Latest news with #GregGillespie
Sky News
6 days ago
- Sky News
Officers who confronted 'coward' Southport killer Axel Rudakubana win police bravery award
Three police officers, who have been voted Britain's bravest officers, have described confronting, disarming and arresting the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana. The trio, from the Merseyside force, were first on the scene as the crazed teenager rampaged with a knife through a children's dance workshop last summer, murdering three youngsters and attacking others. Southport wasn't Sergeant Greg Gillespie's beat and he was there that day covering for a colleague on holiday. He described the scene outside the building on Hart Street as he arrived on his own. He said: "There was maybe 20 or 25 adults, and all of them were looking at me, and all of them have this look of terror and fear, panic on their faces and I knew whatever it was we were turning up to was really, really bad." His colleagues PC Luke Holden, 31, and PCSO Tim Parry, 32, drove fast from Southport police station and were 30 seconds or so behind Sgt Gillespie. PC Holden said: "I jumped out of the police car, and immediately there were people running up to me and one was an off-duty colleague who was screaming and crying, pointing 'he's in there, he's there' and then as I started to run to the building I could see blood all over the floor. "As I got to the door, that was partially smashed. Greg was stood there one foot in, one foot out. "There was a large puddle of blood on the floor outside the door and he just looked at me for one second and said, are you ready? And that was it, there was no conversation. "There was nothing else going on. He said, 'Are you ready', and I said, 'yeah, let's go'." 'It was a horrific scene' PCSO Parry, who doesn't carry a baton or a pepper spray like his colleagues, went to the back of the building to stop people going, help anyone who needed it and get information on the number of suspects inside. He said: "It was a horrific scene to really go into because I was so unprepared with the equipment I had." An additional problem for the three officers was the absence of firearms back-up; none of the force's armed response units were close by. Inside the building was death, injury, fear and chaos. PC Holden said: "Walking in, I identified the suspect with a bloodied knife in his hand at the top of the stairs, pointed my taser at him and thought this is going to go one of two ways. "He's gonna listen to us or he's gonna fight with us and try and stab us. "Me and Greg formed a solid wall with our shoulders, walking up the stairs so he couldn't get past us. "He was a couple of metres away, within striking distance, and I thought if he does anything to threaten me or any sort of movement I don't like, he would be tasered immediately." Rudakubana was a 'coward' Sgt Gillespie, 42, said he'd read media reports suggesting Rudakubana had already decided to give himself up by the time police arrived. He said: "I disagree with that. I saw him, made eye contact with him, saw his facial expression, saw his body language and the way he moved himself into a position at the top of the stairs, showing us he had a knife. "He was fronting us, like he was saying 'I've got a knife, what are you going to do about it?' And I think the second he realised he was looking at two people who weren't scared of him... all that bravery that he must have summoned up to attack defenceless children... he lost that straightaway and he threw down the knife. "It'd be hard to paint him as more of a coward than he actually is, but I think that shows a lot. He was all brave to attack children, but the second he saw two men walking towards him, he didn't want to know." But the officers had no idea if Rudakubana had more weapons, so they attacked him and knocked him to the ground. PCSO Parry ended up on top of the suspect. He said: "Through adrenaline I just kind of put him on his front to make sure he wasn't going anywhere until other colleagues arrived. "I was trying to alert anyone else hiding in the building that everything had, hopefully, now stopped and we would deal with them as best we could and make sure they were safe." 1:40 In January, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time, admitted the murders of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar who was nine. He also admitted the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years to serve. Bravery award is 'bittersweet' At his sentencing, the judge said that if he hadn't been stopped he would have gone on to kill all 26 children at the dance class. "By the time we got the call I think it was already too late to save two of the victims," said Sgt Gillespie. "But there was an adult, one of the dance teachers, who was shielding another child in the toilet, within arm's distance from him and I don't think he realised. "If he had known they were there I'm sure he would have tried to attack them, so it's a good job we got there when we did because we potentially saved them from being injured or killed." Before winning last night's accolade, PCSO Parry summed up the trio's thoughts about their bravery award nomination. He said: "It's bittersweet. I feel proud being nominated, but it comes off the back of such a horrific incident. "It's hard to explain. It's good to have the recognition from your peers and colleagues, but in my eyes it's not like a celebration." 70 officers from around England and Wales were nominated for the Police Federation national bravery awards.
