North Yorkshire Police has appealed for information and witnesses after a serious robbery at a park in Harrogate.
The robbery happened in Panhandle Park close to the Hookstone Chase entrance at around 6.20pm on Thursday, January 6.
A woman in her 50s reported to the police that she was walking through the park when a person approached her and attempted to steal her rucksack.
The suspect reportedly ran off towards the Dalby estate before the woman checked her bag. She noticed that money and medication was missing.
The police have made no arrests and have offered up no description of the suspect.
However, officers investigating are keen to trace a man in his early 30s who was walking a dog in the park at the time and offered assistance to the woman after the incident.
North Yorkshire Police has asked for anyone with information on the break-in to get in touch by calling 101. Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.
Quote reference number 12220003059 when providing details.
Inquest opens into death of Harrogate suspected murder victimA suspected Harrogate murder victim died from head and torso injuries, according to the coroner who opened an inquest into his death today.
Gracijus Balciauskas, 41, died just before Christmas on the night of Monday, December 20 at a flat on Mayfield Grove.
Jon Heath, senior coroner for York and North Yorkshire, said at the hearing in Northallerton today:
“Mr Balciauskas resided in Harrogate on Mayfield Grove. He was found deceased at the property the following morning.
“The provisional cause of death is by head and torso injuries. This inquest was formally opened on January 6 and adjourned pending further investigation by the police.”
Vitalijus Koreiva, 36, of Mayfield Grove, and Jaroslaw Rutowicz, 38, of no fixed abode, appeared at York Magistrates Court last month charged with murder.
They did not enter pleas and the case was adjourned until February 4.
Suspected Harrogate murder victim named ahead of inquestA suspected Harrogate murder victim has been named ahead of the opening of an inquest into his death tomorrow.
George Balciauskas, 41, died just before Christmas on the night of Monday, December 20 at a flat on Mayfield Grove.
A coroner will open an inquest into the circumstances surrounding Mr Balciauskas’ death tomorrow in Northallerton. The case is likely to be adjourned pending the outcome of the murder trial.
Vitalijus Koreiva, 36, of Mayfield Grove, and Jaroslaw Rutowicz, 38, of no fixed abode, appeared at York Magistrates Court last month charged with murder.
They did not enter pleas and the case was adjourned until February 4.
In this article, which is part of a series on the 15 stories in the Harrogate district that shaped 2021, we look at the persistent problems on the streets of Ripon.
Stories about violent and anti-social behaviour in Ripon have featured regularly in the news this year.
Among the most disturbing, was our report in August about a terrifying ordeal for a young boy, who was held up by a man and a youth at knifepoint and robbed of this trainers, mobile phone and jewellery.
The thugs, who threatened to ‘shank’ his leg with the knife if he didn’t do as told, were soon arrested by the police and brought to justice.
In February, a Ripon retailer came to the aid of a man who was being set upon by two vicious thugs in broad daylight.
The retailer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Stray Ferret the attack occurred when the victim remonstrated with youths who had thrown a snowball at him. He said:
“As I came out of the shop, the man was on the ground and one of the youths was kicking him in the head, while another was stamping on his face.
“I thought that they were going to kill him – I shouted at them and they ran off.”
Earlier that month, we reported on a three-hour spate of crime in Ripon on a Sunday evening that included a man carrying a machete, a robbery, thefts and gangs gathering.
The incidents, included a robbery in which a 23-year-old man suffered facial injuries after being attacked by two or three males, who stole his phone and watch.
Following the incidents, Inspector Alex Langley, head of neighbourhood policing for Ripon, tried to reassure people that the events were being taken seriously and that “we will be taking robust action against those responsible”.
Philip Allott, North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner at the time, responded by saying he hoped an increased police presence in the city would send a message that “crime will not be tolerated”. He also urged more residents to “break silence” and report anything suspicious.
“Officers know who the perpetrators are, they have made arrests, they have got a grip on the situation, and I am confident of that.
“One of the problems we have in Ripon is sometimes a wall of silence by certain families and that makes it quite difficult to apprehend people.
