London's 'most persistent robbers' stole £1m cash and gems from wealthy women - including designer Nicole Farhi

The serial mugger who targeted fashion designer Nicole Farhi and a host of other wealthy women stole up to £1m in cash and jewellery.

Daniel Mykoo, 29, admitted 84 robberies of lone women in the plush London suburbs of Hampstead and Chelsea, in a bid to feed his £12,000 a month crack habit.

He was often aided by his brother Matthew - and the pair, who are originally from the French Caribbean, were today described as 'the most persistent robbers in London in recent memory'.

In an impact statement read to Wood Green Court today, Fiona Lindblom described how she was violently sick for three days after being attacked on the doorstep of her West London home.

BBC news reporter Sangita Myska was also attacked outside her home in Belsize park, and said she feared she would be 'seriously sexually assaulted'.

When one of her rings would not come off, one of the men said: 'Take the finger off then.' She said she felt her neck being twisted so hard, she thought it was broken.

'More than taking my wedding and engagement ring, they took my confidence,' Mrs Myska said. 'To this day, I can't stand men walking behind me.'

While Daniel grabbed victims from behind and held their throat - a technique he called 'the sleep hold' - Matthew would then remove earrings, necklaces and watches.

Police said Daniel could have killed any one of their victims - and had left several unconscious.

Matthew, of Brent, was convicted of seven robberies, having previously admitted two. He was cleared of two, including the one of Farhi. continues here

Man arrested after Ministry of Sound death

A man has been arrested in hospital after a reveller was murdered near the famous Ministry of Sound nightclub.

the south London venue in the early hours of Bank Holiday Monday.

A post-mortem examination found he died from head injuries believed to be caused by a collision with a vehicle, Scotland Yard said.

A second man, 29, was taken to a south London hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to the shoulder outside the club.

He has been arrested in connection with the incident but remains in hospital.

Police said his condition was not thought to be serious. continues here

Police action targets teen muggers

A POLICE operation targeting robbery hotspots has slashed muggings of young people by 100 per cent, officers said.

Patrols including stop and search on the Rye, Desborough Road, Eden and a skate park saw robberies fall to zero from 177 last year, they said. Police chose to launch the six-week operation after attacks by mostly Asian and afro-Caribbean gangs on white teenagers last summer, police said.

This was among 12 to 19-year-olds. Operation Gauntlet will run to the end of the school holidays.

Police chose to launch the six-week operation after attacks by mostly Asian and afro-Caribbean gangs on white teenagers last summer, police said.

DC Paul Bowen said: “Officers would still stop large groups regardless of ethnicity but they would have at the back of their mind that the robberies are committed by this group of ethnic minorities.”

About 80 per cent of last year’s robberies were committed by gangs of Asian and afro-Caribbean people, he said.

Of last year’s attacks, 44 included the showing or threat of a knife.

Some 73 were stopped and searched this year. This led to five arrests on drugs charges.

He said: “It is unusual to see so many people involved in a robbery.”

Officers also visited schools before pupils broke up for the summer to mark property so it can be returned to its owner if recovered.

Yet DC Bowen said the operation was not needed all year round as the robberies were common to the summer months. continues here

Manningham man shouted racial abuse before attack

A teenager who stabbed and slashed a passer-by in a racially motivated attack has been locked up for five years.

Amir Rehman, 18, shouted racial abuse as 51-year-old Ronald O’Connor walked to a shop for a loaf of bread, near the gates of Lister Park, Manning-ham, last December.

Leeds Crown Court was told Rehman shouted out:

“Manningham belongs to Muslims. We don’t want whites. We rule Bradford. We are going to get you out.”

His frightened victim, Ronald O’Connor, tried to get in the shop, but Rehman ran up and stabbed him twice in the upper arm with a four to five-inch bladed knife.

The court heard that Rehman, of Lumb Lane, Manningham, was describ-ed as in a frenzy, “like a crazy man, out of control,” as he tried to slash Mr O’Connor’s face. The palms of Mr O’Connor’s hands were slashed as he tried to defend himself.

Prosecutor Richard Gioserano said: “Rehman was swinging at him over and over again with the knife. Mr O’Connor was in great pain and in fear, literally, of his life.”

Mr O’Connor ran into the shop. Police were called and Rehman was arrested outside.

Mr O’Connor had surgery at Bradford Royal Infirmary for a deep laceration to his palm. He also suffered lacerations to his fingers and two incisions to his upper arm with apparent nerve damage.

Mr Gioserano said Rehman attended Bradford Crown Court for a preliminary hearing of the case in March, but went straight from court to Pudsey, with two other men, Amar Farooq and Tanveer Hussain, where, later in the day, they committed a series of robberies on children on their way home from school.

During the street muggings some of the youngsters were threatened with being stabbed, though no knife was seen. The court heard that the defendants were clearly drunk.

Jonathan Devlin, for Rehman, said there were no explanations or excuses for the offences other than drink.

All three pleaded guilty to three robberies. Rehman pleaded guilty to wounding with intent in connection with the Manningham incident.

Hussain, 23, of Lumb Lane, Manning-ham, and Farooq, 25, of Agar Street, Girlington, were jailed for 30 months.

Rehman was sent to youth custody for a total of five years.

The judge, Recorder David Bradshaw, told Rehman he had committed an unprovoked attack on an innocent man causing “horrendous” injuries. continues here

Pregnant British woman jailed in Laos for heroin trafficking arrives back at Heathrow

A pregnant British woman jailed in Laos for trafficking heroin has arrived back in the UK today to serve out her sentence in a British jail.

Samantha Orobator was flown into London's Heathrow Airport from the capital Vientiane just before seven o'clock today.

Orobator, 20, from south London, was given a life sentence after admitting drug smuggling - and would have faced the death penalty had she not gotten herself pregnant while in jail.



She will now serve out the rest of her sentence in a tax-payer funded British jail and give birth under the NHS.

