How a day of football celebrations turned to chaos in Liverpool
The driver of a car that ploughed into a crowd, injuring 65 people, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and driving while under the influence of drugs, British police said.
The mood in Liverpool had been jubilant. Paul O'Brien and his family had flown in from Ireland to celebrate
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NZ Herald
2 days ago
- NZ Herald
Film director stabbed to death in her London home ‘for diamond Rolex'
A film director was killed in her home in a stabbing that British police fear may have been carried out to steal her diamond Rolex watch. Jennifer Abbott, 69, was found with stab wounds at her house in Camden, north London, on June 13. She had last been seen
1News
7 days ago
- 1News
Men who stole $10m golden toilet sentenced to prison terms
Two burglars who plotted the heist of a $6.4 million (NZ$10.6 million) golden toilet, a fully-functional 18-karat piece of contemporary art that was ripped from the plumbing of an English mansion, were sentenced today to more than two years in a British prison. The satirical commentary on consumer culture, titled 'America,' by Italian conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan, had only been on display for a couple days when five burglars swiped it from Blenheim Palace — the country mansion where British wartime leader Winston Churchill was born — in September 2019. The purloined potty was never recovered and was believed to have been chopped up and sold. 'This bold and brazen heist took no more than 5 1/2 minutes to complete,' Judge Ian Pringle said in Oxford Crown Court. 'America has never been seen again.' James Sheen, 40, a roofer who pleaded guilty to burglary, conspiracy and transferring criminal property, was sentenced to four years in prison. Michael Jones, 39, who worked for Sheen and was convicted of burglary at trial, was sentenced to two years and three months. Toilet once offered to Trump ADVERTISEMENT The toilet weighed just over 98 kilograms and was worth more than its weight in gold. The value of the bullion at the time was 2.8 million pounds (NZ$5.8 million), but it was insured for 4.7 million pounds (more than NZ$9.9 million). The piece by Cattelan, whose work of a banana duct-taped to a wall was sold in 2024 for $6.2 million (NZ$10.3 million) at auction in New York, poked fun at excessive wealth. It had previously been on display at The Guggenheim Museum in New York. When US President Donald Trump asked the museum to loan him a Van Gogh painting during his first term in office, the Guggenheim cheekily offered the toilet instead. The White House did not accept the offer. The toilet had just gone on display when Jones visited the museum twice, booking a viewing the day before the theft to take photos, check out the lock and have his own private session on the golden throne. He deemed the experience 'splendid' during his testimony. Cameras capture swift smash-and-grab The next morning before dawn the gang of thieves crashed through the wooden gates of the palace in two stolen vehicles and tore across well-tended lawns. They pulled up to the estate's courtyard and smashed a window that Jones had photographed the day before. The thieves used sledgehammers and a crowbar to wrench the toilet from its foundation, causing considerable damage to the 18th-century property, a UNESCO World Heritage site filled with valuable art and furniture that draws thousands of visitors each year. ADVERTISEMENT Surveillance footage showed one of the men, whose face was hidden in a black mask, walking from the palace with a golden toilet seat in his hand. Two other men appeared to lift something golden into the trunk of a waiting car and the suspension sagged under the weight. Sheen's DNA was found on a sledgehammer left behind at the scene of the crime indicating he was among the burglars. Investigators also found hundreds of gold fragments on a pair of sweatpants at his home, which had come from cutting up the spoils of the caper. Sheen had sent a relative a photo of 520,000 pounds (NZ$1.1 million) in cash, which a prosecutor said was for the sale of about a fifth of the gold. None of the gold or money has ever been recovered and no one else was charged with the theft. Detective Superintendent Bruce Riddell of the Thames Valley Police said the investigation is ongoing and could include recovering luxury goods that were purchased with proceeds from the crime. He said investigators are confident they know at least two of the other culprits but don't have the evidence yet to charge them. Another convict, Frederick Doe, 37, also known as Frederick Sines, who tried to help Sheen find a buyer for the gold was spared a jail term when Pringle sentenced him last month to a suspended sentence for conspiracy to transfer criminal property. Pringle said the thieves had taken advantage of him. Law catches up with long-time criminals ADVERTISEMENT Both Sheen and Jones had lengthy criminal records, prosecutor Julian Christopher said. At the time of the burglary, Sheen was on parole for a firearms conviction that involved a running gun battle with another car that injured passengers in a third vehicle. He was arrested for additional crimes while on release and has since been sentenced to serve more than 19 years in prison. Jones had a record dating back to the age of 13 that included burglary, several car thefts and robbery. Almost six years ago, on the eve of the heist, Jones did his reconnaissance work testing out the toilet. It was a Friday the 13th (local time), a day many consider unlucky. For several years it appeared that fortune had favoured the burglars. They avoided charges for more than four years and several thieves have not been brought to justice. But Sheen and Jones ultimately paid a price for their roles — on Friday the 13th (local time).
