There Was No Guilt In This Sex Murder

On September 14, 2020, 55-year-old Robert DuBoise was cleared of a 1983 killing in Tampa, Florida, almost 37 years after he was arrested for a crime he did not perpetrate.

At 8 a m on August 19, 1983, the body of 19-year-old Barbara Grams was found outside a dental office on North Boulevard in the Tampa Heights neighbourhood of Tampa, Florida.

She was naked except for a tube top that had been yanked below her chest. She had been beaten about her face, and she was clad in blood from scrapes and tears on her neck. She also had bruises on her limbs that appeared to have been made by the force of her attacker’s fingers.

Ms Grams worked at the Hot Potato Restaurant in a shopping centre approximately two miles from where her body was found.

A co-worker told police that she and Ms Grams had closed up just after 9 p m the night before. Ms Grams lived not far from where her body was discovered, and she frequently walked home along busy Buffalo Avenue. 

Two friends told investigators they saw Ms Grams walking along North Boulevard at 9:30 p m., just a few blocks from her house, but by then several blocks south of the dental office.

That led police to think that she might have decided to get a pack of cigarettes at one of the convenience stores clustered at the corner of Buffalo Avenue and North Boulevard. 

At the crime scene, the police discovered several pieces of two-by-four wood with blood and hair attached.

Police thought these were the murder weapons.

Detective Philip Saladino, the lead investigator, also noticed a white circle on a finger on Ms Grams’  left hand that appeared to be a ring mark.

No ring was discovered, and witnesses would later give inconsistent statements about what kind of ring Ms Grams wore and whether Ms Grams was wearing a ring on the night she was killed. Police also gathered fingerprints from a nearby air conditioner and from Ms Grams’ wallet.

Dr Lee Miller, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner, conducted the autopsy on August 20. He concluded that Ms Grams had died from blunt force trauma to the head, most probably about 11:30 p m on August 18. 

He gathered materials for a rape kit, as well as hair, blood and fingernail scrapings. In addition, he collected vaginal samples of what he called a “white fluid.”

Dr Miller would later testify that he noticed what he believed to be a bite mark on Ms Grams’ left cheek as he was washing the blood from the young woman’s face. He stopped his washing and then swabbed the area with a saline solution to potentially collect saliva that might have been left by her attacker.

Dr Miller called Dr Richard Powell, a local dentist who had been listed as a forensic odontologist by Dr Miller’s office, although Dr Powell was not certified in this speciality.

This would be Dr Powell’s first consultation in a criminal case.

Dr Powell took a Polaroid photo of the mark and told Dr Miller that it might be from someone missing upper front teeth, specifically a left front incisor. Dr Powell said he could see tear marks in the skin. He opined that the six lower teeth of the person who left the bite mark had no gaps.

A few days later, Dr Miller removed a section of Ms Grams’ cheek and put it in formaldehyde, which caused the tissue to shrink by almost 10 per cent. 

Tampa police reached out to Dr Richard Souviron, a dentist in Coral Gables, Florida, who was a top forensic odontologist. Dr Souviron advised Detective Saladino to use beeswax to make bite mark impressions from possible suspects.

These moulds would then be filled with a composite to make a hard cast that could be compared against the photo of Ms Grams’ cheek.

As part of this process, the original beeswax mould was destroyed.

Detective Saladino had access to beeswax because a police captain was a beekeeper. One report would later say that Detective Saladino and other officers might have made as many as 100 beeswax moulds from possible suspects.

Dr Souviron came to Tampa on September 8, 1983, and examined the tissue that Dr Miller had preserved. Like Dr Powell, Dr Souviron said police should look for a suspect with a missing tooth, a large gap between his teeth or a tooth turned to the side.

Very early in the investigation, Detective Saladino spoke with a woman who had worked at a convenience store near the dental office for a few weeks in February 1983. She didn’t recognise Ms Grams, but she told Detective Saladino about several people who “caused problems” at the store. She knew their names only as “Ray, Robert and Bo,” but she led the police toward a nearby house. It was vacant, but there was mail in the mailbox addressed to several people named “DuBoise.”

A records check of that name turned up brothers Victor and Robert DuBoise. Robert was then 18 years old. He had two convictions for minor non-violent offences and was on probation.

On September 25, Detective Saladino met with Robert DuBoise. Mr DuBoise said he had heard Detective Saladino was trying to take bite mark impressions from everyone. He said he had “nothing to hide” and could prove that “he wasn’t the guy who bit that girl.”

Mr DuBoise’s parents told Detective Saladino that they believed both Robert and Victor were home on August 18, but that if they had gone out, it was to go look for their sister, who was reported missing on August 16. 

Mr DuBoise had no gaps in his upper or lower rows of teeth and agreed to give Detective Saladino a dental impression.

Dr Souviron received Mr DuBoise’s cast from a beeswax mould in mid-October, and he told Detective Saladino that Mr DuBoise made the bite mark found on Ms Grams. 

On October 22, 1983, an officer found Mr DuBoise at the Peter Pan Motel and told him that Detective Saladino needed to speak with him. Mr DuBoise arrived at the police station, was then arrested, and charged with murder and attempted sexual battery.

On October 23, Dr Powell made a second mould of Mr DuBoise’s teeth, this time using a sturdier substance than beeswax. It was sent to Dr Souviron, who again said it was his opinion that Mr DuBoise had bitten Ms Grams and left the mark on her cheek.

