James Bond film studio worker jailed over toilet spycam
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Peter Hartley was jailed for 16 months after planting a spy camera in the ladies’ toilets.
A sex offender who concealed a spy camera in the ladies’ toilets at Pinewood Studios has been jailed.
Maintenance worker Peter Hartley, 50, planted a miniature motion-triggered camera behind a grill in the toilets at the studios in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire.
The camera was spotted by a woman working on the new James Bond film in June, Aylesbury Crown Court heard.
Hartley, of Uxbridge, west London, was jailed for 16 months.
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Danjaq LLC/United Artists/Columbia Pictures
The latest Bond film is being filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire
He will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Hartley, who was working as a maintenance man, was caught after the worker noticed light reflecting from the lens similar “to light reflecting off the face of a watch” and used a screwdriver to take off the grill.
Prosecutor Daniel Wright told the court the device was marketed as a “spy camera” and Hartley had used a piece of tape to cover its LED light to try to stop it being detected.
Hartley, who has a history of similar offences dating back to 2008, contacted his public protection officer at the Met Police later that morning to tell him he had reoffended.
He has previous convictions for placing cameras in a council building in Coventry in 2009 and for placing one in the changing rooms of a leisure centre in 2016.
Hartley has a total of three convictions for eight offences.
He later pleaded guilty to one count of voyeurism at Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court.
In a victim impact statement, the young woman who found the camera said she had needed mental health treatment and had suffered from acute anxiety.
Jailing Hartley, Judge Francis Sheridan said the victim’s life “has been devastated by a dirty-minded individual who preys on women.
Greater Anglia’s new £1.4bn train fleet launched
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Greater Anglia
The new trains are now running from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Cambridge
A new £1.4bn fleet of trains has been unveiled with the promise to improve journeys for passengers.
Greater Anglia’s investment is the first time a UK rail operator has introduced an entirely new set of trains.
Managing director Jamie Burles said some passengers had called the trains “beautiful”.
“I can be honest and say I haven’t had much feedback about our trains being beautiful in the last few years – so that’s quite novel,” he said.
“We promised new trains would improve their journeys and that’s exactly what they’re doing.”
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Greater Anglia
Inside the driver’s cab on one of the new bi-mode trains to be rolled out across East Anglia
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Greater Anglia
Greater Anglia managing director Jamie Burles, right, was joined by Thomas Ahlburg, centre, of train builder Stadler and Mark Swindell of investor Rock Rail at the launch
The new fleet includes 38 bi-mode trains, able to run on diesel or electric power, to run in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex, and 20 electric trains to serve the Norwich-London and Stansted Express services.
Bi-mode trains are now running on the lines from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Cambridge.
By the end of 2020 Greater Anglia expects to have replaced all 169 trains in its fleet.
The new trains will be maintained at the Norwich Crown Point depot, which has had a £40m upgrade.
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Greater Anglia
Passengers were involved in the choice of seat design for the new trains
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Greater Anglia
The new carriages have air conditioning, power sockets and USB points, with improved information screens, says the operator
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Greater Anglia
They also have lower floors and sliding steps to bridge the gap to the platform, improving accessibility for wheelchairs and pushchairs
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Greater Anglia
The launch featured a performance from an animatronic Greater Anglia hare
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King’s Cross: ‘Facial recognition last used in 2018’
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Part of the King’s Cross complex
Facial-recognition technology has not been used at London’s King’s Cross Central development since March 2018, according to the 67-acre (0.3-sq-km) site’s developer.
When the use of the technology was initially reported, by the Financial Times in August, a spokeswoman said it was to “ensure public safety”.
The partnership now says only two on-site cameras used facial recognition.
They had been in one location and had been used to help the police, it added.
According to a statement on its website, the two cameras were operational between May 2016 and March 2018 and the data gathered was “regularly deleted”.
The King’s Cross partnership also denied any data had been shared commercially.
It had used it to help the Metropolitan and British Transport Police “prevent and detect crime in the neighbourhood”, it said.
But both forces told BBC News they were unaware of any police involvement.
It said it had since shelved further work on the technology and “has no plans to reintroduce any form of FRT [facial-recognition technology] at the King’s Cross estate”.
However, as recently as last month, a security company was advertising for a CCTV operator for the area.
The duties of the role included: “To oversee and monitor the health, safety and welfare of all officers across the King’s Cross estate using CCTV, Facewatch and surveillance tactics.”
