Andrew Tate’s trial over rape and sexual abuse claims brought forward

Andrew Tate will face a civil trial at the High Court next summer over claims of rape and sexual violence brought by four women.

A judge ruled the trial, which had originally been expected to take place in February 2027, should be brought forward.

Four women are suing the former professional kickboxer over allegations of sexual violence, including that he grabbed one by the throat on several occasions in 2015, assaulted her with a belt and pointed a gun at her face. Mr Tate denies any wrongdoing.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Lambert said that she was “very keen to get on” with the case and that it should be listed sooner, fixing the trial to start on 22 June 2026.

It could last up to five weeks, with a further preliminary hearing expected to take place at a later date.

She said: “We just need to make this happen, really. It is not in anyone’s interests that this case goes into the long grass of 2027.”

Following the short hearing, the four claimants said: “We welcome the judge’s decision to bring our case forward.

“We’ve already spent years waiting for justice, and so it’s of some comfort to hear that Andrew Tate will face these allegations in a court earlier than the original plan of 2027.”

A previous hearing in April was told that the case is believed to be a legal first as it will consider whether allegations of coercive control, in a civil context, could amount to intentional infliction of harm.

Judge Richard Armstrong said that the claimants were “seeking damages likely to reach six figures”.

The women are bringing a civil case after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute. Three of the British accusers were the subject of an investigation by Hertfordshire Constabulary, which was closed in 2019.

In court documents, one of the women claimed the high-profile influencer “would strangle her or grab her by her throat if she spoke back to him or said anything that he did not like… until she told him that she loved him or apologised for whatever he demanded at the time”.

She alleged Mr Tate put her in a headlock or whipped her with a belt if she did not get out of bed and do work for his webcam business.

The documents also claim Mr Tate, 38, “had weapons, including firearms, which were often pointed at her” and that he had “indicated to her that he would like to kill someone if he could”.

Mr Tate maintains that her account is “fabrication” and a “pack of lies”, and has previously described the allegations as “unproven and untested”.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr Tate previously said: “He denies ever threatening anyone with a firearm, engaging in non-consensual acts or subjecting any individual to physical or psychological harm.

“These are civil claims, brought years after the alleged events and following a CPS decision not to pursue criminal charges.

“It is deeply troubling that such graphic and one-sided accounts are being publicised before any judicial assessment has taken place.”

The statement added: “Mr Tate will defend himself vigorously and remains confident the truth will prevail.”

Mr Tate and his brother Tristan are also facing prosecution in Romania over allegations of trafficking minors, sexual intercourse with a minor and money laundering.

UK buys new fighter jets to carry nuclear warheads

Britain will purchase at least a dozen new F35A fighter jets, reintroducing a nuclear role for the Royal Air Force for the first time since the Cold War.

The decision to purchase the jets marks a major ramping up of Britain’s nuclear capabilities in the face of escalating global instability and comes alongside the UK’s decision to join Nato’s dual-capable aircraft nuclear mission – an aircraft sharing agreement among Nato allies.

Sir Keir Starmer will use a press conference at Wednesday’s Nato summit in the Hague to announce plans to purchase the aircraft, which can carry both nuclear and conventional weapons.

The purchase – which has been hailed by ministers as the “biggest strengthening of the UK’s nuclear posture in a generation”.

The Royal Air Force has not held a nuclear role since the UK retired its sovereign air-launched nuclear weapons following the end of the Cold War.

Announcing the purchase of the jets, Sir Keir warned that Britain can “no longer take peace for granted” in an “era of radical uncertainty”.

“Supporting 100 businesses across the country and more than 20,000 jobs, these F35 dual-capable aircraft will herald a new era for our world-leading Royal Air Force and deter hostile threats that threaten the UK and our allies.

“The UK’s commitment to Nato is unquestionable, as is the alliance’s contribution to keeping the UK safe and secure, but we must all step up to protect the Euro-Atlantic area for generations to come,” he added.

