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Chaotic moment busker PUNCHES yob who slapped him across the face as chaotic brawl breaks out

Chaotic moment busker PUNCHES yob who slapped him across the face as chaotic brawl breaks out

The Sun18-06-2025
A BUSKER has shared footage of him appearing to bravely defend himself against a group of yobs trying to disrupt his act.
James Allan, who has more than 1.3m followers on TikTok, confronted the gang of thugs as they attempted to tamper with his equipment in Leeds city centre.
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One hooded youth in a light blue body warmer even gives the impression that he is carrying a knife.
In the video's on-screen captions, James wrote: "A gang of lads kept touching my guitar.
"So I thought I'd put them on camera to stop them doing it again."
As one of the boys approaches again, James tells him: "You can touch if you want.
"I'll go on the TikTok Live and show everyone what you're doing."
He then turns the camera to the group, who beat a hasty retreat once they realise they are being filmed.
As they slink off, James asks the group: "Why are you hioding your faces? Do you want to touch my stuff again or what?"
James' friend Brad then tips him off that one of the boys, wearing a jeans and a sleeveless pukka jacket that partially covers his face, is coming back.
The intrepid busker goes to intercept the intruder - but it was only when reviewing the footage afterwards that he realised that the boy appeared to be reaching for what could be a knife.
As James writes in the caption: "It's only upon watching this back do I realise he's reaching for his pocket.
"Luckily I was able to grab his arms."
Glasgow man appears to take money from buskers before teeth fall out in bizarre viral video
The boy then slaps James with what appears to be an open palm, before James wades in and clobbers the attacker, plus several of his friends who also try to defend their mate.
Several bystanders then step in to try and cool tensions.
As James wrote: "People step in to break it up, which is good for me because there was about five of them.
"People think they can just absue buskers and we won't defend ourselves."
The boy in the puffa jacket then aims a kick at James, who catches his foot and pulls him to the ground.
He then goes back to the mic and tells shoppers: 'I'm just trying to make a living, man. Do you know what I mean?'
West Yorkshire Police have been contacted for comment.
James posted the video on his social media accounts with the question: 'Was I right to defend myself?"
One Facebook user said: 'Sometimes gotta stand up to bullies.'
Another added said: 'Nice jabs mate…be careful though those little scabs will be back with knives.'
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TALK OF THE TOWN: No dire digs for student Emma Watson as she buys herself a mansion (complete with a Snoopy flag)
TALK OF THE TOWN: No dire digs for student Emma Watson as she buys herself a mansion (complete with a Snoopy flag)

Daily Mail​

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  • Daily Mail​

TALK OF THE TOWN: No dire digs for student Emma Watson as she buys herself a mansion (complete with a Snoopy flag)

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Is this London's most prolific shoplifter? Romanian mum of three, 20, who police say stole £300,000 of Boots cosmetics by hiding them in the secret pockets of her voluminous skirt
Is this London's most prolific shoplifter? Romanian mum of three, 20, who police say stole £300,000 of Boots cosmetics by hiding them in the secret pockets of her voluminous skirt

Daily Mail​

time27 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Is this London's most prolific shoplifter? Romanian mum of three, 20, who police say stole £300,000 of Boots cosmetics by hiding them in the secret pockets of her voluminous skirt

