Four arrests after Newcastle man stabbed

Four men have been arrested after a man was stabbed during a disturbance in a Newcastle street.

Police were called to Stanhope Street, on Sunday where they found a 33-year-old with a stab wound to his stomach.

He was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary. Police said his injury was not thought to be life-threatening.

A 25-year-old was arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm, and three others aged 54, 23 and 28 were arrested on suspicion of affray.

The 28-year-old has now been released without further action.

 

Teenager held in bar murder probe

Police have arrested a teenager over the murder of a 25-year-old man who was attacked outside a nightclub in Margate.

The unnamed victim was assaulted outside the Kabuki Bar in the early hours of Saturday.

He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in the town, where he died from his injuries hours later.

A spokeswoman for Kent Police said a 19-year-old man attended Margate police station where he was arrested and is being questioned.

Detective Chief Inspector Rob Vinson said officers are continuing to appeal for witnesses to the incident to come forward.

He said: "The victim had been out in Margate with friends on Friday night and, while standing outside the Kabuki Bar in the early hours of Saturday morning, he was approached by the offender who seriously assaulted him.

"At this stage it appears to have been a completely unprovoked attack.

 

Detectives have launched a murder hunt after several men were seen running away from the scene of a fatal shooting.

Warwickshire Police said the victim, whose identity has not yet been established, was pronounced dead after officers were called to a property in Bulkington, near Coventry, at about 4.55pm on Sunday.

A police spokesman said officers were keen to speak to anyone who saw a group of men making off from the scene in Rugby Road at the time of the incident.

Detective Superintendent Nav Malik, who is leading the investigation, said a number of witnesses were already helping police establish what had happened.

But officers are still keen to speak to anyone who saw the group which ran away from the scene, including a black man described as being tall and well-built.

"We are dealing with a violent murder where at this stage of the investigation, it would appear this male was specifically targeted," Mr Malik said.

"We urge members of the public who may have seen anything, or who know anything about the events in Rugby Road, Bulkington, on Sunday afternoon, to contact us."

Police remained at the scene and Rugby Road was currently closed to traffic and pedestrians to enable the scene to be forensically examined.

Detectives also said the dead man had suffered significant chest injuries, although the exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed.

suspected burglar was stabbed to death during a break-in at a house in Salford,

suspected burglar was stabbed to death during a break-in at a house in Salford, police said on Thursday.

Greater Manchester Police said the victim was one of a gang of four men, some wearing balaclavas, who were believed to have been trying to break into the house in the Pendlebury area of the city just before midnight on Wednesday.

Officers were alerted to reports of a burglary and as police headed to the scene, they also received reports that a group of men had been seen carrying an injured man into a nearby road.

They discovered the 26-year-old with stab wounds there and he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. He has not yet been formally identified.

"The man who has died was one of the persons trying to get into the rear of the address -- that's what we believe at this stage," Chief Superintendent Kevin Mulligan told reporters.

Police said two men, aged 59 and 27, and a 21-year-old woman had been arrested on suspicion of murder at the address.

The BBC said the arrested trio were the householder, his son and the son's girlfriend.

"Clearly it's a confusing picture at this stage," Mulligan said. "It's a very complex inquiry and we want to make sure we get it right and I don't want to speculate about anything."

Mulligan said detectives believed the dead man had got into the house before the incident.

"There was some sort of disturbance inside the house and that's all I can say about the circumstances in the house at this time," he added. He appealed for the three other men to come forward.

A clerk at a law firm led a double life as getaway driver for a robbery gang.

Sarah O’Reilly was a trusted member of the administration staff at a firm of solicitors. But unknown to bosses the 24-year-old was at the heart of violent robberies organised by her brother, Liam O’Reilly.

His gang has been linked to 28 raids, committed days apart, which ‘ruthlessly’ targeted businesses and homes across Greater Manchester.

A sentencing hearing at Manchester Crown Court heard yesterday how the thugs used axes and horror movie-style masks to terrorise victims into handing over cash, cigarettes and booze.

Sarah O’Reilly, of Barnwood Road, Wythenshawe, was jailed for five years. She was an ‘important’ and ‘enthusiastic’ member of the team, the court heard.

She would drive the gang to places where they kept high-powered cars stolen during burglaries, which they would then use in the robberies.

After a job the robbers would abandon the cars and Sarah O’Reilly would drive them away in her own vehicle.

