Derby bank murder accused appears in court via video link
Haybe Cabdiraxmaan Nur is charged with murdering Gurvinder Singh Johal, who died after a stabbing inside Lloyds Bank in St Peter's Street on Tuesday.
Nur, who was arrested at an address in Western Road, Normanton, Derby, appeared at Derby Crown Court via a video link from prison and was remanded in custody, a court official confirmed.
The case was adjourned until August 15.
Mr Johal, who was 37, was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency services were alerted at around 2.35pm on Tuesday.
A second man, in his 30s, who was arrested in connection with the incident, has been released with no further action, Derbyshire Constabulary said.
Mr Johal was said to have been known to friends as Danny.
In a tribute given to the Derby Telegraph on Wednesday, councillor Ajit Atwal, leader of the Lib Dem group on Derby City Council, who knew Mr Johal, said: 'He was a good businessman and nothing was ever too much trouble for him.
'He was humble, quiet and a kind guy and would always go above and beyond for everyone.
'His family are devastated and cannot understand what has happened.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Bryan Kohberger files reveal café worker's eerie encounters with Idaho killer before student murders
A woman who worked in a local café in Pullman, Washington, had a string of eerie encounters with Bryan Kohberger around the time that he slaughtered four University of Idaho students. The coffee shop employee told investigators Kohberger would visit her place of work every day during the fall 2022 semester - often around closing time - and somehow managed to find out her name and shift pattern. Her encounters with the criminology PhD student left her so unnerved that she confided in a colleague and actively tried to avoid him when he visited. It was also around this time that 'weird things' started happening at her home. Newly-released police records reveal the worker came forward to share her creepy experience with the mass killer following his arrest for the November 13, 2022, murders just over the state border in Moscow, Idaho. More than 500 pages of documents were unsealed by Idaho State Police this week, after the 30-year-old PhD student pleaded guilty on July 2 to breaking into a student home and stabbing Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin to death. Kohberger was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole on July 23 and is now serving his sentence inside Idaho's maximum security prison in Kuna. The new trove of documents includes interviews with witnesses and the victims' friends, tips explored by police before Kohberger was on law enforcement's radar, and chilling fears that the students at 1122 King Road were being stalked in the weeks leading up to the slayings. The documents also reveal multiple accounts from witnesses who had brushes with Kohberger around the time of the murders, including several classmates and professors at Washington State University (WSU). Many of the witnesses described Kohberger as sexist and creepy - with one faculty member even warning he had the potential to become a 'future rapist'. On January 17, 2023 - days after Kohberger's December 30, 2022, arrest in Pennsylvania - the cafe worker shared her own experiences with the mass killer in an interview with police. The woman's name and place of work is redacted in the records but they reveal she lived in Pullman, like Kohberger, and was a student on the psychology program at WSU. In her interview with police, the woman said Kohberger began coming into the café sometimes over the summer before the start of the semester. Then, it became a daily occurrence. During his visits, she found he liked to 'talk specifically with her' and would ask her questions about her school program and psychology, the records show. When he asked about the psychological assessments she was learning about, she said she told him she wasn't interested in that area of study. The woman was certain she never gave Kohberger her name and the staff didn't wear name tags identifying them. Kohberger gave a name to her, however - though it is unclear what name he gave as the word is redacted in the documents. On one occasion, the woman said Kohberger had gone into the café when she wasn't there and asked for her by name. 'She was unaware how he knew her name. It seemed to her Kohberger knew what hours she worked and made remarks about her hours,' investigators wrote in the report. The criminology PhD student would sometimes come in with a female friend and, on one visit, the café worker said she had asked the woman where she was from. When the employee guessed correctly, Kohberger told his friend: 'See I told you she was smart.' The woman told police his comment 'seemed weird to her, because she didn't think much of Kohberger, but it seemed like he had been talking to the female about her'. The woman was 'always uninterested' in talking with Kohberger and would try to walk away but he would continue talking to her, according to the police report. The woman said she was so uncomfortable around him that a coworker would let her know when he came in so she could avoid him. But the creepy encounters didn't only happen in her workplace, the woman told police. Around