David Wilson, of King’s Lynn, admitted 96 offences, and officials say he targeted thousands of children
A serial child sexual abuser has been jailed for 25 years at Ipswich crown court after being convicted of offences against dozens of children, and investigators fear he targeted thousands.
David Wilson, 36, from King’s Lynn in Norfolk, posed online as a young girl, targeting young boys so they would send sexual images of themselves. Victims ranged in age from four to 14.
Continue reading...Changes in policy since 2016 have led to an overly risk-averse approach, court of appeal hears
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been accused of “systemic illegality” in its approach to charging rape cases in a landmark judicial review into how the crime is prosecuted.
On the opening day of the hearing at the court of appeal, lawyers for the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) and End Violence Against Women (EVAW) accused the CPS of “raising the bar” for rape prosecutions, which they argued had led to a steep drop in the number of cases being charged.
Continue reading...Two ringleaders receive sentences of 27 and 20 years after 39 Vietnamese people suffocated in container
The two ringleaders of the people-smuggling gang responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people who suffocated in a sealed refrigeration container as they were transported across the Channel from France have received prison sentences of 27 and 20 years.
Ronan Hughes, 41, who ran a haulage company and organised the lorries and drivers to transport the migrants, was sentenced to 20 years at the Old Bailey on Friday. He pleaded guilty last year to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiring to bring people into the country unlawfully.
Continue reading...Teenager ‘set upon’ on Thursday afternoon in the Handsworth area of north west Birmingham
A 15-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a group of youths in the Handsworth area of Birmingham.
The boy was “set upon” by the gang in Linwood Road just after 3.30pm on Thursday. He was taken to hospital but died from his injuries a short time later, according to West Midlands Police.
Continue reading...Appeal court adds six years to prison term of Andy Anokye, 33, who performed under the name Solo 45
A man who held four women against their will and repeatedly raped them has had his sentence increased by the court of appeal.
Victims of Andy Anokye, 33, who performed as a grime artist under the stage name Solo 45, told how he beat and threatened them with weapons, held a cloth with bleach over their faces and waterboarded them, recording much of the abuse on his mobile phone.
Continue reading...Saadallah pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders in jihadist attack in June
A man who murdered three men in 10 seconds on a summer evening in a Reading park, has been sentenced to die in prison after a judge determined it was a jihadist attack.
Khairi Saadallah, 26, showed no emotion as the rare whole-life tariff was handed down by Mr Justice Sweeney for the “swift, ruthless and brutal” stabbings last June.
Continue reading...Engineering student Matthew Mason bludgeoned 15-year-old Alex Rodda to death with a wrench in Cheshire woods
A 19-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering a schoolboy after paying more than £2,000 to try to stop him revealing their sexual relationship.
Matthew Mason admitted bludgeoning 15-year-old Alex Rodda to death with a wrench in woods in Cheshire on 12 December 2019.
Continue reading...Criminal networks are depending on the chaos of Covid and Brexit. Now more than ever we need focus and international cooperation to prevent further tragedies
Trials in the UK of the drivers and haulage organisers involved in the Essex lorry tragedy in which 39 Vietnamese migrants perished ended in guilty pleas and convictions. Vietnam also convicted the agents who brokered the victims’ journeys to the UK and sentenced them to terms of imprisonment.
While these are positive developments in achieving some measure of justice for the victims, they won’t do anything to stem the smuggling and trafficking of Vietnamese migrants to the UK. No justice system has reached the actual masterminds and profiteers behind this horrific crime: the organised crime groups.
Continue reading...2020 led to surges in everything from domestic abuse to black markets in fake vaccines
By the end of March, one week into the UK’s first lockdown, recorded crime in Lancashire had dropped by a startling 40% compared with the four-year average.
“At first there was some mild panic,” says DCI Eric Halford, of Lancashire Constabulary. “Most senior officers expected a surge in demand.”
Continue reading...Supreme court upholds order against Zamira Hajiyeva, who spent £1m a year at Harrods
A woman who spent £1m a year at Harrods will be forced to give up her £15m home unless she reveals the source of her fortune following the UK’s first McMafia-style “dirty money” investigation.
Zamira Hajiyeva, the wife of a former boss of the Azerbaijani state bank jailed for fraud, has lost her final appeal against a court order forcing her to reveal how she came by so much money.
Continue reading...Experts voice concern over growth of ‘deviant’ videos, including foster-child abuse fantasies, on Pornhub and other mainstream sites
Groups working on the frontline in the fight against child abuse in the UK have warned that an increase in abuse-themed pornography is “normalising” child abuse.
