Police should release immigration information about charged suspects
It comes as Mr Farage and the youngest council leader in the country, George Finch, have claimed there has been a 'cover-up' of details about an alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.
Two men who are reportedly Afghan asylum seekers have been charged in relation to the alleged incident in the Warwickshire town.
Asked at a press conference on Monday whether the police should release the names, addresses and immigration status of people after they have been charged with an offence, Mr Farage said: 'What caused unrest on our streets after Southport last year was us not being told the status of the attacker.
'That led to crazy conspiracy theories spreading online.'
Pushed later on whether the details should be published, Mr Farage said: 'I absolutely think that they should.'
At the same press conference, Mr Farage linked a perceived lack of information from police about what happened in Nuneaton to what happened in Southport last July, telling a Westminster press conference that he wanted to discuss a 'cover-up that in many ways is reminiscent of what happened after the Southport killings last year'.
He later told the event: 'It is not … in any way at all a contempt of court for the British public to know the identity of those who allegedly have committed serious crimes.
'I felt that in the wake of the Southport attacks, and I feel that ever more strongly today.'
Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was arrested on July 26 and charged the next day with rape, according to Warwickshire Police.
He appeared at Coventry Magistrates' Court last Monday and has been remanded in custody.
Mohammad Kabir, 23, was arrested in Nuneaton on Thursday and charged with kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting rape of a girl under 13, the force added.
He appeared at Coventry Magistrates' Court on Saturday and has been remanded in custody.
Warwickshire Police did not deny a Mail On Sunday report which said Mulakhil and Kabir are asylum seekers.
In a statement, the force said that once someone is charged with an offence, they follow national guidance, which 'does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status'.
Mr Finch, the 19-year-old leader of Warwickshire County Council, told Monday's press conference that he was 'begging' for information about the two to be released in the wake of the charges.
He said he had emailed the council's chief executive to say that he wished to speak to the police force and urge them to release information about the men's immigration status.
Mr Finch also said he later had written a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and the chief constable of Warwickshire Police which called for the immediate release of the immigration status of the two.
Mr Finch said he would be working to 'fight against' houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) that are housing 'illegal immigrants' and also claimed that Reform UK need to 'change things' and are 'the last line of defence against the blob, the cover-ups'.
In his letter to Ms Cooper, published on X on Sunday, Mr Finch claimed that a 'cover-up' of immigration status 'risks public disorder breaking out on the streets of Warwickshire'.
'Having my ear to the ground locally, it is clear that there is much appetite for protests to take place across the county,' the letter adds.
Asked if police should release the ethnicity of people charged with offences, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said the police and courts were operationally independent but the principle was to be 'as transparent as possible'.
He said: 'We've always said and continue to say that transparency is important.
'That is our position. For police up to central government, we should always be as transparent as possible when it comes to cases.'
He added: 'This is clearly a deeply upsetting and distressing case which the public are right to feel shocked and angry about. In relation to this case, the individuals have been charged and we are now in a live investigation.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Powys County Times
30 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
British man charged with attempted drowning of daughter-in-law on US holiday
A British man has been charged by US police with the attempted murder of his daughter-in-law after allegedly trying to drown her in a swimming pool while on holiday, local authorities said. Mark Raymond Gibbon, 62, of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, allegedly tried to drown the 33-year-old woman after they argued about his grandchildren in their rental home at the Solterra Resort in Davenport, Florida, on Sunday, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said on X. Officers had responded to reports of a disturbance in a back-yard swimming pool at around 5.20pm local time. Gibbon allegedly pushed and held the victim's head under water multiple times which prevented her from breathing, Mr Judd said. He allegedly only stopped after holidaymakers next door said they had called the sheriff's office, while the victim's nine-year-old daughter jumped into the pool to try to stop the incident, the sheriff said. Gibbon was arrested and taken to Polk County Jail before he was charged with attempted second-degree murder and battery, Mr Judd said. The sheriff said in a statement: 'It's great that Polk County draws visitors from all across the world, but we expect vacationers to behave while they visit with us, just as we expect our lifelong residents to do the same. 'Because Mr Gibbon couldn't control his anger, he may find himself spending a lot more time in Florida than he had anticipated.'
