Three men knifed in fight outside west London tube station
Three men have been taken to hospital after a stabbing outside a Tube station.
Two 21-year-old men and a 20-year-old man were left with stab injuries following the knife attacks on Station Parade outside Willesden Green Underground Station in northwest London.
Biohazard officers descended on the scene after reports of a corrosive substance.
However the specialist CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) responders confirmed it was not a chemical incident.
No arrests have been made and the severity of the victim's injuries are unclear.
The knifings took place close to the Central Masjid of Brent mosque, but Scotland Yard have ruled out any religious motivation behind the stabbing.
Two of the men were taken to a major trauma centre and the other to a local hospital.
A 20-year-old woman reported breathing difficulties at the scene but declined medical help. More Trending
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said they 'await an update' on the condition of the stabbed men.
The force added: 'There are no concerns about any impact to the wider community.'
A spokesperson for London Ambulance Service said: 'We were called at 9.02pm today to reports of a stabbing on Walm Lane, NW2.
'We treated four people in total – two were taken to major trauma centres, one to another local hospital, and one declined further treatment.'
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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Powys County Times
an hour ago
- Powys County Times
Drug kingpins who plotted murder of rival jailed for life
A pair of drug kingpins have been jailed for life for plotting to murder a rival and smuggling £30 million worth of cocaine into the UK following one of the largest EncroChat investigations in history. James Harding, 34, and his 'loyal right-hand man' Jayes Kharouti, 39, ran a vast criminal empire which made £5 million in profits from importing drugs over 10 weeks in 2020 alone. They tried to recruit a hitman to put an unnamed rival courier 'permanently out of business', arming him with a gun and ammunition for the 'full M' – a murder, the court was told. At the time, Harding, who claimed to be a high-end watch sales executive, was living in luxury in Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars. The plot was scuppered by Scotland Yard officers who accessed the defendants' discussions on EncroChat and trawled through thousands of messages. They were handed the data after French police smashed the encryption code to the service favoured by the criminal underworld. They were found guilty of conspiracy to murder while Harding was also convicted of conspiring with others to import cocaine, which Kharouti, of Epsom, Surrey, had admitted. On Thursday, Judge Anthony Leonard KC jailed the defendants for life, handing Harding a minimum term of 32 years and Kharouti a minimum term of 26 years. Judge Leonard said: 'It is hard to comprehend that the quantity of cocaine that the EncroChat messages revealed was imported, or was about to be imported, in only a period of approximately two-and-a-half months. Those messages…detail somewhere in the region of 1,000kgs of cocaine being imported and then distributed in smaller quantities throughout the country. 'The street value of that amount of cocaine is in excess of £30 million and the profit on such quantities would have been very substantial. Without the benefit of EncroChat your scale of offending would never have been apparent.' The judge noted messages in which the defendants discussed violence against anyone tempted to speak to the police about their drug business. In one message, Harding said: 'Bro u just have to know where their nan lives. They all love their nans. Then when they act up they know granny gonna get one in the head lol. Keeps them in check.' In turn, Kharouti had threatened to arrange to 'get a prisoner's head bust open' if he talked to the police. Harding had only been out of prison for four years when he opted to 'trade up' from supplying Class B to Class A drugs which reaped greater rewards. Kharouti also had previous convictions for the supply of cocaine and cannabis, the court heard. Their Old Bailey trial was held amid heightened security, with an armed police escort to and from the central London court and prison. Detective Chief Inspector Jim Casey, from Scotland Yard, said: 'This sentencing shows the severity of the crimes the duo committed. 'Following one of the largest EncroChat investigations in the Met's history, I am pleased that both criminals are serving the time they deserve.' Three other members of the organised crime group had previously admitted drugs offences. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the trial the defendants discussed on EncroChat importing a tonne of cocaine over a period of 10 weeks. Harding used the nickname 'thetopsking' while Kharouti went by the handle 'besttops' and 'topsybricks', the prosecution alleged. In EncroChat messages the pair discussed the robbery of a drugs courier and Kharouti reported back on whether six or seven kilograms of cocaine had been delivered to a client the day before. Mr Atkinson said it was Harding who first raised the idea of a 'cryp robbery' – taking drugs from a courier – which became a plan to kill a courier instead. The defendants discussed how and where the murder would take place, with Kharouti offering the potential hitman £100,000, the court was told. Kharouti kept his boss informed about the plan who told him it should involve a 'double tap' shot to the head and chest. Despite a delay over transport for the hitman, the defendants worked on alternative solutions, even arranging the shooting near to the proposed gunman's home. Kharouti increased the offer to £120,000 but an EncroChat user trying to locate an individual for him said the price should be no less than £200,000, the court was told. The alleged hitman was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in the early hours of June 3 2020, which the defendants were unaware of. Harding, who had previous convictions for drugs and false documents, was arrested at Geneva airport in Switzerland on December 27 2021 and extradited from Switzerland. Kharouti was extradited from Turkey to the UK on June 25 last year. Giving evidence, Harding denied using the handle 'the topsking', saying it belonged to an 'intimate' male partner called TK, who he refused to identify. The case formed part of a wider operation targeting criminals who used EncroChat. Previously, Calvin Crump, 29, of Redhill, Surrey, Khuram Ahmed, 38, of Slough, and Peter Thompson, 61 of south-west London, had admitted the cocaine conspiracy charge with Thompson also pleading guilty to possession a pistol. A man alleged to have been the proposed hitman was cleared.
