Mother expresses relief at finally knowing who killed her daughter, 14, as Robert O’Brien, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand are found guilty
Three people have been convicted of the murder of a 14-year-old girl in 1996, with the judge describing their actions as “depraved, brutal and wicked”.
Robert O’Brien, 45, and Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand, both 44, were found guilty of killing O’Brien’s girlfriend Caroline Glachan in West Dunbartonshire.
Continue reading...Unions welcome new proposals that lower threshold for risk assessment being triggered
Trade unions have welcomed the publication of new proposals by parliamentary authorities for the exclusion of MPs who are arrested for a violent or sexual offences.
There had been mounting concern about delays to the long-awaited plans. But ministers have now also been urged to bring forward a vote on the issue as soon as the House of Commons returns in the new year after its Christmas recess.
Continue reading...National Crime Agency calls for tougher sentencing and a new offence of running abuse websites
Eight out of 10 people in the UK caught with images of children being sexually abused avoid going to jail, the head of the National Crime Agency has revealed.
Graeme Biggar, the director general of the NCA, said some had been caught with thousands of images but avoided imprisonment, and others had been given rehabilitation orders and suspended sentences and then reoffended.
Continue reading...Suffolk police say body was found outside premises in the town’s Norwich Road
Three people have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the body of a newborn baby was found outside a premises in Ipswich. Suffolk constabulary said two men and a female were in custody for questioning after being arrested.
Officers were called to a property on Norwich Road at about 12.30pm on Saturday after reports that a baby’s body had been found. Paramedics attended the scene, but the infant was declared dead.
Continue reading...Jamie Arnold, 33, made racist remarks and gestures at former England defender, who was working as a TV pundit, court heard
A football fan who racially abused the former England international Rio Ferdinand has been jailed for six months and banned from watching live matches for seven years.
Jamie Arnold, 33, uttered racist remarks and made monkey gestures at the former Manchester United defender, who was working as a pundit for BT Sport, a court heard.
Continue reading...Ex-Manchester United player pleaded guilty to using disabled person’s parking permit he said he bought for £50 in Old Trafford
Ravel Morrison, the former Manchester United footballer, has been convicted of fraud after being caught using a deceased person’s blue badge to park.
During his interview under caution, the 30-year-old had claimed he had bought the badge from “someone in Old Trafford” for £50. Morrison, of Westbrook, Warrington, was subsequently charged with one count of fraud.
Continue reading...Boy, who was 12 at time of killing, pleaded guilty to causing the death by dangerous driving of Marcia Grant, 60
A 13-year-old boy has been sentenced to two years in custody for killing a foster carer with her car outside her Sheffield home earlier this year.
The boy, who was 12 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty to causing the death by dangerous driving of 60-year-old Marcia Grant and to possessing a bladed article.
Continue reading...Concerns raised over ‘consistency and availability’ of stalking advocates in UK police forces to support victims
Stalking victims face a “postcode lottery” of support due to a lack of advocates in police forces across the UK, a coroner has said following the death of Gracie Spinks.
The 23-year-old was killed in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, by a work colleague, Michael Sellers, who had become “obsessed” with her after previously harassing a number of other women. On 18 June 2021 he followed Spinks to the field where she kept her horse before fatally stabbing her and taking his own life soon after.
Continue reading...Katie Tidmarsh found guilty of killing ‘defenceless young child’ she had been in the process of adopting
A woman has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 17 years for murdering the one-year-old baby she was in the process of adopting, after failing to disclose mental health problems to the adoption panel.
Katie Tidmarsh, 39, was convicted of murdering Ruby Thompson, who sustained catastrophic brain damage and died in hospital in August 2012.
Continue reading...Justin Henry, 34, disappeared three weeks ago. The Met has asked for anyone with information to come forward
Police investigating the disappearance of a man in south London say they have found a body in the boot of a car.
Justin Henry, 34, was wearing distinctive jewellery – including a Rolex watch, three Cartier bracelets and a diamond ring – when he went missing on 15 October, shortly after leaving a McDonald’s drive-thru in Croydon, south London, in his Mercedes.
Continue reading...Joshua Hunt, 32, receives sexual risk order after police linked him to 25 ‘Somerset gimp’ incidents
A man has been banned for five years from wearing a mask and dressing in an all-black suit in public at night and “crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground” after police linked him to 25 incidents committed by the so-called “Somerset gimp”.
Joshua Hunt, 32, has been given a sexual risk order after police argued there was a sexual motivation to the incidents.
Wearing any type of mask or face covering, including improvised mask or face coverings that cover all or part of the face, in any public place, including while in a vehicle in a public place, unless officially required for medical purposes or by law.
