Showing posts with label Sandra Laville. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sandra Laville. Show all posts

Midlands forces investigate three representatives amid concerns they exploited furore over minister's alleged 'pleb' comments


Three Police Federation representatives from the Midlands are being investigated over comments they made to the media after a meeting with Andrew Mitchell amid the "plebgate" affair.


West Midlands, West Mercia and Warwickshire forces are investigating the trio's conduct over the remarks, which include comments by the chair of the West Mercia Federation, Ken Mackaill, that Mitchell should consider his position followingclaims he swore at officers in Downing Street and called them "fucking plebs" after they declined to allow him to cycle through the Downing Street security gates.


The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has received referrals from all three forces and is supervising the investigations into Mackaill and the other representatives.


A source close to the investigation said the inquiry was separate from Operation Alice, the Metropolitan police investigation into who leaked details of Mitchell's alleged comments to the Sun and the Daily Telegraph. That investigation is also being supervised by the IPCC.


The development means 10 officers from four forces are being investigated over the affair in separate disciplinary and criminal inquiries.


The Met's inquiry team, led by the assistant commissioner, Pat Gallan, is preparing to deliver evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, which will then decide whether to charge the officers with misconduct in public office.


Three serving Met diplomatic protection officers have been arrested as part of the investigation. A fourth person, a relative of one of the officers, has also been detained and questioned.


The Met has also questioned one of those arrested over an email in which he purported to be a member of the public who witnessed the incident when in fact he had not been there. Seven officers from the force, including the three who had been detained, have received section 15 notices to alert them they are the subject of disciplinary investigations.


The three Midlands Police Federation representatives have been accused of exploiting the furore over the Mitchell incident after they printed PC Pleb T-shirts and protested outside the former chief whip's Sutton Coldfield constituency office.


They held a meeting with Mitchell at the Tory party conference in Birmingham and emerged to tell the waiting media Mitchell needed to consider his position. Mackaill said the politician had apologised for his comments to the officers in Downing Street and repeated a denial of key elements. Mackaill would not reveal exactly what Mitchell had said.


However, Mitchell had secretly recorded his conversation with the officers and passed the tape to the police.


The actions of the Police Federation representatives led to a rift in the organisation, with national officers reprimanding them over their behaviour.


Mitchell, who resigned as chief whip five months ago, claims he is the victim of a "vile stitch-up" to destroy his political career. He admits he swore in the presence of the police officers but denies using the word pleb.






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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/mar/24/plebgate-police-federation-andrew-mitchell
08:50

Large-scale raids on addresses in east London stem from allegations that girl, under 16, was passed around and raped


Eight men suspected of grooming a young girl and passing her around for sex have been arrested in pre-dawn raids by 140 officers across addresses in east London and one in Hertfordshire after a four-month investigation into child sexual exploitation.


The men, aged between 21 and 24, were arrested from nine addresses by teams of officers who forced their way into their homes on Wednesday. They were taken into custody on suspicion of the rape of a girl who is under 16. She went to the police last year and it is understood she alleged she had been groomed and passed around for sex by the men. Detectives from the Sapphire command in the Metropolitan police, which specialises in combatting sex crimes, began an investigation that led to Wednesday's raids.


Commander Peter Spindler, head of the specialist crime command at the Met, said: "We are absolutely committed to tackling this type of offence and are using significant numbers of officers to do so."


The suspects were arrested at 5am from properties in Newham, Redbridge and Havering as well as an address in Hertfordshire, police said. The investigation centres on allegations from the girl that she was passed around and raped by the men between May and November, it is understood.


Detective Chief Inspector Adam Lowe, from the Sapphire command, said: "These arrests are part of an investigation into rape and serious sexual assault carried out by a group of men in Newham and the wider east London area. Our enquiries continue."


Lowe urged other girls who might have been victims to come forward. During the raids a quantity of cash and drugs was also seized by police.


The arrests come as the director of public prosecutions outlined radical new ways in which prosecutors and police should tackle child sexual exploitation prosecutions. Keir Starmer said the cases of Jimmy Savile and several other cases, including the street grooming and rape and sexual abuse of vulnerable young girls, had shown that many victims still did not have the confidence to come forward with allegations nor faith in the criminal justice system. He added that there had been an over-cautious approach to prosecutions.


A report by the deputy children's commissioner for England and Wales last year called for agencies to actively look for cases of child sexual exploitation and on-street grooming of young people by gangs of men. Sue Berelowitz said evidence submitted to her inquiry suggested that from August 2010 to October 2011 at least 2,409 children were sexually exploited by gangs and groups across England.


She identified that each of the children had consistently displayed warning signs that they were being harmed: some were repeatedly going missing; others self-harming; some repeatedly contracted sexually transmitted infections; many suffered physical injuries; their appearance deteriorated rapidly; some engaged in offending; and others were misusing drugs and alcohol. Berelowitz said that when professionals were alert to these signs, victims were identified.


The inquiry also identified that at least 16,500 children showed three or more warning signs linked to child sexual exploitation from April 2010 to March 2011.


