The teenager charged with the murder of Croydon student Sian Simpson has taken the stand at the Old Bailey. Chelsea Bennett, 19, formerly of London Road, Croydon denies the charge and says she stabbed Sian in self-defence. Grilled by prosecutor Brian
Two Balham shopkeepers have each been fined £1,000 for selling sausages a month out of date. The proprietors of Richway Food and Wines in Balham High Road, Kanadathpillai Baheerathan and his co-owner a Mr Kaleerathan were each fined £1,000 and ordered
World number two Rafael Nadal revealed a change in tactics was the key to him surviving a second round scare against Ernests Gulbis. Nadal dropped the first set before battling back to eventually triumph 5-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-3 over the Latvian teenager
Lambeth Council has been accused of wasting millions of pounds and offering second-rate services by employing too many temporary staff. The council was the second highest spending London borough in 2006/07 for temporary staff, shelling out £35.2m on
A Chessington dad who doused his two autistic sons in diesel has been jailed for six years. In February, the Old Bailey jury heard the 47-year-old man allegedly strapped his two children, aged five and six, into a car and drove to a remote country lane
About 27,000 cyclists took part in the annual 54-mile London to Brighton sponsored ride. Enthusiasts set off from Clapham Common from 6am and the route took riders through Wandsworth and Sutton into Sussex and then to the finish line on the Brighton
This week the Green Guardian looks at the plans for Battersea Power Station which, according to developers, will turn the site into a new eco-community. Real Estate Opportunities (Reo), the company tasked with bringing the plans to fruition, announced
Organisers of the West Wimbledon Eco Festival joined guest speaker and BBC presenter Satish Kumar, to celebrate another successful event. Mr Kumar, who hosts the environmental documentary Earth Pilgrim, gave the festival’s inaugural Sandbrook lecture
Mitcham and Morden MP Siobhain McDonagh has been named as one of a select group of MPs chosen to play a crucial role scrutinising the Government’s new climate change law. A committee of 21 members from four political parties will debate and amend the
The campaign to make Merton the country’s first plastic bag-free borough gathered pace as the Wimbledon Farmers’ Market announced plans to ditch the disposable bag. Market organisers believe more than 100 people a week will turn their back on the plastic
It's been a week since I got back from holiday and yesterday, Holly finally unpacked her suitcase. When I think back to last Wednesday (when we landed), we got home and I unpacked. I then went for a little kip. After that, we went to Sainsburys and
Sutton police want the public's help after a man was spotted on several occasions outside Wallington Girls' School. Police believe he made a number of inappropriate approaches to girls aged 12 to 15 before and after school on Thursday and Friday last
Sutton police have been forced to defend their detective skills after a woman's claim officers attached little importance to her dog being stolen. Sally Bowler said her five-month-old Staffordshire bull terrier puppy, Ellie, was stolen near her home
Croydon Athletic boss Dave Garland has signed young striker Jeremiah Olusanya from League One side Colchester United. The 18-year-old was released by the Us at the end of last season and Garland swooped to sign the pacy forward, who lives in Addington
A male staff nurse who claimed he had been raped by a colleague has been found guilty of wasting police time. Bernardino Flores, 39, of Mallards Close, Hackbridge, claimed the attack took place at nurses' accommodation at St Helier Hospital in May 2007
A furious Streatham pensioner who claims she was told by Lambeth Council it would take six months to fix her fence has had the work done early, thanks to pressure from the Streatham Guardian. Rosina Price, 67, from Wellfield Road, said she was given
It seems Sutton may soon have its own husband of the year. Chris Laws, who has lived in the borough for five years, has made it on to the shortlist for Eve magazine and Nivea for Men's Husband of the Year competition. He was nominated in the heroic
A Brentford teenager who suffered extensive injuries when she was run over by a bus has won compensation totalling five figures from the bus company two years after the incident. Dolly Hughes, 15, was knocked over by the bus outside Brentford library
Tweeddale Primary School faced a crisis last week, after one of its year 6 students allegedly brought a knife on to school grounds. Sutton police were called to the Carshalton school after parents noticed an 11-year-old student brandishing a knife in
The biggest, stinkiest, smelliest flowering plant in the world blossomed this week allowing visitors of Kew Gardens to take a whiff of its pungent stench. The amorphophallus titanum, or titan arum as it is known, now opens several times a year thanks
