Bartholomew's Notes

From BBC News:

A three-year-old boy critically injured in a zoo enclosure was attacked by a crocodile, the BBC understands.

Cambridgeshire Police said a 30-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder had been bailed and was “unfit for interview”. He reportedly has learning disabilities and had been on a trip to Johnsons of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, with carers.

…Cambridgeshire Police confirmed the suspect was white British after misinformation shared on social media.

It is thought that the boy was thrown into the enclosure – a shocking and dramatic incident that naturally has provoked not just public interest but also concern and anger. There is no law against the media naming the suspect, if they have it, but they are unlikely to do so unless he is charged – and his being “unfit for interview” means that the matter could be left hanging indefinitely.

The police decision to confirm the suspect’s “white British” background shows that the practice is becoming, or has become, normalised. The break with long-established police practice of providing only gender and age of those under arrest but not charged began after Southport, when police confirmed that the suspect – not yet named as Axel Rudakubana – had been born in Cardiff. This decision countered disinformation about the suspect being an asylum seeker, but has subsequently been portrayed unfairly as an attempt to mislead as regards ethnicity (1).

I noted another case last year, after a man named in due course after charging as Paul Doyle ran his car into a crowd in Liverpool. It turned out that Doyle was in the grip of some sort of “road rage”, although at the time it was reasonable to suspect terrorism, and Merseyside Police’s decision to confirm his “white British” ethnicity before charging was a practical concession to public disquiet. The bar was lowered from potential terrorist contexts in March this year, when police referred to a “white British 15-year-old boy” in relation to the stabbing of a schoolgirl at a school in Norwich.

The Johnsons of Old Hurst zoo incident presents as an act of random violence inflicted by a stranger. There have been cases where a mentally ill migrant has killed – most notoriously in recent years, Eltiona Skana and Valdo Calocane – but the context of a man with “learning disabilities” who was “with carers” were strong indicators against speculation that the suspect in this instance is someone who has arrived in the UK from abroad. Ethnicity here is not a relevant detail – but police know that false claims about a Black or Asian-heritage suspect may lead to disorder and to misidentifications. The strategy has diminishing returns, though, with populists now asserting that when ethnicity information is not provided this means we can infer that a suspect is not white (for example, Ian Miles Cheong made this argument in March in relation to an arrest following an alleged rape of a boy in Sheffield). And it tends towards giving an impression that we should draw conclusions about criminal profiles from arrests rather than from convictions.

As regards the misinformation that Cambridgeshire Police is reacting against, one prominent example, predictably, was provided by Tommy Robinson’s US ally Valentina Gomez, whose crudely peformative anti-Muslim monomania would be comical if it weren’t so ghoulish: just as she recently falsely asserted that three sisters who had been drowned in a tragic accident in Brighton “were raped & thrown overboard by rapists muslims”, she now claims to millions that “a muslim threw a 3 year-old boy to be eaten alive by crocodiles”. Ant Middleton, who agreed with Gomez about Brighton, similarily asserted that “our children are being fed to crocodiles by immigrants” – yet more evidence that Reform UK’s embrace of Middleton at the recent Makerfield by-election ought to be a source of shame and disgust.

Note

1. This portrayal owes a great deal to a detail that appeared in the  Liverpool Echo two days after the Southport attack, in which a neighbour described Rudakubana as a “quiet choir boy”. Although this had nothing to with the police statement, populists assert that “the authorities” sought to present the killer as a “Welsh choirboy”.

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The i Paper has a useful overview by Lizzie Dearden of how the Keir Starmer “rent boy” conspiracy theory spread on social media following acts of arson at properties linked to the prime minister:

Less than 15 minutes after [Roman] Lavrynovych was arrested, and before the arrest was made public by the police, an account on X describing itself as a British “patriot” claimed to have the answer. “Angry unpaid rent boy,” it wrote in reply to a British news aggregator with more than 400,000 followers, which had reported the latest blaze.

