street staple to deploy body-worn cameras for some of its staff.

The coffee and bakery chain began trialling body-worn cameras in a select number of shops in London last month. A Pret spokesperson said this was done as a new safety measure. “These are only being worn by team leaders or managers, and are only turned on in specific circumstances,” the spokesperson said.

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King Charles sends ‘heartfelt thanks’ to police for restoring order after riots

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The monarch held calls with Keir Starmer and senior officers and paid tribute to the emergency services

King Charles has sent his “heartfelt thanks” to the police for restoring order after speaking to Keir Starmer and senior officers following the week of unrest across the UK.

The king and the prime minister held a phone call on Friday evening, Buckingham Palace said. Gavin Stephens, a chief constable and chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and the UK gold commander Ben Harrington, chief constable of Essex police, held a separate joint call with the king.

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Two men jailed for social media posts that stirred up far-right violence

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People who threw stones, hurled racist abuse and pushed a burning wheelie bin at police also sent to prison

Two men have been sent to prison for stirring up hatred and violence online after the Southport attack, in the first cases of their kind linked to the recent riots seen across the country.

Jordan Parlour, 28, was jailed for 20 months after pleading guilty to inciting racial hatred with Facebook posts in which he advocated an attack on a hotel in Leeds as part of the violent public disorder that swept England last week.

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Anti-racism activist in London reports break-in attempt after far-right threats

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Ulrike Schmidt says police have not investigated incident in Walthamstow, which was interrupted by passersby

A key organiser of Walthamstow’s mass anti-racism rally on Wednesday has said someone tried to break into her home after she received threats on social media from the far right.

Ulrike Schmidt, an activist with Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) and Amnesty International, said she woke up at 5am on Friday to the sounds of someone trying to break into her home in the north-east London borough.

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UK government will not repay ‘bed and board’ deductions to all wrongfully imprisoned

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Miscarriage of justice victims say money taken from compensation payouts is additional punishment

A government minister has ruled out reimbursing some victims of miscarriages of justice after living expenses for the time they spent in prison were deducted from their compensation payments.

Last year, the then justice secretary, Alex Chalk, scrapped the policy of making deductions from all future payouts after the case of Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 17 years.

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BBC asks disgraced presenter Huw Edwards to return £200,000 of salary

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Corporation says journalist brought BBC ‘into disrepute’ and requests return of money paid since his arrest

The BBC has asked Huw Edwards to return £200,000 that he was paid following his arrest in November last year, after the disgraced presenter admitted making indecent images of children.

A statement from the corporation said Edwards, who announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II, had “undermined trust in the BBC and brought us into disrepute” and they wanted him to repay his salary.

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‘Show of unity’ from communities and police ‘defeated challenges we’ve seen’ from far-right riots, says Met chief – live

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Anti-racism demonstrators turned out in large numbers on Wednesday, as threat of mass far-right disorder fizzled out

Prime minister Keir Starmer has resisted calls for parliament to be recalled, but the Northern Ireland assembly in Stormont will convene a plenary session today at noon to discuss recent scenes of violent disorder on the streets of Belfast.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is set to lead a rally outside the meeting in opposition to the rioting, PA Media reports.

We’re four weeks into a Labour government. One of our promises in the manifesto was we want to increase police numbers in neighbourhood policing. We think that’s been hollowed out over the last 14 years.

We know we’ve got a lot of young officers in service because there was a massive cut to the police in the last 14 years. At the tail end of the previous government, they did increase numbers again, but that’s a lot of young, inexperienced officers, who are doing a remarkable job, I have to say.

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UK police monitoring TikTok for evidence of criminality at far-right riots

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Footage of disorder can reach hundreds of thousands of viewers and often shows faces of those committing crimes

Police officers are watching TikTok in an attempt to catch far-right demonstrators livestreaming self-incriminating footage of their illegal behaviour.

TikTok’s Live function has become one of the defining outlets for coverage of this summer’s riots, with hundreds of thousands of viewers watching live streams of rioting over the last week in cities such as Stoke, Leeds, Hull and Nottingham.

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UK riots live: arrests pass 400 as police prepare for further riots; man in serious condition after suspected hate crime

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More than 400 people arrested in connection with riots and disorder; man hospitalised in Belfast

The UK’s National Union of Students has offered a statement of support to communities affected by far-right rioting and violence, including students from Muslim and migrant backgrounds, following a week of far-right violence across England and in Belfast.

“At NUS, we stand in solidarity with the migrants, racialised and Muslim communities that have faced xenophobic, racist, and Islamophobic violence in the last week,” the NUS statement said.

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Liverpool library torched by far-right rioters raises repair funds

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Appeal for donations to repair fire damage caused to Spellow Hub library has raised more than £120,000 in two days

A fundraising campaign has raised more than £120,000 to help repair a Liverpool library and community hub that suffered severe fire damage after being targeted by rioters on Saturday night.

Nigella Lawson and children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce are among those who have donated to the gofundme page, which was set up on Sunday afternoon in aid of Spellow Hub library.

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Police officers injured amid standoff in Plymouth – England riots as it happened

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Devon & Cornwall police report violence against officers and damaged police van as calls grow for recall of parliament

Local people joined council workers to clear up around the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Manvers, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, on Monday morning.

Police officers stood guard outside the main entrance and at other locations around the building as teams swept up glass from the numerous broken windows at the front of the hotel, PA reported.

That’s not what we’re doing right now. What we’re doing right now is keeping in close contact with MPs.

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BBC wipes Huw Edwards from archive but role in state occasions presents challenge

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Broadcaster removes image and voice from content as Welsh organisations erase disgraced presenter from websites

Huw Edwards’s image and voice are being urgently removed from hours of BBC archive footage, starting with family and entertainment content on iPlayer, the Observer has learned.

Photographs of the disgraced Welsh television news anchor are also being removed by prominent institutions and charities, and from websites throughout Wales, where he was a national figurehead.

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Man jailed after shoplifting hundreds of Cadbury Creme Eggs

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Layton Richards, 29, sentenced to eight months in prison for string of thefts in Dorset, Hampshire and West Sussex

A thief has been jailed for eight months after being found guilty of shoplifting almost 800 Cadbury Creme Eggs over a three-month period.

Layton Richards, 29, had been charged with 24 shoplifting offences between 6 January and 18 April this year, with Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary accusing him of stealing as many as 798 of the confectionery items.

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