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Suella Braverman has admitted sending official documents from her government email to her personal email address on six separate occasions.

In a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee, she apologised again for breaching security rules and set out her version of the events leading to her resignation under former prime minister Liz Truss.

A review undertaken by the Home Office confirmed she had used her personal email address to send an official government document, and in her letter Ms Braverman added: “I had sent official documents from my government email to my personal email address on six occasions.

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“The review confirmed that all of these occasions occurred in circumstances when I was conducting Home Office meetings virtually or related to public lines to take in interviews.”

Ms Braverman is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons this afternoon.

She is facing a second scandal amid the worsening Channel crisis and overcrowding at the Manston processing centre.

Labour have accused her of being silent on the issue as there were still questions over her “own security breaches”.

In her letter, the home secretary insisted the four-page document containing high level migration policy proposals did not contain any information relating to national security and was not marked top secret.

She said the reason for sending the documents to her personal phone was because she was often joining meetings virtually and while in transit.

Ms Braverman said: “It was not possible to use a single device to conduct the meetings and read the documents at the same time.

“Therefore, I had occasionally and exceptionally emailed them to my personal email account so that I could read the documents in order to conduct essential government business.”

Mrs Braverman’s team maintain – as she wrote in her resignation letter – that she flagged the incident rapidly and brought it to the attention of the cabinet secretary, Simon Case.

Others have claimed the cabinet secretary did not find out about the breach from Mrs Braverman.

Here is the timeline of events as she has laid them out in her letter:

-7.25am: Sent an email from personal account to Rt Hon Sir John Hayes and his secretary, but entered an incorrect address, sending document to someone else “unintentionally and unknowingly”
– 9am: Went into back-to-back meetings
– 10am: Checked personal emails, saw reply to someone she does not know saying ‘this has been sent to me in error’ – “realised I had made a mistake”
– 10.02am: Replied saying “please delete and ignore. Thanks”, then went into meetings
– 11.20am: Met two constituents
– 11.50am: Bumped into then Chief Whip Wendy Morton and Andrew Percy MP “by coincidence” who said my email had gone to a member of his staff and “he was concerned”
– 12pm: Returned to parliamentary office to “take action regarding my mistake”

Ms Braverman said when she realised she had sent the email to a staffer of MP Andrew Percy by accident, she “decided to inform my officials as soon as practicable”.

But before informing the civil service, she said she bumped into the chief whip and Mr Percy “by coincidence”, who raised his concerns to her.

After this meeting, Ms Braverman asked a special adviser to tell her private secretary what happened, and the issue was then flagged to the cabinet secretary and prime minister’s office.

The home secretary insisted: “As a result of my actions, the cabinet secretary was told for the first time.”

She added: “Separately, and unbeknownst to me at the time, the chief whip had also notified the prime minister of this issue. This was not known to me until after these events.”

‘More unanswered questions, more confusion and more chaos’

Labour said the letter “leaves more unanswered questions” over Ms Braverman’s “irresponsible conduct” – including whether the prime minister ignored the cabinet secretary’s advice in reappointing her.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it is also “astonishing” the home secretary “needed to seek an additional briefing on ‘what constitutes appropriate use of government and personal IT’.

“This therefore leaves more unanswered questions, more confusion and more chaos from the home secretary and the government. It shows why Rishi Sunak was so irresponsible in reappointing her to her post,” she said.

Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said the home secretary “has admitted breaking the rules on an industrial scale” and “must resign now”.

PM ‘has full confidence’ in home secretary

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Yvette Cooper speaks to Sophy Ridge on Sunday about security concerns regarding the home secretary.

The letter follows days of criticism levelled at new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for reappointing Ms Braverman, despite promising to govern “with integrity” when he took office.

Labour has been urging the government to publish its assessments of Ms Braverman’s security breach, with leader Sir Keir Starmer accusing Mr Sunak of brokering a “grubby deal trading security for support” in the Tory leadership contest, which he won after receiving Ms Braverman’s backing.

In the letter, Ms Braverman said she had apologised to Mr Sunak when he entered No 10 and publicly repeated that apology.

“In my appointment discussion with the new prime minister, I raised this mistake and apologised to him, and would like to do so again here,” she said.

“I also gave the prime minister assurances that I would not use my personal email for official business and reaffirmed my understanding of and adherence to the ministerial code.”

Following the letter’s publication, Downing Street said the PM has full confidence in the home secretary.

The spokesman also said Mr Sunak was reassured Ms Braverman understood the subsequent advice given to her.

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Child dies and another injured after car driven on to sports pitch

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Child dies and another injured after car driven on to sports pitch

A child has died and another has been injured after a car was driven on to a sports pitch in Cumbria.

