Two men charged after man slashed in street gang brawl in Shaw
Two men have been charged with a range of offences after a man was slashed in a street brawl.Two men from Shaw were due to appear before Manchester Magistrates Court over the fight which broke out at about 20:25 BST on Market Street in the town on Sunday.Konnor Harvey, 25, of Durden Mews, is accused of affray and possession of an offensive weapon.Morgan Neild, 18, of Markenfield Drive, has been charged with affray, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of Class A drugs.
Greater Manchester Police said the man's injuries were neither life-threatening nor life-changing.
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Powys County Times
14 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Tear gas deployed against migrants in Calais
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Times
35 minutes ago
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Mother, Annabel Rook, fatally stabbed before gas explosion
A mother feared murdered inside her London house before a suspected gas explosion can be identified as a dedicated community worker. Annabel Rook, 46, was found fatally stabbed inside a house in Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, northeast London, just before 5am on Tuesday. Scotland Yard detectives are investigating after the mother of two suffered catastrophic stab wounds before the gas explosion rocked the affluent neighbourhood. She died at the scene. The Metropolitan Police said a 44-year-old man was later arrested on suspicion of murder. LILY SHANAGHER/PA The man was taken to hospital to be treated for non life-threatening slash wounds. Two children, aged nine and seven, were taken to hospital but they were not believed to have been inside the property at the time of the explosion. Friends paid tribute to Rook, who co-founded Mamasuze, an arts project for vulnerable people including women and children who are survivors of forced displacement and gender-based violence. 'Theatre for social change really works,' she recently wrote online. 'I have been working with marginalised and displaced people for over 20 years. 'I believe the ability to play and create should be a fundamental human right and in my work I aim to enable people to be creative and help them find their voice. 'We build a strong community through offering diverse workshops in different art forms that nurture creativity, foster social connections and rebuild confidence and identity. 'Helping women to build a more positive future for themselves and their families.' Neighbours told of their shock after the explosion tore through the two-storey terraced house with a loud bang before the sound of glass shattering was heard. Halil Youdjel said: 'There's no chance you couldn't hear it. There was suddenly a bang and screaming and shouting. Then I looked out the window and saw glass everywhere.' Another added: 'It woke me up at about 5am this morning. It sounded like something dropping. There was an impact and then rubble falling. I think I heard a faint voice too. 'It didn't sound like an explosion, more like a wall coming down.' Six fire engines and 40 firefighters were called to the two-storey terraced house shortly before 5am on Tuesday. Police and paramedics were also called to the property in the borough of Hackney. SWNS Residents described hearing a bang and the sound of glass shattering. One man, who did not wish to be named, said he heard a crash 'like somebody dropped a massive glass cabinet from a crane'. He added: 'I looked out and saw panes of glass on the floor. You could tell it wasn't a car window. Eventually, I noticed the beam on the bay window was missing and could see some mild smoke coming out of the back. There was a guy rushing around, very distraught. He went round the back.' A 76-year-old neighbour said: 'I was asleep upstairs and heard a sudden bang then I saw all the glass on the floor. I was worried. Everybody on the street came out in their pyjamas.' Another neighbour said: 'I'm pretty sure it was two bangs I heard. There was lots of glass shattering. I knew it wasn't a car crashing because it sounded like lots of glasses had been smashed.' Police and the London Fire Brigade are investigating the cause of the explosion, which was brought under control by firefighters in about 40 minutes. SWNS LILY SHANAGHER/PA A fire brigade spokesman said: 'Sadly, one woman was pronounced dead at the scene. One man was also found at the property suffering injuries.' Darren McTernan, the fire station commander, added: 'Motorists and pedestrians are advised to avoid the area for most of this morning while investigations into the cause of this incident are carried out. There are road closures in place on Stoke Newington Church Street from the junction of the A10 to Defoe Road. Residents should also note that Kersley Road is completely shut at this time.'
