Latest news with #Litherland
BBC News
08-05-2025
- BBC News
Killer 'should have been arrested before murder, watchdog finds
A Merseyside criminal who shot dead a 20-year-old man in a case of mistaken identity should have been arrested months before the murder, the police watchdog has Rainsford was killed in his family home in Litherland after gang member James Foy opened fire through a window on 7 April 2020, in search of revenge against a rival Independent Office for Police Conduct has upheld a complaint from Mr Rainsford's father Michael, who argued Foy should have been arrested by police previously after his DNA was found on a handgun. A Merseyside Police spokesman said the force was considering its response but repeated that it did not possess sufficient evidence to arrest Foy before the murder. The force knew a DNA profile matching Foy had been found on the magazine of a handgun seized during in a raid at a property in Bootle in November 2019. But detectives did not arrest Foy or seek charging advice from the Crown Prosecution Service until after Mr Rainsford's IOPC has now concluded there had been "no reason to justify" delaying then 18-year-old Foy's arrest.A case reviewer wrote that the decision "then allowed for a series of events that has resulted in the death of the complainant's son". One detective sergeant had a case to answer for misconduct, the watchdog said, but it recommended the officer be dealt with through a "reflective practice review process" rather than face a disciplinary hearing that could result in dismissal. The case reviewer said in a letter to Mr Foy, seen by the BBC, that: "Whilst it is my view that [the detective sergeant] could not have reasonably foreseen the murder occurring, it does not diminish the harm that this has caused to the complainant and his family." Foy was in fact convicted of possession of the firearm found in November by a jury at the same time he was convicted of the killing. The IOPC concluded that no new evidence had been found after the murder that had not already been available for Police had told Mr Rainsford Snr and the IOPC that one reason they had not arrested Foy before April 2020 was because his DNA was on a removable part of the gun, which they argued could present difficulties in proving the possession charge. However, the IOPC case reviewer said: "It is my view that the presence of Mr Foy's DNA located on the magazine of a firearm would have been sufficient to provide reasonable grounds to suspect him of having had possession of the gun at the time."CPS lawyers had also said the location of the DNA was sufficient evidence to charge Foy. Mr Rainsford's father told the BBC the IOPC's findings were "still sinking in".He said: "It's been my campaign since two weeks after Michael was murdered, when I didn't get the very first answer to the first question to Merseyside Police, it's been a mission to get justice for Michael."What happens next I don't know. Ultimately, what I want is accountability and transparency so no other family has to go through this." The victim was in the kitchen of his family home in Harrington Road, Litherland, gathering snacks to take to his girlfriend's house when two bullets were shot through a window at 23:10 BST. Mr Rainsford collapsed in the hallway as his family desperately called 999. It later emerged Foy and his brother Michael Foy had been seeking revenge after someone smashed a window at their family home in Rossini Street, Seaforth. The two men were both connected to a local gang known as the Linacre Young Guns, and believed members of rivals the Kirkstone Riot Squad were responsible. Detectives concluded Mr Rainsford, a college student with a passion for skateboarding and photography, had no links to any gangs and was not involved in organised crime in any form. It is believed the Foy brothers targeted the address as it was in an area considered the territory of the rival gang. Both brothers denied being involved but were convicted of murder and jailed. After his conviction, James Foy's barrister announced in court that his client wanted it to be known he was in fact the gunman. Mr Rainsford previously said: "You just can't move on and you try your best. You do limp on but life is never, ever the same." After the shooting, when police confirmed Foy was being held on suspicion of more than one set of offences, Mr Rainsford began to question why the earlier firearms charge had not been progressed sooner. A formal complaint followed, and Merseyside Police conducted its own internal investigation, which found there was not enough evidence to arrest Foy before the Mr Rainsford appealed to the IOPC, which asked the force to reinvestigate elements of its response to the grieving father. This week the watchdog contacted Mr Rainsford to confirm it agreed with what he had been claiming for five Rainsford said: "I'm very pleased that I'm right and I have always been right, it's very difficult to find the answers when one party holds all the cards." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
West Australian
02-05-2025
- West Australian
Cyber safety expert Paul Litherland reveals WA children as young as eight are now regularly on social media
Thousands of WA students as young as eight are regularly using social media — many without their parents' knowledge — exposing them to scamming, sextortion and addiction. Surf Online Safe founder Paul Litherland, a former police officer who now educates more than 250,000 students each year on cyber safety, has observed a growing cohort of younger children accessing social media. According to his surveys of WA school children, 48 per cent of Year 4 students are using social media, compared to 52 per cent of Year 5 students, 60 per cent in Year 6 and 72 per cent in Year 7. Of the Year 4 to 6 cohort, 32 per cent were doing so without their parental consent. 'Sadly I'm seeing a rise in the number of kids at younger ages who are using one or more of the top 10 social media networks,' he said. 