Piran Ditta Khan, 75, was last of seven men convicted for involvement in Bradford robbery in which Beshenivsky was shot
The mastermind of an armed robbery that ended in a police officer being shot dead has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
PC Sharon Beshenivsky’s family watched from court as the last member of the gang responsible for the armed raid that claimed her life was sentenced after almost 20 years.
Continue reading...In unusual election pledge, Keane Duncan says he will use public money to buy 1867 hotel, forcibly if necessary
Built for wealthy Victorian holidaymakers as the biggest hotel in Europe, Scarborough’s iconic Grand has stood proud since 1867, perched high on the seafront, just metres above the sandy South Bay beach.
So for many in the town, it has been embarrassing to watch the Grade II-listed building suffer a sad reversal of fortunes in recent decades, becoming the “shame of Scarborough”.
Continue reading...Inspector says he was ‘deeply shocked’ by incidents with no female officer present at young offender institution
An “incredibly vulnerable” girl held in a young offender institution was pinned down and stripped by an all-male group of officers on at least two occasions, a watchdog has discovered.
Charities have called for all female offenders to be removed from YOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire after the damning disclosure by the chief inspector of prisons.
In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Lee Parkin intervened in vain in 20-minute attack as he walked his dog near his home in Doncaster
Lee Parkin had been the proud owner of his terrier-spaniel cross Izzy for nearly 10 years when he stepped out for what would be his last walk with his beloved pet.
He was walking Izzy near his home in Doncaster when an XL bully pounced on her, mounting a 20-minute attack and ultimately killing the dog in front of Parkin, who desperately intervened in vain.
Continue reading...Derbyshire and South Yorkshire MPs say agency ‘not up to the task’ after people received warnings too late
MPs in areas of England worst hit by Storm Babet have called for a review of Environment Agency (EA) failings after reporting that some residents received flood alerts only after their homes were flooded.
Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, said some people at Tapton Terrace in the Derbyshire town, where 83-year-old Maureen Gilbert was found dead in flood water, only received a phone call from the early warning system after their houses had been deluged.
Continue reading...A crowdfunding drive led by TV presenter Christa Ackroyd aims to make the first home of the literary siblings a tourist destination and source of inspiration
Around a million visitors a year beat a path to Haworth, the small West Yorkshire town nestling in the windy moors of the Worth Valley – mainly to see the home of the Brontë sisters.
The house that writers Charlotte, Anne and Emily shared with their father, church minister Patrick, and their wayward brother Branwell is a major tourist attraction. Visitors wander around the parsonage and surrounding cobbled streets to soak up the atmosphere of just how the Brontës lived two centuries ago.
Continue reading...Militant pensioner says a majority want a traditional feature but project leaders call row an attack on democracy
Ilkley is an affluent, leafy town, one point of Yorkshire’s “Golden Triangle” where average house prices top £560,000. Last year it was named the best place to live in the UK, and its tree-lined streets hark back to the days when it was a spa town where wealthy Victorians took the waters, Charles Darwin among them.
Now the peace and quiet of this favourite municipality of the middle-classes is being rocked by a row between the, often older, traditionalists in the town and a charitable body of volunteers who were hoping to give it just a flick of a modern makeover. The fight centres on the proposed design of a fountain, to be built at the heart of the town at the junction of its two wide shopping avenues.
Continue reading...PC Cameron Lindley of West Yorkshire police attended incident in which man was already being held down by officers
A police officer has been dismissed after a man complained his head was stamped on during an arrest.
PC Cameron Lindley was called to a disturbance in Bradford in December 2021 after colleagues asked for urgent support, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said on Thursday.
Continue reading...From Essex to Cumbria, many are dismayed by timing of the government’s action on aerated concrete in buildings
On Thursday, the emails that have left headteachers reeling started to arrive. A ruling from ministers in the Department for Education said their schools, built using potentially dangerous concrete, would need to close or partially close.
Within hours, parents and children had been informed. Many were left angry and confused by the timing of the announcement, just before the start of a new school year. Schools across England were left with days to improvise temporary classrooms from marquees or empty office buildings, or arrange to share space with unaffected schools. The majority of schools will open as usual but for tens of thousands of pupils the new academic year will start like no other.
Continue reading...Police appeal for witnesses to incident in Hoylandswaine involving ambulance responding to emergency call
A man in his 30s has died after a collision between a scooter and an ambulance responding to an emergency call.
The driver was taken to hospital but later died of his injuries. South Yorkshire police said the ambulance driver was helping police with their inquiries.
