Source: Metropolitan Police published on this website Thursday 16 October 2025 by Jill Powell

Nazli Merthoca, 24 (19.01.2001), of Homerton High Street, Hackney, was convicted of manslaughter by a jury at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, 14 October. Her partner, Herbert Kalanzi, 35 (02.06.1990), of Ranelagh Road, Newham, was cleared of murder, manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child. This was in connection with the death of their daughter, Kaylani Kalanzi.

Kaylani died in Great Ormond Street Hospital on Tuesday, 23 July, 2024. The trial heard she had suffered traumatic brain injuries weeks prior after being shaken by Merthoca,

Detective Inspector John Marriott, from Specialist Crime North - who led the investigation - said: 

“Merthoca carried out a horrific assault on her own child. To add insult, she then spun a web of lies to the emergency services in order to cover up her responsibility. Though Kaylani’s life was cut short by this hideous abuse, there were relatives who loved and cared for her. They have been left traumatised by her killing, and our thoughts are with them at this time.

“Investigators compiled extensive digital evidence, which, coupled with overwhelming medical evidence, painted a damning picture of the defendant at trial. Offences against children – especially of this gravity – are some of the most difficult cases police deal with. The evidence here was particularly harrowing and complex, and I would like to commend the investigation team for their work bringing Merthoca to justice.”

Around 22:30hrs on Monday, 8 July 2024, paramedics attended an address in Homerton High Street. Merthoca, who was living at the property, had called 999, claiming her baby daughter, Kaylani, had stopped breathing. The infant was found in critical condition and was taken to Homerton hospital.

Police were alerted by staff at the hospital, after scans revealed Kaylani had suffered extensive brain damage consistent with physical abuse. On Tuesday, 9 July, officers attended the family home, where they arrested Merthoca on suspicion of attempted murder.

In an exchange captured on body-worn video, Merthoca became visibly irate with the arresting officers. While being processed in police custody, she threatened to leave the country if released on bail.

In her initial police interviews, Merthoca maintained that Kaylani became unwell while she was caring for her, ultimately slipping into unconsciousness. She denied that any assault had taken place. Merthoca was remanded in custody.

On Tuesday, 9 July, Kaylani was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital. Despite the best efforts of staff, her condition deteriorated over subsequent weeks. A decision was made to remove life support, and around 18:00hrs on Tuesday, 23 July, she was pronounced dead.

A specialist postmortem carried out on Tuesday, 30 July, confirmed that Kaylani had died due to blunt force trauma – a finding which contradicted her mother’s account at police interview. Investigators’ suspicions of foul play were confirmed by the forensic pathologist, who found that Kaylani’s injuries could only have arisen from severe shaking.

Merthoca’s devices were seized by police, and a digital search revealed a pattern of toxic and abusive behaviour. This was subsequently produced as evidence in court.

Merthoca will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Monday, 15 December.

Source: Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) published on this website Tuesday 14 October 2025 by Jill Powell

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) proudly joined child protection advocates at an outdoor stunt in Brussels Monday, October 13 to ensure that victim and survivors’ voices are being heard in the fight against child sexual abuse.

At the event, the European Child Sexual Abuse Legislation Advocacy Group (ECLAG)^* called attention to the threat posed to the safety and wellbeing of millions of children as vital EU child sexual abuse legislation continues to be delayed.

Stunt organisers staged a hauntingly empty schoolroom scene, symbolising the European children whose lives have been blighted by sexual abuse, online and offline, because of political inaction.

The public were able to walk through the schoolroom setting and, through reading stories of real-life survivor experiences, get insight into the high cost of the stalled EU Child Sexual Abuse Regulation.

A key aspect of the draft law requires technology companies to prevent child sexual abuse on their services and to detect and remove child sexual abuse material online, while upholding the privacy of all users. Some companies already act voluntarily – but voluntary action is not enough.

As EU Member States fail to reach accord on the Regulation, which was first proposed in 2022, children continue to be ruthlessly groomed, exploited and taken advantage of by predators online. Child sexual abuse and exploitation is rampant on the internet and abusive images can be disseminated and downloaded within seconds.

The EU lies at the very heart of the crisis: 62% of the child sexual abuse reports dealt with by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2024 were hosted in the EU. ECLAG members took a stand in Brussels today to urge EU leaders to #PassTheLaw and provide a permanent legal basis for voluntary and mandatory detection of child sexual abuse images and videos across the EU.

Securing the Regulation is all-the-more urgent because of the fast-approaching expiration of the temporary derogation from the EU’s ePrivacy Directive, which allows companies to proactively scan for child sexual abuse material on their platforms on a voluntary basis. The derogation runs out in April next year.

The ECLAG coalition is formed of more than 70 child rights organisations working across the EU to raise awareness of the pressing need to protect children online in our ever-developing digital world. The Steering Group of the coalition is made up of ECPAT International, Eurochild, the Internet Watch Foundation, Missing Children Europe, Terre des Hommes Netherlands and Thorn.

Source: Department of Works and Pensions published on this website Wednesday 15 October 2025 by Jill Powell

Pensioners are being warned to look out for Winter Fuel Payment text message scams following a surge in activity from opportunistic criminals ahead of next month's payments.

