History > 2008 > UK > Justice (I)

Suffolk Strangler guilty of murdering five prostitutes

- but how many more did he kill?

DM

Last updated at 16:38pm

on 21st February 2008

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-517219/
My-violent-life-Suffolk-Stranglers-wife--I-fear-killed-Suzy-Lamplugh-too.html

Court gags ex-SAS man

who made torture claims

Friday February 29 2008
The Guardian
Richard Norton-Taylor
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Friday February 29 2008
on p4 of the UK news section.
It was last updated at 00:48
on February 29 2008.

A former SAS soldier was served with a high court order yesterday preventing him from making fresh disclosures about how hundreds of Iraqis and Afghans captured by British and American special forces were rendered to prisons where they faced torture.

Ben Griffin could be jailed if he makes further disclosures about how people seized by special forces were allegedly mistreated and ended up in secret prisons in breach of the Geneva conventions and international law. Griffin, 29, left the British army in 2005 after three months in Baghdad, saying he disagreed with the "illegal" tactics of US troops.

He told a press conference hosted by the Stop the War Coalition this week that individuals detained by SAS troops in a joint UK-US special forces taskforce had ended up in interrogation centres in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Guantánamo Bay. He had not witnessed torture himself but added: "I have no doubt in my mind that non-combatants I personally detained were handed over to the Americans and subsequently tortured."

Referring to the government's admission that two US rendition flights containing terror suspects had landed at the British territory of Diego Garcia, Griffin said the use of British territory and airspace "pales into insignificance in light of the fact that it has been British soldiers detaining the victims of extraordinary rendition in the first place".

The Ministry of Defence said it did not comment on special forces' activities.

In a separate move, the media have been prevented by a court order from reporting a court martial of six SAS soldiers charged with a conspiracy to "defraud of a value of about £3,000".

Court gags ex-SAS man who made torture claims, G, 29.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/29/military.law

Wife jailed for anti-freeze murder bid

Thursday, 28 February 2008
PA
The Independent


A housewife who left her husband blind and deaf by poisoning him with anti-freeze was sentenced to 30 years today.

Kate Knight, 28, was convicted last month of attempting to murder Lee Knight by lacing his food with ethylene glycol on their seventh wedding anniversary.


Mr Knight was also left with brain damage and kidney failure following the poisoning in April 2005.

A jury at Stafford Crown Court took eight hours to convict Knight, of Meir Hay, Stoke-on-Trent, of attempted murder following a three-week trial.

The court was told she had planned to use the £130,000 death benefit from her husband's employer, JCB in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, to pay off mounting debts after forging her husband's signature to take out two secret loans for £17,000.


The jury heard that Knight, a former brewery worker, used the internet search engine Google to find a method of killing, settling on anti-freeze after considering using ecstasy or iron tablets.


Knight, who married at 19, administered the anti-freeze to her husband in red wine and an Indian takeaway he ate on their wedding anniversary.


Mr Knight, 37, managed to survive despite spending 10 weeks in a coma after being admitted to hospital.


He recently underwent an operation to restore some of his hearing, but still required two hearing aids and support from two specialists to give evidence at his wife's trial.


He told the court that he knew nothing of the loans, taken out in 2003 and 2004, which motivated his wife's desire to kill him and claim a windfall from his employer.

Wife jailed for anti-freeze murder bid, NYT, 28.2.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/wife-jailed-for-antifreeze-murder-bid-788842.html

Joan Smith:

Murders that demand

a radical shift in attitudes

Thursday, 28 February 2008
The Independent


Bring back hanging! I've heard it many times in the last week, following the convictions of three men for the murders of eight young women. On Tuesday, Levi Bellfield was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, the same sentence that Steve Wright was given at the end of last week. Mark Dixie will serve a minimum of 34 years after a trial in which, amazingly, he denied murder but admitted necrophilia.

In each case, the details which emerged in court were horrific, and phone-in shows resound with demands for capital punishment. Alternatively, because of the role played by DNA in identifying Dixie and Wright, there have been suggestions that the entire population should be on a DNA database.

The first impulse stems from a desire for revenge, the second from a feeling that "something must be done". Both should be resisted, and the fact that they are being made at all is evidence of a state of collective denial. Leaving aside the overwhelming moral case against the death penalty, the judicial murder of a few notorious offenders will not stop violence against women, and risks distorting public perceptions about the subject even further.

What is striking about Wright and Bellfield is that so many people were aware that they abused women but nobody felt able to do anything about it. In a society where domestic violence is commonplace and rape goes unpunished, what is someone to do when they suspect that a man is abusing girls and women?

I am not arguing that all men treat women badly. But a substantial minority do, and we refuse to read the signals or condemn their behaviour unequivocally. Bellfield had a reputation for picking up under-age girls and having sex with them in the back of his van, even offering to prostitute his 16-year-old "girlfriend" and her 14-year-old sister to an employee; a former partner recalled finding magazines in which he slashed photographs of blonde women, with whom he had a lethal obsession.

Wright had a series of violent relationships, attacking partners and abusing them as "slags" and "whores". The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, told a drinking friend he had attacked a woman with a stone hidden in a sock, but it took five years for the man to inform the police; while he was thinking about it, 13 women were murdered and half a dozen others attacked.

There is no need to put the entire country, including women and children, on a DNA database to discover the identity of men who pose a threat to women. Despite all the calls I've had from journalists over the past few days, asking me what motivates men like Wright, Dixie and Bellfield, there is no great mystery about it.

Men do not commit such crimes out of the blue; most of them don't even bother to hide their hatred of women. There is usually a childhood history of domestic violence, which means that they grow up in an atmosphere of physical fear and contempt for women, whom they regard both as victims and the cause of their fathers' violence.

I've heard a great deal about the role of absent mothers in the psychopathology of men who kill women, but cause and effect are being confused here; a misogynist culture inevitably overlooks the father's role and blames the mother, even when her reason for leaving the family is to escape violence.

When boys from such homes become men, they provide plenty of warnings in the form of abusive behaviour to wives and girlfriends and histories of sexual violence. Dixie had a lengthy criminal record, including five convictions for sexual offences, but served only brief prison sentences. With only one in 20 rapes reported to the police ending in a conviction, most rapists get away with their crimes; the Soham murderer, Ian Huntley, was accused of rape on five occasions but none of the cases got to court, leaving him free to kill two 10-year girls.

If we're serious about preventing more horrific murders, social attitudes have to change dramatically. That means reversing the popular assumption that most rapes aren't really rapes at all because the victim had been drinking or knew her attacker. The other thing that's needed is an acknowledgement of the inextricable link between prostitution and sexual violence.

It isn't a lack of licensed brothels that makes selling sex dangerous; it's the kind of men who buy it. Women who work as prostitutes are 18 times more likely to be murdered than the rest of us, for the simple reason that their "clients" include a high proportion of men who enjoy humiliating and hurting women. That's the group whose DNA detectives need to get their hands on; if we changed the law to allow the police to arrest men who try to buy sex, they could clear up a huge number of unsolved sexual attacks.

    Joan Smith: Murders that demand a radical shift in attitudes, I, 28.2.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joan-smith/joan-smith-murders-that-demand-a-radical-shift-in-attitudes-788496.html

1.15pm GMT update

Preacher guilty

of organising terror training camps

Tuesday February 26 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Owen Bowcott
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk
on Tuesday February 26 2008.
It was last updated at 13:57 on February 26 2008.

A terrorist instructor who called himself Osama bin London has been convicted, along with three of his followers, of organising al-Qaida style training camps across Britain.

Their five-month trial at Woolwich crown court was the first to deal with a new offence introduced under the Terrorism Act 2006 of attending a place used for terrorist training.

The jury heard no evidence of weapons or explosives – the prosecution relied on MI5 surveillance tapes and recordings made by an undercover police officer who penetrated the London-based jihadist cell.

The conversations and films showed street preacher Mohammed Hamid and his followers - Muhammad al-Figari, Kader Ahmed and Kibley Da Costa - performing what was described as "military training" over a two-year period.

Hamid, 50, was found guilty of organising terrorist training camps and of encouraging others to murder non-believers.

Da Costa, 25, Figari, 45, and Ahmed, 20, were found guilty of attending terror camps in the New Forest and at a Berkshire paintballing centre. The jury acquitted the defendants of taking part in terrorist training at the Cumbrian camps.

The group initially went on exercises at a farm in Cumbria and later at secluded sites in the New Forest and paintballing centres in south-east England.

The men later convicted of the failed July 21 attacks on London's transport system were also among those who attended.

A fifth man, Atilla Ahmet, who was closely associated with the imprisoned Finsbury Park mosque preacher Abu Hamza, pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial to three counts of soliciting murder.

The jury acquitted a sixth man, 41-year-old Mousa Brown, of Walthamstow, east London. The verdicts were returned last Wednesday but were under a reporting restriction until today.

The court heard that the men practised leopard-crawling along the ground, anti-ambush drills, forward rolls, casualty evacuation and gun drills using sticks in place of rifles.

Scores of potentially incriminating statements recorded during the police Operation Overamp were played to the jury, including Hamid's reference to the death toll in the July 7 London bombings when he said of the fatalities: "Fifty-two? That's not even a breakfast to me."

Hamid, Figari, Ahmed and Da Costa denied the charges, insisting their activities were for fun and fitness.

Ahmet was not in court for most of the proceedings.

Four of the defendants had arrived in the UK as children fleeing poverty in the West Indies or conflict in Africa. Three were recent converts to Islam. All had failed to build the prosperous new lives their parents had sought, the court heard.

Hamid, a reformed crack addict, was the pivotal figure, the prosecution said, turning young Muslims into extremists.

Ahmet had been a close associate of, and former bodyguard for, Abu Hamza, the Finsbury Park mosque preacher since jailed for inciting murder and racial hatred.

Police and security services staged a surveillance operation including a motion-sensitive camera hidden in a tree overlooking a clearing in the New Forest.

The police investigation began in May 2004 with surveillance of Baysbrown farm in Cumbria.

Police said no arrests were made before the July 7 bombings because at that stage it was unclear what the group was planning. Attending a place used for terrorist training was not at that stage a crime on the statute book.

"From September 2005 we were able to gain some electronic coverage of what was happening in Hamid's premises [in Almack Road, Hackney]," a senior police source said.

"Hamid and Attilla used those meetings as a means of grooming predominantly young people and training them.

"Sometimes there's a danger of not taking [the threat] as seriously as it warrants. There's a danger of trivialising these people. There was repeated talk of fighting and killing non-believers."

