Essex News & Investigations

Russell Brand gives police a prepared statement during an interview in December 2023 RUSSELL Brand told police a major investigative documentary into his alleged indecent behaviour with women was "defamatory" and "fictional" in an early interview with police after a number of new victims came forward. Brand was investigated by the Met Police in the wake of a joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches programme who jointly reported that four wome

Russell Brand has been convicted of four sexual offences following a major Metropolitan Police investigation. Detectives gathered evidence from more than 100 witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents as part of the investigation. Officers praised the women who reported Brand for their courage, resilience and determination, while encouraging any other potential victims who have not yet spoken to police to come forward. After a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, a ju

A MIGRANT who raped a young woman he met in a pub in an historic market town is also wanted in connection with alleged terrorism offences, it has emerged. Kuwaiti national Ayman Al-Shammari, 28, was found to be wanted in Austria in connection with the serious alleged offences after he was arrested on suspicion of raping the 26-year-old woman he met on a night out in Taunton last November. He is also facing extradition proceedings at Westminster Magistrates' Court but the case

A MAN who named himself after Jeffrey Epstein and forced more than 100 victims into sexual activity and self-harm, including them carving his online username into their bodies, has been sentenced to just two years in prison. Justin Swaddle, 20, (above) from Leeds, was just 17 at the height of his offending as part of a Com group, a community of people online committing criminality including coercing victims to physically harm or sexually abuse themselves or involved in frauds

A man who encouraged child sexual abuse facilitators to make their victims ‘cry’ has been sentenced, to just 32 months in prison following a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation. The NCA launched an investigation into Christopher Sanders, 50, from Hinckley, Leicestershire, after receiving intelligence from international partners in July 2023 about a UK individual who was a prolific purchaser of live-streaming content. From August 2017 to February 2019 Sanders used online

A prolific sex offender who targeted children in the 1990s by masquerading as a caretaker has finally been brought to justice. David Pearce, now aged 70, from Cambridgeshire, will serve 18 years in prison, after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police presented indisputable forensic evidence. Pearce pleaded guilty to seven sex offences following the prosecution’s opening statement at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday, 6 May 2026. He was sentenced on Friday, 3 July, at

EIGHT grooming gang investigations that were shut down by police forces are being reopened after they were reviewed by the National Crime Agency's national Operation Beaconport. The NCA confirmed this today, one year since the publication of Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, but it has not identified which police forces are involved or if it is eight separate ones. It also said that new suspected grooming gangs have been ident

Detectives investigating a serious sexual assault in Hyde Park have released an e-fit of a man they want to speak to as part of their enquiries. On 31 August 2024 police received a report that a man in his 30s had been sexually assaulted around two months previously near Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park. The man reported being approached by another man, who demanded sex from him and then produced a knife. He reported that the suspect cut his abdomen when he refused and subsequen

POLICE have said there is no evidence to support the Epsom gang rape happening as reported. Full statement from Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing Sarah Grahame: "Over the past week, there has been widespread speculation and commentary following a report of a rape in Epsom in the early hours of Saturday (11 April). We are aware of the strength of feeling this has created, and of the frustration caused by our limited public comment on the matter. During this time, we

THE Met Police's pledge to start 24/7 patrols of Leicester Square and Soho has been called into question after officers were unable to attend an alleged sexual assault on a woman for an hour and a half. The suspect was only arrested after private security officers from My Local Bobby (MLB), who had detained him and requested police attendance, marched him to a police station. The incident also raises questions about the Met's commitment to combatting violence and sex abuse ag