Daniel Anjorin's father describes ‘painful and traumatic chapter' after son's killer jailed for life
The family of a boy murdered with a samurai sword in an unprovoked attack in east London last year has described losing their son as a 'painful and deeply traumatic chapter.'
Daniel Anjorin, 14, was walking to school in his PE kit when he was ambushed by Marcus Arduini Monzo during a 20-minute rampage in Hainault.
Monzo, 37, was convicted on Wednesday (25 June) of Daniel's murder, three counts of attempted murder, wounding with intent, aggravated burglary, and possessing a bladed article. He was sentenced to life on Friday.
Daniel's father, Dr Ebenezer Anjorin, said: 'Daniel was taken from us in a way that no family should ever have to endure.'
'His life had so much potential ahead,' he added.
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The Sun
28 minutes ago
- The Sun
My hostage son is chained up alone & going blind in Gaza dungeons while sick Hamas captors are CELEBRATED at Glastonbury
Scroll down to read more about the horrific treatment of hostages being held by vile Hamas FORGOTTEN PLIGHT My hostage son is chained up alone & going blind in Gaza dungeons while sick Hamas captors are CELEBRATED at Glastonbury THEY both set out to celebrate peace and love. But while Glastonbury was this weekend awash with support for Palestine, there was little if any recognition of the 378 people massacred by Hamas at the Nova music festival in Israel on October 7, 2023. Advertisement 19 While Glastonbury was awash with Palestine support, there was little recognition of the 378 people killed by Hamas at the Nova music festival in Israel on October 7 2023 Credit: Alamy 19 Hostage Elkana Bohbot, right, with sibling Uriel before the October 7 attacks Credit: Doug Seeburg Amid a sea of Palestine flags waved by the crowds at Worthy Farm, punk performers Bob Vylan chanted, 'Death to the IDF' and Northern Irish rappers Kneecap led a chorus of 'F*** Keir Starmer'. The victims of the atrocity nearly two years ago — which marked the onset of full-scale war — were all but forgotten. Instead, here in the UK, its perpetrators were held up as heroes. You would have had to look hard to spot a flag at Glastonbury honouring those killed or taken hostage at the Nova festival. Advertisement Unsuspecting party-goers there were slain amid a hail of bullets and rockets as waves of Hamas fighters swarmed across the border from Gaza. Rockets blasted across the border from Gaza. It became the scene of the biggest massacre at a music event in history. Incredibly, festivals held since then have not only failed to acknowledge what happened at the Israel gig, but have at times celebrated the terrorists behind the devastation. Advertisement The attack on the event, as well as small villages and towns near the Gaza border on that same day, led to a conflict that has seen thousands of Palestinians killed as Israel continues in its quest to dismantle Hamas and return its hostages. Lebanon and Syria have become different countries with the weakening of Hezbollah. Fury as Glastonbury crowd chants 'death to the IDF' during Bob Vylan set aired live on BBC One member of the band Kneecap faces terror charges for allegedly waving the group's flag at a London gig. And the recent 12-day war between Iran and Israel has brought more death and destruction to both nations, yet Israel seems no closer to getting its hostages back. Advertisement 'Grief and pain' The taken no longer feel like a key focus amid the fighting. Of the approximately 250 people who were originally taken captive by Hamas, around 50 are still believed to remain in war-stricken Gaza over 600 days later. Twenty of them are thought to be alive — nine were from the Nova Festival. We want to emphasise that bringing back the remaining 50 hostages is the key to achieving complete Israeli victory. There will be no victory until the last hostage returns Israel's Hostages And Missing Families Forum Slowly, as the Israeli army takes over increasing tranches of the territory, it is finding bodies of dead hostages. Advertisement Eight have been recovered so far this month. On June 21, a military operation retrieved the remains of three people who had been taken captive — Yonatan Samerano, 21, Ofra Keidar, 71, and Sgt Shai Levinson, 19. Israel's Hostages And Missing Families Forum — which represents some of the hostages' relatives — said: 'Alongside the grief and pain, their return provides some comfort to the families who have waited in agony, uncertainty and doubt. 'We want to emphasise that bringing back the remaining 50 hostages is the key to achieving complete Israeli victory. There will be no victory until the last hostage returns.' Advertisement One of those caged in the tunnels is Alon Ohel, who is in desperate need of medical attention as shrapnel in his eye is slowly blinding him. Throughout his ordeal, it is music that has kept him going, his mother Idit tells The Sun. Alon started playing the piano when he was nine, with Elton John a particular hero and inspiration. The British pop star's music is likely being sung by the gentle 24-year-old in the tunnel dungeons of Gaza as he tries to keep himself sane. Advertisement Sir Elton has previously declared himself a fan of Kneecap — admitting he 'loves everything about them'. Alon was held with three other hostages, who were released in previous ceasefire deals. They have told his mother about the nightmare he is enduring. 'Their legs were chained for many months, they were starved and sometimes they were badly beaten,' says Idit. Advertisement 19 Hamas terrorists used motorised paragliders during the attack 19 Wrecked and burnt out vehicles at the festival site Credit: EPA 'But at least they had each other. The three men Alon was held with have all been released. 