She was directly linked to a raid at McDonald’s in Altrincham Road in Wythenshawe, last year– which was foiled after staff locked the door and police spotted the gang trying to barge in – as well as to a robbery at a convenience store and a house.

Sarah O’Reilly later admitted conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to burgle.

Jailing her Judge Michael Henshell said: "Why a young woman of good character and good employment would become involved in these offences isn’t particularly clear.

"It seems undoubtedly the case she was influenced to a very large extent from pressure from her brother."

Liam O’Reilly, the 26-year-old gang leader, also of Barnwood Road, Wythenshawe, admitted conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to rob and was handed an indeterminate jail sentence for the public protection. He must serve five years before he can be considered for parole.

Serial house-breaker Dominic McGrath, 19, of Rowarth Road, Newall Green, Wythenshawe, confessed to 22 offences following his arrest. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to burgle and burglary charges and was jailed for eight years.

Luke Farry, 18, of Shepton Drive, Newall Green, was jailed for seven years after admitting conspiracy to rob and burglary charges, and asking for 27 other offences to be taken into consideration. Shaun Parry, 19, of Greenwood Road, Wythenshawe, admitted conspiracy to rob. He was jailed for six years.

Joe Greenwood, 19, of Kennett Road, Wythenshawe, admitted conspiracy to rob and burglary and was jailed for seven years. Kyle Dean, 22, of Atlow Drive, Wythenshawe, admitted conspiracy to rob and burglary and was jailed for five years and eight months.

Matthew Broni, 21, of Wendover Road, Brooklands, Wythenshawe, admitted conspiracy to rob and was jailed for four years and eight months.

A man has been shot dead in a Birmingham street, sparking a police murder inquiry.

The shooting took place near an area known for prostitution
The victim, who has yet to be formally identified, died at the scene of the attack in Melville Road, Edgbaston.
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said the man was found lying in the street with a suspected gunshot wound to the body at around 10.15pm.
The area where the shooting took place has been cordoned off for forensic examination and officers are conducting house-to-house inquiries.
"Local people should be reassured this type of crime is not commonplace in Edgbaston." the police spokesman said.
He added: "We would appeal for anyone with information to come forward to assist us."
The shooting took place near an area of Birmingham with a high level of prostitution.

Murder probe launched over Greenock teenager death

Police in Greenock have launched a murder inquiry after the death of a 17-year-old boy.

Officers were called to reports of a disturbance in Kylemore Lane near to Kylemore Terrace at about 2250 BST on Friday.

The teenager was taken to Inverclyde Royal Infirmary by ambulance but died shortly after admission.

Police described his death as "needless and tragic" and have appealed for witnesses.

The disturbance happened close to the site of the former Ravenscraig Primary School.

Det Insp Mark McGowan of Strathclyde Police said: "Extensive inquiries are ongoing to establish the exact circumstances surrounding the murder and trace those responsible.

"The disturbance which took place shortly before he was injured drew a lot of attention from people in the area, several of whom contacted emergency services.

Violence seems almost hardwired in the Glaswegian psyche.

The knife entered the boy's neck with brutal force and fatal precision: an artery severed, a haemorrhagic fountain, the desperate ambulance dash to hospital. For Reamonn Gormley, 19, it was all too late.

In the old stone mortuary in central Glasgow, the tiled floors are swirling with water and detergent. The day's post-mortems are over, saws and scalpels clean, slabs gleaming. The smell of disinfectant is sharp but it cannot chase away the reek of death.

The boy's body has already succumbed to the pathologist's knives and now lies in the third fridge from the left, waiting for the criminal justice system to finish its work.

Gormley's killers, infuriated by his refusal to hand over a mobile phone but senseless with alcohol, pleaded guilty last week while his parents - and the city of Glasgow itself - rage and wonder why.

This nation of stone churches and Victorian grandeur, home of the romantic poet Robert Burns and legendary hero William Wallace, is drowning in blood.

In Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city, a stabbing occurs every six hours - and many more go unreported. Survey after survey, from the World Health Organisation to the United Nations, identifies Glasgow as one of the most violent cities in western Europe. Among young males aged between 10 and 29, the rate of homicide is similar to Argentina, Costa Rica and Lithuania. Alcohol-related death rates are three times the British average while Scots have one of the lowest life expectancies in Europe.

The nightmare is constant, a cycle of violence that each weekend sees the alcoholic and drug addicted, chronically unemployed and angry, the young and the old, take to the streets armed with knives, machetes and even samurai swords to battle the demons of disillusionment - and each other.

