Speedboat killer Jack Shepherd could be 'anywhere in the world,' Scotland Yard admits

Crime reporter(wp/es):

Police have conceded they have no idea of the whereabouts of speedboat fugitive Jack Shepherd, who disappeared part way through his trial over the death of his date Charlotte Brown.

The web designer has been at large since being convicted in his absence of manslaughter by gross negligence in July last year.

Shepherd, 31, was sentenced to six years in jail after being found culpable over the death of Miss Brown, 24, in a speedboat accident on the Thames in December 2015.

Detectives say he may be using secret bank accounts belonging to friends or relatives to finance his life on the run.

Shepherd was given permission to challenge his conviction by a judge at the Court of Appeal on December 19.

Shepherd’s passport was not confiscated before the trial. 

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Norman, from the Met, told the Daily Mail that “Shepherd is subject to an international arrest warrant. However since he failed to appear in court for his trial there has been no tangible trace of him.”

Mr Norman added that despite being in touch with his London solicitors, there had been “no tangible trace” of Shepherd.

His lawyers, who are funded through legal aid, insist they do not know where he his. 

“There have been a number of rumours that he is being harboured abroad by friends but we have no evidence this is the case,” Mr Norman said. 

“There has been no movement on his bank accounts or phone. However this is only in respect of the accounts we are aware of.”

He added: “He may well be using the accounts of friends or family associates to evade arrest and extradition.

“We would also appeal to Mr Shepherds friends and associates who may be assisting him to do the right thing and share any information.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesman told the Daily Mail: “Shepherd’s passport was not seized by the police or the court as he was on court bail and fully complying with bail conditions up to the time of the trial when he failed to appear.”

Ms Brown's parents, Graham Brown and Roz Wickens, told the BBC they did not want to comment on the appeal until after 22 January, when they will meet Home Secretary Sajid Javid to discuss efforts to trace Shepherd.

They have previously said it was "not fair" Shepherd had not faced justice.

The Daily Mail is offering a £25,000 reward for information that leads to him being flushed out of his hiding place. 

Race hate thugs let off the hook because police are overstretched, top prosecutor warns

Crime reporter(wp/es):

Racist offenders in London are escaping punishment for hate crimes because police are failing to pursue their cases properly, a top prosecutor has warned.

Ed Beltrami, one of London’s two chief crown prosecutors, said he feared officers were often too busy to investigate racist crimes adequately or to do the necessary paperwork to enable the hate aspect of an offence to be included in a charge.

He said that despite public reports of abuse and racist incidents presenting a “much bigger problem” in recent years, there had been no increase in the number of cases referred to prosecutors for charging decisions.

Mr Beltrami added that the failure of police to investigate the racist aspect of a crime meant that an offender’s history of similar conduct — and therefore the “much more serious” threat they posed — remained hidden.

The comments will alarm anti-racism campaigners and politicians who have called for strong penalties to be imposed on those who commit offences motivated by hate. The pressure for robust action has increased after hate crimes reported to police rose by 17 per cent in England and Wales in the 12 months to the end of March last year. There were 94,068 offences, of which three quarters were racially motivated hate crimes. 

Metropolitan Police statistics show that race and religious hate crimes have risen over the past four years in London, with 1,500 offences recorded in November last year, compared with about 1,000 in the same month in 2014.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Beltrami said: “There are incidents, a terrorist incident or whatever it is, you read that there has been all sorts of fall-off from that — people being abused, incidents at mosques — but it never seems to affect our numbers of cases coming through. I’m absolutely sure that things are reported but they don’t come to us. There seems to be a blockage. 

“Police are under pressure, they have resourcing issues, and I think some things fall off the table a bit more quickly than they might were they in a better position.

“I’ve spoken to many community groups and you get the impression of a much bigger problem than what is coming through to me.” Any crime motivated by racial prejudice can attract an additional prison sentence on top of the penalty imposed for the principal offence.

Mr Beltrami said that police were often failing to alert prosecutors to a potential racial element in a case, and were instead pressing ahead with charging decisions themselves.

The prosecutor said: “The rule is with hate crime cases — racially aggravated, homophobic, all the rest of it — the police have to come to us for a charging decision. 