1News
13-06-2025
- 1News
What to know as anti-immigrant violence flares in Northern Ireland town
Police in Northern Ireland say 17 officers were injured during a second night of anti-immigrant violence in the town of Ballymena, where rioters threw bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and fireworks and set several vehicles and houses on fire. Police used water cannon and fired rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of several hundred people. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said Wednesday that the violence died down by about 1am (local time). Five people were arrested on suspicion of "riotous behaviour". What sparked the violence? Riot police wear armour and carrying shields in Ballymena, as people take part in a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town. (Source: Associated Press) Violence erupted Monday after a peaceful march to show support for the family of the victim of an alleged sexual assault on the weekend. Two 14-year-old boys have been charged. ADVERTISEMENT The suspects have not been identified because of their age. They were supported in court by a Romanian interpreter. After the march, a crowd of mostly young people set several houses on fire and pelted police with projectiles. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said 15 officers were injured that night. There were similar scenes after dark on Tuesday, as well as small pockets of disorder in several other Northern Ireland towns. Police said agitators on social media were helping fuel what Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson called "racist thuggery". What is the background? In this image taken from PA Video, people protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town of Ballymena, Northern Ireland. (Source: Associated Press) Some politicians said immigration had strained the town of about 30,000 some 40km northwest of Belfast, long known as a bastion of hard-line pro-British Loyalism. ADVERTISEMENT Jim Allister, leader of the conservative party Traditional Unionist Voice, said "unchecked migration, which is beyond what the town can cope with, is a source of past and future tensions". Some Romanians in Ballymena told Britain's PA news agency they had lived in the town for years and were shocked by the violence. Several houses in the Clonavon Terrace area that was the focus of the violence put up signs identifying their residents as British or Filipino in an apparent attempt to avoid being targeted. Henderson said there was no evidence that Loyalist paramilitaries, who still hold sway over Protestant communities, were behind the disorder. Has this happened before? Emergency services work outside a house in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, as people protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town. (Source: Associated Press) Northern Ireland has a long history of street disorder stretching back to tensions between the British unionist and Irish nationalist communities. ADVERTISEMENT Though three decades of violence known as "the Troubles" largely ended after a 1998 peace accord, tensions remain between those — largely Protestants — who see themselves as British and Irish nationalists, who are mostly Catholic. In Belfast, "peace walls" still separate working-class Protestant and Catholic areas. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds including passengers stuck on ferry overnight, new flights to Sydney coming, and the weirdest things we leave in Ubers. (Source: 1News) Street rioters sporadically clash with police, and recently immigrants have become a target. Anti-immigrant violence erupted in Northern Ireland as well as England last year after three girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the northwest England town of Southport. Authorities said online misinformation wrongly identifying the UK-born teenage attacker as a migrant played a part. What will happen next? A burnt-out overturned car on the street following a second night of violence during a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town. (Source: Associated Press) Police condemned the latest violence and said they would call in officers from England and Wales to bolster their response if needed. All the parties in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government issued a joint statement appealing for calm and urging people to reject "the divisive agenda being pursued by a minority of destructive, bad faith actors". On the alleged sexual assault, the statement added that "it is paramount that the justice process is now allowed to take its course so that this heinous crime can be robustly investigated. Those weaponising the situation in order to sow racial tensions do not care about seeing justice and have nothing to offer their communities but division and disorder."
