By MELISSA KOENIG, US REPORTER and SHAWN COHEN, US SENIOR REPORTER

Published: 02:53 BST, 3 July 2026 | Updated: 13:33 BST, 3 July 2026

A Tibetan protester filmed himself as he fatally set himself on fire outside the United Nations building in New York City on Thursday. 

Palden Lobsang, 52, shared the video, capturing him dressed in full monastic garb as he walked to the corner of 42nd Street and First Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, carrying a Tibetan flag and casually self-immolating, sources told the Daily Mail.

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He then stood in the middle of the intersection, throwing flyers that read ‘China out of Tibet’ and ‘Free Tibet’ before cars passed him by.

After about a minute, Lobsang could be seen collapsing to the ground still on fire, and soon two security officers could be seen rushing to the intersection to extinguish the fire.

Meanwhile, a woman who stumbled onto the scene appeared to have called 911.

Officers from the 17th Precinct arrived about five minutes after the video began, with a fire truck arriving roughly two minutes later.

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The first responders found Lobsang badly burned and attempted life saving measures before rushing him to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7.04pm, sources said.

The video ended with officers taking the device he was filming on into custody.

But the Tibetan flag he had planted into the ground remained there for about an hour as officers investigated the scene, the New York Post reports. 

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Palden Lobsang, 52, filmed himself as he set himself on fire outside the United Nations building in New York City on Thursday

Lobsang, who has lived in the United States for about 20 years, had earlier shared pictures of himself sitting outside the Cipriani event venue carrying New York City tourism bags

Lobsang, an Uber driver has lived in the United States for about 20 years, had earlier shared pictures of himself sitting outside the Cipriani event venue carrying New York City tourism bags. 

He also shared online the flyers he would later throw into the busy intersection.

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A fellow Uber driver said he knew Lobsang from gatherings in New York City’s Tibetan community, and noted that his friend was enraged by the restrictions the Chinese government placed on his people.

‘They have to speak the Mandarin language; they must learn Chinese. They must read that literature; they cannot learn anything else,’ the friend told AMNY. ‘That’s the main thing he was worried about.

‘I am emotionally so sad,’ he added. ‘He should not have done that.’ 

The ‘Free Tibet’ movement challenges China’s sovereignty over the region.

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Tibet had functioned with de facto autonomy and maintained its own distinct administration prior to the Chinese Community Party’s rise to power.

But when the People’s Liberation Army moved into the region, China took control of the region under the Seventeen Point Agreement in May 1951 – an accord that sought to establish a peaceful transition.

Lobsang threw flyers reading ‘Free Tibet’ while he was on fire

The ‘Free Tibet’ movement challenges China’s sovereignty over the region

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The ‘Free Tibet’ movement’s goal is now to recapture sovereignty for the Tibet Autonomous Region, marked by the restoration of power to the Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism. 

‘Many of the protesters have shouted slogans while on fire, including calling for the Dalai Lama’s long life and his return to Tibet, for the Panchen Lama to be freed and for human rights and freedom in Tibet,’ the movement’s official website notes.

‘Severe punishments are handed out to those accused of assisting or encouraging the protesters or sharing information abroad.’

Yet the movement gained international visibility in the 1990s through the Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the US, which featured prominent bands like U2, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine.

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The owners of the converted outbuilding near RAF Valley on Anglesey now face a planning dispute after being reported to the council

Holiday let proprietors near RAF Valley have become embroiled in a planning dispute concerning the volume of tourist accommodation on Anglesey. Richard and Gillian Jones have been renting out a converted outbuilding for 14 years, but encountered difficulties after being reported by a passer-by.

The outbuilding, located at Ty Llwyd, Llanfaelog, was initially constructed in 2012 as a studio for Mrs Jones, a professional photographer. They subsequently began letting the studio, first to family and friends, before operating on a more commercial footing.

In July 2023, they entrusted the operation to a professional holiday letting agency. Following the business being brought to the attention of Anglesey Council, the local authority launched an investigation and, in August 2025, it was ruled unlawful. Stay in the know by making sure you’re receiving our daily newsletter.

The couple are now applying for retrospective permission for their letting enterprise. Consultants representing them stated: “Had there not been a complaint from a passing individual then no doubt this harmless business would have carried on without concern.”