At the time of Mr DuBoise’s arrest, a man named Claude Butler was also in the Hillsborough County Jail, charged with kidnapping and armed robbery, plus other charges for probation violation and assault on a law enforcement officer. If convicted, he faced a possibility of two life sentences. Both Mr Butler and Mr DuBoise had psychiatric problems, and they were both placed in the area of the jail for prisoners with a mental illness. 

In November 1983, Mr Butler approached Detective John Counsman, to whom he had supplied information in the past.

Detective Counsman introduced Mr Butler to Detective Saladino, and in January 1984, Mr Butler told Detective Saladino that Mr DuBoise had confessed that he, his brother Victor DuBoise, and a friend named Raymond Garcia had raped and murdered Ms Grams after she resisted when they tried to rob her.

Victor and Mr Garcia were never charged. After giving a statement to an assistant prosecutor on April 19, 1984. Mr Butler pleaded guilty to his own charges on May 14. He was sentenced to five years in prison. 

A second witness, Joanne Suarez, told police that Mr DuBoise had said to her in August 1983 that he had killed someone. Ms Suarez also said that she might have seen Mr DuBoise with a ring similar to one worn by Ms Grams.

On February 25, 1985, Mr DuBoise went to trial in Hillsborough County Circuit Court. Just 12 days earlier, another prosecution witness had emerged.

Jack Andrusckiewiecz told police that he was living at the Peter Pan Motel at the time Mr DuBoise was arrested. A few days before the arrest, Mr Andrusckiewiecz said that he had seen Mr DuBoise at a party and that Mr DuBoise had said that he was wanted for murder.

Dr Souviron testified that Mr DuBoise made the bite mark to a “reasonable degree of dental certainty.” During cross-examination, Dr Souviron acknowledged that, at a police chief’s conference in November 1984, he had declared, “If you tell me that is the guy that did it, I will go into court and say that that is the guy that did it.”

Dr Norman Sperber, who was chairman of the bitemark guideline committee for the American Board of Forensic Odontology, testified for the defence that Mr DuBoise should be excluded as the source of the bite mark because there were too many inconsistencies between his teeth and the bite mark allegedly found on Ms Grams’ cheek.

No other forensic evidence linked Mr DuBoise to the crime scene. He, his brother, and Mr Garcia were all excluded as the source of the fingerprints collected from the air conditioner and Ms Grams’ wallet. 

Mr Butler swore that Mr DuBoise had admitted his involvement, saying that he, Mr Garcia and Victor were trying to rob Ms Grams, but she fought back and then yelled out Mr Garcia’s name. (A later investigation would show Ms Grams and Mr Garcia had no connection.)

Mr Butler said Mr DuBoise told him that they forced Ms Grams into a car, drove around, then raped her and killed her.

Mr DuBoise’s attorney tried to discredit Mr Butler, presenting evidence of a wide range of psychiatric medicines Mr Butler was taking while in jail.

Detective Saladino swore that he had never met Mr Butler before Detective Counsman made the introduction. That was not true. A year earlier, Detective Saladino had been part of a sting operation that arrested Mr Butler for burglary and related charges.

Mr Andrusckiewiecz testified about his conversation with Mr DuBoise. At the time of the trial, Mr Andrusckiewicz was also preparing to be a prosecution witness in another murder trial, a case where there was the possibility for him to be charged as an accessory.

He was working closely with the State Attorney’s Office on that case, and his emergence as a witness in Mr DuBoise’s trial came through prosecutors rather than a police investigation. This was not disclosed at trial, and he was never charged in connection with that separate murder.

Ms Suarez gave little testimony. She could not remember much of the events and said she suffered from a traumatic brain injury.

Mr DuBoise did not testify. His mother did and provided an alibi for the night of the murder.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Mark Alan Ober pointed to the strength of the forensic evidence and also vouched for Mr Butler’s credibility, telling jurors that Mr Butler had “received nothing” for his testimony. 

On March 7, 1985, Mr DuBoise was convicted of capital murder and attempted sexual battery. The jury recommended a life sentence, but Judge Harry Lee Coe III overrode that recommendation and sentenced Mr DuBoise to death. 

However, now, after 37 years in prison, Robert DuBoise is suing for his unlawful conviction, claiming that officers conspired with a forensic dentist to put him in jail using unreliable beeswax moulds.

Robert DuBoise, 56, was freed from prison in August 2020 after long-shelved, untested DNA evidence from a rape kit proved he was innocent of the killing of 19-year-old Barbara Grams in Tampa.

To be honest, the dentist and officers belong in prison because I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the poor guy – being charged with something that he didn’t do, and then to be given the death sentence.

The people who caused this man to lose his whole life should be held accountable for their actions. He was in jail for 37 years; no money in the world can buy him back that time, but now he should not have to stress about getting a job or a home to live in. Perhaps now, he can travel and have a life, even a family.

This man was well and truly fitted up, and whoever did this should be in prison because this is sad, and his family never actually got real justice, plus the monster or monsters that did this got away with the crime, and that is just devastating. I just hope that the actual killer is reading this, dreading the day when there is a knock on his door, and honestly, it can’t come soon enough.

