
Suspected drug suppliers arrested in Oldham dawn raids
The force said it had gathered intelligence about drug supply in the area as part of its Operation Vulcan, ahead of the raids on Wednesday morning. Detective Inspector Lee Newburn, from GMP's Vulcan team, said: "In our commitment to keeping Derker and the wider community safe, we have carried out over 120 arrests and will continue to do this, pursuing those responsible for their crimes and bringing them to justice.He added: "Officers will continue to work tirelessly with local communities to ensure your safety. If you have any concerns in your area, we urge you to get in touch with us and we will do everything we can to help."
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Daily Mail
6 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
NCIS actor's rape trial reveals disturbing selfie he sent terrified woman after he 'choked her unconscious'
Accused rapist Gabriel Olds had 'painful' sex with a 'scared' virgin who he choked unconscious as she fought desperately to breathe during intercourse, a court heard. The disgraced actor later texted a photo of himself 'humping' a tree despite the woman's requests for him to cease contact. The 53-year-old is charged with multiple counts of rape, sodomy and committing other graphic sex crimes on five women between 2014 and 2023. He was arrested in August last year and pled not guilty. The NCIS star met Jane Doe #7 (JD7) at a 24 Hour Fitness gym in Hollywood, California, in June 2023 as she was exercising on a StairMaster machine. He began flirting with the 31-year-old who was 'intrigued to know him more' and highlighted that he was an actor and writer who associated with A-listers and had attended Yale. They exchanged phone numbers after Olds had been talking about himself - 'monologuing for a long time' - and she 'wanted to leave.' The bespectacled Los Angeles comedy theater manager, a former personal trainer and mental health worker, wore a cream long-sleeved casual shirt over a mauve dress during the proceedings, with her long blonde hair pulled back with a clip. She told prosecutor Yasmin Fardghassemi that she and Olds had their first date on June 24 at The Misfit Bar in Santa Monica where he greeted her with a 'lingering hug.' He 'pressured' her to have an alcoholic drink so she ordered a glass of red wine and drank half. Although she didn't typically drink alcohol, she was 'trying to be cool.' Being pressured by Olds, she said, was a 'common theme' in their relationship. During powerful pre-trial testimony in Department 82 at the Airport Courthouse on Thursday, the witness revealed she felt 'insecure' and had only one sexual partner before meeting the accused and was still a virgin at the time. She disclosed that she suffers from vaginismus, a condition that made sex painful. 'Physical touch was not something that I had really experienced,' she said. She had attended an all-girls school where she was told to 'stay away from boys.' During the bar date, the two shared about their family histories, their different personalities and 'attachment theories.' There followed a brief stroll in nearby Palisades Park, close to the pier, overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway and the ocean. They began making out and Olds pulled down her dress and bra and began 'digitally penetrating' her over her underwear which she described as 'very painful.' She headed home afterwards and told the court Olds' actions her had caused her to bleed in her private area. He asked to see her again and while exchanging 'playful' texts they planned a second date. He immediately began asking her to send sexy pictures of herself which she declined to do. JD2 told the court that at the time she had just had a bad break-up with a co-worker before meeting Olds and was 'definitely curious at this point.' During their second date on July 7, 2023, they had pizza at a restaurant and talked about the novel Olds was writing and the TV show Westworld, the dystopian science fiction Western drama. She told him that she had never had vaginal sex but he didn't believe her. The court previously heard from other Jane Does who were allegedly slapped, punched in the head and back, choked and demeaned verbally by Olds during violent sexual encounters. Prosecutor Fardghassemi asked JD7 if she had heard of the BDSM type of sex which is favored by Olds, to which she responded: 'I live in Hollywood, so yeah, it's around.' After the meal, the pair went back to Olds' home in the Hollywood Hills. They had foreplay on his bed where he gave the woman oral sex - despite her protests - and boasted: 'I'm really good at it.' Without seeking her permission, he then set up his iPhone to record the witness which made her 'uncomfortable.' He told the footage was 'just for me.' She told the court: 'I felt psychologically and physically frozen.' He began having sex with her using condom even though she didn't want to be penetrated. She sobbed as she told the court: 'I'm disappointed that I didn't stick up for myself. I didn't know this person. I didn't love them.' The sex was 'very painful' but she went along with it. 'I basically felt like a leper,' she said. 'I didn't want to seem incompetent.' Despite her showing signs of being uncomfortable, Olds continued with the sex and was 'pretty locked into what he was doing. It was very clear that I was in distress and he was still trying to have sex.' She described the encounter up to that point as a 'disaster.' But things turned far darker and menacing when he strangled her during intercourse without warning using both of his hands. 'He started to choke me out,' she said. 'I remember the pressure getting harder and harder and harder.' She attempted to pull his hands away from her neck to relieve the pressure but became deprived of oxygen 'and things started getting fuzzy.' Olds, though, did not release his grip on her neck. 'There was a point where I went dark,' added the witness. 'I blacked out at that point. I felt really effed up.' When she came to, she was 'afraid' and realized she was in a 'dangerous situation.' She was 'super, super emotional and crying.' She repeatedly told Olds 'I need to go' but the much larger, 6' 1' tall actor remained positioned on top of his 5' 5', 155 pound victim. He seemed to be 'playing dumb' and told her 'let's talk about it.' Attorney Fardghassemi asked if she had wanted to have further intercourse at the time with him in that moment she responded bluntly, 'hell f**king no.' From the bench, Judge Lauren Weis-Birnstein repeated the same phrase to the court for clarity. The woman, who felt 'afraid' and 'embarrassed,' was able to flee Olds' home. He contacted her via text the following day to, in his words, 'clear the air' and she agreed to meet, but in public for her safety. 