The former director of recruiting for the University of Hawai‘i’s football program claims she faced discrimination from her bosses and coworkers after revealing she had been diagnosed with narcolepsy, even though she never fell asleep on the job, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit reviewed by The Independent.
However, Ella Devenny says in her complaint that she routinely saw male colleagues sleeping during meetings, travel, and other team-related activities without ever facing “comparable scrutiny, criticism, or disability-related assumptions.”
Devenny, who handled recruiting, football operations, logistics, travel and administrative functions in support of the football program at UH’s flagship Mānoa campus, “repeatedly” voiced concerns about the alleged disability discrimination, along with purported gender discrimination, to the public university’s leadership, including the team’s general manager and head coach Timmy Chang, the complaint states.
But, it goes on, “Rather than adequately investigate or correct the conduct about which [Devenny] complained, [UH] subjected [her] to increased scrutiny, public criticism, disciplinary actions, exclusion from responsibilities and opportunities associated with her position, and ultimately the decision to end [her] employment with the football program.”
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Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that impacts the brain’s ability to regulate sleep-wake cycles, and can cause sufferers to fall asleep very suddenly, without warning. It is considered a covered disability under the meaning of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The exact cause of narcolepsy remains unknown, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The University of Hawai‘i is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by former staffer Ella Devenny (University of Hawai’i; Getty Images)
In her self-filed complaint, Devenny alleges that the university has “attempted to characterize [her] separation as the routine expiration of a temporary appointment and as the result of performance deficiencies,” which she calls “false, inconsistent, selectively applied, and pretextual,” maintaining that “discrimination and retaliation were substantial motivating factors” in her firing.
UH spokesman Dan Meisenzahl told The Independent that he had not been aware of Devenny’s suit until being contacted for comment on Friday, but declined to say anything further.
Devenny, who is now the assistant general manager for the Baylor University athletic program, in Waco, Texas, declined to comment beyond the allegations in the complaint.
Devenny, who graduated from the University of Nebraska in 2023, joined the University of Hawai‘i’s football program in April 2024 as the director of recruiting, following a season-long stint as an operations assistant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. She is a member of the American Football Coaches Association and Women Leaders In College Sports, according to her UH bio.
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Her complaint, which was filed June 5 in Hawaii federal court, says she relocated to Hawai’i for the UH job, and “invested substantial personal and financial resources in doing so.”
As recruiting director at UH, Devenny was responsible for overseeing recruiting operations, coordinating official visits, managing recruiting logistics, and supervising recruiting support personnel, her complaint states. She worked alongside General Manager Matt Chon, reported directly to head coach Chang, a former UH quarterback, and was the only woman in such a role, according to the complaint.
Devenny says in a lawsuit that she was discriminated against for having narcolepsy, as well as for being a woman (Getty Images)
Amid her nine-month tenure at UH, Devenny discovered she was narcoleptic, and disclosed the diagnosis to higher-ups, the complaint continues. The condition didn’t have any effect on Devenny’s job performance, it says.
“Following disclosure of her disability, [Devenny] was subjected to repeated comments concerning sleeping, oversleeping, reporting to work on time, and concerns that she would sleep during work hours, despite the fact that [she] had not failed to report to work because of her narcolepsy and continued performing her assigned responsibilities,” the complaint goes on.
Yet, it says Devenny “observed male employees engage in conduct involving sleeping during meetings, travel, or recruiting-related activities without being subjected to comparable scrutiny, criticism, or disability-related assumptions.”
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“[Devenny] also experienced incidents involving references to melatonin and other sleep-related topics that [she] reasonably perceived as mocking, minimizing, or drawing attention to her disability,” according to the complaint.
In various instances, Devenny was “publicly humiliated in front of coworkers and colleagues by Chon,” the complaint contends. After one such episode, Chon, the general manager, later told Devenny that he “had been under significant stress and had unfairly directed his frustration toward [her],” it says.
Devenny further claims to have experienced unequal treatment by the UH football program, as compared to “male employees with less responsibility, less authority, and lower compensation” than her. When traveling with the team, male coaches, staff, and graduate assistants were upgraded to first class and given their own hotel rooms, while Devenny flew coach and had to double up in hotels, the complaint states.
Devenny claims her time working at the University of Hawai‘i was marred by discrimination (Getty Images)
Additionally, Devenny alleges she was denigrated by male members of the football staff, including a recruiting intern who “repeatedly referred” to her as a “donkey” in front of students, and, at least once, called her a “c**t,” according to the complaint.
