Escaped Prisoner Who Terrorised Women Gets Life

A sex attacker who battered women in their homes after fleeing prison while on day release has been jailed for life.

Lee Cyrus, 48, preyed on vulnerable women in their homes, ringing their doorbells, before smashing their heads with weapons.

He went on an horrific crime spree after going missing from HMP North Sea Camp open prison, Boston, Lincolnshire in October 2012.

Lee Cyrus was described as 'very dangerous' by police

His offences included a string of sex attacks, acts of grievous bodily harm, aggravated burglary and knifepoint robbery.

One attack involved Cyrus - who wore a black balaclava - battering a woman at her home in Hampstead Heath, north London, after ringing the doorbell.

Cyrus peers into the window of a home in London to see if anyone is in

He smashed the 63-year-old woman over the head with a piece of wood or stone leaving a 1.5cm cut to her scalp.

Another attack saw Cyrus call at the door of a 61-year-old woman in north-west London and hitting her across the face with a four foot metal bar.

He struck her in the face with the metal bar and told her to "shut up" and "stop screaming", detectives said.

Cyrus then pushed against her door and tried to get in but he ran off when she resisted. The victim was left with a 5cm cut to her face.

He rings the doorbell

A third attack saw the knife-wielding, masked predator break into the bedroom of an 81-year-old woman.

He demanded money and took her bag which contained cash, credit card, photos of her grandchildren and other items.

Cyrus was also found guilty of the knifepoint robbery of a 33-year-old woman who was entering her home in Haringey, north London.

The masked intruder swings the metal bar as the door opens

Cyrus pulled out a knife and pressed it up against her neck, cutting her slightly to the chin and throat.

She let go of her bag instantly and Cyrus fled with her mobile phone, cash, credit card, keys, glasses and other items.

On other occasions Cyrus leapt out of the dark to expose himself to women walking by and admitted planning to rape one victim.

Cyrus was eventually caught  after police received a call from a member of the public who recognised the fugitive from a Wanted leaflet.

He crashes into the home, landing the weapon in his victim's face

Police then spotted Cyrus by Highgate Cemetery on Highgate Hill and he was arrested after a brief struggle.

Acting Detective Superintendent Raffaele D'Orsi described Cyrus as a "forensically aware predator".

At Southwark Crown Court, Cyrus, also known as Ivan Leach, received sentences ranging from two years to life for offences. All sentences are to run concurrently.

He leaves after the attack

Judge Deborah Taylor said the victims came forward with great fortitude and resolve and that she found that the evidence they gave was "'chilling".

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Belfast Bomb: Attackers 'Stoop To New Low'

A bomb attack in Belfast city centre is a "new low" for dissident republicans opposed to the peace process, the Northern Ireland Secretary has said.

Theresa Villiers described the blast in the bustling Cathedral Quarter as a "despicable attack that could have put lives at risk and injured many people".

"It's particularly callous to carry out this sort of attack at a time when people are starting their festive celebrations or maybe finishing their Christmas shopping," she told Sky News.

"An attack at this time of year is stooping to a new low."

The attack was described as 'an attempt to kill or injure innocent people'

Christmas partygoers were evacuated when the device exploded just before 7pm on Friday evening, although there were no reports of any injuries.

The bomb, which had been placed inside a holdall, consisted of explosives and flammable liquid, police said.

A warning call was made to a newspaper but the device was left about 150 metres away from the location named.

Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said: "This was an attack on the people of Belfast going about their normal lives on a busy night for socialising in the city.

The security threat level in Northern Ireland remains at severe

"Those who carried out this attack have nothing to offer except disruption and destruction."

Stormont's Justice Minister David Ford said the blast was an "attempt to kill or injure innocent people".

"The people carrying out these attacks have set out no reason and explained no cause for their acts of senseless violence," he said.

"Their only aim seems to be to injure and disrupt. They ignore the strength of public support for normality and peace, especially at this Christmas season."

Hundreds of people were evacuated. Pic: Mark Ashbridge

First Minister Peter Robinson said the bomb was "the work of a mindless minority who are intent on taking the heart out of the city", while his deputy, Martin McGuinness, said the attackers had shown "complete disregard for life".

Security measures have been ramped up in Belfast on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

The threat level remains at severe and police urged local residents to remain vigilant and to report any suspicious behaviour.

The blast comes less than three weeks after a bus driver was forced by masked dissidents to drive a car bomb to a shopping centre that faces a police station.

