15 people charged after airport expansion protest which blocked M4 junction

Staff reporter(wp/es):

Fifteen people have been charged after protesters staged a die-in at Heathrow on Saturday.

Demonstrators reportedly stormed onto the M4 Spur Road junction and lay down in front of moving traffic at the rally against the airport’s planned third runway.

Cars were forced to stop and traffic was brought to a standstill outside the west London airport as the activists lay in the road.

Seven Londoners and eight others all aged between 21 and 67 were charged with wilful obstruction of the highway after the incident.

They were all bailed to appear at Ealing Magistrates Court on Thursday, December 22.

The seven Londoners accused are: Isabelle Anderson, 30, of Stratford; Madeleine Allis-Petersen, 24, of Ealing; Joanne Louise Bodimeade, 28, of Lambeth; Alexis Delage, 25, of Lewisham; Sophia Lysaczanko, 28, of Haringey; Tom Venner-Woodcock, 29, of Southwark, and Tess Lotter, 30, of Camden.

The others charged are: Antoine Thalmann, 25, and Henry Owen, 23, both of Oxford; Simon Bramwell, 44, of Stroud, Gloucestershire; Ian Bray, 49, of Kirklees, West Yorkshire; Graham Lewis, 53, of Wells, Somerset; Thomas Harford, 26, and Margaret Charnley, 67, both of Bristol, Avon, and Sibi Moore, 21, of Sidmouth, Devon.

The protest was organised following last month’s announcement that the government would be backing the £16 billion Heathrow expansion plan to build a third runway.

Others at the protest included former MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, who has been a vocal opponent of the third runway and resigned from his seat when the government announced it had approved the plan.

Paddington sex traffic gang who made £15,000 a month 'exploiting women' is jailed

Pic:Aliona Pislaru, 39, was sentenced to five years in prison
Crime reporter(wp/es):

A central London sex traffic gang which earned thousands of pounds a week by pimping out prostitutes has been jailed.

The traffickers raked in more than £15,000 a month and even submitted their accounts to HM Revenue and Customs to hide their criminal activities.

The Paddington gang of two men and two women “callously manipulated” prostitutes and gave them “very little” of the money they made, police said.

Police raided an address in Sussex Gardens, near to Paddington station, and discovered one of the traffickers with 105 mobile phones which rang intermittently.

Aliona Pislaru, 39, was in charge of a group of prostitutes who she advertised online and arranged for them to be delivered to addresses for sex.

She used 14 separate bank accounts to store thousands of pounds worth of cash earned by the prostitutes, only giving them a small amount.

On Friday she was jailed for five years.

Police also found Janina Nuta, 39, at the house with paperwork and price lists for the prostitutes.

Two others, 30-year-old Vlad Harzoparu and 34-year-old Ilie Melinte, were also caught by police and arrested for controlling prostitution.

All four were found guilty of modern slavery offences after a three-week trial and were sentenced on Friday at Isleworth Crown Court.

Pislaru, of Sussex Gardens, was locked up for five years while Nuta, of Highfield Avenue, and Harzoparu, also of Sussex Gardens, were jailed for three years. Melinte, of Seymour Place, was sentenced to two years in prison.

The gang, who were Romanian nationals, were caught after an investigation by the Met Police’s slavery and kidnap unit.

Detective Inspector Stephen Kiely said: "This investigation highlights the commitment to ending the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable people.

"The victims in this case were callously manipulated and exploited by this trafficking network. I hope that the sentences handed down today bring them a measure of closure and comfort as they go about rebuilding their lives."

Pislaru, Nuta, Harzoparu and Melinte were convicted of controlling prostitution for gain, arranging and facilitating the travel of another person with view to exploitation and concealing criminal property. 

Harzoparu was also convicted of four counts of possession or control of identity documents.

Pensioner hit by car in south-east London dies in hospital

Staff reporter(wp/es):

A pensioner who died in hospital after she was hit by a car in south-east London was named by police today.

Beryl Chenery, 81, was left fighting for her life in hospital after she was struck by a silver Ford Fiesta in Bexleyheath. 

Emergency services raced to the scene of the crash in Townley Road at about 2.10pm on November 4.

Mrs Chenery, from Bexleyheath, was rushed to an east London hospital in a critical condition.

She died on Wednesday and her next of kin have been informed, police said.