Devenny “found these comments offensive, degrading, and inappropriate,” the complaint says, adding that the intern’s behavior undermined her authority. So, she “escalated” her concerns to Chang, the head coach, according to the complaint.
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Still, management took no substantive action, it asserts. Instead, it claims, Devenny – who says she had received only positive feedback about her work up to that point, and was apparently told by Chon that she was vital to the team’s recruitment success – was “subjected to increased scrutiny, micromanagement, public criticism, exclusion from opportunities, and other adverse treatment that she had not experienced prior to engaging in protected activity.”
On December 13, 2024, following her reports of harassment and discrimination, Devenny was informed that her employment contract was being terminated, the complaint states. It says she was increasingly marginalized during her last month of work, and that when she was formally let go, UH spun the firing as “the routine expiration of a temporary appointment.”
At the same time, the UH Title IX Office believed Devenny’s allegations were serious enough to investigate, and on March 12, 2026, the EEOC issued her a so-called Right to Sue determination. (Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender.)
Devenny claims she has suffered, among other things, loss of employment, loss of income, loss of professional opportunities, emotional distress, anxiety, humiliation, and reputational harm. Her complaint says she “continues to suffer the effects of [UH’s] conduct.”
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She is now seeking compensatory damages, back pay, front pay, and court costs, plus pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The last time Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma hosted the nation’s governors, it didn’t go so well.
The annual gathering of state leaders in Washington in February was overshadowed by a fight with President Donald Trump, who refused to allow two governors — both Democrats — to attend a White House meeting. As head of the National Governors Association, Stitt successfully pressed Trump to reverse course but got an earful in the process.
Trump, who carried each of Oklahoma’s 77 counties in 2024, blasted Stitt as a “RINO,” meaning Republican in name only, and criticized the term-limited governor’s performance in office.
Stitt is again hosting his colleagues this weekend, this time on his home turf in Oklahoma City as he turns over leadership of the National Governors Association to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat and one of the governors Trump had sought to exclude. In an interview, Stitt discussed the dust-up with Trump, warned against efforts to federalize elections, and expressed concern that a mammoth federal government has contributed to the country’s tense political climate.
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Here are highlights of the conversation, edited for length and clarity.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: You’ve spent the past year working closely with governors from both parties. What have you learned?
STITT: We agree on much more than we disagree. I was never in politics until I ran for governor. I’m like everybody else. I’m watching Fox News. I’m in my camp, and the other guys are in the MSNBC camp, and we’re over here thinking the other people are bad. But when I get in these roles and I meet the governor of Maryland and the governor of New York and these other governors, I realize that, literally, we’re all Americans.
AP: You’ve talked a lot about states’ rights. Going into the midterms, are you confident that states will be able to conduct their elections without interference from Trump or the federal government?
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STITT: You know, I do.
First off, I don’t think that we should federalize the elections at all. I believe that is a state issue. The states should control their own elections. Should we make sure they’re done fairly and U.S. citizens are voting? 100%. I think there’s broad agreement with that. Oklahoma, literally, all of our absentee ballots have to be notarized. We have to know who they are. And then they have to be in by Election Day. So they’re all counted, and then when the polls close at 7, we drop all the absentee and early votes counted. Bam, you know what they are at 7:01.
It is weird that in a swing state, in a certain county, it takes them a month to count the votes. So rightly, you should be questioning some of these things. But Oklahoma does it the right way, and those are the things that I’m responsible for. But, yeah, I trust our election process.
AP: But if you were to look at those vote swings, do you trust governors of those states to look at that as opposed to Washington?
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STITT: 100%. I don’t think we should federalize that. Because then you’ve got a pendulum swing. What about the next guy gets in office and the next guy and the next guy? The system that we have with 50 different states is the right system.
Now, the Save America Act, making sure that we know who’s voting, I think that’s a very legitimate thing to do.
AP: You pushed back against the president when he wanted to exclude two Democratic governors from a White House meeting. The president had some words for you as well at the time. As a Republican, how do you disagree with the president?
STITT: All I simply said was, “Hey, we can’t call this a National Governors Association meeting if you’re not going to have all the governors there.” And so, to President Donald Trump’s credit, he said, and I think he was getting bad information from staff at the time, but, yes, we talked, and all the governors were invited to the business meeting. He excluded a couple of governors from the dinner. But that’s all I basically said. I didn’t want to get on the bad side of the president. But we have a good working relationship.