Senior police paid tribute to the courage of an undercover officer, known only as Dawood, who infiltrated the group. "It was a long and difficult deployment," one said.

The group's last meeting was for a late-night supper at the Bridge to Chinatown restaurant in Southwark, south London. Detectives subsequently referred to it as "the last supper".

It was chosen as the arrest site, police said, because "we try to do things that are as safe as possible for everybody. Rather than go to a number of addresses, the intelligence told us they would be together in one place at that time."

The group had used the restaurant four weeks in a row. Da Costa was overheard suggesting that MI5 had probably bugged the building.

Surveillance transcripts recorded the moment when armed officers raided the private dining room shortly before midnight on August 31 2006, shouting: "Sit down. Hands on the table, please. Everything will be explained to you."

The men's sentencing has been adjourned.

    Preacher guilty of organising terror training camps, G, 26.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/26/uksecurity

'Whole life' term for bus stop stalker

Tuesday, 26 February 2008
PA
The Independent

Bellfield, 39, was convicted yesterday of murdering students Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, and the attempted murder of schoolgirl Kate Sheedy, then aged 18.


The former wheel clamper, who is also the prime suspect for the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler, is the second killer to be given a "whole life" term in four days. Prostitute killer Steve Wright was given the same sentence on Friday at Ipswich Crown Court.


Bellfield's attacks took place in west London where he lived after the victims got off buses at night.


After the verdicts at the Old Bailey, it was revealed that he is also suspected of kidnapping and killing Milly Dowler.


The 13-year-old disappeared in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, while on her way home from school in March 2002. Her body was found six months later.


Bellfield refused to face the court today to hear his sentence because of the "bad publicity" he had received.


His barrister William Boyce QC told trial judge Mrs Justice Rafferty: "Overnight there has been what some consider to be a quite extraordinary explosion of bad publicity.


"There has been a welter of accusations of other crimes by him."


He added: "He chooses not to return today."

Mrs Justice Rafferty told the court: "You have reduced three families to unimagined grief."


She added: "What dreadful feelings went through your head as you attacked and in two cases snuffed out a young life is beyond understanding."


Applause broke in court as the judge commended DCI Colin Sutton, who led the investigation.


Bellfield prowled around bus stops and followed buses late at night looking for young blonde women on their own.


He would follow them, offer them lifts and, if they turned him down, react with rage.


Marsha was struck over the head with a hammer feet from her home in Hampton after getting off a bus in February 2003.


Bellfield stalked convent school head girl Kate Sheedy as she got off a bus near her house in Isleworth in May 2004.


When she crossed the road to avoid him, Bellfield aimed his vehicle at her and ran her over, reversing back over the girl to make sure she was dead.


But the teenager survived to give evidence against Bellfield.


Amelie was battered over the head with a heavy instrument such as a hammer in August 2004, after getting off at the wrong bus stop.


Bellfield followed her as she walked back towards her home in Twickenham Green and attacked her after trying to pick her up on the local cricket green.


Bellfield had denied the crimes but Brian Altman, prosecuting, told a pre-trial hearing: "He hated women. He hated blonde women."


Bellfield was arrested in November 2004 after a police appeal for information on a white van with distinctive markings used in the Amelie murder.


Bellfield was found guilty unanimously of murdering Amelie and by a 10-2 majority of the crimes against Marsha and Kate.


Impact statements given to the judge spoke of the pain and suffering of Bellfield's victims and their families.


Miss McDonnell's uncle, Shane, said: "Marsha's murder was an act of pure evil, an innocent girl attacked from behind with no motive, no reason and no justification.


"Losing a child in any circumstances is always an extremely hard loss to bear.


"To lose a child to such a barbaric act of violence that has no reason or explanation just compounds that grief further."


Kate Sheedy said her physical and mental suffering continues as she tries to pick up her life again.


She said: "To this day I still suffer from nightmares. This is both reliving the incident itself and also the nightmares I had whilst I was in hospital.


"For a period of several months I suffered really bad panic attacks, flashbacks and nightmares. I couldn't be alone at all, even during the day."


Dominique Delagrange spoke of the pain of losing her daughter, Amelie.


"Our world fell apart on the August 19, 2004.


"It will always hurt us not to know what would have become of Amelie had her life not been severed in such a way.


"Her loss is an open wound that will never heal. We shall never get over it."


After Madame Delagrange's statement had been read to the court by the prosecutor, the hearing was adjourned for around half an hour.


Dominique and Jean-Francois Delagrange left court in tears.


Some of the police officers in the case also wiped away tears.

Outside court, Mr Sutton said: "The fact that Bellfield did not come to court shows his cowardliness - the same cowardliness that he has shown throughout.


"He could not face the families, his victims and the judge and hear himself being sentenced."

The judge said: "The statements I have read and the words the court heard this morning were hard for many an experienced professional to bear.


She said: "Marsha McDonnell was yards from her home in a quiet residential area of Hampton. Aged 19 she was beaten to the head and left to die on the pavement.


"Kate Sheedy lives due to her own courage and resource. The girl whom you left lying on the road after you had driven and then reversed over her said her goodbyes to her parents as she waited to die.


"Amelie Delagrange came to the UK expecting to be safe. She was beaten to the head and left to die on Twickenham Green during an August night.


"Three young women, upon whom you preyed in the dark as they stood or walked near to or from buses. What dreadful feelings went through your head as you attacked and in two cases snuffed out a young life is beyond understanding.


"You obliged your counsel to put Kate through indignity after indignity in the witness box. The families of all three have waited months as during this trial you took every point from the ludicrous to the bizarre.


"The jury moved straight and true to your conviction in a case built upon steady painstaking investigation and determination. Twelve sensible individuals saw for what they were the contrived defences you put forward."


She jailed Bellfield for life for each attack.


"You will not be considered for parole and must serve your whole life in prison," the judge said.

    'Whole life' term for bus stop stalker, I, 26.2.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/whole-life-term-for-bus-stop-stalker-787419.html

3.30pm GMT update

Ex-chef sentenced

to 34 years for model's murder

Friday February 22 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Angela Balakrishnan and agencies
This article was first published
on guardian.co.uk on Friday February 22 2008.
It was last updated at 15:44 on February 22 2008.

Former pub chef Mark Dixie was today sentenced to a minimum of 34 years in prison after being found guilty of the murder of Sally Anne Bowman.

Bowman, an 18-year-old part-time model, was found in a pool of blood on the driveway of her home in Croydon, south London, in the early hours of September 25 2005.

She had been stabbed seven times, bitten and then raped. Three of the stab wounds were so severe that they went through her abdomen and out of her back.

Dixie, of no fixed address, this week admitted he had sex with Bowman's body while high on cocaine and alcohol. The 37-year-old denied killing her.

After three hours of deliberation, an Old Bailey jury of seven women and five men unanimously found him guilty of the murder.

Judge Gerald Gordon told Dixie: "I shall only say that what you did that night was so awful and repulsive that I do not propose to repeat it.

"Your consequent conduct shows you had not the slightest remorse for what you had done."

Bowman's family cheered as the verdict was announced. Later, they broke down in tears as the four-week trial, which has revealed harrowing evidence, came to a close.

"The last two and a half years have been torturously painful and immensely difficult," the victim's father, Paul Bowman, said.

"I do not think we could have got through it without the love and support that has been hugely available from family and friends.

"I hope that now Sally Anne can rest in peace and those affected so deeply by her untimely and brutal death can be afforded at least the chance to begin to grieve in earnest."

He said his daughter would "forever be missed and never forgotten".

Dixie bowed his head down and nodded as he was told his sentenced. Friends and family of Bowman shouted down from the public gallery as Dixie was taken down. One said: "Rot in hell you pervert." Another yelled: "I'll see you again."

Dixie called back: "Come on, both of you."

Detective Superintendent Stuart Cundy, who led the investigation, said the crime was one of the most horrific sexual attacks in British history and said Dixie's defence was "truly contemptible".

"Mark Dixie faces a life behind bars - a result that ensures the public are protected from a truly dangerous sexual killer."

"Sally Anne was a young woman who had her whole of her life ahead of her. Mark Dixie cut that life short in the most horrific way imaginable."

Dixie had a string of previous convictions for sex offences, and detectives believe he could have killed while living in Australia during the 90s.

Cundy said he believed there are other victims of Dixie who have not come forward and urging them to inform the police.

Dixie was arrested nine months after Bowman was killed after a minor scuffle at Ye Olde Six Bells pub in Horley, Surrey. His DNA was taken and found to match that found on Bowman's body.

A film recording of Dixie masturbating over a newspaper picture of Bowman as he fantasised over the sex killing was found among his belongings in the barn of the Horley pub, helping to convict him.

Brian Altman, prosecuting, said Dixie murdered Bowman, who worked as a hairdresser, for his own sexual gratification and concocted a "ludicrous" defence "out of desperation".

Dixie's refusal to admit his crime also meant two previous victims had to relive attacks he had carried out years before as they gave evidence against him.

Officers said they believed Dixie enjoyed hearing details of his crimes being told in court by the victims.

He described himself as the "life and soul of the party", with a large appetite for illegal drugs.

On the night of Bowman's murder, he had been drinking heavily and taking drugs while celebrating his 35th birthday.

He stayed overnight at a friend's flat near Bowman's house, in Blenheim Crescent. After his friends went to bed, he locked them in a bedroom and went out.

Dixie is thought to have attacked a female motorist, whose mobile phone was stolen before a taxi driver came to her aid.

Earlier in the trial, he expressed regret at having sex with Bowman's dead body, claiming he initially thought his victim had "passed out or fallen over".

Dixie said he did not know what went through his mind when he saw a pair of legs with a shirt pulled down to the waist.

He told the court he later realised, as he was having sex with Bowman, that she was in fact dead.

The trial heard how he then panicked and attempted to hide traces of his DNA by placing cement dust on the victim's body.

He went to a friend's flat where he smoked cannabis to try to calm down, slept for a few hours and then went out drinking.

Bowman had been dropped home by her boyfriend, 22-year-old Lewis Sproston, in the early hours of September 25.

The pair, who had a tempestuous relationship, argued for more than an hour, and it is believed Dixie lay in wait. Minutes after Sproston left, Bowman was attacked and killed.

Jurors were told how neighbours heard her screams and the sound of a dragging noise, as though somebody was going to put something in a skip.

June Cumpper said she saw a man walking across the road after hearing the screams, but lost sight of him at Bowman's house. She described how the man was looking from side to side with his hands open.

