Tag: united kingdom

Surrey Pride founder, 41, is found guilty of raping 12-year-old boy he met on gay dating app Grindr

The founder of an LGBTQ+ group has been found guilty of raping a 12-year-old boy he met on Grindr.

Stephen Ireland, 41, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, was convicted at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday of raping the child at the flat he shared with David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on April 19 2024.

Ireland along with Sutton, who was a volunteer for Surrey Pride, stood trial for a total of 38 offences between them, including conspiring to sexually assault children, arranging the commission of child sex offences and conspiring to kidnap.

The court heard the boy, 12, had met Ireland at his flat after messaging on dating app Grindr during which Ireland had suggested they kiss and watch pornography.

The child told police they had sex in the flat, smoked a bong and that pornography was played on a laptop, jurors heard. 

The trial heard how the pair discussed targeting children outside school gates while pretending to be a talent coach or music manager and how to avoid CCTV.

Ireland allegedly said in one of the messages ‘all I’m thinking of is making out with a 13’ and in another he told the volunteer ‘every day passes and I wanna do something terrible with you’, the court heard.

Sutton and Ireland also described themselves as ‘pedos’ in messages. 

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London council chiefs spend £140million to send homeless people out of the capital by snapping up hundreds of properties in deprived areas elsewhere in England

Councils in London have spent more than £140million snapping up homes outside the city to relocate homeless people.  

Local authorities in the capital have acquired more than 850 properties across England since 2017, with many in the most deprived areas of the east and southeast of the country, The Guardian reported. 

Bizarrely, some London councils have already bought properties in the Midlands and are planning to send some people as far as Liverpool and the northeast. 

Officials identified 704 people living on the streets of the capital between October and December last year – a 26 per cent rise on the previous year.

Meanwhile, a total of 4,612 individuals were found to be sleeping rough, a five per cent increase on the year before.

People are deemed to be living on the streets if they have had been seen rough sleeping on several occasions over a period of three weeks or more. 

In order to deal with the scope of the problem, and faced with an extreme shortage of social housing and skyrocketing private rents, more than a dozen local authorities – and the housing companies they partially own – have invested heavily in property outside of London’s boundaries. 

The non-London residences are used to house homeless individuals or families either as temporary emergency accommodation or permanently as a privately rented home. 

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Alleged Criminality In UK Peer-Related Contracts Probed Behind Closed Doors At COVID Inquiry

Potentially incriminating evidence relating to the PPE firm linked to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband will be heard in a private, closed session of the UK Covid-19 inquiry, it was confirmed as the module examining contract procurement began.

On Monday, the inquiry began four weeks of scrutiny of government decisions to purchase personal protective equipment and the use of the so-called “VIP lane” that gave priority to companies with connections, which was previously ruled unlawful by the High Court.

However, inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett announced in preliminary hearings for the latest module that there would be a risk of prejudice to potential criminal proceedings if “sensitive evidence” was heard in public.

Opening the latest round of hearings on Monday, Hallett said: “It is not my role, and indeed I am forbidden by the Inquiries Act, to attribute civil or criminal liability to any individual or company.

“I am aware that there are criminal or civil investigations into some of the matters that will be touched upon by this module, and in one case [related to Mone] I have agreed that some evidence will be heard with special restrictions applying to make sure I can hear the evidence without prejudicing any possible criminal investigation.

“The information that I receive [in the closed session] will become public as soon as any criminal investigations are resolved.”

The inquiry heard this week that the government’s 2019 expenditure on PPE had been £146 million, which was just 1 percent of the 2020 cost. In total, the government spent £14.9 billion on PPE between January 2020 and June 2022, plus a further £26 billion on track and trace measures and £700 million on ventilators.

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A Disastrous British-Led Operation in Ukraine: ‘The Krynky Landing’

UK military operation planners became central to an investigation after a failed mission that involved Ukrainian troops attempting to establish a foothold on the left bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast. This operation dubbed “Krynky Landing” initiated in October 2023, aimed to seize and maintain control over a section of territory held by the Russians, before pushing toward Crimea, and reaching all the way to the Perekop isthmus. It ended in tragedy in July of 2024.

As a result, an estimated 788 Ukrainian soldiers who defended Krynky in Kherson Oblast are now reported to be either dead or ‘missing in action.’