It comes after a major new government review warned that the UK must prepare for the possibility of a “wartime scenario” on home soil.

The National Security Strategy, published on Tuesday, issued the grim warning as events in the Middle East and Russia’s war with Ukraine continue to add to international instability.

The government said the purchase of the jets would support 20,000 jobs, noting that 15 per cent of the global supply chain for the aircraft is based in Britain.

The new fast jets will be based at RAF Marham, in Norfolk, with the government expected to buy 138 F35s over the lifetime of the programme.

The purchase of 12 F35A rather than 12 F35B as part of the next procurement package will save taxpayers 25 per cent per aircraft, the Ministry of Defence said.

The UK will deploy the jets as part of Nato’s nuclear Dual Capable Aircraft mission – an aircraft sharing agreement which Britain was previously not a part of.

It comes just a day after Sir Keir announced he intends to commit the UK to 5 per cent of GDP spending on defence and national security.

But there are growing questions over how such a pledge will be funded, with experts estimating it will cost more than £30bn.

Paul Johnson, director of the influential Institute of Fiscal Studies, warned that the money could only come from tax increases, “because in the end there’s nowhere else it can come from”.

Just three weeks ago, ministers struggled to explain how Britain would reach a target of 3 per cent defence spending by 2034 – casting doubt over the fresh target of 5 per cent.

Speaking to journalists on the plane to the Nato summit, the prime minister pointed to current manifesto pledges which commit the government to no tax rises for working people.

But any tax hikes to fund the 2035 pledge would be likely to come after the next election in 2029, which will see Labour campaign on an entirely separate manifesto, meaning current commitments will no longer apply.

Asked whether he plans to raise taxes to pay for the pledge, Sir Keir said: “Every time we’ve set out our defence spending commitments, so when we went to 2.5 per cent in 2027-28, we set out precisely how we would pay for it, that didn’t involve tax rises. Clearly, we’ve got commitments in our manifesto about not making tax rises on working people and we will stick to our manifesto commitments.”

The prime minister’s remarks also saw him insist that Donald Trump is still a “close ally” – just minutes before the US president declined to commit to Nato’s Article 5, which requires members to defend each other from attack.

Asked if he would commit to the mutual defence clause of Nato, Mr Trump responded that it “depends on your definition” of Article 5.

“There’s numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right? But I’m committed to being their friends, you know, I’ve become friends with many of those leaders, and I’m committed to helping them,” the US president told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

The genius behind Ben Duckett and an England innings that twisted reality

Ben Duckett reverse swept once, twice, three times. And eventually 12.

A modern man, conquering the most traditional role in Test cricket – opening the batting – in the least traditional of ways. With that shot alone, he made 31 runs. In total, he made 149 as he guided England to their second-highest run chase in history.

Duckett, whose highest score remains 182 against Ireland in 2023, has quietly, and consistently, built a record that places him in the upper echelons of England’s greatest openers. In a batting line-up where Joe Root and Ben Stokes’s legends are already made, where Harry Brook is the next generational talent elect, where Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope spend their lives under a microscope, Duckett’s consistency at the top of the order has gone, if not unnoticed, underappreciated.

Since his return to the Test side in 2022, he has averaged 47 with a strike rate of 88. In terms of average, it is higher than either Alastair Cook or Andrew Strauss managed. The last two men to nail the role of opener in an England shirt both ended up taking one knee in front of the Queen, knighted for their efforts. As a strike rate, it is higher than Virender Sehwag’s. The man widely considered to be the greatest aggressive opener in history.

In 2025, it may seem too early, hyperbolic even, to put Duckett’s name in the same bracket as the greats. But continue as he has been since his return to the side, and by 2035 it’ll have been there for years.

