
WFH justice boss quits after Andrew Malkinson scandal
Dame Vera said: 'The CCRC has a vital role to play in the criminal justice system, but confidence in the organisation has been badly damaged. Confidence in our work must be restored. I thank Karen for her work at the CCRC over many years.'
Amanda Pearce, CCRC the casework operations director, has been appointed interim Chief Executive.
In February, the CCRC received an application from Lucy Letby, the former nurse convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.
Asked if she thought the CCRC could deal with it, Dame Vera said: 'Remember I'm quite new to it. It will need complexity. It will need a team. It will need the readiness to commission reports, I would guess from what's been said about the lack of scientific value in some of the things that were asserted.
'So it's going to be a very complex task.'

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Sky News
43 minutes ago
- Sky News
Police arrest 29 protesters on suspicion of terror offences after Palestine Action banned
Police have arrested 29 protesters on suspicion of terror offences after a ban on the Palestine Action group came into effect. The protest group was officially proscribed as a terrorist organisation from midnight on Saturday after a last-minute legal challenge at the Court of Appeal to delay it failed. The Metropolitan Police said on Saturday afternoon that the protesters had been held on suspicion of committing offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 following a protest in London's Parliament Square. "The group is now proscribed and expressing support for them is a criminal offence," the force added. "Arrests are being made." MPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to ban the protest group under the legislation on Wednesday and the House of Lords approved the move the following day. The law change adds Palestine Action to the list of banned organisations along with the likes of al Qaeda, ISIS and Hezbollah, and makes membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Even wearing a T-shirt or badge with the group's name on attracts a maximum six-month sentence. On Saturday, a large number of Metropolitan Police officers circled around dozens of protesters carrying placards that said: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." Israel has strongly denied any allegations of genocide. Campaign group Defend Our Juries said demonstrators were set to gather in Parliament Square on Saturday holding signs supporting Palestine Action. Officers who attended the protest were met with cries of "Met Police you are puppets of the Zionist state" and "leave them alone". Others were heard shouting, "British police off our streets", and "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". Chants of "shame" were directed at police. A woman seen lying on the floor in handcuffs was carried away by officers and put in a police van. She was heard saying: "Free Palestine, stop the genocide, I oppose genocide, I support the rights of the Palestinian people, I support freedom of speech, I support freedom of assembly." A large group of people crowded around to film the scene. Officers placed her in a vehicle before returning to the square's Mahatma Gandhi statue. The protest started at about 1.10pm and officers were seen taking people away shortly after 1.30pm. Most of the officers dispersed at around 2.10pm. 'Creeping totalitarianism' Leslie Tate, 76, a Green councillor from Hertfordshire, said the group is not a violent organisation, and the proscription is wrong, adding the protest was "necessary to defend our democracy, and this is the creeping edge of totalitarianism". Among those removed by police was Reverend Sue Parfitt, who is 83. Ms Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action after two Voyager aircraft were allegedly damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June, which police said caused around £7m worth of damage. T-shirt could bring six-month jail term Even wearing a T-shirt or badge with the group's name on attracts a maximum six-month sentence. On Friday, the High Court heard the decision to ban the group was taken before the aircraft were allegedly damaged and as early as March this year. Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action, is seeking to bring a legal challenge against the Home Office with a hearing for permission to bring a judicial review set to take place during the week of 21 July. On Friday, her lawyers applied for "interim relief" to temporarily block the legislation from coming into force until that hearing, arguing the Irish author Sally Rooney, who wrote Normal People, was among supporters who fear the "ramifications". But three judges, including the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, refused a bid to pause the ban coming into effect pending any Supreme Court bid at about 10.30pm on Friday, less than two hours before the ban was due to come into force. In their judgment, the judges said: "The role of the court is simply to interpret and apply the law.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
H&M hands staff body cameras to catch shoplifters