The one-bedroom property was refurbished in 2022. While Anglesey Council approves of its position and high-quality design, the local authority believes its continued operation as a holiday let “would lead to a significant over provision of holiday accommodation” in the locality, reports North Wales Live.

The application was recommended for rejection at yesterday’s Planning and Orders Committee (Wednesday, July 1). However, councillors requested to visit Ty Llwyd first to make a well-informed decision.

The council’s primary concern centres on the substantial proportion of second homes and holiday lets in the Llanfaelog area. As of January 2026, this figure stood at 37.49% – more than twice the 15% threshold recommended by the council’s Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG).

It was contended that high concentrations of second homes and holiday lets can undermine communities by inflating house prices and diminishing community facilities. Excessive holiday lets would also hamper the ability of businesses to thrive, the local authority stated.

Planning consultant Berwyn Owen of Berllan Properties said Ty Llwyd’s modest holiday let contributes £83,220 to the local economy annually. Situated a 15-minute walk from Rhosneigr, it supports local shops, restaurants and visitor attractions – and actually assists local people in remaining in their community, he maintained.

Mr Owen said that, as the business has been operating since 2012, it was evident the holiday let would not falter despite the number of comparable ventures in the area. Challenging the “arbitrary” 15% threshold, he asserted the council had failed to provide “robust evidence” demonstrating how the proposal would adversely affect the local community.

“Any perceived harm needs to be substantiated with data not merely anecdotal statements about number of empty properties,” he stated in a report.

“To date, there is not one scintilla of hard and fast evidence that this small scale proposal would harm the sociocultural impact in such a way as described in the SPG.

“This development will have no impact on local house prices, due to the very fact that this is a conversion as described. No existing housing stock will be taken from market and it will not be the use of housing, for example by Airbnb.”

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Bridgerton star Genevieve Chenneour has opened up about a recent sizzling holiday romance with a woman during a work trip to Mykonos.

The actress, 28, who played Clara Livingston in the hit Netflix drama, said the experience has ‘changed my understanding of sex’. 

Genevieve admitted: ‘It wasn’t planned, but it was something I’d thought about for most of my life. I’d kissed girls before. This time was different.’

Describing her experience in a post online, the former Team GB artistic swimmer added: ‘What happened changed my understanding of sex. It was sex with kindness.

‘For the first time, I understood why there can be such joy in bringing another person pleasure. To make a woman feel that way made me feel unexpectedly powerful.’

Despite her experience on the Greek island, Genevieve added that she feels ‘no need to define my sexuality’. 

It comes a year after Genevieve tussled with a mobile phone thief at a west London cafe.

She bravely fought off prolific Algerian thief Zacariah Boulares, 18, at a Joe & The Juice sandwich bar on Kensington High Street, during which a second man threatened to stab her.

Zacariah was locked up for 22 months in July for three counts of theft and common assault in a daylight attack on February 8 that left the actress concussed.

Scotland Yard officers also investigated a 19-year-old man but took no further action against him, the BBC reported.

Genevieve, an Olympic swimmer before embarking on an acting career, has since left London and moved back in with her mother as she no longer feels safe in the capital.

The actress said at the time that not knowing the identity of the second man involved continued to frighten her, adding: ‘I can’t understand why someone’s walking around who has threatened to stab me.’

She said the psychological aftermath had been profound, leaving her ‘severely agoraphobic’ and unable to rely on public transport.

She has moved out of London to live with her mother and often stays in hotels when she needs to return to the capital for work and events.

Last August, she revealed that the psychological trauma had been long-lasting, with her unable to leave the house.

‘And then if I did leave the house, I wanted to be with someone. But I felt like a burden. That’s a really dark downward spiral that you can find yourself in,’ she told the BBC.

In November, the actress took to Instagram to reveal she had been assaulted in the capital, where overall crime has soared by nearly a third over the past decade.

Genevieve said she was left ‘shaken’ after a man targeted her and hit her without warning near Oxford Circus – just minutes before she was due to walk into an audition.

The actress, 28, said: ‘It wasn’t planned. I’d kissed girls before. This time was different. What happened changed my understanding of sex. It was sex with kindness’

It was the second time in a year that she had been the victim of violence in London – and the latest story of celebrities being targeted on its streets.