Sky News
6 days ago
- Sky News
Officers who confronted Southport killer reveal how they disarmed him - as they are nominated for police bravery award
Why you can trust Sky News The officers who confronted the Southport killer have described, for the first time publicly, how they disarmed him - as they joined a list of 70 officers nominated for a police bravery award. Sergeant Greg Gillespie, 42, PC Luke Holden, 31, and PCSO Tim Parry, 32, were the first to arrive as Axel Rudakubana rampaged with a knife through a holiday dance school last summer. Speaking to Sky News about what they saw when arriving at the scene, Sgt Gillespie said: "There was maybe 20 or 25 adults and all of them were looking at me, all of them have this look of terror and fear, panic on their faces and I knew whatever it was we were turning up to was really, really bad." His colleagues drove fast from Southport police station and were thirty seconds or so behind Sgt Gillespie. PC Holden said he saw "a large puddle of blood on the floor outside the door" and said Sgt Gillespie "just looked at me" and asked if he was ready. "That was it, there was no conversation. There was nothing else going on. He said, 'Are you ready?' and I said, 'Yeah, let's go'." PCSO Parry, who doesn't carry a baton or pepper spray like his colleagues, went to the back of the building to stop people from entering, help anyone who needed it, and get information on the number of suspects inside. He said: "It was a horrific scene to really go into because I was so unprepared with the equipment I had." Sgt Gillespie and PC Holden identified the suspect at the top of the stairs, a bloodied knife in his hand, and walked towards him shoulder to shoulder. "I saw him, made eye contact with him, saw his facial expression, saw his body language and the way he moved himself into a position at the top of the stairs, showing us he had a knife," Sgt Gillespie said. "He was fronting us, like he was saying, 'I've got a knife, what are you going to do about it?' "And I think the second he realised he was looking at two people who weren't scared of him, who were going to attack him, all that bravery that he must have summoned up to attack defenceless children, he lost that straightaway, and he threw down the knife." In January, Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the attack, admitted the murders of seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King, aged six and Alice da Silva Aguiar, who was nine, as well 10 charges of attempted murder, as well as possessing terrorist material and production of the biological toxin, ricin. He was jailed for life with a minimum of 52 years - with the sentencing judge saying it was "highly likely" he would never be released. Dozens nominated for bravery awards The Merseyside trio are among 70 officers from around England and Wales who have been nominated for tonight's Police Federation national bravery awards. They include two sergeants from Sussex who swam to the rescue of a vulnerable teenager struggling to stay afloat at night off Brighton beach. Police with torches had located her in the sea fifty metres from the shore, but a lifeline they threw to her didn't reach. Sergeant Craig Lees said: "We could see that she was starting to struggle with the cold and tide, and she began to dip under the water. We knew we needed to do something, and that was that we needed to get into the water and swim out to her." His colleague and friend Sergeant Matthew Seekings said: "I don't think it's in the blood of any police officer to watch somebody at risk or somebody needing help and not do something. "When you're in the sea, it's pitch black, you don't even know where the bottom is, it's terrifying, and I can only imagine how the female was feeling." Battling their own fatigue, the two officers managed to get the girl to shore, where colleagues and paramedics were waiting to take over. In Devizes, Wiltshire, PC Nicola Crabbe was called to a town centre fight between two men, one of whom had a knife. 'Just saturated in blood' "They were grappling, and they were just saturated in blood," said PC Crabbe, who confronted the man she thought was the knifeman. "I was in the middle of the road when I grabbed hold of him, and there was a member of the public just there, and that's when he explained to me that I had the wrong person." Armed only with a baton and Pava pepper spray, she grappled with the suspect, trying to find his knife. She said: "At one point he grabbed my hair and kind of dragged me around a bit, so I Pava'd him which just had no effect at all." PC Crabbe managed to restrain the knifeman until colleagues arrived and arrested him. The full list of award winners will be announced on Thursday night during a dinner at a West London hotel.
