
Man detained under mental health act following death of elderly woman in Maghull
Phyllis Daly was found with significant injuries in a home on Clent Road, in Maghull, on Sunday 13 July, and died at the scene.
The 44-year-old man was arrested on the same day on suspicion of murder, but has now been detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
In a statement following her death, Phyllis' family paid tribute to the "loving wife and mum" and "the kindest soul".
They added: "We are absolutely heartbroken and devastated beyond belief by the shocking and unexpected loss of the love of our lives."
Detective Chief Inspector Alan Nuttall said: 'Our thoughts remain with Phyllis' family and friends as they continue to grieve during this tragic time.
'Our investigation is progressing, and the arrested male has been detained under the Mental Health Act while inquiries are ongoing into exactly what happened.'
Police are asking anyone who may have information to get in touch.

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Spectator
2 days ago
- Spectator
Of course shoplifters are scumbags
A familiar cliché, which in history has been disproved time and again, is that a police force cannot operate without the consent of the people. Tell that to the residents of what was once East Berlin. But that old canard raises a different problem. Which people are giving the consent? The ones who abide by the law, or the ones who are disposed to breaking it? I wondered about this when I read two stories over the weekend, both of which suggested to me that the police have long since lost the support of that first group of people, that more numerous community, the people who don't habitually break the law. The first case concerned a nutter on the Tube, somewhere on the Hammersmith and City line, who decided to drop his trousers and underpants and display his pork truncheon to the various women, children and men who were his fellow passengers. There is a video online of what happened next. A male passenger remonstrates with the bloke and tells him to pull his trousers up. The nutter shouts 'fuck off' repeatedly and becomes aggressive – at which point three or four men wrestle him to the ground and out of the train at the next station, pinioning him with his hands behind his back. He is taken into custody by an off-duty copper and decanted into a convenient booby hatch. After the incident, British Transport Police revealed they were investigating the matter with a view to prosecuting the vigilantes for assault. Part of the statement read as follows: 'The man had been assaulted by a number of other passengers and was initially arrested by an off-duty officer, before being detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital.' I am assuming you agree with me that it is not OK to drop your drawers and start waving your gremlins around at other passengers on public transport and that the men who intervened did the right thing, even if they were perhaps a little brusque. I would further venture that the nutter was remarkably lucky he didn't get a good beating. And I suspect most people would agree with this assessment – but not the police. They are once again more interested in preserving the dignity and security of the offender than they are with the sensibilities of the public. The same applies to the frankly astonishing case of Rob Davies, who owns a retro clothing store in Wrexham called Run Ragged. He put up a notice in his window which read as follows: 'Due to scumbags shoplifting, please ask for assistance to open cabinets.' Somebody reported this little sign to the police and, true to form, a couple of dense coppers turned up at his shop and advised him to remove the notice lest it give offence to people. Mr Davies told me that he asked the coppers to whom the notice might give offence – shoplifters, for example? He also asked if the police's view was that shoplifters were not actually scumbags, but did not receive an intelligible answer. The irony in this particular case is quite exquisite. Mr Davies said that his store had been the target of shoplifters on five occasions so far this year, and on only one occasion did the police turn up to investigate. In that instance they caught the shoplifter and returned to Mr Davies the shirt that had been stolen, but let the thief off without so much as a warning. The only good news to come out of this is that Mr Davies has rejected the advice to take down his notice – or, rather, he has taken the original scrawled sign down and rewritten it five times the size on a larger piece of paper. He believes – and I agree with him – that the police behaviour in this episode suggests that not only has shoplifting been decriminalised, but that the shoplifters constitute a 'vulnerable' community and that their sensibilities should not be disquieted by being called mildly nasty names. Again, I would suggest that a good 90 per cent of the country would be on Rob Davies's side in this dispute, just as I would imagine a similar proportion would lament the fact that the coppers no longer give a monkeys about shoplifting. I daresay a few idiots will insist that it is not a crime for the starving to steal to save their lives – and that would seem to be the premise upon which the police operate: that shoplifters are the downtrodden, the poor, the 'vulnerable', and that one should give them every inch of leeway available. Both stories also indicate how our society is breaking down and both stories make life in the UK that little bit more perilous and dismal. The consequence of what happened in the first story is that surely fewer people will be minded to intervene if they see someone committing an illegal act, because they fear that they themselves might end up getting prosecuted by the old bill. And so instead they will sit and watch, rendered passive by a police force which has forgotten the reason it exists. And in the second case? What you will see is exactly what has happened in those liberal American cities which have more or less officially decriminalised shoplifting. The former streets of commerce will be a vista of boarded-up shopfronts, with countless small enterprises forced out of existence. And as a consequence of that, our economy will show even less inclination of growing. Like the landlords forced out of business because the fashionable view today is that all landlords are bastards and all renters downtrodden angels and owners of property should therefore not be able to do what they like with their houses, so the shop owners will go bust because we – or our authorities – have decided that shoplifters are nicer than shop owners and should never, ever, be called scumbags.


Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Depraved police officer said 'my life's f*****' as he was arrested
Owen Mills, 22, from Cornwall, made "sexual contact" with a woman who had brain damage due to alcoholism and he had been tasked with supervising, a court heard An officer who made "sexual contact" with a vulnerable woman in a police car as well as sending her racy messages, said "my life's f*****" when arrested. A court heard how Owen Mills had been tasked with supervising the woman, who had brain damage due to alcoholism. The 22-year-old made his depraved move while she was detained in a police car, having been turned away from one hospital, before further explicit contact was made when the pair were alone in a second hospital for 'about 20 minutes'. Mills, a former officer with Staffordshire Police, went on to send racy messages to the woman while she was kept in hospital. Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that Mills had also sent inappropriate messages to another woman, who had been witness to a shoplifting crime. Mills resigned from his position with the force in June 2023, reported StokeonTrentLive. Prosecutor Kat Shields described how Mills first made sexual contact with the vulnerable woman after she had been turned away from Harplands Hospital, a mental health facility in Stoke. She said: "He took part in the transport of the woman to Harplands Hospital where she was to be detained under the Mental Health Act. The hospital would not accept her as a patient. She was turned away. She was detained in a police car. "An officer informed Mills to remain with her and he explicitly instructed him to turn his body worn footage on. Mills acknowledged that instruction. What followed was sexual contact between Mills and the woman in the back of the police car while detained under the Mental Health Act outside the hospital. "When his colleague returned the woman seemed happier and bubblier. He thought Mills had put her at ease. She was taken to St George's Hospital in Stafford where a bed had become available. At the hospital Mills was again left alone with the woman. They were alone for about 20 minutes. Sexual contact again took place between them." The court heard the woman was admitted to St George's for a number of days and she exchanged messages with Mills. Miss Shields said: "The messages continued on Christmas Eve. They were of a sexually explicit nature and referred to the interactions they had had in the police car outside hospital and in the waiting room at the other hospital. On Christmas Day he sent her a message which said, 'I want you all over me'." On New Year's Day he sent her a photo of himself in a police uniform. In January the woman asked staff at a mental health care facility if it was alright to be seeing a police officer. Mills was arrested on January 12, 2023. He told officers, 'That is it, my life is f*****'. He was suspended but resigned from the force on June 6, 2023. The court also heard Mills had been crewed with just male officers after a number of female officers had reported to their superiors that he made them feel uncomfortable due to his sexual comments and childish behaviour. And in another incident Mills took a statement from a woman shop worker in relation to a shoplifting offence in September 2022. He asked her for her phone number. She told him he already had it on the form and he stored the number in her phone and texted her. The pair then exchanged messages and there was a WhatsApp conversation between them between October 2, 2022 and January 4, 2023. Miss Shields said: "He sent her a topless photograph and asked her to send nude photographs in return. She declined, although she did send one of herself in a bra. He sent a video of himself masturbating. They did not meet up and later lost touch." Miss Shields added: "A deterrent sentence is necessary. He was an inexperienced police officer at the time. But that does not excuse his very serious offending and his manipulation of two women in this case, one of them extremely vulnerable." Mills, of Bude, Cornwall, pleaded guilty to two charges of corrupt or improper exercise of police powers or privileges. Elizabeth Power, mitigating, said Mills was aged 18 when he joined the police. She said: "It is clear from the statements he received little or no support from his colleagues and how they viewed him. He was a young man isolated from his family and