Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica has just been handed a lifeline. Previously owned by US company Ideanomics, the famed motorcycle brand entered insolvency late last year after a period of financial duress prevented it from making payroll and continuing production.

Now, a new group of investors from Singapore has stepped in to take over.

The news was shared on Energica’s YouTube channel, and the company confirmed on LinkedIn that “The judicial process undergoing the sale of Energica has received an offer with a significant deposit from investors based in Singapore.” Energica says that the investors, who so far remain unnamed, “are enthusiasts that believe in, and share the common values of Energica.”

While it’s not certain how the buyout and revival will unfold, it appears that Energica is planning on getting the band back together. “If the process comes through successfully,” the company explained, “the same team behind Energica will be entrusted to run the operations, and we will continue creating cutting-edge technologies for our customers.”

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With many of Energica’s impressive electric motorcycles already in circulation from years of sales leading up to the 2024 bankruptcy, the company seems focused on starting by supporting those riders. ” Our first order of business is to support the customers and community. The judicial process will be completed in 60 days, and we will continue to share updates during the time.”

Energica rose to fame by building high-performance electric motorcycles in Modena, Italy, and was one of the early pioneers in the premium electric two-wheeler space. Its lineup includes models like the Experia electric touring bike and the Ego sportbike. The company previously supplied race bikes for the MotoE World Cup until Ducati took over the role in 2023.

After being acquired by US-based Ideanomics in 2021, Energica initially benefited from an injection of capital that helped expand production and dealer networks. But Ideanomics itself has faced serious financial trouble, becoming unable to invest in the future of Energica.

Energica’s future prospects seemed dim at the time of its insolvency in 2024, but the uncertainty appears to be clearing with the hope that new owners can breathe fresh life into the company.

Even so, Energica’s core competency is building the fastest, most powerful, and longest range production electric motorcycles the world has ever seen, and that’s not exactly an inexpensive enterprise. Combined with current market trends that favor smaller, lighter, and less expensive commuter-spec electric motorcycles, it begs the question of whether or not a newly revived Energica will find a receptive market, or whether the company will be forced to expand the scope of its products to match better the type of electric motorcycles that are selling today.

An expert in financial regulation at one of the big four accountancy firms is in talks to become the inaugural boss of English football’s powerful new watchdog.

Sky News has learnt that Richard Monks, a partner at EY, is the leading contender to become chief executive of the Independent Football Regulator (IFR).

The new body will be formally established once the Football Governance Bill receives Royal Assent, which is expected this month.

Mr Monks spent 18 years at the Financial Conduct Authority and its predecessor regulator, the Financial Services Authority, before becoming chair of the G20/OECD Taskforce for Consumer Financial Protection, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He became a partner at EY, where he focuses on financial regulation, in the autumn of 2022.

The prospective choice of a chief executive of the IFR with no professional experience of the football industry may spark alarm among club executives who will face an onerous new regulatory regime overseen by the IFR.

In recent weeks, football industry executives have circulated rumours that the IFR boss was likely to emerge from the professional services sector.

It was unclear this weekend whether other candidates were vying with Mr Monks for the post.

The IFR has already been set up on a ‘shadow’ basis, with Martyn Henderson, former chief executive of the Sports Grounds Safety Authority, appointed in December 2023 as interim chief operating officer of the football watchdog.

The EY partner is understood to have held talks with David Kogan, the government’s preferred choice for the watchdog’s chairmanship but whose formal appointment has been delayed by an investigation sparked by his previous donations to Labour politicians.

William Shawcross, the commissioner for public appointments, is investigating the process through which Mr Kogan was recruited to the role, and is thought likely to produce his report in the coming weeks.

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, told MPs last month that she was delegating the final decision on Mr Kogan’s appointment to the sports minister.

Stuart Andrew, the shadow culture minister, said at the time: “The public has a right to know whether this was a fair and impartial process, or yet another case of political patronage disguised as due diligence.

“The decision to launch an inquiry is welcome [and] must include scrutiny of [Sir] Keir Starmer, his advisers, and whether any conflicts of interest were properly declared.”

