Recorder Philip Parker, sentencing the gang, described the attack as a “thoroughly disgraceful incident”.Speaking yesterday, Mr Rashid said he had forgiven his attackers and praised Iqbal for being in Afghanistan.He said: “He has gone over there to do a good job He’s a real man, I have nothing against him.”. At least seven people [...]
Recorder Philip Parker, sentencing the gang, described the attack as a “thoroughly disgraceful incident”.Speaking yesterday, Mr Rashid said he had forgiven his attackers and praised Iqbal for being in Afghanistan.He said: “He has gone over there to do a good job He’s a real man, I have nothing against him.”. At least seven people were killed and thousand of others left without electricity as gales reaching 120mph battered parts of Britain in the worst storms for a decade. The storm caused widespread disruption to road, rail and ferry services. Railtrack imposed an emergency 50mph speed restriction across the Scottish network, while ScotRail cancelled all its electric services, affecting Glasgow’s Cathcart Circle, the Argyle Line between Dalmuir and Motherwell, Milngavie to Lanark, the Hamilton Circle, Edinburgh to North Berwick and the Largs branch.At Stanley junction, between Pitlochry and Perth, 120 people on the GNER service from Inverness to London King’s Cross were stranded for several hours after their train was hit by a falling tree.Ferries were badly hit, with many services in the west of Scotland delayed or diverted and sailings between Stranraer and Belfast cancelled.The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued 12 flood warnings, in Perthshire, Inverclyde and North Ayrshire. The Environment Agency announced 23 flood warnings for areas in Wales, the Midlands, Cumbria and Buckinghamshire.Coastal regions were warned to expect higher than usual tide levels and strong winds continuing through the week.As the gales gathered force during the afternoon some 200 pupils from Dunn Street Primary School in Jarrow, South Tyneside, were sent home after windows shattered.Many road bridges, including the Erskine Bridge in Renfrewshire and the Forth Bridge, were closed, as was the A66 trans-Pennine route and the A689 road across the Newton Cap viaduct at Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.Police throughout Britain asked lorry drivers not to travel after a spate of incidents involving overturned lorries in Scotland and northern England “It is chaos everywhere. We are inundated with calls,” said a Northumberland Fire and Rescue spokesman after an articulated lorry was blown over on top of a car at Stannington, Northumberland. “On the A1 wagons are turning over all over the place,” the spokesman said.In Glasgow there was restricted access to the Kingston Bridge, the busiest motorway bridge in Europe.Other road closures included the A85 Lochearnhead to St Fillans Road at Lochearnhead, the A85 at Glen Ogle between Lix Toll and Crainlarich, the A829 Aberfoyle to Inversnaid Road, the A84 at Kilmahog north of Callander and the A75 Gretna to Stranraer in Dumfries and Galloway.A woman and her two grandchildren escaped with their lives after a tree crashed on to their car, missing them by inches, near Bournemouth.
Barbara Compton, 55, was taking Hannah, seven, and two-year-old Ben on a day trip on Saturday when, minutes into the journey, 75mph winds blew down a 25ft beech tree on to the front of her Volkswagen Passat car. The tree smashed the windscreen, covering all three occupants with shards of glass.Mrs Compton, a cook for a nursery school, said: “I braked very hard and managed to miss the main part of the tree. Luckily it was only the branches that came down on to the car. It was just a matter of seconds, another foot, and the results could have been so very disastrous. It was a miracle that we weren’t killed.”Mrs Compton suffered scratches and bruises. Her daughter-in-law Vicky Ridings, 30, said Hannah, who was sitting in the front, was extremely shocked but otherwise unhurt.
Ben, who was in the back, had thought the whole experience was a game. “My son wants to do it again, he thinks it was a brilliant day out,” Ms Ridings said.. A group of peaceful football fans who were attacked by baton-wielding police in a pub are to receive compensation of about £100,000 between them. Doctors put four staples into his head to secure a wound.Mr Grayson, 55, with the Northumbria force for 30 years, said his attackers were “nothing more than thugs in uniform”.The Newcastle United supporter said: “If one of my sons had come home injured and blamed the police I would have told him it must have been his fault, he must have done something to deserve it. I would never have believed officers could behave in such a way.” His compensation will be more than £10,000.Another injured man was Graham Helling, a senior executive at Merseyside Chamber of Commerce. Mr Helling, 44, a training, policy and strategy manager, will also receive a payout.
He said the atmosphere in the pub before the attack had been “very friendly.” Both sets of fans had been sharing drinks.Mr Helling said: “A line of about a dozen police in riot gear and face masks came in and we thought there must have been trouble in the back of the pub. We parted to let them through.”What happened next was unbelievable. The police lined us up against the wall then suddenly charged through the pub lashing out with batons.”The Police Complaints Authority upheld complaints from fans in the pub after an investigation completed in March 2000. However, none of the officers responsible has faced disciplinary or criminal charges because they could not be identified.
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