The driver of the Ford Fiesta, a woman, stopped at the scene of the crash and was not arrested. 

Police have made a fresh appeal for witnesses to the crash to come forward.

Storm Angus batters London with torrential rain and flash flooding as UK faces 97mph winds

Staff reporter(wp/es):

Londoners woke to torrential rain and flash flooding this morning as storm Angus battered the capital.

Travellers were left stranded as trains coming into the city were cancelled and parts of west London were submerged in the raging weather.

Southeastern Railway cancelled many trains before 10am and some early morning South West Trains services were also abandoned.

Some Londoners said they woke up to leaking roofs while others who left the house described “a really grubby morning” and “horrible conditions” on the roads.

Kerry Simpkin, from London, took to social media after he was kept up all night by the storm and said: “Sounds like I won’t have a fence left in my garden!!”

Night shift worker Rachel Bedford, from Carshalton in Surrey, said: “Think I’ll be swimming home from my night shift instead of driving. This wind and rain is ridiculous.”

Karthic Sinnadurai said: “So much rain on my window. Keeping me awake.”

Flooding was reported on and around Talgarth Road in Hammersmith including Lower Mortlake Road and Chalker's Corner.

Elswhere in the UK, Angus left a trail of destruction across the south coast of England with sea walls damaged and roads flooded in Swanage, Dorset.

The worst of the wind was felt outside of London with wind speeds of 97mph recorded in the English Channel while Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight were hit by the strongest gusts.

In London itself, the Met Office told the Standard they have so far recorded winds of around 35mph with some odd 40mph gusts. 

More than 25 flood warnings were issued for areas mainly in the south west on England.

Runners due to take part in the Brighton 10k race on Sunday were turned away after the run was cancelled because of high winds.

On Saturday the Met Office issued an amber alert to London – the second most serious warning – and warned residents of potential flash flooding, power cuts and travel disruption.

Angus, which is the UK’s first storm of this season, arrived in the UK at midnight on Saturday and swept over London on Sunday morning.

Forecasters warned of winds of up to 80mph in coastal areas and up to 75mph across the south east and London.

Train companies quickly put out messages warning travellers they could face disruption.

But while some Londoners were hit with the effects of Angus, others said they did not hear the storm at all.

Sophia Ellis said: “Didn’t hear any of #stormangus at all last night and I woke up twice during the night. Did it even pass through London?”

Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge told the Standard on Saturday there was a risk of localised flooding as gales shake trees and cause fallen leaves to block drains.

He said winds were pretty high and London could see up to three centimetres of rain in just six to eight hours on Sunday.

But by Sunday afternoon the weather looks set to become calmer and bring with it some sunnier spells and temperatures of up to 10 and 11 degrees, forecaster Greg Dewhurst told the Standard.

The unpleasant weather looks likely to return on Monday morning, however, hitting commuters with more wet and windy weather.

“Another band of rain pushing up to the London area on Sunday night and Monday morning, it will be quite a wet start for commuters,” Mr Dewhurst said.

Man stabbed in row outside church dies in hospital

Crime reporter(wp/es):
 A murder investigation has been launched after a man was stabbed to death in a row outside a church in south London.

The victim, aged in his 30s, died in hospital hours after he was knifed outside St Giles Church in Camberwell.

Police and paramedics raced to the scene after the attack on Saturday morning.

The victim was rushed to hospital where medics battled to save his life but he was pronounced dead.

Emergency services had been called to reports of an assault in Camberwell Church Street near the junction with Wilson Road shortly after 9am.

The murder scene remained cordoned off late into the night as forensics officers investigated.

Photos posted on social media by passers-by on Saturday morning showed police officers guarding a cordon outside the church.

Witness Maria Mikulina told the Standard the road was majorly closed off with multiple police cars lining the street.

Chris Barraclough tweeted: "Latest from Camberwell. Overheard in the shop that it's a stabbing.

"A serious one from the amount of police involved. Too much of this."

Another man tweeting under the name LondonTony also shared a picture of the scene and wrote: "Camberwell Green sealed off by police."

A Met police spokesman said: “Officers attended and found a man - believed aged in his 30s - suffering stab injuries.

"He was taken to a south London hospital by London Ambulance Service.

“The man died at hospital. Next of kin have been informed.”

There have been no arrests in connection with the killing.

Officers from the Homicide and Major Crime Command investigate.