I also suspect that after his experience in prison, his life will be permanently changed, and he will probably never view or experience life as a ‘normal’ human being, and what happened will torment him for the rest of his life, but sadly, this is what happens when investigators are more interested in closing a case than solving a case.

Imagine how scared this teenager must have been going to prison for a crime he did not commit – his life was over, and what’s even more tragic is that the public believed he did it and that he was some vile beast, and even though he has been exonerated, this will follow him for the rest of his life, because mud sticks. What they should be doing now is giving him a new name, a new passport, a new life somewhere of his choice so that he can get on with what is left of his life.

AND THIS IS WHY I DON’T AGREE WITH THE DEATH PENALTY, WHATEVER THE CRIME, because people get fitted up, and evidence vanishes – they say it’s an exact science, but it’s not!

Schoolgirl Dragged Across Changing Room By PE Teacher

A PE teacher who dragged a Year 8 girl across a changing room floor because she took ‘too long to tie her shoelaces’ has been spared a classroom ban.

Sports teacher Charlotte Venables grabbed the student by the ankle as she attempted to get her out of the girls’ changing room at Stewards Academy in Harlow, Essex.

The pupil had been sitting on a bench tying her shoelaces when Venables pulled at her, causing her to fall to the floor, a misconduct hearing was told.

She then grabbed the girl by the wrist and yanked her out into the corridor in front of other children.

The Teaching Regulation Agency watchdog heard how she then failed to report the incident to superiors at the secondary school.

Venables acknowledged acting in an improper manner and in a way that might damage the reputation of the profession.

However, she was spared being struck off the teaching register after the panel ruled she had acted ‘entirely out of character’.

Venables claimed she was trying to hurry children out of the changing rooms so lessons could begin.

She said she had been left to lock up both PE changing rooms and had counted down from sixty seconds for pupils to leave.

But when one girl, referred to as Child A, asked for an additional 20 seconds to finish tying her laces, Venables ‘grabbed her trainer and pulled her to the floor.’

Venables was suspended from duty when the girl’s mother complained to the school, saying her daughter had been manhandled ‘while doing nothing more than fastening her shoe.’

In evidence, the teacher accepted her behaviour had dropped far below the standards desired.

Venables said: ‘I recognise that I made an error in judgment in how I responded to the situation in September 2022. At the time of the initial investigation, I did not recall this action.

‘When I was shown the CCTV footage during the disciplinary process, I immediately accepted that it was me and that my conduct was inappropriate.

‘I deeply regret my actions, as they were not in line with the values I hold, nor the standards that were expected of me.

‘Please know that my intention was never to cause harm or distress to the child.

‘However, I fully understand that my approach was inappropriate, and I take responsibility for the negative impact it may have caused.’

The Teaching Regulation Agency concluded that Venables had used inappropriate and extreme force against Child A and had failed to follow safeguarding practices.

To be fair, in my day and age, if that had happened and I went home and told my parents that had happened to me, I would have got a backhander for winding the teacher up that much, but things have changed so much, and this sort of thing happened everyday when I was at school in the 1970s, but then that was when we did have teachers disciplining pupils, not the pupils discipling the teachers.

It’s high time these ‘woke’ organisations started to support their teachers.

The problem is that teenagers won’t learn much from this, other than they can do what they like. School is the coop that we live inside, but when they get out there into the big wide world and wind people up, they then wonder why they get arrested or launched by a bouncer. We all have kids in school like this, but it should be nipped in the bud before it’s too late.

When my parents were at school, blackboard rubbers would be hauled across the classroom at some pupil for doing something wrong. Generally, for being an idiot, and the teacher was at the end of their tether, did they behave afterwards? Normally, they did, problem solved, but there were some that were carted off to reform school.

Local Traders Forced Out By Tax Haven Landlord

Hackney’s iconic street market is under threat again, seven years after its last fight for survival.

There surrounded by bundles of linen packed in plastic cases was a woman sitting inside her market stall on Dalstons iconic Ridley Road market when a woman emerges in front of her to give her a letter and an apology from the indoor market’s landlord which said that she needed to leave by the end of March – she had been running her stall for nearly five years.

She wasn’t the only one to get a visit that day. Over a dozen market traders inside the market hall had received notices from their tax haven-based corporate landlord that their leases were going to end – what they are calling a de facto eviction, and now they are worried about their livelihoods.

There are 13 traders in question who all operate out of the indoor section of Ridley Road market, which was bought by its current landlord in 2016 for £6.5 million. It’s a special space for locals in this corner of Hackney, and lies next to the outdoor market (a different entity), which is managed by Hackney Council.

Since they have been there for years and help the local community, it is obvious that the traders are concerned.

This is not their first battle for these traders; the first endeavour to evict them was in 2018. Larochette tried to submit planning documents that sought to turn the indoor market into a block of offices and luxury flats, but after a spirited campaign with huge community protests, mass media coverage and hundreds of complaints, Larochette’s plans were rejected.

In 2022, an agreement was supposed to have been reached to safeguard its fate. Larochette would refurbish the indoor market, once called Ridley Road Shopping Village, which was suffering from leaks, damp and other extreme neglect after years of decay. 

When it was finished, which was supposed to take six months, Hackney council said it would take over the indoor market’s lease for the following fifteen years, protecting the vendors against further evictions. In addition to the fact that the renovation took three years instead of six months, Hackney Council never assumed the building’s lease as scheduled.

