Killer who stabbed eight at random in knife rampage sentenced to life

Published

4 years ago

November 16, 2021

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A man who stabbed people at random, killing one and seriously injuring seven others, has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years.

Zephaniah McLeod carried out the series of attacks in the early hours of 6 September last year, as people were enjoying a night out in Birmingham City Centre.

CCTV and dashcam footage captured him walking calmly through the streets, stabbing people, then moving on.

McLeod pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, as well as four charges of attempted murder and three charges of wounding with intent.

He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.

After the first three stabbings, he disposed of his knife down a drain, took a taxi to his home in Selly Oak, four miles away, where he re-armed himself and headed back to the city centre.

It was then that he came across Jacob Billington, 23, from Liverpool, and his friend Michael Callaghan.

They were part of a group of seven friends returning to their hotel after a night out.

McLeod asked the group if they had a lighter before attacking Mr Billington and Mr Callaghan.

Mr Billington was stabbed through the neck. He was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead at 2.57am.

His mother, Jo, had last seen her son as he left to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

“I can still see him leaving the house with the lads in the car outside beeping the horns getting him to hurry up, and he skipped out, and we just thought he was going for a lovely night out with his friends,” she recalled.

She was woken in the early hours by police knocking on the door to tell her that her son had been killed.

“It was absolutely awful. You feel like you had all the breath sucked out of you is the best way to describe it,” she said.

She then had to wake his sisters to tell them.

Abbie Billington, 22, remembered the moment she found out her brother was dead.

“There are just no words to describe the sadness that I felt,” she said.

Mr Callaghan had suffered catastrophic injures.

McLeod’s knife had severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. He lost so much blood he had a stroke.

His mother, Anne Callaghan, was woken by a call from the hospital.

“We were called in the morning about 5.30am by a nurse to say that he was in theatre, and he was stable, and obviously that was terrible to hear.

“We didn’t know what she was talking about, and I said, ‘what’s happened?’ She said, ‘he’s been stabbed’. I couldn’t grasp it at all.”

They travelled to Birmingham and were told that if he survived, he would have life-changing injuries.

It was 10 days before they were confident he would make it.

Before the stabbing, Mr Callaghan and Mr Billington were in a band. They both loved music, and the former enjoyed sport too. But over the last 14 months, he has had to relearn to walk and still can’t use his left hand.

His mother said life is difficult for her son, who is mourning the loss of his best friend.

“Michael is just devastated at the loss of Jacob,” she said. “They were totally on the same wavelength, and you know he misses him every day.”

The court heard McLeod had been suffering with paranoid schizophrenia since 2012 and these were not his first offences.

He had previous convictions for robbery, escaping from lawful custody, possession of a firearm in a public place and possession of class A drugs.

He had spoken to a psychiatrist on the phone on 3 September, days before the attack.

“On release from prison in April 2020, we were unable to make contact with him as we were not informed of his whereabouts. I spoke to Zephaniah briefly on the phone whilst he was with his Care Coordinator…” Dr Ezzine Onuba, the psychiatrist, wrote in a statement to the court.

“Zephaniah continues to hear voices which he told me is there all the time and can be distressing.

“It was difficult to do a full assessment. He was due to be seen face to face on 24 September 2020.”

Superintendent Jim Munro from West Midlands Police told Sky News: “He wasn’t under any license conditions and actively being managed, so he’d come back out having served his sentence.”

Mrs Callaghan believes he should never be released.

“All I want is for him to be off the streets because I don’t think he can be ever trusted again,” she said.

“He’s not answered any questions, he’s not talked about it, we don’t know anything about why he did what he did. How can anybody say he’s safe again? I don’t think anybody can.”

Mr Billington’s mother says she believes mistakes have been made by the authorities and hopes a serious case review under way looking into the agencies that were aware of McLeod will provide answers.

“For me, there’s quite a lot of unanswered questions about what happened on that night,” she said. “And what led up to that night in terms of… this was somebody well known to lots of different agencies in many different sectors, and yet still it appears that he was in a position where he did this.

“The fact that he didn’t appear to have been monitored in the way that you would imagine he would.