“He’s a quality player,” was his captain Ben Stokes’ assessment at the close. “such a hard person to bowl to with the new ball.I love the way that his natural game is to look to score and put bowlers under pressure from ball one. Ducky has been incredible since coming into the team and he’s shown he can score runs pretty much all over the world in any conditions he’s faced with.”

Brendon McCullum’s team have twisted reality to the point that arriving at Headingley on day five, with 350 runs still required for victory, England’s pursuit of the second-highest chase in their history felt eminently possible rather than the opinion of a madman. These run chases didn’t happen even three years ago. The dial has been turned. And this England team is the reason.

Along with Crawley, Duckett gave England their dream start. The 50 partnership between the two came in the 17th over of the innings – the slowest they’ve ever shared as a pair – but in murky, bowler-friendly conditions, it was perfect.

Duckett, watchful, punched the ball airily off the bowling of Mohammed Siraj. It dropped just in front of the fielder before skipping past him and away for four. Duckett celebrated with a mini fist pump to himself.

Duckett’s strength lies in his versatility. Against fast bowlers, he hits the same ball in three different directions. And against the spinners, he has an arsenal of sweeps to call upon. Sometimes he keeps his hands the same on the bat. Sometimes he swaps them over. Sometimes he steps forward with his right foot. And sometimes he swaps round and leads with his left.

The crowning shot of Duckett’s innings was his reverse sweep for six off Ravindra Jadeja that sailed into the East Stand. But his best was his on-drive against Jasprit Bumrah. The greatest bowler in the world, greeted with a perfect technique.

“He definitely knows how good it was,” Stokes added simply of whether Duckett, himself, will be aware of the scale of his own achievement.

People often talk about footwork when it comes to batting. But as the pace goes up in cricket, the opportunity for players to make large movements either forwards or backwards disappears. At the highest level, there simply isn’t time.

Instead, batting becomes about weight transfer. Subtle shifts that allow batters to manipulate their stance and access all areas. Duckett, short in stature, rarely, if ever, moves his feet. Crouched low in his stance, he cuts anything slightly wide. He pulls anything slightly short. And drives anything remotely full. He is a call-and-response cricketer with the answers pre-loaded before the ball has even arrived.

Duckett’s talents have made him an all-format England opener, and further the case that he is one of England’s most complete batters. Only he and Harry Brook command a spot in all three XIs. In ODI cricket, Duckett’s average is even higher than it is in Tests, standing at 49. And since becoming the undisputed first-choice opener in 2024, it is 56.

Headingley is the home of the run chase. One of the very first Bazball chases happened here in 2022 when England blitzed 296 for three against New Zealand; Shai Hope’s twin tons downed England in 2017; and a little-known cricketer named Ben Stokes made 135 not out two years ago against Australia when England hauled in 362.

Today, Duckett added his name to that list with one of the greatest innings played in an England shirt. Eighteen months ago, England went one-nil up in a series against India after Pope made 196 in the “Heist of Hyderabad”. That innings felt like a miracle. The perfect combination of a thousand factors coming together. Duckett’s innings today, rather than a miracle, felt like a coming of age. The next step for a player who is making his legend in front of our eyes.

In India’s history, they have only failed to defend a target of north of 350 twice. The first time was in England in 2022 when the home team chased in 378. And the second was today in their very next match on these shores.

In total, four of England’s 10 highest successful run chases in Test history have come during the Bazball era. And the man leading from the front is Ben Duckett.

British paedophile charged over mock Disneyland wedding to child

A British man arrested at Disneyland Paris for allegedly trying to stage a mock wedding with a child bride has been named.

Paedophile Jacky Jhaj, 39, appeared at a French court on Monday charged in connection with the disturbing ceremony at the theme park on Saturday.

Jhaj is well-known to UK police and was placed on the sex offenders register in 2016 after being found guilty of sexual activity with two underage girls in Feltham, West London.

Reports suggest that around £110,000 was paid to hire Disneyland Paris for the private wedding event before the park opened to members of the public.

