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1 January – Convicted murderer Matthew Armstrong and two other prisoners, Daniel Washbourne and Aaron Thomas, abscond from HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire.[1]
2 January –
The Brighton Pier Group announces that it is putting the Brighton Palace Pier up for sale.[2]
The number of flu cases is reported to have fallen, with the latest figures showing 2,676 people were in hospital with the virus, compared to just over 3,000 during the previous week.[3]
HM Coastguard recover the bodies of a man and a woman after the man tried to rescue a mother and her teenage daughter who got into difficulty in the sea at Withernsea, East Yorkshire. A search for the girl is called off the following day.[4][5][6] The body of the girl is recovered on 16 January.[7]
A mother has been charged with murdering her four-year-old daughter in a house fire in Manchester.[13]
Staff at two primary schools in Greater Manchester strike over claims their reports of violence and daily assaults are being ignored by senior leadership.[14]
Former England striker and manager Kevin Keegan reveals he has been diagnosed with cancer.[17]
8 January –
The UK government announces plans to give councils in England greater powers to fine motorists who cause disruption by parking on pavements.[18]
Former English Premier League referee David Coote is sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years over a sexually explicit video of a teenage boy that was found on his laptop.[19]
9 January –
At a hearing at Norwich Crown Court, Rodney Johnston is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 16 years after he was earlier convicted of coercing a woman to have sex with more than 100 strangers over a period of three decades.[20]
At a hearing at Blackburn Magistrates' Court, a 60-year-old man pleads guilty to sending abusive messages over social media to England footballer Jess Carter during the 2025 UEFA Women's Euros.[21]
A cyclist is killed in a road incident in Bristol.[25]
Five people are arrested on suspicion of murder after a man is found dead in Stockton-on-Tees.[26]
13 January – John McDonald, who knocked down and fatally injured Suzanne Cherry at Aston Wood Golf Course in Staffordshire while being pursued by police, is sentenced to 13 years and six months in prison.[27]
14 January – Steve Wright, convicted of the 2006 Ipswich murders, is charged with the murder of Victoria Hall, who disappeared after a night out in Felixstowe in 1999.[28]
15 January –
Jazz Reid, who posed as a fake Deliveroo driver and shot a man and his daughter while they sat in a car with other relatives at Ladbroke Grove in November 2024, is sentenced to 38 years in prison after earlier being convicted of attempted murder of the man and wounding the girl.[29]
Zoe Treadwell, who killed a motorcyclist by mowing him down in a Range Rover in Bournemouth in April 2025, is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years following conviction for his murder.[30]
16 January – A tribunal finds that eight female nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital had their dignity violated after a transgender woman was allowed to use their changing room.[31]
17 January – GPs in England are to be advised to seek a second opinion if a patient remains undiagnosed after three visits with the same symptoms.[32]
19 January –
At a hearing at Northampton Crown Court, imam Ashraf Osmani is sentenced to fifteen weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, for marrying two 16-year-olds in Northampton's Central Mosque in November 2023, several months after the legal age for marriage in England was raised to 18. Osmani had claimed to be unaware of the law change at the time.[33]
Surrey Police begin a murder investigation following the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy in woodland at Guildford.[34]
20 January – Former prison officer Isabelle Dale, who had affairs with two prisoners while working at HMP Coldingley in Surrey and plotted to smuggle drugs into another prison with one of the men, is sentenced to three and a half years in prison.[35]
21 January –
Following a trial at Gloucester Crown Court, mother-of-ten Mandy Wixon is convicted of holding a woman with learning difficulties captive and using her as a slave for 25 years. She is released on bail, and will be sentenced on 12 March.[36]
Following a review, the Office of Road and Rail concludes that it "did not have all the facts" when it decided to not allow passengers on a peak-time train service between Manchester and London.[37]
The body of one of two Christmas Day swimmers who went missing near Exmouth, Devon, is recovered, police confirm.[38]
22 January –
An inquest into the death of Paul Lumber, a painter and decorator from Bedminster, Bristol, hears how he suffered fatal injuries after climbing a lamppost to attach a union flag while intoxicated on 22 November 2025, and after watching a football match. The inquest delivers a verdict of accidental death.[39]
Chris Watkins is removed as leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council following a vote of no confidence over a disagreement about the postponement of local elections.[40] Steve Hey is voted in to replace him.[41]
23 January –
At a hearing at Winchester Crown Court, former Swindon Borough Councillor Philip Young pleads guilty to a string of charges, including rape, sexual assault, assault by penetration and voyeurism, committed against his former wife over a number of years, taking 27 minutes to enter his pleas.[42]
