Murder 24/7 series throws spotlight on West Mercia Police investigations
An investigation into the horrific killing of a 23-year-old delivery driver is to be examined in a BBC television series. A string of men used an arsenal of weapons to beat Aurman Singh to death after being tracked during his round in Shrewsbury in 2023.Murder 24/7, to be broadcast on BBC Two, follows the twists and turns, dead ends and breakthroughs of West Mercia Police murder investigations in Shropshire and Herefordshire in real time.The production team had been filming with the force for the past two years, said Colin Barr, creative director of Expectation TV, which makes the show.
He said the investigation into Mr Singh's murder had been "fast moving" and the evidence gathering operation had been "extremely detailed"."We capture that whole process using multiple cameras following different professionals in the team as they do their job," he explained. "And you never know where those threads are going to go so the whole thing is unpredictable and fast paced."A total of seven men have been convicted in connection with Mr Singh's murder.
Chief Constable Richard Cooper said the series offered a "powerful and unfiltered look at the extraordinary teamwork and compassion shown by our officers and staff in the most heartbreaking of circumstances". "These are not just investigations - they are stories of real people, real loss, and the pursuit of justice," he said.The new series Murder 24/7 starts on BBC Two at 21:00 BST on Monday 16 June with some episodes also available on BBC iPlayer.
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Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Desperate homeowner who destroyed his £150,000 property 'brick by brick' in 17-year war with tenant loses everything as it's repossessed and sold by bank
A desperate homeowner who tried to dismantle his house after he exploded in frustration following a long-running dispute with a tenant has 'lost everything' after the property was repossessed. Louis Scudder, 53, was forced to give up his childhood home which has now been sold off at auction. The three bedroom home had been left in a shocking state of disrepair for nearly a year after Mr Scudder launched into a frenzied one-man demolition mission. Mr Scudder was at the centre of a 24-hour stand-off with police in riot gear last August after he began destroying the end of terrace house - starting with the roof. Friends told how Mr Scudder snapped after reaching the end of his tether following a 17-year battle to take back control of his £150,000 property in Sheerness, Kent, which he became convinced had been 'stolen from him'. After a series of court battles the property was put up for sale by the bank with whom he had taken out a mortgage. The house had a reserve price of £115,000 when it was put up for sale by estate agents Barnard Marcus at an auction at the Grand Connaught Rooms in central London in April. It sold for £134,000 and is believed to have been purchased by a property developer. The sale catalogue pointed out that auctioneers had not been able to inspect the freehold home and that purchasers would have to 'rely upon their own enquiries as to the internal layout of the property'. No viewings were conducted and auctioneers explained 'no keys will be provided to the property upon completion. The property was being sold 'by order of the mortgagees'. Neighbours - who were ordered to evacuate their homes during Mr Scudder's rampage - told how they are now hoping the house can be made habitable again and they can return to their peaceful lives. Tanya Gray, who has lived in the streets for 28 years, told MailOnline: 'It was a lovely house but he completely wrecked it. 'He wanted to get the house back but he went about it the wrong way and now he's ended up losing it because the bank took it and put it up for auction. He's lost everything.' Tanya, 58, added: 'The house has been in a terrible state ever since. It's a real eyesore. 'Before it went up for sale his friends were regularly going into the property but there has been no one since it went up for auction. 