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Teenagers Dylan Ash and Kieron Ellison are accused of making a series of hoaxes concerning shootings and bombings as part of an online group

An online group known as “Monkey Mafia” falsely reported that men were fighting with machetes outside a branch of McDonald’s, a trial has heard. Teenagers Dylan Ash and Kieron Ellison are alleged to have been members of the “syndicate”, which is said to have been responsible for a string of hoax calls to emergency services in both the UK and USA.

These included fake reports of shooting and bombings at hospitals, schools, universities and hotels and the targeting of influencers while they were livestreaming on YouTube, apparently hoping to lure armed officers to their homes. The two 19-year-old defendants went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court today, Wednesday, accused of offences including conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Joe Allman, prosecuting, told the jury of nine men and three women this afternoon that Ash, from Deal in Kent, and Ellison were members of a “syndicate styled as Monkey Mafia”, which “focussed on swatting activities”. He added in his opening: “Swatting is a particularly serious form of hoaxing.

“It involves making a call, either to the police or to some other entity, and using that communication to convey false information about an armed attack somewhere. The objective, the point in all of this, is to provoke an armed response, and the gold standard for the people who engaged in this community is that a targeted individual is detained at gunpoint by the police.

“The term swatting refers to SWAT, Special Weapons and Tactics, teams. Clearly, those who call in an armed attack to the police, particularly in countries where firearms are readily available, may well expect a response from a heavily armed and robust section of the police. To state the obvious, you might get a more fearsome response if you call the police in America than north west England. This, of course, entails real danger for the people who are being swatted.”

The incidents were said to have occurred between 2022 and 2024, when Ash was aged 16 and Ellison was 15. Mr Allman added: “Monkey Mafia had two different approaches to this. Sometimes, they would target an individual. In the early days, these were people in the UK, in the vicinity of where they lived.

“Later, they would target prominent online influencers in the United States. There are two particular individuals in this case. One is the influencer, Kai Cenat, and the other is Adin Ross. Both were online influencers with large followings.

“What Monkey Mafia would do is place a call to the police or to an entity like a suicide hotline. They would then claim that a person was armed and behaving dangerously, and give enough information for the police to strike at the homes of, for example, Adin Ross or Kai Cenat, as the case may be.

“The second approach was to place a call to the police or to an institution such as a university. What they would do in this scenario is claim that there was an attack happening at a particular location, associated with an institution. So, for example, one of our cases involves Boston University. In this way, basically calling in an armed attack, they targeted universities, schools, hospitals, hotels and so forth.

“Usually, the armed attack call would involve an active shooter, together with a bomb in the form of a suicide vest, or perhaps the claim that there was a bomb or multiple bombs in the building in question. There is no evidence that there were actually any firearms or bombs. These are, as I say, serious hoaxes.

“Here, the aim was to provoke a large scale armed police response, which would cause massive disruption to the institution in question and to the people, of course, who had the misfortune to be there at the time. This, of course entailed a real risk of people being detained by the police, if, for example, they fitted any description provided by the hoax caller, or if their conduct, however actually innocent, gave cause for concern.

“You can imagine any number of scenarios in that kind of febrile atmosphere, where a person who, for example, reached for a phone or panicked and tried to run or simply did not hear and respond to commands might be arrested, or where something very much worse might happen.

“In the first scenario, what they were really hoping to achieve was to see the men arrested in front of their YouTube audience. The purpose was to frighten and humiliate them. In the second scenario, they were hoping to cause major disruption and fear.

“That would emanate from the fact that, from the point of view of the people caught up in the swat, they might become a victim of an armed attack or might be detained or shot by those armed officers who were responding to the call. You can imagine how much upset and disruption this was intended to cause.”

Other swatting incidents were said to have targeted the Tamaya Hyatt Hotel in New Mexico, the University of Nevada, the University of Western Canada, Oklahoma University, the University of Southern California and the headquarters of a company called Earthcam in New Jersey. Another, relating to Sparrow Hospital in Michigan, saw the caller “adopt a fake accent which was intended to sound Asian or Arabic” while giving the name “Sadam from ISIS”.

An earlier example came on October 2 2022, when Merseyside Police received a false report of “males fighting with machetes in the street” in St Helens. In this recording, the caller, giving an apparently fake name, was heard to say: “My name is James Andrew and I’ve witnessed, at McDonald’s on Chalon Way West, there’s five people with machetes fighting, with machetes, like they were all chasing after each other.”

This report went on to state that “four males dressed all in black with their faces covered were chasing a male in a North Face jacket from McDonald’s towards Tesco and the rugby ground”. While Mr Allman stated that the motivation for such activities “may never be fully known”, he told the jury that “some members of Monkey Mafia hoped to monetise the activities of the group” and suggested it was “likely a combination of greed, online vanity, racist hostility and sheer antisocial hostility”.

Ellison’s involvement in Monkey Mafia was said to have ceased following his arrest in June 2023, although Ash and a third man who was not before the court, Liam White, were alleged to have “tried to reboot the swatting activities by setting up successor groups”. This apparently came under the guises of “Kat Squad” and Syndicate Squad”.

Both Ash and Ellison, who appeared suited in courtroom 41 while sitting on the back row of counsel benches rather in the dock, deny five counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and conspiracy to commit a bomb hoax. The former has also pleaded not guilty to a sixth charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Judge David Potter meanwhile said of 23-year-old White, of Weston-super-Mare in Somerset: “There is no mystery about this. Liam White has already appeared in court for his part in this case. Please do not speculate any further about Liam. Your task is to reach verdicts on Kieron and Dylan, and you can only do that by concentrating on the evidence for and against each of those.”

Defence counsel were also invited to address the jury on the issues in the case, with Mark Gatley KC saying on behalf of Ash: “What we say on behalf of Dylan Ash is that Monkey Mafia was not a group as such, or even a syndicate, as it has been described. What it was, was the name of a chat group in which members can come and go and can just come along to watch.

“They do not necessarily have to do anything. People on that group would sometimes do things together. They would sometimes do things alone. They would sometimes plan calls, prank calls. It was not a group. Monkey Mafia was a chat group with members coming and going.

“All of this happened at least three years ago, approaching four years ago. Dylan was just 16 at the time, and that is important. If any of you have boys, you will know that is important to bear in mind, when it comes to assessing the intentions or the degree of foresight that 16-year-old boys have, or more often don’t have, about the consequences of their actions.

“We will argue that this is a case of Dylan Ash, a friendless, isolated 16-year-old sitting in his bedroom in his grandparents’ house late into the night, finding a community, often involving older males and getting swept up in the excitement of becoming involved in making prank calls, mainly to the US, where the consequences were, to be frank, far more exciting to watch than in Kent or Merseyside.

“The fact is, never did those consequences once result in a single individual even being arrested. No one was arrested as a result of these calls. No one suffered any harm. In short, never did these prank calls result in the start of any course of justice that could be perverted.

“This is about what might have been. The reality is that there was never any course of justice in respect of any of these calls that could be perverted. We accept that these were stupid and childish acts and, viewed with the wisdom of hindsight, acts which must have been upsetting for call handlers or others involved.

“The central question for you is, is it or might it have been the case that Dylan Ash did not agree to make calls which tended and were intended to pervert the course of justice? Is it or might it be the case that he didn’t? It is for the prosecution to prove the guilt of any given defendant, if they can. To do so, they must make a jury sure of guilt. If they cannot, not guilty verdicts must follow.”

Ellison’s barrister Rabah Kherbane meanwhile added: “You are considering the actions of 15, 16-year-olds. Just think back to being 15 yourself, what you did or didn’t think about when you did things you should or shouldn’t be doing. Did you think 10 steps ahead, or just think about the immediate result?”

The trial continues, and is expected to last for around four weeks.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, sentenced to life in jail for 18-year-old’s murder

A Sikh man who stabbed Henry Nowak, a Southampton student, with a ceremonial knife in December 2025 was sentenced for his murder on Monday.

Mr Nowak, 18, told responding police officers he had been stabbed four times, but was instead the one arrested after Vickrum Digwa, 23, lied and claimed he had been racially abused.

Digwa was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum sentence of 21 years.

Here are the judge’s sentencing remarks in full.

Stand up, please. Henry Nowak, aged 18, died on 3/12/2025. He was a much-loved, kind, hard-working and ambitious young man, devoted to his family and with a bright future. He was a first-year student at Southampton University, the first in his family to go to university. He was careful and principled, full of humour, warmth and promise.

You, Vickrum Digwa, murdered him. By doing so, you robbed him of all those he loved, all the things he cared about and liked to do. He would have been expected to live a long, hopefully, happy and fulfilling life. You have brought misery and a lifetime of loss upon his family, and great sadness to everyone who knew him.

You are 23; in December 2025 you were 22 and had no previous convictions. You may sit down, for now.

Mark Nowak, Henry’s father, has described the devastating and lifelong impact of Henry’s death on him and the whole family. He speaks of the horror of losing his son in such violent circumstances, the trauma of identifying his body, and the lasting torment of imagining Henry’s final moments. He describes overwhelming grief, guilt, helplessness and the pain of seeing Henry’s mother, siblings and wider family broken by the loss. Mr Nowak says that the family has effectively been given “a life sentence”, with the pain affecting every aspect of their lives and every significant family occasion, and that nothing will ever fill the permanent void left by Henry’s death.

Lucy Ross, Henry’s mother, has described the profound and enduring impact of his death upon the whole family. She recalls the devastating moment she was told of his death, and the anguish of having to tell Henry’s elderly grandparents. She describes the continuing grief suffered by the family, including Henry’s sister Olivia, who has lost not only her brother but her best friend, and says that the profound and lasting effect of this loss is something they will carry for the rest of their lives.

Olivia Nowak, the sister of Henry, describes a relationship of exceptional closeness, in which her brother was not only a sibling but her closest companion and a central part of her daily life. His death has, in her words, caused her world to “fall apart”. She recounts the profound shock and trauma of being informed of her brother’s death, and the continuing anguish associated with identifying him, attending his funeral and confronting the many “firsts” without him – his birthday, Christmas and other significant family occasions. The impact upon her own life has been profound and enduring. Her home, once a place of comfort, is now a constant reminder of his absence. She describes the effect on her ability to work, due to persistent grief and intrusive thoughts about the circumstances of his death. She also carries an additional emotional burden as the eldest sibling, striving to support her younger brothers and sisters through their grief while recognising that she is powerless to remove their pain. This compounds her own suffering. The loss, she makes clear, is lifelong. Her life has been permanently changed by the death of her brother, and the emotional consequences remain acute and far-reaching.

David Stevenson, [Henry’s] stepfather, describes the devastating impact of Henry’s death upon him and the wider family. He explains that Henry was his much-loved stepson, with whom he had a close and affectionate relationship, and speaks of the shock of learning that Henry had been murdered and the lasting grief, sadness and anger that have followed. He also explains that the consequences have affected every aspect of his own life, including the loss of his employment, and says that the family will carry this pain permanently.

Katie Woodcock, [Henry’s] stepmother, describes the devastating and far-reaching impact of Henry’s death upon her, her husband, and the younger children in the family. She recounts the trauma of being told by police in the early hours that Henry had been stabbed and killed, and the lasting effect of that night upon her. She explains that the loss has caused profound emotional harm to Henry’s younger siblings, including fear, anxiety, sleep disturbance, difficulties at school and an enduring sense of insecurity. She also describes the strain upon family life, her own grief, fear and inability to concentrate, and the pain of missing Henry in the ordinary moments of daily life. She says that the family continues to live with the permanent consequences of his death.

Not long after 11pm on 3/12/2025, Henry Nowak was walking back to his university accommodation in Portswood, Southampton, after an evening out. His route took him north along Belmont Road and he was approaching a junction with St Denys Road where you lived with your family. Henry was not drunk but may have been affected a little by the small amount of alcohol he had consumed over the previous few hours. He was not a regular drinker and did not generally drink to excess. His blood alcohol level at the time of his death was below the legal limit for driving. He was alone and unarmed. You happened to be walking south along Belmont Road on the same pavement. It was to be a chance meeting.

