Latest news with #CentralScotland
Sky News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election: Polls open as public cast votes to replace late MSP
The polls are now open in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election. It comes following the death of SNP government minister Christina McKelvie. The MSP died in March at the age of 57, having last year taken medical leave to undergo treatment for secondary breast cancer. Ms McKelvie, the minister for drugs and alcohol policy, had been an MSP since 2007 and represented the Central Scotland region up to 2011 before going on to serve Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. There are 10 candidates standing in the Holyrood by-election: • Collette Bradley, Scottish Socialist Party • Andy Brady, Scottish Family Party • Ross Lambie, Reform UK • Katy Loudon, Scottish National Party (SNP) • Janice MacKay, UK Independence Party (UKIP) • Ann McGuinness, Scottish Green Party • Aisha Mir, Scottish Liberal Democrats • Richard Nelson, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party • Davy Russell, Scottish Labour Party • Marc Wilkinson, Independent The contest takes place less than a year before the Scottish parliament election, with the result potentially offering a snapshot of how the political landscape north of the border will look in 2026. Polls will close at 10pm on Thursday, with the votes set to be verified and manually counted at South Lanarkshire Council headquarters in Hamilton. Sky News will be covering the count and result.
BBC News
27-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
How police apprehend suspected paedophiles in Scotland
It's 07:35 in a smart suburban housing estate in central Scotland and the police are about to turn a family's life upside detectives in plain clothes park their unmarked car near a large detached house and knock on the front door.A dishevelled man suspected of sexual communication with a 13-year-old girl answers and, after a brief discussion about their search warrant, the officers go we're watching is a "soft" approach, the polar opposite of a drugs raid. No hard knock, no battering ram, no shouts of "police". Their tactics mean the peace and quiet of the neighbourhood continues inside the house the ripple effects of the unannounced visit are devastating. The man's partner is told why the police are there. The couple's children want to know who the strangers are and the officers try to calm everyone of the detectives, Joseph Wilson, said: "The only thing I can compare it to in policing is delivering a death message."You're telling them the person isn't who they thought they were."Police Scotland's national child abuse investigation unit invited BBC Scotland News to witness its work amidst a marked change in offending behaviour since the Covid Ch Insp Mike Smith said paedophiles were making "extremely dangerous" direct contact with children online more than ever he warned they could do so within 30 seconds of trying. What happens next can include grooming the child, coercing them to send indecent images - which are often shared with other paedophiles - and persuading them to meet encounters frequently lead to sexual Ch Insp Smith said the perception of online sex offenders as uploaders or downloaders of child sexual abuse material was every case now involves direct contact with a child, with offenders using a range of platforms from social media to streaming."For those people who have a deviant sexual interest in children, it's easier than ever to go online and engage with a child," he said."You can probably do it within 30 seconds, depending on the platform. "That's the reality of what we have seen from investigations over the last three years." Teachers, lawyers and police officers The unit carries out 700 child sexual abuse investigations a year - an increase of 30% since year, its officers are taking steps to safeguard between 600 and 800 children, almost all of them in Scotland."People based in Scotland are offending against Scottish children," said Det Chief Insp Smith. "It's a lot closer to home these days. It's on our doorstep.""We are actioning between 15 to 20 search warrants on a weekly basis across Scotland. "Let's be perfectly blunt about it - the demand is through the roof."The offenders are almost always male and come from all walks of life, including teachers, lawyers and police Insp Michelle Burns, one of the unit's senior investigating officers, said: "My team have told me of occasions where they've went in, and someone has admitted to it and said it was a relief that the police were at their door."They've been doing it for a period of time and they were looking for help."Many of the cases come through referrals from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an American organisation which receives alerts from the tech are prioritised on the basis of the risk to children, either within the offender's household or the wider they execute the search warrant, the police have to gather evidence, arrest the suspect, safeguard any children who are there and do what they can to minimise the impact on the rest of the family. 'It's relentless' At the address in central Scotland, Det Con Helena Scott took devices from the house to a specially-equipped van where their contents were forensically examined."The problem we have with this type of crime is it's relentless," she said."You feel like you're making a difference and the next day you come in, the pile just gets higher and higher and higher, because there are more and more offenders out there and it's not slowing down."Children should have the right to use online platform without them and their parents worrying about strangers trying to take advantage of their vulnerabilities for their own sexual gratification." As the team continues its work, children in neighbouring homes start to leave to go to school. A resident approaches the detectives to ask what is going on. They reassure her they are police officers but reveal nothing beyond Con Scott recalled another case where the suspect's partner asked how long she had to move house, before the local community found out what had said: "The hardest part of our job is dealing with the families, because there's only ever one person responsible for what brings us to the door. "You're effectively turning lives upside down. "It has a huge impact on us as well because it's difficult for us to see it unravel."Det Ch Insp Smith said online platforms need to do far more to prevent paedophiles making contact with said: "Whilst we don't want to place the onus of responsibility on the child, we have to educate our children to be safe online and just like the physical world, one of the key aspects of that is that you shouldn't be engaging with someone you don't know."I do believe it should be a lot harder for a child to be able to engage with a random person online."There's responsibility on tech, there's responsibility on government, there's responsibility on the police to make the online world safer."But there has to be an understanding that this is a global worldwide problem and therefore we need as a society to change the way we view the internet."A few hours after they arrived, the detectives led the 43-year-old man out of the house in handcuffs to be driven to a police station in is the start of a long legal journey which will eventually establish guilt or man was charged in connection with sexual communications and will appear in court at a later date.