The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Botched hitman plot, a ‘gay love triangle' & school bullies… how calamitous drug lords' £100m cocaine empire fell apart
AT the height of their success, drug baron James Harding and his 'loyal right-hand man' Jayes Kharouti ran a vast £100million criminal empire - raking in a staggering £70,000 a DAY. Now, Harding and his cohorts have been jailed for plotting the murder of a gangland rival from his luxury base in Dubai after cops blew open one of the biggest EncroChat investigations in history. 16 16 When cyber cops snared Harding, 34, who claimed to be a high-end watch sales executive, he was living in luxury at the The Nest apartment complex in Al Barari, Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars. The flashy narco's illicit business empire made a staggering £5million in just ten weeks, but it emerged he was prepared to do anything to keep his strangehold on the cocaine trade. Along with his henchman Kharouti, 39, he hatched an evil plot to murder a rival, going so far as to try to hire a hitman for £100,000. But the pair were scuppered by Scotland Yard detectives who cracked open the EncroChat messaging system - and tracked down the kingpin using vain shirtless selfies he had snapped on the same phone he used to arrange the hit. On the platform favoured by underworld criminals, Harding used the nickname 'thetopsking', while Kharouti went by the handle 'besttops' and 'topsybricks'. The pair, who were jailed at the Old Bailey this week, make an unlikely narco double act - with Harding insisting he was no murderer, but rather a suppressed homosexual involved in a bizarre love triangle, who had been bullied at school over his facial deformities. He denied using the handle 'thetopskiing', claiming instead it was actually used by his secret male lover. Meanwhile, The Sun can reveal Kharouti is an Afghan national who travelled to Britain as an asylum seeker in the Nineties with his mother - and has previously been busted over a nightclub drugs trafficking ring. In 2008 Kharouti, from Wallington in Surrey, was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to supplying more than half a kilo of cocaine to nightclubs across London. Using five different aliases, and five different dates of birth, he made £200,000 in just 18 months, with thousands of pounds found stashed inside a milkshake carton at his home. Moment drug-smuggling pals DIVE into water during boat chase as they attempt to flee Border Force with cocaine in hull Cops raided his home and unearthed more than £4,000 in cash – £1,000 stashed in his bedroom and £3,000 tucked a box in a kitchen cupboard. Officers also searched his car and found a staggering 620g of cocaine with a street value estimated at around £34,000. But after being released from jail he formed a murky friendship with Harding, who had been born with hemifacial microsomia, a condition causing the left side of his face to be under-developed. He endured multiple surgeries as a child and teenager to correct a deformed left ear, cheek and jaw. "I was alienated by everyone at school because of it," he confessed at his Old Bailey trial, which ended this week. Jurors heard Harding had feelings for "boys and girls" as a teenager, but "suppressed" his homosexual desires. 16 16 16 16 As a teenager, Harding, who grew up in Hampshire, began to sell legal highs to make money. He advertised the drugs using online classified adverts. But the scam backfired and in August 2012 he was arrested and charged with drugs offences and possession of false ID documents. In his bombshell Old Bailey this month, Harding returned to his childhood struggles for an extraordinary and elaborate defence. 16 16 16 16 The court had previously heard from cops that Harding used the handle 'thetopskiing' while hatching plans on EncroChat. In a remarkable twist, Harding insisted he did not use the handle - but was sleeping with the man who did. Harding's lawyer Clare Montgomery KC explained: "He (Harding) has for a long time been too ashamed to admit, and has always wanted to keep private, until this case has forced him to reveal his secret life. "That secret is that he had an intense and sexual relationship with 'thetopsking'." Before he was sent to prison the first time, Harding had fathered a child in 2010. His relationship with the little girl's mother broke down while he was in jail - when she apparently told Harding that he was not the child's biological father. But when Harding was released from prison in 2016 his ex-girlfriend contacted him to apologise for the way she had treated him. "I'd always felt rejected," he moaned. "And I wanted to know why she would leave me like that. "She explained to me she wouldn't have just left me for anyone. Her daughter's dad had got back into contact with her and wanted to rebuild a relationship with his daughter." Despite this, Harding said he went on to rekindle his relationship with the mother and she and her daughter moved into his home in Alton, Hampshire. But three years later, he claimed his girlfriend and her daughter left the UK and moved to Dubai where the real father, 'thetopskiing' , was living. 