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Kamis, 18 November 2021

Zephaniah McLeod: Birmingham stabbing spree killer sentenced - BBC News

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A killer who launched a deadly stabbing spree in Birmingham has been sentenced to at least 21 years.

Jacob Billington, 23, died and seven others were hurt in five separate incidents carried out in 90 minutes across the city on 6 September 2020.

Zephaniah McLeod, 29, previously admitted manslaughter and four counts of attempted murder.

Judge Justice Pepperall said he would be detained at Ashworth hospital for "as long as necessary".

Afterwards, he said McLeod would see out the remainder of his term in prison.

The 29-year-old, of Nately Grove, Selly Oak, had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was "well-known" to mental health services at the time of the apparently random attacks.

An ongoing NHS-led serious case review into various agencies' contact with McLeod prior to the stabbing was making it hard to get answers to outstanding questions, said Mr Billington's family.

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The 23-year-old from Crosby, in Merseyside, was enjoying a night out in Birmingham when he was stabbed.

His friend Michael Callaghan, 24, was left with life-changing injuries.

Birmingham stabbings: 'Why did he pick my son?'

Birmingham Crown Court heard McLeod had caught a taxi home part-way through his attacks, to pick up another knife, before returning to the city centre.

Chosen at random

Mr Justice Pepperall said McLeod had gone on a "murderous rampage" during the 90 minutes and left behind an "appalling catalogue of offending of the utmost gravity".

"Your victims were variously enjoying a night out or returning home from work," the judge said.

"They gave you no offence and they were chosen at random. Wherever possible you aimed your knives at your victims' necks.

"I have no doubt whatsoever you are a very dangerous man and pose a significant risk to members of the public of serious harm."

The court heard McLeod had refused a psychiatric appointment in the days before his fatal attacks.

'Unanswered questions'

Prior to that, he had little contact with health services after being released from prison in April 2020, despite a history of refusing to take his medication and hearing voices telling him to kill and stab people.

Jacob's mother Joanne Billington said there were still many "unanswered questions" about various state agencies' prior treatment and monitoring of McLeod, and believes "mistakes were made".

In an impact statement read to the court she said she hoped McLeod's care would be "properly looked into and that all involved remember my son bled to death in the street at the hands of someone well-known to many agencies".

Speaking after the sentencing, Jacob's father Keith Billington said while the family continued to grieve "we must ask the obvious question - why was McLeod - known to so many agencies - allowed to be out an about on 6 September unsupervised, unmedicated and not under licence?"

Mr Justice Pepperall said it was a "matter of considerable concern" McLeod was "simply lost in the system for some weeks".

He said he had been left "without any appropriate follow up by mental health services" following his release from prison at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Analysis - BBC News Correspondent, Phil Mackie

During the sentencing hearing Abbie Billington, Jacob's sister, read out a statement in which she asked "how was a man so unstable and in a mental health crisis able to walk the streets unsupervised?"

A multi-agency review will attempt to answer that question. It is unlikely to be published until early next year.

This wasn't the first time that someone who was seriously mentally ill had killed someone with a knife in the centre of Birmingham.

In May 2001 Rosie Ross was fatally stabbed by Inderjit Kainth, who was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

In his case, he hadn't been known to the authorities beforehand. That wasn't the case when Glaister Butler killed detective constable Michael Swindells in 2004, nor when Philip Simelane killed Christina Adkins in 2013.

The authorities admitted errors and promised to learn lessons then. What the Billington family wants to know is whether the same mistakes have been made again and if lessons will be learned in the future.

Police said witnesses' varying descriptions of McLeod and the random nature of the attacks made it difficult to link them on the night.

McLeod attacked his first victim just after 00:30 BST in Constitution Hill, where a 33-year-old man sustained a neck wound.

He then went on to carry out attacks in Livery Street, and Barwick Street before dumping his weapon down a drain and calling at a pizza restaurant to ask for a new knife.

