Inquest opens into deaths of mother and three children killed in house fire
Two other family members, a woman in her 70s and a 13-year-old girl, were also taken to hospital.
Neighbours said the family were of Pakistani origin and had lived on Tillett Close, in the Brent area, for a long time.
Senior coroner Andrew Walker formally opened the inquest into their deaths during a brief hearing at Barnet Coroner's Court on Tuesday.
The coroner then adjourned the inquest at the request of the police, after being informed in court that an investigation into the incident was ongoing.
No details were given about any of the victims' cause of death.
A 41-year-old man was arrested outside the houses in connection with the incident and has since been bailed and detained under the Mental Health Act, the Metropolitan Police previously said.
Addressing a police liaison officer during the hearing, Mr Walker said: 'Would you pass my deepest sympathies to members of the family who are not attending today.'
The inquest will next be heard at the same court on September 23.
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Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Forget the White Van Man stereotype. The truth, finds ROBERT HARDMAN, is that the Epping hotel protests are being led by concerned mothers
Civil disorder – or civil war? It could almost be the film set for a suburban apocalypse drama. There are police vans tailing back down leafy lanes all around Epping. Platoons of coppers in full riot garb have been massing at the station, along the Georgian high street and out in the woods since mid-morning. Units have been bussed in from Hampshire, Staffordshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent, in addition to the Metropolitan Police. It's the sort of presence you might expect for a grudge match between Premier League arch-rivals or a full-fat Hamas solidarity parade through central London. Instead, these reinforcements have swamped Sir Rod Stewart 's pretty former home town in semi-rural Essex to help the local force keep an eye on 150 locals standing across the road from The Bell Hotel. What is immediately apparent is that many of the protesters are women and children. Indeed, this whole protest has been organised by women. Many – if not most – of the passing motorists who honk their horns in support are also women, including one who drives back and forth eagerly beep-beeping away in her claret Land Rover Discovery (you can forget the White Van Man stereotypes in this corner of Essex). What has galvanised these residents is a near-universal demand for the closure of The Bell as an accommodation centre for migrants following a recent attack on a 14-year-old schoolgirl. A hotel guest, a 38-year-old Ethiopian man, who had arrived in Britain eight days earlier, has been charged with three sexual assaults and denies them all. Suddenly the debate on small boat migration has become incendiary. Protests here a week ago turned violent when far-Left activists were escorted in by Essex Police to stage a counter-demo. That, in turn, brought out the usual suspects on the hard-Right and things soon turned ugly. By Thursday, though, there is no prospect of trouble because there are no dissenting voices. The rent-a-mob from Stand Up To Racism – a masked offshoot of the Socialist Workers Party – have not turned up. Nor have any hard-Right saboteurs allied to the toxic Tommy Robinson. It is raining, after all. That has not deterred the true believers who have a fervent desire to see The Bell – now fenced off and looking more like a disused military base – either bulldozed or transformed back into the local wedding venue of yesteryear. And I mean everyone. That not only applies to the drenched posse marching on the local council offices, chanting 'Save Our Kids' and 'Starmer Out', but the councillors gathered in the chamber – including Sir Keir Starmer's own man. Epping Forest council only has one Labour councillor, Martin Morris. Even he joins the Tories, Reform, the Lib Dems, the solitary Green and sundry Independents in a unanimous vote to demand the immediate closure of The Bell. In fact, they all demand a lot more than that in a thumping two-page motion which also calls for the closure of another hotel-turned-migrant centre up the road. All media eyes have been on The Bell of late, but the situation is not much better at The Phoenix Hotel. That mysteriously caught fire four months ago, although asylum seekers still occupy most of it. The man charged with arson has turned out to be a guest at The Phoenix who was then generously rehoused at, you guessed it, The Bell. The same man has been charged with trying to burn that down, too. There is a thunderous standing ovation in both the gallery and the council chamber after Tory councillor Shane Yerrell reads out a message from the father of the girl subjected to the recent assault. 'I do not want or condone any of the violence that has taken place at the protest,' says the message from the unnamed dad. 'I just want the hotel to be moved, not only away from our streets, but away from making any other family feel how we're feeling right now. 'It's not fair that the Government is putting our children and grandchildren at risk. I didn't think my little girl's story would be as big as it was.' His daughter, he adds, has been greatly comforted by messages of support and a JustGiving page which has raised £3,000 for counselling. 