‘Sadistic’ nursery worker who carried out ‘relentless’ abuse of 21 babies jailed

A 22-year-old nursery worker who carried out a “sustained and relentless” campaign of abuse against 21 children has been jailed for eight years for her harrowing crimes.

Families of the children abused by Roksana Lecka recalled the “horrifying” moment they watched CCTV of the assaults, which had left them covered in bruises and scratches.

This had included kicking a little boy four times in the face and toppling children head-first into their cots while working at two nurseries in southwest London.

Her “sadistic” crimes were discovered in June last year after she was caught pinching a number of children at Twickenham Green Montessori, part of the Riverside Nursery group, in Twickenham.

Becoming tearful, one mother told Lecka’s sentencing hearing: “The early days of the trial were the worst two days of my life. Watching how relentless Roksana was in picking out a child and assaulting them again and again was horrifying.”

Sentencing her, Judge Sarah Plaschkes KC said: “At that age, children are vulnerable because they cannot understand, let alone tell anyone of their suffering. Their parents and your employers trusted you to look after each precious and much-loved child. You violated that trust.

“You committed multiple acts of gratuitous violence. You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots, you caused bruising and lingering red marks. When you committed these acts of cruelties, you would look at other members of staff.

She added: “Time after time, you calmly watched the pain and suffering you had caused. Your criminal conduct can be properly characterised as sadistic.”

Before the discovery of her crimes, the mother had taken a photo of a bruise on her son’s ear, which she said would have left him “screaming” in pain, and told how the trauma of the case had caused her to move out of the area.

She added: “I cannot get over how an adult could have done that to a child. My biggest worry is that my son will think that’s something adults do to children.

“It will live with me forever knowing that my son and 20 other children had to go through this.”

Looking directly at Lecka as she spoke, another mother said: “These children were so innocent and vulnerable. They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents to let them know something had happened to them. They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”

Other parents said they had been left feeling “mistrustful” of leaving their children, and some found their toddlers had been left with sleeping issues and separation anxiety.

Several described feeling guilty that they had sent their children to the nursery, and that it had left them “questioning our parenting”.

Lecka, from Hounslow, previously admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted of another 14 counts by a jury at Kingston Crown Court.

After being caught pinching the children in her care, detectives from the Metropolitan Police trawled through CCTV from the nursery to discover she had repeatedly abused children under their clothes on their arms, legs and stomachs.

She pinched several children dozens of times over the course of one day, causing them to cry and flinch away from her.

In one incident, she kicked a little boy in the face several times. She was also seen covering a toddler’s mouth when he started to cry, putting her weight on a child’s back, smacking them and dragging children towards her as they attempted to pull away.

She had abused children at two nurseries between October 2023 and June 2024 – one of the counts related to Little Munchkins in Hounslow, with the remainder linked to Twickenham Green Montessori, which has since closed.

Lecka told police she smoked cannabis before her shifts, and at one point was seen vaping a metre away from a young baby.

She was employed and worked at Twickenham Green Montessori between January and June 2024, with a number of parents reporting unusual injuries and bruising in March and May that year.

Other parents accused Lecka of showing “no remorse” throughout the trial, and said her showing up to work after smoking cannabis and vaping showed a “total disregard” for the children in her care.

Taking the witness stand, one mother said: “Her defence at the trial left me speechless. Her excuses were selfish; I found she was only interested in serving herself and had a complete lack of accountability.

“Her personal life left me gobsmacked, how little she cared for the job she was in.”

Describing her as an “absolute danger” to children, one father told the court: “She has shown no remorse throughout this process and the fact she doesn’t accept she has done anything wrong is a clear indication she is a danger to society.”

Several spoke of the financial impact of childcare costs after Twickenham Green Montessori closed, and said they had been forced to take time off work due to the stress of the case.

“As parents, we live with guilt. We know it’s not our fault, but we still feel it, because we were not there to protect him,” the family of one little boy said. “This crime has changed the way we view the world and how we parent.