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39 minutes ago
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I simply must have my Perelló olives: the rise of the posh shoplifter
Exhibit A: a former criminology lecturer, who self-identifies as the 'UK's poshest thief', nicking £1,000 worth of Le Creuset cookware. Exhibit B: middle-class commuters looting Marks and Spencer for snacks for the train home. Exhibit C: 'well-off, middle-aged women' being blamed for a shoplifting spree in Haslemere, Surrey. Need I go on? 'Shoplifting was always quite a grubby crime,' says Professor Emmeline Taylor, a criminologist and specialist in shoplifting and serious acquisitive crime. 'It has always been associated with the down-and-outs – you can't afford to put food on the table and clothes on your back.' Over the past five years or so, Taylor argues, that has changed. In 2016 she coined the acronym 'Swipers' to describe the emerging class of middle-class shoplifters: 'seemingly well-intentioned patrons engaging in routine shoplifting '. Since then, the swipers have got out of hand – shoplifting offences reached a record high last year, with the British Retail Forum revealing that 20 million incidents were reported in the 2023/24 financial year – costing shops £2.2 billion and adding an estimated £133 to the cost of an average household's annual shopping bill. For the first time, fingers are being pointed firmly at the middle classes, with John Lewis and Waitrose bosses pushing back at a growing category of entitled criminals whose thefts are motivated by 'greed not need'. So what's behind the problem? Self-service checkouts Because otherwise decent and law-abiding citizens find it 'easy to lie to a machine in a way you wouldn't try to deceive a person', Taylor believes the introduction of self-service checkouts is a major factor in the trend. According to a poll of 1,000 British shoppers commissioned by The Grocer magazine last year, 37 per cent of customers admitted deliberately failing to scan an item at the self-service checkouts (with men and the under-35s most likely to try conning the computerised cashiers). A third (32.5 per cent) also confessed to weighing loose items incorrectly, with 38 per cent having used the 'banana trick' to pass off an expensive item as a cheaper one. On the Mumsnet forum users admitted to 'taking advantage' of unmanned tills to scan steak as onions, or on a more minor scale, passing off Pink Lady apples as Granny Smiths. Their accounts support Taylor's belief that these thieves 'don't think of themselves as criminals; they will think they've cheated the system'. Several argued that 'big chain businesses' could afford to soak up the costs and viewed their fraud as simply paying their 'wages' for scanning their own groceries. 'After all, they are saving so much money not paying staff to man tills anymore.' But they said they would never steal from independent shopkeepers, who they saw as 'real people'. 'It's quite a fun game,' wrote user1471434829. 'I would never ever steal from a person, but tbh [to be honest] Tesco is fair game!' Another using the handle VanityDiesHard confessed to scoping out the security at various stores in advance, noting that surveillance at the local Waitrose was too good to evade, but deciding that the unmanned checkouts at M&S were fair game. 'I am angry with myself if I don't at the very least put through a carrier bag without paying,' they wrote. 'If it is busy enough there, I also put pastries through as something cheaper, ditto bread.' Not just shoplifting, then, but M&S shoplifting. Another was occasionally tempted to 'select small loose onions instead of large onions that are marginally more expensive', admitting the crime was 'mostly due to laziness and in parts rebellion – why is there an effing price difference in them anyway?' Taylor says the same psychology has led to a rise in 'wardrobing': buying expensive clothes you plan to wear once then returning them for a full refund. In some circles, she says, such behaviour is 'seen as culturally acceptable even though it's fraud'. Being able to return items online allows the fraudster to avoid an 'embarrassing' human interaction in which a sales assistant might sniff the garments and challenge a shopper by saying they smell like they've been worn. Keeping up with the Joneses While the cost of living crisis has forced the poorest in society to choose between heating and eating, Taylor says that more entitled middle-class shoplifters refuse to adjust their lifestyles to suit their more straitened circumstances. 