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Thea Sewell, a Cambridge student, has waived her right to anonymity to reveal the horrific abuse she suffered as a child |
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Thea Sewell |
I remember almost everything about that night exactly seven years ago: the car, the route, even the brand of cigarettes my kidnapper smoked. I also caught sight of his first name on his ID while he was scraping crack cocaine from its wrapper.
Malcolm James abducted and sexually assaulted me in 2019, less than a month after my 14th birthday. At the end of 2023, he was convicted of five sexual offences against a child, including assault by penetration. On Jan 8 2024, he was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Under the rules then in force, he was expected to serve around five-and-a-half years. I already thought that was too short. Then, last month, I was told by my victim liaison officer at the Ministry of Justice that Labour’s early release scheme may shorten it further.
Andy Burnham has now paused the scheme, but there is no suggestion it has been fully abandoned.
So, what kind of Prime Minister does Burnham intend to be? Will he stand with victims like me, or will he preserve a policy under which rapists, child sex offenders and repeatedly violent criminals can be released early?
Read Thea’s full essay ➤
Burnham orders halt to early release of prisoners ➤ |
The BBC has requested communications sent between Donald Trump and his advisers |
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Gordon Rayner Associate Editor |
Donald Trump claims he didn’t cause the Jan 6 riots. The BBC now has the near-impossible task of proving he did. At least, that’s how the national broadcaster is hoping to win a $10bn defamation lawsuit brought against it by the US president. A lawsuit that could see Tim Davie, the former BBC director-general, forced to testify under oath.
Last year, a Telegraph investigation revealed that BBC Panorama had edited a speech Trump gave on Jan 6 2021, to make it appear that he had urged supporters to storm the US Capitol. As a result, the president launched the defamation case.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they storm the US Capitol |
Now, the national broadcaster is trying to achieve what the US Senate did not when it acquitted Trump of inciting insurrection. It will need to find watertight evidence that the president did, indeed, incite the Capitol riots in order to justify the editing of the Panorama clip and avoid a significant legal payout.
So far, it has requested Trump’s phone records and private schedules from around Jan 6 to build its case, but his lawyers aren’t going to go down without a fight.
Reports have emerged that they’re prepared to travel to London to question Davie directly about the BBC’s editorial decisions. If he refuses, they could ask the High Court to force him to comply.
The BBC has apologised for the documentary but this has now become a legal battle about editorial responsibility.
With a trial date set for February in Florida, it will all be laid bare in the new year.
This report is available only to subscribers.
Continue reading ➤
Trump to demand Tim Davie testify in BBC defamation case ➤ |
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William Sitwell Save your cheering and whooping. The new PM’s business rates cut will make little difference to the hospitality industry Continue reading ➤
Sherelle Jacobs Forget North vs South, these voters will seal Burnham’s fate Continue reading ➤
Joanna Williams Lucy Powell’s foolish socialism reinforces middle-class privilege at every turn Continue reading ➤ |
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A B1 bomber at RAF Fairford. The aircraft was reportedly used to hit Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets |
Iran has threatened Britain, writes Memphis Barker. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was ready to attack RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and made veiled threats against the “British monarchy regime”. The hostile words from Tehran come two days after Andy Burnham agreed to continue Sir Keir Starmer’s policy of allowing US forces to launch strikes on Iran from British bases. Continue reading ➤ |
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Michael O’Leary speaks to Simon Calder and Greg Dickinson on The Travel Expert podcast |
In 1994, a young accountant named Michael O’Leary took the helm at a struggling Irish airline, Ryanair, writes Simon Calder. As a final throw of the dice before closing down the carrier, he visited Southwest Airlines in Dallas and returned with cost-cutting techniques that transformed the company and travel to Europe. The always-controversial CEO joined Greg Dickinson and me in The Travel Expert podcast studio for a masterclass in unconventional thinking about the world of aviation. Continue reading ➤ |
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It is the foremost museum in the United States, a repository of 150 million artefacts, including the desk where the Declaration of Independence was signed, an orbiter Space Shuttle, and the original Kermit the Frog. The Smithsonian Institution this week found itself at the centre of a furious row when pro-Trump Congressmen accused its bosses of giving it a “woke” makeover, focusing on racism, slavery and indigenous rights. Colin Freeman reports. Continue reading ➤ |
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Newly released messages reveal the private doubts behind one of the pandemic’s most influential scientific papers, writes Sarah Knapton, our Science Editor. The virologists who publicly dismissed a Covid lab leak admitted they “couldn’t rule it out” behind the scenes, while discussing safety concerns at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The messages also give a glimpse into how scientists viewed journalists. A few names are dropped, including my own... For subscribers only ➤ |
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Numerous studies have linked high consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) to a greater risk of heart disease and obesity, but new research suggests these foods may be harming our brains, too. A Harvard study found that people who consumed the most UPFs were 58 per cent more likely to develop dementia compared with those who mainly ate minimally processed foods. Why is this, and, more importantly, what can we do about it? Continue reading ➤ Here is another article you may find helpful this morning:
- Many people know skin changes with age, but were you also aware that your skin type can switch over time? Here’s how to find yours.
