Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

A murder investigation is under way after a Crumpsall stabbing in north Manchester left a 27-year-old man dead in the early hours of Saturday 14 November. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) say no arrests have been made.

Officers were called to Moss Bank at around 1.30am after reports that a man had suffered several stab wounds. According to GMP, he died from his injuries in an ambulance. The force said initial inquiries suggest he was attacked by “a number of males”, all believed to have been wearing dark clothing and balaclavas. The group is thought to have fled towards Ash Tree Road.

What police are asking the public to do

Detectives are appealing for anyone who saw the attack, or who has relevant information, to come forward. They are also asking residents and drivers to check doorbell, mobile phone and dashcam footage and to hand over anything that might help. GMP has asked for this “as a matter of urgency”.

Det Insp Neil Higginson, senior investigating officer from GMP’s Major Incident Team, described the incident as “a shocking and tragic attack which has resulted in a young man losing his life”. He said officers are carrying out extensive inquiries “to establish exactly what happened and identify everyone involved”. He added that police are pursuing all available lines of inquiry.

A street sealed off for forensic work

Reporters at the scene described a large police presence that continued through Saturday evening. Patrol cars, forensic specialists and detectives were all in the area. Forensic officers were seen lifting drain covers and looking under parked cars along the street of terraced houses. One officer climbed a fence near an alley. Evidence markers were placed along the road, and officers carried out door-to-door inquiries to find witnesses and gather CCTV.

Police said a scene will remain in place on both Moss Bank and Ash Tree Road while forensic opportunities are explored. They also said there would be a significant police presence locally while the investigation continues, with an increased patrol presence to reassure residents.

Community reaction to the Crumpsall stabbing

The victim has not been publicly named. GMP said his family have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers. Floral tributes have been left at the scene.

Local people spoke of their shock. One resident, who said they knew the man through their nephews, who went to school with him, described him as “just a normal lad” and said his family were devastated. “It’s sad, at the end of the day that’s someone’s son or brother that’s lost a life,” another person said. A dog walker who lives nearby said they had seen the markings on the ground at 7am and “you don’t realise it’s happening on your own doorstep”.

Another neighbour said she was worried about safety in the area and wanted to move her son away. Police have not said anything about a possible motive, and it would be wrong to read anything into the circumstances until officers say more.

What happens next

With no arrests so far, the investigation depends on finding out who was involved and piecing together the movements of the group before and after the attack. Police are focused on recovering footage from homes and vehicles around Moss Bank and Ash Tree Road. Anyone with information about the Crumpsall stabbing can contact Greater Manchester Police.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

An Abu Dhabi hotel brawl involving two of mixed martial arts’ best-known names has ended with 10 convictions within 48 hours. Eight of the defendants were jailed for six months, according to reports of the court’s ruling.

The Abu Dhabi Judicial Department said the court convicted 10 defendants over the fight and sentenced them to six months’ imprisonment along with deportation. Fuller details of who received what come from reports by The National and ESPN, as relayed by other outlets. The sources differ slightly on the exact breakdown, and none of the defendants has been officially named.

What the court decided

According to those reports, six defendants were jailed for six months, fined 300,000 dirhams (about $81,600) each and ordered to be deported once their sentences are complete. They were convicted of “disturbing public security, causing panic and endangering lives”. ESPN reported that the six were members of Team Nurmagomedov.

Two more people received the same punishment for a different offence: “violating privacy by using information technology to film and publish footage of the brawl”. Al Jazeera, citing the reports, said the court also ordered their phones confiscated and the footage deleted.

The remaining two defendants were fined but not jailed. The National reported that they were fined 50,000 dirhams (about $13,600) each for “disturbing public security and assaulting others”. Al Jazeera said these two were former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili and a friend, though the court has not publicly named the defendants and the BBC noted that none had been identified.

How the fight started

The incident happened on Wednesday at a hotel on Yas Island. Dvalishvili was being interviewed in the lobby ahead of a Real American Freestyle (RAF) wrestling event. Video shared online appeared to show PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov approaching from behind and slapping him. A melee between the two men’s entourages followed, and Dvalishvili was left with a bloodied face.

Nurmagomedov was not on the RAF card. He had travelled to the UAE to support his brother Umar, who was due to face Urijah Faber. Abu Dhabi police confirmed 10 arrests.

Fallout for the event and the fighters

RAF co-founder Chad Bronstein said Dvalishvili had been released from custody and remains scheduled to fight Marlon Moraes on Saturday. Dvalishvili posted that he was “good, healthy and ready to go” and thanked people in Abu Dhabi for resolving the matter. He added that he hoped everyone would be released and that he “would not press charges”.