Staff, unaware of what had happened, called him a taxi and he travelled home to Selly Oak, before returning rearmed to continue his attacks, including the fatal injury of Jacob Billington on Irving Street at about 01:50.

Supt Jim Munro said stabbings in Birmingham were "not uncommon" and information from witnesses, coupled with the different locations made it difficult to link the incidents.

He said officers "painstakingly viewed many, many hours of CCTV", while the pizza restaurant where McLeod had called a taxi helped direct officers to the Selly Oak area, where they later arrested McLeod.

West Midlands Police was forced to defend its response to the attacks, but a review found it acted "appropriately and professionally".

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2021-11-18 15:12:07Z
1176659823

HS2: Eastern leg of high-speed line to Leeds scrapped and plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail downgraded - Sky News

The government has been accused of committing a "great train robbery" after Grant Shapps confirmed the eastern leg of HS2 has been scrapped and plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail have been downgraded.

The transport secretary told MPs that a new £96bn Integrated Rail Plan for the north and the Midlands will instead deliver "faster" train journeys both earlier and cheaper than the original HS2 plans would have done.

But a senior Tory criticised the government for "selling perpetual sunlight" and delivering "moonlight" for people in the north of England.

Analysis: New rail plan is not what was promised - but could it be the right one?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the announcement as "a much better plan" and said it was "total rubbish" to suggest he was breaking his former promises on rail connections.

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "The north of England has been betrayed."

Unveiling the new plan in the Commons, Mr Shapps confirmed that the eastern leg of HS2 will no longer go all the way to Leeds. It will instead stop in the East Midlands near Nottingham.

Plans for HS2 were originally meant to connect London with the city centres of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds.

Catch up on latest updates from rail plan announcements

The transport secretary told MPs the new £96bn rail plan will instead deliver three high-speed lines - HS2 Crewe to Manchester, Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway, Warrington to Manchester - but not HS2 to Leeds or Northern Powerhouse Rail Leeds to Manchester.

Justifying the revised project, Mr Shapps said it "will bring benefits at least a decade or more earlier", adding that under the original scheme, HS2 would not reach the North until the early 2040s.

"We will provide a journey time of 33 minutes from Leeds to Manchester, a significant, a very significant, improvement," he told MPs, adding that the new project "will provide a better service than the outdated plan for HS2 a decade ago".

But Conservative chairman of the Transport Select Committee Huw Merriman told the Commons the government's new plan "compromises some fantastic projects that will slash journey times and better connect our great northern cities".

What PM has said before about rail plans

Another Conservative MP, Craig Tracey, said it is "really difficult" to share the optimism in the announcement because it is "very disappointing to hear that HS2 will not be scrapped in full".

Fellow Tory MP Robbie Moore pointed out that Bradford - the seventh largest city in the UK - will still not have a mainline station under the new plans.

"I'm deeply disappointed by today's announcement. The Bradford district has been completely short-changed," the MP for Keighley said.

Conservative MP for Thirsk and Malton in Yorkshire, Kevin Hollinrake, added that the original HS2 project could have been a great economic boost for Bradford.

Sir Keir said: "Bradford's been betrayed and the north of England has been betrayed. The prime minister made two very important promises: HS2 all the way to Leeds, a new line, that promise has been ripped up. He also promised Northern Powerhouse Rail, a new line from Manchester to Leeds and that plan's been ripped up.

"This was the first test of levelling up and the government has completely failed and let down everybody in the north. You can't believe a word the prime minister says."

Meanwhile, Labour's shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon described the government's new plan as a "great train robbery", adding that ministers have "betrayed" the north.

He accused the PM of breaking a promise to build the entirety of HS2 made "60 times" in the past few years, telling MPs: "We were promised a Northern Powerhouse, we were promised a Midlands Engine, to be levelled up. But what we have been given today is a great train robbery."

Mr McMahon said most of the £96bn rail investment Mr Shapps confirmed is not "new money" and therefore amounts to "crumbs off the table".

