Billy McNicholl: 18-year-old charged with murder of Ipswich man who died on Christmas Day
William McNicholl, known as Billy, was found dead a week later at 6pm on New Year's Day at an address in Hawthorn Drive, Ipswich.
Friends had become concerned for his welfare after it had been days since he was last active on social media, posting a picture of Christmas dinner.
Suffolk Police said a Home Office post-mortem examination showed he died from head injuries and a stab wound to the right shoulder.
18-year-old Jake McMillan was re-arrested on Monday on suspicion of murder, having previously been arrested and bailed in January when he was 17.
Mr McMillan, most recently of Banbury Road, Hackney in London, but formerly of Ipswich, has been charged with murder and also being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
He has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Ipswich Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Police said three other people were arrested on 1 April as part of the investigation.
A 17-year-old boy, 18-year-old man and 41-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and being concerned in the supply of Class A and B drugs.
They were taken to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre for questioning and were bailed to return to police on 1 October.
A woman in her 50s, who was previously arrested on suspicion of murder before being released on bail, will face no further action.
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The Sun
9 hours ago
- The Sun
Migrant hotel protests spread across the country with more planned today as cops clamp down on weekend of stand-offs
MIGRANT hotel protests have spread across the country as furious citizens take to the streets to challenge illegal immigration. Yesterday protests were held across the country with demonstrations outside migrant hotels held in Norwich, Leeds, Southampton and Nottinghamshire. 3 3 Further demonstrations are planned today in Epping, Wolverhampton and Cheshire as anger over the Government's continued use of migrant hotels rises. The protests have so far remained peaceful but some minor confrontations with counter protestors were seen. A group of counter protesters wearing masks reportedly broke away from the main group at the Nottinghamshire demonstration and walked into the middle of the crowd. Some were said to be carrying 'Stand Up to Racism' placards and were escorted away by police. Further demonstrations are planned today in Epping, Wolverhampton and Cheshire as public anger over the Government's use of migrant hotels rises. Police have so far arrested 18 people and charged seven in connection with the continuous protests in Epping. The migrant hotel demonstrations began after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault. The man is alleged to have attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl. Protests have spread across the country with demonstrations held earlier in the week outside the four-star Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf. According to the latest Home Office data 32,000 asylum seekers are being housed in around 210 hotels across the country. A record 24,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far in 2025. 3
Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Telegraph
‘Racist, far-Right' protesters: a Sikh, a Chinese man and a veteran with mixed-race kids
Of the thousands of bankers in Canary Wharf, only one crossed the footbridge to the newly designated migrant hotel opposite the district's glass towers, curious to witness the commotion. Metal fencing surrounded the entrance of the Britannia Hotel, guarded by a wall of police and a private security guard in a surgical mask. Territorial support vans crawled past. It was hard to escape the feeling that a great crime had been committed. Across the road, a smattering of protesters milled about – some live-streaming the police, who filmed them in return – while others cheered as cars honked in support. The lone banker, smartly dressed in a suit, watched from the edge. His colleagues weren't overly bothered by the disturbance. 'They live in Battersea and Fulham.' The demonstration outside the Britannia was in its second day, having originally been sparked by a false rumour that asylum seekers from the Bell Hotel in Epping had been moved here. The Home Office have nonetheless confirmed the hotel will be used to house another group of asylum seekers, after reports of tourists having room bookings suddenly cancelled without proper explanation were shared online. Few residents welcomed the prospect of people fresh off dinghies arriving in the sanitised core of London's financial district. 'This is the only place in London you'd walk around in a Rolex,' the banker said. 