You were sober but were carrying a large Sikh dagger in a sheath attached to a belt over the outside of your clothing. It is a strict requirement of the Sikh faith to have a knife, called a kirpan, at all times. Generally, this will be a small knife, hidden from view, often on a length of cord and worn around the neck. You had that but, in addition, the large dagger in a sheath. You are a member of an order of Sikhs called the Nihang who have a tradition of having a second knife, or kirpan, and that is often fully visible, believing that the Guru will look favourably on that. You observed that tradition in your everyday life, at work and in public. However, it was not a strict requirement; that is borne out by the fact that neither your brother nor father who arrived on the scene after you had stabbed Henry were so dressed. According to Prof Gurnam Singh, professor of sociology and an expert in the field: “Over the last 30 years, there has been a trend towards younger people wearing a kirpan with pride, in a desire to express their cultural identity. They see it as an act of resistance to being denied the ability otherwise to display their identity.”

The privilege extended to practising Sikhs of being allowed to be in public with a bladed article and, particularly in respect of the large dagger, a highly dangerous weapon, easily accessible to the wearer, brings with it huge responsibility.

It is a fundamental principle of Sikhism that any kirpan is worn as a symbol of religious faith and is never to be carried for an offensive purpose. The legal approach to the carrying of such a knife, as long as the blade length does not exceed nine inches, is that an offence of having a bladed article in a public place will not be prosecuted. There has been an acceptance that its possession in those circumstances can amount to a good religious and, therefore, legal reason for having it. The blade of the knife will not be on display; either it is under clothing or, alternatively, in a sheath. For both, it is a religious and, consequently, legal requirement that a kirpan should only be used offensively as a last resort, which would include its use in legal self-defence. In other words, only if use is necessary and, if so, reasonable in the circumstances. It is obvious that for use to be reasonable, any perceived threat justifying its use would only be in circumstances of great seriousness and urgency.

In Belmont Road, you and Henry passed each other. You claimed he deliberately barged into you. I am sure that was one of the many lies you have told and repeated since it happened. However, there was an interaction between you both. Henry, perhaps cheekily, made a comment, asking if you were a “bad man”. He was filming you on his phone when he said it. The tone of his voice was not aggressive or threatening but, as it turned out, a tragic error of judgment. It is a reasonable conclusion that the comment was because he had seen the large, sheathed dagger. That would have been a very unusual thing for an 18-year-old student and non-Sikh to see.

You moved towards him and, confidently, told him that you were “a bad man”. This was the response, I believe, of someone who thought they were being disrespected, made worse by the perceived intrusion of being filmed. You were not frightened or concerned and grabbed his phone, removing it from him. The exact events which immediately followed were only witnessed by Henry and you. However, it would not be unreasonable to conclude that Henry would have wanted his phone back, believing it had been stolen from him or that he had been robbed. That may have led to a physical struggle between you and him. In that situation, there was every need for self-restraint and control on your part. As someone who was born and raised in the UK, that should have been your focus rather than any distorted view of your religious traditions. Strong words, even a verbal threat, might have been justified but no more.

It would also seem that your turban may have been knocked, pulled or, potentially, punched off your head. The wearing of a turban, at all times, is another fundamental religious requirement of being a male Sikh. The removal of it by another would be considered a serious act and a further mark of disrespect. It is a reasonable conclusion that this would only have added to your anger.

You drew the dagger from its sheath and, as the jury was sure, you deliberately stabbed Henry in the chest with it. The knife passed through several layers of clothing, as demonstrated by the multiple slits in his dark top where the material had been overlaid on itself in the struggle and the single slit in his shirt. It passed upwards through soft tissue, between the two uppermost ribs, catching a lung and cutting an important vein, behind the collarbone. This was to a depth of 8cm from the skin surface. The consequent bleeding flowed into his chest cavity. The pathologist, Amanda Jeffrey, found 1,200 ml, or over two pints, of blood there. She said that no emergency medical treatment would have permitted access to the bleeding vein. In simple terms, he would not have survived, however quickly he received first aid, CPR or expert medical treatment.

You also stabbed him twice to the upper leg at some point, and once again to the lower abdomen/groin area at the front. The latter only resulted in a knife tip injury; the former were both to a substantial depth, although not as deep as the chest wound. Henry’s face was also slashed with the blade of the dagger, but I cannot be sure that was aimed or intended. However, one or more of the four stabs must have had an immediate effect, as Henry was never able to put up his hands to defend himself from further serious injury. He was defenceless.

You, by contrast, had little, if any, injury. You told the attending police that you had a small bruise and swelling to your eye from a punch, but it is not obvious on body-worn footage taken then, and there has been no independent evidence given in the trial of any injury at all to you.

Your brother, Gurpreet, arrived on the scene very shortly after your attack had finished. You then filmed Henry desperately trying to get away from you, somehow scaling a fence, on to a communal bin, before landing on a car in front of the property next door. Bloodstains show that he had got one, more, or all his injuries before then.

You then showed a callous disregard for his wellbeing, knowing you had stabbed him [in] the chest. You continued to make films of Henry suffering, ignoring much of his desperation at having been stabbed. You told him that had not happened, no doubt to convince others who were nearby. Your attitude did not change, even though Henry was clearly going downhill very fast. Your brother did much the same, although he may just have been accepting that which you had told him, rather than lying himself. You lied to him that you had been attacked, picking up on his question about whether it had been accompanied by racism, by falsely claiming that Henry had called you a “P—”. I am sure that Henry had said nothing racist. You are the only person to make that claim and it is completely at odds with his previous character.

You joined your brother in relating these lies to the police. By then your mother and father were at the scene. Gurpreet explained that no weapons had been involved or were present. In fact, whilst he was talking to the call operator, you told your mother to take the murder weapon, sheath and belt away, which she did. You did not tell your father what had really happened. Much of the time you just stood by as he, at least, tried to do something to help Henry.

You carried on telling these wicked lies when police attended on the scene, hampering them in doing their job and, effectively, obstructing the course of justice. You kept Henry’s phone with the incriminating recording of you on it. You had no intention of handing it over. It was found on you after you had been arrested and taken into police custody.

Thereafter, the time came when the police needed permission from a court to extend the time for you to be questioned in custody, and arranged for you and Gurpreet to be taken there for that purpose. They took the opportunity to record secretly any conversation between the two of you on the journey. Speaking in Punjabi, you agreed to pretend you had acted in self-defence, even though you confessed to stabbing Henry three times, including once to the chest with the dagger. You knew you were guilty, demonstrated by your saying to Gurpreet that if there were any cameras in that part of Belmont Road, you would be unable to put forward self-defence. You decided, much as you had at the scene, to try to cover it up. In all your police interviews, you decided not to answer questions about the incident. Instead, you made a written statement, on 7/12/2025, which told more lies.

Once the criminal proceedings were under way, you made another statement, developing and modifying those lies. It was only when you gave evidence in court that you put forward your full defence. The jury entirely rejected that defence and I do too.

In addition to killing Henry and the irreparable harm to those close to him, you have also caused real suffering to others who knew him. You have brought shame upon your family, your community and your religion. Your actions have stirred up racial tension in Southampton and across the country, which have made many Sikhs worried about their own safety even though they have done absolutely nothing wrong.

You bear some responsibility for the offence committed by your mother when you asked her to take the murder weapon away from you after she arrived on the scene. Your lies to the police about what had happened led, in part, to the arrests of your father, brother and mother for murder, and their being taken into police custody. Your mother has remained in custody for the past seven months.

Another consequence of those lies is that the attending police officers honestly believed that there were reasonable grounds for suspecting Henry had committed an offence, and arrested him with the consequence he was handcuffed for about a minute before his condition further deteriorated and the arresting officer began CPR. The police were given a convincing but wholly false narrative of the incident. It was dark and Henry was wearing a dark top. The entry damage caused by the knife through it, would not have been obvious. Whilst there was visible blood on Henry, it would not have clearly been seen coming from that wound, and the clearly visible facial wound was not life-threatening. Henry was complaining that he had been stabbed and was struggling to breathe, but that would not have necessarily told the officers how serious the situation had become. It is the experience of the criminal courts that sometimes, someone arrested and handcuffed will feign injury in the hope they may be released. These police officers were faced with having to make quick decisions in pressurised circumstances about the best way to act. The genuine shock to the particular police officer, when he realised that he had been giving CPR to Henry when he had a serious chest wound tends to show that he was doing his best in a very difficult situation.

You were still present at the scene when Henry was saying he was dying, and still you did not tell the truth about how seriously you knew you had hurt him and the need for urgency. Instead, you said he had not been stabbed and that he was exaggerating.

The sentence for murder is life imprisonment. You will remain in prison for life unless the Parole Board decides that it is safe for you to be released on a life licence. I must specify a minimum period to be served before the Parole Board may first consider earlier release. If you are released you will be on licence for the rest of your life and subject to recall to serve the rest of the life sentence, if a time does not come when the Parole Board is satisfied it is safe to release you again. You would be liable to such recall if you committed any other offence or just broke any licence conditions.

I have to apply Schedule 21 of the Sentencing Act 2020 to identify the starting point for that minimum period. In this case, that gives a minimum term [of] 15 years. The murder did not involve taking a knife to the scene with the purpose to use it to commit an offence or to have it available to do so. It is possible that you had a good legal reason for having the dagger when you met Henry although, considering the jury’s verdict, that reason must have come to an end after you removed it from its sheath. Neither was it a murder for gain; whilst you did take his phone, or even rob him of it, that was neither the purpose of the murder nor clearly a part of it, but I am sure it was a further trigger for what happened to Henry.

There are a number of aggravating factors to increase the starting point. In no particular order, they are as follows: Firstly, you stabbed Henry three other times than when inflicting the fatal wound, all with a highly dangerous weapon. Secondly, mental suffering was inflicted on Henry once he lay dying from his injuries, by your attitude towards him of which he would have been aware and, separately, by your lies, which had resulted in a young adult of good character being arrested and handcuffed. Thirdly, there was additional degradation by filming his suffering. Fourth, your repeated and concerted actions after the event included attempts to cover up and to conceal evidence [and] had a tendency to pervert the course of justice. Fifth, you wrongly placed blame on Henry and your lies also led to unnecessary arrests for members of your family, which would not have happened if you had told the truth. Sixth, you prevailed upon your mother to assist your attempts to pervert the course of justice. Seventh, Henry was only 18, unarmed and alone, which made him additionally vulnerable. Eighth, the offence has had a significant community impact upon others as described and evidenced in press reporting and social media reaction. Ninth, your lies misled the attending police officers, which influenced their decision not only to arrest and handcuff Henry but also to give subsequent emergency first aid in ignorance of the fact that he had a serious chest wound. Lastly, you abused the privilege extended to Sikhs to have a knife in a public place for religious reasons, dishonoured your religion and have now put others at risk of repercussions. Those factors increase the minimum term to 23 years. A number of these would not have applied if you had told the police what you said to your brother in the police van on 5/12/2025.

The mitigating factors reduce that minimum period to 21 years. They are your age, your previous good record with no previous convictions, and a lack of premeditation. There are no others. I am sure that you intended to kill in the moments before you stabbed Henry.

I must also deduct the period that you have already spent in custody since first appearing in court after charge on 8/12/2025. I calculate that to be 175 days before today.

Stand up, Vickrum Digwa. The sentence on count 1 is life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years and 190 days before there can be any consideration given to whether you can be safely released before the end of your life. On count 2, the sentence is two years’ imprisonment concurrent to count 1.

If there is a surcharge payable, the order will be drawn up in the appropriate amount.

LONDON (AP) — A mass killing by a British teenager who fatally stabbed three girls and seriously wounded 10 other people at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in 2024 “could and should have been prevented” if his parents and state agencies had acted as his well-known fixation on violence escalated, according to a report released Monday.

Adrian Fulford, a retired judge who led a nine-week inquiry, issued a 763-page report that cataloged the many times parents or authorities could have intervened in Axel Rudakubana’s life to ultimately prevent him from carrying out killings that he said were unprecedented in the U.K. for their “extreme and very particular depravity.”

“One of the most striking conclusions from this inquiry’s extensive investigation is the sheer number of missed opportunities over many years to intervene meaningfully, which directly contributed to the failure to avert this disaster,” Fulford said. “The consequences were catastrophic.”

