Blackpool Murder: Burning Body Found In Alley

Two people have been arrested after the body of a 16-year-old girl was found burning in an alley in Blackpool.

Police have cordoned off the alley off Kirby Road, South Shore where the body was found and specialist forensic officers are searching a nearby hotel.

A 22-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman were arrested nearby and are now being questioned by police.

Lancashire Police said the victim was believed to be Sasha Marsden, a student at Blackpool and Fylde College who lived in the Staining area with her parents.

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Superintendent Andy Murphy from the Force Major Investigation Team said: "This is an incredibly difficult and complex enquiry and we are working to try and build up a picture of what happened.

"From examining the body, it appears to us that someone has attempted to set fire to Sasha and this is a line of enquiry that we are looking into.

Student Sasha Marsden was reportedly set alight (Pic: Facebook)

"This is an incredibly difficult time for the family and we are keeping them informed of our investigation. Our officers will be supporting them as they attempt to come to terms with what has happened."

A port mortem is planned for Friday evening.

Carl Evans, owner of the Kimber Guest House told Sky News he spotted the fire when he walked out into his back garden on Thursday evening.

"I heard the alarms going and saw the smoke, but I thought it was just someone burning rubbish," he said.

He added that some residents had attempted to put out the flames before realising it was a body on fire.

"The lass two doors up said someone seemed to have put something out - like a mannequin - but it turned out to be the body of a 16-year-old girl."

Friends paid tribute to the victim on a Facebook page called RIP Sasha Marsden.

Jordan Silkstone wrote: "Way too young, what this town coming too.. R.I.p huni x."

Emma James wrote: "R.I.P Sasha. I didn't know you very long but you was such a good mate.

"I will miss our little facebook chats. You always knew how to cheer me up when I was down. I hope the people who did this to you get what they deserve. Miss you always beautiful. Xxx."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Major Incident Room at Blackpool on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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Halal Prison Food Found To Contain Pork DNA

A company which supplies Halal meat to prisons has had its contract suspended, after traces of pork DNA were found in pies and pasties.

The Ministry of Justice said it had withdrawn the products immediately, while justice minister Jeremy Wright said the Prison Service was investigating "as a matter of urgency".

It comes after traces of horsemeat were found in burgers sold by some UK supermarkets, including Tesco.

"All prisons have been informed about this very regrettable incident and we reported this issue to the Food Standards Agency immediately," a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said.

"We are taking immediate steps to suspend the contract with the relevant sub-contractor."

Justice minister Jeremy Wright said: "This is an absolutely unacceptable situation and one which we regret greatly.

"This must be distressing for those affected and they can be reassured we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation. The Prison Service is investigating this as a matter of urgency."

The company involved has not been named and it is not known where the firm is based.

Islamic law forbids the consumption of pork and prison rules dictate that Halal meat must be offered to inmates.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "This lapse will have offended and distressed high numbers of Muslim prisoners and their families so apologising, suspending the supplier and investigating the incident are the right steps for the Ministry of Justice to take."

A spokesman for the Food Standards Agency said a local authority investigation would look into the cause of the contamination and determine where the products had been sent.

It is due to meet with retailers and suppliers to remind them of their responsibilities surrounding food labelling after the recent horsemeat scandal.

Burger King has dropped the Irish food processing plant which supplied the contaminated burgers.

The Silvercrest plant in Co Monaghan, which is part of the ABP Food Group, has also lost contracts with Tesco, Aldi and the Co-operative Group.

A sample of Tesco's Everyday Value Beef Burgers was found to contain 29% horsemeat.

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Mark Duggan: Man Guilty Of Supplying Gun

A man has been found guilty of supplying a gun to Mark Duggan, whose fatal shooting by police sparked the London riots in 2011.

Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, 30, was convicted at the Old Bailey of passing the firearm to Mr Duggan.

The court heard Mr Duggan collected the BBM Bruni Model 92 handgun just 15 minutes before he was shot dead on August 4, 2011.

The 29-year-old's death in Tottenham, north London, led to riots that swept across London and other English towns and cities.

Hutchinson-Foster had denied a charge of "selling or transferring a prohibited firearm" to Mr Duggan between July 28 and August 5, 2011.

A jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court failed to reach a verdict after a trial last year. But at the retrial, a jury of seven women and five men convicted him by majority verdict.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said Mr Duggan had been under surveillance by police officers who "believed he was intent on exacting revenge on another man for the earlier murder of his cousin".

During both trials armed officers, who gave evidence anonymously, described how they opened fire on Mr Duggan because they saw him get out of a taxi holding a loaded gun.

