Crime

A former Tory MP and aide to Rishi Sunak is among 15 people charged with offences relating to bets placed on the timing of the 2024 general election, the Gambling Commission has announced.The scandal over the alleged placing of bets on the timing of the election prior to Mr Sunak’s surprise decision to call the national ballot early engulfed the Conservative Party’s campaign last summer.While the Metropolitan Police dropped its own investigation last August, saying the bar for misconduct in public office had not been met, the Gambling Commission announced on Monday that it had brought charges against 15 individuals.Among those were Mr Sunak’s former parliamentary private secretary Craig Williams, the former Conservative MP for Montgomeryshire, who was charged with cheating under Section 42 of the Gambling Act 2005, which is a criminal offence.Russell George, the Tory Senedd member for Montgomeryshire, was also charged, along with the Conservative Party’s chief data officer, Nick Mason and the party’s chief marketing officer, Simon Chatfield.Laura Saunders, who was the Tory candidate for Bristol North West at the election and her husband Tony Lee – the Conservative Party’s campaign chief – were also both charged.Rishi Sunak’s election campaign was beset by allegations over the betting scandal More

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