Footage has emerged showing a hooded figure, wearing a face mask, pacing outside a home later raided by police investigating the Southport stabbings.

The doorbell footage was filmed around 20 minutes before the stabbings at a home five miles from the attack in Hart Street, where children taking part in a Taylor Swift-themed dance party were set upon by a knifeman.

Three children were killed and eight others injured. Five children are currently in critical condition.

Merseyside Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. 

The suspect is from Banks, a village outside Southport, and a road in the area was cordoned off by police on Monday afternoon.

Two adults, who police say tried to bravely protect the children during the frenzied attack suffered stab wounds and are also in a critical condition. 

Police have said they are not treating the incident as terror-related, but added that the motive “remains unclear”.

Protesters from Just Stop Oil, including an activist awaiting sentencing for throwing soup over a Van Gogh painting, have sprayed orange paint around Heathrow airport.

Two members of the group reportedly sprayed information boards, windows and the floor in Terminal 5’s departures area with orange paint on Tuesday morning.

It comes a day after activists tried to obstruct the entrance to Gatwick airport’s security screening area by gluing themselves to the floor.

Just Stop Oil, which is calling on the Government to establish a “fossil fuel treaty”, vowed last week to use “all means necessary” to disrupt summer holidays.

One of the protesters is Phoebe Plummer, 22, who was freed on bail this week after being found guilty of causing criminal damage to Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers in 2022. 

She and an accomplice threw Heinz tinned soup over the painting.

Plummer said: “This is an international problem, so ordinary people are doing what our politicians will not, working together globally to put a stop to the harm and suffering that fossil fuels cause.”

Pictures published on Tuesday by Just Stop Oil showed orange paint splattered over a section of the floor, half a dozen departure screens and a window inside Terminal 5.

Jane Touil, another Heathrow protester, said: “Ordinary people have to stand up and make their governments do the right thing, because without pressure from us they won’t. I feel so angry and betrayed that politicians have let this happen when they’ve known about climate breakdown for over 50 years.”

Both protesters used fire extinguishers filled with orange paint to spray the substance around the terminal’s departure area.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that two arrests had been made on suspicion of criminal damage, and that officers remained on the scene.

Just Stop Oil claimed both its protesters had been “dragged to a police van” at 8.50am.

A Heathrow spokesman said: “Working with partners, we have quickly resolved a protest incident in Terminal 5, and all involved have been removed from the airport. The airport continues to operate as normal, and passengers are travelling as planned.

“We are in full agreement that the aviation industry needs to decarbonise, but unlawful and irresponsible protest activity is not the way forward and will not be tolerated.”

Earlier this month airport bosses obtained a High Court injunction that bans Just Stop Oil and other environmental campaigners from entering the airport. It does not come with a power of arrest, however, a police spokesman confirmed.

The daughter of BBC racing commentator John Hunt phoned police after being shot with a crossbow in an attack at the family home, an inquest has heard.

Hannah Hunt, 28, was able to text someone pleading for help, telling them she had been “tied up” at the property in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on the evening of July 9.

The text asked the unnamed member of the public to call the police, telling them the person responsible was still at the house, a coroner’s officer told the short hearing.

Ms Hunt was then able to call 999 reporting that she had been shot, as had her mother Carol, 61, and sister Louise, 25, the 10-minute hearing at Hertfordshire Coroner’s Court was told.

She gave her address before the call cut out.

When officers arrived they found her alive in the main doorway of the home with a crossbow bolt still in her chest, Geoffrey Sullivan, senior coroner for Hertfordshire, heard.

Carol Hunt died from stab wounds to her chest and abdomen, while her daughters Hannah and Louise died from crossbow bolt injuries, the hearing was told.

The coroner adjourned the inquest to allow any criminal proceeding to take place.

The three women were found fatally injured at the family home in Ashlyn Close just after 7pm.

Police launched a manhunt for suspect Kyle Clifford, who was found just under 24 hours later with what were thought to be self-inflicted injuries in the Hilly Fields area near his home in Enfield, north London.

He was arrested on July 11 on suspicion of three counts of murder, but remains in a serious condition in hospital and is yet to be questioned by police. 

Paying tribute to the three victims, Mr Hunt and his third daughter Amy previously said: “The devastation that we are experiencing cannot be put into words.”

In a further statement read to Sky Sports Racing viewers by his colleague Matt Chapman, Mr Hunt paid tribute to his “magnificently inspirational” surviving daughter.

