The US Embassy in Nine Elms, southwest London (Picture: Getty Images)
US officials seized a diplomat who faces allegations of possessing indecent images of children and ‘secretly’ flew him out of the UK, according to reports.
The Sun reported that the man’s flat in Putney, southwest London, was stormed on August 25, before he was taken back across the Atlantic without the British police being told.
It is believed he was removed from his flat amid an investigation into another person based in the US.
British ministers are understood to be in contact with the US Embassy and law enforcement as the full facts are established.
US authorities do not have powers of arrest in the UK, and the formal extradition process does not appear to have taken place.
Donald Trump and his pedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.Donald Trump and his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.Donald Trump with his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislane Maxwell.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a meeting with representatives from criminal justice agencies at number 10 Downing Street, Westminster, April 30, 2026
FORTY children remain missing from asylum-seeker hotels and could have become victims of trafficking or exploitation, MPs warned today.
More than 400 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children went missing from Home Office hotels, it emerged in 2023.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said today that 40 of the youngsters, two of whom remain under 18, had still not been found as of June. The use of hotels to house lone child asylum-seekers was banned in 2023.
Last year then border security and asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle told the committee that some of those found were “located in exploitative situations and may have been trafficked or victims of other forms of exploitation.”
The JCHR said that it continues “to be extremely concerned about the fact that some children who went missing from asylum hotels in previous years remain missing.”
The UK Parliament, London. Photo by Hesther Ng/SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters
Starmer is rushing legislation through parliament that experts say threatens free speech, public interest journalism and international humanitarian aid
Sir Keir Starmer’s historically unpopular and soon-to-be-replaced administration is using its last gasps to push through a new national security law that experts believe will pose serious threats to free speech, public interest journalism and the provision of international humanitarian aid.
The new legislation, called the national security (state threats) bill, is intended to update existing national security legislation. It has been introduced by the current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood. Mahmood is widely seen as a hardliner in Starmer’s government, responsible for introducing tougher restrictions on the settlement rights of asylum seekers and immigrants. The bill has been rushed through the Commons and is now being pushed at pace through the Lords. The government wants to have the law on the statute books within weeks.
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Free speech and press freedom groups argue that the bill threatens public interest journalism – a view endorsed by two independent reviewers of terrorism legislation. David Anderson, the government’s former independent reviewer, has said that journalists would be “at risk of prosecution if they were to have contact of any kind with sources within designated bodies or their agents”. Any journalist who works with a source in a hostile foreign government, or simply approaches them for information, could face more than a decade in prison.
Jonathan Hall, the government’s current independent reviewer, has raised similar concerns. He has pushed for the law to include a “reasonable excuse” defence covering the exchange of information.
The practical implications of the bill for journalism are wide-ranging and devastating.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a meeting with representatives from criminal justice agencies at number 10 Downing Street, Westminster, April 30, 2026
