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Teen pulled knife in Cardiff school toilets

by Natalie March 30, 2025
written by Natalie

A teenager pulled a knife in a Cardiff school and held it to a child's neck area, a court has heard.

The 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to having a knife on the school premises on two occasions in 2024.

Video footage played in the youth court at Cardiff Magistrates' Court showed an incident in which a knife could be seen to be held.

The court heard the incident happened in the school toilets, and that the boy held the knife to a child's neck area but did not make contact.

Magistrates issued a nine-month referral order after the teenager pleaded guilty to possessing a bladed article.

March 30, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Fire crews tackle blaze at derelict building

by Evan March 23, 2025
written by Evan

A large fire has broken out at a derelict commercial property in Taunton, Somerset.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue service said two engines from Taunton and one from Wellington were dealing with the fire in the Comeytrowe area of the town.

The fire service said it had received multiple calls around 19:16 BST.

It advised residents to keep windows and doors closed due to the nature of the smoke coming from the fire.

March 23, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Disposable BBQ warning as item banned at park

by Jamie March 6, 2025
written by Jamie

Disposable barbecues have been banned from a town's park after benches and tables were found damaged.

People can still hire barbecues at Swindon's Coate Water Country Park and bring in non-disposable ones.

Wayne Jones, duty manager at Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, warned that flames can spread "very quickly" at the moment.

He said: "One of the biggest problems we've got at the moment is the ground drying out and the grass being relatively long. If there's an area where a disposable barbecue is brought into contact, there is a chance it could cause a fire."

Park visitor Chandru Balasubramaniam agrees with the BBQ ban

A fire spokesperson explained that the disposal barbecue's metal trays stay hot for a long time and can cause fires in undergrowth and bins. They also warned people to never leave one unattended.

There are now several burnt benches and tables at Coate Water from incidents involving barbecues.

Visitor Chandru Balasubramaniam said: "There is no need to have a disposable barbecue at all. Definitely they should be banned, yes.

"Just look at the mess here. And they can also cause fires."

Swindon Borough Council said there have been incidents with the disposable barbecues

Another visitor at the park, John Kilderry, thinks barbecues need to be taken home after usage.

"They're fine if they're used properly, kept on bricks like you should do, off the floor, not on the grass," he added.

March 6, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Syphilis and drug-resistant gonorrhoea increasing

by Michael March 3, 2025
written by Michael

New cases of the sexually transmitted infection syphilis have risen again in England, continuing a trend dating back to the early 2000s.

While the overall number of people diagnosed with gonorrhoea has fallen, there has been a significant increase in the number of cases where the infection is drug resistant, new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data shows.

Health experts say this is a real concern, although the actual number of drug-resistant cases remains very low.

The NHS recently announced the rollout of the world's first vaccine programme to protect against gonorrhoea, aimed principally at gay and bisexual men.

March 3, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Power back after Penzance plunged into darkness

by Brooklyn March 1, 2025
written by Brooklyn

More than 1,300 buildings lost power in a Cornish seaside town following two separate incidents.

National Grid said a power outage had been reported in Penzance just before 19:55 BST in several areas including Market Jew Street and New Street which left 1,194 properties without power.

The company added a second outage was reported just after 20:00 which affected 175 properties on streets including Adelaide Street, Leskinnick Terrace and Penare Road.

In an update at 05:12, National Grid said power had been restored to all properties.

March 1, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Last chance to have your say on devolution plans

by Kristen March 1, 2025
written by Kristen

People have until Sunday to give their comments on plans for devolution, which includes an elected mayor and an overhaul of local government across Sussex and Brighton & Hove.

In December, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced plans for a 'devolution revolution' with elected mayors across England and an end to two-tier council structures.

In February, Sussex was confirmed as one of six areas accepted onto the government's priority scheme for devolution and county council elections due to take place this May were cancelled.

A government consultation into the plans will end at midnight on Sunday.

Reorganising our councils

Under the plans, all 12 of the boroughs and district councils and East and West Sussex county councils will be scrapped.

An elected mayor will take on responsibility for strategic decisions on the economy, transport and infrastructure and new unitary authorities will be created to run all of the day-to-day services.

Current council leaders have been thrashing out plans on how many unitary authorities there will be and which areas they will cover.

Brighton and Hove is already run by a unitary city council, but it is smaller than the government wants new authorities to be.

Initial plans published in January suggest the political map of Sussex could be significantly redrawn in the reorganisation.

Fast-track timetable

Leaders must finalise plans and submit them to the government by September and wait for a final ministerial decision on whether they can proceed.

The proposed timetable for fast-track devolution would see Sussex residents elect their first mayor in May 2026.

Elections to the new unitary authorities would take place in May 2027.

For the following year, existing councils would continue to run alongside the new unitary authorities while business is handed over, before being dissolved in 2028.

March 1, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Greggs shifts food behind counters to stop thieves

by David February 27, 2025
written by David

Greggs will move its self-serve food and drinks to behind the counter to stamp out shoplifting at the High Street bakery.

The company is trialling the measure at a handful of stores which, it said, are "exposed to higher levels of anti-social behaviour".

These include Whitechapel in east London which is one of five shops that will try out the new policy – the others are in Peckham and Ilford.

It is not expected that the change will be implemented across all Greggs' 2,600 bakeries in the UK, but it may be rolled out to sites where there are high levels of theft.

In 2024, shoplifting offences recorded by the police rose by 20% to 516,971, according the Office for National Statistics.

But the number of thefts recorded by retailers was far higher – for the year to last September shops saw a 3.7 million rise to 20.4 million, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.

Greggs said customers can expect to see its full range behind its counters but added: "The safety of our colleagues and customers remains our number one priority."

Some retailers, including supermarkets, have reported been targeted by organised gangs who wear bluetooth headsets to communicate with each other and set off alarms in stores to create a distraction allowing their fellow shoplifters to escape.

Andy Higginson, chair of sportswear and trainer retailer JD Sports and the BRC, recently told the BBC that some see shoplifting as a "way of life", allowing them to trade or sell what they have stolen.

"There is an element of society that is starting to take stealing from stores as a way of life and that needs to be stopped," he said.

February 27, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Man jailed for £40,000 theft from cash machines

by Abigail February 7, 2025
written by Abigail

A man who travelled across England stealing about £40,000 from more than 500 cash machines has been jailed for four years.

Florin Ivascu, 40, worked alongside Andrei Matei, 35, to jam open the cash dispenser on the ATMs so they could take money from inside.

Ivascu admitted 545 thefts from cash machines and criminal damage, and was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday. Matei was jailed for two years in February after admitting similar charges.

The Romanian nationals – Ivascu of Dagenham, London and Matei of Crumpsall, Manchester, will also face deportation once they are released.

West Yorkshire Police said Ivascu caused damage valued at over £60,000 to the cash machines which he tampered with.

Matei admitted theft and criminal damage to 483 machines and was jailed for two years and three months when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court in February.

Ivascu faced the same charges together with an additional 62 thefts and criminal damage relating to ATM incidents which took place in Merseyside.

Police said Ivascu would carry out the process while Matei kept lookout and provided cover so that people could not see what was happening.

An investigation into the pair's activities was launched by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (YHROCU) after a spate of thefts from cash machines in West Yorkshire.

But officers from the YHROCU's Proactive Economic Crime Team soon established the pair were carrying out their activities all over the country in several police force areas.

YHROCU
CCTV footage showed the men at locations across the UK

They were arrested in Nottingham in 2023 after CCTV footage showed them at hundreds of locations.

Speaking after the sentencing, economic crime investigator Neil Bottomley of the YHROCU's Proactive Economic Crime Team said: "We received reports of a number of incidents where two men were targeting cash points in Yorkshire, but it soon became very clear while we were piecing together their activities that they were active on a nationwide scale.

"The pair were committing thefts from ATMs across most of the country and leaving a trail of damage to the machines behind them.

"Several other forces assisted us as part of this investigation.

"Ivascu and Matei were nothing short of prolific and I'm pleased that we have been able to finally bring them to justice and put them behind bars."

Three YHROCU officers were commended by the judge for their role in the investigation.

The pair committed offences in 27 of England's 40 force areas, including Avon & Somerset, Bedfordshire, Derbyshire, Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Humberside, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside and the Metropolitan Police area.

They also targeted North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumbria, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Thames Valley, Warwickshire, West Mercia, West Midlands, West Yorkshire and Wiltshire.

West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds

February 7, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

Pop culture re-invented the Menendez brothers – now their fate may rest with one man

by Miles February 5, 2025
written by Miles

It was once unthinkable that Lyle and Erik Menendez, the men who murdered their wealthy parents by shooting them 16 times, would get the sympathy and forgiveness of the masses.

Their claims of sexual abuse at the hands of their father were mocked by prosecutors and comedians alike, from late-night TV to jokes at the Academy Awards.

But 35 years later – thanks in part to TikTok, Netflix and stars like Kim Kardashian – the Menendez brothers have a new generation of supporters – many who were not even born in 1989, the year the brothers ambushed their parents with shotguns in their Beverly Hills mansion.

At the time of their trials, the brothers were portrayed as greedy, entitled monsters who went on a $700,000 (£526,0000) spending spree in the weeks after the murders. Now, with a growing understanding of trauma and sexual abuse, many are more sympathetic – and that might just give the brothers a chance at freedom.

This week, a Los Angeles judge reduced the brothers' sentence to include the possibility of parole, which could be granted at a hearing next month.

Their fate will then be in the hands of California's Parole Board and, ultimately, Governor Gavin Newsom, who will be weighing the shifting public opinion about the divisive case with his own political ambitions.

Watch: "Redemption is possible" – Family and attorney of Menendez brothers react to resentencing

How did we get here?

In 1989, Erik and Lyle Menendez burst into their Beverly Hills living room, both toting loaded shotguns, and opened fire on their parents, who were watching television. The crime would go unsolved for months.

They got tickets for the James Bond film License to Kill as an alibi and told law enforcement and members of the news media, who were covering the execution of the wealthy, high-powered couple in their mansion, that perhaps the mafia was to blame.

Meanwhile, they bought a new Porsche, Jeep, Rolex watches and other luxury items with cash from their parents' estate.

They weren't caught until police got word of their admissions to a psychologist.

Even at the time, their crime was divisive – the first trial ended un a mistrial after the jury couldn't reach a verdict. After the second, they were sentenced to life without parole.

During both trials, the brothers were characterised as bad boys and spoiled children who were motivated to kill their parents out of hatred and hopes to acquire their $14 million estate.

Saturday Night Live and other late-night shows mocked the pair's defence in court – including tearful testimony about their alleged sexual abuse, which prosecutors dubbed the "abuse excuse" – and documentary titles from that decade included phrases like "the bad sons" and "American sons, American murderers".

Appeal after appeal was denied but last year, everything seemed to change. New evidence about the alleged sexual abuse had surfaced and Netflix released a drama that captured the attention of a whole new generation. Soon, documentaries about the case included titles with words like "misjudged" and "boys betrayed".

TikTokers discussed the case with their followers. Reality star Kim Kardashian, a criminal justice advocate who has helped free imprisoned people, penned an opinion piece publicly backing their bid for freedom.

"Back then, there were limited resources for victims of sexual abuse, particularly for boys," Kardashian wrote in the NBC piece.

In the 1990s, society did not have the same understanding we do today of trauma, sexual abuse and harassment, Whitney Phillips, a University of Oregon professor who studies true crime, told the BBC. That gap in understanding was especially pronounced for boys who were abused, she added.

But after the MeToo movement, there was more cultural space created for people to speak about these experiences, she said.

"Not only does it create a permission structure," Prof Phillips said of people feeling encouraged to speak out about harassment and abuse, "in some ways it creates an incentive structure to feature stories about trauma".

Adding to that is the change in how the public views criminal justice, with more emphasis on rehabilitation and reducing prison populations instead of the tough-on-crime mentality that dominated Los Angeles at the end of the 20th Century.

"The lock people up forever attitude of the 1990s is fortunately long gone," said Robert Rand, a journalist who met and interviewed the brothers before they were arrested and uncovered new evidence in 2018 – a letter Erik had written as a teenager to a cousin about his father's sexual abuse.

In a documentary Mr Rand produced about the killings, released in 2023, a former member of the boy band called Menudo alleged that the brothers' father, Jose Menendez – who was an executive at RCA Records – had raped him when he was 14 years old. The accusation further bolstered the brothers' claims of abuse.

The new testimonies helped give new life to the brothers' claims, and provided a catalyst for what Prof Phillips called a "hurricane" of interest and support, from the Netflix drama to Kardashian's op-ed.

"The things that get really big online are things that have lots of sources of energy," she said.

Even Lyle Menendez noted the sea change.

"The followers who are younger that are on that sort of TikTok social media generation, they really have tremendous hope," Lyle Menendez said at a court hearing.

"I'm not as hopeless as I was as a 21-year-old, that's for sure. Obviously, I feel more hope when society seems to be understanding these experiences and sex abuse better."

Getty Images
The fate of the brothers rests with California Gov Gavin Newsom, who is thought to be a potential US presidential contender

Where do the Menendez brothers go from here?

The fate of the brothers – regardless of what social media, the courts or California's parole board recommends – ultimately rests with one man: Governor Newsom, who has the power to accept or reject any parole recommendation.

And many believe that man is considering a run for president in 2028.

Since the last election, Newsom has been undergoing a political transformation, shifting from crusading liberal pushing universal healthcare to a more moderate, pragmatic approach, most recently proposing freezing healthcare for undocumented immigrants.

Weighing in on such a divisive case could be "risky", said Pennsylvania-based Republican political strategist Sam Chen.

"Can you imagine a reality TV show of the Menendez brothers while Newsom is trying to run for president? Talk about free campaign airtime," he said. "That would be the worst thing for him."

Although no one knows which way he is leaning, Newsom has mentioned the case several times on social media and on his podcast.

"The question for the board is a rather simple one," Newsom said in February on TikTok. "Do they pose a current, what we call 'unreasonable' risk to public safety."

Mr Rand acknowledged the case is "risky" politically for Newsom.

"You can't get around the elephant in the room: They brutally murdered their parents," Rand told the BBC. "But if you do believe that they were abused and that they suffered from a lifetime of abuse – and there actually is evidence that supports their story – it's a very different situation."

The brothers have not committed violent crimes while in prison, a fact the judge in their resentencing hearing considered, although they did have infractions for using cell phones smuggled into prison.

They've also led productive lives while incarcerated, with Erik founding a hospice programme to help elderly and disabled inmates while Lyle has been working on prison beautification.

Remarkably, every single surviving member of their family – from cousins to aunts and uncles – want the Menendez brothers released, including the surviving siblings of Jose and Kitty Menendez.

"They chose to live their lives with clarity and a purpose of service," their cousin Anamaria Baralt said outside the court after they were resentenced.

If the board recommends parole in June, the governor has 30 days to accept or reject the recommendation. If they are paroled, the brothers will be released likely within five months, according to the California Department of Corrections.

The fact that Gov Newsom ordered the state parole board to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment before the brothers were even deemed eligible for parole has many thinking he's open to releasing them.

"He wants the political cover" of the parole board and court recommendations, said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor who has been following the brothers' legal saga but is not representing any of the participants.

A year ago, Mr Rahmani never would have predicted the Menendez brothers could be released. Now he thinks they will be free within the next few months.

But it wouldn't be unprecedented for Gov Newsom to reject a high-profile parole recommendation.

Several times he blocked the release of a Manson Family member. And in 2022, Newsom blocked the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who assassinated Sen Robert F Kennedy.

As far as the Menendez brothers go, Gov Newsom said on his podcast that he's mulling over the case and he's not planning to watch any of the documentaries or true crime dramas about the case.

"I'm obviously familiar with the Menendez brothers just through the news over the course of many decades, but not to the degree that many others are because of all of these documentaries and all of the attention they've received," he said. "So that won't bias my independent and objective review of the facts."

February 5, 2025 0 comments
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Industry

'All-out war' and Luke Littler's MBE

by Amelia February 5, 2025
written by Amelia

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February 5, 2025 0 comments
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