THIS is the shocking moment two brothers brazenly steal over £62,000 worth of Pokémon cards during a raid at a gaming shop.
Dramatic footage shows Shane Johnson, 37, and his younger brother Keith Johnson, 33, using a crowbar to break into Celestial Collectables in Warrington, Cheshire.
CCTV evidence shows the shameless duo sneaking in through a broken pane before approaching the specialist store’s till area on April 8.
The brothers then hastily clear the shelves, smashing up displays as they stuff the high-value items – including cards, packs and booster boxes – into a bag.
Video footage from the following day shows the door, wall cabinets and counter “obliterated”, with shattered glass, cards and boxes strewn across the floor.
The chaotic raid lasted just over four minutes and left the shop utterly “destroyed”, according to its co-owner Chris Grundy, 30.
Chris said: “The break-in left me devastated.
“A lot of work has gone into the shop, and for someone to destroy it was heartbreaking really.
“It took us a while to get back on our feet afterwards.
“But hopefully the court result will be a deterrent to anyone else who is thinking about doing the same.”
The shop, which specialises in rare Pokémon cards valuing up to £62,000, suffered in excess of £3000 of damage during the looting.
CCTV footage revealed the pair had used a white Ford transit van with a cloned number plate for the brazen theft.
Detectives discovered the van had travelled from Birmingham to Warrington on the day of the break-in and had previously been parked at Keith’s address.
Further CCTV analysis found the vehicle had broken down, leading the brothers to transfer the plunder into a waiting van from Birmingham, which was later found at Shane’s address.
The brothers struck again at The Graded Gallery in Rugby, Warwickshire on April 14, where they again used a crowbar to enter the property, wreaking similar havoc and stealing around £9000 in goods – including more Pokémon cards.
They made their escape in a Nissan X-Trail, an investigation found, which was subsequently found parked at Keith’s address, where the two men were ultimately arrested.
Keys to both vehicles were tracked down and the stolen property belonging to Celestial Collectables retrieved.
Both brothers went on to plead guilty to two counts of burglary with intent to steal .
Keith, from Yardley Wood in Birmingham, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on July 2 where he was sentenced to 29 months imprisonment.
Shane, of no fixed address, will be sentenced at the same court on July 31.
Detective Constable Hannah Smith from Cheshire Police said: “The overwhelming evidence collected through our extensive enquiries put them at both crime scenes giving them no choice but to plead guilty.
“The brothers will now have to pay the price for their part in their criminal Pokémon enterprise.”
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Prince Harry charged into his doomed court battle with Associated Newspapers with all the fanaticism of a kamikaze pilot – but Baroness Lawrence may be left wondering how she ever got caught up in a fight that was never hers to begin with.
While the other six claimants in the High Court case were all celebrities or politicians with an axe to grind against newspapers that had crossed them, Lady Lawrence owed a debt of gratitude to the Daily Mail for its courageous campaign for justice for her murdered son Stephen Lawrence.
It was for precisely that reason that the campaigners and lawyers behind Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and others targeted Lady Lawrence to join their litigation, knowing that nothing would be more wounding to the Mail and its journalists than to be turned on by her.
She was described in court as a “trophy claimant” for Prince Harry’s side, a woman who lent gravitas to a case that was otherwise a spat between celebrities and tabloids, and it was no coincidence that the official title of the litigation was “Baroness Lawrence & Others vs Associated Newspapers”.
It is her name that appears at the top of all 463 pages of the court judgment published on Tuesday.
For the celebrity-backed campaign group Hacked Off, Lady Lawrence, 73, represented its best chance of persuading the Government to set up a second Leveson inquiry into media standards that it hoped would result in even more restrictions on the free press.
Not only is she a member of the House of Lords, but she is also a woman whose reputation is beyond reproach.
Yet the court was told that she had been persuaded to get involved based on “supposed confessions” made by Gavin Burrows, a private investigator, who later denied ever making them.
Wild claims about the Mail spying on Lady Lawrence, “blagging” information with the use of private investigators and paying corrupt policemen for information were presented to her after she was personally contacted by Prince Harry.
The court was told that this was a “personal watershed moment” for Lady Lawrence, and that she felt a “sense of shock and betrayal”. Except none of it was true.
Much of the so-called evidence against the Mail was collected by Graham Johnson, a convicted phone hacker who worked as a researcher for Hacked Off and who was described by Mr Justice Nicklin as an “unconvincing” witness whose “credibility was materially undermined” during the hearing.
Rather than paying corrupt cops or using blaggers, the judge ruled that Stephen Wright, the Mail’s long-serving crime editor, had obtained his stories completely legitimately, using a combination of police contacts and the Metropolitan Police press office.