It costs the British taxpayer £77 a night to keep a prisoner in a category B British jail.

It is still not known how Orobator got pregnant while in the Laos jail. There are suspicions she made herself pregnant through sperm donated by another prison or a guard in order to escape the death penalty.

Orobator has been in jail in Laos for 12 months.She was met by a waiting prison van as she got off the morning flight.

Wearing a white beanie and loose trousers, she laughed as she stepped on to the tarmac, along with three travel companions.

Uniformed police stood by as she was led into the van taking her to Holloway prison.

Her return to the UK comes in time for the birth of her child which is due next month.

Yesterday Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said of her imminent return: 'This is excellent news.

'Of course, we do not condone any crimes involving illegal drugs. We work around the world to combat the use of illegal drugs.

'I spend much of my time warning British tourists of the dangers of using drugs in countries such as Laos, which have heavy penalties for these crimes.

'Samantha will serve her term in a British penal establishment. But I saw for myself Samantha's advanced state of pregnancy when I visited her in prison last week.

'The transfer means that Samantha will give birth in the UK, close to her relatives and under UK medical care. This is clearly the best outcome for all - not least her unborn child.'

She will now serve out the rest of her sentence in a tax-payer funded British jail and give birth under the NHS.

It costs the British taxpayer £77 a night to keep a prisoner in a category B British jail.

It is still not known how Orobator got pregnant while in the Laos jail. There are suspicions she made herself pregnant through sperm donated by another prison or a guard in order to escape the death penalty.

Orobator has been in jail in Laos for 12 months.She was met by a waiting prison van as she got off the morning flight.

Wearing a white beanie and loose trousers, she laughed as she stepped on to the tarmac, along with three travel companions.

Uniformed police stood by as she was led into the van taking her to Holloway prison.

Her return to the UK comes in time for the birth of her child which is due next month.

Yesterday Foreign Office Minister Chris Bryant said of her imminent return: 'This is excellent news.

'Of course, we do not condone any crimes involving illegal drugs. We work around the world to combat the use of illegal drugs.

'I spend much of my time warning British tourists of the dangers of using drugs in countries such as Laos, which have heavy penalties for these crimes.

'Samantha will serve her term in a British penal establishment. But I saw for myself Samantha's advanced state of pregnancy when I visited her in prison last week.

'The transfer means that Samantha will give birth in the UK, close to her relatives and under UK medical care. This is clearly the best outcome for all - not least her unborn child.'



Her mother, Jane Orobator, was flying into London from Dublin in the hope of seeing her daughter.

She said: 'I just want her to come back to the UK, that is my first desire. One step at a time, I just want her to have her baby here.'

Laos foreign ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing said Orobator's return was a humanitarian gesture which took her pregnancy into account.

He added: 'To my understanding, she is fine. The doctor keeps an eye on her. Both the officials from the UK and from Laos have taken care of her, particularly her health.'

Clive Stafford-Smith, director of Reprieve, said she should be allowed access to independent lawyers on her return. continues here



Above the reprehensible Orobator an immigrant to this country and a menace to the Laotian people and indeed our own, now Orobator doesn’t belong here, she was born in Nigeria and like millions of others she came to Europe with her parents to steal our assets ,to avail herself of our resources. Not enough it seems because Orobator became a drug smuggler, seeking to make financial gain from the misery of others, yet to cap it all she is treated as some sort of minor celebrity, as if she is a heroin(excuse the pun) and our foreign office go all out to cater to her needs, perhaps there is a lesson for you all .all you law-abiding, perhaps after all crime pays. In the future Orobators child will be born ,perhaps he or she will aspire be an architect, they all seem to, yet the likelihood is that her offspring will also prey off society, cost the taxpayer dearly and be a detrimental element within society, send them home, each and every one.

Should Orobator be sent back to her native Nigeria?

Mob attack obviously about race

Where's Jesse Jackson?

Where's Larry King?

Where are the protesters, the signs, the chants?

Where are the calls for the police chief's head?

Where is the righteous indignation erupting from an entire segment of the community?

Sure, Al Sharpton commented through a regional spokesman, but why isn't he here, demanding that the whole world pay attention?

Imagine what would be going on in Akron right now if a mob of 30 to 50 whites had launched a vicious, unprovoked attack on a defenseless family of blacks in a residential neighborhood in Firestone Park, chanting about white supremacy.

But the skin colors were reversed. The ugly mob that jumped four adults and two children June 27 consisted of black people, and they were attacking white people.

Fifteen years after the Akron Beacon Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for its yearlong study of race relations, this city and this nation still have a double standard — in media coverage, in law enforcement and in outrage.

''This is our world,'' the attackers yelled. ''This is a black world.''

Yet the Akron Police Department still won't call this a hate crime. Now let's see . . . 30 to 50 people, all of whom are black, attacking six other people, all of whom are white, while proclaiming black supremacy. If that's not a hate crime, what is?

Some have speculated the attack was gang-related. So what? If a black gang's initiation rite requires attacking whites, does that make it any less of a hate crime?

Granted, the city has asked for help from the FBI, and only the FBI can charge someone with violating federal civil-rights laws. But as the FBI's Web site says, ''A hate crime is not a distinct federal offense. [The FBI's efforts] serve as a backstop for state and local authorities, which handle the vast majority of hate-crime cases.''

No reasonable person can look at this incident and see anything other than a hate crime.

Not that I'm a huge fan of hate-crime laws. If somebody sucker-punches me because he doesn't like the way I walk or the way I comb my hair, am I supposed to feel better about it than if he had punched me because of my skin color?

Giving special treatment and harsher penalties to race-based attacks only reinforces our differences.

