A man has been charged with four counts of attempted murder after a car collided with a group of people in London’s West End on Christmas Day.

Anthony Gilheaney, 30, will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday and has also been charged with causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified, driving a motor vehicle dangerously and possession of a bladed article in a public place, the Metropolitan Police said.

Four people were taken to hospital after the incident, with one in a life-threatening condition.

Metropolitan Police officers were called to reports of a crash and a car driving on the wrong side of the road at 12.45am.

The incident occurred outside the Sondheim Theatre, which is the London home of the musical Les Miserables.

Shaftesbury Avenue is at the heart of London‘s West End and the city’s theatre district.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the suspect was arrested within minutes of the incident “in the early hours of Christmas Day”.

“Since then, investigators have worked tirelessly to build the case and have today charged Anthony Gilheaney with four counts of attempted murder.

“Our thoughts now are with the victims, one of which remains in critical condition in hospital.”

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Revellers are set for a “wet and rather windy” New Year’s Eve, with the potential for a snowy Hogmanay in Scotland.

There could be some “possibly disruptive weather” on 31 December, Met Office meteorologist Simon Partridge said, with Scotland likely to see the worst of it.

“It looks like there could be some wet and rather windy weather, particularly across Scotland,” he said.

There is potential for snow on both high and low ground in Scotland.

Looking into the first few days of the new year, the mild and largely settled conditions the UK has felt over the last few days are expected to see an “erratic change”, the Met Office says.

Rain and wind already felt in Scotland could become more severe and push southwards, bringing a chance of snow to other parts of the UK as we begin 2025.

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Before ringing in the new year, the last few days of 2024 are set to be dull and drizzly with outbreaks of patchy rain in parts of Scotland on Friday.

Mild temperatures and conditions similar to those on Boxing Day are forecast, with thick cloud and “patchy drizzle” in areas including western Wales and south-west England, the weather service said.

Mr Partridge said: “Basically, northeast seems to be the place to be for the next couple of days if you want to see some brighter and maybe even some blue sky at times, whereas elsewhere is mainly grey.”

Over the weekend it will become “a little bit windier and a little bit wetter” across Scotland, with showers in northern Scotland as a result of low pressure, he said.

Further south it will be “pretty cloudy” with some breaks in the cloud on Sunday because of slightly stronger winds, Mr Partridge added.

Children with special educational needs are being “segregated” and left to struggle in the wrong schools because councils are trying to “save on costs”, parents have told Sky News. 

Maire Leigh Wilson, whose four-year-old son has Down’s syndrome, says she “shudders to think” where he would be now had she not been in a “constant battle” with her council.

“I think he would probably just be at the back of a classroom, running around with no support and no ability to sign or communicate,” she said.

Mrs Leigh Wilson wanted her son Aidan to go to a mainstream school with additional specialist support, but her council, who decide what is known as a child’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), wanted him to attend a special school.

The number of EHCPs being appealed by parents has risen “massively”, according to education barrister Alice De Coverley.

She said councils are struggling to meet the volume of demand with “stretched budgets”, and parents are also more aware of their ability to appeal.

Mrs De Coverley said more than 90% of tribunals are won by parents, in part because councils do not have the resources to fight their cases.

She said, in her experience, parents of children with special educational needs will put “anything on the line, their homes, their jobs”.

On whether she thinks the system is rigged against parents, Mrs De Coverley said: “I’m not sure it’s meant to be. But I think that parents are certainly finding it very tough.”

She added the number of “unlawful decisions” being made by local authorities means parents who can afford it are being “utterly burnt out” by legal challenges.

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Mrs Leigh Wilson’s case was resolved before making it to court.

Her council, Hounslow in southwest London, said they complete more than four in five new EHCPs within the statutory 20-week timescale, twice the national average.

Hounslow Council said they “put families at the heart of decision-making” and young people in the area with special educational needs and disabilities achieve, on average, above their peers nationally.

They admitted there are areas of their offer “that need to be further improved” and they are “working closely with families as a partnership”.

“We have a clear and credible plan to achieve this, and we can see over the last 18 months where we have focused our improvement work, the real benefits of an improved experience for children, young people, and their families,” a Hounslow Council spokesman said.

He added the council had seen the number of EHCPs double in the last decade and they “share parents’ frustrations amid rising levels of national demand, and what’s widely acknowledged as a broken SEND system”.

Emma Dunville, a friend of Mrs Leigh Wilson whose son also has Down’s syndrome, describes her experience trying to get the right education provision for her child as “exhausting mentally and physically”.

She said: “For the rest of his life we’ll be battling, battling, battling, everything is stacked up against you.”

Unlike Mrs Leigh Wilson, Mrs Dunville wanted her son Albie to go to a special school, but she had to wait more than a year for an assessment with an education psychologist to contribute to the council’s decision, which meant she missed the deadline for an EHCP.

“The people making these decisions just don’t see that all children with Down’s syndrome are totally different and can’t be seen as the same.”

The guidelines are that if there are not enough local authority-employed education psychologists they should seek a private assessment, but her local authority did not do that.

Mrs Dunville said her son has been “segregated” in a mainstream school, where they are “trying their best” but “it’s just not the right setting”.