Were there a Guinness Book of Records entry for shoplifting, then surely Bianca Mirica would be in it. How much do you think she stole from branches of Boots across London – always Boots, always perfumes and cosmetics – in just six months between December 2023 and May last year? Answer: £120,000. At least that's what Mirica, 20, a Romanian mother of three, admitted to after she was finally caught, Southwark Crown Court heard this week. But Boots suspect the real figure, police sources told us, was a staggering £300,000 (£299,000 to be exact). You can buy a detached house in some parts of the country for less. One of the 30 thieving expeditions she was convicted of epitomised her modus operandi. 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In her 'busiest' month, May last year, she turned up at 11 Boots outlets including the following: May 15, The Strand, (£335.95 of goods stolen); May 19, Haringey (£3,200); May 22, Kilburn (£691.33): May 24, Baker Street (£627.93); May 25, Islington High Street (£2,000); May 29, Regent Street (£4,386). Many native Romanians arrived in the UK after 2014 when restrictions on their right to work – following the country's admission to the EU in 2007 – were lifted. The vast majority contribute to the economy, working in sectors such as hospitality, agriculture and healthcare where it is sometimes hard to recruit British staff. Mirica, who came here around five years ago, was not one of them. She is from a Roma community in Valcea County, a region situated around 100 miles north-west of the capital Bucharest, where she was twice caught shoplifting – 'attempted aggravated theft' is the legal terminology in Romania – on a visit back to the country in 2023, our inquiries have established. Romanian law allows the prosecution of offences punishable by up to seven years in jail to be waived if the cost of proceeding to trial exceeds the gravity of the wrongdoing. The upshot was that Mirica, who is believed to have incurred a fine, was allowed to return to the UK to begin, or at least continue, her crime spree against Boots. The Roma have, rightly or wrongly, been linked to widespread criminality. And the issue of early marriage and early motherhood is an indisputable reality of life for Roma women, with 46 per cent marrying before the age of 18, the European Parliament was told in May, and one in three becoming pregnant in adolescence. Mirica herself is a product of that culture. The only reason she moved, or was perhaps sent, to the UK, it seems, was for the sole purpose of committing crime – and her children, if history tells us anything, would have been groomed to follow in her footsteps. 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Her criminal career provides a glimpse into the burden individuals like Mirica place on overstretched social services, the welfare system – and ultimately on taxpayers. Mirica claimed, through an interpreter, that the things she stole were for personal use – yes, the entire haul, enough to open her own shop. However, the carefully planned raids, including having a key to open cabinets ('universal' keys are available on the internet) pointed to a very different version of events. In fact, Mirica is understood to have operated with around four or five other girls, one of whom is just 16, according to court documents obtained by the Mail. She has three previous convictions, including one for stealing meat and dairy products from Sainsbury's. These resulted in several referral orders, which supposedly involved a programme of activities to address her offending behaviour, as well as a sentence of 16 weeks' detention, suspended for 12 months with a requirement to complete 80 hours of unpaid work. She finished only 40 and was sent nine enforcement letters for 'unacceptable absences'. Her attitude is confirmation, if any were needed, that soft-touch sentencing is failing. 'Your expressions of remorse should be treated with caution and may not be considered sincere,' the judge told her. 'I do not doubt you are sorry you are now in custody. But I very much doubt you are sorry you committed these offences.' Unsurprisingly, back in Haringey, where Mirica lived in a rented mid-terraced household of ever-changing men and women, just a short walk from Tottenham Hotspur football stadium, she is not remembered fondly. 'Mirica walked around with such arrogance in designer gear,' said neighbour James Mulqueen, 53. 'I am sure she was stealing it all.' Expensive brands, including £300 Dsquared2 jeans, could be regularly seen hanging out of a top floor bedroom window. Police were often called to the property, along with the council, because of anti-social behaviour, 'shouting and screaming' at all hours and children running amok. Up to six women were staying in the house at one time. 'Different men would arrive in flash cars, day and night,' Mr Mulqueen said. 'They were a nightmare to live next to. They had no respect for anything or anyone.' Another resident, a pensioner added: 'They were horrible, especially her. They used to shout abuse if I asked them to be quiet.' The circumstances surrounding Mirica's arrest are unclear. However, CCTV from stores around the country, especially where organised crime is suspected of being involved in shoplifting, is fed into an intelligence-sharing central hub at the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC), based within the City of London Police, where facial recognition software is used to identify offenders. 'The majority of the organised crime gangs involved in shoplifting are Romanians,' said David McKelvey, a former detective chief inspector in the Met, who co-founded My Local Bobby, a respected private security firm which provides cover for a number of stores, as well as 24-hour patrols in residential neighbourhoods in London and Essex. 'There is only one reason they come here – to commit crime. They see the UK as rich pickings.' Sister company TM Eye, effectively a civilian CID made up of highly experienced retired detectives like Mr McKelvey, mount private prosecutions against shoplifters apprehended by My Local Bobby guards, who wear red caps and vests. The organisation has undertaken 1,200 such cases over the past 15 years. Most are against individuals – for example, drug addicts – but around 10 per cent have been against gangs, nearly all Romanian. 'They operate in the same way,' says Mr McKelvey. 'A man in an expensive vehicle like a Range Rover drops off the team, usually women, who target a particular area, before picking them up at the end of the day and moving on to the next area.' There are no end of examples. In August last year, three women were jailed for a £40,000 crime spree targeting make-up and beauty counters in East Anglia. A few months earlier, a Romanian shoplifting ring operating in York, including two women, were given prison sentences for stealing £1,282 of fragrances from Browns department store. Beauty products are coveted because of their small size, high value and the ease with which they can be resold. 'Retail crime is spiralling out of control,' said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC. 'Every day, criminals are getting bolder and more aggressive.' Satisfaction with the police is low, with 61 per cent of respondents who took part in the BRC's annual crime survey describing their response as 'poor' or 'very poor'. The largely untold story of the shoplifting epidemic, though, is that it is pushing up the price of everyday items. 'We are all paying for it, that's the point,' said Mr McKelvey. 'The retailers are still making big profits because they work out what their bottom line losses are due to shoplifting – 'shrinkage' they call it – and increase prices.' So, Bianca Mirica is effectively stealing from everyone.