Speaking through tears in the video filmed in a quiet room above the audition space, Genevieve said it had triggered fresh panic attacks and left her struggling to compose herself ahead of the casting.

She said: ‘Guys, literally five minutes before my audition, I was walking around the corner at Oxford Circus and this guy just looks at me, and targets me, and f***ing hits me.

‘I’m like, against the wall, and I was right about to arrive for my audition. So I had to come in, and I’m trying to gather myself, but I’m so shaken.’

She continued: ‘Obviously, I had that phone attack happen to me, and it’s so nerve-racking for me being out in central London now.

‘I’d just got my confidence up and was looking at moving back.’

The actress described her assailant as ‘about 50 years old, 6ft 3in, Black, wearing a dark-coloured hat and black clothes’.

She added: ‘I couldn’t walk anywhere – he was just looking at me, and he just f***ing hit me. It was a full-grown man. I’m so shaken. I’ve got to try and prepare for this audition.

‘They’ve really kindly given me this room above the audition room and said I can just take my time and gather myself.

‘So I’m just going to take, like, half an hour, I think. I keep on having panic attacks.’

Genevieve is a qualified Amateur Boxing Association (ABA) boxer and has an extensive sporting background.

She fought off the thief because of her boxing experience, but she advised the public not to do the same.

She told Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on This Morning at the time: ‘I don’t know if I would advise anybody else to do it.

‘I think I have very quick reactions, thanks to having three brothers growing up and I’m an aviated carded boxer. I think it just was an instinct, I also do a lot of fight training for work and acting…

‘I thought that was a normal reaction and I read all the comments [online] and realised, actually, a lot of people would just let them take the phone.’

Donald Trump has said it would be ‘ridiculous’ for the United States to continue its current level of support for NATO.

In a post on Truth Social, the US president said his country’s place in the Western alliance was ‘one sided’ and ‘not reciprocal’.

He shared a graph of NATO defence spending alongside the caption: ‘Ridiculous for the U.S.A. to continue along this one sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal. They were not there for us!!! President DJT.’

It comes as NATO leaders prepare to gather next week in Ankara, where Europeans aim to set aside strife with Trump over Iran and Greenland and show they are stepping up to defend the continent.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says the gathering next Tuesday and Wednesday will show Europeans are honouring pledges to hike defence spending to deter Russia from any attack, with arms deals worth tens of billions of dollars to be signed.

Leaders are also expected to vow to keep funding weapons for Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend a dinner hosted by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who will also hold bilateral talks with Trump.

European officials say they hope Trump’s strong relationships with Erdogan and Rutte will ensure a smooth summit but cannot be sure, given lingering transatlantic bitterness over the Iran war and the US president’s frequent criticism of NATO.

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump complained the United States was spending money to protect NATO members ‘without getting any benefit from so doing’.

Smoke rises over the city center after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2

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Rutte and other NATO leaders have insisted the alliance contributes to the United States’ own security and that Europeans are heeding Trump’s longstanding calls to spend more on their own defence.

‘The summit next week will focus on turning extra spending into combat-ready capabilities, and significantly scaling up our defence industries,’ Rutte said in Berlin on Wednesday.

‘NATO is, and will always be, a transatlantic alliance but we need to rebalance it for the better,’ he added. 

‘Working closely with the United States, European allies and Canada are taking greater responsibility for conventional defence in Europe.’

Rutte said last month that NATO’s European members and Canada spent $90 billion more on defence in 2025 than in the previous year, to reach a total of more than $570 billion.

In The Hague last year, NATO leaders agreed to spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on core defence items such as weapons and troops by 2035 – up from a previous goal of 2 per cent.

They also agreed to invest a further 1.5 per cent of GDP on broader defence-related investments such as boosting cybersecurity.

European officials are hoping for a repeat of that summit, where Trump reaffirmed the US commitment to the 32-member alliance and its Article 5 mutual defence pact, as well as praising his fellow leaders.

But the past 12 months have severely strained the alliance, with Trump threatening to take Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark and then waging a war against Iran that roiled the global economy without consulting European allies.