“The police will still get those people. It just takes a bit longer.
But further violent and anti-social behaviour in August prompted police to step-up patrols and launch investigations into four separate incidents
At the time, detective superintendent Steve Thomas, of North Yorkshire Police, said:
“Following the success of local policing operations to reduce anti-social behaviour in Ripon over recent months these latest incidents are disappointing.
“We are determined that this small group of individuals are held to account for behaviour that harms the quality of life for everyone else.
“Local residents will see an increase in police presence over the coming days and we want to reassure you that we will do everything necessary to tackle this isolated problem.”
This is just a snapshot of some of the incidents that police in Ripon have had to tackle in 2021. They have also run, in conjunction with Operation Spectre, a national campaign to engage with schoolchildren in the city about the dangers of knife crime and taking drugs.
Sergeant Heidi Lewis, of the schools liaison team, said officers were there to build relationships with the children and answer any questions. She said:
“Education at an early stage is crucial to steer children away from falling into a criminal lifestyle and becoming exploited.
“Some young people think it’s safe to carry a knife in case they need it for self-defence – but this could not be further from the truth. Any knife in the hands of anyone can cost lives.”
The city will be hoping to make headlines for more positive reasons in 2022.
Ripon councillors call on crime commissioner to keep CCTV promiseNorth Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Zoe Metcalfe has been called on by Ripon City Council to keep a promise made by her predecessor regarding the purchase of CCTV cameras to combat violent and anti-social behaviour.
Former commissioner Philip Allott, who resigned in October, said he would pay £20,000 for two cameras out of his PFCC community fund.
He pledged in September to pay for cameras for use in the Bondgate area of the Ripon, following a “mini crime wave”.
He told a meeting of North Yorkshire County Council‘s Skipton and Ripon Area Constituency Committee that his office was willing to pay for the extra cameras, costing £10,000 apiece, if Ripon City Council submitted an application — which it did.
He subsequently resigned before the cameras were bought.
The PFCC has now said in an email to the city council:
“The PFCC community fund is not, at this stage – under the funding criteria as it stands – in a position to support your application for the CCTV requested.”
The email added that the PFCC has agreed with North Yorkshire County Council that a joint strategic approach to a countywide CCTV review will proceed after the May local elections next year.
Ms Metcalfe told the Stray Ferret:
“It is deeply disappointing that the previous commissioner committed resources without advice and full consideration of the funding criteria of the community fund, and I am sorry the city council has been put in this position.
“Unfortunately, if we were to fund CCTV for one area, we would find ourselves in an impossible position of being asked to replicate this type of provision across the whole of York and North Yorkshire.
“The funding pot we have available is simply unable to support this, which is why it is important we take an overall view.
“I give my full assurance to the city council and the residents and businesses of Ripon that my team and I will support them to address their community safety concerns together with the appropriate statutory partners.”
Councillor Andrew Williams, leader of Ripon City Council, said:
“I have been contacted by the commissioner, who has offered to meet with me.
“I will be taking her up on the offer, so that I can press the case that residents in Bondgate were promised by her predecessor two CCTV cameras, which are much-needed to ensure that residents who have felt blighted by anti-social behaviour feel safe.
“The temporary camera installed in Bondgate by Harrogate Borough Council earlier this year had a significant impact and a permanent solution now needs to be delivered as promised.”
Mr Allott, stood down after making comments in a radio interview about the murder of Sarah Everard murder trial.
Two men have been charged with murder after a man was found dead at a flat in Mayfield Grove, Harrogate.
Police arrested the men, 36 and 38, on Monday night after receiving a report at around 11.30pm that a man had died there.
The two men are due to appear at York Magistrates Court.
A third man arrested in connection with the incident has been released with no further action.
DCI Jonathan Sygrove, of North Yorkshire Police’s major investigation team, said:
“I’d like to thank local residents for their patience and support while we carry out enquiries. I can reassure people that this was an isolated incident, and officers will remain in the area to provide ongoing reassurance and support to the community.”