"He promised the north would not be forgotten. He hasn't just forgotten us - he's completely sold us out!," the shadow transport secretary added.

Labour former minister Hilary Benn accused ministers of leaving a "huge big hole in the middle" of the north of England.

And Labour MP for York Central, Rachel Maskell, said the announcement will be "a bitter blow" to her constituents and to the local economy.

But speaking to reporters on Thursday, the PM said: "We are doubling capacity between Manchester and Leeds. We're trebling capacity between Liverpool and Manchester. And, of course, there are going to be people who, you know, always want everything at once.

"And there are lots of people who'll say, 'look, what we should do is carve huge new railways through virgin territory, smashing through unspoilt countryside and villages, and do it all at once'.

"The problem with that is those extra high-speed lines take decades and they don't deliver the commuter benefits that I'm talking about. We will eventually do them."

Mr Shapps added that the new "landmark" Integrated Rail Plan is an "ambitious and unparalleled programme" to overhaul inter-city links across the north and the Midlands - and said work will start "by Christmas".

"This new blueprint delivers three high-speed lines. First, that's Crewe to Manchester. Second, Birmingham to the East Midlands with HS2 trains continuing to central Nottingham and central Derby, Chesterfield and Sheffield on an upgraded mainline. And third, a brand new high-speed line from Warrington to Manchester and to the western border of Yorkshire - slashing journey times across the north," the transport secretary told the Commons.

He added that it is "wrong" to say the government is just "electrifying the TransPennine route".

"What we're actually doing is investing £23bn to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and the TransPennine route upgrade, unlocking east-west travel across the north of England," he told MPs.

"So, in total, this package is 110 miles of new high-speed line, all of it in the Midlands and the north. It's 180 miles of newly-electrified line, all of it in the Midlands and the north."

The government will "study how best to take HS2 trains into Leeds", Mr Shapps added.

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He also confirmed £360m to reform fares and ticketing with the rollout of contactless pay-as-you-go ticketing to 700 urban stations, "including 400 in the north".

Northern political leaders had warned the government will pass up huge economic benefits and betray promises to voters if, as expected, it cancelled the eastern leg of HS2 and a new Manchester-Leeds line.

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership said the cuts, which will see upgrades on the existing trans-Pennine line, will save just £4bn, and short-change commuters and businesses.

"Watering down Northern Powerhouse Rail for the sake of only 10% of the overall original budget of £39bn is unforgivably short-sighted from the Treasury," said director Henri Murison.

The cuts will raise questions about the prime minister's oft-quoted "levelling up" agenda, designed to spread wealth beyond southeast England, leaving him vulnerable to a charge of breaking a promise to new Conservative voters in the north.

But, posting on social media, the PM said the Integrated Rail Plan is "levelling up in action".

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2021-11-18 14:56:45Z
1170515412

Zephaniah McLeod: Birmingham knifeman who killed one and injured seven in random attacks gets life sentence - Sky News

A man who stabbed people at random, killing one and seriously injuring seven others, has been sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years.

Zephaniah McLeod carried out the attacks within 90 minutes in the early hours of 6 September last year, as people were enjoying a night out in Birmingham.

CCTV and dashcam footage captured him walking calmly through city centre streets, stabbing people and moving on.

McLeod pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, as well as four charges of attempted murder and three charges of wounding with intent.

He was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.

The judge said the 28-year-old was a "significant risk" to the public and ordered him to be detained, initially at Ashworth psychiatric hospital.

He told McLeod that his victims "gave you no offence and they were chosen at random".

"Wherever possible you aimed your knives at your victims' necks," he added.

McLeod was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time and was "well-known" to mental health services.

However, the judge said he got "lost in the system" after being freed from prison during the COVID lockdown in April 2020.

After the first three stabbings, McLeod disposed of his knife down a drain, took a taxi to his home in Selly Oak four miles away, re-armed himself and headed back into town.