that time, the woman described two incidents at her home in Pullman in August or September. On one occasion, the woman told police she was home alone at night and was changing in her room, when she heard someone knock on her window. On another occasion, at around 7pm, she heard someone moving around on her porch. The incidents spooked the woman so much that she called her husband who rushed home from work, the police records show. When he arrived home that second time, her husband saw a white car leaving the area, she told police. It is not clear if the creepy incidents at her home were connected to Kohberger. However, Kohberger drove a white Hyundai Elantra. And the woman's story echoes the chilling accounts of other women who crossed Kohberger's path during that time and believed they were being watched or followed - as well as the accounts of his victims. One WSU faculty member told investigators she feared Kohberger had been stalking people after one student revealed her home had been broken into and her perfume and underwear stolen a month before the killings, the police records show. According to police interviews with survivors and friends, the students at 1122 King Road had also seen a man lurking in the trees outside their home and noticed a string of bizarre incidents at their home in the weeks before the murders. Around one month earlier, Goncalves had told multiple people including surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke and her ex-boyfriend Jack DuCoeur that she had seen a man watching her in the trees around the home when she took her pet dog Murphy outside, previously-unsealed Moscow Police records show. Friends also recalled multiple occasions when, during parties at the home, Goncalves' dog Murphy would run barking into the tree line and wouldn't return when he was called. This was out of character for the dog, they said. On November 4, 2022 - just nine days before the murders - the roommates had come home to find the door to their three-story house open. Funke said that they had grabbed golf clubs and gone room to room, thinking there was an intruder. Goncalves had also mentioned someone following her around two or three weeks before her murder. Around that same time, a female student living on Queen Road - close to the King Road home - said a man tried to break into her home but the door was locked. Evidence indicates Kohberger was watching the home in the lead-up to the murders. From July 2022 through to November 13, 2022, Kohberger's phone placed him in the vicinity of the King Road home at least 23 times, mostly at night. Investigators have said Kohberger targeted 1122 King Road but that they don't know who he was targeting inside the home. The killer's motive for the attack also remains a mystery and no connection has ever been found between Kohberger and his victims. However, the disturbing encounters with the coffee shop worker shines new light on a theory that he may have met one or more of the victims in passing at their place of work. Mogen and Kernodle both worked as servers at the Mad Greek, a vegan restaurant in Moscow. While investigators have been unable to confirm whether or not Kohberger - a vegan - ever visited the restaurant, a former employee previously told People they remembered him stopping by at least twice. And now, the Daily Mail has learned that digital evidence does indicate some link between Kohberger and the Mad Greek. Heather Barnhart, Senior Director of Forensic Research at Cellebrite, and Jared Barnhart, Head of CX Strategy and Advocacy at Cellebrite, were hired by state prosecutors to dig into Kohberger's Android cell phone and laptop and were set to testify as expert witnesses in his capital murder trial. Through their analysis, the team found some trace of the Mad Greek on his devices. Heather explained that it was 'a passive assist file associated with Google Maps' for the Mad Greek. 'What we think it means is if you open your phone and you go to Google Maps and you look at restaurants in a specific area and it shows up as a recommendation,' she told the Daily Mail. The data does not show how the file was created and does not have a date attached to it, meaning it is not possible to determine if Kohberger actively searched for the restaurant, she said. 'This is one of those where the jury would have had to decide the weight to assign to it,' she said. The Cellebrite team found Kohberger had gone to extreme lengths to try to delete and hide his digital footprint using VPNs, incognito modes and clearing his browsing history. Had he not done so, Jared said he believes some connection to the victims would have been found. 'If nothing was erased, I think that we probably would have found the connection or some method or research or something ahead of time to prove he was planning this,' he told the Daily Mail. But Kohberger avoided any of this evidence being presented at trial by striking an 11th-hour plea deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. Under the terms of the deal, he pleaded guilty to all charges and waived his right to appeal. On July 23, he was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. He is now being held inside Idaho's maximum security prison where he has already filed multiple complaints about his fellow inmates.
