Articles by Editor,Liz Hull

Technology

'I'm not wasting any time on him': Rabbi of Heaton Park attack doesn't think about attacker as he recalls stabbings

A rabbi today revealed he was not 'wasting time' thinking about the motivations of a terrorist who attacked his synagogue leaving two men dead. Rabbi Daniel Walker said he doesn't have the 'mental space' to think about why Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, targeted the Heaton Park Synagogue, in Manchester, earlier this month. He told the BBC's Today programme that the deaths of Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, had left a 'massive hole' in his congregation. But he insisted he refused to be frightened and that he hoped the atrocity would mark a line in the sand, so society could 'get better' at tackling hate. Rabbi Walker described Mr Cravitz and Mr Daulby as 'very, very special men.' Inquests into their deaths are due to open in Manchester today. 'Adrian was a very quiet man, a man of great dignity, always with a smile, always kind, very much loved by his family and his neighbours,' Rabbi Walker said. 'Melvin was also a wonderful man, a family man. He was much loved and known by everybody, always happy to help, always with a smile, loved by his neighbours and his friends. 'They are both going to leave a massive hole. We miss them a lot.' The rabbi's voice cracked and he became emotional as he recounted what happened during the attack, which took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. He said the first he knew something was wrong was when he heard a 'very loud bang.' He later realised this was Al-Shamie, who was a British citizen of Syrian descent, driving his car at security guard Bernard Agyemang before crashing into a wall. 'Men ran into the main synagogue shouting, ''Close the doors, close the windows, we are being attacked,'' Rabbi Walker said. 'Adrian moved with speed I've never seen, his reaction time and instincts...he leapt up and closed the door and quite possibly saved a lot of lives. 'One thing I will remember about Adrian is that quiet man suddenly becoming this hero that leapt (up) to do the right thing.' Rabbi Walker said another worshipper, Andrew Franks, who was a volunteer security guard on the day, then tried to intercept Al-Shamie, which delayed him getting inside. But Mr Franks was stabbed and suffered serious injuries that left him hospitalised for more than two weeks afterwards. Rabbi Walker described Mr Franks as a 'very, very brave man.' 'He was in the foyer and was very badly injured, thank God he is in the process of recovery,' he added. 'The attacker was throwing himself against the doors, all the doors were shaking, so a large number of men came and bolstered the doors and held them to make sure he wasn't able to break through them.' Rabbi Walker said he heard Al-Shamie, who it later emerged was on bail for rape, shouting, ''these are killing our children,'' in an apparent reference to the war in Gaza. Police later revealed Al-Shamie had called 999 moments afterwards to declare: 'I have killed two Jews in the name of Islamic state.' 'It all happened very fast, it was only a matter of minutes but time definitely slowed down,' Rabbi Walker added. He previously described looking at Al-Shamie through the window of the synagogue door and seeing 'evil and hate'. Armed officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were on the scene within minutes and a shocking video circulated on social media showed officers shouting at Al-Shamie, who was armed with a knife and wearing what later turned out to be a fake suicide belt, before shooting him dead in the courtyard outside. Mr Daulby suffered a fatal bullet wound fired from a police gun, while another man, father-of-three Yoni Finlay, 39, was also accidentally shot by officers but survived. Referring to Al-Shamie, Rabbi Walker said he wasn't 'wasting any time on him.' 'I have no mental space to think about him, or why he did (what he did),' the rabbi said. He said anti-semitism was a 'societal' not a 'Jewish problem per se' and it was up to society to tackle hatred. Rabbi Walker said he wasn't frightened to open the synagogue after the attack and revealed that the first service he took afterwards was attended by 1,000 people. 'We danced and cried at the same time,' he added. 'It was standing room only, people came from every synagogue in town to support us. 'We are resilient, we are going to continue living and the synagogue is still a place of prayer and holiness.' Asked whether the attack marked a 'threshold' or line in the sand, he said: 'I hope the threshold was crossed and as a society we will get better after this. 'I would like to see all that support, all of that care and all of that goodness that I know is out there be a more visible part of our society.' He said initially he and his synagogue had felt 'very alone' but 'very quickly realised we weren't.' Rabbi Walker described King Charles' visit to the synagogue a few days later as the 'zenith' of that support. 'That meant so much to us all, it meant that society cares,' he added.

Technology

Stalker who accused business owners of affairs, murder bids, slashing her tyres and poisoning her cat in 'unrelenting' years-long campaign is jailed