“We will carry the weight of what was done to him for the rest of his life.”

The court heard that Lecka had been attacked twice in prison and had been placed in a vulnerable prison wing.

Referring to Lecka’s lack of apology to the court, the judge said: “That apology rang hollow. It was an attempt to disassociate and minimise your actions. The footage demonstrates you knew what you were doing, your actions were deliberate and calculated.”

Describing her actions towards one child as “the most egregious acts of cruelty”, the judge said that Lecka should never be allowed to work with children and vulnerable people again.

Nato scrambles more planes in Europe after Russian bomber intercepted by Alaska

Nato countriesscrambled more fighter jets after Russian planes neared Latvian airspace, the latest in a string of apparent provocations by Moscow.

Hungarian fighter jets intercepted a five-aircraft Russian flight over the Baltic Sea near the Latvian coast on Thursday, the Nato Allied Air Command said on Facebook.

The jets were “flying close to Nato airspace, not complying with international flight safety regulations,” the command said. They did not say that Nato airspace had been encroached.

Hungarian Gripen fighters returned safely to their base in Šiauliai, Lithuania, after the interception.

It came as US and Canada scrambled fighter jets to identify and intercept four Russian military planes off Alaska last night as concern grows over Moscow’s incursions repeated into Nato airspace.

Donald Trump did not comment on Thursday’s incident in a press conference but lashed out at Vladimir Putin for “killing people for no reason whatsoever”.

Nato chief Mark Rutte echoed calls by Trump to shoot down Russian fighter jets if they enter Nato airspace, adding: “Our military have trained and prepared for this. We know how to do this.”

Menzies Campbell: the ‘Flying Scotsman’ who led the Liberal Democrats from the front

Menzies Campbell was a finely tailored politician who dressed like a Tory grandee, had a certain affinity with the social democratic wing of the Labour Party, but always described himself as both a proud Liberal and a proud Scot. And so he was.

Despite knowing and being surrounded by equally talented Scottish Labour figures who’d made easier careers for themselves in what was the naturally dominant political force north of the border – notably John Smith, who rose to the party leadership – Campbell paid a certain price for his loyalty to Liberal values. He only became an MP at the comparatively mature age of 46, rose to the party leadership when he was, at 65, past his prime, and never held office.

By the time the Liberal Democrats tasted national power in the Cameron–Clegg coalition government of 2010, he might have had the opportunity to serve in some role, but in any case, he sat it out. He could not be blamed for the Lib Dems’ nuclear winter that followed the 2015 general election. At that point, it was curtains for the lot of them.

As is routine for an ex-party leader, Campbell took a peerage and stepped back from public life. But he had been in the thick of politics for decades. He was extremely close to Paddy Ashdown during his leadership in the 1990s, and had an attempt to pull Labour and the Liberal Democrats closer together in what was then termed “The Project”, succeeded he would easily have joined the Blair cabinet. It was not to be.

He was respected, but not necessarily viewed with great affection by his parliamentary colleagues or the wider party, and when Ashdown retired from the leadership in 1999, Campbell declined to run in the contest to succeed him. He was not prepared for the pleasantries – or unpleasantries – of a fight.

As the otherwise successful leadership of Charles Kennedy, who easily won, foundered on alcoholism, Campbell made himself available. Sadly, after only some 19 months in office, he himself fell victim to a palace coup, led by Nick Clegg in October 2007.

How different things might have been had Campbell been choosing between keeping Gordon Brown in No 10 rather than facilitating George Osborne’s regime of illiberal austerity, we shall never know. It was in fact a Tory backbencher who really did it for Campbell – by then looking older than his years – by shouting “declare your interest!” as the Lib Dem leader stumbled over a question to Blair about the future of the state pension. Whatever else his leadership might eventually have accomplished, it was the beginning of the end.