Anne Hardy then discovered Bowman's bloodied body after going to investigate "a pair of white legs" near a skip.

    Ex-chef sentenced to 34 years for model's murder, G, 22.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/22/ukcrime3

1.30pm GMT update

Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright

jailed for life

Friday February 22 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Esther Addley, Karen McVeigh and David Batty
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Friday February 22 2008.
It was last updated at 14:55 on February 22 2008.

Steve Wright will spend the rest of his life in jail for killing five women in Suffolk in what prosecutors described as a six-week "campaign of murder".

Judge Mr Justice Gross, at Ipswich crown court, ruled that Wright, a 49-year-old former forklift truck driver, should serve a whole life term and never be released.

The murders of the women, all of whom worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, terrified the town and led to one of the country's biggest police investigations.

"It is right you should spend your whole life in prison," the judge said. "This was a targeted campaign of murder."

He told Wright a life sentence was mandatory, but that he had to decide whether or not he should be eligible for parole.

"I must pass a sentence which meets the justice of the case," he added. "In my judgment, upon reflection it must be a whole life term."

The judge said the case met the legal requirements for a whole life sentence because the murders involved a "substantial degree of premeditation and planning".

He pointed to the "macabre" way in which Wright had arranged two of the women's bodies in a crucifix form.

He said Wright had targeted vulnerable women. "Drugs and prostitution meant they were at risk. But neither drugs nor prostitution killed them. You did," he added.

"You killed them, stripped them and left them ... why you did it may never be known."

As Gross said he should serve a "whole life" jail term, Wright stared ahead. As he was led away to begin his sentence, he made no eye contact with anyone else in court.

There was no reaction from the relatives of the murder victims, who witnessed proceedings from the public gallery.

Wright's brother, David, and sister, Jeanette, sobbed throughout. They left the court hand in hand without making any comment.

Following the sentencing, Wright's solicitor, Mark Haslam, said the defence team would be considering whether there were grounds for an appeal.

The deputy chief constable of Suffolk, Jacqui Cheer, said of the sentence: "At the start of the inquiry we could not have asked for anything more.

"It is a tribute to all the people who have been involved - not only police officers but their support teams and all the members of the public who phoned in offering information.

"I've never been in the position of the families. I cannot imagine what it is like. We can only hope this brings some closure for them."

A crowd of around 30 people looked on as Wright was driven away to London, and there were shouts of "scum''.

Sources said he would be taken to Belmarsh prison, in south-east London, where he would undergo routine psychiatric assessments and be placed on suicide watch.

It is believed he will serve his sentence at a high-security prison - possibly Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, or Whitemoor, near March, Cambridgeshire.

The jury yesterday took fewer than six hours to find Wright responsible for the murders.

Tania Nicol, 19, Gemma Adams, 25, 24-year-old Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell, also 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, were all drug addicts who were working as prostitutes when they were picked up and murdered by Wright, a regular customer who lived in the red light district and whom several of them knew well.

Their naked bodies were found dumped around the town - two in a stream and the other three in woods - over a 10-day period in December 2006.

Speaking after the verdicts yesterday, the families of Nicol and Clennell called for the death penalty to be reintroduced.

"While five young lives have been cruelly ended, the person responsible will be kept warm, nourished and protected," the Nicol family said in a statement. "In no way has justice been done. These crimes deserve the ultimate punishment."

Robert Sadd, the crown advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Suffolk, said the conviction had been "based on science".

Wright was identified because his DNA had been added to the national database following an earlier conviction for theft. His profile was stored in 2003 after he was convicted of stealing £80 while working as a hotel barman.

New techniques allowing microscopic fibres to be identified also proved critical - a single black nylon fibre from the footwell of Wright's car was found in Nicol's hair, despite the fact her body had lain in water for five weeks before it was discovered.

Wright's DNA was found on three of the women's bodies, while microscopic fibres from his clothing, car and home were discovered on all five.

Blood belonging to two of the women was found on his reflective jacket, along with specks of blood in his car.

CCTV and numberplate recognition technology had also placed his car in the red light district at the time several of the women disappeared.

The court heard that Wright picked up the women while they worked in the streets around his home before killing them while they were incapacitated by heavy doses of drugs.

He argued that he had had sex with the women but had not killed them, saying it was merely coincidental that forensic evidence linked him to all five.

Although the jury's verdicts were decisive, prosecutors admitted yesterday they remained puzzled about the motive behind the killings.

Wright's only previous conviction is for minor theft, and CPS sources yesterday said they were not aware of any evidence linking him to unsolved cases.

"No doubt our police colleagues will be looking at whether this fits with anything else, but we are not aware of any other link at this stage," a source said.

A number of "cold cases", including several unsolved prostitute murders, have been examined by forces across Britain since Wright's arrest.

Yesterday, the father of the estate agent Suzy Lamplugh told the Guardian he had been contacted by Metropolitan police officers investigating possible connections between Wright and his daughter, who disappeared in 1986.

It is known that Wright and Lamplugh were acquaintances when they worked on the QE2 in the early 80s.

Cleveland police said they had not ruled out a link between Wright and the murder of Vicky Glass, a heroin addict who vanished from Middlesbrough in September 2000.

Her naked body was later found in a stream in the North York Moors.

    Suffolk serial killer Steve Wright jailed for life, G, 22.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/22/wright.sentenced

4pm GMT update

Steve Wright guilty of Suffolk murders

Thursday February 21 2008
Guardian.co.uk
James Sturcke, David Batty and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Thursday February 21 2008.
It was last updated at 16:04 on February 21 2008.

Steve Wright was today found guilty of murdering five women in Suffolk during a six-week killing spree that triggered one of Britain's biggest ever manhunts.

Wright, a former forklift truck driver, picked up his victims, all of whom worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, from the town's red light district.

Jurors took eight hours to convict him unanimously on all counts following a six-week trial at Ipswich crown court.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Gross, said he would sentence 49-year-old Wright at 10.30am tomorrow. He thanked the jurors for their "time and attention'' in what he said was an "extremely disturbing case''.

The prosecutor, Peter Wright QC, called on the judge to impose a "whole life term".

He said the criteria for passing such a sentence were met because there was "a substantial degree of premeditation or planning" behind the killings and because of their sexual nature.

The judge indicated that his only alternative in sentencing would be to start on the basis of a life sentence with a minimum 30-year term.

Timothy Langdale QC, defending, said Wright should serve no longer than 30 years in prison.

Wright showed no emotion as the verdicts were read out, staring straight ahead as he stood in the dock and avoiding eye contact with the jurors and family members.

He dumped the naked bodies of his victims in remote locations. Some were found with their limbs arranged in the form of a cross.

The trial heard the killings began a few weeks after Wright, who once worked as a steward on the QE2 cruise ship, moved to Ipswich with his partner.

He was convicted largely on the strength of forensic evidence that revealed his DNA on three of the women and fibres linking him to all five.

Wright admitted frequently using prostitutes in Ipswich and having sex with four of the victims. He denied murdering Gemma Adams, 25; Tania Nicol, 19; Anneli Alderton, 24; Paula Clennell, also 24; and Annette Nicholls, 29.

As each verdict was read out, there were cries of "yes" from the public gallery, where the families of three of the dead women had gathered.

Members of the Clennell, Nicholls and Nicol families clenched their hands together as they listened to the verdicts.

Nicholls's mother, Kim, sobbed, and Clennell's sister and mother broke down.

Adams's father, Brian, said: "I am very relieved and pleased for all of the families that this is now over and we can now start to get on with our lives.

"I can't speak highly enough about the police in this case. I don't have any feelings about Wright."

Speaking outside the court, Detective Superintendent Stewart Gull, of Suffolk police, said the murders of the "vulnerable young women" had left their families "devastated".

"I hope that today's guilty verdict on their killer gives them some comfort," he added.

Robert Sadd, the Crown advocate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in Suffolk, said Wright's motive for the killings may never be known.

"We will probably never know why. Quite often in a murder case we do not know the motive or understand it if we do," he said. "The evidence leads us to who did it, and that's more important."

His CPS colleague Michael Crimp said Wright was the "common denominator" linking all five murdered women.

"Significant" amounts of Wright's DNA were found on three of the victims and fibres from his car, home and clothing were found on all five, he said.

"Our assessment was that Steve Wright was connected to all these women, and that connection was not just a coincidence," he added.

"He was the last person to see them alive and the scientific evidence proves he was responsible for their deaths."

A "particularly telling" piece of evidence was a single black carpet fibre from Wright's car that was found in Nicol's hair, he said.

"This is despite her body being put in water," he said. "Her killer failed to destroy this significant piece of evidence.

"Steve Wright also failed to give a satisfactory explanation of why blood from two of the victims was on his jacket."

Wright's brother Keith said he was "surprised the verdict has been so quick", adding: "I would have thought there is enough things for them to have some doubt.

"I don't know if surprised at the verdict is exactly the right word. I just didn't think it would be so quick. Whatever the sentence, it's all over now."

His other brother David and sister, Jeanette, left the court building in tears.

The trial heard that the first woman to be killed was Nicol who - like many of Wright's victims - was alienated from her family by her drug addiction.

He picked her up on October 30 2006 and her body was found on December 8.

From the time she was reported missing on November 1 to Wright's arrest on December 17, the police investigation involved 600 officers from nearly every force in the country.

The inquiry team received more than 12,000 calls from members of the public.

Almost 11,000 hours of CCTV footage were scrutinised. Other prostitutes in Ipswich were interviewed about their clients and told to stay off the street.

The crucial breakthrough came when Wright's DNA - which was on the police computer database after he was convicted of stealing £80 from his employer in 2002 - was found on one of the bodies.

During the trial, he told the jury he had used prostitutes for nearly a quarter of a century.

He said that after moving to Ipswich, he began to pick up women off the streets after dropping off his partner for nightshifts at a call centre.

Wright said he paid between £65 and £80 for sex in massage parlours, but only between £20 and £40 for street prostitutes.

He told the court it was "quite possible" he was the driver of a car seen in CCTV images that showed Nicol getting into a vehicle on the night of her killing.

Wright admitted having sex with Adams in his car at around the time she disappeared, and said that at later times he took the other women - Alderton, Clennell and Nicholls - back to his home for sex.

He would take them to his bedroom but would not use the bed in case his partner was able to smell them on the bedclothes.

Instead, he had sex with them on two jackets on the floor. The court heard bloodstains from Clennell and Nicholls were found on one of the jackets.

CPS lawyers said after the hearing that they had no evidence to link Wright with any other crimes, but sources said it was likely that detectives would review unsolved murders and cold cases.

