
‘Common' for hostile states to use criminals to carry out offences on UK soil
Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism Commander Dominic Murphy said: 'More than 20% of our work now in counter-terrorism policing comes from a threat from states, and Russia is one of those states now that, as we've seen on a few occasions, have really gone over and above to project a threat into the United Kingdom.
'But in this case, as a result of some of the hard work of us and our intelligence agencies, the hostile operating environment for Russia means, of course, they've recruited young criminals to undertake their work on their behalf.'
He said it is common for states to recruit criminals like Dylan Earl to carry out offences on UK soil.
'We are seeing it quite a bit within our case work.
'It says something about the fact that we have made it very difficult for some of these states to operate in a historical way with their own agents and officers here in the United Kingdom.
'One of the things we need to do is make sure that we are continuing to work with our intelligence partners as effectively as possible to identify where they are tasking, often young criminals, to undertake their work on their behalf, so that we can intervene and disrupt their activities.'
The case is the first conviction under the National Security Act, and one of the first cases involving the Wagner Group in the UK, he said.
'It's important to remember as well that two individuals, Earl and (Jake) Reeves, have both pleaded guilty to national security act offences.
'So this is the first time that we've seen the National Security Act used from arrest right through to conviction, and that's a very significant use of legislation, and should serve as a really important message to anyone who might want to get involved in this type of activity on behalf of a foreign government.'
Earl and Reeves also plotted to set fire to the Hide Restaurant and Hedonism Wines in Mayfair, west London, and plotted to kidnap owner Evgeny Chichvarkin on behalf of the Wagner Group.
Mr Murphy said: 'Earl and Reeves were planning other activity involved in attacking other premises, potentially here in Mayfair, and they'd also discussed the potential kidnap for the individual that owned those premises.
'What this action has done is allow us to disrupt that ongoing activity, and as we can see from the seriousness and the scale of the warehouse fire, clearly, these individuals did pose a threat, and this activity has managed to disrupt that.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Spectator
3 hours ago
- Spectator
Boredom is Rachel Reeves's secret weapon
When French General Bosquet watched the 600 men of the Light Brigade charge helplessly into the Russian heavy artillery at Balaclava he muttered 'c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre'. Well, history repeats first as tragedy then as farce. And so today, those words came to mind as I watched Rachel Reeves prepare to charge into the grapeshot offered by the House of Lord's economic affairs committee. Only without the 'c'est magnifique' bit. Perhaps Reeves' plan is to bore the markets into submission: after all, the stock exchange can't crash if everyone's asleep Behind the Chancellor sat a boy in a lanyard bearing the legend 'work experience'. One got the sense that it almost would have been kinder to let him have a crack. Reeves began by answering a simple question about the nature of her growth plan by committing a variety of crimes against the good use of the English language. It was all 'sorta', 'kinda', 'um' and 'er'. There were endless managerial platitudes; she spoke of 'embedding stability,' and hailed the 'three pillars of our growth strategy'. It was as if, rather than marshalling the Bedouin, Lawrence of Arabia had instead done a lengthy stint at Deloitte. 'Different eras require different growth strategies,' she sagely informed their lordships when quizzed about her infamous fiscal rules. 'We've sort of got these three pillars that we think about', which was reassuring. Imagine a builder saying, 'You've sort of got these walls keeping your roof on'. As Reeves prevaricated and blustered away for the next couple of hours, relying on being as boring as possible in her answers which were simultaneously exceptionally long while relaying almost no useful information. Perhaps her plan is to bore the markets into submission: after all, the stock exchange can't crash if everyone's asleep. One thing that did draw attention was the higher quality of questions compared to any Commons Committee. Lord Agnew asked about stablecoin and tokenised deposits. Lord Petitgas brought in the nuances between the Bank of England's and the Office for Budget Responsibility's GDP predictions. The 9th Baron Londesborough asked an apposite question about the productivity lag. Lord Londesborough, an entrepreneur and foreign affairs expert, is soon to be booted out of the upper chamber by the government's spiteful and philistinic ejection of the hereditary peers. Apparently he is less legitimate than the cadre of lobby chimps who normally sit behind Reeves in the lower house. On the subject of which, back in the bug tank, Local Government Minister Jim McMahon was standing in for Big Ange on the question of Birmingham's bins. McMahon has the delivery and rhetorical skill of a primary school child reading a book with chapters for the first time. Plodding away through his notes, he kept on asking if questioners would 'let him be clear' before providing absolutely no clarity whatsoever. 'C'était moronique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre,' as General Bosquet might have said. Sometimes doing this job makes you question whether representative democracy was such a good idea after all.


