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One million 'potentially deadly' fake prescription drugs have been seized by police from a flat in an ongoing drive to dismantle Manchester's Counterfeit Street. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11435567/Police-smash-fake-prescription-drugs-operation-worth-millions-Manchester-Counterfeit-Street-raid.html

The police officer suffered stab wounds to his leg and is in stable condition. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1697219/police-officer-stabbed-arrest-wanted-man-manchester-news-the-crescent-westhoughton

A serving Lancashire Police officer has been charged with attempted murder after a woman was injured at a hotel in Manchester. This is a breaking news story. More to follow. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11422497/Serving-officer-Lancashire-Police-charged-attempted-murder.html

https://www.forensicfocus.com/news/greater-manchester-police-completes-digital-investigations-9-5-hours-faster-with-magnet-automate/

A police constable who had a sexual relationship with a vulnerable rape victim and later used his influence to avert a police warrant at her home was today jailed for three years. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10684769/Police-officer-48-formed-relationship-vulnerable-rape-victim-jailed-three-years.html

An Afghan rescued from Kabul by the RAF has been arrested as a suspected Taliban terrorist in Manchester. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9978229/Armed-police-arrest-Afghan-special-forces-commando-Manchester-hotel-quarantining.html Wonder how many more in the UK are terrorist not known to police.😠

A serving Greater Manchester Police officer has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9452945/Police-officer-arrested-suspicion-sexually-assaulting-woman-patrol-car-duty.html

Armed police pinned down a suspect and found two grenades in his bag as a series of raids uncover more bombs and three guns. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9205029/Dramatic-moment-armed-police-pin-suspect-two-GRENADES-bag.html

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy is battling for his life after he was hit by a police car responding to an incident last night. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13581601/boy-15-fights-life-hit-police-car-999/

A domestic violence suspect threw petrol on himself and police officers before setting his own doorway on fire in a bid to avoid arrest. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9046637/Moment-domestic-violence-suspect-51-throws-petrol-police-officers.html

Counterfeit clothing seized by police was allegedly worn by cops working covertly to blend in. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/knock-clothing-seized-police-allegedly-17327303.amp

Two senior female police officers have been awarded significant sums for sex discrimination, after a tribunal ruled they were treated unfairly when they were placed on restricted duties after giving evidence against a colleague in a separate tribunal. https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/news/articles/female-police-officers-awarded-sex-discrimination-making-allegations-male-colleague

Police have shot dead two pitbull-type dogs after a man and woman were bitten. Armed officers were deployed to Queen's Park in Chorley New Road, Bolton, at 10:20 GMT on Sunday after reports that six dogs were dangerously out of control. A 60-year-old woman had been bitten on the hand and a man was bitten on the leg, Greater Manchester Police said. A man, 38, was arrested on suspicion of affray and allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in public. Officers are searching the area for another dog which is believed to be part of the group. Two dogs "were humanely destroyed and two dogs have been seized", police said. Another dog was seriously injured, they said. Supt Chris Allsop said: "Highly trained officers responded quickly to the scene and took control to avoid the situation from escalating." Salisbury Street and Deane Road, which were closed in the area, have now reopened. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-39472005 Sorry couldn't link the video for some reason.

GMP is to get a huge increase in the number of armed officers to deal with twin threats of terrorism and gun-toting crime gangs across Manchester , Salford and Greater Manchester. GMP to boost number of armed officers to tackle gun crime and terrorist threats - Manchester Evening News http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/gmp-boost-number-armed-officers-12164627

Manchester's Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe suspended for spat with colleague | Daily Mail Online A senior policewoman has been suspended over extraordinary claims of a hotel bar row with a colleague – at an event designed to enhance the 'profile and perception' of female officers. Assistant Chief Constable Rebekah Sutcliffe is said to have had a late-night argument with Superintendent Sarah Jackson about whose breasts were the most attractive. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3590898/What-bust-Assistant-Chief-Constable-suspended-spat-Superintendent-bar-session-size-breasts.html I have to admit this made me giggle, however it also made me groan. We really don't help ourselves at times surely they should know better? I also wonder who has paid for this three day event and how much it has cost? If I'm honest one word keeps screaming out at me and I know may be unfair as I know nothing of the event but can't help it "JOLLY".

A police officer has been seriously injured while dealing with a disturbance, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have said. The male officer received a serious head injury and was taken to hospital. His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. He was with other officers called to a property on Warbeck Road in New Moston at 17:15 GMT. A 30-year-old man was arrested and remains in police custody. GMP said an investigation was under way. Best wishes to the officer hope they make a speedy recovery. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34927069

I've not watched this in a while but believe it was about ram raids. car theft and shoplifting in Manchester. Aired 16th May 2002 according to what I've read on the net. In 4 parts unfortunately!

