A wide range of bluebells bloom between mid-April and May
Spring is the time of year when everything blooms, and everything becomes prettier. Situated near Sawtry is Monk Woods, a national nature reserve which is bursting with colour during spring. It’s considered one of the most famous and oldest nature reserves in the area.
Advertisement
Natural England describes it as “one of Britain’s most essential lowland woods” and “pretty ancient”, as it’s over 900 years old. The woodland is home to lots of different wildlife and over 400 species of plants, including the greater butterfly orchid, violet helleborine, crested cow-wheat, small teasel and water purslane.
But the one thing that makes this nature reserve stand out is its beautiful bluebells. During the bluebell season which runs from mid-April to May, the floor of the woods is covered in a carpet of native bluebells. The age of the woodland means that its the ideal spot for several different types of bluebells to grow, including wood anemone and yellow archangel.
Once in bloom, the bluebells provide a picturesque place to walk, and also a place to take pretty pictures. Another thing the nature reserve is famous for is butterflies. In 1828, the first British record for a rare black hairsteak butterfly was recorded. This butterfly can still be found today.
During the spring and summer, the woods are the perfect place to have a picnic. The trees provide plenty of shade, making for the ideal spot to cool take a break from the sun on hot days.
Advertisement
There are around two miles of woodland to explore, with various paths to stroll down. If you are visiting, it is worth knowing that there is not a lot of parking. The entrance to the woods can be found at the junction of the B1090 and Bridge Street, on a road leading to Woodwalton. A few spaces are available here.
A fixture in the footballing and charitable calendars, Soccer Aid returns with another band of celebrities ready to take to the London Stadium in the name of raising money and not embarrasing themselves in a sporting sense. 20 years on from the first edition, England face a World XI (sort of) from 6.30pm BST.
Criminal Record has brought together a round-up of today’s biggest crime stories.
17:00, 31 May 2026
Advertisement
Every day on Criminal Record we will be bringing you a round-up of the biggest crime stories of the day.
If you love to read about crime in Scotland – this is the place to be every day.
Here’s what has been making the news across the country on Sunday.
NHS medic arrested for child abuse
An NHS medic was arrested while working at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after he was caught downloading a horror haul of child abuse images.
Gordon Truong, 40, was on duty as a radiographer at the capital hospital when Police Scotland detectives turned up interview him about accessing the shocking material.
Truong was taken into custody and later charged with possessing more than 7000 pictures and videos depicting the sexual abuse of female children aged between 10 and 15 years old.
The healthcare professional was found to have hundreds of images rated at Category A – the most depraved – showing young victims posing naked and being sexually abused by adults.
Advertisement
Truong admitted two charges of making or taking, and possessing indecent images of children over a near five year period when he appeared at the capital’s sheriff court on Thursday, May 28.
A mum whose daughter’s alleged sex attacker was allowed to escape prosecution because of his age has slammed a judge’s decision to free three teenage rapists.
The woman’s 17-year-old daughter was attacked by her boyfriend, also 17, who was given a “diversion from prosecution” that allowed him to avoid a trial and a possible criminal conviction.
Advertisement
Now the mum, of Ayrshire, has hit out after similar rules applied in a case in England saw three boys handed youth rehabilitation orders.
Sentencing them, Judge Nicholas Rowland had said he wanted to “avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.
The case, which has sparked national criticism, saw the teens walk out of Southampton Crown Court court with 10 rape convictions between them.
Police were called to ‘serious disorder’ at a car ‘meet up’ involving 700 vehicles in a Scots car park.
Two men, aged 25 and 28, were arrested in connection with a road traffic offence and drugs offences while 14 vehicles were banned from being driven and three seized at the event on Aberdeen’s Garthdee Road on Saturday.
A further eight vehicles were issued with defect notices while almost 60 drivers were slapped with Fixed Penalty Notices.
Advertisement
Police Scotland issued the update on Sunday after multiple calls were made by members of the public reporting incidents.
SNP donors are taking legal action against Nicola Sturgeon over stolen party funds after her estranged fraudster husband Peter Murrell was jailed.
Advertisement
Activists responsible for the initial police complaints that brought down the ex-CEO will demand an official Crown Office review of the decision not to charge the former First Minister and are considering a private prosecution as well as suing for damages.
They want to see Sturgeon face court over what they believe is clear evidence she repeatedly blocked scrutiny of SNP accounts while leader as her partner embezzled £400,000 of party cash.
