A driver who killed a man and mowed down four others in a drink-fuelled rampage in London’s West End in the early hours of Christmas Day has been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 37 years.

Anthony Gilheaney, 32, was convicted in December for murder, attempted murder, wounding with intent and causing grievous bodily harm, following a trial.

The Old Bailey heard how Gilheaney deliberately drove his high-powered Mercedes into a gay couple, a pair of friends and another man on Shaftesbury Avenue, following an evening of drinking and fighting.

One of the men, Aidan Chapman, 25, was thrown into the air by the car and died in hospital of catastrophic head injuries on New Year’s Eve.

Gilheaney, from Harlow, Essex, was cleared of attempting to murder a third man but was convicted of the alternative charge of causing him grievous bodily harm with intent.

The jury heard that after leaving a nightclub, he racially abused and knocked down Arif Khan before getting out to physically attack him.

After being attacked by a group of men who stepped in, Gilheaney got in his car and began mounting pavements, driving first at Marcelo Basbus-Garcia and his partner Miguel Waihrich.

Then, after narrowly missing a couple with their child in a pushchair he then drove across the street and hit Chapman and his friend, Tyrone Itorho – his trial was told.

Gilheaney was finally arrested in Lincoln’s Inn Fields near Covent Garden after a police pursuit which recorded his car at speeds of over 90 mph.

The prosecution alleged he targeted people for racist and homophobic reasons.

Prosecuting, Crispin Aylett KC read out Victim Impact Statements from Mr Chapman’s family, including one from his father Darren who told the court that work was his only respite from grief.

“I am left doubting my own prowess as a parent – that is what Anthony Gilheaney has done – he is a monster, he has shown no remorse, just narcissistic self-pity.

“By pleading not guilty he put us through weeks of trauma at court.”

Dressed in a blue suit and a white shirt, Gilheaney bowed his head and at times appeared to be weeping as Chapman’s statement continued: “My son loved life and would not harm anyone, loved his family and his little boy, loved his music and his friends, and his body art.

“He just lived his life – so kind, so considerate, my only child, a dad himself. His six-year-old son has been left with no father.”

Aylett went on to detail Gilheaney’s extensive criminal record which began when he was 14.

Mitigating, James Scobie KC said his client had been brought up with very little education and had lived “a pretty feral existence from a young age in which fast cars were very much his life”.

He added: “In my dealings with him he has shown genuine remorse for the carnage he has caused.”

Gilheaney previously told a jury he was not in control of the vehicle after he had been attacked by a group of men earlier that night, and that he did not intend to hurt anyone.

The court heard that Gilheaney has never had a driving licence and was not insured to drive a car.

Handing him a minimum term of 36 years and 343 days, Judge Maura McGowan admitted that nothing could cure the damage and pain caused by Aidan Chapman’s murder, but “his loss was at the centre of these proceedings”.

As he was being led down to the cells Gilheaney shouted at the judge: “I didn’t mean to kill an innocent man.”

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A man has been convicted of blowing up an ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) camera in south-east London.

Kevin Rees, 63, was arrested by counter-terror police after what has been described as a low-sophistication improvised explosive device (IED) damaged the camera in Willersley Avenue, Sidcup, in December 2023.

Rees used a homemade bomb, a metal cylinder filled with explosive powder, to cause the explosion, which also damaged cars and property up to 100m (328ft) away, including a child’s bedroom.

He denied one count of causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property and three counts of possessing prohibited weapons. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Det Supt James Derham said it was “remarkable” the explosion triggered by Rees did not result in people being seriously injured or even killed.

He said Rees had put the public at significant risk out of anger over the Ulez scheme.

“He showed a complete disregard for the welfare and safety of the people who live in or were travelling through the area at the time of the explosion, all because he was unhappy with the Ulez scheme,” Derham added.

A jury at Woolwich Crown Court heard how Rees drove from his Sidcup home to Shuttle Close on 6 December 2023, where he planted and ignited an explosive device beneath a newly installed Ulez camera.

Rees, of Harcourt Avenue, was seen by a witness walking quickly away from the scene.

The explosion damaged a van opposite and blew out the tyre of a car as well as damaging a wall, front porch, shed and a Wendy house.

Shrapnel also shot through a passing car into a passenger seat, while another piece of metal damaged the window frame of a child’s bedroom.

Forensic tests showed the device used black powder. Officers found aluminium powder and other materials linked to homemade explosives at Rees’s home, along with three improvised stun guns.

Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s counter-terrorism division, said: “This was not an act of protest or momentary vandalism. This was a deliberate and dangerous attack involving a homemade explosive device, carried out in a residential street and designed to destroy public infrastructure.

“Whatever his views on the Ulez scheme, Kevin Rees crossed a serious line by constructing a homemade bomb and detonating it in a public place. It was pure chance that no-one suffered serious injury or worse.”

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The leader of a group which organised months of anti-immigration protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers has admitted swearing at and abusing a police officer.

Connor Graham, 28, pled guilty to breach of the peace after an incident outside the Hotel Cladhan in Falkirk on 6 December.

He was the organiser of Save Our Futures and Our Kids’ Futures (SOF) until he said earlier this week that he had disbanded the group.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that Graham admitted acting aggressively and shouting and swearing and uttering threatening and derogatory remarks to PC Nathan Wilson while he was on duty.

One of the “derogatory remarks” is said to have been a disablist slur against the officer.

His not guilty plea to a second charge alleging he was attempting to incite violence was accepted.

Graham has previous convictions for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.

Solicitor Simon Hutchison, defending, said Graham had “not been in a lot” of trouble in the last four to five years and that his record was mostly for road traffic offences.

Sheriff Christopher Shead deferred sentence until 6 March for a justice social work report and an assessment of Graham’s suitability for a restriction of liberty order – a home curfew enforced by an electronic ankle tag.

SOF began weekly protests outside the Cladhan Hotel in August after an asylum seeker was convicted of raping a teenage girl.

Graham announced the dissolution of the group in a post on its Facebook page earlier this week.

He said he would no longer be involved in organising or attending protests due to the attendance of far right groups.

“Marching alongside groups like Patriotic Alternative or the Homeland Party completely derails the message,” he wrote.

“This has gone far beyond protesting a hotel and failed immigration policies, and into territory that will only damage communities, discredit legitimate concerns and hand authorities the excuse to shut protests down altogether.”

Anti-racism group Stand Up To Racism described the move as a “victory for anti-racists and anti-fascists”

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A man has been ordered to pay nearly £3,000 after an incident in which St George’s crosses were painted on homes and a woman was racially abused.

Footage, filmed by Alex Jones, was widely shared on social media and showed two shirtless men painting above a row of shops off Whitmore Way in Basildon, Essex, on 22 August.

He was believed to have encouraged the pair, before being heard racially abusing a woman who was walking past.

Jones, 34, of Jazz Lane in the town, admitted causing criminal damage and of causing racially or religiously aggravated harassment, alarm or distress. He was ordered to pay £2,854 in compensation and fined a further £80 at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

The crosses were painted above a convenience store, a pharmacy and food outlets including an Indian restaurant, a Chinese takeaway and a burger bar.

In the video, a young girl could be seen watching, and racial slurs were heard being shouted as a woman wearing a head scarf walked past with a child.

Essex Police said it received “multiple reports” about the footage.

At the time, Ch Insp Paul Hogben said: “Regardless of anyone’s thoughts or views, causing damage by applying paint to people’s properties is clearly a criminal offence.

“Aside from that simple fact, some of the language directed towards a member of the public in this incident was disgraceful.”

Essex Police said a second man accepted a caution over the incident.

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