“That causes the police a problem because it’s more hassle for them to put the papers together to come to us and we then make a decision. So what you find is that the police won’t charge it as a racially aggravated thing, they just charge it as a common assault. So it bypasses the system.

“What I’m also finding is that sometimes the rush [to charge] means that the investigation hasn’t been as thorough as it might be.

“You get one isolated incident of somebody being abusive to somebody else on racial grounds, and it’s charged as such ... whereas if you took more time you might find that it’s been going on for several months — that it’s a much more serious thing.

“The police just want to get it charged and get on with it because they are busy. I think we miss things that way.”

Mr Beltrami said that despite his criticisms, he did not want to blame the Met because they were overloaded with other tasks. He added: “I’m making the point that they are quite stretched and it has a knock-on effect for us and criminal justice as a whole.”

The Met insisted it was pursuing racist offenders and was “committed to tackling hate crime in all its forms”. 

It added: “Where there is evidence that a racially aggravating factor exists, this will be investigated thoroughly and a charging decision sought where appropriate.”

Man stabbed to death on board Surrey train

Crime reporter(wp/bbc):

A man has been stabbed to death in front of horrified passengers on board a train in Surrey.

British Transport Police (BTP) said the man was stabbed on board the 12:58 Guildford to London Waterloo service.

An eyewitness has told the BBC that there was a "vicious fight" on a London-bound service.

The train is currently being held at Horsley railway station, in the village of East Horsley, and emergency services remain at the scene.

Officers have launched a search for a murder suspect in the surrounding area.

A BTP spokesman said the victim suffered a fatal stab wound.

Det Supt Gary Richardson said it was a "shocking and violent attack which took place on board a train in broad daylight".

He said it was an "incredibly frightening" incident for passengers on the train.

Police believe the suspect and victim boarded the train at London Road (Guildford) at 13:01 GMT.

It is believed the offender left the train at Clandon railway station, police said.

Timetable information for the train shows it left Clandon at 13:06 - five minutes after the pair boarded the service.

Police said a number of officers were now in the Clandon area trying to find the man responsible.

He said: "We would encourage who was on this train to come forward regardless of whether or not they think they can help."

No arrests have been made.

South East Coast Ambulance Service confirmed crews were called to the station at about 13:30 and were joined by police and the Surrey Air Ambulance.

A statement issued by the ambulance trust said: "Despite the best efforts of everyone, a man was sadly pronounced dead at the scene."

Rail services are suspended between Guildford and Effingham Junction.

South Western Railways have tweeted that the line towards Waterloo is blocked.

A statement on the SWR website said: "We have been informed that the police are dealing with an incident between Clandon and Horsley.

"Until the police have carried out their investigations the line between Guildford towards Effingham Junction is currently blocked."

Replacement bus services are being brought in.

Ex-England rugby chef cleared of Oxford sex assault

Pic-Patrick McDonald was unanimously cleared by the jury/wp

Sports reporter(wp/bbc):

A former chef for the England rugby team has been cleared of sexually assaulting a woman.

Patrick McDonald was accused of groping a woman while staying in Oxford's Randolph Hotel.

The 56-year-old, who has worked in catering for 40 years, denied the charge during a trial at Oxford Crown Court and said the woman had lunged forward and kissed him.

The jury unanimously found him not guilty of one count of sexual assault.

The chef said on the day of the incident, the young woman had hugged him, winked and make a lewd gesture at him.

He said she entered his room and then he turned and dropped his key card, which he picked up.

"I stood up, she lunges forward and full-on on the mouth, kissed me," he said.

Christmas Day divorce: 13 people completed online applications

Law reporter(wp/bbc):

Thirteen people filed for divorce on Christmas Day in England and Wales, official figures show.

They were among 455 online divorce applications submitted to HM Courts & Tribunals Service between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.

Twenty-six people submitted applications on Christmas Eve, 23 on Boxing Day and 77 on New Year's Day.

Since April 2018 spouses have been able to complete the divorce application process using the internet.

Instead of sending paperwork, people can fill in applications, upload the documents needed and pay fees online.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show more than 23,000 online divorce applications have been made since the platform was introduced.

• 'I was married and divorced in my 20s'
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Divorce rates for opposite-sex couples in England and Wales are at their lowest level since 1973, according to the latest figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

In 2017 there were 101,669 divorces of opposite-sex couples in England and Wales, a decrease of 5% on the previous year.