Three-quarters of all weapons crimes in Scotland occur in the Strathclyde policing district in and around Glasgow. Between 5000 and 6000 are recorded each year and more than 2200 hospital beds are taken up with the victims.

The raw statistics are mind-boggling. But they do not explain why blade-carrying is so culturally imbued among Glaswegian men, from the razor gangs of the 1930s to the 100 or so motley, territorial mobs who prowl the vast housing schemes around the city today.

Is it possible that generations of alcohol abuse, extreme disadvantage and social distress - combined with inculcated machismo and a modern drug culture - have created a cocktail toxic enough to see a penchant for violence hardwired into the Glaswegian psyche?

Inspector Dougie Stevenson, head of the Strathclyde Gangs unit, knows the problem better than most: "I was brought up on 'the schemes', on the border with Lanarkshire, and I didn't know who lived on the other side of the street. I didn't venture further than 100 metres from the front door … if I did, it'd be a rough ride," he says.

"There are guys I went to school with 32 years ago and I'm locking their dads up. They're still at it … 43-year-old men we arrest for gang fighting. I know it sounds like I'm talking about savages but we can be called to a gang fight and there'll be fathers n' grandfathers shouting 'C'mon, get him'. This is what we are dealing with in West Scotland."

For Dr Marjorie Black, news of young Gormley's death came at 5am, when the Glasgow winter sky was still dark and sleep difficult to shake away. A forensic pathologist with the Scottish Crown office, Black has seen the bodies of many who have died an unnatural death in Glasgow over the past 17 years - whether by their own hand, accident or violence.

On this icy morning, she was told the victim was a 19-year-old student. By the time the city woke to the news, she had witnessed Gormley's parents sob that their boy, a psychology student at Glasgow University, had just returned from a trip teaching literacy to children in Thailand.

In her small office piled with books, newspapers and tomes on drug toxicology and forensics, Dr Black exudes the resignation of a woman whose workload can never end: "Most of it is known to be gang related: there is this culture of defending turf … in Glasgow, if you stray into the wrong area, you are seen as fair game."

Week after week, she sees how one blow with a knife can kill, but the young men of Glasgow don't seem to register this: "They grow up in a culture where … showing off injuries is a mark of a man. Not enough people are aware of just how many people don't survive it," she says.

At night, Glasgow's vast housing estates are forbidding, grim and dirty in their baths of fluorescent yellow light. On patrol with a crew from the Strathclyde Gang division units, we head for the city's troubled east, passing concrete towers and bleak red-brick blocks which loom from litter-infested parks.

CCTV footage has identified stirrings of trouble at a roundabout between Drumhyde and Drumchapel, a historic flashpoint of territorial violence. Kids dart out of sight as they see the unmarked police van. Some look barely old enough to be out, let alone at night.

Three plain-clothes officers, Barry Inglis, Eilon Miller and Andrew McIntyre, are on the lookout for a kid in a blue tracksuit, spotted on camera throwing bricks. For the kids they collar for questioning - arms up, pockets emptied, legs apart - this is clearly nothing new. They are compliant, it's all routine.

"Tonight's quiet," says Inglis. "But you can see it everywhere; generations have been doing it, grandfathers, fathers, sons, grandsons. We hear it all the time when we bring kids in: 'I did it when I was a boy, what's the problem?'''

Across town, Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, is sitting at a big table in Strathclyde's Violence Reduction Unit. He is the homicide cop from central casting: silver goatee, shaved head and eyes that flash 'don't f--- with me'. But this detective of 30 years is a pioneer; an articulate, modern advocate of a revolutionary approach to tackle Glasgow's hard boys.

"The violence we see here is of such intensity that it's almost unique in western Europe … accepted as legitimate, a community norm, something that cannot be changed. The statistics are bad enough but much of what goes on never gets reported," he says.

"I will never forget one day going to a hospital to get a statement from a guy who had been stabbed, an attempted murder. The doctor said he'd signed himself out. We found him at his Gran's house, stripped to the waist with bloody surgical dressings all over his back. He's smoking, insisting he's OK. Then he dragged in the smoke. I thought, 'oh f---, it's coming out the hole in his back'. He thought that was normal. Or you'd go look for a kid who's wanted for something and his mum will say 'He's out gang-fightin' - as if he was playing out the back."

