Judge says force protected Adam Provan by ignoring officer’s complaints, allowing him to attack teenager
The Metropolitan police protected a predatory rapist within their ranks, dismissing the complaints of one of his victims and leaving him free to attack a teenager, a judge has said.
Adam Provan, 44, was on Tuesday jailed for 16 years, followed by eight years on licence, for eight counts of raping two victims between 2003 and 2010.
Continue reading...Metropolitan police sending extra officers to central London street after speculation of ‘crime opportunities’
Sadiq Khan has encouraged people not to travel to Oxford Street to take part in a social media craze that he has described as “nonsense”.
The Metropolitan police has said there will be a heightened police presence in the central London area after speculation about an event on Wednesday afternoon advertised on TikTok.
Continue reading...Pair accused of lying during investigation into claims of VIP paedophile ring made by fantasist Carl Beech
There are “reasonable grounds” to suspect two people perverted the course of justice by allegedly making false abuse claims against a string of high-profile figures, a police force has said.
The pair, known only as witnesses A and B, are accused of lying during Operation Midland, launched in 2014 off the back of lurid and false allegations made by fantasist Carl Beech, who was later jailed for 18 years.
Continue reading...Report says detention of Ernest Moret was wrong after he was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police
The arrest in London of a radical French publisher under counter-terrorist powers has been referred to the police watchdog after the reviewer of terrorism legislation found that it was wrong.
Ernest Moret, 28, was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police and asked about his opinion of Emmanuel Macron and participation in anti-Macron protests after he arrived at St Pancras station in April for a book fair.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says ‘even the Blair government’ helped lift children out of poverty
Labour MPs are “seething with anger” about Keir Starmer’s decision to say the party would not get rid of the two-child benefit cap, Jeremy Corbyn said this morning.
Corbyn, Starmer’s predecessor as leader, told LBC that he had spoken to “quite a lot of Labour MPs” about this issue. He went on:
They are seething with anger, particularly as commitments have been made regularly by the party that we would take children out of poverty. Even the Blair government, which Keir Starmer often quotes, did do a great deal to lift children out of poverty by not having a two-child policy …
Even in areas like mine, there are high levels of child poverty – probably 40% of the children in my constituency. All across the north-east, which Jamie [Driscoll] represents – a third of all children across the whole of the region are living in poverty. That has got to go and got to change.
This is not a shock – it is what I and my team expected.
None of my fellow Bernie Grant leadership programme alumni have been selected.
Continue reading...German man says he first contacted Scotland Yard about suspect Christian Brückner in 2008
The man who tipped off police about Christian Brückner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has said his initial approach to the Metropolitan police in the year after she disappeared was ignored and he was only taken seriously when he contacted them again nine years later.
The German man, identified only as Helge B, said he had approached Scotland Yard in 2008, suspecting Brückner’s involvement in the child’s abduction, but he heard nothing back from them. Publicity around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2017 prompted him to contact them again, after which they acted on his information, he said.
Continue reading...Ernest Moret had devices seized after arrest by counter-terrorism police on arrival in London in April
The Metropolitan police have admitted downloading the sim card from the phone of a radical French publisher who was arrested by counter-terrorism police at St Pancras station in April, his lawyer has claimed.
Officers returned the iPhone and laptop it had seized from Ernest Moret, 28, to his London lawyer on Tuesday after the Met announced late on Friday that no further action would be taken against him. He had been arrested on his way to the London book fair and held for almost 24 hours under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
Continue reading...Watchdog identified further details that ‘could and should’ have been handed over to Macpherson inquiry
An official investigation has concluded that Scotland Yard had information that “could and should” have been handed to the inquiry into Stephen Lawrence’s murder but failed to disclose it, the Guardian has learned.
The unpublished findings from the police watchdog are a potential fresh embarrassment to the Met and emerged after a sixth suspect in the 1993 killing of the black teenager was identified, leading to calls from Lawrence’s father and best friend to reopen the investigation.
Continue reading...Jury finds Louis De Zoysa shot Matt Ratana in Croydon with revolver he probably hid under armpit
A man has been found guilty of murdering a police custody sergeant with a gun he had smuggled into a cell.
A jury at Northampton crown court convicted Louis De Zoysa, 25, of murdering Sgt Matt Ratana, 54, with a gunshot to the chest at a custody block in Croydon, south London, in September 2020.
Continue reading...The man was taken into custody in London after failing to provide the pin to his phone when asked to by officers
No further action will be taken against a French publisher who was arrested after being stopped at St Pancras station on suspicion of terror offences, the Metropolitan police have said.
