Fresh appeal for witnesses in Newark murder investigation

Police have launched a new appeal for information as part of a murder investigation following a man's death in Newark.Nottinghamshire Police said the man had been driving when he "reportedly suffered a medical emergency so pulled over" in Lombard Street just before 17:00 BST on Monday.He received treatment at the roadside but was pronounced dead at the scene, the force added.Officers said they believed the man could have sustained injuries in a fight that reportedly took place on or close to Albert Street in the town at about 16:00 on Monday.
A 19-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder earlier this week remains in police custody, the force said.Meanwhile, a 37-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl have been released on conditional bail, having both been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Police said the victim's family continued to be supported by specially trained officers and had requested privacy at this time.Det Ch Insp Ruby Burrow said: "We currently suspect the man sustained the injuries that led to his death in a separate incident that same day."At this stage, we believe this may have happened during a potential fight in the Albert Street area about an hour earlier."Due to the time of day and the area's location close to Newark town centre, there is a strong chance that someone will have seen something happen."If that was you and you haven't done so yet, it is essential that you report this information to the police."

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Times

an hour ago

• Times

Palestine Action group shows no signs of slowing down

'We are tired of being ignored. It is up to all of us to stop this complicity' were the words that launched Palestine Action almost five years ago. Founded by Huda Ammori, who has Palestinian and Iraqi heritage, and Richard Barnard, a veteran left-wing activist, the fledgling group said direct action should be taken against Elbit Systems, a weapons manufacturer that they claim 'profits from Israel's war crimes'. Two months later, in September 2020, they did just that. Activists occupied a factory in Shenstone, in Staffordshire, smashing windows, drilling holes into ceilings, throwing air conditioning units to the ground and dousing the building in red paint. The demonstration marked the start of co-ordinated attempts to damage both the defence firm facilities and finances across the country, which have propelled the group on a path towards proscription. Throughout 2021 Palestine Action widened its activities, occupying a drone factory in Leicester. The occupation lasted six days, and ten arrests were made for conspiracy to commit criminal damage and aggravated trespass. The defendants were cleared after the trial judge instructed the jury to consider the common law defence of Necessity. After launching their Scottish branch, they targeted Thales, another defence firm. Having infiltrated its Glasgow facility in 2022, the activists allegedly caused more than £1 million of damage. Five were jailed after members of the group threw a smoke bomb into an area where staff were being evacuated. Protesters in red suits and balaclavas also caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of damage to an electronics plant in Wales that year, which they believed was making circuit boards for Israeli drones. The group's activities ramped up after the October 7, 2023 attacks. As Israeli forces announced a 'full siege' on Gaza, Palestine Action published a list of over 50 targets 'complicit in Elbit's murderous arms trade'. A few days later they sprayed the headquarters of the BBC — which wasn't on the list — with red paint to 'symbolise complicity in genocide'. Protestors also blockaded Lockheed Martin in Bedford, smeared red paint over the Foreign Office and targeted the headquarters of aerospace firm Leonardo, at which two men were arrested for what the Met called racially aggravated criminal damage. Their actions began to go beyond scaling roof tops and breaking factory windows. Members of the campaign group allegedly used a modified prison van to ram the entrance of Elbit's Bristol HQ last summer. Once inside they dismantled weapons, allegedly caused £1 million in damage and assaulted two officers were with a sledgehammer, police said. Eighteen people were charged and held on remand over the break-in. Less than a month after members of Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting, two Palestine Action members squirted tomato ketchup at a statue of former prime minister Arthur Balfour. The former foreign secretary has been a focus of activist anger as he was the signatory of the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 document that pledged support for the establishment of a 'national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine. In March 2024, the group used blades to slash a painting of Lord Balfour hanging in the University of Cambridge. Seven months later — to mark the declaration's anniversary — they reportedly stole two busts of Israel's first president from the University of Manchester's chemistry building. As Palestine Action grew in notoriety and numbers, the British state also became a target. Early in 2024, six members were arrested for allegedly plotting to prevent the London Stock Exchange from opening. Activists have inevitably attracted the attention of authorities and received jail time. Among the first to be hauled before the courts were five members in November 2022, who had covered Elbit's Kingsway offices in their, now signature, red paint. They were, however, acquitted by a jury of 'conspiracy to commit criminal damage' and the offices later closed. Palestine Action declared a victory for this and for the closure of an Elbit factory in Oldham, where their sustained protests had resulted in 36 arrests. In August 2024, five members of the group were handed custodial sentences for protest action. It took two years for the courts to hand out suspended prison sentences and order the protesters to pay more than £5,000 in compensation after seven activists broke into the Bristol headquarters of Elbit to destroy equipment. Zoë Rogers turned 21 in prison. She had been charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary in relation to the Bristol incident after telling her mother, Clare, that the pro-Palestine marches 'weren't working'. She was denied bail and is on remand with a trial set for November 2025. Fatema Zainab was arrested and charged as part of the same operation. As the court system caught up in December 2023, two members of a group known as the Elbit Eight, Genevieve Scherer and Jocelyn Cooney, were acquitted on charges relatingfrom July 2020 to January 2021. Their defence had argued that they were justified in 'working to disrupt manufacture of Israel's weaponry'. Richard Barnard was convicted of one count of criminal damage at the now-closed Elbit factory in Oldham.