New data from HMRC shows reports of scam texts more than doubled in the last week of September when compared to the previous week

These scams – which see fraudsters exploit pensioners by posing as government officials processing Winter Fuel Payment applications – had begun to drop off after a peak in June but are now increasing again ahead of payments being made next month.

This warning comes as the DWP ramps up its social media campaign in partnership with Action Fraud to raise awareness of these scams across Facebook and Twitter. This is alongside DWP’s continued work with trusted partners and charities such as Independent Age to ensure accurate and timely information is available.

Winter Fuel Payments are made automatically, and the government will never ask for bank details by text. Anyone who receives a text message inviting them to apply for a payment should not engage with it and instead forward it to 7726.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said:

“If you get a text message about Winter Fuel Payments, it’s a scam. They will be made automatically so you do not need to apply. These despicable attempts by criminals to target people are on the rise. We are raising awareness to make it harder for fraudsters to succeed. If you receive a suspicious message about Winter Fuel Payments, don’t engage - forward it to 7726 and delete it immediately.”

Source: National Crime Agency (NCA) published on this website Monday 13 December 2025 by Jill Powell

A man from London, who planned to travel overseas and rape children as young as six, has been convicted following a National Crime Agency investigation.

Edward Gratwick, 68, from Mitcham, was arrested at Stansted Airport on 7 March 2025 as he attempted to board a flight to Bucharest, Romania.

NCA officers received intelligence about a UK national who had been communicating with another individual online, where they discussed meeting up to sexually abuse a nine-year old girl. The pair had also been planning to drug the girl with GHB so she would not remember anything.

The UK national was identified as Edward Gratwick and officers urgently deployed to arrest him when it became known he was flying out of the country. Overseas law enforcement officers identified the other individual and he was arrested, with three children safeguarded. 

Following Gratwick’s arrest, officers searched his house and a number of electronic devices were seized. Officers analysed thousands of messages on his phone and identified he was using encrypted applications – including Teleguard, aTox and Session - to communicate online with offenders in the UK, across Europe and around the world. They also discovered he had been sharing extremely graphic sexual messages and indecent images of children.

Within the chat messages, Gratwick was actively discussing child sexual abuse with people who he believed had access to young girls aged between six and ten. He would outline, in explicit detail, how he wanted to sexually abuse them and, in some instances, offered to pay varying sums of money as a fee.

Gratwick made frequent references to drugging his potential victims so they wouldn’t remember anything, suggesting rohypnol and GHB which he described in his messages as “a good rape drug.” When officers searched his house, they found bottles stored in his kitchen fridge which were examined and found to be Gamma Butyrolactone (GBL) which is a Class B drug.

During the analysis of his devices, officers found images of these bottles – which he had sent to someone he was communicating with - saying “I'll bring enough GHB so you can have some fun when I'm not there”.

In some conversations, Gratwick was clearly touting himself as a ‘pimp’, offering a service to other paedophiles. As part of his role, he told other online users he would take a 25% cut of the payment made for his part in the arrangement of the sexual abuse of young girls.

Investigators recovered a booking for an Airbnb in Bucharest for 7 to 9 March 2025, located in some chat logs between Gratwick and a contact in Romania, who stated they were the mother of a 10-year old girl. The conversations took place between February and March 2025 and contained detailed descriptions of the sexual abuse Gratwick intended to carry out when he arrived in Bucharest.

Chat logs showed the person Gratwick was talking to was concerned their house was being watched, with Gratwick asking “Do you have a time operated plug? One you can set to turn a light on and off’. He also discussed with the person a specific top he wanted the young girl to wear, stating ‘[she] will look great in the sleeveless top’.

When Gratwick was stopped at the airport, officers searched his travel bag and recovered various items including a time operated plug and a small child’s sleeveless top.

Officers discovered more than 1,300 indecent images of children (IIOC) on his devices, including 632 category A images, the most severe. He had shared some images with the people he was communicating with and in one conversation, stated the images he had were ‘not terribly extensive but a diverse library’.

On 9 March 2025, Gratwick was charged with 11 child sexual abuse offences including 10 charges of arranging the commission of child sex offence – namely the rape of a child under 13 – and was remanded into custody. He was subsequently charged with additional offences during his trial.

Today [10 October] Gratwick was found guilty of 38 charges including arranging or attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence, attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, distributing indecent images of children and possessing indecent images of children.He is due to be sentenced on 28 November at Guildford Crown Court.

Danielle Pownall, Senior Investigating Officer at the NCA said:

“The chat logs recovered from Edward Gratwick’s devices are some of the worst seen by specialist child abuse investigators at the NCA.

“Gratwick has continually denied the offences he faced, despite overwhelming and indisputable evidence, which shows his lack of remorse and disregard for the safety and welfare of children. 

 “I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the members of jury, who over the last six weeks have considered distressing evidence which no-one should ever have to hear. I echo the words of gratitude from Her Honour Judge Harden-Frost in light of what they have heard, culminating in guilty verdicts against Gratwick.

“Work continues with our international partners to identify those who Gratwick was engaging with and we will do everything in our power to safeguard any children from harm, wherever they are. We are grateful for the immediate response and support from UK and international partners during this investigation”.