Manchester Evening News

Inside the policing that contained Britain First protest

The farmer who won’t budge

ALAN French lives on an idyllic farmstead surrounded by trees, shrubbery and open fields. But all the land around him is being bought up so 2,150 homes can be built on his doorstep. The 76-year-old grew up in the countryside on the border of Tameside...

NO RISKS WITH RODRI

GARETH Barry believes a number of questions will be running through Elliot Anderson’s mind as both City and United prepare to battle for his signature. Both City and United are monitoring Anderson’s progress before a potential summer move for the...

Neighbour’s desperate 999 call over stabbed woman

A WOMAN in her 60s who is at the centre of an attempted murder investigation after being stabbed came out into the street where she was spotted by a neighbour who raised the alarm, locals say. It comes as residents spoke of their horror at the...

BENEFIT CHEAT’S £75K FRAUD

A BENEFITS cheat mum who pocketed more than £75,000 in overpayments said her partner had moved out and was homeless after they broke up. Kelly Clews was actually still living with her boyfriend and enjoying trips to Pontins with him. Clews, 41,...

SCHOOL HEAD DIES IN CRASH

THE family of a beloved and popular headteacher who was tragically killed in a crash have paid a heartfelt tribute to him. Greater Manchester Police confirmed a male cyclist was hit by a car at around 6pm on Paddock Lane in Altrincham yesterday. He...

FLATS MURDER PROBE

RESIDENTS of a tower block reported hearing a ‘loud bang’ as armed police swooped following the discovery of a woman’s body on Sunday evening. Emergency services were scrambled to Somerton Court on Broadmoss Drive, Blackley, shortly after 6pm. A...

MUSIC TO THEIR EARS: CITY BLOW TITLE RACE WIDE OPEN

PEP Guardiola will wait to find out the extent of a groin injury for Rodri after the midfielder had to be substituted towards the end of their 2-1 win. The Spaniard, who suffered a serious injury in this fixture last season, was excellent for most of...

FROM RAG PUDDINGS TO ROLEXES

IT’S a drizzly Tuesday lunchtime in Oldham town centre, but inside the big, shiny new indoor Market hall, it’s absolutely heaving. Shoppers are three deep at stalls like the Hen House, where you can pick up meats, sandwiches, cakes and Oldham...

JUSTICE AT LAST

A RAPIST who watched on as an innocent man spent 17 years in jail for a crime he did not commit has finally faced justice. Paul Quinn, 52, has been found guilty of raping a 33-year-old mother-of-two after he stalked and followed her, before dragging...

RAIL CHAOS

THERE was a day of mayhem at Mancherster Piccadilly yesterday with more than 100 trains cancelled and many more facing delays – with even more disruption still to come. Damage to an overhead line at the station, which has more than 75,000 passengers...

7 YEARS FOR PENSIONER IN TERRIFYING BID TO FUND FUNERAL

A TERMINALLY-ILL pensioner who tied up a 95-year-old woman in her own home in a bizarre bid to pay for his own funeral has been told he will most likely die in prison. Edwin Morrison, 81, was yesterday jailed for seven years for the terrifying...

PICCADILLY GARDENS ROBBER JAILED

PEOPLE were threatened with a blade during a terrifying early hours robbery in Piccadilly Gardens. Police raced to the scene on September 9 last year. A group of people attacked and robbed several victims, detectives said. A report came in at around...

Britain’s most violent prison

CONDITIONS at Strangeways have barely improved 18 months after a scathing report described it as “appalling” and one of the most violent prisons in the UK. Despite being given an urgent warning to improve, HMP Manchester “remained in a precarious...

How ‘Howard’ was finally caught

FOR months, the mystery of Manchester’s “Howard” graffiti tag had left residents, police and even a celebrity namesake asking the same question: ‘who is Howard?.’ The name appeared across walls, shutters, road signs, bridges and street furniture...

‘PREDATORY’ VIDEOS STILL BEING PUT ON YOUTUBE

Street of broken dreams

ON a spring afternoon in the Northern Quarter, Thomas Street is bustling with shoppers and people sitting outside coffee shops and bars. Despite the best efforts of the 1970s, this is still by and large a handsome and characterful area. Architects and...

Art arrives at station

An armed officer at the scene on an estate

Gridlock misery making villagers really CROSS

DAVE Mynett was on his way home from work last Wednesday when he got a very familiar phone call. It was his partner ringing to tell him the village was at a standstill again because the barriers on the level crossing outside their home in Smithy...

Drive to keep cars off neighbourhood’s roads

A NEIGHBOURHOOD could change forever in plans to ‘open’ the streets for people and bring in new restrictions for cars. The Islington ‘active neighbourhood’ scheme in Salford is aiming to completely transform how it feels to live in the area and move...

DON’T FORGET! Clocks went forward at 1am

The police cordon in place after the stabbing in Oldham

‘We’ve fought for years ...now we have a voice’

SPEAKING outside court, Paul Massey’s daughter Kelly praised the coroner. She said: “The Massey family are so grateful that finally we have been given a voice for our dad in this battle that we’ve been through for over 10 years now. We can finally see...