The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Ex-Met Pc jailed for inappropriate relationship with girl has sentence tripled
A former Metropolitan Police officer who was jailed for instigating an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old girl has had his sentence tripled. Che Homersham, 37, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment at Southwark Crown Court in May after admitting to abusing his position as a police constable by attempting to instigate a sexual relationship with the girl. He first met the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, while on duty responding to a domestic incident involving her mother in north London in December 2018, the court heard. Homersham, from Southgate, north London, took the girl's personal details, including her telephone number, and called her the following day saying he needed to take a witness statement. The former officer then drove the girl to the Harrow Viewpoint and asked to kiss her, which she refused. Homersham's initial sentence was increased by 12 months after the Solicitor General, Lucy Rigby KC MP, referred it to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said on Tuesday. Ms Rigby said: 'Homersham abused his position as a police officer – a role that rightly commands public trust – and I welcome the court's decision to increase his sentence.' The former officer's inappropriate relationship continued with the teenager over several years, including by describing sexual fantasies and making sexual advances, the AGO said. This included Homersham sending the girl a text in which he said he was going to 'pick her up from school and make love to her', the court was told. Texts to the victim from Homersham were uncovered when he was arrested for a separate matter in August 2023. Homersham was charged after an investigation by the Met's anti-corruption unit, which started in June 2023 and was carried out under the direction of the Independent Office for Police Conduct. He resigned from the Met in February last year after joining the force in July 2017.


Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Palestine Action supporters organise terror ban protest on foreign website
A protest supporting Palestine Action, the campaign group proscribed in Britain as a terror organisation, is being organised on a US website. At least 500 demonstrators are planning to gather on August 9 in central London to hold signs saying: 'I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.' The Metropolitan Police has warned the protesters to 'expect to be arrested'. The demonstration has been organised by Defend Our Juries, which is leading a campaign to reverse Palestine Action's proscription, under which hundreds have already been arrested. It is using the United States-based website Action Network to tell would-be protesters to express support for the group in such large numbers that the police cannot arrest all of them. But Defend Our Juries has denied the use of a foreign website is a ploy to dodge the UK ban on Palestine Action. '500 is more than double the total number of people arrested under the Terrorism Act in 2024,' the organisers say in an 'action briefing document' published on the Action Network website. 'It would be practically and politically difficult for the state to respond to an action on this scale. Even assuming it had the physical capacity to arrest so many people on the same day, the political fallout from such an operation would be incalculable, causing irreparable damage to the reputation of the Government and the police.' Defend Our Juries said the protest was required because Palestine Action's proscription was 'a major assault on democracy and everyone's rights to freedom of expression'. It added: 'Our assessment is that an action on this scale could be enough for the ban to be lifted. 'Charging and prosecuting at least 500 more people, in addition to the 200 people already arrested, is likely to be beyond the capacity of the state, given the current situation in the criminal justice system.' Palestine Action took down its own website after it was proscribed earlier this month. Expressing support for the group is now a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Terrorism Act 2000. But supporters have since turned out to to protest against the ban, and confronted police outside the Royal Courts of Justice early this month when the court was hearing an unsuccessful bid to block the ban. Action Network allows protest groups to 'organise for progressive causes' without having to set up their own online infrastructure. 'We encourage responsible activism, and do not support using the platform to take unlawful or other improper action,' its website reads. 'We do not control or endorse the conduct of users and make no representations of any kind about them.' Defend Our Juries organised protests across the United Kingdom over the weekend in which more than 100 people were arrested and some pro-Palestinian activists chanted 'f--- your Jewish state'. Demonstrations were held in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Truro, and London. We have detailed plan, says Met A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'While we would not go into the details of our approach, the public can be reassured that we will have a detailed plan in place to respond to any eventuality. 'Our officers will continue to apply the law in relation to Palestine Action as we have done over the past three weekends. 'Anyone showing support for the group can expect to be arrested.' A spokesman for Defend Our Juries said: 'If the Home Secretary and the Met Commissioner think it's a good use of public resources to arrest, detain and interview more than 500 people for quietly expressing an opinion about the genocide in Gaza, that's on them. 'We have been asked if our use of Action Network is a devious attempt to circumvent the proscription of Palestine Action, since the website is based in the US. 'The answer is 'No'. That never even occurred to us. If our aim was to put ourselves beyond the reach of UK law enforcement, we wouldn't have opted for the US. 'We have always used Action Network for our campaigns, as many other groups and movements do, for its user friendliness and functionality.'