'Eventually we will get her confidence back to the point where she is able to go out without feeling scared.' The father, it transpires, is actually in the gallery. We have now, very clearly, got beyond the point where the Government can trot out the usual mantra 'It's all the Tories' fault and we've got this migration thing under control ' and expect things to blow over. The default position of the legal establishment, the police and most of us in the media – namely that the main problem is dark online forces stirring up xenophobia – is manifestly no longer tenable. Having spent the previous week in northern France watching the people smugglers, I have spent this week looking at the other end of the equation. I have seen the protests popping up in Epping and Canary Wharf, east London (where a huge hotel has just been commandeered by the Home Office). And there are two very striking trends to this new wave of popular protest. The first is that the protagonists are being open about it. They tell me their names and stories. There is no sense of shame or fear of being branded a 'racist' any more. The second is that this is very much a unisex campaign, if not an overtly female one. One of the main architects of the peaceful protests in Epping is Orla Minihane, a mother of three teenagers and now a vocal council candidate for the Reform Party. 'I think women are naturally more tolerant – we have got to put up with men after all – but when you start to threaten our children, then we snap,' says Mrs Minihane, who is marching through the rain waving not the Cross of St George, like some of the men, but the green, white and purple flag of the Suffragette movement. She's lived in Epping since childhood, has worked for a City bank for 25 years and is married to Scott who owns a building business ('and can't stand this political stuff'). Mrs Minihane says she was appalled by last week's violence in the town and blames Essex Police for facilitating a Left-wing counter-demo which, she says, triggered all the aggro. It has prompted Reform leader Nigel Farage to call for the resignation of the chief constable. 'There was only trouble when the police caused it,' he says. For the Tories, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp says that Essex Police 'lamentably failed to keep the protesters apart'. Mrs Minihane says: 'The day after that trouble I went on our Facebook group – there's about 700 of us – and said we are never going to win if we have more protests like that. We need to change the narrative. So we ordered a batch of T-shirts saying 'We Are The Children's Voice'. And we are going to show that this problem is much worse than people think it is.' She talks of repeated incidents of women being pestered while jogging or walking their dogs and recounts the story of a friend, a mother of four girls. Her 15-year-old, she said, was chased on the local common by a man who, she says, was living at The Bell. 'She told the police, who did nothing at first,' says Mrs Minihane. 'When she went back again, they told her to be careful. They said: 'Remember what happened to those protesters after Southport.' But we're not putting up with that any more.' I later verify the story with the girl's mother. Mr Farage explains that what Mrs Minihane is doing in Epping reflects a broader trend. 'The boats issue is increasingly becoming a female issue. Mums for Reform, call it what you will, is a real thing,' he says, pointing to this month's Tory-to-Reform defections of Laura Anne Jones, a member of the Welsh Senedd, and Westminster city councillor, Laila Cunningham, along with a marked shift in the party's membership. Having been 58 per cent male and 42 per cent female at the last election, he says, it is now 50:50. It's hard to see what more the Tory-run council can do. All are as one when it comes to the failings of the Home Office, which commandeered the hotel without consulting the locals first. 'We are speaking to the Home Office on a regular basis. I have to say to you, at the present time, they have not been overly co-operative,' council leader Chris Whitbread tells the meeting. Holly Whitbread, his fellow Tory councillor (and daughter), is more forthright: 'It is my firm belief that the Government is now treating our community with contempt. Contempt for local democracy, contempt for public safety, contempt for our town which deserves better than this.' The hotel has been the trigger for plenty of other complaints, too. Hairdresser Barry Seago tells me that today alone he has had five cancellations from customers worried about trouble in the town. Locals point to the trouble they have in finding an NHS dentist – hence their fury when they saw a mobile dental unit turn up at The Bell. This week has also seen protests an hour away at Canary Wharf, where the Home Office has taken over the vast Britannia International Hotel, which has 531 bedrooms, as a new accommodation centre. I remember the days when my old newspaper used to hold (rather dreary) office parties there. It might be more Alan Partridge than The Ritz but it's not cheap. As Whitehall maintains its customary reluctance to discuss these things, rumours are rampant that migrants will be housed three to a room, suggesting a new population of 1,500 predominantly young, undocumented adult men with nothing to do. Here, I meet a small group of protesters in the rain, all native East Enders who live around here. Once again, they are happy to be identified. 'You've got working people round here using food banks – my Mum runs one – and then people are being put up here on three square meals a day and we don't know anything about who they are,' says Ben Cavanagh, 45, a scaffolder and father of three. Fellow scaffolder Matthew John-Lewis, 44, says tensions have gone off the scale. 'I'm busting my arse off to pay taxes for all this. I can barely afford the rent on a two-bedroom flat and this lot get given everything,' argues the father of four children. He adds that he does not want his children to be targeted by gangs of bored young men who 'don't understand' British culture. 'And don't anyone dare call us racist. My family were immigrants and I'm three-quarters black,' he says. The hefty police presence here and the even bigger one in Epping are an acknowledgement that we are at a very ugly tipping point. With another Stand Up To Racism protest against the residents of Epping – or 'organised Nazis' as they call them – planned for Sunday, further outbreaks of violence are no longer a question of if – but when.
