Leicester Mercury
REUNITED: SURGEON AND A SPECIAL PATIENT
THE UK’s youngest open-heart surgery patient has been reunited with the Leicester Royal Infirmary surgeon who saved her. Ikenna Omeje operated on Fleur when she was 28 days old, nearly three years ago. He said: “I see hundreds of patients, but you...
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WHEELCHAIR THIEVES LEAVE GIRL,6 HOUSEBOUND
THIEVES have stolen a specialised wheelchair used by a six-year-old girl - leaving her housebound. The mother of Bonnie appealed to whoever took the chair from the family’s driveway to return it. “We can’t do anything now, because she needs that...
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MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING ‘LOVING FATHER’ JIMMY
A MAN has been charged with the manslaughter of a “loving father”. Jimmy McKeown, 62, pictured, died in hospital shortly after an incident at Beaumont Leys Park, Leicester, on Monday. Joshua Moore, 33, of Fowler Close, Beaumont Leys, appeared before...
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SUSPECT, 33, HELD AFTER PARK DEATH
A MAN has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the death of a 62-year-old found unconscious in a park, police have said. Police confirmed the 62-year-old victim died in hospital after being discovered in the park in Leicester on Monday. A...
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ARMED ROBBER IN STRING OF ‘TERRIFYING’ JEWELLERY SHOP RAIDS
A ROBBER carried out a string of raids on jewellery stores. Simon Harrald, pictured, had a knife and imitation gun while snatching gold rings at stores in Leicester and Market Harborough. Police said the raids were “terrifying” for shop staff.
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TAXI DRIVER HIGH ON COCAINE WHEN POLICE STOPPED HIM
AN UBER driver was found to be almost five times the limit for a cocaine chemical after being stopped by police. Adam Daley, 33, was on duty when he was pulled over in Vaughan Way, Leicester. Blood tests showed he had in his system nearly five times...
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THIEF STOLE A £15,000 GOLD NUGGET FROM HIS EMPLOYER
A GARDENER stole a gold nugget from the man he worked for and sold it for more than £15,000. Christopher Darlison, 42, of Briargate Drive, Birstall, pleaded guilty to stealing the nugget from Roger Bown. Last summer, Mr Bown, 86, gave Darlison money...
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RECORD FINE IMPOSED FOR ILLEGAL TREE FELLING
A GARAGE operator has received the largest fine of its kind for illegally felling trees. Motor Fuel Ltd pleaded guilty to ignoring an order to replant trees it cleared at Snells Nook Lane, Loughborough, in 2019, to make way for an...
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STONED DRIVER BADLY INJURED WOMAN , 80, IN CRASH
A STONED driver caused a head-on crash that left an 80-year-old woman seriously injured. Dalton Marlow, pictured, ignored priority for oncoming vehicles at a trafficcalming gate in Edith Weston and hit the victim’s Kia. She suffered numerous broken...
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NEAR £1M IN ILLEGAL GOODS SEIZED IN CITY SHOPS
THE scale of illegal vapes and drugs being sold in Leicester is extremely worrying, a health campaigner has said, as it was revealed almost £1 million of dodgy products have been seized from city shops by trading standards officers. There are fears...
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PAYBACK TIME FOR CON MAN
A CON man has been ordered to pay back £124,000 to dozens of victims duped by his fake investment plan. Mital Mehta, of Oadby, is already serving five years and three months in jail after pleading guilty to 21 counts of fraud by false...
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DANGEROUS DRIVER SENT TO JAIL OVER FATAL CRASH
A MAN has been sentenced for dangerous driving after he caused the death of a 28-year-old woman in a crash. Mantas Kudrevicius, 32, of Quorn, was driving towards Spalding on the A16 when he crossed into the opposing carriageway and collided headon...
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THE KILLER DAMNED BY CCTV
A MAN who stabbed a housemate through the heart in a late-night row and then left the scene to get rid of the weapon is now awaiting sentence after being found guilty of manslaughter. Amritpal Singh, right, attempted to dispose of the evidence, first...