“As somebody who was known to be dangerous and had a long previous history of being dangerous, had a known mental health condition, none of which seems to have been taken into account at all in terms of how he was monitored.”

UK

Christian B: Freed suspect in Madeleine McCann case attempts to confront prosecutor

Published

5 hours ago

September 29, 2025

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Christian B: Freed suspect in Madeleine McCann case attempts to confront prosecutor

The freed suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has come out of hiding to confront the prosecutor who has accused him of the British toddler’s murder.

Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under German privacy laws, travelled for hours to try to speak to lawyer Hans Christian Wolters.

Mr Wolters has stated publicly that he has evidence, which he has not revealed, to show that Christian B abducted and killed Madeleine, who vanished from her bed during a Portuguese holiday in 2007.

Christian B denies any involvement in her disappearance.

The suspect, who was released from a rape sentence two weeks ago, told Sky News in an exclusive interview: “The prosecutor refused to meet me, but I told his representative I wanted his help to get my life back.

“I’m being hounded by the media, and it’s his fault. I want him to take responsibility.

“I was told there was nothing they could do to help. I had been convicted and released, and I wasn’t their responsibility.”

Christian B, 49, was driven from jail by his lawyer Friedrich Fulscher on 17 September and, since then, has lived in local authority accommodation in the town of Neumunster, north of Hamburg.

Journalists quickly tracked him down and exposed his new address, prompting anger in the community from people worried about his convictions for child sex crimes.

Local councillor Karin Mundt of the hard-right populist movement, Heimat Neumunster (Homeland Neumunster), took to Facebook to warn locals to be vigilant, not go out alone, and make sure that their children and elderly were safe.

She also called for a public protest under the slogan ‘Christian B. out of Neumunster – tougher measures against child abusers and rapists to protect all citizens!’

Germany operates draconian privacy laws, whereby even the media must get the consent of someone they photograph, or disguise their features.

Yet the group even decided to publish photos of Christian B, arguing that the danger he presents means he was a public person of interest, and that they had to make sure that elderly people were able to recognise him.

Two separate chat groups were set up, one dedicated to campaigning for Christian B to be booted out of Neumunster, the other to discuss alleged sightings of him.

Some claimed that Christian B had turned up near schools and that the police were called round, though other people said they worked at these schools, and that no police had been there.

A woman at Domino’s pizza claimed that Christian B had turned up in a false beard, yet just days later, her colleague said she had seen the pictures and she was unsure that it was Christian B.

And throughout all this, a source close to Christian B’s defence claimed that he had not been out at all apart from to sort out his phone, and also once for a steak.

On Wednesday, one chat even discussed gathering at the town hall in the evening, and police vans then turned up to try to prevent this.

But the language of the chat became ever bolder – with people openly posting addresses they were convinced he was living at – and at one point, all people with English-sounding surnames were ejected from the group as people suspected they were journalists.

Explainer: What we know about Christian B

Police quickly moved Christian B out of Neumunster, and reports he has since been spotted at a hotel in an unnamed town.

In a recent interview with Germany’s Stern magazine, Christian B’s main lawyer Dr Fulscher said: “The Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office has fuelled this media campaign of prejudgment.

“It has told the public that it is certain it has the right person. Without presenting sufficient evidence or even allowing my client to inspect the files.

“I find this highly questionable from a constitutional point of view. In my opinion, the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office has made rehabilitation impossible.”

Prosecutor Mr Wolters told Sky News today that he’d been tipped off about the suspect’s visit to his office in Braunschweig near Hanover and refused to speak to him.

Christian B was released from Sehnde prison, near Hannover, earlier this month after a prosecutor failed to find enough evidence to charge him in the Madeleine case.

As part of his release conditions, he’s been fitted with an electronic ankle tag, has had to surrender his passport, and register his permanent address with probation officers.

UK

London mayor Sadiq Khan hits out at ‘misinformation’ as new figures show fall in crimes

Published

6 hours ago

September 29, 2025

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London mayor Sadiq Khan hits out at 'misinformation' as new figures show fall in crimes

Sadiq Khan has hit back at politicians “spreading misinformation” about safety in London as new data shows the number of violent crimes leading to injury has fallen in every borough over the past year.