Being in possession of any type of mask or face covering, including improvised masks or face coverings that cover all or part of the face, in a public place, including while in a vehicle in a public place, between the hours of 9pm and 6am unless officially required for medical purposes or by law.
Wearing or being in possession of black all-in-one garments or any combination of full-length black-coloured top and black-coloured bottom clothing which has the appearance of an all-in-one garment, in a public place, including in a vehicle in a public place between the hours of 9pm and 6am.
Crawling, wriggling or writhing on the ground in a public place while wearing a full-body covering, clothing that appears like a full-body covering and/or mask/full-face covering.
Continue reading...Xahra Saleem admitted offence relating to fundraiser before Bristol BLM protest when slave trader’s statue was dumped in harbour
A key organiser of the protest in Bristol during which a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston was toppled and dumped in the city’s harbour has been jailed for two and a half years for fraud.
Xahra Saleem, 23, admitted using more than £30,000 that was supposed to go to a charity for disadvantaged youngsters in the city to fund her lifestyle, including spending almost £6,000 on Uber rides.
Continue reading...Joshua Bowles, 29, carried out reconnaissance before stabbing victim in Cheltenham in March
A former UK intelligence worker has been jailed for life for attempting to murder an American woman who worked for the US government’s National Security Agency and was stationed at GCHQ in Gloucestershire.
Joshua Bowles punched and stabbed the woman at a leisure centre 3 miles from the UK intelligence, security and cyber-agency’s Cheltenham base after researching the woman and carrying out surveillance of her.
Continue reading...Constrained on multiple fronts by finances and resistance from both wings of his party, the PM still has a few vote-winning options
Exhausted by scandals, deflated by byelection defeats and uninspired by their leader at Conservative party conference, many of Rishi Sunak’s MPs are not looking forward to the next year in politics. “It’s hard to muster the enthusiasm to come out fighting given everything that has happened,” said one Tory adviser.
But Sunak appears still to be energised by the prospect of governing for at least another 12 months – and has explicitly said he wants to get things done in the next year. “What can a country achieve in 52 weeks? Watch this space,” his new promotional video said this week.
Continue reading...The latex-clad individual has caused much distress in the sleepy West Country area, though others say they ‘feel sorry for them’
Search for the Somerset villages of Claverham, Yatton, Cleeve and Bleadon on the local police website and one topic dominates. Not appeals relating to burglaries, car crime or missing people – but sightings of a figure who slips out from the shadows at night, dressed top to toe in black bondage-like gear.
Since the so-called Somerset gimp first emerged five years ago, he has caused a mishmash of distress, fear and concern in this picturesque, usually peaceful, rural area 10 miles south of Bristol, set just back from the coast.
Continue reading...Groups of thieves are targeting high-value items such as bottles of spirits, warns the retail group chair Sharon White
John Lewis chair Sharon White has raised fears for the safety of its store workers amid a rise of “organised gangs” of shoplifters who are targeting high-value items such as bottles of spirits.
White, the head of the department store group which also owns Waitrose supermarkets, said it was “not an exaggeration” to describe the change as an epidemic.
Continue reading...Former butcher Andrew Miller claimed he acted in a ‘motherly way’ but later admitted sexual assault
A former butcher who sexually abused a primary school pupil over 27 hours in a “nauseating” attack has been jailed for 20 years.
Andrew Miller, who also uses the name Amy George, was dressed as a woman when he offered the girl – whom he had never met before – a lift in February.
Continue reading...Police say romance fraud has ‘soared’ but true extent unknown as many victims do not come forward
Police have warned online daters of the risks of fake celebrity profiles after a woman lost about £5,000 to a romance fraudster posing as TV chef James Martin.
Nottinghamshire police said the scam is part of a trend where fraudsters pose as celebrities on dating profiles to lure fans.
Continue reading...Jason Bell, 42, must serve minimum term of 22 years after he murdered Nicole Hurley, 37, and then held a friend captive
A martial arts enthusiast has been jailed for life after stabbing his partner to death before holding captive a friend he believed to be her lover.
Jason Bell, 42, attacked Nicole Hurley, 37, with at least two knives at their home in Primrose Hill, north-west London, in the early hours of 10 October 2021.
Continue reading...Humza Yousaf says Lisa Cameron’s move was ‘the least surprising news I’ve had as leader of the SNP’
NHS waiting lists have hit a new record high, with more people facing long waits, PA Media reports. PA says:
Figures for the NHS in England show 7.75 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of August, up from 7.68 million in July.
This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and comes despite Rishi Sunak saying cutting waiting lists is one of his priorities.
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