Police say they were called at 4.58pm to reports of a collision involving a BMW i40 and two children on a pitch at Kendal Rugby Union Football Club on Shap Road, in Kendal.

Cumbria Police say one child died, while the second is being treated by paramedics.

A man aged in his 40s has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

A spokesperson for Cumbria Police said: “Specialist investigators are at the scene and the area has been cordoned off as initial investigation enquiries take place.”

The force said the incident was not believed to be terror-related. Immediate family members of both children have been informed, it added.

In a post on its Facebook page, the club said it was “deeply saddened to confirm that an incident occurred today at Kendal Rugby Club.”

The post, attributed to club chairman Dr Stephen Green, continued: “Our thoughts are with their family and friends and we kindly ask for privacy for all involved at this difficult time.”

The club and its facilities are now temporarily closed while it cooperates “fully” with authorities, it added.

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Tim Farron MP, whose constituency includes Kendal, posted on X: “This is devastating, utterly heartbreaking news. I’m praying for the children and for their families and friends.

“Our community in Kendal is stunned and in mourning.”

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PhD student guilty of drugging and raping 10 women in London and China

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PhD student guilty of drugging and raping 10 women in London and China

A man has been convicted of drugging and raping 10 women in London and China between 2019 and 2023.

Chinese PhD student Zhenhao Zou, 28, filmed nine of the attacks as “souvenirs”, and kept a trophy box of women’s belongings, jurors in his trial were told.

Warning: This article contains details of sexual offences

He was accused in court of drugging and raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2023.

Jurors at Inner London Crown Court found him guilty of 11 charges of rape against 10 women, including two who have been identified and another eight who have yet to be traced.

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The mechanical engineering student was also convicted of three counts of voyeurism, 10 of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one of false imprisonment and three of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

He was cleared of two further counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image and one of possession of MDMA with intent to commit a sexual offence.

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES*** The trial heard Zou kept a 'lost property box' full of women's belongings. Pic: Met Police
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The trial heard Zou kept a ‘lost property box’ full of women’s belongings. Pic: Met Police

The jury has not reached verdicts on four counts of possession of drugs with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Zou – who first moved to Belfast in 2017 to study mechanical engineering at Queen’s University before moving to London in 2019 – showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read out in court.

Catherine Farrelly KC, prosecuting, told jurors during the trial that Zou “presents as a smart and charming young man” but is “also a persistent sexual predator; a voyeur and a rapist”.

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES*** A discreet camera belonging to Zou. Pic: Met Police
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A discreet camera belonging to Zou. Pic: Met Police

Zou, who also used the name Pakho online, befriended fellow Chinese students on WeChat and dating apps, before inviting them for drinks and drugging them at his flats in London or an unknown location in China, the court heard.

The jury heard how he would secretly film his attacks using a mobile device and hidden cameras, and was shown evidence found on SD cards at his accommodation of him raping unconscious women in London and in China.

Senior Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Saira Pike thanked the “incredibly strong and brave” women who came forward to report his “heinous” crimes.

“Zou is a serial rapist and a danger to women,” she said.

“In some instances, we have not been able to identify Zou’s victims. Without knowing who these women are, we have not been able to support them through a deeply distressing period of time.

“We have always been determined to seek justice for both the unidentified and identified victims in this case.”

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James Scott Rhys Anderson: British man who ‘fought for Ukraine’ jailed for 19 years in Russia

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James Scott Rhys Anderson: British man who 'fought for Ukraine' jailed for 19 years in Russia

A British man has been jailed for 19 years after a Russian court found him guilty of fighting for Ukraine in the country’s Kursk region.

James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, had been charged with terrorist and mercenary offences and was found guilty after a closed trial.

The court said he was to serve the first five years of his sentence in prison and the remainder in a penal colony.

In the trial, a Ukrainian soldier from the same unit was questioned as a witness.

Ukrainian troops broke across the border into Kursk region on 6 August last year.

They still hold some territory there seven months later, despite attempts by Russian forces to force them out.

Investigators accused Anderson of illegally crossing into Kursk in November as part of an armed group that committed unspecified “criminal acts against civilians”.

Russian state media published video showing him being led in handcuffs and locked in a cage of the kind where defendants in Russian court cases are placed.

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It apparently showed Anderson saying he had served in the British army from 2019-2023 before deciding to join the foreign legion of Ukraine’s armed forces.

Early on in the war, Ukraine’s authorities said more than 20,000 people from 52 countries came to Ukraine’s aid.

Since then, the number of foreign fighters in Ukraine’s military has been classified.

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