He said: “Notwithstanding the horrid evil that’s swept through our lives, wreaking devastation on an unimaginable scale, the counter to that has been the breathtaking messages of support, some of which are still to be read.

“Amy, my eldest daughter, has been magnificently inspirational with her control and support for me, which I am trying, trying so hard, to replicate.

“Every message has felt so important, the same as a reassuring hug. We know people are worried about us. We will get through this.”

Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, 57, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years after being found guilty of running a banned terrorist organisation.

Choudary who counter-terror police say has had a “radicalising impact” on terrorists, was convicted last week of taking a “caretaker role” in directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) while its founder was in jail.

He was also found guilty of encouraging support for the group through online lectures to the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), which prosecutors said was another name for ALM.

It came after an investigation by the Metropolitan Police, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

ITS was infiltrated by undercover law enforcement officers in the US, who were present at online lectures in 2022 and 2023, held over the Element messenger platform.

Choudary will spend more than 26 years in jail in total due to the time he has already spent in custody, meaning he will not be released before the age of 85, the judge said.

Sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Mark Wall told Choudary he was “front and centre in running a terrorist organisation”.

The judge also said that he “encouraged young men into radical activity”.

However, Paul Hynes KC, defence barrister, said during the hearing that by the time Choudary had started directing ALM, it was “little more than a husk of an organisation” and he was not “gathering the masses to join”.

ALM was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK in 2010, though it was said in court the group has continued to exist under various names.

A senior security official said last week’s conviction was a “significant moment”, adding the evidence presented in court showed “Choudary’s continued involvement in supporting terrorism and radicalising others”.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command, said: “There are individuals that have conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes as a result of Anjem Choudary’s radicalising impact upon them.”

During a press conference, he added: “ALM’s tentacles have spread across the world and have had a massive impact on public safety and security.”

Rebecca Weiner, NYPD deputy commissioner, said it was a “historic case”, describing Choudary as a “shameless, prolific radicaliser”.

Ms Weiner said: “It is usually the foot soldiers, the individuals, who are brought into the network and go on to commit the attacks who are brought to justice.

“And it’s rarely the leader, which is what makes this a particularly important moment.”

Prosecutor Tom Little KC, opening the trial at Woolwich Crown Court on June 13, said Choudary had a “warped and twisted mindset”.

Omar Bakri Muhammad, who founded ALM, was in prison in Lebanon between 2014 and March 2023, and Choudary stepped in and “filled the void”, Mr Little said.

In 2016, Choudary was convicted and jailed for five-and-a-half years for supporting the so-called Islamic State.

The court heard that Choudary, whose licence conditions expired in July 2021 following his 2018 release from prison, said he viewed being called an extremist or fanatic as a “medallion” during lectures.

Mr Murphy said: “What became clear after his licence conditions was that he saw the online space as a means of engaging globally with larger groups of people.

“And what was clear to us was that increasingly there were a larger number of people that were willing to engage with Anjem Choudary online and he was having an influence over those individuals.”

Khaled Hussein, 29, from Canada, who prosecutors said was a “follower and dedicated supporter” of Choudary, was found guilty of membership of ALM.

He was jailed for five years with an extra year on licence.

Evidence showed how Hussein was effectively acting as a personal assistant to Choudary, helping to host online lectures and editing extremist online blogs and publications for him.

Hossein Zahir KC, defence barrister, argued Hussein was a “wholly inactive” member.

Choudary was arrested in east London on July 17 of last year while Hussein, from Edmonton, was detained at Heathrow Airport, having arrived on a flight the same day.

Scotland Yard said Hussein had planned to visit Choudary.

The husband of Emma Pattison, the Epsom College head teacher, was able to own a firearm despite taking anxiety medication because he had got the medication online rather than through his GP, an inquest has heard.

Mrs Pattison and her seven-year-old daughter Lettie were found dead at their home within the grounds of the Surrey boarding school in the early hours of Feb 5 last year. George Pattison, Mrs Pattison’s husband and Lettie’s father, was also found dead.

At an inquest into their deaths at Surrey Crown Court on Tuesday, Richard Travers, the senior coroner, concluded that Mr Pattison had unlawfully killed his wife and daughter before killing himself.

The court heard that Mr Pattison was able to renew his firearms licence to keep a shotgun at their home despite being on anxiety medication.

Paul Gregory, the firearms licensing manager for Surrey Police, said Mr Pattison had held a gun licence since 2012 but had failed to disclose that he was taking medication for mental health issues when he applied for it to be renewed in 2016.