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PROTRACTED IRAN WAR MAY DRIVE UP PRICES , NEXT WARNS
NEXT says it has already taken a £15 million cost hit from the Iran conflict and warned it may need to raise prices if the war is prolonged. The Enderby retailer said it has accounted for additional costs including fuel and air freight, on the...
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CITY ‘IS AT RISK’ OF A MENINGITIS OUTBREAK
LEICESTER is at risk of a meningitis outbreak because uptake of a vaccine is below average, a councillor believes. City councillors were told just under half of 13 and 14 years old received the meningitis ACWY vaccine last year. The national average...
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ATTACK ON NILA WAS ‘SHOCKING, BRUTAL, MERCILESS’
A MAN who launched a fatal attack on an innocent stranger seconds after crashing his car in Leicester city centre has been jailed for life. The judge condemned Chukwuemeka Ahanonu’s attack on Nila Patel as “shocking, brutal and merciless”.
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PREDATOR’S FIVE DECADES OF CHILD SEX ABUSE AT AN END
A PREDATOR who abused girls over five decades has been jailed for 22 years. George Davey, 76, pictured, of Shelthorpe Road, Loughborough, abused the first of his five victims between 1975 and 1985. A victim exposed his crimes in December 2022. Det...
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20,000 CITY HOMES PLAN POISED TO GET FINAL APPROVAL
LEICESTER’S local plan will go to councillors next week for final adoption. The blueprint includes a housing target of 20,730 homes over the plan period – to 2036 – some of which have been built. Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “New site allocations in...
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ACTRESS LOSES FINAL DAMAGES CLAIM IN ANTI-GAY COMMENTS ROW
AN actress dropped from a role at Curve after anti-gay comments posted online emerged has had her final attempt to win compensation dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Seyi Omooba, pictured, previously lost a claim against the Leicester theatre at an...
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SCHOOLS SHAKE-UP COULD SEE END OF THE ‘HOLIDAY FORTNIGHT’
PROPOSED changes to children’s summer holidays in Leicester and Leicestershire include the potential loss of the traditional “Leicestershire fortnight”. Both the city and county councils are looking to change their traditional early summer break and...
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‘MAN KNIFED HOUSEMATE IN DRUNKEN ARGUMENT’
AN ARGUMENT between two housemates over the amount of noise one of them was making in the early hours ended up with a fatal stabbing, a murder trial heard yesterday. The prosecution, opening the case against Amritpal Singh, alleged that he...
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POLICE HUNT ‘SERIAL CAR SCRATCHER’ AS MAN LEFT WITH HUGE REPAIR BILL
POLICE are investigating after drivers parking on a street were targeted by a serial car vandal - with one motorist facing a repair bill of up to £2,500, writes Dylan Hayward. Last week, three cars parked in Willow Park Drive, Wigston were scratched...
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‘BOGUS MEDICAL CHECKS FOR DVLA CARRIED OUT IN BACK OF A VAN’
SIX people have gone on trial accused of involvement in a Leicestershire firm that allegedly carried out bogus DVLA medical examinations in the back of a van. A man from Hinckley and a Loughborough woman are part of the group accused of participating...
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POLICE CHIEF SORRY OVER FORCE’S HANDLING OF KILLER
THE head of Leicestershire Police has apologised at the public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks over the standard of his force’s inquiry into a warehouse assault a month before the triple killings. Temporary Chief Constable David Sandall gave his...
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VICTORY FOR WOMAN FINED FOR STAND AGAINST CASH CUTS
A WOMAN who refused to pay a £100 fine after campaigning against council cuts in Leicester city centre is celebrating after her case was dropped. Heather Rawling was hit with the fine in May last year after a council warden said her campaign table was...
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BARBECUE RAPIST HAS SENTENCE CUT ON APPEAL
A RAPIST who attacked a sleeping woman by climbing through her window following a barbecue had his jail term reduced after appeal judges ruled he had not planned it in advance. Antanas Jancevskis, pictured, had his 15-year term quashed at the Court of...
