Killer’s identity not known, say police, as ‘devastated’ family raise funds to bring body home
A British woman has died in Barbados after being doused with a flammable substance and set alight as she lay in bed.
The family of Luton-born Natalie Crichlow said they were “shocked and devastated” by her death.
Continue reading...Large police cordon in place and murder inquiry launched after latest attack in north-west London
A 16-year-old boy has died after a stabbing in north-west London.
The Metropolitan police were called to Munster Square in Camden, close to Regent’s Park, at about 11.10pm on Monday. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene, with paramedics in attendance.
Continue reading...Victim, aged 49, died at the scene in Widnes, say police
A man has died after being stabbed in an attack outside a Cheshire pub.
Police were called to reports of a serious assault near the Hammer and Pincers pub in Widnes at 3.20pm on Sunday. A 49-year-old man was found with serious stab wounds and died at the scene, police said.
Continue reading...Prime minister also announced creation of 10,000 more prison places at a cost of £2.5bn
Boris Johnson has said he is determined to tackle rising levels of knife crime by announcing an extension of police stop-and-search powers.
At the same time, the prime minister announced the government would be investing £2.5bn in creating 10,000 new prison places to ensure serious violent and sexual offenders got the sentence they deserved.
Continue reading...UK police have updated family of 29-year-old Joel Eldridge about the development
Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of a man from East Sussex have discovered a body.
Joel Eldridge, 29, from Bexhill, was living in Macieira, near Serta in Portugal, when his family last heard from him in mid-July last year.
Continue reading...The government’s primary responsibility is to protect its citizens from harm (Ministers accused of dereliction of duty over youth crime ‘emergency’, 31 July). It is clear that government cuts to police, youth work and education have contributed to the upsurge in knife crime. It is also clear that it is still failing to meet its responsibility at every level, from offering help with parenting skills, to providing adequate well-funded schooling, to making sure that children who are excluded from regular classes do not just wander the streets, to providing employment for all 16- to 24-year-olds who need it, to correcting the inequality that pervades British society.
Maybe it is time that parents whose children have suffered from knife attacks should bring a class action legal case against government ministers for failing to discharge its responsibilities.
Dr Richard Lawson
Churchill, Somerset
Four men have been charged with distributing a phoney miracle cure which they claimed would cure HIV, malaria and cancer
A British man and three Ugandans have been charged and held in remand in connection with carrying out illegal clinical trials and administering people with industrial bleach.
Sam Little, 25, from Arlesey in Bedfordshire, Tim Tom, a pastor at Fort portal Christian fellowship, and herbalists Samuel Albert and Samula Tadeo were charged in Uganda for allegedly distributing a liquid called Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) to villagers in poor areas, which they claimed cured HIV, malaria and cancer.
Continue reading...Carl Beech and the Metropolitan police’s investigation have done a great disservice to all victims of this terrible crime (Report, 27 July). There are many problems concerning the investigation of historical child sex abuse. The gathering of facts can be almost impossible as the passage of time may have erased any evidence, and what does survive needs properly resourced and trained officers to bring it to court. I wonder if the taboo and heinousness of this subject conspire to for ever hold it in an investigative system lacking in rigour, ingenuity and the will to make change.
I also see that Beech claimed criminal injury compensation to the tune of £22,000. How was this possible? There is something seriously wrong when conviction rates are this low and innocent people have their lives shattered. Is it not time we admitted that this crime needs specialist units who are well trained and resourced, so that when a child or adult makes the brave decision to report, they can be supported by a system they can trust, and see justice done.
Sara Newman
Groombridge, East Sussex
NCA harvesting EU crime databases in attempt to mitigate loss of access to data, leaked report suggests
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is harvesting information from EU databases, including 54,000 files covering criminals, terrorists and missing persons, in an attempt to mitigate the heightened risks of a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked document.
The report, seen by the Guardian, suggests EU alerts have been transferred to the Police National Computer (PNC) to give UK forces access after 31 October but that key strands of British policing remain “in jeopardy” because of the growing danger of a no-deal exit since Theresa May’s resigned as prime minister.
Continue reading...Teenager’s parents say they will take ‘legal steps’ after suspect in stabbing found not guilty
The family of a teenage boy who was fatally stabbed have spoken of their devastation and said they will “take legal steps” after a teenager was found not guilty of his murder.
A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, had been accused of killing his friend Yousef Makki, 17, during an argument in an affluent suburb of Cheshire.
Continue reading...Individual liability removed but duty requires police, councils and NHS to work together to tackle violence
A new legal duty on public health bodies in England to tackle serious violence, including knife crime, must be backed by cash if it is to be effective, organisations have warned.
