Grammar schools 'would disrupt London's education system' says UCL expert

Educational reporter(wp/es):

Grammar schools would disrupt London’s pioneering education system, an academic warned today. 

Dr Rebecca Allen - a leading schools expert - said the capital’s London Challenge programme is proof that the state sector does not need selection to thrive.

Her remarks came as the country’s top education experts and policy makers, and schools minister Nick Gibb, presented evidence to the Commons on selective education.

Dr Allen, of University College London and director of research body Education Datalab, said: “London state schools are a beacon for high standards and excellence without the need for academic selection at age 11. 

“There are opportunities for schools in other parts of the country to learn more about how to deliver a high quality academic education to all, regardless of background.”

Theresa May has said allowing new grammars would improve social mobility and standards, and enable the country to become a “true meritocracy”.

The London Challenge school improvement programme began in 2003 and pairs failing schools with successful ones. GCSE grades for pupils have shot up and the capital’s standards improved faster than any other part of the country. 

London mayor Sadiq Khan is among the high profile figures urging Theresa May to drop her controversial plans for more grammars - arguing that London schools proved high standards are not driven by selection.

He claims the increased investment, better teaching and school leadership had been the key ingredients to success in the capital.

Today Labour MP Lisa Nandy will lead the first major cross-party debate in the Commons on grammars and is asking for the Government to assess the evidence on the effect of selective education on children’s learning.

New Department for Education statistics show just 7.6 percent of London grammar school children receive the pupil premium funding for disadvantaged pupils, compared 40 percent of children attending London state schools. She claims this is further evidence grammars do not work in the interest of the capital’s very poorest pupils.

She said: “Instead of pitting children against one another Ministers should learn from the success of the London Challenge and encourage schools to work together for the benefit of all children.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that Theresa May has no plan to take the country forwards when her only major plan for London’s children is to turn the clock back to the 1950s.”

Today sixty headteachers in the Tory heartland of Surrey wrote to the Education Secretary Justine Greening to voice their “vehement opposition” to the Government’s proposals for new grammar schools. 

Members of the Surrey Secondary Headteachers’ Phase Council, said the policy would lead to further fragmentation of the education system and there is no evidence it would improve social mobility.

Man knifed outside east London chicken shop in front of horrified witnesses

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A young man has been rushed to hospital after being stabbedoutside a chicken shop in east London, witnesses said.

Police said the victim, aged in his 20s, was found with a stab injury in East India Dock Road, near the junction with Chrisp Street, in Poplar at around 7.20pm on Monday.

His injuries are not believed to be life threatening.

Witnesses said the man was attacked outside the Perfect Fried Chicken shop in front of horrified bystanders.

A picture taken at the scene shows police cars flooded the scene as the road was taped off.

One teenager tweeted: “Someone got stabbed just outside the pfc shop while my little bro was inside :/why tf is there so much crimes going on in east India dock rd.”

While ice hockey player Karim Kerbouche posted: “Someone just got stabbed on east india dock road while I was casually eating my tuna melt.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “Police were called at 7.20pm to East India Dock Road where a man in his 20s was found with an injury.”

He added no arrests have been made and enquiries continue.

Transport for London said East India Dock Road had been shut between Chrisp Street and Upper North Street due to a "police incident".

The attack comes less than two months after the death of Czech businessman Zdenek Makar, 31, who was beaten to death after a row inside the chicken shop.

Mr Makar was found dead by a cyclist near All Saints DLR station on Thursday, September 22 after he was viciously attacked in the street.

Bethnal Green murder: Police hunt two men over stabbing of Luther Edwards

Crime repoorter(wp/es):

Police have released CCTV images of two men they want to trace after a father-of-two was stabbed to death after a boxing match brawl in east London. 

Luther Edwards, who had gone to the venue to see a friend’s fight, was attacked by a group of people as he left York Hall on Old Ford Road in Bethnal Green on July 29.

The 31-year-old was found collapsed on a petrol station forecourt near the Tube station at 10.35pm and died an hour later in hospital from a stab wound to the heart.

Detectives have now released CCTV images of two men seen in York Hall at around 8.30pm on the night Mr Edwards was killed.

Both are described as black, aged in their mid-20s and wearing dark trousers and tops.

One also wore a hat with a white motif on the front.

Alongside trying to trace the pair, police want to speak to anyone who was in York Hall at around 11pm that night or who may have seen anything nearby.

Detective Chief Inspector Laurence Smith, from the Met’s Homicideand Major Crime Command said: "It has been three months since Luther's murder and his family have been left devastated by his lost which has been compounded by the fact that the person or persons responsible have yet to be caught.

"Luther was at this event to watch a friend box and there were a number of other boxers who brought those they know to the venue, so I am convinced that someone will know the two men we are seeking to identify.”

He said: “I believe that the answers lie in the local community and someone knows the person, or persons, responsible for denying Luther's two children from ever seeing their father again. 

“I want to specifically appeal to those who hold information, I understand that you may have concerns about speaking to the police but shielding and protecting those responsible is not the answer, please do the right thing."

Eight men have been arrested on suspicion of murder and were bailed until January.

British banker guilty of horrific murders of two Indonesian women in Hong Kong

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A British banker has been jailed for life after a jury today convicted him of torturing and murdering two Indonesian prostitutes at his luxury Hong Kong apartment.

Rurik Jutting, 31, subjected victims Sumarti Ningsih, 23, and Seneng Mujiasih 26, to a horrifying catalogue of abuse to satisfy his dark sexual fantasies. 