It was then that he came across Jacob Billington, 23, from Liverpool, and his friend Michael Callaghan.

They were part of a group of seven friends returning to their hotel after a night out.

McLeod asked the group if they had a lighter before attacking them.

Mr Billington was stabbed through the neck. He was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead at 2.57am.

His mother, Jo, had last seen her son as he left to celebrate a friend's birthday.

"I can still see him leaving the house with the lads in the car outside beeping the horns getting him to hurry up, and he skipped out, and we just thought he was going for a lovely night out with his friends," she recalled.

She was woken in the early hours by police knocking on the door to tell her that her son had been killed.

"It was absolutely awful. You feel like you had all the breath sucked out of you is the best way to describe it," she said.

She then had to wake his sisters to tell them.

Abbie Billington, 22, remembered the moment she found out her brother was dead.

"There are just no words to describe the sadness that I felt," she said.

Mr Callaghan suffered catastrophic injures . McLeod's knife severed his jugular vein and carotid artery. He lost so much blood he had a stroke.

His mother, Anne Callaghan, was woken by a call from the hospital.

"We were called in the morning about 5.30am by a nurse to say that he was in theatre, and he was stable, and obviously that was terrible to hear.

"We didn't know what she was talking about, and I said, 'what's happened?' She said, 'he's been stabbed'. I couldn't grasp it at all."

They travelled to Birmingham and were told that if he survived, he would have life-changing injuries.

It was 10 days before they were confident he would make it.

Before the stabbing, Mr Callaghan and Mr Billington were in a band.

They both loved music, and the former enjoyed sport too. But over the last 14 months, he has had to relearn to walk and still can't use his left hand.

His mother said life is difficult for her son, who is mourning the loss of his best friend.

"Michael is just devastated at the loss of Jacob," she said. "They were totally on the same wavelength, and you know he misses him every day."

The court heard McLeod had been suffering with paranoid schizophrenia since 2012.

He had previous convictions for robbery, escaping from lawful custody, possession of a firearm in a public place and possession of class A drugs.

He had spoken to a psychiatrist on the phone on 3 September, days before the attack.

"On release from prison in April 2020, we were unable to make contact with him as we were not informed of his whereabouts. I spoke to Zephaniah briefly on the phone whilst he was with his care coordinator…" Dr Ezzine Onuba, the psychiatrist, wrote in a statement.

"Zephaniah continues to hear voices which he told me is there all the time and can be distressing.

"It was difficult to do a full assessment. He was due to be seen face to face on 24 September 2020."

Superintendent Jim Munro told Sky News: "He wasn't under any licence conditions and actively being managed, so he'd come back out having served his sentence."

Mrs Callaghan believes he should never be released.

"All I want is for him to be off the streets because I don't think he can be ever trusted again," she said.

"He's not answered any questions, he's not talked about it, we don't know anything about why he did what he did. How can anybody say he's safe again? I don't think anybody can."

Mr Billington's mother says she believes mistakes have been made by the authorities and hopes a serious case review into the agencies that were aware of McLeod will provide answers.

"For me, there's quite a lot of unanswered questions about what happened on that night," she said.

"And what led up to that night in terms of... this was somebody well known to lots of different agencies in many different sectors, and yet still it appears that he was in a position where he did this.

"The fact that he didn't appear to have been monitored in the way that you would imagine he would.

"As somebody who was known to be dangerous and had a long previous history of being dangerous, had a known mental health condition, none of which seems to have been taken into account at all in terms of how he was monitored."

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2021-11-18 13:42:13Z
1176659823

Rail upgrade pledge as Leeds HS2 leg to be scrapped - BBC News

A rail improvement programme will help transform services in the Midlands and northern England, the government has said ahead of the expected scrapping of part of the HS2 scheme.

Local service upgrades, bringing faster journeys, will happen up to 10 years earlier than planned, ministers say.