The world's smallest art gallery, which is inside a portable toilet, is coming to Kingston in July. Melanie Warner's Bog Standard Gallery, which displays more than 1,000 photos of toilet signs from around the world, will be at the Toilet Gallery in
Surbiton Trophy doubles champion Arnaud Clement brought the curtain down on veteran Jona Bjorkman's Wimbledon career on Tuesday. The 36-year-old Swede, who quits the game at the end of the season, crashed in four sets 6-4 6-7 4-6 6-7 to the Frenchman
A 22-year-old man has been jailed for four years after he admitted he killed his best friend by driving dangerously. Jonathan Coombs, of Riverdale Road, Hanworth, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to four years imprisonment
French Open champion Rafael may be hard on the heels of world number one Roger Federer in the world rankings, but the Swiss Wimbledon legend wouldn't know. The 26-year-old produced two sets of faultless tennis on Wednesday before overcoming a wobble
Fears that a fisherman had been attacked and dumped in the River Thames over the weekend turned out to be just a man washing his clothes in the river. In a classic case of Chinese whispers, several members of a Kingston boating community rang the Surrey
Eco-minded Spelthorne residents are being encouraged to drop off recycables at one of the 21 recycling drop-off points across the borough which have just undergone a facelift. Spelthorne Council has replaced all the old glass and can recycling banks
The first rule of Bushy Park Time Trial is that it doesn't rain on a Saturday morning between the hours of 8.45 and 10.00am. And so it proved again last Saturday as the persistent overnight rain promptly cleared in time for the 201st running of the event
Middlesex CCC wicketkeeper David Nash has visited The Shooting Star Children's Hospice to hand over a cheque for £15,000 raised from his benefit year. Nashy', who was born, bred and still lives in Sunbury, was awarded a benefit year in 2007 following
Racegoers can enjoy free entry to Kempton Park when they hop on their bikes and cycle to the course. Employees from the Sunbury-based venue have launched their Green Travel Plan to highlight the benefits of cycling as a sustainable travel alternative
Furious parents have accused a Wimbledon prep school of giving its pupils an unfair advantage in important exams. Fee paying Donhead school gave its year six children practice for Cognitive Ability Tests (CAT), used to determine the ability of all boys
Richmond's top cop has defended the filming of teenagers as a legitimate crime prevention tactic after complaints from Twickenham's MP. Earlier this month Vincent Cable took the complaints of a constituent, named only as Mrs Stack, to Detective Chief
Your questions answered: Who is responsible for the ditch at the bottom of my garden? If a ditch borders your property in any way, then you are responsible for maintaining it. If you have a fence between your garden and the ditch, the ditch
Eighteen patients were turned away from Kingston Hospital last year because of a shortage of intensive care or high dependency beds. One patient was sent on a two-hour, 75-mile (121km) journey to a hospital in Canterbury. The hospital has never had
Former Rosslyn Park player Hugo Ellis signed off his junior international representative career at the weekend with the 38-3 defeat to New Zealand on Sunday. The Kiwis made it a hat-trick of victories over England teams this weekend, adding to the senior
NPL Teddington thirds' 25-point win over Amersham, which was noteworthy for two reasons. Rob Heasman's 8-44 helped to bowl out Amersham for 137, while an undefeated partnership of 50 by two U14s in Tom Pitts (27) and Ben Laing (23no) guided NPL side
NPL Teddington maintained their challenge near the top of Division Two of the Thames Valley League after a fine win over Slough. Teddington now lie in fourth place, just nine points behind the leaders, after an inspired performance by Sri Lanka professional
MEGA MEETING: Walton host a joint Southern Men's Division Two and Southern Women's Division One meeting at their Stompond Lane track on Saturday. The meeting starts at 12 noon with the women's hammer and pole vault events.The men's meeting opens at 12.45pm
Teddington Town seconds failed to deal with some very difficult batting conditions as they crashed to defeat at Cookham Dean II. In difficult batting conditions, Town crashed to 19-6. Some stubborn lower order partnerships eventually hauled the score
An inspired bowling performance landed Teddington Town 1st team a comprehensive win over Stoke Green 1st XI on a damp afternoon in Bushy Park. The decision of captain Gareth Simmonds to ask Stoke Green to bat first gave the home team swift reward
St Mary's Twickenham's double European junior cross country champion Steph Twell was in top form at a windy Bedford on Saturday. Twell, back to her determined best after recovering from a stress fracture which kept her out of racing for almost four months
Epsom & Ewell Harriers' Will Clark easily took the annual Tour of Epsom road running title by winning four of the five races. He led his club to a clean sweep in the event, beating team-mates Phil Sanger and Alex Hawkins. Clark won the opening race