'No-one was allowed to go inside to view it because it was classed as unsafe. We've heard someone from London has bought it. They must be planning to do it up. Good luck to them. There must be even more damage now because it's been left open to the elements for nearly a year. Hopefully that's the end of it. This is a family-orientated area and it would be nice if a nice quiet family will move in now.' Mr Scudder took matters into his own hands after growing increasingly frustrated that he had been unable to live in his property. Fearing the authorities were against him in March last year, Mr Scudder waited for long-term tenant Ayshea Kramer, 51, to go out before climbing in through a window to gain entry. He removed her possessions and dumped them outside before changing the locks but was ordered by a court to quit the property and hand back the keys. As a legal battle rumbled on, Mr Scudder returned to the property in June last year where he began ripping tiles off the roof and smashing windows with his bare hands - leaving himself covered in blood. He was arrested and was bound over to keep the peace for 12 months for causing a public nuisance and breaching an injunction. A dilapidated chimney and police tape are just two of the sorry sights to meet neighbours Two months later, he returned with a sledgehammer to finish the job. Neighbours told how at the end of the terrifying rampage Mr Scudder left behind a scene of devastation they likened to 'a disaster movie'. Officers in riot gear were drafted in while specially trained negotiators tried to coax him down from the rafters of his wrecked property. Ambulance crews and fire fighters were also called in amid fears damage to pipes and cables could cause an explosion. Walls came crashing down and pipe work was shattered as Mr Scudder rained blow after blow on the property reducing brickwork to piles of rubble. At the time Danny Owen - who has lived in the street for more than a year - told MailOnline: 'He got on the roof and started tearing the house to pieces. He did it twice. The first time he tore the whole roof down with his bare hands. He smashed all the tiles. He was ripping them off and was throwing them. 'He punched the windows with his hands which were all cut and bloodied. There was scaffolding put up after that as attempts were made to fix the roof. 'He wasn't happy with it and he went up there again and wrecked the place. 'All I heard him say was 'I'm not coming out until I take this whole place apart - brick by brick. He said he was going to destroy the house. It's his family home. He grew up there. He owns it but he hasn't been allowed to live there. 'He says he tried to do things properly but in the end he felt helpless as everything always went in her favour. He demolished all the inside. He smashed up the bathroom and there was a worry because of all the pipework that was damaged. There was water leaking. 'There's been this long dispute with the tenant which has ended in a long legal fight. He reached breaking point and it ended with this. I feel sorry for him. He went about it the wrong way. It's very sad. He's hit rock bottom. He thought the authorities let him down and he had a genuine grievance. 'He should have gone about it differently but he obviously wasn't thinking like that.' Another neighbour said: 'His attitude seemed to be 'If I can't have my house, you can't have it either' so he set out to demolish it. He went up there on the Wednesday and he didn't come down until Thursday evening.' In the aftermath of the rampage Mr Scudder said: 'I feel like an injured fox being hounded. No-one's listening to me. I'm so angry inside.' One friend of Mr Scudder told MailOnline: 'This has destroyed this man's life. He's a broken man and it's not fair how he's been treated.' After one of Mr Scudder's court appearances last year, friends told how the property had been his childhood home which he went on to buy from the council. One friend told how Mr Scudder was forced to leave the house for a number of years after finding himself in 'a challenging personal situation'. He asked a relative to arrange for it to be rented out to help him pay off his mortgage. But Mr Scudder claims that unbeknown to him a 25-year tenancy agreement had been signed. In 1999 Ms Kramer moved into the property and it was there that she brought up her three daughters - twins aged 27 and their older sister who is now aged 31. The friend claimed Mr Scudder only discovered about the terms of the tenancy in 2007. The friend said: 'During all those years he's been homeless. He's been jumping from friend to friend, living in spare bedrooms, on sofas. If friends had motorhomes he would stay there for a couple of months, he stayed on boats - anywhere he could find. 'He's a man with a home that's homeless. It's ridiculous. 'He's the loveliest man you could ever meet. He just wants a quiet life. His dream in life which he was hoping this house could help him do was to buy a small piece of land and rescue animals. Friends of Ms Kramer told how she has been left traumatised by the experience - losing her home and most of her possessions including treasured family photographs. But Tobe Hayden, who assisted Mr Scudder in previous legal actions, said: 'I didn't know the house had been repossessed. I was assisting him for a while but then they went in a different direction. It was a terrible miscarriage of justice for him.'