The 60kg (132lb) device only partially exploded and no-one was injured.

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Boy, 11, Sexually Assaulted On Country Lane

An 11-year-old boy was sexually assaulted as he walked along a country lane in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, police have said.

Thames Valley Police said the attack by a man believed to be in his 40s happened at around 4.40pm on Friday.

The schoolboy was walking along Bacombe Lane, close to a bridleway, when the man approached him.

He was sexually assaulted before being able to run away.

Detective Inspector Ben Gasson said: "I am appealing for anyone who saw a man matching the description or anyone seen acting suspiciously in this area to contact police.

"The victim was not hurt during the incident but has understandably been left shaken.

"Incidents of this nature are extremely rare and are investigated thoroughly however if anyone has any concerns they can call their local neighbourhood team via our non-emergency number 101."

Neighbourhood patrols are taking place in the area and inquiries are ongoing.

The offender is described as a white man aged approximately 40, with stubble on his face.

He was wearing a grey and black diamond-patterned hooded top, dark blue jeans and black shoes.

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Nigella Lawson 'Let Her Children Smoke Weed'

Nigella Lawson let her children smoke cannabis and allowed one of her aides to buy them cigarettes, a court has heard.

Elisabetta Grillo, who is accused of fraudulently spending £685,000 on credit cards belonging the TV cook and her former husband, made the claim as she was quizzed about a transaction of almost £70 at a duty free shop in New York.

"It was cigarettes for the children," the 41-year-old said. "I bought them there and Nigella allowed me to buy (them).

"She was then asked by the prosecutor Jane Carpenter: "What on earth do you think you were doing buying cigarettes for underage children?"

"Well, if Nigella Lawson let them smoke weed..." she replied, before Judge Robin Johnson stopped the line of questioning.

Earlier, Grillo accused Ms Lawson, her former husband Charles Saatchi and members of her employer's so-called "Team Cupcake" of lying in court.

Giving evidence last week, Ms Lawson admitted taking cocaine but said she had only used the drug after she found out her late husband John Diamond had terminal cancer, and again in July 2010 during her troubled marriage to Mr Saatchi.

However, Grillo claimed that although she had never seen Ms Lawson taking drugs, there were signs of regular use.

Jurors at Isleworth Crown Court heard she found a packet of white powder in the home Ms Lawson shared with Mr Diamond, as well as rolled-up banknotes and credit cards with white powder on them.

Francesca Grillo (left) and her sister Elisabetta (right) deny fraud

Asked why she did not speak out about Ms Lawson's drug use, Grillo said she wanted "to protect Nigella until the end".

"I didn't want to disappoint her," she added. "Nigella was a very nice person ... she was very generous to me."

Grillo said she decided to mention Ms Lawson's drug use as part of her defence when photographs emerged of Mr Saatchi apparently pinching his then-wife's nose outside a London restaurant, but she denied she was taking advantage of the situation.

As details of some of her alleged spending were revealed, Grillo claimed Ms Lawson allowed her to buy a bed from Ikea and sign up for a fashion course.

She was given permission to use a credit card during a weekend in Paris because "it was my birthday" and bought Calvin Klein underwear while shopping for Ms Lawson's daughter "because we are the same size", the court heard.

"Nobody told me I could not take money," she said, adding that Ms Lawson allowed her to withdraw extra cash for herself if she worked beyond her hours.

Grillo, who claimed Mr Saatchi gave her £200 to bump up sales of his book, also denied she was better dressed than other household staff members and said she bought clothes at discount stores and online.

"I was allowed to buy clothes for myself ... I worked hard," she said. "I was part of the family for 14 years."

Grillo and her sister Francesca, 35, deny committing fraud by using a company credit card for personal gain.

The trial continues.

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PR Blunder Over Labour MP's 'Pikey' Tweet

By Sophy Ridge, Political Correspondent

Shadow cabinet minister Jack Dromey has become embroiled in a race row after calling a post worker a "pikey" on Twitter.

On a visit to a Royal Mail sorting office, he posted a picture of himself with one employee with the caption: "With Gareth Martin, the Pikey from the Erdington Royal Mail Sorting Office. A great guy!"

Hundreds of Twitter users pulled him up on the use of the word, with some threatening to report him to the police.

Since 2007 it has been possible to be arrested for a racially aggravated offence for using the word "pikey", which is an offensive word used to refer to Irish travellers.

