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A retired senior police chief has told an inquiry the Royal Military Police’s initial investigation into alleged war crimes by UK Special Forces in Afghanistan was “slow to commence, sluggish in its progress, and never properly resourced”.

Alan Pughsley QPM, who has 39 years of experience in investigating serious and organised crimes, had been asked by the Independent Inquiry Relating to Afghanistan to produce a desktop review of two RMP investigations including Operation Northmoor which began in March 2014.

The inquiry is investigating claims made in a BBC Panorama programme that innocent Afghan civilians were executed by three out of four SAS squadrons between 2010 and 2013.

Evidence submitted to the inquiry suggests as many as 80 people were killed this way during a campaign of night raids.

The RMP launched Operation Northmoor on 31 March 2014, three years after the alleged war crimes.

Mr Pughsley, whose conclusions have not yet been finalised, said the most senior investigating officer (SIO) lacked experience for such a significant investigation.

He identified Operation Northmoor as a Category A investigation – the most serious of its kind but said it “did not progress at the pace, breadth or depth that is required for a Category A investigation”.

He said the investigation’s gold commanders kept few records, minutes were scant, and very few key witnesses were spoken to on time.

Guidance from independent advisors was often not heeded, he said, adding he had not seen sufficient evidence of proper handovers being made when multiple changes were made to investigating staff.

The inquiry heard there was a “confusing landscape,” where at one time four external advisers were offering differing guidelines to the RMP investigators.

A critical delay in starting the investigation, which Mr Pughsley said was not the fault of the RMP, denied early opportunities for gathering contemporaneous witness accounts.

The former police chief criticised the appointment of some investigators saying many lacked skills and experience, including an SIO (Senior Investigating Officer) who had only just attended the relevant training course and had never acted as the SIO in any, or any serious, investigation.

“There was consideration to whether or not a Home Office Police Force could or should’ve been utilised as lead investigators”, Mr Pughsley said before explaining that the Ministry of Defence chose the RMP instead to lead.

“I would’ve asked a Home Office police force to identify an incredibly experienced ISO,” he said.

The inquiry’s counsel Mr Oliver Glasgow KC put to Mr Pughsley: “We remind ourselves, this would have been an enormous challenge for even a highly experienced SIO from the Home Office Police Force.”

Mr Pughsley replied: “Absolutely right.”

Four years to set up resources

Operation Northmoor was described by the former police chief as “a complex and incredibly serious investigation that was fundamentally poorly resourced.”

The inquiry heard how it took two years to find premises and two more to get all the required resources in place.

“If you feel not supported whether as an investigator or one of the senior officers, I think you would feel very, very disappointed and I guess you would feel ‘how seriously are we taking this?’ Or are we just rubber-stamping the definition and not putting the resources into it?’ I hope that’s not the case,” Mr Pughsley said.

Later, the inquiry heard £7m was spent on the creation of a forensics data handling centre which was eventually blocked from being used.

Closure ‘inappropriate and premature’

Mr Pughsley said there were “clearly outstanding lines of enquiry that were not followed”, including a large number of potential witnesses in Afghanistan and data and digital evidence. He added the decision to close Operation Northmore was “inappropriate and premature”.

Operation Northmoor was set up in 2014 to examine allegations of executions by special forces, including those of children.

No charges were ever brought.

Read more:
Arrest warrant for Taliban duo
SAS had ‘golden pass’ in Afghanistan

Operation Cestro, which followed, referred three soldiers to the Service Prosecuting Authority but there were no prosecutions.

Law firm Leigh Day, representing the bereaved families at the inquiry, said its clients have always maintained Operation Northmoor was deeply flawed.

“Mr Pughsley… has raised potential failings at almost every stage of the investigation,” said Tessa Gregory, partner at Leigh Day.

“Perhaps most concerningly, he considers that the investigation was closed prematurely and inappropriately with major lines of enquiry still outstanding.

“Plainly the inquiry now needs to take further evidence from those who were involved with both running and overseeing Operation Northmoor to find out how this complex, multi-homicide military police investigation went so badly wrong.”

The inquiry continues.

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‘My dad could still be here’, says daughter of Bhim Kohli, 80, killed by children in Leicestershire park attack

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'My dad could still be here', says daughter of Bhim Kohli, 80, killed by children in Leicestershire park attack

The daughter of a man who was killed by two children has told Sky News “there is a possibility” he could have still been alive if police had taken anti-social behaviour reports more seriously.

Susan Kohli has spoken to The UK Tonight With Sarah-Jane Mee about what she says were failures by the Leicestershire force, leading up to the death of her 80-year-old father Bhim Kohli near Leicester in September 2024.

