Latest news with #victims
Khaleej Times
2 hours ago
- Khaleej Times
Dubai Police arrest fraudster using 'Magic Ink' to provide fake bank loans
Dubai Police have arrested an Asian man using 'magic ink' to provide fake bank loans to victims. The fraudster conned individuals into believing he could assist them in obtaining bank loans in exchange for money. He then gave them fake documents printed with the 'magic ink', which vanished shortly after they received them. In a statement, the Dubai Police confirmed that the Fraud Prevention Center arrested the fraudster after receiving reports from victims about his crimes. They explained that he deceived them with fake business cards and a job ID, impersonating a bank. The police noted that the fraudster employed two deceptive tactics to mislead his victims. First, he convinced them to sign documents, such as 'Account opening fees', in exchange for money. His second tactic involved obtaining a cheque from the victims, writing the cheque details with magic ink fraud while they signed with a regular pen. Once the ink vanished, he substituted their names with his own and altered the amount, using his knowledge of their bank balances. How to stay safe from such frauds Dubai Police urged community members to remain vigilant against modern fraud tactics, warning them not to engage with unofficial entities or individuals claiming they can facilitate banking transactions in exchange for money. They also highlighted the importance of verifying the identity of representatives from financial institutions by checking their official ID. Additionally, they encouraged using a personal pen to complete any forms or cheques and advised contacting the financial institution directly to confirm the representative's identity if there are any doubts. The police also called on community members to promptly report cybercrimes using the Dubai Police smart app or the eCrime platform, reaffirming their unwavering commitment to pursuing individuals who threaten community safety or attempt to take money from others unlawfully.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Chinese PhD student who drugged and raped 10 women asked to be chemically castrated in bid to avoid jail time
A Chinese PhD student who drugged and raped 10 women asked to be chemically castrated in an attempt to avoid going to prison. Zhenhao Zou, 28, was yesterday jailed for a minimum of 22 years for the vile attacks during his time studying at University College, London. Following his conviction in March, detectives revealed they had evidence relating to suspected attacks on another 50 women in the UK and China after uncovering a sickening collection of trophy videos kept by the engineering PhD student as a souvenir. Now a further 24 victims have come forward saying they were raped by Zou while he was studying in the UK. The fiend filmed some of his victims helpless and stupefied in sick home videos that he kept of his attacks. Inner London Crown Court heard that Zou had offered to be chemically castrated to avoid a life sentence. But Judge Rosina Cottage said he would always be a risk to the public because of his 'sexual interest' in 'asserting power and control over women', adding that the victims were just 'pieces in an elaborate game'. Jailing him for life, she said: 'The charming mask hid the fact that you are also a sexual predator.' Chemical castration of paedophiles and other sex offenders is currently being piloted in south-west England, and includes taking two drugs, one to limit sexual thoughts and the other to reduce testosterone and limit libido. Chemical castration is voluntary in Germany, France, Sweden and Denmark, and some sex offenders actively seek it out. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently announced the existing pilot would be expanded to 20 prisons. Victims told yesterday how they were 'haunted' by what Zou had done to them as a judge said he had treated unconscious women like 'sex toys' for his own pleasure. The son of a wealthy Chinese Communist Party official and industrialist, Zou stalked student bars, accommodation and online dating apps looking for victims, plying unsuspecting women with drinks laced with drugs. He lured the women back to his lavish student apartment in East London with the promise of a party or help with studies, before stupefying them with drink and drugs until they fell unconscious, enabling him to film his sickening attacks on hidden bedroom spy cameras. One victim, whom Zou had described as 'the perfect girlfriend choice', recalled waking in a strange room after going to a drinking party in 2021: 'I experienced for the first time a loss of consciousness. 'I opened my eyes for a few seconds during the sexual assault in his room, he was thrusting violently against my body. I was completely powerless and could only use all my strength to demand he stop. 'Although I lost consciousness just moments later, his face in that moment will clearly stay in my mind forever.' She later awoke naked lying next to him: 'Panic surged through me-everything about the room I was in was unfamiliar and I had no memory of how I got there. 