A prison officer who was filmed having sex with an inmate has been sentenced to 15 months in jail.
Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was on duty at HMP Wandsworth in London when she entered the prisoner’s cell and had sex with him on 27 June.
The encounter was filmed by another inmate and lasted for almost five minutes.
She was identified by HMP Wandsworth staff and arrested by the Metropolitan Police at Heathrow Airport after the footage went viral on social media.
The prison officer was planning to fly to Madrid and telephoned the prison as she fled to the airport to say that she was not returning to work.
De Sousa Abreu then pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office on 29 July last year.
The charge said the 30-year-old “wilfully and without reasonable excuse or justification misconducted yourself in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by engaging in a sexual act with a prisoner in a prison cell”.
Tetteh Turkson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, added last year that the incident was “a shocking breach of the public’s trust,” and that De Sousa Abreu “was clearly an enthusiastic participant who wrongly thought she would avoid responsibility”.
“The CPS recognises there is no excuse for any prison officer who conducts themselves in such a manner, and we will never hesitate to prosecute those who abuse their position of power,” she added.
“After working closely with the Metropolitan Police to build the strongest possible case, De Sousa had no option but accept she was guilty. She will now rightly face the consequences of her actions.”
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Police have released a facial reconstruction of an unidentified woman whose body was discovered in a river more than eight months ago.
The woman, who was wearing a lime-green Primark crop-top and New Look jeans, was found by a member of the public in the River Mersey, near Chorlton Water Park in Manchester, on 21 March.
She is thought to have been in the water for one or two months before she was discovered.
Her cause of death is being treated as unexplained and further analysis of her body is due to be completed.
Greater Manchester Police has released the facial reconstruction, which was created by Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University, as they continue to try and identify her.
The force said it comes after months of detailed forensic, DNA and investigative work.
Image: The Primark top the woman was wearing. Pic: Greater Manchester Police/PA
Image: Pic: Greater Manchester Police/PA
The woman, who had an elastic band and hair bobble on her wrist, is described as being from a European background, about 5ft 1in tall, of a slim build and with dark brown hair.
Police believe she is between 26 and 40, although could be older or younger.
When discovered, she was wearing a Primark neon green strapless corset style top, New Look branded Jenna black jeans in a size 8, and dark green anti-slip socks, of the type that are believed to be used in hospitals and care facilities, although can also be purchased in shops and online.
Police believe she may have entered the water in a surrounding area or region, with the River Tame and River Goyt both merging into the River Mersey.
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Image: The socks the woman was wearing. Pic: Greater Manchester Police/PA
Image: The inside tag of the jeans the woman was wearing. Pic: Greater Manchester Police/PA
Detective Inspector Louise Edwards, from GMP’s major incident team, said: “We have worked with numerous experts covering a wide range of forensic examinations and tests available to us, but we have sadly been unable to uncover the woman’s identity.
“We want nothing more than to reunite her with her family and friends. She could be someone’s mother, aunty, sister, or cousin – somebody out there will know who she is and we want to ensure she gets back to her loved ones.
“If you have any information at all, please do get in touch with us. Even the smallest amount of information could greatly benefit in finding out who she is, and the circumstances which led to her sadly being discovered in the river more than eight months ago.”
The body of a man in a wetsuit could have been in a Welsh reservoir for up to three months, police have said.
Dyfed-Powys Police has renewed its appeal for information to help identify the body which was discovered in the Claerwen Reservoir in Powys on 18 October.
The force said a post-mortem had been carried out and the body is that of a man aged between 30 and 60, and approximately 6ft tall.
He was wearing a Zone3 Agile wetsuit and “could have been dead for between three and 12 weeks”, police said.
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Detective Inspector Anthea Ponting said: “We would still like to hear from anyone who has visited the Claerwen Reservoir, or the surrounding area, since the beginning of July, and haven’t spoken to police yet about any unattended personal property such as bags, clothes, shoes, or anything else that stood out.
“We’d like to hear from you whether you saw something that caught your attention and left it there, or you removed it from the area.”
A US cruise ship has departed on a round-the-world trip after passengers were left stranded in Belfast for four months.
Villa Vie Residences’ Odyssey sailed out of Belfast Harbour just after 11pm on Monday night, after a series of delays and technical problems that forced many guests into an unscheduled stay in Northern Ireland.
