Connect with us

Published

on

A teenager is missing after three people fell into Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire on Saturday night.

Police said they were called at 9.30pm to reports that three boys, believed to be around 17, were in the water.

Two managed to get out and were taken to hospital after being assessed by paramedics.

Specialist search teams and the local fire service are searching the area. A police helicopter was also involved yesterday.

Staffordshire Police said the third teenager is still missing and advised people to avoid the area while the search is ongoing.

Rudyard Lake, northeast of Stoke-on-Trent, is more than 2.5 miles long and covers 168 acres. It’s a popular spot for activities such as walking, fishing and kayaking.

Read more from Sky News:
Police appeal after hundreds turn up at house party
Presenter reveals ‘brazen’ drink spiking incident

A post on the lake’s Facebook page said: “Due to an incident overnight the lake and surrounding area has been closed until further notice to both pedestrians and vehicles

“Our car park and facilities have been shutdown until further notice.”

Continue Reading

UK

Storm Eowyn brought widespread disruption – here’s what could be affected on Saturday

Published

on

By

Storm Eowyn brought widespread disruption - here's what could be affected on Saturday

Storm Eowyn brought widespread closures in Ireland and parts of the UK on Friday as flights, rail services and hospitals were all disrupted.

But Saturday is set to see more disarray in the wake of the battering communities took.

Here’s what we know:

Police Scotland asked people to “continue to avoid” travelling in the dangerous weather into the weekend and ScotRail said that while it would work to reopen lines, customers shouldn’t expect any trains to run before midday on Saturday at the earliest.

National Rail said journeys may be affected on Saturday, and asked customers to check before travelling.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Phone alerts for Storm Eowyn

Weather warnings in place

There are still three weather warnings in place across Scotland on Saturday including an amber alert for wind – meaning danger to life.

More on Northern Ireland

In England there is a warning in place for ice until 10am stretching from Plymouth to Nottingham, and in Northern Ireland a snow and ice alert until 10am.

There are further alerts warning of wind and rain into Sunday and Monday across parts of the UK.

More on this story:
Eowyn’s record winds bring destruction
Check the weather where you are

Pic: PA
Image:
Pic: PA

Storm damage

The department for infrastructure in Northern Ireland said 1,800 trees had fallen and police added it could take days to assess the storm damage.

They warned people that even after the storm passed structures could be weakened.

Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck, who is in charge of the storm response operation, said on Friday evening “we are still not out of the potential risks in respect of this storm”.

“Many roads right across Northern Ireland do continue to be impassable, with fallen trees debris and power lines down,” he added.

A fallen tree on Mullaghmore Road near Dungannon.  
Pic: PA
Image:
A fallen tree on Mullaghmore Road near Dungannon. Pic: PA

Celtic FC in Glasgow said the club’s stadium was damaged by the storm and they were “unable to confirm at this stage” whether their game against Dundee would go ahead. A final decision is expected to be made on Saturday morning.

The Scottish League One game between Arbroath and Kelty Hearts was postponed due to storm damage at the stadium.

Dublin Airport said flight operations were “moving well” on Friday evening, but Edinburgh Airport said it expected “knock-on” impacts over the next few days, so passengers should check with their airline for the latest flight information.

The Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB) said that after 725,000 homes and businesses were left without power on Friday further outages were possible into Saturday. Some properties could be left in the dark for up to a week.

On Friday night a map of outages in Northern Ireland showed power cuts across the region. Authorities said around 250,000 household and businesses were still without power. It could take up to 10 days for them all to be reconnected.

Continue Reading

UK

Mother jailed for 10 years after her four sons died in house fire while she was out shopping

Published

on

By

Mother jailed for 10 years after her four sons died in house fire while she was out shopping

A woman whose four young boys died in a house fire after she went to a supermarket has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Deveca Rose, 30, was found guilty of the manslaughter of her two sets of twins, Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three, and Kyson and Bryson Hoath, aged four, in October last year.

Jurors were told the four children died after a discarded cigarette or upturned tea light sparked a blaze at the family house in Collingwood Road, Sutton, in south London.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC said during sentencing on Friday: “There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one.”

During the prosecution’s opening statement last year, Kate Lumsdon KC alleged that Rose left the children alone to visit a supermarket on the evening of 16 December 2021.

She also told the court at the time that “there was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house”.

Deveca Rose has been jailed over the deaths of her sons. Pic: PA
Image:
Deveca Rose has been jailed over the deaths of her sons. Pic: PA

Children ‘too young’ to escape

Rose, who the court heard suffered from mental health problems, covered her head with a thick hood and hid her face as she was sentenced.

Judge Lucraft told the court that the children were left alone by their mother in an “unsafe” house that was lit using tea light candles when the fire broke out.

He then noted that she had already been to Sainsbury’s earlier that day, and her second trip at the time of the fire was not to purchase any items that were “essential or vital”.

The front door was locked at the time of the fire, the judge noted, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the home were either not working or were out of battery.

“You were not there, and the children were too young to know what to do,” he said.

“As a result of what you did, they were all killed.”

He then described the victims as lively and engaging children who were “deeply loved” by all who had a role in their care.

The aftermath of the house fire in Sutton. Pic: PA
Image:
The aftermath of the house fire in Sutton. Pic: PA

After the fire started, the court heard that the children ran upstairs and started calling for help.

A neighbour attempted to break down the front door, and firefighters later found their bodies under beds once they entered the property.