Less than a year after the traders moved into the remodelled building, their survival is once more in jeopardy.

In the letter sent to the traders on 17 February, lawyers representing landlord Larochette Real Estate Inc claimed that they had no choice but to end the leases due to a Met crackdown on worsening antisocial behaviour in the market. Traders would be forced to leave at the end of March, when their annual leases expired.

The Met police, however, contest this. In an email to local councillor Zoe Garbett, the force called the wording in Larochette’s letter “inaccurate”, and denied that they “requested the closure of the indoor market space or issued a closure order”.

“A Community Protection Warning (CPW) was issued, which is the lowest form of enforcement in an ASB and crime setting and was a joint decision between the council and the police,” the force explained. They added that it was “the continued failure of the building owner [to take] reasonable and necessary measures to address safety concerns” that led to the CPW being issued.

Garbett agrees, telling us that Larochette has “misrepresented the police’s position, who have not requested the closure of the building”. She accused the landlord of shirking their responsibilities towards the traders, particularly their promised redevelopment. “I am outraged at this action from Larochette — not only are they proposing to evict traders, again, the way they have communicated this to traders and the public has been totally unacceptable,” she told The Londoner. She called on the council to back the traders and save a central part of the century-old Ridley Road market.

When Rainbow Properties was approached for comment, the agent acting for Larochette, a spokesperson, challenged the Met and Garbett’s position. They claimed they had received two hand-delivered written warnings from the Met, dated 6 February 2026, and threatening “imminent Community Protection Orders as a result of the violence and drug dealing inside the market”.

For traders, who are usually the victims of those doing the antisocial behaviour on the market, being forced out felt like salt in the wound. “Do you know how many times I’ve complained about it?” says Asli Uygur, who’s been running her clothes store in the indoor market for almost a decade. “They’re punishing the victims.”

Larochette is registered in the offshore tax haven of the Virgin Islands, and its listed director is Guy Rafael Ziser. A London real estate developer and landlord, his most visible business is Ziser London, a company established by Guy’s father, Shmuel Ziser, a former Israeli professional footballer who moved to the UK in the early 1980s. But it’s almost impossible to quantify the exact size and value of Guy Rafael’s London real estate empire. He has some 44 different companies he’s listed as a director of, including Rainbow Properties, which manages the Ridley Road market. 

A spokesperson for Rainbow told The Londoner that “the building owner would like to stress that the market is to be closed solely for community safety reasons”. They added that they contested the description of the mass non-renewal of the traders’ leases as “evictions” and stressed that there were “no plans to sell the market for redevelopment”. 

The Trump Show – Breaking The News

I can’t say that I especially like Donald Trump, but I wouldn’t do him any harm either. However, he does like to score political points by calling people names, but then he is a bit of a ‘Dementia Don’, and he loves to stand before an attentive audience.

He enjoys shocking others with his remarks, but it is really a sign of weakness. But you know what the real insult is, when you close your heart off to those that suffer while preaching righteousness from a place of comfort.

He should keep in mind that the truth demands humility, empathy needs action, and love demands bravery. It’s not a performance for the camera. Instead of exchanging insults, he could completely reframe the debate and move the conversation away from politics and toward something far more universal.

We are not perfect, none of us are, but perfection is not the point; understanding is.   

The people want love, not division. Forgiveness, not judgment, and if we can’t reflect on how we treat one another, then we have misconstrued everything, and that’s how we should respond, not with anger, not with bluster, but with clarity and humanity. The loudest voice is not always the smartest, and real strength usually speaks the softest.

Donald Trump should be cautioned about challenging individuals who are far more knowledgeable than he is. The mere fact that he talks does not make him more brilliant.

We should be cautious of wolves in sheep’s clothing, even though Donald Trump appears to have a godlike mindset. He must first learn about acceptance, love, humility, respect, and empathy.

It’s time for everyone on this globe to learn to live in harmony and collaborate. To spend money on time and energy supporting the needy, starving, the sick, homeless and desolate – no more tyrants or dictators!

I’m not a religious person, but I know right from wrong, and I have no time for warmongers, but unfortunately, wars begin with greed and control of another person – they are called overlords, and we have had these people for centuries – it’s time for it to stop!

Peter Kyle Left Squirming

Labour’s Peter Kyle was today left squirming after it was revealed he didn’t know the number of people presently unemployed in Britain.

The Business and Trade Secretary was stumped during a car-crash radio interview on Wednesday morning, as he admitted: ‘I don’t know the exact figure.’

It came amid a discussion on LBC about high levels of youth unemployment, as well as the future of William Hill.

The bookmaker this week confirmed plans to close 200 betting shops, which has put at risk 1,500 jobs.

The parent firm of William Hill has attributed the move mostly to increases in gambling taxes that were announced during Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget.

Asked by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari whether he knew how many people were currently unemployed in the UK, Mr Kyle said: ‘Well, I know that there is a challenge with unemployment.’

Pressed again for an answer, the Cabinet minister added: ‘I don’t know the exact figure.’

Asked why, as the Business and Trade Secretary, he didn’t know how many people are unemployed, Mr Kyle replied: ‘My job is to make sure I support businesses in employing as much as possible.’

Ferrari then pointed out to Mr Kyle that 1.87 million people aged 16 and over in the UK are currently unemployed, with the unemployment rate at 5.2 per cent.

