A 20-year-old man has been charged after a dramatic car chase which ended in the accused hiding under a car in a bid to flee police.

The worst of the wet weather is yet to come for residents in one state, as several cyclones threaten to develop in the area.

Tracy Turner, who works in a busy operating theatre, is accused of a plotting heinous crimes against a girl aged under 13.

An anti-Semitic incident involving a caravan full of explosives has been condemned by top leaders as an 'attack on the Australian way of life'.

IGO is bearing the brunt of a battery metals slump, plunging to a substantial loss for the December quarter as it hashes out the future of its financially ailing Kwinana lithium refinery. 

The son of AFL great Robert ‘Dipper’ DiPierdomenico has learned his fate after he was caught ripping off his employer to fuel a gambling addiction.

A atriz de 'Emília Perez' criticou os ataques que ela e o filme receberam nas redes sociais

Decisão desta quarta-feira era esperada, mas ainda há grande expectativa para futuro da política monetária do Banco Central

SHOCKING footage shows the moment cops caught a paedophile with a young teenage girl in a seedy hotel room.

Police officers stormed the hotel in Manchester after receiving a harrowing emergency call from a staff member.

BBC

Cops stormed a hotel room in Manchester after a concerned call[/caption]

BBC

Police questioning the man after he eventually responded[/caption]

BBC

The sick paedophile in a police car after his arrest[/caption]

Video captured on bodycam shows a Greater Manchester Police officer banging heavily on the door.

He is heard saying: “Police open the door, I’m going to open it.”

The 999 call was made by a concerned hotel worker who reported that a 14-year-old girl was in a room with an “over-age man”.

In the audio of the emergency call, it can be heard that the hotel was notified by two women from a care home about the disgusting crime.

Once the man eventually opens the door, cops can be heard asking the paedophile why he “didn’t answer the door” straightaway.

Dressed in a black t-shirt, the sick man is then escorted outside before being formally arrested by police.

The footage ends with the man sitting in a police car as the reason for his arrest is read out.

Sergeant Ian Haselden, from Greater Manchester Police, conducts operations during which officers pretend to be an abuser and travel to a hotel with a child acting as a victim.

They then attempt to book a room while displaying signs of suspicious behaviour.

He said: “We’d rather they be safe than sorry, because this is an extremely serious crime and we don’t want them to worry about making the wrong call.

“If hotels are suspicious the gold standard response is to call the police.”

It comes after new data came to light revealing that police have received hundreds of reports of child sexual abuse in hotels.

Children have been raped and abused in high street hotel chains while offenders “put a do not disturb sign on the door and do whatever they want”, reports the BBC.

Although offences in hotels made up less than one per cent of all recorded child sexual violence crimes in England and Wales, police say the crime is likely under-reported.

In 2023, 504 offences were recorded, of which 464 involved physical contact with a child and 203 were recorded as rape.

The figures revealed that 84 per cent of the victims were female. 26 per cent of victims were aged 15, 18 per cent were aged 16, and 17 per cent were aged 17.

Almost all suspects (92 per cent) were men, and the average age of suspects was 28.

Around four per cent of the reported offences were identified as group based, although victims have said that even when perpetrators turn up alone, they are often part of grooming gangs where children are swapped between abusers.

One victim, who was often brought to hotels by her abuser, has said the data is unsurprising.

She told the BBC: “You can put a Do not disturb sign on the door and then they can do whatever they want with nobody wondering what’s going on.

“I can’t even stay in a hotel now without thinking about what happened to me.”

The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) says where specific hotels were recorded by police many were in major towns and cities, with transport links such as train stations and motorways nearby making it easy for perpetrators to meet victims.

 Phil Ashford, from the NPCC child sexual exploitation taskforce, said: “Once you’re behind that hotel bedroom door, there’s a degree of privacy that perpetrators often don’t find elsewhere when they commit abuse.

“We’re talking about some of the most serious contact offending imaginable – the rape and serious sexual abuse of children.”

MILLIONS of households are gearing up for a steep rise in water bills, with costs set to surge by up to 47% from April, according to industry body Water UK.

The average annual water and wastewater bill will rise by £123, taking it from £480 to £603 – a leap of around £10 per month.

But for some, the increases will be far steeper.

Southern Water customers face the sharpest rise, with bills surging by a staggering £224 (47%), pushing the average yearly cost to £703. 

Not far behind, Hafren Dyfrdwy bills will jump by 32%, from £447 a year to £590.

South West Water bills will also rise from £520 a year to £686.

Plus, Thames Water households will shoulder a 31% increase, while Yorkshire Water plans a 29% rise.

However, households supplied by SES Water will actually see their annual bills fall by £5 (-2%) from £254 a year to £249.

The exact amount your bill will change by will depend on factors such as whether you have a water meter and how much water you use.

The increases are higher than those outlined by regulator Ofwat in its recent five-year price limits just before Christmas, as they now include inflation.

Water UK has justified the rise by citing an ambitious £104billion investment programme spanning the next seven years.

From April 2025 to March 2026 alone, water companies are set to spend a record £20billion.

This funding will go towards building nine new reservoirs, upgrading 1,700 wastewater treatment plants to curb pollution, and improving over 15,000 kilometres of rivers.

Other projects include nine new water transfer schemes to secure supplies for the future.

However, the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) said stronger and fairer support was urgently needed to protect struggling households from the largest rise in water bills since the privatisation of the water industry 36 years ago.

Water UK chief executive David Henderson said: “We understand increasing bills is never welcome and, while we urgently need investment in our water and sewage infrastructure, we know that for many this increase will be difficult.”

The industry body added that firms would also support more than three million households with their bills as part of a £4.1billion package over the next five years.

Water UK advised customers should contact their water company directly to see what help was available if they were concerned.

However, the CCW has warned that existing support schemes are inconsistent, with eligibility varying widely depending on where you live, known as a “postcode lottery”.

CCW chief executive Mike Keil said: “These rises are the largest we’ve seen since privatisation and will heap considerable pressure on millions of customers who are already having to make difficult choices.

“Customers want to see investment in improving services and cleaning up our rivers but that can’t come at an unbearable cost to struggling households.

“Around 2.5million households are already in debt to their water company and there is a danger that number will grow unless some companies show more ambition around financial support.”

The timing of the increases come amid high levels of sewage spills and under-investment in pipes, sewers and reservoirs over the last decade.

Despite this, United Utilities and South West Water’s parent company Pennon have already said they will raise dividend payouts to shareholders this year so that they increase in line with inflation.