Somerset coach crash fundraiser reaches more than £12k
Avon and Somerset Police declared a major incident after the single-vehicle collision at Cutcombe Hill near Wheddon Cross at about 15:00 BST on Thursday.The coach, which was carrying about 70 people, flipped on to its roof and slid down a bank.Many of those on board were pupils from Minehead Middle School.
Mr Rammond said the community fund would help support those directly affected by the crash. "I understand this is a sensitive time, and while the specific use of the fund will be shaped by the needs of those involved, my promise is to ensure it reaches the people who need it most," Mr Rammond said."As a father of two young children myself, I can only begin to imagine the pain and heartbreak that so many are experiencing right now," he added.
Mr Rammond said the money would be used to provide urgent help and support for those injured, hospitalised and directly impacted by the "heartbreaking" crash.He said it would also help those who needed emotional and psychological help, even if they were not physically harmed in the incident.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
Counter-terrorist bodies call issue summer holiday warning to parents
A number of UK agencies involved in fighting terrorism have issued a warning to parents that their children could be vulnerable to being influenced online during the summer holidays. For the first time, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP), MI5, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) have issued a joint statement calling for greater vigilance. It is encouraging parents to discuss online safety with their children, alongside things like putting parental controls on devices and routers. The groups said they are increasingly seeing children "being routinely exposed to the most serious harmful online content". The groups said some of the most extreme content children were being exposed to includes "sexual violence; self-harm and suicide content; extreme gore; animal cruelty; indecent images of children; and terrorist content".In its statement, the groups said some of the children who come to the attention of the CTP and the NCA are "completely desensitised to extreme and obscene content".Vicki Evans, counter terrorism policing's senior national coordinator for Prevent, said that dealing with safety online in "the ever-developing digital world it can feel like an uphill battle"."We want parents to empower their children to know what to do if they come across inappropriate content online," she said. The National Crime Agency's Alexander Murray said that there is a "fast-growing threat from sadistic and violent online gangs, made up predominantly of teenage boys" - something which had been identified in its recent threat assessment. He said these groups are committed to "inflicting harm and committing a range of criminality which includes fraud, cyber, child sexual abuse, violence and extremism/terror related offences".The prevalence of younger offenders has been seen as part of a trend, with MI5 saying 2023 saw the highest number of arrests for young people since records began - with 42 of the 219 people investigated for terrorism being 17 or under. In 2024, 39 young people were investigated for terrorism-related offences. MI5's Director General, Sir Ken McCallum said the trend was "deeply concerning" and: "In a few short clicks, young people can be speaking to dangerous radicalising terrorists online, consuming violent and extremist content."
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Will the Epping hotel riots spark another summer of unrest?
After an asylum seeker staying at a hotel in Epping was charged with sexual assault, the past two weeks have brought a series of escalating and violent demonstrations from local residents and far-right agitators. On Sunday came the most serious unrest yet, with about 1,000 people gathering outside the hotel, escalating into what local police called 'mindless thuggery'. Ben Quinn, a senior reporter at the Guardian, was at the scene and describes to Helen Pidd how the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, reacted at a press conference the next day: Farage: Do I understand how people in Epping feel? You bet your life I do. Nick Lowles, the chief executive of the anti-racism organisation Hope Not Hate, says Epping has been a hotbed of far-right activity for years. He describes how the recent demonstrations have drawn nationalist activists from around the country but says that, despite that fact, local anger should not be ignored. Lowles believes that listening to residents and offering them a better future is the best way to counter the racist and violent narratives increasingly entering the mainstream. Support the Guardian today:
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Mike Lynch's estate faces bankruptcy over £700m court order
Mike Lynch's estate looks likely to be wiped out after a High Court judge ordered it to pay more than £700 million in damages to Hewlett Packard Enterprise in one of the UK's biggest corporate fraud cases. Mr Justice Hildyard ruled in 2022 that Lynch had defrauded Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) over the US tech giant's $11.7 billion (£8.7 billion) acquisition of his business software company, Autonomy, in 2011. On Tuesday morning, almost a year since the technology entrepreneur's superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily while he was celebrating his acquittal in a US criminal trial, Hildyard announced he had awarded HPE damages totalling about £730 million. The final figure could end up being substantially higher once interest is factored in after a final hearing scheduled for November. Lynch's family indicated they would consider appealing against the ruling. Hildyard concluded that had Autonomy's accounts been properly stated, HP and Autonomy would have probably struck a deal that valued each Autonomy share at £23 rather than the £25.50 that it paid. The Silicon Valley company had demanded $4 billion, far more than the $516 million that Lynch, who was 59 when he died last August, was estimated to have earned from the takeover. Hildyard said that HPE's claim 'was always substantially exaggerated'. In a statement written by Lynch before his death, the tech tycoon said the ruling confirmed that HPE's original claim was 'not just a wild overstatement . . . but it was off the mark by 80 per cent'. He added: 'Today's judgment is a view that Autonomy's actual value was not even 10 per cent below the price HP paid. This result exposes HP's failure and makes clear that the immense damage to Autonomy was down to HP's own errors and actions.' A spokesman for HPE said: 'We are pleased that this decision brings us a step closer to the resolution of this dispute. We look forward to the further hearing at which the final amount of HPE's damages will be determined.' The damages will be paid for out of Lynch's estate. In the latest Sunday Times Rich List, the Lynch family's assets were valued at £473 million. Many assets are in the name of Angela Bacares, his widow, including Loudham Hall, their Suffolk estate, and shares in the cybersecurity business Lynch backed called Darktrace, which were sold for more than $300 million last year. If HP can prove these assets were really his, they could be targeted. HPE bought Autonomy, a pioneer in 'big data' analytics founded by Lynch in 1996, in 2011. Within months of the deal's completion, HPE claimed that Lynch and his finance chief, Sushovan Hussain, had used accounting tricks to make Autonomy appear far bigger, and financially healthier, than it was. The sale sparked more than a decade of costly litigation and investigations. In 2018, Hussain was convicted of fraud in the US and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in January 2024 and settled with HPE in this case for an undisclosed sum earlier this year. In 2021, the Financial Reporting Council, the UK's accounting watchdog, fined Deloitte £15 million for 'serious failures' over its audit of Autonomy's accounts. After a long extradition battle, Lynch was sent to the US in 2023 to face a jury in California, but he was acquitted, along with Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy's vice-president of finance, last June, shortly before the yacht accident in August. According to an interim report from British marine investigators, at about 4am on August 19 last year while the Bayesian was anchored off the town of Porticello, the 56m (184ft) boat was violently knocked sideways by a sudden 80mph gust. Water suddenly started cascading in and Bacares was pulled out of the vessel by a crew member. Others however, including Lynch and their 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, never made it out of the boat as it sank 45m to the sea bed. The conclusion of the UK legal proceedings has been in limbo since the maritime tragedy. Although HPE wanted $4 billion, few thought it would get that much. Hildyard said in his original findings that the US company was unlikely to get the sum it was after, because HP may well have bought Autonomy, regardless of the fraud.
