A woman who challenged knife-wielding assailants suspected of hacking to death a British soldier in London on Wednesday said she intervened because “it was better having them (the weapons) aimed on one person”.

Cub scout leader Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, explained in Thursday’s Daily Telegraph that one of the men told her they wanted “to start a war in London tonight” when she asked them why they had carried out the attack.

The mother-of-two ran from a passing bus after seeing the victim lying in the road and tried to take his pulse.

It was only then that she noticed the arsenal of weapons, including knives and a revolver.

“He was not high, he was not on drugs, he was not an alcoholic or drunk, he was just distressed, upset,” she said of the first attacker she talked to, the paper reported.

“I said ‘right now it is only you versus many people, you are going to lose, what would you like to do?’ and he said ‘I would like to stay and fight’.”

She later approached the second suspect and asked for him to hand over his weapons.

“I thought it was better having them aimed on one person like me rather than everybody there, children were starting to leave school as well,” she told the Telegraph.

Britain’s top policeman confirmed two men had been arrested following the “shocking and horrific” attack.

“We have launched a murder investigation, being led by the Counter Terrorism Command,” explained Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe

“Two men have been arrested in connection with that murder.”

Source: uk.news.yahoo.com

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Last month Nicholas Lovell, 38, of West Street, Oldland Common, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, at Bristol Crown Court.

Lovell, who was banned from driving at the time, fled from the crash scene.

During a previous hearing, he also pleaded guilty to one count of driving while disqualified.

The court was told at the time of the crash he was driving a Citroen Picasso owned by his partner Louise Cox, 35, also of Oldland Common, who admitted perverting the course of justice by providing police with false details about who had been driving her vehicle.

Lovell was sentenced to 10 years and six months and banned from driving for life.

Cox was jailed for one year.

Source: bbc.co.uk

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Earlier, he told Mold Crown Court he accidentally knocked her over in his Land Rover but did not remember what he had done with her.

Her body has never been found.

Giving evidence in his defence on Wednesday, he told the court he was drunk and panicked after hitting her.

The prosecution claims he murdered April in a sexually motivated attack after abducting her as she played near her home on the Bryn-Y-Gog estate.

Under cross-examination by Elwen Evans QC for the prosecution, he was asked: “Where is April?

He responded: “I don’t know.”

Prosecution: “What did you, Mr Bridger, do with April’s body?”

Mr Bridger: “I don’t know.”

Prosecution: “You have absolutely no idea?”

Mr Bridger: “No”.

Prosecution: “Is that what you’re telling the jury?”

Mr Bridger: “Yes”.

Prosecution: “Can you just consider the scale and the scope of the police search… can we agree that whatever you did with April’s body you got rid of her so thoroughly that no part of her apart from possibly the blood and bone (remained)… do you agree?”

Mr Bridger went on to say; “I’m not proud of that.”

Ms Evans said she wanted to talk about an image on the day “April was abducted by you”.

Mr Bridger responded: “I didn’t abduct April.”

Ms Evans: “Shall we use a more neutral expression… the day she left Bryn-Y-Gog in your car?”

Mr Bridger: “Yes.”

She went on to discuss an indecent cartoon image viewed at 12:11 on 1 Oct which involved “duct taping”. He said he had not noticed the duct taping.

He had previously been asked why he had silver duct taping on his car’s dashboard and said it was used in work.

Asked why he was viewing the image, he said he had “no idea” and it may have been in the wrong file.

He was also asked about the 14-year-old girl who he suspected might be his daughter and why the girl’s mother had made a police statement saying she had never had any romantic involvement with him.

Army career

He said the mother had been referring to an earlier time when she was 15 but the sexual relationship had taken place years after.

Ms Evans asked: “How easy do you find it to lie through your teeth?”

Mr Bridger: “I don’t find it easy, no.”

Asked about his fabricated army career, he accepted it was a “fantasy”.

Pressed further on why he continued the lie for many years, he asked what was he supposed to do, “change my mind halfway through”.

Ms Evans looked at the jury and repeated: “What are you supposed to do, change your mind halfway through.”

