Sentebale was founded by Harry in 2006 to help young people with HIV ‌and AIDS in Lesotho and Botswana, but he resigned as a patron in March 2025 after a public falling-out with its chair of the board, Sophie Chandauka.

According to a record made public on Friday, Sentebale lodged a defamation claim last month at the High Court against
Harry and Mark Dyer, who was ‌also a trustee of the charity.

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Kimberly Milne, 28, died after being struck by multiple vehicles on the A90 in Dundee in July 2023.

Husband Lee Milne, 40, denied any wrongdoing but was found guilty of culpable homicide and domestic abuse following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month.

The case was the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland in which an offender was held criminally responsible for the suicide of their partner.

Milne - a convicted child sex offender - was handed an extended sentence at the same court on Friday, with eight years in jail and three years on licence once released back into the community.

Lee Milne sentencing: The court case as it happened

Lady Drummond noted that Milne abused his wife from January 2022 until her death on 27 July 2023.

The judge stated: "Over those 18 months, you repeatedly abused Kimberly Milne.

"Some of that abuse involved physical violence, including seizing her by the neck, restricting her breathing, repeatedly punching her on the head and body, striking her so that she fell and lost consciousness, and repeatedly choking her.

"The abuse was not only physical. You belittled her by shouting and swearing at her, calling her names, you tried to cut her off from her family, checked her phone, restricted her movements, and controlled her access to money and transport."

The judge said domestic abuse is "rarely about one incident".

She added: "It is not only about violent acts. It includes more subtle, but nonetheless as harmful, exertions of power and control in a relationship.

"It builds over time. Each act - whether physical, psychological, or financial - adds to the next, increasing pressure and fear, eroding confidence and independence.

"It is the cumulative effect of the varied types of abuse that makes domestic abuse so harmful and damaging."

Jurors heard how after one assault, Ms Milne slept with a knife under her pillow as she was "so frightened of him".

As part of his domestic abuse, Milne would repeatedly threaten to take his own life if the relationship ended.

In one text message shown to the jury, Ms Milne wrote to her sister: "How can I leave him if he's saying he's gonna do himself in without me."

Her sister replied: "I would just leave him, he doesn't care if that's what he's doing to be honest, Kim."

On the night she died, Milne took her on a terrifying high-speed car ride which put her in a significant state of distress, fear and alarm.

The court was shown CCTV footage of Milne driving towards her after she was able to escape the vehicle.

Later, in a bid to flee from her abuser, she climbed the barrier of an overpass on the A90 Kingsway West and jumped off.

Lady Drummond said the couple had split by that fateful night, but Milne knew his estranged wife was "in distress and having difficulties that day".

The judge stated: "Your response to her that day - driving erratically and at speed whilst she was in the car with you, shouting at her and throwing an item at her, acting aggressively and intimidating her - was further abuse carried out by you at a time when she was in a fragile state.

"Following your actions, Kimberly Milne reached a point of despair, such that she climbed over the barrier of a road bridge and fell to her death.

"By the jury's verdict, you must bear responsibility not only for all of your abusive acts but for causing her death."

While this is the first prosecution of its kind in Scotland, back in 2017, Nicholas Allen was jailed for 10 years in England after being convicted of the manslaughter of his ex-girlfriend, Justene Reece, who took her own life due to his controlling and coercive behaviour.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said Ms Milne suffered from health issues which left her vulnerable to her abuser's manipulation.

Prosecutor Laura Buchan, COPFS legal director, said: "This prosecution sought to answer a complex question - can a partner be held criminally responsible for the death of a victim who has taken their own life following a course of domestic abuse?"

Ms Buchan said the evidence showed Milne's physical and psychological abuse was a "significant contributing factor" in his wife's death.

She added: "He deliberately and ruthlessly exploited Kimberly's vulnerabilities, which makes him culpable for her decision to end her own life."

A year after his wife's death, Milne went on to sexually assault two young boys in the summer of 2024.

He was convicted of the two separate charges at Forfar Sheriff Court last year and was placed on the sex offenders' register.

As well as a community payback order (CPO), which included three years of supervision, there was also a conduct requirement banning him from having contact with children under the age of 16 unless previously approved by officials.

Detective Chief Inspector Craig Kelly branded him a "cruel, manipulative and violent man".

He added: "She was very clearly terrified of him on that night. It is a tragedy that she lost her life as a consequence.