The chartered accountant had obtained “significant numbers” of propranolol tablets, a drug prescribed for anxiety, from an online pharmacy called Chemist4U in the years after he received his initial licence.

It meant there was no record of it with his GP, and the Surrey Police firearms office had no way of knowing he was taking it when he reapplied for his gun licence ahead of its five-year expiry date.

Mr Travers said this appeared to present “evidence of a lacuna in the system” for obtaining a firearm. He said: “What is clear is that the safeguard currently in place … is capable of being undermined by the use of [an] online GP.”

Current laws mean people applying for a firearms licence must disclose any relevant physical or mental health conditions that may affect their right to own a gun, including depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

Police also contact an individual’s GP when they apply for a gun licence, and are sometimes asked to produce a report on their medical history. Mr Pattison did disclose details of his GP when he tried to renew his firearms licence, but answered “no” when asked if he had any mental health conditions, said Mr Gregory.

Because he had obtained anxiety medication privately, it was not on his GP’s medical record. As a result, Surrey Police’s firearms office deemed his request “satisfactory” and his certificate was renewed, the court heard.

Mr Travers said he would consider the use of online GPs, plus evidence of “coercive control” against Mrs Pattison, in a Prevention of Future Death report on whether Mr Pattison should have been able to keep a double-barrelled shotgun at their home.

Reading evidence from a post-mortem to the court, Mr Travers said he agreed that Mr Pattison had died of a “self-inflicted shotgun wound” to the head.

The court heard that Mr Pattison was “approximately three times the statutory [alcohol] limit for driving” at the time of his death. Toxicology reports suggested he had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood at the time, which the coroner said would be associated with a “high to extreme degree of intoxication” in an average social drinker.

A very low concentration of propranolol was also found in toxicology reports, but not conclusively confirmed.

Declaring his findings to the court, Mr Travers concluded that Mrs Pattison and Lettie had both died of “unlawful killing” after they were “shot by George”.

Mrs Pattison became Epsom College’s first female head teacher in September 2022. The court heard that she had died from three shotgun wounds to the chest and abdomen, two of which would have been “independently fatal”. Lettie died from a shotgun wound to the head, Mr Travers concluded.

She had returned home from work on the afternoon of Feb 4 last year while her husband and daughter had been watching the rugby on TV at home with friends.

Mrs Pattison gave some of her friends a lift home before returning to her home. She then ordered a takeaway from a Chinese restaurant, which arrived at just after 9.30pm.

A Deliveroo driver who spoke to Mrs Pattison on the phone after arriving at Epsom College and struggling to find the head teacher’s house said she “sounded normal” at the time. He said she then greeted her at the door to collect the food and had “a smiley face and seemed ok”.

At just before 11pm, Mrs Pattison made distressed calls to Deborah Kirk, her sister, saying that her husband had hit her, the court heard.

A witness statement from Mrs Kirk was read out at the inquest. She said she received two phone calls from her sister, at 10.46pm and 10.48pm, telling her that her husband had assaulted her and their dog, Bella.

She said that in one 30-second call, Mrs Pattison told her: “I need someone to come over,” and that her sister’s tone of voice was one of “concern, but not of terror”. Mrs Kirk added: “It was more like she had assessed the situation and did not feel safe.”

Mrs Pattison’s sister and her husband Mark Miller then got an Uber from Hertfordshire to the head’s home, according to witness statements. Phone logs show the pair repeatedly tried to call both Mrs Pattison and her husband during the journey, but their calls went unanswered.

The lights were on at the house when they arrived, and several cars were in the driveway, but there was no answer when they tried to ring the doorbell, the court was told.

In a witness statement, Mr Miller said he entered the house ahead of Mrs Kirk and immediately discovered Mr Pattison’s body. He said he could “see the damage from the shotgun and the smell of the shotgun”.

He stopped Mrs Kirk from entering the house and went upstairs, where he found the bodies of Mrs Pattison and Lettie in their respective bedrooms.

Mr Miller then called an ambulance and the police, with paramedics arriving on the scene at around 12.54am. All three family members were officially pronounced dead at 1.20am.

Police evidence read out to the court said a shotgun was discovered alongside Mr Pattison’s body, with 11 discharged cartridges found around the house.

Mr Pattison’s family were not present at the inquest, but a statement read out from his father said the accountant was an avid golf and shooting fan, which explained his possession of the shotgun. He said the incident had left an “indelible mark on the lives of two families”.