The boys were rushed to separate hospitals, where they died from inhalation of fumes that night.

Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze, and claimed she left the children with a friend called Jade. Police concluded she either did not exist or was not at the property that day.

The court heard social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns about the family and that the case was closed three months before the fire.

Previously, a health visitor had also expressed worries, but they were not followed up after she retired, jurors were told.

The children had not attended school for three weeks before their deaths.

It also heard evidence which suggested Rose may have suffered from a personality disorder – but the prosecution said this was not a defence.

Read more:
Grandson of pie tycoon jailed over Christmas Eve murder
Judges on historic Sara Sharif court proceedings can be named

Dad of boys ‘will never recover’

Dalton Hoath, father of the boys, told the court ahead of sentencing that losing his sons was “the worst day of my life”.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by a relative, he said: “Their lives had just begun but were cut so short. It was every parent’s worst nightmare… I have tried to be some sort of normal for my own family now.

“I will never recover from losing my funny, beautiful boys. I have to fight for all of us left behind and live with this massive pain in my heart before I meet them again.”

The boys’ grandfather Jason Hoath also told the court, “the pain from this loss has shattered my life in every possible way,” while their great-grandmother Sally Johnson said: “The thought of them crying and screaming out will haunt me forever.”

Step-grandmother Kerrie Hoath later said outside of the court that the children had been “cruelly taken away from us” by Rose.

She then added: “The impact [the children] have made on us in their short lives cannot be measured and will never be forgotten.

“We miss them every day and will always hold them in our hearts. While there will be better days to come, the hole that has been left by our children’s deaths cannot be filled.”

Continue Reading

UK

Judges who oversaw family court proceedings related to care of Sara Sharif can be named

Published

on

By

Judges who oversaw family court proceedings related to care of Sara Sharif can be named

Three judges who oversaw family court proceedings related to the care of Sara Sharif can be named next week, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Mr Justice Williams issued a ruling last year that the three judges involved in historic family court cases related to Sara, as well as social workers and guardians, could not be named due to a “real risk” of harm from a “virtual lynch mob”.

News organisations had previously appealed against Mr Williams’s decision on the grounds of transparency about the court case relating to the murder of the 10-year-old.

Sara’s father Urfan Sharif and her stepmother Beinash Batool were jailed for life in December for years of horrific “torture” and “despicable” abuse that led to her death.

On Friday, Sir Geoffrey Vos said: “In the circumstances of this case, the judge had no jurisdiction to anonymise the historical judges either on 9 December 2024 or thereafter. He was wrong to do so.”

He added that “if, notwithstanding the lack of evidence to that effect, the judge was concerned about their being named, there were other, more appropriate, ways to protect them”.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

From December: Sara Sharif’s father and stepmother jailed

Sir Geoffrey added on Friday that “judges will sit on many types of case in which feelings run high” and “where there may be risks to their personal safety”.

More on Sara Sharif

“It is up to the authorities with responsibility for the courts to put appropriate measures in place to meet these risks, depending on the situation presented by any particular case,” he said.

“The first port of call is not, and cannot properly be, the anonymisation of the judge’s name.”

He also said that Mr Williams “got carried away” in his ruling and “behaved unfairly” toward two journalists. He then noted that the High Court judge made an “unwarranted” sarcastic remark about a 2021 Channel 4 programme.

Sir Geoffrey told the court: “He said, for no reason that I could discern: ‘Thank goodness that journalists don’t have to operate as the courts do and hear both sides before delivering their verdict!’.

“Such sarcasm has no proper place in a court judgment.”

Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal heard the judges who oversaw court proceedings had “serious concerns” about the risks posed to them and their families if they were named.

It also heard that two of the judges are retired, with the third still sitting as a judge, and that all three wanted “to convey their profound shock, horror and sadness about what happened to Sara Sharif”.

Mr Williams previously also argued that holding individuals involved in those proceedings responsible was “equivalent to holding the lookout on the Titanic responsible for its sinking”.

Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik.
Pic: Surrey Police
Image:
Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik.
Pic: Surrey Police

Previously released documents showed that Surrey County Council first had contact with Sharif and Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, in 2010 – more than two years before Sara was born.

At the time, the council had received “referrals indicative of neglect” relating to her two older siblings, known only as Z and U.

The authority began care proceedings concerning Z and U in January 2013, and involved Sara within a week of her birth.

Between 2013 and 2015, several allegations of abuse were made that were never tested in court, with one hearing in 2014 told that the council had “significant concerns” about the children returning to Sharif, “given the history of allegations of physical abuse of the children and domestic abuse with Mr Sharif as the perpetrator”.

Read more from Sky News:
All the cancellations and closures caused by Storm Eowyn
Record number of children living in B&Bs beyond legal limit

In 2019, a judge approved Sara moving to live with her father at the home in Woking where she later died after a campaign of abuse.

Sharif and Batool were jailed for life for Sara’s murder in December, with minimum terms of 40 years and 33 years.

Her uncle, Faisal Malik, was jailed for 16 years after being convicted of causing or allowing her death.

In a statement after the court’s ruling, freelance journalists Louise Tickle and Hannah Summers – who challenged Mr Williams’s order – said: “We feel that any other decision would have set a dangerous precedent going forward and undermined the efforts undertaken over the last two years to open up the family courts to greater transparency.

“There now need to be real efforts to work out what went wrong in this heartbreaking case where a young girl’s life was stolen from her, and what might need to change.”

Continue Reading

Trending