Crime

The police feel “more let down than anybody” about the murder of Sarah Everard, Home Office minister Damian Hinds has said.Speaking to Times Radio, he said: “I think everybody is shaken by this terrible case. It is also really important to take a moment once again to pay tribute to all the men and women who serve in our policing service who feel more let down than anybody by this terrible sequence of events.”They put themselves in danger day after day and in protection of the rest of us and they deserve our support.”Ms Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a serving police officer who used his handcuffs and warrant card to stage a fake arrest.Referring to a public inquiry announced by Priti Patel that will look at how Ms Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, was allowed to remain in the police, Mr Hinds said: “It is actually more important even for them than for anyone else that this inquiry gets to the bottom of this.”He added: “This case goes to the heart of that question of trust.”In the wake of the killing, Dame Cressida Dick, the most senior police officer in England and Wales, said she wanted the force to regain the public’s trust and announced a review – separate to the public inquiry – of “standards and culture”.Mr Hinds’ comments come as it was revealed almost 2,000 police workers have been accused of sexual misconduct in the past four years.The allegations – including of rape and offences against children – are spread across 39 forces and were made against officers, special constables and PCSOs.A Freedom of Information request found 370 allegations of assault, nearly 100 of rape and 18 child sex offences.Channel 4’s Dispatches found 8 per cent of the claims led to a dismissal.But two thirds led to no action against the accused.Mr Hinds described the figures uncovered by Dispatches as a “shocking figure”.A Home Office spokesperson said: “As the public would rightly expect, we take police integrity very seriously and have already taken steps to overhaul the police complaints and discipline systems in order to increase transparency and accountability.” More

A woman has alleged that she was “violently assaulted” while attending the Conservative Party conference.Tory officials are working with the police after Clementine Cowton, director of external affairs at Octopus Energy Group, told a fringe event in Manchester that she had been “violently assaulted in the conference zone by a man”.“This behaviour is completely unacceptable and the party has revoked the pass of the individual concerned and is working with the police,” a Tory party spokesman said.According to The Times, Ms Cowton said she was in the bar of the Midland Hotel – one of the main destinations at the autumn gathering – when an inebriated man, who she described as being in his thirties, sat in a seat vacated by her friend.The male attendee reportedly made her so uncomfortable that she asked him “several times politely to leave”, before she eventually took his phone and dropped it on the floor in a bid to get him away from her.“He went to retrieve it and then he came back and attacked me,” Ms Cowton said, describing the man as trying to punch her before being stopped by others in the bar. Her glass was smashed in the resulting scuffle, she said.Greater Manchester Police said officers “responded to an incident at the Midland Hotel at around 12.30am this morning to reports of an assault on a 33-year-old woman”.“Officers arrived quickly, there were no reports of any injures, and no arrests were made, however a man has been identified, [and] had his accreditation removed for the remainder of the Conservative Party Conference,” the force said.“Our investigation into what happened is ongoing. GMP is here to protect. Women’s safety is a top priority, and something we continue to take incredibly seriously.”The party said it had contacted Ms Cowton to offer support.Speaking on a panel hosted by the Conservative Home website on Monday about how to affordably accelerate efforts to avert climate breakdown, Ms Cowton began by addressing the incident.“Sorry to dump this on everybody,” she said. “It was a bit of a surprise but I do want to just take the opportunity to say, women are often unsafe in places where other people feel safe, and it’s really important that we start to take that much more seriously as a society, and starting with the police.”It comes as the government and police face questions over women’s safety in society, following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a serving officer and the killing of Sabina Nessa as she walked to a bar in southeast London.Additional reporting by PA More