The ship had been set to sail on a three-and-a-half year adventure around all seven continents on 30 May, but was instead forced into a series of repairs in Belfast.
Guests – who had purchased cabins for between $99,999 (£75,000) and $899,000 (£670,000) – were allowed to use the ship’s amenities during the day, but were required to sleep in hotels due to the repair work.
Many passengers returned home as the series of delays grew longer, but around 100 are believed to have remained in Northern Ireland for the past four months.
Among them were John and Melody Hennessee from Palm Beach in Florida, who had sold up everything to spend more than one million dollars acquiring three cabins on the Odyssey. They aim to make the ship their permanent home.
“We were ecstatic,” Melody said of the moment the departure was confirmed. “Now we can start partying,” said John.
Barring a couple of trips to Tenerife and Paris, the couple have spent the past few months exploring Ireland.
“We’ve done pretty much every tourist thing you have to offer here in Belfast, so we know Belfast pretty well,” said Melody. “Today we’re playing miniature golf. We’ve frequented every restaurant you have in Belfast, and bars. We now love Guinness, that’s a big thing. We have one every day.”
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The Florida couple said they would miss the people most from Northern Ireland.
“The people are amazing, they’re so kind, genuine. So amazing. We don’t have that in the US. We’ve made a lot of new friends, it’s been a lot of fun.”
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“Everybody is just ready to go,” said passenger Andy Garrison. “It got very frustrating,” he said of the delays. “What’s nice is the people are being really resilient about it.”
Originally from Dallas in Texas, he was boarding clutching a model of the Titanic, and wasn’t worried if other passengers thought it was a bad omen. “They may, but that’s their problem, that’s not my problem,” he said, laughing.
Image: Andy Garrison with his model version of the Titanic
Angie Harsanyi from Colorado and Gian Perrroni from Canada fell in love and became engaged during their forced sojourn in Belfast.
They met in May over drinks in a city hotel, and gradually got to know each other walking to and from the moored ship. Do they think their engagement would have happened without the delay in Northern Ireland?
Image: Gian Perrroni and Angie Harsanyi, who found love while stranded in Belfast
“I don’t,” Angie replied.
“Obviously we were already friends,” said Gian, “but the fact that we had all this time to ourselves, as opposed to being with several hundred other people, definitely sped things up.”
The couple are now looking forward to the ship’s captain marrying them on board in April, somewhere between Panama and Costa Rica.
Cruise ship passengers stranded in Belfast have shared what they’ll miss about Northern Ireland as they prepare to finally set sail for a round-the-world trip.
The Villa Vie Odyssey was meant to embark on a three-and-a-half-year cruise on 30 May but engine problems forced the vessel – and its passengers – to stay in Belfast.
After a four-month delay, the ship is at last due to set sail at 11pm tonight.
John Hennessee and wife Melody Thor Hennessee, from Palm Beach, Florida, have embraced the delay and told Sky News there’s plenty about Belfast they’ll miss.
“The people are amazing,” Mrs Hennessee said. “They’re so kind and generous. It’s just amazing. We’ve made a lot of new friends, it’s been fun.”
She continued: “We’ve done pretty much every tourist thing Belfast has to offer. We just about frequent every restaurant you have in Belfast.
“We now love Guinness, that’s a big thing. We have one every day.”
“American Guinness isn’t quite like it is over here,” her husband added.
Image: The Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship in Belfast on Saturday. Pic: PA
The couple have made the most of their time stranded on UK shores by also visiting Tenerife and Paris, as well as enjoying a shorter voyage on a Norwegian ship.
While they were “ecstatic” to finally receive a departure date, Mrs Hennessee added: “But this [delay] allowed us to finish the renovations on our cabin. Now we can cruise in style, it’s ready.”
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The luxury ship offers rental cabins from 35 to 120 days – or entire villas can be purchased for £90,000 to £260,000.
People who buy a villa own the space for however long the ship operates, with a minimum guarantee of 15 years.
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The stranded passengers have been unable to stay onboard during the four-month delay and have instead stayed in hotels and short-term rental properties in Belfast.
Two of the ship’s passengers have had a particularly memorable time, going from being strangers to getting engaged while stranded.
England saw a record amount of rainfall in the year and a half leading up to last month, new figures show.
According to provisional figures from the Met Office, 1,695.9mm of rain fell from October 2022 to March 2024.
This is the highest amount of rain for any 18-month period in England since the organisation began collecting comparable data back in 1836.