BBC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Gillian Mackay bids to be Scottish Greens co-leader
Green MSP Gillian Mackay has announced her bid to be co-leader of the party. Mackay, who successfully spearheaded the bill creating buffer zones at abortion clinics, said on social media she believes she can "take the party further and deliver great election results" if elected Harvie, who has been in the role since 2008, previously said he is not standing to continue in the co-leader Lorna Slater, who has been in the job since 2019, is standing again. Scottish Green Party members elect co-leaders every two years, with at least one to be of the leadership contest are expected in said on social media: "At a time when politics is dominated by the egos of men, it is all the more important we have women with big voices and ideas in politics." The Central Scotland MSP successfully brought forward a member's Bill at Holyrood creating buffer zones around abortion clinics, preventing any protests or vigils taking place within 200m (656ft).She said that during four years at Holyrood, she has "shown I can deliver on the causes I champion and bring people together behind them".She added: "I believe I am the person who can not only take the party further and deliver great election results, but deliver fantastic things for Scotland and our communities."US Vice-President JD Vance criticised the bill earlier this year, falsely claiming people who live within safe access zones had been sent letters by the Scottish government warning them about praying within their later said Vance's claims were "total nonsense and dangerous scaremongering."
The Herald Scotland
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Now here's a police warning with a difference...
He recalls a former Central Scotland colleague who was on his beat when he heard a shout: 'Haw, Polis! is there a B&Q in Alloa?' 'No,' came the immediate response. 'But there are two A's and two L's.' Hats entertainment Two fezzes which once belonged to magician and comedian Tommy Cooper were recently sold at auction, notes reader John Mulholland. Furthermore they sold for double the expected price. Our correspondent wonders if the buyer was asked why he paid so much for the headgear, and imagines that his likely response would have been to shrug his shoulders, laugh, then in a gruff voice say: 'Just like hats.' Media mix-up Watching TV weatherwoman Judith Ralston the other evening, reader Barrie Crawford admits to being a tad bamboozled when she explained that once the showers had cleared, 'it opens the floodgates for a lot of dry weather'. Adds our confused correspondent: 'Some climate change, eh?' More mangled media The BBC famously has a mission to inform and educate. And to entertain… which it sometimes does unintentionally, notes reader Huw Williams. As evidence Huw submits a mangled moment on BBC Radio Orkney, during a piece about restoration work at Hoy's Longhope Lifeboat Museum. Interviewee Rebecca Marr commented on the impressive team involved, which included, she added, 'lots of women, which is fantastic'. Perhaps caught off guard by this comment, the (male) interviewer replied: 'A lot of balls in the air at the moment?' In a spin We mentioned the swanky new tumble dryers that have to be connected to the house Wi-Fi in order to operate. Now our readers are wondering what music, played on the Wi-Fi, would get those tumble dryers working best. Jack Harvey from Langside suggests the classic 1980s disco hit by Dead or Alive… You Spin Me Round. Accent-uate the positive A building site progress meeting was taking place in Glasgow, recalls JB Drummond from Kilmarnock. The Cockney construction manager misunderstood a question from the Glasgow architect and proceeded to ramble on about the wrong topic. When his error was explained he said: "Sorry mate. I didn't understand your accent." The architect correctly replied: "I don't have an accent… I live here." Side-splitting remark A shame-faced admission from Derek Bush from East Kilbride, who tells us he belongs to a family of failed magicians. 'I've got two half-sisters,' he adds.
