Category Archives: Metropolitan police

Kensington Gardens reopens after police deem suspicious items non-hazardous

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Officers responded after group claimed to have targeted nearby Israeli embassy with ‘dangerous substances’

Kensington Gardens in London has reopened after the discovery of several suspicious items including two jars containing a powdered substance that was deemed to be non-hazardous, police said.

Officers in protective clothing responded to an incident near the Israeli embassy on Friday after counter-terrorism police investigated a video shared online in which a group claimed to have targeted the embassy with drones carrying “dangerous substances”.

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Harrods’ closure of compensation scheme for survivors of alleged sexual abuse called ‘neither fair nor just’

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Scheme for accusers of store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed to close before end of retailer’s internal investigation

Harrods has been accused of being “neither fair nor just” over its decision to close a compensation scheme for survivors of alleged sexual abuse by the luxury department store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Kingsley Hayes, partner at KP Law, which is representing nearly 280 survivors, questioned why the scheme was being closed on Tuesday 31 March, before Harrods had completed an internal investigation into what happened and who knew about it.

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Undercover police officer was sacked for assaulting partner, spycops inquiry hears

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Conviction revealed during questioning of Rob Hastings about a second woman whom he deceived into intimate relationship

An undercover officer who deceived a woman into an intimate relationship was later convicted and dismissed from the police for assaulting his long-term partner, the public inquiry into undercover policing has heard.

Rob Hastings, who infiltrated pro-Palestinian and left wing protest groups for three years during his covert deployment, was convicted of assaulting his now ex-partner and mother of his three children in 2014. He was sacked by the Metropolitan police for gross misconduct as a result.

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McSweeney-Mandelson messages still exist despite theft of ex-chief of staff’s phone

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Cabinet Office thought to have a number of exchanges between the friends, which are expected to be released within weeks

The Cabinet Office is understood to hold a number of text and email exchanges between Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney, despite the theft of the former chief of staff’s phone in October last year.

The whereabouts of McSweeney’s messages with Mandelson has been under intense scrutiny since it was reported his work device was stolen last year shortly after Mandelson was sacked as US ambassador.

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Two men charged over alleged spying on Jewish community in London for Iran

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Metropolitan police say men were arrested and detained as part of an investigation into alleged surveillance of locations

Two men have been charged with spying for Iran over alleged surveillance of the Jewish community in London, police said.

Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, a dual Iranian and British national, and Alireza Farasati, 22, an Iranian national, have both been charged with engaging in contact likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between 9 July and 15 August last year.

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Met accused of insulting black people with shake-up of anti-racism strategy

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Academic Shereen Daniels says plan by Mark Rowley to absorb police’s race policies into broader anti-discrimination programme is backward step

The Metropolitan police has been accused of insulting black people and mocking the pain it has caused them after revealing it wants to absorb its anti-racism strategy into a broader anti-discrimination scheme.

The Met said the scheme, also including gender and sexual orientation, will increase its chance of success in better serving groups it has failed in the past.

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Black people up to 48 times more likely to be stopped and searched in richest areas of London

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Research found extreme disproportion in use of police power in districts such as Richmond-upon-Thames

Black people are up to 48 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police in some of London’s best-off areas, a new report has found.

The study found that the reasons given by officers for subjecting black people to the controversial power were more likely to be vague, with examples including that a black person gave a “furtive glance”.

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Met interviews women supected of facilitating Mohamed Al Fayed’s alleged sexual abuse

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Three women in their 40s, 50s and 60s interviewed under caution in relation to alleged abuse by late Harrods owner

Three women have been interviewed under caution on suspicion of facilitating one of Britain’s worst sexual abuse scandals, involving the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed and his alleged attacks over four decades.

Scotland Yard said 154 women may have been raped or sexually assaulted by Fayed, or been subject to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

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Met deploys drones and ebikes to help catch adolescent phone thieves

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London police say criminal gangs are using Snapchat to offer cash rewards of up to £380 for stolen iPhones

Gangs are recruiting children to go out to steal smartphones before they head to school, using Snapchat to offer rewards of up to £380 for the latest Apple iPhones, police have revealed.

The Metropolitan police said they were deploying new resources including drones and Surron ebikes to chase suspects as they step up their fight against phone snatching.

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Quarter of police forces missing basic policies on sexual offences, says Sarah Everard report

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Official report says forces in England and Wales yet to implement recommendations for investigations

A quarter of police forces in England and Wales are yet to implement “basic policies for investigating sexual offences”, an official report has found, with women still being failed despite promises of change after the murder of Sarah Everard four years ago.