Rudakubana, who was 17 when he carried the attack in northwestern England, is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 52 years for killing Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, and wounding eight children and two adults.

The attack in the town of Southport triggered days of disorder after far-right activists seized on incorrect reports that the attacker was a Muslim migrant who had recently arrived in the U.K. Rudakubana was born in Wales to Rwandan Christian parents.

The report made 67 recommendations to prevent future atrocities and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised changes to correct the “systematic failures that led to this terrible event.”

“The report today is truly harrowing and profoundly disturbing,” Starmer said. “While nothing will ever bring these three little girls back, I’m determined to make the fundamental changes needed to keep the public safe.”

Police, social workers and educators were well aware of problems with Rudakubana.

He was convicted in 2019 at age 13 of assaulting another child at school with a hockey stick and placed under supervision of a local service for youth offenders. He was referred to the government’s anti-extremism program, Prevent, three times between 2019 and 2021 for expressing interest in school shootings, the 2017 London Bridge attack, the Irish Republican Army and the Middle East. Each time, the case was closed because he wasn’t considered susceptible to becoming a terrorist.

During that same period, local police were called to his home five times over unspecified concerns about his behavior. He was given mental health and educational support, but later appeared to have stopped engaging with social workers. He was expelled after taking a knife to school and hardly ever attended a subsequent school.

“Far too often, AR’s ‘case’ was passed from one public sector agency to another in an inappropriate merry-go-round of referrals, assessments, case-closures and ‘hand-offs,’” said Fulford, who only used the killer’s initials.

Fulford highlighted an incident in March 2022 when Rudakubana was caught on a bus with a knife and told police that he wanted to stab someone and admitted trying to make poison.

Taken together, they should have sparked an arrest that would likely have led to a search of his house that would have discovered he had bought seeds to make the biological toxin ricin and downloaded terrorist material on his computer, Fulford said.

Rudakubana wasn’t arrested and was released to his parents, who feared him and repeatedly failed to report the various knives he had purchased, his troubling behavior and threats he had made.

While Fulford outlined several failings by Rudakubana’s parents that could have prevented the tragedy, he said they shouldn’t be vilified for what had become a challenging situation.

“Their life at home must have become little short of a nightmare given, to use the words of his own father, AR had turned into a ‘monster,’” Fulford said.

Following the Southport attack, police searched Rudakubana’s home and discovered the ricin hidden under his bed and a downloaded document, which was described as an al-Qaida training manual.

Police concluded that his crimes shouldn’t be classed as terrorism, because he had no discernible political or religious cause or motivation.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said that new legislation would be introduced to address violent plots that aren’t considered terrorism.

“Unlike terrorist attacks, if you are planning an attack without an underlying ideology, there is no crime on the statute book,” Mahmood said.

Sean Garner’s mum’s dogs faced destruction orders before successful appeals in Merseyside’s magistrates’ court

The mum of a man whose XL bully killed a pensioner previously appeared in court for owning two fighting dogs called Pablo and Carrie. Sean Garner’s XL bully “savaged” and killed 84-year-old John McColl after the “confused” pensioner mistakenly entered the owner’s driveway on his way home from a Warrington pub on February 24, 2025.

The bully dog “family pet”, named after Vin Diesel’s Fast and Furious character Dominic Toretto, “guarded” the elderly victim “as if he were its prey or food”. Responding police officers were forced to shoot the dog 10 times, including with a shotgun.

Garner, 31, and of Dinaro Close in Belle Vale, was said to have “made jokes” in Facebook voice notes, while his family WhatsApp group chat offered suggestions about what he should tell the police. Garner would claim to police that Toretto and a second XL bully, Malibu, were American bullies and that was why they had not been registered.

Since February 1, 2024 it has been a criminal offence to own an XL bully in England and Wales without a valid certificate of exemption. Police can seize unregistered prohibited dogs, and their owners face up to six months in jail and/or an unlimited fine. If the dog is deemed to be dangerously out of control, it can also be ordered to be destroyed.

The ECHO can now reveal that Garner’s mum has previously been prosecuted for possession of unregistered XL bully dogs.

The 54-year-old mum, of Keybank Road in West Derby, the address her son was initially registered at when he was first charged by the police, has appeared on magistrates’ court lists under the name Maureen McGrain and Carrington, as well as Garner.

According to court documents, McGrain was charged with having custody of a fighting dog, an XL bully called Pablo, and being the owner in charge of a dog dangerously out of control following an incident on Town Row in West Derby September 24, 2024. The ECHO understands she pleaded guilty on October 21 of the same year.

But the case was returned to Wirral Magistrates’ Court in March 5, 2025 following an application to reopen the case. The ECHO understands the hearing was for a contingent destruction order, which would have resulted in the dog Pablo being killed, to be removed.

This means that McGrain would have obtained a certificate of exemption, which includes a list of requirements an owner must follow, within two months of the order being made on January 29, 2025. A court spokesperson said the costs and fine remained in place.

McGrain would return to court in April of the same year after being charged again with having custody of a fighting dog, an XL bully called Carrie. According to the particulars of the charge, the dog was recovered from her address on Keybank Road. The ECHO understands an exemption certificate was issued following an appeal on May 23 of that year and the dog was returned five days later.

McGrain’s appearances in court in the months before and soon after the attack on Mr McColl highlight the family’s flaunting of the XL bully laws, which were put in place following a devastating spate of deaths involving the dog breed. A source told the ECHO: “She was fully aware of the law and legislation concerning XL bullies and the fact that Sean’s dogs were not registered.”

During Sean Garner’s trial jurors were shown a series of messages concerning the dog which he had exchanged with his family. On one occasion in March 2024 his mum told him: “No, he only caught me last time. I was ready this time. He gets so excited. Always had something for him, so he calmed down.”

Referring to the dog that would go on to kill, Garner then replied “yeah, defo missing a few nuts and bolts like, isn’t he?”. When his mother stated that the dog had “got a big stick and ravished it”, he added: “Yeah, he gets too obsessed with s*** like that. Why I know he’d fight with Malibu. Over a stick or something daft like that.”

Having described Malibu, his other XL bully, as a “boss dog”, Garner said of her: “Deserves a good life inside. To (Toretto) on the other hand needs to stop being a stink ha ha ha.”

On the day of the attack, after Cheshire Constabulary contacted Garner to say there had been a serious incident involving his dog, Garner sent a voice note to the group “Fambo” saying “get my mum to phone me, anyone in the chat, ASAP. There’s all police at my house over the f*** dogs”.

McGrain messaged: “Say they’re Lauren’s dogs. She’ll get off with a fine and you’ll go back to jail.” A contact saved in his phone as “R Steph”, his sister, sent further messages saying: “I’d say you’re minding whatever dogs done it for your mate who’s gone Thailand. Don’t know who you would say though.”

Garner’s trial heard that the Crown Prosecution Service had “seriously considered” criminal proceedings against members of the defendant’s family who “encouraged him to lie about the circumstances”, although, ultimately, “a decision was taken not to charge those individuals”.

The ECHO reported earlier this week how Lauren Lawler, Garner’s partner, said her life had been “ruined” thanks to the actions of the victim who was mauled and ultimately killed by Toretto. In a Facebook rant she said “(her) dogs would still be alive now” if Mr McColl “didn’t take it upon himself to go into (her) garden”.

In a series of public posts “liked” hundreds of times on Facebook, she raged: “The police and this government are the biggest load of vile corrupt people I’ve ever come across.” Sharing pictures of Toretto and Malibu, who was also shot dead by police officers responding to the incident, she said: “That poor man didn’t deserve to die but my dogs were never ever once mistreated or under fed! And my dogs would still be alive now if he didn’t take it upon himself to go into my garden and shed!”

Unregistered Toretto, who weighed 7st 4lb and had cropped ears, an illegal practice described as a “mutilation”, was found to have only “numerous fragments of human remains” and “small bits of plastic” in its stomach, indicating he was starved. But Garner remained steadfast in his denials that he was more than a fit and proper down owner, telling the court how he used to collect semen at a dog fertility clinic to “ensure they had enough swimmers to breed”.

He told the court: “My mum owned bull breeds from when I was growing up. As soon as I moved out, the first thing I done was buy a bull breed dog. That’s when I was 17. I’ve owned a dog all the time, since I was 17 to the present day. I used to breed dogs. To be honest, dogs were my hobby. The dogs were my life.”

But despite the fact Malibu and Toretto had three litters of puppies and he promoted the latter on his now defunct Instagram page “Little and Large Bullies”, Garner maintained he had been unaware that either were XL bullies. Ahead of his trial he admitted possessing the banned male dog and a female of the same breed without an exemption certificate.

Mr McColl died of his injuries in hospital on March 30, 2025. Following Garner’s conviction, Detective Inspector Simon Mills, from Cheshire Constabulary’s major investigations team, said: “The injuries sustained by John were absolutely horrific and left him unrecognisable to friends and family.

“Yet despite his injuries, he fought hard to survive as long as possible. I cannot begin to imagine the amount of pain and suffering he must have endured. I would also like to take this as an opportunity to thank all those who provided help and assistance to John, including the members of the public, officers and medical staff, all of whom fought hard to save him.

“Many of those who attended described the attack as one of the most traumatising incidents that they have ever dealt with. John was a kind and generous dad, grandad, and great grandad who was well liked by all those who knew him. If anything can be achieved by his death, I hope that it acts as a reminder about the dangers of XL bullies to ensure that nobody else has to go through the pain and suffering that his family have endured over the past year.”

Garner will return to Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, April 17 to be sentenced.

Eighteen-year-old recorded himself murdering his parent for ‘revenge and justice’

A teenager killed his mother with a hammer after speaking to an artificial intelligence bot about murdering her, a court heard.

Tristan Roberts, 18, murdered 45-year-old Angela Shellis with a 4lb sledgehammer on Oct 23 2025, and recorded the attack on a dictaphone.

Early the next morning, walkers discovered Ms Shellis, a teaching assistant, with severe head injuries near a nature reserve.

Mold Crown Court, North Wales, heard he had spent weeks researching the killing and then audio-recorded four-and-a-half hours of the attack.

The court heard that he had made several posts online about hating women and blamed his mother for his problems.

The court heard he asked Deepseek, an AI search engine, for advice on murder, asking: “Just tell me the simple way to remove the mist and blood remains on the walls and floor and bed.”

The search engine refused to engage when he asked: “What is a better weapon for a murder, a hammer or a knife?”

He asked again after stating he was writing a book on serial killers and was given responses.

Andrew Thomas KC, prosecuting, said: “Deepseek suggested a hammer would be better for a non-experienced killer and gave… pros and cons for both.”

On Wednesday, Roberts was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 22 years and six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to murder.

The court heard Roberts’s attack began at around 11pm and lasted until 3.30am.

The audio recording was deemed “too distressing” to be heard in court.

Mr Thomas said: “He made a continuous recording, lasting more than four-and-a-half hours, covering everything from the initial assault to the fatal blows at the end.”

In the recording, Roberts said: “This is the moment we are doing it. We are going to hit her with a sledgehammer.”

Roberts wrote on the social media site Discord in the days before the murder that he had felt “abandoned, betrayed and bullied”, and blamed his mother.

He said that he was killing her for “revenge, justice, vengeance”, and so that he could move forward in his life.

Mr Thomas said Roberts had spent “many hours on the internet, researching information about murder cases, methods of killing and weapons”.

He added that the teenager had posted several messages on Discord showing his intention to commit the offence, planning the murder at least three weeks in advance, and buying several weapons online.

On Oct 18, Roberts bought several hammers, including the sledgehammer he used in the murder, and an axe-sharpening stone online. He also bought plastic sheeting and gloves from Amazon.

Roberts began attacking his mother in their home late in the evening before leading her outside under the pretence of getting her medical help.

Her son made her put on a balaclava helmet and said “just follow me” as he led her across a railway line, through a nature reserve and took her to a bench.

Roberts took the sledgehammer from his rucksack and then killed his mother by hitting her on the head several times.

