Violence related to alcohol is reduced
Fewer people were treated in hospitals for drink-related violence in the first
year of relaxed licensing laws (Richard Ford writes).
Cardiff University’s Violence Research Group estimates that 364,000 people
across England and Wales sought treatment in accident and emergency
departments, 6,000 fewer than in 2005.
Overall, the number of people treated in A&E departments for injuries
arising from street disorder fell by 2 per cent last year. The number of
women treated fell by 8 per cent, although the figure for men remained
stable.
Civilian Iraq deaths
At least 59 British civilians have died in Iraq since the start of the war in
2003, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said. The figure could be higher,
because only cases where consular assistance has been sought are recorded.
The figure was given in a written Commons answer by Foreign Office Minister
Kim Howells.
Prison complaints
The Prison Service is to overhaul its staff complaints procedure after being
threatened with a formal investigation into sexual harassment by the Equal
Opportunities Commission. The commission threatened the investigation after
13 complaints of harassment from 2001-05 to its helpline.
Detention ruling
The imprisonment in Britain of a Moroccan man accused of involvement in
planning the 9/11 attacks is unlawful, the High Court ruled. Farid Hilali
was arrested in 2004 when Spain sought his extradition because of alleged
links with Imad Yarkas, but the Spanish Supreme Court has dismissed evidence
against Yarkas.
Zhukov guilty
Petr Zhukov, the son of the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, was convicted
yesterday at Southwark Crown Court of unlawful wounding on July 7 last year.
He faces jail and deportation after a vodka-fuelled brawl left a City banker
needing 25 stitches to his face. Zhukov remains on bail.
Barclays to face investigation
Barclays Bank is to be investigated by the information watchdog over
allegations of misselling financial products and breaching customer privacy.
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, began an official investigation
after an undercover operation focusing on one of the bank’s call centres and
a branch in Surrey.
The nine-month inquiry was carried out by the BBC’s Whistleblower television
programme, which alleged that bank staff lied and cheated to make a sale,
customers were misled and sold products without their knowledge and there
were serious flaws in security. The film also showed call-centre staff
accessing customers’ accounts without a valid reason.
The investigation focused on a call centre at Doxford in Sunderland and a
branch in Guildford.
Blackman appeal
The trial of the serial rapist and killer Joji Obara could drag on until 2010
after Tokyo prosecutors confirmed that they would appeal against his
acquittal for the killing of Lucie Blackman (Richard Lloyd Parry reports).
Obara’s legal team have already lodged their own appeal against his conviction
and life sentence for eight other counts of rape and one of rape leading to
death.
Prosecutors in Tokyo told the British Embassy that they would appeal against
acquittal for the abduction, rape, killing and dismemberment of the British
bar hostess.
Killer pitbull case
The uncle of a five-year-old girl killed by a pitbull terrier was warned that
he faces jail.
Ellie Lawrenson was at her grandmother’s home in Merseyside on New Year’s Eve
when she was attacked and suffered fatal injuries. Kiel Simpson, 23, pleaded
guilty at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court to owning a dog banned under the 1991
Dangerous Dogs Act. Earlier Jacqueline Lawrenson, 46, Ellie’s grandmother,
appeared before Liverpool Crown Court charged with manslaughter through
gross negligence. She is also charged with possessing diamorphine and has
yet to enter a plea.
Guilty of terror plot
Four men have admitted being part of a terror plot to cause explosions with
Dhiren Barot, the convicted terrorist.
Barot, 34, was jailed last year for conspiracy to murder after planning
atrocities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Junade Feroze, 31, Mohammed Zia Ul Haq, 28, Abdul Aziz Jalil, 34, and Omar
Abdul Rehman, 23, pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court to conspiracy to
cause an explosion or explosions likely to endanger life.
Qaisar Shaffi, 28, from Willesden, northwest London, denied the charge and
will stand trial next week.
Body of woman found in car boot
The body of a 32-year-old woman missing for six days was found last night in
the boot of a car (Patrick Foster writes).
Detectives searching for Janet Hossain, a mother of four, found her body in
the boot of her silver Mercedes near Tilbury railway station in Essex.
Mrs Hossain, of Manor Park, East London, had not been seen since leaving her
home last Thursday night. Her car had also been reported missing. At the
time police described her disappearance as “completely out of character”.
