Boy, 15, sustained ‘unimaginably serious injuries’ after being shot by Jacob Talbot-Lummis while walking to school
A teenager who shot a 15-year-old boy in the face with a double-barrelled shotgun has been sentenced to 24 years in custody for attempted murder.
Jacob Talbot-Lummis, 16, had an “obsessive interest in all kinds of firearms and had become entrenched in watching computer games online”, Judge Martyn Levett told Ipswich crown court.
Continue reading...Teenager was convicted in July of murdering Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, in June 2020
A teenager who murdered two sisters in a London park has been given two concurrent 35-year jail sentences at the Old Bailey.
Danyal Hussein, 19, killed Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a random attack which he believed would act as a “sacrifice” to a demon named “the mighty king Lucifuge Rofocale” to enable him to win the lottery.
Handing out the 35-year minimum term on Thursday, Mrs Justice Whipple told Hussein: “You committed these vicious attacks. You did it to kill. You did it for money and a misguided pursuit of power.
Ofcom research finds 45m people received at least one fraudulent message in last three months
A government taskforce is to meet on Thursday to discuss ways to tackle the sharp rise in scams that has hit the UK since the start of the pandemic.
Groups representing banks, telecoms companies and consumers will meet with the minister for security, Damien Hinds, to discuss measures to tackle online fraud, and increase public awareness.
Continue reading...Since 2006, the acclaimed writer has lived in fear for his life, following publication of his exposé on the criminal gangs. The Observer takes a trip back to Naples with him and his minders
On a Friday in autumn 2006, local newspapers and prosecutors in Italy’s south-western region of Campania received the same anonymous letter. Computer-typed and delivered by hand in the early morning, it detailed the Neapolitan Mafia’s plan to execute a 26-year-old Italian writer. His name was Roberto Saviano and his book, Gomorrah, a devastating denunciation of the Camorra’s criminal activity, was on its way to becoming a bestseller.
The unpublished letter, seen by the Observer, refers to a meeting held in a betting office in Casal di Principe, Saviano’s hometown, in which local bosses, known as some of the most violent in the Camorra, decreed that Saviano must die, saying that his murder would take place “when the waters are calm”.
Continue reading...Hazrat Wali, 18, who came to UK two years ago, attacked near sports field where children were playing rugby
A teenage Afghan refugee was stabbed to death on a sports field in south-west London in front of schoolchildren playing rugby.
The victim, named as 18-year-old Hazrat Wali, from Notting Hill, was attacked at about 4.45pm on Tuesday on Craneford Way, Twickenham, yards away from Richmond upon Thames College, which he attended.
Continue reading...Chronic underfunding, Covid and staff shortages blamed for increase in physical and verbal assaults
NHS staff across the UK are facing a “growing tide of abuse” including assaults from patients, which they say is being caused by frustration at long waits for care.
In a strongly worded joint statement, which has been shared with the Guardian, six key medical bodies and staff groups blame patients’ increasingly long delays in receiving treatment on years of successive governments underinvesting in the NHS and not fixing severe workforce shortages.
Continue reading...Flashing is a sexual offence, victims say it can have a lifelong impact and experts say it can lead to escalating crimes against women. Why is the police response so often dismissive?
Cathkin Braes country park, in south Glasgow, is beautiful. You can see the city and, behind it, the mountains. Clara (not her real name), a 35-year-old community worker from Glasgow, went there in March to enjoy the view from her campervan. As she relaxed, she looked over and saw a car parked beside her, with the passenger window rolled down. A man was staring at her, and masturbating. He clearly relished her visible fright. “That is what was turning him on,” Clara said. “His head was nearly out of the passenger window, staring at me.”
Because she was in a campervan, it wasn’t easy to get away quickly: Clara had to get out to fold away some seats. “I decided to jump out,” she says, “and when I looked at him, he was wiping ejaculation off his dashboard and looking at me.” She took a photograph of his car numberplate and drove away. But the man realised what she had done and gave chase. For 15 minutes, he tailed her through the streets of Glasgow. Frightened for her life, Clara drove to a police station, but the man turned off before she arrived.
Continue reading...Speakers address crowds at peaceful demonstration held in Eastbourne, where suspect was arrested
About 200 people gathered on Tuesday evening for a vigil in memory of the schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, who was killed three weeks ago.
The vigil was held in Eastbourne, where the man suspected of her killing was arrested late last month.
Continue reading...David Taylor, who was a police officer for 30 years, offers an insight into the handling of ‘minor’ crimes, while Ann Kelly and Caroline Ley reflect on the language used by ministers and the media
Having been a police officer for 30 years, serving as a detective inspector and in the police complaints arena, I can say officers and staff nationwide will have been horrified by the murder of Sarah Everard (Sarah Everard’s killer might have been identified as threat sooner, police admit, 30 September). The approach of all police forces, not just the Met, as to how they deal with “minor crime” is now under scrutiny. Such crime is only considered “minor” by the police and not by the victim, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of reporting it.
While every day many officers and staff successfully conduct criminal investigations and go the extra mile for victims, this is not the case for all; you only have to report a crime considered by the police to be “low level” to realise this. Each crime is assessed based on its seriousness and its solvability, often by desk-based staff under pressure to file the case without further investigation. This “don’t look too close” approach means any evidence that potentially exists is not pursued or is ignored. In my experience, too many police officers and staff lack investigative professional curiosity, compounded by the fact that there is often a complete lack of challenge from first-line supervisors towards staff they consider as their mates, or where such scrutiny could attract accusations of bullying.
