Looter Jailed For Arson

A looter has been jailed for 11-and-a-half years for starting a fire which destroyed a 140-year-old family-run furniture shop in south London in the summer riots. Gordon Thompson, 34, was sentenced at the Old Bailey for arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered at House of Reeves in Croydon, south London, and burglary. Thompson, of Waddon Road, Croydon, changed his plea to guilty at the end of the prosecution case.

Murderer Losses Sentence Appeal

A Japanese man who raped and killed a British teacher before dumping her body in a bath filled with sand has lost an appeal against his life sentence. Tatsuya Ichihashi was jailed in July last year for the murder in 2007 of Lindsay Hawker, 22, from Warwickshire.

At the appeal, his lawyers argued the sentence was too harsh and repeated the claim made at his trial that he had accidentally suffocated Miss Hawker. But judges at Tokyo High Court rejected the argument and upheld the sentence.

Elderly Couple Charged With Sexual Assault And Fraud

A 'want-to be' therapist and his wife who told women they could diagnose and treat cancer have been jailed after being convicted of sexual assault and fraud. Reginald and Leila Gill sexually abused two women at their home in Cwmduad, Carmarthenshire, after both were wrongly told they had cancer. At Swansea Crown Court, Gill, 77, was jailed for eight years for crimes the judge described as "despicable". His wife, 35, was jailed for six months. It is understood that women visited the duo for help after they lost faith in the NHS. The married pair met their "patients" at a health fayre when they told of their "ozone therapy" to cure illness at their homeopathic clinic in their house in a quiet village.

(LB/GK)