A man has been arrested and a dog seized after reports a three-year-old girl was bitten in the face, police have said.
Merseyside officers were called to Newtown Gardens, outside the Market Tavern pub, in Kirkby, northeast of Liverpool, on Saturday afternoon following a report a dog had attacked a child.
The toddler was taken to hospital for treatment of her injuries, thought to be serious but not life-threatening.
Police attended and seized the dog, which will be examined in order to determine the breed.
A 31-year-old man from Ormskirk has been arrested on suspicion of affray and having a dog dangerously out of control in a public place.
He has been taken into custody to be questioned.
Read more: Two XL bully dogs shot dead after killing 22 pregnant sheep
Chief Inspector Jim Wilde said: “This was a horrific attack which has left a young girl receiving hospital treatment for significant injuries to her face.
“I want to reassure people that she is currently receiving the best possible care and treatment for her injuries at Alder Hey, and we hope she makes a speedy recovery.
“We seized the dog at the scene, which will now be humanely destroyed, and extensive efforts are now under way to establish exactly what happened.”
Police said the area was busy at the time and, while they have spoken to a number of witnesses, they are still appealing for more to come forward.
The brother of a man wanted over the death of his 10-year-old daughter told officers Sara Sharif “fell down the stairs and broke her neck”, according to police in Pakistan.
Sara’s uncle, Imran Sharif, is currently held in police custody for questioning, Jhelum police have exclusively told Sky News.
He has not been charged and is not under arrest, they said.
However, Mr Sharif is assisting police in finding his brother Urfan, who he claims he hasn’t seen.
Sara Sharif was discovered at her home in Woking, Surrey, after police were called from Pakistan by her father on 10 August.
Urfan Sharif, 41, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and his 28-year-old brother Faisal Malik are thought to have travelled from the UK to Islamabad the day before – and are wanted for questioning.
Sara’s exact cause of death remains unknown.
However, Surrey Police said a post-mortem revealed Sara “suffered multiple and extensive injuries”, which they said were “likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time”.
Surrey County Council have also said Sara was previously known to authorities.
Image: Urfan Sharif, left and Beinash Batool. Pic: AP
Pakistani police are seeking to arrest Urfan Sharif, who travelled to the country with Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik as well as five children ranging from one to 13 years old.
It is believed Urfan briefly returned to his family home in Jhelum, Punjab – about 84 miles (134km) away from the capital.
Imran Sharif denied knowing where Urfan and his family were, Jhelum police said.
He told police: “I found out what happened to Sara through the international media.
“My parents told me Urfan briefly came home very upset. He kept saying ‘they’ are going to take his children away from him.”
“They”, an officer said, referred to British authorities.
According to Jhelum police, Imran Sharif claims the family line is that Sara had an accident at home.
He is alleged to have told officers: “Beinash was home with the children. Sara fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Beinash panicked and phoned Urfan.”
Beinash Batool’s family home in Mirpur was searched, but the family of eight was nowhere to be seen, Jhelum police told Sky News.
They added that Urfan’s parents are distressed, and that his father’s “heart condition” is worsening from “stress”.
Former Metropolitan Police officer Adam Provan has been jailed for 16 years – with another eight years on extended licence for multiple rapes against a teenage girl and a female police officer.
The 44-year-old was convicted in June of six counts of rape of a fellow police officer between 2003 and 2005.
He was also found guilty of two counts of rape of a 16-year-old girl, who he met on a blind date after lying about his age in 2010.
Judge Noel Lucas said he was troubled by the way the Met handled the female police officer’s initial complaints about Provan’s behaviour in 2005.
He said those who dealt with the complaints at the Met “were more concerned with looking after one of their own than taking her seriously” – and had an investigation been taken forward, the teenage victim may have been spared.
Sentencing Provan at Wood Green Crown Court, the judge said he displayed a “cold-blooded entitlement to sex” then immediately behaved as if everything was “completely normal”.
He concluded that the “persistence and seriousness” of Provan’s offending was clear, adding: “By your actions, you brought disgrace on the police force.”
Read more: ‘Provan had ‘fascination bordering on obsessive’ with young women
Provan was a serving officer in the Met Police East Area Command Unit at the time of the offences.
He was jailed for nine years in 2018 after being convicted of raping the 16-year-old victim following a retrial – and served three years and three months in prison before a successfully appeal.