David Henry, a former SNP candidate for National Secretary and a local branch secretary, complained to police about missing ring-fenced cash after donating hundreds of pounds.
He told the Sunday Mail: “I think this is Scotland’s Watergate. What started out as people outside questioning the missing ring-fenced funds morphed into a much wider scandal.
The Press went along to the inaugural Acomb Open Gardens today (Sunday, May 31) and spoke to participants who were taking a break from showing ticket holders around their green spaces, as well as swapping tips.
The four-hour event sold all of its tickets with the aim of encouraging locals to experiment with their own gardens and showcase a variety of “real gardens, weeds included.”
There was an abundance of wildlife in Katherine Blaker’s front garden (Image: Kevin Glenton)
There were seed swaps, plants sales and proceeds from ticket sales are to be donated to Greater Acomb Community Forum and Acomb Explore Library.
The Fourm said this would support its volunteers’ planting work on Front Street in Acomb.
Advertisement
Organiser Katie Scott said the gardeners are very generous, and they want to share stories, as well as plants (Image: Kevin Glenton)
Organiser and participant Katie Scott said: “This is a group of very plant-focussed obsessives.
“Gardeners are very generous and they want to share stories, as well as plants.
“It’s not about “perfect” gardens – I keep my dandelions for guinea pig food.
“It’s an ongoing journey with nature.”
Advertisement
“The thing that we all have in common is that we all love Acomb.”
Katie said her cottage garden places its emphasis on perennials and roses.
Katie Scott’s cottage garden emphasises perennials and roses (Image: Kevin Glenton)
Sam Taylor and Tanya Stewart-Taylor have been tending their garden for forty years and are in there “all the time, with Sam adding that it acts as an “escape from reality.”
The space is estimated at 25 feet wide by 50 feet long (excluding the roof garden) and has space for sculptures, a biodome, a lodge, a woodland area and a potting area which is home to five frogs – Tanya said a pot per year has been added and the couple always find an excuse to add to the collection.
Advertisement
Steps leading to the woodland area of a garden roughly 25 feet wide by 50 feet across (Image: Kevin Glenton)
Katherine Blaker was hosting her very own garden party along with showing off her front garden, offering refreshments and cake, with those specific proceeds going to support non-profit Grow to Know, a gardening and social enterprise set up by former professional footballer Taysham Hayden-Smith.
Katherine Blaker replaced her front lawn was replaced with her own design for a gravel garden and deep, drought-tolerant planting (Image: Kevin Glenton)
Katherine replaced her front lawn with her own design and based it on a winter structure – a gravel garden with deep, drought-tolerant planting.
13 participants made up the sold-out Acomb Gardens 2026 across the same number of streets across a wide area.
Katie said proceeds after the event will be donated to the Greater Acomb Community Forum, with a portion given to Acomb Explore Library.
People were spotted enjoying the last day of May at Tynemouth Longsands beach and Cullercoats beach, with temperatures hitting a high of 20C today.
Pictures show paddleboarders out on the water as other beachgoers look on.
Other people took the good weather to do a spot of sunbathing and top up their tans while they can.
Advertisement
And two-year-old Finnley Daniels enjoyed an ice cream on the beach, making use of the warm weather.
The UK has experienced record temperatures this month, with the highest recorded coming at Heathrow, where temperatures reached 35C.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) put a yellow weather warning in place for the North East over the Bank Holiday weekend.
However, the good weather looks to be coming to an end, as most regions across the North East will be hit by rain next week.
Advertisement
In Darlington, Monday will see a grey and wet start, with rain becoming widespread across the area with heavy outbreaks possible during the afternoon and evening over western hills.
The maximum temperature will be 19C.
The Met Office said the rest of the week will see unsettled with spells of wet and windy weather with bands of rain moving through followed by brighter but showery interludes.
Temperatures will drop down to normal for the time of year.
The graph showed put the Conservatives in last place on 2% in the constituency.
The Green Party were just in front on 3%, the Liberal Democrats on 4%, Restore Britain on 7%, Reform UK on 40% and Labour in the lead on 43%.
Advertisement
Phillips said: “Before 2024, you used to come second between 20 and 30% of the vote.
“Now there are three parties that could describe themselves as being of the right, or centre right, and you – you’re the official opposition – you’re the least popular of the three!
“Reform, Restore, Conservatives.”
