Lockdown was reason behind sharp fall in number of people treated by NHS for injuries outside the home, say researchers
Lockdown led to the smallest number of people on record being treated by the NHS for injuries caused by violence away from the home, a study shows.
The closure of pubs, clubs and other venues that sell alcohol as part of the bans on social mixing was a key reason for the sharp decline in serious violence, the researchers say.
Continue reading...Christopher Marinello has spent three decades finding missing masterpieces, recovering half a billion dollars’ worth of art. He talks about threats from mobsters, tricky negotiations – and bungling thieves
One summer morning in 2008, Christopher Marinello was waiting on 72nd Street in Manhattan, New York. The traffic was busy, but after a few minutes he saw what he was waiting for: a gold Mercedes with blacked-out windows drew near. As it pulled up to the kerb, a man in the passenger seat held a large bin-liner out of the window. “Here you go,” he said. Marinello took the bag and the car sped off. Inside was a rolled-up painting by the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux, Le Rendez-vous d’Ephèse. Its estimated worth was $6m, and at that point it had been missing for 40 years.
Marinello is one of a handful of people who track down stolen masterpieces for a living. Operating in the grey area between wealthy collectors, private investigators, and high-value thieves, he has spent three decades going after lost works by the likes of Warhol, Picasso and Van Gogh. In that time, he says he has recovered art worth more than half a billion dollars. When I call him, he answers, then abruptly hangs up. “I was just on my way to a police station to recover a stolen sculpture,” he explains later, apologising.
Continue reading...The shooting and stabbing of a teenager in broad daylight on a street in Canning Town is just the latest chapter of what has become Britain’s most violent gangland feud
Rachid has no idea what the future holds, apart from the certainty that he’ll never visit east London’s Canning Town. “If I set foot there, I’ll get stabbed.” He has just turned 19, and two of his friends have already been murdered on the streets.
A trip to the nearest corner shop has become a daunting ordeal. “You’re constantly looking around, at the same time making sure you avoid looking at people. You don’t know what can happen. Anything can,” says the teenager, a former well-known gang affiliate who lives a seven-minute walk from Canning Town.
Continue reading...Stella Creasy launches campaign to change law after a boy took pictures of her feeding her baby on a train
An MP has described her “horror” after she was photographed while breastfeeding on public transport, as she and a fellow MP launch a campaign to criminalise the taking of such pictures.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said she was breastfeeding her then four-month-old on a overground train near Highbury and Islington in north London when she noticed a teenage boy laughing and taking pictures.
Continue reading...Witnesses will be asked to respond to claims the ’Ndrangheta has laundered billions of euros in City of London
In a high-security, 1,000-capacity courtroom converted from a call centre, Italy’s largest mafia trial in three decades is under way in Lamezia Terme, Calabria. About 900 witnesses are set to testify against more than 350 defendants, including politicians and officials charged with being members of the ’Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful criminal group.
Several of the defendants will be asked to respond to charges of money laundering over establishing companies in the UK with the alleged purpose of simulating legitimate economic activity.
Continue reading...In the latest part of our End Femicide campaign, we examine how stalking, coercive control and pornography lie behind so many of the killings of 272 young women in 10 years. Will the domestic abuse bill, due to become law this week, do enough to keep women safe?
Alice Ruggles was described by her friends and family as vibrant, witty and “sharp as a tack”. She loved life. Then, in January 2016, aged 24, she met Lance Corporal Trimaan “Harry” Dhillon, who was 26. She didn’t know that he had a restraining order taken out on him by a previous girlfriend.
Dhillon began to coercively control Ruggles, isolating her from friends. In July, having learned that he was cheating on her, she ended their seven-month relationship. Dhillon turned into a stalker. He frequently drove 100 miles from his camp in Edinburgh to spy on her, leaving unwanted flowers and chocolates. He continually texted and threatened to post intimate photographs. He told her on voicemail that he didn’t want to kill her, he wouldn’t kill her.