'Those individuals who have got used to having branded goods or nicer, higher value items are suddenly finding that their household budget doesn't stretch as far as it used to,' she says. The swanky store-cupboard staples displayed on counter tops as badges of middle class pride have been hit hard by food inflation. Taylor notes the eye-watering prices of olive oil (which has risen by more than 80 per cent over the past two years) and honey (set to rise by another 30 per cent this year). Last year Tesco began putting nets and tags on bottles of olive oil because so much of the 'liquid gold' was being stolen by those who'd decided that every drizzle helps. A similar trend was spotted during the 2009 recession, with the Centre for Retail Research clocking a spike in thefts of high end meat, cheese, alcohol, perfume and face creams as middle-class shoppers turned to crime to maintain their standards of living. 'I think there's an element there of keeping up with the Joneses,' says Taylor. 'Some people don't want to be having a dinner party where they've bought everything from Aldi or Lidl rather than Waitrose because that could raise a few eyebrows.' Was this what motivated former criminology lecturer Pauline Al Said and her husband Mark Wheatcroft to pinch £1,000 worth of cast iron Le Creuset cookware (along with steaks, premium wine and boutique gin)? The pair planned their 2021 and 2022 crimes in advance, taking a device for removing security tags with them to both a branch of M&S and a garden centre. Last month – after they were fined £2,500 for walking out of the stores in broad daylight with their luxe loot piled into trolleys – Al Said proudly adopted the title of 'UK's poshest thief' on her X profile. Richard Fowler, security manager at chi-chi health food brand Planet Organic, has previously flagged an increasing issue with 'posh totty' pilferers. The chain, which has eight stores across London selling only organic produce, loses £900,000 a year to shoplifters. Talking to the BBC last year, Fowler put a percentage of these thefts down to regular clientele who 'spend a lot of money with our business. [They think] 'Today I'm a little bit short of money, so I'm entitled to steal something'.' A similar sense of entitlement has been blamed for the rise in middle-class commuters pinching snacks from convenience stores around train stations. Last month John Nussbaum, director of retail at Kingdom Security, told The Telegraph that these 'petty thieves' targeted shops largely in the early morning or early evening, with a smaller peak around lunchtime because they 'can't be bothered to queue so just leave without paying'. The thrill factor 'Some studies show that if you get a bargain – something [for] 70 per cent off – it can release endorphins, a hit of dopamine that is pleasurable,' says Taylor. 'The same can go for risky behaviours, because it creates this fight-or-flight moment physiologically. If you put yourself in that danger moment of 'I'm going to steal this', the anxiety and the adrenalin is going. Then, when you then get away with it, that's replaced with this rush of reward.' Some middle-class shoplifters find themselves addicted to the crime, and compare it with gambling addiction. On the Mumsnet forum one woman wrote that she'd turned to shoplifting 'when I was menopausal and had urges, god knows why'. Another, using the handle Ladyofthepond, confessed to a history of 'slipping things into pockets or not scanning things at self-service' that was the consequence of 'a mix of undiagnosed mental health issues, which was probably one of the many things that led my alcoholism, which in turn led to a decimation of my finances. When you are in the depths of addiction nothing else matters, it also leads to a very nihilistic attitude towards life, so shoplifting from large supermarkets was easy in that state of mind to justify, also not getting caught was a ridiculous dopamine hit.' The poster claimed to be currently 'in recovery and managing my mental health. I have to get my dopamine from ice baths and running now.' Getting away with it – and a nice accent While many of these criminals claim they'd only steal from big chain stores and not independent businesses, the evidence suggests otherwise. In January independent shopkeepers in the upmarket Surrey town of Haslemere created a WhatsApp group to help each other identify the increasing number of 'very normal well-to-do people coming in and stealing things'. Small stores selling gifts, antiques and bicycles were targeted as well as grocers and cafés. Even one of the town's charity shops found thieves pinching retro clothes to resell online on sites such as Vinted. Taylor believes that, if caught, more affluent shoplifters expect retail staff to let them off the hook more easily than those genuinely in need. 'They will absolutely play upon their appearance, their accent,' she says. 'They get pulled over in the shop; if somebody says, 'excuse me, ma'am you haven't paid for those', they know they can be like, 'Oh, gosh I can't believe it!' And the likelihood is they will just get away with it.' In some circles she says that theft is considered 'cool'. 'There is an element of showing off, one-upmanship.' concludes Taylor. 'I always think it's a bit like that YOLO hashtag. I only live once, so sod it. You know, 'what are they going to do?''