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Mr Jones’s farm is now a ramshackle smallholding in America’s heartland |
Film Animal Farm ★☆☆☆☆ Converting Animal Farm into a shudder-worthy nightmare is certainly one way to go with it. The misjudgments of Andy Serkis’s new animated film are so legion that it’s hard to know where to start. Perhaps the bouncy musical montages to grating chart pop, while the pigs go on shopping sprees? Or maybe the contemporary US setting, which leads this film so grimly astray with its universalising intentions. George Orwell may have loathed capitalism just as much as communism, but he’d have hated this film even more.
Read Tim Robey’s full review ➤ Opera Ariadne auf Naxos ★★★★★ If you want a way into the mad, mad world of opera, you could do no better than to start with the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos. Laurent Pelly’s penetrating new production for Glyndebourne of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s 1912 oddity paints a vivid picture of the tortured process of creating an opera, the rivalries between artists and the interference of patrons who have funded the show.
Read Nicholas Kenyon’s full review ➤ Theatre Trainspotting the Musical ★★☆☆☆ I was one of those 90s kids who played the Trainspotting CD soundtrack on a loop. So imagine my excitement when asked to review the new musical version, based on Irvine Welsh’s 1993 masterpiece of a novel about heroin addicts in Edinburgh. Oh dear. Watching this utter shambles was a bit like catching up with old friends only to discover that your memories of them are horribly rose-tinted. The production at Theatre Royal Haymarket merges soundtrack songs and new anodyne showtune numbers to desultory effect. One or two good performances from the committed young cast, though.
Read Ben Lawrence’s full review ➤ |
Remembering Kevin KeeganWhile Orlando Bird, our loyal reader correspondent, is away, Joe Burgis is on hand to share an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories. Joe writes...
They say never meet your heroes, but this doesn’t seem to have applied in the case of Kevin Keegan, the Liverpool, Newcastle United and England footballer, who died aged 75 this week.
Dennis Dickinson remembered a visit to the Newcastle United training ground: “I took a group of schoolboys to watch his team train. After the session, ‘King Kev’ got his players to stay behind, sign autographs and have photographs taken.
“He spoke to the boys about the importance of dreaming big and working hard, and encouraged them to support local teams, not just the big names. He was truly impressive.”
A commenter going by The Daily View had Keegan to thank for a special day at St James’s Park: “We lived in Hertfordshire but supported Newcastle United. I took my 10-year-old son to the stadium, and asked at reception if he could join the supporters’ club. We were told that there wasn’t one for his age group.
“As we turned to leave, a voice rang out: ‘Come up to my office.’ It was King Kev, who spent the best part of 30 minutes showing us around the stadium, an experience never to be forgotten.”
Geoff Pringle’s encounter was even more fortuitous: “Having returned from Saudi Arabia in May 1977, I was enjoying a cold beer in a hotel bar in Rome, and got chatting to an amiable young man sitting on the next stool.
“Suddenly, there was an announcement on the hotel Tannoy: ‘Will Mr Keegan please answer a telephone call?’ My neighbour jumped up mid conversation. Only then did I twig that I had been speaking to the Liverpool and England legend, AKA Mighty Mouse, who was in Rome with his club for the European cup final. RIP King Kev.”
Keegan appears to have been up for the challenge, whatever it was, as Ian Ellis explained: “In the early 1980s, our teenage children attended a Blue Star day, during which Kevin crawled under the assault course net with our son. Talk about down to earth!” That’s all from me folks. I’ll be back tomorrow to bring you the best Telegraph talking points. In the meantime, you can contact me here.
Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name. |
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1567 | Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate
1935 | First greetings telegram sent in Britain
1969 | Apollo 11 returns to Earth
2019 | Boris Johnson’s first day in office (see our front page from the following day)
Birthdays: Elisabeth Moss (44), Kerry Dixon (65), Zaheer Abbas (79)
Plus, in the news today, after his milk deliveries were repeatedly stolen, a man set up a camera outside his home and found the culprit was... a fox. Who or what did he initially suspect?
1. A militant vegan
2. A confrontational neighbour
3. A magpie
4. A badger
Click one of the options to reveal the answer... |
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Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.
Yesterday’s Panagram was EIGHTFOLD. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle. |
Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk.
Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.
Chris Evans, Editor |
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