Continue reading...Opposition parties hope to overturn government majorities in three constituencies vacated by Tory MPs amid controversy
Polls have opened in three parliamentary seats where byelections are being held, with Rishi Sunak braced for an electoral test of his premiership.
The Conservative-held constituencies are being targeted by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, who hope to overturn large majorities and send Tory MPs off into the summer recess nervous about their own political futures come the general election.
Continue reading...Votes in the three very different seats could indicate general election swings and prompt cabinet reshuffle
The Conservatives are braced for painful byelection results in a vote on Thursday that could become a damning verdict on Rishi Sunak’s ability to win a broad enough coalition of voters at the next election to retain his party’s majority.
The party could lose all three of the constituencies that are up for grabs – which each have significantly different demographics that the Tories would need to win – with the prospect of hanging on to just one being touted by senior ministers as a victory.
Continue reading...Three men have been arrested after girl, who travelled to London from Barnsley, Yorkshire, was reported missing on Sunday
Police have begun a kidnap investigation after a 13-year-old girl from Yorkshire disappeared following a house party in London.
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of kidnap as officers from the Metropolitan Police work “around the clock” to find Carmelle Hepi, from Barnsley. The teenager was reported missing by her family in the early hours of Sunday.
Continue reading...PC Owen Davies also posted offensive comments about the photos on WhatsApp, according to IOPC
A police officer has been sacked for sharing images of people in custody on WhatsApp, along with inappropriate and derogatory comments.
PC Owen Davies of South Yorkshire police has been dismissed without notice, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which conducted an investigation into operational images being shared without any policing purpose.
Continue reading...Two men in their 20s were pulled from the sea near Torbay as boy who died in Carlisle named as Lewis Michael Kirkpatrick, 15
At least three people have drowned over the bank holiday weekend as the UK experienced the hottest day of the year so far on Sunday.
Two men in their 20s died after being pulled from the sea off the coast of Torbay, Devon and Cornwall police said. Officers were called to assist the coastguard at about 9am on Saturday after reports of concern for two people off Oddicombe beach.
Continue reading...Victim in his 20s found with gunshot wounds when emergency services arrived at Gleadless Valley estate
A murder investigation has begun after a man in his 20s was shot dead in Sheffield.
Shortly after 1.30am on Sunday, emergency services were called to the Gleadless Valley housing estate in the south of the city, after reports that a man had been shot.
Continue reading...Exclusive: 240-year-old scrap of indigo woollen cloth identified as fabric made in Yorkshire to clothe millions of enslaved people
It is a scrap of indigo woollen cloth that is slightly moth-eaten and so tiny that few would give it a second glance, but a 1783 note on its reverse has revealed its chilling significance.
Discovered in a public record office in England, it has been identified as the only surviving fragment of its kind used to clothe millions of enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America for almost 200 years. This coarse fabric, known as “slave” or “negro” cloth, was woven in West Yorkshire, close to the town of Penistone, from which it derives its name.
Continue reading...Body of Christopher Alder could have been seen by cadets after mixup of remains, says South Yorkshire force
South Yorkshire police have admitted that officers may have been shown the body of Christopher Alder, a former paratrooper who died in police custody, in a mortuary as part of their routine training years after he was supposed to have been buried.
Alder, an ex-Parachute Regiment soldier, choked to death while handcuffed and lying face down on the floor of a Hull police station on 1 April 1998. CCTV footage showed officers laughing, joking and making monkey noises while he lay unconscious in a pool of blood. It was more than 10 minutes before police went to his aid.
Continue reading...Mountain rescuers say man who was climbing with two friends was ‘very, very unfortunate’
A 23-year-old climber who died after falling 180 metres from a mountain ridge in Wales as he climbed with two friends was “extremely unfortunate”, mountain rescuers have said.
The man, from Yorkshire, was ascending Y Gribin in Snowdonia or Eryri national park in north Wales at 5pm on Saturday when a handhold he was using to pull himself up broke, causing him to fall down the mountainside.
Continue reading...National Grid put Drax and EDF’s West Burton generator on standby, with the latter stood down at 5am
National Grid asked coal-fired power stations to warm up on Thursday for the third time this week in case they are needed as cold weather across the UK continues.
Two units at Drax in Yorkshire and one at West Burton in Nottinghamshire were asked to fire up just before midnight on Wednesday. The West Burton unit was stood down at 5:13am, but the Drax units have continued to heat up, according to notifications sent to the industry.
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