Campbell had long been a stentorian voice as the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson and a regular on the serious news shows, but the rave reviews he received from the press did not sustain him once he took on the mantle of leadership. His critics said he’d begun to believe his own propaganda.

It was, strange to say, to some degree a life of enormous promise never quite fulfilled. In the Commons he had enjoyed a quiet but continuously rising reputation. Known quickly for pleasant competence, he came to be seen across the Steel, Ashdown and Kennedy eras as the supremely reliable man – indeed, as someone who might have led the party at least as well.

Born in 1941, another Glaswegian talent, Walter Menzies Campbell, though a product of Hillhead High rather than the Smith/Irvine/Dewar route of Glasgow Academy, attended, like them, that city’s great university before proceeding to Stanford. A Liberal from university days, despite the ILP/Labour background of his family, he made reputations outside politics – first in athletics, then law.

A 220-yards runner, he took part in the 1964 Olympics and the 1966 Commonwealth Games, captained the UK athletics team in 1965 and 1966, and held the British 100 metres record from 1967 to 1974. Called to the Scottish bar in 1968, he became advocate-depute in 1977 and took silk in 1982. He would later hold a good clutch of tribunal appointments.

The politics in this earlier life was a kind of quiet adornment to a name made elsewhere. “Ming”, as Campbell was always called, was chair of the Scottish Liberal Party from 1975 to 1977, fought Greenock and Port Glasgow in 1974, East Fife in 1979 and again in 1983, slowly treading down the Tory heels of Barry Henderson, and, supported by some targeting, finally defeated him by 1,477 votes in 1987.

He would thereafter hold the seat in North East Fife despite minimal boundary changes – a combination of St Andrews, Cupar, the legendary Auchtermuchty, and a more than usually struggling Division Three football club.

Campbell counted in his party at once. For most of the 1980s, the old Liberal Party writhed in the griefs of mutation: should it, or should it not, throw in its hand with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – nice Shirley Williams, glamorously sinister Dr David Owen and other travelling people fled from that unimaginable thing, a dangerously left-wing Labour Party?

Sentimental attachments to an ancient party – small but perfectly authentic – and a preference for being Liberals rather than winning power had no appeal for Campbell. To that extent at least, he might be termed a careerist. Pragmatic in the creditable sense, he argued with his habitual lucidity for the link and subsequent union between Social Democrats and Liberals to create the Liberal Democrats in 1988.

But beyond this, he was plunged at once into furious contention when the Liberals, who always had a unilateralist vein, boiled unpragmatically over at the 1986 Conference into affirmation of the non-nuclear road.

That issue has long been important in Labour and Liberal debate, but served more as a prospective handle for Tory scare propaganda than for any real utility in Britain, the missile-owning democracy. Given that rejection of the campaign for nuclear disarmament for was, with Europeanism, a key part of what the SDP was about, a burst of seaside moral sensibility could not have come at a worse time.

Campbell, like most mainstreamers, saw the move as a political calamity made possible by David Steel’s weary inertia. When policy was reversed at the next year’s conference, it was Campbell who positively strode to the rostrum (a firm recollection of the present writer) to deliver the hard line on defence, upon which, by a four-to-one majority, the Liberals would unite, opening the way for fusion with the SDP.

His impact was measured by his official shadow portfolio, which had initially been Sport, and now quickly, by 1988, embraced Defence. In 1994 it became Defence and Foreign Affairs; and after 1997, he was designated chief spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Europe.

Campbell’s stand on nuclear defence put him into the right-wing pro-US camp. But the measure of his good sense was that in different circumstances, he showed no uncritical attachment to a US government getting things wrong.

Greatly to his lasting credit, Campbell would function across the spring and summer of 2003 as the most effective critic – Robin Cook apart – of Britain’s unhappy adhesion to the Iraq adventure led by George W Bush and Tony Blair. The same lucidity that had derided peace therapy in 1986 was turned bitingly on Blair.