The gun supplied to Mark Duggan by Kevin Hutchinson-Foster

The officer who shot Mr Duggan twice - once in the chest and once in the arm - said he fired because he thought he was going to shoot him and his colleagues.

Mr Duggan had gone in the minicab to Leyton, east London, where he allegedly collected the gun in a shoebox from Hutchinson-Foster, before continuing to Tottenham.

The taxi was pulled over by armed police in four unmarked cars in a "hard stop", and as Mr Duggan got out apparently clutching the firearm, he was shot.

The gun was found five metres from Mr Duggan's body, on a grass verge behind railings.

The shoebox, found in the minicab, allegedly had both Mr Duggan's and the defendant's fingerprints on it, while mobile phone evidence showed they had been in contact with each other in the run-up to the shooting.

But Hutchinson-Foster, a cannabis user with convictions for possession of cocaine and heroin with intent to supply, claimed Mr Duggan had wanted his help to sell some cannabis.

The defendant had admitted using the same gun to beat barber Peter Osadebay at a barber's shop in Dalston, east London, just six days before Mr Duggan's death.

Hutchinson-Foster claimed this was why his DNA was found on the gun when it was retrieved from Ferry Lane on August 4, along with traces of Mr Osadebay's blood.

Mr Duggan was killed in a police shooting in August 2011

The defendant said he collected the firearm from someone else so he could beat Mr Osadebay on July 29, but had returned it on the same day.

Chief Superintendent Dean Haydon said: "There is an ongoing IPCC investigation into the death of Mark Duggan and the circumstances of his death will be a matter for the coroner at a later date.

"The Kevin Hutchinson-Foster trial has primarily been about the supply of an illegal firearm and I welcome the verdict of the jury in this case today."

The Duggan family, who did not attend Hutchinson-Foster's trial or retrial, have said the question of whether Mr Duggan was holding a gun is something that should only be addressed at his inquest, expected to begin in September.

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Police Watchdog 'Woefully' Inadequate, Say MPs

The police watchdog is "woefully under-equipped and hamstrung" and does not have the power or resources to get to the truth, a scathing report reveals.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) should be given a statutory power to require a force to implement its findings, the Home Affairs Select Committee said.

The watchdog is currently investigating the Hillsborough Disaster in the UK's biggest ever inquiry into police misconduct.

And more cases should be investigated independently by the IPCC instead of being referred back to the original police force on a "complaints roundabout".

The watchdog, which was established in 2004 and is chaired by Dame Anne Owers, investigates the most serious complaints against the police.

It also investigates allegations against the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency.

A total of 31,771 officers were subject to a complaint during 2011/2012.

Keith Vaz says the IPCC leaves the public 'frustrated and failthless'

Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP said: "When public trust in the police is tested by complaints of negligence, misconduct and corruption, a strong watchdog is vital to get to the truth - but the IPCC leaves the public frustrated and faithless."

He added: "Nearly a quarter of officers were subject to a complaint last year.

"Many were trivial, but some were extremely serious, involving deaths in custody or corruption - it is an insult to all concerned to do no more than scratch the surface of these alleged abuses.

"The IPCC investigated just a handful and often arrived at the scene late, when the trail had gone cold. The Commission is on the brink of letting grave misconduct go uninvestigated."

The watchdog should have a statutory power to force implementation of its findings, the commitee said.

In the most serious cases it should instigate a "year on review" to ensure that its recommendations have been properly carried out, the MPs added.

Any failure to do so would result in an investigation by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the local Police and Crime Commissioner, as a professional conduct matter relating to the chief constable.

The IPCC told the committee that a backlog of appeals had begun to build since the need to make financial savings had obliged it to reduce its complement of temporary staff.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "The Home Affairs Select Committee is right that the IPCC is not strong enough to tackle the problem when policing goes wrong.

"That is why I called for radical reform of police accountability last year, including replacing the IPCC with a new Police Standards Authority."

Scores of police officers including a serving chief constable are being investigated by the IPCC over the Hillsborough disaster.

The deputy chairwoman of the IPCC, Deborah Glass said that "without a shadow of a doubt" the probe would be the biggest investigation carried out into police behaviour in the UK.

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West Coast Mainline Deal: Ministers 'Lied To'

The Transport Department was "irresponsible" over its role in the collapse of the £5bn West Coast Mainline rail contract, a group of MPs have said.

Members of the Transport Committee said the Government department had embarked on an "ambitious, perhaps unachievable" reform in haste, and claimed that ministers and senior officials were lied to.

FirstGroup was told it had won its bid to take over the franchise from Virgin Trains, but the decision was scrapped after the discovery of "significant technical flaws" in the way the procurement was conducted.

Virgin has now been told it can run the service until November 2014, with the fiasco costing taxpayers over £40m.