Umar Nurmagomedov has been removed from the card. His replacement is Saba Lazishvili, a friend and team-mate of Dvalishvili who was also involved in the fight but appears to have been released.

The two camps have a history. Al Jazeera notes tension after Dvalishvili beat Umar Nurmagomedov in a UFC title fight in January last year, and the BBC reports a smaller altercation at an RAF event in July. UFC champion Islam Makhachev, a close friend of the Nurmagomedovs, suggested that earlier clash led to this week’s violence.

UFC president Dana White said he had not spoken to Usman Nurmagomedov, who is out of contract with the PFL and heavily linked with a UFC move. He called the fight “ridiculous” and “stupid” and described those involved as “a bunch of idiots”. The Independent reports that Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, publicly apologised and called the incident unacceptable.

The speed of the Abu Dhabi hotel brawl prosecution, from fight to convictions in two days, and the sentences themselves, which carry deportation as well as jail time, are a stark reminder of how seriously the UAE treats public disorder. The sources do not say whether any defendant plans to challenge the verdicts.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

The Walliams investigation became a criminal inquiry on Friday, when the Metropolitan Police confirmed that detectives were looking into allegations of serious sexual offences. David Walliams, 55, has denied any wrongdoing, and the sources report that he has not been arrested or charged.

What the Met has said about the Walliams investigation

In a statement, the force said it had received “a number of allegations of non-recent serious sexual offences involving a man now in his 50s”. Under police policy, the Met did not name the person under investigation, though several outlets have identified him as Walliams. Officers said those who had come forward were being supported by specialist officers.

The Guardian reports that the allegations are understood to come from several people, some dating back to the 2000s. At least some are understood to have contacted police this week. Their initial accounts, given to detectives from the Met’s specialist crime division, were reportedly enough for a full criminal investigation by officers who handle serious and complex sexual offences.

Police declined to give details of the alleged offences, saying this was to reduce the chance of complainants being identified. Detectives stressed that people making such allegations are entitled to life-long anonymity. According to the Guardian, no searches have been carried out.

Separate from the media reports, but under review

The Met was explicit that the allegations it is investigating are separate from those published this week by ITV News and the Guardian. Even so, it said detectives are “proactively reviewing that reporting to establish whether there is any evidence of offences”. That means the broadcast and newspaper allegations are being examined, but they are not the starting point of the police inquiry.

The media investigation, published on Tuesday, carried allegations from multiple women. They accuse Walliams of using his fame to pursue young women and teenagers for sex, including through work connected to Britain’s Got Talent and his former publisher. The reports say a court rejected a legal attempt to stop publication. Walliams’s denials are part of the record: he has said he is “not a sexual predator” and has not “broken the law”.

In a letter to journalists, quoted by the Guardian, he acknowledged that he sometimes “behaved thoughtlessly” towards people he had casual relationships with. He added that abusing a position of power was “something that I never did”. The Guardian reports that he is currently in a medical facility.

Appeal to others, and wider reaction

Det Supt Mike Cagney, whose team leads the inquiry, urged anyone who has been the victim of a sexual offence to come forward “no matter when it happened”. He acknowledged that reporting such allegations “can be daunting”. Fremantle, the producer of Britain’s Got Talent, has invited anyone who feels they were wronged to speak up, though Deadline reports it has not opened a formal investigation of its own.

The inquiry led many of Saturday’s front pages, according to the BBC’s newspaper review. The Daily Mail reported that fans were deserting the entertainer, while the Daily Express led on locals’ opposition to plans to house asylum seekers near Piddington, Oxfordshire.

The inquiry is at an early stage. No one has been charged, and any allegation remains unproven. The Met has not said how long the work is expected to take.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

An 18-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to murdering 16-year-old Chloe Watson Dransfield, a dramatic change of plea on the second day of a Leeds murder trial at Leeds Crown Court. Two co-defendants deny any part in the killing, and their trial goes on.

Plea changed on the second day

Kayla Smith had previously admitted manslaughter but denied murder. On Thursday she changed that plea to guilty of murder. The judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh KC, said he would sentence her once the trial has finished. He told her the only sentence available was life imprisonment, but that he would still have to decide the minimum term she must serve in custody.

Blake Dowling, 18, and Archie Rycroft, 20, are charged with murder and manslaughter. Both deny the charges, and the jury will continue to hear the case against them. Nothing in the evidence reported so far amounts to a finding against either man.