He challenged the Cabinet minister over ‘trite nonsense about Labour getting people into employment,’ adding: ‘It’s going completely the other way.’

Mr Kyle responded: ‘The way to get the people into employment is to get a healthy, growing economy. 

‘We have had 10 years that we inherited where there was no growth and high taxation.

‘We had this vice-like grip on the economy where the only way you got more money into public spending was to borrow more, which is what the Tories did. 

‘We had to raise money, invest it, but we also had to do the things that got growth into the economy.

‘We got a grip on the cost of living challenges, and we are investing in getting money into people’s pockets.

‘This is the only way that we will have a sustainable, growing economy that can hire more people in a sustainable way.

‘We cannot lower the unemployment figures unless we have an economy that is growing and businesses that are growing within a growing economy.’

Of course, Peter Kyle doesn’t know. It’s Labour we’re talking about; they don’t appear to know anything, but perhaps that’s not fair – they seem to know how to take money from the workers and give to the shirkers. Can we really sink any lower in incompetence? I’m confident Starmer will try.

Never has a government been so devoid of political talent – third-rate political chancers who know nothing, and you would think that ministers going onto a show would do some research before going in front of the cameras – how many other ministers have been asked questions that they couldn’t answer? I bet he doesn’t even know how many people are in the country. Or they do know how many people are in the country, but they simply haven’t reached their target yet.

Peter Kyle is just another socialist minister who wouldn’t last five minutes in the real world.

There are two common answers from Labour ministers – I don’t know, and it wasn’t my fault, but this is the calibre of fools running our country, so what chance do we have? Clearly, Peter Kyle didn’t read his briefing notes before opening his mouth.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, but in his case, he must have cataracts!

The UK’s Pill Panic

Sir Jim Mackey, the head of NHS England, said he and other health bosses were also “really worried” about supplies, which include syringes and gloves.

Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the subsequent need to reroute shipments around the globe have both directly impacted deliveries.

Earlier this month, pharmacy leaders and manufacturers sounded the alarm over the disruption and possible impact on existing medicine shortages.

So far this year, UK pharmacies have struggled to secure supplies of painkiller medication such as aspirin, codeine and co-codamol, as well as antidepressants and HRT.

Cancer medications, including Efudix, a topical chemotherapy cream used to target and kill cancerous and precancerous cells on the skin, have also been difficult to source.

Now, during a phone-in on LBC Radio, Sir Jim confessed: “We are really worried about this.

“We’ve already had a couple of supply shocks in the last 12 to 18 months of key supplies.”

He said there is a team in place to “focus on where the risks might be through the supply chains”.

But, asked what was at risk, he said: “Well, everything, honestly – everything’s at risk.” 

He added: “In every area, we’ve got enough to get through for a reasonable period… so generally, a few weeks.

“Because things perish and it costs money to store and various other things go out of out of use, you can’t hold years and years of supply, generally dependent on the product, we keep a reasonable period.

“Some of that is held centrally, some held locally.”

Asked whether in some instances it would be “weeks’ worth of supply”, Sir Jim replied: “Yeah, it could be days for some products”.

Health leaders are especially concerned about disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial commerce route that serves as a hub for the export of gas and oil.

Traffic through the waterway has plunged, with more than 1,000 cargo ships blocked from passing through the key maritime passage in recent weeks.

Any protracted blockage of the Strait might result in skyrocketing prices for products, energy bills, and inflation in the UK.

Henry Gregg, chief executive of the National Pharmacy Association, said: “We’re not currently seeing shortages of medicine directly linked to the conflict in the Middle East, but pharmacies are seeing disturbing spikes in prices, which can be an early indicator of challenges.

“The Department of Health have issued unprecedented numbers of price concessions designed to cope with price surges, which are likely exacerbated by this current situation.

“The NHS has driven down the price of medicines over many years, which leaves the UK vulnerable in a global market and contributes to the rising problem of medicine shortages, which are a daily reality for many years for our members.

“Pharmacies will always do everything they can to ensure patients get the medicines they need, but they must do this in an increasingly competitive global market.

“The Government needs to ensure both that physical supply routes are protected during this conflict, but also ensure that the NHS is providing sufficient funding to ensure that Britain is not left behind in the international market at a time when both supply and demand for medicines are very challenging.”

This is what happens when the UK becomes a consumer rather than a producer, and our politicians from the last 50 years are to blame, always looking at balance sheets and saying it’s more affordable to buy from abroad; they should bow their heads in shame.

If our government could charge for the air that we breathe, they would – anything for a profit and to put a chink in their pockets.

Chaos And Mayhem In Clapham, London

A Clapham security guard has described the moment he was forced to lock customers inside the store as mobs of feral youths ran wild.

The Metropolitan Police warned of more Easter holiday ‘linkups’ as teens tore through south London once again on Tuesday evening, with terrified families barricaded inside high street stores in the latest wave of chaos.

Clips circulating on social media showed throngs of children assembling in the area, terrorising locals and forcing shops to close.

Police cars could be seen desperately attempting to move through the mob of rioters who took to the streets in broad daylight on Tuesday afternoon, responding to a social media trend motivating teens to ‘linkup’ en masse. 

The force confirmed two teenage girls were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, and a dispersal order has been put in place.