AN EAST Lancashire homelessness campaigner claims he was refused entry to the televised leaders’ debate despite having a ticket. Burnley man Wesley Hall, who runs the Help the Homeless project opposite Blackburn fire station, said he threw his ticket at Labour leader Ed Miliband after being turned away from ITV’s studio in MediaCityUK, Salford. Mr Hall had intended to ask the seven party leaders about the effects of austerity on East Lancashire’s homeless populations. The 32-year-old has more than 50 criminal convictions and found himself living on the streets before beating his drug addiction. Mr Hall said a marketing firm had given him a ticket, but then rang him the night before Thursday’s event to say Greater Manchester Police (GMP) did not want him in the building. Mr Hall said: “I was selected by a marketing company to attend, my ticket had arrived and the ITV producer contacted me with regards to my question and said it had been shortlisted. “I then received a call from the marketing company the night before stating that GMP had refused my entry. “What they don’t seem to understand is that it’s my past that has led me to understand many of the problems that these people face. “I’ve been through the judicial system. I’ve conquered addiction. I’ve contemplated all kinds of things and I have done some wrong things in life. But it’s these mistakes that I have learnt from .” Mr Hall, whose Blackburn operation takes place every Wednesday evening, co-ordinates a similar food and drink stall for homeless people in Manchester on Saturdays. The question he submitted read: “I live in East Lancashire, which is classed as the seventh-poorest area in Europe, and I volunteer at a homeless outreach programme where I’ve seen the effects of austerity and poverty at grass roots level with hundreds of people dying on the streets every week. “What will your party do to make sure the poorest in our society don’t shoulder the burden of tackling austerity? Many of the proposed policies we’re hearing are quite similar. “Where does the balance lie between investing in the people’s social needs versus paying billions of pounds to prop up the banks, renew Trident and allow corporates to evade tax in the fifth richest country in the world?” A spokesman for GMP insisted that a vetting process was in place for the event. ITV said they were unable to comment.

One of the UK’s most senior police officers has called for a review of why UK authorities were forced to free a Manchester terrorist in 2009 due to lack of evidence, when US prosecutors managed to convict the same man on Wednesday. Greater Manchester’s chief constable, Sir Peter Fahy, has said Abid Naseer, who was arrested six years ago amid fears that he was planning to bomb the city’s Arndale shopping centre, should have been put on trial in the UK. However, Fahy explained his force’s inability to collect sufficient evidence against Naseer by saying the need to protect the public had taken priority. Pakistani-born Abid Naseer, 28, was the head of a UK-based cell of young al-Qaida recruits under orders to infiltrate and attack western society. Before his arrest he was believed to have been planning operations on multiple transatlantic targets including the New York subway, in an event that would rival 9/11. However, after UK police found no explosives, the men were released without charge. Naseer was only rearrested in July 2010 at the request of US prosecutors. After a series of court challenges he was extradited to New York in 2013. During his trial, in which Naseer acted as his own lawyer, prosecutors presented evidence linking him with declassified documents seized in Osama bin Laden’s compound in during the US Navy Seal raid in 2011 in which the al-Qaida leader died. On Wednesday he was convicted by a jury. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Fahy agreed that Naseer should have been brought to trial in the UK. “We did absolutely think he should have been prosecuted here and called for a review into the circumstances. We put evidence in front of the Crown Prosecution Service, but at the end of the day we have an independent [charging] system in this country and that is their decision. “I had to be driven at the time by the need to protect the people of Greater Manchester. The difficulty we had was because we were very concerned about the nature of the threat that was being run and governed by a foreign terrorist organisation, and because we were unsure at the time about exactly what was going to happen, we had to intervene early to disrupt the plot. “That obviously meant we didn’t have all the evidence we might have had later in the investigation.” Fahy said: “We are obviously pleased now that a conviction has arisen, but the case does need to be reviewed. “There was a robust debate at the time [with the CPS] and we put in a lot of challenges. But you have also got to take into account that the Americans have been able to draw together further evidence since our investigation, including the evidence from Bin Laden’s house. Tony Lloyd, the elected police and crime commissioner for Greater Manchester, said he would be raising the issue with the home secretary. “The reality is that, had the Americans not acted, a dangerous man who was intent on causing death and destruction here in Greater Manchester could potentially still be walking our streets,” Lloyd said. “This is deeply worrying and I will be raising this issue with the home secretary because we need real assurances that whatever went wrong here is never repeated. “The work by police and security services in this case has been tremendous. This investigation ensured that potentially hundreds of people were not killed on the streets of Greater Manchester. I have no doubt that lives were saved. “But we should not have had to wait for the Americans to step in to extradite Abid Naseer. The public will want to know why he wasn’t brought to trial here.” Fahy denied that police were forced to arrest Naseer and his alleged accomplices earlier than intended, after former Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Bob Quick inadvertently exposed documents on the case outside 10 Downing Street. The sensitive operational documents were captured by press photographers and the mistake cost Quick his job. At the time, it was believed that the raids on Naseer and other alleged conspirators, which were carried out in broad daylight, were conducted far ahead of schedule after Quick’s blunder. “That obviously did happen, but that [document] actually said that we were planning to make those arrests because of the fact that we had to protect the people of Greater Manchester,” Fahy added. Naseer grew up in Peshawar, Pakistan, in a wealthy, middle-class family, his father working as a government contractor and property developer. He came to the UK in 2006 aged 19 on a student visa, he said to improve his English language and study computer science at a college in Manchester. He lived in the Cheetham Hill area of the city, which has a large Pakistani population. The CPS defended its decision in 2009 not to charge him. “The evidence in our possession in relation to Abid Naseer which would have been admissible in a criminal court was very limited,” said a spokeswoman. “Crucially, there was no evidence of training, research or the purchasing of explosives. “We had no evidence of an agreement between Abid Naseer and others which would have supported a charge of conspiracy in this country. The evidence used by the US authorities to extradite a suspect does not need to meet the same tests as set out in the code for crown prosecutors.” During the trial at Brooklyn federal court, MI5 agents testified wearing disguises. Most of the case hinged on email exchanges in 2009 between Naseer and a person described by prosecutors as an al-Qaida handler who was directing plots to attack civilians in Manchester, New York City and Copenhagen. Naseer faces a lifetime in prison. View the full article

