Crime

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Rishi Sunak has been fined by Lancashire Police for failing to wear a seatbelt while filming a social media clip in the back of a moving car. The […] More

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails A suspected knifeman has been tasered and arrested by armed police after “behaving erractically” near Parliament. Footage shared online showed at least six police officers surrounding the man […] More

The government has “no intention” of putting forward a specific national strategy to tackle spiking, it has revealed. Ministers have turned down the recommendation by MPs who carried out an inquiry into the crime. The Home Affairs parliamentary committee had urged the government to look at the efficacy of different anti-spiking initiatives and come up with a national strategy that “promotes best practice”. The government rejected the idea as it published its response into the inquiry on Monday. It said a report on spiking, including reviews into anti-spiking initiatives and case studies of best practice, is due next spring and will ensure the government is “taking the best possible action” to tackle the crime. “There is currently no intention to publish a specific spiking strategy,” the government’s response said.It added: “But it is the government’s intention that the statutory report will highlight this best practice and provide avenues for organisations to communicate and share tips and strategies.” The Home Affairs committee launched an inquiry into drink and injection spiking last year following a wave of reports involving needles and nightclub boycotts calling for tougher action to stamp out the crime.It found a “victim-blaming culture” could be leading to missed opportunities to collect vital evidence and offenders were facing “few deterrents”, with low prosecution rates and victims coming across barriers to reporting. In March The Independent revealed fewer than 2 per cent of cases reported to police resulted in a charge in nearly five years. The select committee put forward its series of recommendations to help tackle spiking in April, including a national communications campaign setting out punishments and encouraging victims to report cases. The government’s response said it was already working on this communications campaign and was looking at sharing messages around the start of the university year, when there was a surge in reports of needle spiking in 2021. It said it was also looking at boosting communications over how suspected spiking victims or those around them should act, which could include outreach across the education and private sector. But the government rejected a recommendation for the compulsory safeguarding training of festival staff. Instead, it would update guidance to say adequate training should be considered in licensing decisions. Dawn Dines from campaign group Stamp Out Spiking said: “We are delighted to hear that government are taking training of staff seriously and we are proactively working towards helping licensing authorities get festivals, bars and clubs trained up.” She also welcomed the government taking action to review reporting data. “More crime reporting data is vital to help identify where these crimes are taking place and who is being targeted,” she said. The government said it was considering options for research on the motivations of perpetrators, which was a committee recommendation. “The government agrees with the committee’s assessment that the motivations of spiking offenders remain unclear, particularly around the newly identified incidences of needle spiking, and that the lack of understanding limits our ability to effectively tackle spiking through targeted interventions,” a spokesperson said. The Home Affairs committee said the government had welcomed most of its recommendations on spiking. More

A former SNP MP who embezzled almost £25,000 from two pro-independence groups has been jailed for two yearsNatalie McGarry, 40, who represented Glasgow East between 2015 and 2017, was convicted of two charges of embezzlement – totalling £24,635 – in May following a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court.A jury found her guilty by majority of a charge of embezzling £19,974 while she was treasurer of Women for Independence (WFI) between April 26 2013 and November 30 2015.She was also found guilty by majority of a second charge of taking £4,661 between April 9 2014 and August 10 2015 when she was treasurer, secretary and convener of the Glasgow Regional Association of the SNP.

Through your role in these offences you have not only betrayed the trust placed in you by others, but your standards have fallen well short of those the public should have a right to expect from MPs.Sheriff Tom HughesSentencing McGarry, Sheriff Tom Hughes said she had betrayed people who put their trust in her and that a custodial sentence was inevitable.He told her: “It’s quite clear that society has a right to expect the highest standards from those who seek and eventually achieve high public office.”He added: “Through your role in these offences, you have not only betrayed the trust placed in you by others, but your standards have fallen well short of those the public should have a right to expect from MPs.”Over the course of the six-week trial, the court heard from dozens of witnesses, including Scotland’s former health secretary Jeane Freeman, who said she reported McGarry after noticing a significant shortfall in WFI accounts. More

MP Claudia Webbe has lost an appeal against her conviction for harassing a woman who was having an affair with her boyfriend – including threatening her with acid.The 57-year-old, who represents her Leicester East constituency as an independent after being expelled from the Labour Party, targeted Michelle Merritt, 59, between September 2018 and April 2020.Prosecutors said the 18-month harassment campaign was driven by “obsession” and “jealousy” over her boyfriend Lester Thomas’s relationship with executive assistant Ms Merritt.The victim told Southwark Crown Court how Webbe sent her a message reading “You’re a slag and should be acid,” and threatened to reveal naked photographs to her family in a string of phone calls.Webbe, a former adviser to the National Police Chiefs’ Council on firearms, was found guilty of harassment by chief magistrate Paul Goldspring and handed a 10-week suspended jail sentence following a trial at Westminster magistrates’ court last year.Now, following a hearing at Southwark Crown Court, she has been again found guilty by Judge Deborah Taylor and two magistrates.The MP, who was elected in 2019, appealed against her harassment conviction and 10-week suspended jail sentence.The court heard Ms Merritt’s phone revealed sexual messages between her and Mr Thomas, a consultant at Crossrail, football coach, and scout for Chelsea.Webbe said she split up with Mr Thomas in March this year after learning of the messages.“I had no idea about the relationship between Michelle Merritt and Lester Thomas, that this relationship had been going on throughout the entire time of my relationship with Lester,” she said.Giving evidence from behind a screen, Ms Merritt admitted having sex with Mr Thomas, whom she described as a “narcissist who likes attention”, between March 2017 and July 2020.In one phone call recorded by Ms Merritt, Webbe was heard saying: “I have seen all of your naked pictures. Get out of my relationship otherwise I will tell your whole family and show them all of your pictures.” More