There were 338 divorces of same-sex couples in 2017, more than three times the number in 2016. However, same-sex marriages have only been possible in England and Wales since March 2014.

Ammanda Major, from relationship support charity Relate, said her organisation typically saw an increase in requests for help in January.

"Many people hope that the festive period will be a time of coming together, so when this doesn't happen the sense of failure and sadness can further exacerbate problems that were there in the first place," she said.

"Pressures can build up when people are spending an extended period of time together.

"For some people it might be the additional financial pressure of Christmas that triggers a problem, while for others it could be the stress of trying to keep everyone from the in-laws to the children happy."

---

Grounds for divorce in England and Wales:

When you apply for a divorce you must prove your marriage has broken down and give one of the following reasons:

1. Adultery
2. Unreasonable behaviour
3. Desertion
4. You have lived apart for more than two years and both agree to the divorce
5. You have lived apart for at least five years, even if your husband or wife disagrees

Source: Gov.UK

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The introduction of "fully digital" divorces is part of a £1bn plan to modernise the justice system.

The MoJ said more than 150,000 people had used online justice services in 2018, taking the total to more than 300,000 in the past four years.

This included to lodge civil money claims, for probate applications, personal independence payment appeals and pleas in fare evasion cases and low level-motoring offences.

Justice minister Lucy Frazer said: "These online services are already making a difference to people who use the justice system."

"As we reach this milestone, it's encouraging to see people are reporting these services work well for them and are a better fit around their busy lives."

The MoJ said the services do not replace existing paper-based applications, but provide a quicker, easier service for many people.

Rothesay Life plans 3.5-billion-pound bid for Swiss Re's UK arm: Sky News

Staff reporter(wp/reuters):

Insurer Rothesay Life is planning a 3.5-billion-pound bid for a unit of reinsurance company Swiss Re (SRENH.S), Sky News reported on Friday, putting into question the Zurich-based company’s plans to list the British unit in 2019.

Rothesay had approached Swiss Re some weeks back to buy ReAssure, Swiss Re’s British closed books division, and would make a formal offer in the coming months, Sky News reported, citing sources.

Both Rothesay and Swiss Re declined to comment.

The news comes less than a month after Swiss Re, the world’s second-largest reinsurer, named a chief executive officer for its ReAssure amid plans for an initial public offering of the British unit.

Swiss Re announced the IPO plans in August last year, saying it was important for the unit to have access to new capital to buy more closed books.

Rothesay, which has been actively bulking up its portfolio, last year bought a 12-billion-pound ($15.20 billion) UK annuities book from insurance giant Prudential (PRU.L) and an 860 million pounds portfolio of equity release loans from UK Asset Resolution.

Such deals are attractive as ever with insurers struggling to pay guaranteed returns for life insurance policies due to record-low interest rates and more stringent European capital rules.

Analysts have pegged that ReAssure could achieve a market capitalization of about $3 billion, or roughly half its book value.

The IPO market has been affected due to uncertainties stemming from UK’s plans to leave the European Union. Mobile operator O2 had put its 10 billion pound IPO plans on hold citing Brexit uncertainties last year.

Britain cautions Russia not to use detained ex-U.S. marine as pawn

Staff reporter(wp/reuters)

Paul Whelan was arrested by the FSB state security service on Dec. 28. His family have said he is innocent and that he was in Moscow to attend a wedding.

“Individuals should not be used as pawns of diplomatic leverage,” British foreign minister Jeremy Hunt said.

“We are extremely worried about Paul Whelan. We have offered consular assistance,” Hunt said. “The U.S. are leading on this because he is a British and American citizen.”

Since leaving the U.S. military, Whelan had worked as a global security executive with U.S. companies, had visited Russia and had developed a network of Russian acquaintances.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week that Washington had asked Moscow to explain Whelan’s arrest and would demand his immediate return if it determined his detention is inappropriate.

The FSB has opened a criminal case against Whelan but given no details of his alleged activities. In Russia, an espionage conviction carries a sentence of between 10 and 20 years in prison.

Whelan’s detention further complicates a strained relationship between Moscow and Washington, despite the professed desire of the two presidents, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, to build a personal rapport.

