British Runaway 'Feared Kidnapped In Spain'

A British man who fled to Spain is believed to have been kidnapped by men posing as police officers.

Francis Brennan left the UK ahead of a sentencing date last October for an assault he committed in the Thames Valley area in 2012.

He was last seen in Alicante on January 24. He was in a friend's car when it was stopped by several men who posed as police officers.

The 25-year-old's parents, Carl and Janet, have appealed for information about his disappearance.

"We got a call from one of his friends and his girlfriend back in January to say that Francis had been arrested on January 24 but we later learnt from the Spanish authorities that this was not the case and that he had been taken against his will," they said.

"This has come as an awful shock to us as Francis is our only son and we can still remember him as a fun-loving child who was football-mad in a football-mad family who loved nothing more than playing out with his friends."

They said they pleaded with their son not to leave the country, but he did not listen.

"He told us not to worry and that he would be home after Christmas," they said.

Mr Brennan went missing in Alicante

Mr Brennan's girlfriend, Sophie Staunton, went to Alicante in December to try to persuade him to return home.

"Francis met Sophie, his lovely girlfriend, in 2012 and he seemed to start to grow up and they seemed very settled and happy," Mr Brennan's parents said.

"Sophie went out to Javea in December to try and persuade him to come home but then last month he disappeared and none of us know where. This whole thing has devastated all of us."

Detective Superintendent Richie Carr, from Merseyside Police, said: "Francis's disappearance is completely out of character and because of this, as well as his associations and lifestyle, ourselves and the Spanish police are extremely concerned for his safety.

"We do however believe he has been taken against his will and we and his family are hopeful that someone in the criminal fraternity here in Merseyside has information that could help bring about the safe return of Francis."

:: Anybody with information should call Merseyside Police on 0151 777 8520 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Police Investigate Leytonstone Double Murder

Police are investigating a double murder after two men were found dead in a car in east London.

Police were called to a road in Leytonstone just before 1am by London Ambulance Service after reports of two injured men in the area.

Met Police officers and paramedics found the pair, believed to be in their twenties, in a vehicle and they were pronounced dead at the scene.

Scotland Yard said an incident room has been set up in Barking and officers are working to identify the victims and inform their families.

The scene at Montague Road has been cordoned off and police forensics experts have been examining an area around the vehicle, which has been covered by a tent.

Post-mortem examinations are due to take place on Saturday afternoon at Walthamstow mortuary.

There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.

More follows...

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Broadcaster Stuart Hall Denies 15 Rapes

By Mike McCarthy, North of England Correspondent

Veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall has denied 15 counts of rape at Preston Crown Court.

Hall is alleged to have committed seven counts of rape and two indecent assaults against one girl between 1976 and 1978.

The girl was aged between 14 and 16 at the time of the alleged attacks, the court heard.

He is also accused of eight counts of rape and three indecent assaults against his second alleged victim, aged between 11 and 15 at the time.

The attacks took place between 1976 and 1981, the court heard.

The alleged offences took place at various locations in Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

The 84-year-old appeared at the court for the preliminary hearing wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie.

He sat in the dock with his head bowed for much of the hearing, which lasted more than three hours.

The broadcaster presented the BBC show It's A Knockout. He was later known for his eccentric football commentary on BBC Radio Five Live.

A trial date of May 6 has been set for Preston Crown Court.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Triple Killer Joanne Dennehy In Jail For Life

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Psychopathic killer Joanne Dennehy laughed as she was taken away to serve life for the random killing of three men and the attempted murder of two others.

The mother-of-two was told by trial judge Mr Justice Spencer that she was a "cruel, calculating and manipulative serial killer" and will now die behind bars.

Dennehy is the third woman to get a whole-life tariff in England and Wales

He said the slayings were carried out in "cold blood" and although she had pleaded guilty it was "clear you have no remorse for those murders".

At one point Dennehy swore at the judge as he made his sentencing remarks.

Dennehy swore at the judge in court

After she was sentenced to a whole-life order, she could be heard laughing as she was taken down to the cells.

Dennehy, 31, is only the third woman to be given a whole-life tariff in England and Wales - after Rose West and Myra Hindley.

