Jaden Moodie: Accused killer ‘carried knife for safety’
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Met Police
Jaden Moodie was allegedly dealing drugs for a gang when he was targeted by a group of men
A man accused of murdering a 14-year-old boy sold drugs for a London gang so he could “survive”, and would carry a knife for “safety”, a court has heard.
Jaden Moodie was knocked off a moped and stabbed to death in Leyton, north-east London, on 8 January.
Ayoub Majdouline, who is accused of being one of five men who carried out the attack, told the Old Bailey he had sold drugs since he was 16 years old.
The 19-year-old, from Wembley, denies murder and possession of a knife.
The court has been told Jaden was selling drugs for the Beaumont Crew, also known as Let’s Get Rich, when he was attacked by a group of men who were looking for a rival gang member to attack.
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Julia Quenzler
Ayoub Majdouline denies murdering the teenager and possession of a knife
Jurors heard Mr Majdouline had a troubled upbringing in Leyton and his parents had split up when he was seven.
While living with his mother, he was abused by his stepfather so went to live with his aunt, the court was told.
However, that relationship broke down and he ended up in foster care. His father also died in 2015.
The court was told he had been identified as a victim of modern slavery by the National Crime Agency (NCA) over concerns he was being exploited by older youths.
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PA Media
The jury has been told five men took part in the attack on Jaden Moodie
Giving evidence, Mr Majdouline said he sold drugs “for and with” the Mali Boys gang, including as part of county lines dealing in Basingstoke, Ipswich and Andover.
He told jurors he was previously jailed for drug and knife offences but went straight back to dealing “to survive”
“At the time I did not feel like I was being supported by social services and I never lived by myself before,” he said.
He added that he got “confused” sorting out jobseekers’ allowance when he turned 18 and dealing had been “the only way I knew how to make money”.
Explaining why he carried a knife, Mr Majdouline said he had been “sliced” on one occasion in Basingstoke so carried a blade “for my own safety”.
The trial continues.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman: Middlesex re-sign Afghanistan spinner for T20 Blast
Middlesex have re-signed Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman for next season’s Twenty20 Blast campaign.
The 18-year-old took seven wickets in 10 games last season and will be available for all 14 of their group stage matches in 2020.
Mujeeb made his debut for his country at the age of 16 and featured in this year’s World Cup.
“I enjoyed my time at Middlesex so much, so I am very pleased to be coming back,” he said.
Meanwhile, the club have awarded England’s World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan a testimonial year in 2020.
The 33-year-old made his debut for the county’s first XI in 2005.
Primark guard jailed for sex attacks of shoplifting teens
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Met Police
Zia Uddin kept condoms in the control room where he sexually assaulted the girls
A security guard who raped and sexually assaulted girls stopped for shoplifting has been jailed for 14 years.
Zia Uddin, 27, of Manor Park, Newham, east London, attacked four 15-year-old girls at the Kingston Primark in 2017.
He threatened to call the police and inform their parents if they did not perform sexual acts on him in the control room of the store.
Uddin was convicted of rape and four counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He has also been banned from working with children.
During his trial, Kingston Crown Court heard his colleagues had noticed his strange behaviour, which included making requests to delete CCTV and not properly completing paperwork on shoplifting.
He was also known to keep condoms in the control room where he attacked his victims, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
He threatened to call the police if they did not comply with his demands, it added.
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Google
Zia Uddin knew where the “blind spots” were on the Kingston branch’s CCTV, the court heard
Prosecutors said one girl only did as he asked because “there was no other choice” and it was the only way out of the situation.
Graham Partridge, of the CPS, said Uddin “preyed on young girls in a vulnerable situation”.
“Having worked in security, Uddin was also well aware of the CCTV camera ‘blind spots’ and took advantage of these in order to carry out his offending.”
After the sentencing a Primark spokeswoman said: “This has been a horrendous ordeal for the victims and their families and we are truly sorry for what they have suffered. Our thoughts are very much with them.”
‘Angry pig’ hinders water pipe repairs and causes train disruption
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Network Rail
The water main burst beside the railway track in Surbiton, south-west London
An “angry pig” confronted engineers in a London street, delaying their repair of a burst water main before it was led away with a bag of crisps.
The pipe burst on Lamberts Road, Surbiton, damaging nearby railway equipment, which caused train delays.
Thames Water said their efforts to reach a valve to cut the water were initially hindered by “a large pig” which was “acting aggressively”.
It is not known what flavour crisps were used to lead it away.
Damage caused by the flooding of tracks and signalling equipment meant limited trains have been able to run along the line.
