The family of a 16-year-old girl who was killed in what was said to be a row over a boy have paid tribute to their ‘princess’.

Chloe Watson Dransfield was found with fatal injuries in Kennerleigh Avenue, Austhorpe, Leeds at 6am on Saturday.

The teenager was said to have been stabbed in the back in a dispute over a boy, according to family and neighbours.

A fifth teenager, a 17-year-old boy, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Monday after four others were held over the weekend.

In a statement, her family said: ‘My beautiful princess Chloe. I cannot put into words how I feel that you are not here with me.

‘You are my life, my world, my best friend and I know that I am yours. I cannot live without you – I need you.

‘You are stunning, confident, loyal, honest and my family-oriented princess.

‘When you walk into any room it lights up with your bubbly personality. There is so much I could say. There’s a big hole in my heart that can never be filled.’

They added: ‘Your two sisters and big brother will always love and miss you to infinity. You will always and forever be in our hearts. Love Mum, Connor, Courtney and Cienna.’

Two women, both 18, a man, 19, and a boy, 18, remain in police custody on Monday after they were arrested on suspicion of murder.

A fifth person, a 17-year-old boy, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of murder. He remains in custody.

Her cousin Shantelle Watson wrote on GoFundMe: ‘My 16-year-old cousin’s life was sadly taken in tragedy.

’16 years young. She didn’t even make it to her 18th – her whole life was taken in a flash over a boy.

‘Her mum is distraught; she has left two younger siblings behind.’

She added: ‘I wanted to create a GoFundMe to help give her the best send off possible.

‘She didn’t deserve this; she was so full of life, such an innocent, beautiful soul taken too soon.’

Neighbour Wayne Mallows described how he tried to save the girl but she had been stabbed in the back.

The 64-year-old told the Daily Mail he performed CPR on the teenager on the pavement close to his home.

‘I was called out of the house about 5.50am on Saturday morning by a dog walker,’ he said.

‘She said that my neighbour was outside doing CPR on a young girl. He was getting tired. 

‘I asked if they’d rung an ambulance and then I realised that a phone was on the ground and he had it on loudspeaker. Ambulance control were giving him instructions.

‘I took over until the ambulance arrived 10 minutes later. She had been stabbed in the back and there was quite a bit of blood. Her eyes were just blank.’

Detective Chief Inspector James Entwistle, who is leading the investigation, said: ‘Our thoughts remain with Chloe’s family at this incredibly difficult time. Our specially-trained officers continue to provide them with support.

‘Our investigation into her death is ongoing and five people arrested on suspicion of murder remain in custody, as we continue to establish the full circumstances of this incident.

‘I am appealing to anyone with any relevant information to contact us.’

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A gang member serving a life sentence for murdering two young men after mistaking them for rivals has had his sentence increased for battering a taxi driver in a separate attack.

Jason Furtado, 29, helped plan the ambush that saw Leonardo Reid, 15, and Klevi Shekaj, 23, stabbed to death at a music video shoot in Archway, north London, on the night of June 29, 2023.

He was jailed for at least 34 years at the end of a long-running trial at the Old Bailey.

But the killer was back in court on Thursday after pleading guilty to GBH with intent in relation to an attack on an Uber driver three months before the murders.

District judge Emma Deacon KC gave Furtado a consecutive three-year sentence for the attack at Wood Green Crown Court.

She told Furtado: ‘This was an explosive piece of violence from you against Mr Edwards without any proportion to the reality – which was that you were challenged by a taxi driver for banging on his windscreen.’

Furtado, who had been among a group of people inhaling nitrous oxide, had lashed out at Mr Edwards after he dropped off a passenger outside a club in Islington, north London, in March 2023 at around 3.30am.

The judge said Furtado ‘threw a gas canister at him and you hit him over the head with it’.

Mr Edwards fell to the ground but Furtado hit him multiple times, including to the head, and ‘stamped on his head at least twice’.

He then rolled from the pavement to the road.

Mr Edwards was then run over by a car driven by Furtado’s girlfriend Charlotte Sibley, the court heard.

Furtado had pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent while Sibley, 28, of Hackney, east London, had pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving.

Prosecutor Martyn Bowyer said: ‘Mr Edwards remembers nothing until he woke up in hospital.’

