Author: Darren Smith

A man who deliberately set out to infect vulnerable young men and teenage boys with HIV through a sustained campaign of rape and sexual violence has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years. Adam Hall, 43, of Washington near Sunderland, was described by the court as “dangerous” and “selfish” after being found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on seven victims — five young men and two boys aged 15 and 17 — four of whom he also raped. The offending took place in Newcastle between 2016 and 2023, with Hall targeting vulnerable individuals he…

Three asylum seekers who entered Britain illegally via small boat have been convicted of gang raping a woman on Brighton beach after targeting her as she walked alone along the seafront in the early hours of the morning following a night out. Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, from Iran, and Egyptians Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, and Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, were found guilty by a jury at Lewes Crown Court of repeatedly raping the 33-year-old victim behind a beach hut in the early hours of 4 October last year. All three had been staying at a Home Office-approved asylum hotel in Brighton at the…

German kitchenware manufacturer Zwilling has issued an urgent product recall for two models of its Enfinigy kettle following reports that a manufacturing defect can cause the handle to loosen or break off entirely during use, sending boiling water spilling onto users and bystanders. The affected products — the Zwilling Enfinigy 1.5 L Kettle and the Enfinigy Pro 1.5 L Kettle — were sold across a range of well-known British high street and department stores, including Currys, House of Fraser, Robert Dyas, Fenwick and Selfridges. The kettles, which previously retailed at over £100 and were available in black, silver, gold and…

Donald Trump has instructed the United States Navy to open fire without warning on any vessel caught laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, dramatically escalating Washington’s posture in a waterway that has been effectively closed to commercial traffic since the spring. The order, issued on Thursday morning via a statement on the president’s Truth Social network, was accompanied by a pledge to triple the pace of American minesweeping operations already under way in the strait. What Trump’s order actually says — and what it changes “I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small…

Thursday marks the day each year when England pauses — if only briefly, and not everywhere — to acknowledge its patron saint. St George’s Day falls on 23 April, the presumed anniversary of the death of a fourth-century Roman soldier who almost certainly never set foot in the country that now claims him. The date has been observed for more than six centuries, yet its meaning, its status in the national calendar and even the historical reality of the figure at its centre remain matters of lively dispute. Who St George really was — and why almost nothing about him…

Prince Harry has made an unannounced visit to Ukraine, arriving in Kyiv by train in the early hours of Thursday morning to attend the Kyiv Security Conference and deliver a message of solidarity to a country he said the world must not forget. The Duke of Sussex, 41, travelled to the Ukrainian capital after flying to Poland and making the overnight rail journey to Kyiv — the same route used by most Western visitors to the country given the security restrictions on air travel. His arrival comes just one week after Russia launched what has been described as its deadliest…

The family of a baby girl who was fatally mauled by a dog at just 13 weeks old have paid a deeply moving tribute to their daughter, describing her as the heart of the family whose loss has left a void that can never be filled. Maggie-May Ann Moody died on 9 April at a property in Dormanstown, near Redcar, in an attack involving what has been described as a pocket bully-type dog. She was one day away from reaching her three-month milestone. An inquest into her death opened at Teesside Coroner’s Court on Tuesday. In a funeral notice, her…

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi was targeted outside a press briefing in Berlin on Thursday after an individual threw what police believe was tomato juice over him as he left Germany’s federal press conference building. Pahlavi, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran, had just concluded a media briefing in which he spoke critically about the ceasefire between the United States and Iran when the incident took place. As he emerged from the building, the red liquid was thrown over him from behind, saturating the back of his blazer and his neck. Despite the startling nature of the…

China appears to have used a carefully constructed propaganda video to signal the imminent arrival of its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, embedding the revelation in symbolism designed to generate maximum speculation while stopping short of a formal announcement. The video, released on the eve of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s 77th anniversary, follows four generations of naval personnel and features a new recruit named “He Jian” — a name that in Mandarin is a homophone for “nuclear vessel.” The three characters representing China’s existing commissioned carriers — the Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian — are each echoed in the names of…

The jury in the trial of a teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering a 13-month-old baby boy he was in the process of adopting has been formally discharged, with a fresh panel expected to be sworn in on Monday to hear the case from the beginning. The discharge of the six men and six women came on the fourth day of proceedings at Preston Crown Court, when Mr Justice Mark Turner told the jury that “circumstances have arisen which make it impossible for this trial to continue.” The reason for the discharge cannot be reported for legal reasons. The…