Le Parisien, which first broke the story, said park staff alerted authorities when they saw the child playing the role of the bride appearing in high heels, barely able to stand.

The BBC reported that the event was to be filmed by Jhaj’s team with around 100 French extras recruited to take part.

Following Jhaj’s arrest, the BBC reported that he appeared before a judge in Meaux, Paris, charged with fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, and identity theft.

Prosecutors said the girl is a Ukrainian national who had arrived in France with her 41-year-old mother two days prior to the mock ceremony.

Three other people were arrested on Saturday – including the girl’s mother, a 24-year-old Latvian woman who played the sister of the bride, and the 55-year-old Latvian man hired to play the “father of the bride”, the tribunal in Meaux Jean-Baptiste Bladier said.

Disneyland Paris was “deceived” after the identity of a Latvian man and fake identification documents were used to secure the private event at the park, and that about a hundred hired extras were falsely presented to the company as wedding guests.

Preliminary findings also stated the “groom” had allegedly been “made-up professionally so that his face appeared totally different from his own”, according to the prosecutor.

French prosecutors said on Tuesday they have been in touch with British authorities and identified the convicted sexual offender who is wanted in the UK.

Since Jhaj was registered on the sex offenders list in 2016, he has been accused of holding staged productions involving young people, according to a BBC investigation.

In 2023, the corporation alleged he hired hundreds of children to act as fans at a fake film premiere in London.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “A 39-year-old man is wanted by the Met Police for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and a breach of a Sex Offenders’ Register notification requirement.

“We are aware the man has been arrested in France for other matters and officers are in contact with the French authorities.”

The Independent has contacted the courthouse in Paris and Disneyland Paris.

A pregnant teen was sent away to a place that promised to help. Then they took her baby

When Abbi Johnson became pregnant at 16, no one offered her a baby shower. Instead, she was sent away to a maternity home for young, unwed mothers.

In her evangelical household in North Carolina, premarital sex wasn’t just taboo — it was a sin. The mentality of “saving yourself” until marriage was the most consistent thread throughout her upbringing, she told The Independent.

Her father gave her a purity ring, proudly announcing to others that she had “promised him her virginity” until she was married. That expectation is a ritual many evangelical girls go through, reinforced by youth pastors who preach modesty and obedience, warning girls not to “tempt” boys with the way they behave or dress.

So when Abbi got pregnant back in 2008, her devout parents, ashamed and desperate to hide the fallout, sent her to the Liberty Godparent Home — a little-known maternity facility on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

There, she was told she would be safe. Supported. Guided. What she didn’t know was that she was entering a system that many women now say was built on coercion, control, and a quiet transaction: her baby in exchange for her future.

The home for young mothers was a place that, in hindsight, felt eerily reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale — not in costume, but in control. There were locks on the windows and doors. The girls were required to attend church services together, taught to obey without question, and then they were punished when they rebelled. Their pregnancies were treated as moral failures that needed to be atoned for.

At the end of their time, a ceremony was held — there was cake, gifts, and family. But this wasn’t a celebration of motherhood. It was a goodbye. This is when they handed over their babies — whether they truly wanted to or not.

The twisted transaction is the center of Liberty Lost, a powerful new investigative podcast from Wondery, that dropped Monday. Hosted by journalist T.J. Raphael, the six-part series pulls back the curtain on the Godparent Home and the culture of forced adoption inside America’s most powerful evangelical university.

Raphael reveals the dystopian reality behind a secretive institution on campus, where pregnant teens have come forward years later to report feeling pressured and coerced into giving up their babies for adoption.

At the heart of the story featured in the podcast is Abbi — now in her 30s with a family, living on the opposite coast from the Bible belt – who is determined to tell the truth she says has been buried for nearly two decades, along with the trauma that never left her.

After giving birth, Abbi continued her time at Liberty University to fulfill her expected role of a “normal” college student.