But the real point — which should be self-evident, but isn't — is this: Black people attacking white people for no particular reason is not one iota better than white people attacking black people for no particular reason. The level of attention and outrage should be absolutely equal. And until we fully embrace that concept, our sorry, seemingly endless race problem will never abate. continues here

Woman, 89, injured in park attack

An 89-year-old woman has been left seriously injured after a "despicable attack" by a group of youths in a park in Bradford.

The victim suffered a dislocated shoulder and fractures to her arm and hip when she was pushed over in Lister Park, Manningham, on Wednesday.

West Yorkshire Police described the four suspects as Asian or Eastern European males aged 15 to 18.

They stole the woman's bag containing her bus pass and about £30 in cash.

The victim, who runs a local keep fit class, was walking with another woman when she was attacked near a bandstand.

Her 79-year-old friend was unhurt but "shaken", police said.

Det Insp Patrick O'Neill, from Bradford South CID, said: "This was a despicable attack on an elderly lady.

"The 89-year-old victim is very active for her age but is now bed-ridden in hospital because of these people." continues here

Mallet-wielding mugging gang jailed over five-month crime spree that claimed 56 victims

A vicious gang of teenage street robbers who targeted young professionals were last night jailed for a total of 32 years.

The eight young thugs armed themselves with mallets and hunted for victims like a 'pack of wild dogs' in a chilling five-month crime spree.

Calling themselves G-Block - a reference to the South London street in which several of them lived - they are thought to have been responsible for more than 100 violent muggings.



One of the gang was just 13 at the time of the attacks.

Gang members cockily posed for photos wearing their 'robbing gear' of scarves and balaclavas, and used street slang to brag about their crimes on the internet.

They called their crimes 'eats' and disguised themselves in masks from the horror film Scream on Hallowe'en.

Brandishing mallets, knives and metal rods, the violent teenagers pounced on their unsuspecting victims under cover of darkness.

They would split up to surround their target before attacking with 'extreme violence' - sometimes coming away with nothing more than a mobile phone.

One woman feared she would die after she was pushed to the ground and the gang's then 17-year- old ringleader, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stamped his foot on her neck and chest before stealing her bag.

Another woman was hit 30 times in the face with a mallet and a further victim was left with a bruise in the shape of a footprint on her face.

Sentencing the gang members at Kingston Crown Court yesterday Judge Nicholas Price QC said they had 'gloried in notoriety'.

He added: 'You all hunted like a pack of wild dogs intent on seeking out your prey and treating them without mercy.

'A very disturbing factor is that as time went by, the attacks grew even more vicious. It appeared you derived more pleasure from gratuitous violence than from the robberies themselves.

'For the time you were engaged in such behaviour, south-west London - in particular Wandsworth, Balham and Tooting - became unsafe for law-abiding citizens to walk the streets without a real danger of being attacked.'

One detective on the case said the gang had egged each other on.

'It started off with one person recruiting people he knew who lived nearby,' he said.

'Their initial attraction was the easy cash - iPods, mobile phones and things they couldn't readily afford themselves.

'Very quickly it turned into a power trip where they liked controlling adults and beating them up. The vast majority of the victims were professional victims in their 30s.'

Police believe the teenagers were responsible for at least 113 robberies, starting in the summer of 2007.

In the first attack, on July 18 that year, Carolyn Doughty and Quinton Newell were confronted by the gang as they walked home from a night out.

The pair were separated from each other before the ringleader attacked Miss Doughty, who was unable to breathe as he stamped on her neck.

After another attack which left a female student needing hospital treatment, the ringleader boasted on internet messaging service MSN that he 'almost killd da woman 4 nothing'.



He added: 'I stamped her face out an bust her head open coz she was getting me mad.'

Describing how she resisted he added: 'She said why, so boi she had it comin 2 her... blud she got me so vex I wernt showin any mercy.'

Just three days before the gang were arrested, the teenager wrote about his lack of concern that the police would catch him.

He said: '**** it im still gonna eats (rob) its jus now im gonna **** the person up so dey cnt even describe wat we look like or even know der location.'

The gang revelled in being told that robbery had risen 15 per cent in the area where they lived.

They were finally caught after targeting Alex and Caroline De Groote on Wandsworth Common.

After robbing the couple, one gang member turned, made a gun shape with his fingers and said 'bang, bang'.

Despite the threat, the couple called police and were able to point out some of their attackers, who were still in the area.

When police arrested the thugs they found an array of stolen property in their homes.

Text messages, MSN messages and postings on social networking sites were all used as evidence against them, along with photographs gang members had taken.

Six of the gang admitted conspiracy to rob - including the 18-year-old ringleader, who was sentenced to seven years in a young offenders' institution.

Akheem Gray, 16, of Tulse Hill, south London, was sentenced to four years, while his brother Ameel Gray, 15, of nearby Streatham, was given three and a half years.

The eldest member of the gang, 19-year-old Lufter Ahmed, of Wandsworth's Gearing Close - the street after which the gang was named - was sentenced to three years and nine months in a young offenders' institution.

Abdi Nur, 18, also of Gearing Close, was given a four year sentence and Jordan Rattray, 17, also of Gearing Close, was given a two year detention and training order.

The two remaining members of the gang were both found guilty at trial. continues here

'Visa scam gang let in hundreds'

THREE Indian illegal immigrants masterminded the single biggest visa scam seen in Britain, a court heard today.

The gang ran a fraud factory creating thousands of counterfeit documents enabling hundreds to cheat border controls, Isleworth Crown Court in West London was told.

Prosecutor Francis Sheridan said the “systematic attack” opened the door to hundreds of unsuitable migrants without means to support themselves leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill.

He said one member was secretly recorded boasting how Home Office officials “do not even bother to look” at documents and “just stamp them blindly”.

Mr Sheridan told the jury: “They were acting on behalf of clients to cheat the Home Office, to cheat the Home Office wholesale.

“They have made a fortune, there are no bones about that, they have made a small fortune at the hands of the Home Office.”

Met Police officers and officials from the UK Border Agency swooped on Univisa, based in Southall, West London, in February 2008.