    Steve Wright guilty of Suffolk murders, G, 21.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/21/steve.wright.guilty

Profile: Steve Wright

'My anger is buried deep inside'

Thursday February 21 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Karen McVeigh
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Thursday February 21 2008.
It was last updated at 15:41 on February 21 2008.

In a rare insight into what lay hidden behind his quiet persona, Steve Wright has described himself as a "placid person" who tended to bury anger "deep inside".

He admitted, in a letter to his father written while on remand in prison, that this was an "unhealthy" trait, but one that had stemmed from seeing enough "anger and violence in my childhood to last anyone a lifetime".

Born in April 1958 in Erpingham, Norfolk, Wright was the second of four children of his RAF policeman father, Conrad, and his mother, Patricia, a veterinary nurse. His unsettled upbringing began in West Beckham, Norfolk, and the family was constantly moving around the world to wherever his father was stationed. They lived in Malta and Singapore. But he would also stay with grandparents in Friston, near Saxmundham.

His parents' rocky marriage ended in a bitter split in the 1960s when Wright was still a child. Both remarried and his father and his new wife, Valerie, went on to have two more children, Keith and Natalie.

Conrad Wright, 72, told the Guardian that his ex-wife abandoned them, leaving Wright always searching for a mother figure. But his mother, Patricia, who now lives in San Diego, California, claimed in an interview in the News of the World that she was forced to leave because the marriage had grown violent. She said that she had wanted to take the children, and that Steve was afraid of his father, but was prevented from doing so.

Whatever the truth, Wright and his siblings, David, Jeanette and Tina, did not get on with his father's new wife, which led to further family rifts. He grew up into a shy young man who had difficulty with long-term relationships and holding down a job, and he developed a propensity to get into debt.

He left school at 16 with no qualifications and, after a job as a waiter in a hotel, joined the merchant navy, to work as a chef on ferries sailing out of Felixstowe. His first marriage to Angela O'Donovan, in 1978 in Milford Haven, produced a son, Michael, but it ended after eight years and he moved on.

As an adult, he was to repeat the pattern of his childhood, never settling for long in one place, on indeed one job, and has been variously employed as a dock worker, lorry driver, barman, pub landlord, fork-lift truck driver and as a steward on the QE2.

It was while on shore-leave trips abroad during his six years on the QE2 that he began using prostitutes. It was also on board the ship he met Diane Cassell, a window dresser for one of the shops, who would become his second wife. They left the QE2 to run a Norwich pub together, the Ferry Boat Inn, in the city's red-light district. The couple wed in 1987, when the brewers insisted they needed to be married to run the place. But it was a "disaster", according to his former wife, now Diane Cole, 53, and they split up within a year.

"I don't want to say too much but our marriage wasn't great. It wasn't good and I was glad when it ended," she told the Hartlepool Gazette.

Wright's tenancy of the Ferry Boat Inn, which was a haunt for prostitutes in the 1980s and 1990s, lasted five months, from May until September 1988. A year after the split, Wright struck up a relationship with Sarah Whiteley, a barmaid in the White Horse pub in Chislehurst he was running. They moved to Plumstead to run the Rose in Crown pub in 1990 and had a daughter together in 1992. But that relationship, too, foundered and they split up before the baby's first birthday. Whiteley told the News of the World that Wright lost his pub landlord job because of his gambling and drinking.

His mother, Patricia, who was reunited with Wright when she flew over for a Christmas visit in 1992, revealed that he fell out with her in a drunken rage. She said they had got on well, but before she left, her quiet son "changed completely" and left a "terrible, drunken message" on her phone. "It was F- this and F that" she told News of the World. "If he could say those terrible things he obviously didn't want anything to do with me."

Suicide attempts

During Wright's time in London, he began to visit massage parlours for sex, a habit he retained when he eventually moved back to Suffolk. By the mid-1990s, his constant gambling had taken its toll and, unable to see a way out of his spiralling debts, he tried to commit suicide by gassing himself in his car. He was found lying in an alley in Haverhill, Suffolk, and taken to hospital.

Whiteley received a suicide note from her former boyfriend around this time. "He said he missed his daughter, he didn't want to be a part-time dad and had lost everything," she said.

It was the first of two suicide attempts, which his step-brother Keith said were brought on by debts, a recurring problem. He was recently declared bankrupt after running up £30,000 in unsecured loans.

Keith, a tug driver, said the incident had a profound effect on Wright. "He went a bit quiet. Before that, he used to be quite outgoing. He would go for a beer and a laugh and a joke but then it was hard to get much out of him."

His second suicide attempt came in 2000, with an overdose of pills after he returned from a 10-week trip to Thailand, where again, he had ended up in debt after "some girl scammed him for everything he had" according to Keith. He had sold all his possessions, including his car and furniture, to fund the trip during which he once again enjoyed the services of foreign prostitutes.

Wright moved back in with his father and stepmother in Felixstowe for a while, where he met Pamela Wright, his current partner (their shared surname is a coincidence), and they moved in together in 2001. He was a member of Seckford golf club, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, and of the Brigands (the Brook Residents International Golf and Notable Delinquents Society) club, based at the hotel, where he worked for a few months as a publican and was remembered as a dapper dresser, who always played in black.

Later that year, he signed on for driving and labouring jobs with Gateway Recruitment Agency, first based in Levington and then Nacton, close to where Anneli Alderton's body was found.

Wright admitted in court he was familiar with the road where Alderton's body was found as he had driven down it numerous times. He was also aware of the geography of the area in Hintlesham, where Gemma Adams was found, because he had used it while working in nearby Hadleigh. He knew the Old Felixtowe Road in Levington, where the bodies of Annette Nichols and Paula Clennell were found, he said, but he denied any knowledge of the Copdock area where the body of Tania Nicol was deposited.

He said that he stopped going to massage parlours when he met Pamela and described their relationship as "pretty good" but six months after they moved to Bell Close in Ipswich, in 2004, he began again. He would visit Cleopatras and Oasis after golf on a Saturday or "when I got the urge", he said.

But by October 2006, he had discovered he could buy sex for as little as £20 from the drug-addicted and vulnerable women on the streets near his home. One woman working as a prostitute in Ipswich, who said she had sex with Wright three days after the fifth victim was found, said he was a regular whom the women felt safe with. But that night, December 18 2006, the 31-year-old woman, known as Kiera, said he had changed and turned "nasty".

"He pinned me down, He never used to do that. It did scare me when he did it because it wasn't like him. He was a bit nasty."

Kiera said: "When I heard he had been charged, I thought 'Oh my God, I've been in his house. He could've done anything.' I never thought it would be him. I thought it would be someone from another country, or just a maniac."

    'My anger is buried deep inside', G, 21.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/21/suffolkmurders.ukcrime1

Letter

Wright's letter to father from prison

The following is the full, uncorrected script
of a letter written by Steve Wright to his father, Conrad,
in February 2007 while on remand in Belmarsh prison,
south London

Thursday February 21 2008
Press Association
Guardian.co.uk
This article was first published
on guardian.co.uk on Thursday February 21 2008.
It was last updated at 16:29 on February 21 2008.

Number: TT6221 Name: Wright Wing: H213

Dear Dad

This is a reply to your letter you are right you have never seen me angry before because I am a quite and placid person whenever I get upset I tend to bury it deep inside which I suppose is not a healthy thing to do because the more I do that the more withdrawn I become because I have seen to much anger and violence in my childhood to last anyone a lifetime.

But what really makes me sad is the fact that I thought all the family fueds were behind me now I really thought we had made a step forward I just wish everyone would get along and work towards a family unit because all the bickering and point scoring against each other is really getting me down it seems you are pulling me one way and pam is pulling me the other and in the end something will give and it just seems to me that person will be me and that is the last thing that I want at the moment has I am sure you do as well because if I start to fall apart at the seams I don't think I could cope in here I need to be strong to cope with this nightmare like that but you said in the paper that when you looked in my eyes you would know whether I was guilty or not that really hurt me it was like a knife in the heart for you to even contemplate that I could even be capable of such a terrible crime.

You say you want to help me the only way that will happen is if you make the effort to work together because all this he said she said you must understand is not doing my frame of mind any good I just want it to stop I do love you dad but you must understand pam is my life now and I will always stick by her like she has by me she is having a rough time of it at the moment she has lost loads of wieght and is on all sorts of tablets when I saw her on tuesday I was shocked her face looked so withdrawn she looked really ill so she is my main concern at the moment she has made me the happyest I have been all my life she has pulled me out of myself it seems her only aim in life is to make me happy and vise versa so I will not tolerate anything bad said against her.

I would like to see you but I need to be sure that you are behind me 100% and that there are no hidden agenda's Pam is makeing no money from the press so where you got that from I don't know for one thing she is not allowed to talk to the press because she is a potential prosecution witness not that I am worried about that at all because everyone that knows me is a potential prosecution witness even you!

My head seems to be all over the place at the moment so please try and sort this out I know you are a proud man and don't like backing down but you are the only one that can sort this out you say you want to help so please do that one thing for me

Love Steve

    Wright's letter to father from prison, G, 21.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/21/suffolkmurders.ukcrime3

4pm GMT update

Ringleader of beheading plot

jailed for life

Monday February 18 2008
Guardian.co.uk
David Batty and agencies
This article was first published
on guardian.co.uk on Monday February 18 2008.
It was last updated at 16:02 on February 18 2008.

The ringleader of an Islamist group who plotted to kidnap and behead a British soldier and sent equipment to terrorists in Pakistan was today jailed for life.

High court judge Mr Justice Henriques said Parviz Khan, 37, who was not present for sentencing, would serve a minimum of 14 years.

Khan, of Foxton Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham, last month admitted the kidnap plot, supplying equipment to terrorists on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and two counts of being in possession of records or documents likely to be of use to a terrorist.

The judge, sitting at Leicester crown court, said: "You have been described by the Crown as a man who has the most violent and extreme Islamist views and as a fanatic.

"Having studied over the last month [the covert recordings], I unhesitatingly accept that description of you.

"You not only plotted to kill a soldier but you intended to film a most brutal killing."

The judge said Khan's aim was to deter any Muslim from joining the British army.

"This was not only a plot to kill a soldier but a plot to undermine the morale of the British army and inhibit recruitment," he said.

"It's plain that you were absolutely serious and determined to bring this plot to fruition. Unfortunately your enthusiasm was infectious and you dragged in your co-accused, every one of whom should curse the day they set their eyes on you."