'That night, it was as if the world had vanished from my life for hours. 'Everything in this world- my memories, time, even my own body- no longer felt like mine. Overwhelmed by fear, my only thought was to escape. A Tinder profile where the student appears under a different name 'Stumbling out of his room, I found myself in a completely unknown place. I didn't know where I was or how to leave. The memories of that night were fragmented- I only recall wandering like a trapped animal, desperately searching for an exit. 'For over a week afterward, I locked myself in my bathroom, consumed by terror, confusion, anger, and shame.' She added: 'I still can't read news about him or see his photo without feeling sick... 'To this day, I struggle to trust anyone. I avoid new friendships, trapped in the aftermath of what he did. 'Words will never fully convey the depth of this wound. But one thing is certain: what happened that night is etched into my soul forever. His face, his expression-they will never leave me. 'I will never forgive him.' Disturbingly, many of the women targeted may not realise they had been raped as some of Zou's home videos showed his captives so incapacitated that he was able to slap one victim around the face without them rousing. Zou unwittingly left a treasure trove of evidence for officers by recording the attacks for his own twisted gratification and hoarding personal items stolen from victims, ranging from underwear and lipstick to a Chanel earring. The bedroom in Zou's flat, where he chillingly boasted that 'the sound insulation is very good' By the time of his trial, only two of the 10 rape victims had been identified by police, but now detectives have traced a third victim. Detectives have established from the video clips seized that there are at least another 50 unknown women attacked. One victim said the attack in his London flat in May 2023 had a 'severe impact' on her mental health, resulting in her self-harming to try to manage the pain. 'I have no trust in others. Before this incident, I was not aware that a human could do such evil things,' she said in her victim impact statement. 'I am in so much mental agony and pain. I am not sure anything will help what I have gone through. 'When I heard that he had been found guilty, I was very pleased but even more pleased as I knew that women were safe, and there would be no more victims who would have to go through what I have gone through. 'When I see his image I am overcome with fear. 'I know his family is very powerful in China, and he may blame me for ruining his what was a potentially prosperous future. I believe he would confront me and seek revenge by doing horrible things. 'I fear if he is released he will commit the same crime again, I do not think he has learnt his lesson, or ever will.' A hidden spy camera that the rapist used to record his crimes The judge said of her case: 'Outrageously, she was trolled on social media for having bravely warned others. It has rocked her to her core, she feels guilt for your behaviour, you (Zou) feel no shame.' Another victim in China described being 'gagged by shame' and 'haunted' by nightmares following the attack. Yesterday, jurors who had earlier wept on seeing the distressing rape videos, returned to Inner London Crown Court to see him sentenced. Bespectacled Zou, smartly dressed in a navy suit and tie, stared at jurors, showing no emotion as he was jailed. Scotland Yard began investigating Zou in November 2023 after a woman reported him for rape. When officers examined his digital devices, they uncovered more than 1,600 hours of videos. Victims living in Britain, China, Australia, the Middle East and Europe have since come forward. Chillingly, Zou said the victims in his videos were only pretending to be asleep as he enjoyed 'time-stop' pornography. But officers believe the sexual deviant is one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders after Reynhard Sinaga and Black cab rapist John Worboys. Sinaga, 42, was convicted of 159 sex attacks on 48 heterosexual men in Manchester between 2015 and 2017. Worboys, 67, was convicted of 19 sex attacks against 12 women between 2006 and 2008. Zou was convicted in March for raping three women in London and seven victims in China between September 2019 and May 2023. He was also convicted of 11 counts of rape, three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol. Saira Pike, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'Zou is a serial rapist and a danger to women. His life sentence reflects the heinous acts and harm he caused to women and the danger he posed to society.' The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@ or via the major incident public portal on the force's website.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
At least seven injured as tram derails & crashes into restaurant after ‘taking turn at high speed' in Sweden
AT least seven people were hospitalised after a tram "turned at a high speed" and derailed before smashing into a pizzeria in Sweden. The horror accident unfolded in the early hours of Friday in Gothenburg, on the country's west coast. More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.