Sibley was fined £750 and disqualified from driving for six months by the judge who said it was nothing short of “miraculous that he did not sustain injuries as a result of your driving”.

Sibley, who was three months pregnant at the time, later told police that a fight between some men had broken out and she was in a ‘frightened and confused state’ when she fled and drove over Mr Edwards’s leg.

The judge described Sibley’s driving as ‘utterly irresponsible’, involving an ‘unsafe manoeuvre’ and that the fight had stopped by the time she decided to drive away.

The judge told Sibley: ‘You had run over him. You must have felt something. You had driven over someone’s body.

‘In driving away, you were thinking of yourself.’

Sibley was also ordered to pay a statutory surcharge.

The prosecution said no evidence was being brought regarding an attempted murder charge against Furtado while not guilty verdicts were recorded in relation to allegations of assisting an offender and dangerous driving against Sibley.

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A former Metropolitan Police employee used fake sick notes to claim 200 days off work, costing the police force nearly £20,000, a court heard.

Natasha Fountain, 29, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday by video link, where she admitted committing fraud by misrepresentation.

Fountain, of Union Road, Portsmouth, submitted fraudulent sick notes to her line manager for a period of just under two years, costing the Met Police around £19,000, the court was told.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Fountain worked as a communications and engagement officer for the Met from June 2022 until August 2024.

While the first sick note Fountain submitted to her work was genuine, the court heard she later forged several notes between November 4, 2022 and May 3, 2024, which resulted in her taking around 200 sick days.

Prosecutor Fahmida Azad said there was ‘no record’ of any appointments between Fountain and her GP practice between the dates in question.

The court heard the practice had also moved address during this time, a change which was not reflected in the correspondence the defendant claimed to be from her doctor.

The court heard that Fountain faced physical and mental health issues, including severe anxiety, which prevented her from returning to her GP to receive ongoing treatment and genuine sick notes.

District judge Briony Clarke described Fountain’s crime as ‘quite sophisticated’.

She noted that the defendant went beyond ‘just lying’ by actively forging the notes.

Delaying sentencing for further details to be gathered about Fountain’s health at the time of offending, the judge said: ‘There should be a deeper exploration of her issues and to what extent any genuine medical ailments were going on at the time.

‘If there are, or were, genuine health issues that may have meant she was unfit to work at that time, (the defence) may well wish to explore that.’

Fountain, who was given unconditional bail, will be sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 20.

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The body of a man has been found in a wheelie bin in a park in Coventry, police said.

A member of the public found the unidentified man, believed to have been aged between 40 and 50, in Cash’s Park off Daimler Road at about 5pm on Friday.

West Midlands Police believe the man may have been hit by a vehicle before being moved to the park.

His body was found in a Coventry City Council wheelie bin with a green lid.

Officers are working with the council to find out where the bin was moved from.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Poole said: “We are keeping an open mind, but we believe that this man has been hit by a vehicle and then has been moved to the park.

‘I urgently want to hear from anyone who believes they may have hit someone in their car yesterday, or who has noticed a change in behaviour from someone they know who drives, or who has noticed damage to a vehicle.

‘It’s vital that we trace that person as quickly as possible so that we can get their account of what happened.

‘If anyone in the area has found that their wheelie bin with a green lid has been stolen, I also want to hear from them.’

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A 15-year-old boy has been charged with trying to kill a teenage girl at a secondary school near Norwich.

The girl was stabbed Thorpe St Andrew School on Laundry Lane at 10.24am on Wednesday.

Pupils were put into lockdown in their classrooms after the terrifying incident.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was taken into custody a short while later.

The head of Britain’s biggest police force has urged phone companies to turn stolen devices into ‘unusable bricks’ so they are less attractive to snatching gangs.

Sir Mark Rowley told the International Mobile Phone Crime Conference in central London ‘there would be no criminal market’ for handsets if telecoms giants did more to make them worthless after being taken.

The Met Police Commissioner said phone thefts are a ‘significant’ problem for the force, which has some of the highest rates of robbery and theft from the person in England and Wales.

He warned the Met will call on the Home Secretary to change laws to force phone companies to take action if necessary, and will encourage international law enforcement to do the same.

Sir Mark said: ‘Phone manufacturing software companies have invested massively in preventing access to your data.

