Tag: united kingdom

Police unveil ‘revolutionary’ new handheld gadget that captures even slightest bruising on domestic abuse victims for use as evidence

‘Groundbreaking’ new technology will allow police to properly capture bruising on domestic violence victims using a handheld gadget.

Britain’s biggest force is today unveiling the device which will allow frontline officers to gather forensic-grade material that can be used as evidence in court within minutes of first contact.

Project Archway uses cross-polarisation to eliminate glare on the skin and enhance visual contrasts to identify bruises invisible to the naked eye.

Previously, officers often faced challenges in capturing visible evidence of bruising – particularly on darker skin tones and during the early stages of injury.

But the technology, developed in-house by the Metropolitan Police, is closing this gap and the force said it is already improving outcomes for victims.

A 33-use pilot in south London resulted in charges for 45 per cent of the cases.

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The UK’s Crackdown On Pro-Palestine Activists Has Reached New Orwellian Levels.

For years, the UK government has attempted to crack down on the activist group “Palestine Action”, due to their disruption of the Israeli arms manufacturing plant Elbit Systems, which manufactures weapons used to slaughter civilians in Gaza.

The UK government has consistently coordinated with officials from Elbit Systems to assure them that it will crack down on pro-Palestine protests.

As the Guardian has reported , because many court cases have led to “Palestine Action” activists being “acquitted for in the past with human rights defenses” UK government officials met with representatives of Elbit Systems to “reassure” them that they would crack down harder on the protests.

As the independent outlet Declassified UK reported, in 2022, “then home secretary Priti Patel met privately with Martin Fausset, the CEO of Elbit Systems UK, to ‘discuss protests and security’, Home Office documents revealed that the purpose of the meeting was to ‘reassure… Fausset that the criminal protest acts against Elbit Systems UK are taken seriously by the Government’”.

As journalist Kit Klarenberg reported, soon after this meeting, a UK court “ruled that human rights defenses could only be relied on in cases of vandalism of public property, not in cases where criminal damage has been caused to private property. Because Elbit is a private company, the Attorney General’s Office used this determination to dramatically increase prosecutions of Palestine Action activists.”

The Guardian also reported that this meeting with Elbit Systems was “attended by a director from the Attorney General’s Office, said to be representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).”

Tim Crosland from the Defend Our Juries group said “These disclosures, despite the extensive redaction, are the smoking gun on what has been obvious for a while: the government has been trying to put a stop to juries acquitting those who expose and resist corporate complicity in violations of international law and mass loss of life. Such political interference is a national scandal that goes right to the top – the corruption of democracy and the rule of law by those with wealth and power”.

The UK federal government has also coordinated with local police in an attempt to crack down on Palestine Action protestors, even giving a direct line of communication between Elbit Systems and UK police.

As Declassified UK reported, after “Palestine Action” activists disrupted an Elbit Systems drone factory in Leicester in 2023, “Britain’s policing minister Chris Philp held a briefing with Leicestershire police’s deputy chief constable regarding the ‘ongoing protests’”.

Notes from the meeting state that there were “Pushes for remand of those arrested and supports proactive action, show of police and clear[ly] expects us to be taking action against those that commit crime. Focus not on peaceful protestors and facilitating that but on the company”.

Another police file showed that Elbit Systems even shares intelligence on protestors with UK police, as Declassified UK reported, “Elbit Systems UK has ‘its own intelligence cell and shares[s] information with the Police across the country on a two weekly basis’, a police file observes.”

Along with Elbit Systems, the Israeli embassy in the UK has pressured the UK government to crack down on Palestine Action protests.

As the Guardian reported in August of 2023, “Israeli embassy officials in London attempted to get the attorney general’s office to intervene in UK court cases relating to the prosecution of protesters”.

The Guardian found that “The papers, obtained through a freedom of information (FoI) request by Palestine Action, indicate that embassy officials pressed for the director general of the attorney general’s office (AGO), Douglas Wilson, to interfere in cases related to protests on UK soil.”

Since the genocide in Gaza began, the UK government has gone further with its crackdown on Palestine Action activists.

In August of 2024, UK police arrested and charged 10 Palestine Action activists for entering an Elbit Systems facility in Filton, Bristol.

Documents have strongly suggested that the Israeli embassy interfered in the investigation into the Filton activists arrested.

