Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Change to border security bill will also make it a crime to advertise fake passports, visas and work opportunities
Ministers are to outlaw social media adverts promoting journeys on small boats across the Channel to asylum seekers.
The government will create a UK-wide criminal offence that could lead to perpetrators being sentenced for up to five years in prison and a hefty fine.
Continue reading...Delroy Walker’s relatives say they were initially told ‘your brother’s not British, or not British enough’ to receive help
The family of a “generous and loving” British man who was murdered in Jamaica are demanding answers over the British government’s “indifferent” response after the tragedy.
Delroy Walker, from Birmingham, was stabbed to death weeks after retiring to the Caribbean island where he was building his dream home. The 63-year-old charity worker was murdered by a “jealous” tradesman he employed to help decorate the property in preparation for a family visit in summer 2018.
Continue reading...Technology will now be used up to 10 times a week across five days, up from four times a week across two days
Britain’s biggest police force is to more than double its use of live facial recognition to up to 10 deployments a week.
The move by the Metropolitan police comes as it restructures to cover the loss of 1,400 officers and 300 staff amid budget shortages.
Continue reading...Ollie Holman created kits that mimicked charity and bank webpages so criminals could harvest victims’ personal details
A 21-year-old student who designed and distributed online kits linked to £100m worth of fraud has been jailed for seven years.
Ollie Holman created phishing kits that mimicked government, bank and charity websites so that criminals could harvest victims’ personal information to defraud them.
Continue reading...David Lammy announces sanctions regime to target anyone who helps people smugglers
Corrupt foreign officials, including police officers who profit from people smuggling, face being banned from the UK and having their assets frozen.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has announced a sanctions regime that from Wednesday will target anyone involved in assisting illegal immigration.
Continue reading...Managers described as ‘reckless’ over supervision of Melissa Mathieson’s killer, who had history of sexual violence
A “catalogue of failures” resulted in the murder of a vulnerable young woman who was strangled to death in a care home by a fellow resident with a history of sexual violence, a coroner has concluded.
Senior managers at the care home in Bristol where Melissa Mathieson, 18, died were described as “reckless” by the coroner for not effectively supervising her killer, Jason Conroy.
Continue reading...UK prime minister will have talks with Emmanuel Macron later today
The BMA strike decision must be a tempting topic for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, which is starting very soon. The Conservatives have repeatedly criticised the government for the way they swiftly settled public sector pay disputes when they took office; they argue that Labour was too generous to the unions, thereby encouraging them to threaten further strikes.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Streeting says he is “disappointed” by the proposed strike, and he insists resident doctors have had a relatively good outcome on pay. He says:
I remain disappointed that despite all that we have been able to achieve in this last year, and that the majority of resident doctors in the BMA did not vote to strike, the BMA is continuing to threaten strike action.
I accepted the DDRB’s recommendation for resident doctors, awarding an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest across the public sector. Accepting this above inflation recommendation, which was significantly higher than affordability, required reprioritisation of NHS budgets. Because of this government’s commitment to recognising the value of the medical workforce, we made back-office efficiency savings to invest in the frontline. That was not inevitable, it was an active political choice this government made. Taken with the previous deal I made with the BMA last year, this means resident doctors will receive an average pay rise of 28.9% over the last 3 years.
He says the NHS is “finally moving in the right direction” and that a strike will “put that recovery at risk”.
He offers to hold meet the BMA to hold talks to avert the strike. He says:
I stand ready to meet with you again at your earliest convenience to resolve this dispute without the need for strike action. I would like to once again extend my offer to meet with your entire committee to discuss this.
As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.
Continue reading...Sam Edmunds hopes to help young people with his play The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return
Growing up in Luton in the late 90s and early 00s, the playwright Sam Edmunds witnessed an abundance of knife violence that has stayed with him to this day.
“Me and my friends had knives pulled on us on numerous occasions. We once saw someone being chased with a machete at the back of the field by our school. In drama class, I remember a boy went into his bag to get his notebook out and a massive knife fell out. A boy in my brother’s year was stabbed over 10 times on a night out.”
Continue reading...Charities say more judge-only trials in England and Wales could lead to more miscarriages of justice
Removing the right to a jury trial for more offences would disadvantage people of colour and other minorities and lead to more miscarriages of justice, reformers have warned.
Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts in England and Wales is expected to be published this week and recommend the creation of intermediate courts, sitting without a jury, to try some offences.
Continue reading...Ryland Headley sentenced to minimum of 20 years after what is thought to be oldest cold case solved in modern English policing history
A 92-year-old man has been jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years after being convicted of the rape and murder of a woman in Bristol 58 years ago.
The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Sweeting, told Ryland Headley that he would spend the rest of his life in prison for killing Louisa Dunne at her home in 1967.
Continue reading...Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, sentenced for killing 14-year-old and attempted murder of three others in Hainault
A man has been jailed for at least 40 years for the “wicked” murder of the schoolboy Daniel Anjorin during a 20-minute rampage in east London.
Marcus Arduini Monzo, 37, fatally slashed Daniel with a samurai sword minutes after the 14-year-old left his home in Hainault on 30 April last year.