The US has also announced troop withdrawals from Europe, cut the forces it assigns to NATO’s defence plans – including an aircraft carrier, refueling aircraft, fighter jets and drones – and launched a six-month review of its military presence on the continent.

‘The alliance is alive and kicking but a bit bruised,’ said a European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.

European officials worry that the Iran war could overshadow the summit – if there is a flare-up in the conflict, currently the subject of a fragile ceasefire, or if Trump vents his anger at Europeans for not doing more to assist US military operations.

Trump suggested this meant the US did not need to honour its commitment to aid a fellow NATO member under attack.

NATO officials also say the vast majority of allies honoured commitments to allow the US to use their airspace and bases on their territory, even though the war was deeply unpopular in Europe and many European leaders did not support it.

The war also ruptured personal ties between Trump and European leaders such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, raising the possibility that those strains could resurface at the summit.

‘I’m optimistic (that won’t happen) because I think the leaders know what is at stake,’ a senior NATO diplomat said. 

‘And if something like that does occur, then we always have the ultimate marriage counsellor, Mark Rutte, to smooth things over.’

‘These new patient standards are the bare minimum’

The NHS is set to undergo a major communication overhaul designed to treat patients with “five-star customer service”, introducing Amazon-style tracking for hospital referrals and a mandatory three-week notice period for appointments.

The sweeping reforms, announced by NHS England on Friday, 3 July, aim to eliminate the administrative confusion that has long plagued the health service.

Under the new guidelines, patients must receive at least three weeks’ notice for scheduled medical appointments. Patients will also be able track their GP-to-hospital referral via the NHS App, receiving confirmation the moment they are added to a waiting list.

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The NHS will also provide status updates at least every 12 weeks, allowing patients to update doctors on their condition. If a last-minute cancellation occurs, hospitals must issue a new appointment within 28 days.

NHS England Chief Executive Sir Jim Mackey criticised the current state of patient communication, admitting that navigating the system often feels “like walking through treacle”.

“Almost everyone has a story in their family about how navigating the NHS has been like walking through treacle, including cases where patients aren’t even sure if they’ve been referred, which is clearly unacceptable,” Mackey said. “If we want to keep improving patients’ experiences and satisfaction with the NHS, we have to fix the basics – and that starts with how we treat people even before they arrive for their treatment.

“Our communication with patients needs to be clear and easy to understand. We have to get away from making patients ask us multiple times to get the information they need, and start delivering five-star customer service.”

He added: “These standards are by no means revolutionary – they are simple and clear standards that should be the bare minimum the public can expect from our services, and together we have to make sure that patient experience is always at the very centre of our decision-making and service planning.”

Health Secretary James Murray backed the measures, calling them the “floor, not the ceiling” of a broader government effort to modernise patient care. Plans are also underway to introduce a Single Patient Record to prevent patients from having to repeatedly explain their medical histories to different departments.

“For too long, patients have been left chasing the NHS for basic information on their treatment,” Murray said. “That’s not good enough.”

Patient advocacy groups have cautiously welcomed the news.

William Pett, interim director of policy at Healthwatch England, noted that patients have long complained about missing letters and feeling “forgotten about altogether”. However, Pett warned that implementation remains the critical hurdle.

“The real challenge will be to ensure these standards are delivered,” Pett said, urging trusts to properly upskill administrative teams to reduce the burden on patients.

The restaurant shared that is has a ‘soft spot for rock legends’.

The godmother of punk rock was seen to make a surprise appearance at a Glasgow restaurant this week, much to the amazement of customers and the owners. Rock legend Joan Jett has been described as a “true icon” by Italian restaurant La Lanterna as she sat down for a meal on Thursday (July 2).

The 67-year-old appeared at the restaurant ahead of her Joan Jett & The Blackhearts gig at the O2 Academy Glasgow last night. Many fans have since praised her performance, with some rock fans calling it “amazing”.

Ahead of the show, the rockstar took the time to take a picture with the staff at La Lanterna, located on Hope Street, which has since been uploaded onto social media. Thanking the stars for choosing their restaurant, the staff shared that they will “always have a soft spot for rock legends”.

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Sharing the snap on Facebook, they wrote: “Rock royalty at La Lanterna. The Godmother of Punk Rock herself, Joan Jett, graced us with her presence at La Lanterna Hope Street!