Not surprisingly, both Ukrainian officials and their NATO supervisors are keen to bury this story, as well as the massive number of Ukrainian casualties incurred during this military debacle.

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Veiled Threat: Possessing Pics of Muslim Women Without Hijabs Should Be Made a Crime, UK Lawmakers Say

Leftist lawmakers in Britain have argued that being in possession of pictures of Muslim women without their hijab headscarves should be a crime akin to child pornography.

Impending legislation originally intended to crack down on revenge porn should include the prohibition against having images of Muslim women’s faces without their hijab if the photos were taken without their express permission.

The Women and Equalities Committee in the House of Commons argued that such pictures should be considered “non-consensual intimate images” and, therefore, come with similar penalties as possessing child pornography, including lengthy prison sentences, the Daily Mail reported.

If government ministers sign off the committee’s proposal, it could become a crime in Britain as early as this year.

At present, the law defines “intimate” images as those in which a person is seen fully or partially nude, is engaging in a sexual act, or is seen using the bathroom.

Responding to the call to criminalise some pictures of Muslim women without hijabs, David Spencer of the Policy Exchange think tank said: “Tackling the problem of ‘revenge porn’ is clearly important – but expanding this to so-called ‘culturally intimate’ images risks extending the criminal law too far.

“The police cannot be expected to wade into so-called ‘cultural’ issues when officers are already struggling to deal with the volume of stabbings, sexual assaults and thefts that occur every day. The Government should be cautious about creating yet more criminal offences.”

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Who is Peter Mandelson, Starmer’s pick for U.S. ambassador?

Peter Mandelson, Keir Starmer’s choice for British ambassador to the US, co-owns a business that helps companies “see opportunities in politics, regulation and public policy”.

Mandelson, who has a long history of favouring corporations in often scandalous situations, looks set to keep his shares in this company while supposedly representing the UK.

He founded his lobbying company, Global Counsel, in 2010, creating a lucrative business from his political contacts built up while a minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. 

Mandelson stood down from Global Counsel’s board last year – probably in preparation for a post with Starmer’s government – but remains one of the two largest shareholders of the firm, owning over 25% of the company. 

According to Companies House he is a “person with significant control” of Global Counsel. 

I asked the Foreign Office if Mandelson must give up his ownership of Global Counsel to be ambassador. 

They did not answer directly, telling me: “There is an established regime in place for the management of interests held by ambassadors or High Commissioners. This ensures that steps are taken to avoid or mitigate any actual, potential or perceived conflicts of interest.”

The Foreign Office would not give any more detail of this “regime”.

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Pensioner, 93, who has dementia has been convicted of not insuring her car… despite her living in a care home and no longer having a driving licence

An elderly woman with dementia has been convicted of failing to insure her car – despite her living in a nursing home and no longer having a driving licence. 

The pensioner, 93, from Dudley in the West Midlands, was prosecuted by DVLA in September last year when they found out that the insurance on her Ford had expired.

In a handwritten letter the woman explained that due to her diagnosis she had not driven since November 10, 2023, but the vehicle had been ‘kept on the drive’ during this period, the Evening Standard reports.

She admitted to having ‘overlooked’ making a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) for the motor, but said her disease had caused her to hide mail – leaving her family unable to access her letters.

The woman also revealed she had been recovering from a stroke in a care home since November.

As prosecutor DVLA could have decided to withdraw the prosecution on the grounds it wasn’t in the public interest.

But, due to the fast-track design of the Single Justice Procedure, this was not considered.

The pensioner was convicted on a guilty plea at Taunton magistrates court last month. 

She was given a six-month conditional discharge, meaning no financial penalty, but still has a criminal conviction.

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British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles are useless in Ukraine now President Trump has blocked US intelligence from being shared with allies

Britain’s long-range Storm Shadow missiles are feared to have been rendered useless in Ukraine after President Donald Trump blocked US intelligence from being shared with allies.

In a huge blow to Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, Trump froze American military aid to Kyiv before suspending intelligence sharing with President Volodymr Zelensky’s war-torn country.

The UK, which has vowed to stand by Ukraine throughout the three-year war, is among the countries who have been banned from sharing Washington intelligence with Kyiv.