Campaigners for a new secondary school in north Kingston have refused to give up their 10-year fight - despite the council announcing it could start work on one in 2009. Petitioners remain suspicious of Kingston Council's motives in attempting to join
Belgrave's Phillips Idowu was named athlete of the match after his tremendous triple jump victory at the Spar European Cup in Annecy, France, on Sunday. Competing in ideal warm, sunny and windless weather, in stark contrast to the gales that were battering
Stoneleigh-based Jade Ive claimed the England junior women's pole vault title at the weekend to confirm her spot in the British team for the World Junior Championships next month. The 16-year-old Sutton & District athlete cleared 3.80m in windy conditions
Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow came away with a big win in the penultimate match of the five-event National Young Athletes League at the University of East Anglia, Norwich on Sunday, writes Geoff Bayles. The result leaves WSEH top of the Southern Premier
Chiswick-based Andrew Triggs-Hodge put an injury-hit summer behind him as the Great Britain coxless fours secured a silver medal at the final World Cup regatta of the summer in Poland. The 29-year-old Chiswick-based rower raced as part of the first
There was delight at Surbiton Hockey Club this week when all six of their Olympic hopefuls were selected for Beijing. Richard Alexander, Matt Daly, Ben Hawes, Ben Marsden, Rob Moore and James Tindall were officially named in the GB squad of 16 for Beijing
It's great to be back on the rivers and from what I have seen they are in first class condition. Canbury Gardens can be relied upon to give some good bags of bream but you need to make sure you take plenty of groundbait along. Fishing the groundbait
Kingston Grammar School oarsmen Toby Mumford and Will Perham got among the medals while representing Great Britain at the Munich International Regatta. On the first day of racing, both Will and Toby were in the coxless four and won silver medals after
When Jack Ironside graduated from university in 2007, he had no idea that in just under a year he would be working for one of Europe's top football clubs. The gooner fan from Norbury applied to the Arsenal Gap Year Programme and for the past year he
Shopping in Croydon is not an experience many people look forward to. All they want to do is get in, get what they want and get out, particularly on a busy Saturday. But last month hectic shoppers found themselves in a more mellow mood, wandering between
Richmond lost ground on Middlesex County League Division Two leaders North Middlesex when their home match with Wembley was cancelled due to a water-logged pitch - despite no rain in the region at the weekend. The game had been switched to Shenley to
A mum is calling for reform of the school's application process after her daughter was refused a place at an Epsom school - even though she lives next door. Justine Banks, of Christ Church Mount, originally lived out of the catchment area for Stamford
AJ SPORTS SURREY LEAGUE Premier Division: Putney (B Hallett 70, A Taylor 53) 253-8 lost to Economicals 255-8 (J Cockburn 103*) by two wickets. Old Thorntonians v Wandsworth - abandoned. Old Thorntonians A v Abahani - abandoned. The Rising Star 203-
Epsom residents are losing thousands of pounds in an elaborate credit card cloning scam, the Epsom Guardian can reveal. Hundreds of people have been stung by the fraudsters in Ewell who are collecting card details and selling them abroad. One resident
Matt Spriegel wants another chance in the Surrey four-day side this summer, if only so dad Geoff can finally see him in action as a professional sports man. The 21-year-old opening batsman made his first-class debut last month on his old stomping ground
Surrey just missed out on a place in the National County Top Two Four finals, writes Mike Haigh. They were pipped by Isle of Wight in Sunday's regional final at Winchmore Hill, Berkshire. Having already beaten a good Oxfordshire team in an earlier round
Twickenham slumped to their second heavy defeat at the Green in a fortnight with South Hampstead securing a 125-run triumph. Paceman Justin Scriven (6-51) and stand-in skipper Grant Hughes (4-23) couldn't stop the visitors posting a competitive 242 all
The "draconian" and "autocratic" leadership at a primary school will lead to an exodus of pupils, parents have warned. Up to 50 pupils are thought to have left Stanford Primary in Chilmark Road, Norbury, this academic year. Parents are saying more will
A vicar has described the planning process as "ludicrous" after fighting to erect two mosaics on the side of her church. Reverend Kim Aston was incredulous when she was told she would have to apply for advertising consent to mount the two community pieces
Teddington skipper Toby Bailey has strengthened his batting line-up after signing record-breaking overseas right hander Salil Oberoi as a replacement for India U19 and Indian Cricket League star Abu Nechim. Nechim has been unable to secure a visa to