“From “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” to a love of great Italian food – we were beyond honoured to welcome a true icon through our doors.”

They went on to add: “Thank you for choosing us, Joan – Glasgow (and La Lanterna) will always have a soft spot for rock legends!”

Fans have since flooded the comments section, with one person writing: “She was amazing last night.” Another fan also added: “Amazing wish I was in the night before.”

Meanwhile, a third person mentioned: “My daughter Steff met her tonight after seeing her live at the O2.” This was followed by someone else writing: “Crikey is she still going strong? Good on her.”

Joan first burst on to the music scene when she formed the rock band The Runaways in Los Angeles in 1975. While the group officially disbanded four years later in 1979, they released four studio albums despite struggling to be taken seriously.

However, her time in the group and further career in the music industry allowed Joan to inspire a generation of girls to start writing and playing their own music.

The rock legend is most well known for her cover of I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll. Originally a B-side track for Joan Jett & the Blackhearts album, it was released as a single in 1982 and spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100.

Along with being a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Joan is a businesswoman, becoming one of the first female artists to set up her own recording label, Blackheart Records.

She has also had a career in acting as she starred alongside Michael J. Fox in the 1987 film Light of Day and appeared in Stephen King’s crime-thriller Big Driver in 2014.

In 2003, Joan was ranked number 87 in the Rolling Stone’s countdown of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, and she was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016 for the Blackhearts hit.

When David Taylor first appeared before the British judicial system in the late 1970s, the faded glamour of the Swinging Sixties underworld was still a recent memory.

The likes of the Kray Twins, Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs and even gangster ‘Mad’ Frankie Fraser evoked images of crooks in collar and tie who saw crime as a lifestyle choice which was to be envied, not disparaged.

Indeed, Taylor seemed to live by the same criminal code, once describing himself in court as an ‘old-fashioned villain’, a ‘bit of a scrapper’, who as a young man chose armed robbery with a sawn-off shotgun as a warped ‘vocation’, rather than staying on the right side of the law.

‘Bit of a scrapper,’ was an understatement, to say the least.

No matter how Taylor, now 64, glossed over his criminality – attacking other thugs he deemed to be below him, such as paedophiles, was a lifelong speciality – the truth was much darker.

Just how evil this hulking 6ft 2in ‘psycho’ really is finally emerged earlier this month when he was handed a whole life term for the callous murder of a vulnerable young woman whose family are pleading for Taylor to reveal what he did with her body.

His role in the crime could only be disclosed after he was convicted of murdering child killer Kyle Bevan in his prison cell in November last year, while being held on remand at HMP Wakefield for the young woman’s murder.

Taylor and two other convicts already serving whole-life sentences – double killer Lee Newell and gangland assassin Mark Fellows – stabbed Bevan 25 times and left him to bleed out in his cell.

Today, for the first time, we can paint a full picture of David Alec Taylor, who has led a life of crime for almost half-a-century but had previously managed to stay under the radar. 

By analysing contemporaneous newspaper reports and speaking to an associate who knew him well, we have pieced together the story of a man deemed so dangerous that, as far back as the 1980s, he was segregated in a pioneering prison unit created to deal with the country’s most volatile offenders.

Indeed, such was the fear that Taylor might turn violent – despite being well into his seventh decade – that even when he appeared in court from prison via video-link last year, he was double-handcuffed and a team of officers in full riot gear stood outside the interview room.

Taylor was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, in 1962 and grew up in Ashton-under-Lyne in the Tameside suburb of Greater Manchester.

He was the eldest of four children – two boys and two girls – but, according to one former friend from his childhood years, ‘didn’t have the best start in life’.

‘He didn’t have much direction from his parents [Brian and June],’ he said. ‘He didn’t have a role model to look up to.’

It is said that when he was 13, Taylor was turfed out of the family home and for a period was homeless.

It was around this time that he first dabbled in criminality, initially petty thefts, before developing a ‘speciality’ in armed robbery.