Carnochan is founder of Glasgow's Violence Reduction Unit, an experiment born five years ago when his police analyst colleague Karyn McCluskey found that despite decades of anti-violence initiatives, Glasgow's blade culture hadn't shifted in 40 years. It was an emergency doctor returning from a couple of years in Melbourne who pointed out the disastrous numbers. "He told us he dealt with more knife injuries in a month in Glasgow than he had in two years away in Australia."

Carnochan and McCluskey also realised that while communities in other cities such as London or Belfast took to the streets to demand action against violence - mothers banding together, victims support groups chanting for change - Glasgow seemed simply to accept that bloodshed was part of the weekend's recreational activities.

They decided it was time for change. Their experiment, known as CIRV (pronounced ''serve''), the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, is now in its third year and is starting to reap measurable rewards. It too is based on a three-pronged attack: targeted enforcement coupled with specialist support and early intervention services with a push to encourage a powerful moral voice from the community.

The Strathclyde police began three years ago and mapped 167 gangs, all guarding territory and turf rather than drugs - some covering just a few streets and laneways - then began a ''call in'' of gang leaders, to warn that every time an individual committed an act of violence, police would come down hard on the entire gang.

Carnochan and McCluskey then pushed for the creation of new partnerships between police and other government services: social workers, schools and teachers, housing and employment specialists, the military and sports organisations to ensure that anyone who wanted an out was supported.

The police made it clear they were not wanting to stamp out the very existence of gangs, acknowledging that for the kids of dysfunctional and distressed families, gangs can offer a sense of belonging and security.

The focus of the message remains: give up the knives.

Scott Breslin was 16 years old when he was stabbed in the neck. But he did not die. Instead, he woke up a tetraplegic, paralysed from the neck down.

In a suburban cottage on the outskirts of Glasgow, he is sitting in his wheelchair in a pool of soft, late-afternoon light. His carer is fussing around in another room while he fiddles with a mobile phone. His eyes, expressive and open, alight at the arrival of company.

He shows us the scar on his neck. It is no bigger than a 20 cent piece but the blade severed his spinal cord. He has limited use of one hand but this smart, good-looking young man will need constant care for the rest of his life.

Breslin was walking home from a party with a mate when they heard a friend was being chased: "We went to see what was happening; it was Pennilee just 10 minutes away. There were two of us but we were unknown there. We turned the corner and saw 10 of them, girls and boys. We tried to walk through and away, one started shouting, my mate fell, I went to help, I was stabbed in the neck," he says matter of factly.

"It felt like a short circuit, the lights went out, I fell to the ground, lost some teeth … I was about to start a new job, training as a glazer, when it happened. It was the first day of a two-week holiday."

Ironically, Breslin's catastrophic injury has opened the door to a life he would never have imagined: finishing school and a tertiary education. After months of rehab, he studied for his A levels and is now doing a business and marketing degree at Paisley University.

"Life's too short to hate. I want to make the most of my life, the best I can,'' he says. ''And if talking about what happened to me helps get one person to put a knife down, I've done something."

John Carnochan doesn't believe in a silver bullet to cure Glasgow of its violent disease. However, if investment in prevention delivers "a thousand smaller victories" and even incremental, long-term improvements, that in itself is a win.

His boss, Campbell Corrigan, is just as frank. He has led a major re-think of policing strategies, releasing 60 per cent of his 8000 officers from traditional areas into more preventive, pro-active work. The programs range from enforcing curfews to management of repeat offenders and face-to-face work with gang leaders. Work is being done to enforce bail conditions that require sobriety, and work to detect domestic abuse has yielded a 65 per cent success rate, significant for a crime so shrouded in shame and secrecy.

Despite a downward trend in weapons crimes and homicide rates, Corrigan remains cautious: ''There is less violence in the pubs and the streets but that could be a shift from outdoor to indoor violence … highest levels [of domestic] violence in Europe."

Their take-no-prisoners attitude has inspired many, however, including a group of the city's maxilo-facial surgeons and their colleagues in accident and emergency. Says Dr Christine Goodall: "Research shows us that that if you live in a deprived area in Glasgow, you were three times more likely to have a facial injury or trauma. If alcohol is involved, the likelihood rises and is seven times higher than if you lived in a more well off neighbourhood.

"We were seeing people in their 20s with cirrhosis of the liver, kids of 14 who would take hours to be stitched up and when you tell them the scar would be there for life, they'd say it was OK … for them it was a badge of honour. We decided we were spending so much time on fixing the results of violence, it was time to work on prevention."