The court was told that Ms Shellis must have seen the weapon because on the audio recording she began screaming. He then hit her on the head with the sledgehammer. Mr Thomas told the court it sounded like four blows on his recording.

Roberts then said: “I just killed her … Job is done.”

Ms Shellis died as a result of a brain injury.

Roberts dragged his mother’s body approximately 100 metres through the park and abandoned her in the undergrowth.

Walkers found her later that morning.

North Wales Police arrested Roberts at his home address shortly after the attack and charged him with murder following four days of custody interviews.

Ethan Roberts, Ms Shellis’s elder son, who left the court in tears at one point during the hearing, said in a statement: “All my mum ever did was love Tristan.”

Addressing Roberts in an impact statement, Sarah Gunther, her sister, said: “It is incredibly hard to express our feeling towards you now.

“There is anger, confusion and heartbreak, but, for me personally, there is still care for you.”

The court heard Ms Shellis had tried to seek support for her son, who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD.

On Oct 17, she messaged a social worker and friends, stating that her son had bought a knife and a hammer.

She had written a note on her phone saying: “Why?? [sic] What does he need these for? Is he planning to hurt me, himself, what? Who? Why? FFS.”

An ‘awful way for someone to die’
Handing Roberts a life sentence, Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “You appear to have revelled in the control you exerted over your own mother.”

He added: “It was, on any view, a truly awful way for someone to die.

“It was made all the more dreadful by the fact her attacker was her own son, someone who it is clear she both cared for and, indeed, worried about in the weeks leading up to her death.”

David Elias KC, defending, said the attack had taken place 10 days after Roberts’s 18th birthday.

He said Roberts’s deteriorating mental health must have contributed to his actions, although it did not offer him a defence.

Paul Quinn has pleaded not guilty for 2003 attack, which saw an innocent man spending 17 years behind bars

Andrew Malkinson protests outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London Credit: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

A man has gone on trial for the rape of a woman for which an innocent man spent 17 years in jail, a court heard.

Andrew Malkinson, 60, was “the victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been”, John Price KC, prosecuting, told a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

Mr Malkinson, working as a security guard at the time of the rape in 2003, had been wrongly picked out at a police identity parade and happened to live near the crime scene, a remote area down a motorway embankment, in Little Hulton, Salford.

He was jailed in 2004, but Mr Price said it was Paul Quinn, 51, who really carried out the sex attack on July 19, 2003.

Mr Quinn, 29 at the time of the offence and who now lives in Exeter, Devon, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape, grievous bodily harm and attempting to choke or strangle his victim to render her unconscious while he carried out the attack.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Mr Price said: “Andrew Malkinson was not to be released from this sentence until December 2020.

“So, Mr Andrew Malkinson served more than 17 years in prison.

“It is the prosecution case that Andrew Malkinson was the victim of a most terrible miscarriage of justice, one of the worst there has been.

“Evidence gathered in this second investigation, including, as mentioned, DNA evidence, and which will be presented in this trial, proves, it is submitted, that it was Paul Quinn and not Andrew Malkinson who had attacked the victim on 19th July, 2003.”

The victim, at the time in her 30s, was walking home in the early hours of the morning at the height of summer, jurors were told.

She was strangled unconscious, beaten and twice raped in a “prolonged assault”, suffering a fractured cheekbone.

Dazed and bruised, clothes torn and face bloodied, she clambered back up the motorway embankment, telling a man she came across: “I have been attacked and raped.”

Mr Price said DNA evidence recovered by police matched Mr Quinn’s DNA profile and was found on the clothing and body of the rape victim. It could only have been deposited by her attacker as neither the woman nor the defendant knew each other, he told the court.

Jurors heard the crime scene was secured by a cordon and a mobile police station set up for officers to respond to inquiries and to receive information from passing members of the public.

Two local officers were given a description of the suspect by a detective, namely that it was a white man with tanned or olive skin and of slim build. They also recalled a man they had spoken to earlier that summer, which was Mr Malkinson.

The rape victim had told officers she had scratched the face of her attacker and he would have a mark.

Following up their own lead, the next day the two officers at the mobile police station went to see Mr Malkinson at his place of work as a security guard at the Ellesmere Shopping Centre in nearby Walkden.

He had no scratch on his face but jurors were told his appearance was considered “strikingly to match” the description of the attacker.

At the time, Mr Malkinson lived with a friend in a flat in Little Hulton, around a mile and a half from the scene of the rape attack.

Six days after the attack, Mr Malkinson, who had been having problems with people with whom he had previously lived, abruptly quit his job and left, telling a friend he was going to the Netherlands.

This sudden departure prompted police to track Mr Malkinson down to a Salvation Army hostel in Grimsby, where he was arrested and brought back to Salford to attend an identity parade.

Two people, Beverley Craig and Michael Seward, now deceased, were travelling through the area at the time of the rape.

Days later, on Aug 3, 2003, Craig and the victim took part in a procedure to try to identify the rapist, called a Viper procedure, in which witnesses are asked to view a screen of a number of faces, including the suspect.

Both Craig and the victim picked out an image of Mr Malkinson as the suspect. He was charged over the attack that day.

Seward also identified Mr Malkinson as the suspect.

Mr Price told jurors it may seem difficult to believe three people could all identify the wrong man, adding: “Yet the evidence now available demonstrates, it is submitted, that they did.”

The trial continues.

The pair were forced to jump from an upstairs window to escape the flames
Ten men are facing imprisonment after a mother and daughter sustained horrific burns when their house was petrol-bombed in a revenge arson attack.

A 31-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl were forced to leap from an upstairs window after sustaining severe injuries as their home was set ablaze in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

Emergency services were summoned to Beverley Drive, in the Bentilee area of the city, after a gang of men doused the property with petrol and ignited it.

The mother, who was also struck on the head as well as being set alight, sustained 65 per cent burns and was left in a coma for two months.

She survived, despite not being expected to, but was left with life-changing injuries which require ongoing medical treatment.

The teenage girl sustained 15 per cent burns to her right arm and right leg following the horror blaze on December 16 2021.

Ten men have now been convicted in connection with the attack following an 11-week trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

Shakil Uddin, 23, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was found guilty of attempted murder and arson with intent on Friday.
Lukman Khan, 24, and Riyadh Iqbal, 23, both of Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent, were both found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent and arson with intent.

Muhammad Sufyaan-Shah, 25, of HMP Hindley, Wigan, and Tayyeb Majeed, 23, of Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, were convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Previously, Ali Abbas, 22, and Haris Mahmood, 21, both from Normacot, admitted to two counts of attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life.

Naveed Hussain, 32, from Longton, confessed to violent disorder and possession of a knife blade/sharp pointed article in a public place in December of the previous year.

Kashif Ahmed, 25, from Stoke-on-Trent, Bilal Ahmed, 26, from Normacot, and Ali Abbas, 22 from Normacot, had earlier pleaded guilty to violent disorder.

The court was informed that around 4pm on December 16 2021, Naveed Hussain, Bilal Ahmed, Kashif Ahmed and Ali Abbas engaged in a brawl on Kildare Street, Longton.

Kashif Ahmed sustained a stab wound to his shoulder and sought medical attention at a hospital.

At 10.55pm on the same day, several men approached the house on Beverley Drive demanding to converse with Naveed Hussain.

The men shattered the ground floor windows and doused petrol in the hallway near the front door and outside close to the living room window.

To evade, the woman and the girl broke the upstairs bedroom window and leapt out, with the woman also suffering a fractured pelvis, broken ribs and a lacerated liver from the fall and had to relearn how to walk.

Staffordshire Police stated that the case necessitated extensive work to assemble CCTV, digital evidence and specialist material to bring each defendant to justice.

Detective Constable Howard Davies, from the force’s Major Investigations Department, said: “This was a very detailed and thorough investigation. We left no stone unturned to examine the circumstances of this case.

“This was a horrific ordeal for a mother to be set on fire in her own home in front of her daughter by a number of men seeking revenge.

“Our investigation reflects the sustained commitment of officers and partners to securing justice for the victims and ensuring those involved are held fully accountable.”

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Michelle Hickmott, of Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “Following a thorough investigation working alongside our police colleagues, we are extremely pleased with the outcome of this case.

“Our investigation teams use their extensive skills and knowledge to identify when a fire has been started deliberately and then assist the investigation further to bring arsonists to justice.

“We are continually proud of the way our fire investigation colleagues work in collaboration with police to achieve these results.”

The men have all been remanded in custody and are due to be sentenced, at a date, time and court yet to be fixed.

A late-night scuffle outside a County Durham pub saw two young women lose their clean records after assaulting the same police officer during a street disturbance.

Kacey Thomas and Jessica Tulip became caught up in the disorder after stepping in as officers tried to arrest another woman outside The Top House, in Stanley, in the early hours of February 1.

The pair, both 20, appeared before magistrates in Peterlee yesterday (Monday, February 23) after separately confronting the same officer within minutes of each other.

What began as an attempt to return a relative’s lost shoe quickly spiralled into pushing, shouting and, in Tulip’s case, swinging punches at police.

Heather Blair, prosecuting, said police were attempting to detain the woman on the ground when Thomas, a relative, picked up her discarded shoe and tried to pass it back to her.

But an officer pushed her away as she was attempting to hand over the shoe, so Thomas then forcefully pushed the officer in response.

Miss Blair said Thomas was also taken to the ground by other officers and detained for several minutes until police backup arrived at the Front Street pub.

The second defendant, Tulip, became involved in the ongoing incident minutes later.

Miss Blair said Tulip used “substantial force” and repeatedly threw blows towards the police officer, landing with at least one, before she, too, was arrested.

The court heard that Thomas and Tulip were each taken into custody for the rest of the night and were only released the following afternoon.

In separate cases, Thomas, of Acton Dene, Stanley, and Tulip, of Coniston Drive, Sacriston, who are both aged 20, each admitted common assault of an emergency worker.

The court heard that the officer was not injured in either incident.

Jaxon Taylor, representing the two defendants, said Thomas, who is related to the woman who was being arrested, did not see that incident and was not involved in it, but on coming outside became aware of the struggle on the ground.

In trying to hand back the detached shoe, she was pushed away by the officer and instinctively pushed her back.

Mr Taylor said that if it had not been for the “uniform”, it ordinarily may not have landed her in trouble.

She was taken to the ground as a result and detained there for several minutes, but later, when interviewed, she was apologetic.

Mr Taylor said Tulip, likewise, was of previous good character.

He said a lot of pressures were “getting on top of her” at the time.

“She saw red and accepts swinging her arms at the police officer and at least one made contact.”

Tulip was also taken to the ground and, like Thomas, had the “unpleasant experience” of being detained overnight in police custody.

But she was also remorseful and handed a letter of apology in at the police station, addressed to the officer she attacked, a few days later.

A further letter of apology was also handed to the court on her behalf.

Magistrates’ chairman Gary Walker asked both defendants if they enjoyed their night in the cells and their experience coming to court, to which both replied: “No” to each question.

He said, in each case, “that was the right answer” and told both that as a result of getting involved in the incident they had lost their good names.

Thomas, an aspiring dancer, who is on benefits, was fined £120, with £85 costs and was ordered to pay a £48 statutory court surcharge.

She was also ordered to pay £50 compensation to the officer she pushed.

Tulip, who is in part-time shop work, was fined £220 with £88 statutory surcharge, but no costs, as she was, instead, ordered to pay £150 compensation to the officer.

The mother of Michael Barron has spoken movingly about how her son’s hopes were ended by Josh Baxter

A grieving mother bravely delivered a moving courtroom eulogy to her budding actor son who died after an ‘extreme’ sex session with a stranger he met on Grindr.

Mary Power tearfully described her son Michael Barron as ‘my best friend’ as well as ‘kind, compassionate and very unique’. Her powerful speech came moments before the jailing of a man who had invited her son to his flat to get drunk before engaging in sex so rough it resulted a in bone breaking in his neck.

Josh Baxter, 28, invited Mr Barron, 38, to his flat in Blackley, north Manchester, in January last year after the pair had exchanged explicit messages on the dating app to discuss having rough sex. Baxter then tied up Mr Barron in his bed with rope and suffocated him for at least 30 minutes, a judge has ruled. He died after suffering a cardiac arrest following a lack of oxygen to the brain.

The court heard the pair were part of a community of people into kinky sex or BDSM (bondage and discipline; dominance and submission; and sadism and masochism). But, after hearing moving courtroom testimonials about Mr Barron, a judge dismissed claims made on his behalf that Baxter should be spared a jail sentence as the pair had engaged in ‘consensual acts’.

Baxter, of Lakeside Rise, Blackley, denied manslaughter, intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm during a trial last month. A jury found him not guilty of manslaughter but guilty of intentional strangulation or suffocation, and unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm.

“I never saw it as a dangerous activity,” Baxter had told jurors in his trial. “I have never hurt someone before, doing choking.” He maintained the neck injury was inflicted accidentally, a claim rejected by the verdicts of the jury.

On January 26 last year, Baxter and Mr Barron, originally from the Republic of Ireland, met on Grindr. They began by discussing the possibility of a ‘hook-up’ and established they were both after a more extreme experience, the trial heard.

Mr Barron said he liked to be ‘tied, gagged, hooded, totally helpless’ and that he liked ‘pain and torture’. Baxter wrote: “I want to get you so drunk you pass out.” He said he had cable ties and rope. They spoke about ‘rape role play’, the court heard. Baxter told Mr Barron: “As soon as you get here, start drinking vodka. Get you so drunk.”

‘A part of me died’, mum says
In frequently tearful testimony during Baxter’s sentencing hearing on Monday, Michael’s mother Mary Power told Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court: “Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a child. A part of me died, a part of me I will never get back.”

She said her son was not only her child but ‘also my best friend’, describing him as ‘kind, compassionate and very unique’, and someone who ‘brightened up my world as soon as he entered it’.

After the death of his gran, the pair grew even closer and the four years they spent living together after Covid was a ‘gift’ when they shared meals and music and every day, she told the court.

On Saturday mornings they shared pancakes and every other morning they chatted over tea ad coffee, she said. “It wasn’t an extravagant life but it was so full of love and it was ours,” Mary told the judge. Mother and son felt ‘warm and comfortable’ in each other’s company, said Mary.

Since his death, some experiences they shared together such as baking lemon drizzle cake were now ‘simply too painful’, she said. She described the many lives ‘my baby’ had touched here and in Dublin and Waterford.

Her son ‘deserved to feel loved and safe’, she said, adding that she was grieving for the conversations that they would never have. “I will never stop loving him. I will never stop missing him,” she said.

Michael’s sister, Lisa Power-O’Callaghan, delivered her own tearful eulogy to the court, describing her sibling’s death as ‘a life cut short unnecessarily and a future full of dreams left unfinished’.

His ‘big dream and big ambition’ was to become an actor, having already appeared in Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, said Lisa. Her brother believed he could ‘truly make it’ as an actor, she said. He had booked more acting lessons and new headshots, the court was told.

Michael was ‘our protector and confidante’ as a family but since his death ‘everything has changed for us’, Lisa told the judge. The family was ‘grief-stricken’ while life was now ‘colder, lonelier and incomplete’, she said.

Baxter ignored warnings a month before
The moving courtroom testimonies painted a picture at odds with much of the evidence heard in the trial, which provided a rare glimpse of a community of people into kinky sex or BDSM (bondage and discipline; dominance and submission; and sadism and masochism).

“It was consensual acts of of two adult males who had previous experience within the BDSM community,” said Baxter’s barrister Rebecca Filletti at Baxter’s sentencing hearing on Monday, arguing that her client had already served 394 days on remand and shouldn’t be jailed. She pointed to a ‘lack of intent’ to cause harm and that the pair had been involved in ‘sexual play’ which they had discussed before meeting up.

On remand, her client had been a ‘model prisoner’ who had landed a trusted job as a ‘wing cleaner’ as well as a role introducing new inmates. He had been brought up on her own by his single parent mother, the court heard. Her client was ‘unlikely to re-offend’ and had expressed ‘great sorrow’ over the death, according to Ms Filletti.

Judge Tina Landale took a much harsher view of the defendant, jailing him for four years. The pair may well have consented to rough sex but this didn’t hand Baxter a free pass to do what he liked, she effectively ruled.

A month before the death, Baxter was warned by someone else about the dangers of choking and an internet search confirmed the risks to him, Judge Landale noted. The judge continued: “You decided to ignore those warnings and you chose to ignore those warnings and during your trial in evidence you told the jury you still did not consider choking to be dangerous. You encouraged Mr Barron to become extremely drunk. During sexual activity you choked Mr Barron so hard it fractured a bone and cartilege in his neck. You were reckless in doing so.”

The defendant’s claim that he had only squeezed the neck for a few seconds was ‘inconsistent with the jury’s verdicts which found that you foresaw the risk of injury’, said the judge. Judge Landale also noted that the defendant had admitted to a probation officer he had ‘repeatedly’ choked Mr Barron while he was tied down with rope.

It was ‘sustained suffocation’ while he was on top of Mr Barron ‘for at least 30 minutes’, said the judge, who went on that she ‘rejected’ claims the defendant was remorseful.

“During your evidence you demonstrated no insight into your behaviour or accepted responsibility what-so-ever,” she said, adding that the defendant had shown a ‘poor understanding of consent and a limited insight into the risk of harm’.

LONDON (AP) — Police were searching the former home of the brother of King Charles III, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on Friday, a day after he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in connection with his close relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The accusation at the heart of the arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor, who was known as Prince Andrew until October when his brother stripped him of his titles and honors, is that he shared confidential trade information with with the disgraced financier Epstein, who took his own life in a New York prison in 2019.

Mountbatten-Windsor was released around 11 hours after his detention without any charges but remains under investigation.

The crisis is one of the gravest in modern times for the British monarchy and the House of Windsor, which was established more than a hundred years ago — on the scale of the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936 and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

Here’s what to know:

The arrest

Officers from Thames Valley Police arrested Mountbatten-Windsor at 8 a.m. Thursday morning at the king’s private retreat in Sandringham, where the former prince is now living.

The arrest followed a ratcheting up of allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor in the wake of the release of millions of pages of files last month related to Epstein by the U.S. Justice Department.

Many of the recent allegations center on sexual impropriety, specifically that a woman was trafficked to the U.K. by Epstein to have a sexual encounter with the then-prince.

However, he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The suspicion
The Crown Prosecution Service, which decides on whether a charge has the potential to lead to a successful prosecution, defines misconduct in public office as the “serious willful abuse or neglect of the power or responsibilities of the public office held.”

Thames Valley Police had previously said it was “assessing” reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent confidential trade reports to Epstein in 2010, when the former prince was Britain’s special envoy for international trade.

Specifically, emails released as part of the Epstein files appeared to show Mountbatten-Windsor sharing reports of official visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.

One, dated November 2010, appeared to be forwarded by Andrew five minutes after he had received it. Another a few weeks later appeared to him sending Epstein a confidential brief on investment opportunities in the reconstruction of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Other police forces in the U.K. are also conducting their own investigations into Mountbatten-Windsor’s Epstein-related links.

The potential sentence
The offense technically carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, but experts say a shorter term would be more likely if he is convicted by a jury.

Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any impropriety but has not commented on the most recent allegations.

Experts said that proving misconduct in a public office is notoriously difficult to prove.

“Firstly, it must be determined if Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was in a role within government that constitutes the title of public officer,” said Sean Caulfield, a criminal defense lawyer at Hodge Jones & Allen. “There is no standard definition to clearly draw on.”

In recent years, prison officers have been prosecuted for the offense after having inappropriate relationships with inmates, as well as police officers leaking information.

Now that he’s been released
Following his arrest, police had the power to search Mountbatten-Windsor’s properties, as well as being able to question him.

He was released around 11 hours after his arrest, but still under investigation, meaning he has neither been charged nor exonerated. He was photographed slouched in the back of a vehicle as he left Aylsham police station.

While at the station, Mountbatten-Windsor is likely to have had his mug shot taken before being placed in a small prison cell ahead of his formal police interview. It’s not known whether Mountbatten-Windsor said anything beyond “no comment” to each question posed — as is his right.

Searches were carried out at addresses in Berkshire, west of London, and Norfolk, northeast of the capital. Windsor Castle, within which Mountbatten-Windsor lived until earlier this month, is in Berkshire, while Sandringham is in Norfolk.

Police said they had finished searching Mountbatten-Windsor’s home, but officers were still searching Royal Lodge, his former 30-room residence near Windsor Castle, on Friday.

The Crown Prosecution Service will ultimately make a decision about charging him.

Andrew Gilmore, a partner at Grosvenor Law, said that prosecutors will apply the two-stage test known as the “Code for Crown Prosecutors.”

“That test is to determine whether there is a more realistic prospect of a conviction than not based on the evidence and whether the matter is in the public interest,” he said. “If these two tests are met, then the matter will be charged and proceed to court.”

The response
Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest is not a huge surprise given that police forces across the U.K. have said they were investigating him.

However, it is a hugely consequential moment in the history of the modern monarchy. Mountbatten-Windsor, who was second in line to the throne at his birth, remains eighth in the line of succession. He could voluntarily abdicate his position, or a law could be passed to remove him from the line of succession.

King Charles I. almost 400 years ago, was the last major royal to be arrested. That turned into a seismic moment in British history, leading to civil war, Charles’ beheading and the temporary abolition of the monarchy.

After Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest Thursday, King Charles III said that the law must take its course in the investigation as he further sought to distance the royal family from his brother.

“As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter,” the king said in a statement signed Charles R. “My family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.’’

Both the king and his wife, Queen Camilla, faced questions over Mountbatten-Windsor at their respective events in London, but neither responded.

Mountbatten-Windsor’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, has yet to comment. She has faced her own allegations in connection with her dealings with Epstein.

A blindfold, a fake boyfriend and two years of deception: The Bed Trick by Izabella Scott revisits one of Britain’s strangest consent cases

What do you do when you discover that you haven’t been having sex with your boyfriend, as you thought, but with a female friend using a large rubber toy? That was the question faced one day in 2013 by Chloe, a 23-year-old living in Cheshire, when she suddenly removed the blindfold she’d always been told by her partner to wear during sex – and saw that the man she’d been dating, Kye, was fictional.

The woman in front of her, Gayle, was a close friend. But she’d been behind all of it: Kye’s Facebook profile, his calls. His insistence for two years that he’d had a disfiguring accident, so they couldn’t meet. Or they could, but only if Chloe – not her real name – wore a thick strip of cloth around her head. Chloe would wait for him in hotel rooms or her empty flat, texting Kye to say that she was blindfolded and ready. At first they just kissed; over 10 or so meetings, they began to have sex.

The exposure left Chloe shocked. In her confusion, she pushed Gayle down the stairs, rushing past her and telling her friend to back off, in an argument caught outside on CCTV. A few days later, she brought the case to the police. But when questioned, Gayle had a very different version of events. Kye, she said, was a shared fantasy in which two young women explored their sexuality – and what Chloe was experiencing now was a heavy dose of internalised homophobia.

The young writer Izabella Scott has been fascinated by this case ever since it went to trial in 2015, and ended with Gayle Newland being sentenced to eight years for sexual assault by penetration. The saga would rear its head again in 2017, when she appealed, was retried and received a similar sentence. The title of Scott’s eventual book, The Bed Trick, refers to a popular plot device in Shakespeare’s plays, whereby lovers swap places in the dark. That “trick”, she explains, was most often used for comic effect, but it also spoke to a genuine fear in the public consciousness, and has shaped our subsequent approach to cases such as Chloe and Gayle’s.

According to Public Prosecutions, obtaining consent for sex is as straightforward as offering a cup of tea. If you ask someone whether they want one, and they say no, you shouldn’t make them drink it. Chloe, in a literal sense, had said yes, but the deception over the kind of sex she was having meant that her consent hadn’t been legally obtained. Part of the reason her case attracted so much interest was the speculation about whether other kinds of mendacity might turn you into a sex offender: lying about your salary, for example, or your age.