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NILA KILLER WAS OUT OF JAIL ON LICENCE
A DRUG dealer who stamped to death a stranger had been released from prison on licence a year earlier, a murder trial heard. Leicester Crown Court was told Chukwuemeka Ahanonu, 25, was freed from a two-year term in July 2024, having been found with...
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PRISON DEBT ENFORCER’S PUNCH KILLED INMATE
A PRISON enforcer killed a fellow inmate with a single punch over a debt incurred over illegal vapes. Damien Ward, right, who worked on behalf of criminal gangs inside HMP Fosse Way in Glen Parva, killed burglar Dennis Green last summer. His victim...
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MUM LEFT PETRIFIED BY THREATS TO FAMILY ON SOCIAL MEDIA
A MUM whose family were menaced on social media said she had been left “petrified” by the threats. The family were bombarded with threats by Bailey Hayes, of Beaumont Leys, after his brother was involved in a collision with a van. Messages to the son...
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PRINCESS OF WALES – AND GOLDEN MILE
THE Princess of Wales has made a surprise visit to Leicester’s Golden Mile. The visit to Belgrave Road saw the Princess tour family businesses, watch Indian dancing and sample chai at a family-run restaurant. Crowds gathered along the Golden Mile as...
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‘IT IS A MIRACLE YOU DID NOT KILL ANYONE’
THIS is the moment police arrested a banned driver who led them on a 80mph chase through 30mph areas. Adam Bennett, 22, who also ran red lights, crashed his BMW 4 Series at the end of a dangerous half-hour pursuit. Jailing him, the judge said: “It’s...
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WOMAN BEATEN BY NEIGHBOUR OVER £10 REFUSAL
A WOMAN who launched a group attack on a neighbour who had earlier refused to give her £10 has been given a final warning by a judge. Kira Newton, 40, took part in the assault on the woman alongside two accomplices. She led the attack after the trio...
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WINTER THE WETTEST ON RECORD
WINTER was the wettest on record in Leicestershire. Provisional data from the Met Office said rainfall totals for the three months to the end of February were about 70 per cent above average. Leicestershire was one of three counties, along with the...
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‘MY WEE STRONG FIGHTER FOUGHT THROUGH’
THE parents of a baby who overcame sepsis before two heart operations have launched a fund-raiser for the medics who treated him. Mum Sophie Robertson had been told to “prepare for the worst” when Kyran, pictured, got sepsis. But after the second...
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U-TURN ON PROPOSAL TO CLOSE SPECIALIST NURSERIES
PROPOSALS to close four nurseries for children with special needs have been dropped. Lift Beacon in Loughborough, Oasis Retreat in Melton and the Menphys sites in Wigston, pictured, and Sketchley Hill, Burbage, were to be closed under proposals from...
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VICTIM ‘WOULD HAVE HAD NO IDEA’ A KILLER WAS ABOUT TO ATTACK
WITNESSES have described the moment a man “ferociously” attacked a stranger. Nila Patel was fatally attacked in June last year outside Leicester Royal Infirmary by Chukwuemeka Ahanonu, who denies her murder but admits manslaughter. One witness told...
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KOHLI CASE POLICING IS REFERRED BACK TO WATCHDOG
POLICE have been told to look again at their handling of the death of Bhim Kohli after the case was referred to the policing watchdog, writes Dylan Hayward. Mr Kohli, 80, had previously been targeted by youths before he was fatally attacked in...
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OFFICER ERASED EVIDENCE OF KILLER’S ASSAULT AT WAREHOUSE
FOOTAGE recorded by a police officer responding to an assault by killer Valdo Calocane was deleted in error, a public inquiry has heard. The incident took place in Kegworth a month before Calocane, pictured, killed three people in Nottingham, in June...
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‘FAILINGS IN THE RESPONSE TO 2022 DISORDER’
POLICE and the city council should have responded better to the violence between religious groups across East Leicester in 2022, an inquiry has found. The report, compiled over nearly three years by academics from the School of Oriental and African...
