Tag: wales

Catholic priest, 57, who pretended to be a 16-year-old skinhead to post in neo-Nazi chatrooms where he threatened to bomb mosques as part of a ‘sexual fetish’ is spared jail

A Catholic priest who posed as a 16-year-old skinhead in neo-Nazi chatrooms where he threatened to bomb mosques as part of his ‘sexual fetish’ has avoided jail. 

Father Mark Rowles, 57, posted under the name ‘skinheadlad1488’ in a racist chatroom called Aryan Reich Killers, where he wrote racist and offensive messages.

Rowles wrote several messages on Telegram, including one where he penned ‘bomb mosques’. 

The priest, who was based in St John Lloyd Catholic Church, in Cardiff, confessed to three counts of sending menacing or offensive messages using the Telegram app in May and June of 2024.  

On Thursday, Rowles was ordered to pay £199, carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, and was handed a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order.

The Catholic Church in Wales is understood to be undertaking a review into the matter, as a spokesperson confirmed the priest had been suspended and had not been in active ministry since the allegations emerged. 

A counter-terror probe into extreme right-wing activity online unearthed the 57-year-old’s actions, and he was later taken into custody. 

In one message, he used an extreme racial slur, adding: ‘They should all be strung up and shot.’ 

And when discussing the ethnicity of Londoners, he wrote: ‘A few bullets to their brains would help’ 

When he was arrested and interviewed by police, Rowles told officers he was not racist, but that he said he was lonely and had a ‘sexual fetish for role play’.

His profile picture showed a young white man with a face covering with a German flag and the words ‘right hand path always’, the court heard.

Prosecutor Rob Simkins said Rowles’ posts showed ‘hostility based on religion and race’.

Jacqui Seal, defending, said: ‘Clearly this is a disturbing case. Throughout his life in the Catholic Church he has never been the subject of a complaint or disciplinary action.

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Cardiff Man Wrongly Accused of Theft After Facial Recognition Error Triggers Privacy Complaint

A Cardiff man has filed a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office after being wrongly accused of theft in a store using facial recognition software.

The case is now drawing wider attention to the unchecked spread of biometric surveillance in everyday retail environments.

On 29 April 2025, Byron Long, 66, arrived at the B&M outlet in Cardiff Bay Retail Park expecting an ordinary shopping trip.

Instead, he was approached by staff and told he was barred from the premises. In front of other customers, he was accused of stealing £75 ($101) worth of goods during a visit earlier that month.

That accusation was entirely false. During the visit in question on 9 April, Long had bought a single item: a £7 ($9.50) packet of cat treats. He paid for them in full. He later obtained CCTV footage showing himself at the checkout in a Red Bull Formula 1 jacket, clearly completing the purchase.

“It was a horrible experience, and I haven’t been back to the store since. The incident has had a very serious impact on my mental health, which is very fragile anyway, and I am now very anxious whenever I go shopping,” Long said, as reported by Nation Cymru.

The misidentification came from Facewatch, a private firm contracted by retailers to run facial recognition scans on customers. Images from Long’s previous visit were processed and matched to a database of alleged offenders. That match triggered the alert that led B&M staff to accuse him.

B&M later acknowledged the error, issuing a written apology and stating: “Our B&M store and security teams have a duty of care to all our customers and to our company, and this includes challenging people that they believe are potentially shoplifting. This is an extremely difficult task, and sadly we don’t always get it right; your case would be one of these instances…We can confirm your data has been removed from Facewatch.”

They also offered a £25 ($34) voucher as compensation, an offer Long flatly rejected.

Facewatch responded to the incident by suspending the user who had submitted the incorrect data. Michele Bond, the company’s Head of Incident Review and Data Protection Enquiries, said: “Facewatch Incident data is submitted by authorized users, who must confirm the accuracy of the information provided. Once the error was identified, the user responsible was immediately suspended from using the Facewatch system.”

Long has since taken the matter to Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group focused on privacy and surveillance. The organization has now submitted a complaint to the ICO on his behalf.

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Fury as Welsh Labour government spends £250,000 on project to count MOTHS while it cuts public services

Taxpayers have been left furious after the Welsh Labour government spent £250,000 on a project to count moths – while it cuts public services. 

The ‘Cryptic Creatures of the Creuddyn’ project is surveying the moths’ limestone habitats on Llandudno’s Great Orme headland and in neighbouring areas. 

It was handed a grant of £248,348 by the Government’s Nature Networks Fund, and will be delivered by the Heritage Fund.

The under-fire government claims it with help protect at-risk insects, including the Horehound Plume micro-moth. 

A Tory councillor branded the spending ‘ridiculous’ – as families struggle with the cost of living and local authorities cut frontline services.

Llandudno’s Louise Emery hit out after a grant was awarded by the Welsh Government to Conwy county council.