Continue reading...Since Sarah Everard’s brutal murder, only one thing has changed – the death toll
People said something had changed with the awful death of Sarah Everard. But the message certainly hasn’t reached the men who rape, harm and kill women. And I can’t see a difference in the government, police, Crown Prosecution Service or the judiciary either.
Since Sarah Everard was abducted, raped, murdered and, in the words of her mother, “disposed of as if she were rubbish”, at least 81 other UK women have been killed in circumstances where the suspect is a man. It is absolutely ludicrous that we know this because of my work, a random northern woman in east London, not the government, not the National Police Chiefs Council. Each of these women will have died in terror and pain, just like Sarah. Each one leaves behind grieving friends and family for whom the loss will last a lifetime.
Continue reading...Exclusive: England and Wales figures show ‘epidemic’ of flashing against women, after allegations against Wayne Couzens emerged
Women are facing an “epidemic” of flashing and other forms of indecent exposure, with police in England and Wales recording more than 10,000 cases last year but taking fewer than 600 people to court over them, Guardian analysis reveals.
The findings come after Wayne Couzens was reported for repeated instances of alleged indecent exposure in the years and days before he raped and murdered Sarah Everard, but faced no action. Police accepted they may have had enough clues to identify the police officer as a threat to women sooner, amid fears that flashing is a gateway to other sex crimes.
Continue reading...Minister speaks of ‘devastating blow’ as Scotland Yard suggests actions to take if feeling unsafe
Police will have to work hard to rebuild public confidence after the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer, a minister has said, as Scotland Yard said people stopped by a lone plainclothes officer should challenge their legitimacy and could try “waving a bus down” to escape a person they believe is pretending to be police.
Wayne Couzens, who joined the Metropolitan police in 2018, was handed a rare whole-life sentence on Thursday for the kidnap, rape and murder of 33-year-old Everard as she walked home in south London in March.
Continue reading...Details of indecent exposure claims emerge as ex-Met officer Wayne Couzens is given whole-life sentence
Police have accepted they may have had enough clues to identify Wayne Couzens as a threat to women before he raped and killed Sarah Everard..
Couzens was handed a rare whole-life sentence on Thursday, meaning he will spend the rest of his life in jail. The judge said his crimes were as serious as a terrorist atrocity because he abused his powers as a police officer to commit them.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Gomoh, 24, was ‘innocent and unsuspecting victim’ of brutal stabbing says judge
Four gang members have been jailed for the murder of an NHS worker they picked at random “simply for the sake of it”.
Muhammad Jalloh and David Ture, both 19 and of no fixed address, as well as 23-year-old Vagnei Colubali from Cambridge were found guilty of David Gomoh’s murder in August. Alex Melaku, who could not previously be named as he was younger than 18, was also convicted.
Continue reading...Scott Walker to serve minimum 32 years for murder of Bernadette, whose body has still not been found
A man who murdered the teenage girl who called him her father, after she said he had sexually abused her over a number of years, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years.
Scott Walker, 51, of Peterborough, was convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Bernadette Walker, who was not his biological daughter, following an earlier trial at Cambridge crown court.
Continue reading...‘Nothing of obvious significance’ found at gravel pits near York as part of inquiry into disappearance of chef
Police have said “nothing of obvious significance” was found during a search of a lake as part of the investigation into the disappearance of university chef Claudia Lawrence.
Teams of police experts, search dogs, divers and forensic archaeologists spent two weeks scouring the lake and nearby woods as the murder probe continues.
Continue reading...Violence, when it happens, is clumsy and banal. The possibility of a repeat kicking lurked around every corner and the hometown I loved was cast in sinister hues
The first time I was beaten up in the street I was 16 and had intervened when a boy tried to throw a friend of mine through a shop window. The third time, I had my nose broken at 2am in Luton for laughing when three jeering lads called me “John Travolta” (a reference to Grease, presumably; I was going through a big Rocket From The Crypt phase).
But the second time was the most significant. It was 1993, the summer before I failed my A-levels majestically, and two friends, D and M, and I were stumbling home several miles from a Durham nightclub (whose door was run by a young Dominic Cummings) back to our estate outside a north-east town. We were innocent indie kids; we played in punk bands, changed hairstyles regularly and took absolutely nothing seriously save for books, music and high times. We were not fighters. Life was for laughing at.
Continue reading...Proposals would ban imports of dogs aged under six months, and those with cropped ears or docked tails
The importing to the UK of puppies aged under six months could be banned under tight new welfare standards proposed by the government.
The pushback against the “grim trade” of puppy smuggling will prevent puppies from being separated from their mothers too early, which puts them at increased risk of illness and death, said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. They can currently be imported from 15 weeks old.
Continue reading...Blue Cross cautions about black market for popular breeds as government reportedly considers new offence of pet abduction
Stalking parks in affluent areas and luring puppies out of gardens with treats are among the methods dog thieves are using, campaigners have said, amid suggestions the government is preparing to clamp down on pet abductions.
Criminals mug dog-walkers for their pets and raid boarding kennels in an effort to steal in-demand breeds, whose price tags have soared during the pandemic. They are also on the look out for pets that have not been neutered or spayed and are capable of breeding.
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