No source for the false claim was provided, but after the police announced the arrest five hours later, the same account repeated the allegation in response to a prominent British far-right influencer. That influencer, who has around 340,000 followers, including Elon Musk, went on to post the “rent boy” narrative himself.

The news aggregator concerned, @PoliticsUK, posted at 4.06 pm on 12 May, and the “patriot” reply appeared at 2.02 am on 13 May. The reply looks like it was just a trolling off-the-cuff quip, but the timing is suggestive. The later “influencer” referenced but not named by Dearden is Dave Atherton, who cited “the rent boy saga” two weeks later to counter claims of likely Russian involvement in the arson. By this time, as noted by Dearden, the conspiracy theory was being spread openly by Russian media and officials. One detail that helped to boost the story was that Lavrynovych’s co-accused Stanislav Carpiuc had at one time attempted to find work as a model, and there are photoshoot images in which he looks particularly well groomed.

As I noted in April, the whole edifice collapsed as soon as the trial got underway: the case hinged on undisputed messages between Lavrynovych, his co-accused, and the person who hired them for the arson jobs, and these messages made clear that they didn’t know why they were being asked to target particular addresses. However, as Dearden notes on Twitter/X:

It is not in the interest of anyone who has been promoting this theory to admit it is false in the face of evidence from the trial, which they will present as a cover-up

A search of X just now shows people continuing to share the false “rent boy” claims roughly every two minutes.

During the trial, I noted how the reporting of details was being distorted and misinterpreted.

One commentator who continues to fan the flames is TalkTV’s Jeremy Kyle. Here’s how he framed the story two days ago in conversation with Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin MP, sneering incredulously and citing his own ignorance as evidence that something is amiss:

On a serious note, Sarah, straight face, our prime minister, we are told, was attacked by a foreign state. His front door was bombed. His car was firebombed. And then the Russians started a conspiracy about two Ukrainian rent boys, keep your face straight. Why have we heard nothing about it?

In reply, Pochin smirked that Russia would have no reason to “bother” with Starmer, adding that “there’s some information missing on this story” and that “they’re trying to brush something under the carpet”. Their exchange is on YouTube under the title “Pochin Challenges Claims Of Russia Behind PM Arson Attack”.

Kyle also spoke with the Conservative Party’s Matt Vickers, asking

But why would Russia start a conspiracy theory that two rent boys allegedly from Ukraine or was it somewhere else off Grinder?… Um, it’s just an extraordinary story, isn’t it?

Vickers’ response was “Extraordinary story. Smoke, fire” and to joke that Starmer is doing “a pretty canny job of blowing himself up” – remarks that have been criticised by Labour. That video is on YouTube as “Two Ukrainian Rent Boys Behind Arson Attack Targeting Keir Starmer?”.

Kyle’s worthless segments exploit the fact that we don’t know exactly what the person who commissioned the arson was attempting to achieve by it. It seems unlikely that this person’s primary aim was to spread the “rent boy” smear, although Russia made use of it opportunistically following Lavrynovych’s arrest. The case for a Russian paymaster is laid out convincingly by the BBC and the Financial Times, with the BBC identifying specifically one Evgeny Lyukshin, who is “23 and the son of a senior official”.

Perhaps, had the arsonists not been arrested, subsequent acts would have been falsely attributed to some ideological group – Islamist, far right, whatever. But Russian involvement need not imply some carefully considered grand strategy emanating from the Kremlin; a well-connected Russian young man wanting to impress more powerful figures or just enjoying the thrill of being part of “the struggle” (likely well away from the front line in Ukraine) may well have decided to use their own initiative on schemes intended primarily to show off their capabilities and potential. He wouldn’t be the first.

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Amended – see comments

From BBC News:

A man has been found guilty of making sexual remarks to a group of girls aged between 12 and 14 in Dundee before grabbing and pushing one of them to the ground.

Ilia Belov, 22, claimed he confronted the girls after receiving abusive remarks and said he saw one of the girls with a knife in her waistband before the assault.

