Category Archives: Crime

Ex-Liverpool youth footballer Jamie Cassidy jailed for cocaine conspiracy

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Jamie Cassidy was sentenced to 13 years and three months for his part in an international drug operation

A former Liverpool football prodigy of “exceptional talent and promise” has been jailed for more than 13 years for his part in a multimillion-pound drugs conspiracy.

Jamie Cassidy, 46, was “drawn” into the drugs business by his brother Jonathan Cassidy, 50, who the court heard joked about having the same birthday as the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, also known as El Chapo.

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Man jailed for ramming motorcyclist off Milton Keynes bridge in ‘extreme’ road rage

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Nikesh Mistry, 34, caused serious injuries after using his BMW to try to force the motorbike off the road

A man has been jailed for ramming a motorcyclist off a Buckinghamshire bridge in what police described as an act of “extreme” road rage.

Nikesh Mistry, 34, repeatedly tried to force the motorcyclist off the road, which resulted in him sustaining serious injuries, police said.

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Home Office breaks pledge to fund sex-crime research after Everard murder

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Government was to look at whether offenders tend to commit increasingly serious crimes after outcry over warning signs with police officer Wayne Couzens

The government has failed to fund research into the escalation of sex crimes, despite promising to do so in the wake of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.

In 2021, the Home Office pledged to “take forward work looking at the escalation of sexual offending” as part of its plan to tackle violence against women and girls. The plan, which had the tagline “the safety of women and girls across the country is our priority”, was informed by 180,000 public submissions after Everard was killed by serving police officer Wayne Couzens.

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Police examine unsolved murders of women in Glasgow after Packer trial

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Trial drew attention to violence faced by sex workers in city, where the cases of four women killed in 1990s remain unresolved

Police Scotland is examining several unsolved murders of women in Glasgow after the trial of the serial rapist and killer Iain Packer highlighted the horrific levels of violence facing sex workers in the city.

Packer was sentenced to at least 36 years in prison last Wednesday for the murder of Emma Caldwell in 2005 and a catalogue of other sexual and violent offences, including 11 rapes.

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Vulnerable man ‘humiliated’ into confessing to 1990 London murder, court told

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Court of appeal hears Oliver Campbell was convicted on basis of inconsistent confession made under police pressure

There is a “crescendo of concern” from psychological experts that a vulnerable man was convicted of murder on the basis of a false confession, the court of appeal heard on Wednesday.

Oliver Campbell was convicted of murdering east London shopkeeper Baldev Hoondle 33 years ago after telling police he had shot him. But Campbell, 53, suffered profound brain injuries as a baby, leaving him with significantly impaired cognitive ability.

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‘It’s on our doorstep’: Bristol’s fearful parents seek answers after three knife deaths in three weeks

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As teenage victims are mourned across the English city, some believe the return of youth centres would keep children safer

Terre Baptiste has been checking her teenage son’s whereabouts compulsively since a 16-year-old boy was fatally stabbed two weeks ago in a park a mile away from their home in the east of Bristol.

“It is very worrying,” says Baptiste, in her living room. “Bristol isn’t a perfect city. But there weren’t stabbings one after the other. It was few and far between. Now it is on our doorstep.”

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‘It’s not about glorifying crime’: ex-convicts in demand for talks and tours

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You can dine with a former mobster for £999, as the ‘true crime’ TV and podcast trend translates into live events

Nearly 30 years after the “hitman” murder for which he was jailed for life, Kevin Lane will take to the stage of the Cambridge Country Club this month to share his thoughts on crime and punishment.

For anyone who saw him recently in the Channel 4 programme Banged Up, explaining to a gobsmacked Tory MP, Johnny Mercer, an unconventional method for smuggling contraband into jail, it will also be a chance to question him about the 24 years he has served behind bars.

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Woman who handed over British girl, 3, for FGM in Kenya given seven years

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Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006

A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.

Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas in 2006. The conviction was the first for assisting in such harm under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003.

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Violence and abuse against UK retail staff rises to 1,300 incidents a day

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British Retail Consortium says criminals ‘being given a free pass’, with thefts more than doubling to 16.7m incidents last year

UK shop workers are facing 1,300 incidents of violence and abuse a day and a battle to control “brazen” acts of shoplifting, as pressure mounts on ministers to intervene to protect retail employees.

Retailers saw the number of incidents of racial abuse, sexual harassment, physical assaults and threats with weapons rise 50% last year, while thefts more than doubled to 16.7m incidents, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body which represents most major retailers.

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Brianna Ghey’s mother warns tech bosses more children will die without action

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Exclusive: Esther Ghey says she believes social media use left her daughter vulnerable, while killers were able to access violent content online

The mother of Brianna Ghey has called for her murder to be a “tipping point” in how society views “the mess” of the internet, warning that a generation of anxious young people will grow up lacking resilience.

