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Soubry Westminster protester charged
A protester was charged yesterday with harassment after MP Anna Soubry was taunted outside parliament. The Crown Prosecution Service said James Goddard, 29, is accused of two counts of harassment relating to incidents on 19 December and 7 January. He is also accused of two public order offences against a police officer.
Mr Goddard was arrested on 12 January following claims that Ms Soubry was harassed in Westminster five days earlier. Ms Soubry, a prominent supporter of a second EU referendum, was taunted during a television interview, and then harangued by a group of men as she made her way back to parliament.
Mr Goddard, a self-styled “yellow vest” activist posted a video on Facebook yesterday to thank his supporters after being warned he is likely to be remanded in custody when he answered police bail. He said: “If they do remand me then we will just have to learn from it, go away, do it, come back even
stronger.”
Officer found dead at Sandhurst named
A female officer cadet who was found dead at the prestigious Sandhurst military academy after a party has been named. Olivia Perks, 21, was discovered in her room at the Royal Military Academy in Berkshire on 6 February.
An inquest into her death, an apparent suicide, will be opened by the Berkshire coroner at Reading Town Hall on 26 February. Ms Perks was in her last term at the elite academy, where all British Army officers are taught the responsibilities of leading soldiers in a 44-week course.
It is understood Ms Perks had been spoken to after failing to return to her barracks following a weekend party on the base. Aside from the minor disciplinary incident, there was no suggestion of further wrongdoing. At the time Thames Valley Police said they were treating her death as “unexplained but nonsuspicious”.
Hillsborough match commander ‘basically a spectator’
The Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield was “basically a spectator” in the police control box on the day of the disaster, a court heard yesterday. Preston Crown Court heard a second day of evidence from Michael Goddard, a former police sergeant who had been operating radios in the control box at the FA Cup semi-final on 15 April 1989.
Being questioned by Benjamin Myers QC, defending Mr Duckenfield, Mr Goddard said ground commander Bernard Murray would have been running the operation on the day. He said: “It couldn’t be the match commander because he was so new.”
The court heard Mr Duckenfield, 74, who denies gross negligence manslaughter, had been appointed to the role three weeks before the match although Mr Goddard said he thought it was just days before. Asked if the FA Cup semi-final would be a steep learning curve for a match commander doing the job for the first time, Mr Goddard said: “An impossible learning curve.”
Mr Goddard agreed a chief superintendent had to be in the police control box at a match of that size but was there as a “matter of rank rather than experience”. The court heard there were five officers, including Mr Goddard, Mr Murray and Mr Duckenfield, on duty in the control box on the day, as well as Robert McRobbie, a chief inspector who was there to observe. Asked if Mr Duckenfield would have been reliant on other officers, Mr Goddard said: “Absolutely. He was a bit like Mr McRobbie, basically a spectator.”
Oxbridge not doing enough to recruit poorer students
Nearly three-quarters of Britons believe Oxford and Cambridge universities are not doing enough to recruit students from disadvantaged backgrounds, a new study has found. Research, commissioned by the former education secretary Justine Greening, suggests elite institutions must do more to ensure students from poorer backgrounds fulfill their potential.
The study, undertaken by the Social Mobility Pledge initiative, which was founded by Ms Greening, also found a belief in degrees as a launchpad for career success may be waning among young people. Ms Greening warned that the results should be a “wake-up call” to Britain’s top universities that most of the public believe they are not boosting diversity fast enough.
The poll of 2,000 people found 73 per cent of adults questioned said Oxford and Cambridge are not working hard enough to recruit students from poorer households. Meanwhile, nearly a fifth of respondents said they did not believe university degrees were a valuable pursuit – and young people are even less likely to see degrees as a good investment.