Pointing to the graph, he said: “Look, there are the Tories, down there at the bottom. What the heck happened?”
Advertisement
Sky News’ graph of the Survation opinion poll
The Tory MP replied: “By-elections are very strange things. You’ve got this weird dynamic where Andy Burnham is running as a Labour candidate to basically kick out Keir Starmer.
“So this by-election is idiosyncratic, it’s incredibly unusual.”
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is hoping to win the Makerfield seat so he can challenge the prime minister’s leadership.
Phillips said: “But people of the right aren’t going to you. They’re going to Reform, they’re going to Restore, which is a party almost nobody has even heard of.
Advertisement
“They are polling better than you are! What has happened to the Tories?”
“Let’s just see what the actual result says,” Philp replied, claiming this was “just one little poll in one constituency in very unusual circumstances”.
He said: “If you take the [national] polls as a whole, we’re often in second place, Kemi is rated as the best leader and you can see that we’re the only party holding the failing Labour Party to account.”
Philp also noted that it takes time to “rebuild trust” with the public following their unpopular 14-year stint in government.
Advertisement
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
He has been charged with embezzling funds from the party between August 2010 and October 2022.
Arrested in 2023 and charged in 2024, Murrell has been remanded in custody and is set to be sentenced at the end of June.
Advertisement
He made a series of extravagant purchases while he was SNP chief, including a £124,550 campervan for his own personal use.
His then-wife Sturgeon was also arrested in 2024 and questioned by detectives, but was never charged with any offences.
The former first minister of Scotland and ex-SNP leader has faced a barrage of criticism after she claimed she was completely unaware of her then-spouse Peter Murrell’s crimes.
Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Sturgeon said: “A lot of women find themselves blamed for the men of the actions in their lives – I’m not going to contribute to that in a sense that I am responsible for somebody else’s crimes.”
Advertisement
She added: “I believe strongly in that accountability, but I am not responsible for the crimes my former husband committed and I’m not going to apologise for somebody else’s crimes.”
But BBC presenter Kuenssberg pointed out that Sturgeon was still leader of the party when Murrell was taking funds from the party, and asked if she therefore beared responsibility.
“He perpetrated a crime on the SNP,” the ex-first minister said. “By definition, that includes me as party leader.
“He misled, he deceived. He is serving and will be serving a sentence for a crime he committed.
Advertisement
“I’m out here, feeling as if I’m serving a sentence for a crime I did not commit.”
Asked why she only gave “no comment” responses to the police when she was arrested, Sturgeon said: “I was in a state of near collapse. I was terrified, I was bewildered, I was in a state of high stress and anxiety.”
She said her lawyer told her not to answer questions “in such a state of stress”, and that she prepared a detailed statement afterwards.
Sturgeon also insisted she was unaware that her husband had bought the campervan.
Advertisement
“My mother and father’s house has a driveway in front where we would park our car and then we would go into the house,” she said.
“Where the motorhome was was round the side of the house, which was not immediately visible in the way that we went into the house.”
She said: “I genuinely, genuinely, don’t have any conscious memory of seeing that motorhome.
“If I saw it I probably would have assumed it was a neighbour’s. My mother and father-in-law were in their mid-80s, it wouldn’t have crossed my mind that it was theirs and why would it have crossed my mind that it was the SNP’s, that Peter had bought it?”
Advertisement
She said it was “never” discussed, adding: “I genuinely do not recall seeing it in a way that I registered it and thought, ‘oh there’s a motorhome’.”
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical’ comes to Sunderland Empire for the best part of next month.
I loved the Baz Luhrman film but I’ve not seen the stage show. Maybe it’s time to Can Can my way to the West End of the North East and take in the wistful tail set in the sultry shadows of Montmartre and Le Sacré Coeur.
Advertisement
But what have the French ever done for ME? Well, I have always loved the sound of the rich, Gallic language, I’ve read EVERY Asterix adventure and j’adore la musique de Piaf et Charles Aznavour (my Dad used to call him Charles Az-No-Voice – sorry dad, you were wrong on this one; he was the French Sinatra).
I have also been learning Duolingo French since 2018 – unfortunately it doesn’t mean I can parlais French but my vocabulary is tres bonne!
So, in honour of a spectacular show coming to our region, if we may, we’ll go Francais in the column this week.
I give you the Magnifique Seven, North East, French Connections.