BRAZILLIANT!

A TINY Manchester restaurant based in a ‘secret’ underground location has landed a place in the prestigious Michelin guide – celebrating a ‘UK first’ in the process. SAMPA has become the first Brazilian restaurant in the UK to get a recommendation in...

We did everything in our power

A BUILDING which dramatically collapsed in a town centre is part-owned by a prominent local councillor, the Manchester Evening News has learned. The address – 31 King Street in Oldham – which formerly housed a corner shop, the Euro King Mini Market...

Speed limits could be cut in town hall’s safety drive

8EF and, once verified, we will correct it as soon as possible. The Manchester Evening News is published by MEN Media, a subsidiary company of Reach PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. We adhere to the Editors’...

Covid-style shortages? You can shelve that idea say supermarket chiefs

THEY’RE scenes rarely seen since the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Supermarket shelves stripped of essentials and replaced by foreboding ‘out of stock’ signs. Over the past week, the reels of social media have been full of empty aisles. If...

CITY FANS FLEE COACH BLAZE

WEMBLEY-BOUND Manchester City fans were evacuated from their coach after the vehicle began ‘smoking’ on the M6 Toll, moments before huge flames erupted. The motorway was closed southbound for almost four hours between junctions two and four, in...

BEYOND A JOKE!

WHEN Jack Whitehall stood among the audience at The BRITs and mentioned Moss Side, it was not the name check locals might have hoped for. Standing among music’s most famous names, broadcasting to a national audience, he could have mentioned Carnival,...

FAMILY TEARS OUTSIDE INQUEST

BOXING legend Ricky Hatton was under the influence of alcohol and had been suffering from a mild form of brain disease at the time of his death and so he may not have intended to take his own life, a coroner has ruled. Mr Hatton was found hanged in...

Warehouse war

RESIDENTS fighting controversial ‘cruise liner’ warehouses claim they are being ‘silenced’ and ‘gaslighted’ after the council sent a warning letter over their social media posts, the M.E.N. can reveal. The row between residents, developers and the...

CORRECTIONS AND COMPLAINTS

WHEN Ted Burton turns 80 years old this weekend, he will be thinking about the game of football he’s set to play on Monday night. The Manchester City supporter has been obsessed with the beautiful game for 70 years – and has no plans of stopping...

RYDER CUP BID TEED UP

GREATER Manchester will submit a bid to host the 2035 edition of golf’s prestigious Ryder Cup, it has been confirmed. Should the bid succeed, the planned Hulton Park golf resort in Bolton - a £240m development yet to be built on a sprawling 608-acre...

SAY SORRY

THE Manchester Evening News today launches a major new campaign and a petition for the Football Association to apologise for its treatment of Manchester women’s football team The Corinthians. They were the original Lionesses, pioneers of the beautiful...

‘People take their lives over stuff like this’

IT WOULD start with a simple text. She always made the first move. And over six years, and nineteen men, Stacy Sharples’ approach seldom changed. She sought her targets on dating sites like Badoo and Plenty of Fish, or failing that, simply ‘at random’...

The truth about ‘Sharia patrols’

IF you were on social media last week, you could have been forgiven for thinking all hell had broken lose as police lost control of ‘lawless’ Manchester city centre. The cause? Two horsemen trotting around town, seemingly part of a protest in support...

BOMB SQUAD SCRAMBLED TO SCHOOL

PARENTS of children at a Greater Manchester school have spoken of their shock after an otherwise innocent round of ‘show-and-tell’ saw the bomb squad scrambled. Emergency services descended on Samuel Laycock School, in Ashtonunder-Lyne, Tameside,...

I was fined £150 for feeding a pigeon

A WOMAN says has been left afraid to go out in Manchester in case she ‘breaks a law she’s never heard of’ after being slapped with a £150 fine in Piccadilly Gardens. Sam Ekins, 23, and her partner were eating outside McDonald’s on Monday, when they...

Woman jailed for false rape claims

A 31-YEAR-OLD woman has been jailed for more than four years after falsely accusing a catalogue of men of rape. Stacy Sharples, from Farnworth, Bolton, was sentenced yesterday following a ‘persistent’ pattern of offending. Between 2013 and 2019, she...

Teen denies ‘gang rape’ of girl, 13

A TEENAGER has denied ‘gang raping’ a girl in bushes near a tram stop, telling a jury he engaged in sexual activity with her but that it was ‘100 per cent’ consensual. Three boys who cannot be named are alleged to have raped the girl when they were...

DRIVER DIES IN SMASH BLAZE HORROR

A WITNESS has described the dramatic moment two young men escaped a burning car just seconds after being embroiled in a car crash that took the life of another person. A huge cordon was in place following a horrific crash along Kingsway in Burnage...

SUSPECT IS ARRESTED IN MURDER INQUIRY

A WOMAN has been charged with attempted murder after an alleged incident at a Metrolink tram stop in Manchester. Keida Finlayson, 25, of Victoria Crescent, Manchester, is due to make a first court appearance in Manchester today. Greater Manchester...

Council faces email ‘cover-up’ claims

IT was January 27, 2025 and frantic discussions were taking place in the corridors of power at Salford town hall. An email complaint against deputy mayor Jack Youd had just landed, making allegations of misconduct. The sum of the complaint, which was...

DRUG DEALER AIMED LOADED GUN AT COP

A DRUG dealer who pointed a loaded gun at a police officer following a dramatic pursuit has been jailed. Jay Conway, 33, aimed a 9mm slide action pistol at Pc Dan Clayton after he had been felled by a Taser stun gun discharge. The terrified cop took...

‘Sons of Anarchy’ feud bikers off streets

A FEUD between rival bikers in Salford has led to three members being jailed for a combined 17 years for drugs and firearms offences – with the leader of one gang coordinating the production of 3D-printed guns. A five-year-long investigation by...

TRIAL OF RAPE ACCUSED TOLD WRONG MAN CONVICTED

A MAN has gone on trial over the ‘dreadful’ alleged attack and rape of a woman more than two decades ago, in a case which led to the wrongful conviction of a man who spent 17 years behind bars, prosecutors said. Andrew Malkinson suffered ‘a most...

THREE BOYS ACCUSED OF RAPING GIRL

THREE boys ‘took it in turns’ to rape a 13-year-old girl in bushes, a jury was told. The boys were aged 12, 13 and 14 at the time, a court heard. Part of the alleged attack was was filmed on a mobile phone, a trial has been told. Footage was later...

Final curtain falls on the Embassy Club

Greatest BRITs

“NO one does it like Manchester”. That’s what we’re told minutes before the cameras start rolling inside Co-op Live – the home of the BRITs 2026. For the first time in its history the most raucous music awards ceremony has decided to head up the M1...

Lawyers warned me over risky jokes at the BRITs, says host Jack

The Manchester Evening News is published by MEN Media, a subsidiary company of Reach PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. We adhere to the Editors’ Code Of Practice as enforced by IPSO, which is contactable for...

BRIT OF A DO!

MANCHESTER’S top hotels are block-booked, the city’s fanciest restaurants are ready to roll out the red carpet and a galaxy of superstars are on their way. The BRIT Awards are coming, and the city is now in full takeover ahead of the event taking...

‘One drink killed my daughter it could happen to anyone’

KIRSTY McKie had been living out in Bali for eight years. Due to her fiance’s work in the hospitality industry, she only ever purchased alcohol from reputable suppliers and knew about the risks of illegally produced drinks. But after a night with her...

Arrests as protesters clash with riot cops

THERE were ugly scenes as Britain First marched through Manchester city centre today. Several skirmishes and fights broke out as supporters of the far-right group clashed with anti-racism campaigners and passers-by. In one incident on Bloom Street in...

Husband and 12 others are charged after wife ‘drugged and raped’

A MAN has appeared in court – alongside 12 others – accused of drugging and raping his wife over a number of years. The man in his 60s, from Stockport, appeared before Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday to deny 48 charges – including...

United fans on what they want

‘LEAVE FANS ALONE, END COST-CUTTING, AND FOCUS ON WINNING ON THE PITCH’

COUNCIL CONMAN IN £900K FRAUD

A COUNCIL worker – described as a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ – fraudulently took £900,000 from the town hall and the accounts of vulnerable benefit claimants. Richard Shaw, 47, spent cash on his ‘luxury lifestyle’ – including two BMWs, a holiday home...

Dozens of homes in ‘green gateway’ plan

The Manchester Evening News is published by MEN Media, a subsidiary company of Reach PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. We adhere to the Editors’ Code Of Practice as enforced by IPSO, which is contactable for...

‘I BELIEVED MY LIFE WAS IN DANGER’

A TEENAGER accused of murder has told a court he bought a ‘Call of Duty’ style hunting knife to protect himself from ‘being hunted.’ Abbas Hussain, 19, is accused of murdering Mohammed Isa Afzal during an incident in August last year. Also charged...

‘FERAL’ YOBS ON RAMPAGE IN TOWN

SHOCKING BEHAVIOUR OF YOUTHS WHO THINK THEY’RE ‘UNTOUCHABLE’

£900 a month to sleep next to your cooker

‘THEY WERE READY TO MURDER HUNDREDS’

TWO convicted terrorists have been handed life sentences – with minimum terms totalling 63 years – for plotting the Islamic State-inspired mass murder of Jewish people in Manchester. Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein arranged for guns and ammunition to...

I’M SORRY

SIR Jim Ratcliffe has said he is ‘sorry if his choice of language offended anyone’ following his claim that the UK has been ‘colonised by immigrants.’ The United co-owner made the comments in an interview with Sky News. The billionaire, who is founder...

PATIENT STABBED NURSE IN HOSPITAL ‘BLOODBATH’

A NURSE was millimetres away from death after a patient tried to kill her during a ‘revenge’ attack in hospital. Acheema Cherian, 57, was stabbed in the neck, head and wrist by Romon Haque at the Royal Oldham Hospital. Haque – who was withdrawing from...

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