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Tense moment fare dodger is confronted by ticket inspectors after 'falling £1.30 short for his ticket'
This is the tense moment a young fare dodger was confronted by rail ticket inspectors before trying to push past them while wrongly travelling on a child's ticket. The passenger was caught at Weybridge station in Surrey using the ticket which gives a half-price discount on adult prices for children aged five to 15. South Western Railway revenue protection inspectors intercepted him on the bridge over the platforms after an issue was flagged at the gates when he went through. But when the team demanded that he show them his ticket, he refused to do so before trying to force his way pass them to walk down onto the platform. Other officers stepped in to assist and try to block the passenger at the top of the stairs, as he brazenly told them: 'You can't actually physically touch me.' But after a stand-off, the man eventually relented and showed them his child's ticket, claiming that he had bought it because he was £1.30 short of the adult fare. Camera crews captured the moment he was stopped in the latest episode of Channel 5's Fare Evaders: At War With The Law which airs next Monday at 9pm. The man was issued with an unpaid fare notice, which gives permission to travel and pay the fare within 21 days. If unpaid, passengers face the risk of prosecution. The documentary revealed how the railway industry has noticed a rise in passengers aged over 15 trying to get away with using half-price child tickets. In a clip shared exclusively with MailOnline, two South Western Railway inspectors called Sharon and Carlos confront a young man who refuses to show his ticket. What are the rules on UK child rail tickets? Children aged five to 15 get a 50 per cent discount against the adult price on most National Rail train tickets. Children aged under five can travel for free, when with a fare-paying adult. But anyone aged over 15 travelling on a child's ticket could receive a penalty fare if caught by an inspector. Within the Transport for London (TfL) area, children can travel for free on most trains up to the age of ten when accompanied by an adult. Those aged 11 to 15 can get 50 per cent off their journeys within the TfL area with a Zip Oyster photocard. Carlos approaches the passenger after an issue was flagged at the ticket barriers, asking him: 'Have you got a child ticket? Can I have a look at your ticket?' But the passenger replies: 'No.' Carlos then said: 'Can I see your ticket? You don't have a ticket?' And the man responds: 'No, I do.' Sharon then stepped in, saying: 'Yeah we need to see it. Just needs to look at it.' As tensions mount, the passenger says: 'You can't actually physically touch me' Sharon says the inspectors are not touching him, and other officers step in to assist – telling each other to ensure their body-worn cameras are switched on. One of the team tells him: 'You're not going down on the platform mate and you're not travelling. Why don't you just show us a ticket?' The man responds: 'Because I don't need to.' But the inspector insists: 'Yes you do.' The young man eventually gives in, admitting he does not have the correct ticket. Sharon then tells the camera: 'It seems that the young lad was short of money. About £1.30 for an adult ticket, so he's purchased a child ticket, but he's over the age of 15. 'A colleague's been really fair with him. He's issued an unpaid fare notice, which is the lowest penalty we can give and it's just the price of the ticket that he should have bought.' An unpaid fare notice gives permission to travel and pay the fare in 21 days. If unpaid, passengers face the risk of prosecution. Another inspector says of his job: 'Sometimes we get bad language towards us, they will just push through and then we've got to stop them. 'We do get that level of abuse from them. And these are kids that are between 14 and 16 and they're effing and jeffing at us. And I'm like, well, hang on.' He adds: 'You do get people who are unhappy about being spoken to. No one wants trouble. You hope that everyone is going to be nice, but not everyone is the same, are they? But then you get customers who do actually appreciate it as well.' A further inspector then says: 'The gateliner was saying it's a huge deterrent us being here. He actually said 'SWR 1 Fare Evaders 0'.' The clip features in episode six of the documentary, which also showed the moment an Elizabeth line fare dodger was caught in the act by ticket inspectors after evading £1,650 in ticket costs over nearly 250 journeys. The passenger who regularly commuted from Harold Wood or Romford to Stratford was confronted with 35 pages of evidence dating back eight months. A passenger is spoken to by investigators at London Waterloo station after only buying a ticket from Vauxhall, as he is finally caught after evading nearly £20,000 in ticket costs One of his common methods while travelling through East London was to pay for a fare in Zones 2 to 3 only, rather than the full fare for his journey in Zones 2 to 6. On the morning of the sting, the passenger was caught not touching in on the card After being taken to a private room for questioning, the man