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I’m trying to do what’s best for Oklahoma. In that case, I was representing the National Governors Association.
AP: It sometimes seems that when Republicans push back against the president, it’s often when they’re leaving office. Should there be more open and frequent disagreement?
STITT: Well, I mean, sure. If there’s something that we fundamentally think is going to be bad for our country, we all should say something. Every citizen, regardless if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, we should say, “Hey, that’s the wrong approach.”
AP: How do we bring down the temperature in politics?
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STITT: I think one of the reasons the temperature’s so hard, so loud and divisive, is because of this one-size-fits-all, huge federal government.
Then we want whatever idea we have, then we want everybody to do it across the country. And that is not how our founders set it up. They thought that New York was different from Delaware, different from Virginia and South Carolina and Maryland.
And that’s OK, and that’s what I tell people. Hey, Minnesota’s elected Gov. Tim Walz. That’s OK. Why does that bother me in Oklahoma? Why do I care what Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s doing in New York City? It shouldn’t affect me.
But politics is becoming like, if Kamala Harris wins, she’s going to try to make Oklahoma like California. We don’t want to be like California. And so I think if we can bring that temperature down and say, “Hey, it’s OK that the states are different and they have different values and philosophies.”
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AP: What do you see as the future of the Republican Party?
STITT: I hope we get back to the fiscal piece of our party. Like in 1994, when Newt Gingrich came in with the Contract with America, and President Bill Clinton was in office, we balanced a budget. Now, Congress won’t even vote on a budget — it’s continuing resolutions. And our Founding Fathers would just be like, “What is this? What do you mean they don’t ever vote on the budget? That’s all their job is.”
AP: Do you plan on running for anything again, maybe national office?
STITT: I’m just going to finish my job as governor and plan on going back to the private sector, and we’ll see what happens in the future.
Two crews from Malton responded at 7.27pm to a report of the combine on fire in a field near Settrington, which spread to 20 square metre of field.
A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said: “The combine was 100% damaged by fire. Crews extinguished the fire and damped down the surrounding area.
“Crews used two breathing apparatus, two hose reel jets, thermal imaging camera, triple extension ladder, small tools and a reciprocating saw to deal with the incident.”
Scottish Labour is tearing itself apart before the party’s latest leadership contest has even started.
A party that has lost five Holyrood elections in a row to the SNP and cannot connect with voters is once again staring at its own navel.
The smart money was on a three-way contest between moderate Michael Marra, former council chief Joe Fagan and left-winger Monica Lennon.
But there is a growing sense that Lennon, despite being the candidate party figures believe would have the most reach with voters, will fail to make the ballot.
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Contenders need three Labour MSPs and three Scottish Labour MPs to become candidates and every indication is that Lennon is struggling.
Part of her likely exclusion reflects the rough and tumble of politics.
Marra has been preparing for a contest for months and has activated his machine to hoover up nominations.
Lennon’s return to Holyrood after Anas Sarwar’s resignation from Holyrood was accidental and she does not have the infrastructure to compete.
Marra does not want her on the ballot and his supporters have been energetic in ensuring this becomes a reality.
Personality clashes are another factor behind Lennon’s inability so far to attract the necessary support.
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She had a reputation as a moderate when she was first elected in 2016, but she alienated this bloc when she backed Jeremy Corbyn.
Her natural supporters in the Scottish Labour group – left wingers Katy Clark and Carol Mochan – are also withholding their support.
Mochan fundamentally differs from Lennon on trans rights while Clark inexplicably believes that she should be the left wing candidate in the race.
The end result is a likely all-male ballot between Fagan and Marra to succeed Anas Sarwar.
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Even the staunchest supporters of both these contenders admit they have baggage.
Marra is an able politician who would be better than Sarwar at carving out dividing lines with the SNP.
But he will also struggle to shrug off his association with past Scottish Labour failures.
He was a senior adviser to hapless former leader Iain Gray, whose terrible Holyrood campaign led to an overall SNP majority in 2011.
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Marra was also the architect of Labour’s dismal Holyrood manifesto in May – a document that failed to include a single eye-catching policy.
Scottish Labour has lost five in a row to the SNP and Marra was knee-deep in two of them.
Fagan also has a number of downsides.
As leader of South Lanarkshire council, he was suspended for two months for disclosing confidential information to the press.
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He is also seen as a puppet of deputy leader Jackie Baillie, who critics believe wants Fagan to win so she can hold on to her power.
Senior party insiders also struggle to see the rookie MSP as a credible figure to lead Labour so soon into his Holyrood career.