As the Guardian reported in early September of 2024, the head of international law at Britain’s Attorney General’s Office, Nicola Smith, sent the contact details of the CPS (Crown Prosecutorial Service) and Britain’s counter terrorism police (SO15) -who investigated the Filton case- to the deputy Israeli ambassador to the UK, Daniela Grudsky Ekstein.

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UK rap duo faces ‘hate crime’ probe over anti-genocide chants at Glastonbury

British authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the Glastonbury Music Festival performances of Kneecap and Bob Vylan, UK police announced on 30 June.

During their performance at the festival on Saturday, punk-rap duo Bob Vylan led tens of thousands in a chant of “Death, Death to the IDF,” in reference to the Israeli military that is committing genocide in Gaza, and “Free, Free Palestine.”

Avon and Somerset Police stated that a criminal investigation is now underway, citing hate crime laws.

“A senior detective has been appointed to lead this investigation,” a police spokesperson said. “This has been recorded as a public order incident at this time while our enquiries are at an early stage.”

The investigation will be “evidence-led and will closely consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes,” the statement added.

Following the concert, US authorities revoked Boby Vylan’s US visas. The artists were also dropped by their agent at the US-based United Talent Agency.

Irish-language rap trio Kneecap took the stage next despite calls for them to be banned from performing. A member of the group, rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, is facing a terror charge after displaying a flag in support of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah at a performance in London last November.

The criminal investigation comes as the UK continues to crack down on pro-Palestine speech, journalism, and activism.

On Monday, the UK campaign group Palestine Action announced that it had launched legal proceedings to block the British government’s move to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, a step that would make membership a criminal offense.

The legal challenge follows Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s announcement that she plans to place Palestine Action on the UK’s list of banned organizations, citing what she called the group’s “long history of unacceptable criminal damage.” 

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Preventing ‘Grooming Gangs’ Requires Honest Data 

We need to talk about the failure to collect and provide data about the offenders connected to the grooming gangs—or what is more accurately described as child sexual slavery and enforced child trafficking. 

Despite having signed and ratified the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (‘the Istanbul Convention’) which, in article 11, requires the UK authorities to collect and make public such data, we have an intelligence picture that is so bad it suggests the truth is being deliberately obscured to hide the true scale and nature of these horrors.

As highlighted by Baroness Casey’s report of 16 June 2025, ‘the system has consistently failed to … collect accurate data so it can be examined effectively… [i]nstead flawed data is used repeatedly to dismiss claims about “Asian grooming gangs” as sensationalised, biased or untrue.’

It should not have taken Baroness Casey’s review to highlight this. Any intelligence professional worth their salt will tell you it is fundamental to tactical and strategic doctrine to understand the threat before acting. Given estimates of 250,000-1,000,000 children may have been targeted over several decades, this scandal undeniably represents the greatest domestic intelligence failure in our nation’s history.

Every year the Ministry of Justice releases criminal justice statistics. Unfortunately, they are inherently misleading. In 2010, the ethnicity of offenders was recorded 94% of the time for potentially relevant offences. Each year this number was reduced and by, 2023 ethnicity was only recorded in 67% of cases. The result? The data is meaningless and no professional intelligencer would allow confident assessments to be made. Baroness Casey said as much.

This has not stopped organisations like The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, incidentally funded by the Home Office, from producing glossy yearly reports—including the 2023 edition that stated 90% of offenders were white—which then do the rounds to obfuscate and deny the scale and scope of abuse: see former MP Lucy Allan’s comments about Baroness Saida Warsi’s orders to bury the scandal. 

There are two fundamental issues with using this data: The first is that the raft of relevant offences, e.g., rape of a child under 13, could apply to child sexual abuse in any setting, which prevents any understanding of how many instances of child sexual slavery and enforced child trafficking occur and which ethnicities, if any, are over-represented.

The second is that, even if there were relevant offences, there appears to have been a deliberate policy shift to not collect ethnicity data—if not outright manipulation— and, even in the event that a particular offence could be identified, no confident assessments could be made. It is suspected that this stems from misguided legal counsel interpreting Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010—the implementation of which coincided with the sharp decline in ethnicity data collection—which requires the public sector to ‘foster good relations’ between different races, including the need to ‘tackle prejudice’.

