Man released on police bail after Cornwall murder arrest
He asked potential witnesses or anyone with dashcam footage, doorbell or CCTV footage to get in touch.Devon and Cornwall Police said the cause of the fire was thought to be suspicious.Inquiries are ongoing to find out what happened and a police cordon is still at the scene, the force said.The man's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, the force said.Det Supt Bancroft added: "Officers are continuing to carry out a number of inquiries in relation to this investigation."
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Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Ex-Trump prosecutor faces Office of Special Counsel investigation and given stern warning
The United States Office of Special Counsel appears set to give former federal prosecutor Jack Smith a taste of his own medicine, opening an investigation into his conduct. Smith resigned from his position in January after completing two criminal investigations into Donald Trump which he later said would've seen the president convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States had he not won the election. Now, Smith faces an investigation into whether he was engaging in political activities during the investigation which would be a violation of the Hatch Act. 'I appreciate the Office of Special Counsel taking this seriously and launching an investigation into Jack Smith's conduct. No one is above the law,' wrote OSC Senior Counsel Charles Baldis in a letter obtained by The New York Post. The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton - the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee - spurred the investigation by writing a letter to acting OSC Chairman Jamison Greer. 'Jack Smith's legal actions were nothing more than a tool for the Biden and Harris campaigns. This isn't just unethical, it is very likely illegal campaign activity from a public office,' he wrote. Cotton praised the decision to look into what Smith was doing in a statement. 'Jack Smith's actions were clearly driven to hurt President Trump's election, and Smith should be held fully accountable,' he said. Following his resignation, Smith stood by his decision to bring charges against Trump and insisted he would have been convicted of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States had he not won the election for president in a bombshell January 6 report. In a scathing statement issued along with the report, Smith admonished Trump for what he described as excessive lies and deceit to upend the American enterprise. 'The throughline of all of Mr. Trump's criminal efforts was deceit - knowingly false claims of election fraud - and the evidence shows that Mr. Trump used these lies as a weapon to defeat a federal government function foundational to the United States' democratic process,' the report states. Trump quickly slammed the report in a Truth Social post. 'Deranged Jack Smith was unable to successfully prosecute the Political Opponent of his 'boss,' Crooked Joe Biden, so he ends up writing yet another 'Report' based on information that the Unselect Committee of Political Hacks and Thugs ILLEGALLY DESTROYED AND DELETED, because it showed how totally innocent I was, and how completely guilty Nancy Pelosi, and others, were,' the post read. The president-elect then followed it up with two more missives to his social media platform. 'To show you how desperate Deranged Jack Smith is, he released his Fake findings at 1:00 A.M. in the morning. Did he say that the Unselect Committee illegally destroyed and deleted all of the evidence.' He followed it up with his trademark: 'MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!' With the prosecution foreclosed thanks to Trump's election victory, the 137-page document was expected to be the final Justice Department chronicle of the probes. Smith, who resigned after completing two criminal investigations, wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland that he believed had Trump stood trial on the charges, he would have been convicted. 'The department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a president is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the government's proof or the merits of the prosecution, which the office stands fully behind,' Smith wrote. 'Indeed, but for Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial,' he added. Trump called Smith 'a lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the Election, which I won in a landslide. THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN!!!' Smith wrote the report, which was transmitted to Congress early Tuesday after a judge refused to block its release. It describes prosecutors' charging decisions in the case that resulted in Trump being indicted for taking a trove of national security documents to Mar-a-Lago. They also include the decision to charge Trump with heading a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. The document includes, for the first time, a detailed assessment from Smith about his investigation, as well as a defense by Smith against criticism by Trump and his allies that the investigation was politicized. Though Smith sought to salvage the indictment, the team dismissed it entirely in November because of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution. 'While we were not able to bring the cases we charged to trial, I believe the fact that our team stood up for the rule of law matters,' Smith continued. 'I believe the example our team set for others to fight for justice without regard for the personal costs matters.' Another 'significant challenge' was Trump's 'ability and willingness to use his influence and following on social media to target witnesses, courts, prosecutors,' which led prosecutors to seek a gag order to protect potential witnesses from harassment, Smith wrote. 