What the court has heard

The prosecution says Chloe was fatally stabbed in the early hours of 28 March, after going to Smith’s home in the Austhorpe area of east Leeds. The court heard Dowling had been in a relationship with both young women and “knew of the bad feeling between the two”, although they had never met in person. Dowling’s mother told the court that Smith was “jealous and obsessed” over her son’s relationship with Chloe.

Jurors heard that the two argued by phone the previous evening and that Smith threatened several times to “stab her”. A friend of Chloe’s, who was on FaceTime with her that night, told the court she heard Smith shouting down the phone. The friend said she heard the words “I’m gonna stab you in your throat” after Chloe confirmed she was with Dowling.

The two agreed to fight, and Dowling booked a taxi to take Chloe to the address. The friend said Chloe told her she was “off to get the fight that I’ve wanted for ages”. Asked by Gill Batts KC, defending Dowling, what she expected, the witness replied “just themselves, nothing else”, meaning she understood there would be no weapons.

CCTV and the prosecution case

The court was shown CCTV and doorbell footage. It showed Smith leaving an outbuilding in her grandfather’s garden holding a knife, with Rycroft following her. Chloe could be heard shouting “come on big girl”. Smith and Rycroft were then seen running back to the outbuilding. Chloe had been stabbed five times in the neck and back and bled to death.

Footage timed at 5.12am, about a minute after the stabbing, shows Smith, Rycroft and Smith’s grandfather outside the building. The court heard the grandfather say he would ring the police and Smith reply, “You can’t ring the police, she’s dead.” He called for an ambulance 37 minutes after the stabbing, and a neighbour saw him performing CPR on Chloe on the footpath. She was taken to hospital and pronounced dead at 6.40am.

Prosecutor Mark McKone KC set out how the Crown puts its case against the two men who deny the charges. He said Rycroft is accused of murder “by walking with Kayla Smith to the fight and by trying to film Kayla Smith using violence and by providing support to her, if needed”. Dowling, he said, knew Smith wanted to stab Chloe and, by booking the taxi, “played a part in organising the violence”. Dowling is alleged to have assisted and encouraged Smith by taking Chloe to the scene.

The prosecution also told the court that when police arrested Smith and Rycroft, they were “laughing and joking” with two friends and using nitrous oxide in front of officers.

The defendants’ accounts differ from the prosecution’s. McKone said Dowling denied knowing Chloe would be caused really serious harm. Rycroft says he followed Smith out of curiosity and did not see that she had a knife.

With Smith’s plea entered, the Leeds murder trial now turns to the cases against Dowling and Rycroft, and the jury will decide those charges on the evidence. Smith will be sentenced only when that process is over.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

Eleanor Donaldson, the wife of former DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, has been placed on the sex offender register for five years and made subject to a three-year supervision and treatment order, a judge at Newry Crown Court ruled on Friday.

Mrs Donaldson, 60, appeared by video link for less than three minutes. It was reportedly the first time she had been seen in court since 2025. According to reports from the hearing, she kept her eyes closed and her head bowed as Judge Paul Ramsey explained the terms of the order. Asked whether she understood, she nodded and said “yes”.

Why a trial of the facts, not a conventional trial

Mrs Donaldson was not tried in the usual way. She was found unfit to take part in a criminal trial on mental health grounds, so a “trial of the facts” was held instead. This procedure decides whether a person did the acts alleged. It cannot end in a conviction or a prison sentence. The BBC reported that the jury found she had carried out the acts in relation to five charges, four of them alleging that she aided and abetted her husband’s offending.

Under mental health legislation, the judge could choose a hospital order, a guardianship order, an absolute discharge or a supervision and treatment order. The court heard from two medical experts, and the BBC reported that both advised the supervision order was the most appropriate option. Neither prosecution nor defence objected. Judge Ramsey said the medical evidence was “unchallenged” and that the order was an “inevitable conclusion”. Defence counsel Ian Turkington KC said the medical evidence “was clear”.

What the order and the sex offender register require

The judge told Mrs Donaldson she will be supervised by a social worker from the Craigavon Community Mental Health Team for three years. She must keep in touch, attend appointments, undergo treatment and allow home visits. Separately, she will be subject to the notification requirements of the sex offender register for five years.

Prosecution barrister Rosemary Walsh KC briefly outlined the facts and the impact on the two victims, who were both in court. She told the judge that “pain permeated” their statements, which the BBC said spoke of anger and of questions about why the offending happened.