'But we believe he is now on his own and, of course, we are so worried about it. Advertisement 'The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that he will come out alive.' MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! Donald Trump There has been a new ceasefire deal on the table for many weeks, which could secure Alon's freedom, but Hamas has refused to sign it. Even though it would put an end to the horrendous suffering of the Palestinian people, it would mean them losing their hold on Gaza. Just want them home Yesterday morning, US President Donald Trump, who has said he is hopeful a peace deal could be agreed in the next week, highlighted the plight of the hostages on Truth Social, writing in bold capital letters: 'MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT.' Advertisement The question for the Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his cabinet remains: Save the hostages and allow Hamas to keep hold of Gaza, or try to completely defeat Hamas and risk the loss of the hostages? This is why the families of those still being held are so determined they never be forgotten. They just want them home. The hostages are rarely talked about any more in television coverage of the conflict. Advertisement In countries in the West, posters of them are torn down. When Israeli forces took command of a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, she claimed she had been 'kidnapped'. It was alleged she and other activists declined to watch footage of the October 7 horrors. But the hostages are an ever-present reminder of Hamas's cruelty and the fact that they are — whatever the BBC may or may not have called them — a terrorist group. Advertisement 19 At Glastonbury this week, punk performers Bob Vylan chanted, 'Death to the IDF' Credit: Getty 19 Northern Irish rappers Kneecap led a chorus of 'F*** Keir Starmer' Credit: PA Windsor MP Jack Rankin has raised the case of Nova hostage Avinatan Or, 31, whose mother Ditza is British, in Parliament. He was twinned with Avinatan's family as part of the Hostages And Missing Families Forum UK, and met with them last December. Advertisement Avinatan's kidnap, alongside girlfriend Noa Argamani, became front page news as they were pulled away from each other by terrorists who filmed it and put it on social media. The politician says he is disgusted that there is apparent support for Hamas at Glastonbury and a failure to remember those murdered at Nova. 'The juxtaposition is quite sick, to be honest, and I put a lot of it down to a huge degree of naivety on the part of Western society,' says Jack, who hosted Ditza at the House of Commons in March. 'The reality is that if Hamas had the ability to, it would do the same to Western people at Glastonbury as they did at Nova.' Advertisement Earlier this year, Hamas released a harrowing propaganda video featuring Nova hostage Elkana Bohbot. In it, he addressed his brother, Uriel, asking him to go to the White House and ask US President Donald Trump to urgently get him out. Evyatar David, 23, is another musician who was kidnapped at Nova and is believed to still be alive. We know from the hostages that have returned that they are in a tiny space — about one-and-a-half metres wide — underground, sleeping next to a hole in the ground that they use for the toilet Evyatar's brother Ilay He was filmed alongside best friend and fellow hostage Guy Gilboa-Dalal in one of Hamas's sickest stunts. Advertisement The pair were videoed locked in a car surrounded by terrorists at a hostage release 'ceremony', pleading: 'Let us go.' The footage was released to cause added torment to their desperate families. In Gaza, captives have mainly been held underground, according to those who have now been freed. 'They sing together' 'We know from the hostages that have returned that they are in a tiny underground space — about one-and-a-half metres wide — sleeping next to a hole in the ground that they use for the toilet,' says Evyatar's brother Ilay. Advertisement 'They have just enough food and water to keep them alive. 'I know that they sing together and talk about the festivals they have gone to and the ones they want to visit. 'Music is a big part of their survival in the tunnels because they have no stimulus at all.' Ilay says that wherever people stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict, they should be speaking up against hostage-taking. Advertisement 'This is a humanitarian issue,' he insists. 'Anyone who says they are for human rights should be speaking about the hostages, too. 'It is sad to think that there are festivals going on which are filled with Palestine flags, but no one mentions what happened at Nova. 'They should talk about how people who were at a festival because they love music are being tortured in tunnels more than 600 days later.' Advertisement Hell of captivity THEY danced in the desert until dawn at Israel's Nova music festival. But then terror struck on October 7, 2023, and these innocent revellers never made it home. Most remain missing after being captured by Hamas. Advertisement Three were reportedly murdered. 19 Alon Ohel Credit: IDF 19 Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David Credit: Supplied 19 Avinatan Or Credit: Supplied Advertisement 19 Eitan Abraham Mor Credit: Supplied 19 Guy Illouz (murdered) Credit: Supplied 19 Bar Abraham Kupershtein Credit: Supplied 19 Inbar Hayman (murdered) Credit: Supplied Advertisement 19 Maxim Herkin Credit: Supplied 19 Uriel Baruch (murdered) Credit: Supplied 19 Segev Kalfon Credit: Supplied 19 Rom Braslavski Credit: Supplied Advertisement 19 Idan Shtivi (murdered)
The Guardian
29 minutes ago
- The Guardian
7/7: Homegrown Terror review – the shock of that horrific day will never subside