Mr Kohli was racially abused and physically attacked just yards from his home as he walked his dog in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town. He suffered a broken neck and fractured ribs, and died in hospital the next day.

Susan Kohli
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Susan Kohli

Susan Kohli is critical of how Leicestershire Police dealt with earlier reports of anti-social behaviour in the area in July and August 2024, before the attack on her father. The force said it did not identify misconduct or missed opportunities, which could have prevented Mr Kohli’s death.

In one of the cases, Ms Kohli said her father faced abusive and racist comments and was spat at. Although the incident in August was not related to her father’s death, she believes a stronger police response could have deterred her dad’s killers.

“Why is it that they’re not taking these things seriously? Are they just waiting for something to happen? Because that’s literally what it looks and feels like.

“They waited for someone to lose their life before they took any stance. If they had arrested these two boys prior to that incident on the 1st of September, there is a possibility my dad could still be here,” she said.

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A boy, who was 14 at the time of the attack, and a girl, who was 12, denied their part in the killing but were found guilty of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court in April. The pair cannot be named because of their age.

Jurors heard the boy kicked and punched Mr Kohli – encouraged by the girl who recorded parts of the attack while laughing.

Susan Kohli told Sarah-Jane Mee she felt the children's sentences were too lenient
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Susan Kohli told Sarah-Jane Mee she felt the children’s sentences were too lenient

Ms Kohli said she felt their sentences were too lenient after the boy received seven years’ detention while the girl was given a three-year youth rehabilitation order.

We need the sentencing guidelines to be looked at, whether it’s a child or an adult, they know what they are doing at that age.

“Why is it that because they are a child that they get half the sentence of an adult? He’s going to be out in three and a half years or even less. How is that justice for taking somebody’s life? But that’s not justice at all. They’ve given us a life sentence.”

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Daughter’s anger over child killers

In August, the Court of Appeal ruled the boy’s sentence will not be changed, saying it was neither unduly lenient nor manifestly excessive.

Solicitor General Lucy Rigby had referred the sentence to the court under the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The girl’s sentence was not referred to the Court of Appeal.

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Leicestershire Police told Sky News that, due to prior police contact with Mr Kohli, the force referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

The force found that proportionate and reasonable lines of enquiry were followed and concluded that no misconduct or missed opportunities which could have prevented Mr Kohli’s death were identified.

Chief Superintendent Jonathan Starbuck said: “The death of Bhim Kohli is an extremely shocking, traumatic and upsetting incident and our thoughts, sorrow and sympathies continue to remain with Mr Kohli’s family and friends.

“We know that anti-social behaviour has a huge impact on people’s lives. Preventing and addressing incidents and community concerns is of the utmost importance to our force in order to ensure the safety of our residents. This is something we continue to work on, address and to make ongoing improvements wherever we can.

“Through our own local investigation, following direction by the IOPC, we also identified organisational learning in relation to improving our system of logging and tagging anti-social behaviour incidents.”

An IOPC spokesperson said: “We agreed with Leicestershire Police’s finding that police officers did proactively investigate matters reported to them and there was nothing to indicate any officers or police staff committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner justifying disciplinary proceedings.

“And we agreed with learning identified by the force in respect of accurately recording and tagging incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB), thus ensuring incidents can be dealt with appropriately and to support the long-term management and deterrence of ASB.”

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Summer 2025 was warmest on record – and repeat is now 70 times more likely, Met Office says

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Summer 2025 was warmest on record - and repeat is now 70 times more likely, Met Office says

The UK has just sizzled through its hottest summer on record, a phenomenon made 70 times more likely by climate change, the Met Office said today.

It beat the previous high set in 2018, and kicks the notoriously hot summer of 1976 into sixth place.

The persistent heat drove hosepipe bans, “nationally significant” water shortfalls, and even a “false autumn” in places.

The new provisional data found temperatures between 1 June and 31 August 2025 were 16.10C on average across the UK – much higher than the previous record of 15.76C in 2018.

The difference might sound small, but – as an average over a three-month period, including day and nighttime temperatures – is in fact substantial.

All the top five warmest summers have occurred since the year 2000, which the Met Office called a “clear sign of the UK’s changing and warming climate”.

This summer was the hottest by far, much warmer than all the previous records, and relegating 1976 to sixth place.
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This summer was the hottest by far, much warmer than all the previous records, and relegating 1976 to sixth place.

Did autumn come early this year?

More on Climate Change

The heat gave rise to early signs of autumn, with blackberries ripening early and leaves turning brown and falling to the ground in August.

This so-called “false autumn” is not the early arrival of the next season, but a survival mechanism of trees and plants when stressed by extreme summer conditions.