In mitigation, Michael Wolkind QC, defending Khan, told the court that his client's plot had been a "mixture of fanaticism and fantasy".

Referring to the covert monitoring of Khan, he said: "If there had been a genuine threat, the buggers would have stopped it much earlier. There was a long way to go.

"His plan might have changed had British foreign policy changed. He might have withdrawn if the British troops were withdrawn."

But Mr Justice Henriques said: "So rampant are your views, so excitable your temperament, so persuasive your tongue and so imbued with energy are you, it's quite impossible to predict when, if ever, it will be safe for you to be released into the public.

"It was a plot whose purpose was to undermine democratic government, to demoralise the British army and to destabilise recruitment, and to cause anguish to the then prime minister of the day and the loyal citizens of the country."

Khan was given a minimum 14 years for the plot, eight years for the supply of equipment and two and a half years for both counts of being in possession of the records of documents. The sentences will run concurrently.

Sentences were also handed down on the four other men involved in Khan's terrorist cell.

Zahoor Iqbal, 30, of Perry Barr in Birmingham, was jailed for seven years for supplying equipment for terrorist acts and supplying money or property for use in terrorism. The court heard he sent more than £12,000 via a money transfer company in Birmingham to an office in Pakistan, which was retrieved by Khan.

The judge described him as a man of "exemplary character" who had become Khan's "right-hand man".

He said: "I accept that you were an assistant and not an orchestrator."

The judge noted that there had been some 60 character witnesses for Iqbal, "all of which spoke wonderfully well of you".

But he added: "Unfortunately there was a whole separate and distinct compartment in your life. You believed you had an obligation to jihad."

Mohammed Irfan, 31, of Asquith Road, Ward End, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to engaging in conduct with the intention of assisting in the commission of acts of terrorism - namely helping Khan to supply the equipment to Pakistan.

Hamid Elasmar, 44, of Bristol Road, Edgbaston, was jailed for three years and four months for pleading guilty to the same charge.

The judge said they were in a "very similar situation" but that Irfan was involved for a greater period of time.

Gambian Basiru Gassama, 30, of Radstock Avenue, Hodge Hill, was jailed for two years for failing to disclose information about the plot. Having already served that term, he was told that he now faces deportation. Sentencing him, the judge said: "You knew in very great detail what Parviz Khan was planning."

Amjad Mahmood, 32, of Jackson Road, Alum Rock, was cleared of knowing about Khan's plan to behead a British solider and failing to inform the authorities about it.

In a statement read by his lawyer, Mahmood thanked the jury for "all their hard work in coming to the decision about me".

He said: "I am not a terrorist, I am a Muslim. The government has to be responsible about how they deal with people accused of terrorism."

Asking for privacy, he said: "It has been the hardest year of my life. I am looking forward to returning to my family and seeing my six-month-old baby for the first time."

Speaking outside court, Rose-Marie Franton of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "The ringleader of this terrorist cell, Parviz Khan, pleaded guilty to a brutal and cold-blooded plot to kidnap and kill a British soldier."

The equipment which was collected and sent to Pakistan was intended to be used "against coalition forces".

The fact that four defendants pleaded guilty to offences showed "how strong" the prosecution case was, she added.

    Ringleader of beheading plot jailed for life, G, 18.2.2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/18/uksecurity

Algerian cleared of training pilots

for September 11 told he can sue

Friday, 15 February 2008
The Independent
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

Lotfi Raissi, 33, an Algerian pilot living in London, was arrested at his home in a raid authorised under the Terrorism Act, 10 days after the 9/11 attacks. Accused of being the "chief instructor" to the terrorists, Mr Raissi found himself at the centre of one of the biggest terror investigations in recent years. He was released after seven days but rearrested under an extradition warrant issued at the request of the US government.

Mr Raissi was told that if he was found guilty he could face the death penalty in America.

For nearly five months he was held in Belmarsh prison and only granted bail after overcoming objections from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which was representing the US. Mr Raissi was released after no evidence was put before a court to support the allegations. Lord Justice Hooper, giving yesterday's judgment, said: "The public labelling of the appellant as a terrorist by the authorities in this country, and particularly by the CPS, over a period of many months has had and continues to have, so it is said, a devastating effect on his life and on his health.

"He considers that, unless he receives a public acknowledgement that he is not a terrorist, he will be unable to get his life back together again."

The appeal judges also singled out the police and the CPS for criticism over the handling of the case. "In conclusion we consider that there is a considerable body of evidence to suggest that the police and the CPS were responsible for serious defaults," said the court.

Speaking after the judgment, Mr Raissi said he had suffered a miscarriage of justice, and had now been "completely exonerated". He added: "I always had faith in British justice. Surely I can expect to hear from the Home Secretary with the long-awaited apology very soon."

He said his wrongful arrest had left him blacklisted as a pilot and unable to work. "They destroyed my life, they destroyed my career. For this I will never forgive them," he said.

Lord Justice Hooper said: "We have allowed his appeal, ordering that the application for compensation be referred back to the Home Secretary for reconsideration." A Home Office spokesman said they are considering the implications and whether or not to appeal the decision.

In a statement, the CPS said: "We will be studying the issues raised which affect us. The judgment reaches no firm conclusions regarding the CPS and we were not formally involved in the proceedings."

Raissi's fight to clear his name

21 September 2001

Lotfi Raissi is arrested in a 3am raid on his flat close to Heathrow airport after an extradition request from the FBI.

28 September 2001

Released and then rearrested under an US extradition warrant. He is held in Belmarsh prison, south London, for four and a half months.
 

February 2002

Released on bail despite objection raised by the CPS.
 

24 April 2002

British judge dismisses case against him, saying there had never been any evidence to support the extradition.

June 2004

Makes an unsuccessful claim for compensation against the Home Secretary.

February 2006

Wins right to judicial review.

February 2007

Two High Court judges turn down his challenge.

February 2008

Court of Appeal exonerates him and says the Home Office should reconsider its decision not to compensate him.

    Algerian cleared of training pilots for September 11 told he can sue, I, 15.2.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/algerian-cleared-of-training-pilots-for-september-11-told-he-can-sue-782552.html

Terror law in tatters

as extremists go free

February 14, 2008
From The Times
Sean O’Neill, Crime and Security Editor

Dozens of anti-terrorist investigations and prosecutions are in jeopardy after senior judges yesterday quashed the convictions of five young Muslims for downloading extremist propaganda. Three Court of Appeal judges, led by the Lord Chief Justice, questioned whether they should ever have been prosecuted for merely possessing the material. The ruling means that in future the prosecution will have to prove that defendants intended to commit terrorist attacks.

The men, four university students and a schoolboy, who ran away from home saying that he wanted to die fighting jihad, are the first people to have convictions for Islamist terrorism overturned since the War on Terror began in 2001. The judges ordered that Irfan Raja, 20, Awaab Iqbal, 20, Aitzaz Zafar, 21, Usman Malik, 22, and Akbar Butt, 21 – who were in the dock to hear the judgment – be freed immediately. Three hours after the judgment was handed down, the five men walked out the front door of the court.

Mr Butt said: “Whatever happened has happened and I’m just happy to be out now. I won my freedom back.”

The judges’ ruling dealt a severe blow to the body of anti-terrorism legislation in Britain by rewriting two key sections of the Terrorism Act 2000. Sections 57 and 58 – which outlawed the possession of items likely to be of use or connected to terrorism – have been used by police and prosecutors to spearhead the fight against the radicalisation and recruitment of young Muslims.

The police regard the sections as a means of intervening early to prevent potential recruits going over seas to wage jihad or to receive terror training.

Continuing investigations will be urgently reviewed, cases awaiting trial under the legislation may have to be abandoned and a number of people convicted of terror offences, including Samina Malik, the so-called Lyrical Terrorist, are expected to lodge appeals.

Detectives said that the five men freed had large collections of extremist material and were planning to travel to Afghanistan to wage jihad.

Mr Raja left a farewell note for his parents and said that he would see them in Paradise. The trial judge said that the men had become “intoxicated” by extremism.

But human rights lawyers and Muslim community leaders claimed that no evidence of a terrorist plot had been uncovered. They argued that the Terrorism Act 2000 had been used to criminalise young people simply for harbouring radical thoughts.

The appeal court described the terror legislation as imprecise and uncertain and said that it allowed police to define terrorist offences far too widely.

The judges ordered that, in future cases, the Crown would have to prove that defendants clearly intended to engage in terrorism or that the items they possessed were of practical use to a terrorist.

They said the intention of the legislation had been to criminalise possession of items that might be used in making a bomb. The appellants, however, had only possessed literature.

The judgment said: “Literature may be stored in a book or on a bookshelf, or on a computer drive, without any intention on the part of the possessor to make any future use of it at all.”

The Crown Prosecution Service said that it was studying the judgment and considering an appeal to the House of Lords.

    Terror law in tatters as extremists go free, G, 14.2.2008, http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article3365890.ece

1pm GMT

Teenagers given life sentences

for Newlove murder

Monday February 11 2008
Guardian.co.uk
Fred Attewill and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday February 11 2008.
It was last updated at 14:14 on February 11 2008.

Three youths convicted of kicking and beating Garry Newlove to death outside his own home after a seven-hour drinking binge were today all jailed for life.

Adam Swellings was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 17 years. Stephen Sorton was handed a 15-year minimum sentence, and Jordan Cunliffe will serve at least 12 years.

Newlove was "kicked like a football" by the gang whom he had challenged after they vandalised vehicles outside his house in Warrington, Cheshire.

Swellings, 19, Sorton, 17, and Cunliffe, 16, were convicted last month at Chester crown court of murdering the father of three in front of his family. Jailing the teenagers, Judge Andrew Smith said: "You were three of a gang who attacked Garry Newlove only because he had the courage to remonstrate with you.

"For you all, drunken aggression was part of the night's entertainment. It was a gang attack, each of you continued to behave aggressively after you had finished with Garry Newlove."

Smith said the father of three did not provoke the gang in any way after he went out barefoot to confront the teenagers, who were vandalising his wife's car and a neighbour's digger.

"They were the actions of a courageous and devoted family man, who paid with his life," said the judge. "You three were only so brave because you outnumbered him many times over."

The judge added he had to consider the effect on Newlove's daughters of watching their father murdered in front of them when sentencing the gang.

The youths knocked the 47-year-old sales manager to the ground and punched and kicked him causing fatal injuries. Newlove's eldest daughter, Zoe, 18, said they kicked his head "like a football". Such was the force of the kicks that there was an imprint of a trainer on his head and a trainer lodged under his body.