A member of parliament threatened her partner’s former lover with acid after launching a campaign of harassment against her because she was jealous of their relationship, a court has heard.Claudia Webbe, who was suspended from the Labour Party last September over the allegations, is accused of making a string of phone calls to Michelle Merritt between September 2018 and April 2020.During the series of calls, the MP for Leicester East – now sitting as an independent – allegedly threatened to send naked pictures and videos she supposedly had of executive assistant Ms Merritt to her children, Westminster Magistrates Court heard.“The reason for the harassment would appear to be the fact that Michelle Merritt was friends with Lester Thomas and this was an issue for the defendant Claudia Webbe,” said prosecutor Susannah Stevens.Ms Webbe denies a single count of harassment, and her lawyer in turn accused Ms Merritt of “conducting a little campaign against” the MP, “because for whatever reason you didn’t like the fact she was in a relationship with Lester Thomas”.Ms Merritt told the court she had known Mr Thomas for more than 15 years and they were “good friends”, having previously dated.Ms Webbe allegedly made a series of silent phone calls from a withheld number to Ms Merritt, who told the court: “There was a pattern that whenever I had even met with Lester Thomas, if we had gone out for a drink or something, there would be a phone call.“When you are being called and no one answers, it’s unnerving, especially as a woman who lives alone.”Prosecutors said the “harassment escalated in form” on Mother’s Day, in March 2019, when Ms Webbe spoke to the alleged victim and asked about her relationship with Mr Thomas.“This appears to be the defendant’s obsession – the fact Ms Merritt would not stop seeing her partner,” said Ms Stevens.Ms Merritt alleged that Ms Webbe – formerly a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee – told her she was “Lester’s girlfriend” and then “really started shouting: ‘Why are you contacting Lester?’”“She was very, very angry at me. It was loud,” said Ms Merritt. “She then started calling me a s**g and saying friends don’t send pictures of their t*** and p**** to other friends, and it culminated in: ‘You’re a s**g and you should be acid’.“She confirmed she knew where I lived and would send pictures and videos to my daughters.”Ms Webbe denies making any such threats.Ms Merritt wept as she described how she was left “very shocked and very fearful” and called police, saying: “I have been threatened by a public figure with acid over the phone.”But despite being warned by officers in the weeks that followed, Ms Webbe allegedly continued to make further calls to the complainant, who recorded one of them in April 2020, after calling the MP back.In the call, played in court, Ms Webbe is heard repeatedly telling Ms Merritt to “get out of my relationship”. “I have seen all of your naked pictures,” she could be heard saying, adding: “I will show them all of your pictures.”Ms Merritt, who told Ms Webbe during the call that she would contact the press, said she was left feeling “scared, fearful, afraid and nervous”.The MP later accepted to police that she had spoken to Ms Merritt but claimed she had said those words to Mr Thomas during the course of an argument in which officers were called, the court heard.Paul Hynes QC, representing Ms Webbe, suggested his client contacted Ms Merritt to tell her she and Mr Thomas should not be breaking coronavirus lockdown regulations together.“I’m going to suggest you were obviously and knowingly breaking lockdown regulations with Lester Thomas from the end of March to the end of April and Ms Webbe complained about that and asked you to stop,” he said.The complainant replied that “Ms Webbe did not ask me this question”, and described as “incorrect” the lawyer’s suggestion that she had conducted her own campaign against Ms Webbe because she didn’t like the MP’s relationship with Mr Thomas.Ms Merritt also denied Mr Hynes’s claim that she knew the MP was “vulnerable because she is a public figure and that is why you said you were going to go to the press”.Ms Webbe, from Islington in north London, stood in the dock wearing a black suit, speaking to confirm her name, date of birth and address.Having served as chair of Metropolitan Police’s Operation Trident, a team set up in the 1990s to tackle gun crime within black communities, Ms Webbe also worked as a political adviser to Ken Livingstone during his tenure as London mayor and sat as a councillor in Islington for eight years until 2018.Ms Webbe entered the Commons in December 2019, winning the seat formerly held by Keith Vaz, the Labour veteran who retired from parliament in the wake of a scandal.Additional reporting by PA More

