Idris Elba calls for immediate ban on machetes and ‘zombie’ knives

Actor and musician also calls for more funding for youth services as part of campaign to end youth knife violence

Idris Elba has called for more urgent action on youth knife violence – including the immediate banning of machetes and “zombie” knives, and more funding for youth services – saying the time for excuses and delays is over.

Speaking to the Guardian on Monday, the star of Luther and The Wire said society was capable of coming together to solve the problem, adding that experts in youth services and bereaved families needed to be able to sit in the same room as politicians and the police, among others, to achieve that.

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Key Post Office Horizon campaigner ‘Mr Bates’ calls for faster compensation

Victim of software scandal says TV drama has reignited issue as 50 new operators contact lawyers

A former post office operator who led a campaign to fight against wrongful convictions brought by the Post Office has called for compensation for the victims to be sped up after the broadcast of an ITV drama about the scandal.

The Metropolitan police confirmed on Friday the Post Office was under criminal investigation over “potential fraud offences” committed during the Horizon scandal.

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‘I can’t celebrate 2023 now’: Jack Grealish ‘devastated’ by burglary

  • Manchester City midfielder says experience was ‘traumatic’
  • Robbers reportedly took £1m worth of jewellery and watches

Jack Grealish has spoken of his devastation and the “traumatic experience” of burglars targeting his home. Raiders struck at the England and Manchester City midfielder’s Cheshire mansion during his club’s Premier League match at Everton on Wednesday.

Members of Grealish’s family and his fiancee, Sasha Atwood, were reportedly watching the televised match at the property when they heard a disturbance. An alarm was raised and an emergency response was launched with a helicopter, police dogs and a number of officers sent to the property near Knutsford, but no suspects were detected.

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Siblings of Sara Sharif, found dead at her father’s home in August, are made wards of court

All five children remain in Pakistan, despite efforts of Surrey council to secure their return

The older brother and half-siblings of the 10-year-old schoolgirl Sara Sharif, who was found dead at the home of her father and stepmother in August, have been made wards of court in this country.

Despite efforts by Surrey county council to secure their return to the UK, all five children, aged one to 13, remain in Pakistan where they were taken by their father, Urfan Sharif, and the mother of the younger four siblings, Beinash Batool, the day before Sara’s body was discovered by police on 10 August.

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Teenagers guilty of ‘senseless’ murder of transgender girl Brianna Ghey

Murder-obsessed 16-year-olds convicted of killing girl who was stabbed 28 times in Warrington park

Two 16-year-olds have been found guilty of the “senseless” murder of Brianna Ghey, a “witty, funny and fearless” transgender girl who was stabbed 28 times in a Warrington park this year.

The murder-obsessed teenagers, known as Girl X and Boy Y to protect their identities, were found guilty unanimously by a jury at Manchester crown court on Wednesday after it deliberated for four hours and 40 minutes.

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Tweaks to law on spiking ‘won’t help’ unless police attitude changes, say experts

Home Office plans wording ‘update’ but campaigners call for new offence to help address low conviction rate

The Home Office has announced plans to “modernise” spiking laws in a move it claims will help bring perpetrators to justice. But experts said the changes will not make any difference without simultaneous investment in police training and other measures to improve the handling of cases on the ground.

Under plans unveiled this weekend, the government will amend the criminal justice bill to make clear that spiking is illegal. It is also drawing up new guidance to provide an “unequivocal” definition of the crime.

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Three people convicted of 1996 murder of Caroline Glachan in Scotland

Mother expresses relief at finally knowing who killed her daughter, 14, as Robert O’Brien, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand are found guilty

Three people have been convicted of the murder of a 14-year-old girl in 1996, with the judge describing their actions as “depraved, brutal and wicked”.

Robert O’Brien, 45, and Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand, both 44, were found guilty of killing O’Brien’s girlfriend Caroline Glachan in West Dunbartonshire.

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MPs arrested for violent or sexual offences ‘face ban from Westminster’

Unions welcome new proposals that lower threshold for risk assessment being triggered

Trade unions have welcomed the publication of new proposals by parliamentary authorities for the exclusion of MPs who are arrested for a violent or sexual offences.

There had been mounting concern about delays to the long-awaited plans. But ministers have now also been urged to bring forward a vote on the issue as soon as the House of Commons returns in the new year after its Christmas recess.

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Eight in 10 convicted in UK over child abuse images avoid prison, NCA says

National Crime Agency calls for tougher sentencing and a new offence of running abuse websites

Eight out of 10 people in the UK caught with images of children being sexually abused avoid going to jail, the head of the National Crime Agency has revealed.

Graeme Biggar, the director general of the NCA, said some had been caught with thousands of images but avoided imprisonment, and others had been given rehabilitation orders and suspended sentences and then reoffended.

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Murder inquiry launched after newborn baby found dead in Ipswich

Suffolk police say body was found outside premises in the town’s Norwich Road

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a newborn baby was found outside a premises in Ipswich. Suffolk constabulary said two men and a female were in custody for questioning after being arrested.

Officers were called to a property on Norwich Road at about 12.30pm on Saturday after reports that a baby’s body had been found. Paramedics attended the scene, but the infant was declared dead.

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Man jailed for six months after racially abusing Rio Ferdinand at football match

Jamie Arnold, 33, made racist remarks and gestures at former England defender, who was working as a TV pundit, court heard

A football fan who racially abused the former England international Rio Ferdinand has been jailed for six months and banned from watching live matches for seven years.

Jamie Arnold, 33, uttered racist remarks and made monkey gestures at the former Manchester United defender, who was working as a pundit for BT Sport, a court heard.

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Footballer Ravel Morrison fined £1,000 for using dead person’s blue badge

Ex-Manchester United player pleaded guilty to using disabled person’s parking permit he said he bought for £50 in Old Trafford

Ravel Morrison, the former Manchester United footballer, has been convicted of fraud after being caught using a deceased person’s blue badge to park.

During his interview under caution, the 30-year-old had claimed he had bought the badge from “someone in Old Trafford” for £50. Morrison, of Westbrook, Warrington, was subsequently charged with one count of fraud.

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Boy, 13, who killed foster carer with her own car sentenced to two years

Boy, who was 12 at time of killing, pleaded guilty to causing the death by dangerous driving of Marcia Grant, 60

A 13-year-old boy has been sentenced to two years in custody for killing a foster carer with her car outside her Sheffield home earlier this year.

The boy, who was 12 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty to causing the death by dangerous driving of 60-year-old Marcia Grant and to possessing a bladed article.

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Stalking victims face ‘postcode lottery’, says coroner after Gracie Spinks killing

Concerns raised over ‘consistency and availability’ of stalking advocates in UK police forces to support victims

Stalking victims face a “postcode lottery” of support due to a lack of advocates in police forces across the UK, a coroner has said following the death of Gracie Spinks.

The 23-year-old was killed in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, by a work colleague, Michael Sellers, who had become “obsessed” with her after previously harassing a number of other women. On 18 June 2021 he followed Spinks to the field where she kept her horse before fatally stabbing her and taking his own life soon after.

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Leicester woman given life term for 2012 murder of one-year-old baby

Katie Tidmarsh found guilty of killing ‘defenceless young child’ she had been in the process of adopting

A woman has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years for murdering the one-year-old baby she was in the process of adopting, after failing to disclose mental health problems to the adoption panel.

Katie Tidmarsh, 39, was convicted of murdering Ruby Thompson, who sustained catastrophic brain damage and died in hospital in August 2012.

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Two charged with murder of missing man after body found in boot of car

Justin Henry, 34, disappeared three weeks ago. The Met has asked for anyone with information to come forward

Police investigating the disappearance of a man in south London say they have found a body in the boot of a car.

Justin Henry, 34, was wearing distinctive jewellery – including a Rolex watch, three Cartier bracelets and a diamond ring – when he went missing on 15 October, shortly after leaving a McDonald’s drive-thru in Croydon, south London, in his Mercedes.

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Somerset man banned from wearing gimp suit and writhing on ground

Joshua Hunt, 32, receives sexual risk order after police linked him to 25 ‘Somerset gimp’ incidents

A man has been banned for five years from wearing a mask and dressing in an all-black suit in public at night and “crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground” after police linked him to 25 incidents committed by the so-called “Somerset gimp”.

Joshua Hunt, 32, has been given a sexual risk order after police argued there was a sexual motivation to the incidents.

Wearing any type of mask or face covering, including improvised mask or face coverings that cover all or part of the face, in any public place, including while in a vehicle in a public place, unless officially required for medical purposes or by law.

Being in possession of any type of mask or face covering, including improvised masks or face coverings that cover all or part of the face, in a public place, including while in a vehicle in a public place, between the hours of 9pm and 6am unless officially required for medical purposes or by law.

Wearing or being in possession of black all-in-one garments or any combination of full-length black-coloured top and black-coloured bottom clothing which has the appearance of an all-in-one garment, in a public place, including in a vehicle in a public place between the hours of 9pm and 6am.

Crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground in a public place while wearing a full-body covering, clothing that appears like a full-body covering and/or mask/full-face covering.

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Woman who helped organise Colston statue protest jailed for fraud

Xahra Saleem admitted offence relating to fundraiser before Bristol BLM protest when slave trader’s statue was dumped in harbour

A key organiser of the protest in Bristol during which a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was toppled and dumped in the city’s harbour has been jailed for two and a half years for fraud.

Xahra Saleem, 23, admitted using more than £30,000 that was supposed to go to a charity for disadvantaged youngsters in the city to fund her lifestyle, including spending almost £6,000 on Uber rides.

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Man jailed for life for attempted murder of US woman stationed at GCHQ

Joshua Bowles, 29, carried out reconnaissance before stabbing victim in Cheltenham in March

A former UK intelligence worker has been jailed for life for attempting to murder an American woman who worked for the US government’s National Security Agency and was stationed at GCHQ in Gloucestershire.

Joshua Bowles punched and stabbed the woman at a leisure centre 3 miles from the UK intelligence, security and cyber-agency’s Cheltenham base after researching the woman and carrying out surveillance of her.

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