His daughter Amy, who had been reading in her bedroom, had first called her father called him after looking out of her window and seeing a youth kicking her mother's car.

After the assault the youths just walked off, leaving Newlove's wife, Helen, and his three daughters to try to help him. He died in hospital two days later, having never regained consciousness.
Following the conviction of the three youths last month, it emerged Swellings had been freed on bail that morning, after appearing in court over offences including assault.

Helen Newlove has pledged to campaign for the government, parents and police to step up their response to anti-social behaviour so her husband "will not have died in vain". She broke down in tears when the judge sentenced Swellings.

During the trial, the jury heard Swellings was the ringleader of the gang and had drunk four litres of cider and smoked five cannabis joints. He threw the first punch, having approached the barefoot sales manager from behind. Egged on by the other gang members, who shouted "Get him" and "Do him, Swellhead", Swellings punched Newlove to the ground.

Sorton, who had consumed nine or 10 bottles of Stella Artois and one three-litre bottle of Frosty Jacks cider in the hours before the attack, then kicked Newlove with such ferocity he left his training shoe under the victim's body.

Smith today referred to Sorton attacking a boy with learning difficulties hours before killing Newlove. He said: "You indulged your taste for gratuitous bullying and violence that evening and you were one of those who started the violence against Garry Newlove."

Cunliffe, who was aged 15 on the night of the attack, also joined in, bragging to other gang members afterwards: "We've just banged a man and he's not moving."

    Teenagers given life sentences for Newlove murder, G, 11.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/11/ukcrime

7pm GMT

Abused wife gets 15 months

for killing husband

Wednesday February 6, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Fred Attewill and agencies

A mother-of-five found guilty of stabbing and battering her husband to death will serve 15 months after a judge heard of the "frightening" abuse she suffered.

Rina Begum, 33, attacked her husband Anhar Miah last April with a kitchen knife, rolling pin and hammer leaving with more than 100 injuries, including 70 slash wounds.

She was given a four-year sentence after an Old Bailey jury found her guilty of manslaughter by reason of provocation.

Begum, of East Ham, east London, will serve half the sentence, minus the 264 days she has spent in custody.

Judge Richard Hone told her that under new sentencing guidelines he would pass the shortest jail term that "matched the seriousness of the offence". He said: "I accept that over a number of years the relationship with your husband had been deeply unhappy and indeed from time to time frightening."

But he added: "I do not think that he was the wholly bad man that some of the evidence suggested."

Michael Worsley QC, prosecuting, told jurors: "It was a frenzied, sustained, ferocious assault."

The trial heard that her 37-year-old husband kept Begum and her children in conditions akin to "slum squalor".

Begum initially denied knowing anything about the killing but later claimed she was suffering mental and physical abuse at his hands, and feared for her life.

Police found the couple's flat littered with dead mice and a repulsive stench.

Begum told officers her husband would physically abuse her, swear in front of their children, use pornography and often appear glassy-eyed and intoxicated, apparently on drink or drugs . The judge said there had been a "cumulative period of provocation" punctuated by bursts of violence and "unpleasant verbal threats".

"I am wholly satisfied that you did feel degraded and lost self-esteem."

The judge added: "It exemplified the degree of loss of control and the build-up of the provocation which led to this explosive violence."

"But you must appreciate the harm and damage you have done to your five children and also to the family of Anhar."

    Abused wife gets 15 months for killing husband, G, 6.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2253451,00.html

6.15pm update

Boyfriend of model

denies argument led to murder

Wednesday February 6, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Helen Pidd

The boyfriend of the murdered teenager Sally Anne Bowman today denied killing her after the pair had a lengthy argument.

The Old Bailey heard that plasterer Lewis Sproston, 22, had quarreled with his on-off girlfriend for up to two hours when he dropped her off at her house in Croydon. Less than half an hour after he eventually drove away, Bowman was stabbed to death and then raped.

Mark Dixie, 37, is accused of murdering the teenager in the early hours of September 25 2005.

He denies murdering her, but admits having sex with her corpse while high on drink and drugs.

The jury was told Sproston, who was 20 when she died, had picked Bowman up from Croydon city centre the morning she was killed and drove her to the house where she was staying.

He parked his dad's car in her street and the pair argued for up to two hours over whether the other was seeing anyone else, Sproston said. He also admitted sending her a text message earlier in the evening threatening to spit in her face if he found out she had been with another man.

At one point, Bowman grabbed her boyfriend by his t-shirt and broke his necklace, said Sproston from the witness stand. But he insisted she was fine when he drove away at approximately 4.10am, and that he saw her heading towards her driveway where her near-naked, bloodied body was found hours later.

Cross-examining Sproston, the defence barrister Anthony Glass QC, asked if he had left Bowman "dead or dying".

Are you being serious?" said Sproston, before denying the allegation.

The court heard that when Sproston was arrested on suspicion of murder later that day on his way to McDonald's, he asked police: "Is this about the row with my girlfriend last night?"

Anthony Glass QC, defending Mark Dixie, asked Sproston if he had a "guilty conscience" about what happened. The plasterer replied: "Not really. I thought she made it home. I thought she was perfectly well and healthy. It was just a normal argument. "Me and Sally had an argument before and the police were called, a little domestic argument."

But under cross-examination he admitted the police had previously been involved in two other arguments between him and Bowman - once when he was accused of slapping her in the street and again when he was accused of spitting at her.

Today witness statements read out in court from the victim's three sisters and parents confirmed the pair had a tempestuous relationship and were very jealous of each other.

The girl's mother, Linda, said the last time she spoke to her daughter about Sproston, she said: "I do love Lewis, but we cannot be together, but we will always be friends."

The trial continues.

    Boyfriend of model denies argument led to murder, G, 6.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2253362,00.html

7.30pm GMT update

'Homicidal maniac'

stabbed and raped model,

court told

Tuesday February 5, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Fred Attewill and agencies

A "homicidal maniac" with a history of sexual violence stabbed the model Sally Anne Bowman seven times in a rape that ended in her murder, the Old Bailey heard today.

Bowman died in the driveway of her home after her boyfriend, Lewis Sprotson, had dropped her off shortly after 4am on Sunday September 25 2005.

The 18-year-old's underwear, white cardigan and Prada handbag had been taken. The rest of her clothes were rolled round her waist, and she was left lying in a pool of blood in front of her home in Blenheim Crescent, Croydon, south London, the court was told.

"Sally Anne's murder was motivated by sex. Her killer murdered her for his own sexual gratification," Brian Altman, prosecuting, said.

He said chef Mark Dixie, 37, claimed to have been under the influence of drink and drugs following his 35th birthday, and had "taken advantage of the situation".

"That, astonishingly, is his defence," he told the court. "It is born out of desperation. There is not a single grain of truth in it."

Altman claimed Dixie, who had lived in Australia for a time, was a man with a history of sexual violence.

In 1988, at the age of 17, he had indecently assaulted and punched a female Jehovah's Witness in London.

Ten years later, a 20-year-old Thai student was stabbed eight times by a sex attacker in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. She had caught a 6ft tall man wearing a black stocking over his head climbing in through her kitchen window.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, lost consciousness during the attack but later told a policeman she had been raped.

Her underwear was analysed in London last year, and a DNA match with Dixie was found, Altman said. He alleged there were "substantial" similarities with the attack on Bowman, including the woman's bag and make-up being taken.

Altman said Dixie's defence was a smokescreen, adding: "Mark Dixie killed Sally Anne with a knife, with which he had deliberately armed himself, and then had sexual intercourse with her. He had set off that night to commit a violent sex attack.

"The idea that in one and the same place there was not only a homicidal maniac who motivelessly stabbed a beautiful young woman to death, but also a sex offender, is a ludicrous claim born of desperation."

Dixie had spent the Saturday celebrating his 35th birthday with friends. He had been drinking and snorting cocaine.

He returned to their flat in Avondale Road, two streets away from Bowman's home.

In the morning, they found him on the sofa, where they had left him at 2.30am, the court heard. He was arrested nine months later at a pub in Horley, Surrey, where he was working and living.

After being taken to a police station and asked whether he had any medical conditions, he said: "I must be mental to do something like that, eh?", Altman told the court.

Among his belongings, police found a camera containing video film of him masturbating and ejaculating onto a newspaper picture of Bowman, it was alleged.

"He was re-iving the sexual acts and indignities ... he was reliving the killing," Altman said. "Sally Anne had been savagely and brutally killed."

She had been stabbed three times in the neck, collapsing through rapid blood loss. Then she was stabbed "savagely" through the abdomen with such force that the knife came out at the other end.

The defendant's DNA was found on Bowman's body, his bloody fingerprint on her shoe and his bite marks on her cheek, neck and right nipple, Altman said.

Her body was found near a skip, and concrete rubble had been placed on her body and in her mouth.

Bowman's mother, father and two of her sisters sat listening to the evidence at the back of the court.

Her mother, Linda, 45, and one of her daughters rushed from the courtroom when jurors were shown horrific pictures of the body after it was found.

The trial was adjourned to tomorrow.

    'Homicidal maniac' stabbed and raped model, court told, G, 5.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2252807,00.html

Abuse victims

win historic ruling on compensation

Tuesday, 5 February 2008
The Independent
By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

In the High Court yesterday a jugde granted an order freezing £200,000 of assets owned by Graham Pope, who was jailed in 2006 at Luton Crown Court for 20 indecent assaults on five girls between 1985 and 2000.

The judge said the women, one of whom is a university graduate and unable to work because of the psychological trauma associated with the abuse, had a good prospect of success in their claim against Pope.

Under the terms of the order the funds will be protected until the case has been fully heard.

Both women, who cannot be named, had been told that under the old law they could not sue Pope because they had not brought their claims within six years of their 18th birthdays. However, last week the law lords ruled that a 79-year-old retired teacher, known as Mrs A, should be paid compensation by Iorworth Hoare, who attacked her in Leeds in 1988 and has since won £7m in the Lotto competition. In the wake of the ruling, applications for compensation are now expected to target the assets of organisations, including the Catholic Church, involved in child abuse claims that were once ruled to be out of time.

The order yesterday, by Mr Justice Treacy, agreed to stop Pope from disposing of £200,000 worth of his property. Pope has denied having any financial means to make suing him worthwhile. But lawyers for the two women, both in their twenties and from Hertfordshire, told the court that Pope owns the property housing a Hyundai dealership in Hertfordshire which is currently being sold and is estimated to be worth £500,000.