U.S. intelligence officials accuse Russia of meddling in U.S. elections - a charge Russia denies.

Putin has previously stated he would rein in Russian retaliatory measures against U.S. interests in the hope relations would improve, but Whelan’s detention indicates the Kremlin’s calculations may now have changed.

SWAP SPECULATION

A Russian national, Maria Butina, admitted last month to U.S. prosecutors that she had tried to infiltrate American conservative groups as an agent for Moscow.

David Hoffman, a former CIA Moscow station chief, said it was “possible, even likely”, that Russia had detained Whelan to set up an exchange for Butina.

Dmitry Novikov, a first deputy head of the international affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, commenting on a possible swap, said Russian intelligence first needed to finish their investigations. “Then we’ll see,” Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Whelan’s British citizenship introduces a new political dimension - relations between London and Moscow have been toxic since the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in March last year.

Britain alleges Skripal was poisoned by Russian intelligence agents posing as tourists, while Russia denies any involvement.

RUSSIAN TIES

Paul Whelan is 48 and lives in Novi, Michigan, according to public records. Whelan is director of global security at BorgWarner, a U.S. auto parts maker based in Michigan.

The company said Whelan was “responsible for overseeing security at our facilities in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and at other company locations around the world”. Its website lists no facilities in Russia.

U.S. media said he had previously worked in security and investigations for the global staffing firm Kelly Services, which is headquartered in Michigan and has operations in Russia.

Whelan’s military record, provided by the Pentagon, showed that he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for 14 years. The highest rank he attained was staff sergeant. He was discharged in 2008 after being convicted on charges related to larceny, according to his records.

Whelan has for years maintained an account in VKontakte, a Russian social media network, which showed that he had a circle of Russian acquaintances.

Out of the more than 50 people tagged as Whelan’s friends on VKontakte, a significant number were software engineers or worked in the IT sector, and a significant proportion had ties to the fields of defence and security.

One of these people served in the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet, a photo of that person posted on his own account indicated, and a second friend had on his VKontakte page photos of people in the uniform of Russian paratroop forces.

Whelan used the account to send out congratulations on Russian public holidays. In 2015, he posted the words in Russian: “In Moscow...” and accompanied it with a Russian mobile phone number. The number was not answering this week.

According to his brother David, Whelan was in Moscow to attend the wedding of a fellow retired marine. When he was detained he was staying with the rest of the wedding party at Moscow’s upmarket Metropol hotel, the brother said. He did not specify where the wedding itself took place.

An employee at the hotel, who spoke on condition, said on Friday they could not access the hotel’s database to check, but could not recall any weddings being scheduled at the hotel in the second half of December.

UK local authority pension schemes cut hedge fund bets

Staff reporter(wp/reuters):
Britain’s top local authority pension plans have cut investments in hedge funds in favour of better-performing alternatives, a review of annual reports shows, adding pressure to an industry beset by weak performance, outflows and fund closures.

A Reuters analysis found the value of hedge fund investments at the biggest ten local authority pension schemes in England and Wales fell by 9 percent to 1.5 billion pounds in the 12 months to the end of March.

The schemes collectively manage 102.7 billion pounds and provide the best window on the thoughts of the UK pensions industry as most other public and corporate pension schemes share little information.

Pension funds are key investors, as they tend to park their money for the long term, and public pension funds account for about a fifth of hedge fund assets globally.

The figures add to signs of pressure on hedge funds.

Data from industry tracker eVestment showed investors of all stripes pulled $14.8 billion (£11.7 billion) from hedge funds globally in January-November 2018, contributing to a number of high-profile fund closures, including Highfields Capital, Decca Capital and Latimer Light Capital.

The analysis of the annual reports, which were mainly released in November and December, found reductions in hedge fund assets at five of the ten pension schemes, with three cutting the number of hedge funds they invest in.

“The industry has seen some redemptions from pension funds who have not seen enough value for money from hedge funds,” said Sara Rejal at consultant Willis Towers Watson.

One of the biggest reductions came from the West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF), which cut its investment by half to 127.6 million pounds, from 254.3 million pounds, redeeming cash from hedge fund investing strategies run by Aurum and BlackRock.

“Hedge funds were reduced in favour of better, more consistent returns from other alternative asset classes, which have been increased in the year,” a scheme spokesman said, without giving details.