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Veteran rider, 76, died after falling off his horse while trail hunting just hours after laying scent for event, inquest hears
A riding enthusiast died after falling from his horse just hours after laying a scent for a hunting event, an inquest heard. Guy Avis, 76, died while taking part in a Heythrop Hunt trail hunt with 90 other riders when his horse refused to jump a fence. He had been a lifelong member of the event, where he was known as the 'singing secretary'. Gloucestershire Coroners' Court heard Mr Avis, who also performed with Giffords Circus, had been riding his horse Jasper. The inquest was told Mr Avis fell forward over the horse's head after Jasper did not jump the fence. Mr Avis, of Dean, Chipping Norton, landed headfirst on the ground and died from a fractured cervical spine. Roland Wooderson, area coroner for Gloucestershire, reached a conclusion of accidental death on Thursday. The coroner said: 'It is clear from the evidence that on November 2 2024, at the farm in question, Mr Avis died as a result of injuries sustained when he fell from his horse. 'I accept the medical cause of death as 1a fractured cervical spine and 1b horse riding accident. 'On that information, on the balance of probability, the appropriate conclusion is one of accidental death.' In a statement read to the court, Hannah Goffe said Mr Avis had been taking part in a Heythrop Hunt event. Mrs Goffe described overhearing someone saying there had been an accident at about 2pm. 'I ran towards the jump and I saw Guy lying on the floor,' Mrs Goffe, who had known Mr Avis for 30 years, said. 'Guy was unresponsive and I started CPR. I was aware that someone was on the phone to 999.' Pathologist Dr Terry Jones reported how Mr Avis had been riding his horse when it refused a jump. The inquest heard paramedics were told Mr Avis was seen to fall forward and land headfirst on the ground. He was found on the floor by friends and received medical attention before his death was confirmed at 2.50pm. In a report, health and safety officer Beth Pritchard told how Mr Avis was a volunteer with the hunt. 'He was an experienced horse rider and was riding his own horse, Jasper, using his own tack,' she said. Her report described how Mr Avis had laid a trail earlier that day but was riding as a hunt participant when he died. In November last year, Giffords Circus said it was 'so saddened' to hear of Mr Avis's death. The travelling circus posted an image of Mr Avis taking part in the 2019 show, Xanadu. It said: 'We are so saddened to hear of the passing of Guy Avis. 'Guy worked with Giffords Circus over the years in many forms, here he is in 2019 in Xanadu while working alongside Nell in the ring. 'Our condolences to all his family and friends. With love from all at Giffords Circus.' In a post at the time, The British Hound Sports Association said: 'We are saddened to hear of the sudden loss while hunting yesterday of Guy Avis, known as 'the Singing Secretary' of the Heythrop. A post he held for 28 years. 'He had hunted for over 60 years. Condolences to family and friends.'
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Lucy Connolly's jail torment revealed: Truth about the middle-class mother's 377 days in prison - and how one officer said she was the most petrified inmate they'd ever seen
Not long ago, Lucy Connolly found herself being manhandled by up to six prison officers on the wing of HMP Peterborough that has been her home in recent months. Roughly handcuffed, she was bundled to another wing housing violent inmates and treated so forcefully that she was left in agony. Several days later, her wrists were still bruised. Lucy's ' crime '? On this occasion it was to object to being moved to a new cell in an area of the prison known as 'The Bronx', so called because it houses the most troublesome inmates – the violent, aggressive and difficult ones. Lucy Connolly, a childminder, had been none of these things during her months behind bars. Or indeed in civilian life. But then as we now know, this was not the first time that vastly disproportionate measures were alleged to have been taken against the 42-year-old wife and mother, who found herself placed at His Majesty's Pleasure last October. Faced with a 31-month stretch for posting a deeply unpleasant tweet, which she quickly regretted and deleted, Lucy's incarceration finally came to an end yesterday after nine agonising months behind bars. But as the MP and deputy Reform leader Richard Tice, who recently visited Connolly in prison, told the Daily Mail, she faces further challenging times ahead as she readjusts to life on the outside. 'I know that her main priority will be spending time with her family – that has kept her going. But at the same time her freedom will be a significant readjustment, not in the least because the things that are meant to help prisoners with that adjustment, such as day release, were denied to her,' he says. 