"Our thoughts are with Kimberly's family and friends following this sentencing.

"They have dealt with her tragic loss with great dignity and hopefully this outcome will provide a degree of closure."

The suspect, a 27-year-old Sudanese national, was held at Manston processing centre, in Kent, on Friday morning on suspicion of "endangering another during a journey by sea to the UK", the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

The four who died had tried to board a dinghy at Equihen-Plage, south of Boulogne-sur-mer, near Calais, but were swept away by strong currents at around 7am local time on Thursday, according to French authorities.

The NCA said 38 people were returned to the French shore but 74 migrants sailed on to the UK.

The suspect is in custody for questioning, while those who made the journey to the UK are also being interviewed.

An investigation into the circumstances of the deaths of the two men and two women, whose identities have not yet been released, is being led by French prosecutors.

Craig Turner, NCA deputy director, said: "Working with colleagues at home and abroad, we are determined to do all we can to identify and bring to justice those responsible for these four tragic deaths."

The latest fatalities came less than two weeks after two migrants died off the coast of France during an attempt to cross the Channel, one of the world's ​busiest shipping lanes.

In the ‌past year, traffickers have taken to motor dinghies along stretches of ‌the northern French and Belgian coasts, picking migrants up along the shore. Authorities refer to them as 'taxi-boats'.

Francois-Xavier Lauch, an official for Pas-de-Calais, said on Thursday "the people who died were attempting to board a taxi-boat".

"They were already quite far into the sea," he said.

"The currents, which can be dangerous here, swept them away."

Two children were among those taken to hospital as a precaution after the incident and another person was treated for hypothermia.

The UK government last month signed an extension with France over current arrangements on beach patrols as part of efforts to reduce the number of Channel crossings.

On Wednesday, French emergency services took part in a training exercise to practise dealing with migrants in the water at the same beach where the deaths happened.

Migration minister Mike Tapp said: "Every death in the Channel is a tragedy. Our experienced law enforcement teams will continue working relentlessly with international partners to prevent these perilous journeys and bring those responsible to justice.

"Through our Border Security Act, officers now have stronger powers to act earlier and disrupt, intercept and take down the operations of criminal smuggling gangs who bring illegal migrants to our shores."

More than 5,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year, according to Home Office data.

Time has even been spent inside the Ministry of Defence (MoD) quibbling over the name of a new organisation charged with procuring billions of pounds worth of weapons - despite war gripping both the Middle East and Ukraine, and Donald Trump mocking British military weakness.

Two sources said some people would like to rename the newly established National Armaments Director Group, or NAD Group, as the Royal Armaments Directorate.

One of the sources claimed this was in part because the abbreviation "NAD" also means testicle - an unfortunate source of amusement. The other source said it was because the word "royal" would engender a greater sense of pride.

"If they're worried about that, then something has gone so badly wrong," said Air Marshal Ed Stringer, a former senior officer who was involved initially with helping John Healey craft his "defence reform" initiative.

The MoD signalled there is no plan to change the name.

In another example of teething problems, an attempt to inform by email around 27,000 defence staff late last month about who they will report to within the NAD Group had to be paused after the initial batch of notifications went out.

This was because of inaccuracies in the information.

An investigation was launched to find out what went wrong.

Emails with the correct details about reporting structures have yet to be issued even though the NAD Group became fully operational on 1 April.

"The formation of the NAD Group has turned into a fiasco," one of the defence sources said, sharing their views on condition of anonymity.

There is "lots of ill feeling among the civil servants. No one has confidence any of this is working. Lots of workshops happening - little meaningful action".

Compounding the sense of dysfunction is a failure by the MoD to publish a long-promised plan for what equipment - from warships, tanks and jets to drones, satellites and other emerging technology - the department will buy over the next 10 years.

The Defence Investment Plan should have been released last autumn following the publication of a Strategic Defence Review, which set out the UK's military ambitions.

A Whitehall source said it might be out in June but there is no guarantee.

The delay is understood to be largely because of the need for more money to be made available faster by the Treasury.

If that is not granted, then difficult choices on cutting programmes will have to be taken - even as Sir Keir Starmer says the military is moving to a war footing.

"There is a gap of billions of pounds just to deliver the programme of record," a defence industry source with knowledge of deliberations at the MoD said.

"It is so broken inside."

An MoD spokesperson strongly rejected what they called "incorrect" criticism of Mr Healey's reform agenda.

"In an ever-changing world where demands on defence are growing, our reform programme represents the biggest shake-up of UK defence for over 50 years and one of the fastest transformation programmes in government," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Mr Healey made defence reform a priority before he became defence secretary in July 2024, saying it was vital to fix structural problems and "create a stronger defence centre, capable of leading Britain in meeting the increasing threats we must face".

His vision was to establish a Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ) under the chief of the defence staff, charged with deciding - in an integrated way - the strategy for how the army, navy and air force would fight and what kind of capabilities they would need.

These "demand signals" would then be passed to another of his key creations - the NAD Group - which would go to industry to find the right weapons and put them under contract.

The NAD Group is meant to be an influential, strategic body that oversees the procurement and through-life support of military kit as well as forging closer ties with industry, encouraging innovation and supporting exports.

It sits above Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) - which is the procurement arm of the MoD - as well as other areas such as Defence Digital and Defence Science and Technology Laboratories.

On paper, this whole model is a change from a previous structure - which itself was the product of yet another revamp back in 2011 - that had given the heads of the navy, army and RAF the ability to spend their own budgets on the equipment they thought they required.

However, during that period - and over prior decades - programmes to buy equipment were often delayed because of onerous contracting procedures and modifications to the order.

There was also the impact of repeated budget squeezes, which would force a project to be slowed down to save money in-year - while pushing up total costs over time.

As a result, despite having one of the largest defence budgets in the world at more than £60bn a year and rising, the Royal Navy is still struggling to deploy a single warship and attack submarine, the army could not muster a credible division of 10,000-20,000 troops for any meaningful length of time and the RAF lacks sufficient pilots, jets and munitions to sustain a high intensity fight against a peer enemy that lasts longer than a few days.

"It is a mess," a serving military officer said, speaking anonymously.

Procurement minister Luke Pollard is understood to be planning a review to "stop stupid rules" across defence in a sign of the moves that are under way to change a culture of risk aversion and bureaucracy - though nothing seems to be happening very quickly.

Multiple defence sources said Mr Healey and his team have instead struggled to make their reforms significantly transform defence's output in almost two years of trying - an effort that is thought to have cost some £20m in consultancy fees.

That is on top of tens of millions of pounds that were already spent under the previous government on a now-abandoned attempt to achieve the same objective of improving how the MoD functions and to accelerate the procurement of weapons.

"The mood is dreadful," the defence source said.

"Within the groups that make up the NAD Group there is just a sense of paralysis."

The source said many of the senior officials who had presided over the old way of working that the defence secretary had wanted to scrap have now been tasked with implementing his reforms - just under different job titles and working within new structures.

"So the people who have been entrusted to reform are the ones who have presided over disastrous, slow and bureaucratic procurement for decades," the source said.

A defence industry source, also speaking anonymously, agreed, saying: "It is reform theatrics. We have the same people in similar jobs just under a different label."

Ken McNaught, a defence acquisition specialist and systems engineer, has tracked similar attempts to reform defence procurement since 1961.

"Nothing will change until they change the culture - and the super tanker is not for turning," he said.

Offering a sense of the slow pace of reform, the pivotal role of national armaments director, who heads the NAD Group, was only appointed last September - more than a year after Mr Healey took charge and despite the importance he had personally placed on transformation.

After a lengthy recruitment process, the government appointed a former corporate lawyer with a background in venture capitalism called Rupert Pearce to the top job. He once ran the satellite communications firm Inmarsat but has not led a defence company.

"He's been dealt a bad hand," the defence source said.

"He seems a smart guy but he's yet to prove he can make things happen in the civil service and MoD. There is good talk but little action."

Defence ministers continue to champion their reforms.

The MoD spokesperson said: "Our increased defence spending is being matched by sustained and serious reform, which is already producing results.

"This includes clearer accountability at every level within the department, ensuring that defence delivers for the British people, a new national armaments director, who is fixing procurement and driving growth, and senior leadership who are cutting waste, reducing duplication and ensuring that we are buying better for what our front-line forces need."

Ministers also insist that the delay in the publication of the investment plan has not stopped the NAD Group from issuing contracts for warfighting kit such as drones and helicopters.

Yet the mood within much of the defence industry is described by insiders as "bleak", with order books empty as companies wait for work from Mr Pearce and his contracting team.

"I am twiddling my thumbs trying to find something to do and trying to justify my existence," said one defence industry employee.

"I half expect to lose my job. We keep on being told the money is coming, but until it does, then it is not there and we can't get to work."

Some firms are even at risk of going bust or being forced to move overseas. Germany and the US are investing far more decisively in defence than the UK.

Fred Sugden is associate director, defence and national security, at techUK, the main trade association for the UK technology industry, which includes defence companies.

"Whatever the challenges are, and we understand there are challenges around government spending at the moment, now is not the time to be delaying," he said, referring to the publication of the defence investment plan.

"We're going to potentially lose good UK companies to other nations and ultimately we can lose military capabilities because they're underpinned by defence industry. If you haven't got a defence industry, then you haven't got military capabilities that you might need to deploy."

Read more:
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A number of military officers and defence officials cautioned that taxpayer money risks again being spent badly unless the MoD is forced to function better.

A commander, speaking anonymously, said: "If you lifted defence spending to 5% of GDP tomorrow [up from around 2.3% now], you would not see a step change in output."

It is why Mr Healey's desire to reform the MoD made sense to Air Marshal Stringer and to others who Sky News has spoken to who have knowledge of the reform programme.

But they said that is only true if the change is properly implemented, which involves much more than altering job titles and workflows.

They said it requires a transformation of the culture inside the department to be more agile, dynamic and bold - as already happens when the MoD procures weapons for Ukraine.

Asked what the risk is if the MoD fails to become better at procuring the right weapons at speed and scale for the armed forces, Air Marshal Stringer said: "You're going to the next war with the old stuff, and you'll suddenly find that you can't dictate the terms of the conflict because the enemy gets a vote. And you'll find, pretty quickly on, you're taking casualties."

Sky News is the official media partner of the London Defence Conference 2026. Later this year Sky News will launch a new defence & security app, bringing together video-first reporting from our leading journalists and experts.

Nancy Pexton, 70, allegedly slashed and stabbed her sibling, Jennifer Abbott, a film director, at her flat in Camden, north London, on 10 June 2025.

On Friday, prosecutor Bill Boyce KC read a message from Pexton to Ms Abbott which read: "You know I was planning to kill you but it was just a thought, I would never hurt you".

The victim shared the message with her nephew in November 2024, asking him if she should apply for a restraining order and writing a physical note about it, jurors at the Old Bailey were told.

The court heard how she told her nephew at the time that she thought Pexton was "capable of anything" and feared for her own safety.

'Watch your back'

Three days after her death, a neighbour broke down the door and found the 69-year-old dead on the floor of her living room with gaffer tape covering her mouth.

Jurors heard how the victim's missing diamond-encrusted, gold Rolex watch was later recovered from Pexton's belongings after she was admitted to hospital.

Pexton was arrested by the police on 18 June.

Her message to her sister also said she had always loved her from the "heart" but accused her of betraying her in "every way because you [were] jealous of me".

The message warned Ms Abbott to "watch your back from those you conned and stole money from... You never know they could get you while you [are] walking your dog".

Mr Boyce told jurors that Pexton's message to her sister may have been caused by hate coupled with "jealousy and abuse".

Examination of Pexton's phone revealed a series of notes where she referred to thinking about killing her sister and complained about other family members, the court was told.

The day before Ms Abbott's death, Pexton messaged her: "Bless you, you sounded shocked that I'm coming to c u now. Sorry I scared you Thursday or Friday (sic)."

On 10 June, the defendant called her sister nine times, the final call lasting just over 15 minutes.

Mr Boyce said it was "no coincidence" Ms Abbott was not seen or heard from after she took her corgi dog, Prince, for a walk that morning.

He alleged Pexton was the last person to see her alive, having fatally attacked her in her home and leaving just before 2pm.

Read more from Sky News:
Push to transform 'broken' UK military is a 'fiasco'
Feed the birds... just not in summer

Pexton, of no fixed address, has denied murdering her sister and claimed Ms Abbott had given her the Rolex to "keep for her", jurors heard.

In prepared statements to police, she stated that she loved her sister and would never harm her.

She claimed the notes on her phone, and the message to Ms Abbott were examples of "venting" her feelings.

The defendant claimed she got Ms Abbott's blood on her clothes when she hugged her while the victim was having a nosebleed.

However, Mr Boyce said scientific analysis supported the proposition that she got covered in blood from stabbing Ms Abbott multiple times.

The trial continues.