Musician reunited with 310-year-old instrument after it was hand back by man who took it from train
A 310-year-old antique violin worth £250,000 that was stolen from a train in London has been returned to its owner with no damage.
Professional musician Stephen Morris, who said it was “devastating” to lose the instrument made by craftsman David Tecchler in 1709, reported the violin missing on 22 October.
Continue reading...Explosion at Pascal Blasio’s furniture shop in Wirral injured 81 people and destroyed or damaged 63 properties
A furniture shop owner has been jailed for 20 years for causing a “colossal” explosion which injured 81 people in an attempt to claim insurance.
Pascal Blasio, 57, of Gillingham in Kent, caused the blast at his furniture store in New Ferry, Wirral, Liverpool Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
Continue reading...No reported injuries or wider threats to the community, says Greater Manchester police
Officers from Greater Manchester police arrested a suspect on Friday after reports of a man with a knife at the Arndale shopping centre.
Footage on social media appeared to show a large police and ambulance service presence outside the Manchester shopping centre, which closed at 8pm on Friday according to its website.
Continue reading...Benjamin Field killed Peter Farquhar in village of Maids Moreton to inherit his house and money
A church warden has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering a university lecturer following a sustained campaign of physical and mental abuse.
Benjamin Field, 28, was convicted in August of killing Peter Farquhar, 69, a retired teacher and part-time university lecturer, to inherit his house and money, and trying to make his death look like an accident or suicide.
Continue reading...Ian Hemmens acted as a driver because it gave him the chance to chat, court heard
An 81-year-old former burger van worker who took up work as a getaway driver to overcome his “isolation” and helped an alleged drug dealer flee the UK, has been jailed.
Ian Hemmens, of Chichester in West Sussex, was used because his age and appearance meant he would not draw attention. He was prepared to act as a driver because it gave him the chance to have a chat with someone, Portsmouth crown court was told.
Continue reading...A 15-year-old and an 18-year-old stabbed to death in attacks in Stratford and Camberwell
Two teenagers have been fatally stabbed within hours of each other in London.
A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death outside a busy shopping centre in Stratford, east London, shortly after 3pm on Thursday.
Continue reading...Woman who fled country is a suspect in relation to a collision that killed Harry Dunn, 19
Police chiefs have written to the US embassy in London to demand immunity is waived for an American diplomat’s wife who is a suspect in relation to a fatal road crash.
Nick Adderley, chief constable for Northamptonshire police, said US authorities had been appealed to in “the strongest terms” to apply a waiver and “allow the justice process to take place”.
Continue reading...The Met had vowed not to shy from historical sex abuse after the Jimmy Saville scandal
The revelations about the Jimmy Savile scandal in 2012, and how the popular entertainer abused hundreds with the authorities ignoring concerns about him, created a shockwave.
Continue reading...Belfast prosecutors considering action against ‘Stakeknife’ and his British army handlers
A police inquiry into one of the biggest spy scandals in the history of British intelligence has recommended that more than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members be considered for prosecution, the Guardian has learned.
Operation Kenova, the multimillion-pound investigation into “Stakeknife” – the army agent at the heart of the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles – has now sent files identifying military commanders and at least one IRA veteran with a so-called “get-out-of-jail” card to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Belfast.
Continue reading...Who was the mastermind? Who were the ones who got away? And why do we still want to know? Nearly 60 years after the Great Train Robbery, fresh claims are being made about who planned it and who were the robbers who were never caught. Never mind whodunnits; there’s now a genre of whoreallydunnits.
A book published this week, written by a former British Transport police detective with the help of one of the robbers, will claim that the mastermind of the heist was the late gangster Billy Hill, and that one of the team who got away with it was a relative of an Arsenal and England football player. It will also suggest that the person named recently as the “real” inside man was, in fact, a blameless postman. Already some of the new claims are being challenged by relatives of the men named.