The advert was later amended to remove this detail, after BBC News raised the issue.
Following the FT’s report, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) launched an investigation into how the facial-recognition data gathered was being stored.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, also wrote to the King’s Cross Central development group asking for reassurance its use of facial-recognition technology was legal.
The latest statement was posted online on the eve of technology giant Samsung opening an event space on the site, with a launch event planned for Tuesday evening, 3 September.
The FT reporter who broke the original story described the statement as “strange”.
One critic of facial-recognition technology, Dr Stephanie Hare, said many questions remained about what had been going on in the area, which, while privately owned, is open to the public and contains a number of bars, restaurants and family spaces.
“It does not change the fundamentals of the story in terms of the implications for people’s privacy and civil liberties, or the need for the ICO to investigate – they deployed this technology secretly for nearly two years,” she said.
“Even if they deleted data, I would want to know, ‘Did they do anything with it beforehand, analyse it, link it to other data about the people being identified? Did they build their own watch-list? Did they share this data with anyone else? Did they use it to create algorithms that have been shared with anyone else? And most of all, were they comparing the faces of people they gathered to a police watch-list?'”
Dr Hare also said it was unclear why the partnership had stopped using it.
“Was it not accurate? Ultimately unhelpful? Or did they get what they needed from this 22-month experiment?” she said.
Crystal Palace 1-0 Aston Villa: Jordan Ayew strikes as Trezeguet sees red
Jordan Ayew’s instinctive finish helped Crystal Palace secure back-to-back Premier League wins with victory over 10-man Aston Villa.
The hosts looked to be heading for another Selhurst Park blank despite Villa’s Trezeguet seeing red for a second bookable offence, before Ghanaian Ayew fired beyond Tom Heaton with time running out.
It meant Ayew, who was part of the Villa side relegated from the top flight in 2016, scored for the second Premier League weekend in a row, having also struck in the win at Manchester United.
Trezeguet’s dismissal, for a late challenge on Wilfried Zaha, was among seven bookings dished out by referee Kevin Friend.
The visitors were incensed by a late disallowed goal for Henri Lansbury in six added minutes, Friend having already blown to book Jack Grealish for simulation in the build-up.
Match of the Day host Gary Lineker tweeted: “The disallowed goal for @AVFCOfficial in the last minute has to be seen to be believed. Why VAR didn’t correct what appeared to be an awful refereeing error is beyond me.”
In truth, it saved Roy Hodgson’s side from ending a match which they had dominated in embarrassment, with the hosts having had 22 shots on Heaton’s goal.
Cheikhou Kouyate was among the most wasteful, with just one of his six shots being on target. Captain Luka Milivojevic also went close, seeing an effort from distance pushed away from the top left hand corner of Heaton’s goal straight after Trezeguet was dismissed.
Meanwhile, it was another frustrating day for Zaha, who has now scored just once in his last 17 home league appearances.
Villa feel ‘robbed’ of away point
Aston Villa beat Everton at home last time out, but are now winless in 20 Premier League away games, losing their last nine in a row.
And after a late collapse at Tottenham denied them any points in their only other away league game this season, Lansbury’s disallowed goal was a bitter pill to swallow for Dean Smith’s side.
Deep into added time, a hand from Zaha appeared to set Grealish off balance as he bore down on the Palace 18-yard box.
But the Villa captain succeeded in completing his pass to Lansbury before running into first Gary Cahill and then the turf.
The decision of referee Friend prompted desperate protests from the visitors and their supporters, with Cahill holding Grealish back from the official as he was booked.
Speaking afterwards, Villa midfielder John McGinn said replays of the incident “speaks for itself” and claimed his side had been “robbed of a point”.
‘We don’t need to apologise for our win’ – what they said
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson:
“It’s unfortunate in some ways for us that it’s all going to centre around the controversy at the end. I think it was a very good performance from our side, we could have been way out of sight before that controversial situation.
“We think we’ve thrown this away in the last minute and are going to lose two points. Lucky for us the referee had made his decision before the ball had gone in the net and that was to give the free-kick. I don’t think we need to apologise at all for the fact that we won the game.”
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith:
“Palace have got good players and playing against them when they have a numerical advantage is a challenge. We kept going until the end and in my opinion got a good goal. I’m not sure any of us know why the referee has given the decision.