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One said: “Is he really going to be our candidate for First Minister? Will voters be able to picture him walking into Bute House? He is not a big league politician.”
Anger is also rising with Sarwar for plunging his party into a summer of infighting and rancour.
Party activists wanted the priority for Scottish Labour to be a review of their catastrophic election defeat in May.
The review is now irrelevant and the big structural issues Scottish Labour needs to consider will be shelved.
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Senior party figures believe that whoever wins will lead a divided, inwardly-looking group at Holyrood.
And few people believe the victor will lead Scottish Labour into the 2031 Holyrood election.
The party of John Smith and Donald Dewar was already circling the drain before the leadership contest.
A pointless scrap that treats voters as an afterthought could see Scottish Labour vanish forever.
FIFA World Cup plot LIVE: Gianni Infantino’s presidency on the brink after disastrous scheme to sell off tournament – with European nation floating an emergency meeting
Follow all the latest on FIFA’s controversial World Cup plot – with more nations publicly opposing Gianni Infantino’s scheme, while his right-hand man has resigned in protest.
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FIFA World Cup plot LIVE: Gianni Infantino’s presidency on the brink after disastrous scheme to sell off tournament – with European nation floating an emergency meeting
His actions pushed her to get help long before any other warning sign appeared
Kristine Richards thought her chihuahua was just being a pain – until she realised the little dog might be trying to tell her something important. The 61-year-old from Wellington, in Somerset, says eight-year-old Flag developed a strange habit of repeatedly pawing at the underside of her arm.
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At first, she brushed it off as nuisance behaviour, but he didn’t stop. Soon after, she noticed a small lump, which set off alarm bells and prompted her to get it looked at by a doctor.
In 2018, Kristine decided to get checked after connecting Flag’s fixation with what she’d heard about dogs picking up on illness. Tests later confirmed she had hormone-sensitive lobular breast cancer, and she believes the timing was crucial because she’d felt completely normal.
She said: “My initial thought was that it was nothing, but then I started to wonder if there was a connection. I went to get it looked at and it was cancer. You can’t underestimate the shock. I couldn’t take it in. I just started crying.”
Kristine went for a full day of checks, including a mammogram and ultrasound, and was then told the cancer was aggressive and had spread to her lymph nodes. The diagnosis launched her into intense treatment that included surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and drug therapy.
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Kristine says it wasn’t straightforward as doctors were forced to stop chemotherapy early because it began affecting her feet and legs, and there were fears she could lose her ability to walk. Even so, about a year after the nightmare began, she was told she was in remission and the cancer hasn’t returned since.
She added: “It was a very difficult time of my life. In times like those, you find out who your true friends are, and ultimately, I did, and the answer was my dog.
“I am now in remission, I cried with relief when they told me. It was like getting to the end of a very long journey where you don’t quite know where you are going.”
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Now, Flag is a trained assistance dog who’s treated like a furry hero – with plenty of hugs and his favourite lamb treats. Kristine even says he’s saved her twice, claiming he later stopped her from being pushed into the path of a moving car.
The Chihuahua has become something of a local star, even being made honorary mayor of St Marychurch in Torquay. Kristine says he’s become known as a ‘community champion’ as the pair support charity causes and host coffee mornings.
Kristine added: “If he hadn’t alerted me, it would have taken much longer for me to go about it. He saved my life. I owe my dog everything.”
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The pair are currently backing Breast Cancer Now’s Wear It Pink campaign, encouraging people to get involved to raise money and awareness. Kristine said: “The more people know about him, the more money we can raise for charity and the more awareness we can get.”
Just outside London, in Hertfordshire, with my family. However, my heart lies in Crouch End. Mainly for the convenience and the food.
Where was your first flat?
A shared flat on the Fulham Road, directly in front of the Chelsea ground, before the Chelsea ground looked like it does now. It was hell on match days. It was a very dated model agency flat where I lived with three other girls, in a 1960s block.
As a model. I was 17 and I moved down in the summer holidays thinking I would be going back to school in September. I found myself in said flat on the Fulham Road and ended up staying. Thirty-three years later, I’m still here.
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Where would you recommend for a first date?
It depends on whether you want an outdoorsy date or a dinner date, but I would go to Hampstead Heath and have a nice little walk around. Then I would go to a restaurant in Hampstead called Jin Kichi. It’s a super-traditional Japanese place, with a sushi bar, a few tables downstairs and a few upstairs. The food is fantastic. It’s where my husband Matt and I used to go on loads of dates.