The supporter of Nato was unimpressed by Britain’s role as a matching accessory.

Part of Campbell’s strength was that he was a specialist: foreign affairs and defence absorbed his attention, and he spoke on them with expert knowledge. On the other hand, his early sympathy for amalgamation with the SDP was echoed with a rare lapse of judgment in his rather lonely support across 1998 for Ashdown’s ill-conceived attempt at association – coalition-in-office and/or possible union – with shining-bright New Labour.

This owed little to naivety about the nature of Blairism than to personal loyalty as Ashdown’s senior parliamentary lieutenant – and perhaps to earlier Glaswegian associations with Smith and particularly Donald Dewar, a dear friend, whose sudden death in 2000 was a big loss to progressive politics at all levels.

Despite opposition to the Iraq War, Campbell was always an Atlanticist, looking to a return to a better United States than the one represented by neo-conservatives and George W Bush. He never quite shared the dedicated Europeanism of most Lib Dems and took seriously anxieties about the proposed European Constitution – and he favoured a referendum on it.

His marriage to Elspeth Urquhart was important beyond its domestic success. Elspeth proved a seriously dedicated PA and party headquarters worker in Edinburgh, though adoption by the rather grand circle of friends of a Major-General’s daughter (her father was famously at Arnhem) may have tilted Campbell further away from the sort of rough populism which would make Charles Kennedy so attractive a candidate.

A divorcée with a son, she and Campbell married in 1970 and enjoyed a long marriage that ended with her death aged 83 in June 2023. Many considered her the driving force in his life.

Campbell’s stature was greatly enhanced throughout the party by his unflinching courage in the face of cancer and the horrors of chemotherapy in 2002. He immediately went public on all the facts and appeared on television, gaunt and desperate-looking, his hair gone from treatment.

Recovery from the disease had barely been accomplished when the Iraq crisis presented him with a parliamentary challenge generally thought to have been met brilliantly. It was his finest hour.

Walter Menzies Campbell, politician, born 22 May 1941, died 26 September 2025

Terror charge against Kneecap band member thrown out by court

The terrorism case against Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been thrown out following a technical error in the way the charge against him was brought.

The 27-year-old Belfast musician, who performs as Mo Chara, was charged in May under the name Liam O’Hanna for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation, at a gig in London’s Kentish Town in November 2024.

He denied the offence, labelling it “political policing” and a “carnival of distraction” from the war in Gaza, which Kneecap have been vocal about opposing.

“We are not the story, genocide is,” a statement posted by the group on social media said.

In August, Mr Ó hAnnaidh’s lawyer, Brenda Campbell KC, told a court that the attorney Ggneral had not given permission for the case to be brought against the defendant when police informed him he was to face a terror charge on 21 May.

She said consent was given the following day, which meant the charge fell outside the six-month timeframe in which criminal charges against a defendant can be brought.

At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring agreed with Ms Campbell.

In his judgment, Mr Goldspring said: “These proceedings were instituted unlawfully and are null.”

Concluding the reasons for his decision, he said: “I find that these proceedings were not instituted in the correct form, lacking the necessary DPP (director of public prosecutions) and AG (attorney general) consent within the six-month statutory time limit.

“The time limit requires consent to have been granted at the time or before the issue of the requisition.

“Consequently the charge is unlawful and null and this court has no jurisdiction to try the charge.”

Prosecutor Michael Bisgrove previously told a court that permission from the DPP and AG was not required until the defendant’s first court appearance and that permission did not need to be sought in order to bring a criminal charge.

The chief magistrate dismissed the arguments, telling the court they “defy logic”.

Outside court, Ó hAnnaidh said the terrorism case “was always about Gaza”.

“It was never about any threat to the public, it was never about terrorism – a word used by your government to discredit people you oppress.

“It was always about Gaza, about what happens if you dare to speak up.”

Northern Ireland’s first minister Michelle O’Neill welcomed the development.