It was the Mail that famously described the five suspects in Stephen Lawrence’s 1993 killing as “murderers”, daring them to sue the newspaper if it was wrong, after Paul Dacre, its then editor, heard about Stephen’s largely unreported – and unsolved – murder and decided to make it front page news.
It led later to the conviction of two of the killers and the Macpherson inquiry into the Metropolitan Police, which concluded that the force was institutionally racist.
Mr Dacre said in response to the judgment: “Why Baroness Lawrence – for whom we have always had profound respect and sympathy – chose to turn on both the paper, and the brilliant reporter who campaigned for justice for her son for over two decades, is something I will never be able to comprehend.”
Her former husband, and Stephen’s father, Neville Lawrence, was similarly baffled by Lady Lawrence’s decision to turn against the Mail.
He told The Telegraph: “Only my ex-wife would be able to explain to you why she’s doing what she’s doing, because I wouldn’t even be thinking about doing that… this paper was supporting me all the way from the time they started doing my story. I have nothing bad to say about the Daily Mail.”
Lady Lawrence agreed to join the litigation after being told by her lawyers that two private investigators, Mr Burrows and Jonathan Rees, had admitted stealing and exploiting information on the instruction of the Mail newspapers and that she had been “a specific target”, with her phone bills, bank accounts and private communications monitored for several years.
But Mr Burrows said his supposed witness statement – put together by Johnson – was false and his signature on it was a forgery, which fatally undermined the claimants’ case.
Anthony White KC, representing the publisher, told the court: “The particular tragedy of the case is that the ‘evidence’ of Mr Burrows which was used to persuade Baroness Lawrence, the trophy claimant so prized by the claimants’ lawyers and research team… was not ultimately relied on by the claimants.”
It left her, in the judge’s words, presenting “limited evidence” to the court. He said Lady Lawrence was asking the court to “infer” wrongdoing and that her legal team’s suggestion that cash payments were made to corrupt officers was “entirely speculative” and not backed up by evidence.
Lady Lawrence had never expected the case to reach court, having been convinced by Hacked Off and her legal team that Associated Newspapers would settle before it ever went that far.
She said she was angry that she was being “made to fight” when all she wanted was the truth and an apology. But the Mail had nothing to apologise for.
David Sherborne, the barrister representing the claimants, said during the hearing that Lady Lawrence felt “used and violated, and like she has been taken for a fool”. The question she must now contemplate is, by whom?x1200
Prince Harry called out the court’s “whitewashed” decision to dismiss his and six others’ years-long lawsuit against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).
“We came to court seeking justice and accountability. But we have received neither,” the Duke of Sussex and his fellow claimant Baroness Doreen Lawrence told Page Six in a statement Tuesday.
“This judgment represents a complete reversal of the position which previous judges have taken in relation to the hacking claims successfully brought against both News Group Newspapers and Mirror Group Newspapers (who were represented by, at the time, the judge who made this decision),” they added.
“Generic findings about various private investigators that were held by the courts in these parallel claims to have carried out unlawful activity at the very same time in relation to similar stories and well-known individuals have been wholly ignored.”
Harry, 41, and Lawrence, 73, said the court has shown “inconsistency which is hard to understand or reconcile with common sense” by choosing to dismiss the evidence heard over the course of the trial.
“It is a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected,” the “Spare” author and the activist claimed in the statement.
“However, the lengths to which the court has gone to exonerate the Mail is as shocking as it is totally unwarranted,” they added.
“When the court says there is not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, despite the documents showing otherwise, then one does wonder how justice was ever going to be achieved.”
Harry and Lawrence said they feel like the court has “one rule for the newspapers and another for the claimants.”
“While the claimants presented evidence, Mail journalists simply gave denials, and the court chose uncritically to believe them, even in the face of inconsistencies, contradictions and blatant untruths that were obvious to neutral observers in court when compared to the documents,” they alleged.
“We presented to the court evidence which we believed was compelling at the time and remains so now.”
Harry and Lawrence concluded their statement by thanking their legal team “for all their hard work” and the witnesses “who were brave enough to come forward in the pursuit of justice.”
On Tuesday morning, a UK High Court judge ruled against Harry’s favor in his case against ANL — the publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday — whom the royal accused of unlawfully obtaining information.
Judge Matthew Nicklin said in his ruling that the claimants’ allegations were serious but they had not proven that the information used by ANL for its articles was not obtained unlawfully.
“The court rejected the argument that, simply because information was private, and because Associated could not positively explain how it had been sourced, the relevant article must have been unlawfully sourced,” he wrote in the summary, per CNN.
In 2022, Harry filed a lawsuit against ANL, claiming the company used listening devices placed in cars and homes and hired private detectives to illegally obtain information about them from the 1990s to 2011.
