Residents tell of concerns and community spirit after discovery and removal of 500kg second world war explosive
Usually as the weekend approaches, the streets, shops and pubs around Devonport, the largest naval dockyard in western Europe, hum with life.
But an eerie hush fell over the area on Friday after more than 10,000 people were evacuated from homes and workplaces so a second-world-war bomb dropped on Plymouth by the Luftwaffe could be extracted from a back garden.
Continue reading...Second world war bomb now in the water by Plymouth after its removal from a garden
The large Naval Dockyard at Devonport and the presence of the Air Force and Army in the city made it a prime target for Hitler’s Luftwaffe. The people of Plymouth experienced their first air raid alert at 12.45am on 30 June 1940.
Between July 1940 and April 1944, the people of Plymouth experienced 602 alerts and 59 bombing raids, resulting in the deaths of 1174 civilians. More than 4,000 properties were destroyed with a further 18,000 damaged.
Continue reading...Downdraft toppled 87-year-old on footpath near Derriford hospital helipad and injured one other woman
An 87-year-old woman has died after being blown over by a helicopter landing at a hospital, police have confirmed.
Devon and Cornwall police said two people were thought to have been injured as the helicopter landed at a helipad at Derriford hospital in Plymouth on Friday.
Continue reading...Request for problem to be taken more seriously comes as data shows sixfold rise in visits to incel forums
The man who gunned down seven people, killing five, in a rampage in Plymouth is being lionised by an online “incel” community, with some ironically venerating him as a “saint” and celebrating the attack as an aid to their recruitment drive.
Jake Davison, 22, killed his mother, Maxine, 51, after a row before going on to fatally shoot four others and then himself in August last year. Before his death, he expressed misogynistic and homophobic tendencies, as well as angrily lamenting his failure to find a girlfriend.
Continue reading...Parishioners asked to pray for gunman and those he killed in last week’s mass shooting
Prayers have been said across Plymouth for the victims of last week’s mass shooting as the city continued to be engulfed by feelings of shock, grief and anger.
At St Thomas church in Keyham, a modest redbrick building close to the scene of the shooting, parishioners were asked to pray for the gunman, Jake Davison, and the five people he killed.
Continue reading...Gunman who killed five regularly expressed hatred of women but had firearms licence reinstated in July
Police must start taking misogyny more seriously in order to prevent more tragedies such as that in Plymouth, a top prosecutor has said, after a man who had regularly expressed his hatred of women killed five people and wounded two more.
Nazir Afzal, who was previously chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, said Jake Davison should have been on a police watchlist.
Continue reading...Jake Davison had licence revoked in December but it was restored after he attended anger management course
A gunman who killed his mother and four passersby, including a three-year-old girl, had his firearms licence revoked in December, but police reinstated it last month after he attended an anger management course.
Police will face an investigation over their dealings with Jake Davison, 22, who expressed sympathy for the “incel” movement and a keen interest in mass shootings. One resident from Plymouth, where the killing spree took place, said Davison’s family had sought treatment for his mental health issues.
Continue reading...Man suspected of killing five people, including a child, before turning a gun on himself named as Jake Davison
Jake Davison’s mother Maxine was in Plymouth and was from a large family.
Neighbours said Jake has a brother and a sister.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, said the issue of how the Plymouth attacker, Jake Davison, came to legally own a gun should be “properly investigated”.
He described the shooting as an “absolutely appalling” incident.
Continue reading...Jake Davison, the man suspected of killing five people in Devon city, had a firearms licence, say police
A gunman suspected of killing five people in a suburb of Plymouth, including a three-year-old girl, had a firearms licence, a police chief has said.
The chief constable of the Devon and Cornwall force, Shaun Sawyer, said Jake Davison, 22, had a firearms licence in 2020 but it was not clear whether it related to the weapon he used in his attack.
Continue reading...Police confirm deaths and say gunman is believed to have shot himself during the serious firearms incident
Six people, including a child, have died after a gunman repeatedly opened fire in Plymouth, police have confirmed.
The atrocity is being classed as a domestic incident and is not thought to be related to terrorism. Police believe the suspect to have shot himself.
Continue reading...Some locals believe the ‘Zante 30’ were selfish while others say they did nothing wrong
They’ve become known – somewhat infamously - as the Zante 30.
Just as the pubs, cafes and shops on the Barbican in Plymouth were gearing up for a bumper bank holiday weekend, with visitors and city residents expected to arrive on the Devon waterside to drink, eat and be merry, the news came.
Continue reading...Good to learn about Drake’s Island developments (Mysterious Drake’s Island opens to visitors after 30 years, 14 March), but a little correction is needed about the “bunch of schoolboys” invading in 1957. And some extras about Plymouth history.
We had recently formed Plymouth Young Socialists, upsetting the national Labour party, which had closed down the Labour League of Youth. Plymouth politics was starting to stir a bit. My father, Reg Scott, a local socialist politician and journalist, had just started a speakers’ corner on Saturday mornings at Frankfort Gate, the ordinary end of the splendid new city centre. Our “invasion” of Drake’s Island was to reclaim it from the military for the people of Plymouth. We set out in comrade John Duffin’s small, leaky boat, with its spluttering outboard motor, only to be intercepted by a fast naval launch out of the dockyard. We got halfway, were “arraigned”, lectured about dangerous currents, and then kindly taken to the island, awaiting our fate on the beach.
Continue reading...The 14 carvings will hang from the ceiling in arts venue The Box, due to open in the spring
A collection of 19th-century wooden figureheads from British naval warships has been lovingly restored from the ravages of years at sea and will form a striking display at a new heritage and arts complex in Plymouth.
The 14 figureheads, some of which were so badly water-damaged that their insides had turned into a soggy mulch, are to be suspended from the ceiling of The Box gallery and museum, which is due to open in the spring.
Continue reading...Failure puts UK’s reputation as responsible nuclear power at risk, auditors say
Storage of obsolete nuclear submarines has cost the UK taxpayer £500m because of “dismal” failings in the government’s nuclear decommissioning programme, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.
The Ministry of Defence has twice as many submarines in storage as it does in service and has not disposed of any of the 20 vessels decommissioned since 1980, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
Continue reading...