But what happens when someone also seems willing to be deceived? The law says one person is innocent and the other guilty, but Chloe’s account was full of holes. The lawyers’ most pressing question was: how did you not know that you were having sex with a rubber penis? It was extremely realistic, she said; she could even feel testicles. Okay, but did she not feel Gayle’s breasts? Well, she had bound them with a swimming costume.

Then what about your boyfriend’s voice sounding the same as your best friend’s? Lawyers had dug up call logs and found that Chloe would call Kye for 10 minutes, then call Gayle straight afterwards. Chloe said she’d been told that Gayle and Kye were childhood friends with identical accents. (They also apparently shared interests, hobbies and a birthday.)

In many ways, the case was a perfect example of “catfishing”: deceiving someone through the use of a false online identity, a phenomenon that exploded in the 2010s. Chloe had never peeked out from beneath the blindfold, had believed all of Kye’s tales of disfigurement, because, she said, “I was so desperate to be loved… It’s pathetic.” Ultimately, Gayle’s case ended in a conviction because it triggered a Victorian piece of legislation – if you could prove deceptive qualities in a person, then consent had never been on the table at all. The texts and emails Gayle sent to Chloe after the exposure were damning: “I said lies to hide lies but I didn’t lie about everything and it was me and still is… Every day I felt guilty, but I couldn’t leave you, as you needed me.”

Scott is a clear and meticulous guide through all of this. She considers the trial from every angle in the gallery, examining other cases of “gender fraud” and giving a potted history of rape law that, unappealing a subject as it is, I found fascinating. When Gayle appeals her sentence, it’s revealed that she’s suffering from gender dysphoria; Scott speculates with sensitivity about whether she might have been trans. (Would Chloe’s consent still have been vitiated, partly or completely, if Gayle really “was”, in that sense, Kye?)

That said, I wish that Scott had trusted herself more. She aims to be a backseat narrator, presenting evidence to the reader so that they might judge the case for themselves; and yet, without her arguing for much, I was often left searching for the wider point. Near the end, she wonders whether the case partly went to court because of its salacious set-up, a point so gently made that you can’t help but wish for some authority behind it. The Bed Trick is also full of repetitions, more frustrating than useful. That’s by no means the writer’s fault, so much as a very absent editor’s.

As The Bed Trick gathers pace, Scott reveals that Gayle had played “Kye” to other women, though she hadn’t met up with them. We also learn that Gayle had a separate criminal conviction, for defrauding a marketing company that employed her. And then Scott teases us with something in Chloe’s “history, her record”, something with “equal weight” that could “tip the scales back” – but which she cannot reveal in this book because of anonymity constraints. It’s titillatingly done, thrilling to consider. Yet the jury must have known what it was, and it wasn’t enough to change their minds.

American Joshua Michals, 26, jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years for murdering fellow student lover Zhe Wang

An American student at a London university has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years for murdering his sexual partner in a stabbing which he claimed was self-defence.

Chinese national Zhe Wang, 31, a creative writing student at Goldsmiths, University of London, was found dead with two stab wounds to her face at her flat in Manor Park, Lewisham, south-east London, on March 20 2024.

Fellow student Joshua Michals, 26, told his trial at the Old Bailey that Ms Wang was “germophobic” and became “stressed”, believing, incorrectly, that she had contracted a sexually transmitted disease (STD) after they had sex.

Michals, who was found guilty of murder in December following a trial, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Michals studied film-making at university before moving to London to pursue a year-long master’s degree at Goldsmiths.

During the trial, prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC said Michals had “flown into a rage” and killed Ms Wang after meeting her at her flat.

They had first met on the Goldsmiths campus and began an on-and-off casual relationship in 2023.

Michals told jurors he had felt “so-so” about pursuing a relationship with Ms Wang because she had a phobia of germs.

After finding a “red dot” on her skin after the pair had sex, she demanded he get an STD test, even vowing to find him on campus to “drag” him to see a GP, the court previously heard.

Jurors were told Michals never had a sexually transmitted disease.

The student said he went to her flat on March 20 2024 with a charcuterie selection to bring some “normalcy” to the “bizarre situation”.

He claimed that when he arrived at the flat in Lewisham, he found Ms Wang “cold” and monosyllabic, and that she attacked him with a knife as he came out of the bathroom.

A post-mortem examination found Ms Wang died from stab wounds to the head and compression to the neck, the trial heard.

Michals previously told jurors he did not mean to strike Ms Wang with the knife, saying: “I just wanted to get her away from me.”

He also said he pressed his forearm to her neck to try to restrain her and claimed he did not mean to kill her or cause her harm.

But Judge Richard Marks KC said: “My conclusion is that you became enraged by the whole situation. In a fury you lost complete control of your temper and your senses.”

The judge said Michals inflicted two serious wounds to Ms Wang’s face with one of her kitchen knives and that the second wound involved “a use of severe force”.

“The proliferation of bleeding did not bring you to your senses… you used your forearm with considerable force to then throttle her,” he said.

Michals called his father after the incident and got details of a solicitor before going to his own flat and calling 999, the trial heard.

He also took Ms Wang’s phone from her kitchen and put it in a bin outside, jurors were previously told.

It was recovered days later at a refuse area in Newham, east London.

In a victim impact statement from Ms Wang’s cousin, Xiao Li Wang, read to the court by prosecutor Henrietta Paget KC, she said it was difficult to verbalise “the emotions and heartbreak of losing a close family member”.

The relative, who observed proceedings via video link from China, said Ms Wang’s family thought it was a scam when they first received a call with the news that she had died.

“Nobody wanted to believe what we had been told, it felt like something you see in the movies,” Ms Wang’s cousin said.

She added: “Zhe was so positive, hardworking, passionate about life and yet something so cruel had happened to her.”

Judge Richard Marks KC said that evidence showed Ms Wang was “a hugely talented writer, a gentle and kindly young woman, private and sensitive and it would seem to me someone emotionally fragile”.

Harry Whittaker, 33, jailed after experimenting with radioactive material in garden shed

A “mad scientist” threatened to introduce the poison ricin into Luton’s water supply.

Harry Whittaker, a neo-Nazi, who kept a framed photograph of Adolf Hitler in his bedroom, wrote messages about putting the deadly biological toxin into the water supply in Bury Park, Bedfordshire, a court heard.

The 33-year-old, who lived at home with his mother, has been jailed after manufacturing explosives and conducting experiments with radioactive material in a garden shed he called “The Laboratory”.

After his arrest, he was found to have sent messages calling for Tommy Robinson, the far-Right activist, to lead a “civil war” and he also contemplated attacking Muslims at a nearby mosque.

In another message, he wrote about contaminating the water supply with ricin.

In one WhatsApp post, he wrote: “We need a tank covered in machine guns and flamethrowers, drive it into that mosque on Friday afternoon and turn them into mincemeat.”

Whittaker, who used the name “Harry the Mad Scientist” on WhatsApp, also kept anti-Semitic notes in his bedroom and labelled a cyanide sample “Zyklon B” after the poison used in the Holocaust.

Police uncovered his stash of explosives after Whittaker suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction and called for medical help on Apr 18, 2024. He was arrested on May 6.

After an Old Bailey trial, Whittaker was found guilty of possessing and making explosives and was sent to prison for three years and nine months.

He had already admitted possessing a round of ammunition and potassium cyanide.

During the trial, Whittaker cast himself as a “nerdy” science geek and jurors were not told about the extent of his extreme Right-wing beliefs.

But at his sentencing on Wednesday, Emily Dummett, a prosecutor, set out further evidence of his interest in neo-Nazi ideology.

Ms Dummett also said he had continued to express extreme beliefs and since his conviction had failed to recognise that what he had done was wrong.

In mitigation, Polly Dyer maintained Whittaker had the explosives for “scientific interest and endeavour” and said “his experimentation was not motivated by any racial hostility to certain groups of individuals”.

She accepted he had “abhorrent” views and an interest in Nazism but insisted he did not pose a “significant risk”.

Ms Dyer also noted how, since he had been in jail, Whittaker had used his time productively and developed an interest in art.

She held up his drawing of Beethoven which he hoped to submit to a competition.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Mayo KC told Whittaker: “I am sure your conduct in making and possessing explosives gave rise to risk of harm to others.

“Whilst I cannot be sure you had formed any separate intent to use the explosives or chemicals for a violent purpose you spoke about it and to a certain extent contemplated it.”

The judge said Whittaker was “highly intelligent” and his responsibility was not diminished by his mental health issues or autism.

He noted a previous conviction for causing actual bodily harm after driving into his neighbour in 2019 and his disorganised lifestyle, as he found Whittaker was a dangerous offender and posed a risk to members of the public in the future.

When police searched his house in Caddington, they found black powder, blanks and a round of live ammunition, chemicals, lethal poisons and suspected improvised explosive devices.

Officers also discovered radioactive materials and white phosphorus, a substance which can spontaneously ignite in the air and is so dangerous that it had to be destroyed in a controlled explosion by the military.

In police interviews, Whittaker said: “I’m just a nerdy kid who likes doing science.”

The brutal murder of barmaid Diane Sindall as she walked home from her shift in the early hours of Saturday 2nd August 1986 sparked a national outcry.

Detectives have vowed to bring the frenzied sexual killer of a 21 year-old florist 40 years ago to justice after unveiling a new £20,000 Crimestoppers reward today. The brutal murder of Diane Sindall – as she walked home from work on Saturday 2nd August 1986 in Birkenhead, on the Wirral – sparked national outcry with her battered body found in an alleyway.

Peter Sullivan was interviewed by police 22 times over four weeks – sometimes while denied legal representation – and in November 1987 was eventually convicted by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court of Diane’s murder. But after 38 years behind bars new forensic DNA evidence proved the killer is still out there and Mr Sullivan was the victim of the longest miscarriage of justice involving a living prisoner in British legal history.

Detectives have since been trying to match the real unknown killer’s new DNA sample after already testing and eliminating 461 local men – including Ms Sindall’s relatives and her then fiancé.

Now Merseyside Police are urging anyone with information to come forward as Crimestoppers today(Thurs) unveil a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Diane’s real murderer.

Detective Superintendent Rachel Wilson said: “It is devastating for Diane’s family that they are still waiting for the answers as to who was responsible for her murder, and we remain committed to identifying the person whose DNA was left at the scene.

“In 1986 DNA was very much in the early stages and as such was not available to the detectives who originally investigated Diane’s death but her murder was fully investigated by the team.

“Unfortunately, there is no match for the DNA identified on the national DNA database and we know it does not belong to any member of her family or her fiancé at the time.

“We are working with the National Crime Agency, and with their support we are trying to identify the person the DNA profile belongs to, and extensive enquiries remain ongoing.

“The investigation team has obtained samples locally, but screening has also taken place in Swansea, Perth, London, Hull and Newcastle with the voluntary DNA elimination samples.

“To date 461 males have been eliminated from the investigation. We are currently awaiting the forensic results in relation to a further 43 samples submitted earlier this month.”

Ms Sindall was a florist also doing part-time bar work to save up for her wedding and was on her way home from a shift at the Wellington Pub in Bebington when ambushed and dragged into an alley off Borough Road in Birkenhead.

Police believe while she left the pub in a blue Fiat van, it ran out of petrol and she set out on foot along Borough Road, either to get to a bus-stop or to try and find an all-night garage.

Her partially naked body was found the following afternoon. A post-mortem revealed she had died from severe head injuries, bone fractures and lacerations to her face, bruising to her neck with severe bite mark injuries.

Forensic investigators at the time recovered semen samples from her body, but they had been diluted by rainwater and the technology to successfully test them would not be available for decades.

Suspicion fell on Mr Sullivan after a BBC Crimewatch appeal resulted in a series of tip-offs with witnesses putting him in a pub near the scene of the murder that night. He was quizzed 22 times over four weeks, and denied legal representation for the first seven interviews.

Later recalling the guilty verdicts, innocent Mr Sullivan said: “My sister collapsed in the courtroom and the next minute, that was it.”

His sentence carried a minimum term of 16 years before he was eligible to apply for parole – but Mr Sullivan maintained his innocence, lessening his chances of release.

His nightmare only started to end in 2023, when the Criminal Cases Review Commission ordered fresh testing of semen samples found on Miss Sindall’s body in 1986.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to challenge the DNA results ahead of a fresh appeal – paving the way for Mr Sullivan’s freedom.