“We’ve all looked at it back and nobody can see why he hasn’t given the goal and given the free-kick but we have to take it on the chin.”
Man of the match – Jordan Ayew (Crystal Palace)
Hodgson keeps spell over Villa – the stats
- Crystal Palace have kept a clean sheet in both of their opening two home games in a league season for the first time since 2008-09, while it’s the first time they’ve ever done so in a Premier League campaign.
- Palace have also now won two of their last three Premier League home games, drawing the other. It is as many wins as they had in their previous 10 at Selhurst Park.
- Trezeguet became the first Aston Villa player to be sent off in a Premier League match since Aly Cissokho against Watford in April 2016.
- Crystal Palace striker Jordan Ayew has scored in back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since December 2015, when he was an Aston Villa player.
- Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has won his first Premier League meeting against Aston Villa with all five of his clubs in the competition (Blackburn, Fulham, Liverpool, West Brom and Crystal Palace).
What’s next?
After September’s international break, Palace resume their Premier League season with a trip to Tottenham on Saturday, 14 September (15:00 BST).
Villa’s next fixture sees them host West Ham on Monday, 16 September (20:00 BST).
More to follow.
Mesut Ozil: Arsenal boss Unai Emery expects German to stay at club
Arsenal manager Unai Emery expects midfielder Mesut Ozil to stay at the club – but says Nacho Monreal could leave.
Ozil, 30, who has not featured yet this season due to safety concerns and illness, has been heavily linked with a move away from Emirates Stadium.
Real Sociedad are interested in signing defender Monreal, 33, and Emery believes a transfer is a “possibility”.
But he said: “We are not speaking about the possibility for Mesut to leave.”
The transfer window for Premier League arrivals closed on 8 August but it is open across Europe until 2 September.
“We finish here our transfer window and in Europe it’s going to finish on Monday,” added Emery.
“We cannot sign another player, but we have the possibility [for players] to leave in the next four days. Yes, [Monreal] is one possibility.”
The Gunners take on Tottenham in the North London derby on Sunday and German Ozil could be in contention for the first time.
“This week he is physically better and he is training and doing normal work with us,” said Emery. “He is going to be closer to us and he will be available on Sunday,”
Ambedkar House: India’s £3m property row with two London residents
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Ambedkar House
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Ambedkar House in 2015, during a visit to the UK
In a quiet corner of London, one of India’s most venerated “founding fathers” continues to leave his mark.
The city’s affluent Primrose Hill neighbourhood has been home to generations of celebrities, from model Kate Moss to actor Daniel Craig.
But hundreds of visitors – including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – have flocked from around the world to one particular townhouse.
“Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Indian Crusader of Social Justice, lived here 1921-22,” proclaims a blue plaque outside the house.
Step through its doors, past a bust of Dr Ambedkar draped in garlands, and guests can see rooms reconstructed in his memory, with legal documents strewn across a dining room table. His glasses lie next to dog-eared books on the bedside table.
But there’s a problem: two neighbouring residents are opposed to the museum which, according to the local council, should not exist.
Next month, the fate of the museum will be decided at a council hearing. Its owners could be forced to convert it back into a residential property and close its doors to visitors, diluting the legacy of a man whose influence still reverberates in India to this day.
A view of Ambedkar House from outside the property in Primrose Hill, north-west London
Known as Ambedkar House, the building was bought by the government of Maharashtra, a state in western India, for more than £3m ($3.65m) in 2015.
Since its inauguration by Prime Minister Modi in 2015, it has operated as a free-to-visit attraction, dedicated to Dr Ambedkar, who is known as the architect of India’s constitution.
The home has attracted hundreds of guests, and three neighbours told the BBC that during this time, visitors have come and gone without any disturbance. One resident, who lived across the road, said they did not even know it existed.
But in January 2018, Ambedkar House was reported to Camden Council for a planning breach, and the council found that the building did not have permission to operate as a museum.
A large bust of Dr Ambedkar has been placed on a table inside the house
In February 2018, the property’s owners retrospectively applied for permission to use the building as a museum. But in October 2018, the council rejected the claim, arguing that it would amount to an “unacceptable loss” of residential space.
Two residents have also complained to the council, in north-west London, about alleged disturbances caused by “coach loads” of visitors making “noise day and night”.
The government of Maharashtra has appealed against the decision and a public inquiry is scheduled for 24 September.
