The Daily Telegraph Thursday 1 August 2019 *** 9
London Bridge terrorist attack
victims to sue van hire company
By Patrick Sawer
VICTIMS of the London Bridge attack
who suffered serious injuries when
they were hit by a hired van driven by
three terrorists are suing the vehicle
rental firm for compensation.
Several of those injured in the June
2017 attack, which left eight people
dead, are claiming compensation from
Probus, the insurance company for
Hertz, to pay for the medical and
rehabilitation costs they face over the
coming years.
Terror victims are entitled to the full
cost of their care paid for by the motor
insurance industry, rather than having
to rely on notoriously stringent
government lump sums.
That follows an obscure change in
the law, made just three weeks before
the Westminster Bridge attack in
March 2017, to allow victims of terror
attacks to make claims against car
rental companies. It enables victims to
claim multi-million pound packages
for ongoing physical and mental
support, compensation for loss of
earnings and substantial payouts to
families of the dead.
Now those who were left with life-
changing injuries after Khuram Butt,
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(Isil) sympathiser, hired a whiteRenault Master van and ploughed into
people on London Bridge, are seeking
similar settlements.
Butt, 27, and his accomplices Youssef
Zaghba, 22, and Rachid Redouane, 30,
drove the van into pedestrians – killing
Xavier Thomas and Christine Archibald
and injuring several other people –
before stabbing passers-by at random
near Borough Market. Patrick Maguire,a personal injury lawyer from Slater
and Gordon, who represents a number
of victims, said: “Many of those who
survived these dreadful attacks, as with
the Westminster attack, have been left
with life-changing injuries.”
The law was changed shortly before
Khalid Masood killed five people and
injured 50 when he ploughed a
Hyundai Tucson hired from Enterprise
Rent-A-Car into pedestrians on
Westminster Bridge.
Among those who are now under-
stood to have received compensation
from Zurich, the firm’s insurer, was
Francisco Lopes, 26, who was left with
limited use of his left hand and suffered
nightmares, flashbacks and a phobia of
being in busy places.
But those representing terror victims
warned the change in the law has also
had the effect of creating a two-tier
system, with those who were stabbed in
attacks having to claim from the Crimi-
nal Injuries Compensation Authority,
which provides smaller payouts.McMafia order will
force suspect to tell
source of wealth
By Daily Telegraph ReporterA NORTHERN Irish woman accused of
having links to paramilitary activities
and cigarette smuggling has been or-
dered to explain how she paid for prop-
erties worth £3.2 million.
In the latest Unexplained Wealth Or-
der (UWO) secured by the National
Crime Agency (NCA), the woman has
been told she must prove that she paid
for four properties in London and two
in Northern Ireland with legitimate
funds.
The order was granted at the High
Court on July 24 and served on Tues-
day. Andy Lewis, head of asset denial at
the NCA, said: “This is the fourth case
in which we have obtained a UWO. Our
investigations are complex and involve
careful consideration before we make
an application before the court. We do
not investigate illicit finance based on
monetary value alone. This latest order
shows that we will act against those
who we believe are causing the most
harm to our communities.”
UWOs were introduced at the start of
2018 as part of powers dubbed the Mc-
Mafia laws, after the BBC TV drama se-
ries and a factual book that inspired it.News
‘Many of those who survived
these dreadful attacks ...
have been left with
life-changing injuries”Match.com
rapist guilty of
lying about
vasectomy
By Jessica CarpaniA SERIAL rapist has been found guilty
of sex attacks on five more women he
met on internet dating sites, including
the first conviction for rape based on
lying to a partner about having had a
vasectomy.
Jason Lawrance, one of the worst
serial rapists in Britain, lied about
having a vasectomy to convince one
woman to sleep with him, jurors heard.
The father-of-three, nicknamed the
Match.com attacker, contacted thou-
sands of women on the dating site or its
partner company Dating Direct be-
tween 2009 and 2014, attacking 13 of
them to “satisfy a selfish sexual need”.
The 54-year-old, who was jailed for
life with a minimum term of 12 years
and six months in 2016 for sexually
violating seven women, appeared emo-
tionless as jurors at Nottingham Crown
Court delivered the latest verdicts.
Despite offering no defence during
his second trial, Lawrance denied
seven counts of rape, one charge of
sexual assault and a further charge of
assault by penetration – claiming all
sex had been consensual.
But he was found guilty of five
counts of rape, one count of sexual
assault and one charge of assault by
penetration. Jurors cleared Lawrance
of two further charges of rape.
Jurors in Nottingham were told that
in July 2014, the former self- employed
builder got one woman pregnant de-
spite telling her he had had a vasec-
tomy – something he later passed off as
“just banter”.
Lawrance messaged her the follow-
ing day to tell her: “I have a confession.
I’m still fertile. Sorry.”
Match.com said member safety was
its primary priority, adding: “Match has
a zero-tolerance policy for reports of se-
rious offences and we encourage any-
one who has felt exposed to unsafe
behaviour to speak to the police.”
Lawrance, formerly of Liphook,
Hants, was remanded back into
custody to be sentenced at a later date.Public generosity not helping city beggars, says official who claims they earn up to £45,000 a year
By Sophie Foster
BEGGARS in Nottingham are raking in
as much as £45,000 a year, an official
has claimed.
Vagrants populating the streets can
earn vast amounts of cash, including
single donations of up to £100 from
people on nights out in the city centre.
Kim Pike, the local authority’s rough
sleeping coordinator, told councillors
that the problem had become “mind-
blowing” and the scale of illegal
begging had increased this summer,
thanks largely to the warm weather.
