Home secretary orders review into ‘political activism’ within policing

Labour accuses Braverman of focusing on her ‘political obsessions’ as she says officers should focus on crime and avoid ‘contentious issues’

The home secretary has commissioned a review into police activism and impartiality as she tells officers to focus on crime rather than being involved in “political matters”.

Suella Braverman said public confidence had been damaged as a result of police engaging in “contentious issues” such as officers taking a knee and policing gender-critical views on social media.

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‘We don’t need police’: the New Forest village taking the law into its own hands

At the village with the most unsolved burglaries in the UK, shopkeepers are turning to vigilante-style tactics

Within the genteel New Forest village of Lyndhurst, it was considered a crime of almost outrageous audacity.

On a busy Saturday afternoon in February, two vividly painted Moorcroft pottery charger plates were stolen in plain sight from the middle of the venerable antique store.

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Braverman defends police resources for new crime crackdown

UK home secretary insists force has sufficient staffing numbers to tackle ‘back-to-basics policing’

The UK home secretary has insisted the police have the resources required to meet a pledge to follow all “reasonable lines of inquiry” in a fresh crackdown on crime.

Police forces in England and Wales have agreed to follow all evidence such as footage from CCTV, doorbells and dashcams, as well as phone data, to find suspect or stolen property.

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Glyn Razzell: man convicted of killing wife to face strict checks if released

Restrictions to man who still denies killing Linda Razzell include informing police of relationships and not selling story to media outlets

A man convicted of murdering his estranged wife more than 20 years ago faces stringent restrictions if he is finally released from prison, ranging from having to inform the authorities if he begins a romantic relationship to not selling his story to a newspaper or documentary maker.

Glyn Razzell, who is in prison for murdering his wife, Linda Razzell, in 2002, has insisted at a Parole Board hearing that he would pose no risk if he is freed but has been told he will face wide-ranging checks.

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Former Met police officer jailed for rape of female colleague and 16-year-old girl

Judge says force protected Adam Provan by ignoring officer’s complaints, allowing him to attack teenager

The Metropolitan police protected a predatory rapist within their ranks, dismissing the complaints of one of his victims and leaving him free to attack a teenager, a judge has said.

Adam Provan, 44, was on Tuesday jailed for 16 years, followed by eight years on licence, for eight counts of raping two victims between 2003 and 2010.

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Parents of baby killed by Lucy Letby say they got a ‘total fob off’ from hospital

Exclusive: after newborn son was murdered, family say repeated calls to Countess of Chester’s medical director were unanswered

Demands for a statutory inquiry into the Lucy Letby murders have intensified after a bereaved family accused the hospital of “a total fob off” when they pleaded for answers.

The parents, whose newborn son was murdered and his twin poisoned, said they tried repeatedly to meet the hospital’s medical director but their calls went unanswered.

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Lucy Letby sentenced to whole-life jail term after murdering seven babies

Former nurse will never be released from prison as judge describes ‘deep malevolence bordering on sadism’

The serial killer nurse Lucy Letby will never be released from prison after a judge sentenced her to a rare whole-life term for the “sadistic” murder of seven babies.

Letby, 33, is one of only three women alive to have been given such a jail term in the UK. She was sentenced at Manchester crown court on Monday.

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Lucy Letby may have harmed dozens more babies, police fear

Exclusive: Officers investigating ‘suspicious’ incidents at Countess of Chester and Liverpool women’s hospitals

Police believe Lucy Letby, the nurse convicted of murdering seven babies, may have harmed dozens more infants at two hospitals in the north-west of England, the Guardian has been told.

A source with knowledge of the police investigation said detectives had identified about 30 babies who suffered “suspicious” incidents at the Countess of Chester hospital where she worked.

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Three convicted after Met police sting operation recovers £2m Ming vase

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.

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Doctors were forced to apologise for raising alarm over Lucy Letby and baby deaths

Guardian investigation also reveals Countess of Chester hospital executive feared contacting police would ‘damage reputation’

Lucy Letby’s colleagues were ordered to apologise to her after repeatedly raising concerns that the nurse may have been behind a series of unexplained baby deaths, the Guardian has learned.

Senior doctors had warned for months that Letby was the only staff member present during the sudden collapses and deaths of a number of premature babies on the Countess of Chester hospital’s neonatal unit.

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Miscarriages of justice body has ‘attitude problem’, says Andrew Malkinson

Exclusive: Man imprisoned for rape he did not commit says Criminal Cases Review Commission has yet to contact him

Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, has accused the body that investigates miscarriages of justice of having an “attitude problem” and said it had still not contacted him since he was cleared by the court of appeal last month.

Malkinson and his legal team first heard that the Criminal Cases Review Commission was launching a review into its handling of his case after the Guardian contacted them about it on Thursday.

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Businessman found guilty of plotting to plant bombs in London

Jonathan Nuttall convicted of conspiring to plant two devices targeting lawyers for the National Crime Agency

A businessman with a “deep-seated grudge” against two lawyers at the National Crime Agency has been found guilty of planting two devices resembling bombs at the heart of London’s legal district to intimidate them.

Jonathan Nuttall, 50, was convicted at the Old Bailey of planning to plant the explosives over a £1.4m legal dispute with the NCA, which put him at risk of losing his stately home, Embley Manor in Hampshire.

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Five men found guilty of sexually exploiting two girls in Rochdale

Abuse of girls, viewed as ‘mere objects for defendants to use, abuse, humiliate then discard’, started when they were 12 and 13

Two brothers are among five men from Rochdale to have been found guilty of sexually exploiting two girls from the ages of 12 and 13.

The girls were “mere objects for the defendants to use, abuse, humiliate then discard”, Manchester Minshull Street crown court heard.

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Comedian Tom Binns given suspended sentence over child abuse images

Judge says comic, known for his character Ivan Brackenbury, does not pose a risk to public

A comedian who has appeared on Channel 4’s 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown has been sentenced after being found with more than 35,000 indecent images of children.

Tom Binns, whose character is the hospital DJ Ivan Brackenbury, pleaded guilty last November to five counts of making indecent images of children and one of possessing a prohibited image.

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Norfolk and Suffolk police admit breach involving personal data of 1,230 people

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.

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Khan tells people to shun ‘nonsense’ TikTok craze on Oxford Street

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.

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Ex-TikTok influencer and her mother guilty of murdering two men

Mahek and Ansreen Bukhari convicted over killing of pair who died when car was rammed off road

A former TikTok influencer and her mother have been found guilty of murdering two men who died in a fireball when their car was rammed off the road during a late-night chase outside Leicester.

Mahek Bukhari, 24, and her mother, Ansreen Bukhari, 46, were convicted alongside two other defendants of killing Saqib Hussain and his friend Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21, in February last year.

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‘Two different lives’: how TikTok fame swept up mother who killed lover

Ansreen Bukhari and her daughter, Mahek, partied together and ended up plotting to murder two young men

When she gave evidence at Leicester crown court, 46-year-old Ansreen Bukhari described how her daughter’s fame on TikTok had completely transformed her life.

“When I got married I was like a housewife, but with this TikTok thing I was going out more. It was like two different lives,” she said. “It was more excitement. We were out and meeting people and stuff.”

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Anti-vaxxer guilty of harassing Matt Hancock on London tube

Geza Tarjanyi barged into former health secretary on train while shouting conspiracy theories

An anti-vaccine protester who accused Matt Hancock of murdering people during the coronavirus pandemic has been found guilty of harassment.

The former health secretary feared being pushed down an escalator by Geza Tarjanyi, 62, of Leyland, Lancashire, who shoulder-barged him and “shouted ridiculous conspiracy theories” on two separate occasions on 19 and 24 January.

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