Other alternative asset classes are likely to include areas such as private equity, infrastructure and property funds.

The reduction in money allocated to hedge funds marks a turnaround from the previous year when local authority pension scheme investments in the sector increased in value by a third, and follows a lacklustre year for hedge funds compared with other asset classes.

Hedge funds made an average of 5.9 percent in the 12 months to the end of March, according to data from Hedge Fund Research (HFR), although performance into the end of 2018 worsened for many, prompting outflows.

Other alternative asset classes enjoyed double-digit returns, according to data firm Preqin.

The local authority pension reports are a once-a-year opportunity to parse the books of the schemes, but the data is not presented in the same way by each fund and neither do they hold a common view about what constitutes a hedge fund.

Reuters defined a hedge fund as either one that describes itself explicitly as a hedge fund, or one that charges a performance and management fee.

WYPF, the third-largest local authority pension fund in England and Wales with 13.6 billion pounds in assets, was the only one to publish detailed hedge fund performance data.

Its hedge fund investments gained 2.1 percent in the 12 months to March 31, below 11.3 percent from its direct property portfolio and an internal rate of return from its infrastructure investments of 6.9 percent.

UK plans rehearsals for no-deal Brexit amid fears of road, port chaos

Political reporter)wp/reuters):
Britain will begin rehearsals for the possible chaos of a no-deal Brexit on Monday by testing how the road network copes with a tailback of around 150 lorries caused by disruption at its most important trading gateway to continental Europe.

Prime Minister Theresa May is trying to force her Brexit deal through parliament but if it is rejected then the United Kingdom will either leave without a deal at 2300 GMT on March 29 or have to delay Brexit.

May has repeatedly warned that if lawmakers do not approve her deal then the world’s fifth largest economy will leave the EU without one, a nightmare scenario for many big businesses who fear disruption to trade.

Britain will hold a trial run on Monday of its plans for dealing with long queues of lorries at the port of Dover caused by disruption to cross-Channel traffic in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Department for Transport said.

The test will involve driving around 150 trucks between a local airport, which will be used as a lorry park, and Dover in southeast England to see if it clogs up the road network.

“We do not want or expect a no-deal scenario and continue to work hard to deliver a deal with the EU,” a spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said.

“However, it is the duty of a responsible government to continue to prepare for all eventualities and contingencies, including a possible no-deal.”

May’s government has repeatedly warned of the disruption a no-deal Brexit would unleash on everything from pet tourism to the import of crucial medicines and supply chains that criss-cross Europe and beyond.

Brexit supporters say that, while there may be some short-term disruption, in the long-term the UK will thrive outside what they cast as an undemocratic and excessively bureaucratic project dominated by Germany.

Amid the uncertainty over the future course of Brexit, the British economy is showing clear signs of slowing.

The housing market is stagnating, services companies have reported crisis-like pessimism and lending to British consumers grew in November at its slowest pace in nearly four years.

NO DEAL BREXIT?

Facing defeat in parliament last month, May postponed a vote on her deal and pledged to seek further political and legal assurances from the EU. The EU has signalled it may try to allay the fears of May’s critics but will not renegotiate the deal.

The parliamentary vote is now due to take place in the week of Jan. 14 and the government has repeatedly tried to underscore the economic dangers of a no-deal Brexit.

Pro-Europeans fear Britain’s exit will undermine the West as it grapples with Donald Trump’s unpredictable U.S. presidency and growing assertiveness from Russia and China. It will weaken Europe’s economy and remove one of its only two nuclear powers.

May suffered a fresh blow on Friday when a survey showed most rank-and-file members of her Conservative Party oppose her Brexit deal and would prefer to leave the EU without one.

May needs 318 votes to get the deal she struck with Brussels in November through parliament, yet 117 of her Conservative Party’s 317 lawmakers voted against her in a confidence vote on Dec. 12.

This means she would need the support of some of the 257 lawmakers in the main opposition Labour Party, which has repeatedly said it will not back the deal.

Of 1,215 Conservative Party members questioned in Friday’s YouGov survey, 59 percent opposed May’s deal and 76 percent said warnings over the risks of disruption in the event of a no-deal were “exaggerated or invented”.

Just 38 percent of those polled backed May’s deal.