Mr Justice Spencer said medical reports made it clear she was a sadomasochist who enjoyed sex with extreme violence.

Earlier this month, she admitted stabbing to death her victims in a 10-day killing frenzy before trying to murder two other men while on the run. 

Dressed in a pink athletics vest, with her hair tied back in a ponytail with a purple scrunchie, Dennehy was handcuffed for the hearing, with another set of handcuffs linked to a female prison guard.

Her bare arms were marked with grim-looking scars and several tattoos in blue ink could clearly be seen.

During the sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey, she smiled, smirked and chatted with her guards, as well as co-accused Gary Stretch - and at one point she called out to her lawyer so she could write him a note.

Stretch and Layton were both jailed

Family members of the victims were in court and security was tight in the dock with nine guards, including two women, keeping watch over Dennehy and her three co-accused.

Earlier in the week the same court had been the scene of violent disturbances after Woolwich killers Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, brawled with guards in the dock.

Mr Justice Spencer called Dennehy a "pathological liar" and said she had killed to "satisfy her sadistic lust for blood".

Lukasz Slaboszewski and Kevin Lee were murdered by Dennehy

Dennehy, from Orton Goldhay, near Peterborough, slaughtered her victims, Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, Kevin Lee, 48, and John Chapman, 56, in and around Peterborough at random last March and April.

Cambridgeshire Police said the investigation was the biggest the force had been involved in since the Soham schoolgirl murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Her sentencing was delayed because of a Court of Appeal review earlier this month after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that whole-life terms breached human rights.

Mr Rogers, left, and Mr Bereza both survived attacks by Dennehy

Dennehy also admitted the attempted murder of dog walkers, John Rogers and Robin Bereza, in Hereford while on the run from police as well as preventing the lawful and decent burial of her victims.

The Old Bailey hearing heard she had carried out the attempted killing of Mr Rogers because she wanted his dog.

Stretch, 47, also of Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, who stands at 7ft 3, was found guilty of the attempted murders of Mr Bereza and Mr Rogers and three counts of preventing the lawful burial of a body.

He was given life with a minimum term of 19 years. He told the judge " thank you very much" as he was taken down to the cells.

Moore admitted assisting an offender

Leslie Layton, 36, of Orton Goldhay, was found guilty of preventing the lawful burial of two murder victims and perverting the course of justice and jailed for 14 years, with a minimum of seven years.

Robert Moore, 55, of Peterborough, admitted assisting an offender and was given three years with a minimum of 18 months to be completed.

During the earlier trial, prosecutor Peter Wright QC, said Dennehy "cast a spell" over her accomplices and some of her victims as she killed "for fun".

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hewitt 'Backed Age Of Consent As Low As 10'

Who Were Paedophile Group PIE?

Updated: 1:43pm UK, Tuesday 25 February 2014

A campaign group for lowering the age of consent, a networking group for paedophiles and the publisher of newsletters giving easy access to child porn.

The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) started life in 1974 as a splinter group - or special interest group - of a Scottish gay rights movement.

It quickly moved to London because that was where the greatest interest in its activities lay and by 1975 had been accepted as an "affiliate" group by the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL).

Run by paedophiles who had "come out" and openly lobbied for child sex to be legalised, the group also provided a means for the like-minded to contact each other.

It also published regular newsletters - which became the now-defunct magazine Magpie, which published pictures of children, paedophilia "jokes", and also assisted paedophiles to obtain child pornography.

The group won support among left-wing groups largely by allying itself with the battle for gay rights and academia.

The freelance journalist Eileen Fairweather, who worked for the feminist magazine, Spare Rib, and who went on to expose abuse in Islington children's homes wrote recently for The Daily Telegraph: "PIE fooled so many on the Left, within academia and in social work, because they adroitly hijacked the language of liberation.

"Little was known then or discussed about the extent or horror of child abuse. PIE members also portrayed themselves as 'child lovers', benign uncle figures who offered tenderness, not rape.

"They claimed that paedophiles, like women, gay men and children, were 'oppressed by the patriarchy'. Therefore we should all make common cause. Spare Rib, to its credit, refused to fall for this self-serving guff. But nor did we condemn it."

