the times | Saturday May 28 2022 2GM 5
News
The son of a Conservative MP is
thought to be among a platoon of
foreign fighters that destroyed a
Russian armoured vehicle during an
intense skirmish in Ukraine.
Ben Grant, 30, is the son of Helen
Grant, the Conservative MP for Maid-
stone and the Weald.
The former Royal Marine was among
British and American volunteers who
attacked the vehicle from about 100
metres away using a shoulder-held
said he had not told his mother, who is
Boris Johnson’s special envoy on girls’
education.
Grant said he had decided to travel
to Ukraine after seeing footage of the
Russian bombing of a house where afive years ago. “I ended up becoming
quite upset,” he told the BBC about his
Sainsbury’s trip. “I stayed in the house
for two weeks before I got the confi-
dence back to go out.”
Chris Fry, a solicitor who is bringing
Fenn’s case against Sainsbury’s at a
county court, said that Fenn was asking
a judge to compel Sainsbury’s to change
its policy and seeking compensation ofMP’s son ‘among foreign fighters in fierce Ukraine battle’
Matador anti-tank weapon, according
to The i newspaper.
Bodycam footage of the incident
shows the fighters as they emerge from
a woodland and approach the BTR, a
heavily armoured personnel carrier
used by the Russian army.
Grant, who spent more than five
years as a commando in the Royal Mar-
ines, is heard shouting “shoot it now”
and “mind the back blast”, before a mis-
sile is launched.
Another fighter is then heard yelling:
“It’s facing towards us” and to “pullback” as a gun battle begins. The fight
took place in northeast Ukraine on
Thursday, according to The i, and was
part of a 15-hour operation in which
about eight Russian soldiers were
killed. A further 30 Russian troops died
in a firefight when the team of 13 Amer-
ican and British fighters later linked up
with Ukrainian forces to storm a
trench.
Helen Grant did not respond to a
request for comment. In March, her son
was pictured at Lviv train station with
other former British servicemen. Hechild could be heard screaming. “I
thought, I am a father of three, and if
that was my kids I know what I would
do, I would go and fight,” he told The
Guardian.
“Then I thought I would want
another load of people who might be
skilled enough to help me, come and
help me, save my family.
“I just want to make that clear,
completely off my own back, I decided
to do this. I didn’t even tell my mum, but
it is what it is.”
Fight to the bitter end in east, page 44Tom Ball Ben Grant said he
had not told his
mother he was
fighting in Ukraine
Ian Fenn was looking for duck paste in
a branch of Sainsbury’s when he got
into an argument with staff about his
cat Chloe.
The web designer, who has autism,
had Chloe draped over his shoulder
when he went into the store in Clap-
ham, south London, in March because
he finds her presence soothing in
stressful situations. He said he had
asked the supermarket’s head office
first and was told it would be fine.
But staff at the shop saw it differently:
they said the only animals allowed in
were trained assistance dogs such as
guide dogs and hearing dogs.
Fenn, 51, now plans to take the dis-
pute to court in the hope that a judge
will find Sainsbury’s in breach of the
Equality Act (2020), which obliges
businesses to make “reasonable adjust-
ments” so as not to exclude people with
disabilities. The act states that no one
may put another person at a disadvan-
tage because of a protected characteris-
tic, which includes disability, unless
they can show that their action is “a
proportionate means of achieving a
legitimate aim”.
Fenn’s complaint comes as emotional
support animals are gaining popularity.
The composer Lord Lloyd-Webber said
that an airline had allowed him to take
Ian Fenn is
hoping a judge
will force
Sainsbury’s to
allow support
animals other
than dogs into
its storesPaws off my
support cat,
Sainsbury’s
Jack Malvern his Havanese puppy Mojito in the cabin
with him because he considered him a
“therapy dog”.
Lloyd-Webber said: “I wrote off and
said I needed him with me at all times
because I’m emotionally damaged and
I must have this therapy dog. The air-
line wrote back and said, ‘Can you prove
that you really need him?’
“And I said, ‘Yes, just see what Holly-
wood did to my musical Cats.’ Then the
approval came back with a note saying,
‘No doctor’s report required.’ ”
In 2018 airlines in America received
76,000 requests to carry emotional
support animals, many of which were
granted, including pigs and turkeys.
The number is likely to have fallen since
a ruling by the US Department of
Transportation in 2020 that airlines
need only consider trained dogs.