It beat the previous record of 1,680.2mm – which had only been set the month before, covering September 2022 to February 2024.
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The third-highest figure on record, 1,668.4mm, was set in the 18 months up to January 2021.
Beyond England, across the entire UK, the 18 months leading up to last month marked the fourth-wettest such period since records began – with 2,085.6mm of rain.
Image: File pic: PA
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Met Office scientist Emily Carlisle said: “Many will remember how wet March has been, with a succession of fronts and the influence of low pressure seemingly never too far away from the UK.
“Coming off the back of a wet winter and what has been a wet start to the year, many areas have very saturated ground, which has increased the sensitivity to rainfall events in recent weeks.”
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It follows an unsettled picture across much of the country over the Easter bank holiday weekend.
Looking ahead to the rest of this week, the Met Office said “spells of rain and showers” will continue over the coming days, with conditions “becoming increasingly windy”.
“Rather mild in the south and turning increasingly mild in the north after a chilly start,” they added.
Protesters who climb on war memorials could face three months in prison and a £1,000 fine under plans being proposed by the home secretary.
Announcing the plans, James Cleverly said ascending memorials was “an insult” and “cannot continue”.
The cabinet minister vowed last year to look into giving police new powers to protect remembrance sites after pro-Palestinian protesters climbed on the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London following a demonstration outside parliament on 15 November.
Downing Street at the time described the behaviour as an “affront”, but Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley said arresting protesters for scaling the memorial would have been unlawful.
The Home Office said that, under the new plans, climbing on war memorials will become a specific public order offence.
It said the measure would “stop protesters disrespecting those who have given their lives for our country”.
The announcement comes after 10,000 Palestinian supporters marched in central London on Saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
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Do war memorials need protecting?
Mr Cleverly, who was a Territorial Army officer in the Royal Artillery, said: “Recent protests have seen a small minority dedicated to causing damage and insulting those who paid the ultimate price for their freedom to protest.
“Peaceful protest is fundamental in our county, but climbing on our war memorials is an insult to these monuments of remembrance and cannot continue.
“That is why I am giving police the powers they need to ensure they have the tools to keep order and peace on our streets.”
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The measure, designed to apply across England and Wales, is scheduled to be introduced as an amendment at the report stage of the Criminal Justice Bill in the House of Commons.
The proposal will form part of a wider plan, due to be unveiled this week, aimed at tackling disorder at protests, the Home Office said.
The longest strike in NHS history, during which junior doctors walked out for six days, led to more than 113,000 patient operations, appointments and procedures being postponed, new figures show.
The industrial action started last Wednesday and continued until yesterday, with 25,446 staff absent from work at the peak, which was the day the strike started, 3 January.
According to NHS data, 113,779 inpatient and outpatient appointments had to be rescheduled, taking the total number since the health service strikes started in December 2022 to 1,333,221.
It means patients are “bearing the brunt” of the action, according to Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England.
She said: “The cumulative effect of various strikes now hitting the NHS for more than a year also means people are experiencing multiple cancellations, affecting their confidence in health services, often leaving them in pain, feeling stressed and anxious.”
NHS leaders have warned the impact caused by the strike could last for “months”.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the national medical director for NHS England, said frontline staff were “very concerned” about the next few weeks as the “cold weather bites” and more people may need to be treated in hospital.
“This puts an incredible strain on staff who have been covering striking colleagues as we continue to navigate one of the most difficult times of year,” he said.
Image: Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the national medical director for NHS England
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The number of cancellations could be double those reported as hospitals pre-emptively did not book in pre-planned operations during strikes, according to experts.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “The national figure for the cancelled appointments over the last year of industrial action, in our view, significantly underestimates it because actually a lot of trusts pre-emptively didn’t make appointments in the first place.
“So you have to more or less double that figure in order to get the actual number of appointments and procedures that were cancelled.”
What do junior doctors want?
The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents junior doctors, has called for a 35% pay rise for them but the government has stated the demand is “not affordable, even over several years”.
The union claims junior doctors in England were subjected to a 26.1% real terms pay cut between 2008 and 2022.
The government gave junior doctors an 8.8% pay rise last summer, with an extra 3% offered during the last round of negotiations towards the end of the year.
The BMA said it rejected the 3% offer because it does not make up for a real-term pay cut of nearly a quarter of their salary for junior doctors since 2008.