16 16 Harding later joined them - and recalled how HE fell for the mystery man too. He said he always found 'thetopskiing' or TK, good-looking and charming, but things changed after a boozy night out at the end of 2019. "We went to brunch at a place called Mama Zonia in Dubai, and after that a group of us went back to TK's villa, and after some time people were leaving," he said. "TK and I were drinking, and drinking quite a lot, and we ended up becoming intimate. "I wasn't proud of myself at all. I felt disgusted with myself." Harding claimed he was taken advantage of and used by 'thetopskiing' to book flights and restaurants. 16 Despite his denials, cops since proved that in fact Harding was 'thetopskiing' following a major cyber investigation. Harding gave away his true identity through a series of boastful selfies which showed his face, distinctive clothing and tattoos. They were able to prove that he and Kharouti had teamed up to import vast quantities of drugs. Their messages from 2020 revealed that "thetopsking" told other users when "lands" of cocaine were going to happen, and provided them with co-ordinates to collect the drugs close to Dover, where they had entered the UK by lorry. As a result Harding was arrested at Geneva Airport in Switzerland in December 2021, and extradited back to the UK. His second in command Kharouti was extradited from Turkey to the UK last June.
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Child Q: Two Met Police officers committed gross misconduct over strip search of 15-year-old schoolgirl
Why you can trust Sky News Two Metropolitan Police officers committed gross misconduct during the strip search of a 15-year-old schoolgirl wrongly suspected of possessing cannabis, a misconduct hearing has found. PCs Kristina Linge, Victoria Wray and Rafal Szmydynski conducted the search of the black girl, known as Child Q, with no appropriate adult present at a school in Hackney, east London, in 2020. Scotland Yard apologised, and the Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, described the case as "shocking" after details of the incident emerged in 2022. PCs Linge, Wray and Szmydynski suspected that the girl was in possession of cannabis, but the police watchdog later determined that no drugs were found in her bags or outer clothing. At a police misconduct hearing in London today, Linge and Szmydytnski were found to have committed gross misconduct. They could potentially be dismissed when the sanctions are decided. Wray was cleared of gross misconduct, but found to have committed misconduct. The panel found she became involved in a "situation where the decision had been decided already". The case of Child Q drew outrage when it first came to light in March 2022, and sparked protests. The officers had been accused of treating Child Q differently due to her race, but Commander Jason Prins, chair of the misconduct panel, said: "We do not draw any inference that race was an effective cause of this incident." The panel found that concerns about drugs and potential gang involvement were initially raised by school staff. "Like many cases where stop and search is used, here the subject of the search was identified to police officers by other professionals rather than being by officers in the street," Commander Prins added. He said the problem was with the decision to conduct the strip search in the first place, finding it was "unnecessary" and "disproportionate". "There should never have been a strip search in these circumstances," he said, accepting that Child Q found it "humiliating and degrading". The panel did not find that any officer breached professional behaviour standards relating to equality and diversity, or honesty and integrity. During the misconduct case, the three officers gave evidence and each said they were not influenced by subconscious bias. Luke Ponte, for Linge, said they happened to be "three immigrant officers" who were "trying to do their best to their adopted country" as they were seeking to solve a problem. Mr Ponte: "These officers must not bear the entire weight of Child Q where there has been wider dysfunction as to how this came about." Breaches of the Met's standards of professional behaviour found to amount to gross misconduct can lead to dismissal or a final written warning, according to the IOPC. A fourth officer will face a disciplinary meeting at a later date relating to no appropriate adult being present during the search. This is separate to this misconduct hearing and it's a lower level of discipline. Please refresh the page for the latest version.