Tracey Emmot, a specialist in child abuse law at the Luton-based Pictons solicitors, who is representing the women, said she was happy with the ruling.

"I am delighted that the court thinks that we have strong prospects of success and that its appropriate to freeze £200,000," said Ms Emmot. "One of the women has been unable to work because of the attack. She went to university but has since suffered a breakdown and is too ill to work.

"We hope to get compensation that will be put her in a position where this had never happened, if that is possible."

Ms Emmot said if the women won their claim it would be important because the court would have to assess the loss of potential earnings to her clients. She said she would now gather medical evidence to support the women's claims.

In last week's judgment, the law lords said that the courts should have unfettered discretion to allow compensation claims for sexual and other assaults to be brought, even if the time limit specified in the Limitation Act had expired.

Mrs A, who began her civil action against Hoare two years ago, had previously been ordered to pay her attacker's legal costs of £100,000 when her two previous attempts to bring a compensation case in the High Court and Court of Appeal failed. Mrs A received only £5,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board after the attack by Hoare 20 years ago. She says she still suffers from nightmares and claims the brutality of the attempted rape destroyed her self-esteem, wrecked her relationships and ruined her life.

Hoare was jailed for life in 1989 for the attack on Mrs A and spent 16 years in prison before winning £7m on Lotto Extra while on day release late in 2004.

He was freed on parole the following March and now lives in a £700,000 country house near Newcastle.

After the ruling, Mrs A said: "I genuinely thought I might die before I was able to see [Hoare] back in court. Now it feels as if justice is finally about to be done. No amount of money could mend the hurt he has inflicted on me. It was never about the money, it was about the justice, or injustice, in this case. I went through this case not just for myself but for all victims."

A spokesman for Pope's solicitors said that he was unable to comment on yesterday's ruling.

    Abuse victims win historic ruling on compensation, I, 5.2.2008, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/abuse-victims-win-historic-ruling-on-compensation-778018.html

4.30pm GMT

26-year jail term for £350m drug king

Friday February 1, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
Roxanne Escobales

A smuggler who is believed to have imported drugs with a street value of up to £350m, much of it hidden in garden furniture, was today jailed for 26 years.

Robert Flook, 46, of Eltham, south-east London, imported cannabis and cocaine in shipments from South Africa. The court heard that Metropolitan police officers discovered eight tonnes of cannabis with a wholesale value of £12m at Felixstowe in September 2006 in the police force's largest ever seizure of the drug.

At Blackfriars crown court, Flook was given the 26-year sentence for trying to ship 150kg of cocaine out of South Africa and into the UK. He was handed a 13-year sentence for the eight tonnes of marijuana he was caught bringing into the UK at the port at Felixstowe. The sentences will be served at the same time.

The Met worked with police in South Africa, where Flook's cocaine seizure occurred. It was the second largest cocaine bust in that country. They believe his narcotics trade has been operating since 2001.

Flook used two front businesses to import the drugs. Playaway Events Ltd based in south London and Belvedere, Kent imported the cannabis hidden in garden furniture. P&G Mirrors based in Brixham and Newton Abbey, Devon, brought the cocaine in with mirror shipments.

Three other British men were arrested in Johannesburg at the same time as Flook. Two of them, John Tutton, 56, and Tommy Mackinnon, 35, ran the South African arm of the drug empire through the two dummy businesses. They were each sentenced to 30 years in prison, the longest ever sentences for a drugs offence in South Africa.

The third man, Ernie Smith, 61, was acquitted.

During Flook's trial it was shown the network imported 11 containers containing cannabis between 2001 and 2006, which was valued at £132m wholesale value or £308m street value.

Detective Inspector Craig Turner, who led the sting, said: "These convictions are the result of months of work between law enforcement agencies in the UK and South Africa, and the sentence represents the substantial damage these drugs would have caused."

    26-year jail term for £350m drug king, G, 1.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2251013,00.html

Nottingham court

places Baby G into care

Friday February 1 2008
Guardian.co.uk
David Batty and agencies
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Friday February 01 2008.
It was last updated at 16:18 on February 01 2008.

A teenage mother today had her baby son removed and placed in care for the second time this week.

The 18-year-old woman won back her son, referred to in court as G, on Wednesday lunchtime after obtaining an emergency high court order that ruled social workers had broken the law when they removed the baby at 4am on Tuesday, two hours after his birth.

But social services officials from Nottingham city council succeeded on their second attempt to obtain an interim care order and remove the four-day-old boy from his mother.

At Nottingham county court, district judge Richard Inglis said the baby must be placed in local authority foster care.

The judge said: "The removal by court order of a child from the care of his mother soon after birth is a very grave step to take and is to be taken only when the welfare of the child makes it necessary.

"In this case, the court has decided that the welfare of G requires that he lives in local authority foster care on an interim basis while further inquiries are made and assessments carried out. His mother will have frequent periods of contact with him each week.

"When the further inquiries have been made, the court expects to be in a better position later this year to make a decision about who should care for G and what part his mother and other members of his family should play in his future care."

The child was removed without the mother's consent after hospital staff were shown a "birth plan" prepared by social services officials.

The plan said the mother, who had a troubled childhood and suffers from mental health problems, was to be separated from the child and no contact allowed without supervision by social workers.

But high court judge Mr Justice Munby ruled on Wednesday that the baby should be immediately returned to his mother.

Mother and child were reunited 46 minutes after the order was made yesterday afternoon.

The mother, who has just left local authority care, has vowed to fight to keep her child.

Her solicitor, Stuart Luke, said earlier this week that she planned to "vigorously contest" an application by the local authority social services for an interim care order.

In a statement issued after the hearing, the local authority said: "Nottingham city council is pleased that the court has now made an interim care order that enables the council to provide appropriate protection for the baby whilst continuing to support the mother who is also our concern in this case.

"The council does not intend to say anything about the background to the case which is not already public. Suffice to say that the council and a range of other partner agencies had enough concern for the baby's welfare during the pregnancy to believe that action would be needed to protect the baby when it was born.

"The law does not allow application for a court order before birth. The protection plan made in advance included the intention to apply for a care order immediately following the birth of this baby."

The decision to seek an interim care order for an emergency protection order was taken at a meeting in December at which the mother and her legal representatives were present, it added.

    Nottingham court places Baby G into care, G, 1.2.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/01/childprotection1

10.45am GMT update

Victim succeeds in claim

against lottery-winning rapist

Wednesday January 30, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
David Batty and agencies

A retired teacher today won a landmark law lords ruling giving her the right to claim compensation from a serial rapist who won £7m on the national lottery.

The 78-year-old woman tried to sue Iorworth Hoare after he won the lottery in 2004, but was unsuccessful because the sex attack happened 19 years ago.

The unanimous ruling backed Mrs A and people featured in four other sexual abuses cases, some involving children. It is expected to pave the way for thousands of victims to pursue claims for damages many years after their abuse.

The five cases considered by the law lords were sent back to the high court to be reconsidered in light of today's ruling.

The law lords ruled that claims for sexual assault should be brought within three years in future - in line with other civil claims for damages - but said courts should have the discretion to extend the period to permit older claims, removing the six-year cut-off point.

In a statement read by solicitor Sandra Baker, Mrs A said she hoped her compensation claim could now be speedily settled at the high court.

"I am both delighted and relieved that my appeal to the House of Lords has been successful and that I have succeeded in changing a law which will provide others in the future with a means of achieving justice," she said. "It was this, rather than financial gain, which motivated me to begin this process two years ago.

"It is to be hoped that my claim for damages against Iorwoth Hoare will now be brought to a speedy resolution without the need for me to endure further protracted litigation.

"I hope that many others in the future will be able to benefit from the change in the law which I helped to bring about."

The charity Victim Support welcomed the ruling but said it would help few people. Its spokesman, Paul Fawcett, said: "It's very good news for her but the wider significance is questionable because the vast majority of offenders don't have assets to chase.

"We have long campaigned for a public fund to allow the courts to award compensation, leaving it to the courts to recover assets from the offender and allowing the victim to walk away and put the crime behind them."

Mrs A lost her case in the high court and court of appeal, and was ordered to pay Hoare's £100,000 legal costs. Her case was one of five appeals heard at the House of Lords on how the Limitation Act affected claims in abuse cases.

Mrs A, who received £5,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, sought compensation from Hoare for psychiatric injury caused by the "violent and disgusting" attempted rape in February 1988.

Hoare, 59, who had subjected six other women to serious sexual assaults, including rape, attacked her as she walked in Roundhay Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire. The retired teacher says she still suffers from nightmares and claims the brutality of the attack destroyed her self-esteem, wrecked her relationships and ruined her life.

Hoare had not been worth suing until he won £7m. He was jailed for life in 1989 and spent 16 years in prison before buying the winning Lotto Extra ticket while on day release. He was released in 2005 and is reported to live in a £700,000 house near Newcastle.

    Victim succeeds in claim against lottery-winning rapist, G, 30.1.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2249056,00.html

Five found guilty of UK's biggest heist

· Gang who stole £53m face possible life sentences
· Police hunt for more than half the haul still missing

Tuesday January 29, 2008
Guardian
Duncan Campbell


The gang behind Britain's largest robbery face the possibility of life sentences after being convicted yesterday at the end of a seven-month trial at the Old Bailey. Police are still trying to trace more than half of the £53m stolen in an audacious raid on a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, almost two years ago, and some key members of the gang are still at large.

The jury returned their verdicts after 36 hours of deliberation over eight days and convicted Lea Rusha, Stuart Royle, Roger Coutts, Emir Hysenaj and Jetmir Bucpapa of conspiracy to kidnap and rob. The diverse team of criminals from south London, Kent and Albania will be sentenced today after pleas of mitigation have been made on their behalf.

Royle, who has not been attending the trial and has remained in his cell in Belmarsh prison after dismissing his defence team, was being asked last night if he wanted to attend today's sentencing.

Two other defendants, John Fowler, who was also charged with conspiracy, and Keith Borer, who was charged with handling stolen goods, were both acquitted. Michelle Hogg, the hairdresser who made the disguises used by the robbers, was acquitted last year and gave evidence against her former co-defendants. She is now under a witness protection scheme.

The gang received the verdicts impassively, after the trial judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, warned the court that the jury's decision was to be received in silence. Some of the robbers shook hands with Fowler after he was cleared. Bucpapa, the young Albanian who was a key figure in the plot, laughed and smiled. The judge excused the jury from ever serving again.

Outside the court, Superintendent Paul Gladstone of Kent police, which spent £5m on the investigation, welcomed the verdict. "I am extremely satisfied with the results," he said. "It was an extremely complex case."