Disruption is currently expected to last until 16:00 GMT although Network Rail said engineers were carrying out inspections.
Thames Water said engineers “were quickly on site” to deal with the burst 120cm (48 in) pipe, but they had been unable to initially carry out the work because of the pig, which is thought to be someone’s pet.
Man admits to trying to rob Arsenal stars Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac
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A second man has admitted trying to rob Arsenal footballers Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac in a moped ambush.
Jordan Northover, 26, pleaded guilty at Harrow Crown Court to attempting to steal watches from the pair in Hampstead, north-west London.
His co-accused Ashley Smith, 30, of Archway in North London, admitted his role in the crime in October.
CCTV footage showed Bosnian defender Kolasinac chasing off the two masked attackers on 25 July
In the video, that circulated on social media, 26-year-old Kolasinac is seen fighting off two men who are wielding knives.
He can be seen jumping out of a vehicle to confront the masked men who had pulled alongside the car on mopeds.
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Reuters
Arsenal Football Club said both Sead Kolasinac and Mesut Özil were fine after the incident
In the footage, both carjackers were seen to be armed and were filmed brandishing knives at full-back Kolasinac.
World Cup winner Özil can also be seen in his black Mercedes G class jeep before he reportedly took refuge in a Turkish restaurant.
Kolasinac and Germany midfielder Özil were left out of the Arsenal side ahead of the opening weekend of the Premier League campaign after the incident.
Judge Rosa Dean said Smith would be sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on Friday.
Northover will be sentenced at a later date.
Özil told the Athletic sports site that he was scared for his wife Amine as the attackers pursued his car.
“Sead’s reaction was really, really brave because he attacked one of the attackers,” he said.
“I tried to move the car, block them, escape, but each time they would be there. My wife was extremely scared.”
Grenfell Tower fire: Response must be ‘national emergency’, say survivors
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A survivors’ group has welcomed a report on the Grenfell Tower fire, calling for the government to treat its response as “a national emergency”.
The report, published on Wednesday, followed the first phase of an inquiry, looking at what happened on the night of 14 June 2017, when 72 people died.
It was critical of the London Fire Brigade’s response and said the tower did not meet building regulations.
The LFB said it was “disappointed” by some of the criticism of individuals.
Campaign group Grenfell United said the report showed “the immediate and real dangers” of “highly combustible cladding and insulation”.
“Lives are at risk and the government need to treat this as a national emergency,” the group said.
The report made 46 recommendations, including improvements in training for fire brigade staff and the development of national guidelines for evacuating high-rise buildings.
Grenfell United called for the recommendations to be implemented in full, saying they would save lives.
The report condemned the LFB for “serious shortcomings” and systemic failures in its response to the fire.
Inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said the absence of a plan to evacuate the tower was a “major omission” by the LFB and more lives could have been saved had the “stay-put” policy been abandoned sooner.
Grenfell United responded: “It is heartbreaking to read that more of our loved ones could have been saved that night if the building was evacuated earlier.”
At an emotional press conference, relatives of 20 victims of the fire called for an overhaul of the LFB, saying its leadership should resign and even face prosecution.
Nazanin Aghlani, who lost two family members in the fire, said some firefighters displayed a “serious lack of common sense” and failed to see “what was so vivid in front of them”.
“If a fire happened tonight the same thing would happen again,” she said.
‘Too little too late’
The report said evidence from London Fire Brigade Commissioner Dany Cotton that she would not have changed anything about the brigade’s response was “insensitive”.
Ms Cotton said many of the recommendations were welcome and would be “carefully considered”.
She expressed her “deepest sorrow at not being able to save all those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire”.
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She added: “We welcome the chairman’s recognition of the courage, commitment and bravery of firefighters on the night, but we are disappointed at some of the criticism of individual staff members who were placed in completely unprecedented circumstances and faced the most unimaginable conditions while trying to save the lives of others.”
However, Natasha Elcock, chairwoman of Grenfell United who was rescued with her six-year-old daughter from the 11th floor, said Dany Cotton’s statement was “too little too late”.
“She stood up in the inquiry, in a room full of bereaved and survivors and said there’s nothing she would do to change that night,” she told the BBC.
“If she’d expressed that sorrow that day in that room, that potentially would have washed with us today.”
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Reuters
White doves were released at a memorial service earlier this year to mark two years since the tragedy
Grenfell United expressed concern at the report’s finding that the LFB were “at risk of not learning the lessons from Grenfell”, adding that firefighters were “let down by their training, procedures, equipment and leadership”.