Children’s charity Barnado’s said it is working with vulnerable children who are being put at risk by “deviant” pornography that fetishises fantasies of sex with children.
Continue reading...Cases of two men accused of trying to rob a police officer in 1972 are being referred to court of appeal
Two men who were jailed nearly 50 years ago on the word of a corrupt detective could finally have their names cleared.
The cases of two members of the so-called “Stockwell Six”, who were accused of attempting to rob that officer on the underground, are now being referred to the court of appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
Continue reading...When £2.5m of rare books were stolen in an audacious heist at Feltham in 2017, police wondered, what’s the story?
Everything went exactly to plan. Late on the evening of 29 January 2017, Daniel David and Victor Opariuc parked up and made their way towards the Frontier Forwarding customs warehouse in Feltham, less than a mile from Heathrow. After cutting a hole in the fence, the men made their way to the side of the building and scaled a wall to the roof. There, they cut through a skylight and lowered themselves on to shelving inside the building. The warehouse burglar alarms stayed silent; the men had carefully avoided tripping motion sensors positioned by the doors.
Once inside, with several lookouts posted around the surrounding industrial estate, the men took their time. Over the next five hours and 15 minutes, they broke padlocks off packing cases and placed items inside 16 large holdalls taken from inside the warehouse. The men escaped the same way they had entered: out through the skylight and back into the night.
Continue reading...Ambulance service unable to save teenager after attack in Newham
A 15-year-old boy has died after being stabbed in east London and a murder inquiry has been launched, the Metropolitan police has said.
Officers were called just before 7pm on Friday following reports of a stabbing in Woodman Street, near to the Royal Docks in Newham. Police and members of the London ambulance service (LAS) attended and found the teenager suffering injuries. Despite the efforts of the emergency services he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...Changes intended to benefit innocent suspects kept some attackers at liberty until trial
Victims have been left unprotected and a suspected paedophile left free to strike after government changes to bail plunged parts of the criminal justice system into chaos, an official report has found.
The report from the police and prosecution inspectorates found damage was caused to the confidence of domestic abuse victims, whose alleged attackers were left free without restrictions while cases came to court.
Continue reading...David Fuller, 66, from East Sussex, will appear before Medway magistrates’ court on Saturday
A 66-year-old man has been charged with the murder of two women in Kent more than 30 years ago.
Police said David Fuller, from Heathfield, East Sussex, has been charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987.
Continue reading...Appeal judges hear sentencing for Henry Long, 19, and two accomplices unduly lenient
The leader of the group of teenagers who killed PC Andrew Harper should have been given a life sentence rather than the 16 years he received, while his accomplices should also have their jail terms increased from 13 years each, a court has heard.
The attorney general argued that the sentences handed to Henry Long, 19, and the 18-year-olds Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers were all unduly lenient, during a court of appeal hearing on Monday.
Continue reading...Warning comes as man admits using Messenger to coerce children into sending explicit pictures
Police and a children’s charity have warned that a man who admitted 96 counts of child sexual abuse could have escaped justice if technology giants had already toughened their encryption.
David Wilson targeted young boys aged from four to 14, getting them to send compromising pictures and video. Some were so traumatised that they considered ending their lives.
Continue reading...Six people had been injured on Saturday night in Queen Street, in the city centre
Four teenagers were in custody on Sunday while police were granted special dispersal powers after a suspected stabbing attack in Cardiff city centre in which six people were injured.
Three people who suffered stab wounds remained at the University hospital of Wales, while another who suffered serious head injuries was at Llandough hospital in Penarth. Two people who suffered other injuries were discharged.
Continue reading...One woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK – a figure unchanged in a decade. A new census analyses this epidemic of male violence
In 2013, Sasha Marsden, a 16-year-old student, went to a Blackpool hotel for what she thought was an interview for a part-time cleaning job. The man she met, David Minto, 23, had lured her there on false pretences. He then sexually assaulted her and stabbed her 58 times. Sasha could only be identified by DNA taken from her toothbrush. Minto was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but for Sasha’s family, their grief has no time limit.
Gemma Aitchison, Sasha’s sister, set up YES Matters UK in response to the killing. “I wanted to know why this happened to Sasha and what I could do about it,” she explains. Part of what her organisation does is to talk to young people about consent, body image, pornography and media influence. “What I know now is that as long as women are treated as objects and not people, we will continue to be disposable.”
Continue reading...