How the Walsall rapist John Ashby exposed his misogyny rapping online

John Ashby is a man who did not hide his hatred of women.In fact, the rapist, who was sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum of 14 years for a racially motivated sex attack on a Sikh woman, vented his misogyny online for all to see.Publicly available videos uploaded to YouTube show Ashby, 32, rapping about hitting women. “I’d fight any bitch, don’t give a fuck. You cheeky bitch want to get slapped up, what?” he says

Mother ends life at Swiss clinic four years after son’s death

A grieving mother has ended her life at a clinic in Switzerland four years after the death of her only child.Wendy Duffy, 56, a physically healthy woman, died at the Pegasos clinic in Basel after struggling to cope with the death of her 23-year-old son, Marcus.The former care worker, from the West Midlands, had previously attempted to take her own life.The case comes as assisted dying will not become law in England and Wales after proposed legislation, branded “hopelessly flawed” by opponents, ran out of time.Ruedi Habegger, the founder of Pegasos, described Duffy’s death as a “sane suicide”

One in 10 operations in England cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice

About one in 10 operations in England are cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice or postponed, according to research..A study of elective surgery at 91 English NHS trusts found that 10% of operations were cancelled the day before the planned surgery date; while 9% were postponed when patients had their pre-op appointment.If the study’s findings were replicated nationally, that would equate to approximately 300,000 cancellations or postponements. Yet nearly 40% of cancellations could be avoided, the authors concluded

Baby died after NHS trust failed to warn mother of ‘unsafe’ home birth, coroner finds

A mother who lost her baby a week after an “unsafe” home birth that went against medical advice was failed by the NHS, an inquest has found.Poppy Hope Lomas was seven days old when she died at University College hospital in London on 26 October 2022 after complications during a home birth that, according to her mother, was encouraged by midwives at Barnet hospital.An inquest into Poppy’s death at Barnet coroner’s court concluded that she probably died from a lack of oxygen reaching her brain in the 30 minutes before she was born.The senior coroner Andrew Walker said the Royal Free London NHS foundation trust had agreed to support Poppy’s mother, Gemma Lomas, with an “unsafe home delivery that was against medical advice” and had failed to address “an accumulation of risk factors”.After the inquest concluded on Thursday, Lomas said outside the court: “Nothing will ever bring her back, but hearing the truth today acknowledged means everything to us

Three men guilty of repeatedly raping woman on Brighton beach in ‘predatory, callous’ attack

Three men have been found guilty of repeatedly raping a woman on Brighton beach in a “cynical, predatory and callous” attack after she became separated from her friends on a night out.The woman was targeted by the men as she was incapacitated in the early hours of 4 October last year, the trial at Hove crown court was told.Two of the men took her behind a beach hut where they raped her and the other went to the location moments later and filmed it.On Thursday, Ibrahim Alshafe, 25, an Egyptian national, and Abdulla Ahmadi, 26, an Iranian national, were found guilty of two counts of rape.Karin Al-Danasurt, 20, an Egyptian national, was also found guilty of all four counts of rape as a secondary party by encouraging and filming the ordeal

Nine in 10 UK voters across parties support right to abortion, poll finds

New polling has found that whatever their party political leanings, an overwhelming majority of people support the right to access an abortion – although young people, in particular, fear reproductive rights may be reduced.The YouGov polling, commissioned by MSI Reproductive Choices to mark its 50th anniversary, found nine in 10 people support the right to access an abortion.This was the case with 94% of Labour voters, 91% of Conservative voters, 95% of Green voters and 86% of Reform voters, pointing to one of the clearest indicators of cross-party political consensus in the UK.The survey also found almost one in five people think abortion access could be reduced, rising to more than a quarter of 18- to 25-year-olds. Respondents cited developments in the US and the rise of the far right as factors