If Mr Kogan’s appointment is ratified, the appointment of a chief executive would be a crucial step in paving the way for the most radical reforms to the supervision of English football in decades.

The legislation includes a new licensing regime for clubs, measures to ensure greater fan engagement and a backstop power allowing the IFR to impose a financial settlement on the Premier League in relation to distributions to English Football League clubs.

Revisions to the Bill have seen a requirement for the IFR to take decisions about club takeovers in the context of the government’s foreign and trade policy removed.

If Mr Monks does land the IFR chief executive’s post, ministers are likely to argue that his expertise as a regulator will balance Mr Kogan’s decades of experience as a negotiator of sports media rights deals.

Last year, Mr Kogan acted as the lead negotiator for the Women’s Super League and Championship on their latest five-year broadcasting deals with Sky – the immediate parent company of Sky News – and the BBC.

His current roles include advising the chief executives of CNN, the American broadcast news network, and The New York Times Company on talks with digital platforms about the growing influence of artificial intelligence on their industries.

The creation of the IFR was pledged by the last Conservative government in the wake of the furore over the failed European Super League project in 2021.

Its establishment comes with the top tier of the professional game gripped by civil war, with Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City at the centre of a number of legal cases with the Premier League over the club’s financial affairs.

The Premier League has also been keen to agree a long-delayed financial redistribution deal with the EFL before the regulator is formally launched.

Tentative talks between representatives of both factions failed to produce meaningful progress, however.

This weekend, EY declined to comment on Mr Monks’s behalf, while the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been approached for comment.

What started as a missing person case led to the capture of an “evil” serial killer who “got sadistic sexual pleasure” from murdering women.

Peter Tobin died in October 2022 at the age of 76 while serving three life sentences for the murders of Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol.

Former detective superintendent David Swindle helped to unmask the murderer and has always believed there are more victims out there.

Mr Swindle told Sky News: “Peter Tobin was evil. And, you know, there’s a lot of speculation – nature, nurture or born evil. He’s evil. This is someone that got sadistic sexual pleasure from killing people.

“And when we look back at his life, we see that he cut the head off a dog. He tortured animals – a trait that featured with Ian Brady killing a cat.

“This kind of stuff – he was progressing, he had all the traits early on. And then we traced various partners that he had, and they describe horrific, violent domestic abuse.

“This is someone progressing towards it. And Tobin is evil. He’s killed other people, but we don’t know how many else he’s killed.

“And the reason we don’t know it, is because he targeted vulnerable people and he was forensically aware. So, there could be others, there will be other cases.”

Tobin’s secret reign of terror was unveiled following the disappearance of Polish student Angelika Kluk in September 2006.

The 23-year-old had been enjoying her second summer at St Patrick’s Church in Glasgow, where she was living and working as a cleaner to help finance her Scandinavian studies course at the University of Gdansk.

She was reported missing after failing to turn up to work and was last seen alive in the company of the church’s handyman, “Patrick McLaughlin”.

The caretaker initially spoke to police before sparking suspicion by disappearing himself.

Following a public appeal, the force discovered “McLaughlin” was instead registered sex offender Tobin.

In 1993, Tobin attacked two 14-year-old girls while living in Havant, Hampshire.

He attempted to evade justice for the horrific sex assaults but was jailed the following year and spent a decade behind bars before returning to his home county of Renfrewshire in 2004.

In 2005, he fled Paisley after being accused of attacking a woman and managed to avoid detection until Angelika’s case.

Mr Swindle said he can still remember the day he was brought onto the case after Tobin’s true identity was discovered.

Angelika instantly became a high-risk missing person as she was last seen in the company of a registered sex offender.

Officers were sent back to search the church, where Angelika’s body was thereafter discovered under the floorboards.

Forensic scientist Carol Rogers ordered for the body not to be moved and crawled under the floorboards to collect vital DNA evidence from the bloody crime scene.

Angelika suffered a violent death in the sexually motivated murder. A post-mortem examination revealed she had been bound and gagged, raped, beaten with a piece of wood, and stabbed 16 times in the chest.

Mr Swindle said the “ferocity” of what had happened to Angelika was “absolutely horrendous”.