Following his conviction Miss Mujiasih’s family immediately called for the banker’s execution. 

The trader, earning £350,000-a-year at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, kept a video diary as he repeatedly raped Miss Ningsih, forcing her to lick a toilet bowl and beg for her life before he slit her throat. 

He stuffed her mutilated body into a suitcase, which he kept on the balcony of his flat in Hong Kong’s red light district as he went hunting for his next victim.  

Surrey-born Jutting spent the next few days snorting “industrial quantities” of cocaine before luring Miss Mujiasih to his home by offering to pay for sex. 

He had put together a torture kit, including a blowtorch and a sex toy wrapped in sandpaper, but slit Miss Mujiasih’s throat as she tried to scream for help. 

Jutting claimed at a trial at Hong Kong’s High Court he had been out of his mind on alcohol and drugs at the time, having snorted up to 20g of cocaine in a day. 

He admitted manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, but a jury found him guilty of two counts of murder.

Deputy High Court Judge Michael Stuart-Moore sentenced him to two mandatory life sentences. 

In a statement read out by his lawyer, the killer apologised for his actions and said he is “sorry beyond words”. 

But Miss Mujiasih’s brother, Suswantoro, said: “The family hopes the perpetrator will be severely punished and if it could, to be executed.”

He told how in 2007 desperate poverty had forced his sister to go to Hong Kong, where she worked as a domestic help. 

She returned home two years later but went back and worked as a prostitute in a Triad-controlled bar.

“The family regret allowing her to work again. If she did not leave, she would not have died,” said Suswantoro 

During his trial, jurors were played sickening videos filmed by Cambridge-educated Jutting as he held Miss Ningsih prisoner and subjected her to a horrifying array of abuse. 

In one video, shot on his iPhone, Jutting can be heard saying: “How much do you love me. If you say yes, I will hit you once. If you say no I will hit you twice. If you scream, I will punch you.”

In another, he confessed: “It’s Monday night, I’ve held her captive since early Saturday. I’ve raped her repeatedly, tortured her, tortured her badly.”

Jutting had paid Ms Ningsih for sex two weeks earlier at a hotel encounter, and she had told friends afterwards it had been rough and she did not enjoy it. 

He called her again on October 25, 2014 and set in motion his plan for rape, torture, and ultimately death.

Jutting shaved her eyebrows to dehumanise his victim, whipped her with a belt, and used pliers on her nipples. 

She was made to lick a toilet bowl and repeatedly raped by Jutting who said he would kill her if she did not comply with his sadistic demands. 

After three days at his flat, her last words were Jutting whispering “I love you” before slitting her throat, dragging her to the shower, where he nearly decapitated her. 

In one of his videos, Jutting tells the camera: “My name is Rurik Jutting, about five minutes ago, I just killed, murdered this one.”

He then pans to Ms Ningsih’s lifeless and bloodied body, adding: “Three days of torture, rape and mentally brutalised.”

Spurred on by his first kill, Jutting went to a hardware store to buy a hammer, nails, and pliers, and said in a video: “Let’s be clear about these, I am going to use these to torture someone in the most inhumane way possible.” 

Ms Mujiasih, who met Jutting at a club in the Wan Chai red light, arrived at his apartment on Halloween 2014, and stripped off for sex before she noticed he was holding a make-shift gag. 

When Ms Mujiasih screamed for help and struggled to get free, Jutting cut her throat. 

He then called his mother and his bosses at Meryll Lynch, telling them he was in trouble and warning this would be damaging for the firm’s reputation. 

He confessed to psychiatrists about his obsession with violent pornography and dark sexual fantasies, which he blamed on being a victim of sexual abuse while a pupil at £34,000-a-year Winchester College. 

Jutting also talked about his love of the TV series Breaking Bad, about a chemistry teacher turned drug baron, hit film Wolf of Wall Street about stockbroker debauchery, and how death was meaningless on shows like Game of Thrones. 

Psychiatrists diagnosed him with a narcissistic personality disorder, which combined with his obsession for sadistic sex and cocaine and alcohol abuse led to a spiral of violence.

Jutting, who worked for Meryll Lynch since 2010 and moved to Hong Kong in 2013, was raised by engineer father Graham and nursery teacher Helen in Grade II-listed mansion called Foxwarren, the inspiration for Toad Hall in The Wind in the Willows. However, his family stayed away from his trial. 

Judge Stuart-Moore said the banker would have received a whole life sentence if convicted under British law, but he could only impose the maximum mandatory life sentence.

Marks and Spencer confirms it is closing 60 stores in the UK

Business reporter(wp/es):

Marks and Spencer will close 60 of its clothing and home stores over the next five years.

The iconic British retail chain is set to open more food stores instead, chief executive Steve Rowe has said.

He said the brand’s total UK estate would increase.

Thirty clothing and home stores will shut down and 45 will be turned into food stores.

The company also plans to open 200 more Simply Food stores in the UK by 2019.

But a spokesman for M&S said it will not yet reveal which stores would shut.

The news comes as part of turnaround plans for the retailer, which reported an 88 per cent fall in pre-tax profit to £25.1 million in the six months to the end of September as sales of food and clothing declined.

The company also announced plans to leave ten loss-making international markets, closing 53 stores abroad.

M&S has over 300 full-range stores and almost 600 Simply Food stores in the UK.

CEO Steve Rowe said: "These are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multi-channel and focused on delivering sustainable returns."