The mistakes came to light after bidder Virgin Trains, which had run the West Coast Mainline since 1997, launched a legal challenge against the decision.

A Government-commissioned report led by businessman Sam Laidlaw last month gave a damning indictment of how the competition was handled.

Three members of staff at the DfT were suspended over the episode.

Mistakes came to light after a Virgin legal challenge

The Transport Committee said in its report today: "A more direct description of what happened is that ministers and senior officials were lied to about how the outcome of the franchise competition had been reached.

"We cannot categorically rule out the possibility that officials manipulated the outcome of the competition not only to keep First Group in the running for as long as possible, as Mr Laidlaw suggested, but to ensure that First got the contract.

"We recommend that the DfT find a way of undertaking a full email capture, reporting to someone suitably independent, to help get to the bottom of why DfT staff discriminated against Virgin and in favour of First Group during the franchise competition."

Louise Ellman, chair of the committee, added: "We also want to hear from the Secretary of State what lessons he thinks current and future ministers must learn from this episode where policy ambition exceeded his department's capability and resources."

A DfT spokesman said: "We are putting in place measures that will prevent this embarrassing episode from happening again and the Secretary of State has given an undertaking to keep Parliament updated on costs.

"While we are currently working to minimise the impact on the taxpayer, we estimate the failure of the competition and subsequent independent inquiries is around £48m."

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Banks Face Up To Hefty New Mis-Selling Bill

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The City regulator will pave the way for Britain's big banks to pay out billions of pounds in compensation over the industry's latest mis-selling scandal.

I have learnt that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to set out a revised framework for small business customers (SMEs) to pursue redress for the mis-selling of interest rate hedging products, which were designed to provide insurance against steep rate rises.

Sources said that a crucial element of the FSA announcement would relate to a change in the definition of "sophisticated" customers, or those who would not be eligible to pursue compensation.

The new regime to be outlined by the FSA will alter the bracket of SMEs which will be eligible for compensation by increasing a £6.5m turnover threshold, according to people briefed on the details.

The changes will be an admission that the criteria used during a pilot scheme that ended recently failed to meet the needs of businesses which required the regulator's help.

The methodology was being thrashed out on Wednesday during talks between the FSA and Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, which between them accounted for the overwhelming majority of interest rate hedging product sales.

However, people close to the situation said a deal would be announced at 7am. A number of other banks which participated in the pilot programme are also likely to sign up to the new terms in the near future.

The new framework follows a seven-month pilot scheme involving a small sample of SMEs whose cases had been scrutinised by the banks with the oversight of an independent reviewer. Those reviewers will continue in their roles, potentially racking up huge fees for a small number of accounting and law firms.

Last June, the FSA announced that it had found widespread evidence of mis-selling of products such as swaps, which enabled customers to "fix" interest rates, and collars, which allowed them to limit interest rate fluctuations within a defined range.

"The greatest volumes were sold in the period 2005-2008, before the base rate fell sharply to its current, sustained, historic low," the FSA said in June.

Many SMEs have complained that they were left facing bills of tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds because of these products.

The major banks have argued that while there were limited cases of mis-selling, most customers understood the risks inherent in hedging products and should not be compensated for costs triggered by the wider financial crisis' impact on interest rates rather than any venality on the part of lenders.

The four banks have now, though, agreed on a set of standards for reviewing thousands more swaps cases during a six-to-twelve month period.

Crucially, the wording of the FSA statement is expected to include a stipulation that the banks will be held liable for "consequential losses" incurred by customers who were mis-sold the hedging products.

While legally difficult to prove, it would mean that SMEs will have the opportunity to pursue significant damages from banks where they can establish that they lost out financially because their capital was wrongly deployed paying for the cost of the swaps.

Further details of the agreement will be announced in the FSA statement.

The FSA and the banks all declined to comment.

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OFT Fuel Price Probe Findings To Be Released

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business & Economics Correspondent

The Office of Fair Trading today releases its findings on the state of Britain's £32bn retail fuel market.

The regulator must assess whether serious competition concerns exist within the industry and make a call on whether to launch a full-blown investigation.

Brian Madderson, chairman of the Retail Motor Industry Federation's (RMI) petrol division, said: "It's not transparent at all.

"They must make a full-market study under the competition act so that we can see exactly how this market is working."

Motorists see prices at the pump rise rapidly when markets surge.

But there is concern that, when markets move lower, oil and gas companies are not passing on savings to retailers and motorists as quickly as they could.

This prompted the Government to call upon regulators late last year to take up the issue.

The last time the OFT conducted an enquiry into the UK retail fuel market was in 1998.

According to the RMI, the UK wholesale price of petrol has gone up by more than 7p per litre since Christmas.