Marks and Spencer on the high street – which was looted by a similar flash mob over the weekend, leading to two arrests – closed early amid fears of a further raid on its aisles.

A security guard working for the supermarket told the Daily Mail he had to lock shoppers in for a short while, before gradually allowing them to be escorted out by officers. 

Mohammed said, ‘Police warned us there would be chaos, so we prepared for it because of what happened last Saturday.

‘There were loads of kids sprinting and shouting, and police advised all the shops to close for one hour.’

He added that the supermarket decided instead to just close for the day and not reopen, but some shoppers remained inside. 

‘Police knew roughly the time today,’ he said. ‘They said it would start at around 4 pm, so they were here since midday. But the chaos happened at 7 pm.

‘We had to lock shoppers in, at 8.15 pm, we let them out one by one with police and security holding the doors shut and escorting them out.

‘Shoppers were very scared. There was one lady with a pram and a baby. She was terrified, but police escorted her to safety.’

Mohammed added that the rioters targeted a branch of Boots, which was not as well prepared for the chaos as other shops.

Meanwhile, a local Waitrose also closed its doors, attaching a ‘police advised’ closure notice onto its front door, and Boots was targeted ‘very badly’, according to witnesses.

Additional footage showed massive gatherings of young people wearing balaclavas outside a nearby McDonald’s restaurant while both marked and unmarked police vehicles hurried to the situation.

Families were reportedly ‘barricaded’ inside a local Sainsbury’s as teenagers, many of whom dressed in all black, claimed control of the busy high street.

Due to the disturbance caused by the mob, McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s were both forced to close early.

By 10.30 pm, the furore had died down, with police able to disperse a majority of the participants.

Workers at local shops said they were ‘scared’ as chaos reigned along the heaving road with cars coming to a deadlock and commuters ducking for cover, or opting to film the scene using their smartphones. 

Fires were spotted glowing on the fields of Clapham Common as police swooped in to extinguish them, sending smoke billowing into the air.

Dozens of officers broke into the enormous gathering of teens in a bid to disperse the mob, but most of the participants seemed to maintain their ground. 

The riot raged on into the evening, with about 60 teenagers facing off with police trying to disperse participants.

Officers arrived in four vehicles, including two vans, to separate a mob gathering outside the Commons’ basketball courts, but numerous teens just dashed past them while others shouted jibes at cops as they walked past.

On the street and in the park, young people congregated into frighteningly huge groups, lime bikes were strewn all over the place, and a cannabis odour pervaded the air.

‘It felt like Notting Hill carnival,’ the security guard said. ‘I’ve only seen something similar happen during the carnival when I worked at the Notting Hill branch.’

An employee at Roosters Spot chicken shop said, ‘Police told us to shut our shop, and after we reopened, we were warned not to let any kids come in today.

‘We were scared because we heard groups of 10 to 15 of them were coming into shops, running about, picking up trays and smashing stuff at walls.’

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Police are responding to an ongoing incident on Clapham High Street following reports of a large crowd of young people causing anti-social behaviour.

‘Officers are on the scene, and a dispersal order has been put in place, meaning anyone congregating must leave the area.

‘At this time, two teenage girls have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker. They have been taken into custody.

‘Officers will remain in the area to offer support and respond to any concerns from local residents and businesses.’

It comes after a mass ‘linkup’ that saw a wild mob of youths run riot in an M&S store and terrorise the streets of Clapham on Saturday, which was arranged in advance online on yet another day in Lawless London.

Police were forced to issue a dispersal order, and two 16-year-old girls and one 15-year-old girl were arrested for shoplifting and assault during the crazed assemblage of over 100 teenagers.

Footage posted on social media showed police officers watching on as an army of feral youngsters stormed through the supermarket.

Officers tried to control the frenzied crowd as they pushed each other while running down the frozen food aisle before a fight broke out that left one girl in tears.

Other videos showed them running through the high street, screeching and screaming as confused witnesses stood frozen in fear.

They also ambushed other shops in the area, including a Sainsbury’s, where a young girl was filmed hitting a police officer, and another person was seen running out of the shop and away from officers. 

Videos and comments from teenagers who attended suggest the meet-up was arranged on social media, with many calling it ‘the Clapham courts linkup’ and others just referring to it as ‘Clapham courts’ or ‘courts’.

‘I was gonna go, but none of my friends wanted to go,’ said one comment.

The disorderly scenes occurred on the first day of the Easter break, sparking worries that this would occur again when young people in Britain are not in school.

Another video showing two girls smiling and dancing at home appeared to be referencing tonight’s second ‘linkup’ with a caption reading: ‘How we feel knowing it’s gonna be live at Clapham Courts on Tuesday.’

Footage showed Saturday’s large gathering initially meeting up at Clapham Common netball and basketball courts before spilling out onto the streets as the atmosphere became increasingly chaotic.

A clip of the incident has since gone viral on social media, with viewers branding the ordeal yet another example of lawless London.

A Met Police spokesperson said of Saturday’s mob incident: ‘Tackling shoplifting and anti-social behaviour continues to be a priority for the Met, and we’re doing more to take action against offenders and support local businesses.

‘This proactive approach saw a 44 per cent increase in arrests last year, while shoplifting across London fell by four per cent.