She said: ‘Rather than for the benefit of invertebrates, how about Welsh Government benefit schools and communities by properly funding local authorities to improve education and provide basic services such as maintaining highways and public toilets?

‘It’s about priorities, and establishing the number of moths on specific limestone headlands should not be a priority when Welsh Labour in Cardiff continue to tell local authorities they have no money. This is utterly ridiculous.’

The project, which also works with schools, found ‘a staggering’ 1,109 horehound plume moth caterpillars on the Great Orme in Llandudno.

Cllr Emery continued: ‘There is money available from Welsh Government but only for certain things, so while local authority budgets are really being squeezed, Welsh Government finds money for projects such as the Cryptic Creatures of the Creuddyn.

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Fury over school-issued advice that tells 14-year-old boys how to ‘safely choke their girlfriends during sex’

A council-funded sex education PowerPoint shown to teenagers referenced asking for consent before choking a partner.

The material, funded by Bridgend county borough council in south Wales, was shown to pupils studying PSHE lessons at a range of secondary schools. 

Provided by the council’s domestic abuse service, Assia, the PowerPoint, which was seen by The Times, taught children that ‘consent (when it comes to choking during sex) should happen every time sexual choking is an option’.

‘It is never OK to start choking someone without asking them first and giving them space to say no,’ it continued. 

Experts, however, have shared their deep concern at the sex education class which they say is portraying the idea that ‘choking can be done safely’.

‘This is not sex education, this is just advocacy for the porn industry,’ Michael Conroy, the founder of Men at Work, told The Times. 

‘Imagine you are a 14-year-old girl and you have told your boyfriend you don’t want to be choked but then an authority figure comes into school and tells you it is OK.

‘Choking cuts off oxygen to the brain and is incredibly harmful, it can even kill. Most schools will take it on trust that something endorsed by the local authority is OK.  There is a rampant myth that choking can be done safely and is simply another option for a sexual act.’ 

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Man Under Police Investigation For Tweet Accusing Welsh Authorities of Using Schoolgirls to Entice Migrants

A man is being investigated by police in Wales after a tweet reposted by Elon Musk accused the Welsh Refugee Council of using 12-year-old schoolgirls in an ad to “entice migrant men to come to Wales.”

The original video, posted by the Welsh Refugee Council (WRC) in 2023, shows a group of girls in school uniforms explaining why Wales is a welcoming place for migrants.

“Wales is seen as a nation of sanctuary, we welcome anyone and everyone,” states one of the girls in the video clip, which gives advice on how migrants can be helped in obtaining welfare benefits, applying for bank accounts and getting medical treatment.

Following sustained outrage over the grooming gangs scandal in the UK, the video went viral again on X over the weekend after it was shared by Elon Musk.

“In Wales, the Welsh Refugee Council is using 12-year-old girls in ads meant to entice migrant men to come to Wales. Most members of this council are from the Middle East, India and Pakistan. I think I’m going to throw up,” stated the tweet.

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Treasure Hunt Fail: Judge Ends Man’s Decade-Long Quest for $750 Million Bitcoin Fortune

A decade-long legal battle over a lost Bitcoin fortune has ended in disappointment for James Howells, an IT engineer from Newport, Wales, after a court dismissed his lawsuit against the Newport City Council. The man hoped to search a landfill for a hard drive he accidentally threw away more than a decade ago holding Bitcoin now worth $750 million.

Crypto News reports that James Howells, an early Bitcoin adopter from Newport, Wales, in the UK has faced a major setback in his quest to retrieve a discarded hard drive containing 8,000 Bitcoins, now valued at about $750 million. The IT engineer accidentally threw away the hard drive in 2013 when Bitcoin had negligible value. However, as the cryptocurrency rapidly increased in value, Howells sought the right to excavate the landfill to recover the hard drive, offering to share the treasure with the local community. Now that Bitcoin has achieved the astronomical value of $94,000, Howells demanded £495 million in compensation from the Newport City Council if it continued to block his search.

Despite Howells’ offer to share a portion of the recovered Bitcoin with the council and the local community, Judge Keyser KC ruled that there were no “reasonable grounds” for the claim. The decision was based on environmental concerns and the council’s ownership of the landfill contents. The landfill reportedly holds 1.4 million tons of waste, although Howells claims to have pinpointed the hard drive’s location to a 100,000-ton section.

Reacting to the ruling, Howells expressed his frustration, calling it a “kick in the teeth.” He had assembled a team of experts for the recovery effort and engaged in repeated negotiations with the council, but the local authority maintained that excavation was impossible due to environmental regulations.

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Drive to ban ‘racist’ dogs from the Welsh countryside to make the outdoors more ‘inclusive’

Labour-run Wales has been told to ban dogs from parts of the countryside to help make the outdoors ‘anti-racist’. 