Other issues highlighted in the report included:
- A lack of training in how to “recognise the need for an evacuation or how to organise one”
- Incident commanders “of relatively junior rank” being unable to change strategy
- Control room officers lacking training on when to advise callers to evacuate
- An assumption that crews would reach callers, resulting in “assurances which were not well founded”
- Communication between the control room and those on the ground being “improvised, uncertain and prone to error”
- A lack of an organised way to share information within the control room, meaning officers had “no overall picture of the speed or pattern of fire spread”
In the House of Commons, MPs held a minutes’ silence to remember victims of the fire, before a debate on the inquiry.
Boris Johnson told MPs that survivors and the bereaved had been “overlooked and ignored” before the fire and “shamefully failed” afterwards.
The second phase of the inquiry will focus on wider circumstances of the fire, including the design of the building.
While this was not the focus of the first phase, the report found there was “compelling evidence” external walls of the building failed to comply with building regulations and “actively promoted” the spread of fire.
It said the principal reason the flames shot up the building so fiercely was the combustible aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding with polyethylene cores which acted as a “source of fuel”.
Grenfell United said the second phase of the inquiry “must now focus on where responsibility for the devastating refurbishment [of the building] lies”, with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the tenant management organisation and the companies involved facing “serious questions”.
Glyn Hodges: AFC Wimbledon appoint caretaker boss as permanent manager
League One side AFC Wimbledon have appointed caretaker boss Glyn Hodges as their new permanent manager.
The ex-Wales midfielder, 56, has been in charge since Wally Downes was suspended by the club last month, after being charged by the Football Association over bets placed on games.
Downes left Wimbledon on Sunday, two days after being given a four-week FA suspension for admitting the charge.
Former Wimbledon player Hodges had been assistant to Downes at Kingsmeadow.
More to follow.
Jodie Chesney murder accused denies ‘throwing friend under bus’
Jodie Chesney was killed a few weeks before completing her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award
One of Jodie Chesney’s alleged killers has been accused of throwing his business partner “under the bus” over the teenager’s death.
Drug dealer Manuel Petrovic drove Svenson Ong-a-Kwie and two youths to the park where Jodie was fatally stabbed on 1 March.
Mr Petrovic denied he was trying to “rewrite the truth”.
He, along with Mr Ong-a-Kwie and two youths, aged 16 and 17, deny murder and are on trial at the Old Bailey.
Cross-examining Mr Petrovic, Mr Ong-a-Kwie’s lawyer accused him of distancing himself from his co-accused.
Charles Sherrard QC said: “What I suggest is that you have, from the minute you were arrested, decided your best tactic is to present yourself as a particular type of person – somebody who is too nice, the older brother type, and wherever possible, distanced yourself from Svenson.”
Mr Petrovic replied: “That’s not correct.”
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Julia Quenzler
Manuel Petrovic (left) described Svenson Ong-a-Kwie (far right) as “business associates”
Mr Sherrard continued: “And in distancing yourself you have chosen to rewrite the truth and metaphorically throw him under the bus.”
The 20-year-old repeated: “That’s not correct.”
Mr Sherrard asserted that it was Mr Petrovic that 19-year-old Mr Ong-a-Kwie turned to when he needed a lift to Harold Hill on the night of 1 March.
He turned to him again when he needed fresh clothes and trusted him with a “drug line”, it was claimed.
But Mr Petrovic told jurors: “It was more business associates than friends but I would not not class him as a friend.”
Asked why he picked up Ong-a-Kwie on 1 March, leaving customers waiting, he said: “It’s not out of the blue, he would help me out on occasions so I would try to help him out too.”
The Old Bailey trial continues.
Boris Johnson ‘set to give details of Jennifer Arcuri links’
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Boris Johnson is expected to comply with a London Assembly order to explain his links to a US businesswoman.
Len Duvall, chairman of City Hall’s oversight committee, said: “We are going to have something this evening from Downing Street.”
The PM is facing questions about his friendship with Jennifer Arcuri when he was London mayor.
He has been accused of failing to declare a conflict of interest, but has said he acted properly at all times.
Mr Johnson had been given until Tuesday to provide details of contacts with Ms Arcuri.
Mr Duvall said: “We have had some fun and games today arguing about when is the deadline, but we finally have an announcement that they are going to comply, and we are going to get something this evening from Downing Street. I hope it is comprehensive and I hope it provides answers.
“The allegations are serious, I hope the prime minister is treating them seriously.”
He said the assembly’s powers to take action against Mr Johnson, if he was found to have breached its code of conduct, were limited because he was no longer mayor of London.
He held the office between 2008 and 2016.
But it could still summon the prime minister to appear before the oversight committee to answer further questions about his contacts with Ms Arcuri, along with others connected to the case.