Figures from the mayor’s office for policing and crime compare the 12 months ending in August 2025 with the previous 12 months – and show there were 8,749 fewer crimes which resulted in someone being hurt, a drop of nearly 12%.

The borough of Havering in east London recorded the largest drop (16.3%) followed by Enfield in north London (16.1%).

The smallest decreases were in Greenwich (4.3%) and Kensington and Chelsea (4.6%).

Sir Sadiq said: “We’ve seen a number of politicians here and across the globe talking down London and spreading misinformation about crime and safety in the capital.

“The evidence is clear, our approach to tackling crime and its complex causes works. It’s driving down violence right across the capital.”

His comments come after Donald Trump reignited his feud with Sir Sadiq earlier this month by accusing him of doing a “terrible job” and claiming “crime in London is through the roof”.

The US president also hit out at the mayor in a speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, where he also made the outlandish claim that London “wants Sharia law” – something there is no evidence for.

Asked about the attacks, Sir Sadiq said: “I think President Trump has shown he is racist, he is sexist, he is misogynistic, and he is Islamophobic.”

He added that the public would be “wondering what it is about this Muslim mayor who leads a liberal, multicultural, progressive, successful city that means I appear to be living rent-free inside Donald Trump’s head”.

According to the mayor’s office, overall homicides in London are at a 10-year low, and the city’s rate is lower than in Berlin, Brussels, Madrid, Paris and all major US cities.

The rate of homicide was down by 17% in the 12-month period to June this year compared with the 12-month period to May 2016, it previously said.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams said: “We’re targeting the most dangerous individuals, disrupting criminal networks, and investing in prevention to protect those most at risk.

“That’s why fewer people are being hurt, fewer lives are being lost, and London is becoming a safer city.”

The Conservatives rejected the suggestion that London is safer.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Under this Labour mayor, criminals know the odds are stacked in their favour.

“Only one in 20 robberies is solved, fewer offenders are being jailed, and more than a thousand police officers have been cut from the Metropolitan Police, with Sir Mark Rowley warning of further losses this year.

“Londoners don’t feel safer because London isn’t safer.”

UK

Penny Lancaster says she felt ‘belittled’ by ex-MasterChef host Gregg Wallace

Published

6 hours ago

September 29, 2025

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Penny Lancaster says she felt 'belittled' by ex-MasterChef host Gregg Wallace

Model Penny Lancaster has said she “felt ashamed and belittled” by how former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace treated her on the TV show.

Lancaster, who is also a TV personality, and is married to singer Rod Stewart, told Sky News’ The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee programme that she also felt let down by MasterChef’s production company Banijay UK.

“I didn’t feel like I was supported in that moment, I felt ashamed and belittled by the way Greg Wallace had treated me but equally I felt disappointed that the production company hadn’t come to my rescue,” Lancaster, 54 and a MasterChef contestant in 2021, said.

“There is a long way to go, but just by people coming forward and being honest about their experiences I think will help in the long term.”

At the end of July, Wallace, 60, apologised after a report commissioned by Banijay UK, and carried out by law firm Lewis Silkin, found 45 out of 83 allegations against him were substantiated.

Sir Rod Stewart criticised Wallace on Instagram in November 2024 and claimed he “humiliated” his wife when she was on the show.

He wrote: “Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?

“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully.”

Sky News has approached Wallace for comment.

He has previously apologised to people he has hurt, saying in July that he knows he has said things that have offended people. He has denied a specific allegation of unwanted touching.

The BBC referred Sky News to their statement from July, in which the corporation said: “Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC. We accept more could and should have been done sooner.

“We want to thank all those who took part in the investigation, including those who first raised concerns directly with the BBC in November last year. We apologise to everyone who has been impacted by Mr Wallace’s behaviour.”

Banijay UK, the producers of MasterChef, told Sky News: “We are extremely sorry to anyone who has been impacted by any inappropriate behaviour by Gregg Wallace whilst working on our shows and felt unable to speak up at the time or that their complaint was not adequately addressed.

“Ways of reporting concerns whilst working on our productions, protocols around behaviour and training for both cast and crew, have improved exponentially in recent years and we constantly review welfare procedures across our productions to ensure that they are as robust as they can be.”