A man, 26, was arrested on Sunday in connection with her disappearance and
bailed to return to an East London police station in June.
Scotland Yard said: “We are currently making inquiries to identify the female.
A post mortem will be held in due course.”
21 arrested in raids on cocaine gang
More than 400 police officers took part in early-morning raids across Britain
yesterday in an attempt to break up an international drug ring (Jack Malvern
writes).
Twenty-eight houses and flats were raided and twenty-one people arrested. The
raids began at 3am in Ilford and Hackney, East London, and continued at 6am
at addresses in Teesside.
Police said that crack was brought into Britain from Jamaica, then taken by
train from London to Middlesbrough, which dealers used as their base for the
North East of England.
The operation, led by Cleveland Police, also led to raids in the West
Midlands, North Yorkshire, Co Durham and Northumbria. Dave Lamplough, of
Cleveland Police, said that the gang imported drugs from Jamaica through
women couriers, then moved them around by rail.
Woman crushed
A grandmother was killed and her daughter and granddaughter were in a critical
condition after being hit by a bus in Mortlake, southwest London. It is
understood a No 209 bus ploughed into the family, who have not been named. A
man in his forties, believed to be the bus driver, was arrested.
Pregnancy case
A pregnant woman asked to choose between her child and her job has been
awarded more than £8,000 in compensation from her former bosses. Angela
Hildreth had been a £30,000-a-year finance manager at the Perdu bar in
Newcastle for two months when she found out she was pregnant in January last
year.
Brush with death
A woman narrowly avoided being killed after going out for some fresh air.
Moments after Christine Liley, 43, left her office in Ferndown, Dorset, a
car hit the building and landed directly on top of her chair. The
50-year-old driver lost control of his car when he was taken ill. He was
airlifted to hospital but later died.
Health advice texts
Patients can now access medical advice by text message through a new service
provided by the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Access is limited to phones
that can access the internet. Users in Britain can text “bmj myhealth” to
60300 at a cost of £3 and will be sent a link to the advice site.
Money in the Banksy
A self-portrait by Banksy set a record price of £198,000 at auction at
Bonham’s, London. The price achieved by the work, which features a stencil
of a chimp’s head, smashes the artist’s previous record of £102,000, set
this year. After that sale, Banksy said on his website: “I can’t believe you
morons buy this s***”.
Lawyers ‘must pay fees to miners’
Legal firms must be shamed into returning fees taken out of compensation
payments made to sick former miners, a Labour peer said yesterday.
Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract, a former MP, said it was “appalling” that
individuals were not getting their full payouts.
The peer, himself a former miner, said he had discovered that two firms made
£100 million out of the official government fund set up to pay for cases.
“But they haven’t been satisfied with that; they’ve been taking money out of
miners’ compensation,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Billions of pounds has already been paid out to compensate former miners
suffering from respiratory diseases and conditions such as vibration white
finger.
But Lord Lofthouse said many “only get a pittance” and were unaware that a
share of it had gone to lawyers.
“If there’s been a decision on a certain amount of money for compensation for
a particular individual, all that money should go to the miner,” he said.
He said he wanted Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to “go into it thoroughly . . .
so we can take it up with the Law Society or the individual solicitors and
hope they will be so shamed that they pay the money back”.
John Mann, the Labour MP, who has been investigating claims of double-charging
of miners, said he estimated that the amount of money involved was nearly
£50 million. The practice of double-charging was “outrageous”, he said,
adding that solicitors who refused to pay back fees should be struck off by
the Law Society.
Councillor arrested
A Liberal Democrat councillor has been arrested on suspicion of electoral
fraud. Khurshid Ahmed, 48, a well-known businessman in the Oldham area, was
released on bail and will be allowed to contest his ward in the local
government elections next week. The case centres on alleged irregularities
in applications for postal votes.
Flu drug controls
Ministers are considering stricter controls for over-the-counter flu remedies
amid fears that they are being used to produce a Class A drug. Police
believe common decongestants are being used to make methylamphetamine, or
“crystal meth”, which produces effects similar to crack cocaine.
Papers lost in road
Confidential documents including VAT returns belonging to Revenue and Customs
were found strewn across the A52 Derby Road in Nottingham. A spokesman for
the department said officers were assessing the origin of the papers. He
added that the department used contractors to store its paperwork.