But while other teenage girls were “listening to Taylor Swift and working at Forever 21,” she found it hard to care about any of it. Instead, she was consumed with the loss of the son she had handed over to a “affluent, married Christian couple” because she was told it was “God’s plan.”

“I was raised to understand that this was the path … I’d been hearing it my whole life, the rhetoric that a baby deserves two loving parents and married households, you know,” Abbi told The Independent.

What Abbi experienced stems from a dark history that began with Jerry Falwell Sr, who created these maternity homes in response to Roe v Wade back in the 1980s. But what many do not know is that some of these homes still exist today.

“It’s not even about needing that historical context to know this is what’s happening,” she said. “It’s what happened to me.”

The Liberty Godparent Home was established in 1982 and sits on Liberty University’s sprawling campus, founded by Falwell — a man who helped build the modern Christian Right, advocating for a “pro-family” agenda focused on issues like abortion, school prayer, and traditional family values.

“One man for woman for one lifetime and no sex — period — outside of marriage,” his voice booms in one of the snippets from the podcast. Falwell died in 2007, but his legacy and his mission lived on.

Now, Godparent Home is one of a growing number of faith-based maternity homes that claim to offer support to young pregnant women.

But as Raphael discovers, the real message inside the walls was often far more punishing.

If these girls complete the Godparent Home’s program, they’re eligible for a full-ride scholarship to Liberty, Raphael says.

Liberty Lost draws from intimate interviews with Abbi and three other women who lived in the Home between 1991 and 2008, weaving together stories of isolation, manipulation, and loss.

Abbi wasn’t physically forced to hand over her baby.

But after her parents refused to let her return home with the baby, with no financial support — and with the prospect of a full college scholarship dangling in front of her — she felt her options were limited.

“It wasn’t what I wanted to do at all,” Abbi told The Independent.

“But it was incredibly confusing. I would ask, ‘Why do complete strangers get to have my son, and I have to earn a relationship with him?’ I hadn’t done anything wrong. But they laid down the law — this was the punishment, and I was expected to live it gracefully.”

The adoption was sold to her as “open,” but when Abbi tried to advocate for more contact, she was denied. Her monitored visits ended.

The relationship with her son — already fragile — faded. That loss, she says, ultimately freed her to speak.

“If my son was seeking this information, I wanted it to be there. And when the other women started coming forward, it was like the biggest hug — emotionally, it was validating and gratifying. I wasn’t alone.”

She posted videos of herself telling her story and began receiving messages from other women who had similar experiences. Some had no support from anyone, others had family support, but the financial burden was too much to do on their own.

Abbi’s own experience was shaped not only by the staff at the home but by the deeply rooted religious culture she grew up in.

Both of her parents admitted to being influenced by their religious culture when making the decision to send their daughter away, and then expressed regret in response to the podcast.

“When our daughter became pregnant at 16, I made mistakes in my guidance that resulted in lifelong consequences,” her mother, Debbie Blanzy, wrote in a statement shared with the podcast. “Influenced by a culture that believed babies developed best in two-parent homes, I embraced this philosophy and didn’t connect with our daughter’s earnest desire to parent her baby son.”

She explained that their health insurance would not cover any of the expenses incurred during the birth. But the Godparent Home, at the university where she is an alum, had promised her expenses would be covered – on the condition that she complete the program.

“In other words, if she left early without staff approval, we would have to reimburse the Home for the expenses incurred for our daughter’s time there…..that scared me.”

“There was so much I didn’t realize back then about adoption, adoptee trauma, and the injurious aftermath suffered by birth parents,” she said, adding that she has come to “see things about the practice of adoption in the U.S. that are in need of reform.”

Abbi’s father, Don, echoed the regret in his statement:

“Knowing what I know now, I would not have allowed the adoption process to proceed,” he said. “I should have simply said, ‘We are having a baby. Let us celebrate and go home,’” he added, admitting that he had been “wrongfully influenced by the culture around me.”