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NHS consultants took strike action in September and October and agreed to an extra 4.95% pay rise for senior doctors on top of the annual 6% increase already offered to them by the government.
This will be voted on by members of their union this month.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Despite the significant pressure, the healthcare system has coped well thanks to the hard work of consultants, nurses and other healthcare staff who worked during industrial action.
“The strikes may have ended but their repercussions will be felt for weeks and months to come.
“We want to put an end to damaging strikes once and for all, and if the BMA junior doctors’ committee can demonstrate they have reasonable expectations, we will still sit down with them.”
A Scottish ultra-marathon runner has been banned for 12 months by UK Athletics for using a car during a 50-mile race – and then accepting third place.
Joasia Zakrzewski was caught using the vehicle during this year’s GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool run after tracking data showed she was not running for 2.5 miles of the event.
The 47-year-old, who represented Scotland in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, was later stripped of her third place finish.
Zakrzewski claimed she told race officials about having been in a vehicle for a portion of the run in April and finishing the race “in a non-competitive way”.
But in its verdict, the Independent Disciplinary Panel of UK Athletics said: “The claimant had collected the trophy at the end of the race, something which she should have not done if she was completing the race on a non-competitive basis.
“She also did not seek to return the trophy in the week following the race.”
Zakrzewski, who works as a GP in Dumfries, had won a 48-hour race in Taipei, Taiwan, weeks before the UK run.
She also claimed victory in a 24-hour race in Australia in 2020 after running more than 236km (146 miles), and had previously set national records for 200km and 100-mile races.
A friend of the runner told the BBC that Zakrzewski was unwell and arrived in the UK from Australia just hours before the April race.
Adrian Stott said: “The race didn’t go to plan. She said she was feeling sick and tired in the race and wanted to drop out.
“She has cooperated fully with the race organisers’ investigations, giving them a full account of what happened.”
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After Zakrzewski was stripped of the result, an incensed Mel Sykes was handed third place.
She wrote on social media afterwards: “The sad thing in all this is that it completely takes the p*** out of the race organisers, fellow competitors and fair sport.
“How can someone who knows they have cheated cross a finish line, collect a medal/trophy and have their photos taken?!
“The audacity of uploading the data, complete with trophy photo, makes this worse!!”
The King and Queen have arrived in France to a guard of honour as they begin a three-day state visit to the country.
The royal couple are visiting Paris and Bordeaux six months after the trip had to be rescheduled because of widespread rioting across the country.
The King and Queen were greeted by the French prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, and other diplomats after they arrived at Paris’s Orly airport on Wednesday afternoon.
An officer and 20 guardsmen of the Republican Guard, which is part of the French National Gendarmerie, were lined up to greet them.
French President Emmanuel Macron issued a poignant welcome ahead of the King’s arrival, writing on social media: “You visited as a Prince, you return as a King. Your Majesty, welcome.”
The King and Queen met up with Mr Macron, 45, and his wife Brigitte, 70, for a ceremony of remembrance and wreath laying at the Arc de Triomphe, in the capital’s centre.
As part of the ceremony, King Charles was invited by the president to symbolically light the monument’s eternal flame which burns in memory of those who died in the First and Second World Wars.
Afterwards, the foursome were due to process down the Champs Elysees by car towards the Elysee Palace, the president’s official residence, where the King and Mr Macron are sitting down for talks.
In the evening, the King and Queen will be guests of honour at a grand black-tie state banquet hosted by Mr and Mrs Macron in the Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors.
Both the King and Mr Macron will address the 160 guests, who will include high-profile figures chosen for their contribution to UK-France relations.
The majority of the original royal programme has been retained but a few new elements have been added, including the Queen and Mrs Macron launching a new Franco-British literary prize at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
The King will become the first British monarch to give a speech from France’s senate chamber to senators and national assembly members on Thursday.
Other highlights include the royal couple meeting sports stars as France hosts the Rugby World Cup.
When the couple travel to Bordeaux, home to 39,000 Britons, they will meet UK and French military personnel to hear about how the two nations are collaborating on defence.
The King and Queen’s planned tour in March was to be their first state visit, but it was postponed at the last minute after violent nationwide demonstrations.
Bordeaux’s town hall was set on fire by protesters just a few days before the trip was due to begin.
Germany – the second leg of the overseas tour – became the historic first state visit destination for the royal couple instead.