The devolved administration has vowed to end racism in the country by 2030 and ensure ‘all areas’ of public life are transformed.

According to a report funded by the Welsh government to help steer its ‘anti-racist’ policy, dog-free zones should be set up to make outdoor areas more inclusive. 

A government spokesman today insisted it was not planning to act on the proposal and dogs ‘would continue to be welcomed in the hills of Wales’. 

The creation of ‘dog-free areas in local green spaces’ is one of a slate of recommendations in the evidence report, compiled by environmental group Climate Cymru BAME.

Others include creating more urban allotments where people can grow their own food and handing out grants and subsidies to students, members of ethnic minorities and asylum seekers to help them ‘commit more to environment and climate change issues’.  

The taxpayer-funded report has been widely slated online and was described by Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies as ‘virtual signalling nonsense’. 

‘This kind of outdated virtue signalling nonsense is completely out of touch with the needs of the people of Wales,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘Labour is stuck on yesterday’s thinking, the kind that is being roundly rejected globally. Time to turf them out.’

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Free drink refills could be banned in Wales

Free drink refills could be banned at restaurants and cafes as part of new proposals by the Welsh government.

Health Secretary Eluned Morgan has launched a consultation to restrict “promotions of food products high in fat, sugar and salt”.

It also proposes to restrict retailers from putting forward offers, such as buy one get one free, on unhealthy food.

The Welsh government said it was “supporting people in Wales to make the healthy choice”.

The consultation outlines proposed legislation which the Welsh government said was “taking action to improve our food environment”.

  • It includes a proposal to prohibit retailers from offering free drink refills, which many high street restaurants including Nando’s and Five Guys offer.
  • Another proposal will prevent retailers offering promotions, including buy-one-get-one-free and three-for-two offers on unhealthy food products.
  • A third proposal will bar retailers from placing high fat, sugar and salt food products in certain locations in stores, including entrances, end of aisles and checkout or queueing areas.
  • It will also apply to online equivalents including website entry pages, shopping basket and payment pages.

The Welsh government said food products with poor nutritional value were promoted more than healthier products, which then influenced the food and drink people buy.

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Welsh Police Pay Home Visit to Man For Displaying Reform UK Political Sign

A video shows Welsh police visiting a man’s home because he displayed a Reform UK political sign on the wall, despite this being a completely normal sight during election season.

Voice of Wales posted a clip to X showing an officer at the man’s house talking about how “concerns” had been expressed about the sign and that he needed to take a photo of it.

The officer also took a photo of another Lest We Forget Flag that is sometimes displayed outside homes to honor Britain’s war dead.

Apparently, such signs are apparently offensive and worthy of police investigation based on a single complaint, despite the fact that people in the UK routinely display signs of parties they support outside their homes during election season.

Such “concerns” were deemed a potential threat despite the fact that, according to polls, around 15-20 per cent of the British population is set to vote for Reform UK in the national election on July 4th.

According to Voice of Wales, the complaint was made by the charity which who owns the house next door, which is set to be turned into accommodation for asylum seekers (economic migrants).

As part of its manifesto, Reform UK has pledged to drastically cut mass migration and stop the flow of small boats containing illegal immigrants entering Britain.

This is by no means the only example of Brits receiving home visits from police over their political views.

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Wales Moves Forward With Plan To Punish Politicians For Telling Lies

Will Rogers once said that “if you ever injected truth into politics, you’d have no politics.” In Wales, it appears that the government is challenging that assessment. However, if the new legislation criminalizing political lies is successful, the Welsh are likely to find themselves with the same abundance of lies but little free speech.

A proposal in the Welsh parliament (or the Senedd) would make it the first country in the world to impose criminal sanctions for lying politicians. Adam Price, the former leader of the liberal Plaid Cymru Party is pushing for the criminalization, citing a “credibility gap” in UK politics.

Astonishingly, this uniquely bad idea has received support from a key committee. Once on track for adoption, this is the type of law that can become self-propelling through the legislature. Few politicians want to go on record voting against a law banning political lies. The free speech implications are easily lost in the coverage.

The new law would make it a criminal offense for a member of the Senedd, or a candidate for election to the Senedd, to wilfully, or with intent to mislead, make or publish a statement that is known to be false or deceptive. There is a six-month period for challenges to be brought.

The law allows a defense that a statement could be “reasonably inferred” to be a statement of opinion, or if it were retracted with an apology within 14 days. If guilty, the politician would be disqualified from being a Senedd member.

The defense is hardly helpful.

It creates an uncertainty as to which statements would be deemed an opinion and which would be treated as a statement of fact. It invites selective and biased prosecutions. After all, what does it mean to accuse a politician of trying to “mislead” the public?

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