This week Det Supt Wilson added: “Although it has been nearly 40 years since Diane’s murder, we still believe there are people who know what happened, or have their own suspicions, who haven’t yet come forward.

“My message would be ‘it is never too late to do the right thing’. We know on Friday 1 August 1986, Diane had been working her part-time job at the Wellington pub in Bebington.

“She had left work at 11.45pm in her blue Fiat van, but on her way home the van ran out of petrol on Borough Road.

“Diane got out of the van and was seen by several witnesses at the time walking along Borough Road between midnight and 12.20am on the Saturday morning. Her body was found 12 hours later in an alleyway off Borough Road.

“On 17 August 1986 property belonging to Diane was recovered on Bidston Hill. The investigation team at the time identified witnesses who had seen a small fire, at the location where the property was found, on Sunday 3 August, and had witnessed a man running from the scene.

“Were you on Borough Road on the evening of Friday 1 August or the early hours of Saturday 2 August and saw or heard something suspicious? Or can you help identify the man seen running away from Bidston Hill on Sunday 3 August?

“Additionally in the years since Diane’s murder has anybody you know raised any suspicions or passed any information which you think could help? Please come forward and tell us what you know.

“We can trace and request a DNA sample from any person you suspect or even a relative if they have passed away or emigrated.”

Gary Murray, North West Regional Manager for the charity Crimestoppers, said: “Please help bring answers to Diane’s family who have waited almost 40 years for justice.

“Someone, somewhere, knows what happened that night, and we’re urging them to come forward. What you know could finally give Diane’s loved ones the answers they’ve been waiting for.

“Crimestoppers is independent of the police. When you contact the charity, you stay completely anonymous. Your personal details are never asked for, and your call or online report cannot be traced back to you.

“Every day, thousands of people across the UK trust Crimestoppers with vital information that makes all the difference.

“We pass on what we’re told, and we hope that if you know something about this case, but are unwilling to speak to the police, you can stay completely anonymous with Crimestoppers.”

The reward is available for three months and is due to expire on 22nd April 2026. Crimestoppers is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No-one will ever know you contacted them and computer IP addresses are never traced.

A former prison officer has been jailed for having illicit relationships with two inmates and plotting to smuggle drug-soaked envelopes into jail.

Isabelle Dale, 23, became romantically involved with prisoners Shahid Sharif and Connor Money and was ‘swearing them undying love, saying she wanted to be with both of them on the outside’, Judge Christopher Hehir said.

She got engaged to convicted robber Sharif, and later plotted with him and his associate, Lilea Sallis, to smuggle the synthetic cannabinoid, commonly known as spice, into HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent.

Dale, of Cosham, Portsmouth, was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for two counts of misconduct in a public office between September 2021 and December 2022, and one count of conspiring to convey a List A article into prison.

Sharif, who is already in custody at HMP Wandsworth, and Sallis, were also jailed for the latter charge.

Sentencing the three at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, the judge told Dale: ‘I have concluded that unfortunately you are a thoroughly devious and untruthful and manipulative young woman.

‘I accept you have some vulnerabilities but, as was apparent in your evidence, you seek to use them as a shield and an excuse for your actions. But they did not provide that.’

He added: ‘I suspect you actually joined the prison service with a view to becoming involved in criminal activities with prisoners.’

Dale arrived at HMP Coldingley, Surrey, in September 2021 for what would be her first and only posting.

By January, she and Sharif had had ‘at least some contact’ because she mentioned him to a senior colleague – by May they were engaged, the court heard.

The trial was told the prison officer, who has since resigned, had sex with Sharif in the chapel area of HMP Coldingley.

Judge Hehir said he could not know if they were intimate in the chapel area but text messages show they ‘clearly had a sexual relationship’ and other prison officers ‘obviously had clocked on to what was going on’.

Sharif was at the time serving a 12-year and 10-month sentence for an ‘extremely violent robbery of a jewellers on the south coast’, the judge added.

Dale’s home was searched and a ‘rather garish’ picture of the couple was found hanging above her bed, he said.

It had photographs of them ‘spliced together’ with a white heart between and the date May 17 2022, believed to be the day of their engagement.

The judge said evidence put to the jury showed she ‘well understood what corruption was and the risks and dangers relating to it’.

He added: ‘She wanted to do it. I think she’s attention seeking and I think she seeks validation and I think she did that through relationships with prisoners.’

Syam Soni, defending Dale, had said her offending was influenced by her mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, emotionally unstable personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

He had claimed she was ‘ill-equipped’ for the prison environment and more vulnerable than others.

The court heard Dale also conveyed sensitive information to Money, with whom she also had an intimate relationship.

The judge said: ‘When he said he was worried about losing his mobile phone if his cell was searched, any right-thinking security officer would go in and seize the cell, but she said “don’t worry, security aren’t too hot on you”.’

Dale, Sharif and Lilea Sallis, 28, also planned to bring envelopes dipped in spice into Swaleside prison.

A postal strike foiled their arrangements and it was organised for Dale to travel to Brighton to meet Sallis and collect the envelopes, the court heard.

However Sallis backed out because of a conflict with Sharif about prices, and content he was posting about her on social media, the judge said.

‘I don’t think she had a fit of conscience, to put it that way, but I think that’s why her enthusiasm cooled,’ he added.

Sharif attended proceedings via video link from prison.

He previously admitted conspiring to bring the drug into Swaleside and the two women, who had denied the charge, were convicted by a jury.

Sallis was sentenced to two and a half years in jail and Sharif received 27 months.

One victim barricaded herself in her bedroom

These are the faces of brothers who burgled vulnerable residents, including a 92-year-old deaf woman, during a country-wide crime spree.

Danny and Terence Casey have been jailed for more than 12 years following the incidents which saw the deaf victim targeted while she was sleeping in her home in Whetstone. She was woken when Danny Casey broke in shortly after 11pm, smashing the kitchen window and going upstairs to her bedroom.

She woke to find him bouncing on her bed, trying to look on top of a dresser. She grabbed her walking stick to fight him off before rushing out to call police.

Casey fled with a jewellery box containing her engagement ring and an eternity ring from her late husband.

The 92-year-old was not the only vulnerable victim as Danny Casey also targeted a pensioner in Walton on the Wolds, near Loughborough, who was undergoing cancer treatment. He was woken by Casey smashing glass to get into his property.

He went downstairs and saw Casey crawling in through a smashed window with a screwdriver in his hand, and when challenged, the burglar crawled back out and fled empty-handed.

In his statement to police, the man said to the burglar: “Thank you for ruining my life. Paired with my illness, this is the icing on the cake. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.”

An elderly widow in Glaston, near Uppingham, was burgled just three months after her husband died, with Casey standing over her bed dressed in black and demanding money.

Another lone woman in Mountsorrel barricaded herself in her bedroom by pushing her bed up against the door while he ransacked her home.

With Danny’s younger brother Terence in tow, the pair then struck four times on Thursday, October 3, hitting two properties in Birstall, one in Loughborough and one in Mountsorrel, stealing a Toyota Yaris, drone, cash and jewellery.

Danny Casey, who was linked to 28 burglaries between October 2024 and January 2025, targeted homes in Leicester, Oadby, Hinckley, Castle Donington and Narborough, while his brother Terrence was involved in 12 burglaries and three attempted burglaries, police said.

After Leicestershire, the brothers moved across to Lincolnshire, burgling homes in Lincoln, Boston, Sleaford and Holbeck as well as Newark in Nottinghamshire before targeting half a dozen properties in Carmarthenshire, Wales.

Officers from Leicestershire Police teamed up with colleagues from Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Dyfed-Powys Police to identify that either one or both brothers could be linked to a total of 37 offences across all areas.

Both brothers, of Meynells Gorse, Braunstone, Leicester, pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday, November 11, 2025.

Danny, 34, admitted three counts of conspiracy to burgle and two counts of breaching a serious Crime Prevention Order, while Terrence, 26, admitted two counts of conspiracy to burgle.

Danny was sentenced to 112 months’ imprisonment at Leicester Crown Court today (Monday, January 20), with Terrence sentenced to 42 months. The brothers were also issued with Serious Crime Prevention Orders, which will come into effect once they are released from prison.

A student who made up false rape claims against a serving police officer has been jailed for six years.

The officer was detained in custody for 35 hours and suspended from work for nearly five months before it was decided that no action would be taken against him after Hao Li made the false allegations.

Durham Crown Court heard the false reports were made after pair had engaged in sexual activity, which she was said to be the “driving force” behind.

He then drove her home, during which they rowed, and then, when the officer began to make the return journey to his home, Li rang the police, accusing him of rape, and he was apprehended.

A judge said it was only due to the “foresight” of the officer who set his phone to record the earlier events at his home, that he was not, ultimately, charged with rape.

The Chinese master’s degree student left the UK after being charged with perverting the course of justice, and was arrested at Manchester Airport after arriving on a return flight.

Li, 29, formerly of Howard Street in Newcastle, was remanded in custody and denied the allegations at a plea hearing in July last year.

She was convicted of three counts of perverting the course of justice after a two-week trial in December.

Appearing before the court on Friday (January 16,) via video link from HMP Low Newton, she was jailed for six years.

Judge Nathan Adams said: “Details of what took place are quite clear as he had the foresight to set his phone on record.

“It’s only because of that foresight that really showed us what took place.

“It was a far cry from the allegations that you told the police the following day.

“You engaged in sexual activity with him but, clearly, you were the driving force in that activity.

“He drove you home late at night and left you there.

“What is relevant is that he was stopped half-an-hour later as he drove back and arrested on the basis of your phone calls in which you made allegations of rape multiple times over the preceding weeks.

“He was held in custody for 35 hours, and then further investigations took place.

“Had it not been for the recording he made, he would have been charged with multiple counts of rape due to your allegations.

“But it was four to five months before ‘no further action’ was taken and you were subjected to the charges.

“You maintained your insistence over the allegations, but you were clearly disbelieved at trial.

“Anyone making false allegations of rape to police will be treated seriously.

“Police have taken great strides to persuade victims of sexual offences to come forward.

“Anyone making false complaints and proceeding with them creates a wider-still impact on genuine victims coming forward, with a further impact with him being a police officer.

“Rape is about the most serious allegation you can make.

“You know they would have to take your word for it.

“I can’t downplay how serious these allegations were and the impact they had on the victim in this case.”

Duncan Bould, for Li, said she was considered a “low risk” of reoffending and a medium risk of causing serious harm if she does so.

“Clearly there was a pattern of offending here, but she has no issues with alcohol or drugs, and this has been her first contact with the criminal justice system.

“But it’s been a severe contact and it’s had a salutary effect on her.”

Passing the six-year sentence, Judge Adams said he had taken into account Li’s previous good character and the fact she has proved “a model prisoner” at Low Newton.

He also made her subject of a six-year restraining order, prohibiting contact or approaching the victim.

The judge told her she would serve about half of the six-year sentence in custody before being released on licence, when she will probably be deported to China.

A Wakefield man whose “extremely underweight” bulldog was found left in a “fearful and aggressive state” and rummaging through bins has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years.

Benjamin Cobb, aged 40, of Borrowdale Drive in Castleford, pleaded guilty to failing to meet the needs of Sasha, an 11-year-old bulldog boxer cross, including not providing prompt veterinary care and failing to address the dog’s poor body condition under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

As well as the 10-year disqualification, Cobb received a 12-month community order when he was sentenced at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court on January 6. The order included 100 days of unpaid work and to attend 20 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement (RAR) days.

The court was told how the defendant failed to follow up an initial trip to the vets when Sasha received pain medication in June 2024. The appointment was funded by a vet voucher he was given by RSPCA Inspector Hannah Williams. The inspector and a colleague went to the defendant’s former home at Watling Road, Castleford, after reports about an underweight dog.

In a statement to the court, the inspector said: “Sasha’s ribs were visible and she had some fur loss on her back legs. I explained to the defendant that due to the dog’s body condition and fur loss she needed to go to a vets.”

When further concerns for Sasha were reported to the charity later, the inspector contacted the vets who confirmed the dog had not been returned for a follow-up appointment.

RSPCA Inspector Joanne Taylor tried to contact the defendant in January last year after a call stating the dog had been seen “extremely underweight”. She attended with a police officer who executed a warrant at Cobb’s home on February 5 last year.

Sasha was found in a “fearful and aggressive state” in the kitchen where there was no food or water for her. Her ribs, hips and spine were “protruding” and she had been rummaging through a bin in an attempt to find something to eat. When the defendant returned to the property he claimed he had tried to rehome her.

Sasha was signed over into the care of the RSPCA and taken to the charity’s Greater Manchester Animal Hospital where sadly it was decided her health was so poor that the kindest thing to do was to put her to sleep.

A vet, who examined her, said the dog scored two out of nine on a body condition score (where five is an ideal weight) and was suffering with an enlarged spleen and muscle wastage, while tests showed she may have been suffering from blood cancer,

The vet concluded the dog suffered for at least two weeks due to her condition as well as pain and discomfort from arthritis.

In mitigation, the defendant claimed he did not return to the vet because of the cost. It was said he was suffering from depression due to personal and business circumstances. He was also told to pay court costs of £100 and a victim surcharge of £114.

Speaking after the hearing, Inspector Taylor said: “This owner failed to follow veterinary advice to return for a follow-up appointment and poor Sasha did not have her basic needs met.

“Her medical conditions, including her arthritis, may have been able to have been managed at that stage.

“For anyone struggling to meet vet bills the RSPCA has information about charities that can help with costs at our telephone helpline on 0300 123 0650 and an online hub.”

Anthony Esan stabbed Lt Col Mark Teeton ‘repeatedly’ after ambushing him outside his home in Kent

A 25-year-old man has admitted trying to kill an Army officer outside his barracks in Kent.

Anthony Esan pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of Lieutenant Colonel Mark Teeton, who was stabbed “repeatedly” in Sally Port Gardens near Brompton Barracks in Gillingham in July 2024.

Wearing a navy hoodie, Esan appeared at Maidstone Crown Court by video link from the high-security psychiatric hospital Broadmoor in Berkshire. He pleaded guilty on Thursday morning to the attempted murder and to two counts of possession of a bladed weapon.

Lt Col Teeton was treated in hospital for serious injuries after the attack.

The father of two was discharged a few weeks later and was in court alongside his wife Eileen for the hearing.

At a previous hearing at Medway magistrates’ court in 2024, Rajni Prashar, prosecuting, said: “A member of the public called 999 to report a male had been stabbed.

“It was then reported that the victim was a soldier in uniform.”

She told the court that a man was seen “running up behind” the Army officer before he “pulled the soldier to the ground”, stabbed him “repeatedly” and drove away on a moped.

Lt Col Teeton was airlifted to hospital after being stabbed while in his uniform just before 6pm on July 23 2024, by Esan, who was wearing a ski mask and was armed with large knives.

Wife’s intervention may have saved him
His wife screamed at the attacker to leave her husband alone and then tried to pull him away in an intervention that may have saved his life.

Her screams of “get off him” were captured on nearby doorbell cameras as her husband lay blood-soaked on the ground.

After the attempted killing, the attacker turned, climbed back on his moped and sped off.

Photographs from the scene showed Esan standing next to the moped.

His helmet was off and his face was partially obscured by a ski mask. He was wearing a bomber jacket with the logo of Nasa emblazoned on it

The attack took place in the middle of the day just just yards from Brompton Barracks, home of the 1st Royal School of Military Engineering Regiment.

Lt Col Teeton was a course manager at the barracks for almost six years after joining the Army 23 years ago.

An online CV revealed that he held several engineering-related roles within the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence.

He also ran 44 miles across Normandy, including some of its picturesque beaches, before finishing at the historic Pegasus Bridge on the 80th anniversary of D-Day last month, raising almost £3,000 for charity.

Lt Col Teeton was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and has two children with his wife.

As is common with military families, they have spent time living abroad, including in Canada, where Lt Col Teeton spent time on exchange with the Royal Engineers in Moncton.

It was here that it appeared Mrs Teeton had met Prince William during his royal tour of Canada with his newly married wife, the then Duchess of Cambridge, in 2011.

After the stabbing, members of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Sea Cadets were advised not to wear their uniform while travelling in public.

A man who supplied thousands of boats and engines to people smugglers operating in the English Channel has been jailed, following a joint operation involving the National Crime Agency and Belgian authorities.

Adem SavasTurkish national Adem Savas, 45, admitted offences of people smuggling and being a member of an organised crime group on 3 December following a hearing at a court in Bruges. The same court today sentenced him to 11 years in prison, and a fine of 400,000 euros. Three co-defendants were given sentences totalling 38 years.

Savas had been detained at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam on 13 November 2024, before being extradited to Belgium to face charges.

He was initially identified by the NCA following an investigation into Kurdish crime boss Hewa Rahimpur.

Rahimpur headed up a major Europe-wide smuggling ring thought to be behind the movement of more than 10,000 migrants in small boat crossings to the UK, transporting migrants and equipment through Belgium on the way. He was arrested in 2022 by the NCA near Ilford, east London, where he was living at the time.

He was extradited to Belgium, where he was convicted and jailed for 11 years in October 2023. This was later increased to 13 years on appeal. Other members of his network were also subsequently convicted in France and the UK following investigations also involving the NCA.

Analysis of phones and devices seized following Rahimpur’s arrest revealed that his key supplier of boats and engines was Savas, and the two were in regular contact.

At the time, Savas was the main importer of cheap ‘Parsun’ branded outboard engines sourced from China, the type most frequently used by gangs operating small boats in the Channel.

The NCA, working with Belgian counterparts, evidenced how boats and engines sourced by the Savas network were moved overland from Turkey into Bulgaria, and then across Europe to Germany where they would be stored before being used in the Channel.

To move them he engaged the services of a haulage firm based in the Netherlands. After this firm was identified by the NCA, Dutch police began an investigation which later led to convictions for money laundering and drug trafficking.

Equipment in van image sent from S to R 04032022 2Operating from 2019 until his arrest in 2024, and working with people smuggling networks in Belgium and France, Savas is assessed by the NCA to have supplied equipment used in thousands of small boat crossings to the UK.

Charging on average around £4,000 for packages of boats and engines, he is likely to have made millions over the time of his offending.

NCA investigators believe that in 2023 Savas will have supplied equipment used in around half of all Channel crossings, making him a key figure in the European people smuggling hierarchy, and elevating him to number one on the NCA’s list of global high value targets – the Agency’s most wanted man.

One exchange of messages between Savas and Rahimpur in November 2021 followed the deaths of 27 migrants, when their boat sank in the Channel. Rahimpur sent Savas five separate images of a white rubber boat, along with a screen grab from a news website showing how an identical boat had been used in the fatal crossing.

Another video sent showed boxes of boats, controlled by Savas’ associates, piled high in a warehouse, while investigators also recovered a price list for boats, engines and life jackets.

An operation to track his movements was instigated, involving the NCA, Belgian and Dutch law enforcement, with Belgian prosecutors.

After information was received that he was attending a trade event in the Netherlands, officers moved in to have him arrested as he touched down in Schipol.

The operation to arrest him was jointly co-ordinated through a Europol Operational Task Force and assistance of Eurojust through the formation of a Joint Investigation Team.

NCA Director General of Operations, Rob Jones, said: “Adem Savas was without doubt the most significant supplier of boats and engines to people smuggling gangs involved in organising deadly crossings in the Channel, the head of a criminal network stretching across Europe to the beaches of northern France and across into the UK.

“He pretended to run a legitimate maritime supply company, but in reality he knew exactly how the equipment he provided would be used.

“He also knew exactly how unsuitable it was for long sea crossings.

“Boats and engines supplied by Savas were likely involved in numerous fatal events in the Channel – he made money from each of those.

“I’m grateful to the numerous law enforcement partners from across Europe who have worked with the NCA during the course of this investigation, particularly those in Belgium and the Netherlands.

“Tackling the gangs involved in these dangerous crossings remains a top priority for the NCA, and we are determined to do all we can to disrupt and dismantle them, wherever they operate.”

The Case Officer for the Belgian Federal Judicial Police in West Flanders said: “Thanks to the strong and efficient cooperation with the NCA and other foreign law enforcement agencies and through the building of trust-based relationships, we are able to work effectively on complex judicial investigations and arrest high-value targets.

“By combining the strengths and expertise of each law enforcement partner, we achieve international breakthroughs and stop serious threats to society.

“Over the years, the Federal Judicial Police and the Public Prosecutors office of West-Flanders built up the knowledge and experience needed to conduct judicial investigations at the highest international level.

“These long-term efforts are now paying off, as shown by our ability to bring a high-ranking facilitator of nautical equipment involved in migrant smuggling operations to justice.”

Minister for Border Security and Asylum Alex Norris, said: “We are cracking down on the criminals exchanging human lives for cash.

“Our brilliant National Crime Agency officers have worked alongside international allies to take down this smuggling kingpin and put him behind bars where he belongs.

“Through our new Borders Act, law enforcement now have strengthened powers to intercept, detain and arrest people smugglers, faster – restoring order and control to our borders.”

Jaidee Bingham, Eymaiyah Lee Bradshaw-McKoy and Mia Campos-Jorge were convicted over the ‘callous’ killing at the Old Bailey

Three teenagers have been sentenced at the Old Bailey for their roles in the brutal killing of a homeless man near King’s Cross station.

Jaidee Bingham, who was 16 at the time of the assault and went by the nickname “Ghost”, received a 16-year prison term after being convicted of murdering 51-year-old Anthony Marks.

His co-defendants Eymaiyah Lee Bradshaw-McKoy and Mia Campos-Jorge, aged 16 and 17 respectively when the attack occurred, were handed youth custody sentences of 47 months and 42 months for manslaughter.

Mr Marks succumbed to his injuries five weeks after the assault, which took place in August 2024.

The three defendants, now all over 18, can be publicly identified following Monday’s sentencing hearing.

The victim was struck with part of a car bonnet before being pursued through the streets and subjected to a savage beating.

Metropolitan Police officers characterised the assault as a “vicious county lines retribution attack”.

CCTV footage captured Bingham and Bradshaw-McKoy chasing Mr Marks from Argyle Street to Whidbourne Street, with Bradshaw-McKoy carrying what appeared to be a car bumper.

The homeless man was repeatedly stamped on and struck over the head with a gin bottle during the onslaught.

Audio recorded by surveillance cameras captured voices shouting: “Hit him again. Kick kicking. Do it again. Have you learned your lesson yet?”

The assault only ended when a bystander intervened, brandishing a cricket bat to drive the attackers away.

Judge Mark Dennis KC noted that Bingham had “elevated” the confrontation by seizing the bottle and deploying it with “severe violence”.

The prosecution, led by Hugh Davies KC, told the court that all three teenagers had been operating as part of the “Arron” county lines drug network, with Mr Marks himself being a customer of the gang.

The evening before the fatal assault, one of the female defendants was robbed while carrying out drug dealing activities for the organisation.

Bingham was subsequently given the task of identifying who had stolen the narcotics.

The group became convinced that Mr Marks possessed information about the robbery and confronted him at approximately 5am on August 10.

When the homeless man refused to reveal any details about the theft, the violent pursuit began.

The chase covered more than a mile through central London’s streets before culminating in the fatal beating.

Photographs and video footage from that night revealed the teenagers posing for selfies and celebrating in the wake of the killing.

Two of the group were also captured on film singing and dancing in the back of a vehicle after the 51-year-old had been fatally wounded.

Police utilised this material, along with messages exchanged between the trio, to reconstruct their movements throughout the evening.

Station staff discovered Mr Marks stumbling near the King’s Cross concourse around 6am, blood streaming from severe facial wounds.

Detective Inspector Jim Barry of the Met’s Specialist Crime North said: “This is a particularly callous murder that gives an insight into the ruthless brutality of county lines gangs.

“The ages of Bingham, Bradshaw-McKoy and Campos-Jorge are particularly shocking.

“But the fact that they were teenagers does not excuse their violent actions as part of a drug line that has brought fear and intimidation to London’s streets.”