Robert Rhodes killed his estranged wife, Dawn Rhodes, by slitting her throat with a knife at their family home in Redhill, Surrey, in June 2016. The couple's marriage had broken down and he had filed for a divorce.

He was previously found not guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey in 2017, where he convinced jurors that he had acted in self-defence during an argument.

It has since emerged that this was a "cover-up", after the couple's child came forward with new evidence that Rhodes killed Ms Rhodes, and they were involved in the murder too.

In 2021, the child, who was under the age of 10 at the time of the murder, told police they had been manipulated into lying about the true version of events by their father.

Both Rhodes and the child were found with knife wounds at the scene, which were initially claimed to have been inflicted in an attack by Ms Rhodes.

The child's new account stated that after Rhodes killed his wife, he inflicted two wounds to his scalp before instructing the child to inflict two more on their father's back. He then cut his own child's arm so deeply that it required stitches under general anaesthetic.

Under the double jeopardy rule a person cannot be tried twice for the same crime, unless new and compelling evidence comes out after an acquittal or conviction for serious offences.

On Friday, jurors at Inner London Crown Court convicted Rhodes of murder and child cruelty.

He was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice and two counts of perjury.

Rhodes will be sentenced on 16 January.

Surrey Police told Sky News that the child, who was of primary school age at the time and is below the age of criminal responsibility, was "groomed" by Rhodes into lying.

The child told police that during supervised contact with Rhodes in 2016 and 2017 - while he was on bail after being charged with murder - he had told them that they had "got some things wrong" and continued to give them instructions to stick to the plan.

Rhodes even hid a phone at his mother's house for when the child visited, on which he would leave messages for the child.

Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey said: "During the first trial, Dawn was portrayed as the villain but had actually been a victim of domestic abuse and coercive control at the hands of her husband for years.

"The fact that Rhodes not only murdered his wife in cold blood but then manipulated and groomed his own child to play a part in his evil scheme and cover-up what he had done is simply despicable - not only did he take a life; he irreparably damaged another, as well as the lives of everyone else who loved Dawn."

The Crown Prosecution Service said "the child's part in the plan was that they would distract the mother by saying to the mother 'hold out your hands, I've got a surprise for you', and the child would then put a drawing into the hands of the mother".

Rhodes then cut his wife's throat. She was found lying face down in a pool of blood in the dining room.

Libby Clark, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service's south east area complex casework unit, said the child showed "great bravery and strength" in coming forward with the truth.

She said: "The child has grown up with the dawning realisation, I would say, that they were part of a plan. They were complicit in the murder of the mother, Dawn Rhodes."

Ms Rhodes's family paid tribute to the "loving daughter, sister and mother".

"She was everything to us and he is nothing, she will be celebrated and he will be forgotten," they said.

"There are no words we can use to make sense of this horrific situation.

"We struggle to comprehend the mindset of an individual so twisted as to even contemplate this as a solution to his own unhappiness, implicating a child under 10 in the process."

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Legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg said there are "very few cases" where a retrial like this happens.

He said: "It's very unusual. I don't think there's been a case that I can think of where a witness who was present at the scene of the crime has come forward and given evidence, which has led to a conviction."

Underlining the role civilians would have to play in a major conflict, Al Carns said armies, navies and air forces respond to crises but "societies, industries and economies win wars".

He said: "The shadow of war is knocking on Europe's door once more. That's the reality. We've got to be prepared to deter it."

The comments came after Mark Rutte, the head of NATO, told allies on Thursday that Europe must ready itself for a confrontation with Russia on the kind of scale "our grandparents and great-grandparents endured" - a reference to the First and Second World Wars.

In an indication of the threat, Britain revealed on Friday that the level of hostile intelligence activity - such as spying, hacking and physical threats - against its armed forces and the Ministry of Defence has jumped by more than 50% over the past year.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are suspected of being the main culprits.

The government is launching a new defence counter-intelligence unit to bolster its ability to detect and disrupt intelligence operations by hostile states.

