Connect with us

Published

on

A 52-year-old man has admitted killing his wife and their two young children.

Saju Chelavalel pleaded guilty at Northampton Crown Court to the murders of NHS nurse Anju Asok, 35, their six-year-old son Jeeva Saju and their four-year-old daughter Janvi Saju.

All three died after being found with serious injuries at a flat in Petherton Court, Kettering, Northamptonshire, on 15 December last year.

Assisted by an interpreter in the dock, Chelavalel answered “guilty” to two of the counts he faced.

In relation to the charge of murdering Jeeva, he replied: “I don’t know what happened to the children, but I plead guilty.”

Judge David Herbert KC adjourned the case until 3 July when Chelavalel is due to be sentenced at the same court.

He told Chelavalel: “There can only be one sentence in law, namely a life sentence, but the judge dealing with your case on that day will have to set the appropriate minimum term.”

After the deaths, post-mortem examinations at Leicester Royal Infirmary concluded all three victims had died of asphyxiation.

But at the opening of the inquests into their deaths, a coroner said the medical cause of death for the children had been listed as strangulation, while Ms Asok had died of asphyxia.

Saju Chelavalel
Image:
Pic: Northamptonshire Police

Ms Asok was a staff nurse at Kettering General Hospital.

Its chief executive Deborah Needham described her as “a committed and compassionate staff nurse, who was loved and respected by her dear friends and colleagues”.

‘Absolutely tragic case’

Detective Inspector Simon Barnes, senior investigating officer at Northamptonshire Police, said: “This was an absolutely tragic case and there are no words to articulate the devastation Saju Chelavalel caused when he chose to end the lives of Anju, Jeeva and Janvi.

Flowers have been left next to a police cordon
Image:
Flowers left at the scene in Kettering

“I am pleased that he has pleaded guilty and spared Anju’s family and friends the pain of a trial. He will have to live with what he has done forever and I hope one day, he truly comprehends the pain his actions have caused.

“Anju Asok will be remembered as so much more than this man’s victim. She was a dedicated nurse, loving mother, and loyal friend.”

Continue Reading

UK

What we know about Manchester attacker Jihad al Shamie – as his family condemn ‘heinous act’

Published

on

By

What we know about Manchester attacker Jihad al Shamie -  as his family condemn 'heinous act'

The Manchester synagogue attacker was a British citizen of Syrian descent who came to the UK as a small child and had not previously been on the radar of police or MI5.

Jihad al Shamie, 35, was shot dead by armed officers seven minutes after launching a car and knife attack while wearing what appeared to be a vest with an explosive device, which was later found to be fake.

Manchester attack latest: Police on ‘high alert’ across country

Jihad al Shamie
Image:
Jihad al Shamie

Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed after he drove at people outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, in Crumpsall, before stabbing a man.

One of the victims killed in yesterday’s attack was shot mistakenly by officers during their attempts to bring the attacker under control, Greater Manchester Police believe.

Three others remain in hospital with serious injuries.

Three people – two men in their 30s and a woman in her 60s – have been arrested on suspicion of the preparation or commission of acts of terrorism.

More on Manchester Synagogue Attack

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Manchester attacker ‘did not stand out’

But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said it is “too early” to say if there was a terrorist cell behind the attack on Thursday morning, which took place on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day.

She said al Shamie, who is of Syrian descent, came to the UK as a “small child” and was naturalised as a British citizen in the mid-2000s.

The home secretary also said he was not known to the security services or police and had not been referred to the government’s Prevent anti-radicalisation scheme.

Asked about the attacker’s name on LBC, which presenter Nick Ferrari translated as “struggle of the Syrian”, she said: “I was very surprised to discover that name myself.

“Actually, as a Muslim, I’ve never heard someone being called Jihad, but it is the name that he was born with – that has always been his name.”

Police presence at a property in Langley Crescent, Prestwich.
Pic: PA
Image:
Police presence at a property in Langley Crescent, Prestwich.
Pic: PA

Al Shamie is believed to have lived in a council house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Langley Crescent, Prestwich, around two miles from the scene.