“These charges were part of a calculated attempt to silence those who stand up and speak out against the Israeli genocide in Gaza,” she wrote on X.

“Kneecap have used their platform on stages across the world to expose this genocide, and it is the responsibility of all of us to continue speaking out and standing against injustice in Palestine.”

Meanwhile, Kneecap’s manager Daniel Lambert wrote on X: “We have won!!!!!!

“Liam Og is a free man. We said we would fight them and win. We did (Twice). Kneecap has NO charges OR convictions in ANY country, EVER.

“Political policing has failed. Kneecap is on the right side of history. Britain is not. Free Palestine.”

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was “reviewing the decision of the court carefully”.

It pointed out that the decision could be appealed against.

Drugmakers could soon offer ‘£20-a-month’ Ozempic-style weight-loss jabs

Weight-loss jabs could be sold for as little as £20 a month as more drugmakers may soon be free to produce cut-price alternatives to the medications, a trade body has suggested.

Firm Novo Nordisk’s global patent is set to expire in parts of the world from early 2026, allowing cut-price “generic” versions of Wegovy and Ozempic to be sold by other companies, according to reports.

The popularity of weight-loss jabs has soared in the past year as they are used in efforts to tackle obesity, with around 1.5 million people, 4 per cent of households, currently using them in the UK.

Some of the jabs cannot be prescribed for weight loss on the NHS, while others can be – but there are strict eligibility criteria. Therefore, estimates suggest that about 90 per cent of people on the medication pay for them privately online and via high street pharmacies.

Consequently, Britons can end up forking out hundreds of pounds for the drugs. At Boots online pharmacy, for example, the current monthly cost for Wegovy’s lowest dosage of 0.25mg a week is £125.10, rising to £206.00 for the highest dosage of 2.4mg.

But from early 2026 in India, Canada, China, Brazil and Turkey, and from 2031 in the UK, Novo Nordisk’s patent will expire, allowing other companies to produce their own “generic” versions, according to Medicines UK, which represents manufacturers.

And concerns have been raised that Britons might end up buying cut-price imports online before 2031, fuelling an unregulated market.

Medicines UK, which represents makers of generic medications, said generic medicines usually cost 70 to 90 per cent less than branded versions, yet contain the same active ingredients – which, in the case of both Wegovy and Ozempic, is the appetite-suppressant semaglutide – and treat patients in the same way.

Robert Russell-Pavier, director of policy and economics at Medicines UK, told the Daily Mail: “We advise against purchasing from overseas pharmacies, or travelling abroad to buy cut-price jabs. Whether prescribed and taken in the UK or elsewhere, access to semaglutide should be through a prescription. Those taking the treatment should be regularly checking in with the doctor or other healthcare professionals that prescribed it.

“However, the advent of generics will create competition, and it’s likely we’ll see a significant reduction in prices here too.”

David Wallace, senior analyst at pharmaceutical firm Citeline, said he expects semaglutide competition “to be very healthy”.

He added: “Since generic medicinal products contain well-known, safe and effective substances, the pre-clinical tests and clinical trials performed by the originator are not repeated, which is why they are cheaper.”

A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told The Independent: “All intellectual property decisions are carefully considered at a global level. Periods of exclusivity for pharmaceutical products end as part of their normal lifecycle and generic treatments may become available over time.

“Currently, no Health Canada-approved generic versions of semaglutide exist and we cannot speculate on other manufacturers’ plans. Novo Nordisk is the only company in Canada with Health Canada-approved products containing semaglutide.

“Novo Nordisk Canada is well equipped to navigate the evolving market landscape that accompanies loss of exclusivity for semaglutide. The company remains committed to supporting both healthcare professionals and patients by facilitating informed choices and continuing to address the considerable unmet needs of individuals living with type 2 diabetes and obesity.”

They described the comments made by Medicines UK as “speculative” and “made by individuals representing the generic medicines industry, who have no direct knowledge or influence over the pricing of our medicines”.