A social media consultant who stalked two business owners and launched an 'unrelenting' campaign of harassment by posting offensive and false accusations online was today jailed for two years and four months. Sam Wall, 55, made a series of fake claims about her 'totally innocent' victims, accusing them of having extra-marital affairs, trying to kill her, breaking windows at her home, slashing her car tyres and even poisoning her cat. In one particularly offensive post she even falsely branded a businessman a sexual predator online. Both had either met Wall fleetingly at conferences or simply connected with her over social media, yet she inexplicably targeted them for years. She posted the malicious lies on LinkedIn, X and Facebook, to her 30,000 followers, in rants that were sometimes more than 21,000 words long. One victim – motivational speaker Brad Burton, 52, who met Wall for just two minutes when he posed for a selfie with her at a business event - said he was driven to the brink and even contemplated suicide because of the prolific 'trashing' of his reputation online. Wall's own posts claimed Mr Burton was using his business to destroy and gaslight her – at one stage she even falsely claimed he had been arrested and sent to jail for harassment. In reality, he lost revenue and his company collapsed into insolvency because of her 'relentless' attacks, which included falsely labelling him a sex offender and bully. Another victim – tech entrepreneur Naomi Timperley, 53, who also only saw Wall in passing at two business events – was subjected to similar 'distressing' messages. Wall even falsely claimed to have attempted suicide because of Ms Timperley's apparent behaviour. Ms Timperley said she and her husband and children had been left 'scared' and constantly looking over their shoulders because of Wall's 'hideous' harassment. Jailing Wall, who has been diagnosed with a chronic delusional mental illness, to 28 months imprisonment, Judge Neil Usher told her she had unleashed an 'unrelenting barrage of abuse' against her victims which was designed to 'maximise fear and distress.' 'The breadth and scale of your online campaign…is breathtaking,' the judge, sitting at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, said. 'This was a deliberate and calculated campaign of online stalking of the most egregious kind.' The judge also made Wall, of Cheadle, Stockport, Cheshire, the subject of an indefinite restraining order. The court heard that Wall admitted three offences – two of stalking and one of posting false messages about Mr Burton and Ms Timperley - at a previous hearing in November. They were committed between January 2019 and July 2023, but the Mail has spoken to several other victims, not part of the court case, who were also targeted by Wall up to four years earlier. One woman, personal assistant Lauren Dale, 31, said she was stalked by Wall around 2015 and 2016. She sent Ms Dale gifts, such as cakes and plants, was spotted at bus stops close to her place of work, sent abusive Tweets accusing her of sleeping with her boss, and even contacted her clients to bad mouth her. Like Mr Burton and Ms Timperley, Wall also bizarrely accused Ms Dale of poisoning her cat. Ms Dale said she believed Wall had also been stalking her boss at the digital agency where they worked and had targeted her in spite, after she once turned Wall away from their office. The harassment became so bad that it forced her off social media and to switch jobs. Ms Dale eventually reported Wall to Greater Manchester Police, in March 2016, after she sent her a death threat online which said: 'RIP LAUREN DALE, TICK TOCK.' The court heard officers served Wall with a formal warning, known as a police information notice, and Ms Dale blocked her on social media. She didn't hear from her again but contacted Mr Burton and Ms Timperley after reading about their ordeals at Wall's hands on LinkedIn earlier this year. Today Ms Dale, of Oldham, said the fact that Wall had been jailed was 'good enough for now,' but she added: 'Whether it stops her in the future…I hope so. I just hope she gets some mental help where she is.' Mr Burton and Ms Timperley both also said they were 'relieved' that the judge had made an example of Wall and sent her to prison. Ms Timperley said: 'It was important for Brad and myself that she received a custodial sentence, so that she understood the consequences of her actions. 'It's been a very, very long process to get to today and incredibly difficult. But I do have a sense of relief.' Earlier, Nicholas Flanagan, prosecuting, told the court that the first and only time Mr Burton met Wall was in January 2019 at a networking event at Aston Villa Football Club. He said he had a brief two-minute chat with her, engaging in 'small talk about how exciting the forthcoming day would be.' He also posed for a selfie with her and another delegate. But some months later, at the end of 2019, colleagues told Mr Burton about posts being made by Wall online. At first he tried to ignore them, but as they continued, he sent a legal letter, urging her to stop, but Wall refused. 'The attacks then intensified,' Mr Flanagan said. 'The defendant claimed that Mr Burton had poisoned her cat, had continually called her and made claims that he was having affairs. This was particularly distressing, as Mr Burton is happily married. 'Further attacks by the defendant alleged he was facing a custodial sentence – as well as being a sex offender.' Wall was eventually arrested, in September 2022, and denied wrongdoing and repeated her claims that Mr Burton was harassing her and trying to destroy her life. She was bailed but, when that expired a month later, she re-started her attacks. 'This included claims that Mr Burton was in prison, and that he had a psychopathic twin brother who was covering for him whilst he was in jail,' Mr Flanagan added. Wall also posted fake messages which claimed Ms Timperley had also targeted her and warned: 'Time to take criminal action with you all. You won't like it.' Mr Flanagan said: 'Ms Timperley took this as a direct threat and it left her terrified.' Burton, a married father of three, broke down as he read a victim impact statement to the court which outlined how he and his family had been left traumatised by Wall's actions. 'For four plus years, her relentless campaign of lies, harassment and character assassination has dominated every corner of our existence, mentally, emotionally, financially, and digitally,' he said. 'Her actions have damaged my career and invaded every aspect of my personal life. 'The stress, sleepless nights, dread have pushed me to one of the darkest periods of my life.' Ms Timperley also described her 'peace being stolen' as messages came in on her mobile phone 'until even silence felt unsafe.' 'For over two and a half years, I was hunted through hashtags, chased through timelines, cornered in comment sections, my name dragged through the dirt of digital spaces,' she said. 'The internet was weaponised against me. Used to intimidate, to control, to humiliate. Digital stalking is still stalking. That fear is real, even when the threats are typed, not spoken. That harm is harm whether it's hands or hashtags.' Mr Burton also criticised social media companies, who he claimed had 'failed' to take action or remove Wall's upsetting posts. 'Social media companies need to do better and maybe if they had, we wouldn't all be where we all are today,' he said.