Security forces respond to militant attack on courthouse in south-east Iran
Attackers stormed the building, shooting a number of people inside. They then launched mortars and grenade at the courthouse, where a clash began with security forces that lasted three hours. Three gunmen were killed in the clash.
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Daily Mail
7 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How a teenage kiss at a funfair led to Jack Woodley being kicked and stabbed by a pack of bloodthirsty yobs... and the 'chilling' detail that stunned the court
Surrounded and preyed upon by a pack of ten bloodthirsty teenagers, Jack Woodley never stood a chance as he curled up on the ground and braced himself for a frenzied attack as he walked home from the funfair. Punched, kicked, stamped upon and fatally wounded with a Rambo knife, the 5ft 7in, 10st 8lb victim was completely defenceless as the vicious gang murdered him 'like zombies attacking an animal' in front of horrified onlookers on October 16 2021. Jack's grieving mother, Zoey McGill, previously released a heartbreaking video of herself cradling her dying son and singing to him in his final moments while he was on life support. He tragically died in hospital a day after the attack. The unarmed 18-year-old, from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, had done nothing to provoke the killers, only coming to the group's attention by chance when a random row broke out over a girl kissing a boy at the funfair. For four years, most of the teenagers, aged between 14 and 17 at the time of the sickening attack, have been protected by a reporting restriction banning their identity from being revealed until their 18th birthdays. But on Wednesday, Lewis Rose, the youngest of the ten murderers, became an adult, paving the way for the twisted mob to finally be unmasked as one. Their mugshots were finally released, allowing the public to see the faces of evil. Rose, Calum Maddison, Sonny Smith, Leighton Mayo, Blaine Sewell, Grant Wheatley, Clayton Owen, Joe Lathan, Tyler Brewis and Rhys Wear, were the boys handed life sentences with a combined minimum term of more than 124 years. Tragically, it was these 10 animals against one. Jack was hunted down and stabbed in the back during an 80-second attack while making his way home from the Houghton Feast funfair, in Houghton-le-Spring near Sunderland. The 10 boys who murdered Jack Woodley All of the killers, who can now be named after turning 18, were handed life sentences with the following minimum terms: Calum Maddison, 17 years Blaine Sewell, 13 years and five months Sonny Smith, 15 years Grant Wheatley, 15 years Lewis Rose, eight years Tyler Brewis, 13 years Rhys Wear, 10 years Leighton Mayo, 11 years Joe Lathan, 11 years Clayton Owen, 11 years It was Maddison, who had recently turned 15, who delivered the fatal stab wound, but all ten were convicted of Jack's murder under the principle of joint enterprise as they were deemed to be equally responsible. Most of the boys lied to police in a desperate bid to deflect their involvement. Yet none of them even attempted to suggest Jack had provoked the savage assault that has plunged his family into unimaginable grief. As one of the boys' lawyers suggested, it would have been easy for the 10-strong group to pin the blame on Jack as being the aggressor. But the truth was, he simply did nothing wrong that night. He had simply gone to the Houghton Feast funfair with friends when the atmosphere became hostile. Jack was challenged to a fight by a stranger, but sensibly walked away thinking better of it. But as he neared the crowded Britannia Inn, then 16-year-old Sewell ran up and punched him and seized him in a headlock, triggering a terrifying ten on one melee before Maddison plunged his 9in (25cm) knife into Jack's back. He was left to die in an alleyway and tragically died in hospital the following day - his life cut short by a random 'mob attack'. The 11-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard he was targeted for a 'trivial reason' - something not one of the 10 defendants ever explained. Jack's family were forced to sit through weeks of evidence and recounting their son's brutal death - but have been left no nearer to understanding why he was targeted. During one moment in the trial, the 16-year-old who attacked Jack from behind, triggering scenes of anarchy, was asked by prosecutors: 'Why did you attack Jack?' 'I can't remember', he replied in a final insult to his victim and Jack's family. Had he seen Jack 'do anything wrong?' 