Belfast: Man charged with murder of Daniel McClean
A 50-year-old man has been charged the murder of Daniel McClean.Mr McClean, who was in his 50s, was shot a number of times on 2 February 2021 as he sat in a driveway of a property on the Cliftonville Road in north Belfast.The victim had been previously identified as a dissident republican during court proceedings in 2019.The man has also been charged with the attempted murder of a 49-year-old man in west Belfast, as he sat inside a taxi in the Bell Steel Manor area on 23 February 2025.
He has also been charged with a number of firearms offences in relation to both incidents.The man is expected to appear before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Thursday.He had also been arrested on suspicion of the 2018 murder of Jim Donegan, but police have said he has been released unconditionally.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
19 minutes ago
- BBC News
Talbot Green murder: Eighth person charged after woman shot dead
An eighth person has appeared in court in connection with the death of a 40-year-old woman who was shot in a Penney was found seriously injured at Green Park in Talbot Green, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on 9 March and died at the people - five charged with murder, one with assisting an offender and one with participating in the activities of an organised crime group - were previously remanded in custody ahead of a Cooper, 33, from Leicester, has now been charged with participating in the activities of an organised crime group and acquiring ammunition for a firearm without a certificate, and appeared at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates Court on Monday. She has been remanded in custody and her case has been linked with the seven other defendants, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled for 7 July, with the trial date set to begin on 20 inquest opening in March heard that Ms Penney died after being shot in the chest, with injuries to her heart and a tribute, Ms Penney's family said they were devastated by the loss."Her kindness, strength and love for her family will never be forgotten," they said.
Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The tech arms race to beat fare-dodgers
A technological arms race has broken out to combat the fare-dodging crisis plaguing Britain's railways. Faced with the prospect of £500m in lost ticket sales, rail operators are embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and so-called machine learning to crack down on freeloaders. Evasion tactics that once went little further than hiding in a train lavatory to avoid the guard have changed radically since ticket barriers – first trialled on the Tube in 1964 – were introduced at major stations and across commuter networks. Miscreants are often seen forcing their way through the barriers to avoid paying, a trend recently highlighted by Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, as he issued a call to arms. However, evasion tactics span well beyond brute force. The digitisation of ticketing in particular, with the bulk of payments made by bank card, travel card or mobile phone, has opened up whole new avenues for fare abuse and forced operators to respond with tougher safeguards. Transport for London (TfL), which puts its annual losses from fare-dodging at £130m, says that 4.7pc of Tube passengers – almost one in every 20 – skipped paying or stumped up the incorrect fare in the last financial year alone. Yet, across its wider network of the Tube, Overground, buses, Docklands Light Railway and Elizabeth Line, the rate of offending fell from 3.8pc to 3.4pc after fines were raised to £100. TfL aims to bring it down to 1.5pc by 2030 through an intelligence-led approach combined with new technologies and more proactive enforcement. While offending in London is well short of New York's 13pc evasion rate, Siwan Hayward, TfL's director of security, says that fare-dodging 'is not a victimless crime'. She says: 'It robs Londoners of vital investment in a safe and reliable transport network. The overwhelming majority of customers pay the correct fare, and it's unfair to those who do that a minority avoid paying.' The main weapon in TfL's armoury is its Irregular Travel Analysis Platform (ITAP), which uses ticketing and journey data, passenger information and CCTV to identify repeat offenders. The tool is integral for a TfL investigations team that seeks to identify 'high-impact offenders', some of whom cost the network up to thousands of pounds a year in lost revenue. After studying data, the team liaises with 500 uniformed enforcement officers and plain-clothes inspectors, who can demand proof of a ticket or travel card while staging sting operations in stations, sometimes supported by the British Transport Police. This crackdown led to TfL securing fines of £400,000 last year after prosecuting 360 of the most prolific offenders. Among the offences deployed by fare evaders are techniques known as zonal avoidance and re-tokenisation. The former, colloquially dubbed 'doughnutting', involves travel through zones that have not been paid for. In re-tokenisation, or 'card tumbling,' the fraudster deletes a virtual card from a digital wallet on a mobile device after a journey to prevent authorisation of the transaction overnight. The card is then reloaded, at which point it is allocated a new tokenised number, preventing it from being blacklisted. A similar con involves the use of a bank card with insufficient funds to pay for a ticket. Tube gates identify the card as genuine and will let the holder in and out, only for