'Mr. Trump's resort to intimidation and harassment during the investigation was not new, as demonstrated by his actions during the charged conspiracies,' Smith wrote. 'A fundamental component of Mr. Trump's conduct underlying the charges in the Election Case was his pattern of using social media - at the time, Twitter - to publicly attack and seek to influence state and federal officials, judges, and election workers who refused to support false claims that the election had been stolen or who otherwise resisted complicity in Mr. Trump's scheme,' he added. Smith also for the first time explained the thought process behind his team's prosecution decisions, writing that his office decided not to charge Trump with incitement in part because of free speech concerns, or with insurrection because he was the sitting president at the time and there was doubt about proceeding to trial with the offense - of which there was no record of having been prosecuted before. The special counsel brought a superseding indictment in the January 6th case that narrowed the case after the Supreme Court issued issued its summer decision giving presidents presidential immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office. Trump was charged with willful retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, in a case Cannon dismissed this summer that was on appeal when Trump won the November election. Trump's team previously argued that the report, under DOJ regulations, merely spews 'conspiracy theories,' and say it is unfair to release it, saying it violates his presumption of innocence. Trump, meanwhile, has continued to attack Smith publicly. The DOJ said the volume on the classified documents case would be provided to key members of Congress for both parties for private review in redacted form. 'This limited disclosure will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendant´s interests,' DOJ wrote. Once Trump took office January 20th, his own Justice Department got to make determinations on whether the report on the classified documents case ever gets released. Trump has repeatedly called the prosecutions against him 'witch hunts.' He appointed loyalist former Florida AG Pam Bondi to lead the agency.
Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Mother of Baby P would pose a 'high risk' if she was ever around children once freed, parole board warns
Baby P's monster mother could pose a high risk if she were freed and allowed near children, experts fear. Tracey Connelly's toddler son died at home in Tottenham, north London, on August 3, 2007, and she pleaded guilty to causing or allowing the death of a child in 2008. The 43-year-old launched a fresh bid for freedom earlier this year after she was sent back to jail for breaching licence conditions. But in a judgement ordering that a two-day parole hearing is heard in public, the Parole Board said it will assess whether her risk of violence remains low, The Mirror reports. 'But risk would be high and potentially imminent if she were to have access to children while other risk factors are present', the judgement said. 'Miss Connelly, in interview, has stated that she will not be seeking unconditional release due to the support she would lose'. Documents also claim she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was subjected to 'bullying and aggression' after her recall to prison. Her solicitor had fought for the upcoming parole hearing to be held in private. The report states: 'He submits that a public hearing will only exacerbate these issues and will have a significant and detrimental effect upon Ms Connelly's ability to five effective and accurate evidence at the hearing'. The disgraced mother was hauled back to jail in September for breaching her jail conditions and was promised an oral parole hearing. She was handed an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of five years in 2009, after covering up her 17-month-old son Peter's injuries caused by her twister lover. Connelly has struggled to stay out of trouble since her initial release in 2013, having repeatedly breached licence conditions. The vile mum was first recalled to prison in 20155 after selling naked photos of herself online to depraved male admirers - and was released again in July 2022. It was revealed back in April that she may be free again by the end of the year. A date has not yet been set for her parole hearing, but it is believed it will take place around late summer - in August or September. The parole board could decide to release her there and then, depending on the circumstances surrounding how she was recalled and her behaviour since. They may also direct a hearing to take place, where a panel will decide after assessing various pieces of material, evidence and information. Connelly previously claimed that cops over-reacted when they recalled her to prison for a second time, saying the breaches of her licence conditions were minimal. Her lawyers have also insisted she is no longer a danger to the public. Connelly's lover Steven Barker was jailed in 2009 for a minimum of 12 years while his brother, Jason Owen, received a six-year jail sentence for allowing the toddler to die. When Connolly was first released, she was made subject to 20 licence conditions, including having to wear an electronic tag and disclose all her relationships, having her internet use monitored or obeying curfew. She was also banned from going to certain places to 'avoid contact with victims and to protect children'. The Parole Board said that she had been cleared due to a low risk of reoffending and that probation officers and prison officials supported the plan. It will now be a matter for the Board to decide if the latest breach of her conditions was so serious that she should not be released. A Parole Board spokesperson said back in April: 'It's been directed to an oral hearing now but no hearing date has been set yet.'
