The very best of this weeks key news, which saw resignations, dodging ticket fairs, arrests and jail sentences – keeping you in the know!
One woman dead, 12 injured in Cardiff hit-and-runs
A 32-year-old woman has died and a further eleven people have been injured including seven children and four adults in a series of hit-and-runs in Cardiff during a three-mile trail of chaos during the school run. Eyewitnesses have said pedestrians were deliberately targeted by someone driving a van and in devastating scenes the driver is said to have even reversed over some victims after hitting them.
A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after South Wales Police stopped a van on the outskirts of the city. He remains in police custody for questioning after the collisions, which occurred at five different locations in the Ely and Leckwith areas.
Superintendent Julian Williams said the suspect was arrested while driving a white Iveco transit van and was taken to Cardiff Bay police station. He stated, “whether the actions were deliberate or reckless is a matter for the inquiry and the person will obviously be spoken to”. The injured were taken to the city’s University Hospital of Wales, where the A&E department was so overwhelmed it had to shut to any patients other than those injured by the van driver, but has since reopened.
Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell resigns
The Government’s Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell has resigned after facing calls to quit after allegedly calling police officers ‘f******* plebs’ when they refused to let him cycle through the main gate of Downing Street.
Labour, the Police Federation and the Daily Telegraph were among those calling for the minister to go as pressure intensified on him. Cameron has struggled to shake off the impression that he and other senior members of his party come from a privileged background far removed from the electorate, and the accusations against Mitchell had proved highly damaging.
In his resignation letter, Mr Mitchell said that it had become clear that he would not “be able to fulfill my duties as we both would wish”. Nick Robinson said Mr Mitchell’s decision to quit was a “serious setback” for David Cameron as he had held on to Mr Mitchell instead of sacking him straight after his angry clash with a policeman on the gates of Downing Street.
Taxi driver jailed for the murderof Sian O’Callaghan
Taxi driver Christopher Halliwell has been jailed for life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years for the murder of nightclubber Sian O’Callaghan, who disappeared after a night out in Swindon last year. Christopher Halliwell, 48, sexually assaulted the 22-year-old office worker and stabbed her in the head and neck. The court heard Halliwell had been cruising around Swindon that night deliberately looking for a victim. He had switched off the radio inside his vehicle, which allows colleagues at his taxi company to locate his position.
Hundreds of volunteers turned out at Savernake Forest to help in the search for the missing PA where a signal from her mobile phone has been picked up following her disappearance on March 19 2011, Police eventually found her body in Uffington, Oxfordshire, on March 24.
Using CCTV, police identified Halliwell through the number plate on his car, he was put under surveillance and he was arrested at an Asda car park in Swindon on March 24. Extracts of statements from Miss O’Callaghan’s loved ones were read out in court. A statement from Sian’s boyfriend Mr Reape, who wept silently throughout court proceedings, said “Sian was a beautiful, happy-go-lucky person who could cheer up the most miserable of people” he added that “I will spend the rest of my life being grateful for the time we had together.”
University Boat Race protestor arrested
A campaigner who disrupted this year’s Oxford-Cambridge University Boat Race by swimming in front of the crews as they were racing has been jailed for six months for causing a public nuisance.
Trenton Oldfield, 36, swam into the path of crews on 7 April. It was the first time in the 158-year history of the event that a swimmer had disrupted it. He told the jury that he pulled the prank because the race is a symbol of elitism in government and his partner claimed he would readily do it again because Britain is ‘a brutal, deeply divided, class-driven place.’
The jury heard a statement from four-time Olympic gold medal-winning rower Sir Matthew Pinsent, who was assistant umpire of the race. “The risk for the swimmer was great,” he said in the statement, read to the court by prosecutor Louis Mably. Oldfield, who admitted swimming in front of the crews, said he decided to demonstrate after hearing about the government’s public spending cuts, which he said were “worse than in Dickens’s time”.
Chancellor forced to pay £189 for ticket upgrade
George Osborne was forced to hand over nearly £200 by a railway ticket inspector – after he sat in a first-class seat with a standard-class ticket.
The story was broken via a series of tweets by ITV reporter Rachel Townsend, who works for Granada Reports in the North-West of England. She said: “Very interesting train journey to Euston, Chancellor George Osborne just got on at Wilmslow with a STANDARD ticket and he has sat in FIRST CLASS…
Early reports suggested an aide to Mr Osborne initially refused to pay a supplement, but Virgin Trains said there was no disagreement. When arriving at Euston station Mr Osborne appeared surprised at the presence of journalists asking him why he had not sat in standard class as he left the train. He refused to comment.
MPs are not allowed to reclaim the costs of first-class tickets but taxpayers have to fund any standard-class rail travel. Last night, there was a suggestion that Mr Osborne may have tried to sit in first class with a standard ticket before. A tweet issued in May from a passenger on the Chancellor’s train said: ‘Ticket inspector on my train just got a high five: George Osborne tried to sit in 1st class with std tkt. ‘Inspector said NO.’
All photo credits to BBC News