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‘ANY MAN WHO HITS A WOMAN DESERVES TO GO TO PRISON’
A MAN attacked his girlfriend as she lay in bed, punching her repeatedly in the face. After the woman’s neighbour called 999, Radoslaw Kuchar, 41, told his girlfriend he would take her cat away if she told police what he had done. Judge Robert Brown...
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TALENTED RUGBY PLAYER WITH A HEART OF GOLD
TEAMMATES have paid tribute to a talented rugby player with “a heart of gold”. Jacob Hardwick, 20, pictured, died on Tuesday evening after he was involved in a collision on the A46, on his way to training for Leicestershire U20s.
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‘HOUSEMATE STABBING TOOK PLACE DURING ROW OVER CHORES’
A VIOLENT row between housemates over domestic chores that needed doing ended with one man in intensive care with stab wounds. The five men living in a house in Danvers Road, Leicester, had agreed to hold a 9am house meeting one day in August last...
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COUNCILS SET ASIDE £30M FOR REVAMP OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ABOUT £30 million has been set aside by councils towards the cost of local government reorganisation. Officers anticipate costs will arise from streamlining services, investing in IT and managing the changes when district and borough councils are...
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MURDER CHARGES AS POLICE SEARCH FOR GARY GOES ON
TWO people were charged yesterday with the murder of a man who has not been seen for almost two years. Yosif Ibrahim, 43, of Broad Avenue, Leicester, and Omed Firuzman, 25, of Ashley Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, have both been charged with the murder of...
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‘MURDER INQUIRY VICTIM’ NAMED
POLICE have named a man at the centre of a murder investigation. Police have searching a property in Broad Street, Evington, in connection with the disappearance of 60-year-old Gary Piatek, pictured, who was last seen in April 2024. Twelve people...
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UNITED IN GRIEF FOR KHALEED
UNIVERSITY staff and students have gathered to reflect and remember a student who died following a stabbing. Khaleed Oladipo, 20, right, a second year cyber-security student from London, was fatally injured on Tuesday last week. De Montfort...
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POLICE DIG STARTS AS 12 HELD IN MURDER INQUIRY
POLICE have arrested 12 people as part of a murder inquiry in the case of a man who has not been seen since for almost two years. Detectives, forensics officers and a tactical support team moved in on a house in Evington yesterday, with searches...
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POLICE FACE PROBE OVER RESPONSE TO SUMMER CAMP ABUSE
FIVE employees of Leicestershire Police are under investigation over the force’s initial response to reports of concern about the welfare of boys at a summer camp. The actions of two police officers and three staff members are under the spotlight over...
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MAN BANNED FROM OWN STREET OVER KNIFE THREATS TO NEIGHBOURS
A MAN who made threats to kill against his neighbours while armed with a knife has been banned from returning to his home street until 2031. Stephen Camfield, 45, who also shouted racist abuse during the incident, has been handed a five-year...
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‘A GROSS BETRAYAL OF TRUST’
A SUMMER camp organiser who drugged boys in his care so he could sexually assault them has been jailed for more than 23 years. Parents of Jon Ruben’s young victims nodded and some wiped tears as judge Timothy Spencer jailed him, telling him: “You were...
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TRIBUTES TO ‘EXTREMELY LOVED SON’ KHALEED
A STUDENT who died following a stabbing outside De Montfort University was an “extremely loved son”, his family say. Khaleed Oladipo, 20, a cybersecurity student from London, died in hospital on Tuesday evening following an incident in Oxford Street,...
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STUDENT DIES IN STABBING
AN 18-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a university student was stabbed in Leicester city centre. Police were called just after 5pm on Tuesday after a report that a man had collapsed in Oxford Street, close to the junction with...
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TEENAGE BURGLAR SCOURGE OF HOUSEHOLDS ACROSS COUNTY
A TEENAGER has been jailed for his role in a string of burglaries. Theo Ramsey, 19, and other members of his masked gang, would break into homes in the early hours, stealing cars and valuables. Ramsey, pictured, of New Fields Avenue, Braunstone,...
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DESPERATE BID TO SAVE TODDLER AS HE FELL IN RIVER
THE aunt of a tragic toddler who disappeared after falling into the River Soar has told of the desperate bids to save him. Two-year-old Xielo Maruziva was swept away by the current after he slipped off a bridge during a family walk. Yesterday his...