Seized


They acted after a local newspaper journalist posing as a migrant uncovered evidence of counterfeit documents for sale, the court heard.

They discovered a mountain of 90,000 documents including false university certificates, academic records, bank statements and pay slips.

Investigators seized 980 individual files and of 117 analysed in detail, 113 were found to contain fraudulent information.

Mr Sheridan said the fraud focused on abusing the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme which is designed to enable well qualified individuals with useful skills to work in Britain.

He said the company would charge up to £4,000 to obtain visas and those behind the scam were so confident they offered a money back guarantee.

The barrister said: “The defendants can be said to have launched a systematic attack on the integrity of the Home Office by their submission of false and bogus documents.

“In some instances applicants from very humble backgrounds found themselves to be the holders of degrees and post-graduate qualifications in a matter of months.

“Academic ability was not the main criteria, cash was. They have achieved that status on arriving in the UK by paying for it without the troublesome step of attending college.”

He added: “It is believed this prosecution represents the largest single prosecution of dishonest records ever submitted to the Home Office by an individual business. It is a huge attack on the system.”

Those behind the business were Jatinder Kumar Sharma, 44, his wife Rakhi Shahi, 31, and a second woman Neelam Sharma, 38, who may also be his wife, the court heard.

Mr Sheridan said the trio, who lived together in Southall, hid behind a web of false identities and documentation.

He said the three submitted false applications to remain in Britain themselves and then used the same techniques with “gay abandon” in the criminal business.

The prosecutor said arrogant Sharma dubbed himself “son of a lion” and his money back guarantee “typified his scandalous disregard” for the system.

Shahi was the sole owner of the business which turned over far in excess of his declared £100,000 per year earnings, the court heard.

Neelam Sharma worked in the “engine room” of the company creating false documents and fraudulently declaring them as genuine under the guise of an accredited immigration consultant, it is alleged.

It can be reported today for the first time that Jatinder Sharma pleaded guilty to a series of immigration offences at an earlier hearing. continues here

Man who ran over girl freed

An asylum seeker who knocked down a 12-year-old girl in Lancashire and left her to die while banned from driving has been freed from detention pending an appeal.
Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, 31, was due to be deported after he was taken into the custody of the UK Borders Agency last October.

But the Iraqi Kurd claims it is too dangerous to return to his homeland and won a court appeal against being detained ahead of a final ruling on whether he can stay in Britain.

Amy Houston, of Darwen, was trapped beneath the wheels of Ibrahim's vehicle in November 2003 and died later in hospital.

Ibrahim, who ran off from the accident scene, was jailed for four months by Blackburn magistrates for driving while disqualified and failing to stop after an accident.

Amy's family have campaigned for his deportation since her death but Ibrahim has fought a lengthy appeals process to stay.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "We are extremely disappointed at the court's decision -- the UK Border Agency vigorously opposed bail for this man.

"Individuals with no right to remain in the UK will sometimes attempt to frustrate the removals process, but the public can rest assured that we will continue to work towards their removal as quickly as possible, presenting our position strongly at any appeals to ensure the appropriate outcome." continues here

Jury sees Kinsella stab footage

CCTV footage of teenager Ben Kinsella moments after he was fatally stabbed has been shown to a jury in the trial of three men charged with his murder.

The 16-year-old was stabbed 11 times after leaving a bar in Islington in June last year, the Old Bailey heard.

Juress Kika, 19, and Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 20, all from London, have all pleaded not guilty to his murder.

Ben's sister, former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, was also in court.

'Argument broke out'

The court heard that Ben died after leaving the Shillibeers bar in York Way on 29 June 2008.

An argument had broken out in the bar between a youth known only as Alfie and a friend of Mr Braithwaite's named Osman Ozdemir, the court heard.

Prosecuting, Nicholas Hilliard QC said: "Alfie and Ben Kinsella knew each other although Ben Kinsella was not part of the dispute."

A boy called Michael allegedly heard Mr Braithwaite say: "Tell your boy if he wants trouble, I've got my tool on me and it will open you up."

The court heard that Ben and his friends left the bar shortly before 0200 BST, when they were chased by the defendants. They allegedly caught up with Ben and killed him.

Mr Hilliard said: "They managed to catch up with the deceased, knocked him from his feet at the rear of a parked van and, as he lay on the ground, launched a lethal attack upon him in which a total of 11 stab wounds were inflicted."

One of the stab wounds was to Ben's heart, two went into his lungs and damaged an artery, the court heard.

CCTV footage showed Ben stumbling from behind a van after being fatally wounded.

Mr Hilliard added: "No-one suggests Ben Kinsella was anything other than totally blameless. continues here

Five held after city axe rampage

Shoppers fled in terror as a gang of men battled with swords and axes in Glasgow city centre.

The fight broke out at the Savoy Centre in Sauchiehall Street in mid-afternoon as families enjoyed the start of the Easter holidays.

Police arrested five Chinese men, and three of them are expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court today.

Three men - two aged 24 and one aged 32 - were arrested for possession of illegal weapons.

Another 24-year-old was detained under immigration laws.

The fifth man, who was injured in the incident and taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, is expected to appear in court later.

Police said two of the men were taken to hospital after the incident, which happened at 3.35pm yesterday.

However, their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

A police spokeswoman said: "Three men aged 32, 24 and 24 have been arrested in relation to possession of illegal offensive weapons.

"Another 24-year-old man is being detained under the Immigration Act."

The incident comes seven months after a 47-year-old woman was shot at point-blank range in the Chinatown shopping centre, in the Garnethill area of the city.  continues here

Gangsters guilty of wake murder

The leaders of a gang said to be responsible for a huge increase in violence on the streets of Manchester have been found guilty of murder. 

Colin Joyce, 29, and Lee Amos, 33, were convicted of murdering a mourner at the funeral of a man Joyce had "executed". 