What happened to Abbi isn’t just history — it’s prophecy.

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there has been a 23 percent increase in maternity homes across the United States. And Liberty’s Godparent Home sits at the center of this growing movement.

“People think these homes went away,” says Raphael. “They didn’t. They never stopped existing. If anything, in 2025, they’re growing. Since the end of Roe, there has been an effort to grow them across the country.”

Through her research, Raphael found that $50 million in state and federal funding has fueled the expansion of anti-abortion counseling centers, adoption agencies, and maternity homes.

The former director of the Godparent Home sat for years on the leadership council of the National Maternity Housing Coalition — run by Heartbeat International, the largest anti-abortion organization in the world.

That’s why this story matters now, Raphael says.

“I wanted to tell a story that could speak to our present moment. And what I learned is that the post-Roe landscape isn’t just about banning abortion — it’s about controlling the outcomes of birth. That includes who gets to be a parent.”

The Independent has reached out to both Liberty University and the Godparent Home for comment, but has not received a response. They did not respond to multiple requests for comment by Liberty Lost.

Liberty Lost isn’t just about one maternity home, or one girl.

The series asks a chilling question in a post-Roe America: Who gets to decide who is worthy of becoming, or remaining, a parent?

“There’s a need, in theory, for these places – places that provide safe housing, food, support for vulnerable women,” Raphael said. “That is a wonderful idea in theory, but when it is intertwined with potentially problematic values about single motherhood, that’s where the problem is and that’s when women face the risk of being separated from their children.”

For Abbi Johnson, the wound has never healed.

But speaking out, she says, is part of the path forward — not just for her, but for others.

“My biggest hope is that people think a lot more about the circumstances a woman finds herself in that she would even be considering adoption,” she said. “Who’s putting that option in front of her and how is it being presented and how is she being made to feel in terms of support?”

“And not just in that moment – of that traumatic experience of being pregnant when you feel like you have no support and no resources – but think about every factor that goes into finding yourself in that situation,” she continued.

“Think about what we offer women and why we offer those options and why this idea that there are better women suited for someone else’s baby is such a culturally accepted idea.”

Liberty Lost debuted June 23 on all podcast platforms.

What’s the secret to a truly stress-free holiday?

High-end cruising has entered a new era. Today’s luxury travellers aren’t looking for big flashy experiences. They want slow-paced, intimate travel and authentic cultural immersion. More than anything else, they’re looking for ease: that feeling of being genuinely cared for, safe in the knowledge that they’re experiencing the best of the best.

That means excellent quality food and drink, of course – it’s got to be restaurant standard and cater to all tastes – but also onboard enrichment experiences of the highest calibre. The great beauty of cruising has always been that not a second is wasted. Savvy travellers get to explore a rich and rewarding variety of exotic, off-the-beaten track locations, but instead of spending half their holiday stuck in motorway traffic, they’re honing their swing in the golf net, or sipping on a cocktail on the upper deck as they travel from destination to destination.

When they’re onshore they want genuinely immersive experiences that get them under the hood of a destination: think cellar tours of local vineyards or speedboat cruises to hidden beaches. Done right, a high-end all-inclusive cruise is the ideal form of slow travel, offering a perfect balance of adventure and indulgence, proper pampering and a thrilling sense of discovery.

The world’s most luxurious fleet

First among equals when it comes to the new era of luxury cruising is Regent Seven Seas Cruises, which offers more than 170 different itineraries visiting over 550 ports of call worldwide. Each of the six ships in their fleet is opulently appointed with beautifully designed communal areas and a huge array of amenities, but none of them has a capacity of more than 746 guests, ensuring space and freedom for all aboard.

The all-suite accommodation means that the private spaces are similarly roomy, each having a private balcony and marble bathroom. And service is always impeccable with a crew-to-guest ratio that’s nearly one-to-one, meaning that the team can always go that mile extra for all travellers.

