A man has been charged after a three-year-old died in a crash in Manchester on Saturday.

The girl, who died following the incident involving a tram and a van, was named as Louisa ‘Lulu’ Palmisano, from Burnley.

In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said Rawal Rehman, 35, from Manchester, had been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

He will appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court later on Wednesday, the force added.

Police previously said emergency services responded to reports of a road traffic collision in Manchester city centre at around 10am on Saturday.

They said a van was in a collision with a tram, which forced the van on to a pavement where it collided with a pedestrian.

Lulu died after the collision in Mosley Street.

Her parents paid tribute to her, describing her as “the sweetest, kindest, and most generous little girl”.

In a statement issued by police, they said: “Her absence has left a devastating void in our family – she was our only child, our whole world.

“We were simply enjoying a happy family day out in Manchester when this unimaginable tragedy struck.

“In an instant, our lives were shattered beyond repair.

“The pain of losing her is unbearable, and we miss her more than words can ever express.”

The number of convictions linked to a second Post Office IT scandal being investigated for miscarriages of justice – has more than doubled, Sky News has learned.

Twenty-one Capture cases have now been submitted to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) for review.

Before Christmas, it was around eight.

They relate to the Capture computing software, which was used in Post Office branches in the 1990s before the infamous faulty Horizon system was introduced.

Hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly accused of stealing after Horizon software caused false shortfalls in branch accounts between 1999 and 2015.

A report last year found that there was a reasonable likelihood that the Capture accounting system, used from the early 1990s until 1999, was also responsible for shortfalls.

If the CCRC finds significant new evidence or legal arguments not previously heard before, cases can be referred back to the Court of Appeal.

Lawyer for victims, Neil Hudgell from Hudgell Solicitors, says the next steps for the Capture cases and the CCRC are still “some months away”.

He said he is also hopeful that the first cases could be referred to the Court of Appeal before the end of this year.

“Certainly we will certainly be lobbying,” he said. “The CCRC will be lobbying, the advisory board will be lobbying any interested parties, that these are hideously damaged people of advancing years who need some peace of mind and the quicker that can happen the better.”

‘We didn’t talk about it’

Among those submitted to the CCRC – Pat Owen’s Capture case was the first.

Her family have kept her 1998 conviction for stealing from her post office branch a secret for 26 years.

Speaking to Sky News they have opened up for the first time about what happened to her.

Pat was a former sub-postmistress, who was found guilty and given a two-year suspended sentence.

She died in 2003 from heart failure.

Her daughters describe her as coming home from court after her conviction “a different woman”.

“We didn’t talk about it,” said Juliet Shardlow. “We didn’t talk about it amongst ourselves as a family, we didn’t talk about it with the extended family.

“Our extended family don’t know.”

David Owen, Pat’s husband, said she lost a lot of weight after her conviction and at 62 years old “looked like an old gal of 90”.

Capture evidence never heard in court

Pat’s family kept all the documents from her case safe for over two decades and now a key piece of evidence may turn the tide on her conviction, and potentially help others.

A document summarising the findings of an IT expert described the computer Pat used as having “a faulty motherboard”.

It also stated that this “would have produced calculation errors and may have been responsible for the discrepancies subsequently identified by Post Office Counters’ Security and Investigation team.”

Read more from Sky News:
Sub-postmasters: ‘Still going through hell’
Compensation for victims of Capture
Calls on Fujitsu for compensation

The computer expert was due to give evidence in Pat Owen’s defence at court as part of her trial – but failed to turn up on the day.

The family say they never found out exactly why he didn’t show up at court.

David said there was a computer all set up in the courtroom for the expert to use to show malfunctions.

“I heard, now I can’t remember who from, that he’d done work for the Post Office,” he said.

“If he turned up to be a witness in court for us to he wouldn’t get any more work from the Post Office.”

Despite best efforts the expert has never been tracked down. The Post Office has declined to comment.

David also described how his wife never expected to lose her case.

“She was so confident. She knew she didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

“But when the guilty verdict came out she actually fell to her knees in the dock crying her eyes out shaking.”

He said the judge then asked if he wanted to say anything, and David said he got up in court and spoke at length about his wife’s innocence.

The government announced in December that they will be setting up a redress scheme for Capture victims, similar to Horizon.

So far around 100 people who suffered after being accused of stealing from their branch, while using Capture, could be eligible for redress.

Heathrow Airport is in talks with scores of airlines including British Airways about a once-a-decade overhaul of its occupancy – which could lead to some being forced to relocate their long-standing bases.

Sky News has learnt that Heathrow has opened negotiations with the 82 carriers which fly from the airport with a view to implementing operational changes aimed at better using its capacity during the coming years.

The last such set of discussions with carriers is understood to have taken place more than a decade ago.

It was unclear on Wednesday what stage the talks were at, or how fundamental the resulting changes would be, although airlines with major workforces at Heathrow are expected to try to moderate or resist enforced relocations.

By far the most significant operator at Heathrow is BA, which moved into the £4.3bn Terminal 5 in March 2008.

T5 is used exclusively by the airline, and handles more than 30m passengers annually.

Industry sources described the possibility of BA relocating its existing Heathrow home as highly unlikely.

A BA spokesman declined to comment.

Other major airline users of Heathrow include Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

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Sources said Heathrow’s review could lead to a wide-ranging shift in space allocation at the airport.

One industry insider speculated that members of the Star Alliance, which include Air Canada, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa and which largely operate out of Terminal 2, could be among those affected by the shake-up.

Responding to an enquiry from Sky News, a spokesman for Heathrow said: “Occupancy reviews are a normal part of running the airport – it’s how we ensure we make best use of the space that we have.

“We undertake these reviews usually once a decade to accommodate for changes in airline operations and airport infrastructure – the last review was in 2014 to coincide with the opening of Terminal 2.”

The spokesman added that its “objective in these reviews is to make the best use of the limited space at Heathrow, particularly focusing on driving overall operational resilience and matching available capacity with demand – this enables us to protect passenger experience of travelling through the airport”.

He said occupancy decision were made “in consultation with the entire airline community”.

On Wednesday, Heathrow said it would pay a dividend to shareholders for the first time in five years, with such payouts having been stymied by the pandemic.

The £250m payment comes as the Labour government seeks to boost economic growth by approving an unprecedented wave of aviation capacity projects.

Last year, Heathrow served close to 84m passengers, with pre-tax profits rising 31% to £917m.

Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, is expected to give the green light to expansion at Gatwick, London’s second-biggest airport, this week, while Heathrow is reviving plans for a third runway after years of political and public protests.

Heathrow said on Wednesday: “We welcome the government’s endorsement of a third runway at Heathrow – we are submitting our proposals to the government this summer.

“We are working with ministers to agree the policy changes needed to deliver the project successfully.

“Our aim is to meet the government’s ambition to secure planning permission before the end of this parliament.”