'No,' he replied. The teenager said he did not know if there was a reason Jack was attacked but that there probably was one that he couldn't remember. When asked if he was angry, the boy said: 'A little bit yeah. I must have been to actually hit him.' Pressed why he was angry, he reverted to being unable to remember. So asked again why he attacked Jack, he said: 'I just can't remember.' Quizzed by prosecutors how it could have been forgotten after just a few months, he said: 'Dunno. It just went out my head, I can't remember it.' The boy's lack of memory was described as 'particularly chilling' by prosecutor Mark McKone QC. Jack had only come to the group's attention by chance. The trial heard how when a girl kissed a boy, the boy's ex-girlfriend kicked off and a minor scuffle broke out between the pair. Jack witnesses the girls fighting and asked another boy - one of his would-be killers - what it was about. They joked about it and went their separate ways. Less than an hour later, that boy would be part of the gang who so brutally set upon Jack. Rumours spread that Jack had threatened to 'punch the head in' of one of the boys - lie that had been completely fabricated. This, in the eyes of the prosecutors, was their plot to 'create a conflict with Jack so they could attack him'. When challenged to a one-on-one fight, Jack sensibly decided to walk off. But he was followed and set upon by the bloodthirsty gang. Mobile phone footage of the attack showed there were shouts of 'get the chopper out' - referring to the knife - heard. One of the mob was 'armed with a very dangerous knife', while another admitted taking a knuckle duster out that night. One witness said the youths were like a 'herd of lions' when they attacked. Another witness who saw the violence said: 'Jack got down on the floor so he could curl up in a ball. 'He was so scared. There were so many punches raining down on him. They were brutal. 'Everyone in the group was just kicking the life out of Jack, stamping on his head 'The lads were savagely kicking Jack, like zombies attacking an animal. 'I remember the terrified look on Jack's face as he was being kicked, punched and stamped on.' For all the brutality that led to the death of an 18-year-old boy, none of the 10 killers could say why they did what they did that night. Most said they could not remember or said it happened too fast. The incident lasted around 80 seconds and there was only a small amount of CCTV and mobile footage. Questions were asked over why so many of the boys had their hoods up. One claimed it was because he felt anxious about his hair. But the main element to dissect was why the teenage knifeman - who admitted the stabbing but denied intent - was armed. Jurors were told he had bought it six months prior out of fear of living in a city plagued with knife crime. He wanted it to be a deterrent. But on that night, he hadn't taken it out with him. In fact, he went home to get the knife just 20 minutes before launching a fatal attack on Jack. He claimed he'd gone home to get his coat because it was cold - and decided at the last minute to take the knife back out due to the supposed trouble brewing. Ultimately, he would go on to use it to murder Jack Woodley. He would stand trial alongside nine others - despite claiming they were not responsible for Jack's death. While Jack suffered multiple injuries as he lay helpless on the floor, he was killed by the single knife wound. The nine others were charged as the prosecution argued the fatal blow would not have been delivered if the other members hadn't launched the frenzied attack. By targeting Jack outside the Britannia Inn, each of them contributed to the killing even if their involvement was less than the other. 'The prosecution say all ten defendants participated in this joint attack, using violence themselves or intentionally encouraging others to use violence,' Mr McKone QC said. The reason, argued by the prosecution, for Jack's death was that this was simply a gang of boys wanting to inflict harm on an individual. In a heartbreaking tribute, Jack's mother, Zoey McGill, said: 'Jack was my reason to live and succeed in life. From the moment Jack was born he brought light and love to us all. 'The devastation of losing Jack is immense and far reaching. The trauma of reliving this whole incident over a long trial has had a devastating effect on us all. We cannot see a way of recovering from this. 'We feel imprisoned by our grief and trauma. No parent, loved one or friend should suffer someone going to a fair and losing them forever. We will never be able to share treasured family moments with our cheeky chappy blue-eyed boy ever again.'
