TV tonight: a true-crime series about a shockingly violent murder in Shrewsbury
9pm, BBC TwoAfter DPD driver Aurman Singh was beaten to death while on a delivery in Shrewsbury, the police assessed the shocking level of violence involved and surmised that robbery wasn't the motive. Stretched across the week, this gripping true-crime series follows the West Mercia police as they track the suspects, make arrests, then realise the roots of the crime run much deeper than they thought. Phil Harrison
6.35pm, PBS AmericaRight at the end of the first world war, the 1918 flu pandemic killed more than 50 million people and inflicted further misery on an already anguished world. This documentary uses reconstructions and testimony from the doctors, civilians and politicians of the time to tell the story. Christopher Eccleston narrates. PH
8pm, BBC OneOur traditional British summer wouldn't be the same without soaking up the sights, sounds and wild G-forces of a funfair. But should more be done to ensure rides are properly maintained? Correspondent Rahil Sheikh hears from accident victims keen for tougher safety regulation. Graeme Virtue
8pm, BBC ThreeWith the BBC having announced the contestants for its celebrity version of the hyper-addictive reality show, you may be in the mood to indulge your taste for stagey interpersonal intrigue. This New Zealand version sees 22 players gather in a manor house at the foot of Mount Horrible with NZ$100,000 on the table for the winner. PH
9pm, ITV1
Sean Bean may not have the title role in this Tudor murder mystery adapted from CJ Sansom's novel – that goes to Arthur Hughes as the 'crookback' investigator – but his brooding Thomas Cromwell looms large in every scene nonetheless. Shardlake resumes interrogating the St Donatus monks – but nowhere near fast enough for Anthony Boyle's Jack Barak. Ellen E Jones
9pm, Channel 4The documentary series that hopes it can convince viewers to care about the police continues. In this edition, officers tackle a domestic violence call, try to help the victim of a mugging and attend a fire at a seafront hotel. How much it makes the public empathise with an emergency service blighted by sexism and racism remains to be seen. Alexi Duggins
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The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
Report criticises ‘major failing' to gather ethnicity data on grooming gangs
The lack of data showing the ethnicity and nationality of sex offenders in grooming gangs is 'a major failing over the last decade or more', a new report has found. Officials have dodged the issue of ethnicity among the groups of sex offenders for fear of being called racist, even though available data showed suspects were disproportionately likely to be Asian men, the Home Secretary told the House of Commons. Speaking as a review of grooming gangs by Baroness Casey was published on Monday, Yvette Cooper told MPs: 'While much more robust national data is needed, we cannot and must not shy away from these findings, because, as Baroness Casey says, ignoring the issues, not examining and exposing them to the light, allows the criminality and depravity of a minority of men to be used to marginalise whole communities.' She said Baroness Casey found examples of organisations 'avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist or raising community tensions'. Ms Cooper said: 'These findings are deeply disturbing, but most disturbing of all, as Baroness Casey makes clear, is the fact that too many of these findings are not new.' Currently ethnicity is only recorded for around 37% of suspects. The report found that: 'The appalling lack of data on ethnicity in crime recording alone is a major failing over the last decade or more. Questions about ethnicity have been asked but dodged for years. 'Child sexual exploitation is horrendous whoever commits it, but there have been enough convictions across the country of groups of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted closer examination. 'Instead of examination, we have seen obfuscation. In a vacuum, incomplete and unreliable data is used to suit the ends of those presenting it. The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with white perpetrators when that can't be proved. 'This does no-one any favours at all, and least of all those in the Asian, Pakistani or Muslim communities who needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred.' Yvette Cooper unveiled the findings from the rapid national audit to MPs, after the Prime Minister committed to launching a national inquiry into the abuse. She repeated previous apologies for abject failures to protect victims. Ms Cooper told MPs: 'On behalf of this, and past governments, and the many public authorities who let you down, I want to reiterate an unequivocal apology for the unimaginable pain and suffering that you have suffered, and the failure of our country's institutions through decades, to prevent that harm and keep you safe.' The rapid national audit looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country was first announced in January as part of a series of measures to tackle the issue. The Home Office has also said the National Crime Agency (NCA) will carry out a nationwide operation targeting people who have sexually exploited