Nigel Pilkington of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "This crime was, at its heart, a crime of violence." He paid tribute to the Securitas depot manager, Colin Dixon, and his wife, Lynn, who with their child were kidnapped and held at gun-point so that the robbery could go ahead.

"The events of that night will no doubt stay with those people for the rest of their lives," said Pilkington of the Dixons and the 14 Securitas employees who were also in fear of their lives during the robbery. He added that attempts to reclaim almost £32m still missing from the raid would continue. "This is not the end of the matter for these criminals," he said. "We intend to seize their ill-gotten gains, wherever they may be."

Roger Coe-Salazar, who headed the Kent prosecution service team, said of the conspiracy: "It was very clever in parts and very naive in others. There were some very sophisticated preparations and some very silly mistakes, but it's quite wrong for it to end up being romanticised in an Ocean's 12 way. There is nothing romantic about a child being held at gunpoint by a masked man."

Sitting in the Old Bailey canteen after being cleared, Fowler, the car dealer whose farm was used by the robbers as a "flop" where they could share the money, said he was still trying to take in the verdict.

"I am shell-shocked at the moment," he said. "I will be having some champagne tonight - but watered down."

Borer, who was also acquitted, said that he had been unable to sleep for the past week during the jury's deliberations.

The defendants

 

Guilty

Lea Rusha, 35, from Southborough, a suburb of Turnbridge Wells. One of the main plotters. A criminal with convictions for violence and theft dating from his youth, he organised the reconnaisance of the Dixon house, took part in the robbery and had a role in hiding the money, £8.6m of which was found in a garage near his home.

Stuart Royle, 49, Car salesman, lived in Redpits near Maidstone, ex-business partner of John Fowler. In financial difficulties: his house was repossessed and he was living with his girlfriend. Told the police when arrested, "my life has been chaotic". He was in charge of transport for the robbery and found out where Dixon lived.

Roger Coutts, 30, from south-east London. Previous convictions for affray, disorderly behaviour and theft. Linked to the robbery by his DNA on nine of the cable ties used for handcuffing Securitas employees. Also linked to premises in Welling where police found £9.7m in stolen cash.

Emir Hysenaj, 28, Albanian, lived in Crowborough. The inside man who made a video of the depot using a tiny hidden camera. The plotters made inquiries about such equipment at two electronics shops in London and Chesterfield. Had a shoplifting conviction.

Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, from Tonbridge. Also Albanian and a friend of Hysenaj, he helped to organise the video reconnaisance.

 

Acquitted

John Fowler, 59, acquitted on all counts. Owner of Elderden farm which was used for the 'flop', for dividing up the money. Hired the Renault lorry that was used and told police he was hardly likely to have done so under his own name if he was involved. Blamed Royle for his arrest and told police that the two men had a "give and take" relationship - "he takes and I give".

Keith Borer, 54, a signwriter. Acquitted of handling stolen money.

    Five found guilty of UK's biggest heist, G, 29.1.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2248537,00.html

Youths guilty of killing man

'kicked like a football'

· Garry Newlove attacked after challenging vandals
· Police urge crackdown on sales of cheap alcohol

Thursday January 17, 2008
Guardian
Vikram Dodd and Helen Carter

Three youths were yesterday convicted of kicking and beating a man to death outside his own home after a seven-hour drinking binge.

Garry Newlove was "kicked like a football" by a gang of youths whom he had challenged after they vandalised vehicles outside his house in Warrington, Cheshire. After the verdict police demanded a crackdown on cheap alcohol.

Adam Swellings, 19, Stephen Sorton, 17, and Jordan Cunliffe, 16, were convicted at Chester crown court of murdering the father of three in an assault witnessed by his family. Two other youths were acquitted after the jury deliberated for more than 55 hours.

It emerged during the trial that some of the youths were living a "feral" lifestyle in a house vacated by one of their parents.

The youths knocked their victim to the ground, and punched and kicked him causing fatal injuries. Newlove's eldest daughter, Zoe, 18, said they kicked his head "like a football". Such was the force of the kicks that there was an imprint of a trainer on his head and a trainer lodged under his body.

Police had confiscated alcohol from the gang earlier that day, but they had been able to buy more.

Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Cheshire, said Britain's drink culture had to change and his officers were spending far too much of their time dealing with drunken young males and the consequences of the alcohol industry.

He demanded an increase in the price of alcohol and a crackdown on its availability, to stop it falling into hands of "feral" youths who then went on to commit violent attacks.

"Officers would say they police the alcohol industry. They take the kid home and the next weekend they do the same thing." He said supermarkets and off-licences were selling alcohol too cheaply. "The price in supermarkets has reduced while it has increased in pubs and clubs. Celebrity culture says getting drunk is a good thing," he said.

Some of the youths who attacked Newlove were "reasonably decent people who drink too much and do something stupid and attack someone", he said, adding: "It is an awful tragedy for the Newlove family and for the youngsters who ruin their lives by drinking too much."

The age limit for buying alcohol from off licences should be raised to 21, he said.

Newlove was attacked in August last year after leaving his house, barefoot, to remonstrate with a gang who had smashed the window of a digger parked nearby. His daughter Amy, who had been reading in her bedroom, had called him after looking out of her window and seen a youth kicking her mother's car.

Three months earlier, Newlove had met his local police community support officer to discuss youth disorder and outline his plans for a Neighbourhood Watch. However, no action had been taken.

During the attack, Newlove curled up into a foetal position with his hands over his head in an attempt to protect himself from the blows raining down on him. Afterwards, the youths just walked off, leaving Newlove's wife, Helen, and his three daughters - who witnessed the attack - to try to help him.

He died in hospital two days later, having never regained consciousness.

Ian Rushton, the chief prosecutor for the CPS in Cheshire, speaking outside the court, said: "This was a callous crime committed by young men. They kicked and punched Mr Newlove to death, leaving his three daughters without a devoted dad and his wife without a loving husband."

Last night Newlove's widow, Helen, issued a statement, saying "the light has gone out of our lives" and her daughters were still suffering flashbacks.

"Parents should take responsibility for their children," she said, not let them walk the streets, "causing damage and intimidating other people by drinking and abusive language". She called on shopkeepers in particular to be more vigilant about youths buying alcohol.

Helen Newlove's statement:

"We were an ordinary working-class family. Garry was a caring, loving, funny and most of all a family man. We did everything together for 26 years. He adored his daughters Zoe, Danielle and Amy - always attended their school sports days and parents' evenings and we were always keen to encourage them to achieve their best.

"The light has gone out of our lives. ... My soulmate has gone and I just want to see and hear Garry. To have to turn off his life support machine because of this needless and senseless act, I find hard to comprehend.

"All Amy wanted was for her dad to open his eyes and so he could see that she was there. How do you tell your 13-year-old that he will never open his eyes? All Amy sees in her mind is the picture of her dad being beaten to death and lying on the ground lifeless.

"As far as I am concerned life should mean life. After all, the tariff for murder is mandatory, but why, as the justice system does not uphold this sentence?

"Parents should take responsibility for their children. Garry and I have brought up three girls together to respect other people and to be home, not walking the streets causing damage and intimidating other people by drinking and abusive language."

    Youths guilty of killing man 'kicked like a football', G, 17.1.2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2241975,00.html

3pm GMT update

Former publican

murdered five women, court told

Wednesday January 16, 2008
Guardian Unlimited
James Orr and agencies

A former pub landlord "systematically selected and murdered" five prostitutes in a 10-day period just before Christmas 2006, a jury was told today.

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC told jurors at Ipswich crown court that 49-year-old Steve Wright was "indeed responsible" for the deaths of the victims.

Speaking at the start of a trial expected to last at least six weeks, Wright revealed how the defendant may have committed the murders "with the assistance of another".

He also said that the bodies of two of the five prostitutes killed had been posed in a "cruciform shape" with their arms outstretched.

"It is the Crown's case that the similarities in respect of the pathological findings are such that it is reasonable to conclude that their deaths were no accident but rather the deliberate conduct of another or others, in which these women were being systematically selected and murdered," Wright said.

"In the 10 days that elapsed from December 2 to 12 2006, their bodies began to turn up. It is the prosecution's case that each of them was murdered by this man [Wright]."

Steve Wright, of Ipswich, Suffolk, denies murdering Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

Earlier this morning, his trial before Judge Mr Justice Gross was delayed while the initial jury expected to hear the case was discharged.

One member of the jury was reported as having an unspecified health problem. A new jury of nine men and three women was later sworn in and the trial got under way.

The five murder victims were found in remote locations near Ipswich between December 2 and 12 2006. Each appeared to have died from either asphyxiation or strangulation. Their bodies were all completely naked.

The bodies of Alderton and Nicholls had both been deliberately left with their arms outstretched, the court heard.

Peter Wright also told jurors that the deaths of two of the other victims, Adams and Nicol, were "inextricably linked".

He said: "We say the circumstances of their disappearance, the location at which their bodies were found, the condition of the bodies and the manner of their deaths will lead you to the conclusion that their deaths were, in fact, no coincidence. Rather the work of the defendant, either alone or with the assistance of another."

The prosecutor, who told the court that he would probably spend today and part of tomorrow outlining the case against Wright, went on to say that all five victims had resorted to prostitution to fund their drug addiction.

He added: "In each of their cases, this decision was ultimately to prove fatal."

The court also heard that all five women were of slight build and weighed no more than 65kg (9stone). In their drug-intoxicated state, none would have been "any match" for their "assailant or assailants", the prosecutor said.

Wright was remanded in custody pending his trial after entering five not guilty pleas during a hearing at Ipswich crown court in May 2007.

Detectives launched an inquiry after Nicol vanished on October 30 2006. Just over two weeks later, Adams was reported missing after going to work in Ipswich's red light district.

Her body was discovered in a brook at Hintlesham on December 2 2006. Six days after that, Nicol's body was found in water in nearby Copdock.

The body of Alderton was found in woodland at Nacton on December 10 and, on December 12, the bodies of Clennell and Nicholls were found in woods at Levington.

Wright, who will be 50 in April, was charged on December 21 2006 after being arrested on December 19.

His relatives, along with the family of some of the victims watched proceedings from the court gallery. They included Nicol's father, Jim Duell, and other members of the Nicol family.

Members of Wright's family, including his elder brother, David, his father, Conrad, and his half-brother, Keith, also attended court.

The trial continues.

Former publican murdered five women, court told, G, 16.1.2008,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2241607,00.html