Benjamin Mendy case: the defendant faces six charges. He is charged with three counts of rape on a date in October 2020; he is charged with a sexual assault on a female in January of this year; he is also charged with raping a woman on a date this week
Benjamin Mendy case: the district judge denies bail and the case is adjourned until September 10 when he will appear at Chester Crown Court. No pleas have been entered
I think I just got a group of goats in Llandudno arrested.
Let me explain... first, I saw this from inside a dark pub (the one I live in currently). I thought I was seeing things. So I took some video:
Hats off to everyone who made this happen... A huge new hospital in Manchester city centre is ready to take its first patients - and all this took just two weeks
This is Roger the hamster who has just been rescued from a first floor flat in The Cube. He is one of a few pets students kept there even though pets aren’t allowed! Big picture though, Roger is safe and well
I’m in court 1 here at Chester Magistrates’ Court where Benjamin Mendy is due to appear shortly charged with rape and sexual assault. The district judge dealing with the case is Jack McGarva and the prosecutor is Debbie Byrne. The case is due to be called on shortly
I’m sure the drink/drug addled minds of the vandals who routinely attack the Polish war graves in Moston can’t possibly understand the stories of bravery, loss and sacrifice behind each one. Hope I’ve done those buried there a bit of justice
Chuffed for the Makki family
@justice4Yousef
who have won a fresh inquest into his fatal 2019 stabbing. High Court judges have overturned the original conclusion, which I must admit me utterly baffled me at the time
Must say I was very impressed with the dignity and restraint shown by Yousef Makki’s sister Jade yesterday on a day her family was dreading. ‘We will fight'... what Yousef Makki's family say about the sentences
Benjamin Mendy case: his lawyer Christopher Stables applies for bail. The prosecutor opposes the application. The defendant, now seated, puts his hands in his jumper pockets as the hearing continues
This is remarkable achievement by the family of Yousef Makki, who today have been granted a full judicial review into a coroner's inconclusive finding at his inquest
Absolutely shocking this. Before anyone knew about Rochdale, a south Manchester grooming gang was left to roam the streets and abuse young girls. Police knew about it. The council knew about it. My colleague
@JenWilliamsMEN
has written this...
Wrote this partly to show people I don’t just write about shitty people doing shitty things. Cheers
@DidsburyGin
which has dropped everything to make hand-sanitiser for GMP and the NHS.
Crikey, just realised I'm into my 25th year at
@MENnewsdesk
- I reckon some of the murderers I've seen sentenced haven't got that much 🤣 I still need to do a lot more to catch up with
@NealkeelingMEN
who I think started as our Boer War correspondent aged 50. True story!
Must admit that when I got up this morning I had no idea I’d end up in Edwina Currie’s kitchen. I can reveal it’s v nice and she was a perfect host.
#whaleybridge
I was dispatched to Manchester Airport today to cover the nationwide hunt for an escaped terror suspect. Got the shock of my life when I had stump up £20 for an escape of my own, from the short stay car park at T1. I was only there an hour. Twenty flaming pounds!
City centre stabbing: I’ve just seen paramedics wheel a stretcher into The Arndale. I’m told that two people were ‘randomly stabbing people’ in the shopping complex. One suspect was arrested close to where I’m standing, I’m told
This is a dramatic video of the dam taken by resident Rosemary Webster on Wednesday night. She had no idea she was stood virtually on top of the wall that is - and probably was then - so badly damaged
Anyone with the slightest interest in the criminal justice system would do well to read The Boy With A Pound In His Pocket by Jade Akoum, the rather wonderful sister of Yousef Makki who manages to be a powerful, campaigning voice on knife crime as well as a mother-of-four
RIP Alan Greene, cop, husband, father, author, singer, golfer and all round good guy. I loved when he called me Shady and once joked if I ever had to write his obit I would call him ‘disappointingly discreet’. Can’t believe I’m writing these words Big Al. I’ll miss you
Crikey, this really is blast from the past. Any other old fogies out there remember Shambles Square?... Ugly, grey, but very much Manchester: Shambles Square before the IRA bomb
Benjamin Mendy case: the defendant appears in the dock dressed in black jogging bottoms and a red hoodie. He stands as the charges are read out. An interpreter relays those charges to the defendant as they are read out by the prosecutor
Benjamin Mendy case: the hearing lasted just under an hour. Although no pleas were entered at this stage Mr Mendy strenuously denies the charges. The particulars of the charges state the three alleged rapes happened at his home
We’ve dished out plenty of stick to the police for good reason recently but credit where it’s due, the detective work that brought Hashem Abedi to justice was astonishing
I’m at the Chestergate Tavern in Stockport with the one and only Molly Webb, the pub’s most famous regular. As always she’s brought her beloved late husband Brian with her. Molly, 85, has promised me she’ll be doing some karaoke v soon. Should be fun
This is as close to a sober look at the Press Club I've ever had. My hazy recollection is a less than heady mix of sticky booze-soaked carpet and C-listers on a bender, with the occasional actual journalist. Thanks for the memories
@diannebourne
Thank you to the courts for facilitating remote access to cases so I can expose vile sexual deviants like John Ward, who raped a mum in front of her children after forcing his way into her home. He committed truly sickening crimes on a total stranger
Love this quote from our archives from the late, great Harold Evans: "Nothing before, and nothing I have experienced since, working for newspapers, radio, television and websites in London and New York and Washington, matches the speed demanded of everyone on the Evening News."