He was also asked about a police interview on 4 October after he had been arrested on suspicion of abduction and murder.

The jury heard he was still lying about his military career in the interview, claiming he had been accepted into the Royal Navy.

He was asked in court several times whether that was true but said he did not know.

Asked why he was lying about that and other military claims, he said it was “to impress… my family, my children”.

Ms Evans said: “These were police officers interviewing you about the murder and abduction of April Jones. Who were you trying to impress?”

The jury was told he made further claims in the interview about bomb disposal, close combat training, mercenary work and other military experiences “because I wanted the thrill, I wanted the buzz”.

He accepted he had lied.

Ms Evans said: “It goes further than that Mr Bridger, it’s not just that you lie about it, you weave a complex web of lies about it don’t you?”

Mr Bridger: “No.”

She also asked whether there was “some way that someone following one of your stories would know whether it was fantasy or not? Is there some clue in the way you tell your lies?”

Mr Bridger said: “There was plenty of people that didn’t believe me yes… so they weren’t good lies were they?”

Ms Evans said they were lies that he was happy to repeat while being questioned on suspicion of murder.

Earlier the court had heard Mr Bridger’s account of how he says he accidentally ran April over as she played near her home.

He said he saw a girl in front of him but as he went to pull away “the car rose up”.

He realised what had happened then tried to revive her but “there was no reaction”.

He said he had been drinking and panicked so could not remember how he disposed of her body.

The court has previously heard April’s blood was found in several locations around Mr Bridger’s home.

He also denies intending to pervert the course of justice.

The case is due to continue on Thursday.

Source: bbc.co.uk

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Denise Fergus attended a parole hearing via videolink from Liverpool to demand a full examination into Venables’ past.

She called for an inquiry into whether her son’s murder had a sexual motive.

Two-year-old James was killed in Merseyside in February 1993 by Venables and Robert Thompson, who were aged 10 at the time.

‘Failure to rehabilitate’

After the parole hearing Ms Fergus said she hoped officials would now look into alleged sexual elements to his offending.

She added: “I think it’s a big move forward for us all. I’m just hoping they keep to their word now and take into consideration our concerns over Venables.

“I still believe Venables is a danger to the public. He has proven that his rehabilitation didn’t work by the offences he has committed since he murdered James.”

Her solicitor Sean Sexton said Venables should never have been released from prison.

He said: “Denise believes the initial parole hearing in 2001 was inadequate – there was a rush to declare him rehabilitated.

“Too much had been invested in Venables by those supervising him. Failure to rehabilitate him was not an option.”

‘Drug and drink problems’

When he was re-arrested it emerged Venables, who was given a new identity on release from prison, had breached his parole conditions by visiting Merseyside.

He had developed drug and drink problems, began acting anti-socially and told friends his real identity.

It was found he had downloaded 102 indecent images of children and had been distributing indecent images.

He will stay in prison unless the parole board decides he no longer presents a risk to the public.

The board has given no indication of how long it will take to consider Venables’ parole application.

James’s father, Ralph Bulger, will address the panel later.‪

Source: bbc.co.uk

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It has been removed for examination.

A number of homes in the area were evacuated during the police operation. Residents have now been allowed to return to their properties.

Source: bbc.co.uk

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Seven vehicles worth more than £100,000, including two BMWs and a Mercedes were also seized by detectives.

Five of those arrested are still being questioned.

Police said it was a sophisticated cannabis factory that involved the re-routing of electricity cables.

Eleven premises were searched across County Down, County Antrim and the greater Belfast areas.

A sum of money was also recovered.

Det Ch Supt Roy McComb, head of PSNI’s organised crime branch, said: “We are delighted with the seizure of these drugs and the number of arrests which have been made.

“We believe we have dismantled an organised crime group and greatly reduced the threat posed by drugs to communities in Northern Ireland and by the dangers posed by cannabis cultivation.

He said police had been “working closely” with colleagues in the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) for a considerable length of time.

“The commitment and skills of SOCA has greatly assisted the work of the PSNI in this and other investigations.

“In addition, along with our partner agencies we will be looking at the possibility of seizing assets.”

Source: bbc.co.uk

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Properties in France and Germany were also raided.

The Home Office said 11 people were held in England, and seven in France.

Those arrested in the UK have been taken to a police station in Kent for questioning. All those arrested were of Sri Lankan origin, with the exception of a 41-year-old Dutch national who was arrested in Kent.

Officers also seized computers, documents, cash and mobile phones from a number of addresses.

‘International crime’

The pan-European operation follows a joint investigation involving Home Office immigration enforcement investigators, Kent Police, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), Europol and French and German law enforcement agencies.

Those under arrest are suspected of being part of an alleged criminal network that smuggles Sri Lankans into the UK in vehicles through Channel ports at a cost of about £4,500 per person.

Rob Allen, assistant director for Immigration Enforcement Criminal and Financial Investigations, said: “People smuggling is an international crime which requires international co-operation, and the arrests made today show that co-operation is yielding results.

“We believe this operation will have a significant impact on an organised network we suspect has been a major player in terms of bringing Sri Lankan nationals to the UK illegally.”

He added: “Our investigation will continue with the evidence we have seized today.”

Deputy Chief Constable of Kent Police, Alan Pughsley, said: “This sends a strong message to the criminals who seek to use our ports in this illegal trade – we will work together with UK and overseas partners to track you down and bring you to justice.”

Details of arrests in the UK are as follows:

• 38-year-old man arrested at address in Balmoral Drive, Hayes
• 50-year-old man arrested at address in Aurelia Road, Croydon
• 51-year-old man arrested at address in Rayners Lane, Harrow
• 46-year-old man arrested at address in Brick Lane, Northolt
• 33-year-old man arrested at address in Bradley Road, Luton
• 33-year-old woman arrested at address in Mitcham Road, East Ham
• 32-year-old man arrested at address in Drenon Square, Hayes
• 24-year-old woman arrested at address in Salisbury Avenue, Southend
• 31-year-old man arrested at address in Salisbury Avenue, Southend
• 29-year-old woman arrested at address in Salisbury Avenue, Southend
• 41-year-old man arrested after attending a police station in Kent

Source: bbc.co.uk

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Two people have reportedly been shot in Woolwich, south east London, after armed police were called to a machete attack, eyewitnesses say.

Dozens of weapons and pools of blood could be seen on the ground in John Wilson Street, where a man wearing a Help for Heroes T-shirt is said to have been attacked.

Police were sent to the scene at around 2.20pm.

The immediate area has been shut down, with eyewitnesses describing the incident on Twitter as “horrific”.

On its Twitter account, the Metropolitan Police helicopter team called the incident “serious”.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We believe at this stage officers were called to reports of an assault.”

London Air Ambulance confirmed one patient was airlifted from the scene, while another was taken away by road ambulance.

The service would not confirm the nature of their injuries or where they were being taken.

More follows…

Source: uk.news.yahoo.com

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Police killer Dale Cregan has admitted the murders of a father and son.

He shot dead Mark Short, 23, in a pub in Droylsden, Greater Manchester in May 2012.

Three months later, in August 2012, he killed Mark’s father David Short, 46, in a gun and grenade attack at his home in Clayton, also in Greater Manchester.

Cregan, 29, had already admitted murdering two policewomen in Hattersley, Greater, Manchester, last September.

His trial is continuing as he is still pleading not guilty to a charge of attempting to murder the householder of another address.

The court had heard that Cregan gunned down Mark Short as he played pool in the Cotton Tree pub in Droylsden on May 25.

Mark died in the arms of his father after he was shot by Cregan over a dispute with a member of a rival family.

His father had also been a target but had avoided the shooting because he had been in a toilet at the time.

Three others were injured in the burst of gunfire. Cregan admitted attempting to murder John Collins, Ryan Pridding and Michael Belcher at the same time he admitted murdering the Shorts.

On August 10, Cregan went to David Short’s house chased him into an alleyway where he was shot nine times with two guns including the gun that was later used to shoot the two PCs.

A grenade was detonated on his body which caused “massive injuries”.

Cregan is then alleged to have attacked the nearby home of Sharon Hark. Cregan denies trying to murder Ms Hark.

In the second week of the trial, Cregan admitted luring unarmed police constables Fiona Bone, 32, and Nicola Hughes, 23, with a bogus emergency call before using a Glock handgun and a military grenade to kill them on September 18 last year.

The murder of David Short the previous month was done in a similar manner using the same gun and the same type of grenade.

His barrister, Simon Csoka QC, began the day by asking six of the seven remaining counts to be put to his client.

Cregan, wearing a grey Adidas top, then stood up and calmly answered “guilty” to murdering Mark Short and David Short.

He pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of the three men in the Cotton Tree at same the time as Mark Short was killed.

He also admitted causing an explosion at a property in Luke Road, Droylsden, on August 10, shortly after the murder of David Short.

The jury foreman was then invited by trial judge Mr Justice Holroyde to formally return guilty verdicts on those counts.

The judge then told the jurors that the defendant remained on trial for the single allegation remaining against him – that he attempted to murder Sharon Hark at her home in Luke Road.

In his closing speech, Mr Csoka said: “Members of the jury … You now know for sure that he has murdered four people and that he has attempted to murder others inside the Cotton Tree pub.

“You may think after what has just happened … ‘what does it matter now?’, ‘what difference does it make?, ‘why does Dale Cregan care?’.

But he said the standards of judging the evidence against him on the allegation of attempted murder “remain exactly the same”.

He said Cregan had already given an explanation in January in prison to a psychologist and psychiatrist as to why he killed the Shorts.

“The threats to rape his sister, the threats against his son, the threats to rape his son, threats going back years and years.

“You remember Dale Cregan saying he was not able to sleep, that he had obsessive thoughts of killing and him saying he had the best night’s sleep of his life after killing David Short.

“A clear explanation as to what he did to the Short family.”

But he said all the evidence of what happened at Ms Hark’s house, did not point to attempted murder.

Mr Csoka said: “We are dealing with someone who when he sets out to kill, he kills.”

It is alleged by the Crown that the violence first started after a “long-standing feud” between two rival Manchester families – the Shorts and the Atkinsons.

The Cotton Tree shooting was said to have been ordered by Leon Atkinson, 35, from Ashton-under-Lyne, and that Cregan recruited Luke Livesey, 27, from Hattersley, Damian Gorman, 37, from Glossop, Ryan Hadfield, 28, from Droylsden, and Matthew James, 33, from Clayton, for the task.

They all deny the murder of Mark Short and the attempted murders of Mr Collins, Mr Pridding and Mr Belcher.

Anthony Wilkinson, 33, from Beswick, pleaded guilty during the trial to murdering David Short. He denies one count of the attempted murder of Sharon Hark in Droylsden on the same day and causing an explosion with a hand-grenade.

Francis Dixon, 37, from Stalybridge, and Jermaine Ward, 24, deny the above charges relating to David Short and Sharon Hark.

Mohammed Ali, 23, from Chadderton, denies assisting an offender.

Source: uk.news.yahoo.com

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An armed robber, a drug dealer and a man who beat people up for money, he spent a total of 17 years in prison.

He said that at one time he was deemed so violent he came close to being kicked out of the mainstream prison system and sent to Broadmoor high-security hospital.

But today, Munday is a family man and a university graduate. Now 45 years old, he’s still physically imposing but is trying to use his mistakes to help others.

He is currently a volunteer with the St Giles Trust, a charity that uses ex-offenders to try to help recently released prisoners so they can avoid going back to jail.

Cost of reoffending

He blames his childhood for turning him into the “angry and bitter” youth and adult he became.

He said his mother had tried to kill him three times by the time he was 12. He had been in and out of care since the age of four and had suffered physical and emotional abuse that led him to run away countless times.

Crime for him, he says, was about survival.

And like many others, he spent years going in and out of prison.

He was last released nine years ago and credits the St Giles Trust with giving him the opportunity to finally start building a career.

According to the National Audit Office, the cost of crime committed by previous offenders is estimated to be up to £13bn per year.

The latest quarterly local reoffending figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) showed there was a mixed picture across the country. While five regions – East Midlands, London, North East, West Midlands and Yorkshire & Humberside – saw a significant reduction in reoffending, Probation trusts in Hertfordshire, Lancashire, and Surrey and Sussex had significant increases in reoffending.

Overall, MoJ’s figures show that 47% of offenders who leave prison go on to commit further crime within a year.

It’s a problem that Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has said he wants to address.

Under new plans, prisoners who have served less than 12 months would start to receive support on leaving prison and probation services would be changed to a payment-by-results system.

Alongside private providers, it is hoped that charities such as the St Giles Trust and ex-offenders like Munday can help bring reoffending rates down.

As yet, though, there are no details on how they would be paid for results and what the criteria would be.

The Institute for Government’s Tom Gash, who was a crime policy adviser to Tony Blair’s government, told the BBC that Mr Grayling’s set of reforms was ambitious.

“By outsourcing a service that’s never been outsourced before he’s trying to introduce a new way of paying for those services with payment for results, which is very complicated, particularly in this area where it’s hard to measure the impact that providers have on people’s reoffending,” he said.

“He’s also trying to do this without spending any more money and, in fact, trying to deal with maybe up to twice as many people.”

In a recent report, the think tank Policy Exchange said the government was right to make changes and made recommendations including the creation of prison league tables to see which had the lowest rates of reoffending.

Wake-up call

The difficulty of trying to help former prisoners was clear to see on an afternoon at the St Giles Trust’s headquarters in south London.

Munday had a meeting booked with a man who had recently been released from prison for being in possession of a knife but he failed to turn up.

While in prison the man had asked for help applying for housing and benefits.

When Munday called him he didn’t answer his phone. He had missed every meeting in the six weeks since his release.

Munday says he and other ex-offenders can make a difference, but it is important for prisoners like the young man who missed his appointments to need to “want to help themselves”.

No one method of rehabilitation has ever been proved to completely eradicate reoffending in any country.

Munday said the wake-up call for him was when a prison officer who knew him as a young man heard he was going to be transferred from Wormwood Scrubs to Broadmoor.

He offered him the option of entering the therapeutic unit for violent offenders at Wormwood Scrubs rather than going to Broadmoor.

“It made me sit there and think that at 15 years old I was in a position where no school wanted to take me, and then I was in the same situation in the prison system.

“It looked like in that 20-year period, absolutely nothing’s changed in my life. It’s just got progressively worse and I’ve progressed to this point where I am such a bad person that even the prisons can’t handle me.”

‘Stake in society’

The two years he spent in intensive group therapy helped him confront the abuse he suffered in childhood and start making changes in his life.

He started working for qualifications in the prison gym and, for the first time, imagined a life without crime.

Towards the end of his sentence as an open prisoner, he was able to complete a degree in sport and exercise science.

He was finally released in 2004 after serving more than 10 years for armed robbery, possession of a firearm and intimidation of witnesses.

But he had to find his own accommodation on his first night out of prison with no help from anyone.

That many prisoners leave with only £46 in their pocket and nowhere to go is one of the reasons Munday cites for prisoners turning back to crime.

“Make sure they’ve got somewhere to go when they are actually released, deal with it whilst they are still in prison, get their benefits while they are still in prison, because you’ve got people walking out the gate – they’ve got nowhere to go.

“They are being set up to fail straight away,” he said.

Dr Thom Brooks of Durham University, who has written books about crime and punishment, says people are far less likely to commit crime if they see themselves “as having a stake in society”.

Munday agrees: “We need housing, we need jobs, but most of all people need food and they need to feel part of something.”

Policy Exchange agrees that housing is essential, but that the establishment of real work in prison, literacy and numeracy courses and a major clampdown on drugs in prison are vital too.

Munday believes ex-prisoners like him and organisations such as St Giles can make a difference to the lives of prisoners and stop them reoffending – which is in everyone’s interest.

“I’m not the greatest role model in the world and I’ve made a lot more mistakes than most, but despite that I still made the changes in my life.

“I’ve got a house, I’ve got a family I love and who love me and I might not have the finances or everything else but I’m quite relaxed with my life now.”

Source: bbc.co.uk

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