Maharashtra’s government refused to comment on the case. But in a statement to the BBC, India’s High Commission – its embassy in the UK – said the property “holds a special significance for a huge section of Indians”. It said a planning application was submitted to Camden Council to convert the house into a memorial.
Dr Ambedkar, who studied at the London School of Economics, was India’s first law minister
Dr Ambedkar – a Maharashtra native who died in 1956 – was a legal scholar, a passionate civil rights activist and the man tasked with drafting the country’s constitution after its independence in 1947. He was also India’s first law minister.
He was born a Dalit – one of the so-called “untouchables” of India’s caste system – and became the most important and revered political leader for the community, which has faced social and economic discrimination for centuries.
He fought for women’s rights, an end to caste discrimination, and reserving jobs in government and schools for disadvantaged groups. He is widely regarded as one of India’s greatest political leaders.
Before his his political career, Dr Ambedkar briefly lived in Primrose Hill, from 1921-22, while studying for a doctorate degree in economics at the London School of Economics.
A UK charity encouraged the government of Maharashtra to buy the property in 2015
That’s why, at the suggestion of the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations (FABO), the government of Maharashtra bought the property in 2015.
When the house came up for sale, former UK civil servant Santosh Dass, who lives in Hounslow, west London, convinced the state to buy it.
She told the BBC that the property was in a dilapidated state at the time, and said the renovation work had given the home, and the community, a new lease of life.
In one room, photocopies of documents have been strewn across a table
“We’ve done the neighbourhood a favour,” said Ms Dass, president of the FABO.
She said that discussions had been held about getting permission to turn the house into a formal museum, but organisers “underestimated how much time the whole thing would take”.
“We really want it to be a proper memorial so people can come and visit,” said Ms Dass. “Some people see it as a pilgrimage.”
Dr Ambedkar (centre) with his second wife Mai Ambedkar and activist Rao Bahadur CK Bole (left) in Mumbai
About 50 people are estimated to visit Ambedkar House every week, including enthusiasts who travel from far away. Outside the building, one family told the BBC they had travelled from India to visit the home, which was top of their sightseeing agenda in London.
C Gautam, a FABO committee member, was sanguine about the future of the property as a museum because “eminent people support us”.
A letter in support of the museum has been written to the borough council by Lord Richard Harries, a former bishop of Oxford. Some neighbouring residents, however, do not share his enthusiasm.
A statue of Dr Ambedkar has been erected in the back garden of the property
One local resident, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC: “It’s supposed to be residential, not a museum.”
The resident claimed that Ambedkar House “went ahead with the renovations without permission”, adding that “crowds of people come here now”.
During Camden’s public consultation, one resident also complained that visitors “arrive in coach loads, taking photos and making noise”.
Bonnie Dobson, who lives on King Henry’s Road, told the BBC she considered the objections “puzzling and upsetting”. The 78-year-old Canadian folk singer said she had lived in Primrose Hill since 1969 and made a concerted effort to know her neighbours.
Residents have complained of disturbances on King Henry’s Road
“To the best of my knowledge, no-one has ever been disturbed by the fact that the house is now a little museum,” she said.
Ms Dobson said she liked the idea that tourists were coming to see Ambedkar House but disputed ever seeing “coach loads” of visitors. “If there were coaches coming up and down my road I’d know it,” she added.
Ultimately, it is the Planning Inspectorate – an independent agency working for the UK government – that will make a judgement on the planning appeal.
If Ambedkar House lost the appeal, its owners “would be required to return the property to its lawful use as residential”, a council spokeswoman told the BBC.
In a report on the planning application, the council said the conversion of the building into a museum was, in theory, permissible. However, it was the loss of residential space that breached policy and led to the rejection, the council said.
“In terms of balancing the loss of residential floor space against the cultural benefits, there is nothing to suggest that an alternative site could not be found,” the council said.
A quote from Dr Ambedkar, painted on the wall, reads: “Democracy is essentially an attitude of reverence towards our fellow men”
Mr Gautam insisted that most neighbours had been supportive of Ambedkar House.
“They tell us that some of their relatives remember when Ambedkar lived there 100 years ago,” he told the BBC. “So they seem really happy that a unique thing is happening here.”
Inside the building, a quote from Dr Ambedkar is printed on one of the walls. “Democracy is essentially an attitude of reverence towards our fellow men,” the quote reads.
The council’s reverence for Ambedkar House, it seems, remains an open question.
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