The death of the 11-year-old, named only as Lyhanna, has pushed the issue of male violence against girls to the top of the agenda

A lawyer for the family of an 11-year-old girl whose disappearance and murder sparked protests across France has called for more funding for the struggling justice system, amid a political row over the French state’s failure to tackle sexual violence against children.

“Frankly, if the justice system had more resources, this tragedy and all the others wouldn’t have happened,” said the family’s lawyer, François Roujou de Boubée, on Tuesday. “The victim’s family and I trust in the justice system. So enough is enough.”

Father and mother of Annabel Rook praised her dedication to helping others and want to focus on her legacy

A retired Old Bailey judge has paid tribute to his daughter after her killer was jailed for life.

Today at Snaresbrook crown court, Clifton George, 45, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the murder of Annabel Rook, 46, whom he stabbed in the living room of her own home in Stoke Newington, north London.

A Lithuanian court has convicted a man who ran a cyclist off the road and attacked him for wearing a shirt with Ukrainian symbols, according to LRT. Judges treated his hatred of people who support Ukraine as an aggravating circumstance. The verdict is now final, and the court found the assault was deliberate, not an accident.

The roadside attack

On the evening of 27 March 2025, the man drove up to the cyclist on a road in Lithuania's Širvintos district. He repeatedly ordered the cyclist to take off the shirt bearing Ukrainian symbols. When the cyclist refused, the driver passed him, then swung the front of his car toward the roadside and blocked his path. The cyclist braked hard and fell with his bicycle. He suffered injuries, and the bicycle was damaged.

When the cyclist got back up, the man ran over to him. He again demanded that the cyclist remove the shirt, grabbed it, and tried to pull it off. The cyclist reached for his phone to call for help. The man struck him and knocked the phone onto the asphalt, breaking it, the court found.

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A hate motive, the court ruled

The Vilnius Regional District Court found the 1987-born man guilty of damaging another's property and causing minor bodily harm. Evidence from the investigation showed the violence was not random, the court said. It stemmed from the man's hatred of the victim as someone publicly backing Ukraine against Russia's invasion. The court treated that motive, hostility toward a group for supporting Ukraine, as an aggravating circumstance.

The court handed the man a non-custodial penalty of one year and three months' restriction of liberty. During that time, he must work or register as a jobseeker. He must also complete a program aimed at changing violent behavior. On top of that, he owes the victim for material and non-material harm, and he must repay Lithuania's State Patient Fund for the cost of treating the injuries.

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A Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office prosecutor, Edvinas Navickas, led the pre-trial investigation and the prosecution. Vilnius County police officers gathered the evidence. The court issued its verdict on 12 May, and it has since taken effect, the prosecutor's office reported. Lithuania, a NATO member bordering Russia, has been one of Ukraine's strongest backers since 2022, sending weapons and welcoming Ukrainian refugees.

Lithuania has prosecuted this hatred before, convicting a man who smashed a displaced family's car.

Ukrainian refugees

Millions of Ukrainians live outside their country because Russia's invasion made home unsafe. Some 5.9 million are abroad as of 2026. Most settle in the European Union, where Poland and Germany host the largest communities. That visibility and open support for Ukraine sometimes draw hostility. Other reported attacks on Ukrainians abroad don't have a clear anti-Ukrainian motive. 

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In Poland, isolated cases include a Ukrainian beaten over his accent and a woman detained for telling two Ukrainian women to go back to Ukraine, while a separate knife attack on a Ukrainian selling his car in Wrocław has not been tied to nationality.

In Germany, an attacker killed a teenage athlete, a man went after children for speaking Ukrainian, and others assaulted teenagers while chanting pro-Russian slogans; one Berlin assault and a Murnau double killing both pointed to anti-Ukrainian motives, and a Russian was jailed for life over the latter. 

The violence is not confined to those two countries: other attacks on Ukrainians have occurred in other places. Earlier, a Ukrainian was stabbed to death in Ireland in an attack police have not linked to his nationality, and a Ukrainian woman was murdered in the United States by a man who cited a delusional reason.

Measures being considered to crack down on practice that has grown as a result of Britain’s housing crisis

London councils could be banned from “dumping” homeless families hundreds of miles across England under measures being considered by ministers, the Guardian has learned.

MPs said vulnerable people, including women fleeing abuse, were being “coerced” into choosing between rough sleeping or moving to cheap, sparsely furnished properties in some of the poorest parts of the country.