A BBC investigation finds several hundred illegal rubbish dumps operating throughout England, including eleven "super sites".[43]
Two teenage boys, aged 15 and 16, are charged with the murder of a 15-year-old boy at Guildford on 19 January.[44]
26 January – At a hearing at Northampton Crown Court, former prison officer Alicia Novas, who admitted to having a relationship with a prisoner at HMP Five Wells and smuggling cannabis into the prison, is sentenced to three years in custody.[46]
At a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court, a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleads guilty to the murder of 12-year-old Leo Ross, who was fatally stabbed as he walked home from school on 21 January 2025 in Yardley, Birmingham.[48]
Edward Harris announces his resignation as chair of Warwickshire County Council, and as a member of Reform UK, after illegally running two unsafe rental properties in Tamworth.[49]
30 January –
At an Old Bailey hearing, Anthony Gilheaney, who was earlier convicted of murder after killing one person and mowing down four others during a rampage through the West End in the early hours of Christmas Day 2024, is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years.[50]
Manchester Pride is to go ahead in 2026 under new management after the previous organisation managing the event went into administration.[51]
February
1 February –
A fire breaks out in the endoscopy department of Southampton General Hospital forcing the evacuation of 200 patients and the cancellation of operations.[52]
A man is arrested on suspicion of murder following the fatal stabbing of a 50-year-old woman on a street in Willesden, north west London.[53]
2 February –
Resident doctors in England vote in favour of further strike action in their long-running dispute with the UK government over pay and training posts.[54]
Former prison officer Charlotte Winstanley, who had a "substantial sexual relationship" with an inmate while working at HMP Lindholme and smuggled a range of contraband goods into the prison, is sentenced to two and a half years in prison.[55]
4 February –
Rail journeys on Southern Trains, Thameslink and the Gatwick Express are severely disrupted following an early morning derailment, and a signal failure, in south east London.[56]
At a hearing at Leicester Crown Court, Jon Rubin, who laced sweets with tranquilisers at a children's summer camp and gave them to children so he could abuse them, pleads guilty to sedating his wife so she would not wake up while the abuse was taking place.[57]
Tesco apologises after Welsh language signs were placed in its Helston branch in Cornwall, rather than Cornish language signs.[58]
5 February – Following a trial at Lincoln Crown Court, Deividas Skebas is found guilty of the murder of nine-year-old Lilia Valutyte, who he stabbed in a random attack outside the shop where her mother worked in Boston, Lincolnshire, on 28 July 2022.[59]
Jon Ruben is sentenced to 23 years in custody.[61]
An 18-year-old man is charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of a student near De Montford University in Leicester.[62]
7 February –
A 58-year-old man is charged with 33 sexual offences against women committed in south London between 2003 and 2019.[63]
An 18-year-old man is remanded in custody charged with the murder of a student at De Montford University in Leicester.[64]
8 February – David Taylor, a Worcestershire County Councillor for Redditch East, announces his resignation from Reform UK over the council's plan to increase council tax by 10% from April. Taylor will sit as an independent.[65]
9 February –
The UK government says it will spend £5bn paying off 90% of debts built up by local authorities in England covering the cost of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.[66]
Former nursery worker Nathan Bennett is found guilty of sexually abusing children in his care at a nursery in Bristol.[67]
10 February –
A 13-year-old boy is arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two teenagers are stabbed at Kingsbury High School in north west London.[68]
A 15-year-old boy is sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 13 years for the murder of Leo Ross in Birmingham.[69]
Following a trial at Warwick Crown Court, Afghan asylum seeker Ahmad Mulakhil is found guilty of the abduction and rape of a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton. A co-defendant who stood trial with Mulakhil is found not guilty.[70]
11 February –
At a hearing a Westminster Magistrates Court, Charles Brohiri, who made 112 train journeys over two years without paying the fare, is sentenced to three years in prison suspended for 12 months.[71]
Twelve men are charged with the manslaughter of football fan Simon Dobbin, who was left with permanent brain injuries after being assaulted at a pub in Southend-on-Sea following a Match between Southend United and Cambridge United in March 2015, and died as a result of his injuries in 2020.[72]
12 February –
Thomas McKenna, an Essex-based lorry driver who converted blank weapons into live weapons for criminals while preparing for what he described as a "race war", is sentenced to 16 years in prison.[73]
Leo Ross's killer is named as Kian Moulton after reporting restrictions on identifying him are lifted.[74]
Former prison officer Ellis Eyles, who had a relationship with a prisoner while working at HMP Deerbolt, is sentenced to eight months in custody.[76]
13 February –