Tyrone Gilbert, 23, was shot dead six weeks after his friend Ucal Chin was gunned down in Longsight, Manchester. 

Eleven men were on trial at Liverpool Crown Court for a catalogue of gang-related crimes, including murder. 

Joyce led the Gooch Gang in dealing drugs, torturing street dealers who crossed them and targeting rivals, culminating in the murders of Mr Chin, 24, and Mr Gilbert, 23.

The court heard gang warfare erupted in the city in 2007 after Joyce and Amos were released on licence for firearms offences. 

They were recalled to prison for breaking their licences towards the end of that year, which coincided with a dramatic reduction in violent crime in the city. 

Since 2007 there has been a 92% reduction in gang-related shootings in the city and no gang-related murder for 12 months, according to Greater Manchester Police (GMP). 

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith travelled to Manchester to herald the success last year, but the event was cancelled at the last minute over fears it could prejudice the trial.

The eleven gangsters on trial were all members of either Gooch or the Old Trafford Cripz, a gang affiliated to them. 

Both murder victims had links to Longsight Crew, rivals of Moss Side-based Gooch Gang, Liverpool Crown Court heard. 

Speaking on Monday, senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Stephen Eckersley said he was "absolutely delighted" the gang were off the streets. 

The detective said officers had scratched the surface of the two murders to uncover a "much wider and well-organised conspiracy to possess guns and sell drugs". 

"This is by far the biggest trial of gang members Greater Manchester Police has ever run and the implications of today's conviction for the city are immense," he added.

"Make no mistake, the men who led this gang - in particular Joyce and Amos - are among the most dangerous men in Manchester." 

Police said Mr Chin and Mr Gilbert were killed in "military style" operations that were "executed with precision". 

Mr Chin was driving along Anson Road in Longsight on 15 June 2007 when a silver Audi pulled up alongside and seven shots were fired. 

Three of them struck his upper arm, upper back and chest, injuring his liver, heart and lungs and causing massive internal bleeding. He died later in hospital. 

A few weeks later on 27 July, his friends and family, including Tyrone Gilbert, were attending an impromptu wake on Frobisher Close when a number of shots were fired into the crowd from a passing car.

Mr Gilbert was hit by a single bullet to the chest and he died in hospital. One of his friends, Michael Gordon, sustained two gunshot wounds to his left leg but survived. 

One gang member, Aeeron Campbell, 25, was traced by DNA after he left a balaclava and pair of gloves at the scene. 

He was arrested in August 2007 followed by Joyce, Amos and the rest of the gang. 

Their subsequent prosecutions were secured with the help of six witnesses who were former associates of the gang. 

All were given immunity from prosecution and are now in witness protection programmes. 

Joyce was found guilty of murdering Mr Chin and Mr Gilbert, as well as the attempted murder of Mr Gordon. 

Amos was found guilty of Mr Gilbert's murder and the attempted murder of the other man, alongside senior gang members Campbell, Narada Williams, 28, and his brother, Ricardo Williams, 26.  continues here

We have to be grateful, we have to thank them, thank god for this diversity, why before mass immigration such things hardly ever occurred and even then by immigrant gangsters mainly Jewish or of Jewish descent, such as the Krays or Jack Spot, then of course there were less immigrants and so the likes of the above, became well known because of the unusualness of their crimes, even slum landlords such as Rachman, again an immigrant, became famous for brutality and today their name lives on.

Yet this plague of imported criminality had only started and we were to reap the whirlwind some decades hence from the Windrushes arrival, a whirlwind incessant, today non-whites create and commit a massive amount of crime, they turn once peaceful streets into war zones and rather than addressing the problem, sealing the borders and beginning much needed repatriation, our politicians let us live in hell. Today my views are a crime, nationalists such as myself are hounded, vilified and lied about, yet the criminal has “human rights”, there is only one way to stop this terrible toll in human life, to remove this criminality from our streets and that is to export it back from whence it came.

New Zealand teenager who murdered British tourist Karen Aim sentenced to life in jail

A teenage boy who murdered British tourist Karen Aim in New Zealand has been sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve at least 12 and a half years.

Miss Aim, 26, was killed as she made her way home from a night out with friends in the North Island resort town of Taupo on Jan 17 last year.

Jahche Broughton, 15, last month pleaded guilty to killing Miss Aim. He was just 14 at the time of the murder and has become the youngest person in New Zealand to be given a life sentence.

Miss Aim, from Orkney, was found by police called to investigate a vandalism spree at Taupo Nui a Tia College on January 17.

She was taken to Taupo Hospital but died a short time later.

Broughton was also sentenced to six years to be served concurrently for injuring a 17-year-old woman with intent to cause her grievous bodily harm a fortnight before the attack on Miss Aim.

Both of Karen's parents travelled to Rotorua from Scotland for the hearing. Karen's mother Peggy fought back tears during the sentencing.

According to New Zealand media reports, Mr Aim read a victim impact statement to the court, telling the judge he had a broken heart.

Mr Aim said he had hoped to walk his daughter down the aisle in a wedding dress. Instead, he had to carry her coffin.

Speaking at an earlier heraing when Broughton pleaded guilty, Karen's father Brian Aim said: "He will never know what he has taken away from us, but we are pleased the boy decided to plead guilty.

"When on January 17 last year two policeman came to our door at 4.30 in the morning to tell me Karen had been killed, I just felt a section of my life drain out of me.

"We were prepared to hear anything in court because there is nothing that can have a bigger effect on you than being told your daughter has been murdered." continues here

NHS blunders left cannabis-crazed schizophrenic free to stab policeman to death

A series of NHS blunders left a paranoid schizophrenic free to stab a policeman to death. 

Cannabis user Tennyson Obih, 29, went 'off the radar' to kill PC Jon Henry after he ditched his prescribed medicine in favour of 'olive oil and prayer'. 