Continue reading...Owner Annette Edwards offers £1,000 reward for return of Guinness World Record-holding giant rabbit
A rabbit proclaimed the biggest in the world has been stolen from its home in Worcestershire, police have said.
West Mercia police believe the 129cm-long continental giant rabbit, named Darius, was taken from its enclosure in the garden of the property in Stoulton overnight on Saturday.
Continue reading...Thomas Schreiber, 34, has been charged by Dorset police with murder, attempted murder and dangerous driving
A 34-year-old man has been charged with the murder of millionaire hotelier Sir Richard Sutton.
Dorset police said Sutton, 83, who owned a string of top hotels in London, died on Wednesday during an incident at a property near Gillingham.
Continue reading...Sexual exploitation rose by a quarter and criminal exploitation by 42% in 2020, analysis of helpline data shows
Reports of sexual and criminal exploitation have risen alarmingly during the pandemic, according to new data measuring the scale of modern slavery and trafficking in the UK.
Cases of sexual exploitation, which includes people held captive in brothels and coerced into prostitution, rose by a quarter in 2020 compared with the previous year. Nearly a quarter of cases involved children.
Continue reading...As the popular BBC drama returns, a former crime reporter takes a look at the reality of fighting police corruption
Last week, an officer from South Wales police received formal notification that they were under investigation regarding their dealings with a man who had been arrested and held overnight in a cell in Cardiff.
The suspect had been released from custody the following morning then found dead shortly afterwards. The investigation is to focus on whether the level of force used by the officer was “necessary, proportionate and reasonable” in the circumstances.
Continue reading...Thousands of demonstrators gather in Hyde Park for Piers Corbyn as police urge crowd to disperse
Thousands marched under a heavy police presence through central London in protest against lockdown on Saturday, with at least 13 arrested.
Demonstrators gathered at Speakers’ Corner by Hyde Park at about midday, where anti-lockdown figurehead Piers Corbyn gave a speech saying he would “never take a vaccine” and falsely claiming that the scale of deaths from Covid was not dissimilar to those from flu each year.
Continue reading...Discovery of remains in search for Sarah Everard causes outpouring of anger as female MPs calls for tougher action
Boris Johnson came under concerted pressure to take action to tackle male violence and misogyny and make the UK safer for women, as the discovery of human remains in the search for Sarah Everard caused an outpouring of anger.
The inquiry into the disappearance of the 33-year-old marketing executive added poignancy to the annual International Women’s Day debate in the House of Commons as dozens of female MPs told moving and angry stories of the harassment they had been subjected to.
Continue reading...Analysis: Sarah Everard’s disappearance sparks furious demands to address misogyny in UK
Women feared this was coming. They waited, messaging each other in WhatsApp groups and on social media. They talked about their own attempts to stay safe, discussed their near misses.
When the news came on Wednesday evening – that police investigating the disappearance of Sarah Everard had found the remains of a body – a wave of grief crashed over them, followed quickly by anger.
Continue reading...Spate of audacious and often violent robberies leads to boom in sales of high-security animal accessories
A spate of dognapping in recent months has led to growing numbers of owners buying lockable, steel-core collars and leads that cannot be severed by bolt cutters as they walk their pets.
Dog theft has risen as animals available to buy have become scarcer since the pandemic began. The average cost of a puppy doubled to nearly £1,900 last year, and some breeds are worth more than £6,000.
Continue reading...A failure to account for previous violence has led to at least 20 unsafe murder convictions, campaigners claim
It was a specific moment in which she thought she might die that drove Stella to the brink. “He had strangled me at the bottom of the stairs and that frightened me because you can get punched in the face or your hand broken, but I had never lost my breath before,” she recalled.
For Nicole, she was “pushed over the edge” when violence by her partner triggered a post-traumatic response to historic abuse by other men. “I was getting flashbacks of abuse ... everything came to a head and I just lost it.”
Continue reading...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.
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