When Sky News approached the Labour party, a press officer said Mr Dromey had fallen victim to autocorrect, which had automatically switched the word "postie" for "pikey".

He pointed to other tweets made by Mr Dromey, referring to the Royal Mail employees he met as "posties".

Mr Dromey attempted to smooth over the matter with a further tweet

However, minutes later this explanation was undermined by Mr Dromey himself.

He tweeted: "Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring. This morning's meeting was with Gareth, a Postie nicknamed after Corporal Pike from Dad's Army."

It is not the first time that the shadow minister has got into hot water on the social networking website.

Last month Mr Dromey, who is married to Labour's Deputy Leader Harriet Harman, made a link to a gay porn website one of his "favourites".

Labour sources said he had been trying to block the pages when he accidentally pressed the wrong button.

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Lynne Spalding Death Linked To Alcoholism

A British woman found dead in a locked stairwell 17 days after going missing from her San Francisco hospital room probably died of a chemical imbalance due to complications from alcohol abuse, a coroner has said.

Lynne Spalding, 57, disappeared from the city's general hospital on September 21 but her body was not found until October 8.

Assistant medical examiner Ellen Moffat said in a new report that the mother-of-two had been dead for days before the discovery.

The medical examiner's office said Ms Spalding was confused and delirious on the day she disappeared.

Ms Moffat said Ms Spalding, originally from Peterlee, Co Durham, didn't know the day or time or even why she was in the hospital.

She had been admitted for a bladder or urinary tract infection and arrived at the hospital thin and frail with her children worried about her condition.

San Francisco General Hospital

Although sheriff's deputies at the hospital did a "perimeter search" of the hospital's 24-acre campus within an hour of her disappearance, it was not until September 30 that they attempted a more extensive search of the grounds.

The next day, after it became clear that not all the stairwells used as fire exits had been searched, a supervisor ordered the stairwell searches to continue, yet "only about half the stairwells" ever were, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said.

Ms Spalding's friends and relatives spent days scouring the streets of the Californian city with flyers because they were "under the assumption that San Francisco General had been searched and Lynne was not here".

On October 4 a hospital staff member told the sheriff's department that someone had reported seeing a body in a locked stairwell of the building where Ms Spalding had been a patient.

A sheriff's dispatcher told hospital officials the department would respond, but "there is no indication that any one was dispatched to that stairwell".

Ms Spalding had lived in the city for more than 20 years and had two grown-up children, a 19-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter, who both live in the US.

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Portsmouth Shipyard Job Losses: Protests

By Alex Rossi, Sky News Correspondent

Hundreds of protesters have marched through the streets of Portsmouth to demonstrate against job losses by defence giant BAE Systems.

It was announced last month that more than 900 jobs are being axed, ending shipbuilding in the historic naval city for good.

Lisa Fletcher, a community support officer for Unite, says the job cuts are a disaster not just for Portsmouth, but for the entire Solent region.

"It's not just about the jobs ... it's going to affect the industries in the pubs, restaurants, schools even and transport, " she told Sky News.

According to the local university, for every 100 jobs lost in shipbuilding a further 66 are lost in the wider economy in pubs, restaurants and other service industries.

BAE systems and the Government claim warship building in the UK needs to be consolidated into one site on the Clyde in Scotland if it is to remain sustainable.

And although maintenance and repairs will remain in Portsmouth, the end of shipbuilding is a massive blow to a city steeped in maritime history - ships have been built in Pompey for more than 500 years.

HMS Duncan was built at Portsmouth dockyards

Workers at the BAE dockyard are apprehensive about the future.

Geoff Collins, a shop steward and pipe worker, is still coming to terms with his imminent redundancy. He fears at the age of 63 he will never find work again.

"It's taken the wind out of my sails really, slowed me right up. Thinking what's going to happen next. And what's going to happen for the younger generation with the skills ...?"

But trade union leaders believe the fight for shipbuilding in Portsmouth is not over yet.

They hope the Government will have a change of heart and instead elect for a three-dock solution which would also mean fewer job losses at the shipyards in Scotland that have also been affected.

Prospect negotiator John Ferrett hopes the decision will be reversed: "We believe that there is a solution, whilst that would mean job reductions right across the three yards, we believe we would be able to retain the capability."

The redundancies will begin as the work on two aircraft carriers finishes.

If the decision is not changed, people in Portsmouth fear centuries of shipbuilding will be sunk forever.