the payment to bounce when requested. One offender last year used a contactless card to avoid paying the correct fare on 202 journeys, resulting in £1,427 in fines. Other scams include the abuse of Freedom Passes, which offer free travel in London for the disabled and those aged 66 and over. Meanwhile, outside of the biggest cities, at least 2,000 of Britain's 2,500 or so stations still lack barriers. Therefore, bosses are required to rely on traditional checks to ensure passengers are paying. Graham Sutherland, chief executive of FirstGroup, which runs express trains on the West Coast and Great Western main lines, said on-train ticket checks remained vital to prevent 'revenue leakage'. But there is no doubt that technology has been a game-changer. LNER, which runs trains between London King's Cross and Edinburgh, has led the way among long-distance operators in deploying AI to uncover unusual ticket-purchase patterns and identify fraudsters, setting up a 'machine learning team' to work alongside its risk experts. A pilot project that began in 2023 immediately identified a customer who had failed to pay for £10,000 worth of travel. Using information uncovered by the new technology, the team then built a case, which resulted in the customer repaying the full loss to LNER. Paul Larder, at LNER, said the application of machine learning had been revolutionary. He said: 'Previously, we've relied on our revenue protection team to identify customers who deliberately purchase incorrect tickets for travelling on our services. 'By using AI, we can accurately analyse large amounts of information quickly and identify patterns that our team can investigate further.' While companies are ramping up efforts to catch offenders, a report from the Office of Rail and Road this month identified 'significant inconsistency' in how operators target fare-dodgers, which has led to unnecessary and unfair prosecutions. Lord Hendy, the rail minister, who put the cost of fare evasion in England outside London at £400m a year, said a planned new ticketing system as part of the nationalisation programme should reduce instances of people mistakenly buying the wrong tickets. However, for the thugs who push through – known as bumpers, jumpers and tailgaters – sturdier barriers are being created. Developed by Cubic Transportation Systems, the barriers stretch from the floor to shoulder height and use AI-aided scanning software to detect instances of fare-dodging. Cubic says the gates 'can accurately detect, record and flag fare evasion as it's happening, distinguishing between different types of fare evasion, such as pushing through and climbing under the paddles or tailgating'. Sir Sadiq Khan's TfL has not yet said if it will order the equipment. However, if they do, they may finally offer some solace to law-abiding passengers confronted by petty criminals cheating the system while regular staff, who are forbidden from staging physical interventions, look on.
The Sun
25 minutes ago
- The Sun
Moment Fiat 500 with boot hanging open does DONUTS on grass & speeds backwards as 60 masked youths spark daylight chaos
THIS is the moment a battered Fiat 500 races BACKWARDS up a street and does donuts on a patch of grass after broad daylight chaos erupted. Up to 60 yobs - many wearing balaclavas - sparked carnage on the streets in Salford, Greater Manchester, yesterday afternoon. 6 6 Riot cops were called in to tackle the chaos, which saw a police car's windscreen smashed in and hooded yobs on bikes taking to the streets. Four arrests have been made following the disorder, including a 16-year-old girl who has been charged with assaulting a police officer. She has been released on bail and is due to appear in court at a later date. Shocking footage shows a white Fiat 500 speeding down the road with its boot door wide open. In the video, the car - which had a missing bumper and an open boot - can be seen reversing down the road. After pacing up and down the street, the vehicle sped onto the pavement and began doing donuts on a local lawn. The Fiat was driven by a group of masked youths, who can be seen dangling out of the car's windows. Meanwhile, a black car tried to pass through the chaos but was forced to repeatedly stop due to the Fiat's erratic driving. Bins had also been laid out across the road, making it even more difficult for vehicles to pass. In a separate video, several youths can be seen stalking the street on motorbikes and hanging from another black vehicle. The yobs also set fire to a vehicle and smashed the windscreen of one of a cop car. Riot erupts in UK city as '60 masked youths' set fire to car & 'assault cop' GMP Superintendent Marcus Noden said: 'This sort of behaviour will not be tolerated and we took robust and appropriate action. 'In response to this disorder we have dispatched a large number of officers to the scene, and we now have a dispersal order in place until 2pm tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 12 June 2025). "A large number of officers will be remaining in the area over night as a precaution. 'We are aware of speculation online that this incident is linked to immigration, this is categorically incorrect. 'There are currently no ongoing incidents in the area, however, tensions remain heightened, and we have robust plans in place, should we need to respond to any further incidents. "I would also like to thank members of the public for their patience and support while we continue to deal with this incident.' The GMP confirmed that one girl had been arrested for assaulting a police officer, as several hooded figures through bricks at officers. 6 6 6