Videos obtained by Sky News show armed police, with a dog and a chainsaw, raiding the address at around 3.30pm on Thursday.

Read more:
Synagogue terror victims named
How the attack unfolded
Worshippers leaving synagogue hear news of attack

In a post on Facebook, apparently from his family, his relatives said the attack “has been a profound shock to us”.

“The al Shamie family in the UK and abroad strongly condemns this heinous act, which targeted peaceful, innocent civilians,” they said.

“We fully distance ourselves from this attack and express our deep shock and sorrow over what has happened.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with the victims and their families, and we pray for their strength and comfort.”

Seen lifting weights

One of al Shamie’s neighbours said: “We used to see him out in the garden working out, doing weights, press-ups.

“He used to change his clothes. One day he would be wearing the full gown, to the floor and the next jeans and pyjama bottoms.”

Geoff Haliwell, 72, told Sky News the property used to be on his window cleaning round and he believed the al Shamie family, including his mother, father and brothers, had lived there for around 20 years.

“There’s no way I could’ve thought they were in any way involved in anything like this,” he said, describing the family as “nice people”.

He said he had also seen Jihad al Shamie use benches to work out and said he would sometimes wear western clothes and at other times “traditional” Syrian dress, but showed no signs of radicalisation.

“[He was a] smashing lad to talk to, just the same as everyone else. He didn’t stand out in any way,” he added.

Another neighbour, Kate McLeish, said she thought al Shamie was “an odd guy” and said he used to park his battered black Kia “quite badly on the road”.

The Syrian British Consortium, an organisation representing Syrians in the UK, said no one in its community networks has been able to identify him or confirm knowing him personally.

Continue Reading

UK

Grandparents of Ethan Ives-Griffiths jailed for two-year-old’s murder

Published

on

By

Grandparents of Ethan Ives-Griffiths jailed for two-year-old's murder

A couple who murdered their two-year-old grandson have been jailed for life.

Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, were found guilty of his murder and cruelty to a child in July after a trial at Mold Crown Court.

They were jailed for minimum terms of 23 years and 17 years respectively.

Their grandson Ethan Ives-Griffiths was dangerously dehydrated, severely underweight and had 40 visible bruises or marks when he collapsed with a catastrophic head injury at his grandparents’ home in Flintshire, North Wales, on 14 August 2021.

Kerry and Michael Ives were found guilty of Ethan's murder. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Kerry and Michael Ives were found guilty of Ethan’s murder. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

Ethan’s mother, Shannon Ives, 28, who had been staying with her son at her parents’ home, was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and child cruelty.

Ethan's mother Shannon Ives. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Ethan’s mother Shannon Ives. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

The court heard Ethan was made to stand with his hands on his head as a punishment when he misbehaved.

CCTV footage shown to jurors during the trial showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm in a way described by prosecutor Caroline Rees KC “as though Ethan was just a bag of rubbish to be slung out”.

The video, taken from the back garden of the family’s four-bedroom home, showed Ethan appearing unsteady on a trampoline, or lying down, while other children bounced.

Michael Ives carrying Ethan outside the family home in Garden City, Deeside, Flintshire. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Michael Ives carrying Ethan outside the family home in Garden City, Deeside, Flintshire. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

Michael Ives carrying Ethan in the back garden. Pic: North Wales Police
Image:
Michael Ives carrying Ethan in the back garden. Pic: North Wales Police

Michael Ives was seen to point a garden hose at him, placed the toddler’s hands on his head, and gestured to another child to punch him.

After watching the video in court, Michael Ives said he felt “ashamed” and admitted being cruel and neglectful but denied mistreating Ethan in other ways.

He said his daughter was “quick-tempered” and would slap Ethan a couple of times a day, but Shannon Ives claimed her parents were “horrible” and abused her as a child.

Ethan Ives-Griffiths. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Ethan Ives-Griffiths. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

Michael and Kerry Ives, originally from Wolverhampton, were in the living room with Ethan at the time of his collapse while his mother was on the phone upstairs.

