
Urgent hunt launched after girl, 15, 'raped' near library: Police release CCTV of man
Surrey Police said the alleged incident occurred near Chertsey Library at around 7pm on Friday, June 27.
In their initial witness appeal, the force said the 15-year-old girl was with a friend when they were approached by two males.
One of the males is then said to have assaulted the girl.
He was described as being in his teens, with slicked back blonde hair and was wearing a white jumper, blue jeans and white trainers.
Detective Sergeant Mihai Kerekes said previously that 'incidents of this nature are extremely concerning'.
He added: 'We want to reassure the public that a full investigation is underway to identify the person involved.'
Now the force has released a video of a man they wish to speak to following the reports.
They said in a post on Facebook: 'Can you help us identify the man in this image? We are looking to speak to him in connection with a report of rape in the area...'
In the footage the man can be seen walking with his back turned to the camera before turning around.
Anyone who recognises him or has any information that could help identify the man is urged to get in touch with the force.
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Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Post Office victims ‘to wait three more years for payouts'
Victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal could wait another three years for compensation, lawyers have warned. Many victims of the scandal are still awaiting full redress, as one of the final reports from the long-running inquiry – looking at the impact on those who had their lives destroyed and compensation – is set to be published on Tuesday. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongfully prosecuted by the Post Office between 1999 and 2015 after faulty Horizon software made it look as though money was missing from the business accounts. The previous Conservative government said those who had their convictions quashed were eligible for £600,000 payouts – with victims such as Amanda and Norman Barber accepting the fixed offer. Despite losing their business and home, the couple, from Warrington, said they found it 'almost impossible' to provide the details required to have their case individually assessed so did not want to risk 'getting less'. Unexplained shortfalls in their accounts at Thelwall Post Office eventually led to them being prosecuted over a deficit of £5,600 – despite using around £200,000 of their own money to attempt to balance the books. Both received a community order of 12 months and 100 hours' community service. Missing evidence Speaking about the redress process, Mrs Barber, 55, said: 'We were being asked to produce evidence we simply couldn't get our hands on with regards to our losses as we are talking going back 15 years. 'We found it almost impossible to provide the details needed to go down the route of having our case individually assessed. 'It just didn't seem worth it. I think sub-postmasters are still being left in an impossible situation when it comes to seeking true and full redress. 'Given the time it would take we simply couldn't risk a full assessment and getting less, particularly because the lack of documents we had. 'It got to the stage where, when the £600,000 was offered, it seemed the best way to bring years of torture to an end.' Redress has been a key issue for sub-postmasters since the scandal came to light, with many finding the various compensation schemes difficult to navigate. Lead campaigner Sir Alan Bates previously described the various processes as 'quasi-kangaroo courts', telling The Sunday Times that the Department for Business and Trade 'sits in judgment of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses'. The chairman of the Horizon IT inquiry, Sir Wyn Williams, is due to publish his findings on redress on Tuesday. Mrs Barber, who will join other sub-postmasters in attending the report's publication event, said: 'We feel we just need to be there to hear what is said. 'Lives were ruined and compensation has been made too hard to get, and too little by far.' One law firm involved in securing redress for victims, Hudgell Solicitors, said it still had more than 700 compensation cases to resolve. Solicitor Neil Hudgell said the firm had agreed damages for more than 300 people, totalling £170 million, but said the redress process had 'far too much red tape to get through'. He said: 'We have seen inconsistencies between the various compensation schemes, which remain over-engineered and over-legalistic, with far too much red tape to get through. 'There has also been a repeated failure to give the benefit of the doubt to sub-postmasters in appropriate circumstances. 'It's made it far too long a process for so many people who have been through so much, and are now in the latter stages of their lives. 'It has been re-traumatising for many, and increasing numbers are sadly passing away without seeing redress.' Addressing how long it could take for all claims to be settled, the solicitor added: 'At the current speed, we are looking at another two to three years.' Mr Hudgell said one client who was initially offered £50,000 has seen their offer rise to £500,000. He added: 'It is not a one-off glitch, but a stark illustration of a very common issue. 'It has been a painful process for all, and ended with a new appeals process being confirmed earlier this year, in recognition that many people had been under-compensated.' In a statement, the Department for Business and Trade said: 'We are grateful for the Inquiry's work, which has revealed the immeasurable suffering that victims of the scandal have endured. 'This Government has quadrupled the total amount paid to affected postmasters to provide them with full and fair redress, with more than £1 billion having now been paid to over 7,300 claimants.'


