Three men have been convicted and jailed (two 15 month and one two year sentence) in the first prosecution for stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. The Crown Prosecution Services says "A landmark case has today seen three men convicted of stirring up hatred against the gay community by distributing leaflets calling for the death of homosexuals. The case, at Derby Crown Court, is the first of its kind in British legal history..."
Elsewhere, PinkNews reports that "A street preacher has appeared in court in Somerset on charges of verbally abusing a gay couple. Michael Overd, 47, from Creech St Michael in Somerset, allegedly told Craig Manning and Craig Nichol that they were “evil” and would “burn in hell”. He got off with it as he says he was just "reading from the Bible".
"Continue reading" and get the CPS' take on today's landrmark case...
You may recall our report on Westminster looking into installing CCTV cameras with loudspeakers some time back? Well, now they're pretending to be sentient - "continue reading" and hear how Robocop's alive and well and on a Camden council estate...
Lambeth Council's to review the licence of Area due to a police report alleging there's a "blatant supply of drugs". The licensing sub committee (not that kind of sub - think a kaleidoscope of sleazy local incompetent councillors serving local party politics and grandstanding) meets next Tuesday 14 February at 7pm.
It follows Fire going through the same process resulting in a six week temporary closure. We imagine lots of club nights shuffling around whilst wrists are slaps, promises made and so on and so forth.
We hear that most Vauxhall venues have seen some kind of police action lately.
Do you think people are watching you? Well, you're right - they are! After lots of crime and the whole "night-time economy" thing Vauxhall's Area Crime Reduction Officer has got some cash and installed a CCTV camera. It's on a lampost on the traffic island opposite the RVT and can see all around.
Continue reading for the official statement which also explains what to do if something happens to you and you need the footage.
A mate in Sydney tells us that Grindr has been hacked by a Sydney hacker exposing lots of users "personal" information including pictures. A quick Google and it appears to be true.
“Continue reading” to find out what’s happened to the app that knows a lot about you…
After Sir Richard Branson said we should end the war on drugs yesterday, new sentencing guidance came out today. Is the farce over? Nope, but it could be showing signs of seeing some sense albeit due to the prisons being unable to take in any more people.
"Continue reading" for quotes from the usual suspects...
A Nigerian student has been convicted of trying to murder a guy he met through Qrushr. Pink News reports Clifford David, a 21 year old IT student stabbed 42-year-old teacher Chris Telford with a kitchen knife, before bludgeoning him with a hammer and biting him on the forehead.
The Daily Telegraph’s report on gay hate crimes in Derby. It sounds remarkably similar to what happened in the East End here – that being a bunch of dickheads used their religion to make themselves feel important, get cheap threat thrills and make themselves feel better about that being a total failure/ dickhead thing.
The big news isn't that dickheads are everywhere but that it's the first prosecution of its kind since hate laws were updated to include homophobia. Yay!
"Continue reading" to find out what the plebs got caught doing and now face time for...
The law is an ass but you did you also know that you can stick four fingers up it but not five? So goes the law. Yip, not since the famous Spanner Case have Britain’s obscenity laws been shown to be so stupid as they have this week.
"Continue reading" for some great legal news and a huge personal triumph for the lovely Sleazy Michael!
Police are appealing for witnesses after gunshots were fired outside Vauxhall's Colosseum Club on Sunday December 11 at 4.30am. Shots were fired near the entrance and hour and a half before the club was due to shut.
A former squatting community across the road from Fire (now a very middle class wanna be gated community) has long moaned about drug f*cked clubbers from Fire using their retired hippy commune as a car park/ public highway/ toilet. However, it appears that when the club shut the low footfall in Bonnington Square caused a HUGE rise in residents being mugged, cars robbed and general mayhem.
"Continue reading" to find out how they're coping.
Ben Summerskill of Stonewall has questioned whether the police are dealing with homophobic hate crimes robustly enough. Speaking to the Evening Standard he said "People have a real sense that violent attacks on people in the street are rising and becoming more serious. I think people are more anxious about reporting attacks to police because they do not believe they will get a robust response. If that happens then the people committing the attacks become emboldened."
You may recall concerns that a man found dead on Clapham Common was the victim of another homophobic hate crime. Apparently not and the two men who were arrested at the time have been exonerated. The man, a married father, had a heart attack after taking poppers, according to the coroner.
CONFIRMED: Fire has had another slap on the wrist from the licensing committee and has been forced to shut from this morning (Monday) until 15 December. The police were after blood but Craig had better briefs on... albeit probably covered in blood to but not what they were after... They'll move events elsewhere but probably across an invisible licensing line in another bit of the club.
The Lambeth committee paper detailing the hearing is great reading. The highlight is that the police actually managed to buy real cocaine. "Continue reading" to hear Fire's equally amusing statement which talks of doing some decorating whilst it's shut and how great Fire is for jobs and those living nearby - that'll be the bourgeois former squatters in Bonnington Square where we hear there's now a high suicide rate.
Area is rumoured to get away with a similar temporary closure when it's pulled up shortly.
Were you on the 17.38 Hampstead Heath to Stratford Overground on Saturday 1 October? If you were the British Transport Police (BTP) want to know if you witnessed the homophobic abuse a gay couple were subjected to.
The BTP say the couple were in the first carriage when they started getting verbal abuse. It got so bad they had to leave the train at Cannonbury where they run the police.
The suspect is described as between 27-35, black, stocky and was wearing a a blue polo-shirt with blue jeans. If you saw anything please ring the BTP on 0800 40 50 40.
We hear the town hall meeting was interesting. The shut it down crowd were outnumbered and their arguments apparently outgunned by Fire's brief. Lawyer, not Fire owner Craig in his Ghandi style pants. We hear next week according to those in the know.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is when Fire and Area's license will be up for discussion at Lambeth Council. It's on the request of the police - here's their application.
As we said before, we don't imagine any club would stand up to such attention let alone two so popular with the extremely 'up for it' Vauxhall set... All that said, we assume Fire have lawyers and a back-up or er, side entrance plan?!
Anyhoo, always a shame to lose clubs and say what you like, these clubs don't have 100% of folks adorned from head to foot in regurgitated 80s fashions (nay, uniforms!) complete with Those Fucking Specs and other depressingly predictable shi*te - admittedly because they probably lost them in the loo whilst trying to figure their way out but f*ck it?!
Serbia Pride was cancelled last week. The excuse? The authorities claimed it was in danger of being violently disrupted - sounded like another lame excuse at the time. Well, now they've gone and arrested six people they claim are right wing extremists who were planning to attack the event. Here's hoping Serbians can show their Pride soon without the threat of violence.
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