'A lot of Chinese, Japanese and Hong-kongers live here. It's not like Tower Hamlets.' Hotels have been used to house migrants for decades, usually in peripheral Northern towns few in Westminster knew or cared much about. In 2017, it was found that 57 per cent of asylum seekers were housed in the poorest third of Britain; the wealthiest hosted only 10 per cent. That quiet dispersal worked for a while. The benefits of porous borders were privatised – cheap labour for the gig economy, rising rents for landlords – while the costs were offloaded onto the public via tax-funded migrant support, suppressed wages, overstretched services, and housing shortages. The scheme spared ministers the grubby work of signing off on border control, creating conditions that allowed a small class of opportunists to enrich themselves from the crisis. Slum landlords could become Home Office millionaires, while the ageing magnates of hotel empires – among them, Britannia's owner Alex Langsam – were spared from market forces by taxpayer-funded subsidy. Over 170,000 people have now arrived in Britain by crossing the Channel. There are simply no 'suitable' locations left for accommodation. The use of hotels, itself a concession to the need to quickly house the excessive number of arrivals, has seen asylum seekers placed both in leafy market towns like Epping and Diss and London cultural centres like Shoreditch and the Barbican. Even Canary Wharf, a place once intended to advertise modern Britain to the world, is expected to share in the burden. Perhaps the strangeness of the decision to house asylum seekers – here of all places – was reflected in the surprising diversity of those hanging around the demonstration. A brawny Sikh man in a Louis Vuitton-branded turban held a sign reading, 'Stop calling us far-Right. Protect our women and children.' Nearby, a smartly dressed Chinese man waved a similar placard, standing alongside residents from Malaysia and Australia. They mingled among more provocative signs, including a St George's flag emblazoned with, 'The English began to hate', a line from Kipling's wartime ballad The Beginning. A visibly agitated Frenchman implored passing journalists to cover the protest fairly. The Reform chairman for Newham and Tower Hamlets Lee Nallalingham, speaking in a personal capacity, claimed the coalition extended to his own family. 'Look, when my Sri Lankan father, my Ukrainian step-mother and my Japanese wife are all sharing the same views, there's clearly something there,' he said. 'We like to pretend it's some stereotypical demographic issue. If it was, I wouldn't be here.' Concerns about safety and fairness predominated. The deal arranged by the Home Office would house up to 400 asylum seekers in the hotel for £81 per night. At full capacity, the cost is just shy of £12 million per year, in an area where the average one-bed rent is £3,000 and around 20,000 people are stuck on housing wait lists. Perhaps Tower Hamlets Council feels it can afford the expense: it recently advertised a £40,000 post to expedite asylum housing and tackle 'racism and inequality'. 'I don't agree with it,' said Terry Humm, 56, his beret marking him as a former member of the 2nd Battalion Royal Green Jackets. 'There are thousands of ex-servicemen on the streets in England – what about housing people who fought for Queen and Country?' He was quick to head off any charge of prejudice. 'I'm not racist at all, my children are mixed race,' he said. 'I just find it disgusting.' Mr Humm, who joined the army in 1989 and served in Northern Ireland, warned of renewed sectarian tension on this side of the Irish Sea. 'The ingredients are in the mixing bowl – someone's bound to make the cake'. A Met officer who'd served in the Welsh Guards passed by and paid his respects. Humm heard about the demonstration on TikTok. Others mentioned WhatsApp groups that had grown from 100 to over 3,000 members in the space of weeks. There was talk of 'civil war' and Britain being a 'ticking bomb', echoing government fears of unrest spreading across the country. 'There's going to be riots within the next six weeks, mark my words,' said one man, a builder in his 40s from Stepney. 'They've brought them here because they think Canary Wharf is secure. But what they don't realise is Tower Hamlets will not have this. It will escalate into a war,' he said, his voice rising. 'Epping set an example,' he added. 'It showed that as a community if you stand together you can make your voice be heard. The rhetoric of protesters seems to match up with the reality of increasingly inflamed tensions this summer. Earlier this month, migrants in Gravelines lobbed Molotov cocktails at French police, reportedly using fuel siphoned from the very dinghies they intended to board for Britain. A spate of sexual assaults and other violent crimes by illegal migrants stoked public frustration at an asylum system that appears impervious to reasonable adaptation. The protest remained fairly civil until the arrival of counter-demonstrators from Stand Up To Racism, an organisation open about its collaboration with the Socialist Workers Party. Divided by the road, the two groups screamed abuse at