Appeals and the wider legal review

Jeffrey Donaldson, 63, was convicted in June of 18 sex offences, including one count of rape, against two women when they were children. The offences span 1985 to 2008. He was sentenced to 15 years in October and will serve half in custody, according to PA. Both he and his wife are appealing. He is challenging his convictions, and she is challenging the jury’s verdicts. Those appeals have not been decided.

Bronagh Muldoon, assistant director of the NSPCC in Northern Ireland, said it was “right and important” that Mrs Donaldson’s role had been recognised in court. She praised the “incredible bravery” of the women who came forward and urged anyone who has experienced child sexual abuse to seek support, “no matter how much time has passed”.

The case has also prompted a review of the law. Earlier this year Stormont’s justice and health ministers launched a joint review of the legal framework on unfitness to plead and trials of the facts, which is provided for under Article 49A of the Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. Former senior judge Sir John Gillen will carry it out. The BBC noted that the mechanism is rarely used, with the 2019 case of former IRA leader Ivor Bell among the few high-profile examples.

Mrs Donaldson’s placement on the sex offender register and her supervision order are now in place while her appeal is pending. The outcome of Sir John’s review could affect how similar cases are handled in future.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

The Walliams police investigation was confirmed on Friday, when the Metropolitan Police said it had launched a criminal inquiry into “alleged serious sexual offences”. No arrest has been made and nobody has been charged. David Walliams has denied any wrongdoing.

In line with police policy, the Met did not name the man under investigation. It described him only as “a man now in his 50s”. Media outlets including the BBC and the Guardian have reported that the inquiry concerns Walliams, who is 55.

What the Met has said

In a statement, the force said it had “received a number of allegations of non-recent serious sexual offences”. It said those who had come forward were being supported by specialist officers.

The Guardian reports that the new allegations are understood to have come from several people. Some are said to date back to the 2000s. At least some of those people are understood to have contacted police this week. Their initial accounts, given to detectives from the Met’s specialist crime division, were enough for the force to open a full criminal investigation. It is being led by officers who specialise in serious and complex sexual offences.

Police declined to say what the alleged offences were, or where and when they are said to have happened. They said this was to reduce the chance of complainants being identified, and they stressed that those making allegations are entitled to lifelong anonymity. The Guardian reports that no searches have been carried out.

Separate from the media reports

The Met stressed that the allegations it is investigating are separate from those published by ITV News and the Guardian earlier this week. It added that detectives are “proactively reviewing that reporting to establish whether there is any evidence of offences”. That is a review of the published material, not a finding about it.

The media reports followed a court’s rejection of a legal attempt to stop publication. They included allegations from women who said Walliams used his fame to pursue young women and teenagers. Two women told the Guardian they first met him when they were 15 and felt they had been groomed. Other allegations relate to Britain’s Got Talent and to his former publisher, HarperCollins.

Walliams has strongly denied any sexual contact with a girl who described an alleged encounter at 15 as a sexual assault. He has also denied ever grooming young women.

Walliams’s response

In a letter to the journalists, Walliams acknowledged that he had “behaved thoughtlessly” towards some people with whom he had casual sexual relationships and said he regretted it. He added that while a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, “abusing that power… is something I never did”.

“I am not a sexual predator,” he wrote. “I have not broken the law.” He said he was “devastated” that some women he met 10 to 20 years ago had expressed hurt or anger. The Guardian reports that he is currently in a medical facility.

Fremantle, the producer of Britain’s Got Talent, has urged anyone who “feels they have been the subject of wrongdoing” to come forward, according to Deadline. It has not launched a formal investigation.

Detective Superintendent Mike Cagney, whose team is leading the inquiry, urged anyone who has been the victim of a sexual offence to contact police “no matter when it happened”. He said specialist officers could provide support, answer questions and guide people through the process.

The investigation is at an early stage. No decision has been taken on whether anyone will be charged, and Walliams is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

A British soldier charged with rape is being held in custody after the Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC) said he was accused of attacking a woman serving with the UK armed forces in Cyprus. The man is Lance Corporal Nicholas Horne of the 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, also known as the Highlanders. He is accused of one count of rape. The allegation has not been tested in court and he is not guilty of anything unless a court-martial finds otherwise.

Timeline of the soldier charged with rape case

According to the DSCC, as reported by the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent, the command was informed of the alleged offence on 17 October. Horne was arrested two days later, on 19 October, and charged on 23 October. The complainant is described only as a woman serving with British Forces Cyprus.