It has also moved to enhance the Ministry of Defence's spying capabilities by combining the various military intelligence branches across the army, navy and air force, as well as Defence Intelligence, into a new organisation called the Military Intelligence Services.

The "MI" initials are the same as in MI5 and MI6 - the UK's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.

Mr Carns, a former special forces colonel, visited RAF Wyton, a top-secret military spy base in Cambridgeshire, with a second defence minister, Louise Sandher-Jones, as well as a group of journalists to announce the organisational changes.

But improving the readiness of the professional armed forces is only part of any country's preparedness for potential conflict.

With France warning its people they may need to lose their children fighting a war with Russia, Sky News asked Mr Carns whether he thought more needed to be done to inform the British public about the sacrifices they might be required to make in a war.

The minister said: "There's a whole load of work going on now between us [Ministry of Defence], the Cabinet Office, and the whole of society approach, and what conflict means, and what everybody's role in society means if we were to go to war and the build up to war."

He continued: "Collectively, everybody - what is their role if we get caught in an existential crisis, and what do they need to be aware they need to do and what they can't do, and how do we mobilise the nation to support a military endeavour?

"Not just about deploying the military, but actually about protecting every inch of our own territory. That work is ongoing now, it's rapidly developing. We've got to move as fast as we can to make sure that's shored up."

The UK used to have a comprehensive plan for the transition from peace to war.

Developed over decades, the Government War Book had instructions for every part of society, from the army and the police to schools, hospitals and even art galleries.

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However, this huge body of preparedness - which was expensive to maintain - was quietly shelved following the end of the Cold War.

Mr Carns's comments indicate that some kind of modern version of the doctrine could make a comeback.

Communicating the changing reality of the security situation to the public is also seen as key.

The armed forces minister said many people in the UK do not see, hear or feel the dangers even as Russia's war in Ukraine rages, impacting the cost of fuel.

"We've got to bring that home to make sure people understand, not to scare them, but to be realistic and understand where those threats are emanating from, and why defence and a whole society approach is so important," he said.

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Sky News' The Wargame podcast explores what might happen if Russia attacked the UK and how all of society would be affected.

The series, filmed while she was on tour, also includes footage of the American popstar reflecting on the stabbings that saw three children killed when they attended a dance and yoga workshop themed around her music.

Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, all died in the attacks on 29 July last year, in Southport, Lancashire.

Footage - from her new six-part Disney+ docuseries, "The End of an Era." - shows Swift unable to continue talking about the tragedy and breaking down after explaining that "it was little kids".

She later tries to continue, saying how she is "going to meet some of these families [affected by the Southport attack] tonight".

The star then lets out an incredulous half-laugh as she realises that she will be trying to put on a happy and joyful pop concert shortly after having such heart-breaking encounters.

Swift then half chides half motivates herself to "lock it off," and get into pop performer mode.

She compares it to being a pilot needing to adopt a "calm, cool, collected" demeanour.

Swift later met privately with families of the Southport victims.

That meeting is not on camera, but the aftermath is. It shows the star in tears, placing her hand on a wall for support and being comforted by her mother.

The footage was filmed as Swift prepared for concerts in London in August 2024, her first performances since three Vienna dates were cancelled over an apparent plot to launch an attack on the shows.

She admits that "being afraid something is going to happen" to her audience at a show was a new challenge.

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At the time of the Southport attack, Swift said she was "completely in shock" over the violence.

The popstar also revealed when talking to fellow singer Ed Sheeran, that she felt "hunted" lately and wanted to go somewhere no one could find her in the two months off she had following her London shows.

Fear of shows being targeted

Taylor Swift's Vienna shows aren't the only pop concerts that have allegedly been targeted.

In May 2025, authorities in Brazil prevented a bomb attack at a free Lady Gaga concert on the beach of Rio de Janeiro that drew an audience of over two million.

