News

MI5 chief warns of ‘fast-rising’ state threats as China plot disrupted

Published

2 months ago

October 16, 2025

THE HEAD of MI5 has revealed that officers disrupted a China-linked operation in the past week, warning that state-sponsored threats from Beijing, Moscow and Tehran are now escalating faster than at any point in his career.

Delivering his annual security briefing at MI5 headquarters in London, Sir Ken McCallum said the number of people in the UK under investigation for state threat activity had risen by more than a third over the past year.

Sir Ken described the situation as the “biggest shift” in the Security Service’s mission since the 9/11 attacks, with agents now contending with “more volume and more variety of threat from terrorists and state actors than I’ve ever seen”.

China, Russia and Iran

The MI5 chief said that hostile operations linked to China, Russia and Iran are “routinely” uncovered, ranging from cyber-espionage and academic infiltration to surveillance and sabotage attempts.

Over the past year, MI5 has identified more than 20 potentially lethal plots backed by Iran, while Russian intelligence services continue to run “a steady stream” of surveillance missions with hostile intent. Chinese state actors, he said, pose “a UK national security threat every day”.

Case collapse controversy

Sir Ken’s remarks come amid political fallout over the collapse of a high-profile espionage trial involving two British citizens, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who were accused of spying for China. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case in September, saying there was insufficient evidence that China constituted a national security threat — a decision that has sparked an inquiry by MPs.

Both defendants deny wrongdoing. Conservative MPs have accused the government of political interference, alleging the case was scrapped to avoid damaging trade relations with Beijing.

The Chinese Embassy in London dismissed the allegations as “unfounded and fabricated”, calling on the UK to “stop making an issue out of China”.

“We detect and deal robustly”

Careful not to wade into the political row, Sir Ken said he was “frustrated when opportunities to prosecute national security-threatening activity are not followed through,” but stressed that the underlying operation had been successfully disrupted.

“The UK–China relationship is by its nature complex,” he said. “But MI5’s role is not. We detect and deal robustly with activity threatening national security.”

He confirmed that MI5 had intervened operationally again “just in the last week”, adding: “I will never back off from confronting threats to the UK, wherever they come.”

Rising domestic risks

Alongside the growing state-level danger, MI5 and counter-terror police have foiled 19 late-stage terror plots since 2020, while hundreds of developing threats are under investigation.

A growing number of young people are now being drawn into extremist activity, with one in five of last year’s 232 terrorism-related arrests involving minors under 17.

Sir Ken said these parallel challenges mark “a new era” for national security, where state espionage and terrorism are now equally pressing.

“We are dealing with a fast-rising tide of state threats coupled with a near-record number of terrorism investigations,” he told reporters. “This is the biggest shift in MI5’s work since 9/11.”

Crime

Swansea man dies weeks after release from troubled HMP Parc: Investigation launched

Published

4 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man has died just weeks after being released from HMP Parc, the Bridgend prison now at the centre of a national crisis over inmate deaths and post-release failures.

Darren Thomas, aged 52, died on 13 November 2025 — less than a month after leaving custody. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has confirmed an independent investigation into his death, which is currently listed as “in progress”.

Born on 9 April 1973, Mr Thomas had been under post-release supervision following a period at HMP/YOI Parc, the G4S-run prison that recorded seventeen deaths in custody in 2024 — the highest in the UK.

His last known legal appearance was at Swansea Crown Court in October 2024, where he stood trial accused of making a threatening phone call and two counts of criminal damage. During the hearing, reported by The Pembrokeshire Herald at the time, the court heard he made threats during a heated call on 5 October 2023.

Mr Thomas denied the allegations but was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to a custodial term, which led to his imprisonment at HMP Parc.

Parc: A prison in breakdown

HMP Parc has faced sustained criticism throughout 2024 and 2025. A damning unannounced inspection in January found:

Severe self-harm incidents up 190%
Violence against staff up 109%
Synthetic drugs “easily accessible” across wings
Overcrowding at 108% capacity

In the first three months of 2024 alone, ten men died at Parc — part of a wider cluster of twenty PPO-investigated deaths since 2022. Six occurred within three weeks, all linked to synthetic drug use.

Leaked staff messages in 2025 exposed a culture of indifference, including one officer writing: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.”

Six G4S employees have been arrested since 2023 in connection with alleged assaults and misconduct.

The danger after release

Deaths shortly after release from custody are a growing national concern. Ministry of Justice data shows 620 people died while under community supervision in 2024–2025, with 62 deaths occurring within 14 days of release.

Short sentences — common at Parc — leave little time for effective rehabilitation or release planning. Homelessness, loss of drug tolerance and untreated mental-health conditions create a high-risk environment for those newly released.

The PPO investigates all such deaths to determine whether prisons or probation failed in their duties. Reports often take 6–12 months and can lead to recommendations.

A system at breaking point

The crisis at Parc reflects wider failures across UK prisons and probation. A July 2025 House of Lords report described the service as “not fit for purpose”. More than 500 people die in custody annually, with campaigners warning that private prisons such as Parc prioritise cost-cutting over care.

The PPO investigation into the death of Darren Thomas continues.

Crime

Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in

Published

4 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Court Reporter

A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.

The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.

Police find victim with four wounds

Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.

He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.

The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.

He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.

Defendant has long history of violence

Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.

Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.

Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

6 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Staff Writer

THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.

The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”

Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”

A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.