Plymouth City Council boosts cyber security amid rising threats
Cyber attacks and phishing attempts, where an attacker attempts to steal your money, or your identity, by getting you to reveal personal information, were a constant concern, Dann added."When I was lord mayor my account was attacked three times and emails went out to all councillors asking for money," she said.Half of all emails sent to the council were flagged as spam or threats and blocked.Councillor Charlotte Holloway raised concerns about the city's exposure, asking whether additional support was available. Officials confirmed while no specific aid was provided, the council's IT partner actively monitored and responded to risks.
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I scratched his face. I was desperate to get him to stop.' Farrall then 'relaxed' and walked away as she made a 999 call to report the attack. Ms Jones told the court that she walked out of the house with her baby after the call because she was 'afraid he would come back'. Jurors were shown police bodycam footage in which Ms Jones told officers the attack was over 'a ridiculous argument' and that the couple, who had been together for two-and-a-half years, 'rarely' argued. She went on to say that she didn't want the matter to go court because it would 'ruin his career'. But she told the court she later changed her mind because she 'wanted to do right thing for our son' and Farrall was charged with the attack, appearing at Warrington Magistrates Court two days later. In her opening statement, prosecutor Rosemary Proctor said Ms Jones went to stay with her mother in Prestatyn, North Wales, after the attack and Farrall visited her to persuade her to retract her statement. 'He cried and promised her that he would seek counselling. He persuaded her to retract the statement and she did,' she told the jury. 'She did so in the belief that he would plead guilty to strangling her. He had duped her.' Ms Proctor added that Farrall provided two 'burner' phones to keep in contact and sent messages suggesting the wording of Ms Jones' retraction statement, telling her to say that the police 'had put words into her mouth'. The ongoing contact was in defiance of the defendant's bail conditions which forbade direct or indirect contact with Ms Jones, the court was told. Ms Proctor said: 'Farrall was getting in the way that justice is meant to be done by manipulating Katie into giving the retraction statement.' During her evidence, Ms Jones said she had believed he partner's promises that he would get counselling and she wanted him to remain part of their son's life. Ms Jones told Chester Crown Court she had 'issues, like everyone has issues' with their partners and didn't want the offence to go to court initially because it would 'ruin' Farrall's career 'We had issues, like everyone has issues, but we were happy in general. We had a baby together and he had disappeared. I just wanted him to come home,' she told the court. During arranged meetings in Wales and at Poynton, Cheshire, Farrall seemed 'apologetic' and claimed he had never meant to hurt her. She added: 'He told me if I made the retraction statement it would all go away.' Ms Jones said Farrall showed him a draft of the retraction at a meeting on the beach at Prestatyn which she then passed on to Cheshire Police. 'I trusted him that it would all go away - the charge,' she said. But Ms Jones decided to proceed with the prosecution after another meeting with Farrall during which his 'attitude changed'. 'He was all agitated with me. It was an awful interaction and we argued the majority of the time,' she said. 'He said I was remembering things incorrectly. It showed me he was not interested in doing the right thing and accepting what had happened.' The court was told of WhatsApp messages police downloaded from the burner phones which Farrall provided. In one, Ms Jones asked him if there was 'anything specific I need to do or say' before making the retraction statement. Farrall allegedly urged her to keep to the draft that he had helped her compose on her phone. She replied: 'I love so much. We will get through this. Friends are telling me not to withdraw and I am really fighting this more than you know.' But after she became suspicious of his motives, she wrote: 'I need to know what you are doing. You are playing me for an idiot.' Cross-examined by Jessica Foster, Ms Jones agreed that she had been drinking 'intermittently' throughout the day of the alleged attack but denied she was drunk. She also accepted she had been through a traumatic birth and was on medication for migraines and sleep. Ms Foster, who suggested the witness was also 'self-medicating with alcohol' and had a habit of picking fights when drunk, added: 'On that night you picked a fight about one of his previous relationship. Something had set you off. You started an argument about other women.' Ms Jones denied the claim and a suggestion that Farrall had put up his hands to defend himself and made contact with her left shoulder when she 'lunged' at him. 'Your emotions took over when he told you the relationship was over,' the barrister said, prompting the response: 'He strangled me.' Farrall, who now represents Macclesfield Central as a 'non-grouped' councillor, denies intentional strangulation of Ms Jones and committing acts intending to pervert the course of justice. The trial continues.