They added: “We have previously confirmed that we currently have no plans of changing our offering in the UK. Our focus is on supporting patients, and we are committed to securing the broadest possible access for patients to our innovative medicines.”

E.ON Next/Independent EV Index: Prices down 7.7 per cent

Electric car prices are dropping fast, according to the first publication of the E.ON Next/The Independent EV Price Index.

The energy giant and media company have combined to produce the UK’s first-ever electric car price index that measures real-world prices (including available discounts) on every EV on sale in the UK.

The first E.ON Next/The Independent EV Price Index has revealed that over the past twelve months the median price of an EV has fallen by 7.7 per cent, a figure of £3,750.

Month-on-month, there’s been a sizeable drop of £1,228 or 2.7 per cent, thanks to the introduction of the government’s electric car grant and the additional discounts car makers introduced while waiting for the grant to be implemented.

The biggest year-on-year drop has been in the competitive small electric SUV segment – including cars like the Citroen e-C4, Mercedes EQA, Peugeot 2008 and BMW iX1 – where a drop of £5,827 or 13 per cent has been seen. Larger medium-sized electric SUVs – like the Audi Q4 e-Tron, Ford Explorer, Nissan Ariya and Skoda Enyaq – show a similarly-large year-on-year drop of £4,666 or 9.8 per cent.

The data for the E.ON Next/The Independent EV Price Index has been compiled by auto industry market insight and pricing data specialists Insider Car Deals. The prices quoted are median prices sourced from Insider Car Deal’s mystery shopping and market research analysis and are based on real-world discounts offered, including any incentives given as part of finance packages.

As well as analysing prices, the E.ON Next/The Independent EV Price Index has also revealed an increase of 25 per cent in the number of electric cars available in the UK over the past year. At the time of research there were 111 electric vehicle models available in the UK, with that number increasing all the time.

When various trim levels and different battery options are taken into account across all available models, there is a choice of 1,029 different electric car choices for UK car buyers – up 32 per cent year-on-year.

The research has also shown that median PCP (Personal Contract Purchase) monthly payments for electric cars have dropped by £55 a month, or 10.8 per cent compared with a year ago. Again, the biggest drop is in the small electric SUV segment, were median monthly payments are down £76 or 16.6 per cent per month.

The quoted PCP terms are based on discounted transaction prices, manufacturer’s APR and GFV and standardised at four years, 8,000-10,000 miles per year and a 15 per cent customer deposit (plus any manufacturer deposit contribution). Where a manufacturer imposes a maximum term of 42 or 36 months, that shorter term is used instead.

One standout deal uncovered by the E.ON Next/The Independent EV Price Index research was for a Vauxhall Mokka 115kW Ultimate 54kWh, with total discount and finance savings of 36.4 per cent (£13,524). That brings the price down to just £24,580, or a possible £292 a month on Vauxhall’s PCP finance plan.

The research also highlighted the difference in average PCP APR finance rates available on electric cars versus hybrid and internal combustion engine (ICE) models. Buyers of EVs will, on average, benefit from PCP APRs that are 3.1 per cent lower than they are for ICE models and 2.2 per cent for hybrids. The average PCP APR for an electric car currently sits at 3.5 per cent.

At the time of research, nine car makers were offering zero per cent finance – the same number as this time last year, although the brands have changed. The scale of finance deposit contributions on electric vehicles has also been revealed with the highest seen being £7,750.

Child abuse victims not supported enough, warns government tsar

A “lack of momentum” from the government is leaving “tens of thousands” of child victims without the support they need to recover from domestic abuse, a top advocate has warned.

The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Nicole Jacobs, criticised the government for delaying the publication of its Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy, saying victims “cannot wait any longer” for clear plans to tackle domestic abuse.

She added she could not see how, at the current pace, it would meet its “ambitious” target of halving violence against women and girls within a decade, with “no major funding” announced for specialist domestic abuse services.