When his case was sent for a third trial in May, six new counts of rape were added – relating to earlier offences against the serving Metropolitan Police officer.
On the first day of a two-day sentencing hearing, it was revealed that Provan had 751 female contacts in his mobile.
Prosecutor Anthony Metzer KC said details from the phone “strongly suggested” there was sexual activity with the women, many of whom were young.
Mr Metzer said Provan used his position to gain the trust of young women and had “aspects of a Jekyll And Hyde character”.
He added that Provan had an “extended history of allegations” of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s.
Speaking at the court from behind a screen, the teenage victim, who is now in her 20s, said: “The day I met Adam Provan changed my life forever.
“No prison sentence will take away the harm Adam Provan has caused me. No amount of justice will make me forget the date from hell.
“Even though I tried my best to block it out I will never forget how scared I was when the assault took place, and 13 years later reliving my worst nightmare.”
Being told that Provan really was a police officer, as he had claimed to be, was “sickening”, she said.
The other victim, still a serving officer, said she had “lived in constant fear” that Provan would kill her, and felt he saw himself as “untouchable”.
She told the court that she also felt the police had not dealt with Provan and had failed to protect her.
Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother and uncle have been identified in connection with her murder investigation, Surrey Police have said.
An international manhunt is under way for Urfan Sharif, 41, Beinash Batool, 29, and Faisal Shahzad Malik, 28, as officers try to work out what happened to the 10-year-old.
Mr Sharif is believed to have travelled to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, on 9 August with his partner Ms Batool, his brother Mr Malik, and five children aged between one and 13-years old.
A body, now formally identified as Sara’s following DNA testing, was found by police at a home in Woking a day later, at around 2.50pm.
The force said a post-mortem revealed that Sara “suffered multiple and extensive injuries”, which they said were “likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time”.
However, the cause of Sara’s death is “still to be established”, and further tests were needed, a spokesperson said.
Image: Sara Sharif
It is now known that Urfan Sharif called 999 from Islamabad on 10 August, expressing a concern for his eldest daughter’s safety – although exact details of the conversation are unknown.
Sky News has seen the passports and holding plane tickets for Mr Sharif, Ms Batool and Mr Malik.
Eight tickets in total were booked by Sara’s father.
These were for three adults and five children – and paid for by his brother Mr Malik at a cost of around £5,100, according to Nadeem Riaz, the travel agent that sold the tickets.
Mr Riaz told Sky News he initially had a phone call with Mr Sharif, whose voice sounded “totally normal”.
“On 8 August at 10pm I received a call. Urfan said he wanted to book a ticket to Pakistan. He said his cousin passed away. I told him to send me passport pictures,” Mr Riaz said.
Mr Sharif sent these to Mr Riaz on WhatsApp, followed by a text that read: “As soon as possible.”
Mr Riaz told Sky News: “I asked him one way or return. He said ‘one way’.”
He added: “Whenever I look at my daughters… she is seven years old… and I feel very sad for Sara. I feel pain.”
Image: Nadeem Riaz said he spoke to Mr Sharif on the phone
Read more: Sara Sharif’s cause of death ‘still to be established’ Trio booked flights to Pakistan a day before body found
Police have been working with international authorities to locate the trio and are urging any witnesses – or anyone with information – to come forward.
There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan.
Image: Surrey Police officers outside the property
Mr Sharif and Mr Malik both have Pakistani passports, and it is understood that Ms Batool and the five children have Pakistani NICOP cards – the National Identity Card for Oversees Pakistanis – which allows individuals to travel to Pakistan without visas.
Meanwhile, officers remain at the property in Hammond Road in Horsell, a village less than a mile north of Woking town centre.
Neighbours said a Pakistani family with six “very young” children had moved in in April.
Flowers have been left outside, with one message reading: “Sweet girl, I’m so sorry that your sparkle was put out too soon.”
Police are expected to remain at the property in the quiet Woking village of Horsell for “some weeks”.
A man who killed a nine-year-old girl by stabbing her in the heart as she played in the street has been given an indefinite hospital order.
Deividas Skebas was unanimously found to have physically committed the act of killing Lilia Valutyte, despite a court deciding he was unfit to plead or face a conventional trial due to his mental health.
Lilia suffered a single stab wound to the chest in Boston, Lincolnshire, on the afternoon of last 28 July.
Image: Deividas Skebas outside Lincoln Crown Court in August
She was playing with a hula hoop at the time.
