Latest news with #Rotherham
BBC News
29 minutes ago
- BBC News
Pair who 'laughed and joked' after fatal stabbing jailed for life
Two men have been jailed for life for fatally stabbing a man during a fight in a car park in South Davies, 38, died after being stabbed during the altercation on Drummond Street, Rotherham, on 8 June Sheffield Crown Court, Simon Welsh, 38, of no fixed address, was sentenced to a minimum of least 22 years in prison. Jake Shaw, 27, of Canklow Road, Rotherham, was given a minimum term of 17 a statement, Mr Davies' family said: "He will be missed beyond measure, especially by his two young children who now have to grow up and navigate life without a father." Mr Davies was found in a critical condition by emergency crews and later died in hospital. CCTV footage captured a group of people walking away from Mr Davies, from Rotherham, following the altercation with Ch Insp Benjamin Wood described the incident as "horrendous"."Welsh and Shaw showed brutality and a lack of remorse, laughing and joking as they made their way away from the scene of this tragic incident," he said. South Yorkshire Police thanked those who shared information with the police and the "heroic" witnesses who gave evidence in force said a discarded bodywarmer, containing a receipt with Welsh's name on, also proved to be key evidence. Mr Davies' family said the loss had taken an "enormous toll" on them."We feel that justice has been served, and we welcome the guilty verdict placed upon the defendants," they added. Welsh and Shaw were found guilty of murder after a three-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court in April.A third man, Martin Shaw, was found not guilty of murder. Welsh was also convicted of wounding for a separate incident in November was handed a four-year jail term to run concurrently to his life sentence. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
BBC News
an hour ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Man faces prison for encouraging asylum hotel violence
A man who called for hotels housing asylum seekers to be burned down amid unrest at an anti-immigration demonstration is likely to face imprisonment, a judge has said. Joseph Haythorne, 26, posted on X on 4 August just as a protest outside the Holiday Inn Express, in Manvers, Rotherham, began to descend into Crown Court heard on Friday that Haythorne's post, from an anonymised account, was viewed by 1,100 people before he deleted an engineer from Ashford, Surrey, admitted publishing material intended to stir up racial hatred at a previous hearing and will be sentenced on Tuesday. Laura Marshall, prosecuting, said the post had included a link to a now-deleted post by the "perhaps divisive figure" Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy said the defendant's full post read: "Go on Rotherham. Burn any hotels [with asylum seekers]." 'Momentary lapse' Ms Marshall said the case had some similarities with the case of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed last year for calling for "mass deportation now", adding "set fire to all the... hotels [housing asylum seekers]... for all I care".The barrister also referenced the cases of Jordan Parlour and Tyler Kay, who both encouraged people on social media to attack Brasoveanu, defending Haythorne, said he posted the comment in a "momentary lapse of judgement which he regrets every day".She said there was no evidence he had deeply rooted views about immigration issues and was "more interested in football than politics".The barrister said a medical report concluded that his struggle with depression could have exacerbated his reaction to social media content about the murder of three girls in Southport and posts by the controversial influencer Andrew Tate. However, the Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told the court: "Somebody who is looking at Andrew Tate's social media posts, and then taking these actions, is not suffering from a momentary lapse of judgement."He called Haythorne's post "vile" and "dreadful racist nonsense", saying it "inflamed the situation - almost literally" at the hotel."He's tweeted this racist rubbish, 1,100 people see it in 17 minutes before he realised it was dreadful and then he takes it down."And, unfortunately, the damage is done."Judge Richardson told Haythorne: "I am reasonably confident that you will be going to prison."It is, however, very important that I calibrate this sentence with great care."Additional reporting by PA Media. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Times
6 hours ago
- Times
Sarah Champion: I'm seen by many as a racist. I'm the opposite