‘At around 16:45hrs on Saturday, 28 March, police responded to reports of a group of around 100 young people causing anti-social behaviour and stealing from a number of businesses on Clapham High Street.

‘Officers imposed a dispersal order and made three arrests. Three girls, two aged 16 and one 15-year-old girl, were arrested for shoplifting and assault. They have since been bailed.’

This is just disregard for law and order, and it has gotten to the point where far more police is required. The police must take back control of our streets by all means necessary; if they don’t, things will get far worse. Forget about monitoring social media posts.

The UK is well and truly broken, and our police force is an embarrassment, and our Labour government has lost control of everything – we actually have no real leaders!

Mark my words, this is just the beginning, but then this is what happens when you take discipline out of the classroom, and away from parents who have now become lazy because our government has taken a generation of children and made them loyal to our government. Is it only an ordinary person like me who can only see everything that is wrong, while our government just buries its head in the sand?

Spineless government, spineless police, spineless judges – this is the end of the UK as we knew it, and this is the first step toward complete civil unrest! But this is all part of Starmer’s Britain, and of course, he will blame others for it, but of course, this all began well before this government got in, and austerity didn’t help or the complacency of the Tories.

An Innocent Man Wins An Enormous Payout

A man was wrongfully arrested and detained at a Hawaii state psychiatric hospital for two years in a case of mistaken identity. 

Joshua Spriestersbach, 55, had been living on the street in 2017 when police arrested him for offences perpetrated by another man named Thomas Castleberry. 

At the time, Castleberry had already been incarcerated in Alaska since 2016, according to court filings cited in the lawsuit.

During two previous interactions, police misidentified Spriestersbach and then did not correct the record, according to a lawsuit Spriestersbach filed in 2021.

Those mistakes and others led to his eventual 2017 arrest and a years-long detention.

He is now set to receive a $975,000 payout from the City and County of Honolulu.

Spriestersbach may also receive a $200,000 settlement from the state to resolve legal claims against the Hawaii Public Defender’s Office.

The settlement follows years of legal action in which Spriestersbach alleged false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and intentional infliction of emotional distress stemming from the ordeal.

In 2011, Spriestersbach was homeless and sleeping at Kawananakoa Middle School in Punchbowl when an officer woke him up and asked for his name. 

Spriestersbach would not give a first name, his lawsuit says, and gave only his grandfather’s last name: Castleberry.

The officer discovered a 2009 warrant for Thomas Castleberry and arrested Spriestersbach for the outstanding warrant. He told the officer he was not Thomas Castleberry, the complaint says, but the officer arrested him anyway. 

Spriestersbach didn’t show up to his court date, and the court later dropped the bench warrant for him. But the mistaken identity followed him.

In 2015, an HPD officer approached Spriestersbach after hours in ‘A’ala Park, where he had been sleeping.

He initially refused to give his name to that officer but eventually did so, the complaint says.

Thomas Castleberry was listed as an alias, and there was a warrant out for his arrest, the complaint says, but because the officers took Spriestersbach’s fingerprints this time, they confirmed he was not Castleberry.

Still, the complaint says, they did not update the police department’s records.

The lawsuit alleges authorities had access to fingerprints and photographs that could have definitively distinguished the two men but failed to properly compare or act on that information. 

On the day of his 2017 arrest, Spriestersbach was waiting for food outside Safe Haven in the Chinatown area.

He fell asleep on the sidewalk while waiting in line, his complaint says, and an HPD officer woke him up and arrested him for Casteberry’s outstanding warrant.

According to court filings, Spriestersbach believed at the time he was being arrested for violating Honolulu’s restrictions on sitting or lying on public sidewalks, not for an outstanding warrant tied to another man.

Spriestersbach spent four months at O’ahu Community Correctional Centre and more than two years at the Hawaii State Hospital before being released on January 17, 2020.

During his confinement at the hospital, Spriestersbach was forced to take psychiatric medication, according to filings from the Hawaii Innocence Project. 

Police officers, public defenders and health workers had had the chance to correct the mistake that led to Spriesterbach’s detention and custody, according to his complaint. But nobody did so.

‘Prior to January 2020, not a single person acted on the available information to determine that Joshua was telling the truth – that he was not Thomas R. Castleberry,’ the complaint says.

The complaint further alleges that even after Spriestersbach provided identification, public defenders and other officials failed to believe his claims that he was not Castleberry. 

‘Instead, they determined that Joshua was delusional and incompetent just because he refused to admit that he was Thomas R. Castleberry and refused to acknowledge Thomas R. Castleberry’s crimes.’

The complaint says city practices failing to properly identify homeless and mentally ill people, as well as failing to correct mistaken records that result in their arrests, were ‘the moving force’ behind Spriesterbach’s arrest and detention.

Attorneys also warned that without correcting official records, Spriestersbach remained at risk of being wrongly arrested again under the same mistaken identity.

According to his lawyers, the mistake was ultimately uncovered only after a psychiatrist at the hospital prompted a closer review, leading to fingerprint verification that confirmed he was not the man named in the warrant.

The Hawaii Innocence Project said in filings that police, public defenders, the state attorney general’s office and hospital staff ‘share in the blame for this gross miscarriage of justice.’ 

After his release, Spriestersbach was eventually reunited with family members who had spent years searching for him. However, his sister later said he remains fearful that the same mistake could happen again.