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‘THEY LIED ABOUT OUR DAUGHTER’S MEDICATION, HER CARE, HER DIET...’
A FATHER and his wife removed their daughter from her supported living after discovering footage of her care that left them “horrified”. Emily has a diagnosis of severe learning disability, severe expressive communication difficulties, epilepsy and...
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FOUR FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER IN DRUGS TURF WAR
FOUR people have been found guilty of murdering a woman in a drugs gang turf war. Joanne Penney, 40, was shot in the chest by Marcus Huntley, 21, after she opened the door of a flat she was visiting in Talbot Green, South Wales, on March 9 last...
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Pc GUILTY OF ‘A BLATANT DISREGARD FOR THE LAW ON DATA USE’
A POLICE officer sent details of a suspect to a friend, a court heard. In total, Pc Jake Olner, 34 – who resigned from the force – admitted nine breaches of data legislation in what prosecutors said was “deliberate and blatant” disregard of the law.
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‘250 POLICE OFFICER JOBS AT RISK UNDER TAX PLANS’
UP to 250 police officer jobs could be lost if tax is not increased by the maximum allowed, the force’s top officer has warned, writes Dylan Hayward. Police and crime commissioner Rupert Matthews is proposing to raise the policing part of council tax...
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SELLING THE CLUB IS NOT THE WAY TO EXIT
LEICESTER City chairman Aiyawatt “Top” Srivaddhanaprabha will not consider selling the club until successful times have returned to the King Power Stadium, writes Jordan Blackwell. In his first interview with local media in 10 years, Top, right,...
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18-YEAR-OLD PRISON GUARD JAILED FOR SEX WITH INMATE
A GUARD who had sex with an inmate and smuggled phones and a drug into prison for him has been jailed, Alicia Novas, who was 18 at the time, also told 31-year-old aggravated burglar Declan Winkless, both pictured, formerly of Kirkdale Road, South...
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CITY SACK CIFUENTES
MARTI Cifuentes has been sacked as Leicester City manager after defeat to Oxford United proved the last straw for the board. Fans turned on the Spaniard on Saturday, with shouts of “we want Marti out” – in front of chairman Aiyawatt ‘Top’...
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PCC’S MISCONDUCT HEARING IS KEPT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
LEICESTERSHIRE’S police and crime commissioner (PCC) has faced a complaint relating to allegations of misconduct in office at a private meeting. This was despite challenges from the Mercury to make the meeting public. The police and crime panel’s...
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BURGLARY BROTHERS WENT ON A FOUR-MONTH NATIONWIDE CRIME SPREE
TWO brothers went on a burglary spree that saw them target homes across the country. Between October 2024 and January 2025, Danny, above left, and Terrence Casey, of Meynells Gorse, Braunstone, were linked to 37 offences. Their victims included a...
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BOYS, 16, CHARGED WITH CITY MURDER ATTEMPT
TWO boys have appeared before magistrates to face charges of attempted murder and carrying knives following an incident where a man was left bloodied in a city takeaway, writes Tom Mack. Leicester Youth Court heard that CCTV from the incident, at 1pm...
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SHOPLIFTING RATE IS ONE OF THE WORST IN COUNTRY
LEICESTER city centre has one of the highest number of shoplifting offences in England and Wales. The 1,453 crimes reported in the 12 months to March was the sixth highest total recorded nationwide. Shop workers said there is often nothing they can do.
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‘LONG WAITS FOR CARE COULD HAVE HARMED PATIENTS’
LONG waits for mental health care, averaging 133 days in May last year, could have harmed patients in the county, inspectors have warned. The Care Quality Commission rated community-based services for adults of working age in Leicestershire as...
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TEENAGER ATTACKED POLICE IN INTERVIEW ROOM
A TEENAGER punched a police officer in the face and then assaulted his female colleague when his interview turned violent. Aven Smith had been arrested after sending malicious messages to his ex-girlfriend, including threats to kill.
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