Sarah Champion did not go into politics to wage war against child sex abuse rings or become a voice for vulnerable teenage girls preyed on by gangs of men of predominantly Pakistani origin who groomed, trafficked and raped them. When she became the Labour MP for Rotherham she did not know they existed. 'I had been running the local children's hospice as CEO when I became an MP in 2012 and I remember reading an article about this 15-year-old Rotherham girl who had a baby by any of three different men and was seen as a little scrubber, and I thought that's not right. Then a girl was found dead in a river, and they said she'd gone mad. Finally, a young white girl came to us with a poorly baby and her boyfriend was a much older Asian man; the relationship seemed odd.' Champion became increasingly uneasy that she did not know what was going on in her own constituency. 'At one of my first council meetings there was an item under 'risky business' and no one would explain it … Then I was in parliament and there was a session at a select committee on child sexual exploitation and Jayne Senior [a social worker] was giving evidence and it was horrifying, I felt mortified that no one seemed to care. Afterwards she suggested we meet on a canal boat in secrecy, and she told me what had been going on.' Slowly, survivors began to contact Champion. 'They were all ages. I met someone in her early eighties in Rotherham who described it happening to her by a Pakistani-origin man when she was younger. I met another woman at the back of Costa Coffee in her early twenties who went through everything in detail. Gradually I was collecting all this information, but I didn't know what to do.' Senior gave her a list of the men she had reported as abusers and the list of people she thought were complicit in the cover-up. 'I went to the police and people in the council saying I had serious concerns about a number of people, but I didn't get any responses. It was hard to know who to trust and I was nervous of giving away girls' names away. My life became one of shadows and pseudonyms.' • Baroness Casey: I feel rage on behalf of the abused girls This was not a race issue for Champion. 'To me this was just child abuse. It wasn't an ethnicity thing. The names weren't typically white English names, but what mattered was they were perpetrators of horrendous crimes. I'm a sloppy lefty to my core; I believe in equality and diversity. I just saw them as criminals.' The MP strongly believes Rotherham police, councillors and social workers should have called out these men as abusers decades ago. 'If they had taken these cases seriously when they began being reported in the 1960s, rather than telling these women they were silly young girls, then there wouldn't have been the boil of frustration there is now. The criminals would have gone to jail, the story wouldn't have escalated across the country, the Pakistani community wouldn't be vilified as though all of them are walking around intent on abusing white girls. They have done a massive disservice to this country.' In no way, Champion says, should these young girls be expected to take the blame. 'I remember when I was 15 and my friends and I were so excited when one of us got an older boyfriend with a car, some children are enamoured by older men, they like feeling special — before it all goes wrong — but we need to protect them.' The Labour MP stresses that she does not think this is about paedophiles. 'This is about pubescent girls aged 10 to 15 who are being groomed, they aren't little kids, and that is partly why it is overlooked as there is confusion over the age of consent, but it is 16 and for a reason.' • Gangs raped 'lost' girls because no one cared Watching these abused children struggle, as they grow up, has changed her mind about prostitution. 'I would make it a criminal offence for men to buy sex and decriminalise the women. I shifted my view largely because of the girls in Rotherham. When they were no longer pubescent and their value started to drop, they were so damaged and desperate, many were forced to turn to prostitution. They didn't have the capacity for consent, either because of the violence or drugs or alcohol.' She had the law changed so from 2017 every child received sex education at school about the nature of good relationships and not just biology, but Champion found it harder to make the girls' stories heard. 'Once I'd been told about it, I would see it everywhere walking round Rotherham, I thought how can everyone else not see. Then I began reading reports round the country and thinking that's another grooming gang, yet none of them called them out.' She started to believe there was a pattern to cases being reported not just in Rotherham but Rochdale, Telford and Oxford. In 2017, after the conviction of a sex-grooming gang in Newcastle upon Tyne who were largely of Pakistani origin, Champion cracked. 'I did the BBC Today programme because I became so frustrated. They called the day before and I said I am going to say they are Pakistani gangs and they were very concerned. I went on and it was fine, there were no recriminations, just supportive messages. Then The Sun got in touch, and I wrote a piece for them. And all hell broke loose.' Champion had written: 'Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.' She was forced to quit as shadow equalities minister under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. She then said in an interview: 'What I'm really interested in is misogyny. It occurs in many different forms, but the most obvious forms are happening within some ethnic minority communities. I'm thinking female genital mutilation, forced marriage, honour-based violence and this type of child exploitation.' She was immediately branded a racist and for the past few years the abuse hurled at her from all sides has been relentless. 