Family members who treated a man as a slave have been found guilty of murder. The man’s body was found in a lake in Bedfordshire in May last year. Three members of the family were convicted of murder and two were convicted of familial homicide. During the time of being treated as a slave the man had been repeatedly hit with a bat, shot with an air rifle and stabbed, many of these incidents were filmed using a mobile phone. The victim was chained up during the evenings and stripped almost naked during the day. The victim’s body was found decapitated in the lake and police believe the head was removed by the use of the saw.
Police are struggling to find a motive behind the murder but many of the family members have offended on many occasions. It is known that the family stole the victim’s benefit money.

An 18 month old girl was mauled to death by her uncles American bulldog. The attack happened in from of the child’s sister, mother and grandmother. Men working nearby managed to get the child free form the dogs jaws but unfortunately the child died from facial injuries. The uncle has been released on bail pending further investigation. The dog is to put down at the earliest opportunity.
This has been a string of dog attacks on young children over the last few years and could lead to more types of dog breeds being added to the ‘banned dogs list’.

The number of stop and searches under counter-terrorism laws has dramatically increased over the last year. The increase is reported to be over sixty five percent. This dramatic jump has not resulted in a noticeable increase in arrests or charges. According to the reports about half a percent of the people stopped and searched resulted in an arrest, and a mere nine offenses were related to terrorism.
There are concerns that this counter terrorism law is being abused by police officers and that the introduction of this increase by Labour has crushed the general public civil rights. The majority of searches were in and around the major cities with ninety five percent of the total searches being in the London area.

A 16 year old girl was shot at a pizza takeaway restaurant in East London during the evening of the 14th of April. There was an argument in the takeaway and a few shots were fired according to a local shopkeeper. The shopkeeper also stated that the shots were fired following a group black teenagers entering the takeaway. The 16 year old girl suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and is in critical condition.
Within an hour of the incident, a stabbing took place nearby in which a man was stabbed repeatedly outside of a pub near Islington. He is also in a critical condition.
The incidents are not thought to be related but it is causing concerns among local residents and many believe that gang culture is to blame. There are an increasing number of gang related incidents occurring in the surrounding areas and one local resident stated ‘It’s all gang related these days. It’s all about who you are and where you come from’.

The Ministry of Justice are reviewing whether Jon Venables should be released from prison. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were jailed in 1993, both 10 years old at the time, after being found guilty of murdering two year old James Bulger. The two were release in 2001 but Jon Venables recently broke the terms of his release by being found in possession of child pornography.
The Ministry of Justice will decide whether to keep Jon Venables in prison or release him on the terms of his original release. The decision will be subject to the severity of this recent offence, and whether Venables is at risk to the general public.
There are divided opinions on whether Venables and Thompson should have been released in the first place. Being as they were 10 years old at the time of committing murder, an opportunity was made available to them to restart their lives. Many believe that breaking the terms of release in a case of this magnitude warrants severe punishment and that ‘release’ should even be entertained as an option.

Last week a young boy of 5 was kidnapped while he was holidaying in Jhelum in Punjab. He was snatched by a group of kidnappers while he was at his grandmothers just as preparations were being made to take a taxi to the airport to return to the UK. Sahil Saeed is from Oldham in Greater Manchester and his father has suspicions that is that the kidnapper is someone close to the family. Mr Mailk has now returned back to the UK. Four policeman who didn’t respond to the emergency call have been suspended. Several men and the taxi driver have been arrested and are being interrogated.

Dulmatin’s body, the last remaining suspect of the Bali bombings carried out in Bali, Indonesia back in 2002 has been confirmed and identified by the police.

Dulmartin was suspected of planning the attacks and the news of his death was announced by the Indonesia’s president. Out of 202 victims which were killed by this bombing, half were Australian.
DNA tests on the body of a man killed in Jakarta prove beyond doubt he is Dulmartin, the last main suspect of the Bali bombings, Indonesian police say. Dulmatin was shot at a internet café and his body can be confirmed by DNA. He was named as being a leading member of a militant group with links to al-Qaeda and with a long history of launching attacks in Indonesia.

In England and Wales a recent survey has shown that in the last 20 years the number of murders and manslaughter has dropped by 17% to a low of 648.
In 2008/9 there has been 136 fewer killings compared with a year earlier. However – theft related crime has risen which includes domestic burglary up by 1% and shoplifting by 10%. Other offences such as women raped has increased by 5% to 12,165. The statistics have been taken also taken a sample of adults and asked them on their experiences of crime – individually there has been a rise of 25% in theft such as pick pocketing and handbag snatches.

Labour has recently launched a new campaign which puts forward recommendations to scale back CCTV cameras and make it harder for the police to use DNA to catch criminals. This has revoked anger in the Tory party as they are claiming Labour is being weak on crime. The Tories have maintained for a long time now that violent crime has risen which is backed up by a analysis in the House of Commons library produced in response to a request by a Member of Parliament.

This is yet to be published in full but suggests that offences against individuals rose from 618,417 in 1998 to 887,942 last year.

The Tories are claiming that under the Labour Government violent crime has risen and this is visible by the latest official figures.  From the House of Commons library data obtained by the party shows a 44% rise in crime between 1998 and 2009.  However Labour are defending there position by saying that under there government violent crime is on a downward trend with half a million fewer victims.  The watchdog overseeing this area have also commented that Conservatives should not rely on a single set of statistics.  The UK statistics Authority, has been set up by the government to ensure that the correct use of figures has sent a warning about using data from other surveys which can produce a distorted view.