The Sun
5 hours ago
- The Sun
My serial killer dad stopped horrific sex attack to call & wish me happy birthday…then sent me X-rated letters from jail
EVERY family has a secret, but none so dark as Donna Carr's. For almost 50 years she has tried to hide the fact that her dad was a serial killer, rapist and paedophile. 15 15 15 Robert Frederick Carr III was arrested in 1976 for raping a hitchhiker - and then shocked detectives by confessing to four rapes and murders, and six further rapes. He'd kept his first victim, a 16-year-old girl, captive in a forest for 10 days, raping her throughout before finally strangling her. He also picked up two 11-year-old boys who were hitchhiking, raped them, strangled one and killed the other four days later. During one of his sickening sex attacks, evil Carr told his victim that he had to stop so he could find a payphone to call Donna to wish her a happy birthday. Donna was just 12 years old when his twisted crimes - nearly all of which involved children under the age of 18 - were exposed, and along with her mother and younger brother, she was vilified in her local community. They were forced to live their lives in the shadow of their father's horrifying crimes, bearing the stigma of being the children of a sadistic killer. When teenage Donna refused to go and see her father in prison, sickeningly this led Carr to send sexually explicit letters to his own daughter from his cell. He died in prison of prostate cancer, aged 63, and after years of hiding her family's devastating secret, Donna decided to bring it out into the open in the hope of making peace with her heritage. Donna, from West Virginia, says: 'That is the secret I have been keeping my entire life and it has affected every aspect of my life. "I honestly feel like it is time for me to move past this. It happened when I was 12 and I am now 60 and I am tired of it hanging over my head. 'I honestly think that there are some mental illnesses that you are born with. I honestly do believe that some people are just born evil -and I think my father was one of those people.' The Dull Truth About Serial Killers In the years before he was caught, Carr - a TV repairman and car salesman - was constantly on the move, trying to out-run his evil crimes. For most of Donna's childhood she lived out of her father's car as he moved the family from state to state. He kept them under tight control, subjecting her mother to horrific abuse and making sure they never stayed in one place long enough to put down roots. 'The memories with my father, there are very few that are good,' she recalls. 'They were mostly bad. He always had an underlying anger about him... when I was 12 my dad was actually caught in the process of a rape and he was arrested, and that was when he decided to tell them that he had murdered four people, raped and murdered them. 'When he had one of his victims he told her he had to stop and find a payphone to call me for my birthday, and I remember that phone call. I honestly think that there are some mental illnesses that you are born with. I honestly do believe that some people are just born evil - and I think my father was one of those people Donna Carr 'I've always felt horrible for what he did. It bothered me for a very long time, when this came out I was no more than 13 years old and it had been all over the national news. 'For years I was afraid of sharing my story and that is because my father was still alive in prison. He is dead now. "One of the reasons this became such a family secret is because every time I shared the information, immediately I no longer mattered. It became about what he had done, and so I stopped talking about it.' 'Long line of bad men' 15 15 15 15 Thirty years ago Donna decided to begin searching her family history in the hope she would find someone good from her ancestry to help her put to bed the horrors of her father. Donna, who is married to husband Jim and has a 27-year-old daughter, Hailey, says: 'Family means everything to me. "I started doing family history research because I wanted to find somebody in my family who was good, who was a little bit better along the Carr family line, because my father is a serial killer.' She adds: 'I just think that to know that not everybody in that line of family was bad... that at some point in time there was somebody I could've looked up to.' But Donna had her work cut out, coming from a "long line of not very good men". Her grandfather spent time in prison for a grand-theft auto charge. But her 10-year search also led her to a man she suspected was her great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Carr. Donna hoped that he would be the kind, family man she longed for in her family's history. I started doing family history research because I wanted to find somebody in my family who was good, who was a little bit better along the Carr family line, because my father is a serial killer Donna Carr But there were two Nicholas Carrs - so a new documentary for Acorn TV, called Relative Secrets with Jane Seymour, sent British archaeologist Natasha Billson to the US to help Donna uncover her family's past. Natasha explains: 'I think Donna found comfort in looking at the genealogy, trying to find someone who was relatively good in all the other male figures of her family line. She had been doing it for 30 years. "She had folders and folders of all the information she had collated over that time. She was just trying to find an answer. "It took her 10 years to find Nicholas Carr, but there were two of them and she couldn't find which one was her ancestor, which is where we came in. 