children, and follow up on more than 800 cold cases. According to the Home Office, the NCA will work in partnership with police forces to investigate cases that 'were not progressed through the criminal justice system' in the past. On Monday, Ms Cooper said that the number of cold cases to be reviewed again over child sex abuse by grooming gangs is expected to rise to more than 1,000 in the coming weeks. The harrowing crimes targeted children, mainly girls, as young as 10, some of whom were in care, had physical or mental disabilities, or who had already suffered neglect or abuse. Baroness Casey's review looked at around a dozen live investigations into grooming gangs, and found 'a significant proportion of these cases appear to involve suspects who are non-UK nationals and/or who are claiming asylum in the UK.' The Home Secretary has pledged to exclude convicted sex offenders from the asylum system. In her report, Baroness Casey said it is time to draw a line in the sand and take action over the issue, which she called 'one of the most heinous crimes in our society'. Her report concluded: 'These actions need to be accompanied by commitments to honesty, transparency and to prioritising the safety of children above all else; by an apology to all the victims of child sexual exploitation who have been let down in the past and by a more rigorous and relentless pursuit of the minority of men who have preyed on vulnerable children and looked for gaps in our safeguarding systems to commit heinous crimes. 'Unless government and all the organisations involved are able to stand up and acknowledge the failures of the past, to apologise for them unreservedly, and to act now to put things right, including current cases, we will not move on as a society.' The Government has accepted her recommendation that any adult man who has penetrative sexual activity with a child under 16 will face a mandatory rape charge. Police forces will be made to gather data on the ethnicity and nationality of child abusers, and rules for the licensing of taxi drivers will also be tightened to stop drivers operating outside the area where they are licensed. The report also recommends that police forces should look at cold cases from the past 10 years to find missed chances for prosecutions and children who may have been abused.
The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
Driver who killed two while on immigration centre bail given life term
A mentally ill driver who deliberately crashed into a cyclist and two pedestrians during a 'killing spree' has been sentenced to life imprisonment alongside a Mental Health Act order meaning he will initially be detained in hospital. Warwick Crown Court was told Albanian national Emiljano Kasaj was in the UK illegally and in breach of his bail from an immigration detention centre when he used his Mercedes to unlawfully kill passer-by Leo Moran and cyclist Joel Carriedo. A third victim was knocked into a building and suffered a head injury during what High Court Judge Mr Justice Choudhury described as 'horrendous' offences committed against innocent victims in Coventry in September 2023. Kasaj, aged 34, pleaded guilty in March this year to one count of attempted murder and two counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His sentencing hearing was told on Monday that he was suffering from a severe paranoid illness, probably schizophrenia, at the time of the killings, falsely believing he was a 'king' who was being blackmailed by political leaders in Albania. The court heard that as he was placed into a cell after the deaths, Kasaj had said a burst tyre had prevented him claiming more victims and said: 'I have killed two people today. I was going to be next. It was my turn to get slaughtered.' Passing sentence, the judge told Kasaj: 'On September 3 2023 you decided to kill random members of the public by mowing them down in your car. 'In the space of a few minutes you killed two people and seriously injured a third. 'It is only because you crashed your car that mercifully there were no more victims.' Describing the events as a 'killing spree', the judge said of comments made by Kasaj after his arrest: 'You therefore admitted hitting the victims intentionally with the purpose of killing them.' Accepting that the explanation for Kasaj's actions lay in his mental health problems and the 'beliefs' he held, the judge told him: 'You clearly had what the law calls an abnormality of mental functioning.' Kasaj was sentenced to life with a minimum term of nine years and four months and also given an indefinite hybrid order under mental health laws meaning he will be detained in hospital 'for as long as is necessary' given his condition. Graphic CCTV footage played to the court showed 44-year-old Mr Moran, who died of a neck injury, being struck at 7.56am in Gosford Street. Other footage, presented to the court by prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith, showed the car driving off at speed with a smashed windscreen, and later travelling towards hospital worker Mr Carriedo, a married father-of-two. The 47-year-old NHS worker, whose bike was split in two by the impact, died of chest injuries after being struck head-on and knocked over a wall in Woodway Lane at 8.03am. Opening the facts of the case against