Four die in apartment block e-scooter fire
'Fires caused by this type of battery…are extremely difficult to extinguish, since the cells tend to self-sustain when they burn, which explains the violence and speed with which the fire spreads,' he added.
One resident of the block, named only as Faïza, told a local radio station she and her family narrowly escaped after hearing screams and seeing smoke everywhere. She said they had to leave everything behind as they fled.
'The flames took over the building so quickly, we didn't have time. We went downstairs and went straight out with the children,' she said.
Faiza said she was friends with the mother of the two boys who died, who was away on a visit to French Guiana with her newborn baby girl.
She added that she had seen the body of the boy who jumped lying on the ground.
'His feet were broken. He was burned,' she said.
'His eyes were closed. I could see that he no longer felt the pain. You could see that he was no longer there. He wasn't moving, he wasn't speaking, his eyes were closed.'
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BreakingNews.ie
5 hours ago
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Man (26) jailed for sexual assault of a woman in a park in Co Donegal
A young man who sexually assaulted a young woman in a park in Co Donegal after he claimed he "read the wrong signals" has been jailed for three years. Billy Diver appeared at Letterkenny Circuit Court after pleading guilty to the sexual assault at Swan Park in Buncrana on the evening of June 24th, 2020. Advertisement Diver, now aged 26, was with another friend when he saw two young women, aged 19, sitting on a bench in the park during what was Covid times. Garda Keith Conlon outlined the incident led by state barrister Ms Fiona Crawford, BL. It was around 8pm and the young women were walking around the park and two young men began chatting to them. The women began walking on and the two young men turned up again. Advertisement Suddenly one of the men grabbed one of the women and "dragged" her into some trees and grabbed her by the backside. The woman then told gardaí how the man then grabbed her right hand and forced it onto his penis. As she broke free the man then touched her vagina over her jeans. The woman said she was scared and moved across the grass area but the young men came over to them again. The same man then put his hand on her thigh and then began to put his hand over her vagina again before he put his hand down the back of her trousers and grabbed her backside. Advertisement The young woman phoned a friend and was crying at this stage but the court was told the young man grabbed her again and was trying to kiss her on the neck and lips despite her consistently asking him to stop. The two men then got into a van but the young woman was able to take a picture of the accused as other people present came to the assistance of the young woman. A mother and daughter who were also in the area also managed to get videos of the men leaving and they told Gardai what they had seen. The two girls approached another couple and asked them to talk to them as they were both very stressed and speaking very quickly. Advertisement This couple contacted gardaí with a description of the van. Gardaí arrived a short time later to find two distressed females who flagged them down and provided them with details of what had happened and a possible name of one of the men. Some time later a man presented himself at Buncrana Garda Station saying he wanted to report an incident of being hassled by people in the park including a mother and daughter who were filming him. That individual turned out to be the accused man. Advertisement When questioned by gardaí about the alleged incident, Diver said the incidents between him and the young woman were consensual, that she had taken his hands, smiled and they went behind a ditch. He said he then noticed that he was being recorded. Diver's clothing was then seized by investigating gardaí and he was then identified at the scene by phone footage. The court was told that Diver is from Derry and that he has no previous criminal convictions. A victim impact statement from the young woman told how her life changed on that day. Simple things like leaving her home causes her great anxiety, she constantly looks over her shoulder fearing she will be attacked again when she once felt safe. She has frequent nightmares reliving her trauma and cannot visit Swan Park again as it brings back so many traumatic moments. She has feelings of depression, shame and self-blame even though she knows it was not her fault and cannot trust others and cannot form new relationships. She also had to take time off work to attend counselling and that was a financial strain while her studies and career progression have also been affected. "It has changed the course of my life and I am scarred for life inside," the young woman said. Barrister for the accused, Mr Peter Nolan, BL, said it was his client's view that there were 'signals' coming from this young lady and that he misinterpreted them. He said the girls had looked over at Diver and his friend and began giggling at them and that he misread the situation and approached the girls. Mr Nolan said his client had never tried to hide or deny anything and that in his full memo of interview. Diver's barrister said he put it that his client had misread the situation and should have been more careful. Addressing his client's background, Mr Nolan said he had left school at 14 as he was not academic but had a full history of employment and works in Northern Ireland as a labourer. The Probation Service had placed him in the moderate to high risk of reoffending, that he has no medical issues and that he is capable of community service and is also willing to comply with the Probation Services. Mr Nolan again reiterated that Diver had 'misread the signals very, very, badly' and that he needs some maturity to his sexual behaviour but is entirely sorry for what he did. Diver took to the witness stand and said he would like to "deeply apologise" to the woman for the offence that happened saying his apology was from "the bottom of my heart." He added that he understood the seriousness of the situation and that he was deeply apologetic. Passing sentence, Judge John Aylmer said this was a "very nasty sexual assault on a young woman in a public park" adding there was "no question of her behaviour to you" and that it was clear that she was being harassed and set upon by Diver. He added that it was clearly a very frightening experience for the young woman noting she still suffers from anxiety and depression for the last four years. Judge Aylmer placed the offence in the mid range of such offences and one which merits a sentence of four years in prison before mitigation. He noted there was a late plea to the charge which was nevertheless valuable in these cases, that he has no previous convictions and that he was a very young man of 20 at the time. He said the Probation Service in Northern Ireland placed him at a moderate to high risk of reoffending because of his minimisation and tendency to victim blame when, the Judge said, "you have absolutely no grounds to blame her for anything, as it is clear that you were the predator preying on her and that was clear to all watching what was going on." He added that he will reduce the sentence to one of three years and that he considered suspending any of that sentence. However, because of the report of the Probation Service and the accused man's minimisation and victim blaming, he was not minded to suspend any portion of that three years sentence. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call the national 24-hour Rape Crisis Helpline at 1800-77 8888, access text service and webchat options at or visit Rape Crisis Help.