Powys County Times
30 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Angela Rayner calls on China to explain redacted images in super-embassy plans
Angela Rayner has told China to explain why parts of its plans for a new super-embassy in London are redacted. The Deputy Prime Minister, who as Housing Secretary is responsible for overseeing planning matters, has given Beijing two weeks to explain why areas of its plans for the sprawling new embassy site in central London are blacked out. China hawks in Westminster have raised alarm that the embassy site could be used to conduct surveillance from British soil. Pro-democracy campaigners from Hong Kong, as well as Uighurs and Tibetans, meanwhile, fear that intimidation and reprisals from the Chinese state could result from the embassy going ahead. This follows reports that bounties have been issued by China for dissident Hong Kongers now living in the UK. In a letter seen by the PA news agency, Ms Rayner's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government asks planning consultants representing the Chinese embassy to explain why drawings of the planned site are blacked out. The letter gives two weeks, until August 20, for an explanation to be provided. It also suggests that a final planning decision on the embassy site, at Royal Mint Court, just east of London's financial district, will be made by September 9. Copies of the letter were also sent to the Home Office and the Foreign Office by email. It notes that the Home Office requested a new 'hard perimeter' be placed around the embassy site, to prevent 'unregulated public access', and acknowledges this could require a further planning application. Plans for the super-embassy were previously rejected by Tower Hamlets Council in 2022, with the Chinese opting not to appeal. However, Beijing resubmitted the application a fortnight after Sir Keir Starmer's election victory last year, believing Labour may be more receptive to the application. Since entering office Sir Keir's Government has sought closer links with Beijing after a cooling during the final years of Conservative Party rule. The final decision will be made by Mr Rayner in her role as Housing Secretary. Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister, said: 'No surprises here – Labour's rush to appease Xi Jinping's demands for a new embassy demonstrated a complacency when it came to keeping our people safe. Having deluded themselves for so long, they've recognised we were right to be vigilant. 'The disturbing bounty notes urging British citizens to kidnap and deliver their Hong Kong neighbours to the current CCP embassy laid bare the risks – yet the Foreign Secretary didn't even summon the Chinese ambassador in the face of direct threats to those seeking refuge in our country. 'CCP ambitions for a larger embassy would only amplify opportunities for espionage and transnational repression.'
South Wales Argus
43 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Fritzl case led Badenoch to ‘reject God', says Tory leader
In an interview with the BBC, Mrs Badenoch said she was 'never that religious' while growing up but 'believed there was a God' and 'would have defined myself as a Christian apologist'. But this changed in 2008 when she read reports that Fritzl had imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, in his basement over 24 years. Mrs Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, said: 'I couldn't stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued. 'And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered. I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something. 'It's like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman's prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.' But she insisted that while she had 'rejected God', she had not rejected Christianity and remained a 'cultural Christian', saying she wanted to 'protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values'. During her interview, which is due to be broadcast on Thursday evening, Mrs Badenoch also said her tenure as Conservative leader was going 'well', adding her job was to 'make sure that people can see that we are the only party on the centre-right'. In an apparent dig at Nigel Farage's Reform UK, she said: 'There are pretenders. We're the only party on the centre-right, and we're the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.' She went on to defend previous comments saying the fact she had worked at McDonald's made her working class, saying: 'I had to work to live. 'That, for me, is what being working class is. It's the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive.' And she argued that parents who were 'worried about their children getting stolen or snatched' had created a younger generation that lacked the 'resilience' to deal with problems in life. Responding to figures suggesting a quarter of people aged 16-24 said they had a mental disorder, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don't think they all have a mental disorder.' She added: 'I'm not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.'