Western Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Western Telegraph
Mother of machete attack victim says ‘streets are bleeding' after killers jailed
Aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa said 'I want my mum' after he was mortally wounded in front of horrified passengers aboard the 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, on January 7. Two youths, aged 16, pleaded guilty to Kelyan's murder and having a knife. Bus CCTV image of two youths who cannot be named for legal reasons, who pleaded guilty to the murder of 14-year-old Kelyan Bokassa (Metropolitan Police/PA) In a televised sentencing on Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC detained them for life and set minimum terms of 15 years and 10 months. Judge Lucraft said Kenyan's death was a 'senseless loss' of yet another young life to the 'horrors of knife crime'. One of the youths in the dock of the Old Bailey smiled as he was sent down. Outside court, Kelyan's mother Marie Bokassa issued a call for action to end the bloodshed. In a statement read on her behalf, she said: 'To the Government and authorities. How many mothers like me, will it take? How many children must we bury before you act with urgency? 'Where are you? Where were you? I had no support from you when my son was alive and no support now that he is dead. A letter of condolence doesn't mean anything to us. Marie Bokassa, centre, listens as Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lee, from Scotland Yard, who led investigation into the death of her son Kelyan, speaks outside the Old Bailey (Rosie Shead/PA) 'Our streets are bleeding. Our cemeteries are full. Our prisons are overflowing. Pain and loss is becoming normalised. 'Our streets are no longer safe for our children. Public transport is no longer safe. Schools are no longer safe. You have lost control of London.' She added: 'To the young people who carry knives, I beg you to stop before you raise up blades. Think of your own mother. Think of the mothers who will cry every night, like I do, will scream into her pillow, who will walk past her child's empty room and collapse with grief. 'Don't let a moment of anger steal your future. Don't let the streets raise you in a way your mother never would. There is no power in death, there is only loss.' Earlier, prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said Kelyan had boarded the 472 bus just after 2pm to attend an appointment at the Youth Justice Centre in Woolwich. CCTV showed Kelyan on the back seat of the top deck, with a knife in the waistband of his trousers. Ms Heer said the teenager looked around and out of the windows before taking his seat 'giving every impression that he was concerned for his safety'. The defendants, who cannot be named, boarded the bus 20 minutes later each armed with identical machetes hidden in their clothes. The pair walked towards Kelyan 'with purpose' and withdrew their blades before immediately stabbing him without uttering a word to their victim. Ms Heer said: 'Since Kelyan Bokassa was seated on the back seat, he was cornered, unable to escape as the defendants repeatedly thrust their knives towards him, smiling as they did so.' The attack lasted around 14 seconds, with the youths thrusting the machetes towards Kelyan 27 times. Ms Heer went on: 'Kelyan Bokassa had no time to reach for his own knife, which remained in his trousers, and instead tried in vain to protect himself with his school bag. 'There were several other passengers on the top deck who fled in panic when they realised what was happening. They describe hearing intense screaming from the back of the bus and the victim shouting, 'Help. Help. I've been stabbed'. 'They describe both defendants making quick, forceful movements towards Kelyan Bokassa as he tried to defend himself.' The bus driver activated his emergency alarm just before 2.27pm and the defendants fled when the vehicle stopped at Woolwich Ferry. Kelyan stumbled down the aisle to the stairs, where another passenger went to help him. The boy was heard to say: 'Take me to my mum's. I want my mum,' before his legs buckled, bleeding heavily from a wound to the leg. Members of the public flagged down a passing police car and officers found Kelyan had collapsed and his body was limp. Despite attempts to save him, Kelyan died at the scene at 3.23pm. One of the machetes was thrown into the River Thames, but was later recovered by police. The defendants were quickly identified from CCTV on the bus and arrested. In a victim impact statement read in court, Ms Bokassa said: 'At least my son is at peace, and those two kids are going to have a really tough time. 'I ask myself what has happened to those two boys that has resulted in that terrible act of violence, and I cannot imagine how can they be so angry. 'What they did was horrific and I do not know what has led them to do this, and maybe I will never.' The court heard both defendants have previous convictions for carrying blades in public. Floral tributes are left next to a bus stop on Woolwich Church Road in Woolwich, south London (Jordan Pettitt/PA) Samantha Yelland, senior crown prosecutor for CPS London North, said: 'This was a savage and sustained attack on a 14-year-old boy which was carried out in broad daylight on a busy bus. 'We worked closely with police and were thankfully helped by clear CCTV evidence which both placed the defendants on the bus and showed one of them discarding the machete. They had little choice but to plead guilty.' Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lee, from Scotland Yard, said it had been a 'deeply troubling' case. She said: 'The harsh reality in London is that violence disproportionately affects young black men and boys. 'The fact we're seeing so many teenagers like Kelyan die should be at the forefront of the minds of every politician, every policy maker and everyone who wants better for children growing up in London. 'Without this collective effort, we won't be able to tackle knife crime in its entirety. 'And while I am pleased that Keylan's mother, Marie, has been spared the emotional turmoil of a trial, I know that she still desperately seeks to understand why three young lives could be considered so disposable.