Trade missions
The committee has asked for the details and a timeline of all contact between Mr Johnson and Ms Arcuri, including private text messages and emails.
According to the Sunday Times, which first reported the story, Ms Arcuri joined trade missions led by Mr Johnson when he was mayor and received thousands of pounds in public money.
It is also understood she attended events on two of the trade missions – to New York and Tel Aviv – despite not officially qualifying for them as a delegate.
The prime minister has denied breaking any rules of conduct and insisted everything was done “entirely in the proper way”.
Ms Arcuri told ITV’s Good Morning Britain Mr Johnson was “a really good friend” – but denied the then mayor had shown any “favouritism” towards her.
‘Judgement call’
The code governing conduct at London City Hall states that public office holders should not act in any way to gain benefits for families or friends, and should declare private interests to resolve any conflicts.
Mr Duvall, a Labour member of the London Assembly, said his committee was attempting to “make a judgement call on what the relationship was” before deciding what, if any, action it would take at a meeting next week.
Separately, the Independent Office for Police Conduct has been asked to consider whether Mr Johnson, who as mayor was responsible for policing in London, should be investigated for misconduct in public office, a criminal offence.
Current Mayor Sadiq Khan has asked a senior lawyer to review a 2013 decision by London and Partners, the mayor’s promotional agency, to sponsor a conference organised one of Ms Arcuri’s companies, for £10,000.
London and Partners say they have found no evidence of Mr Johnson’s involvement in the decision.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is, meanwhile, “reviewing” a £100,000 grant made in February this year to Ms Arcuri’s cyber-security business Hacker House.
Lille v Chelsea preview: Ross Barkley ‘naive’ after night out – Frank Lampard
Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley was “naive to be out before a Champions League game” after being pictured in a row with a taxi driver in Liverpool on Sunday night, said boss Frank Lampard.
Barkley reportedly spilled chips on the floor of the taxi and had an argument over money, with police involved.
Chelsea visit Lille on Wednesday.
“In terms of permission I don’t expect to be asked for that. He hasn’t committed a crime, apart from eating chips in a taxi,” said Lampard.
Chelsea, who beat Brighton 2-0 at home on Saturday, and Lille both lost their opening Champions League games.
“I feel for the cabbie and I think he has been naive to be out before a Champions League game – he has admitted that,” added Lampard.
“I like Ross, I have had no problem with him and he has admitted he made a mistake. I will take that at face value and move on.”
Lampard says he will have to assess midfielder N’Golo Kante, who missed the win over Brighton with a hamstring problem.
“He has trained and got through it OK,” said Lampard. “That’s one we have to assess. We are positive. He has had a broken pre-season. He has had a few niggles, some bad luck. Everyone is working to getting him fit.”
Defender Kurt Zouma and striker Olivier Giroud are both available after missing the Seagulls game.
Lampard is not concerned by his side’s start in the Champions League, after they lost their opener 1-0 to Valencia with Barkley missing a penalty.
“I didn’t think Valencia was the worst game for us,” said Lampard.
“We should have got a result. With Lille, they have a lot of threats, speed and quality.
“It is not the be-all and end-all, we have to see it in the big picture, but it’s a game we have to be ready for.”
Former Chelsea striker Loic Remy and ex-Swansea loan midfielder Renato Sanches could both be in Lille’s team.
Lille boss Christophe Galtier, who replaced Marcelo Bielsa in 2017, said: “Remy was very good against Strasbourg [last Wednesday, scoring in a 2-0 win]. His experience is important in that kind of match.
“Sanches joined us recently, and he was very good against Strasbourg, but he still needs to find his feet. Both players could be useful [on Wednesday].”
Match stats
- Lille will be the fifth different French opponent Chelsea have faced, with each of those 16 matches coming in the Champions League (W5 D5 L6).
- Their six Champions League matches against English opposition all came against Manchester United, with the French side winning just once (D2 L3).
- Lille are winless in eight Champions League home matches (D3 L5), since beating AEK Athens in October 2006 (3-1).
- Chelsea have won seven of their last 12 away group games in the Champions League (W7 D2 L3), keeping a clean sheet on seven occasions.
- Chelsea have lost their last two Champions League matches – they have never lost three in a row in the competition.
- Lille had the youngest starting XI in the first round of Champions League group games – with an average age of 23 years and 277 days against Ajax.
- The two teams with the most shots on the first round of this season’s Champions League without scoring were Chelsea (22) and Lille (17).
- Frank Lampard could become the second Englishman to lose his first two matches in the Champions League, after Ray Harford in September 1995 with Blackburn Rovers.