Been living this one for two months, partly fuelled by guilt of missing the aftermath of the explosion with a snapped achilles while my
@MENnewsdesk
colleagues were running themselves into the ground
SPECIAL REPORT via
@johnscheerhout
- Brothers in evil: How Hashem Abedi helped his suicide bomber sibling commit Manchester’s worst-ever terror attack - and could have struck again
Just seen a judge rendered (almost) speechless on learning that a trial he was setting cannot be accommodated until June next year at Manchester Crown Court, where the wheels of justice seem to be turning very slowly
No sentence was ever going to repair the lives Hashem Abedi and his brother shattered but, short of a whole life tariff which could not apply because of his age at the time, this was proper justice.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch it last night but there was absolutely no class what-so-ever in the petulant removal of medals the moment they were placed around the necks of United players. That is all.
The father of Yousef Makki shouts 'there's no justice for my son' as the boy accused of murdering his son is found NOT GUILTY of murder and NOT GUILTY of manslaughter. The accused is hugged by his tearful mother as he leaves the dock.
I don't tend to follow footballers but I'm making an exception for
@MarcusRashford
who is a credit to his family and to our city whether you're blue or red. Keep up the good work!
These lads would shift 16 tonnes of coal each day. Great piece from
@chrisslaterMEN
of (almost) forgotten history about what it was like to work down Bradford Pit - Manchester's lost, great coal mine
It would have been strange indeed (and it was planned that way originally) that one of the chief constable's minions was going to deliver this apology... Police chief says he is 'disgusted' at the abuse grooming victims faced
Follow updates here LIVE: Operation Augusta reaction after explosive report exposes how police and local authorities failed children being groomed and raped by gangs
Piccadilly Gardens has lost none of its allure. In the space of ten minutes I saw a collapsed crane and a mugger sprinting away with a stolen mobile, then chatted with a wino and
@deankirby_
who was perfectly sober btw
The online trolls constantly chirping ‘slow news day MEN?’ are just a fact of life for any of our journalists these days. Imagine my surprise then when a judge said pretty much the same thing for covering a couple of his sentencings today. At least he did it with a smile!
Fun day in court: the prescient brother of a drug dealer who got five years for battering a newsagent shouted out that my story would be ‘bollocks’. I’m thinking more ‘the dog’s bollocks’. Only time will tell
No gags (well almost no gags) about being the head of 'boring news' or the scruffiest journalist in Mcr. Just farewell & good luck to all round top bloke
@davidottewell
who, after many years, is leaving the warm bosom of
@MENnewsdesk
and the data unit he set up. Been a pleasure
If you don't like gratuitous nautical references, things could get a bit choppy over the next five years - here's what the new skipper of GMP told me earlier today
I've been laughing off jibes I look like a copper all week. Very amusing - until a judge mistook me for a copper today and invited me to take to the witness stand to explain how GMP was making a pig's ear of one particular case. Happily, I left it to the actual bobby to explain
Benjamin Mendy case: the hearing lasted just under an hour. Although no pleas were entered at this stage Mr Mendy strenuously denies the charges. The particulars of the charges state the four alleged rape offences happened at his home
I always thought it was a badge of honour that Manchester didn’t have a Michelin starred restaurant where you would pay a small fortune for foam on a plate decorated with hundreds and thousands
It's infuriating the Home Office won't say why Adil Khan and his mates haven't been deported. The 'we never discuss individual cases' argument doesn't wash if he has been through two well publicised legal processes... It means this can happen to his victim
Forgot to turn my phone to silent in court yesterday. You can guess the rest. Apologies all round including to the prosecutor who was just launching into his opening speech to the jury. Thankfully it was just a regular ring tone.