Times
39 minutes ago
- Times
Palestine Action is malign, but terror status goes too far
At midnight on Saturday, Palestine Action became officially proscribed under the Terrorism Act. In that ignoble status, it joins al-Qaeda, Hamas and Isis. Voicing support for, or being a member of, Palestine Action is now punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Predictably enough, a number of adherents of the anti-Israeli direct action group do not seem to have been chastened. Following a failed last-minute High Court effort to block the group's proscription, dozens of protestors were arrested over the weekend on suspicion of supporting the organisation. They included an 83-year-old priest, as well as others thought to be 'wearing clothing or displaying articles' indicating membership of a terrorist organisation. That Palestine Action is a malign force is beyond doubt. Its members include sinister ideologues, deeply confused in their geopolitical outlooks and their assessment of the best way to secure their objectives. The group's 'disruptive tactics' involve calculated acts of criminal damage, illegal occupation of premises, and intimidating acts of vandalism. Since its founding in 2020, the group has had a hand in around 500 distinct instances of 'direct action', often targeting firms and property suspected of having links to Israel. The most serious act for which the group claimed credit was when four people were arrested on suspicion of causing £7 million of damage to two military transporter aircraft at RAF Brize Norton. It was this that prompted Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to judge that the group had 'crossed the threshold established in the Terrorism Act'. • Police defend arrest of 83-year-old Palestine Action activist Yet, however wanton its criminality, it remains a stretch to brand Palestine Action a terror group. Its members are qualitatively different from those of al-Qaeda, and pose a substantially different kind of threat to public order and national security. Their tactics more closely resemble those of extremist environmentalist groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion than those of Islamist terrorists. In recent months, a combination of public ill will, effective prosecution and proportionate sentencing have made it unviable for climate activists to persist with their criminal antics. In March this year, Just Stop Oil announced an end to its practices of criminal vandalism, claiming implausibly to have achieved its objectives. In reality, they were prosecuted into submission by legitimate use of the criminal law. The heavy-handed branding of Palestine Action as terrorists risks seeming absurd when bona fide hostile military groupings like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps remain unproscribed. The destruction of property that Palestine Action has made its calling card can already be prosecuted. There are legitimate concerns that such measures risk suppressing dissent on the part of those politically opposed to the government's support of Israeli defence policy. Palestine Action's members may be misguided, but Britain must remain a country in which the right to express unpopular and dissenting political views is not subject to outright prohibition. The emergence in recent years of activist groups that make criminal forms of destruction and public nuisance their modus operandi does raise challenges for law enforcement. Lord Walney, the government's former independent adviser on extremism, has recently mooted an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which would give police greater power to curb the illegal antics of extremist groups that fall shy of terrorist organisations. These might include powers to block their ability to fundraise, organise on social media, or live-stream acts of criminality. These lighter-touch measures would be an obviously apt response to the level of threat posed. Palestine Action are an antisocial menace to public order; but politicians should not do them the service of taking them as seriously as they take themselves.


BBC News
42 minutes ago
- BBC News
How the 7/7 bombings changed a generation of British Muslims
On 7 July 2005, 52 people were killed and hundreds more injured in bombings targeting London's transport network during rush hour. The terror attacks sent shockwaves across the world - but particularly so in Leeds where three of the four suicide bombers grew up. "It changed the stereotypical narrative of what a terrorist looked like to someone who was British-born, wearing western clothing and with a backpack," says youth worker Fahad Khan, who was 18 at the time of the atrocity 20 years ago. "When I found out they were from Leeds, it was just a huge blow."Mr Khan now volunteers at the youth centre which some of the bombers visited in their teenage years. On 7 July 2005, three Tube trains and a bus were struck in quick succession, in what MI5 says was the "first successful attack by Islamist suicide bombers in the UK".All four of the suicide bombers were under the age of 30 and three were British-born sons of Pakistani parents from the Beeston and Holbeck areas of Leeds. The community was traumatised and the events forced terrorism to the forefront of the city's Muslim community. For Mr Khan, now 38, the news altered people's perceptions of young Muslim men. "It changed that narrative to someone who looked like me - and that's a lot to deal with," he the aftermath of the bombings, Mr Khan started volunteering at the Hamara Centre in Sidique Khan, 30, said to be the leader of the group, was a youth outreach worker there, while staff previously confirmed that two of the other terrorists, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Hasib Hussain,18, also spent time at the centre. Following the bombings, Mr Khan's goal was to engage young people and help them find their voice."We were talking to young people from very deprived communities," he explains. "Often first-generation British-born people like myself, with a disconnect from their parents, language barriers and no support in dealing with these huge issues and feeling targeted by policies the government was making at the time. "Our aim was to bring these kids from the periphery into the centre."After 7/7, the government launched a series of initiatives aimed at preventing future attacks. These included Prevent, set up in 2006. It is one of four strands of the government's umbrella counter-terrorism strategy Contest and designed to support people at risk of joining extremist groups and carrying out terrorist activities. Anti-radicalisation work is carried out in schools, faith organisations and the Prevent strategy has been criticised by some MPs, the National Union of Teachers and the Muslim Council of argue it is counterproductive and that it can make Muslim students feel isolated and can add to a general sense of distrust across Birt, a researcher, British Muslim affairs academic and community advocate, was among those consulted by the government in the early days after the attacks."My hope was that we could create policies with real buy-in from Muslim communities," he says. "But we never achieved that consensus. "The Muslim communities wanted a more pastoral approach where they dealt with youth issues seriously and get support for the government wanted a combative approach to take on extremist added: "That wasn't something the Muslim community were equipped to do." Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, who is also from a Pakistani Muslim family in West Yorkshire, was just beginning her political career at the time of the bombings. In 2007 she became the first Muslim to serve as a minister in a shadow Ms Warsi called the government's anti-terrorism plans "toxic". "It was supposed to be an upstream policy done with Muslim communities, but it became a policy done to Muslim communities," she says."It wasn't about a battle of ideas - it became about policing communities." A Home Office spokesperson said: "We now have one of the strongest counter-terrorism frameworks in the world which does not target any one community and deals with all forms of terrorist ideology."They added the "appalling" 7/7 attacks had had a "lasting impact on victims, survivors, loved ones, and communities". Muhbeen Hussain MBE was just 11 when the attacks happened. The tragedy inspired him to join a peace walk organised by 7/7 survivor, Gill Hicks, that changed his life. "There was a perception created about British Muslims, and I was growing up in that era," he says."I didn't believe these men represented my religion or identity - it made me want to step up and call it out." Mr Hussain, now 31, went on to work with the government on counter-extremism efforts and while he acknowledges the criticism, he also sees the value in the work."Yes, some initiatives were toxic, but we did do positive work, there was deradicalisation," he says."We needed a strategy - because we had 7/7 and we had terrorism in this country."Back in Beeston, Mr Khan believes Leeds has come a long way."You've had 20 years of more Muslims going to school, university, being more confident and articulate. "Leeds is resilient - it doesn't sit under the shadow of 7/7." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.