Category Archives: England

Coventry student who hid baby in cereal box convicted of murder

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Jia Xin Teo, 22, concealed her pregnancy from friends and gave birth in bathroom at student halls

A Coventry University student who concealed her newborn baby in a cereal box hidden inside a suitcase after giving birth on her bathroom floor has been convicted of murder.

Jia Xin Teo, a 22-year-old student from Malaysia who arrived in the UK earlier this year to study, was found guilty of murdering the baby she gave birth to in March. The trial at Warwick crown court heard how Teo concealed her pregnancy and gave birth to a full-term baby on 4 March in the en suite bathroom of her bedroom in student halls of residence.

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Alarm at first fall in disadvantaged students in England reaching university

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Proportion of students eligible for free school meals at 15 who progress to higher education falls from 29.2% to 29%

The proportion of disadvantaged teenagers in England going on to study at university has fallen for the first time on record, leading to accusations that the country is moving backwards in terms of social mobility.

Figures released by the Department for Education show that 29% of students eligible for free school meals at 15 had progressed to university by the age of 19 in 2022-23, compared with 29.2% the previous year – the first time the rate has fallen since it was first measured in 2005-06.

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Special educational needs bill in England hits record £10bn a year

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National Audit Office report finds no signs of improvement in lives of pupils despite record spending

The bill for special needs education in England has hit £10bn a year, with the number of children and young people entitled to government support in the form of education, health and care plans set to double to 1 million within a decade, a landmark report has found.

The investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that despite record levels of spending there had been no signs of improvement in the lives of children with special educational needs (SEN).

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NHS in England to trial AI tool to predict risk of fatal heart disease

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‘Superhuman’ technology known as Aire can detect potential problems doctors cannot see from ECG results

The NHS in England is to trial a “superhuman” artificial intelligence tool that predicts a patient’s risk of disease and dying early.

The new technology, known as AI-ECG risk estimation, or Aire, is trained to read the results of electrocardiogram (ECG) tests, which record the electrical activity of the heart and are used to check for problems.

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Woman, 60, arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over Dorset care home deaths

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Police confirm ‘possible carbon monoxide poisoning’ is main line of inquiry after fatalities at care home in Swanage

A 60-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter by detectives investigating the deaths of three people at a care home in Dorset.

Officers are still treating the deaths at the Gainsborough care home in Swanage as unexplained and have confirmed that “possible carbon monoxide poisoning” is the primary line of inquiry. Seven other residents were taken to hospital.

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Plan to put solar panels on all new English homes could be scrapped

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Long-delayed regulations may ‘encourage’ housebuilders to equip homes with solar panels, rather than requiring them

Labour is considering making solar panels optional on new homes in England, after pressure from housebuilders, in a move that would weaken low-carbon regulations, the Guardian has learned.

Ministers are preparing to publish long-delayed regulations for new homes, known as the future homes standard, which would ensure that all newly built homes are low-carbon.

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Manchester Arena survivors win case against man who claimed there was ‘no bomb’

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Martin and Eve Hibbert, who suffered life-changing injuries in attack, win harassment claim against Richard Hall

Two survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing have won a high court harassment case against a former television producer who claimed the attack had been staged.

Martin Hibbert and his daughter Eve sued Richard Hall for harassment and data protection over his claims in several videos and a book that “there was no bomb”.

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Coin trove from time of Norman conquest becomes England’s highest-value find

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£4.3m hoard acquired for the nation by South West Heritage Trust will be displayed at British Museum next month

It began with a speculative trip to a soggy field in south-west England by a seven-strong band of metal detectorists more intent on figuring out how to use some new kit rather than unearthing anything of great historical importance.

But the friends came upon an astonishing hoard of coins – 2,584 silver pennies – from the time of the Norman conquest, which has been valued at £4.3m, making it the highest-value treasure find ever in England.

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Met police officer who shot Chris Kaba acquitted of murder

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Martyn Blake shot Kaba, who was unarmed, in 2022, saying he feared Kaba would use his Audi to kill officers

A Metropolitan police armed officer on trial for murder after shooting an unarmed suspect in the head has been acquitted.

Martyn Blake shot Chris Kaba in September 2022 on a residential street in Streatham, south London.

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Woman in Leeds jailed for posting sexual images of father’s ex-lover online

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Eleanor Brown, 24, given three-year sentence for ‘vindictive, selfish and vengeful offending’ against woman

A woman who posted sexual images of her father’s former lover on an escort site has been jailed for three years by a judge who described it as “vindictive, selfish and vengeful offending”.

Eleanor Brown, 24, had held a deep-seated grudge against the victim after her father had a short-lived affair with the woman in 2012, Leeds crown court heard.

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Water companies raise bonuses to £9.1m despite record sewage discharges

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Third of total comprises bonuses at Severn Trent as indebted Thames nearly doubles payouts to executives

Bonuses for water company bosses in England and Wales rose to £9.1m this year despite record sewage discharges into rivers and seas.