Would you let someone speak to you like this?

Kesia Leatherbarrow (Photo: Handout) The police’s treatment of a vulnerable 17-year-old girl, who committed suicide in northwest England after being detained in police custody for an entire weekend, will face official state scrutiny Monday. An inquest into Keisa Leatherbarrow’s death is expected to highlight concerns over Greater Manchester Police officers’ handling of people who suffer from mental health issues. In the case of Leatherbarrow, the young woman had a history of self-harm. The teenager's inquest began at a coroner’s court in south Manchester on Monday. The coroner presiding over the case is Joanna Kearsley. It is expected to last five weeks. Martina Brincat Baines, Keisa’s mother, said the family was devastated by the 17-year-old’s death. “We hope that the inquest will provide some answers to allow us to come to terms with this terrible tragedy,” she said. Leatherbarrow hung herself in December 2013. In an effort to make her way into a residential care home for recovering addicts to visit her friend after hours, she had broken a window. When police officers were alerted, they arrived on the scene and arrested the teenager. They found a small amount of cannabis in her possession at the time. The 17-year-old subsequently spent three days and two nights in police custody. While in the cell, she was highly emotionally distressed, repeatedly banged her head against the wall and made numerous suicide threats. Nevertheless, she remained incarcerated. While Leatherbarrow was allegedly visited in custody by nurses, no official assessment of her mental state was carried out. Despite showing signs of extreme stress, she did not see an appropriate adult for more than 16 hours. Police officers also failed to contact health professionals, social services or her mother during this period. Several hours after being released, Keisa hanged herself in a friend’s garden. History of mental health issues Prior to her arrest, Leatherbarrow had spent five weeks in a mental health ward for adolescents because her mental health had shown signs of deterioration, and her self-harming had aroused concern. She had also been arrested in October 2013 by Lancashire Police for breaching the peace, following threats of self-harm and suicide. On this particular occasion, Leatherbarrow was released after being detained in a police cell for a night. She later fled her family home after threatening to commit suicide. The police were subsequently called, and Leatherbarrow was taken away from a motorway bridge by officers. Inquest, a UK-based charity that supports bereaved family members and relatives in the run-up to and after coroners’ hearings, expressed strong concern over Leatherbarrow’s case. The charity’s co-director, Deborah Coles, stressed that Leatherbarrow was vulnerable, and “should never have been locked up.” “Inquest is sadly working on far too many cases involving deaths of children and young people with mental health problems where the very systems that should be in place to protect them have failed,” she said. “This inquest must ensure the most robust scrutiny of all those with responsibility for Kesia’s treatment and care to expose any failings and ensure that no other family has to lose a child in these disturbing circumstances.” Institutional failures The Leatherbarrow family have expressed hope that Keisa’s inquest will directly address serious issues regarding the way in which Greater Manchester Police handled the young woman while she was kept in their custody. The family also hopes the inquest will examine whether police took the appropriate measures to safeguard the teenager from the risk she posed to herself. Figures released by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) have revealed that almost 50 percent of deaths related to police custody in 2011-12 involved vulnerable people suffering from mental health issues. Some 39 people overall are thought to have committed suicide following police custody in 2011-12. This figure rose dramatically last year, however, climbing to 64. A further 15 people died while in police custody in 2012-13. Leatherbarrow’s death has prompted ministers to introduce a legislative change, which will mean young people under the age of 18 can no longer be detained in police stations overnight. Late last year, however, it emerged many vulnerable British children are finding themselves locked up in prisons rather than receiving required medical help, as hospitals and medical centers lack the resources to treat them. Of approximately 23,000 incidents involving vulnerable individuals in 2012-13, one in four were sent to prison cells. More than 200 children in total were taken into police custody, despite recommendations that the measures should only be used in exceptional circumstances. View the article source