Esther Ghey said technology companies had a “moral responsibility” to restrict access to harmful online content. She supports a total ban on social media access for under-16s – a move currently under debate in certain legislatures, including Florida in the US.

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Chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi probably dead, police say

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Met police say no body found but Ezedi has not been seen since assault on woman and her daughters in London

Police hunting the Clapham chemical attack suspect, Abdul Ezedi, say they believe he is dead after going into the River Thames at Chelsea Bridge four hours after he left a woman severely injured.

Scotland Yard said Ezedi’s body had not been found but he was last seen close to the River Thames. Officers had been looking for the 35-year-old since Wednesday 31 January when he was suspected of using a strong alkaline substance in an attack on a mother and her daughters, aged three and eight. The mother, 31, is still in hospital in an induced coma.

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Dover Port health body fears gangs of meat smugglers looking to bypass new post-Brexit checks

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Authority weighs up legal action against government over new checks on imported meat taking place 22 miles inland

The Port of Dover could become a target for criminals smuggling illegal and diseased meat into the country under new post-Brexit plans that will involve lorries from the continent being checked 22 miles inland, the port’s health authority has warned.

The Dover Port Health Authority (DPHA) is now considering legal action against the government over its decision to end physical checks of imported meat at a post within the port. Instead, lorries will be directed to a new checking facility half an hour’s drive up the M20 at Sevington, Ashford.

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UK to send specialist assistance to Turks and Caicos after surge in fatal shootings

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It is the second time in less than two years the Caribbean archipelago is seeing escalating violence, attributed to warring drug gangs

The United Kingdom is sending specialist assistance to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) following a surge in shooting deaths in the Caribbean archipelago.

Four men were found dead from gunshot wounds on the island of Providenciales on 1 and 2 February, and two more were killed during January.

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India’s wealthy ‘fear London is worse than Delhi for muggings’

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Fear of crime in UK capital is one of biggest concerns of rich Indians, says entrepreneur

Indian business people are avoiding being out and about in Mayfair over fears they could be mugged for their expensive watches after a 27% rise in “theft from a person” in London, an entrepreneur has said.

Devin Narang, an entrepreneur, told a meeting attended by David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, that fear of crime in London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s rich elite.

“People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang, a member of the executive committee of the federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry, said at a meeting in New Delhi, according to the Financial Times. “All CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police [in London] not responding.”

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Former pop star Gary Glitter must stay in prison, parole panel decides

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Panel said it was not satisfied releasing former singer, jailed for sexually abusing girls, was safe for public

Paul Gadd, known as the former pop star Gary Glitter, has lost a bid to be freed from prison where he is serving a sentence for sexually abusing girls.

Gadd, 79, was automatically released from prison in February 2023, halfway through a 16-year sentence – but was recalled just six weeks later for allegedly viewing downloaded images of children.

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Family of Brianna Ghey murderer apologise and pay tribute to mother

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Scarlett Jenkinson’s relatives thank Esther Ghey for ‘incredible selflessness and empathy towards our family’

The family of Scarlett Jenkinson, who was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years for the murder of Brianna Ghey, have said they are “truly sorry” for the teenage killer’s “brutal” actions and paid tribute to Brianna’s mother.

Jenkinson, described by the judge as the “driving force” behind the murder, was sentenced on Friday for what the Crown Prosecution Service said was “one of the most disturbing cases” its lawyers had ever dealt with. Her accomplice, Eddie Ratcliffe, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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Crime victims die while waiting for justice as England and Wales legal system ‘on its knees’

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‘Shameful’ backlogs in cases are causing severe mental health problems, says victims commissioner

Victims of crime are dying waiting for justice as they face delays of up to six years for their cases to be dealt with in court, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales has said.

As a new law to enshrine victims’ rights is scrutinised in the House of Lords, Baroness Helen Newlove warned that the wider justice system was “on its knees”, with “shameful” backlogs leaving victims suffering acute mental health problems.

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‘Thought it would be fun’: why did two teenagers kill Brianna Ghey?

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Scarlett Jenkinson said killing was ‘exciting’ while Eddie Ratcliffe wanted help to woo a girl he fancied, court hears

One question hung over the trial of the two teenagers convicted of killing Brianna Ghey: why? At the sentencing on Friday, Brianna’s family finally received some answers.

The hearing began with some startling new information: though she had pleaded not guilty at trial, Scarlett Jenkinson had now admitted to stabbing Brianna repeatedly – more times than she could remember. It was “a lot”, she said.

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Brianna Ghey’s teenage murderers named ahead of sentencing

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Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16, killed trans schoolgirl after developing ‘warped’ obsession with torture

Two teenagers who murdered Brianna Ghey have been named for the first time before sentencing.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe, both 16 and described by police as “really intelligent kids”, can now be named as the killers after a judge lifted reporting restrictions.

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