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Four die in apartment block e-scooter fire
'Fires caused by this type of battery…are extremely difficult to extinguish, since the cells tend to self-sustain when they burn, which explains the violence and speed with which the fire spreads,' he added. One resident of the block, named only as Faïza, told a local radio station she and her family narrowly escaped after hearing screams and seeing smoke everywhere. She said they had to leave everything behind as they fled. 'The flames took over the building so quickly, we didn't have time. We went downstairs and went straight out with the children,' she said. Faiza said she was friends with the mother of the two boys who died, who was away on a visit to French Guiana with her newborn baby girl. She added that she had seen the body of the boy who jumped lying on the ground. 'His feet were broken. He was burned,' she said. 'His eyes were closed. I could see that he no longer felt the pain. You could see that he was no longer there. He wasn't moving, he wasn't speaking, his eyes were closed.'
Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Telegraph
The rise in ‘crypto kidnapping' on the streets of France
It is an arrest that will trigger immense, if perhaps short-lived, relief among French cryptocurrency investors and authorities alike. A suspected mastermind behind a series of kidnappings of executives who own hoards of bitcoins and other crypto coins was arrested in Tangiers, Morocco, on Tuesday. His Interpol Red Notice profile photo shows one of France's 10 most wanted in the world, a pale, green-eyed 24 year-old with long hair and a beard. The shadow of Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou looms large over the spate of ultra-violent, for-ransom kidnappings of French 'crypto millionaires', or members of their family or entourages, across the country. Two of the kidnappings took place in the heart of Paris. Bajjou is suspected of orchestrating the kidnapping of David Balland, co-founder of cryptocurrency firm Ledger, and his wife in central France, and ordering a gang to chop off the businessman's finger as part of a €10 million (£8.4 million) ransom in January. The French-Moroccan national is also accused of being involved in the attempted abduction of the pregnant daughter of a French crypto platform's chief executive, and the kidnapping of a businessman who also had his finger chopped off in May. His arrest will offer some respite to the government of Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, and in particular to Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister who is jockeying to run for France's top job in elections in 2027 with a tough-on-crime approach. With the kidnappings becoming a security embarrassment, Mr Retailleau last month met privately with crypto entrepreneurs to discuss their safety. He pledged extra safety measures, such as priority access to emergency services and police checks of their home security. However, given the rising number of cryptocurrency entrepreneurs targeted, many are not comforted by the government's pledges, with some already fleeing. One who has already done so is Benjamin Cohen, 31, founder and chief executive of Le Crypto Daily, a YouTube channel and newsletter, who left France for Canada after a series of scares. 'I'm Jewish and I received an anti-Semitic letter threatening to steal my cryptocurrencies and attack me and my family,' he told The Telegraph. 'I was terrified for my loved ones. I realised how unprotected they were here.' Mr Cohen claimed he had his drink spiked while at a crypto event at a bar in Paris in which he was showcasing a new ring that doubled up as a 'crypto wallet' containing virtual currency. 'A group of young guys started asking a lot of questions. All of a sudden, the room started turning. I had the good sense to call a taxi despite their offers to drive me home,' he said. 'When I got there, I was out for the count for six hours.' Despite the Morocco arrest, he says he has no intention of returning full-time after leaving France in 2022. Mr Cohen said France was seeing a 'rather unsettling era', in which for two, three or five thousand euros 'you can hire a hitman to kill', referring to a series of recent murders involving teenagers who were recruited by a Marseille-based drugs mafia. 'These same for-hire henchmen are apparently now being used for crypto extortion,' said Mr Cohen, who dismissed French government pledges of extra security as 'a bit ridiculous and frankly too light'. But moving abroad does not give Mr Cohen total peace of mind. Last month, his wife woke him at 3am to show him viral footage of a couple desperately fending off a gang who sought to drag the woman into a delivery van until a nearby shopkeeper scared them off with a fire extinguisher. For a few minutes, he thought the target was from his own entourage until it emerged it was the pregnant daughter of Pierre Noizat, chief executive of the Paymium bitcoin exchange. 