Kasaj, of no fixed address, Mr Grieves-Smith said the defendant went on to crash into a house around 300 metres away and was arrested almost an hour later in a nearby garden. The court heard Kasaj had used a false name and address to register the vehicle. Mr Grieves-Smith said Kasaj was arrested for immigration offences in August 2022 as he had made no attempts to register with the authorities, and was detained in order to be removed back to Albania. Kasaj was held at Harmondsworth Detention Centre in west London but in October 2022, the court heard, he was bailed to an address in Newfield Road, Coventry, with a condition to sign on at the Solihull Immigration Centre on December 5. Mr Grieves-Smith said: 'He failed to appear for this and all other appointments.' Psychiatric evidence presented to the court showed that Kasaj suffers from 'a major mental illness, the most likely diagnosis being schizophrenia' which may have been aggravated by use of cannabis or cocaine in the weeks before the incident. In a victim impact statement to the court, Mr Moran's mother Teresa said: 'Leo was my youngest son and we had a bond like no other. He left his mark wherever he went. 'We knew early on in the police investigation that the murderer was known to the Home Office. We later found out he was an illegal immigrant. 'Leo has been let down by the Home Office. We have all been let down by the Home Office. If the Home Office had done their job properly then the public of Coventry may have been saved and Leo might still be here. 'There will never be justice for Leo.' In other tributes read to the court, Mr Corriedo – whose wife said he had been callously left to die – was described as a 'wonderful, protective and caring' husband and a devoted father.
The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘I do not believe I have done anything worthy of an apology'
The Stormont Communities Minister has insisted he does not believe he has done anything worthy of apologising for following criticism over a social media post. Gordon Lyons was accused of 'poor judgment' following the post, sent hours before a crowd gathered outside Larne Leisure Centre and it was set alight, causing significant damage. His post detailed that some individuals had been temporarily moved to Larne Leisure Centre in the early hours of the morning following disturbances in Ballymena, adding that as an MLA for the area, neither he nor his DUP council colleagues were made aware of that until that afternoon. He went on to say that the individuals had since been moved out of Larne, adding that while protesting is a legitimate right, violence is not, and urged everyone to remain peaceful. Mr Lyons faced a grilling by MLAs over the post at the Assembly on Monday. He insisted that police had encouraged him and other elected representatives to share the message that those who had fled disorder in Ballymena, and had been accommodated at Larne Leisure Centre, were no longer there. Mr Lyons pointed out that the location had already been publicised by others, and that his post pointed out that no one was sheltering at the leisure centre. He also accused those criticising him as 'attempting to score political points'. Opposition leader Matthew O'Toole put to Mr Lyons that his instinct appears to be to 'double down' and to be 'pugilistic rather than empathise with people who have been put out of their homes'. He asked Mr Lyons to express 'some measure of regret and responsibility taking, for what was said on that post and the fact that it put vulnerable people in real fear.' Mr Lyons said he rejected that characterisation. 'I took the decision to put a post up later on that afternoon because of the rumours that were circulating, because at lunchtime, a post had gone up on another page saying that there was going to be a protest at the leisure centre that evening,' he told MLAs. 'I was making it clear that there was nobody at the leisure centre anymore, which was the reason for the protest in the first place. 'That's the clarification that I was providing, that the council had already provided, as well, that the news outlets were reporting as well. So I was trying to temper the situation, to try and stop it getting out of hand.' Mr Lyons also said it was 'absolutely outrageous' that people have tried to get 'political capital out of the horrendous events that have taken place'. 'I think that it is absolutely outrageous, I think violence is wrong, I thought that we saw absolutely despicable scenes and we should be united together as a House in condemning the violence,' he said. 'We should be united in support of victims, we should be united in support of police, we should be united in listening to the communities that have been affected and yes, those who are affected by some of the immigration policies that we have in place as well. 'He's asking me to say sorry for my role in this, and I simply do not believe that I have done anything that is worthy of an apology.' First Minister Michelle O'Neill called for Mr Lyons to resign last week, while Secretary of State Hilary Benn said he should reconsider his words. Mr Lyons said he had had a private conversation with Mr Benn since then. He also cautioned that some comments made about him by 'a number of individuals that were not just wrong but offensive'.
