Month: October 2020

A married police officer who strangled his lover after she revealed their affair to his wife has been jailed for manslaughter. Timothy Brehmer, 41, has been sentenced to 10 years and six months for killing mother-of-two Claire Parry, 41, in a pub car park on 9 May after she revealed their affair. She died during…

Scammers are pretending to be COVID marshals and medical professionals so they can gain access to people’s homes. Genuine COVID marshals don’t have the power to enforce social distancing, issue fines or enter private properties, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has warned. The organisation said this scam is a version of one seen over…

The UK has become the first country to back studies that would see healthy volunteers deliberately infected with coronavirus after being given a potential vaccine. Human challenge trials aim to speed up the development of vaccines and have previously been used in finding treatments for malaria, typhoid, cholera and flu. The government has said it…

Men from African, Caribbean and Bangladeshi ethnic backgrounds have higher rates of death involving coronavirus than any other ethnic group in England and Wales, new data shows. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said rates have exceeded 250 per 100,000 for those groups. The ONS had previously combined Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups but has since…

Members of Britain’s hospitality sector have launched a legal challenge to the “catastrophic” restrictions facing the industry, which are set to be tightened further in England’s coronavirus hotspots. The proceedings, led by the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), comes as the prime minister prepares to announce a new three-tier lockdown system. The NTIA is seeking…

Boris Johnson has been condemned by the mayors of northern cities as ministers plan tougher coronavirus restrictions in a bid to stem regional spikes in infections. The prime minister is expected to order tough new curbs next week on pubs in northern England, which could include closing them altogether in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle. But…

The coronavirus pandemic “will be bumpy through to Christmas” and potentially beyond that, Boris Johnson has warned, as he said it is “too early to say” whether local lockdowns are working. The prime minister acknowledged there will be some members of the public who are “furious at me” and “furious at the government” amid the…