Just how evil this hulking 6ft 2in ‘psycho’ really is finally emerged last week when Taylor was handed a whole life term for the callous murder of a vulnerable young woman

Kyle Bevan, 33, was stabbed 25 times by David Taylor alongside fellow inmates Lee Newell and Mark Fellows and David Taylor, who then left the paedophile’s body ‘tidily tucked up in bed’ at HMP Wakefield

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By 1977 – when Taylor was aged 15 – he had received his first criminal conviction and it wasn’t long before he moved to London ‘because he thought he could earn more money there and that’s where he got involved with some really serious criminals,’ according to his former friend.

He added: ‘He always used to boast that the first thing he would do on entering a shop or Post Office was to fire his sawn-off [shotgun] into the ceiling because he reckoned that ‘after that you had their attention’.

‘He became scary and was an absolute psycho. When he started attacking someone, he didn’t know when to stop. It’s as though he was always out to kill.’

Around this time, Taylor appears to have committed his first murder, bragging about killing a Leeds drug dealer, according to the former associate.

‘He said the guy was aggressive and dangerous and out to get him but that he’d got in first and killed him,’ his former friend said.

In 1986, Taylor received his first lengthy prison sentence: a 12-year term for a string of armed robberies stretching back three years.

During an armed raid on a Post Office in his hometown of Ashton-under-Lyne, Taylor, then 24, fired five rounds from his sawn-off shotgun when the postmaster began grappling with one of his accomplices, which included his younger brother Brian, then 19.

One hit the 62-year-old postmaster in the arm but he miraculously escaped serious injury.

The court heard the younger Taylor had hidden two guns behind the fireplace of his home and also stole a car for his older brother to use in a robbery.

It was during this prison term that Taylor began to cultivate a fearsome reputation. ‘He was a tall gangly kid but not much of a threat to anyone until he got into prison and after his first lengthy stretch he came out an absolute monster,’ his former friend said.

Taylor was housed in a controversial unit at HMP Hull which dealt with some of Britain’s most dangerous prisoners, including Charles Bronson

He is said to have fought former heavyweight boxer Paul Sykes, who spent much of his adult life incarcerated and was known for his temper 

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‘He’d spent his time during his first long stretch in the prison gym and he bulked up until he was massive and very intimidating and he used that to stake a reputation in prison.’

He added: ‘He wanted to be the top dog and he was happy to take on anyone, whether that was other prisoners or guards.’

Taylor caused so much trouble that he was chosen as one of only a few dozen inmates to be sent to the Special Unit in HMP Hull, a pioneering segregation wing opened in 1988 to deal with prisoners with a history of disruptive and aggressive behaviour.

The unit adopted a controversial approach to the rehabilitation of dangerous offenders, with prisoners and guards on first-name terms and no one required to wear a uniform.

It would only hold around 10 prisoners at any one time, and one of its former inmates was Charles Bronson, often dubbed ‘Britain’s most violent prisoner’, who has been locked up for much of the last 50 years after making frequent attacks on guards and other inmates.

It was also at HMP Hull that Taylor is said to have encountered notorious Yorkshire prisoner Paul Sykes, once a contender for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight boxing title.

Sykes spent much of his adult life in jail and became known as one of the most troublesome inmates in the country. He died in 2007.

A source said: ‘Sykes sought out David Taylor because he had heard of his reputation and he challenged him to a fight.

‘Taylor has always told how he got the better of Sykes, putting him in the prison hospital after telling him: ‘There are no Queensberry rules in here.’

He added: ‘He’s been the victim of a prison attack as well as handing them out. He was in Full Sutton prison near York when he got into an argument with another prisoner over something trivial.

‘The guy stabbed him with a sharpened toilet brush and nearly killed him. David spent several days on the ITU [Intensive Therapy Unit, similar to an Intensive Care Unit] in hospital and would have died if he hadn’t been as fit and strong as he’d become.’

Despite being sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in 1986, by 1996 Taylor was back on the streets – and intent on returning to his old ways.

That year – now aged 34 – he was the focus of an armed police manhunt after he threatened a van driver with a double-barrelled shotgun before leaving him bound and gagged in a house in Ashton-under-Lyne. The man managed to free himself and escaped by jumping out of a bedroom window.

Taylor – only recently released from his robbery sentence – was also the subject of a West Yorkshire Police manhunt in connection with a shooting.

