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The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Naked, masked man caught on camera walking street at night
Police are investigating after a video emerged of a naked man walking a street at night, wearing only a mask and trainers. The footage has been widely shared on social media. It is thought to have been filmed in the seaside Lancashire town of Lytham. The video shows the man wearing only the black mask and a pair of black‑and‑white trainers as he walks along a row of houses. Lancashire Police said the incident took place around 12.50am on 18 July. It happened in the area of Westby Street, Cleveland Road and Bannister Street. 'We are aware of a concerning video circulating on social media of a naked male wearing a face covering walking around Lytham in the early hours of the morning,' a police spokesman said. 'This incident was not initially reported to police and has only been brought to our attention after it has been viewed on Facebook. 'Fylde Rural Task Force are currently conducting CCTV and house‑to‑house inquiries and would like to reassure you that we are taking this matter seriously.' Officers urged anyone with information or relevant CCTV to contact FyldeRTF@
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Newport: Seven charged with Commercial Road disorder after unrest
Seven people from Newport have been charged in connection with a report of violent disorder in the Police officers were called to Commercial Road after a group of men were seen fighting at about 15:20 men aged 25, 28, 33, 40, 42 and 52 and a 17-year-old boy, who are all from Newport, were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. The six men have been remanded into custody while the 17-year-old has been released on police are all due to appear at Newport Magistrates' Court on 4 August. An eighth man, a 40-year-old, from Newport, has also been arrested suspicion of violent disorder and is currently in police Police Ch Supt John Davies said: "I hope that these charges show our communities that we are heavily invested in responding to and investigating reports of crime and that we are committed to helping keep the streets of Gwent safe."We will continue to work with our partners to identify the issues and tackle the causes surrounding this incident."
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Legal aid cyber-attack has pushed sector towards collapse, say lawyers
Lawyers have warned that a cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency has pushed the sector into chaos, with barristers going unpaid, cases being turned away and fears a growing number of firms could desert legal aid work altogether. In May, the legal aid agency announced that the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales dating back to 2010 had been accessed and downloaded in a significant cyber-attack. Three months on, much of the legal aid system remains offline as services are being rebuilt, with lawyers unable to access records or bill for their services, particularly in civil cases. Chris Minnoch, the chief executive of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said he had had members calling him in tears, staying up into the night waiting for payments to come through and having to negotiate extended overdrafts. 'Lots of barristers and solicitors are saying to us: this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. We wouldn't be surprised that by the time things are eventually fixed, there will be fewer [legal aid] providers because people just can't take the stress any more,' he said. Although the Legal Aid Agency has set up a contingency payment system, where legal aid practitioners can apply for weekly payments equivalent to the average they were paid in the three months running up to the hack, many said it was not enough. One barrister working primarily on legal aid cases, who asked not to be named, said they were offered only £9.50 a week under the contingency scheme. 'Its obviously really laughable and I know a lot of colleagues were offered a very low rate,' they said. 'I am still doing legal aid work, but financially I am not in a good position. I've had to think about other forms of income, rely more on my partner, and I'm just not able to afford certain things that I would otherwise. 'It's particularly had a really massive impact on barristers from working-class backgrounds.' Jenny Beck KC, of Beck Fitzgerald, which specialises in supporting victims of domestic abuse, said the contingency payments had enabled the legal firm to keep going, but could cause a headache further down the line. 'They are based on a guesstimate, so if we underclaim or overclaim, we'll be in some difficulty,' she said. 'We're literally flying blind in an area where there's no margin to play with. So from a business perspective, it's deeply dangerous.' She said lawyers were spending at least an extra two hours on each case due to online systems being down and they were having to turn away more people as a result. 'The bottom-line impact is that we can look after fewer clients because our processing times for everything are longer,' she said. 'We now have to keep a manual note of everything; we've gone back to paper which we're later going to have to input. 'We've got no management information, we've got no control over our cashflow, and everyone at the frontline is beleaguered and exhausted because their administrative hours have doubled and they're able to help less people.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion She also said the hack had badly damaged trust with vulnerable clients. 'The people who are at most risk and who need confidentiality like nobody else, we're telling them, well, we've been putting your stuff into an unsafe system,' she said. 'It's a major erosion of trust.' There have long been concerns about legal aid 'deserts' as lawyers have gradually withdrawn from services due to lack of funding, and there are fears the long-term consequence of the hack will be less access to justice for the most vulnerable in society. 'We're constantly forced to turn away work because we just don't have capacity to, and that was happening even before the hack just because of the limited funding of legal aid,' said Abbi Hart, the co-chair of Young Legal Aid Lawyers. 'This is just going to make it worse. The system was in a pretty bad way beforehand, now it's even more concerning.' A Legal Aid Agency spokesperson said: 'We apologise for the disruption the changes to payment processes made in response to the cyber attack have caused. We understand the difficulties this is causing civil legal aid providers and are working as quickly as possible to restore online systems. 'A contingency system is in place and barristers and solicitors can use our simple escalation process if they feel the average pay figure is inaccurate.'