Sky News
27 minutes ago
- Sky News
One year ago, a furious mob rioted in Rotherham. Locals fear another outbreak of violence
A year has passed, but Paris and Josh still cannot quite believe what they witnessed last August. They live 200m from a hotel on the edge of a quiet residential street. "It looked like a modern-day lynching," Paris says. It's the only way she can describe the sickening scene that unfolded as a furious mob tried to attack asylum seekers being housed in the Holiday Inn Express north of Rotherham. 1:40 After seeing masked men setting fires and storming into the hotel, Paris says she was afraid they were going to see "either someone getting thrown out a window, or someone getting dragged outside". Josh remembers looking out of his bedroom window and thinking: "What is England coming to? What is going on?" "It was like they were going to a festival," Paris says. "They had ski masks on and bags full of alcohol, people were taking the kids, like they had the kids on their shoulders." To protect their car, Josh drove it off his driveway to another street nearby. They then retreated inside and watched six or seven hours of chaos unfold. It was one of the most serious outbursts of rioting during a week last August when disorder spread through towns and cities. Days after the knife attack which left three school girls dead in Southport, years of deep-rooted frustration about immigration boiled over. Twelve months on, the Holiday Inn Express next to Josh and Paris' home has reopened as a regular hotel, but the tension that has been seen around other migrant hotels recently hasn't disappeared. "I still see in groups (online) all this hate being spilled," Josh says. "I think it probably could happen again," Paris adds. "That's the faith I have in the country, really." The courts have handed out lengthy prison sentences to those involved in the disorder, leading to rows about whether they match the crimes people committed. The mayor of South Yorkshire says tensions over immigration remain unresolved and told Sky News he believes migrants, hotel workers or police officers could have been killed last August. "Had they [rioters] been more effective at doing some of the things they were trying to do, we would have seen people dying on the day," Oliver Coppard says. "What it speaks to, in my mind, is the poverty that we see in some of our communities, which feeds a sense of grievance." Mr Coppard - who has responsibility for policing in South Yorkshire - added: "Ultimately what we need in this country is a better approach to cohesion, to community integration so people are supported to live full lives within our communities and a proper and legal approach to asylum. "Those things are incredibly toxic and politics is not doing a good job I think of dealing with those issues." Protests around other migrant hotels in recent weeks show that the grievances of last summer still hang in the air. In Rotherham market we meet 23-year-old scaffolder Josh. "I don't think it has been solved," he says. When I asked him how that makes people feel, he replies: "Angry because it makes people want to riot again." He says he has no issue with people who move to the UK legally to work, but adds it is "unfair" when people arrive on small boats and receive hotel accommodation while their asylum cases are processed. Gabriel, 38, who was born in Rotherham, says he feels people look at him differently since last summer's disorder. "I couldn't see anybody smiling at me like they used to before the riot, they are putting every minority in the same box which is wrong," he says. "There is still a bit of aftermath, anger, rage, upset - in everybody's eyes. "That tension alone is worse than the actual incident because before, I think, it was hidden but now it is out there." A woman who didn't want to be named says: "The backlash is going to happen with the government against the people - the people against the government, it is not right. "The way I see it, we all have to live together ... we bleed the same blood, we breathe the same air." That spirit of conciliation and tolerance is less common than it once was - it is a hallmark of a failed immigration system that has left deep-rooted frustration in communities across the UK.