Three men are charged over the theft of a quantity of Mounjaro, estimated to be worth £1m, from a distribution centre in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on 24 January.[77]
At a hearing at Bedford Crown Court, Kennedy Jimmy is sentenced to six years in prison for the rape of a teenage girl in Shefford, Bedfordshire, in 2006 after advances in DNA technology were used to convict him.[78]
Three teenagers are charged over the death of Maliki Sharma, who was fatally stabbed in the Feltham area of London on 12 January. One is charged with murder and two with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.[79]
14 February – Police launch a murder investigation following the fatal stabbing of a 19-year-old man in a street in Peckham, south London.[80]
15 February –
Health officials confirm at least 34 cases of a "fast spreading" strain of measles have been identified at several schools in north London.[81]
Derbyshire Police confirm that a man died after entering a flooded brook following a police chase the previous day.[82]
17 February –
Police confirm they are searching for escaped prisoner Daniel Boakye, who absconded from Lewisham Hospital on 15 February while under the supervision of prison staff, the second time he has absconded from custody in a week.[83]
Seven ex-Reform councillors on Kent County Council join Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, and form their own group on the council.[84]
18 February – A 20-year-old man, subsequently named as Mason Miller, is killed in a double stabbing at a skate park in Northampton. A second person is taken to hospital in a critical condition.[85]
Amateur rapper Ashley Warren is found guilty of keeping one of two XL bully dogs that mauled his mother-in-law to death two days after the breed was banned in February 2024.[87]
A man is arrested after two teenagers, subsequently named as Ethan Slater, 17, and Cherish Bean, 15, were found dead at a holiday park in East Yorkshire the previous day. A second man is later arrested in connection with the deaths.[88][89]
Gosport funeral directors Richard Elkin and Hayley Bell, who stored 46 bodies in unrefrigerated conditions, are each sentenced to four years in prison following a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.[90]
Four people are injured after a double-decker bus veered off a road and fell onto its side on the Isle of Wight.[91]
Several people are treated for minor injuries after a tram was derailed during a collision with a bus in Nottingham.[92]
A 43-year-old woman and a seven-year-old girl are killed in a crash near the Hindhead Tunnel in Hampshire.[93]
20 February – West Midlands Police launch a murder investigation following the fatal stabbing of an 18-year-old man outside a mosque in Smethwick. Two other people are taken to hospital after sustaining injuries in the incident.[94]
Two agriculture students from Kent, who beat a sheep to death and blew it up with bird scarers, are sentenced to two years and twenty months in prison respectively, and banned from keeping animals for ten years.[97]
Following a trial at Leeds Crown Court, a 16-year-old boy is found guilty of being a member of the banned neo-Nazi group The Base.[99]
24 February –
A man is arrested after walking into a mosque with weapons, including an axe and a knife, in Greater Manchester.[100]
New guidelines for GPs in England will require them to guarantee same day appointments for patients with urgent health needs.[101]
Reform UK suspends Adam Mitula, who was helping the party in its campaign in the Gorton and Denton by-election, for making racist and antisemitic comments on social media.[102]
26 February – Andrea Jenkyns, the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, announces a cut to funding for English lessons for foreign nationals from 2027, with the money redistributed to improving literacy throughout the county and helping people to find employment.[103]
March
1 March – Thames Valley Police have launched a murder investigation following the fatal stabbing of a security guard at a shopping centre in Milton Keynes the day before.[104]
4 March – South West Water pleads guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption after a parasitic outbreak in Devon.[105]
5 March – South East Water is fined £22m by the regulator Ofwat for multiple disruptions to water supplies in Kent and Sussex.[106]
9 March – Warwickshire County Council's Green Party members have asked for a vote of no confidence in Reform UK's George Finch, the UK's youngest council leader, after accusing him of bringing the authority "into disrepute" and "[abusing] the office of leader". Finch dismisses the attempt as a "political stunt".[108]
11 March – A 15-year-old boy is arrested after a 14-year-old girl suffered minor injuries when she was stabbed at a school in Norwich.[109] The boy is charged over the incident the following day.[110]
12 March – At a hearing at Gloucester Crown Court, Mandy Wixon, who enslaved a woman with learning disabilities for 25 years, forcing her to clean her house, is sentenced to 13 years in prison.[111]
13 March –
Madeleine Lonsdale, aged 18, who killed two teenagers in a high-speed car crash in June 2025, weeks after passing her driving test, is sentenced to 14 months in a young offenders' institute.[112]
Following Worcestershire County Council's decision to approve a 9% rise in council tax, Farage says he wishes Reform UK "hadn't bothered" to form a minority administration there, because of its financial problems.[113]