'She was carrying that surname and it was tainted by all these abusive men.' 15 Natasha's team of experts uncovered that the Nicholas Carr who matched her family tree had travelled alone from Ireland, where he was born, to New York by ship in 1853, just after the end of the potato famine. As Donna's DNA revealed she had very few ancestors left, they believed Nicholas fled Ireland after losing his entire family to the famine. But that wasn't the end of his tragedy, In 1866 he had an altercation with a neighbour that ended in bloodshed and Nicholas Carr spent a year in prison in 1867 for manslaughter. Donna says: 'Hearing that is a little gut-wrenching. The last thing I wanted to find in my family history was another person that was a murderer.' Reformed character But unlike many prisoners at that time, Nicholas didn't attempt a prison escape, even when his young daughter died. He stayed and served his sentence - and tried to atone for his crime in the most unusual way. Natasha says: 'He stopped the other prisoners trying to escape. And he made a record of all the prisoners which he gave to the police. Prison records were not well-kept at the time.' A letter from the local sheriff was published in the local newspaper declaring: 'We are indebted to Mr Nicholas Carr for a list of prisoners confined in the county jail since last 24 October with the nature of their crimes.' Natasha says: 'Courage and honour. Like Donna, Nicholas was brave enough to confront his past.' Despite his conviction for manslaughter, he became Detective Carr and opened up his own detective agency, the first of its kind in Wilmington where he lived. And Natasha's team found more than 100 newspaper articles detailing how Nicholas Carr went on to help people. Natasha says: 'There are so many - a child went missing, within two weeks he found her. A young lad who wanted to go to Ireland to meet his family. He went to buy a ticket and was scammed of his money. "What did Nicholas Carr do? He went and found who scammed the young man and got the money back and got him on the ship to go to Ireland. He has gone above and beyond for his community. 'There is respect associated with his name, and we see it built up over a decade. We can see his determination and perseverance for justice, wanting to help his community.' Robert Frederick Carr III's crimes ON May 30, 1976, Carr was caught by police while he was raping a hitchhiker at knifepoint. On his arrest he shocked detectives by confessing to four murders, explaining the crimes in detail. Tammy Ruth Huntley, 16, vanished while waiting for her mother to pick her up. Carr drove her from Miami to Mississippi. On April 7, 1972, after raping her over the 10 days he kept her captive in the woods, he strangled her, saying, "I killed her because she looked like she was getting despondent.' In late 1972 Carr visited Florida, and on November 13 that year he picked up 11-year-old friends Todd Payton and Mark Wilson, who were hitchhiking from North Miami Beach. The inside back doors in the car were disabled and the boot was filled with food, jars of petroleum jelly, and a shovel. Carr raped the boys and strangled Payton. Four days later he strangled Wilson. In 1973, Carr was convicted of rape in Connecticut and sentenced to four to eight years in prison, but was paroled in 1976, after serving less than three years. Upon his release in Connecticut, he would kill his fourth and final victim, 21-year-old Rhonda Holloway, before burying her body in a rural area. Carr confessed that after Tammy Huntley's murder he raped an additional four girls and two boys. Only four were reported, for which he was charged and pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life in prison for the rapes and murders. He died of prostate cancer in prison in 2006. David Simmons, the detective who arrested Carr, said: "In my 33-year career in law enforcement, Carr ranks as the most dangerous child sexual predator-murderer I ever investigated." A tearful Donna says: 'A developing city needed him. Not bad for a hungry boy from Ireland. "I needed this. I do have a father and what he did is horrific. But I didn't do it. 'I have had to out-run this my entire life, so learning about Nicholas and finding out what kind of person he was is just amazing to me. "I know he is the good one in the family line. He was a human and he was part of the community and loved. 'I believe I am drawing closer, learning to deal with emotions. Letting it out for the first time in my life has been therapeutic and difficult, but good.' Natasha adds: 'It is hard enough to read about it, let alone speak to someone who is the daughter of a serial killer, and that being her defining phrase that has always gone with her, she can't escape it. 'I just had so much respect for Donna, that she was able to live through that, overcome it, and also see that it was not normal, and break the cycle, make her own path - and also to tell others that if you have been through trauma, you can get through it.' Relative Secrets with Jane Seymour is streaming now on Acorn TV. 15 15 15
CBS News
6 hours ago
- Automotive
- CBS News
7 hospitalized, including children, after two-car collision in Lake Elsinore
Seven people, including two children, were hospitalized after a two-car crash at a Lake Elsinore intersection on Thursday. It happened at around 7:30 a.m. on Highway 74 and Riverside Street, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. Crews rushed to the scene and extricated victims from inside of both vehicles. "A total of five adults and two pediatric patients will be transported to a local hospital via ground ambulance with moderate injuries," firefighters said. It's unclear what caused the crash. Photos from the scene showed that the collision occurred between a white van and a red sedan.