‘It’s an escalating war with fraudsters and cyber criminals, but they’ve been successful enough to allow us to run our lives, including our finances, on our phones.

‘Whilst they’ve worked hard on the financial and data security of our phones, they spend far less attention on the physical safety of their customers who walk through cities with a £1,000 or £2,000 device held loosely in their hands.

‘If a stolen phone were to become an unusable brick and the parts were not recyclable, there would be no criminal market.’

He added: ‘I do not understand why tech companies leave their clients at risk despite two or three years of discussions.

‘Until this device is worthless, the market will remain attractive to organised crime.’

In the UK, the Met has seen adverts on Snapchat offering children as much as £380 to steal a single iPhone, with a bonus of £100 for stealing 10.

Sir Mark said: ‘The exploitation of children in this trade is not just about individual offences.

‘It’s an entry point into organised crime.

‘Children recruited to snatch phones for quick cash are being groomed into criminal networks, normalised into offending behaviour and pushed further into exploitation.

‘What begins as one device on a street corner becomes a pathway into debt, coercion, violence and deeper criminality.’

The Met wants anti-theft protection switched on by default, stolen phones to be rendered unusable, and better access to IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) data to make it easier to return devices to their owners.

Figures released under Freedom of Information legislation show only a fraction of devices taken in London are returned to their owners.

Between 2017 and February 27, 2024, a total 587,498 phones were stolen in London excluding the City, 13,998 of which were recovered, and 573,500 were not.

Separate figures available on the Met’s crime data website show that in 2023 there were 52,820 thefts from the person where a phone was taken, and 14,326 robberies; the figures for 2024 were 70,249 thefts and 11,125 robberies; and for 2025 61,292 thefts and 10,207 robberies.

In the space of the month to mid-February, the Met arrested 248 people over phone theft and recovered around 770 stolen handsets.

The force is using high-powered e-bikes and drones as part of its operations to stop phone theft.

But in a report for the London Policing Board, Sir Mark warned the Met remains ‘an outlier’ for the number of personal robberies per thousand people, and theft from the person.

The force also solves one of the smallest proportion of these offences compared with others in England and Wales.

In the year to the end of December 2025, 6.9% of personal robbery cases ended with a suspect being identified and dealt with, while the rate was 0.9% for theft from the person.

In Westminster, between 69% and 72% of thefts from the person and personal robberies each week involve phones.

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If you’ve ever Googled your name (don’t worry, we all have) then there’s a good chance you’ve seen your email and even phone number pop up.

The reason for this is data brokers, companies that flog people’s personal information to anyone willing to pay, from advertisers to cyber crooks.

Data brokers also scavenge for addresses and information on the victim’s friends and family, with the market worth about £250billion worldwide.

But Google has updated a little-known tool that allows users to, well, Google themselves to find and remove their personal info online.

What is Results about you?

Results about you generate reports about sites that might have your personal information by, well, Googling it.

You can then click a button to flag it for it to be removed from search results, with Google reviewing the request first.

When Metro gave the tool a whirl, we found our name and email mentioned in obvious places – Metro author pages, social media profiles and online directories, for example.

But it was also publicly available in more unexpected places, like a French photography studio’s website that now redirects to a shady dating network.

Google will email you when it finds your information and give you the option to remove it from Google search, the idea being that it’ll stop data brokers from finding it, too.

Chris Yule, senior director of threat research at the cyber defence firm Sophos X-Ops, told Metro that Results about you is for the privacy-conscious.

‘Say you’re a doctor or a policewoman and you don’t want members of the public you’re interacting with finding your address from a quick Google search,’ Yule says.

‘Google will review requests to remove results if people search for you.

‘What it doesn’t do is stop your data being made available or sold online. Your information will still be available on the site it’s being sold on, but Google won’t link to it in results anymore.’

Why should I be worried about data brokers?

Yule warns that Sophos X-Ops has seen a 1253% increase in the volume of personal data for sale on the dark web over the last five years.

The shady corner of the internet uses technology that allows both sides of an online interaction to hide their identity and location.

‘Data brokers will steal and gather personal data with the sole objective of selling it on to people who can use it to make money, whether that’s personal data for identity theft and fraud, financial data for payment fraud, or technical data like usernames and passwords that can be used for ransomware and other cybercrime,’ Yule adds.