The 28-year-old man, who was previously named by his employer as Ernest Moret, was stopped by border officers as he arrived at the north London station at about 7.30pm on 17 April.
Continue reading...Col Rabih Alenezi received advice after reporting death threats, of which he says he receives 50 a week
A Saudi Arabian dissident living in London was told to “emulate” the life of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden by a Metropolitan police officer, amid death threats he received after fleeing his country.
Col Rabih Alenezi, 44, had been a senior official in Saudi Arabia’s security service for two decades, but sought asylum in the UK after he claimed to have been ordered to carry out human rights violations. His life was threatened for criticising the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Continue reading...MPs call for new laws as data shows rise in number of dog seizures is not matched by action against owners
The Metropolitan police are dealing with at least one dangerous dog every day, figures show, as MPs call for ministers to introduce new laws to stop vicious dog attacks.
Police data shows the force seized 479 out-of-control dogs last year under the Dangerous Dogs Act – up from 333 in 2021 and 336 in 2019. As of the start of May this year the Met police had already seized 154 dogs.
Continue reading...Health groups raise alarm after Sir Mark Rowley says he will order officers not to attend 999 calls about mental health incidents
Thousands of people in a mental health crisis will be “left without support” under worrying and inappropriate police plans to “walk away” from emergency incidents, health chiefs have said.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, the Metropolitan police comissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said that from September he would order the force’s police officers not to attend thousands of 999 calls about mental health incidents.
Continue reading...Exclusive: move will come into force on 31 August and will only be waived if a threat to life is feared
The Metropolitan police will no longer attend emergency calls related to mental health incidents, the force’s commissioner has said.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, Sir Mark Rowley says he will order his officers not to attend thousands of calls they get every year to deal with mental health incidents.
Continue reading...Steve Rodhouse, who led Operation Midland, may have breached professional standards, says police watchdog
One of Britain’s most senior police officers should face a gross misconduct charge over his role in Operation Midland, the disastrous investigation into claims of a VIP paedophile ring, the police watchdog has concluded.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct had previously cleared Steve Rodhouse of wrongdoing for overseeing the Metropolitan police’s operation, which saw the force raid homes of high-profile figures having fallen for the lies of the fantasist Carl Beech.
Continue reading...Samantha Lee tells hearing she could not have prevented kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard
The former Met police officer accused of botching the Wayne Couzens flashing case has admitted she made some mistakes, but said nothing she could have done would have changed the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Samantha Lee has been accused of conducting an “extremely poor” investigation after Couzens, 50, exposed himself to female staff at a drive-through McDonald’s in Kent on 14 and 27 February 2021, a police disciplinary hearing was told.
Continue reading...Police watchdog to launch inquiry after incident involving man with two dogs along canal in Limehouse
An investigation will be launched after a man was Tasered and two dogs were shot dead by Metropolitan police officers in front of witnesses, the police watchdog has announced.
On Friday, the Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was “appropriate” that complaints linked to the incident in Poplar, east London, on 7 May should be “independently investigated”. The IOPC said it understood the “public concern” caused by the shooting.
Continue reading...Met left dozens of documents in locked cabinet instead of passing to inquiry into its own corruption
Dozens of documents that Scotland Yard should have handed over to an official inquiry into its corruption were instead left in a locked cabinet located on the same floor as its commissioner, the Guardian has learned.
The revelation relates to 95 pages of documents the force now accepts it should have given to the Daniel Morgan inquiry, investigating the unsolved murder of the private detective and the role corruption played in shielding his killers.
Continue reading...Footage on social media showed officers pursuing a man holding two dogs on a short lead along a canal in Limehouse
The Metropolitan police has defended its officers after a suspect was Tasered and two dogs were shot in front of screaming witnesses.
Footage posted on social media showed officers pursuing a man holding the two dogs on a short lead along a canal in Limehouse, east London, on Sunday afternoon. The situation appeared to become heated, as the man was Tasered to the floor and the animals were shot dead.
Continue reading...Graham Smith said Met officers should hang their heads in shame after 52 detained in central London
Police who arrested anti-monarchy protesters before King Charles III’s coronation have “destroyed whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Metropolitan police,” the chief executive of the campaign group Republic has said.
After six members of the group were arrested at about 7.30am on Saturday – before their protest had begun – and had their placards seized, Graham Smith said officers “should hang their heads in shame” and that police had shown “no judgment, no common sense and no basic decency”.
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