Carrington Walker

Taxi driver Robert Cretu admitted making 30 fraudulent pet-insurance claims to five insurers between December 2023 and August 2025 for dogs that did not exist. He used false identities, forged veterinary documents and third-party bank accounts, receiving £31,700, although several claims failed. Liverpool Crown Court heard that he cited fabricated incidents including dogs being struck by vehicles and one falling from Blackpool Pier. Cretu, who had no previous convictions, blamed financial difficulties and family expenses. He received a 20-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months, along with up to 20 days of rehabilitation activity, after the judge cited his admissions, remorse and prospects for rehabilitation while noting the prolonged and repeated nature of the fraud.

A man died at the scene of a collision involving a car and three lorries on the M6 northbound between junctions 15 and 16 near Stoke-on-Trent. Two lorry drivers were taken to Royal Stoke University Hospital with serious or potentially serious injuries, while a third was discharged at the scene. The southbound carriageway reopened shortly before 8am, but the northbound section remained closed during the evening. Staffordshire Police is investigating and has appealed for CCTV or dashcam footage.

Sahra Osman told an inquest that the death of her five-year-old son, Aalim Ahmed, was preventable and that Newham Council failed to respond to repeated warnings about faulty window restrictors in the family's 15th-floor flat at Jacobs House in Plaistow. Aalim, who had autism and was described as having little sense of danger, fell from a kitchen window on 16 May 2024 and died instantly. Osman said council workers failed to secure the windows despite multiple complaints and supporting information about her son's needs. The council disputed aspects of her account, including whether engineers were told about problems with every window. The hearing is continuing.

James Desborough, 40, was unanimously convicted at Winchester Crown Court of murdering Claudio Aquilino and Daniel Coleman in Cornwall last year, dismembering their bodies and hiding the remains near Sticker. Police found burned bone fragments, body parts and documents containing violent plans at his woodland cabin. Desborough denied the murders but admitted disposing of the bodies and using the victims' money for drugs and alcohol. The convictions make him a triple murderer, following an earlier life sentence for killing his cellmate at HMP Exeter.

A Ryanair flight from Birmingham to Dublin declared a general emergency after a medical incident occurred shortly after takeoff. The pilots transmitted the 7700 emergency squawk while the aircraft was about 8,000 feet over the Irish Sea and received priority landing clearance. Flight FR661 landed safely at Dublin Airport approximately 40 minutes after departure, with emergency teams waiting on the ground.

Kira Cousins has spoken publicly about deceiving her partner and family into believing she was pregnant and had given birth to a daughter, using a lifelike reborn doll as the supposed baby. She says a miscarriage, fear and relationship difficulties led her to sustain the deception, while former partner Jamie Gardner says he genuinely believed the baby was real and disputes her claim that she tried to tell him about the miscarriage. The ruse unravelled after relatives became suspicious, and the couple have since separated, with both offering conflicting accounts of how the truth was revealed.