He said: “I’ve worked on hundreds of murder investigations in my long time in the police, mostly in the CID. This was horrendous, absolutely horrendous, and it was organised.

“The way he had put poor Angelika under the floor and concealed her remains and stayed at the scene – this is someone that’s cool, calculating, someone that knew what he was about.”

A manhunt was launched for Tobin, who had absconded to London.

He was eventually captured after admitting himself to a hospital under the name “James Kelly”. His deception was foiled after a staff member recognised Tobin from the media coverage.

Tobin was initially brought back to Scotland for failing to comply with his sex offender requirements.

Mr Swindle said: “So, you’ve got the person, you’ve got the individual, but you need to work round it all.

“Meanwhile, it’s very fast moving. There was huge media interest, rightly so, and you’re always thinking, ‘okay, it’s him, we’ve got to prove this’.

“And you have to prove it beyond reasonable doubt, and that was the issue. And then later on that week, we got the DNA. It was Tobin’s DNA. That is a significant development.”

Tobin denied any wrongdoing and went to trial despite the DNA evidence stacked against him.

Dorothy Bain KC, Scotland’s now lord advocate, was the prosecutor in the case.

Jurors heard how semen recovered from Angelika’s body linked back to Tobin, as did fingerprints on tarpaulin left at the scene of the crime. The victim’s blood was also found on a wooden table leg and on Tobin’s watch.

The defence, led by Donald Findlay KC, claimed any sex was consensual.

Suspicions were instead cast on to the parish priest at the time, who claimed he’d had a sexual relationship with Angelika, as well as a married man the victim was having an affair with.

Mr Swindle said: “What happened very early on with the murder of Angelika Kluk was what you see so many times in cases – victim blaming and victim shaming.”

Jurors saw through Tobin’s lies and found him guilty.

Judge Lord Menzies described the rapist and murderer as an “evil man” as he handed down a life sentence with at least 21 years behind bars in May 2007.

The killer kicked a press photographer to the ground as he was led from the High Court in Edinburgh.

Following Tobin’s conviction, what was then Strathclyde Police launched Operation Anagram to investigate his life.

Mr Swindle said: “As soon as I saw what Peter Tobin had done to poor Angelika – how organised he was, how methodical he was, the fact that he was using a false name, the fact that he gave a statement to the police in a false name before the heat was on him.

“He was 60 years of age. He’s done this before.”

Mr Swindle said “fortunately” there aren’t many serial killers in the UK.

He added: “Serial killers – they’re cunning, they’re controlling, they’re conniving, they can be charming, and that’s what we actually found out about Tobin, and they can be clever.”

Mr Swindle likened Tobin’s traits to that of Moors murderer Ian Brady and fellow Scot Dennis Nilsen, who admitted murdering at least 15 young men between 1978 and 1983.

Mr Swindle said: “And that’s when I thought we have to look at his whole life.”

As officers mapped the thrice-married Tobin’s movements over the years, it was discovered he was living in Bathgate at the time of Vicky Hamilton’s disappearance in February 1991.

Vicky was just 15 when she went missing from a bus stop in the West Lothian town.

The teenager had been staying with her older sister in Livingston and vanished during a cold weather snap while making her way home to Redding, near Falkirk.

She was last seen alive eating from a bag of chips while waiting for her connecting bus.

The case was one of Scotland’s most high-profile missing person enquiries.

Sadly, Vicky’s heartbroken mother, Janette, died in 1993 without knowing what happened to her daughter.

In June 2007, police searched Tobin’s old Bathgate home and recovered a dagger hidden in the loft space. A piece of Vicky’s skin was recovered from the weapon.

Vicky’s purse, which had been discarded in Edinburgh following her disappearance in an attempt to fool police she had run away, was submitted for testing and found to contain traces of saliva linking back to Tobin’s then young son.

It is believed the toddler may have put the purse in his mouth while playing with it.

There was no sign of Vicky, but the mystery would soon unravel nearly 500 miles away.

In October 2007, a search was conducted at Tobin’s old home in Margate, Kent, where he had moved to a few months after Vicky went missing.