What’s the best meal you’ve had?
There used to be a restaurant in Crouch End called Banner’s. If you were local, it was a hotspot, but people would also come from outside Crouch End just to go there. It had all these old music posters on the walls and the tablecloths were red-and-white checked. They did breakfast and they also served the most incredible jerk chicken with rice and peas. It was a real around-the-world menu. And I think, if I remember rightly, it even had a Bob Dylan table.
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Who is the most iconic Londoner?
The most iconic Londoner, to me, is my husband Matt. He absolutely is. I don’t think you can get any better.
Where do you let your hair down?
My favourite place years ago, when I did used to leave the house, was the Arts Theatre Club on Frith Street. It’s tiny in there, and it was always very busy. They play music from the 1950s all the way through to the modern day. They gave it a little facelift and put in tables with lamps on them, and I always thought, “Oh, they’re going to get knocked over.” We would go there and then hop across the street to karaoke, which was at the back of a Japanese restaurant called Karaoke Box.
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Emma Willis
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Who do you call when you want to have fun?
There are two people with whom I know I am going to have the most fun. And that is because I don’t have to do anything to have fun — they just entertain me so much. And that would be my friends Max and Dean.
What’s your biggest extravagance?
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I’m quite sensible with most things, but when it comes to time away with my family, I’m all in. There is something really special about being away together with no work and no distractions. They are the memories we all end up talking about for years afterwards.
What’s your London secret?
Getting out first thing in the morning. Before the traffic, and before everyone’s rushing around, it feels like you’ve got the place to yourself.
What are you up to for work?
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I’ve just come back from a 100km trek for CoppaFeel! with my best mate Giovanna Fletcher and more than 100 amazing trekkers.
I have very cold, sore bones and a screwed knee, but it’s all worth it to raise money for the charity and awareness of breast cancer, and to encourage everyone to check their chest.
What is your next project?
Josh Widdicombe, Emma Willis and Johannes Radebe will take over as hosts on Strictly
PA Media
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I don’t collect anything in particular but I do have an old, reclaimed chest with my initials on it, which Matt got me for Christmas. It’s my memory box, so I’ve got my wedding dress inside, the kids’ first haircuts, their baby teeth and wristbands from the hospital with “baby Willis” written on them.
What’s your favourite London beauty spot?
The Skin Sculpter, in Notting Hill, with an amazing woman called Guendalina Gennari. She does manual lymphatic drainage and massage on your face and body — she even puts her fingers in your mouth to relieve jaw tension. It’s a little bit painful, but my God, it’s incredible.
Among the flights running more than 20 minutes behind schedule are Ryanair’s 7.15am departure to Brussels Charleroi, Air France’s 7.35am service to Paris Charles de Gaulle, Jet2’s 8.10am flight to Corfu, Scandinavian Airlines’ 8.30am departure to Copenhagen and Ryanair’s 8.45am service to Milan Malpensa.
Later today, Loganair’s 7.55pm departure to Southampton (LM369) from Terminal 2 is also listed as cancelled on the airport’s live departures board.
Manchester Airport’s live departure information is updated throughout the day, meaning delays and cancellations can change at short notice.
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Passengers are advised to check with their airline before travelling and allow extra time for their journey to the airport.
Flight delays can occur for a variety of reasons, including aircraft arriving late from previous services, air traffic control restrictions, adverse weather, operational issues or airline scheduling changes.
Lystus Ebosele, known to fans as Cyclone, joined the revival of the show last year, which is hosted by Bradley and Barney Walsh.
However, she confirmed on social media that she has stepped down from the series of her own accord.
In an Instagram story shared on Thursday (July 30), the 25-year-old powerlifting champion said she was not “axed,” but chose to leave after appearing in two seasons of the programme.
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Lystus said: “I have not been axed, I have left on my own accord.
“I am so sorry to all the families that have come to filming expecting me to be there, and have found out about my absence on arrival to the arena with no explanation, I truly am, but it’s not fair to fans of the show how things have transpired.
“I have made the decision to step away from the show for a few reasons, of which I don’t know if or when I’ll discuss tbh.
“Ultimately it was the correct decision and one I don’t regret at all.”
She confirmed she will still take part in the 2026 Live Tour but will not return for future series.
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Lystus has unfollowed the show’s official Instagram account and deleted all pictures of herself on the show.
When contacted by Newsquest, the BBC did not offer any comment on the matter.