Disgraced former Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.The 48-year-old was expelled from the Conservative Party and later resigned from his West Yorkshire seat after he was convicted for the 2008 attack following a trial at Southwark Crown Court last month.Sentencing on Monday, Mr Justice Baker said Khan had shown no remorse, adding: “The only regret you feel is towards yourself for having found yourself in the predicament you face as a result of your actions some 14 years ago.’’The court heard Khan forced the boy to drink gin, dragged him upstairs, pushed him onto a bed and asked him to watch pornography before attacking him at a house party in Staffordshire.The victim, now 29, told the jury he was left feeling “scared, vulnerable, numb, shocked and surprised” after Khan, then 34, touched his feet and legs, coming within “a hair’s breadth” of his genitals, in a top bunkbed after the party. More

Police are investigating a gathering attended by Sir Keir Starmer and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner for potential breaches of Covid laws.Durham Constabulary said it initially decided to take no action over a gathering at the constituency office of Labour MP Mary Foy in April 2021.“At that time, it was concluded that no offence had been established and therefore no further action would be taken,” a spokesperson added.“Following the receipt of significant new information over recent days, Durham Constabulary has reviewed that position and now, following the conclusion of the pre-election period, we can confirm that an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations relating to this gathering is now being conducted.”The Labour Party has maintained that Covid laws were not broken at the gathering, where Sir Keir was pictured drinking a beer with colleagues during campaigning for the Hartlepool by-election. A spokesperson said: “We’re obviously happy to answer any questions there are and we remain clear that no rules were broken.”At the time of the alleged gathering, non-essential retail and outdoor venues including pub gardens were open but social distancing rules, which included a ban on indoor mixing between households, remained in place.Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper defended the Labour leader and said the Durham incident was “very different from what we saw in government”.She told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme: “The Labour Party has always been clear that no rules were broken. This was a work event, it was in the middle of a local election campaign and it was eating a meal in an election campaign.“I think that’s very different from what we saw in the government where you had the very people who were making the rules, the very people who were asking people to make great sacrifices across the country – and we’ve seen the evidence of the parties.”Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general, said Durham Constabulary had been “put under a lot of pressure” to investigate by Conservative MPs and right-wing news outlets.“Tere’s lots of people who’ve been campaigning for the police to open this investigation, lots of Conservative MPs have been asking about it, lots of the Conservative-supporting newspapers have been making a big fuss about it,” she told Sky News. More

A “victim-blaming culture” could be leading to “missed opportunities” to collect vital evidence of spiking, according to an inquiry by MPs.There are “few deterrents” for offenders as it stands, with barriers preventing victims from reporting and low prosecution rates, their report found. The Home Affairs parliamentary committee launched an inquiry into drink and injection spiking last year following a wave of reports involving needles and nightclub boycotts calling for tougher action to stamp out the crime. The final report highlights the experiences of victims – including how they were treated by authorities – and makes recommendations over how to better tackle the crime.The MPs concluded “improvements in reporting, investigating and prosecuting spiking incidents” were “urgently needed” to support victims and deter offenders from committing the crime in the first place. They found barriers to reporting included a belief the police would not do anything and not knowing where to turn.Experts had told the inquiry spiking incidents get “underreported quite significantly”.One of the committee’s recommendations was a national communications campaign to address this, which would tell people who think they may have been spiked what to do, where to go and to reassure them they would be believed. But the report suggested the last point was something that could be improved upon. “Even when victims report the crime, a victim-blaming culture can compound trauma and mean missed opportunities to collect evidence,” it said.Spiking victims have previously told The Independent they had been treated as if they were too drunk by bouncers and hospital staff, while charities and campaigners said incidents were often “dismissed” by police and the NHS.The Home Affairs committee said there was “an urgent need for improved education and awareness around spiking across several sectors”. The inquiry also looked into prosecution rates for spiking. Earlier this month, figures obtained by The Independent revealed fewer than 2 per cent of spiking offences had resulted in a charge accross a period of nearly five years. “The level of prosecutions for spiking offences is very low, a key factor being absence of evidence in many incidents, arising from delay in reporting, insufficient forensic testing provision and difficulties in identifying and apprehending perpetrators,” the report said. The MPs also pointed out there was no specific offence to prosecute spiking. “This, together with limited reporting, investigation and prosecution, means there are few deterrents for offenders,” they said. Dame Diana Johnson, the chair of the Home Affairs committee, said: “It isn’t good enough to tell people to put lids on their drinks or normalise taking a testing kit out with you. Everyone should have the right to go out and enjoy themselves without fear.”She said: “The message needs to be sent to perpetrators that spiking is absolutely unacceptable and will be punished.”While the MPs welcomed the fact the government was considering making spiking a specific criminal offence, it said a “more pressing need” was data on perpetrators and their motives – which could help strategies to tackle the crime. Rachel Maclean, the safeguarding minister, said the government would consider all of the report’s recommendations. “As part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the government has also committed to undertaking a wide-ranging review into spiking, and is considering whether further legislation is needed to help the police and courts better tackle the issue,” she said. “This has already started, earlier this month we reclassified GHB, a drug used to spike drinks and introduced harsher sentences for those found in possession, as well as those involved in supply and demand.” More