They shed leaves and fruit ahead of schedule to conserve water and energy, especially the younger trees whose shallow roots can’t access moisture further underground.

Kevin Martin from Kew Gardens called false autumns a “visible warning sign”.

“Trees are remarkably resilient, but they are also long-lived organisms facing rapid environmental changes.”

Was this summer warmer than 1976?

This summer was the hottest on record going back to 1884, and far warmer even than the memorably hot summer of 1976, which now trails in sixth place.

The Met Office’s Dr Mark McCarthy said this shows how “what would have been seen as extremes in the past are becoming more common in our changing climate”.

The summer of 1976 is remembered for its heatwave that lasted more than two weeks, and 16 days in total with temperatures over 32C.

Although 2025 has had just nine days of temperatures over 32C, what is “striking” about this summer is how consistently warm it was, the Met Office said.

Why was this summer so warm?

There were a number of factors that made it so warm, so persistently.

Lingering high pressure made for settled, sunny and warm weather, and fuelled four heatwaves.

It was also very dry, with about a quarter less rain than average for summer – though that varied by region. But it followed the driest spring in England for more than a century.

Dry ground holds less moisture that can evaporate: a process that usually cools things down.

And a marine heatwave sent sea temperatures on the surface well above average, with a knock-on impact on air temperatures.

Overnight temperatures were also high, keeping the average up.

What about climate change?

Climate change made a summer as hot or hotter than this year 70 times more likely, the Met Office said.

It adds another layer of heat on top of the other weather patterns that may have happened without humans changing the climate.

The UK is warming by roughly 0.25C per decade, and is already at least 1.24C warmer than the period between 1961-1990.

Without climate change, a summer like in 2025 would have happened about once in every 340 years. Now it’s expected once in five years.

Anna Roguski from Friends of the Earth, said the summer “underlined how unprepared the UK is for extreme heat”.

She said we “urgently” need to adapt towns with things like stricter building standards, shaded streets and “far more nature woven through neighbourhoods – trees, wetlands and green spaces help to keep things cool”.

“But adaptation alone won’t be enough. To stop summers spiralling ever hotter, we must slash emissions.”

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Retired vicar involved in ‘Eunuch Maker’ extreme body modification ring jailed for three years

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Retired vicar involved in 'Eunuch Maker' extreme body modification ring jailed for three years

A retired Church of England vicar who was part of an extreme body modification ring run by man who called himself the Eunuch Maker has been jailed for three years.

Warning: The following article contains graphic details of extreme physical mutilation

Reverend Geoffrey Baulcomb, 79, pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent after a nine-second video of him using nail scissors to perform a procedure on a man’s penis in January 2020 was found on his mobile phone.

He also admitted seven other charges, including possessing extreme pornography and making and distributing images of children on or before 14 December 2022.

Prosecutors said some of the material included moving images which had been on the eunuch maker website, run by 47-year-old Norwegian national Marius Gustavson.

Marius Gustavson
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Marius Gustavson

Gustavson was jailed for life with a minimum term of 22 years last year after a court heard he made almost £300,000 through his website, where thousands of users paid to watch procedures, including castrations.

Baulcomb was said to have been an “acquaintance” of Gustavson, and the pair exchanged more than 10,000 messages with each other over a four-year period.

He was formerly a vicar at St Mary the Virgin Church in Eastbourne but retired from full-time ministry in the Church of England in 2003.

The diocese of Chichester said he applied for “permission to officiate”, which allows clergy to officiate at church services in retirement, when he moved to Sussex the following year.

But Baulcomb was banned for life from exercising his Holy Orders following a tribunal last year, which heard he was issued with a caution after police found crystal meth and ketamine at his home in December 2022.

He had claimed experimenting with drugs or allowing his home in Eastbourne to be used for drug taking would “better enable him to relate and minister to people with difficulties as part of his pastoral care”.

The diocese said the Bishop of Chichester immediately removed his permission to officiate after being contacted by police, and bail conditions prevented him from attending church or entering Church of England premises.

‘Nullos’ subculture

The Old Bailey heard last year that extreme body modification is linked to a subculture where men become “nullos”, short for genital nullification, by having their penis and testicles removed.

Gustavson and nine other men have previously admitted their involvement in the eunuch maker ring, which one victim said had a “cult-like” atmosphere.

The life-changing surgeries, described as “little short of human butchery” by the sentencing judge, were carried out by people with no medical qualifications, who he had recruited.

Prosecutors said there was “clear evidence of cannibalism” as Gustavson – who had his own penis and nipple removed and leg frozen so it needed to be amputated – cooked testicles to eat in a salad.

Gustavson, who was said to have been involved in almost 30 procedures, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm between 2016 and 2022.

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