The report by Dame Elish Angiolini follows an inquiry set up after Everard was murdered by a serving police officer, Wayne Couzens, in March 2021. She was abducted off a London street while walking home.

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Two Met officers running spycops unit were ‘incredibly racist’, inquiry told

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Undercover unit monitored Stephen Lawrence’s family, as well as thousands of mainly leftwing political activists

Two senior officers who supervised an undercover Scotland Yard unit spying on political campaigns were “horribly and incredibly” racist, a whistleblower has told a public inquiry.

Peter Francis, a former member of the unit, testified that one regularly used the “N-word”, while the other used a repertoire of explicit racist slurs.

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Spycops inquiry: Doreen Lawrence says she does not believe ex-home secretary

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Stephen Lawrence’s mother tells inquiry she did not believe Michael Howard when he told her he did not know police had spied on her family

The mother of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has told a public inquiry that she does not believe claims by the former home secretary Michael Howard that he did not know undercover police officers had spied on her family.

Doreen Lawrence told the spycops inquiry on Thursday that Lord Howard, a former leader of the Conservative party, invited her to a meeting shortly after the inquiry was set up in 2014.

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Police ‘urgently’ looking for prisoner freed by mistake in London

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Algerian man, 24, ‘released in error’ from HMP Wandsworth two days after stronger checks for jails were brought in

Police have launched an urgent manhunt for a second foreign prisoner freed mistakenly, two days after the justice secretary, David Lammy, brought in stronger checks for jails.

The 24-year-old Algerian was wrongly released from Wandsworth prison in south London last Wednesday, with the Metropolitan police informed only this week.

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Epping sex offender back in custody after release from prison in error

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Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, whose case triggered summer protests in Essex, detained again and faces deportation

A former asylum seeker and convicted sex offender who was released from prison in error is back in custody and faces deportation.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national, was jailed for 12 months in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl and was made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

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Met police urge Epping sex offender spotted in London to hand himself in

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Former asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu has been missing since being released from prison in error

Police searching in London for a former asylum seeker and convicted sex offender who was released from prison in error have urged him to hand himself in.

The Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for 12 months in September for sexually assaulting a woman and a 14-year-old girl and made the subject of a five-year sexual harm prevention order.

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Met police take over search for Epping sex offender after London sighting – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can read our full report here

The accidental release of the asylum seeker was a “mind-blowing” blunder, says the MP for Chelmsford.

The Liberal Democrat MP Marie Goldman said on Saturday: “My mind has blown. How this could possibly happen?”

He came out of the airlock, and kept saying to the officers there, ‘Where am I going? What am I doing? I don’t know where I’m going and what I’m doing.’

He was holding a pack of paperwork in his arms, and his bag of bits …

He knew he’d been deported. He came over to me and said, ‘I need you to help me.’

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Man in serious condition after being shot by police in London

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IOPC investigating incident at property in Walthamstow where man reportedly had firearm and made threats to kill

A man was taken to hospital in a “life-threatening” condition after he was shot by police at a home in London on Friday afternoon.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has launched an investigation into the actions of Metropolitan police officers during the incident at a property in Walthamstow, north-east London.

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People claim London crime is rising because it suits them, Met commander says

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Nigel Farage and right-wing commentators seek to portray capital as ‘lawless’ despite evidence to the contrary

Claims that London is becoming more dangerous despite the crime figures indicating otherwise are being made because it suits some people, a senior police commander has said.

The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, and right-wing commentators have increasingly sought to portray the capital as a “lawless” city from which high net-worth individuals are fleeing.

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Metropolitan police officer arrested after undercover BBC investigation

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Sergeant arrested on suspicion of perverting course of justice after colleagues filmed making racist and sexist remarks

A serving Metropolitan police officer has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, after undercover footage showed colleagues at Charing Cross police station making racist and sexist comments.

The footage, gathered for a BBC Panorama documentary, appears to show officers at a central London station calling for immigrants to be shot and boasting about using violence against suspects.

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Met plunged into crisis amid fresh claims of misogyny and racism

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Commissioner Mark Rowley says prejudice has ‘put down deep roots’ within force after BBC Panorama investigation

​Metropolitan police officers have been recorded calling for immigrants to be shot, bragging about excessive force, being dismissive about a rape complaint and making anti-Muslim and anti-women comments.

The BBC Panorama programme followed seven months of undercover filming at Charing Cross police station.

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