Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Call for action after police figures show 46% of people charged were reoffenders
Almost half of people charged with knife killings in London over the past three years had previously committed an offence involving a blade, Metropolitan police figures suggest.
The Met charged 379 people with knife crime homicides between the start of November 2016 and the end of October last year. Of those charged, 173, or 46%, had previously committed a knife offence, according to the Met data.
The mother of a mature student described as “Britain’s most prolific rapist” says she did not know he was gay.
Reynhard Sinaga was sentenced to life with a minimum of 30 years last week after being found guilty of attacking 48 men in Manchester. Videos he recorded on two iPhones suggest that he attacked at least 195 men while they lay comatose in his city centre flat, having spiked their drinks with a date rape drug.
A man described as “Britain’s most prolific rapist” will never be safe to be released, a court has heard, as he was jailed for a minimum of 30 years after being found guilty of raping or sexually assaulting 48 young men in Manchester.
Reynhard Sinaga, 36, a mature student from Indonesia, is thought by police to have abused at least 195 men over two-and-a-half years after luring them to his flat under the guise of being a “good samaritan”, drugging his victims and then attacking them after they passed out.
Allen’s release will be subject to strict licence conditions and adherence to ‘exclusion zones’
A female paedophile who operated as part of a “sickening ring” of child abusers is set to be released next month, the Parole Board has confirmed.
Angela Allen was part of a ring including three other women, who were convinced by IT consultant Colin Blanchard to share photographs of themselves abusing children.
Bollo Brook youth centre credited with saving children from knife crime is at centre of gentrification row
A London youth club credited with saving children from rising knife violence is facing calls for its closure from new residents who think it would be better used as a coffee shop.
The Bollo Brook youth centre in South Acton, which serves some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in London, is embroiled in a gentrification row with residents demanding the council close it down and remove it from the area, claiming it has been “dumped” on them causing “nothing but problems”.
Two fatalities reported after officers called to Walthamstow then Scratchwood Park
Two men have died in separate stabbing incidents in north London.
In the first incident, officers were called to Bromley Road, in Walthamstow, in the north-east of the capital, at 7.16pm on Thursday after reports of a fight. They discovered two men suffering from stab injuries when they arrived alongside the London Ambulance Service.
Ewan Ireland, 17, had been released under investigation over an affray offence when he attacked Peter Duncan
The case of a teenager jailed for life after stabbing a lawyer to death has raised fresh alarm about the practice of releasing violent suspects without strict bail conditions.
Matthew Feargrieve convicted of assault on Ulrich Engler at Royal Opera House
A lawyer has been convicted of assaulting a fashion designer during a dispute over a front-row seat at an opera performance.
Matthew Feargrieve was found guilty in London of punching Ulrich Engler at least once while attending a performance of Wagner at the Royal Opera House on 7 October last year.
Usman Khan killed two people in the attack last month after his release from prison
An investigation into Staffordshire police has been launched following the London Bridge attack last month in which a terrorist killed two people before being shot dead.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has begun an investigation into the force’s role in the management of the attacker, Usman Khan, following his release from prison last year after serving a term for terrorism offences.
Family say they begged for help from authorities but no one seemed to be listening
Everybody failed 14-year-old Jaden Moodie, his family say. If the teachers or the social workers or the Home Office officials had acted differently, they believe, he would still be alive today.
After Wednesday’s verdict in the Old Bailey trial of Ayoub Majdouline, a 19-year-old drug dealer who in 2018 had been classed as a victim of modern slavery over concerns he was being exploited, Jaden’s loved ones held hands in court and said: “Yes. For Jaden, we’ve done it.”
A counter-terrorism specialist has described the criminal justice system as playing “Russian roulette” with the public, after it was revealed the London Bridge attacker had been released from jail after being convicted of terror offences.
Chris Phillips, a former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, told the PA news agency:
The criminal justice system needs to look at itself. We’re letting people out of prison, we’re convicting people for very, very serious offences and then they are releasing them back into society when they are still radicalised.
So how on Earth can we ever ask our police services and our security services to keep us safe? I’ve said it a few times today, we’re playing Russian roulette with people’s lives, letting convicted, known, radicalised Jihadi criminals walk about our streets.
Sky News is reporting that the attacker was “a student and personal friend” of the radical preacher Anjem Choudary.
Choudary was released from prison last year after serving half of the five-and-a-half-year sentence he received in 2016 for urging support for Isis and pledging allegiance to the terrorist group.
Sky News understands 28-year-old Usman Khan who has been identified as the suspect in the London Bridge terror attack was a student and personal friend of the Islamist extremist Anjem Choudary
UK lawyers and activists demand action as researchers find tenfold rise in usage
Senior lawyers and women’s organisations have condemned the increasing use of “rough sex gone wrong” as a courtroom defence to the murder of women and called for a change to the law in the UK.
In the wake of the conviction of British backpacker Grace Millane’s killer in New Zealand, researchers have revealed a tenfold rise over the past two decades in the number of times similar claims have been made in UK courts.
Patrick McLarry, 71, of Devon, faces jail after taking more than £250,000 from scheme
The former head of a charity faces a substantial prison sentence after admitting to defrauding a pension scheme for workers with disabilities and using the money to buy houses in England and France.
Patrick McLarry, 71, took more than £250,000 from the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled and used it to buy homes for himself and his wife and pay off a debt over a pub lease.
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.
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.
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.
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.