What other Gladiators stars have left this year?
Lystus’ exit follows the recent departures of Matty Campbell, known as Bionic, and Karenjeet Kaur Bains, known as Athena, both of whom missed much of the last series due to injury.
A source told The Sun: “They won’t film this year for the show but could be back for the tour, depending on how they recover from their injuries.”
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Earlier this year, 40-year-old Jamie Bigg, known as Giant, also left the programme under controversial circumstances.
Bigg said he was let go after telling producers he intended to go public with his relationship, including the fact that his partner is an OnlyFans creator.
He said in a statement to the Press Association: “I made it clear that I was planning to go public with my relationship, including the fact my partner works as an OnlyFans creator, and shortly after that I was told I wouldn’t be continuing on Gladiators.
“It wasn’t something I expected, especially given the commitment I’ve shown to the role.
“I’ve always taken being in the public eye seriously, and I believe being a role model is about honesty as well as professionalism.
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“For me, that means not hiding parts of who I am or the people I care about.”
Bigg also said he is “grateful to the BBC and everyone involved in the show for the opportunity and the experiences I’ve had.”
Are you said to see Cyclone leave Gladiators? Let us know in the comments.
Alexandra Walker had woken up following a heavy night on the booze to find her daughter seriously ill after she had been sexually and violently assaulted by her boyfriend, Harrison Simpson.
The 26-year-old picked up Isabelle Welsh’s floppy body but instead of immediately calling for emergency help she took the opportunity to have a final cigarette and tidy away her boyfriend’s bong.
Her shocking actions were all caught on CCTV inside her own home.
Isabelle Welsh (left) and her murderers Alexandra Walker (top right) and Harrison Simpson (bottom right). (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)
During her trial for the murder of her two-year-old daughter, Walker was captured regularly getting drunk while her boyfriend smoked drugs into the early hours, including the night before her daughter was fatally injured.
When Walker eventually got out of bed, she found her daughter seriously ill and carried out an internet search asking why Isabelle could have blood in her nappy.
The heartless mum laid her daughter on the floor at the foot of the stairs before moving Simpson’s bong and having a smoke in the kitchen.
It took her almost an hour to call her stepfather for help, and when he arrived at her home on Hartington Close, Thornaby, he immediately demanded she call 999.
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Isabelle Rose Welsh (Image: Family handout)
Despite the best efforts of paramedics and specialist hospital staff Isabelle never regained consciousness after suffering a severe bleed on the brain after he head was smashed against a hard object.
Tributes on Hartington Close in Thornaby (Image: TERRY BLACKBURN)
“Instead, of calling the emergency services or doing anything whatsoever to help your dying child, you put her on the floor, cleared away evidence of Harrison Simpson’s cannabis use and went into the kitchen or garden to smoke two cigarettes.
“Rather than phoning the emergency services, you made repeated attempts to contact Harrison Simpson. Indeed, as you told the jury, the reason why you did eventually call for an ambulance was because you realised that it was a very bad situation that you (not Isabelle) were in.”
Walker was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years on Thursday, July 30, after she was convicted of murder and child cruelty.
Meanwhile, Simpson, 22, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years after he was convicted of the same charges as well sexually assaulting the toddler.
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been charged with multiple assaults on prison officers at HMP Belmarsh.
The 19-year-old was charged on Tuesday over the three separate alleged attacks in 2025, the Metropolitan Police said.
He was jailed for a minimum of 52 years for the murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, and the attempted murders of eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
In May last year, it was alleged he used a kettle in his cell to heat water up and then poured boiling water over a prison officer.
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Other guards heard their colleague’s screams and restrained Rudakubana following the attack, it is alleged.
The prison officer was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure and was discharged later that day before returning to work.
The Prison Service said at the time: ‘Police are investigating an attack on a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh.
‘Violence in prison will not be tolerated and we will always push for the strongest possible punishment for attacks on our hard-working staff.’
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Axel Rudakubana was charged on Tuesday over the three separate alleged attacks in 2025
In May last year, it was alleged he used a kettle in his cell to heat water up and then poured boiling water over a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh
The Metropolitan Police said Rudakubana has been charged with the following:
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Assault on an emergency worker on Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Attempted grievous bodily harm on Thursday, May 8, 2025
Unauthorised possession of an offensive weapon in prison on Thursday, June 26, 2025
Assault on an emergency worker on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.
He will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court via videolink on September 11.
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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana is charged with multiple assaults on prison staff at HMP Belmarsh
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