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Iran Claims 'MI6 Spy' On Trial After Capture

Iran says it has arrested a "spy" accused of working for the British secret intelligence service.

A court official said the man had confessed to his alleged crimes and was on trial.

He was detained in the town of Kerman in southeast Iran after authorities spent months tracking him down, the semi-official ISNA news agency said.

The suspect is accused of meeting four British intelligence operatives and giving them information.

Dadkhoda Salari, head of the Kerman revolutionary court, said: "Through the efforts of Iranian security forces, an MI6 spy has been arrested.

"He has met British intelligence officers in person 11 times, both inside the country and abroad, and provided them with intelligence."

It has not been suggested the alleged spy is a Briton, and Tehran has a history of announcing the arrest of people it claims are spying without releasing more details.

But the news is potentially embarrassing at a time when diplomatic relations between the UK and Iran had been improving after a two-year freeze.

On Friday, Iran's new envoy to Britain, Hassan Habibollah-Zadeh, held talks in London on his first visit since his appointment in November.

And a British diplomat, non-resident charge d'affaires Ajay Sharma, said he had "detailed and constructive discussions" about the UK's relationship with Iran during talks earlier this month.

He visited the site of the UK's embassy in the Iranian capital to assess the damage caused when it was ransacked by a mob in 2011, an incident which prompted the Government to pull its staff out of the country.

The thaw in relations between Tehran and the international community has also seen a deal reached over its nuclear programme.

Responding to the reported arrest a Foreign Office spokesman said: "We don't comment on intelligence matters."

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Jayden Parkinson: Police Launch Murder Inquiry

Police investigating the disappearance of teenager Jayden Parkinson now believe she was murdered.

Jayden, 17, from Oxford, was last seen leaving Didcot Parkway train station at 4.27pm on December 3 - and did not return home that evening as planned.

In a news conference this afternoon, Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Murray revealed that police have upgraded the case to a murder investigation and are looking for a man who was seen in an open field near Upton on December 9 at 2am.

The man was carrying a large suitcase in the rural area and notably struggling to "manage" the heavy case.

"This man was having difficulty wheeling that suitcase," said Mr Murray.

He said the same man was seen in Didcot around 30 minutes later with the same suitcase, and police are appealing for sightings of the man or the case. 

The man is described as a white male in his early 20s, with short dark hair and of medium to slim build. 

The case was approximately 3ft long and 2ft wide, likely a pale blue colour, and had an extendable handle and wheels, said Mr Murray. 

Thames Valley Police are currently holding two people - a 22-year-old man and 17-year-old boy - in relation to the case.

Police said earlier this week that the 22-year-old was in a relationship with Jayden. 

Jayden was living with her mother in Didcot until November this year, when she found herself homeless.

The teenager relocated to an Oxford service called One Foot Forward, which offers assisted and supported accommodation for young people.

Police said Jayden has made no financial transactions, or accessed the internet or her phone since she went missing 12 days ago.

A team of 50 detectives are currently assisting with the case and specialist teams will be scouring the Upton area for the next week.

Anyone with information has been urged to contact Thames Valley Police on 101 and quote URN 542 10/12, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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Double Murder Probe Launched As Bodies Found

A double murder inquiry has been launched following the deaths of a man and a woman in a house in Belfast.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the incident in the Ravenhill area in the south east of the city is thought to be domestic-related.

Police believe the suspect may have been in a relationship with one of the victims.

They said the person they are looking for does not pose a threat to the wider public.

Police said they did not want the identities of the middle-aged victims to become public at this stage as not all of their next of kin had been informed of what had happened.

Officers found their bodies in the living room of the flat in the Ravenhill Court area yesterday afternoon.

They had been alerted by a member of the public who noticed the front door of the property had been badly damaged.

Detective Chief Inspector Una Jennings, senior investigating officer with the PSNI, said: "We are treating this at the moment as a suspected domestic homicide."

A map showing the location of Ravenhill, Belfast

She appealed to whoever was responsible to come forward.

The detective added: "I would describe it as a domestic incident, we believe that the perpetrator of this crime may well have been in a relationship with one or other of the victims."

She said the exact causes of death would not be confirmed until post mortem examinations were carried out in the coming days.

Asked if the perpetrator posed a danger to the wider public, Ms Jennings said: "We don't consider they pose a risk to the public at this time."

Detectives have appealed for anyone who noticed anything suspicious in the Ravenhill Court area between 3pm on Wednesday and 3pm yesterday to contact them.

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