ANL previously denied the allegations and claimed their information was legitimately sourced.
In January, the 10-week trial began.
During Harry’s testimony, he shared that his wife, Meghan Markle, lived in “absolute misery” as a royal due to the media’s alleged constant invasion of privacy.
Harry arrived back in the UK on Monday to promote next year’s Invictus Games, which will be hosted in Birmingham.
The former helicopter pilot was supposed to bring the “Suits” alum, 44, and their children — Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5 — to England; however, Markle and the kids stayed in the US after being denied taxpayer-funded security.
Moments after learning of the judge’s ruling, Harry gave a welcome address at the 14th Invictus Games Foundation Conversation: From Policy to Practice conference at Chatham House.x1200
2026.7.7 Prince Harry and other claimants could face £50m legal bill after losing phone-hacking case
High court dismisses claims by group including Duke of Sussex that Mail publisher used unlawful methods to source stories about them
Prince Harry and six other prominent figures are facing a legal bill of up to £50m after losing their case against the publisher of the Daily Mail over claims it used unlawful methods to source stories.
In an emphatic ruling that is likely to signal an end to new litigation relating to the phone-hacking scandal era, the high court dismissed all the group’s claims, stating that the claimants had not proved that any information had been obtained unlawfully.
The 436-page written verdict from Mr Justice Nicklin said the court could not simply infer that a story had been obtained unlawfully if there remained a legitimate and realistic legal way in which it could have been sourced.
Nicklin also dismissed suggestions that senior figures at the Mail, including its former editor Paul Dacre, had lied to the 2011-12 Leveson inquiry into press ethics, where Dacre said no hacking took place at the paper.
The Duke of Sussex – along with Doreen Lawrence, the mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence; the singer Elton John and his husband, David Furnish; the actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost; and the former Liberal Democrat minister Simon Hughes – launched the multimillion-pound case against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), which publishes the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline.
They accused the publisher of “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information-gathering” over several years. Dozens of journalists and private investigators were named in the group’s claims.
Harry and Lawrence said the verdict was a “complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected”.
“When the court says there is not sufficient evidence of wrongdoing … then one does wonder how justice was ever going to be achieved,” a joint statement read.
ANL’s legal team described the claims as “lurid” and “preposterous”. In each instance, it said, stories were sourced legitimately from press officers, previous articles or the “leaky” social circles of celebrities.
Dacre, in a video statement after the verdict, said the case was a “conspiracy” orchestrated by press regulation campaigners to “destroy a paper”. He said he would “never be able to comprehend” why Lawrence joined the case, after the Mail had “campaigned for justice for her son for over two decades”.
He also said he had sympathy for Harry, whom he described as a “confused and angry young man”. He said his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, had “liked the Mail. We were her paper.”
ANL will try to recover its costs from the mammoth case. It said the verdict represented “an overwhelming victory for the Daily Mail and its journalists, and for a free press generally”.
A spokesperson said: “This is a magnificent vindication of the Daily Mail’s journalism. For some of the most outrageous allegations made when the case was launched in a blaze of publicity four years ago – placing bugs in people’s cars and homes, listening to calls as they were made and illicitly accessing bank accounts – no credible evidence was ever presented.
“The reputations of our decent and hard-working journalists were terribly impugned, and today they have been exonerated. As the judgment clearly shows, every single article was legitimately sourced.”
The group presented the court with 55 articles published between 1997 and 2015, and three incidents that did not lead to articles, that they claimed demonstrated unlawful information-gathering.
A series of extraordinary claims of illegality at the Mail were made by the claimants’ legal team, which alleged “habitual and widespread” wrongdoing. They included claims of phone hacking, landline tapping and bugging via private investigators, as well as making corrupt payments to police.
In a comprehensive victory for the publisher, all the claims were dismissed by the court.
The claimants’ case was seriously damaged after a key witness, Gavin Burrows, a private investigator turned apparent whistleblower, said before his trial that his witness statement was a forgery and that he had not carried out illegal activity for the Mail titles.
In a stark finding for the claimants’ legal team, the judge said he could not reliably conclude that Burrows had said what was in the disowned statement.
In any case, he said, Burrows was “comprehensively undermined” as a witness and there was no independent corroboration for his claims.
During the 11-week trial, dozens of editors and journalists, including Dacre, gave evidence denying illegal activity.
Harry was the first of the claimants to give evidence and said the Mail’s titles had made his wife’s life “an absolute misery”.
The Mail case is the last to be brought against newspaper groups by the prince, who is coincidentally in the UK for a series of charity engagements. He has been at the forefront of legal attempts to hold British newspapers to account for alleged past wrongdoing.