Greater Manchester Police warned the public not to approach him.

In 2007, Taylor was given a controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection [IPP] indeterminate sentence for aggravated burglary and possession of an offensive weapon.

He had accused a man in his 30s of being a paedophile and behaving inappropriately with his teenage daughter and forced his way into his property armed with a baton to attack him.

It was during this period behind bars that Taylor finally appeared intent on doing something productive with his life.

He is said to have studied humanist psychology and counselling, gaining a foundation degree from the Open University.

He was released on licence in 2013 and appears to have settled down to some degree. After leaving Greater Manchester for Lincolnshire, he moved to Willington, a small town in County Durham, to be closer to his younger sister Pauline. She died in 2019.

At one point, according to an associate, he even held down work with Samaritans, assisting people who were feeling suicidal.

But by 2022, the demons that had driven Taylor from a young age resurfaced as he entered his seventh decade.

The previous year, he had formed a relationship of sorts with 24-year-old Alisha Alpostoff-Boyarin, said to be a former girlfriend of the son of a friend of his from Greater Manchester.

He claimed the couple had stayed with him in County Durham but she was last seen on CCTV walking through an Asda supermarket near her home in Ashton-under-Lyne in January 2022.

Police established that Miss Alpostoff-Boyarin – who lived with her grandfather, looked ‘like a teenager’ and was described by detectives as ‘vulnerable’ due to being alcohol-dependent – was then driven to Durham in a distinctive gold-coloured VW Passat.

Alisha Alpostoff-Boyarin went missing in February 2022 – two years later Taylor was arrested at his home in Willington and charged with murdering the 24-year-old

She was last seen on CCTV walking through an Asda supermarket near her home in Ashton-under-Lyne in January 2022 

She was never seen alive again and her body has still not been found.

Taylor was arrested at his home in Willington in March 2024 and charged with murdering Miss Alpostoff-Boyarin. Officers also found rifle ammunition when they searched the property.

While awaiting trial, he was recalled to prison under the terms of his licence and this seemed to spark a fresh wave of violence in Taylor after almost a decade of freedom.

He became ‘angry… enraged with what is going on with my life,’ he would later tell a court.

In July 2024, while being held at HMP Frankland, Co Durham, Taylor requested a meeting with officers from Greater Manchester Police who were investigating Miss Alpostoff-Boyarin’s disappearance and suspected murder.

He told them that he had information which could help locate her but, seconds after the two officers came back from a break in the interview, Taylor lunged at them with a ‘shank’ – prison terminology for a makeshift stabbing device – he had concealed in the side of the chair.

He succeeded in stabbing one of them, DC Darren Bratby, in the chest, narrowly missing his heart. The officer spent four days in hospital but made a full recovery.

When he was asked what had been going through his head at the time, Taylor responded: ‘I just don’t know. I just snapped. I lost it, I lost my mind, I lost my nerve. I completely lost it.

CCTV showed Alisha Apostoloff-Boyarinhad been a passenger in a gold-coloured VW Passat saloon car that went to the Bishop Auckland area, in County Durham

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‘All I think is I’m being accused of something I haven’t done. It all came pouring out on that particular visit.’

In an exchange with the prison governor a few days later, Taylor added: ‘It was a planned attack and I went to f***ing kill him. There’s no two ways about it.’

He also admitted wanting to attack a more senior officer. ‘Even though they were still major crime team, the one I wanted was a sergeant, their sergeant, and obviously he’s f***ing not come up so I were kind of, I was kind of disheartened by that he wasn’t there. I just f***ing, I thought f*** it.’

Taylor’s wrath was clearly not satisfied by the attempted murder of the prison officer. He finally achieved a degree of notoriety this month after he was convicted for the fatal attack on child killer Bevan in his cell at HMP Wakefield in November last year.

Alongside the gangster Mark Fellows, known as ‘The Iceman’ for his ruthless demeanour while dispatching his victims, and Newell, who had previously killed another child killer in custody, the men were seen laughing on CCTV shortly before the frenetic five-minute attack on Bevan.

As Taylor was transferred from Wakefield, one nurse heard him shout at Newell: ‘Nice working with you and the Iceman.’