'Because they don't have that awareness, knowledge and real-risk assessment, they are being exposed to risk at much younger ages and we're seeing that reflected in quite a number of schools.' Mr Litherland, who worked in online crime as a police officer for 20 years, said children were mainly on SnapChat, TikTok, gaming group chat platform Discord and to a lesser extent, Instagram. Mr Litherland will raise the issue with teachers during an upcoming event with the Association of Independent Public Schools WA. 'I'll be saying 'let's communicate with our parents about the risks of being on these networks.' A lot of parents think, 'It's alright, I'm monitoring this' but it's not until something goes wrong that parents realise how how risky these networks and how they are not designed to protect kids.' Issues that were prevalent in Year 9 and Year 10 students five years ago, such as intimate image abuse, addiction, grooming and predatory behaviour, were now being seen in Years 7 and 8, Mr Litherland said. 'Some schools are still dropping the ball sadly but the vast majority of WA and Australian schools have been addressing this quite readily. But it's difficult because when devices go home that's when rules tend to drop.' Sextortion scams targeting young boys had increased 2300 per cent and gaming scamming was also a huge problem. 'Many of our scammers will jump onto gaming networks, pretend to be kids and trap children to share a parents' credit card number or take their money from a prepaid card,' he said. 'We're seeing younger and younger kids who are being groomed into sharing sexually explicit material, in exchange for gaming currency.' Mr Litherland recently helped an 11-year-old WA boy who sent intimate images over the Discord server in return for gaming currency. 'Everyone is working hard, educators, parents and even the kids themselves but it's big tech and the network designers that aren't working hard enough,' he said. 'I say to the students, 'you're going to have to drive this change because the (social media platforms) don't care about you''. But Mr Litherland said he was encouraged by a shift in high school students who were now prioritising quality interactions on social media, rather than high numbers of followers.
Euronews
24-02-2025
- General
- Euronews
Second Egyptian tomb may hold mummy of pharaoh who died 3,500 years ago
The stuff of dreams for any archaeologist, Piers Litherland and his team, working on a British-Egyptian excavation, might have stumbled upon the second tomb of King Thutmose II in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis near Luxor, Egypt. This comes only days after the team's landmark discovery of the pharaoh's first tomb. Litherland suspects the tomb may hold Thutmose II's mummified remains, alongside grave goods, and says it is located 23 metres below a man-made pile of rubble, limestone, ash, and mud plaster designed to blend into the landscape. 'The best candidate for what is hidden underneath this enormously expensive, in terms of effort, pile is the second tomb of Thutmose II,' he told The Observer. The discovery of the first tomb was nothing short of groundbreaking – the first such find since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb over a century ago. Initially thought to be the tomb of a royal woman, Litherland's team uncovered a decorated burial chamber with a blue-painted ceiling featuring yellow stars, which was a clear marker of a royal tomb. Thutmose II, who reigned from 1493 to 1479 BC, is most famously known as the husband of Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt's few female pharaohs. Archaeologists believe the first tomb was emptied six years after burial due to a flood, with the pharaoh's body then relocated to the second tomb. Litherland and his team are now working meticulously to uncover the second tomb by hand, after previous attempts to tunnel in proved too dangerous. "This tomb has been hiding in plain sight for 3,500 years," Litherland added. "You dream about such things. But like winning the lottery, you never believe it will happen to you." With their excavation ongoing, the team hopes to reach the tomb in about a month. Until now, the whereabouts of Thutmose II's original burial site had remained a mystery. While his mummified remains were uncovered 200 years ago in the Deir el-Bahri Cache above the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the location of his tomb had been lost to history. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Court of Antiquities, said in a statement that the initial discovery was 'one of the most significant archaeological breakthroughs in recent years'.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Archaeologists may have found second tomb of mysterious Egyptian pharaoh
A British archaeologist and his team who uncovered the long-lost tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh believe they are close to finding a second buried 23 metres beneath a man-made mountain. Last week Piers Litherland revealed he had found the tomb of Thutmose II, the last undiscovered king of the 18th dynasty, in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis. It was the first time in over a century that archaeologists have discovered the final resting place of another Egyptian pharaoh, since the unearthing of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. However, Mr Litherland has now revealed they are trying to unearth a second site which they believe holds the pharaoh's mummified body and grave goods. Archaeologists believe the first tomb was emptied six years after burial, due to a flood, and relocated to a second. The experts believe this second tomb has been hiding in plain sight for 3,500 years, secretly buried beneath 23 metres of limestone flakes, rubble, ash and mud plaster and made to look like part of the mountain. 'There are 23 metres of a pile of man-made layers sitting above a point in the landscape where we believe – and we have other confirmatory evidence – there is a monument concealed beneath,' he told The Observer. 'The best candidate for what is hidden underneath this enormously expensive, in terms of effort, pile is the second tomb of Thutmose II.' On the idea of finding his remains, he added: 'You dream about such things. But like winning the lottery, you never believe it will happen to you.' When Egyptologists were searching for the initial tomb, they found a posthumous inscription that indicated contents may have been moved to a second location nearby by the pharaoh's wife and half-sister Hatshepsut. Mr Litherland and his team think they are about a month away from accessing the second tomb, after struggling to tunnel to it by hand. 'We've tried to tunnel into it, we've tried to shave away the sides, but there are overhanging rocks, so it's too dangerous,' he said. 'We should be able to take the whole thing down in about another month.' When they found the first tomb, located near a waterfall, archaeologists believed they had found the tomb of a royal wife. However, the wide staircase and illustrated burial chamber indicated it was likely to be the resting place of a king. The reign of Thutmose II is thought to date from approximately 1493 to 1479 BCE. He is best known for being the husband of Queen Hatshepsut, regarded as one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs and one of the few female pharaohs who ruled in her own right. The discovery was made by a joint mission formed by the New Kingdom Research Foundation (NKRF), a British independent academic foundation, and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt, a project affiliated to the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. Mr Litherland, leader and field director, said of the find: 'This discovery solves a great mystery of ancient Egypt: the location of the tombs of the early 18th dynasty kings. 'The tomb of this ancestor of Tutankhamun had never been found because it was always thought to be at the other end of the mountain near the Valley of the Kings. 'Initially we thought we might have found the tomb of a royal wife, but the wide staircase and the large doorway suggested something more important. 'The discovery that the burial chamber had been decorated with scenes from the Amduat, a religious text which is reserved for kings, was immensely exciting and was the first indication that this was a king's tomb.' Artefacts discovered in the tomb, including fragments of alabaster jars bearing inscriptions with the names of Thutmose II and his wife are the only artefacts connected with his burial ever found.
The Independent
23-02-2025
- General
- The Independent
Archaeologists may have found second tomb of mysterious Egyptian pharaoh
A British archaeologist and his team who uncovered the long-lost tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh believe they are close to finding a second buried 23 metres beneath a man-made mountain. Last week Piers Litherland revealed they had found the tomb of Thutmose II, the last undiscovered king of the 18th dynasty, in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis. It was the first time in over a century that archaeologists have discovered the final resting place of another Egyptian pharaoh, since the unearthing of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. However, Mr Litherland has now revealed they are trying to unearth a second site which they believe holds the pharaoh's mummified body and grave goods. Archaeologists believe the first tomb was emptied six years after burial, due to a flood, and relocated to a second. The experts believe this second tomb has been hiding in plain sight for 3,500 years, secretly buried beneath 23 metres of limestone flakes, rubble, ash and mud plaster and made to look like part of the mountain. 'There are 23 metres of a pile of man-made layers sitting above a point in the landscape where we believe – and we have other confirmatory evidence – there is a monument concealed beneath,' he told The Observer. 'The best candidate for what is hidden underneath this enormously expensive, in terms of effort, pile is the second tomb of Thutmose II.' On the idea of finding his remains, he added: 'You dream about such things. But like winning the lottery, you never believe it will happen to you.' When Egyptologists were searching for the initial tomb, they found a posthumous inscription that indicated contents may have been moved to a second location nearby by the pharaoh's wife and half-sister Hatshepsut. Mr Litherland and his team think they are about a month away from accessing the second tomb, after struggling to tunnel to it by hand. 'We've tried to tunnel into it, we've tried to shave away the sides, but there are overhanging rocks, so it's too dangerous,' he said. 'We should be able to take the whole thing down in about another month.' When they found the first tomb, located near a waterfall, archaeologists believed they had found the tomb of a royal wife. However, the wide staircase and illustrated burial chamber indicated it was likely to be the resting place of a king. The reign of Thutmose II is thought to date from approximately 1493 to 1479 BCE. He is best known for being the husband of Queen Hatshepsut, regarded as one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs and one of the few female pharaohs who ruled in her own right. The discovery was made by a joint mission formed by the New Kingdom Research Foundation (NKRF), a British independent academic foundation, and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt, a project affiliated to the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. Mr Litherland, leader and field director, said of the find: 'This discovery solves a great mystery of ancient Egypt: the location of the tombs of the early 18th dynasty kings. 'The tomb of this ancestor of Tutankhamun had never been found because it was always thought to be at the other end of the mountain near the Valley of the Kings. 'Initially we thought we might have found the tomb of a royal wife, but the wide staircase and the large doorway suggested something more important. 'The discovery that the burial chamber had been decorated with scenes from the Amduat, a religious text which is reserved for kings, was immensely exciting and was the first indication that this was a king's tomb.' Artefacts discovered in the tomb, including fragments of alabaster jars bearing inscriptions with the names of Thutmose II and his wife are the only artefacts connected with his burial ever found.