Medics Against Violence was born of this exasperation. The project now sees more than 130 surgeons visit schools to talk to kids about what double-bladed, home-made razor knives can do to the face and body - if they don't kill. A film, scripted for teenagers, shows how one, alcohol-fuelled moment can change lives - and encourages classroom discussion of alternatives.

Among the graphic images are shots taken by the Glasgow-born boxer turned photojournalist, David Gillanders, who spent months with Strathclyde police and medics documenting their quest to stymie the city's violent bent. The photos, in black and white, are haunting: a young man embracing his dead mate on a hospital gurney, his grief palpable and raw; middle-aged men lying unconscious on beds after a fight, fresh slash wounds among the scars of older battles; young men with ears and cheeks sewn up many times. Others, lunging blindly at police and each other, their faces a mask of alcoholic rage.

Today, the images adorn Carnochan's offices, a bloody and permanent reminder of the determined cop's thankless task.

"The young men's faces are scarred from the conflict but these scars label them not as the victims they are, but as fighters, violent men. This means they can't get jobs, find a relationship,'' he says. "Functioning in a society that is fearful of violence is difficult, too … we shouldn't forget that either."

 

Smash 'n' carry: The gangs terrorising London's luxury labels

Outside, on the pavement, two men on high-powered motorbikes waited, revving their engines to intimidate passers-by. Alone in the showroom the two robbers used their heavy axes to shatter the glass cabinets and grabbed glittering handfuls of Rolex watches, which they passed to their accomplices outside; they returned briefly to seize yet more watches before leaping on to the bikes and roaring off. The raid was over in less than 60 seconds and the men escaped with a haul worth £300,000. The police, however, were hot on their tail. A squad car gave chase and although they lost the bikes within a few minutes, one of the riders panicked and dumped his motorcycle and a holdall containing half the loot, along with clothing, helmets and a mobile phone top-up card.

For detectives from the City of London Police's Major Investigation Team, the items were vital clues that led officers to two members of the gang, Jed McDonald, 21, and Charlie Kavanagh, 20, who were identified by DNA traces on the clothing and motorcycle gear. The mobile phone top-up card was also traced to McDonald. Both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery. The raiders are scheduled to be sentenced this month.

The conviction is a much-needed success for police, who have been overwhelmed by London's surge in these brazen yet hard to solve smash and grab raids. Last month alone there were more than ten in the borough of Westminster - double the number in the same month last year - and each year the haul from the raids is estimated at millions of pounds' worth of goods.

Naturally, it is London's most exclusive boutiques that are at the greatest risk, with their expensive stock and decorative staff. Anya Hindmarch, seller of fancy handbags to famous faces including Keira Knightley and the Duchess of Cambridge, has now been robbed an eye-watering nine times. Watches of Switzerland and Mappin & Webb, the Queen's silversmith, have also been struck numerous times, and in recent weeks there have been raids on Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior and Loewe in Mayfair, as well as an attempted raid at Miu Miu. Other targets have included Cartier, Asprey and Harvey Nichols.

But it is not just about the brand, it is also the location that lures these smash 'n' grabbers. Police insiders say it is no coincidence that the favoured targets are located on Bond Street and in the City, areas a short stolen moped ride away from the beleaguered estates of Islington and Holloway where many of the raiders reside. Because new intelligence suggests that, contrary to the typical image of a jewel thief as a dashing, black-clad David Niven type, these modern-day robbers are typically un-employed young men in their late teens or early twenties. Sources say there is a group of around 100 or more individuals available to carry out the robberies at any one time. Many are known to each other, having attended the same schools or lived on the same estates, such as the Packington in Islington. They are motivated more by money than mindless violence and see the robberies as a gainful way of life. Detectives say that when caught, 'there is no remorse from them. There seems to be a mentality that they have a right to go into the City or Westminster and commit these crimes.' And even when they are nicked, once they finish their sentence, 'they have no other source of income and they return into the same community and fit back in very quickly,' says Alison Saunders of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Smash and grab raids on the streets of London are not new. They evolved from the notorious ram-raiders of the 1990s when criminals used high-powered cars to smash their way into stores to snatch jewels or high-value electrical goods. Pioneered in the North East where the raids quickly became an epidemic, London's gangs adapted the methods to suit the city's slow-moving traffic, quickly realising that motorbikes or mopeds were almost impossible to chase successfully and could escape through even the heaviest of traffic jams. Instead of using cars to break through shop fronts, robbers started carrying sledge-hammers or axes. Often the robberies last for just 30 seconds and the gangs are gone before police can arrive. Police say it is too dangerous to mount pursuits of the motorcycles or mopeds, which their riders drive at speeds of up to 100mph, sometimes through crowded streets. Pedestrians have been injured and in 2005 a robber was killed when his moped crashed and he was hit by an unmarked police car during a chase after an attempted robbery at Tiffany & Co on Sloane Street.