'I wanted to know if this person actually liked me,' she told the court, and to know 'How did something like that happen?' She shared a few more dates with Olds. They sometimes made out - with him taking more cell phone videos of her - but there was no more intercourse, despite his requests. During one get together at his home she had a panic attack because she didn't feel safe with him and she left. On July 12, he texted that she made him 'swoon' but she stated she could not 'recover trust.' She asked him to delete the videos he had taken of her and on August 3, 2023 told him via text to stop contacting her. However, on February 14 the following year - Valentine's Day - he texted her photos of himself 'humping' a tree and wrote: 'The last one is like me when I was inside of you :)' When she was shown the image Judge on a the prosecutor's laptop, the judge remarked: 'I can't tell what he's doing to the tree.' In a text to Olds on February 18, 2024 JD7 said of him: 'I have a visceral reaction of fear.' She later looked up his name online which was when she discovered he had been arrested and then contacted the Los Angeles Police Department. The bachelor actor has also appeared on popular TV shows such as Law & Order, Charmed and Boardwalk Empire and portrayed televangelist Pat Robertson in the 2021 indie film The Eyes of Tammy Faye alongside Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield. On Friday, the judge determined that Olds would stand trial on 12 felony counts and kept his bail at $3.5 million. Det. Brent Hopkins, who headed up the police investigation, told the Daily Mail exclusively: 'This was a long, extremely emotional hearing where these survivors bravely shared their stories. 'We're thankful they and all the other witnesses had the strength to see it through. 'We keep finding new stories, so if there are others out there who have not yet had their say, we hope to give them a chance to speak, as well.' Olds is being held at Los Angeles County Sheriff's North County Correctional Facility. He could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted on all counts.


Daily Mail
6 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
As the true scale of the involvement of South Yorkshire Police officers in the Rotherham grooming gangs scandal is revealed, one victim - just 14 at the time - tells her horrific story
With its dirty net curtains, black plastic door and stench of stale air, Elizabeth Harper will never forget the flat in which she was held in Rotherham for ten long weeks in 2004. Nor will she forget the steady stream of male strangers who were allowed into the fetid bedroom to systematically rape and abuse her.


Sky News
36 minutes ago
- Sky News
One year ago, a furious mob rioted in Rotherham. Locals fear another outbreak of violence
A year has passed, but Paris and Josh still cannot quite believe what they witnessed last August. They live 200m from a hotel on the edge of a quiet residential street. "It looked like a modern-day lynching," Paris says. It's the only way she can describe the sickening scene that unfolded as a furious mob tried to attack asylum seekers being housed in the Holiday Inn Express north of Rotherham. 1:40 After seeing masked men setting fires and storming into the hotel, Paris says she was afraid they were going to see "either someone getting thrown out a window, or someone getting dragged outside". Josh remembers looking out of his bedroom window and thinking: "What is England coming to? What is going on?" "It was like they were going to a festival," Paris says. "They had ski masks on and bags full of alcohol, people were taking the kids, like they had the kids on their shoulders." To protect their car, Josh drove it off his driveway to another street nearby. They then retreated inside and watched six or seven hours of chaos unfold. It was one of the most serious outbursts of rioting during a week last August when disorder spread through towns and cities. Days after the knife attack which left three school girls dead in Southport, years of deep-rooted frustration about immigration boiled over. Twelve months on, the Holiday Inn Express next to Josh and Paris' home has reopened as a regular hotel, but the tension that has been seen around other migrant hotels recently hasn't disappeared. "I still see in groups (online) all this hate being spilled," Josh says. "I think it probably could happen again," Paris adds. "That's the faith I have in the country, really." The courts have handed out lengthy prison sentences to those involved in the disorder, leading to rows about whether they match the crimes people committed. The mayor of South Yorkshire says tensions over immigration remain unresolved and told Sky News he believes migrants, hotel workers or police officers could have been killed last August. "Had they [rioters] been more effective at doing some of the things they were trying to do, we would have seen people dying on the day," Oliver Coppard says. "What it speaks to, in my mind, is the poverty that we see in some of our communities, which feeds a sense of grievance." Mr Coppard - who has responsibility for policing in South Yorkshire - added: "Ultimately what we need in this country is a better approach to cohesion, to community integration so people are supported to live full lives within our communities and a proper and legal approach to asylum. "Those things are incredibly toxic and politics is not doing a good job I think of dealing with those issues." Protests around other migrant hotels in recent weeks show that the grievances of last summer still hang in the air. In Rotherham market we meet 23-year-old scaffolder Josh. "I don't think it has been solved," he says. When I asked him how that makes people feel, he replies: "Angry because it makes people want to riot again." He says he has no issue with people who move to the UK legally to work, but adds it is "unfair" when people arrive on small boats and receive hotel accommodation while their asylum cases are processed. Gabriel, 38, who was born in Rotherham, says he feels people look at him differently since last summer's disorder. "I couldn't see anybody smiling at me like they used to before the riot, they are putting every minority in the same box which is wrong," he says. "There is still a bit of aftermath, anger, rage, upset - in everybody's eyes. "That tension alone is worse than the actual incident because before, I think, it was hidden but now it is out there." A woman who didn't want to be named says: "The backlash is going to happen with the government against the people - the people against the government, it is not right. "The way I see it, we all have to live together ... we bleed the same blood, we breathe the same air." That spirit of conciliation and tolerance is less common than it once was - it is a hallmark of a failed immigration system that has left deep-rooted frustration in communities across the UK.