BBC News

an hour ago

• BBC News

Rural crime gangs 'scoping out' farms to steal equipment, NFU says

Organised crime groups are "scoping out" farms in order to steal equipment including quad bikes and 4x4s, Wales' leading farming union has said."They know where these items are and they often know where the keys are kept, so it can be very intrusive," said Abi Reader, National Farmers' Union (NFU) Cymru's deputy cost of rural crime fell across the UK in 2024 except in Wales where it rose by 18% to £2.8m, NFU research shows – however this was also one of the lowest figures across the Police said it was aware of the worry caused by rural crime, and would continue with operations and targeted patrols across the force area. As well as organised crime, rural crime issues include livestock theft, dog attacks and fly tipping, according to Reader, 43, described it as an "enormous issue" in Wales, ranging from everyday items being stolen to livestock attacks by dogs and damage to crops caused by also said the theft of quad bikes, which can cost several thousand pounds, was a particular issue."They seem to be high on the list of organised crime, and there are a lot of them in Wales."We're a livestock nation, and they're essential for day-to-day working life, so when they're stolen it has a huge emotional and financial impact."She added farmers were also concerned about the potential for thefts to happen "again and again and again"."These things come in waves, and we know organised crime groups are operating in communities. They're scoping out farms and they know where these items are," she said. Some farmers are increasing their own security by installing CCTV and placing trackers on their vehicles, but Ms Reader said police needed to place more resources on rural by the NFU said the total cost of rural crime in the UK fell by 16.5% last year from £52.8m in 2023 to £44.1m in 2024, praising the "power of collaboration" between farmers, police and figures show a fall in the cost of rural crime in all parts of the UK except in Wales, where it increased from £2.4m to £2.8m, a rise of 18%.Wales had the third lowest cost for rural crime in the UK in 2024, with only Northern Ireland (£1.8m) and Scotland (£1.2m) being lower, while the Midlands was the region with the highest cost at £8.1m. Garry Williams, 55, who runs a farm near Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, said he had had equipment such as chainsaws, farm tools and fencing materials stolen, as well as said organised crime groups will steal "anywhere between 12 to 15 quad bikes in the area, and that could be all over Carmarthenshire". "They'll strike in one area, and then move somewhere else," he said, adding there were concerns that some of these groups were becoming "more determined" and more willing to use violence."It does cause mental stress... it's not a nice feeling someone coming onto your farm, your property, at night," he Williams added livestock theft was also an issue, some of which was "farmer-to-farmer"."They'll load them up in the night and steal them and try and pass them onto an abattoir or the livestock market," he issues he raised were fly-tipping, particularly in remote areas, as well as dog attacks on livestock resulting from improved access to footpaths in rural areas."You can have the nicest dog in the world, but people often don't want to put them on a lead, and if they attack they can cause some really nasty injuries," he said. Mr Williams said he believed police resources was an issue when it comes to tackling rural he was positive about collaboration with Dyfed-Powys Police, including a recent meeting with the police commissioner, he urged the force to put more resources into the issue including having an inspector dedicated to tackling rural crime."It works when the infrastructure is in place, when there are officers who know about rural crime, but it can feel like a postcode lottery. What we want is consistency of that structure," he Police said it was "aware of the significant impact that crimes of this nature have on victims and the worry it can cause to the wider community".A spokesperson said officers from its rural crime team visited farms to conduct "crime prevention audits", while also providing DNA-marking kits to help protect "valuable equipment and machinery"."We will continue with operations and targeted patrols across the force area, however given the huge area we cover, it is difficult to be everywhere," they said.

The Independent

2 hours ago

• The Independent

An insurance firm is ordered to pay $44M in a lawsuit filed by a man freed from prison in Missouri

A man won $11 million in a lawsuit against police after his conviction for killing a Missouri newspaper's sports editor was overturned, but the city's former insurer resisted paying most of it for almost three years. A Missouri judge this week ordered the company to pay nearly $44 million. Most of the money would go to Ryan Ferguson, whose legal battle with Minnesota-based St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. in Missouri's courts started in 2017, about six weeks after he won a federal lawsuit against six Columbia police officers. Ferguson was convicted in 2004 of killing Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt but was released from prison in 2013 after a state appeals court panel concluded that he hadn't received a fair trial. Ferguson maintained his innocence. The city insurer paid Ferguson $2.7 million almost immediately after he won his federal lawsuit, and his attorneys expected St. Paul to pay $8 million under its coverage for the officers from 2006 to 2011. But the company argued that it wasn't on the hook because the actions leading to Ferguson's arrest and imprisonment occurred before its coverage began. While Ferguson sought to collect, the officers argued that St. Paul was acting in bad faith, shifting the burden to them as individuals and forcing them to face bankruptcy. Ferguson's lawyers took up those claims, and Missouri courts concluded that St. Paul was obligated to pay $5.3 million for the time Ferguson was in prison while it covered the officers. It paid in 2020. But the payment didn't end the dispute, and in November, a jury concluded that St. Paul had acted in bad faith and engaged in a 'vexatious refusal' to pay. Cole County Circuit Judge S. Cotton Walker upheld that finding in his order Monday as he calculated how much money the company would pay — mostly as punishment — under a Missouri law capping such punitive damages. 'It's a way to send a message to insurance companies that if there's coverage, they need to pay,' said Kathleen Zellner, whose firm represents Ferguson. She added: 'You can't just pull the rug out from under people when they've paid the premiums.' The company can appeal the decision. An attorney representing St. Paul did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment. Under an agreement between Ferguson and the six officers, they stand to split about $5 million of the $44 million. The award of nearly $44 million includes $3.2 million to compensate Ferguson and the officers, another $24.2 million in punitive damages, $535,000 million for the 'vexatious refusal' allegation and interest on all of the damages totaling about $16 million.