Author: Darren Smith

Tens of thousands of protesters have poured into central London for two rival demonstrations in what police have described as an unprecedented policing operation costing £4.5 million, as the city simultaneously hosts the FA Cup final at Wembley. Around 80,000 people are expected across both events — an estimated 50,000 at Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally and a further 30,000 at the annual pro-Palestine Nakba Day march. Some 4,000 officers have been deployed, with 660 drafted in from forces outside the Metropolitan Police, alongside armoured vehicles, horses, dogs, drones and helicopters. By 1pm, eleven arrests had been made for…

British Transport Police have released CCTV footage of a man they want to trace following the sexual assault of a woman on the stairs of a busy London Overground station last month. The incident took place at Walthamstow Central station on 29 April, when a man approached the victim on a flight of stairs before allegedly assaulting her. The suspect left the area following the attack. Detectives have now released an image of a man they believe may have information that could assist their investigation. A British Transport Police spokesperson said: “Detectives would like to speak to the man pictured,…

A man in his twenties has been found dead inside a car in woodland near the M54 motorway in Staffordshire, after a teenager with potentially life-threatening injuries was discovered at a separate address in Smethwick — with police now investigating a collision that appears to connect both incidents. Officers were alerted in the early hours of Friday morning after West Midlands Police received reports of a man in his late teens being taken to hospital by ambulance from an address in Smethwick. The teenager, whose injuries were described as potentially life-threatening, was said to have been involved in a collision…

A Syrian refugee has been found guilty of raping a 19-year-old woman in a public toilet on Bournemouth seafront after luring her away from the beachfront during a night out, a court has heard. Mohammed Abdullah, 19, locked his victim inside a Portaloo before subjecting her to a violent sexual assault as she desperately tried to fight him off. He was convicted of rape and assault by penetration following a trial at which he had claimed the encounter was consensual. Sentencing Abdullah to an inevitable custodial term, Judge Robert Pawson told him directly: “On the 5th to 6th July, having…

Nearly half of the judges sitting at the European Court of Human Rights had no experience as judges in their own countries before being appointed to the Strasbourg court, according to an analysis by the Daily Mail that has reignited debate about the quality and legitimacy of Europe’s top human rights tribunal. The Daily Mail’s audit of judges’ CVs found that 19 of the court’s 46 justices had never presided over a case before joining the ECHR. Among them are career academics, civil servants and diplomats with no judicial background whatsoever. A further two judges were appointed as so-called “ad…

Israel has announced it will launch a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times over a column alleging that Israeli soldiers and prison guards systematically sexually abused Palestinian prisoners — with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemning the piece as “hideous and distorted lies” and accusing the paper of perpetuating a “blood libel.” The legal action was announced by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which described the article as “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press.” Netanyahu went further, saying: “They defamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel…

A North African asylum seeker described by police as a known repeat offender has died after plunging from the 17th floor of a building in Germany while attempting to flee officers who had cornered him following a knife attack on an Italian woman. The incident, which has circulated widely on social media, saw police respond to reports of the stabbing before tracking the suspect to the high-rise building. As officers closed in, the man attempted to escape by climbing or jumping from the 17th floor and fell to his death. The condition of the Italian woman victim has not been…

The Taliban has formally recognised child marriages under a sweeping new family law regulation, establishing specific legal provisions governing marriages involving minors and codifying rules that effectively render a girl’s silence as consent to marriage — the latest in a series of measures that have systematically stripped Afghan women and girls of their most basic rights. The 31-page regulation, titled Principles of Separation Between Spouses, outlines the conditions under which marriages can be contracted and dissolved under Taliban-interpreted Islamic law. According to Article 5, marriages arranged for children by relatives other than their father or grandfather are considered legally valid…

A former East London imam who used claims of supernatural powers and threats of black magic to rape and sexually abuse seven women and girls over more than a decade has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 20 years. Abdul Halim Khan, 54, of Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday after being convicted in February of 21 offences including nine counts of rape, five counts of rape of a child under 13, four counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault of a child under 13, and…

A paedophile who spent years pretending to be a non-verbal wheelchair user incapable of holding up his own head — all to avoid standing trial for child sex offences — has been jailed for 15 years after CCTV footage exposed the elaborate deception, with his brother convicted alongside him for helping maintain the lie. John Siddell, 41, of Chestnut Street, Ashington, Northumberland, was convicted at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday of 15 child sex offences against three boys aged between four and 14, as well as perverting the course of justice. His brother James Siddell, 44, was also convicted of…