Soccer player gets 14-month jail sentence for causing death of cyclist in England
LEEDS, England (AP) — A soccer player from a third-division English club was sentenced to 14 months in prison Thursday for causing the death of a cyclist three years ago, West Yorkshire police said.
Lucas Akins, a forward for League One team Mansfield, was driving a Mercedes when it struck 33-year-old cyclist Adrian Daniel at an intersection near Huddersfield on March 17, 2022. Daniel died 10 days later.
Akins, 36, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after having previously admitted causing a death by careless or inconsiderate driving.
Akins, who played in Mansfield's game on Monday, was also disqualified from driving for a year.
'The club is considering its position with regards to Lucas and will be making no further comment at this stage,' Mansfield said in a statement that also offered 'sincere and deepest condolences to the family of Adrian Daniel.'
Daniel's wife, Savanna, said in a statement after sentencing that 'three years of hell, three years of avoidance and adding further to my trauma has finally come to a close today with Akins' sentencing,' according to the
West Yorkshire police announcement
.
'Never being allowed to fully live the reality of Adrian's absence,' she continued, 'because of the farce Akins has made of the justice system and the chances offered to him, has finally been put to bed and this man is no more deserving of any further of my time or concern.'
It should have been resolved sooner, she added, which 'makes a mockery of any remorse that Akins offers for his actions.'
Akins has made several appearances for the Grenada national team.
___
AP soccer:
https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Judge blocks Trump administration's attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil
Editor's note: The video above aired in a previous newscast. (AP)– A federal judge has ruled that the government must release Mahmoud Khalil, the former Columbia University graduate student whom the Trump administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. But Khalil, a legal U.S. resident, will remain in custody until at least Friday, giving the government time to appeal, U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz said Wednesday. More Local News 'The court's decision is the most significant vindication yet of Mahmoud's rights,' said Ramzi Kassem, co-director of CLEAR, a legal nonprofit and clinic at the City University of New York that represents Khalil. 'But we aren't out of the woods until Mahmoud is free and back home with his wife and child.' Lawyers and spokespersons for the Justice Department, which is handling the case, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Khalil was detained by federal immigration agents on March 8 in the lobby of his university-owned apartment, the first arrest under President Donald Trump's crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza. He was then flown across the country and taken to an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana, thousands of miles from his attorneys and wife, a U.S. citizen who gave birth to their first child while he was in custody. Khalil's lawyers challenged the legality of his detention, accusing the Trump administration of trying to suppress free speech. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he has the power to deport Khalil because his presence in the U.S. could harm foreign policy. Farbiarz had ruled earlier that expelling Khalil from the U.S. on those grounds was likely unconstitutional. In his new ruling Wednesday, the judge said that Khalil had shown that his continued detention is causing irreparable harm to his career, his family and his free speech rights. However, the judge put his order on hold until 9:30 a.m. Friday to allow the government time to appeal. He also required Khalil to post a $1 bond before he is freed. More Local News In his ruling, Farbiarz cited Khalil's statement to the court last week that the revocation of his green card has damaged his career prospects, including a decision by Oxfam International to rescind a job offer to serve as a policy adviser. The judge also noted that the decision deterred Khalil from engaging in constitutionally protected protests and free speech-related activities. 'The Court finds as a matter of fact that the Petitioner's career and reputation are being damaged and his speech is being chilled — and this adds up to irreparable harm,' the judge wrote. Farbiarz noted in his ruling that the government has also argued it is detaining and deporting Khalil in part because of alleged omissions on his green card application. But the judge said evidence presented by his attorneys showed lawful permanent residents are virtually never detained for such a thing. Khalil, in his statement to the court last week, also disputed that he wasn't forthcoming on the application. For example, he said he was never employed by or served as an 'officer' of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, as the administration claims, but completed an internship approved by the university as part of his graduate studies. More Local News The judge's decision comes after several other legal residents targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri. Rubio has cited a rarely used statute to justify the deportation of Khalil and others, which gives him power to deport those who pose 'potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.' Khalil isn't accused of breaking any laws during the protests at Columbia. The government, however, has said that noncitizens who participate in such demonstrations should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and 'pro-Hamas,' referring to the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Khalil, then an international affairs graduate student, had served as a negotiator and spokesperson for student activists at Columbia who took over a campus lawn last spring to protest Israel's military campaign in Gaza. The university brought police in to dismantle the encampment after a small group of protesters seized an administration building. Khalil is not accused of participating in the building occupation and wasn't among the people arrested in connection with the demonstrations. But images of his maskless face at protests, along with his willingness to share his name with reporters, made him an object of scorn among those who saw the protesters and their demands as antisemitic. The White House accused Khalil of 'siding with terrorists,' but has yet to give any evidence for the claim. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