Nudifying apps are not 'a bit of fun' - they are seriously harmful and their existence is a scandal writes Children's Commissioner RACHEL DE SOUZA
Nudifying apps are not 'a bit of fun' - they are seriously harmful and their existence is a scandal writes Children's Commissioner RACHEL DE SOUZA

Daily Mail​

time27 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Nudifying apps are not 'a bit of fun' - they are seriously harmful and their existence is a scandal writes Children's Commissioner RACHEL DE SOUZA

I am horrified that children are growing up in a world where anyone can take a photo of them and digitally remove their clothes. They are growing up in a world where anyone can download the building blocks to develop an AI tool, which can create naked photos of real people. It will soon be illegal to use these building blocks in this way, but they will remain for sale by some of the biggest technology companies meaning they are still open to be misused. Earlier this year I published research looking at the existence of these apps that use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to create fake sexually explicit images through prompts from users. The report exposed the shocking underworld of deepfakes: it highlighted that nearly all deepfakes in circulation are pornographic in nature, and 99% of them feature girls or women – often because the apps are specifically trained to work on female bodies. In the past four years as Children's Commissioner, I have heard from a million children about their lives, their aspirations and their worries. Of all the worrying trends in online activity children have spoken to me about – from seeing hardcore porn on X to cosmetics and vapes being advertised to them through TikTok – the evolution of 'nudifying' apps to become tools that aid in the abuse and exploitation of children is perhaps the most mind-boggling. As one 16-year-old girl asked me: 'Do you know what the purpose of deepfake is? Because I don't see any positives.' Children, especially girls, are growing up fearing that a smartphone might at any point be used as a way of manipulating them. Girls tell me they're taking steps to keep themselves safe online in the same way we have come to expect in real life, like not walking home alone at night. For boys, the risks are different but equally harmful: studies have identified online communities of teenage boys sharing dangerous material are an emerging threat to radicalisation and extremism. The government is rightly taking some welcome steps to limit the dangers of AI. Through its Crime and Policing Bill, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to create child sexual abuse material. And the introduction of the Online Safety Act – and new regulations by Ofcom to protect children – marks a moment for optimism that real change is possible. But what children have told me, from their own experiences, is that we must go much further and faster. The way AI apps are developed is shrouded in secrecy. There is no oversight, no testing of whether they can be used for illegal purposes, no consideration of the inadvertent risks to younger users. That must change. Nudifying apps should simply not be allowed to exist. It should not be possible for an app to generate a sexual image of a child, whether or not that was its designed intent. The technology used by these tools to create sexually explicit images is complex. It is designed to distort reality, to fixate and fascinate the user – and it confronts children with concepts they cannot yet understand. I should not have to tell the government to bring in protections for children to stop these building blocks from being arranged in this way. Posts on LinkedIn have even appeared promoting the 'best' nudifying AI tools available I welcome the move to criminalise individuals for creating child sexual abuse image generators but urge the government to move the tools that would allow predators to create sexually explicit deepfake images out of reach altogether. To do this, I have asked the government to require technology companies who provide opensource AI models – the building blocks of AI tools – to test their products for their capacity to be used for illegal and harmful activity. These are all things children have told me they want. They will help stop sexual imagery involving children becoming normalised. And they will make a significant effort in meeting the government's admirable mission to halve violence against women and girls, who are almost exclusively the subjects of these sexual deepfakes. Harms to children online are not inevitable. We cannot shrug our shoulders in defeat and claim it's impossible to remove the risks from evolving technology. We cannot dismiss it this growing online threat as a 'classroom problem' – because evidence from my survey of school and college leaders shows that the vast majority already restrict phone use: 90% of secondary schools and 99.8% of primary schools. Yet, despite those restrictions, in the same survey of around 19,000 school leaders, they told me online safety is among the most pressing issue facing children in their communities. For them, it is children's access to screens in the hours outside of school that worries them the most. Education is only part of the solution. The challenge begins at home. We must not outsource parenting to our schools and teachers. As parents it can feel overwhelming to try and navigate the same technology as our children. How do we enforce boundaries on things that move too quickly for us to follow? But that's exactly what children have told me they want from their parents: limitations, rules and protection from falling down a rabbit hole of scrolling. Two years ago, I brought together teenagers and young adults to ask, if they could turn back the clock, what advice they wished they had been given before owning a phone. Invariably those 16-21-year-olds agreed they had all been given a phone too young. They also told me they wished their parents had talked to them about the things they saw online – not just as a one off, but regularly, openly, and without stigma. Later this year I'll be repeating that piece of work to produce new guidance for parents – because they deserve to feel confident setting boundaries on phone use, even when it's far outside their comfort zone. I want them to feel empowered to make decisions for their own families, whether that's not allowing their child to have an internet-enabled phone too young, enforcing screen-time limits while at home, or insisting on keeping phones downstairs and out of bedrooms overnight. Parents also deserve to be confident that the companies behind the technology on our children's screens are playing their part. Just last month, new regulations by Ofcom came into force, through the Online Safety Act, that will mean tech companies must now to identify and tackle the risks to children on their platforms – or face consequences. This is long overdue, because for too long tech developers have been allowed to turn a blind eye to the risks to young users on their platforms – even as children tell them what they are seeing. If these regulations are to remain effective and fit for the future, they have to keep pace with emerging technology – nothing can be too hard to tackle. The government has the opportunity to bring in AI product testing against illegal and harmful activity in the AI Bill, which I urge the government to introduce in the coming parliamentary session. It will rightly make technology companies responsible for their tools being used for illegal purposes. We owe it to our children, and the generations of children to come, to stop these harms in their tracks. Nudifying apps must never be accepted as just another restriction placed on our children's freedom, or one more risk to their mental wellbeing. They have no value in a society where we value the safety and sanctity of childhood or family life.

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