Jurors took around 15 minutes to find Skebas, 23, was the girl’s attacker after a two-day trial of the facts at Lincoln Crown Court.
The court heard Skebas, from Lithuania, came to the UK for a second time from his home country on 20 July last year and six days later was seen buying a Sabatier paring knife from Wilko in Boston town centre.
Image: A forensic officer near the scene of the killing
CCTV footage captured him walking around Boston before running towards Lilia at about 6.15pm as she played with a hula hoop outside the shop where her mother worked in Fountain Lane.
He pulled a knife from behind his back before stabbing the girl and running past an off-duty police officer, who was about to follow but stopped after hearing screams.
Lilia was pronounced dead at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital at 7.11pm.
Image: Lilia Valutyte. Pic: Lincolnshire Police
In an interview with police, Skebas said: “I grabbed the knife and I stabbed her”.
The judge, Mrs Justice McGowan, is expected to sentence Skebas to a hospital order – the only sentence available – later.
Read More: Man accused of girl’s murder unfit to stand trial Lilia Valutyte: Funeral held for nine-year-old
She told the jury: “It’s been an unusually short case and you have dealt with issues that if this were a normal trial would have taken a couple of weeks.
“You have dealt with some very unpleasant material and I’m afraid that that is what juries do.”
If his mental health improves, Skebas, who is charged with murder, could face a conventional trial.
In a trial of the facts, a defendant cannot be criminally convicted but the jury must be satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that they physically carried out the act, while not considering intent or state of mind.
The parents of a girl seen limping after a Land Rover crashed into a school in Wimbledon looked “absolutely shell-shocked”.
Seven children and two adults were injured in the crash – with one child seen by the Sky News team on the scene being carried away with a cut to her leg.
Wimbledon school crash – latest
Sky News’ Jacquie Beltrao said a police officer told her “an out of control vehicle” was involved in what police have described as a “serious collision” at The Study Preparatory School on Camp Road, in Wimbledon.
“We have certainly seen one child walk out of here limping, carried by both of her parents supporting her,” she said.
“They looked absolutely shell-shocked, and couldn’t speak. I just said: ‘Are you okay?’ And her dad nodded his head.
“The child couldn’t speak at all.
“They couldn’t tell us what had happened.
“He shook his head again – looked absolutely shocked.”
Read more: Nine hurt as Land Rover crashes into Wimbledon primary school
Beltrao said the small private girls’ school is set in a “beautiful location” overlooking the Wimbledon Common and a golf course.
“It is not what you expect to happen round here,” she said.
“It’s nowhere near a main road, it’s right in the middle of Wimbledon Common, just a mile or so away from the tennis.”
She described a “massive” response with at least 20 ambulances, an air ambulance and firefighters at the scene.
A 24-year-old has been hailed the “backpack hero” for confronting the suspect after the stabbing of a British girl and five others in a French park – while using his bag as a shield.
Henri, who was on a nine-month Catholic pilgrimage around France‘s cathedrals, said that after realising the extent of the attack he “followed [his] instincts and tried to protect [the] children”.
Four children, aged between 22 months and three years old, were left with “life-threatening injuries” after the suspect, a Syrian refugee named by French media as Abdalmasih H, rampaged through the lakeside park in the town of Annecy.
The most critically injured children were two cousins.
Two adult men were also hurt during the incident – one of whom was injured with the knife and by a shot fired by police as they were arresting the suspect.
Image: Henri following the suspect with his backpack after the attack in French park
Using his bag to swipe at the attacker, and at one point throwing one of the backpacks to fend off his blade, Henri told broadcaster BFMTV that he acted off his instincts and immediately ran after the suspect, trying to scare him off and distance him from the injured.
“I didn’t even think, I must admit the brain really unplugged,” he said.
“For me, it was just impossible to let those who can’t defend themselves get attacked by someone who seemed like a crazy person.
“I had my big 20kg backpack on my back, I tried to run with the big one at first in the park behind him before realising he was much faster than me so I got rid of my big backpack after and followed him with my little bag.”
Image: The knife attack suspect
Henri added: “He tried to attack me at some point, our eyes have met.
“I understood that it wasn’t a guy in a normal state, something really bad was inside of him and it had to absolutely be stopped.
“I am far from alone in having reacted.
“Many other people around started, like me, to run after him to try to scare him, push him away.
“And other people immediately went over to the children to take care of the injured.”