each other: 'paedophile protectors!' met with a reply of 'racists!' One female activist reminded me of someone I had met while reporting on the Bibby Stockholm barge, who furnished migrants aboard with toiletries, pens and maps. Earlier this month, one of its occupants was convicted of assaulting a teenage girl on a beach, telling her he'd 'never been this close to a white woman'. As I spoke to another far-Left activist, an egg splattered on the pavement between us, lobbed from the balcony of a luxury apartment building next to the hotel. The first 15 or so floors are reserved for affordable housing. South Asian residents in Islamic attire gathered on balconies to watch the scene. Inside their separate entrance, the only visible signs were an 'Eid haircut price list' and a notice warning residents not to hang clothes, toss cigarettes, or display flags or banners from their windows. Apartments there can cost millions. According to one resident, their Saudi neighbour is 'furious' at the decision to place the migrants next door, and the occupant of the penthouse flat is rumoured to have decided to sell up. Canary Wharf was once lauded as a turning point in Britain's post-war decline – 'a citadel of finance,' as Reuters put it, 'atop once-derelict docks.' It stands as a crowning accomplishment of the Thatcher years. But London is no longer the unquestioned centre of international finance. Canary Wharf appears now to be sliding back to its pre-regeneration state, blighted by empty commercial lots and chintzy stores that never seem to have customers. Residents of luxury residential buildings will live side by side with asylum seekers, just as the rest of the country is expected to. Amidst the pomp of Canary Wharf's creation, Margaret Thatcher warned that 'where there is no vision, the people perish.' She no doubt had the glittering financial district just across the river in mind. Today we need only look at the Britannia Hotel.
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Elite team of cops to monitor anti-migrant social media posts to clamp down on unrest as critics blast ‘disturbing' move
AN elite team of cops will be tasked with monitoring social media for anti-migrant posts. Detectives are being handpicked from forces across the UK to take part in the new programme amid fears of rioting as the small boats crisis escalates. 3 3 The division, overseen by the Home Office, will look to "maximise social media intelligence" gathering after forces were slammed for their response to last year's unrest. Protests outside asylum hotels is continuing to heat up, with crowds gathering yesterday in the likes of Norwich, Leeds and Bournemouth - and more demonstrations planned today. Deputy PM Angela Rayner warned the Cabinet last week that the Government must step in to address "real concerns" about immigration. However, critics have labelled the social media policing plans as "disturbing" and questioned if it further restricts freedom of speech. The National Internet Intelligence Investigations team, will work out of the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) in Westminster. The NPoCC provides the central planning for forces across the UK in terms of "nationally significant protests" and civil disorder. And enforced lockdown rules during the Covid pandemic. Plans for the new unit were spotted in a letter to MPs by Dame Diana Johnson, policing minister. Lucy Connolly fury It comes after Tory councillor Raymond Connolly's wife Lucy was jailed for 31 months after posting comments on her X account just hours after evil Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls in the Merseyside town on July 29 last year. Ms Connolly, 41, shared a call to arms following the deaths of Bebe King, six, nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, last July. 16 arrested after protests outside Epping migrant hotel as ring of steel ramps up around TWO asylum seeker centres Posts wrongly claimed monster Rudakubana was a Muslim asylum seeker when he was actually born in Cardiff and raised Christian. Ms Connelly's punishment sparked fury across the political divide. Furious Brits noted that despite the former child minder quickly deleting her post, she remains in prison while paedos such as Hugh Edwards escaped jail time. Referring to the social media cops, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, told the Daily Telegraph: 'Two-tier Keir can't police the streets, so he's trying to police opinions instead. "They're setting up a central team to monitor what you post, what you share, what you think, because deep down they know the public don't buy what they're selling." He added Labour are no longer "pretending" to fix Britain and are now "trying to mute it" - turning the country into a "surveillance state". Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said: 'This is the beginning of the state controlling free speech. It is sinister, dangerous and must be fought. Reform UK will do just that.'