Advertisement
Un: Geordie campaigner Josephine Butler became famous all over Europe, especially in France, for making a stand against laws regulating prostitution. French feminists saw her as an icon after she visited in 1874. (Bonus connection as she was called ‘Josephine’, a name very much synonymous with French history. ‘Not tonight!’)
Deux: Crooner Sacha Distel played Newcastle Odeon in 1972. (Were you there?) Bizarre, bonus link – a Sacha Distel video played before Morrissey took to the stage at the Arena in Newcastle on the December 4, 2006.
Trois: The Tyne and Wear’s shipyards built vessels for clients all over the world, including France. There were long-standing industrial ties between North East yards and French ports like Saint-Nazaire.
Quatre: In a Christmas edition of the TV show Spender starring Jimmy Nail, the Geordie detective is sent to France to escort Tommy Thornton who has been extradited to the UK.
Advertisement
Cinq: Sunderland Football Club have a huge link with France through current owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, the Swiss-French businessman and manager Régis Le Bris. Newcastle of course will always remember, with affection, David Ginola, for his silky skills and his silkily shampooed hair in equal measure.
Six: Durham Cathedral is a masterpiece of Norman architecture – effectively an English evolution of French Romanesque styles brought over after the conquest of 1066.
Sept: Frenchman’s Bay in South Shields, is a small coastal viewpoint set into the cliffs between South Shields and Marsden. It might not be a beach you descend to for a day by the sea, but definitely a place to stop and look out over a rocky inlet to observe the pale cliffs and the North Sea beyond.
FACTS & FOOTNOTES
Advertisement
l Charles Aznavour played Newcastle City Hall in April 1978. Born in Paris to Armenian immigrants, Aznavour was a master song writer and a phenomenal story teller through his music.
l Alnwick in Northumberland is twinned with Lagny-sur-Marne, a commune in the eastern outer suburbs of Paris, while Stockton on Tees is twinned with Asnières-sur-Seine, a commune in Île-de-France, northern France.
l Moulin Rouge is at the Sunderland Empire from June 5 to 27. Best of luck to Marie Nixon and the tremendous team who run this magnificent theatre, a jewel in the crown of North East entertainment. Merci mes amis!
You can email Alfie via www.AlfieJoey.com and find some of his previous Echo articles there
May was another busy month for the Cambridgeshire courts
It’s almost half way through the year and it continues to be a busy time for Cambridgeshire courts. In May, there were more criminals put behind bars in Cambridgeshire for some sickening and heinous crimes.
Advertisement
Amongst those who were sent to jail include a man who stabbed another man over a car park dispute and another man who lured a 14-year-old boy to his home and sexually assaulted him. Here is a look at five criminals put behind bars in May.
Jameel Ali
A man approached Jameel Ali, 24, on New Year’s Eve in 2023 at a car park in Windmill Street, Peterborough. The man asked Ali to move his car forward so another vehicle could park on the street, but the two started to argue.
Ali headbutted the man and then stabbed him in the neck. The 24-year-old ran off and police were called.
Advertisement
The victim was found with a wound to his neck and later taken to hospital for treatment. Ali was arrested two days after the attack. Appearing at Cambridge Crown Court on May 15, he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Ben Sharpe
Ben Sharpe, 31, was visited by police at his home in Cambridge on January 31. He had previously been convicted of having indecent images of children in 2021.
Sharpe had to hand his phone over to police for officers to examine. The 31-year-old admitted to deleting some apps from the phone before he let officers into his home.
When officers examined the phone, they found 2,188 indecent images of children were stored on the device, as well as a cloud storage app.
Advertisement
At Peterborough Crown Court on May 21, he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison having pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching a SHPO, three counts of making indecent photographs of children and one count each of possessing a prohibited image of a child and possessing an extreme pornographic image.
He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Liam Ellis
Liam Ellis, 25, was spotted on CCTV acting aggressively in Cambridge city centre on February 20. At around 10.24pm, he was seen riding a electric bike in Sidney Street, when he blocked a van in the road and punched the wing mirror.
A minute later, he started to scream in the faces of people. At 10.27pm, he rode into King Street and fell of his bike, and was approached by a group of people outside a pub. He grabbed one of the men and held a knife to his neck, before pointing it at others in the group.
He was later arrested. On May 19 at Huntingdon Crown Court, he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Darren Moore
Darren Moore, 57, started to talk to a 14-year-old boy online in early 2024 and turned the conversation sexual. Moore sent explicit photos of himself, and also described sexual acts that he wanted to perform on the victim in person.