It comes amid an ongoing transatlantic rift after Trump and Zelensky dramatically clashed in a heated Oval Office row last week, sparking a wave of support for Ukraine from European allies including Britain.

MailOnline revealed on Tuesday that UK intelligence agencies and military outlets have received an order expressly forbidding the sharing of US-generated intelligence, previously known as ‘Rel UKR’ – short for Releasable to Ukraine’. 

The impact is likely to have major ramifications as British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, a critical asset used inside Russia’s Kursk region by Ukraine, require US data to hit their targets. MailOnline has contacted the MoD for comment.

Storm Shadow missiles, jointly developed by the UK and France who call it Scalp, are precision-guided munitions used for deep-strike missions as they can hit targets up to 250km (155miles) away. 

The effective missiles, believed to cost roughly £2million each, allow Ukraine to penetrate hardened bunkers and ammunition stores and down critical infrastructure, command centres and logistics hubs at huge ranges.

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Romania – The first “post-election” democracy?

In December 2024, a Romanian court cancelled the second round of the planned Presidential election and annulled the completed first round, citing (totally theoretical) “Russian interference”.

This caused massive protests in Romania, as you can imagine. The first round had been won by right winger Călin Georgescu following a social media-based campaign, and he was predicted to quite easily win the second round as well.

The Romanian opposition – denied a likely victory – took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Then, earlier today, the ECHR threw the case out without even hearing it. Apparently, the Romanian courts were perfectly within their rights to simply indefinitely postpone their election on the basis of unproven allegations, and all those people who already voted and wanted to vote again can just go to hell.

This is the ECHR, which lectures the world on rights and democratic norms on the regular.

And everyone is apparently just fine with it. It’s crazy.

Imagine the outrage in the media if Putin or Trump had suddenly cancelled elections they looked like losing because “they weren’t going to be fair”.

Anyway, now Călin Georgescu has been arrested, and his supporters are taking to the streets, while  the Romanian government is set to crack down on “conspiracy theories” and other “misinformation”.

This anti-election narrative is growing outside of Romania too.

Ukraine, of course, hasn’t had any elections in years either. They also outlawed certain political parties, religions and television channels. Meanwhile, laundering billions of dollars/pounds/euros through the Ukrainian government to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers is considered “defending democracy”.

Last month, former EU chairman Thierry Breton remarked that they had already had to cancel the Romanian elections, and might have to do the same in Germany. (As it happens the “right side” won in Germany, so I guess that election was fair).

To a smaller extent, nine local elections across the UK have been “postponed” for at least a year for unknown reasons.

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The unusual psychic technique used by the MoD to try and find Osama bin Laden

An expert on UFOs has lifted the lid on an unusual ‘psychic spying’ technique used by the Ministry of Defence in the wake of 9/11.

Remote viewers claim to be able to view distant objects, people or events they have never seen before using the powers of their mind – and the technique was used by US Army Intelligence for decades.

Joe McMoneagle, known as ‘Remote Viewer Number 1’ by the CIA, took part in remote viewing between 1978 and 1995 – and he recently appeared on a podcast where he said he had seen evidence of an ancient civilisation living on Mars.

 Speaking to the American Alchemy podcast he said he saw ‘very tall, thin’ people wearing ‘strange clothing’, hiding in chambers in a huge pyramid structure from a storm raging on the planet’s surface.

He theorised a ‘big object passed through our solar system’ that stripped the atmosphere from Mars, which caused alien life on the planet to go extinct.

The CIA’s remote viewing project was cancelled and declassified in 1995 after a report concluded it had ‘failed to produce actionable intelligence’.

But despite this, the British military has also tried to use remote viewing – likely with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda as the intended targets.

Nick Pope, who investigated UFOs for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), told Metro that Joe McMoneagle’s claims would be ‘interesting if true’.

And he discussed the use of remote viewing, described as a ‘low probability high consequence situation’, in modern times.

‘While some scientists believe there was – and may still be – microbial life on Mars, it’s much less likely that there was ever a civilization there,’ Nick told Metro.

‘But I can’t rule it out, and I’d love it to be true. It would be the greatest discovery of all time, and would fundamentally change our view of the universe.’

Giving some insight into the US military’s use of remote viewing, he explained: ‘It’s a proven fact that some parts of the US military and the intelligence community ran so-called remote viewing programmes.

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