More than a third of that total comprised bonuses at Severn Trent, which was fined £2m this year for “reckless” pollution but lifted its bonuses to £3.36m.

Thames Water almost doubled its payouts to executives, from £746,000 in 2021-22 to £1.3m in 2023-24, despite its CEO quitting halfway through the year.

Data from Companies House, analysed by the Liberal Democrats, show that overall bonuses increased from £9.013m last year to £9.127m this year.

The payouts pile further pressure on the regulator, Ofwat, to intervene in the decisions of water company boards. Last year, raw sewage was discharged for more than 3.6m hours into rivers and seas, a 105% increase on the previous 12 months.

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UK weather: Storm Ashley batters UK with strong winds and rain

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Met Office issues warnings for across the UK as the first named storm of the season sweeps in

Parts of the UK have been battered by strong winds and heavy rain, as Storm Ashley – the first named storm of the season – swept in.

The Met Office said the storm was likely to bring a threat of injuries and danger to life, with winds of up to 80mph and heavy rain expected in some areas.

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Robin Hood, morris dances and UFOs: English folklore survey gets post-Brexit reboot

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A fresh look at cultural identity will follow outline of 60-year-old Survey of Language and Folklore, conducted by two academics driving a red Mini

In 1964, two young academics clambered into a red Mini and, armed with a mountain of printed slips, set out to conduct what would become the definitive survey of English folklore and traditions for the next 60 years.

John Widdowson and Paul Smith went to town centres, ­community halls, Women’s Institute meetings. They handed the simple forms out to anyone who visited Sheffield University, where they were based. And they wanted to know the answer to one simple question: what do you know to be true?

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Ban smacking in England now, says children’s commissioner

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Rachel de Souza makes strongest intervention yet as three relatives go on trial for murder of Sara Sharif, the 10-year-old who allegedly suffered two years of abuse by her father

Ministers must ban smacking now, the children’s commissioner for England has said, in her strongest intervention yet on child safety.

Rachel de Souza said that banning smacking was “a necessary step” to keep children safe, and that bans in Scotland and Wales had “taught us we need to take that step in England too”, adding “now is the time to go further”.

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‘Piece of British history’: nuclear bunker in Norfolk to be sold at auction

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Bunker built in 1950s has no electricity or running water, but could be used as a wine cellar, auctioneer suggests

Online auctions are usually filled with fragile antiques and niche memorabilia that ought not to be touched. Those looking for something a bit more durable are now in luck.

An underground bunker with no running water or electricity but built to help survive a nuclear attack is to go on sale next month.

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Storm Ashley: Great South Run cancelled over safety concerns

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Forecast of high winds and rain leads to cancellation of event that was due to take place in Portsmouth on Sunday

High winds and rain expected from Storm Ashley have caused organisers to cancel the Great South Run, which was due to take place on Sunday.

Great Run, which organises the annual 10-mile race in Portsmouth, said it had been monitoring weather conditions and they “haven’t improved to a point where we can safely stage Sunday’s event”.

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Man found guilty of rape and manslaughter of woman on London park bench

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Mohamed Iidow attacked Natalie Shotter after she apparently passed out in park in Southall after night out

A man has been convicted of the rape and manslaughter of a woman while she lay unconscious on a park bench in west London after a night out.

Natalie Shotter, 37, an NHS worker, was attacked after apparently passing out in Southall in July 2021. Mohamed Iidow orally raped her “until she died”, his trial heard.

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Police insisted second Salisbury novichok attack was drug overdose, inquiry told

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Inspector dismissed emergency services’ concerns that incident was similar to Skripal poisonings, KC says

Police officers urged paramedics and firefighters to treat the second novichok incident in 2018 as a drug overdose despite warnings from the ambulance and fire services that it had similarities to the first poisoning four months earlier in Salisbury, a public inquiry has heard.

The UK government believes the novichok was brought into Britain by agents tasked by Vladimir Putin to target the former spy Sergei Skripal, who had been settled in Salisbury after a spy exchange, the inquiry heard earlier this week. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned on 4 March 2018 and both survived.

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Lucy Letby gave baby morphine overdose years before first murder, inquiry hears

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Newborn received 10 times the correct amount of painkiller and could have died if colleagues had not spotted error

Lucy Letby gave a potentially fatal dose of morphine to a newborn baby two years before she murdered her first victim, an inquiry has heard.

The infant received 10 times the correct amount of the painkiller at the end of a night shift in July 2013 and could have died if colleagues at handover had not spotted the error an hour later.

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County Durham school drops plan to turn off heat on climate ‘blue nose day’

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Wolsingham school’s carbon-cutting event had been planned by pupils but parents raised concerns

A school has made a U-turn on a student-led plan to turn the heating off for a “blue nose” climate action day after parents raised concerns.

The heating was due to be turned off at Wolsingham school, County Durham, on Friday but the plan has now been postponed until the summer term of next year when it is likely to be warmer.

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