But she said the public’s generosity
was not actually helping to break the
cycle of homelessness. “People give a
lot of money and it’s dangerous,” she
said. “I’ve spoken to people on the
streets and they have been earning
£45,000 a year but have nothing toshow for it. That amount of money
could kill them.”
She added: “It’s £2 for a bag of
mamba [a synthetic cannabinoid]. If
people give £3 for a meal deal, how do
they know it’s going to go on that?”
In Wolverhampton in 2016, a man
was reported to have earned almost the
same as a prime minister’s salary
through begging in the streets. And in
2013 a beggar was banned in Londonafter Wimbledon magistrates heard he
was getting up to £52,000 a year inPutney. The court heard that a vagrant
named Simon Wright positioned him-
self outside a Natwest branch in the
High Street with a handwritten sign
that read “homeless and hungry” –
before returning each night to his
£300,000 property in nearby Fulham.
Ms Pike said it was important to dis-
tinguish between street beggars and
the genuinely homeless: “People tend
to think people who beg and roughsleepers are part of the same group. We
need to be able to separate that.”
Her remarks were echoed by hous-
ing charities, which stressed street
beggars may not necessarily be rough
sleepers. A spokesman for Framework,
the homeless prevention service, said:
“Most people we see begging are not
homeless and do have somewhere to
stay. But that doesn’t mean they don’t
have problems or don’t deserve help.”£
According to a Nottingham official, the
amount in a single donation a beggar
might expect to receive in the city centreAbuse inquiry urges social
workers to be re-screened
By Gabriella Swerling
SOCIAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
EVERY social worker at councils where
child sexual abuse was able to “flourish”
must be re-screened, a government-
ordered inquiry has urged.
Hundreds of children were allegedly
abused by foster carers and residential
home staff working across Nottingham
city and Nottinghamshire councils.
The Independent Inquiry into Child
Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said sexualised
behaviour by staff was overlooked and
children were subjected to rape as well
as sexual and physical abuse.
The inquiry said it received about
350 complaints of sexual abuse from
children who were under council care
from the Sixties onwards. However, the
panel said that the true number of
victims was likely to be higher.
The report, published yesterday,
called for all current staff to be
screened and for both councils to offer
their responses within six months.
The report said that between the late
Seventies and 2019, 16 residential staff
and 10 foster carers were convicted of
sexual abuse. There were also 12
convictions relating to the harmful
sexual behaviour of children against
other children in care.
Prof Alexis Jay, who chaired the in-
quiry, said for decades children
“suffered appalling sexual and physical
abuse, inflicted by those who should
have protected them”.
Colin Pettigrew, director for
children’s services at Nottinghamshire
county council, said: “We know that
the effects remain. We are committed
to working with partners to ensure that
appropriate support is available.
“Despite improvements, there
continue to be weaknesses in foster
care practice in both councils.
“We are determined to ensure that
children in the care of this council are
as safe as they can be and swift and
effective measures are in place to deal
with allegations of abuse.”
David Mellen, Nottingham city
council leader, and Ian Curryer, his
chief executive, added: “The council
let survivors down, and for that and the
ongoing impact that has had on your
lives, we are truly sorry. The council
should have done more to protect
children from harm.
“Today [our] standard of care bears
no resemblance to the past.”Mystery over
how student
fell to death
from plane
By Lizzie Roberts
A CAMBRIDGE University student
who died after falling from a plane in
Madagascar has been remembered by
her family as “bright, independent
young woman”.
Alana Cutland, 19, was completing
an internship on the island off the east
coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean.
According to local reports, Ms
Cutland, from Milton Keynes, was
travelling in a Cessna light aircraft
when she fell last Thursday.
The circumstances surrounding
how she came to fall from the aircraft
are not yet known, but the local police
are not believed to have arrested
anyone over the incident.
She was allegedly carrying out
research in the remote area of Anjajavy
and was on her way home.
Ms Cutland was in her second year at
the University of Cambridge studying
natural sciences and was undertaking
the internship abroad to complement
her studies, her family have said.
According to the local newspaper,
L’Express de Madagascar, her body has
not yet been recovered and due to
“dense vegetation” authorities are
struggling to locate her remains.
Her family described the 19-year-old
as “kind and supportive” and someone
who “grasped every opportunity that
was offered to her with enthusiasm and
a sense of adventure”. In a statement
released through the Foreign Office,
they paid tribute saying: “Our daughter
Alana was a bright, independent young
woman, who was loved and admired by
all those that knew her. She was always
so kind and supportive to her family
and friends, which resulted in her
having a very special connection with
a wide network of people from all
walks of her life, who we know will
miss her dearly.”
It added: “She was particularly
excited to be embarking on the next
stage of her education on an internship
in Madagascar, complementing her
studies in natural sciences.
“Alana was also a talented dancer
and embraced the more creative side of
her talents with joy and commitment.
“Her thirst for discovering more of
the world always ensured she made the
most of every second of her action-
packed young life. We are heartbroken
at the loss of our wonderful, beautiful
daughter, who lit up every room she
walked in to, and made people smile
just by being there.”
The second-year student last year
completed the Cambridge Summer
Schools in China programme.
Dr David Woodman, of Robinson
College, Cambridge University, said
“In her two years here, she made a
huge contribution to many different
aspects of life in the college.”
Friends have described the young
student as having “so much going for
her”. “She was amazing, one of the
most beautiful and pure girls I’ve ever
known – inside and out,” they told The
Sun. “We knew she was [taking part in]
some sort of plane trip last week to
study the seabed on a neighbouring
island, but then contact went dead and
we started to fear the worst.”Alana Cutland, 19,
was in the second
year of her degree‘Her thirst
fordiscovering
more of the
worldalways
ensured shemade the
most of every
second of heraction-
packed life’РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS