Crime

Despite Brandy Cooney’s claim she and her wife never punished two boys in their care by withholding food, text messages between the two women tell a different story, the Crown argued Wednesday during the couple’s Milton, Ont., murder trial.

For a third day, Cooney answered questions about how she and Becky Hamber treated the brothers they were trying to adopt leading up to the older boy’s death on Dec. 21, 2022.

The 12-year-old was found emaciated and unresponsive on the floor of his basement bedroom that night and later died in hospital. He weighed the same as when he was six years old and had stopped growing, the court has heard.

Portugal’s chief narcotics police officer, Artur Vaz, said on Monday that Latin American drug cartels are shipping huge amounts of cocaine to Europe, frequently using cheap “narco-subs” that have proven difficult for European coastal patrols to detect.

A Brampton defence lawyer found himself on the opposite side of the courtroom on Wednesday, testifying about why he deserves to be released from jail despite allegations he helped an international drug lord murder an FBI witness.

Deepak Paradkar, 62, is a “substantial” risk to flee Canada if granted bail, Department of Justice attorneys Milica Potrebic and Heather Graham argued on behalf of U.S. prosecutors. The Americans are opposing Paradkar’s release, saying that his ties to the alleged billion-dollar transnational drug organization of fugitive ex-Olympian Ryan Wedding make the lawyer a danger to the community, while the prospect of life in U.S. prison makes him likely to flee.

An abusive partner has been found guilty of murdering a mother and her three children in a house fire in “revenge” on his ex-girlfriend’s family.

Sharaz Ali, 40, broke into the family’s home in Bradford, where his ex-girlfriend was staying with her sister, and poured petrol inside to start the blaze last August.

The president of the National Police Federation (NPF) says Canada has experienced an increase in violent crime in recent years, while also noting rising immigration numbers.

However, he stopped short of directly confirming a link between crime trends and federal immigration policy.

The crooks are waving down the servers at the Crime Cafe, sneaking in a few more cheeky offences before last call.

The feds have already proposed tightening bail for baddies; now Ontario is piling on.

Becky Hamber’s 12-year-old foster son was dead – found soaking wet in a wetsuit, emaciated and wasted to the size of a child half his age on Dec. 21, 2022 – and she and her wife Brandy Cooney were facing numerous charges including first-degree murder.

But in a computer note and several videos entered at their trial, Hamber went on endlessly about how difficult and unfair it all was – for her.

The Law Society of Ontario has suspended the licence of the self-proclaimed “cocaine lawyer” accused of working for alleged drug kingpin Ryan Wedding ahead of his extradition case on a U.S. murder charge.

Deepak Paradkar’s lawyer, Ravin Pillay, told a tribunal on Friday that his client accepted the Law Society’s interlocutory application to suspend his licence in the wake of the U.S. criminal charges announced by authorities last month.

However, Pillay said after the hour-long hearing, “I think it’s important to state that Mr. Paradkar denies the allegations, maintains his innocence and intends to vigorously defend against the criminal charges at the appropriate time, in the appropriate forum and based on a full evidentiary record.”

#36/2025…

The points cards were popping for members of Toronto’s criminal fraternity this week.

Me? I couldn’t begin to pick the player of the week, but there were two standouts whose dedication to craft is noteworthy. But … we hasten to add, none of the charges have been tested in court.

THE horrific case of Vincent Chan, the north London nursery worker who this week admitted sexually abusing toddlers and hoarding 25,000 indecent images, has rightly shaken the country.

Chan was not a rogue babysitter or an unregulated childminder. He worked at a respected £2,000-a-month nursery. He passed his enhanced vetting. He was subject to all the ‘industry-leading’ safeguarding checks we trust to keep children safe. And yet for years he abused children in a setting parents had every reason to believe was secure.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released never-before-seen images of Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous island.

The photographs and video appear to show several bedrooms in the US Virgin Islands home, as well as a room with masks on a wall and a phone with names written on speed-dial buttons.

In a statement, the committee’s Democratic leader, Robert Garcia, said they collectively form a “disturbing look” into Epstein’s world and are being released to “ensure public transparency”.