In 2017 a suicide bomber targeted an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester and detonated an explosive device in the arena foyer, which killed 22 and injured hundreds of others.

While the pop star was physically unharmed in the attack, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder afterwards.

She later described the Manchester Arena terror attack as something "that seems impossible to fully recover from".

Thomas Craig, 48, of East Renfrewshire, Scotland, was found guilty on 28 November following a four-day trial at Glasgow High Court.

Craig will return to the same court on 12 January next year to be sentenced.

How the attack unfolded

The court heard how on 16 February 2024, Craig was intoxicated on a train from Glasgow Queen Street railway station when he began speaking to other passengers who were sitting across the aisle from him.

Within 10 minutes of the conversation beginning, he hurled an insult at a victim, before suddenly launching an attack where he jumped from his seat and hit the victim twice over the head with a glass bottle.

The victim then ran away through the train - which was travelling towards Perth.

However, Craig chased the man and continued to strike him with the bottle until it smashed, leaving him holding its jagged broken neck.

When the victim's friend tried to intervene, he was also attacked.

'Violently and relentlessly attacking two men'

Craig punched the man's friend seven times before he twice thrusted the broken neck of the glass bottle into his chest.

The friend's injuries, which included a stab wound close to his heart, a collapsed lung, and a severed artery that resulted in him losing around 15% of his blood, left him in intensive care.

After attacking the victim's friend, Craig returned to his seat, throwing the neck of the bottle towards where the victims had been sitting.

He grabbed one of the victim's phones and pocketed it, before walking down the train and removing his now blood-soaked jumper, replacing it with a clean hoodie from his belongings.

Police and paramedics met the train at Larbert railway station where Craig was arrested on the train, and both victims were treated for their injuries before being urgently taken to hospital.

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Detective Inspector Marc Francey, of the British Transport Police, said Craig had violently and relentlessly attacked two men over a minor disagreement, and caused panic among other passengers.

He added that: "It is thanks only to luck and to the life-saving work of the paramedics that Craig hasn't been found guilty of something far worse.

"I hope this verdict brings a measure of closure to the victims after enduring such a brutal attack.

"Violence on the railway is utterly unacceptable, and we will relentlessly pursue offenders like Craig to ensure they face justice."

Sir Mark was responding to Donald Trump's accusations that crime levels were "crazy" and that police did not want to patrol some parts of the UK capital.

Speaking to LBC, Sir Mark said: "In terms of some of the comments that come from America about London... they're complete nonsense.

"This trend of trying to rubbish London, some of which is driven by politics... we need... to fight back about it."

But the police chief admitted more work was needed to improve the performance of the force and outcomes for Londoners.

"Clearly there are some crime issues that we're tackling, and it's not perfect, I'm proud of the progress we're making in reducing crime."

During an interview with GB News in November, Mr Trump, who has a long-running feud with London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, claimed people were being stabbed "in the ass or worse" in London.

"My mother loved London. She loved that city... that was a different London than you have today. Today you have people being stabbed in the ass or worse... it's crazy," he said.

He added that the mayor was "a disaster" who was "letting crime go".

Mr Trump added: "You have areas in London, and you have this in Paris too, where police don't even want to go anywhere near those areas.

Responding to those claims, Sir Mark said it was "completely false" to suggest there were parts of the capital deemed as no-go areas for police. And he hit back at crime rates in London compared with the US.

"The homicide rate in London is lower than every single US state. It's lower than all their big cities. The murder rate in New York, last time I looked, is three or four times higher than London per capita."

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On Tuesday, the US president used an interview with Politico to hit out at Sir Sadiq, who he called a "disgusting mayor", and implied the Labour politician gets elected only "because so many people have come in".

The prime minister's spokesperson openly criticised Mr Trump's comments on Wednesday, saying that Sir Keir Starmer has "made clear" that they were "wrong".

On Friday, Liberal Democrats leader, Sir Ed Davey, said the prime minister should take a more robust stance against the US president who has proven himself to be what he called a "totally unreliable" ally.