The public health duty, requiring bodies to share data, intelligence and knowledge, will be announced by the government this week, following the conclusion of an eight-week consultation.
Continue reading...Paul Crossley will serve at least 12 years after judge dismisses schizophrenia as ‘excuse’
A man with paranoid schizophrenia who pushed a 91-year-old on to London Underground tracks has been jailed for life by a judge who described him as “a grave and enduring risk to the public”.
Paul Crossley shoved Sir Robert Malpas on to the rails at Marble Arch station on 27 April last year, minutes after attempting to do the same to another man at Tottenham Court Road.
Continue reading...Lib Peck insists tactics are succeeding despite Londoners ‘feeling powerless’ over crime
The head of London’s newly formed violence reduction unit has said Londoners feel powerless about levels of street crime but insisted that increased use of stop and search powers had been successful.
Lib Peck, the former leader of Lambeth council who was appointed to the role in January, made the comments while on a two-day fact-finding trip to Glasgow, visiting some of the Scottish unit’s key projects and meeting senior officials.
Continue reading...Man found dead in car six miles from scene in Kingsteignton where 73-year-old was killed
Police investigating the “random” stabbing of a 73-year-old man on the doorstep of his home in Devon are trying to establish whether the suspected suicide of a driver six miles away is linked.
The stabbing victim died after he was found with multiple wounds in a cul-de-sac in Kingsteignton, a small town near Newton Abbot, on Sunday evening. On Monday morning, Devon and Cornwall police were told that another man had been found dead in a car at a coastal beauty spot a few minutes’ drive away.
Continue reading...A man and a woman have been convicted of animal cruelty after activists secretly filmed him apparently preparing to throw fox cubs to hounds at a hunting kennel in Herefordshire. Undercover footage obtained by Hunt Investigation Team was used as evidence in court
Lesbian couple assaulted by group of young males blame rise of rightwing populism for growth in hate crime
The two women left needing hospital treatment after they were attacked on a bus in a homophobic assault have blamed a rise in rightwing populism for growing hate crime and called on people to stand up for each other.
Melania Geymonat, 28, and her girlfriend, Chris, 29, defiantly announced they would not be intimidated into hiding their sexuality, days after they said they were attacked by several young men when they refused to kiss upon demand.
Continue reading...Misadventure verdict on death of Londoner who put 88 wraps of cocaine and heroin in mouth
A young father who was restrained face down and pepper-sprayed by police died by misadventure after a plastic bag containing drugs became stuck in his airway, an inquest jury has found.
Edir Da Costa, 25, died almost a week after the car he was travelling in was pulled over by plain-clothes police officers in June 2017. He had put about 88 wraps containing cocaine and heroin in his mouth at some point before or after getting out of the car.
Continue reading...Suspects interviewed without appropriate adult present in over 100,000 cases in England and Wales, charity says
Police officers detained and interviewed vulnerable suspects without an appropriate adult present more than 100,000 times last year in England and Wales, according to a charity report.
The failure by officers to provide assistance, chiefly to those with mental illness, autism or learning disabilities, leaves them at risk of miscarriages of justice, the National Appropriate Adult Network (Naan) has warned.
Continue reading...Sam Little arrested after Guardian exposed massive distribution network of MMS in Uganda that was being supervised by US pastor
A British man has been arrested in Uganda on suspicions of “intoxicating the public” after he claimed to have carried out a trial of a “miracle cure” on local villagers using industrial bleach.
Sam Little, 25, from Arlesey in Bedfordshire was picked up by Ugandan police at 6am on Thursday in a village church in Kitembi, a few miles outside Fort Portal in western Uganda. Also arrested were two Ugandans who are suspected of being involved in the distribution of the bleach, which is known by advocates as MMS or Miracle Mineral Solution.
Continue reading...A plot to kill a Labour MP and a police officer was only disrupted after an informant within the neo-Nazi group National Action blew the whistle. Robbie Mullen passed the details on to Hope Not Hate’s Matthew Collins. Here, they tell their extraordinary story. Also today: the columnist Aditya Chakrabortty on his unlikely collaboration with the techno group Underworld
In the summer of 2017, Jack Renshaw, then aged 22, of the neo-Nazi group National Action, sat in a pub in Warrington and told his comrades about his plan to kill the Labour MP Rosie Cooper and DC Victoria Henderson, a police officer who had been investigating him. Around the table was Robbie Mullen, who had become disillusioned and passed on details of the plot to Matthew Collins of the anti-racism charity Hope Not Hate.
The two men tell Anushka Asthana their extraordinary story of covert meetings and intelligence gathering from within one of Britain’s most dangerous neo-Nazi groups. Last week, Renshaw was sentenced to life in prison after admitting the plot.
Continue reading...