He previously won substantial damages in his hacking case against the Daily Mirror, in which the judge found that 15 out of 33 articles related to Harry put to the court were the product of phone hacking or unlawful information-gathering.
Last year, the prince settled his high court legal action against the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN), at the last minute. He did so after the group offered a “full and unequivocal apology” to him for the serious intrusion by the Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, “including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for the Sun”.
However, the Mail made no admissions and defended all of the claims brought against it, stating that all the articles brought before the court were the product of legitimate journalism.
The claimants’ lawyers said their case had been hampered by a large number of documents from the era in question having gone missing, with invoices and emails deleted, destroyed or misplaced.
Newspapers have paid out millions in settlements to victims of illegal news-gathering since the Guardian broke the story of the UK’s phone-hacking scandal – a revelation that led to the closure of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper the News of the World in 2011 and the Leveson inquiry into the ethics of the British press.
2026.7.7 Prince Harry’s privacy battle against daily mail reaches final verdict in UK Court
A London High Court judge will rule on Prince Harry’s privacy lawsuit against the Daily Mail publisher, concluding his legal battle over alleged unlawful snooping.
LONDON: Prince Harry ′s longtime battle with the British tabloids reaches its climax Tuesday.
A judge in London’s High Court will rule on the Duke of Sussex’s privacy invasion lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail, ending a trio of lawsuits that accused the news media of unlawfully snooping on his life.
Harry and six others are seeking substantial damages in the celebrity-studded lawsuit where the legal costs for the 11-week trial have been estimated at about 40 million pounds ($53.5 million).
Harry, singer Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost are among those who accused Associated Newspapers Ltd. of tapping their phones, intercepting voicemails and obtaining personal information through deception.
The newspapers denied the allegations as “preposterous,” insisting the roughly 50 articles at issue were based on lawful sources including friends, royal aides and publicists who offered information to reporters.
The verdict coincides with Harry’s visit home to the U.K., but the court case has been overshadowed by the question of whether he will bring his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, for a rare visit to their grandfather, King Charles III.
Harry has long criticized the news business
Harry’s self-proclaimed mission to reform the press for creating what he called a toxic environment is much deeper than headlines that documented his party boy youth and romantic ups and downs. His emotional testimony in February drove that point home.
The prince has blamed the press for the death of his mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in 1997 while being pursued by paparazzi in Paris, and for attacks on his wife that led the couple to leave royal life and move to the United States in 2020.
“They continue to come after me, they have made my wife’s life an absolute misery,” he said as he choked back tears in the witness box.
The phone hacking scandal that began in the 1990s and continued for more than a decade gave Harry the opportunity to break with royal family tradition and take his case to court. Three years ago, he became the first senior royal to testify in court in over a century.
Harry won a judgment in 2023 that condemned the publishers of the Daily Mirror for “widespread and habitual” phone hacking. Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s flagship U.K. tabloid, The Sun, made an unprecedented apology for intruding on his life for years, and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his privacy invasion lawsuit.
The case against the Daily Mail
Attorney David Sherborne said the Daily Mail and its sister publication, Mail on Sunday, used its journalists, freelance reporters and private eyes for “clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering” to snoop on his clients.
He connected payments to detectives with dates of articles in question to try to show, for example, how journalists tracked down information about Harry’s then-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, and her travel plans.
Harry testified at the start of the trial in January that press intrusions left him “paranoid beyond belief,” strained his relationships and took a toll on his mental health.
Hurley accused the Mail of putting microphones outside her windows and stealing her medical records among “other monstrous, staggering things.”
“It is like there is someone peeping into your life and into your home,” the model and actor testified. “My private life had been violated by violent intruders — that there had been sinister thieves in my home all along and that I had been living with them completely unaware.”
Other claimants in the case are anti‑racism activist Doreen Lawrence, former politician Simon Hughes and John’s husband, David Furnish.
Journalists were ‘lining up’ to testify in defense
Defense lawyer Antony White said the case relied on conjecture and inferences when the more likely source of information was “ordinary, legitimate journalism.”
White said Harry was “inclined to see unlawful evidence gathering, in particular voicemail interception, everywhere,” despite a lack of evidence.
The Mail trial has played out differently than the Mirror case, with White saying that journalists were “lining up” to defend their work in court. Some reporters pointed to official mouthpieces, such as a palace spokesperson, and others named their sources to dispute Harry’s assertion that his “social circles were not leaky.”
“They were not all tight-lipped,” Katie Nicholl, a former Mail on Sunday editor, said about Harry’s associates. “I had very good sources in the inner circle.”
Detective’s testimony could make or break case
One issue at the trial is whether the claimants should have been allowed to bring allegations dating to the 1990s, long after a six-year limit expired.