A former police and crime commissioner candidate is to be charged with making a false declaration in the nomination papers.Jonathon Seed won the election in Wiltshire, but was barred from taking up the role just hours after the polls closed in May, when it emerged he had a conviction for drink-driving.The Conservative councillor withdrew from the role before voting took place, saying he was disappointed at not being able to take up the post.It transpired that he won a combined total of 47 per cent of the vote.Thames Valley Police launched an investigation into the circumstances of the election and passed a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).Rosemary Ainslie, head of special crime at the CPS, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has today authorised police to charge Jonathon Seed with making a false declaration in the nomination papers for the Wiltshire 2020 Police and Crime Commissioner elections.“The charge relates to an allegation he made a false declaration that he was not disqualified from election as a Police and Crime Commissioner.“The CPS made the decision that he should be charged after reviewing a file of evidence from Thames Valley Police.“The CPS reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against this defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial. It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice proceedings.”In a by-election for the post last month, Conservative Philip Wilkinson was elected.Seed, 63, is due to appear at Oxford magistrates’ court on 19 October. More

Former Labour MP Jared O’Mara has been charged with seven counts of fraud by false representation, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said. Mr O’Mara was charged in connection with allegations that he made fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in 2019. The former MP was elected as a Labour candidate for Sheffield Hallam in 2017 before sitting as an independent until he stepped down two years later. He is due to appear in front of Sheffield Magistrates Court in September. The CPS said that Mr O’Mara had been charged alongside his former aide, Gareth Arnold, who faces six counts of fraud by false representation. Mr O’Mara and a third man, John Woodliff, have also been charged with a Proceeds of Crime Act offence, they added. All three men will appear before the magistrates court on 24 September. Rosemary Ainslie, head of special crime at the CPS, said: “The CPS made the decision that the three men should be charged after reviewing a file of evidence from South Yorkshire Police.”She added: “The CPS reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against these defendants are active and that they have a right to a fair trial. “It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority regulates MPs’ expenses as well as their pay and pensions. Mr O’Mara won his Sheffield Hallam seat for Labour from the former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in 2017. However, after being suspended from the party over the emergence of offensive comments he had made online, he sat as an independent.He was later reinstated to the party – although he disputes that this happened – but resigned and continued to serve as an independent until stepping down from his post at the December 2019 general election.He was succeeded by Labour MP Olivia Blake. More

Police records of Priti Patel’s contact with senior officers over an Extinction Rebellion protest were lost because of an “IT glitch”, a court has heard.Defence lawyers representing protesters charged over the blockade of a Rupert Murdoch-owned printing works in September argue they cannot have a fair trial because the extent of alleged political interference is unknown.St Albans Magistrates’ Court heard that the home secretary was alerted to the protest in Broxbourne “by contacts in the media”.It was told that she called Hertfordshire Police chief constable Charlie Hall several times during the protest, and sent a text message to the operation’s gold commander, Matt Nicholls, the following afternoon.In a statement read to a hearing on Friday, Mr Hall said he was woken up by the first call from the home secretary at 11.40pm on 4 September.He said he did not make any note of the conversation or record it, and then had further contact with Ms Patel in the “hours of darkness” updating her on the protest.Mr Hall said: “My phone has updated itself since that time and removed any messages or all records from this period.”Mr Nicholls, who was the police gold commander for the protest operation, said in a statement read to the court that he had received a text from Ms Patel during the afternoon on 5 September.He said it was a supportive message thanking police for their work, adding: “These texts to my work phone have been deleted … a number of work phones were erroneously reset to factory settings after an IT glitch.”Barrister Raj Chada said the defence would be asking how phone records belonging to two senior officers and relating to “the very issue at the heart of this case” came to be deleted.“We say in light of that the defendants cannot receive a fair trial,” he added. “It is only when the extent of the political interference is determined that this court can scrutinise the effect.”Later in the hearing, District Judge Sally Fudge said she had seen screenshots of text messages between some police officers and the home secretary but did not make clear where the records were from.She ruled that the messages did not have to be disclosed to the defence and were not “reasonably capable of undermining the prosecution case”.The judge said the messages included exchanges between Mr Patel and Mr Hall at around 4.30am, 8.20am and 11.20am on 5 September, and on the morning of 6 September. More