Across the ships, the food is uniformly excellent. As well as Regent’s signature Compass Rose restaurant, with its daily changing menu of bistro classics like lobster bisque and New Zealand lamb chops, the different ships also feature a range of speciality dining venues. These include Prime 7, a New York-style steakhouse, Pacific Rim with its pan-Asian menu (be sure to try the miso black cod), and fine-dining destination, Chartreuse, where the chefs turn out sophisticated plates of upscale French cooking like Beef Tenderloin Rossini and Seared Foie Gras.

With a number of long cruises on their roster, Regent has made sure that each of its ships is akin to an ultra-luxury, boutique floating hotel with an incredible variety of things to do during the day and top-level entertainment at night. There are courts for paddle tennis and bocce, and the onboard spa offers a range of exclusive bespoke treatments. The ships host talks by experts in their field and cooking lessons are also available on some of the ships at the culinary arts kitchens where visiting chefs guide guests in how to make wow-factor dishes that relate to the ports of call. In the evening, the Constellation Theatre hosts lavishly staged productions from a team of Broadway choreographers and artists.

Destinations that match the onboard luxury

Of course, none of this onboard luxury would mean much if the destinations weren’t up to scratch, but Regent’s superbly curated itineraries are up there with the very best. Its week-long trips include culture-packed European tours like Glories of Iberia which sails from Barcelona to Lisbon, and thrilling frontier explorations such as the Great Alaskan Adventure from Whittier to Vancouver.

Longer trips include four-week Legendary Journeys from Athens to Montreal, and fully immersive explorations of the Arctic. Long or short, these itineraries are all underpinned by a commitment to taking guests right to the heart of a destination with the kind of bespoke onshore activities and expert-led insights that mean on a Regent Seven Seas Cruises voyage, adventure is guaranteed.

Visit Regent Seven Seas Cruises now to uncover the true meaning of luxury and start booking your ultimate stress-free getaway

Funeral director in court after remains recovered from Hull parlour

A funeral director has appeared in court charged with 30 counts of preventing a lawful burial after a police raid recovered remains from his Hull parlour.

Robert Bush, 47, is also accused 30 counts of fraud by false representation relating to bodies, and one count of fraud by false representation in relation to human ashes found at a Legacy Independent Funeral Directors site. The charges date from between April 2023 and March 2024.

Wearing a dark grey three-piece suit with a purple tie and pocket square, Mr Bush spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address during a brief hearing at Hull Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

He was not asked to indicate any pleas as the charges and names of 30 alleged victims, some of whose families attended the hearing via video-link, were read out.

The funeral director was told that 30 of the charges could only be dealt with at crown court.

District Judge Daniel Curtis bailed him with conditions to attend Bridlington Police Station every day from Monday to Friday.

The 30 charges of fraud relating to named victims allege that he made false representations claiming that he would “properly care for the remains of the deceased”, arrange for cremation “immediately or soon after the conclusion of the funeral service” and that “the ashes presented to the customer were the remains of the deceased person after cremation”.

He has also been charged with one count of fraudulent trading over funeral plans sold between May 2012 and March 2024, and one count of theft from 12 charities, including the Salvation Army, Macmillan Cancer Support and the Dogs Trust.

Humberside Police launched an investigation into the funeral director’s three premises last March after the force received reports of “concern for the care of the deceased”.

A number of bodies were recovered from the firm’s Hessle Road site in Hull.

Following a 10-month investigation, they announced in April that Mr Bush had been charged. He faces a total of 63 alleged offences.

Mr Bush, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, but now of Otley, West Yorkshire, is due to appear at Hull Crown Court on 13 August.