Mrs Kirk read out a statement paying tribute to her sister and niece. “Emma was lightness itself, she was fundamentally, viscerally kind,” she said. “Not the kindness that is fragile, but the type that has power. The form of kindness that has purpose and vision. The type of kindness that drives change… that fills a room.”

She described Lettie as “razor smart, curious and disarmingly cute”, with a “cheeky smile and huge brown eyes”.

The barrister said she was “trying to forgive” her brother-in-law over the deaths. “I can only speak for myself when I say I am trying to forgive you,” she told the court. “I can only imagine you must have been in an excruciating hell of your own. I hope we can do more to help others in a hell similar to yours.”

Addressing Mr Travers directly at the court on Tuesday, Mrs Pattison’s sister said the inquest presented an “important opportunity to raise awareness, not just of domestic homicide, but also of domestic abuse”.

She later delivered a statement outside the court, urging sharper focus on domestic abuse. She said:“Our wish is that no one has to endure what our girls endured, and what we have endured. But we cannot save all of them. 

“So our hope is that the deaths of our beloved family members will lead to some shift, some learning that might save at least one of those lives. That this might shine a painful but crucial spotlight on the realities of coercive control, and the need to dispel and challenge myths and stereotypes around who may be the victims and perpetrators of such abuse.”

An elderly woman has been arrested on suspicion of administering an unknown noxious substance after a person was taken to hospital after being approached by a woman with a bag in Bath, police have said.

Emergency services put a cordon in place on Stall Street on Monday following reports that a woman in possession of a plastic bag had approached members of the public, who then felt ill.

Multiple emergency services workers, wearing hazmat suits,  were at the scene, according to witnesses. However, police did not find any trace of chemical or hazardous substances.

On Tuesday, Avon and Somerset Police said in a statement: “The scene was lifted shortly before 8pm after the area had been checked. No trace of any chemical or hazardous substance was found.

“CCTV enquiries were carried out to identify the individual who was in possession of the plastic bag at the time of the incident. A 73-year-old was subsequently arrested on suspicion of administering an unknown noxious substance.”

Two people were treated by paramedics, the force said, with one taken to hospital with breathing difficulties and itchy eyes. She was checked and was discharged later in the evening.

Ruby Pemberton, a 17-year-old student who was working at The Hot Sausage Company stall when the incident took place, said she had noticed a woman feeling unwell.

She said: “[My colleague and I] noticed a blonde woman on a bench who seemed to be suffering from heatstroke for a few minutes. Two ambulance workers arrived and seemed to take her blood pressure before police arrived and told everyone to leave.

“They were going into the shops like Primark to ask people to leave, and then they put the police tape up.”

Ms Pemberton said the police were asking members of the public if they had seen a person of interest, adding: “The police asked my colleague if they had seen someone with blonde hair and blue gloves.”

Annika Moorhouse, Ms Pemberton’s colleague, said: “The police asked me if I had seen a woman with blonde/yellow hair and blue gloves. The tone was as if we must have seen her and they were looking for her.”

Ms Moorhouse said the ill woman was being tended to by paramedics for some 30 minutes before the evacuation took place.

She said: “The paramedics looked confused and were making calls for around 30 minutes. Then there were suddenly 10 or more police officers. They taped everything off and left us in the middle before telling us to leave. It was just bizarre.”

‘Not aware of any increased risk to public’

On Monday, a police spokesman said: “At about 2.30pm a woman approached people with a bag in Stall Street, leading to some individuals then feeling unwell. The ambulance service made us aware at 3.08pm. We’re not aware of any further reports of people feeling unwell. As a precaution, emergency personnel are wearing protective clothing.”

Chief Inspector Scott Hill, of the Bath Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “All emergency services have a duty of care to their staff, and so a decision was made to wear protective clothing while there was uncertainty about what we were dealing with.

“Further enquiries will be required to fully understand what caused some people to experience feeling unwell, but to help us progress that work we have made an arrest as we seek to establish whether any offence has been committed. 

“We can confirm thorough testing of the surrounding public area was carried out before the cordon was lifted, which confirmed there were no traces of any chemical substance.

“We are aware there was speculation on social media yesterday about this and hope confirming this provides reassurance to the public. We are not aware of there being any increased risk to the public, but officers will be on patrol in the city centre today if anyone wishes to speak with us directly to raise any concerns they may have.”