Essex News & Investigations

A FORMER police informer who spied on environmental activists has been jailed for life after he planned to travel overseas to rape children as young as six. Edward Gratwick, 68, (above and below), also known as Nick, from Mitcham, was arrested at Stansted Airport on 7 March 2025 as he attempted to board a flight to Bucharest, Romania. He was found guilty in October of 38 “abhorrent” paedophile offences, including plans to pay to rape or sexually assault children in the UK and

A GUN and explosives workshop was being secretly run on Britain's biggest travelling showmen's site. Blank-firing pistols imported from Turkey were converted into deadly firearms, for sale to organised crime gangs across London and the south east, in a static caravan transformed into a makeshift workshop, Kingston Crown Court heard. The unit was equipped with drills, lathes and welding equipment to carry out the illegal conversions and to transform the ammunition into deadly

The inquest into the death of £1.1m watch robbery victim Oliver White has been adjourned after allegations of the store being a "front for organised crime" emerged in court. Oliver White, 27, (below left) manager of the 247 Kettles store in Richmond, took his own life a day after CCTV of the raid, showing him being tied up, circulated on social media. An inquest into his death was listed to go ahead in December but was pulled at the eleventh hour after the criminal trial of t

POLICE are appealing for information about an assault on a man in a shop on Cranbrook Road, Ilford, on New Year's Eve. At 3:10pm on Wednesday, 31 December 2025, officers and the London Ambulance Service responded to reports of an assault involving a large group of men at the Where 2 Save international supermarket on Cranbrook Road, Ilford. A Met Police spokesperson said: "One victim, a man in his 40s, suffered head injuries and was taken to hospital. His condition was not

A "TRAVELLER Town" linked to the families who occupied the illegal Dale Farm development continues to face police investigation due to alleged feuds and suspected links to international organised crime. Rathkeale, in County Limerick, (above) saw its population swell over Christmas as traveller families, who spend the year travelling across the UK, Europe and further afield, returned to attend weddings and funerals. The country town has one of Ireland's biggest Irish traveller

TWO people have sadly been murdered today on Christman Day 2025 in separate incidents of violence. First, a man was fatally stabbed this morning in Wolverhampton. Police were called just after 3.30am to Burcot Avenue, after a 30-year-old man was stabbed. Despite the best efforts of paramedics, he was pronounced dead at the scene. Two men, aged 35 and 58, have been arrested on suspicion of murder. A scene is currently in place while we carry out enquiries. Detective Chief Supe

POLICE have found "no evidence" of a gunman firing at three people after reports a bike-riding attacker blasted shots in the street. Armed Police were sent to Thames Street in Toxteth just before 3.55pm on Friday, December 12 2025, after reports a man on a bike shot at three people. A police cordon, from Kinglsey Road naer its junction with Beaconsfield Street and Thames Street was put in place while officers carried out CCTV, forensic and house-to-house enquiries. But after

THIRTY eight people have been arrested during a huge police operation across a crime-plagued part of Liverpool today. Codenamed Operation Vanguard, Merseyside Police sent a convoy of police vehicles for a series of raids in Stockbmberridge Village and Huyton today, Thursday 11 December 2025. More than 250 police officers have been conducting warrants, roadside checks, land and underwater searches and more in a "sustained and relentless offensive against criminals" operating i

A MANHUNT is underway after a man was stabbed in a park in Southampton. Hampshire Police officers are investigating a serious assault which occurred in East Park on Sunday afternoon, December 7 2025. A force spokesperson said: "We were called just before 4.15pm to a report of a 33-year-old man who had suffered stab injuries to the rear of his leg. "He was taken to hospital, where he was found to also have a broken leg. None of his injuries are thought to be life-threatening a

Last week UK News and Investigations was ahead of the game with an exclusive report that Action Fraud would be killed off in December and replaced by Report Fraud. Read our exclusive report here. Today, City of London Police has confirmed report Fraud went live today, December 4 2025, with a full launch in January. A City of London police spokesperson said: "From Thursday 4 December 2025, anyone needing to report cyber crime or fraud will be directed to our new Report Fraud s