Rene Mugenzi. Until Friday, printing those two words in this newspaper could have landed us in prison. It has taken three months of back and forth between two courts to be able to tell you this: Rene Mugenzi stole £220,000 from St John the Baptist Cathedral while volunteering as its treasurer. On Friday he was jailed for 27 months at Norwich Crown Court. Normally, reporting the facts of a court case is straightforward - but this time it was not. H

The husband of a Norfolk MP claimed coronavirus was a “phantom” and a “mental illness” as he joined a protest against facemasks and vaccinations. Sandy McFadzean, husband of Norwich North MP Chloe Smith, attended Saturday’s march in London where protesters carried signs against coronavirus measures. A poster for the march, retweeted by Mr McFadzean on Twitter, also called for no track and trace, an end to social distancing, and no facemasks. It mentioned a group called StandUp X which claims

A severe asthmatic is still living in a flat covered in mould after a council failed to repair it. The damp has got so bad in Tracy Shaw’s flat, on North Park Avenue, near Eaton Park, that her nebuliser machine for her asthma is mouldy, her dogs have become ill and she is having to take extra asthma medication. The 50-year old’s possessions, including clothes and precious photos of her grandma, have also been ruined by the damp.

It is 100 days since the biggest ever peacetime restrictions on our lives began. We have looked at some of the figures to show how exactly lockdown has changed life in Norfolk since March 23. The most notable changes have been on where and how we spend our time, Data from mobile phones, where the user lets Google track their movements, shows the percentage changes in time spent at various locations in Norfolk compared with the average before the l

Pupils at a leading Norfolk private school have raised allegations of a catalogue of racist abuse by staff and fellow students. More than 250 former and current pupils have called for teachers to be trained in “everyday racism” and for changes to the curriculum after students and alumni came forward to share their experience of alleged racial abuse at Norwich School. In response, the school apologised and headmaster Steffan Gr

Two Norwich tattoo artists have quit suddenly after allegations were made on social media about their behaviour towards women. Brad Ward and Andrew Balls announced on their Instagram accounts at the weekend that they were leaving the industry and apologised for their behaviour. It came after another Norwich tattoo artist published claims on the site about how the two artists allegedly treated some customers. That artist cla

Council chiefs have lost almost £6m of taxpayers’ cash setting up a property company - and then kept the scale of the damages out of the public domain, we can today reveal. Norwich City Council formed the company, called Norwich Regeneration Ltd (NRL), in 2015 to build 1,000 new homes at Three Score in Bowthorpe. NRL has borrowed millions of pounds from the council for the project, called Rayne Park, a figure which could

I’ve been getting some weird emails recently. A story I wrote in 2016 about how the deal to build the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (NNUH) has financially crippled it, keeps surfacing at the top of my daily web figures for the EDP. Then, two people got in touch to ask me if it was true Tony Blair is making millions of pounds from that deal. I wanted to ignore them, dismiss them as conspiracy theorists, but surely the r

There are hundreds of numbers and dozens of ways to work out how we are faring in the fight against coronavirus - but by every measure the figures are going in the right direction. Sunday was the second day in a week, since lockdown began almost two months ago, that Norfolk’s three hospitals did not report a single new coronavirus death. In the East of England the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals peaked on April 12 at 1,484

Norfolk doctors have slammed a lack of equipment to protect them in the fight against coronavirus, with one even asking friends to find a snorkelling mask to shield them. Over the last month the government and local NHS bosses have repeatedly insisted they have enough protective equipment, known as PPE, to look after staff. The government has also said it is increasing coronavirus testing for NHS workers, with 2,000 done so far, but that is yet to start in Norfolk. On Tuesday cabinet minister

Paramedics are treating patients without being told they have coronavirus symptoms, a union has claimed. In an email to members, a Unison health and safety officer at the East of England Ambulance Service said staff have told him that they had been called out to help patients with symptoms of the virus, but the call centre, NHS 111, had not told them about those symptoms. “This crucial information is not appare

The directors of a holiday park, which collapsed owing £25m, have been attempting to sell their £2.2m mansion despite a court order freezing their assets, we can reveal. Please see an update to this article here. Simon and Lisa Moir, directors of Walsham Chalet Park Limited, were banned by the High Court in October last year from selling their property. It came after the company, which had a holiday park in No

A council spent more than £1,000 on a luxury away day in a hotel for its leadership while it planned £4m of budget savings. Breckland Council's cabinet enjoyed drinks, a three-course meal and an overnight stay at Congham Hall, near Grimston, in West Norfolk in January. Opposition councillors asked why taxpayers forked out £1,120 for eight councillors and an officer to stay in the Georgian manor, which boast

The ex-boss of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, who is wanted in Australia, is living in a north Norfolk hideaway, we can reveal today. Malcolm Stamp has been wanted in Queensland, Australia, since 2018 as part of an investigation into nepotism allegations at a hospital he ran. Two of his former associates have appeared in court in Australia to face corruption charges. Mr Stamp, meanwhile, is living in a larg

An MP has been accused of double standards after he signed a pledge to increase tree planting, while woods he co-owns will be cut down for 300 new homes. Jerome Mayhew, MP for Broadland, is a trustee, along with family members, of Thorpe and Felthorpe Trust, which wants to clear ten football pitches worth of its woodland for housing. The Trust, along with developer Socially Conscious Capital, won an appeal last year to build

An NHS manager bragged that the service had "got away" with its failings being highlighted after the death of two dementia sufferers - because former Monty Python star Terry Jones had died. The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) was criticised in an investigation into the death of 88-year old dementia sufferer Doreen Livermore who was attacked in a care home in King's Lynn by another dementia patient.

This photo shows how Norfolk's biggest emergency department has become so overcrowded that a sick child had to sleep on a corridor floor. It was 9.30pm on the Saturday before Christmas when Carla Taylor took her daughter to A&E. Lacey, 11, had swollen tonsils and was dehydrated as she could not swallow. When they arrived at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) there were no seats in the children's emergency department. "The room was absolutely packed. Parents and children were

The litany of problems with Greater Anglia's new trains that are causing misery for passengers can today be revealed. The train operator cancelled more than 80 services on Monday with rural lines particularly badly hit. It said disruption would continue "until further notice" and blamed the cancellations on signalling issues. But a string of problems with Greater Anglia's fleet of new electric trains is also behind some of the dela

The hiring of a £1,000-a-day consultant by a council has sparked controversy between the two favourites to become the next MP for North Norfolk. Freedom of Information requests, put in by Conservative candidate Duncan Baker, reveal how a consultant was hired by North Norfolk District Council for £1,000 a day after an introduction by his Liberal Democrat rival. Consultant Peter Thomas was introduced to the council by th

Ambulance staff warned their bosses eight months ago they were being "worked to the bone", leading to mental health problems. It comes after the sudden deaths of two paramedics and one control room worker at the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST) this month. On Thursday chief executive Dorothy Hosein told staff she had commissioned an independent investigation into "serious concerns" raised