14 March – A murder investigation is launched following the death of a baby in Westminster following reports the child had fallen from a height at a property.[114] A woman is charged with murder the following day.[115]
16 March – Sean Jefferson is convicted of the murder of his five-month-old daughter, who died as a result of brain trauma in March 2022.[116]
17 March –
A man whose body was found in a wheelie bin in a Coventry park on 13 March is named as 37-year-old Thomas Niven.[117]
Councillor George Finch survives a vote of no confidence by one vote after Warwickshire County Councillors vote 27–26 against a motion proposed by the Green Party.[118]
Unite the Union is fined £265,000 for breaching an injunction during the Birmingham bin strike by "slow walking" in front of waste lorries near depots.[119]
18 March – Three people are charged with the murder of Thomas Niven in Coventry.[120]
21 March – Professor Tom Licence, an expert in medieval history and literature at the University of East Anglia, says he has found evidence 19th Century historians missed an important part of the Battle of Hastings, notably that Harold II of England's troops arrived there by sea rather than marching across land.[122]
22 March – Kent Police confirm the death of one of their officers, PC Bradley Corke, who died the previous day after being involved in a crash during an emergency callout two days earlier.[123]
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband announces that developers will be required to incorporate solar panels and heat pumps into all newly-built homes in England from 2028, as part of a drive to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.[125]
25 March –
The British Medical Association announces that resident doctors in England will stage a six-day strike from 7am on 7 April after talks between union representatives and the UK government broke down.[126]
Nigel Dewale is given a suspended prison sentence after sending racially offensive messages to footballer Jess Carter via social media during Euro 2025.[127]
27 March –
Afghan national Ahmad Mulakhil is sentenced to 16 years in prison for abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.[128]
A 16-year-old boy from Northumberland is sentenced to three and a half years in prison, followed by a further year of supervision, after admitting to joing the banned neo-Nazi group The Base.[129]
A 26-year-old man is shot dead while sitting in a car near Euston station in central London. A suspect is seen on CCTV footage fleeing on a bike after the attack.[132]
At a hearing at Chelmsford Crown Court amateur rapper Ashley Warren, whose mother-in-law was mauled to death by an XL bully owned by Warren, is sentenced to ten years and three months in prison. He is also banned indefinitely from owning a dog.[135]
1 April – Police in Bristol are searching for a gunman after a man was left with potentially lifechanging injuries following a shooting incident.[137]
2 April –
Funeral director Robert Bush, who families the wrong ashes while their the bodies of their deceased relatives were still in his parlour, pleads guilty to 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial.[138]
A 14-year-old boy, subsequently named as Ehosa Ogbebor, is shot dead in Woolwich, south London.[139]
3 April –
Train services to and from London Euston are heavily impacted as engineering work begins on the West Coast Main Line over the Easter weekend, with services expected to return to normal on 8 April.[140]
Hertfordshire Council is to investigate unauthorised building work in an area of outstanding natural beauty.[141]
4 April – As part of a partnership with the genealogy website Ancestry.com the University of York makes 16 million historical records relating to Yorkshire available online.[142]
6 April –
Four people are arrested following the fatal stabbing of a 26-year-old man outside a nightclub in Peckham, south London. A further two people received life threatening injuries during the incident.[143]
A new law comes into force in England banning the keeping of all primate species as pets in domestic settings.[144]
7 April -
Resident doctors in England begin a six-day strike[145]
Former police officer Mark Roberts is sentenced to two years and three months after killing motorcycle passenger Muriel Pinkney while speeding to an emergency call in Gateshead in 2022.[146]
The UK government announces that Plan 2 student loans in England will be capped at 6% during the next academic year.[147]
A murder investigation is launched following the fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man, subsequently named as Finbar Sullivan, at a beauty spot in Primrose Hill, London.[148]
9 April – At a hearing at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, 19-year-old Carlo Tritta is sentenced to 28 months in prison after attempting to groom a 14-year-old girl on the gaming site Roblox.[149]
A man is charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of Finbar Sullivan.[155]
13 April –
The UK government announces plans to "overhaul" school meals in England, with a ban on foods with a ban on deep-fried food, and restrictions on items with high sugar content.[156]
Rosie Slater, who made £4,000 by selling fake Oasis tickets online, is fined £40 and given a community order.[157]
At a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court Jordan Herring, who threw his girlfriend from the fourth floor of a tower block in the city's Chelmsley Wood area in November 2022, is sentenced to five years in prison.[158]
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