Officers believed he may have been involved in the disappearance of 18-year-old Dinah McNicol.

The Essex teenager vanished in August 1991 after accepting a ride while hitchhiking home from a music festival in Hampshire.

Her male friend was dropped off by the man, but she was never seen again.

Following Dinah’s disappearance, large sums of money were withdrawn from her bank account along the south coast. The location of the ATMs linked back to places Tobin had lived.

After 16 years, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of both Vicky and Dinah came to a close with the discovery of their bodies in the back garden of Tobin’s old Margate home.

Vicky had been dismembered.

Prosecutors argued Tobin drugged the teenagers with amitriptyline, which he was prescribed at the time, before raping and murdering them.

Tobin once again denied any wrongdoing – despite his fingerprints being found on the refuse bags used to wrap the bodies – but was found guilty of both murders.

In December 2008, he was sentenced to at least 30 years in jail for killing Vicky. The following year he received a whole life order for the death of Dinah.

Tobin died on 8 October 2022.

The HMP Edinburgh inmate had been receiving palliative care at the city’s royal infirmary following a fall in his cell the previous month.

A fatal accident inquiry was held last year, which revealed Tobin was suffering from bronchial pneumonia, vascular disease and prostate cancer at the time of his death.

The serial killer’s ashes were later scattered at sea as no one came forward to claim them.

Tobin has long been suspected by police of murdering other women due to the sheer amount of aliases, cars, and homes he held over his lifetime.

Mr Swindle said: “Tobin’s killed other people – there’s no doubt about it.”

However, Tobin took his secrets to the grave.

Mr Swindle said: “Police Scotland were at his bedside when he was dying and asked him to do the right thing. He didn’t.

“It’s the ultimate control. It’s like Ian Brady – a narcissist. They lack empathy, it’s all about them.”

Tobin’s name was linked to the disappearance of Louise Kay, 18, from Beachy Head in Eastbourne in 1988.

The murder of Jessie Earl, 22, in 1980 was also reinvestigated as part of Operation Anagram.

Her remains were recovered in 1989 in thick undergrowth on Beachy Head, a place she would often take walks and the same area Louise disappeared.

Mystery continues to surround dozens of pieces of jewellery recovered from Tobin’s possessions in Glasgow after he fled the church following Angelika’s murder.

Mr Swindle believes Tobin’s plan was to move Angelika’s body away from the crime scene – as what he did with Vicky – but police arrived before he could dispose of the evidence.

Mr Swindle said: “That phrase that’s used quite a lot – trophies. I don’t like that phrase. I think the word trophy sounds like a victory. I call it souvenirs from a horrible act.

“And Tobin, I thought, ‘he’s kept them, they’re souvenirs from a terrible act’.

“And to take it further, the jewellery is examined and there’s DNA profiles on that jewellery. Profiles of women, which we’ve never identified. Trophies is a horrible word.”

Read more from Sky News:
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Tobin has also been mentioned in connection with the Bible John killings, a series of murders that brought terror to Glasgow in the late 1960s.

The deaths of the three young women – who met their killer at the city’s renowned Barrowland Ballroom – remain unsolved.

Mr Swindle said: “I’m not convinced the same person was involved in these three murders.

“And there’s no evidence, I don’t think professionally and evidentially, that Peter Tobin killed these women either.”

Police Scotland has since scaled back Operation Anagram.

Mr Swindle retired from the force in 2011 but went on to set up David Swindle Crime Solutions.

As well as offering expert crime advice and spearheading independent case reviews, he can also be found on tour with his latest stage show, Murder: A Search For The Truth.

Mr Swindle additionally established Victims Abroad to help support families who lose a loved one in a foreign country due to homicide or suspicious death and are faced with confusing updates and legal processes in different languages.

Speaking of Operation Anagram, Mr Swindle said: “Throughout my long police career, I’ve worked in some big, big investigations.

“This, for me, is a career defining moment and also a personal and professional defining moment in my life.

“I’ve never worked on anything like it, and I hope never ever to experience it again. And I hope no other serving officers have to experience such horrendous things.”