Even the Police’s new ‘Hydrant Programme’s’ approach to data is bizarrely inept. Any remotely professional operation tasked with tackling and understanding this behaviour would have put data collection at its core as part of its intelligence function. Yet on June 3rd, 2025, we found out that only 31% of suspects had their ethnicity recorded. Despite this, Deputy Chief Constable Becky Riggs, who is, we were told, the police lead on grooming in England and Wales, went on BBC Newsnight telling the nation that ‘we can only go with the data’ and that it was ‘not true’ that these crimes were being committed by predominantly British Pakistani men. Even though Pakistani men were massively over-represented in that data, it was wrong of her to make her statement. The correct thing for her to say was ‘We simply cannot know because we are not collecting enough data’ and then to promise on national television to collect the data.

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Police ‘assessing’ comments made by Kneecap and Bob Vylan after Glastonbury acts spark outrage with remarks

Avon and Somerset Police are examining video footage from Glastonbury Festival to determine if criminal offences were committed during performances by bands Bob Vylan and Kneecap on Saturday afternoon.

The force announced on social media: “We are aware of the comments made by acts on the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury Festival this afternoon.

“Video evidence will be assessed by officers to determine whether any offences may have been committed that would require a criminal investigation.”

The investigation centres on comments made by punk duo Bob Vylan and Irish rap trio Kneecap during their sets at the festival’s West Holts Stage.

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Kneecap vs. the Israel Lobby: How a Rebel Band Shook Britain

ABelfast rap group with no record deal, no security detail, and no filter is now the target of British counter-terror police, tabloid smear campaigns, and the full force of the Israeli lobby. Their crime? Saying ‘Free Palestine’ too loudly.

Over recent months, Irish rap trio Kneecap has been embroiled in a series of public controversies. In late April, the band was placed under official investigation by British counter-terror police, over a comment made by one of its members at a November 2023 concert—“The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” A month later, another was formally charged for displaying the flag of Hezbollah, a proscribed terror organization under British law, at a London gig.

These developments have led to a welter of cancellations of Kneecap concerts and condemnation from mainstream sources. Yet, fans have forcefully rallied behind the group, and subsequent publicity has introduced the band to new audiences the world over, who are highly receptive to Kneecap’s outspoken, unrepentant anti-Zionism and infectious tunes. Furthermore, the band remains scheduled to perform at Glastonbury Festival in late June, a major British cultural institution, despite calls from parliamentarians to ban them from appearing.

Pressure has been brought to bear on the BBC not to feature Kneecap’s performance in its regular broadcast of the festival, which reaches tens of millions of people globally every year. The state broadcaster has so far stood firm. But there are palpable indications the Israeli lobby is undeterred, and has activated pro-Israel actors in Britain to torpedo the group, if not others, in the process. The stakes are high for Tel Aviv—Kneecap’s loud and proud Palestine solidarity represents an international public relations nightmare.

On June 2, Irish garage punk band Sprints revealed via Instagram that their management had been contacted by a reporter from The Daily Mail, asking if they intended to play at Glastonbury if Kneecap were “banned from the festival.”

The reporter added:

It would be really useful if you could clarify your views on Kneecap and how you feel about them performing at Glastonbury later this month. Do you feel comfortable sharing a platform with them? Will you protest if Glastonbury prevents the band from performing? Do you have any free speech concerns if they are banned, or safety concerns if they perform? It would be really helpful if you could respond with your thoughts by [June 5].”

Accompanying commentary from Sprints stated, “Daily Mail rats trying to drum up support to ban [Kneecap] from Glastonbury. Kneecap are not the story, the genocide in Palestine is the story. Let us be unequivocally clear, we will forever be comfortable sharing the stage with people who use their platform for good and to speak up for those who can’t. Free Palestine.”

The Daily Mail reporter in question was Sabrina Miller. A product of various Israeli lobby Hasbara training programs since high school, over the past five years, she—first as a student, then as an award-winning mainstream journalist—has racked up a lengthy, unpardonable record of targeting public figures in Britain for personal and professional destruction. While accusing Israel’s critics of antisemitism, Miller has also sought to foment anti-Muslim animus. Now, it appears she and the vast lobbying infrastructure behind her have focused their efforts decisively on Kneecap.

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Victim Blaming: UK Judge Uses Violence Committed Against Man as Evidence of His Guilt

A man in London was convicted of a “religiously aggravated public order offense” after HE was attacked by a triggered radical.

Hamit Coskun, a Kurdish-Armenian asylum seeker, was fined over $300 after burning a Quran outside the Turkish consulate as a protest against Turkey’s Islamist government.