One girl, "Rochelle", said she was sexually exploited by a street gang over two years. They would routinely steal her mobile phone and then tell her that if she wanted it back she would need to meet them. When she did so, she would have to perform oral sex and was raped. Instances of abuse were filmed and she was threatened with this footage being circulated around her school. The young men abusing her would communicate using an instant messaging service, and use it to invite other members of the gang to take part in the abuse.


Berelowitz said: "Waiting for children to tell will not suffice. Many children are quite rightly frightened for their personal safety, and the safety of their families. We have spoken to children who have physical injuries, who have been threatened with weapons, and who live their lives in constant fear. These same children have also said that there were clear signs that they were being abused but that nobody asked questions. It is imperative that professionals, parents and carers ask and listen to children whoever they are, or wherever they come from."


The eight men arrested on Wednesday were being held in custody at a police station in east London. Two women and a man were also arrested on suspicion of fraud during the raids.


Detectives appealed for any other young people who were affected to come forward and contact police on 0208 217 6531 or Crimestoppers on 0900 555 111.






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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/mar/06/police-arrest-eight-men-suspect-grooming-rape
05:50

Irfan Naseer, Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali convicted of planning attack which would have been more deadly than 7/7 bombings


Three would-be suicide bombers have been convicted of plotting to carry out terror attacks in the UK which would have been more deadly than the 7/7 bombings in 2005.


The men were key figures in a Birmingham-based terror cell which planned to detonate eight to 10 suicide bombs and timed explosive devices that prosecutors said could have caused "death and injury on a massive scale". They are among a number of extremists in the UK who have been radicalised by the magazine Inspire, a self-help guide produced by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) which is pushed on internet forums to would-be terrorists.


They duped members of the public into donating thousands of pounds to fund their terror plot by posing as collectors for the charity Muslim Aid in Sparkhill, Birmingham. Within two weeks they were able to raise £14,500, which they diverted to fund their activities.


The ringleaders, chemistry graduate Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid, 27, both from Sparkhill, Birmingham, had travelled to Pakistan twice for training – on the second occasion spending two months at an al-Qaida training facility in Miran Shah, in north Waziristan, where they had to flee from American drone strikes.


When they returned to Birmingham in the summer of 2011 they shared their knowledge with Ashik Ali, 27, of Balsall Heath in the city. He rented a council flat which became a makeshift bomb factory and the hub of the terror plot. In the flat the trio experimented with making bombs using ammonium nitrate extracted from sports injury cold packs via a recipe which experts told the court could have created a viable device.


Marcus Beale, assistant commissioner of West Midlands police, who worked with the security services to intercept the plot, said: "They wanted to commit their own 9/11. They were critical of the 7 July bombers because they didn't kill enough people. From the evidence we presented to the court there were 8-10 bombs that they wanted to deploy, a mixture of suicide bombs and IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. So in terms of their capability, if they delivered on the plans that they had they would have committed mass murder on a horrendous scale."


The trio recruited others to their cause, and sent four young men from Sparkhill to Pakistan for training in 2011. But they were being watched by the police and security services, who overheard them describe the plan as "another 9/11". Officers moved in to arrest the men after they overheard them attempting to make a bomb in their council flat.


At one point the three men were heard via a bug planted in their car, mimicking Formula One commentator Murray Walker, and joking: "It's the four suicide bombers driving around ready to take on England."


Khalid also said of the plot: "This is going to kick them all, the kufar [infidels] that go to the pub and that; they have hit us in our own country, my God they hit us."


Naseer, Khalid and Ali were convicted by a jury at Woolwich crown court of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist attacks.


However, there was evidence that the men were struggling to get the ingredients for their plot and no targets were ever identified by the police or security services.


When arrested they were found in possession of just one sports cold pack kit which did not contain ammonium nitrate because the substance is no longer used in the products.


The trio were heavily influenced by Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based cleric who was a leader of AQAP until he was killed by a US drone in September 2011. He spread his extremist message through the English language Inspire magazine, which contained bomb-making recipes and encouraged individuals to radicalise themselves and carry out attacks in their own countries. A search of Ali's house after his arrest uncovered a vast library of lectures by Awlaki.


One of the plans discussed by the trio – of attaching blades to the wheels of cars in order to mow down pedestrians – came directly from Inspire, the second edition of which describes how to create "the ultimate mowing machine".


Sue Hemming, head of special crime and counter-terrorism in the CPS said the influence of Awlaki reflected a trend in cases being brought to court in England and Wales.


"Most recently, a considerable number of investigations have uncovered connection to and support for the teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki who advocated violence against the west through speeches and a publication called Inspire.


"He of course is no longer with us but his pernicious and hateful views unfortunately live on in his recorded speeches and Inspire magazine."


The three men denied all the charges against them. A total of 11 men and one woman have been charged in conncection with the plot. Four men whom the trio recruited and sent to Pakistan for training have pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts. Two other members of the cell, including fundraiser Rahin Ahmed, have pleaded guilty to their role in the plot. All will be sentenced at a later date.


Two men and a woman face trial charged in connection with the plot.






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via The Guardian World News http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/21/three-wouldbe-suicide-bombers-guilty-terror
05:05
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