'It is wonderful news that she is no longer behind bars, but the horrendous trauma that has been inflicted on the whole family will take time to heal.' Indeed. Legal bills and the loss of Lucy's childminding income have left her husband Ray, a former Conservative councillor, in thousands of pounds of debt, while their 13-year-old daughter Holly has struggled so much with her mother's absence and the dreadful, public circumstances behind it, that this previously bright and diligent schoolgirl has been suspended from school more than once in recent months. She has recently been living with her grandmother, Lucy's mum Heather, and other female relatives, as the family attempted to generate extra female support. 'I don't think you have to think about what happened to Lucy for very long to know that what happened has been incredibly hard for everyone,' says Richard Tice. Hard, and arguably deeply unfair. Today, so infamous is her name that the circumstances behind Lucy Connolly's incarceration barely need rehearsing. In the hours after killer Axel Rudakubana murdered three young girls and attempted to murder ten others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29, 2024 – sparking nationwide unrest – Lucy posted a tweet in which she called for mass deportation of migrants and wrote that people could 'set fire' to hotels housing the 'b***ards' for all she cared. She deleted the tweet within hours, but sensed something was afoot after receiving a torrent of messages referring to what she had written. Her husband later revealed that she had said the tweet had 'come back to haunt me'. Yet neither could surely imagine to what extent: arrested at home by uniformed police officers on August 6, she was charged with inciting racial hatred and was handed a 31-month sentence in October after pleading guilty to the offence at Birmingham Crown Court. What has been less well documented is how Lucy and her family have navigated her time behind bars. Although when the Mail visited the pleasant semi-detached family home in Northamptonshire yesterday, ahead of Lucy's release, Ray told us his wife had coped with imprisonment 'relatively well', in truth the whole family have endured months of emotional turmoil, particularly their daughter Holly. Twelve when her mum was arrested – she had to celebrate her 13th birthday without her – she has missed her terribly. 'She has found it very difficult not having her mum at home,' as Ray put it yesterday. Her mother, in turn, has had to navigate all manner of emotional onslaughts throughout the course of her imprisonment, not in the least the hammer blow of her appeal being overturned in May, along with countless rejected requests for day release – something to which she has been entitled since last November, but which have never been granted. But then as we shall see, Lucy's time in prison seems to have been characterised by obfuscation, double standards and, on occasion, downright lies. Initially sent on remand to HMP Peterborough, a fragile and frightened Lucy arrived in prison with a 'reputation' already formed, said her husband. A couple of the officers subsequently told her that they'd been warned by the authorities to 'watch out' for her because she could be violent. Lucy had to inform them she had never had a fight in her life. She had only just settled into Peterborough when she was transferred to Drake Hall in Staffordshire, increasing the time it took for visitors to make the trip from her home town in Northampton from two hours to three. Nonetheless, nearly every Sunday – family day in the prison calendar – Ray and Holly would dutifully make the trip, alongside other relatives and family friends. Notably, also among her visitors, the Mail understands, were the parents of children in Lucy's care – past and present – some of whom were from immigrant backgrounds and many of whom wrote character references to the sentencing judge pleading for leniency. Even with the unwavering love from her family however – and the groundswell of support from many members of the public – one can only imagine how desperately frightened this previously law-abiding citizen must have been in those early days, mingling with drug dealers, thieves and murderers. One anonymous officer at Peterborough reported that he had never seen anyone look so petrified on arrival. In fact, despite her own and her family's fears, Lucy settled into prison life reasonably well. After initial suspicion about her perceived 'poshness' and marriage to a Conservative councillor, Lucy became something of a mother figure to many of the damaged women she was housed alongside. Many would sit in her cell for hours, chatting and putting the world to rights, while Ray subsequently revealed that his wife had asked him to send extra money to give to some of the needier inmates, many of whom were homeless. 'Lucy got on great with some of the most difficult prisoners,' he told one journalist. 'There was this strong, scary, very attractive, powerful Jamaican girl and she was really kicking off with the prison officers, and they didn't know what to do, and Lucy went over, sort of grabbed her and gave her a big cuddle. The officers said, '"What's wrong with her?", and Lucy said, "She wants her mum".' Tellingly, when other inmates asked Lucy what she was in for, her response that it was a post on social media bamboozled them. 