A team of mental health visitors was supposed to monitor his progress after he was released from hospital.

But he regularly missed appointments and officials failed to react to Obih's startling admission about his self-medication. 

A month after he was last seen by medical staff, he went berserk in Luton town centre with a four and a half inch knife, stabbing a window cleaner in the back and killing PC Henry, 36, who was married with a young daughter. 

Last night as Obih began a life sentence for murder with a minimum tariff of 25 years, there were calls for an inquiry into the 'fundamentally flawed' care in the community system. 

No one has been sacked or reprimanded by Bedfordshire and Luton Mental Health and Social Care Partnership NHS Trust. 

A jury at Luton Crown Court heard that Nigerian-born Obih arrived in the UK in 2000 and was granted indefinite leave to remain. 

Obih was said to drink heavily and to be a regular cannabis user - a habit linked to serious mental disorders including paranoid schizophrenia. 

He was diagnosed with psychiatric problems in 2005 and sectioned twice under the Mental Health Act but was released in July 2006. 

He was seen in May 2007 by a community nurse who noted his behaviour seemed 'generally appropriate'. 

Yet, the court was told, Obih had openly admitted he stopped taking his medication in February that year after visiting his father in Africa who recommended 'olive oil and prayer'.

Obih called himself 'The Chosen One', believed he had special powers, could predict the future and could point at something to make it vibrate until it exploded. 

The court heard that in June 2007 Obih stabbed window cleaner Stephen Chamberlain, 55, in the back, puncturing his lung. 

PC Henry, a former floor fitter who had completed his probationary period with Bedfordshire Police a year earlier, then arrived with colleagues who used CS spray on Obih. 

The gas had no effect and PC Henry tried approaching the suspect from behind. 

'At this point the defendant suddenly rushed at him and lunged at him, stabbing him in the upper chest area,' prosecutor Richard Latham told the jury. 

'As the officer lay on the ground the defendant stabbed him again to the same area, the chest area, using full force.' 

Another window cleaner, David Knight, distracted Obih by hitting him with a pole. 

Mr Knight was slashed on the arm and it was only when an armed response unit arrived moments later and pumped a plastic bullet and two taser shots at the raging Obih that he was brought down. Mr Knight and Mr Chamberlain later recovered.

Obih pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility but denied murder. 

His defence barrister, Bernard Richmond, QC, told Mr Justice Bean that Obih had gone 'off the radar' and added: 'What on earth was happening when a man who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, had told his doctors that he would take olive oil and prayer, and was actively not co-operating with psychiatric professionals - what on earth was going on that he was not seen regularly either voluntarily or under compulsion? 



'Your Lordship may wonder how many more tragedies have to take place before it is realised that those who are mentally ill cannot take care of themselves.' 

Last night the mental health charity Sane demanded changes to the ' fundamentally flawed' care in the community system.

Chief executive Marjorie Wallace said: 'The Government has a policy that everybody, however ill or prone to deterioration, has to live in the community to save on the costs of in-patient care.' 

Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: 'There appears to have been a failure to provide proper and adequate support for someone whose condition made them fatally violent. continues here

Politician exposed as man behind grisly Irish killing

A former MP in South Africa has been forced to withdraw as candidate in next month's elections after being exposed as the man convicted of killing a Dublin teenager and chopping up her body after a row in a restaurant.

Shan Mohangi was 22 and a student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin in 1963 when he strangled his 16-year-old girlfriend Hazel Mullen and then dismembered her body.

The case gained notoriety after it emerged at his trial that Mohangi tried to dispose of her remains, including her severed head, by cooking them to the point of incineration in the oven of the restaurant where he worked as a part-time chef, the Green Tureen on Harcourt Street.

He served four years of a seven-year sentence before being deported back to South Africa after being convicted of manslaughter.

There he changed his name to Narentuk Jumuna and became a successful businessman in his home province of Natal, to the point that he became an MP for the ruling National Party in the House of Delegates, the Asians-only chamber of what was the Tricameral Parliament.

He has since switched his allegiance to the Independent Democrats, one of the opposition parties to the ruling African National Congress, and until his past was exposed he was placed at number five in its list for the KwaZulu-Natal provincial assembly at elections due on April 22.

South Africa uses a proportional representation system.

Haniff Hoosen, the party's secretary-general, said that as soon as reports of Jumuna's former identity emerged he confronted him. continues here

NHS blamed for stabbing spree by schizophrenic Ismail Dogan

Maxine Rush with a photograph of her uncle, Ernie Meads, 58, who was stabbed to death by Ismail Dogan

A paranoid schizophrenic who killed a man and hurt five others after hearing voices ordering him to murder English people was repeatedly failed by the NHS, an investigation has found.

An independent inquiry into the treatment of Ismail Dogan found that he “slipped through the safety net” of mental health care services in North London.

The authors claim Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust and the Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust failed to share information about treatment, engage with his “isolated” family and assess his care in the community.

Two days before Christmas in 2004, Dogan left his family home with a knife and after driving around Tottenham and Edmonton attacked six strangers within 90 minutes. He stabbed one man to death and hurt four men and a woman.

The minicab driver, originally from Turkey, later told police that he had heard a bird telling him he was the son of Allah and so should kill English people.Dogan, now 34, was convicted of killing Ernest Meads, 58, and is currently being held at Broadmoor top security hospital.

He had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic three years before the killing and placed in the care of the community mental health care team after being released from a psychiatric ward.

The investigation has again renewed calls for a review of the way mentally unstable people are being cared for in the community.

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of Sane, said the findings highlighted a series of “blunders” that showed how the NHS was failing patients and putting innocent people at risk.

Last week Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust was criticised for its poor treatment of Daniel Gonzales, a paranoid schizophrenic who murdered four people, despite his and his family’s repeated appeals for help.

Referring to the latest report, Mrs Wallace said: “Yet again the warnings and pleas of family members went unheeded, with fatal consequences.

