Category Archives: Essex

Police assessing records of private flights at Stansted after publication of Epstein files

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Move comes after Gordon Brown’s claim that files show sex offender used airport in Essex to ‘fly in girls’

Police are assessing information about private flights to and from Stansted airport following the publication of files relating to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown claimed the documents showed in “graphic detail” how Epstein was able to use the Essex-based hub to “fly in girls from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia”.

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Toby Carvery owner urged to fund ‘life support’ for felled Enfield oak

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Sprinklers could save 500-year-old tree that had branches cut off without authorisation in April, says expert

The restaurant chain Toby Carvery is being urged to pay for life support for an ancient oak tree that its owner had chainsawed last spring to widespread public dismay.

Experts say the trunk of the 500-year-old tree, on the edge of a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, has shown signs of regrowth, despite its branches being sawn off by the restaurant’s contractors in April.

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Archaeological dig to unearth wreckage of WW2 hero pilot crash under way

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Exclusive: Excavation, overseen by the US Department of Defense, will feature in More 4’s Hidden Wonders TV series

On 26 January 1944, a 23-year-old US pilot was flying a mighty P-47 Thunderbolt on a wartime training exercise when it crashed in Essex.

Locals witnessed the horror of 2nd Lt Lester Lowry’s aircraft diving to the ground and bursting into flames. Lowry was not seen to bail out and he has remained missing in action (MIA) for more than 80 years. Ironically, his plane was named “Lucky Boy”.

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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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Nigel Farage urged to clarify whether he saved tax on Essex constituency home

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Labour and Lib Dems say Reform leader has questions to answer on who paid for £885,000 property owned by his partner

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have called for Nigel Farage to clarify whether he saved tax on a house in his constituency, after a BBC investigation questioned whether his partner did, as Farage has said, buy the home with her own money.

The Guardian first reported in May that the house in Clacton, which Farage initially said he had bought himself, is in fact wholly owned by Laure Ferrari, his long-term partner.

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Labour won the legal battle over asylum hotels, but the right is running the story

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Ruling has bought government time to plan closures but Farage and Tories have more fuel for their grievances

Protesters were already gathering outside the Bell hotel by Friday evening with union flags and St George’s flags waving. This court ruling was never going to end as a quiet legal moment.

For the Home Office, the court of appeal’s decision was a practical win. If the ruling had gone the other way, the government would have been forced to rehouse 138 asylum seekers in a matter of days, opening the floodgates to similar legal challenges from other councils. Since there is scant alternative accommodation available, this ruling buys the government time.

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Asylum seekers to remain at Epping hotel after court of appeal revokes ban

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Judges say decision to allow injunction was ‘seriously flawed’ and contained several ‘errors in principle’

More than 130 people seeking asylum will be allowed to remain in the Bell hotel in Epping after the court of appeal overturned a high court ban on housing them there, leaving police braced for further angry protests.

While the decision was a technical victory for the Home Office, as other local councils could have brought legal challenges against the use of hotels, it has already been seized on by Labour’s political opponents.

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Labour condemns Robert Jenrick’s visit to rally attended by far-right activist

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Shadow minister posts picture of himself at protest outside Essex hotel that has become anti-immigration flashpoint

Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist.

Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”

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Number of asylum seekers at ex-RAF base in Essex to rise by more than 50%

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Home Office to move 445 more people to MDP Wethersfield site, scene of previous anti-migrant protests

The Home Office is increasing the number of asylum seekers accommodated at a controversial military base by more than 50%.

There are about 800 asylum seekers housed at the remote former RAF base MDP Wethersfield in Essex and the Home Office is moving in 445 more.

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‘Serious incident’ at Southend airport after small plane crashes

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Emergency services at the scene after Beechcraft B200 aircraft involved in collision at about 4pm on Sunday

A small passenger plane has crashed after taking off in Essex.

The Beechcraft B200 aircraft crashed at about 4pm on Sunday, soon after taking off from Southend airport, and was seen in flames with dark smoke billowing from it, according to photos circulating on social media.

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‘It feels like we never left’: resentment builds in one of UK’s firmest Brexit-backing areas

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Keir Starmer says Britons have moved on but many in Thurrock think they were lied to in debate about leaving EU

When Keir Starmer was asked last week whether he thought Britons had finally moved on from the issue of Brexit, his answer was a definitive yes.

It’s not difficult to see why the prime minister would hope to settle the question, before a week in which he hopes to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU, clearing a way for easier access to a marketplace that could help increase the economic growth he badly needs.

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Essex couple’s £1,500 fine for reporting Channel stowaway is cancelled

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Adrian and Joanne Fenton hit with penalty after calling police when they found a boy hiding inside bike-rack cover

A couple who were fined £1,500 after reporting a boy who had stowed away on the back of their motorhome for their journey from France to Essex have had the penalty cancelled.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton from Heybridge were fined by the Home Office for “failing to check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” when they returned to their home across the Channel.

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Essex police officer sacked after admitting ‘tragedy chanting’ at Anfield

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Misconduct hearing found Tyler Coppin had breached standards of professional behaviour over offence

An Essex police officer has been sacked after admitting “tragedy chanting” at Liverpool fans during a Premier League match last year.

Essex police instigated misconduct proceedings against Sgt Tyler Coppin after he pleaded guilty to the public order offence during the Liverpool game against Chelsea at Anfield last October.

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Campaigners hail ‘important victory’ in protection of England’s national parks

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Minister says there was error when Manningtree station car park extension was approved under last government

Campaigners have celebrated an “important victory” in a closely watched case that will determine whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.

Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of Essex and Suffolk, home to increasingly rare species including hazel dormice and hedgehogs. Within it is Manningtree station, where the train operator Greater Anglia built an extension to the car park to cope with increased traffic.

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Calls for Home Office to protect asylum seekers after accommodation violence

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Exclusive: NGOs say safeguarding policies need improving, as victims tell of multiple assaults and incidents of race hate

NGOs are calling for improvements in UK government safeguarding policies after multiple acts of violence and race hate incidents in Home Office accommodation.

The incidents include 20 assaults of asylum seekers in one small area of Essex and a separate incident where another was attacked and threatened with a knife by a man recently released into shared asylum accommodation from prison on licence. Slices of bacon were also laid over food belonging to Muslim residents stored in a communal kitchen fridge.

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Cockney influences found in Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, says expert

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Linguistics professor says London dialect is most likely to be spoken in Essex, but aspects have traversed the globe

The cockney dialect, as associated with the late EastEnders icon Dame Barbara Windsor, may not be as prevalent in today’s London, but it remains possibly the most influential English dialect across the world, according to academic research.

No longer the preserve of those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in the City of London, today cockney is more likely to be spoken in Essex.

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Essex police drop Allison Pearson case after CPS advice

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Police were advised there was no chance of conviction against journalist after hate crime investigation, Guardian understands

Essex police have dropped their hate crime investigation into Allison Pearson, the Daily Telegraph columnist visited by police after she wrongly accused people of colour of being antisemitic.

The decision followed advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that there was no reasonable chance of a conviction, the Guardian understands.

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