Britain’s top police chief has told an audience of women that she “sometimes has a bad ‘un’” in her ranks, on the same day PC Wayne Couzens admitted to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard.In a speech to the Women’s Institute (WI), Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, speaking about violence against women and girls, said that “recent events” had heightened “people’s concerns, women’s concerns about violence.”“We recognise we must be – and we are – intolerant of violence against women and girls,” she said. “I have 44,000 police officers and staff working in the Met. Sadly some are abused at home for example.“And sadly on occasion I have a bad’un. We are intolerant and we set ourselves high standards in how we work to identify, prevent and tackle any such behaviours.”PC Couzens appeared at the Old Bailey earlier on Tuesday where he pleaded guilty to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard, who went missing in March while walking home in Clapham, south London.The court heard Couzens accepted responsibility for the killing of Ms Everard but was not asked to enter a plea to a charge of murder.Referencing the disappearance and death of the 33-year-old marketing executive directly, she said it sent “shockwaves through my communities and through my workforce.”She added: “The Met was angry and shocked – everybody. What happened them was a catalyst for wider societal concern about the safety of women and girls. Police officers are also members of our communities and the public and we feel that acutely.“Those events have brought into sharp focus that women and girls do not feel as safe as we want them to. Full stop.” More

Four men have been arrested by officers investigating a video which appeared to show antisemitic abuse being shouted from a car in London on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said.Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer denounced the incident in which threats were apparently shouted from a convoy of vehicles driving through a Jewish community in the capital.Footage showed a group of cars adorned with Palestinian flags driving down Finchley Road on Sunday, with several individuals standing up through the sunroofs and waving flags as one man shouted: “F*** their mothers. Rape their daughters. We have to send a message.”A Scotland Yard statement said: “Officers investigating a video which appeared to show antisemitic abuse being shouted from a car in north London have made four arrests.“Police received reports of people shouting antisemitic abuse from a car travelling within a convoy of vehicles through the St John’s Wood area on the afternoon of Sunday, May 16.“Enquiries were carried out and officers traced a car to the A40 in Hillingdon. The police helicopter was deployed and officers stopped the car at approximately 18.30hrs.“Four men were arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated public order offences. They were taken into custody at a west London police station.”The cars drove through the St John’s Wood area – a community which houses four significant synagogues, including the oldest congregation within Liberal Judaism, and is described by The Jewish Chronicle as occupying “a special place in British and Jewish life”.In response, the prime minister said: “There is no place for antisemitism in our society. Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain’s Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today.”Labour leader Sir Keir said “there must be consequences” for those involved in the “utterly disgusting” incident, adding: “Antisemitism, misogyny and hate have no place on our streets or in our society.”As Israeli-Palestinian violence continued to intensify this weekend, with medics reporting at least 42 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza on Sunday, pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets to oppose the violence and show solidarity in several cities, including London, Glasgow and Manchester.Organisers of the march in the capital on Saturday said some 100,000 people were in attendance, as huge crowds gathered outside the Israeli embassy calling on the British government to take “immediate action” to deescalate the situation. Addressing the crowds, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn suggested the demonstrations gave “succour, comfort and support” to those suffering in the conflict, while the Palestinian-UK ambassador Husam Zumlot said: “This time is different. This time we will not be denied any more. We are united. We have had enough of oppression. Today we are saying enough, enough with the complicity.”Scotland Yard said nine police officers were injured while dispersing crowds on Saturday when demonstrators threw projectiles at them during what the force called “small pockets of disorder”.The communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, condemned “some of the language used on marches this weekend and in posts on social media” as “intimidating, criminal and racist”.Referring to the video of the convoy, which was later spotted near Brent Cross and Golder’s Green, Mr Jenrick said: “This, on the streets of London, is deeply disturbing. Vile, criminal hatred like this must not be tolerated.“Whatever your view of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, there is no justification for inciting anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hatred. The incidents of antisemitism we have seen in recent days have been shameful,” he said, adding: “We must not tolerate this vile, shameful hate in our country. These actions must stop.”Cabinet minister Michael Gove also pointed to footage showing men at London’s protests shouting a phrase relating to a seventh century massacre of Jewish people, now widely interpreted as a battle cry: “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.”Sharing the footage, labelled by Mr Gove as “deeply concerning”, Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “Can’t stop thinking about this. Happening on our streets. It has to be condemned at the highest level. This is not a call for peace. It is incitement against Jews.”Additional reporting by PA More