The pair told the jury “nothing” had happened to the toddler before he fainted as they watched television.

Kerry Ives said she immediately called her daughter to come downstairs, but the court heard it was 18 minutes before she called emergency services.

Ethan was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital and later transferred to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where he died two days later.

Michael Ives being interviewed by police officers. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Michael Ives being interviewed by police officers. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

Kerry Ives being interviewed by police officers. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Kerry Ives being interviewed by police officers. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

He was found to have abdominal injuries likely to have been caused by blows in the days before his collapse, as well as bruises consistent with grip marks on his leg and face.

Experts said Ethan would have died of dehydration within days had he not suffered the head injury, and at the time of his death weighed just 10kg.

Ethan’s fatal head injury was said to have been caused by deliberate force or shaking, and occurred at the time, or in the minutes before, he collapsed.

Ethan with his father Will Griffiths. Pic: North Wales Police/PA
Image:
Ethan with his father Will Griffiths. Pic: North Wales Police/PA

Following the verdicts, Ethan’s father Will Griffiths said: “He will be remembered for the smiley, outgoing, loving child that he was. He can now rest in peace, knowing that justice has been served.”

Child protection register

The court heard the youngster had been placed on the child protection register, requiring him to be seen every 10 days.

But when Shannon Ives last saw her social worker, on 5 August 2021, she spoke to him on the doorstep and told him Ethan was having a nap.

No one answered the door when social worker Michael Cornish went to visit in the days before Ethan’s death and a scheduled appointment with a health visitor on 13 August was cancelled.

Continue Reading

UK

Phones turned off during Yom Kippur, worshippers leaving synagogue hear news of attack

Published

on

By

Phones turned off during Yom Kippur, worshippers leaving synagogue hear news of attack

It’s just gone 7.30pm – and outside a synagogue in north Manchester, we’ve heard the shofar, a ceremonial horn, being blown to mark the end of the long day of prayers.

The streets, which had been so quiet all day, fill with people and families.

We’re just minutes away from where the attack took place.

But people haven’t had their phones on in synagogue – and we find ourselves in the slightly surreal position of having to tell people what happened to members of their community, just a few roads away.

Manchester synagogue latest: Suspect in killing named

Rachel gasped as she heard the news
Image:
Rachel gasped as she heard the news

“Did many people get hurt?” Rachel, in her 70s, asks me.

I tell her two have died.

She gasps and says: “My gosh. It’s the holiest day of the year.

“Very, very frightening. We’re not safe.”

Read more:
Witnesses describe how attack unfolded

What we know about synagogue attack

👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈

Earlier in the day on these streets, we saw additional police patrols, with officers telling us they were here to reassure members of the public.

But people are accustomed to seeing security here.

Both paid and volunteer security staff, in their hi-vis jackets, are a permanent fixture outside every synagogue.

It’s to help protect a community that, even before this attack, has felt under threat.

'The security is not the solution,' this man said
Image:
‘The security is not the solution,’ this man said

“The security is not the solution,” one man tells me as he heads home from prayers. “Those who really want to do [something like this], they will do it with lots of security, it doesn’t matter.”

Among everyone we spoke to, there was a sense of shock at what had happened, but perhaps not necessarily surprise amid rising acts of antisemitism in the UK.

David Yehudi
Image:
David Yehudi

David Yehudi and the rabbi he studied with said it had felt like a long time coming.

“As a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, I feel as if this is before 1935 again,” he says. “That’s the overwhelming feeling all over the world.”

The rabbi asked 'where is the United Nations?'
Image:
The rabbi asked ‘where is the United Nations?’

The rabbi adds: “The United Nations was set up with the intention of ‘never again’, and where is the United Nations? In terms of the global support against antisemitism. It’s just not there anymore. We are as unsafe as we were before the war.”

It is a shocking thing to hear, on this, the most solemn of days.

Continue Reading

Trending