The plan will cost £96bn, but only half of that is thought to be new money.

It comes as businesses reacted angrily to reports the East Midlands-Leeds HS2 high-speed line would not be built.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will unveil the plans this morning.

Speaking to the BBC, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab denied that the government was rowing back on promises to "level up" the country with HS2.

He called the new plan "good for the whole country", adding: "We are entirely delivering on the aspiration and ambition of the levelling up agenda."

The Department for Transport (DfT) says its Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) will improve journey times and capacity "from London and across the Pennines" and "strengthen connections between major cities in the North and Midlands".

HS2 was originally meant to connect London with the city centres of Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. But sources have told the BBC that the eastern leg to Leeds is set to be scrapped.

Writing in the Yorkshire Post, Mr Johnson appears to confirm reports that a shorter high-speed route will be created from Birmingham to East Midlands Parkway, with the HS2 trains then running up as far as Sheffield on mainline tracks.

In his article Mr Johnson wrote: "HS2 will come to Sheffield, meaning a trip to or from London will take just one hour 27 minutes - precisely the same as under the old HS2 plans.

"We'll look at how to get HS2 to Leeds too, with a new study on the best way to make it happen.

"But high-speed rail is grindingly slow to build. Under the original blueprint, first drawn up more than a decade ago, Yorkshire would have not have seen the benefits of our investment until at least the 2040s. Levelling up can't wait that long."

The government is also expected to put money aside to explore setting up a tram service for Leeds and spend £360m on contactless ticketing across commuter rail networks.

Speaking ahead of Thursday's announcement, the prime minister said the IRP was the "biggest transport investment programme in a century, delivering meaningful transport connections for more passengers across the country, more quickly - with both high-speed journeys and better local services, it will ensure no town or city is left behind".

The IRP was initiated after the 2020 Oakervee Review into major transport schemes including HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR).

But the prime minister has come under pressure recently over claims the government intends to "water down" planned rail upgrades.

There has been outcry from some politicians and businesses in the north of England at reports that there will not be an entire new fast line between Leeds and Manchester, via Bradford. The improvements to the NPR east-west connections are likely to involve upgrades to existing infrastructure.

Tracy Brabin, Labour Mayor for West Yorkshire, told the BBC: "If what we're hearing is true, it's a betrayal of the North and a betrayal of the people I represent.

"It's going to affect our potential and investment and opportunity, and it's just not good enough."

'Young people will think twice about staying'

Nick Garthwaite, director of chemical manufacturer Christeyns Ltd in Bradford and vice chair of the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, says he is disappointed by the reports that a new line between Manchester and Leeds may not be built.

"I feel the city and its people have been betrayed - we might not get the through railway station that Bradford so desperately needs and indeed was tacitly promised by government over a long period of time," he told the BBC.

A key concern for businesses in Bradford is trying to attract more talent to come to work there, so not having good transport links is a problem.

"What I'm worried about is that these young talented people in Bradford will be thinking twice about staying in the city," he said.

Mr Garthwaite said it was likely that businesses would also consider locating new factories in other parts of England.

His concerns seem to be shared by others. A student told the BBC that many young people were now moving away from Bradford and Leeds to live in cities like Nottingham and Manchester, because the transport links were so poor.

"I'm definitely not going to be staying in Leeds or Bradford because it's not reliable enough," she said.

Speaking to the PA news agency on Tuesday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "[People in the North] should definitely feel optimistic.

"Not only are we going to spend a huge amount of money doing this, we are going to deliver it decades before it would have otherwise happened."

Mr Shapps added that if he had been transport secretary 15 years ago with responsibility for HS2, then "I would have started in the North and moved south, I think that would have made sense".

He went on: "The Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Midlands Connect - all of those did not exist when HS2 was first mooted, but we are where we are and it's being built and we need to make sure we connect it all up and that's what the Integrated Rail Plan intends to achieve."

However, Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, told the BBC's Today programme: "I think we've got a real risk of disappointment across the North.