Around 1.5p of that rise is because the pound has not performed well since. But the RMI says motorists have still been left to face an increase of 5.5p per litre in the space of a just a few weeks.

Asked whether fuel prices were fixed or fair, Malcolm Graham-Wood, oil analyst at VSA Capital Limited, said: "It's an efficient market working as it should do.

"What you are doing in the petrol price at the pump is seeing a reflection of what the oil price was a few months ago, in the last few months it hasn't changed very much."

Projecting how prices might perform in the year to come, he added: "I think the oil price will be relatively stable and I don't see the currency changing very much either. Accordingly, I would have thought the petrol price would be down, not up."

Any investigation that did result in changes to the current system will certainly have consequences for consumers.

But, with Britain's retail fuel market worth around £32bn, it would also have an impact on businesses and the economy as a whole.

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Belfast Violence: Images Released Of Suspects

Police investigating serious public disorder in east and south Belfast have released 19 images of people they want to question over the violence.

So far, 181 arrests have been made and 128 people have been charged in connection with ongoing protests and disorder across Northern Ireland.

The violence flared after a decision to restrict the flying of the Union flag above City Hall in Belfast.

Detective Superintendent Sean Wright, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said: "My investigative team will continue to rigorously pursue those involved in this disorder and violence and we will be relentless in our pursuit of those who are responsible for organising and participating in it.

"We are determined that persons who are masking their faces, breaking the law, involved in public disorder and blocking roads will be brought before the courts.

"We are today releasing 19 images of individuals whom we'd like to talk to in connection with ongoing investigations into serious public disorder and I'm hopeful that the wider community will help us identify these individuals.

"I also encourage the persons within these pictures to contact my team directly – in doing so they will minimise the impact on themselves, their family and their community."

Of those arrested, 50 were juveniles. More than 100 police officers were also hurt in the violence as protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs.

:: Anyone with information should contact Strandtown Police Station on 0288 90 901775 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Report: Youth Joblessness Rises Fastest In UK

Youth unemployment has increased in the UK at a faster rate than any other country in the G8 since the start of the recession, a new report has said.

A study by the Work Foundation found that the UK now lags only behind Spain and Greece for youth joblessness in OECD countries.

The problem cannot be attributed just to the recession because other countries have fared better, the research group said.

The Government was urged to follow the lead of countries like Germany and Denmark by taking measures including more apprenticeships and increased training.

Lizzie Crowley, the report's author, said: "In many other developed nations, youth unemployment has remained low despite the global downturn.

"However, in the UK youth unemployment as a proportion of 15 to 24-year-olds has increased at a faster rate over the course of the recession than both the European and OECD averages.

"While the reasons for this are complex, it's clear that the UK can learn from the experiences of those countries that have fared much better in terms of youth unemployment.

"The Government should focus on those policies that have been shown to work, cherry-picking the best responses from other countries and adapting them to the needs of the UK labour market."

Unemployment for people aged 15 to 24 had increased in the UK by 35% to 916,000 between 2008 and 2011.

That compares to an average of 15% in the other G8 countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Germany, Russia and Japan had seen a reduction in youth unemployment in the same period.

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Sugary Drink Tax 'Could Pay For School Meals'

Sugary drinks should be taxed at up to 20p a litre, say health campaigners – with the proceeds helping to pay for free school meals.

Food and farming charity Sustain said the Government could raise £1bn a year from the duty, while also saving lives by cutting excessive consumption of unhealthy drinks.

The report has been backed by more than 60 organisations, including the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Friends of the Earth, the National Heart Forum and the Royal Society for Public Health.

Diet-related illness is now costing the NHS £6bn every year, said the report.

Sustain urged Chancellor George Osborne to introduce the duty in his March 20 Budget and to channel most of the cash raised into a Children's Future Fund for programmes to improve children's health.

Money could be spent on campaigns to encourage youngsters to eat more fruit and vegetables, the report said.

The group's campaigns manager, Charlie Powell, said: "Sugar-laden drinks are mini-health time bombs, contributing to dental diseases, obesity and a host of life-threatening illnesses which cost the NHS billions each year.

"We are delighted that so many organisations want to challenge the Government to show it has a public health backbone by including a sugary drinks duty in Budget 2013.

"It's a simple and easy-to-understand measure which will help save lives by reducing sugar in our diets and raising much-needed money to protect children's health."

Sustain chairman Mike Rayner, of Oxford University's Department of Public Health, added: "Just as we use fiscal measures to discourage drinking and smoking and help prevent people from dying early, there is now lots of evidence that the same approach would work for food.

"Our obesity epidemic causes debilitating illness, life-threatening diseases and misery for millions of people. It is high time Government did something effective about this problem."

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