Horne has been remanded in custody pending a court-martial hearing. No date for any hearing has been given in the reports. The charge followed an investigation by the DSCC’s major crime team, which the Guardian says worked with service police partners. The DSCC investigates serious crime allegedly committed by people subject to service law, in the UK and overseas.

What the Army has said

An Army spokesperson confirmed that Horne was charged on 23 October 2026 with one count of rape, contrary to section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act, following the DSCC investigation. “There is no place for criminal behaviour in the Army, and we recognise the great courage it takes to come forward and report an offence,” the spokesperson said. They added that anyone convicted of a sexual offence will be discharged from the service.

The DSCC has also encouraged anyone affected by sexual offences in the armed forces to contact it.

Wider context for the military

The case comes as the Ministry of Defence faces continued scrutiny over sexual misconduct in the forces. The Guardian notes that the MoD announced last year that specialist teams would be deployed at military locations in the UK and overseas. That followed the department’s first official survey of sexual harassment across the armed forces, which found nearly one in 10 women serving full-time in the British military had experienced an assault or other non-consensual sexual activity in the previous year. These figures are background and say nothing about the specific allegation against Horne.

Britain retains two sovereign base areas in Cyprus, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, under the 1960 treaty that established the island’s independence. British Forces Cyprus is based there.

Because proceedings are active, further detail is likely to emerge only through the court-martial process. For now, the reported facts are limited to the dates of the report, arrest and charge, the single count, and Horne’s remand in custody while he awaits a hearing.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

The Tim Westwood trial is set to cover 17 charges after the former Radio 1 DJ pleaded not guilty on Thursday to two further sexual offences. He denies all of the allegations, which relate to nine women and span the years 1983 to 2016.

The 69-year-old, of Fitzrovia in central London, appeared at Southwark Crown Court, where he entered pleas to the two new counts. According to reports from the BBC, the Guardian, the Evening Standard and the Independent, the first alleges indecent assault on a teenage girl in west London in 1991. The second alleges sexual assault on an 18-year-old woman in south London in May 2004. He denied both.

How the case has grown

Westwood was first charged in October 2025 with offences against seven women. The Evening Standard reports that the two latest charges were brought in September this year. That brings the total to nine complainants.

The earlier allegations, all of which he denies, are as follows:

• four indecent assaults in London in the 1980s
• three indecent assaults at the BBC in the 1990s
• one rape in a hotel in 1996
• two indecent assaults and one rape at a London address in the early 2000s
• two rapes at a London address in the 2010s
• a sexual assault at a nightclub in Stroud, Gloucestershire, in 2010
• a sexual assault at a London music festival in 2016

These are allegations only. None has been tested in court, and Westwood has entered a not guilty plea to every count.

What happens next in the Tim Westwood trial

Westwood has been granted conditional bail. The BBC and the Standard report that the trial is due to start at Southwark Crown Court on 27 January and to last seven weeks. The Guardian and the Independent say only that it will take place in January.

The Standard adds that a pre-trial review is scheduled for 8 December. Westwood does not have to attend it.

The Tim Westwood trial will be heard by a jury, which will have to consider each count on the evidence presented. The court has not yet heard that evidence.

Westwood rose to prominence on Capital Radio in the late 1980s, hosting the Capital Rap Show, and later became a leading voice in hip-hop broadcasting at BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. The Guardian reports that he left Radio 1 and 1Xtra in 2013 after nearly 20 years. He then stepped down from his Capital Xtra show in 2022, after allegations were reported, according to the Standard.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

Anti-migrant activist Daniel Thomas, also known as Danny Tommo, has admitted criminal damage after slashing a dinghy with a knife in the English Channel, and will be sentenced on 18 November.

The 37-year-old changed his plea to the single charge when he appeared by video link from prison at Portsmouth Crown Court on Thursday. He had previously pleaded not guilty. He remains in custody, and the Evening Standard reports he has been held for seven weeks.

What the court has heard about the 22 September incident

The account of events comes from the prosecution case set out at an earlier hearing at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court, as reported by the BBC, the Guardian and the Standard. Prosecutor Kevin Lucie told that court that Thomas took a boat into the Channel on 22 September and saw the occupants of a dinghy being helped by the RNLI, Border Force and the French coastguard.

Mr Lucie said Thomas instructed that his vessel be steered towards an empty rigid inflatable boat that was adrift. The court heard he then armed himself with a knife as rescue crews also approached the craft, and that a Frenchman boarded the dinghy from a rescue vessel. The Associated Press, citing social media video, reported that the dinghy had no migrants aboard but was occupied by a member of the French rescue services.