They avoided the deadline by saying they were unaware of the phone hacking until private investigator Gavin Burrows came forward in 2021 to “do the right thing” and help those he had targeted.
But Burrows, who once apologized to Harry in a BBC documentary for ruthlessly targeting him for tabloids in his teen years, testified at trial that he never worked for the Mail. He said a statement attributed to him was fabricated by the claimants’ legal team and his signature was forged.
Justice Matthew Nicklin repeatedly asked Sherborne what would happen to the case if he rejected Burrows’ original statement.
Sherborne said a wealth of other evidence implicated the newspapers, but White said the case collapsed with Burrows’ testimony contradicting the witness statement he disavowed.
Burrows denied switching sides to get revenge after a disagreement with Harry’s legal team.
Possible reunion with royal family overshadows the case
The judgment, which will be issued remotely without a hearing, comes as Harry is in London for charity events.
Harry had been expected to bring his children to visit Charles, who is being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer, for the first time in years. Harry has been trying to repair a rift since he moved to America and aired family grievances in the scorching 2023 memoir, “Spare,” and a Netflix series.
But a family reunion is up in the air as Harry haggles over security arrangements and accommodations. A government committee refused to authorize taxpayer-funded security, which was the source of disputes — including litigation — that Harry has repeatedly lost.
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2026.7.7 Ethnic minority communities in NI still ‘living in fear’ one month after riots
A senior police officer gave evidence to MPs on widespread disorder in Northern Ireland in June.
Ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland are still “living in fear” one month on from race riots which saw children having to be rescued from their homes, a senior police officer has said.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck also told MPs that a man charged over a stabbing which preceded the violence may be from Chad, and not Sudan as previously believed.
Violence flared in several areas in Northern Ireland in June after a graphic video clip emerged of a man being stabbed in north Belfast.
The victim, Stephen Ogilvie, who is aged in his 40s, lost his left eye in the attack and also sustained deep wounds to his head, face and back.
Following the attack, Hadi Alodid, 30, appeared at Belfast Magistrates’ Court charged with attempted murder.
The disorder following the stabbing saw masked mobs set fire to homes, cars and a bus, with people targeted based on their race.
Foreign national healthcare workers were also subjected to threats and intimidation.
Mr Beck appeared before a joint sitting of the Home Affairs and Northern Ireland Affairs Committees to provide an update.
He told MPs: “This was the third year in a row that we in Northern Ireland have witnessed what I could only describe as atrocious violence and racism that impacted many of our communities, who are still very much reeling from what was experienced.”
In the immediate aftermath of the knife attack, the PSNI had said the suspect was believed to be Somalian before later stating that he was Sudanese.
Mr Beck told the committees: “Our inquiries would indicate that the male suspect entered Northern Ireland via the Common Travel Area in February 2023 and was subsequently granted leave to remain in UK until 2028.
“We do continue to investigate the origins of the male with one potential line of inquiry indicating that he may potentially be from Chad and not Sudan, as was initially indicated, and we continue to investigate that line of inquiry with the relevant authorities in Chad.”
“I was incredibly lucky a lorry driver stopped and saved me. I genuinely believe he saved my life…”
A woman was taken to hospital with 17 bite wounds after being mauled by a dog in Lancashire.
Emergency services were called to the scene of the savage attack in Cockerham, near Lancaster, at around 11am on Friday (July 3).
The 40-year-old was returning from Lancaster to Catterall with her family when she spotted a woman with a bulldog parked up on the road, near Cockerham Garage petrol station.
Thinking she might have broken down, she stopped to ask whether the woman needed help. But the dog pounced on her – viciously biting her legs, arms and hands – and dragging her down to the ground, where it continued its frenzied attack.
Thankfully, a lorry driver passing the scene stopped and rescued the woman, bravely fighting off the bulldog while she escaped to her car.
“The attack was relentless,” she said. “I was incredibly lucky a lorry driver stopped and saved me. I genuinely believe his actions saved my life. Without a doubt.
“If he sees this story, or if anyone knows who he is, please try and contact me. I will never be able to thank him enough.”
How the attack unfolded
The woman, who has asked not to be named, explained: “I pulled up and I called out my window to the woman in a blue Skoda, who said she needed help, so I went over. As soon as I got to her car, I saw the dog.
“As I approached, she was holding him half in, half out of the car. She let him go and he lunged for me, biting my hand.
“I tried to get away and he bit my legs everywhere and dragged me to the floor. The attack was relentless and completely unprovoked.
“I sustained 17 bite wounds to my legs, hands and arms. I was dragged to the ground by the dog, hit my head on the road, and was left covered in bruises, scratches and multiple puncture wounds.
“I later learned this was not an isolated incident. I understand two other people were attacked by the same dog earlier that day, causing injuries.
“I have now been informed by Lancashire Police that the dog has been returned home while the investigation continues.
“I’m speaking out because I genuinely fear someone could be seriously injured or even killed if this happens again. I don’t want another family to go through what mine has. I’m terrified the dog will hurt someone else.”
What did Lancashire Police say?
A spokesperson for the force said: “We can confirm we have received a number of reports and that an investigation is underway.
“It remains in its relatively early stages and enquiries are ongoing. No one has been arrested and the dog hasn’t been seized.”
2026.7.8 Police do not know what country Belfast knife attack suspect is from
Police have admitted that they do not know what country the Belfast knife attack suspect is from.
Hadi Alodid was charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, 44, who lost an eye and suffered injuries to his back and head in the attack last month.
Footage shared widely on social media at the time showed a knifeman holding down and stabbing his victim, in an attack which triggered violent anti-immigration protests.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) originally said Mr Alodid was from Somalia, before stating that he was Sudanese. However, a month after the attack, the force has said he may be from the neighbouring African country of Chad.
Appearing before a joint Westminster committee on Tuesday, Asst Chief Constable Davy Beck said: “We do continue to investigate the origins of the male, with one potential line of inquiry indicating that he may potentially be from Chad and not Sudan as was initially indicated. And we continue to investigate that line of inquiry with the relevant authorities in Chad.”
The case has raised concerns about how the knife attack suspect managed to use a loophole in the asylum system to gain entry to the UK. Whichever his country of origin, he is believed to have headed to Europe via Libya.
The PSNI previously said he was thought to have travelled to Paris and then to Dublin before taking a bus to Belfast in February 2023. There, he claimed asylum and was given leave to remain in the UK in September that year.
The so-called “Irish route” involves migrants flying to Dublin from Europe, sometimes on false papers, before travelling unchecked to Northern Ireland by land to claim asylum. The UK and Ireland share a common travel agreement that allows free movement across the border without routine immigration checks.
The Home Office has previously confirmed that the suspect was granted refugee status after arriving in the UK and was granted leave to remain until 2028.
The incident provoked disorder across the city as protesters set fire to homes, a Middle Eastern supermarket and several vehicles including a bus and police car.
Mr Beck told MPs that ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland were “still very much living in fear” following last month’s protests.
“People are afraid to go about their daily activity, and we have seen racist criminal damage and assaults and threats continuing in parts of the country,” he added. “So clearly tensions remain high at this stage, and we continue to see and remove racist material across a number of locations.”
He said the force had made 35 arrests as a result.
The 19-year-old was “an active and persistent participant” over a protracted period in rioting which had caused significant fear and distress in the community.
A Ballymena teenager who managed to set his clothes on fire when he tried to throw a petrol bomb at police during racially-motivated rioting was handed a 40-month sentence on Monday.
Ordering Michael Elliott to serve his sentence split equally between custody and licence conditions, Judge Sandra Crawford told the 19-year-old he had been “an active and persistent participant” over a protracted period in rioting which had caused significant fear and distress in the community.
The Antrim Crown Court judge said while he had thrown multiple missiles and a bin at police, the petrol bomb he tried to hurl “had the potential to cause very serious harm.”
At an earlier hearing, Elliott, from Raceview Road in Ballymena, entered a guilty plea to riot arising from events on 10 June last year.
The court heard it was the second night of disorder in the Co Antrim town which had erupted the previous day, hours after two Romanian teenagers appeared in court charged with attempted rape.
Those charges were ultimately withdrawn by the PPS following what was described as “significant evidential developments.”
Having erupted on 9 June, the rioting continued for three consecutive nights and spread to other towns and cities in Northern Ireland, but in Ballymena specifically there were attacks on property and businesses, targeting ethnic minorities.
The court heard that 20 homes were attacked, resulting in eight families being displaced and that in two incidents, including one involving a pregnant woman and her child, homes were set on fire while the residents were still inside.
In addition, police were attacked by hundreds of rioters throwing masonry, bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks, leaving dozens of officers injured, some of them seriously.
In relation to Elliott’s actions, prosecuting counsel Daniel McCarthy told the court the teenager had been present at the scene for around three and a half hours.
During that time, he was identified as throwing four “rock-like objects” at police lines, as well as a wheelie bin, but that the most serious aspect of his offending was that he had thrown a lit petrol bomb at officers.
The court heard however, that the petrol bomb went “straight up in the air” and landed on the defendant, setting his clothes on fire.
In his plea in mitigation defence counsel Jonathan Browne, instructed by Madden and Finucane Solicitors, described how the “Molotov cocktail slipped” and that the only thing the defendant managed to set on fire was himself.
The barrister highlighted that Elliott was already wearing “distinctive” clothing and gloves, but when those items were then burnt, “he only made himself even more recognisable.”
While Mr McCarthy contended that Elliott’s actions constituted “high culpability and high harm,” Mr Browne argued that given the fact the petrol bomb slipped and landed on the defendant, “it’s a case of the potential for high harm, rather than actual harm.”
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Crawford described how officers spotted a masked rioter running through an alleyway and when Elliott was caught and arrested, he still had the distinctive balaclava and gloves.
During police interviews, where Elliott was accompanied by his mother, the teenager “made admissions” to riot but blamed the police for his involvement.
He told interviewing officers he had wanted to join a peaceful protest, but when his path into Harryville was blocked, he “got caught up” in the rioting.
As Judge Crawford highlighted, despite his professed intention to protest peacefully, Elliott had the forethought to bring with him a balaclava and gloves.
She said while Elliott had a clear record and had expressed remorse, sentencing authorities were clear in that matters of personal mitigation carry little weight in comparison to the need for deterrence.
Judge Crawford explained that in cases of riot, the court had to assess not just the actions of the individual offender but also the collective actions of the rioting mob and the overall impact on the community.
The judge said while the defendant professes not to hold racist ideologies, nevertheless a factor she had to take into account was that the riot was aggravated by reason of hostility involving race.
It was also a matter of aggravation that Elliott had thrown multiple missiles, including a petrol bomb, and that he had sought to evade detection by wearing a balaclava, albeit a “distinctive one.”
“Plainly, the custody threshold is crossed,” Judge Crawford told Elliott.
Imposing the 40-month sentence, she said that but for his guilty plea the teenager would have faced a five-year sentence.
2026.7.6 British woman arrested for ‘stabbing boyfriend’ and claiming it was a suicide
A British businessman was found stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances at a luxury villa he shared with his wife in Thailand.
Thomas David Powell, 33, from Stoke-on-Trent, was allegedly attacked with a 20-inch machete by Isabelle Violet Carreras, 20, from Stafford, at a villa in Pattaya.
Thomas’s body was discovered on Thursday morning, when his British friend Charlie, 33, became concerned that his phone was unreachable.
Charlie then came to the luxury housing estate in the Bang Lamung district, where he found the villa in disarray and Thomas’s corpse in the shower before calling the police.
Isabelle was filmed saying: ‘It was after he did it, he realised how much he was bleeding, and he was walking around, and I tried calling an ambulance, but I couldn’t call an ambulance in time, I don’t want him to go.’
She’s since been charged with murder.
Officers said they found blood stains on the tiles and cabinets, while blood-soaked towels and rags were strewn across the floor from suspected attempts to clean up the scene.
Police said the businessman is believed to have been dead for around six hours before being discovered.
His wife claimed his death was a suicide, adding that he was ‘really into grass recently’ and that he ‘had been taking six strips of Valium daily’.
Investigators said evidence at the scene contradicted her claims. They reportedly found cuts on Isabelle’s fingers and signs of a struggle at the property. The 20-inch machete discovered in the kitchen sink had allegedly been washed and wiped clean.
Police Colonel Nattapon Phongsuksakul said officers were reviewing CCTV at the home to determine what really happened.
He said: ‘Based on the wounds, it is difficult for us to accept that claim because there was clearly a stab wound to the back.
‘There were multiple injuries across the body, including both slash and stab wounds. The fatal wound was a stab to the left side of the back, showing a direct plunging motion.
‘We firmly believe this was not a suicide as she claimed. What makes us doubt her account further is that she washed the knife.
‘The weapon used was a machete, and washing it suggests an attempt to conceal evidence. There is also CCTV footage from inside the house.’
2026.7.5 Islamist terrorist linked to 7/7 London bombings free to roam streets after release from mental hospital
A psychiatrist confirmed he suffers from extremist ideology
One of the terrorists linked to the 7/7 London bombings has been released back onto the streets following his release from a secure mental health unit.
Harron Aswat was jailed for 20 years for plotting to form an extremist training camp in 1999, and has been deemed a danger to national security by police.
A High Court judge ruled last year that the 50-year-old could be released from a south-east London mental hospital following the completion of his treatment.
The Telegraph claims that he has been released from the hospital despite multiple warnings.
He is believed to be moving to Batley, West Yorkshire, to live with his family.
It is understood that he will be monitored by the Home Office, and there are restrictions in place for Aswat, with consequences should he breach them.
In 2015, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a New York judge for plotting an extremist training camp in Oregon before 9/11, following orders from Abu Hamza.
He was deported from the US to the UK in 2022. He was detained upon his arrival at Bethlem Royal Hospital under the Mental Health Act, a move that is understood to be spurred on by national security concerns.