ITV workplace sitcom Transaction boldly breaks away from trans tropes

As the most frivolous TV format, sitcoms often have a unique license to explore the most serious matters. How they use that opportunity is up for grabs, but the levity of the quickfire comedy form allows for a surprising amount of light and shade. Consider, for example, the evolution of UK race relations as expressed in the gap between the attitudes and perspectives seen in Love Thy Neighbour (1972) and Desmond’s (1989). In the 17 years between these two shows, Britain changed, the TV commissioning process changed – and notions of representation changed along with them.

Transaction has been at least five years in the making, and even in that time, its context has become much more contested. A version of the show first saw the light of day in 2020 as a series of five-minute shorts on Comedy Central. Its creator, Jordan Gray, (a transgender woman), has now expanded the idea into a six-part sitcom for ITV, and credit is due to the broadcaster for what shouldn’t be a brave move but, in the current cultural and political climate, somehow is. Placing a trans character at the heart of their own sitcom – and indeed, placing their gender identity at the heart of the comedy – feels admirably bold and gutsy.

Of course, for a sitcom to even get a hearing, it has to be funny. Transaction is a workplace comedy and as such, sinks comfortably into a familiar set of tropes. There’s a highly strung, amiable but essentially useless boss (Nick Frost’s Simon); a handful of employees who range from eye-rollingly apathetic (Kayla Meikle’s Linda) to absurdly eager (Francesca Mills’s Millie); and a setting (fictional supermarket Pellocks) that feels like a closed loop. Inescapability is a huge part of any sitcom. It’s important that at the end of every episode, everyone ends up back more or less exactly where they started. At Pellocks, our heroes are stacking shelves, mopping floors, and working the night shift. They never even see any customers. The repetition is endless; the isolation is total.

However, Simon has made a blunder. He’s launched an accidentally transphobic advertising campaign and provoked a minor firestorm with trans rights demonstrators occupying the streets outside his shop. When he remembers that employee Tom (Thomas Gray) has a trans housemate Olivia (Jordan Gray), a solution occurs to him: could Olivia be persuaded to come work at Pellocks as a Get Out Of Jail Free card for clumsy Simon? “We want you to be as loud and as proud as you like,” he assures her.

Be careful what you wish for: the key to Transaction is Olivia’s character. For the most part, Gray plays her as a manipulative, narcissistic, and snarky nightmare – although, as we get to know Olivia better, it’s easy to see this hard external shell is brittle, too, and a response to certain life experiences. Her total lack of interest in taking the job quickly translates to a total lack of interest in doing the job. Olivia immediately realises that she is essentially unsackable – one word from her and Simon’s reputation as a monstrous bigot is set in stone.

And so, Olivia finds herself granted carte blanche to torment her workmates. She deliberately smashes jars to see if they will clean up her mess. She even tries to get one of them sacked. Speaking to Gay Star News, Gray explained her desire to write Olivia as “a regular tit-for-brains, not some tragic hero”, adding that she was bored of seeing trans people “represented as either poor suffering saints or hypersexualised villains”. In Olivia, she has certainly managed that – the character is as far from saintly as you can imagine, and all the more relatable for it.

Instead of preachy polemics, the worthiness and piety surrounding trans issues are treated as comedy fuel. Jokes about “having some extra meat to get rid of”, which conflate gender reassignment surgery with a surplus at the delicatessen counter, somehow give old tropes a pointed new twist – the comedy is refreshed by the situation. When Millie guilelessly enthuses about the Harry Potter books (does this in itself count as a micro-aggression these days?) Olivia’s thought bubble isn’t even filled in – although, in the context of his part in the new Harry Potter HBO series, the presence of Nick Frost in Transaction feels notable.

Transaction isn’t perfect. Plenty about it feels generic, and certain characters are underwritten. But sometimes, a show fits a particular moment – and often, that show is a sitcom. Transaction takes the increasingly grim persecution of a sexual minority and turns it into comedic fodder. Recent political and legal events have resulted in a trans community whose very existence is now contested. So, if Olivia takes both transphobic prejudice and liberal sanctimony and uses them equally to her advantage, who can really blame her?