'They cracked up, is the correct reaction, I think,' Ray revealed. Even so, Lucy has undeniably been through difficult times while inside, not least because despite repeated requests and well-argued letters to the governor, prison authorities repeatedly denied her temporary leave – known as ROTL, or Release on Temporary Licence. Among the reasons cited for depriving her of the chance to enjoy normal conditions leading up to release was 'media interest'. Desperate for answers, when her mother Heather asked the Home Office why her daughter wasn't getting the leave to which she was entitled, the reply came back that she 'hadn't been assessed yet'. The most brutal setback came in May, however, when the Court of Appeal overturned her request to shorten her sentence. The decision, said Ray, left her 'heartbroken'. Holly was also devastated: having excitedly prepared for her mother's early return, she was told instead she would have to wait another three months. 'We're a good little team but this has knocked my daughter a little bit. She's got bad anxiety,' Ray told Talk television in the aftermath of the news. By June, at least, Lucy had been moved closer to home, having been moved back to HMP Peterborough. She was placed on the induction unit until a space became available on the enhanced wing where, as a prisoner of good character, she would receive better accommodation and her own television. Which brings us to what Richard Tice calls the 'shocking assault' on Lucy just over two months ago. Having been led to believe a room had become free on the enhanced wing, Lucy was instead told by an officer that she was being placed on A1, a wing known as 'The Bronx' due to its frequent chaotic scenes. After politely telling officers she would not go, she says she was subsequently set upon by a group or five or six officers using restraining methods that are meant to be reserved for violent or abusive prisoners. She was bent forwards, her arms bent sharply back, and her hands tightly handcuffed, leaving her in what she later described to Ray as 'excruciating pain,' before being manhandled up three flights of stairs and dumped in a filthy cell. She was then told she was on 23 hour lockdown for 14 days on what is known as 'Basics' – meaning no TV, no privilege, and food being brought to her cell. Richard Tice visited Lucy in the wake of this experience, and said he was deeply impressed by her forbearance. 'I saw Lucy in the wake of what had been fundamentally a shocking assault undertaken on her by prison officers who were clearly playing games with her,' he said. 'She was coping not only with this, but with adapting to prison life, also to the news of her appeal being rejected, but she did so with enormous equanimity although she was clearly very upset.' Having complained to the prison about her treatment and requested an investigation, Richard says he has been met with silence. 'They did not give me the courtesy of a reply which I am hugely disappointed by; I wonder if that means they cleared the officers involved of any wrongdoing,' he told the Mail. Meanwhile life on the outside has not been easy for Ray. As well as trying to parent a daughter experiencing all the trials and tribulations of adolescence without a guiding maternal hand, he has also had to navigate a number of personal brickbats of his own. A hugely popular Conservative councillor at West Northamptonshire Council, his public loyalty to his wife – he appeared on television saying she was a 'good person and not a racist' – led to 13 anonymous complaints about his 'behaviour' to the council which were referred to a London law firm to investigate. The Labour MP for Northampton South Mike Reader also called for his resignation in a statement referring to 'high standards in public discourse'. 'As [councillor] Connolly repeatedly defended the comments made, I hope he will now do the right thing and resign from West Northamptonshire Council,' Mr Reader said. In the event Ray Connolly did not resign, although he went on to lose his seat following elections in May. He remains on the town council. Arguably, he has more to worry about than his career: alongside his own health issues – he has a compromised immune system because of bone marrow issues – the family have faced enormous financial problems. Earlier this year Ray was forced to sell the family car, alongside other possessions, to pay his wife's legal fees, and at one point was facing the prospect of losing the family home. His circumstances have been eased by the creation of a JustGiving page – set up by supporters – which to date has raised nearly £160,000. The Mail understands that Ray has received £60,000 of this so far to help settle his debts. Let us not forget either that both Ray and Lucy continue to endure the almost unfathomable loss of a child, after their toddler son Harry died in 2011 as a result of gross medical negligence. It says much about the strain Lucy's imprisonment has placed him under that two months ago, in the wake of his wife's move to 'The Bronx', Ray was reduced to tears for the first time since Harry's death. Unable to cry since the loss, he confided to friends that he had wept after hearing Lucy sobbing uncontrollably down the phone. Finally husband, wife and daughter are now reunited under one roof for the first time in nine months. When asked about their plans yesterday, Ray responded only that their focus was 'to get our lives back on track'.