'It's the anniversary of [fellow Yorkshire MP] Jo Cox's death next week, I was coming through the Tube yesterday and this guy clocked me and put his hand in his pocket and I thought he was going to stab me. You have to recalibrate your head and accept that it is inevitable that someone is going to kill you. It's quite liberating, I am a fatalist. I went through all the panicking and alarms and it eats you up so you just have to resign yourself. The MP David Amess was also a friend so I know what can happen.' • How the child sex grooming gangs scandal unfolded over 20 years Amess was killed in his Southend West constituency. Is it worth Champion risking her life to keep raising the issue of grooming gangs? 'No. But I can't help it.' Does she now wish she hadn't become an MP? 'I genuinely can't answer that. I have tried to become a voice for those who don't have one. But the personal toll? It's living hell. The violence and threat of violence has got marginally better, but it has been horrendous.' The proliferation of grooming gangs dominated by Pakistani-heritage men, she tells me, is like the Post Office scandal and the contaminated blood scandal. 'Everyone now knows but no one does anything. The Times has been amazing and a few others. Once you start getting really involved you can't stop because it is such a devastating story. But there aren't 20 people behind me saying, 'I will take the baton, you have a break now'. The sacrifices and compromises you make to do this aren't worth it for most people.' Does she still worry even now after Baroness Casey of Blackstock's 200-page report was published this week into grooming gangs that she will be seen as a racist for saying they are predominantly made up of men from Pakistani families? 'I think we can now say more, I wrote a letter to The Times this week using the words Pakistani heritage, but I still thought long and hard about doing that in case people misconstrued it.' She must find it hard that it took Elon Musk tweeting to get politicians to focus on the abuse again. 'I jokingly say I will dance with the devil if it gets the ultimate aim and that is the closest I have come to doing it. His intervention has promoted more discussion … But I get upset when the right uses what has happened to these girls as a political tool.' Many on the left have warned that people like her are stirring up racial tensions and the bigots will use it to hound ethnic minorities. 'Trying to hide what is happening isn't helping anyone. I had a Pakistani female constituent come to me because she had gone to the police about her husband who had been abusing young girls the same age as her children. She had then been completely ostracised by her community for bringing shame on them and was getting terrorised in her home and wasn't getting enough protection … They must live with these men. How those in authority think not dealing with the crime is helping the Pakistani community is mind-blowing to me.' New generations are also suffering, she says. 'I started getting young women coming very distressed because they were having their babies taken off them because social services had decided they were unfit mothers. They would tell me 'I think it is because my boyfriend is Pakistani, and the council is racist'. But it's almost the opposite. The council was afraid to call these men out and saw the victims as having made bad lifestyle choices.' Does she feel that this is as much a class problem as a race problem? 'I don't think it is just working-class girls who have been sucked in, but they are less likely to know how to raise their voices and get people to listen. I've sat with their mothers who say, 'What do I do? I can't chain my daughter up.' One of the groomers' methods is to divide families and get kids put into care so they are even easier prey. I know one parent who had the money and could send her child to a relative out of the region to break the cycle of abuse. So, if you have some cash, you have more options.' But many remain stuck with the perpetrators of their misery, living in the same town. 'One of the girls who first talked to me said that the same gang members were coming up to her with her 12-year-old and taunting her, saying, 'Your daughter is about ready now,' and she was freaking out.' What haunts Champion most is that this kind of horrendous abuse is still going on over a decade after she became MP and tried to raise awareness. 'This is not in the past tense, we are still dealing with these cases in isolation, but they must be linked they are so similar.'' In her epic campaign to get attention for the victims, Champion has felt very alone. 'Andrew Norfolk, the late Times journalist, and Jayne Senior have been my two staunchest allies. When this all broke again I still only had two MPs get in touch with me.' • Andrew Norfolk obituary: Times reporter who exposed grooming gangs I ask whether she misses Norfolk, who died last month. her eyes well up. 