Spriestersbach’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment. HPD and the mayor’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.

His legal team had previously sought court intervention to formally correct his records, claiming that the failure to do so left the underlying error unresolved. 

A majority of Honolulu council members approved the settlement on Wednesday afternoon, though council member Val Okimoto voted to approve it with reservations.

This man deserves millions of dollars because nothing can really compensate for what happened to him.

$200,000 is a tiny payout for this horrible crime that was executed against him. No one deserves to be forcefully locked up in a mental hospital, and there are no excuses. There should be no mistaken identity in this day and age that we live in, with all the tools we have at our disposal. So much for this state-of-the-art facial recognition. Clearly, it doesn’t work, or they only use it when they want to frame someone for something they didn’t do.

And here I was, thinking that it was just the UK police that were incompetent; how wrong I was. People are not safe anywhere, all over the world.

So, what this actually means is that we can lock up people who are not really mentally unbalanced.

Did the cops not take his fingerprints? Check his DNA, even his birth certificate or passport? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Farage Referred To As A ‘Toytown Trump’ By The “Marxist” Teachers’ Chief

Nigel Farage has exchanged blows with a ‘Marxist’ teachers’ leader whose trade union vowed to mobilise members to prevent him becoming Prime Minister – and dubbed him a ‘Toytown Trump’.

Delegates at the annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU), which starts on Monday, will debate a motion calling for the trade union movement to ‘throw its full weight behind stopping a Reform UK government’.

The motion also calls for teachers to ‘collate and disseminate anti-racist teaching materials’ and to ‘encourage school and community-based anti-deportation campaigns’.

Separate debates will call for an ‘end to the proscription of Palestine Action’ and to support teachers who want to visit migrant camps in northern France.

On Saturday, Mr Farage vowed to sweep away ‘politicised classrooms’ if he became Prime Minister and took aim at Daniel Kebede, the union’s hard-Left general secretary, saying: ‘The NEU should focus on the day job of teaching instead of trying to indoctrinate children. Daniel Kebede is an open Marxist and shouldn’t be anywhere near our education system.

‘Change is coming for the NEU – a Reform government will introduce a patriotic curriculum, no longer will teaching unions be able to politicise the classroom and talk down our country.’

But Mr Kebede hit back, saying: ‘Nigel Farage will be a disaster for Britain. We have a multi-millionaire dressed in tweed masquerading as a man of the people.

‘The reality is he would cut our schools to the bone along with the NHS and other public services. This Toytown Trump is not fit for No 10.’

Members of the NEU are presently voting on whether to go on strike over issues including compensation, workload, and school funding.

Mr Farage, who holds a nine-point lead in the most recent opinion poll, has vowed to tackle ‘institutional Left-wing bias’ among the ‘Blob’ of the Civil Service, local authorities and schools if he forms the next government.

Reform officials have received increasing reports of Left-wing teachers characterising Reform supporters as ‘fascists’ in classrooms across the country.

Last year, it demanded an investigation after teachers at a group of leading state schools made ‘inappropriate and slanderous’ comparisons between the party and the Nazis.

Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, complained after discovering that staff at the Orion group, which runs eight academy schools in south London, used a picture of him in teaching materials to illustrate ‘extremism’ – defined as activities which ‘reject British values’.

The materials also placed Reform to the right of Ukip and next to the BNP and the Nazis at the ‘fascism’ end of an illustration on the Left-wing/Right-wing political spectrum of beliefs.

The secondary school lessons were for students in Year 10.

Last week, it was revealed that council workers in Leeds were offered counselling in a ‘safe space’ to deal with the stress of a visit by the Reform UK leader. 

John Ebo, the council’s head of human resources, said: ‘No doubt you will have picked up in the news that Nigel Farage and Reform are holding an event/rally.

‘I am mindful such events impact on colleagues, and would ask that we enable safe space conversations for colleagues, such as the Wellbeing network chats.’

The email was forwarded to the council’s Race Equality Staff Network, with an extra warning: ‘Be vigilant if you are in the city centre that day.’ Mr Farage called them ‘pathetic, weak people who don’t understand democracy’.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski will address the NEU conference on Monday afternoon.

The real issue is that Marxists have gained control of schools and universities. When we see this response, we see that we’ve reached a turning point. This is what is currently destroying the West and has been for a very long time.

Teachers are not producing educated young people – they are just brainwashing woke wastrels.

We need the freedom of discussion, or our youngsters will cease to have any new visions to create with others. If you cannot debate opinions freely, then we will have no ideas at all and no useful understanding as to how the future is going to pan out.

Our children are not taught compassion and equality, and this is why there is so much criminality on our UK streets, because they are being taught the customs of other third-world countries, and they are being taught to discriminate.

If you think that Nigel Farage is going to represent the working class, then think again, and if you believe that this man is going to prevent crime on our streets, then you must be taking some good hallucinogenic drugs.

You’re probably thinking, ‘Who am I going to vote for?’ It certainly won’t be Reform, Labour or the Conservatives. So, what am I left with? Not much, they’re all as bad as one another. They tell you what you want to hear because they know we’re gullible, and then do the exact opposite when they get into power!

The government has never been for the people, and it never will be. It’s a business where they can sell weapons to both sides of a war, and for them, it’s about profiteering. Also, evading taxes is a business as well. It’s blood money earned from the pain of others.

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