Man charged with murder of dad shot on doorstep
Mr Walsh-Westhead, from Burscough Street in Ormskirk, was arrested on Thursday exactly one year on from Mr Berry's murder. A 45-year-old woman from Kirkby, who was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, has been released under investigation. In February this year Smith, 27 and from Kirkby, was convicted of murder alongside Adam Williams, 26 and from St Helens, and Connor Walsh, 26 and from Kirkby. Smith and Williams were given life sentences with minimum terms of 31 years while Walsh was handed a 30-year minimum term. The jury had heard Smith had opened fire from the back of an electric bike with a handgun at 18:30 BST after pulling up on the kerb outside the house. Det Insp Graeme Osborne said: "We have charged a man in connection with the murder of Rikki Berry and I would like to remind people that this is a live investigation."Please be mindful that anything posted or shared on social media could jeopardise proceedings, so please support us as we move forward with the case. The best way to help is to pass information on through official channels."
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
Peterborough woman who attacked neighbour with a spade is jailed
A 44-year-old woman has been jailed for 10 months after she attacked her neighbour with a spade, hitting him on the Lloyd of George Street, Peterborough, set about her victim outside his home in the Woodston area of the city on 14 May, following a dispute that had been going on for three man, who was in his 20s, was left with a cut to his head that needed hospital was sentenced by a judge at Peterborough Crown Court after admitting causing grievous bodily harm without intent. 'Move on' Cambridgeshire Police said the neighbours had been in dispute about "various issues".Det Con Lloyd Davis said: "Catherine Lloyd's behaviour in this case was completely unacceptable."Irrespective of any ongoing dispute, violence like this is not the answer."I'm pleased the victim can now move on." Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
8 minutes ago
- BBC News
Fencing boss speaks on theft of Kaleb Cooper kit
The owner of a fencing firm has described how thieves stole farm equipment belonging to Clarkson's Farm star Kaleb Cooper from a field.A post knocker, owned by Mr Cooper, was stolen along with a tractor, which he does not own, from a field near Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, between 15:30 and 16:30 BST last hired items were being used by Aylesbury firm Home and Country Fencing, whose owner, who asked to be identified only as Lewis, said he believed the thieves had been keeping watch,Mr Cooper declined to comment, but posted to Instagram, on which he has 2.9 million followers, writing: "Can we please make this as hot as possible! What is going on with England at the moment." The equipment was being used in a field off Hawkswood told the BBC: "They broke into the field and cut a chain off. "They had probably been watching us as it was parked out of sight behind a barn."We had another post knocker stolen 11 months ago in Chalgrove as well."A social media post from the company, shared by Mr Cooper, suggested a "burnt out" silver 4x4 vehicle found nearby was "possibly related".The post knocker is a Protech P200S with the serial number 10698. It belongs to Mr Cooper, who lives near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and has risen to fame in Jeremy Clarkson's farming show on Amazon Prime in recent green John Deere tractor 6630 had the number plate OU11 Valley Police said both were seen being driven past the BP filling station in Gerrards Cross, on the A40 Oxford Road, at 15:52 on the same force is appealing for anyone with further information to contact Mutual, the insurance arm of the National Farmers' Union, estimates that rural crime in the UK cost £44.1m last year – although that was down 16.5% on the previous year. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Prison system was days from collapse three times under Sunak, review finds
The criminal justice system was within days of collapse on three occasions before being bailed out by 'last-minute emergency measures', an independent review by a former prisons watchdog has found. Dame Anne Owers said the prison system, under pressure from overcrowding, was 'in crisis' between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024, but No 10 under Rishi Sunak refused to cut the numbers in jail until 'the next predictable cliff edge'. Former ministers and officials interviewed by Owers 'expressed frustration and sometimes anger' at the failure to endorse a plan to avert crises and suspected that this was a deliberate move by Downing Street, she said. 'Many believed that the default position was to do as little as possible as late as possible, with the consequence that the system repeatedly reached the brink of collapse,' she said. The 25-page report into the teetering Prison Service, which remains at nearly 97.5% capacity, comes as the criminal justice system is expected to come under renewed pressure this weekend. Police have warned that they could arrest hundreds of people who plan to express support for Palestine Action on Saturday. Forces fear more incidents among people protesting outside hotels housing asylum seekers across Greater London, the north-east of England and East Anglia. The review, commissioned by the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in February, detailed claims that Sunak's office waited until prisons were days from collapsing before acting – to the dismay of some ministers. 'Although departmental ministers were convinced by mid-2023 that some form of early release was both necessary and urgent, this required prime ministerial agreement, which was not forthcoming until the system was within three days of potential collapse, and only in incremental stages,' she wrote. She said Alex Chalk, the then justice secretary, called for an early release scheme from mid-2023 for prisoners who had received standard determinate sentences, but received no backing. Chalk had made clear, she said, that he 'was advocating, without success, a version of the SDS early release scheme in order to get ahead of the crisis, rather than the minimal salami-slicing approach that was eventually taken'. 'Without exception, all those the review spoke to expressed frustration and sometimes anger at the reluctance to accept and then act on the well-documented and imminent crisis, or to agree any coherent plan to avert it,' she wrote. After the general election was called in May 2024, Sunak called emergency Cobra meetings to discuss 'invoking emergency powers' to release prisoners early if the criminal justice system collapsed. 'This might be necessary to avert the risk of public disorder if the criminal justice system collapsed during the election campaign,' the report disclosed. On three occasions, the Sunak government used early release schemes, employing powers designed to allow release on compassionate grounds, the report said. Civil servants were concerned that there would be an investigation into the mismanagement of prisons, the report said. 'Senior officials were so concerned about a potential breakdown in the criminal justice system that an audit was kept of all decision-making and documents, in case there was a public or parliamentary inquiry,' the report found. In October 2023, Chalk announced plans to free prisoners 18 days early under the end of custody supervised licence, which was later extended to 35 days and then 70 days. More than 13,000 were released under the scheme. One of Labour's first acts after forming a government last year was to announce a plan to release offenders with standard determinate sentences after they had served 40% of their term. Recommendations from David Gauke's sentencing review, which proposed less jail time for thousands of offenders, including some violent criminals and domestic abusers, are in the process of being implemented. Commenting on the Owers report, Mahmood said it 'lays bare the disgraceful way the last Conservative government ran our prisons. They added less than 500 cells to the prison estate over 14 years, released over 10,000 prisoners early under a veil of secrecy, and brought our jails close to total collapse on countless occasions.' The Conservatives and Sunak have been approached for comment. Andrew Neilson, the director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: 'This review into prison capacity spells out in forensic detail how the government has found itself facing the prospect of running out of cells. It is a crisis, or more accurately a series of crises, that has been brewing over several decades and across successive governments.'