After the dinghy was slashed, Thomas could be heard on a livestream saying: “This is what needs to happen to everyone in these boats. Right, you’re on English territory. This is England, this is not France anymore. Get off the boat, you have time to get off the boat. This is not France. Take them back.”

A second charge Daniel Thomas still denies

The plea does not end the case. Thomas reiterated his not guilty plea to a separate charge of failing to disclose the PIN to his phone to police, brought under section 53 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. That allegation remains to be decided, and he is presumed innocent of it.

Judge James Newton-Price KC set the sentencing date of 18 November. The court’s address for Thomas was withheld at a previous hearing.

What sentencing could involve

The BBC and the Standard both cite the Sentencing Council on the range of penalties. Where criminal damage is valued at more than £5,000, the maximum sentence is 10 years’ imprisonment. Where the damage is valued at less than £5,000, the maximum is a fine and three months in jail. The reports note that Thomas will receive credit for his guilty plea. Which category the damage falls into, and what penalty follows, are matters for the court.

The wider context

Thomas is described in reports as the founder of Patriot Platform, an umbrella movement that the Guardian says brought together dozens of nationalist protest groups over the summer. According to the Guardian and AP, hundreds of masked and hooded anti-migrant activists aligned with the group descended on Dover and Portsmouth earlier in September. Hampshire Police later said police, coastguard and Border Force vehicles were damaged and a few officers suffered minor injuries. The government has condemned what it called the “intimidating and thuggish behaviour” of anti-immigrant demonstrators, AP reported.

The footage drew criticism from refugee charities. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and Stand Up to Racism condemned his actions as violent and dangerous, the Guardian reported. The RNLI said the people rescued had been in the water for 36 hours, thought to be the longest small-boat passengers had spent on a Channel crossing, and that there were fears of a “catastrophic failure” of their dinghy. The French coastguard said about 60 people had spent more than 33 hours at sea in precarious conditions.

AP reported that more than 41,000 people made the crossing last year, and that Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government says closer law enforcement cooperation with France has cut crossings so far this year by more than 40% compared with 2025.

The court will hear the case again on 18 November, when Daniel Thomas is due to be sentenced for the criminal damage offence.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

An 11-month-old baby buried alive in a dog crate has been found alive in woodland in South Carolina after a search involving around 100 officers and first responders, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. The boy is in hospital, and the sheriff said he hopes for a full recovery.

The case is at an early stage. The child’s father, 25-year-old Michael Comer, was arrested on Monday evening on charges of burglary and resisting arrest. He has not been charged over the baby’s discovery, and police are working with the local solicitor’s office to decide whether to bring further charges. The details below are the account given by police and reported by news outlets, and nothing has been tested in court.

How the search for the missing baby unfolded

Sheriff Jay Koon told a news conference that the boy went missing on Monday morning. He had been left in his father’s care briefly while a relative stepped out, with another caregiver due to arrive. By the time that person got there, the father and child were gone, Koon said. Police were called around midday.

Officers found the doors of a nearby family home open and the baby’s belongings inside, but no sign of either of them. Investigators later found video of the father in the Batesburg-Leesville area without the child, the sheriff said. Comer was arrested late on Monday, reportedly in an outbuilding at a house in Batesburg. Koon said he “did not have much to say” about where the baby was.

Freshly disturbed dirt and the sound of crying

A wider search followed, joined by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. On Tuesday afternoon, searchers in woods roughly 50 yards from a family member’s home noticed “freshly disturbed” dirt and pine straw. As they probed the ground and began digging, they heard a baby crying.

Koon called it “the most joyful sound you ever heard” and said the baby was found “buried alive” and “clinging to life”. “The race was on,” he said, as officers worked to free the child.

The sheriff described a wire crate of roughly two feet by two feet, wrapped in a towel and covered with about a foot of soil. He said the towel probably created an air pocket that let the boy survive, and that the cold weather may have stopped him overheating. Police estimate he had been underground for about 24 hours.

What happens next

Authorities have not said what further charges may follow in the baby buried alive case, and Comer’s response to any allegation has not been reported. His mother, Patricia Comer, told media she had never expected this from her son and that his being in custody was “where he needs to be”, according to the reports.

Koon said he hoped the child would not remember the ordeal. For now, the key questions are what charges prosecutors bring and how the boy recovers in hospital.

Explore more on this topic with Vexel Search.