Broken Britain

@BenGelblum With Britain's police budgets set to lose £700m a year, amid rising crime, and yet more cuts planned for border forces, parliament today heard of the tragic consequences of less money to fight a growing drug-fuelled gang crime epidemic. Knife crime is not being driven by minors and teenagers. It is being driven by organised criminals exploiting children, arming our young people and fighting turf wars over a £12bn drugs market, Tottenham David Lammy told the House of Commons,...

Thousands of children fall victim to the horrifying new 'bait out' trend that sees their nude pictures shared on social media EVERY DAY, police believe. At least one child from just one small Kent borough every day has their naked selfies posted online, police reveal. And if this worrying trend is similar nationwide, it could mean thousands of kids are being exposed daily. Since the beginning of January over 40 schoolgirls aged between 11 and 17 have reported incidences of...

A disabled man was Tasered by police and charged with assaulting an officer in a case that collapsed when his mother discovered CCTV of the incident. The autistic man, Paul, who has a mental age of seven, could have been jailed had the trial gone ahead, his mother Margaret says. She obtained CCTV footage from the sheltered accommodating where the then-25-year-old lived, showing a different version of events from those provided by officers. Police were called to the sheltered accommodation...

A serving police officer has today (tue) admitted sexually grooming a 15-year-old boy. Detective Constable Jonathan Davies-Brewin, 50, was snared by a vigilante paedophile hunter posing as the teenager. A court heard the senior cop arranged to meet the 'boy' following a conversation on social media. However, when he arrived for the meeting in Colchester, Essex, the boy turned out to be a vigilante adult. Today (tue), Davies-Brewin admitted one count of attempting to meet a boy under 16 years...

A brutal sex attacker who threatened a woman with a hammer and told her, "I'm going to rape you," has been jailed. Macauley Alexander-Rose, 24, held the tool to the terrified victim's right temple, before grabbing her so hard by the private parts that she screamed in agony. A court heard how he threatened to kill her as he put his hands around her neck and over her mouth, telling her: "If you don't have sex with me, I'm going...

The sister of a teacher murdered in her own classroom by a knife-wielding student says metal detectors in schools would "send out wrong message". Ann Maguire's younger sister Denise Courtney believes 'education is the answer' to knife crime and airport-type scanners would not stop baseball bats and acid being found. The 52-year-old is still struggling to come to terms with Ann being snatched from their lives while doing the job she loved and says the family will "never recover". Denise...

A "predatory" assistant headteacher was caught with thousands of indecent images of children - and photos of pupils taken around a school. David Allison, 48, "deceived" parents and colleagues into believing children were safe, police said. He was jailed for three years and placed on the sex offenders' register for life. Allison, of Chertsey, Surrey, was arrested on November 29 last year after police raided his home. They seized numerous electronic devices containing a stash of indecent images, and he...

Slum landlords who crammed up to 40 migrants inside their semi-detached suburban house face losing over a third of a million pounds they made, a court heard Mum Harsha, 53, daughter Chandni, 27, and brother-in-law Sanjay Shah, 54, rented their four bedroom property through an agent who at one point managed 40 Indian migrants and poor Londoners living there. For over five years the Shah family, together with agent Jaydipkumar Valand, 42, were paid between £40 and £75 per week...

The family of an elderly dementia patient are outraged after a carer who was caught on camera repeatedly smacking their mum got let off – which a police caution. Stacey George, 46, was also filmed telling 78-year-old Sabina Marsden, “God you stink” and snatching a blanket from her knee leaving her half-naked and sobbing. Her daughter Gina Owen watched the shocking abuse in real time as it was live-streamed to her mobile phone. The Italian-born grandmother-of-two and widow can be...