Continue reading...The pair, both believed to be in their 20s, were found at an address in Ilford
Two men are in a critical condition following a shooting incident in east London.
Police were called to reports of shots fired in Courtland Avenue, in Ilford, at 12.06am on Saturday. Armed officers and ambulance crews found two men suffering from gunshot injuries, Scotland Yard said.
Continue reading...Toyota has seen a 2,000% rise in demand for parts for models that contain precious metals
An explosion in thefts of catalytic converters from hybrid cars has left hundreds of owners of the vehicles unable to drive them because of a shortage of replacement parts, the Guardian has learned.
Criminal gangs are believed to be targeting easily identifiable models such as the Toyota Prius and Lexus 400h, because hybrids contain more precious metals than other vehicles.
Continue reading...Gadget entangles suspects in fibre and billed by US maker as painless alternative to Taser
A Spider-Man-like gadget that brings suspects to a halt by entangling them in cord fired from a hand-held device could be adapted for use by UK police.
The US-made BolaWrap 100 restraint, which is being demonstrated to forces in the UK this week, is billed as an alternative in some situations to the Taser stun gun.
Continue reading...The victim was found in the Kingstanding area in the north of the city at 7am on Saturday
A 37-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a fatal stabbing in Birmingham.
West Midlands police opened a murder investigation after a man aged in his 30s was found in Cooksey Lane, Kingstanding, shortly before 7am on Saturday. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...We learn to lie as children, between the ages of two and five. By adulthood, we are prolific. We lie to our employers, our partners and, most of all, one study has found, to our mothers. The average person hears up to 200 lies a day, according to research by Jerry Jellison, a psychologist at the University of Southern California. The majority of the lies we tell are “white”, the inconsequential niceties – “I love your dress!” – that grease the wheels of human interaction. But most people tell one or two “big” lies a day, says Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire. We lie to promote ourselves, protect ourselves and to hurt or avoid hurting others.
The mystery is how we keep getting away with it. Our bodies expose us in every way. Hearts race, sweat drips and micro-expressions leak from small muscles in the face. We stutter, stall and make Freudian slips. “No mortal can keep a secret,” wrote the psychoanalyst in 1905. “If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips. Betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”
Continue reading...Holidaymaker died during a robbery in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Masked gunmen have shot dead a 71-year-old British holidaymaker in a robbery in the Turks and Caicos Islands, police have said.
The victim had been visiting a friend in the British territory, about 150 miles (200km) north of Haiti, when two assailants burst into the home shortly after 11pm on Tuesday local time.
Continue reading...The National Police Chiefs’ Council seeks recommendations to protect frontline staff
Police chiefs are to carry out an urgent review into the safety of officers. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) commissioned the inquiry on behalf of all chief constables when they met on Monday to discuss the rise in attacks on officers and the latest string of serious incidents.
The move comes after the death of PC Andrew Harper on 15 August, who died while responding to a burglary in Berkshire.
Continue reading...Children tell charity workers of being knocked into the water as attempts to reach UK from France increase
Smugglers are cramming up to 30 people on to small boats to cross the Channel from France to the UK, and children have been among those who have recently fallen overboard, campaigners have revealed.
As crossing attempts surge at the close of summer amid rumours that Brexit will mean tighter border restrictions, criminal gangs are loading inflatable boats up to five times their capacity. Previously, people smugglers would put about eight passengers on each vessel.
Continue reading...Met police said man in his 30s arrested on suspicion of murder after incident in Southall
A man in his 60s has been stabbed to death in west London. The Metropolitan police said a man in his 30s has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the incident on Saturday evening in Southall.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene in St Mary’s Avenue and his family has been informed. The arrested man is in hospital where he is under police guard and being treated for minor injuries.
Continue reading...Victim, believed to be a loyalist, found in car in village of Waringstown
A man has been shot dead at a petrol station in County Down, police have said.
The shooting took place on Main Street in the village of Waringstown on Monday night.
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