Footage of Fenn’s dispute showed
several members of staff asking him to
leave his cat outside, which he refused
to do. “She’s an assistance animal,” he
tells them. “There’s no law for guide
dogs other than the duty to make
reasonable adjustments, which also
applies to assistance cats. And also to
guide ponies. Trust me, I know my stuff.
“Anyway, I’m looking for duck paste.
Have you got any?”
The Equality and Human Rights
Commission advises businesses that
they must accept assistance dogs
because they are “highly trained, have
regular veterinary treatments and are
tested on a regular basis to make sure
they don’t present a health risk”. It does
not offer advice about other animals.
Fenn, who lives in Tooting in south
London, said he suffers from “sensory
overload in busy environments and [I]
tend to shut down” but that Chloe
allowed him to focus. He has been
taking her out for about a year after
acquiring her from a cat rescue centre
Loyal police
dog Stan dies
after chasing
moped duo
Debbie WhiteA hard-working police dog hailed as
“one of the very best” has died after
chasing two moped thieves in London.
Six-year-old German shepherd
Xavier Charles, known as “Stanley”,
suddenly collapsed while on duty on
Sunday morning, the Met said.
The dog is believed to have died from
heart failure. Stanley won admiration
throughout the force after working
across London as a general purpose and
firearms support animal.
He has been described as “one of the
very best police dogs”.
A spokesman for the Met tweeted: “It
is with the heaviest of hearts that we
share the news of the sudden passing of
one of our very own serving dogs whilst
on duty.
“Xavier Charles, aka Stanley, was
one of the very best police dogs who
worked across London as a general pur-
pose and firearms support dog along-side PD Stella, his best friend, and han-
dler PC Williams.”
He was a “larger than life character”,
the force said.
“Stan loved to work and amassed
over 280 results in his shorter than av-
erage career, making it to the national
police dog trials in 2019.
“In the early hours of Sunday morn-
ing whilst chasing down two moped
thieves, Stanley collapsed and sadly
passed away, believed of heart failure.
“While this is still very raw, we have
been asked to share this sad news to...
remember this wonderful, faithful and
loyal friend.”
The Met has more than 200 police
dogs, mostly German shepherds and
malinois for general work, along with
springer spaniels, cocker spaniels and
labradors. This includes about 120 sniff-
er dogs, who have been trained to
detect explosives, drugs, firearms, cash
or forensic evidence.
Forensic dogs can help solve “sexual
assaults, stranger rapes — we can use
them to track down traces of semen in
parks”, a police trainer previously told
The Times.
Others can find murder victims.
There are about 2,500 police service
dogs operating within forces across
the UK.
If police dogs are killed in the line of
duty, they receive the same honours as
their human partners.up to £20,000 as a secondary matter.
“Everybody is reporting how the pan-
demic has affected mental health.
Animals are a well-known means to
help people manage,” Fry said.
Sainsbury’s said it wished to be an
inclusive retailer and to find a solution
that balanced maintaining high food
hygiene standards with supporting “all
our customers who shop with us”.Assistance pigs can’t fly
6 The range of animals
accepted by airlines
until the rules tightened
in 2020 included
kangaroos, turkeys and
a miniature horse
named Flirty.6 Dexter, an emotional
support peacock, was
barred from a flight
from Newark, New
Jersey, to Los Angeles in- United Airlines
said: “We explained this
to the customer on
three separate
occasions before they
arrived at the airport.”
6 Hobie, a pig, wasthrown off an American
Airlines flight in 2014
after it defecated in the
aisle. A witness said that
the passenger
remonstrated with the
animal while trying to
clean up its mess. “She
was talking to it like a
person, saying it was
being a jerk. I have no
problems with babies
but this pig was letting
out a howl.”6 Easter, a therapy
turkey, flew home for
Christmas in 2015 with
its owner Jodie Smalley,
of Duvall in Washington
state. It survivedChristmas dinner and
made the return trip
wearing a nappy.6 Flirty, a “service
horse” with 14,
followers on Instagram,
has travelled on
American Airlines from
Chicago to Omaha,
Nebraska. The airline
declared it “a trained
service animal”.6 Etihad Airways allows
economy class
passengers to carry one
falcon per person or
two falcons per
additional seat — or
more in business class.Ian Fenn’s
assistance cat,
Chloe, helps him to
keep calm in
stressful situations.
When he visited a
supermarket in
south London he
was told by staff to
leave the animal
outsideXavier Charles, aka
“Stan” collapsed
and died on duty