Crime

An activist known as Stop Brexit Man, who is on trial for playing amplifiers outside parliament, told police their map illustrating where he could not use them was incorrect, a court has heard.Steve Bray, 55, allegedly flouted a police ban by playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit edits of The Muppet Show and Darth Vader’s theme tunes through the speakers on 20 March last year.Police approached Mr Bray on the traffic island at around 11.20am, minutes before then-PM Rishi Sunak arrived ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday.They handed him a map and a notice that warned he is prohibited from playing the speakers in the controlled area under a by-law, the court heard.The music resumed intermittently, and shortly after 12.33pm officers seized the speakers, the court was told.Mr Bray, who is self-represented, is charged with failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction given under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 “re prohibited activities in Parliament Square”.He appeared to become emotional while cross-examining one of the officers who had attended shortly before Mr Sunak arrived, and said: “There is relevance to us for timing.”“Those couple of minutes, they mean a lot to us”, he told PC Euan Varney.Bray arrives at City of London Magistrates Court More

Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been cleared in a police investigation into the SNP’s finances.Ms Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie were both arrested in 2023 but released pending further investigation in the probe – named Operation Branchform by Police Scotland.Both are no longer under investigation, police said.The news comes after Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband and former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell appeared in court charged with embezzlement.In a statement, Police Scotland said: “Following direction from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, criminal inquiries into two people arrested as part of the investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party have now concluded.Ms Sturgeon’s estranged husband has appeared in court charged with embezzlement More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsFormer Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson and his son are among 12 people charged as part of a major probe into council corruption. The 67-year-old, who was first arrested in December 2020 and suspended from the Labour Party, has been charged with bribery, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, Merseyside Police said on Friday.Derek Hatton, 77, who was deputy leader of Liverpool City Council in the 1980s, has also been charged with bribery and one count of counsel or procure misconduct in a public office. Derek Hatton also faces charges More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsNon-crime hate incidents should only be investigated by police where there is “a real risk of imminent criminality”, the shadow home secretary has said.Chris Philp told a major summit of police leaders “you are not the thought police” as he called for guidelines around the incidents to be rewritten, adding “offensive speech is not the same as illegal speech”.This week the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Gavin Stephens said the incidents must be investigated so that “precursors to violence” are not missed.But Mr Philp told the conference in Westminster: “The police, in my view, should concentrate on investigating and preventing crime. Non-crime hate investigations should not trespass upon free speech.“I call on the government to urgently ensure the guidance is rewritten to ensure that, only where there is a real risk of imminent criminality, should police get involved.”Mr Philp was policing minister when the code of practice for non-crime hate incidents was introduced in 2023, however he now insists the guidance should be tightened further. He added: “You are not the thought police.“I call on police forces to apply common sense and not waste time and resources looking at things unless there is criminality, or imminent risk of criminality.”Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson said she was ‘dumbfounded’ when police knocked on her door over a year-old deleted post online More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsMP Mike Amesbury has been charged with assault after a video emerged of him appearing to punch a man to the ground.The Runcorn and Helsby MP, who was suspended from Labour after the footage circulated last month, will appear before magistrates at a later date, police said.The charge relates to an alleged attack on a 45-year-old man on Main Street in Frodsham, Cheshire, which was reported to officers at 2.48am on Saturday October 26.Amesbury lost the Labour whip in October, with the party saying he had been suspended “pending an investigation” into the incident. As a result, he is currently sitting as an independent. Mike Amesbury’s constituency office in Runcorn More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsJustice secretary Shabana Mahmood has called for both sides to respect the verdict after a police officer was cleared of murdering a man he shot in the head in south London two years ago, sparking protests outside the Old Bailey. She said the “due process of law has now taken place” but added that there is “work to do to build trust”. A jury acquitted Martyn Blake of the murder of Chris Kaba after deliberating for around three hours on Monday.Mr Kaba’s family, who sat through more than two weeks of painstaking analysis of their son’s death, pledged to “continue fighting” following the verdict.Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Old Bailey on Monday evening as part of a justice campaign set up in Mr Kaba’s name.Chris Kaba, 24, was shot in south London in September 2022 (Inquest/PA) More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emailsA father trapped under an abolished indefinite jail term has made six attempts on his own life after serving 25 times longer than his original sentence, The Independent can reveal.James Lawrence was handed a discredited imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail sentence with an eight-month minimum term in 2006 for threatening someone with a starting pistol.Then aged 20, he told the court he was carrying the imitation gun for protection after nearly losing his life in a stabbing in the same part of Southampton the year before.Now 38, he is believed to be one of Britain’s longest over-tariff IPP prisoners, having spent nearly 18 years in custody.But The Independent has learned Labour is to turn its back on him – and almost 3,000 other IPP prisoners still languishing in cells – by rejecting a review of indefinite jail terms.IPP prisoner James Lawrence has served almost 18 years for what was an eight-month jail term More

Your support helps us to tell the storyFind out moreCloseAs your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn’t have the resources to challenge those in power.Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November electionAndrew FeinbergWhite House CorrespondentA former Labour councillor has denied encouraging violence while addressing a crowd during an anti-fascist protest in Walthamstow.Ricky Jones, 57, allegedly committed the offence during a speech to a gathering, organised in response to the nationwide violent disorder, in Hoe Street, Walthamstow, on 7 August.A video was shared on social media in which he appeared to call for far-right protesters’ throats to be “cut”. The suspended politician was charged by police with encouraging violent disorder two days later.Jones, who was remanded in custody after his last court appearance, appeared on a videolink from HMP Wormwood Scrubs to Snaresbrook Crown Court. He pleaded not guilty.During a previous hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, deputy senior district judge Tan Ikram said: “It is alleged that using a microphone you addressed a crowd at an anti-fascist protest and, talking about others you described as ‘disgusting Nazi fascists’, you said ‘we need to cut their throats and get rid of them’.”Defence barrister Hossein Zahir KC said Jones accepted the words had been spoken but denied knowing the offence of violent disorder would be committed.District judge Oscar Del Fabbro ordered the defendant to produce a defence statement by October 25, and set a provisional trial date of January 20 next year at the same court.Jones, who has been a councillor in Dartford, Kent, since 2019, was suspended by the Labour Party.In reference to the video, a Labour spokesperson said: “This behaviour is completely unacceptable and it will not be tolerated.” More