A former Lebanese economy minister is arrested on corruption charges
BEIRUT (AP) — A former Lebanese Cabinet minister has been arrested and charged after an investigation into alleged financial crimes, judicial and security officials told The Associated Press. Former Economy Minister Amin Salam was detained after a three-hour interrogation about illegal use of ministry funds and use of suspicious contracts. The three judicial officials and one security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. Lebanon has been trying to reform its battered economy, which for decades has been rife with profiteering. Salam has been charged with forgery, embezzlement, and misuse of public funds. Local media said it was related to alleged extortion of private insurance companies and using funds from a committee that supervises those companies for his own expenses. Salam did not directly comment. On Monday, however, he shared a video on social media that denied the reports and asserted that his use of those funds was to increase the committee's efficacy and transparency. Salam was economy minister for over three years. He was appointed in 2021 at a time when Lebanon's economy had plummeted and the country was plagued by severe power outages, fuel shortages and stark food inflation. Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Troops begin detaining immigrants in national defense zone at border in escalation of military role
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — U.S. troops have begun directly detaining immigrants accused of trespassing on a recently designated national defense zone along the southern U.S. border, in an escalation of the military's enforcement role, authorities said Wednesday U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Chad Campbell described in detail the first detentions by troops last week of three immigrants accused of trespassing in a national defense area near Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Those migrants were quickly turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and are now among more than 1,400 migrants to have been charged with illegally entering militarized areas along that border, under a new border enforcement strategy from President Donald Trump's administration. Troops are prohibited from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil under the Posse Comitatus Act. But an exception known as the military purpose doctrine allows it in some instances. Authorities 'noticed three individuals crossing the protective barrier into the United States,' Campbell said. 'A Department of Defense response went to interdict those three individuals, told them to sit down. ... In a matter of three minutes, border patrol agents came in to apprehend. So that three minutes is that temporary detention' by the military. Trump has designated two national military defense areas along the southern U.S. border for New Mexico and a 60-mile (97-kilometer) stretch of western Texas, from El Paso to Fort Hancock, while transferring much of the land from the Interior Department to oversight by the Department of Defense for three years. The Trump administration plans eventually to add more militarized zones along the border, a military spokesman said Wednesday at a news conference in El Paso. 'We have been very clear that there will be additional National Defense Areas across the southern border,' said Geoffrey Carmichael, a spokesperson for an enforcement task force at the southern border. 'I won't speculate to where those are going to be.' Proponents of the militarized zones, including federal prosecutors, say the approach augments traditional efforts by Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies to secure the border. 'These partnerships and consequences exist so that we can promote the most humane border environment we've ever had,' El Paso sector Border Patrol Chief Agent Walter Slosar said. 'We are dissuading people from entering the smuggling cycle ... to make sure that smugglers cannot take advantage of individuals who are trying to come into the United States.' Defense attorneys — and judges in some instances — are pushing back against the novel application of national security charges against immigrants who enter through those militarized zones — and carry a potential sentence of 18 months in prison on top of a possible six-month sentence for illegal entry. A judge in New Mexico has dismissed more than 100 national security charges against immigrants, finding little evidence that immigrants knew about the national defense areas. Those migrants still confronted charges of illegal entry to the U.S. In Texas, a Peruvian woman who crossed the U.S. border illegally was acquitted of unauthorized access to a newly designated militarized zone in the first trial under the Trump administration's efforts. U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons, who oversees western Texas, vowed to press forward with more military trespassing charges. 'We're gonna keep going forward on these NDA charges,' Simmons said. 'We are gonna still bring them, we may win on them, we may not. ... At the end of the day, you are not going to be allowed to stay in this country if you enter this country illegally.' Greater military engagement at the border takes place at the same time dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles region banded together Wednesday to demand that the Trump administration stop the stepped-up immigration raids that have spread fear across their cities and sparked protests across the U.S. Trump has authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard members to respond to immigration protests in LA. That directive brings the total number of Guard put on federal orders for the protests to more than 4,100. The Pentagon had already deployed about 700 Marines to the protests to the city.