In 1975, PIE submitted a 17-page document to the Home Office Criminal Law Revision Committee lobbying for no age of consent.

During this time PIE sent a leaflet to MPs which said: "Paedophiles are ordinary, decent, sensible human beings, no more sexually depraved than yourself, and with a capacity for loving and helping children which is at present being repressed."

In 1977 PIE chairman Tom O'Carroll was allowed to make a speech at the spring conference of the NCCL, giving the group further legitimacy.

In late 2013, the Home Office announced an inquiry into claims that PIE was being inadvertently financed by the Labour administration of the time through grants.

In 1980 O'Carroll published "Paedophilia: the radical case" which argued for "a climate in which children come to view all consensual sex, including consensual paedophilia, positively and without guilt may be necessary for the welfare of everyone".

O'Carroll moved that a relationship between adults and children could proceed on a basis of signals being interpreted saying " … the man might start by saying what pretty knickers the girl was wearing, and he would be far more likely to proceed to the next stage of negotiation if she seemed pleased by the remark".

By 1981 O'Carroll had been jailed for the contact advertisements in PIE publications offering to put people in touch with child pornography distributors.

In 1984 the group was disbanded and in the years that followed a number of its senior members were sentenced for paedophilia offences.

In 2006 the last of the leading PIE associates was jailed. David Joy was sentenced to 18 months after 1,129 of the worst level of child pornography images were found at his Leicestershire home. The images were of children aged between one and 13.

The judge warned him that he may never be eligible for parole because of his commitment to paedophilia.

He said: "It's clear that you hold firmly to a set of beliefs involving sexual activity with adults and children.

"Those beliefs are wholly in variance to the views held by most members of society, views that most of society would find abhorrent."

Many in 2014 find it hard to believe that such a group existed openly but as the Tory MP Nadine Dorries recently pointed out in a tweet: "In 70's following legalisation of homosexuality (rightly) and a decade of 'free love' organisations like PIE genuinely thought they were next."

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Saving Private Ryan: Sinkhole Swallows Grave

Military bosses are trying to save Private Ryan's headstone after a sinkhole swallowed his grave.

The World War One soldier's body had lain in rest for nearly 100 years, but was lost when a 20ft-deep hole opened up in a military cemetery in Pembroke Dock, West Wales.

His military headstone has been left teetering close to the edge of the precipice.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is now battling to preserve the memorial to Private Francis Ryan, who served in the 3rd Reserve Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment.

Private Ryan's headstone is teetering on the edge of the sinkhole

The 40-year-old soldier died in 1915 after volunteering to serve in the regiment.

Pembroke Dock district Parade Marshal David Boswell told Wales Online: "The graveyard is a monument to the Army, Navy and Artillery stationed here during the First World War.

"But unfortunately Mother Nature has taken over and when she opens up her body there is not much you can do.

"It's a shame it's happened but the MoD have looked into it and are trying to restore the grave to its original condition as soon as possible.

"This is the only military cemetery in Wales so will be nice to have it re-opened and ready for the centenary of the First World War."

The MoD has so far failed to trace a living relative of Private Ryan, who was born in Longford, Ireland, in 1875.

Five other military graves are in danger beside the hole. They have the names J O'Brien, Private J McGuiness, Gunner William Henry Hurley, Private Charles Joseph Duffy and Private E Sullivan.

The sinkhole was caused by water erosion through limestone beneath Private Ryan's grave - and his coffin is hidden beneath mud and rubble.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Parents Jailed Over Death Of Boy With Rickets

The parents of a boy with rickets who died after his care was neglected due to their religion have been jailed for manslaughter.

Nkosiyapha Kunene, 36, and his wife Virginia, 32 - who admitted the manslaughter of their five-month-old Ndingeko - were jailed for three years, and two years, three months, respectively.

Mr Justice Singh

Delivering the sentence at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Singh said: "The secular courts of this country apply the secular law of the land. They do so equally to all who come before them. The law respects the right of everyone to freedom of thought and belief.

"However the right to manifest one's religion is not absolute. It is limited in particular by the rights of others. The state has a particularly important duty to protect the right to life, especially when a young child is concerned.

Ndingeko was born in January 2012 and died six months later, the court heard.