But, against the odds, the police are striking back. Since the latest spree of robberies in the West End, the Westminster Crime Squad is devoted full-time to tackling the gangs and since March 2009 more than 52 robbers have been convicted. However, the ringleaders behind the raids remain shadowy figures. Detective Inspector Glyn Whittick, of the City of London Police, says there is no doubt they are dealing with organised crime, rather than more spontaneous raids by individuals. 'These events are clearly planned; there is recruitment, organisation; someone has to obtain the stolen mopeds or motorbikes and then dispatch the jewellery or goods after the robbery.' But, as yet, a Fagin type in charge of an army of young footpads has not been identified.

Police are also trying to establish where and how the gems and handbags are sold, as the loot often seems simply to disappear. Rolex watches are easily traced, since each has its own unique serial number, but stolen items rarely pop up on police databases, prompting speculation that there is another outlet for them. It is unlikely they are advertised on the internet and police doubt that £8,000 Rolexes and £1,400 Anya Hindmarch bags are being sold in pubs or on market stalls for a fraction of their value. More probably they are sent to the Middle East or Africa where they will fetch something close to their real value.

Back at home, the raids have changed the landscape of London's most affluent shopping areas with private security guards now a routine sight around Bond Street. But, as high-profile shops such as Mappin & Webb increasingly install bandit-proof glass and smoke security systems, the gangs are turning to softer targets. This year shops on the genteel St John's Wood High Street have been hit several times; in just two weeks more than £100,000-worth of clothes and accessories was stolen in raids on Larizia and Zadig & Voltaire. Shop staff say they are too scared to leave doors open to customers.

From customers themselves, these raids have elicited a mixed response, ranging from indifference - witness the smartly dressed gentleman who strolled past raiders smashing their way into a branch of Mappin & Webb on Old Bond Street last year - to an increasing trend for have-a-go-heroes, passers-by who step in to challenge the gangs. In September 2009, 24-year-old shop supervisor Colin Thomas was shot in the stomach when he chased a gang who had smashed a display cabinet and grabbed £70,000-worth of jewellery from a Costco branch in Croydon. Two brothers were later jailed, one for life for attempted murder.

But the robberies in St John's Wood illustrate that the gangs are as determined as ever. The wife of the owner of Larizia said it was the seventh time they had been targeted. 'They do it because it's easy. We've got too much security at night so they come in the day. It happens all the time.' She fears that unless something drastic is done, it is unlikely the gangs will be going away; the pickings are too rich and the chances of getting caught are still not high enough to be a deterrent. Only last month a 17-year-old was arrested at his family home in Islington, where police recovered three Dior handbags, still with their price tags attached, and a quantity of stolen jewellery. And a gang that struck De Beers and Tiffany & Co at Westfield in May last year is still at large - as is the £1.2 million-worth of jewels they made off with. ES

THE WORLD'S MOST DARING JEWEL HEISTS...

Mad science
This is possibly the most baffling jewellery theft of all time. At the 2002 diamond exhibition at The Hague's Museon science museum, $12 million-worth of necklaces, tiaras and precious gems was swiped. The guards on duty all night were unaware of the break-in until the museum opened the next day, nothing showed up on CCTV, motion sensors never went off, and display cabinets revealed no signs of tampering. Answers on a postcard…

Diamond geezers
If you're going to hit up a city for some bling, it might as well be the diamond capital of the world. In February 2003, a raid was carried out on vaults in Antwerp's Diamond Centre. It is thought to have been the work of a gang of veteran Italian robbers, The School of Turin. The gang managed to bypass cameras, bars and reinforced doors to gain entry to the vaults. It's thought that they had copied keys to get in, and replaced the CCTV tapes with prerecorded footage. After prising open 123 vaults, they were so loaded down with £65 million-worth of booty they gave up on the remaining 37. Investigators obtained vital DNA as one careless robber had left behind a half-eaten sandwich. It led them to arrest Leonardo Notarbartolo, who was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Changing faces
In August 2009 three thieves planning a raid on Mayfair's Graff Diamonds store sought the services of a make-up artist who altered their appearance with wigs and latex. With their identities disguised, the men stole jewels amounting to £40 million. But the robbers were later caught after a mobile phone was discovered in an abandoned getaway vehicle. The men were sentenced to up to 23 years in prison. The multimillion-pound swag has yet to be recovered.

Alright Harry
When four armed men dressed as drag queens cleared the Harry Winston store in Paris of more than £50 million-worth of jewellery in 2008 it was one of France's biggest ever jewel thefts. The gender-bending robbers threatened employees with guns and were gone in a matter of minutes. A police investigation culminated in the arrest of 25 people a year later. It was thought most of the stolen jewellery had already been sold on, until police discovered £17 million-worth of diamonds inside a drainpipe in the suburbs.

...AND THE WORST

Well foiled
It could have been magnificent. On 7 November 2000 four men planned to appropriate the 203ct Millennium Star diamond (top) valued at £200 million, exhibited as part of the Millennium Dome's attractions, by smashing into the building with a JCB and escaping by speedboat across the Thames. What they didn't realise was that police had been on to them from the outset and had even swapped the real gem for a fake. Officers dressed as cleaners waited until the doomed crooks had attacked the diamond's case before swooping and arresting the would-be Thomas Crowns.

 

Smash 'n' carry: The gangs terrorising London's luxury labels

gangland-style execution of two teenagers yards away from family homes has plunged an entire estate in crisis.

The double shooting in Fishermead last week proved the final nail in the coffin for hundreds of already jittery residents who have witnessed five horrific killings in a year.

At the same time, an expert in the criminal underworld has revealed to the Citizen how guns can be purchased freely throughout the city for between £250 and £500 each.

“Guns are rife and so are drugs such as crack cocaine and heroin. Where there’s hard drugs, there’s always guns – and all it takes is a couple of phone calls and a few minutes to get one,” he said.

The fear on Fishermead is now so bad that councillors are busy arranging an Extraordinary Parish Meeting next Wednesday in a bid to ease tension.


Already they are worrying about finding a hall big enough to fit the anticipated amount of people, said Campbell Park Parish Council chairman Mike Johnson.

“We want to listen to the people themselves. We want to find out what is happening and nobody knows more than the people who live here.

“Why are these crimes happening? Are there major drug dealers on our streets? Is there a conflict between rival gangs? We need to find the answers and then solutions to put people’s minds at rest.”

Last Thursday’s shooting has also rocked the city’s 7,000 strong Somalian community, who are denying rumours the victims were part of a drugs ring.

They describe Mohamed Abdi Farah, 19, as a “lovely, smiling boy” who helped elderly ladies carry their shopping from Fishermead Co-op.

“He moved here from Norway with his family when he was a child. They are good people,” said the head of MK Somalian Platform, Abshir Hirze.

He said the family had moved to Birmingham to seek “better opportunities” but Mohamed had travelled to Fishermead to stay with his uncle for a couple of days.

The teenager, recently returned from a trip to Somalia to visit his grandmother, was killed instantly while his friend from London, 18-year-old Amin Ahmed Ismail, died 12 hours later.

Both were known for low-level criminal activity, say police.

Said Abshir: “The Somalian community is no worse than any other. There are a few bad people but most of us sought refuge in this country to find peace and live quiet, lawful, lives.”

Fishermead, with its 200 houses in multiple occupancy, has a high and often transient population of Somalian refugees.

But, with a steady stream of burglaries and anti social behaviour episodes as well as several violent crimes happening every month, it is a haven for crooks of any nationality.

Said one resident: “The crime is almost constant and I’m now too scared to go out at night. There’s a lack of interest when we report crimes to the police and it feels like this estate has been forgotten about by the authorities.

“Five killings in 12 months is crazy – but perhaps it will finally make people recognise that Fishermead is in crisis.”

In May last year cab driver Musdafe Jama strangled his wife at their home in Tolcarne Avenue. Four months later HiMO tenant Bola Ejifunmilayo and her small daughter Fiyin died in an arson attack. A 48-year-old woman has since been jailed for double manslaughter.

Five people, three from the Isle of Wight, have been found guilty of smuggling up to 53million pounds worth of cocaine into the UK.

gang have been convicted today (Thursday) at Kingston Crown Court and handed prison sentences totalling 104 years.