“Following so soon after the Daniel Gonzales report, it begs the question: is care in the community working? Can all patients be safely treated by a jigsaw of mental health teams which fail to communicate with each other, respond to crises, or assess and act upon the risk that some individuals may pose to themselves or others?”

The charity is calling for a "red alert" system where police and mental health are called on to respond immediately to family’s warning that a relative poses a threat.

The inquiry found Dogan’s care was severely compromised by the lack of consistent medical management: “For this the consultant medical team must take a great deal of responsibility.”

The authors said that it was obvious Dogan was a “significant risk”, particularly after he had been repeatedly held in police custody for acts of violence.

The report adds that Dogan’s risk assessments were not always coherent or complete, meaning that when his mental health reached crisis point there was nothing in place to try to identify or rectify the problem.

“It is the view of the investigation team that there was a significant system failure in that a disjointed tripartite system was operating whereby inpatient services, outpatient services and community mental health teams operated separately,” the report says. continues here

Catch me if you can,' said student behind biggest chip and PIN fraud

A computer whiz-kid has been jailed over the theft of information from 19,000 credit cards

The computer mastermind behind Britain's biggest counterfeit credit card factory was jailed yesterday.

Anup Patel had amassed almost £2 million after details of 19,000 cards and PINs were stolen from British users. He set up a network of couriers to deliver batches of fake cards abroad to exploit a loophole in the chip-and-PIN banking security system.

While still studying computer sciences at a London university, the 30-year-old was developing state-of-the-art technology secretly to harvest customers' private bank details.

Petrol stations around the M25, among others, were believed to have been used to cash in on the large number of people using payment cards to buy fuel.

Fake payment terminals with hidden data readers, and secret cameras, often drilled into the ceiling, had been used to record bank details and PINs. That information was used to make bogus cards at Patel's factory and laboratory, which were found when police raided rented units at Croydon House Business Centre in South London in 2006.

Motorists discovered that they had been the victims of fraud when their banks contacted them to check whether they had withdrawn cash abroad or when the cardholders spotted suspicious transactions on their bank statements.

After an investigation that involved detectives tracing criminal gang links to Thailand, Eastern Europe and Turkey, Patel was jailed for six years for conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to defraud. Anthony Thomas, 45, a father of two who acted as a “mule” delivering the bogus cards to countries that do not use chips on cards, was jailed for two years for the same offences. The men will serve half their jail terms before being considered for parole. Another man is being held in Thailand on suspicion of being linked to the scheme.

Only now can The Times reveal that Patel, while on the run, had taunted Detective Sergeant Simon Russen, the senior officer hunting him, by comparing his criminal computer wizardry to the famous con artist Frank Abagnale Jr, played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Catch Me If You Can.

In a two-minute, late-night phone call, Patel joked that if he was DiCaprio, it meant that the detective was Tom Hanks, the actor who played the FBI agent. He then said: “Catch me if you can” before hanging up.

However, unlike Abagnale, who remained undetected for five years, Patel handed himself in to police after just two weeks when he realised that his fellow conspirators had been arrested at British airports and in Thailand.

Judge Nicholas Ainley, sentencing the pair, said that the City of London Police's cheque and credit card unit had uncovered an “industrial-scale factory” when they raided Patel's business centre premises.

Police believe that the gang amassed almost £2 million before the raid in October 2006 after an intelligence tip-off. Officers seized thousands of magnetic strips and blank plastic cards, a library of 19,000 skimmed card and PIN details, holograms, card printers, corrupted payment terminals and £20,000 in cash.

Mr Russen said it was clear they had uncovered the headquarters of a large-scale counterfeit operation.

“They were operating at the top end of credit card criminality, from manufacturing the cards to obtaining money internationally through ATM machines.” He said that Patel “used his high-tech knowledge to great effect”, adding that he was “striving to beat the chip-and-PIN system”.

It remains largely unclear how the terminals were placed at the garages or Patel or Thomas's involvement with that part of the operation.

Patel appears to have shunned the wealth that he was said to have created, instead remaining fascinated by the technology he was developing.

The cards recovered, police believe, suggest that the gang members could have made up to £16 million had they not been stopped.

More than 50 computer gadgets - exhibits in the case - were strewn across Court 1 of Croydon Crown Court. The jury of eight men and four women returned unanimous verdicts after less than two hours of deliberations.

David Povall, for the prosecution, revealed that Patel, of Thornton Heath, South London, had been jailed for 2 years for a credit card fraud in France ten years ago. Thomas, of Clapham, South London, had 65 previous convictions, mainly for petty crime.

Last year £144.3 million was obtained illegally by those able to beat the chip-and-PIN system introduced in 2002. The system became mandatory in 2006 for the 144 million payments cards in Britain.

While fake card fraud has been cut in Britain - £78.2 million was stolen in 2005 compared with £31.1 million in 2007 - organised gangs have begun shipping counterfeit cards to countries that do not require cards to have chips.

Only £18.2 million was lost abroad in 2005, compared with £113.2 million last year.

The use of cloned details has also increased fraud on the internet, telephone and mail order. In 2005, £183.2 million was stolen. This rose to £290.5 million in 2007.

However, the fraudulent use of lost or stolen cards has dropped (in 2005 £89 million was stolen, falling £56.2 million last year) and the interception of cards in the post has been cut (in 2005, £40 million was stolen, falling to £10.2 million in 2007).

High street transactions involving fake cards have also fallen, with the £135.9 million stolen in 2005, dropping to £73 million last year.

While chip-and-PIN technology is common in Europe, few countries use the more secure system. Notably, America predominantly uses the magnetic swipe and signature system. Outside Europe few countries have adopted chip-and-PIN. Those that have include South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Mexico.

Last night a 44-year-old British man, another alleged courier, was being held in Thailand in connection with the gang. He was arrested at Luton airport while trying to board a flight to Istanbul with fake cards and carrying files of PIN codes.

He fled while on bail but was seized in Phuket after withdrawing cash illegally. He came to the attention of the authorities after he was repeatedly photographed wearing a pollution face mask while removing money from cash machines.

Patel, who was born in India and came to Britain at the age of 2, obtained a 2:2 in computer sciences from Kingston University in 2006. continues here

Brave mum tells of gang rape terror

A mum-of-three who was the victim of a horrific rape in Belfast has spoken for the first time about her nightmare ordeal — to warn other woman of the risk of such an attack. 


Mary Hodkinson is facing an agonising wait to see if she contracted Aids in the brutal incident which occurred in a house in south Belfast earlier this month. 

After the horrendous sex attack, Mary was thrown out on the street bleeding, battered and semi-naked. 

She also fears the sickening sex attack may have been filmed. 

A 31-year-old foreign national has already appeared in court in connection with the incident. 

Mary revealed to our sister paper Sunday Life that she made the choice to speak out to try and prevent another woman undergoing the same ordeal. 

The 33-year-old mother, from the Village area of Belfast, is just one of a growing number of women who have been raped in the south of the city in recent months. 

Revealing her ordeal unfolded after attending what she believed would be a house party, Mary said: “The only thing I am guilty of is meeting a couple of guys who were so nice and who told me they were living in my community. I walked back with them and they invited me in for a drink and told me there would be other people in the house. 

“I was going back to my area and I thought I would know people at the house and would be safe. 

"But once I got in, it was a different story and I think this man was waiting for me.” 

Mary was forced into a bedroom where she was beaten and raped. 

Admitting her world has been turned upside down since the attack, she continued: “I will never forget the evil in this man’s eyes and I can still hear his mates laughing as they kept the door locked. Once he got me into the room he turned the light off and when I tried to escape and turn it on again he started to beat me. 

“He smashed my head off the radiator before kicking me in the legs. 

“This man was huge and very strong. I tried to defend myself as best I could but I didn’t stand a chance. He was a monster. 

“He was yelling all sorts of abuse at me and when he was finished, he started hitting me again and threw me out on the street when I didn’t even have a chance to get all my clothes on. 

“They were all laughing at me as I was thrown on to the street in a distressed state and bleeding all over. The whole experience was terrifying and I couldn’t believe it when I noticed a video camera on top of a cabinet as I was being pushed out the room.  continues here

'Samaritan' mugged by casualty

A 'GOOD SAMARITAN' who stopped to help an injured man in Plymouth city centre was left shocked after the casualty mugged her and stole her phone.

Adele Neeves, a volunteer with St John Ambulance from Stonehouse, said the experience would not stop her helping other strangers in need – or even the man who mugged her.

Miss Neeves, aged 44, said: "It was six o'clock in the morning and I was at the bus stop on Royal Parade, when I saw a black gentleman at the corner of Debenhams, not very far from me. He appeared to be drunk and was staggering."

Bravely, she approached the man to see if he needed help, and saw that he was covered in blood, and appeared concussed and confused.

Miss Neeves always carries her first aid kit. Concerned for the man, she called an ambulance and started to treat the large cuts on his face.


"I got him sat in the bus shelter and started to clean his wounds," she said. "He had horrific facial injuries, he was concussed and he had a lot of blood on him."

But as she crouched in front of him, the man suddenly pushed her over, grabbed her phone and ran off.

"I don't know how he made such a miraculous recovery," Miss Neeves said.

Acting on instinct, she gave chase, calling after the man, who shouted back that he had left her phone on the seat. She went back to look – he hadn't – and when she turned again he was gone.

Miss Neeves, a cleaner at B&Q in Derriford, said: "Basically my casualty mugged me. It's really shaken me and upset me, to be honest.

"I get moments when I get flashbacks of the man. It's been a very upsetting experience. It's made me a little bit nervous about being on the bus stop on my own.

"Having said that, I will continue to give first aid treatment at St John Ambulance and within the community."

Miss Neeves said her main concern at the time had been for the man, because his injuries appeared serious and she feared he could have passed out somewhere and died if he didn't get treatment.

She said: "If it happened again, I would still treat the same person, because I couldn't see anyone suffer."

She described the man as "pretty nasty," and said that he spoke with a Caribbean accent and gave his name as 'Jay', which he pronounced more like 'Hoy'.

Miss Neeves, who regularly helps strangers who are in need of first aid, said she had never had a problem with a casualty in the past.

"The majority of the public I've looked after have been really appreciative," she said.

A police spokesman said: "It's appalling that this lady, who was acting as a Good Samaritan, became the victim of a crime.

"We would hope that the person responsible would have enough of a conscience to return the stolen phone. We would also appeal to anybody who knows the person responsible to call Crimestoppers." continues here

A police spokesman said: blurb and then, "We would hope that the person responsible would have enough of a conscience to return the stolen phone”, yes and I’m a cake, this event, is indicative of the west’s relations regarding itself and the rest of the world. The compassionate Miss Neeves said: "Having said that, I will continue to give first aid treatment at St John Ambulance and within the community", rest of the world says, “thanks for the compassion but I’ll have that”, the west says, “the incident won’t stop me doing it again, non-white says, “hope to see you soon”.

When are we going to learn, start to think about our own, instead of trying to sort out the whole worlds problems, how much more must we give to peoples that are for the most part, ungrateful. It seems that we are a nation of givers, a nation built upon the concepts of fair-play and decency, when the world at large simply isn’t like that, moreover, why should it be we that gives and not the governments of these countries.

Like the reprehensible Jay or “hoy” as he pronounced it, who chose to attack his good- Samaritan, the non-western peoples of this world have no time for us, if it were we in their position I hate to think how we would suffer. Of course benevolence is good, to be a good Samaritan to your neighbour, however, be careful lest they bite the hand that feeds. 14