But make no mistake, Taylor is not the renegade hero or ‘old-school villain’ he may believe himself to be.

In February, he finally admitted murdering Miss Alpostoff-Boyarin, who was almost 40 years his junior.

Leeds Crown Court heard he had simply ‘tired of her’ and was trying to ‘end the relationship.’

Now that he knows he will never again be released from prison, her family are begging him to do the right thing. ‘David Taylor took advantage – preying on her, befriending her and leading her to her death,’ her great-aunt Theresa Robinson told the court.

‘I beg that he finds it in his heart to do the decent thing and tell us where her body is.’

But those who do know him doubt whether he will ever cooperate over the recovery of the body or express any remorse for his life of criminality.

As his former associate puts it: ‘He’s one of the most dangerous men in the entire prison system and he’ll stay that way until he dies in jail.’

Plans have officially been approved to redevelop a Cambridgeshire leisure centre

Proposals to redevelop a leisure centre in a Cambridgeshire town have been given the go-ahead. Part of Manor Leisure Centre in Whittlesey is set to be demolished as part of a multi-million pound redevelopment.

The Fenland District Council and Alliance Leisure project will redevelop and expand the pool building and demolish the sports hall building. Currently, the pool and sports facilities are within separate buildings either side of the main car park.

The upgraded centre will become a “modern, multifunctional combined facility building where all health and fitness activities could be located side by side”. It will provide accessible spaces for exercise, including fitness studios, swimming pools, sports courts, adventure play, community café, new skatepark and padel courts and exercise programmes.

The existing 25 metre swimming pool will be refurbished but with a retained pool tank structure. The ‘village change’ will provide 38 changing cubicles, showers, including seven pre-swim and six for post swim, approximately 150 individual lockers, grooming areas and a baby change facility.

A progress update report published in February said a leisure centre just for sport is no longer a “financially viable proposal” and must attract users for other activities.

A planning statement explains: “For the facilities to be successful, they need to create a community around them. The café area provides community refreshment space within the new building, leading to the viewing area which provides for a space where parents can engage in watching their children using the soft play area but as well spills into the viewing of the pool area.”

According to the now approved plans, the scheme is designed to “promote health and wellbeing for all users irrespective of their age, ability or background”.

It is proposed that the centre’s car park will undergo future expansion following demolition works. The Manor Leisure centre was built in 1974 beginning as an outdoor lido and covered during the mid 1980s. The sports hall building contained a hall, spin rooms and changing rooms for football which is no longer in use.

Major works are due to take place on the M60 motorway

Part of the M60 will shut in Tameside on two consecutive weekends as ‘essential improvements’ are made to the road. National Highways is partway through a series of drainage and carriageway repairs between junctions 23 at Ashton-under-Lyne and 24 at Denton, which began in January.

As the works continue, National Highways says the anticlockwise carriageway will fully close from 9pm on Friday, July 10, until 6am on Saturday, July 11. The motorway will then reopen, but with one lane closed throughout Saturday until 9pm.

The M60 will then fully close again anticlockwise between junctions 23 and 24 from 9pm on Saturday, July 11, until 6am on Monday, July 13. On the following weekend, works will focus on the clockwise carriageway, with further closures in place.

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The clockwise side will be fully closed between junctions 23 and 24 from 9am on Friday, July 17, until 6am on Saturday, July 18. As in the previous weekend, the motorway will reopen on the Saturday morning, with one lane remaining shut until 9pm.

From 9pm, the clockwise side will close fully again until 6am on Monday, July 20. Additionally, the anticlockwise carriageway will also be closed from midnight until 6am on Monday morning, July 6.

In a post on its website, a National Highways spokesperson said: “We’ll work on the M60 in both directions between junctions 23 and 24 near Audenshaw, Manchester. Drainage works finished in May 2026 and we’re now starting the next stage.

“This includes resurfacing both carriageways and replacing traffic sensors, bridge joints and road markings. Most of this work will take place overnight, as lane closures or full carriageway closures are required to complete the work.”

It added: “Please follow signed diversion routes. These works will create more noise than usual, especially if we need to dry the road surface prior to moving the road markings.

“We’d like to apologise in advance for any disturbance this may cause you. Please plan ahead and allow extra time for your journeys.”