His sister Nadjedzha Belova, 20, previously admitted assaulting a 13-year-old girl by seizing and pulling her hair, dragging her to the ground, and striking her on the head to her injury during the incident.

A clip of the girl brandishing a knife and an axe went viral last year, widely interpreted as either a brave young girl defending her sister from a predator or a feral racist child threatening an innocent migrant couple going about their business.

The latter version was promoted, perhaps unexpectedly, by the Daily Mail, which ran an “EXCLUSIVE” by Douglas Walker. As introduced by Walker:

The ugly video clip from a Dundee housing estate in which a schoolgirl brandished a knife and an axe soon went viral… Now we can reveal the man being threatened is a family man who has been living in the UK for four years – and who was accompanied by his wife on the way to the shops when the incident occurred.

Far from being fresh off a cross-channel small inflatable, as implied by [Tommy] Robinson and [Elon] Musk, Fatos Ali Dumana, 21, says he came to Britain legally from Bulgaria and he and his wife have an eight-month-old baby.

…In the video the girl – wearing torn jogging bottoms and a navy t-shirt – is being kept away from Mr Dumana by another young female claiming to be her sister.

…Another female out of shot – believed to be his wife Yulianova – then utters something in Bulgarian before he responds in the same dialect.

So how come Fatos Ali Dumana in the Daily Mail is now Ilia Belov? And why does Daily Mail version suggest that his wife, rather than his sister, was involved? And why is the voice “believed to be his wife”, when surely “Dumana” must know for sure either way? Although the “exclusive” was billed as “the truth”, Walker appears to hedge his bets by stating that

Police have officially refused to divulge the nationality or identity of Mr Dumana or what prompted the disagreement.

My first impression was that some completely different person had put themselves forward to the Daily Mail, especially given that the man looks somewhat different in photos accompanying the story than in the BBC report. However, it is the same person: other photos from outside the court (where, unlike many defendants, it appears he chose to pose for the cameras rather than rush furtively past) show that he has a distinctive tattoo on the left side of his neck which is not visible on the BBC report and which has been transposed onto his right side in an image published by the Daily Mail. Questions, however, remain.

Left: As “Fatos Ali Dumana” in the Daily Mail; right: as Ilia Belov on BBC News.

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Although it hasn’t so far made the mainstream news, Ant Middleton has been welcomed by Reform UK at the Makerfield by-election campaign: images on social media show the former soldier and SAS: Who Dares Wins TV presenter posing with local canvassers and with the candidate, Rob Kenyon, as well as with the party’s failed Gorton & Denton candidate, Matt Goodwin. Goodwin, as usual channelling his inner Partridge, has expressed his excitement at the development with the comment “LFG Makerfield” (1). It is not explicit that Middleton has come to support Reform over Rupert Lowe’s Restore, which threatens Kenyon’s prospects from the right, but it is a reasonable assumption [UPDATE: and has now been confirmed].

However, when an endorsement is gratefully received it works both ways – Reform previously passed Middleton over as its prospective candidate for mayor of London, yet now embraces a man who is an ally of Tommy Robinson and who has articulated an openly racist position on ethnic minority participation in politics:

1st, 2nd & 3rd generation immigrants SHOULD NOT hold top tier government positions! Our great nation, our culture and our great people are not naturally at the forefront of their hearts & minds! It’s just not in their nature or DNA! […] Our Capital City of our Christian country needs to be run by a native Brit with generational Christian values, principles and morals coursing through their veins from which our very society was built, thrived and was forged upon.

Prior to that, Middleton promoted at least one post that contrasted him with “Pakistan-origin Mayor Sadiq Khan”. It’s not clear whether he is simply exhorting people to reject candidates based on their ethnicity or if he wants them banned from standing for office.

Back on 24 March 2025 Middleton promised to “release my side of the story tomorrow here on X” regarding the circumstances that saw him made a disqualified company director over £1 million in unpaid tax. He has not been pressed to fulfil this promise.

UPDATE (12 June): One thing I didn’t mention in the above was Middleton’s 2013 conviction for assulting a female police officer while drunk. I knew about it, of course, but decided that Reform could very reasonably say that he has paid his debt to society and sobered up, and that an unhappy incident from so long ago unrelated to political activism ought not to be held against him forever. However, Labour has had no such qualms; and Middleton’s response, bizarrely, has been to deny that the incident ever happened, and to mock someone for citing a report about it from the Daily Mirror.

Note

1. “LFG” apparently stands for “Let’s Fucking Go”. Performative profanity seems to be part of populist right identity, presumably to signal contempt for old-fashioned “taste and decency” conservatism. This extends to Christian nationalism, with Middleton riling up the crowd at a Tommy Robinson rally last year with the assertion that “we can’t even fucking celebrate Christmas these days without offending someone”. At the most recent Robinson rally, attendees held placards stating “Fuck Islam Christ is King”.

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From the International Business Times:

Protesters across parts of the United Kingdom have begun reviving the ‘take the knee’ gesture following the murder of Southampton student Henry Nowak and the release of police body-worn camera footage showing officers handcuffing him as he lay fatally injured.

…Images and videos shared on social media have shown people kneeling outside police stations and public buildings in what organisers describe as a response to the handling of the case.

Commentary on Nowak’s death has been extensive, with many writers saying much the same thing. We know that Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, gave a false account to police, as a result of which police handcuffed Nowak and intially disbelieved his claim to have been stabbed. The pathologist found that nothing could have been done to save his life (although, inevitably, a fringe theory that police likely dislodged a blood clot is doing the rounds), but Nowak died without dignity, thinking that the police believed him to be a racist attacker. Much of the debate focuses on to what extent the police attitude and incompetence are attributable to Digwa being able to leverage a false allegation of racism.

Nowak’s last words were “I can’t breathe”, which was evocative of George Floyd’s final moments in Minneapolis six years ago. The circumstances of Floyd’s death appeared to vindicate Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem at sport events as a protest against police brutality against African Americans, and after Floyd’s death Kaepernick’s gesture was copied in solidarity in the UK first by football teams and then by some politicians – including Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner. Some police officers also joined in, signalling their solidarity with “Black Lives Matter” protestors.

Not everyone approved, and divorced from the context of refusing to stand it was derided by some as a kneeling gesture of submission – and even specifically as a gesture of white submission to ethnic minories. Last year, for instance, Richard Holden MP referred to the NHS as “taking the knee to damaging and oppressive cultural practices” because of a document on a website that argued against a ban on cousin marriage.

The populist right adopting a gesture that it has previously repudiated and tried to stigmatise is an odd way to protest on behalf of a cause. As such, its appearance can hardly be called a “revival” so much as an ironic appropriation meant as a rebuke against the 2020 protestors and the “Black Lives Matter” slogan. As expressed by Tommy Robinson:

As Southampton police refuse to “take a knee” for Henry Nowak.

Reminder of them doing it outside UK Parliament for George Floyd’s fentanyl overdose!

This also points toward another use of Nowak’s death, as a somewhat perverse way to downplay what happened in Minneapolis. As Elon Musk puts it:

In both cases, police were uncaring, but only in one case does Starmer bend the knee

Musk here was commenting on a social media post by Kevin Sorbo, who referred to Starmer (misspelt as “kier Starmer”) as “kneeling for fentanyl addict George Floyd, who died of an overdose”.

No-one is arguing that Southampton police murdered Nowak, who was stabbed during an altercation, but the police officer who restrained Floyd is currently in prison for murder. The cases become more comparable, however, if Floyd wasn’t killed by police after all. The claim that Floyd died of an overdose has become “common knowledge” on the populist right through repetition, having been spread by Kanye West and Candace Owens in 2022 and repeated by Marjorie Taylor Greene last year.

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