He was found to be suffering from rickets due to a severe deficiency of vitamin D.

Rickets is a disease that affects bone development in children. It causes the bones to become soft which can lead to deformities.

From birth, Ndingeko had medical problems, and the judge said it was emphasised on behalf of the couple, of Erith, Kent, the vitamin D deficiency was not diagnosed at that stage, nor was Virginia Kunene given advice about taking supplements.

But she did not attend a scheduled check-up on March 8 and Ndingeko was not seen by a health care professional until he died.

The judge said: "It is clear that, because of their own religious beliefs, the defendants did not in fact seek medical assistance."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Floods Fund: £2m To Support Tourism Firms

Tourism businesses affected by the recent flooding are to get a £2m boost from the Government.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller says the money will fund experts who will visit affected areas and offer practical advice to tourism firms such as how to access business support measures.

The advice sessions will be hosted by VisitEngland and run throughout March.

The fund comes on top of  the £10m set aside by Prime Minister David Cameron last month to help flood-hit businesses generally.

Ms Miller said: "We want to help all those tourism businesses that have been affected by the horrendous floods get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

"Experts will be put on the ground to help small businesses with practical advice and communications while a bespoke Easter marketing will bring people back to the areas hit."

Welcoming the funding, VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford said: "Our message to customers is 'Business as usual'.

"Despite many areas having been affected by bad weather and some travel disruption, the tourism infrastructure is largely unaffected."

VisitBritain chief executive Sandie Dawe said: "International tourism is worth around £1.5bn to the economies of south west England and Wales.

"We are already getting out the message that it is a great time to travel to Britain and will be intensifying that activity over the coming months."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

:: Watch Sky News' special programme 'Battered Britain: From The Air' about the effect of the recent storms on the UK's landscape on Sunday, March 2, at 4pm.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Free Bus Services For Elderly 'Under Threat'

Free bus services for the elderly and disabled people are under threat as councils struggle to fund the services.

Funding for free, off-peak travel has fallen by 39% since 2010, according to the Local Government Association.

Councils are now being forced to subsidise free travel at the cost of other essential services, the LGA added.

Among the county councils forced to cut back on the services due to funding shortages are Buckinghamshire, Cumbria and Somerset.

Peter Box, the LGA's economy and transport board chairman, said: "The concessionary fares scheme provides a lifeline for our most vulnerable residents to go shopping, pick up medication, attend doctor appointments or socialise with friends. However, it is now under real threat.

"Years of underfunding of the scheme forces councils to spend millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to subsidise the scheme.

"This is now impossible with councils having to make savings while struggling to protect vital services like adult social care, protecting children, filling potholes and collecting bins."

A Government spokeswoman said: "We know that bus services are vital for many older and disabled people.

"That is why the right to free travel is enshrined in law and government provides funding to meet the cost of subsidising off-peak travel for these groups.

"In addition, the Department for Transport provides funding to bus operators to help more services run and keep ticket prices down.

"The current level of this funding is protected until 2015/16."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Moazzam Begg Remanded Over Terror Charges

Ex-Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg has appeared in court charged with providing terrorist training and funding terrorism overseas.

The 45-year-old British citizen, from Hall Green, Birmingham, was one of four people arrested earlier this week on suspicion of terrorism offences linked to the Syria conflict.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court today alongside a woman, Gerrie Tahari, 44, of Sparkbrook, Birmingham, who also denied funding terrorism overseas.

Begg was remanded in custody and will next appear at the Old Bailey on March 14.

Both were arrested on Tuesday with two other men held on suspicion of facilitating terrorism overseas.

Begg was released from Guantanamo Bay in January 2005

The pair - a 36-year-old man from Shirley, Solihull, and a 20-year-old man from Sparkhill, Birmingham, who is the son of Tahari - remain in police custody.

Begg was held by the US government at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba for nearly three years after being arrested in Pakistan in February 2002.

He was detained on suspicion of being a member of al Qaeda before being released without charge in January 2005.

He was allowed to return to the UK where he was arrested by police before being released without charge.

Begg is a director of Cage - which campaigns "against the War on Terror" - and has always maintained that he has never been involved in any kind of terrorist activity.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More