In the US, he reportedly confessed to being involved in both the 9/11 and the 7/7 terrorist atrocities.
In 2005, police traced 20 calls to a phone linked with Aswat, which were made by the 7/7 bombers hours before the attacks.
Aswat has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder called schizoaffective disorder.
The symptoms present as unpredictable and aggressive behaviour.
In 2022, a physiatrist said there was no evidence of him suffering from the disorder when the offenses were committed in Oregon in 1999.
The psychiatrist wrote in a report before he was brought to the UK: “Even when in a relatively stable mental state [Aswat] has continued to express violent extremist Islamic ideology.”
They added that Aswat was “highly ambivalent about the need for medication and had relapsed twice as a result of stopping treatment”, which coincided with violent outbursts.
The report concluded that “there remains the risk of Islamic violent extremism”.
The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philip, told The Telegraph: “It is staggering this man is being released. Aswat is a violent Islamist terrorist with serious mental health problems. He has been involved in plots that led to mass murder, and a psychiatrist concluded that he still espouses extremist views.
“Psychotic Islamist extremists like Aswat are an ongoing danger to the public and should not be released at all. If there is any basis upon which to deport him, then that would be a good alternative.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Protecting the British public is the Government’s first priority. We have some of the most robust counter-terrorism measures in the world, including powers for police and intelligence services to monitor and manage the risk posed by terrorist offenders and criminals.
“We do not routinely comment on individual cases, but where individuals are released from detention, appropriate measures are in place to manage risk and ensure public safety.”
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The attack happened in March 2024 and has been described as an act ‘carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power’
Two Romanian men have been jailed after stabbing an Iranian journalist three times near his home in London.
Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, have been jailed for eight and 12 years respectively.
Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed three times on March 29, 2024, and was left bleeding on the streets outside his home in Wimbledon, south west London.
The Romanian nationals denied their charges but were convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said at the Old Bailey today the “evidence overwhelmingly points” to the attack being carried out on behalf of the Iranian regime.
She said: “I am sure that this was an attack carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power.”
“Pouria Zeraati was a well known critic of the regime and he had previously been subjected to threats, as had members of his family,” the judge added.
Mr Zeraati sustained stab wounds to his thigh in what prosecutors said was “a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state”.
Badea and another man, David Andrei, who remains at large in Romania and was not on trial, “crowded” the journalist, with one of them stabbing him three times in the thigh, the court heard.
Stana waited in a blue Mazda 3 getaway car, which was flagged on CCTV during a “hostile reconnaissance” carried out before the stabbing.
In a victim impact statement, Mr Zeraati told the police the incident left him “scared and anxious”, compelling him to relocate abroad out of “fear of any reprisals”.
The two Romanians visited the property in Wimbledon on eight occasions across five dates and had flown into London “expressly” to attack the journalist, the prosecution said.
Plotting the attack had taken over a year, the prosecution added.
Rupert Kent, prosecuting, said: “These defendants knew, or at the very least ought reasonably to have known, the attack upon Mr Zeraati was instigated by a foreign power, we submit namely the Iranian regime, with which the defendants had an indirect relationship through third parties.”
Iran International, based in London, is “critical of the Iranian regime”, the court heard, with the publication being proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Islamic Republic.
Mr Zeraati was a high-profile journalist on Iran International, with a billboard of his face being seen in Tehran with a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” message accompanying it, the court heard.
Judge Cheema-Grubb said: “Oppressive regimes tend to do all they can to suppress opposition, they cannot abide the serious scrutiny that fearless journalists provide.”
“His first thought upon being attacked was that he had been targeted due to his work as a journalist critical of the Iranian regime,” said Mr Kent.
Jurors heard the attackers were seen laughing as they fled the scene and headed to Heathrow airport, to fly to Geneva, Switzerland.
Stana was described by his barrister, Peter Caldwell KC as “functionally illiterate” and “not aware of current affairs” so “could not have known” he was operating on behalf of Iran.
“Mr Stana was useful to others for the conduct that they had intended but he himself did not know the use to which he was being put,” said Mr Caldwell.
Badea’s barrister, David Spens KC, said the court “cannot be sure” it was his client who had stabbed Mr Zeraati.
A spokesman for Iran International said: “The attack on Pouria was appalling – terrifying for him and his wife, and shocking to his colleagues at Iran International.
“We are thankful and grateful to the police and the UK government for their work and expertise in bringing these men to justice.
“It would be good to think these sentences would act as a deterrence against further attacks.
“Our journalists are subject to an ongoing campaign of intimidation by the Islamic Republic of Iran – both in Iran itself where their relatives are routinely threatened and treated harshly as well as to themselves on British soil.”
He continued by thanking the British authorities and police for the protection they give the media company.
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