It's 20 years since 52 innocent victims and four suicide bombers died in the 7 July terror attacks on London, and, as time passes, the significance of the event has naturally faded from view: the city and geopolitics has moved on, and the day has become a memory filed under the shorthand reference '7/7'. The key to an appropriate appreciation now of what happened and why, and what those directly affected were put through, is fine detail of a kind that was unavailable in the chaos of the moment. The first two parts of Sky's documentary series 7/7: Homegrown Terror have many such revelations that bring you up short. There is a wide selection of interviewees, but they have been judiciously chosen, especially in the case of the survivors. All are individually perspicuous, and, collectively, their stories turn horror and monstrous bad luck into multi-faceted narratives, starting with the what-ifs, the if-onlys and the ironies. Michael Henning, who was an insurance broker on his way to work and who now has a wry lyricism as he communicates his experiences, remembers a row with his girlfriend that ended with her sarcastically imploring him not to die on his way to the office: 'I like to think I followed her instructions to the letter.' Charity worker Mustafa Kurtuldu missed his tube train but was 'lucky' that another, unusually, turned up immediately. Thelma Stober was so elated by having worked on London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympics – it was announced on 6 July 2005 that the Games were coming to London – that she went into the office on her day off. The greater irony was that the official UK terror threat level had recently been lowered: that nobody was expecting what was about to happen was true on a macro level, as well as for individuals going about their ordinary day. When the programme reaches the point where the bombs went off, those who were there give piercingly vivid descriptions of what they experienced. Henning remembers a slow-motion split-second during which he was enveloped in orange, then silver, then pitch black; Stober awoke on the train tracks, her foot twisted backwards, someone else's hand on her forehead. She talks of the guilt she felt as a Christian as she struggled to escape, when she would have liked to have been able to help others. The sheer horror of the carnage is underlined by the anguished testimony of Inspector Steve Mingay, the police officer on duty at King's Cross station that day, who was thus the first person to reach the tube train that had blown up on its way to Russell Square. 'The floor is sticky,' he says in an urgent present tense, reliving the moment as he must have done thousands of times since that day, without the shock ever subsiding. 'There's body parts … there's body parts.' The modern documentary-maker's trick of lingering on the interviewee after they've stopped talking can feel contrived, but there is such emotional power in seeing Mingay say his piece, then reach for a water bottle which he can't sip from because his hands are shaking too much. Then he puts his head in his hands and sobs. Alongside its stunningly stark re-creation of what happened – there are further macabre descriptions of the carnage provided by forensic investigators who were charged with sifting through the human remains and trying to work out which belonged to the bombers – Homegrown Terror also looks at the trickier question of why it happened. We see archive footage of Tony Blair and George W Bush, announcing that their response to the 11 September 2001 attack on the US was 'fighting terrorism', although their military responses were guaranteed to provoke more of it. Then we travel to Beeston, Leeds, where two of the bombers lived, to hear about a British-Asian community dogged by racism and poverty, its young men vulnerable to radicalisation. An associate of the bombers remembers how talk of jihad initially meant fighting to protect Muslims being oppressed overseas, in Chechnya or Kashmir, for example, before some of his acquaintances moved on to something much darker, aimed at revenge on their own home country. The associate's words are spoken by an actor, as are those of a friend of 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, and recollections taken from a memoir written by Hasib Hussain's late father, expressing his disbelief at what had happened to his beloved son. Such artifices are deployed without letting the programme tip into melodrama. The bigger problem is whether we receive any comprehensive answers to the question of how the attacks happened and what else could have been done, but we are given enough background information to take a view. In trying to help us make sense of something that is so hard to fully comprehend or process, Homegrown Terror does just about all it can. 7/7: Homegrown Terror aired on Sky Documentaries and is on Now.
The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Former England and Liverpool footballer Paul Ince arrested and charged with drink driving
Former England captain Paul Ince has been charged with drink-driving. The 57-year-old was arrested after a black Range Rover hit a central reservation in Cheshire on Saturday (28 June). The crash happened at around 5pm on Chester High Road in Neston, Cheshire Constabulary said. He has been bailed to appear at Chester Magistrates' Court on 18 July. The former West Ham, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Liverpool midfielder won 53 caps for his country. After retiring, he moved into management, most recently working for Reading between 2022 and 2023. A police statement said: 'At around 5pm on Saturday 28 June, police were called following reports of a collision on Chester High Road, Neston. 'The incident involved a black Range Rover which had collided with the central reservation barrier. Officers attended the scene and arrested a 57-year-old man. 'Paul Ince, of Quarry Road, Neston, has since been charged with drink-driving. 'Ince has been bailed to appear at Chester Magistrates' Court on Friday 18 July.'