eventually hands over the Oyster card and is told he could be taken to court for the offences. The man was then allowed to go on his way but told he would continue to be tracked on the Oyster card – and the case was passed to TfL's prosecution team. MailOnline has already covered a series of incidents featured in the documentary, which comes after Robert Jenrick highlighted fare dodging at Stratford last month. The shadow justice secretary posted a video on social media in which he confronted people who forced their way through the ticket barriers at the station. Separately, a report released on June 4 found fare evasion is becoming 'normalised', with train staff telling the inquiry that they are struggling to cope with 'aggressive' passengers who refuse to buy tickets. Travellers are using 'a range of techniques to persistently' underpay or avoid paying and see it as a 'victimless crime', according to the Office of Road and Rail (ORR). Meanwhile TikTok influencers are brazenly showing Tube passengers how to illegally travel for free by 'bumping' through the station ticket barriers . Fare Dodgers: At War With The Law is on Channel 5 on Monday, June 23 at 9pm
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Salvagers to remove Mike Lynch's superyacht Bayesian from sea off Sicily
Salvage teams in Sicily have said they aim to bring Mike Lynch's superyacht 'fully and finally out of the water' on Saturday after it sank during a storm, killing seven people including the tech tycoon and his teenage daughter. The white top and blue hull of the Bayesian, which ran into trouble off the coast of the Italian island in August last year, emerged from the sea on Friday to sit the holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. Once fully out of the water, the 56-metre (184ft) vessel will be transported to the port of Termini Imerese, where investigators are expected to examine it as part of an inquiry into the cause of the sinking. 'Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be [Saturday] lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water,' said David Wilson, a spokesperson for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation. Over the last three days the Bayesian has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 metres (165ft) below, to allow steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel. The operation, which has cost approximately $30m (£22m), was made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. Eight steel lifting straps were being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system to raise the vessel. Sea water was pumped from the hull as it was lifted. TMC Maritime, a British-based consultancy, said the vessel would be held upright, out of the water, for checks and preparations for its final journey. On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to a special steel cradle at Termini Imerese. The Bayesian was anchored just offshore near the port of Porticello, in the province of Palermo, when it sank during a violent storm shortly before dawn on 19 August 2024. Lynch had been cleared two months earlier of fraud charges in the US relating to the purchase of his company, Autonomy, by Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and was enjoying a voyage around Sicily to celebrate with his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, and his wife, Angela Bacares, whose company owned the Bayesian. The lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, the banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, and the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, were also killed when the vessel sank. Nine other crew members and six guests – including Bacares – were rescued. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The complex salvage operation was temporarily suspended in mid-May after Rob Cornelis Maria Huijben, a 39-year-old Dutch diver, died during underwater work. Investigators hope the yacht will yield clues to the causes of the sinking. A forensic examination will seek to determine whether one of the hatches remained open and whether the keel was improperly raised. Prosecutors have opened an inquiry into suspected manslaughter. The boat's captain, James Cutfield, from New Zealand, and two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, have been placed under investigation. In Italy, this does not imply guilt or mean that formal charges will necessarily follow. According to a preliminary safety report released last month by the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch, the Bayesian may have been vulnerable to high winds when running on its engine. These 'vulnerabilities' were 'unknown to either the owner or the crew' as they were not included in the stability information book onboard. The MAIB said a possible 'tornadic waterspout' headed towards the boats in the harbour. The docks seemed to divert the whirlwind, which went straight towards the Bayesian, and the vessel sank within a few seconds. In September, Italian authorities requested additional security around the wreck after fears were raised that material in watertight safes onboard might be of interest to foreign governments. Associated Press contributed to this report.