'For criminals it's a no-brainer to reason that this or that person who has been in crypto for 20 years probably has loads of money and quite often, I'm afraid, it turns out to be the case,' said Mr Cohen. 'It doesn't surprise me at all that there are foreign masterminds, it's the safest option. They call on young accomplices who are barely adults for tiny sums, hundreds of euros, to do their dirty work.' Hitmen turn to crypto extortion A legal source close to the kidnapping cases said: 'It appears the phenomenon of drug-trafficking hitmen recruited for small sums via social media, sometimes by high-ranking criminals in detention, is for the first time turning its attention to extortion in the world of crypto around France.' He pointed to the plethora of young recruits prepared to carry out abductions or specific logistical tasks. Some 25 people, including six minors, were charged in Paris over various recent kidnappings, prosecutors said last Saturday. None were over the age of 23. Most of the suspects were born in France and others in Senegal, Angola and Russia. 'These people receive requests on social networks and some heed the call,' said Moad Nefati, lawyer for a 20-year-old suspect. 'They are told it's a simple task, take equipment or transport people, make sure someone is supplied. It doesn't sound like a problematic operation, they are paid very little – between one and four thousand euros – and are not necessarily aware of the risks and stakes, except those directly involved in the abduction. 'For the defence of these young suspects, it's very important that these masterminds are identified.' Bajjou was one of those alleged masterminds wanted for 'abduction, kidnapping or arbitrary detention of a hostage to obtain the execution of an order or condition, committed by an organised gang'. Described as 'extremely determined,' a police source told Le Monde that Bajjou 'has no qualms about violence and is not afraid to use it without warning'. But while Bajjou may be a key player, police suspect he did not command alone. According to Le Parisien, another Franco-Moroccan man in his forties is thought to also have co-operated with Bajjou. Reportedly identified through analysis of cryptocurrency ransom transfer flows, he remains at large. Police are also exploring possible links to other kidnappings or attempted abductions in Paris and western France over the past few weeks. 'Criminals go to where the money is, and we're seeing a huge rise in the price of bitcoin,' said Ari Redbord, global head of policy and government affairs at TRM Labs, a crypto tracing firm. 'Before, you needed sophisticated cyber capabilities to hack someone, but now you can be a violent criminal who can beat [the password] out of someone,' he told CBS. These so-called 'wrench attacks' have prompted several top entrepreneurs to warn of the 'Mexicanisation of France'. While there have been spectacular recent crypto hostage dramas abroad, 14 out of the 50 attacks that took place over the past year around the world targeting people involved in cryptocurrency were in France, according to Eric Larchevêque, a co-founder of Ledger who was contacted during the Balland hostage drama to send the ransom. 'There's a real problem,' he told broadcaster RTL. Security stepped up In the meantime, Mr Cohen has stepped up security, telling The Telegraph: 'I don't announce publicly when I'm going to turn up to an event, I make sure it's a safe place and don't stay long. I've told my wife to only post a social media story after we've left a venue.' His crypto transfers must be confirmed via video calls above a relatively low amount. 'I've also set a time limit for withdrawing more than £10,000,' he said. Owen Simonin, alias 'Hasheur', one of France's top crypto influencers who has more than 760,000 subscribers on YouTube, concurred. 'There are enough problems in the world of crypto not to have to worry about one's personal safety,' he told The Telegraph. In 2022, he was attacked in his home by an armed stranger who had found his address and tried to extort crypto from him. He pounced on the assailant whose gun turned out to be fake and who later turned himself to police. 'In our world, the threat is no longer virtual.' 'I always try to be accompanied by someone discreet and trained to intervene if necessary,' he recently told Le Parisien. 'Digital hygiene' – leaving no trace of his address or possessions online – is essential. 'While measures can be put in place to reduce fear, it should not exist. Not here. Not in France. It should not weigh on our colleagues, our families and our own lives. Leaving should not be our only option.'