"The budget that's been promised, £96bn, is about £30bn less than the previous plans and what we were being offered. That means real cuts on the eastern leg, real cuts to the new line across the Pennines through Bradford."

He said it was now vital to ensure better connectivity between Leeds and Sheffield, as the North was "going to lose on that connectivity to the West Midlands and London".

Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers' union Aslef, accused the government of using "smoke and mirrors" while breaking its promises.

"HS2 was meant to be a world-beater... instead, the Tories are letting us down," he said.

"This government is a government of broken promises. It has announced Northern Powerhouse Rail an incredible 60 times - and I know because we've counted - and now it puts the project in the bin."

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MAKING DEATH YOUR LIVING: A showman is forced to trade fairgrounds for funerals to make ends meet
IMAGINE ONE DAY THE WATER JUST KEPT COMING: Where do you go when there is no place but the water?

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2021-11-18 09:13:18Z
CBMiLGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL2J1c2luZXNzLTU5MzIwNTc20gEwaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmJjLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvYnVzaW5lc3MtNTkzMjA1NzYuYW1w

COVID-19: More infectious variant of Delta virus accounts for 1 in 10 COVID cases in England - Sky News

A variant of the Delta virus that is more infectious, but is less likely to cause symptoms, now accounts for more than one in 10 COVID cases in England, new research shows.

The latest results from the long-running REACT-1 study shows the prevalence of the AY.4.2 variant has been growing at a rate of 2.8% a day since September.

The variant is an evolutionary spin-off from the original Delta virus and is being closely tracked by the UK Health Security Agency.

Tests carried out between 19 October and 5 November on around 100,000 randomly selected people showed that 11.8% carried the variant.

But the data also shows that only 33% of those with the variant had the classic COVID symptoms of a fever, persistent cough, or a loss or change in taste or smell - compared to 46% of those with Delta.

They were also less likely to show any other symptoms.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the REACT programme at Imperial College London, said the variant appeared to be even more infectious than the more common Delta version of the virus.

"Why it is more transmissible we don't know. It does seem to be less symptomatic, which is a good thing," he said.

Professor Christl Donnelly, another of the researchers, said it wasn't clear how the variant would impact the pandemic.

"If it is less likely to be symptomatic, then it means it gets tested for less, and people may be out," she said.

"On the other hand, if they are not coughing it might be spreading less far in distance."

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The UK Health Security Agency declared AY.4.2 a 'variant under investigation' on 20 October.

Research so far suggests it is associated with a slightly lower risk of hospitalisation and death than Delta. There does not appear to be a significant drop in vaccine effectiveness.

The latest REACT-1 results also show the booster dose is highly effective, reducing the risk of infection by two-thirds compared to people who have only had two doses.

A single dose of the vaccine given to school children reduces the risk of infection by 56% compared to those who have not had the jab.

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2021-11-18 01:01:51Z
CBMif2h0dHBzOi8vbmV3cy5za3kuY29tL3N0b3J5L2NvdmlkLTE5LW1vcmUtaW5mZWN0aW91cy12YXJpYW50LW9mLWRlbHRhLXZpcnVzLWFjY291bnRzLWZvci0xLWluLTEwLWNvdmlkLWNhc2VzLWluLWVuZ2xhbmQtMTI0NzEwNTbSAYMBaHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLnNreS5jb20vc3RvcnkvYW1wL2NvdmlkLTE5LW1vcmUtaW5mZWN0aW91cy12YXJpYW50LW9mLWRlbHRhLXZpcnVzLWFjY291bnRzLWZvci0xLWluLTEwLWNvdmlkLWNhc2VzLWluLWVuZ2xhbmQtMTI0NzEwNTY

Kamis, 18 November 2021

Zephaniah McLeod: Birmingham stabbing spree killer sentenced - BBC News

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'Unanswered questions'

Analysis - BBC News Correspondent, Phil Mackie

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