In a blog post, Google said it’s beefing up Results about you in the US, so users can hunt mentions of their passport details or social security number, which is used to apply for welfare.

Expanded monitoring will soon be available in ‘additional regions’.

To find any of this information, you do need to hand it directly over to Google – the company said the tool uses ‘rigorous security protocols’.

Yule says the irony in giving Google your data for it to find your data isn’t lost on him.

‘Ultimately, Google is the arbiter of search results for most people, so if you want their help in taking down things you don’t want people to see, then you need to give them something to work with,’ he says.

Not everyone ‘plays by Google’s rules’, warns cybercrime expert

The tool is part of a growing number of paid data removal services, which keep your information out of data brokers’ hands on your behalf.

But such services still struggle to keep up with identity thieves, who can use an increasingly sophisticated array of tools to pretend to be you.

Jake Moore, a global cybersecurity advisor at software firm ESET, tells Metro that commonplace AI systems ‘don’t play by Google’s rules’.

‘AI is far more powerful at researching, so it’s important to be aware that some of these platforms can also share personal information sometimes,’ Moore says.

‘It is much better to attempt to remove the data from its origin than rely on the search removal tool.’

If you’re wary of what information about you is out there, Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN, has some tips.

‘Privacy should be approached in layers,’ Briedis says.

‘Adjusting account settings and managing what appears in search results can reduce exposure, but tools that protect your connection – such as VPNs – can also help limit how much of your browsing activity is visible to networks, advertisers and other third parties.’

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A predatory driver who pretended to be a cabbie attacked and raped a woman in her home after forcing his way in.

Shabir Sultani, 27, has been jailed for 13 years after the sickening attack in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, last year.

The woman had been out enjoying a night with friends in Sheffield in spring last year, when she decided to go home.

Outside a nightclub, she got into a car driven by Sultani, which she thought was a taxi.

Sultani then lied to her that he was a cab driver and he would take her home.

He offered the woman vodka during the journey, but she refused.

Once they reached her home in Chesterfield, Sultani crept behind the woman to her front door and forced his way in.

He continued to kiss her despite her telling him to stop repeatedly, and raped her.

The woman managed to kick him off her.

Sultani fled the scene, but he was later tracked down and arrested thanks to CCTV footage, and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology which spotted his car.

Sultani, of Sturton Road, Sheffield, denied the charges, but he was found guilty following a trial at Derby Crown Court in November.

This Is Not Right

On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.

With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.

You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.

Read more:

The 27-year-old sentence included an extension of seven years due to dangerousness, and he was handed a Sexual Prevention Order designed to prevent him from contacting the woman, and he was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register.

The Detective Staff Investigator Beth Waite, who led the probe, commended the victim for her bravery and coming forward to report it.

She said: ‘Sultani clearly preyed on this woman on this occasion, pretending to be a taxi driver and offering to take her home.

‘Despite her repeatedly saying she wasn’t interested and asking him to leave her alone, he continued to force himself upon her, ultimately raping her.

‘I’d like to commend her bravery in coming forward and reporting this incident, and her support for the police investigation and subsequent prosecution.

‘This incident will undoubtedly have a long-lasting impact on her but her courage has ensured that we were able to bring the perpetrator to justice.

‘I hope that knowing he is now behind bars will allow her some form of peace.

‘I’d encourage anyone who has been a victim of rape or a sexual assault of any kind to please come forward and report it to us. We will listen without judgement and support you throughout.’

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A woman is safer down a dark alley than she is in her own home.

It is a stark truth, long backed up by facts – but despite one in four women experiencing domestic abuse, new data from Refuge exposes wide gaps in the public’s understanding of this ‘national emergency’.

More than two million women suffered domestic abuse in the year to March 2025. In the same period, 75 women were killed by a current or former partner, with even more victims taking their own lives.

Additionly, more than seven times as many women are killed by a current or former partner than by a stranger.

However, the poll, conducted by YouGov on behalf of the charity, shows that most UK adults still believe home is where women feel safest.

While more than half of UK adults (57%) acknowledged that women are most at risk behind closed doors, 85% believe most people feel safe in their own home.

When asked where women are most commonly abused, 14% cited outdoor public spaces such as parks, 10% said in the street, 5% said on public transport, 4% suggested in the workplace, while 10% were unsure.

The most common form of domestic abuse experienced by victims in the last year was emotional abuse by a partner or ex-partner.

