Metropolitan police say no terror link to deadly incident where suspect was shot with Taser and firearm
A man has been shot dead by police in Westminster after an incident that was not being treated as terror-related.
Officers from the Metropolitan police remained overnight at the scene of the incident which occurred at around 11.30pm on Sunday. Road closures were put in place.
Continue reading...Police inquiry finds credible evidence of Andy Coles deceiving 19-year-old activist into sexual relationship
An internal police investigation has uncovered credible evidence that an undercover officer deceived a 19-year-old woman into a long-term sexual relationship.
Andy Coles has denied that he had an intimate relationship with the woman while he infiltrated political groups in the 90s, dismissing her claims as “lurid”.
Continue reading...How list is compiled also to be reviewed amid claims it blights life chances and is discriminatory
Hundreds of young people have been removed from a controversial police list of alleged gang members after claims that it is discriminatory and blighted their life chances, the Guardian has learned.
The Metropolitan police’s gangs matrix, which the force says is a vital tool in tackling violence in London, has been found to be breaking data laws.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak defends policies amid backlash over early release of Streatham attacker
The chief secretary to the Treasury has rejected the idea that cuts to prison and probation services have made it harder to rehabilitate or monitor terrorism suspects after a man who left prison days ago was shot dead by police after he stabbed two people in London.
Rishi Sunak declined to reveal the measures that Boris Johnson or the home secretary, Priti Patel, would announce on Monday after the attack by Sudesh Amman on Streatham High Road.
Continue reading...Civil liberties groups condemn move as ‘a breathtaking assault on our rights’
The Metropolitan police will start using live facial recognition, Britain’s biggest force has announced.
The decision to deploy the controversial technology, which has been dogged by privacy concerns and questions over its lawfulness, was immediately condemned by civil liberties groups, who described the move as “a breathtaking assault on our rights”.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Figure is ‘tip of iceberg’ in terms of people on receiving end of unlawful police behaviour
Dozens of police forces have made out-of-court settlements totalling more than £30m in the past four years, according to recent figures, which were described as “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of people on the receiving end of unlawful police behaviour.
Payments range from small sums for loss of property, or the £100 paid by Sussex police for “embarrassment and humiliation”, through to hundreds of thousands of pounds paid for wrongful arrest, records revealed under the Freedom of Information Act show.
Continue reading...Supt Robyn Williams may be sacked before appeal against conviction can be heard
A decorated senior Metropolitan police officer controversially convicted of possessing a child abuse video is facing a fast-track dismissal from the force, the Guardian has learned.
Supt Robyn Williams could end up being sacked within months for gross misconduct, before her appeal against her conviction can be heard.
Continue reading...The Victims’ Commissioner is demanding that the Metropolitan Police explain its decision not to pursue a full investigation into claims a teenager was trafficked to the UK to have sex with Prince Andrew.
The Observer understands that Dame Vera Baird QC, a former solicitor general and chair of the Board of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, has taken a close interest in the allegations, first examined by Scotland Yard in 2015.
Continue reading...Field Marshal Lord Bramall, who has died aged 95, was chief of the defence staff from 1982 until 1985, the pinnacle of a long military career that began just in time to land him on the beaches of Normandy as a freshly minted second lieutenant in the D-day invasion of June 1944.
But in March 2015 he was drawn into the saga of claims of historical paedophilia and child abuse in high places that began with the unmasking of Jimmy Savile in 2012. Bramall’s cottage in a village near Farnham, Surrey, was raided by police as part of a co-ordinated initiative that also included the homes of Lord (Leon) Brittan, the former home secretary, who died in January 2015. All this was part of Operation Midland, set up by the Metropolitan police in response to allegations against a number of notable public figures.
Continue reading...Section 14 order issued to halt protest across London was not legitimate, high court rules
Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion protesters may sue the Metropolitan police for unlawful arrest after the high court quashed an order banning the group’s protests in London last month.
In a judgment handed down on Wednesday morning, Mr Justice Dingemans and Mr Justice Chamberlain said the section 14 order imposed during XR’s “autumn uprising” in October was unlawful.
Continue reading...Ten ambulance crews sent to incident in south-east London, with local roads closed by police
One person has died and 15 more have been injured after two buses and a car collided in south-east London, the emergency services have said.
The Metropolitan police were called to the scene in Orpington, in the borough of Bromley, shortly after 10pm on Thursday night. They said one person, whom they did not name, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...Rail services from the London hub suspended while police dealt with trespassing incident
Commuters travelling through London Euston faced major disruption after services were delayed or cancelled during rush hour.
All rail services from the central London station were suspended and the West Coast main line was closed while police dealt with a trespassing incident on Friday evening.
Continue reading...City-wide Met police operation begins to clear Trafalgar Square and other protest sites
Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s camp in Trafalgar Square.
The Metropolitan police issued a revised section 14 order on Monday night that said “any assembly linked to the Extinction Rebellion ‘Autumn Uprising’ ... must now cease their protests within London (MPS and City of London Police Areas)” by 9pm.
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...Publication also reveals extent of deputy Labour leader’s role in failed Operation Midland
Scotland Yard officers agreed to publicly say they believed the key witness in a multi-million pound investigation into an alleged Westminster VIP paedophile ring, according to a damning report which lays bare a series of police failings.
The revelation was omitted three years ago when the Metropolitan police released a heavily redacted version of the high court judge’s report on its handling of the £2.5m Operation Midland, which ended without a single arrest.
Continue reading...Police say Brexit campaign broke law but claim insufficient evidence to continue
The Metropolitan police have announced they will take no further action against the Leave.EU campaign for spending offences in the Brexit referendum, despite accepting that it broke the law.
In a statement released on Friday, the Met concluded there was insufficient evidence to justify further investigation of the group, which was set up by the insurance businessman Arron Banks.
Continue reading...Superintendent Darius Hemmatpour said that taking 20,000 police of the streets created a void
Funding cuts to police and public services that previously helped stop people, especially the young, from offending has helped fuel the surge in violent crime, a police chief has said.
Supt Darius Hemmatpour of Scotland Yard’s violent crime task force, said stabbings and other life-threatening attacks in London spiked after 2017, and suggested that austerity was a factor.
Continue reading...Over 6,300 officers deployed for June trip, at time of mounting pressure on police resources
Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK cost the Metropolitan police nearly £3.5m, figures have revealed, at a time of rising pressure on police resources.
Tens of thousands of protesters demonstrated against the US president in the capital before he attended a D-day commemoration service in Portsmouth.
Continue reading...US president refers to message about Met police twitter account, calling London mayor ‘incompetent’
Donald Trump has retweeted the British far-right commentator Katie Hopkins and launched another attack on Sadiq Khan.
Referring to a message from Hopkins that the Met’s Twitter account had been targeted by hackers on Friday night, in which she said officers had “lost control of London streets” and “lost control of their Twitter account too”, Trump tweeted: “With the incompetent mayor of London, you will never have safe streets!”
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