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
The US attacks on Iran have backfired horribly – but a path to peace is still possible
Hanging is the preferred method of execution in Iran, although stoning and crucifixion offer alternative options for an ever-vengeful theocracy. Death by hanging is not necessarily quick. Strangulation and suffocation can take several minutes. The UN says more than 600 people have been judicially murdered so far this year. Iran has more executions per capita than any country in the world. Since June's US and Israeli attacks, growing numbers of victims are political dissidents. Fifty days on, nothing remotely positive has resulted from the illegal bombing raids and missile strikes mounted by the US president, Donald Trump, and Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, despite their boasts of world-changing success. Iran's nuclear facilities were not obliterated, as Trump claimed. Tehran has not abandoned uranium enrichment. The regime did not fall, despite Netanyahu's call for an uprising. If anything, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is more defiant. He has since launched a new crackdown on opponents, hence the executions. Deploring last weekend's hanging of political prisoners Behrouz Ehsani and Mehdi Hassani, Amnesty International linked their fate to the US-Israeli attacks. Arrested in 2022, the two men were charged with rebellion and 'enmity against God'. They were tortured, forced to sign confessions and sentenced last year after a five-minute trial. The decision to execute them now 'highlights the authorities' ruthless use of the death penalty as a tool of political repression in times of national crisis to crush dissent and spread fear', Amnesty said. Hundreds have been arrested since June in a regime drive to unmask spies and collaborators, real or imagined. Glaring intelligence failures that, for example, allowed Israel to locate and bomb a national security council meeting, injuring Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, are officially blamed not on gross incompetence but supposed fifth columnists. Iran's parliament wants to expand use of capital punishment. Up to 60 political prisoners face execution. This typically harsh reaction by clerical hardliners around Khamenei, and within the judiciary and Revolutionary Guards, comes despite a surge in patriotic sentiment after the attacks, which reportedly killed at least 935 people, mostly civilians, and injured more than 5,000. By intensifying repression, the regime squandered a chance to harness public anger, not least against Britain and European governments that turned a blind eye. US-Israeli actions have had other far-reaching, negative consequences. The attacks breached the UN charter and international law, as the Brics group of 'global south' countries noted. They led Tehran to suspend UN nuclear inspections. They exacerbated US-Europe divisions. And, ironically, they increased the likelihood of Iran building a bomb for self-defence. Iran insists it does not possess and does not want nuclear weapons. For all Israel's vaunted intelligence capabilities, neither Netanyahu nor anyone else has definitively proved otherwise. The decision to attack was based on a guess, driven by fear and hatred. It caused serious physical damage, but did not change mindsets. Iran is adamant it will continue to enrich uranium for civilian purposes. The bombing was a bust. Trump's angry threat to strike again is confirmation of failure. What this reckless act of aggression did do is encourage rogue states such as Russia to believe they, too, may attack other countries with impunity. It reinforces the belief in Iranian ruling circles, and not only among rejectionist factions, that the west cannot be trusted and a closer alliance with China is necessary. It strengthens the hand of hardliners whose fondness for regional proxy warfare, and recently documented covert operations against Britain, has entrenched Iran's pariah status. Historically speaking, Iran was and is an avoidable tragedy – one of the west's worst-ever geostrategic own goals. Unthinking support for the shah helped spur the 1979 revolution. The subsequent, far from inevitable ascendancy of conservative clerics plus abiding, irrational US animosity, feeding off memories of the humiliating Tehran embassy siege, rendered the rift permanent. Europe tried and failed to chart a middle path. In 2018, Trump reneged on the US-, UN- and EU-ratified nuclear deal with Tehran and reimposed sanctions. This last of many disastrous policy mistakes led directly to today's impasse. With wiser heads, it could have been very different. All parties to this conflict should study the French Enlightenment philosopher Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, a foe to tyranny in all its forms. Writing in his 1721 bestseller Persian Letters more than 300 years ago, he issues an impressively prescient warning about what were then imaginary weapons of mass destruction. 'You say that you are afraid of the discovery of some method of destruction that is crueller than those which are used now,' his fictitious Persian traveller Usbek writes to a friend. 'If such a fateful invention came to be discovered, it would soon be banned by international law. By the unanimous consent of every country the discovery would be buried.' In the sense that nuclear weapons are outlawed, Usbek's optimistic prediction was correct. But not 'every country' complies. If the US and Israel are sincere about preventing Iran acquiring the bomb, they should set an example and reduce, and ultimately eliminate, their nuclear arsenals. They should stop threatening renewed attacks. And they should back talks on a regional nuclear pact, as proposed by Iran's former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Only then, perhaps, will Tehran come in from the cold. Only then, perhaps, will its paranoid leaders stop hanging innocent people. Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Seventh suspect arrested over RAF Brize Norton break in after vandals caused £7m worth of damage to two military aircraft
A seventh suspect has been arrested over a break-in at RAF Brize Norton during which two military aircraft were damaged. The 22-year-old man was detained on Friday in Bedford on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. The incident saw activists break into the Oxfordshire air base and spray paint on two RAF Voyager planes, causing £7million worth of damage. Palestine Action, which has since been proscribed under terrorism legislation, said it was behind the incident. Last month, four people were charged and remanded in custody over the break-in in June. A 41-year-old woman was released on bail, while a man was freed without charge. Footage from the incident showed two people inside the base at night. One could be seen riding a scooter up to a Voyager and spraying paint into its jet engine. Palestine Action also said activists had used crowbars to damage planes. The Government moved to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws after the group claimed responsibility for the action. Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company Wagner Group. Another 14 organisations connected with Northern Ireland are also banned under previous legislation, including the IRA and UDA.