H&M has become the latest retailer to give its UK staff body cameras as shops grapple with shoplifting and attacks on workers. The Swedish fashion giant told The Mail on Sunday it was conducting trials of the technology. It follows other household names Tesco, the Co-op and Lidl, which are providing staff with bodycams to protect them from abuse and assaults. High street firms say the move has been forced on them due to a police failure to act. Shoplifting was up one fifth last year with violent and abusive incidents running at 2,000 a day. Criminals – often organised gangs – increasingly steal goods in full view of staff and shoppers, safe in the knowledge that there will be no consequences. Workers are usually told not to intervene against thieves to avoid the risk of being attacked. Staff have also reported being sworn at, being subjected to racial and sexual insults, physically threatened, spat on and being victims of physical violence. The H&M bodycam trials are taking place at a store in Edinburgh as well as shops in Wood Green and Beckton in London. A spokesman for the firm said: 'We're testing this new technology in a three-store pilot to assess what beneficial impact it may have, along with proper staff customer service training, on de-escalating and reducing incidents for the safety of both our colleagues and customers.' The cameras are clipped onto a worker's clothes and can record distressing situations to help provide evidence to the police. Companies are turning to a wide range of security measures as they face unprecedented levels of theft and violence against staff. Chains including Tesco, Morrisons, Boots, Primark and Greggs said last week they would start submitting CCTV and photos of prolific shoplifters into a new database to be shared with police. The hope is that the database, known as Auror and pioneered in New Zealand, will provide security guards with watchlists so they can bar entry to repeat offenders. More goods are now being locked in anti-theft devices, including basic foodstuffs such as honey roast ham, pork and mincemeat. Greggs announced in May it had moved some products behind the counter to reduce theft. Shoplifting offences hit a record high in England and Wales last year with 516,971 incidents recorded by police, up from 429,873 in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. And there were £2.2billion of recorded store losses from theft, up from £1.8billion the previous year. This was despite the industry investing £1.8billion into bolstering security, including the rollout of body cameras, panic buttons and CCTV. The number of violent and abusive incidents hit more than 2,000 a day in the year to April 2024, according to industry group the British Retail Consortium (BRC). In September 2023, Tesco boss Ken Murphy said every frontline worker at the supermarket chain would be offered a bodycam due to a rise in attacks. Labour has promised to make assaults on shop staff a specific offence in England and Wales, as it is in Scotland, in the Crime and Policing Bill currently making its way through Parliament. A clause states that anyone found guilty of assaulting a retail worker can be sentenced to up to six months in prison. The MoS has led calls for a crackdown with its End The Shoplifting Epidemic campaign. Graham Wynn, assistant director of regulatory affairs at the BRC, said: 'The police must get tougher on retail crime, ensuring that all incidents are attended to and followed up on, while the Government must ensure swift passage of the Bill to protect retail workers.' Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also said last week that more police officers will be deployed to hundreds of towns across Britain this summer to clamp down on crime and anti-social behaviour.


The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
Britain must hold Emmanuel Macron's feet firmly to the fire over France's abject failure to stop the boats
Time net closed on Macron's failures BRITAIN must hold Emmanuel Macron's feet firmly to the fire this week over France's abject failure to stop the boats. The president will be accorded all the royal trappings on his state visit, including a carriage ride through Windsor. But he must also account for the tens of millions of pounds we have lavished on France to curb illegal migrant crossings — only to see the numbers surge. We reveal today that President Macron will unveil a new tactic to sabotage the dinghies before they leave French waters for the UK. Under the plans, French border police will ride jet skis alongside migrant boats and drop nets to entangle the engines. It does rely on a hitherto reluctant gendarmerie getting their feet wet. But, after the puncturing of a dinghy last week, France may at last be waking up to its responsibilities. Without a proper deterrent like the scrapped Rwanda scheme, the unscrupulous people-smugglers will always try to get one step ahead of the law. But anything that can turn the tide after years of French foot-dragging must be welcome, and one thing is for sure: The cops patrolling the beaches of Calais won't get anywhere unless they do more than just dip a toe in the water. Give us shelter THE Government's latest nanny state health crackdown is one of its strangest yet. Transport chiefs are to be given powers to fine people for vaping at bus stops, even if they are the only person there. French cops FINALLY drag migrant boat to shore - with BBC crew conveniently filming The move comes hard on the heels of Health Secretary Wes Streeting's threats to punish supermarkets that fail to cut sales of unhealthy food. He has already been forced to back down on plans to ban smoking in pub gardens. There is no doubt vaping is bad for children, who should be protected. But adults must be left to make their own informed choices. Labour must stop dreaming up sixth-form gimmicks that are doomed to go up in fruit-flavoured smoke. PIP squeak That means tribunal judges are overturning thousands of Government rulings that would reduce the taxpayer-funded benefits bill.