With accomplices Daniel Payne, Scott Birtwhistle and Croatian Zoran Dresic, lobster fisherman Jamie Green sailed his fishing vessel from Yarmouth on the Island into the English Channel to retrieve 11 watertight holdalls filled with the drugs. These had been deposited into the water from a container ship, the MSC Oriane, as it travelled en route to Antwerp from Brazil

The four then took the fishing boat, Galwad-Y-Mor, to Freshwater Bay off the coast of the Island, where it was tracked by UK Border Agency cutter HMC Vigilant and observed manoeuvring erratically before heading back to Yarmouth.

Green, Payne, and Dresic were arrested later that day, 30 May 2010, at which point Dresic produced fraudulent identification in the name of Veljko Protic.

The following morning, officers from the joint SOCA-Metropolitan Police Middle Market Drugs Partnership and UK Border Agency recovered the drugs - worth up to £53m on UK streets - after a report from the local coastguard. Hampshire & Isle of Wight Police officers had also participated in the surveillance operation.

The holdalls had each been tied along a rope in a manner closely resembling that of submerged lobster pots, with a buoy and a makeshift anchor tied to either end to aid its later recovery by the gang.

Subsequent investigations led to the arrest in turn of Birtwhistle and Jonathan Beere, who was in regular telephone contact with Green during the drugs run.

GPS tracking data was used retrospectively to plot the courses of two ships up to the drugs being collected in the early hours of 30 May.

SOCA's Chris Farrimond said, "This operation has prevented huge amounts of cocaine from reaching the streets of the UK, and demonstrates the strength of collaborative UK agency work to tackle the Class A drugs trade. These men believed their meticulously-planned drugs run would look like a commercial fishing expedition. Rather than bringing them massive profits, however, their plan has put them in the same unenviable position as many others who have been caught attempting to traffic drugs under the guise of legitimate business."

DI Robert Boggan, from the Metropolitan Police Service, said, "This gang thought they could get away with bringing hundreds of kilos of high-purity drugs into the UK to make themselves a hefty profit. While they believed they had found an innovative way of disguising their ill-gotten gains, we were one-step ahead of them and stopped them before they could cause damage on London's streets."

Carole Upshall, UK Border Agency director for the South and Europe said, "This case shows the lengths that organised criminals will go to just to bring illegal drugs into the UK. But it also shows how, working together with our law enforcement partners, we will stop at nothing to bring them to justice. The UK Border Agency's fleet of cutters patrol the coast 24 hours a day, 365 days a year playing a key role in helping us to secure the border, stopping prohibited goods and people even before they reach our shores."

Senior Crown Prosecutor Ogheneruona Iguyovwe for the CPS Organised Crime Division said, "Lobster fisherman Jamie Green masterminded an audacious plot of disguising over 250kg of cocaine in rucksacks among lobster pots off the Isle of Wight. The prosecution case was that the cocaine was thrown overboard by smugglers from a container vessel MCS Oriane en route from Brazil.

Green with his co-defendants, Daniel Payne, Zoran Dresic, Scott Birtwistle and Jonathan Beere planned to get the cocaine back to the UK shore by putting it into several rucksacks that were tied to a buoy, in the same way that lobster pots are strung together. The plan was to pick up the drugs as if Green and his accomplices were coming back from a normal lobster fishing expedition.

This case demonstrates that organised criminals will use whatever techniques they can to try and evade the nets of law enforcement. However, SOCA and CPS worked closely together to bring a strong prosecution case to show how each man was involved in the conspiracy. After hearing the prosecution's case, the jury was satisfied of each defendant's guilt and convicted them on all charges of conspiracy to import cocaine."

"We will now apply for their ill gotten gains to be confiscated."

The details of the sentencing are as follows:

Jonathan Beere, 08/01/1969, of Mayfield Road, Ryde, Isle of Wight.
Charged with conspiracy to import cocaine on 18/01/2011.
Sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment.

Scott Peter Birtwhistle, 03/11/1990, of Sparshot Road, Selsey, Chichester, West Sussex.
Charged with conspiracy to import cocaine on 27/1/11.
Sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment.

Zoran Dresic, 04/06/1974, of Croatia.
Sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment.

Jamie Peter Green, 02/03/1968, of Newport Rd Yarmouth, Isle of Wight.
Charged with conspiracy to import cocaine on 01/06/10.
Sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment.

Daniel Payne, 23/07/1974, of Albert Road, East Cowes, Isle of Wight
Charged with conspiracy to import cocaine on 1/6/10.
Sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment.