Cleveland police not ruling out links to organised crime as force also continues to investigate circumstances around fatal A66 crashA murder investigation has been launched after a house fire in Middlesbrough killed two people, with police not ruling out links to organised crime.The blaze in the early hours of Wednesday came as police continue to investigate the wider circumstances around a collision on Saturday on the A66 which killed seven people, including two police officers. Continue reading...
Yorgen Fenech tells jury he had nothing to do with killing and alleges top adviser to Malta’s then PM was instigatorA businessman on trial for the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has spoken about the charges for the first time in court since his arrest seven years ago, telling the jury he was framed by police and had nothing to do with the killing.During four days of questioning by defence and the prosecution lawyers, Yorgen Fenech, 44, accused the most senior adviser to Malta’s prime minister of giving the go-ahead for the murder. Continue reading...
Relatives of woman fatally stabbed on public transit allege death was preventable and Charlotte knew of violent crime issueThe family of Iryna Zarutska is suing Charlotte and a security company one year after the Ukrainian refugee was fatally stabbed onboard a light rail train in the North Carolina city.A lawsuit filed on Friday in Charlotte’s Mecklenburg county superior court alleges Zarutska’s death was preventable. It also claims the city and the company that provides security for the Charlotte Area Transit System failed to put adequate protections in place despite knowing about violent crime on and around the municipal light rail line. Continue reading...
Exclusive: analysis risks deepening perception of ‘unequal protection under the law’ Killers who take the lives of black people have a greater chance of getting away with their crimes than those who target white people, new research shows.Analysis of unsolved homicides in London between 2019 and 2023 found non-white British people made up 61% of victims. When researchers assessed unsolved murders, 92.9% of cases in the capital were connected with a victim who was non-white. Continue reading...
Closing arguments could come on Monday as prosecutors seek murder conviction over deaths of three young childrenLindsay Clancy’s defense in her murder trial rested on Friday after calling witnesses to testify about the ailing mother’s mental state and attempts to seek help before she killed her young children.The defense wrapped more quickly than some expected given that the prosecution rested their case on Monday. Continue reading...
Jason Murphy believes he knows who killed McKee in Derry, but culture of silence and mistrust of police is denying her family justiceWhen Lyra McKee was shot and killed on the night of 18 April 2019, approximately 150 people were in her vicinity. The 29-year-old journalist had watched in a crowd as rioting broke out in Derry, Northern Ireland. Police footage captured the grainy outline of a man firing a handgun.“Someone’s fucking shot,” a bystander could be heard crying in mobile phone footage shown as evidence in court. “There’s a fucking kid shot in the head.” Continue reading...
The attorney for Clancy, who strangled her three children, says she suffered from postpartum psychosisHundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters, many wearing pink clothing emblazoned with phrases such as “Believe”, “She Needed Help” and “Peace For Lindsay”, gathered on Thursday outside the courthouse where she is on trial in the killings of her three children.Several of the 300 women, and a few men, said Clancy’s story resonated with them and that they wanted to raise awareness about how the mental health system treats women. Clancy’s lawyer does not dispute that she killed the children, but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill. Continue reading...
Victorian court of appeal also to consider whether triple murder and attempted murder convictions should be quashedErin Patterson argues mushroom murder convictions should be quashed due to ‘catastrophic’ failure of justiceGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWelcome to day two of our live coverage of Erin Patterson’s appeals. We are expecting today’s hearing to begin at 10.15am.Yesterday, the Victorian court of appeal heard the seven grounds of appeal Patterson’s legal team is arguing against her convictions for three murders and one attempted murder. Continue reading...
Allowing jurors to stay in same hotel as police and prosecution denied Patterson a fair trial, lawyers tell Victorian court of appealLawyers for Erin Patterson argue that allowing jurors to stay in the same hotel as police and the prosecution while they deliberated over their verdicts in the triple murder trial represented a “catastrophic” failure of the justice system.On Wednesday, three judges of Victoria’s highest court started hearing two appeals – by Patterson herself and the state’s director of public prosecutions (DPP) – into the conviction and sentence in the case. Continue reading...
Victorian court of appeal to consider whether triple murder and attempted murder guilty verdicts should be quashedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWelcome to our live coverage of Erin Patterson’s appeals.It’s been more than a year since a Victorian jury found Patterson guilty of murdering three of her estranged husband’s elderly relatives and attempting to murder a fourth. Continue reading...
Duane Davis is only man ever charged in relation to drive-by shooting of Shakur in Las VegasWhat we know about Tupac Shakur’s death and what to expect from murder trialIf you’re catching up now on what’s happened so far in th Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas, here is video of key evidence presented to the Las Vegas jury yesterday:The court heard brief testimony from Thomas Kern, who was a crime scene analyst for the Las Vegas police department in 1996, who was present at the autopsy of Tupac Shakur, and is authenticating evidence from the autopsy. Kern did not face any cross-examination. Continue reading...
Detectives say 55-year-old man arrested and appeal for anyone who witnessed altercation in WakefieldPolice in West Yorkshire have launched a murder investigation into the death of a man after being bitten by a dog.Officers were dispatched to Wakefield just after 1.30pm on Saturday, after receiving reports that an altercation that had taken place a short time earlier on an old trainline footpath. Continue reading...
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis faces trial on Monday over rap star’s death that marked notorious chapter in hip-hop’s historyIn September 1996, rap star Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas strip, succumbing days later to his injuries. His killing, which remained unsolved for decades, gave rise to fervent conspiracy theories and conjecture.Thirty years later, one man is facing trial for the ambush: Duane “Keffe D” Davis. Continue reading...
Prosecutors pointed to internet searches made on the family computer in the months before the killings to make their caseProsecutors revived a theory in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial case this week, suggesting she had faked a suicide attempt after allegedly strangling her three children.While prosecutors have been arguing that Clancy acted intentionally and should be held criminally responsible, her defense has said she suffered from postpartum psychosis. Continue reading...
Corporation was told of claims by Christopher Berry-Dee that he had clothing, which was lost while in its possessionThe BBC was warned by two whistleblowers that a British true crime author was claiming to have obtained the missing clothes of a child murder victim that the broadcaster had lost.The Guardian has established that the office of the former head of the BBC and the corporation’s whistleblowing unit were both informed that Christopher Berry-Dee, the UK’s most successful true crime author, had told people he had obtained the clothes of Karen Hadaway, who was murdered in 1986. Continue reading...
Steven Sansom and Adam Watson accused of trying to kill Urfan Sharif, who murdered his daughter, in Belmarsh prisonTwo men have been charged with attempted murder after the father of the murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif was attacked in prison.Steven Sansom, 47, and Adam Watson, 39, are accused of trying to kill Urfan Sharif at HMP Belmarsh on New Year’s Day last year. Continue reading...
Stephen Parkinson says court should have been told that sex offender was being investigated for even more serious offencesThe director of the Crown Prosecution Service has apologised and vowed to increase staff numbers after conceding that the court deciding whether to release Simon Levy on bail should have known the serial sex offender was being investigated for rape and murder.Levy, 40, was this week given a rare whole-life sentence for the murders of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins, and the rape of another woman. Continue reading...
Mina Smallman, whose daughters were killed in north London park in 2020, says force ‘decides who matters’The Metropolitan police does not take all cases of violence against women seriously and “decides who matters”, the mother of two murdered women has said.Mina Smallman, whose daughters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were killed in a north London park in 2020, also said Britain’s biggest police force is incapable of change. Two police officers were jailed in 2021 after taking photographs of the dead bodies of her daughters and sharing the images in WhatsApp groups, referring to them as “dead birds”. Continue reading...
Reiner, 32, charged with first-degree murder in deaths of Hollywood towering figures Rob Reiner and Michele ReinerA grand jury has indicted Nick Reiner with first-degree murder in the deaths of his parents, the renowned director and actor Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, the Los Angeles county district attorney’s office announced on Wednesday.Prosecutors accuse Reiner, 32, of stabbing the couple to death in December in their Brentwood home, before fleeing the scene. He was arrested shortly after and charged with murder. Reiner has since been held in custody without bail. Continue reading...
Serial sex offender sentenced for murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo and Sheryl Wilkins, and raping another woman in 2025Simon Levy, the sexual predator left free by police errors to murder two women, will never leave prison after being sentenced to a whole-life tariff.Levy was convicted on Friday of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later. He was also convicted of attacking and raping another woman, 35, in January 2025, who survived and gave damning testimony against him. Continue reading...
Prosecutors to argue that Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis ordered killing and provided gun in Las Vegas drive-by shooting of rapperThe trial is to begin of a former gang leader over the decades-old killing of the rapper Tupac Shakur, one of the most high-profile unresolved murders in the US.The proceedings, which begin in Las Vegas on Monday and are expected to last a month, are unlikely to make clear who fired the shots that killed the hip-hop legend on 7 September 1996 while he was in the city to see a Mike Tyson boxing match. Continue reading...
Man, 21, dies six days after being taken to hospital in critical condition after alleged attack in Bahrs Scrub, LoganFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA “preconceived plan” to do harm at a party has resulted in a young man’s death and murder charges for eight teenagers, police say.The group of teens allegedly attended an Airbnb gathering south of Brisbane armed with various weapons before it erupted into violence and left the 21-year-old man with catastrophic head injuries. Continue reading...
Lawyers for man accused of killing healthcare CEO Brian Thompson raise red flags about limits on reportersWeeks before Luigi Mangione faces a jury over the killing of the UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson, the hugely anticipated proceedings already have potential to reach trial-of-the-century status.Intense global interest in Mangione’s case is unfolding against a media landscape where news consumers expect minute-by-minute updates, a mise-en-scène now made all the more complicated by social media influencers who managed to get press credentials and often flock to major US criminal cases in search of clicks and money. Continue reading...
A taxi driver says he acted as middleman between the Maltese businessman and three men already convicted of carrying out the €150,000 contract killingThe businessman accused of paying for hitmen to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was impatient for the killing to take place, and once texted from his boat to say he was “preparing champagne” to celebrate, a jury in Malta has heard.Yorgen Fenech, the 44-year-old heir to a property empire that includes several Hilton hotels, is on trial in Malta for complicity in the murder of Caruana Galizia. She died in a car bombing in October 2017 after publishing a series of revelations about senior politicians that were so damaging they triggered a snap general election. Continue reading...
Experts say the attackers’ behaviour, and the handling of their cases, have striking similaritiesAbout 40 metres off Tottenham High Street, up a slip road for deliveries to a B&M homewares store, is a stretch of concrete paving behind a 2-metre wall topped with spikes.This is the patch of ground that Simon Levy tried to turn into his personal killing field. Continue reading...
Delays to sexual assault charges and failures to report past convictions in court hearings gave Simon Levy chance to attack more womenCatastrophic errors left a prolific and proven sex offender free before he murdered two women in London, it can be revealed.On Friday an Old Bailey jury found Simon Levy, 40, guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later.The CPS admitted errors at three court hearings in May, June and August 2025, which ended in Levy remaining free. It would not specify publicly what those were, but a source authorised to speak for the organisation said they included failing to mention he had been arrested for Valencia-Trujillo’s murder, and that it could find no record or mention of Levy’s past sexual assault convictions, nor that he was a suspect in a 2024 rape. The CPS said: “We accept there was relevant information regarding bail that was not provided to the court when bail applications were being considered. Our actions fell short of the standards that victims, families and the public are entitled to expect … We could and should have taken a more robust approach to representations about bail.” By May 2025, police wanted Levy remanded, fearing he posed a “high risk of reoffending” with his crimes “escalating”.Levy failed to attend three crown court hearings for the train attacks, and the CPS accepts there is no evidence of a warrant being sought for his detention. For two he claimed illness, for the other that he was not informed. His final non-appearance in crown court was on 11 August 2025. A fortnight later he murdered Wilkins. A CPS source said individuals involved in the Levy case had been disciplined.The assaults on the London tube network and trains were investigated by BTP. Officers arrested Levy, who was travelling on a stolen Oyster travel card, but handed it back to him, unaware it was stolen. With it he travelled to south London to commit his first murder, and carried out further sexual assaults on trains.BTP admitted the charging of Levy for his sexual assaults on trains in November 2024 was held up because of a delay in holding an identification parade after his arrest. It meant his bail was extended and during this delay he attacked and raped another woman and murdered Valencia-Trujillo, a mother of two.BTP identified him as a suspect and charged him but never searched his home. Peter Fulton, BTP’s head of crime, said: “There’s a fine line between going fishing and breaching someone’s human rights.” He said that every woman who reported Levy for attacking them on a train saw him charged and convicted. When the Met, which investigated the murders, searched Levy’s home, evidence was found about his attack on the prison officer.The police watchdog has placed two Met officers under investigation over whether Levy was supervised correctly as a person on the sex offender register. A constable is under investigation for gross misconduct, meaning he could be dismissed. The other officer, under investigation for misconduct, is a detective sergeant.BTP said it had not referred its errors to the police watchdog. Instead it has moved one officer, who it says delayed the holding of the ID parade, out of investigations, and given a supervisor words of advice. Continue reading...
Variety of prescriptions were found in blood of mother accused of strangling her three kids, according to testimonySign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The trial of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mom accused of killing her three children in January 2023, continued on Wednesday with a forensic toxicologist testifying to the variety and concentration of medications found in the defendant’s blood.Justin Brower, a forensic toxicologist with NMS Laboratories, testified that his lab examined the levels of four psychiatric medications detected in Clancy’s blood after she allegedly strangled her kids and attempted to take her own life. Continue reading...
Mount Vernon official is accused of driving getaway car after son allegedly opened fire outside Bronx courtA New York state police department fired its deputy commissioner on Tuesday after she allegedly acted as a getaway driver for her son in what is being investigated as an attempted murder.The city of Mount Vernon said in an Instagram post that it had terminated Jennifer Lackard, deputy police commissioner for safety, for conduct “unrelated to her duties”. Continue reading...
Inquiries have focused on Elisabeth-Jane Ross’s last few hours alive and police believe they hold the key to why 38-year-old was targetedGreek authorities are investigating what may have motivated a 26-year-old Afghan man to kill a Scottish charity worker found dead in a suitcase in an abandoned building in Athens last month.Inquiries have focused increasingly on Elisabeth-Jane Ross’s last few hours alive and police believe they hold the key to revealing why the 38-year-old was targeted. Continue reading...
Texts reveal that singer and Celeste Rivas Hernandez had been in touch stretching back to when she was 11 years oldThe rising pop singer D4vd and 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez were in the throes of a clandestine relationship months before her mangled and decomposing body turned up last September stuffed in an impounded car registered to the musician.D4vd, born David Anthony Burke, is set to stand trial for murder, child sexual abuse and mutilation of human remains in connection to the teenager’s death. Continue reading...