‘Ray of light’: Tributes to mobility scooter user stabbed to death
A man who used a mobility scooter has been stabbed to death in east London.
Jade Anthony Barnett, 38, was attacked on Wednesday afternoon and two men have since been arrested.
Jade Anthony Barnett
The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at 3.38pm on Wednesday to reports of a fight in Rushmore Road, Clapton, and found a man with a stab injury.
He was treated by London Ambulance Service paramedics but was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tributes on Overbury Street, near the scene in Rushmore Road, Clapton. Pic: PA
Tributes on Overbury Street, near the scene in Rushmore Road, Clapton. Pic: PA
His sister, Simone Barnett, 45, from Hackney, told the PA news agency that her brother was “jolly, cheerful, caring” and he never took anything “too seriously… he laughed everything off”.
A local resident, Paul Edgar, told Sky News that Mr Barnett was “a really good man” and a “thoroughly decent guy”.
He added that the stabbing was “very shocking” and just one other similar incident had happened in the area in the 50 years he had lived there.
A police officer stands by a police cordon as members of the public lay tributes on Overbury Street, near the scene in Rushmore Road, Clapton. Pic: PA
Another neighbour, Jacquie, said Mr Barnett was a “ray of light” and had a “face that could light anyone’s day”.
She added that he was “super nice” and “a joy to see”. She called him “Mr Sunshine” because “his smile would just lift you”.
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‘He never had a bad bone in his body’ said Mr Barnett’s neighbour
“The community is just devastated because he didn’t deserve that. He was never nasty to anyone, he never had a bad bone in his body,” she told Sky News.
A police tent near the scene in Rushmore Road, Clapton. Pic: PA
Mr Barnett used to live in Clapton with his mother but his friends said he had moved to the Stratford area.
He is believed to have lost his leg in a motorcycle accident in 2007.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
Two men, aged 28 and 21, have been arrested and remain in custody at an east London police station.
A black and grey electric wheelchair could be seen standing behind the cordon close to a forensics tent at the scene late on Wednesday evening.
Forensic officers at the scene in Rushmore Road. Pic: PA
Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway, responsible for policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: “Our investigation is still in the early stages and my detectives are working hard to establish the circumstances of what has happened.
“If anyone has any information about this tragic incident, I urge them to come forward and speak to us, or you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously with any information.
“Our thoughts are with the family of the victim at this difficult time. The public can expect to see continued and significant police activity in the local area as we continue with our rigorous investigation.”
Anyone with any information has been asked to call police on 101 or message @MetCC on X, formerly Twitter, quoting CAD 4793/28AUG.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
Read more on grooming gangs:
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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