The 57-year-old convinced the victim to travel to his flat in Ely after school. The victim agreed and spent the evening at Moore’s flat, where he was sexually abused.
The teenager’s mum got worried when he didn’t return home. When he did return home, he told his parents what happened and the police were called.
Moore appeared at Peterborough Crown Court on May 21 and was jailed for 10 years after admitting to one count of inciting a boy aged 13-15 to engage in sexual activity, two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a boy aged 13-15, one count of grooming, and one count of engaging in sexual communication with a child.
Robert Clark
Robert Clark, 47, sexually assaulted a girl under 13 over a 12-month period between 2020 and 2021. The abuse came to light when the victim told her mum and it was reported to police.
Following a trial, Clark was found guilty of two counts of sexual activity with a child under 13 years old. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after appearing at Cambridge Crown Court on May 8.
After Laura’s exclusive interview, she’s joined by Henry and Joe to discuss what Nicola Sturgeon had to say about her estranged husband Peter Murrell’s guilty plea to embezzling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the SNP – as well as the political and public reaction to her words.
Hear the full length interview on the previous episode of Newscast.
You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say “Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers.
Advertisement
You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord
Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.
New episodes are released every day. If you’re in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd
Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC.
Advertisement
The presenter was Laura Kuenssberg and Joe Pike. It was made by Jon Bithrey with Chloe Scannapieco. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Jonathan Greer. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
It has been claimed that the 65-year-old head judge was paid over £10,000 to host the seven-day voyage from Southampton to Norway.
During the Virtuosa trip, which is run by MSC Cruises, elements of the Strictly live shows are said to have been so faithfully recreated that passengers felt they could have been watching an instalment of the BBC show.
The cruise, which priced packages from £599 per person, reportedly advertised that Ballas would be ‘bringing Strictly glamour’ to the luxury liner, which set off on the high seas earlier this month.
Advertisement
During the voyage, Ballas was introduced while the Strictly theme tune played, which the Daily Mail has claimed was not approved or licensed by the BBC.
Get personalised updates on Strictly
Wake up to find news on your TV shows in your inbox every morning with Metro’s TV Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your show in the link we’ll send you so we can get TV news tailored to you.
Advertisement
Ballas also presided over a dance competition and scored contestants with paddles, much like she does for her job on the BBC show. She was also said to have worn a diamante suit which was made for Strictly.
The cruise reportedly advertised that Ballas would be ‘bringing Strictly glamour’ (Picture: Daily Mail)
Ballas scored contestants with paddles, much like she does for her job on the BBC show (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
One passenger told the publication: ‘It was like watching an episode of Strictly, there were so many similarities.’
The dance legend reportedly delivered critiques on footwork and timing, while other activities on offer to passengers included a dance masterclass, which was described as a replication of the rehearsals in the lead-up to the Strictly live shows.
Ballas’s appearance duties on the cruise are also said to have included a storytelling Q+A with behind-the-scenes tidbits from Strictly and a meet-and-greet.
Advertisement
In the cruise marketing materials, the voyage was billed as a ‘Strictly-style holiday’ and promised to deliver Ballas’s ‘energy, style and sparkle’ at sea.
However, the appearance might have been in breach of the BBC’s strict editorial guidelines, which state that promotional work involving licence fee-funded talent must not ‘imitate, suggest a reference or connection to or pass off BBC content’.
The 65-year-old head judge was reportedly paid over £10,000 to host the cruise (Picture: BBC/Ray Burmiston)
Ballas is set to return to the BBC judging panel this autumn (Picture: BBC/Rob Parfitt)
This includes ‘replicating any editorial elements of a programme’ and must not ‘suggest BBC endorsement’.
Such rules landed DIY SOS star Nick Knowles in hot water in 2021, when he appeared in a Shreddies advert dressed as a builder. This was deemed by the BBC to have been a breach of contract.
License fee-funded talent must also declare any commercial interests which are connected with programmes that they present.
Advertisement
A BBC spokesperson told Metro: ‘We have clear guidelines around an individual’s commercial activities while working with the BBC, and they are regularly reminded of these guidelines.’
Ballas is set to return this autumn as head judge, despite causing fears among fans that she might be exiting amid a new spin-off show she is judging with her son Mark for Dancing on Ice.
Metro contacted Shirley Ballas’s representative for comment on this story.
Got a story?
Advertisement
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login