Leader Live
5 hours ago
- Leader Live
Brother who killed sister with hammer detained indefinitely
Richard Law, 68, used a hammer to repeatedly bludgeon his sister Judith, 70, at their home in Newton Poppleford, Devon, in January this year. Exeter Crown Court heard the siblings were reclusive and at the time of the Miss Law's death there was an 'inter-related spiral of mental decline'. Jo Martin KC, prosecuting, said on the afternoon of January 17, Law phoned 999 and told the operator: 'I've killed my sister, and so I need you to come. 'We've both gone mad, I mean, mentally. I just couldn't cope with it all.' The emergency services found Miss Law dead in her bed having suffered severe head injuries. 'He told the police there had been a build up from Christmas Day, although there had been no big argument,' Miss Martin said. 'He said, 'I kept hitting her to make sure because I didn't want to leave her. She wanted to die, the same as I did'. 'He went on to say, 'Part of my problem is being reclusive and withdrawn. The last thing you want to do is go to counselling or go to the doctor'.' After being taken to the police station Law told officers he had intended to take his own life and was detained under the Mental Health Act. A post-mortem examination found Miss Law had suffered 'catastrophic head injuries' from at least six blows from a hammer. Police investigations found the siblings led quiet but separate lives, despite sharing their former parents' home. 'They were not well known to their neighbours,' Miss Martin said. 'What though did seem to be known of the two of them was they didn't have a particularly good sibling relationship. 'They led independent lives to the extent that they would shop and eat separately. 'When the police spoke to all of the friends and neighbours, it was clear that despite what they knew of their fraught relationship, no one had anticipated it would end in the killing of Judith by her brother.' Miss Martin said Law told psychiatrists that both he and his sister spoke of suicide and that he was becoming 'increasingly stressed'. 'On January 17 he said that they'd had a conversation about how long it would take them both to rot if they just stayed in bed and didn't eat,' she said. 'He said that he recalled thinking that this was the day to end their lives.' Law, of Lark Rise, Newton Poppleford, had previously been charged with murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility. Two psychiatrists found he had been suffering from a 'severe depressive disorder' which had affected his culpability. Dan Pawson-Pounds, defending, said tensions between the siblings had exacerbated after their village had flooded in 2023 and their home needed repairs. 'The characterisation of the relationship between Mr Law and his sister is a difficult one because of course they were both relatively reclusive, Mr Law rather more than his sister,' he said. 'It appears that Mr Law's reclusive nature was a longstanding character trait developed over a number of years and was identifiable from the latest the mid-1990s. 'The knowledge of the neighbours and others of their relationship was naturally and inevitably somewhat limited. 'We would say that whilst there were clear tensions in that relationship, and those tensions were obviously exacerbated by the flood damage to their home and the ongoing repair work in 2023, it does appear that the balance of the observations taken from third parties is that while they lived their lives largely separately under the same roof, there was no suggestion of any violence at all between them.' Judge Anna Richardson imposed a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and a restriction order under Section 41 – meaning Law can be detained indefinitely. 'On January 17 this year you rang 999 telling the operator that you had killed your sister, that you had struck her with a hammer more than once, and that you had both gone mad,' she said. 'You exhibited substantial signs of disturbance in your manner during that call. 'You have since told medical experts that your intention was to kill Judith and yourself, but you were unable to go through with killing yourself. 'I accept that you are genuinely remorseful. 'I have concluded that the protection of the public is not best served by passing a penal sentence which would be of relatively short duration. 'Rather the justice of the case and the public are better served by the making of a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act. 'I am satisfied that you are suffering from a mental disorder of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for you to be detained in hospital for medical treatment.'