Harrogate domestic abuse charity sees referrals triple due to covid
The founder of a Harrogate domestic abuse charity has blamed coronavirus for an increase in domestic abuse after the number of referrals tripled in a year.
Lindsay Oliver is chief executive of New Beginnings, which provides comfort and support to abused women when they have settled into new homes and the crisis team has withdrawn.
This time last year the charity took two referrals a month. More recently it has been receiving on average six a month.
The number of active clients over the same period has also more than doubled, from 15 to 35.
That increase in referrals and clients, Ms Oliver believes, is the after-effects of coronavirus lockdowns this year and last year. She told the Stray Ferret:
“We are just now starting to see the outcome of coronavirus. Many people need support but the Harrogate district has been so generous.
“It’s very difficult, particularly at Christmas. Part of the abuse is financial so these women often have lots of debt so struggle to buy gifts and a nice meal.
“With donations from the community and businesses we work with Roots and Fruits (Harrogate greengrocers) to provide our families with a big hamper of food and a turkey.
“Not only are we able to provide food with the support of our amazing community but we are also able to give them gifts, not just for the children but for the women too.”
Some of the donations for the Christmas campaign.
If you are in a physical or emotionally abusive relationship, click here to contact IDAS, which is the largest charity in Yorkshire supporting people affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence.
If you’re out of an abusive relationship but need further support, you can self-refer to New Beginnings. Email enquiries@newbeginningspeersupport.com.
Teenager arrested after disturbances in JennyfieldsNorth Yorkshire Police has arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of attempted burglary and criminal damage in the Jennyfields area of Harrogate.
The Stray Ferret was contacted by a reader today who reported several cars were vandalised on Sutton Grange Close in the early hours of this morning. They also said there was an attempted burglary on the street.
Posts on social media suggested cars on nearby Hartwith Drive and other streets nearby had also been damaged during the night.
A police spokeswoman said it received reports of an attempted burglary at a property on Sutton Grange Close at about 3am this morning. She added:
“A 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted burglary and criminal damage. He is currently in police custody.”
Guilty verdict for couple who flew in sex workers to Harrogate
A Portuguese dominatrix and her English husband have been found guilty of running a sex-trafficking and prostitution racket in Harrogate after “flying in” women from Europe and South America.
Fabiana De Souza, 41, and Gareth Derby, 53, from Norfolk, flew sex workers in from Brazil and Portugal, paid for their flights and met them at airports, before whisking them off to flats where men paid women for “massages” and “full (sex) services”, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Nicholas Lumley QC said De Souza rented a two-bed flat in Harrogate town centre through a letting agency “so it could be used for sex…which would be advertised on the internet by these two defendants”. Mr Lumley added:
“It was run as a business by these two, controlled invariably from their home in Norfolk and the pair of them were in it together.
“The provision of sexual services provided by them was not confined to Harrogate (which) was an extension of an existing business.
“There was another flat in Norfolk put to similar use and when that became unavailable, even the home of these defendants was converted for use by sex workers. The labour force came from overseas, from countries such as Brazil, and they got here by air and their travel in and out of the country was invariably organised and paid for by these two defendants.
“As soon as the (sex workers) arrived here, they would be installed in the flat in Harrogate or elsewhere, always with the purpose of being available for sex.”
The couple, of Town Street in the village of Upwell, Norfolk, each denied one count of people-trafficking and another of controlling prostitution for financial gain. The charges related to six named women who worked at the Harrogate sex den between April and the end of August 2017.
They were found guilty on both counts on Monday following a 10-day trial.
Mr Lumley said that at least one other woman was prostituted in other parts of the country, including King’s Lynn in Norfolk and Birmingham, but they were not part of the charges.
De Souza and Derby would pay for sex adverts within hours of picking the women up from the airport and “setting them up” at the flat on Bower Road. The adverts were placed on the classified escorts websites Viva Street and Adult Work and included raunchy descriptions of the women.
They took the bookings and “made the arrangements (with the clients)” who would pay various amounts – from £80 for half an hour to over £1,000 for an overnight stay. Mr Lumley said:
“The defendants would receive their cut.”