The Guardian
07-06-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘How did it get to this?' What happens when care in a residential home breaks down
'If we had known what was really going on, we'd have taken her out of there straight away,' said Greg Gillespie. 'It makes you question your decision-making. But the real shame of this is we just didn't know. It was hidden so well.' Gillespie's elderly grandmother lived at The Firs, a Nottinghamshire care home that was dramatically shut down by the Care Quality Commission in April due to a catalogue of shocking failures – everything from meeting nutritional and hydration needs, staffing, equipment, fire safety and governance was found to be lacking. The CQC found people were at 'serious risk of harm from overdose' due to poor medicine management, while some were at 'increased risk of developing pressure sores and ulcers', and one person was 'at risk of choking from not having their immediate needs met'. The people living in the care home, who were elderly, vulnerable or receiving end-of-life care, were evacuated in ambulances by the council into the early hours of the morning. One person who was receiving palliative care died within hours of the move. Soon after, the home in Lowdham – which housed 11 people with dementia and physical disabilities – went into liquidation. Staff lost their jobs and have been left with wages unpaid, and many residents are owed thousands of pounds in fees – people paid from £1,250 a week to live there. 'People must be held accountable for this. I don't think anyone who can run a home like this should be allowed to work in the care sector ever again,' said Gillespie, a corporate investigator more accustomed to turning his hand to international cases of public office bribery and fraud than care homes. He is compiling a dossier of evidence on what went wrong at The Firs and why it took so long to act on whistleblowing complaints, which he plans to submit to his local MP and the health secretary. 'I won't be letting the matter go, not just for my own relative and the staff who lost their jobs, but out of principle, because no one's loved ones or their families should have to go through this,' he said. 'I think this situation is so unique and appalling it needs to be looked at a higher level.' Emma Locking's 87-year-old grandfather, Tim, who has dementia, lived at the home. She said her family were shocked when they received a call at 5.30pm on a Friday saying the home was being shut down with immediate effect. 'Obviously my nan, at 85, was panicking, thinking: 'Oh my God, now he's homeless,'' she said. 'It was really stressful. It's awful for all the residents. These are people in their 80s and 90s. Some of them didn't even have family to help. I just think the way it was all handled was disgusting.' They had held concerns about the home for a while, particularly after Tim was left for 15 hours with an open wound on his wrist after a fall in December. His family said they were not informed of the seriousness of the injury until the next morning, when staff asked them to take him to hospital for stitches. When they arrived to pick him up, one staff member said the wound had been 'like a bloodbath'. 'I said: 'Why the hell did no one tell us this last night?' I would have taken him in. The wound was horrific,' she said. 'He's diabetic. He's on blood thinners. He's 87 years old. He could have died from that cut because he could have got sepsis. It makes you think: would he have been better off at home?' She said her grandfather's medication was not stored correctly and was often out of date, and he suffered two other falls at the home due to faulty or missing equipment. Her family considered raising concerns with the CQC, but worried about the repercussions for Tim while he lived there. The CQC report on the failures at The Firs found a number of serious safety breaches. A fridge used to store medicine, including insulin and antibiotics, had been switched off for five days with no one noticing, meaning the medicine may have become ineffective. Errors and a lack of training led to frequent overdoses – three residents received above the maximum dose of their pain relief, putting them at 'serious risk of harm'. Others weren't receiving medication regularly, including one person on end-of-life care. People with dementia had unsupervised access to unlocked doors, leading outside to a busy road and to a retaining wall that had been taped off as it was at risk of collapse. Fire exits were blocked, and there was no equipment to transport two people living upstairs with mobility issues down in an emergency. The home's manager was absent for long periods of time. The findings didn't come as a surprise to many of the staff at The Firs, some of whom had been raising concerns for months. One care worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said in the four years they had worked there only two fire drills were carried out. 'It was scary. No one knew how to get the residents downstairs if there was a fire,' they said. 'The whole time I was there, we only had two fire drills and we failed both of them – and we didn't get more training on it.' Another care worker, Megan O'Neill, said she had been pressed into taking on medication duties due to staff shortages, but wasn't given proper training. 'I was just chucked into it. I didn't really feel comfortable about it and they knew that,' she said. She claims she was unfairly dismissed when she left a shift early due to poor mental health exacerbated by the pressure of providing medication without training, and later reported her concerns to the CQC. Another care worker said one person was given double the amount of morphine they should have received and it was simply 'brushed under the carpet'. Across the country there are concerns that increasing strain on the care home industry is leading to deteriorating levels of care, and could lead to more emergency closures. 'Seeing this CQC report, it's horrendous, but some of it is stuff that we're hearing quite often every day,' said Helen Wildbore, the director of Care Rights UK, which runs a national advice line for older people with care issues. 'Closed cultures and institutionalisation is on the increase. Staff don't have the time and the resources to give personalised care. And that is having an impact on people not being able to live with dignity, basic rights being breached and relatives experiencing anxiety, more stress and unnecessary trauma.' Staff shortages, a lack of funding and the rise in national insurance contributions were all playing their part in pushing the sector to breaking point, Wildbore said. She added that failures by the CQC, which the health secretary, Wes Streeting, described as 'not fit for purpose' last year, were exacerbating the situation and leaving poor care unchecked for long periods of time. 'They're supposed to be setting minimum standards and making sure they're there, but they can only do that if they're responding when people raise concerns and actually crossing that threshold to see with their own eyes what's happening,' she said. The Firs was previously rated 'requires improvement' at its last full CQC inspection in February 2021, four years before the one that led to its closure, with many family members questioning why it took so long for it to revisit when there were known issues. 'How did it get to this? Why didn't the CQC intervene earlier?' said Gillespie. The Firs has been contacted for comment. James Bullion, the CQC's interim chief inspector of adult social care and integrated care, said: 'Following an inspection in April 2025 of The Firs care home in Lowdham, we took action to suspend the registration of the home for three months following concerns we had around safety, care planning and oversight of the service. 'We have since been informed that the provider has gone into liquidation. We are considering if any further action needs to be taken. Care homes are people's homes and everyone living there deserves to be treated with dignity and respect – and to be listened to. We will continue to hold providers to account where we find this is not the case.'