'I normally do 12 to 14-hour days here but when I found out he died I was floored. I came home at 10.30pm and I couldn't stop sobbing. He was the only one who I could just talk to about it all without fearing being accused of being racist. Neither of us wanted to be known for this. I'm seen by many as the racist Sarah Champion. It's awful. I'm the opposite.' She hasn't had any therapy or help. 'I trained as a shrink; I appreciate the value of it, but I am not at a point where I can unpack this because I have too much to do. Andrew and I would get in touch when we needed each other. It was the knowledge that there was someone who understood what was going on and didn't believe I was nuts.' Champion has no children of her own. 'That has helped, I have one step of separation,' she says. She doesn't feel angry just lonely. 'It's not helpful to be angry. I just feel deeply disappointed and frustrated and wanted people to be better. I want them to give their best and they aren't. They take the job title and don't give a shit. I don't know how they can turn a blind eye.' When Sir Keir Starmer agreed to a national inquiry this week, she was pleased but when she switched on social media, she saw she was being monstered from both sides. 'Either I have done too much or not enough, I'm now blamed by left and right. But I hope the inquiry can take up the challenge. It's important that they are going back over 800 cases. 'People in the UK are very tolerant, but at our core we want to see fairness. If something is seen as unfair, we start kicking off so the fact that the law wasn't applied here without fear or favour is a big issue; the fact that people paid to do a job failed to do it, and worse covered up abuse, that's a big issue.' Wherever Champion goes in the world now, people ask her about the grooming gangs, she says. 'Unless we are seen to be dealing with it, this smear is going to be on our country and our reputation for years.'
BBC News
12 hours ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Wentworth traders' 'traffic chaos' fears over RHS Flower Show
Owners of businesses in a village where a major national flower show is to be held next month have spoken of their fears over possible "traffic chaos".The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show will take place at Wentworth Woodhouse, a stately home near Rotherham, between 16-20 Sales, who runs an independent shopping complex opposite the estate, said while people in Wentworth village were "keen" for the event, she asked: "But at what cost? We need to be able to function. The parking situation is a worry: 12,000 a day is a lot of people."An RHS spokesperson said a traffic management plan would be in place to reduce the impact on "local highways, residents and road users". It was announced in April 2024 that the much-loved RHS Flower Show would be coming to South Yorkshire this year, with other locations around the country also to be used in RHS explained that the aim of holding the event in new places was to "promote gardening to as many people as possible". Ms Sales, who has run The Emporium on Cortworth Lane in Wentworth for 25 years, said the RHS gardening charity had "underestimated" the impact the event could have on the village and surrounding area."I don't think they realise how busy this road can get. An accident on the M1 and things get very interesting. It'll be traffic chaos," she warned."With the best traffic management in the world, you can't control the through traffic and the people that aren't supposed to be here."Ms Sales said her "biggest fear is the gridlock"."We had a little taster of this recently with a car show at the house, and it was backed up in both directions," she said. Meanwhile, Dave Smith, whose antique furniture store has been a fixture in Wentworth village for many decades, said he was also said he was worried about the area's infrastructure being able to cope with an influx of traffic, with particular fears over the "narrow country roads"."People will be arriving from all over the North, but they won't understand there's four to five entrances to the site," he explained."There's enough land in there for parking, but it needs to flow and I can foresee problems."Other business owners who spoke to the BBC, but who did not wish to be named, said they might shut up shop entirely for the five days of the Dan Wilde, who has run the Village Shop for just over a year, said he would be opening as usual after receiving "assurances" from RHS Flower Show organisers."Fingers crossed it'll go well, but I do worry about the parking," he said."If you see an empty space in the village, you're going to take it."It might not be positive for the week they're here, but until it's definitely a negative, we have to see it as a positive," he said. In a statement responding to traders' concerns, an RHS spokesperson said the organisation was "incredibly mindful of the experiences of both the local community and our visitors".The RHS consulted "local partners, such as the local council, emergency services, Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, and nearby landowners to ensure we plan each event meticulously and prioritise the safety of all", the spokesperson traffic control measures would be in place for the event, they said, including "20mph speed restrictions, temporary no waiting or parking orders, temporary traffic signals, traffic officers directing traffic, and multiple access points into and from the site".The spokesperson added that everyone involved was "incredibly excited" to bring an RHS Flower Show to Rotherham, "and to work with local communities, businesses and organisations to deliver an amazing show full of unique gardens, talks and tips, children's activities, floral installations and refreshments to enjoy". Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Sky News