Drugs squad officers swooped on a house of a suspected drug dealer following a Croydon Guardian investigation which showed how easy it was to buy drugs in the town. Officers from the South Norwood drugs intelligence unit swooped on the house of the suspected
Two teenage hooligans have being banned from entering an entire district after years of terrorising residents caught up with them. Kenny and Ashley Davey have been forced out of their home and are no longer allowed to remain in New Addington under the
Premier Division: Cobham Avorians 133-1 (J McLean 70* M Higgs 53) beat Dulwich 131 (B Kingsnorth five catches) by nine wickets. Malden Wanderers 280-7 (A Rashid 83) beat Guildford 100 (J Boudville 5-21 J Hess four catches) by 180 runs. Normandy 183-8
A 21-year-old "rowdy" Sunbury woman was given a slap on the wrist for swearing at a policeman outside a Sunbury Cross supermarket. On Thursday Staines Magistrates' Court heard how Michelle Culver, of Octavia Way, refused to leave Farmfoods discount
A Twickenham park drew the crowds as pedal power was celebrated to launch National Bike Week. A total of 700 visitors descended on Marble Hill Park on June 15 to take part in a range of activities, including smoothie making using a pedal system, a
Eco fever continues to grip “London’s greenest” borough as residents of all ages took part in a celebration of sustainability. Richmond Council got in the spirit of the Love London Festival from June 1 to 21 by holding a series of events to
A unique challenge to sail down the Thames in a solar-powered boat began this week to raise money for the Prisoners’ Families Helpline. Chief information officer for the national offender management service Mike Manisty aims to be the first person
A man who had his face smashed with a glass told a court last week that police officers appeared unconcerned over the attack. Sanjeev Subramaniam, 41, from Sutton, was attacked last April when he tried to intervene in an argument at a house party
Police have released CCTV images of youths who used a catapult to damage a boat in Staines last month. The incident took place in Church Island at 4.50pm on Saturday, May 31, when the youths fired an object that smashed its front and side windows and
The possibility of Chiswick becoming the first eco-village was discussed by Chiswick residents at St Michael and All Angels church last Thursday. Suitably called Green Night, those attending heard from a number of speakers dedicated to turning Chiswick
Volunteers are needed for the rather intriguing activity of balsam pulling on Saturday. Helpers from Kingston, Epsom and Ewell are coming together to remove the Himalayan plant from the banks of the Hogsmill and Bonesgate rivers to stop it smothering
A Kingston solicitors office has donated 2,500 high-visibility jackets to schoolchildren across Surrey to help them learn about cycling. Youngsters from St Mary’s Junior School in Sugden Road, Thames Ditton, took part in a pilot session on Tuesday
An innovative scheme to get more people involved in composting this summer is searching for volunteers. The Kingston Community Compost Network has teamed up with London Community Recycling Network (CRN) to deliver courses in how to start composting
One in five gays and lesbians has been the victim of a hate crime or incident in the past three years, according to a new report. The report, carried out by gay charity Stonewall with Home Office support, followed the conviction of two men for the homophobic
The RFU is to hold its own investigation into the behaviour of the three Harlequins players caught up in sex allegations on England's tour of New Zealand. Danny Care, Mike Brown, David Strettle and London Irish's Topsy Ojo were named in The Sun earlier
The family of a man who was killed after being crushed by a car while trying to protect his stepson are disgusted after a coroner recorded an open verdict yesterday. Lee Walsh, of Mullins Road, Egham, died during a fight over his stepson's ex-girlfriend
Naomi Campbell has been dropped from appearing at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert over her air rage conviction, according to reports. The former South African president is said to have had a say in the decision over Friday night's Hyde Park event
A cowboy builder has admitted conning an elderly man out of thousands of pounds. Patrick Carty, 22 of Wandsworth, pleaded guilty at Woolwich Crown Court on June 19 to fraud by misinterpretation. He also admitted assaulting two police officers.
A man was rescued from his first-floor flat when a fire broke out in his building in the early hours of this morning. The London Fire Brigade was called to the blaze at a shop and three-storey dwellings in Addington Road, Selsdon, at 12.21am. The
Hayden Bird has warned Carshalton Athletic's Ryman League Premier Division rivals that the Robins mean business next season. Having seen his side escape relegation on goal difference thanks to last-day heroics, Bird has set about preparing for the future
Tooting & Mitcham boss Billy Smith admits winning promotion last season has made it a lot easier to keep hold of star striker Paul Vines. Vines fired 26 goals in an injury-ravaged campaign for the Terrors, culminating in his Ryman League Division One