Most often taking the form of coercive control, it can include threats, humiliation, manipulation, ‘gaslighting’, intimidation, isolation and generally monitoring or controlling the victim’s day-to-day life.

This Is Not Right

On November 25, 2024 Metro launched This Is Not Right, a campaign to address the relentless epidemic of violence against women.

With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.

You can find more articles here, and if you want to share your story with us, you can send us an email at vaw@metro.co.uk.

Read more:

Refuge’s survey also highlights gaps in awareness around how abuse is evolving inside the home.

Four in 10 adults (42%) say they have heard nothing about abusers monitoring, manipulating, or controlling someone through technology such as smart devices, while only a small minority (6%) report knowing a lot.

Refuge says domestic abuse is a crisis hiding in plain sight and is seeking to confront it head-on with a powerful new campaign.

Home is Where the Hurt is subverts the familiar ‘house tour’ content often seen from estate agent influencers, gradually revealing subtle but unsettling signs of abuse.

Gemma Sherrington, CEO of Refuge, said: ‘Too often we are taught to fear strangers, when the reality is that the most dangerous place for a woman is often her own home.

‘This survey shows a public belief in safety that masks a deadly truth. Abuse happens behind closed doors – and for too many women, it is fatal.

‘Our campaign is shining a light on these hidden harms, and the fact specialist services like ours need urgent, sustained funding to support survivors and, ultimately, save lives.’

Refuge Ambassador Sharon Gaffka said: ‘I hope this campaign helps people recognise the warning signs of abuse in their communities and empowers more women to seek help.

‘No woman should ever feel unsafe in her own home.’

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A drill rapper and armed robber on the run from prison for weeks has finally been arrested.

Daniel Boakye, 21, who also goes by the rap name DSAVV, fled police for a second time on February 15.

Met police have confirmed he was arrested after a tip he was in France.

A spokesman said: ‘A man who absconded from Lewisham Hospital has been detained in France.

‘At around 20:18hrs (local time) on Monday, 2 March, Daniel Boakye was arrested in La Bouëxière, France on suspicion of escaping lawful custody.

‘His arrest follows a joint operation by officers from the Met, National Crime Agency and French law enforcement partners.

‘It is believed Boakye, aged 21, was smuggled out of the country in a lorry after he absconded while in police custody on Sunday, 15 February.’

‘Arrangements are now underway to return him to custody in the UK.

‘Enquiries are ongoing to identify those who may have assisted Boakye to evade capture.’

In a video posted on social media, a young man claiming to be the rapper was again mocking police who have failed to locate.

Sitting in a chair in a dark room, the attention seeker brags: ‘I’m that guy I’m the boss of the UK.

‘Done it twice now they think I’m insane.

‘On my side we’ve got guns from Ukraine. Catch me if you can, I’m in a Wray on the way to the plane.’

‘I’m a magician like poof out of space.’

While police will probably be frustrated at the video, hip-hop fans were less impressed.

One commented: ‘He would be the biggest legend in UK Rap history if he could rap well’.

On Wednesday, he posted a video with an article on Boakye’s escape from prison was displayed on a TV in the background while the young man rapped.

‘I just broke out of jail like Modie, f*** the government fam they’re phoneys,’ he said.

‘Prison break, s*** fam – f*** these police. On the roads, I’m a legend like Toby, but I can’t go wrong like Kobe.’

Boakye is understood to have links to London gang OFB – Original Farm Boys – based on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham.

He is known for his lyrics boasting of committing knife crimes, in one rap he says: ‘Man plug that shank in his socket. You should’ve saw the way he ran, that muppet.

‘Still caught him and I chinged that muppet. Crime scene juice got spilled like bucket.’

When he was in prison he had lots of fans calling for his release.

Between June 2021 and January 2022, Boakye and three other teenagers participated in a spree of robberies and attempted robberies across London, Essex Live reports.

Armed with knives, they forced victims to hand over their mobile phones and provide passcodes to unlock them.

The group then transferred victims’ cryptocurrency into ‘hot wallets’, stealing more than £115,000 in total.

They also used stored bank details to buy top-up cards, pay for taxi fares and complete other fraudulent transactions.

The gang were only caught after detectives identified their home addresses from takeaway orders they paid for using stolen bank details.

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