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Whitehall officials tried to convince Lord Gove to cover up grooming scandal, he tells Sky News
Whitehall officials tried to convince Lord Michael Gove to go to court to cover up details of a report into the grooming scandal in 2011, he has said, confirming Sky News reporting earlier this week. Speaking to Sky's Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, the former senior cabinet minister said it is "undoubtedly the case that more should have been done" to prevent the abuse of young girls in Britain, admitting that it weighs on him. The allegations of an attempted cover-up were first made to Sky News by former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings in an interview with Sky News, and the claims were substantiated by other sources as well. Mr Cummings was working for Lord Gove, who was then education secretary. Lord Gove explained that in 2011, he learned that the late Times journalist Andrew Norfolk, who he described as "a heroic reporter who did more than anyone to initially uncover this scandal", was seeking to publish details of a report from Rotherham Council about the abuse and grooming of young girls. He said: "Rotherham Council wanted to stop that happening. They wanted to go to court to prevent him publishing some details, and we in the Department for Education were asked by the council, 'would we join in, would we be a party to that court action to stop it?' "And I had to look at the case, advised by Dominic [Cummings] and by others, and there were some within the department, some officials who said, 'be cautious, don't allow this to be published, there may be risks for relatives of the victims concerned." 1:56 Rotherham Council also argued that publication may pose "risks" to the process of "improving in the way in which it handles" grooming cases, he continued. The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times' publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain. But Lord Gove said: "My view at the time, advised by Dominic and by others within the department, was that it was definitely better for it to be published." "So we said to Rotherham, we will join the case, but we're joining it on the side of the Times and Andrew Norfolk because we believe in transparency." 1:11 'Tough questions' for Whitehall Lord Gove went on to say that a national inquiry could see some "tough questions" asked of the Home Office about its culture and its interactions with the police. But those questions will also be posed to two departments he led - the Department for Local Government and the Department of Education, and he said: "I think it's right that there should be, because the nature and scale of what the victims have endured means that there's an obligation on all of us who've been in any form of elected office to be honest and unsparing in looking at what went on." He said he "certainly didn't have the knowledge at my command that we now do about the widespread nature of this activity". 'Not nearly enough' progress made Sophy Ridge put to Lord Gove that despite commissioning a report on what was happening to girls in care, and not seeking to block the publication of Andrew Norfolk's reporting, he still failed to make change. He replied: "Yes, so it is undoubtedly the case that more should have been done." He admitted that it "absolutely" weighs on him, and that "not nearly enough" progress was made on the protection of vulnerable girls. "With the benefit of hindsight, I do wish that I had been more vehement in trying to persuade people to take appropriate action," he said. 1:36 Local government 'sought to deny scale' of scandal The now Spectator editor went on to say that there was "pushback, particularly but not exclusively, from those in local government" to subsequent questions about cultural background, and he said "local councillors and others sought to deny the scale of what was happening and particularly, sought to deny questioning about the identity and the background of the perpetrators". He continued: "I think the right thing to do is for everyone to acknowledge that sometimes there were people who were acting from noble motives, who did not want to increase ethnic and racial anxieties, who did not to fan far-right flames, and thought that it was better to step away from the really grim reality of what was going on. "I can understand that. But ultimately, that didn't serve anyone. It did not serve the victims."