Moussa Kadri attacked Coskun with a knife, knocked him down, and kicked him.

But it is Coskun, the victim of a physical attack, who is being punished.

The Westminster Magistrates’ Court held Coskun responsible, citing the violent reaction as evidence of his guilt.

Judge John McGarva stated, “Burning a religious book, although offensive, to some is not necessarily disorderly.”

“What made his conduct disorderly was the timing and location of the conduct and that all this was accompanied by abusive language. There was no need for him to use the ‘F word’ and direct it towards Islam.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) noted the irony of the attacker’s actions being used to convict the victim.

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Incoming MI6 boss’ grandfather was Ukrainian Nazi ‘Butcher’ – UK media

The grandfather of Blaise Metreweli, scheduled to take over leadership of the UK’s foreign intelligence service (MI6), was a Nazi collaborator who oversaw atrocities in occupied Ukraine, the Daily Mail has revealed. 

Metreweli’s father, Constantine, was naturalized in British-administered Hong Kong in 1966. The London Gazette identified him at the time as Dobrowolski, known as Constantine Metreweli, of uncertain nationality.

In a story published Thursday, the Mail confirmed that Constantine was the son of a German-Polish Ukrainian man – also named Constantine – who worked for the Nazis and was implicated in the mass killing of Jews and other atrocities during World War II.

The newspaper said it had reviewed “hundreds of pages of documents held in archives in Freiburg, Germany, detailing the extraordinary – and blood-soaked – life and times of Dobrowolski, which are themselves worthy of a spy thriller.”

According to the records, Dobrowolski Sr. was born into a family of noble landowners in what is now Ukraine’s Chernigov Region. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the estate was violently plundered, leading the younger Constantine to become a fierce enemy of the new authorities.

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Third World Problems: UK Police Instruct Asylum Seekers Not to Sexually Abuse Women

In a tacit condemnation of the UK government’s lax immigration controls, British police have been forced to explain to alleged asylum seekers that women should not be abused or harassed as they have the “same rights as men”.

Basic principles of decency and the modern world are being taught to asylum seekers, who were apparently unaware of how to behave in a Western nation. The re-education scheme, conducted by the Northamptonshire Police, was reportedly launched after a group of young migrants had raised eyebrows in the locality for loitering around a primary school and allegedly filming students, The Telegraph reported.

A PowerPoint presentation provided to alleged asylum seekers living in two hotels in the area impressed upon the migrants that “females have the same rights as men” and therefore “they must be treated with respect and courtesy.”

The ‘Safety Advice and Local Information’ police presentation warned them that “if you harass or abuse any female, you can be arrested.” They were also told that taking pictures or videos of people without their consent could cause “great offence”.

The police force presentation went on to inform the foreigners that “violence of any kind is NOT ACCEPTABLE” and that committing crimes could jeopardise their asylum applications.

Another cultural difference was apparently hinted at by the supposed asylees being told that they must “respect nature” and that it is a “criminal offence to neglect an animal or treat it in a cruel way.”

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British man charged over mock Disneyland wedding to child had been investigated by BBC

The British paedophile charged in connection with organising a “mock wedding” to a child in Disneyland Paris is Jacky Jhaj, who was found guilty of sexual activity with two 15-year-olds in 2016, the BBC understands.

Jhaj, 39, has been charged in connection with organising the fake ceremony on Saturday, in which a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl was due to feature as his bride.

He was arrested when police were called on Saturday morning by an actor who said he had been hired by Jhaj to play the father of the bride.

The BBC has previously investigated how Jhaj was able to hire hundreds of children to act as his fawning fans at a fake film premiere in London’s Leicester Square in 2023.

Some of the children, who had been hired from casting agencies, were as young as six.

Teenage girls told the BBC that they had been asked to scream for him and try to touch him, without being told his real identity by the agencies.

Then in June last year, Jhaj was seen giving gifts to children outside dance auditions for another production – he was recognised by a parent who had seen the BBC article.

Two months later, and following the BBC’s further investigation, Jhaj was filmed posing naked in front of a mocked-up BBC News lorry in London which had been set on fire.

For the mock wedding at Disneyland Paris, which was to be filmed by Jhaj’s team, around 100 French extras had been recruited to take part.

The BBC understands that he appeared in front of a judge in Meaux, north-east of Paris, on Monday and was charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft and placed in pretrial detention.

Preliminary findings also stated that he had allegedly been “made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own”, according to the French prosecutor.

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