A government spokesperson said it was working to “finalise the strategy”, adding it has invested £13.1m in a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection, which launched in April.

Dame Jacobs’s statement comes after the government said it was acting on just 10 of 66 recommendations laid out in her report, published earlier this year, which laid out changes needed to strengthen the support given to children in situations involving domestic abuse.

These included ensuring schools, the NHS and other services such as police forces and social care are better equipped to help address domestic abuse through resourcing, training and funding.

She added that while some of the remaining 56 recommendations have been accepted partially, the majority had been flagged by the government as either needing to “explore” or “consult” on whether this work is required, or had been “dismissed outright”.

In a statement, Dame Jacobs said: “Tens of thousands of child victims are currently not getting the level of help and support they need to recover from abuse, and I remain largely unclear on what the government intends to do about it.

“For children experiencing domestic abuse, every day can be an anxious battle. Many are growing up in homes where the rules are always changing, where they struggle to concentrate at school and often do not know what devastating consequences the next day will bring.

“These children are our future – they need and deserve an ambitious plan from government on how it is going to ensure they are protected, but also how it intends to prevent other children from growing up in homes like theirs. But this has yet to materialise.

“Halving violence against women and girls within a decade is an ambitious target and one I applaud. But with the VAWG strategy still delayed and no major funding announced for specialist domestic abuse services, I fail to see where the momentum within government is coming from to ensure this commitment succeeds.

“It’s vital that the government clearly sets out how it intends to tackle and prevent domestic abuse as a matter of urgency. It should not need to be said that adult and child victims cannot wait any longer.”

Last year, then home secretary Yvette Cooper admitted the target of slashing violence against women and girls would be challenging. “Let’s be honest, it’s an ambition that I’m not aware any country has set before,” she told a conference in Westminster.

“It’s very ambitious to say we are going to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

“We’re working at the moment to work out how you measure overall violence against women and girls, how you look at domestic abuse, how you look at stalking, how you look at sexual offences, so that we can have that measure and so that we can see across the country what progress is being made.”

A government spokesperson told The Independent: “This government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

“We will deliver a first-of-its-kind, cross-government strategy, which will set out concrete action to pursue perpetrators, support victims and prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.

“We are currently finalising the strategy, working across government, ahead of publication soon.”

Trump seen wagging finger at Melania aboard Marine One

Donald and Melania Trump were caught having a frank discussion on board Marine One as they arrived back at the White House following the US president’s controversial address at the United Nations General Assembly.

Video shows Trump, 79, waving his finger at Melania, 55, who can be seen shaking her head at him.

At another point in the footage, the first lady was seen leaning forward, appearing serious as she stared at her husband.

Eventually, the couple disembarked from the aircraft, which was returning to Washington, D.C. While leaving the helicopter, the pair held hands, with Trump glancing at the ground before offering a slight wave to reporters.

Trump has claimed that he and his wife were the victims of “triple sabotage” while in New York after an escalator broke down.

“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday – Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” he wrote on Truth Social, referencing a broken teleprompter and an escalator that stalled.

The president said that it is “amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first.”

He has since called for U.N. staff to be fired or “arrested” over the incident, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed that it was deliberately switched off.

Trump is also reportedly furious that the sound was switched off during speeches made at the United Nations, a practice that a U.N. official says has existed for “decades.”

The practice is designed to make it easier for speeches to be translated and transmitted to guests’ earpieces.

The video of Trump and Melania’s post-U.N. clash comes just months after a clip of French president Emmanuel Macron being pushed in the face by his wife, Brigitte, went viral.

At the time, Trump offered his French counterpart some advice.

“Make sure the door remains closed.

“That was not good,” he told reporters.

Later, Trump claimed to have spoken with Macron and said that the couple were “fine” and “really good people.”

Macron told reporters that the couple were “joking around, as we do quite often” with an Elysée source telling Le Parisien that the couple were “decompressing” and “larking about.”

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.