Continue reading...More than 45 individuals being investigated in relation to widespread miscarriage of justice
The police criminal inquiry into the Post Office Horizon IT scandal is investigating more than 45 individuals, with seven formally identified as main suspects.
The investigation, which the police described as unprecedented in size and scale, is the first to examine potential offences of perjury and perverting the course of justice by those who made “key decisions” on Post Office investigations and supporting prosecutions of branch-owner operators.
Continue reading...Marcus Arduini-Monzo convicted of killing schoolboy in Hainault, north-east London last year
A man has been found guilty of murdering a 14-year-old schoolboy with a samurai sword last year.
Marcus Arduini-Monzo, 37, carried out a marauding attack while in a state of cannabis-induced psychosis in Hainault, north-east London, on 30 April 2024, the Old Bailey heard.
Continue reading...Prosecutors weigh possibility that the Chinese student, who treated his victims as ‘sex toys’, could face further action
Serial rapist Zhenhao Zou is facing a second trial with police and prosecutors preparing to charge the Chinese student with a second round of offences.
Zou, 28, is already serving a minimum 24 years for attacking 10 young women in London and China.
Continue reading...London student drugged and filmed himself raping at least 60 victims between 2019 and 2024
A PhD student feared to be one of the worst sexual offenders in British history has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 24 years for drugging and raping 10 women.
Zhenhao Zou, 28, drugged and filmed himself raping at least 60 victims between 2019 and 2024 after luring them into his flat with invitations to study or have drinks. Since his conviction more than 20 women have come forward to police, and still more remain unidentified.
Continue reading...Prime minister’s comments were about ‘ministers from previous government who sat in office for years and did nothing’, says No 10 spokesperson
In his interview on the Sky News this morning Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said that Keir Starmer should apologise for saying in January that those calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs were jumping on a far-right bandwagon. Kemi Badenoch, his party leader, is also quoted today in an Daily Express splash story saying Starmer should apologise, but she is saying he should apologise for not agreeing to hold a national inquiry earlier.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the No 10 spokesperson was asked if Starmer still thought that people who backed a national inquiry in January were joining a far-right bandwagon. In response, the spokesperson defended the phrase, and insisted that it only applied to Tories who were now demanding an inquiry they never set up when they were in government.
The prime minister’s comments about bandwagons were specifically about ministers from the previous government who sat in office for years and did nothing to tackle this scandal. As the prime minister has said, we will not make the same mistake.
The point the PM has made is that those spreading lies and misinformation were not doing so in the interest of victims. And those cheerleading for Tommy Robinson, who was almost who was jailed for almost collapsing a grooming case, are not interested in justice.
When politicians, and I mean politicians who sat in government for many years, are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far right, that affects politics because a robust debate can only be based on the true facts.
While some people had positive experiences to share, a worrying number [of veterans] felt that the covenant had been ineffective—or worse yet, had been disregarded—when they had cited it. As a result, many continued to face disadvantages as a result of their service in areas like healthcare, education, employment and welfare ….
We welcome the government’s intention to extend the covenant legal duty, which currently requires some public service providers to give due regard to the covenant’s principles when providing certain housing, healthcare and education services. We conclude that this duty should be extended to all central government departments and the devolved administrations, and should cover the breadth of areas in which the Armed Forces community regularly experiences disadvantage.
The covenant is a solemn commitment that the servicemen and women who place their lives on the line for us should face no disadvantage due to their service – we need to make sure every part of government lives up to that commitment.
Continue reading...James Sheen given four-year term and Michael Jones 27 months after theft of toilet during exhibition in Oxfordshire
Two men have been jailed for their roles in the “bold and brazen” theft of a £4.75m gold toilet from an art exhibition at Blenheim Palace.
James Sheen, 40, and Michael Jones, 39, were sentenced at Oxford crown court for their roles as part of a gang who planned and carried out the burglary at the Oxfordshire stately home, receiving a four-year prison sentence and a 27-month prison sentence respectively.
Continue reading...Oghenochuko Ojiri given two-and-a-half-year sentence over failure to report art sales to suspected Hezbollah funder
A BBC Bargain Hunt art expert who failed to report a series of high-value art sales to a man suspected of financing the militant group Hezbollah has been jailed for two and a half years.
Oghenochuko Ojiri, 53, sold artworks worth a total of about £140,000 to Nazem Ahmad, a man designated by US authorities as a suspected financier for the Lebanese organisation, a court hearing was told last month.
Continue reading...Historian mapping medieval murders has evidence John Ford’s stabbing was revenge hit by impenitent ex-lover
Almost 700 years ago, in a busy London street in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral, a priest called John Ford was brazenly stabbed to death in a crime notable both for its public nature and its ferocity.
It was early evening, just after vespers on 4 May 1337, and the street in Westcheap would have been bustling with passersby. In full view of them all, one man sliced Ford’s throat with an anelace, a foot-long dagger, while two others used long knives to stab him in the belly. Was someone trying to make a very public example of the victim?
Continue reading...