The money, described as “significant cash deposits”, usually ended up in De Souza’s Halifax bank account, but on occasions “cash simply changed hands, handed by the sex workers to one of these two”.
Mr Lumley said one woman was flown in from Amsterdam and was picked up by the couple who had driven from Norfolk in a 4×4 pick-up. Derby also drove a Mercedes.
Police were tracking the couple’s movements, including their journeys between Harrogate and Norfolk using number-plate recognition cameras.
An undercover officer searched the escort sites and called the phone number provided on the women’s sex profiles, pretending to be a client. The call went through to De Souza’s mobile phone in King’s Lynn.
She answered in “broken English”, claiming to be ‘Lisa’, and an “appointment” was made for the Harrogate flat.
Mr Lumley said the couple “often met the flights at the airport or arranged for a train ticket to be available at the airport as they moved these women around the country or put them on a bus and sent them up to Harrogate or somewhere else”.
Following her arrest, De Souza told police she had left her husband in September 2017 with the intention of divorcing him and moved to Harrogate “where no-one knew me”.
She said she rented the Bower Road flat for over £700 a month and let rooms out to “others”, some of whom were “friends from Portugal”.
She said it was “none of my business what (the women) were doing, as long as they paid (their) rent”.
She claimed that in May 2018, she reconciled with her husband and moved back to Norfolk, to a property in Walpole St Andrew.
Derby said he only had an “inkling that Fabia worked at the Harrogate flat as a dominatrix”.
Mr Lumley said that photos of the women – which were often false and whose profiles made out they were much younger than their true ages – were posted with the ads.
The women arrived at various airports including Manchester, Gatwick and Stansted. Mr Lumley said:
“They are flown in, spend two or three weeks in the country and then flown out again.”
In a text sent to an associate in January 2018, Derby boasted of being a “smuggler of women”.
One advert showed a “Latina” woman who said her services included “tantric massage, role play and fantasy”.
The undercover officer made an “appointment” and went to the Harrogate flat as a ‘client’, dressed in civilian clothes and with female back-up officers waiting outside.
Once inside the flat, he showed the woman his warrant card. She showed him a Brazilian ID card, but her responses were “not entirely honest”.
Police trawled through the bank accounts of De Souza and her husband and found they had spent “thousands on air fares” and over £2,000 on Viva Street adverts alone. Mr Lumley said:
“Who knows how much cash simply changed hands?”
He added that £40,000 appeared in the couple’s bank accounts during the five-month prostitution racket in Harrogate alone.
The undercover cop said that on his first visit to the building on Bower Road, the sex worker named ‘Lisa’ buzzed him into the flats which were above shops. He was met by a woman in a “revealing” short-length dressing gown who said she had also worked as a stripper.
He made “numerous” such visits to other women after responding to adverts including one for a “Hot Brazilian, full service”. She was about 57 years’ old but was advertised as 33.
He said there was another woman in her 50s inside the flat who was also a sex worker. She said she was from the “Republic of Portugal” but was born in Brazil. She had been earning about £280 per day.
Michael Fullerton, for De Souza, said there was no dispute that she was working as a dominatrix before and during the prostitution enterprise. She had previously worked as a stripper.
Richard Mohabir, for Derby, said his client was adamant that he “controlled nobody” and “didn’t know sex work or prostitution was going on”.
However, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts on both defendants.
Judge Guy Kearle QC adjourned sentence until January 18. He granted both defendants bail until then.
Police appeal after mass brawl in HarrogateNorth Yorkshire Police is appealing for information following reports of a group of men fighting on Harrogate’s Bower Street last night.
Police were alerted to the incident at about 9pm. It is not known what caused the disturbance, or how many people were involved.
A police statement today said:
“Although no reports of any injuries were received, officers need to speak to those involved.”
It added that any witnesses, or people with information, could call the police on 101, select option 2 and ask for PC Ambler collar number 216.
Or, if you wish to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
The reference number is 12210259739.