Read more: British girl, 3, has ‘woken up’ – Macron Victim was there on holiday What do we know about the Annecy knife attacker?
Image: Henri the ‘backpack hero’
Image: President Emmanuel Macron talks with Henri
President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that the victims would “continue to improve”.
The two cousins have been stabilised and the three-year-old British national is “awake and watching television” after being treated at a hospital in Grenoble, Mr Macron said.
A wounded Dutch girl has also improved and a critically injured adult is regaining consciousness.
He said that the children were saved by the “swiftness” of those who intervened after the incident, including Henri.
Henri asked the French president if he could be invited to the inauguration of Notre-Dame Cathedral – which was partially destroyed in a fire in 2019 – when it re-opens.
Mr Macron said he will personally make sure he is invited.
“Thank you immeasurably for your courage,” Mr Macron said to those who intervened. “You experienced very hard moments, traumatising. I am very proud of you.”
Motives for the attack remain unknown, but there was “no apparent terrorist motive”, according to local prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis.
Image: Pic: AP
Image: People pay tribute at scene of attack
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the 31-year-old suspect recently had an asylum request rejected because he has held refugee status in Sweden for the past 10 years.
French authorities rejected the request on 26 April but the suspect only learned of the decision on 4 June, French broadcaster BFMTV said.
Henri’s father, Francois, said his son “told me that the Syrian was incoherent, saying lots of strange things in different languages, invoking his father, his mother, all the Gods”.
“In short, he was possessed by who knows what, but possessed by folly, that’s certain,” he said.
Witnesses have described how a suspected drive-by shooting which left a seven-year-old girl fighting for her life in hospital sent people running and screaming near a memorial service for a young woman who died from cancer.
There were scenes of panic outside St Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Euston, central London, on Saturday afternoon as gunfire rang out, leaving several people seriously injured.
Two girls, one aged seven and another aged 12, and four women, aged 54, 48, 41, and 21, were taken to hospital following the incident at around 1.30pm.
It happened just as a requiem mass for 20-year-old Sara Sanchez and her mother Fresia Calderon, who died within a month of one another in November, took place inside the church in Phoenix Road.
An online fundraiser to support Ms Sanchez’s battle with leukaemia raised more than £31,000.
The “proud British Colombian” died after her mother suddenly passed away from a rare blood clot upon arrival at Heathrow from Colombia, MyLondon reported.
Image: Sara Sanchez and Fresia Calderon died within a month of each other. Pic: GoFundMe
‘People were too scared to go outside’
Father Jeremy Trood, who conducted the service, described the moment the gunshots were heard.
“I was inside the church. I heard the bang and people ran back into the church,” he said.
“They knew something had happened outside.
“They were very scared, people sheltered in the church until the police said they can leave, but some of them were so scared they had to wait a while to get their confidence back up to go outside.”
‘My heart was racing’
Queen Macauley was visiting a friend who lives near the church when she heard the gunshots.
She told Sky News her “heart was racing” as she saw people running and heard screams.
“It was quite chaotic,” she added.
One resident of an estate across the road from the church, who did not want to be named, also heard gunshots.
“I was having a quiet day on my balcony and I heard this almighty bang and I thought this was not normal,” they said.
“The next minute, everyone was screaming and shouting. We have a food bank there and everyone was running off.
“Neighbours came in and said there has been a shooting. What a terrible thing.”
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Witness describes Euston shooting
‘Urgent investigation’
Metropolitan Police said no arrests have been made yet and an “urgent investigation” is under way.
Officers and forensics teams were at the scene of the shooting into the night, with a cordon in place.
Detectives believe the shots were fired from a moving vehicle, which was then driven away from the scene.
Superintendent Ed Wells said: “Any shooting incident is unacceptable, but for multiple people, including two children, to be injured in a shooting in the middle of a Saturday afternoon is shocking.”
Since the incident unfolded, the 12-year-old girl has been discharged from hospital. She suffered a minor leg injury.
The 48-year-old woman’s injuries are said to be potentially life-changing.
The other women are all in a non-life-threatening condition.
Image: All pics: Simon Lamrock
‘Deeply distressing’
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan described the incident as “deeply distressing”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is the local MP for Holborn and St Pancras, said he was “deeply shocked” and thanked the emergency services for their response.
“My thoughts are with the victims,” he added.
Anyone who witnessed the incident or who has information about what took place is asked to call 101, giving the reference 3357/14JAN.
Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