those around him. It is clear it is born out of some degree of loneliness and isolation. "He takes full responsibility for his actions. He accepts overstepping the line. He has some insight into his offending and how his offending has brought the police service into disrepute. He accepts it amounts to a serious breach of trust. He is now maturing. He is 22. He was of good character. He has lost that good character." Miss Power added that Mills may be targeted in a prison environment. Mills was jailed for up to two years. Judge Richard McConaghy said Mills abused his position as a police officer to engage with a witness in a criminal investigation. He said: "You were doing so for your own sexual gratification." Judge McConaghy said Mills' interactions with the second woman were more serious. He said: "When your colleague was inside the hospital discussing whether or not she was to be admitted, you were tasked with supervising her and taking care of her welfare, but you engaged in physical sexual contact with her. "It is clear from the messages the two of you engaged in further sexual contact in the hospital waiting area. In the aftermath you continued to contact her and a sexual relationship followed. "Members of the public must be able to trust the police. They must be able to trust that those in a vulnerable position are not exploited by the police. You knew what your responsibilities were and you ignored them to your own sexual end. The vast majority of police officers work very hard and maintain high standards. Those who offend in the way you did undermine the confidence that the public can have in the police." The judge said the offending was so serious only immediate custody was appropriate. Mills will serve 40 per cent of the jail term with the rest on licence.


Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Police investigating Tube passengers who dragged man exposing himself off busy train
Police say they're treating the incident, in which a man who exposed himself was dragged from a London Underground train, as an assault and investigating whether the passengers committed an offence Police have launched an investigation on a group who dragged a man who exposed himself off a London Underground train. A troubling video of the incident has emerged on social media showing the man, who was later detained under the Mental Health Act, being thrown to the floor and kicked after being hauled off the District Line last week. A spokesperson for the British Transport Police (BTP) said the incident is being treated as an assault. They have appealed for anyone who witnessed the assault to get in touch. It comes after the upsetting case of the toddler, 3, sick on her dress before reality TV winner beats her to death. READ MORE: Elderly woman vanishes in car crash - then turns up months later with wild story In the video, the man exposed his genitals and buttocks before several tube riders kick him against the door of the carriage as it rode from Upton Park to East Ham on Thursday around 3.30pm. Other passengers are seen moving out of the way as the row ensued. Before the fight kicked off, he is said to have been shouting and placing a belt around his neck. When he removed his trousers, things escalated and the group became involved. At the beginning of the clip, he reacts violently, swearing and shouting after being challenged by another passenger. One of his fellow passengers stood and firmly said: 'You need to get off the train.' He responded by telling them to: 'F*** off.' The commuter replied: 'What do you mean "f*** off"? You need to get off the f***ing train. Now. There are kids on here.' The fight then broke out and a commuter pinned him to the floor before dragging him on to the platform, where he was arrested by an off-duty police officer. The probe is said to be an investigation into whether the group who confronted him had committed any offences. A BTP spokesperson said: 'The man had been assaulted by a number of other passengers and was initially arrested by an off-duty officer, before being detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital where he remains having been sectioned. 'One man involved in the assault has been interviewed by officers, and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.' 'Anyone who witnessed what happened, who hasn't already spoken to police, is asked to contact BTP by texting 61016 quoting ref 458 of 07/08/25.'